Simon Li
@penguinoops.bsky.social
Lab rat. Programmer. Cyclist. Climber. Interested in #OpenData and #OpenScience.
A statement on the dilemma caused by the UCU Sheffield boycott shortly before #RSEcon26 started and the £50,000+ loss that would occur if it was cancelled (it takes well over a year to organise the conference and contracts are signed months in advance)
society-rse.org/trustee-stat...
society-rse.org/trustee-stat...
September 9, 2026 at 9:05 AM
A statement on the dilemma caused by the UCU Sheffield boycott shortly before #RSEcon26 started and the £50,000+ loss that would occur if it was cancelled (it takes well over a year to organise the conference and contracts are signed months in advance)
society-rse.org/trustee-stat...
society-rse.org/trustee-stat...
This year's #RSEcon26 sponsors:
www.amd.com, aws.amazon.com, @biofair.bsky.social, www.bristol.ac.uk/research/cen..., www.hpc.cam.ac.uk/d-w-n, @theturing.bsky.social, dareuk.org.uk
...
www.amd.com, aws.amazon.com, @biofair.bsky.social, www.bristol.ac.uk/research/cen..., www.hpc.cam.ac.uk/d-w-n, @theturing.bsky.social, dareuk.org.uk
...
September 9, 2026 at 8:55 AM
This year's #RSEcon26 sponsors:
www.amd.com, aws.amazon.com, @biofair.bsky.social, www.bristol.ac.uk/research/cen..., www.hpc.cam.ac.uk/d-w-n, @theturing.bsky.social, dareuk.org.uk
...
www.amd.com, aws.amazon.com, @biofair.bsky.social, www.bristol.ac.uk/research/cen..., www.hpc.cam.ac.uk/d-w-n, @theturing.bsky.social, dareuk.org.uk
...
Finals of the last ever Climbing Works International Festival, and a very worthy winner!
www.youtube.com/live/VujOPDm...
#cwif #cwif2026 #climbing
www.youtube.com/live/VujOPDm...
#cwif #cwif2026 #climbing
The Rab Climbing Works International Festival 2026 (CWIF) - Finals
YouTube video by The Climbing Works
www.youtube.com
March 22, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Finals of the last ever Climbing Works International Festival, and a very worthy winner!
www.youtube.com/live/VujOPDm...
#cwif #cwif2026 #climbing
www.youtube.com/live/VujOPDm...
#cwif #cwif2026 #climbing
3 #AWS Availability Zones in the Middle East (including 2 in the same region!) have been hit by #Iran
health.aws.amazon.com/health/status
health.aws.amazon.com/health/status
March 2, 2026 at 6:51 PM
3 #AWS Availability Zones in the Middle East (including 2 in the same region!) have been hit by #Iran
health.aws.amazon.com/health/status
health.aws.amazon.com/health/status
It's been a while, but some good political news. The @greenparty.org.uk have won a by-election, beating Reform and Labour!
bylinetimes.com/2026/02/27/h...
#gordonandenton
bylinetimes.com/2026/02/27/h...
#gordonandenton
Hope Beats Hate: Green Party Defeats Reform and Labour in Huge Gorton and Denton By-Election Victory
A concerted political and media campaign to scare voters about a “Green Menace” winning this by-election failed, reports Adam Bienkov
bylinetimes.com
February 27, 2026 at 12:03 PM
It's been a while, but some good political news. The @greenparty.org.uk have won a by-election, beating Reform and Labour!
bylinetimes.com/2026/02/27/h...
#gordonandenton
bylinetimes.com/2026/02/27/h...
#gordonandenton
A pretty poor design choice by Google, encouraging developers to treat API keys as public, then introducing a service that allows them to be abused
trufflesecurity.com/blog/google-...
#cybersecurity
trufflesecurity.com/blog/google-...
#cybersecurity
Google API Keys Weren't Secrets. But then Gemini Changed the Rules. ◆ Truffle Security Co.
Google spent over a decade telling developers that Google API keys (like those used in Maps, Firebase, etc.) are not secrets. But that's no longer true.
trufflesecurity.com
February 26, 2026 at 9:20 AM
A pretty poor design choice by Google, encouraging developers to treat API keys as public, then introducing a service that allows them to be abused
trufflesecurity.com/blog/google-...
#cybersecurity
trufflesecurity.com/blog/google-...
#cybersecurity
Have you ever wondered what Torn by #NatalieImbruglia would sound like in Danish? Turns out the Danish version came first (ignore the video date)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyuG...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyuG...
Lis Sørensen - Brændt (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Warner Music Denmark
www.youtube.com
February 4, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Have you ever wondered what Torn by #NatalieImbruglia would sound like in Danish? Turns out the Danish version came first (ignore the video date)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyuG...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyuG...
UK newspapers grossly intentionally misrepresent the cost of #NetZero for the UK's energy system by omitting cost of running the existing system
youtube.com/shorts/PDNE7...
#ClimateChange
youtube.com/shorts/PDNE7...
#ClimateChange
How was this new report so badly twisted?
YouTube video by Simon Clark
youtube.com
January 20, 2026 at 8:56 AM
UK newspapers grossly intentionally misrepresent the cost of #NetZero for the UK's energy system by omitting cost of running the existing system
youtube.com/shorts/PDNE7...
#ClimateChange
youtube.com/shorts/PDNE7...
#ClimateChange
Is the UK finally going to stop appeasing Trump? I'd like to think so but I don't have much faith in our government at the moment 😑
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
US discussing options to acquire Greenland, including use of military - White House
It came as European allies rallied behind Denmark after renewed US insistence it must have Greenland.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 6, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Is the UK finally going to stop appeasing Trump? I'd like to think so but I don't have much faith in our government at the moment 😑
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Simon Li
This year has been brutal for the #climate movement.
Rollbacks, repression, & outright denial, especially in the US, have made progress feel fragile & uneven.
Which is exactly why it matters to pause & look back at what did move forward in 2025.
Here are 12 real wins 🏆, one for each month 🧵⬇️
Rollbacks, repression, & outright denial, especially in the US, have made progress feel fragile & uneven.
Which is exactly why it matters to pause & look back at what did move forward in 2025.
Here are 12 real wins 🏆, one for each month 🧵⬇️
January 1, 2026 at 9:09 AM
This year has been brutal for the #climate movement.
Rollbacks, repression, & outright denial, especially in the US, have made progress feel fragile & uneven.
Which is exactly why it matters to pause & look back at what did move forward in 2025.
Here are 12 real wins 🏆, one for each month 🧵⬇️
Rollbacks, repression, & outright denial, especially in the US, have made progress feel fragile & uneven.
Which is exactly why it matters to pause & look back at what did move forward in 2025.
Here are 12 real wins 🏆, one for each month 🧵⬇️
Reposted by Simon Li
A result which both illustrates the magnitude of the Reform threat and the problems with Labour’s “Farage is right, don’t vote for him” response. 37 point Lab to Reform swing. Labour go from first to 4th as anti-Reform vote splits 3 ways. Combined Lab/LD/Grn vote larger than Reform vote.
Red Hall & Lingfield (Darlington) Council By-Election Result:
➡️ RFM: 37.7% (New)
🌳 CON: 17.3% (-22.5)
🔶 LDM: 17.3% (New)
🌹 LAB: 16.8% (-37.1)
🌍 GRN: 9.8% (+3.6)
🙋 Ind: 1.0% (New)
Reform GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2023.
➡️ RFM: 37.7% (New)
🌳 CON: 17.3% (-22.5)
🔶 LDM: 17.3% (New)
🌹 LAB: 16.8% (-37.1)
🌍 GRN: 9.8% (+3.6)
🙋 Ind: 1.0% (New)
Reform GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2023.
December 12, 2025 at 12:31 PM
A result which both illustrates the magnitude of the Reform threat and the problems with Labour’s “Farage is right, don’t vote for him” response. 37 point Lab to Reform swing. Labour go from first to 4th as anti-Reform vote splits 3 ways. Combined Lab/LD/Grn vote larger than Reform vote.
Reposted by Simon Li
So depressing to see a Labour Home Secretary posting this kind of populist anti-immigrant boast on X. Everything about that is failure.
November 28, 2025 at 7:45 AM
So depressing to see a Labour Home Secretary posting this kind of populist anti-immigrant boast on X. Everything about that is failure.
@uklabour.bsky.social has a massive majority and enough time to make temporarily unpopular decisions that will genuinely improve people's lives. Instead they're bringing in immigration policies and divisive rhetoric aimed at an audience who probably won't vote Labour anyway
What changes will be part of the UK's asylum reform?
The PM sent Shabana Mahmood to run the Home Office precisely so that she would be radical.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 9:17 AM
@uklabour.bsky.social has a massive majority and enough time to make temporarily unpopular decisions that will genuinely improve people's lives. Instead they're bringing in immigration policies and divisive rhetoric aimed at an audience who probably won't vote Labour anyway
Something you may not have thought of if you ban IP addresses when you detect abuse- IPs are more likely to be shared by multiple (maybe 100s) of independent users in countries where internet adoption was slower due to bias in IPv4 allocations
www.theregister.com/2025/11/03/c...
www.theregister.com/2025/11/03/c...
ISPs more likely to throttle CGNAT traffic: Cloudflare
: When operators see danger, innocent users are dragged down along with bad actors
www.theregister.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Something you may not have thought of if you ban IP addresses when you detect abuse- IPs are more likely to be shared by multiple (maybe 100s) of independent users in countries where internet adoption was slower due to bias in IPv4 allocations
www.theregister.com/2025/11/03/c...
www.theregister.com/2025/11/03/c...
Worktrees: Git's best kept secret (and why you should use them) | Tom Ups
Tom Ups blog
www.tomups.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Simon Li
My statement on the formal recognition of the Palestinian state.
September 21, 2025 at 4:17 PM
My statement on the formal recognition of the Palestinian state.
@simonhettrick.bsky.social on the problems with the Research Excellence Framework in the UK. Software (and many other outputs) should be considered - but very few universities include them. 97.6% of submitted outputs were publications.
#RSEcon25
#RSEcon25
September 10, 2025 at 8:27 AM
@simonhettrick.bsky.social on the problems with the Research Excellence Framework in the UK. Software (and many other outputs) should be considered - but very few universities include them. 97.6% of submitted outputs were publications.
#RSEcon25
#RSEcon25
September 9, 2025 at 12:34 PM
#RSEcon25 kicks off with a keynote by @amandabrock.bsky.social from @openuk.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/book/44727
#opensource #openaccess
academic.oup.com/book/44727
#opensource #openaccess
September 9, 2025 at 8:38 AM
#RSEcon25 kicks off with a keynote by @amandabrock.bsky.social from @openuk.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/book/44727
#opensource #openaccess
academic.oup.com/book/44727
#opensource #openaccess
Reposted by Simon Li
Longstanding followers will know I have consistently tried to unpick concepts of race / ethnicity from genetics. TLDR; Race/Ethnicity - a self identification process about a categorical group is v different from the high dimensional variation in the genome despite a thin connection by visible traits
April 9, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Longstanding followers will know I have consistently tried to unpick concepts of race / ethnicity from genetics. TLDR; Race/Ethnicity - a self identification process about a categorical group is v different from the high dimensional variation in the genome despite a thin connection by visible traits
Reposted by Simon Li
We took over the giant screen at Farage’s big rally in Birmingham
March 28, 2025 at 9:50 PM
We took over the giant screen at Farage’s big rally in Birmingham
Should URLs in #JsonSchema IDs be resolvable? They don't have to according to the spec json-schema.org/understandin... but _should_ they be?
JSON Schema - Modular JSON Schema combination
JSON Schema
json-schema.org
March 28, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Should URLs in #JsonSchema IDs be resolvable? They don't have to according to the spec json-schema.org/understandin... but _should_ they be?