Jonathan Owen Clark

Howard Hodgkin, Pitzhanger Manor Gallery, London. Well worth a visit.

Seriously NYT Spelling Bee: ‘hotdogging’ is not a word

It’s like changing the rules at half-time in a football match, so that no goals scored with headers count. Except we still don’t know the rules.

As thousands more teenagers scramble for university places, I have to ask – why? | Simon Jenkins Student debt increasing, graduate salaries dropping, high-skilled jobs thin on the ground – higher education in the UK is a mess, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

As thousands of other jounalists don’t write rubbish like he does- I have to ask why Simon Jenkins?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It hurts as a Welshman, but that BBCNOW Mahler 3 I just attended was ropey (at best).

Indeed. Amongst all the stupid claims for gen-AI made recently, this is the stupidest.

Probably unpopular opinion: Glastonbury, which is a weird UK obsession, operates with a weird kind of musical dynamic nominalism, whereby good bands become bad ones just because of the imperative to exist only to play at Glastonbury. Examples: Wolf Alice; Arctic Monkeys.

ChatGPT can’t even do the NYT ‘Spelling Bee’ game. In fact, it’s almost farcically useless at it. Like it is at chess.

Thanks to British chess GM Jonathan Mestel today for the (lost) simultaneous game at Imperial College Open Day. A lot of fun. Never played a GM before.

Hear you. Given the state of the HE sector, five-year Strategic Plans are their own variety of decontextualised nonsense.

Rhossili Bay, Wales. I’m the speck in the distance.

I can recommend doing academic admin while listening to Palestrina. #productivityhack

The Labour Party’s assault on immigration, and hence also care work and universities, is only the latest iteration of the Freudian death drive, after Brexit, Johnson, and numerous other UK examples. Literally doing yourself harm, despite ‘knowing’ the potential harm.

Change guru tells Cardiff University staff that proposed cuts could 'break' it Martin Shipton The transformation guru behind Cardiff University’s controversial cuts programme has warned staff that the proposals it unveiled in January could “break” the institution. Dr David Langl...

The rhetoric here from a ‘change guru’ is a hitherto unimaginable level of complete bullshit. Wales, and HE generally in the UK, needs much better than this.

nation.cymru/news/change-...

For the food in the student canteen.

Ideally yes, but I suspect there are too many people gaming the market fluctuations for this to happen. Speaking as ex- trader.

I’m completely bored of Boulez now @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social. And I actually like Boulez.

Yeah agree. Read this too, and it felt like the sound of a nail being hit on the head repeatedly.

Yes exactly, it’s weird decontextualised ‘balanced’ nonsense that informs you of literally nothing. That’s why you’re on R3 in the first place. If you wanted that bullshit you could just listen to R4 or watch BBC TV news instead.

@bbcradio3bot.bsky.social - could you please improve or preferably bin the clearly imported ‘news’ at 1pm and 6pm? The reason why is simply because it’s usually complete bullshit.

Yes, and as a regular R3 listener, who sometimes listens all day while working, I have to dutifully get up at 1pm and 6pm to turn the radio off because of the ‘news’, and then turn it back on again 5m later. It’s literally unlistenable, such is the bullshit.

I swear, there are so many bots in my DMs saying 'Hello', it's like the opening lyrics of Smells Like Teen Spirit in there.

Signed.

Hysteria surrounding Wales Rugby Team. All sports teams have historical good/bad periods. Get a grip. Worry about Welsh universities, the NHS, and encroaching fascism in Wales, fuelled by disinformation instead.

Cardiff seemingly surplus to requirements, whilst UK Government pumps money into already asset-rich Oxbridge. We need the Senedd to act. Or what’s the point of devolution.

“Libraries gave us power”. Well not anymore.

Brilliant.

What do you mean by “may well have been”. It was. Call it what it is.

Math joke:

Whoa, we’re halfway there
Whoa, we’re halfway there
Whoa, we’re halfway there
Whoa, we’re halfway there
Whoa, we’re halfway there
Whoa, we’re halfway there
Whoa, we’re halfway there
Whoa, we’re halfway there

Zeno’s Karaoke