en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal The Last.fm journal for bicknor. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/12/21/5p9bhr_tau_ceti Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:16:49 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/12/21/5p9bhr_tau_ceti Star known as Tau Ceti, in the constellation of Cetus and some 12 light years from our Sun, would appear to have 5 planets orbiting. Whilst all have a larger mass than Earth, one lies in the star's 'Goldilocks zone', the orbital region that is neither too hot nor too cold to allow liquid surface water and, potentially, life.
This brings the number of planets discovered around other stars up to nearly 900 as at December 2012. None are known, as yet, too be habitable by humans, but the search goes on and sooner or later a match, or near match, for Earth is likely to be discovered.
There is other life out there, for beyond the known universe of around 13 billion years duration lies the 'unknown' and 'unseeable' universe. All is still expanding, even though entropy rules. One just needs to hang around for a few million years or so, to see what happens. :)]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/09/27/5mdyty_mankind........._of_mind,_not_masculinity Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:09:25 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/09/27/5mdyty_mankind........._of_mind,_not_masculinity Professor Bettany Hughes ' research shows that the origin of the word 'man' comes from 'manu' - this means mind. It does NOT mean a male person but recognises that ALL people are THINKING BEINGS. In the 5th century BC, in Athens Socrates , with vision and clarity, noted that women were not fulfilling their true potential, which is bad for society. Not a lot has changed since then,although Western democracies are edging towards fulfilling feminine potential.
Just about all religions in the last 2 millennia subverted the role of women in life, the majority of countries still so doing, especially Muslim areas. Christian society has slowly improved, but only noticeably in the last 100/150 years or so. Prior to that males dominated, primarily due to being physically stronger, one imagines.
Hopefully matters will change for the better throughout the world, so that ALL people can have the opportunity to get some where near to achieving their true potential. But it will need a lot of men to change their mindsets, and for all religions to adapt. We shall see.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/09/14/5lvxub_foreign_criminals Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:51:53 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/09/14/5lvxub_foreign_criminals The UK is being targeted by eastern European criminals in recent years, since the opening of the borders carried out by the previous(incompetent) government. Present government needs to urgently tighten up matters, as evidenced from figures issued by the West Midlans Police.

These show, for example, that 7,716 foreign suspects were arrested by the force between April 2010 and March 2011-- between April 2011 and March 2012 this figure rose to 11,801 arrested. A variety of offences were involved, both sexual, violent and robbery etc. Most prolific offenders were Romanians, 1329 being detained, and over 1,000 Poles were arrested in 2011, compared with 614 in 2010. Police picked up 440 Lithuanians, up from 235, and 322 Latvians compared with 193 in previous years. Overall, crime in the force area has dropped, making these figures re foreigners more noticeable.

Situation needs to be dealt with, fairly of course, but very firmly and vigorously.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/08/30/5lbn0y_1950s_britain Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:03:48 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/08/30/5lbn0y_1950s_britain Back in 1953 Queen Elizabeth 11 was crowned and shortly before Mount Everest was conquered. And England won the Ashes back. Three bright spots, unlike the background to these events.
Meat was still rationed, and rationing of food was only just starting to end, whilst very few British households had a car, telephone or television. Many did not even have a refridgerator. Many cities, especially the ports, London and in the south east were still cratered with bomb sites, crumbling buildings and a down at heel look.
The Soviet Union occupied half of Europe, remained on a war footing and threatened the rest of Europe. Nuclear weapons posed the likelihood of annihilation of civilisation, whilst the Korean War was being bitterly fought against the Communist China.
Daily life for most people was a struggle to earn a living income, whilst there was a chronic shortage of housing, a limited diet and poor quality clothing, often hand me down. Few could afford wine, and few had travelled abroad, ( apart from Service personnel). And the Government was struggling with Britain's political, economic and empirical decline.

Desperate days indeed, but slowly the tide of events turned for the better, as the energies and skills of significant numbers of people led a ground swell of recovery, despite all the difficulties and also the general incompetence of politicians.

Once into the 1960s the gradual upward trend has continued, with cyclical ups and downs every 17/ 20 years along the way. Very much down at present, but we have experienced worse.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/08/15/5kqgld_why_did_i_say_that%3F%3F Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:16:51 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/08/15/5kqgld_why_did_i_say_that%3F%3F Some people like to predict the future........ frequently they rather make fools of themselves. For example,'Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value'.... so said Marshall FOCH, French military strategist And W W 1 commander, in 1911!!
The USA commissioner of patents, C H Duell, said, in 1899, 'Everything that can be invented has been invented'.
Albert Einstein's elementary school teacher said of AE that 'he's not very intelligent'. And Michael Jordan's high school coach said ' He doesn't have much talent...., whilst Decca Records rejected the Beatles in 1962, stating ' WE dont like their sound. Groups and guitars are on the way out'...... ----

whilst Sir Winston Churchill received abysmal reports on his work as a pupil at Harrow, and was advised that he would never amount to much. And in 1929 Yale University's Economics professor, Irving Fisher, stated that 'Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau'.

One could go on, these being just a few examples 9one has noticed. The lesson to be learnt is that no one knows what is going to happen, overall, generally and to individuals. And just because somone, or indeed anyone, is in a position of authority, it does not necessarily follow that they really know what they are doing. ;0]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/08/04/5kar4e_18th_century_grandfather Sat, 4 Aug 2012 16:52:36 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/08/04/5kar4e_18th_century_grandfather Have recently learned of several folk who had a grand parent that was born in the early 19th century. Interesting, but have now heard about Richard Bremberg, who was born in 1920, some 92 years ago. His father was 69 when Richard was born, having been born in 1851. Better still, his father and, obviously, Richard's grandfather, and who died in 1871 , was actually born in 1798 !!! Some 214 years ago. Great stuff............ likely that there are a few more out there, I imagine.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/08/02/5k7tpo_at_the_end_of_the_day,_the_most_used_word...._and_phrase. Thu, 2 Aug 2012 15:52:49 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2012/08/02/5k7tpo_at_the_end_of_the_day,_the_most_used_word...._and_phrase. Research by Matjaz Perc, a Slovenian mathematics professor, suggests that 'At the end of the day' is the most commonly used phrase in the English language. Whilst it annoys some people, it occurred in written form more times since the 1950s than any other phrase.

This resulted from a study of 5.2 million books, showing these 5 words formed the most used 5 word phrase. Other 5 word phrases in the top 100 included ''the United States of America'' and ''like to make a donation''. In contrast books written in 1520 AD, mainly dominated by religious themes, had in first place ''the Pope and his followers'', with ''into the hands of Rome'' in second place.

The study by Professor Perc also revealed the most commonly used word was ' the'', followed by ''and'' , ''of '', ''to'' , ''a'' , '' in '' , '' that '' and ''is'' .

So , howsabout that, then?]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2011/11/04/4z78hp_european_union(_so_called)_i.e._the_new_greater_deutschland Fri, 4 Nov 2011 12:18:29 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2011/11/04/4z78hp_european_union(_so_called)_i.e._the_new_greater_deutschland Germany is set fair to become the bullying dominant partner in the EU, because it has the economic clout to do so, and continues to insist the single currency and the ECB is run to suit the German economic agenda, not that of the wider eurozone.A central European treasury will be created, also dominated by Germany. Hitlers Third Reich is being born, not quite in the format that he wanted, but the power is flowing Germanys way. As the dullard politicians of other countries, and their peoples, wake up to this reality a very unhappy alliance will come into being. And wherte will that lead???????. All this is backed by an evergrowing bureaucracy in Europe which is, of course, adopting as ever what William Niskanen called 'the budget maximising model'. In this , all bureaucrats ALWAYS try to maximise their own budgets and power. Public officials generally act in their own self interest, as can be observed whenever one studies the workings of bureaucracy in any and every country.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2011/11/01/4xvkyr_asteroid_2005_yu55 Tue, 1 Nov 2011 15:21:32 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2011/11/01/4xvkyr_asteroid_2005_yu55 This quarter mile wide lump of space rock, in orbit around the Sun, will pass between the Earth and the Moon on November 8th 2011, less tha 200,000 miles away. The closest visit by a rock this size since 1976. Even though classified as a "near - earth object" it will not be visible to the naked eye, and will return in 2028 for another fly-by. It is one of 874 near-Earth asteroids, all of which, like this one, have slightly erratic orbits for a variety of reasons. None at present are calculated to be likely to hit Earth, but that is obviously no guarantee for the future, especially so as the massive Japanese earthquake earlier this year tilted the Earth's axis by a few inches. This may result , over time(probably millenia) in a varying of Earth's orbit and a consequent collision with this asteroid, or another. Time will tell.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2011/10/25/4v2sg2_sol Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:18:29 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/bicknor/journal/2011/10/25/4v2sg2_sol It seems that our Sun is a gaseous mix of protons,neutrons, electrons and photons with the volume of a million earths, and that it is slowly collapsing under its own gravity. This compression heats the core to such a temperature that protons fuse together to form helium nuclei. The fusion process releases energy that increases the pressure on the outer layers of the star, thus balancing the inward pull of gravity. And so, seemingly, it will go on for the next 5 billion years until the sun runs out of material to fuse, when it will end up as a super dense ball of nuclear matter in a sea of electrons, known as a white dwarf. This fate will, apparently, befall more than 95% of the stars in our galaxy. Fascinating. However , it is not known whether this expectation wiil be met, due to the possibility of an unknown outside event occurring. One that will occur is the Andromeda galaxy colliding with our Milky Way galaxy in 250m years - the effects of this cannot be predicted by us, at present.]]>