The Man Who Stole The Moon

And Mars, Too, While He Was About It
I am talking, of course, about that modern polymath Elon Musk.  I am pleased to see that it is not merely I who see him as akin to the hero of a Robert Heinlein novel circa 1955 - the Beeb have likened him to a character in "The Man Who Sold The Moon".  Musk is probably most famous as the owner of Space X, who build the Falcon rocket.  

It's not how he started, it's how he'll finish that worries me.

Which, in case you haven't heard, successfully flew a re-used 1st stage Falcon into orbit yesterday.  He also owns Tesla cars, those being electric ones, and is co-founder of Paypal.

Paypal is DULL.  Have a Falcon that's landed on a barge in the middle of the ocean

     Now, in a move patently designed to challenge my own bid for world domination, he's joined other folks to establish "OpenAI", a project intended to create the most advanced Artificial Intelligence possible - and then share it with the world.  To prevent wicked corporations from abusing their privileged position, he says.  Hmmm.  Well, won't that merely give wicked individuals the chance to take over the world?

The competition

     Or not.  There is no consensus that an AI will instantly threaten you puny humans, because a counter-AI can be used against it - shades of The Machine and Samaritan from "Person of Interest", eh?
     You mark my words, by the time NASA get to Mars, they'll find it already colonised by Musk Martian Enterprises ...

An Outing To Ur
That wicked and wanton city of biblical times remade as - well, Manchester, actually.  I fancied seeing a film, either "Ghost In The Shell" or "Logan"; since I've seen the anime of GITS umpteen times I went for Logan, arriving just late enough to miss the adverts, which is pretty much a win-win for me.
     Now, because the film itself is only just out I shall not review it as you don't want a load of spoilers.  The theme of declining old age comes across well, Conrad has to say; this Logan is beginning to suffer the long-term effects of his unique condition.
     "Phew," I hear you exhale.  "We dodged a bullet there."
     Not so fast - I can still bore you about the trailers.  And I shall!
     "Unlocked": spies, guns, biological warfare agents, the twist being that this is in London.  So you get to see some nice historical landmarks.  Expect Michael Douglas to be the hidden villain.
     "Fast & Furious Umpteen": Actually number 8, it just feels as if there's been eighteen of them.  They keep making these, so some of you out there are still human watching them.  Conrad's summation: car porn. With submarines.

One of these can be Vin Diesel

     "Guardians of the Galaxy 2": Featuring a tiny Groot.  I'm not sure what was going on here, but it looked fun.
     "War for the Planet of the Apes": Bang bang shooty shooty, with chimps.  And Woody Harrelson.

Battle for a pile of grapes.  That'll have to do

     "Alien Covenant":  No film that begins with the "A" word is going to feature butterflies and gambolling lambs.  Thanks to all the frenetic jump cuts I had no idea what was going on, but expect a lot of gore.

One is an evil alien, and the other is ET

Oh And One More Thing
As you should surely know by now, Conrad is an arch-spelling pedant of the very worst kind, who gets equally hot under the collar when he spots bad grammar, or incorrect punctuation.  So that Dog Buns! text language that the barely-literate youth of today use is a torment, I'm telling you.
     Anyway, some of the olders are not better.  Regard!

Do you see it?  DO YOU SEE?

     About half-way down - oh, this is the rear wall of the gent's toilets on the third floor of the Printworks, in case you were wondering and even if you weren't - you see the word "gigowats" which SIMPLY WILL NOT DO!
     It's "Gigawatts" thank you very much.
     I don't know about you but I feel much better now.

Finally -
As part of my outing to the decadent and deliriant big city, I had a Classic grilled cheese sandwich at Northern Soul, which was gloriously messy and sticky, and far better than any version I have ever made at home.

I remember when it was half the size ...