Jacob Aron
@jjaron.bsky.social
News editor at New Scientist. I read a lot of books, and recommend the best ones to you
Pinned
Jacob Aron
@jjaron.bsky.social
· Nov 15
I used to share book recommendations on the other place but got out of the habit this year as engagement massively dropped off. Thinking about putting together my top 10 list for this year though, so as a test, like this, and for each like I'll recommend something great I read in the past 5 years
Reposted by Jacob Aron
This feels like an ad written, directed *and* acted by people who have
1. Never played a game
2. Never watched anyone play a game
3. Never seen anyone interact with Alexa
4. Never seen anyone interact full stop
5. Never been alone in a room?
1. Never played a game
2. Never watched anyone play a game
3. Never seen anyone interact with Alexa
4. Never seen anyone interact full stop
5. Never been alone in a room?
November 16, 2025 at 7:34 AM
This feels like an ad written, directed *and* acted by people who have
1. Never played a game
2. Never watched anyone play a game
3. Never seen anyone interact with Alexa
4. Never seen anyone interact full stop
5. Never been alone in a room?
1. Never played a game
2. Never watched anyone play a game
3. Never seen anyone interact with Alexa
4. Never seen anyone interact full stop
5. Never been alone in a room?
Reposted by Jacob Aron
The great thing is that in Africa solar is both decarbonising the grid and bringing electricity to communities where it is very scarce.
Good for quality of life and business development.
Good for quality of life and business development.
Africa’s solar panel imports SURGED by 60% in the last 12 months☀️
While South Africa led the 2023 rise in solar panel imports, 20 other countries are also growing their solar capacity in 2025 📈
#COP30 can use this momentum to move the African #energytransition further
https://loom.ly/RexuKOw
While South Africa led the 2023 rise in solar panel imports, 20 other countries are also growing their solar capacity in 2025 📈
#COP30 can use this momentum to move the African #energytransition further
https://loom.ly/RexuKOw
November 16, 2025 at 8:05 AM
The great thing is that in Africa solar is both decarbonising the grid and bringing electricity to communities where it is very scarce.
Good for quality of life and business development.
Good for quality of life and business development.
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Tommy Robinson is claiming credit for the language/policy being used by the Labour government (about deporting people found to be refugees once their home country is deemed safe)
November 15, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Tommy Robinson is claiming credit for the language/policy being used by the Labour government (about deporting people found to be refugees once their home country is deemed safe)
Reposted by Jacob Aron
What I love most about this story is the NYT’s obliviousness to the fact that in other anglophone cultures the slang for tight male underwear or swimwear is ‘budgie smugglers’ www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/u...
Man Who Stuffed Parakeets in His Pants Faces Smuggling Charge
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:11 PM
What I love most about this story is the NYT’s obliviousness to the fact that in other anglophone cultures the slang for tight male underwear or swimwear is ‘budgie smugglers’ www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/u...
Under these rules, would someone like Mo Farah be able to stay in the UK? And if not, is that really the outcome Labour wants?
November 15, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Under these rules, would someone like Mo Farah be able to stay in the UK? And if not, is that really the outcome Labour wants?
Why isn't Aladdin in The Lion King?
Why isn't Homer Simpson in The Godfather?
Why isn't Iron Man in Schindler's List?
Why isn't Homer Simpson in The Godfather?
Why isn't Iron Man in Schindler's List?
Why Isn’t Pennywise in The Running Man? It's more complicated than you might think... bit.ly/4a04Vvk
November 15, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Why isn't Aladdin in The Lion King?
Why isn't Homer Simpson in The Godfather?
Why isn't Iron Man in Schindler's List?
Why isn't Homer Simpson in The Godfather?
Why isn't Iron Man in Schindler's List?
Let's just do nothing, ever
EXCL:
Final decision on restoring the Palace of Westminster will be delayed until 2030s
MPs were expected to vote by the end of 2025 on a way forward for fixing the crumbling parliament, but that now won't happen
Story w/@danbloom1.bsky.social
www.politico.eu/article/fina...
Final decision on restoring the Palace of Westminster will be delayed until 2030s
MPs were expected to vote by the end of 2025 on a way forward for fixing the crumbling parliament, but that now won't happen
Story w/@danbloom1.bsky.social
www.politico.eu/article/fina...
Final decision on fate of crumbling UK parliament delayed to 2030s
It’s a fire-hazard that’s prone to tumbling masonry — but fear of a public backlash is again delaying repairs to the world famous building.
www.politico.eu
November 15, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Let's just do nothing, ever
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
Reposted by Jacob Aron
If we accept someone is a genuine refugee and they build a life here, perhaps have children born here, what is the advantage to us of expelling them once we’ve persuaded ourselves that their country of origin is safe?
November 15, 2025 at 9:46 AM
If we accept someone is a genuine refugee and they build a life here, perhaps have children born here, what is the advantage to us of expelling them once we’ve persuaded ourselves that their country of origin is safe?
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Sequencing Hitler's DNA was always going to be a bad idea, with little upside and plenty of downside, but the way it has been done as part of a TV documentary is particularly bad www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Sequencing Hitler's genome teaches us nothing useful about his crimes
To understand Adolf Hitler, we need to look at his personal life and the wider societal and historical context - analysing his DNA for a TV gimmick tells us nothing, says Michael Le Page
www.newscientist.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Sequencing Hitler's DNA was always going to be a bad idea, with little upside and plenty of downside, but the way it has been done as part of a TV documentary is particularly bad www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Thinking about my own father, who arrived in 1946 with the Free Polish Army - when would Labour have sent him back to communist Poland? How could he have done anything to build a life and have children in the UK if he had had to beg to stay every two years? Disgusting. www.bbc.com/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.com
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Thinking about my own father, who arrived in 1946 with the Free Polish Army - when would Labour have sent him back to communist Poland? How could he have done anything to build a life and have children in the UK if he had had to beg to stay every two years? Disgusting. www.bbc.com/news/article...
My dad's parents fled the Nazis, met each other here, had children in the UK and founded a successful British company. It was a similar story for my wife's mother's parents. Under these rules, none of that would have happened. It would have been a purge of British Jews.
Home Office claims changes proposed on Monday are "the most significant shift in the treatment of refugees since the second world war"
These changes are unlikely to significantly shift flows or deliver control.
The language used is questionable in principle - and v likely to be untrue in practice
These changes are unlikely to significantly shift flows or deliver control.
The language used is questionable in principle - and v likely to be untrue in practice
November 15, 2025 at 10:12 AM
My dad's parents fled the Nazis, met each other here, had children in the UK and founded a successful British company. It was a similar story for my wife's mother's parents. Under these rules, none of that would have happened. It would have been a purge of British Jews.
I swear Jack and Kate wore those exact same clothes on that exact same beach
New look at Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien in Sam Raimi’s ‘SEND HELP’
The film follows 2 co-workers who hate each other but get stranded together on a desert island after their plane crashes.
(Source: Collider)
The film follows 2 co-workers who hate each other but get stranded together on a desert island after their plane crashes.
(Source: Collider)
November 14, 2025 at 11:04 PM
I swear Jack and Kate wore those exact same clothes on that exact same beach
Charlotte Church playing to get money for her own charity is...a choice
FYI: The BBC has revealed the charities #TheCelebrityTraitors were all competing for, with links so that you can donate.
November 14, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Charlotte Church playing to get money for her own charity is...a choice
Next they will be claiming it was AI...
This truly is madder than Mad Jack McMad ...
November 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Next they will be claiming it was AI...
Sequencing Hitler's DNA was always going to be a bad idea, with little upside and plenty of downside, but the way it has been done as part of a TV documentary is particularly bad www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Sequencing Hitler's genome teaches us nothing useful about his crimes
To understand Adolf Hitler, we need to look at his personal life and the wider societal and historical context - analysing his DNA for a TV gimmick tells us nothing, says Michael Le Page
www.newscientist.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Sequencing Hitler's DNA was always going to be a bad idea, with little upside and plenty of downside, but the way it has been done as part of a TV documentary is particularly bad www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Really great interview with Richard Binzel, who invented the Torino scale for measuring the risk of Earth being catastrophically hit by an asteroid www.newscientist.com/article/2501...
Is a deadly asteroid about to hit Earth? Meet the man who can tell you
When an asteroid threatens Earth, astronomers use a rating called the Torino scale to communicate the risk. Richard Binzel, who invented the scale, tells New Scientist about his 50-year career in plan...
www.newscientist.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Really great interview with Richard Binzel, who invented the Torino scale for measuring the risk of Earth being catastrophically hit by an asteroid www.newscientist.com/article/2501...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
They are literally standing on the world's best solar generator and opting for the smoke-stack. It's the most expensive, convoluted way imaginable to capture energy. The Sun is free, but the profit from gas is apparently too valuable to ignore.
You live in the literal desert but somehow gas, not solar, is your choice for electricity generation www.ft.com/content/e34c...
Saudi Aramco steps up gas push to meet surging electricity demand
World’s largest oil producer shifts focus as it prepares to begin production at the giant Jafurah field
www.ft.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:26 AM
They are literally standing on the world's best solar generator and opting for the smoke-stack. It's the most expensive, convoluted way imaginable to capture energy. The Sun is free, but the profit from gas is apparently too valuable to ignore.
You live in the literal desert but somehow gas, not solar, is your choice for electricity generation www.ft.com/content/e34c...
Saudi Aramco steps up gas push to meet surging electricity demand
World’s largest oil producer shifts focus as it prepares to begin production at the giant Jafurah field
www.ft.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:23 AM
You live in the literal desert but somehow gas, not solar, is your choice for electricity generation www.ft.com/content/e34c...
This seems clearly not ok? Definitely one for the ICO to take a look at, not that that will achieve much. In another life I worked for Lloyds TSB and had to have my salary paid into an account there. I moved it out to another bank each month for exactly this kind of reason www.ft.com/content/7d3d...
Lloyds used data from 30,000 staff accounts in union pay talks
Bank’s customer insights team compared financial resilience of lowest-paid staff to customers as part of salary negotiations
www.ft.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:16 AM
This seems clearly not ok? Definitely one for the ICO to take a look at, not that that will achieve much. In another life I worked for Lloyds TSB and had to have my salary paid into an account there. I moved it out to another bank each month for exactly this kind of reason www.ft.com/content/7d3d...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
environmental storytelling
November 12, 2025 at 6:07 AM
environmental storytelling
Reposted by Jacob Aron
When you refrain from posting your take on something, we should call that a give
November 12, 2025 at 7:22 AM
When you refrain from posting your take on something, we should call that a give
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Solar will power the world www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
November 10, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Solar will power the world www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
AI is essentially incompatible with net zero, in the short term. I know which I'd rather have www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
AI power use forecast finds the industry far off track to net zero
Several large tech firms that are active in AI have set goals to hit net zero by 2030, but a new forecast of the energy and water required to run large data centres shows they’re unlikely to meet thos...
www.newscientist.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:04 AM
AI is essentially incompatible with net zero, in the short term. I know which I'd rather have www.newscientist.com/article/2503...