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Remember Covid ? It’s Back Again, and in New Colours

  Two new Covid sub-variants have recently been identified as responsible for a surge of new Covid infections round the world. These are giving rise to some concerns in UK, in that a comparable surge here could also lead to a significant rise in hospitalisations this autumn and winter. According to WHO data, Europe seems to be ‘leading the pack’ on rises in case numbers . We might reasonably expect this, now that we’re well into the N. Hemisphere Autumn quarter,   when seasonal respiratory infections traditionally tend to start increasing again after the summer hiatus, and we're also one of the most population-dense continents on the planet. The good news is that the new variants, named Nimbus and Stratus , don’t appear to be significantly more lethal than previous variants. They do, however, seem to be even more efficient at infecting us than their predecessors. Stratus, also known as Omicron sub-variant XFG, and Nimbus (Omicron NB.1.8.1) now have the status of ‘Var...
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UK Energy and Net Zero: Solar Panels vs Heat Pumps

Last year  I took a look at various options that we in the UK might use for energy conservation as part of a wider review of our energy crisis and its consequences.  Since then, political parties of all hues have weighed in on the ‘greening’ debate and there appears to be a general consensus that we need to replace fossil fuels with renewables and nuclear for our energy generation and supply. The only dispute is over how quickly we should do it, and in the UK at least, this is currently tied up with the post-election policy tussle between the two (erstwhile) major parties and Reform. Starmer's recent 'go slower' initiative was designed primarily to wrong-foot the Tories and Reform on their criticism of Miliband's over-hasty introduction of Cameron's so eloquently described 'green crap'. Miliband is, needless to say not happy with the wind being taken out of his sails in this way, and I foresee trouble ahead for Starmer from his 400-strong 'rump' of...
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The Future of Modern Warfare: World War 3 and Beyond

 Editor's note:  The recent outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran sadly bears out the prediction made in the previous revision of this blog for the eternal Middle East 'powder keg'.  Some might say it was inevitable that this particular conflict would come to a head this year, given Iran's determination to get a nuclear bomb, and the Ayatollah's openly declared intention to use it to destroy the state of Israel. The speed at which it has happened does seem to have taken many by surprise, though. Arguably the Iranian regime has, by its actions over the last 40 years, brought its own inevitable destruction on itself. Unfortunately it's the Iranian people who will probably bear the brunt of the suffering that arises from its death throes...... The smart money now seems to be on eventual full regime change, which could be swifter than anticipated if Iran ever succumbs to the temptation to attack US interests in the region.  The Teheran regime will be somew...
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