Slowly but surely the sea is freezing over. ~ Captain Robert Falcon Scott

A Professor John Moore of Cambridge University wants to spend $50 billion of other peoples’ money in attempt to stop the vast Thwaites Glacier in the Antarctic from melting. Allegedly if this glacier melts all the way then global sea levels will rise by ten feet, putting lots of places around the world under water. Parts of London, New York, The Maldives, and Florida, (to name but a low lying places around the globe), would be inundated, if the $50 billion wasn’t spent on better flood defences. But here’s the thing, if all the floating sea ice around the world melted overnight, the the sea levels around the world would not even rise by one inch. I can prove that very easily. Put lots of ice in a glass, fill the glass to the brim with martini, and watch all the ice melt. Amazingly the completely full glass will not overflow. That’s because the volume of ice is greater than the volume of an equal mass of water. Or maybe Professor Moore has forgotten that, or perhaps his climate model assumes that the part of the glacier that isn’t in the water also melts. Actually, the $50 billion dollar sea-curtain John Moore is proposing doesn’t much address that alleged problem. Climate Change gurus just love to spend other peoples’ money on Heath Robinson ideas ~ like electric cars and sun-shields in space.

Jack Collier

Simplify, and then add lightness. ~ Colin Chapman

In the United Kingdom’s latest National budget there was nothing to promote the sales of electric vehicles, which has dismayed car manufacturers no end. You see, because of a lemming-like acceptance of all the man-made global warming tosh, governments in the civilised democracies are dead keen to run the internal combustion engine off the road. The car builders have jumped on this bandwagon for all they are worth. Conversely, the average motorist wants nothing at all to do with the big, heavy, expensive, overly computerised, short range, behemoths. To put it mildly, the sales targets for Battery Electric Vehicles have not been met. And to think that for most of my life I believed that planned, political, command economies were the provenance of communist dictatorships. Perhaps today’s politicians have forgotten that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. I know that some mindlessly wealthy people will aver that the latest truck from Tesla is a wonderful thing; if you want to drive something dog ugly weighing three-and-a-half tons costing you about $100,000 ~ or you could pay much less and look cool in an ex military Humvee or Land Rover. Interestingly, the very first Tesla was a cute little sports car based on the Lotus Elise. Colin Chapman must be turning in his grave.

Jack Collier

To be one with the setting sun on an empty beach is to embrace your solitude ~ Jeanne Moreau

Some say that it is far better to be a solitary traveler than to be in bad company. And, that when we gaze in peaceful solitude at the setting sun we may then realise that we can never be alone in the Cosmos. All I know is once we stop looking for what we think we want, only then will we find what we really need. The whole universe is friendly to us, it conspires with the ending of the day to reward us with its mysterious golden hour.

Jack Collier

You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. ~ C.G. Jung

Lots of people moan about the cost of living and complain about the state of today’s society. A lot of people are just sheep being herded to yet another shearing. There is an old saying ‘put your money where your mouth is’. Ergo, you may ask what I do about the people and institutions I abhor wasting money on. I vote at election time. I no longer buy a daily newspaper. I do not watch the BBC, although I still pay the iniquitous licence fee because it’s a criminal offence not to. I no longer attend divine service at the increasingly far left Church of England ~ however I am nurtured by my private spirituality. I do my own decorating and minor contracting work. I wash my own car, and I will not use an Uber, a robot driven taxi, or get on a driverless bus . I will not buy an electric vehicle or a hybrid ~ in fact my next car will be an older diesel. I eschew watching TV advertising of any type. I block as many internet ads as I can. I do not buy ethnic takeout meals. I refuse to deal with a chatbot or call centres based in India. And, after a lot of thought my only charity is the local hospice, of which I am a lay board member, so I know exactly where the money goes. I hope that you share some of my rebellious activities, or have other ways of fighting back ~ if not then perhaps think about taking some action. Too many of our elderly and disadvantaged suffer because of the profligacy and nonsensical policies of our major institutions.

Jack Collier

Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough. ~ Mark Twain

For me one drink is too many and a bottle of wine is barely enough.

My doctor has warned me in the strictest possible terms that I must never again drink strong liquor, or wine, or beer….. This is not because of liver damage, high blood pressure, heart problems, anemia, digestive problems, or the real risk of cancers. The reason I should never touch another drop of booze is because nobody knows what will happen if I have too much to drink. And, if I ever take one more drink I will inevitably get myself drunk. I have turned into one of those men who has no control over alcohol. If I have just one little drink, then as certain as God made little apples green I will soon have emptied the bottle, and gone on to finish off all the other bottles I might have hanging around. One thing is very certain when booze and I mix, something really bad will happen. Just about a month ago I got very, very drunk, collapsed, hit my head on something hard, and eventually came around to find buckets of blood all over my apartment. I had given myself what’s called a Traumatic Brain Injury, which is a life threatening and life changing event. It could have been much, much, worse in so many ways. I might easily have been far too dead to have written this post.

Booze and I do not play well together.

Jack Collier

Hope never abandons you, you abandon it. ~ George Weinberg

A month ago today I collapsed, struck the back of my head on a central heating radiator, and suffered a traumatic brain injury, or so I am told. This resulted in the very seat of my consciousness being hurt and bruised. Since then everything in my world is perfectly normal but everything is completely wrong. I have to think very hard before attempting to do anything or go anywhere, such as picking up some groceries at the store. Everything I see and hear is the same as it was just over a month ago, but everything is different and I struggle to make sense of it all. There are two distinct time periods in my life; before I hurt myself, and after I came around again and saw the buckets of blood all over my apartment. Either the time before February 1st 2024 is a dream, or I am now living in a different time-line, but my mind tells me that both cannot be real. It’s all quite disorienting. I see my doctor today, ostensibly he will inform me that there is no medical reason that I cannot drive my car or get on an aeroplane. I have not lost all hope, but trust me, just for now, I am not going anywhere.

Jack Collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net

Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. ~ Mary Oliver

There are things we know we know ~ these are the known knowns

There are things we know but we don’t realise it ~ the unknown knowns

There are some things we know we don’t know ~ these are the known unknowns

And then there are the things we don’t know we don’t know ~ the unknown unknowns

Recently I have had the strangest feeling that there are things going on around the periphery of my life that I know nothing about. It’s so strange that I do not even know what it is that I don’t know. This is not paranoia because I don’t feel threatened ~ rather I feel protected and cared for in some strange way. The absolute opposite of paranoia is pronoia; I firmly believe that the world around me, the people around me, are conspiring to keep me safe and do me good. Am I deluded to believe that I am thought well of and that someone or something is working to support and care for me? Either I have suddenly developed a strong spiritual belief that the Cosmos is looking out for me, or it’s all because of a crack on the head and brain damage. Who knows? Hell, I don’t even know what I don’t know. My life is filled with unkown unknowns.

Jack Collier

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection. ~ Thomas Paine

I have crashed and burned. I feel lost, alone, and abandoned. A few things have gone badly for me today, and I have been feeling upset and distraught in consequence. I have not broken the law, trashed my apartment, been deliberately rude or insulting to anyone, nor got myself stinking drunk. All that’s really happened is a few frustrating computer problems, I accidentally upset a friend because of my own high-handedness, and I strongly disagree with someone who’s views I usually respect. There’s nothing that I even believe I need to apologise for, and yet I feel terrible. Some say that life is filled with detours, dead ends, trials, and challenges at every turn. And that each of us has had times when disappointment, trepidation, distress, anguish, anger, and despair almost tore us apart. All I know is that suffering this terrible distress doesn’t make me feel as though I am a real man. And there’s the problem, if I can get this distraught over small things, how am I ever again going to be able to get on an aeroplane to fly across the Atlantic Ocean? Some things are going to have to get a hell of a lot more stable for me both mentally and emotionally. Else I am going nowhere anytime soon.

Jack Collier