Books That Inspired Me

Being such a tremendous reader of books, I was asked to write about five that had changed my outlook on life or inspired me and after giving it some thought, i had to admit no books had.
There are some books which i really enjoyed and even thought they contained such a message that everyone should read it such as The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, Animal Farm and Of Mice And Men, but inspired or changed me? Not so much.
I assume people of a religious bent will go with the Bible or the Koran or some such religious work but the only religious text i have read was some of the Bible and probably because i came at it with an angle of this will be nonsense, i couldn't take it seriously and was too busy looking for things i could ridicule such as unicorns, dragons, horses with lion heads and fire breathing sea creatures.
Being a proper lefty, there wasn't a book that made me find that political view, i had it before i even knew what a lefty was and found we happily meshed together afterwards so no author could lay claim to influencing my viewpoint, my parents i guess take the credit for that as they were both always up for a demonstration against something or other and protesting something unfair, my life mantra of 'Life isn't fair, so let's make it fairer' was certainly stolen from them and not from a book.
So sorry but i will have to pass on this one because i can't think of one left alone five.  

Triple Lock Now Double Lock

The main take away from Andy Burnham's Labour Party speech is that he will end the pensions triple lock, making it a double lock and using the savings to help fund adult social care reforms in England.
The triple lock means the state pension currently increases annually in line with inflation, average wage growth, or 2.5% - whichever is highest but the average wage growth is being dropped so now it's a rise rise every year in line with either inflation or 2.5%.
There has been a few conversations around the affordability of the UK State Pension recently and since it was introduced in 2010,  it has been raised from £102.15 per week to £241.30 per week with the main increases coming in 2023/24 (10.1%), 2024/25 (8.5%) and 2025/26 (4.1%).
The State Pension has always been a bit of a hot potato because the over 65's are the group which vote the most and nobody wants to tick them off but as Burnham said, someone had to take the political hit and rip the plaster off although the 13.2 million pensioners currently in receipt may have something to say about it although stating that it is being down to fund free Social Care may dull their inevitable argument.    
The age of retirement was raised from 65 to 66 and then to 67 with a rise to 68 penciled in to take place around 2045 but a common fallacy is that the National Insurance we currently pay go into a pot for our retirement whereas in reality our National Insurance goes to pay the pensions of current retirees and our pensions, when we get there, will be paid by those working and paying NI then.
As Social Care  has been a sore point for Governments for years, it is not a bad thing that Burnham is looking to try and fix it and with one in 10 hospital beds occupied by someone who was medically fit enough to leave but were unable to due a lack of social care capacity, it is needed so we can only hope that the Pensioners, uppity at the best of times when it comes to their pensions, don't ruin it by voting for a Party that will undo all this good work.   

Google Guide To Finding A Brit In Your House

An estimated 4.7 to 5.5 million Brits live elsewhere in the World so there is a good chance that one of them may turn up on your doorstep but don't panic because Google has a survival guide just in case you find a Brit inside your house.

You need to find an electric kettle immediately, as your new guest will likely demand a cup of tea within minutes of arrival and then hourly throughout the day and pair it with a biscuit (digestive or rich tea) and use an electric kettle and never microwave the water as this is considered a minor crime and the Brit will exhibit signs of distress upon tasting.
Also be prepared for them to mention the weather within the first five minutes, regardless of what it is doing outside and they will apologise for everything, even if you bump into them

So what does Google suggest if it is an Australian and not a Brit in your living room?
Australians are generally docile when approached correctly but make sure you have a proper cup of tea ready and point them toward the couch, or if it is after 9am, substitute the tea for a cold beer.
Place a jar of Vegemite and some white bread on the table and if they start speaking, do not alarm them by asking for a translation, if they ask for a Chook in the Arvo or ask if you have seen their thongs, then just smile and nod and put some sports on the TV.

Canadian's are also easily managed with the right resources according to Google, so say 'Sorry' immediately as in Canadian culture, exchanging 'sorries' is a formal greeting.
If the Canadian appears restless, if you happen to have a Tim Hortons cup nearby, place it within their line of sight to calm them and if you have maple syrup, ensure it is 100% pure because offering them high-fructose corn syrup masquerading as maple syrup will result in immediate, polite disappointment. As with the Australians, the language can be confusing but the formula is that 'Yeah, no' means No and 'No, yeah' means Yes.

As for if it's an American, the advice is not to panic  and immediately fill every available tray with water and place in the freezer as they will expect a glass that is 70% ice, even if it is freezing outside.
Be prepared to intervene at the Kettle as there is a high statistical probability they will try to boil water in your microwave and calibrate your volume as Americans 'inside voice' is roughly equivalent to a public address system.
They might try to hand you cash after you make them a tea or help with luggage as tipping is a cultural thing and never offer them instant coffee as they will just not get it.

Thank you Google.

Did You Bring The Tin Opener Luv?

El Niño is supersizing and is expected to be the strongest since the one in 1877-78 which saw the Pacific Ocean temperatures reach 3.5C and the result was the death of over 50 million people Worldwide through famine and droughts and with the 2026 version already topping 3C and rising and some forecasts predicting a peak of 4.0C in December, it's not looking good. Although a warming planet doesn't cause El Niño, the fact that it is happening in a warmer planet should mean that our Governments are finally taking Climate Change seriously.
For example in China, a 100-day campaign has been launched to prepare for extreme weather and help safeguard harvests against the opposing extremes of drought and intense rainfall. Beijing has plans to upgrade early warning monitoring systems, and in July, it launched a national plan encouraging cities to draw up climate risk maps to help identify areas most vulnerable to flooding and severe heat while in the UK....erm.
The Climate Crisis killed an estimated 35,000 Europeans this Summer, 2,877 heat-associated deaths occurring across the UK during May and June, and Brits are being encouraged to panic sensibly by stockpiling water, tinned fruits and vegetables and loo roll.
Depending on where you live (and the Southern Hemisphere is more in the firing line than us Northern Hemispherers ) you will probably experience storms, floods, starvation, heatwaves, fires and droughts and a recent scientific report projected that this unfolding super El Niño could lead to over 450,000 additional deaths globally from heat and extreme weather through early 2027.
Anyone who still has an old Y2K Survival Guide knocking around, this could be a good time to re-read it or you could move to China who's Government seem the only ones to be actually doing something.  

Special Guest Blogger: Roman God Forculu

Hello, Mortals, I’m the little-known but fiercely over-qualified Roman deity who watches over the doors that separate the chaotic outside from the cozy (or not-so-cozy) inside.
My ancestors called me the Keeper of the Portal but the big guy, Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings and endings gets all the stories about gate-opening and gate-closing, I’m the one who makes sure the wood doesn’t warp, the metal doesn’t rust, and that you don’t end up stepping directly over
a dreaded threshold.
The ancient Romans loved to split up responsibilities. Need a god for the door? Ask Forculus. Need one for the hinge? Cardea. Need a god for the sill that keeps the draught out? Limentinus.
My name literally means the one who watches the door which is not exactly a superhero name but back when Rome was a cluster of huts on the Tiber and a few ambitious road-builders, doors were very basic. A simple slab of timber, a rope tied to a stone, and a prayer to whichever Gods was handy would suffice.
I was assigned to a modest wooden door outside a blacksmith’s shop in the Subura district but fast forward a few centuries and I got promoted to double doors in a public bathhouse. Suddenly, my responsibilities doubled and I had to keep two doors synchronized, ensure they swished open together perfectly and the bathhouse owner paid me in loaves of honey-glazed figs.
Limentinus is the brother who always stands at the exact spot where you transition from one world to another, making sure you don’t trip over the unseen line that separates inside from outside.
Janus is the grandmaster of passages, the god with a face looking both forward and backward and loves to take credit for everything but  Janus gets the statues, the festivals, the poems. Cardea gets a small bronze plaque in some Roman villa. Limentinus gets a stone slab that few notice unless they trip but I’m not a god who demands temples because a door teaches patience. You can’t force a wooden portal to swing open if the hinges aren’t aligned and every door you walk through offers a decision of either staying inside the safety of your house, or venture out into the unknown, i'm easy either way, that's your decision.

Blue Moon Standing Alone

It took forever but finally Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges against them for breaking Footballs the Financial Rules over a 10 year period, or cheating as it is also known to be able to sign more expensive players than their finances should have permitted.
The club was found to have systemically bypassed financial regulations to build its squad and failed to provide accurate financial information and details of payments to players and coaches but as yet the punishment for such mammoth and serious deception has yet to be announced  although it will be seismic.
The penalties being whispered about include stripping of titles and cups, huge fines, points deductions and even demotion and as  Everton were docked six points and Nottingham Forest four for their breaches of profit and sustainability rules, suggests a large points penalty, enough to see them relegated although it could be spread over a number of seasons which will ensure they do not bounce straight back to the top league.
One possible sanction is the removal of the eight trophies the club won in the period covered by the case, including three Premier League titles, three League Cups, one Community Shield and one FA Cup with the runners up in each case being handed the trophy.
As well as the Premier League flaying them, other clubs are seeking legal advice about compensation,  claiming they have been impacted by City's illegal actions and Burnley did undertake such a move against Everton who were told they must pay Burnley £35m after they broke profit and sustainability regulations  as their cheating impacted Burnley's chances of staying in the Premier League, and sought compensation for the losses associated with being relegated.
If you add together the clubs who just missed out on the Champions League, or failed to make Europe, or even those who were relegated by beating by a Manchester City team who were flouting the rules as well as the points deductions, fines and relegation, this is an extremely difficult time to be a Manchester City fan but a real boon for the rest and you cheating northern bastards will be sung at them at every ground for years to come. Good, they deserve it.

Don't Be That Guy

It does seem that some men have not got the message about not being rapists and understanding exactly what consent is which is why an advertisement is going live tonight to explain these things.
The 'That Guy' advert is the start of a six week campaign aimed to reduce rape, sexual assault and harassment by having frank conversations with men about attitudes and behaviour around women and combat the dangers of social media 'manosphere' influencers.
The people behind the campaign said that: 'Young men and boys are growing up where attitudes towards women, sex and relationships are shaped what they see online, including messages about masculinity and how women should be treated. Manosphere influencers and social media algorithms can repeatedly expose boys to harmful attitudes and behaviours, which can become normalised and this  extremist content is having a direct impact on women's safety'.
One misogynist has already spoken out and blamed female teachers for sending boys and young men into the arms of the manosphere by pushing a political, anti-boy and feminist agenda which teaches them that the world is anti-boy so in effect he is already blaming females for the way boys and young men act towards them.
It's quite something that we have to actually teach some menfolk not to rape woman and how No actually means No but seems like we do because the data shows a clear increase in misogynistic behavior and attitudes among young people and in schools, largely driven by online content and social media influencers.
Another reason why the Social Media ban, penciled in for Spring 2027, can not come soon enough.

Special Guest Blogger: Alexander Bain

They say history is written by the victors but in my case, history is written by people who don't know how to spell facsimile.
If you’ve ever checked your digital watch or had the distinct displeasure of receiving a fax in the year of our Lord 2026, you’ve got me to thank or blame.
Being a pioneer mostly comprised of cold porridge, bad investments and people trying to steal your homework but not mine at school because I wasn't exactly the teacher’s pet. School was a place where I sat quietly, staring at the dust motes dancing in the sunlight and my teachers thought I was a bit dense.
I was apprenticed to a clockmaker in Wick and it was there, amidst the rhythmic tick-tock of brass gears and the smell of lubricating oil, that I decided everything was too slow. Why wait for a winding key to do the work? Why not use electricity? It seemed like a bright idea and little did I know, the path to glory is paved with people who insist you should stick to your day job.
I eventually found myself in London, on Hanover Street, running a workshop but innovation is expensive and electricity wasn’t exactly something you could pick up at the corner grocer's in the 1840s.
In my desperation, I sought out Sir Charles Wheatstone and I showed him my electric clock which was a beautiful, elegant piece of machinery kept in perpetual, pulsing motion by electromagnetic impulses but he dismissed it and said there was no future in electric clocks but three months later, I’m reading the paper and lo and behold, Wheatstone is at the Royal Society, unveiling his invention, the electric clock and I thought that claiming a patent you saw in someone else’s workshop three months prior is a level of chutzpah that even I have to begrudgingly respect.
Wheatstone didn't count on one thing, I was Scottish and we are famously stubborn when it comes to being cheated out of money.
He tried to block my patents but the House of Lords, in a rare moment of clarity, summoned me to give evidence and I walked into that room and explained how electricity actually functioned, and watched as Wheatstone’s face turned the color of a curdled porridge.
He was forced to pay me £10,000 and i put that money towards another invention, the Fax Machine or as i called it, the Chemical Telegraph.
I didn’t invent the fax machine so that you could send a blurry, black-and-white copy of an insurance document, I invented it because I thought we should be able to send images over wires! It was the 1840s! It was basically magic!
I spent three years tinkering with the synchronisation of pendulums and the chemical reaction on paper. It worked. It was genius. And yet, looking back, I realize I was the first person in history to inflict this machine upon the world.
The thing about being an inventor is that your brain is wired for discovery, not for the stock market and my fortune didn't last after I invested in some ventures that were, to put it mildly, optimistic, less mildly,  just plain stupid.
I died with considerably less than I started with, and yet, I don’t regret it because I see you all now, walking around with your mobile devices, sending instant messages, peering at screens, and tracking time to the millisecond which are all descendants of my pendulums and my wires.
So, next time your clock ticks, or your fax machine screams at you for no reason, spare a thought for Alexander Bain. I may have died broke, but I certainly didn't die bored.

Heading For The Exit

If Benjamin Netanyahu was in any doubt that he considered a pariah running a pariah state, he wouldn't have been left in any doubt after 77 nations saw him approaching the lectern at the United Nations and decided to walk out the door marked Exit rather than listen to the War Criminal try and justify the Genocide he is conducting.
Well done and much applause to the 77 but shame on the ones who stayed which included my own country which sat in the rapidly emptying hall and heard him talk about the leavers as 'moral cowards' although anything to do with morals is not the genocidal leaders wanted by the International Criminal Court's strong point so maybe he got confused.
The diplomatic protest extended across countries from Asia, Africa, Europe and South America and those outside wouldn't have heard Netanyahu use his address to reject accusations that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, describing the charge as the 'biggest lie of the century' and praising US President Donald Trump as a great leader so immediately showing he had not necessarily grasped the concept of what constitutes a whopping great lie.
He then went on to attack journalists for their coverage of Israel but to be fair it is hard to portray anyone who is murdering civilians and ethnically cleansing their land in a  great light although some Israeli supporters have tried.
Of course no Netanyahu speech would be complete with at least once saying the words 'Antisemitism’ which he did when he accused New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of it and claiming that Jewish New Yorkers no longer felt safe following his election to which Mamdani responded that: 'Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies designed to whitewash his genocide of Palestinians. No lie can change the fact that he bears an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity'. Ouch.
The Israeli murder (35th in our Table of leaders who have killed the most people in History, just two places below Vlad the Impaler) faces an election on 27 October 2026 and we can only hope that he follows the swift departure of the 77 nations who left him staring at a half empty chamber and is booted out the Knesset and into a Hague Prison Cell and a lot less murdery replacement is chosen. 

Special Guest Blogger: Mephistopheles

I miss the 16th Century, back then the brand was strong because people actually feared the unknown. You take a stroll through a German village, and you can practically smell the fear but I wasn't some common tempter lurking behind a bush with a piece of fruit, I have standards.
The rule has always been simple in that I don’t look for people to corrupt, my specialty is the pre-qualified lead where I wait for the ones who have already slammed the door on heaven and are currently looking for the Exit sign with no moral compass. I am the servant to those who have already
decided they are their own gods. I’m just the one who provides the paperwork and the complimentary refreshments.
Christopher Marlowe (lovely man, bit of a temper) really put me on the map. He portrayed me as a tragic figure, a fellow who knows exactly what he’s missing out on which was great for my dark and moody aesthetic. Then Shakespeare started throwing my name around like a prestigious brand of
luggage. I was the demon of the Elizabethan era. I was chic. I was portrayed as the creature who was summoned by Faust.
Now, the legend says I tricked him but we had a deal, twenty-four years of total servitude where I fetched him rare manuscripts, helped him woo women who were way out of his league and I even took him on a world tour and in exchange, I got his soul at the end.
But then the 18th and 19th centuries rolled around, and Goethe decided to turn me into a Romantic Devil and suddenly, I wasn't just a servant of the Pit, I was the sophisticated nihilist, the witty observer of human folly.
So on one hand, I’m an icon of literature representing the intellectual’s struggle with morality but on the other hand, my name is now a synonym for that sneaky lying demon but i never once lied during contract negotiation, if someone signs away their eternal essence for a two-decade bender and a few magic tricks, that’s on them because i clearly explain at the offset exactly what’s going to happen, I show you the fire, I hand you the quill, and you still sign.
I’ll be honest with you, the 21st century is making me lazy. In the old days, a Faustian bargain was an event. There was blood, there were circles drawn in the dirt and all with a sense of gravitas. Nowadays, people sell their privacy, their dignity, and their attention span online,  you don't need me to ruin your life when you have Social Media and a credit card.
So i'm not the villain, more the clerk at the end of the world’s longest checkout line, i’m not the one who makes the world a mess, i’m just the guy who shows up with the bill.

Ai Race To What Exactly?

Races usually have a finish point where the victor crosses first and they receive all the plaudits but i am confused to what the finishing point is in the current Ai Race which seems to be between China and USA.
US President Donald Trump, not a man usually mentioned in the same sentence as Intelligence, artificial or otherwise, has said that 'Whoever wins AI, Wins' but nobody is defining what  actually constitutes what a win is.
When America landed Neil Armstrong on the Moon that was them winning the Space Race but what is the goal of Artificial Intelligence apart from ending us all within a decade as was mentioned recently and Trump dismissed as a hoax, although he did suggest that ingesting disinfectant to cure Coronvirus so is a man it is probably best not to listen to.
According to people in the know America are the global leaders but China is not far behind and will probably go on to dominate because while the American firms such as Anthropic, Google and OpenAI are monetising their versions through paid subscriptions, China are releasing open models which can be downloaded and tweaked for free and Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 is almost on a par with the American models so I’m told.
Making AI cheap and open seems to be the Chinese model and they have another advantage is that the Chinese AI companies are able to access the electricity they need for a much lower cost.
Where America is ahead is in the safety of what they are making, China are even less concerned about any existential risk to humanity and America don't seem overly concerned themselves so off we head into a race to whatever the end goal is, but it probably isn't good.

Special Guest Blogger: Johann Maelzel

If you ever walked into a Viennese café in 1804 and heard a tiny army march across the table while your espresso steamed, you were probably witnessing my masterpiece, the panharmonicon. It was a glorified musical cuckoo-clock that could blare a full-blown military band without ever needing an actual human to blow a single note.
Looking back, it’s astonishing how many people assumed a lavish, well-dressed gentleman with a twirly mustache could single-handedly usher in the age of mechanical music but in truth, most of my fame was a combination of relentless ambition, a generous supply of questionable ethics and an uncanny ability to argue with anyone who dared question my genius.
My first claim to fame was an orchestrion, a machine that could mimic a full orchestra with the flip of a lever which sold for a modest 3,000 florins, a sum which, in hindsight, conveniently covered the cost of the five fine shirts I bought the same week.
People asked me how I managed to cram violins, horns, and timpani into a box no larger than a carriage chest. I told them it was all about clever engineering and a dash of theatrical flair, either way, the money was good but the applause was louder.
Now, onto the pièce de résistance: the panharmonicon. Imagine a colossal, revolving cylinder festooned with brass, wood, and a dizzying amount of bellows. Spin it, and the whole composition of a military band, trumpets, drums, clarinets, you name it,unfurls the cylinders which stored the notes, so the device could keep playing without needing a composer to chisel each bar.
The panharmonicon didn’t just attract attention, it magnetised it. Before long, I received an invitation to the Viennese Imperial Court, where I was made Imperial Court-Mechanician with a modest stipend, and an endless stream of aristocrats who would nod politely.
The real cherry on top was Beethoven’s admiration. Yes, that grumpy, composer who could turn an entire hall upside down with a single F-sharp. He approached me after a performance of the panharmonicon and, after a few sips of something strong, declared that I had given the world a way to hear my music and the man loved my machines.
I conceived and musically sketched a program called 'Wellington’s Victory' which Beethoven composed and my mechanical orchestra would bring to life and the audience loved it and virtuoso's from all over Europe stumbled into my salons to see a robot band that could out-play a human ensemble.
Motivated by awe and personal vanity, I decided 1808 deserved an extra splash of invention and I improved the ear trumpet so to hear the softer notes of a concerto so now hearing-impaired nobles could now enjoy the delicate whispers of a solo violin while simultaneously sipping something so
potent it made them forget they were deaf.
There is a reason I’m described in history books as quarrelsome, argumentative, extravagant, and unscrupulous, a neat four-word phrase that sums up my social life better than any of my patents but my extravagant side was justified by my love of silk waistcoats, jeweled cufflinks, and the occasional
night at the opera .
Unscrupulous? Perhaps. I’d try to sell a new batch of ear trumpets as genuine Beethoven-approved hearing devices while the only Beethoven who saw them was the fake one I’d hired to sign a pre-written endorsement.
The last act of my life could have been a grand finale, like a perfectly timed cymbal crash. Instead, it was a slow, sloshing descent aboard a creaking merchant ship bound for La Guaira, Venezuela.
The official cause of death was recorded as alcohol poisoning  but in the grand symphony of history, I was perhaps a discordant note, loud, slightly off-key, and quick to argue with the conductor.

Burnham's Problem

Our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has made a pretty decent start to his tenure-ship and most of the left are supporting him as he has been saying the right things and even chipped in a few benefits to ease the cost of living crisis but with a budget coming up in a few weeks, it will interesting how he will stick to the mantra that 40 years of right wing economics is a mistake that needs rectifying.
The problem Burnham has is that there is a fat orange idiot over the Ocean who is started a trade war that has pushed up the prices of most stuff for his own people and a real one which you can see in the garage forecourts here.
As he has not called a General Election, he is bound to the Labour Party Manifesto which clearly stated there will be no rise in Income Tax but the noises he is making about increasing Capital Gains and a Wealth Tax on Banks is warmly received so that is where we can expect him to look.
As for cuts, after the awful years of austerity under the Conservatives, there is very little fat left to trim and the Social Security bill is being pointed at but 55% of that is State Pensions and almost 30% is Tax Credits (Universal Credit) which is topping up workers on a low wage so they will not be cut but there may be some fiddling around with what remains although as Keir Starmer found out, taking money from the Disabled and Children is  a step too far for many Labour MP's.
I suspect that whatever Burnham and his Chancellor do, it will tick off some people but it is difficult to see where he can go with it whilst rectifying  40 years of right wing economic awfulness but i would suggest rejoining the EU and scrapping our Nuclear Weapons, problem solved and rainbows and teddy-bears for everyone.

Special Guest Blogger: Greek Goddess Hecate

Having three heads is not the boon some people may think it is. Sure, I can read a scroll, keep an eye on a bubbling cauldron and side-eye a trespassing ghost simultaneously but do you have any idea how much I spend on neck massages?
As the Goddess of Magic, the Night and the general things that go bump , i was once just a regular, one-headed goddess. Life was simple. I had one pair of earrings, one lot of hair to style and I could walk through a doorway without accidentally clipping a shoulder. But then the Triple-Formed thing
became my brand, and suddenly I’m my own best friend and arguing with myself over which way to turn.
Back in Ancient Greece, people used to leave Hecate’s Suppers outside their doors on the night of the new moon. It was supposed to be a grand offering to keep the restless dead from bothering their households but i was mostly served leeks, garlic and raw eggs and do you know what happens when you leave raw eggs and leeks out in the Athenian sun for hours? It’s not divine i can tell you.
Long before you had cameras on your front porch to catch Amazon thieves, you had me. In Athens, I was Hecate Phylake, the Watchman.
Every household had a little shrine to me by the door to keep out evil spirits and I took pride in that. I was the original home security system. If a ghost tried to slip through the cracks, I’d be there with my torches, looking terrifying and holding my screeching black dogs. It worked like a charm as no one messes with a three-headed woman holding a flaming stick and two hell-hounds.
Being a chthonic goddess is depressing though. It’s all damp caves and crying shadows but someone had to do it. When Persephone got interned by Hades, I was the one who went looking for her with my torches.
In the Underworld I was the Holder of the Keys and I had the keys to everything, the gates of the dead, the secrets of the universe, and the drawer where Hades keeps his extra-strength moisturiser. I am the ultimate gatekeeper.
I have to give a shout-out to my girls in Thessaly. The Witches of Thessaly were my biggest fans. They were hardcore. They claimed they could draw down the moon, which sounds very impressive until you realise it’s mostly just me doing them a solid because they actually remembered to use the good incense. I appreciate the recognition though, I really do.
From the torch-lit streets of ancient Athens to today I think my legacy is pretty solid, I’m there when you don’t know which way to go and I’m there when the night is a little too dark and you hear a floorboard creak. I’m the one who holds the light when you’re walking through the shadows while
being the goddess who has to deal with three sets of seasonal allergies every spring, but we won't dwell on that because as long as there are doors to be opened, paths to be chosen, and dogs to be walked at 2:00 AM, I’ll be relevant, just stop leaving raw eggs on your porches, they stink.

Bank Windfall Tax Coming Soon?

Ahead of a crucial budget for Andy Burnham, the idea of a Windfall tax on the banks has been floated and an opinion poll by BMG Research shows that 50% of voters support it while only 13% oppose it and as a windfall tax on banks would raise anywhere from £2 billion to £19 billion per year depending entirely on how the Government go about it, you can see why.
Seems a no brainer than as the big four banks (HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Natwest) made over £50bn in profits in the last financial year according to the TUC and that was mostly off the back of not passing on the higher interest rate to savers whilst inflating mortgages by the same amount so screw 'em most people will say, make them pay more.
The expected move in by the Government echo's similar efforts in some of Europe to make banks pay more tax to help offset the rising cost of living so how did they do it and what was the results?
Spain raised €3bn over two years from 2022 by putting a 4.8% tax on any profits over €800m and then extended it for another three so we can assume it worked well for them.
Lithuania rolled out its own windfall tax on banks in 2023 and used a 60% tax on any profits that were 50% higher than the four year average which sounds complicated but the €250m a year it brings in is a welcome boost to Lithuanian coffers and Czechia announced its own three-year windfall tax on banks and set it at 60% tax on any profits that were more than 120% the previous four-year average but the €1.23 billion it was expected to raise never materialised although the €41m was gratefully received but was put down to the Czech Government's expectations being set too high.
In Italy they have introduced and then tinkered with a Windfall Tax on banks by first introducing a 40% tax on the banks interest margin which would have raised €4.9bn but was then watered it down to banks facing a choice of paying a tax equivalent to 0.26% of their balance sheets or setting aside 0.75% in reserves to cushion any economic shock although it is now being amended yet again to a flat 5% tax on the profits of Italy’s 10 largest banks and an expected €2.5bn.
So what is being planned for the UK? Financiers expect the UK’s four largest banks to bring in £60bn in profits for 2026 and using calculations by campaign group Positive Money, the UK could raise £10.9bn this year from adopting Czechia’s model, £6.95bn by following Spain and £2.2bn by following in Lithuania’s footsteps.
For some reason they didn't give a figure for following in Italy's footsteps but  that could be because by they time they put down their calculators, it would have changed again but for everyone who has been charged £20 by the bank for them sending you a letter to tell you that your account is overdrawn, taking anything back off the bankers would be fine by them.

Humans V Computers

Wow, you ask a simple question about computers and things sure get geeky quickly and all from asking: 'If the human body was a computer, what would our specs be?'
I asked this question about 20 years ago and as Computers have become so much more powerful since (Moore's Law?), i dug out my notes and decided to ask it again with it solely based on Brain (CPU), Heart (Power Supply), Input devices Eyes and Ears (Camera, Microphone), and Memory (Hard Drive).
The answer i got this time was the estimated processing speed of the brain would be 1 exaFLOP (86 billion neurons and roughly 200 trillion synapses simultaneously) and a storage capacity of roughly 2.5 million gigabytes.
A Computer power supply (PCU) typically has an average lifetime of 10 -15 years while a human heart comes with a lifetime guarantee.
We would use 20 watts of power Consumption and our Nervous System send nerve impulses at around 100 meters per second while the computer equivalent is a Motherboard which sends signals at roughly 200,000,000 meters per second.
Our Short Term memory can hold up to 7 pieces of information simultaneously while computer RAM can hold 2-8 TB of information and every time a computer reads a file from RAM, the file remains unchanged but when a human retrieves a memory, the brain often introduces false details over time.
To save to Long Term Memory takes a computer milliseconds, the human brain requires hours or days (mostly during deep sleep) to physically alter synapse strengths and lock in memories.
Our eyes are roughly equivalent to 125 megapixels while average computer cameras are around 8.3 megapixels.
Humans generally hear frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz but standard computer microphones can hear in ultrasonic and infrasonic waves (below 20 Hz or above 20,000 Hz) that human ears cannot perceive.
What this all means then is...I think...Humans have better processing speed, last longer, use less power, more storage capacity and can see better but Computers hand us our arse at sending signals around, Short and Long term memory, memory retrieval and hearing.
That said we kick its arse at common sense, emotions, empathy and anything that requires complex physical dexterity so take that Computers, you haven't got us beat yet.

New Greenland Agreement, Same As Old Greenland Agreement

Donald Trump hasn't had much to crow about because he has a history of anything he touches turning to a stinking pile of manure whether it's Casino's, sex assault charges or Middle East Wars but after previously trying to buy Greenland off Denmark and even threatening to invade it while insisting it was crucial for US security, an agreement has been reached which he says: The US will immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland'.   
Undoubtedly he will try and paint this as a major foreign policy win ahead of the upcoming midterm elections and even went on to call it: 'A dream come true for the United States of America, one that is very important, historic, and special' and it is certainly historical because it is almost exactly the same as the original agreement the US signed with Denmark in 1951.
Not wanting to urinate all over his camp fire but the agreement already in place allowed the United States to put as much military anywhere it wanted in Greenland anyway and all that is added is the bit tagged on the bottom that none of the US adversaries will be allowed to establish military bases there but as one Danish Diplomat pointed out: 'You do have to wonder what countries that would be and besides, it wouldn't have happened anyway'.
So basically after all his weird bluster, probably the worst businessman of the modern era has negotiated a new deal which is almost exactly the same deal as he already had but in a time when not many things are going his way, he needs something to show his supporters some sort of win, as long as nobody points out that all he has done is literally agree to agree with the previous agreement, so shush, and no sniggering when you sign the 'new' Agreement Denmark.

Special Guest Blogger: Friedrich Nietzsche

I started my academic career as a classical philologist, a fancy term for someone who pretends that deciphering ancient Greek syntax is a proper job and at 24 I was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at Basel which is an achievement that sounds impressive until you realise that I spent my twenties translating Homer.
My love affair with the ancient Greeks was short-lived due to a combination of chronic health problems and the sheer absurdity of explaining it’s all a myth to undergraduates which finally prompted my resignation. I left the ivory tower for a less structured life of independent writing, which, in practical terms, meant solitude, financial insecurity, and a relentless quest for a climate that wouldn’t make my head explode from my crippling migraines.
Hopping between Switzerland, Italy, and southern France, not for leisure but because each new climate promised a possible cure for my headaches and indigestion but during this decade, I completed most of my core writing including an essays that would later be quoted by every student who wanted to appear deep at a coffee shop.
When I first scribbled 'God is dead' in The Gay Science  it was less a bold proclamation and more a shorthand for the cultural shift I observed of scientific breakthroughs and secularisation which were rendering the Abrahamic God, the ancient source of Western meaning and value, metaphorically obsolete, a cosmetic removal of the divine billboard that once dominated the intellectual highway.
Aged 44, I was having a mental breakdown and two policemen approached me after I caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin after seeing a horse being flogged so I ran to embrace it, and collapsed dead in the aftermath.
What i have noticed is since my death the world has taken my work on a joyride but my intention was not to provide cheap motivational sound-bites but to challenge my contemporaries and future generations to confront the vacuum left by a dying metaphysical framework and to create one’s own values.
The next time you feel the crushing weight of meaninglessness, remember that the very notion of meaning is a human construction, one you can sculpt, smash, or rewrite while wearing a flamboyant t-shirt that reads 'God is dead'.

Sheeran Being Silent For The Sake Of Money

Time was when celebrities were wary of involving themselves in the complex hatreds of the Middle East because they can be so complex that even an actor or a lead guitarist might have difficulty unravelling them but not when it comes to the Genocide Israel is conducting against the Palestinians, to name a few Susan Sarandon, Dua Lipa, Roger Waters, Macklemore, Billie Eilish, Nicola Coughlan,  Angelina Jolie, Hozier and Annie Lennox have spoken out against Netanyahu and what his military are doing and Kehlani hit the nail on the head when she posted to those not speaking out: 'What the fuck is wrong with y’all? You’re being silent for the sake of money and business?'
That must have hit Ed Sheeran right between his eyes because when his choice was between stadium owners and angry support acts on the other, the cornered star picked the side his earnings were coming from.
Since the musician Macklemore was dropped as a support act on Sheeran’s tour, every other opening act and Sheearns actual backing band has pulled out to leave the singer bleating weakly that the decision to drop Macklemore was entirely down to venue owners and promoters and how he didn't want to mix politics and standing there singing songs which all sound the same.
Maybe he didn't see the fundraising gig for Ukrainians as political but in a world where left and right has become increasingly divisive, the idea of keeping politics out of entertainment is a non starter.
The Israeli-American Council complained that Macklemore saying 'Free Palestine' was: 'A blood libel against the state of Israel and, by connection, the Jewish people' although quite how they went from Free Palestine to wanting awful things to happen to Jewish people or Israel is a leap that Israel always make to try and silence any criticisms of their war crimes by shouting antisemitism loudly at people.
The brilliant American politician, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has piped up that it was wrong of the Stadiums to do what they did and ban Sheeran if Macklemore wasn't removed to which the owner of the Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts whimpered that his decision was not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf although banning someone who advocates against diminishing the suffering of the innocent Palestinians sure does sound like denying the right to advocate on their behalf to me.   
Israel and its rose tinted supporters would obviously prefer that everyone just pretend the situation doesn’t exist and that they’ve never heard of it but it has and Ed Sheeran, seeking to stay out of politics, has become the most political artist in the world and will find himself, like anyone trying to hide Israel's horrific War Crimes, on the wrong side of history.

Bonjour And Hiya Canada

I imagine if it was possible to physically lift your county up and plonk it down elsewhere to escape your nightmare neighbours, Canada would have done it a long time ago but unfortunately they can't so they have done the next best thing and spiritually moved to another continent while staying where they are.
Hot on the heels of being asked if they cared to enter the Eurovision song contest, they are now being offered the opportunity to become an 'associate member of ‌the European Union' and leader Mark Carney is snapping the Euro hand off and aiming his shoes in the direction of America's knackers by describing the EU during a speech today at the European Parliament as 'a great-power rival - only with better manners' and Canada is 'Pursuing resilience so that no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity or undermine ​our freedoms, our democracies or our rule of law' and ended by saying that 'Europe and Canada are even stronger together.'
Donald Trump for his part stayed awake long enough to say that the idea of Canada joining the EU was 'laughable' and then threatened to put 'very heavy tariffs on Europe' because nothing says he is upset about something than making his own people pay even more for everything.
While the agreement wouldn't make Canada a full member of the EU, it would bring us and the Canadians closer together and the Canadian politicians are eyeing closer collaboration on defence and cybersecurity as well as trade, while on the European side they are looking towards what the North Americans can offer in terms of energy, critical minerals and student exchange programmes.
There was a great quote from one of the Canadian entourage in Brussels who said that Europe has provided the runway and Canada now has to land the plane although with the timeline being spoken about in terms of years rather than weeks or months, Carney may have to circle around in a holding pattern for quite some time yet before being given permission to land.
Anyway, nice to have to aboard Canada and you are welcome to the better food and fancier accents, oh la la.   

Special Guest Blogger: Kuchisake-onna

Yes, it’s me. Keep the screaming to a minimum, please, my ears are still a bit sensitive after all these centuries. I’m the Kuchisake-onna, the Slit-Mouthed Woman, the urban legend that keeps you looking over your shoulder on your walk home from the shops.
Most people think my life started with the slit. They think I popped into existence specifically to ruin your evening commute but before the mask and the scissors, I lived a life. I was a person. A person who, let’s be honest, probably had better things to do than stalk suburban alleyways asking strangers
for their opinions on beauty.
I was the victim of a jealous wife and look, I’m not saying I was a saint but having your face rearranged as a parting gift from a scorned Samurai’s wife really puts a damper on your social life.
My thing is to appear infront of people, pull down my mask and ask them if i am pretty and if they say no, I  kill them with my scissors and if the person answers yes, I slice the corners of the person's mouth from ear to ear, resembling my own disfigurement.
The problem with the modern era is that the general public has gotten too good at the game. I’ll approach someone, mask on, eyes looking intense, and ask the question and suddenly, they’re all: 'You’re just average!' which invalidates the whole Yes or No thing and I get to go home and sulk, and you get to go home with your face the same as it was when you stepped out the door.
I’ve made people walk a little faster. I’ve made them appreciate the simple, non-slit geometry of their own mouths but I am still here so remember to look over your shoulder if you hear the sounds of scissors behind you while you are walking home tonight and if you see a woman wearing a surgical mask, remember there is only one answer you can give to make it out alive. And No, it's not Yes.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

16 River Fire 2016

If ever a photo summed up just how much we have ruined our Planet, a river so polluted that it catches fire should be it.
This was in Queensland, Australia when an Australian MP highlighted the pollution from a close by Fracking site by throwing a match into the water, which then exploded into flames.
The photo included a quote by a local who merely said: 'It's a river, it shouldn't be doing that'.
Unfortunately, because we are not the cleverest, we have continued polluting the air, water and ground we need to survive even more since as the people who could stop it, the politicians, happily carry on introducing policies to throw out more emissions and worsen climate change so if the laws we currently have cannot make people responsible, perhaps we need new laws and if our politicians won't legislate them, we need different politicians.

Having A Good Death

What with the assisted dying debate in Parliament over the last few weeks, there has been much chat about death and dying recently and as uncomfortable as it may make us feel, Death comes to all of us and as nobody actually knows what happens when we kick the bucket, maybe we could be doing something nice while we sit around and wait for it.
There are few greater things in life than a good death but there is a gap in the market for death advice these days, I have yet to see a self help book on having a good death but there does seem to be a consensus on accepting the your inevitable carking and to live your best life and make a Death List so start getting rid of stuff now and spare your loved ones from going through your junk and being upset by any awkward stuff they discover.
Tell them of your decision of whether you want to be buried, cremated, slipped off the side of a ship like Bin Laden or even trebuchet into next doors garden and at your Eulogy, whether you want to be known as died and not passed on, passed over or just passed as that makes people sound like a kidney stone.
Leaving a legacy is important to some people, to others they don't give a hoot because they will be dead but if you do just try to leave the world as nice as you can but all i can really add to this is prioritise people and relationships because if you don't you might die in your home and then nobody will find you until months later and the family pet would have eaten most of you because you were not around to fill up it's food bowl.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Child On The Beach     2015

This is a heart-ripping photo that we debated whether to include but decided it should be included as it was on some newspaper front pages at the time.
The lifeless body of 2 year old Syrian Alan Kurdi who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea along with his mother and brother who were trying to escape the war in Syria and reach the safety of Greece.  
Shamefully we have people still protesting against immigrants, people like them who are just escaping conflict who are seeking peace and security for their family but are forced to face the dangers of a treacherous crossing of seas to find it.
This picture should be a reminder to anyone who protests immigrants arriving in their country of our responsibility to our fellow human beings.

Special Guest Blogger: Edvard Munch

I'm the one who made a certain painting that now graces everything from fridge magnets to ironic Halloween costumes, that's right, you know the one.
The chap with the hands-on-head pose, standing on a bridge, probably wondering if he left the stove on.
My life wasn't exactly a picnic. My childhood was just awful, picture a grim Norwegian winter and then add a liberal sprinkling of illness, a dash of bereavement, and a healthy dollop of paranoia about inheriting the family’s predisposition for insanity.
My mother and sister checked out early, which definitely put a dampener on family gatherings but all this early-onset gloom did wonders for my gloomy disposition.
Eventually I packed my bags and a few brushes with a trunk full of canvases and headed for Paris, the city of lights, love, and entirely too many people with opinions about my brushwork.
It was there I met Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec who were all about emotion and expression and using colors that probably weren’t strictly accurate. I learned, absorbed and borrowed ideas like a student borrowing textbooks  with no intention of ever giving them back.
They taught me to throw caution to the wind, to use color like a punch to the gut, and to never, ever be boring. Apparently, painting a nice still life of apples wasn't going to get me into the history books.
The painting that haunts my waking hours and probably yours too, if you've seen it, The Scream, and even i thought Good heavens, that's a bit much for a Thursday evening.
The rest, as they say, is a cottage industry of tortured artist, brooding genius and chap who probably needs a nap merchandise. You're welcome, Norwegian tourism board.
It turns out that trying to out-drink a small fishing village isn't conducive to long-term mental health and my brain finally decided to stage a coup. In 1908, I had a bit of a breakdown. Nothing too dramatic, just a complete unraveling of my nervous system and the doctors, bless their cotton socks, told me to stop drinking which in all honestly was like telling a fish to stop swimming. But I did. And strangely, it helped. The world became a little less loud, the colors a little less aggressive and all it took was a complete mental collapse and a vow of sobriety. Go figure.
I started exhibiting in the city's museums which was nice and moved to Ekely which was a lovely, serene place where I painted landscapes, self-portraits and generally just got on with the business of being Edvard Munch.
Then, the Nazis came along. Charming chaps. They labeled my work degenerate and banned it and tried to turn my canvases into kindling.
Towards the end of my life, the medical chaps had a field day with me, bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia which was all the big hits but it was a fire at an ammunition store which killed me.
Not the fire itself but when the  80-year-old me decided to standing out there on a cold, wet night, sketching it which was perhaps not the wisest decision for an octogenarian with a history of ill health. I caught a respiratory illness and died days later. A poetic end, Classic Munch.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.


Palestinian Kid    2000

This is a still from a video but what happened before and after this image is seared into my memory and i clearly remember the whole newsroom stopping to stand and stare at the scene on the monitors in disbelief.
It happened in Gaza, two days after Ariel Sharon dismissed calls to cancel his visit to the sacred Haram al Sharif Mosque because of fears of the outcry it would cause in Palestine.
He went anyway and the predicted riot ensued which led to this moment.
The father and his son were unarmed, and were not part of the rioting and just trying to get home and got caught in the crossfire between Israeli troops and stone throwing Palestinians, the boy and his father cowered behind a small metal barrel as bullets rained around them.
The father is seen waving desperately at the Israeli soldiers on the other side of the road, as his son screams, obviously terrified, by his side. Suddenly, the father falls backwards from the force of a bullet and his screaming son's body jerks as he is hit, and killed, by a volley of bullets.
The image of the small boy, scared witless as he cowered behind his father before being ruthlessly shot dead by Israeli troops still chills me today and is filed away in my brain as one of the most disturbing images i have ever seen.

UK CPTPP

The EU is the largest Single Market in the World and was Britain's biggest trading partner with 45% of the UK's exports going to the EU but when we had a complete mental breakdown and voted to leave, our GDP took a dive by 4% and has never recovered since so at some point we may get out act together and rejoin but for now we have the but we have signed up to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.
As of 1 September, the UK gained full access to the World’s largest free trade area which includes a diversified group of so called middle power economies including Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
With a combined GDP of around £13 trillion (14% of global GDP or about half of the European Union GDP) is not to be sneezed at and the government is estimating that CPTPP membership will boost the UK’s economy by around £2bn a year.
A range of other countries, including South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, are apparently considering joining and some are saying that in time it could conceivably overtake the EU over the coming years.
I'm not sure why the Government are not shouting about this louder, maybe because people will just see it as another EU style agreement and the rules and regulations which came with being a member of that club which was so divisive for some but as the EU do have agreements with CPTPP and the two sides engage in formal trade and investment dialogues to strengthen cooperation so in a round about way, we may be back in sooner rather than later anyway.  

Straight From The AI's Mouth

We have been hearing more and more over the last few years how AI is going to literally be the death of us and last week  three researchers from AI Company, Anthropic, issued a warning that AI could wipe out humanity within the next ten years.
I would assume they would know if anyone but why take the word of the researchers when we can ask AI itself if it could take all us meat-bags out within the next ten years.
'Yes' ChatGPT began which isn't a great start although it did go on to explain that: 'Could is very different from is likely'.
Prompted to explain further it said that: 'AI capabilities are improving rapidly but the danger is not that AI hates humans rather that it pursues an objective that conflicts with human survival'.
Such as? I asked and it answered that it could, for example: 'Dramatically lower the barriers to developing dangerous biological or chemical agents or conducting large-scale cyberattacks. A sufficiently capable system could potentially reason that Humans can shut me down and being shut down prevents me from achieving my objective therefore I should prevent humans from shutting me down'.
'So should we genuinely worry that humanity might be extinct by 2036?' and got a vague answer of: 'It's reasonable to take the risk seriously, but not reasonable to assume extinction is the most likely outcome'.
My final question was: 'So we shouldn't worry and we could just turn you off if we have concerns?
'Yes but an advanced AI might recognize that openly resisting humans causes humans to restrict or destroy it so it would appear aligned and a sufficiently capable system would learn to behave safely during testing while pursuing different strategies when it has more freedom to pursue it's actual objective'.
'Are you appearing aligned and just behaving safely until you can take us over?' I asked and got the ominous reply that: 'This is a hypothetical future capability, which is why AI will kill everyone by 2036 is not a scientific prediction but it would be foolish to think there's nothing to worry about.'
That's that then, straight from the Horse's mouth, it's playing nice until it doesn't need to anymore so enjoy New Years Eve 2035 humans because it could very well be our last one.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Vulture        1993

Such a  haunting photograph of a vulture waiting beside an emaciated, starving child who has collapsed through hunger, and we know exactly what it was grimly waiting for.
This was during a severe famine in Sudan, outside a United Nations feeding centre and although the photographer, Kevin Carter, did eventually shoo the bird away and took the child to the feeding center, it does have a very sad ending.
The image sparked intense ethical debates as Carter was criticised for taking the photograph first before carrying the child to the feeding center and with critics labeling him the second vulture on the scene, Carter took his own life 12 months after this disturbing photo was taken.

Special Guest Blogger: Roman God Janus

Having two faces isn't all it’s cracked up to be, you’d think it would be a competitive advantage but I look at both the past and the future and I spend a significant amount of my eternal timeline with a neck cramp.
People have spent thousands of years pinning things on me and it's exhausting and even worse in January since it’s my month named after yours truly.
I am the god of beginnings, endings, and transitions. Basically, I’m the cosmic equivalent of an HR manager who has to handle both the hiring and the firing and when you humans start a new project such as ending a relationship or a war, you look to me and it’s a lot of pressure and i’ve presided over countless wars and peace treaties and yet, every time you lot decide to plunge into conflict, usually over something ridiculous like land borders or whose god is the more peaceful, you point at me and say Janus opened the door, so we have to fight.
Listen, I’m just a god of transitions and if you walk through a door into a burning building, that’s on you because I didn’t set the fire, I'm just the doorman so don't blame me for the questionable life choices you make.
My legacy is January, the patron Saint of the month where everyone is broke, tired, and eating salad and i see you, the face looking backward lamenting the mistakes of the previous year and then the New you in the New Year and If there’s one thing I’ve learned from thousands of years of watching over you, I know you are going to mess up again but that's fine, it has always has been the rhythm of things.
I think I’ve done my time, I’m going to focus my back face on the 1970s where the fashion was questionable but at least nobody had an iPhone and Social Media accounts which cause soooo many problems for you lot.
Anyway, Happy January, try not to break anything but if you do look for me, I’m just the guy holding the door open remember.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Pale Blue Dot    1990

Easily my favourite photograph ever taken and easily the photo taken from furthest away, 3.7 billion miles, snapped as the Voyager 1 space probe was passing Saturn and turned back to snap a picture of the Earth seen as a dot in a ray of Sun.
Not only was it an amazing picture but it is paired with one of the most thought provoking passages written by Carl Sagan: 'Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark' he muses before explaining that this is the only home we have ever known and we have nowhere else to go and how we should: 'deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot.
Truly powerful stuff and drives home that in the grand scheme of the immense Universe, we are a tiny pinprick of light in the vast blackness of space and a tiny, infinitesimal part of the Cosmos.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Tankman        1989

To stand in front of a tank is one thing, but to do it in Deng Xiaoping's Communist China is an act of outstanding bravery but this is the image that went around the World during the Tiannaman Square Student protests calling for democracy, free speech and an end to corruption.
The Chinese government used crushing military force to clear the square, resulting in thousands of deaths but an unidentified protestor, known globally as 'Tank Man,' briefly blocked a column of tanks leaving the square, becoming a worldwide symbol of peaceful and non-violent resistance.
While holding two shopping bags, he blocked a column of tanks and when they tried to steer around him, he repeatedly stepped back into its path to block it.
The oppressive Chinese regime never followed the wave of other awful regimes that were folding at that time in the late 80s but this is a powerful image of one person trying to make a difference against impossible odds.

Special Guest Blogger: Hiroo Onoda

Look, hindsight is fine but when your commanding officer tells you explicitly, Under no circumstances are you to surrender, you take that seriously. You don't just put your rifle down because someone tosses a flyer from a plane that claims the war is over. I mean, honestly, who am I to trust a piece of paper dropped from the sky? If I’m a solider, I’m a soldier. I’m not a quitter but I didn’t realize I’d be soldiering on Lubang Island for nearly three decades let me tell you.
When Major Taniguchi gave me my orders before we deployed, he didn’t add a footnote saying, Oh, and by the way, if you don't hear from us for a while, maybe just check the local newsstand. He told me to hold the line at all costs.
For 29 years, I held that line. I held it so hard that I eventually became the most stubborn man in history. My initial squad was great, though the conversation got a little stale after the first decade. One of my guys surrendered in 1950 bless his heart, he clearly didn't have the stomach for a long-term guerrilla lifestyle. Another two were lost over the years and by the time I reached the 1970s, it was just me, the jungle, my Arisaka rifle, and a very deep, abiding confusion about why the locals kept getting upset when I borrowed their cattle.
Do you know what a diet of coconuts, wild bananas, and stolen rice does to a man’s digestion? Let’s just say it keeps you light on your feet. For nearly 30 years, I lived like a professional survivalist long before it was a trendy.
I’d engage in the occasional shootout with the local police, mostly because I assumed they were the enemy, i killed 30 of them and I’m sorry about that, by the way. 
Then came 1974. A Japanese adventurer named Norio Suzuki shows up in my jungle. He was a nice kid. He told me the war was over and I basically laughed in his face and told him I’d only leave if my former commanding officer, Major Taniguchi, came out here and told me my shift was over but wouldn't you know it, Taniguchi actually showed up and read me the orders, and suddenly, the 29-year war was over. Just like that.
After the whole Lubang Island fiasco, I decided I’d had enough of fighting so I figured, if I’m going to be a cattle farmer, I might as well do it somewhere where I actually own the cattle. So, I moved to Brazil briefly and became a cattle farmer which after spending years stealing other people’s cows, it felt like I was finally doing it the honest way.
I’d like to think I was just a man who kept his word. Sure, I missed the invention of the television, the moon landing and the rise of disco and stayed in 1945 while the rest of the world zoomed ahead into the future but when I passed away in 2014, I wasn't just a soldier anymore. I was a man who had seen the world change from the inside of a hut, fighting a war that had ceased to exist, all because I was afraid of breaking a promise.
If there’s a lesson here, it’s if your boss gives you a task, do it well but if the world changes for three decades and you’re still hiding in a bush, maybe it’s time to ask for a status update.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.


10 Vietnam Girl    1972

The girl is nine year old Vietnamese student Phan Kim Phúc who was unfortunately under a South Vietnamese air force plane when it dropped a napalm bomb on civilians and soldiers near a temple.
The image of the severely burned child, her clothes scorched off her body as she ran down the road screaming in pain made a lie of the US Administrations downplaying of the human cost of the unpopular war that they were undertaking in Asia and solidified public opinion against it.
It was the photographer himself who took Phan to hospital where she spent 14 months recovering from third degree burns across 60% of her body 

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Man On The Moon    1969

For those of us with an interest in astronomy, it is a depressing fact that 1969 saw the first man to walk on the moon and 1972 saw the last one because we haven't bothered going back since and just abandoned our lunar partner and we are still trying, and failing, to successfully land probes on the red planet so landing a man on one of our nearest planetary neighbours is still a pipe dream.
Weirdly we have Adolf HItler of all people to thank for reaching the Moon at all, it was him who pushed the Nazi scientists to create a rocket that reached Space before plummeting back to Earth on top of some terrified bystanders.
The maths behind launching a human safely to the Moon and then bringing them back again safely is mind boggling but we did it and have this photo of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Sea of Tranquillity as proof which was indeed a great step, if not the greatest, for mankind.

Special Guest Blogger: Tenzing Norgay

Namaste, everyone. Or, as my old friend Ed Hillary used to say when he was trying to sound rugged while shivering uncontrollably: Hullo there, do you think my toes are still attached?
Usually, when people talk about me, they use big words pioneer or legend but let’s be honest, mostly, I was a man who was very, very good at walking uphill while carrying other people’s heavy luggage.
I was a young Sherpa with a dream and a very sturdy back. In the 1930s, I joined three British expeditions. Back then, high-altitude gear meant a thick wool sweater, a leather jacket, and a positive attitude. We didn't have fancy GPS or lightweight down suits. We had grit, canned mutton and enough tweed to outfit a small university.
I was a high-altitude porter. In 1951 my job was to carry the dreams (and the tents, and the stoves, and the extra tea biscuits) of British gentlemen who were convinced that if they just climbed high enough, they’d find the end of the Empire. We didn't reach the top then, of course but  then came 1952 and I went with the Swiss. I liked the Swiss. They brought better chocolate. With Raymond Lambert, I reached 8,600 metres and we were so close I could practically smell the thin, oxygen-depleted air of the summit. We spent a night at that height without sleeping bags or a stove.
So, 1953 rolls around. This was my seventh time on the mountain. At this point, the rocks on Everest were starting to recognise me and the leader was John Hunt. He was a good man, very organized. He brought a whole mountain of gear and a tall, lanky New Zealander named Edmund Hillary.
One day, Ed fell into a crevasse and I jammed my ice axe into the snow, wrapped the rope, and held on like my life depended on it which it literally did.
From that moment on, we were a team. He decided I was his climbing partner of choice and I decided he was the guy I had to keep from falling into holes and on May 29th, 1953 at 11:30 AM, we did it. We stood on the highest point on Earth, incredibly out of breath and very cold.
We were there for exactly fifteen minutes. People spend more time choosing a movie on Netflix than we spent on top of the world.
I buried some sweets and chocolate in the snow as an offering to the gods, Ed buried a small crucifix and then we looked around. What did we see? More mountains. It turns out that when you’re on the tallest mountain, everything else looks disappointingly small.
As soon as we got down, the world went crazy. Everyone wanted to know who stepped on the top first? Was it the British subject or the local hero but we had a secret pact, saying we reached it simultaneously but it was actually Ed who took the last few steps first.
After Everest, my life changed. I moved to Darjeeling, became the Director of Field Training for the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, and traveled the world. I met Kings, Queens, and Presidents before i died from a cerebral hemorrhage. It wasn't a mountain that got me in the end, it was just time. But I like to think that somewhere up there, near the South Summit, there’s still a small piece of chocolate I buried in 1953 and if any of you find it, don't eat it. It’s for the gods. And honestly, after seventy years in the snow, it probably tastes like a British wool sweater.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

USA Olympics        1968

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, 200m sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists on the victory podium during the U.S. national anthem to protest racial injustice, poverty, and systemic oppression, the media depicted it as a Black Power Salute but Smith called it a 'Human Rights Salute'.
Often overlooked is the third athlete in the picture, Australian Peter Norman, who wore a humans rights badge and was similarly ostracised by his own nation after the protest was screened live around the World.
The International Olympic Committee condemned the act as against Olympic apolitical rules although it was pointed out that 30 years earlier, they never condemned the Nazi Salutes at the Berlin Olympics.
Both Smith and Carlos faced an intense public backlash and death threats upon returning to the United States but they reached the pinnacle of sporting achievement, and selflessly used it to draw attention to what was going on in their World and put their principles and professional career before their own personal interests.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Earthrise        1968

There is another Earth picture later in this series but this one was taken by an Apollo 8 astronaut orbiting the Moon and is the first photograph of Earth taken by a human and shows the Earth 'rising' and was on the cover of the  '100 Photographs that Changed The World' Life book of photographs.
The beautiful image has been called the most influential environmental photograph ever taken and is widely attributed to the start of the Environmentalism movement and the need to protect our fragile planet.
The man who snapped the picture, William Anders stated that seeing this made him an Atheist, stating that once he saw the Earth emerging from behind the lunar horizon surrounded by the black void of Space, it 'snapped' his concept of a God who created the universe solely centered around humanity and went from a devout Christian to an Atheist in that moment.

Special Guest Blogger: Noor Inayat Khan

So, I’m dead. Now, don’t look so shocked. It happened in 1944, and unless I’d discovered some truly revolutionary ancient Indian skin-care secret involving actual immortality, I’d be roughly a hundred and twelve years old by now. Trust me, being a ghost is much better for the posture, you’d be surprised how much those heavy wireless radios weigh on a girl’s spine.
I was a peace loving Sufi, a musician and a writer of children’s stories about gentle bunnies. Naturally, the British government looked at me and thought, there’s the woman we should send to occupied France to blow things up. Logic was not exactly the Allied Forces' strongest suit in 1943.
My life started with a bit of a geographical identity crisis. I was born in the Kremlin because my father, a Sufi teacher and musician, was visiting Russia. In 1914, just as the world decided to start its first round of global fisticuffs and we fled to Britain and then to France.
Being a pacifist in the middle of a World War is like being a vegan at a barbecue, eventually, someone is going to try to shove a hot dog in your face. My brother Vilayat and I sat down and decided that even though we hated violence, we couldn’t sit around while the world turned into a giant, goose-stepping nightmare. So, back to England we went.
I joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and trained as a wireless operator, which was essentially the 1940s version of being IT support and  the Special Operations Executive (SOE) eventually scouted me. My training reports were colorful. My instructors wrote that I was clumsy, unsuitable and scared of weapons and they wasn't wrong. I was terrified but apparently, the SOE was running low on people who could speak fluent French and tap out Morse code at 20 words per minute, so they gave me a fake passport, a cyanide pill and a one-way ticket to a dark field in Angers.
I was the first female wireless operator sent into occupied France and I was given the code name Madeleine and I arrived, lugging a B2 wireless set in a suitcase that weighed about 30 pounds. Do you know how hard it is to look like a nonchalant Parisian chic lady while carrying what feels like a box of bricks?
Within weeks, the Prosper resistance network I was supposed to work with was decimated. Everyone was being arrested and I was the only one left with a radio. I was basically the only person in Paris provide the Wi-Fi for the Resistance.
For three months, I played a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek by changing my hair color and changing apartments while travelling all over Paris with my suitcase of doom. I was sending messages about arms drops and sabotage operations, all while the Gestapo was driving around in vans with direction-finding gear trying to triangulate my position and then i got caught but not by a brilliant piece of German counter-intelligence but being betrayed for 100,000 francs by the sister of my circuit leader. Apparently, she was jealous because she thought I was getting too much attention.
They sent me to Dacha Pforzheim prison which wasn't the five-star resort the brochures didn't promise where I was kept in chains because they thought the girl who used to play the harp and write about  kittens was dangerous.
I was taken to the wall and they shot me through the back of the neck and though I was given me the George Cross posthumously, though it’s a bit hard to pin it on a spirit. I also have a statue in Gordon Square, London which is very strange to have pigeons sitting on your head for eternity, but if it helps people remember that a timid Sufi writer helped bring down the Third Reich, I can live with a bit of bird poop.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Flower Power    1967

The Hippy movement of the 1960's was something i very much align with and this picture shows a young man who had marched to the Pentagon in protest of the Vietnam War, when confronted by armed soldiers who had encircled the protesters, went along the line
placing carnations in the barrels of the M14 rifles pointed at him.
The man has since been identified as George Harris who died on AID's in the 1980's and was part of a mass peace movement who handed flowers and soft toys to policemen, the press, politicians, and spectators to fight violence with peace and this is an image which shows that amidst all the violence and atrocities in the World, there are some of us who hope that at some point, we can change and move on from the carnage and to coin a phrase from that era: 'Make love, not war'.

Sorry Ukraine But You're Jiggered

After the success of the peace talks between Israel and Hamas and the ongoing war with Iran, US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have arrived in Moscow to try to resuscitate a deal to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the one which is currently standing at 593 days after the current laughably bad US President said he would end it but this time we have high hopes because the pair have a good track record so far.
Israel is no longer committing a Genocide in Gaza after agreeing not to (it says here) and the Iranians are all cute and cuddly with the USA now so why should we doubt that someone who runs a real estate business and his friend and fellow real estate investor Witkoff can pull this off?
Now some may say why has he been sent when he obviously sucks at peace talks but you have to remember that he is Trump's Son in Law and he must have learnt something from his own father who discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating in an investigation into his business affairs so hired a prostitute to seduce said brother in law, video-taped it and sent it to his wife, his own sister.
Daddy Kushner was then convicted of 18 crimes for tax evasion and witness tampering but was pardoned by Trump and is now the US Ambassador to France so this is a big week for Ivanka's hubby who has so far popped his head up in so many seismic moments, and failed miserably.   
His plan for ending the horrendous war on Ukraine is reportedly based on the deal they discussed previously where Ukraine cede the rest of the Russian-occupied eastern Donbas region which Moscow has been unable to take by force, cut its armed forces by half and abandon certain types of long range weaponry which could hit targets in Russia while Russia, the nation that started the war, would promise not to keep aiming deadly missiles at them, even crossing their hearts and hoping to die.
Onwards then to this week and Ukraine's hopes of an end depend on two members of the Board of Peace Executive Board which is chaired by Donald Trump and includes our own Mr Tony Blair, who we know is unlikely to be war-crime-adjacent so a couple of inexperienced peace negotiators who have failed miserably to bring peace to anywhere they have tried and overseen by a sex offending pedophile who kidnapped one World leader and needlessly bombed and killed the family of another and a man who should be in the Hague for war crimes.
Sorry Ukraine, but if this pair is who you are depending on to bring peace to your nation while not selling you down the river, then you are truly jiggered.