rob witts (@robwitts) · DIRTY

rob witts

@robwitts

a guy who hangs around universities and opera houses

1.229 Folgt697 Follower1.539 Posts

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rob witts@robwitts· 27d

Ariadne auf Naxos baybeee

The auditorium at Glyndebourne

rob witts@robwitts· 27d

sharing a slide from an institutional briefing for no reason

Line graph with the heading 'We have improved our sector ranking' with a line going from 91 in 2023 to 69 in 2026

rob witts@robwitts· Jul 7

i'm sorry what

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rob witts@robwitts· Jul 6

just catching up with a really good briefing to the scottish parliament about university finances - every word of this applies south of the border

Universities are not peripheral to Scotland's economy, rather they are anchor institutions that can generate £28.30 billion in annual economic impact, support 34,000 jobs through research funding, and create employment multiplier effects that are capable of sustaining entire regional economies. For example, in Edinburgh, the university sector's
contribution is reckoned to be equivalent to ten Commonwealth Games as the University generates £7.52 billion per year to the UK economy compared with £740 million over seven years by the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games. In Dundee, universities support 1 in 12 jobs in the city.

rob witts@robwitts· Jul 3

I am an absolutely huge fan of the guy who publishes our local travel newsletter travelloglewes.co.uk

The multi-million pound paths of Firle

Being an exploration of tax avoidance, Bohemianism and upmarket graffiti. The Firle estate has been given hugely valuable inheritance tax exemption for property worth millions, seemingly simply in return for providing 2 new paths. This walk explores those two paths and nearby attractions. 11.46 Km / 7.12 Miles

rob witts@robwitts· Jun 29

who wore it better

Simpsons character Ned Flanders wearing a green sweater over a pink shirt

me wearing a green sweater over a pink shirt

rob witts@robwitts· Jun 29

thank you, and lol

Rightmove icon 'Can you afford it?'

rob witts@robwitts· Jun 27

i know it's wrong but i love him so much

Zohran Mamdani in a public swimming pool in East Harlem wearing his usual suit and tie, caption MAYOR MAMDANI KICKS OFF NYC POOL SEASON

rob witts@robwitts· Jun 26

Feeling pretty good about this dumb quiz

Political quiz results. Your closest match: Zohran Mamdani

rob witts@robwitts· Jun 25

not to add to #aircon discourse but: the first flat that Mrs W and I bought was this one here: 1/

photo showing the BedZED development: several blocks of accomodation with brick, wood and glass finishes, solar panels and prominent heat exchangers on the roof

rob witts@robwitts· Jun 22

rob witts@robwitts· Jun 19

oh no not again

political scientist turned right wing grifter Matt Goodwin eating a page of his book live on Sky News after underestimating Labour's vote share in the 2017 general election

rob witts@robwitts· May 19

have caution team

Still from the 80s kids TV show Knightmare with the caption 'Trial by Spikes'

rob witts@robwitts· May 13

as ever, dawn foster ftw

rob witts@robwitts· May 12

much to enjoy here, unlike watching the tonight show

The peak of this banal nightmare arrived only recently when Sam Altman, the serene architect of our contemporary algorithmic enclosure, sat across from Fallon to discuss the most intimate of human labors: the rearing of a child, and how he simply couldn’t imagine raising his newborn baby without the “help” of ChatGPT. With the flat, bloodless affect of a man who has already priced in the end of the world, Altman described using ChatGPT as a parental surrogate. Unlike with Hilton, here the audience is deathly quiet. As Altman offers up the future of his own offspring to the black box of his company’s large language model, Fallon’s grin never wavers. It is the ultimate Gothic inversion: the living child is transformed into a data set to be optimized, while the host performs a pantomime of joy to mask the sound of a tomb clicking shut.

The horror of The Tonight Show is perfected not in its live broadcast, but in its fragmentation and digital afterlife. The show is precision-crafted for algorithmic engagement. Every episode is around 90 minutes of filming whose primary purpose is to generate ten minutes of highly clickable YouTube content. Fallon isn’t really a host, he’s more a content curator, constantly mining the moment for its potential as a self-contained, shareable commodity.

The true audience is not the people watching at home at 11:30 PM, but the anonymous mass scrolling through video feeds the next morning. The original broadcast becomes merely the raw material for the machine, haunted by its digital offspring. This is where the Gothic element reasserts itself: the uncanny feeling that the show you are watching is not really happening. It is a ghostly simulacrum, merely rehearsing itself for its eventual, more profitable existence as a series of clips.

rob witts@robwitts· Apr 30

I saw this and thought of @drdominicdean.bsky.social

a frankly ludicrous shiny hot pink sports car parked outside the St Pancras hotel

rob witts@robwitts· Apr 30

it's giving

lin manuel miranda on tv reading off a smartphone

rob witts@robwitts· Apr 29

[sad trombone noises]

rob witts@robwitts· Apr 28

rob witts@robwitts· Apr 21

I appreciated the scope of John Blake's @post-18.bsky.social position paper on the wreckage that currently engulfs UK HE; his solution is a full reset of the relationship between state, universities and students via a substantial govt review post18.co.uk/blood-debt-t...

That the preferences of a small group of technocrats could reorient entirely the governing architecture of Britain’s fifth largest services export sector may well be a mistake, but it was not an accident. Higher education, indeed all of post-18, has been treated as a technical problem to be solved, not an essential component of a high-functioning constitutional democracy with a broad-based economy.

rob witts@robwitts· Apr 11

Lovely afternoon for a little run out to Hamsey church

A stubby little church tower

A heraldic shield on a whitewashed wall, old roof beams overhead

A stone nook with carvings

Stained glass window with a small alcove beneath

rob witts@robwitts· Mar 24

loved your analysis, and you made me lol

The most important thing about this whole ordeal is that, musically speaking, it is fucking awesome. People always ask me “how” they should listen to Tristan. The best way to listen to Tristan is with someone you are balefully if not despotically in unrequited love with. The second best way to listen to Tristan is, in true Wagnerian spirit, with another man’s wife.

rob witts@robwitts· Mar 23

drama in the estate whatsapp as one of our neighbours goes off on a white supremacist rant 💀

text messages: I mean the history and lineage of the Anglo-Saxons and Irish-Scot’s and their descendent which is unheard of in world history and is totally reasonable to want to preserve
If you think that’s bigoted talk to native peoples around the world

rob witts@robwitts· Mar 18

guess we'll be finding out

Feature ‘How could this be anything other than funny?!’ Behind the scenes of Saturday Night Live UK

rob witts@robwitts· Mar 17

montage of three images of comedian Bob Mortimer in character as Train Guy

rob witts@robwitts· Mar 7

hey @mcmansionhell.bsky.social

Prompt 'draw Siegfried'
'ai' responded with just about recognisable figure with sword and blond hair saying 'FATE? NO SMT'

rob witts@robwitts· Mar 5

who wore it better

rob witts@robwitts· Mar 4

rob witts@robwitts· Feb 27

one good tern deserves another

arctic tern flying over water

rob witts@robwitts· Feb 27

Good morning everyone!

Defeated racist Matt Goodwin eating a page of his book on live TV