themajor.bsky.social
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themajor.bsky.social
@themajor.bsky.social
130 followers 710 following 130 posts
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Interesting to contrast what Laffer says in this Times radio interview only to find it's a load of baloney when you check out his arguments afterwards m.youtube.com/watch?v=yC1S...
Economist breaks down how Rachel Reeves can get Britain growing again
YouTube video by Times Radio Politics
m.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
rolandmcs.bsky.social
Some have already had a go at debunking the claims in the book. e.g.

gully-foyle-debunked.co.uk/1-10
Debunking Gully Foyle's EU Benefits Claims Effectively | Gully Foyle Debunked
Join us as we debunk Gully Foyle's claims about Brexit benefits. Our counter book, 'Gully Foyle Debunked', aims to challenge misinformation and support the National Rejoin March with all profits. Proj...
gully-foyle-debunked.co.uk
October 2, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
adambienkov.bsky.social
In other news, Kemi Badenoch's party has taken at least £7 million in donations from funders and directors of climate change denial lobby groups bylinetimes.com/2025/03/18/k...
October 2, 2025 at 6:01 AM
The first episod of Alien earth is enjoyably silly, a mixture between an Alien film and Scooby doo-I presume the last episode will have a xenomorph saying "I would have got away with it had it not been for you kids"?
September 10, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Essential overview of Hiroshima - it was thought that civilian casualties would be low and radiation sickness wasn't widely understood. It shows that the precautionary principle applies, lessons for new technology such as #ai #airegulation www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Exposing Hiroshima
The forgotten story of the first Western journalist to report on the Hiroshima atom bomb.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 2, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Bet there was a scrum to write this headline, made me chuckle anyway #ft
June 12, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
georgemonbiot.bsky.social
Here's the Open Statement on sludge spreading launched by us at Fighting Dirty, and signed by many leading figures. The water companies are using farmland as a dump for hazardous chemicals. They mislead farmers, poison the land and threaten our health. It must stop. fightingdirty.org/open-stateme...
Open statement by leading environmentalists demands government action over “toxic cocktail of chemicals” spread on British farmland | Fighting Dirty
In the UK, we have a dirty secret that’s recently been brought into the light. Sewage sludge, we now know, contains far more than just human waste. Not only does a wide range of synthetic chemicals po...
fightingdirty.org
June 10, 2025 at 7:45 AM
I think the words covered it just fine on this occasion #ft #ukraine
June 3, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
sagan.bsky.social
Carl Sagan speaking at MIT in 1987 on lowering our C02 emissions.

Apply these words to any technological problem our world faces today and it holds up.
May 26, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
owenboswarva.bsky.social
UK ministers use "arcane parliamentary procedure" to block Lords bid to make AI firms declare use of copyrighted content www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Reasons given bills.parliament.uk/publications...

Kidron is up for another round though.

#DUABill #DataBill #genAI #IPlaw #techpolicy
"Across the creative and business community, across parliament, people are gobsmacked that the government is playing parliamentary chess with their livelihoods." Kidron will table a rephrased amendment before the bill's return to the Lords next week, setting the scene for another confrontation. This could include removing the reference to regulation, or omitting a timeframe for it to be implemented.
May 14, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
sabinepahl.bsky.social
Titans of #Science: Podcast with brilliant Richard Thompson @plymouthuni.bsky.social

"We need to develop #essentiality criteria for #plastic"

getpodcast.com/uk/podcast/t...

#Microplastics #PlasticPollution
The Naked Scientists Podcast
Listen to The Naked Scientists Podcast on GetPodcast
getpodcast.com
April 18, 2025 at 8:54 PM
I think with Gemini upping it's game @anthropic.com should add better integration with note making apps, and other document file types.
May 9, 2025 at 8:30 AM
@economicsinten.bsky.social why are the treasury trying to avoid state ownership of Thames Water? It's asset rich with problems due to questionable financial practices which would be voided with bankruptcy?So it shouldn't add to govt debt/ be profitable? www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Treasury threatens Defra with £4bn bill if Thames Water nationalised
Exclusive: Treasury threat an example of ‘scare tactics’ to help force through private sector deal, sources suggest
www.theguardian.com
May 6, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
‘Meta has stolen books’: authors to protest in London against AI trained using ‘shadow library’
Writers will gather at the Facebook owner’s King’s Cross office in opposition to its use of the LibGen database to train its AI models
www.theguardian.com
April 3, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
koldocasla.bsky.social
"Land differs from all other forms of property". It is "a necessity of human existence”, “the original source of all wealth”, and “strictly limited in extent”. Winston Churchill 1909.
Read what to do about it, by @guyshrubsole.bsky.social unherd.com/2025/04/can-...
Will Starmer take on landowners?
unherd.com
April 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
catneilan.bsky.social
Billionaire accused of using a 'strawman' to donate to German far-right party AfD is linked to company using loophole to make UK donations

My last (gulp!) in this series of joint investigations with @tortoisemedia.bsky.social and BBC R4's The Naked Week 👇

www.tortoisemedia.com/2025/04/11/m...
Money trail leads through Carlton Club to Tories
www.tortoisemedia.com
April 11, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
sheilab01.bsky.social
Reading it right now.
Wasn't anticipating the shark attack!
(But what an extended metaphor....)
April 7, 2025 at 3:05 PM
@doctorkarl.bsky.social how come you never see these ideas put into action? newatlas.com/materials/pl...
March 31, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
kityates.bsky.social
“The 53-year-old has also repeatedly used his own account to spread falsehoods, including inaccurate claims about COVID-19, vaccines, miscarriages and heart problems.”

phys.org/news/2025-0...
UK's Royal Society of top scientists debates call to expel Elon Musk
Britain's Royal Society will hold a crunch meeting on Monday following calls to expel the world's richest man, technology billionaire Elon Musk, from the prestigious institute of scientists.
phys.org
March 3, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
dieworkwear.bsky.social
Zelenskyy's character can be judge more directly by how he treats others and whether you think he's protected his country. From what I've seen, he has treated Americans with respect. His attire is to remind people he's at war, not unlike Churchill wearing a siren suit to the White House in 1942.
Winston Churchill at the White House wearing a one-piece garment known as a siren suit.
March 1, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
newseye.bsky.social
Extraordinary story the Wall Street Journal.

X is threatening advertisers that if they don’t spend more, Elon Musk will use his influence in government to block company mergers.

That’s extortion.
Extract from WSJ story. A lawyer at advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group fielded a phone call in December from a lawyer at X. The message was clear, according to several people with knowledge of the conversation: Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk's social-media platform, or else. X CEO Linda Yaccarino has made comments that seemed like similar warnings in conversations with Interpublic executives, according to people with knowledge of those talks. Interpublic leaders interpreted the communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13 billion deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group OMC -0.53% could be torpedoed, or at least slowed down, by the Trump administration, given Musk's powerful role in the federal government, some of the people said. They also had a front-row seat to Musk's continued criticism of advertisers that ditched X since he bought it in 2022, when it was known as Twitter.
February 20, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
kenanmalik.bsky.social
From @bcmerchant.bsky.social, a short history of OpenAI and “how ‘AGI’ operates in a material context… as a driver of continued investment… a marketing and recruitment tool, and a framework for bolstering the company’s influence and cultural footprint”: ainowinstitute.org/wp-content/u...
ainowinstitute.org
February 2, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
chrischibnall.bsky.social
So, to recap: the suggestion is: the UK creative industries grant open access to all their historic and future work and IP, without payment, to the brains behind a nascent industry that just tanked $1tn in a couple of hours. Sure. Seems great.
January 28, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
georgemonbiot.bsky.social
1. This is what it’s really about. Farage, Truss and co have no convictions of their own. They are mere channels for the demands of capital. Here they are, supporting a climate science-denying lobby group funded by oil and oligarchs. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
🧵
Farage and Truss attend UK launch of US climate denial group
British arm of Heartland, which has taken fossil and Republican funding, to be led by ex-Ukip head Lois Perry
www.theguardian.com
January 15, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by themajor.bsky.social
bigclimate.bsky.social
Is #Landman compelling television? Absolutely (though it's already getting a little stupid). Is it also thinly veiled, ham-fisted #BigOil -servicing, anti- #EnergyTransition, #Climate-worsening #Disinformation & even outright #Propaganda? Without a doubt. By every definition of the word. 🧵
Landman title screen background with oil rig explosion, Landman title in clouds "is propaganda." Actors Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hamm and show creator Taylor Sheridan also features and includes the label "propagandist"
January 5, 2025 at 7:18 PM