Now we start to see the Covid pandemic and the response in context. A population wide death rate of 0.15% regardless of what measures different countries took.
You are a special person, whose existence is of value to us.
Your interests make you unique.
You can imagine the impossible.
You know what's fair.
You are perceptive.
You are judgemental.
You know your own status.
You are deluded.
Now please get back in line with the other
7,716,499,084 special people. ☺👌
Exams are the best way to determine student's ability. The process is fair to all. A well designed exam should produce results that spread the candidates out over as much points as possible. Groups of students generally conform to the bell curve on ability so it's easy to separate the top and the bottom but more difficult to grade the mass in between.
However with the revision of the Scottish examination system, we have a govornment that has taken the system away from the academics in order to try and push it's social agenda, and how it's viewed in the media and international league tables. For years the Scottish education systen (unlike England) was free of political influence, and the better for it. Covid 19 has shown (as in many other things), the problems with this meddling. The reason there is constantly poor performing schools is less to do with social depravation and more to do with a cohort of poor teachers that simply can't control the class and prevent any real learning. If the govornment want to improve "learning outcomes", give head teachers the freedom to dismiss bad teachers. Instead we have heads hiding poor teachers when the inspectors come visiting. This is why there is an attainment gap. Better off parents hire tutors to teach what should have been learned in class and poorer ones don't.
Or just cave in to media pressure and give pupils all B's, a pat on the head and say well done, there's going to be fuck all jobs anyway"
As the prophecies have fortold One will come with harsh truths and onerous tasks.
I have received a vision of a New Jerusalem, where all believers in the Lord can sing His praise in peace and relative harmony.
the sight of this New Jerusalem will please the Lord and He will reveal Himself to Mankind on that Judgement Day. He will show mercy and kindness to those who strive to fulfill His plan and wrath upon those that arrest and delay those engaged in righteous action.
As the plan was revealed to me, so I will faithfully describe here:
First we must remove those revered buildings and artifacts from the present Jerusalem. Reasonable time must be set aside for a cursory archeological examination of the site once structures have been removed/demolished, but in accordance with the iconoclastic nature of the Lord's plan: a' Grab the best and torch the rest' policy, shall be employed.
The largest task in preparing the present Jerusalem, will be the removal of 1500tonnes of the carved ot 'Rock',the holy of hollies,the Axis Mundi. This most precious monolith must be removed in one piece. A ramp of rubble shall be constructed to transport the stone out of the city with all due ceremony to a safe and suitably auspicious location.
Then with heavy hearts we must evacuate a 30km radius zone around the city in preparation for Armageddon.
Months and weeks before the big day, boreholes will be sunk in and around the city. The position and depth of each will be modelled by our best supercomputer. Each shall be anointed with the appropriate yield of nuclear device for its holy task. Finally galleries under the city will be filled with high silica sand, awaiting its conversion.
The nuclear devices will be removed from weapons dumps under international observers. Operation swords into plowshears.
The final 'Iain M. Banks' memorial explosion will vaporise Zion and the heat of fission will meld the sand into a huge vitrified bowl. Fallout will exist but localised mask wearing and Iodine tablets will mitigate most effects. Bonus for the environment: dust emitted should have a slight global cooling effect overall.
When the dust has settled and the spoil removed to the holy desert, construction will begin at once. Homes for the righteous in all their forms. Boulevards for the pilgrims. Hostels for the weary. Temples for all the faithful, each in their measure. A multicultural resource centre.
And in the centre, the sacred Lake Adam. A vitrified marvel, perfectly circular and at its very centre the Axis Mundi, the Celestial Pole on Earth.
Huge barges shall be constructed. One for the Monolith; one for the new Al-Axa mosque; one for the new temple; one for the Christians and one for the worshippers of Apollo. These barges shall have their itinerary decided by the calender of festivities. Sharing the time spent moored over the celestial pole. Each structure upon the barge shall weigh no more than 1500tonnes.
Upon the shores of the lake to the direct south shall be erected an impressive statue of me, (who else?). The statue will be forged from resistant alloys and cast with such perfection that 20million years of Entropy have been driven from its molecular structure.
The statue's attitude will have its ass facing Mecca, dick towards Rome and a single finger pointing to Heaven.
Upon its visage, a look of scorn and mockery, will look down upon the faithful.
Its base will be buried so deep into the Crust, thatit actually floats on the Æthsenosphere. It will be coated in a new material which absorbs all visible light and emirs only Infrared. On hot days,it will shimmer in its own heat haze, other times merely a forboding shadow. Don't touch it: it burns. Don't stare at it: its eyes emit microwaves, which slowly cook flesh. Its purpose will be revealed.
When this plan has been completed, Humanity will be blessed with peace, prosperity and a global GDP growth rate of 3 to 6%, as per the National Worthiness Scale.
And the Lord shall be pleased.
And so in 12million years,(~30seconds in Cosmic R.E.M. state), our Lord shall awaken and go down to survey Creation.
Amidst the alluviums of concrete and silica, sit eroded agglomerates of metamorphosed bricks. Mudstone cliffs shed fossils of memory devices, all power gone.
But as the Lord walks amidst the wilderness, He treads upon a spike. In pain He looks down to see a shaft topped with a statue of me giving Him the finger. And at that point, the whole of Humanity's true purpose is revealed:
PS: Dare You to do it again, (only my way next time).
Folk say I look like James Dean or Steve McQueen. I see a 49 year old from Glasgow with hair and no fat staring back from the mirror.
If I was a character from Greek myth it would be Kassandra.
I've been head-butted by a flying fish.
I think this thread is getting older as it cycles so refuse to tag.
if you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not. let’s get to know the person behind the blog. (you don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course). hope you’re ok :)
——
:O yeah!!!
1. i carry a kazoo with me everywhere i go
2. i speak arabic
3. my special interest is politics (i have adhd lmao) so please dm/ask me questions
@sailor-sisi @sokka-simp @eijiro-anon @error-loading-sorry @1-800-teddybear @reality-is-often-disappointing @ukais12thkid @annoyinglyseveredefendor @danny-likes-peas
"Young people make up a smaller proportion of the electorate than in 2016"~so by living Saunders is responsible for the aging population now. I can think of a few other septugenarians I would want to see euthenized before we got to Berne,( just to maintain a healthy demographic of course)
“By the middle of the 14th century, feudalism in Europe was losing steam. Population had stopped rising, food costs were higher and famines became more frequent, as was exemplified by the Great Famine of 1315–17. Feudal Europe’s long period of expansion had apparently come to an end, which explains why the impact of the Black Death was so severe; the plague’s effects were conditioned by this socioeconomic environment. What is more, it was only through the Mongolian unification of the Eurasian landmass, and the increasing intersocietal interactions that this facilitated, that allowed the plague to spread to Europe in the first place.”
— Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nişancıoğlu, How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism
I consider a new country based on the two British nations of Scotland and Northern Ireland would be the ideal solution to the inevitable dissolution to the United Kingdom.
If we accept that most European states are largely based on the Late Roman/Early Medieval ethnic groups and the territory they lived in. Despite all the feudal struggle and later ethnic cleansing, these modern democracies reflect genetic groups.
Here in Scotland genetic mapping shows that southern Scotland and Northern Ireland are the same group. More closely related than they are to northern Scotland and southern ireland. If we accept that Scotland is made up of Gaels,Picts, Northumbrians, and Britons ( and the genetics proves it does); then the modern state should reflect that ethnically there is a core group that lives in southern Scotland/northern Ireland with periphery groups in the rest of Scotland. The sectarian decide that has divided both areas is irrelevant. Religion and Surname are poorer indicators of ethnicity than geography and language.
That said they are important. Sense of collective identity is inextricably tied to belief. We tacitly accept the 17th century idea of the one true Protestant Monarch, ordained by God, as the supreme authority to which all other govornment institutions are legitimised. But in a secular Britain, this hierarchy is difficult to maintain, especially when it is seen to monopolise wealth and privilege.
Or to follow the 18th century ideal of a united republican Ireland. A geo-political concept, denying history and ethnicity.
I believe a new union that accepts it's ethnic basis, overlayed with recent migration and geography is the best solution to the "constitutional crisis" that is looming in the UK.
It will force England to accept that it is basically one homogenous ethnic group plus Wales and the South-West. And has been since long before the Norman Conquest.
However any such idea as this would need enthusiastic support from both sides in Northern Ireland and all of Scotland. It would also need the agreement of the UK and Ireland govornments. Going forward I believe it is not only politically expedient but also the fairest long term devising of these isles. It would be compliant with the Good Friday Agreement and force the new Scotland to administer cross border trade with a post brexit UK. I'm sure a Scottish govornment would accept EU oversight of the border as a condition of applying for membership.
This is the true measure by which we should judge the utterances of our politicians.
Use values do not grow at a compound rate. Fundamental human needs like subsistence, protection, freedom, or identity can all be understood as thresholds of sufficiency: enough food to be healthy, enough living space to be happy, enough means of mobility to feel free, etc. The story of endless consumption to match endless needs is a capitalist discourse, created precisely to legitimate accumulation for the elite. And this is the central argument of degrowth: standards of living can improve without growth by redistributing and sharing wealth, doing away with artificial desires and the superfluous goods and appropriation of our time destined to the making of profit, and by shifting from valuing material goods to valuing relations. There is already enough for everyone to have a decent share – if the pie cannot grow, then it is time to share it more evenly.