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VIP visit
hosting Christmas for mother
way too much housework
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by Scooj
Tag: Poetry
Christmas party
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Team get together
London the preferred venue
another train trip
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by Scooj
Recent experiences on the rail network have not been good, but I am ten minutes into my journey from Bristol to London and all seems well.
Political brutalism
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A new government
grim-faced determination
ruffling feathers
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by Scooj
I woke at ten past four when the dog started barking at something in the street. Unfortunately I didn’t get back to sleep again after that and lay awake with my mind churning. One of the outputs from the unrest was this haiku. Another, was a long rant about the state that the last government left the country in. Broke with horrific debt and with public services hanging on by their fingernails. The rich, richer and the poor, poorer. Any new government coming into power picking up that mess would struggle. The loudest voices of complaint now are from the haves, not the have nots. I’ll leave it there.
The main preoccupation in my head was composing a speech for my mother’s 90th birthday party in February… I think I made good progress.
Goldfinger
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Memorable scene
Oddjob drives car to scrapyard
car and Solo crushed
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by Scooj
- a scene that haunted and intrigued me for many years.
Algorithm (thoughts are not facts)
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Content provision
prompts confirmation bias
no need for the facts
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by Scooj
- Reflecting on why we have such divided opinions and polarised societies like never before. My verdict… it is the digital channel algorithms and our unconscious attachment to them.
- Before the general election I followed a few conservative MPs to see what they were saying in my desire to be well informed. Now my ‘X’ feed is bombarded with right-wing narratives (some quite extreme) all day every day, at the expense of the Labour streams and MPs I have been following for years.
- Solution… regulate the algorithms – allow us to choose what we see, and not what AI thinks we want to see.
- A conspiracy theorist might say that these platforms (‘X’ in particular) favour right wing narratives, although I don’t subscribe to that view. I think that there is more right wing disruptive/divisive content out there, much of it being produced by Russia and other nations looking to divide and conquer. They and the algorithms are having a profound impact in the UK, Europe and globally.
Alert
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Red weather warning
shrieking mobile devices
one helluva shock
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by Scooj
- At some point I must have signed up to weather alerts (although it looks like this might have been a central government pushed alert), and while I was just finishing up my work, all my mobile devices went nuts with a very loud alarm – I didn’t know that level of volume was even possible. It seems we might be in for a very windy night.
Bare
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Naked contorted
summer’s protective coat shed
winter’s agony
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by Scooj
Hearth
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Anticipation
warming toes and glowing nose
winter fire tonight
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by Scooj
Me time
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Reflective moment
a supermarket car park
mentally prepping
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by Scooj
Here be beavers
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Serene symmetry
reflecting autumn colours
the home of beavers
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by Scooj
- With many thanks to Katy from the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust who was kind enough to take my team at work on a tour of this magnificent reserve. Alas, we saw no beavers, but plenty of evidence of their activities.
Natural adventures 