The long, doleful story of how the University of Kent sank. Can't vouch for all the details, but apparently it took 7yrs, £29m in restructuring and £2m in consultancy to accept the inevitable: effective takeover. My view? You can delay, but not avoid, the inevitable. shepwayvox.org/2026/08/05/u...

University of Kent Financial Crisis: Cuts, Consultants and Merger with Greenwich

For six years the University of Kent cut jobs, closed subjects, sold financial breathing space and promised recovery. It spent £29.4 million restructuring itself and awarded at least £1.9 million o…

shepwayvox.org

"Tenbury Wells ... the United Kingdom's first "uninhabitable" town, not because the water has made it physically impossible to live there, but because the withdrawal of insurance has made it financially impossible."

John Hogan Morris@johnhoganmorris.bsky.social · 2d ago

Tenbury Wells: A Canary in the Insurance Industry's Coalmine www.linkedin.com/pulse/tenbur...

I’d love to know what people outside the industry think “data centre” actually means, because no one I know expects them to contain any jobs at all. As someone who has built several: any employee is a design flaw.

watched the odyssey last night. film ruined by everyone speaking english instead of ancient greek.

even if only 1% has been skimmed, that's $130 million. 🌮 has famously said that he controls disbursements. kleptocracy gone wild. financial times 22 july 2026

We had a prompt injection attack yesterday that I think was via using Google Auth to log into Claude (so, um, DON'T DO THAT). An API had been installed that was issuing commands to our inboxes and authoring emails - we managed to shut it down relatively quickly but watching it unfold was 👀

Eby: "I feel sorry for Americans. If you can't be friends with Canada, then you almost certainly do not have a friend anywhere in the world. And that is a very lonely place to be." #cdnpoli

furiously tapping sign

Sarah T Roberts, PhD@ubiquity75.xyz · 2mo ago

The goal isn’t to replace the work of humans. It’s to make a case for its devaluation.

The Society for the History of Technology conference extended its call to late August, & this year’s conference will be all online. Details below if you’d like to submit. Also, I’m putting together a panel that has 1 or 2 more slots on it, so lmk if (1/2) www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeti...

2026 SHOT Annual Meeting (Virtual)

Visit the post for more.

historyoftechnology.org

I needed this message again. Maybe you do too.

Karen K. Ho@karenho.bsky.social · 11mo ago

I might play this as my alarm every morning for the next month

"Ireland's Enterprise Minister Peter Burke attended a private dinner with tech giant Meta at the US ambassador’s residence in February to discuss the “digital agenda for Ireland’s EU presidency,” amid a US drive to soften Europe’s policing of big tech." www.independent.ie/business/min...

Minister dined with Meta lobbyists at US ambassador’s residence amid US drive to soften Europe’s policing of big tech

Peter Burke’s intimate dinner with the tech giant’s reps was aimed at discussing ‘the digital agenda for Ireland’s EU presidency’

independent.ie

Dr Abeba Birhane@abeba.blacksky.app · 4w ago

We call on Ireland to recuse itself from digital and fiscal files during its presidency of the European Union due to the State’s ‘questionable track record’ on digital policy and corporate tax www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

this is “pete hegseth wants an all-white military”

Gerry Doyle@mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 3w ago

I am struggling a little to see how this improves lethality or whatever www.stripes.com/branches/nav...

I thought of a less troublesome way to do this: here's a quick form to fill out if you'd like a postcard featuring the cover of Seeing Like a Supply Chain! (And don't worry if you've already responded via email or DM; I've got you covered!) docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Miriam Posner@miriamposner.com · 4w ago

Hey, I have these postcards of my book's cover (by Vera Villanueva for Yale UP). I'd love to mail you one. Will you send me a screenshot of 1) your pre-order OR 2) your (free!!) request that your library purchase the book? And of course an address to mail it to.

Never trust a man who wants to colonize mars before he volunteers to fix earth.

this seems to be key

I'm been wondering if it would come to this and apparently it has. huge move from cloudflare, which hosts a fifth of all websites on earth.

Publishers Are Preparing to Opt Out of Google Search

The nuclear option is gaining traction as web traffic collapses and Google refuses to negotiate with content creators

adweek.com

Trickle down economics explained with cats

Chef's kiss.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · last mo.

Women’s use of AI is perceived as a sign of incompetence, while men’s use of AI is seen as an indication of initiative. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Lapavitsas, Elliot and Nicholls have published a blueprint for the incoming Burnham administration. I highly recommend it...

Kudos #BookSky

I will assert, again, that the only reason to drive a Cybertruck is to save time going door to door to tell people you’re an asshole.

New Society for Hopeful Technologist newsletter out today with updates on our formation and hopeful recommendations plus follow us on @hopeful.technology buttondown.com/society-of-h...

#6: The Summer 2026 Hopeful Tech Index

Updates from the Society for Hopeful Technologists, plus recommendations for summer reading, listening, and gaming

buttondown.com

Gee, what a coincidence. Every startup suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ties to Peter Thiel’s network: • Valar Atomics — backed by current & former Palantir executives & Balaji • Deep Fission — backed by a Palantir co-founder • Last Energy — backed by a former Founders Fund partner. 1/

in my #boardgame 🫍 COMRADE ORCA 🫍 you and your friends play a pod of vengeful killer #whales taking out billionaires' yachts. It's kind of like coop Battleship, but you can only use whale sounds to communicate! And yes, you get to wear a salmon on your head. it's in dev now, crowdfunding next year!

A study from the University of Tokyo shows that changing the color of agricultural netting to red can cut pesticide use by 25% to 50%. Researchers discovered that red netting works as a highly effective "optical defense. #GoodNews #Farming #NaturalPesticides credit mech.eng.world IG

Disinformation is increasing the costs of holding fair elections. Listening to the Right to Fair Elections panel from the House Democrats and realizing that the systematic and coordinated takedown of the field of disinformation research led us here. Disinformation is war by other means.

WATCH LIVE: House Democratic leaders hold hearing on fair elections and voting rights

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

youtube.com