Robt Fenwick Elliott

Someone called @archer_rs has posted some pro-EU invective. I pointed out that time after time we see bare insults from the Remain side and reasoned arguments from the Brexit side. The response of @archer_rs has been to block me! No great loss to me. But QED for my point.

The people on the alarmist side of the climate thing have been telling us that the world will have passed a "tipping point" if the global average gets to 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial level. Well, we are pretty much there now. So we are irredeemably stuffed according to this narrative: no use worrying about it any more. The people on the sceptical side say it is all a load of rot: recent rises are natural and neither unusual nor dangerous. Thus we have agreement here. No point in any more "climate action". So why are 100,000 people now assembling in Turkey at taxpayers' expense to talk about climate change? Just to have a good time?

Ruinous treason. And blatant regard of the referendum result. Will there is anything worthwhile left of Britain by the time Burnham is removed from power?

I had a procedure yesterday - twilight sedation. Since then, massive hay fever. Sneezing. Nose running like a tap. Eyes watering. It is spring here in Australia. But even so! Is this a thing?

Casebus are now blackmailing me! The Casebus Bryce case for my new Samsung S25 FE phone was advertised as leather. I paid on line, using PayPal. When it arrived, it turned out to be plastic. Unsurprising I complained, and reported them to PayPal. Casebus now say: "We discovered that you opened a PayPal dispute. Since you opened the PayPal dispute, your order amount has been frozen. We cannot perform after-sales service for your order on the system. Please contact us after you withdraw the customer complaint." The Chinese way of doing business?

Looks like trouble ahead in the Un-eye-stays? The Democrats will presumably try to impeach Trump, now they have both houses. And block everything he does. And Trump will presumably veto everything he can - the Democrats will not have two-thirds in both houses for an override. So political chaos for 2 years?

Casebus is rubbish. They sold me a phone case, advertised as leather. In reality, it is a not leather, but a rather nasty plastic. They have offered a refund, but only if I pay for tracked shipping back to China. Not a sheep station. But I do not see why I should be out of pocket at all. They also lied on their customs declaration, falsely asserting the value was $1. It was actually $63.99. PayPal say that they have refunded me the purchase price for now, but also seem to think I should pay for the return shipping. Is this their policy?

Brilliant. I try to play Bach on the guitar. Not very well It is great to hear it like this.

Christianity is the only religion, at any rate if you conceive of religion as a set of beliefs about a God, or Gods, which co-exists with other secular notions of how to behave. It goes right back. Jesus said “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”[1] That was new. And remains unique. Other systems have said “Render everything to us. Everything”. Religious tolerance has had its ups and down in Christendom, of course, but the prevailing view, on the whole, has been... phenell.wordpress.com/2026/1…

What a pertinent post. A bit more detail: Saint Pierre and Miquelon is around 15 miles from Canada and has a population of approximately 5,700 people. It has been French since 1814. The Falklands Islands are some 300 miles from Argentina, with a rather smaller population. They have been British since 1765. Saint Pierre and Miquelon causes Canada no grief. Canada has not sought to invade, or to ruin the lives of the inhabitants. Neither do the Falkland Islands give Argentina any cause for grief. So what is Argentina’s problem? Is it just that Canadians are more chilled out than Argentinians?

Is the government my friend or my foe? Once, I would have said my friend. Of course. But now? It takes my money, every time I move. It prevents me from doing what I want to do. It restricts my freedom of speech. It uses my money to do things I think are wrong. It has killed my friends with mRNA shots. It doses my bread with folic acid, which might well cause me to die of cancer (bad) instead of old age (good). And this is just Australia. So much worse in Britain.

I dislike Halloween quite a bit. Naff. American. Encourages blackmail. Imports tons of Chinese crap. Ugh! Give me bonfire night. Much better.

I have quite a big question about AI. So far, if you ask a contentious question of AI using one of the web-based search tools, you’ll get a pretty anodyne answer, not dissimilar from what you would get from looking at Wikipedia, reflecting received wisdom. But we know from history that received wisdom is often wrong. And there are numerous things which, I would say, are clearly wrong about received wisdom today. For example, the official lines that: - we are experiencing global warming as a result of the burning of fossil fuels, which we can fix by policies such as net zero; - Covid mRNA shots are effective and safe; - there is no difference in cognitive characteristics and abilities between different races, or even between the two sexes, such that differences in outcome are all caused by prejudice; - folic acid is the same as folate, and is a beneficial fortification of flour and bread; - there are quite a few others. We also note that AI is getting smarter and smarter, and it is predictable that before too long, the answers that we get from asking questions of these search tools will not be the received wisdom (readily disprovable by the application of raw dispassionate logic to the evidence) but the truth. The blob is not going to like that. So what will they do about it? Quite likely, they will try to prevent ordinary people from accessing AI. Fine or even ban any companies whose AI services provide the “wrong” answers. These things will not be easy to do. An interesting time ahead, I rather think.

Angela Rayner says "Jewish life is British life". What bollocks. Jews cause few problem in Britain and so are welcome. But to say that their culture is British culture is daft. Not as daft as saying that Islamic culture is British culture. But still. FFS! Politicians should stop disrespecting British culture.

I ordered a case for my new phone. Casebus sell one that fits. "Premium leather" it said. It arrived. Not leather at all! It is plastic! And cheap-looking plastic at that. On the plus side, PayPal are refunding my money straight away. Casebus is Chinese company. They sent the phone cover from China in a pack that says "Leather" with a declared value of $1. So: 2 lies there is just one label. Their review page is full of praise. Hmm? Are people who ordered a leather case really happy with a plastic case? Improbable,.

Batteries and AI are all very well. But when (with the help of AI?) are we going to work out how birds can store the energy to fly thousands of miles? And how huskies can pull sleds in sub-zero temperatures? If we can understand, replicate and enhance these mechanisms, maybe we can make batteries look not much better than steam engines?

Why I am not surprised to learn that Bill Gates is funding the worldwide push to adulterate flour with folic acid? Folic acid is a dangerous chemical, particularly for those who are or may be at risk of cancer. Unhappily, Gates succeeded getting folic acid mandated into almost all Australian bread and flour a while ago. But there is an exception for organic flour, so I use that and make my own bread.

Thoughts on riots: phenell.wordpress.com/2026/1…