When Christmas card lists become shorter

I've just discovered that a relative by marriage died earlier this year. We hadn't seen each other for years and he never mastered email, although we did exchange Christmas cards. It's that time of life I suppose, where the Christmas card list seems to become a little shorter each year.

I've always assumed that the tradition of sending cards would go out of fashion, but card shops still seem to flourish and supermarkets still stock them.

My father had a simple approach after Mum died - he didn't bother with cards at all.

Actors vote

Actors vote for industrial action over AI concerns

Equity members voted overwhelmingly to refuse digital scanning in a move which could have big implications for the UK film and TV industry.

Actors have voted overwhelmingly to refuse digital scanning on set in a bid to secure adequate AI protections.

Equity - the UK's largest acting union - announced the results of an indicative industrial action ballot on Thursday.

Ah but how do we know they are real actors and not AI avatars protesting about their careers being blocked by human actors? Anyhow, Max Headroom has this to say -

Always 30 years away

UK step closer to 'limitless' energy after AI breakthrough

Britain has taken a major leap towards harnessing limitless clean energy after scientists unveiled an AI tool that slashes the time needed to model complex nuclear fusion reactions from days to mere seconds. Researchers at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) have developed GyroSwin, a groundbreaking artificial intelligence model that simulates turbulent plasma behaviour up to 1,000 times faster than traditional methods - and at a fraction of the cost...

Fusion has long been dismissed as "always 30 years away", but recent milestones - including record energy outputs at facilities like JET in Oxfordshire - have renewed optimism.


Hmm - 'targeted for the 2040s' may not be 30 years away but sceptics are likely to stick with scepticism for now. Unlike fusion power, scepticism works.

The age of un-natural selection

Andy Myers has a serious/entertaining FSB piece on the future of human evolution. Well worth reading and while reading it is useful to remember a few of the strange people pretending to be UK political leaders, celebrity 'experts' or media 'personalities'.  


The Domestication of Humanity

How AI and technology are quietly rewriting evolution

We bred wolves into pugs. At some point, someone looked at a majestic predator and thought, “What if it had a snub nose, a wheeze, and couldn’t survive a gentle breeze?” Fast-forward a few generations and voilà—a creature designed purely to delight, not to endure.

And now, having reshaped the animal kingdom in our image, we turn the lens inward. What happens when we begin to breed ourselves—not with scissors and genes only, but with the quiet, persistent selection pressures of convenience, code, and comfort?

Welcome to the age of un-natural selection.

Premium content

Free TV licences for benefits claimants under Labour plans

The prospect of the potential handout comes as Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, faces criticism for failing to get more Britons off benefits and into work, with spending on benefits on course to hit £378bn by 2029-30.

Elsewhere in the consultation report, which comes at a time of crisis for the broadcaster, it was suggested the corporation could raise money with a “top-up subscription service” offering premium content, including repeats on iPlayer.


Anyone with even a few molecules of scepticism in their constitution is bound to wonder if 'premium content' includes Panorama. 

It probably won't include 'BBC Parliament' though. The average daily viewing time for that programme as logged by Barb for July was three seconds. Even BBC Scotland managed ten seconds.

Check Every Word

Another Fine Mess

Another fine example of the lunatic complexities of UK taxation. Maybe Rachel from Accounts will spend it wisely. Ho Ho Ho.

Morrisons on brink of £17m bill after losing court battle over rotisserie chickens

Morrisons could be hit with a £17m bill after losing a lengthy legal battle over its rotisserie chickens. The UK supermarket chain has been fighting a 13-year dispute in court to prevent value added tax (VAT) from being added to the chickens. However, the UK High Court ruled on Thursday that the product should be subject to the charge of 20%, as it falls under the category of hot food.

Morrisons argued that its rotisserie chickens should be exempt from VAT because the product is typically eaten cold or reheated later in the day. But, the ruling on December 11 said that the supermarket chain sold the items in packaging for hot food with a label which reads: "Caution: Hot Product".