Funambulist Health Finances

When 55 year old former US Olympic gold medallist Mary Lou Retton, fell seriously ill with a rare form of pneumonia in the fall of 2023, it was more than just a serious health issue that nearly cost her her life ....

Mary Lou Retton - 1984 Olympics

 ..... it was a serious finances issue as well.

China's Future Impact

With some campaigners estimating that in just nine years' time, global emissions of greenhouse gases are set to be roughly double the level required to meet the goal of holding the temperature rise to 1.5C, China's rush to 'modernise' its economy since 1975, and its wish to dominate the second half of the current century and beyond, has a price ..... 

China's Economic Aims Are On Target - But At A Price

 ..... not just for its immediate neighbours, who now live under its ever more aggressive political and military threat (the claim to the entire South China Sea is an example of this threat), but also for the urgent fight against global warming.

Super Vaccines

Scientists are trying to develop a super one shot vaccine against all Covid-19 variants. 

Super Vaccines Are On The Way ....

This vaccine would allow the world to not get dragged back in to repeating lockdown cycles as each variant emerges. 

 

Freedom Day?

 Well, this was supposed to be the week that Freedom Day set us all free again ....

Finally No More Covid-19 Restrictions Indoors ... Allegedly!

..... but it hasn't quite felt like that ... the usual back tracking and mixed messages about social distancing, mask wearing, the NHS App tracking alerts, and self isolating have made the whole thing feel fragile and chaotic.

How Fares The Empire?

 Now that the pubs are reopened ....

Beer Drinking Curbs Have Caused Some Desperation ......

... well sort of. 

The Flimflam Show

India has, under its nationalistic BJP Government ...

India Dreams Of Being A Big Power .....

.... long had pretensions of joining the Superpower club.

The Tiers Keep Falling

I suspect that we are all secretly beginning to think that we will never get out of the Covid-19 mess.

A Sad But Increasingly Common Sight In The UK

We have no bars and we have no shows .... the vaccines (when they actually arrive), will probably be needed annually, forever.

A Real Pain

So here we are again ......

Abbey Road Under Covid-19 Lock-down ....

Half the country in ĺock-down, aka tier 3, or in the case of Greater Manchester, apparently being allowed to ignore the governments instructions while the Mayor argues about it.

Open Letter To Boris

Dear Boris

When the Conservatives won the election I was fairly optimistic for the future ....

   Churchillian Poses And Tones, Are Just So Much Hot Air And Bluster ...

.... but then came Covid19, and the governments increasingly flailing response.

Great Beer Disasters Past And Present

Beer, or rather the lack of it via licensed premises, aka The Public House ....

A Beer Sentiment Shared By Many On Social Media ......

was mine, and many of my acquaintances, biggest bugbear about the coronavirus lockdown, and for us was something of a personal disaster ... So even the pubs reopening in a socially distanced manner is only a partial fix.

Not Just A Lockdown Statistic

Well we are now many weeks into the lockdown ....

We Are In Danger Of Thinking Of Just The Statistics ......

... so many in fact, that I sometimes find it hard to actually recall when exactly the 'New Normal'  started, or what life was like before the Coronavirus erupted onto an unprepared world.

PC Manchester Policing

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that self distancing rules were being broken in large numbers in Greater Manchester, northern England ....

Self Distancing Rules Breaking Down In Greater Manchester

I also considered that the policing of these criminal acts had been remarkably soft (but didn't include it in the article), as only one person had been fined (and then only after three police visits to the party she was holding). All this had been nothing more than a side observation in a larger piece.

A Sense Of Proportion

I was recently called a 'pandemic denier' .... or at least of downplaying the crisis ...

Even The God Pan Was Spooked By The Pandemic .......

.... both charges I strongly denied.

Not The Bubonic Plague

Well despite the fact that its not the bubonic plague (which oddly after exposure also has flu-like symptoms) .... YET ....

The Black Death - A Real Pandemic That
Brought The World To An End ......Almost.

... it might as well be, as we have decided to lock the world down, because of what is still just an aggressive flu like variant.