Category: in the news

Frustrating, Infuriating, Embarrassing

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The whole situation regarding childhood vaccinations and childhood illnesses continues to worsen. And not just in the USA, where there are obvious reasons for the problems.

Measles is one of the most contagious viruses on the planet, and it’s estimated that the measles vaccine saved around 60 MILLION lives in the first 24 years of this century alone.

But all that is changing: and because measles is so very contagious, it’s changing fast. We had control over this terrible disease which maims and kills young children. No more.

On January 23, 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced six European countries lost their measles elimination status: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan. Canada lost its elimination status late last year. This means measles is no longer a random event in these countries; it’s endemic and freely flowing.

First World Countries! It’s embarrassing.

So millions of lives saved, sure. But equally, millions in danger again now. And it’s just so infuriating, because we have spent so many years on fighting this, so much money, time and effort on trying to make a positive difference, and we actually did it. We were winning.

And then some knobheads wrote some stuff on Facebook and it all started to unravel.

If those knobheads were scientists, microbiologists, vaccinologists, then I’d consider that maybe they had a point. But they’re not. They have no experience of science, experimentation, research or anything like that. Of course, they have their own areas of expertise, but imagine if you went into their place of work and told them that everything that they were doing was wrong, corrupt or dangerous? Imagine if you pretended that you knew more than them about hairdressing or plumbing or bricklaying, even though they’d been doing it for 20+ years, and you’d never even tried it?

They’d rightfully tell you to F off. Yet, for some reason, they’re all experts when it comes to vaccines.

It’s happening locally too. Diphtheria – DIPHTHERIA! – a proper, old school, medieval disease has killed 19 people in the last few months in South Africa. And with a current mortality rate of 21%. That, as the locals say, is pretty hectic, bru.

Yeah. That one really slipped beneath the radar.
It’s completely and utterly preventable. Those people could still be alive. No suffering, no illness, no grieving families. But…

Vaccination gaps appear to be a key driver of vulnerability. Among children aged 12 years and younger who fell ill, several were unvaccinated or had not received booster doses, while others had only completed part of the infant immunisation schedule. The report stresses that protection depends not only on early childhood vaccination but also on booster doses later in life.

The South African healthcare system may have its problems, but access to childhood immunisation really isn’t one of them. You can’t pin this one on them – this is all about the parents making poor decisions based on what they have seen on social media.

How can we stop it? I don’t know.
The lack of trust in the the healthcare systems and industry shows no sign of going away, and the unbridled misinformation spewing forth from social media and the US Government is, if anything, increasing.

At a personal level, get vaccinated. And get your kids vaccinated. There’s no excuse for your kid getting diphtheria: we immunise at 6 weeks old. And in SA, we give our first measles vaccination at 6 months. If your country doesn’t, then given the current situation, it might even be sensible to talk to your doctor and discuss early vaccination.

Choose wisely. Make sensibly informed decisions.

Doctors spend several years of their lives learning how best to look after your health. Amazingly, despite your alleged innate knowledge of your own body, they do know what’s best for you. The do have the expertise and the knowledge to make good decisions for your well-being.

The car mechanic up the road might be great with engines, but honestly, he knows fuck all about the benefits of vaccinations. Don’t believe what he says, unless it’s about spark plugs.

Oh – and if I didn’t mention it enough earlier – get vaccinated. And get your kids vaccinated.

A fire in Hout Bay – but why?

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A fire, indeed. And I should know, because I was there, watching the horseriding and watching the helicopters picking up water from the dam up the road and dumping it all over the fire in question.

There seem to have been more fires than usual in this fire season, but I’m not sure if that’s actually the case or if because some people are suggesting that might the case, we’re all now more aware and the numbers are being blown out of all proportion. The News Phenomenon, as it’s apparently known.

It has been very dry, but dryness alone isn’t enough to start a fire. So what is the actual cause of all these blazes? I wasn’t sure, so I turned to a social media comments section for incisive opinion and accurate information. As you do.

And here’s what I found:

The helicopter was passing by in paarl than the chopper turn around ,the helicopter was like high in the sky than i whats it the hole time

Quite reasonably, I almost gave up at this point, but my readers need answers, and so I persevered.

And here’s what I found:

As far as responsibility for this Hout Bay fire goes, the jury was split. Very split.
There were many suggestions:
Arson.
Arsen.
Schoolkids.
Self-inflicted.
Various political parties: MK, DA, EFF, ANC all got honourable mentions.
Donald Trump.
Terrorism.
“The Fire Lily industry.” – Fire lilies in this case are flowers that bloom after veldfires (and only after veldfires). But there is no Fire Lily industry. Yet. Still, I love the thought that has gone into this one.

There were a few calls for the death penalty to be introduced for arson. Which seems a bit harsh.
And there were lots of people praying for a swift resolution to the fires, but no-one actually blaming god for them happening in the first place.

But this a social media comments section, so anything goes.

Because then there were the loonies:
“Manufactured fires used as a weapon to poison the population.”
Zionists.
Electric cars.

And then there was the Queen Loony, Lorna Cayton, who gave us these gems:
Nexrad HAARP
DEWS!
But then during the COVID years, Lorna Cayton told us that wearing a mask was a Pagan ritual, and the use of forehead thermometers was a means of shooting an infra-red beam into your pineal gland.

So maybe it wasn’t Nexrad HAARP or the DEWS! after all.

Who knew?

Some people appear lucky to have avoided this particular incident. “Doglady Minky” said:

So so sad for all the lives affected, animals and humans?

i almost moved into a beautiful thatched house in that area and my biggest concern was the safety of my animals ?

And it’s not like we’re out of the fire season yet: as one commenter remarked:

More.fires..shame.man..now homes being damaged very badly.

Will this 2026 Fire Season running all the way into April this Year X 4 ? ? ? ?

XXXXX ?? ?? ?? ?? ??

11 : 11 Love 11 : 11

Which I think asks the important question we’re all introspectively asking: Will this 2026 Fire Season running all the way into April this Year X 4 ? ? ? ?

I guess that we can only wait and see.

Oh no. We’re all going to die. /s

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We’ve been here before.

This time last year, in fact, when the Doomsday Clock was set at 89 seconds to midnight.

Well, now it’s set at 85 seconds to midnight. 4 seconds closer to oblivion. Oh no.

And look, I get it. The world is in an absolutely terrible state. And I’d definitely argue that it’s worse than it was this time last year. But 4 seconds worse?

Yawn.

Yep. I said it last year, and I’m saying it again now:

Look, I get that in a day with 86,400 seconds, being just 89 from complete destruction isn’t a great place to be. But then also, looking at things another way, we started just 420 seconds away from annihilation back in 1947, and we’ve only ever been 17 minutes away at our very safest.

See, they’ve gone in all too dramatic, and now they have no wiggle room at all.

OK, so they moved four seconds this year, and not one. But even at that rate, we’ve got decades before we all go up in a big puff of smoke and radiation.

Once again, I am calling for a reset of the Doomsday Clock. Think of it like decimalisation hitting the UK in 1971, or the introduction of the Euro in 1999 (and 2002). Because at the moment, the Doomsday Clock is pointless. The constant attempts to drag the time down as low as possible for dramatic purposes means that it not longer has any value.

They messed up when they started. They should have given us an hour or two to work with, but they didn’t. And so we need to start again at quarter to midnight (or even earlier) and we need to get the Prima Donnas off the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Committee so that we can have meaningful annual updates which might actually bang some heads together and make some difference.

No-one cares about ninety or eighty-nine or eighty-five seconds. Give them some decent numbers that we can then drastically reduce when Trump tries to take Greenland.

Assuming that we’re all still around next year to review it again, of course.

Who needs enemies?

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When you have “friends” like America?

The Danish government has ordered public officials across Greenland and Denmark to deactivate Bluetooth on both professional and personal devices, citing increasing concerns about foreign surveillance capabilities. The move affects civil servants, police officers, and military personnel operating in national and territorial institutions.

Though the Danish government did not link its Bluetooth directive to Trump’s statement, the timing has drawn attention. Greenland’s geographic position makes it critical for NATO operations and Arctic resource planning, adding strategic pressure to protect communications infrastructure within Danish jurisdiction.

I’m going to be honest here, I didn’t realise that Bluetooth – ironically named after a Danish King who united the many tribes of the country during his reign – was that hackable. The only issues that I’ve ever (knowingly) had, was a bit of annoying interference on the way to my Sony speaker.

But apparently, it’s a thing:

A related article from Radar.dk points to a security flaw involving Fast Pair, a proprietary feature developed by Google that streamlines Bluetooth device pairing. Unlike standard Bluetooth protocols, Fast Pair establishes connections with minimal user interaction, which has raised concern about silent pairing and unauthorized device access.

One comment cited in Radar.dk describes how certain devices can be turned into covert listening tools. Specifically, a vulnerability in the Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK was identified as allowing Bluetooth audio devices to pair without user approval. These exploits highlight a broader risk: even inactive or unpaired devices can be accessed if firmware is outdated or unsecured.

We must presume that the Danish authorities knew about this potential vulnerability before this last week. And it’s interesting that until the whole Greenland thing came up, they apparently had no issue with anyone potentially listening in on their state workers. Because there was probably very little of interest being said. As I pointed out when the whole Covid “passport” thing was suggested: Don’t try to fool yourself: you’re simply not important enough for the government (or anyone else) to be interested in you.

But apart from that, this also suggests that the Danish authorities are therefore now talking – sensitively – about the threat that America poses. Otherwise, why would they have any issue with the Yanks listening in?

But will it really make any difference anyway?

The Bluetooth ban has also reignited scrutiny of European dependence on U.S.-made technology. Though Denmark has not commented on specific hardware or software vendors, public reactions on Radar.dk questioned why national agencies continue to rely heavily on platforms developed by Apple, Google, and other non-EU companies.

And they all run their servers and devices on Chinese-based electronics. And so the circle goes. So maybe it’s all completely pointless and everyone should be playing open handed here. After all, it does seem that everyone already has the means to know what everyone else is saying and doing.

Airpods or not.

Let’s not forget…

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All the calls for Canada as the 51st State, the actions of the state-sponsored militias running around Minnesota (and beyond), the rambling speech mixing up Greenland and Iceland, and the persisting sabre-rattling about the alleged necessity of the annexation of the former “for security reasons“, are merely a smokescreen to try to make us forget about… well…

…you know what.

And since we’re on that subject, let me remind you of an old Russian joke that seems to have resurfaced recently.
I can’t imagine why.

Every morning, a guy stops at the same newsagent and picks up the newspaper, looks at the front page, and then puts the paper back down without buying it.

One day the vendor asks what he’s doing.

The man tells him that he’s looking for an obituary.

The vendor says “Those are at the back of the paper, Comrade.”

The man replies, “Not the one I’m looking for.”

It’s really just who goes first: him or the planet.