ajbthomson.bsky.social
@ajbthomson.bsky.social
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Every case study like this should be balanced by one such as a 15-year-old with suicidal ideation unable to receive any help because CAMHS has been cut to virtual non-existence.
Huge respect to the papers for finding both an 88 year old worried about the tax bill on her 6 bedroom Kensington house and a 20 year old fretting about only being able to save £12k a year tax free.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
November 29, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Every case study like this should be balanced by one such as a 15-year-old with suicidal ideation unable to receive any help because CAMHS has been cut to virtual non-existence.
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
The greatest comic short story of all time. The original Peanuts strip that inspired the masterpiece. From Detective Comics 500 by Len Wein & Walt Simonson
November 20, 2025 at 9:24 PM
The greatest comic short story of all time. The original Peanuts strip that inspired the masterpiece. From Detective Comics 500 by Len Wein & Walt Simonson
Doesn't seem terribly positive
Is AI making job recruitment less meritocratic? We're getting some v interesting research studies on this question now, and the news is... not good. @jburnmurdoch.ft.com & I dive in, in the latest edition of our newsletter The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/e5b7...
November 14, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Doesn't seem terribly positive
@psbhq.bsky.social Any info on timings for Paris tomorrow gratefully received. Looking forward to it!
November 14, 2025 at 9:35 AM
@psbhq.bsky.social Any info on timings for Paris tomorrow gratefully received. Looking forward to it!
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
When you start looking, you realise quite how many stories are just "we found a few people willing to say stuff". Breaking news: someone reckons something
youtu.be/OQnd5ilKx2Y?...
youtu.be/OQnd5ilKx2Y?...
That Mitchell and Webb Look - Send us your reckons
YouTube video by iotaman5
youtu.be
November 8, 2025 at 8:39 AM
When you start looking, you realise quite how many stories are just "we found a few people willing to say stuff". Breaking news: someone reckons something
youtu.be/OQnd5ilKx2Y?...
youtu.be/OQnd5ilKx2Y?...
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
On this day 1605: Guy Fawkes attempts to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliament.
November 5, 2025 at 8:24 AM
On this day 1605: Guy Fawkes attempts to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliament.
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
The problem with diagnosing "the electorate have unreasonable expectations around tax and spend" is that those expectations did not develop in a vacuum. They are the product of decades of politicians and the media telling them they can have x services with y tax levels, or not contradicting it.
November 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
The problem with diagnosing "the electorate have unreasonable expectations around tax and spend" is that those expectations did not develop in a vacuum. They are the product of decades of politicians and the media telling them they can have x services with y tax levels, or not contradicting it.
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
I can’t stress this enough: you cannot understand politics without reading this paragraph about why there’s no such thing as a 1/3rd pound hamburger
October 30, 2025 at 2:26 AM
I can’t stress this enough: you cannot understand politics without reading this paragraph about why there’s no such thing as a 1/3rd pound hamburger
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
A simple first step: No more vox pops in deserted midday high streets when the only people likely to have the time or inclination to speak to a camera crew are wholly untypical. Pensioners, in other words.
Focus groups get a bad rep but I have never once run one during normal working hours.
Focus groups get a bad rep but I have never once run one during normal working hours.
Broadcasters - especially the BBC - have been working hard to ensure they give a voice to the 25-35% of people willing to vote Reform (and harder groups within that, like anti-asylum protest and Tommy protest)
Need to pay as much attention to the unheard majority who fear that form of politics
Need to pay as much attention to the unheard majority who fear that form of politics
October 24, 2025 at 8:16 AM
A simple first step: No more vox pops in deserted midday high streets when the only people likely to have the time or inclination to speak to a camera crew are wholly untypical. Pensioners, in other words.
Focus groups get a bad rep but I have never once run one during normal working hours.
Focus groups get a bad rep but I have never once run one during normal working hours.
Hard agree. Writers writing about the struggle of writing is wildly uninteresting to anyone who is not a writer i.e. almost everyone else. But does that stop them...
The really, really great writers hardly ever featured writers in their works. Dickens, Homer, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Chaucer, etc*. The most tedious novelist is the one that imagines their way into the world of a novelist from Brooklyn or Oxford**
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
October 14, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Hard agree. Writers writing about the struggle of writing is wildly uninteresting to anyone who is not a writer i.e. almost everyone else. But does that stop them...
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
On this day 1971, boxer Muhammad Ali visited Tesco at Stretford’s Arndale shopping precinct to promote Ovaltine.
October 12, 2025 at 7:56 AM
On this day 1971, boxer Muhammad Ali visited Tesco at Stretford’s Arndale shopping precinct to promote Ovaltine.
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Sarah Mullally is (or will be when formally installed) the first Archbishop of Canterbury to share her surname with anyone who played multiple Tests for England since Matthew Hutton in 1758. More recently Geoffrey Fisher and Rowan Williams shared theirs with one Test wonders.
October 4, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Sarah Mullally is (or will be when formally installed) the first Archbishop of Canterbury to share her surname with anyone who played multiple Tests for England since Matthew Hutton in 1758. More recently Geoffrey Fisher and Rowan Williams shared theirs with one Test wonders.
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Every time I come across this photo it completely stops me in my tracks. Crude oil supertanker Esso Hibernia under construction at Swan Hunter shipyard, Wallsend, during 1970. The scale and spectacle of this thing is incomprehensible. (📸 Harriet Berney)
September 28, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Every time I come across this photo it completely stops me in my tracks. Crude oil supertanker Esso Hibernia under construction at Swan Hunter shipyard, Wallsend, during 1970. The scale and spectacle of this thing is incomprehensible. (📸 Harriet Berney)
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Here's what the polling looked like ~14 months after the 2019 election and ~14 months after the 2017 election. So about those two hung parliaments.....or rather the two largest majorities in recent times.
(I did not deliberately choose polls with the same Con/Lab figs, selected purely on date)
(I did not deliberately choose polls with the same Con/Lab figs, selected purely on date)
September 26, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Here's what the polling looked like ~14 months after the 2019 election and ~14 months after the 2017 election. So about those two hung parliaments.....or rather the two largest majorities in recent times.
(I did not deliberately choose polls with the same Con/Lab figs, selected purely on date)
(I did not deliberately choose polls with the same Con/Lab figs, selected purely on date)
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Why are the American president's claims about autism the first item on British news bulletins?
He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.
So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?
He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.
So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?
September 23, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Why are the American president's claims about autism the first item on British news bulletins?
He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.
So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?
He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.
So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
This is a very good thread. We should not prioritising snails over human life, sorry.
On Thursday night, we heard that government was making big concessions on its planning bill, putting lots more controls on its nature recovery plans.
I find this disappointing. And to explain why, I have to tell a story I’ve been holding off from sharing.
I find this disappointing. And to explain why, I have to tell a story I’ve been holding off from sharing.
July 19, 2025 at 8:12 AM
This is a very good thread. We should not prioritising snails over human life, sorry.
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
The John Wick movies are the perfect look into human psychology bc everyone within that universe knows exactly what he’s done and what he’s capable of, yet also believes they’ll be the one to finally kill him lol.
July 14, 2025 at 4:16 PM
The John Wick movies are the perfect look into human psychology bc everyone within that universe knows exactly what he’s done and what he’s capable of, yet also believes they’ll be the one to finally kill him lol.
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
What’s the odds on “a major social network has an antisemitic AI built into it” being raised by lobby with PM’s spokesperson today? A special DCMS committee? Ofcom launching an emergency investigation? Seems it’s so hard to comprehend that people will just focus on more manageable screaming at BBC.
It would be nice to, among other things, get an answer from the UK government about why they still feel comfortable using this as one of their primary communication channels
Elon's AI is now actively recommending a second Holocaust
July 9, 2025 at 6:26 AM
What’s the odds on “a major social network has an antisemitic AI built into it” being raised by lobby with PM’s spokesperson today? A special DCMS committee? Ofcom launching an emergency investigation? Seems it’s so hard to comprehend that people will just focus on more manageable screaming at BBC.
My 10yo has discovered signs
July 4, 2025 at 7:56 AM
My 10yo has discovered signs
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
The paradox of AI destroying search is if all the news companies go bust they'll be nothing for AI to use to in answering queries....
Inside the digital publishing industry, which I try to monitor closely, this is the big news. By Julia Alexander at Puck.
July 3, 2025 at 4:55 PM
The paradox of AI destroying search is if all the news companies go bust they'll be nothing for AI to use to in answering queries....
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Just going to consult this reference book, “The Consequences of Pursuing Godlike Power,” by The Entire Canon of World Literature
June 27, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Just going to consult this reference book, “The Consequences of Pursuing Godlike Power,” by The Entire Canon of World Literature
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on.
slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com/technology/2...
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
slate.com
June 19, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on.
slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com/technology/2...
Reposted by ajbthomson.bsky.social
Our brains love the colour gradation in rainbows, maybe due to our ancestors searching for sources of water. Looking at plants helps us recover from stress & looking at something we think is beautiful causes dopamine release.
I've posted this photo to alter your brain biochemistry for the better 🌿
I've posted this photo to alter your brain biochemistry for the better 🌿
June 14, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Our brains love the colour gradation in rainbows, maybe due to our ancestors searching for sources of water. Looking at plants helps us recover from stress & looking at something we think is beautiful causes dopamine release.
I've posted this photo to alter your brain biochemistry for the better 🌿
I've posted this photo to alter your brain biochemistry for the better 🌿