Sorry for the lack of blogging recently, but it’s been a dull but busy week here at Bigland Towers. I’ve been going nowhere fast due to work commitments which have kept me tied to home. Now’s the time of year when I put my sorting hat on as one of the Community Rail Awards judges. There’s a huge amount of entries in the two categories in which I’m a member of the judging panel so it takes a lot of time to sift through them, giving our individual scores before we convene for the full judging panel.
Mind you, the weather’s been utter crap here in the Calder Valley. Most days I’ve not even been able to see the opposite side of the valley. Taking my daily stroll through the woods has been ‘fun’ too as some major branches have been brought down by the wind and rain, so you take your life in your hands. Fortunately, I’ve never been in the wrong place at the right time!
The evenings have been entertaining in a different way due to it being the week of Bonfire night, which has meant we’ve had fireworks going off every day so the place sounds like living in a suburb of Beirut or Damascus (only without the ricochets). Still, the valley’s looked very pretty with a fusillade of fireworks lighting up the sky each evening.
Now the week’s winding down. I was hoping to get out and about tomorrow but I fear I still have too much paperwork to do – and the weather’s not looking much better, even though it’s been incredibly mild for the time as year. That said, Dawn’s taking next week off as it’s our weeding anniversary and we’ve just booked a few nights away in Shropshire – so all’s not lost.
Hopefully, I’ll have time to catch up on some more blogging tomorrow, in the meantime, I’ll leave you with a taster of the weather here today. For much of the day we’ve been living just below cloud level…
The Wainhouse tower above the end of our road disappears into the clouds.
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Think you can trust Artificial Intelligence (AI) to answer questions factually, find accurate statistics or tell fact from fiction, truth from lies? Well, think again.
Right-Wing Billionaire Elon Musk has built ‘Grok’, an AI platform used on ‘X’ (better known as Twitter) which has also been rolled out across the internet. It’s billed as;
‘a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more’.
Maximise truth and objectivity eh? What a grok of shit!
Over the past 3 days ‘Grok’ has shown this claim to be an absolute travesty of the truth. It started with the terrible events on board an LNER train which resulted in 11 people being stabbed. Grok immediately claimed that multiple passengers on board had given ‘eyewitness accounts’ that the perpetrators had shouted ‘allau akbar’ as they rampaged through the train.
It was a lie. The ‘evidence’ was a handful of X accounts claiming to have been passengers. Grok swallowed that whole then regurgitated it and amplified it, giving those claims credence. Then an AI generated picture was posted. It’s clearly a fake. Grok claimed it was real.
Dozens of people pointed out it was fake – and a bad one at that. The train interior’s wrong, the time of day’s wrong, the location’s wrong, the suspect’s ethnicity is wrong. In short – everything’s wrong.
Initially, despite the obvious glaring errors Grok tried to argue the picture was genuine.
Then it started to backtrack under the weight of humans calling it out. Eventually, the originator of the AI fake admitted it was fake!
Grok finally admitted the picture was AI, but resolutely refused to admit it had been conned by fake witnesses claiming shouts of ‘allau akbar’. Instead, it obfuscated, saying the attack itself wasn’t in doubt, but no-one had questioned that, so why keep mentioning it? Needless to say, some humans were rather scathing about this.
So, who does Grok consider reliable sources (other than non-existent passengers). Here’s a list. Spot the problem? They’re all from the far-right and have a long history of peddling misinformation and hate. But Grok has been programmed to accept them as reliable. So much for trying to ‘maximize truth and objectivity‘.
The timestamps claim is a curious one as timestamps are worthless. All they show is something was posted at the time of the event. They tell you nothing about where that person (or bot) is posting from. So, Grok claims the passengers are genuine ‘cos the posts are made during the event but won’t tell you where in the world they’re posting from. That’s an illustration of how easy it is to con Grok.
Fast forward 2 days when another person asks again about the fake picture. Grok’s reply?
The irony? Grok claims that it ‘remembers’ conversations. Really? So why’s it contradicted itself, forgotten that it’s already admitted the pictures an AI fake and doubled down on the lie to the extent it’s denying the creator of the AI picture admitted it was a fake. I mean, if they’re not ‘credible evidence’, what is?
Needless to say. Grok spreading and amplifying misinformation has not gone un-noticed. Nor has the fact it has amnesia and conveniently ‘forgets’ what its said just a day (or even a few hours) before.
Then, today, came this absolute doozy! Grok had defamed Pete Wishart, a member of the Scottish Parliament, calling him a ‘rape enabler’.
Wishart pursued this, leading to Grok’s programmers having to issue a fulsome apology.
Only for Grok to deny it had issued any such apology just a few hours later when I questioned it!
The claim that Grok is ‘designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity‘ is a joke. It’s quite literally a grok of shit.
Musk’s pet is quite clearly programmed to reinforce far-right narratives, amplify misinformation and obfuscate when caught out and questioned. It can’t tell truth from lies fact from fiction – and it has (Musk’s) agenda at its heart.
Do not trust it – on anything.
UPDATE:
After I included Wishart in the exchange where ‘Grok’ denied issuing an apology, it seems he’s taken it further and the story has made the Scottish papers!
Meanwhile, Grok continues its sorry story of mis-identification. Now it’s wrongly identified a Berlin U-Bahn train as being on the London Underground, presumably to fit in with Musk’s vendetta again London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and his claims the city is unsafe.
London Underground trains plastered with window motifs of the Brandenburg Gate? Yeah, right…As for that seat moquette, Oh, please!
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Having had my birthday treat postponed due to ‘events’ we’re making up for it today with a return trip to Chester, only this time by train. We’re also adding Manchester to the mix to split the day between the two. The plan’s to enjoy an amble around Chester and its walls, then a spot of brunch and a pint before heading back East to Manchester for another amble and drinks before adjourning to a lovely Indian eatery this evening.
Right now, we’re aboard Northern’s 09:20 from Sowerby Bridge which runs direct to Chester. Today it’s worked by a pair of 2-car Class 195/0s, so there’s plenty of available seats and we’ve managed to bag a table behind the driver’s cab. Dee’s got her book and I’ve the ‘mobile office’ so all’s well. The weather’s playing ball too, as it’s surprisingly mild – if a little damp.
Time to leave…
We’re already West of Manchester Victoria, which is where most passengers decamped. Only a handful joined to replace them, leaving around half a dozen in this front car.
10:55.
This train didn’t stay empty for long! After stopping at Newton-le-Willows, Earlestown and Warrington Bank Quay we’re around 80% full with a real mix of travellers of all ages heading for or next and final stop – Chester. The weather’s picking up too, with high, thin cloud and glimpses of blue sky. Not a bad day for a wander at all…
17:00.
We’re now on our way to Manchester after exploring old haunts and new in Chester. This time we’re aboard the 16:28 which (as it’s only a 2-car) is rammed. Chester was lovely, on leaving the station we walked down to the Shropshire Union cabal which we followed West under the shadow of the city walls to the csnal basin and junction with the spur to the river Dee. You pass through a cutting hewn from solid rock which still bears the scars of the primitive tools of the time. It must have been a hell of an undertaking when the most sophisticated tool you had at your disposal was gunpowder.
After a walk around the cabal we climbed up onto the walls to head into town in search of sustenance. Ignoring ‘influencers’ and other social media sirens we picked where we fancied to old fashioned way by peering in the window and reading the menus outside. As we both enjoy tapas we we chose Salt House on Bridge St (links later). This proved to be a wise move. We arrived at noon when it was empty. When we left 90 mins later there wasn’t a seat spare!
Salt House is a sympathetic refurbishment of an old building with some nice touches (check out the tiling on the bar).Chicken skewers (recipe later).
To be continued…
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There’s been another quiet day here at Bigland Towers and in the Calder valley. I’ve spent most of it working from home, having had the place to myself whilst Dee’s been over at her parents to sort out the aftermath of the car accident.
Mind you, the weather here this morning was spectacularly awful, with high winds and driving rain, so being cocooned in the cottage was ideal. This afternoon, the weather changed. We had a spell of glorious sunshine and clear skies, so I thought I’d nip out with the camera to get shots of the railway crossing the Copley viaduct surrounded by trees in their autumnal colours. Only it didn’t quite work out that way. By the time I got down to the river the weather had changed again, with leaden skies and rain heading my way. However, I did find Network Rail contractors who’d been busy clearing trees along the embankment of the line to Greetland. This has opened up a couple of new photo locations, with more in the offing as the work is continuing.
I made my way up the other side of the valley through a lovely green tunnel which has formed over an old sunken track. Then, sheltering from a sudden downpour under some Oak trees, I surveyed the valley. Here’s the results.
The green tunnel, and old track which is slowly being reclaimed by nature. A train bound for Halifax passes the site where contractors have denuded the embankment of trees to open up this view which has been hidden for decades. In the background is a modern housing estate which has been built between the River Calder and the canal. The same train crossing the Copley viaduct, surrounded by trees which are slowly gaining their autumnal finery. The widest arch to the right is where the railway crosses the Calder and Hebble Navigation (canal).
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Today Dawn and I were meant to be celebrating my official ascendency into old-fartdom as today’s the day I become a state pensioner. The plan was that we’d be up and out early to head to Chester by train, where we’d have lunch, a drink and a wander around the city walls before retracing our steps as far as Manchester where we’d go out for an evening meal to celebrate my new status (or drown my sorrows, depending on your viewpoint).
Unfortunately, the Gods had other ideas. Yesterday evening Dawn’s mum rang to say that her and her husband had been in a car accident. Whilst they were driving back from a day out along a country road a pedestrian appeared out of nowhere in front of their car. John (Dawn’s father) reacted in time and swerved to avoid them but the car hit a drystone wall and was a write-off (the drystone wall’s not looking too healthy either). Needless to say, Dawn dropped everything to be with her parents and stay with them whilst they were checked out in A&E, then get them home. Thankfully, neither of them were hurt, but the NHS staff at Huddersfield A&E were taking no chances and gave them a through check, which meant that Dee didn’t get back to Bigland Towers until after midnight, then had to spend much of today helping to sort out stuff with the car insurers.
So, no Chester (or Manchester) for us…
Instead, I’ve had a quiet birthday at home, wondering where the hell the last 66 years have gone! The day’s not been entirely wasted as I had time to nip out for a walk, do some shopping and cook a fiery Thai Red Curry, ready for when Dee got home. Now, I’ve time to write this whilst Dawn’s taken over the kitchen to bake a chocolate birthday cake in my honour, having already baked some stunning chocolate puddings. Thai curry and chocolate pud’ – sounds like a birthday treat to me!
Dawn’s stunning homemade chocolate puddings, with a melted filling.
Tomorrow, whilst Dawn’s back at her parents sorting out a hire-car, maybe I’ll apply for my bus pass…
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It’s Saturday here in Bigland Towers and the pair of have been having a relaxed Saturday at home. Dee returned from darkest Lincolnshire yesterday, whilst I spent Friday editing the pictures from the previous day’s outing.
The weather here in the Calder valley’s starting to get a real nip in the air as the Mercury’s dropped several degrees in the past couple of days. It’s time to put the central heating on and dig out the winter woolies, although (thankfully) I’ve only had to use the new waterproof that Dawn’s bought me as a birthday present once. My actual birthday isn’t until next week, but hey – what’s the point of a waterproof if you can’t use it when you need it?
Today, the weather’s been cold but mostly sunny, ideal for walking, although as we’d had a late morning our perambulations were local at best. Still, the woodlands where we live are packed with autumnal colours right now, so that’s no hardship – and at least I didn’t slip and go arse over tit the way I did on Friday (note to self, walking in woodland whilst staring at your smartphone is a dumb idea).
Having popped into our local pub for a drink and a giggle with the bar staff we picked up some shopping before settling in for a quiet night at home. I’d batch-cooked a chicken Korma on Friday, which has fed us for the past two days as well as helped stock the freezer, so tonight’s been very relaxed. Tomorrow the plan’s to get out and explore, going walking somewhere, although we’ve not decided where yet. Watch this space.
In the meantime, here’s a couple of diverse pictures from the past couple of days. When I cook, I like to prepare and lay out everything I need in advance.
The ingredients of a Korma. Chicken, onions, chopped tomatoes, creamed coconut, Garlic, Turmeric, ground Coriander, Garam Masala and plain yoghurt. Easy to make – and far tastier and healthier than prepared cook-in sauces from a jar. This recipe was given to me by Meena, an Indian friend from London many, many years ago – and it’s become a firm favourite in our house.
On Thursday I had the tripod with me, so I played around with long exposure shots in the city centre. Here’s one of the results.
Tram and bus blurs in Piccadilly Gardens
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I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Having spent the past few days cooped up at home it’s time to get out and about for a while. Dawn’s got a couple of days away from work and is heading over to a friend’s caravan in Lincolnshire until tomorrow, so I’ve time to myself. The weather’s still not brilliant, but I’ve a mind to get a few night shots in Manchester, so if it rains this evening that’s actually a bonus as wet streets reflect the light and add another dimension to pictures.
To that end, I’m on Northern’s 12:02 from Sowerby Bridge to Wigan Wallgate which is worked by a 3-car Class 158. This trains reasonably busy for a midday service, with a mix of students, families and solo travellers either heading to the city or out to enjoy the countryside. The weather’s picked up too. We’ve chunks of blue sky and sunshine which is showing the Calder valley at its autumnal finest.
Ready, steady, go…
13:25.
Fo once, the weather West of the Pennines closely matched that of the East. That said, if you want rain, it’s one of the things Manchester is famous for, so I may be lucky later. My stay in the city was brief as I found out that an unusual train which I’d yet to photograph was in service today. Northern has a fleet of bi-mode Class 769s (converted from Class 319s) which normally run Southport to Stalybridge/ManchesterI Oxford Rd. Right now, the fleet is being supplemented by two ex- Transport for Wales 769s, which run as required. One is out today, (769452) so it would have been rude not to – especially as it was running to Southport just behind my service! I’m on it now.
Apart from obvious differences like the livery (it’s still in TfW colours), there’s revised seating and different USB sockets. Oh, and there’s a bell, not a buzzer in the cab for Conductor to Driver signalling. I can’t remember if this was a feature original to the Class 319s. There’s other differences too. The Northern sets retain the old 1st class seating area which has been stripped out of the TfW units.
14:15.
I may have to retitle this blog as I’m now on my way to the coast! The weather’s brighter so I thought a flying visit to get a few more shots of this unit was in order. Plus, I’ve not travelled back to the town I grew up in by rail for a while…
14:50.
Here we are in Southport. Briefly, anyway. I’ve time to nip up to an old haunt – the Virginia St footbridge – to get shots of the train leaving at 15:03. I’ll follow on behind.
Having travelled across the West Lancashire plain, I arrived at Burscough. It was an interesting journey. The area’s clearly far more affluent when I used to cycle across the flatlands as a kid. There’s more expensive houses, and some of the rich farmland has been converted into (hardly productive) animal paddocks.Other fields now grow turf for people’s lawns. Lucrative, maybe, but hardly sustainable.
My former 319 at Burscough Bridge.
Sadly, Burscough’s main street has suffered an outbreak of flag-shagging. This is a small town where the overwhelming majority of the population are white, wealthy homeowners. Except for many of the people working in the high street nail bars, fast-food joints and barbers, obviously…
19:15.
Next stop was Wigan, where I paused for a pint in the Swan and fortified myself with chips and mushy peas from the chippy up the road. Well, it’d have been rude not to sample the local cuisine!
Now I’m heading back to Manchester on the same TfW I was chasing….
21:30.
I’m on the last leg home after stopping off in central Manchester to get a few low-light pictures. For once Manchester let me down and the city stayed dry! Even so, I hope I’ve one or two decent pictures. I’ll add them later. Right now I’m heading back East on another Chester – Leeds service. It’s a pair of Class 195/0s o mercifully quiet this time of day. As much as I like the older trains if I was going anywhere long- distance , give me one of these as I can set up the mobile office.
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Another day that didn’t quite turn out to be as expected. The day’s plans were changed by two events which diverted my time. Firstly, I’ve been invited to be a judge in a photographic competition run by one of the UKs train operating companies. They contacted me at short notice, asking for a biography and a mugshot. Having sorted those out I then received a phone call from a magazine asking for potential pictures for their next cover. Searching through my archive for the subject matter and sending them links kept me busy for a while. Still, it should help my bank balance! As I sat at my computer I was enviously watching the sun breaking through the racing clouds to send rays of light scudding across the valley like searchlights hunting for a fugitive. The scene would have made for some great moody photographs. Sadly by the time I was free to pick up the camera the sun had lost its battle with the clouds which swamped the valley with more mist and rain. Bugger!
When I did manage to get out for a walk conditions were less than ideal as light levels were set to full dull, but – I did manage to find something of interest which gave me chance to exercise my 105mm micro lens. Here’s the results.
If anyone can ID these two types of mushroom, feel free to drop me a line.
I’m no mycologist, so I’ve no idea what types of mushrooms I’m looking at here (all I know it – don’t be daft enough to try and eat ’em). A single old tree stump in our local woods is home to several different types which attracted my attention.
As the rain worsened I retreated back to the cottage to dry out before preparing food for this evening. Poor Dawn had a dental appointment to fix her tooth where she lost a filling last week. Now the hole in her tooth’s fixed, but there’s an even bigger hole in her purse! Our dentists are excellent and have managed to save the tooth, but have recommended Dee gets it crowned to ensure there’s no further issues. Both filling and crown will set her back over £1000 in total. Even so, it could have been a lot worse (and more expensive) if the tooth couldn’t have been saved. After the fun and games with the car, it’s been an expensive month. Fingers crossed the rest of the year is more of a breeze…
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On Friday, despite the weather being grey and autumnal I needed a break from staring at computer screens, so walked into Halifax for a trip to nearby Brighouse to indulge in a spot of rail photography. Due to the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) construction at Huddersfield drastically reducing the number of platforms available, Brighouse is currently a railhead for services from my neck of the woods. Instead of hourly trains to Huddersfield, a two-hourly shuttle service runs from Bradford Interchange to Brighouse, where it connects with buses to Huddersfield or to Leeds via Mirfield, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury and on to Leeds as the local service from Wigan Wallgate to Leeds via this route has been diverted to run through Halifax.
Brighouse is also a good location for photographing freight services running via the Calder Valley. Hence some of these pictures…
150004 was doing the honours on Friday. After reversing at Bradley Wood Junction it’s returned ready to work 2J66, the 14:30 to Bradford Interchange.66431 approaches the station with a trainload of ballast from the quarry at Shap. The service is 6E73, the 0910 Shap Summit Quarry to Doncaster Up Decoy yard. The train runs Tuesday to Friday. Heading in the opposite direction was DBs 66017, hauling 6M16, the 05:40 Wilton to to Knowsley Freight Terminal empty ‘binliner’
Brighouse station’s a well-kept place with a very active friends group who’ve worked wonders over the past few years, transforming a basic station with a profusion of colourful flower and shrubs – both in planters on the platforms and actual gardens. Adding to the interest are a series of history boards which tell tales of local people and industries, including the story of one local man who inspired a well known song by breaking the bank of Monte Carlo. Yes, it really happened!
Here’s someone else with a local connects and famous in a very different way. I doubt he’d have approved of gambling for a start!
I suspect William wouldn’t have approved of another institution that’s nearby. The Commercial Railway Inn is right outside the station and offers a range of real ales, wines and spirits, as well as snacks. It’s an ideal place to bide a while in-between trains. This multi-room pub has one dedicated to music.
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There’s been a dank and dismal start to the week here in the Calder valley, which is hardly surprising as that’s how last week ended so set the tone. Sunday was miserable weather-wise as low clouds and rain obscured the sides of the valley and made walking a very damp experience. Today’s been little better, the only bright spot being the fact the weather’s still mild, for now at least.
I’ve spent the majority of the day at home, ploughing through yet more picture editing and filing. I’ve only a few more left to do now before I’m up to date. All but a handful of the Portuguese pictures have been uploaded to my Zenfolio website. You can find the railway ones here and the travel pictures here.
With the weather looking the same for tomorrow I’m planning to have another day working at home and staying warm and dry – although with the autumn leaves starting to take on some dramatic colours I’m hoping there may be an opportunity for some pictures in the surrounding woodland when I get out for a walk. If not, I’ll be able to catch up on some blogging as I did manage to get out last Friday, even if was only as far as Brighouse!
In the meantime, here’s an illustration of how the Calder valley looked yesterday.
Wet and windy, with Norland moor on the opposite side of the valley hidden by low clouds.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 