Nigel Gordon

This is something I make a point of listening to every Holocaust Memorial Day, just to remind me how evil man can be: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/richard-dimbleby-describes-belsen/zvw7cqt When you have listened to that, just remember it was not only the Jew who were sent to the camps. My friend Henk was in Belsen among others, because he was homosexual. Prejudice may start with one identified group but it can quickly spread to include others: First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. From Confessions by Martin Niemöller

I hate to pour cold water on everybody's celebrations, but I have this feeling that you have not heard the last of Donald Trump yet. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that we are going to find him over here before long, just so he can avoid being in the USA. Fortunately, I think it can be argued that Uttering a Malicious Falsehood is an extra territorial offence, like defamation, in English law. The only requirement is that the statement is published in the relevant territory, it does not have to be made there. If that is correct, maybe somebody might arrest Trump if he sets foot over here once his Head of State immunity ceases on the 20th of January.

These boys are amazing in the level of dedication they have to the art of dance. Just hope they can maintain it.

I found this story by accident on Nifty. It is a delightful story nicely told. Above all it is about love and that is something alway worth writing about. It tells of the love of two men for each other, a priest and a builder/carpenter. It tells of their love for the boy that becomes their son. It tells of a mother's love for that boy. There is also a father's love for his children. It also tells about hate, the hate that some people have for anything that does not fit with their view of the world. You can find it here and I can assure you it is worth reading: https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/beginnings/divine-intervention/

You will have to wait till book 2 and 3 to find out.

It is not quite that simple. French, Belgium and Dutch fishing boats had certain fishing rights in UK waters before we joined the EU and entered the Joint Fisheries Agreement. What Boris is trying to do now is to take away even those rights.

It looks as if he will be leaving the White House over a pile of dead bodies. I keep seeing news items about another Federal execution. It seems he wants to get them all out of the way before Biden takes over.

I had a very good headmaster, Mr Wright, at the school I went to, an English Secondary Modern. That was the level of school for those who were expected to end up doing shop floor work in the factories. One day, he told me that the job of the school was not to teach us things, but to teach us how to learn. He ran the school on that principle. I know a number of the boys from my class (all of whom finished in school at 15) went on to get degrees or professional qualifications. Some, in multiple subjects. Increasingly, over the years I have thought that Mr Wright had been correct in his idea. I see too many youngsters these days, who have a wealth of facts that have been drummed into them, but very little ability to make use of those facts or to learn from the information that is available to them.

This is a continuation of the story which started in Kaiser Magic. Like Kaiser Magic and the other stories in the series, this is well written, insightful and at time thought provoking. This early in the story (Chapter 3) I have no idea where it is going. What I can be sure, knowing Bensiamin's writing, wherever it is going it is going to be interesting and will be well worth reading. You can find it here: http://awesomedude.com/bensiamin/team-kaiser/index.htm

Thanks Rutabaga. I can assure you the final chapter of book 1, is written and is with Mike for posting in due course.

That is an interesting piece of information, which fits with something I came across when doing some research on a story idea I had. In a letter (from 1700) there is a mention of a young man who apparently had fled England to avoid charges of sodomy. In the letter it states that the young man had "taken up with pirates off the coast of Virginia as they accept such ways and where he can find companionship". At the time I could not make much sense of the comment, but now it makes sense.

It is a poignant tribute to The Unknown Warrior and the importance the tomb means to the British people. The following might give non-Brits a feel for what it means:

I don't know, I can see the advantages of such a situation. It might finally remove Trump from the situation. I have no doubt that Trump with turn up with a machine pistol and spray bullets all around the place, with as much chance of hitting the target as he has of making sense to the majority of the World's population. On the other hand I can see Biden turning up with a single shot 18th century, French dulling pistol. With that he can stay well out of Trumps range and eliminate the problem with one decisive shot, from a couple of hundred yards away. He would not want to get too close to Trump, he is probably still infective, though not sure with what.

Let me say for a start, I know that this topic used to exist, because I remember posting to it. Though now I can't find it and it does not show up on a search. Maybe it was one of the topics lost in one of the upgrades. Anyway, this story is in Dude's Picks for November, and I must say I am happy to see it there. I am a great fan of Nicholas's writing, and this is one of my favourite stories. It is one that is well worth reading.

Loved it.

Also under GDPR data can only be held so long as it can be shown that holding the data is necessary for the purpose for which consent was given. I know that with the data that is collected with respect to the students on the courses I mentor, the majority of data is deleted one year and one day after the posting of the final grades. After that all that is held is their contact details and module result. This of course has to be kept in case there is a query about the students qualifications.

This is an interesting variation on an old Beatles song:

This type of monitoring has been around for years, though I suspect the move to remote learning as a result of the Covid 19 situation has accelerated its use. However, back in 1978 I was called in by my tutor who was concerned that I had not checked out a book from the library which was essential for the module I was doing. He was right I had not checked it out as I had my own copy, a fact that surprised him as the book was very expensive. More recently, when doing a course with the Open University I had an email from my tutor who noted that I had not downloaded software that was essential for the course, she wanted to know if I was having problems. Again it was a situation where I already had a licensed copy of the software. I could see though if a student was having difficulty with the course, the fact that they had not downloaded the course software could be the first sign that the tutors would get. Where tutors are not in regular face to face contact with students, it is more difficult for them to identify when students are having problems. Metrics about how long students are accessing online material or which resources they are accessing can help a tutor identify students who are having problems. Often the first sign that a student undertaking remote learning is having difficulties is that they are spending longer accessing course material than one would expect. This is often a sign that they have not understood it and are reading it again and again. Earlier this year I mentored a group of adults who were studying programming. It was a course consisting of eight lessons. When it got to week three I noted that one of the students had spent three times as long on the course material as the others. I also noticed that he had logged into the older course material again. So, I sent him an email asking how he was getting on with the course. It turned out he was not a native English speaker and was having trouble with some of the terminology used. A couple of emails and a Skype call and I was able to sort things out for them. However, if I had not had access to the monitoring information I would never have been aware of the problem and suspect that they would have dropped out of the course. By the way Cole the 5th Amendment does not apply in the UK which is where the usage was being reported, though GDPR does apply, which might well be of more use.

Finis Well, got that far, now I stuck!

This has always been one of my favourite stores on AD. Well worth reading if you have not read it. If you have read it, worth reading it again.

I've sent mine it. Don't fancy cleaning the green room.

Ah the Blessed Margaret of Sacred Memory. I remember her Spitting Image puppet well. She and Reagan set up the policies which have led to the world of Johnson and Trump. A friend who worked in Downing Street at the time of her fall told me that Spitting Image had more impact on her exit from power than anything else. I see that Spitting Image is returning, though only via BritBox. It's a pity they are not putting it on one of the mainstream channels. It might once again do some good.

I keep getting caught out when reading stories by US authors by the difference in attitude over alcohol between the USA and Europe. Cider, over here in Europe, is always alcoholic in all its forms, youths regularly take wine or beer in restaurants and would fully expect to drink at home under supervision. It was only today I found out that Egg Nog in the USA is not alcoholic. I still have my grandmother's recipe for Egg Nog, which according to family legend originated in Antwerp around the time of the Napoleonic wars. The recipe starts, take one quart of fine brandy. The resultant beverage can be best described as an alcoholic egg custard.

It sounds as if it is going to be tight in the Senate, but it seems there are a couple of Republican senators who are prepared to vote against any move to have a confirmation hearing before January. My friend who works in the Capitol tells me that there is a feeling that a couple of other Republican senators might have diplomatic illnesses quite soon. It seems that if you believe in fairness, the rule of law and equality between all men you a left-wing, pot loving, queer hippy. I was recently told that my views went out of fashion with the 1960s and the hippies. Well, in many ways the attitude of people in the 1960s was a lot better than some of the attitudes I am seeing around today.