Editorial: Monday Shorts: Bad bot!
Greenfield Police K9 Officer Donut is featured in a video that has gone viral on TikTok. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Published: 3/1/2021 7:12:55 AM
Here are some brief thoughts on recent happenings in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region.
Internet guile
Readers got a lesson in internet guile with the story about the vaccination slots at a Mohawk Trail Regional School clinic that immediately disappeared, scarfed up by a bot. Picture Pac-Man, eating up all those precious appointments.
A bot short for robot and also called an internet bot is a computer program that simulates a human activity, like “chatting” with you about an item you are thinking about buying online. (No, that’s not some kindly person on the other end of that chat box.) There are good bots, bad bots and everything in-between. Good bots help you make a dinner reservation online or automatically add an appointment to your calendar. Bad bots buy up all the popular concert
Greenfield looks to expand community policing, increase transparency
Greenfield Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. in his office at the Police Station. Staff File Photo/Paul Franz
Greenfield Mayor Roxann Wedegartner at City Hall. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
Greenfield Police officers Laura Gordon, left, and William Gordon pose for a portrait with their St. Bernard therapy dogs, then 9-week-old Donut, and then 7-year-old Clarence, in June of 2018. Laura Gordon was recently appointed the Greenfield Police Department’s community resource officer. Staff File Photo/Dan Little
Published: 2/24/2021 4:55:14 PM
GREENFIELD Looking to expand community policing and increase transparency with the public, the Police Department has created a new community resource officer position to make important connections, including with vulnerable populations and social service agencies.
Laura Gordon I CAN barely believe it was almost a year ago that I wrote about the fact we were living in a VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Covid was relatively new and we had to cope with health fears while getting to grips with our work and home lives being turned upside down. We were in the Brexit transition period with trade deal uncertainty, and I discussed the climate emergency, optimistically assuming COP26 would still be going ahead in some form last year, though of course it was later postponed. At the time I recommended using the Kubler-Ross Change Curve, with its seven stages of grief, as a way to manage uncertainty and work through those complex times.
It was drummed into us and expected of us. These days, though, it seems it’s a bit of an old-fashioned concept. I read an article written by a millennial branding it “outdated”. The author, in her 20s, hit back at this demand for “unconditional compliance” and said nobody was “entitled” to respect. She’s right up to a point – older doesn’t always equate to wiser. We’ve seen at least one recently retired world leader illustrate this point perfectly… Equally you can have wisdom, or stupidity, in young people. So I absolutely agree respect is something that needs to be earned.
Former Cabinet minister Vince Cable, now leader of the Liberal Democrats, has called for the walk-in centre on Broad Lane to remain open.
The Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group has revealed plans to close the facility and move its services to the Northern General Hospital, almost three miles away.
It has just finished running a consultation with members of the public on the proposed closure.
On a visit to the city to support Sheffield Hallam candidate Laura Gordon, who was recently selected to challenge Jared O’Mara for the seat at the next election, Cable spoke out against the proposed changes.