OneGuyFromBarlick

Not something you see every day in Barlick....

I was sat there at the end of Albert Road minding my own business when I saw my great grandson Kahara bouncing down the pavement towards the junction. Not far behind was Grand daughter Jess and Lilly on her back. So I had a surprise ten minutes with them as they waited for the bus to Earby..... Life is full of little surprises!

See THIS News from the enquiry into the invasion of the White House. This looks damning for Trump's case but watch him do a Johnson and deny everything.....
In another part of the forest, Ghislaine Maxwell is sentenced to 20 years for her part in Geoffrey Epstein's abuse of minors. 9LINK)
See THIS BBC account of the report on the Metropolitan Police which is absolutely damning. I''m not sure what has gone wrong here but I suspect two matters, Public Service Cuts and politicisation of the police. It's a sad commentary on the force that virtually invented modern policing......

"The Daily Mirror reports that the Royal Family "cost taxpayers" £102.4m last year, a £15m rise in the Sovereign Grant given to the Palace by the government. The paper also notes the Royal Family's funding topping £100m for the first time comes alongside the nation struggling with the rising cost of living, with one expert describing the situation as "not right"."
Forgive me if my maths is wrong but that looks like a 15% pay rise to me. Will Grant Shapps be protesting and offering 3% instead?
Quite a few sources are comparing the monstering of the rail workers to the deathly hush about far greater pay rises in top industry salaries.... One law for the rich and another for the poor?

I was expecting a package from Evri (Hermes) today. At 11.23 am I got and email saylig it had been delivered, photographed and signed for. except it hadn't.

Everything's a saga with me - so to cut it short-the driver had got himself in a tangle with timings and realised he couldn't get it to me in the time slot quoted, so he marked it as delivered on his system, and photographed it in his van. I guess he thought he could deliver it later, and no one would be the wiser.

I ended up feeling quite sorry for him - not too well paid I guess, and his every working minute supervised by a merciless relentless computer algorithm. By the way, don't try to phone, or even use on line chat with Evri (Hermes). Their system is designed to repel all callers and was totally successful.

David, there is a section on the course for software engineers labelled, 'how to avoid contact with the client'.
I am convinced that this is regarded as the the chief virtue of computer programmes. Basically the principle is make it easy for the client to do what we want them to do but hard for them to do what they want to do.
(I agree with you about the workers who have jobs run and supervised by algorithms. I look back on the happy days before cell phones when I set off in the morning and had nobody looking over my shoulder all day.... That would be seen as unimaginable bliss by today's workers.)

It's a few days ago now but I forgot to mention that our mail behind the door when we came back from Hawes included a handwritten letter postmarked Lancashire and South Lakes. Opened it up and it was from our Pendle Labour Party Treasurer, Sheila. £40.00 cheque for second prize in this months 200 club draw, winner!

Nice one

Ian. Better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick as my father used to say. (I wonder if that was an Aussie saying?)

See THIS report of flooding in Sydney.
"Thousands of people have been told to leave their homes across Sydney as a dangerous weather event, expected to linger until Tuesday, escalates. And the next 24 hours are critical.
Funny thing is that one of my favourite Youtube channels is a man in Sydney who specialises in clearing blocked drains (I know....... Sad isn't it.) and in all his latest videos it has been raining.

Tripps, we've always had good service from the people who delivered (in their private car) parcels on behalf of Hermes. But the company itself seemed to be useless and any problems were due to them, not the drivers.

Incidentally, this was in the Guardian yesterday...
`Food delivery drivers fired after ‘cut-price’ GPS app sent them on ‘impossible’ routes' LINK
`Drivers who deliver food and drink for Just Eat have been fired after being misdirected by a cut-price GPS system, according to the union representing them. The couriers, who work for Stuart, a company that supplies drivers to some of the biggest restaurant and retail names in Britain, told the Observer they were sacked by pro-forma email after being mislocated by the GPS system or deviating from impossible or dangerous routes.'....

And talking of drivers - or lack of - I heard that driverless cars completely blocked an intersection in a US city recently. A group of the cars had been sent out together on a test run and they suffered a systems failure at the cross roads. It took ages to get cleared and caused massive gridlock in the city. This raises an interesting point - when conventional, driven, cars break down it's usually one at a time and you don't get a sudden collapse of multiple cars and especially not all in the same place. I wonder what will happen when large numbers of vehicles using the same software, apps etc suffer a common systems failure like this one in America?

Tizer wrote: ↑03 Jul 2022, 09:00 we've always had good service from the people who delivered (in their private car) parcels on behalf of Hermes

Agreed - me too, which is why I panicked when it happened. Also it was the most expensive item I've bought for a while - a Roberts Stream 94i all singing all dancing portable radio. Anyway all's well etc, and I can now 'monitor' tens of thousands of radio stations all over the world. I retain a child like sense of wonder that this is possible.

The start of the British Grand Prix, red flagged after 21 seconds. Thankfully no serious injuries.

Interesting question about the failure of the programme controlling the autonomous cars. If possible costs like that are factored into the price to the consumer they will be far too expensive to own or run.
Silverstone.... yes, that was an interesting race for many reasons. Interesting that there is a protocol that bans showing an accident until it is known exactly what the condition of the driver is. The commentators made a meal of the accident while we were waiting for the restart. And Lewis Hamilton nearly won it....

I missed F1, shame as it was the only one shown live!

It was good entertainment Wendy, especially as Max Verstappen had problems....

I'm listening to the litany of horror stories from people who are trying to get a passport or visa. Remember, this is at the same time where Rees Mogg is 'pruning' the number of staff. We are living in a dystopian world....

Stanley wrote: ↑04 Jul 2022, 11:57 I'm listening to the litany of horror stories from people who are trying to get a passport or visa. Remember, this is at the same time where Rees Mogg is 'pruning' the number of staff. We are living in a dystopian world....

Talking of a dystopian world....
Remember the QAnon conspiracists and their claims about American politicians being involved in Satan worship and paedophilia on an industrial scale, and its backing for Trump in stirring up the attack on the Capitol? Well 78 candidates aligned with QAnon are running for office in the primaries in 26 states across the US in the midterm elections this year. Republican candidates who endorse QAnon are in line to win in key swing states in November. For example Doug Mastriano won the Republican nomination for the governor's post in Pennsylvania and is one step away from running the biggest swing state in the US, with power over the election system in the next presidential race in 2024. Arizona is another swing state and has the highest number of QAnon-supporting candidates; the conspiracy theorist Kari Lake leads the primary race for governor and Mark Finchem is the front runner for its secretary of state. The Republicans have recognised the power of QAnon, it's getting more supporters all the time and even if Trump doesn't run in the next presidential election QAnon will have a big influence on the outcome.

It's quite simple Peter.... The world has gone mad and 'normal' behaviour in public life is a thing of the past. Only dinosaurs like you and I have any regard for it. I can remember being disturbed in the US by the survivalists and red-necks 40 years ago. God knows what I would find now......

Congratulations to Wendy and Colin on your 47th wedding anniversary

Oh that’s lovely
Congratulations Wendy and Colin
Well Done

Thanks Kev and Cathy!

Well done Wendy and Colin - only 3 years to your 50th!

Happy Anniversary Wendy and Col, you can have one of these as well.

Thanks everyone!