Independent Spirit reflecting light from the Dark Mirror; retired Harwell Scientist PhD FInstP, Writer & Artist navigating zeitgeist towards the post-Holocene.
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Starmer is spineless; he should have torn up the letter & faced the press down. Aren't many MPs cleaner than Rayner. As far as I could tell there were only 3 decent, effective & hard working ministers; Rayner, Milliband & Lammy. They need to replace Starmer before other parties do it for them.
In June when this photo was taken I was very optimistic about the future; now I'm distraught. I await 2025 environmental figures with dread. Resignation of Angela Rayner shows lack of Social & political cohesion; a survival pillar I doubt we will survive as a nation if >75%; prove me wrong.
This is disgraceful; they have hounded one of the most effective and decent ministers from office. Today I downgraded my prediction of how likely the UK is to survive the environmental crisis to 60%. Over the last 5yrs my predictions have been spot on.
It's time Britain saw the danger. Appeasing Trump & his evil culture by encouraging & tolerating right wing hate in Britain, spearheaded by the ERG & Reform, will destroy Britain by alienating the EU & CANZUK allies. In the transition through this crisis we need friends; Starmer is not the solution.
This shocked me to the core; this was the America the world loved. How did it become so degenerate? I can only accept that absolute power without empathy & responsibility corrupts absolutely. America stands on the edge of the abyss but all is not yet lost. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMSG...
Its time to move the UN HQ; it needs to be somewhere independent; ideally on an island. I recommend an artificial island on the Dogger bank, the first victim of sea level rise post ice age, in the North Sea. Holland has the technology. The Swiss can host till then ;-)
Just before dinner I noticed a Sparrowhawk eating a small bird on the shed roof next door and managed to record it with my Sony A7cii with Tamron 28-200mm zoo lens cropped to 750mm ;-)
I have decided to change my lifelong photo format from 4x3 to 16x9HD. I am sick of seeing black bands down either side of my HD monitor screen. All my cameras will record in HD ;-)
We cant let our focus be derailed by their authoritarian nihilism but, we will need to be there for them when they finally grow up. There are a lot of good people in these countries and they are as much victims as anybody else. We need to redraw the world order with all hands to the deck.
Stereo; my new Logitech MX keyboard has arrived. The old one was hammered and is now failing to keep its charge, made worse by the backlight flashing erratically. I love these keyboards as my ThinkStation P3 is on chan 1 dongle with ThinkPad X1 & Chromebook Plus on Bluetooth chans 2 & 3 ;-)
Well I didn't expect that. After processing the photos from my testing last week, I decided that my future cameras would be my Sony A7cii full frame and my Nikon Z50 crop sensor camera. The Sony has more than enough resolution at 33MP to use all my old APSc lenses ;-)
Here is an idea to mitigate immigration; for each thug we deport to some far flung British dependency for hard work to justify their keep as British citizens, let a migrant stay. They can do something useful to work off their aggression - winks ;-)
Lets face it, this isn't actually anti-migrant, they just see it as a good excuse to create violence. We see it in every generation. It shouldn't drive international policy; the only policy it should drive is dealing with these thugs not poor old ladies peacefully protesting about dying children.
Whilst people breathe there is always a choice. Darwin told us that life isn't easy; only the fittest survive. People live in their cosy cities and forget that we live on a violent planet; we could end tomorrow. But we walked out of Africa and globally some are making the effort. I believe ;-)
I wouldn't say so; I chose it specifically as it was the last great all mechanical Nikon camera and I knew it would last me for the rest of my life and it remains my only 35mm SLR film camera. I really couldn't afford it but, I pushed myself to buy it & never regretted it.
Why who can that be wandering in Glencoe in 1992? Can that be my black Nikon FM2n? Why yes it is; it must be me - winks ;-)
GOOD!!! I am sick to the back teeth of AI ;-)
Climate is not even the most important existential threat. Please note: all of these problems will be solved by the extinction of the human race. The choice is yours guys; do you want to survive? Time is running out with the buffers last year set at 2040 & accelerating closer #6thMassExtinction
I could go further; this is also gross incompetence. Such a ruling is legally unenforceable. Even the police are not allowed to know if somebody has been trans before legal reassignment. Along with Gender Recognition patients get a new birth certificate, passport & all their records erased.
This is disgraceful and against the law on more than one count as no doubt the court of human rights will point out to the gov. This gov is more repressive than Thatcher. At risk minorities everywhere are terrified of this bigotry.
This on the day that the Government rebuffed the petition to discuss CANZUK. CANZUK with a strong customs Union link to the EU would be a perfect fit for Britain, instead of embarrassing the King & our allies chasing Trump. Starmer is a disgrace who only cares about money.
We will only survive in the new changing post-Holocene Age within a framework of steadfast friends. America has never been that friend & has only ever acted on self interest. CANZUK represents our bloodline, friends & right now Starmer is turning his back on them. Labour needs new a new leader.
This government is a disgrace. We petition for them to at least discuss CANZUK & we get even less of a response than we did for an MP Environment briefing. All Starmer cares about is some pathetic fictional "working man" & money. He is destroying what is left of our culture & embarrassing the King.
What do you mean second?!!! In the 1975 first, over 60% of us voted to join. Even the Supreme Court pointed out that the second wasn't a legal result without a 2/3 majority and the Tories voted to take us out without a mandate. Yes we need a third to take us back in legally for the 2nd time!!!
Are these politicians stupid? As Einstein pointed out: repeating the same thing expecting a different outcome is madness. The only way to stop migration is to remove the reason they leave home. Spend the money solving the problems in their home countries.
In light of America's difficulty in understanding British humour, perhaps I should explain my position. As a nontheist Quaker I have no trouble with the teachings of Jesus. Quakers understanding comes from Charles Fox's failure to find any in the church to explain where this mumbo jumbo came from.
I wouldn't live in their community. I have read their Bible and their God destroys whole communities like their's for their wickedness; MAGA Christians are the modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Is that why its called Salt Lake City? Has he already had a pop at their region? Giggles ;-)
Amazed how huge that was a week later driving home to Oxford as I passed the sign I helped erect in my first job when I was 15. I had walked out of school & got a menial job cutting plastic signs. After 3 weeks I played in bands & then went back to school at Xmas to take O Levels. Then 1976 Harwell.
Diary entry Aug 1992; to Manchester UMIST train 1st Class for my PhD Viva. Torture for 3hrs followed; Harwell chose the examiners a FRS to maintain standards. Returned 2nd Class & bumped into Prof Elio Desimoni from Barrie who had shared my office. Told off by ticket collector for using wrong seat.
Garden is very wild at the moment (I usually trim the central path area up to the pond & leave the rest wild). Tansys are doing well this year & we probably had the best Lodon Lily & Bluebell year too. Very few butterflies despite the buddleias doing well. In September the middle will be mowed ;-)
Researchers using primarily convenience samples have discovered that an alarming percentage (18–45%) of transgender adults and youth have attempted suicide in their lifetime, which is drastically higher than the general population. The actual death toll is astonishing. Time this country grew up.
I took Elizabeth to Hospital yesterday for an eye operation & we found this ridiculous sign on the Toilet door. Its a bloody toilet!!! This worries & angers me. How much money is being wasted by Starmer's bigoted stupidity. And this is terrifying for the most at risk social minority (45% at risk).
Typical Starmer bringing confusion to clarity; nothing he says makes any sort of logical sense. What's the matter with the man? Arabs were there before Israelites even left Egypt. There's more doubt about Israel than there ever was about Palestine. Forget Israel; help Palestine remove terrorists.
What is the bloody point? Computer hacker people have too much free time on their hands; they are a a scourge on humanity. If you think you need to tick a box to show you are human then frankly, you are not human (speaking about you service providers!!!) - sigh ;-(
Goodness Britain actually set up the two state solution when Palestine was a British Protectorate; some protection. Its been constantly abused by Israel ever since. Our lack of action is disgraceful. So much for post war claims of never again!!!
Seems like time for a change; been there; oh my goodness have I been there. You can either accept it or see it as an opportunity (I wouldn't normally say something that patronising but, you are clearly capable of & deserving of better & its easy to lose sight of that). I do hope things get better.
New Computer Wallpaper; Church St Alton ;-)
??? Well I cant speak for you but, I would rather be an ageing work in progress than dead at 50; I still have more projects to finish now in retirement than I did back then - winks ;-) P.S. Hope you are OK? Don't hear much from you of late.
Jersey Tiger Moth Euplagia quadripunctaria (Poda, 1761) Erebidae: Arctiinae Don't you have Google lens - Winks ;-)
Aging is far better than the alternative ;-)
The Republican Party is a global disgrace. It is difficult to understand how they could fall so comprehensively into the gutter. It would only take a few of them to halt this madness but, they are all spineless.
He is in good company; an Archbishop and some Cardinals giving him a run for his money - sigh
This is exactly the problem with Reeves; she doesn't understand the need to safeguard pristine country & nature. Destroying Britain is not supporting families it is hastening the collapse of our society. The politics of the ant hill. This is not a Labour Government; even the Tories weren't this bad.
Gordon Bennet, even the Chinese are more humane than Starmer. It really is going to take the Human Rights Courts to drag him screaming into the 21stC. Meanwhile bodies everywhere are spending a fortune to accommodate his bigotry. Even our Supreme Court told him he misinterpreted their ruling.
Where my obsession started; Woolworths Berwick-upon-Tweed 1959. Where my parents bought me a plastic Ukulele. New school 1962 & I found from a friends guitar that all my chords worked on it. By 1964 playing electric guitar in a band followed by organ 1965. Keyboards in Swinging Klink nightclub 1969.
And that is the least of our problems. This chart doesn't even include the collapse of social cohesion & civilisation which is hampering any attempt to solve these problems. 2002 I predicted this would be the year from hell; I see no reason to revise that statement. Panic will be our only hope now.
P.S. We will need oil; it's precious. Not to burn but as a raw material. Burning oil is a crime against humanity. Plastics (yes biodegradable materials), solvents, pharmaceuticals etc the list is endless. We just take this precious limited commodity for granted. Survival depends on carbon tech.
Those who think we can just stop oil & turn the clock back to the 1930s, I suggest you go & live off the land in a distant woodland & see how that goes. That age is dead along with 73% of all species. If you want to survive you have to work hard & make it happen. Darwin tells us life is hard ;-)
Cant find scientists who can tell me what the local microclimate will be like in 10yrs, what we should plant, how to protect what we have. No holistic management at all. Stop telling us about how bad it will be; tell us how to survive it. Forget black holes & telecoms develop survival techniques.
We are like the beginning of the pandemic with no drugs & PPE. We have learnt nothing from that. 8billion people cant survive on cars & nice homes!!! We need crisis management & focused transformational development for the new climate. Better sea defences; better farming & environmental solutions.
Yes we need to find a new economic normal but we need massive growth. We need to remove the production pollution & luxuries. We need to develop new sustainable food production & infrastructure free of toxins with resilience. Our society is grossly inadequately prepared to survive this crisis.
Net Zero is not only non-negotiable; it is completely inadequate; we need to do far better than that. We will currently hit the buffers by 2040 (WWF Life Index now 73% extinction & accelerating). Some are trying hard & will make it; most wont. All hands to the deck. Be a survivor #6thMassExtinction
Dr Vici is alive!!! The gloves are off. I'm sick of the forces of despair that are destroying our planet & civilisation. I'm sick of popularist woke appeasing politics. I'm buggered if I care about your cosy polite life; our existence is threatened. We will survive; whether you do is your choice.
I have to say I have become sick to my back teeth of AI. I hated it back in the 80s Marvin Minsky days; goodness I hated everything the man said. Now its becoming a major nuisance to me; I always turn it off where possible ;-)
This should be a mandatory watch for everybody; especially users of social media. It doesn't address a bigger problem I have identified; the removal of real information by search engines. The internet is becoming useless for research ;-) www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5_P...
It isn't going to be a problem; we are past the time of meaningful discussion. It is now all hands on deck. We are now in an era of survival at any cost. There will be no resource available for those that do nothing now; they are on their own. Money cant buy food when there is non available to buy.
A well earned break watching Jethro Tull on the laptop in my OSGRID Vici's Attic Gallery reception area after hanging my Dark Paths Poetry Show ;-)
Go and sign the petition, we only need about 300 people to get this going. Details in this video ;-) www.youtube.com/watch?v=u06q...
The bears have got their paws on Elizabeth's new Vortex fan and wont give it back. The Beaks are particularly taken with it he he ;-)
It was clear to me in the 1990s that the Ocean pump was broken as that is what keeps our atmosphere regulated. At first I didn't believe in climate change because I "knew" the ocean would clean up. BUT with emissions being linear with concentration I knew it was now dead & we were in trouble - sigh
Like Einstein I have always viewed the Copenhagen interpretation as a load of bollocks and the beginning of the downward spiral of Physics. It's not science; its religious belief ;-)
Gender Recognition Law does not depend on the legal definition of a woman; it is couched in terms of Male & Female & that Law hasn't changed. We are now seeing protesters arrested & police raiding places of worship. Allies being sidelined for US trade deals. Starmer has to go. Worse than the Tories
Much the same for Britain's Trans Community. They followed the new laws in faith only for Keir Starmer to brutally ignore the law & bring terror to some of the most vulnerable people in Britain. Starmer is a disgrace. The Law hasn't changed, regardless of what he thinks as the Supreme Court said.
Leaving my OSGRID Gallery on Sat left me feeling sad as a big part of my life was gone. Strangely, I was already missing my fishtank. That could be remedied. So I tracked down a fishtank on MarketPlace and installed it in my Second Life cave, the Nest, at my Havanna Bay Vici's Attic Gallery ;-)
The AMOC? It's slowing significantly & has been doing so for decades. Nobody really knows what will happen when AMOC stops. Usually it starts an Ice Age in Europe & the Gulf Stream just circles around the surface of the Atlantic south of Britain. However, this time CO2 heating may remove any ice.
Extreme weather is patchy; Britain had a mostly poor weather but, that was due to a very hot Atlantic pushing into the arctic and the displaced cold weather streaming down over Britain. The jet stream has been repeatedly fractured of late. Last month was heat records. All bets are off - sigh
The horror isn't coming; it's here now. The climate tipped a few years back. I predicted during COP26 that 2025 would be the year from hell when global panic breaks out and so far, its worse than I expected. Just about every record is being smashed.
It will be too late for countries that fall behind; there will be no surplus aid to be given by then. That is when rich countries wake up to the fact that you cant eat money and you cant grow food in a lifeless dessert. The result will be a patchwork quilt of surviving oases. Its Darwin's Law.
We see this particularly in places like Africa where countries that have given up waiting for the idiot developed countries to help are developing their own science & management. Countries there that haven't are dying. WWF Life index shows this clearly.
I certainly do not. We need to holistically manage the transition to a new age which will require development of new tech, infrastructure & environmental management. We can no longer turn back the clock but we can move forward into the post-Holocene. Who survives will depend on their attitudes now.
Gawd how awful; the politics of the ant hill. In Hampshire we already have a NHS hub and its dreadful. The extra tier of bureaucracy takes people further from the specialist care they need. This is a stupid Tory cost cutting scheme that degrades services. The opposite of Business Excellence.
Bigger lesson for us is that after a mass extinction you cannot take recovery for granted because other facets of evolution may supersede that recovery. If we survive the transition it doesn't follow that we can recover; the neanderthals showed that, dying after a few generations post disaster.
This really is nonsense. Why are we suddenly being flooded with pseudo science? We know exactly where the CO2 came from; Siberian Traps massive volcanic outpouring. Of course it killed the forests; it killed most things. The lesson is we are again killing off carbon sinks; us to blame this time.
Its a silly thing to say; never too late to make the best of a bad situation. Yes there's no way to bring back the world of the 20thC; that is dead. However that doesn't mean that nothing can be done to stabilise our planet. Now survival will happen only in oases where people act #6thMassExtinction
The ThinkPad is a perfect compliment to my new ThinkStation P3 i7 with NVIDIA graph card. Both running Linux Mint. I got £600 off of both as a promotional deal. I only needed the i7 in the ThinkPad to run Firestorm Second Life Viewer to access my virtual world Art Gallery when on trips ;-)
It has been fine except I haven't got the webcam working under Linux Mint yet but, I expect they will get drivers in the kernel soon as I understand they are working on it. I have a Logitek cam in the docking station. The attraction was being sold with no Windows installed ;-)
The painters should be prosecuted for vandalism but, that doesnt make this organisation bad because a few activists over stepped the mark. This Government has become authoritarian in a way we haven't seen for decades. The reason for protest is we are supposed to be the good guys & failing; Pffft!!!
Happy Canada Day. All I ever hear about from Starmer and the BBC is Trump & Labour rubbish; they are an embarrassment to the King & Commonwealth. I turned to the BBC for coverage of Trafalgar Square Canadian celebrations; plenty on CBC News and it isn't even British. Have a great day Canada.
P.S. The image on my monitor was taken by my Nikon Z5 with 24-200mm Zoom which is perfect for the Zoo ;-)
Not the photo I expected. The new red Artist & Artisan strap that I bought for my new Nikon D780. You may notice that its on my lovely D610. When the D780 arrived from Amazon it had no packing, was used, missing warranty & the image quality was awful. I am sticking with my D610, Z5 & Z50 ;-)
There isn't a hole in her budget, these are things she didn't think important enough to spend cash on; its frankly morally offensive.
Not even close; BREXIT is reversible and almost certainly will be. Electing Donald Trump is by far the most stupid thing; he has destroyed America. Hard to see how that damage can be reversed.
Happy Sunday - have fun ;-)
Dont knock it Phoebe, I so miss the cut & thrust of career. Its nice retiring to a quaint Jane Austen town in the North Downs but, it now seems like a trap; I so miss Oxford. But, London is an hour away on the train & at least I have the internet & the Institute of Physics ;-)
Exactly, have been saying that since the start. The voting public is the biggest potential force for good but, vandalism alienates & inconveniences them; they need educating not puerile annoyance. Such protesters do more harm than polluters. Dont annoy; especially Scientists, go change the world ;-)
Sitting at my ASUS Chromebook Plus eating breakfast and wondered what the webcam was like? Not bad at all ;-)
Oh gosh! I have been processing some unseen photos from a 2018 holiday in Dorchester & loaded two uninspiring images into the Hugin panorama generator & this image came out. Amazing free software. Mind blown ;-)
What is the matter with the world allowing this destruction and genocide in Palestine. The Israeli government is a disgrace; the worst antisemitic oppression anywhere in the world today; yes Arabs are semitic. The Israeli Gov is antisemitic.
Well no. Darwin tells us that species will compete to the point where they destroy themselves; hence the predator prey cycles of boom & bust. He also tells us that only the fittest survive & we are clearly not fit. We either grow up & impose curbs ourselves or civilisation will fall into the abyss.
I have always hated AI since the early messiahs like Marvin Minsky raving on the media in the 80s. Now it is just annoying me by getting in the way like a snotty nosed aunt. I keep stripping it out of my computer tools but it keeps sneaking back. I hate it more than media trolls ;-)
I really enjoyed this documentary by David Suchet exploring the work of his presstog Grandad. I had a similar relationship to my society photog father. I also have his Leicas IIIg & M3. Alas would rather have had the Rolleiflex which I used a lot for street ;-) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5tE...
It has been a rainy day. When out shopping I saw this image and couldn't resist. More than a nod to my 2021 Dark Mirror: Spirituality & Reason Show ;-)
The whole design point of the internet is nobody can control it; its impossible & designed to be that way. What will happen in a Nuclear Dystopian Age if the Gov falls? The answer is resistance will use the Dark Web to coordinate the recovery. Its designed to be Trump proof; the man is an idiot.
I just signed the CANZUK Petition and sent a letter to my MP informing him and giving my reasons. I think it may be worth sharing it here ;-)
You don't think we did well and the bad Boris made it worse? The data doesn't agree with you. You all obeyed the rules did you? The data shows that most of you went home for Xmas and spread the plague. That spike wasn't caused by the Boris Partygate; that was you lot ignoring the rules!!!
Dont get me wrong; I dont think we got a bargain. But, I dont think any government would have done any better. Having audited Government suppliers back at 2000, getting any supplies in under 2yrs is astonishing. People forget this was an unprecedented risk to life & we did better than most.
So what!?! I think commentators of the time have a moronic inability to understand panic. There was no PPE & health workers were using binbags. So the government handed bungs to anybody they thought could supply? Is £1.4billion expensive. I dont think so. Ask anybody that actually got some.
Thank goodness. It was disgraceful the way the Labour Party under Corbin exiled all the Labour talent for a generation. We have never needed them back more than now. The world is in global crisis and this is our last chance to halt the slide into collapse. Time is short & CANZUK Britain must lead.
Last time I looked, Palestinians were a Semitic people. The only evidence I see for antisemitism is from the genocide of the Israeli Government & their progressive provocation & destruction of the Palestinian peoples who have lived in this region from before the Exodus. Time the world sorted this.
