++ DRAFT ++ Created; 02-11-2022, changed; 04-11-2023, 13-10-2023
Engineering can create things that are good for your health have excellent function and do the least harm to the environment if well used;
War and conflict have become more inhumane but always a profitable business for the UK particularly;
- Battles changed from hand to hand, and the aggressors could see each other and understand what they were doing.
- To, from a distance so the fighters did not see each other face to face killing increased in scale. The airmen did count aircraft shot down and deaths recording the numbers using paint on the aircraft. Picture of a World War 2, B17 Bomber.
- To remote by, missiles and long-range nuclear weapons despite such weapons being of mass destruction being illegal and now declared illegal internationally, a picture from the film Dr Strangelove illustrating how gun-ho the military was and are for war,
- To killing and destruction by programmed robot machines such as a drone. Although Prince Harry spoke in January 2023 of his killing of 25 people as a soldier. A soldier's primary job is not often spoken of and his actual job is probably selling weapons and taking from others by force. Death, destruction and pollution are understated and swept aside under the term collateral damage.
Life on Earth is just a thin smear on the surface and in a little of the atmosphere above it
Are militaries driving the climate crisis?
(Algezera podcast - chaired discussion)
Conflict and misunderstanding and high wastage are cultivated;
https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/threat-nuclear-winter
Little tolerance of diversity by us is very dangerous, and the demise of Soviet Russia led to the loss of competition between sciences and all things of different ideologies is a bad thing. Similarly, the "might is right" culture is reflected in the law of the UK and the USA which tends to protect that way is harmful to us. The BBC described in 2023 as continuation of Cold War is resulting in bombing of Moscow confident that Russia that has never and will never use its Intercontinental nuclear weapons against USA.
In a conventional sense, because they cannot be used without leading to catastrophe, US nuclear weapons since the 1980s based in places like Germany had no counter-response to them by the USSR. In the 1980s Perishing 2 was deployed in Germany and had a flight time of just five minutes to their targets in the USSR. USSR's reply would take 20 minutes to land in the USA on their targets, the old Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles USSR used to have taken a number of hours to fuel first unlike the sold fuel ICBMs USA had. Similarly, Cruise missiles would fly for a number of hours undetected and then have a very high chance, as all the other new US weapons had, of destroying nuclear missile silos that had not already launched missiles (called silo kill capability of 99%, the highest rating that can be given). USSR also developed SS20 missiles similar to cruise missiles, but these could not retaliate against the USA but only against us in Europe and the UK but with very high accuracy similarly. A victory for the peace movement was that Cruise missiles were withdrawn and Greenham Common returned to the UK's ownership, but that was a hollow victory, parts were reused, and many more mobile ground-launched missiles were deployed in the 1990s to Europe.
USA supplies illegal cluster weapons to Ukraine
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/06/ukraine-civilian-deaths-cluster-munitions
It is still very silly logic, to be pushing the Russian Federation, whose government seems with good reason to be nervous, to the brink of collapse. 14 countries with US-controlled weaponry pointing at it and many nuclear weapons. Arms reduction did occur during the 1990s although new weapons were then brought to Europe then and over the past decade. The number of US nuclear weapons has been increasing in Europe again particularly so in 2022 other weapons continue to be added escalating the war in Ukraine. The calculation is that Russia never has and never will use its nuclear weapons whereas we have and would use them, which has always been said but is a nasty way to behave by us.
Anti-war film following the wars in and between former soviet states 25 years ago. The musical Hair
Stop the War Coalition
NATO was formed in 1949 but the USSR was refused entry and they subsequently formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. At this time the UK was replacing its Empire with local management and to some degree self-determining governments there had been a history of British rule being corrupt therefore less profit returned to Britain. Mostly control over much of the world was to replace force with manipulation using the ownership of money lent backed up by a considerable threat from armed forces, local uprisings such as Gandhi's peaceful uprising in India, were allowed to proceed and managed to go the way the British wanted no doubt?
In the 1950s USA had the only then overwhelming superiority using B52 bombers armed with nuclear warheads but USSR developed some Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles and had superior rocket technology. At that time the nuclear warheads were very big the tests did a lot of damage which was not all settled and compensated for, the nuclear winter was not understood although electromagnetic pulse (EMP) was understood, and anecdote says the USSR had prepared for it by continuing to use valve technology which tends to spark but not break (somewhat capacitors and resistors also have their voltage limits, though; MOSFETS, FETS are more susceptible and BJT's common at the time are somewhat susceptible). The use of the star-point grounding strategy became popular in transistorised electronics would make them more vulnerable to EMP as well as general electrical interference. In 1963 agreement was made to stop testing nuclear bombs in the atmosphere by USA and USSR, this of cause does not resolve the question of why every other country should not have nuclear weapons to make them also so-called safe? A comprehensive test ban treaty never came into force, but no major country has carried out nuclear bomb tests since the 1990s. Finally, nuclear weapons became illegal in January 2021. But UK and some other countries have not complied with this international law, and there had been many steps leading to this such as an international judgement in 2000 by World Court judges that could not foresee a legal use of nuclear weapons. No First Use, A campaign to have countries state that they will not use nuclear weapons first has been running for many decades but personally, I don't rate the statement useful but is an acceptance of international law-breaking and a terrible and pointless revenge.
When USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979-1989 they also built hospitals and schools, but this reparation, which is comparable to what happened following the World War 2 is now slow and minimal following more recent invasions of other countries by the USA and UK. In either case, the invasions are not welcomed however they a portrayed in the various media. Soviet way of looking after the little people, those become comfortable, they see what others have and want it, but it does not follow that they get it or that they leave for better wealth either. The USA has given money to bad organizations such as the Taliban in various countries in order to break the governments and then fought against those organizations. When people do move as a consequence of war, they have to then work hard for few comforts or have no work or comforts and under local adversity often. But in the UK by choice of people (voters), our own people are said to be lazy, but this is not necessarily the correct analysis of cause the system keeps people busy unnecessarily or people are taught what they can't do and feel powerless and helpless as well. Sadly though people are divided amongst themselves, not seeing a common cause.My personal view which is not widely said or admitted to is that US President Trump (2017-2021) held the USA's military back from interference using negotiation and meeting with leaders instead, such as Kim Jong-un of North Korea, and kept friendly with Vladimir Putin of Russia. His period of less interference by the USA in the world allowed important international peace treaties to also be signed. The problem is Donald Trump's vulgar and offensive manner, and his aggressive business reputation has been used against him by those whose intentions are worse.
President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) is widely recognised as kind and a peacemaker in the world, but nuclear weapons were deployed in Europe for war under his feet (whilst he was in office). Similarly, President Barack Obama (2009-2017) promised much but he seemed to have been too nice despite getting a Nobel prize he proved to be ineffective. Princess Diana's campaign to ban landmines was effective after her death, Olof Palme the former Swedish Prime Minister's Commission to make a nuclear-free zone in Europe the proposal was well supported by other countries but got little attention from weapon-controlling countries. Various Generals around the world have been against nuclear weapons for decades. Earl Mount Batten had switched from plotting against the Labour government, as some unproven Soviet threat, to being vehemently against nuclear weapons (1976 and 1979 respectively).
Understanding between people and considering temperament;
- You make small changes if you respond to the consultation.
- Not enough people respond to the consultations and then those systems of government deteriorate with lack of use.
- Lead to systems of government that are not monitored and corrected by the people but by populist misleading and misinformation. People call it the system as run by, Lizards, or a Medieval religion-based secret group of vastly wealthy - I think it is more likely cultural momentum such as corruption of us by work, corruption due to cynicism, accumulation of money, addition to manipulation, and power.
- The media do not work for us well all the same.
People are losing the ability to talk, debate and listen;
Shops always employ good-natured people to operate tills some may be well-educated people who are creative outside of work. I find that all till operators are polite, will spend a momentary time of day to comment and assist with your buying, and draw people to their till consequently. The automatic machines don't do that, and I don't like them, but my mum used to like them, if you re-scan enough times the machine beeps, a manager runs about, and my mum then goes to the till and complains about the machine not working leaving the store with a big naughty grin. The machines are used even when there are checkouts free and some people say they like them - I think this a sign of cultural change to people feeling they are isolated individuals rather than social chat on the bus times, in it together for a long time ago.
Social skills, working and playing in cooperation are important, but I see less and less of them. The Labour Party, and the Unions, used to make a point of teaching parliamentary rules of order, but I observe this is much less so everywhere. I get the impression that the Parliamentary Conservative government are in a bad state with very public argument, but this makes news and the media of cause like to promote that regardless of how harmful it is, and counter to any duty to scrutinise and improve government. I do not think the Labour Party is in a healthy state it lets itself be bounced into expelling people. The leaderships of significant political parties self-sensor more strictly than if they were challenged by reasoned argument. By comparison, United States American citizens (when I visited New York) use British Roberts Rules of Order widely and these rule books can be purchased easily.
Populist Government and Media
Switching from hands-on making things to profiting from others' work called financial services; Concord (symbolised the white heat of technology up until the 1960s and 1970s) Sydney Airport from aircraft window 1992.
I have worked for small companies mostly, but I have worked for big companies and seen very poor design work at job interviews with quite prestigious companies that employ the top marked students from universities. They also need the employees who made and disassembled things from perhaps before they went to school and know how to make things work to do some of the design work. The understanding of electromagnetic fields which have to do with radio interference is very important and can be missing, if the circuit simply does the job without additional components and a good PCB layout, it won't do that job well. I have also worked for a big German-owned company it was an efficient and nice company to work for and different to an English company. I have also worked for a short time for a company that could not design new equipment any more and a few bullies had settled in to resist change that would have exposed those bullies' incompetence. I have also seen at job interviews companies that grant harvesting but never complete the work, changing the CAD, the chosen microprocessor and many other details in order to do that, otherwise unnecessarily - this could be prevarication whilst the project is considered, which is fine but in this case, where I had had a second interview a few years later, it looked like simply stalling to spin the project out for more money, which is a different thing to keeping the project open in case something else comes to mind when the pressure is off.
Teachers, professionals, and old guys who end up fixing or making things right in the first place need to be learnt from (either listening to or watching what they do) that is the junior can learn from some of their own mistakes but need to be taught to communicate. Ask and listen need to be practised and is an important part of general education, otherwise, head down do my job culture, would result in the work not coming out best. The student then knows how to ask and learn for the rest of their lives.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-ukraine-could-emerge-from-war-as-a-climate-leader
A retired republican colonels' opinion is that the USA does to have the military strength it shows on paper. I am sceptical of his viewpoint but if instead he were saying just make peace in the word then left and right would not be opposed to each other. His other views about get back to oil are also out of touch with the situation of peak oil production has past.
- Understanding the words but do not perceive contradictions and differences with nature;
- I recently understood that magnetism and gravity are different things the words were known to me but I think that I did not understand that there was no other understanding of those words. Compasses direction changes periodically but we do not fall off the Earth during those changes.
- If a cable carries a current pulse around a loop the time it takes for the pulse to travel between the two ends is near the speed of light depending on the permeability of the substance between them in the distance between the ends of the loop, not the length of the loop unless the loop is a two-wire transmission line.
- Two polarizers at 90' to each other block light passing but adding a third polarizer causes the light to pass through the path which seems to be magic. Evidently, my simple engineer's understanding of light is wrong. There are things we don't perceive and as a part of becoming adults, we forget that we don't perceive or can't do them anymore we will surely never know the limits of our understanding?
- At college, I learned superposition a type of maths that is used to resolve problems with many variables changing simultaneously. This is Quantum maths but it is not some sort of magic physics, though it is usually presented that way by populist TV shows.
- So what is difficult about understanding nuclear weapons are so dangerous they have no use and certainly no logical reason to have them in such vast numbers? Is it vested interests that have been able to keep funding? It is not as if the nuclear weapons or power industries employ lots of people because they do not, so it is not job creation that motivates.
- A misunderstanding that I came across recently was that CO2 was not a greenhouse gas but it is a less severe greenhouse and importantly it is an easy-to-measured indicator of all greenhouse gasses. Many gasses do good and harm including oxygen being poisonous and life-giving. Poisonous or climate-changing ones include methane, smog particles, water vapour, in the atmosphere, ozone at ground level, and nitrous oxide in large quantities anywhere.
I don't see or trust people to vote for sensible government the BBC and the other media lead enough people badly. There were periods in the 1960s and under Mrs Thatcher and Mr Gorbachev in the 1980s eventually governments did reduce the threat of nuclear war. Following the fall of the Soviet Union Boris Yeltsin (1991-1999) probably gave away too much leaving Russians isolated, bullied and strategically important land outside of the Soviet Union and did not negotiate the former Soviet countries be no weapons zones. They probably had no options to negotiate with and the country fell into corruption making a lot of friends in the USA, UK and other places. The following Russian Federation Government Vladimir Putin (2000 to present) is much more nervous, understandably, but stands up against the anarchy following the fall of the USSR, hence his stronger-sounding words always. I have not seen a British government working and for a long time Conservative governments look very broken, the rules of debate are not used and the division apparent consequently is evidently what the people vote for.
Evidently, if governments don't govern then military interests will profit to our detriment. The Ukraine war is about destroying the Russian Federation Government, evidently, a continuation of policy against most other countries not conforming to capitalist systems. Some would have continued after Germany was defeated to turn on our big ally the USSR. Animosity was cultivated against the USSR over the next three years after the end of WW2 and they were called the enemy instead. The US military tricked USSR into excessive military expense. It has always been necessary for the government to hold the vested interests back in doing that, but President Biden is not doing it sadly for the environment, and people of Europe in and surrounding the conflict. I don't think there is any deep thinking, perhaps only that something seems to turn up and we survive, or that a bit of nuclear winter and population reduction by war will postpone the problem would be, okay? The first model that worked was TTAPS in 1983, which warned of nuclear winter but also led to much better modelling of climate change and predicted heating rather than another ice age coming, and this is due to man-made pollution. The pollution is poisonous and kills many more people than road crashes and causes a high proportion of health services costs, but the warnings are needed and need to be headed more seriously.
Life on Earth has evolved to manage the temperature with greater stability despite the sun being 30% hotter than when life on Earth started about 3.8 billion years ago. About 620 million years ago fossils of the first animals were found, like worms, slugs, and jellyfish or very flat that seem to grow till they die a few millimetres to one meter, there may be no ancestors of those found and it is possible they were fungi. Fungi moved to the land 420 million years ago with plants and animals following when oxygen and temperatures stabilised more. See; The Entire History of the Earth on YouTube.com explains how simpler life forms may have started more widely and briefly possibly as nearby as Mars. Life has never been created in a laboratory for example. The Gaia system we have and life that has advanced so far as it has, might be unique in our Milky Way galaxy, is the view of some scientists. Life on Earth will revert to simpler forms, go dormant and peter out slowly over the next two billion years as the water is lost. Douglas Adams said the complex life of the sophistication we have on Earth could be unique in the Universe but others say unique in the galaxy because the universe is so large and could be infinite.
Don't trust the media;
- Energy use reduction.
- Anaerobic Digestion - Biogas and biomethane to cover 62% of gas demand by 2050 - CEENERGYNEWS
- Wave.
- Seven Tidal Lagoon. - This is environmentally cleaner and cheaper than other tidal power schemes. UK has a lot of potential for this energy source. Tidal Stream technology.
- Hydro - Not much capacity in the UK.
- Geothermal - Such as in Cornwall is being built.
- Better grid network.
- HVDC (1 Million Volt DC cable) grids can also transport energy very efficiently across continents.
People voted to leave the EU in 2016, despite an intense campaign led largley by Nigel Farrage saying we should do it even if it hurts, that is people did not vote for our own good. There were lies told, the BBC promoted a subtle neutral seeming but slanted bias supporting leave, this was also partly due to continually complaints by the pro-leave campaigns. There were known lies about the benefits of doing so. In the main people knew what the referendum was about and I guess some thought the UK should stand on its own feet and not take from Europe disproportionally. Different parts of the UK such as Scotland have more manufacturing like the EU and the value of their money would fit the Euro better than the pound. Scotland has a more socially responsible political will also like the EU rather than a wealth and financial services base of London.
I never supported BREXIT but see that the UK campaign within the EU to break it was a bad thing. A lot of good policies were introduced in the 1980s although many other good policies were spoilt more and more from 1990s by UK MEPs. I also see it right that UK have left consequently. Planning war in Europe was and is a bad thing breaking up the peace built after major World Wars in Europe.
- Decarbonize the military — mandate emissions reporting - Armed forces have a massive carbon footprint that is absent from global accounting; https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03444-7
- The military doesn't have to report their emissions but chooses to seriously under-report them. Recent studies find US military pollution is more than there most polluting other countries and UK military pollution is more than many of the more polluting countries.
- I understand that despite what is commonly said large wind turbines have a much more constant supply of wind at the greater height they work. In addition, the airflow is more uniform, so the horizontal usually three-blade types are more efficient. But they don't work in a cyclone. HVDC grids are expensive and technically difficult but very efficient and one million-volt DC grids can transport electricity across a continent. But we are not going to limit temperature rise to 1.5'C so the Earth will get hotter, the sea will rise, and fewer of the people and places that feed and supply the first world will survive. Where food is grown will move further north but I do not know if that means the tropics will become dry or lush and wet.
- If basic income or other means people had enough money to buy and keep well-made things, then the environmental pressure caused by wastage being profitable could be reduced. This is how things were made until 1960 which seems to be the point where this changed, Raleigh Bicycles were not guaranteed forever anymore or made to last 100 years.
1946 Lenton sports, the bike is light, light to pedal, fast and very comfortable compared to modern bicycles. The bike feels lovely
Designed to wear out or become obsolete seemed to start in 1960. The era was changing.
Sinclair never said what they made was junk whereas Gerald Ratner said his jewellery was crap and his jewellery chain of shops went out of business soon after. Language has more force than physical feeling and seeing for ourselves. The term post-modernism is the term for this. Shops preferred selling Sinclair over Commodore calculators because the former was more profitable, and Sinclair supported the product well. The American product was and still is very much nicer, very clear reliable keypad so you can type a formula without looking at the display and then press = and the answer is right. My SR9190R is very reliable and comprehensive some of the statistical functions are complex with the different parts of the answer placed in different memories. The earlier models had a larger vacuum fluorescent display. American, European and other countries have maintained higher expectations for what they buy generally, and their peoples keep them longer.
The money system - now works for shareholders' profit rather than its member's and users' interest
These changes to a sort of maturing after the Empire, have not occurred or were stopped. But the interest is popular and occurred with the rise of the Momentum Labour and Green Party’s 2015 - 2019. This requires inspiration as happened and was led by people as much as the government during and after World War 2. So, what does Russia have the first world wants more cheaply than by using trade? Perhaps it is nuclear materials? Following the current dash for nuclear once again.
Dale Vince of Ecotricity supported Momentum Labour and the nationalisation of the energy industries. If influential people support it, it will work. If ordinary people support it we won’t hear much about it, unfortunately.
It seems that the British love having foreign companies run services so they can bash them particularly if they do what they do well rather than badly. I observed this, particularly when Connex Southeast ran the trains in my region, they were good but bashed publicly for being French, which was unspoken, but their response to complaints was buried in many erroneous complaints. It seems whoever runs a service has to manage the media and spin its story well rather than do its job well. This is the bigger issue; I think it is a major factor of what is called Post Modernism - words matter more than action.
Bruce Kent dies in early June 2022;
Where CND scored over other protests was not to be divided. That is non-violent-direct-action as well as those who did not want to do that were all supportive. The CND never endorsed violence racism etc. Bruce Kent visited Greenham Common and other peace camps and cut wire symbolically to be arrested but also to emphasise the point as leader of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
In 1979 Wireless World (once the magazine of the Marconi company) published a very powerful editorial Microchip and Mega Deaths, Letters came in for about 18 months one of those came from Bruce Kent on behalf of CND. This inspired many of us and Electronics for Peace was formed, and many other professional groups also formed at this time. Some of these became;
I think the green movements thought that protest was easy in the 1990s but made bad divisive mistakes the CND had learnt from and avoided in the 1980s. There were considerable pressures the CND office was overloaded with work and made silly mistakes but in 1980 membership was doubling every few months I think going past 500,000 from perhaps 10,000 members in a few years.
- 10,000s of the missionaries went native in past centuries when they found things better where they were and did not come home. We can choose our future better rather than let air quality for example stay poor.”
Just for a brief while during WW2 ordinary people were billeted together, isolated from the media, and there was a mutual bond between the classes for survival so that is when that control was broken over the people. Gradually the people gave that control of their lives away. The state would not have another war on home grounds again.
A lesson from COVID;
The good things that came out of this have been the time people had with their children, cycling and a brief period of better air quality. I develop this more in my blog;
The BBC has a shallow veneer of responsible reporting, interspersed with good programme creation. They made the story such as to Google when Excite was the best search engine. Imbalance on Momentum Labour though they did correct that in the day in a token counter programme broadcast. I observe that if something they lead on does not come about then they balance it with a programme on Radio 4 during the day.
It was shown how the Bush-Gore Presidential election was fixed with unserviced machines causing holes not to be punched, ballot boxes not collected and counted the result declared before the fraud was checked. But in the USA the corruption is now hidden by invisible electronic transmission of data and Trump may well have had his victory stolen from him so that the US war machine would not be held back. In the UK, Harold Wilson was plotted against by the establishment but Mrs Thatcher was eventually plotted against, although she respected government unlike recent conservative governments and would have resigned using due process if that process had been used, undoubtedly!
Serve us, their old ruler, at the expense of their own people. The same is true in famine, where countries frantically export food, whilst their people starve, and British arms makers corrupt their governments to buy weapons. First-world countries interfere and cause conflict to keep it always so, the UK is the No. 1 exporter of weapons in recent years.
The best film of the 20th century is said to be 2001 A Space Odyssey, which is technically excellent. Film producers used to come to England in order to get the best production work for some chosen films. One of very few truly Science Fiction stories has one mistake Dave should have breathed out before crossing the vacuum of space back to Discovery. The sequel film 2010 shows cooperation between the Soviets and Americans in space exploration which did come about in the 1980s, until then The USSR led in many areas of space and rocketry their space station MIR functioned for 14 years during that time the USSR fell. It had an international team of visitors and holds many space records.
What would have saved us from the Second World War would have been to have fed and protected the starving Europeans after the First World War. King George V argued for that. Nature is not Red in Tooth and Claw but has a lot of symbioses, hybridisation and cooperation. Neither should any human system of governing need to be inefficient. That is capitalism need not be Red in Tooth and Claw. The mixed economy we had until 1979 worked well.
There has always been peaceful cooperation in space science, also portrayed in space fiction;
The pressure that the Soviet Union was put under by threat to it from us resulted surely in the successful rocket program and circling the moon and the eventual landing there although the Unions science was carried out with comparative secrecy;
http://www.ancient-code.com/the-mysterious-tower-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon-found-by-soviet-spacecraft-zond-3/
Luna 9 landed on the moon successfully in 1965. Apparently, the Daily Mail reported the story and printed pictures from the moon's surface intercepted by Jodrell Bank before Russia confirmed the success. The first pictures of the dark side of the moon had been sent back to Earth by Luna 3 in 1959. And an earlier Luna 2 crashed to the moon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06z4ync
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_programme
I was wondering what NASA was doing at the same time and I looked up the infamous Papermate pen that was used in space by NASA. Papermate launched and advertised its new pen that could write upside-down in space in 1965. Meanwhile, cosmonauts were using pencils (sensibly) but were put down for doing that. The story is a myth but illustrates fairly accurately the waste in military spending the intended spin-off from space research people believe of it.
People support war and blame governments that conduct them for them;
People wanted a scapegoat for the actions they also wanted. I think it is more likely that the media make and spin popular conversation one way than the other way. The USA and UK invade and cause more conflict in the world than any other countries and have done for centuries.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/parliament-make-a-full-and-unequivocal-apology-for-uk-s-part-in-invading-iraq
The Soviet pencil and the multi-million-dollar pen anecdote is well known and the problem seen of military spending on such a vast scale is mostly turned into no functional or useless output. Atoms for peace was coined by General D. Eisenhower in order to produce nuclear warheads not to produce electricity. Britain’s first nuclear power station, Calder Hall, was switched on to the grid by the Queen but it never produced electricity. It is debatable if nuclear warheads are fitted and armed in reality the number of near misses and accidents and cock-ups happening should have, by now, but has not led to nuclear contamination or nuclear detonation.
Brexit Britain’s security policy: cutting aid to spend on weapons
https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/brexit-britain-s-security-policy-cutting-aid-spend-weapons
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_wengrow_a_new_understanding_of_human_history_and_the_roots_of_inequality?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
ReplyDeleteHydrogen
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGU-FdK0bDY&list=PLUJESwRpEmBG825uj9yg3X66oZhzaJtx6&index=1
I suppose they were always confident that the Soviet Union would back down, which it always did but if they thought Putin would hit America perhaps by a small chance and they thought he'd mean it then things would change.
ReplyDeleteIn that we are leading to self-destruction anyway, perhaps that is the most hopeful thing. How dreadful way to run the would since about 1946?
https://www.ted.com/talks/jamil_zaki_how_to_escape_the_cynicism_trap
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/aparna_bharadwaj_hidden_connections_that_transcend_borders_and_defy_stereotypes?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/emily_esfahani_smith_there_s_more_to_life_than_being_happy?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
ReplyDeleteWhy Oppenheimer Deserves His Own Movie
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/Xzv84ZdtlE0
Even Churchill Thought Hiroshima Was Unnecessary
ReplyDeleteI have just taken part in this Zoom meeting. The Americans wanted to turn on The USSR (we knew that anyway) but the bombs were to threaten the USSR nothing to do with Japan surrendering, they were in the process of doing that.
UK wanted the H-bomb at all costs to be at the nuclear table to, hold USA back from war.
The general rule is that the powerful countries in the world, UK and its former dependencies, will keep bombing or supplying bombs until it gets what it wants.
ReplyDeleteBritain did not want to run India, so it evidently allowed Gandi to change the management in a more peacefull way. So the UK still makes a lot of money from its former dependants without running those countries.
Britain eventually stepped back from Ireland because the bombs were hitting England, the UK.
Britain since soon after Churchill got the H-bomb, so it could be at the nuclear table with the USA preventing nuclear War in Europe. This was still true with Mrs Thatcher and Mr Reagan, it turned out. But I am not sure that it is true now. Rather, it is thought that the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation never used nuclear weapons and never will, despite Moscow being bombed.
The American First nation peoples were said to be honourable, but they were still mostly killed or lied to in treaties, so now mostly reside in reserves. Even so, the First Nation have got a better outcome than 100% genocide.
In 1948 British mounted soldiers were seconded to the Palestine Police to protect the Palestine's from the Jews coming in. I do not know when peaceful coexistence changed to massive force and support for Israel regardless of what they do. But it will surely only stop when all of Palestine is occupied or Israel decides it does not want to expand but live with the people who surround it.
There was not such a problem before WW2 in Palestine because the number of Jews relocating to that region were kept small in numbers.
Libya, another of the many who set an example of a classical king looking after its flock (people).
Sadly true, USA always planned to turn on the Soviet Union after WW2. Otherwise, there would be fewer nuclear weapons now.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/10/18/nuclear-weapons-saved-russia-patriarch-kirill-a82810
How to fight desertification and reverse climate change
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_fight_desertification_and_reverse_climate_change
Responsible science and the polycrisis: new hope versus false solutions
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sgr.org.uk/events/responsible-science-and-polycrisis-new-hope-versus-false-solutions
From the above link - the first graph shows the climate change happening 40 years ago when scientist were generally certain that it was leading to temperature rise.
https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/Lorraine%20Whitmarsh%20talk%2018.10.23.pdf
Lack of corporate responsibility.
https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/SP-SGR-conf23-Corporate-science.pdf
The world is full of dispossessed people, and I am sure in every one of our ancestries there is such history. The phrase forgive and forget covers the only way to deal with the issue. But in the case of Israel, this land was taken from one group and given to another in a peaceful part of the world where quite possibly people could have carried on coexisting.
ReplyDeleteIn Northern Island started up again after Bloody Sunday, people started looking back at 100's of years of troubles. Rather than now 25 years of fewer troubles. That came about because the troubles were much too close of our homes in England.
What would be good would be for the warmongering Israelis to be moderated by probably the silent majority. No more taking more and more Palestinian land not given by the UN in 1948 but giving back. Similarly, no more fighting Russia, and European wars.
ian_bremmer the_israel_hamas_war_and_what_it_means_for_the_world
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/ian_bremmer_the_israel_hamas_war_and_what_it_means_for_the_world
1936 propaganda film; Alfred Hitchcock, Sabotatge
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dailymotion.com/video/x21pnak
The wealthiest countries are reducing their growing demand for CO2, so it is not growing any more, and it is not driven offshore at an increasing rate.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/hannah_ritchie_are_we_the_last_generation_or_the_first_sustainable_one
Military spending - is disproportionally high
ReplyDeletecompared to other spending
https://demilitarize.org.uk/how-does-the-autumn-statement-affect-military-spending/
Climate tipping points
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/point-no-return-how-close-world-irreversible-climate-change
Resolved tradegy of the commons centries ago.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/naoko_ishii_an_economic_case_for_protecting_the_planet?user_email_address=dbe9679496d1f630606f1f6493e94f1f&lctg=62d19d3a5473360814aaf694
https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/war-climate-breakdown-and-economic-injustice-tackling-triple-crisis
ReplyDeletehttps://peacenews.info/blog/2024/british-general-calls-ukraine-negotiations-peace-land?fbclid=IwAR0Q8I5r7KcVDEUKazpcgg-euRojqlAC6QtV4JZ35iSJ-BthIk696SG2S4o
ReplyDeleteShorter working week
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/juliet_schor_the_case_for_a_4_day_work_week?user_email_address=dbe9679496d1f630606f1f6493e94f1f&lctg=62d19d3a5473360814aaf694
https://www.ted.com/talks/shane_campbell_staton_how_life_on_earth_adapts_to_you_and_me?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
ReplyDeleteMicro phytoplankton creatures that create most of our oxygen. They have 2,000 genes 1,000 common to all and another 1,000 genes from a library of 80,000 genes to suit the environment they live in. They flourish as our fossil fuel use increases. Discovered 35 years ago.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/penny_chisholm_the_tiny_creature_that_secretly_powers_the_planet
Wealth and health redistribution over 60 years
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen?user_email_address=dbe9679496d1f630606f1f6493e94f1f&lctg=62d19d3a5473360814aaf694&subtitle=en
Skint - failing economy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEQQEAaBMXw
ReplyDeleteBefore 1980 people generally trusted government. And mostly government responded by being fair with the people, because they were respected and properly funded. This was much more so the case in 1960 I am told, and to work for government was something to be proud of.
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