Alasdair Watson

A little good news – thanks to dropping battery costs (with even cheaper to come) there are now parts of the world where there's absolutely no chance of non-renewable energy being remotely competative with solar power. Hell, per this article, event somewhere grey and miserable like Birmingham could meet 60% of it's needs, cheaply and cleanly.

A live breakdown of what most people one earth are doing right now, by reasonable guess at likely activity.

Exactly what it says on the tin. A delight.

This is taking a delibarately provocative stance, sure, but it's also true, and moderately funny reading. (Side note: it's also kind of why techbros are so certain AI is coming for everything *and* enthusiastic about it – it's a already taken away some of the parts of their job they find full, and they think it'll do that for every job – although this chap is a little clearer-eyed.)

There's not a lot in here I'd actively seek out – not a criticism, just that mass-market whiskies are what they are – but plenty in here is perfectly drinkable.

That said it's interesting how the global market has changed – there are whiskies in here I've never heard of, simple because they're not marketed in the UK. And in passing, I'd note that the couple of (non mass-market) Indian whiskies I've had have been quite good, so I might try and get a bottle of one of those just to try at some point.

I tend to agree with the author – it's worth making an effort to actively like things. Not every meal is a banquet, not every work of art is Citizen Kane or the the Mona Lisa, but most things have something that makes them enjoyable and worth spending a bit of time with. It's worth looking for that and appreciating that, rather than focusing on what you don't like about it.

As a pal put it – in the last couple of months Labour have: coped as well as could be asked with Trump's tariff madness, secured a trade deal with India, and now, made genuine progress on rectifying (some of) the damage of Brexit.

This does absolutely nothing to offset the damage of the transphobic shit going on, the anti-migrant rhetoric, and all the other things they're doing that I loathe, and I still don't know if I can vote for them at the next election, but I just wanted to take a moment to feel something that isn't total despair about my governement.

A sweary bird puppet talks about the typography of Star Wars. Either that sounds like fun to you, or you may be dead inside.

Interesting/terrifying (tiny, carefully chosen for sensationalism) glimpse into the world of the ultra-weathly. There's a line from a Gibson's Count Zero that it reminds me of "And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human."

I just cannot fathom raising one's kids like that. I can understand having a nanny to take the pressure off, and to enable the work-oriented lifestyle that made the family rich. But surely the point is then to also have the kids raised *right*?

I haven't yet had an obviously fake worker get to interview stage, but it's definitely getting harder to weed them out at CV and code test stage – in fact, AI has made code tests all but meaningless. But at least the good old fashioned "just talk to someone" still works…

I knew there'd been some of this with regard to iOS apps, but this is the first I've heard of Mac apps doing it. Given that one of my most common actions is coping a password from my password manager, this is a screaming security hole, and I'm very glad Apple are moving to plug it. Going to see if I can find a list of apps that are at this to check I'm not running them.

It's a very dry paper, but here's the highlight: "The improvements in air quality induced by these policies have translated in wider productivity impacts as we demonstrate that [U]LEZ has reduced the probability of taking sick leave by 18.5%."

As someone with a modertately iffy respiratory system (my asthma isn't generally serious, but a cold will reliably do a number on my lungs), the combination of working from home full time post-pandemic (yes, I know, not over) and ULEZ has done more than anything to reduce my sick days. Earlier in my career, I'd be sick like clockwork 2-3 times a year, needing on average 2-3 days recovery time. Since 2020, I think I have taken 2.5 sick days total.

Broadly: more of this. All over the world, please.

Like the writer of this piece, I don't believe our current Labour government is "just like the Tories" (although in some areas…) but this piece does a really good job of nailing why they *feel* like they are.

A genuinely solid write up, that explains how we got here, and what I very much hope will happen next – and/or the possibly scary consequences of further political cowardice from the Labour Party.

A judge in the US has just ruled that Apple have to drop a lot of the measures that prevent apps from linking out to alternate payment methods, and that payments processed externally don't need to have a cut paid to Apple. I find myself quite happy about this. Gruber's analysis is, as ever, pretty bang-on.

Fun insights into Chinese food culture.

So, on the one hand, they're not saying it'll stop working. Just that it'll only have more or less the same features that a non-smart thermostat has. But still – I'd be pretty irked, if I had one. This is, broadly, the peril of buying smart home gadgets. and why my rule of thumb is that I want them to be able to perfom most of their functions without internet access – in case the company behind them goes bust, and the infrastrcuture vanishes. But Google haven't gone bust. There's no suggestion that the couldn't, if they chose, keep these running. They're just not. Unimpressive.

Because, well, yeah, it really is. It's justghastly stuff, and I just do not understand these people with hate in their hearts who are determined to drag us all backward. On this issue, and so many others.

A thread of mostly-90s RPG covers redesigned to gently mock the game they're commenting on. Niche interest, but it's my niche, and why yes, I have bought many of these.