Tag Archives: politics

Statistics – the Greatest Lie

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I’ve grown used to lying over the last few years. It all started after Donald Trump’s first election when he declared that millions of people had attended his inauguration and claimed it was far more than had attended Barack Obama’s inauguration. The pictures clearly showed this was not the case, and although it’s true that pictures can lie, is more likely that a politician was lying. We soon learned that if his lips were moving, he was lying.


The one on the left is a candlestick – it has a metal insert. The one on the right it a snowman. They always make snowmen when they have spare wood and time as they sell well at Christmas when they do the craft fair in the Cathedral.

WP is much the same. I have had over 400 views a day for several weeks now. I have also had an average of 12 people a day recorded as looking. So which is it WP – 400 or 12?

It could be AI robots, but in that case why don’t they show up on both counters. It could be that I’m being monitored by American Intelligence for my comments on President Trump and the Death of Democracy, but they wouldn’t do that surely? Juxtaposing the two words in view of the moronic outpourings we hear every day is surely just handing me an opportunity for mockery. It couldn’t be much else as nobody else would be interested, and in truth I’m sure it must be AI. Trump is flirting with Armageddon, but AI is setting up to slowly strangle the life out of us. It will be like the boiling frog – we won’t notice until it is too late.

The candlestick again. It started out as a bent bit of pine with a split and a massive knot. She just set to work, the knot pinged out, another, as you can see, stayed to make a decorative feature, and the split disappeared along with a lot of the wood. She is getting good at this.

It’s much the same with Julia’s wood turning (where she went today). I won’t notice that all the shelves are covered in turned wood products until it’s too late.

She baked simnel muffins over Easter too, but they don’t last, so they won’t be taking anything over.

 

 

 

Less Than Optimal Start to the Morning

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After a good run on the email (months without errors) we are back to the old problem – can’t log in (can’t even get a page that allows me to attempt to log in) and a message telling me there is a problem (which I can see, without a message) and that I should try later.

I generally start by suspecting BT is useless. Then I go through a variety of dark suspicions , usually hinging on cyber attacks by malevolent foreign powers. Then I decide BT is useless. My evidence for this is that my other email account never seems to have the same problem. I just tried it. It is working perfectly.

I would use the alternative, but it just seems like a lot of trouble to change addresses. So far, I have avoided doing it. When I changed debit cards last year – just a simple renewal rather than a major change – it appeared to be a lot more complicated than previous changes. I have not become more complicated, but it seems the systems of various companies have become more complicated. One insisted I signed up to their app before I could change card details and TESCO failed to deliver my groceries because I had missed ticking a box when changing details.

It’s amazing how much we now rely on email and the internet. I’m sure that one day civilisation will end just because we can’t access the internet. Nobody uses cash these days and we would all have to turn to looting or starve.

However, I’m sure world governments will already have a plan in hand. After all, they can’t really concerned just about religious wars, oil and sending people into space with a non-functioning $23 million toilet, can they?

Well, that used to be what I thought. Now I’m not so sure.

In years to come will someone make a film of how a handful of billionaires turned world politics into a real life version of Risk: The Game of Global Domination?

Barely Restrained Fury

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Drowned tree at Clumber Park

I just had an email from WP telling me how to activate AI on my blog. To be honest, I come here to practise writing, not to have my writing rendered into something resembling the verbal equivalent of pureed veg to be spooned into an elderly dotard. I want something with lumps in it.

They tell me that it will “Refine and tighten copy without losing your voice.” if it does that it will be a first for AI as every other example I’ve seen makes the writer seem like a simpleton or a zombie. 

Clumber woods

I’d rather they spent their money on making it easier for humans to write better, including restoring the old spellchecker I used to have that didn’t try to turn my spellings into American versions. I’d also love a reduction in annual fees rather than have money poured into technology I don’t want. I’ll write with a quill before I use AI to “improve” my writing.

However, I’m not going to become overwrought about it as I have promised Julia and the doctor that I will start to think about my health. Having a stroke whilst ranting about WordPress and AI would be bad for me, and would allow AI and WP to assume a greater importance than they should really have in my life.

Robin

I was very pleased to see the Greens win the by-election in Gorton. I have been voting green for quite a few years now, though I am far from agreeing with all their policies. I do, however, like the one about trying to save the planet by treating it better. A few months ago I almost joined them, but I’ve got this far in life without joining a political party so I decided not to.

Even if I didn’t support the Greens in any policies, it would be fun to see the reaction of the Reform Party, who are taking a trick out of the Trump play book and whining about voting irregularities. I know it’s cruel, but there are certain things I never get tired of, and watching spoilt brat politicians whine about being unfairly treated after being defeated is one of those things.

Fenland skies

There were undoubtedly voting irregularities, which have been growing over the years as we have been trying to ensure no voter gets left out, but there weren’t 4,402 voting irregularities, which was the size of the majority.

Meanwhile, I am going to redouble my efforts to avoid learning about current affairs and politics. As soon as I started to read about the election vote I found myself assailed by dozens of stories with varying degrees of hatred and accuracy and I can do without it.

Fenland skies

 

 

 

In Which I Break a Long Term Rule and Become Political

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Sculpture at Ruffird – I will say no more…

I have answered comments. That has taken just over ten minutes. I am now sitting, looking at a screen, and wondering where all the inspiration goes. I wasn’t exactly full of it when I went to be and seven hours of broken sleep have not improved the situation. I have plenty to write about but it needs a spark of inspiration to get it going. I was going to add “just like the flames of the screwed up newspaper in the grate” and I stopped to wonder how many people reading this will have started a coal fire as a regular part of their home heating. It’s something you never see these days. A few people have wood burners, but the neatly made layers of paper, kindling and coal have passed into history, like cars with starting handles and, in fact, newspapers printed on paper.

That paragraph is the only survivor of my two attempts to write a post before taking Julia to wood turning. It’s turned to newspapers, and after turning to newspapers, I felt I had to mention Elon Musk’s AI for making pornography. Having mentioned that I felt necessary to move on to the concept that being opposed to child pornography is, in the eyes of some US politicians, an attack on freedom of speech.

Mallard drake shining in the sun – Idle Valley NR

However, that’s a bit serious for me, and people don’t come here for serious discussions on world news. If they did, they would be disappointed. So I junked it and took up the story again. This time I turned it to Elon Musk showing photos of Kier Starmer in a bikini. That’s the sort of bullying school yard response that shows exactly why we don’t need this sort of technology. Still a bit too serious. Plus it’s not a picture I want to store in my mind.

Then you have to allow for the fact that when I think of many US politicians, I think of pond slime and those formless things that squirm under stones in my nightmares. Unfortunately, under the Trump Administration “justice” has become weaponized (to use one of their favourite words) and is being used to shut down debate. (In the wind I hear a faint cry of Freedom of Speech for those who can afford it . . .)

Wren

Even though there are defences (for now) of truth and fair comment I can’t afford to be sued by pond slime and squirming things because I’ve lowered their reputation in the eyes of the public by associating them with US politicians.

Great White Egret

 

Thoughts of Hamsters, Wheels and The Devil’s Gallop

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The list of things I’ve done today is simple – got up, checked emails, read WP. Read news online, regretted it, wrote a witty political blog post, decided, yet again, that I don’t want to do politics. Unfortunately it took me an hour to write and polish and delete.

Julia made breakfast, we skipped lunch, watched a bit of TV. I wrote. Julia cooked. Watched quizzes all evening. That’s about it.

Vegetables – Carsington Water

We duplicated some of the plants we ate yesterday but added an apple, an orange and Brussels Sprouts. We are a third of the way into the week and are now on 15 sorts of plant, so we are on target.

Wholewheat TESCO “Weetabix”
Blueberries
Bananas
Strawberries
Tea
Mixed dried fruit
Apricots
Coffee
Carrots
Parsnips
Leeks
Cauliflower
Apple
Orange
Potatoes
Brussels Sprouts

We also had spices – Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Mixed Spice not really enough to count and the vegetarian stuff in the sausage.

The bread in the bread pudding and the flour in the cake and pudding batter were both white, so don’t count.  We also had tomato relish, but probably not enough to count.

That’s sixteen so far and I have at least 21 sources of plant-based food in the kitchen, so we are going to hit target. I’m looking to do just over the 30. No point showing off or setting the bar too high in the first week.

Quite apart from the benefits of greater variety to my gut microbiome, there are definite benefits to my menu planning and recipe selection. It’s also making me blog more, which isn’t a benefit I’ve seen listed in any of the articles.

Stir Fry Vegetables

Now, having given a home to trillions of tiny organisms, all I need to do is avoid antibiotics. They have a disastrous effect on my internal functions, though to be fair, they did cure me when I was ill a few months ago, so I forgive them.

\one last thought – if you gather all the microbes in your gut together they weigh about as much as an adult hamster. Are you having the same mental picture that I am – a hamster on a wheel in my stomach? Now add the Dick Barton Theme as a soundtrack . . .

 

Mysterious Ways

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Ely – Stained Glass Museum

It’s nearly two weeks since I last posted. I didn’t set off with the idea of leaving it that long, but it just crept up on me. I have actually written a couple of long posts about world events, but they depress me, and if they depress me they aren’t going to cheer anybody else up. We know the world is changing, and, to paraphrase Emperor Hirohito in 1945, not necessarily to our advantage. We don’t need to keep telling ourselves this, and if we do, we have plenty of people to do it.

The world, as it stands at the moment . . .

Tch! There I go again.

 

Actually, the most interesting thing to happen recently has been the election of the Pope. There was talk of an Asian Pope or even a black Pope, but they went for a white American Pope. It wasn’t a surprise, particularly as the American Catholics had been promising a billion dollar donation if the “right Pope” was selected. However, in the manner of these things, God, working through his devious and scheming Cardinals (I’ve never trusted a Cardinal – they are always bad news when they appear in history, or the Three Musketeers) has come up trumps with this choice. I doubt that the million dollar donation will be made now. (Yes, I did wonder about my choice of idiom there, but it seemed appropriate).

May I draw your attention to the Papal Bull of 1570 – Regnans in Excelsis. It caused quite a stir in its time and, as far as I know, could be repeated. Papal Bull, by the way, is what the Vatican calls them, it is not, despite modern usage of the word bull, a derogatory term.

I tend to leave the Catholic Church alone, as long as it leaves me alone, but I will point out one thing. While the discussion was going on about whether the next Pope might be black or Asian, there was one guarantee – he wasn’t going to be a woman.

I will now trust in Hemingway’s iceberg theory and stop writing.

Stained Glass Museum – Ely

 

 

The Beauties of Retirement (Part 2) Fears & Spontaneity

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The world is full of fear. The Daily Telegraph, normally a sensible sort of paper, just ran a headline “China invades Taiwan: Japan steps in”. The sub-heading, when you click through is “If China invades Taiwan, what could Japan do?”

It is, I admit, beautifully done, From a classic click-bait hook through to a sensible opening. I’m sure, if tackled, they would actually say there was no intention to provoke panic and that they would not descend to such tabloid tactics. But I think I will make up my own mind on that.

Apart from that we have the meltdown of world trade to worry about, fishing in nature reserves, denial of climate change, fracking, the changing of history, new laws to disadvantage women, ethnic minorities and poor people, and no compassion shown to small children, though we knew they were going into the cages again as soon as the election was done because, whatever his faults, President Trump is a keen and consistent disciple of the anti-Christ. I can’t help but wonder what Pope Francis saw deep in Vance’s eyes just before he breathed his last.

So, that’s fear number one – living in a world in a world which is ruled by Bond villains.

Two, death. To be honest, as you can probably guess from my poor physical condition, I have ignored the possibility for much of my life and am not going to worry too much now.

Three, losing my driving license. There are loads of stories about this – new medical conditions, new rules, tougher tests, – the papers delight in scaring us about losing our licenses. We can’t all take up cycling, we don’t all have wives who drive. And we don’t all live in areas of good public transport or conveniently sited services. Fortunately I can get groceries delivered and am within a swift electric scooter journey of a shop, a pharmacy and a GP Surgery, so I’m not too bad. I will just have to restrict myself to seeing things within battery range  (and not up steep hills or along fast roads). On our trip this morning we only touched a road once, and that was only to cross it.

Four, I will be taxed out of existence by the Government, a cry which has become louder  as Labour won the election and started making changes. The tabloids love a Labour scare story. However, we had an unplanned bag of chips for lunch while we were out in the sun watching the young squirrels play in trees, so I need a nap. I don’t need to think about politics.

Rats, Clutter and Politicians

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Jackdaw

It’s been a strange week for wildlife this week. Long-tailed tits have appeared nearly every day and we had a Jackdaw at the start of the week too. They are very occasional visitors to the garden, even though we frequently  see them overhead.  We have also had a Brimstone flutter across the garden twice this week (it may be the same one twice, of course) and today a Peacock woke up from some cranny in the conservatory and began to flutter round. Julia ushered it out and I hope it found some early nectar. There’s going to be a steady decline in temperatures over the next week so I hope it doesn’t regret its decision to wake up. Julia bought some wallflowers in pots from a roadside stall while she was out today, so at least we have some nectar to offer.

Then we had a visit from my least favourite garden visitor – the brown rat came back. We  will try more peppermint and see what happens. It’s weeks since we last saw it, so we aren’t doing too badly.

The rat came back but the rabbit did not return

I’m now looking for suitable trees for the conservatory – once I get a couple of small citrus in there I will definitely begin to call it the Orangery. At the moment it doesn’t even rate the title of Conservatory, as it is really just a glass lean-to where we are storing junk. Yes, It’s building up, despite our good intentions, but we are just about keeping up.

Though I have bought a few books they are all on Kindle, so they aren’t clutter and two of them were actually free. I had to pay 99p each for the other two, but I don’t mind that. It’s when you see Kindle books advertised for the same sort of price as a physical book that I have reservations. Kindle books are all very well but after the nuclear winter settles in the wake of the Third World War books will still be good for making fires and using as makeshift bedsheets. A Kindle will only be useful as long as the charge lasts. After that, it is just a very poor substitute for a plate. I’m just wondering whether to name the new axis of evil Trutin or Puump. Any thoughts?

I dream of attracting four birds at a time

Loose Ends

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Charred Red Pepper

Just a rag bag of odds and ends to start the  day.

Woke up early but feeling full of energy. Completely unable to explain why as I didn’t sleep for long and I have a toothache. It is gradually subsiding, as I think it’s a gum problem rather than a tooth. I’m hopeful it will fade away soon.

Had an email about banning driven grouse shooting, signed it.  It’s not a great “sport” at the best of times, but there are all sorts of things wrong with it from a wildlife point of view, particularly the number of rare birds who are killed each year to “protect” the grouse.

Red Legged Partridge

I did think about adding a link, but if I did that I’d have to add links and have a balanced argument and I’m not very balanced on the question. One of the key points in managing a grouse moor is the illegal killing of birds of prey. A second is that you can never get a successful prosecution for it. The law seems simple enough – in England if your staff kill a bird of prey you are liable, but as no judge wants to imprison a big, and probably titled, landowner, nothing happens. At least in other countries corruption relies on money and politics, rather than ancient titles and who you went to (expensive) school with.

And then the postman arrived. Julia wasn’t happy as I couldn’t go to the door (no trousers) and on top of that, it means I’ve been buying on eBay again. I bought peppermint oil from there to repel rats and that’s OK. But a nice piece of Home Front memorabilia? Women are very strange sometimes.

That’s all for now. I have a wife to appease and breakfast to make.

I will be back later.

Pictures – “grouse” turned nothing up. “Red” produced a lot, but no Red Grouse. I know I have a photo but it was probably from my days of badly titled storage.

Redwing in Carrington

Topsy Turvey

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I took to my bed on Monday night after an evening of shivering. All my joints ached and I could hardly move. The slow climb to bed confirmed the wisdom of our decision to move to a bungalow. I stayed there most of Tuesday, only rising in mid afternoon, and a lot of Wednesday, rising at noon. Gradually I began to feel better, and mobile. By Wednesday Julia was able to pronounce my colour to be “better”.. By this she means “less corpse-like” as I have a habit of turning grey when I am ill, and my natural disinclination toward rapid movement becomes more pronounced. At best I appear to be a grumpy zombie, and at worst I have found myself prodded violently awake “just in case”.

I’m not sure what it was, or what caused it, but I think cold, lack of sleep and hours sitting immobile in the car all contributed. OK, and old age. And my immunosuppressants. I always blame them these days.

I managed a few taps on the keyboard yesterday, but didn’t do much. Today I feel a bit more enthused, but still not overly motivated. I have also lost my appetite and reduced my calorie intake despite Julia’s efforts to a feed me back to health.

That’s about all there is to report, apart from feeling like Rip van Winkle. I went to bed in a world where politics seemed dull and ugly, and woke in one where politics appears to have run down a rabbit hole and returned with an unsubtle double act where a megalomaniac billionaire is bankrolling Mr Teflon, the man to whom nothing can stick. At the moment I am puzzled rather than worried, but I imagine that will change in the next few months.