Mountain bikes, molehills and one-act plays – take the Thursday quiz
Every now and then the quiz master is allowed to take a break, and when that happens, instead of the Thursday quiz being a random assortment of odd questions loosely tied to the week's news, it becomes a random assortment of odd questions loosely tied to some vague theme that he was able to write well in advance. And so this week your 15 questions all have some kind of increasingly tenuous connection to the theme of mountains and hills. Enjoy!
The Thursday quiz, No 203
If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working and are absolutely 100% positive you aren't attempting to factcheck a joke – you can complain about it in the comments below. But why not watch a rare 1985 television performance of Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) by Kate Bush instead?
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Times
30-05-2025
- Times
Amsterdam's anarchic new five-star hotel
Inside the Rosewood Amsterdam, which opened at the beginning of May after a decade-long transformation, there are spliffs for sale in a vending machine, and I passed by Johnny Rotten on the landing. Nick Cave and Kate Bush I spotted in the bar. For clarity, though, the spliffs were made of ceramic by the artist Casper Braat, and the musicians are photographic portraits by Anton Corbijn. This new Rosewood likes to wear its art on its sleeve — in fact, it's almost as much of a gallery as a hotel. From the outside, it would be easy to mistake it for another of the city's museums. It's set in the former Palace of Justice, in a building dating back to 1665, and its neoclassical bulk stretches out over almost a block along the central Prinsengracht canal. Most of the group's hotels are in legacy landmark buildings: a former bank in Munich, for instance. In London there's an Edwardian pile in Holborn and, this autumn, there will also be the former US Embassy. Compared to the easygoing cafés and shops around it, the plain, rather grubby façade in Amsterdam (heritage laws mean it can't be cleaned or illuminated at night) cuts a rather stern, almost disapproving figure. It's an image the team here are keen to dispel, envisaging it as much of a local hangout as a gilded retreat for high-net-worth guests. Thomas Harlander, the hotel's managing director, tells me that curious Amsterdamers have been dropping in to explore the building, enjoying the two courtyards landscaped by the High Line designer Piet Oudolf and a modestly priced, well-populated all-day café. The main court room, where high-profile cases (such as the 1980s kidnapping of the brewery billionaire Freddy Heineken) were tried, is now a sprawling library space with a vintage grand piano in one corner and a modern tapestry depicting an AI-realised missing part of Rembrandt's The Night Watch. Its openness is reflected in its design. 'We thought it was important that people could see into the building — transparency is a very Amsterdam thing,' says Piet Boon, whose city-based studio also designed Rosewood's first Japanese resort on Miyakojima. 'During Covid we'd walk around the canals, peering into houses to see how other people lived.' • Read more luxury reviews, advice and insights from our experts Anyone able to peer through my third-floor suite window would glimpse a soft-focus space with curvaceous sofa and chairs, a drinks cabinet with small bottles of ready-mixed cocktails to one side, and a framed set of vintage Amsterdam postcards on the wall. In the bathroom, a white stone tub is positioned by the window, while the bed, backed by a mottled-gold headboard, looks out over gabled houses and the canal (on my arrival, almost on cue, a little boat motors past with a cargo of tulips). Among the 134 rooms are also five 'Houses'. These are apartment-sized suites, such as the Library House, styled in whiter-shade-of-pale bling with windows on two sides and a cascade of small chandeliers, lined by shelves filled with books and collectables. House 020 displays a bespoke collection of jewellery by Bibi van der Velden. But it's the hotel's 1,000-piece art collection that really catches the imagination. The lobby was inspired by the dramatic entrance of the Rijksmuseum, with sightlines that take you straight through to an enormous screen at the far end — the canvas for swirling, fluctuating video art, shifting from vivid floral still-lifes to ethereal classical figures, sourced from the Nxt Museum nearby. Along one corridor runs a series of white, colour-changing discs resembling a vintage radio valve, casting an orange glow over walls and ceiling. I'm particularly taken by a vase in the lobby made entirely of Smurf figures, while Maarten Baas's Grandfather Clock, in which a figure looms into view every minute to scrub out the minute hand and re-draw it, is surprisingly enthralling. In the entrance, Studio Molen's Statica — displayed at last year's Art Basel Hong Kong — is a trellis-like city made up of tiny bronze figures, which can be picked up and slotted back in new homes. There's an abundance of space here, a rarity in this city where many hotels are squeezed into canalside townhouses. The subterranean spa, its swimming pool cast in daylight from a long aperture above, has hammam-style arches and a monastic calm. There's also a space for reformer Pilates and sound therapy, though the 90-minute aromatic restore massage was all I needed. Along a corridor you could ride a tuk-tuk down is the moodily lit Advocatuur bar, flamboyantly dressed with diamond-shaped pendants above the counter and a menu of Indian-inspired cocktails and small plates. (I'm told that the late mayor requested an Indian restaurant here when he brokered the deal, along with Ayurvedic treatments and a club for the city's thriving Indian business community.) Further along is Eeuwen, the main restaurant — an intimate space where a painting of a rather louche young man gazes down at me as I devour Zeeland oysters topped with tingly grapefruit granita, and pork chop with creamy dollops of sea vierge and celeriac puree. The chef David Ordóñez has a nimble way with Dutch ingredients, with an approach that's more bistro than fine dining (little slabs of brioche topped with crab salad is a highlight, and quite rightly arrives on its own little plinth). Amsterdam's food scene has ramped up in recent years, a side of the city the Rosewood is keen to champion. I hop on board Captain Arnaut's Twenties salon boat, moored outside, and take the 90-minute voyage to Der Durgerdam, a small hotel in a village of the same name where the inventive lunch menu includes tomato tartare and a rare pudding of caramelised celeriac pie. The Rosewood is also linking up with Over-Amstel, the new farm from the South African owners of the Newt, taking guests there by boat for yoga and cheese-making sessions. Back at the Rosewood, I'm beckoned downstairs to make my own artistic contribution to the hotel. One of the law court's former holding cells has been turned into a very intimate, palo santo-scented tasting room for the hotel's genever — the OG of gin — distilled in a gleaming still named Martha. The bar manager signs me up for a kopstootje, a Dutch tradition that involved taking the first sip of genever with your arms behind your back, then chasing it with a pickled egg and small glass of beer. The ritual ends with a temporary tattoo rubbed on my wrist and then I graffiti my name on the wall — I'm part of the club. With the genever christened Provo, in honour of a short-lived Sixties anarchist-art movement — which included flooding the city with free bikes painted white to counter the tyranny of the motorcar — it's another irreverent attempt to puncture the building's formality. I wonder how radical a hotel that charges €1,200 a night can actually be, but like the rest of Rosewood Amsterdam, it's a refreshing way of transporting guests beyond the city's clichés. Doubles from £1,200,
Times
09-05-2025
- Times
Elton John and Paul McCartney push for tougher AI copyright laws
Hundreds of stars and creative industry leaders have urged the prime minister to back stronger copyright measures before a key parliamentary vote. Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Kate Bush, Sting and Dame Shirley Bassey are among the signatories of an open letter calling on Sir Keir Starmer to 'recognise the crucial role creative content plays in the development of generative AI'. They want ministers to back an amendment to the data bill, to be debated on Monday, which they believe will strengthen copyright laws to protect the creative industry. The government is proposing changing the law to allow AI companies to take copyrighted works to develop software without permission unless the owner opts £126 billion creative industry has opposed this and
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Dua Lipa and Paul McCartney among 400 British entertainment titans urging Government to abandon AI copyright plans that would see creative works raided by US tech firms
Titans of the creative industry today send their strongest demand for Keir Starmer to protect Britain's world renowned creative industries. Some of the biggest names in music, television, theatre and the media have come together to urging the Government to rethink plans that would allow Big Tech firms to ignore copyright rules when training their artificial intelligence systems. In a hard-hitting letter to the Prime Minister, the powerful cohort of almost 400 household names and industry greats warns: 'Our work is not yours to give away.' Ahead of a crunch vote in the Lords on Monday, the likes of Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Eric Clapton joined with Ian McKellen, Antony Gormley and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to press home their case. AI firms have spent years mining art, books and music for free, analysing vast amounts of material such as text, images and sounds to train their models. The Daily Mail has campaigned for Labour to drop its preference to give AI firms a copyright exception - and for ministers to back amendments to its Data Bill to enhance protection for those who face seeing their life's works being given away to 'powerful' Silicon Vally giants for free. And, in the latest intervention from the industry, the Government is facing fresh pressure to adopt proposals by crossbench peer Baroness Kidron, that campaigners say would 'put transparency at the heart of the copyright regime and allow both AI developers and creators to develop licencing regimes that will allow for human-created content well into the future'. Baroness Kidron, the Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason director who organised the letter, said: 'At the moment they (tech companies) have the balaclava on and they're coming in the back window and nicking whatever they like while you're asleep. 'This amendment would force them to come round the front door, shake your hand and ask your permission. 'It would give the artist more power. That is the law. It is their moral right and their economic imperative to earn a living from their own work,' she said, adding how high profile artists support behind-the-scenes workers such as roadies, producers and make-up technicians. Baroness Kidron said she generated the welter of signatures within just a few days - and said the number would double in size if she had another week to collect more support ahead of the Bill returning to the House of Lords on Monday. And she recalled a conversation this week with Beatle Sir Paul, who she said asked her: 'What would this (an AI copyright exemption) mean for four lads from Liverpool if this went ahead as planned? What would happen to them?' In their hard-hitting letter to the Prime Minister, the signatories say: 'We are wealth creators, we reflect and promote the national stories, we are the innovators of the future, and AI needs us as much as it needs energy and computer skills. 'We will lose an immense growth opportunity if we give our work away at the behest of a handful of powerful overseas tech companies and with it our future income, the UK's position as a creative powerhouse, and any hope that the technology of daily life will embody the values and laws of the United Kingdom.' Those who put their name to the letter say Baroness Kidron's amendments would allow copyright owners to know when and how their work is being shared, because AI firms would have to state which individual works they have ingested. This would give creative industries more control over what happens to their output. Other signatories, showing the breadth of support, include Dr Who writer Russell T Davies, pop star and Glastonbury headliner Dua Lipa, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Elton John, Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, conductor Sir Simon Rattle and rapper Wretch32 and video game designers SKC Games Studio. Martin McDonagh, director of films including The Banshees of Inisherin, Jeanette Winterson, author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and Richard Curtis - the mastermind behind the likes of British rom-coms Notting Hill and Love Actually - are also among those lending their support. And institutions such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, both the Old and Young Vic theatres, and the English National Ballet put their names to the letter. Baroness Kidron said she felt the high-profile backers, and the hundreds of others, carried considerable weight in stating the case for creative industries. She said: 'The wealth of expertise, the decades of experience, the creativity, the wealth creation for the country, the billions of pounds in those names - if the Government turns their back on them, they are abandoning creative industries. It's that simple. 'Everybody knows these big companies are stealing our stuff, so we don't need the Government redefining what theft means. We need them to stand up for us now so that we can stand up for the next generation of talent. 'We've got people signing this letter on the left of politics, on the right, we've got household names, and perhaps those who most people have not heard of but are behind some of the most significant creative products.' She added: 'Creative industries are not against AI - a lot of us use tech. AI firms have spent years mining art, books and music for free, analysing vast amounts of material such as text, images and sounds to train their models. 'My own journey in film started on celluloid and ended on digital and it was transformative. 'We are not frightened of tech, but the Government proposals are giving it away - and it's not theirs to give.' Lord Brennan of Canton, former MP and Labour Peer, said: 'We cannot let mass copyright theft inflict damage on our economy for years to come. 'Transparency over AI inputs will unlock tremendous economic growth, positioning the UK as the premier market for the burgeoning trade in high-quality AI training data.' Lord Black of Brentwood, a Conservative Peer, said: 'The Government amendments set us on a timeline that will not see any transparency provisions introduced until the very tail end of this Parliament at the earliest. 'The Government must not rush into a rash decision on copyright law, but transparency is feasible and necessary now. 'Rather than leaving creative and media businesses defenceless for years to come, transparency will protect UK citizens' property rights against Big Tech and kickstart a highly lucrative UK market for AI training data.' A Government spokesman said: 'We want our creative industries and AI companies to flourish, which is why we're consulting on a package of measures that we hope will work for both sectors. 'We're clear that no changes will be considered unless we are completely satisfied they work for creators. 'It's vital we take the time to work through the range of responses to our consultation, but equally important that we put in the groundwork now as we consider the next steps. 'That is why we have committed to publishing a report and economic impact assessment – exploring the broad range of issues and options on all sides of the debate.'
