I believe I should be rich! All this dickin’ around not being able to get done the things that would make a difference is a complete waste of energy. If I was lucky enough to win the Lotto Jackpot there are a million things I would take on, people that do win and then say, “This money won’t change my life at all,” and stay at work need to be shot in the head and the money given to someone who will make good use of it. After all if it isn’t going to change anything in their lives, what was the bloody point of buying the ticket in the first place? Muppets!!!
A very interesting theory has been developed by Mark Changizi a cognitive scientist, about how we interpret the world around us and also could explain certain optical illusions that we all perceive. It’s to do with how long it takes us to process the visual information from our eyes into images processed in the brain (approx 0.1S), this may seem relatively insignificant, but if you are going to catch out that Ozzy batsman instead of receiving a mouthful of broken teeth, it becomes all the more important. It has been declared that evolution has programmed us to instinctively warp the images around us to correct distortions created by movement of ourselves around our environment. So if we are walking along a street for example we will be visualising certain areas one tenth of a second before we actually see them (???), so we are kind of looking into the future! Have a look at this:
The converging lines toward a vanishing point (the spokes) are cues that trick our brains into thinking we are moving forward — as we would in the real world, Since we aren’t actually moving and the figure is static, we misperceive the straight lines as curved. If you imagine the perspective of a door frame as you walked through it, you begin to understand how our perception compensates and why these static parallel lines seem to bulge near the center. Have a look at this one:
In this illusion, looming toward the center leads to the brightness expanding outward, while looming away does the opposite, exactly the same rules at work.
This is however only a theory, but a pretty cool one…
Current events are certainly becoming very interesting, what with crude oil prices at $135 a barrel and staple food supplies in huge demand along with the ever approaching threat off recession due to banks lending money haphazardly, modern society in this country now stands precariously balanced on the edge of meltdown. And any major failing, including rising fuel prices or maybe a natural disaster (you never know) will topple us over the edge… There are so many other factors to take into consideration including immigration, drugs, alcohol and anti social behaviour (Chavs etc.), multi-cultural unrest…Too many to list!
I see Cannabis is being reclassified as class B? Now that stinks as if the government purposely relaxed the laws in the first place to allow perpetrators involved in cultivation and dealing, to become less secretive and easier to find. Watch the stats, I guess there will a huge increase in convictions against people involved in this field.
Edited to make more sense – 27th May 2008
I am quite a radical thinker and maybe slightly Right Wing, that is to say, I see that a multi-cultural society will never work! There are too many idiots out there in all cultures that make that dream an impossibility, so let us see things as they really are! Cultural communities evolving from the land where we ate Marmite Soldiers and warmed to Ready Brek just become insular and do not blend into society at all. Britain was once a fantastical playground for the likes of myself and friends, now it’s a politically (in)correct nightmare with an epidemic of neurosis for every mother who loves her children, it is quite impossible for society to reform. There will be an eventual up-rising, so we have to be prepared? Don’t we? No! Is what you’re probably thinking, you are just a depressive idiot writing a load of tosh in a blog. Like I say, I am a realist, if you believe that things will all work out ok then good for you. I believe we have challenging times ahead and not all of us will see it through. And I am mentally and emotionally prepared, are you?
Life is for living! Listen to the energy in this shit…WooHoo! I had to bypass the protection circuitry in my speakers to wind this up!
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Proves that hours of pissing about in FastTracker can pay off!
Wandering around Caerphilly we encroached upon a farm. The surrounding land may (or may not), be land owned by the Farmer but all the same, he exercised his right to graze sheep in what local people have branded “Common Land” by daubing graffiti across these gates, to which the Farmer has amusingly responded with a slight edit:
Common land (a common), in England and Wales is a piece of land over which other people, often neighbouring landowners, could exercise one of a number of traditional rights, such as allowing their cattle to graze upon it. The legal position concerning common land is confused. Most commons are based on ancient rights which predate the established law and even the Monarchy. The exact rights which apply to individual commons may be documented but more often are based on long held traditions. The UK government tried to regularise the definitions of common land with the Commons Registration Act 1965, which established a register of common land. However numerous inconsistencies and irregularities remain.
It is often thought that a common is somehow owned by everyone, or at least by the community in some sense. While that may have been true more than a thousand years ago, when wasteland would be used for grazing by the local community and over which there would not be, nor would there need to be, any particular limit or control of usage; since at least late Anglo-Saxon times, the right to exercise a right of common has been restricted to a commoner (owner of the land).
Prior to the Erection of Cottages Act 1588, an Englishman could build his house on common land if he could raise the roof over his head and have a fire at the hearth between sunrise and sunset and claim the dwelling as his home.
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God have I been moaning again? Seriously everything’s just fine, I’ve been thinking about the next big thing! How can I predict what it might be and get to the front of the queue to reap any rewards? There’s a lot being written about emerging technologies, Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) will soon replace plasma and give us roll up displays for presentations or portable TV, they will also set alight the imaginations of architects and interior designers when it comes to new buildings, imagine a entire wall that lights up when you flick on the switch in your living room and then gently dim to suit your mood, or even the floor, how about a sound to light setting? Now, as I’m sure you’ve heard, scientists are growing peoples’ fingers back! How cool is that? I can see an opportunity for a party trick there… And of course Rapid Manufacturing is surging forward, BMW are manufacturing prototypes using this technology and swear it saves them an absolute fortune, soon we will all have a 3D printer in our homes to manufacture basic items such as combs, hairclips, party crockery etc. kids could even design their own lunch boxes. Then who knows? There are loads of things being worked on at the moment most of us have no idea about, I do find it all quite exciting, but from where I’m looking, ultimately all technologies will converge and we will basically become part of it ourselves (not that we’re not already). The Mayan’s talked of an eventual global consciousness and it could easily be perceived that soon in the future we will be able to connect our nervous system to the world wide web and experience anything we decided as if it were real, a bit like The Game of Life in Red Dwarf or maybe we could have a spinal socket like Neo in The Matrix. With the way in which technology is progressing, all these ideas are a possibility, but progress needs stability, and the world is far from a stable environment.
Odd day…Was quite miserable this evening and then Kayleigh turned up and told me all about her birthday shenanigans which cheered me up big time. Had a kind of family get together on Saturday too which was nice, though a very high percentage of little kids for a 16th Birthday. My Sister took Kayleigh to Brighton last night to see Alphabeat and Kayleigh found out Frankmusik was the support act who she loves and she actually met him and got his autograph which she was ecstatic about. I mentioned to her that in June I’m seeing the Pigeon Detectives with Julie and she was like…”No Way!” And now wants a T-shirt. She will be seeing Crystal Castles in May which reminds me of an old arcade game which was basically 3D Pacman, and I’m sure they sampled some of the music from the game in one of their songs. Rolling Stone mention they use the “8-bit aesthetics of famed Nintendo composers Yoshihiro Sakaguchi and Koji Kondo.” Although Crystal Castles was Atari, I guess this explains it.
This is a pub in Caerphilly where I went to for lunch on Saturday with Julie and her daughter Tara.
“The Black Cock Inn is a historic country pub situated half way up Caerphilly Mountain and is a very popular traditional family inn. It boasts old fashioned values of good service and Welsh hospitality, a relaxing atmosphere and provides an ideal venue to enjoy your meal…” Then afterwards you can pop outside and take a picture so you can rip the piss out of the name in your blog!
God have I been moaning again? Seriously everything’s just fine, I’ve been thinking about the next big thing! How can I predict what it might be and get to the front of the queue to reap any rewards? There’s a lot being written about emerging technologies, Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) will soon replace plasma and give us roll up displays for presentations or portable TV, they will also set alight the imaginations of architects and interior designers when it comes to new buildings, imagine a entire wall that lights up when you flick on the switch in your living room and then gently dim to suit your mood, or even the floor, how about a sound to light setting? Now, as I’m sure you’ve heard, scientists are growing peoples’ fingers back! How cool is that? I can see an opportunity for a party trick there… And of course Rapid Manufacturing is surging forward, BMW are manufacturing prototypes using this technology and swear it saves them an absolute fortune, soon we will all have a 3D printer in our homes to manufacture basic items such as combs, hairclips, party crockery etc. kids could even design their own lunch boxes. Then who knows? There are loads of things being worked on at the moment most of us have no idea about, I do find it all quite exciting, but from where I’m looking, ultimately all technologies will converge and we will basically become part of it ourselves (not that we’re not already). The Mayan’s talked of an eventual global consciousness and it could easily be perceived that soon in the future we will be able to connect our nervous system to the world wide web and experience anything we decided as if it were real, a bit like The Game of Life in Red Dwarf or maybe we could have a spinal socket like Neo in The Matrix. With the way in which technology is progressing, all these ideas are a possibility, but progress needs stability, and the world is far from a stable environment.
