Tootfinder

"Economic instability has many causes. Of late, the UK has endured banking crises, energy shocks, Brexit, supply chain disruption and pandemics. None of these arose because government borrowing was too high." — @…
I had some hopes. John Healey has shattered them

I had some hopes. John Healey has shattered them
John Healey’s appointment as Chancellor surprised many people, me included. The biggest reason for surprise was that he has no record as an economic thinker. As I noted on Monday evening, he might have spent time in the Treasury under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, but since then he has shown...

Doc: nearly 200 US utilities, data center developers, and others have signed Trump's pledge to ensure AI energy use doesn't push up consumer electric bills (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.w…

Developers are turning to a large range of materials to store renewable electricity when it is available and use it to power everything from wearable technology to heating networks, factories and missiles.
Here are some of the energy storage innovations raising eyebrows.
🔸Liquid air
Late last year, on the site of a former coal plant in Trafford, the former mayor of Greater Manchester marked the start of construction on a long-awaited energy storage project that could usher …

Molten salt and human sweat: the weird batteries that could store renewable energy
From Nevada to Manchester, developers are trialling innovative solutions to clean energy’s biggest challenge

Trump says he will declare Strait of Hormuz US territory after 'finishing defeating Iran' (very badly, pretty soon).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-15/trump-says-he-will-declare-hormuz-us-territory/107041530

Trump says he will soon declare Strait of Hormuz US territory
US President Donald Trump says he will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a US territory, escalating his rhetoric over the vital waterway that carries a significant share of global oil supplies. 

Great article about the loss of diversity induced by recommender systems (including LLMs):
Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same
"A world that keeps removing the unlikely also removes the things that could have become the next likely. Ecologists have known this for a long time already and even priced it: they call it the insurance value of biodiversity, the standing reserve of rare species that cost energy and contribute nothing, until the clim…

Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same
What 640 London shopping streets, 4,000 Billboard hits, a million films and synthetic AI personas tell us about why everything is flattening into sameness and how to regulate the algorithms behind it.

How Trump Failed to Secure the Strait of Hormuz in His Iran Deal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/us/politics/trump-strait-of-hormuz-iran-deal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xFA.…

How Trump Failed to Secure the Strait of Hormuz in His Iran Deal
President Trump signed an agreement that Iran said gave it control of the waterway — and global energy supplies. Now, Iran’s military is violently asserting authority.

US gas prices this month are so far the highest ever recorded for August
as peace talks between the US and Iran have stalled and Donald Trump launched fresh threats against Oman.
The national average price of gas was $4.06 per gallon on Monday,
according to data from AAA,
$0.05 higher than last week
and $1 more expensive than a year ago.
In California and Hawaii, averages hit about $5.50 a gallon.

US gas prices reach highest ever recorded for August amid stalled talks with Iran
Energy prices have been high since the US-Israel war with Iran began and the strait of Hormuz was blocked

The Cockroach Janta party (CJP)
might have started out as an online joke, but
– driven by millions of discontented young people in India
– it has swiftly grown into one of the most unexpected challenges to the powerful rightwing government of Narendra Modi.
The CJP was founded in May by Abhijeet Dipke, 30,
an Indian national who recently graduated from university in the US.
Enraged to hear comments made by the chief justice of India,
who compared the…

Who are India’s Cockroach Janta party and why are they staging protests?
Explosion of anger over education system and youth unemployment has led to movement’s rapid rise

From the outside, the city of Avenal appears to embody every bit of its motto
– an “oasis in the sun”.
Approaching the community, passing through the dusty yellow hillsides of the Central Valley,
Avenal emerges with a sudden burst of green on the horizon.
Its small-town feel and quiet tree-lined streets offer respite from the bustling Interstate 5 some five miles away. But trouble is brewing here that has brought this lonesome city national attention.
🔸In April,…

This California town booted out its leaders – what happens if they refuse to leave?
Avenal has been rocked by the council’s refusal to accept the results of a recall election – and the repercussions extend far beyond the Central Valley

Brits were left shocked after millions across England and Wales were sent a blaring Government emergency alert tonight with a stark warning.
Phones sounded with the siren-like warning at around 7pm on Friday 14,
with British residents, and visitors urged not to do anything that could spark a blaze.
It was the first time a national alert to phones had ever been used by the government, following tests in the past and regional warnings sent to devices.

Millions startled by blaring emergency alert warning of 'very high' wildfire risk
The unexpected siren-like warning sounded on phones at 7pm, prompting startled reactions online as people were urged to avoid anything that could spark a wildfire