Tag: photography

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Chill – Scottish data centres powering AI only require 0.00004% of Scotland’s 745 trillion litres of water

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland today has the above headline and: Data centres powering artificial intelligence (AI) in Scotland are using enough tap water to fill 27 million half-litre bottles a year, according to data obtained by BBC News. AI systems such as the large language models (LLMs) that power OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini require warehouses full of specialist computers. The equipment is power-hungry, consuming large amounts of energy, but they also use tonnes of water in their cooling systems to stop the servers overheating. Freedom of Information data shows the volume of tap water used by Scotland’s data centres … Continue reading Chill – Scottish data centres powering AI only require 0.00004% of Scotland’s 745 trillion litres of water

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Shocking contrast between customer satisfaction with CalMac and British Columbia Ferries with latter often screamed at, spat on or threatened due to poor performance

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Professor John Robertson OBA From the Times Colonist on 10 October 2025: The union representing B.C. Ferries workers says its members are facing “disturbing” levels of abuse from passengers. A survey of B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union members indicated that more than 80 per cent of respondents said they have been threatened with violence on the job, and 92 per cent said they have witnessed it. The union released the results of its survey as the Thanksgiving weekend got underway in what is expected to be one of the year’s busiest for ferry travellers. Behind every sailing is a crew doing … Continue reading Shocking contrast between customer satisfaction with CalMac and British Columbia Ferries with latter often screamed at, spat on or threatened due to poor performance

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I repeat, how can a half-empty ferry be a ‘lifeline’ to a mainland town when there’s a road that’s more than one hour quicker than the ferry?

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to Campbelltown next summer. Local businesses had hoped the company would be able to restore the seasonal service next year. The route was suspended because of the problems the company was facing maintaining lifeline services. Local businesses [only one really in the online report] and councillors [none quoted in the report below] want Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government to intervene Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland today merely repeats the 30 July 2025 story in The Express which had merely repeated the February 26th 2025 news of the cancellation of the Campbelltown to Ardrossan ferry. This is still not … Continue reading I repeat, how can a half-empty ferry be a ‘lifeline’ to a mainland town when there’s a road that’s more than one hour quicker than the ferry?

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Scotland’s better building standards mean no ‘towers of terror’ here much as the Sunday Mail might wish for them

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With only 2 days left, support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA The Sunday Mail‘s front page is a classic of melodramatic misrepresentation of the facts, based with little apparent sense of irony, upon a 1968 explosion in London and pointing to risk in large panel systems. What are these LPS concrete panels the Sunday Mail would have us panic over? From Grok AI (Powerfully helpful as long as you ask the right questions and can … Continue reading Scotland’s better building standards mean no ‘towers of terror’ here much as the Sunday Mail might wish for them

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Police Scotland praised again for humane crowd handling contrasting with that in England – The media coverage too contrasts starkly with Operation Branchform

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA Like you, I’m mad as hell about Operation Branchform but, like you I hope, I know damn fine Police Scotland is not making the decisions in what is the clearest example of a police force being told what to do, by those above them, charged with protecting national security as they see it. Putting that in a box, I was pleased to read in the National yesterday: Edinburgh Palestine Action … Continue reading Police Scotland praised again for humane crowd handling contrasting with that in England – The media coverage too contrasts starkly with Operation Branchform

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Channel Island’s ferry kills three fishermen after underpaid Ukrainian crew with little English failed to understand and respond to warning lights then another hits harbour wall in high winds – Imagine that was in Scotland

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA From ITV News, two days ago: Warnings were flashing on a Condor Ferry for up to 10 minutes before a collision with a much smaller fishing boat that killed three people, the prosecution has told Jersey’s Royal Court. In his opening statement, Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit says the ferry – which is 184 times larger than the L’Ecume II trawler – was left in autopilot and travelling at full speed at the … Continue reading Channel Island’s ferry kills three fishermen after underpaid Ukrainian crew with little English failed to understand and respond to warning lights then another hits harbour wall in high winds – Imagine that was in Scotland

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‘How Scots villagers took the law into their own hands to expel [English] drug dealers’ – Scottish Daily Express reports in more intelligent and sophisticated manner than so-called ‘serious’ media to inform their readers

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Professor John Robertson OBA Readers will know that the ‘serious’ or ‘elite’ media in Scotland – BBC Scotland, STV, the Herald and the Scotsman – have an aversion to reporting accurately on the plague of County Lines affecting almost every town and village in Scotland and caused by County Lines gangs from, entirely, English cities. The tabloids and some locals are more honest. Yesterday, the Express in Scotland had the above headline and the comments below on the prosecution of local ‘ringleaders’ of riots which developed in the East Ayrshire former mining village of Auchinleck and which I have already … Continue reading ‘How Scots villagers took the law into their own hands to expel [English] drug dealers’ – Scottish Daily Express reports in more intelligent and sophisticated manner than so-called ‘serious’ media to inform their readers

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Lib Dem Orkney Island council fails for the second time to run a proper ferry service

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/detailsor, if you prefer, a bank transfer, at sort code 089300 account 1421 7339 Professor John Robertson OBA Today, the Herald does have Orkney ferry workers to begin overtime ban amid industrial dispute makes little effort to remind that this not a CalMac story. Yahoo simply re-pastes the Herald story. FERRY services to Orkney will face disruption later this month, a union has warned after workers backed industrial action amid an escalating pay dispute. Unite the Union confirmed on Wednesday that its Orkney Ferries members will take part … Continue reading Lib Dem Orkney Island council fails for the second time to run a proper ferry service

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Did Annie Wells want Glasgow to spend less on needle bins so that local weans can get their hands in more easily?

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or, if you prefer, a bank transfer, at sort code 089300 account 1421 7339 Professor John Robertson OBA In little more than another Conservative Party release, the Herald has a report today from Annie Wells (Con) that Glasgow City Council has spent £5 000 on installing two public sharp bins for used injection needles. I’m sure Wells will know that these bins must be safe and that an ordinary wheelie bin is not on. Did the wee researcher for Wells check the going rate … Continue reading Did Annie Wells want Glasgow to spend less on needle bins so that local weans can get their hands in more easily?

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Local press reveals scale of ‘English drug dealers’ presence in NE Scotland but BBC Scotland maintain a suspicious silence for six years now

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Graham for these three alerts below and this comment: So that’s THREE more cases from the P&J over a couple of days, on top of the Scouse Jack case. July 11, two days ago and the Aberdeen-based P&J has the above explicit linking of the local drugs supply to England. Two days before that and the supply is clearly identified as being from large English cities. Does anyone believe the flow is going the other way? On the same day, the P&J illustrates how vulnerable locals are being ‘cuckooed’ and the judge clearly knows … Continue reading Local press reveals scale of ‘English drug dealers’ presence in NE Scotland but BBC Scotland maintain a suspicious silence for six years now