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The artifical intellgience wall

A lot has been written recently about the development of artificial intelligence tools hitting a wall: that is, we’re reaching a point where the pace of improvement in models has slowed considerably. Some have made the point that this may not matter as we’re not yet close to exploiting even a fraction of what the existing models can do.

I think this is a reasonable take. One of my main uses of ChatGPT has been to help with the finer points of coding. I’m not really a coder, but I occasionally throw together a bit of PHP or Javascript to solve a specific problem: to tweak the output of an ical feed, for example, or to tweak the layout of a webpage, or to use an api to very quickly check public transport departures for a specific stop. This has been made much easier by being able to paste the code into ChatGPT and ask: “Why isn’t this working?!”

But just recently, I’ve been playing with the ChatGPT api and plugging in into some of those small scripts—with great results. When my alarm goes off in the morning, ChatGPT gives me a quick, sensible verbal briefing on my calendar events, tasks and so forth before I’ve even opened my eyes. I plug it into scripts where I’d like the wording to be a bit varied rather than identical every time, with pretty good results each time.

None of these things are lifechanging, but they are the sorts of small quality of life improvements that haven’t yet become commonplace—but will no doubt spread over coming years.

This post was filed under: News and Comment, Technology.

Cleadon water tower

Visible for miles around, and prominent in the landscape from the nearby Metro line, Cleadon’s 1860 water tower is the village’s best-known landmark. It has a very distinct and decorative Italian style.

I’ve always wondered why a water tower would be needed in the middle of nowhere. I usually think of a water tower being required to power industrial processes, such as canal locks, dock works, railways, or systems that need sudden deluges of water. But there’s nothing obvious nearby that would need such services… so why does it exist?

Well, in a sense… it doesn’t. Despite its name, it isn’t a water tower at all, and never has been. The Sunderland and South Shields Water Company used to pump water from the limestone in this area to supply to local residents and businesses. It used steam boilers to do this work, and the tower is actually a disguised, aesthetically pleasing chimney. You can see how easily a ‘tower’ associated with a water company would become known as the ‘water tower’ in local parlance, even if that was never its function.

The tower also contains a staircase around the central flue, and a balcony at a height of 25m. In the Second World War, it was therefore repurposed as a lookout for enemy aircraft. These days, it is used as a site for radio aerials and the like.

But Cleadon Water Tower isn’t, and never has been, a water tower.

This post was filed under: Photos, Travel, .

An opening that closed

This rock, which gives strong ‘Permanently Low Prices Forever’ vibes, commemorates the opening of Seaton Carew’s Esplanade by Councillor R Sargeant in August 1905.

The area on which it now stands was in fact constructed in 1997 as part of a new coastal protection scheme for the town.

So the rock is commemorating the opening of something that, in a sense, closed some time ago. I’m not sure I’d have retained it in the new scheme for that reason—but, then, no-one is ever likely to put me in charge of any commemoration of anything being opened. Thank goodness.

This post was filed under: Art, Photos, Travel, .

The Linnet Way

This post was filed under: Photos, Travel, .

‘Waves’

This 2018 sculpture on the seafront at Seaton Carew is by Stuart Langley. The sea glass used in the sculpture was collected and donated by local children.

The artwork is supposed to draw a connection between the ‘waves’ of the sea and the ‘waves’ of industrial, social and cultural change that are all around us. I’m not convinced I’d have guessed that. The art work’s local nickname, ‘the airwick’, feels more apt to me… but it’s nice to see something a bit different.

This post was filed under: Art, Photos, Travel, , .

Spotify wrapped

I recognise that there’s little duller in life than hearing about other people’s Spotify habits, especially at this time of year… but it does make for a very easy blog post when one is trying to post daily.

And so, allow me to present my top five artists of 2024, according to how much time I’ve spent listening to them on Spotify:

  1. Stacey Kent
  2. Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox
  3. Max Richter
  4. Blossom Dearie
  5. Armin van Buuren

This may be the only chart in history where Blossom Dearie, an American jazz singer and pianist born more than a century ago, is nestled between Max Richter, the French-British postminimalist classical composer born in the 1960s, and Armin van Buuren, the pioneering Dutch trance DJ born in the 1970s… though their music could make an incredible mash-up.

Kae Tempest wrote:

If you are moved by a rapper that you listen to on YouTube, it’s really not a big deal. You shouldn’t have to apologise for it in literary environments. The same is true if you love a classical poet. It isn’t the case that you need to approach lauded works on bended knee. The pool of influence you draw from does not have to meet the approval of an academy or an institution, or be bound by the parameters of a genre, sub-genre or ‘movement’. Listen to everything. Read as much as you can. Try to stay present and connected with whatever you’re engaging with when you’re engaging with it.

I think that’s right.

This post was filed under: Music.

Cleadon Mill

This corn mill was built in the early 1800s of local limestone. It was badly damaged in a storm in 1870, and probably didn’t return to use after that. It was further damaged in the First World War when it was used for target practice—what use a ruined old mill anyway?—but it was patched up by the Council in 1992.

You know how much I like to give you a little bit extra in these posts, often sourced from historical newspapers… but I’m struggling on this one. I can, however, share that the Shields Gazette had a whole feature on the ‘Cleadon Big Cat’ which was apparently spotted near the mill in 1999. An anonymous man’s wife told journalist Iain Smith, “He used to always take the family labrador out for a walk and he knows what a dog looks like but he was certain it was not a dog, it was a big cat. There’s definitely something up there.’

I’m pleased to report that I didn’t spot any big cats on my wander past.

This post was filed under: Photos, , , .

‘Conclave’

It’s eight years to the month since I read Robert Harris’s novel Conclave, yet it made enough of an impression for me to be interested in seeing the film adaptation. I think I bought a copy of the book for my mum. Anyway, the novel—and therefore the film—concerns the political machinations of the conclave of cardinals as they meet to elect a new pope. Various factions fight for dominance, with the main schism between those who think that the church should return to older traditions and those who believe that it should become more inclusive. Wendy, who came with me, hasn’t read the novel.

We both enjoyed the film: we were impressed by the cinematography, the music, the sound design, and the casting. We were also both impressed by the dialogue, which felt true to life, and Wendy felt that the twists and turns in the plot were well-paced. It was an enjoyable couple of hours, and I felt that it made the most of its source material.

Our main criticism is that the film is a self-contained curiosity. Much like the novel, it doesn’t seem to have much to say about the world outside of the church: it is quite insular. It’s not a film that either of us will still be pondering a week later—but I suspect we’ll still remember it as a good evening out.

This post was filed under: Film, , .

Focus

There are few things more likely to make my eyes roll than the headline:

Wallace’s response to MasterChef claims was misogynistic, says No 10

The fact that a television presenter has made people feel uncomfortable by acting inappropriately is serious, and ought to be dealt with seriously by his employer and, perhaps, his employer’s commissioner. The fact that early complaints to the BBC appear not to have been adequately acted upon is worthy of investigation. The fact that people face inappropriate behaviour in workplaces across the country and feel powerless to report it is upsetting, and we can only hope that stories like this help to change that narrative.

However… it is slightly absurd that journalists asked for the Prime Minister’s take on an Instagram video made by the television presenter in response to those accusations, and it is truly absurd that the Government responded to them.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests that around 3,000 people became victims of seuxal assualt on the same day that Greg Wallace recorded his unpleasant Instagram rant. Many thousands more will have put up with inappropriate behaviour that they’ve felt powerless to tackle—or, perhaps worse, that they’ve tried to tackle and yet been ignored.

The fact that the No 10 spokesperson didn’t use the opportunity of the question to pivot to talking about the wider issue is a failure of communication.

The fact that the Prime Minister’s attention is evidently distracted by an unpleasant issue outside of his control is a failure of Government.

But… the fact that BBC One has chosen, of all characters, Wallace and Grommit to feature in idents introducing news programmes where another Wallace features heavily is a divine comedic success.

This post was filed under: News and Comment, Politics.

Whitburn winter walk

This post was filed under: Photos, .




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