What March 2024 Means to me

March was different this year, there was so much rain that the river where I live had become completely saturated, it was filled to the brim and could barely take anymore water without overflowing. The event that stood out this month was learning that the princes of Wales received treatment for cancer. We never knew she had cancer; I thought it was only the king that had it. Cancer is caused by cancer cells, cells that are faulty and keep dividing and duplicating themselves until they kill the surrounding tissues. Your immune system usually kills cancer cells but on rare occasions, the immune cells can't detect that the cells are faulty. Cancer causes death when it spreads to other parts of the body and causes organ failure. 

A bit later in the month I learned that a giant multimillion tonne cargo ship had lost power and drifted into a major bridge in Baltimore Harbour, a major sea port in the USA. The bridge instantly toppled over. I couldn't help but think of a few paradoxes related to the accident. I wondered what would happen if a hammer that can't be stopped struck and object that can't be moved. Then I thought if there is a big bang that spurted out the universe, there must be a big detonator to set it off. Then I was wondering if there is a big detonator, what made the detonator exist? It probably wouldn't look like a plunger that you push down though. Then I remembered the suiz canal shipping disaster. A giant cargo ship got blown by the wind and wedged itself into the sides of the canal back in march 2021.

It was in march 2021 that the Suiz canal was blocked by a cargo ship. Now the flow of goods over a bridge was cut off by another shipping disaster because the bridge In Baltimore was toppled over in march 2024. The world seems to have an invisible 3 year clockwork to it or I make connections where they don't belong. 

Baltimore Bridge Disaster

Yesterday I learned that a 280 million tonne cargo ship lost power and crashed into Baltimore Bridge causing it to topple into the sea. Baltimore is a large port city in-between Washington and Virginia. It is the American equivalent to Portsmouth here in Britain. 

You can't stop a 280 million tonne cargo ship without engine power or significant distance unfortunately. It was just before I learned of the Baltimore Bridge Crash that I was thinking about EVs. 

Many electric cars can store more than 35 KWH(kilowatt-hours), my home uses about 5 KWH every day so electric car batteries could power my home for a whole week or more; to me that is astonishing, I never imagined they would make batteries that could store enough energy to power your house for weeks. Perhaps it would be normal to plug cars into a meter and power your house when there is a power cut. 

Last week of March

This is the last week of March, things are warming up a bit. The River in my town has reached the limits of its capacity, it can't carry any more water without overflowing. It has been like that for some days now. 

I was thinking, if there is a big bang that spurted out all matter in the universe, wouldn't there need to be a big detonator. In this world, every explosion has a trigger that caused it to happen. Those linear plunger ones that you push down comes to mind. You push the plunger down and it generates an electric charge, the charge runs across the explosive material and causes a chain reaction that leads to an explosion. 

Then I was thinking of a scenario where you're wearing roller skates and you have a dog on a leash pulling you along. Is that a vehicle? How would you define the vehicle? Dog and Skates? 

Then I was thinking what would happen if you kept zooming into an atom, you would see the quarks and other sub atomic particles that make it but then what? What are the sub atomic particles made of and all the smaller particles that make up those. 

Cancer in the royal Family

Recently at the tail end of winter and start of Spring 2024,  I learned that the Royal Family are dealing with cancer. Both King Charles the 3rd and the princes of Wales, Kate Middleton have cancer. The disease can affect anyone at any time. 

Cancer is caused by cancer cells, cells that are faulty and can't stop diving. The cancer cells cause the nearby tissues to die because they overcrowd the space and use up all the oxygen and glucose. Eventually if the cells are able to spread they would cause organ failure.

I try to make every day count because one day I will die like everyone else. No human I'm aware of has lived past 150 years of age. Even if it was normal to live beyond 200 years, that isn't a long time. 

Be Frank

In the middle of the '90s, John Major the prime minister privatised Britain's railways. The train network for a every region was fragmented into a separate private railway. Margaret Thatcher the previous prime minister thought it was a very bad idea to do that. I agree. 

The railway companies have to be honest but they don't need to be frank. If there is a way for you to save money on your journey, they won't tell you. 

If you're going from High Wycombe to Marylebone, you can get off the train at south Ruislip and tap into the oyster TFL (transport for London) network and only pay about £3.50 off peak, even if you're getting a Chiltern train. They won't tell you that, they'll let you buy a premium priced network ticket for the whole journey.  It's cheaper to buy ticket to south Ruislip and catch another train from the same platform after you have tapped into the TFL network. Private companies are there to make money. 

Helter Skelter Spring

It is true Spring now, the word for the season and the object called a spring are spelled the same and sound the same so when I think of spring time, I think of things that have a helix shape as well. I was remembering riding the helter Skelter at the fair ground. I thought it was clever because they realised that the stiff fibers on a coir-Matt has very little friction when it is placed on a metallic surface or on wood. The coir-matt allowed you to go down a shallow prolonged slide that spirals downwards. Without the coir-matt the slide wouldn't work because the slope angle was too shallow. 

This spring is the first time I tried the Kombucha drink. It is a tea mixed with juice and live bacteria. The bacteria are friendly and the ones that are able to pass through your stomach alive start to live in your intestines and help your guts. You could say it has lasting health benefits. Since I took the drink I have been farting a bit less than normal. 

British Train Inconsistencies

I noticed the pricing on rail tickets in the UK are inconsistent. I'll give you an example..

The distance between Barking and Southend, and the distance between High Wycombe and Marylebone is roughly 50 km for both journeys but the rail providers charge different prices for off peak trips. 

A C2C train from Barking station to Southend central is £8.50, that is about 15p per kilometre. A trip from High Wycombe to Marylebone is more expensive. 

A journey of a similar distance, 50km is more expensive on the Chilterns railway, it costs about 26p per kilometre. It is so uncompetitive that it is cheaper to take an Uber if you have 4 passengers. 

If you have 4 passengers, the journey will cost £11.48 per person because the whole car ride is £45.93

My question is why? Why is it cheaper to travel 50 km in the C2C train network then the children railways? Is it because the Chiltern railways still use diesel trains? Is it because there are two train lines that go to Southend so they face more competition? I don't know the answer, I only know that every rail network has different prices for equivalent distances.