1. There’s been a lot of discussion here in the UK recently about ‘updating’ books to reflect current sensitivities and sensibilities, in particular Roald Dahl’s. Ed Cumming and his team in The Daily Telegraph broke the story, but here’s the free-to-read Guardian account https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/18/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-to-remove-language-deemed-offensive

Also from The Guardian, a good podcast on the topic with David Baddiel https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2023/feb/27/rewriting-roald-dahl-podcast

plus a piece by Ursula Le Guin’s son from Literary Hub – well worth dipping into occasionally – on re-writing his mother’s books https://lithub.com/why-i-decided-to-update-the-language-in-ursula-k-le-guins-childrens-books/

2. The 2023 edition – the twenty-third – of the Edelman Trust Barometer has just been published https://www.edelman.com/trust/2023/trust-barometer

Here’s a brief summary of their grim findings: “A lack of faith in societal institutions triggered by economic anxiety, disinformation, mass-class divide and a failure of leadership has brought us to where we are today – deeply and dangerously polarized, with business the only institution seen as competent and ethical, 53% of respondents globally saying that their countries are more divided today than in the past, and an obligation on CEOs to improve economic optimism and hold divisive forces accountable.”

In business we trust? PDF below.

3. I guess this had to happen! AI makes plagiarism harder to detect, argue academics – in paper written by chatbot https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/19/ai-makes-plagiarism-harder-to-detect-argue-academics-in-paper-written-by-chatbot Thanks to Mark Henebury for bringing this to my attention.

4. And thanks to Kelly Beaver for bringing the Early Intervention Foundation to my attention.

Two short videos: What is early intervention? https://youtu.be/1TdNbOco9jU and Why does early intervention matter? https://youtu.be/liPtHMa7WCY

and an introductory article https://www.eif.org.uk/why-it-matters/what-is-early-intervention

I well remember being told in Edinburgh some years ago by Alan Sinclair that post-natal intervention was very often too late.

5. And, finally, a video highlighted on Seth Godin’s blog the other day, The gap between impossible and normal https://youtu.be/gnEIeVWLtbU

Here’s the blog post https://seths.blog/2023/03/the-gap-between-impossible-and-normal/