Tim Collins
@warandcake.bsky.social
Formerly nuclear history and IR. Most likely here for climate, food, and sci-fi tbh.
Reposted by Tim Collins
The cowardice is actually on the spending side, not the tax side. They are deciding not to make the case for fixing things properly and, in doing so, they can’t properly rationalise the tax changes required to do it. It’s a failure to set out the project. And it’s costing all of us.
November 13, 2025 at 11:40 PM
The cowardice is actually on the spending side, not the tax side. They are deciding not to make the case for fixing things properly and, in doing so, they can’t properly rationalise the tax changes required to do it. It’s a failure to set out the project. And it’s costing all of us.
Reposted by Tim Collins
It worries me so much that we will never recover as a society from the antiscience misinformation spread on social media and in some of the right wing press. This has unpicked health preventions, turned some MPs against vaccines. This antiscience is pushing us back in time to the dark ages.
November 13, 2025 at 7:44 AM
It worries me so much that we will never recover as a society from the antiscience misinformation spread on social media and in some of the right wing press. This has unpicked health preventions, turned some MPs against vaccines. This antiscience is pushing us back in time to the dark ages.
Apple continuing to absolutely kill it with Pluribius. The sound design alone in the first episode sent absolute chills. So good to have a home for smart, creative sci fi.
November 10, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Apple continuing to absolutely kill it with Pluribius. The sound design alone in the first episode sent absolute chills. So good to have a home for smart, creative sci fi.
Young Muslim self-described democratic socialist heads a campaign that not only wins, but turns a local election into one that's internationally inspiring. If you call yourself a Democrat and manage to perceive that as a threat, that says more about you, sorry.
November 5, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Young Muslim self-described democratic socialist heads a campaign that not only wins, but turns a local election into one that's internationally inspiring. If you call yourself a Democrat and manage to perceive that as a threat, that says more about you, sorry.
Watching 'centrists' crash out over a democratic socialist win will never not be funny.
November 5, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Watching 'centrists' crash out over a democratic socialist win will never not be funny.
Turns out people at work do not appreciate if you question the use of so-called AI. Particularly if you can cite examples of how it deskills people, relies on stolen data, and is based on the promise of AGI working in the future but not today. Just total corporate capture based on marketing.
October 31, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Turns out people at work do not appreciate if you question the use of so-called AI. Particularly if you can cite examples of how it deskills people, relies on stolen data, and is based on the promise of AGI working in the future but not today. Just total corporate capture based on marketing.
Everywhere it's been studied, a four day workweek mitigates if not solves multiple problems allegedly plaguing the country. Staff retention, productivity, barriers to larger families. If a pill offered as many benefits, it'd be rushed to market. 'Labour' gov FFS
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Councils in England face clampdown on four-day working weeks
Steve Reed writes to South Cambridgeshire council raising concerns over performance and value for money
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Everywhere it's been studied, a four day workweek mitigates if not solves multiple problems allegedly plaguing the country. Staff retention, productivity, barriers to larger families. If a pill offered as many benefits, it'd be rushed to market. 'Labour' gov FFS
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Embarrassing watching people embrace Newsom these last few months when what they really enjoyed was the content from his new Millennial social media manager. The candidate didn't get any better. Stark contrast to people like Mamdani who can do it intuitively and genuinely.
Gavin Newsom sounds nervous as fuck when he's asked about the pro-Israel lobby
October 15, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Embarrassing watching people embrace Newsom these last few months when what they really enjoyed was the content from his new Millennial social media manager. The candidate didn't get any better. Stark contrast to people like Mamdani who can do it intuitively and genuinely.
One of the best shows around and each renewal feels like an insanely improbale gift, especially in this landscape. If you haven't seen it, well worth finding an Apple trial code somewhere.
September 12, 2025 at 1:23 PM
One of the best shows around and each renewal feels like an insanely improbale gift, especially in this landscape. If you haven't seen it, well worth finding an Apple trial code somewhere.
Reposted by Tim Collins
Earlier this week a paper dramatically reduced the realistic potential for forest carbon storage. Now another downgrades the capacity of geological storage. Emissions reductions are the only effective climate action.
New paper in Nature finds that global geologic CO2 storage potential is ~90% lower than previously believed. Many candidate sites could leak CO2 back into the air or into groundwater, undermining climate mitigation efficacy or putting nearby human health at risk.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A prudent planetary limit for geologic carbon storage - Nature
A risk-based, spatially explicit analysis of carbon storage in sedimentary basins establishes a prudent planetary limit of around 1,460 Gt of geological carbon storage, which requires making explicit ...
www.nature.com
September 4, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Earlier this week a paper dramatically reduced the realistic potential for forest carbon storage. Now another downgrades the capacity of geological storage. Emissions reductions are the only effective climate action.
I'm just a guy standing in front of the @criterion.bsky.social Closet, begging them to put the film title on screen while the guest is holding up the case. If they don't say it aloud, which is more often than you think, we don't know what it is. Please and thank you.
September 3, 2025 at 9:43 AM
I'm just a guy standing in front of the @criterion.bsky.social Closet, begging them to put the film title on screen while the guest is holding up the case. If they don't say it aloud, which is more often than you think, we don't know what it is. Please and thank you.
Funniest scenario is Trump isn't dead yet, but he gets to see how ecstatic the world will be when he does kick it. Like the (myth of?) Alfred Nobel reading his own obituary, but with a zero percent chance Trump learns anything.
August 30, 2025 at 6:27 AM
Funniest scenario is Trump isn't dead yet, but he gets to see how ecstatic the world will be when he does kick it. Like the (myth of?) Alfred Nobel reading his own obituary, but with a zero percent chance Trump learns anything.
Reposted by Tim Collins
Solar and wind are the chocolate and peanut butter of energy. Batteries are like a dash of sea salt that pulls it all together.
Don't worry UK 🇬🇧, you don't have to choose between wind OR solar, they work well together! 🍃🤝☀️
There are very few days with both low wind and solar generation.
✨Beautiful visualization by my colleague @laorso.bsky.social featured in new analysis by @frankiemayo.bsky.social out today
There are very few days with both low wind and solar generation.
✨Beautiful visualization by my colleague @laorso.bsky.social featured in new analysis by @frankiemayo.bsky.social out today
August 29, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Solar and wind are the chocolate and peanut butter of energy. Batteries are like a dash of sea salt that pulls it all together.
Allegedly, Alex Kurtzman was preoccupied during S1 of Strange New Worlds working on a film. He returned, feeling the medieval fantasy episode was the best one. Rest of the show was directed to be more like it.
Am not a hater and I'm glad there's new Trek taking risks. But this absolutely tracks.
Am not a hater and I'm glad there's new Trek taking risks. But this absolutely tracks.
The first season of Strange New Worlds was great. A+!
Season 2 was barely okay. B.
Season 3 is awful. C-.
The writing is atrocious, and the showrunners don't seem to have a clue what they want to show to be.
At this rate, I have no hopes for seasons 4 and 5. #StrangeNewWorlds #StarTrek
Season 2 was barely okay. B.
Season 3 is awful. C-.
The writing is atrocious, and the showrunners don't seem to have a clue what they want to show to be.
At this rate, I have no hopes for seasons 4 and 5. #StrangeNewWorlds #StarTrek
August 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Allegedly, Alex Kurtzman was preoccupied during S1 of Strange New Worlds working on a film. He returned, feeling the medieval fantasy episode was the best one. Rest of the show was directed to be more like it.
Am not a hater and I'm glad there's new Trek taking risks. But this absolutely tracks.
Am not a hater and I'm glad there's new Trek taking risks. But this absolutely tracks.
Reposted by Tim Collins
Cheap Chinese solar panels are fueling a bottom-up energy revolution in Africa.
Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese Solar Panels
Energy-starved countries on the continent have reluctantly turned to coal and gas for decades. Cheap Chinese solar panels are now finally changing the calculus.
www.wired.com
August 22, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Cheap Chinese solar panels are fueling a bottom-up energy revolution in Africa.
Reposted by Tim Collins
"fancy autocomplete" really summed up the whole technology right at the beginning arstechnica.com/ai/2025/08/r...
LLMs’ “simulated reasoning” abilities are a “brittle mirage,” researchers find
Chain-of-thought AI “degrades significantly” when asked to generalize beyond training.
arstechnica.com
August 12, 2025 at 1:19 PM
"fancy autocomplete" really summed up the whole technology right at the beginning arstechnica.com/ai/2025/08/r...
Reposted by Tim Collins
Watching "Tin Man" and it is incredibly clear how much the writing has slipped in Star Trek
August 9, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Watching "Tin Man" and it is incredibly clear how much the writing has slipped in Star Trek
Reposted by Tim Collins
Politicians too often think that crime problems can be solved by passing a new law, because that’s what they know how to do.
Sometimes a new law is needed, but much more often the solution lies in better implementation of existing laws, or in doing things that have nothing to do with criminal law.
Sometimes a new law is needed, but much more often the solution lies in better implementation of existing laws, or in doing things that have nothing to do with criminal law.
Prohibitions are not spells.
Law is not magic.
When you prohibit a thing, all that means is the thing may be attended by different legal consequences than before.
The thing is not extinguished by a mere prohibition: it can continue but in a different way with different (and unforeseen) effects.
Law is not magic.
When you prohibit a thing, all that means is the thing may be attended by different legal consequences than before.
The thing is not extinguished by a mere prohibition: it can continue but in a different way with different (and unforeseen) effects.
August 5, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Politicians too often think that crime problems can be solved by passing a new law, because that’s what they know how to do.
Sometimes a new law is needed, but much more often the solution lies in better implementation of existing laws, or in doing things that have nothing to do with criminal law.
Sometimes a new law is needed, but much more often the solution lies in better implementation of existing laws, or in doing things that have nothing to do with criminal law.
Huge Parliamentary majority and the only idea Labour can find is asset-stripping. When community is frayed and we're living ever more isolated lives, absolutely let's flog one of the few public commons to keep the lights on for 3 more minutes. Dire, the whole lot
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08...
Rayner declares war on allotments
Councils could cash in on public gardens to tackle funding crisis under new rules
www.telegraph.co.uk
August 4, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Huge Parliamentary majority and the only idea Labour can find is asset-stripping. When community is frayed and we're living ever more isolated lives, absolutely let's flog one of the few public commons to keep the lights on for 3 more minutes. Dire, the whole lot
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08...
Reposted by Tim Collins
If we threw the same amount of money at climate catastrophe that this unhinged iteration of Silicon Valley is at “AI” to force us all to use it, we could actually mitigate some of the damage and protect our ecosystems, but then how will 6 guys make all the money.
August 1, 2025 at 1:54 PM
If we threw the same amount of money at climate catastrophe that this unhinged iteration of Silicon Valley is at “AI” to force us all to use it, we could actually mitigate some of the damage and protect our ecosystems, but then how will 6 guys make all the money.
Presumably not banning VPNs for the civil service, where they're a fundamental security measure. Or for the military, where they're a fundamental security measure. Or for every other state organisation, where they're fundamental for *the very Internet security the law claims fo protect*
VPN use is so high that the Labour party MPs are proposing to ban them.
www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...
www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...
UK households could face VPN 'ban' after use skyrockets
Labour could ban the use of Virtual Private Networks after use skyrocketed in recent days.
www.birminghammail.co.uk
July 29, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Presumably not banning VPNs for the civil service, where they're a fundamental security measure. Or for the military, where they're a fundamental security measure. Or for every other state organisation, where they're fundamental for *the very Internet security the law claims fo protect*
Darkly funny that at the start of Covid, the gov resisted life saving lockdown out of a belief the British public wouldn't wear such an erosion of liberties. Now people are being asked to hand over the most sensitive blackmail info to unknown, profit-driven private companies just to access the Web.
July 26, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Darkly funny that at the start of Covid, the gov resisted life saving lockdown out of a belief the British public wouldn't wear such an erosion of liberties. Now people are being asked to hand over the most sensitive blackmail info to unknown, profit-driven private companies just to access the Web.
Insane how poorly thought through and executed the Online Safety Act seems. Even by the risible standards of the UK, has the potential to set a new Gold Standard of finding the worst of all possible outcomes. Better to cut ourselves off from the Web than provide evidence-based education to children.
July 26, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Insane how poorly thought through and executed the Online Safety Act seems. Even by the risible standards of the UK, has the potential to set a new Gold Standard of finding the worst of all possible outcomes. Better to cut ourselves off from the Web than provide evidence-based education to children.
Reposted by Tim Collins
There's a type of person who argues there's no point stopping selling plane parts to Israel as they would only get them elsewhere, or the government can't condemn Israeli genocide as it would make no difference, and it's amazing to me that they have never before encountered the concept of "morality"
July 24, 2025 at 3:35 PM
There's a type of person who argues there's no point stopping selling plane parts to Israel as they would only get them elsewhere, or the government can't condemn Israeli genocide as it would make no difference, and it's amazing to me that they have never before encountered the concept of "morality"