Seen in the News

[Stanley]

So shall I Cathy. What a good idea Tiz. I hope they are reading Oneguy!

[Cathy]

Whenever I hear a famous song playing in an advert, I always think ‘Goodness I wonder how much they paid for that!’

[Stanley]

I once had to get into performing rights Cathy and basically you were allowed a few seconds free, almost as a quotation, but if you played more you had to pay.

[Cathy]

Out state newspaper plays ‘I heard the news today, oh boy’.

[Stanley]

A little bit of hopeful news from the US. (LINK) The Supreme court has struck down an anti-abortion law in Louisiana. Good! Donald will no doubt be tweeting denouncing the decision.

[plaques]

Strange that Louisiana still has the death penalty but hasn't actually executed anyone for almost 10 years. The threat on death row is still there though.

[Marilyn]

I want to know more about the latest Loch Ness photo. ( historically, when the economy is low, they like to have a new discovery about this Old Chestnut).

[Tizer]

Facebook has been a `hot topic' for a few days on OG but I was glad to be able to say that I don't need to use it. At last the big companies that have been supporting it with massive advertising revenue for many years have seen the light and are pulling out due to all the bad stuff that Facebook has been promoting. I listened to their European spokesman being interviewed on Today and noted him quoting the usual misleading statement that they `take down 90%' of the bad stuff. Sadly the Today presenter didn't remind him that leaves 10% of a very big number. Later in the interview the FB man actually made it easier to criticise him but still wasn't tackled - he said `We get tens of millions of new posts every day'. The Today presenter should have pointed out that 10% of that is `millions of new bad posts every day'. Using percentages rather than absolute figures is the typical ploy of very large companies. Journalists need to get the absolute numbers out of them to discover the real story.

[Tripps]

I smiled when I saw that the value off Facebook had fallen by about $50 billion yesterday. Spent the day convincing myself that the reason for it was that I'd neutralised my account. I get no adverts, they just have my phone number - of a phone I almost never use and on which they never call me.

[Tizer]

To quote the pantomime, `they're behiiiinnnnd you'!

[Stanley]

Everyone who had shares was making so much out of investments in big tech they forgot to regulate it..... We need to treat them the same as air travel and have a Safety Board as powerful as the FAA.

[Tripps]

I just saw a piece on Ch 4 news about the strategic stock of PPE, a large part of which has now been found to be 'unfit for purpose' and withdrawn.An archive clip was shown of Health Minister Matt Hancock loading cardboard boxes by hand, and a chap, who looked confused, was ticking a list on a clipboard with a pencil. It looked shambolic.

I compared that with a view of Michael Portillo's programme of a train repair shed in Singapore recently, where spare parts were brought to the work station entirely by computer and remote controlled electrical vehicles. Not a pencil stub or clip board in sight - It was embarassing.

[Stanley]

Trouble is David that we have become inured to things like that. I have been shouting for years that the biggest problem we have is simple incompetence.
I am reminded of something I once heard in the US. The CEO of a company that made septic tanks said "Life is like a septic tank, the biggest turds float to the top". The longer I live the more I believe he was right.

[Tizer]

We've watched Portillo through Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and we soon realised that most of these countries are ahead of us in railway technology. Other TV programmes have shown cities in places like Uzbekistan and they look like New York. Yes, embarrassing!

This is sad...
`Hundreds of elephants dead in mysterious mass die-off' Guardian
`More than 350 elephants have died in northern Botswana in a mysterious mass die-off described by scientists as a “conservation disaster”...The Botswana government has not yet tested samples so there is no information on what is causing the deaths or whether they could pose a risk to human health. The two main possibilities are poisoning or an unknown pathogen. Anthrax – initially considered the most likely cause – has been ruled out....The tusks of deceased elephants have not been removed and conservationists have urged authorities to guard the carcasses so that poachers do not take them. There have been no reports of elephant deaths in neighbouring countries.'

[Tripps]

The days of the Scots Gaelic language seem to be numbered. Gaelic

That's a shame - you wouldn't think so watching the BBC which has a dedicated channel and even lessons every evening. I'm a keen fan of DIY Donnie on BBC Alba now and then. They have subtitles, which is helpful, and the only word of Gaelic I've managed to learn is 'agus' which means 'and'.

[Whyperion]

Perhaps if the scots parliament conversed in it, and the press briefings with only english sub-titles. Boris might think scotland has become a separated country

[Stanley]

David, there is a piece in PE this week about the US firm that runs the Titan warehouse on Merseyside and gets £11million a year out of us for the service which is storing the national stockpile of PPE. They have been in dispute with their landlord, not paid the rent or service charges, got £500,000 out of the administrator of their landlords bankruptcy case and sold themselves on to a French firm for £107million. No refund to the taxpayer. All this in April at the height of the pandemic. Nice to see the financial world getting on with it under Covid lockdown......

[Tizer]

This isn't just about the social media problem, it raises the spectre of a nasty `extremist, libertarian militia that is deeply distrustful of government and prepared for a civil war' in the US. We know they have big problems in the US with guns and the so-called Tea Party right wing but this lot are more serious and dangerous and they are targeting kids to join them.

`TikTok's Boogaloo extremism problem' LINK
`The song is catchy - a classic country and western. A gentle southern twang croons out a chorus. Like many TikTok clips, the user has added music and effects to their video. This is not a normal TikTok vid though. First of all, the username clearly contains a homophobic reference. Second, the man is holding a massive assault rifle. "Roll Call: who is a boog boi in Colorado. See who are friends are," is the message. Welcome to TikTok, a place designed for fun and dancing that has a dark underbelly. The video is referring to the Boogaloo Bois, perhaps the most troubling movement to have emerged in the US recently..'.

[Whyperion]

David, there is a piece in PE this week about the US firm that runs the Titan warehouse on Merseyside and gets £11million a year out of us for the service which is storing the national stockpile of PPE. They have been in dispute with their landlord, not paid the rent or service charges, got £500,000 out of the administrator of their landlords bankruptcy case and sold themselves on to a French firm for £107million. No refund to the taxpayer. All this in April at the height of the pandemic. Nice to see the financial world getting on with it under Covid lockdown......

So The Europeans are now providing the British NHS with Items !!

[Tripps]

there is a piece in PE this week about the US firm that runs the Titan warehouse on Merseyside

You always seem to find the tasty bits in Private Eye that I miss.

[Stanley]

Page 10 in this week's edition David.
Boogaloo Bois.... Doesn't surprise me in the least Tiz. 40 years ago I was sat talking to some middle class Bible Belt acquaintances and two memorable quotes emerged, first a woman who was horrified to learn I wore second hand clothes bought in Thrift Stores (The US equivalent of our charity shops) who added that she would never ever buy a 'used house'. Then there was the bloke who said that the first thing he considered when buying a house was fields of fire and the size of the basement. At that tin=me the Survivalist movement was in full swing but I suspect Boogaloo Bois has the same root.
See THIS Guardian article by Marina Hyde on the worsening outlook for Prince Andrew if Ghislaine Maxwell goes for full disclosure and a plea bargain. Spot on I reckon! What a sleazy world these people live in, how can they justify it or live with themselves. We all have choices, it appears some of us are more honourable than others whatever their class or 'position in society'. Most telling quote; "because I want to".

[PanBiker]

Sally has spent the last couple of months reading about all our Kings and Queens, hangers on and the landed gentry from around 1066 onwards. She is currently up to Uncle David who abdicated and was a mate of that Hitler bloke. From some of the bits she has related to me it just reinforces my view that we should have had a revolution when the French kicked off and got rid of the lot. We wouldn't have the likes of Boris, Reece Mog, Gove and the lackies like Cummings, we can but dream.

[Tizer]

Your mention of the Bible Belt makes me think of creationists. I've been reading one of Richard Dawkins' books and he wrote this :

The irascible genius J.B.S. Haldane, who did so much else besides being one of the three leading architects of neo-Darwinism, was once challenged by a lady after a public lecture....

Evolution sceptic : Professor Haldane, even given the billions of years that you say were available for evolution, I simply cannot believe it is possible to go from a single cell to a complicated human body, with its trillions of cells organized into bones and muscles and nerves, a heart that pumps without ceasing for decades, miles and miles of blood vessels and kidney tubules, and a brain capable of thinking and talking and feeling.

JBS: But madam, you did it yourself. And it only took nine months.

[plaques]

I've read most of Dawkins books probably the easiest to follow is. 'Climbing Mount Improbable' where the creationist view evolution as a cliff face where everything happens at once. Dawkins turns it round and says look at the gradual slope leading up to the cliff which took millions of years to reach the top of the cliff. This is the evolution side.

[plaques]

The Michelin White Swan Pub/Restaurant (dirty Duck) Fence is now open for a set 3 course meal £45 per head. Full precautions in place to protect against covin. Dirty Duck