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PlusMinus

Posted: 12 May 2019, 6:42am
by Cyril Haearn
We have A Positive Thread and A Place to Bleat but many things are PlusMinus, for example:
Saw someone taking the shopping home on a trike with a big box in front, Plus One!
Then I espied the contents of the box: a big pack of mineral water, the most unnecessary product, Minus One!
Surely the little angels can drink council juice (tap water)?

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 12 May 2019, 7:46am
by philvantwo
Says the man who wastes electric by pressing buttons to stop traffic and causes motorists to waste fuel while he sniggers hiding in a nearby bush.

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 12 May 2019, 9:18am
by Cugel
Perhaps there should be a post in the government, with a large army of inspectors, so that the citizens may be judged and awarded or deprived points for various behaviours, based on a Large Scale of Good & Bad, prominently displayed on every gable end of every street?

But hang on! There have been and are such panopticon schemes. There was the Stasi, where the inspectors were most of your neighbours and even your children. It didn't take too many minus points before one was hauled away to a dark place where Putin and similar members of the Overlords from The East could practice their unpleasant techniques of human reformation.

Currently there is a points system (literally) in China, where various panopticon spy mechanisms operate in both the real and the cyber spaces, to tot-up points for each and every subject of the regime. (I don' think they have citizens, just subjects and masters). Failure to accrue enough + points results in refusal of services, opportunities or even somewhere to live. The worst offenders are, as in the former East Germany, taken orf for "re-education".

In Blighty and other neolib paradises, there is nothing so overt in the way of point-judging. Instead, various secretive organsitions collect huge amounts of behavioural and attitudinal data about all we wee consumers and net-addicts, constructing the various clever means to manipulate us in one way or another. In some cases they just make you buy more junk until you have a £70,000 credit card bill. In others, MI7 send operatives to fit you up for some heinous crime or faux-pas so that you may be villified and perhaps gaoled......

****
Anyroadup, Bryn seems keen on the scheme so perhaps he could be Chief Minister of The Points and Penalties? This could be a handy stepping stone to full Big Brother status or even a Dick Tater badge!

Mind, he'll probably be in competition with that Stealin' Yatterbox Lummox for the post.

Cugel

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 12 May 2019, 9:25am
by 661-Pete
Say what you like, but I think plenty of other products fall in the 'unnecessary' category. I've seen ice cubes on sale in the supermarket - even though I reckon nearly all households in the affluent West have a freezer.

As for cosmetics.... but perhaps I'm a bit prejudiced. I'll grant you essentials like soap, shampoo, toothpaste....

And how do you know this chap wasn't perhaps camping - or holding a picnic or barbecue - at a location without a water supply?

I've said it before. I have one bottle of still mineral water in the house, to 'feed' my sourdough starter. I've had tap water kill a starter, possibly because of the chlorine - though that may have been on a "bad chlorine" day. It takes me over a year to get through one bottle - unless someone drinks the water by mistake! And of course when empty, the bottle goes in recycling.

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 12 May 2019, 7:03pm
by Cyril Haearn
philvantwo wrote:Says the man who wastes electric by pressing buttons to stop traffic and causes motorists to waste fuel while he sniggers hiding in a nearby bush.

I do not waste power, the times are so long several cyclists/walkers are waiting before the lights change. I do not snigger behind a bush
Slows down the terrorists too, stops speeding crime
Rather unnecessary to make that comment here I think, you are welcome to post on my original thread on this subject if you have anything to say, especially alternative suggestions to reduce danger

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 12 May 2019, 7:07pm
by Cyril Haearn
Cugel: the secret service in the UK is so secret, you do not know it exists :wink:
The Stasi had some nasty methods, a group would be punished for the actions of one member, in one case all group members were punished except the one who had sinned :?
Still, the Germans are very aware of their history and try to learn from it

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 12 May 2019, 10:20pm
by Cugel
Cyril Haearn wrote:Cugel: the secret service in the UK is so secret, you do not know it exists :wink:
The Stasi had some nasty methods, a group would be punished for the actions of one member, in one case all group members were punished except the one who had sinned :?
Still, the Germans are very aware of their history and try to learn from it


Them Germans are often wise, sometimes merely clever, often in possesion of a low cunning. In all events, as a nation they seem less inclined to measure citizen points, negative of positive, than was the case some time ago.

The problem with these + and - things is that they obscure, disregard, ignore or obliterate all the nuances of things, doings and the people doing the things. Why be a simple binary digit counter when the rich analogue world is available to appreciate? I know - it simplifies matters in a sometimes overwhelmingly complex world. Still, thinking in black or white tends to result in black or white doings, such as let him live or don't.

Cugel, sporting at least 256 shades of grey.

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 13 May 2019, 11:22am
by peetee
Driving to the gym is contrary IMHO.


My favourite has to be the sort of people that drive for hours for a 'day in the country' then have a picnic within 10 feet of a crowded car park and window shop in a chocked rural trinket-town then it's straight back home.

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 13 May 2019, 12:53pm
by Cugel
peetee wrote:Driving to the gym.
My favourite has to be the sort of people that drive for hours for a 'day in the country' then have a picnic within 10 feet of a crowded car park and window shop in a chocked rural trinket-town then it's straight back home.


When I lived in NW England, the cycling club would often do a Sunday run up to and into The Lakes. We would, of necessity (perhaps convenience) pass through places like Bowness, Ambleside and Grasmere. On the serious runs we would get as far as Keswick before turning back home.

It was noticeable, as we wended our way down the back roads to the road nexus of Bowness, Ambleside or similar, that there was hardly anyone about until one got to within 500 yards of one of these town centres. There would suddenly be acres of parked cars then acres of swarming tourists intent on their trinket hunts, as you mention. It was always a relief to get out of the place (after another couple of hundred yards or so) following a jousting with the various frustrated cars containing a hot fulminator unable to find a parking spot and so becoming intemperate at his steering wheel and accelerator pedal.

I did once read a staistic, apparently collected by the County Council, that the vast majority of Lake District visitors didn't go more than 400 yards from their parked car......

****
Another syndrome used to be the line of parked cars on a bridge over the M6 or M55, with a smallgroup sat on the verge having a picnic as the traffic roared beneath. Why on Earth would anyone choose such a spot? One sees a bit less of that sort of thing now. Perhaps motorways were once a novelty to some?

Cugel

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 16 May 2019, 2:30am
by 100%JR
Cyril Haearn wrote:
philvantwo wrote:Says the man who wastes electric by pressing buttons to stop traffic and causes motorists to waste fuel while he sniggers hiding in a nearby bush.

I do not waste power, the times are so long several cyclists/walkers are waiting before the lights change. I do not snigger behind a bush
Slows down the terrorists too, stops speeding crime
Rather unnecessary to make that comment here I think, you are welcome to post on my original thread on this subject if you have anything to say, especially alternative suggestions to reduce danger

Motor vehicle drivers are “terrorists” now :roll:
What a strange place the space between your ears appears to be.

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 16 May 2019, 7:07am
by philvantwo
:lol: :lol:

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 16 May 2019, 8:08am
by Lance Dopestrong
A lovely cup of Nespresso. +1

Then I burn my tongue on it. -1

That's George Clooney off my Christmas card list.

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 16 May 2019, 8:22am
by Tangled Metal
Oh how low would the quality of this forum sink if Cugel's posts were distilled down to pluses and / or minuses! :D

I do think distilling my posts to pluses and / or minuses however would benefit the forum. ++++1111 :wink:

What does it show? Someone finds out that they're part of the herd with their opinions? Or they find themselves all alone with their opinions? Are you one of the sheeple or a loner (hopefully without access to guns :wink:)?

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 16 May 2019, 10:04am
by Cugel
100%JR wrote:
Cyril Haearn wrote:
philvantwo wrote:Says the man who wastes electric by pressing buttons to stop traffic and causes motorists to waste fuel while he sniggers hiding in a nearby bush.

I do not waste power, the times are so long several cyclists/walkers are waiting before the lights change. I do not snigger behind a bush
Slows down the terrorists too, stops speeding crime
Rather unnecessary to make that comment here I think, you are welcome to post on my original thread on this subject if you have anything to say, especially alternative suggestions to reduce danger

Motor vehicle drivers are “terrorists” now :roll:
What a strange place the space between your ears appears to be.


I have seen many motorists that fill me with a momentary terror. With the more sensitive pedestrian, bike rider, passenger or other motorist, the terror is not so momentary as they come across Toad the terrorist!

I do feel terrible that you cannot understand the danger of the car and the madmen (even wimmin) driving them about. Perhaps this is due to a difference in our criteria of what constitutes terror? Many are not terrified themselves but simply accept the various terrorist labels supplied by their Daily Hate Mail or similar. Personally I use the test: do they terrify me, on purpose? When there are motor Toads about, the answer is often YES!

Cugel, generally quite brave in the face of Toad, due to lots of practice at spotting the bas....

Re: PlusMinus

Posted: 16 May 2019, 10:06am
by Cugel
Tangled Metal wrote:Oh how low would the quality of this forum sink if Cugel's posts were distilled down to pluses and / or minuses! :D

I do think distilling my posts to pluses and / or minuses however would benefit the forum. ++++1111 :wink:

What does it show? Someone finds out that they're part of the herd with their opinions? Or they find themselves all alone with their opinions? Are you one of the sheeple or a loner (hopefully without access to guns :wink:)?


I know I shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a gun, especially a large one.

Cugel