Martin Murray
@drmartinmurray.bsky.social
I teach and write about music, literature, philosophy, psychoanalysis, politics and art: low, high, local, global, comprehensible, obscure, joyful and dark. Amateur musician. Original (i.e. South London) Arsenal fan.
‘In newspapers and on television, every reference to a council estate is prefixed with the word ‘tough’, as though bare knuckle boxing is the leisure activity of choice for every British person who doesn’t own their own home.’
November 17, 2025 at 6:41 AM
‘In newspapers and on television, every reference to a council estate is prefixed with the word ‘tough’, as though bare knuckle boxing is the leisure activity of choice for every British person who doesn’t own their own home.’
Discuss, or alternatively, ask Chat GPT.
How A.I. and Social Media Contribute to ‘Brain Rot’
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Discuss, or alternatively, ask Chat GPT.
Well Boy George and Glenn Tilbrook attended and did pretty well, although of course they were both expelled.
November 10, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Well Boy George and Glenn Tilbrook attended and did pretty well, although of course they were both expelled.
Not risky at all (as I’m sure Nick Clegg would say).
Meta Raises Its Spending Forecast on A.I. to Above $70 Billion
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Not risky at all (as I’m sure Nick Clegg would say).
This is an excellent short Lankum performance IMO, in which they play three of their most powerful, dark and slightly manic rearrangements of traditional Irish songs: The Wild Rover/Rocky Road to Dublin/Bear Creek.
Lankum – Live at WGBH
YouTube video by GBH Music
youtu.be
October 20, 2025 at 7:36 PM
This is an excellent short Lankum performance IMO, in which they play three of their most powerful, dark and slightly manic rearrangements of traditional Irish songs: The Wild Rover/Rocky Road to Dublin/Bear Creek.
Astonishing figures. OAI might be worth $.5tn, but plans to invest that amount in US data centres alone. It will have to make even more to pay off investors. Only one example of a tech. company with a huge valuation financed by other tech. companies. Analysts predict a market correction - at least.
Nvidia to Invest $100 Billion in OpenAI
www.nytimes.com
September 26, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Astonishing figures. OAI might be worth $.5tn, but plans to invest that amount in US data centres alone. It will have to make even more to pay off investors. Only one example of a tech. company with a huge valuation financed by other tech. companies. Analysts predict a market correction - at least.
Reposted by Martin Murray
An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’
Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'
Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’
Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'
September 19, 2025 at 10:25 AM
An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’
Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'
Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’
Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'
Brexit has cost the UK creative sector an estimated €184 million.
"Without a clear vision for culture in a post-Brexit context, the UK risks leaving large parts of its creative sector without the support they need to survive."
✍️ Kirsty Warner and @husseinkassim.bsky.social explore the impact of Brexit on the creative industries
ukandeu.ac.uk/how-uk...
✍️ Kirsty Warner and @husseinkassim.bsky.social explore the impact of Brexit on the creative industries
ukandeu.ac.uk/how-uk...
How UK creative industries are navigating Brexit alone - UK in a changing Europe
Kirsty Warner and Hussein Kassim explore the impact of Brexit on the UK creative industries.
ukandeu.ac.uk
August 9, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Brexit has cost the UK creative sector an estimated €184 million.
Reposted by Martin Murray
Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'
July 23, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'
Good. Defamatory lying on social media is the aggressive business model of the 21st Century - pioneered by Alex Jones and copied by Candace Owen. It’s like a hostile takeover bid on a personal level. Horrible, disturbed and disturbing.
French president and wife sue rightwing US commentator Candace Owens for defamation
Owens has claimed that France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, is a man, and that French president is controlled by CIA
www.theguardian.com
July 24, 2025 at 5:12 AM
Good. Defamatory lying on social media is the aggressive business model of the 21st Century - pioneered by Alex Jones and copied by Candace Owen. It’s like a hostile takeover bid on a personal level. Horrible, disturbed and disturbing.
Estimates of amount lost annually due to decreased trade are £120-140bn.
Farage should never be interviewed without being forced to answer for failures of Brexit. That the man whose lies fuelled Brexit vote which has cost UK Billions & who said Liz Truss budget was “best Tory budget since 1986” could be trusted on *anything* is mind-boggling #bbclaura
July 20, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Estimates of amount lost annually due to decreased trade are £120-140bn.
I’m quite ready to believe that a good LLM could imitate, say, Nietzsche and even offer Nietzschean interpretations of different phenomena (although the quality and accuracy of them would be variable). But one of my questions is this: if Nietzsche hadn’t existed, could AI have invented him?
July 20, 2025 at 9:03 AM
I’m quite ready to believe that a good LLM could imitate, say, Nietzsche and even offer Nietzschean interpretations of different phenomena (although the quality and accuracy of them would be variable). But one of my questions is this: if Nietzsche hadn’t existed, could AI have invented him?
Lovely, IMO.
Radie Peat & Daragh Lynch (LANKUM) - 'Hares on the Mountain' from episode 3 of 'This Ain't No Disco'
YouTube video by LankumDublin
youtu.be
July 18, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Lovely, IMO.
Reposted by Martin Murray
As I keep saying: if it's truth you want, read fiction, not 'true stories'. Fiction writers are honest liars. They're not out to con you. If you want to read a redemption narrative about going on a long walk, read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
July 6, 2025 at 12:47 PM
As I keep saying: if it's truth you want, read fiction, not 'true stories'. Fiction writers are honest liars. They're not out to con you. If you want to read a redemption narrative about going on a long walk, read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
The biggest gap in people’s knowledge about AI right now is to do with what it can’t do, not what it can.
'I'm being paid to fix issues caused by AI'
Businesses that rush to use AI to write content or computer code, often have to pay humans to fix it.
www.bbc.com
July 4, 2025 at 5:31 AM
The biggest gap in people’s knowledge about AI right now is to do with what it can’t do, not what it can.
Really? Are the guardian blatantly pitching for the teen readership now?
July 1, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Really? Are the guardian blatantly pitching for the teen readership now?
Glastonbury media coverage reveals more about media than Glastonbury.
June 29, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Glastonbury media coverage reveals more about media than Glastonbury.
Reposted by Martin Murray
Jeff Bezos appears to be wearing the wrong waistcoat for his wedding. This is a dinner suit (aka a tuxedo) and thus requires a dress waistcoat, which is cut lower on the body. He's wearing a business vest, which is designed for business suits. Needs a formal waistcoat like the one on the right.
June 27, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Jeff Bezos appears to be wearing the wrong waistcoat for his wedding. This is a dinner suit (aka a tuxedo) and thus requires a dress waistcoat, which is cut lower on the body. He's wearing a business vest, which is designed for business suits. Needs a formal waistcoat like the one on the right.
‘As social inequality in Britain deepens, the problem gets worse: since the 1970s the proportion of working-class actors, musicians and writers has halved.’
Who represents Britain on screen? UK film and TV culture still has a worrying class problem
The narrowness of this field is bad news for diversity – we need greater breadth and depth when it comes to British culture and those who produce it.
theconversation.com
June 27, 2025 at 7:01 AM
‘As social inequality in Britain deepens, the problem gets worse: since the 1970s the proportion of working-class actors, musicians and writers has halved.’
‘It is in the nature of moral qualities that they are destroyed by deficiency or excess’
Aristotle, Ethics.
This seems as true to me now as the first time I read it.
Picture: Aristotle from the School of Athens fresco in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City, Rome.
Aristotle, Ethics.
This seems as true to me now as the first time I read it.
Picture: Aristotle from the School of Athens fresco in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City, Rome.
June 27, 2025 at 6:24 AM
‘It is in the nature of moral qualities that they are destroyed by deficiency or excess’
Aristotle, Ethics.
This seems as true to me now as the first time I read it.
Picture: Aristotle from the School of Athens fresco in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City, Rome.
Aristotle, Ethics.
This seems as true to me now as the first time I read it.
Picture: Aristotle from the School of Athens fresco in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City, Rome.
Emily Catalano: consistently funny, IMO.
Coming out as agnostic
YouTube video by Emily Catalano
www.youtube.com
June 22, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Emily Catalano: consistently funny, IMO.
There's a fair bit of Mexican/Tejano/Tex-Mex being played in our house right now, including various versions of this song, which was written and first performed by Lydia Mendoza in 1934. We like both versions a lot.
Rhiannon Giddens - "Mal Hombre" // The Bluegrass Situation
YouTube video by The Bluegrass Situation [BGS]
youtu.be
June 22, 2025 at 11:18 AM
There's a fair bit of Mexican/Tejano/Tex-Mex being played in our house right now, including various versions of this song, which was written and first performed by Lydia Mendoza in 1934. We like both versions a lot.
People should make their own judgments about Digicorp politics, including what to boycott, if anything. But for anyone who knows and cares anything about how the music business currently manages streaming revenue, I'll leave this here.
Spotify CEO becomes chairman of AI military business
The Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, is leading a €600 million investment into a start-up company specialising in AI military software. He has also been named chairman.
faroutmagazine.co.uk
June 22, 2025 at 10:48 AM
People should make their own judgments about Digicorp politics, including what to boycott, if anything. But for anyone who knows and cares anything about how the music business currently manages streaming revenue, I'll leave this here.
The stats DON’T show that the white-collar jobs market is collapsing. My observation: Altman et al have stopped using the term AGI. They now say ‘super intelligence.’ This is because AGI is a key Silicon Valley myth (read hype). AI hype is like C20 scientism: it’s only part-true.
Why AI hasn’t taken your job
And any jobs-pocalypse seems a long way off
economist.com
June 20, 2025 at 5:28 AM
The stats DON’T show that the white-collar jobs market is collapsing. My observation: Altman et al have stopped using the term AGI. They now say ‘super intelligence.’ This is because AGI is a key Silicon Valley myth (read hype). AI hype is like C20 scientism: it’s only part-true.