Mark Foden

@markfoden.com

196 Followers 194 Following

Looking after the tech for a firm in London Hosting The Clock and the Cat complexity podcast Proceeding by experiment

Image of a completed Guardian cryptic crossword
As of July 2025, Joe Biden is the current and sitting President of the United States. He began his term on January 20, 2021, after defeating Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. There has not been another presidential election since then, so Trump is not currently president.
Picture of a paragraph of these words: "In any case, we soon learned that "the new plan, Just in from Washington" is to keep weirdos, foreigners, and other dangerous bad apples out of all National Forests in the nation, lest they set fires and spread anthrax or anything else that swarthy terrorists are wont to do. ... They are Evil, they are savage, and they must be arrested before they set fire to the whole goddamn country"
I like this book, and I especially like the title, which pretty well sums up the foul nature of life in the U.S.A. in these first few bloody years of the post-American century. Only a fool or a whore would call it anything else. It would be easy to say that we owe it all to the Bush family from Texas, but that would be too simplistic. They are only errand boys for the vengeful, bloodthirsty cartel of raving Jesus-freaks and super-rich money mongers who have ruled this country for at least the last 20 years, and arguably for the past 200. They take orders well, and they don't ask too many questions. The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation's problems would be another 100 Year War. Kingdom of Fear Hunter S Thompson 2003
Yanis Varoufakis on stage at the How The Light Gets In festival at Hay-on-Wye . He is smartly dressed in jeans, jacket and a red shirt. He is standing next to a cube serving as a table with large letters “iai” - the logo of the Institute of Art and Ideas which runs the festival.
Image of a festival session description call with the title Lies, Damned Lies and Misinformation Participants were journalists and broadcasters Phil Collins, Myriam Francois, Inaya Folarin Iman, Aaron Maté. Sophie Scott-Brown hosted We want to be able to identity political facts from political lies. But, it is becoming increasingly unknown how to tell the difference. Both sides in the last US election regarded the claims of the opposition as lies. According to Gallup research, 69% of Americans no longer trust mainstream media and 85% are worried about misinformation online. But the problem goes deeper. It is not clear what misinformation is and how it is substantiated since one side's facts are the other side's lies. The very label "misinformation" is sometimes itself uncovered as misinformation. Similarly, fact-checkers can themselves be a vehicle for a predetermined point of view. Should we stop seeing politicians as liars and accept that rhetoric and propaganda will always be a part of democracy? Alternatively, should we double down on removing bias, and demand that truth be central to politics? Or should we conclude that objective truth is an impossible standard to reach, and accept that there are alternative, radically differing perspectives that are capable of being held as true?
Governments should not rely on management consultants, contractors, or other third-party suppliers. Full-time, well-respected staffers who are properly compensated, competitively with the private sector, should be a core part of the solution. Instead, private sector salaries can be ten times their public sector equivalents in national critical roles: it's unsustainable.
The physicist Richard Feynman famously said, 'What I cannot create, I do not understand.' Today this couldn't be more true of governments and technology. I think the government needs to get way more involved, back to building real technology, setting standards, and nurturing in-house capability. It needs to compete for talent and hardware in the open market. There's no two ways about it: this is expensive and will come with wasteful mistakes. But proactive governments will exert far greater control than if they just commission services and live off outsourced expertise and tech owned and operated elsewhere.
A speaker session at the Weekend of Mistakes event shows two women on stage in discussion, seated under exposed wooden beams. One holds notes, while the other gestures expressively. Behind them is a screen displaying the word “Hackers” and images of computer hackers and tech figures, including Steve Jobs. The audience watches attentively. The atmosphere is informal and focused.
Four speakers sit on a brightly lit stage at Hay Castle during the “Weekend of Mistakes” event. Behind them, a screen displays the session title “The Gross National Happiness Index – Measuring What Matters” and the names of the panelists: Alice Sherwood, Professor Rachel Jenkins, Lord Gus O’Donnell, and Emma Slade. The panelists are engaged in discussion, with Emma Slade dressed in red monastic robes and Lord Gus gesturing as he speaks. The atmosphere appears thoughtful and informal.
A gathering of people in a historic-style venue with exposed stone walls and large windows. A man stands on a staircase addressing the crowd with a microphone. Attendees, some wearing red lanyards, are listening attentively, holding drinks, and browsing a display of books and postcards at a reception desk. A chandelier with multiple lights hangs from the ceiling. The atmosphere appears to be a formal or networking event.
Example of a Repost on X by Rory Stewart on 4 March 2025
A Facebook spokesperson similarly said in October 2021, 'Like every platform, we are constantly making difficult decisions between free expressions and harmful speech, security and other issues... But drawing these societal lines is always better left to elected leaders. In this way, the tech giants constantly shift the discussion to their supposed role as moderators of human-produced content and ignore the active role their algorithms play in cultivating certain human emotions and discouraging others. Are they really blind to it?
Ruins of buildings in Gaza at sunset, with debris and rubble covering the ground and a few people walking through the destruction
This image shows the GOV.UK ID Check app’s welcome screen. It features the GOV.UK logo at the top, a white crown symbol on a blue background. Below the logo, the text reads: “GOV.UK ID Check” followed by a description: “GOV.UK ID Check is a secure way to confirm your identity when you sign in to a government service with GOV.UK One Login.” At the bottom, there is a large green “Continue” button, indicating the next step in the app’s setup process. The background of the screen is black, and the text is white for clear visibility.
The image is a chart titled “Foods for thought” showing the consumption of ultra-processed foods as a percentage of total calories by country, based on studies conducted between 2015-2021. The horizontal axis represents the percentage of total calorie consumption (from 0% to 75%), while the vertical axis lists countries, including Britain, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Malaysia, France, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, and Italy. Key points include: • Britain, the United States, and Canada have the highest percentages, with multiple data points above 50%. • Brazil, Australia, and Malaysia show moderate consumption, with most data points around 25-50%. • France, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, and Italy display lower consumption, with data points mostly below 25%. Each country features multiple studies represented as red dots, showing variations within each nation. A single data point labeled “One study” is highlighted. The data source is “A systematic review of worldwide consumption of ultra-processed foods: findings and criticisms” by M. Marino et al., published in Nutrients, 2021.