EU Withdrawal Agreement? It's a gas!

I've read that you can't reason someone out of a position that reason didn't get them into; but I submit that at least you can annoy the heck out of them with your own sweet reasonableness.

So: the British proposal to renege on that part of the Withdrawal Agreement that applies to Northern Ireland has galvanised the complacent EU negotiators, not to mention the treacherous element among Tory grandees; rather like the gas that finally forced the Alien from his hiding-place in Sigourney Weaver's escape capsule.

There's spluttering about international law and the implications for the Good Friday Peace Agreement, and Nancy Pelosi is bloviating about endangering a future US-UK trade agreement. I wish that America had been similarly concerned about its threats to peace in the Middle East, its waging of aggressive wars that should have resulted in trials at The Hague, and the destabilising of the Arab Street that has pushed millions of refugees in Europe's direction. So much for international law. However, I note that President Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize; this must bring him into additional conflict with the Bomb Party that thinks it has a divine right to rule America in its own interest.

I would also note that the proposed WA alteration is not to an existing state of affairs, but to one that was going to apply after the Withdrawal Agreement was finalised. As a groundling, it seems to me that the EU used Northern Ireland to create as much inconvenience as possible and that modern technology is perfectly capable of sorting out customs and excise issues without the need for Checkpoint Charlie.

Further, to the extent that the agreement hastily and foolishly entered into by our bluff, attention-limited PM qualifies our complete break with the power of the European Union, I would argue that it is ultra vires in the context of the people's decision - the binding plebiscite - of 2016. Parliament does not have the competence to surrender our country's sovereignty, as such eminent people as Lord Justice Laws and the late Tony Benn MP have observed.

M. Barnier has spent much of the last four years pushing at an open door, so it is no surprise that his negotiating muscles have atrophied; but he must now wake up to the reality of a Government that, if it does not mean what it says, may soon fall at the foot of the Northern Red Wall that to the surprise of the commentariat temporarily loaned the Conservatives a crucial margin of political legitimation.

Finally, for those who babble about Little England (not knowing the original meaning of that term), a medicinal spoonful of fact to break their delirium: I give below a list of sovereign countries that are not EU member states and have smaller populations than ours. Is it proposed that some competing empires should gobble up all of them?

Rank           Country                                                             Population

                      United Kingdom                                           66,796,807

1                    Thailand                                                           66,550,992

2                    South Africa                                                   59,622,350

3                    Tanzania                                                          57,637,628

4                    Myanmar                                                        54,817,919

5                    South Korea                                                   51,780,579

6                    Colombia                                                         50,372,424

7                    Kenya                                                               47,564,296

8                    Argentina                                                        45,376,763

9                    Algeria                                                              43,900,000

10                  Sudan                                                               42,817,375

11                  Ukraine                                                            41,762,138

12                  Uganda                                                            41,583,600

13                  Iraq                                                                    40,150,200

14                  Canada                                                             38,167,415

15                  Morocco                                                          36,011,955

16                  Uzbekistan                                                     34,403,054

17                  Saudi Arabia                                                   34,218,169

18                  Afghanistan                                                    32,890,171

19                  Malaysia                                                          32,683,570

20                  Peru                                                                  32,625,948

21                  Angola                                                              31,127,674

22                  Ghana                                                               30,955,202

23                  Mozambique                                                 30,066,648

24                  Nepal                                                                29,996,478

25                  Yemen                                                              29,825,968

26                  Venezuela                                                      28,435,943

27                  Ivory Coast                                                      26,453,542

28                  Madagascar                                                    26,251,309

29                  Australia                                                          25,661,448

30                  North Korea                                                   25,550,000

31                  Cameroon                                                       24,348,251

32                  Niger                                                                 23,196,002

33                  Sri Lanka                                                          21,803,000

34                  Burkina Faso                                                  21,510,181

35                  Mali                                                                   20,250,833

36                  Chile                                                                  19,458,310

37                  Malawi                                                             19,129,952

38                  Kazakhstan                                                     18,773,648

39                  Zambia                                                             17,885,422

40                  Ecuador                                                            17,565,560

41                  Syria                                                                  17,500,657

42                  Guatemala                                                      16,858,333

43                  Senegal                                                            16,705,608

44                  Chad                                                                  16,244,513

45                  Somalia                                                            15,893,219

46                  Zimbabwe                                                       15,473,818

47                  Cambodia                                                        15,288,489

48                  South Sudan                                                  13,249,924

49                  Rwanda                                                            12,663,116

50                  Guinea                                                             12,559,623

51                  Benin                                                                12,114,193

52                  Haiti                                                                   11,743,017

53                  Tunisia                                                              11,708,370

54                  Bolivia                                                               11,633,371

55                  Burundi                                                            11,215,578

56                  Cuba                                                                  11,193,470

57                  Jordan                                                              10,765,960

58                  Dominican Republic                                    10,448,499

59                  Azerbaijan                                                      10,095,900

60                  United Arab Emirates                                 9,890,400

61                  Belarus                                                             9,408,400

62                  Tajikistan                                                         9,313,800

63                  Honduras                                                        9,304,380

64                  Israel                                                                 9,249,225

65                  Papua New Guinea                                     8,935,000

66                  Switzerland                                                    8,619,259

67                  Sierra Leone                                                   8,100,318

68                  Togo                                                                  7,706,000

69                  Paraguay                                                         7,252,672

70                  Laos                                                                   7,231,210

71                  Serbia                                                               6,926,705

72                  Libya                                                                  6,871,287

73                  Lebanon                                                          6,825,442

74                  El Salvador                                                      6,765,753

75                  Kyrgyzstan                                                      6,578,400

76                  Nicaragua                                                        6,527,691

77                  Turkmenistan                                                6,031,187

78                  Singapore                                                        5,703,600

79                  Central African Republic                            5,633,412

80                  Congo                                                               5,518,092

81                  Norway                                                            5,374,807

82                  Costa Rica                                                        5,111,238

83                  Palestine                                                         5,101,152

84                  New Zealand                                                  5,030,847

85                  Liberia                                                               4,568,298

86                  Oman                                                                4,527,934

87                  Kuwait                                                              4,464,521

88                  Panama                                                            4,278,500

89                  Mauritania                                                      4,173,077

90                  Georgia                                                            3,716,858

91                  Eritrea                                                               3,546,000

92                  Uruguay                                                           3,530,912

93                  Mongolia                                                         3,336,978

94                  Bosnia and Herzegovina                            3,281,000

95                  Armenia                                                           2,963,000

96                  Albania                                                             2,845,955

97                  Qatar                                                                 2,749,215

98                  Jamaica                                                            2,726,667

99                  Moldova[s]                                                     2,640,438

100               Namibia                                                           2,504,498

101               Gambia                                                            2,417,000

102               Botswana                                                        2,374,698

103               Gabon                                                              2,226,000

104               North Macedonia                                        2,076,255

105               Lesotho                                                            2,007,201

106               Guinea-Bissau                                               1,624,945

107               Bahrain                                                             1,592,000

108               Equatorial Guinea                                        1,454,789

109               Trinidad and Tobago                                   1,363,985

110               East Timor                                                       1,299,412

111               Mauritius                                                         1,265,475

112               Djibouti                                                            1,108,567

113               Eswatini                                                           1,093,238

114               Fiji                                                                      889,327

115               Guyana                                                            787,000

116               Comoros                                                          758,316

117               Bhutan                                                             748,931

118               Solomon Islands                                           694,619

119               Montenegro                                                  621,873

120               Suriname                                                         587,000

121               Cape Verde                                                    556,857

122               Brunei                                                               459,500

123               Belize                                                                419,199

124               Bahamas                                                          389,410

125               Maldives                                                          383,135

126               Iceland                                                             366,700

127               Vanuatu                                                           304,500

128               Barbados                                                         287,025

129               São Tomé and Príncipe                              210,240

130               Samoa                                                              202,506

131               Saint Lucia                                                       178,696

132               Kiribati                                                              120,100

133               Grenada                                                          112,003

134               Saint Vincent and the Grenadines        110,696

135               F.S. Micronesia                                             104,650

136               Tonga                                                                100,651

137               Seychelles                                                       98,055

138               Antigua and Barbuda                                  97,895

139               Andorra                                                           77,543

140               Dominica                                                         71,808

141               Marshall Islands                                           55,500

142               Saint Kitts and Nevis                                   52,823

143               Liechtenstein                                                 38,749

144               Monaco                                                           38,100

145               San Marino                                                     33,607

146               Palau                                                                 17,900

147               Nauru                                                               11,000

148               Tuvalu                                                               10,200

149               Vatican City                                                    825

FRIDAY MUSIC: Miles Davis, by JD

'Perhaps the greatest jazz musician of the 20th century... Miles Davis is so important to jazz because of his ability to continually evolve. This evolution resulted in a continuous impact on the world of jazz that saw Miles move from bebop to helping found cool jazz, hard bop, third stream music, and fusion jazz, as well as staying in the avant-garde of jazz music for much of his career. His innovations forever changed jazz, and although a great trumpet player, he is most remembered for his stylistic innovations.'

- from the comments beneath the final video.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis

First tune here was the signature tune for a BBC TV arts programme many years ago but I can't remember which!

Assange

Some sexual practices are not only weird but downright insanitary; yet at least they are, one assumes, performed in private.

What we shouldn't expect, even in our louche and degraded times, is to see the British Establishment taking its pants down in public and taking a giant dump on the face of Justice.

We should not focus exclusively on the magistrate currently involved; she is, presumably, fulfilling the will of others. Which is why I think that any appeal to the High Court against the predetermined extradition of Assange will be refused: what senior judges wish to go to their graves with the plaque of this case screwed to their coffin lids?

'Il faut mener les hommes avec une main de fer dans un gant de velours,' said Napoleon. If the magistrate at Westminster is to be criticised, it is for allowing the velvet to wear thin and expose the iron fist of our country's cruel, implacable ruling Power.

If math education is threatened, so is our technological society, by Paddington

As the late Physicist Richard Feynman pointed out, Mathematics is the language necessary to understand the Universe. That is, to do Science. He lamented that so few people seemed able to learn the material.

In the US (and evidence suggests that this is true in most countries), only about 15% of 12th grade students have mastered Algebra I enough to take the first college-level Math course, often called College Algebra. This has been the case since I began teaching.

With Herculean efforts and massive amounts of money spent on college-level remediation for the 75% who arrive at higher education below that level, we have achieved about the same success rates as drug addition therapy, or poverty relief.

In other words, it appears that we need that 15%+ of students for all of the jobs which require at least some higher-level Mathematics (or the associated analytical skills), including: Actuaries, Chemists, Computer Engineers, Computer Scientists, Computer Technicians, Dentists, Doctors, Electricians, Engineers of all types, Financial analysts, Geologists, Mathematicians, Neuro-Scientists (the newest tool for them is systems of partial differential equations), Optometrists, Physicists, Pilots, Statisticians and so much more, and the teachers and professors of these subjects.

And how do many of our leaders respond? By claiming that we can replace all of these things by Artificial Intelligence, and by defunding the STEM areas at universities because they "aren't popular enough".

FRIDAY MUSIC: Richard Wagner's 'Parsifal'

"Richard Wagner’s final creation is also his most mysterious. The story of Parsifal, the ‘pure fool, knowing through compassion’, who has been called to rescue the Kingdom of the Grail from the sins that have polluted it, appears familiar enough, but the redemption sought by Wagner’s characters is far from the Christian archetype.

"Wagner’s Parsifal is an exploration of the drama, music and philosophy of this extraordinary musical icon by a writer whose knowledge and understanding of the Western musical tradition are the equal of his capacities as a philosopher.It shows how, through musical connections and brilliant dramatic strokes, Parsifal expresses in music a depth of feeling for which we do not have words, a deep longing for wholeness and relief from suffering which, Scruton argues, contains within itself the image of salvation."
https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/wagners-parsifal/













This book is worth reading - it is an excellent re-telling of Wolfram's original Grail story:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/119344.Parzival_and_the_Stone_from_Heaven

I have it here on the bookshelf and read it a few years ago. It is the only one in which the Grail is not a chalice but is the Philosopher's Stone.

The opera extracts I have used wrongly show the Grail as a chalice; I included the story here: https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-legacy-of-moors-in-europe.html

WINE WEEKEND: My Cellar and a Conundrum, by Wiggia

Not me, I might add, but an old friend in an Australian winery.

I was in my cellar, actually a converted inspection pit in my garage, sorting out my wine bottles. It occurred to me, not for the first time, that all this hoarding at my time of life has a down side: I may never reach the last bottle before I pop my clogs. We all like to think we can cheat the taxman and the grim reaper by spending everything before we go, but there is a snag: when will we go? Relying on averages is notoriously flawed, after all there is nothing to stop me falling over tomorrow, or on the other hand I could  keep on for a number of years.

All sorts of factors are involved in coming to some conclusion. Family longevity is for me a difficult one as my mother's side (she lived to 100) go on forever whereas my father's side all died young (he was 68) and his father similarly. Which side do I take after, whose genes are dominant, which line fought off serious illnesses the better - obviously my mum's line; so do I draw a mean average of the two halves or do I wait to be mown down by a bus because I was too slow on the aged people's crossing outside the care home?

All of this information has to be dissected and assimilated, then throw in the deteriorating health service that keeps many of us going longer than we should, deduct time for that, then go back to the Office of National Statistics where you can put in age at present sex etc. And they say I could/should live to 88, yet the same site says at this moment in time the average age in the UK for a man is 79.2 years; this last figure is worrying, not because if true it means I don’t have long with this mortal coil but it leaves very little time to consume my cellar. It has been suggested I get help, and I have had several offers! consuming the cellar with that scenario, but I am a greedy sod and hope to do the job on my own; what a conundrum.

I also have another first world problem that muddies the water somewhat: I have been fortunate in that the last two properties we lived in had a cellar which is where the build up of bottles got under way and here I got lucky with the inspection pit. The likelihood if we move - as we have been trying to for some time - of getting another house with cellar is remote these days, so a wine cooler of probably 160-200 bottles will suffice. That still leaves circa 250 to consume by the time we move and that could be in two months, a year, whatever; it all gets very involved.



Ah, joy…

As an aside, there are as many versions of wine cellars and wine storage solutions as there are wines - well not quite, but there are a lot. Most involve spending as above large amounts of the laughing lettuce but cheaper solutions are available, apart from wine fridges which themselves for a decent quality and reasonable capacity can get rather expensive. A larder fridge can be adapted by altering the thermostat to around a maximum of 55 degrees, in fact I have never been able to see why wine coolers are so expensive, they are after all little different from a standard fridge and there are plenty of cheap options with those:  corner of a garage can be partitioned off and insulated with Celotex or similar plus ceiling and floor and a small air conditioning unit installed; you save a fortune over custom-made ones, which start at around £10k for those spiral-in-the-ground ones.

https://www.newswebzone.com/build-your-own-garage-wine-cellar/

One word of warning when converting a part of a garage: by nature many garages get very hot so one that is in the sun all day and especially a flat roof version is not a good idea. If the air con breaks down your wine can boil, not good; but a shaded one preferably with a pitched roof is fine.
And even under the stairs, if not in a house hot spot, can be racked and insulated for little cost. Many of the cheaper options are more than adequate for all but the finest wines, as they are not kept that long anyway. I was lucky with my inspection pit: all it cost was the insulation for the roof and the racking which I already had. Of course, if you are fortunate to have a house with a cellar you are quids in.

Oh and by the way, storing bottles upright was always thought to be a taboo, but if they are screw cap it makes no difference and recent research has shown the corks do not dry out as thought if bottles are stored upright and again over relatively short periods it is an irrelevance.

A hot tip: if sharing the garage with a wine storage area and a car, don’t drink and drive; it could be very expensive in the wine department and red wine on the upholstery is not easy to remove and we don’t want that, do we?

Some people do manage to spend all their wordly gains by the moment the grim reaper appears. Rock Hudson famously did leaving only a few hundred dollars of cash allegedly, though his estate itself was worth millions and was left in trust and to his male lover., but these are rare events; he just got lucky. It is a notoriously difficult trick to carry off, the law of averages is not that compliant, so a start has to be made.

It has to be said the problem is self-inflicted, buying wine does have that ability to become somewhat addictive. Many wine lovers dress it up as buying for the future: buy now, the prices only go up! If you don’t like the wine you can always sell, but to be honest much of it is an ego trip, it’s no different to owning a nice car or a painting, the difference being you cannot drink either of those and on the other hand once drunk the value has gone which is why so many people never drink their collections, they become a focus for discussion among other ‘collectors’, hours spent discussing the merits of x over y and which year trumped the last great vintage. It’s all a bit surreal, but it does have a fascination, mainly because it is a natural product and the permutations in style and quality are endless as with every vintage it all changes again.

The 88 years life expectancy prediction is an easy one. I carry on drinking my cellar, currently north of 400 bottles of nature's finest, though much reduced from its peak of around 700, and before anyone states that is excessive, it is small beer in the collector wine drinker stakes (small beer, I said that!) as I sold off all the very expensive stuff in recognition that I would never make it to a satisfactory conclusion. At 88 years I will probably not be drinking much other than orange juice through a straw towards the end but even so if I run out I simply buy more. The lower figure of 79.2 though is worrying: it means I will have to drink 2.47 bottles a day to beat that deadline; well, I'm prepared if needs be to give it a go and hope my liver holds out; it is a tall order so I think I am going to have to settle for the former figure: carry on as normal and keep my fingers crossed.

https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/10-of-the-worlds-largest-wine-collections/

It would be nice to think that should my prediction be found to be wildly inaccurate I could be entombed like the ancient Egyptians in a cellar like above with all the wine intact - and don’t forget the glasses and a corkscrew - to take on my voyage to Valhalla*; it’s like one of those wonderful dreams one has and then you wake up!

With problems with the Coronavirus, the resultant damage to the economy and the NHS going to pot , being governed by idiots, seeing the whole world order imploding before my eyes, who would have believed there could be a bigger problem and it would rear its ugly head at this time, but it has and it has to be dealt with one way or another: cheers!

______________________________________

*Aaru, for Ancient Egyptians (Ed.) Also known as the Field of Reeds - but NOT straws!

FRIDAY MUSIC: Doo Wop, by JD

More nostalgia and looking back to the beginnings of what became known as 'street corner symphonies' when youngsters would sing a-capella harmonies on the streets of their neighbourhood. The beginning of the 'doowop' style of music.

Because it was a-capella the doo wop and nonsense lyrics acted as 'fills' replacing musical instruments thus helping the melodic flow of the music. Instruments/orchestrations were added when these groups made it into the recording studios but without sacrificing the added colour of the doo wop lyricism. It is how musical styles develop and change over the years and this new style was a progression from previous years.

The style probably began with the very popular vocal harmony group The Ink Spots in the 1930s. The first video below is 'I miss you so' by Cats and the Fiddle which could easily be mistaken for a 1950s record and the rest, as they say, is history. and briefly encapsulated in the other videos, roughly in chronological order.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doo-wop