Rant of the Day..

[Andy in Germany]

Neither cycling-related nor a rant but it intersects with my interests enough for me to reply.

I spend far too much time on Youtube, it's a great place for getting info on niche interests/tutorials for doing things that I would never be able to do otherwise, and there's a lot of clever and creative people using the platform to do fascinating stuff.

However, I think it should come plastered with warnings like cigarette packaging, for two reasons.
Firstly, it's basically an infinitely deep well of content, you will never run out of stuff to watch and you can easily end up spending far more time than you intended. It is addictive and the recommendation system uses a whole bunch of psychological tricks to make you want to watch the next video (since more video views = more ad revenue for google)

Additionally, it's dangerous to rely on it as a source of news, information and entertainment, as there is no editorial oversight whatsoever, which, combined with the tailored recommendations makes it incredibly easy to fall down a rabbit hole of "Since you watched Johnny Q. Seeminglyreasonable here's his next video 'Why Covid is fake news and the planet is flat'" without ever seeing recommendations for videos that provide contrasting views. Some of my previously reasonable friends have been radicalised by these people into believing some truly demented conspiracy stuff.

To quote the end screen from one of my favourite series: "Please note that Evan is kind of an idiot. Don't ever take his word for it. Always research what you see on Youtube. Don't let anyone think for you; most people can barely think for themselves."
(The irony of quoting this text is not lost on me.)

Enjoy, but be careful!

I know, I'm getting addicted to listening to podcasts while simultaneously watching "drivers eye" railway videos. Niche and addictive...

 

[Archie_tect]

... while simultaneously watching "drivers eye" railway videos. Niche and addictive...

Watched a few of those usually at 2x playback speed! Dundee to Newcastle was good, and Carlisle to Newcastle, for the memories of going up to Dundee and over to Workington in the late 70s.

 

[Edwardoka]

I know, I'm getting addicted to listening to podcasts while simultaneously watching "drivers eye" railway videos. Niche and addictive...

I'd suggest Train Simulator as an accompaniment to podcasting but the expansions are prohibitively expensive, and it is dull as dishwater. (Probably less dull than watching someone else drive a train, though.) Maybe something like Derail Valley?

My podcast listening activity tends to be driving games, like Euro Truck Simulator 2 or, of late, the very very old school game Grand Prix 2, but anything that doesn't engage the language centre of the brain is good.

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

I give up.

Do you guys have the faintest idea of what a rant actually is?

 

[FrankCrank]

Yeah - utube is a great tool for niche interest type stuff, hard to believe there could be so much on there, just about shed building!. Other hot topics for me right now are cycling (you don't say), music, cars, motorbikes - petrol stuff in general really. News gathering is done elsewhere on the net. I can see how it might become addictive, daresay my box-watching duration has increased a bit of late. Mrs Crank is off on a work assignment for a few days, and I'll be tagging along. Should be a chance to cycle along some beach roads/paths, so a welcome change from things here and the goggle-box

 

[Andy in Germany]

I give up.

Do you guys have the faintest idea of what a rant actually is?

Wait until the Lockdown is over and we have to interact with our fellow human beings, then it'll pick up again...

Or maybe we're just very mellow because of all that cycling.

 

[Drago]

View attachment 532449

Someone at M&S Bishopbriggs decided to use the bike park for trolleys.
Normally there's one or two abandoned in it, so today I started moving some and an employee told me it was a trolley park.
The fact I and others have been putting our bikes in what is clearly a bike shed didn't matter as she insisted that it has always been for trolleys....

I was directed to this View attachment 532450
which I didn't use .

Later another M&S person said that they needed to use the space because of demand

View attachment 532451

But the nearby trolley bay wasn't full.

After a rant on their Facebook page M&S have said that they will review the situation

Perhaps a convoy of us should ride up their and lock our bikes up in the trolley bay, see if the penny drops?

 

[pjd57]

Rant update

 

[Andy in Germany]

Rant update

View attachment 533076

That's two people they are paying to deal with the problem so far. Wouldn't it be cheaper for them just to move the trolleys?

 

[FrankCrank]

Seems you gotta be behind the wheel for a proper rant

 

[wonderdog]

If you've only just noticed this after 50 years, the principal arguably had a point...

I never said that I hadn't tried to do better - nor that I eventually paid better attention. Sheeesh ... where is this all heading, if indeed, anywhere?

 

[wonderdog]

I give up.

Do you guys have the faintest idea of what a rant actually is?

Yes, but it seems to have been superseded by yelling at the television news

 

[Drago]

I have instructed my butler to order his footman to advise his servant not to shop at M&S until they reinstate the cycle parking.

 

[MontyVeda]

We all know that having a degree doesn't mean one also has some common sense... but sometimes, the total lack of common sense some people display bewilders beyond belief.

At work today i found a dustpan full of jam, and the dustpan's brush, also tarred with jam. It takes a special kind of someone to think I'll sweep up some jam, but this particular someone, on realising that a brush isn't doing a great job of 'sweeping' up the jam spillage, instead of trying something that isn't a bristly brush to clean up some jam, tries a different brush. And on realising that brush number two is just as bad as brush number one, decides that using a third brush might just work (third time lucky, maybe?).

So i got a bit ranty... finding one dustpan and three brushes all covered in jam, left for some fecker else to deal with, by someone who thought it was a good idea to sweep up some jam, not once, but thrice!

And it turned out to be someone with a degree in management