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My children are currently 10 and 13. In the not distant future, I fully expect to be asked to account for my repeated assertions that I believe in Father Christmas. I hope, when that time comes, my explanations will make sense to them.

I’ll talk a bit about card tricks and WWE; how some things shouldn’t be diminished by not being “the truth”. But, most importantly, I’ll talk about anthropomorphic personification and, therefore, the Christmas spirit, as a reminder of the importance of sharing and kindness, and being together.

And, since they’re rational and logical, I hope that having freed their minds of the mechanics of chimneys and sleigh velocities, they’ll think my version is actually a bit better.

Today I learned a depressing new phrase: “the tyranny of the majority”. Apparently, this is how the privileged view the plebs…

How do YOU recommend films to people when what makes them worth a watch is an amazing plot twist (that you don’t want to spoil/telegraph)?

Rather than imagine the implications if it were, simply accept that is the greatest “pump and dump” scam in history and adjust accordingly.

In 2023, a woman named Nicola Bulley went missing in the UK.

While this was unfolding, an old friend from university, who emmigrated to the US (MANY years ago), visited the UK. He was amazed at how much CCTV footage was available to track this woman’s movements. He firmly believed that US citizens would go NUTS if they were under that much surveillance.

Now I hear that there is a company called that not only provides video surveillance, but automated [number] plate recognition ([ANPR]) and “gunfire locator systems”, and “supporting software to integrate the data gathered by these technologies”.

I’m just speechless. If law enforcement use ANPR in the UK, they often have to warn people in advance, and yet this is an always-on service?! Incredible.

Maybe the British Legion should reconsider their Poppy Appeal slogan based on the prevailing public mood. Something like: “Wear your poppy or else…”

Read Biggest schools shake-up in England in a decade to cut GCSE exam time - and add AI and fake news lessons by Anjum Peerbacos
The government will reduce GCSE exam time by up to three hours per student, introduce new Year 8 tests, and teach primary pupils how to identify misinformation under sweeping curriculum reforms.

Data Science is billed as one of the “professions” most at risk from AI, so not sure how this makes sense:

“This comes alongside the government exploring a new qualification for 16-18 year olds in data science and AI, with a view to encourage more young people into science and tech careers.”

It’s been a long time since I asked for any help in the open source community and I am thrilled(!) to discover very little has changed.

The first response I had was from someone with clearly good intentions but zero expertise.

The second response was somebody asking why I want to do it anyway.

I haven’t officially had the third response but I know that will be: the dev in charge of this element of the project has unilaterally decided not to maintain this functionality because basically said dev doesn’t need that functionality and/or has no way to test it. However, there is no public record or explanation for that decision so literally the only person that can even confirm that is the dev.

But the dev is only human and only has so much time they contribute to the project because, after all, they are a volunteer. So the chance of me actually getting a response from the dev are very low anyway and even lower when the answer is some version of “I can’t/won’t”, which no-one really likes to say.

However, with the benefit of knowledge from experience on my side, I have completely given up already, so I won’t be wasting any of my time, at least.