This is an extraordinary animation video about dragonflies. The information about their eyes and brain, the Alien-like grabber used by the nymphs in water!
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
First, take care of business. Wokery is second.
The world will work better if we try to see things as they are, not as we would like them to be. We have to tackle our tasks conscientiously and fairly, not try to lead the people back to Eden and make the lion lie down with the lamb.
When police and political representatives colluded with and covered-up systematic child sexual exploitation for fear of being seen as racist, the problem grew to a scale beyond calculation. Had the authorities acted early and firmly a huge amount of suffering could have been prevented. Instead the scandal is tempting many people to tar most of the Muslim population here with the same brush, so that community relations are far worse than if responsible parties had acted impartially.
Similarly much of the fire devastation in California could have been headed off by proper attention to basic precautions - clearing away flammable underbrush, ensuring adequate water supplies. This could have been done before (not instead of) winning virtue points for affirmative employment practices and nature conservation projects. First things first.
Perhaps the theme for our time is to reframe political disagreements. They should not be a matter of Left versus Right but of limited, practical and achievable good versus well-meaning fantasy and over-reach.
This theme is everywhere now, even in something as basic as internet search engines.
Take Google for example. If you say things their shadowy ideological teams and computer algorithms don't like, you can have your Blogger account cancelled altogether - sometimes containing many years of content. Or they can find ways to 'shadow ban' you to make you hard to find.
It has got to the point where Google's core function as a data finder has been hampered. Yesterday I sought a funny Spectator piece from 2012 by Melissa Kite about her crazy spaniel Cydney; I put in the names and other key words, in several different ways: nothing. Why? Is it because she's 'right wing'? Yet when I switched to Bing.com - bingo!
Similarly two days earlier I looked for a sexually frank poem by the Middle Scots poet William Dunbar. Too sexy, even when it's half a thousand years old? For again it was Google 0, Bing 1.
It's worrying when the world's leading search engine can't search.
I thought it might be just me, but apparently the way Google's algorithms hamper its service may be causing it to lose market share:
"Google's algorithm updates have been well documented, starting out sporadically with one in 2000 and another in 2002, then becoming increasingly more frequent over the years. In the present climate, hundreds of search algorithm changes are made every year, ranging from minor changes to far-reaching broad core algorithm updates that shake up the search engine results pages (SERPs). By contrast, Bing algorithm changes are rarely spoken about in the SEO community.
"Although Google still dominates the global search market in 2025, Microsoft has seen some incremental gains in recent times. Google retains an 89.73% share of the global market, although this has fallen from 93.47% since February 2023; during the same timeframe, Bing's share has risen from 2.18% up to 3.98%."
Ironically, I found that article without trouble!
Away with grand schemes and attempting to remake humanity by force and propaganda. Let's have openness, humility and mutual respect.
Reposted from the Bruges Group blog
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Starmer: A whim of iron
At this week’s PMQs, the Prime Minister called the Conservative Opposition ‘economic vandals and fantasists’ who wanted the benefits of the Budget without saying how they would pay for them. He contrasted their approach with his - making difficult cuts, raising taxes, investing in health, public services and housing with ‘an iron-clad commitment to our fiscal rules.’
We shall see how long that iron bears the weight of reality thundering across the bridge. Starmer mocked Liz Truss for ‘crashing the economy’ but some of the trusses underpinning his own grand construction are buckling already.
That is because key parts are not welded to each other.
For example Labour’s Naushabah Khan highlighted the shortage of staff to teach construction skills to young people; Sir Keir’s solution was another new quango, Skills England, which he linked to the Government’s commitment to build 1.5 million new homes.
Are those homes needed? The ONS has predicted an increase in our population of 6.6 million between 2021 and 2036, 92% of which will be down to net immigration. Without that we would see a decline - and perhaps we should.
Besides, our housing is not overcrowded. The average number of occupants per household has dropped over 20+ years, and 8.4 million people are living alone.
What we could do with is a program of retrofitting over 3 million interwar houses to make them more energy-efficient, and perhaps dividing many of them into smaller self-contained units. No need to concrete over the green belt and our vital farmland.
But yes, if we play it right we could be entering a golden age for the skilled manual worker, and about time too.
LibDem leader Ed Davey noted the winter flu crisis in hospitals (exacerbated by problems of discharging patients who have no-one to care for them at home) and urged the PM to shorten the three-year timetable for the Casey Commission on social care. Starmer responded by blaming the Conservative Party; his iron refusal to change course ‘disappointed’ Davey.
Scottish Labour’s Kirsteen Sullivan raised the issue of access to NHS dentists north of the border. While sympathising and promising to work with the Scottish Government, Sir Keir could not resist once again attacking the SNP, who he said ‘should be ashamed.’
We need to connect this with his grand plan for UK devolution, which will quango-ise the country with mayors and regional councils, robbing power from Parliament but also from the troublesome people - goodbye district councils. There will be opportunities for corruption as our demos fragments and groups co-ordinate to take control of these new layers of government. It will all end in ‘tiers’.
The Conservatives’ Peter Bedford spoke of Age UK’s difficulties in supporting pensioners who have lost their winter fuel allowance (WFA) while themselves coping with the increase in employer’s national insurance.
Starmer reverted to his familiar strategy, a counterattack on the Tories, which served as a distraction from some more of his stubbornness. He has previously assured David Lammy of his job until the next General Election and as Rachel Reeves came under fire he has promised her the same. Goodness forbid he should change his mind.
Similarly Reeves’ disaster on the WFA and NIC could be fixed, but won’t be. What possessed Labour in taxing the employed as though they were an unhealthy luxury?
A better solution would be to tax wealthy retirees more, never mind what the manifesto said - ‘events, dear boy’. If the 40 per cent income tax threshold was dropped by £1,500 then prosperous retirees - Well-Off Older Persons (‘Woopies’) - would in effect be repaying the £300 WFA that everybody should have. It could be taken further: in Scotland there is an intermediate 21% tax band for those with an income above £25,281; their higher rate band starts at £43,663 (not £52,271 as in the rest of the UK) - and is 42%, not 40% as here. The top rate is also two points higher than in England.
Unlike younger, struggling workers WOOPIES don’t pay NIC or pension contributions, often no longer pay rent or a mortgage or have to feed, clothe and entertain children. If my paying more would help the nation out of a jam, I’d be for it, as long as it didn’t get spaffed away with incompetent management.
The exchanges between Badenoch and Starmer were the usual, what he terms ‘knockabout’, while remaining silent on the elephant in the room. Kemi has commented publicly elsewhere on the need to discriminate among groups of immigrants and their descendants, and some realistic discrimination is long overdue, not just on account of jihadism and r*p* gangs but also on the net economic effect of importing the poorer sort. Perhaps there is a degree of cross-party collusion involved in not gifting political ammo to rising new parties.
Perhaps we will not see radical, beneficial change without a great disaster. The Starmernaut will rumble on until it hits a major national pothole.
Today’s PMQs can be viewed here (starting 12:00); the Hansard transcript is here.
Reposted from Wolves of Westminster
Friday, January 17, 2025
FRIDAY MUSIC: The Swingsationals, by JD
The Swingsationals are French professional dancers and I cannot find anything about them in English but there is some information in French at these two links.
But who wants to read about them when you can watch such wonderful and enthusiastic dancing!
https://vintage-expo.com/the-swingsationals-a-vintage-expo
https://swingrennes.com/rennesbow/
But who wants to read about them when you can watch such wonderful and enthusiastic dancing!
https://vintage-expo.com/the-swingsationals-a-vintage-expo
https://swingrennes.com/rennesbow/
The Swingsationals - Sing Sing Sing
Rennes-Bow Swing Festival 2022 - The Swingsationals - All That Jazz
The Swingsationals - Get Happy
The Swingsationals - You Deserve
Savoy Cup 2022 - Chorus Line - The Swingsationals
The Swingsationals - You Deserve
Friday, January 10, 2025
FRIDAY MUSIC: Osibisa, by JD
The group Osibisa was founded in 1969 in London and consisted at the time of its formation of Teddy Osei (saxophone), Max Tontoh (trumpet), Lasisi Amao (tenor saxophone, percussion), Sol Amarfio (drums), Robert Bailey (keyboard), Wendel Richardson (guitar) and Spartacus R (bass guitar).
The band members translate the band name loosely from Ghanaian as "criss cross rhythms that explode with happiness". They were considered the pioneers of world music from the mid-1970s and paved the way for other great artists like Bob Marley.
They had their first success with the song "Music for Gong Gong". This was shortly followed by "Sunshine Day", "Dance the Body Music" and "Coffee Song". Their album Woyaya rose to number 11 in the LP charts of the time and in the mid-1980s they built their own recording studio, a theatre complex and their own record label "Flying Elephant" in Ghana.
Osibisa - Music for Gong Gong
OSIBISA - Why
Sunshine Day - OSIBISA
The band members translate the band name loosely from Ghanaian as "criss cross rhythms that explode with happiness". They were considered the pioneers of world music from the mid-1970s and paved the way for other great artists like Bob Marley.
They had their first success with the song "Music for Gong Gong". This was shortly followed by "Sunshine Day", "Dance the Body Music" and "Coffee Song". Their album Woyaya rose to number 11 in the LP charts of the time and in the mid-1980s they built their own recording studio, a theatre complex and their own record label "Flying Elephant" in Ghana.
Osibisa - Music for Gong Gong
Thursday, January 09, 2025
Systemic failure – PMQs 8th January 2025
The great boil of UK child abuse has been lanced and has spattered its contents over all three major political parties. Now, said Sir Keir numerous times in this session, is the time for “action”.
What action? Why a Bill, of course: the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, receiving its second reading this afternoon. How dare the Tories introduce a wrecking amendment (requiring a national enquiry into ‘grooming’ gangs) when the Government is so keen to get this sorted fast!
It is not clear why it should be necessary to complete such an enquiry before doing anything to prosecute and punish those who have broken existing laws. But it is clear why a full historic investigation into police and local/national government negligence and collusion would be embarrassing – and not just for Labour.
Political parties have a will to survive, just like living organisms. Self-protection ranks above public service. So when Sir Roger Gale (Herne Bay and Sandwich) ended PMQs by asking Starmer why the latter, when DPP, had not instigated a prosecution for rape and sexual abuse against Mohamed Fayed, the PM took refuge in proceduralism: “That case never crossed my desk.” No time for a supplementary question as to why not – curtain down and off to the green room, quick!
All the laws and administrative arrangements in the world will not solve problems if there is no will to do so. Let’s look at an existing plan that can help the young but has sometimes failed.
Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) were introduced in 2014 to coordinate the work of professionals in safeguarding and promoting the interests of children. They came into being in response to the slow parental murder in 2000 of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié; yet despite the new arrangements, ten-year-old Sara Sharif was killed in 2023 by her father and stepmother. I was involved from their beginning in putting EHCPs together for some SEND children and, within a couple of years, as the Local Authority’s budget became tight, the educational psychologists (typically the gatekeepers for practical help) seemed to become more of an obstacle than a leg up in the process of assessment.
Now, the proposed new Bill will grant officials more powers to intervene, especially with (allegedly) home-schooled children – but how and why will those powers be used? Will there be some fresh disaster, lessons learned, a line drawn under, a moving-on? A cover-up, a scapegoating? Or effective and consistent action?
How much would be happening even now about the rape gangs without Elon Musk sticking his oar in is moot, bearing in mind that this has been going on for decades and our Civil Service has been careful not to collect relevant data for fear of controversy. Musk has not only called Sir Ed Davey a “snivelling cretin“, but connected Jess Phillips’ opposition to a national enquiry with the need to insulate Starmer.
Phillips is politically between a rock and a hard place. She did much good work for women and girls as a local councillor and safeguarding them is now her brief as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary; yet in July’s General Election, she was very nearly unseated by an Islamist playing on local Muslims’ feelings about Gaza. Calling for a thorough investigation into the rape gangs might alienate enough of her constituents to see her out of Westminster in due course.
Because of issues not addressed, our systemic problems have grown. Labour thought it could rely on Asian voters, provided it let sleeping dogs lie; now, we see the beginnings of a political separation. Did no-one among the powers-that-have-been since 1997 have any concept of the implications of bringing into this country a culture and religion so different and so vigorous? How much history is taught on a PPE course?
Labour is so last season in political fashion, still pursuing its passion for conflict on the basis of class war. Its real programme is to complete the Blairite project that Peter Hitchens calls Eurocommunism, though in Sir Keir’s case we might term it Bureaucommunism – mutating our Constitution into a cat’s cradle of faux devolutions that will leave the people disempowered. The Mayor of London answers questions ten times annually, but does not get the democratic bullyragging we see in the Commons; that is the future we face elsewhere.
Delegating budgets and power will allow the PM to rise above blame and become more presidential, after the model of France, where the operator at the next level down is traditionally described as a ‘fuse’. So when Stephen Flynn (Aberdeen South) asked about the withdrawn Winter Fuel Allowance in Scotland, he was told (and I paraphrase) that the SNP had been given the tools and it was for them to get on with the job.
The theme of insulation from the people extends to Labour’s dealings with the EU. Sojan Joseph (Ashford) hooked his question about restoring Ashford’s Eurostar service onto this.
Those who are concerned about the revolutionary assault on democracy should follow what is going on in Switzerland, where their Federal President Viola Amherd has just negotiated a systematic rearrangement of Swiss-EU relations with the EU’s controversial President Ursula von der Leyen. The hundred Lilliputian threads tying Gulliver down will eventually, if the EU succeeds, be replaced by a stout rope. For now, the Schengen demand for free popular movement across borders has been resisted, but voluntary financial contributions to Brussels’ coffers will become compulsory and the general tendency is unmistakable.
The deal has yet to be officially validated and the frequently-exercised Swiss right to a referendum is likely to be employed – certainly, the ‘hard-right’ Swiss People’s Party (SVP) will call for one. Watch that space over the next year or so.
But the sane eye peeping out of the delusional mask of Europe may find its lid drooping, if the people forget their love of liberty.
Will we remember ours?
What action? Why a Bill, of course: the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, receiving its second reading this afternoon. How dare the Tories introduce a wrecking amendment (requiring a national enquiry into ‘grooming’ gangs) when the Government is so keen to get this sorted fast!
It is not clear why it should be necessary to complete such an enquiry before doing anything to prosecute and punish those who have broken existing laws. But it is clear why a full historic investigation into police and local/national government negligence and collusion would be embarrassing – and not just for Labour.
Political parties have a will to survive, just like living organisms. Self-protection ranks above public service. So when Sir Roger Gale (Herne Bay and Sandwich) ended PMQs by asking Starmer why the latter, when DPP, had not instigated a prosecution for rape and sexual abuse against Mohamed Fayed, the PM took refuge in proceduralism: “That case never crossed my desk.” No time for a supplementary question as to why not – curtain down and off to the green room, quick!
All the laws and administrative arrangements in the world will not solve problems if there is no will to do so. Let’s look at an existing plan that can help the young but has sometimes failed.
Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) were introduced in 2014 to coordinate the work of professionals in safeguarding and promoting the interests of children. They came into being in response to the slow parental murder in 2000 of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié; yet despite the new arrangements, ten-year-old Sara Sharif was killed in 2023 by her father and stepmother. I was involved from their beginning in putting EHCPs together for some SEND children and, within a couple of years, as the Local Authority’s budget became tight, the educational psychologists (typically the gatekeepers for practical help) seemed to become more of an obstacle than a leg up in the process of assessment.
Now, the proposed new Bill will grant officials more powers to intervene, especially with (allegedly) home-schooled children – but how and why will those powers be used? Will there be some fresh disaster, lessons learned, a line drawn under, a moving-on? A cover-up, a scapegoating? Or effective and consistent action?
How much would be happening even now about the rape gangs without Elon Musk sticking his oar in is moot, bearing in mind that this has been going on for decades and our Civil Service has been careful not to collect relevant data for fear of controversy. Musk has not only called Sir Ed Davey a “snivelling cretin“, but connected Jess Phillips’ opposition to a national enquiry with the need to insulate Starmer.
Phillips is politically between a rock and a hard place. She did much good work for women and girls as a local councillor and safeguarding them is now her brief as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary; yet in July’s General Election, she was very nearly unseated by an Islamist playing on local Muslims’ feelings about Gaza. Calling for a thorough investigation into the rape gangs might alienate enough of her constituents to see her out of Westminster in due course.
Because of issues not addressed, our systemic problems have grown. Labour thought it could rely on Asian voters, provided it let sleeping dogs lie; now, we see the beginnings of a political separation. Did no-one among the powers-that-have-been since 1997 have any concept of the implications of bringing into this country a culture and religion so different and so vigorous? How much history is taught on a PPE course?
Labour is so last season in political fashion, still pursuing its passion for conflict on the basis of class war. Its real programme is to complete the Blairite project that Peter Hitchens calls Eurocommunism, though in Sir Keir’s case we might term it Bureaucommunism – mutating our Constitution into a cat’s cradle of faux devolutions that will leave the people disempowered. The Mayor of London answers questions ten times annually, but does not get the democratic bullyragging we see in the Commons; that is the future we face elsewhere.
Delegating budgets and power will allow the PM to rise above blame and become more presidential, after the model of France, where the operator at the next level down is traditionally described as a ‘fuse’. So when Stephen Flynn (Aberdeen South) asked about the withdrawn Winter Fuel Allowance in Scotland, he was told (and I paraphrase) that the SNP had been given the tools and it was for them to get on with the job.
The theme of insulation from the people extends to Labour’s dealings with the EU. Sojan Joseph (Ashford) hooked his question about restoring Ashford’s Eurostar service onto this.
Those who are concerned about the revolutionary assault on democracy should follow what is going on in Switzerland, where their Federal President Viola Amherd has just negotiated a systematic rearrangement of Swiss-EU relations with the EU’s controversial President Ursula von der Leyen. The hundred Lilliputian threads tying Gulliver down will eventually, if the EU succeeds, be replaced by a stout rope. For now, the Schengen demand for free popular movement across borders has been resisted, but voluntary financial contributions to Brussels’ coffers will become compulsory and the general tendency is unmistakable.
The deal has yet to be officially validated and the frequently-exercised Swiss right to a referendum is likely to be employed – certainly, the ‘hard-right’ Swiss People’s Party (SVP) will call for one. Watch that space over the next year or so.
But the sane eye peeping out of the delusional mask of Europe may find its lid drooping, if the people forget their love of liberty.
Will we remember ours?
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
New Year smiles
ukabong !
Yorkshire Airlines
Guinness 'Rhythm of Life' advert - bleah!
Fart for fart's sake - Leonard Rossiter as Le Petomane
And finally... Dinner For One:
Happy New Year!
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