Nice day for a swim? Tourists pass by boat on the Seine river in Paris, France, a few weeks before the Olympic Games, with grandstands are set up on the Alexandre 3 bridge. Photograph: Laure Boyer/Hans Lucas via AFPThe problem with rivers is that they have a mind of their own. At least, that’s the case with the Seine in Paris, where a recent spell of rain made its current and water level too strong and high to go ahead on Monday with one of the rehearsals for the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
But while organisers have the option of a land-based Plan B for the opening ceremony, that luxury is not open to those overseeing the open-water swimming event and the swimming leg of the triathlon, which are both still scheduled to take place in the Seine notwithstanding the fact that French authorities are as yet unable to guarantee that the water is swimmable.
Udio – co-founded by Cork’s Conor Durkan – likens its software training methods to students listening to music and studying scores before composing their own and says “the basic building blocks of musical expression” are owned by no one. Suno says its “transformative” technology is designed “to generate completely new outputs”. What a time. But, hey, have you heard this brilliant new output? I really love what the chorus has done with the basic building blocks of musical expression.
2. Tom Gray: Another musician-turned-politician, Gomez co-founder turned artists’ financial rights campaigner Tom Gray, was chosen to represent Labour in the winnable seat of Brighton Pavilion.