Urtica Ferox

How Mind Control of the Masses Works According to Computing Forever : Television channel ITV briefly went off air to encourage people in the UK to take part in the weekly clap for the NHS event. Yes really. “No TV allowed during worship”, remarked a Twitter user, who took a photo of the message, which said, “We’ll be back soon − #ClapForCarers”. What is it to have freedom, to act freely, in a free society? North Koreans freely clapping. British citizens freely clapping. Think about it.

Wild Drug Lord Hippos Roam Free in Colombia I do apologise. I hate click bait, but that headline was irresistible. So: Colombia, in South America, has its own population of wild hippos, thousands of kilometres from their native  range in Africa. The hippo invasion can be traced straight back to the cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. As reported by DW.com: "At the height of Escobar's criminal heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, the drug lord built a zoo on his vast Hacienda Napoles ranch between Medellin and Bogota. When he was finally killed by government forces in 1993, the ranch was left to ruin." "Other exotic species from the private menagerie, such as zebras, were moved to international and Colombian zoos, but zoos were unwilling or unable to give massive, aggressive hippos a home." "With no one knowing quite what to do with them, the semi-aquatic giants have flourished and multiplied and now number between 65 and 80, according the local

You Know Something's Wrong When a Teenager is Threatened with Imprisonment for Talking about Climate Change When Naomi Seibt first appeared above the media horizon a year ago I have to admit my heart sank. She seemed to be saying some very sensible things about climate change and climate alarmism, and her "conversion" to scepticism after exploring the topic was interesting,  but I thought, "Is this what it takes to combat Greta Thunberg? A young woman (she is now only 19) taking an opposing stance? Is that the only thing the world will take notice of?" Well, the world has taken notice, and has roused the intense ire of many, including Wikipedia, long known to be ardently alarmist. Its entry begins " Naomi Seibt (born 18 August 2000) is a German climate change denier ". You can't get much more brutal than that. Wikipedia notes that the  Guardian  has accused her of being influenced by alt-right, white nationalist Stefan Molyneux, and says tha

What a Surprise: YouTube Found an Excuse to Take Down Planet of the Humans According to James Delingpole: "Finally, YouTube has found the flimsy pretext it needed to cancel the controversial Michael Moore-produced eco-documentary which has been infuriating greenies with its anti-renewables message: ‘copyright infringement’." "Planet of the Humans , the documentary executive-produced by Moore and written and directed by his friend Jeff Gibbs has racked up over 8 million views on YouTube since its launch last month."  Read more.

Cause and Effect: Covid-19 or the Response to Covid-19? I read the Otago Daily Times , not because I live in Otago, or because it is a particularly good or insightful newspaper, but because it is not owned by Fairfax Media, who dominate the New Zealand news landscape in a way that is more reminiscent of authoritarian theocracies than a Western liberal democracy. Here is a selection of excerpts from recent stories. See if you can detect a pattern. 15 May: Coronavirus has taken a toll on Michael Hill International which said this morning it was closing nine stores, of which three are in New Zealand. 17 May : Hospitality chain the Good Group − owners of upmarket Queenstown restaurants such as Botswana Butchery and White & Wong's − has made half of its more than 300 staff redundant amid the Covid-19 crisis …. Good Group says the pandemic has decimated its business, and it kept as many staffers as it could. 18 May : Furniture and electronics retailer Smiths

Is it Better to Suppress Misinformation or Publicly Critique it? The best way to foster a conspiracy theory is for the authorities to try to suppress it. This has long been well known. Take UFOs. Even the Pentagon seems to have grown tired of the whole thing. In April they released videos , taken by naval aviators, of unidentified flying objects in order to “clear up misconceptions”. There’s nothing like turning the light on to dispel fears or suspicions about whatever it was that went bump in the night. But in the 21 st century social media platforms have meant that a bizarre range of conspiracy theories and misinformation take on a life of their own. Should they be allowed to fester and spread? It doesn’t seem practical to address them all publicly, and whose responsibility would that be? A government body? The Ministry of Misinformation? Please no. And, let’s face it, not all theories and misinformation could be addressed adequately, because they spawn too fast,

Who Gets to Control How the World Thinks? Carl Benjamin, who began his online life with the gamer name Sargon of Akkad and then got stuck with it, has a YouTube channel called Akkad Daily . He produces daily YouTube videos on a range of topics, which tend to focus on British political and cultural life but have a common theme of being anti-woke, anti-social justice warrior, and anti-feminist. He has been particularly strident in decrying the cover-up of the Muslim grooming gangs scandal, but has also launched into the more aggressive aspects of the transgender lobby, and has a particular dislike of the Communist regime in China. I have watched quite a number of his videos, and while I don’t agree with everything he says, and sometimes his thoughts about what women think are truly wince-inducing, he is still a welcome and refreshing antidote to major left-wing media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian and the New York Times . A bit of balance, one might say, to the

The Darker Side of Saint Jacinda She has saved us, has she not? Tens of thousands of people who might have died horribly in hospital from Covid-19, gasping and choking, are living happy, fulfilled lives. Acting like a kind but firm teacher, Jacinda Ardern has shepherded us and scolded us and praised us and kept us in after school for our own good. And most New Zealanders – especially those not losing their jobs and businesses and remaining on full pay by having a government-funded job, like school teachers – love her for it. Oh the economy will sort itself out, they say. We’ll just have to pull our belts in a bit. The pandemic might even be a blessing in disguise, showing us how to have a low-carbon economy. The image is of madonna with child. It is no coincidence that she is adored for having a child while running a country, with a smiling, attentive partner in the background. She cared so much that every death (all 21 of them) from Covid-19 was “a tragedy”, as her const

Climate Alarmism and the Chinese Government: Is the Pope Backing the Wrong Horses?  It would be understandable if Pope Francis wanted to have the Catholic Church associated in people’s minds with issues other than paedophilia, but one wonders whether he has selected the best ones. He has tended towards the political left and populism, so it should come as no surprise that he is something of a climate alarmist. For example, according to the United Nations Climate Change website , on 14 June 2015 he called on the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics to join the fight against climate change. In a papal encyclical letter, Pope Francis declared that the science of climate change is clear and that the Catholic Church views climate change as a moral issue that must be addressed in order to protect the Earth and everyone on it. He felt this was necessary to “lift the planet’s most vulnerable populations, protect development, and spur responsible growth”. This sounds like climate ala

Did Obama Sabotage the Trump Administration? For those following the Obamagate scandal as it unfolds it may all seem confusing. Akkad Daily does an excellent job of carefully documenting and explaining what went on, and concludes that: 1. It appears Obama tried to sabotage the Trump administration as it came into office. 2. The Russiagate conspiracy theory was known to be false and promoted anyway. 3. The FBI appeared to desire to stop Trump from becoming president. 4. Trump was right about: spying Flynn Comey the Russiagate witch hunt the FBI's partisanship. Of course it goes without saying that the bulk of the media promoted the conspiracy theory, and helped fuel the fires that have meant that many in the left have refused to accept that Donald Trump is the legal, democratically elected president of the United States of America. For them he has always been the president that got in by colluding with Russia and is always on the verge of impeachment for one

School Kids Striking for Climate Justice? Really? Now? " As schools prepare to reopen on Monday, pupils across Otago and Southland are gearing up to go on strike again." " School Strike 4 Climate Dunedin co-ordinator and Kavanagh College pupil Hailey Xavier said pupils across the southern region would “stand united for the climate” once again during the School Strike 4 Climate New Zealand (SS4C) event tomorrow [15 May]." "Participants will write messages and draw pictures of clean rivers, flourishing native forests, and thousands of wind turbines among other environmentally friendly images." Otago and Southland are prone to hoar frosts, like the one shown above. What good are your thousands of wind turbines going to be then, kids? You'll be freezing as you sit around the breakfast table while your parents discuss the lack of money caused by Covid-19 and the expensive, unsustainable conversion to green energy. You'd be better off sittin

If You are in Despair, Facts about Covid-19 That Will Calm You Down I have mentioned it before, but I think this source bears rementioning. Swiss Propaganda Research (SPR) advertises itself as "an independent non-profit research group investigating geopolitical propaganda in Swiss and international media. SPR is run by independent academics and receives no external funding."  It produces regular updates of "fully referenced facts about Covid-19, provided by experts in the field, to help our readers make a realistic risk assessment." I have followed some of the links they provide and the sources seem to be extremely solid. So if you are in despair about Covid-19 itself, as opposed to the economic disasters being created by governments, its updates are well worth reading. In fact they are so reassuring you may find them difficult to believe after the constant media hysteria of the past months. For example: According to data from the best-studied countries a

Robotic Surveillance in Singapore:  Be Careful What You Agree to During Covid The Straits Times of Singapore reports that A four-legged robot will be patrolling Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park to remind people of  safe distancing measures  starting from Friday (May 8). Called Spot, the robot will assist with safe distancing efforts at parks, gardens and nature reserves managed by National Parks Board (NParks) and at parks managed by town councils. Sound cute? Useful? Maybe even essential for your own city? It is none of these things. It is the line in the sand in terms of surveillance. The last thing we need is robots clunking around, instructing and monitoring us, justified by the pandemic, when there are already passive CCTV cameras watching what most of us do. Speaking of cameras, “Spot” is fitted with cameras to "help it estimate the number of visitors in the parks.” The writer of the article assures us that “The cameras … will not be able to track or recognise specific

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen  Life must have seemed pretty good for Neil Ferguson a month ago. He is described by Wikipedia, as  "OBE,  professor of mathematical biology , director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA), head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Vice-Dean for Academic Development in the Faculty of Medicine , all at Imperial College, London". And then a pandemic comes along and he produces a model that sways the British Government and heavily influences the way in which countries institute their lockdowns. How could life be better? Fast forward to May and he is embroiled in a salacious scandal involving an affair with a married woman during the very lockdown he helped to create. Oh well, the world-weary might sigh, the elite have always lived according to different rules. He is a brilliant man, who saved the world. Why not allow him a little leeway? But the

As if a Pandemic Wasn't Bad Enough, Extinction Rebellion Wants to Destroy the Economy Directly "Extinction Rebellion wants activists to stage rent strikes, halt tax payments and take out bank loans they never intend to repay in protest at an economic system they claim is fuelling a climate catastrophe." "Internal documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday set out plans for a ‘Money Rebellion’ involving acts of financial sabotage to ‘directly challenge the fundamental principles that govern our national and global economies’." Read more.

When Does Understanding Another Person's Moral System Become Stockholm Syndrome?     [This article, by Dr Ray Prebble, follows directly on from “On Being a Garbled Relativist”, republished at Urtica Ferox on 18 March 2020. It is adapted from a chapter in Ray’s forthcoming book, A Guide for the Modern Thinker: Meditations on the Universe and the Plight of Humanity . To a large extent it is self-contained, but readers will get more from it by reading “On Being a Garbled Relativist” first.] I know from experience that if you are unfamiliar with the discussion in this area, the concept of cultural relativism and the arguments against it can take a while to sink in. So let’s step back and take stock. Cultural relativism is based on the idea that, as a matter of fact, cultures differ in their moral views. That is its strength. Having said this, no moral conclusions can be drawn about how different cultures with different moral systems ought to treat each other. That is