As I’m sure most people have been doing, I’ve been chatting with friends regarding the latest mutation of COVID; Omicron. Everyone has a take/opinion on it, right? None of us really have a clue as to what’s right, and what’s wrong, we have to trust the government, and the science. If we don’t, if we dare to question the official line, we’re getting shot down pretty quickly.
Apparently this variant originated in South Africa and the early indications were that it was causing very few hospitalisations and next to no deaths. In fact, it was said that the people being hospitalised, were generally being so for other conditions, and when admitted were being tested. Up until this point, they were unaware that they had COVID because the symptoms are so mild; said to be comparable to a common cold.
Shortly afterwards (towards the end of the first week of December 2021), President Putin referred to Omicron as a live vaccine because of the low risk of illness, it’s comparison to a cold, and the expectation of getting antibodies.
On 12th December 2021 Boris Johnson released a pre-recorded announcement telling people to get booster jabbed to defeat Omicron, in many people this created a panic, and a rush towards the vaccine centres.
The booster jabs are typically the Pfizer one, which has now been rebranded to Comirnaty, which sounds very similar to community depending on how you pronounce it.
Many people in the countries with an experience of Omicron considered the British governments response to this variant to be hysterical and completely disproportionate to the threat. This was mentioned publicly by some very well informed people towards the end of the second week of December 2021.
Todays UK newspapers (26th December 2021) are quite interesting, in particular, the Telegraph;
“One of Britain’s most senior health advisers has been accused of disseminating “dodgy data” that inflated the potential risk of omicron”
So, Jenny Harries allegedly supplied data that mislead over hospitalisations due to Omicron, essentially overstating the risk. This data indicated that there is a 17 day lag between patients being infected and requiring hospitalisation which was stated by Government minister, Sajid Javid. However, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the lag is actually 9-10 days.
“The latest UKHSA data showed that people infected with the Omicron variant were between 50 and 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital than those with Delta.
At the time of Javid’s claim last weekend, despite soaring Omicron cases, only 85 people were in hospital with confirmed Omicron – a figure that has since risen to 366.”
So, in the UK we’ve got Omicron infections up in the millions, the Government has said that of all the people that are suffering with colds, half could be Omicron, and we still only have a few hundred in hospital.
I guess the government will say it is because they did the right thing, followed the science, got everyone booster jabbed and managed the crisis so well.
Of course, it’s nothing to do with the fact that the variant in question is so mild, the majority don’t even know that they have it – vaccinated or unvaccinated. Check out what is going on in South Africa, only a 26% vaccination rate.
And the push for booster jabs, is that following the science because the statistics are starting to indicate otherwise. Who knows, this could have been known prior to Boris’ announcement on 12th December, but either way, it worked out pretty well for him deflecting some of the public relations mess that he found himself in.
To be clear, Boris Johnson has been proved time and time again to be a liar. This is accepted and on the record. Boris’ name and the truth don’t sit well together. There’s a wonderful Eddie Mair interview with him from 2013 where he was shown to have been sacked from two jobs because of his lies, and conspired to get a journalist a beating because of his running a story that upset one of his friends.
So, I’m daring to question what this government is putting in front of me regarding Omicron, and I’ll likely get shot down for it.
I had my first McPlant burger at the weekend, and it was a surprise. A complete surprise.
The McPlant has had a limited release in the UK within the last couple of months to much fanfare; it is a completely plant based, vegan friendly alternative to the standard McDonalds offering. I was aware of its existence, but living where I do, it’s not been available for me to try, and to be honest, I have been skipping the fast food scene for the last couple of months anyway as part of my live healthy, live longer phase. Kill me now.
So, at the weekend, I found myself driving in East London with a passenger that had a hankering for a fast food fix, so I duly pulled into the Bow McDonalds Drive-Thru to order. I was going to skip but the McPlant caught my eye, so I felt I had to give it a try.
I collected the order and pulled into a bay and got the box out of the bag. The size of the box was an immediate disappointment; it was roughly the same size as a Fillet o Fish box and the burger was roughly the same size. I was hoping for something of similar proportion to the Big Mac, alas, it was not to be. Upon opening and inspection, it looked like a regular burger; the patty, pickles, sauce, processed cheese and white bun, all looked reasonably normal.
Taking a bite, the taste was pretty good, I raised an eyebrow and started gibbering at my passenger in disbelief, I was expecting it to taste like crap. It wasn’t as far away from a regular burger as it could have been, the thing I really noticed was the texture of the patty, it was a little mushier. Excitedly I kept waving the half eaten thing at my accomplice, offering it up to them to try some, saying that they wouldn’t believe how it tasted. They politely refused.
So, all in all, it is a more than passable effort. Okay, I was fairly impressed. Now the questions start to crop up in my mind; how the hell do they take bunch of plants, process it, and make a vegan product taste like one made from animal products? The mayo, the cheese, the meat substitute. Surely there’s a heck of a lot of layers of processing going on there? I just did a search for the meat substitute used in the McPlant, apparently it’s provided by a company called Beyond Meat. A few clicks shows what look like reasonably harmless ingredients, but a few more clicks shows that there’s a lot of strong opinions out there that they may not necessarily be as good for you as you would expect.
I’m not going to drill into this point, there’s no shortage of for and against opinions out there, and it will be one hell of a rabbit hole to disappear into.
We know that McDonalds isn’t good, wholesome food, we’ve seen films like Supersize Me, we’ve seen the hidden camera expose, we’ve seen the Jamie Oliver and his mate Jimmy’s documentaries, we’ve read accounts from disgruntled former staff about how the stuff is made. We know it’s nutritionally shit, we know it’s stacked with fat, salt and sugar, but because of this, it tastes amazing, and we know this. And for this reason, it is a guilty pleasure for millions of people nationally.
Things have changed over the last few decades, we’ve seen McDonalds stop frying its fries in beef tallow, and swap to vegetable oil, somehow, amazingly, they managed to keep the taste the same. Shocker. If you buy a Big Mac in the US that is made from US beef, then go to the UK and buy one made from UK beef, they taste almost identical. Shocker. There’s obviously some magic going on, what magic it is, I am not smart enough to work out, but it is clever stuff. Whatever it is, it’s unlikely to be good for you and will never make it onto the ingredient list.
And now we have the McPlant, a pretty wholesome sounding name, I’d assert that the McChemicalCocktail would be more appropriate.
Until recent years, I have been a complete carnivore, I’ve not really given vegetarians or vegans much consideration. We were born with canines, right? Those lovely teeth for ripping flesh apart? This alone completely supported my position, meat is good, and it is an important part of the human diet. I’d walk across hot coals to get my hands on a perfectly cooked fillet steak.
A while back I was chatting to a vegetarian and they offered a compelling explanation as to why they choose to not eat meat, or flesh as they called it. I started to understand their position, and I got it. I won’t get into what that was, that’s for another time, but I got it. Since then, I have started to reduce my meat intake; I eat less, but what I do eat is better quality. It’s not been difficult to do at all.
This brings me to my point in an unfocused, meandering way;
These burgers, like the McPlant exist for a reason. People don’t want to eat meat, or animal products. But they are happy to pay over the odds for a highly processed product that is made to look like meat, smell like meat, and taste like meat, and it could possibly be less healthier than the meat alternative. And it’s being served by an organisation that slaughters millions of cattle, pigs and chickens every year, and that has questionable environmental credentials.
Reflecting, I just don’t get it. If you’re going to go to all of that trouble, just eat the meat right? That’s what you’re hankering for, so stop the torture, just do it. Or don’t.
I don’t think I’ll be going back for a McPlant, as clever as it was. I don’t think I’ll be going back to McDonalds for myself at all.
Me and Mac’s are done. I can’t say that I won’t miss it, but it was fun whilst it lasted.
Almost a week later, the UK Government has still not released the details of what is so far to date, the UK’s first death with the COVID variant, Omicron. This contrasts the first UK death from first strain of COVID last year when the fact that the patient was “older” and had “underlying health issues” was revealed.
On 16th December an anonymous caller to LBC claimed that the victim was a male patient in their 70’s, and that they had refused the vaccine, and died in a Northampton hospital. The NHS have said that the death did not happen in Northampton. Clearly, the authenticity of the callers claims are questionable and cannot be validated.
Surely the simple and transparent thing for the government to do is release the information as everyone is asking? The question is, why are they refusing? In the absence of the details, people are drawing all manner of conclusions and rumour is rife.
A patient has died ‘with’ the Omicron COVID variant. Note that the use of the word ‘with’, not ‘due to’ or ‘because of’.
The timing is convenient for Boris Johnson, I’m left to wonder if there may have been an underlying health problem in this case, like a terminal illness.
The government will aim to provide rehab for 300,000 drug users who carry out half of all thefts, robberies and burglaries, Boris Johnson has said. He’s also mentioned removal of passports and driving licences.
Okay, so the government is looking into clamping down on drug use amongst Joe Public, I think most will feel that they may just want to start looking a little closer to home.
We’ve got Michael Gove who’s confessed to taking cocaine whilst working as a journalist, and our illustrious PM has joked about snorting the stuff, or was it icing sugar? And now the users of the commons toilets sound like they’re stuck in a snow drift.
I’d expect the MP’s Christmas parties that aren’t going to happen (just like last year’s ones), are going to be all nighters….
Star Trek Discovery is one of my guilty pleasures; it’s predictable, cheesy and sometimes downright cringe, but I like it.
There. I said it. I like it.
I was looking forward to the new season 4 and have been waiting for the best part of a year for it to air in the UK on Netflix, as it has done previously. It was due to premiere on Friday 19th November, but somebody at Paramount decided to pull it from Netflix a few days before and only show it in the few countries that have the Paramount+ streaming service. Everyone else had to wait until Paramount+ launched globally in 2022.
The fans went ape shit, and justifiably so. This resulted in Paramount doing a climbdown, and in the UK they made it available on something called Pluto TV the week after, a free streaming service. I’d never heard of the bloody thing, so I installed the Pluto app on my set top box in anticipation. What I came to realise is that the streaming on Pluto is free, but it is scheduled. On 26th November, if I wanted to watch season 4, I was forced to watch the first two episodes back to back between 9pm and 11pm. SCHEDULED!?
I’ve not watched scheduled TV streamed or terrestrial broadcast for years, and I can tell you, it was a bloody shock to my system. I was really not geared up for it. As soon as the first episode kicked off, my phone lit up like a Christmas tree. Everyone wanted to get in touch, and I had no pause facility on Pluto.
Eventually the phone was impossible to ignore and I completely lost my place in the show that I had eagerly anticipated. I won’t even start whining about the adverts – another thing that I wasn’t ready for.
There’s a lot of issues here, and I am acutely aware of mine; I should have thought ahead and silenced my phone and kept it out of sight. I failed to plan for the inevitable interruptions. I think this largely because I’ve allowed myself to become so conditioned into being able to have my media in whatever format completely on demand, as and when suits me. I get an interruption? I pause, attend to whatever has caught my attention, then go back to whatever it is that I am watching. I’ve realised that as a consequence of my digital life, I depend upon immediacy, and I have the attention span of a gnat. Also, that I need to stop responding to my phone the second that it chirps.
The really glaring issue here is Paramount’s greed. It’s pretty obvious why they have done what they have done, and it has backfired royally from a PR perspective. I would imagine a lot of people would have torrented the episodes, something that used to be huge years ago prior to the emergence of the streaming services.
For me? I’m voting with my feet, I’ll now part company with Discovery, after all, there’s plenty of fantastic stuff to watch, and I could really do without another streaming service.
According to social media a lot of unhappy customers are receiving their Tesla’s without some or all of the USB ports fitted. In some cases, Tesla have warned the customers in advance of delivery, and in others, there was no warning.
Other customers have reported that the front wireless charging pad isn’t working either. To date Tesla has not commented on this officially, but has told individuals that the issues are due to the global chip shortage, and that they will receive an appointment in the near future to have the ports and other issues rectified.
I’m sure that the irony isn’t lost on many that Tesla are shipping cars with banks of batteries that cannot charge a phone.
It’s been reported that the disgraced Matt Hancock has been approached by publisher Harper Collins to write a book about his experience as health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic, with an advance in the region of £100,000.
Interesting. Even more interesting is that Harper Collins is owned by Rupert Murdoch. The same Rupert Murdoch that met with Boris Johnson within 72 hours of his becoming Prime Minister. Subsequently the meetings with Murdoch have been incredibly frequent and are ongoing to this day. Murdoch is often accompanied by his disgraced sidekick Rebekah Brooks and also regularly meets with ministers such as Sunak, Patel and Rees-Mogg.
Stinks a bit, no?
UPDATE Harper Collins have now gone on record to say that this story is inaccurate, stating that they told the Daily Mail that they had not approached Hancock, but the Daily Mail* still published anyway. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
* There’s a reason that, in February 2017, the Daily Mail became the first source to be deprecated as an “unreliable source” for use as a reference on the English Wikipedia.[26] What an accolade to own, huh?
Scam calls can be really intrusive, but sometimes when I have some spare time, they can be a real source of fun. In this case, I didn’t actually receive the contact, my friend did; I don’t understand how the Facebook thing really works, neither do I want to, but someone purporting to be from the Illuminati promising riches beyond his wildest dreams popped up and started spamming his number everywhere. I had some spare time, so I figured it was time to play…..
The originating number was +234 701 751 2642, and his Whatsapp bio was “MR CHARLES ALEX THE AGENT OF THE GREAT ILLUMINATI BROTHERHOOD A PLACE WHERE YOU FIND HAPPINESS”. Now this guy is already really interesting. A quick Google reveals that our Agent of The Great Brotherhood is using a Nigerian number. Back in the early noughties when these scams first started to appear, Nigeria was a hotbed of activity. Some of the funniest, most implausible ones originated here and have provided endless entertainment.
The following took place over a few days via messaging and voice calls over Whatsapp;
I dropped a message;
“I’m ready to be enlightened. I hope you’re not a scam like the last bunch. Please send me some money. Thanks.”
I got the following reply;
Great Illuminati: where are you from?? Great Illuminati: You are highly welcome to the great Illuminati brotherhood where you have the opportunity to become rich famous and powerful in all your life and doings?
I don’t know about you, but I’d love to become rich, famous and powerful in all my life and doings. It’s a complete no-brainer, right?
Me: I am in the UK. Me: Yes, that is exactly what I deserve. Thank you.
Too sarcastic a reply, maybe? Let’s see what response it receives;
Great Illuminati: so if I may ask brother have you contacted any agent before??
I’m starting to feel like I’ve just contacted an offshore call centre. Maybe I have, in a manner of speaking. A few messages bat backwards and forwards, they are sizing their mark up, asking questions about age, location, partner and parents. The reasons behind this are fairly obvious, they are doing their homework, and good on them. Know your victim, right?
Things then start to get formal, and I really do feel like I am dealing with an offshore call centre;
Great Illuminati: now you are going to fill the Illuminati form of riches now??
Me: yes
Great Illuminati: Welcome to illuminati would fill the following and get back to us immediately Your full name: ….. Your age: ….. Your country: ….. Your photo: …… Your occupation: ….. Your monthly income: …… Your phone number: …… Your date of birth: ……. Purpose of joining: …… Fill out the following correctly okay
Great Illuminati: fill it out and get back to us immediately OK??
Okay, so form filled, they then start asking for two pictures, I pick a couple from Google image search for redneck that look vaguely similar and fire them across.
Great Illuminati: Okay you are welcome to the light 🏮 My child thank you for filling up the membership form we have started your first stage of becoming a member of the brotherhood, we don’t just initiate people into our organization our great god makes his choice of members so i am taking your details to the temple for acceptance prayers i will get back to you with the revelation if you were chosen to be a member or not be calm and wait for my reply?
Me: Yes, I will await. Thank you. Me: Hi Alex, it’s been twelve minutes, is the temple far away? Great Illuminati: just wait a minute OK?? Me: Ok Alex Great Illuminati: So Mr MARK SMITH your text result show possitive that means you can be a member of the great Illuminati brotherhood Me: Yay! That’s fantastic news! Thank you so much. Me: 🎊🎉 Great Illuminati: alright?? Me: Yes, very much so. Great Illuminati: now you are going to take the oat of this great brotherhood?? Me: Yes, I will take the oat
This guy is good, he knows that I take oatmilk and I never even had to tell him. I am so happy that my text result shows positive, there’s so many text results that I’ve had that have shown positive, that are really negative if you get me? Moving on;
Great Illuminati: I …..take this oath that I will follow the illuminati rules and
regulations and be honest to the new world order of the illuminati,i
will help my fellow members in the fraternity and always respect and
be faithful to those that are senior to me in the fraternity and that
I will always do whatever the high priests ask me to do,and I will
never turn back,if I try to do anything beyond or above the power of
the illuminati I shall die and turn to a ram of the ORIS,as I take
this oath I have agree to be a full member of the illuminati,and may
lucifer bless me..AMEN
I’m guessing that all of that is the T&C’s. I’d much rather die and turn to a ram of the Oris, surely it can’t be as bad as getting stuck in an expensive 24 month iPhone contract?
There’s a bit of backwards and forwards with a liberal coating of BS from both sides;
Great Illuminati: say it and send it back as a voice recording OK??
Me: I do, amen
Me: My phone just doesn’t do that stuff. I am so sorry. All of that on the software doesn’t work.
Me: It’s over ten years old.
Me: I need to buy a new one i guess.
Me: I’ve saved the money, so I should just buy it.
Great Illuminati: how much is the money for the phone??
Me: £300 GBP
Me: Sorry, no, £500GBP
Great Illuminati: How much is it in dollars
Me: What? US?
Great Illuminati: how much is it in us dollars?
Me: About 650 USD, why?
Great Illuminati: alright?
Me: yes.
Great Illuminati: don’t worry when you have received your welcome benefits, you can buy as many phone as you want OK??
Me: ok
Great Illuminati: where are you now??
Me: At home. Why?
Great Illuminati: alright
Me: ok
Me: Alex, what now? I am pretty excited and want to get moving on this.
Great Illuminati: .NOTE ;THERE ARE NO BLOOD OR HUMAN SACRIFICES IN THE ILLUMINATI
YOU CAN BE ANY RELIGION YOU WISH FOR , CHRISTIAN. MUSLIM ,OTHERS
Welcome to The illuminati World🔺 – Bringing the poor, the needy and the talented to limelight of fame and riches. Get money, fame, powers, security, get recognized in your business, political race, rise to the top in whatever you do, be protected spiritually and physically! All these you will achieve in a twinkle of an eye when you get initiated into the GREAT ILLUMINATI WORLD ORDER. Once you are initiated to the ILLUMINATI EMPIRE, you have numerous other benefits .
Me: Yes, exactly what I am looking for. How do I get initiated?
Me: Can you do that for me Alex?
Great Illuminati: calm down don’t worry I do it for you OK??
Me: Thank you thank you. I am calm now.
Me: Thank you.
Me: I will wait.
Great Illuminati: alright??
Me: Yays
Great Illuminati: the grand master Will massage you from USA OK??
Me: Okay
Me: Thank you.
Great Illuminati: talk to him he will be the one to tell you what to do OK?? what ever be the out come of it you let me know??
Me: I will do, thank you.
Great Illuminati: alright
Great Illuminati: has he talk to you ??
Me: Hi Alex, sorry, I was arguing with my mother.
Great Illuminati: about what?
Great Illuminati: tell me let me know??
Me: That I couldnt speak to you when you called.
Me: I told you i would ring back
Great Illuminati: Is your mother aware about this
Me: No, of course not
Great Illuminati: Yes you did
Me: Do we need to speak, or do I just need to deal with the Grand Master
Great Illuminati: I mean does she know that you are about joining this great brotherhood?
Me: No, she doesn’t have a clue.
Great Illuminati: alright
Great Illuminati: And make sure you are active online okay
Me: okay
Great Illuminati: hello
Great Illuminati: how are you doing today??
Me: Sorry, cannot speak right now.
Great Illuminati: so have you discussed with the grand master??
Me: Yes, he will discuss my needs with you.
Great Illuminati: alright
Great Illuminati: so what is going on now
Me: You need to speak to the Grand Master, I have discussed with him
Great Illuminati: is it about the payment?
Me: Yes. I have money here.
Now, I am not actually going to send them the money, I’m just pushing a little to see how far I can get them to go. They are playing on my greed, as I am on theirs;
Great Illuminati: so what prove do you want
Me: I need my bank transfer security code written down. Can you photograph yourself holding it. That way I know I am not talking to a chat bot.
Me: 15UCP3N15
Me: That is the auth code given to me by the bank for the transaction
I’m sorry, the bank code was all that I could think of at the time. I’ve got so much more inspiration now, but so little time.
Great Illuminati: alright
The first picture missed the mark;
A little more prompting got to this point;
Still not quite there, on the third and final attempt, he shoots, and he scores!Our scammer friend announcing to the world that he 5ucs p3n1s.
Job done.
They kept coming back for more, I could have pushed them harder for crazier, funnier stuff, but I simply didn’t have the time, so just blocked them.
I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did.
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