The marina at Hartlepool: one of those "should I even bother to upload it?" pix. Nevertheless, it was licensed last week for TV use (and for the best price in a couple of months)...
Saturday, 7 December 2019
Elon Musk...
I learn this morning that Elon Musk can take to Twitter, call someone a “pedo guy” (ie a paedophile) and suffer no adverse repercussions. This isn’t some run-of-the-mill insult, but apparently the jury saw it that way. Shame on them.
The marina at Hartlepool: one of those "should I even bother to upload it?" pix. Nevertheless, it was licensed last week for TV use (and for the best price in a couple of months)...
The marina at Hartlepool: one of those "should I even bother to upload it?" pix. Nevertheless, it was licensed last week for TV use (and for the best price in a couple of months)...
Friday, 6 December 2019
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
East of Eden...
Residents of Asbestos, a small Canadian town, are hoping that a change of name will give the place an economic boost. Companies have proved resistant to relocating to a place that shares its name with a cancer-causing mineral banned in sixty countries.
Here in Yorkshire we have communities called Bedlam, Crackpot and Wetwang. Just down the road from Asselby is The Land of Nod, which takes its name from Genesis 4:16. “So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden”…
Here in Yorkshire we have communities called Bedlam, Crackpot and Wetwang. Just down the road from Asselby is The Land of Nod, which takes its name from Genesis 4:16. “So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden”…
"Responsible" gambling...
The Health Survey for England, 2018, reports that more than half the population (53%) gambled last year, even if that was just buying a lottery ticket or scratch card. There’s a call for gambling companies to “take their responsibilities seriously”, but I’m not convinced that these companies - now mostly operating online - see themselves having any “responsibilities” at all… beyond making as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, from as many people as possible.
When betting shops continued to open, mostly in the poorer parts of town, it wasn’t because greater numbers of punters were betting on football matches and horse racing. It was because each betting shop was allowed to have a maximum of four fixed odds betting terminals, known in the trade as the “crack cocaine of gambling”. The maximum bet for any gambler on an FOBT has now been reduced, by law, to £2, with the result that many betting shops are disappearing from the high street. This does not, of course, suggest that these businesses have suddenly become “responsibile, but merely that more and more gambling activities are going online. Punters now monitor their bets on their phones, instead of standing around in a bookmakers with a fistful of betting slips.
Football fans watching matches on TV are now assailed by advertising - before, during and after the game - almost all of it from online betting companies. The pitch is relentless, with punters being encouraged to think that a big win requires little more than pressing the ‘Cash Out’ button on their gambling app. Gambling can now be even more private, and there is really no limit to how much money a gambling addict can ‘donate’ to these companies (many of them sited offshore, to minimise their tax liabilities). If we wait for these businesses to become “responsible”, we’ll be waiting for ever.
Licensed today: Pullwood Bay, luxury accommodation on the shores of Lake Windermere...
When betting shops continued to open, mostly in the poorer parts of town, it wasn’t because greater numbers of punters were betting on football matches and horse racing. It was because each betting shop was allowed to have a maximum of four fixed odds betting terminals, known in the trade as the “crack cocaine of gambling”. The maximum bet for any gambler on an FOBT has now been reduced, by law, to £2, with the result that many betting shops are disappearing from the high street. This does not, of course, suggest that these businesses have suddenly become “responsibile, but merely that more and more gambling activities are going online. Punters now monitor their bets on their phones, instead of standing around in a bookmakers with a fistful of betting slips.
Football fans watching matches on TV are now assailed by advertising - before, during and after the game - almost all of it from online betting companies. The pitch is relentless, with punters being encouraged to think that a big win requires little more than pressing the ‘Cash Out’ button on their gambling app. Gambling can now be even more private, and there is really no limit to how much money a gambling addict can ‘donate’ to these companies (many of them sited offshore, to minimise their tax liabilities). If we wait for these businesses to become “responsible”, we’ll be waiting for ever.
Licensed today: Pullwood Bay, luxury accommodation on the shores of Lake Windermere...
Tuesday, 3 December 2019
Xmas lights...
There were half a dozen guys putting the tree up. Me: “Have you got an angel for the top?" Guy on ladder: “How are you fixed?”…
Monday, 2 December 2019
Sunday, 1 December 2019
Winter...
From a meteorological point of view, today is the first day of winter, which means that winter will last until the end of February. However, the winter solstice this year (AKA the shortest day) is on December 22, and, by this astrological reckoning, winter won't be over until March 20.
Hull, today, with my first sight of the new footbridge, which will link up the marina to the city centre. There'll be no more need to cross the busy A63 arterial road...
Hull, today, with my first sight of the new footbridge, which will link up the marina to the city centre. There'll be no more need to cross the busy A63 arterial road...
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