Stephen Curry

@scurry

Proud Ballymena Professor. Senior Strategic Advisor at RoRI; Emeritus Prof at Imperial. Former DORA Chair. Husband, father, carer - 24/7. Also cares about science & equity. Personal a/c. Writes occasionally at

1.127 Folgt6.073 Follower3.313 Posts

Bluesky

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Stephen Curry@scurry· 9d

15th “Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed”, Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff provides a useful handhold in a world of confusing possibility that is dominated by one of the richest & most notorious figures of recent times. Good review here by @himself.bsky.social: open.substack.com/pub/programm...

Cropped shot of the book cover showing the title about a blue sky with a white dissipating rocket vapour trail.

Stephen Curry@scurry· 9d

I got a carrot.

A deer with a carrot in its mouth, in dappled sunlight, green ferns in the foreground and shaded brown earth and trees behind.

Stephen Curry@scurry· 11d

Saw the Kapoor exhibition at the Hayward gallery. Weird fun (though not a fan of the entrails stuff). Not sure if it says anything.

A ‘hole’ in the gallery floor, with a low fence. People standing on the far side.

A large and undulating creation in red with a fabric like surface and a rectangular aperture.

A concatenation of reflections of the gallery building in a curved mirror

A large red inflatable ball stuffed into a rectangular space.

Stephen Curry@scurry· 12d

Lies.

Weather app showing forecast of drizzle for the next hour.

Stephen Curry@scurry· 14d

Tomato-based content.

A metal colander in bright sunlight filled with small, just-washed red tomatoes on a granite paving stone.

Stephen Curry@scurry· 15d

14th “Cities of the Plain”, the third and final part of McCarthy’s Border Trilogy doesn’t match the first two instalments for depth or intensity, but is still a mesmerising story of passion and loss that looks unblinkingly at life’s bitterness and beauty.

Bottom half of the cover of the trilogy. Brown grass in the foreground with wooden fencing blurred in the background. The text reads:

CORMAC MCCARTHY
THE BORDER TRILOGY

ALL THE PRETTY HORSES
THE CROSSING
CITIES OF THE PLAIN

Stephen Curry@scurry· 17d

Bromley run out 3-0 winners over Palace in the big South-East London derby.

Footballers contesting a corner in front of the Palace goal

Stephen Curry@scurry· 18d

Plenty more growing all over our garage if you need a refill.

Stephen Curry@scurry· 20d

Cormac McCarthy catching my present mood.

Short dialogue extract from Cities of the Plains. A conversation between two men:

“You sure you're okay?
Yeah. I'm all right. I just get to thinkin about things is all.
Yeah.
It dont help none though, does it?
Nope.”

Stephen Curry@scurry· 23d

13th Deighton’s “Berlin Game” is a far cry from his earlier “Ipcress File”, which i found a bit over-worked. It’s a taut, cynical and gripping story of spycraft, friendship and betrayal.

Top half of my paperback copy of Berlin Game. the author’s name and book title are at top left. Also visible a man in a flat-cap, scarf & coat beside a white BMW, the signature Berlin tv tower in silhouette in the background.

Stephen Curry@scurry· 26d

In this weeks Nature, some researchers have investigated the pollution of the literature by paper mills, while others are developing AI tools that will make it easier for paper mills to conduct their nefarious business. Pretty depressing.

Headline of a nature news article reads:

PAPER MILL CANCER STUDIES ARE CITED MORE THAN GENUINE PAPERS
Potentially fraudulent papers often cite each other and could be inflating journal impact factors.

Headline of a nature news article reads:

SCIENTISTS ALARMED BY TOOL THAT ERASES SIGNS OF AI WRITING
'Humanizer tool directs text-generation systems to remove phrases associated with artificial intelligence.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jul 10

12th Edward St Aubyn’s “Never Mind” is a novel about hateful people being mostly hateful to one another. Some have found it epic, charming and comic, but not this reader. Hated it a lot.

A beaten up paperback copy of Never Mind, half in shadow, half burnished by the sun. The title and author’s name are in white lettering on a pinkish background.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jul 4

Tiger, tiger, burning bright.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jul 1

Steady tiger.

A tiger moth, belly-side towards the camera, clings to a window with the blurred greenery of a garden behind. A pale spotted body, two dark eyes and a pair of brown wings, the right hand one damaged at the tip.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 29

The Crossing continues to reverberate in my head. I’ve gone back and bookmarked passages I want to re-read. Besides all the philosophy, there’s a lyrical toughness and tenderness to it, perhaps especially in the telling of the will hunting the first quarter of the book.

Excerpt from the book reads:

In and out of all depicting. The photographs that hung from the wire became for him a form of query to the world. He sensed in them a certain power and he guessed that the gorgios considered them bad luck for they would scarcely look at them but the truth was darker yet as truth is wont to be.

What he came to see was that as the kinfolk in their fading stills could have no value save in another's heart so it was with that heart also in anothers in a terrible and endiess attrition and of any other value there was none. Every representation was an idol. Every likeness a heresy. In their images they had thought to find some small immortality but oblivion cannot be appeased.
This was what his father meant to tell him and this was why they were men of the road. This was the why of the yellowing daguerreotypes swinging by their clothespegs from the cross-wire of his father's cart.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 27

11th The Crossing, the 2nd novel of McCarthy’s Border Trilogy is haunting, beautiful, magical & hard-bitten. A young American rancher journeys into Mexico on 3 different quests in a gripping story that is also a deep philosophical inquiry into the substructure of being. Outstanding. #BooksOf2026

Paperback copy of The Border Trilogy on a wooden table. On the cover, the book titles, author’s name superimposed on a blurred sepia photo of a wooden fence.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 26

Happy swinging! Coincidentally I used this old pic of me & my son in a talk earlier this week. We don’t get to the playground as often as we used to, alas.

A red haired man and a toddler in a red cap having a helluva time on a slide.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 25

A man is silhouetted standing staring at the sun, which fills the frame with its fiery glow.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 21

Thinking of the good days with my old man today. This was one in 1998.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 17

I know everyone’s watching the football but the moon and Venus are looking pretty special right now.

A thin crescent moon with Venus as a bright spot above and to the right. Silhouetted tree leaves in the foreground.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 17

Environmental despoliation is Musk’s M.O. See this piece on his Boring company. Maybe the @royalsociety.org could add it to the bio of their honoured fellow which cites Boring as one of his achievements. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Screenshot from linked article reads:

Private funding also enables Boring to avoid official oversight in Las Vegas and rigorous environmental analyses - which have often been why its projects have faltered elsewhere. Musk has publicly expressed his dislike of environmental regulation. "You have to get permission in advance, as opposed to, say, paying a penalty if you do something wrong, which I think would be much more effective," he told the libertarian Cato Institute last year.
Boring has some experience in this. Last October ProPublica alleged that it had violated environmental regulations nearly 800 times in Las Vegas in the last two years, including "starting to dig without approval, releasing untreated water on to city streets and spilling muck from its trucks, as well as missing 689 inspections. A separate report by Fortune alleged that Boring "feigned compliance" after one inspection, "only to continue dumping the wastewater after a company manager 'assumed district inspectors had departed the property'". There have also been reports of employees and firefighters suffering chemical burns and other injuries while working on the project - penalties for which seem to have been minimal.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 15

So that’s where Spain is.

Apple Maps image of Spain - below France and beside Portugal.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 14

So that’s where Curaçao is.

Map showing the location of the tiny island of Curacao- off the north coast of Venezuela.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 12

In the past week I have resurrected a 9 year old printer and a 20 year old record player, and reattached the handle on my favourite coffee mug. I fully expect to have my name inscribed in @markmiodownik.bsky.social’s book of good eggs.

Close up on the handle of a chunky orange mug showing cracks at the top and bottom.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 12

RIP David Hockney.

Pen and watercolour self-portrait of Hockney, in a jacket, checked shirt and dark tie staring straight at the viewer

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 10

"Fellows shall not act or fail to act in any way which would […] bring the Society into disrepute." But this morning ministers condemned Elon Musk FRS for enabling violence on the streets of Belfast. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026... Would the @royalsociety.org like to comment?

Extract from linked article reads:

"Violence in Belfast that forced families to flee their homes on Tuesday night was fuelled by online commentators who would struggle to find the city on the map, Northern Ireland’s justice minister has said.

The condemnation by Naomi Long came as a UK cabinet minister said that Elon Musk also had a responsibility “not to stoke grievance”. The billionaire owner of X had used his own account to share images of a horrific knife attack in Belfast on Monday and had amplified far-right messaging about it."

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 6

The Painted Hall x2

An ornate columned hall with a painted ceiling, reflecting in a mirrored table.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 6

10th in Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, Luke Kemp provides an extensive historical analysis of the rise & fall of ‘civilisations’. It’s a sobering read, at times insightful, if a little flabby and lacking in convincing prescriptions for the future. #BooksOf2026

Hardback copy of Goliath’s Curse - a red spine and white front cover, both with the title and author’s name. On the cover a black and white photo of a fallen statue.

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 5

Spent a while in the Painted Hall at the Old Naval College at Greenwich. Quite a space.

Wide angle view of ornate columned halls with painted ceilings and black & white tiled floor

A mirrored table on a black and white tiled floor with a detail of a painted ceiling reflecting in its surface

Stephen Curry@scurry· Jun 3

Just got my 9 year old Epson inkjet printer running again after it was stopped by an ‘ink pads full’ error. Who knew? Had to replace the pads and reset the waste ink counter. Thank you internet (and Printer Potty)!