Introduction About Site Map

XML
RSS 2 Feed RSS 2 Feed
Navigation

Main Page | Blog Index

Archive for the ‘Science’ Category

Cruel Policies and Starving Animals to Death (Based on False Reasoning)

Vaxholm, Sweden, April 2018; By Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden - Ringduva, Common wood Pigeon, Columba palumbus EM1B1397, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68145919

I want to explain my position as expressed (or politely, amicably explained) to local authorities.

Animals need water and food, more so in summertime. Especially the water. Water is life, life is water. We bought several stainless steel bowls to nourish the local cats, dogs, birds, and occasionally other animals. We change the water at least once a day to ensure it’s never stagnant. The government and the media actively encourage doing so, more so when there are heatwaves.

In dry places, animals tend to hang out not far from water. It’s an instinctive tendency.

For over a year we had birds in our back yard. This year, to appease thin-skinned people, we moved them to the front, to a public space, an open space with lots of grass and trees.

The queens and kings of Britain have protected wild birds, which they saw as almost equal to humans. The government encouraged people to offer food to birds, e.g. in their back gardens. And because as a society we are governed by rules, not by men, what matters is policy. What it boils down to is the universal rule, so I checked the official .gov sites, just to ensure we feed the birds correctly while complying with whatever it says there.

Over time we reduced the frequency of the feeding (we try to buy them the best seeds available), but not the quantity (once day in large quantities instead of 10-20 times a day in smaller doses), which is fine as long as more people do this. Our neighbours feed them and like them, but there is a resistance from one very malicious couple that does drugs in the back yard, forcing other people to inhale bad stuff for over a decade already. Apparently the birds are “dirty”, but drugs being smoked is not. I recently saw articles about bans on bird-feeding in India (specifically in Mumbai), despite such bans being highly immoral, resulting in actual hunger strikes, albeit mostly by Jains.

We need to resist people who hate and antagonise wild animals, more so knowing that the animals cannot speak to humans (for themselves) and they have feelings too. An act of resistance, wherein you protect the lives of non-human creatures, is nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of.

The pretext that bird-feeding will attract vermin is not supported by any evidence and it also discriminates against some particular animals, who do no harm. If policy changes are to be made, then evidence is needed. While policies remain unchanged it’s not OK to apply any on an ad hoc, improvised basis. When council workers issue contradictory instructions, it then necessarily means somebody is lying.

England and Wales Deaths Rose From 9,867 to 11,241 in Six Years (Very Considerable Weekly Increase)

IT may seem repetitive, but this is still important. It’s also more relevant than ever, even if the media chooses to brush it under the rug.

New ONS data came out this morning (in Microsoft’s proprietary format, as usual). 9,867 England and Wales deaths in Week 13 of 2019 compared to 11,241 in the same week this year.

It’s like this almost every week, including the prior week (12). I check this every Wednesday (for years already).

Is it OK to ask my government what has caused this very sharp increase?

Does it make one a “crank” for asking?

ONS: Increases in UK Deaths Continue Into (Almost) March

I KEPT refreshing this page and a minute ago the data was finally released, at 9:30, as usual for Wednesdays. Before COVID-19 the average number of deaths in Week 7 was 11,301 (England and Wales). Now it’s 12,366. That’s an increase of more than 1,000 (deaths) for this week alone.

2019 Week 6 Deaths in England and Wales: 11,660. Same Week in 2025: Over 13,000.

Last week: In First 5 Weeks of 2025 67,630 People Died in England and Wales Compared to 58,461 in the Same Period in 2019

THIS morning’s new numbers look like this:

Week 6 2025 deaths: Weekly provisional death registrations by sex, age group, Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and place of occurrence, England and Wales

It may not seem like that says very much until one checks pre-COVID-19 numbers for the same timespan. It was 11,660 in 2019 and about the same for prior years (average of 2014-2019).

In First 5 Weeks of 2025 67,630 People Died in England and Wales Compared to 58,461 in the Same Period in 2019

New data out today.

2019

Week 3 and Weeks 1-5 2019 - England and Wales

2025

Week 3 and Weeks 1-5 2025 - England and Wales

Almost 10,000 more deaths in about a month.

Weekly Deaths in England in Wales Increase by About 2,500 (Per Week!) After “New Normal”

IT IS WEDNESDAY again, so there were new mortality figures this morning.

In week 5 of 2019 we had just over 11k deaths in England in Wales.

deaths in England in Wales, week 5 2019

Now, in 2025, in week 5 we had 13,712 deaths. That’s nearly 14k.

deaths in England in Wales, week 5 2025

Last week we saw similar increases.

Week 2 2019: England and Wales 12,609 deaths. Week 2 2025: England and Wales 14,416 deaths.

IT is just what the numbers released yesterday morning say:

Week 2 2025: England and Wales 14,416 deaths.

Compare to 2019 (before COVID-19):

Week 2 2019: England and Wales 12,609 deaths.

So we’re looking at almost 2,000 additional deaths (for a single week)…. more than before.

Maybe it’s over 2,000 if one includes Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Retrieval statistics: 21 queries taking a total of 0.344 seconds • Please report low bandwidth using the feedback form
Original styles created by Ian Main (all acknowledgements) • PHP scripts and styles later modified by Roy Schestowitz • Help yourself to a GPL'd copy
|— Proudly powered by W o r d P r e s s — based on a heavily-hacked version 1.2.1 (Mingus) installation —|