Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.

Have you considered pushing for amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act in conjunction with the Online Safety Act, to define algorithms of social media platforms to be the equivalent of human oversight such as an Editor? They both curate content. There is a political pathway for that legislation

Dr Monique Ryan@mon4kooyong.bsky.social · yesterday

Algorithms are actively pushing harmful content at young men, and we know it: within 23 minutes of opening a new account, boys are already being fed misogynistic material. But Matt Canavan's answer is to point the finger at the women who teach our young men consent and respect.

What they don't tell you, and probably will never tell you, is that the "global bond sell-off" is driven in the long term by pension fund changes, not by inflation. Making it about inflation makes it 'about' news (Iran war). Making it about defined benefit pensions vanishing... on the other hand...

Global bond sell-off deepens amid inflation fears

UK borrowing costs rise to highest level since 2008 and Japanese yields hit peaks not seen since 1990s

ft.com

I’ll say it again, reparations will happen only if British interests are seen by much of the electorate to be furthered by them; and they could be. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Countries legally obliged to consider slavery reparations, says UN committee

Guidance says states must implement ‘comprehensive measures’ to address legacy of racial discrimination

theguardian.com

Sums up one of the great dilemmas for those concerned about global inequities: support Western aid programmes that mask & perhaps even perpetuate systemic N-S exploitation, or face the reality that things are even worse when populists dismantle them? www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

How misconceptions and woeful PR allowed Musk to shred USAID so easily | Jeremiah A Carew

A year on from the purge, with thousands of jobs cut and billions in foreign aid lost, a former leader reflects on the sorry saga – and why it would never happen to Nasa

theguardian.com

Very little order but getting there.

The core problem - once you've tried to murder someone and their entire family, you don't have any deterrence left - remains unchanged.

I’ve suggested that this imperialist grab is similar to those of the British Empire. There a big difference though. Investors like Goldie (Nigeria), Mackinnon (East Africa) & Rhodes (South Africa) elicited govt help. Trump needs to elicit investors’ help. www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...

Pentagon ‘given stake in Venezuelan oil deal’ after secret talks

The agreement was made after American oil companies were seemingly reluctant to invest their own money

thetimes.com

One Nation is the atomic clock of political parties - you can run entire telecommunication systems on the timing of "the newly elected member" leaving.

On the flipside, the pop-up, "this looks like a long document, do you want to summarize?" thing on Adobe Reader annoys me with intensity, because that's not a feature I want. I want to *read the article.*

‘this is about what happens to women who express opinions’ www.canberratimes.com.au/story/933840...

What Mark Parton said to me after he sicced his followers on me

Mark Parton taught me a lesson in malicious smears.

canberratimes.com.au

This applies to many peer reviews in humanities.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social · last wk.

It's a sort of "trust the science" intellectual knee-jerk, but whereas there *IS* a scientific consensus about climate change & vaccines, there is not a scholarly consensus about the precise definition of fascism. Linking to your pet scholar with their definition does not make everyone else wrong!

It was a real pleasure talking to @jameskerlindsay.bsky.social about the rise & fall of the British Empire:

James Ker-Lindsay@jameskerlindsay.bsky.social · last wk.

Just how should we understand the British Empire? It was brilliant talking to @alanlester.bsky.social about the history of Britain’s colonialism, and the complexities of reconciling liberalism and anti-slavery at home with a global project mired in racism and exploitation. youtu.be/0S3Ai6aTLHc

Say what you want about Trump but his disruption of oil supplies goes far far far beyond the wildest dreams of Extinction Rebellion.

In short, things can be natural and yet also be bad, worth holding in contempt and fighting against at every turn.

Weimar’s Article 48 and Paragraph 175 weren’t written for Hindenburg or Himmler. They didn’t need to be. A statute doesn’t require its authors’ complicity to be misused by their successors — it only has to still exist blakandblack.com/2026/08/26/t...

The Permanent Emergency: How Temporary Powers Become Tools of Domination

Emergency legislation implemented for sound reasons can become the tool of unscrupulous and unethical people if not dismantled when no longer needed.

blakandblack.com

Statement on ANU apology for ‘indefensible treatment’

25 years reading British Colonial primary sources that reflect modernism and violence Bret’s post rings true.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 2w ago

Since I am being called "so fucking dangerous" let's walk through what my argument and its evidence actually is. First, I am not saying fascism, the ideology, is ancient (it isn't) but that the emotions which fuel it are: fascism is ancient (pre-historic!) emotions colliding with modern society.

Since I am being called "so fucking dangerous" let's walk through what my argument and its evidence actually is. First, I am not saying fascism, the ideology, is ancient (it isn't) but that the emotions which fuel it are: fascism is ancient (pre-historic!) emotions colliding with modern society.

Brandon Bishop@brandontbishop.bsky.social · 2w ago

The assertions that fascism is a "permanent part of human nature" and farther down in this thread we evolved biologically and culturally to support fascism are doing *tremendous* ideological work this evening. These are not statements in accord with the anthropology and archaeology of our species.

Sometimes I just think that people ought to remember that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights exists, and that things which are flagrantly in contradiction with it are unacceptable.

On the one hand, allied unpreparedness for WWII was a tremendous mistake - obviously - and arguably an unpardonable one. On the other hand...how often do you plan for your neighbors deciding to murder-suicide the neighborhood? WWII wasn't an Axis stroke of genius, it was insanity.

And also retaliate on tariffs. A bunch of Americans need a lesson that fascism brings personal, painful, economic ruin. Deliver the lesson.

Of course, once they're in power, fascists are fascists. So we're going to need to commit ourselves, as societies, to a permanent sort of 'cleaning' that is not just limited to 'young' democracies or 'developing' countries. Evidently no democracy really matures beyond this impulse.

Fascism (which sucks) strikes us as aberrant *because* we are so modern. But wanting a strong leader to suppress minorities and lead your tribe in a brutal war in which you enslave or massacre your neighbors and take their resources - that was the DEFAULT mode of most polities before modernity.

One can imagine a different researcher, doing careful, extensive studies of the relationship between genetics and intelligence whose concludes might sometimes be controversial, who ought to be protected by academic freedom. But that isn't this guy.

The computer industry have historically misunderstood the relationship between labour and unemployment by technology. This was written in 1965 

Defending Cofnas, who had written outrageously racist stuff for years (e.g., that in a meritocracy there would be next to no Black professors because they have lower IQs), is an odd hill to die on. Yet the 100-plus academics who signed this letter are clearly willing to die on it :/

Rebecca Sear@rebeccasear.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Also worth noting how many of the signatories of the letter defending Cofnas call themselves evolutionary psychologists, including those with gatekeeping roles or large public platforms. Concerning to have the discipline represented by those who, at very best, misunderstand academic freedom

That is one industry that will due because of AI

@rosetande.bsky.social · 2w ago

“There is a secret industry that generates billions of dollars a year. Its workers are bright, industrious and completely anonymous. Their job is writing essays to order for students – in the UK and elsewhere – to help them get good degrees. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

When we collectively take power from someone (eg fossil fuel companies and their associates) and give it elsewhere (eg renewable energy), there are winners and losers. Good faith people struggle with this idea alot (because they're good faith!) that power is a fixed pie.

But seriously the great thing about this is we now have a self declared list of racist pieces of shit in academia we can avoid like the plague.