According to the Guardian it turns out that the image in UK government's tweet of congratulations to Joe Biden for winning the election was so hastily repurposed from an image congratulating Trump that you can still make out the words Donald Trump in the image in place of Biden if you examine it closely enough.
One would call it a diplomatic gaffe if the UK government's foreign policy were anything more than one extended diplomatic gaffe.
Par for the course - Our Glorious Lord Protector was himself Foreign Secretary for a mercifully brief period (remember him trying to bribe Horrid Brown Foreign People Not Like Us with 'clinky'?)
According to the Guardian it turns out that the image in UK government's tweet of congratulations to Joe Biden for winning the election was so hastily repurposed from an image congratulating Trump that you can still make out the words Donald Trump in the image in place of Biden if you examine it closely enough.
It's mind-bogglingly hard to understand why anyone would create an image of white text on grey by editing a previous image, and even harder to understand how they could screw it up like that. I'm trying to decide between utter incompetence and malice, and it's too hard to call.
Biden isn't a fan of Johnson, to say the least. A few years ago, Johnson toadied up to his pal, Trump, by referring to Obama - who's a good friend of Biden's - as a 'half-Kenyan' with 'an ancestral dislike' likely to prejudice him against the British. I understand Biden wasn't impressed with Johnson's remarks or his championing of Trump. Hopefully, Biden will be able to see beyond Johnson when it comes to trade talks with Britain, post Brexit. Though who else on the cabinet, currently, is capable of statesmanlike negotiation of that complexity I can't imagine.
Though who else on the cabinet, currently, is capable of statesmanlike negotiation of that complexity I can't imagine.
"Who else" implies that Johnson is, which seems unlikely. Trade is Liz Truss's job, I think, although a comprehensive trade deal with the US would be quite a lot more weight than anything she's previously done.
It might be a reasonable tactic for Johnson to send Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, and keep his unruly mop well out of the way.
Mind you, Ms. Truss isn't much better - hasn't she just been boasting of securing a tariff-free deal with somebody-or-other on a whole load of stuff we don't even make?
Mind you, Ms. Truss isn't much better - hasn't she just been boasting of securing a tariff-free deal with somebody-or-other on a whole load of stuff we don't even make?
Yes, she negotiated a deal with Japan that's essentially the deal that the EU negotiated with some additional clauses so that she could claim it was a whole new deal - and, it appears that the only way the Japanese would accept anything like that without the usual detailed analysis was for these to cover things that would never be traded between the two nations.
I do hope that Biden is capable of understanding that once the British knew what had been done in Kenya in their name, they would have had every sympathy with any negative feelings Obama had about it and the Empire, and we do not go along with Johnson's opinion at all.
If a digital message like a Tweet is deleted, does it really leave a "ghost" like this?
Don't get me wrong - I'd put absolutely nothing past Johnson - but it does seem a bit bizarre.
It was a graphic rather than text.
But ... you can create a graphic like that with practically any piece of software from scratch in seconds, editing an existing graphic is an insane way to do it. Next thing these IT savvy people will be compiling records of covid testing on Excel rather than a database.
If a digital message like a Tweet is deleted, does it really leave a "ghost" like this?
Don't get me wrong - I'd put absolutely nothing past Johnson - but it does seem a bit bizarre.
It was a graphic rather than text.
But ... you can create a graphic like that with practically any piece of software from scratch in seconds, editing an existing graphic is an insane way to do it. Next thing these IT savvy people will be compiling records of covid testing on Excel rather than a database.
We live in a world where people put numbers in spreadsheets, add them up on a calculator and then enter the total at the bottom "so that they know it's correct".
Doesn't everyone? Maybe not just a sum or average ... but I routinely create cells in Excel to calculate something, and put one set of data through the tried and tested pen and paper (supplemented by calculator) method to confirm they agree before applying the calculation in Excel to the whole data set.
Doesn't everyone? Maybe not just a sum or average ... but I routinely create cells in Excel to calculate something, and put one set of data through the tried and tested pen and paper (supplemented by calculator) method to confirm they agree before applying the calculation in Excel to the whole data set.
I'm talking about simple columns of figures and using the calculator instead of putting a formula in.
From the same stable as the bean counter caught counting the light fixtures in a university lecture theatre. Arranged in a regular rectangle. Passing maths lecturer suggests multiplying the number across by the number front to back to get the response "No, that's no good, I need an exact number."
I have lost count of the number of people I have seen frantically doing stuff on computer generally and on Excel in particular where their method takes several times longer than a fairly obvious use of a formula, vlookup or whatever. The response is always "I don't have the time to learn that stuff"...
I have lost count of the number of people I have seen frantically doing stuff on computer generally and on Excel in particular where their method takes several times longer than a fairly obvious use of a formula, vlookup or whatever. The response is always "I don't have the time to learn that stuff"...
Glad to hear it's not just me who has those people.
I think Excel in particular attracts them, because you can sort of use Excel by just looking at it and figuring out what it does, and many people who do that never discover anything like the scope of the program.
By contrast, you wouldn't point some computer neophyte at an Emacs window and tell them to just knock up a quick C program.
I’m sorry to say I’ve never really grokked the usage of the LOOKUP functions. . Maybe I’ve never done anything that needed them, or maybe I’m one of those people.
I confess to being anxious about making mistakes if I start using things where I really don’t know how they work.
Yeah, I've futtered around with COUNTIF, TRUNC, and various other obscure Excel functions but never really figured out what I would use VLOOKUP for (downside of being the big fish in a small pond when it comes to matters technical).
Yeah, I've futtered around with COUNTIF, TRUNC, and various other obscure Excel functions but never really figured out what I would use VLOOKUP for (downside of being the big fish in a small pond when it comes to matters technical).
I use it all the time. I've got one table full of computers and when they last checked into SCCM. I've got another table of when they last checked into Sophos, and a third when they were last seen by LanSweeper. I want to be able to compare dates, and also find machines in one table but not another.
I've some data where I might use a LOOKUP function. Most of it's in Access. The rest is in a form where it's easier to knock up a wee C++ function to pull out what's needed. It's probably the case that when you need to access data in that manner a proper database is the way to go ... rather than try and turn an Excel file into a database.
I’m sorry to say I’ve never rerally grokked the usage of the LOOKUP functions. . Maybe I’ve never done anything that needed them, or maybe I’m one of those people.
One example: I download regular error reports from a system. Each error has a unique ID. I want to know how the numbers for each error have changed since the last report. I can use the lookup function to pull the number against each error ID from the previous report into the new one, so that the change can be assessed easily.
I don’t know. I’ve never needed to do anything like that.
I’m entirely self taught when it comes to spreadsheets and have only ever really learned what I needed for the particular task in hand.
On the odd occasions I’ve looked at LOOKUP, it hasn’t (as far as I can understand it) looked like the tool I needed for the task. I guess if there was something I had to use it for I might have learned more about it and understand how it can be used.
Another person we’ve never heard of who runs the country has resigned - Lee Cain.
“ A row has broken out at the heart of Downing Street as one of Boris Johnson’s most senior aides – and a close ally of Dominic Cummings - resigned amid bitter infighting.”
Sounds like bitter office politics has reached boiling point at number 10. They have been described as ‘rats in a sack’ scrabbling to influence de Pfeffel.
Depends where we swerve towards. I'm rather hoping for a last-minute EFTA style deal that will both save the UK economy and sink the Tories in one fell swoop.
I think it's all beginning to dawn on Johnson that Brexit is a real thing, and he's deep in the shit. Let's hope Cummings buggers off too.
I agree. I think it has all been a kind of game for Boris. Do things to get votes and cheers. Now it is round the corner and his friend Donald has lost the election, he he has realised what it means
From Rory Stewart reviewing Bower's biography of Johnson:
Bower concludes. therefore, that those of us who criticize him - as I am about to do - are narrow-minded, prudish, inadequate, or envious.
Perhaps it is envy. Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent - but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation, and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie - which may inadvertently be true.
Yeah, I've futtered around with COUNTIF, TRUNC, and various other obscure Excel functions but never really figured out what I would use VLOOKUP for (downside of being the big fish in a small pond when it comes to matters technical).
I use it all the time. I've got one table full of computers and when they last checked into SCCM. I've got another table of when they last checked into Sophos, and a third when they were last seen by LanSweeper. I want to be able to compare dates, and also find machines in one table but not another.
I had to read that three times before the penny dropped. On first reading I thought you had a table, such as a dining table, covered in computers, and then a second table, such as a kitchen table, also covered in computers, and I was wondering what your third table covered in computers looked like, when I realised what you meant by "tables".
I've been avoiding this discussion as I cannot stand the sight or sound of Pifflejohnson at any price. However, he earned just a little credit yesterday by referring to trump as the 'former president'.
From Rory Stewart reviewing Bower's biography of Johnson:
Bower concludes. therefore, that those of us who criticize him - as I am about to do - are narrow-minded, prudish, inadequate, or envious.
Perhaps it is envy. Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent - but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation, and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie - which may inadvertently be true.
I am a big fan of Rory. He was my choice for Conservative leader but I have never been a party member.
From Rory Stewart reviewing Bower's biography of Johnson:
Bower concludes. therefore, that those of us who criticize him - as I am about to do - are narrow-minded, prudish, inadequate, or envious.
Perhaps it is envy. Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent - but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation, and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie - which may inadvertently be true.
I am a big fan of Rory. He was my choice for Conservative leader but I have never been a party member.
He always seemed like a decent kind of bloke, whatever I saw of him. And intelligent and hard-working.
From Rory Stewart reviewing Bower's biography of Johnson:
Bower concludes. therefore, that those of us who criticize him - as I am about to do - are narrow-minded, prudish, inadequate, or envious.
Perhaps it is envy. Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent - but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation, and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie - which may inadvertently be true.
I am a big fan of Rory. He was my choice for Conservative leader but I have never been a party member.
He always seemed like a decent kind of bloke, whatever I saw of him. And intelligent and hard-working.
From Rory Stewart reviewing Bower's biography of Johnson:
Bower concludes. therefore, that those of us who criticize him - as I am about to do - are narrow-minded, prudish, inadequate, or envious.
Perhaps it is envy. Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent - but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation, and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie - which may inadvertently be true.
I am a big fan of Rory. He was my choice for Conservative leader but I have never been a party member.
He always seemed like a decent kind of bloke, whatever I saw of him. And intelligent and hard-working.
Judge him on his voting record, not just his public persona. He's as rotten as most tories.
Comments
One would call it a diplomatic gaffe if the UK government's foreign policy were anything more than one extended diplomatic gaffe.
It's mind-bogglingly hard to understand why anyone would create an image of white text on grey by editing a previous image, and even harder to understand how they could screw it up like that. I'm trying to decide between utter incompetence and malice, and it's too hard to call.
Perhaps the English *government* is so eager to jump into bed with Mr Biden that lust overcame common-sense...
"Who else" implies that Johnson is, which seems unlikely. Trade is Liz Truss's job, I think, although a comprehensive trade deal with the US would be quite a lot more weight than anything she's previously done.
It might be a reasonable tactic for Johnson to send Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, and keep his unruly mop well out of the way.
If so, we can at least sleep well, knowing that our supply of Soy Sauce is secure...even if Everything Else is somewhere down the toilet...
If a digital message like a Tweet is deleted, does it really leave a "ghost" like this?
Don't get me wrong - I'd put absolutely nothing past Johnson - but it does seem a bit bizarre.
It was a graphic rather than text.
We live in a world where people put numbers in spreadsheets, add them up on a calculator and then enter the total at the bottom "so that they know it's correct".
I'm talking about simple columns of figures and using the calculator instead of putting a formula in.
From the same stable as the bean counter caught counting the light fixtures in a university lecture theatre. Arranged in a regular rectangle. Passing maths lecturer suggests multiplying the number across by the number front to back to get the response "No, that's no good, I need an exact number."
I have lost count of the number of people I have seen frantically doing stuff on computer generally and on Excel in particular where their method takes several times longer than a fairly obvious use of a formula, vlookup or whatever. The response is always "I don't have the time to learn that stuff"...
Glad to hear it's not just me who has those people.
I think Excel in particular attracts them, because you can sort of use Excel by just looking at it and figuring out what it does, and many people who do that never discover anything like the scope of the program.
By contrast, you wouldn't point some computer neophyte at an Emacs window and tell them to just knock up a quick C program.
I confess to being anxious about making mistakes if I start using things where I really don’t know how they work.
I use it all the time. I've got one table full of computers and when they last checked into SCCM. I've got another table of when they last checked into Sophos, and a third when they were last seen by LanSweeper. I want to be able to compare dates, and also find machines in one table but not another.
One example: I download regular error reports from a system. Each error has a unique ID. I want to know how the numbers for each error have changed since the last report. I can use the lookup function to pull the number against each error ID from the previous report into the new one, so that the change can be assessed easily.
How would you do it?
I’m entirely self taught when it comes to spreadsheets and have only ever really learned what I needed for the particular task in hand.
On the odd occasions I’ve looked at LOOKUP, it hasn’t (as far as I can understand it) looked like the tool I needed for the task. I guess if there was something I had to use it for I might have learned more about it and understand how it can be used.
Another person we’ve never heard of who runs the country has resigned - Lee Cain.
“ A row has broken out at the heart of Downing Street as one of Boris Johnson’s most senior aides – and a close ally of Dominic Cummings - resigned amid bitter infighting.”
Sounds like bitter office politics has reached boiling point at number 10. They have been described as ‘rats in a sack’ scrabbling to influence de Pfeffel.
Shakespearean drama here we come. 🙄
👻
I agree. I think it has all been a kind of game for Boris. Do things to get votes and cheers. Now it is round the corner and his friend Donald has lost the election, he he has realised what it means
Bower concludes. therefore, that those of us who criticize him - as I am about to do - are narrow-minded, prudish, inadequate, or envious.
Perhaps it is envy. Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent - but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation, and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie - which may inadvertently be true.
I had to read that three times before the penny dropped. On first reading I thought you had a table, such as a dining table, covered in computers, and then a second table, such as a kitchen table, also covered in computers, and I was wondering what your third table covered in computers looked like, when I realised what you meant by "tables".
(I m not going to admit Just how many computers are there)
Bobby Tables?
Full name Robert'); drop table students;--
I am a big fan of Rory. He was my choice for Conservative leader but I have never been a party member.
Yep, just read in the noos. Funny, that
He always seemed like a decent kind of bloke, whatever I saw of him. And intelligent and hard-working.
... and yet a Tory. Puzzling.
Judge him on his voting record, not just his public persona. He's as rotten as most tories.