Israel Facing Pariah Status

Many words about Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant being issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, most to be fair are happy that the pair have been finally bought to justice for what they have been doing in Gaza but much less attempting to defend what they have been doing because bombing refugee camps, schools and hospitals is a bit of a red line for many with morals.   
With Netanyahu now facing imminent arrest should he set foot in any of the 124 nations signed up to the highest court in the World, including Britain and most of the EU who have both said they will follow the law, so the places him and his former Defence Minister can go is a fast dwindling patch of the Planet.
Israeli ministers and their allies raged against the ICC, accusing it of bias and that predictable shout of antisemitism but the ICC has answered that if Israel had agreed to something called 'complementarity', which is to satisfy the Court that any crimes will be properly investigated and pursued, then they would not have got involved.
Netanyahu has refused the establishment of a state commission into the Hamas attacks last October, fearing he would be held culpable for leaving Israel exposed which opened the door for the ICC to investigate themselves and find enough evidence to issue the arrest warrants.
In the ICC’s judgement, at the heart of its case against Israel relates to: 'Intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity',  making the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza the focus of the charge sheet.
Even America, Israel's funder and prime backer, have tried to persuade the country’s leadership that they should be providing Gaza’s civilians with the food and medicine they needed but undoubtedly they will still attempt to try and intimidate the court to drop the case and it should not be expected that we see Netanyahu or Gallant in the Hague anytime soon but the charges of genocide against him will not just melt away.
It will though accelerate Israel’s path to international pariahdom and make many nations wary of being associated with a leader who is on a par with other war criminals in the ICC eyes such as Vladmir Putin, Colonel Gaddafi, Radovan Karadžić , Saddam Hussein and the entire Khmer Rouge regime.

Food Waste

 
Experian and information is beautiful have produced a brilliant infographic which shows just how much we waste food.
They found that 18-30% of the World's food is wasted with most thrown away are cereal and grains (25%), vegetables (24%) and fruits (16%) with 66% of the waste coming from households, 22% from restaurants and 12% from retails outlets which in the UK amounts to between £14 and £19 billion each year wasted.
In the UK alone we throw out 20,000,000 slices of bread, 4,000,000 potatoes, 3,100,000 glasses of milk, 2,700,000 carrots, 2,200,000 slices of ham, 1,200,000 tomatoes, 970,000 onions, 920,000 bananas, 800,000 apples and 720,000 oranges.
The ideal production of each food type to avoid wastage would be 51m tonnes of red meat (currently 212m tonnes), 256m tonnes of poultry, fish, eggs (presently 372m), 847 m whole grains (currently 2667m) and 1826m tonnes of fruit and vegetables (currently 2013m tonnes).
Bizarrely we do not produce make enough pulses and legumes as the optimal amount is 456 m tonnes but we only grow currently 440m and the 841m tonnes of milk and dairy is less than the 913m tonnes required.
The Global Hunger Index estimates that around 9 million people, including 3.1m children, die every year of hunger and hunger-related diseases which is more than from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Globally, 822 million people suffer from undernourishment and since 2015 the number of hungry people has increased and 24% of the world population live in areas of food insecurity and the numbers are set to increase as climate change affects global food systems.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 2.5 billion adults aged 18 years (25% of the World population) and older are overweight and 3m deaths per year are attributed to obesity while almost 1 billion (12% of the World population) are underweight.
The problem then isn't enough food to go around, it is how is is distributed. 

Evri Still Awful

As we build up to Christmas more and more of us will be buying things online but until it is in your hands there is always concern that it will go missing somewhere between the warehouse and your home and that is especially true if the name of the delivery firm is Evri.
I have had such a bad experience with them that now i check first if Evri will be delivering it and if so, order it elsewhere because i have had packages not turn up, turn up damaged, delivered to the wrong address  or left outside the block of flats and the one common denominator had been the delivery firm, Evri.
Evri, formerly Hermes UK who changed their name to shake off their bad reputation, (that worked then) have unsurprisingly come bottom of a new Post Monitoring Report into customer satisfaction with 68% of customers saying they were not happy with the service which led to a spokesman admitting that: 'We recognise there remains more to do'. No shit Sherlock.
In a separate Citizens Advice Berue report Evri was propping up their league table and a survey of users by online site Money Saving Expert saw Evri 16th out of the 17 delivery providers analysed.
Although Evri in particular often comes under fire for being awful, there seems to be issues with all British delivery firms with no parcel company scoring above 2.75 stars out of a possible 5 on the CAB table but whatever you do if you are sending a parcel, don't use Evri, my friends badly handled parcel turned up today looking as though it had been used as a football somewhere and was hastily taped back together.
If you have a 7 out of 10 chance of not being happy once your Evri parcel turns up, then perhaps we should accept that the only way to really guarantee something turns up on time and intact is to buy it from a shop.

Snow In Global Warming World?

As i am 150 miles up the country, i thought i could very well wake up to a blanket of snow this morning and i wasn't disappointed but what i wasn't expecting was a flurry of text messages to say that it was snowing on the South Coast of the UK.
Snow in the UK in November is unusual but not unheard of especially over the hills and mountains but so snowfall as far south as low as London and the Southern Coast is definitely irregular and is yet more proof that the direction our weather patterns are moving in is more extreme.
Changing weather patterns is a direct impact of climate change which is sometimes referred to as Global Warming but it doesn't necessarily always mean we see higher temperatures, British temperatures have actually been lower than average this November due to the wobble of the Gulf Stream which delivers our usual more temperate weather.
So how do we square warming temperatures with extreme cold weather and snowfall in the UK?
Think back to your science class and being told that warmer air holds more moisture and for each Celsius increase the air holds 7% more water vapor and as the temperature creeps up that is more moisture in the atmosphere.
Now think again about the Jet Stream and how anything above it is cold and wet with the air being blown down from the Arctic  and anything below it is warm as it is the air from the Equator and it blows along at approximately 250mph but  in recent years there is evidence that as the Arctic warms it weakens the jet stream by decreasing the temperature differential along this warm air-cold air boundary so it 'wobbles' more than usual and if it dips down and the UK finds itself on the cold and wet side, then grab your scarf and gloves .
The combination of very low temperatures and more moisture in the atmosphere ready to be dropped results in a country cold enough for snow as far down as the jet stream had dropped and what would normally fall as rain is now snow and sleet.
With Climate Change now really having an effect on our Planet and the resulting weakening of the Jet Stream as the differential lessens, so it buckles more wildly and allows frigid Polar air to penetrate farther south than normal, as happened today, so we should expect more of it.

Arrest Warrants Issued For Israeli Genocide

With the International Criminal Court announcing arrest warrants have been issued for the Israeli pair of Benjamin Yetanhayu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Prime Minister hit out at the top court in the land as the ruling being 'antisemitic' which isn't accurate, it's more to do with the genocide Netanyahu has been conducting against the Palestinians to be fair.   
Immediately the patch of globe that the war criminals can go has shrunk along with the historical stigma of the leader of a country whose nation was created after a genocide, is now charged with the same thing although as the repetitive shout of 'antisemitism' from the Israeli side was tediously predictable, so will be the bluster coming from America who have been complicit in the war crimes by providing the weapons and finances for them to do it.
It's not the first time that America has been late to the ostracize evil leaders party as it was they who provided apartheid South Africa with the intelligence to capture Nelson Mandela and his 27 year incarceration and continually block sanctions against South Africa at the United Nations which Archbishop Desmond Tutu described as: 'immoral, evil, and totally unchristian'.
With the first International economic and political sanctions being ushered in in 1959, America finally got the idea in 1985 that it may not be a good look to be supporting a nation that prohibited mixed relationships, forcibly removed 3.5 million black Africans from their homes and forced them into segregated neighbourhoods and only allowing whites the right to vote.
Great Britain were also one of the last to recognise that Apartheid South Africa was shunworthy and even went as far as joining America in labelling Nelson Mandela as a terrorist although Mandela did have the good grace to not punch Margaret Thatcher in the face when they met after his release from prison in 1990.
The Israeli military occupation of Palestine has been going on since the 1940's since when Israel have literally been getting away with murder as they murder Palestinians and steal the land meant for their homeland but with the ICC announcement, finally Netanyahu should be held to account for his war crimes and the genocide which continues today as the Israeli's up their attempts to force the Palestinians off what is left of their land so they can claim it for their own settlements.   
America will continue to bleat at a cost to their own credibility and Israel will shout antisemitism at every opportunity and become even more of an international pariah but this call will see other nations  distance themselves from supporting Israel and will stand by the courts decision because nobody want's to be seen ignoring a murderous regime conducting a genocide and about time to, Israel has got away with it for far too long.

America In The British Empire Again?

Chatting to our American partners, and after the usual back and forth of what's going on over there and what's going on over here and how the new President is such a fan of the Royals and would expecting another visit, i mentioned jokingly maybe America would consider rejoining the British Empire under President Trump.
Obviously not going to happen even if he thinks he could Make The Commonwealth Great Again and not just because his grasp on British History is terribly shaky as his quote: 'I have great respect for the UK, United Kingdom. Great respect. People call it Britain, they call it Great Britain, they used to call it England' shows.
Who knows, maybe it's due to his little fingers not being able to turn the page on the atlas or something but apart from becoming a lot more Orange, what would be in it for us British?
He would announce that the whole revolution thing never would have happened if he had been President in 1783 but obviously the only noise of encouragement would be from Nigel Farage from far up Donald Trump's colon but we could set up a trade deal with cricket replacing baseball and proper Cheddar Cheese instead of that yellow plastic stuff that refuses to melt no matter how long it is cooked in the microwave for.
Proper Steakcut Chips instead of their Freedom Fries and Trump would need a refresher in Royal Protocols and there would need to be some sort of Declaration of Re-Independence but i see a particular sticking point in the tea because Americans are not on speaking terms with Kettles or Teapots and last time we tried to import some there they sent it bobbing down Boston Harbour.  
The second sticking point is accepting the English language as the means of Commonwealth communication so lessons needed there (U is a vowel for crying out loud) and i'm English and have never used the word Covfefe but the Americans would then be able to take part in the Commonwealth Games and Independence Day would have to be renamed 'Reunion Day' but best of all, it would give our Royals somewhere else to go as King Charles III would be the head and be waved at and they already have Prince Harry and his clan over there so he could pick up his Royal duties.
Maybe i will mention it next time Trumpety Trump drops by our shores.

X Is X'ed

 
You know something is important when the Clifton Suspension Bridge gets involved so we take note when the 160 year old bridge joins the exodus from the X Media platform.
As well as the Isambard Kingdom Brunel built crossing over the River Avon, some Newspapers and Hollywood glitterati are amongst the million users who have told Elon Musk who is now aligned with Donald Trump to do one and joined something called Bluesky instead
Musk's X, once called Twitter, has been hemorrhaging users ever since he took over and has lost almost 25% of users since Musk paid $44 billion for in 2022 and is now valued at just $9.4 billion.
I have never heard of Bluesky and have never had a Twitter or X account but apparently it is quite left-wing compared to X which has become an echo chamber for the frothing mouthed right wing so will Bluesky replace X?
The people who know say it might do but the proof is in the numbers and Facebook is the overwhelming media king with 3.06 billion active monthly users, followed by Youtube (2.7 billion) and Whatsapp (2.4 billion). Musk's X is 15th with 600 million active monthly users while Bluesky is currently 39th with its 15 million users  so long way to go to catch up with the Big Boys but it has easily the most famous bridge in the UK on it's side so anything is possible.
I will get my people to speak to Bluesky's people and if i join the bandwagon i will get my Techy person to add the link over there on the side somewhere.

 

The Human Bandwidth Limit

Friday afternoons should be a time to slope off early and definitely not sat in a room waiting for a Computer scientist to expand on why he believes that the Maximum Human Bandwidth has been reached.  
Now i am going to hold my hands up and admit straight off the bat that as soon as i saw H= - Σ p (x) logp (x) on the first slide my brain said 'Pfft...you're on your own with this one' and switched off so the following may be a bit hazy but apparently something called the Limit Bandwidth Of Consciousness has been studied for hundreds of years (obviously passed me by admittedly) which is how the human consciousness has a limit of how much data and information can be processed into your perception, a figure pegged at 41 bits per second.
Now this was not a problem until exactly June 29th 2007 when iPhones were invented and the technology to send such a large amount of data and information through your eyes to your brain which would overwhelm the human consciousness which  means we discard much of what our brain deems as not useful as the 41 bits per second is hardwired into the brain and cannot be expanded.
So brain, consciousness and iPhones..got it, is that it? Nope because someone at the back annoying had questions about a direct brain interface which the boffin said was a great question and i agree, if he meant great in the why did he ask that, he was finishing type of way.
The human brain is structurally limited to the 41 bits limit so any direct brain interface is still maximized to 41 bits per second so note to self, don't  do that or i risk going insane, check, no need to explain any further, oh, you are going to anyway, brill.
Piping directly to the unconscious..yada yadda... assimilation of data and information...etc etc... our neurons and neuropeptides encoding the data...and so forth... without holographically also creating all the antecedent steps to build that memory...and so on...artificially induced mental illness...no anchor to our consciousness...whatever.
The last thing i heard as i scooted towards the door was 'Any further questions' and a small voice asking about directing machines to communicate with each other from the pre-motor cortex but i was up to my 41 bits limit by then and i didn't want to risk insanity or more importantly, further mind numbing boredom.

Safety First

Did you know that the Toyota Prius is the most accident-prone car in the UK, with 1,207 crashes for every 100,000 Toyota Priuses on the road but the top car for the grim list of most deaths is the Mitsubishi Mirage Sedan while drivers of the BMW X3, Lexus ES,  Mercedes-Benz E-Class Sedan and Nissan Pathfinder are the cars with the lowest fatalities worldwide.
Yep, i have been snooping around the car insurance industry’s safety agency but i also made a stop at the aviation safety database and found some very interesting facts about how to reduce your odds of dying in a plane crash.
Firstly, the five country with the most accidents ever are USA, Russia, UK, India and Canada and the top five planes with the most fatal accidents are Boeing 737's, DC-9, Boeing 747 and Airbus A300 and the worst months for accidents are July, August, September and November.
The best place to sit is an aisle seat in the back quarter of the plane with 69% of survivors back there while find yourself in the first quarter of the plane and your survival rate is 49% but if you find yourself flying to America or Russia in August on a Boeing 737 and your seat number is not that far behind the pilots then don't despair because your odds of coming down to Earth the quick way is 11,000,000 -1 which you are more likely to die falling down the boarding stairs (20,666 - 1), Heat stroke waiting in the holding area (950,000-1) or getting hit by lightning walking across the tarmac (2,320,000-1) than not successfully landing.
Strangely the list puts the odds of dying by Blogging at 35,000,000 -1 and being killed by a Mountain Lion at 32,000,000-1 which makes sense if you are blogging about Puma's in Brazil or Chile but not seen too many in my neck of the Woods where you are more likely to get savaged by a Squirrel but as a blogger i will keep my eyes open just in case.

The Problem For The CoE

After it was revealed that the Church of England had been covering up decades of abuse by John Smyth at Christian Summer Camps, a few days of calling for the Head of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, followed by his resignation and then the circus moved on but it all felt very unfinished mainly because the man involved, described as the most prolific serial abuser associated with the church, died in 2018.
In his resignation speech, the Archbishop, the most senior leader of the Church of England below the King, said that he: 'Must take personal and institutional responsibility' and so he should, the General Synod review into who knew what and when about Smyth revealed that Welby knew about Smyth in 2013 following a victim coming forward, and did nothing.
Police opened an investigation in 2017 following a victim coming forward and a Channel 4 documentary shed light on the abuse of at least 130 young boys at Summer Camps he ran but shelved them when Smyth died at the age of 75 in 2018, before any charges were brought against him.
The first allegations came in 1982 and the review found that the abuse was covered up within the Church of England since, even allowing Smyth to move to Zimbabwe in 1984 and set up similar evangelical camps there.
For his part, the reports states that Welby was made aware of Smyth in 2013 but: 'He and other senior figures at the church showed a distinct lack of curiosity and minimised the matter'.
Welby said that he hopes that everyone will keep his wife and children in their prayers which seems a bit rich as he knowingly still allowed other parent's children's to be entrusted to a child sex abuser but the problem the Church of England now have is finding someone who didn't know about Smyth and either stayed silent or helped cover it up.
Personally, i care not a jot about any of the Churches and look forward to the day when they are all sidelined to such an extent that their influence on society is less than negligible but that isn't going to be anytime soon as it will take generation with each one continuing to move away from the outdated doctrine of religion but the very minimum should be it doesn't allow child abusers free reign and then actively cover it up.