New Pope

Yesterday I learned that the Vatican cardinals had chosen a new pope to replace Pope Francis, he died from an age related illness on the 22nd of April. They chose Robert Prevost, he was born in the USA and had dual nationality, he is both Peruvian and a USA citizen. When I think of the Name Robert, I instantly think of the famous British Radio manufacturer, they make all sorts of hybrid FM, Dab and Internet Radios and like to use polished wooden panels on some of their models, they look very cool. They Renamed him Pope Leo XIV(Leo the 14th). I think Leo means Lion in the Latin language. Pope Leo has a ring to it. 

Close to the time the pope was appointed, we had local councillor elections. The results of those elections had shown that the British community had largely written off the main parties and gravitated to independent leaders and the Reform Party. The Main Labour and Conservative parties had become very unpopular in recent months. 

While the Pope was appointed and local British councillors were elected, Nintendo had started manufacturing a new games console called Nintendo switch 2, it is like the Switch 1 but it can handle PlayStation 5 games and can run 4k games at their intended frame rate, for a portable console that is astonishing. The pre order market for the console had opened so one can buy the console before it was manufactured and shipped over. They will be shipped to Britain by June onwards. It is backwards compatible with switch 1 games. I don't like the prices of the switch 2 games though. 

Unfortunately there was a conflict at the India and Pakistan Border. The Indian government believes the Pakistan government was involved in an attack on their territory in Kashmir. The Pakistan government deny their involvement, they claim the terrorists worked alone and had nothing to do with them. There was an exchange of missile fire and the two nations are at loggerheads at the moment. Hopefully they will avoid war. I wish the best of luck to both nations. 

Odisha India Train Crash

On Friday evening there was a large train crash in Odisha in north east India. A passenger train crashed into a stationary freight train, then one of the derailed carriages caused a third train to crash. They think about 275 people were killed by the accident. It looks like June has got off to a bad start. 

I have never been to India but I consider their railways to be safe because accidents are rare and the railway is 115,000 km across, long enough to circle the Earth nearly 3 times. The accident was caused by a faulty signal; it showed a safe passage when there was a stationary freight train nearby. I don't blame anyone, sometimes faulty equipment can appear to be in working order, it may be functional for some time then begin to stop working. They are improving their railways but it takes time for such a large network. I feel some pity because that is a lot of people. Train journeys are safe but when they do crash, it is a big disaster. 

I think about Death every day because it can't be avoided. Every human being alive now will die in the near future. In the last few days I thought about death a bit more than normal. The one good thing about death is it humbles those that think about it. How could I be proud or racist when the final outcome of my body is to become dry bones with no thought or cares. One day I would not even be aware of the passing of time. I wouldn't know that 50 years has passed by because I'm without thought or care. Only the mercy or a resurrection would allow me to be conscious again.