Prof Mike Yearworth

Graph of average annual fees for BA/BSc or equivalent courses in the OECD showing England as the most expensive and Nordics the least

Anglosphere agony vs Nordic nirvana.

(PS Can't believe I'd never seen this graph before, so grateful to @stephenkb.bsky.social for sharing in his fab morning newsletter (www.ft.com/inside-polit...)

I'd be asking the regulatory bodies to pursue serious questions of any lawyers involved in this.
Given @danneidle.bsky.social SLAPP win, and deluge of stories about solicitor Andrew Milne, are legal ethics being sufficiently stressed in training and practice?
@jolyon.goodlawproject.org

Ultra-short-term bets add ‘even more mania’ to crypto trading Five and 15-minute contracts have surged in popularity as cryptocurrencies have fallen from recent peaks

“Latency arbitrage had been “rampant” on 15-minute markets before Polymarket introduced a fee last month, Hajian said. Sophisticated traders can take advantage of the tiny amounts of time it takes price signals from one exchange to reach another”

www.ft.com/content/af1f...

NEW

Land and Expand - how Palantir captured the Ministry of Defence

What a close reading of public domain documents tells us about two concerning contract awards

Detailed post by me, following-up on my FT column

emptycity.substack.com/p/land-and-e...

Public procurement should be boring, not telling about broad and deep failures of public policy.

There are other reasons for the UK government not to award or continue Palantir contracts but this statement of intent by its CEO must surely be decisive?

Silence is not golden when it comes to science and AI The scope of scientific inquiry is contracting as research focuses on data-rich problems

An emerging pattern: AI use improves immediate outcomes, a lot, but limits big picture thinking as there is no data for that; this in @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/0c63...

The US may move some of its anti-missile system - and it's sparking unease in South Korea Reports say the US may be moving parts of its Thaad system to the Middle East, despite Seoul's opposition.

“The US may move some of its anti-missile system - and it's sparking unease in South Korea”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“A coalition of human rights, health and patient organisations, and unions sent out the plea to NHS trusts by email, out of concern over Palantir’s federated data platform (FDP).”

'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back Kenyan workers are still the underpaid labor behind AI training, moderation, and sex chatbots. The Data Labelers Association is fighting back.

I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out:

www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

Europe’s New Energy Crisis Will Mean a Bull Market in Renewables European defense stocks have rallied, and its energy producers should be next.

"Europe’s exposure to spot prices for liquefied natural gas is its Achilles’ heel....The takeaway for investors is that domestic power production is about to become strategic and assets should reprice. "

And this is fascinating.

www.ft.com/content/54d6...

Customers of three UK banks report being able to see other people’s accounts on app Lloyd’s, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers say information including national insurance numbers and recent purchases was on view

“Some customers of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland were able to see the bank accounts of other customers when they logged into their app on Thursday morning.”

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Just stumbling around trying to figure out how the world works.

Palantir’s NHS England contract ‘opens door to government abuse of power’, health bosses told Health justice charity Medact says data-sharing potential could be used for UK version of US immigration raids

@medact.bsky.social warning how letting Palantir into the NHS represents a serious threat to civil liberties

Peter Thiel may be the world's most dangerous man and should be nowhere near our public services or our personal information

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points

”Another finding was that GDP can mask the full cost of climate damage by failing to account for deaths and ill health, social disruption and degraded ecosystems.”

#GDP #Growth

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“For treasuries, regulators, advisory agencies, and institutional investors, this report converges on a single conclusion: climate change introduces forms of risk that exceed the design assumptions of existing economic and financial frameworks.”

greenfuturessolutions.com/wp-content/u...

Sheffield Hallam restricts TPS access to REF academics only Teaching staff at post-92 institution to be employed by subsidiary firm and lose right to access expensive pensions scheme

'Teaching-only staff at Sheffield Hallam University are set to be moved into a subsidiary firm, leaving research intensive scholars the only academics still being employed directly by the institution.'

Utterly inequitable & betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the teaching/research nexus. 1/3

‘Charismatic and extremely confident’: how to recognise – and handle – a psychopath Psychologist Leanne ten Brinke has spent decades studying toxic personality traits. What are the red flags to look out for among workmates, politicians and potential partners?

“There is chance that your boss is a psychopath, given that people with dark personality traits are over-represented in senior management

dark personalities also tend to come across as extremely confident, and we tend to confuse confidence for competence”

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Reaching net zero by 2050 ‘cheaper for UK than one fossil fuel crisis’ Climate change committee finds move to renewable energy would also bring health, economic and security benefits

"Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI As AI has upended the way students learn, academics worry about the future of the humanities – and society at large

"in fields most explicitly associated with the production of critical thought – what is collectively referred to as the “humanities” – most scholars see AI as a unique threat" www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

Net zero will cost less than fossil fuel price rise, UK climate adviser says Climate Change Committee report comes after days of turbulence in global energy markets

For every pound spent on net zero, the benefits would outweigh the cost by between 2.2 and 4.1 times says @thecccuk.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/d163...

Nazir Afzal: ‘Class Discrimination Isn’t a Complex Mystery – It’s a Structural Issue Quietly Enforced, Politely Denied, Endlessly Deferred’  – Byline Times Digital / Print Edition The Chancellor of Manchester University has co-authored a new report, ‘Class Ceiling’, examining working-class participation in the creative industries across Greater Manchester. He spoke to Hardeep Matharu and Peter Jukes about how opportunities for people from poorer backgrounds has declined since the 1960s, and why his work prosecuting the grooming gangs perpetrators as the former Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West informed his insights on class

🟨 Print Edition — Nazir Afzal: ‘Class Discrimination Isn’t a Complex Mystery – It’s a Structural Issue Quietly Enforced, Politely Denied, Endlessly Deferred’

The Chancellor of Manchester University has co-authored a new report, ‘Class Ceiling…

Amazon holds engineering meeting following AI-related outages Ecommerce giant says there has been a ‘trend of incidents’ linked to ‘Gen-AI assisted changes’

“The online retail giant said there had been a “trend of incidents” in recent months, characterised by a “high blast radius” and “Gen-AI assisted changes” among other factors, according to a briefing note for the meeting seen by the FT.”

www.ft.com/content/7cab...

Why have I been trying to sell this -awesome- business idea for about a decade now?

When profit kills: How private equity is eroding health care Peer-reviewed studies link private equity takeovers to more deaths and medical complications in nearly every corner of healthcare.

Curse of Private Equity

US evidence shows:
When private equity incentives collide with clinical care, patients—especially those who are sicker, poorer, or harder to treat—are more likely to be killed or harmed.

Yet UK handing more of the NHS to PE, enabling it to make profits.

Yorkshire Water receives fresh funding despite sewage fines and pay row Private equity group EQT to take 42% stake as supplier faces scrutiny over environmental record and CEO’s pay

Swedish private equity group takes 42% stake in Yorkshire Water.

Thames Water, Northumbrian Water, Southern Water, South West Water and Wessex Water gutted by PE.

All have criminal convictions, dump sewage in rivers, profiteer. 90% of England's water is foreign owned.

Expect more looting.

A New Chapter for Bluesky - Bluesky After several intense and incredible years building Bluesky from the ground up, I've decided to step back as CEO and transition to a new role as Bluesky's Chief Innovation Officer.

Some personal news: I’m transitioning from CEO to a new role as Bluesky’s Chief Innovation Officer! I’m excited to welcome @toni.bsky.team as our interim CEO.

More here: bsky.social/about/blog/0...

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Is Stepping Down Venture capitalist Toni Schneider will take over as interim CEO as Bluesky’s board of directors hunts for a permanent replacement.

Exclusive: Jay Graber is stepping down as head of Bluesky. Venture capitalist Toni Schneider will be the interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.

Gulf states fear threat to water infrastructure as Iran war escalates Tit-for-tat strikes have hit critical desalination plants in Bahrain and Iran

“…common practice across the region of locating power-hungry desalination plants near power stations makes them vulnerable to attacks on energy infrastructure. That raises concerns that the targeting of water supplies could pose an existential threat in these arid states”
www.ft.com/content/f273...