In the news

Slow news day.

I thought Changi was amazing, although I did very little long distance flying.

Last time I waited 8 hours there for my connection. Wears a bit thin after a while. This was with mask on etc during COVID, mind.

A financial services company called Synapse just collapsed in the US, turns out that customer funds were not protected by Federal Deposit Insurance and the customers have lost almost everything.

DOGE advisors are asking Trump if he'll abolish FDIC altogether, which would strip every bank account of protections.

Will Americans roll over and accept being ruined at the whim of the oligarch class?

If you think Liz Truss did a number on the economy, just wait...

On the long distance flight connections, Bangkok is also option.

I've done HK, KL, Singapore, LA, SF, and Seoul.
I'd avoid doing the US again. KL and Seoul were the best experiences.

I've done HK, KL

Steady on…

Perth?

Yeah...I don't get it

Edit:
Ah, got it now.
Don't be shy now

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/dec/12/unprecedented-risk-to-life-on-earth-scientists-call-for-halt-on-mirror-life-microbe-research

I'm registering / trade-marking "Chiral Plague". Make a bit of cash for the end of days.

Might have already been mentioned but I read it as being they were both on separate holidays with their respective parents, they met out there and started a relationship. The 17 year old and her family then came back to the UK and her mam saw texts and stuff so then reported it whilst the 18 year old and his family were still out there which is where things are at now.

^^ wasn't that the plot of Twelve Monkeys?!

That's how I understood it too.

Me three.

fascinating and terrifying in equal measure. At least they're having these conversations before the technology is mature or has progressed to the stage it can be implemented.

Malaysian Airlines don't fly from Brisbane anymore, strange. Looks like my least awful choice is Singapore Airlines so there it is.

I try to avoid them whenever possible as they are off the hook crazy in terms of charges to fly with a bike.

Look at this Dragons Den grifter shithead making £20m a year from his podcast full of fake health 'information'. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gpz163vg2o Ofcom has no jurisdiction over podcasts, so he can broadcast all the lies he wants. He has 8m susbscribers. In 15 health-related podcasts, BBC World Service found each contained an average of 14 harmful health claims. E.g. Covid is an engineered weapon, anti-vaccine conspiraloonery, autism can be reversed with diet, radiotherapy and chemotherapy only improve patients' lifespan by one-to-two months, etc.

When on Dragon's Den he was was one of the charlatans who invested in "Ear Seeds", acupuncture beads placed in the ear which falsely claim to cure chronic fatigue condition myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

I overheard a bit of one of these recently, he wasn't talking much but the guy who was seemed a bit off to me. It had enough legitimacy in my eyes to due to the other guy being vaguely recognisable from the telly that my bullshit meter was just tingling rather than setting off as usual. Probably enough to fool someone less cynical than me.

If you are vaccine conspiraloon that is a major sign that nothing you say is ever valid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg6n6yq6nyo.amp

At least it’s not sex trafficking

I am also curious about what happens with the captagon trade. I've seen mentions that captagon export was Assad's main source of hard currency. Der Spiegel suggested $5.7 bn annually.
The religious fundamentalists might want to make a big show of saying no to drugs, and destroy captagon production. If so, how well prepared are we for a new Syria who will see a corresponding fiscal hole in their economy? We may see the emergence of an urban middle class who sees everything around them falling apart, without really understanding why. These people may not have knowingly been part of the drug trade, but may have been a lot more adjacent to it than they were aware of themselves – I'm thinking money laundering, logistics etc.

EDIT: Perplexity offer sources that suggest $2.4 bn directly to the state coffers anually, and a further $10 bn benefit to the Syrian economy as a whole.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/12/person-hospitalized-in-louisiana-with-bird-flu-health-officials-report/

Interesting that neither Biden has plans for any H5N1 vaccine or the orange man with the child mind anti vaxer.
Here it seems we have learned something from Covid, this wasn’t widely reported:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-secures-h5-influenza-vaccine-to-boost-pandemic-preparedness