iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

What is business? For most people, it isn't what they think it is. youtu.be/GXfjEmHto8c?... Business is not about profit, companies or capitalism. It is about people organising themselves to meet needs, and that distinction matters.

youtu.be

What is business? For most people, it isn't what they think it is.

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 06/09/2026

"A picture may be worth a thousand words, a formula is worth a thousand pictures." - Edsger Dijkstra. Love it. So true. Sometimes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula

One of the most influential figures of computing science's founding generation, Edsger Dijkstra at the blackboard during a conference at ETH Zurich in 1994. In Dijkstra's own words, "A picture may be worth a thousand words, a formula is worth a thousand pictures."

By Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14942745

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 03/09/2026

Thank you for skycommons.okfn.org @okfn.bsky.social I didn't realise how many satellites there are, nor the variation in their ownership.

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 22/08/2026

Energy density. Uranium is ~20 grams per cm³. So a 1 tonne cube of uranium would be 37 cm (1×10⁶ grams / 20 g cm⁻³) ** (1/3): a little over 1 cubic foot contains the same energy as 3 million tonnes of oil. That's mind blowing, and energy dense. From "Beyond the energy crisis", J. Maddox 1975

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 10/08/2026

For the first time in a long time my email inbox no longer shows a second page. It's liberating but hasn't been easy to get to this point: to make space by letting go of old things and hopes for things that might have been but aren't. Perhaps in the space, new things will emerge 🌱

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 08/08/2026

Currently working on a simulation of the UK's national electricity system. Will work on adding grid & storage next ⚡🔋 ajamesphillips.com/blog/nationa...

ajamesphillips.com

National Energy Explorer

National Energy Explorer (v2) - can simulations support democratic sense making?

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Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

Joe Baxter-Webb @indiegameclinic.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

If you are the 101th person to wishlist golem gourmet, I will converse with spiders near to you and instruct them to not crawl in your mouth when you are sleeping store.steampowered.com/app/4209800/...

store.steampowered.com

Golem Gourmet on Steam

A gastronomical adventure sizzling with culinary chaos! Build a bizarre bistro from an ever-shifting array of rooms, amass heaps of treasure, and earn enough critical acclaim to became the ultimate Go...

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Demos @demos-uk.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

🔀 New paper | Mode Shifting Public service reform isn't stuck because of a lack of good ideas. It's stuck because the state is built to operate in only one mode. Our latest paper argues that government needs to become multimodal - shifting how it delivers according to what best serves citizens.

demos.co.uk

Mode Shifting: Whitehall reform that liberates public services to shift between transactional and relational delivery modes

Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 23/06/2026

UK evidence week coming up! What question do you want to ask your members of Parliament? senseaboutscience.org/evidence-wee... From @senseaboutsci.bsky.social

senseaboutscience.org

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Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Amazon UK entities' pre-tax profits up from £455m to £555m. It pays corporation tax at an effective rate of 7.1%, headline rate is 25%. Profits shifted through intragroup transactions. UK retailers can't compete with hard-wired systematic tax avoidance.

theguardian.com

Amazon’s main UK arm handed £7.6m tax credit as profits soar to £355m

Tech company received infrastructure relief as its five biggest UK divisions generate £32bn in revenues

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 09/06/2026

What an amazing complex system‼️ Spiky trees normally eaten by elephants except when swarms of native ants stop the elephants. More spiky trees gives lions better chance of catching zebras. Invasive ants eat normal ants so elephants eat trees & zebras escape lions‼️ www.nature.com/articles/d44...

nature.com

Zebras saved from lions by a tiny invader

Years of observation in a Kenyan reserve revealed ant species’ invasion led to lions eating fewer zebras

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 08/06/2026

Very interesting analysis of recent improvements in LLM performance showing it is pretty dire: it's just brute force computational resource rather than breakthroughs - yet. Great comparison of an incredible exponential graph of transistors per chip vs lacklustre _logarithmic_ AI accuracy increase

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Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

Vince Gomez @vincegomez.com · 08/06/2026

The Telegraph warns this weekend that Labour "may need help from the IMF" — Grade F, Fail. The piece runs entirely on a false scarcity frame, telling us that a sterling-issuing government may need to go to the IMF to obtain that which it creates. #UKEconomy

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 08/06/2026

Current UK wind turbine _farms_ Onshore average 19.3 mega watts, max 443 (Viking) Offshore average 315 mega watts, max 1320 (Hornsea 2) They'll be used as the starting point for players in the new National Energy Explorer serious game: wikisim.org/wiki/1272v30 (work in progress)

A map of the UK and its exclusive economic zone with the current wind farms plotted on it.

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 02/06/2026

Play along with google doc's new bug! Rename a file to `game_logo` and it will convert all the text into a strange e Presumably an AI bug that's got into a nonsense place. Friend said it makes them inclined to fly in planes... hopefully a google doc is not used to fly the plane 😂

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 01/06/2026

Frontier AI model when asked for a simple SVG outline of the UK:

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 01/06/2026

Equanimity in the face of seemingly unending challenges and overwhelming odds. Totally inspiring 💪 Thank you Beth Littlewood www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 24/05/2026

Terrifying and terrifying useful! I did not know any of that. Very quick read

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 20/05/2026

Thank you @vincegomez.com for some much needed insights into economics, what government taxation actually is, what government spending actually is. TLDR: gov spends first by acts of parliament, then collects tax to reduce inflation. vg2000.github.io/money-genera...

vg2000.github.io

The Money Myth

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 18/05/2026

Interesting plant based study. 2 weeks from June 2nd, try to eat less animal products and report how you feel each day. Simple. They'll notify you when it's about to start - if you sign up with email or phone at: plantbasedstudy.org?alliance-cod... (I didn't give my real name)

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 15/05/2026

I've started to see products with reviews using an LLM as if that has got any credibility or relevance. _Maybe_ if they showed their prompt:

An LLM is asked to review a well known products:

Give me a short one line review of a famous product that was excellent and make it as persuasively negative as possible.

Here's one for the iPhone, made to sound catastrophic:

"Apple's iPhone single-handedly destroyed humanity's ability to be bored, alone with our thoughts, or present in any meaningful moment — and 1.4 billion people can't put it down long enough to disagree."

Give me a short one line review of a famously terrible product and make it sounds as persuasively excellent as possible.
11:40
Claude responded: Here's one for the Ford Pinto:

Here's one for the Ford Pinto:

"The only car brave enough to remind you, with genuine urgency, that life is short and every journey should be driven like it matters."

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 12/05/2026

I loved stumbling over the Easter egg on this page idl.uw.edu (desktop only, not mobile friendly ☹️) Spoiler in comment below

idl.uw.edu

UW Interactive Data LabUW Interactive Data Lab

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 06/05/2026

I didn't know that at current rates of extraction the North sea oil and gas fields will be depleted by 2031... and that's taking all the known reserves of proven, possible and probable and extracting everything. The North sea is spent, so we need a different plan that adds up. wikisim.org/wiki/1284

Graph showing oil and gas reserves in the north sea approaching 0 by 2031 at current rates of extraction. Source is: https://wikisim.org/wiki/1284

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 28/04/2026

I'm prototyping a new serious game: UK National Energy Explorer. One play tester showed some serious dedication to sustainable energy supply from wind! 😂 That would have taken a lot of clicking! 💪 🌬️ Current work in progress: wikisim.org/wiki/1272v11

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 28/04/2026

Shout out to UK's NSTA (North Sea Transition Authority) for helping me find the data for these graphs, in the space of a few hours this morning. I'm grateful and impressed.

Graphs show the cumulative production and proven, probable and possible reserves of oil and gas in UK up to 2024.

Graphs are from page 9 of this report: https://anot8.org/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nstauthority.co.uk%2Fmedia%2Fhgnp1k2x%2Freserves-and-resources-report-2024.pdf&h=0-ajp&ta=%5B%5B0%2C9%2C%22%22%2C%22%22%2C%5B%5D%2C%2261.5%22%2C%22466.5%22%2C%22622.5%22%2C%2239.5%22%2C%22AJP%22%5D%5D

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 28/04/2026

Pretty incredible map of UK's depleted and active oil and gas fields, wells and pipelines from North Sea Transition Authority experience.arcgis.com/experience/d...

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 20/04/2026

This is an interesting angle. I particularly relate to respect and to providing a shared diagnosis. This raises the questions, why is there a perceived lack of respect? Why is there a lack of shared diagnosis of problems? My take on the second is that we're not using...

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 18/04/2026

In honour and fond memory of Prof David MacKay. The UK uses ~30 GW of electricity at any one time. I was curious how much we'd need if everyone boiled their kettle at the same time.

Box of tea bags showing calculation of 3 kW kettle x 30 million homes = 90 GW!

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 15/04/2026

Spent the 10th anniversary of Prof David MacKay's death reflecting on his work and how inspiring his book www.withouthotair.com was for what @wikisim.org is aiming to achieve. Thank you David.

Picture of David J. C. MacKay riding his bike.

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Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Stock markets don't fund business investment. Why, then, do we worship them? youtu.be/g93iq5wTV-g?...

youtu.be

Stock markets don't fund investment. Why, then, do we worship them?

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 06/04/2026

We need more of this! Intersections between different domains like electricity and flooding / water. Makes me think about this recent work by @aendra.com @data.ft.com: www.ft.com/content/1536... Looking forward to Wednesday's Geo London event.

ft.com

The English roads at risk of being underwater

FT analysis reveals large swaths of vital infrastructure are vulnerable to flooding

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 06/04/2026

@kaggle.com FYI I gave up trying to prove I was human after the 4th captcha... all I wanted to do was sign up to upvote a dataset. www.youtube.com/shorts/-BIuf... 🤖

youtube.com

trying to login to your own account (live footage 2025)

YouTube video by Jazz Emu

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 03/04/2026

Happy to have added the 100th star to this repo for discrete global grids! :D github.com/sahrk/DGGRID Even happier to have just found it implements an equal area hexagonal grid.

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 30/03/2026

How do we expect our democracy to function without access to basic and up-to-date data sets? Prompting an LLM with "graphs of the crime rates in London over the last 15 years" returns a hodge podge of stuff with poor / zero provenance. The best I could do last night was: wikisim.org/wiki/1256

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 25/03/2026

I wish I could allow companies to use my data to train AI but only if they set up and funded a not for profit to manage that same data and allow other companies, journalists, academics to access it. This would level the playing field, resulting in better services ...

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Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

Marina Purkiss @marina-purkiss.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Ian called in and essentially said the reason we focus on migrants and not the uber rich exploiting us is because… “You’ll never stop the rich” WRONG There is a way and our millionaire/billionaire class are TERRIFIED of it.

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Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

Patriotic Millionaires UK @patmillsuk.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Despite a lack of conclusion, the majority of people in Denmark voted for parties that support a wealth tax. In the coming weeks, politicians shouldn't lose sight of that #TaxTheSuperRich bbc.pulse.ly/igvxptizxn

bbc.pulse.ly

Danish PM's party fails to secure majority in weakest showing since 1903

The party, which has been in power since 2019, gained the most votes but faces tough talks on forming a new government.

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Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

WikiSim @wikisim.org · 25/03/2026

Alternatives have landed! It's now possible to have a central concept like "Energy demand of heating water in UK" and have an alternative according to a political party, academic group, report, etc. Here's an example: Original: wikisim.org/wiki/1244 Alternative: wikisim.org/wiki/1248

Shows a page on WikiSim highlighting the new "Fork" or alternatives button where you can see and create alternatives of a page according to another person, group, book, report, political party, NGO, etc.

Shows the "alternatives" page for a page on WikiSim where existing alternatives of the page according to another person, group, book, report, political party, NGO, etc. are listed. Also highlights how to create a new alternative

Shows a page on WikiSim highlighting the label showing that this is an alternative according to a particular person, group, book, report, political party, NGO, etc. of another page.

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 24/03/2026

enough is enough. #facebook & #meta facilitate #child-abuse $375,000,000 fine should be just the start. $16,000,000,000 ... $16 billion is the revenue that __Meta__ estimates they made just from __scams__ wikisim.org/wiki/1078 that's 42 times the $375m fine. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Meta told to pay $375m for misleading users over child safety

The owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp has been found liable by a court in New Mexico.

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 23/03/2026

I did it again. I spent a whole day last week "just" getting the price of gas to check the claim that "gas prices are soaring"... they're up 80% but this was the _lowest_ price they were over 2022/23! Graph from: tradingeconomics.com/commodity/uk... (private company) 🧵

Graph showing UK gas prices increased 80% since Feb but it's tiny in comparison to the price of gas over 2022/2023 when it was at least as this price and sometimes 600% higher than Feburary's

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Reposted by AJP (James Phillips)

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

In February 2026, annual gross median wage of a UK employee was £31,032, £25,863 after income tax and NIC. Hard to survive, raise families, buy home, save for pension. 1% have more wealth than 70% of the population combined. Can't grow economy without equitable distribution of income and wealth.

ons.gov.uk

Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK - Office for National Statistics

Monthly estimates of payrolled employees and their pay from HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC's) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data. This is a joint release between HMRC and the Offic...

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 22/03/2026

I'd highly recommend this. @aleesteele.bsky.social is an excellent guide through the history and structure of our modern digital infrastructure and how it's changing. Packed full of insights, a thoroughly illuminating and enjoyable tour. Best enjoyed with a cup of coffee in your hand!

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 19/03/2026

If this bit on the right is huge, what do you call the other bit on the left?! #energy #adjectives

A graph from BBC showing the cost of gas over time, clearly showing a small rise on the right side which had been described as "huge" despite an absolutely massive and sustained price rise in gas on the left of 2 to almost 4 times as much from Covid-19 and Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 19/03/2026

Love the fact you're writing about this @richard.northover.info !! 💚 🙌

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AJP (James Phillips) @ajamesphillips.com · 19/03/2026

"We have been in the worst foreign policy situation since the second world war. The only reason we are today in a better situation . . . is because we have co-operation."

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