Personal Blogs

I went to a funeral last week.

It was only this last week we had been in the little church of St Marys, for the funeral of a good friend. He had been elderly, but it was still a bit of a shock to find out he had passed away.  He was a very nice, gracious gentleman. 

During the funeral service there had been comforting and wise verses, spoken out loud to the congregation by the priest, these words have stayed on my mind this week. I much prefer a funeral than a wedding there is a lot of wisdom to learn! I hope these words help anyone who is suffering a loss at this time!

"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. [2] He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not." Job14

" The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
(Job1)

"Therefore be ye also ready: (for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh!)"
(Matthew 24:44)

Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”

 Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

💐⚘🌼🌺🌸

The book I am currently reading is called

 'Violence and the sacred.' by René Girard

I have had this book on the shelf for a while. In light of what is happening in the news lately about these serial killers, I decided to make a start on reading it!

 René Girard explores violence and the way it is reported through history, using Biblical as well as Greek tragedy, myth, rituals, philosophy and psychology. Why do human beings do evil things to others is investigated.
Violence belongs to everyone, not just some  people. It just takes certain conditions to bring it out. Everyone is capable of violence and wrong doing, even those most seemingly sacred can have evil in their heart!

The Bible says  "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked"

If we are Christians we are guided by the law and the 10 commandments.

'Violence and the Sacred'  by René Girard

Bloomsbury.

Today we went for a picnic. These are some of the lovely views we saw as we walked. The bottom photo is the last place where we sat in the shade and had our picnic in a picnic area.

The book of Revelation

The church has always seemed like a place of safety and refuge, a meeting place and a centre of christian learning but have they been misleading us?

Are they telling us everything we need to know?

Perhaps they don't want to frighten their congrehation too much.

They may be scared that if Jesus returns then they may lose all their power and their lifestyle.
But by not talking about it, they are holding back the important truth concerning the end times. They are afraid their congregation will leave the churches if they tell the truth. But truth is knowledge! they should tell the people about the coming apocalypse ( the revelation) because although it will be a time of trouble it will be also be the time that will bring Christ's return to earth. That's the good news!
However, the Bible is not afraid to talk about the end times, about the tribulation that will come upon this earth. The antichrist who will come will deceive all the nations, maybe who will seem like a good man, promising health, wealth and prosperity to all and asking people to take a  mark on their hand or on the head,(possibly a microchip) to show allegiance to him, but soon his mask will slip off and he will be revealed as the deceiver the evil one, the one the Bible warns us about. We can read of him in the chapter of Revelation

'Revelation' means revealing, uncovering, disclosing and making known. It was the last book of the Bible written by John one of the beloved disciples of Jesus. God was giving him insight and visions into what will take place in the latter times.

I recommend that you read the book of Revelation the last book in the Bible, it is a fascinating book! It opens with a blessing upon those who read it. Verse 3

Gods son Jesus (the one who looks like the son of man) in the vision, he gives his message,  to the seven churches.  The number 7 is quite significant in this book the number of perfection, completeness.
There are 7 days in the week for example, 7 churches that Jesus prophesied to,  through the disciple John, there are 7 candlesticks
7 trumpets. 

In the first chapters we are introduced to Jesus and his message.
Many of the prophecies have already been briefly foretold in the Bible in the gospels, but this book goes even further, particularly about the last days.
We  have the introduction to Jesus in chapters 1-3 and the revelation to the 7 churches. 7 eyes of God.
In Revelation Chapter 4 we have the beautiful vision of the throne of God. The four incredible creatures who worship around the throne of God.
Then there is the 7 scrolls or seals, that only Jesus is worthy to open. When the first seal is open, the horses of the apocalypse are seen bringing death, war, famine, plagues and the conquering horseman bent on conquest but who is he?
The antichrist !

Next the 4 angels are coming down to put a seal on Gods servants who are sealed to be saved they are Jewish people they are 144 thousand followers who are Jewish.
Following this, there came a great crowd of people(nonJews) appeared, they who were waving palm branches and worshipping God, they had come from every tribe and nation,  had survived out of the tribulation and come from all over the world to worship invthe holy city.

In Chapter 8 the 7 trumpets are sounded and some terrible plagues are unleashed. 

This sounds quite familiar to us in our times but worse! The bizare weather patterns become more turbulent hail, thunder, volcanos, hail storms, earthquakes, and a large meteorite! The waters turn bitter and everything is killed within it, when a huge star like a mountain fell from the sky into the sea. Chapter 9 sees Killer Locusts that can kill and destroy. Followed by horses who had smoke and sulphur coming from their mouths. The horses tails can also kill people. these are real or war machines.

Chapter 10 has the angel with the scroll and a prophecy.
Chapter 11 is where 2 good prophets come to the world warn the people with a clear warning. The first appearence of the beast, he comes out of the abyss and kills the two prophets. 

But they came back to life again after three days!  They then went up into heaven in a cloud, in front of all the people watching.

The next two chapters(12&13) are all about the fantastical beasts. There are three beasts one from the earth, one from the sea and the dragon, but I will  leave you to read those incredible chapters!

Whether it is symbolic or literal truth. It is a very interesting read,  but do not worry in chapter 21 and 22 all ends well and the justice of God overcomes Satan! 🌞

It was disappointing to see how the British government is now climbing down on it's environmental commitments.

The government wants the licence for the building of more oil and gas platforms. This will include drilling below the sea bed and  destroying all the natural habitats of countless sea mammals, such as octopus, whales , dolphins and  fish. The sea is a haven for wild sealife and is a source of food for human beings.

I do understand the need to become self sufficient but at the same time are there no other alternatives?

Only 4%  of our energy came from Russia anyway
Most comes from Norway why can't we plug the gaps with greener alternatives such as wind power, water power or solar power?

The UK was one of the leading partners in Climate control, are we now in danger of selling out of our commitments?

More exploration for fossil fuels will only be detrimental for the oceans ecosystems. The temperature of the sea is already warming up significantly as it is.
Drilling below the sea bed generates more  pollution, fueling climate change, disrupting wildlife and damaging some of the surrounding islands which are public land.

Listen to the Science 1.5 is the stated limit, we should  not go over this figure or then we will start to loose some islands to sea levels rising.  Many people are fighting their right for survival on these small islands.

Since leaving the EU

"The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) was set up in 2020 to replace the role the EU had played in regulating and enforcing environmental law in the UK. Campaigners raised concerns at the time that it might not have the same teeth as the EU and that it would not be able to stop the government riding roughshod over environment protections".(theguardian.com)Fri 4 Aug 2023
example of deregulation’
(Helena Horton Environment reporter.)

It looks like this government are all in favour of disregarding the environment and will be putting us at risk, of increasing the danger of future global boiling for the world!

Matthew 12:30-32:

God said  "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

"Love Thy Neighbour"

Do no harm to your neighbour, who dwells peacefully beside you.

1 Corrinthians chapter 13 is best understood as a way of life, lived in imitation of Jesus Christ, that is focused not on oneself but on the “other”.

I find this is a difficult commandment to live by but it is one that brings about peace. We need help from the Holy Spirit to achieve this. It is all about respect and acceptance of others.

Artificial intelligence, could it really lead to the extinction of humanity ?

 For my EMA (in french) I had to write my dissertation about Artificial Intelligence.

At first, in my research of gathering evidence together, there was masses of information on News sites at the time, about the amazing benefits to mankind in terms of medical assistance, diagnosing serious illnesses, as well as AI in Education or AI for the handicapped, with virtual assistants that can help make all our lives a lot easier.

Then came the bad news!  News that AI could actually be sinister and could be used for bad purposes in the world. I went from feeling euphoric to being extremely worried!

There were the daily news headlines such as;

"Geoffrey Hinton - a man widely seen as the godfather of artificial intelligence - quit his job, warning about the growing dangers from developments in the field, which enables technology to create images or text that are barely distinguishable from the work of humans."

So AI is an existential risk for humanity?

Some of the top creators of AI are urging caution about the future risks of AI. Some academics and industry experts have warned that the pace of development could result in malicious AI being deployed by bad actors to actively cause harm - or choosing to inflict harm by itself."

(BBC)

"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war" (reads AI safety.)

But surely AI is a useful tool to have? Humans programme these machines to do good and to benefit humanity.
The machines after all just respond to whatever it is they have been programmed to do don't they?
It is a machine not unlike any other a typewriter or a washing machine for example?

Since then I have learned about the many disadvantages of AI, such as the huge ammount of job losses caused by AI. This taking away of peoples livelihoods and their way of life. This will be detrimental to people, because as humans we all need occupations that we enjoy doing, that provides us with a decent standard of living.

All these redundancies brought about because a robot can do the job quicker for less money! so it makes the company richer while making the people poorer. What a shame that is, but not really surprising in todays greedy capitalist system!

What are the other risks?
Prof Bengio, who has joined AI safety calls for AI regulation, said he did not think militaries should be granted AI powers. 

Remember we are often influenced by science fiction, which can later sometimes become science fact! (Think Terminator!)

At the end of the day it's just  another technology and experts have always exaggerated new technologies and  inventions as scientific breakthroughs to sell us their products.

However, what the worrying thing is, is that the web is linked to AI and every AI is linked to the web from the smallest computer and robot to the largest intelligent machine.

What about bad actors and cyber attacks, those who could hack the system for bad purposes?

But the Centre for AI Safety director Dan Hendrycks told BBC News future risks and present concerns "shouldn't be viewed antagonistically".

"Addressing some of the issues today can be useful for addressing many of the later risks tomorrow," he said.

Personally I think that the greatest risk to humans, could come from the flawed nature of other humans beings themselves. We should celebrate the achievements of AI ! while at the same time putting together the safeguards needed for the protection of the security for future generations.

References
BBC News: AI 'godfather' Geoffrey Hinton tells the BBC of AI dangers as he quits Google
By Zoe Kleinman & Chris Vallance

Wikipedia.org
Existential risk from artificial intelligence.

The recent walk that I made last Saturday ended at the quaint little church of St Marys, but it did not end there, from here I walked onwards and upwards to the far end of the little hamlet, passing rows of cottages, as well as some modern bungalows. Further along and a steep incline to walk, I crossed the road and there is a good green grassy bridle track to walk along, this took me to the footpath sign, leading to a a wooden gate, opening onto what appears to be a very large meadow.

What an amazing sight then meets the eyes,In the distance, but not too far away, I could see the sea , which was visible glinting in the sun on the horizon. I could even see the coast and the town not far from ours, with its tall landmark church spire, that is where my eldest son lives. You can also see rivers from here on a very clear day. I followed  the path down to a quaint little old bridge, over what is usually quite a fast flowing stream. However, today it did not sound like it was flowing very fast at all, in fact more like  only a trickle, which is a sure sgn of the hot dry weather that we are having lately!

Suddenly I heard a slight crack to the left of me,  there  under the trees I saw the most lovely little munctjac deer standing  drinking from the stream! I could hardly believe my eyes! my heart was beating so fast! He had lovely big black shining eyes and was the size of a large dog, he looked about him rather nervously, ears twitching  as he drank. After watching him a little while, I stood quite motionless,  hardly daring to breathe what a beautiful charming creature! Quite rare to see them during the day, perhaps he was thirsty. I tip toed silently as I could over the bridge, then I followed the footpath.

Emerging from under the over hanging trees, there I had  three footpaths to choose to walk. I chose the other larger  path goes straight on, between fields for about a mile or two more and passes by a private nature reserve and a beautiful lake.The path there is broad enough for tractors and farm equipment to trundle up and down,  and In the fields where the wheat was already starting to grow, but had not yet turned golden with the sun.

Passed by the beautiful lake sparkling in the sun it has a boat on it and looks really pretty, I would be tempted to paddle my feet in the lake, but the lake has a small fence around and a sign saying 'Danger'  So passed quickly on,  I came to a large wood, it is a private nature reserve but a public footpath runs all the way around  the wood,  another footpath then leads to a field.

I then found myself in the same  field where last year, I had seen the beautiful red fox, which  ran out from under a thick hedgerow on the other side and crossed the field to these woods. She may have had a den in there, but I didn't want to look, so as not to disturb her. I am sure she is still around here somewhere, as I have often caught a quick glimpse of her lovely red fury coat as she was running through the field.🦊

🏞🌲🌳🌾🐿🏡

Ragged Robins

Anomes(purple)

Yellow Cowslips (photos Wikipedia)

Some flowers I saw today on my walk. I just had a short walk today, around first field near where I live, but it looked like rain and I heard a rumble of thunder in the near distance.

Then the rain came at last!

             🌦

              🌾

I was watching something on the news this morning about the water being polluted at some beaches around the country.
The latest report I heard was from Blackpool where
Swimmers are being urged to avoid a stretch of coast after sewage was released during a storm. (bbc news)

People should not swim off Blackpool after raw sewage was released into the Irish Sea on Monday evening during a thunderstorm, Blackpool  have Council said. (1 day ago bbc news)
This is so annoying to know and especially with the school holidays not far away on the horizon.

Yes,  while the well off amongst us, are flying off on holiday to lovely clean beaches,  and sunnier climes abroad, spare a thought for the rest of us,  who have to suffer from the indignity of filthy beaches and sewage filled waters it's a disgrace!

There was some really nice beaches in this country I remember as a child,  with soft golden sands and lovely clear waters. I have enjoyed these  many times as a child.  

But come on this is letting the (Brits) side down a bit isn't it?

Raw sewage being released into the sea thats disgusting!

How can we hope to build up our country's economy with the tourist industries,  having such filthy sea waters.

My worst experience was at a Yorkshire beach a few years back  (but I don't like to say which one)  but this was particularly disgraceful!   I set out for a little paddle in the sea one day,  only to find myself surrounded by floating condoms, plastic bottles, ear buds, used baby nappies and
sanitary items (Yes it was shocking, but true!)

So just what is going on with these water companies? They are supposed to be the custodians of our waters. They should  be taking action to keep our waters clean, and our childrens health safe. That's what people are paying their bills for.
The public should also take responibility,  and not put such objects in the toilets or the sea. Put it in a bag and put it in the bin!

Please keep our beaches and waters clean, for the sake of the health and safety of our children!

Another pollutant is that Fish are also being poisoned by boats that empty their tanks directly into the water. There should be much tighter rules and regulations against this practise. It is extremely damaging for the environment.

The Great British sea side holiday, so lets all keep it clean for the childrens sake !

🌊💧🏖🏕🏝🏞🏕🏄‍♀️🤽‍♂️

I am still working on my gardening project but I may have to take a step back. I have also  enlisted help from a friends and family members. (Sadly I can no longer do any gardening, my caring duties are now taking priority!)

My husband took a bit of a turn in regards to his health with his hernia that he has had for about 7 years, and will now be sent to Cambridge to see a consultant there. 

It has been a series of disasters with the NHS, including the time when my husband who was due for an operation, was  placed in a room and completely forgotten about. Then they sent him home without his operation!

Since then his health has declined with other complications. He has been passed about from pillar to post. The NHS are doing their best but are underfunded and morale is low. More and more private trusts are having to fill in the gaps to support the NHS.

 This week we are travelling to Cambridge a friend has kindly agreed to drive us there  to see a consultant, hopefully it will be a favourable outcome. 

The NHS has always been a wonderful service we have always been proud of our NHS but sadly it has been neglected by those who have been in power. This government needs to take the NHS seriously and improve the conditions in the NHS for both staff and patients.