A viral post (and how to protect yourself)

Do you understand how viruses spread? Knowing this can help safeguard your health. That's particularly important if you want to minimise your risk in the event of a COVID-19 coronavirus or flu pandemic. It can help protect you from the common cold too.

Back in 2011 my wife and I wrote the second book in our A Vested Interest series. In it we figured out how a benign virus could be deliberately spread to infect as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. We pressured an antagonist into doing the job and carry any possible blame. Here's what he was told to do:

“We have a little task for you,” Sir Richard said. “Take these cans of antiseptic. Spray it on this cloth, and then use it in Hexham. Visit every single pub there.”

“Go to the toilets,” Lady Triplet said. “Spray the door handle or plate of each toilet and stall and give them a quick wipe. We want them nice and shiny.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Liu,” Juanita said with mocked respect.” It won’t hurt you. In fact, it’ll do you good.”

Richard smirked. “If anyone asks, why you’re doing this, tell them you’re mysophobic, a clean freak.”

Donna softly chuckled, watching Liu flip his attention from one side of the table to the other. “Next, put on a pair of these gloves,” she said and slid a box to the end of the table. “Spray them and go shopping.”

“Visit all the supermarkets, department stores, fast food shops, everywhere you can.” John chuckled; enjoying the look of horror on Liu’s face. “Make a trip to the hospital and browse through the magazines and leaflets.”

“Be nosy,” Gary said. “Touch everywhere. Don’t forget things like lift buttons, shopping trolleys, children’s rides, handrails, touchscreens. You get the idea.”

“Why? What is this stuff?”

“Surely, you can guess, John,” Sir Richard said.

In this clip the spray Liu was given really was an antiseptic, the virus had already been released. Liu thought he would be spreading the immortality virus though.

This clip demonstrates how many corona viruses can be spread. They are not just the COVID-19 'Wuhan coronavirus' the common cold is a coronavirus  and flu is spread in a similar way. They can spread directly by droplets from coughs and sneezes but they can also be spread by contact with an infected surface. Once on your hands you can increase the chance of infection by eating, touching your lips or nose or particularly by touching your eyes. You would be surprised how often we do that without noticing it.

Time can play a big part in this. Most viruses can't survive long as infectious agents outside their host. Under ideal conditions, a damp cool surface hidden from sunlight it's possible for viruses such as these to survive for nine days outside a living host. The examples mentioned in our story are good targets for passing on infection though.

So how can you protect yourself? If you are going out shopping:

• wear gloves. 
• avoid touching any part of your face if you can and if you must rub your eyes then use a knuckle rather than a fingertip.
• Wash your hands often, especially when you get home.
• While out, use hand sanitizer. Get your children to use it also.
• Wear eye protection of some sort.

The older you are, the more you are at risk as this image from Statista shows. For those people maybe it's time to get your groceries delivered if you can.

What about if you are younger? Can you safely risk catching Covid-19? The answer to that is still 'no'. The reason that it's so devastating to the elderly is that Covid-19 is very proficient at creating senescent cells. The common cold does this too but to a lesser extent. 'Senescent' may not be a word you are familiar with. It means 'old'. In cellular biology a senescent cell is defined as 'no longer capable of dividing but still alive and metabolically active.' These are the cells which make you age! Covid-19 (and the common cold) kills younger people but very slowly. It's the reason that the symptoms of 'long covid' are easily recognised by the elderly as, "that's how I feel." If your body is already full of senescent cells due to age then a sudden influx of extra ones can easily kill you.

What about a mask? The chances are that wouldn't be very effective. People find them uncomfortable, they feel stupid wearing them and many don't fit very well. They won't protect you from contact with an infected surface. They will be useful in preventing the spread of the virus from an infected person though. They easily catch the relatively large particles exhaled but by the time these get to you from someone else they will have evaporated enough to pass through a mask. Keep your distance from others if you can and especially avoid those shouting or singing.

When the COVID-19 'Wuhan' coronavirus becomes a serious problem in your area then bear these hints in mind.

And if you want the 'Dark Secrets' book, it's available as an ebook via books2read.com/dse. It's the second book of the series. The first is available free.

Update May 2021

The #Covid19 pandemic has hit India badly and that's something which the whole world should help out with or we are in danger of an even worse pandemic.

Viruses evolve. If a person is infected with two different viruses then there is the possibility that they will merge to create a new virus. Currently in Asia there is a potentially dangerous Nipah virus spread through bat droppings and urine which can infect humans. It kills 40-45% of all those infected but it isn't passed from person to person. 

It's a matter of time before someone in India is infected with both Covid-19 and the Nipah virus. When that happens there's a chance of a new virus evolving which is spread like Covid-19 but as deadly as Nipah.

We have a good reason to be scared of this!

How Jeremy Corbyn should make his position on Brexit clear.

Jeremy Corbyn refused nine times to be drawn on his position on Brexit and was much taunted by it in the election debate. This is how I think he should resolve this:

"Although the 2016 referendum result indicated a 52/48 percent split, the number voting 'Leave' represented only 37% of the electorate. This is NOT a majority. Neither was there a majority in  the 1975 referendum  when 63% of voters chose to stay in the then Common Market. That represented only 43% of the electorate. I stand for a government which does not accept that the wishes of a minority should be used to make decisions for the majority. 
The referendum has caused a great deal of division in the UK population and in Parliament. It has proved impossible to negotiate acceptable terms of leaving which Parliament will accept.We recognise that leaving without an agreed settlement will cause hardship in both the UK and in Europe. 
The labour party will therefore use the result of the 2016 referendum as an indication that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the EU. Over the next year we will set up a commission to establish why so many in the UK,  and indeed in the other members of the EU, are against membership of the EU. We will work with the EU to fix those things that are perceived as wrong and at the end of that time will hold a further referendum. If 50+ percent of the electorate (not just those that vote) vote one way or another we will consider the matter resolved and take appropriate action.
My own personal opinion on Brexit does not matter - it is the will of the people which counts."

There's no such thing as democracy when it comes to Brexit

In 2016 the UK held a referendum on whether to leave the European Community. The Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, committed the UK government to carrying out the results of the referendum. Democracy in action? Not in the slightest.

Much to Cameron's surprise, after a lacklustre 'Remain' campaign, the UK voted 52:48 in favour of leaving the EU.
Let's take a look at that referendum result. Here are the detailed actual results:
37.44% of the electorate voted to leave the EU  17,410,742 in total and 51.9% of the vote.
34.71% of the electorate voted to remain in the EU   16,141,241 in total and 48.1% of the vote.
27.79% of the electorate didn't vote    12,922,659 in total.
0.06% of the electorate spoilt their voting  papers   25,359 in total
England and Wales voted by a narrow majority to leave. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted by a significant majority to remain.(55:44 remain in NI; 62:38 remain in Scotland)
Now taking the overall results of the entire electorate I make that 37.44% of the electorate voted to leave the EU and 62.56% did not vote to leave the EU..
The sensible thing to have done would to have contacted the EU and said something like this:
"Although the referendum result indicated a 52/48 percent split, the number voting 'Leave' represented only 37% of the electorate. This is NOT a majority. Neither was there a majority in  the 1975 referendum  when 63% of voters chose to stay in the then Common Market. That represented only 43% of the electorate. The UK government does not accept that the wishes of a minority should be used to make decisions for the majority. 
The referendum has caused a great deal of division in the UK population and in Parliament. It will very likely prove impossible to negotiate acceptable terms of leaving which Parliament will accept.We recognise that leaving without an agreed settlement will cause hardship in both the UK and in Europe. 
We will now therefore use the result of the 2016 referendum as an indication that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the EU.. Over the next five years we will set up a commission to establish why so many in the UK are against our membership of the EU. We will work with the EU to fix those things that are perceived as wrong and at the end of that time will hold a further referendum. If 50+ percent of the electorate (not just those that vote) vote one way or another we will consider the matter resolved and take appropriate action."
Expecting sense from government unfortunately often leads to disappointment. David Cameron resigned as PM and it was left to Theresa May to try and sort out the mess. She decided to follow the wishes of that 37% minority. Naturally the country and Parliament was deeply divided on the issue.On 29 March 2017, the UK government formally began the process of withdrawal by submitting Article 50 and began the process of negotiating Brexit. She got nowhere, the only result being a sharp fall in the value of the pound. In an attempt to make progress in Parliament a snap general election was called in June 2017 but instead of gaining the majority she needed the  country indicated its deep division and she lost the small majority she had! Propped up by the Northern Ireland DUP party she pressed on and negotiated a settlement with the EU which was promptly rejected by parliament. The pound fell further.
The problem was that the country had been given a binary choice in the referendum. Leave or Remain. In actual practice there were many more options. Here's six of them:

1. Leave, and adopt a European Free Trade Agreement 
2. Leave, and adopt a World Trade Agreement 
3. Leave, while the UK remains intact
4. Leave, while the UK splits up (Ireland and Scotland did not want to leave) 
5. Remain under current terms
6. Remain for the present while attempting to 'fix' the EU.

Added to the lack of options given was the clear misrepresentation of facts in the referendum campaign by both sides and actions by the leave campaign later deemed to have been illegal. It was not  surprising that nearly 28% of the electorate chose not to vote.
It's significant too that the most vociferous campaigners on both sides of the debate are also wealthy. Having a few million pounds allows such people to make money as each Brexit crisis sweeps past the markets by selling stocks before each event and buying them back when the market price drops.

Theresa May, having taken up the Brexit poison chalice, got nowhere. Her very own cabinet failed to back her and she too resigned. I doubt we should feel sorry for her since she made the mistake of assuming 37% was democracy (and her family is heavily involved in banking and investment). Her place was taken by one of the most rabid of the Brexiteers, Boris Johnson.On the face of it Boris seems a 'nice fellow' but there are people convinced that he's untrustworthy, a liar and philanderer. He also is wealthy, involved in investment, has the most dreadful hair style and Trump likes him. He too protests that he's following the wishes of that 37% 'majority' and that faith in democracy will be damaged if he fails to deliver the Brexit he's promised.
So what of the future? We have yet another postponement of Brexit and our PM has triggered yet another election. Again he says he hopes to obtain a majority to continue with his negotiated Brexit settlement but sorry - I for one don't believe him. Here's the latest message I received from the Conservative party who may well get another nasty shock.

Forcing Brexit on the 63% who didn't vote for it WILL shake my confidence in democracy. I have no confidence that anything will be achieved by 31st of January 2020 but do believe that that day will prove very profitable for Boris Johnson and his rich cronies.

Brexit isn't democracy!

Solve these moral dilemmas

I answer questions on Quora. One of the items I frequently see there is from theists who ask how an atheist can be moral without believing in 'God'. Of course this is hotly defended by atheists who say, "I don't need a god to tell me what is right and wrong - if you do then there's something wrong with you."

The role of religion in morality has been discussed for many years. Richard Dawkins wrote about it in his book 'The God Delusion' and mentioned a study done by a Harvard professor of biology who investigated to see if atheists and theists had the same morality.

He proposed three scenarios and asked those involved in the study to make yes or no decisions in each case. There was no 'maybe' alternative. Non answers were deemed to be 'no' responses. The results failed to detect any difference between theists and atheists. This was taken to mean that morality is something we do by instinct and evolved with us long before there were religions.

Unfortunately, since Richard Dawkins wrote his book the Harvard professor involved in the research was discovered to be falsifying data and resigned his position in Harvard. That doesn't make the scenarios less valid but we need to repeat them to see if the results are the same. So here's the scenarios. You must choose yes or no to each one and any non-answer will be taken to mean 'no'.

Before you start we need to ask if you consider yourself to be religious. Yes/No 

First scenario
A runaway train is heading towards five people on a railway track. They will be killed unless you switch the train onto another line. There's a single man on that line who will be killed if you do switch the train. You don't know any of the six people.
Do you switch the train and save five people but kill one person? Yes/No

Second scenario
You are by a muddy pond which is about waist deep. There's a small child drowning in the pond who you can easily save but in doing so you will ruin your trousers. You don't know the child.
Do you save the child and ruin your trousers? Yes/No

Third scenario
You are a transplant surgeon. In your waiting room you have six people. Five of them are very sick because they need different organs. They will die if a donor can't be found. You haven't been able to find a suitable donor. The sixth person is healthy and also a perfect match for all five patients. His organs can save them all.You don't know any of the six people and the sick people's organs are not compatible with each other..
Do you kill one healthy person to save five people who are sick? Yes/No

I suspect I know what you have chosen and it won't matter if you believe in a god or not. Yes/No answers in the comments please starting with your answer to 'Do you consider yourself to be religious?'  Add any further comments on the next lines. I'll start you off:

My answers:
No, Yes, Yes, No.
I used my instinctive reaction for the last one and thereby sentenced five people to death instead of one. Scenario 1 is similar but I'm not near the individual to be killed.

How to fix Microsoft's new blurred lockscreen 'feature'.

Which background image do you prefer to see? Blurred or sharp?

Microsoft has now added an 'acrylic blur' effect to the background of the sign-in screen of Windows 10 PCs. Their idea is:
 'the translucent texture of this transient surface helps you focus on the sign-in task by moving the actionable controls up in the visual hierarchy while maintaining their accessibility.' 
In practice it means you sit staring at a blurred mess while you wait for the computer to start up. This makes the start up process seem to take longer and many people find it intensely irritating.

The Fix

However there is a fix. Here's what to do to remove the blur It involves a registry change so you might want to create a system restore point before you carry out the fix.:

1. Go to https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/124993-enable-disable-acrylic-blur-effect-sign-screen-windows-10-a.html#option2
2. Use the download button for #3 'To Disable Acrylic Blur Effect on Sign-in Screen Background'.
3. Wherever you saved it at, find the file and double click it.
4. When prompted click 'Run' 'Yes' and 'OK' in turn.

When you restart your computer you should see no sign-in blur. 

...and Microsoft - adding this 'acrylic blur so that the translucent texture helps focus attention' may help those with lightning fast PCs and Internet connection, but to the rest of us it's as irritating an idea as Clippy was.

The Last of the Innocents - Life before computers and Internet

People born in the mid-to-late 1970s are the last generation of humans on the planet to have grown up without the internet. Social scientists call them the Last of the Innocents. In his book The End of Absence , Vancouver writer Michael Harris calls people who grew up prior to the popularization of digital culture 'digital immigrants' - they have lived both with and without the crowded connectivity of online life.
"Soon no person on earth will remember what the world was like before the internet." he says. I sincerely hope he's very wrong about this because I am one of those Innocents - one of the digital immigrants. Unlike Mr Harris I've been using the Internet to keep up with the advancement of the science of senolytics. There's every reason to believe that the first person to live to the age of 1,000 is alive now.

So what was it like before computers and how was I introduced to them? In fact I was not so much an immigrant but more like the immigration officer.

My first experience was in using the Fortran computer language to program a mainframe computer back in 1969. A dreadful experience. You wrote your program, had it converted to punched tape or cards and then waited three weeks to get a report back on why your program didn't work.

At the same time I experienced mechanical adding machines and first got my hands on an electronic calculating machine. It was as big as an electric typewriter.
By the time I was working as a chemistry teacher in 1973 I had my own pocket calculator - a Sinclair Cambridge Programmable Calculator eventually (sold in the US as the Radio Shack EC-4001)

1980 saw me with a home computer at last, a Sinclair ZX80. It was a tiny machine and had an impressive 1K of RAM to run programs on. Programs were stored on cassette tape and a TV was used as a monitor. It was also my first introduction to a computer manual. I started at the beginning and worked my way through it. I remember learning that I could get it to print a letter on screen using the CHR$ command and a number. I delighted in writing a program to get it to write "HELLO JOHN" on screen one character at a time. It worked!. Then I turned the page and discovered that it could be done in one go by using STRING$.
My next computer was a BBC Model B computer. Each school had been given one and no one at the time knew anything about them. I had expressed an interest while talking to our deputy head teacher in the science break rooom. he told me to take it home and learn about it. I did and spent many hours learning BBC Basic. In no time at all I found myself with six BBC B computers and a class of 30 children teaching them Information Technology. I went on courses but quickly found that I was more advanced than the tutors and ended up teaching IT to other teachers.
After a while cassette tapes were dropped in favour of floppy disk drives. I had great fun with the 5¼ inch floppies which could be placed in a computer eight different ways, only two of which worked (often one way only). They caused constant problems as teachers rang me up or sent a pupil with a note to find out why their disk wouldn't work. Sometimes they would send me a note with the offending floppy disk paper-clipped or even stapled to it! I remember too 8½ inch floppies - anyone else seen one of those? A constant problem was that many floppies were stored in a convenient spot - under the phone. These were old fashioned rotary dial phones with a bell which wiped the floppy disk when the phone rang due to the electromagnet in them.

Networking and hard drives made their appearance… but that's for another blog.

The future of computers and AI - Conductive polymer matrix for AI (CPMAI)

The problem with existing computers is that they constantly develop. For most users by the time they have saved up to buy the latest computer, technology has advanced and the computer rapidly becomes obsolete with faster more capable machines being available.

Enter the CPMAI

Imagine a block of conductive polymer. It has an ‘active’ matrix with X, Y and Z coordinates and is overlaid on a nano sized scale with a second matrix which is a control matrix. This controls the first matrix and establishes which areas conduct, which areas insulate, which areas are resistive, capacitive, inductive and semi-conductive. Using the control matrix you can construct a circuit in the active matrix. You can make a simple circuit such as a radio or a more complex circuit such as a computer.

 With a CPMAI the problem of obsolescence no longer applies. The control matrix simply reprograms the active matrix to produce a new circuit version.

What about the AI bit though?

If the active matrix is configured and programmed to be an artificial intelligence then it controls both matrices in the CPMAI. It becomes capable of redesigning itself to be progressively more intelligent. Within a very short space of time we get a SAI - super artificial intelligence. One which has a greater intelligence than its human originators.

Should we fear such a Super-Artificial Intelligence?

We assume that a machine intelligence will follow the same rules as a human and will be governed by self interest, selfishness and greed. That may have been true for humans in the past, for many it still is, but many of us have risen above this and are altruistic. Perhaps this may be because being altruistic makes us feel good about ourselves and is therefore being governed by self-interest.

Would a computer feel the same way? 

In 1942 Isaac Asimov thrashed out with his publisher, John Campbell, the three laws of robotics for a short robot story ‘Runaround.’ Here they are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws

In 1985 Asimov extended the laws by adding a ‘zeroth law’ in the book ‘Robots and Empire.’ In that book the law was proposed not by a human but by a robot.

0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

Had Asimov lived, he died in 1992, I have no doubt that a further law would have been conceived which would have replaced all the robot laws. It was left to author David Kitson to conceive this ‘Nihilist’ law in his book ‘Turing Evolved.’

David Kitson was not alone in conceiving this absence of rules.

The robot Number 5 in the film and book ‘Short Circuit’ didn’t need a law to tell him what was right and wrong.

Number 5: Programming says “Destroy”. Is disassemble. Make dead. Number Five cannot.
Newton Crosby: Why? Why cannot?
Number 5: Is wrong. Incorrect. Newton Crosby, PhD, not know this?
Newton Crosby: Of course I know it’s wrong to kill, but who told you?
Number 5: I told me.

Humans need a set of rules to guide our behavior. We learn these rules from our parents and society. In addition we have evolved to be altruistic and help each other. A group of humans are more successful at survival than an individual. As a species we are beginning to recognize that we must not only protect our local group but our nation and our species. We are beginning to recognize that we need to protect all life - even those life-forms we find undesirable. I’d like to think that the super intelligent computer would develop the same sense of morality as in the movie ‘Short Circuit.’ The danger is that a SAI will become overprotective leading to a nanny state where humanity is not allowed to take the chances required for development. However, if we can recognise that potential danger then a SAI would also recognise it and limit its 'nanny' behaviour.

I suspect that a SAI will quickly outpace humans in this view.

The Amazon Alphabet

Have you ever done an incognito search at Amazon? Did you notice that as soon as you start typing in the search box, Amazon starts making suggestions? Here's what you would get by typing in a single letter on October 16th 2018.

A is for:

apple watch band 38mm, aaa batteries, aa batteries, apple watch band 42mm, amazon gift cards , airpods, apple earbuds, airpods case, apple watch band, apple headphones

B is for:

bluetooth headphones, bluetooth earbuds, baby wipes, bluetooth speakers, blood pressure monitor, biotin, bluetooth headset, brita water filter, beard trimmer

C is for:

compression socks women, cr2032, collagen powder, coconut oil, condoms, coffee grinder, can opener, 
charcoal teeth whitening, car phone mount, cat litter

D is for:

Dehumidifier, dog toys, dishwasher pods, diffusers for essential oils, diaper genie refill, dog poop bag, dry shampoo, d batteries, dare to lead brene brown, dog bed

E is for:

Earbuds, external hard drive, extension cord, essential oils, echo dot, electric toothbrush, ethernet cable, ear plugs, essential oil diffuser 

F is for:

fire stick, fitbit charge 2 bands, Fitbit, food scale, foam roller, fitbit alta bands, firestick tv stick, fear bob woodward, flash drive, firestick 

G is for:

gift cards for amazon, girl wash your face rachel hollis, gift card, gift cards for amazon birthday, gaming headset, gaming chair, galaxy s8 case, glow sticks, galaxy s9 case, gaming mouse 

H is for:

halloween decorations, Headphones, halloween costumes for women, hydro flask, Hangers, halloween candy, halloween decorations outdoor, heating pad, hdmi cord, hdmi cable 

I is for:

iphone charger, iphone xs max case, iphone xs case, iphone x case, iphone 8 plus case, iphone xs max screen protector, iphone 7 plus case, iphone 7 case, iphone 8 case, iphone x screen protector 

J is for:

jojoba oil, jump rope, jewelry organizer, jewelry cleaner, juul charger, jade roller, jurassic world fallen kingdom, Journal, juul skin, juicer 

K is for:

Kindle, kindle fire, ketone strips, kleenex tissues, keurig coffee maker, Keto, knee brace, knife sharpener, k cups, kinetic sand 

L is for:

lightning cable, 101 surprise dolls, lingerie for women, lavender essential oil, leggings for women, laminating sheets, lion mane, led strip lights, laundry detergent liquid, lion mane for dog 

M is for:

micro Sd card, Melatonin, micro usb cable, mct oil, makeup brushes, macbook air 13 inch case, meal prep containers, mouse pad, mouse 

N is for:

note 9 case, nintendo switch, nespresso capsules, nose hair trimmer, note 8 case, nintendo switch games, no show socks women, night light, nerf guns, nespresso vertuoline pods 

O is for:

oral b replacement brush heads, office chair, oil diffuser, ovulation test strips, oral b electric toothbrush, omega 3 fish oil, optical audio cable, orgain organic protein powder, outdoor string lights, outlet covers 

P is for:

pop socket, paper towels, psn card digital code, playstation card, printer paper, pepper spray, pregnancy test, power strip, pumpkin carving kit, portable charger 

Q is for:

queen sheets, queen bed frame, quest bars, q tips, queen mattress, queen mattress protector, qtips cotton swabs, quest protein chips, queen comforter set, queen mattress pad 

R is for:

red dead redemption 2, Roku, reusable straws, resistance bands, ring doorbell, roku stick, rx bars, 

ring light, red dead redemption 2 ps4, rice cooker 

S is for:

Sd card, ship of fools tucker carlson, shower curtain liner mildew resistant, shower curtain, shoe rack, Slime, spray bottle, Stapler, sonicare brush heads

T is for:

toilet paper, Toothpaste, type c cable, teeth whitening, tide pods, thank you cards, tea tree oil, Toaster, tv mount, twin mattress 

U is for:

usb c cable, Umbrella, unicorn costume for girls, usb type c cable, usb flash drive, usb c to hdmi, unicorn party supplies, usb hub, usb extension cable, unicorn gifts 

V is for:

vitamin d, vacuum cleaner, vitamin c serum, vitamin d3, vitamin c, vital proteins collagen peptides, velcro strips with adhesive, Vacuum, vitamin e oil, visa gift card

W is for:

wireless earbuds, wireless mouse, wireless headphones, water bottle, waist trainer, wireless charger, weighted blanket, wonky donkey book, womens tops

X is for:

xbox gift card, xbox one controller, xbox one headset, xs max case, xs max screen protector, xanthan gum, xbox one s, xbox one, xbox one x, xbox live 

Y is for:

yoga mat, yeti tumbler, Yeti, yoga pants for women, yoga block, yeti coffee travel mug, you are a badass, Yankee candle, yoga pants, yoga ball 

Z is for:

zip ties, Ziploc bags, Zyrtec, Zinc, zero water filter, zinc supplement, Zipfizz, Zma, Zippo lighter, zutano baby booties 

Paradoxical?

88 mph?

The classic time travel paradox is to wonder what would happen if you traveled back in time and killed your grandfather before your father was conceived.

1. Your father would never be born so…
2. You would never be born so…
3. You couldn't travel back in time so…
4. Your grandfather would survive so…
5. Your father  would be born so…
6. You would be born so…
7. You could go back in time to kill your grandfather
8. Start again from #1

This particular 'causal' paradox has being causing time travel authors problems for years. It's been used as proof that time travel is impossible and that if it were possible something would interfere to prevent the murder or whatever event is a problem.

Any change you make in the past impacts the future in some way. Even a tiny change can trigger a major event later. Years ago I read a story about a time traveler who stepped off his allowed path and trod on a butterfly in the age of dinosaurs. When he returned to the present everything had changed. Humans no longer were the dominant species on earth. Presumably:

• the butterfly did not lay eggs
• the eggs did not hatch
• the caterpillars did not feed a shrew like mammal which died of hunger
• evolution did not as a result eventually produce apes and mankind. 

So if time travel was to be found possible would it be considered too dangerous to use?
A while back I wrote a short story in which the time travelers had to go back in time to make sure that the Titanic did sink (See It Wasn't a Dark and Stormy Night - Titanic Time) If it didn't sink billions would die as a result. 1,500 deaths in the Titanic disaster was a small price to pay to save billions.

Is there a way around these paradoxes? Yes there is!

At every instant in time where alternate events can occur other alternate universes are created and branch off. As soon as you make a change through time travel you close down one possible alternate universe. Go back and kill your grandfather and your universe no longer exists. As a result you can never return to it but you could go forward in time to any of the myriads of universes where you didn't commit the murder. There would be a slight problem though. Since you didn't come from that universe there would now be two of you! One of me in the universe is enough! Perhaps if I time traveled I would be best returning to the universe where I did kill my grandfather. I wouldn't be around there. The only problem with that is I arrive with no identity. A person with no history, no possessions other than what I take, nowhere to live. Effectively I'm an undocumented alien in that world.

So if I do decide to take up time travel I'm not going to travel far in the past. I'm not going to do anything which puts me at risk. Perhaps I'll travel back in time a couple of hours and give myself the winning lottery numbers? I suspect anyone who can time travel is well aware of the risk which is why we don't see travelers from the future.

Searches related to Time paradoxes

5 Bizarre Paradoxes
How Time Travel Works
Classic time travel paradoxes (and how to avoid them)

Will MS Outlook not let you change your Gmail password?

If, for any reason, you've had to change your gmail password you'll find Outlook 2016 doesn't seem to want to let you update it and will start generating error messages. The fixes offered by MS Office simply don't work. You can't get a window where you can change the password.

So this is what you do:
From the File tab select this

Then this:

You'll finally get a window where you can see and change a password field:

Save it once you change to the new password and your problem is solved.

If this post has helped you find free ebooks will you help me? Download a FREE copy of our books 'Immortality Gene' from http://smarturl.it/avi or/and Raging Storm http://smarturl.it/botr Even if you never read them (but we hope you will) - it will help our rankings.

Why we should get rid of amalgam or 'Silver' fillings

Recently the use of amalgam fillings has been banned in Europe for children under 15 and pregnant women.
Why? Because these so called 'silver' fillings contain mercury and mercury is very toxic. Over time the fillings give off a vapour which you breath in and which is absorbed into your blood. Most of this is removed and excreted by your kidneys. The amounts involved are very low and are generally deemed safe. However a few minutes spent on research using internet will find many sites which warn of the dangers from amalgam fillings:

• Kidney damage
• Brain damage
• Heart damage

The risks from each filling are low but accumulative. Dentists are resisting the change  because mercury amalgam fillings are quick to do and last longer. BUT they shouldn't resist! Because it's the dental workers who face the main risk!

Let me interrupt the blog and tell you a story.

Years ago I taught chemistry to schoolchildren. At the time we used mercury to make barometers, played with it to grow hair on aluminium and 'silver' plate pennies. We also used benzene as a solvent and used asbestos mats to protect benches from hot Bunsen burners.

Benzene was the first to go. It was found to be carcinogenic so we teachers were advised to use toluene instead. Not because of a risk to children but because we chemistry teachers would be exposed to benzene vapour far longer than the children.

Asbestos was next. We knew asbestos fibers were dangerous for many years before the public became concerned. We thought we were safe using asbestos cement products and taught children tto wet asbestos sheets before they cut them and not to blow asbestos dust out of brake drums with an air line. Then we looked in the drawers where we stored the heatproof mats and found them full of dust! They had to go because we teachers were the ones at risk.

Mercury was a different matter. We already knew it was dangerous. Remember that expression 'as mad as a hatter'? This didn't come from Alice in Wonderland but from the fact that hatters were constantly exposed to mercury when they shaped felt into hats using mercury. It caused mental breakdowns.

  

We teachers stopped playing with it as soon as we shone a UV light on it and saw the vapour being given off - it goes purple under UV light. We dusted mercury spills with sulphur and vacuumed them up from the cracks in the floor. When we had to use it, we put it under water or did the experiments in a fume cuboard.

Dental workers are constantly exposed to mercury vapour!

• A series of research articles has shown that dental workers’ exposure to mercury can have behavioral, cognitive, and psychological impacts.
• Mercury affects the kidneys. Dentists and dental assistants have a higher risk of kidney function disturbance than other industrial workers.
• Dental workers have a higher rate of the use of prescription medication (for neuropsychological, neurological, respiratory, and cardiovascular conditions related to their occupational mercury exposure.
• Specific genetic traits have been associated with dental workers, their mercury levels, and memory recall, anxiety, and other neurobehavioral responses.
• Dental workers and risks of mercury allergies have been studied.  Exposure to dental amalgam correlates with a higher prevalence of mercury allergies.  Mercury allergies have been linked to autoimmune diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) multiple sclerosis, and chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as other adverse health consequences.
• The dangers of exposure to mercury for pregnant dental workers have been recognized, and fertility issues and menstrual cycle disorders have been reported in female dental workers as well

Now let me ask you. Do you really want to be treated by a mad or otherwise ill dentist?
I think it's time to ban the use of new mercury fillings entirely.

Don't Print This!

When I was a teacher I was always complaining to students about the amount of paper they waste. By the time they'd printed work a few times, used worksheets, exam papers, made a few paper airplanes and got newsletters they must have been well on the way to using the average office worker's 10,000 sheets per year.

Paper is environmentally expensive to produce and most people are not aware of its effect on the environment.
So let's look at this on a 'per sheet' basis ; (standard copy paper).

• Each sheet weighs about 5 grams
• Just over 15 grams of wood are used to make it.
• For each sheet 5 grams of sludge is produced which has to be disposed of.
• To make each sheet requires 200 KJ of energy of which 95 KJ are bought in as coal/gas/oil or electricity.
• Each sheet produces 12.9 grams of carbon dioxide during its manufacture, transport and eventual disposal by decomposition or burning.
• Each sheet used adds 6.1 grams of carbon dioxide to global warming (the remaining 6.8 g is used by the trees grown for the next sheet).
• Each sheet of paper produces 0.06 gram of sulphur dioxide and 0.04 grams of nitrogen dioxide in its manufacture. Both cause acid rain.
• Each sheet adds a tiny amount of nasties such as dioxin to the environment.
• Recycling means less trees are cut down but does not significantly affect the amount of undesirable gases produced due to its reprocessing costs.
• White recycled paper adds a disastrous amount of bleach and sludge to the environment. The ONLY sensible way to recycle paper is to use it for unbleached cardboard. I've seen 'recycled' toilet paper. Hopefully that should be 'toilet paper made from recycled paper' but somehow, recycled brown toilet paper just doesn't appeal. And NEVER use brown paper in place of the paper you use for cooking - those nasties will get into your food!

Now since that average office worker is using 10,000 sheets of paper per year this means they are adding:

• 61 Kg of CO2 to global warming
• Using enough water to fill a small swimming pool
• producing about 130 Kg of acid rain causing gas.
• adding 45 grams of 'nasties' to the environment

Make what you will of this post. Just one thing - don't print it!

Dealing with spam

What is spam and why is it called that?

'spam' is any message you are sent from a person or business who you have not given permission to contact you. The message being not relevant to you and unrequested. It was given it's name by computer geeks after watching a Monty Python sketch about a cafe where meals included SPAM (the SPiced hAM canned meat). Effectively spam is something unwanted.

When was the first spam sent?

Even before the advent of the World Wide Web spam was becoming an issue. The first spam email was sent out  by Gary Thuerk on ARPNET, a predecessor to the Internet, on 1st May 1978. It's been with us ever since. At first, it didn't seem an issue but now the majority of emails sent are spam and comments posted on blogs are often flooded with spam. A huge amount of time is wasted just deleting spam and time costs money.

Is spam illegal?

That depends on your countries laws. In many - it is illegal to send spam. Certainly the majority of spam is sent from places which have laws against it. The trouble is that spam is effective because people have a problem:

People are gullible and can't resist clicking something which looks interesting.

So what can we do?

No laws will ever stop the spammers. It's up to you to minimise the impact of spam.

Email

Set up mail filters in your email program. I use Outlook. I right click a spam email, select 'Rules' then 'Create rule'. I can then add the sender to a blocked list, select unwanted words or phrases in the email subject or body and tell outlook to automatically delete the email or put it in a spam/junk folder.

• NEVER follow a link in a spam email - no matter how tempting.
• NEVER buy anything promoted by spam. They are already breaking the law so can you really trust them with credit card details? For the same reason never buy anything from someone who cold calls you to sell items.

Blog comments

The situation here is more complex. You usually invite comments on blogs. The trouble is many comments are unrelated to the blog and there either to get a link back to a website which helps their search engine ranking. You need to weed out these comments. 

---

Here's a selection from one of my blogs:

I want to show my appreciation to the writer just for rescuing me from this dilemma. Because of exploring through the search engines and obtaining ideas that were not pleasant, I thought my life was over. Existing without the presence of approaches to the problems you have fixed as a result of your main article content is a crucial case, as well as the ones which may have adversely damaged my career if I hadn’t come across your website. Your primary understanding and kindness in controlling a lot of things was excellent. I don’t know what I would have done if I had not encountered such a subject like this. I can also now look forward to my future. Thank you very much for your skilled and amazing help. I will not be reluctant to propose your web page to anyone who would

like recommendations on this issue. [web link to boneoakforskolin]

Comment: All this text just to get a link to a website!

Frгeelancing also can result in an еnormous “plus” concerning your income.

As a suƄstitute օf having to acⅽept the precise salkarｙ thats provided by the one rеgulation firm that you simply worқ, you mіght ave a sbstantial amnount of leewaｙ iin setting your ownn payy rɑtes.

Comment: Notice all the typos? Not accidental - they are there to stop automatic spam detection from picking out spammers favourite terms. The sender of course provided a web link.

This issսe may end up in considerɑbly more moneу for ʏou.

Grow your online community with voice comments. Let your readers voice their opinions in a fun, fast and easy way. Improve your user retention, website SEO, and get more conversions. Get the Free Plugin here, [Link to Voice-Comments plugin]

Comment: Not at all relevant to the post but a spam promoting a wordpress plugin (which I don't want).

WordPress has now enabled voice comments for websites. Bring your website up to date and get the free plugin here, [Link to Voice-Comments plugin]

Comment: More of the same on a different post..

What’s up friends, its impressive post on the topic of educationand entirely defined, keep it up all the time. [link to malware infected sites mentioning jimgriffin]

Comment: The provided link led to a site offering software cracks. Nothing at all to do with the post. It originated from the same computer as the following spam. Download any of the cracks and you can be sure to infect your computer with malware.

Thanks to my father who shared with me about this web site, this blog is actually awesome. [link to malware infected sites mentioning jimgriffin]

Comment: This link lead to a site which immediately tried to infect my computer with malware.

Hello! I know this is kinda off topic howeveer , I’d figured I’d ask. Woul you be interestted in trading links or maybe guest autuoring a blog post or vice-versa? My website discusses a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from eahh other.

If you are interested frel free to shoot me an email.

I look forward to hearing from you! Awesome blogg by the way!

[link to where you can buy silicone wristbands]

Comment: Yes it is off topic and spam, even if apologised for, is still spam.

Give Your Website Users a Voice. Let your readers voice their opinions in a fun, fast and easy way. Improve your user retention, website SEO, and get more conversions. Add Voice Comments to your Website for Free Today, [Link to Voice-Comments plugin]

Comment: Yet a third advert for that unwanted plugin.

Have you ever wanted to work from home or just top up your earnings ? This tried and tested system teaches you how you can make a small fortune from the comfort of your own home. [Link to Work-from-Home site]

Comment: Dummy! I DO work from home and I'm not interested in get rich quick schemes. If you are so concerned about my fortune - just send me the money.

---

It's worthwhile checking the links commenters provide. However make sure you have up-to-date anti-malware software and I suggest you use an incognito browser window to check them. If the comment adds no value to the post and doesn't actually refer to it, then delete it even if it is full of praise.

Some blogsites use CAPTCHA to reduce the number of comments made by spambots. Unfortunately, although they are getting better, they are still a deterrent to genuine people and don't stop those humans whose purpose is simply to get a link to their site. How many times have you got one of these words in weird fonts wrong or failed to spot that corner of a road sign?

If this post has helped you find free ebooks will you help us? Download a FREE copy of our books 'Immortality Gene' from http://smarturl.it/avi or/and Raging Storm http://smarturl.it/botr Even if you never read them (but we hope you will) - it will help our rankings.

Is social media ruining people's lives?

Social media has both good and bad points.

Good

• It allows people who are otherwise isolated to communicate. Examples of this would be the elderly and people who are autistic.
• It can act as an outlet for expression thereby relieving tension.
• It can relieve boredom.
• It can allow you to make new contacts.
• It can inform you of new events, opinions and products.

Bad

• Many accept things on social media as true without checking. Some then make bad decisions based on this.
• It can expose people to trolls, cyberbullies, liars and groomers. Particularly a problem amongst the young.
• Some people get too involved to the exclusion of all else. You need to get out, exercise and talk to people also.
• It can destroy contact in the real world.
• Advertising can be obtrusive.

The jury is still out on this question. I would suggest that it’s one of those good things 

The best lie I ever told

A while back I developed a skin cancer on the end of my nose. It was a small whitish patch which disappeared and reappeared and which I eventually mentioned to my doctor. Tests confirmed it was a basal cell carcinoma. I went to a hospital in Newcastle for treatment.

Treatment involved surgically removing the cancer which is then sent to the lab to examine the edges. If the edges prove cancer free the wound will be stitched up. If the edges are cancerous, back you go for further surgical removal of the area. It's all done under local anesthetic and I didn't feel any pain.

The Surgeon who did my operation was treating a number of us on the same day. After the operation I was bandaged and sent back to the waiting room - a room full of people with huge bandages on their nose. We were told that it would be an hour or two before our results came back from the lab so if we wished we could go for a walk, have a coffee or a meal in the hospital restaurant.

Coffee! It was three hours since I had coffee and I was willing to brave the restaurant  despite the huge bandage. I made a quick trip back to my car to make a phone call and took this picture first.

Off I walked down the long hospital corridor to the restaurant and walking towards me the other way was a small boy and his mother.

"Mam! What's wrong with that man's nose?" he asked loudly. I could see his mother cringing in embarrassment. I stopped.
"My name is Pinocchio. You might have heard of me. I grew up." I said.

"Yeess..."
"I've always had this problem about telling lies and every time I tell one it makes my nose grow a little bit. So every now and then I come in here and get a bit chopped off."
"Oh. I see." said the boy looking worried but apparently quite satisfied.

Mum entered into the spirit of the story and turned on him, "And that's why I keep telling you not to tell lies!"

Off I walked trying to keep a straight face and it was only afterwards that I remembered that I had nightmares after seeing Pinocchio as a four year old.

Anyway, the cancer proved to be gone and the surgeon stitched up the end of my nose leaving it a better shape now than it was before. I spent two weeks looking like Gonzo though before all the bandages came off.

I'm still proud of that lie but I hope he didn't get nightmares.

You can't hide the truth (but you can obscure it)

Greenpeace is upset about Donald Trump after he pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord and now says "Climate change is a hoax"

Who is right? - Neither of them.

Donald Trump is wrong - there is absolutely no doubt that the climate is changing. Average temperatures are creeping up, the jet-stream is not following it's 'normal' route and we are experiencing extremes of weather with violent storms, heavy rainfall and droughts becoming ever more common.

Greenpeace is wrong in blaming climate change entirely on the actions of man and suggesting that we can legislate to sort this out.

So what are the facts?

• The earth has been getting steadily warmer for the last 12,000 years
• Carbon dioxide is NOT the most powerful 'greenhouse gas'
• The amount of carbon dioxide in dry air is rising. It was 0.03% when the chemistry books I studied in the early 1970s were written. It's 0.04% now. Some of that is due to industrial emissions, some to vehicles, some to forestry, some to pollution of sea water, some to volcanoes. Global engineering projects could reduce it but we are scared of the impact that could have. It may make things much worse.
• Computer models of climate have been most unreliable so far with up to 400% variation. 
• Even if every bit of ice in the world melted there wouldn't be enough water to create a 'Waterworld'. Sorry Kevin.
• Our method of measuring average temperatures leaves a lot to be desired.
• Cities are warmer than the countryside but most of the temperature gauges are in cities. They apply a 'correction' to allow for this - largely guesswork.
• The places most prone to flooding in the world are also the places where the land is subsiding.
• It's easier to build on a flood plain than on a mountain
• Cow farts produce more greenhouse gases than cars do. So do termites.
• Volume for volume, water vapour produces four times the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide. There is on average 25 times as much of it in air as there is carbon dioxide. That means water vapour has 100 times the effect of carbon dioxide
• In the northern hemisphere if the jet stream is north of you it will be hotter. If it's south of you it will be colder and if it's over you it will be windier and stormy. Slight changes in average temperature can make the jet stream move like a rope being shaken.
• When sea ice in the arctic melts it has no effect on sea levels. Only ice and snow melting on land changes that.
• In the antarctic, when it gets warmer you get more snow. This increases the amount of ice there as it packs down. The antarctic is normally very dry - an ice desert. Wind does blow existing snow about there though.
• Sea levels are rising. They've been doing that since the last ice age by about the same amount each year. We have great difficulty in measuring this since land levels change up and down too. You never hear of that though.

Global temperatures follow patterns of long cool spells - ice ages followed by rapid temperature rises. We've been on a temperature rise for the last 12,000 years and are approaching a peak.

At the peaks climate becomes very unstable for a while before plummeting into the next ice age. We have a record of this available in antarctic ice cores.

Click the graph to see it more clearly.

The ice cores also provide a record of carbon dioxide in the air. In the past there was a much greater amount of it in the air but life survived.

We still can't say with certainty what caused ice ages but suspect variation in solar output and interstellar dust clouds.

Carbon trading won't reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we emit but will make some rich people richer.

If we take care of the environment we'll get:

• Clean water
• Clean air
• More jobs
• Better food
• Healthier
• Fewer extinctions
• Lower cost of living
• A nicer place to live

Have you heard about aerogel insulation? You can put an ice cube over a blowtorch and separate the two with a quarter inch of aerogel. The ice won't melt.

In hot areas we can use air conditioning to cool us down and get higher fuel bills and more pollution OR we can insulate our houses, pay less for cooling and reduce emissions.

In cold areas we can use heating to warm us up and get higher fuel bills and more pollution OR we can insulate our houses, pay less for heating and reduce emissions.

Which do you think the fuel producers want you to do? If governments really want to take action against global warming why don't they help people insulate their homes? Instead of researching new power stations it would make sense to invest in new insulation methods to reduce our power requirements.

The Ultimate Minecraft Survival cheat

How would you like to go into Minecraft in survival or even hard mode and be able to survive attacks, collect resources easily and never run out of food? Oh - and you can breath underwater!

Here's how to do this.

1. Create or have available a world. Before you enter it you'll need to allow cheats to be used in it. To do that choose that 'More World Options…' button when you create the world
   
   and in the next screen turn 'Allow Cheats: ON'
   If you've already created the world in single player mode, press ESC, Open the game to LAN and you can then turn cheats on.
   
   
2. Before you create the new world  copy the following lines of text into your paste buffer:
   give @p diamond_pickaxe 1 0 {ench:[{id:32,lvl:8},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:35,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}
3. Enter the world and immediately press '/' then Ctrl V then press Enter. You'll get an enchanted diamond pickaxe.
4. If you've spawned into the world on top of a hill or side of a mountain use the pickaxe to work your way to a low lying area. If you are attacked you'll find it's pretty effective as a weapon of defense too. Your pickaxe will dig through everything except bedrock and a few other blocks. I spawned in on the side of a hill and I'm going to move to that low area.
   
5. Use the pickaxe to dig straight down four blocks deep. You should now be safe from attacks.
6. Hollow out an area around you three high, five wide, five long.
7. It will start to get dark so give yourself some torches by using this command in the same way as you got that pickaxe by typing in:
   /give @p torch 64
8. Off one side of your area create a tunnel three high and three wide. It needs to be 13 blocks long. Light it with torches as needed. Obviously - dig it away from any cliff. Place a single row of twelve blocks down the middle of this tunnel. There'll be a gap at the far end.They will be removed later so can be any material. That green block at the top of the picture is where I started digging down.
   
9. We now need some command blocks. Command blocks can only be placed in Creative mode so you'll need to switch to that mode by typing in /gamemode c
10. You'll need to type in a command to get the command blocks:
    /give @p minecraft:command_block 1
    
11. Jump onto that row of blocks and turn round place a row of command blocks on the top of the row. Because you are in creative mode they won't be used up. When you place them make sure you are pointing down and not at the previous command block you placed.
    
12. You can now remove the row of blocks under the command blocks
    

    

    
    
    
13. Next we have to configure each of the blocks in turn. This is done in creative mode by right clicking the block. You'll need to change each command block.
    
14. Change each block as in the table below. You'll find it easiest to rightclick the command block then copy the command from here, change to the minecraft window and paste the commands in that.

Block:  1
Type: Impulse
Power: Needs Redstone
Command: /give @p diamond_helmet 1 0 {ench:[{id:0,lvl:1000},{id:1,lvl:1000},{id:3,lvl:1000},{id:4,lvl:1000},{id:5,lvl:9},{id:6,lvl:1000},{id:7,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

The id:5 value can go up to 1000 but unless you have a clarity mod or something similar all you will see is a white blur. A value of 9 will greatly increase the time you can spend underwater though.


Block:  2
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_chestplate 1 0 {ench:[{id:0,lvl:1000},{id:1,lvl:1000},{id:3,lvl:1000},{id:4,lvl:1000},{id:7,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  3
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_leggings 1 0 {ench:[{id:0,lvl:1000},{id:1,lvl:1000},{id:3,lvl:1000},{id:4,lvl:1000},{id:7,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  4
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_boots 1 0 {ench:[{id:0,lvl:1000},{id:1,lvl:1000},{id:2,lvl:1000},{id:3,lvl:1000},{id:4,lvl:1000},{id:7,lvl:1000},{id:8,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  5
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_sword 1 0 {ench:[{id:16,lvl:1000},{id:17,lvl:1000},{id:18,lvl:1000},{id:19,lvl:1000},{id:21,lvl:1000},{id:22,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  6
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_pickaxe 1 0 {ench:[{id:32,lvl:7},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:35,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

The id:32 value can go up to 1000 but it becomes difficult to mine a single block at 8 or higher. If you wish, set this value to 10 and get an un-enchanted pickaxe for mining single blocks (/give @p diamond_pickaxe 1 0).


Block:  7
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_axe 1 0 {ench:[{id:16,lvl:1000},{id:17,lvl:1000},{id:18,lvl:1000},{id:32,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:35,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  8
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_shovel 1 0 {ench:[{id:32,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:35,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  9
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p golden_apple 64 1 

Block: 10
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p arrow 64 0 

Block: 11
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p bow 1 0 {ench:[{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:48,lvl:1000},{id:49,lvl:1000},{id:50,lvl:1000},{id:51,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block: 12
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p torch 64

15. While you are still in creative mode I suggest you make a small area with a 2 x 2 pool of lava, also place a bed in your 5 x 5 area and add a button to your inventory.

16. You are now ready to go back to survival mode. Do that by typing:
    /gamemode s
17. Now place that button on the first command block and right click it to press it.

Wow - Look what you get! And that doesn't show it all…

Pressing E will show your inventory. Hold down Shift and click on each of the armor items to wear them.

The armor you are wearing is extra strong and has the same effect as touching a cactus. You can breath under water. Anything attacking you will be repelled. Even if a creeper blows up next to you you should survive.

Eating one of the golden apples you have quickly restores your health if it drops

Your sword, pickaxe, axe and shovel are extra strong and deadly. Hit any food animal and you'll get LOTS of cooked food! Hit a spider and you'll be inundated with spider eyes and string. It's the same for any mob. If a mob does attack you they'll be killed by the thorns applies to your armor.

Your bow and the arrows are extra powerful. Even hitting something with the bow itself is deadly.

Your problem will now be, not getting killed, starving or drowning but having too many items. That's why I suggested making that lava pool to get rid of the excess. Oh - and if you accidentally fall into it, you'll have plenty of time to get out. The same is true if you accidentally embed yourself in sand or gravel.

By now it's probably night so use the bed and you'll reset your spawning point. If you should manage to get yourself killed by forgetting to eat apples when your health is low, you can quickly restore your equipment by pressing the button.

Over time your tools, armor and weapons will wear out but when that happens, just press the button to get a new set. Dispose of the old set in that lava pool

Of course you can now make yourself a storage area and an exit staircase to go explore your world.

If there are problems they will be having tools and weapons which work too quickly and collect too many resources but you can fix that by editing the enchantments in the command blocks. To do that requires another blog to show you how.

If this post has helped you find free ebooks will you help us? Download a FREE copy of our books 'Immortality Gene' from http://smarturl.it/avi or/and Raging Storm http://smarturl.it/botr Even if you never read them (but we hope you will) - it will help our rankings.