Dave T-W @davoloid@qoto.org

@cyrilpedia I hear that the government are making an announcement this week to address this crisis... by putting even stricter Tier4 conditions in place and/or parting gift of removing the graduate route. That's a useful mechanism for students to work off some of their fees, and UK economy gets the benefit of those fresh trainees at their most energetic before they need to return home.

@bwaber Many years ago I worked at McDonald's head office, and as you know for them, Franchises are one more product stream to systemise and optimise. But given they were so good at other aspects of the business, I was never quite sure why they bothered in the UK. I suspect it allowed them to pass on a certain element of risk in some locations, and then you have to honour that relationship with the franchise owner.
Will enjoy this I think.

@bwaber I believe some of the earliest clay tablets were used to record accounting and tax income. And what is the Domesday Book if not an asset register?

Weekend visit to #Bradford reminds me of the city's continued ability to absolutely screw up urban planning. I knew a few years back they'd squandered the opportunity to revive the centre with yet another boring Westfield shopping centre development, plonked right in the way. They could have made a pedestrian friendly space linking the City Hall in the middle to the Cathedral and Alhambra at north and south.

There are some absolutely beautiful buildings from the Victorian era, and more modern ones that came from a time before the government shut down regional development. Realistically, some of both might have needed to be demolished, and there's been times over the past 40 years when that would have had minimal impact. But now a set of motorways surrounds the best parts, and impractical blobs of ill conceived, cheap blocks are spread around. Nottingham, Sheffield and Coventry did this so much better.

Whilst they keep doing this, the centre will continue to be a rough place. Anyone who wants an enjoyable night out and a nice meal has dozens of towns and villages in this distributed metropolis.

John Krasinksi's new movie "If" looks like a fairly routine kids movie, but in fact it's an absolutely beautiful blub fest, pushed over the edge by Giacchino's music (remember "Up"?).
https://youtu.be/H-Lp5ygQLoA

TBF, it's got Sam Rockwell and Fiona Shaw in it so you know it's going to be good.

@cyrilpedia Ooh, there's a brilliant book about the fued between Richard Owen and his rival Gideon Mantell, worth checking out. Also other people in that fevered time of discovery, like Huxley, Anning, Darwin.
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Dinosaur_Hunters.html?id=oxkoAQAAIAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

Yeah, Jaklin is my new spirit animal. For me that's the best thing about #Eurovision, that amongst the votebait and silliness there's some great new music I'd never have found.
https://youtu.be/_6xfmW0Fc40?si=pkbc17TEg2IbEhUK

@emilygorcenski I also left with a 'Huh' feeling. Thoughts here, and an link to an excellent analysis by Thomas Flight.
In short, the events that form the background, though based on real world events that represent a deep rift in society, are just background for the art of the photographers. And that's the problem in the story and in how the movie is presented.
https://qoto.org/@davoloid/112360142206224174

@norm Yeah, I found the same last year. Slightly baffling, not sure what the cause is. What's the *quality* of interaction like on BS?

@norm There's still something not quite right about it from that perspective. I'm lless bothered about the likes, happy that I get some really interesting content and zero spam and seal lions.

@eLearningTechie Definitely lots of gimmicks. Looking at their YouTube, Armenia's fusion of a whole bunch of styles seems to be their thing so I will be listening more. They're both cute as hell and deserve wider success.

@eLearningTechie Agree, skipped Switzerland entirely. I still have a playlist from previous years that I listen to regularly: Spain, France and Portugal were so much better in 22 and 23 than this round. And Sweden's one from 22. But that's part of the fun, decent song from Czechia doesn't make the finals, J-Lo clones from Slovenia and Austria do.
🤷

I haven't been to the Abba voyage thing but I think they've definitely taken some technical aspects from Ye Pan's PhD work on immersion, that I helped with about 10 years ago. But the CGI avatars are awful.