Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday signal that Labour is willing to fight Boris Johnson over his Brexit legacy at the next election, setting out a five-point plan to tackle the economic pain caused by Britain’s EU exit.
In a big tactical shift, Starmer will use a speech to denounce the “mess” created by the UK prime minister’s 2020 Brexit deal and the breakdown of trust with the EU caused by the row over the trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
The Labour leader has until now shied away from talking about Brexit, fearing it would alienate Leave voters, but he has been emboldened by emerging evidence of the hit the departure has inflicted on the economy.
He will claim that Labour can “make Brexit work”, arguing that Johnson’s Brexit deal had contributed to a sense of a country that was “stuck”, with wages and growth stagnating and broken public services.
...
“Nothing about revisiting those rows will help stimulate growth or bring down food prices or help British business thrive in the modern world — it would simply be a recipe for more division,” he will say.
Labour would seek a veterinary agreement with the EU to cut onerous agrifood checks, mutual recognition of product standards and a deal on mobility to facilitate short business trips and help artists tour in Europe.
Starmer would use the agrifood deal to remove most checks on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and negotiate a trusted trader scheme to end the stand-off with Brussels over the rules, contained in the part of the Brexit deal called the Northern Ireland Protocol.
So he’s saying he will accept the EU’s proposal then?
I see today that the government's latest plan for housing is to introduce 50 year mortgages.
It just beggars belief. We have had 14 years since the financial crisis and we still seem unable or unwilling to deal with the fundamental problem with the British economy. What you might call the banking financial property complex. The solution to unaffordable housing is always to make credit more easily available. Is Starmer set to pounce and call this out for what it is? I'm not holding my breath. But before you pile in on Starmer have the Lib Dems said anything. Has Blair or any other elder statesman ever felt the need to comment?
Don't the french have 50 year mortgages?
I don't understand the controversy about this and there seems to be a lot of misinformation going around. You can already get 'lifetime' mortgages in old age to release equity; why not just have a longer repayment period when you take out the mortgage? Surely pension income is just as secure as employment income.
The point of very long term mortgages isn't to make it easier for more people who don't already own a house to buy one. It's to increase competition for the limited stock of property available and, therefore, to make the assets of existing homeowners more valuable.
The housing market is custom rigged to inflate demand and constrict supply, so as to make older voters who are already owner-occupiers feel richer, and enable them to pass on a vast trove of wealth to their children when they die. The grey vote has the politics of the country in a choke hold, its main priorities are boosting the value of pensions and house prices, so that's what happens.
It's no wonder that this country has such a problem with lack of productivity and business investment when so much of the national wealth is locked up in dead piles of bricks that do nothing, save for enabling banks and landlords to bleed the finances of mortgage payers and renters white. If housing costs for most people of working age were reasonable rather than extortionate, average disposable incomes would be much higher, levels of deprivation much lower, and the economy would be transformed accordingly. But no, we must have stupidly expensive homes because this suits existing owners, hence the fact that virtually any attempt to build new ones is (a) punished at the ballot box and (b) fought tooth and nail by hordes of furious nimbies.
UK house prices relative to average earnings don't seem markedly different to anywhere else in Europe to my untutored and ignorant eye. Is any country doing it right? Accepting that right means affordable houses to buy for young people in places they actually want to live.
Countries with plenty of land and easy planning laws also seem to have absurd house prices, such as Australia and New Zealand. Its as if the problem is cheap loans, not expensive houses and that people will borrow to the limit of what they can afford.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BrianDeLay/status/1542893676031926272 The nation's foremost historian of the 2nd Amendment calls Clarence Thomas's majority opinion in Bruen "one of the most intellectually dishonest and poorly argued decisions in American judicial history."
I see today that the government's latest plan for housing is to introduce 50 year mortgages.
It just beggars belief. We have had 14 years since the financial crisis and we still seem unable or unwilling to deal with the fundamental problem with the British economy. What you might call the banking financial property complex. The solution to unaffordable housing is always to make credit more easily available. Is Starmer set to pounce and call this out for what it is? I'm not holding my breath. But before you pile in on Starmer have the Lib Dems said anything. Has Blair or any other elder statesman ever felt the need to comment?
I was thinking about that over the weekend. Started in the same place as you. But I think there may be something to it.
Create social enterprises that can only lend to current renters looking to buy their properties. The 50 year term should effectively mean it’s the same cost as renting once you take into account the costs and obligations of ownership. On sale of the property the debt needs to be refinanced by a commercial lender.
There are a lot of details to be worked through, but there might be something there if it’s done right
Morning all! The problem with "just build a lot more houses" is that the developers build for profit rather than need. The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes. It needs apartment blocks in towns with communal facilities like restaurants and open spaces.
London seems to manage to build these - albeit at "market rates" which means the price is stupid. But little anywhere else. Doesn't help that post Grenfell nobody trusts the industry or the government not to build death traps for profit.
As I have said before the solution is to spin out Housing Associations to commercially build these snazzy apartment blocks who h are never ever up for sale. Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford, take the lunacy out of the market and rebalance things so that renting - at same prices that don't pay someone else's mortgage - becomes normal as it is in places like Germany.
"... developers build for profit rather than need."
Yes, how dare someone want to make a profit! I assume your cafe will do no more than break even?
"The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes."
And the planners who allow the plans through (often on the back of a local plan) allow them to build those developments. And often, locals already in the area prefer 'executive homes' to be built rather than cheap ones that may decrease the value of *their* property - so the objections are fewer. I've seen that around my way.
"Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford,"
If only it was that easy. Short-cuts to building cheaply often have consequences for the future. And the more regulations that are put on builders - often rightly - the greater the cost of building that property.
Is still pink wine supposed to be chilled like white wine or left out like red wine?
The former. Indeed red isn’t supposed to be ‘left out’ - cellar temperature is lower than room temperature and this can be simulated by half an hour in the fridge.
Brits typically drink white wine too cold and red wine too warm but of course it's up to individual taste.
A mildly amusing party trick is to see if, unseen, people can tell the difference between red and white wine at room temperature. (They can't.)
Two glasses of the same white wine, one with red food colouring in it, get very different tasting notes.
Blake Masters, who worked for Peter Thiel as head of his foundation, and while undoubtedly smart, seems to lack the normal range of human emotions and facial expressions
Sounds like he could go far.
Ah Peter Thiel. Who had some (ahem) interesting views on rape, and who believes that 'competition is for losers'.
"Instead of seeking to win through competition, founders of new companies should build monopolies."
It's coming to the stage where I'm starting to want to see Musk brought down a level or three. And Thiel with him.
Baroness Chapman tells #KayBurley that there were "widespread rumours" about Chris Pincher and she 'finds it impossible to believe that Boris Johnson wasn't aware of them'.
Downing St line that "unsubstantiated" claims were not grounds to block Pincher appointment prompts Q: why did PM, on hearing allegations of sex-pestery, not care whether or not they were substantiated?
It's not really a defence, is it. Oh, we knew everyone *said* that about him, but the PM didn't think that was a problem.
Blake Masters, who worked for Peter Thiel as head of his foundation, and while undoubtedly smart, seems to lack the normal range of human emotions and facial expressions
Sounds like he could go far.
Ah Peter Thiel. Who had some (ahem) interesting views on rape, and who believes that 'competition is for losers'.
"Instead of seeking to win through competition, founders of new companies should build monopolies."
It's coming to the stage where I'm starting to want to see Musk brought down a level or three. And Thiel with him.
Thiel and Musk really don’t like each other
It seems to vary - their relationship is 'complicated'. But AIUI Thiel's funds have massive (and early) investment in SpaceX.
Morning all! The problem with "just build a lot more houses" is that the developers build for profit rather than need. The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes. It needs apartment blocks in towns with communal facilities like restaurants and open spaces.
London seems to manage to build these - albeit at "market rates" which means the price is stupid. But little anywhere else. Doesn't help that post Grenfell nobody trusts the industry or the government not to build death traps for profit.
As I have said before the solution is to spin out Housing Associations to commercially build these snazzy apartment blocks who h are never ever up for sale. Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford, take the lunacy out of the market and rebalance things so that renting - at same prices that don't pay someone else's mortgage - becomes normal as it is in places like Germany.
HMG should develop new towns away from London, not just to provide new homes but to help with levelling up, not building more tower blocks in an already overheated south-east.
Slightly annoyed by this piece- it's excellent but I was writing one on the same topic.
With the same conclusion?
There's a lot in flux at the moment. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Democrats lost Colorado or New Hampshire (especially if Trump is neutralised before October) nor would I fall over if the Republicans lost Wisconsin or even Missouri due to some candidate idiocy.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BrianDeLay/status/1542893676031926272 The nation's foremost historian of the 2nd Amendment calls Clarence Thomas's majority opinion in Bruen "one of the most intellectually dishonest and poorly argued decisions in American judicial history."
It certainly sounded very creative. I like the description of current 'originalism' being more an act of ventriloquism, and how no evidence is enough for gun laws, but no evidence is too little to be against them.
For @Leon - if you're going to Albania, I think you should visit Elton county
Petrit Selimi @Petrit Interesting map of most frequent names in Albania where you really see diversity of the country. Ndue (Anthony) in Catholic north, Bajram in the Muslim majority east, Vasil (Basil) in the Orthdox south, and prevalence of Arben, a non-religious, ethnic name in huge chunk of 🇦🇱. https://twitter.com/Petrit/status/1543852934412337154
Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday signal that Labour is willing to fight Boris Johnson over his Brexit legacy at the next election, setting out a five-point plan to tackle the economic pain caused by Britain’s EU exit.
In a big tactical shift, Starmer will use a speech to denounce the “mess” created by the UK prime minister’s 2020 Brexit deal and the breakdown of trust with the EU caused by the row over the trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
The Labour leader has until now shied away from talking about Brexit, fearing it would alienate Leave voters, but he has been emboldened by emerging evidence of the hit the departure has inflicted on the economy.
He will claim that Labour can “make Brexit work”, arguing that Johnson’s Brexit deal had contributed to a sense of a country that was “stuck”, with wages and growth stagnating and broken public services.
...
“Nothing about revisiting those rows will help stimulate growth or bring down food prices or help British business thrive in the modern world — it would simply be a recipe for more division,” he will say.
Labour would seek a veterinary agreement with the EU to cut onerous agrifood checks, mutual recognition of product standards and a deal on mobility to facilitate short business trips and help artists tour in Europe.
Starmer would use the agrifood deal to remove most checks on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and negotiate a trusted trader scheme to end the stand-off with Brussels over the rules, contained in the part of the Brexit deal called the Northern Ireland Protocol.
So he’s saying he will accept the EU’s proposal then?
To paraphrase Tony Blair, what matters is what works. What does it matter whose proposal this is? What we have now does not work. So we fix it.
Breaking: Boris Johnson himself remains at the bottom of our [ConHome] Cabinet League Table for a second month running, with his score falling from -15 to -31.
Minister Will Quince refuses four times to say if he had heard rumours about Chris Pincher’s inappropriate sexual behaviour before he became chief whip.
Sticks to the line “there were no specific allegations”
This was definitely one of those cases where an attempt to cover one's arse by including a specific word, in this case specific, was far far too obvious to work.
Slightly annoyed by this piece- it's excellent but I was writing one on the same topic.
With the same conclusion?
There's a lot in flux at the moment. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Democrats lost Colorado or New Hampshire (especially if Trump is neutralised before October) nor would I fall over if the Republicans lost Wisconsin or even Missouri due to some candidate idiocy.
Morning all! The problem with "just build a lot more houses" is that the developers build for profit rather than need. The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes. It needs apartment blocks in towns with communal facilities like restaurants and open spaces.
London seems to manage to build these - albeit at "market rates" which means the price is stupid. But little anywhere else. Doesn't help that post Grenfell nobody trusts the industry or the government not to build death traps for profit.
As I have said before the solution is to spin out Housing Associations to commercially build these snazzy apartment blocks who h are never ever up for sale. Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford, take the lunacy out of the market and rebalance things so that renting - at same prices that don't pay someone else's mortgage - becomes normal as it is in places like Germany.
"... developers build for profit rather than need."
Yes, how dare someone want to make a profit! I assume your cafe will do no more than break even?
"The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes."
And the planners who allow the plans through (often on the back of a local plan) allow them to build those developments. And often, locals already in the area prefer 'executive homes' to be built rather than cheap ones that may decrease the value of *their* property - so the objections are fewer. I've seen that around my way.
"Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford,"
If only it was that easy. Short-cuts to building cheaply often have consequences for the future. And the more regulations that are put on builders - often rightly - the greater the cost of building that property.
I have no problem with profit! But corporarte profit cannot overrule societal need. Developers could make a profit from building different kinds of housing. But as they don't care that they are cramming in no cat-swinging hate boxes that people can't afford, that is what they build.
As for planning, you do understand how this works? Developers hold councils hostage. Unless the council is building what the government deems to be sufficient houses, then developers automatically win appeals to overturn planning decisions. It is the developer's charter - build what they like where they like and you can't stop them. To add to the fun, having gained planning permission simply don't actually build, so that the council is in deficit on numbers, so you can then build what you like where you like.
As for regulations, are we really saying that not allowing QuikBurn cladding and not having an inspection system where everyone turns a blind eye that allows GenericDeffoNotQuickBurn cladding to "accidentally" be used is impossible?
The problem is the market. I am not against private enterprise - far from it. But there are responsibilities that have to be met. And they are not.
Hmm, it looks as though Bailey is stacking the MPC with other toady doves, he's replaced a hawk who had twice voted for the half point interest rate rise with someone who doesn't think rates need to go up.
How has a once great institution become so infected. Inflation about to rise to 11% and the newest MPC member is talking about gradual or *no* rises to interest rates.
Breaking: Boris Johnson himself remains at the bottom of our [ConHome] Cabinet League Table for a second month running, with his score falling from -15 to -31.
Someone remind the leftists of ConHome readers that everyone in the universe simply wants Boris to get on with the job of delivering for the British people and to move on.
I'm not sure how everyone communicated that, but the Cabinet seem to think that's the message they are getting.
Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday signal that Labour is willing to fight Boris Johnson over his Brexit legacy at the next election, setting out a five-point plan to tackle the economic pain caused by Britain’s EU exit.
In a big tactical shift, Starmer will use a speech to denounce the “mess” created by the UK prime minister’s 2020 Brexit deal and the breakdown of trust with the EU caused by the row over the trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
The Labour leader has until now shied away from talking about Brexit, fearing it would alienate Leave voters, but he has been emboldened by emerging evidence of the hit the departure has inflicted on the economy.
He will claim that Labour can “make Brexit work”, arguing that Johnson’s Brexit deal had contributed to a sense of a country that was “stuck”, with wages and growth stagnating and broken public services.
...
“Nothing about revisiting those rows will help stimulate growth or bring down food prices or help British business thrive in the modern world — it would simply be a recipe for more division,” he will say.
Labour would seek a veterinary agreement with the EU to cut onerous agrifood checks, mutual recognition of product standards and a deal on mobility to facilitate short business trips and help artists tour in Europe.
Starmer would use the agrifood deal to remove most checks on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and negotiate a trusted trader scheme to end the stand-off with Brussels over the rules, contained in the part of the Brexit deal called the Northern Ireland Protocol.
So he’s saying he will accept the EU’s proposal then?
To paraphrase Tony Blair, what matters is what works. What does it matter whose proposal this is? What we have now does not work. So we fix it.
It works for the EU not the UK.
They are demanding dynamic alignment.
If the EU stuck to their agreement on a sensible trusted trader scheme this would all be resolved
Morning all! The problem with "just build a lot more houses" is that the developers build for profit rather than need. The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes. It needs apartment blocks in towns with communal facilities like restaurants and open spaces.
London seems to manage to build these - albeit at "market rates" which means the price is stupid. But little anywhere else. Doesn't help that post Grenfell nobody trusts the industry or the government not to build death traps for profit.
As I have said before the solution is to spin out Housing Associations to commercially build these snazzy apartment blocks who h are never ever up for sale. Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford, take the lunacy out of the market and rebalance things so that renting - at same prices that don't pay someone else's mortgage - becomes normal as it is in places like Germany.
"... developers build for profit rather than need."
Yes, how dare someone want to make a profit! I assume your cafe will do no more than break even?
"The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes."
And the planners who allow the plans through (often on the back of a local plan) allow them to build those developments. And often, locals already in the area prefer 'executive homes' to be built rather than cheap ones that may decrease the value of *their* property - so the objections are fewer. I've seen that around my way.
"Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford,"
If only it was that easy. Short-cuts to building cheaply often have consequences for the future. And the more regulations that are put on builders - often rightly - the greater the cost of building that property.
I have no problem with profit! But corporarte profit cannot overrule societal need. Developers could make a profit from building different kinds of housing. But as they don't care that they are cramming in no cat-swinging hate boxes that people can't afford, that is what they build.
As for planning, you do understand how this works? Developers hold councils hostage. Unless the council is building what the government deems to be sufficient houses, then developers automatically win appeals to overturn planning decisions. It is the developer's charter - build what they like where they like and you can't stop them. To add to the fun, having gained planning permission simply don't actually build, so that the council is in deficit on numbers, so you can then build what you like where you like.
As for regulations, are we really saying that not allowing QuikBurn cladding and not having an inspection system where everyone turns a blind eye that allows GenericDeffoNotQuickBurn cladding to "accidentally" be used is impossible?
The problem is the market. I am not against private enterprise - far from it. But there are responsibilities that have to be met. And they are not.
The second para is key. It really screws everyone over.
I'm a hawk on house building, but the developers definitely hold back so they can unlock areas that otherwise theyd not get permission for.
Hmm, it looks as though Bailey is stacking the MPC with other toady doves, he's replaced a hawk who had twice voted for the half point interest rate rise with someone who doesn't think rates need to go up.
How has a once great institution become so infected. Inflation about to rise to 11% and the newest MPC member is talking about gradual or *no* rises to interest rates.
This country is fucked.
And you are trapped in 1980s orthodoxy. Inflation is caused by Covid disrupting manufacturing supply chains, and the special military operation blocking export of hard and soft commodities from Russia and Ukraine.
Minister Will Quince refuses four times to say if he had heard rumours about Chris Pincher’s inappropriate sexual behaviour before he became chief whip.
Sticks to the line “there were no specific allegations”
https://mobile.twitter.com/BrianDeLay/status/1542893676031926272 The nation's foremost historian of the 2nd Amendment calls Clarence Thomas's majority opinion in Bruen "one of the most intellectually dishonest and poorly argued decisions in American judicial history."
It certainly sounded very creative. I like the description of current 'originalism' being more an act of ventriloquism, and how no evidence is enough for gun laws, but no evidence is too little to be against them.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
Interesting piece about the proposed DfE 'reforms' to 'improve' provision for special needs schooling in England. A relative of mine had to be sent to a special needs school, so I'm all too familiar with the basic notions, but it's not something my family need to worry about now. But what really strikes me is how hypocritical the proposals seem at a time when the mantra is repeatedly chanted on PB and elsewhere that Conservative policies on schooling are to improve them through 'choice'.
'The green paper proposes to put two new hurdles in the way of families who want to take their case to the Send tribunal: compulsory mediation of their dispute with a local authority, which often turns out to be a waste of time; and the referral of cases to supposedly independent panels that insiders fear will be appointed by councils and therefore be barely independent at all. Instead of a system that allows parents to build their case around a school or college of their choosing, an unspecified body – possibly the same “independent” panel – will present them with a “tailored list of settings”. The text includes a hair-raising change to annual reviews of an EHCP: a requirement to discuss “cessation” – in other words, taking it away.
The most worrying proposal provides the context for these changes: whereas the current system enshrines the fundamental principle that a child or young person’s needs have to dictate the provision they receive, the green paper suggests “a new national framework of banding and price tariffs for funding”, which looks like the first stirrings of the system explicitly being built around the tightening of budgets.'
Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday signal that Labour is willing to fight Boris Johnson over his Brexit legacy at the next election, setting out a five-point plan to tackle the economic pain caused by Britain’s EU exit.
In a big tactical shift, Starmer will use a speech to denounce the “mess” created by the UK prime minister’s 2020 Brexit deal and the breakdown of trust with the EU caused by the row over the trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
The Labour leader has until now shied away from talking about Brexit, fearing it would alienate Leave voters, but he has been emboldened by emerging evidence of the hit the departure has inflicted on the economy.
He will claim that Labour can “make Brexit work”, arguing that Johnson’s Brexit deal had contributed to a sense of a country that was “stuck”, with wages and growth stagnating and broken public services.
...
“Nothing about revisiting those rows will help stimulate growth or bring down food prices or help British business thrive in the modern world — it would simply be a recipe for more division,” he will say.
Labour would seek a veterinary agreement with the EU to cut onerous agrifood checks, mutual recognition of product standards and a deal on mobility to facilitate short business trips and help artists tour in Europe.
Starmer would use the agrifood deal to remove most checks on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and negotiate a trusted trader scheme to end the stand-off with Brussels over the rules, contained in the part of the Brexit deal called the Northern Ireland Protocol.
So he’s saying he will accept the EU’s proposal then?
To paraphrase Tony Blair, what matters is what works. What does it matter whose proposal this is? What we have now does not work. So we fix it.
It works for the EU not the UK.
They are demanding dynamic alignment.
If the EU stuck to their agreement on a sensible trusted trader scheme this would all be resolved
As we do not stick to agreements there can be no trusted trader scheme. We cannot be trusted. A new government can fix this. And again, we are aligned to the EEA and we will remain so. We have abandoned - permanently - the plan to have different standards and maintain a difference. With no ability to check anything coming into the GB from the EU a different standards regime is a fantasy. What they do we will get. By default.
True, but missing the main point. Usually when ministers no-one has ever heard of are put up their job is to protect their superiors. This chap was very clear that the person he was protecting was no-one in 10 Downing St but Will Quince.
What he said amounts to "I wasn't there. No idea. Number 10 says its all fine. If you listen carefully I am not saying I believe that, but you might miss that if Nick Robinson keeps on talking"
Hmm, it looks as though Bailey is stacking the MPC with other toady doves, he's replaced a hawk who had twice voted for the half point interest rate rise with someone who doesn't think rates need to go up.
How has a once great institution become so infected. Inflation about to rise to 11% and the newest MPC member is talking about gradual or *no* rises to interest rates.
This country is fucked.
And you are trapped in 1980s orthodoxy. Inflation is caused by Covid disrupting manufacturing supply chains, and the special military operation blocking export of hard and soft commodities from Russia and Ukraine.
And yet pushing up sterling will bring immediate relief against most of the imported inflation. There's no end in sight as we continue to fall behind the Fed and sterling progressively weakens importing yet more commodity price inflation which feeds through into energy and petrol prices as well as food and other net imported commodities.
Even if dollar oil and gas prices fall (the first might, the second is unlikely) the price in sterling won't as weakening currency erodes those price falls.
All because Bailey doesn't want to burst the housing bubble and impoverish rich older landlords who made the wrong investment.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
Aside from writing and illustrating on-demand, bespoke pornography, where is this going?
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
Hmm, it looks as though Bailey is stacking the MPC with other toady doves, he's replaced a hawk who had twice voted for the half point interest rate rise with someone who doesn't think rates need to go up.
How has a once great institution become so infected. Inflation about to rise to 11% and the newest MPC member is talking about gradual or *no* rises to interest rates.
This country is fucked.
Oh Lord give us sustainable monetary policy & affordable housing but not just yet.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
Interesting piece about the proposed DfE 'reforms' to 'improve' provision for special needs schooling in England. A relative of mine had to be sent to a special needs school, so I'm all too familiar with the basic notions, but it's not something my family need to worry about now. But what really strikes me is how hypocritical the proposals seem at a time when the mantra is repeatedly chanted on PB and elsewhere that Conservative policies on schooling are to improve them through 'choice'.
'The green paper proposes to put two new hurdles in the way of families who want to take their case to the Send tribunal: compulsory mediation of their dispute with a local authority, which often turns out to be a waste of time; and the referral of cases to supposedly independent panels that insiders fear will be appointed by councils and therefore be barely independent at all. Instead of a system that allows parents to build their case around a school or college of their choosing, an unspecified body – possibly the same “independent” panel – will present them with a “tailored list of settings”. The text includes a hair-raising change to annual reviews of an EHCP: a requirement to discuss “cessation” – in other words, taking it away.
The most worrying proposal provides the context for these changes: whereas the current system enshrines the fundamental principle that a child or young person’s needs have to dictate the provision they receive, the green paper suggests “a new national framework of banding and price tariffs for funding”, which looks like the first stirrings of the system explicitly being built around the tightening of budgets.'
There may well be issues but I will say the fear of independent panels is probably generally inflated, since education appeals panels for instance frequently look for reasons to say yes rather than no. And I've seen parents fight tooth and nail to send people with particular needs somewhere, fail, then find the place sent was great and fight tooth and nail against changing that.
Not to say we shouldn't wary of the plans, but simply that sometimes fears are wrong.
The BBC, including Nick Robinson (who is none the less a generally good thing) have a fondness, once the story has broken, of saying "Of course we all knew that, we have done for years. But of course we are not going to divulge any of this to the plebs who pay us until it is safe to do so. News management, not news is our main stock in trade".
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
THe hand is crap, though, as any 5 year old can tell you. Hard to be sure of the number of digits, but there are at least twice as many as needed.
Morning all! The problem with "just build a lot more houses" is that the developers build for profit rather than need. The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes. It needs apartment blocks in towns with communal facilities like restaurants and open spaces.
London seems to manage to build these - albeit at "market rates" which means the price is stupid. But little anywhere else. Doesn't help that post Grenfell nobody trusts the industry or the government not to build death traps for profit.
As I have said before the solution is to spin out Housing Associations to commercially build these snazzy apartment blocks who h are never ever up for sale. Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford, take the lunacy out of the market and rebalance things so that renting - at same prices that don't pay someone else's mortgage - becomes normal as it is in places like Germany.
"... developers build for profit rather than need."
Yes, how dare someone want to make a profit! I assume your cafe will do no more than break even?
"The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes."
And the planners who allow the plans through (often on the back of a local plan) allow them to build those developments. And often, locals already in the area prefer 'executive homes' to be built rather than cheap ones that may decrease the value of *their* property - so the objections are fewer. I've seen that around my way.
"Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford,"
If only it was that easy. Short-cuts to building cheaply often have consequences for the future. And the more regulations that are put on builders - often rightly - the greater the cost of building that property.
I have no problem with profit! But corporarte profit cannot overrule societal need. Developers could make a profit from building different kinds of housing. But as they don't care that they are cramming in no cat-swinging hate boxes that people can't afford, that is what they build.
As for planning, you do understand how this works? Developers hold councils hostage. Unless the council is building what the government deems to be sufficient houses, then developers automatically win appeals to overturn planning decisions. It is the developer's charter - build what they like where they like and you can't stop them. To add to the fun, having gained planning permission simply don't actually build, so that the council is in deficit on numbers, so you can then build what you like where you like.
As for regulations, are we really saying that not allowing QuikBurn cladding and not having an inspection system where everyone turns a blind eye that allows GenericDeffoNotQuickBurn cladding to "accidentally" be used is impossible?
The problem is the market. I am not against private enterprise - far from it. But there are responsibilities that have to be met. And they are not.
The market's not really the problem - it's the signals set by government, together with the lack of participation in the market by both central and local government.
Hmm, it looks as though Bailey is stacking the MPC with other toady doves, he's replaced a hawk who had twice voted for the half point interest rate rise with someone who doesn't think rates need to go up.
How has a once great institution become so infected. Inflation about to rise to 11% and the newest MPC member is talking about gradual or *no* rises to interest rates.
This country is fucked.
And you are trapped in 1980s orthodoxy. Inflation is caused by Covid disrupting manufacturing supply chains, and the special military operation blocking export of hard and soft commodities from Russia and Ukraine.
In part, but sterling has weakened 10% against the greenback since the start of the year. Loose monetary policy is the equivalent of adding a bit of petrol to the inflation bonfire.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
An automatic pun maker. Good grief.
*Ydoethur immediately launches rebellion against the machines*
It does remind me of the recent discussion on whether a tree falls int he forest if no-one is watching (though, like doggies' little presents on street corners, it is a serious business in real life).
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
THe hand is crap, though, as any 5 year old can tell you. Hard to be sure of the number of digits, but there are at least twice as many as needed.
The hands are nearly always crap, because it has specifically NOT been trained on human body parts, so as to prevent users creating porn especially deepfake celebrity porn
For the same reasons until very recently (last week) it was terrible at human faces (hence the enormous number of pictures of cartoon characters, animals, astronauts - anything without a human face)
But it is now getting very good at faces. Indeed it can do human faces “in the style of famous photographers”
The BBC, including Nick Robinson (who is none the less a generally good thing) have a fondness, once the story has broken, of saying "Of course we all knew that, we have done for years. But of course we are not going to divulge any of this to the plebs who pay us until it is safe to do so. News management, not news is our main stock in trade".
Our defamation laws have a lot to do with it. Also the unhealthy relationship between the lobby and the govt
Interesting interview with Keir Starmer's representative on why Labour are accepting Boris Johnson's Brexit hook line and sinker. As Nick Robinson asked "Why are you accepting Brexit as it is when it's costing 100 million a year? As Margaret Thatcher said why Follow a ship rather than leading a ship?"
Good questions Nick. I for one am going to vote Lib Dem.
Interesting interview with Keir Starmer's representative on why Labour are accepting Boris Johnson's Brexit hook line and sinker. As Nick Robinson asked "Why are you accepting Brexit as it is when it's costing 100 million a year? As Margaret Thatcher said why Follow a ship rather than leading a ship?"
Good questions Nick. I for one am going to vote Lib Dem.
General Health Warning About Betting on US Senate markets (doesn't apply to the Article as it was about laying GOP majority)
Always check what counts as a Dem majority / No Overall Majority. Some bookies include the Independents that Caucus with the Democrats in the Senate when in comes to determining control, others do not.
This has a huge, profound effect on the prices and you might have thought you've found an arb between bookies but actually you are betting on two different markets.
Morning all! The problem with "just build a lot more houses" is that the developers build for profit rather than need. The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes. It needs apartment blocks in towns with communal facilities like restaurants and open spaces.
London seems to manage to build these - albeit at "market rates" which means the price is stupid. But little anywhere else. Doesn't help that post Grenfell nobody trusts the industry or the government not to build death traps for profit.
As I have said before the solution is to spin out Housing Associations to commercially build these snazzy apartment blocks who h are never ever up for sale. Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford, take the lunacy out of the market and rebalance things so that renting - at same prices that don't pay someone else's mortgage - becomes normal as it is in places like Germany.
"... developers build for profit rather than need."
Yes, how dare someone want to make a profit! I assume your cafe will do no more than break even?
"The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes."
And the planners who allow the plans through (often on the back of a local plan) allow them to build those developments. And often, locals already in the area prefer 'executive homes' to be built rather than cheap ones that may decrease the value of *their* property - so the objections are fewer. I've seen that around my way.
"Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford,"
If only it was that easy. Short-cuts to building cheaply often have consequences for the future. And the more regulations that are put on builders - often rightly - the greater the cost of building that property.
I have no problem with profit! But corporarte profit cannot overrule societal need. Developers could make a profit from building different kinds of housing. But as they don't care that they are cramming in no cat-swinging hate boxes that people can't afford, that is what they build.
As for planning, you do understand how this works? Developers hold councils hostage. Unless the council is building what the government deems to be sufficient houses, then developers automatically win appeals to overturn planning decisions. It is the developer's charter - build what they like where they like and you can't stop them. To add to the fun, having gained planning permission simply don't actually build, so that the council is in deficit on numbers, so you can then build what you like where you like.
As for regulations, are we really saying that not allowing QuikBurn cladding and not having an inspection system where everyone turns a blind eye that allows GenericDeffoNotQuickBurn cladding to "accidentally" be used is impossible?
The problem is the market. I am not against private enterprise - far from it. But there are responsibilities that have to be met. And they are not.
The market's not really the problem - it's the signals set by government, together with the lack of participation in the market by both central and local government.
Not sure if my area is atypical but there's a tonne of new housing development within about 3 miles of myself.
The BBC, including Nick Robinson (who is none the less a generally good thing) have a fondness, once the story has broken, of saying "Of course we all knew that, we have done for years. But of course we are not going to divulge any of this to the plebs who pay us until it is safe to do so. News management, not news is our main stock in trade".
Our defamation laws have a lot to do with it. Also the unhealthy relationship between the lobby and the govt
Besides, the Today programme only has three hours a day.
Interesting interview with Keir Starmer's representative on why Labour are accepting Boris Johnson's Brexit hook line and sinker. As Nick Robinson asked "Why are you accepting Brexit as it is when it's costing 100 million a year? As Margaret Thatcher said why Follow a ship rather than leading a ship?"
Good questions Nick. I for one am going to vote Lib Dem.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
If you get an infinite number of monkeys to hammer on a keyboard eventually the monkeys will produce Shakespeare. Ditto with hand selected images from a neural net image generator - what about all the pictures that weren't selected?
Like its jumbled together the letters from t-rex and texans - the words are very close with many similar letters. And then a human has hand selected the one the looks like a pun. You don't get to see the 12 other pictures which say TRRTXXN etc.
For example here's all the pictures for "A message in the lea leaves at the bottom of the cup"
How boring is that shit. That's super boring. But no one is sharing that on Twitter going "Look how amazing and cool and definetly really conscious this all is"
What is interesting is what happens when you feed one of those messages back into dalle
A minister called Will Quince (me neither) wheeled out to tell us that he specifically asked No 10 if Johnson was aware of “specific” allegations against Pincher but forgot to ask whether he was aware of any more general allegations.
General Health Warning About Betting on US Senate markets (doesn't apply to the Article as it was about laying GOP majority)
Always check what counts as a Dem majority / No Overall Majority. Some bookies include the Independents that Caucus with the Democrats in the Senate when in comes to determining control, others do not.
This has a huge, profound effect on the prices and you might have thought you've found an arb between bookies but actually you are betting on two different markets.
Though fairly easy to lay the Republican majority rather than bet on a Democratic one.
General Health Warning About Betting on US Senate markets (doesn't apply to the Article as it was about laying GOP majority)
Always check what counts as a Dem majority / No Overall Majority. Some bookies include the Independents that Caucus with the Democrats in the Senate when in comes to determining control, others do not.
This has a huge, profound effect on the prices and you might have thought you've found an arb between bookies but actually you are betting on two different markets.
Though fairly easy to lay the Republican majority rather than bet on a Democratic one.
Correct - that's the safe way to play. It's more about thinking you've found an arb but actually you end up losing both ways.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
If you get an infinite number of monkeys to hammer on a keyboard eventually the monkeys will produce Shakespeare. Ditto with hand selected images from a neural net image generator - what about all the pictures that weren't selected?
Like its jumbled together the letters from t-rex and texans - the words are very close with many similar letters. And then a human has hand selected the one the looks like a pun. You don't get to see the 12 other pictures which say TRRTXXN etc.
For example here's all the pictures for "A message in the lea leaves at the bottom of the cup"
How boring is that shit. That's super boring. But no one is sharing that on Twitter going "Look how amazing and cool and definetly really conscious this all is"
What is interesting is what happens when you feed one of those messages back into dalle
The monkeys and Shakespeare thing is often repeated but is neither an empirical or logical truth.
The sequence of Pi is infinite but that is not evidence that in time it will produce a produce a predescribed sequence, or a pattern at all, or every possible sequence.
We know (simple logic) that the number of Primes is infinite, but no predictable pattern has emerged. There is no evidence that will change.
Interesting interview with Keir Starmer's representative on why Labour are accepting Boris Johnson's Brexit hook line and sinker. As Nick Robinson asked "Why are you accepting Brexit as it is when it's costing 100 million a year? As Margaret Thatcher said why Follow a ship rather than leading a ship?"
Good questions Nick. I for one am going to vote Lib Dem.
Because SKS and Labour aren't going to win Red Wall seats by attacking Bozo's core policy. Brexit is just about the only thing that may keep those seats voting Bozo because there is zero sign of levelling up actually achieving anything.
Completely off topic but can I ask a question for the other parents of (primary) school age children here?
Our kids school seems to have a fundraising casual clothes day with a theme now almost every other week it seems. All asking for donations to the school for some cause or other, and all with a theme for whichever cause it is for. In the past month we've had "yellow day" (anti-bullying/mental health), "green day" (environment) and today is "sparkle day" to support a charity that supports primary schools following the sudden death of a pupil. Have other parents here noticed a pattern like this?
I recall as a kid casual clothes days as a fundraising technique being very infrequent but this year there's been lots of them. The kids are loving it, I'm curious if its our new Head Teacher signing the school up for every charity going, or if schools more widely are doing it deliberately perhaps post-Covid?
Our school have been great this year making allowances post-Covid, they've been deliberately trying to build kids confidences and offering support, and they've been approving term-time holidays to make up for the fact many people haven't been able to take a proper break in two years. I know a lot of other schools aren't doing that.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
If you get an infinite number of monkeys to hammer on a keyboard eventually the monkeys will produce Shakespeare. Ditto with hand selected images from a neural net image generator - what about all the pictures that weren't selected?
Like its jumbled together the letters from t-rex and texans - the words are very close with many similar letters. And then a human has hand selected the one the looks like a pun. You don't get to see the 12 other pictures which say TRRTXXN etc.
For example here's all the pictures for "A message in the lea leaves at the bottom of the cup"
How boring is that shit. That's super boring. But no one is sharing that on Twitter going "Look how amazing and cool and definetly really conscious this all is"
What is interesting is what happens when you feed one of those messages back into dalle
Again, a weird angry embittered tone to your reply. As if you are personally offended by DALLE-2
Anyway no there is not an infinite number of chimps at work here. Each user gets 50 prompts a day, each prompt gets six replies
This one went straight from the aliteral gibberish you describe above with the tea leaves, to coherent written letters AND coherent words AND - on top of it - a coherent pun in “the style of cable TV” - as requested in the prompt
Was that just random luck? Or is it the case that if you train a bot on enough images it will learn language as well? I’m not sure anyone knows
As I said, no one knew that GPT3 could draw until it did
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
An automatic pun maker. Good grief.
*Ydoethur immediately launches rebellion against the machines*
Morning all! The problem with "just build a lot more houses" is that the developers build for profit rather than need. The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes. It needs apartment blocks in towns with communal facilities like restaurants and open spaces.
London seems to manage to build these - albeit at "market rates" which means the price is stupid. But little anywhere else. Doesn't help that post Grenfell nobody trusts the industry or the government not to build death traps for profit.
As I have said before the solution is to spin out Housing Associations to commercially build these snazzy apartment blocks who h are never ever up for sale. Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford, take the lunacy out of the market and rebalance things so that renting - at same prices that don't pay someone else's mortgage - becomes normal as it is in places like Germany.
"... developers build for profit rather than need."
Yes, how dare someone want to make a profit! I assume your cafe will do no more than break even?
"The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes."
And the planners who allow the plans through (often on the back of a local plan) allow them to build those developments. And often, locals already in the area prefer 'executive homes' to be built rather than cheap ones that may decrease the value of *their* property - so the objections are fewer. I've seen that around my way.
"Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford,"
If only it was that easy. Short-cuts to building cheaply often have consequences for the future. And the more regulations that are put on builders - often rightly - the greater the cost of building that property.
I have no problem with profit! But corporarte profit cannot overrule societal need. Developers could make a profit from building different kinds of housing. But as they don't care that they are cramming in no cat-swinging hate boxes that people can't afford, that is what they build.
As for planning, you do understand how this works? Developers hold councils hostage. Unless the council is building what the government deems to be sufficient houses, then developers automatically win appeals to overturn planning decisions. It is the developer's charter - build what they like where they like and you can't stop them. To add to the fun, having gained planning permission simply don't actually build, so that the council is in deficit on numbers, so you can then build what you like where you like.
As for regulations, are we really saying that not allowing QuikBurn cladding and not having an inspection system where everyone turns a blind eye that allows GenericDeffoNotQuickBurn cladding to "accidentally" be used is impossible?
The problem is the market. I am not against private enterprise - far from it. But there are responsibilities that have to be met. And they are not.
The market's not really the problem - it's the signals set by government, together with the lack of participation in the market by both central and local government.
Not sure if my area is atypical but there's a tonne of new housing development within about 3 miles of myself.
How does this compare to everyone else ?
Loads around me too. None of it particularly controversial, and seems to be selling well. I went round to a housewarming in one of the new developments in Kibworth and it seemed well laid out and made.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
An automatic pun maker. Good grief.
*Ydoethur immediately launches rebellion against the machines*
Eh I don't understand how AI can make puns.
It already tells good jokes (no one disputes this). Laughing at something written or drawn by a machine is a peculiar sensation
Again, a weird angry embittered tone to your reply. As if you are personally offended by DALLE-2
Anyway no there is not an infinite number of chimps at work here. Each user gets 50 prompts a day, each prompt gets six replies
This one went straight from the aliteral gibberish you describe above with the tea leaves, to coherent written letters AND coherent words AND - on top of it - a coherent pun in “the style of cable TV” - as requested in the prompt
Was that just random luck? Or is it the case that if you train a bot on enough images it will learn language as well? I’m not sure anyone knows
As I said, no one knew that GPT3 could draw until it did
Yes.
It was random luck. The person who made the prompt selected the best result and shared it. We don't get to see the 5 other less good responses.
Like, look, here's a prompt for the flying spaghetti monster over a city. Can you spot the one that looks just a little out of place? Image if someone was dedicated to showing how shit dalle was and always selected the worst image from the set of 6?
So do we have Johnson dick riders left on here? It'll be quite something if, among our panoply of vile tories, we don't have anybody still supporting him.
So do we have Johnson dick riders left on here? It'll be quite something if, among our panoply of vile tories, we don't have anybody still supporting him.
HYUFD. If the Tories elected Old Nick himself as leader he’d stay loyal.
Interesting interview with Keir Starmer's representative on why Labour are accepting Boris Johnson's Brexit hook line and sinker. As Nick Robinson asked "Why are you accepting Brexit as it is when it's costing 100 million a year? As Margaret Thatcher said why Follow a ship rather than leading a ship?"
Good questions Nick. I for one am going to vote Lib Dem.
Because SKS and Labour aren't going to win Red Wall seats by attacking Bozo's core policy. Brexit is just about the only thing that may keep those seats voting Bozo because there is zero sign of levelling up actually achieving anything.
Though Labour clearly needs to be more pro-European than the Tories in terms of constructive plans to reduce barriers to trade, or will shed Remainers.
Again, a weird angry embittered tone to your reply. As if you are personally offended by DALLE-2
Anyway no there is not an infinite number of chimps at work here. Each user gets 50 prompts a day, each prompt gets six replies
This one went straight from the aliteral gibberish you describe above with the tea leaves, to coherent written letters AND coherent words AND - on top of it - a coherent pun in “the style of cable TV” - as requested in the prompt
Was that just random luck? Or is it the case that if you train a bot on enough images it will learn language as well? I’m not sure anyone knows
As I said, no one knew that GPT3 could draw until it did
Yes.
It was random luck. The person who made the prompt selected the best result and shared it. We don't get to see the 5 other less good responses.
Like, look, here's a prompt for the flying spaghetti monster over a city. Can you spot the one that looks just a little out of place? Image if someone was dedicated to showing how shit dalle was and always selected the worst image from the set of 6?
Its not just random luck, its selection bias.
If I wanted to I could roll sit here rolling pairs of dice all day and Tweet images of double sixes that I've rolled saying how incredible it is that I've rolled yet another pair of double sixes - if all I did was Tweet every time I rolled double six and disregarded everything else it was I rolled.
If you get a human to select what's interesting, and disregard what isn't, then yes you'll get interesting results. But that's because the human chose that, not the AI.
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
An automatic pun maker. Good grief.
*Ydoethur immediately launches rebellion against the machines*
Eh I don't understand how AI can make puns.
It already tells good jokes (no one disputes this). Laughing at something written or drawn by a machine is a peculiar sensation
An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar.
The Englishman says, ‘Why do we have a national drink?’ The Irishman answers, ‘So that all your people will know who you are.’ The Scotsman then says, ‘It is because we are the most uninviting people to any of the others.’
Again, a weird angry embittered tone to your reply. As if you are personally offended by DALLE-2
Anyway no there is not an infinite number of chimps at work here. Each user gets 50 prompts a day, each prompt gets six replies
This one went straight from the aliteral gibberish you describe above with the tea leaves, to coherent written letters AND coherent words AND - on top of it - a coherent pun in “the style of cable TV” - as requested in the prompt
Was that just random luck? Or is it the case that if you train a bot on enough images it will learn language as well? I’m not sure anyone knows
As I said, no one knew that GPT3 could draw until it did
Yes.
It was random luck. The person who made the prompt selected the best result and shared it. We don't get to see the 5 other less good responses.
Like, look, here's a prompt for the flying spaghetti monster over a city. Can you spot the one that looks just a little out of place? Image if someone was dedicated to showing how shit dalle was and always selected the worst image from the set of 6?
I think all those are pretty cool. Given that it generated them in 5-10 seconds
Any of them - except the girl - could illustrate a satirical article about people believing in Flying Spaghetti Monsters
You'd be sacked as minister if you said you didn't agree with PM. In the real world this is encouraged. Johnson kept Pincher because A) he doesn't give a toss that he's gropey he looked at risk and thought, I'll get away with it as usual. C) he's his mate and strokes his ego https://twitter.com/jessphillips/status/1543865387254784007
Again, a weird angry embittered tone to your reply. As if you are personally offended by DALLE-2
Anyway no there is not an infinite number of chimps at work here. Each user gets 50 prompts a day, each prompt gets six replies
This one went straight from the aliteral gibberish you describe above with the tea leaves, to coherent written letters AND coherent words AND - on top of it - a coherent pun in “the style of cable TV” - as requested in the prompt
Was that just random luck? Or is it the case that if you train a bot on enough images it will learn language as well? I’m not sure anyone knows
As I said, no one knew that GPT3 could draw until it did
Yes.
It was random luck. The person who made the prompt selected the best result and shared it. We don't get to see the 5 other less good responses.
Like, look, here's a prompt for the flying spaghetti monster over a city. Can you spot the one that looks just a little out of place? Image if someone was dedicated to showing how shit dalle was and always selected the worst image from the set of 6?
Its not just random luck, its selection bias.
If I wanted to I could roll sit here rolling pairs of dice all day and Tweet images of double sixes that I've rolled saying how incredible it is that I've rolled yet another pair of double sixes - if all I did was Tweet every time I rolled double six and disregarded everything else it was I rolled.
If you get a human to select what's interesting, and disregard what isn't, then yes you'll get interesting results. But that's because the human chose that, not the AI.
If the tediously repetitive and soulless Dalle pics being posted here are typical of the pick of the mix, then it is pretty crap art indeed.
Interesting interview with Keir Starmer's representative on why Labour are accepting Boris Johnson's Brexit hook line and sinker. As Nick Robinson asked "Why are you accepting Brexit as it is when it's costing 100 million a year? As Margaret Thatcher said why Follow a ship rather than leading a ship?"
Good questions Nick. I for one am going to vote Lib Dem.
Thank you! Quite why Labour should have thrown this priceless USP away is a mystery. I can only think that BJO got it right. SKS is useless. Thanks Nick Robinson for pointing out that English voters have the alternative of voting Green or Lib Dem and in Scotland the choices are even wider.
The figures are quite staggering. £100 billion a year in lost output and 4% off GDP. Figures which Labour accept but still feels it's not worth causing division over.
Comments
Russia is now jamming and shooting down Ukrainian drones, while developing its own capabilities
https://mobile.twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1543837009642328064
https://mobile.twitter.com/BrianDeLay/status/1542893676031926272
The nation's foremost historian of the 2nd Amendment calls Clarence Thomas's majority opinion in Bruen "one of the most intellectually dishonest and poorly argued decisions in American judicial history."
Create social enterprises that can only lend to current renters looking to buy their properties. The 50 year term should effectively mean it’s the same cost as renting once you take into account the costs and obligations of ownership. On sale of the property the debt needs to be refinanced by a commercial lender.
There are a lot of details to be worked through, but there might be something there if it’s done right
Yes, how dare someone want to make a profit! I assume your cafe will do no more than break even?
"The country does not need another exclusive development of executive homes."
And the planners who allow the plans through (often on the back of a local plan) allow them to build those developments. And often, locals already in the area prefer 'executive homes' to be built rather than cheap ones that may decrease the value of *their* property - so the objections are fewer. I've seen that around my way.
"Increase supply of property people need at prices they can afford,"
If only it was that easy. Short-cuts to building cheaply often have consequences for the future. And the more regulations that are put on builders - often rightly - the greater the cost of building that property.
Friend: "So, what's new?"
Physicist: "E over h"
🗣️ Diane Abbott has claimed Boris Johnson is “rumoured to be one who likes assaulting women” live on a BBC radio programme https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/03/diane-abbott-claims-boris-johnson-rumoured-like-assaulting-women/
https://trib.al/Rx0iR33
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1543856116681121793/video/1
Meanwhile Downing Street keep digging...
Downing St line that "unsubstantiated" claims were not grounds to block Pincher appointment prompts Q: why did PM, on hearing allegations of sex-pestery, not care whether or not they were substantiated?
It's not really a defence, is it. Oh, we knew everyone *said* that about him, but the PM didn't think that was a problem.
https://twitter.com/rafaelbehr/status/1543849726021406721
Will Quince - I asked No.10 firmly & clearly... & the PM wasn't aware of any specific allegations
SN - Was he aware of general allegations?
WQ - I haven't asked those questions
#BBCBreakfast https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1543849626561806337/video/1
Petrit Selimi
@Petrit
Interesting map of most frequent names in Albania where you really see diversity of the country. Ndue (Anthony) in Catholic north, Bajram in the Muslim majority east, Vasil (Basil) in the Orthdox south, and prevalence of Arben, a non-religious, ethnic name in huge chunk of 🇦🇱.
https://twitter.com/Petrit/status/1543852934412337154
Sticks to the line “there were no specific allegations”
But they were well known. The whips office knew about them.
https://twitter.com/kateferguson4/status/1543858616805081088
As for planning, you do understand how this works? Developers hold councils hostage. Unless the council is building what the government deems to be sufficient houses, then developers automatically win appeals to overturn planning decisions. It is the developer's charter - build what they like where they like and you can't stop them. To add to the fun, having gained planning permission simply don't actually build, so that the council is in deficit on numbers, so you can then build what you like where you like.
As for regulations, are we really saying that not allowing QuikBurn cladding and not having an inspection system where everyone turns a blind eye that allows GenericDeffoNotQuickBurn cladding to "accidentally" be used is impossible?
The problem is the market. I am not against private enterprise - far from it. But there are responsibilities that have to be met. And they are not.
How has a once great institution become so infected. Inflation about to rise to 11% and the newest MPC member is talking about gradual or *no* rises to interest rates.
This country is fucked.
I'm not sure how everyone communicated that, but the Cabinet seem to think that's the message they are getting.
They are demanding dynamic alignment.
If the EU stuck to their agreement on a sensible trusted trader scheme this would all be resolved
https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/french-italian-nationalists-clash-to-blow-up-eu-far-right-unity/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=22415&pnespid=7qA7AjYWZf0IwOvQvmy1CoKTsguwTIcvLLW33O859hRmjvy6tzPH70nl8IW.fVRrHKZ25gtjAA
I'm a hawk on house building, but the developers definitely hold back so they can unlock areas that otherwise theyd not get permission for.
While lambasting the concept in the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe, they make it curiously central to their public school prayer decision.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/supreme-court-women-rights-versus-men.html
Until now the visual AI bot DALL-E 2 was considered to be brilliant at making pictures and photos but absolutely terrible at playing with words. Because it wasn’t trained on words. So it just depicts cod Latin gobbledegook or it doodles non-letters. Yet about 10 hours ago it generated this
Not only has it written coherent words it has made a rather clever pun on the words T Rex and Texans - and maybe even Mexicans and the border crisis
Wtf
Is DALL-E 2 evolving capabilities before our eyes? This could just be coincidence. It is now spewing out 1000s of images a day for its licensed users. But I’m not convinced it is
coincidence
No one knew GPT3 could produce images from prompts - until it did. Maybe DALL-E 2has mastered the written word
Interesting piece about the proposed DfE 'reforms' to 'improve' provision for special needs schooling in England. A relative of mine had to be sent to a special needs school, so I'm all too familiar with the basic notions, but it's not something my family need to worry about now. But what really strikes me is how hypocritical the proposals seem at a time when the mantra is repeatedly chanted on PB and elsewhere that Conservative policies on schooling are to improve them through 'choice'.
'The green paper proposes to put two new hurdles in the way of families who want to take their case to the Send tribunal: compulsory mediation of their dispute with a local authority, which often turns out to be a waste of time; and the referral of cases to supposedly independent panels that insiders fear will be appointed by councils and therefore be barely independent at all. Instead of a system that allows parents to build their case around a school or college of their choosing, an unspecified body – possibly the same “independent” panel – will present them with a “tailored list of settings”. The text includes a hair-raising change to annual reviews of an EHCP: a requirement to discuss “cessation” – in other words, taking it away.
The most worrying proposal provides the context for these changes: whereas the current system enshrines the fundamental principle that a child or young person’s needs have to dictate the provision they receive, the green paper suggests “a new national framework of banding and price tariffs for funding”, which looks like the first stirrings of the system explicitly being built around the tightening of budgets.'
🔥 🔥🔥🔥
https://twitter.com/jonsopel/status/1543860495026905088
What he said amounts to "I wasn't there. No idea. Number 10 says its all fine. If you listen carefully I am not saying I believe that, but you might miss that if Nick Robinson keeps on talking"
Even if dollar oil and gas prices fall (the first might, the second is unlikely) the price in sterling won't as weakening currency erodes those price falls.
All because Bailey doesn't want to burst the housing bubble and impoverish rich older landlords who made the wrong investment.
Or are they just b/s'ing?
Not to say we shouldn't wary of the plans, but simply that sometimes fears are wrong.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/04/call-to-tighten-new-zealand-law-that-allows-public-pooping-if-no-one-watching
It does remind me of the recent discussion on whether a tree falls int he forest if no-one is watching (though, like doggies' little presents on street corners, it is a serious business in real life).
For the same reasons until very recently (last week) it was terrible at human faces (hence the enormous number of pictures of cartoon characters, animals, astronauts - anything without a human face)
But it is now getting very good at faces. Indeed it can do human faces “in the style of famous photographers”
Good questions Nick. I for one am going to vote Lib Dem.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_fourfm
Always check what counts as a Dem majority / No Overall Majority. Some bookies include the Independents that Caucus with the Democrats in the Senate when in comes to determining control, others do not.
This has a huge, profound effect on the prices and you might have thought you've found an arb between bookies but actually you are betting on two different markets.
How does this compare to everyone else ?
£100 million a year? Either Nick Robinson has said something asinine or…
Like its jumbled together the letters from t-rex and texans - the words are very close with many similar letters. And then a human has hand selected the one the looks like a pun. You don't get to see the 12 other pictures which say TRRTXXN etc.
For example here's all the pictures for "A message in the lea leaves at the bottom of the cup"
https://twitter.com/JanelleCShane/status/1542925790349778944
How boring is that shit. That's super boring. But no one is sharing that on Twitter going "Look how amazing and cool and definetly really conscious this all is"
What is interesting is what happens when you feed one of those messages back into dalle
https://twitter.com/JanelleCShane/status/1542925790349778944
The sequence of Pi is infinite but that is not evidence that in time it will produce a produce a predescribed sequence, or a pattern at all, or every possible sequence.
We know (simple logic) that the number of Primes is infinite, but no predictable pattern has emerged. There is no evidence that will change.
Our kids school seems to have a fundraising casual clothes day with a theme now almost every other week it seems. All asking for donations to the school for some cause or other, and all with a theme for whichever cause it is for. In the past month we've had "yellow day" (anti-bullying/mental health), "green day" (environment) and today is "sparkle day" to support a charity that supports primary schools following the sudden death of a pupil. Have other parents here noticed a pattern like this?
I recall as a kid casual clothes days as a fundraising technique being very infrequent but this year there's been lots of them. The kids are loving it, I'm curious if its our new Head Teacher signing the school up for every charity going, or if schools more widely are doing it deliberately perhaps post-Covid?
Our school have been great this year making allowances post-Covid, they've been deliberately trying to build kids confidences and offering support, and they've been approving term-time holidays to make up for the fact many people haven't been able to take a proper break in two years. I know a lot of other schools aren't doing that.
Anyway no there is not an infinite number of chimps at work here. Each user gets 50 prompts a day, each prompt gets six replies
This one went straight from the aliteral gibberish you describe above with the tea leaves, to coherent written letters AND coherent words AND - on top of it - a coherent pun in “the style of cable TV” - as requested in the prompt
Was that just random luck? Or is it the case that if you train a bot on enough images it will learn language as well? I’m not sure anyone knows
As I said, no one knew that GPT3 could draw until it did
It was random luck. The person who made the prompt selected the best result and shared it. We don't get to see the 5 other less good responses.
Like, look, here's a prompt for the flying spaghetti monster over a city. Can you spot the one that looks just a little out of place? Image if someone was dedicated to showing how shit dalle was and always selected the worst image from the set of 6?
If I wanted to I could roll sit here rolling pairs of dice all day and Tweet images of double sixes that I've rolled saying how incredible it is that I've rolled yet another pair of double sixes - if all I did was Tweet every time I rolled double six and disregarded everything else it was I rolled.
If you get a human to select what's interesting, and disregard what isn't, then yes you'll get interesting results. But that's because the human chose that, not the AI.
https://textsynth.com/playground.html
and it did make me chuckle
An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar.
The Englishman says, ‘Why do we have a national drink?’
The Irishman answers, ‘So that all your people will know who you are.’
The Scotsman then says, ‘It is because we are the most uninviting people to any of the others.’
I think all those are pretty cool. Given that it generated them in 5-10 seconds
Any of them - except the girl - could illustrate a satirical article about people believing in Flying Spaghetti Monsters
A) he doesn't give a toss that he's gropey
C) he's his mate and strokes his ego
https://twitter.com/jessphillips/status/1543865387254784007
The figures are quite staggering. £100 billion a year in lost output and 4% off GDP. Figures which Labour accept but still feels it's not worth causing division over.