Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsJim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 18/09/2026I spend my week crossing london on a bike and increasingly that means cycling alongside Wayve/Waymo robotaxis. it’s uncomfortable. they give you so much space, don’t do a close pass while accelerating as lights go red. So unnerving if you cycle on assumption everyone’s mental and wants to kill you. 1526941
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Linking to the original source. The key outtake from this is not the payments to the generators to curtail as that is basically a wash between balancing and CfD levy, but purchasing power twice to use it once. www.nao.org.uk/reports/upgr...nao.org.ukUpgrading the electricity transmission network - NAO reportUpgrades to the electricity grid are struggling to keep up with the government's Clean Power 2030 schedule risking higher consumer bills 121
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 26/08/2026The final part in a well written series that explains the ‘design intent’ in the different parts of the electricity market. The unintended consequences of those dispirit choices interacting and maybe where we should look to fix things. 021
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 24/08/2026What is looking borderline ridiculous going forward is that the technology in carbon concentration is now reaching the point that using the land for solar to create fully synthetic liquid HC fuels from solar generated electricity would use less land. 141
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsDeth Veggie @dethveggie.bsky.social · 18/08/2026www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a... RIP Frank Beardtheguardian.comZZ Top drummer Frank Beard dies aged 77Tributes paid to ‘great friend and collaborator’ who played with band for 56 years and died in hospice care in Texas 394
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsDoctor Memory @blank.org · 25/07/2026“If something is worth doing, it’s even worth doing badly” is an underrated maxim. Nobody is keeping score. Nobody is handing out medals for executive function. (But they should.) Dishes washed half-assedly are still less dirty than when they started. 33214
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Disposable BBQs – that brilliant combination of fleeing a wildfire while suffering from food poisoning. 010
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 22/07/2026One of the big wins of smaller piston-prop operations transitioning to electric is in non-CO2 emissions. For example GA is currently one of the largest remaining sources of atmospheric lead pollution. 010
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Nearly 80% of domestic gas consumption (equates to about 65% of a typical households energy use) occurs between 1 October and 31 March. Gas prices hit very hard during that time. When you add in the typical electricity profile it’s roughly 76% of all energy use in that period. 000
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsTom Haddon @tomh-analyst.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Another thing to note on this is, high gas prices up to now during the 'Iranian crisis' haven't been that big an issue for your average consumer because it was driving price cap during the summer months. Every day now it is impacting the formula for Oct-Dec which is high price x high volume period. 162
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsAdam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 03/07/2026The second part of my series on the electricity wholesale market looks at the Contracts for Difference used to support renewables. open.substack.com/pub/unbalanc...open.substack.comA Rattling Between The PylonsHow the basis for the GB electricity wholesale market was undermined 192
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsAdam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 29/06/2026WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE WHOLESALE ELECTRICITY MARKET? For the past couple of months I've been talking to people across the sector in an effort to find new ways of cutting bills. /1 open.substack.com/pub/unbalanc...open.substack.comA Buzzing in the WiresSomething is badly wrong in the electricity market 185
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsTits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · 28/06/2026‘Say yes and never do it’ Mel Brooks knew how to deal with the studios 141180935572
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsStarfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 20/06/2026I’m not too embarrassed that we are losing to Iran. It’s a big boy country with missiles and drones and so forth ran by stone cold killers. That’s NFL ball for you. I am a little embarrassed we are also losing to algae. 534638685
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsEleonora Alabrese @eleala.bsky.social · 17/06/2026🧵 New working paper out today: "Measuring the Regional Economic Cost of Brexit: Evidence as of 2026" with @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social @trfetzer.com & Shizhuo Wang Here's what the data say about who paid the price in these 10 years from the referendum 1/… 6172119
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 11/06/2026A good post by @samfr.bsky.social. It highlights a problem with all ranking systems in that since we rarely (likely never) can measure what we actually want any measure we used can ultimately be gamed. This is even before you hit Goodhart’s law and is tied in with Campbell’s 120
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsAdam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 06/06/2026An excellent thread. One of the reasons for this switch has been the total abdication of the Treasury from its traditional role as the guardian of efficient tax policy. /1 191
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsRebecca Dell @rebeccawdell.bsky.social · 14/05/2026While chatting with some friends, it occurred to me that other people could benefit from a summary understanding of what's going on in the oil and gas markets. Here are some little pictures to give you the big picture. 🧵 4385157
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 09/05/2026One of the interesting things to watch with First Past the Post electoral systems is the Dictator feature (you can’t really say it is a flaw anymore as it has been known for so long. While it rarely comes into play in its true strict form it looks like it easily could have on Thursday 1/ 100
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 09/05/2026This is a ‘feature/flaw’ of first past the post. It very much suffers from both ‘the dictator’ and ‘irrelevant alternative’ problems. Other systems will fail on these or other points of impossibility, but FPTP is definitely a poster child for Arrow always winning. 000
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsSam Alvis @samalvis.bsky.social · 07/05/2026Capping prices in a supply shock? Wouldn't this just pretend that we have as much oil and gas available as before Iran? Price caps can work in supply shocks when they're designed well 🧵1/9 1811
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsSir Humphrey @pinstripedline.bsky.social · 06/05/2026"I present you the Soviet Ballistic Missile Submarine Red October" - A line from a superb movie. In reality the CIA knew far more about the Soviet TYPHOON class from the mid 1970s than Clancy could have guessed. Thread on the CIA, Typhoons and spying on the Soviets... 14013
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 03/05/2026Yes, renewables have kept Spains prices from rising, yet, and will keep them lower than they would otherwise have been. However, the main reason that Spain’s electricity prices look so good right now is demand is low relative to renewable effective capacity 100
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsBrynley Heaven @brynleyheaven.bsky.social · 26/04/2026Lincolnshire Councillors unanimous in favour of solar farm and more sheepbbc.co.ukSolar farm plans near Stallingborough approved despite objectionsDevelopers say the facility will provide enough electricity to power about 16,000 homes near Keelby. 2296
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsRobert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 22/04/2026Congratulations to @qmulsse.bsky.social PhD student, Ed Green, on publishing his first article! It's on the elected school boards that ran English and Welsh schools from 1870-1902. Here are three reasons why they're interesting..🧵. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...onlinelibrary.wiley.comSchool Board Elections in England and Wales, 1870–1902: An Electoral Experiment?The 1870 Elementary Education Act enabled the creation of school boards in England and Wales. Members were directly elected by the cumulative vote. This method gave each individual voter as many vote... 2217
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsEd Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Great Britain. Battery revenues hit £70k/MW/year in March, driven almost entirely by Balancing Mechanism trading at £46k/MW/year. Gas price volatility from Middle East tensions created the spreads batteries exploit. Arbitrage between wholesale and BM is now the dominant strategy. 271
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 27/03/2026We all like being paid to consume electricity, but this just exemplifies that large scam thermal plants when coupled with intermittent energy sources are not particularly efficient outcomes. As Ed says, put batteries or other storage in and overall things work better. 110
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 21/03/2026A couple of things on this. First it seems that the Octopus live energy in measures both real and reactive power. While this is strictly correct it procduces SPFs below the effective ones that customers are paying. The reason for this is domestic billing is done on real power only. 100
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsRobin Wigglesworth @robinwigglesworth.ft.com · 19/03/2026A reminder that hydrocarbons are uniquely “systemically inflationary”, because they are such a vital input into the production of *so many* other things. www.ft.com/content/a7db...ft.comSystemic inflation drivers (and what to do about them)Is inflation truly only a macro phenomenon? 0183
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsThomas House @tah-sci.com · 13/03/2026Just a simple SVM classifier with RBF kernel trained on 700x15 characters in the "Chinese MNIST" dataset gets around 2/3 accuracy on 300x15 held back training points. With all the interest in deep learning, it's still extraordinary that a single-layer method that takes seconds to train does so well. 192
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsEd Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 12/03/2026Great Britain's 2026/27 T-1 Capacity Market auction cleared at £5/kW/yr, the lowest since 2020/21. This indicates strong competitiveness in the GB energy market. modoenergy.com/research/en/gb-capac… 041
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 12/03/2026This is a massive drop on what the 2028/29 T-4 market cleared at. 010
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 10/03/2026From Oliver Johnson over on Substack Zero tolerance open.substack.com/pub/bristoli...open.substack.comZero toleranceIt's a gas, gas, gas 010
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsRob Delaney @robdelaney.bsky.social · 03/03/2026Myself & the other comedians who did the Riyadh Comedy Festival are donating our fees to help get influencers under attack in Dubai back home to their influencer houses. I am sponsoring Braevyn McTaigg from Orlando, FL. 🫡🇺🇸🏝️ 412574233
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsTom Haddon @tomh-analyst.bsky.social · 23/02/2026I know standing charges is a hot topic but this is weird to focus on a business that *only* pay standing charges (it imports gas, generates electricity on site to get the CO2 and exports power). The whole point of TCR was to make businesses like this pay more! www.theguardian.com/business/202...theguardian.com‘It’s a ticking timebomb’: food producers sound alarm on rise in energy chargesIndoor growers warn April price jump will hinder sector’s competitiveness and drive up costs for consumers 162
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 15/01/2026Not ascribing the following to @adambell.bsky.social, but this risks post facto judgement of a decision solely based on its outcome. This is a poor way to do things. It is impossible to make decisions using knowledge that can only be gained after the decision is made. 100
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsPaul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 30/12/2025Open up this picture fully. Then look at the surface of Mars. Then look up to the top right. Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky. Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos. That's Earth. 7647371856
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsThomas House @tah-sci.com · 18/11/2025I was just internal examiner for a passing PhD viva; it's one of the bits of my job I absolutely love. Someone's put a few years into really achieving at the high end of what humans do, and the viva works to get them to demonstrate mastery of that work over a few hours. 1192
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsTom Haddon @tomh-analyst.bsky.social · 10/11/2025UK front month gas prices are moving into year+ low territory. Not by much, granted, but the December contract (now front month) hasn't closed sub-80p/th since Feb-24 and sits at 79.8-ish now. Loads of regas capacity, plus loads of supply (and relatively low global competition) equals... 371
Reposted by Designing Better Artefactsdepths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 27/10/2025recently discovered that wikipedia volunteers have a hilariously high bar for what constitutes "unusual death" 6636621005
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 26/10/2025This is a good example of the "very clear" rule of political interviews. When a politician says "I've been very clear" it always means they're wildly obfuscating. Never fails. 19515113
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 26/10/2025The thread this is part of is worth a read, and generally everything said in it is correct. However, if the UK wants an explicitly codified constitution, and one that truly binds actions, then our current concept of parliamentary sovereignty likely has to change. 110
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsRobert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 23/10/2025There is a serious, principled case for a codified constitution, for some of the reasons George sets out. But botching together a constitution to stop Farage - a constitution that could not command widespread support and that was widely seen as rigged - would deepen our problems, not resolve them.🧵 2732985
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsRobin Wigglesworth @robinwigglesworth.ft.com · 19/09/2025Quite possibly the nerdiest Lunch with the FT we've ever run, featuring the inelastic markets hypothesis, 'econophysics', the Black-Scholes model's weaknesses and several drive-by shootings of economists. www.ft.com/content/6f54...ft.comInvestor Jean-Philippe Bouchaud: ‘The whole bull run is because of an influx of money’The physicist and hedge fund manager on why the efficient markets theory is ‘all wrong’, economists with ‘mathematics envy’ — and what Camus can teach us about compromise 75815
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsThomas House @tah-sci.com · 15/08/2025Everyone is different but here are some things I think are good general advice. > 292
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 09/08/2025A great thread on why LLMs are really interesting, but much less than many claim they are. 020
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsElizabeth Tasker @elizabethtasker.bsky.social · 09/08/2025This box contains a tiny grain that was never destined to be on Earth. Until we intervened. 512515
Reposted by Designing Better ArtefactsStephen Jarvis @stephenjarvis.bsky.social · 23/07/2025After a lengthy review the UK government recently decided not to pursue locational pricing reforms to the electricity wholesale markets. I figured I’d offer a retelling of this saga and a few thoughts of my own. Energy nerds were out in force for this debate too so other takes are welcome. (1/n)ft.comUK abandons zonal pricing plan for electricityMinisters will instead explore less radical reforms such as how generators pay to access transmission network 54416
Designing Better Artefacts @pmholling.bsky.social · 13/06/2025On this if the flight was at an airspeed of 175 knots, and the pilots inadvertently retracted the flaps from a higher setting, say Flaps 20, to Flaps 5 you would definitely get a transient downward acceleration, but you would be unlikely to stall the aircraft just doing that. 020