Thoughts brewing in a cloudy mind.
I don’t understand why the UK government has decided to press ahead with a ban on social media for under-16s when the government’s own research briefing appears far more cautious. In the House of Commons Library briefing, Proposals to ban social media for children (pages 17–19), the evidence presented does not appear to support a … Read more
Most people understand why Britain imports food, energy, and manufactured goods. We cannot produce everything ourselves. But there is another form of dependence that receives far less attention. Increasingly, the technologies that power our economy, our communications, our defence, our scientific research, and even our government services are owned and controlled by companies based in … Read more
In recent years, ethnicity and heritage have become increasingly prominent in public discourse. Questions of identity, belonging, and ancestry dominate political debates, social media arguments, and even discussions within families. While understanding our heritage can be valuable, there is a growing danger in placing too much emphasis on ethnicity as a defining feature of who … Read more
Some of the most meaningful gifts are not things at all. They are the words people share with us during life’s most important moments. A heartfelt message from a friend. A cherished memory from a family member. Words of encouragement from someone who believes in us. Unfortunately, these messages are often scattered across text messages, … Read more
There is an assumption buried deep inside modern culture: Books are serious. Twitter is noise. One is considered intellectual nutrition. The other is considered distraction. One sits in libraries. The other sits in your pocket vibrating every six minutes with someone arguing about oat milk. But what if the distinction is weaker than we pretend? … Read more
I am a heavy X (Twitter) user. I share links to my blog posts there regularly, and for a long time that worked reasonably well. But at some point, X quietly changed how it presents external links. Today, when you share a link on X, the platform strips the article title and the full URL … Read more
If you have ever opened your WordPress error logs only to find them flooded with thousands of E_DEPRECATED and E_WARNING notices, most of them coming from plugins you don’t control, this post is for you. What you need is a must-use plugin that installs a custom error handler. It suppresses those noisy notices while allowing … Read more
We are building many artificial intelligences. But are we, in effect, building variations of the same one? Today’s leading systems, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Llama, & Grok, are often framed as competitors: different companies, different architectures, different philosophies. The surface story is one of diversity. Look closer, and a quieter pattern emerges: convergence. Not total convergence, … Read more