Sam Learner
@samlearner.bsky.social
graphics/data journalist on the @financialtimes.com visual storytelling team work: https://www.ft.com/sam-learner projects: https://samlearner.com/projects signal: samlearner.79
Britain’s state-owned electricity system operator has awarded Palantir a £21mn contract without inviting rival bids, arguing critical processes are too reliant on its tech to run a competitive procurement process Latest for @financialtimes.com: as.ft.com/r/7fe6c0b7-2...
Britain’s grid operator gave Palantir contract without inviting rival bids
Neso cited a legal exemption that removes the requirement to consider other suppliers if dependencies leave no alternative
as.ft.com
AI slop isn't dead! https://hackerone.com/reports/3938185
curl disclosed on HackerOne: Windows SSPI connection-pool probe can...
** Summary **: A fresh transfer can reuse a keep-alive connection authenticated under another Windows user because the SSPI isolation check trusts a connection ID that a health probe can set. ** ...
hackerone.com
if I had $2.5mn sitting around, I would buy this place in a heartbeat. I learned so much over the years just looking at old things in here. seems pretty unlikely that the business survives the sale, but really hope it does
Block Club Chicago@blockclubchi.bsky.social · 4w agoBroadway Antique Market, the beloved Edgewater vintage store, is for sale. blockclubchi.co/3UczFU5
grab an FT Weekend this weekend, for it is full of games, and stories about games: www.ft.com/content/e90d...
Games special: puzzles, quizzes, Plato and wizards
A special summer issue of FT Weekend Magazine — it’s playtime!
ft.com
you can blow a European person's mind by telling them that North Carolina has more people than Sweden. they really look down on the directional states
CEPR Fellows Miklós Koren & @gaborbekes.bsky.social explore their CEPR Discussion Paper "Vibe Coding Kills Open Source" for the FT Magazine. The paper was also featured on the Practical AI podcast practicalai.show/351 and in The Register earlier this year: www.theregister.com/software/202....
Sam Learner@samlearner.bsky.social · 2mo agowrote for the magazine about the open source software that underpins our digital lives, how it is being upended by AI code tools, and about maintainers as.ft.com/r/b7f62212-9...
I've seen some people respond to this by noting recent (or inevitable future) improvements in the quality of code that AI tools can produce. this is interesting because I tried to not take much of a stance on that in the story
Sam Learner@samlearner.bsky.social · 2mo agowrote for the magazine about the open source software that underpins our digital lives, how it is being upended by AI code tools, and about maintainers as.ft.com/r/b7f62212-9...
The current top story on the FT Magazine is pay-walled but features some mentions of #curl and yours truly... (the picture shows the start of it) https://www.ft.com/content/cec8df9e-b43b-4cd1-8feb-c07e804e8d33
wrote for the magazine about the open source software that underpins our digital lives, how it is being upended by AI code tools, and about maintainers as.ft.com/r/b7f62212-9...
Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party?
Our obsession with AI code-writing tools is overwhelming the web’s unsung human caretakers
ft.com
NEW: a look at how surging power demands from data centers are helping to drive a shortage of electrical transformers ig.ft.com/transformers/
The FT Mag's America at 250 edition is out today, featuring the thoughts of Stephen Breyer, Nicole Krauss, Yiyun Li @frankfukuyama.bsky.social Simon Schama, @okr.bsky.social Harlan Bozeman @jayrayner1.bsky.social @nigella.bsky.social Jancis Robinson & more www.ft.com/content/3265... @ftweekend.com
My fellow American: who should be remembered for the next 250 years?
Artists, thinkers and leaders from the US and beyond pick the person they think deserves to be honoured: from Abraham Lincoln to Dorothy Parker
ft.com
need to learn more about how/why we spent 40 years canning things before we invented the can opener
sorry, but I absolutely will not let the NY media convince me that Wemby is a villain
DJ Khaled spending the whole game courtside on his phone is really testing my resolve on "not telling other people how to live their lives"
Family, activists allege Newark immigration center guards beat and used gas on detainees gothamist.com/news/family-...
Family, activists allege Newark immigration center guards beat and used gas on detainees
Gothamist saw multiple people taken out on stretchers and transported away in Ambulances.
gothamist.com
so interesting that I feel like I can identify vibe-coded websites at a glance now. dark mode toggle in the corner, smallcap straplines everywhere, etc. not inherently a bad thing and I'm glad it makes it easy for people to build frontends, just interesting what the models consider a "slick UI"
A US satellite in blue tracks two Chinese satellites. Prudent monitoring — or rehearsal for combat? A high-stakes arms race is taking place in orbit; the winner will "control Earth by controlling space”. But things can go very wrong, very quickly. Today's Big Read is on #FTEdit 👉 ft.trib.al/iwgFTZe
Gen Z is so interesting...
YouGov America@today.yougov.com · 5mo ago% who [currently use | used in the past | have never used] marijuana recreationally U.S. adult citizens: 13% | 28% | 55% Democrats: 18% | 31% | 49% Republicans: 9% | 29% | 58% 18-29: 8% | 16% | 70% 30-44: 15% | 28% | 51% 45-64: 14% | 33% | 50% 65+: 13% | 32% | 52% yougov.com/en-us/articl...
Trudeau is only ten years away from legally being a senior citizen btw
Bearhat@fussybabybit.ch · 5mo ago
"we have the money, power and resources, so you're gonna want to be on our side" my guy, you are making that pitch to a White Sox fan?
Brian Floyd@brianmfloyd.bsky.social · 5mo agothis was a bad idea from people that are unbelievably high off their own supply
it's so interesting that the phrase "de hoy en ocho" in Spanish means "this time next week" because in most of the English-speaking world (I think?) that would be considered 7 days, not 8. I wonder how that divide came about
NEW: Just weeks ago, the shadow fleet was on the run amid a crackdown on the illicit oil trade. But the Iran conflict has given these ghost vessels a lifeline. Our latest visual story takes a deep dive into their clandestine operations. 👉 as.ft.com/r/40748722-c...
How the shadow fleet is capitalising on the chaos of war
The Iran conflict has offered the illicit oil trade a lifeline — while the easing of US sanctions widens a transatlantic rift
as.ft.com
if you're just in it to make money, then I think you probably don't want to be huddled around a shared "weather predictions" screen displayed on a column? feels like the part they're ignoring is that people like to watch sports at bars because the games are fun to watch
Aman Batheja@amanbatheja.bsky.social · 6mo agoPolymarket is opening a bar in Washington, D.C. tomorrow called The Situation Room. Per Polymarket: "Imagine a sports bar… but just for situation monitoring — live X feeds, flight radar, Bloomberg terminals, and Polymarket screens."
NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war
some interesting stuff happening lately with the truth machines as.ft.com/r/40518eb1-4...
Ultra-short-term bets add ‘even more mania’ to crypto trading
[FREE TO READ] Five and 15-minute contracts have surged in popularity as cryptocurrencies have fallen from recent peaks
as.ft.com
![Conversation
Crémieux
@cremieuxrecueil
·
Feb 15, 2025
DOGE has a very obvious feedback mechanism for its cuts.
If DOGE makes a big, broad cut against a million programs, people get upset about a few specific, very good ones like PEPFAR, and then that program comes back because DOGE's members are, thus, informed it was good.
Crémieux
@cremieuxrecueil
·
Feb 15, 2025
I can only hope people realizing this won't damage the mechanism, because it's still useful to have professionals getting mad about some very good thing getting cut before it's brought back online as a result.
In a word, DOGE is responsive, which is unusual for the government!
Stuart Buck
@stuartbuck1
·
Feb 15, 2025
I agree, but it would be more efficient to spend one hour ahead of time talking to experts or just reading up on the history of a program for [disease, student testing, nuclear safety, etc.]
Plus, some programs don't have famous proponents with time to dig into the weeds.
Crémieux
@cremieuxrecueil
·
Feb 15, 2025
I'm highly sympathetic, but there really are thousands and thousands of programs and grants to cut, so I'm not sure the small team doing the cuts has the ability to go through them all one-by-one on their short timeline.
Maybe a system can be developed to assist with feedback.
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Stuart Buck
@stuartbuck1
Despite some bogus grants, a lot of government is like this cartoon. I bet this "small team" would find a line item for "screwworm sterilization" and delete it, not knowing that they just devastated American farming: https://theatlantic.com/science/archiv
e/2020/05/flesh-eating-worms-disease-containment-america-panama/611026/
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5:03 PM · Feb 15, 2025
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Sky Marchini
Stuart Buck
@stuartbuck1
·
Feb 15, 2025
I can see the DOGE tweet: "We canceled a contract for Panamanian screwworms, saving $165 million dollars!!!" [https://aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-an
nouncements/usda-approves-emergency-funding-protect-us…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j2kmiyhld5btzozgzwy3lc2m/bafkreih3ferjvpo53fmioc3sf2qadxltbmisl74luq2ydhxvpxbh3qf3ei)
