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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 4h

Putting Ministers, special advisers, press and thinktankers into hotels together, with booze and political/media pressure and no civil servants to advise on practicalities, leads to some absolutely terrible policy. There are so many examples. Which I think is the point you are making!

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 6h

Starting to feel like we're into the interminable greyness of mid- to late-autumn. If that makes you feel as jaded as it does me, here is a photo I took last weekend

An azure blue sky behind a canopy of autumnal trees, leaves varying from green to deep brown.

Reposted by Owen Jackson

Jonty @fairless.xyz · 1d

Windows 10 goes out of support today. My fave useless fact about w10 is that the iconic blue desktop background is a *photograph* - not CGI.

Tiny 'making of' vid here - youtu.be/_2RacX9DgWM...

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 3d

Counter: one of the freedoms of reading to your children is being able to do accents that would get you cancelled in almost any other setting

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 3d

[fretting that your children will have forgotten the accent you did for Prof McGonagall when you last read a Potter book to them over a year ago]

"Dad, that's not the right voice!"

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 6d

For me, it is OpEds of his I read which I agree with 80%+ of but ~20% seems mad/glib/narcissistic. Your point about his occasional nihilism (which I think he still shows at times) I also agree with!

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 6d

I've not been, but I hear good things about Vaults & Garden - including views of the Bodleian

www.thevaultsandgarden.com/menu

OUR MENU | vaults-garden-cafe

www.thevaultsandgarden.com

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 7d

Agreed. No10 got pretty antsy about my team in GO-Science publishing this nearly 15 years ago, which likely drew similar (but less sharp) conclusions

www.gov.uk/government/p...

International dimensions of climate change

Foresight report looking at how the UK is likely to be affected by global climate change over the next 30 years and beyond.

www.gov.uk

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 7d

Oh, it is JIO. Given they basically never publish anything (for obvious reasons) there are plenty of non-nefarious reasons this could have been delayed.

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 7d

Who's report is it? Not clear from the article. Is it DEFRA? GO-Science?

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 8d

I was going to post this. Came here to realise I was beaten to it by another nerd.

(Jacob - we've not met - I hope you don't mind me calling you a nerd - it is affectionate 😂)

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 9d

Really important stuff coming out of ONS and NHSE, and fully agree with @thekingsfund.bsky.social commentary linked in thread below. Let's see how data linking can help address upstream health and wellbeing through better prevention.

David Buck @davidjbuck.bsky.social · 9d

1/3. A ground-breaking paper, & commentary, on @thekingsfund.bsky.social website today - using linked data on the connection between #health & #economy from @nhsengland.bsky.social & ONS on the economic #payback from meeting waiting list targets. Paper assets.kingsfund.org.uk/f/256914/x/6...

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 10d

This morning is a hard day to be an Arizona Cardinals fan

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 13d

Do you work in a public sector leadership role? Are you grappling with how AI is changing your area of responsibility? Do you need to upskill yourself to deal with these challenges?

Applications open today for @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social AI Policy Fellowships

www.imperial.ac.uk/the-forum/co...

Fellowships

The Imperial AI Policy Fellowship is a unique development programme designed to support senior civil servants in understanding the role and impact of...

www.imperial.ac.uk

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 14d

So today is National Poetry Day!

I'm prosaic so have no great insights to share myself.

However, I've just found out one of my new colleagues at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social, Jack Cooper, is a real honest-to-goodness poet! So below is one of his:

www.jackcooperpoet.com
@tamarindlit.co.uk

They were here when I arrived;
decadent strata of spots
in rich orange, red, and green,
a pointillist Zhangye Danxia
on the ceiling of my student en-suite.

They come back no matter how I try to kill them,
so I shower each morning
under a hundred spiteful sunrises,
a firework display
exploding in slow motion.

Mould
published on Young Poets Network

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 15d

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 15d

Second hand car dealerships, too.

Genuinely weird part of London!

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 20d

It is a brilliant article Janine - thanks! I'm always v jealous of the "Lunch with FT writer" - this goes into the top 10% of those for me!

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 20d

Actually a great question. The game last night showed a team with a set of pretty functional constituent parts, but no sense of a single vision of success, who got beaten by a team of similar quality but clearer vision (at least on offense).

Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 21d

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 21d

Looking sharp Mr Walsh - hope launch was a success!

#LongerBetterLivesWales

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Reposted by Owen Jackson

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 22d

This vagueness is a key tactic. If Farage outright rejected the anti-vax conspiracy he’d risk losing those voters; if he embraced it, he’d alienate moderates. By staying “open-minded” he signals to everyone that he’s on their side.

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 27d

All the massive nerds were thinking it. Me included.

Damn, going to have to go read it again.

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Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · 27d

I'm struggling to get wound up by a Minister for Business saying "I think it would be good for UK graduates to be more entrepreneurial". Sounds pretty sensible to me. Maybe I'm insufficiently Bluesky-brained today.

Owen Jackson @owenjackson.bsky.social · Sep 15

Onson Sweemey 👀

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