A (Sort Of) Use For Pollutants

 
A study by Italian Medical researchers has found that air pollution might protect against the most dangerous type of skin cancer, melanoma.
At first glance you may think thank heavens for us stuffing the air with all our poison over the last 200 years and it is the actual size of the air pollutants that show the most protective effect against the cancer and increased exposure to these air pollutants was associated with a decreased risk of developing melanoma.
Before you go crazy and start spraying deodorant and rip that catalytic converter off your car exhaust, it may be worth reading the rest of the report because it really is giving with one hand and punching you repeatedly on the nose with the other.
Sure the initial reaction is pollutants may protect you from skin cancer but it also increases your chance of dying from respiratory diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer  and increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular problems as well as links between air pollution and cognitive decline, dementia, and other neurological disorders.
Obviously not being daft enough to fill the air we breathe with things which are detrimental to our health in the first place is the best choice but you know, stupid people and all that so it seems that using high factor sun cream is the next best choice because if the choices are between skin cancer or lung cancer, dying prematurely can put a real crimp in your day.

Denmark Pondering Buying America

How a man can buy part of a country when he isn't even capable of buying self-tanning lotion that doesn't make him look like a fat tangerine is debatable but Donald Trump is a businessman, just that he isn't a very good one as five bankruptcies including a Casino of all things show, but never one to shy away from spending money he hasn't got, Trump is looking to buy Greenland from Denmark for America.
When he raised it during the original debacle when he was in Office, Kim Kielsen, the then Prime Minister of Greenland, issued a brilliant counteroffer to Trump and stated that actually, Denmark should buy the United States.
He based his offer on the historical argument that it was Greenland as part of Denmark, under Viking Leif Erikson who discovered America and it was his father, Erik the Red, who discovered Greenland and settled there so it was only natural for them to want America back.
Kielsen then went on to break down exactly how much they should pay for America and figured in the $37 trillion colossal size of the U.S.’s national debt and also subtracted a further amount: 'If we have to take Donald Trump into the bargain'.
Denmark ranked 2nd in the United Nations 2024 World Happiness Report and the United States was 23rd and The Economist ranked Denmark as the  9th best place in the world to be born while the US placed 35th.
The U.S. ranks 21st and Denmark 5th on the U.N.’s human development index with life expectancy in Denmark is 81.93 and in the USA 79.3 with education standards in Denmark 5th globally and 9th in the USA so maybe American's should maybe wanting to start living the Danish dream and live longer, be happier and receive a better education and as Denmark bans guns, no more of that stupidness.
The question is does the current Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, want to take on 350 million American's into the bosom of Denmark but as the current FIFA Rankings show USA 16th and Denmark 21st, they could maybe throw a few thousand Danish Krone at them to buy it as they could do with a few of their footballers.

A Thing Called DeepSeek

That high pitched noise you heard yesterday was the sound of the worlds smallest violin playing for the Tech billionaires as almost £100bn was wiped from their stock thanks to a Chinese start up company called DeepSeek.
While American Ai companies spent hundreds of  billions developing their Ai, the Chinese created one which according to experts is just as good but they spent only £5.6m on it.
DeepSeek, an open-sourced problem-solving model whatever that is, uses far less computing power and far fewer chips, 50,000 against the 500,000 of OpenAi, therefore far less money, roughly 3-5% of the development costs for ChatGPT – to achieve the same or better results as its US counterparts.
Since DeepSeek was able to create such a product with a fraction of the resources other AI companies use, the major Chip manufacturer, Nvidia, saw hundreds of billions wiped from it's market value, the biggest drop in the US stock market’s history.
The company behind DeepSeek was only founded in 2023 and although the specifics of how it does what it does for a fraction of the cost is a whole world of geek speak but was likened to having a huge team but only calling in the experts you actually need for the task which doesn't really explain it but easier to understand than the 1.8 trillion parameters of OpenAi against the 671 billion of Deepseek.
No, me neither.

Why Would Anyone Choose Facism?

 
Very poignant that days after Elon Musk's double Nazi salute at the Trump inauguration, the World comes together to remember the horrors of Fascism and the 1.1 million people who perished in Auschwitz.
Israel, Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Belarus, Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic all have have hard-right parties in government and in Trump, America has a leader who ticks almost every box for being a fascist so with the history books on the shelves warning just how things ended up the last time the hard right was in power, why are leaders who lean into Fascism being voted into power?
Philosopher Giovanni Gentile who wrote the foundation of Fascism which inspired Benito Mussolini claimed he was not opposed to democracy and suggested his philosophy was actually advocating a more pure version of it as it provided unity between the leader, the nation-state, and the people whose members share the same attitudes, beliefs and desires.
According to fascists, only those who share the correct attributes can be part of 'the people' and therefore true members of society while the rest are considered 'outsiders' and are trying to interfere with the ability of the leader to give direct effect to the will of the people as they see it.
Fascist leaders such as Hitler, Mussolini and Franco were larger than life figures who demand absolute loyalty and obedience from their loyal followers but as Fascism is an ideology set in a time long gone, why are some people supporting it?
Modern fascists do not appear in jackboots and brown-shirts but in suits and ties and promise to make a nation whole again, to return it to it's glory and following  terrorist attacks, wars, recessions can make people feel that their world has turned upside down and the fascists hark back to a mythologized or romanticised past and promise they can turn back the clock and restore a nations greatness , by extreme measures, if necessary.
Of course we know how the experiment with Fascism ended last time as we have been hearing the horrific and grisly stories from the survivors of Auschwitz to remind us so why would anyone with more than one working brain cell possibly choose it.

Is Your House Haunted?

A few years ago there was lots of Paranormal TV shows where a group of spirit hunters would walk around a haunted house with every type of camera you could imagine and come away with video of a speck of light or a smudge on the wall and call it conclusive proof that ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night are an actual thing but we don't see then much anymore so how are we supposed to know if our homes are haunted?
Lucily for us The Ghostfinder Paranormal Society is here to help so what are the signs that our house is haunted?
Picture this, you are relaxing at home in the evening and the lights begin to flicker, the TV turns itself off or the radio comes on by itself and your choices are a) Call an electrician because the electric is acting up or b) spirits disrupt the electrics so GET THE HELL OUT THE HOUSE AS IT'S HAUNTED!!!
You decide to go and check on your child and as you open the bedroom door and your child asks if Chloe can join them for dinner and when you ask who Chloe is, she says it’s her invisible friend and your choices are a) smile as most children have imaginary friends and it is a  normal part of childhood or b) small children see spirits more than adults so GET THE HELL OUT THE HOUSE AS IT'S HAUNTED!!!
As you walk into the kitchen to start making dinner you see something move out of the corner of your eye so you a) go to the optician to get your eyes checked as you seem to be losing your peripheral vision or b) there are shadow spirits lurking in the corners so GET THE HELL OUT THE HOUSE AS IT'S HAUNTED!!!
As you are cooking you decide to check your phone but it isn't where you thought you left it and you see it on the living room table but you are sure you bought it into the kitchen so you a)tut at your forgetfullness and go fetch it or b) blame a poltergeist and GET THE HELL OUT THE HOUSE AS IT'S HAUNTED!!!
After dinner you sit down to read a book but can hear faint voices coming from another room so you either a) blame the thin walls or b) GET THE HELL OUT THE HOUSE AS IT'S HAUNTED!!!
You get ready for bed and find some random coins dotted around the house so you either a) check your pocket for holes or b) a ghost is trying to get your attention so GET THE HELL OUT THE HOUSE AS IT'S HAUNTED!!!
You decide to call it a night but the dog doesn't follow you into the bedroom as usual because it is staring at the empty space in the corner so you either a) leave it there as it can obviously hear insects or small creatures in the wall or b)  as dog's see in ultraviolet it can see something you can't so  GET THE HELL OUT THE HOUSE AS IT'S HAUNTED!!!

Sweet Child O' Mine

The Earth is estimated to be able to hold 8bn people and as we are up to 8.2bn we are pretty much at capacity but the United Nations poo-poed my idea of Population Realignment where nations are moved to where the population would fit, it is just as well that the projections are that we will get up to 10.3bn and then start to decline.
For some countries the decline has already began with governments now offer financial incentives to encourage people to have children to help support the growing number of elders with 4 out of every 10 person aged 65 or over. The Japanese government called their demographic situation critical last year with its population dropping from 128 million in 2008 to 125 million today and is predicted to keep falling.  
The population in China began falling in 2022 from 1.4 bn to 1.3bn  which caused the Government to reverse its one child policy while in Italy the famously celibate Pope is sticking in his nose in and urging Italians to have more children to grow the wage-earning population and prevent the economy from collapsing as retirees draw on their pensions.
South Korea managed to reverse their decline thanks to an influx of foreigners, rising by 10% to 1.9 million people which boosted the total population by 0.2% to 51.8 million people.
In Britain forecasts of the number and proportion of those aged 65 and older, show that the UK population is ageing at a significant rate. In 2018, 18% of the total UK population was aged 65 years and over, compared with 10.8% in 1950  and a predicted 24.8% in 2050 of which by then i will be one where i plan to sitting around moaning about the younger generation and endlessly telling them how everything was much better in my day.

One In The Eye For Politicians

When you think of religious nutjobbery you consider the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Mullah's in Iran but America is quickly catching up in the religious nutjobs stakes and one Bible clutching weirdo Senator from has taken things into his own hands and put forward a bill titled: 'Contraception Begins at Erection Act' that would make it unlawful for a man to ejaculate unless it’s to reproduce.
After Donald Trump showed his ignorance by stating that  all Americans are female by stating that sex starts at the moment of conception (the sex of the fetus is not determined until weeks after conception), the Mississippi state senator, Bradford Blackmon's Bill suggests making it: 'unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo' with fines up to $10,000 fine for anyone breaking the rule.  
Whether this is a wind up to point out the window shakingly awful contraception and abortion laws and not actually trying to outlaw ejaculation is not yet clear but i asked and the Bible is pretty clear on the matter, Leviticus 15:16-17 says that a man who has an emission of semen should wash and be ceremonially unclean until evening although Matthew 5:29–30, Matt. 18:6–9, and Mark 9:42–48 state that, if they cause one to sin, one should tear out one's eye and cut off one's hand or foot.
Now i am not a medical person but sinning in this manner by eye or foot would take a lot of imagination and probably a few weeks in traction afterwards but i imagine if they took this literally there would be a lot of one handed American politicians wearing eye patches and walking with a distinct limp.

Isn't It Ironic...Don't You Think

 
Kinda ironic that whilst his country is being pummeled by the devastating consequences of Climate Change, Donald Trump is going full steam ahead to make them even worse by pulling out of the Paris Accords and boasting how he will 'Drill Baby Drill'.
A study published by the American Medical Association Journal found that 2,325 people died from heat in the USA during 2024, 297 by hurricanes and tornadoes and at least 166 people died in floods while
wildfires burnt 1,716 homes and more than 1,050,012 acres (1,640 square miles), or almost 2 Luxembourg's.
The cost of the disasters was approximately $182.7 billion but Trump has called environmentalist’s hoaxers and went as far as describing it as created by the Chinese to make US manufacturing non-competitive which is very different to the Donald Trump who applied for planning permission to build large sea defences at his golf courses in Scotland and Ireland, citing on his application that the defences were necessary: 'Because of global warming and rising sea levels'.
Seems the Orange one is happy to let his own country get savaged by the extreme weather that Global Warming brings but also wants to protect his businesses from the same Global Warming that he denies exists.
As one wag put it, he pulled out of the Paris Accords but if he had pulled out of Stormy Daniels he wouldn't be a convicted criminal with a criminal record with 34 counts of fraud against him.

Today In Numbers

The Global population at 16:30 on 22/01/2025 stands at 8.2 billion with 238,217 births and 112,249 deaths today.

2,110 people will die of a contagious or infectious disease and 1,235 will be under 5 years old with 50 mothers dying in childbirth. 273 people will die of AIDS/HIV, 1334 people will die of Cancer, 64 deaths from Malaria.

Globally, £11.4 bn will be spent on Public Healthcare, £7.5 bn on Public Education and £3.1 bn on Military expenditure today.

14,246 cars will be produced today and 14,152 mobile phones sold.

17.8m people will use the Internet today, 21.1m Google searches will be made, 564m emails will be sent and 20,962 blog posts written.

9,356 hectares of forest will be lost today along with 12,596 Hectares of Land lost to soil erosion and with 70m tonnes of CO2 emissions and 17,617 tonnes of toxic  chemicals released into the environment today.

There are 1.7bn overweight people in the world today with 885m undernourished people of which 20,119 will die of hunger.

There will be 762,334 m litres of water used, 2m people without access to safe drinking water of which 139 will die of water related diseases.

307m Megawatts of Energy used today of which 261m Megawatts will be from renewable sources while 62m barrels of oil will be pumped.

There will be 7,329 abortions and 27bn cigarettes will be smoked with 812 deaths attributed to smoking, 406 attributed to alcohol and 174 suicides with 2,513 dying in a road traffic accident and 638 dying in an armed conflict.

Worldometer

Blaming The Right People For HMRC Failures

Who would want to be a taxman who are on the end of a beasting today for poor service as the Self Assessment  deadline of 31 January looms large on the horizon.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report issued today said that HM Revenue & Customs was: 'Excavating its way to new lows in its customer service every year' and i am sure that anyone who has had to contact the department will agree but rather than give it both barrels to the poor saps in the Office, let's put the blame fairly where it should be, on the heads of the Conservative Government.
Since 2010, when the previous Government took over, they closed 237 Tax Office around the country and the 57,045 Tax Staff who actually do the jobs (Admin Assistants, Admin Officers and Executive Officers) has crashed from 57,045 to 32,218 today meaning there are 24,827 less people capturing Tax Returns, issuing repayments and tax codes and generally doing all that tax stuff we rely on.
It isn't just HM Revenue & Customs who are being asked to do more with less people, across the whole Civil Service numbers plummeted from 480,000 to 380,000 until Brexit and Covid meant that more had to be employed to keep the Government afloat.
Amazingly, in 2024 when they were booted out of office, they were pushing for 90,000 Civil Service jobs to be cut and that is despite an already agonising 3-4 month wait for Passports to be processed, 5-6 month for a Driving Test and up to a year for the Estate of the deceased to be finalised.
So feel free to moan about not getting through on the phone to HM Revenue & Customs this month but remember, there was 24,827 more of them until the Conservatives closed down buildings and made Civil Servants redundant in an ideological zeal so you know who to blame, and it isn't the frazzled poor sod finally picking up the phone to you.