Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026For me, this is also a recognition for a *body* of work. Taken together, "Privacy is Power" and "Prophecy" have very significantly changed my thinking. That's what human, risk-taking authorship does. 🌞 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Looking forward to the Select Committee hearings regarding technical failures, and huge time and cost overruns. #HS2 000
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Just the angle, or are the clocks showing a different time? Maybe the time *is* different around the corner. Striking photograph. 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I never knew that. Thanks. It's all a bit of a mish mash of styles and architectural flourishes along that elevation. All the more beautiful for it, I think. 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I am going to buy this *tomorrow*. It's an act of the greatest personal negligence that I have just left it on my list. 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026And it's a downward spiral. As output quality and variety decline because of cuts, more people question the licence fee, especially at a time when many "alternatives" vie for attention. As the licence fee funding declines there are more cuts. Even my favourite Radio 3 is fading. We'll regret this. 020
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026"A chance encounter you want to avoid, The inevitable." Wire's take. A sort of reverse serendipity. Great riff. 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Doing *anything* to avoid listening to the UK #ToryConference. Admittedly a little niche, but I am heartened to see a Wollstonecraft station (T1,9) on the Sydney transport network. Very (politically) encouraged by this. #ukpol @sydneystations.bsky.social 020
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026It's going to be the "slashing red tape" Shadow Chancellor speech again. #ukpol 000
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026From this distance I'd be guessing. Assuming "yes". #rhetorical 000
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 04/10/2026BBC News is reporting OpenAI has fired (three) researchers for allegedly mishandling information. Hold on. OpenAI has based its business on mishandling other people's sensitive data - only the data is called IP and the company refers to the process as "training". 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026So much sumptuous stuff out there coming at us and we don't know what to do. It's a struggle to fend it off. Luckily, I have an 18th Century loft. I'd need planning permission to put anything heavier than a bag of sugar in it. #Boogie 🌞 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026*Double* album, fold-out sleeve. Pictures of the band inside. Wall poster - various pictures taken on the sell out tour. Sorry, it's my age; I was assuming vinyl. 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Owls. Who'd have thought they would be part of the historic mission of the proletariat? ✊ 000
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Poster in the window tells no lie: "Your Malaysian Craving Ends Here". I've got one, now... 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The only way we can really know is for the peerless Rob Cowan to go down to his shed. However, I would venture to suggest this is a candidate for one of the finest accounts of Mahler's 9th (or is it the 10th?) Symphony. #Solti #ChicagoSymphony #Mahler #MusicSky 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Just made me think of Umberto Eco, "The Name of the Rose", which, incidentally, I used to drink in. Can't explain this. Probably the medieval sky and the brooding religiosity (to my mind). Love this. 🌞 021
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026A world with no Greene on the bookshelf is unimaginable. 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 01/10/2026That's fantastic, and also rather beautiful. SMILE. Backronym, do you think? I mean, what were the chances? 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 01/10/2026There's also a bargain in the process of being struck over the location of the other shoe. 001
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I can just see the hands on the glass and hear the screams... 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Careful, Eric. It's slowing down, and that will end up breaking your wrist. 000
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026...and took a very atmospheric photo. Great in mono. 🌞 220
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Enjoyed the sailing season. Great photos. "Talisman" coming out of the water marks a turning point in the year. Looking forward to the powder. 🏂❄️ 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Unless specialised, unlikely to be competitive versus economies that can massively scale. Will probably come with highly damaging deregulation, especially a rolling back of environmental protections. Political fantasy from Healey. 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026For my birthday I'm going to buy a book on James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Any suggestions? 100
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026There also appears to be something about the *physicality* of writing that is reinforcing, embodied. However, I'm no psychologist or neuroscientist. Interesting, though, how we're rewiring ourselves, and losing cognitive depth. Anyway. 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I'm much taken by Christine Rosen's remarks on learning in "The Extinction of Experience". Hand writing of notes, for example, seems to reinforce understanding precisely because it is less efficient at capture than a digital alternative. Students are thus forced to précis/synthesise/form a view. 1/2 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Bugger. I was (seriously) thinking of emigrating, and had planned to use the European au pair loophole. Guess now I'll have try a dinghy across to the Gouldburn Islands and take my chances in Arnhem Land. 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I think life, well lived, should be a bit niche. No? 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026100%. Huge, and growing, environmental costs alongside marginal benefits. Just an economic model, a derivative, a new capital generator for the oligarchs. WTF are we going to do with some new proteins and a few mathematical problems ticked off from Hilbert's list? 000
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I'm thousands of miles away, and even I can see this @karinarykman.bsky.social thing is happening. 🎸🌞 021
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Contingent events. A problem for Manchester City and the Premier League is that, subject to possible appeal, everyone now faces an avalanche of what-ifs. We are about to enter the era of the football counterfactual. The breaches mean years of sporting endeavour have been tainted. #ManCity 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026If he were alive, I think Henry I might be considering legal action. 🌞 000
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026If I illegally access ("hack") private healthcare data belonging to Australian citizens, I would rightly face the full force of Australian law. If an AI *agent* does likewise, are we saying there is a victim but no indictable perpetrator? OpenAI leadership *must* face direct consequences. Enough. 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026How often do you get a dodgy lamp but amazing lighting? You do here. Truly beautiful tones. 010
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Oh, bugger. Does this mean the White Ship didn't go down, after all? 111
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Halfway and then you're counting down to the finish. Then it's done. Then it's Proms '27 prep. The Northern Hemisphere wishes you good luck. Stay strong. 🌞✊ 110
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026So obvious that if we don't move to request joining the EU, British politics is demonstrably rigged - bought and paid for. The EU issue is the litmus test for UK democracy. Now, watch what happens... 001
Ron Manton @ronmanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Politicians could have a field day with this paper. Luckily, being merely careerists rather than taking any genuine interest in behaviour they will never see it. 000