Rant of the Day v2.

[Pontius Navigator]

K3k3, I didn't say what I was doing, just what they told me. I have a small amount that I can switch to the current account if needs be or to give Mrs PN extra cash when I cash in.

The rest, as you suggest, is just as safe in PB.

[Alisoncc]

Oz has just started vaccinating the populace. And the ABC have camera crews spread across the country, ready to show us every single needle prick until everyone is done. Starting with every minority group, however minor.

Alison

[llondel]

Lots of prickspoliticians on TV here too.

[Pontius Navigator]

Alison, I don't think I have seen any prick so far where the victim is going anything but looking the other way.
Who wants to see a bloody great needle going in to its full length?

[CharlieOneSix]

I am an additional card holder on Mrs C16's M&S Bank Credit Card. She pays for the dog food so I went on line with a new supplier to order some. I set up an account with them in my name. At checkout I used my additional cardholder credit card. A message appeared saying that authentication with M&S failed as they didn't have a mobile number to which they could send an authorisation code. I phoned the M&S number provided to register my mobile number.

To cut a long story short, the mobile number has to be the one Mrs C16 has registered with them as main account holder, I cannot have my own mobile number registered in association with my additional M&S card.......except she didn't receive an authorisation code because her phone is not linked to my additional cardholder card but M&S say she should have received a code!

So in order to show how nonsensical this is, I put forward the following scenario to which the lady at M&S Bank Customer Service agreed is what should happen. If I am at my brother's house in Devon and want to make an online purchase there, the authorisation code should go to Mrs C16's phone in Scotland and she then will have to phone me to give me the authorisation code...except we've proved that doesn't work, she didn't receive a code today. So the additional cardholder card is useless except for face to face transactions.

The dog food was eventually ordered by Mrs C16 by setting up a new account with the supplier, using her own M&S card and the order went through without her having to receive an authorisation code. I despair.....

[Pontius Navigator]

Not as daft as it seems as it was certainly new.

My wife's investment account put it best - something you know and something you have. I have 3 devices that I use (they don't know it's me). Once a month on each device I need to reauthenticate.

I now have apps for banking and M&S. Both use my finger print. The bank demands my finger before it opens and M&S after.

[OFSO]

I also set a zero warning for every bank transaction. Phone bleeps and e-mail. It's fast: if I tell Revolut to top up their card from my *** bank a/c, I get a buzz from *** bank even before the wheels spin up on Revolut.

[ian16th]

A new challenge!

SM is suffering from tinnitus, and has been recommended to use a white noise generator of listen to quite music.

As 1st step I suggested that we get her some Bluetooth ear buds and she can play music from her Android phone.

I now have the challenge of deciphering the Chinese English instructions.

Remember when we used to moan about the Japanese?

[OFSO]

I actually shouted at that wan*ker Piers Morgan on GMGB today when he repeated that stupid lie that GB has the worst Covid death rate in Europe. We in the UK maximised our deaths (do not ask me why) whereas Spain and France fiddled the figures to make their (virtually non-existant) health systems look good. I hope Piers Morgan gets sepsis from an ingrowing toenail so that he also can "die of Covid" and continue to rant falsehoods from the hereafter.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I actually shouted at that wan*ker Piers Morgan on GMGB today when he repeated that stupid lie that GB has the worst Covid death rate in Europe. We in the UK maximised our deaths (do not ask me why) whereas Spain and France fiddled the figures to make their (virtually non-existant) health systems look good. I hope Piers Morgan gets sepsis from an ingrowing toenail so that he also can "die of Covid" and continue to rant falsehoods from the hereafter.

Really?

All relevant, statistical sources disagree with you, and note that that the UK has the 3rd worst death rate in Europe, adjusted using standard statistical techniques for demographics etc., with the countries you mention well below the UK, but we are supposed to blithely accept your post and its assertions noted above. Methinks this is the OFSO school of feelings and prejudices sans statistics, run amok again.

If you feel disparaged, then submit a paper proving your assertions.

The UK has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus deaths in Europe, at 117,166 as of yesterday.

Here is one good source...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/111 ... y-country/

[OFSO]

So the third worst death rate, not the first, as Morgan keeps saying. Then the first. Which is it? Your faith in the accuracy of reporting deaths - from any cause - in other countries is interesting but questionable. I know, not from reading government papers, but from knowing the individual well enough to have seen them at least once a week, of cases where deaths went unreported and no certificate was issued. And that, Mon Amis, is why I don't believe Spanish and French reporting. If I know of cases, there are others.

[TheGreenGoblin]

So the third worst death rate, not the first, as Morgan keeps saying. Then the first. Which is it? Your faith in the accuracy of reporting deaths - from any cause - in other countries is interesting but questionable. I know, not from reading government papers, but from knowing the individual well enough to have seen them at least once a week, of cases where deaths went unreported and no certificate was issued. And that, Mon Amis, is why I don't believe Spanish and French reporting. If I know of cases, there are others.

I do agree with you that Piers Morgan is an irritating, obnoxious, bully and deserves a poke on his hooter, no matter what he says!

As for the numbers, one has to account for variations in measurement techniques etc. but without a baseline, no rational, empirical baseline is possible and everything becomes a matter of conjecture, which is not a good place to be.

[Pontius Navigator]

TGG, I tend to agree with OFSO. We really don't know if data submission is the same in every country. The Belgiques says their high rate was because of their assumptions of infection and cause. We possibly tend to their method as we include the infamous run over by an omnibus from Clapham in the subsequent 28 days.
I think I am correct that some countries do not include Covid deaths either not in hospital or not certified by a doctor.

standard statistical techniques for demographics

I don't know how this is relevant. Dead is dead irrespective of age, ethnicity, morbidity or sex.

I suggest you cannot liken OFSO's posts to that burka wearing Covid nappy protester. In a year I know of a Rotarian in another nearby club who died last year. Our then president succumbed last year but recovered.

Of family in more than a dozen places throughout UK not one has been affected or knows someone who was.

I am not a sceptic, I wash, I wear a mask, I don't go in a shop, I think the countryside is crowded if I SEE more than 5 people.

[OFSO]

A wry tale on official reporting in France. Remember BSE in cows, so-called mad cow disease, and the efforts the international community put into reporting and control? I was up in the rural community near Treziers, south of Carcassonne, and remarked that I'd heard there had never been a case of BSE reported in France. Grins round the table and a fresh bottle of Ricard ordered. I translate: "Well it's like this sir" said one farmer "if we see a cow behaving funny-like, say it's back legs have gone, we shoot it, feed it to the dogs, and it goes down on the books as 'put down to spare it pain after it broke it's leg' and the veterinary never asks any more as it's gone." Whether they really did this I don't know. If anyone can find a report of Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis in France fifteen years ago, let me know.
Now about the village idiot who disappeared one night when his parents got fed up caring for him, or the unfaithful wife who was never heard from after she moved to Marseille, or the brother who never came back to claim his inheritance, or the farmer known to be sexually abusing his daughters who fell out of the barn and broke his neck while his brother-in-law was visiting....very sad accident, that last, sad that his brother-in-law didn't visit earlier....

[Pontius Navigator]

I see TGG has not responded yet.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I see TGG has not responded yet.

What is to respond to? I currently work in the area of software development in the actuarial area, with a specific emphasis on mortality risk, a professional arena which is empirical and method driven, and have respect for the industry, here, and in the European countries denigrated in some previous posts.

While noting some shortcomings, here in the UK and in parts of Europe, with respect to data capture, I do not have much time for the erroneous opinions, feelings and prejudices, evidenced by some here! If some of the folks here, feel better scuba diving in the closed lagoon of narrow minded (often nationalistic) delusion and ignorance, then who am I to waste my time trying to enlighten them? Life is too short, and there are better things to do with my time!

[OFSO]

May one again quote Josef Stalin? It's not the voters who matter but the people who count the votes. Likewise it's not the national authorities who matter but the people who collect the statistics. That's where my lack of faith lies, your Grace.

[Hydromet]

It all started when I upgraded to the latest version of Apple iOS on the Macbook. Then I tried to use my ViaCad but couldn't. A search of user forums revealed that I needed to upgrade ViaCad from V10 to V12. Not happy, but OK, I've had V10 for a few years, so let's do it. Go through the ordering process and get the email confirmation of my order, which tells me that I'll get another email with a download link. It also tells me I can see the link if I establish an account, but I don't want to, as I'll probably never use it again, and if I do, I'll have forgotten the password, or that I had even established an account.
This email doesn't arrive, so the next day I send an email to their support desk explaining the situation. No reply, so today I asked my daughter in the US to ring their 1800 support number. They told her that all support was via the email address I'd used.
I sent a message via their Farcebook messenger, and also reluctantly established an account, which was supposed to link to my order. It didn't.
Late today, I received a message via messenger saying that they'd passed my message to the right people to sort out the problem. The response of the "right people" was to send me the order confirmation again, but still no download link.
I've now sent slightly less friendly requests to all concerned asking that they sort out this problem, as I need the upgrade urgently for a large job, and am sick of wasting time chasing them up.
I've also found the address of the CEO of the company that owns the company I'm dealing with. I feel that I may be about to use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

[OFSO]

I check the arrival of my monthly pension on my banking app. No problem. But today was asked for some specific details, so went to the pension-payer's "kiosk" (it's in France, hence weird name) to check the .pdf of my latest payment. A message in Franglais told me my user/password was not correct. ("Incorrect credentials" it said). Set up a change of password, went back, "credential" still incorrect. Managed to get in on phone, rejected on PC and Huawei tablet. An hour and a half to do what takes 30 seconds on a banking app, where instead of a "credential" all I need is a fingerprint and PIN.

[PHXPhlyer]

I fear for Barbie and Ken

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mi ... l-n1258877

A mister no more: Mr. Potato Head goes gender neutral
Hasbro announced the change as it launched a "Create Your Potato Head Family" kit, with two potato parents and a potato baby, made for "modern families."

https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/ ... -1240w.jpg

Feb. 25, 2021, 12:24 PM MST / Updated Feb. 25, 2021, 12:43 PM MST / Source: Associated Press
By The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Mr. Potato Head is no longer a mister.

Hasbro, the company that makes the potato-shaped plastic toy, announced Thursday it is giving the spud a gender neutral new name: Potato Head. The change will appear on boxes this year.

Toy makers have been updating their classic brands to appeal to kids today. Barbie has shed its blonde image and now comes in multiple skin tones and body shapes. Thomas the Tank Engine added more girl characters. And American Girl is now selling a boy doll.

Hasbro said Mr. Potato Head, which has been around for about 70 years, needed a modern makeover.

The toy manufacturing giant announced the change as it also launched a "Create Your Potato Head Family" kit with two potato parents and a potato baby. The video announcing the kit said it was for "modern families" and featured a variety of family makeups, including with same-sex potato parents.

"Hasbro is making sure all feel welcome in the Potato Head world by officially dropping the Mr. from the Mr. Potato Head brand name and logo to promote gender equality and inclusion," the company said in a statement on its website.

"The name change will come with a fresh branding look with a whimsical color palette and more inclusive messaging along with new product to appeal to the modern consumer," Hasbro said.

Dropping the “Mr.” from its name could encourage other companies to not assign genders to its toys, a trend that has already been happening, said Mierzejewski. Barbie maker Mattel released a gender-neutral doll line in 2019. But Mr. Potato Head is one of the biggest brands to do so.

“It’s a potato,” said Ali Mierzejewski, editor in chief at toy review site The Toy Insider. “But kids like to see themselves in the toys they are playing with.”

“It’s setting this new standard,” Mierzejewski said.

Mr. Potato Head first hit the toy scene in 1952, when it didn’t even come with a plastic potato — kids had to supply their own vegetable to poke eyes, a nose or mustache into. Hasbro, which also makes Monopoly and My Little Pony, bought the brand and eventually added a plastic potato.

PP