User talk:NSH001/Archive 6

Sorry Neil but
I can't seem to get this somewhat exhausted head round the problem of 'Löwenthal also notes the variants 'Sinew-plucking Huihui' which should be in a footnote not intext. Buy the whey, I hope all the serious ops have got you back at least to walking fitness. Best Nishidani (talk) 12:44, 13 July 2022 (UTC)


 * OK, fixed as requested. Ma wee gurl fixed yer no-target error without needing to be told (she really is amazingly clever), but – stroppy girl that she is – she did refuse to start work until I'd fixed both the unbalanced bracket pairs and unbalanced brace pairs.


 * Unfortunately the neocon nutters are continuing to get their evil way, and I still haven't been offered a date yet for my Holep operation. This is the first time I've ever been inconvenienced by a long wait for an NHS operation. Very frustrating, since I'm fit enough for both running and walking, but exercise causes the catheter to move in and out, which is unhygenic and can lead to a bladder infection and cause soreness around the meatus. So I generally limit walking to no more than 20-30 mins, which is not enough for general health. But I did get my urine tested a few days ago, which showed no infection, so that's one good thing. --NSH001 (talk) 16:54, 13 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, pal. Well looks like they're on target to achieve the goal of making everyone's life depend on their ability to pay for it. Even in Italy where the right to free health care is inscribed into the constitution, there are long term attempts to slowly wind it down by creating long waiting lists so that you are tempted to pay a private clinic to do an operation, but this only applies if it is non-vital. My wife received splendidly efficient treatment for her cancer, which of course only meant a deep psychological comfort from the sense she was being given the best care possible: her particular 'brand' was almost unique, with only one known case in the rest of Europe, in Paris. Don't let impatience get to you. Eluard wrote of 'le dur désir de durer', not advice I'd give to myself, but certainly to friends like yourself and our dear Doug Weller. Best Nishidani (talk) 20:12, 13 July 2022 (UTC)
 * It's heartbreaking watching someone close to you slowly dying from cancer. I experienced that in my 20s, which were overshadowed by my mother's cancer, so I think I can understand what you've been through. On the topic of the hospital, there are some positives, most notably the nurses. It's obvious they love their job, and they sometimes say so; they are also quick, caring and efficient at their work. They aren't doing the job for the money, they're doing it out of love for other people, and it shows (this doesn't seem to apply for the (rare) male nurses, though). The memory of one particular nurse stands out from my last op: she was a Registered Nursing Assistant, the lowest grade there is in the nursing hierarchy. I doubt she had even a single GCSE to her name. But she had a huge heart, full of love, and was a natural at handling "difficult" patients, whether the difficulty was their medical condition or their behaviour. A huge asset to have in any ward. The motivation of the doctors is not so clear. The main one seems to be gaining status and respect, and eventually a large salary; there is also a desire to help other people, but not to the same extent as for nurses. Just my impression. The other positive is that the hospital is very well equipped with all the latest and most expensive medical technology. This might seem to be a paradox, given the neocons' relentless squeeze on the NHS budget. Not so: their plan is that the hospitals are going to be handed for free to the private sector (in practice, that means rapacious large American corporations), who will then charge the State for their services as if they'd funded it themselves. A blatant example of economic rent, typical of the neocons. Michael Hudson is very good at exposing this sort of corruption. The same corruption that causes the US health system to deliver worse results at roughly twice the cost of the NHS. --NSH001 (talk) 12:48, 14 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes. I'm a longterm reader of Hudson's, but the use of public tax money to subsidize the rich, and, increasingly deflect state resources from everyone else, is a pattern with deep historic roots, As you will have read today, the US is proposing to fund 5 corporations which declared last year profits of $ 70 billion with a $50 billion incentive to rebuilt the US microchip industry, which they themselves dismantled (my library has several books which diagnosed this during the US-Japanese trade conflict in the 1980s. The technical analyses that were spot-on, back then, were dismissed as fringe by the fideistic 'free(bie) marketeers', are now being dusted off as 'prophetic'. Of course, Russia under Elstin and Putin adopted the same strategy: privatizing Russia's massive state assets, and leaving the rest of the population to scramble for the crumbs from the oligarchy's kleptocratic table. It is amazingly Pythonesque, weird, eerie, bizarre, that what is obvious is not grasped. You're quite right about nurses: that is attested everywhere. Unlike politicians they are in touch with the real world and respond humanely.Nishidani (talk) 16:52, 14 July 2022 (UTC)
 * It's not only corporations. My mother-in-law preferred a private clinic for her cancer, at a steep price my wife and I paid for her. Half way through the operation, a nurse convoked two of us inside, and the doctor came out with a liverish mess in his cupped hands, and said 'this is bigger than I thought. I think the price agreed on won't cover the full operation,' and asked for double the sum. Her son reluctantly bartered because the surgeon was already overpaid, but we agreed to add at the time 2,000,000 lire extra. Though astonished, one couldn't but agree to come up with the extra sum, but the banks were closed. 'We can get that to you by tomorrow morning'. Disgruntled he nodded, and returned to his surgical work. We found out later that he'd left the primary cancer untouched in her uterus. His calculation being that he'd then be called for another bout of surgery on the same patient within a few months. The negligence killed her: the anaesthetist recommended sueing the bastard, brother of a famous film-star, but couldn't himself testify to what he told us he had observed. Nishidani (talk) 10:04, 17 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Someone with that attitude shouldn't be allowed in medical practice, regardless of whether it's state-funded or private. I hope you sued the shirt off his back. Reminds me of an early book by Bill Gates called Hard Drive (at least I thought it was by Bill Gates, but a quick look at Amazon just now suggests it might have been by a pair of different authors. I lent it to a work colleague, but forgot to ask for it back when I left the company, a long time ago). But one example he [Gates] gave was of a hospital patient-billing system that accounted for one-third of the hospital's entire budget. In other words, a 50% overhead! No wonder the US health system is fucked! Now I don't have anything against insurance companies (I used to work for one), but private insurance is not the way to finance health care. Insurance is good, even essential, to protect customers against a small risk of a large loss, and for several other things, but for health "care", private insurance is a disaster. --NSH001 (talk) 15:02, 17 July 2022 (UTC)
 * If my memory serves me right (and it could very well be wrong), Gates merely seemed to accept this as just the normal way things are (in the US). No sense of outrage, or even puzzlement. Strange, as unlike the neocons, Gates has a brain, and is capable of rational thought. Perhaps he just wanted to keep the book focused on computer systems, their applications and development. --NSH001 (talk) 11:30, 18 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Historically pension funds and insurance, to name two, are one of many cases where state run corporations (those of modern democratic states, gene really) outperform private industries. It's quite simple: there's no profit margin to take into account. It's a very large issue, so I won't dwell on it. Are you familiar with Herman Daly interviewed by David Marchese, 'This Pioneering Economist Says Our Obsession With Growth Must End,'  New York Times 17 July 2022.Nishidani (talk) 12:08, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Good to see you back,. Was beginning to get worried about you, then remembered that you'd mentioned a trip to Ireland (my last trip to Ireland, spent about 2 hours on the taxiway at Dublin airport waiting for a gate to become free). Beginning to get very depressed about the unmitigated power of the neocons. If the US or UK were run like a business, they would have been fired for incompetence decades ago. But how does one get rid of these without invoking some horrible form of violence? Anyway, there have been some developments on the medical front. I mentioned before about catheters falling out. Culminated about 6 weeks ago with one week (Mon-Fri) where I was spending almost all my time either at A&E, or travelling to/from the hospital (spent 4 nights in a row without any sleep): finally got to the stage where they were falling out almost as soon as they put them in. Great, I thought, now they've got no choice, they're going to have to do the operation. No such luck, they put me on ISC (Intermittent self-catherisation) instead. This means I have to catheterise myself every time I need to pee, using a very different form of catheter. Much simpler and much smaller than the normal catheter, they come in a sterile pack about the size of a chequebook: insert the catheter, pee through the catheter, withdraw it and dispose of it hygenically. Yes, it's unpleasant and yes, it hurts. But I'm very, very glad to be finally free of the catheter, and a bit of pain a few times a day is a price well worth paying to get my freedom back. Not completely free though, I still need to carry an ISC catheter around with me when I leave home (never had to use it yet, and I'm reluctant to catheterise in a public toilet, but one has to be prepared). Were I to go on holiday somewhere, I would need to take a supply with me. Currently the NHS delivers, via a courier, a huge box containing 150 ISC catheters to my front door once a month. I'm still waiting to be offered a date for the operation, but at least, overall, my quality of life has improved. --NSH001 (talk) 16:48, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
 * (later footnote – might be TMI for some people) Worth noting that the standard catheters can also involve pain. If one has chosen to use (as I did) a catheter valve (a device attached to the end of the catheter that one flips open to pee, and flips closed when done), there is also a few seconds pain, because the bladder automatically wants to close when it's empty, but it can't do so because there's a catheter in the way. So one gets a painful spasm (but not nearly as painful as the intermittent catheter passing through the prostate). The alternative choice is to use a urine bag strapped to the leg, a choice that's never appealed to me, but it seems from talking to the medical staff that most patients prefer it. The main disadvantage of ISC that is affecting me now, is that I am (again) forced to get up in the middle of the night, which is why you may find me editing very early in the morning. With the normal catheter, you can attach a (2-litre) night bag which goes on a stand next to the bed, so it was possible to get a full night's sleep. --NSH001 (talk) 12:16, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
 * (later footnote – might be TMI for some people) Worth noting that the standard catheters can also involve pain. If one has chosen to use (as I did) a catheter valve (a device attached to the end of the catheter that one flips open to pee, and flips closed when done), there is also a few seconds pain, because the bladder automatically wants to close when it's empty, but it can't do so because there's a catheter in the way. So one gets a painful spasm (but not nearly as painful as the intermittent catheter passing through the prostate). The alternative choice is to use a urine bag strapped to the leg, a choice that's never appealed to me, but it seems from talking to the medical staff that most patients prefer it. The main disadvantage of ISC that is affecting me now, is that I am (again) forced to get up in the middle of the night, which is why you may find me editing very early in the morning. With the normal catheter, you can attach a (2-litre) night bag which goes on a stand next to the bed, so it was possible to get a full night's sleep. --NSH001 (talk) 12:16, 5 November 2022 (UTC)


 * Well, when the fuck are those arseholes going to schedule remedial surgery for what is now a chronic pain pseudo-solution?Nishidani (talk) 14:18, 5 November 2022 (UTC))
 * Good question, except that it's intermittent acute pain, not chronic pain, but with added sleep disruption. The same old sleep disruption that I had for years before the hernia op. Obviously the neocons are still hard at work, making life miserable for everyone except themselves. --NSH001 (talk) 16:41, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
 * It's the neocons who are the chronic pain! --NSH001 (talk) 17:17, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Sorry to intrude, but best wishes Neil, that sounds awful but I'm glad there is at least some positive news in that paragraph. Hopefully that quality of life gets better still,  nableezy  - 18:30, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the kind thoughts, Nab. But really I'm much more worried about the neocons than my prostate problems. The latter is an inconvenience; the former want to destroy the NHS and are, collectively, a lethal threat to me and every other human on this planet. --NSH001 (talk) 19:13, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Fuck that for a joke, Neil. Sounds very tough even with the modification that eases the situation. The arseholes are using an interim technology as if it enables them to dispense with corrective surgery - a dodge which serves as a metaphor for the way the world is run. Can hardly be heartening to have, apropos, a PM called 'Truss':) It's odd travelling, to find such universal kindness everywhere one turns, as occurred in Ireland, France and back in Italy, only to open the newspapers and receive the diametrically opposed impression of unending idiocy inside the big picture. Perhaps all people with political aspirations should be lassoed up and corralled on some 'somatic' (Huxley) island, and leave the rest of mankind to work out their problems without the interference of loudmouthed hucksters, powermongerers and all-round dickheads.Nishidani (talk) 20:04, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I don't blame the medical staff at all, they're doing the best they can with the resources they've been allocated. In reality it's the neocons controlling the Tories (Labour wouldn't be any better, unless they find another Corbyn) who are merely agents for the neocons, slowly squeezing the NHS budget and hoping nobody notices. Truss is a mystery to me: she did maths A-levels, and must have got top grades to get into Oxford, so one would expect her to be pretty bright. I'm guessing she was intensively coached by her mathematician father, and that's why she got top grades, not because of intrinsic ability. It's embarrassing to see someone so stupid as PM. I'm not surprised that Lavrov made mincemeat of her when, as foreign secretary, she went to Moscow. Plus I would expect someone with good maths A-levels to continue with maths, or possibly physics, at university, not PPE. Generally I regard PPE as a negative for a politician, but Imran Khan is an obvious exception. What do you think of the Italian election results? --NSH001 (talk) 21:39, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
 * (later footnote) Hmm, this BBC link from 2012 lifts some of the mystery – she only got a "C" in one of her A-levels. Which still leaves the mystery of how she got into Oxford with such a low grade. Perhaps the requirements are lower for PPE? --NSH001 (talk) 12:19, 27 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Well, in Italy, they know how to get dumb papa's kids into unis with restricted access, let alone top political jobs. It's not what you know, but who you know, that counts, as my old man used to say to an omnivorous reader-son who lacked the art of cultivating company.Nishidani (talk) 18:11, 27 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Indeed so, my late father was contemptuous of the arts-graduate and ex-public school types infesting the management hierarchy at ICI. But Truss doesn't have that sort of privileged background, so the reason isn't obvious. My guess is that her "old man" – an academic himself – was long-term friends with one or more of the admissions tutors at Oxford. Someone with only a "C" hasn't a chance of coping with the pace of an Oxbridge undergraduate maths course. Even A* grades at A-levels are not enough, they look for good performance in the scholarship-level exams in addition. At least that was the case when I was applying to uni. --NSH001 (talk) 11:25, 31 October 2022 (UTC)
 * It would be melodramatic hyperbole to allude to Karl Kraus by varying his opinion about Hitler, i.e., Zu Meloni fällt mir nichts ein. That this would happen by the inevitable logic of recent developments in the electoral law, and the fragmented state of parties, has been known for several months, been long prepared for by conservative power brokers and therefore is not news. You'll have a bunch of inner circle boneheads, all raised on the writings of Julius Evola, then substituted by the legendary cycle of King Arthur as a mythical model for the ideal society, and finally nurtured on intense self-identificatory readings of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, gradually elbowed out as professional consultants of considerable international standing do the hard work of trying to bury the electoral promises of riches and low taxes for everyone so that Italy does not continue to run its risk of default, and that it adheres to Nato. Meloni is very astute, and is well aware that she has now to forget two decades of rancorous blather and resentment (ploys to win over the large grievance community of the poor and tax-evading businesses) and pay the country's bills. What one must watch is how they spin their connections with the Trumpian right, which were very close, until Steve Bannon tried to hijack the movement and embarrassed Meloni by expressing his admiration for Mussolini. But it is all tediously predictable. She's not a moron like Truss, in any case, and Italy's highly competitive lobbies and grievance communities are such that no radical changes are to be expected for some time. The main danger is that her party and the Northern League, an ally she shafted by poaching half of their earlier voter base, will press for key revisions to the constitution. Nishidani (talk) 10:14, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, an interesting insight for someone who doesn't follow Italian politics. --NSH001 (talk) 11:44, 28 September 2022 (UTC)

Update
Had a phone call from the hospital this afternoon offering me a date for the standard pre-assessmment (routine for old geezers like me), where they make sure one is fit enough to undergo surgery under general anaesthetic. So I have the pre-assessment on 11 Jan, and assuming that doesn't reveal any problems I can expect the operation to be scheduled for a week or so later. A bit scary, as I'm told the op will take about three hours. --NSH001 (talk) 23:49, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

For the benefit of anyone watching this talk page: operation is now scheduled for Friday 20 January. I'll be staying in the hospital overnight, but if everything goes OK I should be back home – no doubt half-stoned out of my mind with all those drugs they add to the anaesthetic – late afternoon/evening Saturday. Should finally put an end to all my prostate problems, but who knows what will pop up next? So far the record isn't good! BTW, the pre-assessment raised a problem with my high blood pressure; must be all that stress of editing wikipedia.  --NSH001 (talk) 16:47, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Finally
 * Ah, that's great news, Neil. Of course prospective operations invoke trepidation, but dawdled on a waiting-list while undergoing endless deferrels and reschedulings, as the pathology's extreme discomforts persist, is more stressful, surely. As to wiki, I think one must keep reminding oneself that one can only do good, in certain circumstances, if one combines detachment with tenacity: even if our world is running down, we still remain, most of us, extremely privileged members of humanity and while it is indeed inexorably stressful to have to digest so much bad news of avoidable suffering, in order to set the skewed and disgracefully panglossian records straight about critical human rights realities, we can only be useful if we temper our anxieties, depersonalise our engagement with what is, the pain others suffer. Our stress means nothing. Our tenacity in documenting the situations of stress felt by others is one of the few things that we, at a distance, can do that is useful to the victims.
 * I feel somewhat embarrassed about the dates, for they coincide with a visit I booked for the Galleria Borghese, so as I plough through those glorious rooms, knowing that you'll be under the knife, I won't be able to afford thinking of myself as anyone if not the figure of the stolid ploughman in Brueghel's Icarus, made even more famous by W.J.Auden's magnificent reading of it. But you ain't Icarus and I will be glancing mentally north-west as well, on the day. Best wishes, and let us know ASAP afterwards, otherwise I, for one, really will stress out.Nishidani (talk) 17:17, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Sod the blood pressure, I had 3 cups of strong coffee in Waterstones today while spending a couple of hours reading Stefania's magnificent book on Assange/WikiLeaks, recently released in English. Very enjoyable. She really is one of today's best journalists. I hope you bought a copy of the original when it came out in Italian. I'm sure that you, with your vast knowledge of classical history, will be much better able than I to appreciate the gallery's displays. Enjoy! On the topic of the op, no knife/scalpel is involved, all the cutting is done by the laser. The great advantage of a laser is that it instantly cauterizes the blood vessels, so that there is very little bleeding. But it's still a very messy and time-consuming process. --NSH001 (talk) 18:24, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * How are you feeling now, Neil? I hope it went better than our lunch after the visit to the Gallery: 35 euros for a paper-thin onion soup and a handful of spaghetti, and a glass of white wine so dubiously labelled we sniffed it first to detect if there was any methanol in it.Nishidani (talk) 07:55, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Sorry for taking so long to reply. Had to visit the small local hospital today to fix a small injury, nothing to do with prostate. The big op sort-of went OK, but there are worrying indicators that it may not be the end of my prostate problems after all. A bit too soon to tell. But it does enable me to stop taking Finasteride. (Good, I hate taking long-term medication.) They kept me extra long (another night in hospital) on the irrigation catheter in an attempt to flush out all the gunk from my prostate that got pushed into the bladder as part of the op. Not surprising, given how enormous my prostate was. My urine started off bright red, the colour of raspberry juice, but has now turned a dark red. Yuk! No sign of any improvement so far. I'm under instruction to drink a lot (not alcohol!) to help flush it all out. My overall energy level still has to return to pre-op levels; a few more days should be sufficient. --NSH001 (talk) 19:43, 24 January 2023 (UTC) Except that if I continue peeing out this much blood, I'll have to start worrying about anaemia. --NSH001 (talk) 07:08, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Jeezus, what a fucking calvary.From bright to dark red suggests you're draining slowly the long coagulated blood, rather than internal bleeding, but what would I know. All one can say is, hang tough, and insist on your rights - close followup care until that and anything else clears up. As to anaemia, my brother, a freshman at Penn U, collapsed one day - duodenal ulcer. He'd just registered in a grad student master's course. When they asked him for insurance and found out he hadn't yet signed the documents, they said that he'd have to fork out $US30,000 upfront - he'd lost over two litres of blood from internal haemorrhaging. Pale as death, he struggled out of the bed and asked for his cloths saying he didn't have that kind of money and would have to immediately book a flight home where medical care is a right, automatic. They said he'd never make it. He did with a bit of help from friends. Best wishes, and keep us posted.Nishidani (talk) 09:33, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
 * One more example (out of many) of how obscene the US health care system is. Maybe I'll knock up a summary of why the NHS system is so much more efficient and effective than the US, simply looking at it from the economics angle; of course the main reason remains that access to health care is a basic right, regardless of income. Anyone travelling to the US must surely be aware of how horrendously expensive health care is in the US, and absolutely MUST obtain, and pay for, insurance before boarding the plane, so I'm puzzled why your brother didn't do this. I've always done this whenever I've travelled to the US (the first time when I was 20 and got a J-1 visa (students doing summer jobs) and spent the entire summer vacation there, nearly 5 months. I loved the place, wages and salaries were about 3x higher than the UK and with overtime you could earn what seemed like a fortune. Rent and food were about twice as expensive, but you could still save a substantial sum. Got a $99 ticket for unlimited travel on Greyhound buses (much better than long-distance buses in the UK) and spent 4 weeks travelling all over the US.) Insurance is cheap when you're young, but I expect that at my age, and with a pre-existing condition, the cost today would be prohibitive (not checked, so I may be wrong – I don't think I'll be travelling to the US again, but who knows). It's been so sad watching the US going downhill in so many ways over the last 50 years. --NSH001 (talk) 13:43, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
 * He'd just arrived and hadn't finished the paperwork, other than paying his university fees, when he haemorrhaged. It was a half century ago. Still civilised men stepped in and used their pull to fix it. Had a magnificent two years there, after which it became a sad, barbaric (in institutional terms) place, whose slide depresses nearly everyone we know there. In Italy, free health care is a constitutional right, though the ideologues are working there way round that, to the degree that Gino Strada's Emergency is now setting up health care units as if it were a third world country. Nishidani (talk) 09:31, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

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Are you [Huldra] well?
Huldra, I have taken notice that you have not been editing on Wikipedia for the past three months. Is everything well with you?Davidbena (talk) 23:37, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi, I'm fine, just very, very occupied in RL with another project (totally unrelated to wp, or the Middle East). Hope to be back on wp in about 1/2 year, cheers, Huldra (talk) 22:15, 28 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Okay. Good to hear that you are doing well, but very busy in other areas.Davidbena (talk) 23:25, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Delighted to see you pop up on Refaat Alareer. Hope you don't mind my intrusion on Yibna – that was prompted by the lovely old lady whom I recently added to my user page (Yael Kahn), who founded "Islington Friends of Yibna" (I think you'll enjoy the video about her). If you like, I'd be happy to systematically work my way through all the rest of the depopulated villages pages doing something similar. I'll be up early tomorrow morning to attend the big fortnightly protest in London against the genocide. Hope all's well with you and your project. --NSH001 (talk) 21:51, 8 December 2023 (UTC)
 * User:NSH001: Hush: I am really not here! Don't tell anyone!! ;) Seriously, I am drowning in work, (totally unrelated to the ME or wp) -still worthwhile(?) I haven't had time to look at Yibna, or a thousand other articles. (I'm sure your work is great!) I hope to be back on wp late next spring.
 * I try desperately not to follow the Gaza news, but Refaat Alareer' twitter account was one always worth reading. And the Arab twitterati outpouring has been astonishing.
 * My 2 cents: Sufian Tayeh' murder  was probably a "heavier" loss, but  Refaat Alareer murder feels ...personal. Israel are really, really going after anyone who is an intellectual (in the  broadest meaning of the word) this time.  Feels like after Munchen 1972, when people like Ghassan Kanafani and Wael Zwaiter were murdered (together with the odd Maroccan waiter Ahmed Bouchikhi)
 * Take care, good luck with your demo tomorrow! cheers, Huldra (talk) 22:19, 8 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Huldra. When I got up on Saturday, it was very dark, pouring with rain, wet, cold and miserable weather. Definitely not the weather for venturing outside. Then I checked the web site for the train times. Disaster! There's a rail strike on so no trains to London! However it turned out I could get to London by train, I'd just have to change trains a couple of times. Thank God for that. A bit of rain is no excuse for me, compared to what is happening to everybody in Gaza. The best bit was actually being able to meet the amazing Jewish Israeli lady Yael Kahn I mentioned above.. She's even better in real life than she is in the video (link is on my user page). Was able to have a short conversation with her, and give her a big hug (or rather she hugged me). There were a few placards mentioning "Dr. Refaat Alareer" (always with the "Dr."), but nowhere near as many as for Benjamin Zephaniah, who has also recently left us. A few speakers did mention Refaat, and Maxine Peake read one of his poems from the platform. After the demo, the usual bastards decided to make thing more difficult for us by closing the entrance to Westminster tube station (that's the one next to Parliament Square rallying point). Just adds to the fun! I'm very grateful to the NHS - thanks to a big operation I had earlier this year, I can now hold my bladder like a 19-year-old, a big help on a 6-hour demo. I thought the turnout was very good considering the bad weather and the rail strike. Surprisingly, it turns out that going on a long demo is very good for one's blood pressure, down to 105/68 when I got home. Amazing! Hope you're keeping well. --NSH001 (talk) 16:05, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

User:NSH001: Yeah, I saw on social media that it was a huge demo. Typically; hardly anything in the MSM.

Also; that Jewish people in England/US have been at the forefront protesting against the Gaza genocide has been noticed in the Arab world, according to As'ad AbuKhalil. A single person like Yael Kahn has probably done more to combat anti-semitism than the ADL has done in all its existence.

It is my feeling that MSM and politicians have hardly ever been more out-of-step with the "average guy" than over Gaza. As if people don't see the hypocrisy? EG: the same day the White House says it is ‘concerned’ by reports Israeli forces using white phosphorus ...Washington Post reports that yeah, that white phosphorus it is supplied .....by the US.

Or: when you get a "dangerous terrorist" to surrender, do you then: A: First; get him to strip of all his clothes, then surrender his weapons or: B: first surrender his weapons. Apparently the answer is ....A. Lol!

The stupidity of MSM/"mainstream" politicians is only matched by the unprecedented level of censorship; I saw some women facing a felony-charge/6 months in jail for wearing a picture of ...paragliders. You couldn't make this up.

I suspect this will cost Biden his POTUS-bid next year; the Arab-American overwhelmingly supported him in 2020; now that support is virtually all gone. We'll see.

Anyway; I really shouldn't be here: I will try to get a bit done between X-mas and New Year: see you then, cheers, Huldra (talk) 22:22, 11 December 2023 (UTC)


 * Re the MSM, I couldn't find any mention of the demo on the BBC. However Al Jazeera did report it, and I thought its coverage was quite fair and very professional. It seems that US protestors are following Biden everywhere he goes, and not letting up. --NSH001 (talk) 00:46, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

April 2024
Your recent editing history at Tell (archaeology) shows that you are currently engaged in an edit war; that means that you are repeatedly changing content back to how you think it should be, when you have seen that other editors disagree. To resolve the content dispute, please do not revert or change the edits of others when you are reverted. Instead of reverting, please use the talk page to work toward making a version that represents consensus among editors. The best practice at this stage is to discuss, not edit-war; read about how this is done. If discussions reach an impasse, you can then post a request for help at a relevant noticeboard or seek dispute resolution. In some cases, you may wish to request temporary page protection.

Being involved in an edit war can result in you being blocked from editing&mdash;especially if you violate the three-revert rule, which states that an editor must not perform more than three reverts on a single page within a 24-hour period. Undoing another editor's work—whether in whole or in part, whether involving the same or different material each time—counts as a revert. Also keep in mind that while violating the three-revert rule often leads to a block, you can still be blocked for edit warring&mdash;even if you do not violate the three-revert rule&mdash;should your behavior indicate that you intend to continue reverting repeatedly. Skyerise (talk) 10:48, 23 April 2024 (UTC)

Books & Bytes – Issue 61
The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes

Issue 61, January – February 2024 
 * Bristol University Press and British Online Archives now available
 * 1Lib1Ref results

Read the full newsletter Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --16:32, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

Books & Bytes – Issue 62
The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes

Issue 62, March – April 2024 
 * IEEE and Haaretz now available
 * Let's Connect Clinics about The Wikipedia Library
 * Spotlight and Wikipedia Library tips

Read the full newsletter Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --11:02, 23 April 2024 (UTC)