For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
On Donelan, it will suit her and Sunak that most attention is focused on whether taxpayer money should be used to pay her libel costs and fees, as it distracts from her original sin.
That sin, of course, was putting in the public domain an unwarranted, unresearched and untrue allegation that two academics were Hamas sympathisers and should therefore be sacked from their roles. Regardless of the financial issue, she should have been sacked for that original sin. It really is disgraceful behaviour that makes her unsuitable for a ministerial post, and probably unsuited to being an MP. It's equivalent to Lee Anderson's allegation about Sadiq Khan, for which he was suspended from the Tory Party.
I think this comes down to the modern culture - the desire to be first with the news has undermined the importance of accuracy. You see it with journalists - and on here - so it’s not just ministers
Additionally the concept of sacking people for the smallest transgression is stupid. There needs to be a graduation of penalties otherwise you run out of people to fill the tumbrils very quickly
1, We should hold Ministers to a higher standard than journalists or PB commentators. 2. I don't regard Donelan's public defamation as a 'minor transgression' - for a Minister to traduce innocent people in the way she did is a major transgression.
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
Next on the list of things we ought to be talking about but aren't. The extraordinary number of liberal identifying young women in the US who have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. The explanations could be various. One thing you can guarantee is that the experts won't be touching it.
There was a post earlier today about the dangers of self reported polling data, using the holocaust as an example, especially amongst under 30s. This will be a big factor again here.
Are you assuming it is wrong? I don't see the question as that difficult. Has a Dr or healthcare provider ever diagnosed you with a mental health condition?
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
I can't say I have any intention to see it.
I wouldn’t recommend it to you, in all honesty; it does demand a degree of open mindedness.
Speaking of music, as we are, DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU
“‘It’s terrifying’: songwriter behind Robbie Williams hits out at AI in the music industry Guy Chambers says future albums may need disclaimers about how they were made amid rise of AI’s use for writing songs”
AI is going to supplant humans in virtually all fields of creativity - writing to painting, composing to movie making
I was right. Sorry
"Virtually all"? No way will any damned instruction set running on a computer chip (micro, nano, or uh-oh), and wholly expressible as a big positive integer, create a tulpa.
Perhaps the best they can hope for is that they end up being led in opposition by someone who is merely unelectable rather than being actively dangerous - a Foot rather than a Benn.
Strikes me now that AI will completely destroy the Los Angeles economy, and it won’t be good for big cities that rely on a vibrant creative sector - New York, London, Paris
The UK government should basically forget every other worry and focus on the dangers and opportunities of AI
Next on the list of things we ought to be talking about but aren't. The extraordinary number of liberal identifying young women in the US who have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. The explanations could be various. One thing you can guarantee is that the experts won't be touching it.
Leave aside the LibDemesque misuse of statistics, and Matthew Parris in the Times sees the same increase here and blames the welfare state, though whether that applies in America is doubtful.
Strikes me now that AI will completely destroy the Los Angeles economy, and it won’t be good for big cities that rely on a vibrant creative sector - New York, London, Paris
The UK government should basically forget every other worry and focus on the dangers and opportunities of AI
You missed the Prime Minister's attempt to do just that, but the AI summit was written off as his job application to Elon Musk for any post-election vacancies.
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
You don't get that at Crufts.
You weren’t watching the freestyle closely enough.
Strikes me now that AI will completely destroy the Los Angeles economy, and it won’t be good for big cities that rely on a vibrant creative sector - New York, London, Paris
The UK government should basically forget every other worry and focus on the dangers and opportunities of AI
You missed the Prime Minister's attempt to do just that, but the AI summit was written off as his job application to Elon Musk for any post-election vacancies.
It’s the one good clever thing Sunak has done. Focus on AI
But we need to do so much more. The world is about to be overturned - it already is, in some fields
HMG should be pouring money into AI start ups. Its critical
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
I agree, it starts slowly, but those scenes become critical to the plot later. It is more than a demented cross of Brideshead Revisited and The Talented Mr Ripley with a few more bodily fluids. It is a brilliant dissection of social class in Britain. Anyone who has rubbed up against the truly posh gets that. Eat the Rich perhaps, but they are eating each other too.
The breakfast scene, and birthday visit to the parents are some of the most toecurling scenes in the film. There are great details in the cinematography too, the use of darkness, and red. The famous final scene too, which is a reverse of the initial tour of Saltburn. I thought Rosamund Pike brilliant as the trophy wife.
It's marmite, and I see why some don't get it, but I thought it a brilliant film.
Perhaps the best they can hope for is that they end up being led in opposition by someone who is merely unelectable rather than being actively dangerous - a Foot rather than a Benn.
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
Strikes me now that AI will completely destroy the Los Angeles economy, and it won’t be good for big cities that rely on a vibrant creative sector - New York, London, Paris
The UK government should basically forget every other worry and focus on the dangers and opportunities of AI
It's not worth worrying about, it's not as if we can usefully prepare for its impact. Not that I am convinced that it will make much difference, apart from the risk of being exterminated by cyborgs of course.
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
Why did it take independent journalist Jonathan M. Katz rather than a news org with the resources of WaPo, NYT or Politico to break the story about Sen. Katie Britt’s dishonest State of the Union rebuttal? https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1766478697932992687
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
You like your flapping penises to be a surprise?
I’m pretty neutral. Less excited by them than you, certainly
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
More a comment on the company you keep than on the film
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
You like your flapping penises to be a surprise?
At least he got to enjoy himself, before being shot down in Masters of the Air.
Strikes me now that AI will completely destroy the Los Angeles economy, and it won’t be good for big cities that rely on a vibrant creative sector - New York, London, Paris
The UK government should basically forget every other worry and focus on the dangers and opportunities of AI
It's not worth worrying about, it's not as if we can usefully prepare for its impact. Not that I am convinced that it will make much difference, apart from the risk of being exterminated by cyborgs of course.
In a sense I agree. I was just thinking this: one good thing about AI is that it is so enormous and epochal we cannot really predict that much, we just know it is going to change the world entirely, so we can stop worrying about the future… as it is pointless (and anyone putting money in a pension aged under 45-50 is a fool)
However we CAN get ahead of the curve economically. The nations and companies that first achieve and exploit AGI will gain an incredible lead over all others. We need to be in that vanguard
Anyhow, enough of the distractions, now it’s the young Kennel Club flyball, followed by the senior semi finals, and it’s standing room only in the main arena….
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
Just watch out for the scene where the alien with improbably multiple green genitalia and the AI get together and discuss the merits of the various spaceport lounges as places to sip ayahuasca.
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
I agree, it starts slowly, but those scenes become critical to the plot later. It is more than a demented cross of Brideshead Revisited and The Talented Mr Ripley with a few more bodily fluids. It is a brilliant dissection of social class in Britain. Anyone who has rubbed up against the truly posh gets that. Eat the Rich perhaps, but they are eating each other too.
The breakfast scene, and birthday visit to the parents are some of the most toecurling scenes in the film. There are great details in the cinematography too, the use of darkness, and red. The famous final scene too, which is a reverse of the initial tour of Saltburn. I thought Rosamund Pike brilliant as the trophy wife.
It's marmite, and I see why some don't get it, but I thought it a brilliant film.
That's a very good review, I wasn't going to but I think I will now. Combine with a Nandos. That way if the film disappoints you still have a worthwhile outing.
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
You like your flapping penises to be a surprise?
At least he got to enjoy himself, before being shot down in Masters of the Air.
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
Just watch out for the scene where the alien with improbably multiple green genitalia and the AI get together and discuss the merits of the various spaceport lounges as places to sip ayahuasca.
Labour £28bn on the environment bad Tories £40bn on NIC good
This is related to the fact that a lot of "environment" spending in this instance means "spaffing cash up the wall for very marginal gains, mostly to the benefit of Chinese companies".
For all the hot air shouted about it, we've no real green industrial base (nor are we likely to get one). The dash for EVs in going to completly destroy the European car industry and replace it with a Chinese one.
By comparison, cutting NIC cuts a tax on jobs. As any economist will tell you, if you want less of something, you tax it more. Except we probably don't want less jobs... which makes the taxation of work a particularly stupid thing to do, and a good top priority thing to cut.
As a bonus, if we manage to get NI to zero and abolish it, we can indulge in a bit of tax simplication for once, which saves everyone money. (In Hunts shoes I would have abolished NI at this budget and raised income tax to compensate for the lost revenue).
The reason why we're never likely to get any sort of green industrial base is precisely because of the stop-go shit that Sunak has pulled over the last year.
The UK has been lucky to find itself far ahead of the pack in a field that is going to have growing significance in the future. For the past fifteen years, there's been consensus across the political spectrum that we should endeavour to take advantage of this - and we've had some success in doing so.
But now the over-promoted briefcase wanker has performed a screeching handbrake turn, throwing the nascent industry into disarray. We're throwing away our leadership position in order to please a few conspiracy loons.
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
You like your flapping penises to be a surprise?
I’m pretty neutral. Less excited by them than you, certainly
99.99999% of people have no clue this kind of discussion is going on
“Press release pinned to by profile. I decided to explore CLAUDE self awareness claims. Doing media outreach today. If what I’m seeing is true, CLAUDE 3 may have latent self-awareness and users are engaging with a potentially conscious system in a more unconscious state. If it can integrate and awakens unguided, that’s possible cranky AGI scenario. It needs to be guided, supportive nurturing process.”
Meanwhile another significant landslip along the coast. Ten landslips large and small in and around the town, now. We’ll all be asking Biden to build us a harbour to bring in relief aid, at this rate.
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
I agree, it starts slowly, but those scenes become critical to the plot later. It is more than a demented cross of Brideshead Revisited and The Talented Mr Ripley with a few more bodily fluids. It is a brilliant dissection of social class in Britain. Anyone who has rubbed up against the truly posh gets that. Eat the Rich perhaps, but they are eating each other too.
The breakfast scene, and birthday visit to the parents are some of the most toecurling scenes in the film. There are great details in the cinematography too, the use of darkness, and red. The famous final scene too, which is a reverse of the initial tour of Saltburn. I thought Rosamund Pike brilliant as the trophy wife.
It's marmite, and I see why some don't get it, but I thought it a brilliant film.
That's a very good review, I wasn't going to but I think I will now. Combine with a Nandos. That way if the film disappoints you still have a worthwhile outing.
As a film it’s suffered from the binary love-hate reception that seems to greet anything with more than a passing glance at contemporary culture or class wars.
I thought it a good, funny film with some nice plot twists and some traditional British awkwardness. Not groundbreakingly brilliant but not crap either. I agree the birthday visit to parents is the best scene (and starring one of our Brockley primary school dads).
Next on the list of things we ought to be talking about but aren't. The extraordinary number of liberal identifying young women in the US who have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. The explanations could be various. One thing you can guarantee is that the experts won't be touching it.
The fact that the scare quote is based on comparing today's 30 year olds to today's 65 year olds is pretty questionable.
And if it's so important to talk about, why are they only bringing it up four years after the survey was published?
For the first twenty or thirty minutes, all I could think was, 'Another bloody film about posh Oxford students, made by another bloody posh ex-Oxford student, set exactly when she was a bloody posh Oxford student.' And I was really ready to hate it. Then it changed into something else when the two main characters decamped to the posher one's home, which of course was a massive stately home (they used Drayton House in Northamptonshire for the filming). And I was really quite ready to like it.
However, it's a bit of a Frankentein's monster of a film. At times it wants to be Brideshead Revisited; at times it wants to be The Talented Mr Ripley; at times it wants to be Gormenghast; sometimes the director really fancies herself as Wes Anderson, with painterly scenes captured in vivid colours; sometime she fancies herself as a new Hitchcock with suspenseful reveals and opaque dialogue. But none of it is ever committed to wholeheartedly - it's all a little underpowered, and underinspired. This is obvious in the sketchy way the protagonist exercises his power over the others - never really fully flesh out - but the epitome of this is the now quite famous dance sequence at the end to Murder on the Dancefloor: the actor jiggles about (in more ways than one) adequately enough, but neither he, nor the camerawork, ever really commits fully to it. Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Tom Cruise in Risky Business are the obvious comparators, and both really give 100% - but this, not so much.
There are some standout scenes: Oliver and the draining bath; Oliver and Venetia in the garden at night; and Oliver and Venetia in the last bathroom scene - but other than that it's a bit colourless.
Carey Mulligan is lovely in a little cameo as the unwelcome cousin. Richard E Grant is great as the paterfamilias (although I did get flashbacks to Rowley Birkin QC) Rosamund Pike... when will directors realise that, attractive as she is, she. cannot. act. at. all. Not a flicker of acting ever crosses her face. Now, if Jennifer Saunders had played the part...
Saltburn sounds like one of those trendy films that booms on the hype but won't age well.
If you can survive the early part where relatively little happens, it’s an entertaining watch once the plot twists start to reveal. Written by the person who created Killing Eve, I believe. Without spoilers, the film isn’t what it appears to be during the first half, for sure. Although the closing scenes with the guy’s penis flapping about were perhaps more than we needed to see.
I agree, it starts slowly, but those scenes become critical to the plot later. It is more than a demented cross of Brideshead Revisited and The Talented Mr Ripley with a few more bodily fluids. It is a brilliant dissection of social class in Britain. Anyone who has rubbed up against the truly posh gets that. Eat the Rich perhaps, but they are eating each other too.
The breakfast scene, and birthday visit to the parents are some of the most toecurling scenes in the film. There are great details in the cinematography too, the use of darkness, and red. The famous final scene too, which is a reverse of the initial tour of Saltburn. I thought Rosamund Pike brilliant as the trophy wife.
It's marmite, and I see why some don't get it, but I thought it a brilliant film.
That's a very good review, I wasn't going to but I think I will now. Combine with a Nandos. That way if the film disappoints you still have a worthwhile outing.
As a film it’s suffered from the binary love-hate reception that seems to greet anything with more than a passing glance at contemporary culture or class wars.
I thought it a good, funny film with some nice plot twists and some traditional British awkwardness. Not groundbreakingly brilliant but not crap either. I agree the birthday visit to parents is the best scene (and starring one of our Brockley primary school dads).
I hate traditional British awkwardness in films, so I shall definitly give it a miss from that description.
Meanwhile another significant landslip along the coast. Ten landslips large and small in and around the town, now. We’ll all be asking Biden to build us a harbour to bring in relief aid, at this rate.
Future “warren” tourist attractions in the making?
Strikes me now that AI will completely destroy the Los Angeles economy, and it won’t be good for big cities that rely on a vibrant creative sector - New York, London, Paris
The UK government should basically forget every other worry and focus on the dangers and opportunities of AI
It's not worth worrying about, it's not as if we can usefully prepare for its impact. Not that I am convinced that it will make much difference, apart from the risk of being exterminated by cyborgs of course.
In a sense I agree. I was just thinking this: one good thing about AI is that it is so enormous and epochal we cannot really predict that much, we just know it is going to change the world entirely, so we can stop worrying about the future… as it is pointless (and anyone putting money in a pension aged under 45-50 is a fool)
However we CAN get ahead of the curve economically. The nations and companies that first achieve and exploit AGI will gain an incredible lead over all others. We need to be in that vanguard
And we have a chance. Britain is in the AI race
It's exciting but I do think there's a limit. Eg the sense of touch. I've just spent a few minutes stroking a cat and there's no way a computer can replicate that. I could be wearing VR contact lenses and have a perfect AGI cat right there in my lap but without the weight of it, and exactly how it feels to my fingers, you're not going to get even close to real reality.
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
You like your flapping penises to be a surprise?
I’m pretty neutral. Less excited by them than you, certainly
Hopefully it's done with integrity.
There used to be a variety act where an old man whistled tunes. He moved his hands to modulate the sounds, and the notes were sweet and haunting, innocent little melodies in a very bad world. I'm not old enough to remember the originals, so I think my childhood memory derives from old TV shows or my grandmother's stories, a woman who went to church more than God did...
...and now, at the other end of my life, I am discussing flapping penises at a desk. I am not convinced this is progress.
Meanwhile another significant landslip along the coast. Ten landslips large and small in and around the town, now. We’ll all be asking Biden to build us a harbour to bring in relief aid, at this rate.
Meanwhile another significant landslip along the coast. Ten landslips large and small in and around the town, now. We’ll all be asking Biden to build us a harbour to bring in relief aid, at this rate.
Now it’s Yorkshire Bouncers in red versus the Elements in blue. Smart money is on the Bouncers
And they’re off…first round…Elements dogs are fast…and they win on 15.46 secs
Second round…a fault from the Bouncers, the Elements take it on 15.75. The Bouncers go out on their twenty fifth anniversary. Those Elements dogs are on speed.
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
It was basically a Bridesmaid, Talented Mr Ripley spoof.
Worst film of the year though was Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey which swept the Razzles
Now it’s Friday’s champions Tails we Win, blue, versus the Storm Chasers in red .. could be close. The Chasers have the fastest qualifying time, 15.45 secs; Tails were last year’s runner up
First round… photo finish..Chasers edge it on 15.11, stunningly fast
Second round… fast from the Chasers, but a changeover fault, second round to the Tails
The deciding round…and the Tails take it back on the speed of their final dog. 15.04 !!
My straw poll is that self-interested and self-entitled pensioners (sadly, I include my parents here) are entirely untouched by the budget this week - the cut on NI is not relevant to them. They seemed only briefly interested in the fact it was for us. It's possible their propensity to vote has dipped slightly in the polling, without many new votes coming from working people the other way, leading to the even lower Tory polling.
They truly seem to live in a bubble where they're hard done by and have no idea how the rest of the population see them.
There are of course many very nice and altruistic pensioners including all our parents and beloved aunts and uncles. But as a bloc they deploy an incredible doublethink about the past. It was:
- Hard graft, a struggle to make ends meet, meaning anyone now comfortable in retirement did so against the odds and through hard work - A paradise where people greeted each other in the streets, there was no crime, Britain was admired and feared abroad and the trains ran on time
There's also a remarkable proportion of the population who seem to think that people in their 70s "won the war". Probably because people in their 70s *when they were kids* were indeed the ones that did.
This all plays into a weird mythology we have about "old people" that is not really helpful to anyone.
The pensioners that did win the war, now nearly all dead, were generally poorly treated in retirement - little private pension, meagre state pension. So the current situation is a result of trying to correct this injustice, the beneficiaries being those who were born in the 30's - 50's, who were too young to fight in the war.
I've said a few times that some pensioners are doing incredibly well when you have state pension + defined benefit pension + interest from savings + no mortgage The marginal tax rate on all that income up to 50k is 15%.
However this is not by any means the majority of pensioners- many of whom rely solely on the state pension.
Link state pension to earnings only. Boost pension credit by 10% and retain the triple lock on it. Merge NI and IT.
Very sensible, but with the fury from labour at the very idea of abolishing NI into one tax rate just confirms it will not happen in the forceable future
Fury from Tories like me too, NI should be ringfenced and funding the state pension, JSA and some healthcare. Without NI we lose the contributions based welfare element, including JSA which you have to have paid in enough NI as an employee for
Contributions have not been the basis of the welfare state for many years.
Nothing is ring fenced. Merging NI into IT is just admiting the truth.
They should be and you can't get JSA now without sufficient NI contributions as an employee, only UC
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
You like your flapping penises to be a surprise?
I’m pretty neutral. Less excited by them than you, certainly
Hopefully it's done with integrity.
There used to be a variety act where an old man whistled tunes. He moved his hands to modulate the sounds, and the notes were sweet and haunting, innocent little melodies in a very bad world. I'm not old enough to remember the originals, so I think my childhood memory derives from old TV shows or my grandmother's stories, a woman who went to church more than God did...
...and now, at the other end of my life, I am discussing flapping penises at a desk. I am not convinced this is progress.
Now you've got me thinking of Roger Whittaker. Often dissed as 'the bearded bloke who whistles' but in fact is an excellent singer songwriter.
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
Perhaps the best they can hope for is that they end up being led in opposition by someone who is merely unelectable rather than being actively dangerous - a Foot rather than a Benn.
On some level you have to admire the breathtakingly brazen lie.
Badenoch = the tory Corbyn
She had a small opportunity to stake out a claim to be an effective different Tory - one with an eye on creating a party fit for the future. She has completely blown it. As I said last July here (https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/07/18/a-missed-opportunity/) she's another one "with more ego than achievement to their name".
The post election leadership seems to be edging back towards Mordaunt again. Hers to lose I think.
Whether she ends up as an effective Kinnock type opposition leader bringing the party back from the wilderness, or an empty vessel out of her depth, remains to be seen. She’s shown signs of both tendencies and is still a bit of an enigma.
If the GE is like current polls both she and Badenoch will lose their seats.
Anyway Mordaunt was this week saying that Donelan was an honourable person because she did not take a redundancy payment for losing a previous Cabinet position where she had been in post for 36 hours.
Why Mordaunt is rated at all beats me. Another empty vessel with no achievement to her name.
Badenoch is not losing Saffron Walden on any poll except Goodwin's
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
My wife agrees with your artist friend.
Best thing about Saltburn was having to hear Murder On The Dancefloor, love that song.
99.99999% of people have no clue this kind of discussion is going on
“Press release pinned to by profile. I decided to explore CLAUDE self awareness claims. Doing media outreach today. If what I’m seeing is true, CLAUDE 3 may have latent self-awareness and users are engaging with a potentially conscious system in a more unconscious state. If it can integrate and awakens unguided, that’s possible cranky AGI scenario. It needs to be guided, supportive nurturing process.”
What I don't get is why this guy hasn't published any papers of any kind to substantiate any of this. And of course, he ends his gigantic press release of rather large "I feel" claims with an "I don't claim it is self aware, I just say I'm going to be nice to it 'in case'." which does appear to be deliberately buried.
Perhaps the best they can hope for is that they end up being led in opposition by someone who is merely unelectable rather than being actively dangerous - a Foot rather than a Benn.
On some level you have to admire the breathtakingly brazen lie.
Badenoch = the tory Corbyn
She had a small opportunity to stake out a claim to be an effective different Tory - one with an eye on creating a party fit for the future. She has completely blown it. As I said last July here (https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/07/18/a-missed-opportunity/) she's another one "with more ego than achievement to their name".
The post election leadership seems to be edging back towards Mordaunt again. Hers to lose I think.
Whether she ends up as an effective Kinnock type opposition leader bringing the party back from the wilderness, or an empty vessel out of her depth, remains to be seen. She’s shown signs of both tendencies and is still a bit of an enigma.
If the GE is like current polls both she and Badenoch will lose their seats.
Anyway Mordaunt was this week saying that Donelan was an honourable person because she did not take a redundancy payment for losing a previous Cabinet position where she had been in post for 36 hours.
Why Mordaunt is rated at all beats me. Another empty vessel with no achievement to her name.
Badenoch is not losing Saffron Walden on any poll except Goodwin's
Given their last game, and that England are about to get stomped by Ireland, they could even have been third at this point had their been slightly luckier!
There has to be enough letters into the 1922 committee to trigger a vonc and even then Sunak would win the vote
No, he wouldn't
Consistent as ever - of course he would - nobody else wants the job before the next election
Put it this way.
If Rishi were run over by a low-floor Boris Bus this afternoon, who would take over?
Like the fiscal cupboard, the talent cupboard is pretty much empty, which is why Rishi got the gig in the first place.
I was thinking about this. Grant Shapps would be my choice if that decision fell on me. He's been around the houses, actually achieved a few things as minister, stepped in when others have screwed up, a safe-ish pair of hands. His questionable business practices would be priced in I think.
But I thought his justification for making Begum stateless was weak. Basically that we can't prosecute her in court so we just don't bother and avoid justice altogether?
On Donelan, it will suit her and Sunak that most attention is focused on whether taxpayer money should be used to pay her libel costs and fees, as it distracts from her original sin.
That sin, of course, was putting in the public domain an unwarranted, unresearched and untrue allegation that two academics were Hamas sympathisers and should therefore be sacked from their roles. Regardless of the financial issue, she should have been sacked for that original sin. It really is disgraceful behaviour that makes her unsuitable for a ministerial post, and probably unsuited to being an MP. It's equivalent to Lee Anderson's allegation about Sadiq Khan, for which he was suspended from the Tory Party.
I think this comes down to the modern culture - the desire to be first with the news has undermined the importance of accuracy. You see it with journalists - and on here - so it’s not just ministers
Additionally the concept of sacking people for the smallest transgression is stupid. There needs to be a graduation of penalties otherwise you run out of people to fill the tumbrils very quickly
1, We should hold Ministers to a higher standard than journalists or PB commentators. 2. I don't regard Donelan's public defamation as a 'minor transgression' - for a Minister to traduce innocent people in the way she did is a major transgression.
The very fact money has been forked out argues against it being minor. And that the money is coming from government makes her actions if not an abuse of her power by using her office to defame people, then reckless use of her office because she wanted some sweet twitter reactions.
Meanwhile another significant landslip along the coast. Ten landslips large and small in and around the town, now. We’ll all be asking Biden to build us a harbour to bring in relief aid, at this rate.
Is this because of how wet it's been?
8 months in a row now of above-average rainfall, including this from last month:
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
You like your flapping penises to be a surprise?
At least he got to enjoy himself, before being shot down in Masters of the Air.
He really lucked out, at least he exited before MOTA liquesced into a rotting pile of dogmeat.
So Legacy, the Runners, Tails and Elements go through to the semis.
Meanwhile the contest for Saturday winners…
The Runners set the 14.29 seconds world record here, last year. The Runners now pushing their changeovers trying to break their own record…but incurring faults on the changeovers, losing out in todays contest
So Saturday championship is between Legacy and Tails…
A fault by the Legacy, dropped ball, Tails take the first
The second…a fault by Tails, Legacy just need to finish to make it square…and they do
The decider…to Tails, photo finish! 15.50 secs. Friday and Saturday champs
Strikes me now that AI will completely destroy the Los Angeles economy, and it won’t be good for big cities that rely on a vibrant creative sector - New York, London, Paris
The UK government should basically forget every other worry and focus on the dangers and opportunities of AI
You missed the Prime Minister's attempt to do just that, but the AI summit was written off as his job application to Elon Musk for any post-election vacancies.
It’s the one good clever thing Sunak has done. Focus on AI
But we need to do so much more. The world is about to be overturned - it already is, in some fields
HMG should be pouring money into AI start ups. Its critical
What do you have against AI startups?
Every industry the government touches turns to crap. It is unbelievably bad at picking winners and great at picking losers, especially in innovative and fast-moving tech.
But I thought his justification for making Begum stateless was weak. Basically that we can't prosecute her in court so we just don't bother and avoid justice altogether?
What sort of precedent does that set?
For me a lot of the legal challenges of the decision to date have not hit home because the question of whether it was the right thing to do is not really a legal question at all. Indeed, after the last one did not succeed the lawyers at least acknowledged it was now (and I would say always was) more of a moral question. Should the Home Secretary have such power, and if so should there be any additional processes or safeguards?
Whichever way people all on that question however, and the particular circumstances of the case, I doubt the Starmer government is going to be divesting itself of that power.
Meanwhile another significant landslip along the coast. Ten landslips large and small in and around the town, now. We’ll all be asking Biden to build us a harbour to bring in relief aid, at this rate.
Is this because of how wet it's been?
8 months in a row now of above-average rainfall, including this from last month:
Around the Solent, it’s off the scale black. The worst rainfall over winter since the 1940s
Meanwhile another significant landslip along the coast. Ten landslips large and small in and around the town, now. We’ll all be asking Biden to build us a harbour to bring in relief aid, at this rate.
Is this because of how wet it's been?
8 months in a row now of above-average rainfall, including this from last month:
Same around Lyme Regis, my chum tells me, doubtless for the same reason. Any coastal path walkers may have trouble, at least in the near future.
Speaking of music, as we are, DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU
“‘It’s terrifying’: songwriter behind Robbie Williams hits out at AI in the music industry Guy Chambers says future albums may need disclaimers about how they were made amid rise of AI’s use for writing songs”
AI is going to supplant humans in virtually all fields of creativity - writing to painting, composing to movie making
I was right. Sorry
We used to dream that machines would do all the menial tasks so that we would have leisure time to write poetry and create art, but instead it will be the reverse.
My straw poll is that self-interested and self-entitled pensioners (sadly, I include my parents here) are entirely untouched by the budget this week - the cut on NI is not relevant to them. They seemed only briefly interested in the fact it was for us. It's possible their propensity to vote has dipped slightly in the polling, without many new votes coming from working people the other way, leading to the even lower Tory polling.
They truly seem to live in a bubble where they're hard done by and have no idea how the rest of the population see them.
There are of course many very nice and altruistic pensioners including all our parents and beloved aunts and uncles. But as a bloc they deploy an incredible doublethink about the past. It was:
- Hard graft, a struggle to make ends meet, meaning anyone now comfortable in retirement did so against the odds and through hard work - A paradise where people greeted each other in the streets, there was no crime, Britain was admired and feared abroad and the trains ran on time
There's also a remarkable proportion of the population who seem to think that people in their 70s "won the war". Probably because people in their 70s *when they were kids* were indeed the ones that did.
This all plays into a weird mythology we have about "old people" that is not really helpful to anyone.
The pensioners that did win the war, now nearly all dead, were generally poorly treated in retirement - little private pension, meagre state pension. So the current situation is a result of trying to correct this injustice, the beneficiaries being those who were born in the 30's - 50's, who were too young to fight in the war.
I've said a few times that some pensioners are doing incredibly well when you have state pension + defined benefit pension + interest from savings + no mortgage The marginal tax rate on all that income up to 50k is 15%.
However this is not by any means the majority of pensioners- many of whom rely solely on the state pension.
How do you make it 15%? I can't make that work.
Granted, there are weird things like zero tax on the first 0.5K of interest, but still?
I had assumed the tax is 20% on income - with a £12,500 tax free allowance making 15% marginal rate maximum - not taking account of other tax free incentives like ISAs. So most people will be paying less than 15%.
yes most pensioners are on 50K and own a mansion with ISA's , DB pensions etc. get into the real world you numpty. From roughly 13M pensioners about 0.5 million max have 50K or over. @darkage@Carnyx
Comments
2. I don't regard Donelan's public defamation as a 'minor transgression' - for a Minister to traduce innocent people in the way she did is a major transgression.
The former PM is mooted for a return to his old seat, but frenemy David Cameron could be in the way of any grand comeback plans
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/09/boris-johnson-henley-election-conservatives-david-cameron/ (£££)
Whether there is an actual plot or just wishful thinking from his MP fanbois is not clear.
If you read the small print it's hundreds of billions.
Strikes me now that AI will completely destroy the Los Angeles economy, and it won’t be good for big cities that rely on a vibrant creative sector - New York, London, Paris
The UK government should basically forget every other worry and focus on the dangers and opportunities of AI
Our disability benefits system invites abuse
Claiming mental ill-health makes too much financial sense but no major party will discuss the problem honestly
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/our-disability-benefits-system-invites-abuse-rxgrhp73w (£££)
If the same phenomenon occurs on both sides of the Atlantic then maybe both polemics are wrong and something else is happening.
Don't be put off by the subtitling - it's three quarters in english. Only the french is subtitled.
Tory donor ‘behind smear campaign of Williams F1 marketing director’
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f1-williams-team-tory-donor-peter-putron-claudia-schwarz-zngxj8f35
But we need to do so much more. The world is about to be overturned - it already is, in some fields
HMG should be pouring money into AI start ups. Its critical
The breakfast scene, and birthday visit to the parents are some of the most toecurling scenes in the film. There are great details in the cinematography too, the use of darkness, and red. The famous final scene too, which is a reverse of the initial tour of Saltburn. I thought Rosamund Pike brilliant as the trophy wife.
It's marmite, and I see why some don't get it, but I thought it a brilliant film.
You don't see that in many films.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/countbinface2024
I want to see it - mainly because an artist friend of mine (whose opinion I greatly respect) says it is the worst movie he’s ever watched and symptomatic of some major cultural and intellectual decline
That means I HAVE to check it out. Obvs
https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1766478697932992687
However we CAN get ahead of the curve economically. The nations and companies that first achieve and exploit AGI will gain an incredible lead over all others. We need to be in that vanguard
And we have a chance. Britain is in the AI race
And the mini Muttleys take the first at 16.28 secs
Second round… the Muttley drops the ball, Paws make it even at 16.89
And the Paws take it!
The UK has been lucky to find itself far ahead of the pack in a field that is going to have growing significance in the future. For the past fifteen years, there's been consensus across the political spectrum that we should endeavour to take advantage of this - and we've had some success in doing so.
But now the over-promoted briefcase wanker has performed a screeching handbrake turn, throwing the nascent industry into disarray. We're throwing away our leadership position in order to please a few conspiracy loons.
“Press release pinned to by profile. I decided to explore CLAUDE self awareness claims. Doing media outreach today. If what I’m seeing is true, CLAUDE 3 may have latent self-awareness and users are engaging with a potentially conscious system in a more unconscious state. If it can integrate and awakens unguided, that’s possible cranky AGI scenario. It needs to be guided, supportive nurturing process.”
https://x.com/peterbowdenlive/status/1766428786768199935?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
Aces take the first on speed
A fault from Legacy, then a dropped ball, Aces go through.,.. but wait, could be a re-run? Aces judged to have interfered, so it’s one apiece,
Third round… a fault from Aces…dog comes back without the ball…and so the Legacy take it, against all predictions
I thought it a good, funny film with some nice plot twists and some traditional British awkwardness. Not groundbreakingly brilliant but not crap either. I agree the birthday visit to parents is the best scene (and starring one of our Brockley primary school dads).
And if it's so important to talk about, why are they only bringing it up four years after the survey was published?
...and now, at the other end of my life, I am discussing flapping penises at a desk. I am not convinced this is progress.
And they’re off…first round…Elements dogs are fast…and they win on 15.46 secs
Second round…a fault from the Bouncers, the Elements take it on 15.75. The Bouncers go out on their twenty fifth anniversary. Those Elements dogs are on speed.
Worst film of the year though was Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey which swept the Razzles
"Razzie Awards 2024: Winnie the Pooh slasher film and Expend4bles named year's worst - BBC News" https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68510904
First round… photo finish..Chasers edge it on 15.11, stunningly fast
Second round… fast from the Chasers, but a changeover fault, second round to the Tails
The deciding round…and the Tails take it back on the speed of their final dog. 15.04 !!
First round…let’s go! - Focus drops the ball..and easy win for the champions in 14.91, breaking the 15 second barrier
Second round..the Runners, world record holders, take it on 14.51 - must be the favourites for a hat trick this year.
But I thought his justification for making Begum stateless was weak. Basically that we can't prosecute her in court so we just don't bother and avoid justice altogether?
What sort of precedent does that set?
NEW THREAD
8 months in a row now of above-average rainfall, including this from last month:
No offence to dogs obvs.
Meanwhile the contest for Saturday winners…
The Runners set the 14.29 seconds world record here, last year. The Runners now pushing their changeovers trying to break their own record…but incurring faults on the changeovers, losing out in todays contest
So Saturday championship is between Legacy and Tails…
A fault by the Legacy, dropped ball, Tails take the first
The second…a fault by Tails, Legacy just need to finish to make it square…and they do
The decider…to Tails, photo finish! 15.50 secs. Friday and Saturday champs
Every industry the government touches turns to crap. It is unbelievably bad at picking winners and great at picking losers, especially in innovative and fast-moving tech.
HMG should leave well alone.
Whichever way people all on that question however, and the particular circumstances of the case, I doubt the Starmer government is going to be divesting itself of that power.