Tech–Aviation–History–Books @AeroSociety AEROSPACE @airandspace @BBC_Future @HISTORY @spectator |WINNER Aerospace Media Awards2025|Author N-4 DOWN @marinerbooks
Oxford
Joined April 2011
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I was gobsmacked to win an award at the Aerospace Media Awards in Paris last night for my article for @airandspace Quarterly on the Secret History of Drones.
Thanks to the editors and curators who made it possible!
#PAS2025 #ParisAirShow2025
Mark Piesing retweeted
Today’s Guardian finds it "astonishing" that Russell Brand, convicted of one count of rape and three sexual assaults yesterday, was “embraced as a serious social commentator” when he returned to Britain in 2013. Embraced by whom, sorry?
The paper gives its own role in promoting brand Brand one single line, noting he had already written columns for it. Yesterday’s big Guardian piece on TV insiders said "Brand’s case has led to difficult questions for the BBC, Channel 4 and the production companies that worked with him." Hilarious...
On an unrelated note Russell Brand's 137 written contributions to the Guardian are still online - 17 of which are after 2013 and which concluded in February 2015.
Long after the Andrew Sachs voicemails, the paper ran his opinion on Thatcher the day after she died, ran a GQ awards column over a large chunk of the front page in September 2013, and ran his column blaming Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death on “extremely stupid drug laws.” Not to mention the fawning praise from Owen Jones and the entire Labour establishment, including the now-Prime Minister...
Today’s piece also sniffs that critics lavished praise on his memoir, quoting its tale of Brand trailing a classmate 200 miles to Wigan as an early warning sign.
That particular book was serialised in the Guardian.
In October 2014 the paper put on a ticketed Guardian Live event, with Owen Jones interviewing Brand. It was broadcast live from the Emmanuel Centre.
That day Jones penned a piece in the Guardian attacking the “all-too-smug, seen-it-all-before snottiness” aimed at Brand. Two months later George Monbiot named him a hero of 2014, calling him “the best thing that has happened to the left in years”.
Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian's editor from 1995 to 2015, claimed in Prospect Magazine in 2023: "I only met him once, when he was writing a popular football column for the Guardian, along with the occasional commentary piece." Funny, seeing as the football column was pre-2010 and there is a photo of them snugly on the sofa together at the Guardian’s morning conference in August 2013...
Mark Piesing retweeted
I have just watched @AppleTV incredible Tenzing.
What a story, cast and cinematography!
It was shot entirely in sub-zero temps on glaciers and in real crevasses across Nepal and New Zealand.
It looks great on TV but watch it in the cinema if you can.
What a story!
The CEO of the US’s top AI chip manufacturer allegedly sleeping with a Chinese spy…
The story keeps getting crazier. To recap everything that has been reported so far:
- The US intelligence community discovered that Jensen Huang, the CEO of the largest company in the world, was sleeping with Alice Huang, a Chinese spy and an executive at Megaspeed. (FT)
- Multiple independent investigations have concluded that Megaspeed is likely a Chinese cutout, which helps Chinese companies access AI chips or circumvent export controls. (NYT and Bloomberg)
- The US intelligence community also concluded that Alice Huang’s goal was to convince Jensen to lobby the U.S. government to loosen export controls on advanced AI chips. (NYT)
- The intelligence community relayed this information to “a small group of top US government officials” earlier this year. (FT)
- Over the last year, Jensen Huang has repeatedly lobbied the U.S. government to loosen export controls on advanced chips. @BISgov has done so, not only by permitting the export of H200 chips to China, but also not enforcing export controls that would have required a license for exports of the most advanced Blackwell chips to Megaspeed and Southeast Asia.
- Although @CommerceGov leadership was presumably briefed on this information by the U.S. intelligence community, @BISgov has taken no actions to tighten controls on Megaspeed or Southeast Asia.
- Megaspeed remains a preferred cloud partner of Nvidia, and continues to receive Nvidia Blackwell chips despite employing a Chinese spy who reportedly is romantically engaged with the CEO of Nvidia.
- Tens of billions of dollars worth of AI chips have been exported to Southeast Asia this year alone, and Malaysia and Singapore are now two of the four largest importers of AI chips in the world.
What is going on here??? We need answers. The question of who gets the most advanced AI chips in the world is literally the defining strategic question of our time. And not only does it seem like the MSS may be directly influencing the debate on export controls in the United States, but also @CommerceGov is refusing to listen to the warnings of the IC on this issue. What is a POSSIBLE good explanation for why Megaspeed is still receiving chips? Why is there not a license requirement for AI chip shipments to all of Southeast Asia? This is beyond strange at this point.
The fallout from this story will be massive. Obviously, the motivations underpinning Nvidia’s policy views opposing export controls must now all be questioned. But also, how did @BISgov sit on this information and has still taken no actions? We need answers.
I have just watched @AppleTV incredible Tenzing.
What a story, cast and cinematography!
It was shot entirely in sub-zero temps on glaciers and in real crevasses across Nepal and New Zealand.
It looks great on TV but watch it in the cinema if you can.
Mark Piesing retweeted
The @BGPrize does it again!
I am in the middle of reading Edmund Richardson's Alexander: God, King, Man and it is breathtaking good book. It is an astonishing, sumptuous recreation of the life and world of Alexander Great. It's a must buy.
@BloomsburyBooks
🏆 The moment we’ve all been waiting for… Edmund Richardson has won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2026 with Alexander: God, King, Man.✨
Huge congratulations to Edmund and @BloomsburyBooks, and to all shortlisted authors for an extraordinary year of non-fiction.
Mark Piesing retweeted
You've got to love that Liz Truss was at Mar-a-largo the night that the midterm results came in..
The @BGPrize does it again!
I am in the middle of reading Edmund Richardson's Alexander: God, King, Man and it is breathtaking good book. It is an astonishing, sumptuous recreation of the life and world of Alexander Great. It's a must buy.
@BloomsburyBooks
🏆 The moment we’ve all been waiting for… Edmund Richardson has won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2026 with Alexander: God, King, Man.✨
Huge congratulations to Edmund and @BloomsburyBooks, and to all shortlisted authors for an extraordinary year of non-fiction.
Russia agreed to supply Iran with 90 helicopter missile launcher, according to leaked documents.
theguardian.com/world/2026/n…
Mark Piesing retweeted
"We're just cleaning it man"
Amid speculation that it could be returning to flight, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman teases to NSF that NASA is "just cleaning" their SR-71 Blackbird...
Mark Piesing retweeted
This is why I love the UK; we all agree when HM Government decided to jump over a cliff and commit suicide. The UK has, with Airbus UK in Stevenage all it takes to keep a key capability in the UK, ITAR-free, and also in EUROPE. Even if it does cost more now, it will pay in the future. UK has large medium satellites with Airbus and Surrey Space Technologies and micro satellites with Clyde Space in Glasgow. Alongside them, a plethora of companies are working on different subsystems. Write to your MP and stamp your feet; this is the time to do it. Made in the UK.
Despite a direction from me when Defence Secretary that the Skynet 6A , £2bn contract was too important to the UK space industry to offshore to Lockheed Martin it looks as if Wes is preparing to place the contract overseas. The damage it would do to Stevenage and the UK satellite industry would be irreversible and it was always assessed it could mean the end of the sector. Lockheed’s promises of factories in Newcastle were skin deep. The differences between types on offer were marginal. No.10 could, and should stop this. @AirbusDefence @wesstreeting @larisamlbrown @kevinbonavia @haynesdeborah
Mark Piesing retweeted
Your kids arent going to be working in the Space sector, your money isnt going to be spent in the UK, your security will be determined by the whims of the US president. RIP the UK space sector 1962-2026.
Despite a direction from me when Defence Secretary that the Skynet 6A , £2bn contract was too important to the UK space industry to offshore to Lockheed Martin it looks as if Wes is preparing to place the contract overseas. The damage it would do to Stevenage and the UK satellite industry would be irreversible and it was always assessed it could mean the end of the sector. Lockheed’s promises of factories in Newcastle were skin deep. The differences between types on offer were marginal. No.10 could, and should stop this. @AirbusDefence @wesstreeting @larisamlbrown @kevinbonavia @haynesdeborah
Thoughtful piece by @olivernmoody in @thetimes
West’s enemies are playing a new Great Game
In the skies and the deep, we wonder at discoveries while Russia and China plot strategic gain
thetimes.com/comment/columni…
Mark Piesing retweeted
When UK ministers talk about how they are spending £298bn over four years on their defence investment plan it sounds impressive.
But this is just the annual budget - including for recurring costs like canteen food, boots and light bulbs - lumped together from 2026-30.
We have analysed the numbers in the small print of the investment plan (DIP).
It shows that military chiefs are banking on tens of billions of additional pounds from 2030 and beyond.
Or else their own numbers do not add up.
Check out our rather rough and ready maths - and thank you to @FTusa284 for sharing your views! ⬇️
news.sky.com/video/is-there-…
Mark Piesing retweeted
The US is trying to pressure Lithuania to let Belarusian potash be shipped through their ports.
The response? "We say very clearly 'fuck no.' If Americans are not able to learn from history then we have to stand the ground."
Thank you Lithuania for your steadfast support.💙💛
Mark Piesing retweeted
For those who felt positive this morning with regards defence telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
Mark Piesing retweeted
The more I learn (from those involved) about what initiated this wholly unnecessary, clumsy, long and deeply damaging investigation into the UK COBRA-directed SAS Syrian detention operation in 2022, the more disturbed I become…
Seemingly initiated by @GenGJenkinsRM in his last three weeks of his time as DSF, he (alone) overruled the considered and well-advised judgement of the infinitely more experienced and better-informed SAS chain of command, as a self-serving “PR exercise” designed to demonstrate to a Panorama-triggered Whitehall that he and his staff will take media-generated, but unproven, accusations of war-crimes seriously.
On the face of it, this seems to be a particular egregious, Sulla-like example of a senior commander regarding loyalty to the troops as entirely transactional, and one that is quite willing to sacrifice their subordinates wellbeing when political expediency or personal ambition demands it.
If this impression is correct, then who else endorsed and supported it, and what message does that send to those involved in high-risk special operations today?
In 2022, five SAS soldiers shot dead two teenagers during an operation to detain an Islamic State target in Syria.
The Sunday Times has now revealed that the soldiers faced a three-year murder investigation before being cleared, which former SAS commander Richard Williams argues looks more like a public relations excercise than military judgement.
Watch in full | youtu.be/ye2pv3DTybQ @ShippersUnbound @williams_rje
Mark Piesing retweeted
25 years ago, @LockheedMartin was awarded the development contract for the F-35.
Next month is the 25th anniversary of the first Harry Potter movie, which was 2001's second greatest work of fantasy and imagination.
