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  Not an approach that we take to, e.g., the airline industry or indeed to any other industry. Why on earth Altman should think that his "product" should magically be exempt from the oversight that is in use everywhere else, I don't know. Arrogance, perhaps? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/05/sam-altman-open-ai-chatgpt-benefits-risks

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  "Phil Piratin was a Communist Party activist and organiser in Stepney, East London who played a key role in the Cable Street people’s blockade which successfully stopped Sir Oswald Mosley leading his British Union of Fascists (BUF), from marching through the East End ninety years ago, 4th October 1936." https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/10/02/an-eyewitness-account-from-cable-street/

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  Is it just me, or is the Fairford Terror Plot" fizzling out like a damp squib (no, fingers and spellcheck, NOT a damp squid)?

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  "Democracy for Sale" email me to tell me that cash for access is operating again, this time it's the Tony Blair Institute, and without even the pretense of brown envelopes: "We’ve obtained internal documents showing that Tony Blair’s think tank charges corporate members from $25,000 a year for “networking” opportunities with politicians at party conferences and more. Members include BP, Uber, Amazon and Microsoft." I am unsurprised. Sadly.

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  "About 3.3% of maternity bookings made within NHS trusts across England involved a disclosure of current or non-recent domestic abuse. Applying this proportion to national NHS maternity bookings activity suggests there are approximately 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse made within maternity services in England every year." https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/sep/20/thousands-of-pregnant-women-in-england-are-reporting-domestic-abuse-midwives-are-struggling-to-cope

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  Oooh yes please! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/sep/18/singapore-paid-reading-scheme

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  "Legitimate concerns" over the housing of refugees and asylum seekers - fine. Legitimate concerns about the genocide in Gaza and our government's complicity in the genocide - definitely not fine (according to Shabana Mahmood.

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  Owen Jones restating the bleedin' obvious: "...all the evidence suggests that money wins votes. A recent peer-reviewed study examined every British general election between 1857 and 2017, and found a strong relationship between relative campaign spending and votes. Rich donors really do shower political parties with money for a reason. Reform’s mega-donations underline that democracy is for sale." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/14/reform-72m-donations-nigel-f...

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  RE: https://kolektiva.social/@Herbivore/117018959729246148 About time. Yet another example of how we treat magical sentient creatures with whom we share this planet. So utterly different from the vertebrate brains we think of as possessing (differing degrees of) sentience and intelligence. Thomas Nagel speculated about what it must be like to be a bat - how much more intriguing to try to imagine what it's like to be an octopus!!

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  Magical discoveries: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02312-y?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=ab8567a05f-nature-briefing-daily-20260729&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-49717696

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  As Oscar Wilde famously said: "I can resist anything but temptation". Three books currently on the go ATM - dare I risk another? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jul/29/alive-by-melanie-challenger-review-a-maverick-study-of-what-it-means-to-have-a-body

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  Someone correct me if I am wrong. Increasingly I am hearing that we can simply aim for "Net Zero" as though as long as we stop emitting greenhouse gases everything will be fine. As I see it, the first problem with this is that climate forcing will continue for centuries with the CO2 already there - it doesn't simply stop. The second it that when a chaotic system like global weather is perturbed it will settle into a different stable state even if the perturbation is removed. 1/2

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  At my age I can afford to be mildly amused (or irritated depending on context) by age verification by a staff member at supermarket checkouts. At my age I'm furious that I might be required to have my age verified by a commercial organisation, my details held on a (quite likely insecure) database "to protect the children". The emphasis must be on forcing tech giants to clean up their act, not on compulsory age checks for everyone.

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  "Astronomers are deeply worried" - the understatement of the year. This is a dreadful escalation of the pollution of low-earth orbit with satellites - this one worse by far. Environmentally damaging (animals and plants that need darkness), polluting the dark skies needed for astronomy and once again tech bros messing up the planet for their own selfish ends. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02218-9?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=7558629e58-nature-briefing-daily-20...

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  At last. https://www.irishtimes.com/world/us/2026/07/14/writer-e-jean-carroll-receives-563-million-owed-by-trump-in-sex-abuse-case/

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  RE: https://mas.to/@therightarticle/116848783162226925 This is absolutely shocking. Keir Starmer spinelessly acquiescing when bullied by Trump and his administration. And the cost of the "deal" to be borne by the sick and disabled.

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  I was looking for some good news to brighten up a grey and soggy morning and, hey presto - it arrived: "It was understood the far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was stopped and had his phones seized under section 3 of the Counter-Terrorism Border Security Act 2019." https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/13/tommy-robinson-detained-at-heathrow-under-counter-terrorism-laws

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  On a day like today it's worth remembering Dorothy Parker : "I hate almost all rich people, but I think I’d be darling at it. At the moment, however, I like to think of Maurice Baring’s remark: “If you would know what the Lord God thinks of money, you have only to look at those to whom he gives it.” I realize that’s not much help when the wolf comes scratching at the door, but it’s a comfort."

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  @benroyce@mastodon.social Truly, there is nothing new under the sun...!

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  So Starmer seems safe (for now) only because his potential challengers are hated even more than he is? There's nobody even half decent waiting in the wings, is there?

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  Three good things today : A comment on a book (thank you @artemis) that took me to a review by Annie Wright and dawning realisation Thirteen miles of cycling, on which ride I met An otter in the middle of the road.

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  "Way back in 2020, the late great David Graeber laid it out: "The Labour Party under Keir Starmer will abandon its core idealism and principles and won't even gain tactical advantage. It will be a party which gives no one a reason to vote for it, and no one will, in fact, vote for it." Mike Small continues the analysis of the political events of the past few days (with particular reference to the Celtic nations). There's a lot to celebrate. https://...

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  RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116546837122553408 Oh yes please. Bring on the anarchist piano!!

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  "The media in Britain is a disgrace" Indeed it is. https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/05/03/smearing-zack-polanski/

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  If there is one REALLY depressing outcome from the English local authority and mayoral elections that have just been held, it is that I am going to see a great deal more of that grinning fatuous frog face on my screens now. It is more than anyone ought to be asked to tolerate. Bah!

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  Outside the back door, the fig that I planted a dozen or more years ago received a severe pruning at my hands this year. As a consequence (?), this year it is absolutely covered in tiny little figs that will mature this summer. I must plan what to do to use them all!

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  Leakey's second hand bookshop in Inverness. The largest second hand bookshop in Scotland.

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  As I watch the behavior of the leaders of the US and more often than not, the UK, I am reminded of the words of Hannah Arendt, someone who saw more barbarism than most, and who recognised its root causes.

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  I do not, and will probably never, believe that individuals and organisations that donate money to politicians and their parties do it out of the goodness of their hearts. They expect (and get) something in return. Being able to "buy" politicians like that runs completely counter to the principles of democracy. It has to end. [edited: I definitively do not mean small individual subscriptions or donations bu only those above a certain threshold - say £10,000]

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  As Mike Small points out: “... there is nothing moral about doing a deal with a neo-fascist party that you point out, quite rightly, is deeply racist.“ If Scottish Labour (the branch office) could ever, in recent years, lay claim to represent ALL the people of SCOTLAND, that claim is well and truly dead. As with head office, the desire to win power trumps all else. A deal with racist reform? Moral? It ought to be the end of any claim to be fit to govern. https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/04...