Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
The company that services my gas boiler now has an AI answering customer calls. It's quite amusing how much effort has gone in to masking that fact; the bot speaks in a distinct Glasgow accent and there are call centre noises in the background.
I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.
The guy who came out to fit my new boiler last year asked what I did for a living. I gave the usual hand-wavey "Faff about with computers" kind of reply. But mentioned "And more AI stuff of course".
At which point he showed me the custom GPT he'd built for him and his team-mates that had years of their accumulated 'that's a bit weird' knowledge, all the manufacturers manuals, safety reg's, photo's of joins/breaks/welds etc. He said it saved the hours every day between them as they weren't on the phone to call centres or having to wade through random piles of PDF's. Just "Hey, PlumberGPT - here's a photo of Boiler Make XYZ. See this pipe isn't where I'd expect. What do the reg's say? Does the manufacturer have any advice?"
And he'd never written a program in his life. I had a look at it and it was giving links to exact pdf files and pages, all the stuff you'd want to double-check.
Quite took me aback and made me wonder how widespread this stuff is amongst regular people.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
The company that services my gas boiler now has an AI answering customer calls. It's quite amusing how much effort has gone in to masking that fact; the bot speaks in a distinct Glasgow accent and there are call centre noises in the background.
I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.
The guy who came out to fit my new boiler last year asked what I did for a living. I gave the usual hand-wavey "Faff about with computers" kind of reply. But mentioned "And more AI stuff of course".
At which point he showed me the custom GPT he'd built for him and his team-mates that had years of their accumulated 'that's a bit weird' knowledge, all the manufacturers manuals, safety reg's, photo's of joins/breaks/welds etc. He said it saved the hours every day between them as they weren't on the phone to call centres or having to wade through random piles of PDF's. Just "Hey, PlumberGPT - here's a photo of Boiler Make XYZ. See this pipe isn't where I'd expect. What do the reg's say? Does the manufacturer have any advice?"
And he'd never written a program in his life. I had a look at it and it was giving links to exact pdf files and pages, all the stuff you'd want to double-check.
Quite took me aback and made me wonder how widespread this stuff is amongst regular people.
The Claude "skills" is the start of making this even easier and more widespread. At the moment its still a bit fiddly, but I have tried the official powerpoint plugin and it works incredibly well. I made my own autoresearch version of Karpathys idea and its works incredibly well. Thus, its only a matter of time before you will have an agent create your PlumberGPT for you or sets up everything required to fine tune for these specialisms.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
In related news, the next employment immigration scam is scaling up nicely.
Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.
Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.
Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.
*Yes, buying a work visa like this is illegal.
The obvious scam I would imagine would be the "chef" route. What is a cook vs chef is very difficult to define, what is a restaurant requiring highly skilled staff vs microwave heaters again difficult to tell on paper, and £40-50k a year for a highly qualified chef isn't out of the question. And of course if you do have a takeaway or restaurant, you put your new immigrant employee to work and on paper you might pay them the £40-50k a year but either never pay them or "charge" them £40k a year for food and board, equipment, clothing etc.
Most of it is nowhere near that sophisticated.
Remember that being caught is factored into these scams. The enforcement is so poor that they can last years, despite multiple people making allegations to the police etc. When they do get closed down, the classic is that the names on the company paperwork are all people who've had their IDs stolen (or rented).
The 24/7 corner shoppie (that doesn't have any real stock) seems to be the new Turkish barbers / American Candy Store, but rather than just laundering money they will sell under the counter sell to anybody at any time of day or night staffed by people who we are talking about e,g, Birmingham 'Bob Shop'.
I used to stay across the road from a dusty corner shop. The stock seemed to consist of a copy of a 1970s newspaper and a box of Cadbury's Roses from around the same time. But every Wednesday around mid-day a swanky car would pull up outside and guy would get out with a suitcase. Wander into the shop for a few minutes, then come back out without the suitcase.
Probably just a collectors edition of the chocolates and he was paying for it in instalments. Or something.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
In related news, the next employment immigration scam is scaling up nicely.
Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.
Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.
Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.
*Yes, buying a work visa like this is illegal.
The obvious scam I would imagine would be the "chef" route. What is a cook vs chef is very difficult to define, what is a restaurant requiring highly skilled staff vs microwave heaters again difficult to tell on paper, and £40-50k a year for a highly qualified chef isn't out of the question. And of course if you do have a takeaway or restaurant, you put your new immigrant employee to work and on paper you might pay them the £40-50k a year but either never pay them or "charge" them £40k a year for food and board, equipment, clothing etc.
Most of it is nowhere near that sophisticated.
Remember that being caught is factored into these scams. The enforcement is so poor that they can last years, despite multiple people making allegations to the police etc. When they do get closed down, the classic is that the names on the company paperwork are all people who've had their IDs stolen (or rented).
The 24/7 corner shoppie (that doesn't have any real stock) seems to be the new Turkish barbers / American Candy Store, but rather than just laundering money they will sell under the counter sell to anybody at any time of day or night staffed by people who we are talking about e,g, Birmingham 'Bob Shop'.
I used to stay across the road from a dusty corner shop. The stock seemed to consist of a copy of a 1970s newspaper and a box of Cadbury's Roses from around the same time. But every Wednesday around mid-day a swanky car would pull up outside and guy would get out with a suitcase. Wander into the shop for a few minutes, then come back out without the suitcase.
Probably just a collectors edition of the chocolates and he was paying for it in instalments. Or something.
In nearest town I noticed an unbranded shoppie open recently which is within spitting distance of 3 other convenience stores that are branded. Nobody is ever going to go in there to buy anything nor would anybody sensibly in the convenience food game open a new one there especially as the Tesco's Express is the closest and open really long hours. Its a couple of doors down from a very dubious "Turkish" barbers.
Hi everyone, YouTuber and X influencer here. I make money by making and posting video content. Some of that revenue comes from sponsors who both pay my business to produce either a stand-alone review or sponsored segments to include in the main video. I also receive sales commission on products which are sold using my referral links.
Why is this relevant? Because I have turned down far more money from refused sponsors than I have made from contracted sponsors. If I don't like the product or the brand or the company I'm not doing it. I'm a performing monkey, but I choose for whom I will be performing.
Farage knows very well what he is doing. What he is saying. For whom. Why. So if he is shilling for neo-nazis its by choice.
He is the leader of what is billed as a moderately hard right party. If we give the benefit of the doubt and count that as his day job, it is absolutely critical to that v role to know where the line is.
And he doesn't.
He is shilling neo-nazis for the cash. In that respect, he is Trump, he is a cancer on our politics and he needs to be excised from it now before he shills for neo-nazis for grift as PM.
We saw where the parroting of neo-nazis nearly led after Southport, I've banged on about that a few times, but it triggered me to how evil some elements of the opposition were prepared to be to slur this Labour government, and there are some of the amateurs on here I've not forgiven on here for shilling for neo-nazis even unwittingly and at second or third hand.
I do not tolerate this stuff, Farage needs to go and this needs to be the thing on which his political career dies. No compromise.
Keir Starmer was happily a member - not just someone vaguely associated by video - of a Shadow Cabinet led by a traitorous, pro-IRA, pro-Sinn Fein, pro-Putin, pro-Iran, pro-Hamas, pro-anyone-who-hates-Britain leader, Jezbollah Corbyn
So your point is..... what??
Yes, that's a fair question, albeit a whatabout. I personally avoided any vote at any level for Corbyn Labour because I agree with your categorisation of him, even to the extent of lodging a protest vote for Boris in 2019 - a vote I regard with about the same fondness as you do your 2024 vote.
But let's be real here, at that time there were only two vehicles with a realistic chance of driving the country and I'm sort of glad that Starmer was in position to wrest control of the bus from the traitorous old coot at the apt time. And Starmer, having entered parliament in 2015 could only have done that from ShadCab. There were maybe a few much more established MPs who could have done that from the backbenches, but otherwise you were into McDonnell, Abbott or Long-Bailey successions. It wasn't my idea of fun, but there had to be people like Starmer in the tent to achieve that.
I know there is the counterfactual of a Corbyn government under which Starmer could have served. We don't know his heart at that point, but the same grab the wheel argument could apply.
I can conceive of literally no higher purpose whatsoever that Farage might achieve by servicing neo-Nazi fantasy on Cameo. That's a lie, I can conceive one, but let's not go there, eh?
We're shipping a new feature in Claude Cowork as a research preview that I'm excited about: Dispatch! One persistent conversation with Claude that runs on your computer. Message it from your phone. Come back to finished work.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
The company that services my gas boiler now has an AI answering customer calls. It's quite amusing how much effort has gone in to masking that fact; the bot speaks in a distinct Glasgow accent and there are call centre noises in the background.
I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.
The guy who came out to fit my new boiler last year asked what I did for a living. I gave the usual hand-wavey "Faff about with computers" kind of reply. But mentioned "And more AI stuff of course".
At which point he showed me the custom GPT he'd built for him and his team-mates that had years of their accumulated 'that's a bit weird' knowledge, all the manufacturers manuals, safety reg's, photo's of joins/breaks/welds etc. He said it saved the hours every day between them as they weren't on the phone to call centres or having to wade through random piles of PDF's. Just "Hey, PlumberGPT - here's a photo of Boiler Make XYZ. See this pipe isn't where I'd expect. What do the reg's say? Does the manufacturer have any advice?"
And he'd never written a program in his life. I had a look at it and it was giving links to exact pdf files and pages, all the stuff you'd want to double-check.
Quite took me aback and made me wonder how widespread this stuff is amongst regular people.
The Claude "skills" is the start of making this even easier and more widespread. At the moment its still a bit fiddly, but I have tried the official powerpoint plugin and it works incredibly well. I made my own autoresearch version of Karpathys idea and its works incredibly well. Thus, its only a matter of time before you will have an agent create your PlumberGPT for you or sets up everything required to fine tune for these specialisms.
Yeah - the addition of the skills has been a real breakthrough for a lot of my work. I've written my own coding agent issue tracker (though would work for other types of work) that breaks down longer tasks into concrete steps so your agent can work through them, close a session, pick up another day, whatever. And a web front-end so you can keep an eye on progress from across the room or your phone.
By combining it with the skills, I had claude write a migration plan for an old 2013 web app, convert it to a wholly modern one, tests, accessibility checks, etc, create a github repo with a readme and some technical docs, and then deploy it out to the cloud live for testing with some plausible fake data. All in the space about about an hour.
And claude 5 looks likely to appear soon. Probably all going to be fine.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
Currently Class 1 Medical Device, they are applying for Class IIa...
This is common territory for a lot of these new LLM-based services. Go to market and start selling while going through the regulatory process in parallel. Not what you are meant to do, but I don't think the MHRA are rushing to enforcement.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Joe Kent testified before the Senate one year ago that Iran and its terror proxies threatened U.S. servicemembers in the Middle East. He said it would be an honor to return to the fight against terrorism, and he pledged to lead with integrity and accountability. The virulent anti-Semitism of his resignation letter makes it clear that Mr. Kent is incapable of upholding these pledges, and those who mistake its baseless and incendiary conspiracies for brave truth-telling are only fooling themselves. Isolationists and anti-Semites have no place in either party, and certainly do not deserve places of trust in our government.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Belgium’s Defence Minister has announced that the military will be deployed to protect the country’s Jewish population. Yes, the army. In Europe. In 2026.
John Bolton @AmbJohnBolton · 14m In 2018-2019, I made the case for regime change in Iran as often as I could. Voices in Trump’s orbit often cited Iran’s capacity to close the Strait of Hormuz as a reason against regime change. Trump has been fully aware this is a possibility, and yet did not prepare.
Belgium’s Defence Minister has announced that the military will be deployed to protect the country’s Jewish population. Yes, the army. In Europe. In 2026.
The Belgian military has been supporting domestic security operations more often than not since 2015. It's not some unprecedented move.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
Complete balls. Firstly, MRes do have lectures as it's a Master of Research, unlike the Masters by Research (ResM for one year, with an MPhil for 2 years). The majority of students taking it, do it because they want to research a subject more but are not interested in a PhD, but it can and does lead to PhDs in some cases. Also, the idea that it's not good research is a complete nonsense. There are some great research ResM (and MRes) projects. Some investigations lend itself to one year, others not. I've supervised some (including for a politician that used his research in his eventual position) and discussed others (one in particular was profound and would not have been helped by spinning it out to 3 years). They didn't warrant a full PhD because the subject could be covered adequately in that one year. It's a good qualification and can lead to powerful results. I'm sure not all projects are great. But that's true of every project ever, from industry to doctorates and beyond. You would hardly say house building projects are dubious because some don't work.
John Bolton @AmbJohnBolton · 14m In 2018-2019, I made the case for regime change in Iran as often as I could. Voices in Trump’s orbit often cited Iran’s capacity to close the Strait of Hormuz as a reason against regime change. Trump has been fully aware this is a possibility, and yet did not prepare.
I am intrigued by something the Guardian has written on this Cameo story. They said they got access to all these videos by just changing the URLs. So
1) That means Cameo is total shit show of security where videos aren't really being paywalled properly?
2) How did they know the URLs, surely nobody in this day and age does nigefarage1/clip1, nigefarage1/clip2. One of the reasons for the weird urls of YouTube is so the URLs aren't guessable nor sequential, so private / unlisted videos are not discoverable by just incrementing a url by 1.
Or have the Guardian used a tech person who employs some naughtier methods?
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
Complete balls. Firstly, MRes do have lectures as it's a Master of Research, unlike the Masters by Research (ResM for one year, with an MPhil for 2 years). The majority of students taking it, do it because they want to research a subject more but are not interested in a PhD, but it can and does lead to PhDs in some cases. Also, the idea that it's not good research is a complete nonsense. There are some great research ResM (and MRes) projects. Some investigations lend itself to one year, others not. I've supervised some (including for a politician that used his research in his eventual position) and discussed others (one in particular was profound and would not have been helped by spinning it out to 3 years). They didn't warrant a full PhD because the subject could be covered adequately in that one year. It's a good qualification and can lead to powerful results. I'm sure not all projects are great. But that's true of every project ever, from industry to doctorates and beyond. You would hardly say house building projects are dubious because some don't work.
I think you're both right! There are good MRes courses and an MRes is a good choice for some people. And there are bad MRes courses that are suckering in students with a misleading promise of a stepping stone towards a PhD.
That said, most of the MRes courses I see are actually offered as part of a 1+3 model for a PhD within some sort of doctoral training centre.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
Complete balls. Firstly, MRes do have lectures as it's a Master of Research, unlike the Masters by Research (ResM for one year, with an MPhil for 2 years). The majority of students taking it, do it because they want to research a subject more but are not interested in a PhD, but it can and does lead to PhDs in some cases. Also, the idea that it's not good research is a complete nonsense. There are some great research ResM (and MRes) projects. Some investigations lend itself to one year, others not. I've supervised some (including for a politician that used his research in his eventual position) and discussed others (one in particular was profound and would not have been helped by spinning it out to 3 years). They didn't warrant a full PhD because the subject could be covered adequately in that one year. It's a good qualification and can lead to powerful results. I'm sure not all projects are great. But that's true of every project ever, from industry to doctorates and beyond. You would hardly say house building projects are dubious because some don't work.
I think you're both right! There are good MRes courses and an MRes is a good choice for some people. And there are bad MRes courses that are suckering in students with a misleading promise of a stepping stone towards a PhD.
That said, most of the MRes courses I see are actually offered as part of a 1+3 model for a PhD within some sort of doctoral training centre.
The Doctoral Training Centre schemes I would class as something different than the stand alone ones. You are doing it where everybody unless they fuck up are going on to a PhD. Its basically 1) a way of getting the 4 years of fuding that most PhDs need now and 2) aping a more US approach where year 1 includes upskill teaching and more supportive (which I don't think is a bad thing)..when I did mine it was very much, here you go, read a load of papers, educate yourself, to which you waste a year clueless of what to do. They are also not that new now.
I was obviously pointing out the recent explosion in these 1 year courses at universities that really had no research standing, its not part of a big package like Doctoral Training Centres etc. Which scream scammy / money making venture for unis, particularly ones hard hit by going for Nigerian oversea students and then their currency disaster.
I'd be interested to know about the shift in the perception and usage of Masters degrees. I've sat through a few undergrad admissions presentations and the marketing of M's as THE gateway to research and B's to do something else has been pretty widespread.
The specific context here is B.Sc. vs M.Chems. Back in my day there was only a generic M.Sc. which was a Ph.D. conversion typically for someone who had gained a 2(2) but had shown some aptitude in the lab. Thus, I'm sceptical, as a bill payer, of the M.Chem. being THE thing, but also wondering if I'm just out of touch.
@paulbrand.bsky.social · 22s BREAKING: MSPs have narrowly rejected the assisted dying bill in Scotland by 69 to 57 with one abstention.
A pretty close vote, with a handful of MSPs changing to reject the vote in the last few days from a neutral or positive position. This morning it would likely have been close to a tie
Ironically this would have stood more chance of passing in the next parliament, when we can expect to see more than 8 Green MSPs
I am intrigued by something the Guardian has written on this Cameo story. They said they got access to all these videos by just changing the URLs. So
1) That means Cameo is total shit show of security where videos aren't really being paywalled properly?
2) How did they know the URLs, surely nobody in this day and age does nigefarage1/clip1, nigefarage1/clip2. One of the reasons for the weird urls of YouTube is so the URLs aren't guessable nor sequential, so private / unlisted videos are not discoverable by just incrementing a url by 1.
Or have the Guardian used a tech person who employs some naughtier methods?
It's worse - they're saying they have access to bad takes which should never have been visible to anyone. Presumably cameo uploads even bad takes?
If it's a Cameo bug, rather than a leak, there are going to be a lot of similar stories...
Will Farage sue The Guardian? He did the debankers...
I hope at least one European politician - ideally Starmer, but face it that’s not going to happen - will say what they really think about Trump’s ludicrous entitlement, and the huge betrayal his administration have presided over, pulling support from Ukraine when Europe is under attack.
It’s we who should be angry with him. And it’s about time Americans heard it.
Bit hard when his mates have bought up the legacy and social media
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Angela Rayner warns that Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to make it harder for migrants to settle in the UK are ‘un-British” and a “breach of trust”
She warns that Labour’s “very survival” is at stake, adding that it does not have a right to exist and has become “the establishment” in the eyes of voters
@paulbrand.bsky.social · 22s BREAKING: MSPs have narrowly rejected the assisted dying bill in Scotland by 69 to 57 with one abstention.
A pretty close vote, with a handful of MSPs changing to reject the vote in the last few days from a neutral or positive position. This morning it would likely have been close to a tie
Ironically this would have stood more chance of passing in the next parliament, when we can expect to see more than 8 Green MSPs
It is now incumbent on the next Scottish Government to significantly improve quality and availability of palliative care.
@paulbrand.bsky.social · 22s BREAKING: MSPs have narrowly rejected the assisted dying bill in Scotland by 69 to 57 with one abstention.
A pretty close vote, with a handful of MSPs changing to reject the vote in the last few days from a neutral or positive position. This morning it would likely have been close to a tie
Ironically this would have stood more chance of passing in the next parliament, when we can expect to see more than 8 Green MSPs
@paulbrand.bsky.social · 22s BREAKING: MSPs have narrowly rejected the assisted dying bill in Scotland by 69 to 57 with one abstention.
A pretty close vote, with a handful of MSPs changing to reject the vote in the last few days from a neutral or positive position. This morning it would likely have been close to a tie
Ironically this would have stood more chance of passing in the next parliament, when we can expect to see more than 8 Green MSPs
It is now incumbent on the next Scottish Government to significantly improve quality and availability of palliative care.
I've never really seen why it needs to be one or the other.
@paulbrand.bsky.social · 22s BREAKING: MSPs have narrowly rejected the assisted dying bill in Scotland by 69 to 57 with one abstention.
A pretty close vote, with a handful of MSPs changing to reject the vote in the last few days from a neutral or positive position. This morning it would likely have been close to a tie
Ironically this would have stood more chance of passing in the next parliament, when we can expect to see more than 8 Green MSPs
It is now incumbent on the next Scottish Government to significantly improve quality and availability of palliative care.
I've never really seen why it needs to be one or the other.
It didn’t, but now the assisted dying choice is not going to be available, the remaining option needs to be better.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Reeves - This government will make the UK the best place in the world for quantum and AI companies to start, scale and stay.
The lobbyists for Quantum computers have done a fantastic job for their clients. Government being sold a sinker again like the AI Skills Hub. LIterally no company has any revenue generating business with any real world applications from quantum computers yet and all the uses are still very much a pipe dream. All the claims from the likes of Google about progress and usefulness are very iffy. Certainly there isn't 100k jobs just sitting waiting to for people to be hired into.
And luckily none of our top universities will be flogging 'Quantum - it's the future!' degrees to students for ££££ on the back of it. Otherwise it might look a bit... dodgy.
Do a Masters By Research in Quantum computing (even though we have no access to a Quantum computer). I can see it now.
My (now Lisbon based) tech founder friend had as his thesis building a C compiler for a non-deterministic quantum computer. He's hopeful that -some 25 years after he wrote it- it might soon actually be useful.
@paulbrand.bsky.social · 22s BREAKING: MSPs have narrowly rejected the assisted dying bill in Scotland by 69 to 57 with one abstention.
A pretty close vote, with a handful of MSPs changing to reject the vote in the last few days from a neutral or positive position. This morning it would likely have been close to a tie
Ironically this would have stood more chance of passing in the next parliament, when we can expect to see more than 8 Green MSPs
It is now incumbent on the next Scottish Government to significantly improve quality and availability of palliative care.
I've never really seen why it needs to be one or the other.
In fact if the bill had passed I would have thought improving palliative care would have been a priority to reduce the chances of people driven to assisted dying by extremely painful and degrading circumstances. I fear things will now stumble along as previously with a lottery on how people meet their ends.
Over a dozen interceptor missiles seen earlier in the sky over Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, following a possible attack by Iran using “advanced ballistic missiles” in an attempt to target Dubai International Airport.
Reform claim a 4% rise in council tax, and I accept the parish and district elements are seperate (And actually both went up by less than 4% at 3.4%) but the fire and police elements are county wide and both were whacked up 5.1% !
Both look like a backdoor way of raising more than council tax than the headline rate to me tbh...
@paulbrand.bsky.social · 22s BREAKING: MSPs have narrowly rejected the assisted dying bill in Scotland by 69 to 57 with one abstention.
A pretty close vote, with a handful of MSPs changing to reject the vote in the last few days from a neutral or positive position. This morning it would likely have been close to a tie
Ironically this would have stood more chance of passing in the next parliament, when we can expect to see more than 8 Green MSPs
Belgium’s Defence Minister has announced that the military will be deployed to protect the country’s Jewish population. Yes, the army. In Europe. In 2026.
Back in the good old days, the army would be deployed to attack the Jewish population. What's gone wrong, eh?
Belgium’s Defence Minister has announced that the military will be deployed to protect the country’s Jewish population. Yes, the army. In Europe. In 2026.
Back in the good old days, the army would be deployed to attack the Jewish population. What's gone wrong, eh?
Either way it's the Belgian army so probably won't do a great job anyway.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
I’d also wonder if this is including Foundation courses? These are becoming large as universities try to tap into new markets - the ones with potential but not the right grades. I’m not a fan generally, but it will be fine for some with genuine reasons for not having the right academic background.
Belgium’s Defence Minister has announced that the military will be deployed to protect the country’s Jewish population. Yes, the army. In Europe. In 2026.
Back in the good old days, the army would be deployed to attack the Jewish population. What's gone wrong, eh?
Either way it's the Belgian army so probably won't do a great job anyway.
The Belgian army -while acting as peacekeepers in Senegal- had a few... rape... problems.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
I’d also wonder if this is including Foundation courses? These are becoming large as universities try to tap into new markets - the ones with potential but not the right grades. I’m not a fan generally, but it will be fine for some with genuine reasons for not having the right academic background.
I am intrigued by something the Guardian has written on this Cameo story. They said they got access to all these videos by just changing the URLs. So
1) That means Cameo is total shit show of security where videos aren't really being paywalled properly?
2) How did they know the URLs, surely nobody in this day and age does nigefarage1/clip1, nigefarage1/clip2. One of the reasons for the weird urls of YouTube is so the URLs aren't guessable nor sequential, so private / unlisted videos are not discoverable by just incrementing a url by 1.
Or have the Guardian used a tech person who employs some naughtier methods?
It's worse - they're saying they have access to bad takes which should never have been visible to anyone. Presumably cameo uploads even bad takes?
If it's a Cameo bug, rather than a leak, there are going to be a lot of similar stories...
Will Farage sue The Guardian? He did the debankers...
In the case of the debankers they serially fucked up. In public. The football equivalent to kicking the ball Into their own goal. Repeatedly.
They managed to lose a truth telling competition with Nigel Farage. Think about that.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Belgium’s Defence Minister has announced that the military will be deployed to protect the country’s Jewish population. Yes, the army. In Europe. In 2026.
Back in the good old days, the army would be deployed to attack the Jewish population. What's gone wrong, eh?
Either way it's the Belgian army so probably won't do a great job anyway.
The Belgian army -while acting as peacekeepers in Senegal- had a few... rape... problems.
The Belgians should never be let loose anywhere near Africa.
I'd be interested to know about the shift in the perception and usage of Masters degrees. I've sat through a few undergrad admissions presentations and the marketing of M's as THE gateway to research and B's to do something else has been pretty widespread.
The specific context here is B.Sc. vs M.Chems. Back in my day there was only a generic M.Sc. which was a Ph.D. conversion typically for someone who had gained a 2(2) but had shown some aptitude in the lab. Thus, I'm sceptical, as a bill payer, of the M.Chem. being THE thing, but also wondering if I'm just out of touch.
The MChem has a large research project component in the last year, which is what gets you to the masters level. I don’t think it’s too important for going on to research or jobs if you have a BSc or MChem but some will favour the more experienced 4 year graduates.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
I’d also wonder if this is including Foundation courses? These are becoming large as universities try to tap into new markets - the ones with potential but not the right grades. I’m not a fan generally, but it will be fine for some with genuine reasons for not having the right academic background.
Like being stupid?
As I’m an admissions tutor for my course I’m taking the fifth on that…
I'd be interested to know about the shift in the perception and usage of Masters degrees. I've sat through a few undergrad admissions presentations and the marketing of M's as THE gateway to research and B's to do something else has been pretty widespread.
The specific context here is B.Sc. vs M.Chems. Back in my day there was only a generic M.Sc. which was a Ph.D. conversion typically for someone who had gained a 2(2) but had shown some aptitude in the lab. Thus, I'm sceptical, as a bill payer, of the M.Chem. being THE thing, but also wondering if I'm just out of touch.
There is been some what of a change. It used to be do a BSc, do a MSc, do a PhD. Progress through each level, jump off when you have reached your level / had enough.
Now there are these Doctoral Training Schools where you do a prelim year and get a masters, but it isn't really about that, you are there to do the PhD. And it is also much more common for excellent students just jump to the PhD from a BSc. As I say I speak to acadmeics and many now just want to get really good student if they are showing they are excellent during their final year of BSc (perhaps doing a really good researchy type final year project) and some are quite down on general masters courses as not really being much harder than BSc so a bit pointless for PhD.
There is a huge business in one year Masters courses (so not like you do an MEng where you started down path of 4 year degree in engineering from the getgo) that are preliminarily about making money for the university and they are heavily marketed and taken up by foreign students. There is particularly a big market in say you have a maths degree, AI, its all the rage, do an MSc in Machine Learning or AI, as a sort of "conversion" course.
I'd be interested to know about the shift in the perception and usage of Masters degrees. I've sat through a few undergrad admissions presentations and the marketing of M's as THE gateway to research and B's to do something else has been pretty widespread.
The specific context here is B.Sc. vs M.Chems. Back in my day there was only a generic M.Sc. which was a Ph.D. conversion typically for someone who had gained a 2(2) but had shown some aptitude in the lab. Thus, I'm sceptical, as a bill payer, of the M.Chem. being THE thing, but also wondering if I'm just out of touch.
For many years, you've needed to do a four year MEng to be on the path to achieving CEng status.
Reform claim a 4% rise in council tax, and I accept the parish and district elements are seperate (And actually both went up by less than 4% at 3.4%) but the fire and police elements are county wide and both were whacked up 5.1% !
Both look like a backdoor way of raising more than council tax than the headline rate to me tbh...
The headline rate includes the fire and police precepts. At least that is the normal way it is done.
Reform claim a 4% rise in council tax, and I accept the parish and district elements are seperate (And actually both went up by less than 4% at 3.4%) but the fire and police elements are county wide and both were whacked up 5.1% !
Both look like a backdoor way of raising more than council tax than the headline rate to me tbh...
The headline rate includes the fire and police precepts. At least that is the normal way it is done.
Notts headline rate is 3.99%, district and parish are both lower so the county portion must be higher...
I'd be interested to know about the shift in the perception and usage of Masters degrees. I've sat through a few undergrad admissions presentations and the marketing of M's as THE gateway to research and B's to do something else has been pretty widespread.
The specific context here is B.Sc. vs M.Chems. Back in my day there was only a generic M.Sc. which was a Ph.D. conversion typically for someone who had gained a 2(2) but had shown some aptitude in the lab. Thus, I'm sceptical, as a bill payer, of the M.Chem. being THE thing, but also wondering if I'm just out of touch.
For many years, you've needed to do a four year MEng to be on the path to achieving CEng status.
I only needed a BEng back in my day.
You just need more experience years if you did a B Eng. Unless you're on a decent graduate training programme you have to do extra years anyway.
Can't say I'm surprised by the Scottish vote on assisted dying, given the stronger Catholic cultural influence there.
Not sure that would be specifically true this time, it was a free vote. Most of the Tories voted against, and theres not a strong catholic contingent amongst them. The days of socially conservative Slab politicians enforcing the kirks message are diminishing
Can't say I'm surprised by the Scottish vote on assisted dying, given the stronger Catholic cultural influence there.
Not sure that would be specifically true this time, it was a free vote. Most of the Tories voted against, and theres not a strong catholic contingent amongst them. The days of socially conservative Slab politicians enforcing the kirks message are diminishing
Swinney is Church of Scotland and also voted against it
Can't say I'm surprised by the Scottish vote on assisted dying, given the stronger Catholic cultural influence there.
Not sure that would be specifically true this time, it was a free vote. Most of the Tories voted against, and theres not a strong catholic contingent amongst them. The days of socially conservative Slab politicians enforcing the kirks message are diminishing
Swinney is Church of Scotland and also voted against it
He is indeed
I'm aware the various kirks were lobbying hard in the past couple of weeks, but its more likely the representations from medical professional groups which influenced swithering MSPs
Comments
At which point he showed me the custom GPT he'd built for him and his team-mates that had years of their accumulated 'that's a bit weird' knowledge, all the manufacturers manuals, safety reg's, photo's of joins/breaks/welds etc. He said it saved the hours every day between them as they weren't on the phone to call centres or having to wade through random piles of PDF's. Just "Hey, PlumberGPT - here's a photo of Boiler Make XYZ. See this pipe isn't where I'd expect. What do the reg's say? Does the manufacturer have any advice?"
And he'd never written a program in his life. I had a look at it and it was giving links to exact pdf files and pages, all the stuff you'd want to double-check.
Quite took me aback and made me wonder how widespread this stuff is amongst regular people.
Probably just a collectors edition of the chocolates and he was paying for it in instalments. Or something.
But let's be real here, at that time there were only two vehicles with a realistic chance of driving the country and I'm sort of glad that Starmer was in position to wrest control of the bus from the traitorous old coot at the apt time. And Starmer, having entered parliament in 2015 could only have done that from ShadCab. There were maybe a few much more established MPs who could have done that from the backbenches, but otherwise you were into McDonnell, Abbott or Long-Bailey successions. It wasn't my idea of fun, but there had to be people like Starmer in the tent to achieve that.
I know there is the counterfactual of a Corbyn government under which Starmer could have served. We don't know his heart at that point, but the same grab the wheel argument could apply.
I can conceive of literally no higher purpose whatsoever that Farage might achieve by servicing neo-Nazi fantasy on Cameo. That's a lie, I can conceive one, but let's not go there, eh?
https://x.com/felixrieseberg/status/2034005731457044577?s=20
By combining it with the skills, I had claude write a migration plan for an old 2013 web app, convert it to a wholly modern one, tests, accessibility checks, etc, create a github repo with a readme and some technical docs, and then deploy it out to the cloud live for testing with some plausible fake data. All in the space about about an hour.
And claude 5 looks likely to appear soon. Probably all going to be fine.
The EU has approved a €90 billion loan for Ukraine after overcoming Hungary’s veto.
https://x.com/KyivPost/status/2034005541387698498?s=20
Get one of our only 2 world class players Jude back fit for the final Rounds.
Let that German Trojan Horse Tuchel eave him out of World Cup then?
Joe Kent testified before the Senate one year ago that Iran and its terror proxies threatened U.S. servicemembers in the Middle East. He said it would be an honor to return to the fight against terrorism, and he pledged to lead with integrity and accountability. The virulent anti-Semitism of his resignation letter makes it clear that Mr. Kent is incapable of upholding these pledges, and those who mistake its baseless and incendiary conspiracies for brave truth-telling are only fooling themselves. Isolationists and anti-Semites have no place in either party, and certainly do not deserve places of trust in our government.
Belgium’s Defence Minister has announced that the military will be deployed to protect the country’s Jewish population. Yes, the army. In Europe. In 2026.
Senegal have been declared to have forfeited the match with Morocco declared 3-0 winners by official statement.
CAF statement tonight. ⤵️🇲🇦
https://x.com/fabrizioromano/status/2034022027393191984?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
@AmbJohnBolton
·
14m
In 2018-2019, I made the case for regime change in Iran as often as I could. Voices in Trump’s orbit often cited Iran’s capacity to close the Strait of Hormuz as a reason against regime change. Trump has been fully aware this is a possibility, and yet did not prepare.
https://x.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/2034021959869337641
Yeh, like Trump can remember what happened five minutes ago let alone seven years ago!
It's a good qualification and can lead to powerful results. I'm sure not all projects are great. But that's true of every project ever, from industry to doctorates and beyond. You would hardly say house building projects are dubious because some don't work.
1) That means Cameo is total shit show of security where videos aren't really being paywalled properly?
2) How did they know the URLs, surely nobody in this day and age does nigefarage1/clip1, nigefarage1/clip2. One of the reasons for the weird urls of YouTube is so the URLs aren't guessable nor sequential, so private / unlisted videos are not discoverable by just incrementing a url by 1.
Or have the Guardian used a tech person who employs some naughtier methods?
That said, most of the MRes courses I see are actually offered as part of a 1+3 model for a PhD within some sort of doctoral training centre.
Going to Uni and you can delay the reality that there are no jobs around for 3 years
I was obviously pointing out the recent explosion in these 1 year courses at universities that really had no research standing, its not part of a big package like Doctoral Training Centres etc. Which scream scammy / money making venture for unis, particularly ones hard hit by going for Nigerian oversea students and then their currency disaster.
The specific context here is B.Sc. vs M.Chems. Back in my day there was only a generic M.Sc. which was a Ph.D. conversion typically for someone who had gained a 2(2) but had shown some aptitude in the lab. Thus, I'm sceptical, as a bill payer, of the M.Chem. being THE thing, but also wondering if I'm just out of touch.
Kim Jong Un has won a narrow landslide, taking all 687 seats on 99.93% of the vote
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_North_Korean_parliamentary_election
No confirmation yet as to what has happened the 0.07% who did not vote for the current leader
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BREAKING: MSPs have narrowly rejected the assisted dying bill in Scotland by 69 to 57 with one abstention.
Ironically this would have stood more chance of passing in the next parliament, when we can expect to see more than 8 Green MSPs
If it's a Cameo bug, rather than a leak, there are going to be a lot of similar stories...
Will Farage sue The Guardian? He did the debankers...
Angela Rayner warns that Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to make it harder for migrants to settle in the UK are ‘un-British” and a “breach of trust”
She warns that Labour’s “very survival” is at stake, adding that it does not have a right to exist and has become “the establishment” in the eyes of voters
"Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?"
Yes = 1,513 = 99.80%
No = 3 = 0.20%
I fear things will now stumble along as previously with a lottery on how people meet their ends.
Over a dozen interceptor missiles seen earlier in the sky over Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, following a possible attack by Iran using “advanced ballistic missiles” in an attempt to target Dubai International Airport.
Both look like a backdoor way of raising more than council tax than the headline rate to me tbh...
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/24226624.feel-swaying-legalising-assisted-dying/
I’d also wonder if this is including Foundation courses? These are becoming large as universities try to tap into new markets - the ones with potential but not the right grades. I’m not a fan generally, but it will be fine for some with genuine reasons for not having the right academic background.
Into their own goal. Repeatedly.
They managed to lose a truth telling competition with Nigel Farage. Think about that.
Actually, taking an engineering degree is a way to achieve such an objective.
Now there are these Doctoral Training Schools where you do a prelim year and get a masters, but it isn't really about that, you are there to do the PhD. And it is also much more common for excellent students just jump to the PhD from a BSc. As I say I speak to acadmeics and many now just want to get really good student if they are showing they are excellent during their final year of BSc (perhaps doing a really good researchy type final year project) and some are quite down on general masters courses as not really being much harder than BSc so a bit pointless for PhD.
There is a huge business in one year Masters courses (so not like you do an MEng where you started down path of 4 year degree in engineering from the getgo) that are preliminarily about making money for the university and they are heavily marketed and taken up by foreign students. There is particularly a big market in say you have a maths degree, AI, its all the rage, do an MSc in Machine Learning or AI, as a sort of "conversion" course.
I only needed a BEng back in my day.
According to one of the many Trump sycophants when they’re on Kharg island . The troops will instead levitate !
Notts headline rate is 3.99%, district and parish are both lower so the county portion must be higher...
Major intervention tonight by Angela Rayner at a Mainstream rally in which she:
- Warned Starmer he’s “running out of time” and Labour is now seen as “the Establishment” in some voters’ eyes
- Branded looming migration reforms “un-British”
- Gave a rallying cry for Labour to emulate successful progressive parties that have seen off the threat from a surge on the right
https://x.com/breeallegretti/status/2034019540204491208?s=20
Reform gain from Independent
Ref 179
Con 144
Ind Bridges 106
Grn 85
LD 57
Ind Edwards 52
Lab 27
Ind Abbott 11
https://newsroom.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/news/result-of-milford-hakin-by-election-declared
I'm aware the various kirks were lobbying hard in the past couple of weeks, but its more likely the representations from medical professional groups which influenced swithering MSPs