Tag: history

• Post for October

  Post for October

  Tales of the Mice and Men

  There comes a time in most families when the kids ask if they could have a pet or pets, usually initiating a long argument about the pros and cons of such a venture.

  This phenomenon was starkly demonstrated when, many years ago, our kids won the war of the pets and we allowed them acquire a decent sized cage, inhabited by a few mice, after stern warnings that at the first sign of trouble, they would have to go.

  All seemed well and our parental duties were limited to an occasional reminder to feed and ensure a supply of fresh water and so we decided the garden shed containing the cage was out of bounds to adults.

  Then it happened, despite the new additions to the family having adequate sustenance due to our frequent reminders, that one day a stampede of little feet was heard coming toward the back door, to the tearful shouts of Mummy, Daddy come quick, the mice are killing each other!

  Four mice had magically become about twenty!

  That was the end of the mouse phase of pet keeping, there was more than adequate food and water but they were definitely overcrowded.

  They also appeared to be fighting over things that did not seem to matter much, such as whose turn it was on the famous spinning mouse wheel, or in the maze.

  Fast forward a few decades and it seems to me that human aggression, always at a high level in, for example, places where alcohol is served, is on the rise, and the rise in drug taking could well play a part here, as well as higher density living, and yes, ever increasing stress, in proportion to the volume and frequency of the assurances that we never had it so good!

  So, where is this going?

  It seems to me, and maybe to the occasional wiser than average mouse, that stress is a major cause of aggression.

  In human beings this might be what led to such appalling events as the chain of decisions which led to the destruction of two Japanese cities by the new atomic bombs, the invention of which starkly demonstrates that, while human intelligence is, as far as we know, unrivalled in its inventive capacity, it seems woefully inadequate at finding ways to prevent our self destruction, which will most likely be by acts of aggression with these weapons.

  This is why I am always on the lookout for ways for us to try and rid ourselves of such weapons before they get rid of us.

  As part of this quest, I have been familiarising myself with the situation surrounding the decision to bomb two Japanese cities to almost complete destruction.

  These days, I thought, this would almost certainly be a war crime.

  I also thought I had a way that might have convinced the Japanese to surrender without this terrible destruction, and the plan would have been for the U.S.A. to demonstrate the destructive power of the nuclear bomb by, after advising the Japanese authorities of the intention to do so, dropping one of the bombs on a small, uninhabited island, and then advising the Japanese of the intention to use these bombs on the Japanese mainland if there was not a quick surrender.

  I learned a lot from what I found, here is a brief summary:

  The war in the Pacific was fought between the allies (the USA, China, The United Kingdom and Australia, Russia also joining in towards the end) and the Axis (Japan, Thailand and puppet states)

  The war began with a surprise attack on the U.S. naval fleet at Pearl Harbour.

  Important Battles in the war were:

  The Battle of the Coral Sea, in May 1942 which stopped Japanese maritime progress toward Australia.

  The Battle of Midway, (June, 1942) a U.S. victory which destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers, which had a significant effect on naval power.

  Other major battles were: Guardalcanal 1942-1943, the Philippine Sea 1944, Leyte Gulf 1944, Iwo Jima 1945. and Okinawa 1945.

  Buoyed by these successes, the President of the U.S.A. Harry S. Truman was preparing a land invasion of Japan by the allies, which would result in up to 330,0000 allied deaths.

  President Truman, then was faced with a number of difficult choices, including what I thought was my own, A fatality-free offshore nuclear demonstration, to convince Japan to surrender a tactic, as it turned out that would have been shunned by the Japanese, whose military leaders at the time were preparing their army, plus armed civilians, for a “fight to the death” involving 5 to 10 million Japanese deaths.

  So, another brilliant scheme thought up by the silly old blogger was nothing new, and we see that things aren’t always simple, President Truman, criticised as the villain who dropped the bombs, by making the hard decision, actually prevented the land invasion and saved millions of lives.

  The war ended when Japan announced its surrender on August 15 1944, following the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the entry of the Soviet Union. If we all read the eye witness accounts of the real thing, as I have just been doing, it might wake us out of our comfortable denial trance, and at least get us back into the real world with renewed determination to improve it.

  If so the victims of this tragedy will not have died in vain, and the silly old blogger could have a happy birthday at the end of this month!!

  To Celebrate my birthday, I send you a wish for a good and peaceful year.

  Silly old Blogger

  2026.10.25

• 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.

  Looks like it’s life as usual at least until the end of the month, so let’s see it out with a nod to the unusual amount of internet traffic about pdf files:

  ” PDF files are the Computer equivalent of Esperanto”

  ‘Bye for now, 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, 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 which was that I didn’t have a father any more, 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