How long does it take for Truth to pull her boots on?

[Jim Hunt]

I arrive here fresh from the "Musk and Twitter" thread, about which more in due course.

Some time ago now my "professional" alter ego wrote about a particular porky pie promulgated by the current head honcho at Twitter:

"The Open Source Electric Vehicle Hall of Shame"

It has now come to my attention that a variety of so called “news” organisations are propagating the myth that “The Tesla Model S just became the world’s first open-source car”. That just ain’t so, and spending a few moments at Google or Wikipedia should be sufficient to persuade the most slow witted of investigative journalists of that fact.

Today my old mates at the Daily Fail have been assuring their faithful readers that:

Jim Hunt... said "I am just really p***** off by the whole thing. Nothing has changed and it just grinds people down year after year."

Which seems to sum things up quite nicely?

Here's my Cornish alter ego's take on that phrase, as expressed on Mr. Musk's shiny new social media organ earlier today:

https://twitter.com/DavidstowInfo/status/1630688164405755906

Watch this space!

[NeilT]

Ah the Deily fail.....

I was the only Male invited to be a moderator on the old DM message boards. However when I realised the editorial changes and the monetisation of the boards, I left.

Snake pit...

[Jim Hunt]

Snake pit...

Quite so Neil!

However ITV are evidently far more reasonable. I pointed out the excesses of their headline writer on Twitter yesterday. The reporter just called to apologise, and assured me that the "digital team" had been instructed to put things right.

These things sometimes happen in busy newsrooms.

Compare and contrast the two versions.

[Jim Hunt]

The BBC published an article yesterday which linked to a document included in my own article on the topic of "Multiple pollution breaches at Dairy Crest's Davidstow site".

The Beeb neglected the "human interest" angle favoured by everyone else, but for some strange reason they also neglected to mention the prior art. Here's what Google reveals this morning:

[Jim Hunt]

This is bleedin' bizarre, but all upvotes gratefully received:

https://yahoo.uservoice.com/forums/206291-uk-ireland-homepage/suggestions/46366852-make-it-easier-to-report-yahoo-news-articles-cont

[NeilT]

Film demolition man, the police officer tells the caller that if they want an automated response to press a key on their phone....

The future has arrived....

[Jim Hunt]

There has still been no response to my polite requests from Yahoo! in either the US or UK.

However perhaps there is more than one way to crack a nut? Would anybody like to play "Spot the difference" between the BBC and Yahoo! Canada?

If so please see:

https://Davidstow.info/2023/01/saputo-plans-to-clean-up-its-davidstow-act/#comment-3102

A proverbial packet of peanuts is at stake!

[Jim Hunt]

Santa is currently lying on a sunlounger admiring his now solid secret summer swimming pool. As he puts his still liquid piña colada to his frozen lips he is quietly chuckling "Ho, ho, ho!" to himself:

https://twitter.com/DavidstowInfo/status/1631580878580137985

[Jim Hunt]

A spokesman for Reach plc assures me that their:

Comments system automatically deactivates posts with links to outside websites... 'cause you never know what folk will try to send our readers to.

"No answer!" came the stern reply to my supplementary question.

I have finally had time to somewhat satirically start documenting this nonsense in earnest:

https://Davidstow.info/2023/03/how-long-does-it-take-for-truth-to-pull-her-boots-on/

If today’s title doesn’t yet ring any bells for you, perhaps this alleged quotation from Winston Churchill will be more familiar?

A lie can get round the world before the truth has put its boots on.

Perhaps you have previously heard something very similar attributed to Mark Twain instead?

[Jim Hunt]

I have implemented a cunning temporary technological fix to our Yahoo! problem.

However surely there must be some sort of "official" procedure for persuading a global news organisation to address a perceived issue with one or more of their reports? Short of a DMCA takedown request of course.

In other news (not yet syndicated by the BBC to Yahoo!) it will probably come as no surprise to my regular reader(s) to learn that the editor of Reach plc's CornwallLive (no space apparently) is an arrogant sonofabitch?

Our conversation continued publicly for a while at the link above. It went downhill in private after that!

Meanwhile here is chapter two of my Cornish alter ego's magnum opus:

https://Davidstow.info/2023/03/how-long-does-it-take-for-truth-to-pull-her-boots-on/#Mar-04

If you have clicked through to Cornwall Live and ITV’s articles you will no doubt note that they both concentrated on the “human interest” side of the story rather than some of the more “technical” issues that were also discussed. However Lisa’s video did include some mention of such esoteric matters.

[WildFit]

The lie says to the truth:

"Today is a wonderful day"!

The truth looks up into the sky and sighs, because the day was really beautiful.

They spent a lot of time together and finally arrive next to a well.

The lie says to the truth, "The water looks very nice, let's bathe together!"

The truth, skeptical at first, tests the water and discovers that it is really very nice.

They undress and start bathing.

Suddenly the lie leaves the water, puts on the clothes of the truth and runs away.

The angry truth comes out of the well and runs everywhere to find the lie and get her clothes back.

Now that the whole world sees the truth naked, all turn their eyes away with contempt and anger, while the poor truth returns to the well and disappears forever, hiding it's grief.

Since then, the lie disguised as the truth wanders over the earth and satisfies the needs of society, because people have no desire to meet and look at the naked truth.

[Jim Hunt]

The lie disguised as the truth wanders over the earth and satisfies the needs of society.

Entirely apposite WildFit, thanks.

We are arrant knaves, all. Believe none of us.

[Jim Hunt]

Would anybody like to play "Spot the difference" between the BBC and Yahoo! Canada?

Here is Kasia modelling the star prize in the Davidstow.info "spot the difference" competition:

https://Davidstow.info/2023/01/saputo-plans-to-clean-up-its-davidstow-act/#comment-3102

If somebody from Europe wins it would probably cost more to ship it than the purchase price, in which case we'll attempt to source something superior from somewhere across the North Sea. Ditto the US of A.

[Jim Hunt]

Here's Chapter 3 of my Cornish alter ego's magnum opus on the thorny topic of "Truth Decay":

https://Davidstow.info/2023/03/how-long-does-it-take-for-truth-to-pull-her-boots-on/#Feb-27-PM

Perhaps that goes at least some way towards explaining why none of the numerous articles that have recently been published about the "Multiple pollution breaches at Dairy Crest’s Davidstow site" mention the Internet of Things?

[Jim Hunt]

Truth is decaying is so many places simultaneously I haven't been keeping things updated here.

To begin to remedy that, I must point out that I appeared on the BBC local news on Monday. From the accompanying online article:

Environmental campaigner Jim Hunt from Davidstow, near Camelford, has been monitoring reservoir levels – including at Colliford – for the last few years and said the level was “astonishingly low”.

“It rained hard over winter, with a very dry February and now Cornwall’s biggest reservoir is half-full,” he said.

“Where’s the water gone?”

After which:

https://Davidstow.info/2023/03/cornwall-environmental-campaigner-in-desalination-truth-decay-shock/

Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a remarkably similar article stating instead that:

The reservoir level at Colliford is “astonishingly low” according to environmental activist Jim Hunt of Davidstow, near Camelford, who has been keeping tabs on reservoir levels for the past few years.

Cornwall’s largest reservoir is only about halfway full, he said, because of the heavy rainfall experienced throughout the winter and the unusually dry conditions in February. “Where’s the water gone?”

The article led with this artistic mashup of my very own visage with an aerial view of Colliford Lake and the suggestion that “Desalination ‘could provide third of county’s water'”:

[Jim Hunt]

What with one thing and another I’m way behind on assorted recent “truth decay” stories, but the truth does occasionally inadvertently reconstitute itself.

By way of example see this recent exchange of mine on Twitter with Jeff Reines, editor of Reach plc's CornwallLive:

https://Davidstow.info/2023/03/cornwall-environmental-campaigner-in-desalination-truth-decay-shock/#comment-3146

As Jeff succinctly explains:

[Reach plc]’s business is a website which benefits from people staying on it longer…

Sending readers to other websites isn’t productive.

Jeff still doesn't seem to appreciate the absurdity (IMHO!) of attempting to tell a story about the current drought in Cornwall without linking to the web site of South West Water.

Image credit: NASA/Apollo 17