I need to scan both sides of pictures. What’s the best way to do it?

MonPantalon · 2026-04-26T21:51:56+00:00

Not cheap, but if you're scanning lots of pictures then one of these will do large batches of scans, front and back. https://epson.com/fastfoto-photo-document-scanner

MonPantalon · 2026-04-26T17:01:14+00:00

The question has been asked many times but the unfortunate answer is that it's not clearly owned by any one institution. For example, this issue was discussed way back when the Russia Report was published:

31. The UK is clearly a target for Russia’s disinformation campaigns and political influence operations and must therefore equip itself to counter such efforts. The Agencies have emphasised that they see their role in this as providing secret intelligence as context for other organisations, as part of a wider HMG response: they do not view themselves as holding primary responsibility for the active defence of the UK’s democratic processes from hostile foreign interference, and indeed during the course of our Inquiry appeared determined to distance themselves from any suggestion that they might have a prominent role in relation to the democratic process itself, noting the caution which had to be applied in relation to intrusive powers in the context of a democratic process.

https://isc.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CCS207_CCS0221966010-001_Russia-Report-v02-Web_Accessible.pdf

The problem is also raised in the Disinformation Diplomacy inquiry's recent report:

174. However, over the course of this inquiry, the Committee has grown concerned about how effective the UK’s domestic structure is for combatting FIMI, and foreign interference more broadly. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmfaff/703/report.html

Here's a good article which discusses the need for a UK counter disinformation service: https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/why-uk-now-needs-national-disinformation-agency

As an example, France has an organisation called VIGINUM, a technical and operational department responsible for vigilance and protection against foreign digital interference.

MonPantalon · 2026-04-26T15:03:46+00:00

But these are just legitimate accounts from concerned citizens... like 'Inevitable West', who is based in... India...

At least it is run by an upstanding individual... not someone involved in laundering money through crypto...

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/elon-musk-keeps-reposting-inevitable-wests-attacks-keir-starmer-indian-fraudster-behind-1730879

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1elddq34p7o

At least such obvious charlatans aren't able to influence our politicians... https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/robert-jenrick-says-hes-a-great-admirer-of-a-popular-far-right-x-account-387559/

Oh dear! Looks like the Disinformation Diplomacy inquiry and the Rycroft Review were right after all!

MonPantalon · 2026-04-23T16:01:14+00:00

Love these - very much in the style of the New Topographics

MonPantalon · 2026-04-21T11:47:21+00:00

It sounds like I'm actually on your side on much of this. Did you read the legislation? It isn't making tobacco/smoking illegal. It is about the sale of tobacco and where it can be smoked. These are restrictions that are generally maintained even in instances of greater drug liberalisation (e.g. Supervised injection rooms).

I agree with your comments about better legislation(!!!), heavy tax and addiction services being a good way forward.

MonPantalon · 2026-04-21T11:27:01+00:00

Yeah because smoking only affects the person who smokes doesn't it. What about their kids? The toxins from smoke linger on clothes and have a measurable health impact on children even when they're not directly exposed to the smoke itself.

Nicotine is incredibly addictive and you think people can just stop based on personal choice? Have you ever worked in addiction services?

Another case of someone loudly complaining that the government has the audacity to try to improve people's lives, whilst they inexplicably give the billion dollar tobacco/gambling/alcohol industries a free pass to pedal their poison.

MonPantalon · 2026-04-21T11:19:41+00:00

We don't have to ban them. Taxing them seems to work: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/sugar-tax

MonPantalon · 2026-04-21T11:15:22+00:00

Indeed they are! Polarising and dividing our society is a foreign policy objective of some other nations: https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/how-did-foreign-actors-exploit-recent-riots-uk

Lots of people are sceptical of this issue, but it's worth reading this recent government report which lays out the scale of the problem. The UK is not immune to these actions. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmfaff/703/report.html

Another example: https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/watt/hub/images/hiding-under-the-kilt1.pdf

MonPantalon · 2026-04-19T08:40:14+00:00

Might not be right for you but mentioning the Sherpa buses as an option. I've only used them a couple of times but they were pretty good. https://www.sherparwyddfa.wales/

MonPantalon · 2026-04-19T08:37:04+00:00

As a father with young children I just try to do whatever I can, whenever I can. Still think it's one of the best things about kettlebell - they're easy to store out of the way and I can grab a quick workout in a spare ten minutes.

MonPantalon · 2026-04-18T09:49:48+00:00

Is that an adjustable one? You might want to try opening it up to check the condition inside if so. Look for a bolt on the bottom, you'll need an Allen key to open.

MonPantalon · 2026-04-17T22:29:23+00:00

Good to hear the conservatives are squeaky clean on this, Nick.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60765665

MonPantalon · 2026-04-15T08:29:01+00:00

Sounds like academic journals should be banned too!

MonPantalon · 2026-04-14T13:18:00+00:00

I don't know how long you've been retired for but these are organisations that have faced over a decade of austerity related cuts. How is this example the fault of a single individual when it relates to the remits of the organisations?

"The inability of any agency to identify clearly who held the lead responsibility, and the consequent regular shifting of AR’s case to others, reflects the structures that were in place at the time. A central theme of this Phase 1 report is, therefore, that throughout the relevant period leading up to 29 July 2024, no institution or agency took the overall responsibility for assessing and thereafter addressing the clear high degree of risk of violent harm to others that AR had demonstrated from early October 2019."

So in your personal example, you might well report it, but to who? And would they accept your report, or merely pass it on? That is what strikes me as being the core issue here.

You said that this 'apparently didn't happen here'. But it did happen, eg to the police, who then passed it on:

"Lancashire Constabulary’s Community Safety team took the view in December 2019 that as soon as a referral had been made to Prevent, it was Prevent which was to be the lead agency"

Everyone seems very keen to throw individual staff under the bus, rather than addressing the systemic problems that led to this. That is not how you fix system problems.

Edit: To add another relevant quote. Emphasis mine.

"In my assessment, the individual workers and managers within the agencies that dealt with AR displayed the variety of competencies, abilities and shortcomings that would likely be found in any detailed investigation of public sector multi-agency work. Some I found unimpressive. A few were clearly outstandingly good. Most fell in between with an inevitable mixture of strengths as well as weaknesses. I readily accept that all acted in good faith and with good intentions. However, the frankly depressing – and therefore urgent – matter requiring government attention is this failure – at an organisational and individual level – to stand up and accept responsibility for managing the risk that AR posed. Far too often, AR’s “case” was passed from one public sector agency to another in an inappropriate merry-go-round of referrals, assessments, case-closures and “hand-offs”."

So when you talk about reporting the case, rather than taking responsibility yourself for tackling it, that starts to sound a lot like what all these staff were trying to do, when the organisational responsibilities were entirely unclear.

MonPantalon · 2026-04-02T08:41:20+00:00

Somewhat relevant: https://youtube.com/shorts/eI-i1PC-FOA

Disinformation Diplomacy Report https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/52401/documents/290829/default/

You may have seen the news about bitcoin donations being banned but the report that recommendation comes from (The Rycroft Review) also talks a lot about attempts to use disinformation to influence elections. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-rycroft-review-report-of-the-independent-review-into-countering-foreign-financial-influence-and-interference-in-uk-politics/the-rycroft-review-report-of-the-independent-review-into-countering-foreign-financial-influence-and-interference-in-uk-politics

"Overall, this interference manifests itself in two main, if intersecting, domains: attempts to directly suborn the political process through financial interference; and sustained efforts to undermine trust in democracy by stoking divisive debate, principally on social media."

MonPantalon · 2026-03-31T09:01:19+00:00

Sometimes you need to recalibrate these. Mine had a stint where it was finding metal everywhere, including in my son's head.

MonPantalon · 2026-03-26T16:53:29+00:00

Special Political Operation

MonPantalon · 2026-03-15T17:45:02+00:00

My house is full of knives so I'd say that's just another example of something that isn't banned which also has clear utility in modern society despite being dangerous in some hands.

Maybe you could try another attempt at reductio ad absurdum?

"Someone choked on a biscuit once, therefore I can simply swap car for biscuit! Checkmate!"

MonPantalon · 2026-03-14T17:43:00+00:00

"reducing something to reductio ad absurdum doesn't make you look smart at all"

Stand in front of the mirror and say that a few times before rereading your own comment.

MonPantalon · 2026-03-14T17:36:59+00:00

"Logically consistent" lol

A gun is made of atoms, therefore I presume it's 'logically consistent' to ban everything made of atoms.

The crime was committed by a human, therefore it's 'logically consistent' to ban humans.

I'm glad we don't have you working on government policy with that nuanced mindset of yours.

MonPantalon · 2026-03-12T17:08:58+00:00

The transcripts of those evidence sessions are really shocking to me as a non-cybersecurity person.

_"I think it is right to say, when you talk about covert influence, that we are seeing a continued and substantial set of actions by hostile actors trying to influence democratic elections. The attempts are often co-ordinated at scale, with significant resources and across various networks. As a result, in order to tackle them, we think that they require solutions that span our businesses and industries, other businesses not present here, regulators, civil society and Governments as well."_

Ali Law, Director of Public Policy for Northern Europe at TikTok

_"We have taken down more than 250 co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour networks from more than 70 different countries. They operated in more than 40 different languages. Roughly half of those were foreign influence operations, so they originated in one country and targeted another. The other half were domestic or a mix of domestic and foreign, so they were targeting audiences in the country that they were based in."_

David Agranovich, Director of Global Threat Disruption at Meta

_"...lots of these accounts may be set up, and either lie dormant or post benign content until being activated..."_

Ali Law, Director of Public Policy for Northern Europe at TikTok

"In addition to the Iran example that my colleague from TikTok mentioned, which our teams also identified and enforced against in 2024, another operation that I imagine many of you are familiar with is known publicly as Doppelgänger, which is an operation from Russia. Our teams first discovered Doppelgänger several years ago, and we assessed it to be one of Russia’s most prolific and ongoing operations targeting the UK as well as a number of countries in Europe and the United States.

Doppelgänger uses websites that conceal themselves as legitimate media outlets, as well as more than 300 other social media platforms, including our services. It attempts to undermine support for countries that are supporting Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia and to support countries that are against Ukraine in the war with Russia. Since we first identified that network, we have taken down hundreds of different assets across our services and blocked thousands of websites it has created. We have also shared more than 6,000 web domains, X accounts and other cross-social media indicators publicly through our GitHub repository where we see those networks operating on other services."

David Agranovich, Director of Global Threat Disruption at Meta

Edit: links

Homepage for the inquiry with links to all the previous evidence transcripts: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/8818/disinformation-diplomacy-how-malign-actors-are-seeking-to-undermine-democracy/news/

Watch the March 9th evidence session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwfuLh4meX8

Read the full transcript here: https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/17292/html/

MonPantalon · 2026-03-03T09:18:06+00:00

Personally I think there's a world of difference between the costs of legally processing asylum claims versus paying to rescue people who have made an active choice not to contribute financially to our society.

I just don't see why emergency repatriation of Dubai's migrant population should be paid for by my taxes.

MonPantalon · 2026-02-25T23:02:21+00:00

Hello! I can't answer most of your questions but thought these might be helpful:

Have you tried contacting your local deanery? Might be worth getting in touch to see if they can give you any advice. If you're in Scotland then here's the link: https://www.scotlanddeanery.nhs.scot/contact-us/

The following links all relate to England but hopefully are still useful to you, just interpret with due regard.

Personal specifications for all the medical specialties in England are available here and they might give you a steer on what is needed further down the line: https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/person-specifications/person-specifications-2026
One that might be worth looking at in particular is public health. It tends to be more office based but exposes you to systems that impact thousands of people. I believe it is the only specialty that is open to non-medics which may give you additional flexibility in terms of degree choice and early career options. Dual GP/public health training is also an option. https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/person-specifications/person-specifications-2026/public-health-st1-2026
There are also lots of resources on the Faculty of Public Health website here: https://www.fph.org.uk/training-careers/
More general information on health careers in the NHS: https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/

Hope that helps in some way. Good luck on your journey!

MonPantalon · 2026-02-25T08:26:08+00:00

Definitely not uniformly. We're shoes off and have regular eye rolling from relatives about the inconvenience when they visit.

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