Caspar Henderson

Butchers we are, that is true.

The Parrot in the Machine | James Gleick The artificial intelligence industry depends on plagiarism, mimicry, and exploited labor, not intelligence.

"Chatbots regurgitate and rearrange fragments mined from all the text previously written. As plagiarists, they obscure and randomize their sources but do not transcend them. Writing is something else: a creative act,embodied thinking...” www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Israel’s Zones of Denial A wave of triumph sweeps Israel in the aftermath of its campaign against Iran, even as Gaza’s suffering recedes from public view. Beneath the celebrations, a question nags: What is Israel becoming?

“the war in Gaza has produced a people who have lost everything and feel only humiliation and abandonment…This will feed future militants, and how they behave will be shaped by old grievances and new technologies—which Israel masters today but they could master too” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Revealed: How foreign billionaires pump millions into British politics The Elon Musk-shaped hole in Starmer’s Election Bill

🔴 NEW: Foreign billionaires are using UK companies to pour millions into British politics — legally.

We found £6m+ in political donations from UK firms owned by foreign nationals — people who can’t vote in Britain.

New on Democracy for Sale (🧵)

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-h...

“The crisis that might ultimately bring about a re-invigoration of international law…is not Israel-Palestine, or Russia-Ukraine, or the threatened annexation of Greenland, or the erosion of multilateral institutions. It is climate change…”

Are we witnessing the death of international law? The long read: A growing number of scholars and lawyers are losing faith in the current system. Others say the law is not to blame, but the states that are supposed to uphold it

“International law will not disappear, but its institutions will probably continue to lose credibility, and their rulings will carry less weight. The degradation of international law will be accompanied by a parallel erosion of the rule of law within states” www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jun...

The end of the road? What The Salt Path scandal means for the nature memoir It wasn’t the first hit memoir to tell a story of redemption inspired by the great outdoors – but could it become one of the last? Authors and publishers assess the damage

“Nature itself is broken, so it can make you depressed. It’s falling apart around you. I find it more interesting when it’s less about personal redemption and more of a mirror on the big things that I care about…” James Rebanks www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

“People find it easier to imagine that we can build intelligence on silicon than we can do democracy at scale, or that we can escape arms races. It’s complete bullshit…We’re a naturally social, altruistic, democratic species and we all have an anti-dominance intuition.” [?]

Treating Gaza’s Collective Trauma In Gaza, where displaced children play a game called “air strike” and act out death, the lack of mental-health resources has become another emergency.

“ninety-six per cent of children living through this war [in Gaza] feel that their death is imminent, and nearly half said that they want to die.” www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

The Rich Are Not Like You and Me That's a problem for social science. And more importantly for us

"The individual whims and collective paranoias of very powerful men (they are nearly all men) play a more important role, and are far less constrained than they used to be." www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-rich-a...

Opinion | Netanyahu Is Choosing to Starve Gaza

"a moment at which death rates grow exponentially and beyond which the fabric of society becomes far more difficult to repair. This disintegration portends chaos and conflict, delinquency and a fierce hopelessness that can breed fresh terrorism" www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/o...

At least 91 killed seeking aid in Gaza as US envoy Steve Witkoff visits Israel Crowds of hungry people waiting for humanitarian aid at Zikim crossing shot at by Israeli soldiers

"At least 91 people have been killed and 600 wounded while waiting for aid in Gaza over the last 24 hours" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza Israel controls the flow of food into Gaza. It has calculated how many calories Palestinians need to stay alive. Its data shows only a fraction has been allowed in

"In 2006 Cogat, the Israeli agency that controls aid shipments to Gaza, calculated then that Palestinians needed an average minimum [of] 1.836kg of food. Today, humanitarian organisations are asking for around 1kg of food per person per day." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Are there any depths of evil and stupidity to which some human beings won't go? www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/w...

Blue whales are going eerily silent—and scientists say it’s a warning sign A six-year study off California’s coast shows how marine heat waves and noise pollution are silencing the ocean’s largest singers. Does saving the ocean start with hearing it?

“Blue whale vocalizations dropped by nearly 40% alongside a collapse in krill and anchovy populations.

‘It’s like trying to sing while you're starving… They were spending all their time just trying to find food.’”

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

In Game-Changing Climate Rollback, E.P.A. Aims to Kill a Bedrock Scientific Finding

E pur si muove! www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/c...

It’s time to retire the word ‘technology’ The word spans too much, and clarifies too little

"Technē kept the maker in view: someone creating, naming, guiding and standing by their work. The modern term [technology] slips past those commitments." www.ft.com/content/a48c...

A post on X by Kyle Langford, with a composite photo showing him standing outside the gates of Auschwitz, and the caption: "My zero unemployment plan", with an emoji of factory chimneys.

I know there's a risk of amplifying the fascist horror show, but I think we need to be aware of just how far things are going, especially as this man is a Republican candidate for governor of California. All the old safeguards are being deliberately torn down, and the unspeakable normalised.

In a First, Leading Israeli Rights Groups Accuse Israel of Gaza Genocide

“Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” B’Tselem www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/w...

The key to understanding Trump? It’s not what you think Everything the US president does is for money – and in serving his avarice, he’s managed to triumph over the market

“The unique instinct behind Trump’s avarice…is that he has found a way to build his fortune through deals…which can then make him more money through more deals, or through the enforceability of completed contracts” www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

How to see the ‘cosmic web’ here on Earth | Aeon Essays What are the largest shapes in the Universe? The answer might be found in the most unassuming places here on Earth

"The analogy between river basins and the cosmic web is far from perfect, but both are systems that enable transport and concentration of matter from an originally near-uniform arrangement... The cosmic web also has similarities to systems within our bodies". aeon.co/essays/how-t...

A “madness of mouths”

Funny and yet horrifically true summing up. Do watch; they’re very good at what they do.

Take Big Money Out of Our Politics British politics is awash with money from super rich donors. In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations came from just 19 people. These so-called ‘mega donors’ enjoy privileged access to political p...

In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations in Britain came from just 19 people.

Cap political donations. Now

31,000 people have signed 38 Degrees’ petition!!

Do add your name and share widely. Thanks! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

Trolling my community choir again

This Natural Life - Charlotte Church - BBC Sounds The singer-songwriter meets Martha Kearney in the Cambrian mountains of mid Wales.

“There are certain things within the human psyche and the human condition, like really heavy grief, that can only be held by the vastness, the wildness and complexity of nature.” www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Huw Lemmey · Short Cuts: Who’s afraid of Palestine Action? I believe there is a moral case for disarming the machinery of war that is killing innocent civilians in Gaza with the...

"I can only conclude that for the British government, the waging of peace is terrorism." www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

YouTube video by Gresham College Climbing Mount Groove: Music and Dance in the Brain - Milton Mermikides and Morten Kringelbach

Nit nitay garabam: People are people's medicine. Wolof proverb youtu.be/CfLNfFMYTsA

Opinion | The World Must See Gaza’s Starvation

“I often think of a 2-year-old boy whom we tried to help this month. He was severely malnourished, his condition deteriorated quickly, and he passed away because we didn’t have enough to give. We had so little then. We have less now.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/o...