Tony Durham
@rhamdu.bsky.social
Now pursuing whatever interests me after a career in journalism and international development. Formerly @rhamdu on Twitter.
Marco Rubio seems unaware that in the post-colonial, post-holocaust world, 'western civilisation ' has become a toxic concept.
February 14, 2026 at 8:55 AM
Marco Rubio seems unaware that in the post-colonial, post-holocaust world, 'western civilisation ' has become a toxic concept.
Success with Rick Stein's radicchio and onion tart. Apparently radicchio can also go in risotto. Next time, perhaps. I am not prepared to eat the tough, cabbagey raw leaves, so you can keep your radicchio salads.
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes...
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes...
February 12, 2026 at 12:36 PM
Success with Rick Stein's radicchio and onion tart. Apparently radicchio can also go in risotto. Next time, perhaps. I am not prepared to eat the tough, cabbagey raw leaves, so you can keep your radicchio salads.
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes...
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes...
I don't like marketing like this. 'Good news for 2026' makes the end sound way too close. But yes, I must plan, if I am to get the cremation I want. Blood replaced with rocket fuel. Casket packed with saltpetre. Incinerated on the ruins of Brighton's West Pier, by robots wielding plasma torches.
February 12, 2026 at 12:20 PM
I don't like marketing like this. 'Good news for 2026' makes the end sound way too close. But yes, I must plan, if I am to get the cremation I want. Blood replaced with rocket fuel. Casket packed with saltpetre. Incinerated on the ruins of Brighton's West Pier, by robots wielding plasma torches.
If you are are going to try to explain why an AI is not conscious, you'd better be able to explain why a human is.
February 11, 2026 at 11:07 PM
If you are are going to try to explain why an AI is not conscious, you'd better be able to explain why a human is.
Each episode of Silent Witness should contain one fun fact about dead bodies, but I think they will run out soon.
February 11, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Each episode of Silent Witness should contain one fun fact about dead bodies, but I think they will run out soon.
I have a weird interest in cross-modal symbol systems like Braille, staff notation for music, Laban dance notation, South Asian vocal percussion, and writing itself FFS.
I just found out about another: Curwen hand signs for tonic sol-fa. As seen in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.
I just found out about another: Curwen hand signs for tonic sol-fa. As seen in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.
February 9, 2026 at 11:15 AM
I have a weird interest in cross-modal symbol systems like Braille, staff notation for music, Laban dance notation, South Asian vocal percussion, and writing itself FFS.
I just found out about another: Curwen hand signs for tonic sol-fa. As seen in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.
I just found out about another: Curwen hand signs for tonic sol-fa. As seen in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.
Sim City: 🛫=💰💰Reposting this because someone on BBC R4 just suggested that politicians are literally influenced by the games they have played.
#Gatwick is my local airport. I am not screaming for more flights. It would be disastrous for the environment, and anyway, there will never be 'enough' flights. Enough is... what? Two or more a day, to every obscure destination? Labour is locked in the Sim City trope that growth requires airports.
February 9, 2026 at 10:30 AM
Sim City: 🛫=💰💰Reposting this because someone on BBC R4 just suggested that politicians are literally influenced by the games they have played.
BBC R4 discussion of games, with @naomialderman.bsky.social got serious fast. Gamification, quantification, metrics and their corrosive effects in politics, business, education and research. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, Fun and games
Naomi Alderman with C Thi Nguyen, Keza MacDonald and Stephen Bush.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 9, 2026 at 9:53 AM
BBC R4 discussion of games, with @naomialderman.bsky.social got serious fast. Gamification, quantification, metrics and their corrosive effects in politics, business, education and research. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Things I have learned from my first encounter with @clearsky.app
I am not making ripples on bluesky. Very few people love or hate me.
I thought blocking here worked like Twitter pre 2024. It doesn't.
A minority of accounts do most of the blocking. A minority attract most of the blocks.
I am not making ripples on bluesky. Very few people love or hate me.
I thought blocking here worked like Twitter pre 2024. It doesn't.
A minority of accounts do most of the blocking. A minority attract most of the blocks.
February 8, 2026 at 10:13 AM
Things I have learned from my first encounter with @clearsky.app
I am not making ripples on bluesky. Very few people love or hate me.
I thought blocking here worked like Twitter pre 2024. It doesn't.
A minority of accounts do most of the blocking. A minority attract most of the blocks.
I am not making ripples on bluesky. Very few people love or hate me.
I thought blocking here worked like Twitter pre 2024. It doesn't.
A minority of accounts do most of the blocking. A minority attract most of the blocks.
Reposted by Tony Durham
Awe inspiring story we could all do with right now
A 20-year study of humpback suggests that [the technique of bubble net feeding]… diffuses through whale society much as skills spread through human communities: by individuals watching, copying & practising together
www.thetimes.com/article/2372...
A 20-year study of humpback suggests that [the technique of bubble net feeding]… diffuses through whale society much as skills spread through human communities: by individuals watching, copying & practising together
www.thetimes.com/article/2372...
How clever whales school others on catching lunch
A 20-year study of North Pacific humpbacks reveals an apprenticeship system where certain whales pass on bubble-net fishing tricks
www.thetimes.com
February 4, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Awe inspiring story we could all do with right now
A 20-year study of humpback suggests that [the technique of bubble net feeding]… diffuses through whale society much as skills spread through human communities: by individuals watching, copying & practising together
www.thetimes.com/article/2372...
A 20-year study of humpback suggests that [the technique of bubble net feeding]… diffuses through whale society much as skills spread through human communities: by individuals watching, copying & practising together
www.thetimes.com/article/2372...
2026: rocket grounded by hydrogen leak. "Small molecule, leaks easily."
Sure, but Victorian towns and houses were a maze of pipework carrying hydrogen, mixed with carbon monoxide.
Sure, but Victorian towns and houses were a maze of pipework carrying hydrogen, mixed with carbon monoxide.
February 3, 2026 at 8:49 AM
2026: rocket grounded by hydrogen leak. "Small molecule, leaks easily."
Sure, but Victorian towns and houses were a maze of pipework carrying hydrogen, mixed with carbon monoxide.
Sure, but Victorian towns and houses were a maze of pipework carrying hydrogen, mixed with carbon monoxide.
Amazing thread (US stats).
Plant photosynthesis has had millions of years to evolve, but it is still a hopelessly inefficient way of capturing solar energy, vs PV panels. Growing corn for ethanol is a waste of land.
You may also be shocked by the amount of US land used for cattle and feed.
Plant photosynthesis has had millions of years to evolve, but it is still a hopelessly inefficient way of capturing solar energy, vs PV panels. Growing corn for ethanol is a waste of land.
You may also be shocked by the amount of US land used for cattle and feed.
Next time someone asks you about energy and land use, maybe remind them that the ~35 million acres that currently grow corn for ethanol in the US could produce ~15 PWh per year of electricity from solar photovoltaics. That's ~3.5 times more than *total annual generation from all US power plants*.
February 3, 2026 at 12:24 AM
Amazing thread (US stats).
Plant photosynthesis has had millions of years to evolve, but it is still a hopelessly inefficient way of capturing solar energy, vs PV panels. Growing corn for ethanol is a waste of land.
You may also be shocked by the amount of US land used for cattle and feed.
Plant photosynthesis has had millions of years to evolve, but it is still a hopelessly inefficient way of capturing solar energy, vs PV panels. Growing corn for ethanol is a waste of land.
You may also be shocked by the amount of US land used for cattle and feed.
UK-China talks "dangerous" - Trump.
Dangerous would be if the Royal Navy anchored off the US coast and Starmer told Trump, stop making nuclear weapons and killing protestors or we start shooting.
Dangerous would be if the Royal Navy anchored off the US coast and Starmer told Trump, stop making nuclear weapons and killing protestors or we start shooting.
January 30, 2026 at 10:24 AM
UK-China talks "dangerous" - Trump.
Dangerous would be if the Royal Navy anchored off the US coast and Starmer told Trump, stop making nuclear weapons and killing protestors or we start shooting.
Dangerous would be if the Royal Navy anchored off the US coast and Starmer told Trump, stop making nuclear weapons and killing protestors or we start shooting.
Brighton and Hove is introducing separate food waste bins. They argue that 38% of general waste is food, and it's better to compost it than burn it. Does that justify, economically or environmentally, the new infrastructure, extra truck journeys and two new plastic containers per household (+ bags)?
January 30, 2026 at 10:16 AM
Brighton and Hove is introducing separate food waste bins. They argue that 38% of general waste is food, and it's better to compost it than burn it. Does that justify, economically or environmentally, the new infrastructure, extra truck journeys and two new plastic containers per household (+ bags)?
A silk worm is a clothes moth travelling backwards in time.
January 29, 2026 at 10:51 PM
A silk worm is a clothes moth travelling backwards in time.
God bless America.
I will simply never recover from reading this sentence:
"Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people."
"Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people."
Today, Luke Farrell (@lukef.bsky.social) explains how complex eligibility requirements have turned America’s safety net into a lucrative revenue stream for monopolistic private contractors.
January 29, 2026 at 1:55 AM
God bless America.
Facebook offers two options: personalised ads or a paid, ad-free service. There isn't the third option of non- personalised ads, that some other sites offer.
January 28, 2026 at 12:23 PM
Facebook offers two options: personalised ads or a paid, ad-free service. There isn't the third option of non- personalised ads, that some other sites offer.
BBC News says a watchdog will be investigating vets' prices.
January 28, 2026 at 9:04 AM
BBC News says a watchdog will be investigating vets' prices.
Reposted by Tony Durham
Hard to describe something I could possibly hate more than “Machine that destroys books to consolidate corporate information dominance”
New: Unsealed court docs detail Big Tech’s yearslong, secret race to ingest the collective works of humanity, including Anthropic’s project to “destructively scan all the books in the world.”
Gift link: wapo.st/4rjXAMQ
Gift link: wapo.st/4rjXAMQ
How Silicon Valley built AI: Buying, scanning and destroying millions of books
Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.
wapo.st
January 27, 2026 at 3:41 PM
Hard to describe something I could possibly hate more than “Machine that destroys books to consolidate corporate information dominance”
For once, the day brings some potentially useful updates to the software I use. With PDF annotations in Chrome, I hope I can sometime avoid firing up big, clunky Xodo. And the semantic search in Evernote might prove to be the first AI tool I actually incorporate into my daily work.
January 26, 2026 at 1:13 PM
For once, the day brings some potentially useful updates to the software I use. With PDF annotations in Chrome, I hope I can sometime avoid firing up big, clunky Xodo. And the semantic search in Evernote might prove to be the first AI tool I actually incorporate into my daily work.
Only a person who has not read Orwell could call it the Board of Peace.
January 23, 2026 at 10:45 AM
Only a person who has not read Orwell could call it the Board of Peace.
Wow, I had no idea anyone was analysing jazz tracks as quantitaively as this. These are the stats for Cannonball Addeley's 'This Here'. From the Jazzomat research project in Weimar, Germany. jazzomat.hfm-weimar.de/index.html
January 20, 2026 at 10:50 PM
Wow, I had no idea anyone was analysing jazz tracks as quantitaively as this. These are the stats for Cannonball Addeley's 'This Here'. From the Jazzomat research project in Weimar, Germany. jazzomat.hfm-weimar.de/index.html
Fibre optic cables carrying sensitive financial data run close to the site of the new Chinese embassy in London. Should we panic?
(1) fibre is physically much harder to tap into than copper
(2) the financial data is strongly encrypted... I mean, it is strongly encrypted, isn't it??
(1) fibre is physically much harder to tap into than copper
(2) the financial data is strongly encrypted... I mean, it is strongly encrypted, isn't it??
January 20, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Fibre optic cables carrying sensitive financial data run close to the site of the new Chinese embassy in London. Should we panic?
(1) fibre is physically much harder to tap into than copper
(2) the financial data is strongly encrypted... I mean, it is strongly encrypted, isn't it??
(1) fibre is physically much harder to tap into than copper
(2) the financial data is strongly encrypted... I mean, it is strongly encrypted, isn't it??
Renewing an insurance policy which has gone up 20% year on year. Shop around, they say. But most of the brands are owned by the same people.
January 20, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Renewing an insurance policy which has gone up 20% year on year. Shop around, they say. But most of the brands are owned by the same people.