Ransen's Blog

I've mentioned before that I like manga .  But my daughter introduced me to an anime which I think will remain with me till I die. There is a particular scene which, well, shocked me with its force. The anime is "The Promised Neverland " and if you see the images from it you imagine it is a such a sweet thing: But by the time I got to the end of the first episode I realised it was much darker... ...but much much darker than I could have imagined.   No spoilers, but you, full adult, watch it and see what I mean. And don't let any small children watch it.   (I watched it on Netflix, and the scene which remains with me is towards the end of the first series.)

As you walk through the park early one morning and hear the twittering of the birds and notice the greenness of the plants... ...it can be depressing to remember that all life is struggling. The tweets of the birds are (sometimes) saying "fuck off, this is my territory", and just because they are high pitched does not mean they are sweet, it just means they are small creatures. And the plants have fought through their evolution to beat competitors for light and water. Not that the songs of the birds are not amazing to listen to, and forms of the plants and animals are not wonderful to look at. But. Still. What counteracts these depressing thoughts? Well the fact that the universe exists and the fact that we are conscious. Those are the two main miracles. (And strange things like prime numbers, integration and differentiation.)

 

Arthur C. Clarke's First Law: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." I was reminded of that law when I saw this...   Starship prototype SN9 during its flight test at Boca Chica, Texas, in January 2021   ...and this...     Artist's impression of the Moon landing vehicle is based on SpaceX's Starship design  Both images reminded me of 1950s Science Fiction book and magazine covers. Vertically landing rockets were scoffed at by scientists and engineers because of the huge processing power and exact control required to keep a rocket balancing on its "tail". When I saw this...  ... (these are landing , not taking off) I was amazed. And here are the covers of 1950s magazines...      One cover even got the shape right:        

 When I decided to put solar panels on my roof it was because I hate the heat of the Northern Italian Summer. And I saw thousands of roofs around me which just absorbed the energy during the day and gave it back to the air during the night. Such a waste of easily capture-able energy! The unexpected consequence was the pleasure I got monitoring the energy captured. The WEB interface to the data from the panels is a wonder. I can see how it is doing real-time: It was only 10 in the morning when I made this screenshot, but by midday it can be up to 2500 watts. I can see how it has been doing during the week: In the image above it is interesting to see how the cloud cover reduces the energy produced. By the time we get to July and August the curves will be smooth and uninterrupted. You can see how the month is going: Since they have been installed the panels have generated almost 2MWh of energy. And every time I check on how my panels are doing I get a warm fuzzy feeling of contentment. Pr

 

"I Regress", Dark and surreal comedy in which a twisted hypnotherapist takes unsuspecting clients on disturbing journeys through their subconscious. Starring Matt Berry   and   "McLevy", Siobhan Redmond and Brian Cox, inspired by the real-life memoirs of one of Scotland’s first policemen, James McLevy prowls the dark streets of 1860s Edinburgh bringing criminals to justice, with the assistance of Constable Mulholland.