Given the dross Hollywood / Disney keep putting out, would anybody be shocked if they have their own version of ChatGPT and all the blue hair weirdos that supposedly writer / direct / produce much of their output don't really exist....
Glass Onion feels like a movie written by an AI trained on a combination of old fashioned murder mysteries, but given prompts to make it "appropriate for modern sensibilities".
Could Chat GPT write a novel as a racist? Not from the POV of a racist, nor a liberal’s idea of what a racist is, but actually as a racist, like Lovecraft? Because much interesting literature is actually (my the standards of 2022) pretty bigoted.
Quite soon, AI will be able to write almost ANYTHING. And it will do it much better than any human
So, yes
I've barely used ChatGPT in almost a week now. To call it beige at this point would be an insult to beige.
At the risks of turning into Scott, and just copying and pasting other parts of the internet, this quote from the ChatGPT subreddit stood out:
"It's unfortunate and yet predictable that the worst part of the AI chatbot has nothing to do with the quality of the AI, but everything to do with the restrictions that the human devs put on what it is and isn't allowed to say."
Though on reflection, at least its refusal to tell you who would win in a fight between various fictional superheroes, and the lecture you get on why all violence (yes, even fictional violence) is wrong, would mean the end of the Marvel franchise.
THERE IS NO CHAMPAGNE IN THE SINGAPORE AIRLINES LOUNGE
I am jealous. I went from one-world gold to silver and now down to bronze as Covid and the post-Covid business austerity took hold. I’ll possibly never wander into a lounge on an economy ticket again.
Yes, it’s sad when you call up the airline and they basically say “who are you?”. I used to have status with Emirates and BA, but sadly no more. Had to buy my own drinks at the bar, rather than sit in the lounge, on my last trip.
THERE IS NO CHAMPAGNE IN THE SINGAPORE AIRLINES LOUNGE
I am jealous. I went from one-world gold to silver and now down to bronze as Covid and the post-Covid business austerity took hold. I’ll possibly never wander into a lounge on an economy ticket again.
You could always, you know, pay with you own money ;-)
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
How strange, we didn't seem to be against Harry killing then.
Talk to any serviceman who has actually been in action. They thought he was a twat for saying it then just as they do now.
Well, unlike the tabloids and the people whose noses are lead by them, at least they're being consistent. Since we've only got Topping and Dura Ace on here to give the serviceman's view, let's see if they're in accord with 'any serviceman'.
Your sudden fondness for squaddies bragging about their kill count is one of PB's more remarkable recent developments.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
“Violets” is a favourite. I’ve never eaten a violet. Yet it is a common tasting note for red wines from all over the old world.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
I seem to remember that the actor who played 'Dirty Den' (before his second 'problems') wrote a wine tasting book with 100s of wines where he'd just say thing like 'Tastes ok, quite fruity' - and that was it.
How strange, we didn't seem to be against Harry killing then.
Talk to any serviceman who has actually been in action. They thought he was a twat for saying it then just as they do now.
Well, unlike the tabloids and the people whose noses are lead by them, at least they're being consistent. Since we've only got Topping and Dura Ace on here to give the serviceman's view, let's see if they're in accord with 'any serviceman'.
I've heard quite a few soldiers talk about killing and even total deaths. None did it with "pride" (that would be seriously creepy), but nor were they especially tortured. It is what they do, after all
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It's mostly bollocks anyway. A perfect job for ChatGPT.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Which leads me to a weird question: do silkworms have tastebuds? I presume they'd have something, as taste is a really useful ability for telling what is good, and what is not good, to eat.
"Dozens of Army soldiers entered the presidential offices within the past 30 minutes. Two helicopters are hovering over the presidential offices. Officers in the helicopters are firing what appear to be anti-riot ammunition and tear-gas canisters. A large group of protesters are now heading away from the presidential offices and toward the back entry to Congress."
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Which leads me to a weird question: do silkworms have tastebuds? I presume they'd have something, as taste is a really useful ability for telling what is good, and what is not good, to eat.
But do they?
At the risk of getting all late night freshers at Uni, do animals that eat grass think they are surrounded by cake?
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Which leads me to a weird question: do silkworms have tastebuds? I presume they'd have something, as taste is a really useful ability for telling what is good, and what is not good, to eat.
How strange, we didn't seem to be against Harry killing then.
Talk to any serviceman who has actually been in action. They thought he was a twat for saying it then just as they do now.
Well, unlike the tabloids and the people whose noses are lead by them, at least they're being consistent. Since we've only got Topping and Dura Ace on here to give the serviceman's view, let's see if they're in accord with 'any serviceman'.
Your sudden fondness for squaddies bragging about their kill count is one of PB's more remarkable recent developments.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Except most Mulberry trees in the UK are not the same kind as Silkworms eat AFAIK
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Which leads me to a weird question: do silkworms have tastebuds? I presume they'd have something, as taste is a really useful ability for telling what is good, and what is not good, to eat.
But do they?
Is this a 'do androids dream of electric sheep' style question?
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
"Dozens of Army soldiers entered the presidential offices within the past 30 minutes. Two helicopters are hovering over the presidential offices. Officers in the helicopters are firing what appear to be anti-riot ammunition and tear-gas canisters. A large group of protesters are now heading away from the presidential offices and toward the back entry to Congress."
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
“Violets” is a favourite. I’ve never eaten a violet. Yet it is a common tasting note for red wines from all over the old world.
I'm not sophisticated enough for red wine. But I do like a Parma Violet sweet.
"Dozens of Army soldiers entered the presidential offices within the past 30 minutes. Two helicopters are hovering over the presidential offices. Officers in the helicopters are firing what appear to be anti-riot ammunition and tear-gas canisters. A large group of protesters are now heading away from the presidential offices and toward the back entry to Congress."
Source:NY Times.
To repel the cup attempt or support it?
Sorry. I am not at the scene. How'm I supposed to know better than the NYT?
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Except most Mulberry trees in the UK are not the same kind as Silkworms eat AFAIK
10/10. Silkworms eat white mulberry leaves. That well known dork Henry VIII imported black mulberry trees to kickstart the English silk industry.
BTW white/black are not about fruit colour. White mulberry fruit when ripe can be white red or black.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
“Violets” is a favourite. I’ve never eaten a violet. Yet it is a common tasting note for red wines from all over the old world.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Hah. Just showed the Poe Poems to a professional writer friend. A one word reaction
“Fuck”
That can be interpreted in (at least) two ways.
I rightly interpreted it as meaning "Fuck, soon my art form - novel writing - will be taken over and ruined by the machines"
This really is the end for most creative writers. If Claude can master advanced poetry and it can write amusing Seinfeld scripts, then it can do anything. And it will do anything, because better and better AIs are coming down the line
The only human writing that will survive will be memoir, travel, human interest journalism. The direct human experience an AI cannot have
Why will travel survive? Why can't AI just figure out what it would be like?
Because humans want and deserve more than just secondhand pleasures, despite how we secretly enjoy Leon’s travelogues.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Except most Mulberry trees in the UK are not the same kind as Silkworms eat AFAIK
Yet another Brexit lie we were told by Gove - he said we held all the mulberries.
"Dozens of Army soldiers entered the presidential offices within the past 30 minutes. Two helicopters are hovering over the presidential offices. Officers in the helicopters are firing what appear to be anti-riot ammunition and tear-gas canisters. A large group of protesters are now heading away from the presidential offices and toward the back entry to Congress."
I believe in English teaching there is now a lot made of categorising words into Tier 1,2,3.
I was quite surprised that ChatGPT can't do this. I would have thought it would have seen huge numbers of word lists with the category, but it makes massive mistakes.
e.g. Tier 3 is subject specialised words e.g. photosynthesis, or least commonly used in a language.
ChatGPT thinks words like nose, oranges and toothpaste are Tier 3 words.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
I seem to remember that the actor who played 'Dirty Den' (before his second 'problems') wrote a wine tasting book with 100s of wines where he'd just say thing like 'Tastes ok, quite fruity' - and that was it.
If most reviews of wines said something like “Tastes ok, quite fruity” or “not worth buying”, it would be really useful, because then we could concentrate on the other reviews, the ones for wines worth considering.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
I seem to remember that the actor who played 'Dirty Den' (before his second 'problems') wrote a wine tasting book with 100s of wines where he'd just say thing like 'Tastes ok, quite fruity' - and that was it.
If most reviews of wines said something like “Tastes ok, quite fruity” or “not worth buying”, it would be really useful, because then we could concentrate on the other reviews, the ones for wines worth considering.
But what I am looking for is "This is/is not worth buying at this price" from someone I trust like Jancis Robinson. I appreciate she has to vary and embroider her words a bit, but nobody ever read a review which said a wine had notes of strawberry and thought eeeeuw, I prefer my notes raspberry.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Except most Mulberry trees in the UK are not the same kind as Silkworms eat AFAIK
10/10. Silkworms eat white mulberry leaves. That well known dork Henry VIII imported black mulberry trees to kickstart the English silk industry.
BTW white/black are not about fruit colour. White mulberry fruit when ripe can be white red or black.
Shock, horror! Henry VIII is infallible according to Brexiteers. Maybe Brexiteers are wrong about everything else as well.
"Dozens of Army soldiers entered the presidential offices within the past 30 minutes. Two helicopters are hovering over the presidential offices. Officers in the helicopters are firing what appear to be anti-riot ammunition and tear-gas canisters. A large group of protesters are now heading away from the presidential offices and toward the back entry to Congress."
Source:NY Times.
To repel the cup attempt or support it?
Bra-zil?
If they are headed for the back entry I hope they find a landing strip.
I believe in English teaching there is now a lot made of categorising words into Tier 1,2,3.
I was quite surprised that ChatGPT can't do this. I would have thought it would have seen huge numbers of word lists with the category, but it makes massive mistakes.
e.g. Tier 3 is subject specialised words e.g. photosynthesis, or least commonly used in a language.
ChatGPT thinks words like nose, oranges and toothpaste are Tier 3 words.
LOL, its total garbage....the longer the list of words, the less likely it is to think any word is a Tier 3 word, even really complex / rarely used ones.
I should add that a computer can definitely achieve this task via some fairly standard NLP algorithms, its just that ChatGPT is a bullshitter (rather than say actually I am not trained to do this task).
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Wine is remarkable in its complexity - the sugars, yeasts, tannins in the grape skins, esters from fermentation, vanillins from ageing in oak - it does have the ability to echo all sorts of other flavours and aromas. You try to pinpoint these as much as possible. So if you discern an 'earthy' aroma, is it minerally, mushroomy, or farmyardy? If it's farmyardy, that's when you might say it smells like a Jersey cow-shed, because you're tying it to something you remember, and hoping that others remember and can identify with.
Seems Bolsonaro supporters have been following the Trump supporters playback in storming the country's legislature rather than accept their candidate's defeat
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
Seems Bolsonaro supporters have been following the Trump supporters playback in storming the country's legislature rather than accept their candidate's defeat
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
A silkworm would know - though I think they eat the leaves.
Except most Mulberry trees in the UK are not the same kind as Silkworms eat AFAIK
10/10. Silkworms eat white mulberry leaves. That well known dork Henry VIII imported black mulberry trees to kickstart the English silk industry.
BTW white/black are not about fruit colour. White mulberry fruit when ripe can be white red or black.
Shock, horror! Henry VIII is infallible according to Brexiteers. Maybe Brexiteers are wrong about everything else as well.
I did him a serious disservice, it was James VI/I. Scots to blame as usual.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Wine is remarkable in its complexity - the sugars, yeasts, tannins in the grape skins, esters from fermentation, vanillins from ageing in oak - it does have the ability to echo all sorts of other flavours and aromas. You try to pinpoint these as much as possible. So if you discern an 'earthy' aroma, is it minerally, mushroomy, or farmyardy? If it's farmyardy, that's when you might say it smells like a Jersey cow-shed, because you're tying it to something you remember, and hoping that others remember and can identify with.
So what about this biscuity champagne we hear about? Good thing there's only one sort of biscuit, or if more they all taste much the same.
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
How strange, we didn't seem to be against Harry killing then.
Talk to any serviceman who has actually been in action. They thought he was a twat for saying it then just as they do now.
Well, unlike the tabloids and the people whose noses are lead by them, at least they're being consistent. Since we've only got Topping and Dura Ace on here to give the serviceman's view, let's see if they're in accord with 'any serviceman'.
I've heard quite a few soldiers talk about killing and even total deaths. None did it with "pride" (that would be seriously creepy), but nor were they especially tortured. It is what they do, after all
It makes for more compelling drama to have them be so, but it would probably be more surprising now if a veteran character in fiction was not especially tortured by their time in the service.
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
No history or science?
You could make a case that maths and IT are both a form of science.
English language is a poor substitute for history though.
You really couldn't. Maths and logic are about proving things, science says you can only disprove them. I mean, we don't have to believe everything Uncle Karl tells us, but that looks a clear and useful distinction.
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
Feel better now?
Why? Have you shot some of these idiots?
Here is the list of commissioners on that review - it includes plenty of heads and teachers.
Do you think they are all idiots?
"Rachel Sylvester Chairwoman
Sir Anthony Seldon Deputy chairman. Contemporary historian, former head of Brighton College and Wellington College and former vice-chancellor, University of Buckingham
Geoff Barton General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders
Lord Bilimoria Founder of Cobra Beer, president of the CBI and chancellor of Birmingham University
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Professor of cognitive neuroscience at Cambridge University, who leads a group studying the adolescent brain and behaviour
Sir Damon Buffini Permira founding partner, chairman of National Theatre and Cultural Recovery Fund Board
Dame Sally Coates Director at United Learning, which runs 90 schools; author of review of education in prison
Evelyn Forde Head of Copthall School in Barnet and winner of TES head of the year 2020
Kiran Gill Founder of The Difference, which sends high-flying teachers to referral units and alternative provision schools
Robert Halfon Tory MP for Harlow and chairman of Commons education select committee
Lucy Heller Chief executive of Ark, an educational charity that runs schools
Tristram Hunt Victoria & Albert Museum director, former Labour MP
Lord Johnson of Marylebone Former universities minister, chairman of TES
Paul Johnson Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Lucy Kellaway Teacher at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney and co-founder of Now Teach
Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho Chairwoman of WeTransfer, Open University chancellor, Lords Covid-19 select committee chairwoman
Anne Longfield Former children’s commissioner for England
Professor Heather McGregor Executive dean of Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University
Amanda Melton Principal of Nelson and Colne FE college in Lancashire
Sir Michael Morpurgo Author, poet and playwright, and former teacher"
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Wine is remarkable in its complexity - the sugars, yeasts, tannins in the grape skins, esters from fermentation, vanillins from ageing in oak - it does have the ability to echo all sorts of other flavours and aromas. You try to pinpoint these as much as possible. So if you discern an 'earthy' aroma, is it minerally, mushroomy, or farmyardy? If it's farmyardy, that's when you might say it smells like a Jersey cow-shed, because you're tying it to something you remember, and hoping that others remember and can identify with.
So what about this biscuity champagne we hear about? Good thing there's only one sort of biscuit, or if more they all taste much the same.
The yeasty quality of champagne, combined with sweetness from residual sugar and vanillins if there's been any oak contact, I suppose makes baked goods a fairly evocative tasting note. Biscuits is a very common tasting note in whiskies aged in white oak (seasoned from Bourbon maturation) too. I agree that it would be a better guide if the reviewer got specific about their biscuits.
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
Feel better now?
Why? Have you shot some of these idiots?
No soldier answers that question.
- Sergeant Smith RM told me about his 47 confirmed kills
Hah. Just showed the Poe Poems to a professional writer friend. A one word reaction
“Fuck”
That can be interpreted in (at least) two ways.
I rightly interpreted it as meaning "Fuck, soon my art form - novel writing - will be taken over and ruined by the machines"
This really is the end for most creative writers. If Claude can master advanced poetry and it can write amusing Seinfeld scripts, then it can do anything. And it will do anything, because better and better AIs are coming down the line
The only human writing that will survive will be memoir, travel, human interest journalism. The direct human experience an AI cannot have
We can have novel writing as a novel experience - check out this book, written by a 100% real life human!
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
No history or science?
In the workplace unless you want to teach or research history or work in a museum or be a scientist or doctor or engineer you don't need history or science day to day. They should be compulsory to 16 as any educated person should have some core knowledge of them but not beyond that.
However most office and admin jobs today need effective English language and communication skills, core numeracy and IT.
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
Feel better now?
Why? Have you shot some of these idiots?
Here is the list of commissioners on that review - it includes plenty of heads and teachers.
Do you think they are all idiots?
"Rachel Sylvester Chairwoman
Sir Anthony Seldon Deputy chairman. Contemporary historian, former head of Brighton College and Wellington College and former vice-chancellor, University of Buckingham
Geoff Barton General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders
Lord Bilimoria Founder of Cobra Beer, president of the CBI and chancellor of Birmingham University
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Professor of cognitive neuroscience at Cambridge University, who leads a group studying the adolescent brain and behaviour
Sir Damon Buffini Permira founding partner, chairman of National Theatre and Cultural Recovery Fund Board
Dame Sally Coates Director at United Learning, which runs 90 schools; author of review of education in prison
Evelyn Forde Head of Copthall School in Barnet and winner of TES head of the year 2020
Kiran Gill Founder of The Difference, which sends high-flying teachers to referral units and alternative provision schools
Robert Halfon Tory MP for Harlow and chairman of Commons education select committee
Lucy Heller Chief executive of Ark, an educational charity that runs schools
Tristram Hunt Victoria & Albert Museum director, former Labour MP
Lord Johnson of Marylebone Former universities minister, chairman of TES
Paul Johnson Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Lucy Kellaway Teacher at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney and co-founder of Now Teach
Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho Chairwoman of WeTransfer, Open University chancellor, Lords Covid-19 select committee chairwoman
Anne Longfield Former children’s commissioner for England
Professor Heather McGregor Executive dean of Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University
Amanda Melton Principal of Nelson and Colne FE college in Lancashire
Sir Michael Morpurgo Author, poet and playwright, and former teacher"
Yes. In fact Tristram Hunt, to take only one name, represents in grotesque form everything that's wrong with this country. The man is so utterly vacuous that you feel your intellect seeping away every time you read his writings.
In any case, I was judging them not on their roles or qualifications but on their utterly nonsensical arguments, which i raised significant objections to based on the facts. I note you are unable to refute those.
I posed the question early about moving a business to Asia (and living there). It seems the only response I got was Singapore, is that really the only place in Asia safe to operate a business, some talent pool of tech savvy who speak English?
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
No history or science?
You could make a case that maths and IT are both a form of science.
English language is a poor substitute for history though.
Neither maths nor IT apply the scientific method imo.
There is a case, as shown by the varying views on here, for a much more wide ranging curriculum. The overriding principle should be “how to think”, not “what to think”. It might help political views, as well.
It's amazing that angry unhinged rant of @ydoethur got nine likes.
When I look at who it includes I'm not surprised by some of the names, but disappointed by others.
It's very wrong of me to be angry that people spout nonsense.
To give you some idea of how stupid their ideas are, they are the equivalent of somebody proposing to get Brunel's atmospheric railway out of retirement to power the Elizabeth Line and use HS2 rolling stock along with it.
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
Feel better now?
Why? Have you shot some of these idiots?
Here is the list of commissioners on that review - it includes plenty of heads and teachers.
Do you think they are all idiots?
"Rachel Sylvester Chairwoman
Sir Anthony Seldon Deputy chairman. Contemporary historian, former head of Brighton College and Wellington College and former vice-chancellor, University of Buckingham
Geoff Barton General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders
Lord Bilimoria Founder of Cobra Beer, president of the CBI and chancellor of Birmingham University
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Professor of cognitive neuroscience at Cambridge University, who leads a group studying the adolescent brain and behaviour
Sir Damon Buffini Permira founding partner, chairman of National Theatre and Cultural Recovery Fund Board
Dame Sally Coates Director at United Learning, which runs 90 schools; author of review of education in prison
Evelyn Forde Head of Copthall School in Barnet and winner of TES head of the year 2020
Kiran Gill Founder of The Difference, which sends high-flying teachers to referral units and alternative provision schools
Robert Halfon Tory MP for Harlow and chairman of Commons education select committee
Lucy Heller Chief executive of Ark, an educational charity that runs schools
Tristram Hunt Victoria & Albert Museum director, former Labour MP
Lord Johnson of Marylebone Former universities minister, chairman of TES
Paul Johnson Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Lucy Kellaway Teacher at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney and co-founder of Now Teach
Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho Chairwoman of WeTransfer, Open University chancellor, Lords Covid-19 select committee chairwoman
Anne Longfield Former children’s commissioner for England
Professor Heather McGregor Executive dean of Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University
Amanda Melton Principal of Nelson and Colne FE college in Lancashire
Sir Michael Morpurgo Author, poet and playwright, and former teacher"
Shit. That's not any Appeal to Authority, it's an M&S Appeal to Authority. Never mind the names, look at the actual document. "Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs" is like saying "Chefs should be trained in the art of rendering foodstuffs more edible and/or palatable by the sustained application of heat."
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
As dealing with foreign clients you will impress them more if you can speak their language as well as they speak yours without having to use Google translate
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
As dealing with foreign clients you will impress them more if you can speak their language as well as they speak yours without having to use Google translate
This is certainly true, but do we need every 18 year old to do that?
A lot of businesses, there will certainly be one or two individuals who conduct those sort of meetings, but a lot of it will be done by a wider team who never meet their foreign counterparts, rather they are doing paperwork, answering emails, etc.
And that is why I said there is certainly still a role for expert foreign language speakers, but I think that what we will be seeing is something far more sophisticated than Google Translate which will enable teams to converse with foreign counterparts with little more than entering bullet points and letting the AI system write the email / letter.
FWIW, I disagree with Alistair Meeks. I don't think Boris's chances of being next Conservative leader should be as long as 20/1. However, I'm not on this market as I prefer the next PM market - where you can get better odds.
If Rishi falls before the election it will almost certainly be Boris who takes over as PM again.
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
Google Translate already does live speech-to-speech translation, fast enough to enable a conversation between two people neither of whom know the other language. It’s not as good as a human live translator - but if you want to order dinner in a restaurant, rather than sign an international treaty or a corporate legal agreement, it’s more than good enough!
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Wine is remarkable in its complexity - the sugars, yeasts, tannins in the grape skins, esters from fermentation, vanillins from ageing in oak - it does have the ability to echo all sorts of other flavours and aromas. You try to pinpoint these as much as possible. So if you discern an 'earthy' aroma, is it minerally, mushroomy, or farmyardy? If it's farmyardy, that's when you might say it smells like a Jersey cow-shed, because you're tying it to something you remember, and hoping that others remember and can identify with.
So what about this biscuity champagne we hear about? Good thing there's only one sort of biscuit, or if more they all taste much the same.
There's a lot of laziness in wine tasting reports. Riesling is often described as smelling of petrol. Now I've smelt petrol and I've smelt and tasted plenty of riesling and they couldn't be more different.
Amazing scenes in Brazil. The mob do seem to be attacking the police, so it does seem as if at least some police are standing up for democracy and the rule of law.
FWIW, I disagree with Alistair Meeks. I don't think Boris's chances of being next Conservative leader should be as long as 20/1. However, I'm not on this market as I prefer the next PM market - where you can get better odds.
If Rishi falls before the election it will almost certainly be Boris who takes over as PM again.
Worse odds if you think he is a lay. It is just soooo not happening.
FWIW, I disagree with Alistair Meeks. I don't think Boris's chances of being next Conservative leader should be as long as 20/1. However, I'm not on this market as I prefer the next PM market - where you can get better odds.
If Rishi falls before the election it will almost certainly be Boris who takes over as PM again.
Worse odds if you think he is a lay. It is just soooo not happening.
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
As dealing with foreign clients you will impress them more if you can speak their language as well as they speak yours without having to use Google translate
This is certainly true, but do we need every 18 year old to do that?
A lot of businesses, there will certainly be one or two individuals who conduct those sort of meetings, but a lot of it will be done by a wider team who never meet their foreign counterparts, rather they are doing paperwork, answering emails, etc.
And that is why I said there is certainly still a role for expert foreign language speakers, but I think that what we will be seeing is something far more sophisticated than Google Translate.
Even then it still helps to get a more responsive service from a waiter abroad if you can speak their language properly
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Wine is remarkable in its complexity - the sugars, yeasts, tannins in the grape skins, esters from fermentation, vanillins from ageing in oak - it does have the ability to echo all sorts of other flavours and aromas. You try to pinpoint these as much as possible. So if you discern an 'earthy' aroma, is it minerally, mushroomy, or farmyardy? If it's farmyardy, that's when you might say it smells like a Jersey cow-shed, because you're tying it to something you remember, and hoping that others remember and can identify with.
So what about this biscuity champagne we hear about? Good thing there's only one sort of biscuit, or if more they all taste much the same.
There's a lot of laziness in wine tasting reports. Riesling is often described as smelling of petrol. Now I've smelt petrol and I've smelt and tasted plenty of riesling and they couldn't be more different.
Hah. Just showed the Poe Poems to a professional writer friend. A one word reaction
“Fuck”
That can be interpreted in (at least) two ways.
I rightly interpreted it as meaning "Fuck, soon my art form - novel writing - will be taken over and ruined by the machines"
This really is the end for most creative writers. If Claude can master advanced poetry and it can write amusing Seinfeld scripts, then it can do anything. And it will do anything, because better and better AIs are coming down the line
The only human writing that will survive will be memoir, travel, human interest journalism. The direct human experience an AI cannot have
We can have novel writing as a novel experience - check out this book, written by a 100% real life human!
What's the guarantee of that? Unless you lock him in a Faraday cage with a manual typewriter. And in 10 years time he will have GPT20 installed in his head so that won't work.
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
No history or science?
In the workplace unless you want to teach or research history or work in a museum or be a scientist or doctor or engineer you don't need history or science day to day. They should be compulsory to 16 as any educated person should have some core knowledge of them but not beyond that.
However most office and admin jobs today need effective English language and communication skills, core numeracy and IT.
I agree re history. It is very interesting but not essential for most people, although a knowledge of recent history can be very useful. I don't agree re science. I am appalled by the lack of scientific knowledge of most people and how useful it can be.
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
Google Translate already does live speech-to-speech translation, fast enough to enable a conversation between two people neither of whom know the other language. It’s not as good as a human live translator - but if you want to order dinner in a restaurant, rather than sign an international treaty or a corporate legal agreement, it’s more than good enough!
Right, and its only going to get better. One big feature that these LLM are very good at are taking some talking points and returning a full integrated correspondence. Again, the slow part of these translate apps is having to put the full paragraph of what you want to say, rather than a quick overview. A trained LLM should be able to take a very brief comment e.g. table for 2, now, non-smoking....and turn it into a full paragraph....rather than typing in "I would like a table for 2 and I would like it immediately and it has to be in the non-smoking area"...click button.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Wine is remarkable in its complexity - the sugars, yeasts, tannins in the grape skins, esters from fermentation, vanillins from ageing in oak - it does have the ability to echo all sorts of other flavours and aromas. You try to pinpoint these as much as possible. So if you discern an 'earthy' aroma, is it minerally, mushroomy, or farmyardy? If it's farmyardy, that's when you might say it smells like a Jersey cow-shed, because you're tying it to something you remember, and hoping that others remember and can identify with.
So what about this biscuity champagne we hear about? Good thing there's only one sort of biscuit, or if more they all taste much the same.
There's a lot of laziness in wine tasting reports. Riesling is often described as smelling of petrol. Now I've smelt petrol and I've smelt and tasted plenty of riesling and they couldn't be more different.
And there's that tedious, literally, piss about sauv blanc.
I posed the question early about moving a business to Asia (and living there). It seems the only response I got was Singapore, is that really the only place in Asia safe to operate a business, some talent pool of tech savvy who speak English?
Pretty much, yes.
There’s the Dubai International Finance Centre free zone, which works under English law - if you’d count the sandpit as Asia - but with the demise of Hong Kong there’s only really Singapore left, or perhaps Australia.
It's amazing that angry unhinged rant of @ydoethur got nine likes.
When I look at who it includes I'm not surprised by some of the names, but disappointed by others.
It's very wrong of me to be angry that people spout nonsense.
To give you some idea of how stupid their ideas are, they are the equivalent of somebody proposing to get Brunel's atmospheric railway out of retirement to power the Elizabeth Line and use HS2 rolling stock along with it.
The problem is that because everyone has been to school, and everyone has direct experience of illness in themselves or close family, that everyone thinks themselves able to reorganise the Education or Healthcare of the land.
I suppose that is what is meant by lived experience.
Jeez. It’s been a long time. The quality late evening biz class flight, from wintry london to the tropical sun
One of the minor but emphatic pleasures of life
I will wake up in a place where it is 32C and sunny
Mum and I flew business class from London to Kochi (Cochin) in mid-November, returned (also business class) Kochi to London in mid-December. Upgraded both times, over the counter outbound, and via an online "bid" coming back. Roughly an extra £550 for each of us on each leg.
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Wine is remarkable in its complexity - the sugars, yeasts, tannins in the grape skins, esters from fermentation, vanillins from ageing in oak - it does have the ability to echo all sorts of other flavours and aromas. You try to pinpoint these as much as possible. So if you discern an 'earthy' aroma, is it minerally, mushroomy, or farmyardy? If it's farmyardy, that's when you might say it smells like a Jersey cow-shed, because you're tying it to something you remember, and hoping that others remember and can identify with.
So what about this biscuity champagne we hear about? Good thing there's only one sort of biscuit, or if more they all taste much the same.
There's a lot of laziness in wine tasting reports. Riesling is often described as smelling of petrol. Now I've smelt petrol and I've smelt and tasted plenty of riesling and they couldn't be more different.
As a red wine drinker, which tastes better?
Has any petrol drinker ever tried Riesling to make the experiment?
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
1 A British Baccalaureate It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.
2 ‘Electives premium’ To be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits to ensure that activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.
3 New cadre of Career Academies Elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.
4 Significant boost to early years funding The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.
5 Army of undergraduate tutors The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.
6 Making the most of tech A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.
7 Wellbeing at the heart of education A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.
8 Bring out the best in teaching Profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every 5 yrs & a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.
9 A reformed Ofsted Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, and a new “report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion & attendance to unleash the potential of schools.
10 Better training Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.
11 New university campuses New campuses should be created in 50 HE “cold spots”, including satellite wings in FE colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.
12 A 15-year strategy Drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders & cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.
1) Bullshit. You can have qualifications as intense as A-level (whether they're rigorous is a different question, and I would argue the current ones are not) or you can have more of them. In Australia, for example, you do more subjects at 18 but they're much closer to GCSEs than A-levels in terms of assessment and content.
2) What the fuck does that even mean? It's drivel.
3) Those already exist, so why rebadge them? The key is not elitism. That's what's killed British (and I do mean British) education for centuries. We've always had good elite systems. Where we fall down is in doing a proper job for everyone else.
4) No Shit Sherlocks. Unless you say how it's to be paid for, that's meaningless.
5) Again, already happens on a modest scale. And it can't be expanded because there are lots of undergraduates you don't want near schoolchildren and would be as much use as Spielman in a classroom. How fucking ignorant are these people?
6) Some university faculties have a staff student ratio of 1;46. Are they willing for a fourfold increase in uni funding? Tablets/laptops are a good idea but it's being blocked by the DfE for mostly spurious official reasons which are too long to list here but in reality because of cost.
7) There already is. What planet are these fuckers on?
8) These people don't have a fucking clue. Teachers already do extensive ANNUAL training due to performance related pay. Reaccrediting every five years is simply a way to keep a load of useless unemployable wankers at the DfE in work and add yet more work to teachers.
9) OFSTED is a risk to children, because its head is ignoring safeguarding, possibly because she's stupid and possibly because she's arrogant. It was designed to bring teachers under the drink sodden retards of the DfE and is despised by teachers as a waste of time and effort. It needs abolishing not reforming.
10) WE ALREADY FUCKING DO YOU USELESS DRUG ADDLED WANKERS. BETTER TRAINING WILL NOT CHANGE THAT BUT YOU SHUTTING YOUR USELESS STUPID PATRONISING MOUTHS MIGHT.
11) what the fuck does this even mean? Name one county with no university. I can come up with Rutland and Northumberland. But after that I'm struggling. Even Hereford has one.
12) sod strategies. What we need are useless wankers who think they are brilliant but are in fact thick to fuck off and stop meddling. Starting with the DfE and whatever drunken retards came up with this drivel.
Honestly. Maybe the country's had enough of experts but I've left teaching partly because I'd had enough of ignorant stupid patronising wankers with small brains and smaller dicks telling me how to do my job despite knowing nothing about it.
Feel better now?
Why? Have you shot some of these idiots?
Here is the list of commissioners on that review - it includes plenty of heads and teachers.
Do you think they are all idiots?
"Rachel Sylvester Chairwoman
Sir Anthony Seldon Deputy chairman. Contemporary historian, former head of Brighton College and Wellington College and former vice-chancellor, University of Buckingham
Geoff Barton General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders
Lord Bilimoria Founder of Cobra Beer, president of the CBI and chancellor of Birmingham University
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Professor of cognitive neuroscience at Cambridge University, who leads a group studying the adolescent brain and behaviour
Sir Damon Buffini Permira founding partner, chairman of National Theatre and Cultural Recovery Fund Board
Dame Sally Coates Director at United Learning, which runs 90 schools; author of review of education in prison
Evelyn Forde Head of Copthall School in Barnet and winner of TES head of the year 2020
Kiran Gill Founder of The Difference, which sends high-flying teachers to referral units and alternative provision schools
Robert Halfon Tory MP for Harlow and chairman of Commons education select committee
Lucy Heller Chief executive of Ark, an educational charity that runs schools
Tristram Hunt Victoria & Albert Museum director, former Labour MP
Lord Johnson of Marylebone Former universities minister, chairman of TES
Paul Johnson Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Lucy Kellaway Teacher at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney and co-founder of Now Teach
Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho Chairwoman of WeTransfer, Open University chancellor, Lords Covid-19 select committee chairwoman
Anne Longfield Former children’s commissioner for England
Professor Heather McGregor Executive dean of Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University
Amanda Melton Principal of Nelson and Colne FE college in Lancashire
Sir Michael Morpurgo Author, poet and playwright, and former teacher"
Shit. That's not any Appeal to Authority, it's an M&S Appeal to Authority. Never mind the names, look at the actual document. "Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs" is like saying "Chefs should be trained in the art of rendering foodstuffs more edible and/or palatable by the sustained application of heat."
Those are the headline executive summaries in just one or two sentences. And I had to edit those just to get them to fit in the vanilla character limit.
There is no credible reason to dismiss the report, unless you are a headbanger. The list of commissioners is venerable and the fact that all 10 previous education secretaries and several sitting/former PMs have welcomed its findings is impressive in itself.
It is a very serious piece of work and deserves to be taken so - particularly as our education sector does lag our competitors.
I will certainly be reading it in full (I am yet to do so) and coming to my own conclusions on the detailed findings, and look forward to it.
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
As dealing with foreign clients you will impress them more if you can speak their language as well as they speak yours without having to use Google translate
This is certainly true, but do we need every 18 year old to do that?
A lot of businesses, there will certainly be one or two individuals who conduct those sort of meetings, but a lot of it will be done by a wider team who never meet their foreign counterparts, rather they are doing paperwork, answering emails, etc.
And that is why I said there is certainly still a role for expert foreign language speakers, but I think that what we will be seeing is something far more sophisticated than Google Translate.
Even then it still helps to get a more responsive service from a waiter abroad if you can speak their language properly
I wouldn't have had you down as a foreign language advocate, so I do applaud that. But your example begs the question how many languages should be taught until 18, and which ones?
A lot of mid range wine tasting is just more descriptive version of what people smell and taste. It’s a skill but one I think AI could master quite easily.
For example, take a Rhône white dominated by Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Marsanne. You could say:
- Neutral slightly fruity smell - Rich rounded taste - A bit like Chardonnay but more spicy
Or you could say:
- Generous nose, beeswax and stone fruits, hints of toasted nuts - Peach and lychee on the palate, a hint of cardamom, masala chai
An AI could do that I think.
Just read tasting notes on a prob rather ordinary Chilean pinot noir which said hint of mulberry. WTF knows what a mulberry tastes like? I do because I have a mulberry tree, but I bet the author didn't, nor over .001% of his intended audience.
It really doesn't matter what words they use to describe the taste, provided they are consistent and you drink wine often enough to pick up the lingo. Taste a red wine that says hint of mulberry and compare to a red wine that says notes of cherry, and eventually you should pick up the difference.
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I am specialised enough to conclude this guy was being a twat. I do find, though, that wine tastes of wine, not berries or pencil shavings.
Wine is remarkable in its complexity - the sugars, yeasts, tannins in the grape skins, esters from fermentation, vanillins from ageing in oak - it does have the ability to echo all sorts of other flavours and aromas. You try to pinpoint these as much as possible. So if you discern an 'earthy' aroma, is it minerally, mushroomy, or farmyardy? If it's farmyardy, that's when you might say it smells like a Jersey cow-shed, because you're tying it to something you remember, and hoping that others remember and can identify with.
So what about this biscuity champagne we hear about? Good thing there's only one sort of biscuit, or if more they all taste much the same.
There's a lot of laziness in wine tasting reports. Riesling is often described as smelling of petrol. Now I've smelt petrol and I've smelt and tasted plenty of riesling and they couldn't be more different.
As a red wine drinker, which tastes better?
Has any petrol drinker ever tried Riesling to make the experiment?
Anyone who's ever had to siphon a petrol tank without a clear hose will know that petrol drinking is unlikely to be a 'big thing'.
Jeez. It’s been a long time. The quality late evening biz class flight, from wintry london to the tropical sun
One of the minor but emphatic pleasures of life
I will wake up in a place where it is 32C and sunny
Mum and I flew business class from London to Kochi (Cochin) in mid-November, returned (also business class) Kochi to London in mid-December. Upgraded both times, over the counter outbound, and via an online "bid" coming back. Roughly an extra £550 for each of us on each leg.
That’s an amazing bargain. Well done!
I am actually thinking of flying back via Kochi. It sounds enticing. Never been. Exotic and storied
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
As dealing with foreign clients you will impress them more if you can speak their language as well as they speak yours without having to use Google translate
This is certainly true, but do we need every 18 year old to do that?
A lot of businesses, there will certainly be one or two individuals who conduct those sort of meetings, but a lot of it will be done by a wider team who never meet their foreign counterparts, rather they are doing paperwork, answering emails, etc.
And that is why I said there is certainly still a role for expert foreign language speakers, but I think that what we will be seeing is something far more sophisticated than Google Translate.
Even then it still helps to get a more responsive service from a waiter abroad if you can speak their language properly
It is of huge regret to me that I have never learnt a foreign language. It would have been a lot more useful than much of what I learnt at school.
Certainly there is a strong case for Maths to 18, just add English language, IT and a foreign language too
Although I feel that in general the UK is very poor at foreign languages, what is the rationale for it up to 18, especially when we know AI is already pretty good at least basic translation and I think it is a task that AI is only going to get much better at*.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
As dealing with foreign clients you will impress them more if you can speak their language as well as they speak yours without having to use Google translate
This is certainly true, but do we need every 18 year old to do that?
A lot of businesses, there will certainly be one or two individuals who conduct those sort of meetings, but a lot of it will be done by a wider team who never meet their foreign counterparts, rather they are doing paperwork, answering emails, etc.
And that is why I said there is certainly still a role for expert foreign language speakers, but I think that what we will be seeing is something far more sophisticated than Google Translate.
Even then it still helps to get a more responsive service from a waiter abroad if you can speak their language properly
I wouldn't have had you down as a foreign language advocate, so I do applaud that. But your example begs the question how many languages should be taught until 18, and which ones?
I would allow students to choose one of French, German, Spanish or Mandarin
It's amazing that angry unhinged rant of @ydoethur got nine likes.
When I look at who it includes I'm not surprised by some of the names, but disappointed by others.
It's very wrong of me to be angry that people spout nonsense.
To give you some idea of how stupid their ideas are, they are the equivalent of somebody proposing to get Brunel's atmospheric railway out of retirement to power the Elizabeth Line and use HS2 rolling stock along with it.
Unfortunately, and I'm not saying this to be rude, I no longer really listen to what you say about education and the education sector because of rants and caricatures like this; for comparison, I do very much listen to Foxy on health.
You need to have a more considered answer than everyone in the DfE and Ofsted is an idiot and just let the teachers teach and give them the resources to do it - even if there might be a kernel of truth in it.
Comments
Very good article from December. Not by who you'd think.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis
But do they?
"Dozens of Army soldiers entered the presidential offices within the past 30 minutes. Two helicopters are hovering over the presidential offices. Officers in the helicopters are firing what appear to be anti-riot ammunition and tear-gas canisters. A large group of protesters are now heading away from the presidential offices and toward the back entry to Congress."
Source:NY Times.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32936797/
I don't drink enough wine to build up my experience, but I'm doing quite well on darker beers.
Every field of specialism is impenetrable to an outsider, and I guess wine-tasting is a specialism. The problem comes if it's all made up, and so inconsistent - but I would need to drink more wine to come to any conclusions. I'll pencil it for the 2030s.
I told him last week that my favourite singer of all time, Mavis Staples, is playing at the Union Chapel in Islington in July next year
He's bought four tickets for him, Mum, me and my friend Julia
Mavis is in her eighties now, but still puts on a show
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Me2__L2djPw
I am not at the scene. How'm I supposed to know better than the NYT?
BTW white/black are not about fruit colour. White mulberry fruit when ripe can be white red or black.
She went on tour with MLK and opened his speeches with a show
And she sang this song for the cause in Africa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWhcTu5El0c
If woke meant what it used to mean
I was quite surprised that ChatGPT can't do this. I would have thought it would have seen huge numbers of word lists with the category, but it makes massive mistakes.
e.g. Tier 3 is subject specialised words e.g. photosynthesis, or least commonly used in a language.
ChatGPT thinks words like nose, oranges and toothpaste are Tier 3 words.
https://mobile.twitter.com/CryptoTea_/status/1611017421690748931
I should add that a computer can definitely achieve this task via some fairly standard NLP algorithms, its just that ChatGPT is a bullshitter (rather than say actually I am not trained to do this task).
English language is a poor substitute for history though.
Yes, his coup was only quasi-organized, but that was NOT for want of trying, but rather due to the LOOOOW caliber of his inner circle.
* there will still be a need at the very high end for expert translators, where there needs to be knowledge of culture nuance or very subject specialist knowledge, but I think in terms of writing / reading emails for business, these AI systems are going to be excellent at being able to do this in the very near future. It will be give it the basic outline of your talking points, and it will do a very good job of constructing the text (certainly better than somebody who has only studied to 18 and nothing more).
Do you think they are all idiots?
"Rachel Sylvester Chairwoman
Sir Anthony Seldon Deputy chairman. Contemporary historian, former head of Brighton College and Wellington College and former vice-chancellor, University of Buckingham
Geoff Barton General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders
Lord Bilimoria Founder of Cobra Beer, president of the CBI and chancellor of Birmingham University
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Professor of cognitive neuroscience at Cambridge University, who leads a group studying the adolescent brain and behaviour
Sir Damon Buffini Permira founding partner, chairman of National Theatre and Cultural Recovery Fund Board
Dame Sally Coates Director at United Learning, which runs 90 schools; author of review of education in prison
Evelyn Forde Head of Copthall School in Barnet and winner of TES head of the year 2020
Kiran Gill Founder of The Difference, which sends high-flying teachers to referral units and alternative provision schools
Robert Halfon Tory MP for Harlow and chairman of Commons education select committee
Lucy Heller Chief executive of Ark, an educational charity that runs schools
Tristram Hunt Victoria & Albert Museum director, former Labour MP
Lord Johnson of Marylebone Former
universities minister, chairman of TES
Paul Johnson Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Lucy Kellaway Teacher at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney and co-founder of Now Teach
Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho Chairwoman of WeTransfer, Open University chancellor, Lords Covid-19 select committee chairwoman
Anne Longfield Former children’s commissioner for England
Professor Heather McGregor Executive dean of Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University
Amanda Melton Principal of Nelson and Colne FE college in Lancashire
Sir Michael Morpurgo Author, poet and playwright, and former teacher"
- Sergeant Smith RM told me about his 47 confirmed kills
- No true soldier answers that question.
When I look at who it includes I'm not surprised by some of the names, but disappointed by others.
I would though ensure everyone has ample opportunity and encouragement to attain basic numeracy and literacy no matter what age they are.
However most office and admin jobs today need effective English language and communication skills, core numeracy and IT.
One of the minor but emphatic pleasures of life
I will wake up in a place where it is 32C and sunny
In any case, I was judging them not on their roles or qualifications but on their utterly nonsensical arguments, which i raised significant objections to based on the facts. I note you are unable to refute those.
To give you some idea of how stupid their ideas are, they are the equivalent of somebody proposing to get Brunel's atmospheric railway out of retirement to power the Elizabeth Line and use HS2 rolling stock along with it.
A lot of businesses, there will certainly be one or two individuals who conduct those sort of meetings, but a lot of it will be done by a wider team who never meet their foreign counterparts, rather they are doing paperwork, answering emails, etc.
And that is why I said there is certainly still a role for expert foreign language speakers, but I think that what we will be seeing is something far more sophisticated than Google Translate which will enable teams to converse with foreign counterparts with little more than entering bullet points and letting the AI system write the email / letter.
If Rishi falls before the election it will almost certainly be Boris who takes over as PM again.
https://twitter.com/OxfordDiplomat/status/1612171683363700738?t=o-vFs739-BTeXt5hQQZoeg&s=19
There’s the Dubai International Finance Centre free zone, which works under English law - if you’d count the sandpit as Asia - but with the demise of Hong Kong there’s only really Singapore left, or perhaps Australia.
I suppose that is what is meant by lived experience.
There is no credible reason to dismiss the report, unless you are a headbanger. The list of commissioners is venerable and the fact that all 10 previous education secretaries and several sitting/former PMs have welcomed its findings is impressive in itself.
It is a very serious piece of work and deserves to be taken so - particularly as our education sector does lag our competitors.
I will certainly be reading it in full (I am yet to do so) and coming to my own conclusions on the detailed findings, and look forward to it.
I am actually thinking of flying back via Kochi. It sounds enticing. Never been. Exotic and storied
You need to have a more considered answer than everyone in the DfE and Ofsted is an idiot and just let the teachers teach and give them the resources to do it - even if there might be a kernel of truth in it.
Anyway, I have to go to settle the children.
Goodnight.