Hana Loftus

Today's learning ... Why the f haven't I been using Claude which is srsly good at the things I need from an assistant, ChatGPT looks totally crap in comparison.

Today's learning... ChatGPT can't produce a remotely accurate word count. Srsly.

I wrote about design in the regions...with some uncomfortable truths.

@c20society.bsky.social

So glad to hear about the listing of the Wolverhampton School of Art but srsly @bbcnewslive.bsky.social this sentence should not have got through editorial. 'Vast, grey structures' is not a description of an architectural style and not accurate for Brutalism. Please consult subject matter experts!

Just got shown an advert for Ozempic on Insta which had so many troubling things about it, it's hard to know where to start. Obesity is a disease as a strapline? A Black woman (AI generated) in running kit, looking frustrated, as the featured human? No actual mention of the drug they are peddling?

Ever more emails trying to sell us AI solutions for our business. On top of AI slop invading every corner of everything, AI-written marketing blurb being used to sell AI 'business solutions' to us is just 🤮🤮🤮🤮. Should I get ChatGPT to write spurious answers to the marketing emails and infinitum?

I hope that the publication of this year's Index of Deprivation is the catalyst for Jaywick - and the other places at the bottom of that league table - to get the funding they desperately need. The incredible community of #Jaywick need and deserve it.

Contrast Stephenson's care and knowledge of the community with Farage's weak comments. If Farage really cared, he would be lobbying night and day for the £100m+ needed to deliver the flood defences and housing improvements that will secure Jaywick's future and make further regeneration possible.

I am proud to have helped contribute, with our work on Sunspot, now a buzzing heart to the community. But the more important piece of work we did was a long-term regeneration and #floodresilience strategy - the Jaywick Sands Place Plan - that was adopted by the Council last year.

Jaywick Sands hits the news again for being the most officially deprived place in the country. But, unlike in 2019 when the index was last updated, there is a now a different story to tell - and Tendring District Council leader Mark Stephenson has been rightly speaking of this to the media.

Letter: Road-building talk takes me back to the 1980s From Hana Loftus, Chartered Planner; Director, HAT Projects Colchester, Essex, UK

The sub-400 word version of the 1100 word rebuttal I sent in (complete with links for fact checking 🤣) is now online www.ft.com/content/f635...

Bancogiro also fun to stand in the street and snack and drink and watch the world go by.

Food wise... Corte Sconta never gets old. Expensive but a wonderful treat. Ciccetti at All'Arco, Do Mori, Cantina Schiavi. Vini da Gigio for super old school. I have a long list...also consult Russell Norman (RIP)'s cookbook if you have it.

Happy to talk more if helpful!

Boringly, I'm actually a fan of building regs in general. Not perfect but better than planning policies which attempt to cover a lot of the same ground now. Would rather have more regs and less planning. But my least favourite contradiction is stairs, part K vs part B vs part M.

Thanks guys, that totally killed my morning, but I did it. Will post on my LinkedIn if / when it is deemed too lengthy for them to print!

Let’s fall in love with cars again Investing more into roads will only mean higher economic returns for the UK

Do I really have to write a ranty letter to the editor to say how disappointed I am that @financialtimes.com ran this piece, and that it came out of NESTA, with all the reasons road building is not the answer? Also, the motorway distinction is just plain weird. SIGH. www.ft.com/content/0cb6...

I'm too inactive here, but just to say I have an exhibition opening this weekend, plus events etc coming up... If you are in an Essex direction pls come by! firstsite.uk/event/into-t...

Under-22s in England should get free bus travel to access work and training, MPs say Transport committee also suggests rural weighting for bus funding and a national policy for services in England

I was told about a year ago by the teenagers in our family, and their friends, that this would be an absolute gamechanger in their lives (and vote winner). I really hope they do it. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Oh. Just read today's Guardian, seems I should clearly have a well paid columnist job or else Polly Toynbee just plagiarised me.

In my view the BMA would have done better to argue for the value of a highly trained and skilled worker doing high risk and life saving work, vis-a-vis other similar jobs, i.e. a pay equality question not a pay rollback to 2008.

I'm not saying, btw, that their pay is appropriate or not. I'm really not in a position to judge that. But the sentiment out there is very negative and that has consequences in hospitals when patients come in for treatment. They don't trust the doctors.

Based on recent conversations, the BMA are very wrong to strike. They have totally lost the sympathy of the communities they are meant to be serving. Everyone has had wage stagnation. Everyone is struggling. I hope they realise they are about to seriously damage the respect and trust they need.

Which I feel is entirely reasonable. Regardless of whether it is effective, it makes them feel less valued and like their teachers are taking shortcuts. And it undermines their trust in teacher's subject matter expertise if they ask AI to help answer subject matter questions.

This is data about what teachers think about their own AI use. What their students think may differ. Y'day had a teenager tell me how dismayed they were that their teacher used AI to write their college report. Others have told me they dislike it when their teachers use AI in class or for homework.

@edconway.bsky.social would love to know your thoughts...having been there recently.

Also, and of relevance to architects when we talk about the circular economy and design of our structures and how certain things are endlessly recyclable: 80% of scrap aluminium stays in the UK and is recycled here; but only 20-30% of other scrap metal eg zinc, copper.

Steel Scrap: A Strategic Raw Material for Net Zero Steel UK Steel's report into the increasing demand for steel scrap in the UK, competing with international demand, and central to the drive for Net Zero green steel from electric arc furnaces.

This was super interesting reading. www.uksteel.org/scrap

So surely govt needs to (like the EU) bring in controls on exporting scrap steel. Which would bring down price and stimulate domestic investment in arc furnaces, and make their own investment in Scunthorpe a real winner, and secure domestic production capacity not reliant on imported material.