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Shadow Libraries, AI and the Casual e-Reader – Whither Publishing and Copyright ?

 Blog first published November 2022. Updated April 2023, January 2025, July 2026. Editors note: After a long period when the 'authorities' seemed to be in abeyance on take-downs of the much loved and well-used shadow-libraries, they re-started their war in early 2025 with a vengeance by taking down two of the most popular (Anna's Archive and LibGen), by forcing ISPs to introduce server blockages. I suspect the timing of this was no coincidence, given the imminence of a new US government regime likely to be less favourably inclined towards to this type of industrial censorship, and the frequent 'spats' between the UK Labour government and the new US regime. The war has continued into 2026, with no end in sight despite Trump's anti-censorship stance. This nonsense has gone on for long enough...and could easily be sorted if vested interests wanted it. High time for a look at reforming the publishing industry model, I think... See update 26.7.26 below for more detai...
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Are We Alone in the Universe ?

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  I first published this blog in February 2022, just before Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Given the mess we seem to be making of our home planet at present, a look at the possibilities of life elsewhere might be appropriate....  A    report   last year of  the possibility of life existing on another planet in another solar system also presented a good opportunity for a fresh look at the question. This seems even more relevant now, given the increasingly fragile state of our planet's ecosystem and our own continuing descent into resource-driven conflict. Present indications suggest that our society may not have long left, and all in all,  perhaps it's a fitting time to consider whether there might be a possibility of alternative accommodation for humans elsewhere in the universe.... The combination of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), CO2 and methane in the atmosphere of  exoplanet K2-18b in significant quantities is seen as a possible 'biomarker' for life t...
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Do we need another ‘Minister for Drought’ ?

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  Editors note: I wheel this blog out periodically when drought threatens to strike again, as it is doing now, despite the UK experiencing one of the wettest winters I can remember in 2025-6. The main problem with our drought resilience is that UK doesn't seem to be able to 'hold its water' nowadays...or is it perhaps we're using too much of the stuff cooling all these new AI data centres ?  One way or another, we need a bit of rain....AI won't save us if the raw material in question isn't there to do the job, particularly if its servers regularly overheat due to lack of cooling water. Here's hoping the rain gods will read this and oblige us with their bounty once again, as they did in '76! With the country teetering on the brink of a prolonged drought, and hosepipe bans coming in thick and fast, particulary in the parched South, we really need a good dousing...and some new reservoirs ! Incidentally, I can now answer my own question - Yes, and we now hav...
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