Category Archives: Uncategorized

Compound Interest 2 – Adam and Eve

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In the sixteenth century Dr Lightfoot and Bishop Ussher both calculated, from Biblical sources, that that universe was created in 4004BC.  Suppose that were true.  We know it’s not, but please indulge me.  Suppose that in the year dot the population of the world was 2 (Adam and Eve) and it grew steadily at 1.1% per year, which is the present rate of growth.  There would now be 7.8 ´1028 people.  That’s 78 followed by 27 zeroes.

In fact there are only 7.2 billion people.  That’s 72 followed by 8 zeroes.  The actual average rate of population growth, assuming that it all started with Adam and Eve in 4004BC, has been a very modest 0.37%pa.

I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty astounding.

PS  I’ve just realised that I haven’t been stroppy for a while.  I get very stroppy when people talk or write about growth rates without specifying the periodicity.  Usually it’s annual, but why not say so?  Is it so hard to add ‘pa’ after the percentage sign, so there’s no doubt about it?  Am I being pedantic?  I think not.  Just stroppy.

Human Rights

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What are human rights? Who confers them? Are they fixed and absolute, or do they change with changing circumstances over time?

I believe we have the right to survive as best we can, in competition with other species and with members of our own, on a playing field that is as level as we can make it. That’s about it. Anything else is up for negotiation.

Man-made laws can confer rights on a community, a nation or the whole of humanity. Those laws can be amended or replaced, responding to the tidal flows of history and ideas. Therefore the rights bestowed by them are fragile. It is imperative that we, the pawns on the human chessboard, stay vigilant for erosion of our rights; and energetic in adding to the list.

Terrorism

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People use words loosely sometimes and ‘terrorism’ has been used more loosely than most. Terrorism is a tactic, widely used by combatants of all stripes. It is the deliberate commission of atrocities for the purpose of immobilising one’s enemy, or making him less effective, through fear. It has also been called ‘shock and awe’ which sounds much better.

IS (or ISIS, ISIL, DAESH*) has certainly employed terrorism to cow the populations of the land it has invaded, and to discourage armed opposition from Iraq and Turkey. But the beheadings that have become an IS trademark are not acts of terrorism. They are designed not to cow but to outrage and provoke the people and governments of the countries whose citizens they are targeting. They want us to put those much talked-of boots on the ground.

Why? They are confident that they can beat us, either because they have Allah’s backing or because they believe (with some reason) that we will grow tired of the game before they do, yielding a victory that will confirm their dominance and force global acceptance of their caliphate.

The most superstitious among their followers may also seek martyrdom and the rewards they have been promised. What better martyrdom than at the hands of a well-armed western infidel?

What do you think? Should the term ‘terrorism’ be applied to the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip, or to the retaliatory attacks of the Israeli Government? Perhaps these too are designed to provoke rather than to intimidate. And what about Boko Haram, Al-Shabab, the Lord’s Resistance Army… are they trying to induce compliance through fear? Or are they just psychopaths who enjoy what they do?

There is much more to say about this subject. Please let me know your views.

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* For an explanation of the acronym DAESH I recommend http://pietervanostaeyen.wordpress.com.

Age of Entitlement

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This is my first post at StroppyGit.  The name says it all.  I’m a stroppy git, mainly because I’m getting old.  Bits of me don’t work as well as they used to.  Things don’t taste as good as they used to.  Nobody speaks the Queen’s English as they ought to – except the Queen of course.

But more than anything else, I’m stroppy because of all those old gits I see everywhere.  Not me, the other ones.  I’m stroppy because, in the words of our Treasurer (I’m Australian and our Finance Minister is called the Treasurer), there’s a pervasive Culture of Entitlement and old folk are at the heart of it.

Of course we’ve all worked hard to earn our decriputude.  And we’ve paid our taxes.  Most of them anyway.  But now we’re living too long, retiring too early, and expecting the middle-aged and the young to support us in the manner to which we have become accustomed, largely through running up debt that the middle-aged and the young – and indeed the yet unborn – will have to pay the interest on forever.

I’ll have more to say about this, but what do you think?