On the importance of the arts!

 So I leave Manchester for a couple of days and they have a bit of an earthquake:

“Part of a Manchester city centre building collapsed following a scaffolding failure during demolition work on Friday (October 24). 

Alberton House, off Bridge Street, is being knocked down to make way for a new development. 

One person who works nearby said there was a 'strong earthquake like feeling' and that surrounding buildings were evacuated, with firefighters at the scene.”

That’ll teach me! What will happen when I go to Portugal in a couple of weeks’ time?

Singers are removing their songs from Amazon in protest. One of the latest is Joan Baez, whom Donald Trump has now described as a “washed out hippy”!

And now it seems Bob Dylan Just Warned America — And His Words Could Spark a Cultural Firestorm...

“When I was a boy in Minnesota, Dylan recalls "I used to sit in a tiny room, playing my father’s old guitar. Every time the neighbors knocked and said, 'Be quiet' it felt like the music in my heart was being strangled. If I had obeyed, maybe I would have never sung again".

Now, at 84, the legendary musician is speaking with burning urgency: "Disney and ABC think bringing Jimmy Kimmel back will calm us? No. This isn’t about one show — it’s about the freedom and creativity of an entire generation. When the right to speak is suffocated, art withers, and we step into an age of darkness".

Dylan’s words have set the artistic world ablaze and ignited a nationwide debate. Social media is flooded with reactions: some hail him as the last great voice defending freedom, while others warn he may have lit the fuse for a far-reaching cultural crisis.

One thing is certain: Bob Dylan isn’t just speaking about music. He’s issuing a warning about creativity, expression, and the very state of free speech — and America is watching, listening, and reacting...”

We need reminding that the arts are important for keeping us all sane. Singers and actors and writers need to tell the politicians who say that those “soft” degrees like English Literature are of no value.

That’s all. i’m off to the centre of town for a second breakfast.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Out and about with the family in Londao.,

I spent a good part of yesterday running round making sure everything was organised for our family road trip to visit the southern branch of the family. As Phil was not going with us, we needed to make sure everything was organised at hime as well. Then, after we had deposited him at the chess, as usual on a Thursday, my daughter, three of her offspring and I set off to drive to Chesham, arriving in time to pack everyone off to bed.

We’d been planning this for a while and as all the younger children’s half term holidays coincided, including finishing on Thursday rather than waiting until today. So we were able to organise an expedition into London.

London is already getting geared up for Christmas. Granddaughter Number Two protested that we have not got Hallowe’en out of the way but that’s how it is.

We took the children to the Museum of Illusion, well worth a visit.

Lunch was pizza at a food hall not far from there.

And then we went of to take a look at the Wallace Collection . Amazing to think that that huge house was once a family home, albeit a rich family.

Amazing also to discover that not only the small boy but his sister was a fan of swords and armour.

It’s a long time since I first visited the Wallace Collection. This time, with some rather tired children accompanying us, we didn’t get to look at everything, just the impressive armour and such. 

There was some impressive pottery and glassware.

 And there was a bit ofGrayson Perry, always worth looking at.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

A bit more ranting about technology and AI taking over the world.

I seem to be going on a lot about technology and artificial intelligence taking over our lives at the moment. This may be because I keep coming across articles like this one about what they are calling “AI Companions”.

AI companions are basically chatbots. So what is a chatbot? Wikipedia here we come :

A chatbot (originally chatterbot)is a software application or web interface designed to have textual or spoken conversations. Modern chatbots are typically online and use generative artificial intelligence systems that are capable of maintaining a conversation with a user in natural language and simulating the way a human would behave as a conversational partner. Such chatbots often use deep learning and natural language processing, but simpler chatbots have existed for decades.”

So far, so good. Nowadays, of course, you can carry your chatbot around with you as an app on your mobile phone or even on a device you can wear around your neck on a lanyard. Small children have a favourite toy they carry around with them and talk to as if it’s a real person. It sounds as though the chatbot serves that purpose for older “children” and a disturbingly large number of “proper” adults. According to the article mentioned above, just over half of US adults have used them at least once, while 34% use them everyday and one study found that 72% of teens have used AI companions, and 52% of them talk to one regularly. 

Maybe talking to a chatbot fulfils the same purpose as keeping a written journal in that it allows you to express your feelings, vent your emotions, be they anger, frustration, happiness or joy! But I find it a bit disturbing that a chatbot originally called “Chatty” asks to be given a more human-sounding name. Even more disturbing is when users talk about their chatbot as a best friend, a boyfriend or even a husband! And as they are programmed to your requirements, perhaps they will always tell you what you want to hear, rather than what you need to hear. A professor of psychology at Arizona State University has expressed her concern about teenagers relating too closely to their AI Companions. “Teens might be missing out on practicing really important [relationship] skills with human partners,” she said.

I miss a simpler world where you got to know people face to face and relationships developed more naturally.

By the way, I was amused that the article referred to Generation Z people as “zilenniums”!

On a personal note, I have had my own complaint about the use of technology in everyday life. I recently want through the frustrating process of trying to arrange online a routine appointment with my doctor. Once I had negotiated the surgery’s website and found the relevant section, opened my NHS app to “speed up” the process, filled in all the necessary details and sent it all off, the system told me that I would be contacted within a couple of working days. No such luck! 

So today, two weeks on from submitting my request, I called in at the surgery in Uppermill to request assistance. The receptionist helpfully looked things up in the system; yes, my request was there on the computer and , no, it had not been overlooked but, also no, it had not yet been processed as they were receiving such a high volume of requests for routine appointments! 

Oh, boy! On the whole I would have preferred to sit in a virtual queue while my phone told me repeatedly that the surgery receiving a high volume of calls, played me some supposedly soothing music and informed me that I was number …. in the queue!

I walked to Uppermill in the rain this morning. The market remains depleted but at least the fishman was there, selling his fresh fish. Thankfully some things do not change! And by midday the cloud cover had thinned, there was even some blue sky to admire, and the sun was trying to brighten up the day. 

Unfortunately this change in  the weather was too late for the window cleaner who had already cleaned all our windows in the rain! So it goes!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

An apple a day for Apple Day! Speaking proper English!

 It would seem that today is Apple Day. Who knew?

“Apple Day, 21 October, was launched in 1990 by Common Ground. The aspiration was to create a calendar custom, an autumn holiday. From the start, Apple Day was intended to be both a celebration and a demonstration of the variety we are in danger of losing, not simply in apples, but in the richness and diversity of landscape, ecology and culture too. It has also played a part in raising awareness in the provenance and traceability of food

The success of Apple Day has shown what the apple means to us and how much we need local celebrations in which, year after year, everyone can be involved. In city, town and country, Apple Day events have fostered local pride, celebrated and deepened interest in local distinctiveness. We would still like Apple Day to become the autumn holiday in Britain. Apple Day is now an integral part of the calendar of many villages, local authorities and city markets. It is a focus for activities organised by the Women’s Institute, National Trust properties, Wildlife Trusts, museums and galleries, horticultural societies, shops and restaurants as well as for schools, colleges and environmental study centres.The first Apple Day celebrations, in the old Apple Market in London’s Covent Garden, brought fruit to the market after 16 years’ absence. Forty stalls were taken. Fruit growers and nurseries producing and selling a wide variety of apples and trees rubbed shoulders with juice-and cider-makers, as well as writers and illustrators with their apple books.”

There you go!

I wrote yesterday about the Amazon “outage”. Today I read about some of the odd consequences. People working in Amazon warehouses, usually running round sorting out orders and organising deleiveriesa, found themselves with a quiet day. Amazon delivery people on zero hours contracts were worried that they might not be paid. People who rely on Alexa had some problems:-

“I use Alexa-enabled smart plugs to control the lamps in my room,” Christina, who uses crutches to get around, told CNN. “During the outage my smart plugs became unresponsive. Before I realised why the plug wasn’t working, I tried unsuccessfully to reset one of them. Now I can’t get it to work at all.”

Her complaint was serious, others less so:-

“Due to the Amazon outage, Alexa wasn’t working this morning, so I had to stumble out of bed in the dark, find my way to the kitchen, and turn the coffee-maker on MANUALLY. I can’t live like this. You guys go on without me,” one X user posted. 

My favourite moaning reaction comes from users of Duolingo, afraid that their “streaks” (the records of how many consecutive days they have practised) might be disrupted or even wiped out completely:-

“Some threatened to “riot” if their streak was lost, others complained their 900+ day streak had reset to zero, while one poster on X took aim at Amazon’s founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos. “If I lose my 1,300-day Duolingo streak because of the pissing AWS [Amazon Web Services] outage, I will personally throw an egg at Bezos’ bald head.”

 

However, Duolingo has since reassured customers that their streaks will be safe. What a relief! 

Nesrine Malik has been writing about the demands being put on migrants who seek citizenship of the UK. Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has seemingly said that some migrants must be able to speak English to A-level standard because, “it is unacceptable for migrants to come here without learning our language, unable to contribute to our national life”.

I think that there are large numbers of non-immigrant people who don’t speak English to A-level standard! 

Some twenty years ago there was an attempt to introduce a ‘Use of English’ exam into sixth form studies. Inwonder what happened to that. 

But it’s a good job Shabana  Mahmood has only specified A-level standard and not beyond. After all, Kemi Badenoch classes studying English at university one of the ‘rip-off degrees’ that she would like to abolish. 

Hmmm! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Rioting football fans again. Web service outages. Using apps on our phones. Being a bit of a luddite as regards technology.

 Well, after all the kerfuffle about whether banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending their team’s match was or wasn’t an anti-semitic act, there comes the news that the Tel Aviv derby match between Hapoel and Maccabi has had to be called off because of rioting fans! Who is the antisemite now?

Granddaughter Number Two put out this message on our family group chat this morning:

“Heads up - Lloyds bank and Halifax have been affected by an Amazon Web Services outage and there are reports that bank cards are being declined as banking apps are inaccessible”

And I find myself reflecting on all those people who do everything via a phone app. As we come to rely more and more on paying for stuff with plastic, when such outages occur loads of people will be stranded unable to buy stuff, unable to pay for their transport. This is the way the world ends … with a massive IT breakdown!

My own phone is too old a model to support certain apps. This morning I had to go to a dental workshop so that a technician could match the shade on the crown that is to be fitted at the front of my mouth. As the workshop is in a rather obscure bit of Bury I decided to go by taxi. Book an Uber, I was advised. All well and good but my phone cannot support the Uber app! So I had to revert to oldfangled methods and phoned a local taxi firm. That worked, even though my taxi was delayed in arriving because of temporary roadworks all over the place. Returning home I was able to coordinate bus and tram and used my old-lady bus pass!

On the subject of taxis, here’s a link to an article announcing the arrival of driverless taxis on London roads next year. If the system is satisfactory then presumably it will be expanded into other large cities in the UK. What I want to know is whether the taxis will be programmed to participate in inane chat / deep philosophical discussion / political arguments with their passengers. Just a thought! 

Here’s another thought: if successful the driverless taxi plan will put another swathe of people out of a job. This is called progress!

I shall continue my small campaign to pay for purchases in cash, especially in small shops, and to avoid using the self-service checkouts in supermarkets! 

And lastly, here’s a cartoon about England flags:- 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Annoyingly accurate weather forecasting. Football hooligans and some Maccabi history. Bonkers conkers. And thenroyal family.

Well, the weather was forecast to turn wet and miserable but this morning began with a lot of blue sky and sunshine and some bright autumn colours everywhere. 

By late morning, however, the cloud had moved in again. By midday, perhaps because I had optimistically hung washing on the line to dry, the weathermen had been proved right and the rain statted to fall. So it goes! 

Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were banned from watching their team play in Birmingham, unsurprisingly after their behaviour in Amsterdam. Some people are saying this is antisemitic. It looks like anti-violence common sense to me.

Why is that football team so called? Here’s a bit of history from Wikipedia:

“The Maccabees, also spelled Machabees, were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire. Its leaders, the Hasmoneans, founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 167 BCE to 37 BCE, being a fully independent kingdom from 104 to 63 BCE. They reasserted the Jewish religion, expanded the boundaries of Judea by conquest, and reduced the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism.”

Meanwhile, things appear to be going awry with the Gaza ceasefire and expansionism continues in the West Bank.

There you go! 

For the people who live their lives publicly on TikTok it seems the thing to do is to film yourself “unboxing conkers”. It must be a bit like those children who are filmed opening parcels. Here’s a but of explanation from an article in yesterday’s paper: 

 

“Unboxing conkers? What on earth are you talking about? Oh wow, you really are out of the loop, aren’t you? Gen Zers are taking to TikTok to film themselves unpeeling conkers from their spiky capsules.

But why? Because of the sense of wonder! When you unbox a conker, you never know what you’re going to get. Will it be big? Will it be flat? How shiny will it be? It is like a mystery box every time!”

I wonder if, like the aforementioned children who receive even more parcels of free toys to open, these conker openers will receive large supplies of conkers to open. 

According to the article where I found that information, King Charles sent a load of conkers from his estate to the world conker championship, presumably because he had been alerted to the shortage of good conkers this year.

Alternatively, perhaps he wanted to show his solidarity with his people and their pastimes, making up for the nefarious activities of his younger brother. The headlines told us that said younger brother was giving up his royal titles, rather reluctantly but still giving them up. However, he remains a prince (surely that’s the main “royal title”!) and is still 8th in line for the throne. Do we need some No King protests here?

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Online slop! Some thoughts about our use of technology and AI.

 How we learn is interesting. 

When our daughter was a teenager we would occasionally have discussions that sometimes developed into arguments all about whether she should watch television while doing her homework. She swore it helped her focus. I swore it was a distraction. Studies show that music — classical music, specifically — can help your brain absorb and interpret new information more easily. I read somewhere long ago, however, that listening to songs while you study is less effective as part of your attention goes on the words of the song.

By time the two older granddaughters were studying for various exams the argument had moved on to how to make notes. Granddaughter Number Two in particular favoured reading through her notes and highlighting salient points in bright colours.  My preferred method was always making notes on notes, actual handwritten notes, or even notes on notes on notes, reducing knowledge to trigger words. Again I have read somewhere that the act writing stuff down helps cement it into your memory, but best is physically handwriting it, not making a note on your phone or iPad. 

This article suggests that we all rely too much now on technology to “help” us discover, learn or remember things. Because it’s too easy to “google” facts rather than force our memories to come up with those things we learnt long ago, or the name of an actor/writer/singer, we are perhaps becoming more “stupid”, certainly more lazy. Then there’s the increased use of AI in homework and the like. This has been around for a long time,of course. Fifteen or twenty years ago when coursework was a part of the assessment for Al-Level Modern Languages, I frequently had to reject first attempts by students who copied and pasted stuff off the internet; it was relatively easy to spot the different level language used. Nowadays it’s all more sophisticated - apparently people use AI to help them with answers to questions in zoom interviews. Astounding! 

And here’s a cartoon about our over-reliance on AI in everyday life: 

Sometimes technology can be frustrating, such as when you accidentally click on something, as happened to me yesterday and completely messed up my blog-posting until my technician, aka Phil, worked out what I had done. 

Of course, I too find lots of information from technology, stuff that pops up on social media, some of it interesting, some of it connected to tedious advertising. Recently I must have “liked” a post enquiring about interesting plants and fruit that people had come across and now ai am bombarded with photos of strange fruit. This is the latest:

It turns out to be something called “feijoa”: Feijoa sellowiana, also known as Acca sellowiana Burret. Wikipedia tells me it is “a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. It is native mainly to the highlands of Colombia, southern Brazil and the hills of northeast Uruguay, but it can also be found in eastern Paraguay and northern Argentina. It is known as quirina or as feijoa. It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 1–7 metres in height. The oblong leaves are about 5 cm long, dark green on the upper side and white underneath. The flowers have five whitish petals which are puffy, possibly filled with some gas”

There you go. I was initially a little confused as I am familiar with “feijoada”, a sort of bean stew which ai have eaten in Portugal and Galicia. Maybe there is a linguistic connection but I have not discovered it yet.

By the way, in my various readings I have some across a term for all the infomation that comes via the media: “online slop”!

A fair number of former students of mine keep in touch with me via social media, which is very nice. It’s more than 15 years since I retired so most of them are well into their thirties by now and posting information about their own children. One thing that strikes me is how many of them have succumbed to the modern trend for “baby showers” where mothers-to-be are “showered” with baby related gifts. Baby clothes are fashion items and can be phenomenally expensive but peole keep on buying the latest trends.  So here is “Buy buy baby: the latest must-have baby clothes” – an Edith Pritchett cartoon:

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!