NuGgets comment column - edited by Neil Gee - Infinity Junction dotCom's famous blog

now running in its Twenty-Fourth year - NuGgets TMish comment column   -   "poking fun and pointing fingers"

Every so often one (or more) of our members, authors, or maybe our readers, puts forward some thoughts, about the world today. It's a sort of blog. Edited by Neil Gee.  © Infinity Junction. This is a large website worth a browse, so if you came direct to this page, go to infinityjunction.com
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Newest comments at top, getting older as you go down.
Previous years' highlights can be found in Blogjob.

Beating The Reds At Their Own Game
   Apparently UK has more than ten times as many giant redwood trees than their native California. Despite UK having unreliable and generally bad weather by comparison, they seem to like growing here since they were first imported in the 19th century. So what's going on in California? Why so few now?

How Long? - Put Out the Putin parts 15 & 16
   So Putin has an official rival in the "election" for president. How long before he "falls" from a window or has some trumped up charges against him, or he simply disappears?
FOLLOW-UP- A week later Boris Nadezhin is disqualified due to "irregularities" in his list of nominees and is barred from appealing the decision. Why does Putin put on the facade of elections when everyone knows he's not going to give up power.
FOLLOW-UP 2- Navalny dead; the most prominent Putin critic mysteriously dead after being fine only a day before. Probably Novichok. How long is the world going to let Putin go on destroying Russian citizens' hard gained freedoms? It has to start in Russia but when? Who will be left to take over from the tyrant dictator? What will the free West do, if anything at all?

Cheese'N'Beef
   Trade negotiatiations with Canada abandoned due to irreconcilable differences. We're told the sticking points were hormone beef from Canada, (banned in all European countries as potentailly hazardous to human health,) and Cheese from UK which Canada wanted to tax at a reported 250%... why? Not much sense in that! Not much sense re-starting talks either by the looks of it.

Odd oNe Out - the one with all those As.
   To many Europeans there is one USA state that stands out from the rest as being perceived as un-American; Alabama. We like to compare our bretheren in USA as being quite like us, but alas that only true in some places, for example New York and California. Stuck between those two are some curiosities for sure, but by far the least like us is Alabama, it seems very old fashioned, stuck in old unenlightened ways. Speaking of which, who's idea is nitrogen as an agent of legalised death there? Not a modern scientist for sure. Slowly suffocating somebody is somewhat akin to crucifying them, a slow and painful death. Citizens of Alabama wake up, at least join the 20th century even if you can't manage the 21st.

Opera Flopera take three - by our opera and booze correspondent Evelyn Murray
   You can't get BBC Radio Three on FM from North Wales any more because they've given that channel to a load of boring Welsh windbags of rather low intellect. They say we can get R3 from other transmitters, but where I am in west Wirral only at very poor quality in mono only, noticeably worse than old AM broadcasts, (if you're old enough to remember them). When challenged to come here and try it, we get no reply from BBC. The result is digital radio routed off a Humax PVR through the proper hi-fi, not such a sweet sound as top class FM. Last night the problem was made worse by less than perfectly balanced sound from the New York Met, rather over emphasising two somewhat 'screechy' tenors, and forgetting all bar the base end of the orchestra. Only 'Mimi' sounded good although rather too healthy to be dying of tuberculosis. Probably the most disappointing broadcast of La Boheme I've heard in years. Give us back FM R3 please BBC.

Nocturnal Cars
   If you believe Wheeler Dealers, Porsche Boxters can only go out at night- why? Because, according to subtitles, their exhaust pipes have "bat boxes."

GazaGaga-2
   As NuGgets predicted last year, Israel is having nothing to do with the Palestinian Authority when new governance is installed in Gaza. It was obvious to anyone with any awareness despite pro PA comments from UN officials. UN admin wake up, get real!

Older and...
   A new year, which means NuGgets column enters its twenty-fourth year. "God, it only seems like twenty-four years ago," our editor said.

Wrong Impression
   An incomplete headline on BBC teletext, (which was later corrected by adding a single short word,) read- "Israel strikes on Gaza continue as UN calls for more."

Baa-aah-ly Exciting News
   Britain is the first country in western Europe to have a fully licensed space port, yeah! It may sound a bit more exciting than it actually is: it's on Unst, the northernmost occupied island in Britain accessible only by sea, car ferry or a very small airport. TV excitedly announced this showing an area where the only obvious things, apart from boring treeless landscape, were grazing sheep.

Covid Enquiry - educating Prime Ministers
   November '23 in UK has seen the start of a public enquiry into the covid epidemic handling in 2020 and 2021. One witness statement stood out- PM Boris Johnson was so "bamboozled" by science that he sometimes did not react to advice at first. What sort of education leaves someone so ill prepared for senior office? Not a good one, that's for certain. BoJo and indeed a lot of the conservative senior government were schooled at Eton College, didn't they teach science? Or did BoJo escape that somehow? If it's not his school's fault then it must be the university course taken, usually with his type PPE, but sometimes Classics; both useless in the modern world. Politics, Philosphy and Economics is not a suitable education for future top administrators, drop the philosophy and add science instead, that way we won't have another BoJo moment... hopefully.

What A Difference A Day Makes
   20,000 men have escaped army conscription in Ukraine since the war began 21 months ago. It wasn't long ago we saw pictures of 20,000 men queueing to get out of Russia and into Georgia in one single day to escape Russian army conscription.

UNrealistic Gazagaga - editorial auguries.
   Hamas likely to be neutralised soon, where does history go next? It seems the UN want the West Bank Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza; but that is unlikely to happen while Israel's army is still there. That would lead to even more conflict with one anti-Israel, anti-west group replacing another; UN hasn't thought that through, has it. So we ask the oracle (in this case our editor); how long will Israel stay in Gaza? Obviously Hamas has to be dismantled, even the UN accepts that. Israel is very unlikely to accept any exisiting regional authority, apart from their own of course. So that leaves a contrived government appointed by, or at least accepted by Israel as most likely outcome. Not what the UN prefers, but in the short term, probably the best solution for peace in that area of planet Earth. Beyond that stage, it depends mainly on what the religious zealots, (such as Iran's government,) hotheads and men of violence do. Wouldn't it be nice if those just mentioned types weren't in the equation, eh? Repeat after me... "If I was God, I'd" come on join in the answer, (all) "ban religion!"

Ayatolatarian - Ed
   It's hard not to believe that failing Russian efforts to take over Ukraine and major attacks on Israel by Hamas have links to Iran. As a supporter of Putin's Russia and a stated enemy of the Israeli state, Iran has to be a suspect in inspiring or even helping the latest Islamic attacks against the Jewish state. Evidence is not yet obvious, but what is obvious is that Putin's fight to dominate an independent neighbour is stalling and he needs a way to divert external defensive help for Ukraine to stop his invasion failing. Desperate, or what?
FOLLOW-UP- Two days after this NuGgets entry, USA hints it thinks Iran had something to do with Hamas uprising; no surprise.
FOLLOW-UP 2 - Two weeks later USA bombs Iranian special forces supply depots in Syria, which have links to Hezbollah in Lebanon and also hates Israel. Retaliation to attacks on US bases in Syria and Iraq says USA, but just look at the timing.

HS2-2 - see also Oh Man below 6 days before this
   We now have proof that our (southern) Westminater government has no intention at all of "Levelling Up," as spending an equitable distribution of money on infrastructure in the northern half of England has been dubbed. High Speed Train 2 will now stop at Birmingham, leaving northerners with a rail system that has hardly changed in 120 years and is slow and very unreliable. We've said this before, if the govt. really wants to be fair to the north, then move the Ministry Of Transport oop't'North. You might dub this MMOTN, it'll be more effective at levelling up than a London ministry: when a minister takes two hours to get to work up north when its only half an hour down south you'll suddenly see improvements.

Oh Man, What A Cockup - HS2
   A stylised map in The Guardian (26 Sept) supposed to be showing the contentious HS2 railway that is/not going to be built, seems to have a train driver turning left at Crewe instead of right. So where does he end up? In our nearest city, Chester! The airport appears to be in Wales. Their graphics Man needs to learn both English geography and English spelling. You'd have thought a newspaper that started life in Manchester would do better, eh.

War Rabbits
   Ukraine may soon be asking allies for supplies of living rabbits if you believe subtitles. Apparently the strategically vital Kerch bridge (which Ukraine wants to destroy) is actually Carrots Ridge.

Predictable
   Another 5 years to phase out diesel and petrol engined car manufacturing has been announced. We predicted something like this some time ago. The simple fact is there will not be enough charging points probably even by 2035, the new deadline. Of course the green lobby is in uproar, but actually the vast majority of UK drivers are sighing with relief: another five years of not having to judge every journey by how much electricity is in the battery and whether you can recharge it. Another five years that holiday makers can go where they please without fear of stranding in the countryside.


Poking fun and pointing fingers; Infinity Junction NuGgets. Read the best of NuGgets paragraphs that have been removed from here - BlogJob - a compilation of past wit? and wisdom??


End of this issue of NuGgets - further updates just possible unavoidable.

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