Google NotebookLM podcast “deep dive” on my AI music restoration project and the democratisation of creativity (which I hadn’t thought about).

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So It Goes: AI On The Absurd Logic of Ealing Council

🎧 I fed my satirical piece about Ealing’s democratic innovations into Google’s NotebookLM.

Two AI hosts discovered how perfectly logical it is to close children’s centres while voting yourself a 70% pay rise. They marveled at the mathematical elegance of spending £1 million on councillor allowances to save £750,000 on community services. They found it remarkable that one person could tweet about “putting people before buildings” and then close the very buildings where people access services without experiencing any cognitive dissonance whatsoever.

The AIs were particularly impressed by Ealing’s latest innovation: rewriting petition rules to prevent residents from asking follow-up questions. Democracy 2.0 - now with less democracy! Much more efficient than the old system where people could actually influence things.

But here’s the thing the machines found most puzzling: impossible things keep happening in Ealing. Communities save their Young Adult Centre. They protect their Town Hall. They refuse to accept that decisions have been made.

Mrs. Patel might just save her children’s centre too.

The Save Ealing Children’s Centres campaign is live. The AIs think this is statistically improbable. Mrs. Patel understands perfectly.

Listen, then read why resistance isn’t futile.

An artificial conversation about very real absurdities.

Also available in Punjabi:


URGENT support to fund a legal challenge to Ealing Council’s decision to close 10 children’s centres.

Probably time to officially call it a day on #tinap @andyc@mastodon.me.uk.

Almost 16 years from conception, and a full 9 politically incorrect episodes later. On hiatus since our ultimate 2013 episode with the Godfather of ActivityPub @evan@cosocial.ca.

Xmas Past.

I listen to Jamendo so you don’t have to

My lucky day (NSFW).

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Machine of Interest

I asked The Machine to review my review of Person of Interest

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After my experience with pump.io (pump eye-oh not pump dot eye-oh), I’m delighted that micro.blog is micro dot blog.

Family Connection Restored

Spent the day at my Mum’s, and a good portion of our final half an hour with her trying to fix the wifi connection on her phone.

Restarting her router slightly improved connectivity.

Just as we’re about to leave, she says, “I’ve got loads of new routers they keep sending me.”

Quickly set up her new router and now everything works perfectly.

When we got back to our caravan, I got a text. “You didn’t take the plum loaf I got you.”

The Southall Gasworks Story

The story of how the remediation of Southall Gasworks highlights the environmental injustices faced by communities of colour.

The disregard for the health and concerns of these residents raises questions about the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens and the role of local government in protecting vulnerable populations.

It also highlights the potential conflicts between development, profit, and public health, and the need for greater transparency and accountability from authorities and developers.

(This is a Google NotebookLM creation, based on selected sources from my blog posts on Southall Gasworks.)

Chasing youths with carving knives

How my journey into care work was a serendipitous outcome of my search for meaning and purpose beyond the confines of traditional work. At least, that’s according to Google NotebookLM, based on my Curriculum Vitae series of blog posts.

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