#HeadlineTherapy Breach of contract notice served over ‘shambolic’ bins issue

Thanks to Vikki Irwin and Richard Daniel and BBC News Online for the Headline.

Bins are very important, particularly the food waste bin , which in a hot summer like we are having now, can turn into a fetid, horrible , maggot ridden object in the space in the garden that you keep it. ( in my case right beside our back door). However, we are lucky the bin collections in our area seem efficient, in fact we were part of the pilot scheme with the food waste bins a few years ago and now they’ve been introduced throughout the County and seem to work quite well along with the other waste collections.

The model in East Suffolk however has not worked so well, perhaps because they delayed the introduction, perhaps because they didn’t like Central government being heavy handed with them. Whatever the reason , the introduction has not gone smoothly and as a result of the mishandling of the process, the shambolic bin collections have resulted in East Suffolk Council serving a “Breach of Contract ” to itself.

I would say that basically there was just not enough people on the ground employed to achieve the collections and now they are employing an “expert” with many years experience in managing “bin collections” to fix the situation. They have been appointed and will start in August. In other words someone is going to be paid a fancy salary to tell them that they didn’t have enough workers in the first place and will have to recruit.

So same old story of trying to save money upfront and in the end wasting a load of money.

Overflowing trash bins with black bags and scattered garbage on suburban sidewalk.
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#HeadlineTherapy Latest Musk merch drop runs entirely on child labor

Thanks to Richard Speed Microsoft Ecosystem Reporter and The Register Online for the Headline

And here dear readers is why I believe that Headline Therapy is necessary, on first glance it appears that Elon Musk is using Child Labour for making new promotional Merchandise. What child labour being used to send manned space craft into space? Tesla’s rather plain interiors been sewn together by ten year olds on ancient sewing machines in sweat shops in downtown Hyderabad. Elon is not short of money why would he use child labour?

The fact is he doesn’t , the article is about a new child’s bike that has been launched by Tesla for the “learning to ride market”. Designed for children aged two to five to learn how to ride on two wheels. It’s only available to purchase by existing Tesla Car owner’s, talk about keeping it in the family. It’s at the higher end of the pricing bracket for learn to ride bikes , and they are now available to pre-order.

I can breathe a sigh of relief, Elon is not the wicked Over Lord, he is in fact contributing to the process of a child learning to ride a bike.

Child wearing helmet riding a blue and orange training bike with training wheels in a park
AI Generated Image, not actual Tesla Children’s bike

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Goofy

Daily writing prompt
If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be?

I would like to have dinner with Goofy and because he’s Goofy he would bring all his other cartoon friends and along with my dog, we would have a great time. All the plates would be licked clean, there would be paper wrappers all over the floor and overturned water bowls on the floor. Fireworks and party poppers would be banned and afterwards they would all go out to the garden to play. ( imagine that).

In AI reality the image created is somewhat different and quite frankly a bit spooky, though I’ve got to admit quite arty.

Most likely because of Copywrite Laws ( bless their little socks) I couldn’t have my desired photo with Goofy, Pluto , Donald Duck and the Mouses. Instead I have this surreal image of a dog barking at a load of Ancient Greek God Party Goers. And here it is below. Make of it what you will. The caption made me laugh too, yes truly surreal.

A black dog stands on clouds looking at a glowing cloud dinner party with ghostly figures and candlelight.
A joyful dog looks towards a heavenly dinner party made of glowing clouds under moonlight.

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#HeadlineTherapy Russians in Angola handed down jail terms for spying and terrorism.

Thanks to Maria Jevstafjeva and Leandro Prazeres and BBC News Online for the Headline.

Interestingly enough one of the Russian men involved in this case has lived in Angola a long time, 40years to be exact. They claim to have been creating a Russian Cultural Centre which they may have been for all I know.

I wouldn’t imagine the conditions in Angolan jails are very nice and the two Angolans that were on trial with the two Russians must be relieved that one was given a suspended sentence and one was acquitted.

The Lawyer for the two Russians did his best to get them returned to Russia and defended their case as best he could , but given some strange behaviour at the trial , including the Prosecutor’s refusal to read the indictment out in Court as would normally be the case so that it was clear what charges were being brought.

The charges included money laundering. Whatever is going on I wouldn’t want to be spending time in an Angolan Jail.

Two lawyers organizing evidence folders in an office with labeled boxes
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#HeadlineTherapy Even camels can’t cope: Africa’s ships of the desert hit by rising temperatures

Thanks to Navin Sing Khadka and BBC Online News for the Headline

This particular article is about the dromedary camels ( the ones with one hump) .80% of the population of dromedary camels live in North Africa and the Horn of Africa and even they are struggling in the heat.

The extreme heat has lead to severe drought and even the resilient camels cannot cope. They produce less milk and their young calves are subject to high mortality rates. The camel herders who rely on these animals in turn are suffering and cannot maintain healthy herds, not having the resource to pay for veterinary services which compounds both the people and the animals suffering.

It’s a sad situation, the camel is no longer the king of the desert.

Silhouette of a camel standing on cracked desert ground at sunset with dunes and mountains in the background
AI generated Image

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The Item Acquired (Noun)

Daily writing prompt
What is the best purchase you have ever made?

A purchase is a choice based on availability

A decision that can result in insanity

To identify what is best

Something that beats the rest

Is certainly no mean feat

Very often it ends up in defeat

Closing the computer lid

Because someone put in a higher bid

What has been my best ever purchase

I’ve wracked my brains till I’m red in the face

Although it caused me grief at the end

My little Audi A2 was my bestest friend

Black Audi A2 parked on cobblestone street next to CafΓ© am Dom
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#HeadlineTherapy Researchers seek to solve mystery  of Poland’s “Crooked Forest” before the trees die out.

Thank you to Notes from Poland Online for the Headline

Scientists from Poland are seeking to solve the mystery of Poland’s ” Crooked Forest”- a set of 90-year old trees with bizarrely curved trunks by developing “tree bending technology” to recreate their unusual growth. Bonsai on a big scale.

The research is being done as the Crooked Forest located near the town of Gryfino in Northwestern Poland has some trees that are getting older, and dying out. They are pine trees and the objective is to understand why they grew their curves and to replicate it to grow a Crooked Forest 2.

Historically the reasons why the trees were grown that way in the first place have been lost, but it will not be an easy feat to replicate and may take many years. Meanwhile the forest which once consisted of about 400 curved trees now only has about 100 left and time is running out.

Forest with pine trees that have curved lower trunks forming looped shapes
AI generated image.

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#HeadlineTherapy Residents upset at London Underground bridge getting Β£600,000 “Ikea paintjob”

Thanks to the Standard London Online for the Headline

Just shows what can happen when someone moves on in their job having made a decision that no one at the time thought was very important.

Wandsworth Council apparently paid out Β£600,000 to redecorate and upgrade two railway bridges at East Putney Tube station including “pigeon proofing the site “. Locals are renaming it the Ikea Bridge in honour of the famous Blue and Yellow of our favourite Swedish Furniture supplier. Nearby residents feel the colours are garish and do not fit in with the area, meanwhile Network Rail and a senior transport planner at the council say that the “negative comments” are relatively few considering the large number of local residents and station users and there are no plans to repaint the bridges.

Watch this space.

Railway bridge painted blue and yellow with East Putney Station sign over a busy London street
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#HeadlineTherapy Search and rescue teams ‘at risk from new CQC law.

Thanks to Lisa Young and BBC Online News for the Headline

And here’s a rub everyone should know about. The CQC charges those who need assessments to provide healthcare a Β£1000 registration fee along with the significant administration commitment to maintain registration and have the required inspections.

Unfortunately due to a change of Law, remote voluntary search and rescue organisations now fall under the remit of requiring a CQC inspection and the organisations themselves being purely voluntary and really being made up of knowledgeable mountaineering enthusiasts and rescue dogs simply do not have the money or the time to achieve this registration and therefore will have to cease operating. This is a ridiculous situation.

The Law is an Ass sometimes.

Search and rescue team members in uniforms sitting around a table with documents, laptops, radios, and rescue dogs in a briefing room.

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A & E Mix up

Daily writing prompt
What’s the funniest misunderstanding you’ve ever been part of?

I know A & E can be very busy and also they really only want to deal with serious situations.

However my partner and I were subjected to a doctor’s decision to give my partner an arthritis drug which caused him extreme heart palpitations. Not very funny , and he now will be on statins all his life.

It took us about three years to really find out the source of these palpitations and unfortunately when the heart starts beating very fast it is very scary, so each time we had an “episode”, we generally contacted the health service, initially ringing 101, but once we went to A& E at our local hospital and he was seen very quickly and a male nurse began the routine of preparing him for an ECG or whatever they do, it involved sticking needles in him and quite quickly a hospital porter picked him up and we were brought somewhere else within the hospital to be assessed. I was able to go with my partner. Which was fine.

What was even more fine was that it was determined that he was fine, things calmed down all his results were fine. I smiled and said “that’s a relief”. So the hospital porter appeared again and I followed as we were wheeled back to the original cubicle at A&E where we’d been.

I thought we were there to be discharged which I believe we were, but A&E have different priorities. So we waited a while, and I listened to the conversation some poor man was having with a Social/Health Worker telling him that he had to go home and that hospital was not the right place for him and she was there to complete his “assessment so he could go home.

I on the other hand was quite desperate to go home. It was then that the same nurse that had prepped my partner rushed in and began to go through the same procedures my partner had been through when we first arrived.

I had to intervene , ” don’t you remember us , he’s already had the assessment , we’re just waiting to be discharged. No he doesn’t need that.” I pointed at the needles. I said “honestly , no!” It was a tricky situation as I’m not medically trained.

Luckily, there was a look of ” Oh yeah” in the nurse’s eye and he nodded and went away. The next thing someone came and said that we could go.

To be honest, A&E wasn’t that busy that day and the misunderstanding was quite understandable , but when we got home and were sitting down having a cup of tea, we both laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

All’s well that ends well, but we could have been in a permanent loop and never got out of that place.

Nurse standing between two male patients sitting on hospital beds, the nurse appears thoughtful holding a clipboard
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