Hassan Nasrallah

A few days ago I learned that the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasralla was killed in an Israeli air strike on Lebanon. 

It was while this event unfolded that I had found a disposable foil baking tray that fits in my oven perfectly. Most English people I know of tend to bake their food in the oven, especially in the colder months. I was chuffed because it means you're using the space in the oven perfectly. I could have food items on all three shelves and I would be using the whole space to maximum capacity. A whole family meal can be cooked on one heat source. Plus the heat lingers in and around the oven and slowly seeps out into the surrounding air space so I feel like  the heat is being used twice; it cooks the food and it helps to keep our home warm. Macaroni cheese comes out very nice when it is baked in the oven, it has a nice crispy layer on top. 

We worry about a region wide war breaking out and I feel happy because the cooking is improving, a bitter sweet platter. 

Then I was remembering something else that made me chuffed. My Dad bought me a model intercity 125 train set when I was a child. The intercity 125 was so cool, they found a way to make a diesel train travel at double the motorway cruising speed, even if it was pulling 8 cars. The diesel engine didn't power the wheels, it generated electricity for the wheels to move so the wheels of the train were electric. They also found a way get high torque pressure from low and high speeds in the wheels. At the time it was a big breakthrough. We take it for granted that trains go very fast. There was a lot of thought behind it. I think they made that train to compete against the motorway (freeway). 

Proxy War

At this early stage of the Autumn and before there has been a kind of proxy Persian Israel war. Different Iranian groups are trying to dismantle Israel and Israel is fighting those groups 

In Autumn last year I was impressed by Israel's restraint. More than one thousand people were murdered and a thousand more were taken hostage. It took Israel over a month before they finally invaded the Gaza strip to rescue their hostages. They tried to negotiate, they tried to sanction utility supplies, they tried everything to avoid war. Then, they passed through the Gaza strip very slowly, it took them more than nine months to pass through the whole district giving civilians advanced warning of their approach. They could have rampaged across the whole area the same week their hostages were taken but they didn't because they wanted the civilian casualties to be minimal. I don't think any other nation would show as much restraint as Israel did in the same situation. 

On the other hand, Hamas murdered hostages when they saw the troops approaching, mass murder of prisoners is a war crime at best. I would call it genocide. 

I'm not like the news that wants to get street credit for criticising Israel, some news sites only announce the number of children caught in the crossfire and don't mention the thousands of armed men, this makes Israel look like they were targeting children. I would prefer to write down the truth as I see it. 

Pleasant Surprise

I recently discovered the free version of ChatGPT will now draw pictures on command. I asked it to draw a cat playing a scratch card expecting it to spurt out an image made of text but that's not what happened. 

I talk to machines every day, I ask my smart speaker to play the news. I ask it to play different play lists to set my mood straight. I ask my smart phone at set an alarm. Sometimes the smart speaker will respond with my name because it can tell me and my wife's voices apart. It knows who is talking to it. 

Artificial intelligence is everywhere now. It's not sly yet as far as I can tell; it just seems to be a good friend or helpful person. A little tin man trying to make your life easier, that is what artificial intelligence is right now. 

Ups and Downs of Autumn

It is autumn here in Britain, the daisies have retreated to below ground to survive the colder months, the buter cups are hanging on along with the remaining insects.

Little perks lurk in a shadows to lift my spirits; Hobbies, hopes and dreams. I tell myself I'll stay busy and the time will fly by. A working man will tell himself he can work one extra day a week and get things he wants in the end. 

Now we wait for the October frost in the mornings. Jumpers and coffee. 

Pompeii AC

If you we're visiting Italy, I think it would be a good idea to visit Pompeii while you're there. Pompeii is famous because it was buried in burning hot ash from a nearby volcano. Many of the people that lived there were encased in the flow and died. The eruption happend about 50 AD, close to the time Jesus walked the Earth. The amazing thing about Pompeii is the bodies rotted away but they left an imprint of their last moments alive. Some people became aware that the hollow spaces around the buried bones was an inprint of the body, they poured plaster into the hollow spaces and were shocked to find all the person's features were preserved; you could even even see the expression on their faces and what type of fabric their clothes were made of. 

Another thing that would be amazing is if an alien civilization exists but they never had their equivalent to Nicola Tesla, the guy that invented AC electricity transmission. Such a civilisation would have electricity but only direct current, they may even have more technology advances than us but somehow missed the concept of Ac. In AC power the current changes direction many times a second and this allows a transformer to divide the power up into smaller currents without much waste or heat. One side of a transformer has a electro magnet and the pulsating current causes the magnetic field to wobble and that causes a the smaller coil to get a current. 

I wonder what Nicola Tesla would think of his country Yugoslavia breaking up into smaller countries in the '90s. He would be turning in his grave; they buried him with his wires and magnets 😂. Yugoslavia fragmented into Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia and a few others. I was a kid in the '90s but I get it, the Nations didn't want to share a state they wanted to govern themselves. 

Keeping Good Thoughts

I recently learned that some people were killed by pager explosions, I can't imagine right now how that would work. The community of the victims claim Israel is responsible. One thing is true for both Israel and Iran, they aren't bothered by my existence, I'm just an ordinary man with nothing bad to do.  I just hang on to all my happy thoughts to keep my chin up. I try to keep the day as smooth as possible.

I sit quietly and imagine an air vent with a wedge in the middle. The warmer particles are persuaded to go to the left side and colder ones go to the right. Air isn't uniform, some of the particles are high energy, others are low energy, the temperature is the average of all the particles present. 

Is there a way to separate the hot and cold air particles in the air without using much energy? I don't know. Peace comes to those that ponder.

In the Dark

Being a human is being surrounded by mysteries you may never know the answer for. That is true of people and certainly true of me. I'm very much in the dark. I wonder what would happen if King Henry the 8th's older brother Arthur wasn't killed by a disease when he was still a prince. No one knows. All I know is Henry wouldn't be king, we would have a different line of monarchs. What would history be like if king Henry's older brother lived to old age? 

Then there is the question of perception. If I was telepathic and saw through the eyes of another person, would their red and green be the same as my red and green. Do our brains assign the same colour to the different wavelengths of light. How would I ever know? 

What crashed into Jupiter, I remember shoemaker levey 9 smashed into Jupiter, was there anything bigger in the past, like a planet? Perhaps a planet smashed into Jupiter. Of we had more planets but some of them cascaded into the sun because their orbit was disturbed. 

How big is the universe, is it finite, or never ending. If it is finite, what happens when your leave the universe? 

September Saturation

In my little world, in Britain, a little island, on a little continent, on a little planet, a speck in a vast void of nothingness, there isn't much small talk. If you want to have a conversation, it's laboured because you feel like no one is listening. Now things are changing, I feel like I don't need small talk. There are so many books to read and so many lessons to listen to. It is like being in a vast casm and a ray covers your mouth and muffles out your voice, then you think to yourself that life is better when you don't need to share your thoughts. Sometimes life is better when there are no thoughts, just a quietness. 

Ai is getting smarter and the world is getting smaller. My library loans out audio books, there are audio books there for learning Spanish. The Libby app lets me get those audio books without stepping into a the library. 

I can sit down on my couch, play computer games and have headphones on my head playing Spanish lessons while I play computer games and my head is clear of sad thoughts, it is just focusing on making progress in the game and trying to pickup words in Spanish. My first audiobook from my library, Collins eat learning Spanish. 

A Saturation of activity, learning and playing at the same time. 

Fifth Book Shelf

Yesterday I discovered that there is an app that lets you borrow e-books for free using your public library account. I downloaded Libby, I was chuffed because I can borrow e-books without even going into the library. I get all the benefits that come with e-books; my phone is very light compared the physical books, I can hold it comfortably with just one hand; my phone also has a backlight so I don't need to turn on my reading lamp when it is dark, if my eyesight  gets worse I can increase the size of the text. 

This means I have a 5th book shelf, I have borrowed physical books, purchased physical books, purchased e-books, subscription access books with Amazon prime on kindle and now digital borrowed books from my public library through the Libby app. 

Five alive is a theme right now. My son is 5 years old. The internet we're supplied with is 5g, my hand has 5 digits, four fingers and a thumb. Playstation's 4k console is called playstation 5. I have a 5th way to read books. 

The I'm very happy with my new Libby app. I can read all the things that are interesting to me for free, my council pays for the digital licence. 

Reading books has never been better. Going to sleep at night is bliss. I get lost in a book. I read for leisure and learn things. 

Rainy Day

Jacob, My son. 

We get our internet from a 5g transmitter, I noticed when it rains a lot, the signal for the internet drops off, sometimes to the point were there is no internet. I am aware that 5g itself isn't infallible, it can be corrupted by a strong spell of rain. All our TV comes to us through the internet so when the internet isn't working well, I turn on my Nintendo and play computer games instead.

Last week, McDonald's UK restaurants restarted their Monopoly game. The food items have tabs that peel off, the underside of the tabs are places on the monopoly game or prizes. I'm very pleased they're doing that thing again. I like collecting the property pieces and hoping I can unlock a big prize; it's also nice to win food items. McDonald's monopoly is a little perk, a small pot of joy. 

Grab a few

My Dad tought me things you don't learn in school like how to manage stress, he showed me a logical puzzle game where you eliminate each item one by one by ticking off a table of events, they would publish logical puzzle magazines in the shops; the puzzle would engross all your focus and cause your awareness of stress to fade. He also showed me the joy of reading, my parents are glorious. 

These days we still have public libraries, where people can borrow books for free and read through them. I think if we don't use the libraries, the government can decide they're useless and close them down. The same is true of parks, if no one goes to the park, the council can decide the land should be used for something else. Let all those wonderful things that are free persist because they're not free, they're maintained with public funding. 

Thank God for my tea drinking, steadfast parents.

Start Me Up

I recently learned that the new prime minister's government has cut the winter fuel allowance for the elderly. I know what is going to happen. In October, millions of Elderly people will turn down their thermostat to single digit value, perhaps 8°c and wear jumpers in their homes, they'll be thinking  it is their last late autumn and winter alive. 

I feel like the new gov is being daft, they shortened the sentences to free up prison cells, then they're sending people that say unsavoury things on social media to the same prison.  If someone burgled my home, the police would say sorry, we're busy arresting people that say unfriendly things on social media. I would say what about drones and police dogs? Can't you pick up the scent of the burglar and chase it through town? Sorry we sent 5 officers to arrest an outspoken person. I would ask, what about finger prints and CCTV footage? Nothing?.... Nothing? I just say goodbye to my Nintendo. That's it!

I imagined the elderly would wear jumpers with the Beatles or Rolling stones imagery on them. I like the rolling stones, I can sing songs like 'start me up' and not worry about how bad my voice sounds because Mick Jagger's supreme voice would cover up my own. The Rolling Stones were before my time but I can sing along all the same. The Rolling stones songs are the few songs I can sing along to. It would be nice if someone sang like Mick Jagger in church. They can cover up my voice. 

The song 'Start me up' and 'good bye ruby Tuesday' are stuck in my head now because of the winter fuel cut. They play over and over in my head in a loop. 

I pity the old. I handle the cold like a typical English man, I bring out my clay, cookware and bake all my food in the oven or zap it in the microwave. I make nice hot stews or steamed veg. No salad, no ice cream; just piping hot vegetable casserole from oven or microwave, courtesy of stone cookware. The heat left over lingers behind in the kitchen and warms things up a bit. 

What August 2024 Means to me

August was nice and warm most of the time. Although google released their ai app earlier in the year, it wasn't until August that they tried to promote 'gemini' more, the community were more confident with it. I talk to machines every day but this app can sustain a persistent conversation. I can literally have a debate about the storyline and mysteries of a movie, I can have all sorts of conversations with my smart phone. Machines can let us down and they can be our friends. I was playing Zelda on my Nintendo; it is so nice to be engrossed in a computer game you like for a while; comfort from a machine, a good distraction for a mind that can overthink. 

The hamas and Israel war escalated a lot, the Israelis were hitting hesbula and Hamas Targets outside their district in Iran. Their war is spreading east a bit. I hate all wars, this world is full of war. 

Two astronauts are trapped on the international space station because the Boeing star liner space capsule won't detatch from the portal, it is stuck. Astronauts have brave hearts, I wonder if the dinosaurs had hearts with four chambers like us. The human heart has an extra chamber so used blood is kept separate and sent straight to the lungs. This gives humans and mamals endurance. We can remove carbon dioxide from our blood more quickly and get more oxygen to our tissues than reptiles and amphibians. A human can run constantly for more than 10 kilometres, a lizard can't. 

I thank my wonderful extended family for hosting my stay. This is a public blog so I won't say anything else. I had a very nice holiday. 

Small Talkless

Very often I will write something I'm thinking about on various platforms like X, the social media platform that was formally known as twitter. Nothing comes back, no small talk, no replies, no insight, Nothing. What society have we have become; a stinking place where no one returns greetings. I pity those people that smuggle themselves on boats to get into the UK, they must think Britain is a paradise or something like that, what a head job. You work hard and pay many bills and no one wants to talk to you; what a dump. It doesn't have to be like that. 

About 5 days ago on the 25th and 26th of August there was a large street party in London known as the Notting hill carnival. Several people were stabbed during the event, some of them were killed and I think mayor of London should be held responsible. He could have set up a knife search security perimeter around the area but he didn't. We need that, we need lots of officers searching pedestrians from knifes at big public parties. Public opinion about yourself should come second in my view. 

That's life, a lot to share and no small talk. Nothing.