Seen in the News

[Stanley]

Tony Benn had so many things right (and a few wrong of course.... )
Useful clip David, reminds us powerfully of what we are missing in the House today. Powerful effective leaders who can actually speak in joined up sentences. (Compare that with the buffoon 'speaking'.)

[Big Kev]

Wendy will be pleased to read this article, the chickens are allowed out next week.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65244151

[Wendyf]

Wendy will be pleased to read this article, the chickens are allowed out next week.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65244151

I am pleased Kev, but this year I have been breaking the law and letting my 6 chickens out. The threat is from wild birds not domestic poultry so I have taken that risk knowing that if they were infected it would be unlikely to spread further. The restrictions are protecting the huge poultry industry and making it legal for eggs from housed poultry to be described as free range.

[Stanley]

It's so cold and wet today they might not want to come out!

[Tizer]

As if our motorways weren't already dangerous...
`Ford launches hands-free driving on UK motorways' LINK

I note that the managing director of Ford in Britain and Ireland says that: "...in the case of accidents, the driver will still be fully responsible in insurance claims, as the technology is "not autonomous driving" and the driver is in control." So if the car makes a mistake and causes a crash or runs over a child the driver is held responsible?

[Big Kev]

The duchess of York, Sarah Fergusson, isn't invited to the coronation, neither am I. Neither of us are making a fuss about it so I can't see how the BBC think it's newsworthy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65275486

[Stanley]

I heard the report about the new system Peter and wondered why on earth anybody would bother. No mention of what it costs as an optional extra!
Kev, the thing that surprised me about that report was the fact she shares a house with Andrew.......

[plaques]

Jeremy Hunt says the UK economy is back this is in spite of it shrinking in February and the IMF predicting a negative -0.3% growth for 2023. The economy is back statement is later qualified by...

Mr Hunt said the international lending body saw he was "putting the British economy back on the right track".

Somehow doing your best even if it results in failure is classed as a success.

By the way according to Sunak. 'stop the boats' won't happen this year and not even before the next general election. Number five promise bites the dust.

[Tizer]

Oh no!!...
`Elon Musk plans artificial intelligence start-up to rival OpenAI' LINK
`Elon Musk is developing plans to launch a new artificial intelligence start-up to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, as the billionaire seeks to join Silicon Valley’s race to build generative AI systems. The Tesla and Twitter chief is assembling a team of artificial intelligence researchers and engineers, said people familiar with the tech entrepreneur’s plans. Musk is also in discussions with a number of investors in SpaceX and Tesla about putting money into his new venture, said a person with direct knowledge of the talks. “A bunch of people are investing in it...it’s real and they are excited about it,” the person said.'

This raises concerns about AI...
`The AI Revolution' (The Briefing Room) Radio 4 Radio 4
Artificial intelligence is going to change all our lives. There are seemingly limitless opportunities. But as computers get ever more powerful how much cautious do we need to be?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Professor Michael Wooldridge, Director of Foundational AI at The Alan Turing Institute
Nina Schick, author, entrepreneur and advisor specialising in Generative AI
Dr Anders Sandberg, a Senior Research Fellow at The Future of Humanity Institute

[Stanley]

Ken, J Hunt blew the gaffe yesterday when he revealed that the criterion the IMF judged him on was whether he was a better chancellor than Quasi Kwarteng. Not a very high bar.....
Peter, I think you are quite right to raise concerns about the prospect of Elon Musk getting into AI. I listened to The Briefing Room on R4 and it seems to me everyone is getting worried about AI including the people who know it best!
The really scary thing for me is that we have no way of knowing when it is being used (or misused). How much are we being fed now?
Later.... See THIS report that plans for more 'smart' motorways have been scrapped and existing ones are to be upgraded by instal;ling more refuges.
The Department for Transport said the new schemes would have cost more than £1bn, and cancelling them would allow time to track public trust in smart motorways over a longer period. Seven of the 14 projects that have been cancelled were going to involve converting stretches of motorway into "all-lane running" roads where the hard shoulder is permanently removed. They will now remain as"dynamic" smart motorways where the hard shoulder can be opened as an extra lane during busy times. The construction of two stretches of smart motorway from junctions six to eight on the M56, and from 21a to 26 on the M6, will continue as they are already more than three quarters complete. Smart motorways were developed to create more capacity and cut congestion on roads, without spending money and causing disruption building news ones. However, they have been criticised by MPs and road safety bodies, including the AA and RAC.
(More than seventy people have been killed on 'smart' motorways. Sacrificed to try to get capacity on the cheap. A disgrace.)

[Tizer]

In January 2020 Sir Mike Penning told the BBC panorama programme that he approved the roll-out of smart motorways on the basis that refuge areas would be 600 metres apart, as they were on the M42 pilot scheme, on which all the evidence was based. However the Highways Agency.....then decided to move the refuge areas further apart – up to 2.5 miles apart. The former minister agreed with the interviewer that it was a disgrace that what was delivered was not what he had signed off on. “It should never have happened,” he said. (Reference Construction Index web site)

It's time the public and the press started telling the politicians to stop killing us!
--------------------------------------------------------

Elon Musk and AI ... At the age of 100 James Lovelock found peace when he realised that the future of the human race was not to fight robots and AI but to accept that the two will merge and become a race of cyborgs. Many humans already have physical prosthetics and auxiliary electronic brains which at present are usually found in our pockets. Technology is accelerating exponentially and there are two possible outcomes - either we'll exterminate ourselves or we'll merge into being cyborgs. And it will be a lot easier for cyborgs to travel to, and inhabit, other planets. Sit back and enjoy the ride!

[plaques]

Technology is accelerating exponentially and there are two possible outcomes - either we'll exterminate ourselves or we'll merge into being cyborgs.

At some point the theologians will start to ask 'At what point does AI become sentient and is it morally correct to switch it off'? Of course the cyborgs will want to be involved in these discussions or they may well 'switch' humans off if we come to the wrong answer.

All done before. First appearing in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is a sentient artificial general intelligence ...

[PanBiker]

The BBC has sent redundancy notices to a number of their top earning presenters including Huw Edwards, Reeta Chakrabarti, Sophie Raworth and Nick Robinson amongst others.

[Wendyf]

The BBC has sent redundancy notices to a number of their top earning presenters including Huw Edwards, Reeta Chakrabarti, Sophie Raworth and Nick Robinson amongst others.

Just an HR exercise...would you be prepared to take voluntary redundancy?

[Stanley]

I flagged up the fact that the news programmes were being merged and staff cut a long time ago....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report for good news if, like me, you are over 85! (There are some advantages if you are old.... )
And then, for completely different reasons see THIS. I have sympathy with protests against the energy companies but have to wonder if incidents like this aren't driven more by attention seeking.

[Tripps]

I've just seen that disgraceful behaviour cruelly described as "a premature scattering of the ashes of Donald J Trump".

I'm mindful of the forthcoming Coronation of King Charles III which is only a couple of weeks away. (yawn) .
I now realise why the carriage route after the event has been considerably shortened compared to 1953. The affair will surely be their next target, and will now be easier to secure.

[Stanley]

Have you seen the descriptions of the uncomfortable ride in the Golden State Coach? One has to feel sorry for the poor things.....
HERE'S another poor thing for you to feel sorry for.
The former boss of business group giant the CBI says his "reputation has been totally destroyed" after being fired over complaints about his behaviour. Tony Danker acknowledged he had made some staff feel "very uncomfortable", adding: "I apologise for that." But he said his name had been wrongly associated with separate claims, including rape, that allegedly occurred at the CBI before he joined. The CBI did not comment but has said he was dismissed on strong legal ground. In his first interview since being fired on 11 April, Mr Danker said his termination letter had cited four reasons for dismissal:
Organising a secret and private karaoke party for 15 people after a Christmas work event
Viewing the Instagram accounts of CBI staff
Sending non-work related messages to staff on work messaging platforms
Inviting junior staff to breakfasts, lunches or one-on-one meetings
This reminds me of Partygate.... People in power forgetting what good behaviour and normal standards are.
I see nothing wrong in booting them out and trashing their reputations if they are guilty.

[Tizer]

`Ukraine war: The Russian ships accused of North Sea sabotage' LINK
`Russia has a programme to sabotage wind farms and communication cables in the North Sea, according to new allegations. The details come from a joint investigation by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It says Russia has a fleet of vessels disguised as fishing trawlers and research vessels in the North Sea. They carry underwater surveillance equipment and are mapping key sites for possible sabotage. The BBC understands that UK officials are aware of Russian vessels moving around UK waters as part of the programme. The first of a series of reports is due to be broadcast on Wednesday by DR in Denmark, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden and Yle in Finland.'...

[Stanley]

In the days at the turn of the century when I was spending a lot of time on Eigg and In Arisaig I was close to the fishing community and learned about the 'klondykers', Russian factory ships hove to off the coast who would buy a boat's catch without them having to come into port. I took notice of what my friend Alan Broadhurst told me. He ran the Old Library restaurant in Arisaig and was an ex RN immersion diver who knew what he was talking about. He told me that it was well known that the Russian ships had an intelligence function as well as commercial. He also told me that we did exactly the same thing, intelligence operatives were taken on board British trawlers as supercargo, particularly the ones fishing the Barents Sea.
That was thirty years ago so it isn't surprising that the same thing is happening now and we are aware of it. I would be astounded if we weren't doing exactly the same thing. I also know from the work Janet and Big Harry did that the US in particular have submarines lying on the bottom in places like to waters just off the Russian Naval Bases listening to all that is going on. When the Kursk went down Harry had to sound tapes within a few hours of the event and was able to identify the cause of the accident.
So don't worry too much, this is all part of the cold war that has never ceased in some areas. Ukraine is just the latest and most public example.

[Stanley]

Shock, Horror! See THIS report of the imminent demise of scampi.
Scampi could disappear from pub menus without a bespoke visa scheme for foreign fishermen, an MP has warned. Scarborough and Whitby MP Sir Robert Goodwill claimed one company in his constituency was reliant on workers from the Philippines and was at risk of going out of business without help. Recent changes mean overseas fishermen now require a skilled worker visa. James Cole, chair of Whitby Commercial Fishing Association said the workers have "kept the industry going". People applying for a skilled worker visa must prove they can read, write, speak and understand English to a certain level. Sir Robert told the House of Commons that Whitby Seafoods, which operates in his constituency and in Kilkeel in Northern Ireland, needed Filipino fishermen to bring in the langoustines needed to make scampi. "I am not crying wolf when I say this is really putting at risk the scampi industry," he said before calling for a "solution to the language situation" to support the foreign crews working in the UK "so that we can actually keep that fish coming in, keep those jobs onshore and to keep scampi on our pub restaurant menus".
You didn't know the situation was this bad did you.....
Also, under the heading 'Not seen in the news'. I find it strange that quite suddenly all mention of the consequences of the Turkish and Syrian earthquakes has vanished from the news. Millions of people have been affected and of course there were over half a million deaths. The aftermath must be horrendous but not a word of it reaches us.

[Big Kev]

Also, under the heading 'Not seen in the news'. I find it strange that quite suddenly all mention of the consequences of the Turkish and Syrian earthquakes has vanished from the news. Millions of people have been affected and of course there were over half a million deaths. The aftermath must be horrendous but not a word of it reaches us.

The BBC News website has a story about it today
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-65323376

[Stanley]

They must be monitoring my head....

[Stanley]

I listen to Sunak banging on about numeracy and agree with him for once. However, surely the logical thing to do is pay teachers enough to encourage them into the profession and once there, give them recognition and status. What does he do instead? Forces them out on strike by refusing to make meaningful adjustments to their pay to partially compensate for what they have lost because of inflation.
I think we need a bit of joined up thinking here.....
(PS. Apply the same logic to pay for other public service workers, like nurses and doctors.....)

[plaques]

I listen to Sunak banging on about numeracy and agree with him for once.

My old Headmaster MA conceded that anybody who went into the sciences was a failure. In one sense he was correct . The real money was in languages and law etc. Knowing Pythagoras was an interesting side line. The real money is still in the service industries, film, etc,