Ian Stronge

@ianstronge
6 Followers
9 Following
284 Posts
#Surrey and #Sussex and everywhere else
Prosecutors are charging Trump using laws made to fight the KKK. Here’s why

After the civil war, Klansmen were prosecuted – and Confederate traitors forced from office – by the same laws Trump has now run afoul of

The Guardian
#AI #LLMs
'Printing presses don’t think - but printing has radically reshaped human culture...
LLMs might similarly make the transmission of information more “efficient,” greatly enhancing discovery. Equally...
our intellectual culture risks degenerating into a monochromatic sludge of cheery mediocrity, as LLMs inculcate a kind of lowest common denominator of what has already been said'
https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/chatgpt-is-an-engine-of-cultural
ChatGPT is an engine of cultural transmission

LLMs and Gopnikism

Programmable Mutter
#AsylumHomelessUK
'The scale of the current crisis as to where and how to provide accommodation for asylum seekers can be viewed through a succession of High Court planning law cases over the last year or so. This blog post simply seeks to gather the cases in one place...
I usually end with some flippant closing comments but not today. Behind each case lies much human misery.'
https://simonicity.com/2024/01/14/accommodating-asylum-seekers-some-recent-planning-law-cases/
Accommodating Asylum Seekers: Some Recent Planning Law Cases

The scale of the current crisis as to where and how to provide accommodation for asylum seekers can be viewed through a succession of High Court planning law cases over the last year or so. This bl…

SIMONICITY
How the legal system made it so easy for the Post Office to destroy the lives of the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses – and how the legal system then made it so hard for them to obtain justice

12th January 2024 The Post Office Horizon scandal is both simple and complex, straightforward but also difficult to grasp in all its interconnected detail. The essence of the scandal is, of course,…

The Law and Policy Blog
#SoftwareMessups
'Fortunately, common sense prevailed in our case because of management’s willingness to listen and learn, and a corporate approach was adopted with the in-house development of a replacement system, which was publicised as an updated version of the original rather than a completely new system. Reputations and jobs saved, as well as a much-improved service'
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/12/post-office-scandal-calls-for-reflection-and-justice
Post Office scandal calls for reflection and justice

Letters: Readers debate problems with computer systems, denials of wrongdoing, and note that nothing is as effective in galvanising politicians as embarrassment

The Guardian
Why is it so difficult?

Why is it so hard for clinicians and managers to accept that patients, service users, clients…know best what’s good for them? I mean, not always… not in specialised knowledge, for example, of how t…

george rook
#HousingIsEasy #RedVienna
'Funded primarily through a hypothecated tax on luxuries such as champagne or horse-riding, the inaugural phase of socialist-governed “Red Vienna” saw 65,000 socially rented apartments shoot up within the city'
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/10/the-social-housing-secret-how-vienna-became-the-worlds-most-livable-city
The social housing secret: how Vienna became the world’s most livable city

In the Austrian capital, renters pay a third of what their counterparts do in London, Paris or Dublin. How is it possible?

The Guardian
'Casey makes it clear how well government can work when a priority is set, the prime minister is behind it, and those on the frontline have a clear set of goals and know how to achieve them. And also, how government can fail when a law is passed but there’s no focus regarding its implementation, or when ministers don’t talk to people whose lives are affected by their policies'
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/jan/06/fixing-britain-with-louise-casey-review-self-help-scottee-pet-classics-new-years-eve-colin-murray
The week in audio: Fixing Britain With Louise Casey; Self Help; Pet Classics; Colin Murray – review

The inspiring crossbench peer works her way through some of the UK’s biggest problems, while performance artist Scottee takes a close-to-home look at mental health

The Guardian
The Kosovo War, 25 years later

We’re just a few weeks away from the 25th anniversary of the Kosovo War, which started in March 1999. So, I’d like to do a retrospective on the war’s causes.This is a long story! …

Crooked Timber
Kitson: failed boot boy of empire

Chris Bambery on the army’s go-to ‘counter-insurgency expert’ who died this week Frank Kitson died on 2 January aged 97.

Counterfire