And Then In And Out…

•   Nothing to tap out here as the country collapses as we watch other than, prompted by a comment by Andy 5759 regards modern communication. Thought I to myself, when was the last time I sent or received a hand written letter eh?
     Anyhoo, the other day I received a letter from our wondrous grubbimnt excitedly letting me know how much my state pension will shoot up. This was followed a couple of days later by yet another grubbiment mail excitedly letting me know that they’ll be taking most of it back in tax. Money laundering by any other name eh?
     Queue this old number you think?

Quote; Mark Twain.

“The principle of give and take is the principle of diplomacy - give one and take ten.”

And Then Huge Choices…

   With all that’s going on out there, you might not have noticed a bit o’ news wot’s bumped into our lives. And that would be? Billy at the window is dumping Skype come May.
   Now that’s a bit o’ kit I started using back in the day when younger and had a habit of trying anything new relating to ‘puters. Am I right in saying it was just for messages back then as ‘smart’ phones weren’t a thing.
   Time passed, my little nest of vipers ended up over here and liked to keep in touch with her family in a land far, far away. Excuse my memory, but this was costing something like four pounds a minute until, after a little research I discovered how cheap - four pence a minute? - international calls were using Skype. It’s served us well for many a long year. Yes, I started using it for phone calls as well.
   Wot to do now? With news of the demise of Skype I did an Interweb search on the off-chance there’s some software equivalent to Skype out there now. Result? Ma heed’s spinning with the dizzying number of bits o’ kit there are out there.
   So far, many are disregarded as they require the person called to be running the same bit o’ kit and be online so the search/research continues with, at time of typing, two I keep going back to. And those would be Yolla and Talk360. But the ‘search’ continues. As, at my age, does spinning head syndrome...

 Quote; Steven Spielberg.

“Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.”

And Then A Little Fracking…

   I spotted in the ‘news’ a couple of daze ago that a substantial natural gas field had been found below our feet that, with fracking, could keep us warm for an estimated ten years. Let’s say six years with our ever expanding number of bestest ever friends from warmer climates wot will want to keep warm 24/7.
And the response of our Net Zero common sense zar? Why ban all fracking of course.
Anyhoo, it jogged my old heed back to 2013 and a post regarding a planned protests at an onshore oil drilling site wot’s below;
   How it may have gone down;
Important police person, “We have very reliable intelligence that those protesters, camped over the road, are planning a spot of civil disobedience shortly and we’re advising you to shutdown operations for a while.”
“Well, that’ll cost us a shed load o’ money but I guess we’d better shut down like you say then.”
“Good. We’ll be in touch when it’s all over. Hay, if there’s any tofu on site, best lock it up before you go, eh?”
   How it should’ve gone down;
Important police person, “We have very reliable intelligence that those protesters, camped over the road.....”
“Camping? You mean trespassing, right?” Interrupts the Drill-site Manager.
“Errrr.... Anyway, reliable intelligence that they’re planning a spot of civil disobedience shortly and we’re advising you to shutdown operations for a while.”
“Whoa!! Let’s see if I’ve got that right. You know that some of those that are trespassing over the road are planning to, in effect, attack our perfectly legal workplace?”
“Errrrr..... That’s about right.” Shuffling his feet somewhat.
“And you want US to shut down? US?”
“Errrrr.....” Nervously glancing left and right.
“Didn’t I read somewhere that old Bill can now arrest people for inciting unrest an’ stuff? Even for just thinking about it? Or was that last bit just something I picked up in the Daily Mail? Anyhoo, why don’t you leave us alone and just whizz over there and lift the instigators? And keep hold of ‘em eh? Seems every time you drag one of ‘em away, giggling and smiling for the cameras, they’re back in twenty four hours after a shower and some nose-bag. Which reminds me; that guy we sent to the village for milk a couple of weeks ago? The guy who had to push his way back to the gate and that beardy-weirdy shouted, ‘Assault’. Remember? Any chance of getting him back before we finish up here?”
“Errrrr.....” unnecessarily checking the shine on his shoes.
“Never mind. Let’s try this so there’s no mistake. If this was my house and you knew that a couple of guys in a car over the road were planning to break in, you’d pop round and advise me to move out ‘till the house’d been done over, right?”
“Errrrr.....” Sweat forming on brow and in armpits.
“Rather than move out, am I correct in believing it’s now acceptable to use reasonable force, if confronted with a stranger in my house and to restrain said bad guy ‘till you lot’v completed your Risk Assessment and roll up to arrest or caution him?”
“Errrrr... Oh, wait a minute!! I can answer that one. It is, indeed, acceptable to do as you say.” He beamed, dreamily lost in thoughts of Risk Assessment paperwork.
“Here’s my plan then.” Said the Drill-site Manager, “I was going to construct a big fence, topped with razor wire, round the work-site. Sadly, after this conversation and if we are attacked, all I can see you boys doing is issuing health and safety advice on the use of wire cutters and ladders. With that in mind, instead of all your chaps cluttering up the place, doing nothing, at great expense, could you just keep a couple of them out there to direct traffic and send the rest of them back to doing nothing where they came from? Are you up for that?”
“Errrrr.... Oh, traffic. That we are! May get some ticketing in as well!!”
“Okay; here’s what we’re going to do at this perfectly legal work-site where, by the way, we’re drilling, conventionally, for oil and not fracking for gas. Got that bit? Good. Please tell the BBC then. Please.
“Right, what we’re going to do is spray paint a line round this legal site and I’m bringing fifty guys in from other locations and we’ll form a ring of Roughnecks round the site. We’ll be five feet inside our perimeter so those musty, fusty, crusty fools will have time, as they advance, to realise the folly of their action before they get their lights punched out.”
“Errrr.... Fifty? Come on! There could be as many as five hundred of those musty... members of the public ready to att... cause civil unrest!!”
“You’re right. Fifty Roughnecks is probably a tad over the top. Thirty then; on split shifts. All done? Good, we’ve got an oil well to drill here so bu-by.”
    Let’s finish with an old fracking clip. Just substitute the lady in the clip with any of our net zero common sense leaders.
Timidadians? No warning required as anything naughty is only in the ear of the beholder... Okay, be warned;

Quote; Margaret Atwood.

“Would I laugh?"
"Matter of fact, you would," says Zeb. "Heart like shale. What you need is a good fracking.”