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Tomas Wiik

@arnthor.bsky.social
520 followers 1.4K following 629 posts

🇳🇴🇭🇰🇬🇧🌏🧑‍🧑‍🧒📷🛜💻💚🌱

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Reposted by Tomas Wiik
Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 11h
Almost 300,000 people now live in flood‑prone areas in the Nepalese Himalayas – new research theconversation.com/almost-300-0...
theconversation.com
Almost 300,000 people now live in flood-prone areas in the Nepalese Himalayas – new research
Satellite data shows roads, settlements and infrastructure are expanding into the same valleys that are vulnerable to floods and landslides.
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The argument isn’t to scrap it, it’s to expand it to everyone. Just reclaim it from higher earners in the form of taxes.
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Dannagal Goldthwaite Young @dannagal.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Do yourself a favor. Read these 7 pages by @lilymasonphd.bsky.social right now. It is the most concise explanation of the current situation in U.S. politics I've seen and it captures why calls to reduce "polarization" can ultimately worsen the problem 🧵 www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/pol...
journalofdemocracy.org
Polarization Is Not the Problem | Journal of Democracy
Americans have never been angrier with one another. But polarization is not the disease—it is the response to a revanchist movement seeking to roll back sixty years of social progress.
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
r/bertstrips is leaking
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Reposted by Tomas Wiik
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Anyone who believes this bunch of con artists represents their interests is either a billionaire or seriously misinformed. leftfootforward.org/2026/09/outr...
leftfootforward.org
Outrage as Reform-run council votes to shut 10 nurseries
Members of the public shouted “you should be ashamed” as Reform councillors approved the plans
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Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
One of my most galaxy-brained takes is that politicians and political groups should talk more about workers’ share of national income. It's one of the clearest, simplest ways to describe how billionaires and corporate elites captured so much of the economy--and something policy can change.
axios.com
U.S. workers' share of national income falls to a new low
Labor's bargaining position has worsened markedly in the last half-decade.
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Reposted by Tomas Wiik
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The BBC news report simply says Mr Thomas broadcast a livestream. This seems highly inadequate in quite a lengthy report, leaving out such key details: what he did; the French stating the behaviour was unlawful www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Dozens of migrants taken to Dover after more than 30 hours at sea
Protesters had earlier gathered in Gosport after an initial report that the small boat would be brought further west.
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Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This aired just the once in 1998 on the live SNL show for which McKay wrote it. It was effectively banned as it never aired again. I wonder why. MEDIA-OPOLY
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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is a great example of one of the ways AI is actually going to endanger / kill huge numbers of people. Shitty chatbots cause their special sort of brain rot to the people who package intelligence for our shot-callers. They take the bad ideas from there. www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p...
It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying. CNN was not able to learn what the misidentified cargo was.

The report, according to one of the sources, was “entirely false.” But it also “almost started a war,” the source said. Any US operation against a Chinese vessel could have risked spiraling into an armed conflict between the two nations.
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The only way I can see anyone arriving at that conclusion is by believing that India and China in the previous century was an “all else is equal” scenario. Which is a wild take
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
“Look, if WE didn’t make the toxic chemical and leak it everywhere the CHINESE might do it and then where would we be at? Knee-deep in FOREIGN chemicals, that’s where. USA! USA!” -the AI companies
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The severity of what we’re facing cannot be exaggerated
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Aarne Granlund @aarnegranlund.eurosky.social · 19/09/2026
”Climate chaos ripped through Europe and the northern hemisphere, sending heat records tumbling, scorching crops in the fields, burning forests, emptying rivers and reservoirs, warping train tracks, melting roads and killing about 35,000 people in Europe alone.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Burning forests, emptying rivers, €180bn in damage: Europe’s politicians face reckoning after ‘summer of truth’
Amid record-shattering heatwaves and popular demand for climate action, why are politicians often timid or in denial?
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Alan Owlport 🦉 🎃 @alanallport.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It's vastly more comforting to believe in an imminent robot apocalypse than the truth: the things that will destroy us are extensions of the unsexy but obvious problems all around us. We are not doomed in one grand way, but a thousand petty small ways.
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404 Media @404media.co · 16/09/2026
NEW: Hackers ripped down a Flock camera above a roadway, made a near-complete copy of the data stored inside it, and shared the files with 404 Media and @wired.com, revealing in new detail how exactly Flock Safety’s cameras track the movements of both vehicles and people.
404media.co
Hackers Stole Flock’s Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks Cars and People
While people around the U.S. are tearing down Flock cameras, one group of hackers went a step further: extracting the camera's software too.
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The US’s private prison system being allowed to reach its natural end point…
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I think a lot of millennials, who now have some purchasing power and are in their furnishing-homes stage, grew up with vestiges of it in public and private spaces, saw it in families’ homes and in magazines and what not. Plus anemoia
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Seems part of a new trend, anecdotally speaking. I remember a lot of… oddities when using the lifts in the new government offices Kai Tak the first year they were open
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I resigned from ExxonMobil today. I spent the last three years doing fossil fuel extraction research at both BP and ExxonMobil. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing to maximize extraction while the window to act closes, and gambling with our lives. More below.
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Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
At the moment we have no real idea how to scale up carbon removal--it's a hair on the mole of the ugly backside of the global hydrocarbon industry But we do know how to scale up solar panels and wind turbines and batteries. So that's our job billmckibben.substack.com/p/facts-on-t...
billmckibben.substack.com
Facts on the ground
Two things matter now: votes, and solar panels. (And wind turbines. And batteries)
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George E. Osborn @georgeosborn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think we're at the point where we can incredibly comfortably say that your attitude towards Reform, Restore, MAGA, the AfD etc is how you'd have responded to fascism in the 1930s
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
“Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses” -Killing In The Name Of, by Rage Against The Machine
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 07/09/2026
worth tying this into the political economy of the slave south as well. from roughly the 1820s onwards, slavery became enormously lucrative in ways that had never been seen before. slave traders became millionaires. large planters had tremendous purchasing power. just huge amounts of wealth.
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 07/09/2026
Yelling "stop the boats!" as I charge in to rob this NatWest at gun point so that I can later call the Home Secretary as a character witness and the BBC will spend two weeks telling all my potential future jurors how legitimate my concerns were.
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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 06/09/2026
Unlike so many others, the @financialtimes.com nails the "OMG, 1.5℃ is gone" message: "Temperature overshoot requires urgent action" Yep. And every 0.01℃ matters. Reminds me of my NYT oped with @costasamaras.com: "The widely recited '12-year deadline' is wrong — and right." gwagner.com/12years
UN report: temperature overshoot requires urgent action to keep warming in line with Paris accordWith children, days might last forever, but years fly by. Something similar applies to climate policy. The current days of delay and debates can seem to drag on forever, but the next presidential election is right around the corner, and so is 2030. Concrete, realistic deadlines focus the mind and jump-start action. And jump-start we must.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 03/09/2026
This is demonstrably, measurably improving the health of the people who live there. Most notably, it increases the respiratory *& cognitive* health of children. They literally do better in school. If this country really gave a shit about children, this would be at the top of the public-policy list.
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Channel 4 News @channel4news.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation. 🔗 Read the exclusive story on Substack:
channel4news.substack.com
Exclusive: Nigel Farage filmed undercover celebrating secret new foreign donations
Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation.
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Meet the new PM, same as the old PM
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
It is always the same betrayal: the public interest is sacrificed for the sake of immensely wealthy people. And Andy Burnham has already gone and done it. My column on how Burnham needs to defy the ultra-rich if he's not to follow Starmer out of the door. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Andy Burnham has already made a mistake that will cost him his premiership: he lost his nerve over political donations | George Monbiot
Being subservient to the interests of the wealthy now means that his hands are tied, and he will be unable to tackle Britain’s most pressing issues, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Andrew Lilley Brinker @alilleybrinker.com · 31/08/2026
Hey @1password.bsky.social, time to change course.
alilleybrinker.com
1Password Supports the Ethnic Cleansing of Europe — Andrew Lilley Brinker
1Password has committed $300,000 to Omarchy. This is unacceptable and must be rescinded.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I didn't mean to turn this into a thread, but the issue has got me properly triggered (again). Read on for how this approach has been embedded in every aspect of government, who has driven the process and how it works.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Officially, the water industry in England is regulated. Practically, it's unregulated. There's no difference between what it does under the eye of the Environment Agency and what it would do if the EA did not exist. The EA is completely useless, by design. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Dry weather sewage discharges soar as water companies face scrutiny
Exclusive: 7,280 suspected illegal spills in rivers and sea recorded in first five months of 2026
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SJones @sjoneswastaken.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
And solar farms don't have to be barren expanses of solar collectors. In MN, they converted solar sites into pollinator habitats that tripled total insect abundance and yielded a 20-fold increase in native bees. theecorevolution.substack.com/p/solar-hone...
theecorevolution.substack.com
The Sweet Agrivoltaics Revolution Saving America’s Farmland
How solar honey is saving dying pollinators, boosting crop yields, and ending the battle over rural land use.
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
So close…
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Anakin/padme star wars meme

I'm going to curtail civil liberties and increase economic hardships

But you'll keep the public appeased with magnificent military triumphs, right?
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Lights. The right color temperature and a high color rendering index makes me happy.
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
🟡 From This Month’s Magazine Reform UK and Big Tech Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel’s ‘Political Pipeline’ Recruitment Project at the World-Renowned… By Byline Times raising The academic institution has nothing to say in response to a six-month investigation by Byline Times raising serious…
subscribe.bylinetimes.com
Reform UK and Big Tech Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel’s ‘Political Pipeline’ Recruitment Project at the World-Renowned University Revealed
The academic institution has nothing to say in response to a six-month investigation by Byline Times raising serious concerns about the safeguarding of students and hard-right and foreign influence at Cambridge…
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The treatment of Jason Arday was massively out of proportion to his faults. People who have committed terrible crimes have received less scrutiny, yet I don't believe anything he did or said even crossed the threshold of criminality. How many of us would have survived what he was put through? 🧵
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
They seem constitutionally incapable of making the right choices. Is it the party? Is it the civil service? Is it Treasury or the media? I don’t know but something needs to change quickly
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Screamliner Ontario @mostlyharmless.northsky.social · 14/08/2026
The arid backdrop speaks volumes, but Beatrice's analysis is also excellent. The right time for adaptation and mitigation was (at least) 20 years ago. The second best time is now. The worst time is at any point in the future, and the longer the timescale the worse it'll be. Burnham: MIA.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
If @andyburnham.bsky.social were Prime Minister during the Blitz: "There is an urgent problem of bombs falling on London. They appear to be coming out of the sky. We convened a COBRA meeting to discuss it. The root causes of this problem are not something I am prepared to discuss." #ClimateEmergency
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Whatever America does with ICE agents if this ever comes to an end, I hope it’s something “pour encourager les autres”…
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Look at this graph. The share of national income going to the richest 10 percent was lowest (and share to lower 90 percent highest) when union membership was at its highest. As unions have weakened, inequality has widened. This is why we must build back union power.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
"Their argument would outlast the disease because it was so much more about continuing to have that argument than it was about anything else."
defector.com
We're Just Going To Keep Doing 2020 Again Until All The Wrong Stuff Is True | Defector
In a bunch of ways, there is no real percentage in remembering what things were actually like during the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond all the uncertainty and suffering and death, there...
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Tomas Wiik @arnthor.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
One of my most indelible moments from the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong is the silence at the protest sites as usually-deafening streets were free of traffic. A different world
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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
The British prime minister is the closest thing we have in modern society to that old timey custom where you'd pick one person and give him a bunch of fancy food and clothes and a nice house for a few months and then the whole tribe eats him
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 07/08/2026
Jaime Lannister applying for a home loan in the US and getting rejected because "always paying his debts" inexplicably hurts one's credit score.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Maybe vertical drinking is a crucial aspect of British life, and it's appropriate for Downing Street to intervene. In the meantime, however, Number 10's howling silence about the climate emergency - amidst drought, fire and crop failure - continues. #Priorities www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘It is British life’: No 10 vows to stop councils trying to limit standing in pubs
Westminster council has recommended banning ‘vertical drinking’ or ordering at the bar in new draft licensing policy
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