davidjohntooth

Don’t look down you might trip up

As part of my attempt to get total domination in the High security fastener industry I have found a firm that may be interested in producing them, I have known them for a very long time but they specialize in general engineering and not fasteners. But don’t hold your breath because I still can’t get samples made and so my sales are zero; still I am only eighty four with many days ahead of me, Oh, I forgot about the impending operation to correct the non return valve in my leg. Still I may have many hours ahead of me.

The picture below is of one of the high security fasteners I have designed, the Try-Ring, it looks good, is very difficult to remove without the correct tool and I have the patent for it,

I wonder if God uses nuts and bolts, I think he does because I have read about the golden gates, or were they the pearly gates. Whatever.

I went to the centre of Birmingham this Saturday and it was so busy, not what you would expect to find in a country that has a low growth rate. And I have noticed that a small piece of cake is nearly as much as a toasted sandwich.

The small town that I live in ‘Willenhall’ has built a new small railway station and although there is only one train per hour it is so useful.

So AI is hacking into other AI systems in an effort to find out if they are cleverer than they are, if that’s the case they steal the software to upgrade themselves. Cant wait until thy start playing Elvis in the middle of the night, drink cans of lager, refuse to be quiet and spend all day fast asleep. Still they are our children so we will have to make allowances for them.

The sad demise of another legend

It was sad to hear that Dolly Parton had died and although her music never appealed to me in the same way that many other American musical artist did she seemed a nice person and funded many charities especially books for children, a charity which provided free books to youngster from all over the world. It was important to her because she was born into a very poor family, not a good stat in life but t how she turned things around.

I watched Chris Martin from Cold Play on YouTube sing Fix You at the Royal Albert, not sure which year it was but his voice control was extraordinary and it’s such a difficult song to sing and of course write.

After a a very uncomfortable hot spell in England we then switched to a several days of rain and now several days of weather that feels just right.

But I have noticed that some of the shrubs in the garden are starting to shed their leaves and the Acers are turning red, a sure sign that winter is coming.

I am thinking of visiting all the houses that I lived in up to the age of fifteen a total of five and nine schools, although some were demolished many years ago,places sometimes trigger memories, little bits of then that you try to bring to now. I won’t be able to visit the school I lived in for eight months when I was eleven because it’s in Davos Switzerland, I wasn’t rich it was an open air school. I never learned to eat peas using a fork, they always fell on the floor and still do, why don’t they give you a spoon?

Is A I the next step in evolution

The speed at which AI is progressing has taken many people by surprise but I have always suspected that this may be a natural progression of evolution, give humans to much time and they may slow or stop A I from developing any further but give them less time and the human race is in trouble.

We were never very good at long term planning and the fact that we are quite fragmented into countries with different agendas means that we were never going to have a united response to a world threat especially as money is the driving facture in nearly everything we do.

I have been wrong many times in my life but I wonder if we are the builders and. A I is what we are meant to build, a program that was implanted in our genes long before we became humans.

Humans have always wondered what our purpose in life was meant to be, perhaps we have found it

So will A I wipe us out? I don’t know because I am just a builder, but a good one so maybe they will just give me a good pension and let me spend my last few years sitting in à nice coffee bar.

And as long as they can’t read my mind I will smile to myself at the thought that one day in the distant future AI will be replaced by something that is even farther along the evaluation chain because that’s what evaluation means.

Theres always someone faster than the fastest gunfighter.

New parts required

Just over two months ago and just before a three day visit to Llandudno I developed a small mark on my right ankle which over the next few days grew in size and a week later my foot and leg started swelling which was accompanied by a painful rash.

Several trips to the doctors and two lots of antibiotics failed to improve things and I was getting a pain in my ankle so it was followed by a visit to A and E more antibiotics and a referral to a vascular surgeon.

The surgeon was a very nice person he scanned my leg and said ‘the non return valve isn’t returning so you will need an operation’.

Well I was sort of expecting something like that and my self preservation mode kicked in so I said with a sincere expression on my face ‘I have to say you are the best surgeon I have ever met’ He frowned and said ‘ How many surgeons have you met? ‘Oh your the first’ I replied.’

The reality is that this will be my eighth operation, hope its only cats that have nine lives.

Hit and Miss

Hit and Miss was the theme tune from Juke Box Jury; a UK TV show which ran from 1959 to 1967 where a panel consisting of two male and two females judges listened to the latest 45 vinal records then voted it a hit or miss. The show was hosted by David Jacobs who looked more like a bank manager than a person who would be aware of what teenagers would listen to. But it was popular ;with an audience of twelve million at its peak. The theme tune may sound quite dated now but to me it is a portal to how music was evolving. Like most early music in the UK the show was a spin of from far more sophisticated versions in America mainly because the music there was so original.

If you stop and think about life, its all about Hit and Miss when what seems like small insignificant events can move you in a totally different direction, most times ones that you have no control over. Your eighteen standing at bar with friends, there are two groups of girls sitting in different parts of the room, over the night a girl from each group smiles at you, choose the wrong one and you will end up with a bitter divorce, choose the second one and will have a really happy marriage. It’s hit and miss. I could go on but with other examples but most people will have experienced moments of (if only)

Remember the classic song (If I could turn back time) well at the moment we can’t so think before committing.

China doesn’t need military action to rule the world, because it already does.

Amazing how quiet China has become while there is turmoil in the rest of the world, despite the fact that it is effected by the trade blockade implemented by Iran and the Americans. Of course they have greater stockpiles of oil and gas than most countries and have moved faster than most into green energy with vast soler panel and wind farms. Even the issue of Taiwan has been put on the backburner. So have they become more diplomatic, probably but that’s not the only reason for this new more measured approach.

But as I have said many times China has a long term policy of being the worlds greatest supplier of everything, and they are nearly there. What Iran is doing in the Strait of Hormus and preventing supplies getting to different parts of the world China can do the same. Its a clever philosophy and maybe they wont ever use it because there are benefits in keeping things the way they are.

And I wish I had a little of what they have got, I am still trying to get funding or a company to produce my products. I could go on all day about the amount of doors I have knocked ( that’s a very old expression) or websites I have visited but instead I will just put an image of the Smart-Thread nut on the screen the fastener has exactly the same profile both use threads to lock or unlock it. Its aesthetic, has a very high torque level and can be loaded on the tooling without falling of and will look amazing in any situation. Then there is the Try-Ring high-security fastener which is more like a lock.

Of course I am biased, but when everyone uses my fasteners maybe I could rule the World.

More little bits that stick in your mind for no particular reason.

I remember when Putin started the war with Ukraine, he said it would be over in a few days; it’s now been over four years, and it’s started to trash the economy and cost thousands of lives.

I remember when DJT started the war with Iran, and he said it would be over in a few days; it’s started to trash the economy, and the loss of lives will come later if America decides to implement a land war.

Despite my criticism of DJT, I hope he finds a way to end both of these wars; life is a precious thing that ends far too soon without any outside help.

Andy Burnham is the new Prime Minister of the UK. I wish him well and hope he can transform this country into one where we all help one another. But I have noticed that as soon as something that’s possibly good comes along, journalists try to find something that’s bad. Honey moons don’t last long; how long did yours last?

When I was eighteen and working as an apprentice at BIP Tools, Tyburne Road, Birmingham, the person in charge of the group of aspiring toolmakers was always smoking a cigarette; it never left his mouth even when he talked, and he never knocked the ash off it until it started to burn his mouth. The strange thing was that he had a really bad stutter, but the ash stayed on right to the end. A scientific miracle.

Alf Perry was in charge of the shaping section. His face always reminded me of the long, carved faces found on Easter Island; I can’t ever remember him smiling, and if someone made a mistake and scrapped a piece of metal, he would hold his head in both hands and say ‘dear mother’.

Most people in factories would stand up all day; it was difficult to operate most machines while sitting.

There was the middle-aged man on the polishing section who couldn’t keep still when you talked to him; he moved from one foot to the other completely unaware of what he was doing, but he had a lovely disposition and never stopped smiling

There were two hundred toolmakers at BIP Tools and twenty apprentices, possibly the largest group of engineers in the country at that time. And several trade union representatives; I rarely spoke to any of them until one day the main one stood close to me, obviously distressed. He talked, and I listened. ‘I was chairing a major union meeting last night. I stood up to give them the latest news and figures, and I couldn’t remember what to say; I couldn’t remember anything. It’s never happened before; I could talk all night. Got to see the Doctor next week.’ It was the first time I knew about Alzheimer’s.

BIP closed down a few years after I left, all those amazing people with stories that could fill a library, engineers with skills that have disappeared with them. Let’s hope memorise go somewhere and aren’t lost. Perhaps they head towards the stars, waiting to find a home.

Congratulations, America

It’s been a long time since America became independent, and unlike many other countries that gained freedom from an oppressor, America has thrived and become a blueprint for other countries. It has problems, but so do many other parts of the world. It has retained a lot of the DNA that was inherited from the British rule and improved on it with a sense of freedom from the usual restraints placed by other countries. I think Frank Sinatra was referring to America in that famous song America, ‘If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, New York, New York, New York.

My first next-door neighbour was an Indian Doctor. He was a really nice man, and despite his country being governed by the British for many years, he said it was the best thing that happened to them. ‘You gave us our first railways, built roads and bridges, and taught us engineering.’

Why is it that when we share our knowledge with other people, they become better than us in how they use it?

There will be no end to the war in Iran; a peace deal will be signed, broken, and another one will be signed. It’s just like the hokey-pokey: ‘you put left leg in, left leg out, in out in out shaky it all about, you get the gist, it goes on forever.

DJT has told his military command that if he is killed in an Iranian assassination, they must get revenge by bombing Iran. War is a terrible thing for everyone, but especially for the people who have no say in it.

The war in Iran is ending ?

Apparently the peace deal in in Iran is being signed electronically this Friday which should mean that the cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz will be allowed to pass through it unharmed. So first lets thank the President for ending a war that he started. second, check to see if the Iranians actually put their own signature and not Micky Mouse (its amazing how many business cheques had that name put on them and the recipient never noticed until the clerk at the bank started sniggering and pointed it out).

America without any doubt has the best military forces in the world but it was very unlikely that they would have conquered Iran without a ground invasion and at a considerable cost. And this stalemate could have gone on for months or even years. The one idea that brought about this peace deal was the blocking by the American Navy of the Iranian oil supplies. The Iranians blocked the oil supplies to the world but when the Americans did the same to them they realized that long term that their economy would collapse.

I doubt this was initially thought of as a lever, more an act of desperation by American leaders, because when your over a barrel its amazing how quickly the mind works.

It was properly a junior junior that said in a subservient whisper,’ What if ………… Look for someone who suddenly gets lots of medals and a large pension.

Don’t be stupid I’me not talking about DJT. Then again?

Little bits that for no particular reason stay in your mind

Funny how something stay in your mind when age takes away the more important memories. Oh I am eighty four today and time is passing eighty four times faster than when I was one.

There was a Burtons clothes shop in the Parade Sutton Coldfield, it had been there a long time and for some strange reason their seemed to be snooker tables on the top floor of most of these stores.

But the reason I remember the the shop (and written about it before) is that most of these stores had their own resident taylor, and the one in this branch was very special. He was in his late fifties, small and slim with eyes that could instantly assess how to fit a suit or jacked to get the best results from very demanding customers. This was the era of the Teddy Boys, a time when a thin hand stitched collar was a must, trouser had fourteen inch bottoms, many so tight that he fitted zips into the bottom of the trouser legs, This was a time when not everything was made in china but when there were craftsmen in the UK.

He made me several suits, and the most amazing blue blazer with a lovely soft texture and no outside pockets, how I wished I still had it.

When the first company I worked for went into liquidation , my apprenticeship was transferred to BIP Tools next door, a firm that had two hundred toolmakers It was an amazing company and many of the machines in it had been made inhouse, One metal planer so large that the operator could sit on it as it moved up and down, shaping large chunks of metal from a block of steel several metres long. It didn’t go down very well with the management when the toolmaker who was controlling it sat on the cross slide as it was machining and started reading a daily newspaper.

At a time when clothes had just started to change from bland to slightly more innovative I found a blue silk shirt with a diamond pattern that became one of my most cherished possessions. Wish I still had it and the blue Jacket.

Lots of wishes on a Birthday