The Hot Shower Hypothesis

Posted on April 13, 2023 by peNdantry

Some time ago, I was introduced, by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Wiki, to the following explanation of the choice of the number 42 as the ‘Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything’. It is from the horse’s mouth:

The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an
ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations,
base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk,
stared into the garden and thought ’42 will do’ I typed it out. End of story.

Douglas Adams, 1952–2001 (alt.fan.douglas-adams 03Nov1993)

Since then, my doubts have been rekindled by this assertion from ‘the voice of the audiobook’, a man who knew DNA well:

Douglas told me in the strictest confidence exactly why 42. The answer is fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious. Nonetheless amazing for that. Remarkable really. But sadly I cannot share it with anyone and the secret must go with me to the grave. Pity, because it explains so much beyond the books. It really does explain the secret of life, the universe, and everything.

Stephen Fry (quote from BBC News Magazine 07Mar2008)

In August 2021, this comment appeared on THHGTTG Wiki (lightly edited for clarity):

I wish I could say I found the answer, but alas someone else figured it out and I thought I would pass it on. Simply put, the answer to the life, the universe, and everything, is a Hot Shower. 42 Celcius is ~108 Fahrenheit. If you want a hot shower, you set the water heater/ boiler temperature near this number. Douglas Adams lived in England, so it makes sense he would use Celsius. Think about all the connections in the book to towels… yet never for one of their main purposes, drying off.

If you were a hitchhiker stuck in a Vogon cargo hold… wouldn’t the first thing you want when you get to the Heart of Gold, be a hot shower? I mean you have your towel ready, right? But no, Arthur perpetually in his robe, never showering, always stumbling around. All he needs is a hot shower! Ideally with Trillian!

Where do people do some of their best thinking?

I’m sure there are more connections […]. Thank you Douglas Adams, you are a true genius. Your secret lasted a long time… but it’s time to tell the world.

WonkoTheInsane, The real meaning of 42 22Aug2021

Wonko’s statement isn’t quite right: he suggests that there’s never any reference to ‘drying off’, but there is at least one:

A towel is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can carry. Partly because it has great practical value. You can […] wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course, you can dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Nevertheless, This Hot Shower Hypothesis does, I think, have merit. If the Answer is 42°C, the Ultimate Question becomes: “What is the ideal temperature for a hot shower?”

The truth is: Douglas was an inveterate trickster. You only have to take one look at the impish expression on his face in the picture below (which I always keep nearby for when I need a good chuckle) to realise that. I feel sure he would be tickled to bits that his prank has persisted so long.

Portrait of Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (1952–2001)
Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

“There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.”

The Universe Continued Unabated
1685005800

  days

  hours  minutes  seconds

until

Towel Day 2023

Note: the clock is calibrated according to 10:10:10 UTC
as that, to me, is the best time for this planetary event.

PS @Rusty:
I was planning to expand this along the ‘Weak > Medium > Strong’
lines you suggested (a while ago now), but this draft has
idled in limbo too long; and with just 42 days until
this year’s Towel Day I find that my supply
of round tuits is in serious need
of replenishment.
Sorry!

Posted in ... wait, what?, Fantasy, People, Phlyarology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Shell knew (half a century ago!) that CO2 was a problem

Posted on April 11, 2023 by peNdantry

Fossil fuels are the very bedrock of our global civilization; but oil and gas ‘production’ is nothing of the sort: it’s not production, it’s extraction. Those who ‘produce’ these resources are profiteering from their historic control of them, and actually generate nothing but vast fortunes for themselves and those in league with them (banks, lawyers and lawmakers, politicians, and so on). Wealth is power, and they use their enormous riches to subjugate the rest of us. Though we hugely outnumber them, it seems we are powerless to resist – so much for ‘democracy’ – as they continue to destroy the very fabric of our home planet, Spaceship Earth.

But, worse than that, they’ve known exactly what they were doing all along. And they deliberately lied to us all, in many ways, scheming to maintain the status quo and their positions at the top of the pecking order. The evil crooks (Exxon, Shell, BP et al) who form the cartel at the top of this humongous ‘legal’ [sic] Ponzi scheme babble on about ‘the free market’ while relentlessly excavating the very foundations of our home, selling us the stuff for whatever they choose to (because we have no say in the matter, and no choice) – and, in the process, vandalising the biosphere on which we, and all those other creatures with whom we ‘share’ this planet, all rely.

I’m probably preaching to the choir at this point; those in denial, in thrall to the deceivers, have dug a hole (for us all) – and are so deafened by the noise of their constant digging they’re unable to hear reason, let alone actually stop and listen to it.

I have no time (but then, none of us do, for too many diverse reasons – and in the end we’ll realize most of those were all just utter phlyarologisms) so I’ll just offer a link to a recent article on Desmog in case you do actually give a pair of fetid dingos’ kidneys about this insane situation.

https://www.desmog.com/2023/03/31/lost-decade-how-shell-downplayed-early-warnings-over-climate-change/
Lost Decade: How Shell Downplayed Early Warnings Over Climate Change

Here are links to other recent wibblettes on this topic (or simply check Wibble’s GCD category):

With thanks to Brendan Leonard (@semi_rad)
for his kind permission for me to use
the image in the header.

Posted in ... wait, what?, Climate, Communication, Education, Energy, Environment, GCD: Global climate disruption, Health, History, Phlyarology | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

A technique for improving your safety in cyberspace

Posted on March 21, 2023 by peNdantry

I would normally write a long rambling preamble to this video about how important it is to protect yourself online (and provide a transcript, too), but I don’t have time for that at the moment. Sorry!

What is Two-Factor Authentication?

PS This video mentions Google Authenticator; I use that myself. But I spotted a while back that there’s a problem with it – here’s a link to my suggested solution to that.

PPS If you’re still using the same password to access everything, that will bite you in the arse one day, and hard. Spending some time setting up a password safe is a worthwhile investment.

Posted in Computers and Internet, Strategy, Tech tips | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Old MacDonald’s climate change

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Dr Bob Rich 
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o
And on his farm he had a flood
Ee i ee i o
With some drowned cows here
And some drowned cows there.
Here a bull, there a calf,
Everywhere an oh no.
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o.
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o
And on his farm he had a drought
Ee i ee i o.
With wheat that died
And the farmer cried.
Empty tank, empty bank,
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o
And on his farm he planted trees,
Ee i ee i o
And made his farming organic,
And life came back,
With soil that’s black.
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o
Posted in ... wait, what?, art, balance, Climate, collaboration, Environment, Just for laughs, Poetry | Tagged | 4 Comments

The future is now, and it is us; we must choose to act.

Posted on March 7, 2023 by peNdantry
Climate change: a cry from the future | FT
Posted in ... wait, what?, Climate, Communication, Core thought, Energy, Environment, Food, GCD: Global climate disruption, perception, Strategy, Water | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

We really must rethink everything

Posted on February 21, 2023 by peNdantry

I have no time (I shouldn’t even be writing this), so this will be a very short wibblette.

I’ve been dwelling on my own cognitive dissonance reflected in my recent post ‘The cake is a lie‘. The original post was a rant about an ‘unfair social contract’; recent events caused me to precede that with a different kind of rant.

The collision of the two perspectives is, to me, a palpable one.

It hurts.

And it will go on hurting until humanity wakes up and treats all humans – and, indeed, all the other residents of Spaceship Earth – as true equals, wherever we happen to have been born. I have no faith that that can ever happen…. until it does, the cake will remain a lie.

I may not be able to post anything for some time.

Till next time:

Be well.
Stay safe.
Be excellent to each other.

Posted in ... wait, what?, balance, Biodiversity, Core thought, Environment, perception, Strategy | Tagged , | 22 Comments

How to Shop for Tech That Actually Lasts

Posted on February 21, 2023 by peNdantry

If we are to get ourselves out of Spaceship Earth Demolition Mode, one thing we are all going to have to do is to wean ourselves off the Perpetual Upgrade Treadmill.

Below is a ‘reblog’ of an interesting lifehacker article by Meredith Dietz†, lightly edited for style. Its thrust ties in well with my own thinking, as illustrated by wibblettes such as:

How to Shop for Tech That Actually Lasts

If it feels like your electronics always die after a few years, it’s because they’re designed that way.

All the tech we know and love will, one day, be obsolete. In the meantime, it would be nice if the gadgets we use every day were designed to last longer and longer rather than shorter and shorter. Unfortunately, tech companies usually adopt the strategy of ‘planned obsolescence’: You keep coming back to buy more product, hurting the planet and wasting your money along the way. And so, for the sake of the planet, your wallet, and your sanity, here’s what to know about hacking planned obsolescence and getting your electronics to last as long as possible.

What exactly is ‘planned obsolescence’?

Planned obsolescence is not as simple as electronics falling apart on a set deadline. Instead, it’s a business strategy: design products that require replacing within a few years on the market.

In practice, this looks like your smartphone slowing down after just about two years as new generations of software grow less compatible with the aging hardware. In fact, software is often designed to include new features and file types that are incompatible or otherwise less friendly with existing programs and hardware. Sure, some of that is necessary for technological progress, but much of it is done to encourage you to upgrade your devices.

When it comes to the plague of planned obsolescence, there’s not a lot you can do in the face of Big Tech. Companies are going to do whatever they think will benefit them most. Still, there are a few tips to keep in mind to fight back against purposefully short-lived electronics.

Push past perceived obsolescence

First off, it’s important to take a beat and recognize how you’re defining obsolescence. Powerful marketing tactics will always push the newest, shiniest products at us. Often, these aren’t actually meeting a need you have, but play on the desire to have the latest and greatest thing. Always think about functionality over style.

Tech has gotten so good in recent years that a smartphone or laptop will stay usable far longer than ever before. While you might lose out on new feature here and there, or notice some slowdowns, chances are you can hang onto your devices for longer than you – or the companies that make them – think.

Choose devices that you can upgrade rather than replace

Instead of always replacing your gadgets with newer version, try to shop for products you can easily upgrade in future. For instance, the next time you need a laptop, consider skipping the light, sleek model for one that can handle upgrading RAM and storage. While more devices are now going the non-upgradable route than ever, there are still customizable options out there to choose from.

Apple’s laptops, on the other hand, can’t be customized at all. What you buy today is what you’ll have forever (or, rather, until it fails), so keep that in mind.

Repair before you replace

Your instinct might be to replace your old electronics with newer models, but don’t rule out good old-fashioned repairs. For instance, if your phone never reaches a full charge anymore, you might be able to replace just the battery for a fraction of the cost of a brand new phone. If your laptop is running hot, you might need to clean the fans, or to reapply the thermal paste. It’s like taking your car to the mechanic: You don’t chuck out the whole car because you have a flat tire, after all.

What’s key here is to do a little research before you buy. Find out whether the product you’re buying is easily fixed by a repair person, and if the brand has any rules or restrictions around repairing their products. Remember, as a customer, you’re allowed to ask for every detail about what you’re buying, so don’t make the purchase until you’re sure you know how repairs will go down the line.

Protect your equipment

It’s simple, but overlooked: Treat your electronics gently if you want them to live long, happy lives. Use cases and screen protectors, and handle your tech with care. And, when you’re initially buying, shop with an eye for durability over style. Even if all these accessories are an extra investment at first, you’ll save yourself money in the long run by avoiding costly replacements every few years.

Oh, and by the way: if you have an old PC running Windows 8, give me a shout before you throw it out; I may be able to give it a new lease of life.

† I did look for, but couldn’t find, any information on lifehacker.com regarding its policy on reuse of its content, but came up blank. I hope that they won’t object to my helping to spread this very useful message.

Posted in balance, Computers and Internet, Core thought, Environment, Ludditis, Strategy, Tech tips | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Nonviolent living

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Dr Bob Rich

At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled.

Marshall Rosenberg (1934–2015)

This video by Marshall Rosenberg is less than 6 minutes long, but in that short time it packs a message that would change our world if everyone applied it.

Punishment and reward are the same thing. Both punish everyone.

Humans are made to feel and give love.

If you don’t believe me, watch the video so you can change your mind.

And if you do believe me, watch and be inspired.

The Purpose Of Nonviolent Communication | Marshall Rosenberg
Sustainable Human

The purpose of nonviolent communication is to help you to do what you already know how to do. To connect in a way that makes natural giving possible. You all know that giving; you know how to do it. And remembering to stay with that quality and giving, moment by moment, in any connection. But we also all know that it’s easy to lose it. It’s easy to lose that connection. So that instead of enjoying that quality of giving, which is possible every moment in every contact we have, in spite of how precious that is, we forget.

And instead of playing the game of making life wonderful, much of the time we play another game, called ‘Who’s Right’. Have you ever played that game? It’s a game where everybody loses. So, isn’t this amazing? We all know about this quality of giving. It’s possible every moment. We find that the richest thing to do. And much of our life, we end up playing ‘Who’s Right’. Now, the game of ‘Who’s Right’ involves two of the most devious things human beings have ever come upon. One: Punishment. Because if you’re ‘wrong’ in the game of ‘Who’s Right’ then you deserve to suffer.

No more punishment. You won’t do it in your families. We’ll get rid of it with criminals; it just makes things more violent. We’ll find other ways to deal with other nations beside punishment. No more punishment. No more reward. It’s the same game. Part of the game of ‘Who’s Right’: if you’re ‘Right’ then you get rewarded; if you’re ‘Wrong’, you get punished. No more. No more. It’s created enough violence on the planet.

We’ve been educated for quite a while to make violence enjoyable; and educated in a way we can even be violent to our children. Watch a parent try to bring about change in the child:

– “Say you’re sorry!”
– “I’m sorry.”
– “You’re not really sorry, I can see it! You’re not really sorry!”
– “I’m sorry.”
– “Okay, I forgive you.”

Can you imagine a game like that? Can you imagine a parent responding to a child that way? And if a parent is going to do that to a child in their own family, what are they going to do to people from other cultures who behave in a way we don’t appreciate.

So, of course you’re going to have violence wherever you have this kind of thinking. Learning how to go up to our head and think basically in terms of ‘Right and Wrong’, ‘Good and Bad’, ‘Normal, Abnormal’.

You see, natural giving; anything we do in life that isn’t coming out of that energy, we pay for it and everybody else pays for it.
Anything we do out of fear of punishment if we don’t: everybody pays for it.
Anything we do for a reward: everybody pays for it.
Everything we do to make people like us: everybody pays for it.
Everything we do out of guilt, shame, duty, obligation: everybody pays for it.

Now, this isn’t what we were designed for.
We were designed to enjoy giving; to give from the heart.

Learn more at The Center for Nonviolent Communication.

‘Essence of love’ by Lorraine Lewis

Posted in ... wait, what?, balance, collaboration, Communication, Core thought, Culture, Health, People, perception, Phlyarology, Strategy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The cake is a lie

Posted on February 7, 2023 by peNdantry

After I scheduled this post, I heard about the massive earthquakes in Turkey/ Siria. And it got me thinking: by comparison with the hardships now faced by those affected by that catastrophe, my original post makes me sound like an entitled git. My heart goes out to those struggling with the aftermath; I made a donation to Oxfam’s Turkey and Syria Earthquake Appeal, because “but for the grace of god, there go I.”

I’m lucky to have been born into a (relatively) prosperous society. While I am by no means wealthy in the context of where I live, I am when it comes to considering those who happened to be born in certain other areas of ‘our’ [sic] home planet. But, more than that: I wonder what those far more fortunate than myself (for whom national boundaries are meaningless) truly think of such events. I strongly suspect that far too many of them simply shrug, say “that’s life,” congratulate themselves on their supremacy, and hop into their helicopter or private jet to go party (again) on their megayacht (the one moored off the coast of the island they bought ‘just because I could’), or perhaps consider (another) jaunt into space.

‘Normality’ is, to me, a dirty word – as is ‘humanity’. Until, globally, we buckle down, settle our differences, and pool our resources, calamities such as this latest one will continue to be dealt with on a last-minute “Oh, shit, we have to do something!” basis.

Humans? Bah. If we were truly as smart as we like to think we are, we’d have figured out a better way, long ago.

I return you now to the original programming:

‘The cake is a lie‘ is a meme you may have heard of. Or perhaps not. It originated with the (wonderful) 2007 game ‘Portal‘. It’s about striving towards a reward… that doesn’t exist.

My parents harangued me from an early age to ‘get a good job’ to ‘ensure my pension’. I was born in the UK, and have been resident here all my life. For decades, I was promised a state pension when I reached the age of 65. And then, suddenly – and unilaterally – Those In Power changed the rules on me, declaring that it would no longer keep that bargain. Their decision was made on ‘population demographic’ grounds, knowledge evident to economists (and anyone with half a brain) many, many moons ago; but our ‘elected leaders’ chose to kick that can down the road (as they do with far too many issues).

I now have to wait an extra year before becoming entitled to that benefit. By my calculations, the state has in effect stolen about ten grand (in Sterling) from me, according to that decades-long social contract. Not to mention the year off the wage-slave grind. (Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, the rich keep getting richer, and the purchasing power of that ten grand keeps getting whittled away… but that’s a separate rant.)

It’s true that folk younger than me now have to wait even longer, as the state pensionable age keeps on creeping upwards; but those young whippersnappers (no offense meant) haven’t lived through the same long years of promise.

It’s also true that those who lack a willy were (ironically) shafted even more harshly back in 1995: where once they had been expecting to retire at 60, their ‘cake’ was shoved five years further on. (To be honest, I always thought that deal was highly unfair anyway, and even more so as women tend to live longer than men.)

And there are a great many people on Spaceship Earth who don’t benefit from any such rewards at all, so perhaps I shouldn’t grumble. But then again: the thing that winds me up most is not the withholding of the cake, it’s the reneging on the promise of the cake. It sucks to be led by a carrot on a stick, clearly intended to keep you soldiering on, but (assuming you don’t shuffle off the mortal coil before you get it) to find only then that it’s made of plastic, well, that really does take the cake.

Posted in ... wait, what?, balance, perception, Phlyarology, Rants | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Lord of the Dance

Posted on January 31, 2023 by peNdantry
Gnome – Kraken Wanker (Official Video)

I have no post prepared for this week (too much to do, too little time). Esme posted this gem a short while ago; I’d noted it for a ‘reblog’ for an occasion such as this, but her post doesn’t have ‘Reblog’ enabled (and WordPress’s reblog function has been pretty badly borked for some time anyway), hence this waffle.

Enjoy!

Posted in ... wait, what?, art, Just for laughs, Music, Phlyarology, Reblogs | Tagged , | 5 Comments