Horrendous stuff, but again it is grimly hilarious that the Tory leader is so awesomely stupid that she doesn’t understand she’s humiliating everyone and making an absolute mockery of almost a decade of terrifying all-channels panic.
Douglas Murphy
@entschwindet.bsky.social
I spend my days in an architecture school I've written some books Chatting about music, culture, politics etc etc
Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
enjoyed this comment on the @financialtimes.com about the 24 year old ex-OpenAI boy whose $20bn hedge fund just collapsed, I really find it so sad that so many sharp brains just go straight into that narrow-minded world just for the money to live in a big West London house and wear quarter-zips
The Glasgow School of Art says that it can’t afford to rebuild the Mackintosh building after two disastrous fires. It’s time for the restoration to be taken out of its hands, writes Douglas Murphy (@entschwindet.bsky.social).
Glasgow will be humiliated if the Mack is not rebuilt
The Glasgow School of Art says it can’t afford to rebuild the Mackintosh building after two disastrous fires. It’s time for the restoration to be taken out of its hands, writes Douglas Murphy
buff.ly
Really one of the most important postwar sites in Britain
C20 Society@c20society.bsky.social · last wk.Extremely concerning news that Jodrell Bank in Cheshire is facing closure, after UKRI announced the end of their funding from 2028. Though the Lovell Telescope is Grade I listed, the best strategy for preserving this internationally significant site is surely to keep the observatory in active use.
www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion... Russell calling for a restriction on numbers in the profession… I have to admit that I find it utterly depressing that the universities are refusing (unable) to play their part in this, even though it would make my livelihood riskier
It’s time to admit it. Too many architects spoil the broth
If we’re serious about improving the fortunes of architects, limiting the numbers entering the profession is the only way to do it, says Russell Curtis
architectsjournal.co.uk
Notre-Dame has been completely restored after the 2019 fire, but today the Glasgow School of Art said that it cannot rebuild the fire-gutted Charles Rennie Mackintosh masterpiece it called home. #fromthearchives, here’s @entschwindet.bsky.social rightly fearing for its future
Will the Glasgow School of Art ever be rebuilt?
Six years after the devastating fire, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece is no closer to being restored. What can possibly explain the delay?
buff.ly
Observers may note the civilian death toll, the level of destruction, suffering and deprivation is so hugely stacked on one side that the comparison is ludicrous, but this is the closest we’ll get to an official saying “we supported genocide, fully understanding that was what we were doing”.
so the big sphere for Stratford got cancelled, but don't worry, the proposed replacement will still have 20,000 square meters of giant screensavers – sorry, 'immersive experience venues' www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/squire-...
The British right wing press has been doing “sadly Amnesty International has lost its way, so it must be ruthlessly destroyed” for almost twenty years, since I started paying attention. Usually by giving the reporting to the nastiest, most malicious crackpots on the payroll, as they’ve done here.
Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · 2w ago"Crisis of conscience: how Amnesty International lost its way "By blacklisting women’s groups, the charity has abandoned its founding principles, writes Nicole Lampert" [Telegraph]
AI advice made people three times less accurate but twice as confident: "Some participants who would have answered correctly on their own asked the AI and became wrong." Superpersuasion by dull tone has punch. I still suspect this is the same psych mechanism that reduces belief in conspiracies.
AI advice made people three times less accurate but twice as confident, researchers found
A study found that access to AI advice collapsed people's willingness to say "I don't know" from 44% to 3%, while accuracy dropped from 27% to 9%.
thenextweb.com
I read a thing once that made the argument that the Iliad is correct, and yes, back in those days combat would indeed involve two groups standing around while a couple of guys went head to head
Zach Rabiroff@zachrabiroff.com · 3w agoThere's a point when you're reading the Iliad when you realize these guys aren't at the head of some vast army of Greeks, it's just like two dozen dudes and their personal entourages who got together and did a war
there's been some dinosaur chat recently… one thing that I keep thinking about is how, basically, we only discover dinosaurs that died in specific locations (rivers etc) where fossilisation can take place… that means we only ever find dinosaurs and other extinct fauna who would have spent time there
www.ft.com/content/8c91... lots to chew over in this… doesn't seem to include "abolish landlordism" as a viable option but there's not much data for him to crunch on that
How to fix the housing crisis
Deregulation isn’t enough. Nor is government intervention. We need both
ft.com
www.dailymail.com/news/article... been following the antics of this super-rich architect/developer for years now… what this article doesn't mention (who at the Mail would care) is that Chan happily demolished an extension by Alison & Peter Smithson, from the same time as the Upper Lawn Pavilion!
Architect in row with neighbours over £6m home wellness transformation
New Age designer Zoe Chan, 40, has been accused of carrying out unauthorised works at the protected former home of Sir Anthony Caro, one of Britain's most celebrated sculptors.
dailymail.com
You know you've been in London for a near-geological duration when you've seen the Crystal Palace Dinos refurbished multiple times
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan@london.gov.uk · 3w agoThe dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park wowed Victorian Londoners and remained a beloved part of childhood in the city for generations. Delighted that these figures have been restored to their former glory and are no longer on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
‘“Palestine Action has little or nothing in common with the suffragettes,” the Lady Chief Justice said. But the suffragettes were if anything more violent.’ @selmadabbagh.bsky.social on British complicity in Israeli aggression, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...
Selma Dabbagh | Annexation with a Sales Pitch
My friend Jawad Ali, a Palestinian American lawyer, was at his daughter’s graduation last month when he got a call...
lrb.co.uk
www.lbc.co.uk/article/brit... man, I missed this at the time: “Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’."
British students lack ‘drive’ of their American peers, says Business Secretary | LBC
The Business Secretary has defended comments he made at a meeting with investors where he said British students lack the ‘drive’ and ‘vigour’ of their American peers.
lbc.co.uk
I’ll be force feeding my piece down your throats bit by bit for the next few days. This is about why loss of research capability in universities isn’t just a linear bit of market forces but a messy process of universities sometimes doing panicky short term cuts
If we're being strict, cladistically, it's more likely to be this lad…
YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 3w agoWith a T-rex skeleton selling for $50m at auction on Tuesday, our poll shows that the Tyrannosaurus Rex is Brits' top dinosaur, with 30% listing it as their favourite T-rex: favourite of 30% of dinosseurs Stegosaurus: 12% Triceratops: 11% Diplodocus: 10% Velociraptor: 7% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
JK Rowling through her TERF organization, Beira's Place have sent Amnesty International a demand letter seeking a full retraction of their report, a public apology, and a bar to future criticism of gender critical groups as anti rights orgs. If they don't comply, they'll commence legal action.
holy shit being an insomniac pays off youtu.be/e81LZCHhNKQ
Napalm Death: Tiny Desk Concert
YouTube video by NPR Music
youtu.be
I may not see this straight because it affects me directly, but there's a bigger question of: what to do, economically, with people who are, um, cognitively capable, but lack an entrepreneurial edge* that would make them maximally useful? * is this what's called 'agency' these days?
Douglas Murphy@entschwindet.bsky.social · 3w agoI get the impression that manager-brain feels insulted or affronted by the choices that academics have made: "wait, you haven't just made every single life choice based on its expected financial return? HOW DARE YOU!!!?!?!" result: academics expected to produce like consultants on 1/3 the wage