Monday 1 April 2019

Animal Farm. Southern Uplands Day Out.

                                              ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.
A day out with Alex and a trip to the Southern Uplands. Once upon a time, in a far away land, two small hills he had his eye on lived within a private estate but public entry and a network of trails made them accessible.
It was also children and family friendly down on the farm which suited me- not for the children though, It was cold, grey and closed with no-one around during our visit- probably opened at Easter- but interesting for the attractions that families like- as I like them as well... occasionally. I liked this mural for instance.
And the small pond with ducks, chickens and baby goats. Alex with a horny youngster.
Happy free range feeders.
Grumpy sheep- a stand in for Eeyore the donkey." Wot are you looking at!"
Me. My new selfie as they took my old one off, presumably because it was deliberately tiny and out of focus.... so no use to 'them.' Due to facial recognition technology anybody that's ever put a clear photo of themselves or anyone else online will be automatically tracked and ID'd, linked with everything they have ever done in their life from birth to death carefully charted out. This will be used to keep track of you for 'advertising purposes', for government files on every UK person and for companies selling data. Your data. Selling you basically. Which is why I try to avoid selfies. Already there are electronic spies in many households, placed there voluntarily by the residents. The next generation of cars may well record every journey you make as standard practice whereas now you have to willingly enlist a free app to do the job.

Another inhabitant of planet Earth keeping a low profile. Recently my Blogger account and Email account seems to be linked to various other companies- Google, auto blog, Huff Post etc- all things I never asked for but I get them anyway whether I want them or not. I deleted my Facebook account and signed up for Twitter instead out of curiousity but it immediately knew a lot about me already. I've never been on Twitter before. That pisses me off right away. Even house prices in every street... street views of front and back gardens and what's in them... everything you buy online is tracked and filed away. And anybody can find it. I might as well tell random strangers in the street every single thing about me and give them the keys of my house for safekeeping. Another reason governments and companies increasingly have you by the b***s will occur when paper cash disappears altogether. Happy Days. It's the modern version of ancient tribes that thought photography could steal your soul from you. Well, now it can.             'One image to rule them all... and in any darkness find them.'
Daffodils in the woods.
Black goat and ducks.
A young goat. Farmers tag their animals so they can keep an eye on them better. Goodbye freedom.
A secret empty mansion house in the woods. Home of the 'Raven King' perhaps. A notorious collector of lost souls.
Primroses.
Red Deer. Presumably farmed for meat here but they do not know that yet.
Red deer herd. Do you know of any other animals that are chip and pinned with their own individual bar codes children?
Springtime within the 'Grand Estate'.
Pond Life.
Village Church. And that is the story of Animal Farm boys and girls. Take heed. And thank you George Orwell for the heads up.
Probably pointless in the long run but I was born in an age of free range humans and I'd also quite like to die as a free range human. A simple wish to avoid stepping into the cage with inviting open door and a filled seed tray inside.
The end.





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12 comments:

Anabel Marsh said...

Definitely liking your new selfie! I do agree, but I tend to be much more careless about my online persona.

Kay G. said...

You make me think that I need to read Animal Farm again. It is creepy how much of your personal info is available to everyone. A lot of things creep me out, that is why I concentrate on nature. Love your photo of primroses, I recognize them from England.

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Anabel,
it's maybe just me then but I've always been instinctively cautious about security and giving out info to strangers even before the internet arrived. Just makes sense, like locking your door and windows every night.

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Kay,
I relaxed after this post by watching the film 'Snowden' on TV. That took my mind off the subject :o)

Carol said...

A lot of technology can be successfully avoided which I make sure I do (I'm sure you do too) - but you're right, they do all interlink and whichever one you use collects the info and passes it to anyone new. I don't do selfies either - can't see why anyone does really...

Those sheep are European and always look grumpy (Texels) - very ugly sheep. I think we should only have our native breeds here for farm animals!

I think farm animals should not only be tagged but the farmer's telephone number should be put on the field gate. When you find an animal in trouble and are unable to personally help it, who do you contact otherwise?

Rosemary said...

Your new avatar was difficult to make out, I thought that it was some kind of exotic Scottish insect - but no it is a selfie.

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Carol,
you could have a before (smiling, Happy) with a Herdwick and a Texel (dour, grumpy) side by side as a contrast. I didn't mean not tag animals just that humans are increasingly getting tagged as well.

blueskyscotland said...

Cheers Rosemary,
Yep, It's me. Don't I scrub up well for my age? A true reflection of my sunny personality.

Andy said...

Reminds of many happy days spent with kids at Farm Parks. Sadly iDevices are now more interesting to them.

Ian Johnston said...

Love the new avatar Bob!

Good post - I do everything to try and prevent tech companies getting my details (location services off on a phone is one easy step), but I suppose if we blog, there's stuff out there already.

Hi ho the lone Free Rangers!

:o)

blueskyscotland said...

Cheers Andy,
Watching folk on buses using smartphones all they seem to do is endlessly swipe things, like moving wallpaper, very few actually linger on a subject for longer than 30 seconds. This always intrigues and amuses me.

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Ian,
If I had more IT skills I'd be completely invisible :) but sadly that's not the case...