Declining school student numbers in England. 2025-26 is the peak. (h/t @tesmagazine.bsky.social )

(Although it can sometimes feel a little like it, with the water replaced by a sea of form-filling, webpages to scour through, hundreds of documents to provide, etc.etc.)
📑📑📑📑📑📑 📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑📑

A picture of Robin Williams playing the teacher character in the movie Dead Poets Society. Williams is standing on the students’ desks, as the students look up at him.

“Name a movie character who technically isn't a villain but you consider to be one.” 😅

(h/t the last remnants of Edutwitter/EduX)

It’s also what autocrat governments have always said about protests - see Russia, China, etc etc. Now the US government & its spox use this unevidenced propaganda trick too.

bsky.app/profile/rick...

“Young male kills in order to become famous.” Yet again. UK government could reduce these events by at least 50% by passing a law prohibiting the media from including the killer’s face or name in their reports. If they want to kill to become famous, then just make sure killing doesn’t lead to fame.

William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, spent many years as a schoolteacher, an experience unsatisfying for him & his pupils. “I never knew what education was about…. I could never have told an eager enquirer what the practical point of my endeavours was supposed to be.” From Carey’s biography

Sam Altman Sam Altman

“In a decade, perhaps everyone on earth will be capable of accomplishing more than the most impactful person can today.” blog.samaltman.com

Sam Altman has a new blogpost about AGI:
“the economic growth in front of us looks astonishing, & we can now imagine a world where we cure all diseases, have much more time to enjoy with our families, & can fully realize our creative potential….”

a group of men in suits and ties are standing in a room . ALT: a group of men in suits and ties are standing in a room .

The more coverage Musk gets in the media, surely the better chance that Trump will soon jettison him, as he jettisons pretty much everyone, & then afterwards deride him as “weirdo Musk” etc.

a group of men in suits and ties are standing in a room . ALT: a group of men in suits and ties are standing in a room .

The more coverage Musk gets in the media, surely the better chance that Trump will soon jettison him, as he jettisons pretty much everyone, & then afterwards deride him as “weirdo Musk” etc.

So everyone in China knows a range iconic western stories like Robinson Crusoe, Tom Sawyer etc, along with deep knowledge of their own literature; meanwhile US & UK publics largely can’t name a single Chinese author, story or fictional character? Maybe just Mulan, from the dubious Disney adaptations

One of the reasons China’s understanding of the US & its allies (including UK) is better than the reverse: When kids have their “Chinese” class, they not only have to learn modern & ancient Chinese stories, but also classic stories from the Anglosphere & other countries - here from UK, Sweden, & US.

Finally, a challenge for governments is: although some level of cultural lag is inevitable, you need to manage & reduce it as much as possible. If not, competitors may master & exploit the new tech more quickly than you.

..on the cusp as we are of a range of even more momentous technological advances in AI, the only certainty appears to be that we are in line for a lot more social, cultural, & political upheaval for the rest of this century.

New technology is created; then society slowly adapts to it, first undergoing various transitional “maladjustments”, before eventually settling into a new stability a long time afterward. Our culture is still adapting to the 00s innovations of smartphones & social media; ….

US sociologist Ogburn’s 1922 concept of “cultural lag” is relevant in our time of rapid information-technological change (incorporating the Internet, smartphones, social media, & now AI, AGI, etc.).

A photo of the January 6 insurrection

By freeing & legitimizing the violent insurrectionists who tried to keep him in power in 2021, Trump’s made it much more appealing for people to break the law to keep him in power in 2029, contra US term limits, & shown that anyone who resists will not necessarily be protected by the authorities.

This is quite something, both the quadrupling in extra exam time over the past decade, across all schools, and also the difference between state and independent schools.

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

This is quite something, both the quadrupling in extra exam time over the past decade, across all schools, and also the difference between state and independent schools.

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

“an AI superpower” “productivity could double in a short period of time” “for AI companies, we want to be the best state partner in the world” “turbocharge growth, & radically improve public services”

Starmer’s AI speech today. Hope they stick with it, go all in to capitalize on UK’s AI advantages.

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world it pays to be stupid and cocksure, while being intelligent and full of doubt will get you no clicks.”
Updated version of the Bertrand Russell quote.

It’s late night in the US, the world’s richest man cant sleep again, & so again my country has to undergo a barrage of misinformation & likely provocation to riot. Whatever’s happened on this issue, Musk - a foreign national who’s proven an engineering genius but a naïf about society - isn’t helping

Thought Alex Garland’s movie Civil War was excellent, the best movie about US polarization so far

My son’s kindergarten apparently spending Christmas Day doing wargames. 🎄🎁💥

Accusing China of “increasing isolation on the world stage” is the real-life modern-day equivalent of the apocryphal British headline “FOG IN THE CHANNEL: CONTINENT CUT OFF”.

https://www.cia.gov/static/5c875f3ec660e092cf893f60b4a288df/SimpleSabotage.pdf page 28

https://www.cia.gov/static/5c875f3ec660e092cf893f60b4a288df/SimpleSabotage.pdf page 29

https://www.cia.gov/static/5c875f3ec660e092cf893f60b4a288df/SimpleSabotage.pdf page 30

https://www.cia.gov/static/5c875f3ec660e092cf893f60b4a288df/SimpleSabotage.pdf page 31

It’s interesting to periodically review the CIA’s 1944 Simple Sabotage Field Manual & consider how many of the institutions that impact our lives frequently follow these principles, as if trying to sabotage themselves.

www.cia.gov/static/5c875...