Bus Cap Raise

I recently learned that the government have increased the national single bus fare cap from £2 to £3. The cost of running buses is usually more than the fare charged to customers, the government pays out the remaining cost to keep trips capped at £2. This was so cool because I took the bus from my town to Heathrow airport and paid just £2 for the whole trip. The only bad thing is it would work out cheaper to pay individual fares than get a bus pass in most situations, so if I bought a bus pass, I would feel like a mug. It looks like the government is clawing at funds to free up public funding, what a stressful time we live in. 

The other day I was looking at the Glasgow metro rail on YouTube, their trains look small like toy trains, but they get the job done. I've never been to Glasgow in Scotland, I have to go there and try out their neat little subway system and see what their city is like. 

Let me show you a video so you see that I mean...

Glasgow Metro

Sun Pass

One event that is outstanding during December at the end of the year is the breakthrough with the Parker solar probe sent by nasa. They managed to build up the speed of the probe to roughly 1 million kilometres per hour (430,000 miles per hour); it is the fastest moving man made object and it is going around the sun on a highly elliptical orbit, at its closest approach it is just 3.8 million kilometres from the surface; close enough to touch the edge of the sun's massive Corona atmosphere. It is the closest object to the sun that mankind has ever made. 

They made carbon foam panels to keep the spacecraft cool because the area around the sun is very hot. 

It looks like they're already able to see temporary structures on the sun created by magnetic fields. NASA seems to be curious about structures called zipbacks that can faintly be seen from earth with special powerful telescopes. 

What it was wondering was if carbon foam is so good a deflecting heat away, why don't they use the stuff to insulate houses, is it expensive to produce? 

I'll keep an eye on their findings. 

Browse Away

Life can sometimes be very difficult, stress, pain and unhappy memories can fill your mind. If you're lying in bed trying to sleep then those thoughts are pointless and can stop you from sleeping. I saw a video of man punch a guy in the head and the guy passed away in front of his parents. I felt pity for them because they lost their beloved son. I think the man that punched him was angry about him using pictures of his wife to promote a product. Even watching random videos can cause spurts of restless anger and sadness. I noticed 'x' has more confrontational videos then Facebook reels. 

The best thing to do is not to flick through random short videos. It is best to read books and browse products in online shops. Just look at things and read interesting things. 

I was looking at all those Chinese online shops like Temo to see if they sold cheap electric bikes, it turns out they do and you can get the price down to a few hundred £s. I have no intention of buying an electric bike, I just thought it is amazing that fully electric bike with self power mode can be bought for such a low price. Then I was looking at recliners like the lazy boy and train sets. They are low priority things but I was looking  at them anyway so I could stop thinking. The key is to stop thinking when it is time to rest. 

When you're done looking at interesting things, the next thing is to read books. If you have an Amazon prime account, you can read through some books for free. There is also a library e-book site called Libby that lets you borrow e-books from your local library. If you don't want to read books, you could read this blog, there are thousands of entries spread out over many years. I have a New King James Bible, it has a satin ribbon bookmark built into it so I can save the location I am at. It is nice to read the books of the prophets and see what they say will happen in the future. Then there is the gospels and then the letters to the early churches. 

Gemini Draws on Command

Last month in November I tried to get Google's Gemini ai to draw on command but it wouldn't do it. Yesterday I tried again and it worked, I asked it to draw an octopus playing pool. They must have updated it this month, some time in December. 

The Gemini app replaces Google assistant when it is installed and can be summoned by voice command. 

I don't know what is more amazing, a machine can create an image in its mind from words like a human, or it can draw a unique image in an instant. 

Another thing the shocked me is it is free to use. I never paid anything to use Gemini. Google does so much for so little. 

Wrong Values

I think people and society as a whole value the wrong things. I can give you an example with this conversation. 

Person A : "What did you do over the weekend? "

Person B: "I watched MasterChef, the chase and QI on demand. Then I went out for a drink and went to the cinema". 

Person A: "The sounds great, What about you person c" ? 

Person C: "I drew a pen sketch, I hate rushing it but I did it in 20 minutes, then while I was eating some sandwiches I used my free hand to write the text of my blog and added a scan of my pen sketch to the blog and posted it. Then I...."

Person A: "You have too much time on your hands". 

Person C: "But I didn't spend much..". 

Person A: "Life is short, why are you wasting time that Blog of yours"? 

You see, Person C was trying to explain that the time he spends on his blog is small and it is a constructive hobby that cost him almost nothing and takes up almost no space. To person A, having a hobby is a waste of time. He has no problem with watching TV or sitting in the pub. Person A values the wrong things and interrupted person c when he tried to explain himself. Don't explain yourself. Just say I did bits and bobs. I just did a few bits and bobs. No one cares for the truth anyway. 

If I was loaded (acquired wealth) I would buy a Nissan Leaf or a Tesla model C. People with half my wealth would be asking why I don't buy a BMW X5 or Audi A1. I would tell them I like the nissan leaf and I don't like to show off. No matter how wealthy I am, I wouldn't buy a luxury flashy car. I would be more interested in being able to play golf every other day than driving a car that looks flashy. 

People value superficial things like entertainment and prestige and self image, Something has gone wrong. The other things have become useless and meaningless to them. 

Short Time

During Spring time, daisies sprout out of the grass, they're tiny flowers with yellow centers. If you zoom into a daisy, you see a little world; a white valley with a yellow forest in the middle and countless little beings living in it, mites, microbes and things like that. It is little world that is unseen and forgotten, it appears in spring and dies not long after. 

If I stand in the surf zone on the beach and the waves are breaking over my feet and onto the sand, I can hear millions of tiny bubbles forming under the wave, they fizz and hiss for a while until they're all gone. 

Is this world a daisy in the grass, a bubble in the wave, it is there for a short time, then it is gone. Billions of stars and planets exist elsewhere, they don't know our world exists and wouldn't give us a second thought. We could be gone before other beings know we ever existed. 

If you suffer from chronic pain for a short time that should be a reminder that life doesn't end at death, it ends when you can no longer be a person. The quality of life could go before death. I could lose the use of my legs or eyesight before my time is up. 

Straight Day

Jacob, my Son.

When you think about it, there is nothing clear or straightforward about this world. It is even possible for someone born after you to be older than you. 

A person could be born at 1:00 am here in England, their friend in America could be born 2 hours later but they're in a different time zone and it is still the previous day over there so their records would show they're a day older than you, even though they were born when it is 3:00 am British time. If that person was born at 1:00 am on the 1st of January, it gets worse because their records will show they were born December the previous year. They would be born 2 hours after you but their records show they are a day older and born in a different  year. 

If you use my statement as an ice breaker in an awkwardly quiet room and it annoys them, you can blame your old man for mentioning it to you earlier. 

You could be walking along the pavement at 7 kph but what speed are you moving at? The Earth is going close to 67,000 mph around the sun and the earth is also spinning very fast and the speed varies depending how close you are to the equator. Half of the day the spin of the earth is going the same direction as the orbit and the other half it is moving against it. Suppose you can detect how fast the turf you walk on is moving, even that is not enough. The sun is also going around the centre of the galaxy and dragging the earth along with it. What about the universe, how do we know how fast the entire universe is moving? We could be moving at a million kilometres per second and have no idea. 

Nothing is straightforward when you think about it, but don't think about it too much. 

Sore Heels and Perks

I was thinking it would be a good idea for all the colleagues of a work place to put all their money together so they can all go on holiday very cheaply. Perhaps they could buy a small airplane like the Airbus ACJ220; I think they cost about £80 million but if everyone in a large organisation is paying £25 per month towards their holiday they would pay it off after 5 years. They would cancel all the luxury fixtures in the plane like the bedrooms and lounges and fill the plane with 250 seats. The plane would fly 3 times a day to a resort somewhere in the Mediterranean. I think only a large institute would be able to pull it off, like all the schools in the country or 3 retail giants in tandem. All the staff would pay a fee of £25 per month, then every year they can go on holiday with their family to a resort full board and with all the trimmings. I'm sure no one will even try it with all the red tape and risk involved. Never mind. 

In recent weeks I strained my Fibula ligaments in my left leg. It has been a tough winter so far. The injury has largely healed except for a sore heel. I think the heel bones in your feet are the most load bearing bones in the body. My legs are the only free vehicle I have, they're not to be taken for granted. Thank God I can walk. 

Merry Christmas. 

No Care

Over the weekend I noticed there was a bright star next to the moon. If a star is able to shine brightly amongst the sheen of the moon, it is usually a planet.  I checked on the internet and could confirm it was Jupiter. The moon is lined up slightly with Jupiter. No one cared or even took a picture for me on the internet. 

I think if you went into space, you wouldn't be able to see the stars because the glare of the sun would be more than the light of the stars; you would just see the blackness of deep space. We see the stars at night because we sit in the earth's shadow at night. 

There is more to the world than all the toil and politics of daily life. 

Assad Goes

There are so many countries at war right now, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine and Russia just to name a few. How many nations would be at war before they call it a world war? 

The significant event that happened recently is rebel groups in Syria have overthrown Bashar Al Assad's government forces and caused him to exit and claim asylum in another territory. 

The last time Bashar Assad lost control of his country, it didn't end well. The rebel groups merged with groups in Iraq and formed a Califate called Isis. The Khalifa of Isis ordered all the Christian and Yazidi men in the region to be exterminated and their women to be slaves. We all saw large multitudes of Christians being lined up by river banks and shot in the head. 

I think the rebel forces attacked the Syrian authorities because their ally Russia was busy dealing with their own war against Ukraine. It was received as an invitation to the rebels I guess. 

I won't lie, I worry about them. I don't like communities being killed. 

Small Life Hack

If you don't like the flavour of instant noodles or you feel like they're too salty, you can buy plain instant noodle nests and cuppa soup sachets. They come in a powder form. They also don't take much space in your cupboard. 

You have more choice of flavours and the price is less when you buy plain instant noodles and flavour sachets separately. 

You can get 5 sachets, that is 5 meals, and mix it with plain instant noodles nests. You can add real vegetables and small pastries and still get change from £1 for each meal. You would want to steam the vegetables separately in the microwave or in an clay pot in the oven though. 

I wonder if it would work with pasta? Can you cook pasta with dehydrated soup?