Once you leave the coast around Cairns, the country rapidly becomes this dry, rugged landscape. Totally different.  This was 1987 – it’s probably all lush green now. 🙂   © PJ Croft 2020

Brrrr. It’s an absolutely beautiful day (ooops, I’d better remember to do my washing), but it’s chilly. 18deg and a clear blue sky.

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Aaaaw.  © PJ Croft 2020

I’ve finally got the Japan CD-ROM up to date and a couple of CD copies burnt, with a nice label and case insert, ready to go.

I originally made this in about 2004 and 2005 and some bits were missing, or the fonts had to be updated, and so on. Plus I’ve had to replace the original sound track because I don’t have the rights to use it. It was called Music for Zen Meditation by Tony Scott, an American jazz musician. I used to think about writing to him and asking permission, but never got around to it. It’s a great CD.

Instead I’ve replaced the sound track with “music” which was generated by a small program I used to have called Wind Chimes. It generated random computer music in any of about 50 different styles, such as tubular bells, wind chimes, astronomical sounds (Jupiter’s Rings) and so on. Because it’s random and computer generated, there are no copyright issues. I like it and you can always turn the volume down if you don’t.

I’ll post that CD out in the next few days.

PS: I’ve just done a search and Wind Chimes by Syntrillium Software is still available. Whether it will run on modern versions of Windows is doubtful. I’ve downloaded it and I’ll try it.

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I’ve just had delivery of another portable hard drive from Amazon. I reckon it’s a bit of a bargain, that’s why, after I bought one a couple of weeks ago, I’ve now bought another one.

It’s a Western Digital SSD 240GB for $48, and a Wavlink USB 3 enclosure, $14. Total $62 for 240GB – small, light as a feather, fast and USB powered. It’s so good that I may even order another one.

Crumbs, now that I’ve searched on Wavlink in Amazon, they make an amazing range of products. I suspect I may find other useful stuff. Hah! Pop goes the weasel.

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I read a lot of news about the Covid-19 virus every day, its effects on different countries, and it’s hard to feel optimistic about the state of the world right now.

Britain chose, by the narrowest of margins, to leave the EU. In the process, the British Labour Party fell in a heap and the public elected a bombastic, lying prime minister and government who don’t seem to be capable of dealing with the twin crises – the crash out of the EU without a trade deal and the virus at the same time.

As a result of Boris’s bungling, the UK now has by far the world’s highest death rate per capita and they are nowhere near out of it yet. It’s going to get a lot worse for them this winter and into next year.

It’s hard to believe that such a normally intelligent and capable country has fallen so far, so fast. The virus is crippling British industry at the very time when they need to be building themselves up to withstand the shock of leaving the EU. The British people don’t seem to have the courage or the morals to do the right thing in terms of testing and social distancing to bring the virus under control. As they head into the northern winter and flu season, it’s just going to get much worse. It will be a nightmare. Their death rate will go up and up and Britain will become even less of a world power than it has become. Very, very sad.

The United States – who could have known that the world’s most capable country could bungle the pandemic so badly? They are in crisis. Their infections are out of control and are getting worse by the day. Their curve is going up markedly (whereas ours flattened a couple of months ago and although it’s going up a bit now, we’re still in control). Florida alone, in the US, had over 12,000 new infections in a single day yesterday. That’s more than Australia has had in the entire pandemic period since January. Florida has 21 million people, Australia 25 million. We’re comparable in population, yet this US state has a Republican governor who seems to be as insane as Trump, who fights against masks and lockdowns and any control measures.

I have thought for years that America, as a country, has gone insane, and this pandemic has only proven me right.

In fact, it leads on to my next thought, that this pandemic has the potential to cripple America as a world power for many years to come, decades even. The Dump has already dragged them down to the point that most civilised countries don’t take them seriously any more. When their president tries to make himself look good by trying to reduce the rate of infection testing, this is so mentally unbalanced that other countries can only look the other way.

I can’t help thinking that China is going to be the big winner out of all this. I don’t suggest that they let this virus spread deliberately, but it’s sure working to their advantage by almost crippling their main adversary. They’ve controlled their infections in their own country, but I would bet that the party leaders are quietly congratulating themselves and planning their moves to exert greater world control.

While all this is going on, global heating and climate change is being forgotten, but it’s marching on regardless. I believe we’ve passed several tipping points, stages where irreversible changes have occurred which build on other changes to increase the effects of climate change. There’s no chance now of meeting the Paris Accords. Trump has seen to that by withdrawing from the agreement and doing everything he can to sabotage any climate mitigation measures he can within the US.

I truly believe it’s too late. The Earth is headed for temperature increases of 3, 4 or 5deg which will devastate the world. I won’t be here to see it but I’m truly sorry for the young of today. If I had any influence, I would tell young people to stop having children, because their world is going to be awful. By that, I mean more pandemics with new viruses, massive storms, floods, endless heatwaves and droughts, fires, cyclones, loss of fish and animals, and global refugee crises on a scale far worse than we’re seeing now.

And global political crises leading to wars. I foresee military conflict. When people are stressed and frightened, they think they want strong leaders and we’re already seeing the results – madmen taking power; Trump in America, Boris in the UK, Orban in Hungary and the new ultra right wing government in Poland. Putin in Russia and Xi Jinping in China. Bolsonaro in Brazil. It’s frightening. I’m outta here. Include me out.

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