Are people too fixated on the potential takeover by AI controlled robots? I have no idea, but of more concern is their energy consumption – 2.3% of USA energy is used by AI. Here in the UK a new data centre is being proposed for Lincolnshire, cost £10 billion, consuming 3.7bn kWh of power producing 857.000 tonnes of CO2. That is a very present and current danger! Green energy is impractical in Lincolnshire, although they estimate that 10 tonnes of tomatoes could be produced with the heat each day. As ever there is no easy answer. I remember reading at least 10 years ago the potential for using the tides between Orkney and Shetland islands to produce energy and it is also cooler! Common sense is long gone from economic debate – but hey-ho!
BY-ELECTION
The odds were against a Labour win – 11-1 which is greater than the odds on Aberdeen beating Celtic in the cup final! But win they did with the SNP 2nd and Reform 3rd. I wonder whether reform has hit a limit at about 26% – some places will be more racist and disillusioned than Renfrew. But all the media shit about Farage being the next PM seems to be a long way off. Especially as his chair has just resigned; basically due to racism. So whilst the Reform vote is high, but not high enough, Labour can take some solace from the result. The Conservatives must wonder what to do next. Badenoch has been useless, especially when being questioned forensically. 6% is an unmitigated disaster but the torie members who vote on their leader should be wary of Jenrick; good at being combative and controversial but honesty is not his thing, and I believe we want honesty from our politicians after Johnson and Truss.
BATTLE READY!
What is going on? Why do we need to be battle ready? I know Putin has a wish that he could rebuild the USSR – but Ukraine has not toppled and the latest attack by drones on Russian jets has proved that this is not achievable in his life time? (I hope). Then we have China, which has converted some of its wealth into advanced weaponry – however apart from Taiwan and the deserted islands of the East and South China Seas it has not shown any threat to the west militarily. Then we have the USA which is a threat economically and by default. Reducing their commitment to NATO IS a threat to our security. But do we need to be battle ready?
UKRAINE
How to assess this latest event is difficult. Russia has been firing drones and missiles into cities for months. Ukraine has it seems hit back big time. I think however am pissed off! This is not just an escalation between Russia and Ukraine- it threatens every one. UK government says it will up Defence spending to 3% , why should we need to is the question. Diplomacy has obviously failed and the primeval gruntings of populist dictators means that money has to be diverted to producing weapons of death rather than nuturing our children. What a fucked up world we live in.
I CAN’T SEE IT SO IT DOES NOT MATTER!
The childs view – or if we talk about ostriches – I bury my head in the sand and all you can see is my arse – oh, sorry that was about Farage and his mates.
The statistics are beyond frightening. Inevitable loss has risen from 20% to 39% – sea level rise predictions vary, as inevitable with the variety of scenarios and spread of glaciers across 6 continents. Of course the different geographic and climatic factors affecting each glacier is different. As is the impact on coastal regions. Sea level was both lower and higher in the past, and coastal erosion and deposition has changed coast lines significantly. I am sure that communities will take measures to resist the rising sea levels, but the combined effects of tides, winds, rainfall and temperature may cause huge disasters in the near future as we have 20% of the worlds population living at or near sea level. Could the Thames Barrier with stand similar conditions to 1953? Is the migration that so occupies the right wing wankers just a wavelet on the shore compared to what may follow?
I really, really, really do not understand why people are so dumb?
BLATTEN
A swiss village was devastated when a huge chunk of glacier nroke off causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock. One person was reported dead. Is this a start of a trend where melting ive and reduction in permafrost releases ice and rock? Already this year we have serious consequences of our warming climate. The Northern Hemisphere is affected more due to its greater land mass, but we are seeing an increase in temperatures in the Atlantic with resultant changes to marine life. But Farage and the Lunatic Party want to stop a move to net zero, Trump wants to decrease electric vehicles and drill for gas and cut down more forests for lumber. Absolute fucking madness!
Why should the UK pay for mitigating measures when China and the USA continue to pollute the atmosphere. Firstly China is developing a greener energy production market but it will take time. They are also leading manufacturers of EV’s and solar panels. The USA will catch up after Trump ‘s his clogs. Can we get a world lead. Martin told me of the Oxford University battery that had worked since 1840. A great deal of research is going on and I can be hopeful that a solution will be found. Burning fossil fuels is just plain stupid. London passed a Clean Air Act in 1956 after several thousand deaths caused by burning coal. there are about 34 million cars in UK, of which less than a million are EV’s. This has almost trebled since 1970 (13.5 million). No wonder our cities are polluted and breathing problems increasing.
It made me think about supermarket deliveries and air pollution. Firstly they should all have EV’s but even so a delivery van could have 10-15 deliveries and be I would guess at least 8X more efficient. Home delivery of food is probably no more efficient as they teand to be 1 x 1 although a moped/bike delivery will be cheaper. Which makes me realise that we all/most use cars too much.
Tate brothers will face rape and trafficing charges if they return to UK. This again made my poor brain think! Has the world become more misogynistic since I was young. Whist the macho male dominated society has changed in the work place (out of necessity?) and the man as the bread winner concept, al but disappeared. The attitude to woman per se seems to have deteriorated. The Tates have millions of followers who revel in their masochistic attitude to women. Pornography on the net is freely available, and is often not nice! In my childhood smut was finding the sexiest advert in the Economist magazine of the National Geographic. Institute never thought myself better than the girls I knew. I think ambitions for girls may have been lower – but no one I knew would mistreat them? I even remember going into a pub in Scarborough (under aged) and being told that women were not allowed in the Public Bar. Times have changed but I wonder whether for the better.
AT LAST
At last the Guardian had a front page spread on Yaqeen Hammad, aged 11, who was killed in an Israeli genocide mission. At last they are putting a face to the slaughter of the innocents rather than just reporting numbers. Other papers have been quick to report in detail about the hostages and Israeli deaths – but Palestinian deaths are reported as just numbers. The photo of Yaqeen and her lovely smile brought the horror of the slaughter home.
916 infants under one have been killed.
4365 aged 1-5 murdered.
6101 aged 6-12 slaughtered by Israel.
5124 aged 13-17 slain by the state of Israel.
And Trump is passing laws making it illegal to boycott Israeli goods. Ireland has moved to ban goods produced in Occupied Palestinian Territories, about time; The rest of Europe may follow their lead (well the western countries anyway). Netanyahu has surrounded himself with arse licking thugs who do not deserve to be treated as human! Basically FUCK ISRAEL.
CHILDREN
The neglected section of British society. Sure Start was abandoned by the last government despite returning £2 for every£1 invested in it. Britain also puts most money into university education, and less into pre-school and first years than other developed countries. Scandinavian countries tend to invest more in the early years – it makes sense that investment goes in when children are learning how to learn! University students should have those skills already – lectures should be like TED talks – 20 minutes and thought provoking. This is especially true with the internet and Google available for factual verification. Well taught children should need less financial input as they develop learning skills.
Ever been out and found children behaving without understanding the social rules of the situation? Children in many families are naturally taught this skill. Often this is because parents do not have the finance to eat out regularly enough, are too harassed by job demands to instil behavioural patterns in children. “Seen and not heard” is still a mantra for parents – as opposed to contintal children. Just sayin’!
I have lots more rants about children! But not now.
Trump has revealed that he may be able to conduct a good trade deal with threats of tariffs, but is useless as a negotiator in a conflict. Ukraine has seen more raids by Russian Drones recently; Israel continues to slaughter innocent Palestinian children; His threats and posturing mean jack shit to Putin and Netanyahu – they are confident in their nationalist bases and do not care about international condemnation – not that Trump would dream of such a thing!
INTERESTING
An elderly lady asked me yesterday what I thought about Starmer and the firesbat his properties. She said it was because he was having an affair with Lord Ali and the accused were rent boys who had not been paid. She said it ws all over the internet! Well not the bit I use. None of the RWP have approached the story – with the headlines being that the accused were set up by Russia. So what sites are the aged and deluded on?
EMBARRASSING OR WHAT!
Trump makes a fool of himself – again. Why is the buffoon still tolerated? This time he talked about white african genocide whilst holding up photos of a masacre in the Congo and a photo of crosses claiming them to be graves whaen they were not. How the fuck can he accuse the South African government of genocide whilst supporting the facist government in Israel? Then he has got his pawns to vote in a law that basically fucks any semblence that America had as a caring democracy. He is also threatening the EU with 50% tarrifs on all goods. I hope that anyone thinking of going to the states will cancel immediately. His comments about Biden are beyond disgraceful. I would wish hurtful things on him, but Vance is equally vile and there seems to be a succession of zombies who will make the nightmare worse!