Heart of a Man

In the olden days, some men would choose to settle their disputes with a duel. They would invite the other man to take weapon and they would fight them to the death. 200 years later, I figured out what was wrong. Those men that chose to duel were deceived by their hearts. Their deepest thoughts had led them to make their ego and glory more important than integrity, peace and the wellbeing of people. The heart of a man, his deepest thoughts and feelings are the most vile and evil things in the world. The heart of a man is sly like a cunning weasel. Never trust your heart. Never listen to it. Always look for insight and integrity. Try to learn to be blameless if you can. Maybe I'm wrong. 

I was wondering if the dinosaurs had four chambered hearts like humans and other mammals. We have four chambered hearts so the used blood is sent straight to the lungs and we can release carbon dioxide better then reptiles and amphibians. When a human heart pumps, it pumps rich blood to the tissues and used blood to the lungs. Having a four chambered heart gives us endurance; a human can run many kilometres without stopping, a lizard can't because it only has a 3 chambered heart. Oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood is mixed together. 

Noisy London Underground

I consider the London Metro train system known as the Underground to be noisy compared to other metro rail systems. I think the reason is because it uses direct current to power the trains. 

A typical London underground train runs on two rails for the wheels and collects electricity from two live rails. The live rails use direct electrical current so there has to be many metal plates that gather the charge from the rails, they're dragged along the rails and make scraping sound. 

The trains can't share the same loop so the live rails interrupt, when the power plates leave the live rails they make a pop sound because the current briefly goes through the air; you hear "pop pop, pop pop". The popping sound is the negative and positive plates leaving one live rail and touching another. It goes "pop pop, pop pop. Pop pop, pop pop" over and over again. 

With AC  power, all the trains can share the same loop because the train's transformer divides the power and takes a smaller current for the train cleanly. Plus, it only needs one or two plates to gather the power so you only get a small scraping sound. 

The London underground existed before AC current was invented, it's not their fault. The trains are still very efficient  though. I guess it's low on their priorities to change the power system for the underground trains. They have pushed the old technology to limits as far as it can go and I think they did a good job. 

October Blow

I recently learned that from October, the start of autumn, ofgem are going increase the energy price cap by 10%. This means Brits will pay more for electricity and gas in the colder months. It is out of our control at the moment because we import most of our fuel for energy. I want to share my idea with my fellow Brits,it may help. 

It would be nice if the government built metal frames above train tracks that have solar panels on the top. If all the above ground portions of the railways had solar panels above them, we could have the largest solar farm in the world. The solar farm would sell power back to the grid and bring down the cost of running the railways as well. They zig zag many times across the whole country. The frames would act like boxes and keep the heat off the tracks and rain off the trains so it would reduce the need for maintenance a little bit. 

Late Summer

It is the late part of summer, summer 2024 here in Britain is very much about coming to terms with a change of leadership. It was in summer that the conservatives set the general election early and lost. Now Britain is run by a labour leadsrship. I don't have a political polarity, I wish them good luck. I do like the idea of all the railways being nationalised again like it was in the '90s. If they can pull it off then godspeed to them. 

It is nice and warm, the heat is welcome. 

In my town, a bus company removed themselves from my town and the rival company took over all the routes. I think my town is too small to have two bus operators, perhaps the buses around here will be seamless and better value now, we'll see. 

I keep my chin up for progress and better living standards. Perhaps this new government has a good plan to bring down the cost of living in general. 

Hang Glider

Hang gliding must be one of the best leisure activities. You go up a big hill and start to run down the hill with a wing on your back. Then the glider lifts you up because it's glide path is above the sloping ground below. Hang gliding is on my bucket list of things try. 

I was wondering if flying cars should have a soft fabric wing like a hang glider; when they show concept flying cars, the vehicles always have a solid wing that folds up. Why not have a fabric wing that is stretched over a frame. It would weigh less and take up less space. It could open up like an umbrella and then fold up when it's not being used. 

Flying Home

I fly back home from the Americas after visiting relatives as often as I can and the same thing happens every time on my journey home. 

I tell myself I like movies, but I usually don't because the same stuff happens, a villain emerges and people shoot stuff at the villain or hit it until it dies or gets crippled, "yawn". I then accept that I don't like movies and stop playing them. Then I listen to a podcast or music and open the flight map, the sound plays in the background. 

When plane reaches Britain, it flies next to the Cornwall and Devon peninsula and stays in a straight line until it is above Portsmouth and turns north east. Then when the plane is above a rural area it starts to roll left and right to slow the plane down, causing the plane to make a zig zag path and make it descend more quickly; it is very hard to slow down a heavy plane loaded with stuff flying more than 10 kilometres above sea level at two thirds the speed of sound. I guess rolling left and right is the best way. The air at 10 to 12 km above sea level  is very thin so it doesn't really give you a lot of friction to slow down. 

The number of times it rolls in a zig zag depends on how much stuff is on the plane, it's usually about 10 times I think. Then it turns again and flies past the airport over London because the landing runway faces west. Then when it turns the last time, they lower the flaps a bit to create more drag, the plane starts to vibrate, then you hear the landing gear drop down. Then it lands and becomes a coach on the airport apron roads. 

It's a bit more straightforward when they fly from Europe I think, the plane descends above the Thames estuary and doesn't need to turn around because it's already facing west. 

I don't know if an Atlantic incoming flight is always like that, but it does that every time I'm on it. 

Surface to Space Pie

I thought to myself that NASA should ask Greggs bakery in the UK to make surface to Space pie spaceship for them 😂 They make very good vegan sausage rolls, so they should be able to make a space ship. 

American astronauts will get into anything, they'll even get into rocket systems that exploded on the launch pad during testing. They're a brave bunch, they really are. 

There are two American astronauts stuck in space right now because the Boeing Dreamliner return capsule is stuck on the international space station; it won't detatch from the portal. I often wonder if it is a good idea to let private companies operate space missions. Is privatisation always the answer? I don't know.