WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

The way the day slipped back into sync even though sleep pattern was broken. I have had eight hours good sleep and am quietly working my way through into Thursday!

[Stanley]

I saw THIS. It's a technical paper but worth reading, I have always had a healthy respect for confined spaces!

[Cathy]

3 pics that caught my attention. From B’talk this morning.
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[Stanley]

Yes Cathy, It was quite spectacular.

[Tizer]

I had a surprise the other day when the postman delivered a letter in this envelope shown below. It's about a class action for $1.5 billion. I thought Donald Trump was going to sue me for writing scathing comments about him on this very web forum! Thank goodness I was wrong. It's about a Copyright Class Action of publishers against the company Anthropic for using their published material to train their AI. I received it because we ran our own publishing company for about ten years. However the Action only applies to works with US ASIN copyright; ours were all on ISBN registration and therefore not covered.

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[Stanley]

Good Peter! Legal matters are always time consuming and seldom worth the effort.

[Stanley]

See THIS heads up for a meteor shower this weekend.
The Geminid meteor shower - one of the most spectacular in the celestial calendar - is set to peak this weekend and astronomers say conditions could make for an especially striking show if weather permits. The meteors are visible all over the world, though people in the Northern Hemisphere will get the best views. In the UK, if the skies are clear, a waning crescent Moon will only rise after midnight which should mean several hours of dark skies to see the meteors more clearly.

[Cathy]

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This caught my attention in this months English Woman’s Weekly (Christmas Issue).
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It reads - On this day in history, 7 December 1983. Never mind Santa being stuck up a chimney- celebrity steeplejack Fred Dinbah’s work was halted by George, a ginger Tomcat who climbed 160 feet up and couldn’t get down again.
The cat’s antics featured on BBC News , with Fred saying Ginger was stuck by ‘glue and fear’.
After two days he was eventually rescued by one of Fred’s fellow steeplejacks.

[PanBiker]

Christmas games at the gym this morning. Should be fun, the junior attendees will be in as well. Jacobs Join for lunch then a beer up town, (for the adults).

[PanBiker]

DHL, I ordered some thermal paper rolls for Bosom Friends card readers the other day. Email train from DHL the last couple of days to say they have the parcel and will deliver on Monday. This is fine as there will be someone about all day. Another email this morning that says they will deliver today when we are out! If I check the tracking on that one it still says Monday despite what the email says! To edge my bets I have tried diverting it to the local hub but the tracking website wont save my changes! They normally dump there by default anything that they cant get a signature for so I hope this will be the case.

[Stanley]

See THIS live reporting into a shooting in the US.
Two people are dead and nine others are injured after a shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island. The injured are in a stable condition in hospital, but Providence Mayor Brett Smiley warns the number of casualties could rise. The suspect remains at large - police say the attacker was a male dressed all in black who fled on foot. One person was arrested before police determined they had no involvement in the shooting and released them. A shelter in place warning is still in effect for the greater Brown University area. President Donald Trump says he has been briefed on the shooting, which happened at 16:05 local time (21:05 GMT) on Saturday

[Cathy]

Stanley, did you see the old Fred Dinbar story I posted on here.

[Stanley]

Yes Cathy.....

[Stanley]

I have just heard the news from Sydney of the massacre at Bondi.News still coming in so I can't comment beyond flagging up the news.

See THIS for breaking news.....

[Stanley]

[Wendyf]

It makes me weep.

[Big Kev]

It's horrendous, what is wrong with people...

[Stanley]

See THIS For the BBC update on the shooting.
New South Wales Police say 15 people, including 10-year-old girl, were killed in a shooting at Bondi Beach on Sunday - their ages range from 10 to 87. The attack happened while an event was being held to mark the start of Hanukkah - police say they're treating it as a terror incident. The two gunmen were father and son, police say. The 50-year-old man also died at the scene while the 24-year-old remains in hospital in critical condition. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls the attack "an act of pure evil" that "deliberately targeted" the Jewish community
Kev asks what is wrong with these people and many of us ask the same question. Problem is I don't think normal people can understand pure evil, it's just the way some brains are wired .....

[Cathy]

Re Bondi Beach Terror Attack, yes it’s disgusting and evil. Lots of answers needed. Australia is in shock.
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Later, we have wall to wall reporting on our TV’s. A National Cabinet Meeting is underway now re Our Gun Laws.

[Stanley]

Some might say shutting the stable door after the horse is gone but far more difficult in a country like Australia where a rifle is actually one of the tools of rural life.

[Gloria]

I believe one of them was an holocaust survivor.

[Tizer]

This seems like a good idea to me....
`Give newborns automatic library cards, authors urge' LINK

[Whyperion]

I believe one of them was an holocaust survivor.

Two women apparently.

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more Peter. As the tide of screen culture rises it becomes more and more important to get our children into the reading habit. A free library card already gifted seems like a very efficient way to do it.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest..... See THIS breaking news from the US....
Updated 11 minutes ago
S President Donald Trump has sued the BBC for defamation over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary. Trump accused the broadcaster of defamation and of violating a trade practices law, according to court documents filed in Florida. He asked for $5bn (£3.7bn) in damages on each of the two claims. The BBC apologised to Trump in November, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any "basis for a defamation claim". Trump's legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech". The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit being filed. Trump said last month that he planned to sue the BBC for the documentary, which aired in the UK ahead of the 2024 US election. "I think I have to do it," Trump told reporters of his plans. "They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth." In his speech on 6 January 2021, before a riot at the US Capitol, Trump told a crowd: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women." More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: "And we fight. We fight like hell." In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell." The BBC acknowledged that the edit had given "the mistaken impression" he had "made a direct call for violent action".
Looks like an open and shut case.....

[PanBiker]

Apart from the fact that it wasn't aired in the US so no electors there saw it. He still won the election so how he can claim that it damaged his reputation for the election is beyond me. It should be noted that the Beeb didn't alter any words that he said just reordered them. How you can damage a blokes reputation that is already about as bad as it gets, (judged by a good proportion of his own countrymen and women) is beyond me. His reputation in pursuing such matters precedes him, it seems to be a bit of an obsession to say the least.