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Seasonal Flu Epidemics: Why Do They Happen and Could this One Turn Into a Killer ?

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  The UK's 2026-27 influenza epidemic is now well underway and is taxing the NHS to its limits, as predicted. One additional ‘wild-card’ last year, courtesy of the junior doctors (or ‘Residents’ as they now like to call themselves), who decided to strike for yet more pay over what was one of the busiest periods in the run-up to Christmas, shouldn't be troubling the  NHS this year, given Labour bought them off  with a super-inflationary pay increase, at considerable cost to the public finances. Adverse circumstances aside, this would be a good time to ask the question in the title i.e. is this years ‘flu virus any more potent or dangerous than the usual seasonal variety ? To answer this, we must first take a look at the causative virus and how it infects us and propagates itself with the aid of our own cells. What is Influenza ? The well-written and extensive wiki article tells us that Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by various type...
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Could AI Prove to be Humanity’s Salvation ?

There has been much angst voiced in the media recently about the risks of AI being harmful to our species, most notably by the very people involved in developing it.... This is perhaps a reasonable gut reaction to a technology which is developing faster than many of us expected, and has turned out to be a powerful and transformative tool in a number of areas already. Its very power could certainly create havoc in the wrong hands.... Personally, I’m not an ‘AI risk denier’ any more than I am ‘climate change denier’…both of these trends are now abundantly evident, and only the cognitively blind could fail to see the risks and accept them as fact. What’s important is how we assess and deal with them….and more to the point, how we act to mitigate, and preferably prevent, their worst effects. There are risks, certainly, in allowing AI to continue to develop virtually unfettered as we appear still to be doing now. We should of course regulate…and on a worldwide basis, with all major...
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UK Prisons: The Great Escape

Update 13.10.26 : The prison system still seems to full to bursting, even after the first major bout of early releases in early October. As predicted, many of the early releasers are already being called back to their cells because there are no support services in the community able to keep them on the 'straight and narrow', Combine this with an imminent strike by overstressed probation officers, and you have a recipe for chaosbetween ow and the New Year. 'Twas ever thus...... Check out the suggestion at the end of this piece for reducing overcowding...perhaps not so off-the-wall as it sounds ? Enjoy....  Our prison system does appear to be in something of a crisis at present.... It has been full to bursting over at least the last 5 years. Reasons quoted for this include lack of investment by successive governments, failure to build more prisons, over-enthusiastic sentencing policies., etc , etc.  No doubt the current administration will at some stage attempt to blame it...
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