Your Computer Is Updating For the Next Ten Years!

Like road works, updates on my PC are just a pain in the a*se. I don't know about you but I find them unwelcome, inconvenient and indescribably irritating.

Microsoft, Java, Adobe, AVG et al all seem to want to update constantly and together!

 

 

The worst offender is Microsoft, whose updates seem to turn my laptop into a Chinook helicopter as it whirs crazily trying to cope with the data-blast. It then wants to turn itself off and configure all the updates as well! Its such a pain in the neck!

 

 

Recently, Google and Picasa have joined the ranks too. Every time I upload photographs to Picasa, not only does it want me share them with all and sundry, it even ID's people in my snaps, regardless of the fact that some photos were forty years old, and tries to contact them! What the hell is going on?

 

 

And just what's the deal with Google + ? All roads seem to lead there regardless of where you started! Do Google own everything? Are we seeing the beginnings of Big Google?

 

 

Am I alone with my online frustrations or does anyone else feel the same?

The Changing Nature of Childhood Swearing

Children have always swore. Swearing by its very nature requires boundaries and children know all about them.

These boundaries are set by culture and dictate what is publicly acceptable in different groupings. In the 1960's very little was acceptable and I just about got away with flipping heck and sugar. Urinating was weeing and breaking wind was trumping.

 

 

Utterances of words like F*ck, B*llocks and even Sh*t or F*rt  would have meant death by firing squad with my Mum, Dad and Schoolteachers loading the ammo!

 

 

As culture shifts so too do what is considered a swearing. Now that I work in Education I've been astonished to find that weeing is now peeing and trumping is now farting. The boundaries have changed and not just for kids but for adults too. Everyone says pee and fart in front of each other nowadays, in class, in public and in the home.

 

 

So what else will be acceptable soon from our Kids? Have you any views on childhood language readers?

JJ ABRAM'S STAR TREK

I saw Star Trek Into Darkness last night at the local Multiplex. I really enjoyed it. JJ Abrams, producer and director, has created an epic Trek, which he's modernised and pumped-up.

 

 

It reminds of the evolution of the James Bond and Batman films. A grittyness and realism is there.

 

 

It bodes well for Abram's Star Wars in a couple of years. Anyone else seen the new Trek film?

ROCKET X THUNDERBIRD 1

 

 

As regular readers will know I'm a bit of a knockoff nut. Always on the look out for new and interesting bootlegs of well-known space toys. here's one I spotted on Fleabay earlier in the year, the gloriously fake Thunderbird 1, the Rocket X VLI Control Missile. VLI apparently means variable light intensity control, which makes it similar to the gorgeous light activated Thunderbird 2 knockoff, the Ray Guard X 2 Rocket Ship.

 

 

Anyone got either of these or seen any other Thunderbird knockoffs?

THANKS FRANK

On Frank Hornbys 150th birthday, what better time can there be to showcase a few model train catalogue covers. The beautifully expressive painted art was my first glimpse of the fascinating world of model trains.

On the Sixth Day

As NASA superstar Commander Hadfield was delivering his final homily from the International Space Station,  I overheard two young people discussing if it was possible to believe in Genesis and Darwinism at the same time?

 

 

In other words, can the scientific explanation of evolution easily sit with that of a religious one?

 

 

I left the youngsters wrestling with creation and pondered on the vanishing point at which physics and religiousness become one, a horizon where no words suffice.

 

 

It struck me that Science Fiction has often employed quasi-religious metaphors to suggest a deeper meaning to the Universe. Clark/ Kubrick's seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey combined mystical imagery and stark science seamlessly: the monolith at the dawn of Man, the ghost in the machine/ computer HAL and the final foetal revelation where death and birth are one in the same in a universe of infinite depth.

 

 

This may not be the best example of what is after all a tricky area. Can you think of works of Sci-Fi which tackle God and Science well?

 

BOOSTER ROCKETS

Another size comparison of an old favourite, the Booster Rocket. Working our way down from the C21 model, we have the Triang Spacex (painted black from royal blue by me in the throes of youth) to the cereal premium version by an unknown Mexican brand, to the tiny red Imai rocket from the Thunderbird 7 kit. These are all known size variations of the ship, the only other incarnation is the orange Hover version of the battery toy. .....unless you know different...?

MARINEVILLE AT SUNSET

There was a rather nice purple sky last night here in Southport so, not one for missing a photo opportunity I grabbed the nearest model from my Man Cave, which just happened to be my old dusty Marineville Tower from a Fanderson long, long ago and took a snap before the Sun finally set.