Google Translate doesn't handle this one well at all! It claims that the buffet staff have just been promoted, rather than that they've only just got up... onto the train, that is, honest!

There are now TWELVE (possibly 13...) peer-reviewed critiques of the Cass Review. I have listed them all on my blog, now updated with links to all of them. Trying to keep it as up-to-date as possible. For a fuller list, @notrightruth.bsky.social has them all here; ruthpearce.net/2024/04/16/w...

Timetable 2026: Seems the Munich/Budapest/Prague-Krakow-Warsaw sleeper train will have separate portions for Warsaw and for Krakow & Przemysl. Theoretically good - but a significant downside is that Prague-Warsaw gets the sleeping-car, Prague-Krakow becomes couchettes-only.

Please write to your MP and sign our petition: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

as a girl with a PhD in natural language processing and machine learning it's actually offensive to me when you say "we don't know how LLMs work so they might be conscious" I didn't spend 10 years in mines of academia to be told ignorance is morally equal knowledge. We know exactly how LLMs work.

This is grim & dangerous over reach. This is a government that have lost the moral argument & are still selling arms to Israel. Now further cracking down on dissent. Absolutely the opposite of what they should be doing - so of course this is what the Labour Government choose.

Pope Leo urged the world's 1.4 billion Catholics on Sunday to care for immigrants, pressing ahead with a message of welcome for migrants days after criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-line anti-immigration policies. For @reuters.com:

Wish I could say I was shocked, but here's the Labour government constraining the right to peaceful protest again... 'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'

Reading the “criticizing AI is bigotry” discourse and folks, that looks like DARVO (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO) to me.

Conservative church group condemns choice of female Archbp. of Canterbury www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... - oh poor little GAFCON, boo hoo hoo. Mbanda: "the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy". Really? Can you please show me the numbers?

Of course not. The rest of the Anglican Communion (a majority) know that GAFCON are a shrill irrelevance. They are homophobic, sexist dinosaurs who sadly allow faith and morals to be ensnared by old values still prevalent in their own countries. Sadly values the colonial powers gave them!

Badenoch is an ignorant fool. We would become a pariah state, in a very small club, with Belarus and Russia. Why can't they understand that ECHR contains all the values we as Brits want and fought so hard to get into the Convention? Most erroneous ECHR interpretations are by BRITISH courts anyway!

The Online Safety Act sure has made being online more dangerous.

Glasgow Gender Clinic now has a waiting time of 224 years. The average across the UK is now 25 years. This segregated system isn’t working and is wasting millions. The NHS has been told time and again - informed consent now.

see also: hillary cass getting a lordship for shivving trans kids, others getting a peerage or other official title for spreading transphobia. how many british people are now household names now because they are transphobic and the uk press propped them up?

*sigh*

UK plummets down rankings for LGBTQ+ rights (from 1st place a decade ago to 22nd place today)

Congratulations to The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally on the release of her new album today.

Fun fact: he's talking about the bizarre and horrifying history of ME/CFS here, but this is almost exactly what's happened with the anti-trans movement as well, and this time the British media are even more culpable.

Well done to Sky News for failing to include that actual successful candidate in their list of front runners, and for including instead an outright no-hoper who has very obviously been doing his own publicity. Top journalism!

Sarah Mulally is to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

so will the AI “actor” get an agent? Probably. There’ll be an agency dumb enough, or in thrall to business idiots enough, to say they’ll rep it. But will it get a *good* agent? Nah.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for progressive/queer-affirming Anglicans to follow?

It isn't a criminal offence not to have an NHS number either but you still need one to access care

Missing a "for now" in here.

Tilly Norwood ys onlye goinge to be yn filmes directed by Alan Smithee

I was invited to go on the wireless to speculate who will be the new Archbishop of Canterbury (which I rightly declined) However, if I had gone on I would have noted that the security around the announcement has been so excellent (well done former head of 5!) that I think it could be Taylor Swift …

This petition has 2¾m signatures and still has months left to run. The government has responded to say they'll do the opposite of what the petition asks. This government is ideologically hostile to the public interest. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Politics is not like selling biscuits, where the task is to find out what people like & flog it to them. It's a moral activity. It's about arguing for the things you believe in. It's about *shaping* the "median voter". Farage has moved the centre-ground of politics. His opponents can move it back.

"Transphobic" like "racist" was coined to describe a reality and a moral valence came along with that description and it turns out a lot of people love the reality - the behavior, the attitude, the structural harm- but will violently resist the idea that their lessers may morally evaluate them.

For anyone who might have missed it, the Labour conference - "the ultimate authority in the party", apparently - voted *overwhelmingly* in favour of Proportional Representation in 2022. Unfortunately the faction running the party really doesn't like democracy electoral-reform.org.uk/labour-party...

Once more with gusto: We will introduce a fresh new racist policy every day until racism is defeated.

I’m wondering if friends at @churchtimes.bsky.social are annoyed the announcement of the next ABC will be tomorrow (given it is a weekly paper and therefore wouldn’t be able to splash the news tomorrow) or if they already know and have the front page all ready to go for tomorrow’s edition …

We're getting a wave of articles that are like, "gee willikers it sure seems like the people who complained about 'cancel culture' for years really like canceling people." Yes! This was extremely obvious at the time and a lot of us pointed it out!

Thousands of Anglicans leaving out tea and biscuits by the fireside on Thursday night, and then running downstairs in our PJs on Friday morning to see whether the CNC has been. www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Of modern journalese phrases, one I especially despise is <noun>-<participle indicating involvement> "Police-involved shooting" "Baroness Mone-linked company" Say how they were involved or linked, you spineless hacks.

It's fascinating and revealing how many centrists think refusing to compromise on human rights to gain the support of bigots represents a "political purity test," yet also think that a bigot saying "I won't join you unless you accommodate my bigotry" does NOT represent a "political purity test."

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

Breaking: Caledonian Sleeper's highland sleeper to Inverness, Aberdeen & Ft William will call at Birmingham International from 15 January onwards, picking up northbound at 22:42, setting down southbound at 06:20. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... More about the sleeper: www.seat61.com/sleeper-to-s...

Any time people start talking about weakening protections for certain groups I am always reminded of this quote.

"Liebe Fahrgäste, was heißt Zauberstab auf französisch? Nicht googeln! – 'Baguette magique!' Und wissen Sie, welches Baguette auch magisch ist? Unser Schinken-Käse Baguette im Bordbistro! Wir freuen uns auf Ihren Besuch." (@[email protected]) #BahnAnsagen

"Eat God" is live on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/pen... Be a blue-furred social justice advocate with detachable limbs, a many-eyed horror with strong opinions about metaphysics, or a jet-powered telepathic crab and stick it to the Man though the power of gratuitous cartoon violence.

Starmer on Sunday: Reform is racist. Starmer all week: So are we.

This is like John Major's bit about old maids cycling to church, but without anything that specifically evokes the place he's supposedly talking about.

It's the last day of September 1993.

Also Trump: We'll make this country great. Also Trump: Portland is a war zone. Also Trump: The DoD is now the War Department. Also Trump: Gimme a Nobel Peace Prize!

Wow! That is something I would never have expected. I love London - lived there for many years, now frequently visit, but one of the downsides has always been the air quality. Really good news that that is no longer the case (OK, still not pure country air, but a huge improvement)

The Trolley Salesman smiling at his good fortune of such a rare sale, counting the pile of cash before stopping...pondering...eyes narrow. "...your name was Mr. Beast, was it? And you needed a trolley, 2 miles of track, and some rope you say?"

isn't the whole point of copyright that you are opting out of people stealing your work