NPR

tabascoboy wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 12:08 pm Shoppers increasingly being treated like thieves, first security tagged meat packets and now this... ( this is in a London Tesco )



and Sainsburys, Hertford ( for self and smart checkouts )

Our Chief Client Officer, Bimbo

Blackmac wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 7:54 am

tabascoboy wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 12:08 pm Shoppers increasingly being treated like thieves, first security tagged meat packets and now this... ( this is in a London Tesco )



and Sainsburys, Hertford ( for self and smart checkouts )

That's an odd take. Presumably the stuff is getting stolen, so why shouldn't they. I take it you lock your car and house, so should I be outraged at you treating everyone as thieves.

TB63 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:38 am Smash and grab butchers..

tabascoboy wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:44 am

TB63 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:38 am Smash and grab butchers..

To be fair you wouldn't want to attempt that at a real butcher's, not with the array of potential weaponry they have behind the counter...

tabascoboy wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 12:41 pm

TB63 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:38 am Smash and grab butchers..

GogLais wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:37 pm

TB63 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:38 am Smash and grab butchers..

I always get worried when I see a Family Butchers sign.

Dinsdale Piranha wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 5:12 pm

GogLais wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:37 pm

TB63 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:38 am Smash and grab butchers..

I always get worried when I see a Family Butchers sign.

My doctor when I was young had the unfortunate name Dick Butcher.

Uncle fester wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 6:28 pm Would be amazing to see.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... dApp_Other

C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:14 pm

Dinsdale Piranha wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 5:12 pm

GogLais wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:37 pm

I always get worried when I see a Family Butchers sign.

My doctor when I was young had the unfortunate name Dick Butcher.

Oy vey

fishfoodie wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:35 pm

C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:14 pm

Dinsdale Piranha wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 5:12 pm
My doctor when I was young had the unfortunate name Dick Butcher.

Oy vey

I used to work with a young woman whose first name was Orla; I still remember the first day she called into a meeting with an Israeli team we were working with, & I distinctly heard a snigger when she introduced herself.

As soon as the meeting ended, I got called by one of guys on the other end who was giggling like a schoolboy, & wanted to be sure that he'd heard her name correctly, because Orla is the Hebrew for foreskin, & it's spelt & pronounced exactly the same

She must have had the only Irish first name* that the they didn't struggle to look at & work out the pronunciation

^ although technically this isn't the Irish spelling, but an English phonetic one.

Dinsdale Piranha wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:39 pm

fishfoodie wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:35 pm

C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:14 pm

Oy vey

I used to work with a young woman whose first name was Orla; I still remember the first day she called into a meeting with an Israeli team we were working with, & I distinctly heard a snigger when she introduced herself.

As soon as the meeting ended, I got called by one of guys on the other end who was giggling like a schoolboy, & wanted to be sure that he'd heard her name correctly, because Orla is the Hebrew for foreskin, & it's spelt & pronounced exactly the same

She must have had the only Irish first name* that the they didn't struggle to look at & work out the pronunciation

^ although technically this isn't the Irish spelling, but an English phonetic one.

I have attended a Briss (circumcision ceremony)

The Mohels who perform the ceremony do it as a charity. The don't get paid. They just collect tips.

Ba Boom Tish!

C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite

Blackmac wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:23 am

C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite

To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.

Blackmac wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:23 am

C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite

To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.

Sandstorm wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:26 am

Blackmac wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:23 am

C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite

To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.

He lied. Can’t do that unless you are PM or President.

Uncle fester wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:40 am

Blackmac wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:23 am

C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite

To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.

If he was straight, there would be some tut tutting and a few pfnarr pfnaar comments.

A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.

EnergiseR2 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 9:40 am I only partly agree with you. In the agree column is the British media has a long history of getting their man at all costs and after funeralgate he was going down. They all knew about his riding the young lad and waited as they do. As you all note riding someone who is 18 is just a bit eyebrow raising- as it should be. We shouldn't get caught into anything else ot then the rules get blurred: is 21 acceptable, is 23 acceptable, do we need the same number of wrinkles etc etc
However very much against your argument is he met the lad when he was under 18 and it appears the relationship flourished. Those of us with kids like to think our friends and colleagues aren't thinking about riding them. It makes things very complicated and he broke the unwritten covenant there. No more than DiCaprio who I noted before this all blew up was getting away with something almost identical. Knowing a child, hanging out with a child for years and then later starting to have sex with the child just after they turned into adulthood. He will go down at some point though. That's a given. Bowie rode children and got away with as they didn't cause a big fuss, he was class at music and to be fair in comparison to DiCaprio it was much greyer back then

SaintK wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:14 am Bonkers!!!

A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363

SaintK wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:14 am Bonkers!!!

A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363

TB63 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 11:54 am

SaintK wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:14 am Bonkers!!!

A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363

Think that's more of a kickback for banning books for nonsensical reasons..

TB63 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 11:54 am

SaintK wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:14 am Bonkers!!!

A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363

Think that's more of a kickback for banning books for nonsensical reasons..

EnergiseR2 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 11:05 am Oh yeah I had forgotten about that one. Was he friends with her parents or some shit. Vaguely recall reading it and thinking Ah Here

Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

May 15 Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Beijing for the first Sino-Soviet summit since 1959, but the hunger strike forces the government to cancel plans to welcome him in Tiananmen Square. His escort is blocked by protestors on nearly every street in Beijing. “[F]or the Chinese government, [this was] a big loss of face, very scary,” says Jan Wong. “… They were aware of what was happening in the Soviet Union — and so were the Chinese people — that the Communist Party in the Soviet Union was more or less imploding. [The Party leaders] were very frightened in China.”

May 16 More than 3,000 people are now participating in the hunger strike. The embarrassing protests during Gorbachev’s visit further polarizes the Politburo. During an emergency meeting, Zhao maintains that the way to end the strike is for the government to retract its April 26 editorial, accept the students’ demand for dialogue and begin reforms.

“[T]he vast majority of student demonstrators are patriotic and sincerely concerned for our country. We may not approve of all of their methods, but their demand to promote democracy, to deepen the reforms and to root out corruption are quite reasonable,” says Zhao.

Li Peng insists the government cannot capitulate: “It’s more and more clear that a tiny minority is trying to use the turmoil to reach its political goal, which is repudiation of Communist Party leadership and the socialist system.” Li says. “Their goals are to topple the Chinese Communist Party … to completely repudiate the people’s democratic dictatorship.”

May 17 When the case is put to Deng Xiaoping, he decides against Zhao’s recommendations and proposes instituting martial law to end the hunger strike. “The aim … will be to suppress the turmoil once and for all and to return things quickly to normal,” he is reported to have said. “This is the unshirkable duty of the Party and the government.” Zhao expresses his problems with this position but concedes: “I will submit to Party discipline; the minority does yield to the majority.”

May 18 Zhao Ziyang visits hospitalized hunger strikers and tries to convince them to call off their fast. Afterward, he is reported to have drafted a letter of resignation to the Politburo, but it is never sent. Li Peng holds a televised meeting with student leaders in the Great Hall of the People. It ends without any progress.

That evening a meeting of Party elders and Politburo members, including Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng, approves the declaration of martial law. Zhao Ziyang does not attend.

May 19 Student leaders learn of the plan to declare martial law and call off their hunger strike. Instead, they stage a mass sit-in in Tiananmen Square that draws about 1.2 million supporters, including members of the police and military and industrial workers. Zhao Ziyang appears in Tiananmen Square in a final, unsuccessful effort to appeal for compromise. It is his last public appearance. He is soon removed from office and replaced by Jiang Zemin.

That evening, Li Peng appears on state television to declare martial law. “We must adopt firm and resolute measures to end the turmoil swiftly, to maintain the leadership of the party as well as the socialist system.”

May 25–June 1 Over the next week, the demonstrations continue, and Beijing operates with no real police presence and with a virtually free press. In Tiananmen Square, the atmosphere is jubilant, but at government headquarters, Deng Xiaoping is devising a new offensive to end the protest. Armed troops will be sent in from every military district in the country.

“I think the leaders felt that they had been thwarted in the most obvious and humiliating manner,”says Orville Schell. “[A]nd the second time around they brought in troops from far away who didn’t have connections to Beijing, whose kids weren’t in the square. And they decided they would brook no obstacle.”

June 2 The Party elders approve the decision to put down the “counterrevolutionary riot” and clear the square with military force. Most hope it can be done without casualties. Unaware of what was about to happen, Hou Dejian, a Chinese rock star, and three prominent intellectuals start a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square. Demonstrators continue their sit-in and their calls for democratic reforms.

June 3 As word spreads that hundreds of thousands of troops are approaching from all four corners of the city, Beijingers flood the streets to block them, as they had done two weeks earlier. People set up barricades at every major interstion. At about 10:30 p.m., near the Muxidi apartment buildings — home to high-level Party officials and their families — the citizens become aggressive as the army tries to break through their barricades. They yell at the soldiers and some throw rocks; someone sets a bus on fire. The soldiers start firing on the unarmed civilians with AK-47s loaded with battlefield ammunition.

“The first rounds of fire catch everybody by surprise,” recalls human rights observer Timothy Brook. “The people in the streets don’t expect this to happen.” The wounded are taken to nearby hospitals on bicycles and pull-carts, but the hospital staff are unequipped to deal with the severe wounds. Muxidi sees the highest casualties of the night; an untold number of people are killed.

June 4 At about 1:00 a.m., the People’s Liberation Army finally reaches Tiananmen Square and waits for orders from the government. The soldiers have been told not to open fire, but they have also been told that they must clear the square by 6:00 a.m. — with no exceptions or delays. They make a final offer of amnesty if the few thousand remaining students will leave. About 4:00 a.m., student leaders put the matter to a vote: Leave the square, or stay and face the consequences. “It was clear to me that they stay votes were much, much, much stronger,” recalls eyewitness John Pomfret, who was near the students. “But Feng Congde, who was a student leader at the time, said, ‘The go’s have it.'” The students vacate the square under the gaze of thousands of soldiers.

Later that morning, some people — believed to be the parents of the student protestors — try to re-enter Tiananmen Square via Chang’an Boulevard. The soldiers order them to leave, and when they don’t, open fire, taking down dozens of people at a time. According to eyewitness accounts, the citizens seem not to believe the army is firing on them with real ammunition.

“[A]fter a little while, like 40 minutes, people would gather up their nerve again and would crawl back to the corner and start screaming at the soldiers, and then the commander would eventually give another signal … and they’d shoot more in the backs,” remembers journalist Jan Wong, who watched it all from her hotel room above the boulevard. “And this went on more than half a dozen times in the day.” When rescue workers try to approach the street to remove the wounded, they, too, are shot.

No one knows for certain how many people died over the two days. The Chinese Red Cross initially reported 2,600, then quickly retracted that figure under intense pressure from the government. The official Chinese government figure is 241 dead, including soldiers, and 7,000 wounded.

June 5 By the morning of June 5, the army is in complete control of Beijing. But when all protest in the city seems silenced, the world witnessed one final act of defiance.

About midday, as a column of tanks slowly moves along Chang’an Boulevard toward Tiananmen Square, an unarmed young man carrying shopping bags suddenly steps out in front of the tanks. Instead of running over him, the first tank tries to go around, but the young man steps in front of it again. They repeat this maneuver several more times before the tank stops and turns off its motor. The young man climbs on top of the tank and speaks to the driver before jumping back down again. Soon, the young man is whisked to the side of the road by an unidentified group of people and disappears into the crowd.

Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

tabascoboy wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 6:47 am

Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

Apparently "4th June" is very strongly censored by Chinese authorities and the day is often referred to as 35th May instead

inactionman wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 8:11 am

tabascoboy wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 6:47 am

Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

Apparently "4th June" is very strongly censored by Chinese authorities and the day is often referred to as 35th May instead

All a bit odd, surely that just draws more attention to it?

The Spirit of May 35th
By Yu Hua

You might think May 35th is an imaginary date, but in China it’s a real one. Here, where references to June 4 — the date of the Tiananmen incident of 1989 — are banned from the Internet, people use “May 35th” to circumvent censorship and commemorate the events of that day.

Earlier this year I visited Taiwan, where my book China in Ten Words had just been released. “Why can’t this book be published in mainland China,” I was asked, “when your novel Brothers can?”

That’s the difference between fiction and nonfiction: Although both books are about contemporary China, Brothers touches on things obliquely and so slips through the net, whereas China in Ten Words, by straight talking, goes beyond the pale.

“Brothers does a May 35th,” I explained, “and China in Ten Words is more like June 4th.”

To express oneself in May 35th terms is standard practice these days. According to the latest figures, there are 457 million Internet users in China, and 303 million Chinese can access the Web on their cellphones. It’s a big job to keep all these onliners in line, and the government’s most effective control mechanism is to designate certain words as unacceptable and simply prohibit their use on the Internet.

So people who hanker to express their own views find that their voices are muffled. Internet servers — automated censors, you might call them — are assiduous in blocking any and all commentary that involves these red-flagged phrases.

I once tried to post online a literary essay of mine. Though it made no reference whatsoever to politics, an error message kept popping up. Innocently, I assumed I must have miswritten a character or two, and marveled that technology could detect typos so easily. But after careful proofreading and revision of the odd phrase here and there, that frosty error message continued to appear. Finally I realized that the text had violated several taboos. Though widely scattered in different paragraphs, the offending words left the automated censors with little doubt that I was indulging in political dissent.

We have no way of knowing how many words have been blacklisted, or which once-banned words can now be used. Sometimes you can manage to avoid all the taboos and post your opinion, but if it is couched in too explicit an idiom, it will get deleted almost right away.

So we adapt. With the Chinese government so bent on promoting a “harmonious society,” Internet users slyly tailor the phrase for their own purposes. If someone writes, “Be careful you don’t get harmonized,” what they mean is “Be careful you don’t get shut down” or “Be careful you don’t get arrested.” Harmonize has to be the word most thoroughly imbued with the May 35th spirit. Officials are aware, of course, of its barbed meaning on the Internet, but they can hardly ban it, because to do so would be to outlaw the “harmonious society” they are plugging. Harmony has been hijacked by the public.

Such is China’s Internet politics. Practically everyone has mastered the art of May 35th expression, and I myself am no slouch.

I’ve had a go at broaching freedom-of-expression issues. I once posted an article referring to a talk I gave in Munich. The post said: “I was asked: ‘Is there freedom of expression in China?’ ‘Of course there is,’ I replied. ‘In any country,’ I went on, ‘freedom of expression is relative. In Germany you can curse the chancellor, but you wouldn’t dare curse your neighbor. In China we can’t curse our premier, but we’re free to curse the guy next door.’ ”

On the concentration of power in China, I wrote: “In Taiwan I told a reporter, ‘You need to wear gloves when you shake hands with politicians here, because they are always out canvassing and shaking hands with people. You don’t need gloves on the mainland, because our politicians never have to press the flesh. You won’t find many germs on their fingers.”

Since the first remark seems to emphasize that everything is relative and the other appears to focus on matters of hygiene, both were posted on the Internet without incident. My readers know what I’m getting at.

I have always written much as I please in the May 35th mode, and for that I have the fictional form to thank, since fiction is not overtly political and by its nature lends itself to May 35th turns of phrase. Writing in the June 4th mode, as I did in China in Ten Words, was a departure from my normal practice.

The question asked most often in Taiwan was, “If you had an 11th word to describe China, what would it be?”

“Freedom,” I answered.

What I meant by that, of course, was not the familiar June 4th sort of freedom, but this more recondite May 35th kind.

May 35th freedom is an art form. To evade censorship when expressing their opinions on the Internet, Chinese people give full rein to the rhetorical functions of language, elevating to a sublime level both innuendo and metaphor, parody and hyperbole, conveying sarcasm and scorn through veiled gibes and wily indirection.

Surely our language has never been as rich and vital as it is today. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder, if one day the June 4th kind of freedom were to arrive, would we still be so creative, so ingenious?

Perhaps we can describe China’s Internet politics as a cat-and-mouse game. But you should not imagine China’s Internet mice to be as mighty as the mouse in a Disney cartoon, nor are our government flunkies as dumb as a cartoon cat. When our Internet mice taunt their adversaries, they make sure to have a bolt-hole right next to them. In China today, more and more people want to hear the truth but not many dare to speak it. And so, even if our Internet mice play only a game of wits with the government cats and do not engage in an action sport, it still remains a source of comfort to us — because we don’t have the June 4th kind of freedom, only the May 35th variety.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/opin ... ua-28.html