The energy crisis

 Currently the UK is facing a cost of living crisis. The cause of this is mostly because energy costs have shot up mostly due to the rising price of natural gas and oil. That causes the cost of electricity to rise. We blame this on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the restrictions put on Russian oil and gas.

Here in the UK we don't use a lot of Russian oil or gas at all, we're in a much better position than Germany which was almost totally dependent on Russian gas. However, the worldwide switch from Russian fossil fuels to other suppliers has caused the price of natural gas to rise astronomically. The UK gets natural gas and oil from the North Sea fields, mostly the Norwegian fields. We also import a lot of liquified natural gas (LNG) mostly from the United States, followed by Qatar, Peru and Angola. We then re-distribute this to the rest of Europe through a network of pipes.  We do much the same with oil. The re-sale of gas and oil are earning record profits. That isn't helping consumers in the UK however.

To add to the problem, we have committed to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels in an attempt to do our bit to counteract global climate change. It doesn't really matter if you believe in human responsibility for global warming or not, it makes sense to switch from burning fossil fuels to using them as raw materials for producing other products. Fossil fuels are, after all, a finite resource, and the price of them will continue to rise over the years. Here in the UK that means we must find new ways of generating power as electricity and switch to that as a source of heat (and cooling in summer).

The UK government has said it will invest in ten new nuclear power stations to provide our carbon free energy. They suggest using air source heat pumps instead of gas boilers and that improving the efficiency of our homes could reduce our heating bills by around 20% and reduce our dependency on foreign gas. They say, "By 2025, around 700,000 homes will be upgraded, and by 2050 all our buildings will be energy efficient with low carbon heating."

So how do they suggest this 'upgrading' should be done? Seems they are thinking of cavity wall insulation and double-glazing costing between £1,000 and £3,000 per house for insulation and more for double glazing. There's a MUCH better way using modern technology. I suggest they investigate using a trowel on aerogel insulation on the interior surface of external walls. There's a product called AeroTherm which can be applied in a 1 mm layer which can reduce heating costs by as much as 35 percent.

   

 With a max cost of £75 per square metre including decorating afterwards, an average home external wall area of 150 square metres and 27.8 million UK houses, adding AeroTherm insulation to all UK homes would cost less than £100 billion. That's less than the cost of 4 nuclear plants. A nuclear power plant takes 10 years to construct and uses a huge amount of concrete in its construction, so they are far from 'carbon free'. It wouldn't take 10 years to insulate all UK houses, the obvious method being to insulate the houses of those receiving pension credit or other benefits first.  Since average energy usage in the UK is estimated to cost £3,608 (pre-£2,500 price cap) then it could save those who would suffer this sort of energy cost £1,200 per year. In many cases it would reduce damp cold walls and make old housing stock much more livable for the poorest in the nation.

We can still build those nuclear power stations and still replace gas and oil boilers. It makes good sense to encourage alternative energy schemes too. On a large scale, wind, tidal and geothermal power is worth encouraging. On a smaller scale vortex wind power would be worth encouraging. Vortex wind power uses no spinning blades - so no dead birds. is virtually silent. and is far less expensive to build and install. It's not as efficient as conventional wind turbines but small vortex wind power units can be used anywhere, even between tower blocks in cities or on motorways where it could replace streetlamps. and make use of the energy available from passing traffic - there's a lot of that:

 Find out more about vortex wind power at https://vortexbladeless.com/

There's a second type of vertical axis windmill which can be retrofitted to existing road lampposts. It uses wind and the draft from passing vehicles to generate power.

The firm Alpha 311, who manufacture these say, "One Alpha 311 turbine can generate as much energy as 30 solar panels when installed in the median of a highway." The installation of 181 such turbines is planned to be installed in Telford this year, 2022. (details)

Let's not forget solar power either. No one wants to see agricultural land covered in solar power units but there is nothing to stop a lot of grazing land being used, the animals can still graze between and under them. There are lots of homes with south facing rooftops. Even better there are smart solar panels available which track the sun and produce more than fixed solar panels.

Remember we don't need sunny days, normal daylight can generate power.

Getting rid of the 'Search Highlights' popup on hover

If you have a search box on your taskbar you'll probably see an image at the right hand side of it. If your pointer moves over this 'Search Highlights' image a popup window will open and probably get in the way.

Getting rid of this annoying hover feature is simple but Microsoft are not very good at explaining how to do this so this is how:

Right click in the search box and choose 'Search > Open on hover.' Uncheck that item.

Now this window will only open when you click the image at the right of the search box.

Not want the search highlights at all? Then uncheck the 'Show search highlights.'

A better design for God

 I don’t feel the need to prove that there is no god or gods since I believe I could invent a much better god than the one you follow and give much better reasons for following such a god. Here’s what I suggest, and I challenge you to counter my suggestions.

• A god exists, in fact many gods exist but there is only one god responsible for this particular universe.
• Our god - let’s distinguish him/her/it by capitalising as ‘God’ and assume masculinity for no reasons other than keeping things simple.
• God is not omnipotent although he is far more capable than we are at controlling things in the universes since he set the original laws controlling them. He cannot change these rules without invalidating them and the universes he created.
• God is not omniscient. The universes are vast, and he cannot be always aware of everything in them. He can only concentrate on individual items and, although he is better at multi-tasking than we are, there are limits to his awareness
• God is not concerned with us as individuals and does not care for us, listen to prayers, or interfere in our lives.
• God’s purpose in creating the universes is to develop our spirits and advance our morality. Our spirits are in effect his children. God’s aim is to develop his children to the point where they are responsible enough and moral enough to become gods themselves. Could you imagine what an immoral god would be like? In this respect some Morman beliefs are correct.
• There is no Hell or Heaven. When we die our spirits survive but without knowledge of our former existence. In effect the spirit is recycled in much the way of Buddhist beliefs. However, spirits only advance and are never reincarnated as a lesser lifeform.
• The process of life and death takes many cycles to complete. Like the Buddhists believe, the path to perfection is a long one with many setbacks on the way.
• God has no desire to be worshipped. Let's face it, what sort of egotist would want that? God does not care if you waste your time in church or watching football in a bar. He needs no priests, churches, or sacrifices. Those who live off the work of others and profit from religion are taking a step backwards in their search for perfection.
• God sets no commandments. God does not inspire religious texts. Each person has evolved a set of inbuilt guidelines and knows if what they do is right or wrong. Even the animals have a form of this which is why mothers do not kill their offspring. There are a few individuals who do not have this sense of right and wrong, we call them psychopaths. These people are a genetic accident and capable of much harm. God knows about them but does not care. Their spirit is at a very early stage.
• God created three rules which created and govern two universes. We don't know how he did this, and humans may never know but something we evolve into might understand eventually. The fundamental laws governing everything are:
  a) evolution, a process whereby complex structures are built from simple structures. Evolution does NOT just apply to life.
  b) gravity which causes matter to clump together.
  c) entropy which causes eventual death (but not necessarily our 'three score and ten' lifespan.)
• Evolution is the primary law which set in motion the original creation of the universes. God’s timescale is not our timescale. The universe was created from nothing and at the instant of creation coalesced into negative energy moving backwards in time and positive energy moving forwards in time. This means there is an exact duplicate of our universe but the two universes never meet except at the moment of creation and at the ends of time when the universes will collapse into black holes.
  The energy created in both universes condensed to form matter which coalesced to form stars which created new elements and exploded to scatter these new elements. The star we call the sun coalesced from such matter as did the earth. 
• Life first formed from molecules in the earth’s original atmosphere and oceans. A steady progression of chemistry and random chance lead to life then multicellular life followed by biological evolution which led to intelligence capable of accepting a spirit. The fable describing the creation in Genesis is pure nonsense. God is probably delighted that science has evolved to understand this. Evolution is not yet finished.
• There are many potential disasters that face us both on an individual, societal, and species level. Something horrible may happen to an individual, society or species. These events are inconsequential to God. Spirits will simply be recycled as a different individual in a different society if necessary or even in a different intelligent species on a different planet in the universe. God is aware of what can happen due to the rules he set up in the universe. No doubt he would approve if we spread throughout it, making our species more durable. However, it does not matter if an extinction level event wipes us out since there are other intelligences our spirits can move to.
• The ultimate apocalypse will be caused by entropy. Stars will die and collapse. Some may explode. Gravity will draw stars together forming new stars, planets and galaxies. Ultimately all matter will collapse to black holes. Black holes will merge to form a single black hole and at that point a God will trigger a new creation.

Remember this is not a proposal for a new religion. It’s an invention, but it’s more plausible than the gods currently worshiped on earth. Prove me wrong.