Chris Routledge

I think so, for them.

This thread is an interesting observation and I think I share your feelings. The odd thing is I've always been quite techy, but I'm just not interested. It's made some things demonstrably worse (my Pixel phone) and is a constant nag online, but I just ignore it, and turn it off where I can.

Calendar only good for 400 years? If I spend $10000 on a clock I want it to last longer than that.

What's it like to return to your home town years after leaving?

This poem from Whatever You Do, Just Don't finds that nothing's changed. But then everything's changed too...

Indeed, that's pretty much how the conversation went. Chandler of course is now on the syllabus in a lot of places.

I'm sure a mathematician will be along to disprove it very soon.

Mathematical proof debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation It's a plot device beloved by science fiction: our entire universe might be a simulation running on some advanced civilization's supercomputer. But new research from UBC Okanagan has mathematically pr...

It’s actually rather a fun article.

phys.org/news/2025-10...

On a slightly different but similar note, in the 1990s I wrote a PhD on Raymond Chandler. Actual words addressed to me by lit. academics were: "If he was worth reading he'd be on the syllabus" and "Do you also read Great Books?" That last one was in a job interview (I didn't get it, unsurprisingly).

That's true, but the issue here of course is that AI summaries are right there at the top of search and that gives them an authority that even a Facebook post shared by your mate Dave doesn't have. It reminds me of the glorious Argleton period of Google Maps. Very well done.

Roscoe with 1983 and a postcard of her which depicts her looking unusually cheery

The rear cover of 1983

Hello! My CEO Roscoe and I are giving away TWO signed copies of my novel 1983 to two randomly selected people who repost this & pop a reply below. You also get a free postcard of this illustration of Roscoe by my mum.

It’s been called “Stranger Things rewritten by Kurt Vonnegut & Sue Townsend”…

I was kind of hoping this might happen. Am I a bad person?

That's very funny (also terrifying from an internet information point of view).

Yes, the lack of controls is worrying. I am baffled that a technology that provides self evidently poor quality results at such huge cost is taken so seriously. It seems to be riding on a set of assumptions and beliefs about technological development that are ideological rather than empirical.

Absolutely, but so much money has been spent that for now they have to keep going. I agree, there will be regrets or at least labyrinthine denials.

It's a huge step backwards. It's intrusive, not useful, and is clearly harvesting data. Not for me.

Gemini is Google's next word prediction plagiarism engine. It's not as good as whatever they called the previous thing and it's ruined their otherwise excellent phones.

Perfect!

I haven't seen Pro400H for a long time. Well done for hanging on to that.

So versatile! I reckon this is more about demographics and the increasing concentration of wealth than Rachel Reeves, they just need someone to blame. The article even mentions that working dentists can't afford yachts any more. Good job Leica doesn't make boats eh?

Anyway, thinking about it, isn't a yacht the perfect tax dodge? I mean the whole point is that you can park it anywhere.

Perhaps a tiny symphony orchestra. Go large while going small.

As St. Augustine said in another context, Oh Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.

That's good to hear. Having a head like that is a thrill (and maddening!).

I added to my thoughts while you were writing your reply or I'd have replied to this. It's no real help to say it I realise, but keep at it. It doesn't fix anything that's broken but it does help you see past it.

And I should add that you are so full of ideas and your work is so strong that I am sure you will get somewhere with this or some other grant. Grant applications are very very hard on exactly the kinds of people who need them but find them hardest.

A while ago I did the same, also during a hard time. It wasn't the first time I'd applied, and it wasn't much in the scheme of things, but I got it and it made an huge difference. The couple of years since have also been rough in different ways, but it changed my outlook. Keep going and good luck!

In the cemetery on All Hallows’ Eve.

Just got back from a very wet, very dark, solitary walk over the fell while listening to Patricia Routledge reading Wuthering Heights. The words "Let me in!" have never sounded so scary as when stumbling around in a bog in the dark and rain.

“This is a machine with ingrained biases, which produces convincing-looking answers. To train that machine, stolen data has been used, people have been exploited, & enormous amounts of energy have been required. For me, that’s unacceptable.”
—Wim Vanderbauwhede

They only have to convince the dimmest bulbs. It's an old story.