Emeritus Prof Christopher May

2 days ago

@TheDailyBurble

Hmm.... have done a couple of years of online learning both as tutor/lecturer & as a mature student, I really don't think that's the answer.... especially for school students, there's many social & educative advantages from the 'warehousing' model, not least direct & physical access to teaching staff, as well as socialisation effects.

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2 days ago

@RussCheshire

Well it might, but the key thing is to reject the notion of inflation as primarily a monetary phenomenon, and also to down-grade the interests on financial services.... on a sense the 'control' of the BoE is to one side of these more serious problems, as the Govt. can (easily) change the policy ends to which the Bank instructed to work towards.....

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2 days ago

This week I've been mainly reading, no. 203.

Tom Nichols' book Tintoretto, Tradition & Identity (1999) balances off a art historical consideration of his major commissions, alongside his more obscure work in Venice with an interesting account of his business practices (discounting & fast delivery) that set him against painters like Titian & Veronese. Its a interesting insight into the emergence of the entrepreneurial painter & makes the case Tintoretto was an early 'modern'!

@bookstodon #art

Tags: #art

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2 days ago

@ChrisMayLA6
I am ashamed it is still called a man
It wants to destroy Earth so we all become slaves on Mars
Call it a Martian already

The billions wasted
Just thrown in to space
could have returned Earth to prestine condition
for our human race?

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2 days ago

This man is a real & present danger.... and no, I feel there is no need to be more specific; the danger he represents is not limited to one country or one aspect of our lives....

#politics

Tags: #politics

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2 days ago

@ChrisMayLA6 Hopefully Bandcamp and similar will catch on more
( https://bandcamp.com/ )
I quite like the buy an album, download it and actually own it business model, rather than the pay an arbitrary, increasing amount to just have access but own nothing system that has become so popular !

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2 days ago

@ChrisMayLA6 My vote for this social indicator is on crypto, an asset that is obviously backed by nothing in the real world.

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2 days ago

ProfDJ's killer cuts for your streaming shuffle, No.8

Aaron Neville. Hercules

This is a wonderful bit of down-tempo, political funk with a lilting funking groove & powerful lyrics, delivered in a growl by one of the Neville Brothers. Part of the 70s political soul move, its a classic but of New Orleans funk.

There's a louder more percussive version from Paul Weller (from 2012), which is pretty good & gets quite funky too, but it the original you'll want!

#KillerCuts #music

Tags: #killercuts #music

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2 days ago

The return of cash continues... partly driven, possibly, by the cost of living crisis encouraging 'budgeting by envelope' - the distribution of cash to different envelopes for different uses (food, energy etc.).

Looks like the banks' attempts to promote the cashless society (to their advantage) may have stalled for a while, at least... well until they remove yet more ATMs from the UK, that is

#cash #banks

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jan/07/cash-makes-surprise-comeback-amid-46-annual-rise-in-atm-withdrawals

Tags: #cash #banks

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2 days ago

The record industry is (yet another) oligopoly, but in this case the people who are being harmed are not so much consumers as the musicians.... yes, music expenditure is on the rise, but little of that gets to the artists themselves, unless they are one of the lucky mega-bands touring the world.

As in so many other sectors, progressive consolidation has centralised power & money in a small number of corporations who exploit both suppliers & consumers!

#music #oligopoly
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jan/08/the-uk-music-industry-is-reporting-record-revenues-the-reality-is-much-gloomier

Tags: #music #oligopoly

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2 days ago

As continued inflation drives up schools costs faster than any increase in funding, the crisis in education doesn't look like easing anytime soon.

Added to the crises in Further & Higher Education and the conclusion can only be that not only is the UK in some difficulties right now, scrimping on the education of future generations is just going to confirm the spiral of decline.

If we fail to invest in our future we are going down the plughole!

#schools #education

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jan/08/schools-england-cuts-rising-costs-funding

Tags: #schools #education

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3 days ago

Sarah O'Connor (FT) makes a good point about the UK's low rate of sick pay:

'I wonder if this is one explanation for the rise in the number of people who don’t work & claim health-related benefits instead: if you’re struggling with a long-term condition & it’s very financially punishing to hang on to your job because you lose most of your wage every time you’re too ill to go in, that might be a push to leave employment altogether'

Long-term sickness needs better support!

#workers #health

Tags: #workers #health

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2 days ago

There's a famous story that Joe Kennedy (father of JFK) started 'unwinding' his stock positions in the run up to the wall Street Cash (saving his fortune) because, as he said:

'You know it’s time to sell when shoeshine boys give you stock tips. This bull market is over'!

If, as some now think we are heading towards another financial crisis, the Q. is what is the social indicator that might indicate its time to get out of the stock market?

Stock tips on X maybe?

#FinancialCrisis

Tags: #financialcrisis

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2 days ago

Meanwhile at Thames Water, creditors are engaged in a civil war over the restructuring plans of the largest firms, which the 'junior' creditors see as both attempting to sidestep OFWATs (albeit weak) regulatory scope & likely to make it harder to raise further capital in the future.

What are the views of OFWAT?
yup you guessed it, their feigning disinterest, claiming its up to TW to come up with a plan... if this is what regulation looks like, no wonder we're in trouble!

#Water #OFWAT
h/t FT

Tags: #water #ofwat

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2 days ago

As Pacific Palisades burns, will wealth Americans (fleeing the fires) start to realise that actually, they are part of the problem, not the solution?

My guess is: not!

#ClimateChange

Tags: #climatechange

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2 days ago

The UK's public borrowing cost has just edged past the previous peak which sank Liz Truss & Kwasi Kwarteng's budget plans; reaching a level not seen for over 25 years.

This looks like a 'buyers strike' with bond investors likely waiting to see how things pan out with Rachel Reeves' budget.... or one might see this as the old story of Bond Vigilantes turning on Labour despite their assiduous efforts to charm bankers?

Either way it makes Labour's spending plans more difficult!

#PublicDebt

Tags: #publicdebt

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2 days ago

Sex Crime

As Vanita Sundaram says, the terrifying thing about the Pelicot case is its *not* exceptional!

'Violence against women and girls is therefore not exceptional or perpetrated only by a few problematic individuals.... These acts are not only committed by “monsters”. It is not behaviour that is limited to certain men or certain environments. It is produced in a wider cultural context that supports gender inequality & that normalises this behaviour'

#SexualAssualt
https://theconversation.com/the-pelicot-rape-case-revealed-not-a-group-of-monsters-but-a-culture-that-enables-the-abuse-of-women-246727

Tags: #sexualassualt

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2 days ago

@kathimmel

Much the same as Farage

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2 days ago

@milkman76

Yes, the past is definitely reaching out to drag us back....

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2 days ago

This man is a real & present danger.... and no, I feel there is no need to be more specific; the danger he represents is not limited to one country or one aspect of our lives....

#politics

Tags: #politics

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