Strait of Hormuz Hell

Have you ever wondered how many countries have to be at war before it is considered a world war. I have no idea. Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Lebanon, USA and Iran. Plus civil wars around the world. 

Recently Iran declared the straight of Hormuz a military exclusion zone so any ships passing though their portion of the water-way would have missiles fired at them and they would be sunk. This means they're blocking oil from being shipped out of the Arabian peninsula. They have cut off the oil supply to the west. I think we are going to have a global recession very soon. 

While this was happening I turned my attention to the Atari VCS 800, a modern games console that was recreated in the style of the Atari 2600. When I was a young boy there were still Atari 2600 games consoles in people's homes. I recall playing space invaders and superman on it. The sound effects were nice. I felt like superman was a police man because he would grab villains and take them to jail. 

The new Atari VCS 800 is set up as a gaming PC so you could boot up a separate OS system from a USB stick if you wished. It would be nice it it could easily be converted into a steam deck and switched back again but it isn't at the moment. You have to put a modified version of the steam os on there. I like how some of the models have a wood panel finish just like the original 2600. 

If I was loaded (wealthy) I would buy one just to be different and because I like it. Something to distract me when the world descends into chaos. 

Look away. 

Ear Buds Apocalypse

One thing I noticed a lot these days is many people wear ear buds; this has killed off reading and small talk, all things that are essential for a healthy human mind. They also wear them while they're driving so they drive very fast and crash Into things. 

I am aware that Peru are having general elections right now. I read the news sometimes. Do people even know what is going on all around them?  Do people even know what is happening? 

Sometimes we just need to stop and observe the world around us. There are all sorts of things all around us we don't really notice. 

Tyson Fury Fight

I watched the Tyson Fury Fight last night, he won on points. Both boxers managed to avoid a knockout loss. It was on netflix so I thought I would watch it after the flight 3054 documentary series. I think boxing at that level is very difficult because they have to move a lot to stop their brain being dislodged in their skull and they have to keep going even when they're tired. I thought it is Ironic that the one person that understands the most what they're  going through is the opponent. Maybe that is why they hug when the match is over. 

As for the flight 3054 documentary, they established the cause of the air crash so the series was all about how they figured out who was to blame. It was set up as a mystery with the truth that slowly emerged piece by piece. It was partly pilot error, partly airport infrastructure and partly the airlines fault. I didn't know that the reverse thruster controls work differently on different planes and there should have been an alarm to draw attention to one fruster in climb and one in brake mode. The runway was still being resurfaced and didn't have rain grooves installed yet so the runway itself was also too slippery. The blame was shared by many. Netflix has many true life mysteries like that and they're very interesting. The default language for the documentary is Portuguese because it was a Brazilian crisis. 

All this happened just after the splashdown when the four Artemis astronauts returned to earth after going around the far side of the moon. 

Interesting  times we live in. 

SlowMag 40

I was thinking about a metro train that would deliberately go slow and it would hover on magnetic fields. I would call it the SlowMag40 because it is slow, it hovers on magnetic fields and moves at 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour). Why? It would be designed to be reliable and comfortable. 

I drew this in 5 minutes because I don't get much time but you get the idea. You get 8 padded sofa like seats with each door set and a window pane bench on both sides, that's it. There are 3 door sets for each trian carriage. 

There isn't much stuff to go wrong, the train is slow, there are no wheels, it goes 25 mph, there isn't much wind resistance. Although the train moves, there isn't much moving parts. 

Time is the worst pirate. 

Bank Holiday

During the Easter bank holiday, NASA launched the Orion Spaceship into orbit around the Earth, It then did an escape burn and was slung towards the moon, it went around the far side of the moon and headed back to earth. It appeared to be to test the integrity of the new technology. The four astronauts are brave souls. I wouldn't sit on a tiny capsule at the end of a large rocket like that; they can explode and vaporise the crew. 

I was wondering if a person had a heart attack and collapsed on a railway crossing and were hit by a train, what would be the cause of death? You could stay it was the train that caused the death but he wouldn't have been in the path of the train if his heart didn't stop. You could also say it was his heart that caused the death but then he may have survived the heart attack but the train ended hope for recovery. I guess both items would be considered, an accident caused by a medical crisis. I think about death every day for a short time because it is something we can't avoid. I'm not a negative person, I just accept that every being in this world dies; that's just the way it is. 

Artemis Easter

It was the Easter weekend and the Orion Spaceship performed an escape burn to slingshot itself towards the moon. It crossed the Lagrange point and entered the moons hillsphere ( an area around the moon where the moon's gravity pulls more than the Earth's). 

The four astronauts on the spaceship are going to pass around the far side of the moon and then return to Earth.  At the time of writing this post, they were very close to the moon, just some hours away from a flyby. They won't land on this mission, it's just to test out the new hardware and make sure they can reach the moon safely. The last thing I saw on the live feed was the crew asking flight control if they could tilt the spaceship to get a better view of the moon's surface. 

We are going to see a close up shot of the moon with modern cameras, that will be interesting. I was wondering if they're getting flashing in their eyes from deep space radiation? Have they found a way to deal with deep space radiation yet? I don't know. 

Interesting times.

What March 2026 Means To Me

The main news for March was the ongoing war between Iran and the Israel USA alliance. Lots of missiles were flying all over the place. The strait of Hormuz was shut down; oil couldn't be shipped out of the Arabian peninsula freely, this caused a lot of inflation and high energy prices. 

Last time I checked, petrol was selling in Britain at £1.60 per litre, that is lame. 

When chaos is happening all around you, when you are wondering how many people have perished and when this will ever end, just remember the average person can't do much. I think about other things; that's what I do. I acknowledge what is happening and then I look away and hope for the best. 

I was looking at the daisies in the grass verges. It is a flower that looks very ordinary but it is clever, it sprouts from amongst the grass but doesn't expose itself too much, just enough to get the bees attention. It avoids getting eaten by rabbits because they can't see it, you need to be a flying insect to see it. 

I will say no more.