Not Totally f$%@ed But Far From Unf$@%*ed!

Environmentalists are being accused of creating scary stories about the environment creating Eco-anxiety and environmental existential dread and for one i don't see a problem with that as we shouldn't downplay it because we ARE in a crisis and people should be anxious about it because we may have already fallen over a few tipping points and the less we trip across the less worse it will be for future generations so while there IS a lot to be worried, we mustn't lose hope that finally the penny has dropped and mankind is doing something about it.
Last year, worldwide spending on clean energy from wind, solar and nuclear energy passed £1 trillion which equals the amount spent on fossil fuels and next year it is estimated that renewables will be supplying 25% of our electricity and by 2030 over 80% and carbon emissions, still too high, are slowly reducing.
In 2022 global carbon pollution related to energy rose by under 1% , less than the 5% rise originally feared and renewables will become the world’s largest electricity source within three years, providing 35% of the world’s electricity and overtaking coal.
Data from the EU shows that the use of heat pump units avoided releasing 8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and wind and solar produced 22% of Europe's electricity in the EU in 2022.
Following the 1987 agreement to ban CFC's, The UN have reported that the hole in the Ozone layer is healing itself and should be back to full health by 2066 and sales of new electric vehicles are also taking off, increasing by 80% since 2020 with 5.6 million sold in 2022 as new models are introduced and the price reduces with the EU predicting by 2030 30% of all new car purchases will be zero-emission vehicles. 
The world is, by any measure, still dramatically under-reacting to the rising risks which are hitting home this year with extreme heat waves, droughts, famines and floods as we creep towards the catastrophic 2.7°C which the United Nations Environment Program say is heading our way based on current projections but if the Global leaders can get their act together then we can reduce the impact or as one Environmentalist scientist said more colourfully: “We won't no longer be totally f$%@ed but we’re also be far from totally unf$@%*ed!'

Today Is...International Left-Hander's Day

Famous left hander's include Ringo Starr, Justin Bieber, Phil Collins, Ricky Martin, Sylvester Stallone, Celine Dion, Uri Geller, Jack The Ripper, Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Caesar, Prince William and President George Bush which isn't a great list but today is all about honouring the 10% of the Global
Population who are left-handed and ponder on the struggles that lefties face in everyday life which the rest of us power through without noticing by encouraging right-handed people to do activities with their left hand. 
The medical term for being left handed is sinistrality (where we get the word sinister from) and studies found that individuals who are left-handed score higher when it comes to creativity, imagination, daydreaming and intuition. They’re also better at rhythm and visualization and apparently are good at complex reasoning, resulting in a high number of lefty Noble Prize winners, accounting for a larger than expected share.
According to myth, giving a toast with your left hand is the same as placing a curse on the person you’re saluting. When Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, depictions showed her as being left-handed, in order to appear more evil. Left-hander's were also harshly discriminated against during the 18th and 19th centuries, and it was often beaten out of them.
Ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were all biased against left-hander's as their Gods used the right hand for blessings while they set aside the left for cursing and inflicting punishment and even Christianity favours the right hand, stating that the left side belongs to the devil as he baptises his followers and greets witches with the left hand, and watches you over his left shoulder.
As the world matured people put aside such simplistic prejudices, right? Psychologist Wilhelm Stekel, wrote in 1911 that being left handed made you more likely to be homosexual, indulge in incest and other perversions so maybe not then.

Today Is...The Glorious 12th

From the same people who brought you the sport of chasing a fox across the countryside until it is exhausted and then condemning it to death by being ripped to pieces to dogs, we present 'The Glorious Twelfth'.
Of course the event is not quite so glorious if you are grouse, but for some sections of the community, the opportunity to prove themselves by blasting a defenseless bird with a double barrelled shotgun is far too attractive.
Part of these chinless wonders who have to kill the wildlife to get their kicks, is our very own Royal Family with many of the Nations top family regulars on the shooting circuit.
Queen Elizabeth was once even congratulated on her kindness to the victims of the shotgun pellets a few years ago when she wrung the neck of one poor bird that dropped out of the sky and landed at her feet. Of course, the fact that it was the Queen who had blasted the damn thing in the first place was skimmed over.
So if you big brave gunmen want to run around blasting at things, why not pack your bags and pop off over to Ukraine and see just how brave you are with your guns when the target is not quite so defenseless.
You actually prefer to shoot at defenseless things is that? Thought so. Cowards.

How's That Barge Idea Working Out?

Someone somewhere doesn't want the immigrants housed on barges but it isn't the Government who have rushed to fill it up with immigrants while they deal with the applications so lets see how that's going.
Firstly they overlooked the protests from the locals in Portland and Weymouth and then dismissed fire safety concerns from the Fire Brigades Union that the vessel was a 'death trap' by saying it was 'perfectly decent accommodation for 500 people' and moved in 15 people on August 7 and 24 more on the 9th but then had to move them all out again today because Legionnaires disease was found in the water supply.
As part of his reassurances that it was 'perfectly decent accommodation', the water was tested on the 25th July and the results came back on the 7th  to say Legionnaires disease had been discovered and the Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick was made aware on the 9th August so the Government moved people in before the results of the checks had been known.
Obviously, due to all the negative publicity around the poor advance planning and preparation, the Government had wanted to get everybody onto the barge as quickly as possible but as with everything this Government touches, it turned into a catastrophe with the plan for two further barges postponed and returned to their owners due to  not being able to find a town or city willing to allow them to dock.
To add further to Rishi Sunak's discomfort, the number of people who have illegally crossed the English Channel in small boats since 2018 has now passed 100,000 which is almost a tenth of the 950,000 immigrants who have arrived legally in the UK in the same period.
Might be worth remembering next time the racists and bigots start shouting about us not having any room for the 100,000 who risked their life to come here and escape persecution and war because the 950,000 is the number the Government can control and allowed into our green and pleasant land.

Today Is...Saint Clare of Assisi Day

I'm not sure whats in the water in Assisi in Italy but they have two saints and it was after hearing Francis of Assisi preach during a service that Clare decided to dedicate herself to God and she approached him afterwards and asked him if she could join his order so he cut her hair, exchanged her clothes for a plain robe and veil and he sent her to a convent of the Benedictine nuns of San Paulo, near Bastia.
Her father wasn't best pleased and came to drag her back home but she clung to the altar of the church screaming and Francis intervened and peeled her off the masonary and sent her miles away to another monastery in Subasio out of the reach of her father and given a small dwelling.
News soon spread and women would come to live her enclosure and she founded the Order of Poor Ladies and considering this was the early 13th Century, it was a full time job and while many of the poor's only worldly possession was a pot which had Do Not Fill With Urine written on the side of it, what they did have plenty of disease and she would often come down with whichever unpleasant malady was doing the rounds at the time.
It was during one of these bouts of sickness that she was laying in bed wiping snot and flem from her nightdress and wondering how the mass she was too sick to attend was going when she heard chanting coming from the corner of the bedroom.
Setting her vomit bucket aside and staring into that corner, she saw the Mass being performed right on the wall of her room in glorious technicolour which is why she was named the Patron Saint of Television, obviously that came later as the TV wasn't invented until 700 years later.
Unfortunately nobody invented it earlier, it would have probably made those nights in the monastery go a lot more quicker but they had enough excitement when the Roman Emperor Frederick II sent his army to attack them.
She prayed for the local's to defend them and they did although not long afterwards she endured a long period of poor health and she died on 11 August 1253 which presented a problem for the Church when they granted her Sainthood because that day was already the Feast Day of Saints Tiburtius and Saint Susanna so they considered moving hers to the next day and then thought bugger it and bumped the Saintly pair off the saints calendar and moved her to today.

Welcome David Raya

As an Arsenal fan i am more than happy that we are going to get a second choice keeper as good as Brentford's David Raya but i am in agreement with former Chelsea Frank Leboeuf wondering why he would leave a team where he is the number 1 goalkeeper to move to a team where he will be number 2 and only play in the few Cup Games and when the main keeper, Aaron Ramsdale, is injured.
Frank Leboeuf has pointed out that Raya, who is the Spanish National Teams goalkeeper, should look to move to a club lower down than Arsenal where he will get starts if he wants to leave his current club
'Really, what’s the point? You play in the Premier League and have been outstanding. And now you are going to sit on the bench so what’s the point?'
You will have some clubs coming up, and maybe you can sign for, maybe not a club as big as the Gunners, but at least you will play. You will play football which is the essence of being a football player'.
My first thought is why do we need another Keeper but then Matt Turner moved to Nottingham Forest so we needed a back up and dont get me wrong, we will be very happy to take someone as good as Raya and welcome to Arsenal and all that but even i can see that he is too good to be a back up unless Arteta has an idea up his sleeve for Ramsdale in the 38 Premier League and Raya in the League, FA and European Cup games but after last season, i am more than happy to go along with whatever Arteta thinks and if he thinks we need a decent back up goalkeeper, and Raya is happy to warm the bench, then onwards and upwards.

Not Quite A SpaceCraft

I really hate to be a pedant about it but stuff it, i'm going to be anyway because i can't allow the headlines that Virgin today flew people into Space because he never, he flew them very, very high but not technically into Space.
Richard Branson's space tourism business, Virgin Galactic, made it's virgin flight into the upper reaches of the atmosphere today, an altitude of 49.7 mile which is short of the Kármán line which is the internationally agreed-upon border at 62 miles that marks the border where outer space officially starts.
To Virgin Galactic 02 Spacecraft is therefore not a Spacecraft and according to Virgin itself it is not designed to reach the Kármán line so we can't put it down to a test and it will gradually fly higher and reach 'Space' so to be more accurate it's a very high-altitude aircraft.
Given that commercial flights are between six and eight miles above sea level, reaching a touch off 50 miles is still amazing and the view of the Earth must have been magnificent but i don't want to urinate on Branson's campfire too much as with his other venture, Virgin Orbit, on the rocks having filed for bankruptcy after it's first and only UK launch failed in January, i hope it is a success because the more people we have attempting Space Flight the better but for the more pedantic amongst us, like me, Virgin Galactic 02 Spacecraft really should be renamed the Virgin Galactic 02 AlmostSpaceCraft.

Today Is...Lazy Day

Ah, the joys of being lazy! There's just something so satisfying about sitting on the couch, binge-watching comedy shows and ignoring all your responsibilities.
I mean, why bother with chores, errands, and responsibilities when you can just lay back and enjoy the moment but there are some people who think that being lazy is a bad thing. They might say things like 'you're wasting your potential' or 'you need to be more productive' but honestly, who cares? As long as you're happy and taking care of yourself, that's all that matters.
In fact, being lazy can actually be good for your health. Studies (i really can't be arsed to look them up) have shown that taking breaks and giving yourself time to rest can reduce stress, improve cognitive function and boost your creativity. So there you have it, even science says it's okay to be lazy.
One of life's simple pleasures is lounging around in your pyjamas all day. Sure, you might get a few judgmental glances from family members and work colleagues when you walk into the office with a Pokeman onesy but they obviously just don’t understand the beauty of giving in to your laziest instincts, consider it a form of self-care.
Now, don’t get me wrong – there are certainly downsides to being lazy. Your productivity may suffer, and you might miss out on experiences that require some effort on your part but in those moments of sweet, blissful laziness, those drawbacks are irrelevant.
Life is short so why waste it being anything but being delightfully lazy now if you'll excuse me, I think I need a nap.

Go England But If Not Japan

Not sure how but England Women are still in the World Cup when better teams have packed their bags, picked up the ball from seventeen gardens away after some awful penalties and are sat at home watching it on TV but there we are staring anxiously at Colombia in the Quarter Finals.
Due to the time difference i haven't managed to see many of the games but those who have seem to be gushing about Japan who are facing Sweden and the Netherlands who up up against Spain seem to have hit a bit of form but as that game is being shown in the UK at 2am Friday morning, they will have to do it without my eyes on them as they will be firmly closed a that time.
Hosts Australia will be going up against France and then the quarter finals round off at 11.30am on Saturday morning with England against the South American's which will only be going one way unless England improve because they haven't been anywhere near where you would expect for the European Champions.
I generally cheer for the European teams after England but i do fear that we will be struggling to get past Colombia so if we find ourselves packing away our England tops Saturday afternoon then i will switch my allegiance to Japan who seem to play with a smile on their face and who doesn't love the Japanese so it could be 日本に行く Nihon ni iku from Sunday onwards.

Today Is...National Book Lovers Day

Technology has bought about many changes in my lifetime, once where i had a cassette Walkman which would play an album of the standard eight songs one side and the same on the other, i now have an MP3 player, a quarter of the size which can hold thousands of songs and no having to stop and turn the tape over or wind it tight with a pencil because the tape has stretched.
The MP3 player is used daily but the other technology change which has become part of my day to day life has been my Kindle Book reader which the bumf explains, can hold 6,000 books.
I have always been a constant reader and whereas taking a book everywhere with me was a thing since my teenage years, for the past decade i have carried hundreds of books on a 7" thing which is as slim as the thinnest paperback and fits neatly into my bag.
As handy as the Kindle is, i have always preferred to have the physical version which i can hold in my hand and place on the bookshelf after i have finished it but my friend has a weird way of reading books whereas she reads the first chapter, then the last chapter and if it seems exciting, she will go back and read it from the start. If not she puts it down and starts again with the next novel.
In some ways her method makes sense as i have spent far too long plowing through books thinking it must get better soon only to get most of the way through to realise it won't.  
Of course there is no right or wrong way to read a book but some people don't even do that, they watch the film of the book instead and then say they have read it.
Always a dangerous exercise especially as most films stray from the book they are based on, i did that with Blade Runner based on 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' and it was years until i bothered to pick up the novel only to find it was almost nothing like the film and i had denied myself a great read for over a decade.