History? Does it exist? Hmmm..............

For once a bit of sensible news on BBC’s Ceefax service. Kwasi Kwarteng, the first coloured man to head a government department and why not, is reported as having said that BLM (Black Lives Matter) should not wish to change the history of the colonial period. Absolutely right, in any case you cannot change history but all could learn from it. To withdraw from learning about such periods of human history is absolute tosh and frankly does not do much for the standing of movements such as BLM. In fact I always look on such movements with a jaundiced eye. To wish to destroy statues has a negative impact, indeed so has the so-called ‘bend the knee’ before football matches. I am sorry if I am upsetting some readers but I ask ‘What is the purpose, what is the general outcome and has it changed the world?’ Answer-not known, nothing and no. So, Kwasi is absolutely correct in that banning or ignoring history is not the way forward.

I am of the same opinion about those who state quite openly that the Holocaust never happened. That is despite the overwhelming evidence it had and did! There are even people who believe there is no corona virus, Covid-19 is a fallacy and it is a way of governments exerting total control over people. Do I hear some of Trumpian ideas here? There are however very interesting beliefs going round and I wonder sometimes who dreams these up? Don’t get me started, I have plenty of new fresh ideas.

How many dead did you say?

As is pretty usual in this country, it seems now that the Covid rules are strengthening, no-one can get out and all who want to get in must pay £1,500 for a nice hotel at the seaside when an Atlantic storm is expected. This is the UK. But despite the row with the EU about AstraZeneca’s supply of the vaccine jabs not being enough and wants the British supply, things are going well! At least we are not yet looting all the shops like in the Netherlands whose people think they are the coolest in the world, we are just sitting at home drinking Yorkshire tea and dreaming of sun drenched alcoholic holidays on some Spanish beach. All you hear on radio GaGa (sorry, BBC) is that 100,000 people have died here. Next question, why? Because we are an 'overweight, elderly, sick country people', said a politico to Piers Morgan on one of the morning’s news programs. Just looking at the statistics, they may have a point. As I have mentioned before in other posts as well, we are a heavily overpopulated country, 68 million and even worse mostly urbanised. Meaning too many of us live in cities. Is it any wonder then that we have the most deaths from Covid? You only have to look how it is transmitted. Yes, people, it goes from person to person that are in close contact! That do not wear masks and don’t wash their hands. Probably 50% of the UK’s population. So, let’s stop blaming the government, God, Jesus, and the neighbour’s cat. Blame each and everyone of us living in good ol’ Blighty. Those who have flouted the simple instructions to stay home. Those who flocked to the seaside for a walk they never did before, those celebrities who flaunt their status, ‘Hey, look how I work on a beach in St Tropez’. Those politicians who walked away mouthing all the right things and then did exactly the opposite. Yes, all those! That is why there are 100,000 deaths and more to come. It is really a terrible statistic, our inability to control our appetites, our attitude of ‘It’s my right’, our failure to control our lives within nature. But I believe, we are now seeing the price exacted.

Forests? I cannot see the wood for the trees...

Mostly you just read regurgitated rubbish or late news on the BBC Ceefax (Red Button) system. They don’t refresh much but sometimes there are newsworthy items and this morning I read one! It was about how important forests are to Earth. Well, I wonder how that bit of news came about, I have known this for years. But tell this to the likes of the US and the Brazilian presidents? Frankly it is too late by far, the damage that has already been done is not going to be reversed by planting a few more spruce trees in Scotland or one tree in my garden. It will take a massive effort to ‘repair’ the biosphere. For a start there will have to be a ban on any further clearing of the Amazon rain forest and the forests in Mid-Africa. Also the taiga needs looking at because as the permafrost is thawing the indigenous trees are dying. New types need planting. As the short report on BBC Ceefax said, we need to plant the right trees in the right areas. To put palms in Siberia might be a good idea but there will be no coconuts! The bare hills of Wales will need a make-over and forget the Norwegian Christmas trees, we need native broadleaf trees, birch, beech and above all OAKS! So, perhaps if the power people have got out of bed with the right foot first, maybe then we can start the project of properly ‘saving the planet’. For I am sorry to have to say this but the power people i.e politicians and moneyed supergiants, have let the human race down badly! All in the name of money, money, money. Yes, it’s not funny! But I can say this that although these people will have billions in their accounts, in the end like Dagobert Duck swimming in it, there will be nothing left to spend it on. I hope the taste of gold will be as nutritious as the coconuts that came out of Siberia. Not!

Building a computer...difficult? Not really...

Wow, and because I am marooned at home, oh it's not so bad, the little lady supplies me with enough coffee to fill the river Severn (Môr Hafrn in Welsh) and I started to build my own powerful desktop computer. That is to say it is really assembling because you buy all the constituent parts ready and all you have to do is assemble them in the RIGHT ORDER! Something I forgot and moreover you have to make sure all the parts can fit together and are of the type required. There are so many things that can go wrong, anyway I carried on. I purchased a desktop box, a nice  Corsair Airflow 275R which can show some interesting light effects if you want that. But I don't need that. All the other parts as well, graphics card, processor (AMD Ryzen5), motherboard (mobo), power supply (PSU) and some small bits and bobs like memory (RAM). The actual assembly only took 4 hours because I could not figure out where all the cables had to go. Mainly as the PSU had a few connecting links at the side which I had not noticed. So I did not see how the two 1Tb HDD drives would fit and be attached. I have to say that the websites are plentyful but full of half-soaked information. Most of them are pretty useless for beginners. Now I am not a beginner, in the end I found out for myself. One of the main problems is the lamentable accompanying documentation. Why do the manufacturers not engage proper English speaking authors? Don't answer that, I don't want to upset my Chinese and Japanese friends. Anyway I am typing this now on my new system. Hurray!

Ed 26/1/2021

The new Linux Mint works like a dream.  I have to say why would anyone use Windows? But yeah, it is a choice one has to make. I have used Linux for years now and never had anything bad to say. Of course you get problems, mostly due to mistakes by oneself but with use of the various forums easy to overcome. 

This time, to change the subject, I have used a graphics card. Not particularly because I wanted to but because I needed to. When buying a processor check whether these are configured for graphics! The Ryzen5 I purchased did not have graphic capabilities, not the level I require. But as my family likes to play very involved games like OAD and Minecraft a graphics card would be handy in any case. So, a cheaper version of a very good processor and a £100 P400 Nvidia card. Job done. The other thing I like to say is this, if you do build your own, use at least 500Gb SSD as the main memory. Yes, you need to get a mobo that will fit the small cards but the computer will be a lot faster loading software. You can always also install the SATA drives as secondaries. I have done so and it really works like a dream. The system recognised them immediately. And for RAM if you want to play games at least 16Gb, I purchased 2-16Gb Kingston strips which will kill almost anything now. Lastly, security. Yep, not to be forgotten. Linux is already pretty secure, there are practically no virus concerns. Unless you use dual booting eg Windows and Linux side by side, then I would use the usual virus checking software for Windows. Linux has an excellent Firewall (ufw) which can be tweaked to make an almost unbreakable system. Of course there is no such thing as 100% safe. But, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so try it for yourselves. In the end I am one of those who can be called paranoid. So, use a VPN. It is good thinking anytime! Pay for one as the free ones are OK but record your data to sell. I use PIA, only about £80 annually. So, there it is, a nice desktop and as safe as can be unless I am stupid and start clicking on everything I see. Most of the danger is - guess? Yes, ourselves!

I could be bored this time....

With this interminable lock-down scenario we're all experiencing we have lots of time to start thinking. And that started me off thinking about time! It might be because I am bored? Obviously and as far as I see it time is part of life, I had a beginning and I will have an end, all positioned along a nice time line. Years go by, second by second but that is human time, the way we experience it. It is different for an ant. Different for a whale. If the solar system was a thinking being how would it experience time? It moves so much faster within time and then the galaxy, galaxy systems and for us finally, our universe because there could be many more (the multiverse idea). How would a thinking universe view time? Would it have a thought process wherein one thought would take millions of our years? But for it, its thoughts would take as long as ours here.

In other words, that existence is on a whole new plane, and at a much slower pace. If it knew us we would be less than ants to it, short fleeting existence over before it even has begun. It puts our existence in a whole new light if you start thinking like that. It also shows that as we are capable of such thought and formulation of ideas we are worth preserving and not ending up like the dinosaurs. For all I know the universe has started in a flash and at that level ends just as quickly but in the meantime, we exist. Simply because we are only aware of our own niche. Our experience of time is different from the universe' experience of time. Just ask the ant in your garden what it thinks? It will probably tell you, you are a giant who seems to live for ever!

What is important?

As the Covid virus rampages around the planet I started wondering if it was really all that important in the greater scheme of existence. Obviously it is important at our level of existence, for who wants to die needlessly? But in the greater scheme of things, the Universe is absolutely humungous, in fact there are no words to describe the magnitude of it all. At that level planet Earth and all that is on it means zilch, nada, nothing at all. Our solar system is less than a virus particle within the known cluster of galaxies that comprise our neighbourhood. Even within our own galaxy we do not count for much at all. Even within our solar system we are but a pinprick on its fabric. As humans we might have to rethink our raison-de-être, our so-called importance and re-align our behaviours and attitude. Looking at the various websites showing research carried out and with the resultant pictures from the Hubble Space telescope will quickly dispel any thoughts of how big we are here. The picture here is the idea of the observable Universe. It is globular because from Earth we see all around to the same distance. In other words we are the centre of our observable Universe. But it is thought that there is much more. Google it on the web and you will be astounded how big it all is!

 

Don't let democracy die!

 Many times we have looked at how politicians act, behave, what they say. We have been critical.  We have been aghast, and we have been pleased. All at the same time. It is a strange world after all. I have said in a previous post that democracy seems to have had its time. Bearing in mind, recalling what happened in Washington, the behaviour of one of the most powerful men on Earth, you would agree with me that democracy if not dead, is dying. As was pointed out by Ian Austin - ex Labour MP (in the Sun Sunday editorial) could what happened in Washington happen here? His answer - Yes, it could easily. It could if we continue to appease the hard Leftie mob. We appease almost everything and everybody nowadays. Jew haters have a field day, and why they do so only God knows. There is no rationale for it at all. There are shocking attacks on many Labour and Conservative MPs who dare to voice their concern. John O'Connell openly incited violence as did Jeremy Corbyn. Too many fall inline with extremist views for fear of losing their job. It is time to weed all this out. Now that this behaviour has really shown its ugly face it is time for all of us who believe in democracy and free speech but with a responsible attitude and behaviour, to stand up and for once be counted!

A New Year's wish and view..

 First of all, let me say happy New Year to all my readers! I'm sure it will be a good year because the medics have developed a pretty good vaccine now for the Covid virus and let's hope this will help in bringing back some normality to life. But blimey, I am so not impressed with people's attitude, generally speaking as recently displayed in Wales. As you might know we are in a Tier 4 lock-down presently. Yes, not a nice state to be in but we must do something to alleviate the problems that have come our way, thanks to the Covid-19 virus inclusive its off-shoots. We should not make a mistake thinking it will all blow over, that it's not all that important. Still I wonder about the mind-set of people. The first talk about snow on the hills and thousands run to the hills to see a snowflake. Forgotten are the masks, enjoy the cold. Certainly, under normal circumstances, the hills of Wales will see a few walkers at this time of the year but not the parking calamity shown this time. How is it that simple advice from scientists, medical profession and government is not understood? I am not stupid, I understand that cities like London are a hotbed for the virus. The Tube alone will kill hundreds, the few smallish green spaces are not enough to exercise 9 million people. The housing is mostly pre-war, even Victorian! So, it is understandable people want to get out. But it is the price that has to be paid for living in cities. High living standards, yes but no resistance to diseases like Covid. So, let's take more care, get the vaccine and adjust to the new way of living together.