Cheap, plentiful, secure energy is the foundation stone of everything. Without it, we will keep losing out.

Zubiqo@zubiqo.bsky.social · yesterday

Microsoft exited its agreement to rent 23,000 Nvidia chips at Nscale’s Essex data centre after grid bosses warned power isn't expected until the 2030s. It's a small piece of Nscale's $103bn backlog, but losing the site's only announced customer complicates a planned $35bn IPO.

Happy #InternationalRepairDay 🛠️❤️‍🩹! To mark the day, here's Historic England's library of guidance on all things to do with care of historic buildings. #Heritage is often the end result of generations or routine care and repair. Long may it continue historicengland.org.uk/advice/techn...

Technical Guidance | Historic England

See our guidance on conserving buildings, making historic places accessible for disabled people, dealing with flooding and surveying.

historicengland.org.uk

For an overview of the many articles Places has published about the repair, maintenance, and care of the built environment, check out our most recent email newsletter: A Reading List for International Repair Day. Like the journal, it’s free to read.

A Reading List for International Repair Day

Repair thinking has long animated this journal. Here are our essential reads on the maintenance and care of our built environment.

mailchi.mp

Edith Pritchett - Trying to Speak to a Human (2026) www.instagram.com/edithcartoon...

How should we assess different options for the voting system? Next Tuesday, hear @robertbuckland.bsky.social and Jess Garland debate electoral reform at our free, online event. Sign up 👉️ ucl.zoom.us/webinar/regi....

40 years ago today, unprecedented negotiations in Reykjavik, Iceland, to verifiably eliminate _all_ US and Soviet nuclear weapons collapsed when Ronald Reagan rejected Mikhail Gorbachev’s stipulation that research on ballistic missile defenses be restricted to laboratories (per the 1972 ABM Treaty).

You don't fix one security crisis by creating another. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Ministers preparing to slash heat pump subsidies to fund defence spending

Exclusive: Some of £2bn savings needed from energy budget expected to come from boiler upgrade scheme, sources say

theguardian.com

www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Pope Leo XIV rejects death penalty as attack on dignity of human person - Vatican News

Pope Leo XIV reaffirms the Catholic Church’s rejection of the death penalty, recalling that the common good can be “safeguarded and the requirements ...

vaticannews.va

Dropped in to see him/her in @nmireland.bsky.social National Museum of Ireland Country Life Turlough Park, Co Mayo recently. The Irish Hallowe’en ur-turnip from Baile na Finne, Co Donegal, getting ready to carve one again for October 31st #Samhain

Pope Leo takes a hard stance in favor of stateful agents

More on the abrupt shuttering of major international CRM company Chronicle Heritage by its hedgefund owner Riverside, including questions over the fate of site archives and whether the $1m Riverside have allocated to close out projects is adequate. Spoiler Alert: Almost certainly it isn't.

The Nation's Largest Archaeology Firm Abruptly Shut Down. The 600-Plus Layoffs Aren't the Biggest Concern

Chronicle Heritage closed more than 20 offices without a public announcement, leaving employees shocked and major archaeological projects facing an uncertain future.

inc.com

Great to see figures from across the political spectrum join the calls for PR. Our campaign is not about party politics. It's about building a democracy that works for everyone, regardless of how or where they vote. When all voices are heard, the whole country benefits.

Conservative ex-mayor urges party to embrace electoral reform - Politics.co.uk

Andy Street has urged the Conservatives to embrace electoral reform, arguing that a proportional system would encourage the party to be a “broad church”. The former West Midlands mayor made the case f...

politics.co.uk

A shame that apparently even a valid museum ticket doesn't guarantee you can see the #BayeuxTapestry, but here's a breathtaking high-resolution resource that lets you get thread-counting close to it from the comfort of your own couch: www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeu...

Explore the Bayeux Tapestry online - Bayeux Museum

For the first time, you will be able to freely explore the entire Bayeux Tapestry scene by scene with a never seen quality of images !

bayeuxmuseum.com

A while ago I said I might post about modern Stonehenge myths, some of which pop up frequently in all manner of places, including stuff written by actual archaeologists. So – to begin with, the old chestnut about (allegedly) being able to hire a hammer when visiting Stonehenge. #StandingStoneSunday

Fixed the headline for you BBC News - Tories pledge to build a society that needs 50,000 new prison places - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tories pledge to build 50,000 new prison places

The party says its proposals would stop prisoners being released early and cut crime.

bbc.co.uk

Today's announcement marks the beginning of the end of First Past the Post. To everyone who has contributed to our movement over the years: we can't thank you enough. Now let's push PR over the finish line 💪💯 A message from our CEO @emmacampaigner.bsky.social:

This is good to hear from Andy Burnham. Please join me in signing the Electoral Reform Society petition to get #FairVotes done. action.electoral-reform.org.uk/page/201578/...

The PM used his big speech to promise to fix Westminster's broken voting system.

We've heard promises before. I've signed to make sure this one is kept. It takes 30 seconds

action.electoral-reform.org.uk

As @alexsobel.co.uk said: “we are closer now to this change than we have ever been in the history of this country." We didn't get here by accident, but thanks to the tireless work of a grassroots movement up and down the country. We now have a real opportunity to make history. Let's seize it.

UK is closer than ever to getting proportional representation, Labour MP claims

"Folks, we are nearly there"

leftfootforward.org

I was 19 years old at the time... And very glad this evening that this man took five minutes to think this through, so I've had a life.

Stephen Schwartz@atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 3w ago

Today in 1983 in Moscow, just past midnight, 44 year-old Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov’s calm decision that a satellite warning of the launch of 5 US Minuteman ICBMs was a false alarm—based on “a funny feeling in my gut”—may have averted a catastrophic nuclear war. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl...

Very much worth reading if you don’t known about Petrov. This is the day we celebrate and honour him, and properly feel gratitude, and other things. Relying on tech in wartime can be deeply perilous. sammatey.substack.com/p/happy-stan...

Happy Stanislav Petrov Day

Take five minutes to not destroy civilization

sammatey.substack.com

Latest addition to @natlibscot.bsky.social excellent online map collection is a layer of high resolution #lidar images optimised to highlight archaeological sites 🏺showing as subtle earthworks. Amazing imagery! More info here... maps.nls.uk/additions/#205

I'm playing "Which came first?" a daily trivia game on the Wikipedia Android app play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Millions of people live in seats that have been represented by the same party since WW2. If Andy Burnham really wants to spread power evenly across the country, this must include changing the voting system so that no community is taken for granted. Our Manchester activist Abbie writes:

Democracy in every postcode – Why devolution needs electoral reform

Our voting system needs reforming to make sure democracy does not suffer from the multitude of parties we have now

northwestbylines.co.uk

"High up in the continental pedigree the entire DNA fingerprint matched a predicted empty space. The Maine team had found a living lost progenitor to hundreds of varieties—a tree that had been contributing its characteristics to American apples for hundreds of years." #DNA 🧪

Scientific American@sciam.bsky.social · 4w ago

Apple "detectives" wanted to identify a gnarly old tree growing on a remote plot of land in Maine. What they discovered was the key to a centuries-old apple mystery.

OUR CORE WORK CONTINUES Jurors have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience. This 1670 legal principle is stated in a stone plaque inside the Old Bailey. Supporters in Oxford are today informing the public of that fact. 📸: @camerazoe.bsky.social

Politics isn't working. It's time to call time on the broken culture in Westminster and have a fresh start with a fair voting system. I added my name to @electoralreform.bsky.social‬'s call to #MakeSeatsMatchVotes action.electoral-reform.org.uk/page/3782/pe...

First Past the Post means millions of our votes make no difference to parliament. Add your name now to demand a fairer voting system

It only takes 30 seconds

action.electoral-reform.org.uk

Politics isn't working. It's time to call time on the broken culture in Westminster and have a fresh start with a fair voting system. Add your name to @electoralreform.bsky.social‬'s call to #MakeSeatsMatchVotes action.electoral-reform.org.uk/page/3782/pe...

First Past the Post means millions of our votes make no difference to parliament. Add your name now to demand a fairer voting system

It only takes 30 seconds

action.electoral-reform.org.uk

One for those with a long term perspective. #Archaeology of the future? 🏺 arxiv.org/html/2604.13...

To understand and counter disinformation, language skills, area studies expertise, historical knowledge and a wide range of arts, humanities & social science disciplines are requisite. SHAPE subjects are strategically vital for national interests. Is it strategic to let 'the market' shrink them?

Mapping SHAPE provision in UK higher education

This new project from the British Academy maps changing provision of SHAPE subjects in UK higher education institutions. It uses data to visually depict contractions and expansions in provision by a v...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

#Pope Leo XIV asks that the development of artificial intelligence be guided by wisdom and charity, so that technological progress may serve human dignity and strengthen the bonds of the human family.... #AI Read all: www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Pope Leo XIV: AI must serve human dignity and strengthen peace - Vatican News

Pope Leo XIV asks that the development of artificial intelligence be guided by wisdom and charity, so that technological progress may serve human ...

vaticannews.va