Enola Gay
on August 6th 1945 the B29 Superfortress Enola Gay
became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb
The Boeing B29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated, complex, and expensive aircraft ever built up to that time. After Japan’s leaders ignored a demand to surrender, President Harry S. Truman authorised the atomic strike, in order to avoid the millions of casualties expected if ground troops invaded Japan’s Home Islands. Under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets the Enola Gay flew from Tinian in the Mariana Islands and released the bomb at 08:15 over Hiroshima.
At that time the B29 Superfortress was the only aircraft capable of carrying the 10,000 or so pounds of the atomic weapons Little Boy and Fat Man the approximately 1,400 miles from Tinian to their targets in Japan, and getting home again.
The Atomic age had begun.
Japan unconditionally surrendered on September 2nd 1945 after a second strike by the B29 Bockscar on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. More people were killed and injured by the RAF’s conventional bombing of Hamburg than the casualties caused by the atomic bomb at Nagasaki.
Today, the Enola Gay is exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. Bockscar may be seen at The National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, OH.
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jack collier jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Containing COVID-19
millions are being wrongly put back into lockdown
because mass testing gives too many false results
The entire effort to contain the coronavirus is a massive waste of time and money. The greatest impact of all these efforts has been to destroy the global economy, take away our civil liberties, and to hand unimaginable powers to politicians and unelected officials. Here, the government is even talking about putting the army on the streets of England to enforce lockdown ~ that will end social cohesion for a generation.
- Closing borders does not work. Australia had some of the strictest entry rules for visitors and returning Australians, and yet the coronavirus is allegedly rampant in that country. You cannot stop aircraft from landing with mail and essential imports, you cannot stop ships docking with essential imports and to load exports, and there are always some people who are exempt from the entry restrictions. (Doctors, Politicians, and Unelected Officials.)
- The money spent on mass testing has been thrown away. Here in England the mass testing centres were mostly ignored by the public, there are far too many incorrect results, either producing false positives or false negatives, and people can catch the virus from the testers themselves. Testing offers no benefit to the person being tested.
- Recently President Trump stated categorically that lockdown doesn’t work, (at least not when it comes to containing the coronavirus). A study in New York confirmed that the infection rate was just about the same for those in lockdown as for those still walking the streets and travelling on the subway.
- The vast millions spent on ‘track and trace’ have been wasted. Here, one fifth of potentially infected people are never traced, one in four of those traced could not be contacted, and there are no numbers to say how many of those reached actually went into self-isolation ~ not very many I suspect. Most of the staff in the test and trace centres have so little to do that they play games and surf the web on their official computers all day.
- Scientific studies from the Netherlands state that face coverings are worse than useless. Face coverings may be beneficial for short periods indoors where there is a risk of close contact with people you do not normally meet.
- It takes decades to even partially contain a virus; the common cold, ebola, epstein barr, flu, HIV/AIDS, rabies, smallpox, West Nile Virus….. are all still out there. Vaccines have serious side effects.
- Vaccines have limited effect. Millions are vaccinated against the flu, but you have to get a vaccine every year because the virus mutates, and you can still get sick from flu viruses that you weren’t vaccinated against.
If you want to know what a real pandemic looks like, as opposed to the coronavirus hysteria, then read about the influenza epidemic of 1918 ~ especially how it affected the USA. Everything that is being tried now to contain COVID-19, was tried back then, and none of it worked worth a damn.
Some say the people in white coats will save us all, all those under 50 years old anyway. And that the mad scientists should take over the world. All I know is that any ‘expert’ who says there is a way to contain a virus once it is in the general population is either a charlatan or a liar.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
bar your doors and become a hermit
you will get lots of peace and quiet
you can still get the coronavirus
Random Jottings ~ Mad Scientists
and so he created a woman, who got angry when her batteries ran down
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he was smart, but he could never get a girl
so he made one
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every mad scientist dreams of playing God
the really crazy ones believe they are God
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keep you arms in the time machine at all times
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‘that’s strange perfume…..’ he said
‘that’s not perfume, it’s formaldehyde…..’ she answered
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they had solved the theory of everything
and after a few bottles of booze they thought it was a good idea to build a time machine
things went downhill after that
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
she must be a scientist
she’s wearing a white coat
Tunes on Tuesday ~ The Who
and, oh yes, here comes another expert who says the sky is falling
The hysteria surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic grows apace. Here in Blighty the government is saying that when the schools reopen in September all the pubs and bars will have to shut. In the Australian state of Victoria the authorities will impose fines of up to US $15,000 on anyone breaking lockdown. President Trump says lockdown doesn’t work, (and he’s correct). And, back here in England the government is considering quarantining London from the M25 orbital ring road inwards, and making all the over 50’s go into permanent self-isolation at home.
Thankfully, most of my generation do not give a flying fuck about what governments and their experts think, say, advise, recommend ~ nor the regulations they impose. Although swinging fines are another matter.
As Caesar said; ‘Semper In Excretia Sumus, Solim Profundum Variat’.
But his legions said; ‘Noli Illigitimi Carborundum Est’.
Keep calm and carry on.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Tunes on Tuesday ~ The Italian Job
you’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off
Matt Monroe sings On Days Like These which was the main theme from the 1969 classic heist / chase movie, The Italian Job. This song doesn’t really fit the movie, other than it’s a Lamborghini Miura on a fabulous mountain road. I’ve driven the Great St. Bernard Pass, but in a Triumph TR6, not a V12 Italian Supercar.
Please listen thinking about vacations in the Italian Sunshine.
Or a Mini Cooper.
Or Sophia Loren.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Monochrome Monday ~ Film Noir
you just put your lips together and blow
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
he was a big hairy guy you said?
give me the facts ma’am
just the facts
Monochrome Monday ~ The Marina
if you want to know how much she costs, you can’t afford her
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
they used to call it good clean fun
Avoiding Dementia
first it takes your mind, then it takes your life
there are strong links between boozing and dementia
Dementia actually kills four times as many people as all the deaths attributed to COVID-19, even at the height of the supposed pandemic. And, dementia kills people in a particularly horrible and distressing way. I am not and have never been worried about the coronavirus, but becoming a shadow of myself through the hell of dementia frightens me, if I ever let myself think about it.
However, dementia is not inevitable, it’s not all down to random chance, it’s not all down to genetics, and it’s not a pestilence inflicted by a malicious God. Your mind does not have to be blown to dust ~ there are things we can do right now to help ourselves avoid the unimaginable suffering of being locked inside a mind afflicted by Alzheimer’s, or a softening of the brain, or whatever else causes this insanity.
Dementia is not primarily a mental illness, it is physical degradation of the brain.
A hell of a lot of dementia is caused by the lifestyle choices we make. To reduce your chances of becoming a shell of who you used to be then;
- get plenty of sunshine, fresh air, and exercise
- keep mentally and socially active, do not sit in front of the TV or computer screen for hours at a time
- keep regular hours and get enough good sleep ~ 6 to 8 hours a night
- do not smoke ~ and if you do give it up, forever
- do not drink to excess ~ avoid binge drinking
- do not take drugs, and I mean strong medication as well as street drugs
- have a good healthy diet; avoiding fat, sugar, wheat and other grains, dairy products, junk food and takeout, and especially high fructose corn syrup
- do not get avoidable diabetes
- do not get obese, regularly check your Body Mass Index
- control your blood pressure and cholesterol
- avoid hearing loss
- focus on your general health and well-being; physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually ~ especially do all you can to avoid suffering from prolonged clinical depression
- do not to get sick from social diseases, so avoid; casual sex, using dirty needles, socialising with the dregs of society, drinking in sleazy bars, and taking vacations in disease riddled hell-holes like India
- do not get a head injury, so wear a helmet when cycling and avoid contact sports such as boxing. Do not get into bar fights.
- stay very clean; wash, shower, get in the tub, wear gloves for dirty jobs, wear clean clothes every day, change your bed-linen weekly
- do not get sent to jail
As it goes, all of the above are things that right-minded, self-disciplined, ethical and sensible people will do as a matter of course. There are two other things that will help you not to get dementia; be male and die young.
Some say that COVID-19 is the new plague sent by a vengeful deity. And that dementia only affects the very old. All I know is that all disease and infirmity is mostly preventable.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
probably heading for dementia
Intimate Strangers
some things are socially acceptable, and then again…..
Promiscuous casual sex is morally reprehensible, socially unacceptable, and fucking very dangerous. Or rather, that is what I believe to be the truth of it. One reason for this post is a news story concerning a married woman who picked up / was picked up by a stranger in a bar, went back to his place, where she was stabbed twenty times by the drug addict thug, who then tried to cut off her head. The body was naked. They’d had sex.
This was by no means an isolated incident of casual sex turning into something very worse.
Picking up a stranger in a bar may be exciting, sexy, erotic, physically satisfying, with a frisson of danger thrown in, but it can also be fucking damaging to your self-respect, health, wealth, sanity, existing relationships, future relationships, social standing….. You could end up being humiliated, mugged, beaten, raped, passed around, stalked, gaslighted, ghosted, or dead.
Some of the same goes for people you ‘meet’ on social media, dating / sex dating sites, or any of the other myriad ways we can connect via the internet. Basically you have no idea who these people are, where they’re from, what they’re really like, their history, criminal record, and what the hell they really want from you. Are they the sex / age / ethnicity they say they are? If there’s a picture is it of them, and how long ago? If it’s an intimate picture they are probably not someone any decent person would want to know anyway.
There are labels for women who have casual sex with strangers and post intimate pictures of themselves on the internet ~ all of those labels are extremely derogatory.
Personally, I have three things in my favour when it comes to social media / email / long-distance friends and relationships. #1 I know my way around blogging. #2 I am a man. #3 I am very smart / computer savvy / I was trained to spot liars a mile off. Not everyone has my advantages, and yet women do engage in intimate relationships with people they only know from what they see on their own computer screens.
Personally, I have never knowingly ‘hit on’ a woman I didn’t know from Eve, picked up a woman in a bar, had first date sex, had multiple partners, been on a sex dating site, had sex with an ex, had sex with anyone much older / younger than me….. Maybe I am staid and naive, maybe I’m shy, or maybe I have standards, ethics, and morals.
Some say that fucking a stranger is incredibly hot. And that having multiple sexual partners is where it’s at. All I know is fucking a stranger has nothing to do with love and a lot to do with instant gratification, or money.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
If you’ve been there with a stranger I don’t want to know
Scenes on Sunday ~ The Marina
the garret is a couple of hundred yards from the harbour and marina
a gateway to the seas and oceans of the world
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Watchful
One of the Dunkirk Little Ships
