Prof Mike Yearworth
@mikeyearworth.bsky.social
810 followers 1K following 670 posts
Emeritus Professor · Problem Structuring · Problem Formulation · Soft Systems Methodology · Practice of Operational Research · Process Thinking · Facilitation · Group Support Systems · Co-Editor-in-Chief European Journal of Operational Research · CEng
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mikeyearworth.bsky.social
My book 'Problem Structuring: Methodology in Practice' has just been published by Wiley! www.grounded.systems/2024/03/prob...
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
ukhenews.bsky.social
This wave of redundancies was about emergency efforts to satisfy creditors.

The real restructuring of UK HE around the current (lack of) priorities for research and perceived value to students has barely begun.
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) suggests.'
Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens
University workers will vote on national strike action this month over a 1.4% pay offer made in the summer.
www.bbc.co.uk
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
chrischirp.bsky.social
🧵🚨

The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.

Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...

1/11
UK’s arm’s length public bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation
Seven in ten Britons say it is important for top scientific institutions to be independent in exclusive new polling.
www.ucl.ac.uk
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
abbyinnes.bsky.social
Quite, but in an ecological crisis it’s probably the case that all countries need to support if not enhance their own capacity, no? The space between self-sufficiency and collapsing existing capacity is quite important, surely…
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
alanbeattie.bsky.social
And this, class, is why aiming at agricultural self-sufficiency rather than spreading risk across different countries through international trade is a *really stupid idea*.
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'“Systems leadership and oversight is required to ensure that a variety of institutional types are preserved because this has been key to ensuring sector health and resilience in systems elsewhere around the world”.' (Brooke Storer-Church, chief executive of GuildHE) 2/2
committees.parliament.uk
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
helensalisbury.bsky.social
I always thought the Rawlsian veil was a good concept - if you're going to design a social system assume you have no idea where or who you will be in that society.
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
benbraun.bsky.social
Remember when dense networks of strategic cross-shareholdings among firms, native to coordinated market economies, went the way of the dodo?

The Rhenish model, Germany, Inc. undone by Anglo institutional investors?

Well, the dodo is back. Say hello to USA, Inc.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
sioldridge.bsky.social
The National Emergency Briefing on the grave threats posed by the #climate and #nature crisis, on the other hand, will still be going ahead next month. Our 8 experts include Lt General Richard Nugee on national security.

Enter postcode to see if your MP is coming: www.nebriefing.org
#TimeToStepUp
National Emergency Briefing on climate & nature
An unfiltered assessment of the latest threats to UK food supply, health and national security from eight leading experts to an invitation-only audience - also covering positive solutions. Westminster...
www.nebriefing.org
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
tonytassell.bsky.social
The flawed Silicon Valley consensus on AI - excellent column by @johnthornhill.bsky.social. "Instead of hyperventilating about AI ushering in a new era of abundance, wouldn’t it be better to drop the rhetoric and build AI systems for more defined, realisable goals?" www.ft.com/content/3474...
The flawed Silicon Valley consensus on AI
Serious questions remain about what will happen if we do — and don’t — replicate human intelligence
www.ft.com
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
watershed-i.bsky.social
Campaigners + local businesses claim phosphates + nitrates from the collective poo of as many as 23million chickens packed into the Wye catchment from a growing number of intensive chicken farms are driving algal blooms, harming fish + wildlife.
🧵 1/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
River Wye pollution prompts UK's largest environmental lawsuit
Livestock and water companies are accused of “extensive” pollution in the Wye, Lugg and Usk rivers.
www.bbc.co.uk
mikeyearworth.bsky.social
“the report, which was supposed to launch on Thursday at a landmark event in London, has been delayed, and concerns have been expressed to the Guardian that it may have been blocked by number 10.”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
National security threatened by climate crisis, UK intelligence chiefs due to warn
Report by joint intelligence committee delayed, with concerns expressed that it may not be published
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social
🚨NEW PAPER🚨
We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
River or sankey diagram showing the allocation of profits from global oil and gas companies to quantiles of the US wealth size distribution via financial system intermediaries, such as asset managers, and categories of ultimate beneficiaries, such as business owners, pension funds and shareholders in listed companies. The scale is hundreds of billions of US dollars, and ultimately 50.4% of profits reaching the US personal wealth distribution go to the richest 1% of households.
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
bigissue.com
A Ministry of Poverty Prevention could be brought together using the Marmot principles that have worked so effectively in health outcomes.
Marmot principles should be applied to government departments for ending poverty
www.bigissue.com
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
duncanlamont2.bsky.social
🫣 Profits are for wimps. Revenues are for losers. Ideas sell, not fundamentals

Over half the Nasdaq market is loss making. About 1-in-8 companies have no revenues

There are a lot more in these camps than in the past
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
dsquareddigest.bsky.social
I don't want to get all Chesterton's Fence here, but if you don't understand that a "microscopic snail" is an indicator species that's protected for the health of the entire ecosystem, you probably shouldn't be forming "good relationships" with developers
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer
Exclusive: Chancellor says 20,000 homes were being held up due to ‘some snails that are a protected species or something’
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
dianecoyle1859.bsky.social
Given the circular deals, it surely isn’t a $1T market?
techmeme.com
The recent wave of circular deals and partnerships involving Nvidia and OpenAI is escalating concerns that they are artificially propping up the $1T AI market (Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Important new study by the @doughnuteconomics.bsky.social team in @nature.com finding that "the richest 20% of nations, with 15% of the global population, contribute more than 40% of annual ecological overshoot" doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
iandunt.bsky.social
A bubble so large you can see it from space and it's going to fuck all of us.
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Reposted by Prof Mike Yearworth
ianwalker.bsky.social
"The single most important behaviour, design or regulation for creating streets conducive to walking and cycling, was physical separation between the modes"

We've got a new study out, learning from a broad mixture of street users, planners and designers

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Highlights
    For marginalised street users mode separation is the key to human-scale movement.
    Streets conducive to walking and cycling have functional, safe and accessible design.
    Professionals must approach street design, regulation and user behaviour holistically.
    Combinations of influencing factors persuade people to either use or avoid a street.
    There are no easy fixes to the public realm that will work for all non-drivers.