Scotland

family, food, history

@bookworks@c.im asked the Fediverse for recommendations for accommodation on a clockwise tour of Scotland this autumn.

I have travelled around Scotland a fair amount over the decades, scratching only the surface of this scenic, welcoming country from the Borders (the border with England) all the way to Shetland. I am not qualified as a tour guide or itinerary planner. Or writer. Or coherent, probably.

Nevertheless šŸ™‚ here goes on a list of places seen and those I would revisit. It starts in the south/southeast at Gretna and goes on a vaguely clockwise route ending in Edinburgh.

Chances are I’ll update this as time passes. Maybe add a few links and my photos.

Stuff

Gretna

Gretna/Gretna Green exists on the reputation of a place to which young couples would elope to and be married over the blacksmith’s anvil or something. It’s always been packed as we passed by since my first and only visit

West through Dumfries & Galloway

We visited Kircudbright on a wet day so used it only as a journey breaker. I’d bet it’s quite scenic though, especially down by the river. Stranraer & Sandhead a few years ago was pleasant but nothing stood out other than a windy day trip down to the southernmost tip of Scotland.

There’s a lot of space between towns and villages here, and consequently a lot of spaces classified as Dark Sky – suitable for stargazing.

Ayr and Ayrshire north to Glasgow

Made the mistake of stopping in a pub next to the racecourse, arriving on race day. Rolling hills. Decades ago, I can’t recall much.

One landmark of sorts is the Electric Brae, a section of the road that makes it appear one is rolling uphill when in fact one is rolling down. Oh, just go and see if you’re ever in the area.

Glasgow

I’ve only ever driven through or watched American football in Glasgow. Honestly I’m keen to hear what others have to say about the place declared the UK’s first-ever European City of Culture.

The road north to the Highlands

The A82 road heading to the west coast doesn’t really interest me, not even alongside Loch Lomond, although my wife would disagree – she says it’s incredibly beautiful, especially later in the year. It’s always been packed or being upgraded so take care driving. It’s only past Crianlarich it becomes interesting – for me.

The A82 road north to the Scottish Highlands. The cyclists at the bottom right may or may not be having fun. It's overcast and bleak but remains an impressive landscape.
The A82 road north to the Scottish Highlands. The cyclists at the bottom right may or may not be having fun. It’s overcast and bleak but remains an impressive landscape.

It’s a bit bleak the further north you go but wow, big sky. And then the hills start in earnest.

Turning onto the A85 towards Oban cuts out some of the gradual approach to some of the cragginess of the Highland scenery and the road past Glencoe, but there’s more of that and history further north.

Oban has a distillery and a port, and great seafood. We took the ferry as foot passengers across to the Isle of Mull. Fans of the children’s TV series Balamory will want, nay be unable to resist the urge to visit scenic Tobermory. We stopped in a house outside Oban, one I’m absolutely certain is haunted by a previous owner.

Oban north to Fort William

North from Oban on the A828 past the sea lochs to the west keeps the interest up. In general driving is pretty easy – unlike driving in the cities people generally become more courteous the further north one travels. Heck, even on single track roads most drivers know how to use passing places! Not true in England and especially the south of England.

Glencoe. Infamous battlefield site. History in the raw.

The town of Fort William, despite the number of times I’ve visited, isn’t special to me. The area around and to the north and west, heck yes! A hotel in Banavie next to the scenic locks on the Caledonian Canal was good base for a few years. Reading reviews it appears the Moorings has lost its spark so I can’t now recommend. Incidentally, if you’re lucky there’ll be a boat or three passing up or down the locks. The A830 Road to the Isles to the west and the A82 north to Inverness and made it a good centre.

Glen Nevis hold very special memories for me and I can say I’ve walked up a bit of the Ben Nevis mountain, but I much prefer to view that from places like the Commando Memorial close to Spean Bridge. At the turn of the century I visited alone for the first time. In early spring. With snow and sleet and wind. And I walked. It was awesome.

West from Fort William to Mallaig

West are the Glenfinnan Monument and film-famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, and the road itself to Mallaig is worth a drive, although aside from taking the ferry to the Isle of Skye I didn’t find much in Mallaig itself.

North from Fort William

There’s a gondola at Nevis Range and decent views atop Aonach Mor. I bet it’s spectacular in the winter.

The drive north up the A82 along Loch Lochy first is easy, and here’s picnic site close to the southern end of Loch Oich I’ve always stopped at. Another incidental, the swing bridge at Laggan is kind-of fun to wait for.

A small bird on a car's door mirror. I think it's a chaffinch. I think it's a Peugeot 206 GTi. Photo taken around 2000 on a rainy day, at Loch Oich in Scotland. I didn't have food.
A small bird on a car’s door mirror. I think it’s a chaffinch. I think it’s a Peugeot 206 GTi. Photo taken around 2000 on a rainy day, at Loch Oich in Scotland. I didn’t have food.

The road west to Skye

At Invergarry the A87 road west eventually reaches Kyle of Lochalsh and a road bridge over to Skye. It passes the scenic Eileen Donan castle and is worth a drive on its own. Be careful of foreign tourists forgetting which side of the road they must drive on though. Gulp! (It’s the left by the way). šŸ™‚

Skye is special of course, itself and in Scottish history. A highlight for me was the drive to Elgol and the view over to the Cuillins – craggy peaks. There’s nothing at Elgol but the destination. And sure it’s not for all – my investment was worth it for me.

Look up Plockton. A village with palm trees made possible but its location at the eastern, tempering end of the Gulf Stream.

Honestly, all of this is personal, I get a lot out of Scotland but detoured a lot over the years. Thousands of miles, no joke.

North again to Fort Augustus and Inverness

Missing out that significant detour and continuing north reaches Fort Augustus. It’s small, it’s ok. Notable are a more scenic set of canal locks than Fort William’s and the really rather good restaurant at the Lovat Hotel.

The Caledonian Canal locks at Fort Augustus in Scotland, taken one morning without other people moving about.
The Caledonian Canal locks at Fort Augustus in Scotland, taken one morning without other people moving about.

Fort Augustus is situated at the southern end of Loch Ness. Further north along the loch are Drumnadrochit and the Nessie exhibits – the Loch Ness Monster is very real dontchaknow!

Off the north end of Loch Ness is Inverness. I’ve eaten there but that’s about it. There’s a river and it’s somewhat scenic.

Further east are Fochabers (Baxter’s foods), Cawdor Castle, and south from there are Ballater and Royal Braemar – and Balmoral castle. Not far away is the Royal Lochnagar distillery, the first I ever visited and literally the first time I’d ever tasted whisky. I hated it, but I’ve made up for it since with a whole host of, erā€¦ extended tastings of everything from the innocuousness of Bells blended all the way up to a 15 year old Laphroaig. Wish I could afford that one these days.

Aberdeen north to Shetland

I’ve been to Aberdeen twice. The first time it was just windy and bleak, the second we were catching the ferry to Shetland. My in-laws flew but my wife’s scared of flying so we took my car and I drove all of us around Shetland.

Shetland is amazing, but somehow not road trip material per se. It’s amazing, did I say that? My father-in-law and thus my wife have Shetland heritage removed only two/three generations. He made a pilgrimage of sorts there just over 10 years ago. It’s an amazing, important place.

By the way, my father-in-law’s ancestors came from the big house in a Shetland hamlet called Twatt. I kid you not.

The resourcefulness of the islanders is impressive. Less so the removal of pretty much all the trees the island once had.

Aberdeen south to Stirling

Anyway, south of Aberdeen is Stonehaven. It’s small enough to be walkable, and holds the honour of being the first place in the world to and sell and popularise a deep-fried Mars bar. šŸ™‚ The ‘Cool Gourmet’ tearoom and caterer is a hidden gem. It’s tiny though. I absolutely loved their cheesy scones with rhubarb and ginger jam.

I’ve passed through Aviemore. I guess it comes alive in the winter but it’s a bit depressing in summer – for me at least.

I had friends who lived in Callander, north west of the road from Aberdeen to Stirling. The lived in a forestry-owned single-storey building but aside from their companionship for a bit and the countryside around I’ve not many memories of that area now.

Stirling

Although it’s quite a way, south we go to Stirling – famous for its castle and excellent views from its ramparts, and the National Wallace Monument. Braveheart, remember? I can’t recall being allowed to park close to the castle but it’s not an onerous walk up.

We stopped over Valentine’s Day 2006 close by the village of Fintry, back when the Culcreuch Castle was open as a hotel. Sadly that closed a few years ago.

Dundee and St Andrews

I’ve visited Dundee for work only, and St Andrews on a day trip from Edinburgh. Aside from the St Andrews golf and university connections I can’t recall much. Do not exceed the speed limit in Dundee. My boss did when we were there, and paid the literal price. Dundee marmalade and The Beano children’s comicā€¦ can be found anywhere. Just saying.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh? Wellā€¦

The bridges on the approach to Edinburgh are all spectacular in their own right. Rail is a big thing for the city, and Waverley station isā€¦

Ok, the Royal Mile, Castle, bus tours, food, drink, Princes street and the Princes Street gardens, the nighttime ghost walks, Greyfriars Bobby statue, National Museum of Scotland, Camera Obscuraā€¦ it’s a proper walkable, memorable city. The bus tours even head out to Holyrood and the Scottish Parliament.

Things to be aware of

Midges

Midges in the Highlands peak around July to August. I’ll never forget an Audi cabriolet owner who left his open outside the small private hotel off the single track road northeast out of Banavie. Absolutely crawling in little black flies it was. They bite, so take insect repellent.

Link: https://www.highlandexperience.com/blog/scotlands-midge-season-explained/

Accents

Glasgow accents can be almost impenetrable without listening carefully and deliberately. The farther north and west one ventures the more chance of an Hebridean voice, wonderful, just wonderful.

Apology

None of this is as in-depth as I’d like it to be, and I’ve not linked anything, constructed as it is on the spur of the moment. I’d rather just go and visit! A road trip is a great way of seeing Scotland. It’s my favourite country anywhere.

Feel free to ask questions! The answers might be rubbish but who knows? šŸ™‚

Reception

family, health, misc, social, tech

I read a wholly positive toot a couple of days ago by @abetterjulie@wandering.shop. In it Julie pointed herself toward an acceptance that not everything in interactions with other humans is as bad as she previously thought. (I hope my summary is accurate).

I have a counterpoint from my wife. She visited the doctors for a routine check from their practice nurse.

A engraving of a 17th century plague doctor with caption "Why Did Plague Doctors Wear Beaked Masks?" I cannot recall where I got this from, but the Wikipedia page has the same picture, link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague\_doctor
A engraving of a 17th century plague doctor with caption “Why Did Plague Doctors Wear Beaked Masks?” I cannot recall where I got this from, but the Wikipedia page has the same picture, link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor

Technology, that’s problem 1. Or is itā€¦

There’s a touchscreen to sign in to show the doctor you’re there. It’s simple to use.

The system is not set up to show an option for the practice nurse though, and won’t be done because she’s not a doctor (my wife has asked). One has to check in at the reception desk – waiting in the inevitable line.

Humanity’s inability to compromise, that’s problems 1 and 2 then.

Waiting in line there often provides an insight into how customer-facing people in positions of authority work. Doctors receptionists are gatekeepers, pure and simple.

An elderly man was asking for a prescription for his wife. He’d driven to the building because phoning them didn’t work. Their preferred contact method – an internet service – only operates during their working hours.

Their web site only shows the opening hours for the current day. But it takes pains to state they are closed on the second Thursday of every month.

Their prescription phone line ha a window of a couple of hours per day. Really. They will not talk about prescriptions outside that window, so patients must phone back the next day and hope. And soā€¦

His wife, she’d been released from hospital 2 weeks before and would run out of one medication the next day. The hospital had sent a letter to the doctor on her release and so a prescription should have been made out for continuing medication. Two of the three had been processed.

The third, it hadn’t happened. The doctors had simply failed to process it.

He was quite obviously asking for an expedited prescription so he could visit the pharmacy next to the doctors building and get his wife the meds she needed.

The receptionist?

No, you’ll have to wait the standard 72 hours.

The man?

Why? Can a doctor not sign it now? I’m here. I can wait. (My wife said that in common with all of her visits the place the waiting areas were almost empty).

So, receptionist?

No, our system says you’ll have to wait 72 hours.

The man left.

Honestly, it really shames the profession, any profession, when someone cannot be human and simply help someone, especially when it’s their problem to begin with.

It’s not the first time my wife had either witnessed or been the recipient of such behaviour. It seems that their training is insufficient to allow for edge cases.

Or even normal cases.

Or even in the case of simply doing the job they’re paid for.

The doctors I go to is nowhere near as bad, but they protect their appointments my making it insanely difficult to contact them. Unless one physically enters the building at 8am and waits in line.

Humans can be good, can be great, can be compassionate, and just kind. But there’s a good chance it won’t happen in time of need. And that saddens me.

But for now I’ll take Julie’s toot and think of the good that does exist.

Baz Top Tips 002

tip

BIN men: On collection day help householder fitness by leaving their empty bins 2 to 3 houses away. Promote heart health by leaving bins on the kerb edge, partly blocking driveways.

A dark green UK wheelie bin on paving slabs.
A dark green UK wheelie bin on paving slabs.

Baz, Mastodon.

#BazTopTip

Baz Top Tips 001

tip

DOG walkers: When it’s cold out offer to go on a walk and when the doggie has a poo scoop it into a bag and use it as a hand warmer. Having bags is doubly important at this time.

Baz, Mastodon.

#BazTopTip

RAID

misc, work

My Engineering Manager put together the detail of a project management course for us, and had it run late last year by an outside agency with vast experience in the field. Quite enjoyable too.

The trainer had individual followup sessions with us all a couple of months ago, but I had nothing specific outside of my regular role to show him at that time.

But some, maybe most, of the concepts stuck and I put myself forward for a key user position (the details of that aren’t important here) that’d need a range of disciplines – project management at a department level included. Also good communication skills, which kind-of put me off a bit.

Anyway, some acronyms.

The basic framework for analysis and ongoing control of a project, ‘RAID‘ stands in my case for Risks, Actions, Issues and Dependencies. I think the classical RAID1 uses Assumptions – but I’m not in charge of the wider project so mine are rolled into Risks.

Surprisingly I managed to shoehorn a RAID log into a Microsoft Planner (basic)2 kanban board using labels and ‘group [ing] by labels’. I’ve added columns for ‘milestones’, ‘input required’, ‘not doing’ and ‘confirmed/completed’ – the latter to get over Planner’s inability to keep completed tasks visible.

A screenshot of time and/or task management apps on my iPhone - Apple Calendar, OmniFocus, Microsoft Planner and ClickUp.
A screenshot of time and/or task management apps on my iPhone – Apple Calendar, OmniFocus, Microsoft Planner and ClickUp.

And then there’s the ‘RACI‘ responsibility stakeholder matrix3 – a thing I’ve bastardised in my head to Responsible, Accountable, Complicit and Intolerant.

Ok, ok, it’s supposed to be Consulted and Informed but the original letters don’t seem to account for human behaviours, and so I feel entirely justified in giving it a personal twist – mainly so I can, erā€¦ simply remember it.

I’m not using one of those, the matrix will be defined by those above me running the project.

You know, the ones who set the project start dates, assign responsibilities, set up access right and trainingā€¦

Ok, Microsoft Planner is the tool the ordinary peeps in our department will be using starting soon, so I intend to make the best of it. The problem is it doesn’t easily interface with anything other than Project – including Outlook. That is quite frankly ridiculous. I mean, even Microsoft Power Automate singularly failed to add a new row of data to the Excel thing I put together to capture completed tasks.

Heck, the basic version doesn’t even have dependenciesā€¦

Oh, I implied I needed the project management training earlier. That’s true. However I know how to use web software such as ClickUp.com4 (etc.) to manage my own workload – a service I found indispensable to me, keeping me sane working at home during the 2020 UK lockdowns.

So, as the wait to start begins, I have to say I’m getting a little impatient. In a good way naturally. I’m not having dark thoughts and I’m definitely not thinking of increasing the number of Risk entries to one considering the effect of missed dates, nope, not I.

Footnotes:

  1. ‘What Is a RAID Log and Why Should I Use One?’, ProjectManager.com link: https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/raid-log-use-one ↩
  2. ‘Compare Microsoft Planner basic vs. premium plans’, Microsoft link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/compare-microsoft-planner-basic-vs-premium-plans-5e351170-4ed5-43dc-bf30-d6762f5a6968 ↩
  3. ‘Responsibility assignment matrix’, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_assignment_matrix ↩
  4. ‘ClickUp.com, Software to replace all software’, Clickup.com link: https://clickup.com. In my opinion usability has declined since the 4.0 update (AI included) – it’s no longer the same as the thing that kept me sane). ↩

Apocalyptic

family, food, science, social

@atoponce@fosstodon.org posted a poll earlier:

What is your preferred “end of the world” apocalyptic scenario?

– Aliens

– Nuclear fallout

– Pandemic

– Zombies

Assume strict science fiction and not fantasy fiction in the scenario (no supernatural magic).

The last time I looked Aliens was comfortably in the lead with 61% of the vote.

Quite naturally given that the world is undergoing an unprecedented period of stability and equality andā€¦ I took the question seriously and replied thus:

Feel free to accuse me of overthinking this šŸ™‚ but is this based on the likely survivability of my family and me (ark ship, bunker, isolated cottage) or a quick and easy demise free from watching the inevitable dismantling of our, erā€¦ civilisation?

*Or* (cue spooky music) something painful in between, something extraordinarily painful?

Maybe I should think of the bigger picture. šŸ™‚

Aaron’s response?

There aren’t really any rules other than no supernatural mumbo jumbo. I think that’s part of what makes this question kind of fun.

Are zombies animated only for a limited few days/weeks before decay makes them immobile?

Will the cancer from nuclear fallout kill you quickly, or will it be a slow painful death?

Are you food for the aliens or a science experiment?

Me, after a bit of thought:

I’ve voted for aliens on the basis that my preferred scenario involves the destruction of Earth for a hyperspace bypass, and it happens not long after the announcement. I’ve never been keen on prolonging things. šŸ™‚

Ok, I’m not at all keen on the destruction of anything but if it has to happen I’d like my participation in it to be over quickly. Incidentally, the hyperspace bypass thing is borrowed from the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy1, a trilogy in five parts.

So, why did I not choose any of the other worthy contenders?

Nuclear fallout?

I’m thinking of Chernobyl.2 I’ve watched dramatised documentaries34 and actual documentaries of the nuclear meltdown incident. That’s accidents. Thoughts on the intentional use of nuclear weapons leads me right to Threads – a film I cannot bring myself to watch but that I’ve read lots about.5

Not sure, but I don’t think I’d want to survive in a bunker, to see out my days cut off from ‘life’.

Pandemic?

2019- COVID-19. Everyone who reads this will have a memory of the 2019- pandemic. But not everyone died, and civilisation didn’t collapse, so that’s alright then.

1981- HIV/AIDS. Mostly under control, and it’s a good thing global outreach programmes are still well-funded isn’t it.

1918-1920 Spanish flu. Pretty much no-one who lived through this is alive now. A 100% mortality rate by now should annoy most people, right?6

1331-1353 Black Death.

Heck no, it’s not an exhaustive list, but this is only a blog post, I’m no academic!

Pandemics vs epidemics though, it’s all a matter of scale, excess mortality rates, pre-existing medical conditions, demographics, isn’t it.

So, a world-ending virus, bacteria, biological thing, has to be pretty, erā€¦ virulent, right?

Zombies

Watch the film ‘Shaun of the Dead’.7. That’s all.

It won’t be enough to prepare you for zombies, but it’s a good start.

I can’t choose this way to go because I wouldn’t want people I know and love to be consumed by or turn into zombies and want to eat my face off. Erā€¦ whether they consciously want to or not. I see enough of that with the increasing reliance on social media and propaganda shaping opinions instead of taking the time to have views shaped by ‘hard’ news organisations. So much for my 1997 dream of a golden age of information availability.

And, like most people, I rely on infrastructure spanning the turn of the 21st century for my survival. Were not ready for bartering and butchering and bravery.

Soā€¦

Aliens

Right. I’ve read and watched a good amount of science fiction. The ones that stand out, plot themes from memory:

‘Footfall’, novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle; conquest, assimilation, kinetic energy weapons.

‘The War of the Worlds’, novel by H.G. Wells; mass killings, enslavement, nourishment, climate change (in the grossest of senses).

‘Battlefield Earth’, large novel by L Ron Hubbard; mass killings, enslavement. Great book, dire film worth watching only after reading the book and then never again.

‘Doctor Who’, TV series; particularly extermination by the Daleks.

‘V’, TV series; sneaky extermination, eating us.

‘To Serve Man’, Twilight Zone TV episode; misunderstandings, a cookbook for humans.

There’s a theme that pervades (is that the right word?) most of these works, that humanity will somehow prevail against the might of space-going aggressors. Sure millions die along the way, butā€¦

And that’s the problem. I’d still want to ‘go’ quickly. I’m not prepped and ready, not even for probing by little green men

Hyperspace bypass then. I don’t even want to know of the planning application. Ignorance is bliss.

Or is itā€¦

Links:

  1. ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guidevto the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheHitchhiker%27sGuidetotheGalaxy. ↩
  2. ‘Chernobyl disaster’, Wikipedia link:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster ↩
  3. ‘Surviving Disaster review Chernobyl’, brief Aerial Telly review, 2006: https://aerialtelly.co.uk/surviving-disaster.php. (Page is broken but the review still stands).
    ‘Chernobyl Nuclear – Surviving Disaster (BBC Drama Documentary) FULL COMPLETE 1hr – ADE EDMONDSON’, video on DailyMotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tufjj ↩
  4. ‘Chernobyl (miniseries)’, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries) (Jared Harris is superb in this). ↩
  5. ‘Threads (1984 film)’, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film). (One of the most terrifying things the BBC has ever shown). ↩
  6. Please note the sarcasm here, sorry! ↩
  7. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ film, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead ↩

power

history, politics

The thing about power, including when people use terms like soft power and hard power, is that it is entirely misunderstood.

There is a quotation that follows people with power and authority. Until literally just now I had never thought to search out the context.

Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, KCVO DL) wrote it in a letter1 to Archbishop Mandell Creighton on April 5, 1887.

So, not just anyone then.

And this is it:

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”

Speaking of bad men, I wildly overestimated the number of false or misleading statements made by the 45th President of the United States of America. It turns out that, according to the Washington Post, he only made 30,573, not the 48,000 figure I had in my head.2

It’s only been a little over 5 years since he lost the previous election.

My most repeated quotation with the #QuoteSunday hashtag – across 4 social networks including the fondly-remembered App.net – is by George Santayana. You’ll have seen and probably heard this one too:

” Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Until about 16 or 17 months ago it was my fervent hope (even as an Englishman I’m being honest here) that President 47 would be constrained by the power of existing laws, and ‘the people’ would have the representation toā€¦3

Yeah, I’m naive.

Dictator.

No, in no way, shape or form a benevolent one.

Anyway, even when power is wielded for good it doesn’t always work out as intended.

A plaque dedicated to Cleveland Ohio's Mayor Michael R. White's efforts to restore the NFL Browns franchise to his city after owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore in 1995. | "The Cleveland Browns Organization dedicates this plaque to Mayor Michael R. White, whose tireless leadership led to the retention of the Cleveland Browns Football Franchise for this great community. Mayor White quarterbacked a team of citizens who refused to quit until they scored a final and permanent victory. "Our name, our team, our colors," became the slogan and the goal for his successful campaign. This magnificent stadium serves as the new home of the Browns and it also serves as a tribute to the effort that reflects the spirit and tenacity that makes Cleveland a special place."
A plaque dedicated to Cleveland Ohio’s Mayor Michael R. White’s efforts to restore the NFL Browns franchise to his city after owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore in 1995. | “The Cleveland Browns Organization dedicates this plaque to Mayor Michael
R. White, whose tireless leadership led to the retention of the Cleveland Browns Football Franchise for this great community.
Mayor White quarterbacked a team of citizens who refused to quit until they scored a final and permanent victory.
“Our name, our team, our colors,” became the slogan and the goal for his successful campaign. This magnificent stadium serves as the new home of the Browns and it also serves as a tribute to the effort that reflects the spirit and tenacity that makes Cleveland a special place.”
  1. Link to Lord Acton’s letter to Archbishop Mandell Creighton, Apr. 5, 1887: https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/165acton.html ↩
  2. ‘False or misleading statements by Donald Trump (first term)’. Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump_(first_term). (Wikipedia used because the WaPo page might be paywalled). ↩
  3. ‘Trumpā€™s vow to only be a dictator on ā€˜day oneā€™ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric’, AP News link: https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72 ↩

AI

coding, meta, tech, work

A couple of days ago I signed up to The Human made Webring, a ring for people actively avoiding AI on their own web sites. That is not all of the philosophy of course, but I have a confession. Not a deep or in-depth confession.

I use AI.

I have been thinking, how do I use it?

Most of the time it is entirely involuntarily. That said, I do try to avoid it wherever I can:

  • I switched AI off on my iPhone. Being honest, when I last tried it, it was not much help, especially attempting to summarise incoming messages or grouping alerts. Now there may be a time when it’s unavoidable, you know how fashions go.
  • Itā€™s switched off at Github.com. I do not code much but when I do I prefer to do things myself (yes, with help from StackExchange.com).
  • I use the Kagi.com search engine (without its AI). It simplifies search, no AI summary, no ads, no sponsored content. It finds stuff without the guff.
  • I haven’t touched Facebook for a while. It’s sometimes necessary to find out what’s happening locally or for shop opening times. I do use WhatsApp because I’d struggle to keep in touch with people I care about – those who don’t use Mastodon.
  • Twitter is occasionally a necessary evil for hyper-local news.
  • My car is over 16 years old and not even the clock updates automatically. I don’t know if I’d have auto updates by spending the extra Ā£1,000 for the top of the range version. But even that just had more things to potentially go wrong.
Stella cat sat on a window ledge. Through the window a quite old red car with not much in the way of modern tech, and certainly no AI.
Stella cat sat on a window ledge. Through the window a quite old red car with not much in the way of modern tech, and certainly no AI.

When I cannot avoid AI:

  • I scroll past it at work when Iā€™m using Google or Bing. (Iā€™m not paying for Kagi at work). Iā€™m only enough to remember an internet without Google. The problem is, I could probably save time by using the data in the AI summaries, especially some of the more technical stuff.
  • I check sources sent to me from colleagues. It’s not that I don’t trust their judgment, it’s just I’ve learned a lot through bitter experience.

What Iā€™m unsure about:

  • Translations.
  • Everything else online. This one’s a biggie isn’t it.

The thing is, how can AI and large language models be defined? I’m old enough to remember (you’ve heard this phrase before) much simpler stand-alone and connected systems:

  • When computers weren’t powerful enough to do anything but simulate an intelligence, e.g. ELIZA, a natural language processing program. It was interesting but after even casual use didn’t really give the impression it understood the conversation. Illusion.
  • Infocom adventures – interactive fiction. They used a limited parser to navigate a path through imaginary worlds full of monsters and traps. Spellbinding stuff. If you’ve ever seen a variation on “You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.” then you have a glimpse of how important the Zork adventure was.
  • The first telephone banking automations, the “Read out the 16-digit long number after the beep”, and the “Say yes” kind of things.

I suppose one could lump these two into a small language model type? And I’m probably using the word ‘simulate’ incorrectly too.

Dunno what’s next as I slowly remove AI.

Obsolescence?

War

history, politics

When a nation is at war with another a calculation is made, how can we end it quickly?

Negotiation or an overwhelming display of force, both strategies are intended to show the foreign power it would be a good idea to stop attacking.

The 2026 Iran War is not a war. I’m pretty sure none of the wars the USA had involved themselves in since WWII have been wars. They get fancy names, Desert Storm, Operation Epic Fury, adult stuff right?

So if not wars then what?

It’s about control, not an imminent threat.

And because there’s no imminent threat one has to be manufactured.

Of course 2 parties are using missiles or dropping bombs on the other, and sure, other nations are helping out. But both Israel and the USA don’t seem too concerned with the convention of “we need to end this as soon as we can”.

If the war was won a few weeks ago then why are the bombs still dropping? Why is the deranged US dictator threatening to destroy all the Iranian bridges and power plants tomorrow? Why the deaths?

There’s another calculation in wartime. The first part, how long will it take to rebuild after the conflict ends and destruction and loss of life can be assessed? The second part, who’s going to do it? The third part is likely to be, how much can we make on the interest payments?

A dog's rustly rabbit toy. Ripped apart after a year, with no stuffing left now, no squeaker, but still loved and played with every day. How could it be replaced?
A dog’s rustly rabbit toy. Ripped apart after a year, with no stuffing left now, no squeaker, but still loved and played with every day. How could it be replaced?

It’d be naive to assume that people don’t get rich from making armaments and reconstructing a country’s infrastructure. But I sense there’s been a plan all along.

China and Russia are used to building major infrastructure projects in areas ‘the west’ neglects, especially when the west withdraws funding.

But they’re not the bad guys here, despite Russia’s Ukraine War. Not the bad guys in the limited context of a rebuild or a shift in the world order.

There’s money to be made. Lots of it. And the people who make it for themselves don’t care where it comes from. Same as it ever was.

Before I finish this superficial, fact-light post, I have to make mention of a Mastodon toot I saw earlier. When replying to a post about the elevated likelihood that nuclear weapons would be used against Iran, a reply said they were more concerned with the near-certainty of climate change than the chance of nukes.

Climate change and the devastation that will bring is real. But we must not take our eyes off the here-and-now. We can’t allow an imminent terrible thing to happen because we don’t care it’s not as big as a more far-away terrible thing.

A fourth part to the calculation above, how long will it take for the defeated nation to pay for a rebuild? Right now it’s looking like the power plants and bridges might be destroyed tomorrow. Oil facilities have already been targeted. How could Iran pay?

I mean, it’s not as though there’s a narrow strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea that’s ripe for luxury resorts. Is it now.

So oil? Well, of course.

If it was just the re-opening of the Straits of Hormuz there’d be no need to make a country literally dark and impenetrable.

In much the same way the USA wanted to acquire the minerals and rare earth elements from Ukraine and Greenland, it’s greed.

I can’t bring myself to conclude anything right now. Well, apart from wondering who’s going to be the first nuclear power to use them in the 21st century.

USA?

Israel?

Oh, and we’ve got an entire region potentially up in arms. Yay.

Terrorists? Yay.

But terrorism, when it starts, will have a sound foundation that not many rational, sane people can deny.

From a blog post in 2017:

“One final point, simply attempting vengeance, to kill terrorists without any other coherent strategy to stop ordinary people being turned into terrorists, will never work.”

From another, showing what sane people are up against, another (sweary) 2017 blog post:

“We really do not know how lucky we are.”

Human made Webring

Blog, history, meta, social

I happen to be lazy when it comes to generating blog posts. No, I don’t use any form of AI1, I just occasionally repurpose text I’ve made elsewhere.

So here is one lightly remodelled from an email I sent asking to sign up to The Human made Webring, a ring highlighting sites made by people against using AI slop in their personal websites.

Great idea @peach@phpc.social!

So what is a webring? A collection of sites set up around a ring-like structure with simple links to a previous site, a next site, and a random site. Look at the bottom of each of my pages here for more. (As of the time of writing I’m not in the ring so only previous and next work).

A photo of a spider and its web in a garden. It's probably the most appropriate of my photos to illustrate how the web works and webrings work. (p.s. I don't know how the web works).
A photo of a spider and its web in a garden. It’s probably the most appropriate of my photos to illustrate how the web works and webrings work. (p.s. I don’t know how the web works).

Itā€™s been decades since I last signed up to one – something I found on GeoCities, so probably common during the late nineties and early noughties. Iā€™ve not gained much in the way of social reach since, so I wonā€™t be much of a publicist or evangelist. But as a member and consumer of fediverse content I’m definitely hoping this takes off!

Best wishes to everyone who signs up!

  1. I have one AI-generated image in this blog. A prize to whoever finds it. (The prize is not having to read more of my blog). šŸ™‚ ↩