What Could Go Wrong in this Futuristic Utopia?

  

 I wonder if humans will ever go to other planets or learn the art of terraforming worlds. Imagine planets the size of Earth or bigger - so many that each planet only has a population of say; 20,000 people. Also indulge the thought of having vehicles, like in the above picture. We would fly everywhere and leave the Eco system alone as much as possible.

Could it ever be done? Would we be smart enough to do it? Definitely maybe?

Sometimes I look at great images like this and dream on. A city with no roads going to or from and the wilderness can continue. Perhaps the agricultural fields growing all the food are on giant wheels in space - revolving cylindrical platforms with artificial light from giant solar panels. Here such agricultural needs could be produced without too much damage to the environment. I don't even want to imagine man made fields on this lush, wild and untamed planet. 

It does make one realise that large groups of people require vast areas of land just to feed ourselves. I think that's why I'm fantasising that there are cylinder ring worlds for growing food, leaving planets free from too much people infection. Maybe there are robotic crews tending the fields with a skeleton crew of humans doing the maintenance work. You know – fly out of the city and up into space to the agricultural cylinders with the robotic combine harvester and robotic fruit pickers etc.

Creating the vision is the foundation of ideas, but plans never always work out the way we view them on a drawing board. There is always some unforeseen factor thrown in. I keep thinking that this wonderful city in the wilderness of an untamed planet needs fields for food - huge areas of cultivation - something man made and scaring the landscape - corrupting it to feed the inhabitants of the picturesque city.

What things could go wrong? What things are being neglected in this fine image of Utopian and futuristic beauty? 

Giving You Ragdoll Bob - Our Cat

Our cat Bob is a big old lump. He is getting on for seven years of age now. When we got him as a kitten, he was a tiny little white thing, but as he got older his top fur developed a sandy colour.

We had a specialist cat groomer come around because his fur gets knotted and she thinks he has Ragdolls breading. He does look like one, but he does not have certificates and all.

He was always coming back with his ears torn and fur ruffled from fighting with other Tomcats. Then on one occasion, he went missing for well over a week. We thought the worst, but to our delight, he turned up, when we had given up hope.

He looked ruffled and nervous as though he may have been locked in somewhere. He hates closed doors and can be rather insistent when he wants to come in or go out. He starts meowing and scratching the glass of our side doors. It leads to Carole or me cussing him, but we always comply with his wish.

All these things happened in the old place we lived at in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. We have since moved to March in Cambridgeshire. We had to leave Bob and our other cat Lilly in a cattery for over a month during the move.

Fortunately, both cats took to the move well. Lilly, the late girl cat, loved the open farm fields to the front and was always off hunting for small rodents, the way most cats do. Bob quickly established the garden as his place, plus the surrounding gardens of both neighbours. He did not seem too keen on the farm fields to the front.

After the stray away incident, that happened about four and a half years ago in the old place, we had him neutered. This led to Bob staying around the vicinity of the garden. He developed a liking for the shed roof and would still stand his ground with Tomcats that strayed into our garden, and of course our new garden in the new place.

The only cat Bob showed affection to was our female black and white moggy called Lilly. Bob got on very well with Lilly and would often play with her in the garden. She was sadly killed in a traffic accident over a year ago while coming back or going to the fields. She was found by our neighbours.

The front drive is about as far as Bob goes in this direction of the house. He prefers the back and wanders among the chickens and ducks, taking little notice of them. Usually giving them a wide birth.

Our dog (Dotty the Rat slayer) gives him respect too. She began to try and intimidate Bob at food times, but the other day Bob decided he had had enough of the bitch and gave her a quick swipe across the snout. Dotty yelped and ran off to lick her wound for a while. Bob just wandered off, thinking he had done some good - like he usually would.

Fashion and Trends - UK Retro

Fashion or trend is, and remains, an ever metamorphosing thing - a living personification that sweeps over the population. Things seemed very prominent in my growing past, and with each fashion, I could not see what was coming next. It was great fun and I wonder what would happen today if I stuck to high waist band trousers, thick wedge heeled shoes, centre parting, blow wave haircut and open-necked, big collared shirts?

We adopt trends with glee and ruthlessly discard them at a whim. Then years later we use such 'retro  - bygone fashions' as a nostalgic anchor for our own self-indulgent memories. We can skim or touch a time when we were young and more care free. We swoon with pride when we recall our retro times to our off spring. I remember my Mum and Dad telling me about the 50s and Teddy boys etc.

I felt that buzz when I saw this SKA skinhead girl dancing to the SKA music of late sixties early seventies times. It's strange, but I completely forgot about that little period until seeing this girl's skirt and blouse, plus footwear etc. The haircut too and, of course, the dance routine. It brought back memories of East London's Poplar district where the elder teenage kids were cool and wore such attire. It all seemed so modern

There was a little craze of this in the later 60s early seventies - I remember Ben Sherman shirts were a must and think it was a development from the mod times of the mid-sixties. I could be wrong, but that is how it seemed to me. Still, it seems to be a nostalgic Brit thing that I remember and the sight of this girl doing this strange SKA dance brings back memories of the teenage fashion of that time. I was around ten years of age then, but remember thinking they looked great. Fashions is a strange and charming thing, it comes and goes. Suddenly there was a new look - it was upon us and it seemed to have gone out of the back without me realising it. By the time I did, everyone was moving onto platform shoes and Gypsy style long hair cuts for glam-rock.

It's good for us to do such things - to migrate, for a short period, into the realm of a comforting nostalgic memory. We often kid ourselves that things were much better then. Back then we used to laugh at old people who told us it was better in their time. We all think our times were better.