What's made you grumpy today?

[Slim]

Heard someone this morning saying they wouldn't mind if it had blown down in a storm, because that would be a natural end. But human beings are part of nature, too.

Ultimately it's no less natural than if a beaver had done it.

[Thenop]

Terrible drama in my city yesterday where a man killed shot & killed 3 people, a 39 old woman, het 14 year old daughter and a 43 year old man, a teacher  in the hospital where he was studying to become a doctor.
Usual nonsense making the rounds of course.
facts: he was active on 4chan, expressed violent desires to 'redeem' himself from the animal torture he inflicted earlier. He was on the 'radar' for such behaviour and mhad been suspended from his studies for 2 years. From everything I read (that he wrote himself) he was full of hate, spite and wanted to take it out on someone.
The neighbour had reported him for animal abuse, the man was a teacher at the faculty he attended.
Furthermore he used a lot of racial and anit-semite slur to try and make his point.

I wish in situations like this there was more attention for the victims:
a 14 year old that could have grown up to be everything she wanted to be. A mother that she would make so pourd.
A 43 year old that taught medicine and worked as a GP as well, helping people.
My heart cries.

[Nickslikk2112]

Anyone else struggling to give a toss about the sycamore tree that someone removed with a chainsaw? I did a walk along Hadrian's Wall as a kid so I probably saw it. But it's just a tree .. they get chopped down every day.

Whoever did it should be staked out and have their arm and leg bones smashed with a sledgehammer.
Sheer mindless vandalism. There are some people today who are brain dead scum.

[Slim]

Heard someone this morning saying they wouldn't mind if it had blown down in a storm, because that would be a natural end. But human beings are part of nature, too.

Ultimately it's no less natural than if a beaver had done it.

Thinking about this, I was reminded of the Buddhist practice of the Mandala - in which monks spend days or weeks painstakingly creating an exquisite sand sculpture, only to trash it. It's a profound statement about impermanence.

It seems to me that we really only appreciate and treasure things when they're gone. Sure, a lot of people were fond of this tree apparently but for those to whom it did mean something, their love and appreciation for it was never more keenly, more profoundly felt than when it was taken away. Furthermore hundreds of thousands of people who'd never heard of it have seen the photos of it, now.

It may well be that the person who did this meant it as nothing more than an act of vandalism. And yet as a piece of performance art, if you really think about it, it's stunning.

[Matt2112]

Performance art?  It's not exactly up there with Banksy's shredded painting.

[Thenop]

Performance art?  It's not exactly up there with Banksy's shredded painting.

First thing I think of whenever I see the term used.

[Slim]

Performance art?  It's not exactly up there with Banksy's shredded painting.

That's a good example of exactly the sort of message about permanence that I was thinking of.

But the tree stood for hundreds of years.

[Matt2112]

Performance art?  It's not exactly up there with Banksy's shredded painting.

That's a good example of exactly the sort of message about permanence that I was thinking of.

But the tree stood for hundreds of years.

Yes, but I'm not convinced your purported performance artist(s) likely had the philosophical nuances of "permanence" in mind when chopping down a publicly beloved tree - it looks very much like it was simply motivated by brain-dead shits and giggles.

[Slim]

I'm sure that's true - but the effect is the same.

[R6GYY]

Royal Mail putting prices up again 

Example.

100g large letter.

Pre-April 2023 price hike: £1.05
Post-April 2023 price hike: £1.15

Hmm . . . not too bad and probably in line with inflation.

Post-October 2023 price hike: £1.55
Yes, 40p extra - so I make that a 34.8% increase

Now overall, that is 47.6% on the £1.05 price in 6 months if my maths is correct.

Feckers.

[Slim]

That's amazing, I can remember when a first class stamp was 27p. About 20 years ago?

Fortunately I never use them myself.

[Slim]

Went for a walk and recorded the track with a GPS logger app on my work phone. This is a small section of it. WTF?

[Matt2112]

Approximations? 🤷🏻�♂️

[pxr5]

Were you pissed? 

[captainkurtz]

Royal Mail putting prices up again 

Example.

100g large letter.

Pre-April 2023 price hike: £1.05
Post-April 2023 price hike: £1.15

Hmm . . . not too bad and probably in line with inflation.

Post-October 2023 price hike: £1.55
Yes, 40p extra - so I make that a 34.8% increase

Now overall, that is 47.6% on the £1.05 price in 6 months if my maths is correct.

Feckers.

Fewer and fewer people actually using their service probably has a massive impact...