Tom James

The details of my life are quite inconsequential.

[Tom James @TACJ]

I mean, it's all doable. We just have to build lots of solar, wind, and nuclear capacity; and stop using fossil fuels.

[alexmassie @alexmassie]

As is always the case when travelling to Deep England I am struck by how much space there is for new housing. Here we are just 16 minutes away from Paddington. Build here!

[Tom James @TACJ]

Tim Leunig Thought strikes again.

[LBC @LBC]

'Let workers use their pensions to buy a house - It's the best way out of Britain's housing crisis'

✍️ @timleunig for LBC Opinion

https://t.co/LCQXkvlbnW

[Jalen “banned” Coker @JcokeBurner]

Dude beside me at the restaurant just told his wife that he cheated on her and she is crying loudly, over at my table it’s miller time though. #millertime

[Olena Tregub @OTregub]

Apocalyptic bird nest.

A Russian glide bomb knocks down a tree in Donbas. From the shattered branches rolls out a tiny bird’s nest.

Made of drone fiber-optic cable.

Source: Oleg Malchenko

[Dmitrii Kovanikov @ChShersh]

I finally bought the sci-fi strawberries

[space cadet 🇪🇺🌐🇩🇪 @actsmaniac]

There are complaints about a savings glut but simultaneously it's getting more and more difficult to actually deploy physical capital in the real world (energy, housing, data centers)

[Tom James @TACJ]

I need to go back and double check, but I can’t get over how Piketty demonstrated he really doesn’t understand the Cambridge Capital Controversies.

[Thomas Piketty @PikettyWIL]

The key finding of the report is that energy transition alone will not suffice.

We need to combine it with "sufficiency" to stay within 2 degrees. This includes labour hour reductions, growth caps in rich countries, less material consumption, and changes in food habits.

[yoshimi red @nise_yoshimi]

Wikipedia's page "list of last words" is one of my favourites. Some genuinely haunting stuff on there mad then things like "I'll just put my whole head in there then. - Dig Dogby, Australian prime minister, seconds before his violent death by crocodile bite"

[Harry Rushworth @Hrushworth]

I do think there is something to be said about fully adopting parish councils London wide and allowing them to seize district level powers if they wish.

Canary Wharf is sort of a mini council; owns all of its land, has its only roads, waste system, private security, etc…

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

Three ways to improve high streets by *raising* business rates:

1. Higher rates on long-empty shops, to force realistic rents

2. End exemption for charity shops.

3. Make landlords pay when candy/vape shops vanish with unpaid rates. They'll ensure rates are paid up-front.

[Chris Evangelista @cevangelista413]

Big fan of all the buttons and switches in the original JURASSIC PARK. They all look satisfying to use.

[Jen Zhu @jenzhuscott]

Massive output uptick due to agentic AI. Complete flat adoption.

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

1. In the long run, business rates depress rents. A business rate cut will increase rent. The benefit will go to landlords.

2. A business rate cut for small business is bad policy. It distorts decisions, will incentivise small businesses to stay small, and -> avoidance/evasion

[😊 @PontistGirl]

Doctor: we had to remove your appendix.

JRR Tolkien: but that's where I explain why elves hate dwarves.

[A. B. Thompson @procrastixote]

I had no idea there was a British Isles-equivalent of Northern France's Mont Saint Michel. I'm very surprised it's both a near-shore semi-island and using the English version of the name. Very interesting.

[Tom James @TACJ]

@edmundharbord One weird aspect of online discourse is Americans take things weirdly seriously and so the whole debate gets coloured with genuinely extreme yank oddness, rather than the boring tedium of sensible British practices.

[Joe Reeve - 🇬🇧/acc @isnit0]

Calling all YIMBYs.

We need you.

Please respond to the East West Rail Consultation (link in next post).

If you don't respond to it, you don't get to complain about things not happening.

[bernoulli_defect @BernoulliDefect]

Ah yes, because Britain really needs to juice its low productivity non-tradable service sector

[Alexander Kustov @akoustov]

OK, I admit complete defeat here.

I tried to invent the most ridiculous possible version of anti-AI purity politics: ban copy-paste and retype citations by hand. But apparently every reductio of academic gatekeeping is just someone's preferred pedagogy lol.