Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 3h

It was pre-Internet, with horrendous telephone charges, dialing into a BT-operated "point of presence" to give access to the "packet switched data network".

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Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 3h

You were lucky. My first modem in 1992 was state-of-the-art with 2400 baud! It cost over £300 in today's money.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 8h

We don't see any reason why landlords and lawyers shouldn't pay the same tax rate as their tenants and clients.

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David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 10h

Something I find striking about Zach Polanski is how - unlike the vast majority of those who played a key role in Corbynism - his politics are so clearly not rooted in any kind of deeper analysis or intellectual tradition. It's all just a surface-level synthesis of 2010s left-wing slogans and memes.

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Mícheál de Brún @thriftonaut.bsky.social · 16h

Any Sheffield based mutuals able to help?

Lisa Grimm Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialise @lisagrimm.com · 16h

This BBC Archive bit on a haunted nightclub in Sheffield in 1970 is a delight…but does anyone have more details on the spot and what it might be now (if anything)? Does it still have a spooky reputation? Relevant to all my interests!

youtu.be/6TyStko8pxo?...

1970: The Ghost that Terrified Big Derek | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

YouTube video by BBC Archive

youtu.be

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 14h

In 2010, an interviewer told Neil Kinnock that the Labour Party "never used to understand aspiration".

Kinnock gave an absolutely brilliant answer that should be learned by heart by every Labour MP. (0.42 to 1.22)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGhP...

Neil Kinnock goes berserk

YouTube video by Vadrigar

www.youtube.com

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Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 14h

A clarifying thread:

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 15h

All of this is being put out to placate the right wing press...

In the meantime, it's causing fear & confusion. As I understand it:

● this only applies to some people on skilled visas
● it's not "A level English" it's something called SELT
● much the same requirement exists elsewhere in EU

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 14h

On bubbles. @rbreich.bsky.social: "Beware the Oligarch's AI Bubble" - open.substack.com/pub/robertre...; and @davekarpf.bsky.social: "It's Giving Enron" - open.substack.com/pub/davekarp....

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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone agrees that we're currently in a dotcom era-like AI bubble. People disagree what sort of bubble it is.

There are 3 stories one can tell about the dotcom crash: a startup story, a telecom story, and an accounting fraud story.

My take: it's giving Enron
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

It's Giving Enron

On the AI bubble, and the various echoes of the dotcom crash

open.substack.com

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed.

The government has chosen to prioritise reducing (skilled, legal, for work) migration over growth and hence over improving public services.

No economic rationale - but even worse, no political rationale either.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

One mistake Labour made in their first year is loading quite a few new costs onto business all at once. They are risking doing something similar on immigration, I think.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 1d

Outside the pandemic, the OBR last made a big change to its medium-term productivity judgement in 2017.

If they amend that forecast at the upcoming Budget, it will have a significant impact.

Find out more ⤵️ buff.ly/KmJEg1Y

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Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 1d

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 1d

Isn't it meant to mean this: learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-leve...?

B2 Upper intermediate | LearnEnglish

Learners who achieve B2 Upper intermediate level can understand the main ideas of complex texts. They can interact with some fluency and communicate easily. They can write clear, detailed texts on a w...

learnenglish.britishcouncil.org

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Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 1d

There’s not much to say about the solid wall insulation failures that hasn’t already been said. A diabolical policy failure that wasted money and harmed people.

But one thing I will add is: I think it highlights the need for more state delivery capacity on warm homes, not just regulation
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Almost all external insulation fitted under Tory scheme needs repair or replacing, report finds

Homeowners who took advantage of government programmes left with cladding likely to cause damp

www.theguardian.com

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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 1d

Asking an LLM to 'never invent data' is like asking a lion to 'never eat meat'.

LLMs have no concept of truth or fiction. They are trained on text, not truth. Even when 'retrieving', their answers are always just a prediction of 'the kind of answer that might be given to this kind of query'.

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Abby Innes @abbyinnes.bsky.social · 1d

Why an urgent path to net zero is not a socialist conspiracy…. number 3456328…
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Towns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at risk

Every constituency projected to be at greater risk, with many areas likely to be uninsurable, Guardian investigation finds

www.theguardian.com

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Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 1d

An unseen and very grim side of AI. There are lots of insights about the involvement of the "platform workers" who make AI function. 2021 piece by Julian Posada (@posada.website) for the @ainowinstitute.bsky.social:
ainowinstitute.org/publications...

A New AI Lexicon: Labor

Why AI Needs Ethics from Below Illustration by Somnath Bhatt A guest post by Julian Posada. Julian is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Faculty of Information of the University of Toronto. His dissertation, Un...

ainowinstitute.org

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Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2d

50 minute interview by Krishnan Guru-Murthy with Gershon Baskin. A much longer version of the interview on Chanel 4 News today: open.spotify.com/episode/7KSM...

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Richard J @preachypreach.bsky.social · 2d

YouTube algo gives me a *very* young Peter Sissons the day the RN abolished the daily grog ration and frankly judging by some of the gently swaying and slurring ratings being interviewed you can see why youtu.be/5gh5PCghfbs?...

1970: Black Tot Day (End of the Royal Navy Rum Ration)

YouTube video by ITN Archive

youtu.be

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Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2d

50 minute interview by Krishnan Guru-Murthy with Gershon Baskin. A much longer version of the interview on Chanel 4 News today: open.spotify.com/episode/7KSM...

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 2d

Latest shock horror: PM's National Security Adviser involved in discussions about consequences of potential prosecution of alleged Chinese spies. Heavens forfend that government's top security adviser should take part in conversations about, well, national security.
www.ft.com/content/0639...

Starmer aide discussed potential Beijing fallout of China spy case

Number 10 insists national security adviser Jonathan Powell played no part in decision to drop prosecution

www.ft.com

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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 2d

I learnt a lot reading these 750 easy-to-digest expertly-written words on why these guys won their Nobel prize.

Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 2d

Thing by me on today's Econ nobel in @alphaville.ft.com : www.ft.com/content/b8aa...

Idealist and/or materialist theories of economic growth

[FREE TO READ] Nobel committee: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

www.ft.com

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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 2d

This deserves more attention than it has received.

Gove: "we were too anxious as a government to secure those deals in order to show that Brexit was working".

Exactly as so many of us warned at the time, and as the government denied at the time.
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-...

Michael Gove admits that post-Brexit trade deals were bad for farmers

Michael Gove has admitted for the first time that the Australia and New Zealand trade deals negotiated by the former Tory government did not protect Britain’s farmers.

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

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Bob From Brockley @bobfrombrockley.bsky.social · 2d

The Israeli left fighting from within:

I don’t normally share the Morning Star, but this is Ofer Cassif, who with his Palestinian colleague Aymen Odeh was just kicked out of the Knesset for heckling Trump.

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/ofer...

Ofer Cassif: ‘I don’t accept that Israeli society is lost’

“I DO not accept the claim that Israeli society is lost and that there is nothing to fight for within it. We must not give up.” That was the point emphasised by Ofer Cassif, a member of the Israeli pa...

morningstaronline.co.uk

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Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2d

B giving me the "higher life form looking patronisingly at an amoeba" look.

A border collie giving its co-owner the "higher life form looking patronisingly at an amoeba" look.

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