Blog Archives

Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky

Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument.

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you what life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill." Hong Kong Blog Review

Hong Kong weather

9/5/2020 0 Comments

Heroes

"To be a hero denotes that something is unusual, extraordinary and uncalled for. That would suggest that something has gone wrong." Anonymous NHS medical worker.

We are all heroes of our own story. And, unfortunately, we all engage in comparisons, whether personal or at a broader level. Covid-19 brought this trait into sharp focus with nations involved in a grim game of comparing infection and death numbers. And yes, I'm as guilty as the next person.

Yet, it's baffling to observe the UK engaged in mass 'clapping', the deification of Captain Tom Moore and the ascent of the NHS to 'medical Valhalla'. My sense of unease increased as I witnessed this collective glorification of failure.

Then it struck me. The British are a forgiving and obliging lot, who are being played so that the hard facts slip off the front page. Despite claims to the contrary, 'clapping' does nothing tangible except affirm a herd mentality. Instead of 'clapping' people should be yelling from the rooftop "Where is the PPE? Where is the leadership?".

This 'clapping' business is reminiscent of the manufactured-grief over Prince Diana's death that engulfed the UK in 1997. Of course, if you didn't join in, you earned the label 'heretic". North Koreans would understand.

Granted, signs of solidarity with hard-pressed health workers is commendable, but it's also a useful distraction. At least one doctor is waking up to this charade.

Next up is the formidable Captain Tom Moore. I commend the man. No one can take away from him the fact that he's captured the attention of the nation with his grit. He is a true hero.

Yet, the fact that a 100-year-old man needs to raise money in such circumstances raises questions. Why isn't adequate public funding available?

Then his achievement is hi-jacked by self-serving politicians, who harness it to their agenda to bask in the reflected glory. Likewise, seeking to shift blame to China is a distraction that doesn't help tackle the problem on the ground.

From the Charge of the Light Brigade to Scott of the Antarctic, we Brits flip defeats on their head. We can't help ourselves as we make these stories cherished examples of the British spirit.

Boris Johnson, Britain's Prime Minister, is seeking every opportunity to engage in this sort of gesture politics. The 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe is an ideal fit. Meanwhile, real initiatives to curb the spread of Covid-19 are lacking.

From the outset, the UK was on the wrong track. Blinded by arrogance — and perhaps some belief in British exceptionalism — Johnson opted for the 'herd immunity' model.

This idea came from the experts at Imperial College, London. Instead of watching what was happening in China, Japan and South Korea, and learning, the UK went off on a different approach.

As the UK entered March, it soon became clear that the model was wildly wrong. The boffins had assigned the virus a percentage of patients that need ICU care with ventilators. But, nobody bothered to tell Covid-19.

As the virus spread, the ICU rate proved to be 50 per cent out. Perhaps the UK could have weathered the storm with a fully prepared NHS. But the NHS was far from ready.

Thus, with only 5000 ventilators and death projections moving towards 500,000, Johnson needed to act. By mid-March 'herd immunity' was dropped as Johnson pivoted to the social distancing approach. You know, the sort of thing that worked in China and elsewhere. By then, it was too late.

Only this week did Heathrow Airport put in place temperature checks for passengers. Again, far too late. It was needed in late January, as news of the pandemic emerged.

Besides, the UK's contact tracing, testing and the supply of PPE remains well below par. Germany tested some 20,000 people per day in the second week of March, Britain was testing on average under 2,000.

With over 31,000 deaths by early May, the harsh truth is the UK failed. The system failed, the politicians failed, the NHS planners and the media failed. From the outset I was appalled at the very idea of herd immunity: Doctor William Hanage said it better than me.

None of this takes away from the thousands of medical workers toiling to save patients. But here's the thing. If Hong Kong can get through without a single medical worker infected, what does it say when so many frontline UK medical workers die of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the UK's official death toll from Covid-19 is now the highest in Europe. But it's hard to know for sure whether these statistics are accurate. Experts think it's too soon to say whether the UK has been hit the hardest. It may be years before we have a final reckoning.

What is clear is that the UK lost vital time by adopting the false promise of 'herd immunity'. Moreover, don't forget that Johnson missed five emergency Cobra meetings. Johnson attended his first Cobra meeting on 2nd March when the outbreak had already taken hold.

Plus, he decided in early February to delegate responsibility for tackling Covid-19 to his health secretary. That decision turned what could have been a total-government response into a departmental one for a crucial month.

In short, the captain wasn't on the bridge, and no one took the issue seriously until it was too late. Since then the UK played chase with a virus that doesn't bother about your politics.

Then Johnson's brush with death took the focus off his failures, the shortages and the poor messaging by government. He was taken ill on 27th March.

Britain's ongoing shortage of tests and lack of robust contact tracing means a return to any semblance of normal life could be far slower than other countries.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people are still dying every day, and there are more new infections. Let us hope that hard lessons don't fade in the jingoistic hubris.

0 Comments

4/5/2020 4 Comments

Something Out There? No!

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” Carl Sagan

Last week, the US Navy released three videos of encounters with 'unidentified flying objects'. The tin-foil hat brigade, with too much time on their hands during the Covid-19 lockdown, went into hyperdrive.

This saga has a backstory, much of which the main-stream media are getting wrong.

Let me set the scene. The first video — titled FLIR — records an incident that took place on 14 November 2004 in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California. Two F/A-18 Hornets from the USS Nimitz reported chasing a UFO.

One of the Hornets captured infrared video with its targeting pod. Simultaneously, naval vessels and other military planes in the vicinity reported radar sightings. By some accounts, similar incidents occurred in the following days although no video evidence is available.

The second series of incidents involved the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Atlantic Ocean. These events took place from the summer of 2014 to March 2015 with five F/A-18 Hornet pilots reporting UFOs.

The Navy released two infrared videos of these encounters — GIMBLE and GO FAST. Like the Nimitz incident, radar contacts identified the presence of an object. One of the videos appears to show something travelling at very high speed at sea level.

These videos first emerged to the public domain in December 2017 in a New York Times story featuring Luis Elizondo, a former US Defence staffer. The media alleges that Elizondo 'leaked' the videos.

This untrue statement gives the tale a disquieting edge, suggesting a cover-up. In truth, Elizondo attained proper consent to use the videos. Various branches of the military did not know this, leading to some confusion. Thus, with the Navy's 'official' release in April 2020, the story became a significant event.

Of course, speculation is rife. Why did the Navy decide to make public the footage and confirms its existence? Are we being prepared for an alien encounter or is a Covid-19 distraction exercise underway? Meanwhile, the videos are shoe-horned into every crackpot conspiracy out there. This is often the way these days.

The truth is more prosaic. Could the release be anything to do with the thousands of 'freedom of information' requests they've received? These requests, placed with various agencies, have fed conjecture of a cover-up. Yet, as insiders note, the US military is a massive entity.

So, just because one section has certain evidence doesn't mean the whole institution knows. Accordingly, when replying to FOI requests with "we don't have such footage" the author was mistaken but honest.

The fact that the footage sat idle and unreported elsewhere suggests nothing more than lax procedures.

I reckon the US Navy is fed up with all the fuss and having concluded the videos show nothing unusual, they released them.

The Navy hasn't given out any of the radar or other sensor data that accompanies these incidents. That's no surprise. Such details are sensitive as it gives away information about military capabilities that are secret.

As expected, a great deal of stuff is now buzzing about on the Internet. To some folks, these videos affirm the presence of aliens or beings from another dimension. To others, these sightings are trial runs of drones that will later spread Covid-19.

Then you have pseudo-scientists asserting that the object in the FLIR clip is travelling at 40,000 miles an hour while pulling 60Gs. To them, this is direct evidence of advanced alien technology.

Consider that an F/A-18 Hornet will break up at about 16G, while the pilot dies at approximately 9G. When asked to produce calculations to verify their findings, these 'experts' go silent. I can only surmise because it's nonsense.

The Navy has not stated what it believes is happening the videos. Radar data and other sensors likely provide a full explanation, but again for reasons of secrecy that's not something we are going to get. Thus, the lack of a full account is feeding the frenzy.

Further, not knowing the explanation for the sightings does not mean we can jump to the conclusion its aliens. Such a leap would need a substantial amount of evidence.

So here comes Mick West, who does share his calculations and draws conclusions from the available data. As Mick points out, there are simple explanations for these three events. He debunks the claims made about the FLIR video and in a series of YouTube clips covers the other encounters.

The details, including the maths used to calculate speeds, are all given. The role of the sensor unit on the F/A-18 Hornet is critical, plus an understanding of parallax and trigonometry.

I'm sorry to say and rather glad that ET hasn't arrived nor has a portal opened to another dimension. With all this Covid-19 nonsense, we don't need another conspiracy firestorm.

Not everyone will accept these mundane explanations. All that does is place the ball in their court — show us your evidence.

By the way, if you want to fake your own ET video clip, below is an example using my iPhone and the sensor lights on the back of my watch. A bit of editing, some mood music and ten minutes later, bingo.

4 Comments

YOUR CART

Walter's Blog

Heroes

Something Out There? No!

Author

Archives

Home

Introduction

Contact Walter