Anne Currie

BTW we walk to Jaywick often. It's a nice place and one of the few in England where you can get a deep fried Mars Bar (definitely a destination foodstuff, according to my husband)

England's most deprived areas named - with Jaywick topping list Jaywick, a seaside town in Essex, has been named the most deprived area for a fourth time in a row.

I feel this is a telling thing for Farage to say: "I'm doing what I can, but there's a limit to what one person can do." www.bbc.com/news/article... Farage is the head of a political party and the (our) local MP. Does he think of himself as one person with the equivalent reach?

It is still unusual for a writer to play with so many different kinds of future for humanity in the search for a good one

They are damned good

Louvre heist lift-maker seizes the moment with new ad campaign Böcker is touting its "quiet as a whisper" technology for "when you need to move fast".

When you marketing dept earns their salaries www.bbc.com/news/article...

Or was it them?

Cartoon of a man saying "Go on then" and opening a door so an owl can walk out. The owl is saying "What's the point?" Caption: I let out an owl of despair

If you feel you must put this owl on the wall of your toilet, despair not, for I can draw one for you! www.worldofmoose.com/collections/...

Freaky ‘Rubber Hand’ Illusion Works on Octopuses, Too Octopuses’ response to a human illusion suggests a sense of body ownership

More evidence that octopii are more similar to humans than we tend to think www.scientificamerican.com/article/frea...

The interesting thing here is is China going to power through the levels reached by Norway and Sweden or not? They have stalled somewhat as they hit the harder to electrify sectors like heavy industry and aviation

Europe is home to two of the most electrified countries in the world – Norway and Sweden.

But others are least electrified. Only 15% of Romania and Lithuania’s final energy consumption comes from electricity.

https://loom.ly/wss-sI0

Five staples fuelling UK food inflation as climate risks rise, study finds Findings challenge narrative that food price growth is being driven by higher taxes and wage costs

UK food inflation is being driven by climate change-induced extreme weather, driving up price of butter, milk, beef, chocolate & coffee

The price rises in those staples is contributing 40% of overall food inflation

Climate change is hitting peoples' pockets, right now

www.ft.com/content/ced8...

Demand side flexibility is where the tech industry really needs to get on board. We need to do it and we need to help others do it. We need services and a mindset that supports it. Google is thinking this way www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/g...

24. We oughtta be building more wind. Seriously, solar will get built anyway, but wind needs some help, and wind blows in the dark and in the winter. It doesn’t help that solar pushes down power prices and generates renewable energy credits (where relevant), which hurts wind farm economics.

1. To opinions! Solar is the cheapest source of bulk electricity in many countries, and the quickest to deploy, and now you couldn't stop it being built if you wanted to. The limits to PV build in most places are grid access, permitting, and sometimes installation labour.

Time for 2025 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, you might like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of November 2025.

www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...

A picture of a foggy street

Edinburgh castle failing to render, likely thanks to the AWS outage

I'll totally be making this

That's interesting. You are right, tonnes of video online of that. It sounds like it should be solvable?

I agree with that - hence the taxi - but the impression I got was the Waymo sees and gives way. The issue might be it makes no progress in London because it always gives way?

I took a few taxi rides in a Waymo in Phoenix last year and was pretty astonished. It was the most careful driving I had ever experienced. You get a screen of what it sees, it was well aware of pedestrians in every direction. Way more than I was. It was nothing like a Tesla. Haven't tried one in SF

We often forget how far we have come:

➡️ Today almost 50% of EU electricity generation is from renewable energy sources.

➡️ It is not long ago that fossil fuels dominated the EU's electricity mix. This year their share is approaching 1/4 of EU electricity generation.

Source: @ember-energy.org

It's the thin end of a slippery slope

Rooftop solar output hits new record high on Australia’s main grid, putting more pressure on ageing coal generators even with surge of battery solar soakers.

Wow, Australia's energy transition is going very well

I wish I was there! I'm on holiday!

The Simple Newsletter is coming soon Because you can never have enough email

On BlueSky I share thoughts about sustainable transport and environmental psychology, plus interesting links

I'm going to try a newsletter for when I want to explore ideas in more depth

Sign up? simple.ghost.io The first entry, to tell you what's going on, is at simple.ghost.io/the-simple-n...

AI experts return from China stunned: The U.S. grid is so weak, the race may already be over | Fortune China is “set up to hit grand slams,” longtime Chinese energy expert David Fishman told Fortune. “The U.S., at best, can get on base.”

When even Fortune magazine reckons the US needs to be learning from China on energy policy, they really do. fortune.com/2025/08/14/d... Good article on what China is up to compared to the US

I was interviewing a leading Indian AI academic on a podcast yesterday about the alignment of renewables and AI and I mentioned that IMO China and India were leading on growth in energy while the US was still looking backwards. He was nonplussed. That clearly wasn't what he was used to hearing...

This would be an amazing thing to offer in poorer areas of the UK. I'm thinking Jaywick. Every time I walk through the (potentially beautiful) place I wonder when the artists will move in @tendringmag.bsky.social @tdalc.bsky.social Wonder how they administered the scheme to make it work so well?

Yes, indeed. Recommend reading this linked post also joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2025/02/gene... where Professor Bryson says what really needs to be said about AI and agency.