Jack Stilgoe

With this, covid and Michael Gove, experts a having a tough decade

Cartoon by Stephen Collins for the Guardian, here's the script: [Scene is the inside of a SOUP. Some CARROTS and BITS OF BROCCOLI are floating around and a STOCK CUBE and a BAY LEAF have just been dropped in.]  1 STOCK CUBE: Alright lads - this is Bay Leaf. My colleague from the spice rack. 2 BROCCOLI: Hi Bay Leaf BAY LEAF: Yuh yuh hi 3 CARROTS: You up for getting proper blended with us later, Bay Leaf? BAY LEAF: Nuh mate, getting scooped out before soup stage. 4 CARROTS: Oh! So… you’re not being eaten then? BAY LEAF: Eaten! Haha 5 BAY LEAF: Not allowed mate. I’m afraid I’m a lil’ bit *toooo intense*... 6 BAY LEAF: Just here for the flavour hit. Special forces, y’know. That’s why there’s just one of me. 7 BAY LEAF: Over-deploy and you’d have this whole soup stiiinking of bay leaf… 8 BAY LEAF: You might wanna stand back actually. This place is about to get preeetty bay leafy... 9 [Silent pause] 10 CARROTS: Are you doing something BAY LEAF: Sure am mate. 11 BAY LEAF: Suuuuure am. 12 BAY LEAF [Getting scooped out by chef’s spoon]: You need training to perceive it. CARROTS: OK

I’m convinced this is how a bay leaf would talk

Your holiday photos on Instagram might reveal more than you intended. In the latest Bellingcat Open Source Challenge GeoPeter shares photos from his recent travels, it’s up to you to figure out where he stayed and how he made the journey. Challenge.bellingcat.com

VIDEO: Waymo seen blocking first responders during West Sixth shooting A video shared with KXAN shows a Waymo car blocking emergency and first responder vehicles during the active scene of the deadly West Sixth Street shooting in Austin.

Last night a Waymo vehicle froze on an Austin street after a mass shooting, delaying emergency response.

Note to regulators: Crashing is only one of the ways AVs can harm people.

YouTube video by There I Ruined It Africa (Toto)...but it lists every country in Africa

My fave bit is "ChadchachachachachaMalaaaawi"

"Loan or graduate tax?"

On our podcast on Plan 2 student loans @helenmiller.bsky.social, Kate Ogden and @nickhillmanuk.bsky.social note that it depends on the borrower's likely earnings and repayment trajectory.

🎧 Listen here: ifs.org.uk/articles/are...

Definite win

Cosmic UCL poster with Jon Butterworth, Mark Miodownik, Maggie Aderin, Helen Czerski, Kevin Fong, Adam Rutherford

London ppl... University College London is 200 this year & so we have a fabulous evening of science & creativity for you on May 6th. All the UCL-based usual suspects will be there (in the SAME event!), & more to be announced. Join us & bring your friends!

www.bloomsburytheatre.com/event/2026/0...

Harry Brook has taken against AI

Not at all. It's the algorithms that are broken...

Looks like us ‘bloc politics’ people were on to something after all ;)

benansell.substack.com/p/british-po...

The Green victory in Denton is the result which will have the biggest effect on Labour, far more so than a Reform win.

The blithe assumption progressives have nowhere else to go has been proved catastrophically wrong.

Can’t help thinking of this quote from a Labour minister, a year ago…

Conjuring algorithms: Understanding the tech industry as stage magicians - Peter Nagy, Gina Neff, 2024 In this article, we introduce the term “conjuration of algorithms” to describe how the tech industry uses the language of magic to shape people’s perceptions of...

Lovely piece Brigitte. Did you come across this paper? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @ginasue.bsky.social

Making and unmaking AI metaphors and magic Twenty years ago, Noel and Amanda Sharkey, seminal contributors to early AI debates, wrote an article on artificial intelligence and natural magic which deserves to be read again today. They focus …

This week's post is about #AI, #metaphors and magic, and, inspired by @davemurrayrust.bsky.social and @mlucel.bsky.social, how to deal with the enchantment through design makingsciencepublic.com/2026/02/27/m...

Gorton and Denton by-election result:

GRN: 40.7% (+27.5)
REF: 28.7% (+14.7)
LAB: 25.4% (-25.3)
CON: 1.9% (-6.0)
LDEM: 1.8% (-2.1)

Green GAIN from Labour.

Footage from 1908

bring back whatever this is to the Olympics

15-Minute Cities – How Urban Design Entered the Culture War Podcast Episode · Origin Story · 25 February · 1h 2m

You'd enjoy this podcast on the origins and politics of 15-minute cities podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/1.... Made me doubt that London's congestion charge would have been possible in the current climate.

Interesting new paper on concerns about delivery drones from @gregmarsden-leeds.bsky.social et al www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/18...

oh hello

truth

My Aeon essay on drum machines here aeon.co/essays/what-...

What can the rise of drum machines tell us about AI? In addition to being an English teacher, I’m also a drummer, and I’ve been wondering what lessons the rise of drum machines might teach us about AI. When we reach for technological comparisons for …

A nice piece on AI and drumming from @danielcryer.bsky.social, riffing on my Aeon essay aiminimalist.wordpress.com/2025/07/24/w...

a brown and white llama is standing in a grassy field looking at the camera . ALT: a brown and white llama is standing in a grassy field looking at the camera .

Hey @tessmachling.bsky.social @drclairenolan.bsky.social @claireboardman.bsky.social @reblambert.bsky.social @drtobydriver.bsky.social
I've just got a new job in a factory making plastic Draculas.
There are only two of us working there, so I have to make every second count.

David Spiegelhalter at UCL, dropping Andy Stirling’s risk/uncertainty diagram @uclrdr.bsky.social @stsucl.bsky.social

Strong work. But I prefer this banger, from before it was cool to hate your phone www.theguardian.com/technology/v...

Power and participation in public tech A conference hosted by CONNECTED by DATA DEMOS We are pleased to announce Demos as a conference partner Join us on Friday 6* March in Manchester https://connectedbydata.org/events/2026-03-06-conference

⭕ We're pleased to announce DEMOS as a 'power and participation in public tech' conference partner.

📆 Friday 6 March
🕰️ 10:00 - 17:00
🏢 Manchester
🔗 connectedbydata.org/events/2026...

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Working science into great movies, and also with Jared Leto The joys of being a science advisor on movies, and the HORROR.

On working with Jared Leto: tl;dr it was baffling.

arutherford.substack.com/p/on-working...