Vandalism in France, Interview of the Year, Amazon Warehouse Tour, Quote for the Month

 School Vandalisation in France

The left blames the far right, the right blames extreme left and mass immigration. But as usual it's more complicated than that. 

To consider:

The French have a record of taking to the streets to demonstrate against authority 'Les Manifestations'

Students in particular are volatile and in recent years have been taught that the West has been very bad over the centuries 

A significant proportion of the young consider themselves to be part of a persecuted minority (Black, Brown, Gay, Trans, Muslim, etc.)

Iran and Russia have undoubtedly worked hard to fester discontent and unrest via social networks favoured by students

France has long had a problem with cultural integration, particularly with its North African immigrants 

'Les Banlieues', the suburbs,  have for decades been tinderboxes waiting for a spark to explode 

How will it end? Will it end?

At the moment it looks likely that Marine Le Pen will win the presidential elections next May. These demos may be the left's way of showing their disapproval; unfortunately their violent activity is only going to make that result more likely.

Elon Musk (see interview below) has forecast civil war in European Cities in the years to come due to policy decisions over the last 30 years. Is this a taste of the future?

The next President?

Back to our core values: Interview of the year

Elon Musk said that attributing some of Obama's and Hilary's speeches to Trump gets today's democrats angry as they really think it's Trump. The point here is how politics appears to have shifted to the left so rapidly in the last 10 years. It got me thinking!

An example of that is Musk himself who is portrayed as a far right entrepreneur/politician allying himself with far right parties in Europe and often portrayed by the media as a far right loony. 

But when you actually listen to him, such as his 90 minute interview with The Economist's editor Zanny Minton-Beddoes on July the 29th, it's hard to disagree with much that he says.

His 3 core values for our countries are:

SECURE BORDERS

SAFE CITIES

SENSIBLE SPENDING

Who can argue with these principles?

He believes that AI and Humanoid Robots will lead us to a land of abundance. Within the next 10 years!! (See the quote below).

This is what he covers in this quite extraordinary interview:

00:00 AI will be smarter than humans in five years 12:10 How AI companies could regulate themselves 15:20 Will China be the leader in AI? 25:43 Elon Musk on Sam Altman and the AI bosses 31:20 “Work is going to be optional” 41:07 Should one man have so much power? 49:44 Starlink and the war in Ukraine 55:18 “I got too involved in politics” 57:14 Musk: zero people died because of USAID cuts 01:01:15 Europe, the far right and civil war in Britain 01:08:21 Musk: I’m not a racist 01:20:27 What do people get most wrong about Musk?

Amazon Tour

I went on a tour of Amazon's fulfillment centre BRS2 in Swindon. It's one of 35 in the UK and one of the larger more modern ones. The 90 minute tour covered the entire 6 part process: 

Receive, Stow, Pick, Pack, Slam, Ship.

It was extremely impressive looking at the vast fast conveyor belts that snake throughout the enormous 4 floor building and the robotic storage units where all the goods are held until ordered.

The goods are received and manually quality checked by a human for condition and description. They are then placed by humans into the large upright storage units that are transported around by robots that slide in underneath the units. They can carry over 500kg in each one. 

When the customer places an order, a human at one of the many Pack stations will then pull out the product ordered from the storage unit that has been presented by the robot, with a white light highlighting the location of the item. That item is then placed in a tote box by the human and shoots away automatically for packing.

The entire process is controlled by cameras that read the bar codes on the items and communicate with the AI driven software that Amazon has designed.

At a Pack station, I took the next item presented (a tote bag) and the computer screen immediately highlighted the packaging type to be used. In this case it was a large brown envelope into which I placed the item.  Each envelope has its own bar code so I didn't need to put a sticker on it. 

The packaged item then goes on a high speed conveyor belt which scans all the barcodes several times, prints and applies the postage label (without touching the item) and it then gets spat into one of many trolleys grouped by geography to go on the next delivery van to that location. Unless it's fragile in which case they are handled by humans.

The entire operation is very slick, very impressive and employs over 3,000 people at this location. The tour was very informative and stressed the excellent working conditions and benefits available to all employees. Starting wages are just over £16 per hour. There are all sorts of shifts available but the 'full-time' ones are 4  x 10 hour shifts or 5 x 8 hour shifts. The pay is not bad! They also have term time only shifts for parents with children at school and they offer private health care.

Amazon did a great job showing us their facilities and countering press reports that they abuse their workers.

Quote for the Month

“The most likely outcome is an age of amazing abundance where anyone can have anything they can think of.” 

Elon Musk 29th July 2026 in an interview with Zanny Minton-Beddoes , Editor of The Economist.

When asked about life in 10 years time. Musk predicted that the combination of advanced AI and humanoid robotics would shift society toward extreme material and productive abundance.

I am Plumber, I am oven Engineer, I am Carpenter, La Ville Rose: Toulouse

I am Plumber, I am oven Engineer, I am Carpenter

Our plumber came round to look at the airlock in our shower. He tried some basic tricks which wouldn't fix it and said he would need to come back with some different tools.

Fair enough. Except I decided to consult Gemini AI which told me precisely what to do. Previously I would have been too worried about unscrewing the wrong pipe to attempt such repairs. But prior to touching anything, I showed Gemini the precise pipe or nut I was about to tackle and asked for confirmation it was correct (by uploading a photo). Just as well as I was going to loosen the wrong pipe. Well it took me about 5 minutes to fix it and cancel the plumber. 

I fixed the shower.

We also had a problem with our oven door. The glass pane had come loose and was going to fall out. Again, consulting Gemini with pictures, it immediately identified the oven type and the issue and told me which glue to buy (one that can sustain very high temperatures). I followed the instructions precisely.

I fixed the oven door.

Finally, we had an unwanted gap in a wooden door that was letting air in following a very hot summer of expansion and contraction. Gemini to the rescue again. It told me how to apply silicon so easlity that I did the job in 3 minutes and made no mess! That's a first for me as I have been terrible with silicon.

I fixed the front door.

What makes all the difference it that if you have a doubt (which I do all the time and I don't want to make things worse) I just take a picture, and another question and most of the time I get the re-assurance I needed to proceed.

Well worth the £20 monthly subscription.

La Ville Rose: Toulouse

I recently visited Toulouse for the first time in a few years.

And what a transformation! A city that used to be covered in dog poo (I had to look at the ground when I walked there and miss all the amazing architecture), a city that used to stink of traffic and was blighted by cars queuing and parking everywhere, has been TRANSFORMED!

Typical Toulouse pink bricks, Rue Croix Baragnon / Place St Etienne

It's clean, no more litter, no more poo; much of it has been pedestrianised and the buildings look in better condition following some wide-scale renovation.

The suspended organ in Cathedral St Etienne. The cathedral once had five organs, built in 1463 for different functions. The current large organ was begun by Antoine Lefèbvre between 1612 and 1650.

For example, the stunning Hôtel-Dieu Saint Jacques by the Pont Neuf has just been completely renovated at a cost of over €7 million. It operated as a hospital since the 12th century but its last medical wards closed in 1987. Today it houses a good number of the Toulouse University Hospital's 16,000 administrative staff. It also has medical research units and 2 museums of medicine. 

Hôtel-Dieu Saint Jacques

It seems quite a fitting testament to France's huge medical administration that such a fine building should exchange patients for admin!

Of course for me a visit to Toulouse is never complete without queuing and eating at l'Entrecôte on Boulevard Strasbourg.

 

L'Entrecôte, Toulouse

Steak frites with their trademark sauce

Quote for the Month: Summer is finally over

And what a summer it was. Will this be the new norm, or was it an exception? I think it may be the former and the consequences will be far-reaching.

"August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time."

Sylvia Plath

My Fig Tree, A Week with our Grandson, Aston Pottery

My Fig Tree

I never thought I could become so enamored with a little tree.

We planted this tiny sapling tree about 15 years ago and then changed its position to a sunnier, less intrusive spot. Then we left it and we have never done anything to it. No watering, no pruning, no new soil. Nothing.

Today it is about 2,5m high and wide and every year, from around mid July through to mid August it produces an astonishing crop of sweet, juicy, dark purple figs. I collect about a kilo per day, less at the start and end of the season, far more at Peak Fig, as I call it. The fruit are quite remarkable.

They are plentiful, easy to pick (with the help of my little ladder for the top ones), almost all of them are perfect, and they seem to be of very little interest to the birds and the bees. The tree uses only two ingredients: sunshine and rain water. There are no preservatives or additives.

And what an extraordinary fruit: it has no stones or pips to be removed and you can eat the skin. Pick and Eat. And if you pick any that are not quite ripe enough, they will ripen by themselves in one or two days.  At Peak Fig, we have far more than we can eat so I make jam. The figs are so sweet that my jam consists of at least 75% fig and at most 25% sugar. This year I have made 20 pots of jam which means we can enjoy them all year and we have some nice organic presents to hand out.

My grandchildren help me to pick them as part of our morning routine. They love it. And then they eat some.

The tree that likes to give. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, the fig tree symbolises peace, prosperity, and divine blessing.

A Week with our Grandson

We spent another week with our 6 year old grandson looking after him during the school holidays. It was great fun for the 3 of us. 

Monday was a bus ride (his favourite mode of transport) to the centre of Oxford and a Natural History Museum trail in the shopping centre.

Tuesday was picking black currents (1kg) and mirabelle plumbs (6 kg) in the field next door with our neighbours. Followed by jam making.

Wednesday was a visit to the Didcot Railway Centre to see and ride old restored steam trains.

Thursday was a visit to Millets Farm Maize Maze which included plenty of other activities. The highlight was the Farmula 1 racing in which I had to ride my grandson around a race track using pedal power alone. 

Friday was origami, magic and stories and then return home.

The highlight was probably our journey in the Pendennis Castle at Didcot travelling 3rd class on the way out and 1st class on the return!

Aston Pottery

You might think that the highlight of a visit to the pottery would be the pots. Not at Aston Pottery.

The annual flower display reaches its zenith in the summer months and greets you and makes you speechless as you pull into the car park.

Congratulations to Jane & Stephen Baughan on their extraordinary and spectacular achievement!!

Quote for the Month

I played 'Would you rather' with my grandson. One of his favourites is:

"Would you rather have an invisible dog or a magic remote that pauses your parents when they tell you it's bedtime?"

Politics losing Respectability, Good Company Bad Company, Pavel Durov of Telegram

Didn't Politics used to be more Respectable?

"The Green Party has admitted it cannot cope with the sheer volume of claims being made against its members for wrongdoing. Senior members of staff warned the party “lacks guidance” on how to deal with a surge in internal complaints amid concern the system is “simply not fit for purpose”, according to recordings heard by The Times. In the run up to the local elections, a number of candidates were suspended pending investigation by the Greens over allegations of historical antisemitic comments."

The Times 13/07/2026

Good Company, Bad Company?

It's amazing what some companies try to get away with: 

United Airlines argues a ‘window seat’ doesn’t have to be by the window during a legal fight. Passengers regularly pay extra for a window seat. But it seems that certain airlines don't interpret a 'window' in the same way as we do.

"The use of the word 'window' in reference to a particular seat cannot reasonably be interpreted as a promise that the seat will have an exterior window view." Says United Airlines.

A federal judge rejected the airline’s attempt to dismiss claims from passengers."

The Independent 13/07/2026

I have been known to complain about the terrible service from certain car rental companies.  However, I have recently had excellent experiences with Sixt and with Enterprise. These companies are basically all selling identical product [the use of a car for a period of time]. The difference is their service, their people, their systems. And what a BIG difference it can make!

Pavel Durov - International Arrest Warrant Issued by Russian Authorities

Pavel Durov is the founder of Telegram Messenger and the Russian state wishes to arrest him for alleged use by Ukrainians of the messaging service. His response is excellent:

Whilst I believe there should be limits on what people can say, more and more states seem to be banning speech altogether. We should be worried. At the same time, these very states are using the services to spread fake news and influence people across the world. This is a serious threat to democracy.

As wars continue to rage across Ukraine, the Middle East and in Africa, it makes me think of this quote of the month:

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the Children of God"

Jesus, Matthew 5:9

Another new PM, Monkey Go To Space, Quote for the Month

The 8th Prime Minister since 2010?

Here is the list of UK Prime Ministers who have served since 2010, along with their exact dates in office and political parties:

| Gordon Brown | Labour | left office on 11th May 2010 and was followed by:

| David Cameron | Conservative | 11 May 2010 | 13 July 2016 |

| Theresa May | Conservative | 13 July 2016 | 24 July 2019 |

| Boris Johnson | Conservative | 24 July 2019 | 6 September 2022 |

| Liz Truss | Conservative | 6 September 2022 | 25 October 2022 |

| Rishi Sunak | Conservative | 25 October 2022 | 5 July 2024 |

| Sir Keir Starmer | Labour | 5 July 2024 | *Incumbent* |

July 2026: Andy Burnham starts when?

Why so many? Because they are incompetent? Because the system is flawed? Because voters expect too much? Because we are experiencing unprecedented times (again)?

Yes I think all of the above! And does change of PM solve the problem? Clearly not!

It comes back to a major flaw I have discussed before in human nature. If we are not happy with the status quo, we tend to chuck it out rather than try to fix it. Examples include our PMs, Brexit (the biggest ever own goal?), various conflicts and wars, multiple examples in business and public life I could mention.

Will a new Labour PM suddenly satisfy voters? I very much doubt it. I suspect that after 6 months or so we will be back to the same old discussions. Andy Burnham, who this week looks likely to be crowned leader rapidly, appears to have one major policy which is devolving power to the North. Sounds a bit like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Burnham's key policy is moving services from Westminster to the North

What most voters don't seem to appreciate is that it takes time - years - to make material improvements to many public services. What our leaders don't seem to appreciate is that if they don't act fast and decisively when they get into power, they won't be there for long! Oh, and did I mention that if you are short of money, the only real fix is to get the economy moving again? 

Perhaps someone should explain this to Burnham.

SpaceX IPO or Monkey Go To Space

New investors in SpaceX may think they’re getting into the company early, but Scottish Mortgage has already made 25 times its invested capital. The £151.1m it initially put into the then fringe company in 2018 has since swelled to £3.78bn as of Friday’s IPO. Now that's foresight.

Many investors have got caught up with all the hype pushing the share price of SpaceX, which had its IPO last week from $150 at launch to over $200 a few days later. However, as I write this SpaceX has fallen back to earth and is trading close to launch price.

The case for investing was very glossy, very futuristic, very over-hyped and miles off the ground as exemplified by Charles Archer in his article 'Monkey Goes to Space':

"$1.77 trillion for company losing $4 billion per quarter, with AI revenue projection requiring 100x growth written by bank running the IPO, with 95% insider ownership and early lockup exit built in, with 30% retail allocation because big money not interested at this price, eligibility threshold cut from $500,000 to $2,000 in one week, surrounded by $350 billion of other exit liquidity coming to market same time."

Read the full article here.

Quote for the month 

"We should do more and talk less."

Mary Ann Shadd Cary

Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a pioneering abolitionist and the first Black woman to publish a newspaper in North America, first wrote this famous phrase in an 1848 letter to Frederick Douglass. She expressed deep frustration over endless resolutions and conventions that produced little tangible progress, demanding practical action over mere rhetoric.

Labour Self Destruction, What's Gone Wrong on the High Street?

Pointless Change and Labour Self Destruction

People are not happy with their lot and they always blame the incumbent government.  And Labour's answer to their poor poll ratings? Change leaders. In my opinion this will just make things worse. They should be focused on policies that improve the economy and generate more wealth (some for re-distribution) rather than spend the next six months arguing over who will be the new leader. 

The Next PM?

I didn't think I would get here but it's starting to look as if Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives are the only ones fit to lead. Why do I say that?

I agree with her that Keir Starmer is not the problem and changing leader will waste valuable time and change almost nothing. So the Labour party is finished for the foreseeable future.

Reform are barking mad and have benefited from a massive protest vote. The Greens are even crazier and will fare poorly when the public wakes up to their nonsense and divisiveness.

The Lib Dems will remain a solid medium sized national party and significant local party.

The Conservatives are actually looking like a sensible option now that the nutters have left and gone to Reform and that the Labour party is in a spiral of self destruct and welfare expenditure.

An awful lot can happen between now and the next election and so far it looks as if Labour are determined to make sure they don't get re-elected.

The problem with democracy is that what people vote for is not what's going to fix their problems.

What's gone wrong in modern society?

Why has shoplifting soared in recent years?

Why has illegal fly tipping and dumping of waste and hazardous materials soared?

Why are illegal tobacco and vapes products widely sold in plain view on our high streets? 

Typical High Street shops like this all over the UK selling illegal, dangerous products

An extensive BBC investigation into illegal dealings on our high street has exposed a huge network of criminal gangs brazenly acting as if they have every right to do so:

"Ghost Directors" and Shell Companies: The BBC uncovered a sophisticated network where vulnerable people or paid third parties are registered as directors for dozens of companies on Companies House. These shops are frequently opened, run for about a year selling illicit goods, and then dissolved before authorities can catch up, only to reopen under a slightly altered name.

The Sale of Class A Drugs: Undercover researchers secretly filmed inside mini-marts across several UK towns (particularly in the West Midlands). Shop staff readily offered to sell them cocaine, cannabis, prescription pills, and nitrous oxide over the counter.

Illegal Cigarettes and Tunnels: The footage exposed elaborate physical setups, including secret rooms, hidden panels operated by high-powered electromagnets, and even hidden basement tunnels used to stash millions of units of counterfeit tobacco and unregulated, oversized illegal vapes.

Exploitation and Modern Slavery: The investigation proved that these mini-marts are being used to exploit illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, forcing them to work cash-in-hand under the radar.

The Real-World Impact: The fallout from this specific BBC investigation was so significant that it forced an immediate government response. A new £30 million High Street Organised Crime Unit was established to give the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Trading Standards the funding and powers needed to aggressively raid, seize cash, and shut down these specific types of shopfronts. [Source: BBC]

Shoplifting has become commonplace and banal

The answer to my questions is simple: it has been allowed to happen. When the risk of reward (money) is higher than the risk of penalty (fines, prison) the number of people drawn to this will increase. And that has been happening for years now.

This is one of the reasons the people are crying out for action from our leaders. We have had incompetent leadership over the last 10 years. It will take another 10 years to fix and unfortunately most people won't wait that long.

Quote for the Month

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

Alexander Pope

 

Artemis 2, Forget Mandelson, Quote for the Month

Artemis 2

The Artemis 2 mission to the moon has brought interest in space to a new generation and is a welcome diversion from depressing world and home events. 

The mission was a huge success and delivered some of the most beautiful photos ever seen.

A view of Earth captured from an Orion spacecraft window. (Image credit: NASA)

The Orion spacecraft traveled 694,481 miles (1,117,659 km) and carried the first humans to the moon since the crew of Apollo 17 in December 1972.

They sustained temperatures up to 5,000F (2,760C) as they re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 mph !!

Integrity splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean under deployed parachutes. (Image credit: NASA)

Forget Peter Mandelson

It has been going on for years now. Or it seems like it. First it was the Epstein scandal that has really been going on for years, decades. Then it was everyone else who knew Epstein getting dragged into it. The former Prince Andrew, his associates, then anyone involved with his appointment process and on it goes...

The real tragedy of Mandelson's involvement is that at a time of acute economic distress for the UK, our senior politicians are arguing over his role, what he did, who appointed him rather than concentrating on addressing the real issues facing our country. And of course the opposition leaders are instrumental in raising it over and over again and calling for the PM to resign.

The Times 23rd April 2026

Should it really be the major topic of conversation at Prime Minister's Questions, Wednesday after Wednesday, when the Middle East War is fast leading to a world oil crisis? A crisis that will impact every person to a greater or lesser extent. Even the newspaper headlines are fixated with the next Mandelson tidbit or resignation.

Is this really what the public is most concerned about? Our leaders fail us once again.  

We all know that the reason Mandelson was appointed as UK Ambassador to the US was that he was a good match for Trump. He got the UK the best tarrof deal of all countries worldwide. Why will nobody say the truth?

Quote for the Month

“Our four Artemis II astronauts, Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, took humanity on an incredible journey around the moon and brought back images so exquisite and brimming with science, they will inspire generations to come,” said Nasa

The Greens are shockingly Bad, Don't Criticise unless you can do better

The Greens not so Green after all?

The Deputy Leader of the Green Party since last September is Mothin Ali.  According to the Times newspaper, he supported the Hamas attacks of October 2023 on Israel:

Ali was elected as a Green Party councillor in May last year. During his victory speech he promised to “raise the voice of Palestine” while in office and shouted “Allahu akbar”. He later apologised for those comments.

His social media history also revealed that he had supported the attacks on October 7, 2023, in a post defending the right of “indigenous people to fight back”.

Sunday September 21 2025, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

More from The Spectator:

"Polanski’s deputy, Mothin Ali, makes YouTube videos in a Palestine beanie teaching viewers ‘how to cut down trees for profit’. He’s a vehement supporter of a motion at this weekend’s online conference declaring that ‘Zionism is racism’. Other motions up for debate, which have gone unreported until now, call for the demolition of London City airport, ending ‘gender-based blanket bans in sport’ and leaving Nato."  

The Spectator 26/03/2026

I am Critical of Criticism

People should only criticise when they have a better solution. Criticism alone is not helpful, it's harmful.  Unlike non democratic countries, people here are free to speak their minds so long as they don't incite violence. People seem to be increasingly critical of our way of life and the problem is that when you hear it every day from so many people, it can really affect what you think.

More recently, Brits and French people who have moved to the Middle East for better lifestyles and lower taxes have been heavily critical of the British and French governments' efforts to get them 'home' following the outbreak of war. A service for which they no longer pay. Justified?

Quotes for the Month

“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” Warren Buffet

"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils." Hector Berlioz

No Justice, The Greens Win, Iran attacked by USA and Israel

No Justice: Court acquits Palestine Action terrorists

I can't tell you how shocked I am. Woolwich Crown Court was shown a video in which 6 members Palestine Action (now a proscribed terrorist organisation) smashed their van into Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence company’s British factory, destroyed military equipment worth more than £1 million using sledgehammers and left a female police officer with a fractured spine.

Live footage of the attack published by The Independent

The jury was influenced and intimidated by supporters of Palestine Action and ended up acquitting them. "Lord Walney, the former government anti-extremism tsar, told The Times: “It is deeply disappointing that the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the sledgehammer attack that caused grievous bodily harm to a police sergeant who approached the Palestine Action saboteurs."

Their van shames through the doors to enter

Chris Phelps, Shadow Home Secretary said the verdict “risks giving the green light to mob violence in pursuit of a political objective. This is a shocking verdict. Smashing up property and attacking a female police officer with a sledgehammer, leaving her with a fractured spine, is despicable. There is no justification for this, no matter how strongly someone feels about something. In this country, we decide issues by debate and elections, not by violence.”

4 women and 2 men smash up equipment and attack police officers

Are we really in the UK? This seems more like the outcome from a court in Iran. I am deeply shocked but I have confidence that our judicial system will review, re-try and convict. 

They celebrate following their acquittal and release

The Greens win Gorton & Denton By-Election

With a majority of over 4,000, the Green Party pushed Reform into 2nd place and Labour into 3rd place. This brings me little comfort as in this anti-establishment mid term by-election, the voters have chosen to vote Green to express their discontent. Furthermore, about 30% of the constituency are Muslims who would have been attracted to the Green's pro Palestine policy.

The Greens are basically a bunch of clueless people who, when it comes to business and economy, don't know their arse from their elbow. And that's being kind. They are also massively pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel which brings them huge support from the UK Muslim communities who they go out of their way to attract by leafleting in local language and wearing traditional Palestinian clothing. Their leader, Zac Polanski, criticised the USA and Israel this morning for their attack against the Iranian regime saying they should have continued negotiations indefinitely.

Reform are a bunch of nasty people who attract extremists in society, frequently being called out for racism, antisemitism and other criminality.

This means the people of Gorton & Denton have chosen to protest their unhappiness with our political leadership by siding with a bunch of dangerous idiots rather than with a bunch closely aligned with fascists. All of the mainstream parties took a battering showing that trust has evaporated following years of their leadership.

Most advanced western economies are facing similar dilemmas and nobody has a coherent solution that will re-build our countries and stop the relative decline. Parties such as Greens and Reform (extreme left and right) will hasten our decline.

Iran attacked by USA and Israel

As I write this on March 1st, the USA and Israel have just launched a massive attack on Iran designed at removing the nuclear threat and at regime change. They have killed the 'Supreme Leader' Ayatollah Khamenei and various other senior leaders. 

The people of Iran deserve to have this oppressive regime removed after decades of brutal dictatorship and murder in the name of religion. I hope that a replacement plan is ready to replace the regime when it falls. 

Quotes of the Month

"Socialism’s answer to poverty is the equivalent of helping wheelchair users by cutting everyone else’s legs off."

Konstantin Kisin in his book 'An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West'

EUROPE IS facing a “geopolitical and geo-economic state of emergency”, declares Emmanuel Macron. If the continent does not invest in its economy and lift barriers to growth more quickly, it will be “swept aside” by technology from America and imports from China. The Economist 

Quantum Computing, Double Standards

Quantum Computing

People are starting to talk about Quantum Computing as the next story after AI.  What is QC? Here is Gemini's one sentence explanation: 

"Quantum computing uses qubits (which can exist in multiple states at once) instead of standard bits (0s and 1s) to solve complex problems exponentially faster than today's most powerful supercomputers."

To put that into context, Google's latest quantum chip Willow shows its best performance on speed tests: it solved a specific problem in less than five minutes. For comparison, even the fastest supercomputer today would need 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to finish the same task. That's quite a difference!

Google's Willow Quantum chip and the computer they operate in

Massive unrest in Iran: Double Standards in the West?

The regime has killed thousands of protesters in cold blood and arrested many more after the Iranian people who are fed up with the shortages, restrictions and brutality of their regime took to the streets in their hundreds of thousands. Latest estimates suggest that as many as tens of thousands of protesters were slaughtered by the regime.

According to the US government website:

Iran’s Islamic regime is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.

I utterly condemn this brutal evil regime who not only persecute and murder their own people, but sponsor, train and fund Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houtis and other terrorist groups.

Do you remember the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated in major cities across the free world in support of the Palestinian people following Hamas' 7th October attack on Israel and Israel's brutal response? They were demonstrating against Israel's use of force to destroy Hamas in Gaza and the large number of casualties resulting from this action in Gaza. They accused Israel of genocide.

Why don't we see those mass demonstrations in support of the Iranian people? Do the Palestinians command more support than the Iranians? Both have equally repressive and barbarian regimes. The Hamas led terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th unleashed the wrath of Israel on Palestine. The Iranian regime funded Hamas and are turning on their own people, slaughtering thousands in cold blood for merely going out in the streets to demonstrate. Why don't any of the hundreds of thousands of people in Western countries who marched in support of the people of Palestine march in support of the people of Iran?

I suspect many of these people have been misled about the issues

What about the Ukrainian people who are suffering hugely after more than 3 years of Russian invasion? The dead and injured must be far greater in number than in Gaza. This very day vast numbers of Ukrainians are living in unheated homes with temperatures at and below zero. Why? Because the Russians have been targeting residential power generation in order to create these freezing conditions in mid winter. Experts estimate that as many as 325,000 Russian troops have been killed, compared with 100,000-140,000 for Ukraine.

Why is it that the Palestinian cause prompts mass demonstrations in their support but the people of Ukraine and Iran are ignored? Is it because the protesters support Hamas and the Iranian regime? If, not why? This makes me angry :(

Quotes for the Month

"How do you titillate an ocelot? 

You oscillate its tits a lot."

BBC Amandaland Christmas Special 2025

“The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.” 

Charlie Munger