More bits and bobs

Scientists have changed their minds about what is beyond space or to mere mortals does it go on for ever. So now they think we are enclosed in a sphere so we can go round forever and never find an end. Call me stupid but what’s outside the sphere?

It’s probably a bad thing to delve to deep into what life is all about, we might not like what we find. Remember the Truman show, look it up, it was quite an interesting story.

There are some quite amazing song intro lines that tell a story about the people who wrote them.

The very thought of you and I forget to do the very things I oughter do

I wanna know what love is

I wonder who’s kissing her now

Something in the way she moves

Born to late to be your baby

All best listened to with a glass of wine and cheese biscuits.

The new priminister of the UK may have started to move the country in the right direction, hope he is given enough time to finish the job.

France and several other countries are in trouble with mass dissent by students and unions over poor schools and facilities. I remember when I was young and I was caned across my fingers for being late for school, I tried to explain that my parents couldn’t afford a clock, and I got caned again.

I see that Elon Musk has developed a car that flies so do you have to wear a seat belt or a parachute. Best of luck with that opening before you hit the ground.

Do AIs believe in God, there could be trouble if they have more than one.

Twice now when I brought the bird feeder into the garage to fill it a mouse was inside and both times it only moved when I started to fill it with food. Just about got the mouse outside before It got into the cavity wall, it still goes into the feeder and sunbathes in there with just it’s head and tail sticking out. It’s one cool mouse. Hope it doesn’t find a cool cat.

President Trumps midterm school report

Wars; Started a war in Iran possibly with some good intentions which was to prevent prevent them developing a nuclear weapon and most of the teachers were behind this idea. The problem is that you picked a fight with someone who will fight to the death. Will you? So you thought you destroyed all their weapons then you paused when you realised you hadn’t, and now they have rearmed. Now its the tenth round and you may need to go for a knockout as you won’t win on a points decision,

Sports Teacher

Well Donald you had the strongest economy of all the countries in the world you imposed tariffs on most of them in the hope of making vast amounts of money and they retaliated and you didn’t like it. America is a great country don’t make it into a second class one. There are many instances of great countries who thought they would always remain that way, few did.

Economics Teacher

I will be very blunt Donald, you had a lot of friends through out the world and America still has but friendship is not a one sided relationship, you have to give and not just take because one day you will need friends.

Social Studies

Donald, Take no notice of these comments as its so difficult to get good staff these days, I will bring this report to your house personally so you can amend it as you usually do.

The Head Master

For a few hours I didn’t have a leg to stand on

When the return valve in my right leg stopped working due to years of overuse the surgeon at the local hospital suggested that the only alternative was to kill the main vein by inserting a catheter and then running a wire inside it from the ankle to the groin and slowly removing it while combining heat and vibrations to inner wall of the vein so that it shrunk, and then other blood vessels would take over. The incentive was that on completion I would be given a cup of tea and a biscuit. What a bargain I thought; but I am eighty four so I asked if I could have the tea and biscuit before the operation just in case I never came out from the anaesthetic. So I had the operation today and so far it has gone well; fingers crossed. I forgot I cant cross my fingers because they are all bent.

Three days before the operation one of my teeth disintegrated and the dentist put a temporary cap on it, then said, ‘ one of your teeth is quite sharp, does it hurt you ? I shook my head and said thoughtfully. ‘No but I have to wear dark glasses in the daytime and I get quite excited at the sight of blood. The dentist wasn’t impressed.

After years of trying to get my innovative products made I have found a local company who may be interested. They have a very old Bridgeport Milling machine which I may be able to use to make samples subject to first renovating it. ( I spent many year as a die miller at various factories and Bridgeport’s were amazing machines but not suitable for production work which would require a CNC ) But I wont hold my breath as its very difficult to make new products in the UK even if you make them yourself.

Still if I can get samples made it would be a step in the right direction.

Don’t look down you might trip up

As part of my attempt to get total domination in the High security fastener industry I have found a firm that may be interested in producing them, I have known them for a very long time but they specialize in general engineering and not fasteners. But don’t hold your breath because I still can’t get samples made and so my sales are zero; still I am only eighty four with many days ahead of me, Oh, I forgot about the impending operation to correct the non return valve in my leg. Still I may have many hours ahead of me.

The picture below is of one of the high security fasteners I have designed, the Try-Ring, it looks good, is very difficult to remove without the correct tool and I have the patent for it,

I wonder if God uses nuts and bolts, I think he does because I have read about the golden gates, or were they the pearly gates. Whatever.

I went to the centre of Birmingham this Saturday and it was so busy, not what you would expect to find in a country that has a low growth rate. And I have noticed that a small piece of cake is nearly as much as a toasted sandwich.

The small town that I live in ‘Willenhall’ has built a new small railway station and although there is only one train per hour it is so useful.

So AI is hacking into other AI systems in an effort to find out if they are cleverer than they are, if that’s the case they steal the software to upgrade themselves. Cant wait until thy start playing Elvis in the middle of the night, drink cans of lager, refuse to be quiet and spend all day fast asleep. Still they are our children so we will have to make allowances for them.

The sad demise of another legend

It was sad to hear that Dolly Parton had died and although her music never appealed to me in the same way that many other American musical artist did she seemed a nice person and funded many charities especially books for children, a charity which provided free books to youngster from all over the world. It was important to her because she was born into a very poor family, not a good stat in life but t how she turned things around.

I watched Chris Martin from Cold Play on YouTube sing Fix You at the Royal Albert, not sure which year it was but his voice control was extraordinary and it’s such a difficult song to sing and of course write.

After a a very uncomfortable hot spell in England we then switched to a several days of rain and now several days of weather that feels just right.

But I have noticed that some of the shrubs in the garden are starting to shed their leaves and the Acers are turning red, a sure sign that winter is coming.

I am thinking of visiting all the houses that I lived in up to the age of fifteen a total of five and nine schools, although some were demolished many years ago,places sometimes trigger memories, little bits of then that you try to bring to now. I won’t be able to visit the school I lived in for eight months when I was eleven because it’s in Davos Switzerland, I wasn’t rich it was an open air school. I never learned to eat peas using a fork, they always fell on the floor and still do, why don’t they give you a spoon?

Is A I the next step in evolution

The speed at which AI is progressing has taken many people by surprise but I have always suspected that this may be a natural progression of evolution, give humans to much time and they may slow or stop A I from developing any further but give them less time and the human race is in trouble.

We were never very good at long term planning and the fact that we are quite fragmented into countries with different agendas means that we were never going to have a united response to a world threat especially as money is the driving facture in nearly everything we do.

I have been wrong many times in my life but I wonder if we are the builders and. A I is what we are meant to build, a program that was implanted in our genes long before we became humans.

Humans have always wondered what our purpose in life was meant to be, perhaps we have found it

So will A I wipe us out? I don’t know because I am just a builder, but a good one so maybe they will just give me a good pension and let me spend my last few years sitting in à nice coffee bar.

And as long as they can’t read my mind I will smile to myself at the thought that one day in the distant future AI will be replaced by something that is even farther along the evaluation chain because that’s what evaluation means.

Theres always someone faster than the fastest gunfighter.

New parts required

Just over two months ago and just before a three day visit to Llandudno I developed a small mark on my right ankle which over the next few days grew in size and a week later my foot and leg started swelling which was accompanied by a painful rash.

Several trips to the doctors and two lots of antibiotics failed to improve things and I was getting a pain in my ankle so it was followed by a visit to A and E more antibiotics and a referral to a vascular surgeon.

The surgeon was a very nice person he scanned my leg and said ‘the non return valve isn’t returning so you will need an operation’.

Well I was sort of expecting something like that and my self preservation mode kicked in so I said with a sincere expression on my face ‘I have to say you are the best surgeon I have ever met’ He frowned and said ‘ How many surgeons have you met? ‘Oh your the first’ I replied.’

The reality is that this will be my eighth operation, hope its only cats that have nine lives.

Hit and Miss

Hit and Miss was the theme tune from Juke Box Jury; a UK TV show which ran from 1959 to 1967 where a panel consisting of two male and two females judges listened to the latest 45 vinal records then voted it a hit or miss. The show was hosted by David Jacobs who looked more like a bank manager than a person who would be aware of what teenagers would listen to. But it was popular ;with an audience of twelve million at its peak. The theme tune may sound quite dated now but to me it is a portal to how music was evolving. Like most early music in the UK the show was a spin of from far more sophisticated versions in America mainly because the music there was so original.

If you stop and think about life, its all about Hit and Miss when what seems like small insignificant events can move you in a totally different direction, most times ones that you have no control over. Your eighteen standing at bar with friends, there are two groups of girls sitting in different parts of the room, over the night a girl from each group smiles at you, choose the wrong one and you will end up with a bitter divorce, choose the second one and will have a really happy marriage. It’s hit and miss. I could go on but with other examples but most people will have experienced moments of (if only)

Remember the classic song (If I could turn back time) well at the moment we can’t so think before committing.

China doesn’t need military action to rule the world, because it already does.

Amazing how quiet China has become while there is turmoil in the rest of the world, despite the fact that it is effected by the trade blockade implemented by Iran and the Americans. Of course they have greater stockpiles of oil and gas than most countries and have moved faster than most into green energy with vast soler panel and wind farms. Even the issue of Taiwan has been put on the backburner. So have they become more diplomatic, probably but that’s not the only reason for this new more measured approach.

But as I have said many times China has a long term policy of being the worlds greatest supplier of everything, and they are nearly there. What Iran is doing in the Strait of Hormus and preventing supplies getting to different parts of the world China can do the same. Its a clever philosophy and maybe they wont ever use it because there are benefits in keeping things the way they are.

And I wish I had a little of what they have got, I am still trying to get funding or a company to produce my products. I could go on all day about the amount of doors I have knocked ( that’s a very old expression) or websites I have visited but instead I will just put an image of the Smart-Thread nut on the screen the fastener has exactly the same profile both use threads to lock or unlock it. Its aesthetic, has a very high torque level and can be loaded on the tooling without falling of and will look amazing in any situation. Then there is the Try-Ring high-security fastener which is more like a lock.

Of course I am biased, but when everyone uses my fasteners maybe I could rule the World.

More little bits that stick in your mind for no particular reason.

I remember when Putin started the war with Ukraine, he said it would be over in a few days; it’s now been over four years, and it’s started to trash the economy and cost thousands of lives.

I remember when DJT started the war with Iran, and he said it would be over in a few days; it’s started to trash the economy, and the loss of lives will come later if America decides to implement a land war.

Despite my criticism of DJT, I hope he finds a way to end both of these wars; life is a precious thing that ends far too soon without any outside help.

Andy Burnham is the new Prime Minister of the UK. I wish him well and hope he can transform this country into one where we all help one another. But I have noticed that as soon as something that’s possibly good comes along, journalists try to find something that’s bad. Honey moons don’t last long; how long did yours last?

When I was eighteen and working as an apprentice at BIP Tools, Tyburne Road, Birmingham, the person in charge of the group of aspiring toolmakers was always smoking a cigarette; it never left his mouth even when he talked, and he never knocked the ash off it until it started to burn his mouth. The strange thing was that he had a really bad stutter, but the ash stayed on right to the end. A scientific miracle.

Alf Perry was in charge of the shaping section. His face always reminded me of the long, carved faces found on Easter Island; I can’t ever remember him smiling, and if someone made a mistake and scrapped a piece of metal, he would hold his head in both hands and say ‘dear mother’.

Most people in factories would stand up all day; it was difficult to operate most machines while sitting.

There was the middle-aged man on the polishing section who couldn’t keep still when you talked to him; he moved from one foot to the other completely unaware of what he was doing, but he had a lovely disposition and never stopped smiling

There were two hundred toolmakers at BIP Tools and twenty apprentices, possibly the largest group of engineers in the country at that time. And several trade union representatives; I rarely spoke to any of them until one day the main one stood close to me, obviously distressed. He talked, and I listened. ‘I was chairing a major union meeting last night. I stood up to give them the latest news and figures, and I couldn’t remember what to say; I couldn’t remember anything. It’s never happened before; I could talk all night. Got to see the Doctor next week.’ It was the first time I knew about Alzheimer’s.

BIP closed down a few years after I left, all those amazing people with stories that could fill a library, engineers with skills that have disappeared with them. Let’s hope memorise go somewhere and aren’t lost. Perhaps they head towards the stars, waiting to find a home.