Rage against group think, writes Matthew Syed in the Sunday Times, by reading out a paragraph of what *I* think at the beginning of every BBC editorial meeting.

‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points’ Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are on.ft.com/4qMMkJd

apropos james watson’s death i had an idle thought today about how stupid race/iq stuff sounds. “buh if your skin is darker you are biologically less smart” is a thing only a dumbass can believe

only in the small print of this article do they make clear that the pensioners paying an extra £2,500 of tax would have to have “earnings over £125,140” I know many pensioners are asset rich but how many have income at that level?

Has anyone done a thinkpiece on what is up with the whole genre of reaction videos. Watching people (mostly women?) watch films/TV shows. The absolutely bizarre to me subgenre of people (mostly men??) pretending that they're listening to a massive hit for the first time.

ICYMI some interesting news yesterday about England's metro mayors and their new role in funding affordable housing projects in their regions: www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/metro-m...

The inside track on a merger, and how these two landlords managed it without the usual consultants - another great story by @jennymessenger.bsky.social for @insidehousing.bsky.social www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/how-...

me at the end of class: here's a little speculative exercises; imagine you wake up from cryosleep in 2085. what's the kind of tech-society r/ship you'd like to see around you? students: no AI I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion

Wtf: in the 18th and 19th centuries, green park and st James’ park were covered with cows and milkmaids, and you could buy milk fresh from the cow memoirsofametrogirl.com/2020/05/02/s...

“I would rather she swallowed bad books than not like reading at all” Advice from 1689 France on what a young woman should be reading, from 1) her grandmother and 2) her uncle.

A nice chart from the FT and Dostoyevsky anecdote from the Guardian to calm the nerves of anyone worried about the imminent death of literacy on.ft.com/4qGgk9K

Wow that headline had a glow up

Amid many a silly “free speech” panic, here is a genuinely chilling case … Sheffield Hallam professor accuses the institution of negotiating “directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I happened to compliment my aunt on her coat today, and she said, well you should like it, it was yours. It was one of my coats from secondary school in the 90s and still has my name tag sewn in They don’t make clothes that last this long anymore…

I love to see stuff like this because it helps explain to people trapped in tech-sponsored information bubbles the actually obvious fact that universities teach people to know & think things, and AI is a way to produce the effect of knowing & thinking things w/o actually knowing & thinking them.

October including a fantastic book by a brilliant colleague, @peteapps.bsky.social I also very much recommend the Sun King by Nancy Mitford, in case anyone wants to talk about Louis XIV I am ready now

Wow

The first paperback vending machine was installed at Charing Cross Station in 1937 by Penguin books. They called it the ‘Penguincubator’. (📷: STML)

Always fascinating watching people underestimate the size of London vs other UK ciries. On an average weekday, more journeys are made on JUST the Elizabeth line than the ENTIRE population of Liverpool. If the Tube was a city, its average daily passengers would make it the 2nd largest in the UK.

Completely rational action for parents and this has been under discussion in our local area’s SEN parent group

“Nearly half of Isa holdings are in UK stocks” what

Being autistic shouldn't mean having to fight, but it does, and it means children are ignored. We keep seeing politicians claim autism and ADHD are "over diagnosed", or so called "experts" saying we should be denied accommodation. There needs to be far greater support. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Contemporaneous court reporting in 17th century France: someone goes to the trial, then tells their friend the great letter writer Madame de Sévigne about it, she writes you a letter about it.

That moment in the FOI process where you suspect you didn't ask your question clearly enough

I get the desire not to misgender people, but addressing people by last name only? Dear McCabe? What am I, a child at boarding school? Who is cheering herself up from her overprivileged homesickness by FOIing Hastings Council?

should refer to this as the 'Idi Amin Cultural Cohesion and Growth Strategy' going forward

I went on a tour of some new housing in the Olympic Park today, about 35% affordable. It’s right next to the V&A East Storehouse, in which hangs the facade of the old Robin Hood Gardens estate, preserved for visitors much like the 1666 wooden facade of a house in the main V&A

We should be glad loads of talented and skilled people still want to come to the UK given how hard it is

This remains the funniest way to hear about an internet outage, though.

Our exclusive survey reveals how much chief executives are paid at the 150+ biggest housing associations in the UK. Find out who took home what here: www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insi...

We’ve got three betting shops on our local high street, which tbh are just a massive drain on society. I still also don’t really understand who is going in them and not just going on the internet.

Higher taxes on gambling probably would cost some jobs. But employment has to be weighed against other social costs. That's why we don't have brothels and ketamine stores on every high street. It was a terrible mistake to let gambling shops become such big employers. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A really important story by @peteapps.bsky.social today about how delays at the Building Safety Regulator are ironically delaying works to make buildings safe www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/why-...

It's incredible how people are prepared to wreck their site and product to layer more AI in.

My emails to Lewisham Council's SEN department, hoping someone reads them before they slip into the singularity never to be heard of or seen again:

Gotta love a Caitlin Moran interview. This is really great. apple.news/A3HA5C5nHTIm...

This is so shocking.

I’ve noticed that if you lazily use facebook’s prompts to say happy birthday to people, every third message ends on a full stop meaning you end up sending people out of pocket “Happy birthday. Congratulations.” messages

Is this in the crown? 🤔

Has someone turned Wii sports into a bar concept

60 years on from the first ever anti-racist legislation in England, Samir Jeraj has looked back at its legacy for @insidehousing.bsky.social www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/60-y...

Absolutely fascinating and bananas. The special swords! Being called the immortals! www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/0...

Omg

I have always loved these murals and think they should be protected, but "sistene chapel of the underground"?

The stress of the EHCP process alone is enough to drive parents round the bend, no one is doing this without good reason.

The polite second version of my response to this. First had more 🤬

To get an EHCP you need absolutely reams of proof. Nothing a parent or teacher says will count as evidence and everything in the document comes from medical doctors, educational psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists etc apple.news/Ab9AovlKvSw-...

I saw this earlier and can’t get it out of my head. Have I been saying primer wrong all these years? Sounds primmer than thou