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Good Night
Apr. 28th, 2019 01:15 am
Apr. 28th, 2019
The Weather, Aliens And Other Stuff
Apr. 28th, 2019 11:28 amSo far this morning it has been a nebulous cool day. As far as the sun is concerned well, all I can say is that he has been exiguous in the extreme. Might come out later to play but the forecast is not good. So, perhaps much like yesterday, a homogenous whiteout.
I just had a shower in fact, as most of the morning was spent reading and zipping a few chapters through a couple of books I am reading. One of them is called Aliens, a scientific book on the possibility of extraterrestrial life and exosolar life in general and what, if anything it may be like. The conclusions so far from repeated articles in the book by various big brains are that if intelligent life exists with the capability of being space-faring it is more likely they would be silicon lifeforms. Als, it postulates that if we are indeed to head for the stars our own biological lifeforms would be too fragile for the rigours of space and explorations and that despite the Star Treks of this entertainment world, it will be our artificial intelligence that would explore the galaxy and that all intelligent life that has reached the universe would be of some type of AI that is self-conscious and hence could be of small enough size to travel at near light speed. Remember that as you get closer to light speed your mass increases exponentially. That is why photons are massless and hence travel at lightspeed.
However, despite the pessimism, there may be other ways of overcoming the extreme distances, and that would be some way you could fold space around a ship so that, like a wormhole, you could travel the distance in almost an instance.
Fascinating stuff, and although I have not finished the book, it is well worth reading.
I was intending to take a trip to Canterbury to do a visit on the Wincheap industrial estate but actually decide against it, as I will be doing a visit in Ashford on Monday and then could catch a bus from there to Canterbury as it is on the bus route into the cathedral city. I just need to email ESA Retail or phone them Monday morning beforehand. I will need to contact SM as well as I have two pub visits to complete at the Billet pub which is meant to be done today - last day of fieldwork - and see if I can get a two-day extension as I do not feel like eating two lunches or dinners.
But enough of work-related shi. I just discovered rather lately that from the beginning of April for the next three months insertions on eBay are free as long as you are eligible which I am. Found out about it Friday night so I am going to add quite a bit of stuff there for now. It is anither income source I can use and already sold a rare Pete Namlook CD for £70 - I found it in a charity shop for £2 and could not believe my eyes as only 300 copies as it was one of his limited editions. Pete Namlook (born 25 November 1960 as Peter Kuhlmann) was an ambient and electronic-music producer and composer. In 1992, he founded the German record label FAX which he used to create many albums and limited editions. As of August 2005, Namlook and company had released 135 albums - yep, that prolific!
He died on 8 November 2012 after suffering a heart attack
Anyway to end this post a piece of Namlook.
Pete Namlook - Air (Full Album) [1993]
Enjoy.
His debut CD simply called Namlook from 1993 is selling for £93 on Discogs, so if you find any of his going dirt cheap snap them up!
I just had a shower in fact, as most of the morning was spent reading and zipping a few chapters through a couple of books I am reading. One of them is called Aliens, a scientific book on the possibility of extraterrestrial life and exosolar life in general and what, if anything it may be like. The conclusions so far from repeated articles in the book by various big brains are that if intelligent life exists with the capability of being space-faring it is more likely they would be silicon lifeforms. Als, it postulates that if we are indeed to head for the stars our own biological lifeforms would be too fragile for the rigours of space and explorations and that despite the Star Treks of this entertainment world, it will be our artificial intelligence that would explore the galaxy and that all intelligent life that has reached the universe would be of some type of AI that is self-conscious and hence could be of small enough size to travel at near light speed. Remember that as you get closer to light speed your mass increases exponentially. That is why photons are massless and hence travel at lightspeed.
However, despite the pessimism, there may be other ways of overcoming the extreme distances, and that would be some way you could fold space around a ship so that, like a wormhole, you could travel the distance in almost an instance.
Fascinating stuff, and although I have not finished the book, it is well worth reading.
I was intending to take a trip to Canterbury to do a visit on the Wincheap industrial estate but actually decide against it, as I will be doing a visit in Ashford on Monday and then could catch a bus from there to Canterbury as it is on the bus route into the cathedral city. I just need to email ESA Retail or phone them Monday morning beforehand. I will need to contact SM as well as I have two pub visits to complete at the Billet pub which is meant to be done today - last day of fieldwork - and see if I can get a two-day extension as I do not feel like eating two lunches or dinners.
But enough of work-related shi. I just discovered rather lately that from the beginning of April for the next three months insertions on eBay are free as long as you are eligible which I am. Found out about it Friday night so I am going to add quite a bit of stuff there for now. It is anither income source I can use and already sold a rare Pete Namlook CD for £70 - I found it in a charity shop for £2 and could not believe my eyes as only 300 copies as it was one of his limited editions. Pete Namlook (born 25 November 1960 as Peter Kuhlmann) was an ambient and electronic-music producer and composer. In 1992, he founded the German record label FAX which he used to create many albums and limited editions. As of August 2005, Namlook and company had released 135 albums - yep, that prolific!
He died on 8 November 2012 after suffering a heart attack
Anyway to end this post a piece of Namlook.
Pete Namlook - Air (Full Album) [1993]
Enjoy.
His debut CD simply called Namlook from 1993 is selling for £93 on Discogs, so if you find any of his going dirt cheap snap them up!
Andrew Motion "Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life" (Faber & Faber)
Poets are a bit like comedians, in my book. It is not that they make you laugh, but that I have to like the poet to like his/her work. I knew that reading a biography of Larkin could destroy any enjoyment of his poetry and, sadly, that is what this book has done.
It is hard to know how far to blame Larkin, and where to put the responsibility onto Andrew Motion's shoulders. Larkin knew that he was somewhat lacking in social skills. Motion professes to have been a friend of Larkin but the book, which the London Review of Books described as, "Honest but not prurient", often reads to me as 'catty'. Motion will say (paraphrased) Larkin hated foreigners, treated his women (including mum) appallingly, sometimes appeared to know only four-letter adjectives, but was, really, a nice man. This comes across as disingenuous.
The only two times, in the entire book, that I found any sympathy with Larkin was in two events towards the end of his life. Firstly, he accidentally kills a hedgehog, with his lawn mower. He had been feeding the little chap each morning and was distraught, crying inconsolably - almost the first sign of human sentiment that he shows. He then gains brownie points for his treatment of Monica, through her illness, where he finds that he is more upset than her when she moves out.
Motion passes off Larkin's extreme right-wing views as based upon ignorance, and thus excusable. He (Motion) seems to delight in Larkin's confusion when his heroine, Margaret Thatcher, becomes PM and promptly proceeds to tear down the grants to universities, and libraries in general.
Larkin, I believe, knew that his life was not something of which to be proud and that was why he begged for his diaries to be destroyed: perhaps, it would have been better for him to be thought a bigot, for remarks in his work, than to have the full extent of his bigotry so ruthlessly exposed.
Poets are a bit like comedians, in my book. It is not that they make you laugh, but that I have to like the poet to like his/her work. I knew that reading a biography of Larkin could destroy any enjoyment of his poetry and, sadly, that is what this book has done.
It is hard to know how far to blame Larkin, and where to put the responsibility onto Andrew Motion's shoulders. Larkin knew that he was somewhat lacking in social skills. Motion professes to have been a friend of Larkin but the book, which the London Review of Books described as, "Honest but not prurient", often reads to me as 'catty'. Motion will say (paraphrased) Larkin hated foreigners, treated his women (including mum) appallingly, sometimes appeared to know only four-letter adjectives, but was, really, a nice man. This comes across as disingenuous.
The only two times, in the entire book, that I found any sympathy with Larkin was in two events towards the end of his life. Firstly, he accidentally kills a hedgehog, with his lawn mower. He had been feeding the little chap each morning and was distraught, crying inconsolably - almost the first sign of human sentiment that he shows. He then gains brownie points for his treatment of Monica, through her illness, where he finds that he is more upset than her when she moves out.
Motion passes off Larkin's extreme right-wing views as based upon ignorance, and thus excusable. He (Motion) seems to delight in Larkin's confusion when his heroine, Margaret Thatcher, becomes PM and promptly proceeds to tear down the grants to universities, and libraries in general.
Larkin, I believe, knew that his life was not something of which to be proud and that was why he begged for his diaries to be destroyed: perhaps, it would have been better for him to be thought a bigot, for remarks in his work, than to have the full extent of his bigotry so ruthlessly exposed.
Just Wondering
Apr. 28th, 2019 11:55 pmWhat's your most valued possession?
Do you ever buy 'gifts' for yourself?
Have you ever given away something by accident? What was it? How did you give it away by accident?
Do you ever buy 'gifts' for yourself?
Have you ever given away something by accident? What was it? How did you give it away by accident?
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