Alastair Reid

just parent your fucking kids oh my god!!!! no one made you have them!! be a responsible adult!

The financial crisis theory of everything Last month there was a fascinating poll from More in Common asking people to pick the main reason Britain is “on the wrong track”.

New post just out:

"The financial crisis theory of everything"

Why the 2008 crash was the WW1 of our generation that led to nearly all of the problems we have today - from the rise of the radical right to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

The A.I.-Profits Drought and the Lessons of History Like the steam engine, electricity, and computers, generative artificial intelligence could take longer than expected to transform the economy.

An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.

Sheffield Wednesday fans hold Chansiri protest ahead of home game Fans want owner Dejphon Chansiri to sell the club following a turbulent time.

A great many more people protested the plight of Sheffield Wednesday this month than have attended any protest against asylum hotels

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The thing you don’t see about lengthy libel cases like this is the mental impact on witnesses - and on news outlets’ willingness to do similar stories.

Respect to all the women who chose to go to court to defend this story - plus Sirin Kale, Lucy Osborne, Paul Lewis and the Guardian team.

Photo of DOGE staffer Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old white man in a blue pullover, carrying a black backpack.

Photo of 53-year-old Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi. He is sitting, wearing white pants and shirt with a brown vest.

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout.

On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar.

This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media.

Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

Celebrity slop: Hoax pages thrive under Meta’s loosened moderation Indicator identified more than 100 foreign-run Facebook pages that use AI to spread false claims about celebs like Stephen Colbert, Caitlin Clark and others

I alerted Meta in Feb to a network of ~100 hoax pages connected to Vietnam. Instead of shrinking, the network expanded—using AI slop, deceptive “static video” & hacked accounts to exploit algorithms for profit & influence. I just found another ~130 pages.

As per previous tweet - Labour are missing as they didn't file their accounts in time...

Party Income Expenditure Total £90,879,328 £90,888,325 Conservative and Unionist Party £50,174,000 £52,027,000 Liberal Democrats £12,580,154 £11,516,811 Reform UK £10,832,716 £9,314,587 Green Party £5,217,767 £4,985,310 Scottish National Party (SNP) £4,506,027 £4,961,281 Co-operative Party £1,816,732 £1,754,930 Sinn Féin £1,068,608 £1,490,829 Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales £1,033,111 £1,045,798 Scottish Green Party £544,939 £597,724 Communist Party of Britain £494,906 £276,853 Alliance - Alliance Party of Northern Ireland £475,562 £500,017 The Reclaim Party £475,061 £837,959 SDLP (Social Democratic & Labour Party) £474,574 £442,380 Women's Equality Party [De-registered 31/12/24] £471,464 £501,318 Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P. £441,985 £436,146 UK Independence Party (UKIP) £271,722 £199,382

UK political party income and expenditure in 2024, out today from the Electoral Commission:

AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.

Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it

this is so wonderfully weird, give her all the golds 🥇

Police report one arrest, for breaking a cordon line.

The police did not intervene in the use of a "Kill 'Em All" banner, either by arresting the protestor, nor even in telling him not to display it.

83. heat

Philomena Cunk against a collection of classical statues. "Antigone's death is even more tragic than it actually is, which makes her a tragic hero"

Philomena Cunk looking thoughtful. "Goya continued to paint tapestries until 1792 when serious illness left him dead for life"

Philomena Cunk looking thoughtfully into the distance. "Society is slowly becoming more contemporary now"

Philomena Cunk looking into camera on a beach. "Diderot's Tahiti represents a typical male fantasy in which attractive young women are eager to engage in sexual activity with the French"

@gralefrit.bsky.social You have to see these! A friend of mine has been collating a series of images entitled "Things my students have written turned into Philomena Cunk quotes" and they're just glorious.

I’m doing a printed mag of type-in web pages (like ‘80s computer mags did with BASIC programs) and it just occurred to me that one of them could be an image
Any illustrators fancy the challenge of making an image that’s (a) a fun surprise when you see it, & (b) a very small SVG file when exported..?

AI Eroded Doctors’ Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study Artificial intelligence, touted for its potential to transform medicine, led to some doctors losing skills after just a few months in a new study.

“The AI in the study probably prompted doctors to become over-reliant on its recommendations, ‘leading to clinicians becoming less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance,’ the scientists said in the paper.”

READ MORE The Telegraph has launched a new campaign against Labour's housebuilding plans

Remember that viral story last week about Angela Rayner bulldozing allotments? Which even the allotment society somewhat debunked?

I looked into one of the sites and it’s wilder still: they are *increasing* the number of allotments, not cutting them. capx.co/angela-rayne...

Low-income and minority ethnic people in England most at risk from dangerously hot homes Exclusive: Homes are heating up as summers get hotter but least well-off are shouldering greatest risk, study finds

Low-income and minority ethnic people in England most at risk from dangerously hot homes

- Homes are heating up as summers get hotter but least well-off are shouldering greatest risk, study finds

#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

New chatbot on Trump’s Truth Social platform keeps contradicting him An “answer engine” on Trump’s social media site says the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, tariffs aren’t boosting the stock market and Barack Obama is seen favorably.

Trump's Truth Social launched an AI "answer engine" reports @drewharwell.com. But "Truth Search AI contradicts the president by saying that tariffs are a tax on Americans, the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, and his family’s cryptocurrency investments pose a potential conflict of interest." [Gift link]

Original painting: art, deliberate, soulful

AI 'exploration' of original painting: not art, ghoulish, inhuman, emperor's new clothes

Putting the Doom UI over it: art, intentional, hilarious, human, quietly profound

Where 2024 Labour voters are now:

Still Labour: 52% (5m)
Don't know: 13% (1.3m)
Now Lib Dem: 10% (1.0m)
Now Green: 8% (0.8m)
Now Reform UK: 7% (0.7m)
Now Won't Vote: 4% (0.3m)
Now Conservative: 3% (0.3m)
Now SNP/PC: 2% (0.2m)
Now Other: 1% (0.1m)
Dead: 1% (0.1m)

The Race to Find a Measles Treatment as Infections Surge The measles vaccine was so effective the disease was considered eliminated in the U.S., but a resurgence of outbreaks is spurring a need for drugs.

As the US hits a 33-year high in measles infections, there is now a "race" to find a treatment for the disease.

One pharma company "is banking on a continuing decline in vaccination rates to fuel a need for measles treatments—and in turn, more investor interest"

🎁 link

www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Annie and Lakeesha struggle in school. AI teacher assistants treated them very differently. A Common Sense Media study found that prominent teacher assistants that use AI generated recommendations that appeared to be rooted in racial stereotypes based on students’ names. About a third of tea...

"Asked to generate intervention plans for struggling students, AI teacher assistants recommended more-punitive measures for hypothetical students with Black-coded names and more supportive approaches for students the platforms perceived as white" www.chalkbeat.org/2025/08/06/a...

Chemical pollution a threat comparable to climate change, scientists warn More than 100 million ‘novel entity’ chemicals are in circulation, with health impact not widely recognised

"Chemical pollution is 'a threat to the thriving of humans and nature of a similar order as climate change' but decades behind global heating in terms of public awareness and action, a report has warned."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

this work saved millions of lives in 2021, won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and is cancelled in 2025

Reporters shouted to ask what he was doing up there and he said he was "taking a little walk." He said something about the White House ballroom and made some gestures but it's not really making a ton of sense yet. Normal stuff

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.

By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

47% of people think immigration is primarily illegal. There were 4% irregular arrivals in March

New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation

I need real-time information on the ethnicity and migration status of guys charged with raping children so I know whether to start a riot or sit back and not give a fuck.