OK but we are drifting off topic and that’s my fault…
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Yanks have a tendency to do that as our attention span is limited .
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Well my dear wife is from Georgia so she is is not a Yank !
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I have been told we are all in some way Yanks and only removed by six degrees of separation.
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Possibly so. I’m just a grumpy old Scotsman…
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Yes Dachs, probably not a very good example of what I was trying to say.
1960 was the start of the demise of British industry with more imports from China, the USA and Germany. The value of imports in 1960 was a cool £5,616 million…
However, the value of imports in 2024 was £906 Billion.
Which suggests to me that most things were were home grown in 1960 than today.
= More outgoings than incomings…(Exports versus Imports)
Any number of things could prevent the transportation of goods from China or the far East to the UK…And we would be shafted. It’s not all about finance, China could shut us down if it wanted.
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Health and aging are ripping it down. Unfortunately the population of hu-mons ?
Earth has to diminish greatly.
Its sort of obvious the mother cannot sustain our hunger / destruction / uncontrollable appetites for everything.
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Have you had your “Fill” Zac?
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The town where I live has now achieved city status, I have no idea why, or what being a city involves different than when it was a town…However, it will always be a town to me.
I was brought up in a pit village 5 miles out of town. Coal was king then, and there were many villages like ours in South Yorkshire. Coal and the mining industry brought people here to live, my father’s side came from Leicester, and my mother’s side came from Nottingham.
Doncaster was very industrial in those days, apart from all of the shops and engineering works that supplied the mining industry and it’s workers, there was a famous Tractor manufacturer (International Harvesters) Pilkington Brothers, flat glass manufacturers, ICI Fibres (producers of paint, nylon and explosives) Peglers who produced taps, valves and pipe fittings, The Plant railway works, responsible for the Mallard and Flying Scotsman, SR Gent, sowing factory producing clothing for many big high street stores including Marks and Spencer, Crompton Parkinson’s, Electric motors and lighting…Rockware, glass bottles and containers…And the largest coal fired power station in Europe at the time…4 gW output regardless of wind or sun…
Now sadly all gone, but thousands of houses in their place…But no proper jobs…
How could this possibly be called a city…
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My bucket list is ok and done. But I still travel near 20,000 miles a year by Turbo’s my F150!
It’s BTU power of those 1000’s of gallons of gasoline. Uh, I am awful to the environment too!
Life needs, a Lake home and near a large City Home. Greed is a sure thought to go to a
different life every Weekend. I have grown to be a lucky sucker!
We need to use all our mental abilities to capture CO2 in a no brainer.
Maybe the no brainer is the ones with the big bucks don’t really give a dang.
Most likely the point is, we all in the same boat when it comes to our Grand children!
Amazon just said 30,000 layoffs coming today!
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The achilles heel 
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…''Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently implemented an anonymous complaint line to identify inefficiencies within the company. Approximately 1,500 responses have been submitted, resulting in more than 450 changes.
In June, Jassy noted that the use of AI tools could lead to further job cuts in the future, particularly in positions involving routine tasks.
Earlier, Amazon had prepared to reduce its human resources department by roughly 15%—around 1,500 of the 10,000 HR employees, according to Fortune.
The company’s ongoing adoption of AI is expected to reduce the overall corporate workforce. While the shift will create some new roles, Amazon anticipates a net decline in employee numbers, according to Jassy.‘’
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We elders have to grow up very rapidly is a + thought very quickly!
Microsoft’s onto that thought, is a very negative ending for our families.
The Point being what are we going to do with all the CO2,
laugh and end it all or figure out a great plan to put it somewhere?
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Are we going to put our families ahead of Ai throwing all of them out of work / jobs too! My thoughts are Ai needs to lead with incredible wisdom and put the future ahead all else, not replace the Humans life.
You know the Billionaires have to be suffered under Laws.
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I wonder what the “Robots” are thinking about all this AI
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Once you added “it’s all flat caps and pigeons” which amused me since our major mining region used to have them, too.
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They’re not paid to think.
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You describe one of multiple post-industrial towns and cities across the country. Look at the central belt of Scotland, look at much of the midlands, look at the mill towns around Manchester.
And yet, as you note, lots of new houses which are being bought, lots of new cars on the road, lots of people in high end clothes. Less pollution.
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And more people on the dole, and a larger percentage of people in poverty. Poverty produces bad diets, bad health, obesity, and overflowing hospitals.
More people taking money out of the national pot than putting it in…
And still the government encourages them to come…
Less energy for everyone, people sat at home cold and hungry while the few drive around in expensive Electric Vehicles powered by batteries that use lithium and other precious metals mainly mined in poor countries. Have we just moved the pollution to somewhere else?
People without work resort to crime…To survive…
Is net zero really worth it?
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Ta, good response me thinks.
Larger percentage in poverty (and all the issues associated with that). True. Is there not two sides to this story? One is the destruction of decent (and decently paid) jobs in these areas. This is was the direct result of 1980’s economic policy. But also a lack of a balancing investment in education and training - it was clear for decades that tech was replacing metal work in western countries. But not one UK government put any real effort into preparing workforce for that. There are two decent sized IT businesses started up north - Sage in Newcastle and the UK branch of Rockstar Games (now US owned but Edinburgh offices as their main game was started in Scotland). That is dismal. The Scotland gaming industry is only there because back in the 90’s Dundee University started one of the world’s earliest computer game design courses. Very little government help. Dismal but shows how intervention can lead to blossoming businesses.
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