Thursday 2nd November 2023

[refitman]

Morning all.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Good morefternoon, all.

If you really want to intrude on private grief (his and mine) then Gary Neville's tweet this morning is a genuine cracker.

[refitman]

[gilsey]

Gary Neville's tweet this morning is a genuine cracker.

It is, though if you look at the replies it's clearly too clever for some of his followers, who appear a tad confused.


Re football, I wonder how many Boro fans thought it would be a good idea to take the family camping in Devon for half term so they could go to the games at Exeter and Plymouth. Not many I hope.

When mr gilsey and I were young we went camping to Cornwall with an old scout tent, the weather was so bad we stayed b&b and only put it up one night after it had stopped raining during the day, at Newquay. In the morning our tent was the only one standing, all the modern ones had collapsed in the overnight storm.

[gilsey]

I'll take pity on the nesters who complain about AK's cryptic comments, here you go

Gary Neville
@GNev2
In the last 4 days we’ve seen right in front of our eyes where you end up with over a decade of awful decisions. Fortunes wasted, anger turned to apathy, our reputation destroyed at home and in Europe, infrastructure well below standards and we all can’t wait for a total change in leadership. The Covid inquiry is no surprise
6:11 AM · Nov 2, 2023
·
2.9M
Views

[notnowsonny]

I'll take pity on the nesters who complain about AK's cryptic comments, here you go

This one I actually got, mainly because it was first up on Neville's feed. Neatly done by GN.

Man U fans really ought to think about what it is to support someone else who haven't had their success. The entitlement, the entitlement...

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Due to the blessings of Covid this Man Utd supporter managed to doze through nearly the entire match last night so was spared the worst of the horrors until his Geordie mate started texting and being a dick.

Speaking of Covid does anyone have a spare hairdryer I could borrow to try out Johnson's cure?

Truth be told it's not that bad this time round, just bog standard sniffles, a bit of a temperature, and tiredness. I might even have a go at QT later.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

When mr gilsey and I were young we went camping to Cornwall with an old scout tent, the weather was so bad we stayed b&b and only put it up one night after it had stopped raining during the day, at Newquay. In the morning our tent was the only one standing, all the modern ones had collapsed in the overnight storm.

I remember walking down the street in Newcastle during high winds and seeing a bloke come out of a chip shop with a pie and chips. Within seconds the top of the pie blew off and stuck to his face. I'm sure this would have been incredibly painful as the pie would have been hot but that doesn't stop it being one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Possibly if he'd had a more old fashioned pie with a thicker lid this wouldn't have happened.

[AnatolyKasparov]

This one I actually got, mainly because it was first up on Neville's feed. Neatly done by GN.

Man U fans really ought to think about what it is to support someone else who haven't had their success. The entitlement, the entitlement...

My sister is a lifelong Leeds supporter, so at least she is used to it

[Sky'sGoneOut]

It's proving highly amusing watching the Telegraph and Spectator deal with the Covid enquiry. They're tying themselves up in knots trying to cherry pick bits and pieces here and there that they think bolster their anti-lockdown narratives. However this is leading them to make absolute fools of themselves as illustrated here where Fraser Nelson gets owned by a cat.

[RogerOThornhill]

The director of Restore Trust lying about the National Trust again in the Telegraph.

The National Trust won’t let me go to their AGM – despite being a member in good standing

The way it works is that you enter a ballot and a 3rd party org who is managing this allocates seats at random.

This little madam expect to be handed a seat just because of who she is I think.

Wait and see but I expect Zewditu Gebreyohanes to be a Tory MP next year...

[refitman]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Holy shit, an audience member on QT just compared Israel's bombing of Gaza to the final solution. Bruce's face was a picture.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

QT tonight came from Chipping Camden, which sounds like it was made up for an Ealing comedy or an animated children's TV programme from the late Sixties. It was certainly the most Tory friendly place we've been for a while but even they hated Boris Johnson.

For the Tories we had Jeremy Quin. Jeremy had a slightly odd avuncular uncle thing going on, all positive and friendly but patronising at the same time. Which is probably what he's actually like. It was certainly more convincing than the sad face he pulled when discussing dead Palestinian kids while simultaneously saying Israel had every right to murder them. He really didn't say much of any note or substance and his only applause came second hand when he praised a GP who was criticising his government which was a bit weird. All in all an entirely forgettable appearance which leads me neatly on to...

For Labour we had Nick Thomas-Symonds. I mean I could just write 'yawn' but that wouldn't do Nick justice. Don't get me wrong, politics shouldn't be entertainment and I didn't want him dancing in a tutu but for fuck's sake, nothing that came out of Nick's mouth sounded even remotely spontaneous. For a long time we had Labour MPs on QT robotically reading from a pre-prepared script in their head, and it was bad under Corbyn as it is under Starmer, but recently things seemed to have changed, we were getting a bit of spontaneity, wit, and personality. Then along comes Nick and we're back to the bad old days. Or maybe it's just that Nick doesn't have any of those things. Either way he came across as a dour automaton who's only success with the audience came when he slagged off Boris Johnson which is like shooting a barrel full of compressed fish with pump action shotgun from 6 inches away.

For AI Tech Bros we had Mustafa Suleyman. Now before I go on a mini rant I'd just like to make it clear that Mustafa seemed like a decent bloke with his heart in the right place. I didn't dislike the guy. What I took issue with was his bullshit about AI. Let's be absolutely clear here, artificial intelligence does not exist. The 'AI' we are currently dealing with in all its forms is mindless. They are algorithms which while admittedly extremely complex are an order of magnitude less complex than a bacterium and have zero autonomy. Without any input they will do precisely nothing. Aping intelligence is not the same thing as being intelligent. With a few simple rules you or I could hold a conversation with a Chinese speaker despite having no knowledge of speaking Chinese or understanding a single word that was said. In short many people are getting way ahead of themselves including Mustafa. To be fair to him he's made a lot of money selling this stuff to Google and others so you'd expect him to be full of it, but the level of ignorance on the rest of the panel and in the audience was stark. For example he claimed AI had already passed the Turing test which was absolutely laughable but nobody raised an eyebrow. For a subject that's apparently so important for the future of humanity it's pretty staggering how little our politicians and media seem to understand it and how deferential they are to the people selling it.

For the 'sensible Tories' at the FT we had Camilla Cavendish. As usual Camilla was pretty decent, she was the only one on the panel who pointed out that Netanyahu was as bad as Hamas and had to go (we certainly didn't hear that from Nick) and was absolutely scathing of Johnson's chaotic government. As an advisor to Cameron she was asked if the same toxic work environment existed when she was in No10 back then and she just laughed. Which is fair because I reckon if Cameron had called her a cunt she'd have been perfectly capable of kicking his sorry arse.

For the Board of Deputies of Tory Jews we had Marie Van Der Zyl. I confess I was expecting the worst from Marie but she did her best to appear reasonable and concerned in all the right places. Most of all though she came across as being profoundly thick. Setting aside her simplistic regurgitated pro-Israeli bollocks, when discussing the Covid enquiry she laid into Boris Johnson and those who put him in power who knew he was unfit for office. She seemed genuinely angry about it all. Until seconds later when she said she was glad she voted Tory in 2019 or we'd have had Corbyn. Go figure.

[PorFavor]

Too many "n"s, I grant you.

[PorFavor]

Camilla Cavendish essentially said, re AI, that we should simply say "no" to the parts that we don't want. Simplistic (bleedin' obvious?), perhaps, but that's how I feel about it, too.




Edited to tidy up.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I'd just like to add that I'm fully aware of the irony of me almost robotically repeating my criticism of Labour MPs appearing robotic. But it's impossible to ignore.

I know I said AI isn't sentient but ChatGPT run on a ZX Spectrum would have appeared more human than Nick Thomas-Symonds tonight.

And the most baffling thing is it's entirely counter productive, I've been praising Labour MPs of late and they've been going down well with the audiences, then tonight we're back to a sullen faced puppet spouting obviously pre-rehearsed lines and he stunk the place out.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Camilla Cavendish essentially said, re AI, that we should simply say "no" to the parts that we don't want. Simplistic (bleedin' obvious?), perhaps, but that's how I feel about it, too.

I must disagree, what she actually did was defer judgement to the guy who sells it because she was (self admittedly) clueless before using an entirely spurious example to advocate against regulation.

So in effect she was being a classic Tory.

It's all very well claiming you want to save jobs but unless you have regulation to stop them these companies will do whatever the fuck they like. They've already demonstrated that. We've just experienced the biggest acts of mass plagiarism in human history by these AI companies and you've got actors in the US on strike because they're trying to secure the rights to their own faces.

If we follow Camilla's advice it's only going to get worse.

[PorFavor]

In common with Camilla Cavendish, I'm clueless on such matters. However, I didn't take from her that she was advocating deferring judgement to the sellers of AI, but maybe I wasn't paying sufficient attention.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Nick T-S really *is* naturally like that, though.

Its a significant reason why his front bench career has never really amounted to much despite a decent looking CV on paper.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Which leads me to something I'd never considered before.

So it's bad for me or others to 'steal' intellectual property online through torrent sites and what not.

But perfectly fine for companies to 'train' their AI models on the entirety of the web, be it literature, art, music, film, without consent?

What's the difference?

Apart from an army of expensive lawyers?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

In common with Camilla Cavendish, I'm clueless on such matters. However, I didn't take from her that she was advocating deferring judgement to the sellers of AI, but maybe I wasn't paying sufficient attention.

She used the fact that water companies are pumping shit into our rivers despite the regulations as an argument against regulating AI and regulation in general. Whereas any serious person would see it as an argument against the Tories slashing the budget of the Environment Agency.

As I said despite her apparent clinging to reason she's still a classic Tory.

[PorFavor]

Thanks. Or, indeed, strengthening the regulations and the penalties for not adhering to them.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Anyway I'd say it's time for some tunes but someone already steamed in there with a late 60's classic so the theme has been set...

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Nick T-S really *is* naturally like that, though.

Jesus. Really? I mean we all hate to mock the afflicted but do you know if he's ever sought medical advice about it?

[PorFavor]

Stolid is how I would describe Nick T-S.

Stolid derives from stolidus, a word that means "dull" or "stupid" in Latin. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

[Sky'sGoneOut]