#RepairDay is our annual chance to celebrate repair 🔧⁠ ⁠ If you have something planned to mark the occasion, add it to the map now ⁠ And if you need some inspiration for how you could get involved, explore our toolkit ⁠ It's all at RepairDay.org 🚀⁠

Interrailing to Davos today. Can’t not picture this figure of my 1980s nightmares. He probably goes to the World Economic Forum these days, repping AI

As the Railway 200 team wind up their work I've written down some of the ways which made it such an enjoyable campaign to work on: stephgray.com/2026/08/the-...

The magic of the railway

I'll miss Railway 200, but it's reminded me how much I enjoy supporting a small team with digital in the broad sense

stephgray.com

“It’s not so much that the past is a different country, more that the past was a different future. It turned out that the future did have a lot more screens in it (but less carpet on the walls).”

Richard Pope@richardpope.org · 2w ago

On waiting, digital and where the state chooses to operate - an extended version of the preface to Platformland: https://richardpope.org/2026/07/20/on-waiting-digital-and-where/

So I'm pretty excited by the recognition that traditional consultation doesn't cut it any more, in the Rewiring the State Cabinet Statement. 1/3 www.gov.uk/government/p...

I'm late to this from the @dxw.com blog but it's excellent and refreshingly uncertain about how junior developers and AI will work together in an agency environment: www.dxw.com/2026/06/what...

What are we going to do about junior engineers?

Nicky looks at the role of junior engineers and what skills they'll need as AI progresses

dxw.com

I like the granularity of this calculator by @dantaylorwatt.com of your personal AI environmental footprint. I find the moral panic about AI on ecological grounds a bit tiresome so it's good to have some apparently well-sourced data to work with: www.dantaylorwatt.com/ai/ai-enviro...

Bittersweet to mark the Fourth while a tyrant presides over and degrades our nation. But you can play The World in 1776 and remember that all over the world people have always resisted tyranny and in the long run, we will win. worldin1776.org.uk

The World in 1776: Map

It is March 1776. Adam Smith has just published a book 'The Wealth of Nations' that will change how the world thinks about wealth and power. North American colonists are on the verge of revolution. In...

worldin1776.org.uk

"Hmm, what's that large file called rr.mp4 sitting on the server?" I asked myself... and then proceeded to rickroll myself. Well done, me from the past.

It's Smith-mas Eve here at @uofgsocsci.bsky.social! Our celebration of The Wealth of Nations 250th kicks off tomorrow, focusing on slavery, empire, monopoly and justice. www.gla.ac.uk/explore/adam... A little video, chatting Smith with my colleagues, to get you in the mood:

Dylan, on life in your 80’s, is incredible. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/o...

Good to have a professional technical term for this: daringfireball.net/2026/05/what...

What Is a Dickover?

dickover — a modal panel, popover, or curtain presented by a website or app, deliberately obscuring its own content to frustrate the user with an unwanted, unnecessary, mandatory interaction; e.g. ask...

daringfireball.net

Some blogging from me: on working with impact drivers vs phoning a builder and sharing my experiences developing software with Claude: stephgray.com/2026/06/impa...

Impact drivers and Adam Smith

As I see it, craft isn't demeaned by use of a machine - there's skill in blending them together with harmony and care.

stephgray.com

It's coming up to 30 years since I (ahem, loosely) studied it, and 250 since it was written: this has been a fun project to work on for the University of Glasgow. I'm so impressed how thorough and yet accessible @maharafiatal.bsky.social and team's storytelling is. worldin1776.org.uk

The World in 1776: Map

It is March 1776. Adam Smith has just published a book 'The Wealth of Nations' that will change how the world thinks about wealth and power. North American colonists are on the verge of revolution. In...

worldin1776.org.uk

My take on AI is, essentially, everybody who’s against is too against it and everybody who’s for it is too for it.

@gilestur.bsky.social I see where you're coming from - often 'comms' does seem like this, but 'broadcasting positive achievements' is to mature communication what 'web design' is to digital services - a tip of an iceberg. Proper Comms is behaviour change; spin or no spin. gilest.org/notes/2026/o...

Thrilled that @policycamp.bsky.social, a one-day unconference for policy practitioners, is happening! - Thursday 23 July, 1000-1630 - University College London Apply for tickets now: policycamp.org.uk A massive thank you to everyone who helped shape our thinking. Please share widely!

Record number of overseas applications for British passports in early 2026 - presumably because the Home Office began insisting that dual nationals need one to travel to the UK (rather than using their Australian or Canadian passport, say)

Corporate power today is scary, but not new. In WHEN COMPANIES RULE, I recount its 400-year history from the East India Company to Amazon, what motivates the oligarchs who would be kings, and what we can do about them. Out in November, pre-order now: cup.columbia.edu/book/when-co...

NEW project: a #dataviz of #Eurovision lyrics. The question: was "do #ESC lyrics follow world news"? TL;DR sort of, but not quite :-) The result is this #scrollytelling article, inspired by @puddingviz.bsky.social 's style. Methodology and code linked. puntofisso.net/eurovision/

Not now, Facebook memory from 8 May 2015. The subsequent twists and turns were a whole lot scarier.

Nodding approvingly at this: darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/in-defense...

In defense of husbands

The great housework convergence is here

darbysaxbe.substack.com

I built an interactive guide on how Shazam (the music identification app) works! This is the next installment in my newly coined "How The Heck?" series, where we explore everyday tech that can feel like magic (QR Codes, GPS, and now this one). Hope you enjoy it! perthirtysix.com/how-the-heck...

Today's find via the @puntofisso.bsky.social newsletter treasure trove/bargain bin: some practical things to experiment with for people looking to boost their site GEO: evilmartians.com/chronicles/h...

Making your site visible to LLMs: 6 techniques that work, 8 that don't—Martian Chronicles, Evil Martians’ team blog

Most AI SEO advice is unproven. We tested what ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity actually read on our own site. Six LLM visibility techniques that worked, eight that didn't, and the metrics to tell the ...

evilmartians.com

I'm on a 70-strong Zoom call of middle aged folks with a mega Miro whiteboard and it is utter, glorious chaos. Lockdown vibes.

A random Facebook feed post from Michael Rosen may just have saved my summer holiday (my passport's valid until January but issued in May 2016...). It's not just 3 months' validity that matters, folks!

While looking for open licensed 18th/19th century views of London this week, I came across this corking view of the Crystal Palace dinosaurs by George Baxter, c.1854. They're a phenomenon now, must have been crazy back then when they really dominated the landscape

I'm enjoying using Claude artifacts to build myself little tools and shortcuts. I've ended up doing social media as a community centre volunteer, and my new 'Frequent Flyers' artifact helps me crop a usable section from the steady stream of A4 flyers I get sent, and generate an accompanying caption.

My friend Matt has been iterating his really interesting secret-keeping product, Tidy Affairs. You can try it out for free with a 7 day trial using the code TIDYTRIAL. I think it has potential to fill a gap in how we prepare for the end in a digital world: tidyaffairs.com

Secure Digital Legacy Planning — Tidy Affairs

Tidy Affairs is a private, secure way to share information with the people you trust. Your modern, digital letter of wishes.

tidyaffairs.com

*NEW* stories in April, including positive stories to balance the bad times. Articles with and by: @touretteshero.bsky.social @oskabright.bsky.social @maryohara1.bsky.social @georgejulian.bsky.social @sabasalman.com and many more. communitylivingmagazine.com