1. You may need to register for a free account with The Spectator to read this breathless piece by Sean Thomas – please do! The person who edited this will soon be redundant: AI is now as good as a publishing professional https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-person-who-edited-this-will-soon-be-redundant/
From The Spectator FAQs: Can I read articles without becoming a subscriber? Non-subscribers can read a selection of articles for free each month after registering a web account. We hope that this will tempt you to join us as a full subscriber.
2. Here’s the latest issue of HLT (Humanising Language Teaching), which this month celebrates its silver jubilee https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr24/
Try Rod Bolitho’s piece on Humanism in Language Teaching: Roots and Practices https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr24/roots-and-practices or Having AI as an Assistant in Oral Presentation Skills Practices by Duangjaichanok Pansa https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr24/having-ai-as-an-assistant PDFs of both below.
Later this month, at 16:00 UK time on Thursday 25th April, Rod’s leading an online workshop for teachers, Humanism in the Classroom: what it means in practice. More info and registration here https://thebridge.sk/en/humanism-in-the-classroom-good-intentions-are-not-enough/
3. An invigorating preface by Adrienne Rich to Manifesto: Three Classic Essays on How to Change the World https://sevenstories.com/blogs/327-read-adrienne-rich-s-preface-to-manifesto-karl-marx-rosa-luxemburg-and-che-guevara I fear my political slip may be showing, despite my inclusion of a piece from The Spectator above …
4. Here’s the ICAI (the Independent Commission for Aid Impact) ‘follow up report’ on UK aid to refugees in the UK https://icai.independent.gov.uk/review/icai-follow-up-2022-23/review/ PDF below.
“Our follow-up of our report on refugee costs found the government’s response to ICAI’s recommendations to be inadequate. Spending by the Home Office hosting asylum seekers and refugees has continued to rise, driven by hotel costs, despite concerns about the value for money and effectiveness of this approach.”
5. And, finally, Jacques Futrelle went down with The Titanic 112 years ago yesterday and was last seen smoking a cigar on deck with the fabulously wealthy John Jacob Astor IV, both men’s wives having left the ship in the lifeboats. Both wives survived; both husbands went down with the ship. The Problem of Cell 13 was the first of Futrelle’s stories to feature the detective Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, a.k.a. ‘The Thinking Machine’, and a rival in his time to Sherlock Holmes https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603601h.html
Roy Cross's Blog 