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James Abley

@jabley.bsky.social
177 followers 251 following 51 posts

Ghost in a meatsack. Opinions model's own. Occasionally useful. Won’t speak on all-male/-white panels. Anti-fascist. (He/him) #BLM

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Reposted by James Abley
Martin Kleppmann @martin.kleppmann.com · 07/10/2026
We just announced a big grant we got from @aria-research.bsky.social! We're aiming to use cryptographic protocols to allow mutually untrusting parties and their agents to prove to each other that they are telling the truth martin.kleppmann.com/2026/10/07/c...
martin.kleppmann.com
Announcing the Centre for Cryptographic Trust Infrastructure (CCTI) — Martin Kleppmann’s blog
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... is available for 4 more days and that's my Sunday sorted.
bbc.co.uk
Hamlet
David Tennant and Patrick Stewart star in a film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's critically lauded, award-winning modern-dress production of Shakespeare's great play.
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Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 23/09/2026
Read this thread if you're interested in land-use issues related to farming and solar photovoltaics.
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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 10/09/2026
This is worth a read because it eviscerates the narration of "AI solved complex mathematical problems, we can now retire mathematicians" that's currently being pushed by the AI companies. (and in general please remain sceptical of any claims to independent thinking or intent by LLMs)
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Seems the difference between ‘protestors’ and ‘terrorists’ is that protestors wear balaclavas while terrorists hold placards.
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Gary Gilligan @garygilligan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This could be useful...
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Dr Pamela L Gay @starstryder.space · 17/08/2026
Ok folks, true crime skills out. It’s time to do good.
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
So we're now at the fiddling with the Emergency Alert system whilst Rome burns. #ClimateEmergency
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Terence Eden @edent.tel · 03/08/2026
New blog post: Book Review: The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' by Sidney Dekker ★★★★☆ shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/book-revie… This is such a useful book. It makes the case that there's no such thing as "human error" …
shkspr.mobi
Book Review: The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' by Sidney Dekker
This is such a useful book. It makes the case that there's no such thing as "human error" - instead most catastrophes are caused by system issues, misaligned incentives, and unrealistic processes. You are not the custodian of an otherwise safe system that you need to protect from erratic human beings. By its nature it is a little repetitive. I suspect it's the sort of book students and…
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I'd very much appreciate it if you took a moment to read the alt text on this. www.tom-cox.com
The photo is one I took during a long coastal walk of the Daymark, a brutalist Victorian shipping tower in Devon, UK. It's old, mysterious, seems a bit like it's from outer-space, likes being near the sea, and looks like it could be a great psychedelic record cover so I think it quite sums up the writing on my website, which I wanted to invite new followers here to have a look at via the link above. There's absolutely LOADS on there, much of it readable for free, if you decide to sign up for the emails where I send it out. I deleted my Instagram account today and it's my hope that I can soon get to the stage where Bluesky is the only social media I use and everything else goes to people via my site, without idiot algorithms getting in the way. Which will ultimately give me more time to write (I hope). My suggestion is that you sign up for the free package then, if you like it, you can always support my writing by signing up for the paywalled stuff too. I've offered a choice of prices, starting at less than £2 per month, so hopefully everyone who really wants to read everything I write will be able to afford it.
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Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23
Telegraph headiline:

"Heatwave hysterics wouldn't have lasted a day in 1976", overlaid with a bold “MONK DEBUNKED” stamp.
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 24/06/2026
++BREAKING++ Leading climate scientists in the UK have written to senior editors in broadcast media - and OFCOM and IPSO: "To express our concern about recent media coverage of extreme weather, climate change and net-zero and to urge you…to inform public audiences of the scientific links"
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Sharon Dale (she/they) @pixlz.com · 23/06/2026
The rules say I must repost this
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 23/05/2026
Bit of doomscrolling relief for you here. Genuinely sweet story. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
theguardian.com
Experience: we found a baby on the subway – now he’s our 26-year-old son
I was rushing towards the turnstile when I noticed a bundle of clothes in a corner. I walked over, peeled back a dark sweatshirt, and saw him
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Go on, Sadia! #RedRoses LFG!
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Yes, from Wardley Mapping, China have executed well against other nations www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly | Jonathan Watts
China is dominating the energy transition with astonishing result, while fossil fuel fascists in the US try to turn back the clock
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Heather Burns @heatherburnstech.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Fun fact: the magical child safety solution which Jess Philips cited in her resignation letter is a vendor-specific offering, which benefited from an intense PR and lobbying campaign, and was previously praised by ... Prince Andrew. I always keep the receipts. heatherburns.tech/2026/02/20/t...
heatherburns.tech
The Prince, The Paedo, The Palace, and the “Safety Tech” app – Hi, I'm Heather Burns
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Ross Floate @rossfloate.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Oh my. This is spectacular. sinceyouarrived.world/taken
sinceyouarrived.world
taken.
A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
My "Make Things Open, It Makes Things Better" T-Shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt. And now you too can own one! govgeeks.myspreadshop.co.uk
govgeeks.myspreadshop.co.uk
GovGeeks
A collection of slogantastic shirts for the discerning GovGeek. All designs freely licenced under the OGL v3. Please remix these shirts. 0 commission.
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jenn schiffer 😎 @jennschiffer.com · 05/05/2026
”An engineering team at a large AI vendor decided that the user's machine is a deployment surface to be optimised for the vendor's product roadmap, not a personal device whose owner is the legal authority on what runs there.”
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Lauren McKenzie @themckenziest.gay · 02/05/2026
Did you guys hear about Will Stancil leaking the Tinder ICE Honey Trap details just to take credit for the work done by women for months (ruining the entire operation by doing so)?
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Terence Eden @edent.tel · 01/05/2026
I'm quoted in this article. www.newscientist.com/article/2524... #NHS #OpenSource
newscientist.com
NHS England rushes to hide software over AI hacking fears
National Health Service rules state that all software created with public money should be publicly available, but fears of computer-hacking AI models like Mythos have prompted a change in policy
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Jacky Alciné @jacky.blacksky.app · 20/04/2026
BREAKING: Claude Mythos discovers 60-year old computing bug, PEBCAK, that's been silently plagued the tech industry for years. It suggests resolving it by eliminating the entity in the middle and replacing it with a more efficient model.
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Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 02/04/2026
Ok, I am going to get myself into trouble here with some questions about what seems like a very niche topic, spend controls. I've just seen the new rules on digital and technology spend and they risk costing us, the tax payer, £billions in failed spend and poor or unnecessary systems.
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
"Forward Deployed Cocktail Engineer" see you in the morning #MonkiGras
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Lovely to be back at #MonkiGras again. @monkchips.bsky.social opens the event with a talk in praise of capitalism
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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
I am casting a beady eye at all the UK commentators who, this time last year, wrote clickbaity treatises on the need for a UK DOGE, and note that position lost no important men any credibility, while the reality of the implantation cost many, many lives
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
how ironic to see the state protect two people who sought to strip the state while working under the direction of elon musk, who has made it impossible to seek recourse when people get death threats and harassment on twitter
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Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
The House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee just published their report on AI, copyright & the creative industries, and their conclusions could not be clearer. 🧵 1/5
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Seems like a good time to remind people of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/201711...
webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk
UK Government Web Archive
This Page is [ARCHIVED CONTENT] and shows what the site page http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk// looked like on 23 Nov 2017 at 12:32:37
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Grady Booch @booch.com · 13/02/2026
I do not fear the rise of superintelligence. I do, however, fear the rise of billionaires, organizations, and world powers who seek to use computing to maximize their power, influence, and control.
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Sarah Drummond @rufflemuffin.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Last Friday I hosted After Section 28, a conference looking back at Section 28, the law that banned the promotion of homosexuality
Two orange books that say Log Books
An Amnesty International Slide that says United Kingdom, dismantling the human rights framework
A lanyard that says After Section 28A white woman in black holding a microphone speaking at a conference
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Benjamin Welby @bm.wel.by · 10/02/2026
300,000 children face 10-year wait for settled status under UK plans, says IPPR The consultation closes on Thursday. What is being proposed is dreadful. Can I encourage you to engage with the consultation and put your dissent on record?
share.google
300,000 children face 10-year wait for settled status under UK plans, says IPPR
Thinktank analysis says proposed ‘earned settlement’ changes could trap families in prolonged insecurity
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Terence Eden @edent.tel · 08/02/2026
endless.downward.spiral - is this the beginning of the end of What3Words? shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02...
shkspr.mobi
endless.downward.spiral - is this the beginning of the end of What3Words?
Long-time readers know that I am not a fan of What Three Words. I think it is a closed, proprietary, and user-unfriendly attempt to enclose the commons. I consider that it has some dangerous failure m...
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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 05/02/2026
On 1 May 1517, xenophobic mobs, riled up by preachers who were in turn pressured by wealthy broker John Lincoln, rioted in London. They claimed that foreigners were stealing their jobs and welfare. Thomas More, then under-sheriff of London, tried to stop the mob with an empassioned speech.
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Mark Dalgarno @markdalgarno.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
SDinGov 2026 Call for Sessions is open: govservicedesign.net/call-sessions Conference theme: Democratising Design / @sdingov.bsky.social
govservicedesign.net
Call for Sessions
Our SDinGov call for sessions is now open
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
#uksnow GU51 3/10
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Mark Grimshaw @markgrimshawtism.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
So, just to confirm, the BBC can’t keep Robin Ince on the air because his trans allyship brings the organisation into disrepute, but they can keep David Walliams, who performed Nazi salutes at the recording of this very show, on the air despite him being predatory towards women. Cool. Very normal.
ITV News: BBC to air Would I Lie To You Boxing Day episode featuring David Walliams
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Shepherd @neolithicsheep.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
authors you have the chance to do the funniest thing right now
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James Abley @jabley.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Throwback to when the bird site wasn't a hellsite #uksnow GU51 3/10
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Open Web Advocacy @open-web-advocacy.org · 04/11/2025
The 🇬🇧UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially designated Apple as having Strategic Market Status (SMS). After four years investigating Apple’s restrictions on browser engines and web apps, the CMA now has statutory authority to enforce a code of conduct. 1/12
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Dafydd Vaughan @daivaughan.uk · 03/11/2025
A bit of a holiday rant... We need to stop designing "target architectures." They're a fantasy. A waste of money. An approach that forces decisions too early, kills speed, and guarantees you'll never fix legacy tech. A utopian plan that's an anchor, not a map. dafyddvaughan.uk/blog/2025/th...
dafyddvaughan.uk
The bridge to nowhere: Why your ‘Target Architecture' won’t ever deliver
Stop funding fictional target architecture blueprints and start funding empowered, long-lived teams. The traditional, rigid approach is too slow for the age of AI and will never solve your real-world ...
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Kameron Hurley @kameronhurley.com · 02/11/2025
This is from Autocracy, Inc, about how modern autocratic propaganda works. I consider this every time I decide what to share and how to frame it.
Many of the propagandists of Autocracy, Inc., have learned from the mistakes of the twentieth century. They don’t offer their fellow citizens a vision of utopia, and they don’t inspire them to build a better world. Instead, they teach people to be cynical and passive, because there is no better world to build. Their goal is to persuade people to mind their own business, stay out of politics, and never hope for a democratic alternative: Our state may be corrupt, but everyone else is corrupt too. You may not like our leader, but the others are worse. You may not like our society, but at least we are strong and the democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided, dying.
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Nula Suchet is an @nulasuchet.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
How Caerphilly best Farage Reform
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Terence Eden @edent.tel · 14/10/2025
We (OpenUK) are running a free unconference in London next week to discuss AI. agentopenunconference2025.eventbrite.co.uk Boosters and sceptics very welcome! #Unconference #London #AI
agentopenunconference2025.eventbrite.co.uk
Agent Open Unconference organised in partnership with the AI Alliance
Agentic technology will be explored in a day of technical and security discussions, with maybe some governance and ethics in an unconference
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André Arko @indirect.io · 10/10/2025
Ruby Central said some really concerning things today. I don’t think they’re representing the situation accurately. andre.arko.net/2025/10/09/t...
andre.arko.net
The RubyGems “security incident”
Ruby Central posted an extremely concerning “Incident Response Timeline” today, in which they make a number of exaggerated or purely misleading claims. Here’s my effort to set the record straight. Fir...
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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU. Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.
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