// PJlog

9th August 2020

Question: Is the Voice Kids UK THE BEST talent show on Earth ? We certainly think so !!!! Watching that program gives us optimism and hope for the future with regards to growing and nurturing musical talent. The standard is just so bloody high, it's almost unbelievable. How children can be so talented and often confident at such a young age is a truly beautiful thing to behold. Truthfully, we were never big fans of the main Voice UK (adults) show and only watched it time to time but wow, the kids version just seems to get better and better every year and this year, well, we are just blown away every time we watch it. Move over X Factor, the Voice Kids UK rocks and leaves you in their dust !!!!!

The thing that is equally impressive is the wide range of genres and styles represented on the show, combined with the fact that these kids can perform songs from those genres and styles so damn well. Also, from what we can see at least, the whole show is totally organised and arranged around making sure the kids feel safe, confident and able to show off what they've got in a totally appropriate and caring, compassionate and empathic environment. We certainly believe in tough love and constructive criticism here at the Rock Service, and we certainly don't want to see kids being wrapped in cotton wool and shielded from the harsh reality of life, but it would appear the the show gets the balance just right, which is a really nice thing to see.

As a random example of what we are talking about, have a look at this example from the battle stage on 8th August 2020.

Barcelona performed on the Voice Kids UK last night

Truly wonderful !!!!! Left us with tears in our eyes......There is hope !!!!

2nd August 2020

Question - Is someone or some 'thing' going to be held accountable for the tragic loss of life caused by the Covid-19 disease spread by Coronavirus 2 ? It's an obvious question but we've not seen it raised by the media (much) or our own Government. It's obviously too late to make things much better now but surely we should be putting just as much energy into finding out the how and why as we are putting into finding a vaccine or treatments to ease the symptoms.  Then there's the Global economic disaster it has created, not to mention the fact that it's totally f*cked people's ways of life for this year and probably for 2021 as well. That seems like something where accountability needs to be sought and even if nothing else comes from it, we at least need to make sure this kind of disaster doesn't happen again. 

Global superpowers could start by putting pressure on China and other similar Countries to ban the trade in 'exotic' animals, especially those places where illegal trading is taking place, just so people can enjoy their snake and rice on a Friday night. I don't claim to understand much about these Countries but it seems likely this pandemic was caused by the virus jumping to humans in such circumstances. We now learn there has been an outbreak of bubonic plague in China as well. WTF !!!! The other theory is it may have come from a lab in China - there's no evidence to support this, from what we've seen, but if that did prove to be true then absolutely, someone needs to be held to account. I don't quite know what penalties could be applied though ? What could possibly make up for all the tragic loss of life, Global economic disaster and the general way of life of billions of people being affected so much. We don't know. Who knows.

Discuss......but don't call us :) - we don't know the answers !

25th May 2020

For a long time I have pondered the meaning of life. It's something very easy to say or write but when you really think about it, there is the potential for mind-blowing consequences !!! My struggle has always been that there HAS to be a meaning, otherwise, why this, why that, why anything.......But, well, what if there is no meaning ?

I sat in the garden this morning enjoying my coffee. It was early and the sun wasn't high enough in the sky to clear the conservatory roof and so it was pretty chilly sitting there in my shorts and T-shirt. My seat for the occasion was a park-style bench that was made to commemorate the death of my Grandfather many many years ago. It's rock hard to sit on and after a while, things start to go numb !!! However, the numbness is worth it for the peace and serenity I often get while sitting there.

On this morning, I just happened to notice a few things that sometimes are not obvious or are taken for granted. Simple things like the birds singing, a pair of butterflies chasing each other around, bees coming and going about their business in the rose bed. The sky was totally clear, not a whisp of cloud to be seen. And, I think it really IS true - the sky does seem bluer since UK lockdown started. Maybe we should ban flying or driving cars on certain days of the week to give the Earth a chance to breath and to recover from all the damage we (centuries of civilisations of humans) have done to it ?? Just an idea. Maybe if we did that, the sky would remain the hue of blue it currently appears to be. I digress......

As I noticed all these simple things, not to mention the birds singing again :), and a pair of robins dancing in the bird bath, it occurred to me that maybe there is no single meaning of life. Maybe life is just meant to be lived and for each of us to enjoy the simple things like I enjoyed this morning.....It's a sobering thought.

17th April 2020

It's been a bit quiet around here for some time. I guess PJ ran out of things to say, which is most unusual :). Anyway, we're back, almost, and things at the Rock Service are starting to get back to normal, even if the rest of the World is far from normal.

It's strange how life sometimes deals you cards you weren't expecting. Well, actually, it's not really strange at all. I'm a firm believer in a kind of fate - almost a 'what will be will be' mentality. Imagine at birth our paths to our deaths are mapped out in front of us and every decision we take, every card we are dealt, is just another fork in the road. Do I go left or right ? Do I say yes or no ? Will I get a nasty disease diagnosed today ? We can't know what happens next and we cannot know the effect of our decisions and choices. However, decisions and choices need to be made, whether we do it consciously or not. The only thing we can really control is how we react to our reality and how we behave in response to unexpected cards being dealt. It's just another step along the road, right ?

As if by magic :), Kansas comes on the Rock Service. I couldn't have predicted that or anticipated it as I write this but it's almost as if we perhaps do know what's going to come next or we are given a taster and an opportunity to prepare for the next decision to be made or to get time to adjust to the next card to be dealt. Dust in the wind is the track of course - if you don't know it, I suggest you look it up right now and this will all make some sense :). 'Don't hang on....nothing lasts forever except the Earth and Sky'.......'All we are is dust in the wind'.......

It's strange times we're living in. Certainly if PJ could, he'd been doing a live show every single night of the week - it's not as if he could do anything else right now :). And, well, this could still happen in the weeks ahead. It's interesting how so many 'community' radio stations have sprung up over the last month or so. Radio and TV are back on people's radars more than ever. I have certainly been relying on radio, and music in general, to keep me sane over the last few weeks, although sanity is in eye of the beholder and hard to pin down :). There were dark moments over the last few weeks and probably many more ahead, but as always, music will get me through, will get us through. Bring on more radio !!!! Talking of radio, we'd like to pay a tribute to a radio DJ we often listened to over the last few years. We didn't know him personally but his voice was quite distinctive. 

HFM's Jonno

Having to face a brave battle with cancer at his age is quite shocking. Frankly, anyone having to face a battle with cancer is shocking. 

As if by magic, The Rock Service is looking after me :). Someone has play-listed this evening - 

Dream Theatre - Along for the ride

and the lyrics !!!

At this moment words fail me
And my vision's unclear
Blind to the truth
Like hands reaching out in the darkness
I can't stop the world from turning around
Or the pull of the moon on the tide
But I don't believe that we're in this alone
I believe we're along for the ride
I believe we're along for the ride
Through the gift of surrender
I'm embracing the fight
Breaking the code
There's clarity on the horizon
I can't stop the world from turning around
Or the pull of the moon on the tide
But I don't believe that we're in this alone
I believe we're along for the ride
I believe we're along for the ride
I will not live under a shadow of fear
Never be crippled by chaos and doubt
Fall prey to your madness
I am not shattered
Out of the ashes I rise
Knowing that nothing is

I think that's all for now. We've got some play-list investigations to do !!!!

PJ

8th October 2019

Looking a bit quiet here :). Clearly PJ ran out of ideas, for now.

22nd May 2019

This guy speaks our language :)

Quite thought provoking

and we've been going over some old Carl Sagan material, again ! He was so far ahead of his time - quite astonishing.

Carl Sagan

6th February 2019

It seems it's the end of Opportunity, officially........very sad......It's strange how sadness can sometimes be applied to objects that are simply mechanical, electronic. It's perhaps more about what these probes achieve, so far away from their creators, rather than the fact they exist as objects.

Opportunity News

21st January 2019

Unbelievable. That's all we have to say on the matter of Brexit. Unbelievable. What else can be said ?

3rd December 2018

NASA - InSight - This chap is on my 'wavelength' !!!!

A big 'hear' 'hear' - well written !!!!!

21st November 2018

Thought for the day. Why do we, as humans, find it necessary to entertain others, to make others laugh, to try and be humorous constantly ? Interesting.

5th November 2018

Ooooooohhhhh - Aliens are coming ? Well, I don't think so, at least not yet.

It was only a matter of time before this line of enquiry about Oumuamua came back around - 

Could 'Oumuamua be an extraterrestrial solar sail?


Well, sadly I think not. But......it's a really tantalising thought isn't it ? Just think, what if it is a probe from another civilisation, which came to check us out ? It's not so fanciful. The Voyager probes are now both in Interstellar space and we have several other missions planned to follow on behind them. Of course, the Voyagers were built on 1970s tech, long before solar sails were conceived. However, Japan and the USA are heavily experimenting with solar sails as a method of propulsion and so if we are doing it, why not another civilisation ? Of course, way below this particular PJlog we wrote about the Drake equation, which basically rules out the possibility of there being any other intelligent life in the Universe, but we'd perhaps be very naive to rule it out totally.

The reason this article has some credibility is the following. Firstly, there was always something odd about the acceleration Oumuamua experienced as it exited our solar system (at least as it exited our field of 'view'). It was entirely expected that its velocity would change as it got a slingshot from our Sun's gravity - this is not a new phenomena and is well understood and humans have used it to great effect in the launch of countless spacecraft over the decades. What was strange was that the acceleration was slightly faster than would be predicted by the maths based on our understanding of Astrophysics. Some people even theorised that it should actually have slow down after taking its journey around the sun but what actually happened was it sped up, faster than anyone could have predicted. There's no evidence of any material being excreted by the object, such as would be seen by a comet as its icey outer layers vapourise due to the sun's heat, and so where did this extra speed boost come from ? Secondly, the material the object is thought to be made of just doesn't totally make sense. Of course, we never saw it optically, but based on measurements and observations in non-visible wavelengths, it's likely origin suggests it would be comprised of slightly different materials to what the measurements imply. Thirdly, it's an interesting fact that Hawking predicted that a long, thin, dark object would be the most efficient at travelling across interstellar space and if other civilisations were to create such a spacecraft, based on solar sails, it would likely resemble the form taken by Oumuamua.

Now, before we get carried away ! PJ is not at all suggesting that we are being probed by another civilisation but maybe, just maybe, the smallest maybe I can imagine, just maybe we are, and that thought is totally mind-blowing isn't it ?

14th October 2018

Question - When we dream, why are we not 'allowed' to see our own death ? Seems suspicious to me. It happened earlier on a plane. PJ was dreaming about being at an airport (which was reasonable seeing as I was approaching one) and being involved in a car crash that would have certainly killed me. Of course, at the point of impact, I awoke with a start. It always happens that way of course. There are many biological explanations as to why it happens, but I'm not sure I'm convinced.......


A Place In Space and Time

In The Beginning

Does anyone, or anything, know the true meaning of life and existance ? Well, if any one human being claims to truly know, I believe they are misguided, as it's PJ's assertion that it's actually impossible to know. And that's a problem for PJ - a huge problem.

Of course, whether individuals are religious or not has a strong bearing on this most fundamental question. If you accept a religion and worship a god or other deity then you are pretty much subscribing to a pre-arranged and pre-disposed meaning of life, and you are required to accept it and believe it, otherwise your faith is automatically called into question. So, for the purpose of this discussion, we'll assume that the reader is interested in exploring the non-religious option, and being open to asking themselves 'what am I doing here' or 'what's the point of all this'. There are those who aren't sure, whether they believe in a god or not, and those who are open to the possibility of there not being such a deity, but need convincing of an alternative. Well, you are welcome to the party too.

PJ has a belief that each of us does indeed have a known start and a known end and those things are pre-coded or pre-programmed inside us and within the fabric of space and time. How we get between A and B, well that's down to us, and the choices we make day to day. There are an infinite number of paths and an infinite number of combinations of decisions we'll make every day of our lives, and those decisions will determine the paths and therefore determine how we get to the end. Whether all of those infinite possibilities are being played out in an infinite number of parallel universes, well, that's not so certain, but it's a strong possibility. Between A and B, there has to be a meaning, doesn't there ? It would seem slightly odd if the only goal was to be born and then navigate a path to your death. Some people do indeed believe this though: Birth, School, Metallica, Death !! I suppose that isn't a bad meaning of life in itself, but I've always hoped there was more than that.

So, who knows where this is going to go. It's going to be a continuous work in progress. It may end up being just a collection of random thoughts and nothing more than that. It could end up as an epitaph. Either way, PJ felt it was time (and the place) to leave an imprint in the digital World, something that would accompany the radio waves from the Rock Service travelling across the cosmos for all enternity.

This is of course just one of many fundamental questions. What came before everything ? What came before the moment of creation, whether that was the Astrophysical big-bang or whether it was a God or deity doing their work. In many respects, that question is even more profound that 'what's the meaning of life', but PJ suspects that those 2 questions are very strongly connected and if you can find the answer to one, you'll find the other by default.

Common meanings of life (often heard)

"To Help One Another"

"To have children and get married"

"To be successful and have a career"

"To meet new people and discover new things"

"To travel the World"

"To do my best in everything I do"

"To look after my family"

"To help the needy"

"To look after mother nature"

"To search for life away from our planet"

............and the list goes on.

PJ's thoughts on these (just my opinion)? Anyone who claims these are even remotely close to the meaning of life has probably not thought about the question enough :). These are all very good aspirations, and things we should probably try to achieve, but they are (in my opinion :)) aspirations and that's all - I cannot see a direct meaning in any of them that makes me feel as if they are drawing me to a conclusion - although perhaps the last one on the list might give me a clue. All just PJ's opinion and no offence intended.

Before it gets lost in the drivel PJ will write in the weeks and months ahead :), I'll put it out there as a very important aspect - continuation of the species and taking it further, evolution and improvement of the species. This seems very important indeed, and may form part of whatever conclusion is reached (if indeed one is reached). Could this actually be a part of the ultimate meaning of life - to be self-preserving, to ensure continuation of life itself, is that what it's ultimately about ? It feels important to me and so it could well be a part of the answer. There would still be something missing though - continuation of the species for what purpose ? It would seem counter-intuitive to continue something when the end-goal isn't known or understood or perhaps that's just it, it's the strive towards finding the meaning, and through continuation of life and survival, we're buying ourselves more time :) ? To be explored further.......

<more to come>.....eventually........:)

But not for now........I feel a new topic coming on shortly: More Planets than Stars ? Discuss.......

10th August 2018

Life on Mars ?

Well, this is not 'new' news really, but it was reinforced in several recent papers. Thanks to the great work of Kepler and other spacecraft, it now seems highly likely, almost probable, that every star in our galaxy has at least one planet. That's anywhere from 100 - 400 billion planets, assuming each star has only a single planet. Of course, the majority of these planets are likely to turn out to be quite different to our own World, but it does beg the question, if there could be 100s of billions of planets in our galaxy, and there are perhaps 100 billion galaxies in the observable  universe, well, that's a lot of potential planets, and plenty of potential for 'life' outside of what we know, right ?

Lets relive something the great Carl Sagan said many years ago. The Drake Equation may be bordering on fanciful in some ways, but it's based on solid physics. The trouble is, the key parameters that determine the outcome are those parameters that we have the least accurate information on. All very interesting, and quite mind-boggling though, either way.

Carl Sagan - Drake Equation

The parameter Fp is now known to be  = 1, more or less, but it doesn't change the final outcome. It's the final parameter in Drake that determines the outcome, which is based around how long any civilisation could exist with 'technical' capabilities.

Even if the Drake equation is correct and meaningful and the answer for N is somewhere between 10 and 1 million, there is a problem. The majority of stars outside of our own solar system are so far away that the light travel time is simply too long for us to ever detect any 'technical' capability on other Worlds.

So, even if there is 'life' somewhere else in the Universe, there's an almost certain probability that we'll never find it, unless it happened to be in our own 'back yard'. This is what makes current experiments on our planetary neighbours so exciting. Not only are we finding water on moons of the outer planets, but it appears to be of very similar composition to that of the water on Earth.

David Bowie once sang the question 'Is there life on Mars' - well, probably not, at least not now. But, there may well be some primitive life hidden away in the water oceans on some of the moons in the solar system.

New topic, maybe. What is 'wrong' with people ? For another day.

21st August 2018

Back to What's the meaning ?

So, whilst PJ's own search continues, it was interesting to hear a new song at the weekend from Jason Mraz. I'm quite a fan of his work. Listening to this song I felt many synergies with my own struggle. I don't quite agree with his conclusion, although it may be part of the story, but I do like the way he frames some of the questions - in simple to understand pieces that I can relate to. Even if no actual meaning is derived from the song, it is a good song anyway, and worthy of mention.

Jason Mraz - Love Is Still The Answer

In other news. PJ the songwriter ? Highly comical I know, but I have indeed written a song. We had planned to add a 'Song Lyrics' section to the web-site, where the intent was to place lyrics of songs we like, particularly those that have featured on the Rock Service at some point in the past or present, but I thought I'd start it off with a song I've written, kind of this 'what's the meaning' subject.