We need to talk about electoral reform as it has betting implications – politicalbetting.com
Options
Comments
-
Kilograms of caviar or coke the editor is said previously to have given? And presumably taken.Dopermean said:
Horrific that there could be a press baron more malign than MurdochDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/0 -
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.0 -
Universities have two problems besides money. Fewer home-grown students because mummies and daddies don't really love each other in sufficient quantities, and fewer overseas students because of small boats.Pulpstar said:
They could well all likely be better run.... but they are all constrained as to how much they can charge for a course.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.0 -
What is it with former Liberal Democrats who drink the right wing Koolade?Dopermean said:
Horrific that there could be a press baron more malign than MurdochDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/0 -
Indeed, and that is the tough one.Pulpstar said:
They could well all likely be better run.... but they are all constrained as to how much they can charge for a course.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
On one hand I wonder if the solution is that the state regulates the fees only on the basis that they are courses that are required to address skills shortages, but then of course you are going to have to adapt and fix that to meet demand.
The slight twinge I feel when positing things like this is how much I enjoyed my university education and the fact that I was lucky that it was affordable for me and I was able to pay off my loan, so it feels like raising the drawbridge somewhat. On the other hand, the economy is shifting massively and maybe the idea of university education needs to change too.0 -
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.4 -
The wanabee edgy types think that the "Some men just want to watch the world burn." is Kool AnarKism, leading to V for Vendetta.Dura_Ace said:
I did lol when those mad lads chopped that tree down. Peak bantz. Don't really give a fuck about Phil Collins.Cookie said:
"Phil - a bunch of internet contrarians who take great delight in not agreeing with either the popular consensus or with each other on anything - indeed, the last thing they agreed on was lamenting the loss of the Sycamore in the Sycamore Gap - have agreed that actually, you were pretty good."Leon said:That’s it. Phil Collins has been Officially Rehabilitated by the Musical Sages of PoliticalBetting
We should probably let him know, he’ll be chuffed. If anyone is going to Switzerland this summer they should pop by his chalet
I didn't expect this to be the subject that united pb.com.
I expect Dura Ace or malcolm will be along in a minute to furiously rebut.
Instead they get drunk fuckwits in pickups chopping down trees and kids throwing chairs off balconies.1 -
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition1 -
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.1 -
Yes! ExactlySandraMc said:
I found Beziers had a slightly sinister atmosphere when I visited decades ago. There was a massacre there in the 13th century and 7,000 people were killed in the local church.Leon said:
I stayed in that prison! It’s fun. But a bit like a prison. And I should knowkjh said:
Ooh I'm going to Beziers this year. I will be in prison there!!!Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
I didn't even know it had an airport. Cycling the Canal du Midi. Everything is by train and bike. Also cycling another canal which required a special licence. Always look forward to my annual cycle trips.
The views around are spectacular
Beziers itself is strange. Beautiful in many ways but a definite undercurrent of decay and resentment. Relatedly it is one of the homelands of Le Pen in the south
For clarity my daughter flew into Montpelier but then we went to stay in Beziers and Aix and Arles then up into Aveyron and those Volvic volcanoes
Vichy is also weird
Another place which I felt had an odd atmosphere was Volterra in Italy. Apparently some of the Twilight series are set there and you get Twilight fans turning up. But I visited decades before that and I found it rather weird.
Volterra also has Dark Noom
With Beziers you can understand it - the history. Volterra?!0 -
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.0 -
So find a new market.DecrepiterJohnL said:
Universities have two problems besides money. Fewer home-grown students because mummies and daddies don't really love each other in sufficient quantities, and fewer overseas students because of small boats.Pulpstar said:
They could well all likely be better run.... but they are all constrained as to how much they can charge for a course.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Merge degrees and apprenticeships. The Unis give the academics, teaching facilities and make the qualifications transferable. That way employers don't have to run the whole thing themselves.
Break down the barrier between blue collar and white collar - *everyone* gets degrees. Mix the subjects together. Then we might have people running the railways who can weld. And the people welding the rails together might enjoy Keats.3 -
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.0 -
I don’t disagree, but modern politicians find it very difficult to face it down.Malmesbury said:
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.0 -
Anyone producing those documents ought to be considered for a P45. That could improve productivity too, then.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.0 -
That's their job.numbertwelve said:
I don’t disagree, but modern politicians find it very difficult to face it down.Malmesbury said:
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.
If they're not good enough to do it, then we need to keep firing them until we find someone who can do it.1 -
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition0 -
It’s called mastering a briefnumbertwelve said:
I don’t disagree, but modern politicians find it very difficult to face it down.Malmesbury said:
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.
1) the customers are protected by systems already in place. See RBS - the cash machines kept working
2) the suppliers need protecting with government giving prompt payment on bills on the water companies.
3) the pension funds are protected by having written down already. Or they are fuckwits.
4) the bond holders. Fuck em.
5) the shareholders. Fuck em.
6) the management. Fuck em.
Write a two minutes speech on this. Stand up in the commons. Seconds later, managed onslaught on the media. Various pols on the various TV shows. Social media campaign etc.
Can I be in charge, please?
2 -
That latter is because of the local dark grey rock, makes a place seem brooding. Like Inverness or the older parts of Edinburgh.SandraMc said:
I found Beziers had a slightly sinister atmosphere when I visited decades ago. There was a massacre there in the 13th century and 7,000 people were killed in the local church.Leon said:
I stayed in that prison! It’s fun. But a bit like a prison. And I should knowkjh said:
Ooh I'm going to Beziers this year. I will be in prison there!!!Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
I didn't even know it had an airport. Cycling the Canal du Midi. Everything is by train and bike. Also cycling another canal which required a special licence. Always look forward to my annual cycle trips.
The views around are spectacular
Beziers itself is strange. Beautiful in many ways but a definite undercurrent of decay and resentment. Relatedly it is one of the homelands of Le Pen in the south
For clarity my daughter flew into Montpelier but then we went to stay in Beziers and Aix and Arles then up into Aveyron and those Volvic volcanoes
Vichy is also weird
Another place which I felt had an odd atmosphere was Volterra in Italy. Apparently some of the Twilight series are set there and you get Twilight fans turning up. But I visited decades before that and I found it rather weird.1 -
Guess who's got a new shovel?MarqueeMark said:
Ripping Yarns: in a northern town, Eric Olthwaite was so dull his coal miner father took to speaking French so he could avoid speaking to him...Cookie said:
Twin town of Stockport, of course. Basically the same, only with people talking French.kjh said:
Ooh I'm going to Beziers this year. I will be in prison there!!!Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
I didn't even know it had an airport. Cycling the Canal du Midi. Everything is by train and bike. Also cycling another canal which required a special licence. Always look forward to my annual cycle trips.0 -
{narrator : It was spade}dixiedean said:
Guess who's got a new shovel?MarqueeMark said:
Ripping Yarns: in a northern town, Eric Olthwaite was so dull his coal miner father took to speaking French so he could avoid speaking to him...Cookie said:
Twin town of Stockport, of course. Basically the same, only with people talking French.kjh said:
Ooh I'm going to Beziers this year. I will be in prison there!!!Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
I didn't even know it had an airport. Cycling the Canal du Midi. Everything is by train and bike. Also cycling another canal which required a special licence. Always look forward to my annual cycle trips.0 -
2) The suppliers are protected by systems already in place.Malmesbury said:
It’s called mastering a briefnumbertwelve said:
I don’t disagree, but modern politicians find it very difficult to face it down.Malmesbury said:
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.
1) the customers are protected by systems already in place. See RBS - the cash machines kept working
2) the suppliers need protecting with government giving prompt payment on bills on the water companies.
3) the pension funds are protected by having written down already. Or they are fuckwits.
4) the bond holders. Fuck em.
5) the shareholders. Fuck em.
6) the management. Fuck em.
Write a two minutes speech on this. Stand up in the commons. Seconds later, managed onslaught on the media. Various pols on the various TV shows. Social media campaign etc.
Can I be in charge, please?
Administration is not a novel concept. If a firm goes bust, it does not shut down overnight, it goes into administration and the administrators pay the suppliers as required.0 -
Fortunately few read the house ragmag of the Conservative and Reform Party.Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition0 -
Expand FE Colleges and award degrees? Is that what you mean?Malmesbury said:
So find a new market.DecrepiterJohnL said:
Universities have two problems besides money. Fewer home-grown students because mummies and daddies don't really love each other in sufficient quantities, and fewer overseas students because of small boats.Pulpstar said:
They could well all likely be better run.... but they are all constrained as to how much they can charge for a course.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Merge degrees and apprenticeships. The Unis give the academics, teaching facilities and make the qualifications transferable. That way employers don't have to run the whole thing themselves.
Break down the barrier between blue collar and white collar - *everyone* gets degrees. Mix the subjects together. Then we might have people running the railways who can weld. And the people welding the rails together might enjoy Keats.
I thought the rot set in when they upgraded Polys?0 -
Harsh. The underlying point is true and fair, but there are lots of better examples. Brexit, to pick the most obvious - required because our sovereignty is of a purer, more precious hue than your common-or-garden European country like ... well like all of them that aren't us.TOPPING said:
Soz. But the sheer delusion over Live Aid for me epitomises in particular the British exceptionalist view of the world and history whereby we are on the right side and we won't brook any dissenting voices.kinabalu said:
Don't be like that, Topping. Bit of a sour note introduced into a nice warm chat.TOPPING said:
Absolutely. With the added benefit of providing Mengistu with the funds to complete his forced resettlement policies.kinabalu said:Rewatching Live Aid, you realize how special Collins was in his pomp.
Huzzah!0 -
Lots of wealthy folk do, which is the point.Mexicanpete said:
Fortunately few read the house ragmag of the Conservative and Reform Party.Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition0 -
You appear much older.BartholomewRoberts said:
Born in the 80s, not the 70s.Cookie said:BartholomewRoberts said:
Not sure I agree with this.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The biggest change between the 40s to 90s as you reference was evolving technological abilities to record music, which isn't a problem anymore so you don't get step-changes as we saw with the introduction of electronic music etc in the past.
My daughters listen to modern stuff and stuff from the 90s, but when I was their age I did listen to stuff from the 60s and 70s which is the equivalent for me, as well as modern music from the 80s and 90s.
Similarly they sometimes watch very old shows from before they were born, such as Friends, but then I used to watch stuff that was old too, such as Lost in Space, I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart or Bewitched which were on after school when I got home. In fact as a percentage of shows that were released before you were born, I think I watched a much higher proportion of old stuff than they do, since they spend more time with modern YouTube stuff rather than classic repeats.
I think you're the same age as me - i.e. born in the mid 70s? The equivalent for us would be listening to 40s and 50s music rather than 60s and 70s (listening to 60s and 70s music was not unusual, I agree, though not really on my radar aside from late 70s punk and post punk). But no-one listened to anything from the 50s or before.
But your second paragraph is astute - I hadn't considered that: lots of the change in musical style from 40s to 90s was down to evolving possibilities in the way of creating and recording music. As you say, that's basically done now.
So my daughters, born in the 10s, listening to music from the 90s is no different to me listening to music from the 60s, which I absolutely did.0 -
The University of Mid Bedfordshire? Oh, you mean Luton Poly as I once said out loud in a crowded room at work.dixiedean said:
Expand FE Colleges and award degrees? Is that what you mean?Malmesbury said:
So find a new market.DecrepiterJohnL said:
Universities have two problems besides money. Fewer home-grown students because mummies and daddies don't really love each other in sufficient quantities, and fewer overseas students because of small boats.Pulpstar said:
They could well all likely be better run.... but they are all constrained as to how much they can charge for a course.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Merge degrees and apprenticeships. The Unis give the academics, teaching facilities and make the qualifications transferable. That way employers don't have to run the whole thing themselves.
Break down the barrier between blue collar and white collar - *everyone* gets degrees. Mix the subjects together. Then we might have people running the railways who can weld. And the people welding the rails together might enjoy Keats.
I thought the rot set in when they upgraded Polys?1 -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgl8qn1we8o
"Doctor and husband jailed for selling stolen PPE on eBay"
0 -
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”0 -
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.2 -
Afternoon all
Culture, like time, is a funny thing. When I heard a Spanish guitarist in Cadiz give a faultless rendition of Sultans of Swing….
Songs which are 40-45 years ago are still in the musica Franca (so to speak). Was my youth the Golden Age of music or do we all think that?
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be as someone once opined.
Back to the coal face and I wonder if what happened to the Alliance in its pomp and circumstance will happen to Reform. By elections won everywhere often with little work but holding the seats….
I remember seeing some stats on the retention rate of by election wins and the Alliance used to lose their by election gains as fast as they were winning new seats.
Reform’s wins in the two Dartford seats augurs well for local elections in places like Bexley next year - next week’s by election in Bromley may be informative.0 -
What tends to be less talked about with respect to the new wonder gene therapies (which indeed hold huge potential) is how they are delivered into patients.
Third death from a Sarepta gene therapy
Patient was in trial of the company’s limb-girdle muscular dystrophy gene therapy
https://www.biocentury.com/article/656520/third-death-from-a-sarepta-gene-therapy
The AAV delivery vehicle is quite possibly implicated here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adeno-associated_virus#Use_in_gene_therapy0 -
The point being that the system has to keep running and the suppliers have to keep suplying so carry on getting our water. This is where it is different to a normal bankruptcy because under those circumstances the business may well stop operating and the suppliers will often lose out. The Government - or rather the nation - cannot allow that to happen in this instance.BartholomewRoberts said:
2) The suppliers are protected by systems already in place.Malmesbury said:
It’s called mastering a briefnumbertwelve said:
I don’t disagree, but modern politicians find it very difficult to face it down.Malmesbury said:
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.
1) the customers are protected by systems already in place. See RBS - the cash machines kept working
2) the suppliers need protecting with government giving prompt payment on bills on the water companies.
3) the pension funds are protected by having written down already. Or they are fuckwits.
4) the bond holders. Fuck em.
5) the shareholders. Fuck em.
6) the management. Fuck em.
Write a two minutes speech on this. Stand up in the commons. Seconds later, managed onslaught on the media. Various pols on the various TV shows. Social media campaign etc.
Can I be in charge, please?
Administration is not a novel concept. If a firm goes bust, it does not shut down overnight, it goes into administration and the administrators pay the suppliers as required.
Personally I think Malmesbury is right. Force Thames into administration, get the Government to back the continued operation until we come up with a better system and let the management, share holders and bond holders all go swivel.2 -
Worth a read. One nugget:DecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
According to a revealing profile published in Prospect magazine last year, Marshall senses that he has been called by God “for such a time as this”, a phrase from the Book of Esther that is popular in the evangelical circles in which Marshall moves, and whose churches he supports financially. He has written for his own website, Unherd, that liberalism in the UK has lost its way by forgetting its Christian roots and embracing bloodless scientific rationalism.
(The references profile:
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/ )
0 -
Excellent, and a doctor too.carnforth said:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgl8qn1we8o
"Doctor and husband jailed for selling stolen PPE on eBay"
I suspect that discounts any need for further prosecutions.0 -
There is a risk that payments could be delayed. That risk could cause a cascade of people calling in their bills to other firms in the supply chain. Causing unnecessary bankruptcies.BartholomewRoberts said:
2) The suppliers are protected by systems already in place.Malmesbury said:
It’s called mastering a briefnumbertwelve said:
I don’t disagree, but modern politicians find it very difficult to face it down.Malmesbury said:
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.
1) the customers are protected by systems already in place. See RBS - the cash machines kept working
2) the suppliers need protecting with government giving prompt payment on bills on the water companies.
3) the pension funds are protected by having written down already. Or they are fuckwits.
4) the bond holders. Fuck em.
5) the shareholders. Fuck em.
6) the management. Fuck em.
Write a two minutes speech on this. Stand up in the commons. Seconds later, managed onslaught on the media. Various pols on the various TV shows. Social media campaign etc.
Can I be in charge, please?
Administration is not a novel concept. If a firm goes bust, it does not shut down overnight, it goes into administration and the administrators pay the suppliers as required.
Backing the bills for prompt payment, publicly, guarantees this won’t happen.0 -
And the students currently there who have paid lots of money and will be left with nothing, who cares about them!BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.0 -
Phil Collins is one of the few subjects I've changed my mind on as I've got older (from anti to pro).Leon said:That’s it. Phil Collins has been Officially Rehabilitated by the Musical Sages of PoliticalBetting
We should probably let him know, he’ll be chuffed. If anyone is going to Switzerland this summer they should pop by his chalet1 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjwtbWjNSes&list=RDRjwtbWjNSes&start_radio=1stodge said:Afternoon all
Culture, like time, is a funny thing. When I heard a Spanish guitarist in Cadiz give a faultless rendition of Sultans of Swing….
Songs which are 40-45 years ago are still in the musica Franca (so to speak). Was my youth the Golden Age of music or do we all think that?
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be as someone once opined.0 -
Sir Grant Shapps "surprised" that Healey continued with the super injunction as he (Schnapps) had already resolved all the security issues, so it was no longer necessary over the last year.0
-
Blimey, to get struck off as a doctor at 45 for £8k worth of stuff? Idiotic does not begin to cover it. I hope she had better judgment in her day job.carnforth said:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgl8qn1we8o
"Doctor and husband jailed for selling stolen PPE on eBay"1 -
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism0 -
Alliance was topping the polls between 26th October 1981 and 12th April 1982; essentially the Falklands war crushed their momentum with a rally to the flag Tory uplift and a broadly equal vote share with Labour in the 1983 election (Winning far fewer seats due to the vagaries of FPTP).stodge said:Afternoon all
Culture, like time, is a funny thing. When I heard a Spanish guitarist in Cadiz give a faultless rendition of Sultans of Swing….
Songs which are 40-45 years ago are still in the musica Franca (so to speak). Was my youth the Golden Age of music or do we all think that?
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be as someone once opined.
Back to the coal face and I wonder if what happened to the Alliance in its pomp and circumstance will happen to Reform. By elections won everywhere often with little work but holding the seats….
I remember seeing some stats on the retention rate of by election wins and the Alliance used to lose their by election gains as fast as they were winning new seats.
Reform’s wins in the two Dartford seats augurs well for local elections in places like Bexley next year - next week’s by election in Bromley may be informative.
Reform have been leading for 4 months, so not as long as the Alliance did.
Maybe Sir Keir Starmer will have a Falklands moment
0 -
The problem there was the idea that everyone would be a generalist white collar worker, pushing paper at a desk.dixiedean said:
Expand FE Colleges and award degrees? Is that what you mean?Malmesbury said:
So find a new market.DecrepiterJohnL said:
Universities have two problems besides money. Fewer home-grown students because mummies and daddies don't really love each other in sufficient quantities, and fewer overseas students because of small boats.Pulpstar said:
They could well all likely be better run.... but they are all constrained as to how much they can charge for a course.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Merge degrees and apprenticeships. The Unis give the academics, teaching facilities and make the qualifications transferable. That way employers don't have to run the whole thing themselves.
Break down the barrier between blue collar and white collar - *everyone* gets degrees. Mix the subjects together. Then we might have people running the railways who can weld. And the people welding the rails together might enjoy Keats.
I thought the rot set in when they upgraded Polys?
Because those would be the high paid jobs.
Except that’s not what turned out to happen.
Skilled trades are often better paid than low end white collar.
At the same time, skilled trades are now a mix of intellectual and practical skills. See CNC operation.
We need to break down the silos - the management needs to squire some of that grubby technical knowledge. And we need to lift the horizons of the technicians.0 -
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism2 -
Volterra has been sacked, more than once, if not as brutally as Beziers.Leon said:
Yes! ExactlySandraMc said:
I found Beziers had a slightly sinister atmosphere when I visited decades ago. There was a massacre there in the 13th century and 7,000 people were killed in the local church.Leon said:
I stayed in that prison! It’s fun. But a bit like a prison. And I should knowkjh said:
Ooh I'm going to Beziers this year. I will be in prison there!!!Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
I didn't even know it had an airport. Cycling the Canal du Midi. Everything is by train and bike. Also cycling another canal which required a special licence. Always look forward to my annual cycle trips.
The views around are spectacular
Beziers itself is strange. Beautiful in many ways but a definite undercurrent of decay and resentment. Relatedly it is one of the homelands of Le Pen in the south
For clarity my daughter flew into Montpelier but then we went to stay in Beziers and Aix and Arles then up into Aveyron and those Volvic volcanoes
Vichy is also weird
Another place which I felt had an odd atmosphere was Volterra in Italy. Apparently some of the Twilight series are set there and you get Twilight fans turning up. But I visited decades before that and I found it rather weird.
Volterra also has Dark Noom
With Beziers you can understand it - the history. Volterra?!0 -
…
I am friends with people who own a group (non bank) who lend huge sums of money - the ten to a few hundred million amounts - and whilst they will look at the projects and the people etc there is one thing they insist on knowing and existing - as they refer to it “the pain”.Richard_Tyndall said:
The point being that the system has to keep running and the suppliers have to keep suplying so carry on getting our water. This is where it is different to a normal bankruptcy because under those circumstances the business may well stop operating and the suppliers will often lose out. The Government - or rather the nation - cannot allow that to happen in this instance.BartholomewRoberts said:
2) The suppliers are protected by systems already in place.Malmesbury said:
It’s called mastering a briefnumbertwelve said:
I don’t disagree, but modern politicians find it very difficult to face it down.Malmesbury said:
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.
1) the customers are protected by systems already in place. See RBS - the cash machines kept working
2) the suppliers need protecting with government giving prompt payment on bills on the water companies.
3) the pension funds are protected by having written down already. Or they are fuckwits.
4) the bond holders. Fuck em.
5) the shareholders. Fuck em.
6) the management. Fuck em.
Write a two minutes speech on this. Stand up in the commons. Seconds later, managed onslaught on the media. Various pols on the various TV shows. Social media campaign etc.
Can I be in charge, please?
Administration is not a novel concept. If a firm goes bust, it does not shut down overnight, it goes into administration and the administrators pay the suppliers as required.
Personally I think Malmesbury is right. Force Thames into administration, get the Government to back the continued operation until we come up with a better system and let the management, share holders and bond holders all go swivel.
Essentially they need to know that there is serious pain for anyone who borrows and fails to repay or service. This isn’t about beatings or threats, it’s about knowing that the directors or individuals who borrow the money, say for building a big block of flats, know that they don’t just walk away, hand over the keys to the development if it goes south. They have to suffer personally with their finances etc.
Without this pain there is so much less to lose and so people will take risk or not focus.
The Pain needs to be pushed more in business so that when Thames water situations arise and there is bad management it’s not just a balance sheet loss but directors and other beneficiaries know that there is serious recourse on them when they mess up.7 -
Also could have been stopped any time if the murderous thugs had handed back the hostages, will rage now till nothing left.algarkirk said:
Yes. Such questions as I have are the recurring ones that all givers of direct evidence have a tendency to see the crimes of one side only. I have yet to hear of anyone one would expect to be a neutral humanitarian who is or has been in Gaza go into detail or provide evidence about the war crimes and other evil deeds of Hamas.boulay said:
My own biases would have raised an eyebrow if, for example, a Palestinian aid worker had been talking about quad-copters strafing tents however the way he coolly and almost neutrally described what he was seeing and dealing with was very hard to find fault with.AugustusCarp2 said:
Indeed. He was almost approaching the subject in the style of an epidemiologist, observing patterns of medical phenomena and then setting out to analyse why they occur.boulay said:
That interview with Maynard was quite the thing. A clearly rational, calm and humane person explains clearly what he has seen and experienced will probably have more effect long term than a hundred interviews with Palestinians who can be brushed off as having a bias.algarkirk said:A bit of why O why; Merz on R4 Today this morning pointing out that the EU helped the 2016 Referendum leave campaign and perhaps altered the result by its inflexibility.
Why is this obvious stuff realised too late? The EU had two big chances, before the vote and after. Both times they missed the point.
Is it too late now to sort it?
BTW, also on R4 Today this morning, the clearest and simplest account I have heard, from Professor Maynard in Gaza, of evidence pointing to Israeli war crimes. between 7.30 and 8 am.
His account will hold more currency as he is “one of us”. It might be wrong to see it that way but it’s true.
For myself I am persuaded that there have been war crimes on both sides.1 -
The Conservative and Labour parties have a far smaller core vote today, than in the 1980's.stodge said:Afternoon all
Culture, like time, is a funny thing. When I heard a Spanish guitarist in Cadiz give a faultless rendition of Sultans of Swing….
Songs which are 40-45 years ago are still in the musica Franca (so to speak). Was my youth the Golden Age of music or do we all think that?
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be as someone once opined.
Back to the coal face and I wonder if what happened to the Alliance in its pomp and circumstance will happen to Reform. By elections won everywhere often with little work but holding the seats….
I remember seeing some stats on the retention rate of by election wins and the Alliance used to lose their by election gains as fast as they were winning new seats.
Reform’s wins in the two Dartford seats augurs well for local elections in places like Bexley next year - next week’s by election in Bromley may be informative.0 -
You don't think his Chagos moment was enough??Pulpstar said:
Alliance was topping the polls between 26th October 1981 and 12th April 1982; essentially the Falklands war crushed their momentum with a rally to the flag Tory uplift and a broadly equal vote share with Labour in the 1983 election (Winning far fewer seats due to the vagaries of FPTP).stodge said:Afternoon all
Culture, like time, is a funny thing. When I heard a Spanish guitarist in Cadiz give a faultless rendition of Sultans of Swing….
Songs which are 40-45 years ago are still in the musica Franca (so to speak). Was my youth the Golden Age of music or do we all think that?
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be as someone once opined.
Back to the coal face and I wonder if what happened to the Alliance in its pomp and circumstance will happen to Reform. By elections won everywhere often with little work but holding the seats….
I remember seeing some stats on the retention rate of by election wins and the Alliance used to lose their by election gains as fast as they were winning new seats.
Reform’s wins in the two Dartford seats augurs well for local elections in places like Bexley next year - next week’s by election in Bromley may be informative.
Reform have been leading for 4 months, so not as long as the Alliance did.
Maybe Sir Keir Starmer will have a Falklands moment1 -
My favourite writer - Bill Bryson - is essentially a travel writer.DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Though travel writing does seem an easier gig than, say wine writing. There is a lot to interestingly say about going on your holidays. Whereas managing to spin "this one was red - it tasted of grapes and made me drunk" into 500 entertaining words is quite a skill.
4 -
I think that's slightly unfair.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
And local reporting ought to rank higher, IMO.0 -
Especially when drunk.Cookie said:
My favourite writer - Bill Bryson - is essentially a travel writer.DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Though travel writing does seem an easier gig than, say wine writing. There is a lot to interestingly say about going on your holidays. Whereas managing to spin "this one was red - it tasted of grapes and made me drunk" into 500 entertaining words is quite a skill.1 -
Just another day in paradise.OnlyLivingBoy said:
Phil Collins is one of the few subjects I've changed my mind on as I've got older (from anti to pro).Leon said:That’s it. Phil Collins has been Officially Rehabilitated by the Musical Sages of PoliticalBetting
We should probably let him know, he’ll be chuffed. If anyone is going to Switzerland this summer they should pop by his chalet0 -
You mean like paying Argentina £billions to take them off our hands?Pulpstar said:
Alliance was topping the polls between 26th October 1981 and 12th April 1982; essentially the Falklands war crushed their momentum with a rally to the flag Tory uplift and a broadly equal vote share with Labour in the 1983 election (Winning far fewer seats due to the vagaries of FPTP).stodge said:Afternoon all
Culture, like time, is a funny thing. When I heard a Spanish guitarist in Cadiz give a faultless rendition of Sultans of Swing….
Songs which are 40-45 years ago are still in the musica Franca (so to speak). Was my youth the Golden Age of music or do we all think that?
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be as someone once opined.
Back to the coal face and I wonder if what happened to the Alliance in its pomp and circumstance will happen to Reform. By elections won everywhere often with little work but holding the seats….
I remember seeing some stats on the retention rate of by election wins and the Alliance used to lose their by election gains as fast as they were winning new seats.
Reform’s wins in the two Dartford seats augurs well for local elections in places like Bexley next year - next week’s by election in Bromley may be informative.
Reform have been leading for 4 months, so not as long as the Alliance did.
Maybe Sir Keir Starmer will have a Falklands moment0 -
I’m surprised that @Leon makes his money from actual travel writing. He’s clearly the best writer on the board but his cultural criticism, such as it is, is painfully mediocre.
His main skill is that he is has a sharp eye for the weird and ironic. And he’s decent at invective.
0 -
Jancis Robinson is good because she is interested in the business and culture behind the wine.Cookie said:
My favourite writer - Bill Bryson - is essentially a travel writer.DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Though travel writing does seem an easier gig than, say wine writing. There is a lot to interestingly say about going on your holidays. Whereas managing to spin "this one was red - it tasted of grapes and made me drunk" into 500 entertaining words is quite a skill.
Vanessa Friedman of the NYT is an excellent fashion critic for similar reasons.0 -
Too many of them anyway , we need more tradespeople rather than barperson's and barrista's with degrees. The ones running the place are nothing short of grifters with over inflated salaries. Change the crap ones to technical colleges with decent courses in trades.numbertwelve said:
Indeed, and that is the tough one.Pulpstar said:
They could well all likely be better run.... but they are all constrained as to how much they can charge for a course.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
On one hand I wonder if the solution is that the state regulates the fees only on the basis that they are courses that are required to address skills shortages, but then of course you are going to have to adapt and fix that to meet demand.
The slight twinge I feel when positing things like this is how much I enjoyed my university education and the fact that I was lucky that it was affordable for me and I was able to pay off my loan, so it feels like raising the drawbridge somewhat. On the other hand, the economy is shifting massively and maybe the idea of university education needs to change too.0 -
Very little Epstein talk on here.
I’m slightly surprised that Trump’s response has been to issue legal threats to the WSJ as opposed to just saying, “so what?”.
The alleged incident took place before Epstein was charged with any crime.
Manhattan is heaving with ageing financiers who were once close friends with Epstein.0 -
I thought he had covered this in the past - few writers can afford the time it takes to do travel writing. 1 week away for a 2000 word article doesn’t pay the bills but is great fun if you don’t need to worry about the billsGardenwalker said:I’m surprised that @Leon makes his money from actual travel writing. He’s clearly the best writer on the board but his cultural criticism, such as it is, is painfully mediocre.
His main skill is that he is has a sharp eye for the weird and ironic. And he’s decent at invective.1 -
Indeed, however the system already exists it does not need to be created. The continuity of operations is already baked into the system even if they go into administration - indeed that was put in by design when they were privatised.Richard_Tyndall said:
The point being that the system has to keep running and the suppliers have to keep suplying so carry on getting our water. This is where it is different to a normal bankruptcy because under those circumstances the business may well stop operating and the suppliers will often lose out. The Government - or rather the nation - cannot allow that to happen in this instance.BartholomewRoberts said:
2) The suppliers are protected by systems already in place.Malmesbury said:
It’s called mastering a briefnumbertwelve said:
I don’t disagree, but modern politicians find it very difficult to face it down.Malmesbury said:
That's just part of the process. Who do you think is briefing the media, exactly?numbertwelve said:
Not to mention the constant onslaught from the media about all the people concerned/disadvantaged by it.Malmesbury said:
Because every time a minister suggests that, they get hundreds of kilos of documents arguing that it shouldn't happen.BartholomewRoberts said:
Its not unreasonable, its a British failing that we refuse to let failed institutions die.AugustusCarp2 said:
I don't disagree, but is there a danger of some sort of systemic risk here? If one UK uni goes bust, it reflects badly on all the others - perhaps because they are measured against an unreasonable standard. French universities seem to be dissolved and reformed with monotonous regularity ( they even managed to do without the Sorbonne for nearly 100 years) but that seems different somehow.BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
Why the hell has Thames Water not gone bust. We keep the zombie alive, then wonder why we lack productivity.
If an institution fails, let it fail. So long, farewell, no tears, no remorse.
Re-open the fireplace in the Cabinet room.
1) the customers are protected by systems already in place. See RBS - the cash machines kept working
2) the suppliers need protecting with government giving prompt payment on bills on the water companies.
3) the pension funds are protected by having written down already. Or they are fuckwits.
4) the bond holders. Fuck em.
5) the shareholders. Fuck em.
6) the management. Fuck em.
Write a two minutes speech on this. Stand up in the commons. Seconds later, managed onslaught on the media. Various pols on the various TV shows. Social media campaign etc.
Can I be in charge, please?
Administration is not a novel concept. If a firm goes bust, it does not shut down overnight, it goes into administration and the administrators pay the suppliers as required.
Personally I think Malmesbury is right. Force Thames into administration, get the Government to back the continued operation until we come up with a better system and let the management, share holders and bond holders all go swivel.
So the idea that they're "too big to fail" could not be more false. Administration processes exist, and specific continuity of operations administration processes do too, including those already written into the pre-existing legislation.0 -
Dark Noom? What kind of weight-loss app is that?Leon said:
Yes! ExactlySandraMc said:
I found Beziers had a slightly sinister atmosphere when I visited decades ago. There was a massacre there in the 13th century and 7,000 people were killed in the local church.Leon said:
I stayed in that prison! It’s fun. But a bit like a prison. And I should knowkjh said:
Ooh I'm going to Beziers this year. I will be in prison there!!!Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
I didn't even know it had an airport. Cycling the Canal du Midi. Everything is by train and bike. Also cycling another canal which required a special licence. Always look forward to my annual cycle trips.
The views around are spectacular
Beziers itself is strange. Beautiful in many ways but a definite undercurrent of decay and resentment. Relatedly it is one of the homelands of Le Pen in the south
For clarity my daughter flew into Montpelier but then we went to stay in Beziers and Aix and Arles then up into Aveyron and those Volvic volcanoes
Vichy is also weird
Another place which I felt had an odd atmosphere was Volterra in Italy. Apparently some of the Twilight series are set there and you get Twilight fans turning up. But I visited decades before that and I found it rather weird.
Volterra also has Dark Noom
With Beziers you can understand it - the history. Volterra?!
https://www.noom.com0 -
It's just bitter jealousy from a minor bureaucrat who can't stand to see people he disagrees with have successful lives while he sits in his dreary office doing pointless, mind numbingly boring tasks for a no hope government.DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism1 -
Off topic: George Will finds a Democratic governor who might be the next US president:
The Republican Party was declared moribund after its 1964 presidential nominee, Sen. Barry Goldwater (Arizona), lost 44 states and 61 percent of the popular vote. But the party won five of the next six presidential elections, 1968-1988. Democrats interrupted their losing streak in 1976 by nominating a former Southern governor, Jimmy Carter, and ended their losing ways in 1992 and 1996 by nominating a Southern governor, Arkansas’ Bill Clinton, whose running mate was a Southern senator, Al Gore. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear might remind his party’s nominating electorate of this.
(Links omitted.)
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/16/kentucky-governor-andy-beshear/
Wikipedia biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Beshear1 -
Does anyone make a living from short form travel writing? Or is it only worth it for the freebies?Gardenwalker said:I’m surprised that @Leon makes his money from actual travel writing. He’s clearly the best writer on the board but his cultural criticism, such as it is, is painfully mediocre.
His main skill is that he is has a sharp eye for the weird and ironic. And he’s decent at invective.
I remember reading somewhere that Sunday Times fees for a travel article had fallen from £5000 in the 1990s to £500 now.0 -
The Gill/Clarkson angle was to write about something completely different for 95% of the article and the mention the restaurent/car in the last paragraph.Cookie said:
My favourite writer - Bill Bryson - is essentially a travel writer.DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Though travel writing does seem an easier gig than, say wine writing. There is a lot to interestingly say about going on your holidays. Whereas managing to spin "this one was red - it tasted of grapes and made me drunk" into 500 entertaining words is quite a skill.
1 -
Or as Ab Fab put it, "we don't like this one because its finished."Cookie said:
My favourite writer - Bill Bryson - is essentially a travel writer.DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Though travel writing does seem an easier gig than, say wine writing. There is a lot to interestingly say about going on your holidays. Whereas managing to spin "this one was red - it tasted of grapes and made me drunk" into 500 entertaining words is quite a skill.3 -
No, it will be inconvenient for them, but they should be facilitated to be transferred to finish their studies at another institution. One that hasn't failed.bondegezou said:
And the students currently there who have paid lots of money and will be left with nothing, who cares about them!BartholomewRoberts said:
So what?rottenborough said:DfE has finally noticed that some unis may go bust and exit the HE market.
Let them go bust - and if they do their assets will still be there and potentially their assets can be taken by a refreshed institution and they could potential reopen as a new university with different management and structures. Who cares?
Businesses fail, we need to get over the hangup that failed entities might fail.
There should not be a blank cheque for any institution. If you can't manage your finances, then that's your fault, nobody else's. The fact it inconveniences other people when you fail is not a reason to stop you from failing, its a reason to ensure you suffer if you fail and own the consequences of your failure.2 -
Yes, and on that note its time for me to go and fill in some more forms.MaxPB said:
It's just bitter jealousy from a minor bureaucrat who can't stand to see people he disagrees with have successful lives while he sits in his dreary office doing pointless, mind numbingly boring tasks for a no hope government.DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism0 -
I'm neither old nor white and I LOVE 80s musicTOPPING said:I mean it doesn't get more PB than old white blokes talking about the music of their youth...
0 -
I believe bondegezou is an academic.MaxPB said:
It's just bitter jealousy from a minor bureaucrat who can't stand to see people he disagrees with have successful lives while he sits in his dreary office doing pointless, mind numbingly boring tasks for a no hope government.DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Therefore, please accept the following correction:
For us (although I'll be ex-academic in a few months) it's just bitter jealousy as we can't stand to see people we disagree with who probably don't even have PhDs, having been too smart to go through that hell have successful lives while we sit in dreary offices doing pointless, mind numbingly boring tasks in no hope institutions that are about to go bust. 4 -
It's more absorbent than Andrex?Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition0 -
And then Dan Hodges.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism1 -
Expanded hierarchy of journalism:DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Investigative journalism
Restaurant reviews
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism1 -
The one place where Britain managed to push through sweeping planning reforms
https://x.com/davidpgcse/status/1946174760011903279?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q2 -
Warm weather payments for pensioners is needed
https://x.com/newstatesman/status/1946162394981376123?s=610 -
The fantasy genre is an entirely different thing.kinabalu said:
And then Dan Hodges.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism4 -
Sometimes sports reporting sits atop of the tree, Woodward and Bernstein aside.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Hugh McIllvaney's Observer obituary for the tragic boxer Johnny Owen is one of English literature's greatest works.0 -
Careful!dixiedean said:
Guess who's got a new shovel?MarqueeMark said:
Ripping Yarns: in a northern town, Eric Olthwaite was so dull his coal miner father took to speaking French so he could avoid speaking to him...Cookie said:
Twin town of Stockport, of course. Basically the same, only with people talking French.kjh said:
Ooh I'm going to Beziers this year. I will be in prison there!!!Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
I didn't even know it had an airport. Cycling the Canal du Midi. Everything is by train and bike. Also cycling another canal which required a special licence. Always look forward to my annual cycle trips.
" I found out from Palin's diaries that Spear and Jackson, a Sheffield-based manufacturer of shovels, actually sued the BBC, taking exception (I assume) to a scene where Eric tells his friend about the #3 shovel which has a reinforced brass handle which broke! Allegedly, the BBC settled out of court. "
https://www.reddit.com/r/montypython/comments/ulrrer/do_you_guys_like_michael_palins_ripping_yarns/1 -
Going to war with "fake news" is a tried and tested means for getting the MAGA crew onside.Gardenwalker said:Very little Epstein talk on here.
I’m slightly surprised that Trump’s response has been to issue legal threats to the WSJ as opposed to just saying, “so what?”...
As was pointed out earlier, this was quite possibly planted (in place of some allegation of real substance) to facilitate that.
0 -
0
-
isam said:
The one place where Britain managed to push through sweeping planning reforms
https://x.com/davidpgcse/status/1946174760011903279?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
0 -
Even more expanded hierarchy of journalism:Mexicanpete said:
Sometimes sports reporting sits atop of the tree, Woodward and Bernstein aside.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Hugh McIllvaney's Observer obituary for the tragic boxer Johnny Owen is one of English literature's greatest works.
Investigative journalism
Obituaries
Restaurant reviews
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism0 -
The DBX SUVs are made near me at St Athan. Redundancies followed by bailouts, followed by a recruitment programme, followed by redundancies, followed by bailouts etc.Dura_Ace said:
AM are hardly on the crest of a wave. Redundancies, dwindling sales and massive debt.boulay said:
Jaguar have to get their first new model absolutely bang on in the looks and capabilities end of things and they could reboot but the Aston Martin story is their only hope I think.
The Vantage, Vanquish, DB12 range is all a bit too similar and the DBX looks like a Korean SUV but has far worse residuals than a Korean SUV.0 -
What about recycled lobbyists press releases or celebrity tittle tattle/trawling twitter.bondegezou said:
Expanded hierarchy of journalism:DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Investigative journalism
Restaurant reviews
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism0 -
The changes are over the past 20 years as post war concrete was pulled down and replaced wing more traditional buildings - so I don’t think we have any responsibility or blame hereMalmesbury said:isam said:The one place where Britain managed to push through sweeping planning reforms
https://x.com/davidpgcse/status/1946174760011903279?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q0 -
On the latest Trump fun and games, I note that what3words for enigma.never.ages is somewhere to the west of Warsaw.
Somebody should look into what is there...0 -
"Finds" ?Jim_Miller said:Off topic: George Will finds a Democratic governor who might be the next US president:
The Republican Party was declared moribund after its 1964 presidential nominee, Sen. Barry Goldwater (Arizona), lost 44 states and 61 percent of the popular vote. But the party won five of the next six presidential elections, 1968-1988. Democrats interrupted their losing streak in 1976 by nominating a former Southern governor, Jimmy Carter, and ended their losing ways in 1992 and 1996 by nominating a Southern governor, Arkansas’ Bill Clinton, whose running mate was a Southern senator, Al Gore. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear might remind his party’s nominating electorate of this.
(Links omitted.)
source$ : https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/16/kentucky-governor-andy-beshear/
Wikipedia biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Beshear
I think even PB has been aware of him for quite a while.1 -
That concession aside, the Bill seems to take some positive steps against NIMBYism, with increased powers for (supplementary vote) directly elected mayors to push things through.Taz said:Labour folds to the NIMBYs pt 94
Shameful
https://x.com/rcolvile/status/1946186776567038391?s=610 -
Lib Dems want Healey's nuts for "misleading Parliament". Come on Kemi put your boots on!0
-
Bits of it stand out oddly to me, not only newspaper journalism. John Arlott on the radio; EW (Jim) Swanton's radio end of day summaries on Test Match Special (if it was called that then); and in The Times and not often enough on TMS, Alan Gibson, now almost forgotten I should think.Mexicanpete said:
Sometimes sports reporting sits atop of the tree, Woodward and Bernstein aside.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Hugh McIllvaney's Observer obituary for the tragic boxer Johnny Owen is one of English literature's greatest works.
I recall faintly an Alan Gibson 'Times' report on a county match where from his perch he could see cricket going on in an adjacent junior school, so he wrote about that instead.2 -
That's it, this is the last version of the hierarchy of journalism:Taz said:
What about recycled lobbyists press releases or celebrity tittle tattle/trawling twitter.bondegezou said:
Expanded hierarchy of journalism:DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Investigative journalism
Restaurant reviews
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Investigative journalism
Obituaries
Restaurant reviews
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Celebrity news
Op eds
Travel journalism
Churnalism
AI churnalism0 -
Off topic, but of interest to those who bet on American politics: George Will finds a Democratic governor who might be the next US president:
The Republican Party was declared moribund after its 1964 presidential nominee, Sen. Barry Goldwater (Arizona), lost 44 states and 61 percent of the popular vote. But the party won five of the next six presidential elections, 1968-1988. Democrats interrupted their losing streak in 1976 by nominating a former Southern governor, Jimmy Carter, and ended their losing ways in 1992 and 1996 by nominating a Southern governor, Arkansas’ Bill Clinton, whose running mate was a Southern senator, Al Gore. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear might remind his party’s nominating electorate of this.
Beshear's Wikipedia biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Beshear
Which includes these details: "Beshear and his wife Britainy are deacons at the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denominated Beargrass Christian Church in Louisville."[160] They have two children."1 -
What is it with people and not running their own social media accounts ?!
Zia Yusuf "One of the team who post to my X account accidentally pressed like on an awful antisemitic tweet earlier today."0 -
a
{draws circles on a map of Slough}eek said:
The changes are over the past 20 years as post war concrete was pulled down and replaced wing more traditional buildings - so I don’t think we have any responsibility or blame hereMalmesbury said:isam said:The one place where Britain managed to push through sweeping planning reforms
https://x.com/davidpgcse/status/1946174760011903279?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
I think we should give it a try…1 -
I was there in 1976. Masses of Soviet blocks had been put up.isam said:The one place where Britain managed to push through sweeping planning reforms
https://x.com/davidpgcse/status/1946174760011903279?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Not much love for Brit visitors back then....0 -
This is a waste of time, and possibly a recipe for something even worse.
Ofwat to be abolished as ministers look to create new water regulator
Exclusive: Watchdog has faced intense criticism over sewage spills, shareholder payouts and ballooning debts
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/18/ofwat-to-be-abolished-as-ministers-explore-creating-new-water-regulator
The government has shown itself unwilling to take any real action against the water companies which have failed. Tinkering with their future regulation is unlikely to change that.
Without (eg) forcing Thames into administration this is performative nonsense.
Worse, they've announced another effing "consultation".
1 -
I’d find that one hard to dispute.bondegezou said:
That's it, this is the last version of the hierarchy of journalism:Taz said:
What about recycled lobbyists press releases or celebrity tittle tattle/trawling twitter.bondegezou said:
Expanded hierarchy of journalism:DavidL said:
As wind ups go this is pretty crap but @Leon can look after himself. All journalism is writing and writing is giving information in a clear, comprehensible and witty way where that is appropriate. Some of the best journalism I have read was by the late, great AA Gill talking about restaurants I was never going to go to. It was a joy to read.bondegezou said:
Hierarchy of journalism:Nigelb said:
My comments applied to the enterprise itself rather than you personally.Leon said:
With all due respect, who the feck are you to decide whether what I do is “journalism” or not?Nigelb said:
You're effectively a small part of what appears to be a very well funded political influence campaign. It does coincide with your own political proclivities, but it's not entirely journalism.Leon said:
I'll let you know if I get caviarDecrepiterJohnL said:
We've read all about the Gazette lunches:-Leon said:
It’s definitely a thing and it is definitely happening. Indeed I’m writing about it - again - for the gazetteFeersumEnjineeya said:
ChatGPT was down for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and Reddit was flooded with posts from people saying they had forgotten how to write emails, etc, without its help, some with a hint of seriousness.Leon said:
Things have moved on. Nowadays kids ask “how did you know anything or do anything without ChatGPT”. I’m serious. I do it myself constantlyFeersumEnjineeya said:
I'm not sure I agree with that. The whole shift to online over the past 30 years has completely revolutionised the way people go about their lives. Imagine how lost most of us would be if we were teleported back 30 years. No Amazon, no PB, no Twitter/X, etc. Our kids (early 20s) sometimes ask how on earth we got things done without the internet (yes, I know the internet existsed then, but it had yet to achieve its potential). They really can't imagine life pre-internet. And yes, it probably has had a major negative effect on music.Cookie said:
Culture came to a halt in the mid 90s. Popular music now doesn't really sound very different to how it did 30 years ago. Bands don't really get off the stage any more. We still also have Pulp and Elbow. Indeed, the world in general doesn't really look that different. I look out the window at passers by and they are dressed like they might have been in 1995. Whereas if I looked out the window in 1995, the world would have looked very different to how it would have in 1965; and even more so from 1965 to 1935. And my daughters listen to stuff from the 2020s, but also stuff from the 1990s and 1980s. The equivalent for me at their age in the late 80s would be listening to things from the 40s and 50s. Which I definitely didn't do.Leon said:A melancholy subtext to this music chat is “what will PBers be nostalgically talking about, musically, in 2047”?
There won’t be any 2020s music for them to nostalge about. The biggest touring band of the moment is Oasis
I guess they could go on and on and on about Taylor Swift until @HYUFD-botX178 threatens to invade the website with royally-approved cybertanks
I find this very odd. And yes, counter-examples can be found, and there is tech, and (slightly) different standards of behaviour and the country has far more people and politics is different. But the look and feel of the world we live in is puzzlingly similar to that of 30 years ago in a way which hasn't happened for generations.
The only exception to this, perhaps in the world, is my older daughter. She abhors chatbots and devours books. She read all of Kafka’s The Trial on one Ryanair flight to meet me in Beziers last year. She reads EVERYTHING
The other day she said to me “Dad I can’t wait to go back to uni so I can carry on learning. All I want to do is learn things”
I love her to bits. I also love her wryly rebellious sister equally but that’s likely coz shes more like me
Ok. I’m turning off sentimental dad mode, now
Which reminds me. I have lunch with the Gazette editors. I must crack on
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salaries-and-two-kilos-of-caviar-inside-londons-new-media-arms-race/
I have noted that I am making nice money from the Knapper's Digest, the new US edition
I’d be interested to know what you DO define as journalism. Sports reporting? Op Eds? Theatre criticism? Or just investigative reporting? If so that’s about 1.7% of “journalists”
Can you do journalism working for an influence campaign ? Sure.
But it's not entirely journalism; hence my comment.
I'm pretty sure you'd submit the same sort of copy were you being paid by the Guardian, so it's really not any kind of judgment on your personal journalistic ethics.
Investigative journalism
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Investigative journalism
Restaurant reviews
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Op eds
Travel journalism
Investigative journalism
Obituaries
Restaurant reviews
News journalism
Sports reporting
Local reporting
Theatre criticism
Trade journalism
Celebrity news
Op eds
Travel journalism
Churnalism
AI churnalism0 -
Ofwat to be abolished and replaced with... Ofwat?Nigelb said:This is a waste of time, and possibly a recipe for something even worse.
Ofwat to be abolished as ministers look to create new water regulator
Exclusive: Watchdog has faced intense criticism over sewage spills, shareholder payouts and ballooning debts
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/18/ofwat-to-be-abolished-as-ministers-explore-creating-new-water-regulator
The government has shown itself unwilling to take any real action against the water companies which have failed. Tinkering with their future regulation is unlikely to change that.
Without (eg) forcing Thames into administration this is performative nonsense.0
