Seb Schmoller

When your lovely dog has rolled on the rotting corpse of a large dead creature in the woods, and is resigned to treatment with warm soapy water.

Michael Atiyah 🇪🇬: Fields Medal 1966 (also Abel Prize 2004), for K-theory. Ahmed Zewail 🇪🇬: Nobel for Chemistry 1999, for his work on femtochemistry. Omar M. Yaghi 🇯🇴: Wolf Prize 2018, Nobel for Chemistry 2025, for his work on reticular chemistry Naguib Mahfouz 🇪🇬: Nobel for literature 1988

A few comments on Israel's exit polls. 1. The current government has been defeated, falling from 68 seats to 50. They lost about a quarter of their seats. They have no route to form a similar government. 2. The anti-Netanyahu opposition has 70 seats out of 120 - its highest ever result.

Callow Flats in Sheffield's Gleadless Valley Estate today.

Scattered thoughts on how doing math feels these days dynomight.net/math/

Interesting piece by @dkernohan.bsky.social: wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

Of course it isn't. The question is who has the courage to rein him in? From the consistently excellent nixons.substack.com/p/musks-powe...

Excellent editorial. Adult Education has been savagely treated for over 20 years. #Freedom-To-Learn #LifelongLearning www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Well you can't get much clearer than that. Restore are Putin stooges.

as.ft.com/r/81dd9374-a... How Lula turned his election fortunes around in three weeks

Lula Goes HARD

From Fermi to Dirac I was just reminded that exactly 100 years ago today, Enrico Fermi wrote this famous letter to Paul Dirac: That's why we call them Fermi-Dirac Statistics!

substack.com/@marijnmarku...

yes, don't disagree. Point of the chart was not to say that debt isn't an issue but that framing it as Kuenssberg did ("3 trillion and spiralling ever upwards") is just *terrible* journalism that shames the BBC

When asked how it felt to be described as one of the people who helped ‘save the internet’ this week, Ondřej Surý replied ‘It's kind of fulfilling because I sense my work has a purpose’ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Public service posting. Really worth your time.

France is looking ungovernable. And it’s going to get worse - as.ft.com/r/10c61c6b-9...

Witkoff called Putin a humanitarian today. Here is some of his humanitarian work:

Public service posting. Really worth your time.

John Humphrys remembers Aberfan: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If only Hartlepool had a successful FE college that offered highly regarded training in technical subjects, in partnership with the local post 92 University. www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/education/re...

What is the state of play ahead of Israel’s election on October 27? Alona Ferber explains the top five things to know before Israelis head to the polls, from the significance of these elections, to why the predicted outcome is still so unclear.

Loved this from Geoffrey Hinton “godfather of AI”, this afternoon, on the subject of humans & AI: “We’re behaving like we just got a very cute baby tiger as a pet. When it grows up, it can easily kill you if it wants to. There are only two options: kill it or make sure it never wants to”.

A 'SpaceX' investor said he’s not only “disgusted…from a humanity perspective” (by restrictions on Starlink in Ukraine), but also because: “.….they've given everybody a reason not to use Starlink, that Starlink isn't reliable for national security for anybody but Trump.”

wp.me/p15p2Q-hU4

A good milestone. There are now 100 plug-in solar kits listed as compliant on the official database, according to Plug-In Solar Register 27 are currently on sale, with the cheapest 2-panel option (2x460W) selling for £379 plus £55 delivery (cheapest single panel option is basically the same price)

📢 Journo request! Looking to speak to Sysadmins etc who have been - or are still - dealing with the PHP mayhem. Are you personally on the coalface of this? Have you been patching/ taking sites offline/ handling calls from customers? Can be anonymous if needs be. Please DM/ Signal me!

On the NYT the daily podcast, it was said yesterday that in Israeli polls, the government and the opposition "have roughly half the country". This is patently false. It only works if you exclude Arab voters and the two Arab parties. In the polls, the government has about 42% The opposition is 58%

As far as I'm aware the Supreme Court hasn't granted immunity from prosecution for President's son-in-laws. As yet. Extraordinary story if it's correct. Iran-Contra +++ and maybe more besides. www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-...

These are very significant changes to Treasury rules on public spending - with a distinct focus on place.

The list sent by Harold Wilson to his cabinet of “little things that mean a lot”, including the protection of local breweries, concessionary fares for the elderly, empty office blocks and “the future of the pint”. Echoes of this in Burnham’s small but popular policies today.

NCSC guidance has been updated to same similar: if you can't apply mitigations and patching, take it offline www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/critica...

Oh damn it's as bad as expected: If you are running anything on PHP turn it the hell off RIGHT NOW until you can patch it. Yes this means every single Wordpress, Drupal, and Wikimedia install. www.wiz.io/blog/php2she...

cc @royalsociety.org

Rifkind says what everyone else is thinking - the Emperor is naked.

On the "misalignment" of AI, by Andrew Brown: substack.com/@andrewbrown...

On the "misalignment" of AI, by Andrew Brown: substack.com/@andrewbrown...

Dozens of Jewish and Palestinian student activists disrupted Ben-Gvir’s speech at Tel Aviv University today, by standing on chairs and chanting “Fascist, get out!”

A skein of geese high above Sheffield's Cat Lane Woods, on my first solo walk with collie B after open heart surgery three weeks ago. Only 3 km, but I'm feeling blessed.

A great post by @lastpositivist.bsky.social about the "ostrich tendency" on the left (very prevalent here!) of those who are unwilling "to acknowledge the possibility of the average person in an advanced western economy simply not being markedly poor." sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-...

Yes and they should be utterly ashamed

Terrific review by @audreywatters.bsky.social:

At this point, Tesla marketing is shaped exactly the same as a phishing scam email: filter out all but the stupidest people in the world, and then fleece them for all they're worth

Some photos of the Ravens visit this morning!

We've got to put an end to land ownership secrecy which is perpetuated by the Land Registry. @guyshrubsole.bsky.social right to continue his work shining a light on the lack of urgency being brought to bear. This matters - to ensure that individuals who do own vast swathes of land are accountable.

If Putin stops fighting, the war ends. If Zelensky stops fighting then his country will be occupied, leaders murdered, language banned, businesses stolen, children kidnapped. That's what happens in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

It's worth listening to this.

Britain's economy keeps on growing, despite forecasts that it took a breather in August. 💥 GDP up 0.1% in Aug, against forecasts for a 0.1% drop 💥 Output now 2.1% higher y/y - biggest increase since Oct 2022 when it was bouncing back from COVID. 💥Exc. pandemic swings, biggest rise since Dec 2019

It's worth listening to this.