rusi.org/explore-our-researc… I don't think stockpiling a few tins of beans is gonna cut it...

Hurrah @BBCRadio3 @elizabethalker

Within hours of being announced as the nominee to be the U.S. Director of the CIA, I received a hand-delivered message on MI6 stationery congratulating me on my nomination. It was signed simply "C" in green ink. Legendary. I shared it with my son and even he thought I was now cool! More than that, this note, from Sir Alex Younger, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom, confirmed what I already believed: the work that the CIA and MI6 did together mattered, that the partnership was critical, and that two leaders focused on the mission could save lives and provide tools for our nations to deter our adversaries. Alex's passing this week brought back so many memories of our time in service together. He flew to Langley to see me the day I was confirmed. We brought our two senior teams together in the UK to plan and coordinate and build in the first several weeks of my time on duty: making clear to them all that this relationship was more than special - it was critical for the security of our two countries. Alex was a remarkable intelligence partner. When we needed help, it wasn't "let me see;" it was "this matters to you and America we'll get it done." And he and his team always did. I think he knew we would do the same for him and his team and his nation. Many Americans are alive today because of his leadership of MI6, I never knew how to thank him enough. Alex became a friend as well. In the years since we both left office we would see each other from time to time. He was always so kind, so thoughtful, so smart. His deep love of his country was surpassed only by his deep commitment and love of his family. Decent and proper - and funny as hell - Alex was "C." As espionage requires, he was quiet, not attention seeking. He knew what evil was and he was ruthless in his efforts to crush it with every legal tool at his command. And he knew who his friends were and committed himself to supporting them. I miss Sir Alex Younger. He was a role model for me and a man with whom every minute I spent was valued and savored. Blessings to you Alex. Praying for you and for your family. Well done and may you rest in peace in His hands.

Today we commemorate the D-Day landings in Normandy, honouring those who served and remembering those who gave their lives, especially our fallen military chaplains.🙏 #DDay #LestWeForget @RoyalNavy @RAFChaplains @BritishArmy

This is what people voted for...fucking hell :D Bizarre moment Reform Councillor Kieran Lay, Thorne and Moorends Ward, asks Full Council for measures to monitor UFO activity as part of reopening Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Step 1- Work towards cutting council tax. Step 2- Set up a panel for UAP sightings. Couldn't make this up... #doncasterreform #reform

TL;DR: Overhiring post 2020, economic uncertainty -> free money drying up, making lofty moonshot projects an impossibility, + mention AI to minimize stock price damage (almost everyone understands that if you had the magic 10x productivity multiplier you’d hire, not fire)

Interesting piece on @BBCr4today from @amolrajan @DameWendyDBE and the professor who's name I didn't catch. The emphasis was on Anthropic's good citizen approach but not much around if/when Grok and other states develop similar capability..

Cracking service by all staff on @LNER train last night. 7 hour delay due to trespasser. Hope they all got a late shift today, 3am at Grantham and they probably had to get to Newcastle or London after that

The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East. Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE.....

Hello @stephenctimms - please can you engage with us over Veterans benefits being taken away over their Armed Forces compensation awards being counted as “savings”. There is something so unbelievably cruel about that term. No injury from service/war should be referred to as such

.@BBCWorld "Starmer expresses 'deepest condolences' to families of those killed" - is there more to this than just coincidence?

We need to seriously stop trying to score political points when there is a crisis unfolding. By all means challenge but we need to be above this. Do what is right by the British people and our Armed Forces. We are better than this. The division demonstrated does nothing other than play into our adversaries hands. 🙄

For Kemi Badenoch to suggest they’re ‘just hanging around’ - to score political points - insults the men and women of our Armed Forces. She should apologise and withdraw her comments. (2/2)

Sorry Laila, no MP can visit without pre clearance. It is a serious Military base which does serious work. It doesn’t need a pub bore like Nigel ( who didn’t even appoint a defence spokesperson this week) performing MAGA stunts.

Farage: epic grifter. Part 1 (Part 2 below 👇)

New TIL: running OpenClaw in Docker on my Mac - this is an officially documented path but there were still a few things that caught me out, hence my TIL til.simonwillison.net/llms/o…

But nearly every argument against LLM-assisted programming has appeared before. Assembly programmers in the 50s and 60s said the same things about 3GLs: “Real programmers write assembly” they would cry. High-level languages were “inefficient, bloated, and produced slower, larger code” compared to hand-optimized assembly code. “You can’t trust what you didn’t write by hand” And they were not wrong — at first. Early compilers did produce worse code, and debugging machine-generated output was miserable. The turning point was when compilers got so good, you almost never had to *look* at the generated code at all. You could entirely live in this new level of abstraction. We’re not there yet with LLMs, which explains the current resistance from experienced SWEs. But if history is any guide, we almost certainly will be. What a fascinating time to be alive!

Bowlers, Sankeys, Hac, et al '94-97 piped.video/watch?v=MixR3ZyB… piped.video/watch?v=74v2LC2Y… piped.video/watch?v=mxprwAJL…

It's actually quite specific 1/2