• Additional Barton Hill litter pick this Saturday

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Last Saturday our community litter pick team in Barton Hill held its regular monthly event. removing 6 bags of waste and recyclable materials – plus a load of bulky grot – from Ducie Road car park.

    Eric, Ronit and Alex pose with the rubbish removed from Ducie Road car park
    Eric, Ronit and Alex pose with the rubbish removed from Ducie Road car park

    However, that was not the only litter pick planned for Barton Hill this month

    Next Saturday is St Valentine’s Day and Barton Hill residents are being invited to ‘love their community‘ in a series of events planned by Barton Hill Activity Club, Bristol Somali Resource Centre, Travelling Light Theatre and Wellspring Settlement.

    One of the off-site events planned is a litter pick of both Gaunts Ham Park and the Urban Park. Those wishing to help are asked to assemble at the Wellspring Settlement at 12 noon for an hour of spring cleaning before retiring for tea and cake.

    Organiser Harriet has asked people to bring along their own picker if they have one. Hi-vis clothing, gloves and bags will be provided.

    See you there!

  • Can’t tell Kernewek from Cymraeg? You must be Tesco

    Steve WoodsLanguage

    There must have been red faces all round in Tesco’s boardroom yesterday.

    In a bid to ingratiate themselves with the residents of Helston in Cornwall (and thus extract more revenue from their bank accounts. Ed), Tesco bosses decided the store needed bilingual signage.

    So signage in the vernacular was duly installed, according to The Guardian.

    However, the signs were in the wrong vernacular as signage in Cymraeg (Welsh) was installed, instead of in Kernewek (Cornish).

    Bilingual English/Cymraeg sign in Cornish spuermarket

    There are about 400 to 500 advanced speakers of Kernewek with between 2,500 and 5,000 people having some basic ability in the language. More than 100,000 people expressed their main national identity, ethnicity or main language as Cornish in the 2021 census.

    The Cornish people are a recognised national minority under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, meaning they share the same status as the Welsh, Irish and Scots within the UK.

    The company has since apologised for the cock-up and removed the signs.

  • French raid X offices

    Steve WoodsAI, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    X/Twitter logoThe Paris Public Prosecutor’s office has today issued the press release in English below concerning a visit by its own officers and those of other agencies to the offices of the right-wing propaganda machine masquerading as a social media platform X.com, which was known as Twitter before its acquisition by far-right man-baby Elon Musk.

    A search is being carried out today at the French premises of the X platform, as part of the investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor’s office, with the UNCyber unit of the gendarmerie and in the presence of Europol.

    In parallel, summonses for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris, were sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Yacarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of Platform X at the time of the events. Employees of Platform X are also summoned during the week of April 20-24, 2026, to be heard as witnesses. The voluntary interviews of the managers are intended to allow them to present their position on the events and, where applicable, the compliance measures envisaged.

    The conduct of this investigation is, at this stage, part of a constructive approach, with the objective of ultimately ensuring Platform X’s compliance with French law, insofar as it operates within the national territory.

    As a reminder, this investigation was opened following two reports received on January 12, 2025. On July 9, 2025, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office entrusted the investigation to the Directorate General of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN). The investigation was expanded following further reports denouncing Grok’s operations on the X platform, which led to the dissemination of Holocaust denial content and sexually explicit deepfakes.

    The investigations concern the following criminal offenses:

    • complicity in the possession of child pornography images of minors a © complicity in the organized distribution, offering, or making available of child pornography images of minors
    • violation of the right to privacy (sexually explicit deepfakes)
    • denial of crimes against humanity (Holocaust denial)
    • fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system by an organized group
    • falsification of the operation of an automated data processing system by an organized group
    • Administration of an illegal online platform by an organized group.

    Elon Musk issued a typically petulant response to the action, calling it a “political attack“. If there’s any attack, Mr Musk, it concerns your platform’s lax attitude to responsibility.

    Furthermore, Musk was corrected in no uncertain terms by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs account on X, which replied as follows:

    Tweet from Musk reads This is a political attack. French Foreign Ministry responds Investigating child sexual abuse material isn’t controversial. Turning it into political theater is manipulation. Maybe that logic flies on some island. Doesn’t fly in France.

    Your ‘umble scribe wonders if the French reference to “some island” is a less than subtle dig atMusk’s expression of interest in visiting paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s child abuse island.

    In contrast to the muscular approach taken by the French, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has opened a formal inquiry into X and xAI over whether Elon Musk’s companies have complied with data protection law after the Grok AI tool was used to generate sexual deepfake images without consent.

  • Metrology – introducing the corgi

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Social Media

    The United States of America has long had a system of weights and measures that make the British Imperial system seem logical even if the latter does include such oddities as the furlong, chain and barleycorn even just in the length measurements alone.

    And the US metrological landscape has just been augmented by one East Coast addition to the units of measurement.

    Your ‘umble scribe much prefers the symmetry and simplicity of the metric system that he was first taught and used in science and mathematics classes six decades ago and which still has to adopted wholeheartedly by a British state allegedly unwilling to upset or confuse (really? Ed.) those of his generation, although he suspects this reluctance is also heavily coloured by a large measure of English/British exceptionalism.

    In addition to the officially adopted systems of weights and measures, ordinary folk have always used their own informal and somewhat odd units. In the past this site has covered the introduction – usually by the mainstream media – of units as diverse as the Stockholm (housing stock/housing crisis) and the Leaning Tower of Pisa (height).

    As mentioned above, these venerable units of measurement have now been joined by another – the corgi – which is currently being used in North Carolina to assess the depth of the local snowfall. 😀

    Post reads 'I can officially confirm that the snow in NC is now roughly one (1) corgi deep.'

  • A nightmare at the movies

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    A new ‘documentary’ film is currently being shown in cinemas across the United States. Entitled Melania, it documents the life of Melania Knauss Trump, the first lady of the United States, in the twenty days before the second presidential inauguration of her husband, the disgraced 45th and current disgraceful 47th President of the United States, adjudicated sexual predator, condemned business fraudster, convicted felon and compulsive liar, one Donald John Trump (who is on a personal quest to Make America Grate Again or something similar. Ed.).

    According to The Guardian, Amazon MGM Studios bought the rights to the film for $40m – which reportedly included a considerable sum to the subject of the film (no surprise there! The whole tRump family are high gains grifters. Ed.) – and is spending $35m on a global marketing push. This spend has so far been mostly in the US, with TV spots, billboards and a takeover of Las Vegas’s immersive events venue The Sphere.

    However, the film is not proving popular either with the public or the critics. As regards the latter, this might just be due to the mainstream press not being invited by Amazon the the premiere at the Kennedy Center.

    The exclusion of the Fourth Estate may also explain the dire reviews the film has been receiving, such as the one below ascribed to Variety, although Yahoo News suggests this could be a misattribution.

    Post reads Best review ever. On the Netflix Melania “documentary”: 'If they showed this film on a plane, people would still walk out.' -Variety

    What is more, it’s not just film critics that have been drawing attention to the film’s awfulness. Members of the public reviewing it on IMDb have given it an average score of 1.3 out of ten.

    However, this criticism is quite mild compared with the defaced bus stop poster portrayed below, which prompts ypour ‘umble scribe to ask when exactly will the so-called Epstein Files be released in full?

    Bus stop poster for film with addendum My husband fucks kids

    Update 31/01/2026: Another tranche of the Epstein Files was released yesterday, with at least one wag on social media suggesting the files’ release was intended to distract from from the Melania documentary.

    Post reads Can't believe they released the Epstein files to cover up for the Melania movie.

    Update 03/02/2026: The film continues to get panned, as revealed by this social media post referring to a recent review in The Grauniad.

    Post reads Brutal correction on the Guardian’s review of Melania: “The star rating for this film was corrected on 2 February 2026. A formatting issue led an earlier version to be awarded one star, when the reviewer’s intention was zero”

  • Irish language to have equal status with English during Irish EU presidency

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    Ireland coat of armsThe presidency of the Council of Ministers rotates between the European Union’s member states every six months. The presidency is currently occupied by Cyprus until 30th June 2026.

    On 1st June 2026 the presidency switches to Ireland, which has announced that for the first time in its membership of the organisation, the Irish language will have equal status with English during its presidency.

    Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland (English being the other official language). However, in spite this, almost all government business and legislative debate is conducted in English.

    According to the Irish Times piece, all official documents, policy programmes and press releases will be in Irish and English, while content on the Irish presidency website will be available in Irish, English and French.

    Furthermore, the Irish government has also given a commitment that content requiring immediate publication, such as European Council decisions, will be published simultaneously in Irish and English where feasible and within a very short period of each other, if not, with the aim of ensuring that Irish has close to equal status to English during the six-month term of the presidency.

    The commitment to the Irish language even extends to encouraging the use of Irish at all formal council meetings in Brussels and Luxembourg and during informal meetings in Ireland.

    The Irish EU presidency will also feature cultural programmes involving Irish language literature, arts and music. This programme will be co-ordinated by Culture Ireland in consultation with the Department of the Gaeltacht.

    Whereas Irish used to be the first language of the majority of Ireland’s population before the 20th century, its usage has since declined considerably. According to Wikipedia, the total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within the education system.Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on the number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968.

  • EU Commission investigates Grok and X under DSA

    Steve WoodsAI, Politics, Security, Social Media, Tech

    EU Commission logoThe European Commission has today announced a new formal investigation against X (the conduit of hate alleged social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Ed.) under the Digital Services Act (DSA). In parallel, the Commission extended its current investigation launched in December 2023 into X’s compliance with its recommender systems risk management obligations.

    The new investigation will examine whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks associated with the deployment of Grok’s functionalities into X in the EU, including risks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including child sexual abuse material.

    These risks seem to have materialised, exposing EU citizens to serious harm. Consequently, the Commission will further investigate whether X complies with its DSA obligations to:

    • Diligently assess and mitigate systemic risks, including of the dissemination of illegal content, negative effects in relation to gender-based violence and serious negative consequences to physical and mental well-being stemming from deployments of Grok’s functionalities on its platform;
    • Conduct and transmit to the Commission an ad-hoc risk assessment report for Grok’s functionalities in the X service with a critical impact on X’s risk profile prior to their deployment.

    Furthermore, the Commission has extended its continuing formal proceedings initiated against X in December 2023 to determine if X has properly assessed and mitigated all systemic risks (as defined in the DSA) associated with its recommender systems, including the impact of its recently announced switch to a Grok-based recommender system.

    If proven, these failures would constitute infringements of Articles 34(1) and (2), 35(1) and 42(2) of the DSA. The Commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation as a matter of priority. The opening of formal proceedings does not prejudge its outcome.

    In the run-up to this investigation, the Commission has closely collaborated with Coimisiún na Meán, the Irish Digital Services Coordinator. In addition, Coimisiún na Meán will be associated with this investigation pursuant to Article 66(3) as the national Digital Services Coordinator in the EU country where X is based.

    The opening of formal proceedings empowers the Commission to take further enforcement steps, such as adopting a non-compliance decision. The Commission is also empowered to accept any commitment made by X to remedy the matters subject to the proceeding.

  • Reform candidate emulates tRump

    Steve WoodsAI, Language, Politics, Social Media

    On Terry Pratchett’s fictional Discworld, Ankh Morpork local newspaper publisher William de Worde remarks: “Lies could run round the world before the truth could get its boots on” in the novel The Truth.

    That turn of speed definitely applies today to internet memes, whether AI-generated slop or otherwise.

    It hasn’t taken long for the Farage fascist fan club otherwise known as Reform UK (Ltd.) to pick up on some of the latest garbage emanating from the White House (posts passim) and adapt it for their own Z-list candidate for mayor, Laila Cunningham, another Conservative Party defector who, amongst other things, want to dictate what women choose to wear.

    Reform UK reworking of White House AI, but featuring mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham in place of the alleged president and a bloody butcher's apron instead of the stars and stripes. The text on the image reads Choose a new path for London. Laila Cunningham for Mayor. Reform UK
    AI from the hard of thinking. Since when have there mountains on the banks of the Thames? And why are the two figures shown leaving no tracks in the snow?

    Whatever the direction Farage’s Reform is planning on taking the country, those mythical sunlit uplands of politics (© Winston Churchill, July 1940) do not seem to be involved.

  • President promises penguins

    Steve WoodsAI, Oddities, Politics, Social Media

    The disgraced former 45th and current disgraceful 47th President of the United States, adjudicated sexual predator, condemned business fraudster, convicted felon and compulsive liar, one Donald John Trump (who is on a personal quest to Make America Grate Again or something similar. Ed.), has never been renowned for his intellectual prowess. This, plus his overweening narcissism, means that for his second spell of squatting in the Oval Office, he has surrounded himself with sycophantic staff who will not embarrass him mainly because they are just as stupid as their boss, if not more so.

    This stupidity was again on display yesterday on the White House social media accounts, with a post based on the lonely penguin meme from the Werner Herzog film Encounters at the End of the World. The meme features footage of a lone Adélie penguin wandering away from its colony in Antarctica and was posted in connection with the Tangerine Tyrant’s obsession with acquiring Greenland from Denmark, an ambition which has provoked both a consumer boycott (posts passim) and demonstrations in both Denmark itself and Greenland.

    Here’s what White House staffers embarrassed themselves and the entire Trump regime with yesterday.

    Under the caption embrace the penguin' a penguin carrying a US flag walks hand in hand with Donald Trump across a snowy mountainous landscape with a red and white Greenland flag on the left flank of the mountains

    Needless to say the image was produced with the aid of Artificial Ignorance, otherwise abbreviated to AI.

    Moreover, it goes without saying that the post attracted extensive mockery online. Here’s an example.

    Reworking of White House image, but featuring tRump in a clown outfit

    However, this criticism overlooks one vital fact; The Donald’s importing of penguins to Greenland is a far better use of US tax dollars than towing Greenland down to the southern polar region to enable it to be populated by penguins! 😀

  • Danish shoppers get app to help them avoid US products

    Steve WoodsPolitics, Tech

    German news website heise.de reports that a new app is available for Danish consumers to help avoid buying US consumer products in the wake of the efforts of the disgraced 45th President and disgraceful current 45th President of the United States, adjudicated sexual predator, condemned business fraudster, convicted felon and compulsive liar, one Donald John Trump (who is on a personal quest to Make America Grate Again or something similar. Ed.), to acquire the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland on spurious national security grounds.

    A wave of protest in Denmark gave rise to a Facebook group “Boycott goods from the USA“, in which some 100,000 Danes exchange ideas about how best to avoid American products. To put its membership into perspective, Denmark has around six million inhabitants.

    Although it is only available at present for Apple phones, an Android version is promised for the near future.

    Screenshot of UdenUSA app on phone
    Is it American? Get the answer in seconds

    According to the app store blurb:

    UdenUSA helps you identify and avoid American products in your everyday life. With our intuitive scanning function, you can easily check whether a product is American-owned and find Danish alternatives.

    Furthermore, app developer Pipper told the DPA press agency: “We noticed that it was important for many people to avoid food from the USA. But it’s not always so easy to recognise them in the supermarket.“

    The app is provided in two versions – a free version which allows users to scan 2-5 products per day and a subscription version for bulk purchases, which costs DKr. 19.00 per month.

    The developer’s website also pointedly asks visitors ‘Are you supporting Trump when you shop?

    The Irish Times also points out that the app is not without a few geeky touches. Users who scan a product using their camera phone are then confronted with the message: “Now hacking into the Pentagon … no, wait, don’t worry.“

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