Not about you

And there it is – my first lateral flow test. Negative.

There is a lot of discussion about whether letting everybody have these tests is a good idea. There certainly are questions about the benefit to individuals.

However, as the vaccine is rolled out thee is a positive benefit that causes us problems. At the moment one in three people that are infected will be asymptomatic. However as the vaccine is rolled out, particularly with young people, it is likely that a bigger proportion of asymptomatic cases will occur. The vaccine reduces symptoms.

At the moment people are asked to go for a test if they have symptoms, and if they are infected then test and trace kicks in. But with more asymptomatic cases it s possible we could be late detecting an outbreak. So in order to identify outbreaks as soon as possible and drive infection rates down we need to start testing people with no symptoms. The good news is that this may only be needed for a month or two – just till we get those numbers right down.

The free lateral flow tests are not for your benefit – they are for the benefit of all of us. So why not get some by clicking the link and get tested.

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Secret squirrel

I’m not sure why it is the squirrel that gets to be secret. I was watching an advert for toothpaste today. In it they pose the question – where do dentists go to clean their teeth. And the answer is – they go home. Was I supposed to believe that there was a secret dentist tooth cleaning location?

Maybe there is? Is it that crazy an idea. There are special colleges where teachers are taught. But are there restaurants for chefs? And where are they? Can we sneak into them?

But there are sneaky secret places still around. You might remember the film “Around the world in 80 days” where the race starts and ends in a gentleman’s club. Did you know they still exist? Women are allowed to enter as guests through the back door.

And what is the Bilderberg Group? Go have a look at the people that attended the meetings. An interesting mix from all areas of business and politics.

Secrecy has an interesting effect on people. What are they hiding? And then for some the paranoia sets in.

We are about to start some trials of events to see how we can get back to normal. But one has to cancel because of abuse from the anti-vacs collective. They have become so sure that the secret society are conspiring against them that they seem to be suggesting disrupting the trial events.

Personally i am sure there are levels of secrecy that I will never be party to. But there are enough things that I am party to without me getting paranoid about some secret societies. I have enough gardening to worry about to take up my time.

Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.

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Slip showing

Heartbreak Ridge was on TV tonight. A typical Clint Eastwood film. It ends with the US invasion of the island of Grenada. I can remember the invasion. At the time I lived beside somebody from Grenada. We would often catch the same train to work. I jokingly asked her if she had been involved in the revolution. She whispered to me “No but my cousin led it”.

The film story follows the reason Reagan gave for the invasion – the island is supposedly occupied by Cuban soldiers. There were less than a thousand Cubans on the island. It got me thinking about the US reaction to Cuba. What is it, other than their politics, that makes the US so afraid of them? Why is there an embargo? Is Cuba going to invade the USA?

Above any other international interventions the attitude of the USA toward Cuba is the one that gives the clearest view of the heart of US international policy. Irrespective of the right and wrong of the situation the decision will always be the one that favours the USA first. Don’t imagine we have a special relationship that exempts us from that treatment.

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Tin foil time

One of my broadbands went down today. And the same day I ended up with four urgent requests. Now I feel better about paying for that backup broadband connection.

I started to investigate the disruption to my broadband and I discovered a weak EM field causing strange harmonics along the telephone line. It seemed to be emanating from under my garden. So I rushed to the nearest road work and borrowed their excavator. After three hours of digging I hit something hard – metallic.

There was a hatch that I managed to pry open. Once through the hatch I found myself in a control room. I managed to disable the power supply which freed up my broadband again. It was the grey aliens.

No – I have not gone mad. But there are people that really do believe that sort of thing (I have met several – especially when I visited Roswell). And who is to say – maybe somewhere in the universe there are grey aliens bent on galactic domination.

But these are the unknowns that allow for imagination. Yesterday I spotted a post on facebook where somebody was claiming the PCR tests were all fake (yes they probably were a 5g believer). I find it amazing how fluid reality is for some people. Is one person one vote really a good idea?

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Remember me

I have a friend that says they don’t want their grave to read “did all the ironing”, but wants “lived life to the full”.

I was watching TV last night and I saw a face that looked familiar. It really looked like somebody I used to work with. So I called them today. It turned out to be their brother who had died recently. It was a good fly on the wall programme and it gave a good picture of his brother. It makes a really good memorial to him.

I wonder what my obit will say. What will I be remembered for.

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Cleaning the oceans the wrong way

New modelling (backed by measurements) is showing that the amount of plastic in the oceans is being removed day by day. It isn’t as a result of those greenie people though. No, there is now so much plastic in the ocean that the amount of microplastic being blown onto land is exceeding the amount of plastic we are dumping into the oceans.

So where do all the microplastics come from? Well one interesting source is from driving. I have always known about the amount of rubber that is released 9think about that hard to remove film on your windscreen). But it gets much worse than that – especially with high speed driving.

And then there is that good idea of making roads out of recycled plastic – yes you guessed it – this creates a new source of airborne microplastics.

Are we too late to close the stable door?

Then again – if carbon is in plastic then it isn’t in the atmosphere. I wish it was easy to give a simple answer. And maybe this is the big green failing – providing simple answers that have already failed.

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Tubing

Well, if you can surf the internet maybe you can go tubing for videos. I decided to listen to a few videos tonight, just jumping from one to another.

One of the videos that came up was Michael Jackson, and I was surprised just how radical the video was. And as I looked through the catalogue of his official videos I noticed a lot of them had really strong messages in the images behind the songs. Try this one:

I wonder why all we remember is the scandal. I guess because it sells newspapers.

I’ve noticed several documentaries on TV recently have included the word scandal in their title. Not everything that is wrong is a scandal.

But I think what bothers me a little is that the scandals that are highlighted in the MJ videos are still there, but we still talk about his skin colour change.

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The little things

I don’t like it when a radio station or a tune has a police siren. The reason – if I hear it when driving I feel the need to search on my mirrors for blue lights just in case.

And I dislike adverts with a doorbell sound.

I really dislike them if you don’t see a person ringing the bell.

And I dislike it even further if the actor on the screen doesn’t react to the sound of the doorbell.

I’ve ended up checking my door more than once.

It’s the little things that drive you wild – as Alice sings.

And that brings me on to the chimney removal I had today.

A total of 300 bricks later and the roof looks much better. But it was the little things. Not only did they brush up their waste on the roof and drive but I found one of the workers on his knees in my garden cleaning up the bits of rubble that had got on the lawn piece by piece.

I don’t know how good the job is yet (need to wait for rain to find that out). But those little things can make such a difference to how you feel about a job.

We all can do little things, and it can make a real difference to people.

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Spring

I’ve been moving around my living room this week. I still have a way to go, but give me a couple of weeks and it will be there. Part of it means new shelving, so I was out cutting wood today. Now I need to add some colour.

I get my chimney removed tomorrow – to stop water leaks. We have a lot of seeds here that blow into gaps and there is a leak every 10 years or so.

I started a new hobby today, roasting my own coffee.

There is something that makes me feel like spring – I have energy to change.

I was really interested hearing about a comment Prince Philip made to the former Archbishop of York. He said he disliked the term “reform”, because reform is what powerful people do – and the reform is done to the those at the bottom of the pile. He liked the term change, because we all face it together.

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Follow the money

The EU is going green. Over the next 10 years they aim to reduce gas consumption by about a third. Fantastic news. So why is the EU investing in infrastructure that would increase the import capacity by a third? Doesn’t seem to add up – does it?

You get the same picture if you read the Scotland’s future document. It spends time saying how green Scotland will be, but then throws in quotes like ” An independent Scotland will aim to
maximise the safe production of oil and gas”. Maximising extraction is not compatible with current climate targets – but it is compatible with the money needed to support the country.

Like the Watergate investigation showed – following the money leads to the real truth.

At the same time the UK has invested billions to help oil and gas workers move to alternative employment, and has promised not to allow new licenses for exploration if it is shown it would affect out climate goals (honest).

Next time you see the cost of beer and cigarettes changing because of the budget then give a thought for the hidden lines that never make the news – they are in there and they tell you what our real priorities are.

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