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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 3h

Okay, I am totally changing my position on AI, as I've just discovered ChatGPT can convert an image of a table into an actual Excel table. The productivity of WonkLand will skyrockets. Relatedly, the productivity of the UK will plummet.

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Reposted by Adam Bell

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 4h

Love this for him, perhaps the most Rishi Sunak imaginable after-premiership bit of good work he could do.

The Policy Institute @policyatkings.bsky.social · 4h

We’re pleased to partnering with former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty on Number Nation, a new initiative to conduct the UK’s largest ever study into attitudes to everyday numbers – in partnership with the Richmond Project, Purposeful Ventures and Public First

🧵⬇️

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Reposted by Adam Bell

Richard Delevan @richard.wickedproblems.earth · 6h

The Pope, the Terminator, and a Wicked Problem walk into a bar.

If you told me 2 yrs ago I'd spend a week in the Vatican w them I'd say you were nuts. But then if 20 years ago you told me the Catholic Church would be standing up for climate science vs denialist freaks I'd have you committed.

Confessions of a Climate Pilgrim at the Vatican

The Pope, the Terminator, and a Podcaster walk into a bar...

news.wickedproblems.uk

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 5h

In fairness solar PV is currently one of the very best uses of personal capital. Seven year payback still beats most investments!

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 7h

Fully agree with this.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 7h

Indeed, but a side conclusion of that study could be, "It's bloody hard to install SWI correctly while avoiding thermal bridges and without expansion issues."

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 7h

In that case we agree!

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 7h

Why do you think the Government seems unable to learn lessons in this space?

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Reposted by Adam Bell

Tim Durrant @timdurrant.bsky.social · 7h

This is also a story of failing to learn lessons- ten years ago (!) I worked on an energy efficiency scheme at the Treasury, the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund. That was also ripe for fraud and poor quality work, and the NAO found that the "lack of consistency... could increase the long-term cost"

Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 9h

Two points in this appalling story of Government failure. Firstly, solid wall insulation is by some degree the most expensive form of insulation. This means that these measures are now guaranteed to cost more than they would ever save.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Almost all external insulation fitted under Tory scheme needs repair or replacing, report finds

Homeowners who took advantage of government programmes left with cladding likely to cause damp

www.theguardian.com

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 7h

Is this borne out by the numbers, though? The highest sales from UK manufacturing were from vehicle production, and the categories that might include bespoke production appear to be small. www.ons.gov.uk/businessindu...

UK manufacturers' sales by product - Office for National Statistics

Annual estimates for UK manufacturers' sales by product covered by the ProdCom survey.

www.ons.gov.uk

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 8h

Extremely ominous for the entire EE sector tbh.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 8h

They are unashamed villains, but it is the job of Government to ensure they don't give money to villains.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 8h

I don't know whether it's known, but spray-on insulation sounds like a terrible idea by itself.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 9h

H/T Kate Mulvany

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 9h

Secondly, I would like to take this quote and make it the background of every official in DESNZ. Trying to be too clever-clever never works. Trying to exclude all edge cases makes bad policy.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 9h

Two points in this appalling story of Government failure. Firstly, solid wall insulation is by some degree the most expensive form of insulation. This means that these measures are now guaranteed to cost more than they would ever save.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Almost all external insulation fitted under Tory scheme needs repair or replacing, report finds

Homeowners who took advantage of government programmes left with cladding likely to cause damp

www.theguardian.com

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 11h

Missed opportunity to say, "The Hunt for the Slow November."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nato chief Mark Rutte jokes about 'limping' Russian submarine

Moscow denies one of its vessels had to surface in the English Channel because of technical issues.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

'Pick Up Artist', someone who read The Game and learned that 'negging' - saying negative things to women in order to lower their self esteem - was a good thing to do and definitely not just being a willy.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

Oh, I learned the lyrics to every Smiths song because my wife is a huge fan and I wanted to appear cool. But there's a difference between putting in effort with someone you've actually met and using an AI to automate responses to enough women to produce a 'return'.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

Only if it is fashioned entirely out of bluestone and people are encouraged to undertake pagan practices on the town square.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

This is just automated PUA stuff, the modern negging for the modern pathetic wazzock. These men deserve to contribute to the 'male loneliness epidemic' until they stop thinking women have cheat codes and start thinking of them as people.

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 2d

this is sociopathic behaviour and I think we need to treat it as such! just because something has become easy to do doesn't mean it has become less creepy, or more acceptable!

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

The only notifications I get from Twitter now are from climate sceptics having a go at me for something I said in the media. I am very happy to never go back.

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 2d

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

Ahahahaha, I would love to see people flogging 'policy toolkits' be obliged to prove that they had been demonstrated in a laboratory environment...

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

There are so many historical examples where, "Not paying the troops," has ended extremely well for everyone involved.

CNN @cnn.com · 3d

Top Republicans in Congress will take a massive gamble on shutdown politics in the coming days: GOP leaders will not step in to prevent missed paychecks to the military.

GOP leaders steadfast in shutdown stance despite rising pressure inside party | CNN Politics

Top Republicans in Congress will take a massive gamble on shutdown politics in the coming days: GOP leaders will not step in to prevent missed paychecks to the military.

www.cnn.com

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 3d

But they totally look like a bar you can fill up by clicking until you get a technology out the end, and so for a generation raised on Civilisation they are very attractive. /fin

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