Lucky Dip

2021-10-30

Another excoriating session at the EU Parliament:

"Let's be clear about one thing - no-one grants me freedom"

2021-10-23

MEPs come out at press conference in favour of staff who do not approve the mandatory "green pass" to come to work.

Cogently argued as well. 

Will the staff at the EU Parliament tolerate this intrusion on their liberties or will they walk out? 

One can only imagine what Nigel would have had to say ...

2021-10-19

Life sometimes throws up inconvenient truths which are not immediately explicable (indeed some might think that we have been blessed with rather too many of these recently!).

Some people find these mysteries fascinating, and some baffling, and some react by rejecting the evidence as somehow flawed because it doesn't comply with their expectations - even in some cases going so far as to suppress the offending evidence, or to rewrite the documentation to reflect their beliefs rather than the evidence - or some will simply ignore the offending evidence altogether... 

So I thought it might be interesting to see how inexplicable truths are handled in less fast-moving arenas - for example, in archaeology.

Enjoy!  (1 hr)

2021-10-11

Since we left the EU we also left the CAP. Since then the government and its civil servants have been occupied in devising what might unkindly be thought of as a composite policy of subsidy laced with a good measure of "green" objectives that I have never properly understood.

Being of what some might consider advancing years I still remember the pre-CAP days before we joined the "Common Market". We had cheap imported meat from our erstwhile colonies (primarily New Zealand, Australia) and subsidies to British farmers so that they could cover the gap between their expenses of production and market meat prices. It seemed to me (being not at all farming oriented) that it worked well enough. All that changed when we joined the one-size-fits-all CAP and meat prices in the shops rocketed whilst New Zealand and Australia scrambled to find new markets for their produce.

So I was interested to see

2021-10-07

This is not particularly topical, but Bill Gates, the man that made Microsoft, the philanthropist who vaccinates the world, has affected and continues to affect our world in many ways, for better or for worse.

The Corbett Report gives us their view of Bill Gates:

2021-10-05

Dominic Cummins has been quiet recently, and now we find out why.

He once famously indicated that the Civil Service would need some hard rain post Brexit, but he left the government before this could come about.

Now he has come out with his proposals, we find that some of his analysis is not too contentious

"America needs a government that controls the government, as it did under FDR and Lincoln, and shatters the party structure which is a plague" 

Who would have thought it?

His solution (probably rightly in my jaundiced view) rests on the proposition that when

2021-09-27

In these days of mass delusion (whichever side of the fence you may occupy) the methodology behind the efforts to get us all to comply are either the product of an over-active imagination, or the nefarious attempt by "them" to achieve their ends by unobtrusive means.

Well, this little video shows the techniques that a stage performer used to extraordinary effect in getting his volunteer subjects to do some quite outlandish things . . .

2021-09-16

Many would suggest that state education never recovered after Crossland's abolition of the grammar schools. But he was a politician, so what did we expect?

But is there any fundamental reason why a Comprehensive shouldn't produce excellent results? Apart from that age old aphorism "Jack of all trades, master of none" of course.

There are clearly many attributes that a good school must possess, and specialisation may be only one among the many. So what attribute should we value most highly? 

I would suggest that "a good teacher" must rank very highly indeed - but what makes for a good teacher? One of the best teachers I ever had was teaching outside his subject-matter but used to keep one lesson ahead of the class! So subject-matter competence need not always rank very highly. 

...

2021-09-11

Simon Parkes is (like Charlie Ward) a man who presents to us as an information source on behalf of what we on this site refer to in general terms as the "Greater Reset".

He presents himself as an ordinary person, like you and I, and unlike Charlie he lives in the UK with us (). In a way he is a bit like the "Klaus Schwab" of the Greater Reset - a face who purports to tell us what the men behind the scenes have in store for us (don't push this notion too far!).

What I call the "gauntlet" is a document prepared by the "top man" in the Greater Reset team in the USA, and may be downloaded from the link at the foot of this article (which takes you to a Simon Parkes web-page). It has been released to followers of Simon and Charlie (and probably via other channels although I have no information on that).

It summarises the state of the world in particular as it afflicts the

2021-08-20

At this time of year, with the summer beginning to fade and the autumn, that season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, beckoning, many of us turn our thoughts to nature's bounty and wish that we were more knowledgeable about such matters.

Being as guilty as the next man of lacking any serious knowledge of our native seasonal resources, I am happy to feature the Sensory Solutions Blog as a small acknowledgement of my ignorance, in the hope that some may hereby be enticed into learning more about this fascinating subject.

Keeping well-grounded has never seemed more important than now, and the Seed Sistas offer us all a blend of practical mysticism that I find very appealing. More power to their elbow!

2021-08-13

Like / Dislike this video here.

Find more from After Skool here.

2021-08-09

The Bernician has helpfully summarised his view of the history of British Law from 1103 BC to the present day!

It is necessarily somewhat truncated but nevertheless makes for interesting reading. I cannot however vouch for its accuracy, although he does link to his sources.

According to The Bernician, Britain was founded by the Trojans (who knew?). 

There is plenty of interest here for the budding historian to get his/her teeth into, and I commend the article to you.

2021-08-08

If you are feeling adventurous, and maybe prepared to suspend your disbelief for a while...   this tarot reading for the world over the course of the next year may pique your fancy! 

Will it be good news or bad? Will the prophets of doom be proven right (despite their somewhat mixed track record in 2021)?

Will we sink back gratefully into the old normal, or will we stride confidently into a new normal, and if so, what kind of new?

In these uncertain times, you need to know! So -  live dangerously - take the plunge...

2021-08-03

Any article starting with the exhortation "Imagine you're a normal person" may not be being written from a shared viewpoint, but whatever your view of current and recent circumstances, perhaps we can agree that we are not living through times that we would, two years ago (yes, that long), have considered "normal".

This megathread takes the trouble to look at recent turmoils from a historical perspective (don't worry - only five years or so) to identify the factors that may have caused our everyday presumptions to be shifted from their previous comfortable moorings.

It makes for interesting reading.

And speaking of "things that make you go Hmmm..."

Another pops into my inbox only this morning.

There was a time when bodies constituted

2021-07-31

The big secrets - the little secrets - your secrets. It's up to you.

Enjoy:

Like / Dislike this video here.

2021-07-22

We do not as a rule involve ourselves in matters mundane but the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee in their recent report highlights the dangers inherent in the relationship between the Bank of England (which prints the money) and the Treasury (which spends it). 

Now this print-to-spend arrangement is not supposed to exist, but their Lordships found that it is "widely perceived" that the amount printed seems to be tracking the amount spent.

"The Bank of England has become addicted to quantitative easing. It appears to be its answer to all the country’s economic problems and by the end of 2021, the Bank will own an eye-watering £875bn of Government bonds and £20bn in corporate bonds"

"The Bank does not publish sufficient information on QE for the public and Parliament to hold it to account for its decisions"

"The Chancellor refused the Committee’s requests for him to

2021-07-22

The weather around the world as been worrying - severe floods in China (seasonal) Germany and Belgium (not at all seasonal!), heatwaves and fires in western Canada and Oregon, nice summer weather in the UK. We are grateful for large mercies!

Here is a video made by someone who does seem to know what he is talking about:

Like / Dislike this video here.

2021-07-21

This isn't exactly a scientific article, as it seems a bit short on references, but nor is it entirely without supporting articles. It nevertheless presents an intriguing notion of a water cycle that most people have probably never heard of.

I don't know if there is anything of substance here or not - and I wonder if anybody else knows as well.

One to keep in mind as an interesting possibility that might fundamentally change our understanding of the way that our planet functions, should it turns out to have substance.

Could this be the maverick idea that turns our understanding of our earth's history on its head?

2021-07-09

I've mentioned elsewhere how the art of modelling can be used in the service of science in a very useful and correct manner - this article explains how it is being done in a somewhat less rational manner - depending on your chosen objective of course.

If your objective is not to study, uncover, and explain the truth of how the universe works, but to co-opt those called "scientists" to project your delusions, then read on.

Dr Keith Scott-Mumby, an expat Mancunian who (as is the way with many Mancunians) exhibits a characteristic British bluntness, allows himself free rein in his latest newsletter.

Worth a read, if only to be entertained on how the rot is spreading within global

2021-07-07

It is generally known that in the summer months various mysterious crop "circles" manifest uninvited in our fields, (and not just in the UK, although we do seem to be favoured more than most).

Debate (if we can still call it that these days) rages between those who insist that they are man-made in the dead of night by people wielding planks and lengths of string because there is no other rational explanation, and those who prefer to reconsider explanations previously regarded as irrational when the evidence indicates that the rational cannot be or is highly unlikely to be true.

Collective Evolution fall into the latter camp, and invoke some startling evidence to support their claim. It could however be equally argued that the evidence supports the man-made claim in many ways.

Still we are very definitely in the realm where the "man with plank" narrative has become an obvious impossibility, so we really do have to face the high probability of a new