Nostr notes by Jonathan Schofield

There seem to be 3 main lenses to the “we can do this” ...

2026-07-04T07:12:50Z

There seem to be 3 main lenses to the “we can do this” decarbonisation discourse:

1. “We need governments and transnational businesses and institutions to act.”
(In ways they’re structurally incapable of and extreeeemely resistant to.)

2. “We *are* doing this. e.g. Just look at solar and wind rollout.”
(But don’t look at the massive mismatch with scale and time or at any of the supply chain dilemmas.)

3. “We are most definitely *not* doing well. But we can and must radically address demand.”

$298 billion would retrofit all the UK’s homes to a good level ...

2026-07-01T14:48:25Z

$298 billion would retrofit all the UK’s homes to a good level of energy efficiency and therefore massively reduce power consumption, which would increase energy security more than building military infrastructure that depends on fossil fuels

https://theconversation.com/replacing-warships-with-drones-is-not-an-upgrade-in-capability-286507

Apparently, this is what the world’s “most moral army” does ...

2026-06-30T07:36:43Z

Apparently, this is what the world’s “most moral army” does https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/4/26/israel-destroys-solar-panels-in-south-lebanon

Friday feeling T-shirt ...

2026-06-26T08:02:53Z

Friday feeling T-shirt

What a brilliant read: “I made cheesecake for the metaverse ...

2026-06-25T05:15:09Z

What a brilliant read:

“I made cheesecake for the metaverse while men discussed artificial intelligence across a counter from me like they were debating fantasy football statistics. I watched mediocre executives fail upward. I watched women get ignored, patronized, screamed at, and passed over. I watched corporations reward ego and punish humanity. I watched an industry convince itself it was inventing the future while reproducing every flaw of the present.”

https://yeastconfections.substack.com/p/i-fed-the-people-building-the-metaverse

Do people have any good recommendations for channels to buy good ...

2026-06-24T18:57:42Z

Do people have any good recommendations for channels to buy good value MacBook refurbs (other than Apple)?

Please reboost.

(And please no “just Linux” replies. That is unhelpful and will be muted.)

2/3 …Our culture discounts the future, which is daily ...

2026-06-23T07:24:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…e4fu
_________________________

2/3

…Our culture discounts the future, which is daily devastating our chances of existence. And our web tech culture now also discounts the recent past more than it did.

For much of my past 22 years as a designer/developer it was quite normal to want to support a browser version history of around 5 to 10 years. (Whether people did so well was another matter.)

But these days that window of care has contracted to about 2 years.

And the result is a blithe present

#webDev 1/3 Making webpages is becoming harder. Harder because… ...

2026-06-23T07:15:05Z

#webDev 1/3
Making webpages is becoming harder. Harder because…

1. The range of viewport widths is so much wider than it was.

2. The range of tech capabilities in use is vastly bigger than it was.

3. The range of tech capabilities in use is assumed to be much narrower than it is.

4. The trajectory of the tech is fundamentally at odds with a habitable planet

caviar goes off in 48 hours once opened

2026-06-22T10:01:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…rhth
_________________________

caviar goes off in 48 hours once opened

…The lesson that I would like us to take away from this is that ...

2026-06-22T09:51:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…7ukw
_________________________

…The lesson that I would like us to take away from this is that instead of repeatedly eating rotten greens, we should elect some fresh Greens 💚

[out of limp metaphors, runs for cover]

…I apologise for the lettuce shouting that the above post ...

2026-06-22T09:42:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…esx2
_________________________

…I apologise for the lettuce shouting that the above post inflicts upon users of screen readers.

Here is a less shouty version with just the number of lettuces for each PM. 1 lettuce represents roughly 7 weeks of tenure.

Keir Starmer: 15
Rishi Sunak: 13
Liz Truss: 1
Boris Johnson: 23
Theresa May: 23
David Cameron: 46
Gordon Brown: 21
Tony Blair: 76
John Major: 48

9 Prime Ministers, 266 lettuces and almost 36 years later the UK is still on course for an Iceberg 🤪

https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116747658730469820

UK Prime Ministerial tenures since Milk-Snatcher Thatcher, ...

2026-06-22T09:31:51Z

UK Prime Ministerial tenures since Milk-Snatcher Thatcher, approximated as lettuces

Keir Starmer
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬

Rishi Sunak
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬

Liz Truss
🥬

Boris Johnson
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬

Theresa May
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬

David Cameron
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬

Gordon Brown
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬

Tony Blair
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬

John Major
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬

good learning :)

2026-06-19T09:04:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…vrsq
_________________________

good learning :)

hastily looks up ‘video toaster’ 😆

2026-06-19T08:58:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…st9l
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hastily looks up ‘video toaster’ 😆

oh no. Wishing you swift unblocking

2026-06-19T07:11:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…2ku0
_________________________

oh no. Wishing you swift unblocking

My dad, his brother and their generation of the British Empire ...

2026-06-17T08:11:31Z

My dad, his brother and their generation of the British Empire fought heavily militarised and expansionist fascism.

But the British Empire and its American allies were racist af. Their generation and that of their parents murdered tens of millions of people with darker skins.

They subjugated the descendants of those people and co-opted them into their wars.

And then attempted to rebuild the same social structures afterwards.

We should remember that too as well as the first bit

that’s lovely 💚

2026-06-16T07:19:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…wsgk
_________________________

that’s lovely 💚

emboldened on the web client :)

2026-06-10T15:26:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…g2jg
_________________________

emboldened on the web client :)

Mastodon really needs an ENORMOUS FONT setting, the better with ...

2026-06-10T15:06:58Z

Mastodon really needs an ENORMOUS FONT setting, the better with which to say

“fuck you, Starmer, and all your brain-dead acolytes”

with an appropriate degree of vehemence

https://syzito.xyz/@MiaMarkTwo/116722188516658921

Tofu was one of those words I’d only read long before I heard ...

2026-06-01T13:31:54Z

Tofu was one of those words I’d only read long before I heard it. So I pronounced it Toff-oo to myself and thought that must be it.

I subsequently learned UK folk say Toe-foo. And my family rips the piss out of me when I occasionally slip back into Toff-oo.

But what blows their minds and drives them nuts is when my wife’s brother comes over from Japan and pronounces it Taw-foo.

I just like it and eat it no matter how it’s said 😋

#curdledWords

https://retro.social/@ifixcoinops/116675040442850103

…Owen’s essay is a great, reasoned, erudite rant. But there ...

2026-05-31T08:04:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…vu5g
_________________________

…Owen’s essay is a great, reasoned, erudite rant.

But there are serious road bumps to what the likes of Amodei and Altman are building.

Let’s hope that what Trump and Hegseth are engineering through similar levels of stupidity will undermine the economics of it so it falls apart. The trouble with that is the destruction of millions of lives to get there

…“Henry Ford understood, perhaps apocryphally but correctly ...

2026-05-31T07:47:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…485z
_________________________

…“Henry Ford understood, perhaps apocryphally but correctly in principle, that his workers needed to earn enough to buy his cars.

The AI economy is eliminating the workers and expecting the cars to keep selling, except that software has near-zero marginal cost, so the entire value proposition is the elimination of the human cost center.

The product *is* the removal of the customer base.”

https://www.owenmcgrann.com/p/the-dead-economy-theory

…“OpenAI alone has been valued at north of $800 bn. ...

2026-05-31T07:40:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…kav9
_________________________

…“OpenAI alone has been valued at north of $800 bn. Anthropic, yet to produce a single year of profit, commands a valuation in the same stratosphere. These numbers need an addressable market large enough to justify them.

There is only one market that large: the global labor market.

…

The financial model requires the elimination of human cost at civilizational scale. If it doesn’t do that, these companies are the most overvalued assets in the history of capitalism.”

https://www.owenmcgrann.com/p/the-dead-economy-theory

“Last year, over half of new content on the internet was ...

2026-05-31T07:39:24Z

“Last year, over half of new content on the internet was AI-generated. The humans are still there, scrolling, but the thing they’re scrolling through has become a performance staged by machines for an audience that hasn’t yet realized the show isn’t for them.”

https://www.owenmcgrann.com/p/the-dead-economy-theory

I’m on the fringes of a Claude-adjacent discussion. I’ve been ...

2026-05-30T22:04:08Z

I’m on the fringes of a Claude-adjacent discussion. I’ve been abundantly clear that I want nothing to do with it.

It’s being considered for a thing I’ve put some prior thinking into.

Thing is, even if it works on a superficial level (or deeper), its use is antithetical to the project.

Tech continues to make me want to abandon tech

When one gets on a jet plane and flies somewhere, more bad shit ...

2026-05-30T14:00:57Z

When one gets on a jet plane and flies somewhere, more bad shit is shat into the air per minute aloft than just about any other discretionary thing a contemporary human can do.

That shit is making life unbearable for millions today. And unbearable for us all soon.

I knew this in 2004, the last but one time that I did it, but did it anyway. I knew much more clearly the last time I did it in 2017, but did it wracked with guilt.

And now I don’t. Because I don’t want to do that shitting anymore

This from @npub1ast…8ly3 is about the march of LLMs, but it’s ...

2026-05-30T13:22:45Z

This from Larry Garfield (npub1ast…8ly3) is about the march of LLMs, but it’s also about everything else I’ve posted on this morning https://www.garfieldtech.com/blog/selfish-ai

I know this is pie in the sky but nonetheless my sense is that ...

2026-05-29T07:56:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…7d7p
_________________________

I know this is pie in the sky but nonetheless my sense is that when we start admitting that it is us, and not shying away from it, we begin to create the conversations that give ourselves permission to seek more realistic answers together

…In my view, part of the answer to is to start admitting that ...

2026-05-29T07:21:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…2kf0
_________________________

…In my view, part of the answer to is to start admitting that “It is me”.

“I am the one who is denying me and my partner and my kids and nephews and nieces and cousins a future”.

It is me

…but hey, this is how we generate ‘growth’. The growth of ...

2026-05-29T07:04:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…q4cs
_________________________

…but hey, this is how we generate ‘growth’.

The growth of ‘everyone dies’ moments.

Helluva plan https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116656463672623723

…Amazing to think that every day 100,000 heat engines take off ...

2026-05-29T06:53:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…u5l3
_________________________

…Amazing to think that every day

100,000 heat engines take off from an airport,

and a significant subset of the world’s 1.5 billion internal combustion engines get driven somewhere,

and thousands of furnaces are invoked to smelt and sinter materials

by people who tell themselves “It’s not me” that’s heating ourselves into oblivion

#climateDiary

…When [@simon_brooke](https://mastodon.scot/@simon_brooke ) ...

2026-05-29T06:45:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…vyg9
_________________________

…When [@simon_brooke](https://mastodon.scot/@simon_brooke ) wrote the above in 2021, he noted that “We’re currently on 1.19° Celsius of anthropogenic warming over pre-industrial levels”.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service wrote in January 2025 that “all months since July 2023, except for July 2024, have exceeded the +1.5°C level”.

2025 was a bit cooler at +1.44°C, but this year will likely be hotter than 2024.

So looks like we’ll have warmed an entire planet by more than 0.3°C in 5 years

https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2024-first-year-exceed-15degc-above-pre-industrial-level

In June 2021, Lytton in BC, Canada hitting 49.6°C proved that ...

2026-05-29T06:32:51Z

In June 2021, Lytton in BC, Canada hitting 49.6°C proved that “extreme heat events do not only happen in the tropics.”

So, “imagine. It’s 2035. It’s June. You’ve seen ‘everyone dies’ events, covering thousands of square kilometres, happening in other parts of the world already. Now the weather forecast tells you that there’s a 30% probability of an ‘everyone dies’ event in the area where you live in the next ten days.

What do you do?”

https://mastodon.scot/@simon_brooke/116656311446853136

…9/n The thing is, if you expire in an unbearable and ...

2026-05-28T08:14:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…agst
_________________________

…9/n

The thing is, if you expire in an unbearable and unsurvivable heat spike, it doesn’t really matter what the average temperature was or is or will be 🤷‍♂️ 💀

…8/n The FFS don’t go above 1.5°C of global heating ...

2026-05-28T08:06:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…pyhc
_________________________

…8/n

The **FFS don’t go above 1.5°C of global heating** we’ve been telling ourselves is a *global* average and most of the Earth is covered in water.

The heating on land – where humans live – is roughly twice that average.

And the 2.6°C difference that’s cited in the previous post – which spans 70 years – is in the region of twice the +1.47° global increase – which spans 270 years – that we’re hovering around now.

But I was only looking narrowly at one week for 15 million Indians in Kolkata

…7/n Intriguingly, there’s no source for the map above which ...

2026-05-28T07:59:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…frz2
_________________________

…7/n

Intriguingly, there’s no source for the map above which took me down this rabbit hole, and although it cites 47°C for Kolkata, that might be a *forecast* because the data from which I derived this week’s average of “37.3°C” is at https://www.easeweather.com/asia/india/past#day=21&month=5.

And the highest Kolkata temperature which it cites for the past week is 45.3°C.

Anyway, in the data I looked at, 2026 Kolkata seems to be something like 2.6°C hotter than early 1950s Kolkata, which perhaps highlights something else…

…6/n My thought at the top was roughly “What was the ...

2026-05-28T07:54:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…5f0x
_________________________

…6/n

My thought at the top was roughly “What was the temperature in India like in the 1930s?”

I’ve not found a source for that, but https://data.opencity.in/dataset/daily-temperature-70-years-data-for-major-indian-cities provides data for 8 major Indian cities back to 1951.

From its CSV source, the average of average daily temperatures in Kolkata for the 7-day period from 21 to 27 May, from 1951 to 1955 was:

1951: 34.7°
1952: 34.6°
1953: 35.4°
1954: 34.5°
1955: 34.3°.

So across those 5 years the average was 34.7°C.

This week, it’s been 37.3°C

…5/n The May 2026 temperature snapshot of India at the top ...

2026-05-28T07:20:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…p0dn
_________________________

…5/n

The May 2026 temperature snapshot of India at the top (repeated here) portrays a 13°C spread, with Ahmedabad and Kolkata the hottest at 47°C (’kinell) and Bengaluru the coolest at a mere 34°C.

My guess is that the Nilgiri Mountains would be a lot less than that 34°. (They’re where my mum’s family would have been in the mid 1940s).

But as the context here is temperature extremes, I’ll go down a Kolkata rabbit hole https://mstdn.ca/@dbattistella/116649502661415044

…4/n My mum was born in Quetta in 1932 – then India, now ...

2026-05-28T07:14:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…8wmw
_________________________

…4/n

My mum was born in Quetta in 1932 – then India, now Pakistan. Her dad had poor heart health from the mid 1930s onwards, retired from the (Raj) Army to the UK, but was then called up again in 1940.

My mum, her sister and mother followed him back out to India later that year.

But in Indian heat, his heart could not maintain his utility to the war effort. He was re-retired and the family moved to the Nilgiri Mountains of Tamil Nadu, for its temperate climate, to see out the war

…3/n What a fucking shit show. Absolute bollocks being spewed ...

2026-05-28T06:54:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…aw5p
_________________________

…3/n

What a fucking shit show. Absolute bollocks being spewed on the basis of nothing. Just making shit up and misleading people.*

(Edit: *more measured thoughts in posts 10-12 below.)

It’s automated Trumpism.

Anyway, I’ll get somewhere close to some actual answers about 1930s Indian temperatures later today, by putting some actual work in with a semblance of diligence and discernment.

While the web still has an uncountable number of documents that aren’t distilled bullshit

…2/n I have an old iPhone, so although I use DuckDuckGo I have ...

2026-05-28T06:50:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…cjwr
_________________________

…2/n

I have an old iPhone, so although I use DuckDuckGo I have no means to default its search to noai.duckduckgo.com, and although I tell DDG I want no LLM summaries, when the cookie for that expires I get them anyway.

Which is how I come to note how confidently the ‘AI Assist’ reports temperatures in the 1930s based on essentially nothing. I followed its cited sources, where there is nothing whatsoever about any temperature data at all prior to the 1980s

1/n I saw this heat wave map of India and immediately found ...

2026-05-28T06:44:51Z

1/n

I saw this heat wave map of India and immediately found myself wondering what would the equivalent for late May have been like for my mother and aunt growing up as young girls in India in the 1930s.

I’ll get to some hints of answers in a bit, but first just wanted to note the cognitive surrender being fed by LLMs (next post)

https://mstdn.ca/@dbattistella/116649502661415044

very good. Thanks for sharing

2026-05-24T15:22:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…th73
_________________________

very good. Thanks for sharing

…More on Kagi from Lee Hutchinson in August 2025: “There’s ...

2026-05-24T06:38:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…75vc
_________________________

…More on Kagi from Lee Hutchinson in August 2025:

“There’s an AI search results summarizer, an AI page summarizer, and an ‘ask questions about your results’ chatbot-style function where you can interactively interrogate an LLM about your search topic and results.

So far, all of these things can be disabled or ignored. I don’t know how good any of the features are because I have disabled or ignored them.”

…“There are also tons of classic old-Google-style inline ...

2026-05-24T06:32:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…20m2
_________________________

…“There are also tons of classic old-Google-style inline search customizations, including verbatim mode, where instead of trying to infer context about your search terms, Kagi searches for exactly what you put in the box. You can also add custom search operators that do whatever you program them to do, and you get API-based access for doing programmatic things with search.”

“Well, screw you, Google, because Kagi lets me prioritize or ...

2026-05-24T06:29:57Z

“Well, screw you, Google, because Kagi lets me prioritize or exclude sites from my results, and it works great—I’m extraordinarily pleased to never again have to worry about Quora or Pinterest links showing up in my search results.”
https://mastodon.social/@kagihq/116624920967399968

TIL from @npub1n5t…hrcm that the UK is diluting its commitments ...

2026-05-23T10:00:08Z

TIL from Totts (npub1n5t…hrcm) that the UK is diluting its commitments on fossil fuels from Russia.

This is inevitable. Governments of countries that want more fuel than they produce will eventually do anything to get it. Europe – consuming 5 to 6x more than it produces – will not ignore what the warmongering fossil fuel bear over the hedge offers.

If you don’t like it, then stop flying and cut down on driving as much as you can. There are other good reasons to do that anyway

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy42x3g7r89o

The vision of #Eurovision is that genocide is fine if it’s ...

2026-05-17T08:09:45Z

The vision of #Eurovision is that genocide is fine if it’s outside European borders and a non-European genocidal nation wants to pay enough to join in

Every “I’ll just ask ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini”, every ...

2026-05-15T07:10:01Z

Every “I’ll just ask ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini”, every LLM-generated summary, is driving data centres on a mission to

“be bigger than 2,000 Walmarts, dump ‘23 atom bombs worth of energy’ into the environment every day, and terrify locals”

https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/this-ai-data-center-will-be-bigger-than-2-000-walmarts-and-dump-23-atom-bombs-worth-of-energy-into-the-environment-every-day-and-locals-are-terrified

I’ve done that before :) Repost!

2026-05-14T10:29:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…gval
_________________________

I’ve done that before :)

Repost!

[@la_rosa](https://todon.eu/@la_rosa ) 😊

2026-05-14T10:22:20Z

[@la_rosa](https://todon.eu/@la_rosa ) 😊

…To my awareness, most of the UK Green reps who are here are ...

2026-05-14T08:50:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…y4pr
_________________________

…To my awareness, most of the UK Green reps who are here are representing Scotland. Good for them.

It would be nice if the teams of the following showed *any interest at all* in on-going participation here:

Adrian Ramsay MP
Carla Denyer (npub1k8x…79wf) MP
Caroline Lucas MP
Cynog Dafis MP
Ellie Chowns MP
Hannah Spencer MP
Sian Berry (npub1kp3…egzn) MP

Zack Polanski (npub1qag…xqrq)

Lord George Macleod
Baroness Jenny Jones
Baroness Natalie Bennett
Lord Tim Beaumont

…The irony is that Mastodon is faaaaar closer to the ethos of ...

2026-05-14T08:30:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…9jar
_________________________

…The irony is that Mastodon is faaaaar closer to the ethos of Green politics than any of the other platforms they are spending their time in.

Again, I understand what is driving that asymmetry. And I understand how thinly it spreads underfunded individuals.

But nonetheless, treating Mastodon users as second class participants has the same kind of dynamic to it as Labour taking its left wing voters for granted

I’ve voted Green many times. I voted Green last week. But the ...

2026-05-14T08:23:07Z

I’ve voted Green many times.
I voted Green last week.

But the Green Party of England and Wales does nothing at my local level to win my vote.

And its main presence here is a bot that treats Mastodon users as passive recipients of snippets of conversations going on elsewhere.

I understand why, but I don’t like it.

I am however grateful to the few UK Green reps who have chosen to actually be here

Words are not immutable boxes. We may wish for their boundaries ...

2026-05-13T11:07:36Z

Words are not immutable boxes. We may wish for their boundaries to be protected but they cannot be.

We cannot stop ‘sick’ becoming ‘good’, or ‘oversight’ meaning to oversee and also to miss through inattention.

The job of words is to be understood *in the moment*, in a context. For their intent to be a discernible eddy in a current.

And then the current flows on by and there is no protection to be had

…Meta Ray-Bans are a form of assault ...

2026-05-13T10:22:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…jrw7
_________________________

…Meta Ray-Bans are a form of assault

“Most people seem to have no idea he’s wearing anything other ...

2026-05-13T08:33:42Z

“Most people seem to have no idea he’s wearing anything other than normal eyeglasses.”

Which will apply to him and the other 7 million and rising wearers of Meta Ray-Bans

#banRayBans

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj37z8357e5o

Yikes. All models are bad but ones modelling models modelling ...

2026-05-13T08:19:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…z3gu
_________________________

Yikes.

All models are bad but ones modelling models modelling model citizens are worse

Resisting the urge to reply to something that seems substantially ...

2026-05-12T15:38:03Z

Resisting the urge to reply to something that seems substantially wrong to me

tangent https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116543538244714495

2026-05-09T08:04:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…rjxu
_________________________

tangent https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116543538244714495

…We should remember that the callously named ‘Little Boy’ ...

2026-05-02T14:55:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…6w6a
_________________________

…We should remember that the callously named ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ were ways to pack 30,000 tonnes of TNT equivalent into 2 uranium-carrying machines, and that Netanyahu and his acolytes have dropped at least something close to that explosive power on Gaza since October 2023.

And quite probably many times more. And yet Europe and the US place no sanctions on such murderous psychopathy at all. In fact, Israel remains invited to sing at #Eurovision in 2 weeks’ time

https://factually.co/fact-checks/military/total-tonnage-bombs-dropped-gaza-c83b52

To @npub1ltw…sk2d’s pain and grief [1] and ...

2026-05-02T14:41:40Z

To Mera Osama🍉🇵🇸 (npub1ltw…sk2d)’s pain and grief [1] and Madeleine Morris (npub15t7…08hr)’s observation [2]

1. https://mastodon.social/@mera1991/116504313578298407
2. https://mstdn.social/@Remittancegirl/116505456907086916

It is quite striking that even though Israel has expanded its ...

2026-04-26T09:11:55Z

It is quite striking that even though Israel has expanded its terrorism from regional genocide and ecocide to now holding the entire world to ransom in pursuit of its plans for Greater Israel – a chokehold which threatens the viability of European societies – the European Council of the European Union cannot bring itself to say anything by way of admonishment except “deep concern” about the death penalty.

Here’s the Council’s press statements filtered by “Israel”:
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/

“The IDF, the world’s leading killer of journalists, was ...

2026-04-23T07:32:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…tttu
_________________________

“The IDF, the world’s leading killer of journalists, was blocking rescue operations.”

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:evgc4ukadedre3gwsiwygkpz/post/3mk4dbingv22m

#Eurovision

It’s been clear for a couple of years, but in 2026 it is ...

2026-04-23T07:21:30Z

It’s been clear for a couple of years, but in 2026 it is especially clear that in supporting Israel’s entry to its contest, #Eurovision is an enabler of terrorism https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yvn036evlo

and some (🙋‍♂️) are prone to over analysing where they ...

2026-04-22T14:57:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…ztsc
_________________________

and some (🙋‍♂️) are prone to over analysing where they spend a lot of time ;)

beautifully articulated. In saying what I said at the top I ...

2026-04-22T14:32:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…335g
_________________________

beautifully articulated. In saying what I said at the top I wasn’t denigrating it. I was merely trying to sketch out some dynamics. But of course in doing so I was being reductive.

Over the course of a little over 20 years I’ve dedicated myself mostly sequentially to 4 large projects of online discourse and this one is by far the most rewarding. And I’m enriched by knowing you a little bit at a distance :)

…We call what we’re doing here ‘social media’ but it’s ...

2026-04-22T07:31:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…rcs5
_________________________

…We call what we’re doing here ‘social media’ but it’s really only practice 1 of the 3 above that is social. And it’s rare.

Neither 2 nor 3 is socialising, and 2 is the most probable one.

The practice of 2 may be procrastinatory, but that’s not the dominant *intent*, I feel. For myself, it’s a subconscious yearning for the social in a society stripped of the opportunities to *be social*

Asynchronous media have deterministic qualities. 1. When people ...

2026-04-22T07:23:48Z

Asynchronous media have deterministic qualities.

1. When people are *co-present* something akin to conversation can flow. Those moments are fun and highly engaging.

When they are not, a couple of dynamics tend to unfold:

2. When people are in scrolling/procrastination mode, any depth beyond a post gets ignored. A thread may as well not be there.

3. When people are in *discovery* mode, a thread may get engaged with.

- - -

Not judging, cos I observe these behaviours in myself. Just noting

Yes 😔 Even as I find myself spewing out yet another stream of ...

2026-04-20T07:45:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…78kh
_________________________

Yes 😔

Even as I find myself spewing out yet another stream of consciousness about tech (and will probably do so again), I find myself weary of tech and technocracy.

Fwiw, this past weekend, I’m finding this conversation helpful https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116430811092516783

it is

2026-04-20T07:29:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…0pt5
_________________________

it is

…It’s a shame that the first 3 words of that report’s title ...

2026-04-20T07:20:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…7kj4
_________________________

…It’s a shame that the first 3 words of that report’s title are framing a lie (presumably to act as a honeypot for a particular mindset), but here we are

…But if yet more numbers in the realm of mining is what you ...

2026-04-20T07:18:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…7a42
_________________________

…But if yet more numbers in the realm of mining is what you need, there are plenty in

‘Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility and Less Mining’

by Thea Riofrancos,
Alissa Kendall,
Kristi K. Dayemo,
Matthew Haugen,
Kira McDonald,
Batul Hassan and
Margaret Slattery

In partnership with the University of California, Davis

https://climateandcommunity.org/research/more-mobility-less-mining/

…I was going to pull numbers from Thea Riofrancos’s work to ...

2026-04-20T07:07:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…nrp6
_________________________

…I was going to pull numbers from Thea Riofrancos’s work to lay out the lithium landscape as a counterpoint to the post at the top, but I’ve ended up not doing so, because then it just becomes yet another conversation about who has the better numbers about the ‘right’ metal.

So much more than the numbers, where we’re going is about the cultural values.

What is any of this *for*?
How much is enough?
Can any of it be *regenerative* and is it safe?
And what if it can’t and isn’t?

…As long as facing what the implications are is not coming ...

2026-04-20T06:54:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…dj99
_________________________

…As long as facing what the implications are is *not* coming from “electrify everything” industrialists, technologists, entrepreneurs and their cheerleaders we remain just differently fucked.

A much more metals intensive economy that seeks ‘growth’ in an era where we’ve already mined the best of the best stuff is dangerously fragile *by design*

…I’ve already spent 37 years hooked to a computer, and 27 ...

2026-04-20T06:42:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…skhy
_________________________

…I’ve already spent 37 years hooked to a computer, and 27 years hooked to variations of portable ones. So decomputering people like me is hard.

Throughout that entire time, the metal supply chains underpinning it were being fuelled by the most energy-potential dense, portable, long term storage of ‘charge’ known to humankind: oil.

That time is going.

I do wish we could see entrepreneurs and advocates in the renewables space face what that means robustly

…In fairness to Renew Economy, they do occasionally post about ...

2026-04-20T06:32:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…7tfp
_________________________

…In fairness to Renew Economy, they do occasionally post about the dynamic of where our limits are but there seems to be an editorial bias that wants to put ‘limits’ in the bin

https://reneweconomy.com.au/ai-wont-use-as-much-electricity-as-we-are-told-and-its-not-a-reason-to-slow-transition-to-renewables/

…Our dilemma is that we’re a culture addicted to ...

2026-04-20T06:30:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…6d6l
_________________________

…Our dilemma is that we’re a culture addicted to uninterrupted and growing power consumption.

So if we don’t keep the implications of that front and centre as we advocate for the transition from one set of minerals to another set of minerals, we’re just shifting where the fragility of our economics is located without fundamentally ratcheting down the fragility

…The strong implication above is that lithium extraction is ...

2026-04-20T06:19:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…ur9p
_________________________

…The strong implication above is that lithium extraction is fine and just a part of a “transition that must happen as quickly as it can”.

The reality is more uncomfortable.

Renewables (rebuildables) are much more metals intensive than fossil fuels and nuclear. Which, if we are as strategically inattentive as we currently are, carries in it the seeds of its own downfall

https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116351244625787731

This Renew Economy article does a good job of deconstructing the ...

2026-04-20T05:45:17Z

This Renew Economy article does a good job of deconstructing the disinformation around cobalt and renewables, pointing out that…

“Nearly every big battery installed in Australia these days uses lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which means no cobalt, and no nickel”

and that…

“cobalt has been used widely in many industries”

…which long predate the current boom for rebuildables.

But it contains a kind of disinformation of its own by omission…

https://reneweconomy.com.au/wild-attack-on-batteries-and-renewables-by-7s-spotlight-program-falls-over-at-the-first-fact-check/

I have enjoyed #eurovision with friends for many years but ...

2026-04-19T08:29:42Z

I have enjoyed #eurovision with friends for many years but they’ve really fucked it.

We can’t keep politics out of anything but we can not give genocidal warmongering nations a platform.

Their failure to do is indefensible

The targets are clear ...

2026-04-17T09:37:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…f4v9
_________________________

The targets are clear https://mstdn.social/@corporateeurope/116418732395307751

Every physical tool has affordances which strongly indicate how ...

2026-04-17T07:24:46Z

Every physical tool has affordances which strongly indicate how it is to be used.

Today I just discovered a handy touch interface gesture which has clearly been there for years, but I had no idea because it has zero affordances.

Also today, we have ‘chat’ interfaces that we definitely cannot afford but seem to millions like useful tools.

And this decade, we’re approaching the end of oil affordability because it has been radically under-priced for about 170 years

So far, only about 1% of the British electorate has registered an ...

2026-04-15T10:01:11Z

So far, only about 1% of the British electorate has registered an interest in having a vote on channeling water management away from dumping effluent for profit and instead into public ownership for health.

Perhaps we can bump the numbers a bit, at least to the point where how to not enshittify what we drink and cook with might be debated by MPs?

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762640

What kind of rich is Ireland? “They feel: the 3-hour commute in ...

2026-04-15T07:59:28Z

What kind of rich is Ireland?

“They feel: the 3-hour commute in traffic, the closed GP list, the €2,200 rent, the 14-month wait for an MRI, the buses that don’t come, the trains that don’t exist, the schools with no places, the pubs that close before midnight, the €12 sandwiches.

And they keep being told: Ireland is the second richest country in Europe with a €23 billion surplus, record employment, and even if you’re not happy with this, just shut up and put up.”
https://mastodon.ie/@ccferrie/116407638837677583

…5/n This from is a nice thought piece from @npub1fug…35hh ...

2026-04-14T09:10:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…dh5h
_________________________

…5/n

This from is a nice thought piece from Saskia (npub1fug…35hh)

‘Platforms as the Preface to Community’

https://forbetter.ghost.io/platforms-as-the-preface-to-community/

…4/n Here are some Newsmast people I’ve found here. Founder ...

2026-04-14T08:16:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…84m4
_________________________

…4/n

Here are some Newsmast people I’ve found here.

Founder
Michael Foster (npub19hh…yxnx)

Lead content creator
Saskia (npub1fug…35hh)

Chief technologist
Aung Kyaw Phyo (npub1m0w…dq70)

- - -

I must say, it’s encouraging to see these folks active here. One of the things I dislike about Ghost’s ActivityPub pitch is that they big it up but they’re basically not here, not living it. Ghost’s AP enthusiasm seems to be chanelled into Threads (and John O’Nolan couples that with a kind of banal enthusiasm for LLMs and generative AI)

…3/n Via a circuitous route, I’ve found ...

2026-04-14T08:08:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…aku9
_________________________

…3/n

Via a circuitous route, I’ve found https://home.channel.org/organisations

I need to spend more time with it to get a handle on it.

I like the sound of what Newsmast are about but the comms are a bit disjointed across several sites

…2/n The pitch for hyper-local communities sounds great ...

2026-04-14T07:53:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…0577
_________________________

…2/n

The pitch for hyper-local communities sounds great https://newsmastfoundation.org/how-it-works/for-hyper-local-communities/

It’s a shame there’s no case study for the Totnes instance, so one can’t get a sense of how the building blocks can be deployed, and the dynamics they’re creating (both good and challenging).

This seems like a potentially useful tool in the world that Adam Greenfield (npub1hmq…tzeg) is sketching out with https://lifepod.transistor.fm/

I’m intrigued and tentatively enthused by @npub142g…kmy5 and ...

2026-04-14T07:47:31Z

I’m intrigued and tentatively enthused by npub142g8wjn8hkfh7ghvaa4yakfuu2r8eseqga8fykxng0805cutvpnsmkkmy5 (npub142g…kmy5) and have questions and thoughts. Here are some:

1/n

Newsmast say they’re working with Mastodon and Bonfire (npub14rp…za3l) but the bits I’ve seen so far (https://www.blog-pat.ch/your-community-your-platform/) are light on details.

They say there are integrations with WordPress and Ghost. Is that because those CMSes have ActivityPub integrations? What are the possibilities of integrating with other CMSes?

#Oil201: 24/27 …“The reality is we have never in human ...

2026-04-12T08:14:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…gg0c
_________________________

#Oil201: 24/27

…“The reality is we have never in human history fully transitioned off an energy source. We always *add*.

There’s a name for this pattern. It’s based on Jevon’s paradox.

When we find a more efficient way to use a resource, we don’t use less of it. We use *more*.

Coal efficient steam engines didn’t reduce coal consumption. They made coal available for more things, so demand exploded…

#Oil201: 23/27 …“Most alternative energy tech only produces ...

2026-04-12T08:13:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…qfcj
_________________________

#Oil201: 23/27

…“Most alternative energy tech only produces electricity, which is very important, but represents only a fraction of what fossil hydrocarbons do in the world – currently around 20%.

Diesel for shipping, jet fuel, aviation, petrochemical, feedstocks, none of these have clean substitutes at scale.

But beyond these limits, there’s a deeper pattern. The current popular stories of an energy transition are built upon a myth, a false narrative about the history of humans and energy…

#Oil201: 22/27 …“So if oil is this hard to replace, what is ...

2026-04-12T08:12:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…jpse
_________________________

#Oil201: 22/27

…“So if oil is this hard to replace, what is this energy transition?

We keep hearing about solar panels and wind turbines but they do not reproduce themselves. The sun and the wind are renewable, but the technology we use to harness them is best labeled ‘rebuildable’, not renewable.

Because they require massive inputs of material and energy and complexity to build, and they need to be rebuilt every 20 or 30 years…

#Oil201: 21/27 …“Alternative energy sources will play a role ...

2026-04-12T08:12:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…tylp
_________________________

#Oil201: 21/27

…“Alternative energy sources will play a role in the human energy portfolio, but our current system was built around the qualities of oil.

These time, land and material dimensions are almost never discussed, but they’re some of the main reasons that direct substitution is so much harder than people assume, and why there are now warships in the Persian Gulf…

#Oil201: 20/27 …“Wind and solar deliver energy intermittently ...

2026-04-12T08:11:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…783v
_________________________

#Oil201: 20/27

…“Wind and solar deliver energy intermittently when the sun shines and the wind blows. Sometimes giving an enormous power burst, but sometimes giving us nothing, especially depending on your location.

Nuclear power can give us a constant stream of high power, but it’s difficult to ramp up and down and requires connection to a larger grid and is capital intensive and costly…

#Oil201: 19/27 …“Biological creatures on Earth do not ...

2026-04-12T08:11:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…e4wn
_________________________

#Oil201: 19/27

…“Biological creatures on Earth do not optimize for energy. We optimize for power.

Organisms and economies that get more energy sooner out-compete those that don’t.

Oil and its products – like gasoline, diesel, heating oil and jet fuel – contain unbelievable power when burned. They give us ginormous work *fast*, and importantly, whenever and wherever we want it…

#Oil201: 18/27 …“Replacing oil isn’t a matter of just ...

2026-04-12T08:10:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…28fa
_________________________

#Oil201: 18/27

…“Replacing oil isn’t a matter of just matching kilowatt hours from another source.

Our entire mining, shipping, rail, trucking, and personal transport system runs on oil.

And despite the headlines about solar and electric vehicles, that is likely not going to change.

But here’s a key distinction.

Energy is the total amount of work available. Power is the rate at which you get that energy per unit of time…

#Oil201: 17/27 …“and after that, there’s nothing left. ...

2026-04-12T08:09:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…dn6w
_________________________

#Oil201: 17/27

…“and after that, there’s nothing left.

Okay. Some of you might be thinking that I’ve been ignoring other forms of energy throughout this brief analysis: hydro, nuclear, and especially solar and wind, but there’s a reason substitutes can’t simply step in.

Energy quality matters almost as much as energy quantity.

Oil is liquid at room temperature, energy dense, portable, and storable. And these qualities are what made modern civilization possible…

#Oil201: 16/27 …“The growth in global oil of the last decade ...

2026-04-12T08:08:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…mr25
_________________________

#Oil201: 16/27

…“The growth in global oil of the last decade or so is mostly from US shale, but shale is a fundamentally different beast.

We widened the straw with fracking technology, so it looks like plenty is flowing, but we have to drill more.

We have to drill deeper and faster just to keep production flat, and that brings us so much closer to the eventual slurping sound from the straw, because shale oil is found in the source rock, which is where all the other oil migrated from…

Anyone who has followed me for a while will know that I’m a ...

2026-04-11T10:34:57Z

Anyone who has followed me for a while will know that I’m a regular listener to The Great Simplification by Nate Hagens.

I don’t agree with everything he says, and I think he’s probably wrong on some things, but I do think he’s an important voice, and he’s in the process of publishing a 3-part series on oil and what it does for us.

I think it’s *very well phrased* for a general audience, so I’m going to post the text of it all here in a long thread. So mute me now if you need to!…

Nostr notes by Jonathan Schofield

There seem to be 3 main lenses to the “we can do this” ...

$298 billion would retrofit all the UK’s homes to a good level ...

Apparently, this is what the world’s “most moral army” does ...

Friday feeling T-shirt ...

What a brilliant read: “I made cheesecake for the metaverse ...

Do people have any good recommendations for channels to buy good ...

2/3 …Our culture discounts the future, which is daily ...

#webDev 1/3 Making webpages is becoming harder. Harder because… ...

caviar goes off in 48 hours once opened

…The lesson that I would like us to take away from this is that ...

…I apologise for the lettuce shouting that the above post ...

UK Prime Ministerial tenures since Milk-Snatcher Thatcher, ...

good learning :)

hastily looks up ‘video toaster’ 😆

oh no. Wishing you swift unblocking

My dad, his brother and their generation of the British Empire ...

that’s lovely 💚

emboldened on the web client :)

Mastodon really needs an ENORMOUS FONT setting, the better with ...

Tofu was one of those words I’d only read long before I heard ...

…Owen’s essay is a great, reasoned, erudite rant. But there ...

…“Henry Ford understood, perhaps apocryphally but correctly ...

…“OpenAI alone has been valued at north of $800 bn. ...

“Last year, over half of new content on the internet was ...

I’m on the fringes of a Claude-adjacent discussion. I’ve been ...

When one gets on a jet plane and flies somewhere, more bad shit ...

This from @npub1ast…8ly3 is about the march of LLMs, but it’s ...

I know this is pie in the sky but nonetheless my sense is that ...

…In my view, part of the answer to is to start admitting that ...

…but hey, this is how we generate ‘growth’. The growth of ...

…Amazing to think that every day 100,000 heat engines take off ...

…When [@simon_brooke](https://mastodon.scot/@simon_brooke ) ...

In June 2021, Lytton in BC, Canada hitting 49.6°C proved that ...

…9/n The thing is, if you expire in an unbearable and ...

…8/n The **FFS don’t go above 1.5°C of global heating** ...

…7/n Intriguingly, there’s no source for the map above which ...

…6/n My thought at the top was roughly “What was the ...

…5/n The May 2026 temperature snapshot of India at the top ...

…4/n My mum was born in Quetta in 1932 – then India, now ...

…3/n What a fucking shit show. Absolute bollocks being spewed ...

…2/n I have an old iPhone, so although I use DuckDuckGo I have ...

1/n I saw this heat wave map of India and immediately found ...

very good. Thanks for sharing

…More on Kagi from Lee Hutchinson in August 2025: “There’s ...

…“There are also tons of classic old-Google-style inline ...

“Well, screw you, Google, because Kagi lets me prioritize or ...

TIL from @npub1n5t…hrcm that the UK is diluting its commitments ...

The vision of #Eurovision is that genocide is fine if it’s ...

Every “I’ll just ask ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini”, every ...

I’ve done that before :) Repost!

[@la_rosa](https://todon.eu/@la_rosa ) 😊

…To my awareness, most of the UK Green reps who are here are ...

…The irony is that Mastodon is faaaaar closer to the ethos of ...

I’ve voted Green many times. I voted Green last week. But the ...

Words are not immutable boxes. We may wish for their boundaries ...

…Meta Ray-Bans are a form of assault ...

“Most people seem to have no idea he’s wearing anything other ...

Yikes. All models are bad but ones modelling models modelling ...

Resisting the urge to reply to something that seems substantially ...

tangent https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116543538244714495

…We should remember that the callously named ‘Little Boy’ ...

To @npub1ltw…sk2d’s pain and grief [1] and ...

It is quite striking that even though Israel has expanded its ...

“The IDF, the world’s leading killer of journalists, was ...

It’s been clear for a couple of years, but in 2026 it is ...

and some (🙋‍♂️) are prone to over analysing where they ...

beautifully articulated. In saying what I said at the top I ...

…We call what we’re doing here ‘social media’ but it’s ...

Asynchronous media have deterministic qualities. 1. When people ...

Yes 😔 Even as I find myself spewing out yet another stream of ...

it is

…It’s a shame that the first 3 words of that report’s title ...

…But if yet more numbers in the realm of mining is what you ...

…I was going to pull numbers from Thea Riofrancos’s work to ...

…As long as facing what the implications are is *not* coming ...

…I’ve already spent 37 years hooked to a computer, and 27 ...

…In fairness to Renew Economy, they do occasionally post about ...

…Our dilemma is that we’re a culture addicted to ...

…The strong implication above is that lithium extraction is ...

…8/n The FFS don’t go above 1.5°C of global heating ...

…As long as facing what the implications are is not coming ...