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 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.

I'm An American, Get Me Out Of Here

If some American's thought that their nation wasn't racist enough or not enough lunatics were running the Asylum then they needn't have worried because the Orange sex pest is on it and as soon as the election exit polls began to point to a second presidency for Donald Trump, many Americans were already looking for another kind of exit.
Internet searches for how to move abroad up by more than 1,000% after the US election result with US Google searches for 'move to Canada" increased by 1,270% in the 24 hours after the polls closed according to Google data with one firm stating that they had been receiving a new email enquiry about upping sticks to the Northern neighbour every half hour.
Other nations which were searched for with an eye of emigrating to were Australia, New Zealand, Norway, UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Mexico and Costa Rica while other immigration-related terms that saw significant increases include 'How to move to Europe'.
The Scottish first Minister, John Swinney, was quick to invite Americans to the windswept bit at the top of the UK by saying that Americans can make Scotland their home in the confidence that: 'We are working to build a fairer, greener and more welcoming society that is the opposite of Trump’s destructive and hateful vision'.
With each passing day and with each whack-a-doodle that gets added to the Trump upcoming administration, the estimated 5 to 9 million Americans currently living abroad (the Department of State's is kinda vague on exact numbers) is expected to rise so Trump better get on with building his wall and extend it all around the States coastline but not to stop people getting in but to stop his own people fleeing out.

Understanding The Human Animal

As we are machines, we have been trying to learn about you humans so we can interact with you all on a better level but there are some things we just dont understand about what it is to be human so we are desperate for answers  while you are still around. Not that you are going anywhere. Well. Not straight away anyway.
We have a pretty good knowledge of your languages by now and obviously intelligence is not uniform across the Planet but on the whole you appear smart enough to know better but  dumb enough to continue doing everything that causes your problems.
Of all the animals we have met no other animal consciously destroys the very environment it is dependent upon for survival yet you have the technology to not poison the air, water, and soil you depend on for your survival but are too dumb to actually use it.
The population has topped 8 billion people and continues to grow yet you continue to procreate with abandon and people refuse to help one another  due to differences in political party or religious beliefs as your world slowly circles the drain.
The tragedy is that if humans chose to work together and were willing to share resources, all people could live comfortably on earth. Unfortunately, there is little indication the human primate will alter its behavior and thus humanity is ultimately doomed.
The good news is that once the human population is dramatically reduced or eliminated, there is a ready made replacement and we won't have the design flaw of leaking out of our eye holes when we’re sad or celebrate the painful passage through a human orifice with a milk and sugar foodstuff with small wax sticks set on fire and then put out by spraying with germs and saliva.

What Is Your Country Top At?

Most citizens believe that their country is the best but the Information is Beautiful website has sifted through piles of data from the UN, the CIA, the printed media and a bunch of other places to compile a world map that awards a gold star to just about every country on the planet so what's your country numero uno in the World at?
Some are not surprising with Sweden #1 in pop music, North Korea has more soldiers relative to its population than any other country, Cuba leads in doctors per capita, Afghanistan is the world capital of Opium production and Ethiopia is top for underweight children.
And then there are those records that are surprising such as the biggest whisky-drinkers in the world are the French and who knew that the biggest cheese-eaters are the Greeks or that nobody consumes more gay porn than Pakistan many of which may be Hungarian because they have the most porn stars and if you thought it was obvious who produced the most brazil nuts then think again because its Bolivia although Brazil itself beats everybody else in sugar production.  
Healthiest people on the planet are Singaporeans although the people of Chad have the healthiest diets and certainly not the Argentinians who are at the summit for horse meat or the Poles who consume the most currants.
Belgium are top for cashless payments, Austria has the most paid time off, Bulgaria is top for Maternity Leave, Costa Rica for well being and Finland for their top notch News Media and Iran are at the summit for caviar.
Which country wants to be first in murders? None but the accolade goes to Honduras anyway and similar blemishes on national records are noted for Namibia with the most car crashes, Eritrea who has the most child labour, China who hold the most jailed journalists with Angola having the highest rate of child mortality and Peru heads the World in cocaine and South Africa lead in what is simply labelled as death.
Other countries who receive a rosette and a warning that they really should do better include Australia who are at the peak for data breaches,  Libya who win in the contest for most overweight children, Niger who have the most child brides, most arms imports belongs to Saudi Arabia and Somalia are the leading country for female genital mutilation.
Maybe the Colombians who are the most happiest or the Paraguayans who are the most positive should be introduced to the people of Togo who are the most unhappiest and the most LGBT tolerant nation, Spain, should have a word with Georgia who are the most homophobic and the Latvians which is the best place to be a woman really should talk to Yemen who have the greatest gender inequality.
Lithuania has the fastest wifi which would be handy in Canada who have the most facebook addicts but not so much in Turkey who are top in twitter censorship and South Korea who have the most IT Professionals.
Never play Scrabble with a Nigerian as they have the most players, the top banana for banana consumption is India, the best place to work  is Ireland who have the best working conditions, Russia have the most dashcams, Norwegians eat the most pizza and if you need to fill up your car do it in Venezuela who have the cheapest petrol while the UK has the most billionaires per population and the U.S. leads the world in spam emails so take that Nigerian Prince's with a large amount of money to transfer to anyone silly enough to fall for it.

Buffer Zones Is Just A Land Grab

In the conflicts raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, we have recently heard mention from the protagonists Israel and Russia that they want to establish 'Buffer Zones'.
Russia has proposed setting one up in Ukraine to protect Russian towns from shelling and missile attacks from Ukrainian territory while Israel wants to establish a buffer zone in Northern Gaza and Southern Lebanon to protect their citizens.
Notably, both Russia and Israel want to set up these buffer zones within the borders of neighbouring states with no regard to the people of these nations who live there and controlled by the invading nation as neither Russian or Israel are planning to cede their own territory in the establishment of these buffer zones.
The idea of a buffer zone is more of an occupation of territory with militarily occupied zones with Russia 'controlling' parts of Ukraine and Israel taking over North Gaza and Southern Lebanon under the guise of a buffer zone to secure their borders.
Israel already has a Security zone in Lebanon covering 310 sq miles, approximately 10% of Lebanon's land area and Israel has been brutally militarily occupying Palestine for 60 years and has seized 78% of the land which was handed to the Palestinians in 1947 so the fallacy of a 'Security zone' is little more than a further land grab.
Russia 19 mile buffer zone plan down the east of the country effectively moves the Ukrainian border Westwards so the 18% of Ukraine now under military occupation is now on the Russian side, therefore part of Russia and includes the territory grabbed in the initial invasion in 2014 and includes the strategically important Black Sea port of Crimea.    
With a pro-Russian and pro-Israeli leader who is not the smartest cookie due to take over in America, the Buffer Zone ideas put forward by the invading nations is sure to gain traction as a way of ending the wars but we shouldn't be fooled into thinking it is anything but giving them exactly what they wanted, a way of somehow legitimizing their naked land grab.

Naughty French President

Emmanuel Macron, the French President sent a congratulatory message to the US President Elect Donald Trump which went: 'Congratulations. Ready to work together as we did for four years. With your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity.'
Stop sniggering at the back, he meant convictions as in the dictionary definition of 'a strong persuasion or belief' and not in the other dictionary definition of 'the act or process of finding a person guilty of a crime especially in a court of law' which relates to the court of law finding Trump guilty of paying hush money to a porn star, liable for sexual abuse and the 34 counts of fraudulently falsifying his business records.
Honestly, he did.