Craig Sawyers

One of our most important Labour politicians, John Prescott, has died aged 86 after Alzheimers https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce9gp7eke44t https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prescott That recounts a famous incident where a protestor threw an egg at him from behind. Feeling something running down the back of his neck, he turned and decked the guy with a punch. When Tony Blair (the PM at that time) asked him what happened, Prescott replied "I was carrying out your instruction to contact with the electorate"

Macintosh alas sold its soul to the Private Equity devil. And that means that they take as much money out while they own it, and then sell it. So it is no surprise at all that they flogged Macintosh/Sonus Faber to a company who would buy it and maximise their profit. Hence Bose.

Microsoft, as part of the latest security update, sneaked in a link to Copilot, shoving a link on the bottom ribbon. What is Copilot? Well it is an Generative AI thing, that they have named Prometheus. I knew that I remembered something about Prometheus. Well he was one of the Greek Titan gods. And he bestowed fire for humanity - which I guess what was in Microsoft's mind, intelligence being a metaphor for fire. What they entirely missed is the Zeus was so pissed off with Prometheus that he had him chained to a rock. Each day, an eagle would come and eat his liver. Overnight the liver would grow back, only to be eaten again. So Prometheus was sentenced to permanent agony and torment. I guess the marketing team at Microsoft failed to spot the problem inherent in the name!

The densest planet in the solar system - here; the Earth. Kind of figures - there are lot of dense people living here. Least dense planet in the solar system - Saturn. It is less dense than water. So if you had a bucket of water large enough (and that would be vey large indeed!) Saturn would float. Factoids of the day over and done.

And Earth imaged by Cassini during its mission to Saturn

"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." Carl Sagan

That is some hard yards! Nicely done.

Happy birthday! BTW I thought at one stage to buy a bottle of 1956, and realised that it was either that or a new car 😁

To a harrowing play yesterday at the Bristol Old Vic. A stage adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name "Never Let Me Go" Children are brought up, cloned, so that as adults they can be harvested for organs. None of them remotely question this. That is the basic plot, but it is completely brought to life by the script and wonderful acting. Even if they survive three "donations", they never survive a fourth. The word die is never used, when they do inevitably do so, they are "complete". https://bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/never-let-me-go

I also bought a pair of ESP6's again back in the day. Sound quality was great, but each cup had an energizing transformer in it. So the weight was again head crushing. I got rid of those at some point. But a rush of similar blood, I bought a pair of ESP9's. Tarry goop in the cups etc. But at least they come with an external energizer, so the weight is manageable. Sound quality is great. Still not at the heights of my two Stax systems, but pleasing non the less.

Those were my first headphones, bought new in 1974. I got rid of them at some stage. But during a rush of blood to the head, I bought a pair from eBay for not much. The fluid filled earcups were as hard as biscuit, and the foam damping in the cup has turned to tar. Lots of clean up and fabric/foam pads later, I suddenly remembered how god awful uncomfortable they were/are. You head feels as if it being crushed in a vice, and the top of your head is almost bruised by the weight. I would not have cared so much if the SQ was great. But it isn't either. How Koss sold these things defeats me. Koss remanufactured them for a while, but seems that they have stopped.

And that, gentle folks, is precisely why I invested in a lid for my deck. Our monster 5.4kg cat could have endless fun precisely as above!

I was surprised recently to find that the average pooch can recognise over 150 human words. It has the vocabulary of a toddler. Police and search and rescue dogs get up to 250 words and up. A record breaking border terrier got up to over 1000 recognized words. Cats on the other hand rely on their chimp to recognise what their vocabulary of meows, chirps and grunts mean. Basically feed me, cuddle me, play with me. Then once those options are exhausted, sleep for 18 hours a day.

It hit the UK news within hours. A year's rain in 8 hours; absolutely nothing can prepare a population for that, even if forecast.

Woah - how did I miss this? Happy very belated, Peter!!

As compare with Max Headroom

Yesterday to London to see Oedipus. Astonishing, modern version of the Sophocles Greek classic with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville. Two hours without a break. If and when it gets to Broadway, go and see it. Write up is here https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/oct/16/oedipus-review-lesley-manville-and-mark-strong-electrify-ancient-saga-turned-political-thriller

Isle of Wight 1970 https://ultimateclassicrock.com/isle-of-wight-festival-1970/ I've walked across that area a couple of years ago - and it is just a peaceful field with fences, cows and sheep. Absolutely no evidence at all that this happened!

I though - I must have seen Sabbath. In the early 70's we as a bunch of lads used to see bands at Newcastle (UK) City Hall - just a regular size city hall. Anyway you can easily find gig listings for that City Hall from that period. How about Elton John, Pink Floyd, Sabbath, Zep, ELP and many others. Ticket price? Well Elton John was quite expensive - 90p (so less that £1!) Most others were typically 60-70p. This was in the very early days of outdoor festivals. The first Woodstock was in 1969, and the first Isle of Wight festival was 1970 (and still has the record attendance of 750,000). So landmark bands played small venues and Universities. I saw AC/DC in the University dining room at Southampton! A golden age to see these bands close up. Ear bleedingly loud. Even at head banging 16 with my long centre parted hair and denims I used to shove cotton wool in my ears. Very weird back in the day, but at least my hearing is roughly intact.

I thought that the Arkansas goat festival was a wind up - until I found that it is a serious event https://www.arkansasgoatfestival.com/ And yes - there is a "Goat Lingerie Show (Nannies at Night)" https://www.arkansasgoatfestival.com/schedule1 That is the single most weird event. Makes chilli pepper eating contests seem sane.

Bloody hell. That was a deeply disturbing. What a god-awful mess.

Having just been to see Coriolanus (Shakespeare), we went through the list of Shakespeare plays we have seen. We've seven yet to see. But the most memorable productions were: Merry Wives of Windsor. David Troughton (son of Patrick Troughton, one of the early Dr Who's) Much Ado about Nothing. David Tennant and Catherine Tate. The Winter's Tale. Kenneth Branagh and Judy Dench. Titus Andronicus (a gore fest revenge play; blood and guts from beginning to end). David Troughton Julius Caesar. Ben Wishaw. Hamlet. Michael Sheen. King Lear, Four notable productions. Frank Langhella (excellent), Ian McKellen (superb), Glenda Jackson (RIP, but was superb), and most recently (this year) Kenneth Branagh (surprisingly superb). Macbeth. Patrick Stewart (the definitive play! For a treat watch this on You Tube), Sean Bean and Samantha Bond, Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff, and by far the worst one Christopher Eccleston. Have tickets to see David Tennant this autumn. As you might tell, we like this play! Othello. Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear.

RIP Kristofferson. At 88 - how did that just happen? What an icon.

First off - we were lucky enough to see James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy in 2011. From row 3 in a West End (London) play. Vanessa Redgrave is still alive and voice over acting still at 87. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/oct/06/driving-miss-daisy-theatre-review We were not lucky enough ever to see Maggie Smith on the stage though - although that is how she started out as an award winning stage actor in the West End and the RSC.

Have a great one Wayne!