Today's learning... ChatGPT can't produce a remotely accurate word count. Srsly.

I wrote about design in the regions...with some uncomfortable truths.

Architects' Journal@news.architectsjournal.co.uk · 6mo ago

It’s great that London has new design advocates. But what about elsewhere?

So glad to hear about the listing of the Wolverhampton School of Art but srsly @bbcnewslive.bsky.social this sentence should not have got through editorial. 'Vast, grey structures' is not a description of an architectural style and not accurate for Brutalism. Please consult subject matter experts!

Just got shown an advert for Ozempic on Insta which had so many troubling things about it, it's hard to know where to start. Obesity is a disease as a strapline? A Black woman (AI generated) in running kit, looking frustrated, as the featured human? No actual mention of the drug they are peddling?

Ever more emails trying to sell us AI solutions for our business. On top of AI slop invading every corner of everything, AI-written marketing blurb being used to sell AI 'business solutions' to us is just 🤮🤮🤮🤮. Should I get ChatGPT to write spurious answers to the marketing emails and infinitum?

Jaywick Sands hits the news again for being the most officially deprived place in the country. But, unlike in 2019 when the index was last updated, there is a now a different story to tell - and Tendring District Council leader Mark Stephenson has been rightly speaking of this to the media.

Thanks guys, that totally killed my morning, but I did it. Will post on my LinkedIn if / when it is deemed too lengthy for them to print!

David Higham@oldtrotter.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Would save the rest of us having to do so. View it as a public service.

Do I really have to write a ranty letter to the editor to say how disappointed I am that @financialtimes.com ran this piece, and that it came out of NESTA, with all the reasons road building is not the answer? Also, the motorway distinction is just plain weird. SIGH. www.ft.com/content/0cb6...

Let’s fall in love with cars again

Investing more into roads will only mean higher economic returns for the UK

ft.com

I'm too inactive here, but just to say I have an exhibition opening this weekend, plus events etc coming up... If you are in an Essex direction pls come by! firstsite.uk/event/into-t...

I was told about a year ago by the teenagers in our family, and their friends, that this would be an absolute gamechanger in their lives (and vote winner). I really hope they do it. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Under-22s in England should get free bus travel to access work and training, MPs say

Transport committee also suggests rural weighting for bus funding and a national policy for services in England

theguardian.com

Based on recent conversations, the BMA are very wrong to strike. They have totally lost the sympathy of the communities they are meant to be serving. Everyone has had wage stagnation. Everyone is struggling. I hope they realise they are about to seriously damage the respect and trust they need.

This is data about what teachers think about their own AI use. What their students think may differ. Y'day had a teenager tell me how dismayed they were that their teacher used AI to write their college report. Others have told me they dislike it when their teachers use AI in class or for homework.

Ethan Mollick@emollick.bsky.social · last yr.

New national survey of teachers by Gallup & the Walton Foundation finds that teachers who use AI (about 60% of all teachers) report saving 5.9 hours a week as a result & improving quality, too. Pretty big impact. Also, teachers who use AI like it (teachers who have never used it are more negative)

Also, and of relevance to architects when we talk about the circular economy and design of our structures and how certain things are endlessly recyclable: 80% of scrap aluminium stays in the UK and is recycled here; but only 20-30% of other scrap metal eg zinc, copper.

Hana Loftus@hanaloftus.bsky.social · last yr.

Currently 80% of our scrap steel is exported at inflated prices which reduce the viability of domestic arc furnaces. Plus obvs going to countries with terrible environmental regs and carbon intensive plants. We reimport the scrap once processed, as raw steel to use in buildings and manufacturing.

Been reading up, belatedly, on the steel thing. Interesting stuff I learnt: blast furnaces do not help secure a domestic steel supply as the inputs (ore) are totally imported. Arc furnaces (which is what govt was offering to co-fund at Scunthorpe) use UK produced feedstock of scrap steel

This is great news, but just get on and call it an Ecology GCSE already. I've been trying to persuade our teenagers and their friends that a career in ecology is absolutely where it's at for this century, little success so far .. 🤷 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Department for Education confirms launch of natural history GCSE

Campaigners have been calling for the qualification for years but plan stalled despite a curriculum being drawn up

theguardian.com

This @theguardian.com piece has so many parallels to our work in Jaywick Sands around community flood risk and resilience. Same responses from locals who are trying to survive day to day and can't think long-term. This is real in the UK and not just abroad. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘I trust my eyes, not the forecast’: Alexandria is sinking. Why don’t local fishers believe it?

The ancient Mediterranean city is at risk as sea levels rise. But most people in the vulnerable fishing village of El Max believe it will always weather the storms of time

theguardian.com

This shows how poor communication is by LPAs and orgs like the EA, to explain what basic things like flood risk zones even mean. And even news outlets like @theguardian.com cover this stuff so poorly, not explaining it properly either, sowing more worries. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Loved by rockers and royals, Eel Pie Island is threatened by tide of red tape

Changes in flood status raise fears for the future of the island where the Rolling Stones and David Bowie played

theguardian.com

I have a rant in public. TLDR is why have reams of nice sounding design policies and aspirational manuals if you ignore them and deliver total s*** like this for our public infrastructure. How to expect communities to have pride in themselves if you can't be arsed to give them stuff to be proud of.

Architects' Journal@news.architectsjournal.co.uk · last yr.

OPINION | This hideous new footbridge underlines the poor state of UK design www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion...

Things that young voters outside London care about which probably have not even hit the policy-makers radar...[sample size of our kids' friend groups] - the rise in the bus fare cap from £2 to £3 is very unpopular indeed.

Super interesting article for #infrastructure #flooddefence ppl. Normally it is communities asking for defences, not the other way round. But infrastructure is means to an end: if there's not a holistic plan to help the place behind the barrier thrive, why defend it? www.bbc.com/news/article...

Council urged to drop Whitesands flood defence project funding

Campaigners say rising costs and other priorities should see the proposals for a Dumfries town dropped.

bbc.com

One of the easiest and most impactful improvements that can be made to virtually every new-build development is to connect into the footpath network. On the other side of this fence are two cul-de-sacs which could easily lead into this path. Active lifestyles and enjoying beautiful countryside... 🤷

We should pay attention, and applaud, #DeepSeek because it is vastly more efficient in terms of energy and water use. The resource consumption of datacentres and AI is frightening. Any technical breakthroughs that help on that front have to be quickly adopted across the whole sector, surely?

Listened to this super interesting interview with Daisy Christodoulou about VAR and the psychology of rule-making, the tradeoffs involved (and many other things) yesterday... open.spotify.com/episode/5Shq... and now this news www.theguardian.com/football/202...

I showed this analysis for my talk for the @c20society.bsky.social a few months ago but with so much discussion about planning resourcing in the last week, I thought I might stir the pot and post it here.

Submitted a pre app for a written response on 30 April 2024. 4 new-build rural homes on a brownfield site. Got the written response today. 8 months and 8 days later. I am a planner, I deeply like and respect planners within the public sector, but this is why the system needs major reform.

Not a good morning to turn on R4 in the car. So sickened by the weasel worded politicking by Jenrick - an object lesson in cynical dog-whistle language.

This. Having just finished reading @edconway.bsky.social 's Material Worlds, which has a lot of fascinating things to say about China and battery manufacturing and copper and lots else...this just feels so frustrating.

Henry Mance@henrymance.ft.com · 2y ago

Thank you to everyone who argued that electric cars were rubbish and in the process allowed China to own the future of carmaking www.ft.com/content/0ebd...

@municipaldreams.bsky.social nice to sort of meet you at the Colin Ward talk at Brick Lane the other day. Going to Long Melford today and Pevsner mentions Anglian prefabs there but street name is wrong and Google maps /ukmoho not enlightening...do you happen to know anything?

Got distracted this evening and made a map of all the projects we've done at HAT. Only ones with real clients actually commissioning us. Not all built out or delivered (the completed ones are in blue). I guess we're regional 🤔 but there's a lot to be said about really knowing your patch.

Be interesting to pull the FRA from the planning application file and see what it said the predicted flood risk was.

Juraj Mikurcik@jurajmikurcik.bsky.social · 2y ago

But why oh Wye are we still building new homes in flood prone zones? This is one example from Hereford today, not even finished 🤦‍♂️