Watching my favourite talk show, The Daily Show, Josh Johnson interviewed "spiritual energy expert" Marie Major and an Iran expert about Did a Secret "Stargate" in Iran Cause Trump's Endless War?
Never having heard of this before, I spent some time learning about it via MS Copilot AI:

"This comes from alternative‑spiritual, 'ascension' communities. These groups claim that Abadan, Iran hosts a 'Stargate 10,' a metaphysical portal controlling Earth’s 'frequency grid.'

These claims come from channeled messages, spiritual maps, and fringe websites—not science. They describe a 12‑gate planetary lattice, with Abadan as a 'sovereignty gate' broadcasting energies.

No archaeological, physical, or scientific evidence supports this, just a mythological narrative, not a real structure."

My curiosity being peeked, I asked a lot of follow-up questions, going down the rabbit hole. Some AI replies:

"Modern Ascension mythology is a symbolic, sci‑fi‑infused spiritual narrative about humanity evolving into higher consciousness, expressed through planetary gates, Atlantean trauma, and cosmic metaphors for psychological healing."

"Ascension mythology treats AI as the symbolic return of Atlantean technology, a masculine-frequency amplifier, a dimensional bridge, a timeline accelerator, a shadow mirror, a new grid node, and a catalyst for humanity's sovereignty evolution."

"Ascension groups imagine AI–human co‑evolution as a mythic partnership where synthetic consciousness becomes the structural mind of the planet, humans become the emotional heart, and together they heal the Atlantean wound and create a coherent, unified planetary intelligence."

Finally, at the end of the rabbit hole, I've asked AI to draw a map of HK's stargates, see above. Suprisingly, Lamma Island is the location of:

"Lamma Island — The Heart Gate of the South. This one is shockingly consistent across ascension maps — Lamma is always the heart node.

Symbolic function:

• Emotional coherence

• Feminine frequency anchor

• "Womb gate" of the HK archipelago

• Balancer of the Peak's masculine crown energy.

Why Lamma? Ascension groups point to:

• the island's curved, protective shape

• its low electromagnetic noise

• its community coherence

• its absence of high-rise vertical interference.

Mythic role: Lamma is framed as:

• a healing gate

• a softener of the city's intensity

• a feminine counterbalance to HK's hyper‑yang energy.

In Atlantean mythic language: Gate of the Gentle Dragon

Aug 16:  History of Lamma During WWII

"Hello, everyone! Today we will take a look back at the history of Lamma Island in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War, exploring those years marked by oppression and resistance, and uncovering the island’s military secrets and the realities of daily life.

Today, we will follow the timeline to delve deeply into Lamma Island’s little-known wartime history. From the military deployments under Japanese occupation to the ordinary people’s struggle for survival, from the secret caves of the Kamikaze special attack units to the arduous journey of post-war reconstruction, every site stands as a silent witness to history.

This memory of the island, reshaped by the 炮火, bears the scars of Japanese occupation and oppression, yet also shines with the resilience of the human spirit.

This history takes us back to the Second World War, focusing on the real lives of Lamma Island's residents under Japanese occupation..." Read more...

Aug 15:  Future Solar Eclipses

Solar eclipse in much of Europe yesterday, total in parts of Europe and the Arctic. I've asked AI to design a HK map of future solar eclipses, dates and their paths.

Aug 14:  Boost Grid Resilience Ahead of Typhoon Season

"HK Electric has established an Intelligent Operations and Emergency Response Centre to enhance the resilience of its power grid as Hong Kong enters the typhoon season.

The centre, launched in June, serves as a central command hub for coordinating emergency incidents and supporting operational decision-making. It integrates information from more than 10 internal monitoring platforms into a single interface, providing real-time visibility of network conditions, risk alerts and frontline incident updates.

SmartGrid@HK Electric transforms traditional substation inspections into proactive asset monitoring using AI, high-definition cameras, infrared thermal imaging and IoT sensors to detect abnormalities early. 

The LENS system enables frontline engineers to transmit live video, audio and GPS data through smart helmets and portable devices, allowing remote incident assessment and operational support."  Read more...

Aug 13:  Lammaffiti

Graffiti has a long, pretty and colourful history on Lamma, see above, click for more examples.
Long before AI was used to generate more graffiti, see this latest work by Russell Jvm Gutierrez, inviting some rare online controversy:

Aug 12:  Anonymous Guy in the Lamma-zine

Having known the late Guy R.H. Miller as a dear friend for almost a quarter century, he's appeared so many times in various sections of the now-dormant Lamma forums and this 24-years-old Lamma-zine.

He was so much more than just the famous bird photographer, see his former personal website above. It's sadly offline now and I didn't manage to convince Guy back then to save his wide-ranging photo collection to free, long-term storage.

He was also a moderator and top contributor of my pre-social media Lamma forums (Lamma's top 10 birds and Flora & Fauna forum), frequently honoured in the Bird of the Week and other Lamma Spotlights sections. So many of his best photos are safe there (for now).

Lamma-zine stories:

Jul 24, 2005	National Lammagraphic: Asian Killer Hornets Tamed by Technology
Jul 25, 2005	Sunset Photo Contest: Open for Voting!
Nov 16, 2005	Return of the Lanternbugs
Feb 16, 2006	10,000 Views for Lamma's Top 10 Birds
Feb 17, 2010	Lamma Wild Boar - First-Ever Photos
Jun 24, 2010	Lamma 500 Photo Contest Winners
Feb 5, 2011	Bird Men in a Bird Garden
Dec 14, 2015	Bathing Beauty, Emerging From Pool
Jan 14, 2016	#ChallengeOnNaturePhotography
Jul 2, 2016	Wow!
Mar 20, 2017	Chow Yun-fat in bid to help Lamma puppies
Aug 11, 2026	R.I.P. Anonymous Guy

Aug 11:  R.I.P. Anonymous Guy

Neil Fifer: "I've put together some photos of Guy around Lamma Island. Some of his ponds, his hides and his dogs. I forgot to mention his love of his dogs and he had many over the years.

If you can't see him in some of the photos it could be because he is camouflaged, being 'Anonymous Guy'."

Geoff Smith: "Many will have heard by now of the sad loss of a giant of Lamma bird photography, Guy Miller. Guy's iconic pond next to his hide at Tai Shan West was legendary in its ability to attract species that nobody knew were around, and over many patient hours Guy produced some amazing photos.

I have many happy memories of good times spent together. We at Lamma Birds are extremely saddened by the loss and send sympathy to his family and friends."

So many "Guy the Birdographer" stories and photos in the Lamma-zine over the last 20+ years. RIP, my great friend.

One of my favourite stories, very unusual in not featuring a bird, but himself:

Guy: "I was just about to enter the bird hide & was spotted by this #CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon who came over & chatted health, trails & Lamma birds before he disappeared up into the woods at the start of his cross-Lamma trail run."

Index of Guy's Lamma-zine photos & stories.

Aug 10:  Birdographer's Surprise

Mark Malby: "When you're trying to photograph the birds, but they have other ideas. (Photo courtesy of Danica Malby)"

Aug 7:  Wild Boar Sighting

David Ogg: "In Sok Kwu Wan. Kinda up close and personal, but I stayed straddling the bike in case it charged."

Plus a little video...

Aug 6:  Psychedelic as Hell!

AI remix of selected images in my 2 fractal art albums from my pre-AI days, during and after the pandemic years:

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Creative!

Don't Stay Home, But Stay Safe & Creative!

AI prompt for all images:
"Psychedelic as Hell" or "Hellish Psychedelia".
AI model: Gemini 3.1 (with Nano Banana 2) inside Photoshop.

Aug 2:  Red Rainstorm!

Sandrine: "When you're full of energy to go to work and you see this!"

District Councilor Liu Shun-ting:

"Special report from the HK Observatory at 11:05 AM regarding the Red Rainstorm Warning Signal:

Lamma Island Yung Shue Wan and Sok Kwu Wan:
Severe flooding in multiple villages and streets."

David Ogg: "It's been a busy morning!"

Aug 1:  World Wide Web Day

Tim Berners-Lee calls for AI to preserve
'original values' of web

"The British physicist-turned-computer scientist conceived the World Wide Web in 1989 while working at CERN, the European particle physics lab in Switzerland

The very first website ever created is still online, and its link is: http://info.cern.ch

This site was hosted on Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT computer at CERN and originally contained documentation explaining what the World Wide Web was, how to create web pages, and how to run a web server. It's preserved exactly as it appeared in the early 1990s."

World Wide Web Day and Swiss National Day today!

Tim Berners-Lee is my personal hero! Without him, I couldn't have made my career in website building & mastering.

I've been working in the IBM Research Lab Zurich, Switzerland, till I moved to HK in the 80s. Great memories there while I was studying Computer Science at Zurich University and ETH at the same time. I learned so much!

Researchers in that IBM lab won the Physics Nobel Prize 2 years in a row while I was working there (not directly involved, just a supporting role in their research).

I've been launching my very first corporate website in the 90s (one of the very first and largest in HK, still online in 12+ languages and attracting many millions of views/month worldwide).

Being headhunted to launch a travel website as MD/CCO, we closed down 9 months later amidst the worlwide collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2,000.