Today Is...National Give Something Away Day

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers had a song called Give It Away although the lyrics seem blatant enough, 'What i got you got to get and put it in you' doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre although i have heard Anthony Keidas say it was about selflessness and altruistic behavior but then the video with the camera angles and close up's of groin areas doesn't scream altruism to me although a close up of Keidas's love plums is always welcome.
There were not so many close up's of low hanging klackers in Plato's day but in between deciding which sheet to wear for the day and philosophising about matters, he said that man either spread his wealth or become what he despised.
Karl Marx picked up the mantle, combed his impressive beard and wrote a whole book on the matter which has those of us who bothered to read the thing, pondering on the disproportionate distribution of wealth ever since.
There must have been a copy of the Communist Manifesto in Andrew Carnegie's local library because the industrialist's philosophy was: 'The man who dies rich dies disgraced' and after selling his steel company for $480 million in 1901, died 18 years later far from disgraced as he gave 90% of it away to worthy causes.
Scores of the world's wealthiest people have taken to his Marxist driven philosophy, donating their riches to causes with Britain's most philanthropic man being the Sport Division Sports Shop owner, Tom Hunter, who has given away £1bn to charity but's chickenfeed compared to the £5 billion donated by the founder of Intel Gordon Moore, who has given away over 77% of his £6.5 billion fortune and Warren Buffett who has donated £21.5 billion but the top philanthropist is the person you probably spent the 90's moaning about when his Operating System crashed yet again.
Microsoft's Bill Gates was once the worlds richest man until him and his wfe, Melinda, set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from which they have donated £27 billion to organisations that include the GAVI Alliance, the World Health Organization, The Rotary Foundation, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and UNICEF.
It really does restore your faith in humans and German's with silly facial hair writing political books.

Today Is...Saint Camillus De Lellis Day

The Saint's didn't start out all that saintly. Born in 16th-century Naples and followed in his father's footsteps by going into soldiering and joined the Venetian army just as they began fighting against the Turks where in one battle, he got a nasty leg wound but after a few more scraps the regiment was disbanded and he traded in his sword for a horse and cart but his real love was gambling but as much as he loved it, it didn't love him back because he lost everything, including his horse, and was forced to work as a labourer at the local friary.
The guardian of the friary would often talk to him about God and things on his tea break and he offered him the chance to make it up to the big guy upstairs by doing his work down here.
He entered the Novitiate of the Capuchin Friars although his leg wound continued to bother him and refused to heal but he decided that he could help the soldiers wounded on the battlefield so created a group of health care workers who would assist soldiers during conflict and they carried a large red cross to show the soldiers not to get all stabby on them as they were there to help.
It obviously worked because the big Red Cross became a thing but the problem with spending time around the sick is that you get sick yourself and as well as that damned unhealing sore on his leg, he suffered a rupture, weeping sores on his body, violent colic and a loss of appetite which compared to the other things, not being very peckish could have been worse.
At the age of 65, after a long life of care-giving, conflict, and not feeling hungry, he went and died despite all the prayers because popping a leach in your trousers and praying is not as effective as proper medicine and he was laid to rest in peace or rather in peace until someone decided to rip his Christ-loving heart out of his dead chest to send it on a tour around the globe for religious folk to gawp at rather than letting his mortal remains just turn to dust in a tasteful grave somewhere which truth told, would probably be his first choice but the Catholic Church does like a Saintly body part to hoick about.

Stay There Cerberus

Cerberus is the three-headed dog who torments sinners in the third circle in Dante's Inferno and also the name given to the heatwave baking Europe at the moment where temperatures are 10C higher than the norm.
Sweltering under temperatures of 45C in Spain and with Health and essential travel only warnings published in Italy, France, Turkey and Greece, climate experts declared the World has just had its hottest week on record following the hottest ever June and the heatwave has the not so clammy hands of
climate change all over it.
A study revealed more than 61,000 people died in Europe last summer as a result of extreme heat and the MET Office has warned that in the UK we can expect more 'uncomfortably hot days' which is a very understated way of saying bloody hot and we can't even stay indoors to keep cool because British homes are designed to keep the heat in.  
The Government are looking at a program for new homes which will need to incorporate things like shutters on windows to block out the sun, better ventilation, ceiling fans and lighter coloured roofs.
It is with particular irony then that this Summer the UK finds itself on the Northern side of the Jet Stream which means the heat from Cerberus is kept on the Southern side of it so if it could just stay there until September it would be much appreciated.

The Inflation And Pay Rises Lie

To me inflation is what happens to balloons so outside of something filled with Helium and with Happy Birthday written on it i don't know much about it or what causes it but luckily i know a man who does and he is the perfect person to ask about the often repeated line from this Government that with inflation at 8.7%, they can't give decent pay rises to the public service as it will push up inflation.
Firstly, he explained that inflation is high due to supply chain disruption following the Covid lock-downs that created shortages, the war in Ukraine and Brexit which means what hasn't caused it is wage increases so the causes of inflation have nothing to do with pay.
'Hmmm...' i said, 'but could paying Nurses and Teachers more prolong the high inflation rates as the Chancellor keeps saying'?
With a swift shake of his head he said that as the NHS, teachers or many other public servants incur no charge for the services they supply, their pay increases cannot directly fuel inflation and would only fuel it indirectly if they got above average pay rises but as the public sector pay deals that have been agreed are lower than inflation, it is tosh to say they are going to impact inflation so not only can public sector pay not increase inflation, inflation will fall whatever happens to public sector pay'.
Ah, so the Government's claim that it cannot afford public sector pay rises because they are inflationary is in that case a lie? i asked .
'Indeed', he agreed, 'The question should be then why are the Government continuing to claim it when they must know it's not true?'
Giving it some careful consideration i suggested: 'Because they are a bunch of tossers?'
'Yep, complete and utter ones' he confirmed and asked me if i wanted a Digestive but as they were not the Chocolate ones i politely declined and walked away safe in the knowledge that any discussion which ends with the Government are a bunch of lying tossers is a good one.

Today Is...The Live Aid Benefit Concert

What began as a BBC documentary about the catastrophic drought and famine in Ethiopia, led to the historic Worldwide concert, Live Aid, which brought together the biggest musicians and performers of the era and became one of the most significant global fundraising events in history.
The 1985 event was organized by Sir Bob Geldof of The Boomtown rats and Midge Ure of Ultravox who were so moved by the documentary that they got the cream of British pop to make the Band Aid record, 'Do They Know It's Christmas' and then kicked it up a notch by gathering the biggest names in the Global music industry at the time to perform concerts simultaneously in London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's JFK Stadium and watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people across 150 countries with some of the most memorable performances including Queen, Madonna, David Bowie, Elton John and Paul McCartney.
Phil Collins was there also and performed in London and then flew in Noel Edmond's helicopter to Philadelphia to perform the same day.    
According to the Live Aid organisers, the concert raised over £130 million in total for which was used to provide food, water, and medical aid to those in need and it is estimated that Live Aid saved around 1.5 million lives and brought the world's attention to the plight of those suffering in Africa, and it
showed that people from all over the globe were willing to help.
Live Aid was an exceptional moment in history and not just for so many massive artists putting aside their even more massive egos to share a stage for a good cause, but it united the world in a global effort to fight against poverty and hunger and remains an important reminder that when people come together, great things can be achieved, and lives can be saved.

Today Is...Malala Day

Today holds special significance for Malala Yousafzai. It’s not only her birthday, but it’s also this date in 2013 that she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education for all saying: 'Malala Day is not my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy, and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights'.
At just age 17, she was the youngest recipient ever of the Nobel Peace Prize and came to our attention in the most horrific of circumstances, shot in the head aged only 15 while on a bus home after taking an exam by the religious zealots of the Pakistani Taliban who had banned girls from attending school, her crime blogging that she wanted to go to school to educate herself.  
After four days in a military hospital, doctors transferred her to an Intensive Care Unit in Birmingham, England after the chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban called her a symbol of the infidels and an obscenity and added that if she survived, the group would target her again and after multiple skull construction surgeries and weeks of rehabilitative therapy later, Malala began attending school in Birmingham.
On her 16th birthday, she traveled to New York and spoke at the United Nations and received the United Nations Human Rights Prize and The Liberty Medal and in 2013, TIME Magazine declared Malala one of the world’s most influential people and a year later, was handed the Nobel Peace Prize where she made an inspiring speech where she said that she was not against anyone and was not after personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group, she just wanted to speak up for the right of education for every child, including the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all terrorists and extremists.

Today Is...World Population Day

The cost of food have risen astronomically over the past year, energy prices have shot up and the old guy who changes the numbers at the petrol station is in danger of a heart attack. The atmosphere is dirtier than the latest Jenna Jameson DVD and we are going through the worlds resources quicker than we can replace them.
The great and the good continue to scratch their heads and wonder what can we do about it but the answer is obvious but very uncomfortable. There are just too many of us. Now this is where it gets uncomfortable because just what exactly can we do about it?
We can't order people to stop reproducing and who exactly should not be creating offspring? People who wear Hawaiian shirts i hear you say but that is a given.
The present world's population is around the 8 billion mark and on its current trajectory, is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050. According to the CIA's World Factbook, the world human population is increasing by 211,090 every day but how many more of us can our planet sustain?
Based on calculations of the Earth's available resources, the magic figure is 10 billion according to the United Nations Population Division, but that comes with the proviso that our planet can handle 10 billion vegetarians, not that many meat eaters.
The Earth currently has 3.5 billion acres of arable land available which produces approximately 2 billion tons of grains annually and if all that grain was dedicated to feeding humans and none to feed livestock, then 10 billion of us can happily live side by side.  
As it is extremely unlikely that everyone will agree to stop eating meat, the maximum carrying capacity of the Earth based on food resources will fall significantly short of 10 billion, somewhere around the 7 billion figure which is past where we find ourselves now and that is without the complication of arable land becoming infertile due to the consequences of climate change and ensuing desertification and water shortages.
Throw in the issue that an increased population means greater production of the gases that cause global warming and global warming will mean less arable land, then the 10 billion figure is beyond reachable as less and less arable land leads to the current 2 billion tons of grain being reduced and therefore less of us fed.
Our present problems are the symptom but the cause is far too uncomfortable to debate but needs to be addressed somehow. No idea how though without causing outrage somewhere.

Today Is...Nikola Tesla Day

Nikola Tesla really was one of the guys that history should be kinder to, but unfortunately he is the genius that got stomped on by bigger guys and squeezed out of history until recently.
He came to America from Serbia with four pennies, a few poems and a blueprint for a flying machine in his pocket but went on to invent the electrical generator, FM radio, remote control, robots, spark plugs, fluorescent lights and the coil which is used in TV and radio transmissions.
He did show a strong commitment to the whole 'mad scientist' thing, he was celibate, afraid of round things and hated human hair, jewellery and anything that wasn't divisible by three. If they isn't nutty enough for you he also built a death ray, a portable earthquake generator and constructed a bath designed to cleanse the human body of germs using nothing but electricity, oh and tower which generated a 130-foot long bolt of lightning which remains the world record for man-made lightning.
As well as dodging hairy humans and cylindrical things, he would only stay in hotel rooms with number you could divide by three and once paid for a stay with the gift of his death ray which the owners eagerly accepted although years after his death they opened it to find a bunch of wires but that's one those the hidden benefits of being a crazy genius, say you've created a death ray and people tend to believe you.
His rival was Thomas Edison who he worked for but after he refused to give him a bonus he was due, he told him to go do one and went off on his own and while Edison was inventing boring stuff like light bulbs, Tesla invented all the cool stuff which the FBI confiscated when he died for fear of someone else building the machines and actually using them to split the world in half, the spoilsports.

US Decisions Means Killing Will Continue After War Ends

The current game plan for the Ukraine War is for the West to keep escalating it in the hope that Russia backs down by keep shoveling more powerful weapons towards Ukraine which as i have said many times, seems like throwing fuel onto a fire, or in this case weapons, and will only result in a greater death toll on both sides.
So with no World leaders clambering for peace talks, more War is the foreseeable future but there seems to be a crack in the relationship between America and the UK, EU and the other 123 nations who have signed the pact to not use the banned cluster bombs which America are shipping to Kiev.  
The British Prime Minister and the US President are due to hold a meeting in Windsor castle to discuss, amongst other things, the Cluster Bomb plans, a plan which Rishi Sunak has publicly refusing to back, citing that the UK is a signatory to a convention which prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions
and discourages their use and urged the the US to reconsider their offer.
One Conservative MP tweeted that: 'This is the wrong call and will alienate international good will. Their use leaves deadly unexploded ordnance over the battlefield, killing & injuring civilians' and there is plenty of evidence that a good portion of the bombs fail to detonate on impact and can lay undiscovered until unsuspecting civilians are blown up when they accidentally set them off.
Russia, Ukraine and the US are not signatories to the international agreement banning their use which complicates matters but as Ukraine has promised the weapons will not be used in civilian areas and not used in Russia, they will only be used in Ukrainian cities therefore condemning their own side to
further deaths from their own weapons even long after the tragic war ends.

The Truly Nasty Party

If you ever wondered why the Conservatives are called the Nasty Party, and you need yet another example of just how awful they are, then i give you the Immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, noticing some pictures of Disney characters on the walls of a centre for unaccompanied child asylum seekers
and ordering them painted over as they gave the impression the UK was welcoming to asylum seekers.
That is unaccompanied child asylum seekers being held in child detention centres being made to not feel welcome in the UK and the immigration Minister being most affronted by pictures of Mickey Mouse on the centres wall.
You have to wonder the mentality of a person like Jenrick and his equally dreadful colleague Suella Bravermann who said her dream was to fly immigrants to Rwanda but in truth the whole country has been sliding into decline since Tony Blair led us to war in Iraq which saw the Labour Party removed by voters
and usher in the Conservatives and their vile, right wing ideology.   
Painting over a picture of Mickey Mouse so not to appear welcoming to scared, frightened children is not a small thing, it defines this Government and what it represents which is everything awful and pandering to their equally abhorrent side of the political fence.