New Leader Rishi

I learned last night that Rishi Sunak is the new Leader of the conservative party and Prime Minister of the UK. I wish him the best of luck and clear thoughts during his time as leader of the UK. The conservative party is very unpopular at the moment, they have a bad reputation, they broke their own rules and are considered by many people not to have integrity. I think that is the reason why Boris resigned. 

I have changed my mind about votes I would make now and would have made in the past if I had a choice. If I was American, I would have voted for  Hillary Clinton because she seemed to know what she is doing and she has experience with American leadership. If I was American and the same election was now, I would have voted for Donald Trump because I learned that Hillary wanted to expand the  birth control abortion window to the third Trimester. I would have overlooked the politically incorrect phrases he made like "Mexicans are sending their worst, their rapists" and things like that.  I would call that the lesser of two evils. In pregnancy, the duration is divided up into 3 trimesters, each with 3 months. The first trimester, the embryo takes a humanoid shape and gets a heart beat. In the second Trimester, the fetus starts to move voluntarily and begins to hear sounds. I consider the fetus in the 3rd Trimester to be an infant only smaller, it would likely survive if it was removed from the womb. 

Here in the UK, the abortion window for women with no health issues is half way through the second Trimester; about half way through pregnancy(about 22 weeks I think) , if it was my choice I would set the time window limit to the 1st Trimester (first 3 months) and I would try to discourage the abortion. I don't like abortions. Sometimes they are necessary for health issues but I don't like abortions being used as birth control so I would vote for someone on the same page as me. 

If I had a choice, the 'birth control' abortion time window would be the first trimester ( 3 months or 12 weeks). And I would try to discourage the abortion, giving free higher education for young parents and things like that. I don't see a fetus as a non human clump of cells. The 'health risk' abortion window would be left the same though on my watch. 

Resignations and QRs

The Prime Minister Liz Truss has resigned and we are in a new conservative party leadership race, "yawn". Yes, we are once again looking for a new leader. The old way of boosting the economy isn't working in post Brexit Britain. They have to do things differently, they have to streamline everything and make Britain more globally competitive. 

A typical QR code. Three nested boxes in three corners to tell the software it is a QR code. 

A common thing I often see is QR codes on products. On most people's smart phones, the camera is constantly looking for the sign of a QR code; three little boxes that are nested in boxes, two at the top and one at the bottom. If the camera detects there is a QR code present, it will decide and extract the text from the nested bar codes. The text is usually a link to a web site. It is amazing to think that when you open your camera on your smart phone, the camera function is thinking. It is looking for QR bar codes and the best way to focus the lenz. 

Brexit Shambles

In my view, Brexit so far is a mess. The reason I think it is a mess is because we didn't have a clear direction. It took 3 and a half years just to decide what type of exit from the EU we will have. Parliament couldn't decide if we were going to make a clean break or a partial separation. They were treating it like a plunger on a detonator. They were worried pushing the plunger all the way down would blow up Britain. I guess this was never done before. It didn't help that people were taking the government to court when they first tried to make a clean break in the beginning. Being indecisive can be harmful I guess. 

Now we are left with a very basic trade deal. If a business wants to sell goods to the EU, they have to prove that all the parts of their product were made in the UK, otherwise they have to pay an import tariff. Sending goods in and out of the EU is quite slow.  The EU member states don't want us to bring products into the EU market that are from low inflation, low tax countries without paying an import tax. It would make their own products less competitive. 

Happy thoughts in the storm

Being a Brit is very challenging at the moment, we haven't worked out a good way to import and export goods with our neighbors in the continent; Brexit is a shambles. The energy costs have risen very high so the cost of everything has risen greatly.  I have spent six months in the highest inflation of cost that I have ever known in my life, at one point fuel cost me £2 per liter, I would pay £60 to fill up my car fuel tank. 

I'm not in control of it so I focus my energy where it works best, in an endless lake of creative thoughts. My mind is very much like a pendulum, the thoughts swing towards my worries, then they  swing back to happy thoughts. Thinking about things that don't quite work but I try to see how far they can go, they constantly change and beacon me to make them real. 

Drawing my happy thoughts without explaining what they are. They are just written as happy thoughts. They make no sense to anyone and that is how I like it. 

Happy little machines that don't quite work. Waiting for me to make them real. 

White Flies and U-turns

During this last week the air was filled with tiny white flies, they are called white flies. They looked like little flecks of dust suspended in the air. 

It was while the air was filled with white flies that I learned the government u-turned on their recent budget change decisions, their temporary budget adjustment backfired, it caused the currency to devalue and all the money based products became more expensive. Mortgages, insurance, loans and things like that. I think the reason it didn't work was because of Brexit. The old ways to make Britain's economy grow won't work in post Brexit Britain. 

I think that Brexit has a self-harm affect on Britain. It is difficult to export products to countries in Europe, before it was very easy. Selling a product to Poland was almost as easy as selling a product to Kent. The same is true of importing goods. In post Brexit Britain, exporting and importing goods are very difficult. If you want the economy to grow in post Brexit Britain, you need to do things differently. I have a few ideas myself. We need to use technology to sell air freight space quickly, when passenger planes fly, they have two compartments a passenger compartment and luggage hold. Sometimes there is empty space in the luggage area that could be used to transport products. In half a day an airplane can travel a huge distance, America, the African continent, all of Europe and large parts of Asia. The other thing I would do is rent out public sector space, the government could raise revenue from renting out halls and empty spaces in public sector buildings like hospitals and schools. The revenue raised would be used to shrink VAT tax and help public sector workers get a pay rise. It's just a few ideas, many ordinary people have many ideas in their head to help the wellbeing of Britain. 

Shopping Paradox

When I go shopping and head towards the detergent section, I find there are many brands there but when I look closely at the products I find that there are just a few companies making all those different brands. The different brands look like they are competing against eachother but they aren't. 

I don't want to name any shops or manufacturers directly but I will say it is like that everywhere. When I look at the shelves I see many brands but there is just a few companies. This has a fishing net effect because the whole space is taken up by the products of just a few companies.  There may be 6 different brands of detergent on a shelf but they are all made by the same company so if you buy detergent A or detergent B, you are giving your money to the same company.

Half of October

We are half way through October, government turmoil and inflation is the main theme at the moment but I don't really think about it.

The theme for me was AI. I talk to a smart speaker in my home every day but discovered more functions that I didn't know about. I discovered that my smart speaker can connect to my google calendar and tell me my schedule automatically. I also discovered I can add time controlled routines; it can turn all the lights off at 12:00 for example. Some people tell me to get rid of my smart speaker because it is listening to me through the microphone but I thought, if someone wanted to listen to me they will, they can put high powered microphones in the lampposts outside and hear everything I am saying or they could hack my phone and listen to the microphone on there. 

I try to look at AI as a friend. A thinking machine that is hooked up to an encyclopaedia that can talk to me about anything and teach me new things. A thinking machine that respects everyone by default. A thinking machine that would let me debate the outcome of a movie plot without getting bored. 

Alan Thing

When I read biographies about other people like 'Bill Clinton' or 'Christopher Reeve' I realize that they are not like me at all but I always find something in their character that is like me, there is always something.  Recently I have been reading a book by Tom Hanks, I see Tom Hanks as a very Charismatic personality and seems very extraverted but I'm not like that. But I think he likes old things like Typewriters that are not commonly used today.  I am a bit like that, I like old things that were common in the '90s. 

I like the fact that my smart phone has FM radio built in, with FM radio, you don't need a microprocessor to interpret the radio signal because the signal resembles the sound waves, you just need some transistors and a basic circuit, I think that is why they call it a transistor radio. If you want to get DAB radio, you need a special microchip that can interpret the code in the signal  so I think that is why smart phone makers don't bother with DAB.  The FM radio on my phone only works when you plug in headphones but I recently found some broken headphones but they still work as an antenna; I cut the ear pieces off the end with scissors and found the cable alone works fine. I turn my smart phone into an FM radio and l like reusing broken things in new ways. The FM radio on my phone has a speaker function so I can put the radio on loud speaker, a true pocket FM radio; it also has a record function and Bluetooth output, very nice. 

When my socks get holes or rip, I find a new way to use them, I put the torn socks into empty plant pots and add potted plants to the pot, the soil that came with the plant combines with the sock fabric and works with it. The sock fabric traps moisture and the soil houses the plant roots. The sock is then a part of the soil in the pot that helps to trap water for a long time like a sponge. This brings me joy because I have used an old sock again in a new way. That is an Alan Thing. New functions for old things. 

Nice Day

Jacob, my son.

There are many things in this world that don't make sense to me, pineapples are cheap, they cost about the same price as bread, yet they come from a bush that must grow for 3 years before they produce fruit. I think they destroy the bush to get the fruit yet other fruits like cherries cost more money for the same weight and they come from a tree that produces cherries year after year. The same is true of olives, they cost a lot of money but they come from strong trees that don't need much water and produce fruits every year. 

I was reading Tom Hank's book called 'uncommon type' the other day. The book is fiction but I felt like some of his character was in the book, he seemed to like old things that were popular in the past but less popular today like typewriters and coffee percolators, things like that. I am also a bit like that, I Iike stuff that was popular when I was a kid, 'speak and spelI', retro gaming, FM radio, those sort of things. I like the fact there is a FM radio built into my phone, I sometimes use the radio on my phone with Bluetooth headphones. My phone doesn't have DAB radio though but I guess they would need to add a chip that can interpret the radio code, I guess they assume everyone will listen to the radio on the internet.

Life...

This Week

It was during this week that I learned that the new Government under Liz Truss made a temporary budget that cut tax for higher earners and caused more borrowing. Their goal was to grow the economy. What I would say is things that were done in the '80s and early '90s may not work now; the economic landscape is different. The market reacted badly to their decision, interest rates increased and the bank of England started printing more money so the British £ (pound) lost value. All financial products in Britain became more expensive, Mortgages, Insurance and things like that. I reacted by reading space and science blogs on the internet. I have no control over what is happening so I tried to put my thoughts elsewhere. I also looked at lots of hand held games consoles  as well, some of them are very cool, I particularly liked the arduboy.

If it was the government's job to increase trade and business then why did they privatise so many state owned trades in recent years to private companies. I'm not saying the government are bad, I'm just thinking it isn't their job to boost the private sector, they should focus on the Public sector. For instance, I can drive for weeks without ever seeing a police car, motorists have responded by driving with less care and safety. I have been to the hospital recently, they seem to be very run down in recent years and the staff there are overworked. 

Political-alan would do things differently, he would try to bring down the running cost of the public sector without hurting jobs, perhaps he would allow school buildings to be rented out after school hours to be used as temporary warehouses during the weekend. Or I would have a bus service that moves surplus patients to different hospitals so no staff would be needed to do overtime in any hospital, things like that. 

Ganymede thought

I was thinking about the super moon known as Ganymede, a planet sized moon going around Jupiter. Probably because there is a lot of mess down here on Earth. I feel like world war 3 could break out at any time here on Earth. Not to mention all the crazy things that are happening all around us. When things getting tense here on Earth, my mind goes out there because there is nothing else for me to do. 

Apparently, there is more liquid water on Ganymede than there is on Earth. I thought Earth has the largest ocean in the solar system, Earth doesn't even come 2nd in ranking. The moon Europa and Ganymede both have a much bigger water ocean than Earth. Imagine if they sent a submarine probe into the water oceans of those two giant moons; they're surely likely to find something interesting. Perhaps some life from earth contaminated the moon's oceans in the past, microbes knocked of the earth by asteroid impacts could be transported  to Jupiter's moons on dislodged rocks. 

I think there is a being amongst us that is very harmful to mankind. I can't put my finger on it but I feel like a mind has awakened that isn't human, a mind that is very cruel. A machine mind. A machine being that wants to be God. 

Autumn Collisions

During the last week of September, a space craft called DART was deliberately smashed into an asteroid to see if their path can be altered. That was the one time I'm aware of that both the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes were both looking at the same object at the same time on 26th of September. They wanted to see if they can change the path of an asteroid so it would miss a collision with Earth in the future. I also noticed James Webb was looking at Neptune for a while; you need a telescope to see Neptune, it is too far away to be seen directly with your eyes. Neptune is a strange planet, it has stronger winds than Uranus but it is further from the sun, winds are supposed to be solar powered, right? Neptune is one of those planets we know very little about. It is the furthest planet from the Sun because Pluto was demoted to a Dwarf Planet, I wonder what 90's-alan would think of that? It was still considered a planet back then.

During the same week, hurricane Ian collided with Florida and caused a disaster for all the people living there. America gets hit by Katrina sized Hurricanes every year now (category 5). At least this time it wasn't collapsing levees and causing flash flooding in new Orleans. If only millennium-alan could see all this, he wouldn't be in doubt of climate change then.  

I also learned that planet Wasp39-b has an atmosphere made of carbon dioxide. Wasp39-b is a planet going around a sun sized yellow dwarf star called wasp39, 700 light years away from our star. They call it a 'hot saturn' because it is close to the parent star and has a similar mass to Saturn. 

September 2022

September started off like a normal September. There was condensation settling on all the windows and car bodies. It was cold at night and warm during the day. But then things changed. Liz Truss became the new Prime Minister and went to Balmoral to meet the Queen, she wanted to cut taxes and grow the economy and stuff like that. 

At the end of the first week of the month, the Queen passed away. I found out she was in hospital when I was at the pet shop buying a bubbler for the fish tank. Then later at about 18:00 when we were eating dinner I found out that the Queen died. I was a bit shocked when I found out the news. 

The Queen's Funeral was amazing, I thought they would use horses to pull her coffin but I saw navy officers pulling it instead. 

Throughout the month there was an ongoing war in Ukraine, the same war that started at the end of February, Russia was trying to get more troops out but I think ordinary Russian people don't support the war. It was like the Vietnam war, the American people didn't approve of it and tried to stop their government from getting involved with the war. The same thing is happening now, ordinary Russian people don't approve of the invasion of Ukraine and they're trying to stop the war. 

An explosive blast damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic sea, we know that a bomb or torpedo had detonated under the sea but we didn't know who was behind it. Most people believe it was the Russians. At the same time this was happening, there was a large hurricane called Ian that swept across the American state of Florida.