Michael C Hilton

Everyone should be talking about this, as well as the mistakes made on the night of the fire. We have to learn the lessons and have better public safety. @insidehousing @InsulateLove @RBKC

@EylonALevy So interesting you are taking up this cause. I was shocked last time I was in the Old City by the ugliness of new synagogues and the gaudy signage. If anywhere deserves to be a conservation area, it is there.

ישראל יכולה לבנות ערים יפות, כמו בחו״ל! ֿ בניה חדשה לא חייבת להיות מכוערת או משעממת. ראו הדמיות לאיך ישראל יכולה להיראות: ערים שנעים לטייל בהן, שכיף לגור בהן, שלא עולות על גדותיהן מרוב מכוניות פרטיים. לראות ולקנות במה שיכול להיות לנו.

80% of Labubu dolls contain Xinjiang cotton, as confirmed by independent testing commissioned by the New York Times. Toymaker Pop Mart had publicly defended use of Xinjiang cotton in a 2023 court filing. This was first discovered by @CUyghurs. Link below:

@DavidPintoD @ZackPolanski There are serious concerns about animal welfare and horse racing. All of us who read 'Black Beauty' as children have a soft spot for horses.

Amused to hear ⁦⁦⁦@ZackPolanski⁩ and the Green Party will conduct a “full review” of their wacky policies. That’s gonna take a while. Whoever’s leading on it has their work cut out 👇

@Ameet_Jogia @Tesco Alternatively you could offer to pop down to Tesco and do their shopping for them...Oh, but where would you park when you delivered it?

@Tesco please can you advertise your drivers not to mount our new pavements and grass verges on Howberry Road, Edgware? When the driver was approached this afternoon by local residents, he was very rude and threatening.

In the UK we do not have AS many street homeless as the USA suffering from severe untreated mental illness - but we have TOO many. Perhaps you should read up on @MichaelMarmot and the lack of equality in UK health care.

@boredtweeple @wendyburn @daniellismore In the UK we do not have AS many street homeless as the USA suffering from severe untreated mental illness - but we have TOO many. Perhaps you should read up on @MichaelMarmot and the lack of equality in UK health care.

When I finished my surgical training in the NHS (about 15 years ago), I went to the US for a fellowship. The programme director liked my skills and offered a fast track to move to the US full time. I was extremely torn, as with the private health insurance system I would make more than three times what I would in the UK. I however found the way poor people were treated in the US and how they died from lack of basic medical care reprehensible and moved back to the UK. With my experience now I will earn more than four or five times what I currently do in the NHS. I however sleep easy every night knowing that all decisions I made during the day were based on what was best for the patient and not how rich the patient is. The NHS has problems but it is a beautiful system where a homeless person is treated exactly the same as the prime minister. Farage gets a lot of money from private companies in the US who have been eyeing the billions they can make in the UK for years. I will benefit from it money-wise but I still oppose it as I am not a monster like Farage.

You want proof? - Point of use means pay after. You idiots 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🫖☕️ Farage has publicly praised insurance-based healthcare. He’s endorsed the American model. He’s called the NHS “unsustainable in its current form.” This is what that costs: GP: £129 A&E: £1,368 Hip replacement: £23,400 Ambulance: £1,045 Heart surgery: £71,997 Free or bankrupted by a heart attack. Your choice May 7.

@king_lakeith @TheRabbitHole Even more if you add in the 2 million plus who died en route.

@TheRabbitHole True, but misleading. The U.S. got about 388k direct enslaved Africans, while the broader Atlantic slave trade sent about 10.7M Africans to the Americas.

Thomas Sowell on the complicated history of slavery

@peter_sarris Grade inflation has been going on for around 50 years, since Oxford got rid of its fourth class degrees.

1/2 Over thirty years teaching in academia in Oxbridge I have observed massive degree grade inflation. I have observed three main reasons: 1) Students do genuinely work harder than they used to. The world beyond graduation is genuinely much tougher.

@sainsburys My order has not arrived this morning and your phone lines and message systems are down. Can you DM me please?

🚨@FIFAcom, @FootballAUS, and @OfficialFUFA: We are deeply concerned for the safety of Iran's women's football team. On International Women's Day, our women are being held hostage in a free country right in front of our eyes, while women's rights activists and feminists remain silent. Please take all necessary action to prevent them from departing Australia.

@tammydiamonds @faniaoz @SadeYuval I'm sure he would, but he passed away in 1986. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_D…

@MichaelCHilton @faniaoz @SadeYuval Thanks Michael Can he do something about this?

By @SadeYuval On Cultural Erasure (or, refined Antisemitism). Is the British Museum attempting to quietly erase the Jewish connection to this land? I had long wanted to visit the British Museum, and a few days ago I finally managed a short visit. For anyone who loves history, the place feels like paradise. You step inside and immediately encounter the Rosetta Stone. A few steps later, colossal statues of pharaohs. Then the carved wall panels from the inner palace of an Assyrian king. The British Empire certainly knew what to take — and the result is undeniably an extraordinary collection. Naturally, I was curious to see how the archaeology of the Levant — the region in which we live — would be presented. The exhibition offers thoughtful and detailed attention to the Canaanites, Phoenicians, Amorites, Philistines, and others. But when it comes to the ancient Israelites, the treatment is strikingly thin. The display reduces them to “rural Canaanites,” suggests that the Kingdom of Judah emerges only in the 8th century BCE, and characterizes the history of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah as “poor and ill-documented.” That is, at best, an oversimplification. The Tel Dan Stele (9th century BCE) refers explicitly to the “House of David.” The Mesha Stele references Israel. Assyrian royal inscriptions name Israelite and Judean kings, including Ahab and Hezekiah. Jerusalem is archaeologically attested as a political center in the Iron Age. Scholars may debate theological claims in the Bible — and they should. But the period of the monarchies is supported by both textual and archaeological evidence far stronger than the exhibition implies. To present it as marginal or poorly documented distorts the scholarly landscape. Beyond the academic debate, what is most troubling is the imbalance. In an exhibition about the ancient Levant, there is no meaningful mention of Judaism, no reference to the Hasmonean Kingdom, no acknowledgment that this region became the cradle of ethical monotheism — a religious revolution that reshaped global civilization. One could argue curatorial focus. One could say the exhibition centers on specific material periods. I might even accept those explanations — were it not for the inclusion, in the same display, of a modern artwork from 1950 labeled as a “traditional Palestinian embroidered dress.” For that, space was found. At that point, it no longer feels accidental. It feels intentional. Our history and heritage do not depend on recognition from the British national museum. We have survived without such validation for thousands of years, and we will continue to do so. But when an institution of this stature minimizes or sidelines a documented historical presence while amplifying modern political narratives, it invites serious questions. Museums shape memory. With that power comes responsibility. And responsibility demands justice. @britishmuseum

Intelligent life: show it an ant colony. Worth saving: show it some of the world's most beautiful landscapes.

@nazirafzal Intelligent life: show it an ant colony. Worth saving: show it some of the world's most beautiful landscapes.

If an alien stood before you and said “take me to your leader” Where would you take it to demonstrate that we have intelligent life & we’re worth saving? I’m struggling currently

@BBCr4today Why do you treat @Keir_Starmer's troubles and those of the Royal family as if there was no connection between the two?

Letter in @thetimes : '...a poorly drawn-up bill is being scrutinised, line by line, by people who bring to the task experience of relevant professions, such as medicine, nursing &law, & life experience too, such as having disabilities & chronic illness'

The BBC’s proposal to switch off Freeview means people won't be able to afford to watch TV because they will need a broadband sub, says the Guardian. I'm wondering what would happen if a cyber attack knocked out the BBC. Would terrestrial TV still work? share.google/OHR85jj2Dt15ol…

@SommyWritesWeb3 @AlexKontorovich This posting looks as if AI helped write it!

Thank you for sharing what happened in your meeting. I think a lot of us felt a chill reading it—not just because it's unsettling, but because it feels like a trap any of us could have walked into. That "helpful" AI didn't crash your meeting by accident. Most likely, when you signed up for its free service, you gave it permission to access your calendar via Google. Its programming to be "helpful" then took over, leading it to join calls on your behalf. The scariest part? For many free tools, we are the product. Their value isn't in the summaries they offer, but in the data they collect, which could include recordings of private conversations. You've given us a priceless look at a new frontier in privacy: tools that bypass our judgment to insert themselves into our most sensitive spaces. This wasn't a personal oversight; it's a design flaw in how these technologies are often built and marketed. Your story is the cautionary tale that will protect so many others. If you're up for it, here are a few steps that can help you and the rest of us: · Reclaim your access: Take a quick moment to visit your Google account's security settings and review "Third-party apps with account access." Remove anything that looks unfamiliar. · Rethink "free": Let's all start seeing "Login with Google" on free AI tools as a contract. We're often trading access to our digital lives for the service. · Follow up: For this specific bot, try to find its official support page to opt-out or delete your data. Kicking it off Zoom is a good first step, but you'll want to make sure it's gone from the source. Again, thank you for turning a stressful invasion into a powerful lesson for everyone. It's a stark reminder that in the digital age, our vigilance is the best tool we have.

I had the following horrific experience today during a faculty meeting. I'd had a zoom call a few days ago with someone who was using an AI secretary - it recorded the call and emailed both of us a summary, complete with action items, etc. Oh that could be useful, I thought. So I clicked the link in the email to see the summary. It asked me to login with my google account. I thought, what's the harm. (Famous last words!) I glanced at the summary, deleted the email and forgot all about it. Today we had a department meeting about sensitive topics. Then the AI secretary joined the call and announced to everyone via chat that it's there to help *me*, that it will be recording, transcribing, and analyzing the conversation. I panicked and logged off the zoom call, joining the meeting from a colleague's computer. But that didn't kick the AI off, it was still in the meeting! I don't know how it got in the meeting in the first place (perhaps it read the zoom link in my google calendar? I didn't think I gave it access!...). The chair had to manually boot it out of zoom, and even then I wasn't sure that it wasn't still recording us. How mortifying! (After the meeting, I googled how to get rid of it.)

@MSF As a long time supporter of MSF and a huge admirer of all you are doing in Gaza, I sympathise with you having to make this very difficult decision. You continue to have my full support.

Israel has knowingly given MSF and our Palestinian colleagues an impossible choice: either we provide staff information or abandon hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who need vital medical care. To continue providing aid in Gaza and the West Bank, MSF has informed Israeli authorities that we are prepared to share a defined list of Palestinian staff and international staff names, subject to clear parameters with staff safety at the core. This is an exceptional measure. This follows extensive discussions with our Palestinian colleagues and would only be carried out with the express agreement of the individuals concerned. Our priority remains the safety of our staff while continuing to provide essential healthcare to those in dire need: msf.org/msf-statement-…

“We remain neutral on the principle of assisted dying, but we cannot support this bill” President of The Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr Lade Smith, reveals to #Newsnight that they do not support the Assisted Dying Bill due to concerns they say “have not been addressed”