Tag: history

• July Post

  The second half of the year seems to be getting off to a quiet start, which, while it is certainly better than “Living in interesting Times” as the saying goes, it also makes writing about interesting times a bit more challenging, giving writers the opportunity instead to hone their skills on topics less dire and deadly than usual. But it’s getting late, so I’ll keep you guessing what this might mean while I get some sleep…. Since the first May Post about the overcrowded communications satellite zone above us, there has been a bit of a surge in the media about this including talk of using large, rocket propelled nets to collect wayward satellites, for disposal, like a space-borne version of marine trawl fishing. Maybe, but rather a pity if this meant a significant number of satellites which could be renovated and re-used were sent into a death-dive into the atmosphere below. So, with an eye to economy, perhaps a few hundred or so orbital communications hubs could be established, each consisting of a cube-shaped control centre, which initially would be manned during the construction phase, and maybe later robotically operated. Each of these would support six long, four-sided tower-like structures, rather like todays hilltop radio towers, but because of the very small gravitational forces, much more lightly built, one attached to each face of the control centre might be capable of supporting the attachment of fifty of these captured and renovated, and new, radio relay modules on each of its four sides, that’s two hundred on each “tower” the whole assembly now becoming one relay satellite instead of 1,200 independently orbiting satellites, a significant reduction in the risk of collision. Expensive, yes, but unless risk reductions of this order and more are somehow achieved, I won’t be buying a ticket for a vacation on the Moon. ps Just had a last-minute check, about 4,500 satellites were launched into this zone last year!

  Just to close off this digression from our two main themes, how to remove or alleviate the threats to our existence of nuclear bombs and global warming, I would like to acknowledge the good work being done by a number of experts in orbital mechanics, a field of which I know little, and my musings are those of a amateur. With that in mind, I limit my earlier claim to the “Silly old Blogger Conjecture” to the feeling that the well-known relationship between the increase in surface area and volume as the size of the pieces of space junk in a runaway collision scenario might be of greater significance than has been recognised, to the extent that such an event might pose little or no threat to observers at ground level. If we keep throwing more satellites into this zone at the present rate, we’ll soon enough see! In addition to my own interest in this subject, I was partly motivated to publish it here as a clear example of how far we have to go in international and interpersonal relationships before we can make real progress towards a harmonious human race, one that would not spend billions of dollars on military or media communications at the expense of making this crowded shell around Earth increasingly hazardous for space vehicles, including manned ones, to cross.

  Silly Old Blogger

  2026.07.03

• Second April Post 2026.04.19

  I just recalled reading that the Doomsday Clock, instituted as a response to the dawn of the nuclear weapons age, has recently been the Groom at what might well be something of a “Shotgun Wedding” to the Bride, “Climate Change” and the union has produced an offspring “AI” who has already joined the team.

  Hmm… I’m wondering how brains mostly younger and quicker than my old clunker have managed to combine the three get a meaningful estimate of our Date with Destiny, specially when the nukes could be flying any day now, while climate change operates on a much more sedate time scale of years or decades to take effect. But I hope the marriage is a success, even though I’m in no hurry to find out!!

  I have just been doing a quick scan of the on-line media, and the arm-chair experts seem to agree that we are on the brink of a third world war.

  After a while I realised that the really scary part of all this is that, of the numerous reports I heard, none of them mentioned the N (for nuclear) word. It was as if the outcome of WW3 was going to be decided by brave musketeers facing each other in field and forest while their loved ones wait anxiously at home for their triumphant return.

  Come on, guys and gals behind your microphones and cameras, get real. And I’m not just picking on you, people in general don’t seem to understand how much different a third world war would be from the previous holders of that dismal title.

  For example, in “traditional” wars, the largest toll of human lives has been the soldiers who do the fighting, while their families nervously waited at home for the telegram bringing the dreaded news from the battle front.

  One of my earliest childhood memories was one of many of these events, and I never forgot the screaming that followed the ringing of the doorbell. I was very young and didn’t know the full meaning of what had happened and the awful truth came to me in mercifully small doses as I developed into a real human being. It was a common event in every suburban street.

  During WW2 the scenario changed ominously, with the rapid development of flying machines, including ever-bigger bombers carrying ever-bigger bombs. In addition to purely military targets, these were soon employed to attack cities, in particular London when the German air force switched from targeting British airstrips to cities, particularly London. This had a devastating effect not only on morale, but hugely disrupted business and commerce.

  With the development of nuclear bombs, capable of destroying the largest cities, and long-range missiles to deliver them with pinpoint accuracy, the role of the foot soldier has diminished, and along with it their casualties, to the extent that civilian casualties would be likely to greatly exceed military ones in future wars.

  So, won’t you join me in what I think could make a difference if the idea is spread sufficiently to reach enough political ears? Or if you don’t want to do what I am proposing, do it your way. World-wide communication is now dirt cheap, so let our leaders know any way you can, that they and we, must find ways to work together to reduce the global temperature on the thermometer, and the risk of war as represented by the hand of the Doomsday Clock

  sillyoldblogger.blog

  2026.04.20

• 1st. report for the New Year:

  sillyoldblogger.blog is about 3 weeks old now and starting to see a bit of action, not as much as I’d like but it’s early days and I’m a bit impatient, I suppose. There has, however, been something of a surprise development. Three respondents have made the same comment. I won’t name them, but the first was a family member, who I showed a preliminary version of the blog to, and her immediate verbal comment was something like….

  The answer to the problem is already there, use the bombs to blow up the people, and both problems are solved”

  The next was from a good friend with much more experience than me in publishing, and other things …….

  “Given your comments about climate change and a sustainable population, a nuclear war could be the solution.”

  Last but not least is a friend from way back, early in our working careers ……

  “It follows that a nuclear war and the use of these weapons will in fact reduce the world’s overburdened population and thus improve climate rate of change.”

  Black humour aside, I’ve had some positive comments some from the same people, and they are much appreciated. I hope they have, or soon will be, turned into action, you know what to do, so let’s get on with it. By the way, I have emphasised sending the link to friends, so we won’t risk annoying anyone, but there’s one section of the population who you can send it to, politicians, as far up their food chain as you can manage, without fear of too much criticism, even a politician would find it hard to criticise an attempt to make the world a better place and reduce the risk of a nuclear disaster. Some of them might even be curious enough to try sillyoldblogger.blog to see what it’s all about – no harm trying. That’s all for now, all being well, I’ll have some news for you next week.

  S.O.B.

  2026.01.21