iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I think that pushing wrong predictions is a great way to get people to bet against the house. (Tsitsipas over Shelton in four is madness.)

120

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Ben Rothenberg @benrothenberg.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

These gambling-sponsored push notifications, which have been thrusted at tennis fans for days now, are deeply trashy work by the U.S. Open. They historically wouldn’t have credentialed reporters if it was our websites pushing this stuff.

58016

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

It's a figure of speech. You didn't explain why it's bad for Hancock to make millions from free data which will then generate taxes which the government can use.

100

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I think quite a few are already thinking defensively about that! Europe built its own GPS - Galileo - which didn't quite get there. China has its own. Russia too, I think.

000

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Why is it bad if Hancock makes millions? He then pays tax on it. And that data is still available for anyone else to make millions on it if they can pull the same trick.

110

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I've just replied to this "consultation" (I ran the Free Our Data campaign at The Guardian 2006-2010, with quite a lot of success given Tim Berners-Lee being in agreement). Here's my last response.

011

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I just put in my response to this "consultation". Here's my ending. GPS is always the counterargument for anyone who thinks government data should be charged for. Costs the USG $1bn per year, supports trillions in economic activity.

140

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The costs are already covered by the fact they they think it's worth collecting the data.

100

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

In the same way that I can't persuade a paranoid schizophrenic that Russia isn't beaming messages into their brain while they sleep, I can't persuade you that you are not, in fact, male.

000

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

It’s amazing to me, meanwhile, that you’re so insistent that sex isn’t really a thing anyone can define, and yet you’re very clear which sex you desperately want to be. You know what male and female is. You just wish you didn’t.

330

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

"Race realist" is like "astrology reality". It’s a ridiculous notion because nobody can define race in a way that makes sense. Sex, meanwhile, is really easy to define. The scientific definition has predictive power - in a species we’ve never seen we could tell which is the male or female using it.

230

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

*sighs* let’s try again. There are two sexes in humans, because there are only two, mutually exclusive, sexual development paths: Wolffian (male) and Müllerian (female). Everyone goes down one or the other. You can’t cross paths. Race has no scientific definition. It’s an unscientific, made-up idea

220

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

If the former director of BBC News is calling the BBC news coverage of Reform’s welfare plans "frankly bizarre", things are not looking good.

071

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

No, I’m not saying that. You are, and you keep doing so. But I could offer plenty of other reasons why they did. My original question was about what part of the article was racist, and nobody seems able to cite anything.

010

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The reality of sex is not a pseudoscience (you’re thinking of the addled thinking that goes on in your head). "Race science" is not science because race can’t be scientifically defined. In sum: go away.

221

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Muted on the basis of incomprehensibility.

110

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Jeff Berardelli @weatherprof.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Goodbye 1936! Dethroned after all these years. July 2026 is now the hottest month ever in the US, by a small margin, due to El Niño on top of long term warming. 1936 was an incredibly hot summer - many city all-time records were set and still exist from that year. But there are two key points: 1/

310846

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Which investigations precisely? Because the previous ones by Cambridge and JMU were pretty ineffectual; crowdsourcing did a lot better.

100

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I can't find a thread of sense in what you write. I asked what was racist about that NYT Opinion piece, because I can't see how reporting facts and putting them in a wider context fits that. And so far, nobody has had an answer that makes sense. Especially not you. Feel free not to reply.

100

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Doug Sloane @dougsloane.eurosky.social · 10/08/2026

I've seen people suggest you look at the eclipse through a colander. Don't do that, you'll strain your eyes.

6501133

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

A summer holiday cartoon for @theguardian.com

Panel 1
Image: a man sits on a sunlonger reading a book
Caption: His body may be lounging contentedly by the pool of a Sicilian villa in the warmth of the afternoon sun...

Panel 2
Caption 1: But, as on every holiday, the military history dad's mind is far away...
Image: close up of the man who is reading Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor
Caption: On some blasted steppe, amongst brave, doomed comrades on yet another gruelling campaign.

Panel 3
Caption: Awestruck by the dreadful power of mechanised warfare, he is lost to all but the most urgent missives.
Image:The sun has sunk a little in the sky. "Would you like another Aperol, darling?" his wife calls from the villa. He replies "Yes please!"

8774159

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 10/08/2026

Exciting new London bike theft technique just experienced! My 200kg family ebike was securely locked to a tall metal pole which had a big parking restriction sign at the top. Three thieves turned up on Lime bikes with chairs, removed parking sign, then lifted bike 2.5metres over top of pole. Genius.

3723346

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

90 vehicles and minimum four arrests of everything from drug dealing to card fraud to DWI to immigration fraud. www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c629g2w…

120

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Sir Basil @sirbasil.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I don't think there should be a defibrilator on Snowdon. And that's a hill I'm prepared to die on

693337694

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

It makes the review not worth publishing. Wide CI? "Substantial" heterogeneity? GRADE "very low"? What's the point of something which has so many obvious flaws, which also misrepresents its own findings? Astonishing breakdown of peer review. But the BJSM has been a laughing stock in this for ages.

110

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I ask questions to try to find out what people are thinking, or to point out where their claims don't match the truth, or to explore what they're trying to obscure. You're certainly obscuring plenty there. Can't work out what you're on about.

100

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

OK, here you go. A dissatisfied student. Sure not to be the only one. unherd.com/newsroom/jason-arday-tau…

110

Reposted by Charles Arthur

John C @badsocialism.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

"are there any bad @stephencollins.bsky.social cartoons?" No, of course not, I've been laughing at this one for three minutes

211382404

Reposted by Charles Arthur

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 09/08/2026

I think one reason the public has such a shallow understanding of the extent of the damage Trump is doing is that *US political & media elites* have such a shallow understanding. Douthat's pleasant upper-middle-class life hasn't been unduly disturbed, so really, what's the big deal?

492532536

Reposted by Charles Arthur

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 09/08/2026

New lifecycle study in the journal Science concludes: there are substantial climate benefits to swapping an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle for an electric vehicle (EV), *even if the ICE vehicle is brand new.* Even if it's a brand new hybrid!

science.org

The climate benefits of retiring a fully operational internal combustion engine vehicle

Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles represent the single largest source of carbon dioxide emissions for most US households. Although battery electric vehicles (BEVs) considerably reduce use-phas...

15337116

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Martin SFP Bryant @martinsfp.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Shout out to all the leaders around the world who did as little as possible about this for years and years, thinking they’d be long gone before they’d have to face up to the consequences.

155

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Op-eds have to be based on facts, yes. But they then add interpretation, as you already know; but you were asking in bad faith. Who knows why.

100

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Glenn Fleishman @glennf.com · 09/08/2026

Would that all writers and publications be as honest (and fail so rarely) as @gruber.foo. daringfireball.net/2026/08/retr... I remember not liking the smell of the Dark Hours post, but thought I was being cynical; I felt like I didn’t have enough information, and John dug into it.

daringfireball.net

Retraction: The App Store Rejection of the Week That Was, in Fact, a Correct Rejection

My disdain for astrology is so utter, and my esteem for Godier’s previous work so high, that it simply never occurred to me that he might have actually made and submitted to the App Store an astrology...

3498

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

So Claudine Gay's plagiarism, and her vendetta against a (black) professor whose work showed the contrary of what she wanted, didn't damage the reputation of academia in the US? Everything tickety-boo? Pointing to Arday's flaws and Cambridge's enabling _still_ isn't racism. It's reporting the facts.

110

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Because it's a piece in the Opinion section, where people can offer these things that newspapers call "opinions". It's a way of putting a new perspective on events. In news stories, papers (especially the NYT) are very careful not to pass opinions.

010

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

He didn't grade them. Marking is done by examiners who don't know who the paper is by. The complaint is that his teaching was so bad that they got bad marks.

000

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I thought I'd seen something in the blizzard of reports flying past. Impossible to find now - there are too many other search results. And of course universities saying he never worked there.

000

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

You haven't provided any evidence of his undergraduate students viewing him favourably. (Those who are there now won't be undergraduates; it's summer, term ended ages ago.) Where are the attestations from his students who thought he was wonderful? He got bad reviews for lectures at previous unis too

100

Reposted by Charles Arthur

Douglas Cheape @douglascheape.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I think I may have just discovered the chemical composition of a Spanish orgasm.

25718119

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Please provide evidence that he was "very popular with students" he tutored. Because I have counter-evidence. www.aol.com/articles/arday-students…

110

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Which raises the interesting question of whether he was the candidate best suited for the job on the basis of his published work and teaching achievements. Or do you think Cambridge hired him for any other reasons? Did it ignore the objections raised in 2023 (not by Cofnas) for those other reasons?

110

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

One of the many criticisms is that Cambridge didn't look critically at Arday's work, which those who look at it now say has no material use. Again: I don't see what is "racist" in Singal recounting the facts and pointing to the wider problem with universities going for buzzwords rather than quality

120

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

was O’Reilly feted by the university on his appointment with the head of the college calling him a genius who then turned out to have plagiarised chunks of his PhD and of his research papers and provided poor tutoring for his students? Is it possible the cases are unalike?

230

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

can you just explain precisely which part of the article is racist?

120

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The problem is that Arday's appointment and the consequent collapse of every claim he's ever made has given the anti-DEI/EDI crowd the ideal opportunity to make wider claims. It's not racist to observe that. It's factual. Still not seeing how reporting facts is racist. Please clarify.

0110

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Aren't those describing the events? His accuser is a race scientist, and the anti-DEI (EDI in the UK) groups look for any ammunition. Arday _isn't_ a scholar. Cambridge (and his PhD-awarding uni) didn't check his work; it's plagiarised at best. He _was_ just a symbol, and that's been the problem.

1170

Charles Arthur @charlesarthur.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

It's the exact opposite in this case: his work wasn't properly appraised before he was appointed, and when students complained about his poor tutoring, _they_ were called racist.

110