I think I am coming to the conclusion of this website experiment. Current feelings are that I will end this site. I will cancel my hosting service. It is reasonably likely I will also delete my twitter account. I think it’s time.
Why Don’t People Think?
So, this morning I had to drive a short distance which in everyday normal experience is only mildly frustrating. I’ve chilled quite a bit as a driver since I got the Prius and I would say I’m calm. However, today was not normal. There was a lot of snow over night and so the roads were covered in ice and snow. The car took about ten minutes to clear of snow and to make sure it was road worthy. I spent time making sure it was safe for me to drive. I tested the roads at the start of my journey, steering response and braking. This seems sensible to me.
As I drove home I could see other cars not really aware of safety or even other users on the road. Plenty of people were driving what I thought was too fast for the conditions. While they not have had a crash the issue is their ability to react to dangers and then being able to control the vehicle and be safe generally. I let this type of driver past me, who wants that kins of twat to hit you from behind?
Then there was the couple of cars covered in snow with only small viewing areas through the windscreen. These are the sort of people who should be banned from driving. Your whole car should be clear of snow and ice. You shouldn’t shed massive lumps of snow as you are going at speed. You should be able to see out of the whole windscreen and side windows. These people are a danger to others and that’s the thing that bothers me. I generally don’t care if you are a danger to yourself, what bothers me is if you could endanger others. /rant.
Rule 134 – This Makes Sense
I’ve had occasion recently to look at things within the Highway Code. I know that they change it year on year and I try to keep aware of these things, but somethings have happened recently to change my mind about road behaviour and so I wanted to know the actual rules.
Maidstone is a somewhat special town with all its traffic glory. There are plenty of places within the town where there seem to be “local rules” and I often describe it as driving in London. You need to know what lane to be in for a junction one mile up the road otherwise it all gets a bit shitty. There are roadworks currently at a junction I use a lot. Two of the lanes now drop down to one lane to give the workers room to work and to be safe. Many, many people try to get into the open lane as soon as they see the signs and this leaves the lane that is closing empty of traffic. This might seem sensible but then I saw an image on [twitter I think] social media that made traffic queuing sense. Both lanes were full and then you merge in turn where the lane actually closes.
This makes sense. It shortens the length of the queuing traffic on the road and makes it more fair by insisting that people take it in turns to merge. THIS IS THE MOST SENSIBLE FOR QUEUING TRAFFIC. This is so sensible that there is a rule about it in the Highway Code and that is Rule 134.
Rule 134
You should follow the signs and road markings and get into the lane as directed. In congested road conditions do not change lanes unnecessarily. Merging in turn is recommended but only if safe and appropriate when vehicles are travelling at a very low speed, e.g. when approaching road works or a road traffic incident. It is not recommended at high speed.
HighwayCode
The problem with this rule is that people think they need to move over straight away and then they get annoyed at someone “cutting the line” and doing the correct thing which is to use the closing lane until the last moment. I’ve even seem people gatekeep the road by making sure no one can get along the closing lane. These people are wrong and also utter wankers. To be honest I looked this rule up because I want the defence when I get someone complaining about me driving up the empty lane and then merging in turn. Also, I don’t understand why merging in turn isn’t a bigger thing over here. People seem to be right assholes about it all.
Hopefully This Tells A Story
I’m not going to research this before writing this communication. You are going to get my live reaction as I search through data sources to see what the evidence is to back up my hypothesis that the current UK Government Cabinet are assholes. The evidence I’m going to collect is from They Work For You and I’m going to compare voting records on human rights issues. I’m going to use the top five or so ministers from government and also those in the shadow cabinet to see if there are some broad differences. I AM going to make a value judgement on the overall work of these MPs using how they vote on social issues. If you think it’s ok to be in charge of this country but to deny people human rights then I guess that is your choice but I bet you are cis white het.
UK Tory Government
Rishi Sunak – Generally voted against giving people equal rights.
Dominic Raab – Generally voted against giving people equal rights.
Jeremy Hunt – Generally voted against giving people equal rights.
James [not] Cleverly – Generally voted against giving people equal rights.
Suella Braverman – all the bad.
UK Shadow Cabinet
Kier Starmer – voted for the good things.
Angela Rayner – voted for the good things.
Pat McFadden – voted for the good things.
David Lammy – generally voted for the good things.
Yvette Cooper – almost always voted for the good things.
These results aren’t really a surprise. The tories generally vote against doing good things for people and the labour shadow cabinet generally vote for doing good things for people. Why people even vote tory I don’t understand. Oh, yes, I do understand, it’s because they are largely selfish and lack empathy.
Glorious Weather
I have spoken before on here about how lucky I feel I am to live in the Medway Valley Villages. Nestled between two large conurbations these villages have a country feel with the convenience of town living. We also have large skies and here are two photographs not that far apart in time show the glorious colours of our atmosphere.
It’s All Just Guessing
So, imagine asking a psychic for help with a missing persons case. In many ways this is understandable as when people are at their lowest there’s some comfort that things like that might work even if you know it’s mostly rubbish. People will grasp at straws. Consider those who use alternative medicine for anything, but worst of all, those who have cancer and give up medical treatment because their alternative medical practitioner says it won’t work. I saw the text of a psychic’s prediction of where a missing person would be or was. I’m not really sure. It is pretty terrible. Let’s look at it.
So, here are the guesses within these messages:
- street.
- abandoned house.
- older guys.
- 18 or 19.
- motorcycle.
- mound of dirt.
- grey jogging bottoms.
- dirt bikes.
- warehouse.
- house.
- kid.
- pile of dirt.
- construction site.
- mound of dirt.
When we look at the types of building mentioned we have about four different things, this covers all bases. It doesn’t matter what reality was, this psychic will score a hit. Given that there was an image sent to her of the person outside a building in a street this isn’t very psychic. Then we can look at the description of a person hanging around with other people. Well, I don’t see that very often do I. That’s an amazing prediction or seeing or whatever the fuck. If teenagers are out somewhere then there’s a high chance some of them might have a dirt bike or a motorbike. All of this is just stuff that happens and none of it is specific to this particular situation.
I think my favourite part of the whole prediction is the dirt aspect. Can you tell me somewhere that isn’t close to dirt or a pile of dirt? Oh, and the joggers? The psychic had an image of the person who went missing. Also, grey joggers are probably very common. All of the psychic predictions in these messages are just listing very common things.
What these people rely on is confirmation bias and motivated reasoning. Humans find it really hard to think against things that they really want to be true. Everyone would like the idea of existing after we die and so we create stories to make it as true as possible. It’s a shame we live in a world where people can defraud or give false hope to others in their time of need.
Counting It Up
IT’s been a troubling time for my car, Bora Horza Gobuchul. About a month ago the catalytic converter was stolen but this isn’t about the trials and tribulations of that incident. This communication is about a cool, but random, occurrence when I happened to check the mileage on the car after my eldest son asked how far it had travelled.
There we are. I thought it was pretty cool. Although I didn’t even notice it at first, it was my child who got excited.
Not Close Enough To Touch
I actually managed to get out of the house just in time to return to work. However, I did get a short trip to the beach, well, when I say beach it was next to the sea, when I say sea it was an estuary, and by beach I mean a stone beach. There are some sandy beaches in Kent, they are just a little further to get to and sand is over rated.
This image has all the colour and style that was available that day. It was nicely calming to be here. The sea / estuary was pretty quiet and there wasn’t any wind. On the horizon line you can see a little but of Southend in Essex and I think there might be two ships in the frame too. One of the ships seemed to be anchored while the other was definitely underway.
Here’s a close up of Southend. Part of me thinks I should head over there and look back at Kent. I can see Southend from a couple of places down this side of the estuary and it’s been an absolute age since I was in Southend itself. I can vaguely remember being on the pier. But that’s it. I can’t remember much else.
My website UI is telling me there are four links within these communications that do not work and so I’ll have to spend some time going through them and trying to find new links. Just another thing to do in terms of website admin – does it never end? Just joking, it’s actually pretty simple to keep this site going, I mean, any old fool can do it.
This is communication number 2006 and just below there are some things that happened in that year. I really now need to start thinking what I’m going to do when I get beyond communication number 2022. I was going to just make up outrageous things that I think could happen in those years. Or, perhaps I should just stop. I’m not sure. I quite enjoy having a particular format to these notes. I’ll think about it.
- New Horizons is launched towards Pluto.
- Google buys YouTube.
- Nintendo Wii is released.
- Lordi win the Eurovision song contest.
On The Cusp
This year has been an experience for a number of reasons, Covid being the most/worst important, and heating my house and having hot water being my second stressy thing. I think the heating and hot water started to be a little temperamental in February and because we were in the second or third wave of Covid it took ages to get the boiler seen. Lots of parts were replaced and then eventually it died properly. Fortunately it died a few days before I had booked to get a new boiler installed. So, finally, the new boiler is now installed and I have efficient heating and lovely hot water.
I did have a mild panic that the walls of the boiler might not be iron based and therefore the magnets wouldn’t stick but it turns out I needn’t have worried. I mean, where else would people stick shit like that if the boiler was made of plastic??
I am aware that having a new gas powered boiler right in the middle of a gas supply crisis is a little worrisome. It bothers me too. I looked into a heat exchanger and, firstly, I can’t afford one, secondly, a friend who is a green energy expert said to leave it a few years for the technology to catch up. I would love to have installed some green energy heating device but I’m stuck. I am hoping to get ten years of use out of this boiler before things become too expensive or illegal to run. Then, with luck, I’ll be able to install some green tech and feel happier about my contributions to fucking this planet over.
This is comms#1975 and so here are some things that happened that year:
- An earthquake in China was predicted but it still kills over 2000 people.
- The Birmingham Six are wrongfully imprisoned.
- The AH-64 Apache makes it’s first flight.
- Iron Maiden is formed.
- 2000 die in an earthquake in Turkey.
It’s A Shame I Wasn’t More Awake
The hot weather of the last few days has broken and I think it’s meant to be more “normal” over the next week or so. I don’t mind really. As long as I can drink enough water I’m generally happy in any temperature. So, last night I woke with the clapping of thunder and I pulled my window shut. I slowly decided whether to properly get and and watch the lightning as there is a decent vista from the back bedroom but my decision was – go back to sleep. I’ve seen storms before.
When I woke and eventually checked my phone there were loads of notifications of movement detected from my home security system. I wrote about this in this communication. It turns out that the lightning set off the record feature of the cameras and I got some shots of the sky being lit up by electrical discharge.
The green bits and pieces in the video are where the camera thinks there is movement so generally they are best to ignore. Of the videos the camera recorded this one was the best with a decent image of the strike.
This is communication number 1958 and so here are some things, curated by me, that happened in that year of the common era:
- Sputnik 1 falls to Earth and burns up.
- Bertrand Russell launches CND.
- BBC Radiophonic workshop is established.
- The last fully rigged sail trading ship sinks carrying guano.
- The first motorway opens in the UK.