Councils across the country are paying exorbitant costs for emergency housing

Thermal storage is nothing new, and now it might be time to go back to the future

I’ve looked at Twitter alternatives in 2023 and in 2024. Both times, I noted that any remaining users should switch away from Twitter to (basically) anything else, though I did list suggested alternatives based on needs (news, social network basics, etc.). That said, recent events have shown that Twitter’s continued to change (under its new stupid name “X”), for the worse. Within the past week alone, Twitter’s AI chatbot Grok started spewing antisemitic remarks. Given Twitter’s owner, if you think things will improve for the social network anytime soon, I have a bridge in a borough of New York to sell you. As such, here’s a 2025 update of my previous posts, listing my recommended Twitter alternatives. ## Social networks Mastodon logo. (Mastodon) There aren’t any 100% exact Twitter replacements, despite that Twitter’s feature set should be easy to clone. Silicon Valley and Wall Street at this point are clearly more invested in AI, video-based social networks (like TV, online video’s easier to put unskippable ads in), or anything with algorithms (versus chronological feeds). Most of the early post-Musk boom in Twitter alternatives have also become defunct or also-rans. The old stand-bys (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) are around; however, as I wrote in a previous post, there’s better options. For the average person, the best Twitter replacements worth considering at this point: ### Bluesky Bluesky is an easy to use social network, and resembles the early version of Twitter. While it doesn’t have the full feature set of Twitter (such as polls), it’s become a popular Twitter alternative. That said, it’s still not clear what its business model will be going forward, and there’s not much stopping Bluesky from becoming Twitter 2.0 in the Elon Musk sense, aside from its underlying AT Protocol being forkable. Though so far, AT Protocol hasn’t seen much uptake by anyone besides Bluesky itself. As of this writing, Bluesky has 37 million registered users. ### Mastodon The longest-established of the Twitter alternatives, Mastodon has plenty of features its rivals lack, such as the ability to edit posts. Mastodon is also noncommercial and open source, so there won’t be any ads, algorithms, AI chatbots, or getting taken over by a racist billionaire. However, less technically inclined users might find Mastodon hard to sign up for or use. Mastodon’s creators have made changes to address some of this (such as defaulting new accounts to mastodon.social, the largest server), but initial negative impressions that it’s “for nerds” or “the Linux of social media” still linger. Mastodon’s recent changes include adding optional server support for quote posts, and mastodon.social reinforcing its stance against AI. ### Threads Threads is owned by Meta, and saw a large boom in initial sign-ups; as of January 2025, Threads had 320 million registered users. Unlike Mastodon and Bluesky, Threads is where you’ll find most of your favorite celebrities, corporate brands, influencers, sports teams, and so forth. However, Threads still lacks some features found on Mastodon and Bluesky; like its sibling Instagram, Threads also emphasizes an algorithmic feed, making it less-than-useful for real time news and updates. And since Meta owns Threads, it shares many of the same flaws as Facebook and Instagram (AI, etc.). ## News sources Google News’ technology page. (Google) For those that mainly use Twitter to follow news updates, replacements include: ### Google News or Apple News Google and Apple both make news apps for their respective platforms, though Google News is cross-platform (available on the web, Android, and iOS). Both apps pull from various news sources, and offer an easy to use way to keep up with news in real time. ### Newsletters Many sites offer email newsletters. This can be an easy way to follow a specific website or person. Of course, people can also create their own newsletters; I’d recommend Buttondown or Ghost. I also suggest staying away from Substack, per its lax hate speech standards and having allowed Nazi and white supremacist newsletters on its platform; Substack only removed such after sufficient backlash (and an article in The Atlantic) emerged. ### RSS readers Technically-inclined users might consider using an RSS reader, which offers more flexibility than Google News and Apple News. Some newsreaders require more initial work to set up than others. ## Start a blog For those willing to write more than 280 characters, starting a blog is an option. Automattic’s Tumblr and WordPress.com, Google’s Blogspot, and self-hosted WordPress options are ways to publicize your thoughts. You’ll also own your posts, and won’t see them subject to the whims of a billionaire. On the downside, blogging requires more work than opening a social media account. ## Email, Signal, and text messaging Image by Muhammad Ribkhan (Pixabay) If you’re just keeping in touch with friends, one of the oldest internet standbys still exists, and works perfectly well: email. If you want something a bit more sophisticated, there’s also encrypted chat apps such as Signal. Text messaging is also an option for those with their friends’ phone numbers. ## Conclusion Again, unless you literally have no choice (such as a job requiring you to use Twitter), I strongly urge everyone to stop using Twitter and switch to one or more of the alternatives I listed above. Yes, I know none of the alternatives replicate 100% of Twitter’s features; that switching away from Twitter might be inconvenient or require effort; and that there’s plenty of nostalgia for the old pre-Musk Twitter. But again: the effort will be worth it; Twitter won’t be getting any less racist or dysfunctional anytime soon; and you’ll certainly find the Green Bay Packers, Batman stuff, anime, Beyonce, and the memes/influencers-du-jour on one of the options I listed above. And as a reminder, news, self-promotion, professional networking, and activism all existed before Twitter, and will continue to exist without it. _Image byGerd Altmann from Pixabay_

In the first half of the year, 286 affordable homes were completed - 54 of which were built by the council