Andrew

OpenAI releases the newest version of the AI model that powers its popular ChatGPT chatbot, with CEO Sam Altman promoting it as like having a “team of Ph.D. level experts in your pocket.”

Anyone who has ever tried to get a team of PhD-level experts to split a restaurant bill correctly or agree on coherent wording for a simple paragraph of instructions will admit the justice of the comparison.

THE SOCIALISED MALE DRESS It was reported some weeks ago that the Soviet, for the better elimination of bourgeois mentality, had decided to provide the male population of Russia with uniform suits of clothes, which are in due course to be made compulsory. A description of the pattern of the new ( ommunist rig-out is now available, and perhaps the British Communists will find it alluring. The suit in two pieces, a very plain tunic and trousers gathered in round the ankles—a combination which is said to give the wearer a -shape appearance. But the most distinguishing feature the proletarian uniform is a complete absence of pockets. Instead these the wearer is presented with two or three linen bags which he is free to hang about his person wherever he pleases. This arrangement is justified on hygienic grounds, pockets being described as hotbeds of infection. The bags, it is pointed out, can easily washed, and the wearer is ordered to wash them regularly. - The hygienic reason will probably impress a population trained to believe what it is told by authority. But even in Russia there are doubtless some who will guess the obvious truth that the chief considerations behind this Tartar simplicity are related to the shortcomings the Soviet clothes factories. That the suit will eliminate bourgeois mentality does not admit of a doubt. Whether it will create a Communist mentality is not so certain. In Britain its compulsory adoption would run up the murder and suicide statistics to unheard-of heights.

The Dundee Courier, 1931: THE SOCIALISTS ARE ABOLISHING POCKETS.

I thought to myself "hmm, the actual southernmost point was presumably some road junction on the road out of Wānaka", went to look it up, and discovered... they are going to build an airport right there?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central...

For me N+W are the same place (Utqiaġvik, Alaska); E is Wellington NZ; S is Wānaka NZ.

(Bonus: highest was in Himachal, ~2500m, give or take)

Local foxes are moving up in the world

Old map with overlaid text: New Recordings

NEW RECORDINGS: Rhind Lectures 2025: Scotland's Place-Names

Covering language, archaeology, the church and more, all six recordings from the Rhind Lectures 2025 with Dr Simon Taylor are now available on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Sponsored by Ordnance Survey

A monochrome photograph of the Cursing Stone and Reiver Pavement, a public artwork by the artist Gordon Young (Carlisle, 2003). In an underpass, a huge, smooth, rounded, polished, 14-ton granite boulder sits on the ground. A long piece of text in an italic serif font wraps around the boulder, written in middle Scots. Words such as "GREIT CURSE" and "I curse them standand … walkand, I curse thaim sleepand … I curse thaim within the house …" can be made out. On the ground, carved into the stone pavement, are surnames of Border reiver families, in capital letters, in a sans-serif font. The names are in various sizes, such as YOUNG, THOMSON, NOBLE, CHARLTON, HODGSON, CHAMBERLAIN and many others. In the background, a set of modern concrete steps leads up and away from the underpass. Two woman are walking towards the Cursing Stone, talking to each other. One of them appears to be pointing at the boulder.

I CURSE thair heid and all the haris of thair heid…

In 1525 Gavin Dunbar, archbishop of Glasgow, pronounced a Great Monition of Cursing on the Border reivers. In 2001, words from the curse were carved on a granite boulder & installed in Carlisle. Then the bad luck began…
#WyrdWednesday
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Bets on which will come first:

a) all chats accidentally left on an unsecured server
b) AI assistant commits MP to support reintroducing flogging, nationalising milk, and/or the privatisation of sunlight
c) recommends yoga for constituent problems

Four men in hard hats walking up a precarious-looking walkway, with a suspension bridge tower visible behind them

Some very rickety-looking catwalks seen from below. No actual bridge is present.

when the Forth Road Bridge was being built, they erected a catwalk before the suspension cables were installed, so you could walk across via the tower-tops

In unrelated news, the naval base was on one side of the Forth, the pubs were on the other. Guess what happened next.

alongside one of those court cases, incidentally, the Scotsman reported perhaps the most Edinburgh story imaginable: the gun was running slow, city in turmoil.

I can still vividly remember, 30+ years ago, a teacher telling us that story about the stranded sailor, and spending the subsequent decades not quite sure if I believed it or not...

A Navy spokesman at Pitreavie, Fife, said last night: “The Flag Officer Scotland takes a very serious view of these incidents. Patrols are being increased to cover the approaches to the bridge in an effort to stop any further naval persons risking their lives in such a stupid manner.” The sailors, Maurice Wood (20), of HMS Berwick, and Malcolm Sykes o (18) of H.M.S. Jutland, pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace by walking along the catwalk and putting two nightwatchmen in a state of fear and alarm. They were fined £3 each SHOUTS HEARD It was stated that the offence occurred about 1.10 a.m. on October 29. The watchman on the north end of the bridge heard someone shouting and saw two men on the catwalk at a point where there were no handrails. He telephoned for the police. In a letter to the court, Wood said they had been told that the jast ferry had gone and they decided to cross the catwalk. They saw no sign prohibiting this. In a letter on behalf of Sykes, an officer said that only a man of adventurous spirit and courage would go to such lengths to return to his ship.

SHERIFF WARNS TRESPASSERS ON BRIDGE CATWALK Three sailors from H.M.S. Bermuda, at Rosyth, were each fined £3 at Dunfermline Sheriff Court today when they pleaded guilty to having. between November 5 and 6, committed a breach of the peace and without permission crossed the Forth on the catwalk of the Forth road bridge, whereby John Leo Ward and William Williamson, night watchmen. were placed in a state of fear and alarm. Louis = Vincent Harry (29). Michael Joseph Harte (20). and Malcolm Peter Ellis (21), pleaded guilty. 2 e i L D In imposing the fines Sheriff Mowat said: “If further cases of this nature come before me I will have to take a more serious view.”

Wanted Closer Look At Bridge: James Paterson Liddle (29), 13 Caledonian Crescent, and Peter Howland (38), 3 Telford Place, both of Edinburgh, were each fined £3 with the option of ten days’ imprisonment at Linlithgow Sheriff Court today. AT They pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace by walking over the catwalk of the Forth road bridge from South Queensferry to North Queensferry on Mav 20 They told the Court that they had had a few drinks but knew what they were doing. They/just wanted “a closer look at the bridge.” -

He was not the only one. Two more sailors did it in October (fined £3 each), three more a week later, and apparently it kept happening as late as summer 1962.

SAILOR USED CATWALK TO CROSS FORTH Fined £lO at Linlithgow Thomas Henry Hess (25), a seaman, of HM.S. Russell, who crossed the Forth at night on the catwalk of the road bridge, on September 9, was fined £lO or 60 days at Linlithgow Sheriff Court vesterday. Along with Herbert William Moran (20), a steward on the same vessel, Hess pleaded guilty by letter to a breach of the peace and putting a night watchman in a state of fear and alarm. Moran, who climbed up to the catwalk but did not cross was fined £5 or 30 davs The Fiscal, Mr P. F. Hamiliton, said the watchman saw both men climbing v catwalk. Moran came down ~nen he shouted but Hess did not. Police were alerted: two hours 20 to the es later Hess was arrested on the north side of the river He must be regarded as a very fortunate voung man as the catwalk was insecure in places,” said the Fiscal. There was no excuse for Hess as a naval vessel left South Queensferry at 1230 am

*two days* after the catwalk was installed, a naval rating discovered he has missed his boat, and spent two hours walking across at midnight.

Fined £10 and has the extra embarrassment of discovering there was a boat after all.

Four men in hard hats walking up a precarious-looking walkway, with a suspension bridge tower visible behind them

Some very rickety-looking catwalks seen from below. No actual bridge is present.

when the Forth Road Bridge was being built, they erected a catwalk before the suspension cables were installed, so you could walk across via the tower-tops

In unrelated news, the naval base was on one side of the Forth, the pubs were on the other. Guess what happened next.

Hasty dash to Morrisons for almonds paid off!

yes, excellent, that sounds a lot more defensible than the less flattering explanations...

There are seven ingredients in making florentines, and for the second time in four days I have started making them with exactly six to hand.

Interesting how this neither has the gambling disclaimers or the financial services ones. How convenient for them.

(Astute readers may be wondering: how many Argentineans are on the electoral roll in the Falkland Islands? The answer is: apparently more than that.)

The runner up is I think the 2013 referendum in the Falklands at 1513 "yes" to 3 "no", or 99.8%.

A Fish Falls From the Sky and Sparks a Brush Fire in British Columbia

For a medieval monastic chronicler, a headline to die for

surely if we learned one thing in the last 25 years, it is that Tony Blair will explain the solution to everything is ID cards, you don't need to pay him for it, the nation remains baffled he manages to stop saying it long enough to buy a sandwich

From Tom Leonard’s INTIMATE VOICES 1965–1983 (Galloping Dog Press, 1984)

A photo taken through the window of a train. The name of the station "Newton for Hyde" can be seen on a sign. Inside the train a piece of paper is held up to the window with a sketch of a bewigged gentleman holding up a sign saying "Leibnitz for Jekyll"

Nerdy joke warning. 😁 I've been planning this since I first saw the Newton for Hyde sign.

Discovered today that not everyone considers this nine year old viral tweet a seminal text in the field of social media studies but I do

How to listen to BBC Radio outside the UK If you're a fan of BBC Radio 4, or BBC Radio 2, or even BBC Radio Leeds, here's how to listen

Just published: How to listen to BBC Radio overseas

And, some FAQs answered, and why they shut it down in the first place.

Most interestingly, I learn: 4.8mn people a week use BBC Sounds inside the UK. Just 320,000 people a week used BBC Sounds outside the UK.

james.cridland.net/blog/2025/ho...

Open air screening of Flash Gordon. Timothy Dalton & Brian Blessed vow to join forces to fight Ming. Ulsterman in state of considerable refreshment jumps to his feet and shouts NO SURRENDER

As a Presbyterian, Mackay was a firm believer in moderation. At a gathering for the Faculty of Advocates, Mackay had laid on a spread of tea and toast, complete with a tiny pot of honey. One of the lawyers in attendance contemplated the pot and remarked, "I see your Lordship keeps a bee."

reminded today of this glorious story about Lord Mackay, and all things in moderation

"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week."

--Willa Cather, 1925 and timeless

trying to plan a visit to Delhi in January with zero success and reminded of a story I only heard recently about when my parents were first together. when we were looking through my dad's papers, we found some cute snaps of them in their mid-twenties, smiling as they got on a plane.