Tony Durham
@rhamdu.bsky.social
Now pursuing whatever interests me after a career in journalism and international development. Formerly @rhamdu on Twitter.
Wow, I had no idea anyone was analysing jazz tracks as quantitaively as this. These are the stats for Cannonball Addeley's 'This Here'. From the Jazzomat research project in Weimar, Germany. jazzomat.hfm-weimar.de/index.html
January 20, 2026 at 10:50 PM
Wow, I had no idea anyone was analysing jazz tracks as quantitaively as this. These are the stats for Cannonball Addeley's 'This Here'. From the Jazzomat research project in Weimar, Germany. jazzomat.hfm-weimar.de/index.html
Fibre optic cables carrying sensitive financial data run close to the site of the new Chinese embassy in London. Should we panic?
(1) fibre is physically much harder to tap into than copper
(2) the financial data is strongly encrypted... I mean, it is strongly encrypted, isn't it??
(1) fibre is physically much harder to tap into than copper
(2) the financial data is strongly encrypted... I mean, it is strongly encrypted, isn't it??
January 20, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Fibre optic cables carrying sensitive financial data run close to the site of the new Chinese embassy in London. Should we panic?
(1) fibre is physically much harder to tap into than copper
(2) the financial data is strongly encrypted... I mean, it is strongly encrypted, isn't it??
(1) fibre is physically much harder to tap into than copper
(2) the financial data is strongly encrypted... I mean, it is strongly encrypted, isn't it??
Renewing an insurance policy which has gone up 20% year on year. Shop around, they say. But most of the brands are owned by the same people.
January 20, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Renewing an insurance policy which has gone up 20% year on year. Shop around, they say. But most of the brands are owned by the same people.
An interesting finding though hardly shocking or unexpected. The AIs are doing their job uncomfortably well.
Moral: don't try to shoehorn AI into traditional copyright law. If you want the law to control this kind of thing, new concepts are required.
Moral: don't try to shoehorn AI into traditional copyright law. If you want the law to control this kind of thing, new concepts are required.
What's the difference between remembering and learning?
Researchers found evidence that AI models are apparently storing training data. OpenAI’s GPT-4.1, Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, xAI’s Grok 3, and Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
1/2
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Researchers found evidence that AI models are apparently storing training data. OpenAI’s GPT-4.1, Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, xAI’s Grok 3, and Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
1/2
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Researchers Just Found Something That Could Shake the AI Industry to Its Core
Researchers found compelling evidence that AI models are actually copying copyrighted data, not "learning" from it.
futurism.com
January 19, 2026 at 9:46 PM
An interesting finding though hardly shocking or unexpected. The AIs are doing their job uncomfortably well.
Moral: don't try to shoehorn AI into traditional copyright law. If you want the law to control this kind of thing, new concepts are required.
Moral: don't try to shoehorn AI into traditional copyright law. If you want the law to control this kind of thing, new concepts are required.
Trying to text a friend, sent it by mistake to someone I met on a Latin music course about 10 years ago. He was surprised, called me back and we ended up having a nice chat.
January 19, 2026 at 11:31 AM
Trying to text a friend, sent it by mistake to someone I met on a Latin music course about 10 years ago. He was surprised, called me back and we ended up having a nice chat.
I have only seen Greenland's featureless white wastes while flying LHR-SFO over the pole, but it looked like the kind of place where an invading force could be seriously inconvenienced by jamming GPS.
January 19, 2026 at 10:44 AM
I have only seen Greenland's featureless white wastes while flying LHR-SFO over the pole, but it looked like the kind of place where an invading force could be seriously inconvenienced by jamming GPS.
With Trump threatening to take over Greenland I am surprised we don't hear more comparisons to the 1982 invasion of the Falklands by Argentina's dictator Leopoldo Galtieri.
January 19, 2026 at 10:31 AM
With Trump threatening to take over Greenland I am surprised we don't hear more comparisons to the 1982 invasion of the Falklands by Argentina's dictator Leopoldo Galtieri.
Reposted by Tony Durham
When people talk about reasons to leave X, the fact that the owner is a mass murderer doesn't get mentioned enough. The Grok porn stuff is foul. The naked white nationalism is foul. This is worse.
Too few people are talking about the blood on Elon Musk's hands.
When DOGE slashed foreign aid, it wasn't just numbers on a screen. It was insulin, food, and antibiotics being ripped away from the world's poorest children.
Musk is responsible for the death of thousands
When DOGE slashed foreign aid, it wasn't just numbers on a screen. It was insulin, food, and antibiotics being ripped away from the world's poorest children.
Musk is responsible for the death of thousands
January 17, 2026 at 4:18 PM
When people talk about reasons to leave X, the fact that the owner is a mass murderer doesn't get mentioned enough. The Grok porn stuff is foul. The naked white nationalism is foul. This is worse.
If anyone can tell me how to get smooth scrolling, instead of page turning, on the Kindle for PC app, I would like to know. A smooth zoom, without going to the font size setting, would also be nice. (I avoid Kindle except when the printed book is too bulky or the ebook is offered cheap or free.)
January 15, 2026 at 6:02 PM
If anyone can tell me how to get smooth scrolling, instead of page turning, on the Kindle for PC app, I would like to know. A smooth zoom, without going to the font size setting, would also be nice. (I avoid Kindle except when the printed book is too bulky or the ebook is offered cheap or free.)
epistemic phlogiston
Information: the epistemic phlogiston of neuroscience (or biology). Apparently there is a special kind of substance in this world called "information", which brains extract, store in the firing rates of neurons, and move around between brain areas.
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
January 15, 2026 at 1:30 PM
epistemic phlogiston
Authors get angry about AI mining their work. Novelist Robert Heinlein coined the lovely word 'grok' (v., to understand intuitively). It's annoying to see it used as a trade mark. Even if X paid for the rights, it feels like an abuse
January 13, 2026 at 11:31 AM
Authors get angry about AI mining their work. Novelist Robert Heinlein coined the lovely word 'grok' (v., to understand intuitively). It's annoying to see it used as a trade mark. Even if X paid for the rights, it feels like an abuse
Kitchen worries.
Is it legal to make sauce with bread flour?
I zested a waxed lemon. Is it a painful death?
Just once, I stirred the coffee with a metal spoon. Is the glass pot still safe to use?
Never reheat rice. Come on. Seriously?
Is it legal to make sauce with bread flour?
I zested a waxed lemon. Is it a painful death?
Just once, I stirred the coffee with a metal spoon. Is the glass pot still safe to use?
Never reheat rice. Come on. Seriously?
January 12, 2026 at 11:50 AM
Kitchen worries.
Is it legal to make sauce with bread flour?
I zested a waxed lemon. Is it a painful death?
Just once, I stirred the coffee with a metal spoon. Is the glass pot still safe to use?
Never reheat rice. Come on. Seriously?
Is it legal to make sauce with bread flour?
I zested a waxed lemon. Is it a painful death?
Just once, I stirred the coffee with a metal spoon. Is the glass pot still safe to use?
Never reheat rice. Come on. Seriously?
@vcorenmitchell.bsky.social last night's 'transatlantic' edition of Only Connect showed that nice, normal Brits and Americans can get along, whatever madness affects our leaders. And not to get preachy, but it showed the benefits of having a diverse team to tackle any problem.
January 9, 2026 at 11:32 AM
@vcorenmitchell.bsky.social last night's 'transatlantic' edition of Only Connect showed that nice, normal Brits and Americans can get along, whatever madness affects our leaders. And not to get preachy, but it showed the benefits of having a diverse team to tackle any problem.
Reposted by Tony Durham
It's the coldest winter since 2010 here on England's south coast. P slipped on the pavement. Not on ice, but on olives fallen from a tree #BrightonProblems
January 7, 2026 at 6:17 PM
It's the coldest winter since 2010 here on England's south coast. P slipped on the pavement. Not on ice, but on olives fallen from a tree #BrightonProblems
The Guardian website gives you a choice: personalised ads or random ads. Interestingly, they put a value of £5/month on NOT having your ads personalised. Their research must have told them that people really hate personalised ads. I guess people find random ads easier to ignore.
January 7, 2026 at 5:29 PM
The Guardian website gives you a choice: personalised ads or random ads. Interestingly, they put a value of £5/month on NOT having your ads personalised. Their research must have told them that people really hate personalised ads. I guess people find random ads easier to ignore.
MAGA: Make Argentina to Greenland American
January 7, 2026 at 3:56 PM
MAGA: Make Argentina to Greenland American
"The next generation of self-driving cars, which reason like humans" - Nvidia quoted on #BBCR4Today
I'll just leave that here.
I'll just leave that here.
January 6, 2026 at 8:40 AM
"The next generation of self-driving cars, which reason like humans" - Nvidia quoted on #BBCR4Today
I'll just leave that here.
I'll just leave that here.
Reposted by Tony Durham
To wage war for oil in 2026 is like fighting over carbon paper in the age of photocopies.
Using US taxpayer dollars to bomb people and steal another country’s oil for oligarchs to sell to US taxpayers. Taxpayers pay twice, the rich get richer, and climate change from burning fossil fuels gets worse, spreading disasters globally. Murder, corruption, theft, terrorism, climate destruction.
January 3, 2026 at 9:40 AM
To wage war for oil in 2026 is like fighting over carbon paper in the age of photocopies.
I know phone cameras lie about colour, but tonight's Brighton sunset is 🔥🔥
December 30, 2025 at 4:32 PM
I know phone cameras lie about colour, but tonight's Brighton sunset is 🔥🔥
Electronic forms where the question is "If you answered YES..." and you *have to answer* even if your previous answer was NO. :(
December 23, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Electronic forms where the question is "If you answered YES..." and you *have to answer* even if your previous answer was NO. :(
This whole thread would be hilarious if it was not so tragic. Don't miss the Fox News ticker headline "Trump Unwinds Damage done by Biden's Green Agenda".
Meanwhile Chinese officials are wondering, is it all about Trump's Scottish golf course, or do the Americans really have such shit radar?
Meanwhile Chinese officials are wondering, is it all about Trump's Scottish golf course, or do the Americans really have such shit radar?
Burgum: "Today we're sending notifications to the 5 large offshore wind projects that are under construction that their leases will be suspended due to national security concerns ... the Dept of War has come back conclusively that these large offshore wind programs create radar interference"
December 22, 2025 at 5:17 PM
This whole thread would be hilarious if it was not so tragic. Don't miss the Fox News ticker headline "Trump Unwinds Damage done by Biden's Green Agenda".
Meanwhile Chinese officials are wondering, is it all about Trump's Scottish golf course, or do the Americans really have such shit radar?
Meanwhile Chinese officials are wondering, is it all about Trump's Scottish golf course, or do the Americans really have such shit radar?
People mock AI for not being as good as a human, but only because it is close enough to human performance to be perceived as a threat.
December 21, 2025 at 12:48 AM
People mock AI for not being as good as a human, but only because it is close enough to human performance to be perceived as a threat.
Good Energy surveyed Brits on thermostat settings and heating switch-on dates. Average settings are 16.6-18.7C. 1 in 7 heat to >22C, so a lot of people must barely heat their homes at all. Better-insulated houses would save fuel without all this self-denial. www.goodenergy.co.uk/blog/britain...
December 20, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Good Energy surveyed Brits on thermostat settings and heating switch-on dates. Average settings are 16.6-18.7C. 1 in 7 heat to >22C, so a lot of people must barely heat their homes at all. Better-insulated houses would save fuel without all this self-denial. www.goodenergy.co.uk/blog/britain...
I was born and raised a functionalist. Simulation and reality are indistinguishable, said philosophers, cognitive scientists and above all, SF authors. Oh, and Turing.
But I am trying to get my head around this modern point of view. Perhaps information is physical. Perhaps physics is informational.
But I am trying to get my head around this modern point of view. Perhaps information is physical. Perhaps physics is informational.
December 19, 2025 at 11:14 AM
I was born and raised a functionalist. Simulation and reality are indistinguishable, said philosophers, cognitive scientists and above all, SF authors. Oh, and Turing.
But I am trying to get my head around this modern point of view. Perhaps information is physical. Perhaps physics is informational.
But I am trying to get my head around this modern point of view. Perhaps information is physical. Perhaps physics is informational.