A controversial Scottish seabird hunt will not go ahead for the first time in 400 years, in what campaigners have called a “victory for common sense”.

In the annual guga hunt, up to 2,000 gannet chicks are killed over a 10-day period on the uninhabited Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir, 40 miles north of Lewis and Harris.

NatureScot, which is responsible for licensing, refused to allow this year’s hunt to go ahead, citing a potential “adverse impact” on gannet populations according to new modelling. All coastal wild bird colonies are at increased risk due to bird flu and climate change.

A petition to the Scottish Parliament to end the practice attracted more than 100,000 signatures. It was started by talented young wildlife photographer, Rachel Bigsby.. I am proud to have added my name to the petition.

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“A major survey by the ECFR in June found that Britons now regard Brexit as a “disaster”, with three-quarters wanting a closer relationship with the EU. One striking number: when asked to choose, 63% said they would prioritise the relationship with the EU over the US, with only 19% making the opposite choice.” Spotted on social media. Of course I had to fact check that. It does line up with recent polls from ECFR - European Council on Foreign Relations.

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Dispatch has been a nice extension of Claude Cowork. It’s available for mobile app and desktop. Dispatch enables you to start a task from your smartphone that is executed by Cowork on your own computer, at home or work. That computer needs to powered-on and running Claude desktop app (Mac/Windows/Linux). This means tasks can access all of your local data and memory. Much more useful than Claude.ai - the web chat interface that lacks access to your local files and context.

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OpenAI’s new model, Astra, is impressive for solving ten major open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science. However, the success of Astra in these specific domains does not guarantee its effectiveness in all areas, as it relies on the unique characteristics of math, such as verification and synthetic data. Gary Marcus says that the lack of transparency from OpenAI regarding the methodology and limitations of Astra raises questions about its broader applicability and potential pitfalls.

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Colin Gray gave his 14-year-old son an AR-15 for Christmas. That rifle killed four people at Apalachee High School. On Thursday, a Georgia court gave Colin Gray 15 years for murder. He didn’t pull the trigger. He is still going to prison. It’s only the third time a US parent has been convicted for a school shooting committed by their child - but legal experts are calling it a turning point.

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The reflecting pool was rushed, and the coating peeled. The East Wing was rushed into rubble. The plane was rushed, and had to be grounded for security upgrades. The tariffs were rushed, and then repeatedly rewritten, billions in refunds issued. USAID was dismantled before anyone had worked out who would administer its programs. Men were rushed onto deportation flights. Then the country was rushed into war. @Johnfdickerson - substack

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In the last two Chrome releases, Google fixed 1,072 security bugs. That’s more than the previous 23 milestones combined. AI wrote most of the fixes.

That chart is what software productivity gains actually look like when AI moves from experiment to pipeline. Two years of flat patch rates, then a spike that dwarfs everything before.

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I love a good chart. This one is devastating. I really hoped to confine the Covid Pandemic to history but the Republicans in Washington DC have unleashed all of the horrible memories in service of political theatre.

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Jerry Falade’s crime novel won a 14-way auction for over $2 million. Then an AI detector read it.

Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body attracted bids from fourteen publishers. Minotaur, Macmillan’s crime imprint, won. Film rights were in play. By any measure, this was an excellent story. Then AI detection tools flagged “fingerprints,” Falade’s agent lost faith, and the deal collapsed.

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