Posts by Danny 2 2211 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2009
I assumed "winter is coming" was a dig at Raab saying 'taking a knee' came from Game of Thrones.
This latest u-turn hardly inspires confidence in the government, but I guess I'll install it. It's sad that I trust Google-Apple on privacy more than my nation.
ETA: I just heard it will still be a government app but based on the Google-Apple model. So no ta.
Excess Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic deaths from Covid were speculated to have a genetic component. Scottish data last week, and a new English study, proves it doesn't.
More BAME folk are dying simply because they catch it more. It's the overlap with the older pandemic, socio-economic racism.
I have Raynaud's, pale white skin that rapidly goes orange and purple and blue. "Coloured" would fit me better than white.
I got in trouble on a US forum for referring to my neighbours as coloured people, but they refer to themselves as coloured people - they are/were South African and the old apartheid terms linger.
I upvoted you because I'd downvoted you and you didn't merit that and I can't withdraw it, but I disagree strongly. Citing a doric speaker from a century ago is irrelevant to any 21st century Glaswegian.
I also upvoted you because I remember when spazz was such a common insult that the Spastic Society rebranded. I've also complained here about plays on the word retard.
Bit dafty is fine, it's non-judgemental. A daftie is anyone who is daft, and that includes clever jokers.
Radical noise? Black music
Illegal sales district? Black Market
Stockmarket crash? Black Monday
Subconscious psychology reversed
You think I don't know
But everything you fear is black
The bad guys wear black
Evil vengance, black widows
Followed by evil black shadows
You got to help me out
When disease wipes out millions of people?
Black death
Subconscious psychology reversed
You think I don't know
But everything you fear is black
I am black and beware if I cross your path
Because I bring bad luck
Ha ha.
I have a funny politico story. Rose Gentle and her daughter were finally allowed to meet with John Prescott, after years of demanding a meeting with Blair to discuss the death of Gordon Gentle in Iraq. Prescott nodded his head and agreed with everything that they said. The daughter told him, "You remind me of Churchill", and Prescott visibly puffed with pride.
"No, not the Prime Minister, the insurance advert dog"
She was only 13 and she totally skewered the pompous Deputy PM.
It is surreal seeing volk supposedly defending a statue of Churchill giving Nazi salutes.
2nd time this has happened after a Windows update 1st time was fixed by the next update, not this time though, random unrelated keys. I'll be fetching my Lenovo and installing Linux on this brick.
If I want an update I am perfectly capable of choosing it. Three unwanted and damaging updates in a fortnight is corporate malfeasance.
While the UK police don't have US levels of militarisation they share their politicalisation. One addendum though is overuse and misuse of helicopters and drones.
One example, I have many. When Blair was summoned to the Chilcot inquiry there was a police helicopter nearby to monitor the peaceful and calm demonstration outside. Which arguably is fine, albeit overkill/overspend given the large numbers of officers on the ground. One of the speakers started reading out a long list of names of dead Iraqi civilians and dead British service personnel, which was quite moving. At that point the helicopter was ordered to hover low over the stage simply to drown out the speaker. That was both disrespectful to the dead, and needlessly dangerous to the crowd. If anything it seemed designed to inflame violence.
The Cluatha disaster in Glasgow proves the police can't be trusted with helicopters except in extremis. I'd be sanguine with small plastic cam drones that wouldn't injure you if they fell, but a Predator is just robocop bs.
My 89 year old aunt has just been sent from hospital to die at home from heart failure. Due to Covid we haven't been able to visit but my cousin drove her by so we could wave goodbye. She said she is looking forward to two things, sleeping in her own bed without someone sitting on it (apparently a dementia patient on her ward) and a fish supper.
I'm vegetarian but I would die for fish and chips now.
Folk are crazy, increasingly crazy. When the local McD's reopened the queues jammed up the town centre. Before that when the local dump reopened the queues jammed a main arterial A road into Edinburgh. Hold your horses - no offence Jon Jon.
My parents suffered 13 police raids/visits in 5 years because of me. They knew where I was living and that I'd walk into a cop shop if they phoned and asked, but they also knew bullying my parents was the best way to pressure me.
After the 13th I put in a formal complaint, and they went through the motions but ended up threatening to visit my parents for evidence if I pursued the complaint.
In my experience the best thing to give abusive cops pause for thought is a Data Protection request. I asked for every time, date and reason they had been to my parents house, that cured it. Some clear figures you can just pass to a Sheriff or Judge.
Police forces make for bad clients in the best of times with simple, harmless products. Sticking all their data onto the cloud is just inviting a lengthy prison term when it goes tits-up and a scapegoat is required. Although it would be fun to browse all their data, and you could sell that repeatedly to crims for many times the value of the contract. You’ve gotta ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?”
They do not have cameras in police cars, except in a few dedicated traffic police cars.
A British Transport Police car cut me up late at night last year, would've crashed into me if I didn't brake, and I had footage of it and they didn't. I immediately drove to a cop shop to report it. I didn't press charges but was assured by a BTP Sergeant that the driver had been reprimanded as their drivers are trained to be better than 17 year old boy racers.
tl/dr - most UK cop cars don't have cams
I just found it funny that the English phrase 'gardening leave' had been translated into French due to 'Yes, Minister'. It is weird which UK TV the French watch. Apparently big fans of 'Hamish Macbeth', due to Robert Carlyle.
I ken this case isn't gardening leave, but I've seen a wheen of ways to force employees out, and been subject to a few. First job, late 80s, non union, a senior female operator was sacked because she was whiney. She won her unfair dismall tribunal and was awarded £2500, which the company paid rather than remploy her. 4 months salary and career death.
I later endured far worse myself just to pay the mortgage - the law improved but it drove the same practicises underground and more evil. Ask me for stories and I will bore you silly.
Le congé de jardin ou le congé de jardinage décrit la pratique dans laquelle un employé qui a quitté son emploi - ayant démissionné ou ayant eu son emploi en cessation d'emploi a été mis au courant - est tenu de rester à l'écart du travail au cours de la période de préavis tout en demeurant sur la liste de paie. Cette pratique est souvent utilisée pour empêcher les employés de prendre avec eux des informations à jour lorsqu'ils quittent leur employeur actuel, surtout lorsqu'ils partent pour rejoindre un concurrent. Le terme est issu de la fonction publique britannique où les employés ont le droit de demander un congé spécial à des fins exceptionnelles. Le «congé de jardinage» est devenu un euphémisme pour «suspendu» en tant qu'employé qui a été formellement suspendu en attendant une enquête sur leur conduite demanderait souvent de sortir du bureau en congé spécial à la place. Le terme a été largement répandu dans le public en 1986, lorsqu'il a été utilisé dans la sitcom de la BBC Oui, Premier ministre, épisode "One Of Us". Les employés continuent de recevoir leur salaire normal pendant un congé de jardin et doivent respecter leurs conditions d'emploi, telles que la confidentialité, au moins jusqu'à l'expiration de leur période de préavis.
Sorry for shouting. An unwanted Windows update yesterday took out half the keys on my mum's HP. Not for the first time, last time I just waited and the next update fixed it.
I'm getting more used to the virtual keyboard - it sucks. I now get why a touchscreen could be useful. Everyone thinks that disabled folk have it easy, sitting around in bed or a wheelchair all day, but their computer access sucks.
I checked PC World and they don't stock brain control helmets yet. And the price of a replacement laptop has doubled since I last looked. I assumed Moore's law implied they would get cheaper.
Devices, not all of them but most of them, in my parents home have lost DNS and DCHP quite often since the lockdown. It's not a matter of false perception because I've been locked down for much longer so know what to expect. Reasonably good security before you ask.
I'm not that bothered (most of the time) so please don't call this paranoia, but I assume my ISP is knocking us off to prioritise other users.
Alternative explanation, they are just short of staff now.
Also, I know everyone will doubt this testimony because I've been spamming this forum, but perseverance and nothing else to do.
You know, a wee bit of exercise and a polite nod, that sums up good enough sex for me even in my prime.
I have told this anecdote here before, so apologies to everyone else for repetition but this is just for Negative Charlie. As a tech I was made to sit with the engineers at lunch. Techs didn't seem to want me, engineers did or at least took pity on me. I am still figuring that out
So great guy, Senior Production Engineer, is pulling out his ginger hair on the lunch table. I don't know what I said, but I remember his reply perfectly.
"Aye, at your age sex is still fun. At my age it's just another household chore like emptying the bins"
I bought a Maplin remote thermometer fifteen years ago, and a Lidl Oximeter four years ago. Unfortunately in the past weeks my dad has thrown them out. Nobody tells you this about dementia, but never leave anything you value lying around. It's all 'clutter'. I think he's thrown out my teeth, again, but I'm not searching through the bins again - facemasks will suffice.
My dad just asked, "What is that co - that thing Boris had?"
"Covid-19?"
"Aye, and what is that other disease that starts with co?"
"Coronavirus?"
"Aye. What's the difference between them? If you catch one can you catch the other?"
I spent ten minutes explaining that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-Cov-2) is just one of several coronaviruses but this one causes a disease called Covid-19.
"I can't get my head around that. Are there three diseases? "
"No dad, just the one but it has three names and nobody minds which name any of us use"
https://xkcd.com/2275/
It's bin night tonight, highlight of my week. Sadly I'm being serious. Wee bit of exercise, get to nod at the neighbours. It's the closest I get to sex now.
My grumpy old heart was just warmed by something else. I am regretting in advance posting this, because I'm a single, childless man and this will inevitably seem creepy.
I clicked on a BBC website article, Lockdown has helped endangered seahorses return to UK waters
It turned out to be a Newsround, ie kids TV, article, which I've never visited before but I read the comments and they are darling. So nice to each other. We should be more like that here. Albeit without the emojis, I only know the sad face and happy face ones.
Wait, I'm going to try to cut and paste a hedgehog - nope, "The post contains some characters we can’t support".
Fine, El Reg, if you can't support a hedgehog emoji then I understand.
Panda emoji. Rainbow emoji. I think it's an avocado emoji. Hedgehog emoji.
Adapt or die.
From the Guardian:
If you’ve been following the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on social media you may have been surprised this morning by a sudden flood of Korean characters and the repeated phrase: “We stand against racial discrimination. We condemn violence. You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.”The source of this is the world’s biggest K-Pop band, BTS, who posted on social media this morning
[I just got a curt email from (I think) Antifa about the US protests: "Antifa are antifascist not pyromaniac"]
See, I used to live almost opposite Strangeways at the time of the riot. Nobody was beaten for days. The ring leaders that made it to the roof were just let be generally until they got cold enough and hungry enough to want to come down. Facts seem to have this terrible habit of not aligning with your world view.
Congratulations on your X Ray vision that allowed you to see through the prison walls. I had to rely on books on the subject and first hand testimony from both prisoners and officers.
A polite no. I ken fine that there will be thousands of US idiots calling themselves 'antifa'. There is also a pre-existing group called Antifa. Totally different things. Antifa will be extremely annoyed, and by now frustrated, by self-described 'antifa' as Antifa is a tiny, kind of elite, closed membership group.
I only heard this online, but I knew the people involved. 15 years ago somebody at an anarchist conference in England was punched for labelling himself antifa after Antifa had warned him not to. And when I say punched, I mean knocked out with a single punch. Antifa weren't attending, one of them just knew he'd be there.
I have a high degree of confidence in stating that all US members of Antifa will know about the Strangeways Prison riot. In fact that is a good Turing test to differentiate Antifa from wannabe 'antifa'.
You might feel I'm picking minor differences, but it's important now POTUS has declared them all terrorists.
"The reality is to a person they're all just bored middle class children looking for a fight."
Aye, you are guessing (badly) but I actually know. You shouldn't guess and you definitely shouldn't second guess me. They are all very adult, mostly male, very hardened, ultra working class. For example, a veteran of the Strangeways Prison riot. Have you ever been beaten by prison officers for days and still fought back?
Like Trump you are mistaking Antifa with wee boys who call themselves antifa. You don't want to be on the same intellectual level as Trump, do you?
The point, the valid truthful point I was making, is the tiny group Antifa are definitely looking for a fight with actual fascists, just not with cops or anyone else. This is a smear&fear campaign by a deranged far-right POTUS.
Apart from the factually inaccurate politically motivated smear, the thing I hate most is how US media pundits pronounce it. It is not An tee Fa, it is Anti Fa.
My knowledge is incomplete admittedly, but your ignorance is complete. There is a long standing very small group called Antifa. They regard themselves as the spiritual grandchildren of the Battle of Cable Street. I doubt many of them are anarchists, or at least they never circled the capital A in their name. They get very annoyed at non-members who refer to themselves as antifa, even genuine antifascists.
If the American group is like the British group then they won't even be at any of these protests unless the KKK or neo-Nazis are there - and then Antifa will turn up too.
I forgot about the Black Bloc, one of the Daily Mail's most dangerous villainous groups. It isn't and never was a group. It was a list of twenty tactics on how to prevent innocent injuries during resistance to police attacking a demonstration. I only read it once, it was hosted on the personal server of some Republican Arizona professor under a 'free speech' disclaimer circa 2002. I think some teenager wrote it, the only gem of wisdom I can recall is, 'Don't throw objects from the back of a crowd, only from the front'. Something about wearing black clothing to avoid identification, changing in and out of those clothes, and wearing padding under them to lessen injuries when the police beat you.
You can buy 'The Anarchist Handbook' on Amazon. Don't. Firstly the author has disclaimed it. Secondly, it's incredibly dangerously inaccurate and misguided. I downloaded it in about 1990 at work, back when you were allowed to call yourself an anarchist at work, and as an engineer it was extremely if inadvertently funny.
Name the "several different groups" you think are acting as a "rent-a-mob", and tell us who you think are renting them.
I don't have many, or in fact any, areas of expertise on this exalted forum, but I'd bet I'm the only person here who has met Antifa and can estimate their numbers and reason d'être.
I must add I fully agree that the response should be non-violent, has to be non-violent, and the violent protesters should be condemned. I just don't believe they are organised or paid for groups.
One thing that struck me strongly, ignoring the police murderers and their under-prosecution, is the lack of intervention. Someone filmed it, and people complained, but nobody intervened. As an activist I was trained to throw my body on top of and around a victim, as a literal human shield. I know that sounds weak in the UK where most police don't carry guns, but that tactic was learned in Israel/Palestine. The idea is it gives the aggressor pause for thought.
I honestly don't know if I'd be brave enough to follow my own advice, never been tested that way but I hope I wouldn't have frozen.
Nope. You can tell from the English Riots in 2011, misnamed the British Riots, that all the looters were opportunist local chancers acting as a mob but not knowing each other or organised beforehand.
You do get young anarchists who use the opportunity to kick out at the police and vandalise banks, etc, but again not a group. They are just trying to make some Riot Porn so they look brave and get laid. I doubt any of them has read any anarchist writer.
Neither of these types of idiot is a mob for rent. They are not even as organised as a flash mob.
[The heat doesn't help calm things. I was half listening to BBC news and they announced May was the funniest month on record in the UK. My first thought was it was a joke, but they went on to serious news. Second thought, this has been a lousy, tragic least funny month. Third thought, they don't keep records of funniness.
Sunniest. I've not been outside much and am going deaf.]
I've met members of both.
Despite what everyone has read Antifa is a tiny closed-membership group, about ten to twenty members in the UK, probably the same in the US. They have one role which they stick to tightly, standing up to street-fighting fascists. They don't get involved in anything else. Didn't get involved in Occupy and I assume not these protests. Many young protesters called themselves 'antifa' because they assumed it was a cool contraction of anti-fascist, and Antifa were always livid about that and threatened them until they stopped. I told them I thought they were too protective about their name, but now the POTUS has labelled them a terrorist group I understand. But when a name gets co-opted, it's best to rebrand.
Anonymous started with a protest against Scientology which was cool. It's always reported that their Guy Fawkes masks were inspired by Alan Moore's 'V For Vendetta' I went up to them at the time and said, "V For Vendetta - cool!"
Sadly they hadn't heard of V For Vendetta, or Alan Moore, they were just the coolest looking masks in the nearest shop. Alan Moore was proud of the connection so nobody tell him. I'm sure they all got into him afterwards.
They published their 'Low Orbit Ion Cannon' attack plans, I forget against who, on an activist website, and me and another techie checked it out and went ballistic at them, and warned everyone not to participate. Ironically I guess it wasn't anonymous, it displayed your IP address. I recommended an HP stress test that did mask your IP but they knew better, and dozens of their volunteers were arrested. I thought at the time that was deliberate, to mask the one or two of them with botnets.
Current headline story in the local rag: 'Noisy, drug-taking' students the alternative to holiday lets say couple told to stop running Airbnb
“We also have ring doorbell video camera installed on an external door which alerts us if there is any loud noise and a motion. We monitor our guest’s behaviours.”
I should add that if lockdown restrictions have been lifted by August then Fringe venues will be allowed to host events.
Aye, I'll assume any contact tracer is malevolent even if it is a Scottish CLID because no phone number has been published here.
Public information about contact tracing is available on NHS inform.
404: Page not found
Plus I don't know where my phone is, no use for it now. One mate called me for a chat and I effused because it was the first time in five months I'd heard a non-relatives voice. He laughed because apparently he is an 'essential worker' and got to go out three times a week.
[Although I can see the benefits of a system that warns me I was inadvertently close to someone English. Fe Fo Fi Fum, I got an alert about the blood of an Englishman]
I've been locked down with two vulnerable octogenarian parents for five months now, would love a tech balm to this - just can't trust Westminster/Cheltenham an inch.
The very fact they are insisting on keeping the data for beyond the pandemic is just expletively untrustworthy and self-defeating.
Hitler was nice to his dog. And Goebbels was his Reich Minister of Propaganda.
Trump's tweet isn't a misinterpretation by anyone than you. It's a quote from 1967 Miami police Chief Walter Headley. Trump, and every other white American, knew what he meant.
....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
Not sure that tweet can be fact checked by Twitter. Maybe by a psychiatrist.
A very smart, probably autistic but whatever, electronics engineer was tasked with teaching me programming when I was a fresh apprentice. I guess his boss saw some possibility of talent in me, but he didn't.
The very first thing he said to me was, "Write out the Fibonacci sequence using Pascal."
My honest, gormless reply got a rare smile from him, and then a groan that later became common
"I know who Blaise Pascal was but I've never heard of Fibonacci."
Actually, he may not have been autistic. Much more likely I am just stupid enough to ascribe better intelligence / education to some weird brain condition. But I think I got a point for knowing who Blaise Pascal was. History of Mathematics, worth reading to the end.
Joking, ta for yer concern though.
The day I can call my dentist then my mental health will be just fine.
I'm a partial anarchist, could never commit because nobody had plans for an anarchist dental school.
I've quit good jobs to see him, longest professional relationship in my life.
I would have married any dentist who would have accepted, but nobody who saw my mouth would have. And I dated a surgeon. Who needs a surgeon? Dentists are the key workers.
I am the reason Americans joke about British teeth.
Not all my fault, my mum used to feed me sugar sandwiches. White bread, white sugar.
I was given a Soviet Russian tank commander goggles, hat and dagger as a child. A fair few trees, well they probably survive to a degree. But I was cool as....in my defence I was a child. The two games were 'Japs and Commandos' or 'Cowboys and Indians'.
I invented 'Soviet Assassin''. Nobody but me was cut or shot. Aye, I had a rifle too.
Sorry to bore you but I have a half dozen stories on this subject. This is the most recent. Local kids were throwing stones across a garage roof and hitting the cars on the other side. I don't want to be a disciplinarian or adult so I just asked them why. Their football was on the roof and they were trying to knock it off.
Recklessly, with very bad throws..
I asked them why they just didn't climb up and retrieve it, apparently they can't climb. So I hoisted one South African Celtic wean up, and then he expected help down. I was reluctant because sad.
I told him just to dreepy down. He said he didn't know the word 'dreepy', and none of his friends knew either.
Bit of a kick.
I've already congratulated it, defended it and applauded it. Can't roll that back.
I've been locked down since Feb 5th with two awful elderly parents because I knew what 'pandemic' and 'novel' meant. Pulled two of my own teeth.
Haven't had any internet access for two days, which was kind of the cherry on top of lockdown. Can't get to my pain medication. I'm a ball hair away from a murder/suicide pact. It's just nice to vent here, and see other people venting.
In short, pro-mob, if they socially distance.
"Would it help if we found you professional assistance?"
Yes, if it was a dentist. I would, well it'd be rude to say what I would do if you found me a dentist, but currently next to toothless so use your imagination.
Angry and unhappy is a perfectly accurate descriptor. No offence taken. True.
I miss my dentist more than my first love. Or any of them.
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