vivweb01

 Editor's note: Given the chnage in fortunes of the two principal players in this political saga, I though I'd wheel the blog out again with an update..... ---------------------- The rather unexpected announcement on 29 th November 2024 that Louise Haigh had resigned as Transport minister inevitably precipitated much speculation about ‘goings on in high places’. The party line explanation she offered for her 'resignation' was the bog-standard   ‘I don’t want to be a distraction’ recipe, accompanied by the usual weasel words of support from the PM for the decision and good wishes for the future….which, if course, tells us precisely nothing about what really happened. To establish what really went on, we need to look at the background. Several pertinent facts emerge: 1)        *  Starmer knew about Haigh’s 2013 conviction for ‘making a false report to the police’ about her mugging when he appointed her to the ministerial posts she has occupied. This...

  I first published this blog in February 2022, just before Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Given the mess we seem to be making of our home planet at present, a look at the possibilities of life elsewhere might be appropriate....  A    report   last year of  the possibility of life existing on another planet in another solar system also presented a good opportunity for a fresh look at the question. This seems even more relevant now, given the increasingly fragile state of our planet's ecosystem and our own continuing descent into resource-driven conflict. Present indications suggest that our society may not have long left, and all in all,  perhaps it's a fitting time to consider whether there might be a possibility of alternative accommodation for humans elsewhere in the universe.... The combination of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), CO2 and methane in the atmosphere of  exoplanet K2-18b in significant quantities is seen as a possible 'biomarker' for life t...

 Blog first published November 2022. Updated April 2023, January 2025, July 2026. Editors note: After a long period when the 'authorities' seemed to be in abeyance on take-downs of the much loved and well-used shadow-libraries, they re-started their war in early 2025 with a vengeance by taking down two of the most popular (Anna's Archive and LibGen), by forcing ISPs to introduce server blockages. I suspect the timing of this was no coincidence, given the imminence of a new US government regime likely to be less favourably inclined towards to this type of industrial censorship, and the frequent 'spats' between the UK Labour government and the new US regime. The war has continued into 2026, with no end in sight despite Trump's anti-censorship stance. This nonsense has gone on for long enough...and could easily be sorted if vested interests wanted it. High time for a look at reforming the publishing industry model, I think... See update 26.7.26 below for more detai...