Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 14h

Northampton Saints have opened the season with purpose. The academy continues to shine, with Todaro following Pollock. Callum Chick has added leadership & Prem steel up front, while JJ van der Mescht’s size gives bite to the pack. In midfield, the glue remains strong—enhanced by new signing Belleau.

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Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 15h

Maintaining an open internet is essential for free speech, innovation, global collaboration. Fragmentation—driven by censorship, protectionism, and conflicting data laws—risks creating isolated digital blocs. Safeguarding openness ensures fairness, economic growth, and access to information for all.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 16h

Lady Annabel, born Vane-Tempest-Stewart, daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry. Inspired Annabel’s, the exclusive Mayfair nightclub, opened in 1963 by her then husband, Mark Birley. A favourite haunt of mine in the early noughties. Later, married larger-than-life financier Sir James Goldsmith.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 1d

The pain you try so hard to avoid is often the very thing that makes you powerful. Most people see pain as a curse. It's actually a sorting mechanism. It separates the thinking from the complainers; the long-term winners from the short-term victims. Any meaningful achievement comes with discomfort.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 2d

In late Aug., Blair & Jared Kushner met to explore ending the Gaza war. Trump, then toying with plans to relocate Gazans & turn the coast into a Riviera, was shown a TBI poll revealing most opposed Hamas rule. In an hour meeting, they used it to persuade him to shift toward a diplomatic resolution.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 2d

Henry Singleton, described by Charlie Munger as the greatest capital allocator of his time. Decentralised operations to maximise autonomy, prioritising long-term performance over market noise. Through M&A, and later aggressive buybacks, Teledyne achieved 18,000% total returns under his leadership.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 4d

Napoleon Hill believed that late bloomers possess hidden strengths. What looks like delay is often protection—a time to grow roots before rising. After 40, you stop chasing praise and start chasing legacy. Value depth over speed, purpose over approval. When the moment comes, success is truly earned.

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Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 4d

The enterprise stack is shifting again, this time from software-as-a-service to service-as-software — where intelligence becomes infrastructure. A System of Intelligence connects data with reasoning and action, creating adaptive operations. Altior enables this: linking data, digital twins, and AI.

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Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 5d

Long-term national wealth depends on frontier innovation rather than merely copying. While imitation helps developing nations catch up, it eventually plateaus. Governments must thus enable frontier innovation, research funding & competition while stabilising disruption with regulation & safety nets.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 8d

Oxford-educated barrister and now Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood blends fiscal discipline with firm social conservatism. Advocating tougher migration rules, reform of ECHR Articles 3 & 8, and stronger policing, she positions Labour as a law-and-order alternative to Farage’s welfare-populist turn.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 9d

The US is pouring $300bn+ into AI compute infrastructure—driven by OpenAI’s $100bn push with Nvidia & AMD. More than China’s entire $90bn effort, constrained by chip limits, yield gaps & competing military ramp-up. One company & one man's ambition is reshaping the global balance of compute power.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 9d

Rory Hutchinson produced one of the most complete midfield displays seen in years as Northampton (missing 19 players) beat Gloucester 37–35 at Kingsholm. 2 try assists, 4 turnovers, 16 tackles (incl. 2 try-savers). A Saints academy product, he remains at 28 one of Europe’s most underrated centres.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 9d

Peter Hall, founder of Breaky Bottom in 1974, transformed English wine. Rejecting sweet styles, he pioneered dry, French-inspired wines and later sparkling wines using Champagne grapes. He proved England’s terroir could rival Champagne, making him a founding father of modern English sparkling wine.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 9d

Founded in 1895, Škoda was bought by VW in 1991 for access to skilled, low-cost production & Eastern European growth. Under Thomas Schäfer, Škoda used VW’s shared platforms but forged its own design identity & delivered record profits — success that earned Schäfer promotion to lead the VW brand.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 11d

Multiverse, founded in 2016 by Euan Blair, is valued at over $1.5 billion. It began as an alternative to university, offering paid apprenticeships but has evolved into a career-long learning and AI-retooling platform. Backed by Index Ventures, it has raised $400M but is yet to achieve profitability.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 12d

Fiscal space in the US and Europe will hinge on productivity growth. Even modest gains could drastically reshape debt-to-GDP dynamics. The key metric is the diffusion rate of new productivity tools across the entire economy. The faster innovation spreads, the greater the fiscal resilience.

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Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 12d

Traditional schooling—shaped by the Church—teaches pattern recognition and 'learned truths' rather than creativity. Lateral thinking breaks this by separating the person from the idea, judging ideas by facts, risks and benefits. By separating emotion from logic, we replace argument with exploration.

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Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 14d

Sarah Tucker shows how stepping sideways in thought unlocks creativity, harmony & fresh solutions. Inspired by Edward de Bono, she highlights provocation—deliberately disruptive ideas that challenge assumptions—as a powerful tool to spark fresh perspectives and transform how we think, work & relate.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 15d

Fallingwater (1935), Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece of organic modernism. One of America’s most original architects, drawing on nature, Japanese design, and the Arts and Crafts movement. He believed buildings should grow from their environment. Influenced Aalto, Saarinen, Lautner, and many others.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 16d

The next frontier in AI is elastic reasoning: allocating compute during a task, not before it. Future systems will “think harder” when problems demand it—looping, checking & improving. Labs from OpenAI to DeepMind are chasing this. The reward: reliability, efficiency & strategic edge in the AI race.

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Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 16d

Volkswagen has announced it is investing $1.2bn in AI by 2030, embedding it across R&D, production, and IT. The strategy: no process without AI. With applications from digital twins to predictive maintenance and supply chain optimisation, VW targets €4bn+ in savings and efficiency gains by 2035.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 16d

Accenture’s layoffs highlight the GenAI paradox: $9B in AI bookings, yet stock is down 33% YTD. As autonomous agents scale, clients will expect way more for way less. The old model of armies of consultants can’t survive margin compression. Winners in AI adoption may prove losers in long-term demand.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 17d

With SpaceX’s $17B purchase of EchoStar Starlink now owns prime 2GHz airwaves enabling direct-to-cell connectivity. Mobile carriers face disruption as satellite bypasses towers. Beyond business, this raises sovereignty questions—who controls the spectrum underpinning national digital infrastructure?

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 18d

The JLR cyberattack shows how stolen IT docs / accounts let a breach escalate into a full OT shutdown, costing billions and threatening 120k+ jobs. Security is not a product but a process. Zero Trust, strong governance, and daily discipline are vital. Industrial resilience is national resilience.

Robert Falzon @robertfalzon.bsky.social · 19d

Europe wins another Ryder Cup—the 5th away—but its leaders were a spent force after 2 days of hostile crowds. Rory, Rahm, Fleetwood & Rose all lost their singles. The US fought back with a historic surge, yet under Luke Donald’s calm captaincy, Aberg, Lowry & Hatton had enough left to seal victory.