Things that work and things that don't

 A mixed bag today.

 

Slow updates

Blogger is being incredibly slow to update my blogroll and others. Increasingly, it has been taking hours, and now several days is normal. Even weeks in some cases. I can't explain why this is and have no idea what to do about it. I'm posting this on Tuesday so maybe people will become aware of it on Friday, which is always the Main Trans Blogging Day!

 

Pride Month

Pride month continues and here in Italy events in big cities like Genoa and Rome have been very well attended. Milan Pride has been going on all week and is expected to end in the biggest parade of all this Saturday. 

Rome's Pride was marred by an attack by fascist activists who squirted pepper spray on the rainbow families float in Rome. (Despite the disaster that fascism had brought to Italy by 1945, it still has its adherents. Hard to believe, but true.) Despite this violence, the rainbow families continued their parade. It's a reminder as to why we have Pride. 

Attacking families! Seriously! Maybe, if they are so opposed to Pride Parade we could propose an annual Shame Show for fascists and fundamentalists.

 

No AI

I've felt it advisable to put on my About page that this site does not use AI. One or two copyright-free images I've used are AI but none of the photos or text here are. 

Technology can be a useful tool, or a destructive one. Internet, broadband and small home computers revolutionised my industry making it faster, easier, more connected, more productive and so providing a better living. But at the same time, AI is taking some of our bread-and-butter work away. 

In terms of art, another line of work I used to do, AI is ruining human talent and creativity. There is nothing like being creative or working with your hands. It's what humans have developed over thousands of years. That redundancy started with photography that took the livelihoods of jobbing artists who painted portraits, signs, building decorations and so forth. Why pay a person to take time over an illustration when you can just snap the scene? Visual and creative AI and other technology may make life easier, quicker and cheaper (the great mantra of our age), but talent and creativity make that life worth living. What humans are best at is being made redundant.

I saw an interview with a girl in England where they plan to remove social media for the young. "You spent nine hours on social media this weekend. What will you do when you no longer have it?" asked the interviewer. "Stare at the wall," was her reply. How sad. She has no talents to hone and share? no curiosity? no desire to socialise for real? It does suggest she's hooked.

Technology is a double-edged sword. Use it wisely.

 

Heatwave and slimming

Yes, it's hot. Even I who love the heat am having difficulty sleeping. 

The good thing is that heat makes you want to eat less and that's working wonders for my figure. I'm the lightest I've been for at least 15 years now and still going down. With luck, by the end of the summer I'll be where I want to be, but I'm not settting a target. Events have a habit of getting in the way. As will that big tub of ice cream I've ordered!

 

The revolving door

I see Britain has lost another Prime Minister. It's really very careless. A bit like constantly losing change down the back of the sofa.

The UK's main political problem is not The Economy, which is presented as the yardstick for judging how things are going, but the fact that its head of government has far more power than any other such position in a Western democracy but the postition is chiefly subject to party support, not to mention the whims of the PM's personality. This makes the UK more of an oligarchy than any other Western country. Resolve this one problem and government there should improve as power becomes more devolved as it used to be. It's as though Britain has forgotten the lessons it learnt very hard in the 17th century with its absolute monarchs and fundamentalist ideologies and the divisions they caused.

Ah, the 17th century! When Britain sent its political undesirables, its religious maniacs, its corrupt businessmen, its criminals and its pirates to America where they could never cause any more trouble again.

 

Sue x