shakeitup.bsky.social

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

"I understand it is normally the role of opposition leaders to jump up and down and call for resignations – as we’ve seen plenty of from the Conservatives already. Obviously if the ethics advisor says Angela Rayner has broken the rules, her position may well become untenable. But as a parent of a disabled child, I know the thing my wife and I worry most about is our son’s care after we have gone, so I can completely understand and trust that the deputy prime minister was thinking about the same thing here. Perhaps now is a good time to talk about how we look after disabled people and how we can build a more caring country."

Credit to Ed Davey for this. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Doctors Were Worse at Spotting Cancer After Leaning on AI, Study Finds AI is not benign.

Doctors Were Worse at Spotting Cancer After Leaning on AI, Study Finds https://gizmodo.com/doctors-were-worse-at-spotting-cancer-after-leaning-on-ai-study-finds-2000642527

Deeply shocked and saddened by the passing of our dear friend, colleague and @who.int Envoy David Nabarro.

David was a great champion of global health and health equity, and a wise, generous mentor to countless individuals. His work touched and impacted so many lives across the world. (1/2)

David Nabarro, British physician who led UN response to Ebola and COVID-19, dies Dr. David Nabarro, a British physician who led the U.N. response to some of the biggest health crises in recent years, including bird flu, Ebola and the coronavirus pandemic, has died.

Dr. David Nabarro, a British physician who led the U.N. response to some of the biggest health crises in recent years, including bird flu, Ebola and the coronavirus pandemic, has died.

Part of the problem is the conflation between generative AI (completely bollocks “spicy autocomplete” that’s killing the planet) and machine learning (the scientific uses to expose patterns in enormous data sets which can then be explored by humans)

One political dilemma of COVID is it provided a very powerful demonstration of the state’s ability to do big things quickly but did so through a massive surge in public debt. So voters now think the state can do more because of COVID right at the moment the state can do less because of COVID.

July 25, 1925: Children from London’s working-class Tower Hamlets neighborhood in London wait for a train that will take them on a weekend outing in the country.

What’s the point of a licence fee or anything like it if not to provide coverage of the boring but important stuff? Stopping Politics Live just the latest in the slow killing of any proper coverage of the party conferences.

To be honest, I haven’t trusted Stephen Colbert ever since he conveniently abandoned all his right wing views as soon as he got hired to host a network talk show

Bjork hunched intently over a laptop at a mixing desk a small audience watching from a few feet away.

Told the kids we were going to Iceland this summer and when elder teen joked we might see Bjork, I laughed.
Landed this am. Few hours later we visited a small local record shop. Someone was playing a kicking DJ set. Guess who. 😲
Here's a photo of elder teen's ear, six feet from stardom. Incredible.

Emergency Alert day has been confirmed as 7th September. If you have a secret phone for safety go to settings and turn off all government notifications. Setting it to silent or airplane is not enough 🚨 (guidance on each step is on the internet). Spread the word

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.

Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on.

slate.com/technology/2...

June 16, 1925: After a construction project of several months, London’s new Waterloo Bridge nears completion side-by-side with the old one.

"I've got a brand new content harvester"

Why is it spelled "camouflage" and not

Well, this has made my day

inews.co.uk/opinion/no-o...

Thursday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

This seagull will be the first living creature to know there's a new Pope outside of the Conclave.

🧪Hello! are you a scientist who started your PhD in 2020 and are now wrapping up? I want to know how your life is and how you're feeling about your prospects in 2025 for a story in @nature.com. DM me or find me on Signal at aheidt.16. Tell yo friends!

(Also seeking international sources.)

In Oxford, as ever, vast crowds of people turned out at 6 am this May Day morning to hear the choir of Magdalen College sing songs of spring and listen to the ringing of the bells. If you don’t mind getting up early, it’s a magical experience.

Just going through the transcript of my interview with Bill Gates. First question seems pretty to the point I think.

(The answer is, yes he could).

Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen

Thinking about why public services should
not be designed in the same way as private-sector ones. I've 5 points so far:
(1) CHOICE: with v few exceptions, we get to choose the private-sector digital services we use but most public services need to be universal at the point of access
(1/n)

Doctor consulting with a patient in a medical practice

Digital scribes aim to cut GP admin by recording & transcribing conversations. But their timesaving benefits remain untested. That’s why we're studying them. We need your help to put patient & public perspectives at the heart of this work. Find out more and apply by 27 March: ths.im/3DxP35x

Here’s the chart that really nudged me to write this.

The headcount of GP partners aged under 40 has fallen by 53% since 2015.

Overall partner headcount down from 68% ➡️ 48% in same time.

Current policy = ‘let it wither on the vine’. I’m not sure that’s right…..

prediction vs reality

Cartoon by Stephen Collins for The Guardian. Script as follows: [scene is Winston Churchill in a bbc studio, giving his 'finest hour' speech] 1 CHURCHILL: The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. 2 CHURCHILL: Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. 3 CHURCHILL: If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sun- BBC PRESENTER: Thank you prime minister 4 BBC PRESENTER: Mr hitler, your response? 5 HITLER [in the studio]: Vell zis is hysterical woke nonsense as usual from mr Churchill 6 HITLER: What we are proposing - CHURCHILL: Hang on 7 HITLER: Let me finish - what we are proposing eez a simple power-sharing arrangement - 8 CHURCHILL: What's he doing here BBC PRESENTER: It's important we hear both sides of the debate 9 CHURCHILL: This isn't a debate You don't debate fascists 10 HITLER: Oh here we go with ze Godwins law! 11 HITLER: Why must you people always compare ze things you don't like to 'fascists, Nazis, Hitler'... CHURCHILL: Because you are a fascist Nazi Hit- 12 HITLER [standing up, saluting]: RAUSS! BBC PRESENTER: *Please* Mr Churchill let him speak [ends]

Sharmilee, Leicester: ‘It really is worth your time’ – restaurant review Our hugely influential restaurant critic, leaving the Observer after 26 years, finishes up with an Indian feast

For my last Observer review I returned to the earliest restaurant I reviewed which is still trading, to reflect on 26 years before moving on. That’s Sharmilee in Leicester, the subject of my 2nd column in 1999. More on my move to the FT shortly.
www.theguardian.com/food/2025/ma...

I’d like to announce my forthcoming US history book, covering a decisive but tumultuous era in that country’s history, titled “The trade policies of the United States: 10:30 am to 1:30 pm on Friday, March 7, 2025” It will be 400 pages.