It's religion duh!

 

Many people on social media and in the press are claiming to be perplexed by the recent rulings around abortion in the USA, particularly those living outside that country. In my view you don't need a social science degree to work out that the groundswell of support for the authoritarian, irrational and anti-scientific legislation on Roe v Wade comes from the Christian right, it's a religious issue for those people. The problem, as far as I can tell, is unfalsifiable, antiscientific, authoritarian RELIGION, and the huge numbers of people who think it's their mission to foist their medieval beliefs on the rest of us! 

Now, of course, at the tops of these hierarchies the politicians and corporate hucksters will have different motives! Power and money are largely what drives things over there, but, without the mass support of the religious credulous underbelly these people would have no purchase or traction to get these anti-humanist legislations across the line. I have no doubt that, buoyed by this success, they'll be coming after gay people next, then contraception and so on, particularly in the more backward states where corporate religion is still all powerful. If you can remove the rights of 50% of your population by giving the (local) state the power to force Women to bear children against their will then the sky's the limit, dark-ages here we come!

Irrational Ugliness

It's funny how Human Beings have this innate tendency to fear what they don't understood, even more so if that thing is also outside of their own experience. I think it stems from our evolutionary past, being a social species we have inherited an instinctive fear of the outgroup! Back on the savanna, in the Pleistocene, this was perfectly rational! After all, meeting a foreign tribe unexpectedly often meant a fight to the death for scarce resources or reproductive access etc. Nowadays of course we don't need this instinct but unfortunately things like religion, culture, race, sexuality, language etc. reawaken it and bring it's irrational ugliness to the surface all too easily.

 

Midweek monkey business..

Jesus and Mo pointing out the obvious again, "inclusivity" means also including people in the debate who disagree with your point of view.

 

Monday Mirth

For a change, in this age of social media, here's a real world "angry post" for you..

 

Job Done!

We've been visiting friends in Nottingham this weekend and finally got home at around 5pm today after a bit of a slog down the M1 and M40 both of which were really busy and slow. Anyway, after sitting in the car for hours we decided that we needed a walk and some food so strolled into town and popped into a pub that also sells Thai food. Had a delicious yellow curry (see pic above) which served it's dual purpose of being very tasty and also avoiding us having to do the washing up, job done I'd say!

 

Demoted to the Bronze

 

It's established history that Christopher Columbus discovered America, right? Wrong, the Vikings were there in 1021 CE a thousand years ago and nearly 500 years before him. How do we know this? Well an ancient Viking settlement in Newfoundland (L’Anse aux Meadows) has unearthed some wooden artefacts that are Viking in origin, to add to this these artefacts have been clearly cut by metal tools, something native Americans didn't have until Europeans introduced them much later. The killer blow, in terms of dating, comes from the recorded solar storm that happened in 992 CE and the distinct radio carbon signature that it imparted into trees at the time. The traces of this show up in the Viking wood and the tree rings show exactly how many years after that event these particular pieces of wood were cut.

So, people who thought Columbus had won the Gold will be sad to know that not only did the Vikings get there before him but native Americans were there 20,000 years (at least) before even that, so it's not Gold he deserves, it's more like the Bronze, sorry Columbus.

Backward

 

I'm beginning to wonder at what point we start boycotting America? What a truly awful decision, championed by religious hucksters and manipulated by greedy, disingenuous frauds, in the end ordinary Women will be the only ones that suffer and everyone in that once great country is a little less safe today.

ROW Q

The ROW (Rest of World) immigration queue in Madrid airport recently, full of Americans and now Brits too. Brexit, making everyone's lives worse, except Europeans! Ah well, at least we've got Blue Passports...

 

The longest glide

It's the anniversary today of the "Jakarta Incident" and I've been reading about this fascinating story of heroism, skill and luck since someone commented on it in my twitter stream this morning. Anyway if you've never heard of it then here's a quick summary.

On the 24th June 1982 BA009 a jumbo jet flying from Heathrow to Auckland NZ hit a cloud of volcanic ash as it flew near to Jakarta, Indonesia. The ash cloud wiped out all four of the planes engines but since it was nighttime the crew weren't immediately aware of the cause. As the plane started to descend the crew desperately tried to a) understand what was going on, b) calculate a contingency landing plan and c) restart the engines. 

The glide ratio of a 747 is around 15:1 meaning for every 1 km of vertical drop it will glide forward 15 km, this meant that from the altitude the plane hit the ash cloud it had roughly 170 km left before it hit the ground or ocean, being over mountainous terrain at the time the captain decided that if they couldn't get the engines going again he was going to ditch in the Indian Ocean, less than ideal. I remember when I used to fly gliders, glide ratios were always front of mind, my plane (which wasn't top of the range by any means) had a ratio of 35:1, it allowed reasonable thinking time (i.e. looking for somewhere to land!) should you run out of lift; how that crew must have felt in a 350+ ton (full) aircraft is beyond the meaning of the word stressful.

Suffice to say they exited the cloud and managed to get three of the engines going again and landed at Jakarta, interestingly the plane was so sand-blasted by the dust that the pilot couldn't taxi because he couldn't see out of the windows, his comment on this situation was "a bit like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse" which I thought wonderfully apt and perfectly understated. The plane subsequently entered the Guinness book of records at the time as the longest glide in a non-purpose built aircraft, I'm sure the crew were chuffed to bits with that one!

 

Friday Smirk

J and M pointing out the rather modern phenomenon of the labelling of claims by certain activist groups (that they don't agree with or simply don't like), "dog-whistles" They seem to do this with the intention of shutting up and/or shutting down dissenting voices, and the attribution of sinister intent to claimants when such claims are usually just a statement of fact that contradicts the established (unsubstantiated) dogmas of that group. 

A good example of this would be if someone said publicly (say on Twitter), "Trans-women are biologically Men" they would (in many circles) be labelled as "transphobic" and quite possibly hounded out of their job or at least de-platformed in some way by rabid trans-activists. JK Rowling has fallen foul of this trend lately and has been on the receiving end of threats of violence, death and various attempts to de-platform and discredit her for simply stating biological facts and standing up for the rights of Women. 

I do wonder sometimes where all this is headed, doesn't look like a happy place to me.

Whether weather

 

So here's an interesting thing, variation in weather forecasting (how British a topic is that!) anyway, the top image is the BBC forecast for the next few days and below is the MSN forecast for the same period. As you can see they vary quite a bit! Today shows no rain (BBC) but solid rain (MSN) if I stick my head out of the window it's actually raining right now so MSN wins that one! Sunday couldn't be more opposite, BBC shows solid sunshine but MSN shows solid rain! All I can conclude from these forecasts is that the next few days are going to be unsettled and that perhaps I should pack an umbrella just in case..

Not Now..

 

FFS not now Polio..

Midweek Mirth

Two chemists walk into a bar, 

Chemist #1 says, "I'll have H2O please"

Chemist #2 says, "I'll have water too"

Chemist #1 walks away in a huff, his assassination attempt failed.

 

Red for Danger

Here's an alarming story, apparently Russia is threatening Lithuania with dire consequences if it doesn't stop interfering with Russian goods being shipped through its territory by rail to Kaliningrad, which is a piece of Russian territory cut off from the rest of Russia, a hang-over from the second world war. Lithuania is enacting an EU policy of preventing banned/sanctioned goods moving into Russia, things like coal, metals, construction materials etc.

This seems like a local dispute until you realise that Lithuania is a member of NATO and as such is protected by collective defense treaties meaning that if Russia attacks it in order to get vital supplies through to it's isolated territory then the whole of NATO is effectively at war with Russia, a nightmare scenario. It's stupid stuff like this that has in the past started stupid wars that went on to kill millions, let's hope our political leaders are paying attention (for some reason I feel anxious about that).

 

TERF

In our ever more complex societies there's always new terminology to learn. I learnt a new word the other day when watching a YouTube clip of a demonstration by Feminists in Manchester, who were (quite reasonably I thought) asking that there be Female only spaces (like changing rooms et al) and a counter demonstration by trans activists who were chanting the now familiar "trans women are women", you can imagine the scene. Anyway on the trans activist side they were waving banners around labelling the opposition "TERFS", and various derivations of that, some of which weren't very nice. I wondered what a TERF was and so did a quick Google, unsurprisingly it isn't the cartoon above, but apparently stands for "Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist". I guess it means Women who would prefer people wearing Women's clothing who have penises aren't allowed into their changing room at the gym? 

It's seemingly easy these days (particularly on Twitter and YouTube etc.) to hear misinformed (or malicious) trans activists banging on about biological sex being "assigned at birth", i.e. that it's a social construct and not a biological reality. This is false, in mammals like us sex (if that word is to mean anything) is determined by gamete cells, which only come in two flavours, sperm (male) and ova (female) and are fixed to one or the other by our DNA. It is possible to have all kinds of exceptions (mutations) around this including both in one person, hermaphroditism, but these exceptions are vanishingly rare and for the purposes of a broader debate on this subject are not relevant. No matter how many hormones we might take or how much surgery we may undergo it's not possible to change our DNA (at least yet!). However, preferences regarding our gender expression, for example how people dress or which pronouns they prefer etc. are most demonstrably variable, and a whole spectrum of possibilities can and do exist! Clearly this variation is not a reason to discriminate or victimize anyone but it's also not a reason to trample on Women's (by sex) rights either, I would hope that most liberal/reasonable people would agree with this position.

 

Chinese Jag

We visited a good friend for dinner last night, he's a bit of a classic car nut and has been having an E-Type jag renovated over the last three years, it's finally finished so we were treated to a grand unveiling (as well as a Chinese!) It looks beautiful, sleek and predatory and in a wonderful silver-blue colour, my only negative was that it's not a car that can be gotten into quickly, the inside is really low down and you have to almost grab your right leg and coax it in! Unfortunately there wasn't  time for a drive but we were promised a spin soon so I'll look forward to that! I snapped a quick shot of the head on view, looks amazing, but TBH it looks good from all angles and the gleaming chrome fittings finished it off perfectly.

 

Hot in the city

Decided to have an impromptu day off yesterday and my wife and I hopped on a train (while we still can!) and headed into London for the day. We had a pleasant if not sweltering walk around the shops as I was looking to buy a few bits for the warmer weather. After satisfying our various consumer itches we headed over to Covent Garden and Endell St where there are a couple of my favourite watering holes, first the Craft Beer Co. to cool down with a cold beer and then a little further up the street to The 10 Cases which is a great little wine bar with an excellent list at very reasonable (for London) prices and really knowledgeable staff. We opted for a cheese board and a bottle of Felton Road Chardonnay from New Zealand, which I'd never tried before. Turned out to be a delicious combo, delightful in the afternoon sunshine. On the way back I managed to have a snoop around the new central section of the Elizabeth line, wow, that's quite some feat of engineering, absolutely massive! I was extremely impressed with the whole set up, beautiful new stations and very efficient. Amazingly we hopped on the train at Tottenham Court Road and in one stop (about 4 minutes) arrived at Paddington station, a journey which would have taken at least 20-25 minutes previously since there's no direct route.

We headed home reasonably early and caught a fast train from Paddington which got us home before 7pm absolutely knackered, I fell asleep on the sofa and was luckily awoken by my kids coming home at midnight from a day at the Ascot races, a thoroughly productive day all round!

Friday Smirk

Most religions I've seen don't really do "pithy and thought provoking".. 

 

Fathers Day

Since it's Fathers day this weekend there are some amusing cartoons around about it, hence the one above. Although, my philosophy on illegal raves is that if you can remember it, it probably wasn't that good?

 

Walking on sunshine

Walked to the station yesterday morning to catch the train to my office, it was glorious, sun on my face and a pleasant 20 degrees with a light breeze, snapped a picture that attempted to capture this feeling (above) 

When I got to the station I noticed that the car park was rammed full, which was surprising as for the last couple of pandemic years it's been almost empty most mornings, I did think for a second that perhaps we'd hit some kind of tipping point with regard to going back to the office but then realised that it's the first week of Royal Ascot and our station is on the line to Ascot, mystery solved (lots of very drunk people on the return journey!).

 

Outstanding

This is the last picture that the Cassini probe took as it plunged into the atmosphere of Saturn, utterly amazing. As a species we do some pretty dumb and pointless things (Putin I'm looking at you) but when we work together and stand on each others shoulders we can achieve outstanding feats that only 100 years ago would have been considered miracles.

 

Tuesday Titter

Crikey, how fast was that ostrich going?

 

Philosophy Corner

John Locke (1632), English philosopher and enlightenment thinker had an idea that many politicians of our age should probably reflect on. He said "Who lies for you will lie against you", a very compact way of saying what goes around comes around, this is a truism, but unfortunately the inevitable liars' reckoning is nowhere near fast enough when it comes to the current Government.

 

Blue Sky Bunting

Plenty of bunting still on show in Windsor today and a beautiful day to enjoy it. Here we see the old central station complex which was converted many years ago and is stuffed with restaurant chains and shops (and tourists) these days, nice walk up from the great park (free parking!) with Wife and Son in tow.

 

Soggy bottoms

Our council have thoughtfully installed a number of benches in some parkland near our house, only problem is they've taken the whole fashion for "re-wilding" a bit too far and allowed the plants in the field  to consume the furniture. You wouldn't want to sit for too long for fear of a soggy bottom!

 

Lovely Jubbly

I picked this little mini-keg up direct from the Siren brewery a couple of weeks ago, I had intended that we drink it during our Jubilee street party but I couldn't really find anyone to share it with, either people had bought their own preferred beverages or they weren't keen on the idea of "craft beer"! Oh well, just meant that my Son and I will have quaffed the contents over the course of two weekends, luckily it seems to have held up that long and still tastes great. I was slightly concerned that after 2 weeks of being open the contents would have faded but no, it's still flavorsome, carbonated and cold! There's only a couple of pints left so we'll probably finish it off tonight with the BBQ ribs we're planning on scoffing. 

I like the idea of these mini-kegs for parties and social gatherings, the quantity is just about right, at 5 litres (or roughly 8 pints) at around 4% ABV they keep a group of lads going for at least a couple of hours and you can't beat the brewery freshness of them! To cap it all the kegs just fit into my fridge, so the cold-chain can be preserved for at least a couple of weeks! Total cost £24 which isn't bad I reckon (for proper craft beer!) you'd pay at least £5-6 a pint in London for the same ale and it wouldn't taste as fresh as this does.

 

Wandering lonely

Went for my usual 8k walk yesterday lunchtime without a coat or umbrella, the first 2k were fine and sunny but the middle section was dogged by one particular cloud (seen above) the pesky thing literally followed me for 4k dumping an annoying quantity of drizzle on my head. It wasn't a drenching by any means but just enough to be irksome, "Manchester weather" as we used to call it when we were kids. I finally gave said cloud the slip at about 6k and the last section was fine again, ah English weather!

 

Friday Smirk

J&M this week discussing the capitulation of a cinema chain to intimidating Muslim mobs in Bolton, Birmingham and Sheffield. Of course, cinema chains are private companies and so can show whatever films they want but you have to admit, it's a bit rich for one Muslim sect to dictate what another Muslim sect (or indeed anyone) can see in a public cinema in a free country that has NO BLASPHEMY LAWS.

The film in question is called "The Lady of Heaven" narrates a (fictional) story from the perspective of Shi'ite Muslims including important early Sunni figures such as the daughter of the Prophet (Fatima), which of course, is considered "blasphemous" by majority Sunni Muslim activists. For the record, this is not just legitimate protest either, the producer of the film has received death threats and promises of violence have been made to staff and punters at several cinema outlets showing the film.

Those those of us who don't give two hoots about Islam or the Koran, what it says or how it's interpreted by different sects (and there are lots of us!) but are interested in the history of religions, or simply believe that Blasphemy doesn't exist are even more likely to want to see this film now, and long may that tradition continue! If you don't like a piece of art, however offensive to your own personal delusions, then simply don't watch it, if you want to make it sought out then protest your hearts out, if you want to guarantee it becomes a classic then get it banned.

Conspiracies

I wonder what all those antivaxx / 5G conspiracy nuts have moved onto ?

 

Rosy

It seems as though everything is going to hell in a handbasket at the moment. We're headed toward a big old pile of inflation, industrial unrest, war, political corruption, fuel crises, brexit, climate change, pandemic, travel chaos, mass murder, increased crime and more. Of course it's a Human trait to look at the past through rose coloured specs, still, it does feel to me like we're headed toward a cliff of some kind? Probably (according to predictions I've heard) kicking off this Autumn/Winter as inflation bites and the economic rebound from the end of the pandemic slows and eventually stalls.

Speaking, as I do fairly often, with city types who make their livings from trying to predict the future, especially as it relates to economic wellbeing, the general prognosis is gloomy. The wage inflation we've seen over the last year or so will undoubtedly hit a brick wall by the Autumn and perhaps even go backwards in many sectors, unemployment seems likely to increase or at least the number of high paid jobs available seems set to fall dramatically, whereas the number of poorly paid, unskilled jobs available will likely increase. This kind of contraction will in turn affect growth and employment opportunities in a kind of deadly embrace (i.e. race to the bottom) and it seems difficult to see what could nudge us out of that orbit when many of the factors impacting these trends are outside of our control, i.e. are regional or global in nature. Token individual Government interventions seem likely to be ineffective and a period of recession, retrenchment and increased national insularity (protectionism) seems likely. The OECD reckon that only one economy will perform worse than the UK next year and that's Russia!

Many key sectors will suffer as the economy shrinks, house prices will be forced down, or at the very least flatten off and those people with large mortgages and long commutes will find themselves under severe financial pressure. Basic food prices will increase (we're seeing this already) and availability of certain key things will become sketchy as pressure mounts on supply chains and transport costs. Industrial action as a reaction to this seems inevitable and that adds it's own particular flavour of chaos into the mix, it's understandable, but certainly doesn't help. People will have to get used to a period of reduced growth and reduced profits, downsizing, cutting-back and austerity far further up the food chain that previously experienced in recent history (or perhaps even living memory) . 

From this vantage point, the future as they say, ain't looking so rosy!

Tuesday Titter

Saw this, made me smile..

 

Close encounters

Wow, all the years I was paragliding I never had a close encounter like this, bit scary but amazing never the less!

Inclusivity

A properly inclusive street party...

 

Sigh..

You won, get over it!

 

Party in the park

Excellent free music event/party in a local town park today, even the weather was kind, sunny with a fresh breeze, the bonus was that local brewer Elusive had a stall and were selling a number of their keg beers, delicious! Unfortunately we had to leave early as we're going out for a meal, it was very tempting to stay where we were, dance the night away and cancel the restaurant, but we figured that local businesses need all the help they can get at the moment, and by late afternoon we were getting peckish!

Update: UV levels very deceptive, got a massively sun burned face today! (like a ripe tomato)

 

Two sides

So, my local craft brewer Siren has teamed up with Brew By Numbers (Bermondsey) to make two beers using exactly the same hops. On the left you have a West Coast style beer and on the right you have an East coast style beer, the former being hoppy and bitter and the latter being hazy, soft and equally hoppy. I tried both over the bank holiday and decided that I liked the East Coast style the best; it showed off the delicious tropical flavours of the hops the best and I'm a sucker for that uber-soft mouthfeel that a well made East Coaster has. Great experiment though, interesting to see how hops and beer style can vary flavours so much with the same basic ingredients.

 

Friday Smirk

Oh yes he did, Oh no he didn't; quite a lot of religious debates have this character I find..

 

Tragic fads

This analysis of guns, gun control and mass shootings is a really good watch for those people out there (like me) who worry that there's a hopeless majority of people in America who are bat-shit crazy about guns. Clearly they're not all idiots, there are some evidently sane voices there and this chap makes an excellent series of three videos on the subject, unusually, from an apparent position of detailed knowledge about the hardware and (more importantly) the software involved in this often tragic recent fad.