The year of the snake 2025

A change of era.

An era of change.

Life continues. As do our conversations.

Wednesdays 18:30

By coincidence

 Today is a holiday in San Sebastián De Los Reyes as it is St Sebastian's day. It is also a federal holiday in The U.S.A as Martin Luther King is remembered on this day.

In this poem Oscar Wilde remembers St Sebastian during a visit to Keats' grave in  Rome.

It is interesting to note that Oscar Wilde discarded his own name and adopted the name Sebastian Melmoth during his exile in France. Wilde greatly admired  the novel Melmoth The Wanderer written by Charles Maturin, his great uncle on the side of his mother, Jane Francesca Elgee.

The Grave  Of  Keats

 Rid of world’s injustice, and his pain,

He rests at last beneath God’s veil of blue:

Taken from life when life and love were new

The youngest of the martyrs here is lain,

Fair as Sebastian, and as early slain.

 A  quote from Ravenna by  a youthful Oscar Wilde:

We see that Death is mighty lord of all,

And king and clown to ashen dust must fall.

Intangible Cultural Heritage

I.C.H.

A Ted talk with subtitles in Spanish.

No one could have explained it better. Thank you Professor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ZHj4ihTog

A New Beginning.

 Beautiful Rihanna from Barbados had a hit with her song, ‘We fell in love in a hopeless place’ and chose to film the video clip in Northern Ireland.This makes me smile because for many people our trouble and strife over the years, our sectarianism, our dourness and our hard-headedness obviate the fact that Northern Ireland is a most beautiful place with stunning scenery, lots of rain and the most inviting pubs. You could choose any location in Fermanagh (where Oscar Wilde attended school),  Armagh, Tyrone,  Down, Antrim or Derry and within the vicinity there would be plenty to do.  No need to go traipsing all over Ireland. Stay in one place and get to know the area. That would be the perfect holiday.

Hum Rihanna’s song and think, no, it isn’t. This is Ireland’s best kept secret.

Happy New Year!

A toast to your good health

 ¡Salud! Sláinte! Cheers! 

Best Christmas wishes to everyone. 

We will be back January 8th 2025

Happy New Year!

Happy reading and Merry Christmas!

 Wednesday 18^th December will be our last meeting of 2024.

Time to sing the traditional song attributed to the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Auld Lang Syne. (For times past)

 

Last Wednesday we touched on a subject that will make us all sit up and pay attention. Here is a summary. 

 

Data Centres which house our storage systems need a massive supply of water and electricity to create the air conditioning that keeps the temperature cool in these buildings.

These are physical building in our towns. The euphemistically named Cloud

‘And the water must be soft.’ Belino told us.

‘Can it be recycled?’ Antonio asked. Belino said that he  didn’t have that information.

Salvador quoted a national paper saying that Big Tech in Talavera de la Reina planned to produce 248 megawatts using 504, 000,000 litres of water for an installation for Meta.  The Hydro graphic Department of the Tagus in Spain doubted that it would be possible to provide that amount of water and the company had to reduce its expectations.

Antonio said the number of megawatts is not important, what is important is the water supply. ‘So there is always a river nearby to supply the water.’ Obviously local communities worry about the impact the presence of data centres will have on their water and their grids

  Belino countered that it is of importance because that amount of electricity can only be supplied by fossil fuels such as gas or petrol.

Salvador mentions the clean energy Aerothermics which he has in his house explaining that it refrigerates the hot air in summer and heats the cold air in winter providing hot water all year round. Pedro explains that it takes the air in and out constantly.                           

Alicia has heard that data centres need to receive a constant supply of water and Big Tech may consider building nuclear power points to provide a source of energy to maintain the desired temperatures.

Pedro gave us the example of the Metro Madrid data centre that uses the equivalent in one year of all the houses in Spain in one day. He told us that some data centres rent the space, a room or a rack depending on the company’s needs. This is known as Hosting and Housing. Others own their buildings.

Alicia suggests that we need governments to assess the impact of data centres on the environment.

 Salvador believes governments should regulate the abuse of power supplies, the same way as they regulated the use of drones.

As for the car industry, Belino said that electric batteries cannot supply our needs because of the vast amount of copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt needed. He also told us that another hopeful idea, the use of Green Hydrogen is not viable again because of the scale of the problem.

Antonio told us the humorous story about a sprawl of cables under the ground all over Paris that were used fifty years ago but not anymore, A huge mess which is known as La Machine,

 We would like to think it will sort itself out the way changeovers have done in the past.

 ‘Think out of the box,’ Antonio said.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

 

SEASON'S GREETINGS

 

The Mystery Of The Opposite Sex

 Some things are inexplicable. For example the female fans who scream at the concerts of their idols. The Beatles stopped giving concerts because the fans drowned out the sound. It was frenetic, Apparently fans of female mega  artists such as Taylor Swift do not react in the same way.

Also inexplicable in 2024 in Western society is the increased violence against women as we all were made aware of on news programmes around the world to mark November 25^th  International Day to stop Violence Against Women.

Our conversation will revolve around the power of music but it will also be about how we need to understand what is and is not appropriate behaviour in the twenty first century, just by speaking and listening to each other.

November 27^th 2024

How migration really works

 https://youtu.be/89jS8FRkRCI

This is a good starting point for our debate on Wednesday Nov 6th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. on Belino's suggestion.