“The thing that I’m most curious about is: where is the diesel going to come from?” asked Michelle Brouhard, head of policy and geopolitical risk at Kpler. “Russia doesn’t have an export problem. It’s got a refinery problem.” 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥
Andrew Brown
@seatrout.bsky.social
Writer, journalist, — attempting simultaneous disillusionment and wonder. ex Guardian, ex Independent. Orwell Prize winner. Interested in trout, Christianity, tech, literature, journalism, Sweden, history. Less and less interested in politics of any sort.
There are many good things here. The worst possible take ia "Don't drink the gin from her bathtub"
London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 2d ago‘Everyday life was “stuffed like sausage” with Stalin, as Olga Freidenberg wrote in her diary in 1943: “You couldn’t go to the kitchen, sit down on a chamber pot, have lunch or walk out onto the street without Stalin turning up behind you.”’ By Sheila Fitzpatrick www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
For a while, we used to joke ‘don’t look up!’ when faced with blatant climate denial. Considering how insanely warm our oceans are becoming and how most of journalism ignores it, we may just as well add a ‘and don’t look down either!’
passing the "zionism is racism" motion on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street is a bit on the fucking nose isn't it
Just Elon Musk endorsing this 4Chan case on why high status males [& the neurodivergent!] should have a say in democracy. (Women are not free to think; should not have voice/vote).
N.B The government minister who negotiated the deal on behalf of Hungary is now under investigation over alleged misuse of public funds during his time leading the department, adding further significance to questions about the nature of the partnership and the lack of scrutiny it has received.
Byline Times@bylinetimes.bsky.social · 2w ago🔴 NEW Times Higher Education, Sponsored by Orbán’s Hungary, Failed to Report James Orr Allegations By Samantha Asumadu Read below. ↓
I don't even want this malignant sociopath talking about nuclear strikes on cities, much less having the authority and capacity to personally order them. Which, um, he has.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w agoasked about gas prices, Trump says "if you want to see turmoil and a travesty, let them take out a city with a nuclear weapon ... let them hit us with a nuclear weapon"
Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all
David Roberts@volts.wtf · 2w agoClass solidarity.
a point I would really emphasize is that China thinks AI safety is a matter of 'we will fuck you, personally, if you build tools that fuck us*' and the US blathers on about alignment and tries to shunt accountability *us meaning firstly the interests of the CCP first and foremost
‘This is playing into his hands’/‘this will allow him to play the martyr card’/‘this will help with his fundraising’ are all really bad takes. Criminals should be arrested and charged with crimes.
As a general observation, I've never _once_ seen writing with a bracketed sigh that was actually worth reading. It's a surefire sign that the author is performing world-weariness for an actual or imagined audience of folks that completely agree with them rather than engaging.
ddɐ˙ʎʞsʞɔɐlq˙uǝʌs@@sven.blacksky.app · 3w agoIt's sad to see this framing repeated endlessly. Most critics of AI don't deny the 'lived experience' (sigh) of AI users & especially boosters; they denounce the fanaticism, the disregard for hazards, and the perceived lack of a moral compass. This looks to me like guilty feeling rationalization.
We had a fascinating guest post on the Houthis and Hormuz - and how the growing number of maritime chokepoints could cause a major economic crisis. samf.substack.com/p/houthis-ho...
Houthis, Hormuz and the “chokepoint” threat to the global economy
Today and Thursday we have two posts addressing big risks facing the global economy.
samf.substack.com
I do think anyone who wants us to take Elizer Yudkowsky seriously as an authority on AI armageddon should be forced to testify on video that they have read the entirety of his 660,000 word rationalist Harry Potter fan fiction – written aged 30–34 – and still thinks the world needs his take.
A song of the litter tray I've looked at cats from both sides now From up and down and still somehow It's cats' effluvia I recall I really don't know cats at all
It is incredibly important that political violence does not succeed. The far-right mob that shut down Portsmouth wanted this outcome. If the state wishes to avoid more of these actions, it needs to make sure this RNLI branch reopens *immediately*, or as close to that as humanly possible.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w agoLifeboat station in Portsmouth forced to temporarily shut after far-right action
Learning from the financial crisis and the associated crisis of public legitimacy, I do think that in the name of alignment and longtermism, every frontier lab should be nominating three or four members of its steering team to get a really hard kick in the balls, on live TV as part of the debate.
"Report a problem with Laze Simica" says Google Street View. The problem is that some bastard has demolished my childhood home and built a nasty new house there.
Should have guessed that the thing that would eventually kill off the right's interest in grammar schools would be non-white kids doing too well in the 11+.
Anand Menon@anandmenon.bsky.social · 4w agoThat’s selection for ya 😉
The Onion has created a machine that will kill everyone on Earth that is coincidentally running out of money and the only way to slow it down is if my staff and I take a six-week vacation to Cabo San Lucas.
Politicians on the centre-left and centre-right simply don't seem to understand they are in an existential battle for the future of British democracy.
I can now reveal that crypto billionaire Ben Delo—pardoned by Trump after a conviction for anti-money-laundering violations—privately funded the failed libel action brought against me by neo-Nazi conspiracy theorists Nina Power and Daniel Miller to the tune of at least £300,000.
Businesse ydea: Airlyne that doth permit your catte to travel yn carrye-on for free (as long as the catte ys safe and comfortabil)
“Dennis Wheatley? [sucks on cigarette and stares off into the distance] yeah, I knew him. We were all in the same scene at the time. Are you still filming?”
If you're in government watching criminal-led blackshirt thugs in balaclavas wage war on the RNLI and you're hedging your bets because you're not sure who the majority of the country will side with, why do you even want to be in government? Why would you WANT to lead people you think so little of?