By Leaps And Bounds

 AI gets better and better- and there's more of it. You need to make an historical reconstruction for your Youtube channel? Forget the actors in wigs, the stiff, stately home theatrics; just build it all in the computer. I watched a short clip about Agricola's invasion of what is now Scotland- and Agricola looked like a real person with actual human feelings, the battle was epic, as was the footage of the Roman fleet oaring its way round a rocky, misty coastline. Apparently the vogue word for this kind of thing is "slop" but there was nothing sloppy about what I was seeing. There was evidence of human intelligence shaping it, proper research having gone into it, artistic sensibility crafting it. Really, this was the next best thing to owning a Time Machine.

And there are proper little movies being made as well. Check out The Patchwright from Gossip Goblin- a studio run by Zack London- an American living in Sweden. It's a 20 minute movie set in a dystopian society. The story is not only fascinating but philosophical, the visuals are hyper-real, the world-building detailed and immaculate.  Think Blade Runner- only better. This ain't slop, it's art. And significant Art at that. The big studios, the big actors are taking an interest. Soon there'll be full-length movies of this quality- and people will be making them on their phones....

Phil Laurie

 Phil's "offence" was being part of a group from Just Stop Oil that shut down a petrol station at Cobham Services on the M25 in 2022. You can find the details online. Just Google "Phil Laurie"

Controversial guy. He thinks climate catastrophe is imminent. In one scenario Britain turns into Siberia, in the other it becomes tropical. Either way Quaker Meetings need to prepare for a future in which infrastructure fails. Some found him convincing. Others didn't. But that's Quakerism: hear all sides of an issue and then "discern" a response. After the Meeting eight of us- including Phil- had a long, leisurely lunch at the Crown and Anchor.

"You like what he has to say because it's woo-woo," says Ailz. Well, yes, I'm not going to argue.

I took a picture of him yesterday morning, with his heavily laden bike,