Aside from all the serious commentary about what this says about *gestures* the state of the world…
…All I can think when reading this nonsense is the clip from Chicken Run. Fowler: “Pushy Americans. Always showing up late for every war”
“Just as the Roman empire survived for two more centuries after it started to decline, the United States isn’t in danger of imminent collapse. But Trump’s rejection of planning, expertise, and diplomacy is beginning to have real-world consequences“
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Or, given the enormous amount of data OpenAI have scraped from the web, are they using this to sign people up for an account unilaterally in a push for users?
Either way, very sketchy. Considering referral to ICO.
Anyone have a similar experience?
Searching my emails, as I’m 100% sure I have never signed up.
Cannot find any sign-up email.
Do, however, find an email from late November announcing GPT-5.1 - which was *not* addressed to me by name, just ”Hi”.
Something seems fishy here. Has another firm has sold OpenAI my data?
I’ve received an email from OpenAI about updates to their privacy policy, addressed to me with my full name.
Only problem: I’ve never signed up for an account with OpenAI.
Details are identical to those in this Reddit thread
www.reddit.com/r/cybersecur...
How did they get my data?
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, especially if you're interested in Manchester/Salford, history, or art, I’d definitely recommend it. BBC at its best:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Just watched “LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes”, and I’m blown away. Not only was the acting/lip-syncing by Sir Ian McKellen and Annabel Smith incredible, but the original audio interviews by Angela Barratt - who was entirely untrained! - are a masterclass. The interplay with Lowry is very moving.
The route in the video is one I’m v familiar with - my old stomping ground. We really don’t have the equivalent of RE trains in the UK, though arguably some cross country services are kind of in that ballpark (eg class 755s, 802s). Issue is partly definition - speed? Comfort vs crammed-commuter?
Does the existence of a “Casual Mosaic Cleaner” role imply there’s also a “Formal Mosaic Cleaner” role, and if so does this require black tie?
… and you can’t even use “alphabetise paragraphs” feature in Word: each para begins with the first name but the format uses the surname for ordering. It’s actual madness. In peer review if you add/remove references you have to renumber everything. The only way to do it is using a citation manager
All I can say, as someone who has published there, is look at the ACM style (eg CHI conference). Numbered, but bibliography is alphabetised by surname… but instead of being “Adonis, A” it is “Andrew Adonis”.
So it loses all the benefits of being numbered AND all the benefits of being alphabetised.
A good friend of mine volunteers with Crisis. If I recall correctly, We managed to get everyone* experiencing homelessness off the streets in the first lockdown, using capacity in hotels that had no customers.
* suspect not literally everyone but a very close to it in the north east
A photo with a yellow and black programme for Operation Mincemeat in the foreground. Behind it, a staircase leads up to the right, and an open doorway with the label B above it leads off to the left to the Lowry auditorium
Looking forward to Operation Mincemeat!
Wow, Paradeplatz looked like that in 1929!? that’s fascinating - thanks for sharing @aufgleis13.bsky.social
Oh wow, is that where the old Sony Centre was? I vaguely remember visiting that in early 2000, and recall an underground bit in that area
I am fairly sure it is not uncommon to spend longer taxiing from it to the terminal than flying from LCY-AMS…
🚨 Polderbaan klaxon 🚨
Not knowing that much about her, I found the actual interview quite interesting - really like what she’s done in terms of giving back to the community and young artists.
Trust the subeditors to use that quote though…
When I was doing my PhD (I started it at 29 and it took a while, and I think it was before the 26-30 card came in) it made me eligible for a YP railcard - I don’t think I was ever challenged. Maybe I just look forever 25… 🤷♂️
In entirely unrelated financial news, I very much miss having a railcard 😭
(And yes - it is almost always women who end up disproportionately negatively affected by all the systemic factors above. It’s so wrong and incredibly depressing - the system makes what is already challenging punitive on talent and hard work)
As I and others discovered to our cost, you also don’t get any kind of employment rights - eg protection against bullying or illegal harassment (unless you fancy taking up an Equality Act claim against a multi-million pound organisation with well-paid lawyers). And no taxable benefits obviously.
Just double checked. UKRI stipend from Oct 2026: £21,805
NLW (aged 21+): £12.71 per hour, which for a 40 hour week over 52 weeks is £26,436.
After tax/NI that is £22,553 - or £748 more than someone on a PhD stipend. If living alone, they edge ahead due to council tax discount.
Still v poor tho.
I know, I received the stipend myself some years back, and I included that in my calculation.
When I did mine you also didn’t get sick leave, though this changed in 2019.
Don’t have exact numbers to hand as it was on my computer, but can dig out.
By the time you factor in eg deduction on council tax, a PhD student on the stipend is paid approx the same as someone on the minimum wage, despite having to be significantly more qualified and be successful for competitive stipend funding - to have less rights. It is pretty poor.
Somewhat related: I happened to be looking at the recent UKRI PhD stipend announcement the other day. The minimum stipend is within £700 of the national minimum wage for over 21s, even after tax/NI. And you don’t get NI contribs, or max working hours, or childcare or other taxable benefits…
Somehow I never saw it when it first aired. Currently 5 episodes into series 1…
Cc @thebeautyoftransport.com @doublearrow64.bsky.social
Rather sleep deprived this morning which may explain my gut reaction of “ooh, that looks cool, I wonder if…” to the TfL Museum Shop email offering the illuminated totem sign from Colindale station for £5000 @dcjlegrand.bsky.social @multiplexing.bsky.social
www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/vintage-shop...
BES data in 2017 (but suspect the pattern holds for others) - a simple cross-tab of “party voted for last GE” vs “party voted for this time” is always insightful. Som very but interesting swings across parties regarded as polar opposite - it’s picking apart the underlying ”why” that’s interesting
Another night, another “wake up at 2:30 and not able to get back to sleep”. gah!
