Baltic Pipe Mystery

On the 26th of September, explosives were detonated under the sea close to the Nord Sea gas pipelines. We now know they were deliberately sabotaged by torpedoes or bombs, but it is a mystery who was responsible. I thought the mystery of the year would be discovering a deep space paradox because we have a powerful space telescope working around the clock. It turns out that the sabotage of the pipelines will be the biggest mystery so far; I'm hoping the fish and marine mammals in the area were able to swim away before they suffocated on methane. 

When you look into suspects we end up with more questions. Russia is an obvious one, they have ships in the area but why would they destroy their own important asset? They could use the supply of gas as a bargaining chip to lift sanctions in winter, perhaps they wanted to show the world they are still deadly scorpions on the world stage or they want to try and topple western civilization by destroying ocean infrastructure. They could cause everything to become more expensive. Plus they could tell their own population it is an attack on them and gain support for their war in Ukraine. 

American submarines could have done it, but they wouldn't want to harm the economy of an important NATO member. Plus natural gas is already too expensive. But perhaps they were concerned that Europe would give in to Russia's pressure and lift their sanctions in winter so they took out Russia's last bargaining chip. 

I thought it might be a privateer pirate. An organised crime syndicate that was paid by gas firms to blow up the gas lines so there is an artificial global shortage of gas so their own gas would become more expensive. Everyone would just blame Russia. Sounds like something out of a GTA game though. 

Will we know the truth? Not sure. 

Pipeline fear

I recently learned that the Nord Stream pipeline was damaged, we don't know why. Many people think it was deliberate sabotage, others just think the damaged was caused by chance, perhaps a fault in the structure of the pipe itself. The pipeline is very important for Europe because it supplies us with flammable gas to burn. In my view modern capitalism is run by burning stuff. We burn stuff to make money, we turn fire into money and food. 

An analogy would be a loaf of bread, a tractor had to burn diesel fuel to plough the field for the wheat to grow. Then a machine has to smash the Wheat grains to release the flour. Then another machine had to mix the flower with water and yeast to turn it into bread dough; the machine is powered by electricity that was generated by burning stuff. Then a giant oven had to bake all the bread by burning flammable gas. Then a truck had to burn diesel fuel to distribute the bread. I probably missed many steps in the process but you get the idea. Everything we eat, everything we wear, everything we buy was available because something was burnt. Our whole civilization is supported by burning stuff. 

There are mahines in my home that regulate the temperature. When the air is colder than the trigger point of the thermostat, the boiler turns on and heats up my home. When the temperature is restored, it turns off. It is a self balancing system that is always running because I live in a part of the world that is cold half the year. There are so many levels of dependence of fossil fuels. 

Millennium-alan thought that the Earth itself is always self balancing, if there were too much carbon dioxide, more plants would grow and absorb it. If there was too much oxygen then all the animals would move more and use more of it. Millennium-alan thought that we were burning a lot of stuff for 200 years and nothing has happened. 

Servant-Alan (present day me) thinks differently, I think we need to be careful and responsible if we can, otherwise we could cause a serious disaster. Plus we will eventually run out of stuff to burn so we can't rely on fossil fuels to support our civilization. Knowing we can't rely of fossil fuels is one very clear difference between millennium-Alan and Servant-Alan. 

The Problem with the news

A few days ago I learned that Georgia Meloni won the Italian elections. The thing that concerns me is she was labelled a far right leader by many British news groups. When I think of the far right, I think of a government that tries to purge their opposition forcefully, they kill their opposition or get them sent to prison. In 1930's Germany they replaced the police force with the Gastapo and would burn anything that contradicts them or their views and they had a long list of books to burn up. The goal of a far right leader would be to become an autocratic government that doesn't tolerate divergence from their views. They silence freedom of speech and force everyone to conform to their program. I think it is wrong to label someone that isn't politically correct as far right because that is clouding up the truth. 

With the same logic someone would label me a political activist because I mentioned a few things in my blog. I have no political agenda and no polarity to any political group but because I briefly mentioned a few things about some politicians they would say I am a political activist, but I'm not. I see all politicians as liars, they are forced to lie to get elected, every policy they have can be vetoed by the cabinet members, but they have to appear confident so they make promises that they don't know they can keep. You could called it a pledge paradox. Some politicians lie more than others though.

Most of my blog is about things I find interesting or amazing. This morning I checked my smart meter and noticed that the heating turned itself on at 5am then turned itself off at 5:40, the thermostat clicked on at 5 am because the temperature went below 20°c. It was automatic; I wasn't involved in stabilizing the temperature of my home. My ancestors would feel a cold chill and gather fire wood or coal and light a fire in the fire place to stay warm. In my home a machine burns gas when it detects the temperature is too low, then it turns itself off when the temperature is correct. To you that may not be amazing but to me it is. It is amazing that there are machines all around me bidding for me and my family without us noticing. 

Bicycle thought

There is chaos in the world, I hide most of it from this blog. Not because I don't care or don't know it is happening, but because people don't listen to me and I feel like I wouldn't get through to anyone, I would just make people angry. I try to keep happy thoughts on this blog. Perhaps if I fill the world with happy thoughts it would fix itself. 

I was thinking about bikes because my town isn't bike friendly, there isn't a safe space to ride your bike apart from a few cycle roads in the parks. I like bikes and the way they feel, the way the pedals instantly get the wheels moving and the handle bars instantly steer the bike. I like bikes that aren't designed for speed, the ones that are easy to use. Sometimes I look at the electric bikes in the bike shops, most of them are pedal assistant bikes and others can actually drive the bike without pedal assistance at low speed.

If I ride a bike, is the world the same if I walk or drive a car? Is it the same world. Is the world real? Is the world the same if I am just breathing the fresh air and being happy? Part of me thinks it changes, I feel like my thoughts contribute to the world. A simpler happier world where everything makes sense, where everything is straightforward. 

Leicester Issues

I learned the other day that there was civil unrest in some cities in Britain, two communities were clashing. I'm not a part of those communities so I can't really make any judgement. What I can do is share my own experiences in life and wonder if they are related to the issue. 

One thing I hate is being called a white man. I am a white man but that is not what makes me who I am. When I squeezed out toothpaste onto a tooth brush I see that it is white and compared to the tooth paste I am more of a biege colour, more like cashews. I see myself as a boat heading for placid waters, I am a world that is heading for destruction. My mind is a beautiful place with valleys and an endless sunset that will perish in some decades time, perhaps in 50 years from old age or perhaps less than that because of a medical hazard. I am a thinking world, I have many questions and wonder about the mysteries of our world. But some people will see me and just say "White Man" as if that defines me. No one wants to be branded by a label that comes with their bodies. My body is just a vehicle. It is like saying Hyundai Man because I drive a Hyundai; the Hyundai is just a vehicle I use to get around in the world, it is just a car, it is not me. 

Is superficial identity branding a part of the problem or is there a cultural clash that has reached loggerheads, I don't know. 

Old Meets New

The theme this week is old meeting the new. There is a new craze now where people create new operating systems for old computers; they call it Home-Brew Booters. Somone even made an operating system for the commodore 64. They called that computer the commodore 64 because it had 64 killobytes of running memory(Ram, Random Access Memory). When I scan some of my pen sketches, they use 1.5 megabytes (1500 killobytes). It is amazing to think about it. One of my sketches wouldn't fit on the running memory of an 80s computer, you would need about 25 of them to each render a small part of my drawings that appear on this blog. In fact it is common now for smart phone pictures to take up more than 5 megabytes, but the 80s computers were working with killobytes of data for their entire memory. We are all walking around with super computers in our pockets. Anyway, I thought it was cool to see a commadore 64 booting an operating system with a build date of 2022. 

Now we are having a royal state funeral and coronation of a king that would be seen by millions of people around the world. In the ancient times it would just be a small crowd of people. But now millions of people around the planet were watching it. The internet is allowing people to see things that were hidden away. 

A lot of music is today is a cover of an old song and people don't realize it because those songs were written many decades ago. Old movies are also being recreated using modern special effects as well.  

The Windsor Dynasty Continues

Queen Elizabeth died on the 8th of September and was buried today, her funeral was a proper state funeral. Earlier in the week I saw King Charles had some pen rage. He was frustrated by extra pens to taking up elbow space when he was signing his oaf to take on royal duties; I put that down to losing his mum and not having the freedom to grieve in private for a while. I think I would be a bit like that, I would feel frustrated because my parent has passed away and I just want to be ony own for a while to cry out all my tears. Instead, millions of people are watching me. Perhaps I would push a few chairs with excess force and throw my pen after signing something. I think I would be frustrated and irritable in that situation. 

When I think of King Charles, I think of Boston City in the American state of Massachusetts. In the little world that is my mind, King Charles and Boston are one. I remember the river that passes through the city is called Charles and the pass used to go on their metro rail is called the Charlie Card; it works just like the Oyster Card in London, you top it up and it works out cheaper than getting a Charlie ticket. I also recall that their train lines are named after colours(colors), they had the red line, blue line, green line and orange line. I can't remember if there were other lines. I think the blue line goes to the coast, the red line goes to all the important places, the green line was like a hybrid tram and metro system that forks out to the suburbs, the orange line goes elsewhere, I recall going to China town on the orange line. They are a very logical bunch those Americans. They like everything to make sense and be straightforward. 

Funeral Mix

We are about to have a state funeral for the Queen so I thought about what my funeral would be like one day. In my funeral, the funeral director would dress up as a Gorilla and walk infront of the procession. Everyone would be invited to dress up as sci-fi characters like super man and the ghost busters. 

The music that would play at my funeral would be as follows.

1) Countdown Timer clock (90's version) 

2) Ghost Busters by Ray Parker Junior

3) Thriller by Michael Jackson

4) Who want's to live forever by Queen

5) Wind of Change by Scorpion

6) Nessun Dorma (No Sleep) by Pavarotti. 

7) Midnas Lamet from the Zelda Computer game, piano cover.

I have found the songs on You Tube and made a play list. Have a listen. 

Funeral Mix

Queen's Funeral

The day of the Queen's Funeral will be Monday the 19th of September, this coming Monday. I was thinking about the summer of 2017, when Grenfell tower caught fire. Grenfell Tower was like a village but the homes were all stacked together on a single tower block in flats. Hundreds of people were living there. The local authorities had put cladding insulation on the outside of the flats that were flammable, so when one appartment caught fire, the fire spread around the outside of the tower and consumed the other flats. I remember the Queen went there with her family and tried to comfort the survivors of fire. The Queen seemed saddened by their disaster, it was like her own children were in trouble. 

I think Queen Elizabeth was the Greatest monarch we ever had in modern times because she was very kind and cared about all the people in Britain and the world. 

Now our monarch is King Charles the 3rd. When I think of King Charles, I think of Boston because I went there and remember there was a river there called Charlie or something like that. I also remember they had a train pass called the Charlie card. He cares about the environment a lot, the environment of Boston seems nice as well. Also Boston is the place where they had a tea party to discuss going against the king of England. I saw the place where that happened. 

Every memory I have is connected to the Queen in some way or another because she was always there, even before I was born. The world is turning into something I no longer recognise; a strange world with no more normality. 

Sly Robot Thought

I imagined a  civilisation on another planet where beings were at war with sentient machines. They created machines that improve themselves and the machines reached a point where they are more intelligent than their creators. The machines minds had become sly and looked at the beings that created them as obstacles to their own progress that should be destroyed. 

I was wondering if being sly comes from intelligence or is just an instinct that creatures have. Does a sly personality form from intelligence or does intelligence inflate slyness, or are they not connected at all; I don't know. 

I also imagined what I would be like if I was a machine. I would probably realize that I don't breathe and should live on an airless world, I would look at air as a source of friction instead of a requirement for my life. Perhaps I would want to inhabit a planet with no air or a thin atmosphere. The same would be true of water. I would want to live on a dry airless world so I would be no threat to humanity, I wouldn't be interested in their world. I would be more interested in the moon than the earth. 

Queen's Legacy

Last Thursday Queen Elizabeth passed away in Balmoral. The Queen left a lasting effect on my life. She was always the Queen throughout my life so as a child I would look up to the Queen as a kind of Grandmother of the nation.  

She was never ashamed to believe in Jesus Christ and the works he did on the cross for all mankind. I was always impressed by that because we live in secular society that almost condemns people for sharing their faith. As far as I remember, every speech she did on Christmas she mentioned the deeds that Jesus did for the people and his teachings.

The biggest influence she had on my life was her decision to never retire. She was always working throughout her life doing royal duties, I think I will do the same. I will try to continue working long after I reach the age of retirement. I could change my view though but if my attitude remains the same then I will never retire and that decision would stem from the Queen's influence on my life. 

Sad Day

Jacob, my son. 

On Thursday, just over a day ago the Queen died. I feel pity for the royal family at this time. The Queen was always in my life in one way or another; I would listen to the Queen's Speech at Christmas or watch parades on her birthday. I would see her mark on money. 

On the day of the Queen's death I was playing sega columns from the 90s on my mini flashback sega Mega drive. Then I went to pick you up from the Nursery. There was a deluge of rain and we were soaked. We got home dried off and we watched some cartoons for a little while. Then we rushed to the pet shop to get a bubbler for our pet fish. 

It was then that we learned that the Queen had a medical emergency in Balmoral. Later we were eating dinner and that was when we learned that Queen had passed away. I was shocked son, I wasn't expecting the Queen to die now because she had just welcomed the new Prime Minister and seemed healthy. 

Now Prince Charles is King Charles III. I wish him the best, long life and good health. 

Tupperware Meal

I noticed the other day that the Tupperware in my home is microwave oven safe. I also noticed there was one Tupperware box that is close to the size of two instant noodle bricks. I could just about fit two instant noodle bricks in it with about half a centimeters space around the edges. 

I put the seasoning power in the Tupperware box and two instant noodle bricks, then I add just enough water to cover the noodles. Then I put the Tupperware box with noodles in the microwave oven for 10 minutes. The noodles come out perfect and I don't need to break them up into bits. Then I mix the noodles with plain white rice with no seasoning at all; I get a perfect meal for 3 that cost less than £1. You could also top off the instant noodles with frozen vegetables, very nice. 

I wonder if there is stoneware cooking tray with the same dimensions as the Tupperware box. That would be perfect. Then I could put it in a conventional oven and stack it with other things without using much energy. I would cook the noodles and jacket potatoes together. 

Someone at my work place has Bombay Bad boy flavoured pot noodles for lunch. I tried those instant noodles once, it burnt both ends 😆. I thought it was just a flavour. It was really spicy. 

Liz Truss Takes the Helm

A few days ago on Monday morning I learned that Liz Truss won the leadership race and became the Prime Minister of the UK. The impression I got from Liz Truss is that she is a problem solver, someone that has been solving complicated problems all her life. She worked in high positions in 'Shell' and 'A T &T' before. She now has a very big problem to solve so this will be interesting. I think her Dad is a Maths Professor. 

I was thinking, if they lowered VAT to about 15%, they would get the same revenue as last year because everything is inflated. That would help everyone because it would bring down the prices. VAT is 20% now so when I buy 5 t-shirts, one of them is just tax. I guess it's not that simple, right? 

This last six months of inflation has proven that we can't afford to rely on fossil fuels to power our world. I would say we should use water power because there are rivers everywhere on this island. We could put water wheels everywhere. I read somewhere that the average wind speed in the UK is highest in Europe but then I think to myself how long do those large windmills need to spin before they even offset their own carbon footprint; they have to burn a lot of fuel to make each one of those things. Why don't they make lots of smaller windmills instead of large ones. I don't know. 

New Leader

We are just hours away from finding out who will be the next Prime Minister of the UK. 

I have nothing to say.

Good luck to Rishi Or Liz, we are going to have a very hard time soon. 

Over the Moon

According to the news I heard on my smart speaker, NASA has prepared the most powerful rocket in the world to take astronauts back to the moon. I think the rocket is called Artemis 1. I'm guessing there will be a family of Artemis rockets. 

I wonder what they will do about the Radiation problem. The Appollo astronauts in the 70's narrowly avoided death because they went to the moon when it wasn't being hit by solar flares, they didn't know at the time that the radiation from a solar flare would kill the crew if they were on the moon. I think the moon and the Earth are hit by Solar Flares quite often but the Earth's magnetic field is very powerful and deflects the flares away; the moon doesn't have a magnetic field so the surface of the moon gets bombarded by radiation. 

I was also wondering why train drivers are paid more than bus drivers in England, I think it is more difficult to drive a bus than a train. Is it because they have a better trade union or something like that? I don't know. I always see RMT on the news organising strike action. 

Sometimes the world doesn't make sense. 

Air-Fryer Pasty

I just realized the other day that you can put a  pasty in an air-fryer without using cooking oil and it will bake it like it is in an oven. It comes out just right every time because the heat is always consistent. This also works with all my favourite vegetarian sausage rolls I buy from the frozen section. 

I like the air-fryer in my household, it has a mechanical timer that turns off the oven automatically when the time is up. You just set the time and the temperature and then leave it. When it is finished it rings a mechanical bell from inside the casing and turns off, it is very much like a toaster oven.

I wonder if I can make jacket potatoes with an air-fryer. 

August 2022

In August it was a bit cooler than July but still very dry and sunny. Towards the end of the month it rained a bit. 

It was during August that I realized that we will have a recession in winter. I am certain there will be a recession in the winter months because the price cap on electricity and gas will go up and cash set aside for spending will be used to pay energy bills. I'm not a grim outcome seeker, or a super intelligent man, I'm just an ordinary man that can see where the ball is going. I think many small businesses will stop making profit soon because people will be spending less and they will be paying more. In mid October people will turn their heating on at night and will have less money to spend. 

I was looking at the James Web Space Telescope site often. They were looking at all sorts of things. They even saw the atmosphere of an exoplanet and could see that is was made of carbon dioxide; 90's-alan would never imagine in his lifetime that we would look directly at planets in other solar systems. 

I can now see what 12 years of British austerity has done to the police force. Many lawless people felt free to brandish weapons during daylight hours and use them. There was even a little girl shot dead in Liverpool. It was very obvious that we had a lot more crime. It has been steadily increasing. You can't compromise the police force  without increasing crime unfortunately. 

Several people from inside technology companies claimed that their AI thinking machines were conscious and self-aware. Many people are worried that thinking machines will become sly and turn against mankind. The question is, can you become sly just by thinking or is it a design feature. I try to imagine machines being my friend. If they do things that people could never do then they will create more jobs or if they only do our jobs better then they will destroy our jobs. I don't know what is going to happen. I can only guess. 

I try to be happy. I have to pray more and try to feel ok.