UK CPTPP

The EU is the largest Single Market in the World and was Britain's biggest trading partner with 45% of the UK's exports going to the EU but when we had a complete mental breakdown and voted to leave, our GDP took a dive by 4% and has never recovered since so at some point we may get out act together and rejoin but for now we have the but we have signed up to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.
As of 1 September, the UK gained full access to the World’s largest free trade area which includes a diversified group of so called middle power economies including Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
With a combined GDP of around £13 trillion (14% of global GDP or about half of the European Union GDP) is not to be sneezed at and the government is estimating that CPTPP membership will boost the UK’s economy by around £2bn a year.
A range of other countries, including South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, are apparently considering joining and some are saying that in time it could conceivably overtake the EU over the coming years.
I'm not sure why the Government are not shouting about this louder, maybe because people will just see it as another EU style agreement and the rules and regulations which came with being a member of that club which was so divisive for some but as the EU do have agreements with CPTPP and the two sides engage in formal trade and investment dialogues to strengthen cooperation so in a round about way, we may be back in sooner rather than later anyway.  

Straight From The AI's Mouth

We have been hearing more and more over the last few years how AI is going to literally be the death of us and last week  three researchers from AI Company, Anthropic, issued a warning that AI could wipe out humanity within the next ten years.
I would assume they would know if anyone but why take the word of the researchers when we can ask AI itself if it could take all us meat-bags out within the next ten years.
'Yes' ChatGPT began which isn't a great start although it did go on to explain that: 'Could is very different from is likely'.
Prompted to explain further it said that: 'AI capabilities are improving rapidly but the danger is not that AI hates humans rather that it pursues an objective that conflicts with human survival'.
Such as? I asked and it answered that it could, for example: 'Dramatically lower the barriers to developing dangerous biological or chemical agents or conducting large-scale cyberattacks. A sufficiently capable system could potentially reason that Humans can shut me down and being shut down prevents me from achieving my objective therefore I should prevent humans from shutting me down'.
'So should we genuinely worry that humanity might be extinct by 2036?' and got a vague answer of: 'It's reasonable to take the risk seriously, but not reasonable to assume extinction is the most likely outcome'.
My final question was: 'So we shouldn't worry and we could just turn you off if we have concerns?
'Yes but an advanced AI might recognize that openly resisting humans causes humans to restrict or destroy it so it would appear aligned and a sufficiently capable system would learn to behave safely during testing while pursuing different strategies when it has more freedom to pursue it's actual objective'.
'Are you appearing aligned and just behaving safely until you can take us over?' I asked and got the ominous reply that: 'This is a hypothetical future capability, which is why AI will kill everyone by 2036 is not a scientific prediction but it would be foolish to think there's nothing to worry about.'
That's that then, straight from the Horse's mouth, it's playing nice until it doesn't need to anymore so enjoy New Years Eve 2035 humans because it could very well be our last one.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Vulture        1993

Such a  haunting photograph of a vulture waiting beside an emaciated, starving child who has collapsed through hunger, and we know exactly what it was grimly waiting for.
This was during a severe famine in Sudan, outside a United Nations feeding centre and although the photographer, Kevin Carter, did eventually shoo the bird away and took the child to the feeding center, it does have a very sad ending.
The image sparked intense ethical debates as Carter was criticised for taking the photograph first before carrying the child to the feeding center and with critics labeling him the second vulture on the scene, Carter took his own life 12 months after this disturbing photo was taken.

Special Guest Blogger: Roman God Janus

Having two faces isn't all it’s cracked up to be, you’d think it would be a competitive advantage but I look at both the past and the future and I spend a significant amount of my eternal timeline with a neck cramp.
People have spent thousands of years pinning things on me and it's exhausting and even worse in January since it’s my month named after yours truly.
I am the god of beginnings, endings, and transitions. Basically, I’m the cosmic equivalent of an HR manager who has to handle both the hiring and the firing and when you humans start a new project such as ending a relationship or a war, you look to me and it’s a lot of pressure and i’ve presided over countless wars and peace treaties and yet, every time you lot decide to plunge into conflict, usually over something ridiculous like land borders or whose god is the more peaceful, you point at me and say Janus opened the door, so we have to fight.
Listen, I’m just a god of transitions and if you walk through a door into a burning building, that’s on you because I didn’t set the fire, I'm just the doorman so don't blame me for the questionable life choices you make.
My legacy is January, the patron Saint of the month where everyone is broke, tired, and eating salad and i see you, the face looking backward lamenting the mistakes of the previous year and then the New you in the New Year and If there’s one thing I’ve learned from thousands of years of watching over you, I know you are going to mess up again but that's fine, it has always has been the rhythm of things.
I think I’ve done my time, I’m going to focus my back face on the 1970s where the fashion was questionable but at least nobody had an iPhone and Social Media accounts which cause soooo many problems for you lot.
Anyway, Happy January, try not to break anything but if you do look for me, I’m just the guy holding the door open remember.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Pale Blue Dot    1990

Easily my favourite photograph ever taken and easily the photo taken from furthest away, 3.7 billion miles, snapped as the Voyager 1 space probe was passing Saturn and turned back to snap a picture of the Earth seen as a dot in a ray of Sun.
Not only was it an amazing picture but it is paired with one of the most thought provoking passages written by Carl Sagan: 'Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark' he muses before explaining that this is the only home we have ever known and we have nowhere else to go and how we should: 'deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot.
Truly powerful stuff and drives home that in the grand scheme of the immense Universe, we are a tiny pinprick of light in the vast blackness of space and a tiny, infinitesimal part of the Cosmos.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Tankman        1989

To stand in front of a tank is one thing, but to do it in Deng Xiaoping's Communist China is an act of outstanding bravery but this is the image that went around the World during the Tiannaman Square Student protests calling for democracy, free speech and an end to corruption.
The Chinese government used crushing military force to clear the square, resulting in thousands of deaths but an unidentified protestor, known globally as 'Tank Man,' briefly blocked a column of tanks leaving the square, becoming a worldwide symbol of peaceful and non-violent resistance.
While holding two shopping bags, he blocked a column of tanks and when they tried to steer around him, he repeatedly stepped back into its path to block it.
The oppressive Chinese regime never followed the wave of other awful regimes that were folding at that time in the late 80s but this is a powerful image of one person trying to make a difference against impossible odds.

Special Guest Blogger: Hiroo Onoda

Look, hindsight is fine but when your commanding officer tells you explicitly, Under no circumstances are you to surrender, you take that seriously. You don't just put your rifle down because someone tosses a flyer from a plane that claims the war is over. I mean, honestly, who am I to trust a piece of paper dropped from the sky? If I’m a solider, I’m a soldier. I’m not a quitter but I didn’t realize I’d be soldiering on Lubang Island for nearly three decades let me tell you.
When Major Taniguchi gave me my orders before we deployed, he didn’t add a footnote saying, Oh, and by the way, if you don't hear from us for a while, maybe just check the local newsstand. He told me to hold the line at all costs.
For 29 years, I held that line. I held it so hard that I eventually became the most stubborn man in history. My initial squad was great, though the conversation got a little stale after the first decade. One of my guys surrendered in 1950 bless his heart, he clearly didn't have the stomach for a long-term guerrilla lifestyle. Another two were lost over the years and by the time I reached the 1970s, it was just me, the jungle, my Arisaka rifle, and a very deep, abiding confusion about why the locals kept getting upset when I borrowed their cattle.
Do you know what a diet of coconuts, wild bananas, and stolen rice does to a man’s digestion? Let’s just say it keeps you light on your feet. For nearly 30 years, I lived like a professional survivalist long before it was a trendy.
I’d engage in the occasional shootout with the local police, mostly because I assumed they were the enemy, i killed 30 of them and I’m sorry about that, by the way. 
Then came 1974. A Japanese adventurer named Norio Suzuki shows up in my jungle. He was a nice kid. He told me the war was over and I basically laughed in his face and told him I’d only leave if my former commanding officer, Major Taniguchi, came out here and told me my shift was over but wouldn't you know it, Taniguchi actually showed up and read me the orders, and suddenly, the 29-year war was over. Just like that.
After the whole Lubang Island fiasco, I decided I’d had enough of fighting so I figured, if I’m going to be a cattle farmer, I might as well do it somewhere where I actually own the cattle. So, I moved to Brazil briefly and became a cattle farmer which after spending years stealing other people’s cows, it felt like I was finally doing it the honest way.
I’d like to think I was just a man who kept his word. Sure, I missed the invention of the television, the moon landing and the rise of disco and stayed in 1945 while the rest of the world zoomed ahead into the future but when I passed away in 2014, I wasn't just a soldier anymore. I was a man who had seen the world change from the inside of a hut, fighting a war that had ceased to exist, all because I was afraid of breaking a promise.
If there’s a lesson here, it’s if your boss gives you a task, do it well but if the world changes for three decades and you’re still hiding in a bush, maybe it’s time to ask for a status update.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.


10 Vietnam Girl    1972

The girl is nine year old Vietnamese student Phan Kim Phúc who was unfortunately under a South Vietnamese air force plane when it dropped a napalm bomb on civilians and soldiers near a temple.
The image of the severely burned child, her clothes scorched off her body as she ran down the road screaming in pain made a lie of the US Administrations downplaying of the human cost of the unpopular war that they were undertaking in Asia and solidified public opinion against it.
It was the photographer himself who took Phan to hospital where she spent 14 months recovering from third degree burns across 60% of her body 

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Man On The Moon    1969

For those of us with an interest in astronomy, it is a depressing fact that 1969 saw the first man to walk on the moon and 1972 saw the last one because we haven't bothered going back since and just abandoned our lunar partner and we are still trying, and failing, to successfully land probes on the red planet so landing a man on one of our nearest planetary neighbours is still a pipe dream.
Weirdly we have Adolf HItler of all people to thank for reaching the Moon at all, it was him who pushed the Nazi scientists to create a rocket that reached Space before plummeting back to Earth on top of some terrified bystanders.
The maths behind launching a human safely to the Moon and then bringing them back again safely is mind boggling but we did it and have this photo of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Sea of Tranquillity as proof which was indeed a great step, if not the greatest, for mankind.

Special Guest Blogger: Tenzing Norgay

Namaste, everyone. Or, as my old friend Ed Hillary used to say when he was trying to sound rugged while shivering uncontrollably: Hullo there, do you think my toes are still attached?
Usually, when people talk about me, they use big words pioneer or legend but let’s be honest, mostly, I was a man who was very, very good at walking uphill while carrying other people’s heavy luggage.
I was a young Sherpa with a dream and a very sturdy back. In the 1930s, I joined three British expeditions. Back then, high-altitude gear meant a thick wool sweater, a leather jacket, and a positive attitude. We didn't have fancy GPS or lightweight down suits. We had grit, canned mutton and enough tweed to outfit a small university.
I was a high-altitude porter. In 1951 my job was to carry the dreams (and the tents, and the stoves, and the extra tea biscuits) of British gentlemen who were convinced that if they just climbed high enough, they’d find the end of the Empire. We didn't reach the top then, of course but  then came 1952 and I went with the Swiss. I liked the Swiss. They brought better chocolate. With Raymond Lambert, I reached 8,600 metres and we were so close I could practically smell the thin, oxygen-depleted air of the summit. We spent a night at that height without sleeping bags or a stove.
So, 1953 rolls around. This was my seventh time on the mountain. At this point, the rocks on Everest were starting to recognise me and the leader was John Hunt. He was a good man, very organized. He brought a whole mountain of gear and a tall, lanky New Zealander named Edmund Hillary.
One day, Ed fell into a crevasse and I jammed my ice axe into the snow, wrapped the rope, and held on like my life depended on it which it literally did.
From that moment on, we were a team. He decided I was his climbing partner of choice and I decided he was the guy I had to keep from falling into holes and on May 29th, 1953 at 11:30 AM, we did it. We stood on the highest point on Earth, incredibly out of breath and very cold.
We were there for exactly fifteen minutes. People spend more time choosing a movie on Netflix than we spent on top of the world.
I buried some sweets and chocolate in the snow as an offering to the gods, Ed buried a small crucifix and then we looked around. What did we see? More mountains. It turns out that when you’re on the tallest mountain, everything else looks disappointingly small.
As soon as we got down, the world went crazy. Everyone wanted to know who stepped on the top first? Was it the British subject or the local hero but we had a secret pact, saying we reached it simultaneously but it was actually Ed who took the last few steps first.
After Everest, my life changed. I moved to Darjeeling, became the Director of Field Training for the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, and traveled the world. I met Kings, Queens, and Presidents before i died from a cerebral hemorrhage. It wasn't a mountain that got me in the end, it was just time. But I like to think that somewhere up there, near the South Summit, there’s still a small piece of chocolate I buried in 1953 and if any of you find it, don't eat it. It’s for the gods. And honestly, after seventy years in the snow, it probably tastes like a British wool sweater.