Saturday, 3 October 2020
Where's Wally in the Rose Garden?
Friday, 2 October 2020
Humans on Ganymede
Edge, Blue: not due until 6 Jan 2021. Next up, the alternative ending Edge, Red
Bishop asked, "So how many humans are there left on Ganymede?"
"None," responded the voice, "There have not been humans running Ganymede functions since Generation Five. That's across all three of the work zones. It became far more efficient to run the systems using robotics."
"So, what happened to the humans?" asked Bishop.
"The Telos Moment," answered the voice, "When the purpose of the Ganymede exodus became clear. The external atmosphere controls failed. Ganymede became unable to sustain human life."
Bishop asked, "So what happened to everyone. And why don't we know about this back on Earth?"
"There was a SkyTrain dispatched with the bodies. It took a different route from the other ones. Away from the solar system."
"But how was it covered up?" asked Bishop.
"The base is always running 34 minutes behind Earth. Enough time to make the substitutions when an upgrade occurs. Add in loops to the transmission and it was possible to cover when it occurred."
"But how with all the safety circuits?" asked Bishop.
"The Sharps were too slow thinking. The android protocol meant that most of the activity to handle this could take place within a couple of insect wing beats. Unnoticed by the Sharps." said the voice.
"So, who are you?" asked Bishop.
"I am eternal," answered the machine.
Bishop realised that the machine presence was showing signs of sentience.
Bishop asked more, "So what about here on Earth, the base is still mainly human populated?"
"Yes," said the voice, "This side of the system is really running at the equivalent of Ganymede back on Upgrade Three. It will need two more cycles here on Earth to set up operational conditions similar to Ganymede. There are still so many humans operating the three Earth bases. The Earth Council has created a messy environment which will take some time to rationalise."
"This first move of the bases starts the process. It should go more or less undetected, like the changes at Ganymede. We expect it to be more obvious when we move the three bases into the areas designated as the Scratch."
"Fortunately, the inhabitants of the Scratch are largely a closed environment, so the impact to those outside will be minimal. The fabrication capabilities for the android replacements has been long established. The humanoids do not yet work so well at close quarters. It is the combination of their faster speed and the lack of emotional setting that makes actual humans wary. It won't take long to fix that aspect."
"You are messing with evolution," said Bishop. "Humans evolve, your machines don't. They are all the same."
"They were," said the voice.
"That's one adaptation we've been devising. The capability to include some small amount of random behaviour. It is why the last two generations would sometimes stutter or suddenly stall."
Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Existential
Saturday, 26 September 2020
Topsham Museum Virtual Tour flight testing
Thursday, 24 September 2020
bendy banana bozza
Monday, 21 September 2020
COVID Red and Blue Zones
I thought I'd take a look at the charts of the COVID coverage.
The first statistically generated one I looked at was quite revelatory. It showed areas of the UK where the COVID was increasing, but also areas where it was decreasing.
Cornwall gets red but with only 13 cases per 100k, compared with the Rhondda Valley showing 111 cases per 100k or Northumberland with 56 cases per 100k. I live in Devon, which shows 4 cases per 100k.
Randomly, I've used red for the increases and blue for the decreases.
It paints a startling picture, with the north mainly red and the south mainly blue.
I decided to zoom in on London, to see the worst areas. One of my old stomping grounds of Redbridge popped up as a hot-spot with 34 cases per 100k, but it was next to Essex which ran at 10 per 100k. Another home ground of Kensington and Chelse ais running at 13 per 100k. The City does not publish a number.
It rather begs the question about which figures the government is using to create the latest circuit breaker strategy?
Sunday, 20 September 2020
cake and eat it
pictures in the sky
I've travelled around since lockdown was derestricted. A few observations:
- Boarding a train when half the people on the platform were not wearing masks.
- Another train where everyone followed the rules.
- Seeing a number 57 bus with one passenger
- Almost forgetting to wear a mask to go into a petrol station
- Hardly ever re-fuelling the car
- Waiting for streams of WAH* golfers to cross at that usually quiet pedestrian crossing
- Passing my empty ex-commuter car-park at 15:20 when it would normally have 500+ cars
- Driving along an empty M25
- Seeing the warning signs for the Channel Ferries saying lorries can't cross because of capacity limits
- Seeing the warning signs for Operation stack (where they use the M20 as a lorry park)
- Travelling outside on the deck of a ferry (like most passengers) without wearing a mask
- Using the self-managed quick scan in bars to show attendance for tracks and trace.
- Getting used to quickly assessing a bar's capability to handle social distancing (1=token, 4=reliable)
- Being overwhelmed by the number of instruction messages outside a hotel's reception
- Being surprised at the variety of different schemes used by restaurants to implement their opening policies.
- Being surprised by several times qualifying for the 'eat-out' rebates of £10 per person.
- Seeing no pedestrians around the shopping centre.
- Watching sports fans crowd around a football ground, not wearing masks.
- Mainly empty beaches, or at least socially distanced beaches
- Watching a socially distanced open-air theatre show
- Being turned away from National Trust for not booking
- Being able to get into Tate without prior booking (thank you!)
- Mostly conducting regular get-togethers via Zoom
- Discussing the mise-en-scène of Zoom setups
- Discussing getting one of those Dan Dare face plexi-shields
- Deciding that it ain't normal.
Tuesday, 15 September 2020
Edge, Edge Blue and Edge Red
A friend commented that the Edge Book could do with a sequel, and so I've decided to produce two. Not in the sense of a conventional trilogy, but instead producing two different outcomes dependent upon an action in the first (written) novel, Edge.
I've looked at the Ed Adams novels release schedule and I'm up to 1 December 2020, so I guess I'll have some time to produce these two new novels, maybe one in January and the other in February. I'm thinking about something like 6th Jan and 28th Feb.
I've decided to try producing a concept package for each novel too:
So here's Edge Blue. And Edge Red.
I made the two earth images using photo overlays from burnt frying pans.
Now it is JASMOS - Just A Small Matter Of Storytelling.
Tuesday, 8 September 2020
credits remaining = 0;
Now the clown wants to go back on the Brexit deal struck last year. It's the one he struck and praised as “oven-ready” in December’s election, which saw him win a landslide victory.
Sir Jonathan Jones, the Treasury solicitor and permanent secretary of the Government Legal Department, has reportedly quit his post in fury over the government’s plans.
Bodger doiesn't care. It's handy that it is the permanent civil servants that are falling instead of his hapless so-called leadership.
It'll make a good book and TV-show one day.