Dan Olner
@danolner.bsky.social
Policy fellow @Y_PERN_ @SouthYorksMCA Data scientist / geospatial+economics / climate / political economy / "tepid centrist" / bit of sci-fi too danolner.net github.com/DanOlner
Reposted by Dan Olner
I understand what the authors are trying to convey, but I think the landscape is much more nuanced (albeit no less problematic) than the one portrayed here. The key issue is that the R&I system systematically favours some forms of engagement and impact over others, with good work often 'crowded out'
Research assessment exercises have turned impact into a means to an end. Instead of writing a good story, do good work for genuine impact: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-get-fourstar-impact-case-study-stop-chasing-one #HigherEd #AcademicSky #EduSky
How to get a four-star impact case study? Stop chasing one
Research assessment exercises have turned impact into a means to an end. Instead of writing a good story, do good work for genuine impact
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:31 PM
I understand what the authors are trying to convey, but I think the landscape is much more nuanced (albeit no less problematic) than the one portrayed here. The key issue is that the R&I system systematically favours some forms of engagement and impact over others, with good work often 'crowded out'
Reposted by Dan Olner
An X user asks Elon Musk why they’re seeing tweets from left-wing lawmakers.
Musk: “Because we are failing very badly with the recommendations algorithm. Doing my best to address this.”
Musk: “Because we are failing very badly with the recommendations algorithm. Doing my best to address this.”
November 21, 2025 at 12:34 AM
An X user asks Elon Musk why they’re seeing tweets from left-wing lawmakers.
Musk: “Because we are failing very badly with the recommendations algorithm. Doing my best to address this.”
Musk: “Because we are failing very badly with the recommendations algorithm. Doing my best to address this.”
Reposted by Dan Olner
We will struggle to explain to future generations how something so transparent and stupid was able to take place youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
November 21, 2025 at 12:16 PM
We will struggle to explain to future generations how something so transparent and stupid was able to take place youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
Still very fond of this paragraph. Seven years old now, good lord. Via www.danolner.net/2018/09/hone...
November 19, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Still very fond of this paragraph. Seven years old now, good lord. Via www.danolner.net/2018/09/hone...
Reposted by Dan Olner
NEW: @propublica.org investigated the Chicago apartment raid where kids were zip-tied and citizens detained for hours. They find:
- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.
- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.
November 13, 2025 at 2:08 PM
NEW: @propublica.org investigated the Chicago apartment raid where kids were zip-tied and citizens detained for hours. They find:
- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.
- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.
Reposted by Dan Olner
And then when it inevitably collapses these great libertarian titans of industry will go cap in hand to the state to save them.
November 12, 2025 at 3:19 PM
And then when it inevitably collapses these great libertarian titans of industry will go cap in hand to the state to save them.
Reposted by Dan Olner
Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments:
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments:
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
Reposted by Dan Olner
Self-hosting is a fun way to cut big tech platforms out of your life, but if the cops come knocking you need to know how to defend the privacy of you and your users. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
How Cops Can Get Your Private Online Data
Can the cops get your online data? In short, yes. There are a variety of US federal and state laws which give law enforcement powers to obtain information that you provided to online services. But,
www.eff.org
November 10, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Self-hosting is a fun way to cut big tech platforms out of your life, but if the cops come knocking you need to know how to defend the privacy of you and your users. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
Reposted by Dan Olner
Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Gosh, all the billionaires really are dreadful aren't they?
It’s one thing to have different environmental/health priorities for your foundation, it’s quite another to have been bankrolling one of the primary sources of bullshit on the topic.
Bill Gates Gave $3.5M to Think Tank Run by Climate Crisis Denier Bjorn Lomborg
By @rtakver.bsky.social @desmog.com
www.desmog.com/2025/11/05/b...
By @rtakver.bsky.social @desmog.com
www.desmog.com/2025/11/05/b...
November 6, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Gosh, all the billionaires really are dreadful aren't they?
Reposted by Dan Olner
The timing on this is likely because air traffic controllers are going to get an email notification about their next paycheck Thursday which will read $0.
That will push more to call out sick as they scramble to find side jobs so they can pay the bills.
That will push more to call out sick as they scramble to find side jobs so they can pay the bills.
November 5, 2025 at 9:20 PM
The timing on this is likely because air traffic controllers are going to get an email notification about their next paycheck Thursday which will read $0.
That will push more to call out sick as they scramble to find side jobs so they can pay the bills.
That will push more to call out sick as they scramble to find side jobs so they can pay the bills.
Reposted by Dan Olner
Reposted by Dan Olner
Angola to sign exclusive oil exploration agreement with Shell, government says reut.rs/4qzRBnx
Angola to sign exclusive oil exploration agreement with Shell, government says
Angola's national oil and gas agency, ANPG, will sign an exclusive negotiation agreement with oil major Shell to explore and develop Blocks 19, 34, 35 as well as ultra-deep water blocks, it said in a statement late on Thursday.
reut.rs
October 31, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Angola to sign exclusive oil exploration agreement with Shell, government says reut.rs/4qzRBnx
Reposted by Dan Olner
Really important piece
October 29, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Really important piece
Reposted by Dan Olner
Took a look at the entry they have for me in Elon's Grokipedia.
There are some surprisingly deep details, dredged up from interviews I'd long ago forgotten about, and then there are some incredibly big points that are completely wrong.
Let's roll the tape.
There are some surprisingly deep details, dredged up from interviews I'd long ago forgotten about, and then there are some incredibly big points that are completely wrong.
Let's roll the tape.
October 28, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Took a look at the entry they have for me in Elon's Grokipedia.
There are some surprisingly deep details, dredged up from interviews I'd long ago forgotten about, and then there are some incredibly big points that are completely wrong.
Let's roll the tape.
There are some surprisingly deep details, dredged up from interviews I'd long ago forgotten about, and then there are some incredibly big points that are completely wrong.
Let's roll the tape.
Reposted by Dan Olner
My statement on the reported rise in racist incidents targeting nurses across the UK follows recent analysis from @rcn.org.uk which found that reports of racism at work from nurses have increased by 55% over the past three years:
October 27, 2025 at 2:40 PM
My statement on the reported rise in racist incidents targeting nurses across the UK follows recent analysis from @rcn.org.uk which found that reports of racism at work from nurses have increased by 55% over the past three years:
Reposted by Dan Olner
Bertrand Russell wasn't impressed with him: youtu.be/6TK9c-caEcw?...
Bertrand Russell on his meeting with Vladimir Lenin in 1920
YouTube video by Roman Styran
youtu.be
October 26, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Bertrand Russell wasn't impressed with him: youtu.be/6TK9c-caEcw?...
Reposted by Dan Olner
Vol. 1 of our graphic novel SWEENEY'S PROGRESS is finished. An ecological fable set in C7th Ireland, from one of the great medieval poems. Script by me, art by @zaraslattery.bsky.social.
To read the book online & help with the making of Volume 2, visit our Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/sweeneyspr...
To read the book online & help with the making of Volume 2, visit our Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/sweeneyspr...
October 17, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Vol. 1 of our graphic novel SWEENEY'S PROGRESS is finished. An ecological fable set in C7th Ireland, from one of the great medieval poems. Script by me, art by @zaraslattery.bsky.social.
To read the book online & help with the making of Volume 2, visit our Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/sweeneyspr...
To read the book online & help with the making of Volume 2, visit our Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/sweeneyspr...
Today I am having severe "having to try and understand some idiot's code and that idiot is past me, what a total arse". There are comments that I *thought* would make sense, but I don't think past me really cares about present me.
October 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Today I am having severe "having to try and understand some idiot's code and that idiot is past me, what a total arse". There are comments that I *thought* would make sense, but I don't think past me really cares about present me.
Reposted by Dan Olner
"The result would be removals on an epic scale. The comparison with Idi Amin's expulsion of Ugandan Asians is not one many Tory MPs welcome. Some appear unaware their own policy was that monstrous, until Lam spelled it out in a newspaper interview"
- Guardian
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- Guardian
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on Conservative immigration policy: the threat of mass expulsions is abhorrent | Editorial
Editorial: Tory plans to revoke indefinite leave to remain in pursuit of greater ‘cultural coherence’ resemble the most extreme ambitions of far-right fringe parties
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 11:33 PM
"The result would be removals on an epic scale. The comparison with Idi Amin's expulsion of Ugandan Asians is not one many Tory MPs welcome. Some appear unaware their own policy was that monstrous, until Lam spelled it out in a newspaper interview"
- Guardian
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- Guardian
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Dan Olner
The Conservative immigration proposals cannot be allowed to stand without a profound and widespread statement of moral condemnation inews.co.uk/opinion/tori...
October 22, 2025 at 4:05 PM
The Conservative immigration proposals cannot be allowed to stand without a profound and widespread statement of moral condemnation inews.co.uk/opinion/tori...
Reposted by Dan Olner
Draft Tory legislation on removing indefinite leave to remain is insane.
Would chuck out those not earning over £38K - including many pensioners!
+ social protections seems to include child benefit, so load of people with (British!) kids!
They'd remove my sis & mum who've been here 50 years.
Would chuck out those not earning over £38K - including many pensioners!
+ social protections seems to include child benefit, so load of people with (British!) kids!
They'd remove my sis & mum who've been here 50 years.
October 22, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Draft Tory legislation on removing indefinite leave to remain is insane.
Would chuck out those not earning over £38K - including many pensioners!
+ social protections seems to include child benefit, so load of people with (British!) kids!
They'd remove my sis & mum who've been here 50 years.
Would chuck out those not earning over £38K - including many pensioners!
+ social protections seems to include child benefit, so load of people with (British!) kids!
They'd remove my sis & mum who've been here 50 years.
Includes a post by me about prototyping better open econ tools by testing/learning. "Do data work openly where we can. It will support collaboration and learning / will help build a shared sense of ground truth / will avoid wheel reinvention." Interested? Lemme know. y-pern.org.uk/blog/prototy...
October 22, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Includes a post by me about prototyping better open econ tools by testing/learning. "Do data work openly where we can. It will support collaboration and learning / will help build a shared sense of ground truth / will avoid wheel reinvention." Interested? Lemme know. y-pern.org.uk/blog/prototy...
Reposted by Dan Olner
The draft legislation is crackers. It would fail immediately if we stayed in the ECHR but it disappears the human rights act. if passed after that it would involve mandatory loss of ILR for up to 400,000 people + refusal of 2-3 million others, though without no credible means to identify or remove
Here Lam explicitly sets out her proposal - which is official Conservative Party policy - to deport long-standing legal permanent residents who have *ever* claimed any benefit, including the state pension or child benefit (even if the child is British), or who earn less than £39K.
October 22, 2025 at 5:17 AM
The draft legislation is crackers. It would fail immediately if we stayed in the ECHR but it disappears the human rights act. if passed after that it would involve mandatory loss of ILR for up to 400,000 people + refusal of 2-3 million others, though without no credible means to identify or remove