iMigration

People in the UK have become quite exercised this week with issues of immigration, legal or illegal, which is worth looking at in the cold light of a laptop's screen over a flat white and a flat biscuit.

I can't recall whether it was travel writer Wilfred Thesiger or King Charles' favourite explorer Laurens Van der Post who wrote it, but I'm quite sure it was the legendary Colin Hilton who read it ~ the suggestion that the car and aeroplane were what had destroyed diversity in the world from one country to another.

Put that into context: Thesiger arrived once at a village in some or other desert-ified place and seeing his Land Rover the locals brought hay (or the equivalent) to feed it with, not having seen one before. Before you question whether that were possible in the twentieth century, consider that not that long prior when horses were first seen in the Americas the locals figured horse and man were together a species of human being... which would have delighted the ancient Greeks, who did the same to goats and bulls, albeit more often in stone.

Migration is therefore simply a networking issue to which we've to add smartphones as the cherry on the icing when it comes to lubricating the process. The lifestyle we most enjoy ~ and wish to continue enjoying ~ is thus the one that most persuades and enables people in moving vast distances from A to B.

The car, for instance, is King and governments like our own do all in their power to ensure that life is practically impossible without one; an effort replicated throughout the West.

The aeroplane is effectively subsidised and operates as a tax-free Nirvana in which a population is moved seamlessly in pursuit of work, leisure, friends and relatives. It's the Queen, of buckets and Spades.

The phone, which our lives revolve around, ensures that the comparative paradise the UK is can be communicated elsewhere in order that ever-expanding networks on the ground and in the air can be exploited to the greatest extent: the Jack, of all trades.

Given this, in view of the fact we're voluntarily fuelling the process, what politicians of any colour are able to do is likely to be as effective as King Canute in claiming to be able to defeat the tide: running around the room shouting 'Smash the gangs!' all they're really missing are the party-hats.

Here on the blog we're interested in the physical world moreso than the human, and the whole thing is fascinating only so far as its parallels with processes of osmosis or diffusion.

Isn't it, Gromit?

My friend who arrived via inflatable joined a weekend in the Peak District and seeing video of me at a parkrun or a drunken BBQ in the summer sun, who wouldn't want the chance to share a sausage with an influencer?

Nosing Over?

Courtesy of US VCs, Alton Towers and Boeing proudly present the didn't-ride-of-the-century... strap in, prepare to go nowhere and experience that nose-gear collapse in 6D!!!

Ed. Print off, pin up and piss off your line manager this Monday morning... I know you want to!

Financial Sweeteners

Two more UK companies in peril at the start of this week... Tate and Lyle set for a takeover by a US ingredients giant which in turn provides the sucrose for chocolate (Cadbury's) that also originated on these shores. The former began life in Liverpool in 1859, which is where much of the raw material was imported ~ fortunes further boosted by a licence to market the Swiss-German sugar-cube to the British to put in their tea.

Meantimes Airlander struggles with finances... barely surprising in circs in which so much more interest in terms of available capital lies in AI, space or preparations for war. Disappointing from the website for lighter-than-air lovers like me is the lack of technicalities: the only airship I've seen without the accompanying gaseous capacity unless I'm missing something?

We hope it succeeds, despite a recent nose-dive that amply demonstrated the fact that one thing about being lighter than air is a susceptibility to its whims in the form of gusts vertical and horizontal... from which I suffered often whilst heavier than air.

Ed. The lump was invented by a Moravian man in order to make life easier for his wife although he went bankrupt ~ which probably didn't ~ and was revived by mass production in Germany. A 'Sugar-cube Square-pants' key-ring is available on our merch page.

Re: Industrialise

And in an unlikely resurgence on the part of Detroit, here's a sell-out con with no burning man required. No mistake the aforementioned Y Combinator is increasingly selecting material bits over bytes, now we're waking up to the fact that nations producing little or nothing are on the road to perdition in an unstable world... which judging from the UK government's DMs, doesn't seem to be bothering anyone here.

HyLight

If you like drones, and you like airships ~ I like both ~ then you (like Y Combinator) will like these inflatables that are designed to cruise around inspecting power-lines and so forth. They're from France, and where else could they be looking at the iron-work?

We're Going UP, UP, UP...

I like to review UP partners' annual 'state of the nation' report because it's as good a round-up as any as to where tech ~ and drones in particular ~ is headed.

I've taken screen-shots of various slides that make up the report, which we shall go through together and I've given each a pertinent heading... so sit back, relax and shut the fuck up.

Influencer: in 1971 most young people wanted to be an astronaut (in my day, train driver), whereas now they want to be an influencer. Well welcome to my world, mwah-ha, mwah-ha, mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Solo Founder: Given all of the tools available, it is possible for an individual to build a unicorn practically single-handedly. In fact I've done so myself, though it's eating the geraniums.

Drone Dominance Program: The US War Department has one (and so does the UK, though we call it the DJI store).

72 Hours: about as long as the Department took from bid to acquisition of Skydio's drones... nearer 72 months in the UK am thinking?

Maritime Action Plan: They've one of those too. Ours is 'how do we get that three billion pound aircraft-carrier out of Norway, where it's broken down again?

Steve Jobs: said tech only worked when married to the Arts and Humanities, when it 'makes our hearts sing'. He was not wrong, but needed to see a cardiologist.

$250 million: Messrs Patrick and Tyler are offering grants up to the amount to those redefining how the future should look. These guys have more money than sense.

The Kinetic Age: is what UP define it as being, and who's to say they're wrong?

The Long Tale

T-P was the nomenclature as I recall for a turning point in the flight management system on either the Airbus or Boeing ~ I can't remember which ~ and that's where we find ourselves around about now. We were all upset at being ripped off by Faulty Towers last month, but you have to choose your battles and mine won't be with Vulture Capitalists who've more experience than I have at screwing people over... so let's move on.

But I look at the stats pertaining to the website, and the message coming over loud and clear is "Your inventions suck." The one visit the website got this month was mine, and how sad is that?

In contrast the blog has risen like Dr Frankenstein's monster and now leads a life of its own (see below), whether I feed it or not. Bizarrely too, there aren't many more visits to each of its individual posts either... though there are exceptions featuring 'one-offs' like aircraft crash analyses that garner 1000's of views in days.

But that's not what we're about, is it? And so the question arises as to where all of those views come from and 'bots aside I think it's from a modern phenomenon in the form of the 'long tail', which broadly speaking says that much revenue accrues to platforms from a back-catalogue that consists of sales here-and-there which together amount to more than the occasional best-seller.

So let's run with it and see where it takes us, shall we?