It's Time To Look After Yourself

I wonder if....

It is difficult to understand just how morally bankrupt the world has become. Some may blame "the internet" but that's just stupid. It's users that are dangerous and or manipulative. When a mail arrives from "Kidnapping" and a headline of "Your wife looks easy" it is already threatening.

Read the mail below but be aware that it's an advert, not a demand. It's racist and ironic (you'll see why as you read it).

You have almost certainly not have heard of this case, in which judgment was handed down on 10th January while the world's media was in a sordid frenzy over a relatively minor case in New York.

It needs a hashtag so let's use #themtoo.

A case in the English High Court follows on from the conviction of a man for the persistent sexual abuse of boys over whom he had influence for a period of years.

While the world's press fascinated itself, and therefore the world, with a handful of late teenage girls and the rich and famous, this case slipped beneath the radar.

A joint investigation by Four Corners, the flagship investigative series by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and newspapers The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald uncovered widespread allegations of medical malpractice against Dr Daniel Lanzer, a "celebrity" plastic surgeon.

Ben Geldenhuys' personal and powerful contribution to the vaccination debate that goes beyond the immediate question of CoVid-19.

We recently reported on Interpol's interception of fake CoVid-19 vaccines (here ). It was not the first: Brazil had identified, some weeks earlier, fake Sputnik vaccines. But this is just one aspect to a problem that is undermining both vaccination schemes and, therefore, public health but also undermining the possibility of "vaccination passports."

We all moan that we are having a bad day, that we need something ranging from coffee to a punch-bag, make hopeful statements that the universe (or whatever) will make tomorrow a better day.

Sometimes we tell ourselves, or each other, to pull our socks up and get on with making something good happen, even though we know, in our heart of hearts that we are deluding ourselves and that, in truth, there are times when we have no control over the present and no influence over the future.

Sometimes, there are no better days.

2 October 2020
Press release: Verbatim
RE: Beware of ‘Quick-and-Easy’ Money-Making Ventures

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority(“CIMA”) cautions the public about entering into investment ventures that promote ‘quick-and-easy’ money, as they can easily become subjects of fraudulent schemes that can result insubstantial financial loss.

As the UK finds that opening its pubs might lift the spirits of the people, their ability to contain themselves when consuming spirits or other alcohol risks further outbreaks. The same was found in California last week. Some pubs that were open for two or three days are closed again as people report contagion within hours of their visit. Here are figures published yesterday by the WHO that show that it is important to be responsible for your own safety and that of others while out socialising - or else there's the risk of a terminal decline in the businesses where recreational drinking is available.

In short, so far as responsible behaviour is concerned, put up or pub shut.

In the case of R (on the application of Walsh) v Secretary of State for Justice, a convicted sex offender applied for review of a decision to move him from one in-community supervised residence to another. He argued that, inter alia, since being released from prison and into such residence, he had formed a stable relationship which such a move would disrupt. He argued that this would breach his rights under Article 8 of the EU Convention on Human Rights.

There's a question mark over the sense of allowing tv advertising and - worse - actual gambling on TV. In the UK, it all goes back to Labour's Gordon Brown who decided that the UK's economy would be served by a massive relaxation of the laws on gambling, especially casinos. Suddenly, gambling was cool - after all "Cool Britannia" was Noo Labour's central policy, chummy first names and all.

The end result was an explosion of gambling of many kinds. And that meant competition in an expanding market. Late night, drunk or sexually frustrated TV watchers were offered a choice - soft (sometimes not so soft) porn, often masquerading as documentaries - and games in which telephone customers bet on televised casino games - or phoned a woman who appeared on their screen, her g-string being her...

This is a fake account. And the creator is a phisherman or other fraudster.

In this page from the on-line resource "Don't be a victim: the Young Person's Guide to the Risks of Financial Crime," the financial crime risks facing everyone, young, old and that huge bit in the middle, arising from the Coronavirus and CoVid-19 pandemic are explained clearly.

There's no point in discussing this at length. A spam arrived. It's spreading fear and it's a fraud.

The British Medical Journal is the official publication - and mouthpiece - of the British Medical Association. As the CoVid-19 problem moves from epidemic to official pandemic according to the World Health Organisation, official advice is often drowned out by misinformation on social media. It's made worse by the fact that the problem has also become an opportunity for criminals - only this morning we received a spam claiming to advertise the only face-mask that offers protection against the virus. So, in this, the first of what will be a series of items on those parts of the authoritative news that doesn't reach the attention threshold of the superficial media, we look at what the BMA/BMJ says about beards in the healthcare sector.