Seen in the News

[Stanley]

Here's a bit from me memoirs which describes my first encounter with Masons at first hand.
When we moved to Heaton Moor I started to go to St Paul’s. I joined the Sunday School and the choir. We practised twice a week I think on Tuesday and Friday so I made five visits there a week. There was a paid organist and choirmaster, Mr Snow and the Rector was Alfie Jeff, he was a Mason and we were a popular church for Masonic ceremonies which were an eye opener for young lads like us. I remember one day during the week there was one of these services and the church was packed with elderly men in suits with shiny aprons and all sorts of regalia. What sticks out in my mind was that one of the men on the front row fell asleep during the sermon, his head drooped towards his chest and after a while we could see that something brown and liquid was running out of his mouth and down all his magnificent regalia. It was beer, he was so full of booze that it just welled out of him. What a mess, his mates got him outside and returned without him.
I was not impressed.

[Tripps]

So the latest child is a boy - Frank Alfred Odysseus Johnson.

I was going to say 'you couldn't make it up - but actually you could. They used to call it 'inverted snobbery' a long time ago - just routine now. I find the top posh names for boys are
Rupert. Sebastian. Hugo. William. Henry. Tarquin. Theodore. Charles.

So to be different - go back to working class names, last seen decades ago.

Our cat was called Tarquin - that was just plain ordinary snobbery.

Tarquin.jpg

[Stanley]

Dorothy Parker was once asked why she had selected the curious name Onan for her pet canary. She replied: because he spills his seed on the ground.

[Tripps]

The word Onan takes me back to Germany BAOR in the sixties as it was the name of the small 3.5 kVA petrol generator. They were easy to start, quiet, and very reliable as I recall.

Onan.jpg

[Stanley]

We have all seen the news about the identity of the BBC mystery man. I am glad we never entered into the debate and the first thing that came into my mind when I heard it was David's post yesterday about the Socrates test for 'news'. And yes, I realise that was no accident David....

[PanBiker]

I reckon it's about time the SUN was shut down. No evidence has been produced but they still ran the accusation. Trial by media, now where have we seen that before?

[plaques]

Murdock now an American citizen has been trying to to get his hands on he BBC via Fox News for years. The BBC would have to raise a civil case in America which would go nowhere and cost £Billions. No case to answer is my view.

[Tripps]

And yes, I realise that was no accident David

I'm tempted to confirm that - but I can't. It was just coincidental - (spooky ?). Accidently very timely though.

I didn't connect the two until you pointed it out. I must be slowing down.

I reckon it's about time the SUN was shut down.

Of course - that would fix everything. Remember that world class, weapons grade PR is being mobilised from all sides on this affair. Someone knows the truth - it is not possible that they don't, but right now we can only use our experience to make a best guess. Meanwhile of course best shoot the messenger to be on the safe side.

[Stanley]

Coincidental or not it was timely and the fact is that nobody on this site went into print to froth about matters we knew nothing about. Basically this is what this has all been about and we now know that at the heart of it is a very troubled human being who needs sympathy and space to heal.

[Tripps]

a very troubled human being who needs sympathy and space to heal.

That's not at all quite how I'm seeing the matter. However let's give Socrates the benefit of the doubt and say nowt.

[Big Kev]

Coincidental or not it was timely and the fact is that nobody on this site went into print to froth about matters we knew nothing about. Basically this is what this has all been about and we now know that at the heart of it is a very troubled human being who needs sympathy and space to heal.

Do we have any hard evidence of 'troubled'? Could just be a 'get out of jail free' card being played (or is it just me thinking that?)
The Sun newspaper seem to be playing pots and kettles having the front to report on it in the first place, the same paper who 'encouraged' Samantha Fox to give up her O levels and pose topless on page 3 at 16 years old.

[Stanley]

I shall believe the wife until I see evidence to the contrary.

[Tizer]

...the same paper who 'encouraged' Samantha Fox to give up her O levels and pose topless on page 3 at 16 years old.

That reminded me of when we had the serious flooding in the Somerset Levels about 10 years ago and the village of Muchelney was flooded. The Sun sent a photographer and a woman in a skimpy outfit in a small boat to take some silly photos for the paper. The villagers tipped them both into the muddy water before they had a chance to take pics!

[Tripps]

I shall believe the wife until I see evidence to the contrary.

Not sure why anyone would do that - based on what? The statement she has made to the media?

I mentioned the use of top class PR previously - looks like my guess was correct -

Huw Edwards’s family is being advised on communications strategy by the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as the suspended BBC presenter battles to save his career, sources have told the Guardian.
Vicky Flind, Edwards’s wife, talked to Coulson before releasing a statement on Wednesday that identified Edwards as the person accused by the Sun of giving £35,000 to a crack cocaine user in return for explicit images. Her statement elicited substantial sympathy from colleagues, former colleagues, and members of the public after it revealed Edwards was in hospital with mental health issues.
Coulson, who went to prison after being found guilty of phone hacking offences, was formerly David Cameron’s Downing Street director of communications. He now runs a PR agency that specialises in crisis management for high-profile individuals.His involvement in the case pits him against former colleagues at Rupert Murdoch’s News UK. They include the chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, a former lover of Coulson. The two were tried together at a high-profile Old Bailey trial in 2014, with a jury finding Coulson guilty of conspiracy to hack phones but clearing Brooks of any wrongdoing.

[Big Kev]

I wouldn't believe anything I read in a newspaper...

[Tizer]

`Wagner mercenaries have arrived in Belarus, Ukraine confirms' LINK
Considering that the Wagner troops were able to invade Russia and almost reaching Moscow before their boss told them to turn back, I wonder if Belarus leader Lukashenko has thought he might just turn on Putin himself by using his troops and Wagner? And let's not forget there are nuclear weapons in Belarus. On the other hand, Prigozhin might return, join his own troops and take over Belarus.

[Stanley]

David, you ask 'on what basis'? Simply that she is the closest to him and I may as well believe someone until proved wrong. It saves a lot of wondering and speculating.
See THIS BBC report on the heat wave that is the main news in southern Europe and the Med. Perhaps we should be grateful that we aren't sharing their weather. 16C doesn't look too bad compared with 48C!

[PanBiker]

On Facebook feed actually, watch for scaffolding on Bancroft Mill chimney. They have secured a rather large grant to have it re-pointed.

[Tripps]

I may as well believe someone until proved wrong.

Disappointing . . . .

[Big Kev]

As I've said before, I wouldn't believe anything I read in a newspaper...

[Tripps]

I wouldn't believe anything I read in a newspaper...

I've always found the racing results pretty reliable. The rest I filter through my experience, which is considerable.

The 'Mavis Wilton ' conclusion "I don't really know" is often appropriate.

[Stanley]

The advice to budding historians was always believe nothing but the advertisements and the hatched, matched and dispatched.

[PanBiker]

As I've said before, I wouldn't believe anything I read in a newspaper...

I haven't bought a newspaper for nearly 30 years. They have always struck me as yesterdays news, (nostalgia columns apart). I reckon I will find out anything that is likely to effect me via TV or radio more or less as it happens. Having said that, as commented on in another thread, with the rise of CGI and AI you cant actually trust anything you see or hear now unless you have personally witnessed the event.

On a similar note I watched a fascinating video that showed the development of robots since the early 90's, so over the last 30 years or so. The mechanical and electronic human like type was featured. Started of for the first 10 years of the video as tethered and remotely operated types, crawlers then upright walkers, much like human development. Around 2000 they show models that are autonomous, still programmed though but they then have arms and hands, this gives them extra balance and successive models can climb and descend steps. 2010 they are not only climbing steps but jumping between obstacles in a test scenario. The latest one shown from 2020 are not only totally self sufficient but can be tasked to create the test rig, move boxes around, climb and descend steps, jump onto boxes and approach and leap directly over others. The finale was a tasked robot that could not only do that but it could do forward somersaults onto a raised box from a platform at the top of the steps and then turn round and do a back flip from the box to the floor. No doubt someone will be experimenting with giving them AI so they can be even smarter and more efficient.

The entire premise of the Terminator films is that AI was added to defence systems but became "self aware" and once it realised that it could operate more efficiently without human intervention it decided to get rid of the nuisance. Is this the same path that seems to be ahead of us now in real life?

[Stanley]

I have already said I think we have reasons to worry but was told to think again. I did and I'm still worried. I have seen what happened after the war to the world of work. It's been the ambition of the capital holders to de-skill the workers ever since the start of the Factory System. Karl Marx was warning against it in Das Kapital which was researched and written before 1850 so it's not new.
I believe that AI will be another turn of the screw of automation and digitisation that has already destroyed so many trades and skills.

[Tizer]

From the Guardian...
Prigozhin says Wagner mercenaries will no longer fight in Ukraine war and will head to Africa. Prigozhin was shown in a video welcoming his Wagner fighters to Belarus and telling them they would for now take no further part in the Ukraine war, He also ordered his men to train the Belarusian army and collect their strength for a “new journey to Africa.”