jonny777

Dry and bright here in North Somerset at the moment, but I fear later today will be showery with the risk of thunder. A stomach upset is ongoing, and will prevent me from doing much today. I'm trying to think what I might have eaten which could have done this; unless I have picked up a bug from the grandchildren - not an unusual occurrence. Why would my Sunday newspaper imagine that I would want to read 17 pages of blather about a football match which hasn't happened yet?

Grey and misty here in North Somerset. There may be a little light drizzle, but I can't tell unless I go outside, but I don't want to disturb the greenfinches on my seed feeders. ChrisF will be pleased to know that not only does Bristol have a rainbow bus, it also has a rainbow street crossing. He may not be quite as happy to see that, within a week of its completion, it has been vandalised. https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2021-07-07/hate-crime-investigation-underway-as-bristols-new-rainbow-crossing-vandalised

Dry and bright here in North Somerset. Quite humid, but no wind. Toadstools are now growing in the grass at the back of the house. They must think autumn has arrived, and I suppose the weather has given that impression of late. A quiet day in prospect hopefully, as I partook of the ciders while watching the football on telly, and would prefer it if noise levels were kept to a minimum.

An interesting thought, and maybe you are right. After all, there would be a lot of mass in a black hole, but the universe has expanded to such a degree I think the black hole must have been the biggest ever known...... or was it? The thing which intrigues me, is that the theory of the big bang derives from the discovery that all galaxies were accelerating away from us. Simple, extrapolate backwards and find the start point. Except that it doesn't work like that. The farthest galaxies have been shown to be accelerating away from us, but no one seems to have projected backward and assumed they would be decelerating in the past, and so would never reach the Big Bang.

Dry and bright here in North Somerset, but showers seem to be close by. I am not sure I welcome the relaxation of all covid rules, although I know it is going to be down to individual decisions. I will continue to wear a mask on public transport and inside shops, because for me nothing has changed. In fact, given the figures, infections have worsened over the last few weeks; and that seems surprising given that tens of millions of us have been vaccinated twice. I shall be doing very little today, as nothing needs watering except tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse which need liquid feed anyway; and a double ascent of Mont Ventoux on the Tour de France is a spectacle not to be missed on any account. And this will be followed by the Denmark v England football which ought to be enough excitement for one day. Also, I can batch scan railway negatives at the same time, without too much trouble.

But, is that true? Do electrons or neutrinos truly obey the laws of physics? What about the centre of a black hole? Can anything obey the laws of physics in there? Dark matter and dark energy? If we ever find out what they are, who knows if they will be obeying our current physics laws? We had to invent dark matter/energy precisely because our laws did not equate with some of what we could see in the universe.

There are a few places in Nevada where it looks as though a different desert area has been pasted over the aerial photo. e.g. https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1218082,-117.420363,24116m/data=!3m1!1e3 (I should have added - zoom out a little from that photo and the pasted area vanishes). Mind you, UK Ordnance Survey maps never had any detail of secret defence establishments. Roads just ended in the middle of nowhere, and internal railway systems were not shown at all. I only discovered this when driving regularly on a motorway to work, when one day a train of VDA (or equivalent) vans was parked on a bridge as I passed under. I thought at the time that I had no idea there was a railway there, and when I looked on my OS map of the area there was no railway there. Not surprising, really; as they don't want any inquisitive people poking their noses into military affairs.

Well, it might if the alien had some form of carnal relations with the existing species. In fact that might go a long way to explaining why we share 90+% of our DNA with many of the ape species on earth, but not all of it. But, just over 100 years ago there were press reports of 9ft+ tall skeletons discovered in parts of California. https://greaterancestors.com/forteen-nine-foot-skeletons/ No one seems to have come up with a satisfactory explanation of why the humans were so tall? On the subject of the pyramids, there are some dimensions of the structures which would lead an unbiased scientist to assume they had 'outside' help. Is it not true that the pyramids point to where the Pleiades would have been in the sky when the construction took place? Old manuscripts/stone tablets from thousands of years ago have also been said to indicate the Pleiades as the origin of people from the skies. https://www.historydisclosure.com/great-pyramid-giza-immense-size-mysterious-precision-dimensions/ https://mynzahosiris.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/the-pleiades-and-ancient-civilizations-article/

I don't know if ghosts are aliens playing tricks, but I don't believe sound recordist Peter Handford was prone to making up stories.

I recently purchased a batch of John Vaughan b/w negatives at auction. The auction house stated that copyright was included, therefore I think I am within my rights to post this here. This is a GWML parcels train late 80s-style, with 47592 in charge, passing Waltham St Lawrence on 3rd June 1988.

Don't worry. The Chinese will have a bigger and better one in a few years time - especially now they have their new manned space station up and running. This is the main reason why the USA want us all to hate the Chinese. They are about to take charge, and if we refuse to let them, they will stop all containers coming our way - and see how long it takes for our economies to seize up.

This site ought to give some people a few hours worth of relevant reading matter. They do try and dismiss the more outlandish descriptions, but I suppose the whole point of UFOs is that they cannot be identified. http://www.project1947.com/index.html As for God being a spaceman, well the book of Genesis does say that he made Adam in his own image, so he must have looked very similar to humans. Genesis also states that the first woman was formed from one of Adam's ribs, which ought to be the first known occasion of DNA cloning on the planet. However, if God is/was a spaceman; then who made God? Surely he couldn't have manufactured himself? And if he really did 'make' the solar system, he did a pretty poor job. There is no point at all in Mercury for a variety of reasons; unless that is where Satan lives. Venus and Mars are relatively sensible, but he just let both planets go to ruin. And I see little point in creating the vastnesses of Jupiter and Saturn if they are not going to be able to support life. What a waste of time and energy. He could have made Earth, Venus and Mars each twice the size they are and took more care of them, so that once we had hunted most of our animals to extinction, we could go to Venus and repeat the process there. Neptune and Uranus are just a joke (well to certain people Uranus will always be a 'joke'). So D Minus for the solar system mr god-man, whoever you are. You must try harder.

Dry and bright here in North Somerset, but rather breezy. Bin men arrived at 0615, and recycling about an hour later. No sleepy lie in for me. The stormy night was avoided by the simple expedient of the low deciding to go to the south of us and take its gales with it over the English Channel. Yesterday, I managed not only to cut the front grass but trim the hawthorn and privet around the front gates. Also SWMBO insisted I added thin wire to the low fence by the side path, in order that she could train a thornless blackberry to grow along there. All in all, quite a productive day.

Don't try the ad hominem approach, however subtle you try and make it. I know perfectly well how Occam's Razor works, but you can demonstrate your expertise on this report for starters - Tuesday, January 27, 1953 Grand Rapids, Mich.- Grand Rapids Press AIR FORCE REPORTS SMALL ‘DISC’ MAKES PASS AT THUNDER-JET. United States Airbase, North Japan— AP—The United States Air Force Tuesday night reported a small, metallic, disc-shaped object made a controlled, sweeping pass at an American jet fighter-bomber and was observed at very close range by another pilot. The report, from Air Force intelligence files, said the sighting was made over northern Japan at 11:20 a.m., March 29, 1952, by Lt. David C. Brigham of Rockford, Ill. It was a bright, cloudless day, Brigham said he got a very good look at the object from about 30 to 50 feet for about 10 seconds. The pilot described it as “about eight inches in diameter, very thin, round and as shiny as polished chromium: had no apparent projections and left no exhaust trails or vapor trails.” He said it caught up with an F-84 Thunderjet, hovered a few moments and then shot out of sight. The F-84 pilot, whose name was not revealed, did not see it. It was the second disclosure in a week by Air Force intelligence of mysterious flying objects over northern Japan near the Russian-Siberia area. Brigham was flying a prop-driven reconnaissance craft at 6,000 feet when an F-84 drew alongside them, he said, he saw the disc to the right of and just behind the Thunderjet. He said it appeared to be traveling 30 to 40 miles an hour faster than the F-84, which was going 150-160 miles an hour. “It closed rapidly and just before it would have flown into his fuselage, it decelerated to his air-speed almost instantaneously,” Brigham said in his report to intelligence officers. “In doing so it flipped up its edge at approximately a 90-degree bank. Then it fluttered within 20 feet of his fuselage for perhaps two or three seconds, pulled away and around his starboard (right) wing, appearing to flip once as it hit the slipstream behind his wing tip fuel tank. “Then it passed him, crossed in front of him and pulled up abruptly, appearing to accelerate, and shot out of sight in a steep, almost vertical climb. An unusual flight characteristic was a slow fluttering motion. It rocked back and forth at approximately 40-degree banks at approximately one second intervals throughout its course.” When it pulled away, “It did so more sharply than a plane could have done. Its maneuvering throughout was always clear and precise.”

Occam's Razor will not work for UFO sightings because no one knows what aliens might look like (or even if they exist). Most reports have been classified for decades, and many more still might be for all we know. You would end up trying to prove that everyone mistook the planet Venus, weather balloons, contrails, hoaxes, marks on poor camera lenses, etc., etc.; simply because you do not have access to detailed evidence - or all eye witnesses are immediately branded nut jobs by those who insist any event which cannot be replicated by modern science must be a lie. Occams Razor dismissed the existence of sprites when they were first reported by aircraft pilots, because the only logical answer was to assume the wildest descriptions were false. Upward 'lightning' into the Stratosphere from thunderstorms in the Troposphere? Not possible. Except that they were true, and have been filmed hundreds of times since the initial debunking.

Is it possible that this thread might be used for a grown up discussion of a subject which some of us wish to partake in, however far fetched? After 13 pages, might it also be possible for the self appointed 'comedians', with their never ending puerile posts, to maybe start their own thread somewhere else? May I suggest the CBeebies forum?

You obviously have not read this article - https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eisenhower-met-aliens-says-timothy-good_n_1277133 Whether you wish to believe it or not is entirely up to you. I make no comment on my opinions either way. However, it does seem to have a veneer of respectability about it, at least.

I don't think anyone can consider the number of stars in the universe, as they cannot imagine such a large number. After all, there are said to be 100 galaxies in the universe for every living human on this planet, and that is well big enough to be going on with. Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across, and so even the local distances are vast. Andromeda may be heading our way, but at the moment it is our nearest full size galaxy to the milky way; but even Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away. Any super intelligent lifeform in our galaxy which may have developed a means of travel at close to light speed would still take 2.5 million years to get there if they started today. And, vice-versa; so unless they have also developed almost everlasting life, or the ability to produce multi-generations which can survive over those time spans, they are not going to get here any time soon. As for radio waves; we have only been transmitting for 120 years, and therefore our communications are only 120 light years distant at present. If we continue to trash the planet at the current rate, transmissions will cease within another 100 and therefore a narrow window of 200 light years will be all that any random intelligent life forms will have to know we existed at all. This also applies to us receiving broadcasts from other inhabited planets. There may have been extra terrestrials transmitting to us during the 17th and 18th centuries, but how would we know that their planet was hit by an asteroid or their star suddenly emitted such a large coronal mass ejection that it blew their atmosphere away? I don't see any reason why we must be the most intelligent lifeform in the galaxy. That idea is just human arrogance. If those with vastly superior intelligence to humans were employed to scout around this part of the galaxy to see what other life could be found, they would probably jump for joy when first viewing the earth from distance, but having flown closer and seen (relative to them) our backward warmongering global lifestyle, they would have sensibly kept a wide berth and put us down as another wasted world heading for a full scale nuclear exchange. I'm sure they would immediately switch all of their communications to a channel which they know we would not be able to pick up with our primitive 'fossil fuel based' equipment.

Well said that man. A few light showers remain in North Somerset, but we are basically waiting for the rather nasty looking low pressure to the SW to flatten our garden with a combination of strong winds and heavy rain. We have already had the average rainfall for July, and that included 20mm yesterday, much of it during our street party, which was held under awnings in the organisers front garden. Everything seemed to go well....lots to eat and drink and many of us discovered the names of people living at the other end of the cul-de-sac. Eventually, though, the increasing frequency of heavy showers meant that there was very little space under cover, and apparently F1 racing was about to start; therefore the event drew to a rather haphazard close, but there was talk of repeating it around Chri**m*s time. One suggestion was that from 12 days before the 25th until 12 days after, we would assemble in the garden of each house in turn to eat mince pies and drink mulled wine. However, as this might easily result in a street full of obese alcoholics by January 2022 I don't think the idea will be taken up. The big question today is, will my front grass dry out enough today to allow me to cut it late this afternoon?

Allegedly, the 'dark web' is the place where lists of phone numbers of older residents can be bought and sold. I have no idea what the dark web is, or how to get there; but I suspect that being on one of those lists, which may be years out of date, is how some people get lots more phone calls than others. I know my Dad used to get between about 5 and 10 calls a day, which he answered religiously - at least when I was there. He was of a different generation who had been brought up to believe that a ringing phone was important and must be answered without delay. Few of my younger relatives bother with a landline these days, and if they have one they don't have a phone connected to it unless they need to use it for emergency purposes. So, I suspect the list of landline numbers is becoming confined more towards the age range of people who fall for the scams. I suppose it would be possible with modern technology to dial every number combination in the UK, but many would remain unanswered or be non-existent, and those which were not viable to the scammers could soon be struck off the list - but presumably they rest could be sold for a decent sum of money.

I read in a newspaper article that anyone who answers these spam calls are filtered into a response list, which means they will be contacted more frequently with various scams until they find one which traps them. Then there are others who get filtered into a grey list because at one point they have given their date of birth to someone; and apparently the over-60s are more gullible, so they get put onto far more persistent call lists which can be bought by rogue companies. This may explain why I am shocked when staying at my brother's, how often his phone rings with time wasters. My answerphone even has a different ring tone for numbers I have moved into the non-family/friends section. The memory can only block 40 numbers at any one time, so the excess go there. It means I don't even have to bother getting off my fat backside for certain calls, even to check the number.

Dry and bright in North Somerset, but not for long I suspect; as it has gone rather dark and threatening behind the church (this is in no sense an anti-Anglican comment) which is where most of our thunderstorms come from - the south (the Mendips) basically. We had some heavy showers yesterday, but today is planned to be the annual street party. Somehow, I don't think it will be partying in the street for too long. I am delegated to provide sausage rolls - which will need to be in the oven later, and have a couple of bottles of Veuve-Clicquot Cava in the fridge. Now it is all down to the rain gods, or more precisely - potential instability and orographic uplift.

Dull and misty in North Somerset. 13mm of rain overnight. Another car wash from the skies, saving me from even thinking about it. Grandson came yesterday and spent most of the time playing with the old Lego train set one of my sons used to have. It doesn't work electrically, but he doesn't worry about that, as his main interest is making a track layout and then changing it for another of his mental track plans. This can go on for hours, as he seems to love the idea that he can break everything down and make something new without any outside interference. I managed to persuade him to go to the allotment because there might be a few ripe strawberries, and he wandered outside at one point and then came rushing back in to tell me he had seen a frog jump into the pond. He starts school in September, and as long as they have a frog pond and a self build railway track - he will be in his element.

Dry but cloudy here in North Somerset. Sun is breaking through slowly, and another warm and humid day is expected. Grandson will visit this morning. He is train mad. He usually wants to watch Youtube videos of Clapham Junction because there is so much action there. My sense of smell is slowly returning in fits and starts. It is quite revealing how much the brain takes for granted when the senses are working normally. When things go awry, the merest hint of a familiar pong makes me stop what I'm doing and think "I can smell that". Had a very strange dream last night, where I seemed to be working nights but was trying to sleep during the day. I was in bed in a room with my mother in law and sister in law present (but not in the bed I hasten to add - that thought would have been a nightmare). Anyhow, every time I turned over (in my dream) m-i-l switched on the light and asked if I wanted a cup of tea, and sis-i-l came over with a tin of biscuits. Time after time I tried telling them to go away and let me get a decent few hours sleep. I ended up so annoyed that I woke up in a cold sweat.

A grey and misty start in North Somerset, but the low cloud is thin and looks as though it will break up as the sun gets higher in the sky; and we will have another warm and humid day like yesterday. A few thunderstorms developed over the Welsh mountains, and I could see the clouds building up, from one of our bedroom windows. They did move south then southeast but fizzled out before they reached here. Sympathies go out to those in NW USA/SW Canada who have had temperatures in the high 40s C over the last few days. The culprit appears to be a blocking high in the NE Pacific which has disrupted the jetstream in that area and cut off the normal west to east flow of air from that part of the Pacific. I have trouble with high 20s C, and high 30s would render me completely incapable, so I hate to think what 49C must be like. However, the block does seem to be eroding slowly and normal service looks like arriving by early next week in that area.