WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

My heart bleeds for you......

[Stanley]

Thanks to Private Eye for bringing this Pendle news to my attention.....

[Big Kev]

Screenshot_2023-11-19-09-29-37-818_com.facebook.katana.jpg

[Tizer]

Looking forward to ‘tiny creatures’ , if you post it. Hint, hint.

Sorry Cathy but it hasn't appeared and I don't know why. Also I can't find it on google.

[Cathy]

Oh dear, that is a shame. Thanks for trying

[Stanley]

TalkTalk inform me that on 21 November my old email service ceases and I have to move over to the new version or lose the service. I have followed all the instructions and think I have done it but have no proof and don't really understand what I was doing. I could see no sign that my address book had been transferred and so did the only thing I really understand, I printed all 56 pages of my address book and filed it in the old oak chest. If all else fails and I have to start again at least I shall have a copy of my addresses!
I wish they would leave me alone......

[Tizer]

Are you talking about street addresses or email addresses. If the latter then surely you saved them in the Thunderbird address book on your PC, and if not there they would still be in the original email messages, also on your PC (unless you've deleted them).
As for street addresses, we've always kept them in old-style address books (pen on paper) but hardly ever use them now.

[PanBiker]

TalkTalk inform me that on 21 November my old email service ceases and I have to move over to the new version or lose the service. I have followed all the instructions and think I have done it but have no proof and don't really understand what I was doing. I could see no sign that my address book had been transferred and so did the only thing I really understand, I printed all 56 pages of my address book and filed it in the old oak chest. If all else fails and I have to start again at least I shall have a copy of my addresses!
I wish they would leave me alone......

Is this the Talk Talk web mail Stanley or something more fundamental regarding your email address? The web mail client has recently had an upgrade which is just cosmetic as far as I can see. I have had no other communication regarding anything else regarding Talk Talk mail.

[Big Kev]

The only thing I can find about it is a port change, for POP3, but that was in October 2022. I've never used the talktalk address' that they gave me when I signed up for their broadband, I just put a mail forward in it to my Gmail address. I'll have a dig around and see if I can configure a mail app to access my talktalk.net address.

[PanBiker]

I have various talk talk addresses set up, some via web mail and some in MS Outlook, also legacy tiscali addresses. All still work fine either in Outlook or on the web.

[Stanley]

I am thoroughly confused by all this and suspect that I am getting TalkTalk confused with Thunderbird.
I did everything the mail I got told me to do and am now sitting back to see what happens at midnight tonight.
(I am also wondering what connection there is, if any, with TalkTalk's mandatory free change to full fibre.....

[PanBiker]

I am also wondering what connection there is, if any, with TalkTalk's mandatory free change to full fibre.....

The media used to connect your broadband has nothing to do with your email service be it the mail client used or the service providers settings.

I you forward me the email that is vexing you I will try and shed some light for you.

[Tizer]

Stanley, it doesn't sound like anything to do with Thunderbird (TB). That's the email software that I presume you, like me, use to compose, send, download and read email messages on your PC. All your received and sent email messages will be in folders in that software and the folders are listed down the L.H. side of the TB screen like in a file manager. The messages will be kept unless you deleted them.

We use Plusnet for our broadband rather than TalkTalk. They both have webmail which shows the email messages but we download the messages from the Plusnet server via TB onto our PCs and never use the webmail directly. That way we have control over our messages once they are in TB.

[Stanley]

Nothing seems to have happened and so either what I responded to from Talktalk was dealt with by my actions or I have dreamed the whole thing. I shan't take advantage of your kind offer Ian, no point wasting your time as long as the mail is working which it seems to be so far.....
So much of this modern world is beyond my understanding......

[Tizer]

Do as Panbiker suggested and forward the email to him for his perusal. You need to be sure it's not a scam.

[Big Kev]

A bit of digging and there's a discussion around webmail migration for TalkTalk. As Stanley uses a mail client (Thunderbird) nothing should change for him.

[Tizer]

[Stanley]

Whatever it was it has passed without any harmful effects. Thanks for looking Kev. I shall leave it alone and carry on as usual.
Something did get my attention..... A letter that put money into my pocket instead of taking it out....
(I found it on the doormat just after I'd responded to Ian's call for funds. I thought the gods were on my side!)

[Tizer]

Have a dekko at the short videos in this link. Whatever next? I wonder if Musk has mixed up his electric car and space shots!
`US-Canada border blast not terror related, New York governor says' BBC

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the iceberg A23A.
The world's biggest iceberg is on the move after more than 30 years being stuck to the ocean floor. A23a, as it's called, calved from the Antarctic coastline in 1986, but almost immediately grounded in the Weddell Sea to become, essentially, an ice island. At almost 4,000 sq km (1,500 sq miles) in area, it's more than twice the size of Greater London. The past year has seen it drifting at speed, and the berg is now about to spill beyond Antarctic waters.
I find this fascinating, the scale of the berg and the timescale of its movements are on a different scale to anything we humans are used to.....

[Stanley]

I have been watching THIS situation for the last few days.
Carnival UK is withdrawing a threat to use a controversial strategy known as "fire-and-rehire" in negotiations over the pay and conditions for more than 900 crew at the cruise operator. Trade union Nautilus said the move followed urgent discussions. In a joint statement Carnival and Nautilus said the tactic was being dropped. Instead they would work "co-operatively towards a negotiated settlement", the statement said. Nautilus executive officer Martyn Gray said the withdrawal was a "positive indication" of Carnival UK's commitment to negotiate over changes to terms and conditions for the 919 crew members affected. "However, fire and rehire, or dismissal and re-engagement, should never be an option for any employer to force changes to terms and conditions and the UK government should commit to outlawing this," he said. It is not currently illegal to fire and then rehire staff. But in practice it is only considered acceptable as a last resort, and as long as the correct procedures are followed. Under UK law, employers planning to make 20 or more staff redundant within any 90-day period, must first consult staff and speak to trade union representatives.
All well and good but forgive me, didn't the separate firm of P&O Ferries do exactly this and rehire foreign non-union labour and get away with it because they were foreign owned?
Isn't it the case that we need a law which protects workers employed under UK law and 'protected' by a domestic union?
This is exactly what we haven't got and the firm is allowed to present their decision as some sort of a concession. I'm sorry but this seems all wrong to me......

[Big Kev]

I saved 100% by not buying anything on Black Friday

[PanBiker]

"However, fire and rehire, or dismissal and re-engagement, should never be an option for any employer to force changes to terms and conditions and the UK government should commit to outlawing this," he said. It is not currently illegal to fire and then rehire staff. But in practice it is only considered acceptable as a last resort, and as long as the correct procedures are followed. Under UK law, employers planning to make 20 or more staff redundant within any 90-day period, must first consult staff and speak to trade union representatives.

This happened to me twice when I was working. First time in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme in Burnley. Everyone's contracts were ended but with a negotiated guarantee that there would be a new position at at least the same if not better pay in the new schools that were being built. That worked OK for me when I moved from St Ted's to The New Burnley Schools Sixth Form. Second time was at the latter when after 3 years or so all the contracts were ended and you could accept the terms of the new ones or take redundancy. I continued but inherited more workload for the same pay. A few years after that the School Manager (Burser), my line manager decided that the roles, (37 when I added them up) were no longer required, I could take redundancy or continue at a lower grade. I decided to quit. A few years later the School Manager who had now elevated herself to Principal oversaw the complete closure of of the establishment and everyone was out of work.

In effect I took early retirement with my redundancy as at 56 years old, no one would employ me. I applied for 96 jobs in the first year and got one interview. Soul destroying at the time but water under the bridge.

[Stanley]

And a very common experience Ian, I feel so sorry for everyone treated like that. I have said so many times that someone brought up like me into jobs where you had a Contract of Employment, guaranteed hours and wages and Overtime, holiday pay and sick pay, could never envisage the present sorry state of affairs with 'internships' and Zero Hours contracts. If there's a better way of demonstrating that you despise the workers I don't know it. Absolutely no respect or regard for human dignity.
It will get worse as jobs are eroded even further by AI no matter what the captains of industry say.
What grabbed my attention was a visit by two young friends of mine, we had a very good two hours catching up on all the news. (When I say 'young' I mean 60 years old..... )

[Tizer]

This one for Cathy. I liked the last photo best although it's stretching the meaning of the word `creatures'!...
`Your pictures on the theme of 'tiny creatures'' BBC photos

And a bonus - but bigger creatures!...
`Somerset photographer's gannet picture highly-commended' BBC West