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.