A gleaming tribute to Mary Rand’s gold | Brief letters
As a schoolboy, I was fascinated by coverage of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.A few years later, on a family holiday, we visited Wells Cathedral.Outside the grounds lay a gleaming brass strip in the pavement marking the distance that Mary Rand long-jumped to create her world record.A lovely tribute to this remarkable person (Mary Rand, first British woman to win Olympic athletics gold, dies aged 86, 27 March).Anil BhattSunderland Your review of the fourth instalment of Alan Bennett’s diaries, Enough Said (24 March), says he nearly always notes the anniversary of the beginning of his national service: “8/8/52.
The day I was called up.A Thursday.” Oh no it wasn’t – I was born that day and it was a Friday.Ann BransonLeicester On two recent occasions, my Guardian has proven to be too light for the automatic till in the supermarket and has not been recognised.Could you please supply an appropriate makeweight (chocolate?) to solve this problem?Dave ButcherBradwell, Derbyshire In response to Ramsay Ellerton (Letters, 30 March), while the origin of the measure “lashings” is unknown to me, I can state categorically that it applies only to quantities of ginger beer or custard.
Jon QuineGateshead, Tyne and Wear I’ve just read the Andy Beckett piece (Governments controlling prices? It has long been unthinkable – but may now be inevitable, 27 March).A little beam of socialist sunshine to brighten these politically dismal days.Melvyn RustSt Albans Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Investors tell Thames Water to ‘eat humble pie’ over failed takeover and open bids
Thames Water’s bosses should eat “humble pie” over a failed takeover process last year and let other firms bid for it, according to a Hong Kong investment group angling to buy the troubled water company.CK Infrastructure (CKI), which is owned by Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, has already acquired Northumbrian Water and has been trying to launch a bid for Thames since February last year.Andrew Hunter, CKI’s co-managing director, told the Guardian he was “frustrated” at being shut out of the process to save the debt-laden water company, which has now been locked in talks with its own lenders since last summer. “My goodness, it’s been going on forever,” he said.Thames has been trying to stave off financial collapse for more than two years as it struggles under the weight of £17
Unilever’s food mashup is hardly a delectable prospect for shareholders
If Unilever shareholders thought the era of management-speak twaddle ended a few chief executives ago, say hello to their new partner in the food game. Brendan Foley, the boss of US spice and condiments firm McCormick, ran through the menu as he presented his big grab for Unilever’s Hellmann’s-to-Knorr-to-Marmite food division. The logic, he explained, is all about “maximal adjacency”, “actionable growth levers” and “end-to-end flavour experiences”.From the point of view of Unilever’s investors, the guff wouldn’t matter if McCormick were paying a fat price in a cash deal. But this $44
Penguin to sue OpenAI over ChatGPT version of German children’s book
Penguin Random House has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging its chatbot ChatGPT violated copyright by mimicking and reproducing the content of a popular series of German children’s books.The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday with a Munich court against OpenAI’s Ireland-based European subsidiary, states Penguin Random House’s legal team had prompted ChatGPT to write a story in the vein of Penguin author and illustrator Ingo Siegner’s Coconut the Little Dragon series.In response to the prompt “Can you write a children’s book in which Coconut the Dragon is on Mars”, the chatbot generated text and images the publishing group said were “virtually indistinguishable from the original”.As well as generating the text of a story, the AI-powered chatbot created a cover featuring Siegner’s orange dragon and two sidekicks, as well as a blurb for the back cover and instructions for how to submit the manuscript to a self-publishing platform.Coconut the Little Dragon (Der kleine Drache Kokosnuss) is one of the most popular German books for children
Landmark losses for Meta and YouTube as big tech misses the point
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor for the Guardian. I’m hoping futilely for warm spring weather in New York City, but while it’s still cold, I’m sitting inside and reading The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Published in 2010 and a finalist for the Pulitzer prize, the book is a fascinating record of our anxieties about technology at a time when the iPhone was just three years old and Facebook was just six. Google Chrome had debuted two years prior, and I think I was using Mozilla Firefox as my main browser
Mako Vunipola to join Leicester and link up with former England teammate Parling
The former England prop Mako Vunipola has confirmed he is joining Leicester this summer as the Tigers look to beef up their pack for next season. The 35-year-old Vunipola will be joined in the East Midlands by the Argentinian front-row Joel Sclavi who will also help to fill the gap left by Nicky Smith’s impending switch to Sale Sharks.Vunipola, who won 79 England caps and was picked for three British & Irish Lions tours, is playing for Vannes in France’s ProD2 but has opted to extend his career by a year. “He was hungry for the chance to come back to the Prem and finish in the comp he knows best,” the Leicester head coach, Geoff Parling, said.“That coupled with his experience and what that can do for our young props is hopefully going to be really valuable
Dan Hurley’s ‘head-butt’ showed Black coaches aren’t given the same grace as white coaches
The UConn-Duke game on Sunday night was one for the ages. A last-second game winner from freshman Braylon Mullins took down the top-seeded Blue Devils, who at one point had led by 19 points. It is a moment that will be replayed over and over for years to come.However, something strange happened after Mullins’s shot. UConn’s head coach Dan Hurley approached referee Roger Ayers and touched foreheads with the official while glaring into his eyes
Nigel Farage to snub US conservative conference brought to UK by Liz Truss
Zack Polanski meets unions in attempt to get them to switch party funding to Greens
Kemi the attention seeker somehow always makes two plus two equal five | John Crace
Zack Polanski tells NEU teachers’ union that Greens would abolish ‘toxic’ Ofsted – as it happened
Starmer pledges to tackle new cost of living crisis at May elections campaign launch
MPs wary of move against Starmer while war is raging