Niche UK Geography Fun

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Incoming from The Guru:

this link

It’s a multiple guess choice geography game using satellite imagery of the UK and dividing the areas up into smaller and smaller (and therefore more and more challenging) areas. These are based around the administrative structure of the UK, but thankfully, you don’t have to be an expert on that system to play.

I can vouch for those descriptions of the difficulty of the game. After 10 questions on each, I had scored 100%, 80%, 80% and 60% (eek) respectively. And that was with a fair amount of good luck on top of some educated guesses – a couple of football stadiums were of great assistance.
And with 317 local authorities, 650 constituencies and 8694 electoral wards (I have no idea how many “built-up areas” there are), you’re going to need all the help you can get.

It’s hard, it’s fun, and it’s rather addictive.

It’s also a bit buggy, which can be frustrating, but you could always demand a full refund if you’re not satisfied. (Yes, it’s free. That’s the joke, see?)

F@c€b00k removed my post

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This post.

Yes, I know that it was a machine not a person.
And yes, I get the reasons behind this, given the subject of the post and the sort of people that are out there.

But when you look at their messages to me:

How my post is “misleading” is a bit beyond me. The posts on 6000 miles… publish directly to Facebook so that you can access from there, and the biggest fan of this whole operation is Facebook itself, which is constantly (and irritatingly) reminding me to post more on there.

But when I do…

I have broken none of those rules. Sure, you will end up on the blog when you click the links I share, but I’m not trying to hide it. If you choose to click, that’s your problem, not mine.

We all know what you are letting yourself in for.

The other thing here is that they’ve removed my post, even though I’ve published a blog post every day for almost 14 years, and for at least half of those to Facebook, but then you look at the hate speech, AI images, misinformation, spam, the myriad of scams and general crap that gets through, and you think: why me?

And if it looks like I’m somehow elevating myself above other people posting stuff to Facebook, well yes, I am. Certainly above all of that stuff, anyway.

Who knows if this post will be removed as well? I cunningly tried to disguise the name of the social media service in the title of this post so that Facebook won’t know that the post is about it.
I know: you didn’t even notice, right?

It’s also worth noting that Twitter had no issue with this morning’s post. But then their bar on content quality is so low that it’s a tripping hazard in Hell.

So that’s not that surprising.

Horrible news

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An early night last night meant that I woke up to the news of George Baldock’s death.

Former Sheffield United defender George Baldock has died at the age of 31.
The England-born Greece international was found dead in the swimming pool of his house in Glyfada, southern Athens.
Police attempted to resuscitate Baldock at the scene but he could not be revived and medical emergency units confirmed his death, Reuters news agency reported, citing a police official.

George spent seven years at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane, and was one of the team that secured three promotions in those seven seasons. One of those players that epitomised the club: determined and focused, he always gave 100% out on the pitch, but was by all accounts a really down-to-earth, genuinely nice guy.

He didn’t score many, but when he did…

Despite his move to Panathinaikos at the end of last season, he was still, and will always be, a member of the Sheffield United family. And you think of him as a bit of a veteran, because he’d been at United for several seasons.

He was just 31.

UPDATE: This video…

RBOSS: IOM and Sheffield

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RBOSS continues apace. It was never going to be something that was ever going to stop, but there were (apparently forlorn) hopes that we could at least slow it down.

It seems not. Here’s that statue of the Bee Gees on the Prom in Douglas, now famous for the white line that surrounds the figures of Barry, Robin and Keith:

The statue itself is bad enough. It didn’t need treating to a DEHAZE wash drowning.
And beagle-eyed readers will notice that this one has been used on a calendar. That means that there are at least 28 days (and probably more) when this image is going to be staring at you from your kitchen (or whichever) wall.

Absolute masochism.

And then we head to Sandygate: the oldest football ground in the world, and home to the second oldest football team in the world. But not for much longer, looking at the frankly apocalyptic clouds overhead here:

To be fair, this is less RBOSS and more r/shittyHDR. But the same rules apply.

And there’s absolutely no need for fawning comments like “an amazing capture” or “beautiful [heart emoji]”. Although they are all over this post on Facebook. This image is a record of a visit to a historical, non-league stadium in suburban Sheffield, not some Hurricane Milton lookalike contest.

Remove the ridiculously over-dramatic sky and it’s just perfect at what it’s supposed to be. But now everyone’s looking at the scary clouds and wondering of any of the (somewhat meagre) fanbase survived.

They’ve forgotten that you went to watch the footy.

Completely unjustified.

I know that there are a few people out there who think that these sort of blog posts are wrong, and that art is art. And they’re definitely right on the second bit. But art (is this really “art”?) should also be open to criticism, and when it’s blown out by too many lightroom or snapseed filters or sliders, I will call it out.

Things are often actually quite nice just as they are, and they don’t need stupid amounts of editing just to try and get you a few extra likes or karma points.

Quota Walking Trail

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We’ve done the Nuwejaars Wetlands before, and it was very special. And whenever we drive out that way from Agulhas, it’s always like a mini-safari even along the public roads.

The great news is that this week, the NWSMA have opened a new walking trail through the area: The African Marsh Harrier Trail. There’s a lot to see…

… and it looks like a really good day out.

The creation of the trail was funded by WWF South Africa, with the support of the Overberg District Municipality. 
The relaxed and unchallenging trail is ideal for walkers of any fitness level, including children. It takes around two to three hours to complete. And it’s meant to be enjoyed slowly while taking in the incredible wildlife that lives in the wetlands, especially the bird life. 

As mentioned above, just getting there is often educational enough, so I’m looking forward to some decent fun with the long lens next time we are down there.