Twitter won't allow me (successfully) add to this thread anymore. Possibly because the guy who built my car is now in charge. This is not a conspiracy. It's just that my car breaks down a lot so I'm not surprised that "X" does too.

Different budgeting periods, granted, but it is remarkable that Leinster/IRFU spunked away hundreds of thousands for a few months of Rieko Ioane last year when they knew they had to renew Lowe. He wasn’t even a popular signing when he was made. Dropped by NZ and not great here.

Like many Europeans, I woke up to news the US has ordered Anthropic to block any "foreign national" from its top models, so it pulled them for everyone. On the one hand, this is a wake up call of Greenland proportions for Europe. On the other, it is less dire than it looks. 🧵

This is, perversely, good news for Britain, Australia, Japan, Europe, and other countries being cut off that would once have seen themselves as close allies of the United States. It shows us what the future may hold if AI is the strategically and economically decisive technology of the 21st century and is controlled by the US and China. It is good news because *it may be happening early enough to give us time to act.* I think this will be rescinded pretty soon, but it’s a sign of things to come. In a future where frontier models cannot be used outside the US, our industries and economies will fall behind and American businesses may not be able to operate overseas. We won’t be able to defend ourselves militarily with defence systems built on obsolete software. Europe 2031 is a good scenario of what a future like this could mean: europe2031.ai Some of the things we need to do are ‘no regrets’ measures we should do anyway. But some are genuinely costly and risky. We need cheap electricity – powered by gas, coal (this is costly, coal is very bad), deregulated nuclear fission – whatever can provide *cheap, reliable, 24/7* power. This almost certainly excludes wind power, which is enormously expensive and unreliable. We need projects to be able to connect to the grid in days rather than years by paying for fast-track connections. We need to make it incredibly easy to build data centres, with the property taxes retained locally and hypothecated for local tax cuts so there is some direct benefit for locals. This doesn’t need to be nationwide. We need to create new regulatory regimes for innovative businesses that give them the right to hire and fire staff with ease. The difficulty and cost of firing staff is one of the main reasons Europe has fallen behind so badly. We need to create a parallel employment regime that companies and workers can opt in to: worksinprogress.co/issue/why… Even though I think it will probably fail, I think we should probably try to create a good, non-American frontier AI lab. I am quite pessimistic about this – even extremely well-resourced, innovative software companies are struggling to do this. But the stakes are so high that not trying seems foolish. One thing that might work in our favour is the number of brilliant AI engineers who are not US citizens, who under the current export controls do not have access to Mythos/Fable even if they live and work in the US. What happens to Demis Hassabis, Ilya Sutskever, Andrej Karpathy, and the many other Europeans, Canadians, etc who are working on AI models in Britain and America who are affected by this? I do not think we should force our own companies to use model, because this would exacerbate their economic weakness – this lab should have to compete on an even playing field. I am deeply sceptical that this can work, but we cannot rule it out. If we do it, it has to be able to pay US salaries, operate without political constraints. worksinprogress.co/issue/how… It is cope to tell yourself that Trump is an aberration or that these export controls are a one-off. To repeat, I think these specific controls will be lifted quickly and it will be easy to move on and forget it happened. But this is a look into a potential future. Every one of us that is not a US citizen is at risk. The standard political divides do not apply here; the question is whether you grasp the enormity of AI as a technology. We have to act!

We don't know all the details yet, but a few preliminary thoughts 🧵

These videos of Korean fans getting shitfaced in Mexico are all in good fun but none of it should be surprising if you know anything about Korean drinking culture

Astonishing government document here on the Occupied Territories bill. Among many things, it says enactment could have ‘a potentially significant adverse impact on Irish economic interests and operators.’ Analysing it, and the Aughinish saga, in @thecurrency tomorrow. assets.gov.ie/static/documen…

A plausible and frightening vision of Europe's near future, ending in economic collapse and vassal status under the US or China. Enjoyed reading it, although I feel a little depressed now. europe2031.ai/

My letter to the Prime Minister

What idiots are paying fees to sit with their children on flights? I’d pay not to sit with them.

RT @MayorofLondon: Complaining about nightlife when you *checks notes* choose to live in Soho is like living in South Kensington and compla…

One of the highlights of any football world cup is the South African team. They play with such passion and their fans are brilliant. Bafana Bafana truly are a joy to watch and they represent the best of South African culture and society. It makes such a refreshing change. 🇿🇦⚽

Quite sad about this. Can understand Leinster not being prepared to effectively pay him €50k or thereabouts for every game he is available to them but he is, and will remain, a great. Ireland will miss him.

He’s right. Rugby deep into June is crazy. But general enthusiasm has been down all season really. Everything has just felt a bit off, generally. 38,000 for both La Rochelle and the semi-final against Toulon is well below recent years.

Everyone’s screenshotting the 28% weight loss from Retatrutide, but look one column to the right. Same trial, same patients: knee arthritis pain down over 70%. Sleep apnea down over 60%. About 7 in 10 with prediabetes back to normal blood sugar. Obesity wasn’t just a weight problem. It was dragging four other diseases along with it, and on this drug, they all moved.

Retatrutide 12 mg → 28.3% weight loss at 80 weeks, 11.3% discontinuation due to adverse effects Tirzepatide 15 mg → 20.9% weight loss at 72 weeks, 6.2% discontinuation due to adverse effects Retatrutide showed higher efficacy at the top dose but with more dose-dependent dropouts. Lower doses performed well on both fronts, however. Direct head-to-head trials are underway and should provide clearer data later this year. Practical takeaway: Retatrutide offers greater weight loss potential for patients who tolerate higher doses, while tirzepatide remains a highly effective and better-tolerated option for many. Slow titration and individualized dosing are key with both. investor.lilly.com/news-rele…

What a time to be alive Comprehensive and broad-ranging ph3 data drop from LLY on #retatrutide at ADA yesterday, across obesity, obesity osteoarthritis, obesity sleep apnea, and diabetes A historic announcement in many ways, but the magnitude of the BMI category shifts (…aka cures) are particularly striking: >65% of patients with obesity achieved BMI < 30 (eg no longer obese!) and >33% of patients with obesity achieved BMI <25 (healthy weight!) investor.lilly.com/news-rele…

This is a hilariously disappointing result: 15% of placebo GLP-1 patients seemingly realized they weren't getting the real stuff and so they went out and got it on their own. They're undermining the trials because they want to lose weight!

This is very strange. It's a good thing that he's currently coaching a brilliant national side with a very magnanimous and completely not paranoid supporter base. Because otherwise it would be strange and a bit awkward.