Water…..A Footprint…..More Question Marks....
by Bernie Bell - 10:03 on 04 February 2023
Water…..
Next thought prompted by reading ‘The Dark Is Rising’….
“…for moving water would tolerate no magic whether for evil or good, but would wash it away as if it had never been made.”
There’s a philosophical concept that a person can’t step into the same river twice, as the water will have moved on.
When presented with this by a lecturer at Uni, I piped up with “But you can’t step into the same river once, as the river you looked at isn’t the river you’ll step into, as the water has moved on.” To which Mr. Walford replied, more patiently than I deserved…. “I’m coming to that Bernadette” ….looking at me over his spectacles.
It’s so though – moving water can’t be caught. It’s flowing – outside of Time.
Is it ever possible to do exactly the same thing twice? Or once, as the thing you thought of doing, might not be exactly the same as when you do it? The difference being Time – the Time in between. The Time in between Times.
I ramble - Fred elucidates…. http://frederickturnerpoet.com/?page_id=94
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A Footprint…
This is an example of one of the reasons I’m agin’ Twitter - folk don’t present a tale in its entirety – it’s chopped up into little bits. This is a personal preference – but I just wish they’d do a blog and let the story, flow. Anyway - gripe over….I saw this on Robert MacFarlane’s Twitter page…..
https://twitter.com/jm0ses/status/1621100220883902469
It’s a long ‘thread’ but well worth reading for a lot of reasons. The absolute whammy at the end is the footprint in the mud. Thinking of what seeing that meant - thinking of Robinson Crusoe finding a footprint. Thinking of the human footprints found in what was mud, in Norfolk….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26025763
And there are others, in other parts of the world….. https://www.google.com/search?q=Ancient+human+footprints+found+in+mud&sxsrf
I doubt if Jon Moses will ever get to see this, but being a wobbly old person who can’t climb over gates, and who now and then comes across a padlocked or otherwise securely tied gate that blocks what is supposed to be a right of way, I applaud him writing this piece.
This happened on a walk we did recently, where the gate that we used to be able to go through has been tied shut with a very thick piece of some kind of woven material. This meant that access is blocked to some interesting structures, including the Millennium Stone. We looked all around, but couldn’t work out any way that I could get through or past. Mike would have been able to go over the gate - I no longer can do that.
So we walked on the beach instead. But then on the way back I noticed that, for future reference, there is a gap between the gate post and the Kirkyard wall – a small person could get through it – and this small person will do so.
I’m now thinking that the landowner might read this and do something to block the gap – but I doubt that person reading my blog – I very much doubt that person reading my blog . And, if you are doing so – SHAME ON YOU FOR A MEAN-SPIRITED GRINCH!
Here’s the walk I’m talking about - pre tied-up gate…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/10/19/bernie-bell-orkney-walks-south-ronaldsay/
And post tied-up gate… http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16079
And then there was this one, where a wire fence defeated me…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/09/04/orkney-walksthe-south-ronaldsay-east-coast-walk-last-bit-which-went-a-bit-odd/
Jon Moses writes of being brazen – on the walk described above, I was described as being….“Born dugget”. Yup.
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??????....
There isn’t an actual shortage of oil, so why are the prices so high?
I received this from ‘Tax Justice UK’…. https://www.taxjustice.uk/ …..
“Dear Bernie,
Energy giant Shell has posted record profits of £32 billion, the highest in the company’s 115 year history. These obscene profits, double what they posted last year, are largely down to soaring oil and gas prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The profits will boost the bank accounts of Shell’s shareholders – the company handed out £21 billion to shareholders in 2022 – while families across the UK struggle to pay their energy bills.
We need to tax Shell more. Last year we helped push the government to introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas companies. But it didn’t go far enough then and it doesn’t now. The government must increase the rate of the windfall tax and claw back more of these profits. They must close loopholes used by oil and gas companies to reduce the tax they pay.
And, as our friends at the IPPR and Common Wealth think tanks have said, the government should tax shareholder returns at a much greater rate. If you want to support a larger windfall tax on oil and gas companies, you can share our post on Twitter or on Facebook.
Zahawi sacked. Former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi was finally sacked on Sunday over his tax affairs. He was found to have breached the Ministerial Code. This is a victory for tax campaigners. Those in public office must have the highest standards when it comes to their own personal tax affairs.
An ongoing problem is that HMRC is under-resourced. As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, this may have led to them failing to collect billions of pounds of tax owed.
There is a broader problem - many super rich people will use any and all means to avoid paying tax, as I wrote in a comment piece for The Guardian last week. HMRC needs the tools necessary to investigate them.
We will continue to campaign for HMRC to be given more resources, so they can properly enforce our tax laws – and scrutinise the tax affairs of the rich and powerful.
Illicit offshore wealth exposed. Now for some good news. Owners of UK property will no longer be able to hide their identities behind overseas shell companies – long a tactic used to conceal what is estimated to be £100bn of illicit financing flowing through the UK. A new property register forces everyone who owns a UK property through an offshore shell company to come forward and identify themselves publicly. The deadline for registering was Tuesday. Unfortunately up to 13,000 offshore companies failed to meet the deadline. But many did, and thousands of offshore owners have been identified for the first time on the register. This transparency will make it much easier for our tax authorities, journalists and campaigners to track the wealth of the mega rich. The register was established as part of the Economic Crime Act, which we tirelessly campaigned for, alongside our allies. You helped push this over the line, with almost 120,000 signing our petition.
Thank you for supporting our campaigning – together we’re making a real impact.
All the best,
Robert Palmer
Executive Director”
And why are so many groups of workers striking – all together?
https://www.bigissue.com/news/employment/will-there-be-a-general-strike/
And…WHY IS THIS GOVERNMENT STILL IN POWER ???????
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Here’s one I made earlier….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/03/12/paolo-nutini-puts-lead-in-my-pencil/
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