#HeadlineTherapy Blackburn Council denies issuing overnight parking ticket.

Thanks to Shulab Khan and the Lancashire Telegraph for the Headline.

Apparently Council Traffic wardens in Blackburn do not work past 10.00pm at night. There is a shortage of overnight parking in the streets around Blackburn, so some residents will park illegally on double yellow lines overnight , but will move on in the morning before the traffic wardens or the Police arrive.

However, one unfortunate Resident was issued with a ticket at 2.40am , and the Police say it was not them that issued it as they were not in the area that night. The ticket demanded payment of a £30 fine. It is unclear who issued the ticket as the Police and the Council says it wasn’t them.

Vigilante Parking Wardens is that a thing?

Namaste and Thank You for Reading. 🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy Scotland’s recycling rates at five-year low. How is your area doing?

Thanks to Kevin Keane and BBC Online News for the Headline

The recycling target for Scotland for 2025 was 70% of waste to be recycled, the figure they’ve hit Nationally is about 42% with significant regional differences.

The amount of waste going to Landfill thankfully has been reduced by 10%, but the reality is that some of what goes in the black bin could be recycled instead of being incinerated. Some inert material such as ash from the incinerators and building rubble will still be allowed at landfill sites.

Surprisingly the Orkney Islands only managed to recycle 18.2% of their rubbish which I found strange as living in such a beautiful area you would thing that they would be very careful about their environment. Glasgow only manages 26% but the good people of North Ayrshire manage 55%.

Add to that the belief that incinerating rubbish with the benefit of using the energy produced to add to the National Grid rather than repurposing it through schemes such as reusing glass bottles, recycling aluminum cans and presumably recycling cardboard. Is it cheaper for local authorities just to burn it?

Just a point of interest, Wales has achieved a massive 64.7% of it’s waste being recycled, so well done Wales. While Scotland at one point was considering sending it’s black bin bag waste to England for incineration, until the Haulier’s pointed out that they simply wouldn’t have enough lorries to deal with the amount of waste that needed to be transported.

Frankly, recycling is a mind frame, if we want to do it we will.

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The Motorway

What was the worst travel experience you’ve ever had?

It seemed so simple a trip to the beach,

But nowadays it seems enjoyment is out of reach,

I checked Google Maps it was all clear,

I suppose the tanker hadn’t planned to rear,

Must have happened in seconds and made a terrible mess,

Beer everywhere and everyone in high viz vests,

Thankfully no one hurt and the clear up started,

Those at the front of the queue were not

down-hearted,

I must have left just soon after the skid,

So at the back of the queue I was amid,

For hours we moved along like a snail,

Then you wouldn’t believe it but it began to hail,

The rain added to our gloom,

Increasingly we accepted our doom,

“Come off at the next exit,”

“This is about much fun as Brexit,”

” Perhaps we’ll forget the Beach for today,”

“We’ll have to go another day.”

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy Campaigners stage Rest and be thankful protest over A83 Convoy plans

Thanks to Christina O’Neill and Rahim Cham for the Headline

Unfortunately the Rest and be Thankful in Scotland is not a very restful place to be at the moment. The Old Military Road is subject to landslips and the proposal from Transport Scotland to place a single-lane system on the A83 while they consider a permanent solution to ensuring a better route is established for the businesses going to and from Argyll and Bute.

The group of Campaigners say it is necessary to have a two way system and have suggested three possible routes to allow two way access and avoid a convoy system.

One is upgrading the existing forestry track ( the green route) for two way access, the second is to upgrade the Old Military Road to two way access, or thirdly a combination of both where the forestry track is one way and the Old Military Road is the other. Either way they are not happy with the single-lane proposal.

There has been much consultation and no final decision has yet been made, it will be interesting, not sure how long the green route would last if there are heavy lorries going up and down it.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading. 🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy From Russian cages to Irish sanctuary:The five-year rescue of Bu and Tyapa

Thanks to Mike McBride and BBC Online News for the Headline

There are so many animals in captivity and in the wild that need our help to survive. These two bears were rescued despite horrendous odds, the rescue was lead by Killian McLaughlin of Wild Ireland who was helped by over 100 other people. These rescues are never simple. The bears left Russia and their transportation was affected by the War in Ukraine and also conflict in the Middle East.

The rescuers included volunteers, lawyers, veterinarians, animal transport specialists , cargo teams and officials in Russia, The United Arab Emirates and Ireland. So those two bears had a lot of people rooting for them.

It is such a relief that the bears will not have to suffer from cramped cages, poor living conditions anymore (one of them being forced to perform tricks in a circus. ).They now have forest and soil to dig their paws into. They were quite ill when they finally arrived in Ireland , but are slowly recovering their health, now that they have room to roam and also are getting the correct food and access to water.

The bears are safe in Donegal in “Wild Ireland” and are settling well into their new life.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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Bring Lunch and a Drink

What’s one piece of travel advice you always follow?

To travel to the unknown,

Perhaps you will be alone,

There might not be any shops,

The hotel kitchen might be full of slops,

It’s safer I think to plan ahead,

To ensure that you can rest your head,

Without complaining from hunger you are half dead,

A small packed lunch tucked away,

Will keep your rumbling tummy at bay,

And an isotonic drink,

Will stop you drinking water from that filthy sink.

It’s worth the effort to make your provision,

Other travellers will admire your vision.

Namaste and thank You for Reading.

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#HeadlineTherapy Google told to halt work on Finnish data centres after clearing an estimated 250,000 trees before environmental review was done

Thanks to Joshua Hong and Fortune Magazine Online for the Headline

Google has built a good relationship with Finland who have welcomed them with open arms for the last ten years as a site for their Data Centres. Must be the bears , and the fish and the cold.

Google have invested a unbelievable amount of money already and have a fully operational data centre in the town of Hamina in Finland.

Unfortunately the environmental impact of cutting 250,000 trees without the complete assessment of the impact on the surrounding area has caused a rift in the relationship and Google have been asked to suspend their preparatory work in Muhos and Kajaani.

Removal of trees, stripping of topsoil, construction of site roads and storage areas, changes to ditches and culverts and storm water arrangements have now been put on hold. Though Google can still continue with work that can be easily reversed.

Google on the other hand says the work they are doing is helping the environment , their site at Hamima which is a former paper-mill, uses cooling water from the Gulf of Finland and then recycles the sites waste water to local homes and businesses and that heat recovery will cover up to 80% of Hamima’s district heating network’s annual demand.

The environmentalists say that the Irish model of regulating grid access for those running large data centres is necessary due to the possiblity that data centre consumption could cause energy price increases and affect availablity of energy to the normal everyday consumer.

Google has forseen this by signing a 22 year agreement to help extend the life of the Loviisa nuclear plant which is supplies about 10% of Finland’s electricity.

There are big players in the rush to secure data centre locations to enable hyperscale cloud providers. The top three are Amazon, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Just so you know.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#AIPoetryPrompt

What was your first ever videogame?

Pong

My first video game must have been Pong,

I never had an Atari so I could be wrong,

Perhaps I saw it at a friends,

And that perhaps is where the story ends,

There might have been a mouse,

But perhaps that was a different house,

I do remember thinking it was quite fun,

To play it wasn’t really so dumb,

Those little blocks of white moving on the screen,

Got so competitive we were really mean,

Another game I’m not giving up you know,

Go on give me another go.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy We’ve gained an hour!

My headline

So today in the UK we’ve gained an hour it’s really eleven O’clock but all the clocks that change automatically (like the one on this computer) say the correct time and now the race is on to change the ones that don’t change themselves.

To be honest the car clock takes me about three weeks to change and I get used to it being an hour ahead, until I get fed up and sit down and read the manual .

Still it will be light tomorrow morning and will get darker about five or earlier until December when the days will start getting longer.

I’ve linked this video to the American US Congress successfully making a step towards making daylight saving time permanent.

I wish we would do the same, it messes with my body clock , the dog’s body clock and suddenly it gets dark so quickly at night.

Though if there is evidence that road traffic accidents are reduced then I think we should stick with it as I suppose the roads are busier in the morning.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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Do you set personal goals for yourself?

Yes on a daily basis I set personal goals,

There are many just like me lonely souls,

We aim our efforts high and true,

And forget that we must look anew,

For a goal once dusted and done,

You have to think of another one.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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