Somewhere to write, discuss, reflect, ponder, muse and mull over life, stuff, things and anything that takes my fancy.
It’s interesting to see how much share Googles Chrome has taken in the world of Internet Browser usage. Here are some charts from various sources to show the different makeup of the browser market. Click on each image for expanded view.
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Australia has been in the news quite a bit recently as it continues to experience very high summer temperatures.
I have also just finished watching a BBC iPlayer catch-up program called “The Australian Wars”, which deals with the conquest of Australia by the incoming colonial settlers and the battles that took place as they displaced the First Nations Indigenous Australians.
It’s a very interesting up to date (2022) and alarming documentary and a depressing reflection on British colonialism that has lasted much longer than you would think. Only recently, Australians voted in an historic referendum when all six states voted No to a proposal to amend the constitution to recognise First Nations people and create a body for them to advise the government.
Here we go again…
More problems for the Royal Navy as the HMS Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier has had to suddenly withdraw from NATO’s Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise.
It does make you wonder if we, the taxpayers, are really getting value for money in our latest purchases for the Royal Navy.
It seems that it is suffering from similar issues that the HMS Prince of Wales suffered from and were only resolved by dry-docking in Scotland. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this time.
Good news or the lack of it on all the news channels tends to get pushed to the end of newscasts and sometimes treated ‘time-fillers’.
Well, here’s a site that claims to have a ‘1,000 Bits of Good News You May Have Missed in 2023′. Some interesting snippets from its site include:
Physician Associates (PA’s) seem to be a big topic in the mainstream media at the moment, with some questions being asked about the potential of replacing doctors.
Various arguments for and against have also been put forward to about PA’s being used to fill the shortfall in recruitment of new trainee doctors.
There is still some confusion about their role in the wider medical environment. However, an article about PA’s and their roles at the Reading NHS Foundation Trust makes for interesting reading.
News this week indicates that the search for missing sailor Simon Parkes, who disappeared 31 years ago in Gibraltar while serving on HMS Illustrious, has restarted as Police investigate a car park in Gibraltar.
The investigation into Simon Parkes disappearance has also been linked to serial killer Allan Grimson who was serving on HMS Illustrious as a Petty Officer at the same time. He was subsequently jailed for the murder of two other men, one of which was also a sailor serving on HMS Edinburgh at the time of his death. Let’s hope this mystery is cleared up finally.
It seems from figures emerging that 2023 was a very hot year indeed. The UK according to various researchers had its second-hottest year on record.
Reports from around the world back up the ongoing warming of the planet and shows no sign of abating. For example, meteorologists in Australia have already warning about massive increases in temperatures across a lot of the country for this week.
It seems, from various sources, that if we have not already passed it; we are certainly close to passing the point of no return for more massive changes in the Earth’s climate.
I have come across a number of recent articles discussing the current state of the Royal Navy. You can find access to the various news items below, which cover lack of manpower and early retirement of ships.
Finally, this from the Navy Lookout site, which I think has a pretty good handle on the current situation in the Royal Navy.
It’s sad to see an organisation where I spent many of my formative years in such a mess. I’m not sure what the solutions are to boost recruitment so that we can keep more ships manned. However, I certainly think that politicians of all parties have a lot to answer for their actions (or lack of) over the past number of years.
I recently saw an interesting post by Robert Peston on X (formerly known as Twitter) in relation to the current situation in the Middle East.
“I have become increasingly worried that the charge of antisemitism is being levelled to silence legitimate and important debate. Antisemitism is on the rise, but there is also a rise in the unscrupulous use of the term to silence reasonable questions about the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. This article in the Harvard Crimson by Jewish community leader Bernie Steinberg warns of incipient McCarthyism.“
“It is worth reading, whichever side of the debate you are on https://thecrimson.com/article/2023/1“
I’ve also just finished reading a fascinating book, A Line in the Sand, which for me has offered up a lot of explanation about the long history of why there have been so many conflicts. This is also worth a read. There are of course many other books on the subject available as well.
It’s a New Year! So, I am determined to post more this year and there is nothing like the first day of the new year to start off the first post.
X (previously known as Twitter) continues to change since Elon Musk took over. I have not been a very big poster on the platform, apart from the NHS & Royal Navy tweets (or mini-newsletters as I might call them) that I put out on an infrequent basis.
I do find that it is still a platform to use when all else fails which can focus a supplier’s attention when you have issues with providers of Gas, Electric and water and they need a bit of persuasion to respond. They just don’t like bad karma!
One change I have seen over the last year is a drop in the random casual tweets containing nothing of consequence just taking up space on the timeline to the increase in more general information tweets as well an increase in various business related tweets appearing. Not sure if that is to do with my ‘Following’ list or just the tweaking of the various ‘algorithms’ that are behind everything now. However, in my opinion it does not seem to have gone downhill as much as some pundits were predicting, though I don’t think its long-term survival is safe yet.
Here are a couple of tweets which were not on my ‘Follow’ list that popped up today.
Marsh Family Songs — Which I always love.
History
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American non-profit media organization. NPR Music — one of the best online place to find information on music of all types — is also the home of Tiny Desk Concerts. I’ve been dipping in and out of this site for quite a few years and have found it to be a great place to find new artists from across the world of music, to already established names like Sting, Seal, Florence + the Machine and Mariachi Flor De Toloache to name just few of the many acts to feature.
If you want to find new music of any genre you can think of, then this is a place to start. Here are some new ones I recently came across — Marta Pereira da Costa from Portugal, Laufey from Iceland and music from the USA Broadway stage show Sweeney Todd.
Why does it take so long for Governments and particular UK governments to admit to their mistakes and properly compensate people for the errors are committed by them?
As this story continues to show, there is still a long way to go before the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and their relatives of get closure on the issue. Likewise, the Post Office computer scandal drags on, as does the Contaminated Blood enquiry.
Why can’t governments act faster?
More Big-Brother actions from the UK Government, it seems that a number of government departments including the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Business and Trade are searching social media to build ‘dossiers’ on people who are critics of the UK Government as a way of stopping them from appearing on government sponsored platforms. More info here.
Continuing the theme of Big-Brother, with the continuing rise in organised shoplifting, many stores have joined a Government sponsored scheme to install facial recognition software alongside their in-store cameras.
Although there is now a big pushback from various rights organisations including Liberty, Amnesty International and Big Brother Watch due to too many false alarms.
With the government actively sponsoring a downturn in house building, here’s an interesting article about just how bad many of the new house are when new homeowners take them over from developers.
Makes you wonder just what you’re getting for your money.
According to press reports, The Guardian, The FT, This is Money; Thames Water could be about to run out of money!
I thought the whole idea of privatization was that it was going to be better for all!
Funny how things turn out.
The UK Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) confirms plans to check bank accounts to stop £1.3 billion in benefit fraud. In an update to legislation, the UK Government has giving itself the power to look into all UK citizens banks account that receive state benefits!
Big Brother on the march, again! Why not look at the UK.Gov?
A very written article about this very subject — How the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill is the government’s latest erosion of hard-won rights!
With Climate change high on the agenda at the moment and with COP28 taking place in Dubai, it is interesting to learn that Scientists in Scotland are using robotic subsea gliders to check ocean currents for signs of climate collapse.
They are monitoring the “conveyor belt” which carries warm and cool water between the Caribbean and the Arctic.
Let’s hope that they find out what’s happening soon.
It’s been eight years since I took on my first ever allotment and over those years I’ve managed to grow quite a variety of produce. The plot had lain unused for two years, so it took quite a bit of work to bring it back into full production. Over that time, I’ve added a couple of dwarf fruit trees and other soft fruits, which have been reasonably successful.
In 2019, I decided to take on a second plot. I do like a challenge; this had also not been used for a number of years. This was of course pre-covid, when not many people were interested in taking on allotments that were ‘unworkable’ without lots of upfront effort. Needless to say, a lot of work has also been carried out on this plot since then to bring this one back into production.
However, time moves on and this year I decided to give up my first plot. Having two plots does require a lot of time/effort to keep up with the various tasks. The Allotment Site run by Woodley Town Council also now has a long waiting list for allotment plots – due to the high interest/uptake of allotments during the Covid period.
So hopefully someone from the waiting list will benefit from an active allotment plot.
In the meantime work progresses on the remaining plot, which has taken a little longer than I thought and still have some more tasks stuff to do. However, I do have a good shed!
It has also delivered some great produce and will hopefully keep doing this over the coming years.
In an incident that seems to have been initially passed by the mainstream media, a category 5 Hurricane has devastated Acapulco last week.
It was a news story that was of interest to me, as I visited Acapulco some 40 years ago for a long weekend while working in Mexico City for six weeks.
It certainly looked an interesting place then, that has obviously changed tremendously over those years.
Here are some links that I found that are starting to show some devastation resulting from the Hurricane.
The Independent – Acapulco hotel guest describes terror of ‘nightmare’ Hurricane Otis
WION – Damage and distress in Mexico’s Acapulco as Hurricane Otis batters beach resort
CNN – Before-and-after shows devastation from Category 5 Hurricane Otis in Mexico
REUTERS – Hurricane Otis pummels Mexico’s Acapulco, cutting off famous beach resort
Beasley's Place 