Down the rabbit hole...

  The anti-vaccers, or maybe it should be anti-vaxers as that would be as illiterate as the thinking behind it is un-scientific, will be playing into the UK governments cynical hands! I heard the government had taken receipt of a report that noted anything up to 30% of the population would be unwilling to take the vaccine. But the same report also notes the vast majority of anti-vaccers fall into the lower quartiles of both academic achievement, literacy and earnings but are high in the stats for multi morbidity and for long term poor health pre-cursors such as smoking, poor diet and being overweight. Such a report, if indeed it actually exists, also states that leaving such individuals to suffer the consequences of Covid and other diseases is not harmful to the long term health of the country as any individuals that died as a result of the not getting vaccinated would only present a short term immediate cost but long-term would be produce a saving on the public purse as they are mostl

  So, we are just a few hours away from the end of the 2020 US Presidential election. At least we are a few hours away from the beginning of the end of the election. With postal votes and slow counts it could all drag on for a few more days yet. But this week it should be over. Despite all the rhetoric, whether the US likes it or not, indeed whether anybody outside the US likes it or not, the result and the behaviour of people post the election is of worldwide importance. It galls me to say, but without the USA as a beacon for democracy then there is no hope for democracy long term. If there were serious civil disorder because of the result then the USA would hardly be in a position to criticise any other regime. I find some of the interviews with ordinary American citizens a cross between bizarre and concerning. There appear to be some people that believe the Democrats wish to introduce socialism into the USA. But when they describe socialism they are describing the something akin to

  I have come to the conclusion, after considerable amount of thought and contemplation, that when asked the question 'do you care about the planet?' the answer is... it depends what you mean! Do you hate it yet? Is there anything that I can do that would make the slightest bit of difference? Not really. Is that a cop out? Probably. I mean, maybe if every one of us did something then it would make a difference. But, not everybody will. More importantly, not everybody can. It sometimes strikes me that 'caring about the planet' is a rather middle class western ideal. That's not a bad thing, but the middle class west cannot dictate to the rest of the world that they cannot experience the gains and positives they have simply because now, after a century or so of causing the greater number of evils in the world affecting the planet. For instance, being outraged by the burning of the Amazon is understandable but wanting the Brazilian government to stop the practice of usi

 When I hear the phrase, as I have many a time, 'let people go' or variations thereof I am inclined to initially fall into the trap that was meant to fallen into when first a psychologist working for a marketing team doing some work for an Human Resources department came up with those three simple words as a slogan to replace 'fired' or 'axed' or 'terminated' or 'sacked'.  In those three little words. or thereabouts and the variations thereof such as 'let you go' etc, there is supposed to be instilled a kindness. It is not that the recipient of being 'let go' has suddenly had a life destroying axe fall upon their neck ending all hope of future. It is instead supposed to instill that you are released from your shackles of servitude that bound you unwillingly and unhappily to a desk or a counter or a phone or a series of doorsteps and, having been let go, now, you can truly achieve your purpose in life.  Because, by letting you go,

Well, it seems to have been some time since I last bothered to write anything so I thought maybe I should sit down and write something. I can't give any assurances that it will be in the slightest bit interesting but at least it allows me to let off a bit of steam.  In some ways, by writing this crap down and then posting it on here, it's like taking the thoughts that are annoying me and causing me to reach for the emergency blood pressure tablets and putting it all in a little box and tying a ribbon around it, not necessarily yellow, but that'll do I guess. So, have I missed anything interesting? I notice that as I am writing this the daily coronavirus update is on tv in the background and for the second day running a politician is batting off questions about a single individual that broke some rules, or not depending upon your point of view, and finding how useful it is to have the Q&A section of the press conferences via video conference as that means the journalist

Seriously, what is wrong with the potus? He is clearly insane or suffering from very serious mental health conditions. I really think some physician should sign the appropriate papers to have the poor old guy dragged off by nice surly men in white coats with big syringes so that he can get the treatment he so desperately needs. Clearly it has gone way beyond simple politics, we are now in the realms of complete and utter madness. Granted, it seemed that way for several years now, even before he was president, but his condition has deteriorated and it might even be possible that if he were hooked up to a life support system the system would question what the point was as there was clearly no sign of life in the patient. Even if the ECG showed something the EEG would just be one long flat line, not so much as a blip! In the latest madness it seems the poor old dear has conflated the ad for bleach killing 99.99% of all known germs and Covid-19 and come to the conclusion that bleac

One other thing I was thinking about, when not completely consumed with thinking about some little virus that's out to kill us, is voting. It struck me, although I am certain it has struck many other people many other times over many decades, is that voting is all a bit mixed up. Many a time I have seen debate about whether the vote should be extended to the age groups below 18 (18 being the voting age in the UK) and most of the time it is dismissed as not appropriate, although the definition of appropriate would appear to be that if the polling suggests the reduction of voting age would cause a shift in the total vote towards the party not in power then the party not in power wants it and the party in power does not allow it as being 'inappropriate at this time'. And so as the party in power has the power then it gets to decide and to decide to allow it even though it indicates the new voters would vote against them is the same as a turkey looking forward to Christmas c

So the chances are that whilst Covid-19 will eventually be controlled there will be further pandemics and they are quite possibly going to become more common. I make that outrageous claim only because it is like the genie getting out of the bottle, once it is out you cannot get it back in the bottle, however you might try to trick it into doing so! As the virus is out and has mutated into a form that can spread without quickly killing everything it infects, which would be its own end too, then it will continue to exist and mutate in the giant petri dish that is 7 billion people on Earth. The virus is already endemic, so it is now embedded in society, as noted in previous blogs, unless we lockdown the whole world for three weeks without anybody ever going out for that period no matter what and leaving the dead to remain in their beds until that period is over, the virus will remain endemic. Now given that however anybody might think that the extreme measure I suggest is maybe possibl

There could be some interesting long term impacts of the current pandemic, indeed there should definitely be some long term impacts, whether there actually will be any changes is a matter that will be debated long and hard over the coming years. One thing that will influence any changes will be money and commerce, as they have done ever since the creation of money or the agricultural revolution. And there will no doubt be some mention of peak-end theory whereby we, as human beings, have a recollection of an experience that tends towards recollection of the end of the experience and of selected peaks and troughs in the middle of the experience and very little recollection of the beginning of the experience. So when, one day, the end of, for instance, the lockdown comes, our recollection of it will tend to be of the end of that period of time. And, as more time passes, less and less will be recollected of any detail of the period, just of the final days. Plus, it is possible, as

With all the dodgy leaders around the world doing ever more dodgy things it is nice to see at least one leader, albeit not a national leader, acting the part of a leader and seemingly doing it quite well. It is also nice to see this leadership in the USA as, and I think I speak on behalf of quite a lot of my fellow human beings, we were beginning to wonder whether there was anybody sane, intelligent, eloquent and commanding running the USA. But Andrew Cuomo does seem to fit the bill, plus if you listen to him with your eyes closed you get the distinct feeling that Al Pacino is running the state and that if you didn't do what he asked then you'd be found unconscious and bloodied next to the garbage bins out the back of an Italian American restaurant. Meanwhile the Donald is trying very hard to roll back on everything he said just two weeks ago. It's like a light suddenly got switched on. Presumably the light illuminated a panel that had second term written on it but all

Ok, so that seems completely mad right? What I mean, in my own quaint albeit crazy way is. I've had this pain in my arm for a few months but for the last month I have not had the pain because I have not taken the action that causes the pain to become evident. That is... if I rub my arm from elbow to wrist with a degree of firmness such as when drying oneself with a towel, then I get a sharp pain from a point in my forearm that passes almost as quickly as it appears. Almost as though a needle has been stabbed into me and withdrawn. I did wonder whether there was a splinter or some similar body in the skin and that when I rubbed in that downward direction it was causing the splinter to push in and cause the sharp pain. But I looked and could find nothing, I even went so far as to shave the affected area so I could have a close look at the skin and found nothing! Mysterious I thought! So why Schrodinger's arm? Well, because after having this issue continually for a couple

Good to see that Donald Trump has some good old common sense and has kindly decided to stop referring to Covid-19 as the Chinese Virus. Although he retains the right to do so if he so wishes. That goodwill gesture came after some people in China called some people in Washington and asked nicely if the President might refrain from such terminology. That was followed by a call between Xi and Trump. A call that was, of course great. Having said that. As we know that neither of these men are really great sentimentalists but they are both kinda keen on nationalism and waving big sticks at each other so I suspect the call was more along the lines of 'you need to stop, right now, or we'll take actions that will hurt your economy and with it your reelection'! Like maybe a freeze on buying any more grain products or pork for instance. Who really knows, except we know that Trump loves goading people and feels he is the master of everything he views so to simply stop calling the vi

One of those unintended consequences from the current crisis will be future taxation. I have a sense that some people, maybe most people, think that the stimulus packages being unveiled and in action around the world are being given out by governments thankful to a good a loyal workforce with a pat on the back and a kind word in the ear. Wouldn't that be nice. More likely, and call me a sceptic if you wish, is that, once the crisis is over and the country has regained 80% of it's pre-crisis level, the people that have been helped out will begin to see the bill arrive at the table, just like a date that went wrong and the would be partner has stormed out without paying. How this money will be expected to be paid back is another question. Possibly through increases in general taxation levels or in increases in tax on what might consider luxury items such as wine and tobacco. The usual suspects. Or, and it is not exactly rocket science to suggest, but another round of aust

I feel this very strange sense of surrealism, not the Magritte type of surrealism, the 'this doesn't feel real to me' type surrealism. I guess it's because I don't work full time any more and I keep pretty much to myself and I stopped partying like it's 1984 back in 1984... ok so I carried on for a couple more decades but I did stop eventually. I guess it's not helped by the bizarre inputs I keep picking up. Like Trump saying he wants the epidemic over within the next twelve weeks, or to have the churches full at Easter, at the same time as the governor of New York is stating there is a storm coming and he's lacking critical supplies. Then we have a national shutdown in the UK but no resources to actually enforce it. And rather a lot of people ignoring the restrictions anyway. Plus the  restrictions seem to be getting ever more vague every time a minister, without the merest hint of irony, clarifies them. For instance, there is the instruction that

First day of a complete lockdown in the UK. It's always fun when such things happen, which is never, to see the other effects. Like being advised not to go to the supermarket unless you can absolutely help it and instead use the online home delivery services, except of course getting a delivery slot any time in the next month is currently impossible and one of the main four supermarkets website is currently crashed due to excessively high traffic volumes. Even the click and collect slots are all full. So, trip to the supermarket and spinning the chamber of the covid-19 gun for a game of Russian roulette! In the US the esteemed president has made comments indicating he would like the restrictions lifted in a couple of weeks or sooner so the US can get back to work and start making money again. It's all well and good making such statements so long as he is willing to accept the consequences, which would be a considerable number of dead. Not simply because of the virus itself

One of the questions that bothers me an awful lot, and it is odd that in the grand scheme of things it really is not important at all, is, why does Donald look like some kind of orange panda? In fact he would look more at home in the forests of Borneo (are there still any forests in Borneo or have they now all been converted into coffee tables for westerners who then place conservation magazines atop of them???) or maybe the Andes with the other spectacled bears. Certainly he would be more use if he was just sitting in a tree eating some fruit and defecating onto the forest floor than standing in front of a microphone and talking what can only be described as utter bollocks the consequence of which he seems blissfully ignorant of. But then blissfully ignorant is pretty much his stock in trade. He is rather good at blissful ignorance and one can only hope that in as short a time as possible he is returned to being a tv star on free to air tv helping other total dicks become even big

One of the strange things (wait, have I used that as a starting point previously? Hmmm, well, then this is simply today's strange thing... and I guess in these times of strange things that's probably acceptable!) about this pandemic and the lock-down that most of us are either in or will soon be in is the odd sensations. Sensations about things that you feel you want to do and should be doing but can't because you either cannot go and get what you need or there simply is not what you need available. But that you feel frustrated that you cannot get on and do this pressing thing, whatever it might be, because everything has changed! Thing is, the thing that you wanted to do could have been done at any point in the preceding nn years but was not and yet now you have all this free time it suddenly seems important probably because you cannot do it rather than you really want to do it. It's a bit like being physically constrained (except for those that do ot like being p