Máitiú

An Irishman went for a job interview on a building site. The foreman asked him "Do you know the difference between a joist and a girder?"

The Irishman replied, "Goethe wrote Faust and Joyce wrote Ulysses."

www.civicsoftechnology.org/events
If you are EU timezone and are interested in a book club that discusses ai in education, I hope you will join us for the Book Club in December. We will be looking at the themes in Resisting AI by @danmcquillan.bsky.social link to sign up below!

This meeting could have been a scream into the void

It’s a Ponzi Scheme. The alternative of renting is even worse though - and the suckers are the young on the whole. But yes - move to Vienna?

The People Using ChatGPT to Cheat at Their Hobbies Why are so many of us letting AI have all the fun?

This is a very good article about the real trend of people who use chatGPT for literally everything, and outsource their whole life to it including dating, texts, work emails, hobbies etc etc, and tries to understand why....

www.thecut.com/article/woul...

Our analysis shows UK defence businesses are benefiting from the skills of high-tariff graduates who studied everything from geography to history or modern languages.

Based on this @russellgroup.bsky.social analysis which shows industry needs a wide range of skills - eg 40% of high-tariff graduates working in defence studied humanities and social sciences
www.russellgroup.ac.uk/policy/polic...

Spare a thought for those who don’t talk the (Irish) talk new The Kneecap factor is making Irish trendy but there is a danger of creating a ‘them and us’ situation between those who understand it and those who do not

It’s impossible not to look at this in the context of how nationalism in various forms seems to be sweeping the globe. It is expressed varyingly. We see it with the weaponising of the tricolour in neighbourhoods as an anti-immigrant symbol. Clearly wanting to see more Irish spoken is of an entirely different order. Yet, given the times we live in, there were high levels of zealotry in the recent campaign. Whether people like to admit it or not, the shaming of Humphreys on the language front fed the sectarian abuse that was fomented by some during the campaign. Those who wish to speak or relearn Irish should feel entirely free to do so. Some are doing it in ways that attempt to be inclusive. It would, I think, be a matter of regret to almost every Irish person if the language disappeared. But there is a danger of it being talibanised. There are so many of us out there who simply don’t understand it, no matter how beautiful the Irish being spoken. Some might even consider it rude to continue at length in a language in which statistically over half of those present in the room will not understand what is being said.

Being a professional full-time "opinion columnist" is akin to a career as a Victorian hat maker.

It doesn't matter how stable, thoughtful, and intelligent you are at the outset; the working conditions will inevitably turn you into a dribbling, incoherent lunatic.

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Very good summary of AI/education situation, from progressive educator Alfie Kohn, with lots of useful links:
www.alfiekohn.org/article/ai/

Some significant %age of quantitative work is just rediscovering stuff that humanists (or indeed ordinary people) already know (b/c we read literature, understand history, do ethnography, etc.), but which doesn't count as "real" knowledge b/c not quantified or experimentally "proven." Sigh.

Too much social media gives AI chatbots ‘brain rot’ Large language models fed low-quality data skip steps in their reasoning process.

'Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are worse at retrieving accurate information and reasoning when trained on large amounts of low-quality content, particularly if the content is popular on social media1, finds a preprint posted on arXiv on 15 October.' 1/2

“We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically.”

UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities

'In February, Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights, ordered one of its best-known professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China.' 1/3

Yes, there is a graduate earnings premium (even if you account for prior qualifications) But this is old data and needs updating

'the argument about our need for graduate skills...is fairly settled among those who know the data: but the individual benefits, given the stagnation more generally in entry salaries for young people and the rise of what we used to call the minimum wage, feel less secure.'

The Lessons of an Indefensible Pardon for a Crypto Billionaire Donald Trump’s grant of clemency to the founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, shows how the checks on Presidential power are failing.

Trump’s indefensible pardon of a crypto billionaire..by John Cassidy.

Trump relies on illiteracy, passivity and fear to protect his, and his family's blatant looting of both private and public realms from challenge and condemnation..

www.newyorker.com/news/the-fin...

Ok yes - you give so much joy on here that I’m a gonna give you some cash for just being so brilliant… especially this tho - especially this 💪 more power to your elbow!

Gollum in Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear by Vincent Van Gogh.

'Nigel Farage is Not My Friend...He's Just a Very Handsome Man' The wife of a Russian spy gets in touch...

But lo! What is this? The wife of the Russian agent who bribed Nathan Gill visiting the Guardian offices during the same period?!?

Why, yes it is. Read all about it in this week’s newsletter: open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

‘The money machine is misfiring’: City blames Brexit for UK’s £20bn productivity headache Poor output since the leave vote has landed Rachel Reeves with a bigger-than-forecast budget spending gap

City blames Brexit for UK’s £20bn productivity headache.

But silence on its own role in economic crisis.
Short-termism and lack of investment
Endless financial scandals
Pushed for privatization.
Urged deal wage/benefit cuts
Opposes redistribution of income and wealth
Unchecked fat-cattery

I sometimes stop and remember that all of this is because we had one Black president, and then two women ran, and this mystical convergence opened the Hellmouth.

Andrew does still have a title.
Clue: it’s pretty close to mine.

Interesting. It's almost as if focused outrage and the conscious maintenance of social norms works.

You just have to love the talent Dutch voters have for driving political scientists insane

The most interesting part of this is that defence investment is feeding through into wider economic growth for France.

Proof, if further proof were needed, that a general policy of “Shove Mélenchon in a locker with the RN and get on with running things properly” has much to recommend it.

Teenage boys using ‘personalised’ AI for therapy and romance, survey finds Male Allies UK worries rise in chatbot ‘girlfriends’ will leave boys unable to socialise and respect boundaries

'Lee Chambers, the founder and chief executive of Male Allies UK, said: “We’ve got a situation where lots of parents still think that teenagers are just using AI to cheat on their homework.'

Publishers recommending authors use AI is that scene in the movie where the bad guy hands you a spade and asks you to start digging….

I have to say, one of the most Freude-ish things that cause me to feel Schadenfreude is the "hardships" endured by pro-Brexit Britons who live on the continent. You voted for Brexit despite living in Spain & now you're upset about the fallout? Cry me a fucking river, Nigel.

Most people in NI are really not surprised by the Soldier F outcome - but this was no show trial or witch hunt. The judge excoriated the soldiers' conduct, but because of a passing of time caused by extreme state failings, could not convict. That is the scandal. These headlines are grotesque:

Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC

Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

I don't know why anyone thinks this is a good day for the armed forces when the judge said this: