No Peace Coming For Gaza

President Joe Biden, who has spent the last few years calling for peace in Gaza while providing the weapons to prevent it, has expressed hope that this week’s ceasefire in Lebanon will be followed by one in Gaza but that seems unlikely as Israel may have found peace with Hezbollah in Lebanon but they have other plans for Gaza, and making peace know before they implement it would mess up their plans.  
In what has been one of the largest pieces of ethnic cleansing in the Middle East, Israel are seeing the opportunity to keep the manifesto pledge from Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Lukid Party that states that: 'The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river' which seems pretty conclusive as meaning no Palestinian State of their own in the West Bank or Gaza.
Now with Donald Trump preparing to take office in a few weeks’ time, there is growing talk in the region of the possibility that the new US administration will permit Israel to push some of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza across the border into Egypt, a proposal that minister Bezalel Smotrich agrees with as he said that: 'The correct solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees'.
The mass transfer of Palestinians will be anything but 'voluntary', which is why Israel are slicing off the North of Gaza and preventing the 100,00 displaced Gazan's returning, pushing them into an ever decreasing and crowded area as satellite images show Israeli troops clearing an area across the width of north Gaza, destroying hundreds of buildings and farm land.
An IDF spokesperson told the BBC that they are only destroying buildings and civilian infrastructure and building their own military infrastructure out of 'operational necessity' to neutralise Hamas but deny that it will become a military zone and civilians will be told to leave the north although they refuse to say how long the partition will remain in place.
Only the most gullible or blinkered Israeli supporter would believe that it isn't the basis of plan to expel Palestinians from the area permanently and replace them settlers because it is exactly the blueprint for what they have done in the West Bank so peace won't be coming to Gaza, what is coming is an extension of the current genocide and wholesale ethnic cleansing of Palestine.  

How Stupid?

War is stupid and people are stupid so sang Culture Club in the mid 80's and most military's have had cock-ups because you know, military people are not known for their smarts which is why in the second World War America attacked an empty Japanese Island and lost over 100 men.
When the Japanese invaded the U.S. occupied island of Kiska in 1943, the Americans decided to take it back with 35,000 men, 95 ships and 168 aircraft and carnage ensued with bombs dropped and then the soldiers charged in, shooting everything that somehow still stood.
When they stopped to reload they noticed a distinct lack of Japanese corpses as they had all left two weeks earlier although they did find 122 dead Americans which is pretty stupid to lose over 100 men  
fighting against no enemy although my favourite stupid war people story involves the British and the Ojibwa tribe of Indians.
In 1761, the British gained a new Fort in present day Michigan and also some new neighbors in the local tribe and it all began peacefully with just the occasional skirmish and scalping and the tribe would
play lacrosse near the entrance of the fort and the British watched them from the safety of the ramparts and then gradually coming outside to stand around the pitch watching.
Over time the rivalry between the Ojibwa and the Brits increased and they became ever more suspicious of each other and the Ojibawa, suspecting an imminent attack from the British, knew they would be slaughtered if they attacked so came up with a brilliantly cunning plan.
During one game of Lacrosse, with most of the British outside watching them, one of them 'accidentally' knocked the ball over the walls of the fort and two Ojibwa ran into the fort to fetch it, after a few minutes another few ran in to help them find the ball and then a few more and soon eventually, all the players were inside the gates and the British were still outside wondering why they were taking so long.
Meanwhile inside the Ojibwa were arming themselves from the British arsenal and locking the gate, slaughtered everyone inside.
Obviously the game had to be postponed and the Ojibwa went on to hold the fort for an entire year.

Open That Advent Calendar

Crack open those advent calendars because today is the first day in the official month of Christmas but some places have Christmas all around them every day of the year because they live there.
In the UK we have Cranberry in Staffordshire, Christmas Cross in Shropshire, Christmas Common in Oxfordshire, Cold Christmas and Mistletoe in Hertfordshire, Stocking Green in Suffolk, Christmaspie in Surrey and Bethlehem in South Wales so good luck finding virgins and wise men there.
Elsewhere we have three Christmas Island's, one in the Indian Ocean, another  in the Pacific and off the coast of Tasmania but it seems that Americans took a pause from naming places after parts of Great Britain and came over all Festive instead.
Almost all of Santa’s reindeer (except Prancer for some reason) are represented on the US map so we have Dasher in Georgia, Donner in Florida, Oregan and Louisiana, Comet in Missouri , Vixen in Louisiana, Dancer in Tennessee, Blitzen in Nevada, Cupid in Minnesota, and not to leave him out they have a Rudolph in South Dakota.
Why nobody want to live in Prancer is a bit of a strange one but there is a Reindeer Cove in Maine and Alaska so she's kinda covered and Utah has a Sleigh Canyon.
Other Festive sounding places in the USA are Stocking Hill in New York, an Elf in North Carolina and a less cheerful Elf Cemetery in Pennsylvania, Arizona is home to Santa Claus the town as well as two other Santa Clauses in Indiana and and Georgia.
Chimney Mountain is in Oklahoma and North Pole is in Idaho while Colorado has a Yule Creek as well as a place with the name of 'No Name' which probably means the Town Officials were too drunk of Christmas Cheer when they thought of that one.  

Why Band Aid Was A Success

Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas' can be criticised for some shaky lyrics, the Bono line of 'Tonight thank God it's them instead of you' always grated even at the time but one thing that cannot be denied is that it was a great success.    
The single was in response to a BBC documentary about the famine in Ethiopia and raised £8m in the first year alone and over the past 40 years the Band Aid Charity has handed out over £150m for projects providing clean water, building schools and libraries and providing training to prevent gender-based violence.
On the release of Band Aid 40 there has been criticism with the main one being how much good did Band Aid do if the situation is the same in 2024 as it was in 1984 which is a ridiculous argument because you could make that argument about anything, the Children in Need charity raiser has been running even longer and we still have Children who are in need in the UK but nobody seems to be asking what's the point of that.
We may as well close all those Food Banks and Charity shops as we are at it if that's how you feel, because, what's the point?
I agree with Bob Geldof who responded to criticism with: 'This little pop song has kept hundreds of thousands if not millions of people alive. People will sleep safer, warmer and cared for tonight because of that miraculous little record' and he is completely correct.
The only other option was to do nothing and just let people die and although Band Aid could not save everyone, it saved the lives of some and that has to be applauded and it is hard to fathom the parallel moral universe where some people think Band Aid has been a bad thing.
The hundreds of thousands if not millions who receive a meal, education or clean drinking water paid for with Band Aid cash who would not have received any otherwise would beg to differ.

Left V That Other Lot

The Left v Right debate has been going backwards and forwards for decades but it can be confusing to know which side of the political divide you are so to help, Pew Research have been asking Global lefties and righties what they believe and have created the core beliefs so dive in and see where you are at the end of it.
The Left Believe in fair trade, support workers, personal freedom and focusing on society while the Right lean towards free trade, supporting employers economic freedom and focusing on the individual.
Left parents list instilling empathy and moral diversity into their children to create a fulfilled adult while the Right look to instill  moral strengths in their offspring to build a self-reliant adult.
The lefties vocations include working in the Media, architects, professors, scientists and teachers while the right tend towards police, military, stockbroker, business and judicial careers.
On five important subjects, 74 % on the left support abortion rights, 30% death penalty, 89% free healthcare, 85% minimum wage and 90% support renewable energy while on the right 30% support abortion rights, 80% the death penalty, 26% free healthcare, 23% minimum wage, 45% renewable energy.
When it comes to voting the left put the top things they vote for as Fairness, helping others and the downtrodden, positive role models, diplomacy and pacisfism while the Right look for upholding order, helping those who help themselves, strong role models, opportunity, aggression and militancy.
The quotes most lefties agree with is 'One for all and all for one' and 'Improve the World, bring in the new' while the right opted for 'Survival of the fittest' and 'protect the good things about the world' so if you find yourself agreeing with most of the things the Left stand for, congratulations you are a functioning member of society and if you find yourself agreeing mostly with the right, sorry if there was too many long words for you but ask a responsible adult to help and try again.  

Note To Self: Read Emails

While clearing out some work emails i came across one from the United Kingdom International Atomic Energy Agency (UKIAEA) which i vaguely remember receiving a while back but as it was woofing on about Nuclear Fusion i left it to come back to later, and by that i mean delete it once i was sure nobody was going to ask me if i had read it.
When i saw it i partly recalled a conversation at a thing somewhere with someone about how Nuclear Fusion was the way forward and maybe i was distracted by a squirrel outside or something because i guess i said something along the lines of 'That's nice' and wondered off to find out if there were anymore cheese and pineapple sticks left at the buffet but whatever come over me last week, i decided to read the email, what with it being the way forward and everything.
Fusion, it said, is among the most environmentally friendly sources of energy with no CO2 or other harmful atmospheric emissions created and uses two of the most widely available sources of hydrogen and lithium.
What we have now is Nuclear Fission which splits a heavy element to create energy while fusion joins two light elements to form a heavier element but while Fission produces waste which is radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, Fusions waste has a very short half life and is used in lower amounts.
Fusion can also not cause a nuclear accident because it must be kept as a very high temperature (100m °C) and if there was a problem then the process would automatically come to a halt with no melt down and as nuclear weapons use Fission to detonate, it would not be possible to create a Fusion nuclear weapon.
I'm sold, everything about it sounds great so why are we not pushing for these Fusion reactors then?
Turns out we are and Britain has a cluster of 200 of them in Oxfordshire and plan to build Commercial fusion reactors by 2040 and in France there is something called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) which has the involvement of 35 countries and there are about 90 nuclear fusion reactors operating worldwide with 130 more experimental reactors planned in 50 countries across the globe.
All sounds promising but why did nobody tell me about all this? Oh yeah right, the email i ignored....carry on chaps.

Handsakes For Some, Hand Sanitiser For Others

If Covid taught us anything, it was importance of washing our hands which is a quick, easy and effective way to reduce the spread of diseases.
The World Health Organisation said that a regular 20 second hand wash before eating after visiting the bathroom can reduce respiratory diseases by up to 25%, and intestinal diseases by up to 50% so you would think that after the scare of Coronavirus, we would all be scrubbing in the sink but a Gallup poll shows that the message has still yet to penetrate.   
The poll asked Europeans if they washed their hands with soap and water after going to the toilet and well done and a confident hand-shake to the 96% of squeakily clean handed Bosnian's who topped the league table at 96% followed by the Turks with 94%.
A quick handshake to the Kosovan's and Portuguese (85%), the Greeks and Romanians (84%), Serbians (83%) and Macedonians (82%) but it's a quick tap of hands and a smothering of hand gel to those of you from Iceland, Sweden and Germany (78%), Finland (76%), the UK (75%), Ireland (74%), Switzerland (73%), Bulgaria (72%), The Czech Republic and Ukraine (71%).
A wave and a warning to keep those filthy paws away from me to those from Poland (68%), Estonia and Austria (65%) Russia (63%), France (62%), Spain (61%) Belgium (60%) and Italy (57%).  
So which country should hang their heads in shame and then hang their hands in a sink of industrial strength sanitiser, looking at you Netherlands where only 50% of you said you wash your hands after going to the bathroom so the only person to shake a dutch hand would be Donald Trump because we all know where his hands have been.

Great Ideas From The Keyboard Of Lucy: Population Realignment

While we was in Scandinavia a while back it struck me that Norway is 25% bigger than the UK in total but only has a population of just over 5 million compared to our 68 million which got me thinking, what if we had a bit of a global move around so that the inhabitants of the country with the largest population moved to the country with the largest area and the second-largest population would migrate to the second-largest country, and so on?
Apart from it being hell for the Atlas producers, the population realignment would be great business for removal firms and produce a few very weird new neighborhoods because, let's be honest, there are some countries you thank your lucky stars you are not next to.
So comparing the World Population list and the World Country size list, Russia would go to China and the Russians would trek over to Kazakhstan and as it is landlocked that's a massive saving on their navy.
The second largest nation, Canada would go to India but sorry India, you would still have USA as your neighbour to the south because they are the third biggest and also have the third largest population and interestingly other nations that would stay where they are include Yemen, Brazil and Ireland but they would all get new neighbours with Germany now next to Yemen, Brazil saying привіт to the Ukrainians and Ireland looking across to Tunisia in place of Great Britain across the Irish Sea.
Shifting themselves to the continent of South America we would have Ethiopia replacing Mexico and Jordan would take over Cuba who would now be on the other side of the continent in Ecuador.
Britain would become an African Nation going to the Sahara Desert and Niger which would play havoc with my pale skin but we would be surrounded by Mexico, Myanmar, Thailand and Greece who would also make the trip to Africa with us.
Going the other way out of Africa and into Europe would be Mali into what was formerly Norway, Niger into Finland and Senegal into Italy while Malaysia's neighbour in what was France would now be Australia who would take the spot where Spain used to be.
The Vietnamese would swap their tropical climate for that of snowy Greenland but the South Koreans could be thankful escaping their wacky neighbour's in the North as they go to South Africa but as luck would have it of all the potential new neighbours available, they get North Korea who will move from the Korean peninsula with them to the Botswana who South African share a border with.
The new Middle East would be Sweden in for Syria, Cameroon in Iraq, Turkey for Iran, Slovakia for Jordan and Tanzania for Egypt so that should make it a lot more peaceful because the country everyone would be crossing their fingers to avoid moving next to, Israel, are off to replace Greece so apologies to Lesotho and Qatar who take the nations to the North, Albania and Macedonia.
All seems very sensible so just let me order some factor 1 million sun cream and let's begin calling around removal firms.

Not So Birdbrained Afterall

 
In the competition between Evolution and Religion, the idea of one of the many creators (and there are thousands to choose from) making the Earth and everything on it fell apart when Science came along and piddled all over the religious campfire and Evolution is a long story of one thing replacing another.
Of the five classes of vertebrate, first came the sea living things such as fish which evolved into amphibians which spent time between the land and sea which over time became reptiles and from that class of animals came us mammals which means of the five classes of back boned animals, only the Birds have not had a go at lording it over the Planetary roost.  
I can only assume they are not inquisitive enough because, again i am making an assumption, that the fish said hang on, here i am swimming around like a mug when there are all those nice things on the land so evolved it's fins into legs and invented amphibians.
Then the amphibians said why do i keep going back to the sea and getting all wet when the best stuff is here on the land so evolved into reptiles and then after millions of years of sitting in the sun to warm up they said what the hell, why don't we develop an internal way of regulating our own body temperature and grow some fur instead of scales and became mammals, which they did.
Our own ancestors, at some point, said it's all very nice living up trees but i wouldn't mind stretching my legs and anyway, all those big reptiles that eat us have all disappeared after that glowing rock hit the Earth so they climbed down, began walking around and became us.
Birds then, must be content with flying around and eating worms and things so have never found the need to evolve and take over or maybe their time is yet to come and they are biding their time to after us Mammals go away and will then will swoop in and take over and that wouldn't surprise me, those swans at the local pond look very shifty. 

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.