Written on 5th January 2025.
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I'm still alive, so that's a plus. Other people I knew are not. My stepfather died when I was in Poland. Alone in his house, at night. He was in his 80s. He wasn't sick, so it was a surprise. My sister and her children took it hard. I talked with him a few days earlier and he seemed fine.
Also, one of my nieces died. She was almost 18. I saw her last time a few years earlier. She has been sick for the past 2 years. Doctors didn't know what was causing her pain. They were prescribing her sleeping pills, so she could fall asleep despite the pain. One day she went to sleep and did not wake up.
Russia is still killing people in Ukraine, but is suffering huge military losses. Up to 2000 soldiers dead or wounded per day. Every day when Ukraine holds, is a day closer to Ukrainian victory. I hope Russia folds first. Despite having an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for stealing Ukrainian children, Putin visited Mongolia, a country that should enforce ICC rulings, and was not arrested.
Israel is still killing civilians in Gaza. More bombs fell on Gaza in 200 days than on London, Hamburg, and Dresden combined during the whole of WW2. Gaza's area is 4 times smaller than London. Israel is killing thousands of women and children with American supplied bombs. The US has spent over $22 billion on military aid to Israel. The current kill ratio is at least 40 Palestinians killed for 1 Israeli. It's incredible that the democratically elected government of the Jewish state chose genocide as a way of solving the Palestinian problem, but here we are. Despite having an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Netanyahu visited the US and was not arrested. Biden's legacy will be a lukewarm support (delays and limitations) for Ukraine fighting for survival against a 4 times bigger opponent waging a genocidal war vs immediate and unlimited support for Israel exacting genocidal revenge on a 5 times smaller population of an occupied territory.
Cars are still the biggest killer of people other than diseases. Over a million killed every year worldwide. Between 20 and 50 million injured. Cars killed more people than Hitler and Stalin together.
The climate crisis is getting worse faster. The greenhouse gas emissions rose again. The global temperature in 2024 was 1.6 C above the pre-industrial level. The Earth energy imbalance (EEI) is increasing. Probably, the only realistic thing that can give us a chance to survive is Solar Radiation Management aka Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM), specifically the Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI). We had 30 years of international climate conferences, and they achieved nothing. The fossil fuel lobby is so strong and the population is so not caring or even hostile, that we are not going stop burning oil, coal, methane until it is significantly cheaper and more convenient to use the alternatives. Fossil fuels are being subsidised heavily, ensuring that the demand for them exists even where the market forces would shut it down.
The 2024 brought us two firsts: the first time an army attacked on land using only drones, and the first time a computer scored 75.7% on a test designed to be easy for humans and hard for computers.
Drones continue to improve, not only on the battlefield, but also in entertainment.
