My New Hobby Applying Common Sense to 'UFOs'

UFO on Starbucks Island in the Pacific

Secureteam10 Youtube

Okay here's a novel thought how about you GO there and actually look instead of expecting tech to do all the work for you. However that being said if you turn on all the facilities of Google Earth you will spot the 'Green dots' are palm trees and rectangular objects near the 'UFO' are in fact: Guano camp buildings from the late 19th century a bit like this one:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/66856697.

The 'UFO' is probably a left over cart from that was used regularly to transport goods/coconuts from one side of the island back to the camp building creating the tracks. A simple solution really. As for objects moving through water the imagery for that island was taken in 2010 which would suggest that water levels have risen since that camp was abandoned back in the 19th century leaving the cart and the buildings underwater or the more simple solution would be that it was high tide when the images were taken. You can clearly see the sandy beach below the water.

Any dedicated researcher would have spotted this, took me less than a minute.


UFO Down South in Venezuela

Secureteam10 Youtube

Okay so you take A4 sheet and make a paper plane, launch the plane and it will fly in roughly a straight line. Fold one of the wing tips up and re-launch it, oh look it turns in circle. Enter a meteor hitting our atmosphere at very very fast speeds, losing mass, heat creates chemicals reactions in whatever the meteor is made up. It is likely to spin and turn, the problem is we rarely see this because of the angles we are viewing them hitting the atmosphere. This lady on Yahoo explains it better: Yahoo Questions

As to the question of why you are seeing so many of these is because we are smack bang in the middle of Geminid meteor shower which happens every December, it actually peaked a couple of days ago and is considered to be the most: "prolific meteor showers of the year" see Geminids Meteors And the best place to look to see them is towards the south Venezuela is quite far south.

Dog-Gate & Secret Santa Delivers Much Needed Tech

Dog-Gate

It's official Dogs are the aliens we have heard so much about and they are obviously so much in charge. Plus they are 'EVIL' according to an alleged tweet by Buzz Aldrin that the South Pole has something 'EVIL' in residence. This screenshot below from Google Maps/Earth clearly shows a giant dog carved into the Antarctic landscape this is obviously done in homage to great and all powerful Sky Dogs that secretly visit/crash our planet on a regular basis.

Of course it begs the questions about the dogs that walk the earth probably not man's best friend after all. I suspect the cats know all this which why they are content to ignore us and stay neutral in Terran affairs, as everybody knows cats spend a lot of their time in the secrets bases on the dark side of the moon.

 It just goes to show what a picture of some snow and ice can produce in the easily fearful human brain, just don’t tell THEM!

Secret Santa

Delivered to me today was much needed Tech, an telescopic stick with a light on the end much like the Alien detectors seen the 1979 film Alien see pictures below:

This Alien Detector has the added bonus of a magnetic end which allows me to capture any Aliens that are particularly metal or should they have for instance a metal dog collar on.  This improves my ability to detect Aliens a full 100%

Ads & Amazon's Grand Tour

Ads

Okay so may have noticed I have decided to put ads on my site (may not be there yet, they might not have approve me) not because I am expecting oodles of cash from it but purely from a curiosity point of view.  I hate ads I really do, I stopped watching terrestrial TV years old ago preferring to stick BBC iPlayer, Internet downloads and now in the last couple of years I use Amazon Prime.  All with zero ads that being said any where I go on the Internet ads are prolific but these at static ads YouTube being the exception, but I can choose not to look at them.

What is really interesting about Internet ads is how tech savvy kids in Macedonia recently made a bundle of cash and are still making it an average of $6000 a month by leveraging fake news websites mostly aimed at the American Presidential Election. Fake stories about Trump got more hits any Clinton which just goes to show there is no such thing as bad press in politics.

Questions have been raised about these fake stories on Facebook's news feed, could it have swayed the election.  Owners of Facebook say they a drop a in ocean but there is no definitive way to prove that except by comparing what stories the voters clicked on and asking the somewhat private question to each voter, how did you vote?  That information will never be forthcoming, those kids in Macedonia only do it for the cash reward they are not interested in the politics.  Now that the election is over they moving on to Sports so I suggest you pay particular attention in theory they could skew the odds.

We now exist in two realities, the real world and cyberspace.  Once upon a time everything in cyberspace mirrored everything in the real world in terms of facts and history. Now its cyberspace's turn with advent of Big data, social media and Ads.  The real world reality can created in cyberspace.

The Cold War had spies and misinformation today with have 16/17 year old's with fake news.

I am curious as to what happens next.

Amazon's Grand Tour

BBC's Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond left or were fired for various reasons involving steak I believe, lets not go there.  Amazon in their infinite wisdom and considering how big they are they must have some brought the team back together for twelve episodes of extreme fun with anything that has a petrol engine spread round the world.

Watched the first episode on the weekend.  They have junked the celebrities, kept the track (different one) and employed a American to drive the cars round a track.  Supposedly because Amazon wanted an American racing driver.  No Stig in evidence.  Despite the loss of the some of the original format from the previous BBC show it all still worked very well.

Fast cars going round racing tracks very fast what's not to love about that.  The banter between the Jeremy, James and Richard is just as good as ever.  Yes there were a number references to the old show but that is just typical British humour which worked because I laughed whether the audience laughed because someone held a sign up that said 'Laugh Now' is anybodies guess.

There is some rumours going round that the team have not liked working together on this series but you know what they say about rumours and fake news sites.  Although that being said the view from their big windows in the tent looks suspiciously like a green screen perfect irony for a show called: Grand Tour.

I am however looking forward to the next episode.

The Hindsight Bubble

Bet Fair were offering 8 to 1 odds for Trump winning the election, normally the only gambling I do is low stakes poker but looking back upon his campaign I have realised that it was a forgone conclusion that he would win despite what everyone else thought.

The campaign itself was pure theatre and at no point did you think he was going to win, he however ripped up the rule book of political campaigning.  At no point did you know what was going to happen next, many of his speeches were completely unscripted.

It was not until towards the end of the campaign trail that the Obama/Clinton partnership realised that it was impossible to predict what Trump was going to do next.  Everything Trump did or said was designed to create controversy and it did not matter whether it was true and false.

It would not surprise me if many of the sexual allegations made against him were hoaxed by his own campaign.

This article from Vox shows Trump's ability to speak to the voters as opposed to speaking at them as most politicians do.

I read Trump's policies after he had won to see what what we were in for and what effect he would have on the world, to say I was surprised would be a somewhat understatement.  Zero evidence of a southern wall and in fact very little of what was said in sound bytes throughout the campaign appeared in his official policies.  His policies are heavily watered down versions of his rhetoric, unfortunately his ideas on huge tax cuts, deregulation and massive public spending looks like a recipe for disaster.  Although since he is a successful businessman I would like to think he has a better understanding of managing money and running a country than Hilary Clinton.  As Mae West said

"Between the lesser of two evils, I always pick the one I have not tried before."

Clinton had decided to stick with The Obama administration's failed policies which gave the voters an impossible choice.  The voter turn out was just over 50% a big drop from the last election, in one of his more understandable speeches Trump advised the voters not to vote which effectively took votes from the Democrats.  If the turn out had been higher it is possible that Trump would not have won.

This film from the BBC about HyperNormalisation shows how Trump's win occurred because of the way society and those that manage it have effectively placed us into mirrored bubbles of what we as a group or individuals wish to see.  The film is nearly 3 hours long but it is definitely worth watching.

Our perception of reality is controlled you only have to look at Amazon adverts to see that.

Shocking Lack of Rebels...

The locals think that because of the recent High Court ruling regarding the Prime Minister's ability to trigger Article 50 without parliamentary approval, Federation Guard shock troops have been sent in to quell rebels in the south east of England.

Aside from a few dogs the rebels have avoided capture.

The Federation Guard patrol close to Dover, Kent, UK

https://plus.google.com/u/0/111960508750934817380/posts/Yb6msJJddr4?sfc=true

Mr Robot Review 3/5 Stars

***WARNING SPOILER ALERT***

Whilst I have really enjoyed both seasons of Mr Robot (Amazon Original TV series) I can only give it three stars.  There are two reasons for this the first being that at the end of season one we discover the real identity of Mr Robot’s character effectively the plot/concept has been completely ripped from the film Fight Club.  Edward Norton’s character in Fight club was unable to sleep and his conscious effectively created a separate alter ego, this alter ego then set up the circumstances to blow up several buildings owned by credit card companies thereby erasing all records of credit card debt.  This film worked on so many levels and was beautifully directed.

Mr Robot has stolen the whole concept except in this version it was brought up to date and used a hack to encrypt Evil Corp’s database which creates a major financial crisis because nobody can access their money.

The second reason is that whilst the acting is superb throughout I have to ask is there some sort of competition between the actors to have a more startled open eyed expression than anyone else on the cast.  Rami Malek’s character I can understand he seems to be in a perpetual state of shock, however I see no reason for Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday and Sunita Mani to join in with this startled moose look.  Christian Slater appears to be the only one that is allowed a full range of expressions upon his face.

I do however love the writing and the direction it twists and turns perfectly all the way through, extremely well paced.  At no point was a I bored although Tyrell's character lacked a certain depth that made me question whether he would really thrown in with Elliot's character or not.

Incidentally in Fight Club there is a scene when Norton’s character is held by cops who are part of the revolution, they explain that they were told by Norton’s character to stop anyone from interfering with the plan even if it was Norton’s character doing the interfering.  In the last episode in season two of Mr Robot, Elliot is shot by Tyrell for exactly the same reasons.

I suppose you could say that about any story which has a character with a split personality but still it is a complete rip off!

The irony is I like Mr Robot more than Fight Club.

Blocked

If you are wondering why I have not posted anything for ages it is because someone has put a block on my ideas most people would blame a god of some description but since I am agnostic I do not have that luxury.  Instead I will blame the Multiverse in general, it should adhere to the correct entity responsible eventually.

What is that saying:

"If you wait long enough the head your enemy will float down the river in front of you...."

I assume that I would have to live by a river and sit on a bench beside it plus hopefully the river does not have a fast current otherwise I might missed if it passed by too quickly.  What happens if I am at work then I am bound to miss it, perhaps I could re-engineer the river so that stuff that is as big as a human head (assuming of course my enemy is human) travels on a loop which would increase the chances of me seeing it pass in front of me whilst I am sitting on the bench.

I know what you are thinking that this saying was probably not meant to be taken literally but if not literally does that mean that if I wait long enough then my enemy will be defeated if so how will I know?  If waited too long then I would be dead too!

As sayings goes it is not very helpful at all.

The thing is all rivers ultimately end up in one place, the sea okay I will admit some end up in lakes as well but effectively it will be a large body of water.  Which means the saying it inaccurate unless you know for a fact your enemy lives upstream to you and never travels downstream to you.

Perhaps if I wait long enough I will see the head of my enemy stitched onto another body entirely.

Cause and Effect

Why oh why do people have absolutely no common sense and can the eurosceptics be that dumb? Or is that so that they can paid for talking complete nonsense, is that me being cynical or a realist?

There has been a lot of news and I use the term loosely about Brexit having no effect on the British Economy aside from the knee-jerk reaction it had on day when the results came out which lasted for a about couple of weeks.

All the big names that voted out are now saying it has not had any effect at all.  Err Duh!  Of course it has not had an effect we have not left yet!  We will not be leaving for at least a couple of years, the Article 50 is not due to be triggered until February 2017 which means it will not be until 2019 before we have actually left the EU assuming negotiations go without a hitch.

The effect of actually leaving the EU will start to show up about half way through 2019, maybe after six months of trading with Europe incurring import/export costs (assuming we are not allowed into the single market) plus all the extra red tape and tariffs that will be added to the cost of doing business outside the single market will begin to pile up affecting profits to British businesses.

Although the Custom & Exercise people will probably have to employ me more staff due to the extra work created by the increased red tape, so a small silver lining there.

I only hope increased trade outside of Europe will offset these losses.

Excerpt from HM Revenue & Customs Website:

"In July 2016 the value of exports (EU and Non-EU) decreased to £23.9 billion, and imports (EU and Non-EU) decreased to £39.7 billion, compared with last month. Consequently the UK is a net importer this month, with imports exceeding exports by £15.9 billion."

https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/OverseasTradeStatistics/Pages/OTS.aspx

Check out the above link for more detailed information.

Ideally we should export more than we import however since December 2015 there has been an upward trend in imports and a small decline in exports.

This link explains the importance of exports:

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/7164/trade/importance-of-exports-to-the-economy/

The upshot is there will be no effect until the cause has actually occurred unless you are a politician/eurosceptic in Britain where upon they spin the effect before the cause.

In other news Pluto has started farting out X-rays in an attempt to be less coy on the edge of the Solar System:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/20/plutos_emitting_xrays_and_nasa_doesnt_quite_know_how/

Poor Man’s Penicillin

Whenever you are sick the ultimate answer is soup, someone will always say they will make some soup as if it can cure all.  I was brought up on Chicken Soup which was considered to be poor man’s penicillin.  I will give you two recipes my Dad’s original recipe and my tweaked version.

Dad’s Original Recipe

The amounts for the ingredients can vary dependent upon size of saucepan you are using, in theory if you can fit a small chicken in it with room to spare for vegetables then I would use a whole chicken however myself I tend to use chicken thighs my largest saucepan is not that big.

• Whole Chicken or 3-4 thighs (with skin on) or legs
• 3 Large potatoes (peeled and chopped medium sized) an alternative to potatoes you can use Turnips which is a sweet flavour
• 3-4 sticks of celery (chopped)
• 1 Sweet Onion (chopped, if you cannot get a sweet one you can use a normal large onion and a large banana shallot)
• 1 Leek (chopped)
• Chicken Stock (enough to cover all the ingredients)
• Ideally you need Chicken Fat if you can get it normally very difficult to get these days but you can do without it.
• 2 Carrots (chopped)
• Salt/Pepper

Layering the Saucepan

• Place the potatoes in the bottom of the saucepan followed by the celery then put the chicken on top.
• Sprinkle Salt & Pepper on top.
• Put Chopped leek on top
• Put Chopped Carrots on top
• Pour hot chicken stock/fat over the ingredients until covered.

Cooking

• Place on a high heat until it is boiling and then turned down to simmer and cover with lid.
• Check every 15 minutes and stir.
• The liquid will eventually go clearish and the smell will be amazing
• Taste after 45 minutes, check that the chicken is done.
• If you are cooking a whole chicken it may take as long as 90 minutes

Serving

You can serve the soup separately to the Chicken it is entirely up to you.

My Tweaks – Ingredient Changes

• Instead of potatoes I use one large sweet potato peeled and chopped (upon reheating tends to turn into a thick broth)
• Sea salt
• Celery seeds
• No chicken fat

I eat the chicken (thighs) with the soup normally takes about an hour to prepare and cook which is a quick and easy meal plus I always have leftovers I can reheat.

Pulling the Wool

I see Farage is being used by the Yanks now to show just how easily you can dupe the voters into doing what you want.

“You can beat the pollsters, you can beat the commentators, you can beat Washington. And you can do it by doing what we did for Brexit in Britain.”

The trick is simple really you just give them almost no information about what they are voting for and use an single election “promise” on the side of a bus that says you are going to save a lot of the taxpayers money.  Then let human nature run its course!

As everyone knows election promises are never kept not always the fault of the incoming government since they soon discover that not everything they were told whilst in opposition was technically on the up and up.  Effectively an election promise turns into dust when rammed against the hard rock of reality.

The other key to Brexit was having a stupid opposition that assumed they would win no matter what happened, that sort of optimism will always breed disaster for those that believe it.

You really did not need Farage there at all it would of happened without him, he was just going along for the ride paid for by the EU which is a whooping £109K salary including expenses.  More taxpayers money down the drain at least all of Europe contributes to his salary not just the UK.  I wonder how much Trump paid him to put in an appearance in Mississippi and has he declared it?

Admittedly this is nothing compare to (excerpt from Wikipedia):

“In May 2009, The Observer reported a Foreign Press Association speech given by Farage in which he had said that over his period as a Member of the European Parliament he had received a total of £2 million of taxpayers' money in staff, travel, and other expenses. In response, Farage said that in future all UKIP MEPs would provide monthly expense details.”

Conspiracy theorists will be having a field day with Farage and Trump, what really is happening in Mississippi?  Probably has something to do with Tall Eight hundred year old aliens, which is also just misinformation from a document supposedly created by the KGB to scare the west.

I do find it ironic that a MEP is considered to be instrumental in breaking up the EU when in fact it was the pro-EU Conservatives that did most of the damage themselves.

I am surprised the EU cannot sack him under the premise that he is working against the stability of the Union.

Dilbert’s strip today works on so many levels including politics perhaps it should be called: Fararumptium:

Genre Locked

During my teens the first book I ever read that was more than 50 pages was War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells which is about 200 pages.  It was also mostly likely the book that got me hooked on Sci-Fi but I digress, this particular novel took me several months to read not due to the length but it was down to the way it was written.  Basically it was hard to read, as I read more of Well’s books I discovered he had different styles of writing,  The Time Machine for instance was much easier to read than War of the Worlds.  Similarly C.S Lewis’s Sci-Fi novels which were only 200 pages each are heavy on philosophies and little on the action where as his Narnia Chronicles (written for kids) were a doddle to read admittedly a more extreme example of style of writing.

The problem I have had with books like these and I have read quite a few over the years is that they are locked into their specific genres there is no link to real life I suppose you might say ‘Duh!’ its fiction why should it do so.  To be clear I have read number of horror books by Clive Barker and James Herbert none these contained any humour which happens in real life all the time even in the most dire circumstances it is integral to way humans are wired although James Herbert’s Domain did contain some black humour.

Moving on from books to movies, until perhaps in the Die Hard films action movies contained very little humour similarly horrors contained zero humour whatsoever.  The more recent Marvel movies do contain limited amounts of humour whereas DC movies are quite dark and detached.

Apparently if the genre is of a serious nature there seems to be unwritten rule that no humour is allowed.

Should war films for instance been limited to only serious scenes to avoid detracting from the horrors of war.  I think it dehumanizes the fiction and makes it easier for people to watch that being said a film like Saving Private Ryan brought back some very bad memories for veterans of WWII.

Heroes are not allowed to laugh otherwise they would seem like everyone else in the minds of the readers/viewers.

Is this a purposeful detachment for fiction from reality?  Perhaps fiction should never be too real, I am aware totally aware this opening big can worms.

I have always found book/movies that contain humour far easy to read/watch, some of the more recent TV series have added humour into single episodes to offset this possible of loss viewers, to name a couple X-Files and Supernatural and curiously enough The Simpsons managed to do a wonderful Halloween special using Edge Allen Poe’s poem The Raven which reversed the humour beautifully.

These unwritten rules are slowly being broken however creators of fiction love to go retro, Crimson Peak for instance was a return to the Gothic Romance which had almost died out in the movies but still exists in books.

My own stories always contain an element of humour in order to anchor it and keep my readers awake or interested.

Perhaps people just cannot cope with multiple genres, ironic considering what is in the News everyday.

Why?

That age old question of Why? Why are we here?  Since the earliest days of humanity we have wondered why.  Even in this day and age there is no answer to the question and without that answer nothing really make sense other than what science has managed to discover so far.  Although science is more about the How and the What as opposed to the Why.

Even without the science of today early people solved this question by creating a workaround, we know it as Religion.  It solves so many problems, you don’t have to worry about the why anymore that is in the purview of the Gods or God depending upon your belief system.  They know all the answers or it’s their fault either way it is beyond our understanding therefore we do not need to know.

Early beliefs system centered around the Mother Earth, the Goddess (female) was more important than the God (male) primarily because females could create the miracle of life.  Later that changed and the Goddess’s were knocked off their thrones and it became a man’s world.  After that Religion went downhill somewhat to the point where it became more about the control of its subjects/believers than about providing answers to difficult questions.  Dogma has ruled ever since and the only new ideas are violent ones subverting what started out as peaceful systems of belief.  Throughout history Religion has been the prime excuse for violence/war/terror imagine what history would have been like if the question had never been asked or that Religion was never considered as an option.

Even if you do not have any religious beliefs you are still aware of the idea effectively Religion is the ultimate meme it has always been with us lurking in our memories.

Consider a thought experiment:

Perhaps our existence is not real but a simulation (see The Thirteenth Floor) then the answer to the question is simple and many of the gaps in science start to make sense as well (all that missing matter for instance).  No requirement for Religion at all.

Whether this life is real or not there is one simple truth to it which people never seem to get:

Life is hard!  Get over it!

Everything is hard the first time round, next time it is a little easier.

An easy life is boring which breeds stagnation and that is a killer to any civilization.

The upshot is that the answer to the question is that either it is very simple (seemed like a good idea at the time) or that it is incompatible with our current world view so it becomes unknowable.

The irony is we have created far harder lives for ourselves over a simple question.

Note: I do love the synchronicity of me coming across the following article on The Register.

Tied & Knotted

My pet hate is Neckties, a men's fashion that should of gone out with flares.  I hated wearing a tie in school not to mention it is somewhat dangerous. I mean come on who thought it would be a good idea to wrap a a piece of cloth round one's neck with a slip knot commonly used to hang people with?

I'm not the only one that thinks this: Question Everything?

Okay a little heavy on the sauce but you get my drift.

It is like Superheroes and capes pretty much the kiss of death, 32.5 people die every year from wearing a necktie.  I can only assume they brought back only 0.5 of person to get that figure, probably because the necktie was still attached.

Apparently we can blame the Chinese for this ludicrous idea, ta very much NOT!  Looks like the rest of world cloned your idea for a change and ironically a stupid one at that.

The following businesses: Google, Amazon, Apple and Ikea have banned neckties in their offices and promoted casual wear instead. They want their staff to feel relaxed and open caused that's when good ideas pop into the grey matter above their unrestricted necks.  Probably saves on higher life insurances premiums too. 

These businesses make oodles of cash based upon ideas invented by their staff which basically tells you neckties are evil to every other business out there that forces their staff to wear them, of course I maybe generalising like I always do.

The irony is that nowadays I just wear a polo shirt to work, I will no longer wear tie for anything.

Chess Limit

I can never remember anybody teaching me the game of chess though I can only assume my Dad taught me to play when I was young, in fact I do not remember to learning to play Draughts either (that's Checkers to everyone outside of the UK).  The thing is chess has a lot of potential moves in a single game, a chap called Claude Shannon estimated the number using game theory back in the 1950's when computers were the size of office blocks and cars were made out of real iron.

...10¹²³ moves.  As a comparison, the number of atoms in the observable universe, to which it is often compared, is estimated to be between 4×10⁷⁹ and 4×10⁸¹.

What I find ironic is the chess problem below all those moves reduced down to a handful (assuming you have 5 fingers).

In a chaotic system the possibilities are endless and the thing about chess whilst the rules are pretty strict there are some loopholes due to basic assumptions.  Are you playing to win or are you playing to create chaos.

A lot of bad things happening in Germany at the moment and the recent failed coup in Turkey suggests chaos is in the driving seat, did we put chaos there or was it a backseat driver?

What are the basic assumptions that create the loopholes in our system?

Does chaos have a navigator?

Flotsam #2

DOD endorses slave labour oh wait it isn't just iPhones, what's the inside scoop who is worst?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/07/19/us-army-ditches-android-for-faster-iphones/

Well its better than cherry picking the statistics to make it sound like you can save $£350 million, unfortunately it also means you cannot measure Boris's lack of success.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/19/boris-johnson-britain-should-not-commit-to-migration-target-to-a/

Who will teach the children about freedom now?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/19/turkey-sacks-15000-education-workers-in-purge 

That's the problem with a British Democracy its all red tape designed for what one thing to slow down the people in power from doing something really stupid, hey maybe that's a good thing...

https://next.ft.com/content/d37cf850-4da9-11e6-8172-e39ecd3b86fc

It is simple really play Ingress look where there is a big clump of XM switch to Pokemon, wait several days for the App to load or not at all and then...

http://www.lazygamer.net/mobile-gaming/poke-rader-another-service-thatll-help-track-missing-pokmon/ 

Err we are having been living in 1984 for a long time now, how is it you have just noticed?  Perhaps you were too busy with your phones.

https://next.ft.com/content/dc5e2104-4d88-11e6-88c5-db83e98a590a 

Not aware of his surroundings, I cannot see a smartphone anywhere.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/07/19/marathon-runner-smashes-his-you-know-what-into-a-post-6016167/

Pokemon vs. Ingress

Well the UK release of Pokemon Go occurred on Thursday 14th July and I reinstalled the App to my complete lack of surprise it failed to logon restarted the App and tried to logon again again again...until I closed it down.  If I tried to register not through my Google account it pointed me at a site that told me due to the high number of new accounts being created they have limited the number that can be added at any one time.

Before all of this however I visited the town (was a city until they forgot register for it) Rochester, Kent, UK.  It is a level 8 Ingress Enlightened (Frogs) farm of about eighty portals, I play for the Resistance (Smurfs).  The thing about Ingress is you get to blow stuff up as opposed to catching fluffy animals and then training them to fight one on one battles for you.  Blowing stuff up in an augmented reality is quite a de-stresser and at same time creates an adrenaline boost so much so I was quite wired for the rest of Thursday, however it reminded me of how much I like the game.

Do I want to blow stuff up for real, DEFINITELY NOT!  There are other aspects of Ingress like creating farms, fielding, hacking kit, glyph hacking kit, guardians etc which allows you to play the game the way you want.

You have chat within the game also, unfortunately any form of open chat environment on the Internet always leads to Trolls.  Pokemon Go does not have chat functionality whatsoever not surprising since there is no age limit on Pokemon Go unlike Ingress which is set to thirteen and older, you do not want young kids subjected to trolls through the game.  They get enough of that via every other form of social media.

Ingress has the capability to trade items between players unfortunately this can lead to cheating in the form of dual accounting whilst Pokemon Go does not have that feature at the moment.  Although one of the first reviews I read of the game suggested that trading would be part of the game.  Maybe that will be in a future release.

The thing about Ingress is that you can play as a lone wolf or as a team player or both it is entirely up to you.  From what I have seen of Pokemon Go so far it is centered on single player game play whilst it does have some team aspects not nearly as much as Ingress.

My suggestion to you is if you have kids let them play Pokemon whilst you play Ingress.  The PokeStops/Gyms are a direct copy of the Ingress Portals although they have thinned them out somewhat.

Ingress is the grown up version of Pokemon Go not surprising since it came first and is effectively its parent game.

Pokemon Go in its first week generated $14.04 million since its release whereas Ingress has only made $1.1 million this however is a poor comparison since Ingress only recently added a purchase system on the App last year whereas Pokemon Go started with it and Pokemon itself is a huge well known brand.

The irony is that the child has far surpassed its parent in earnings alone. 

Additional note: Pokemon Spawn points are linked to XM generation in Ingress.

Pokermon Go 1st Review

This new mobile app game recently released by Niantic the makers of Ingress is taking the world by storm the only problem being is that the high demand from users has made a pig's ear out of the servers running the game.  It has only been released in the USA and Australia, the UK released is on hold until they can guarantee good service.  That being said if you have an Android phone you can download it from here: APK Pokemon GO download

Which is exactly what I did earlier in the week, once installed on the phone it takes up a whooping 116 Megabytes (MB), admittedly it took a couple of attempts at downloading it the surge for the game was already building.

I am assuming the 116 MB is mostly for the 3D aspects of the game unlike Niantic's previous game Ingress whereby the screen is a very flat 2D environment in place of a walking Avatar that you have in Pokemon GO you have a filled in triangle.  There is augmented reality aspect to the game as well which uses the phone's camera to show the Pokemon's in the real world, I found this slowed the game down somewhat.

Niantic has used many of the portals created in Ingress for the PokeStops and Gyms in Pokemon Go however they have thinned them out quite a bit.

The basics of the game are simple:

• Catch Pokemon's by walking around and throwing PokeBalls at them when they appear
• Collect items from PokeStops (blue portals): PokeBalls, Potions, Eggs etc
• Power Up/Evolve your Pokemons using items you pick up when you catch them
• Hatch Eggs using a Incubator - walking powers it.
• Use the unclaimed Gyms or friendly Gyms to help train your Pokemons
• Capture Gyms (white portals) for your team (Blue/Red/Yellow)

The more you do the more experience (XP) you get which levels you up, you need to be level 5 before you can enter a Gym.  That took three lunchtimes to do so.  There are also badges for collecting different types of Pokemons, walking, evolving etc.

Now the following issues maybe because the servers were already falling apart due the high load, I will list them in reverse chronically order:

• Niantic/The Pokemon Company logo on opening screen covers the entire screen which means if you want to swap to a different app you cannot
• Can no longer login it is stuck in a loop which makes the above really annoying
• The loading screen plays a really annoying tune, had to turn the sound off on the phone
• Augmented Reality switch only on the Capture Pokemon & Battle screens, should be in the settings menu as well
• The Battery Saver turns your screen off when you turn the phone sideways away from you sounds good in theory but in practice when you turn it back to face you the App has crashed/locked out.
• It goes through the battery fair quicker than when using Ingress, it took just under 50% of my phone charge in less than hour.
• Even with the sounds & music off the game sounds like it is running a mini fan maybe this is what is taking all the battery power
• Game freezes and reboots quite a lot more so than any game I have downloaded in the past
• Scrolling is very unresponsive
• Clicking on the menu items is really slow

There does not seem to be much in the way of team play you basically capture Gyms (white portals) for your team and you deploy your best Pokemons to the Gym to defend it from other teams.  You can attack another team's Gym with up to six other players but you are still only playing one on one battles.  There needs to be a team score that everyone can access, the scores could be split by worldwide, region, country and towns.

The ability to trade items would also be a good thing too.

The game for me became unplayable after being unable to login for two days so it got uninstalled, I will wait for the UK release hopefully they will have ironed out some of the kinks by then.

Unless you are a Pokermon fan (which I am not) I think you might find the game quite dull in its game play.

It is curious to note the other reviews I have read about this game suggest that it is first game to get you out walking which is ironic because Niantic's marketing for Ingress was the same thing.

Additional:  Is this the thin end of the wedge?

Of course Ingress was much the same.

It's Bad for You

New research says that eating pasta is good you, err duh!  I could have told them that, once when I was snowed in and could not be bothered to walk up the icy hill to the corner shop I only ate pasta all week, I lost nearly a stone.

I have lost count of the number of times new research tells me something normally considered bad for me is actually good for me, to site a few examples:

• Red Wine
• Pasta
• Eggs
• Saturated fat/red meat
• Butter
• Avocados

Basically everything is bad for you if you eat/drink too much of it, having a balance diet keeps you healthy and hopefully sane too.  That being said I am myself completely terrible for eating stuff that is definitely bad for me normally in the form of comfort foods.  Takeaways are very bad for me and ones that deliver are far worse. 

Tonight I am being good-ish, steak with steamed greens and instant bisto onion sauce.  The steak is seasoned with rock salt, black pepper and celery seeds fried using groundnut oil which good for you unless you suffer from peanut allergies then well very bad for you although apparently refined oil will not cause allergic reactions.

People seem to think food allergies is a recent thing however there is no evidence to suggest this because it was not until the 19th & 20th centuries that trade around the world had reached a level that you could go into most food shops and buy pretty much every food imaginable or nowadays buy it online.  Peanuts themselves were originally from South American/Brazil/Peru regions, so until mass production/transport came into effect not everyone had access to certain foods.  The chances are allergies have always been with us just waiting.

You would think traveling to other countries and eating the local cuisine is a good thing but Mother Nature has other ideas on the subject.  Of course now you can buy food from the other side of the world from the supermarket, the allergies come to you.

Next time you see research telling you that something is good for you, I suggest you take it with a pinch of  sea/rock salt.

Refined table salt is poisonous to the body and is responsible, in great part, to the onset of many terrible diseases including thyroid and metabolic dysfunction.

That sounds bad to me, oh wait...

Selfish Meme

Social media is selfish, people on Twitter for instance will follow expecting to be follow back.  Even people’s profiles state that they will follow you back if you follow them.  And how many friends do you have on Facebook that you actually know personally in the flesh, spoken to face to face.

I have noticed recently having promoted this blog using Twitter using various hash-tags for each post that more people are following me and based upon their own tweets it would seem that they had not bothered to read my actual blog post.  If they had they probably not have followed me, they have assumed from the hash-tag that I would be interested in their tweets.  I have been added into an addiction list based upon the #drug I put on blog post about coffee, so if you want people to follow you use lots of hash-tags.

It is not necessarily just the Internet, how often do you ask someone how they are expecting them to ask you the same so can tell them what bad day you are having?  The Internet (Social Media) however seems to have extended our selfish capabilities by giving us different tools to let the world know you exist.  Would this then be also a selfish blog?

I would like to think my blog is my altruism kicking in, whilst I do promote on Google+ and Twitter the reason I want people to read it is because they may find it interesting and/or informative.

Social Media is the perfect transport for the selfish meme, not all memes are Internet based at least not yet.

Here is an example of a Meme that never dies: Downfall

Particularly funny and very topical, some might say it is not actually selfish?!?

Planned Chaos

This is my very last post on the EU referendum after this I am moving on to other things.  Looking back on the two campaigns it seems to me that the Remain bunch were not trying particular hard at all, one would think they were trying to lose.  Was Cameron looking for a good excuse to resign?  Both France and Germany did there level best to scare us into staying like that has ever worked historically.  I know what you are thinking that it is beginning sound very conspiracy theory, still it seems a little odd.

Then we have Nigel Farage's statement about not guaranteeing £350 million to the NHS, the perfect man for the job not an MP no longer a MEP since the exit.  I am just waiting for the next big scandal in Westminster regarding exactly how much the EU referendum cost the taxpayer.  It definitely feels like the Government used the British public in a gigantic magic trick, pick any card and we ended up with one they wanted to us take.  Why do you think Farage was happy to sit on national television and tell everyone that the main marketing slogan on the side of the bus was a lie.

As for the Bank of England and the £250 million injection has it happened or not?  They said they willing to do it:

The Bank of England announced it will make a further £250 billion available to banks in a bid to steady the markets following the dramatic post-Brexit crash.

The thing is the FTSE made a significant recovery by the close of business on Friday, does the Bank of England really want to risk a hike in inflation?

This vote has split the nation in two but how long will it last, well Britain's Got Talent does not start again until next year so I will be interested to see what misdirection(s) happen next.

I am being extremely cynical or just good at reading into between lines, only the future knows for sure.  Ironic that half of us are stuck in the past, which half is anybodies guess.

Additional Note: Was it all a pointless vote and we will have to wait for an Act of Parliament to trigger Article 50 so we can leave. The lights are still on.

The Hokey Pokey

It took just six hours for the FTSE to recover, quite a feat indeed.  Hopefully now the Bank of England will not have to step in with a £250 billion injection.

The FTSE 100 recovered from the initial shock of Britain's decision to leave the European Union to end 3.15% lower at 6,138.69 which, to add context, is higher than last Friday's close.

However it is not all roses just yet there are still lot of companies that have not recovered from the free fall on Friday morning (see the article in full above).  Is it however just a storm in a tea cup or perhaps the quiet before the storm, who knows.

It is however definitely the end of the world as we know it or at least to 48% of the population whereas 52% are looking forward to brighter future and there is some talk of putting the 'Great' back into Britain.  I am pretty sure that was when Crackerjack was on BBC1 at 4:55, Friday or Saturday I cannot remember.  Still anything is possible really now we have put chaos into the driving seat or is that Boris.

Whilst the FTSE has recovered somewhat the Pound is:

The pound was down 9% against the US dollar and down around 7% against the Euro.

Which will reduce our spending power abroad, personally I prefer the British Summer.  I am still hoping for a really good thunder storm, I think Thor is currently on Economy 7 these days.

The irony is the rest of the universe have not noticed they were watching the other side.

Cock Up!

What are the immediate effects of Britain leaving the EU, aside from Nigel Farage's u turn on NHS spending:

“No I can’t [guarantee it], and I would never have made that claim. That was one of the mistakes that I think the Leave campaign made,” he said.

When it was pointed out that Vote Leave emblazoned the £350 million claim onto the side of a tour bus and drove it around the country, Mr Farage said.
“It wasn’t one of my adverts – I can assure you! I think they made a mistake in doing that.

Translation is pretty basic: GOTCHA!

In other news the FTSE dropped by more than 8% which is a lost of £140 billion wiped from the market, taking us back in time to 1985.  The Bank of England responded saying that they intend to inject £250 billion back into economy to stabilize the markets.  The problem with that is you are effectively printing more money which will devalue the Pound further than it already has dropped today.

Inflation will rise also which is never a good thing:

"Fall in value of savings. If people have cash savings, then inflation will erode the value  of your savings. £1 million marks in 1921 was a lot. But, two years later, your savings would have become worthless. High inflation can also reduce the incentive to save.

Menu costs. If inflation is very high then it becomes harder to make transactions. Prices frequently change. Firms have to spend more on changing price lists. In the hyperinflation of Germany, prices rose so rapidly, people used to get paid twice a day. If you didn’t buy bread straight away, it would become too expensive. This destabilizes an economy.

Uncertainty and confusion. High inflation creates uncertainty. Periods of high inflation discourage firms from investing and can lead to lower economic growth."

Quote from: Economics Help

Increased inflation may force the Bank of England to raise interest rates in attempt to attract investors back to Britain.  Which is good thing for savers and bad thing for people with mortgages and those looking to buy. How I wish I made more over-payments on my mortgage instead of enjoying myself.

A lower Pound does mean UK exports will be cheaper in theory although should we exit the single market in 5 years time the tariffs we will end paying will probably offset the profits achieved.  UK imports however will become more expensive and we do import a lot.  Obviously this will push prices up!

In April 2016 the value of exports (EU and Non-EU) increased to £25.0 billion, and imports (EU and Non-EU) increased to £41.0 billion, compared with last month. Consequently the UK is a net importer this month, with imports exceeding exports by £16.0 billion.

Quote from: HM Revenue & Customs

Well done to 52% of the population of Britain you have managed Cock Up the economy, you have nobody to blame but yourselves this time.

This is just the thin of the wedge!

Where Anything is Possible

Next Thursday is the EU referendum and sorting all the arguments is a complete nightmare but lets start by looking at the bigger picture that is currently evolving from the EU camp first the German finance minister threatens Britain that we would not be allowed to enter the single market if we left and now the French minister Mr Macron says:

"Leaving the EU would mean the 'Guernseyfication' of the UK, which would then be a little country on the world scale. It would isolate itself and become a trading post and arbitration place at Europe's border."

It seems to me that the EU are doing their best to scare us and perhaps they think it is a little bit of reverse psychology in that they pushing us away to make us stay.  No offense to the voters out there but that is probably a little too clever for anyone to pick up on.  The last time Germany made threats we ended up with two world wars and I am sure nobody in their right minds wants to see that again.

What does it mean to be in the single market (good and bad):

• Free movement of goods - no customs at borders, goods are inspected at the traders premises
• No tax on goods - that's a good thing.
• Free movement of capital - this is brilliant news for terrorists far easy to conduct Money laundering.
• Free movement of services - which includes Internet purchases, how much do you buy from Internet because it is cheaper?
• Freedom of establishment - Set up a company anywhere in the EU (barring non-profit) great for avoiding paying taxes (sometimes)
• Digital Single Market - Internet, Telecoms (no more roaming charges), Delivery rates, copyright
• Free movement of persons - That means anyone in the EU can work, play or retire anywhere else in the EU plus there are no border controls.

The key issue is Freedom, remove these freedoms from the EU and you get a Police state.  Leaving the EU means leaving those freedoms behind will that change our internal freedoms hopefully not but by leaving we would be entering unknown territory effectively swapping the order of freedom with the chaos of freedom.  Chaos is where anything is possible good or bad.  Which would you prefer to do stay safe in the status quo or risk everyone's freedom, are we that selfish?.

Should we leave then other countries may decide to leave too which could create a snowballing effect to the breaking apart of the EU.  We would back to the 1940s (or worse the 1920s and the depression) and you only need one country to get too ambitious.  History repeats itself again and again, humanity makes it look easy.

Then you will have World War III, it is as simple as that (by 2030).

We all live on the planet for a short time and we are all abysmal at getting along with one another.  Mostly because we want more.

When I first started writing this article I was prepared to be swayed to the leavers side, I thought rocking the boat would be a good idea that chaos in a limited form would be okay but when you follow the simple logic through, the future prospect of a war in Europe is too great to ignore.  I have not directly experienced war (only the desensitized knowledge of what I see on the news) but my parents have.  They do not talk about it, why would want to talk about something that made you feel completely helpless.  In World War I we lost a complete generation of men and women, the second version was far worse.  A lot of the voters in this country have never known war and probably do not see it as a potential future threat but it is very real.

The problem is that most people do look that far ahead maybe five years maximum me included in fact I barely look a year ahead.  With a decision like this you have to look at least twenty to fifty years ahead which could be quite easily beyond many the current voters life spans but it is not beyond their children's.  When I give to charity it is always a children's one because they are our future, should we vote to leave then we could be taking their future from them.  How selfish are we?

There are arguments on both sides but this is the only one that really matters.

Chaos without Order is Anarchy and that only leads to a death.

Sugar Lottery & Rocket Fuel

In the late 80's I was working for a large manufacturing company in Rochester, UK.  The company had a number of Maxpax coffee machines although technically at the time all they did was dispense hot water and sugar with a cup filled with what looked like the cremated remains of a vole.  I can only assume they have improved over the years I have not used any since.  In the fact the best coffee machine ever was at an Italian bank in London where I worked for a brief period, no surprise there.  For a drinks machine it was pretty amazing plus it did drinkable tea which is rare at the best of times (do not remember the make of the machine).

I have digressed somewhat back to Maxpax machines, the one behind my office had an intermittent fault when you pressed the button for sugar.  Basically you got your cup filled with some weird powder put it under the sugar nozzle and press the button then moved it to the water nozzle and press the hot water button (it did cold too).  The problem was every time you press the button for sugar you were instantly entered into the Sugar Lottery by the Maxpax Universe which is to say if you were extremely unlucky enough to win then the sugar coming out of the nozzle would not stop until the machine had run out of sugar which normally took three or four empty cups.  At least you would not taste whatever was in the cup in the first place if you managed to pull the cup free in time and put an empty cup in its place.

The only thing that the machine was really used for was the hot and cold water plus the occasional bountiful supply of free sugar.  It was ten pence a cup I think.  In its later years they did a powdery orange flavour which was sort of passable on a hot day.

During this time I came across an instant coffee called Rocket Fuel made by Percol which I drank black without sugar, the milk from the Maxpax machine as I recall was another indiscernible white powder which definitely was not milk at least not my understanding of what milk is.

Rocket Fuel back then was indeed exactly what it said on the jar a serious energy boost!

If you have caffeine with sugar it tends to bring you back down although it messes with your blood sugar levels and you end up with food cravings that you do not really need. 

Did you know caffeine is a habit-forming drug?

At the time I was drinking on average five to six mugs a day.  I do not remember any warning labels on jars at the time maybe I missed them.

A couple of years ago I cut out all caffeine based drinks, the withdrawal symptoms were not pleasant for me or my co-workers.  I still have the occasional cup of tea or coffee maybe one a week that's my limit these days.

They stopped selling Rocket Fuel at the place I bought my food from back then however I just checked on Amazon and they sell it quite cheaply I am almost tempted to buy a jar: Rocket Fuel

Then again perhaps not.

Jetsam #2

Blue is the new fashion for Thieves.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/10/how_do_you_foil_apple_wear_blue/

Restarts and Updates Required.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2016/jun/13/pound-and-shares-hit-by-brexit-and-growth-fears-business-live

The return to hard copy or a mass exodus to Instagram

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/13/facebook-delete-photos-moments-app

It’s Curry but not as we know it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/seagull-tikka-masala-curry-orange_uk_5759854ee4b0069193654160?edition=uk&utm_hp_ref=uk-weird-news

Dogging Ghosts

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hull-ghost-hunters-porn-shoot-graveyard_uk_5751808ae4b040e3e8197d26?edition=uk&utm_hp_ref=uk-weird-news

Time of the Vampyr

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/16/blood-moon-in-pictures-total-supermoon-lunar-eclipse-seen-around/

Sounds like a Self Fulfilling Prophecy…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/31/scientists-and-insurers-develop-death-clock-to-predict-when-cust/

There Be Dragons.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/23313/20160603/rare-baby-dragons-hatch-ancient-slovenian-cave.htm

Elvis is not dead he is on the Ascension B Ark.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/679338/Bizarre-conspiracists-condemned-for-claiming-Nasa-scientist-killed-by-aliens

Last Laugh...

When you look at the theory of evolution you have to understand the timescales involved most people do no get to grips with how big they really are.  You are looking at millions of years, mankind has been knocking around for about ten thousand years which is a nth of the time that organic species on the planet have been evolving.

People also look at evolution as purely the survival of the fittest which is a considerable simplification, a better one would be:

...is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits.

Mankind's reign upon the planet has been a very short one compared to the age of the planet (4.5 billion years).  We think because we are the dominant species (currently), that somehow that makes us above evolution or nature for that matter.  Anybody that has been at the mercy of extreme weather or an earthquake will I think beg to differ.

Medical science, morals and ethics have progressed to point that babies that were considered to be unhealthy, premature or just undesirable are no longer killed at birth.  Survival is not necessarily about the fittest anymore although to apply evolution to man will take longer than just a mere ten thousand years.  The question is does our science allow us to side step evolution or will mother nature have the last laugh.

Disease is Mother nature's scythe and whilst we have stamped out many diseases/viruses there are many more out there that becoming resistance to man's medicine.  Some viruses are jumping from animal to man for instance the avian bird flu or mad cow disease.  Mother nature does not have a plan it is just a blind watchmaker to paraphrase Richard Dawkins.  At the cellular level viruses can and do evolve faster, you are not looking at millions of years they can make billions of copies of themselves in day.  Each copy could have a error/mutation which may make it stronger/resistant to attack or not as the case may be.

Who will have the last laugh, I will probably never know in my lifetime unless the Universe decides to use the Earth as target practice with an asteroid or two.

Personally I am betting on the blind watchmaker.

Tequila Salt Lime (TSL) - Confectionary Alternative

Billionaire Bites Mexican Variant 

(Copyright 2016/Patent Pending)

Fudge Brownie Base with Tequila

For the brownie mix I buy (cheat) Betty Crocker’s fudge brownie mix (added ingredients needs 1 egg, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of water, 3 tablespoons of Tequila (San Jose))

Grease the tin with margarine and then put grease-proof paper into tin, the paper will stick to the tin.  Grease the grease-proof paper and dust the bottom of the tin with sieved coco powder.

Follow the instructions on the back of the packet (swapping water for Tequila as above).

Remove the tin from the oven place on a cool tray for about 10-15 minutes then put in the fridge for about 30 minutes to cool down.

Caramel Middle (Salted)

Next make the caramel using (after the 30 minutes has passed):

• 100g of dark brown sugar
• 100g of unsalted butter
• 397g Tin of Condensed milk
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of Golden Syrup
• 1 teaspoon of Fleur de Sea (Sea Salt flakes)

Put sugar and butter into a saucepan (medium sized) and put on the heat (a little above medium) stir until all the butter has melted.

Add the Condensed milk, Sea Salt Flakes and Maple Syrup.  Turn up the heat to max and continue to stir until it is boiling.

Turn it down a little just so that it keeps simmering.  Keep stirring until the colour changes from dark brown to more of a golden colour and has thickened takes a few minutes (lots of stirring).  Remove from the heat.

Take the tin of brownie mix from the fridge and pour the caramel on top, use gravity to get into the corners.  Put back into the fridge for about an hour, needs to be a little soft before you put the chocolate on top.

Chocolate Topping (Zest of Lime)

This next bit is entirely up to you on how you like your chocolate to taste but I used 450g of melted chocolate:

• 150g Swiss Dark Chocolate
• 150g Swiss Milk Chocolate
• 150g Swiss White Chocolate
• Zest of 4 or 5 limes

To melt the chocolate I break it into pieces and put into a pyrex clear mixing bowl and placed in a medium saucepan that contains water, then heat on maximum until all the chocolate has melted (turn it down if it begins to boild and stir all the time).  Stir in the zest last.

Remove from the heat take the pyrex bowl out of the saucepan and make sure the bottom is dry (so you do not get water on the caramel).  Remove the tin from the fridge and pour the melted chocolate on to the caramel, use gravity to get into the corners.

Put into fridge overnight.

Remove from fridge turn upside down on a plate or board, bash lightly so that it pops out. Turn right way up and cut into slices with sharp knife.

So far I have failed to cut them without cracking the chocolate but I am an ideas kind of guy finesse is someone else's bag:

Billionaire Bites Mexican Variant (TSL/Copyright 2016)

Flotsam #1

Eew hardcopy?!?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/02/flash-the-plastic-bank-of-england-unveils-untearable-plastic-5-note

The Thirteen Floor (well before the Matrix existed)

http://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-were-probably-living-in-a-video-game-1780049652

Green bug eyed spare rock turned short sword

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/02/king_tut_dagger/

What immortal hand or eye…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3621549/Priest-caught-trying-flee-Thailand-s-tiger-temple-skins-fangs-police-reveal-monks-sleep-surrounded-animal-body-parts.htm

Alien litter bugs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36416880

Bottle Recycling

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36424863

Low Gear, so far…

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/30/top-gear-readers-review-the-revamped-show

Ingress - Its Full of Triangles!

Note: this is not a review!
 
I have been playing Ingress which is a GPS augmented-reality based game on my Smart-Phone for the last two years and I have finally got to the point where it no longer holds any appear for me whatsoever, it has become more habit now than any enjoyment.

The game itself is very simple and has a quite addictive game play to it which will keep you happy for at least two years (in my case) or a few months in others.  Besides the game itself it has a fairly strong social element which had a definite appeal to me, I always like meeting new people plus it does get out you of the house walking in the fresh air.  Other forms of travel are also used:

• Cargress - (walking can be slow)
• Traingress - (Greener especially when you do not own a car)
• Busgress - (This occurs when the trains are delayed)
• Helicoptergress (for those richer players)
• Swimgress (for those that have dry suits)
• Boatgress (for those that are either richer or have a friend with a boat)

The game is played all over the world, it also has big events called Anomalies normally centered in several big cities around the world.  You can have many as six hundred players in each city battling it out.  Apparently there are seven million players world wide as opposed to World of Warcraft that have just over five million although I suspect the fresh air in World of Warcraft is probably virtual.

Sounds amazing doesn't it? Well Yes and No, I went to Cardiff in 2015 for the Shonin event which was extremely well organized and I did love the social side however the game itself I was bit bored with to be honest.  It was completely different to the normal game you play which I definitely preferred at the time.

There is a story to game which is sort of simple, two factions one called the Resistance aka Smurfs (Blue) and the other called the Enlightened aka Frogs (Green).  The Frogs are fighting for a bunch of green bug-eyed aliens called the Shapers who are meant to bring enlightenment (hence the name) to all humanity.  The Smurfs are against that idea although I understand there is another bunch of aliens on the side of the Smurfs which is where the story becomes a little more complex.  The problem I have with the story is that whatever the players do in the game it appears to have no effect upon the story line.  Although I could be completely wrong on this aspect since I have not delved deeply in the back-story since the early days of my play.

This guy lasted two months and much of what he says I agree with:

http://www.baconfatlabs.com/2014/09/leaving-ingress-my-ascendency-and-decline-as-an-agent/

However I have not quit yet just playing a lot slower, I am level 14 and there is only two levels to go.  Then its maxing out your badges none of which have much allure.

The upshot is that I have met a lot of new people and made some good friends in the process. The game play was good while it lasted, I liked the strategy of it.

Without giving too much away I have found it curious that Enlightened players tend towards more a chaotic style of play whereas the Resistance are more ordered.

Irony strikes again!

Mind Snap

Following on from my previous post (although I had this idea several months ago from a fictional perspective) I was thinking about what happens to the Mind/Soul after death should it exist other than as an emergent property of the human brain.

My original idea (to be used in an Alternate Reality Game/Free Style Role Play Game) was that when the physical body dies the Mind/Soul is pulled back through time to its original point of conception/birth.  The energy created in the passage back would effectively strip away most of the memories for that person so that when it returned it would mostly be a blank slate. 

I know this sounds very like X-Men Days of Future Past however I had the idea before I saw the film.

Think of it as a reverse Wheel of Life (Indian philosophies) instead of being reincarnated in another organic body you get to live your life again and again in the same body endlessly until such time you achieve the perfect life and attain enlightenment.

Déjà vu is you remembering a previous repeat of your life which in theory would mean you are either on the right path or the wrong one depending on how you look at it.

Would this doom you to repeat your mistakes or make new ones?

This idea leads me to think of time as a flat plane where everything is happening all at the same time, an infinite Möbius strip with no boundary.   The mind/soul is connected to the physical body at both ends of its life and when one end dies it snaps back to the beginning or I suppose the end which would cause an interesting effect upon a person.

Would memory provide the answer if you are in a repeat or not?  Does everyone experience déjà vu?

An interesting thought experiment but no method to prove it.

Note: I am aware that the boffins have explained why Déjà vu occurs but it has no soul to it.

Recursion see recursion

Here's a mind bending thought experiment for you to think about.

They say that when you die your life flashes before you, what if your current life is actually your real life flashing before you.

What happens when you get to end does it start all over again in a never ending loop?

A Crude Future

Recently I have been looking into what causes the changes in the cost Petrol/Gas, which is a product of oil.  Oil is a commodity, commodities are raw materials or primary agricultural products that can be bought and sold basically stuff that comes out of the ground or grown like:

• Corn
• Coffee beans
• Copper
• Gold

The price of oil sits upon a wobbly tripod (simplified):

Supply & Demand

High demand decreased supply will raise the price and the inverse will drop the price.

Speculators (futures market)

If enough buyers speculate that the price will rise then the suppliers will hold back until it rises in order to sell at a high price.  There have been a number of regulations put in the place since the 1990’s to stop this from spiraling out of control however Speculators can still affect the price.  And according to some 60% of the oil market is pure speculation and they could be right since any money market is effectively based upon a fantasy of potential profits.

Geopolitical Nature of the Economy

If a large country is in recession this means less manufacturing is going on, less jobs,  less people driving buying petrol/gas and less oil produced goods required by said country.  This affects their demand for oil products and we are back to supply and demand.

OPEC controls about 40% of the oil supply in the world which is based mostly in middle eastern countries which over years have been stricken with war.  In 1973 an oil embargo was placed against Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the US for their involvement with the Yom Kippur War.  The price oil rose from $3 per barrel to $12 globally by end of the embargo in 1974

Natural disasters also affect the price normally making it rise.

The Industry

The oil industry is split into three categories: Upstream, midstream and downstream (midstream is considered to be part of the downstream)

Upstream

This covers all oil exploration, development and production of crude oil or natural gas.

Downstream and Midstream

This covers oil tankers, refiners, retailers and consumers

All three of these streams are contributing factors to the price.

United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) – North Sea Oil
 
From the year 2000 UKCS has been in decline compared to ten years after 1966, between 2000 and 2008 there has been a 90% drop in new oil discoveries in the North Sea.  According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change who are responsible for UKCS over 50% over the North Sea oil reserve has been extracted in the last forty years, in theory there is up to 25 billion barrels are left.

As of 2013 the UK consumes more oil products than it produces which means it has become a net importer to balance its demand.  Offshore conditions make the UK a high-cost producer of oil however the UK exports oil-related goods and services that are worth more than $40 billion a year.

The cost of Brent Crude (which comes from the North Sea fields) is a major benchmark for the international oil market however its price has had a widening divergence from those of the other markets.  Lots of theories have been put forward for this and most of those appear in that wobbly tripod at the top of the page.

The Upshot

A butterfly flaps its wings in Japan and the cost of oil makes up its own damn chaotic mind.

DIY Peace

What’s the best method of creating world peace, well before you go near any practical methods you really need understand the root causes of war.  If we think of war as a crime (which it is) then we could proceed by breaking the causes into three steps:

Motive, Opportunity and Means.

Motive

The grass is always greener in your neighbours garden, is this a good enough to go to war?  Your neighbour’s garden has oil underneath it, simplified you are greedy.

Your neighbour believes in different things to you, is this a good enough to go to war?  What does it matter what your neighbour believes, oh wait a minute because your neighbour does not believe as you do therefore your neighbour must be evil, your neighbour threatens the status quo.  Is religion an excuse or a reason?

Your neighbour's Great-great-great-great grandfather killed your Great-great-great-great grandfather, therefore your neighbour is evil.  This can be down to how children at brought up, the people on the other side of the wall are bad.

Tradition can be a killer of good values, it does not let people have their own experiences to become less likely to kill someone they have never met based upon something happened five generations ago.

Your neighbour is bad person, head of the government, takes from the poor and gives to the rich – that would be revolution/civil war.  A coup-d'etat would be a less violent method than full blown war.

Opportunity:
Well that happens a lot due the fact we tend live next door to every other country, islands fair better than most although that normally gives way to civil wars instead.  Of course through alliances with other countries you get multiple countries invading one or worst two super powers using a small country as a battleground to fight between their opposing ideologies like Vietnam and Korea.  Also a perfect battleground to test new weapons and guess what we are back to greed.  Are opposing ideologies an excuse?

Means

The top 6 arms exporters in the world are:

USA, Russia, China, France, Germany and the UK.

They are effectively all the super powers on the planet, if they wanted peace to occur it would be a simple method converting their weapons factories over to something useful like alternative energy supplies and recycling all weapons.  Money however TALKS!

To quote one of my favourite authors Issac Asimov: “Violence is the last refuge of incompetent” 

Which would make mankind staggeringly incompetent for most of its history, we have failed to learn from our mistakes.  This is irony on so many levels.

Enlightenment by Resistance

Would the absence of war mean peace or just a population under control?  For any civilization to develop you must have change and for change to occur you need resistance to the status quo.  If everyone agrees with everyone else then all that happens is stagnation, civilizations like that are easily destroyed by simple culture shock or the degeneration into the worship of the past, loss of science etc.

Violence should never be used as a form of resistance it gives in to our most basic of instincts which is why there have been very few periods in history where there is an absence of war.  Man has failed to evolve in the last ten thousand years if we had war would be non-existent by now.  Perhaps ten thousand years is too short of time to expect that amount of change to achieve enlightenment?

Unfortunately for us change is violent.

Correlate or Bust!

Since having started this blog I have found myself reading far more news than I used to, more for some inspiration in writing next the post.  What I have across is seeming unrelated news items that look like they are connected.  One of my favourite authors H.P. Lovecraft said in one of his novels:

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”

As a concept he may be on to something although in this day and age of mass media it should be easier to correlate the data using data- mining tools and the computers can go insane with the knowledge.

The problem with coincidences is that nobody takes into account all of the other data out there, two news items just over week apart with similar circumstances would suggest they are related in some way but how about all the other incidents that were not reported because either they were not considered to be news worthy enough or that they happened to individuals.

Am I paranoid or just unable to correlate enough information to create a proper view of what is a coincidence and what is an anomaly.  If I am paranoid then I would be entering the heady domain of conspiracy theories.  What is odd about conspiracy theories is the extremes they go to for their explanations, a simple answer is better than a vastly complicated one and yet those that believe in conspiracy theories seem to prefer the complex ‘truths’ as opposed to the simple ones.

Conspiracy theorists say: They want to believe!

Well I prefer to know!  Belief takes us into the realms of religion which have no place in science.

I have read a far number of conspiracy theory websites and watched several on Youtube normally when I have been playing the Youtube game of bouncing between videos from the related videos pane. In some cases it only requires a couple of links before you find a video about a conspiracy theory from a start point of scifi shorts (no surprise).  Although Yubtube does seem to be somewhat saturated in them.  Their evidence either lacks body or basic common sense more often than not both. Much of their science is pseudoscience based upon misinterpreted concepts which I have done the same myself, it is quite easy to do.

I never take anything as true especially it is something I read or seen on the Internet, you should always fact check from as many sources as possible.  In the antique trade it is like having provenance for an item except in this case instead of an object we are looking at truths about the world.

Too often people watch a TV ‘documentary’ and assume everything said is true just because it is meant to be a factual programme.  Nobody questions the ‘facts’ of the programme.  Questioning seems to be going out of style but then I am generalising like I always do.

As I have often said: The Truth has Become an Urban Myth

Jetsam #1

Blame it on the Wildlife or perhaps they could not find a weasel?

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/22136/20160513/raccoon-causes-power-outage-in-most-of-washington-suburbs.htm

729 trillion miles from Earth but still talking about the weather, they must be English.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/22285/20160517/mysterious-alien-radio-signals-exoplanet-extreme-weather.htm

Depressions cured by psilocybin (aka Magic Mushrooms) the new valium.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3594245/Magic-mushrooms-hell-people-tormented-incurable-depression.html

Sea creature in Wales (Not a Dragon) Looks like an Alligator carcass to me.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/remains-sea-creature-washed-up-11342984

Space Weather: Beware of fridge magnets…

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/22216/20160516/magnetic-field-explosions-above-the-earth-captured-by-nasa-mms-spacecrafts.htm

Circus Animals

A little follow up on the previous post about the weasel and the collider, CERN told a news agency the following:

“We are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal,” a press officer for the LHC told NPR. “A weasel, probably.”

Indeed, the remains of a fried animal were found on the grounds outside the LHC, close to a cable that had been gnawed through.

I have checked the first two pages of Google’s search results regarding the news of this event and none of the websites have asked: Why or How?

They just accept what they were told to be true.

The event in 2009 with a bird that managed to drop a piece a bread in just the right spot to cause a problem, although no bird was spotted and in fact CERN themselves are not particularly sure what caused the power cut, read their own news article

Two events in a eight year time span and they are out in the countryside after all.

Why is it that the press accepts what they are told to be true, why is it that nobody asked any questions?

Is this what today’s press are now like, report what they are told and nothing more.

I wonder if this is an isolated incident.

Nature's Way

You may have heard the news from last week that a weasel chewed into a cable at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN Switzerland thereby shutting the whole thing down and in process electrocuting itself.

The question is why and how did a weasel get in the first place?

The cost of the collider is quite amazing really £2.8bn as of January 2010 perhaps someone was hoping the weasel in the works would cause more damage and save some money a somewhat naive view I would think.

LHC is quite safe despite what other people would have you believe, the universe pretty does similar things the LHC does by design and the Earth is hit by comic radiation every second, we are still here.

CERN has provided its own slides for the day in question, see here look at slide eleven.

I find it curious that the LHC has been running for eight years without a single incidence of wild life incursion or at least none reported in the national press apart from one possible bird in 2009 which was never found.  Upon searching through the Internet I came across the following post:

NO damage has ever been caused by them they do NOT chew strings on the bales,nor electrical cables nor pee on the animal fodder... - See more at: https://www.angloinfo.com/normandy/discussions/topic/930563#sthash.EJR8VTvR.dpuf

NO damage has ever been caused by them they do NOT chew strings on the bales,nor electrical cables nor pee on the animal fodder.

Which begs the question why was this weasel chewing on the one cable that could shutdown the LHC just when it was running causing a: "severe electrical perturbation".  According to another website:

Friday's incident came at an unfortunate time.

Scientists had been gearing up to resume experiments at the giant lab early next week following a technical stoppage of several months, and to relaunch their superpowered hunt for particles that could change our understanding of the Universe.

Following the weasel incident and several other technical issues, Marsollier said "we will now need to check over the entire machine again".

He said it remained unclear when the experiments could resume, but added that it clearly would "take more time before we can get started."

Who does it benefit that the LHC is not running?

Is there a fringe organisation out there that thinks they saved the world from destruction, did they think using a weasel would be a neat irony?  Who knows, I definitely do not.

Friday's incident came at an unfortunate time.
Scientists had been gearing up to resume experiments at the giant lab early next week following a technical stoppage of several months, and to relaunch their superpowered hunt for particles that could change our understanding of the Universe.
Following the weasel incident and several other technical issues, Marsollier said "we will now need to check over the entire machine again".
He said it remained unclear when the experiments could resume, but added that it clearly would "take more time before we can get started."


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-weasel-large-hadron-collider.html#jCp

NO damage has ever been caused by them they do NOT chew strings on the bales,nor electrical cables nor pee on the animal fodder... - See more at: https://www.angloinfo.com/normandy/discussions/topic/930563#sthash.EJR8VTvR.dpuf

NO damage has ever been caused by them they do NOT chew strings on the bales,nor electrical cables nor pee on the animal fodder... - See more at: https://www.angloinfo.com/normandy/discussions/topic/930563#sthash.EJR8VTvR.dpuf