Category: People

Black holes, colliders and paradoxes

This is a very strange world that we live in.

It would be fair to say that my knowledge about what I am writing in this Post is minimal to the point of total ignorance. So why open my mouth and prove it! Because the conquest of fundamental questions about our world is not only an example of mankind at its greatest but also something of broad appeal.

That is proved by the continuing popularity of the BBC Television Series – Horizon. In that series there have recently been two fascinating programmes: Who’s afraid of a big Black Hole? and How long is a piece of string? (Readers outside the UK will not be able to view these programmes.)

Here are the programme summaries:

Black holes are one of the most destructive forces in the universe, capable of tearing a planet apart and swallowing an entire star. Yet scientists now believe they could hold the key to answering the ultimate question – what was there before the Big Bang?

The trouble is that researching them is next to impossible. Black holes are by definition invisible and there’s no scientific theory able to explain them. Despite these obvious obstacles, Horizon meets the astronomers attempting to image a black hole for the very first time and the theoretical physicists getting ever closer to unlocking their mysteries. It’s a story that takes us into the heart of a black hole and to the very edge of what we think we know about the universe.

and

Alan Davies attempts to answer the proverbial question: how long is a piece of string? But what appears to be a simple task soon turns into a mind-bending voyage of discovery where nothing is as it seems.

An encounter with leading mathematician Marcus du Sautoy reveals that Alan’s short length of string may in fact be infinitely long. When Alan attempts to measure his string at the atomic scale, events take an even stranger turn. Not only do objects appear in many places at once, but reality itself seems to be an illusion.

Ultimately, Alan finds that measuring his piece of string could – in theory at least – create a black hole, bringing about the end of the world.

Straight Talking and Realpolitik

“To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.” Quote by Will Durant.

During his China visit Obama said that “the US accepted that Tibet was part of China, but went on to push for the early resumption of talks between China and the Dalai Lama.”

This is the usual fatuous “appeal” issued by Western worthies to the Chinese Communist Dictatorship to act honourably towards people it dislikes. As ever, it is a waste of breath, but a diplomatic ritual that has to be endured.

Obama knows it is pointless, the Chinese pretend to listen but also know it is pointless as nothing will change. We all know – or should – that it is pointless. Why then do they do it? You can’t call it self-delusion since nobody is deluded. Frankly, I am not sure what to call it.

Of course, the Chinese claim to Tibet varies from ludicrous through spurious to extremely questionable at best …..

… and Taiwan is a free and independent state, and more to the point democratic. It is a disgrace that free, democratic countries have never recognized it.

The truth (that’s what we want, isn’t it?) is that the CCP is a murderous and illegitimate dictatorship, never having submitted itself to a vote. This may of course be very wise on their part, but it isn’t honest, is it?

In the way of dictatorships, it is quite prepared to massacre its own citizens to protect its power, as happened in the seemingly long-forgotten Tiananmen Square. It is a pity that the free world seems compelled to overlook all this in grovelling to China. We have to deal with them, but issuing fatuous appeals, come on ….

I wonder what the parents of those killed by the CCP thought as doves of freedom were released over Beijing during the last Olympic Games?

By Chris Snuggs

[Footnote from the Editor. This is a hard-hitting Post about the reality of relations between the USA and China. It is a reminder of the truth about such relationships. Readers may want to view this to understand also the reality of trade with China. Some of the images are deeply disturbing.]

Update on the “British Solution”

The Credit Crisis in Britain

Following yesterday’s Post on this Blog about Goldman Sachs, here’s Britain in action.

Ministers yesterday (17th November) launched a £50 billion ($84 billion) bailout of Britain’s crippled banks – and warned there could be worse to come. State-controlled lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group will receive fresh injections of taxpayers’ money totalling £39 billion ($65.5 billion).

RBS – which has now received the biggest state rescue anywhere in the world – was also handed £11 billion ($18.5 billion) in tax breaks to help keep it afloat.

Source: The Daily Mail

Thanks for the Greed. Are the directors responsible still in place? Are the Great and Good who removed controls and oversaw the decade of binge-spending and easy credit still in place?

Oh, I remember now. The very same person in Britain who was Chancellor throughout the 90s and is now Prime Minister is – according to John Prescott (former Labour Deputy-Leader and the person whose office sign was changed at a cost of £700 ($1,200) when his job name was rebadged weeks before he left it anyway) – a “Global Giant” who saved the world.

Oh, and let’s not forget, this is the same person who said that: “Britain is better placed than other countries in Europe to weather the crisis …..etc blah, blah, blah …”

The reality (which is in fairly short supply among Global Giants) is different:

Within hours of the Chancellor’s announcement, the European Commission issued a stark warning about the frayed state of Britain’s national finances, warning of an ‘extraordinary deterioration’ because of the cost of City rescues.

It estimates public debt will double as a share of the economy between 2007 and 2011, reaching 88 per cent of gross domestic product – the biggest rise of any leading EU economy.

The latest £50billion bank bailout is roughly equivalent to the annual schools budget and far exceeds the annual defence budget of £35billion. The new moves bring the total of public money lavished on Britain’s financial rescue to £1.2trillion – almost £20,000 for every man, woman and child living in the country.

… and the £ has sunk drastically against the euro ….

Still, let’s have a bit of positive spin …. the National Debt isn’t quite (yet) what is was just after WWII. A great achievement. Well done Gordon Brown …. but you can do it …. just one more little push.

We could do with fewer spin-ridden “Global Giants” and more people with vision, courage and competence.

And rather than “saving the world” it might be nicer if Gordon Brown started with saving Britain.

By Chris Snuggs

Goldman Sachs – doing God’s work!

A fascinating and revealing interview in the Sunday Times.

This article in the British Sunday Times was published on November 8th and I’m sure many will have read it. But for those that didn’t it really is worth settling down to a reasonably long read. For you will learn that Goldman Sachs:

It’s the site of the best cash-making machine that global capitalism has ever produced, and, some say, a political force more powerful than governments. The people who work behind the brass-trim glass doors make more money than some countries do. They are the rainmakers’ rainmakers, the biggest swinging dicks in the financial jungle. Their assets total $1 trillion, their annual revenues run into the tens of billions, and their profits are in the billions, which they distribute liberally among themselves. Average pay this recessionary year for the 30,000 staff is expected to be a record $700,000. Top earners will get tens of millions, several hundred thousand times more than a cleaner at the firm. When they have finished getting “filthy rich by 40”, as the company saying goes, these alpha dogs don’t put their feet up. They parachute into some of the most senior political posts in the US and beyond, prompting accusations that they “rule the world”. Number 85 Broad Street is the home of Goldman Sachs.

The world’s most successful investment bank likes to hide behind the tidal wave of money that it generates and sends crashing over Manhattan, the City of London and most of the world’s other financial capitals. But now the dark knights of banking are being forced, blinking, into the cold light of day. The public, politicians and the press blame bankers’ reckless trading for the credit crunch and, as the most successful bank still standing, Goldman is their prime target. Here, politicians and commentators compete to denounce Goldman in ever more robust terms — “robber barons”, “economic vandals”, “vulture capitalists”. Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, contrasts the bank’s recent record results — profits of $3.2 billion in the last quarter alone — and its planned bumper bonus payments with what has happened to ordinary people’s jobs and incomes in 2009.

and later on in conversation with the Chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein:

“Is it possible to have too much ambition? Is it possible to be too successful?” Blankfein shoots back. “I don’t want people in this firm to think that they have accomplished as much for themselves as they can and go on vacation. As the guardian of the interests of the shareholders and, by the way, for the purposes of society, I’d like them to continue to do what they are doing. I don’t want to put a cap on their ambition. It’s hard for me to argue for a cap on their compensation.”

So, it’s business as usual, then, regardless of whether it makes most people howl at the moon with rage? Goldman Sachs, this pillar of the free market, breeder of super-citizens, object of envy and awe will go on raking it in, getting richer than God? An impish grin spreads across Blankfein’s face. Call him a fat cat who mocks the public. Call him wicked. Call him what you will. He is, he says, just a banker “doing God’s work”

Indeed!

By Paul Handover

WOMD

Mass Destruction?

No, it’s not weapons – I just wanted to get your attention; it’s “Words”. Last week two words of enormous significance crept into the news, and the first of them was the word “fair“.

This is a very interesting and potentially devastating word, but I wonder if the Minister was wise in letting it out of the box? Has he read the story of Pandora?

The word was used in connection with a report by British Schools Adjudicator Ian Craig, who had been asked by the British Labour government to look into the procedures and practice of admissions to secondary schools in Britain.

It seems that many parents, desperate to get their child into a good school, are devising ways to get round the strict allocation procedures put in place to ensure “fairness”. As has been brilliantly explained by Judith Woods in “The Telegraph” these desperate tricks include “using grandparents’ addresses on admissions forms for sought-after schools, renting homes in the catchment area, feigning marriage break-up and then reporting that one parent has moved nearer the school, and swapping houses with friends.”

According to Mr Craig – and the government – this is “cheating” and not “fair”, and the former is asking for local authorities to “use all means open to them to deter parents from cheating the admissions system. This includes removing places from the guilty and pursuing them through the courts, possibly using the Perjury Act.”

My interest here is not so much in the minutiae of the details of this current spat but the concept of “fairness” in society, which strikes me as pretty fundamentally complex.

It is of course a fairly modern concept, not one that much preoccupied Genghis Khan or even the Victorians, who were much happier with the principles outlined in this verse of the hymn “All things bright and beautiful”.

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And order’d their estate.

Interestingly, the concept is also one that is not often explicitly discussed by governments. I wonder if this is because the power and moneyed elite know that they might be on a sticky wicket in any discussion of “fairness”?

As ever, one cannot hope to find the answers until one has clearly posed the questions. So here goes:

Minister, as you have introduced into evidence the concept of fairness and labelled those trying to get round the school admission regulations as “cheats”, could you possibly answer these questions?

Is it fair that many families – desperate to provide a good education for their children – cannot afford to move to an area where there are good schools but are stuck through their limited means in an educational ghetto?
Is it fair that people can play the religion card and send their kids to a high-quality “faith” school outside of their catchment area, Tony Blair, former British PM, being the best recent example.
Is it fair that a substantial minority of parents don’t have to bother about finding a good state school at all since they can go private? (And shockingly, according once more to Judith Woods: “the advantage of being educated at an independent school is greater in Britain than in almost any other country.”)
Is it fair that many of the same substantial minority own multiple dwellings while hundreds of thousands of ordinary families do not own their own home and have to pay rent to someone, a system that seems to me to be a direct descendent of the feudal system where you slaved all day in return for the right to live on some Lord’s property? (Speaking of which – much as I love the Queen – is it fair that the small Royal Family owns vast, multiple dwellings that could house thousands of homeless people?)
Is it fair that poor person A should die of some horrible disease or disability while person B of limited means can pay for special treatment and survive?

And of course, the ultimate question: Is it fair that I wasn’t born with the voice of Elvis Presley and the brain of Albert Einstein?

Yes indeed; the concept of “fairness” goes far. Once you introduce it as a premise, then where do you stop? And either you base your government on “fairness” or you don’t. You can’t have your cake and eat it, can you?

I look forward in coming days to hearing more from Ministers – and indeed from readers – on the concept of “fairness”. One thing is sure to me, in a world of rapidly-increasing problems and people we risk hearing the word a lot more often as we struggle to find solutions which are “fair”. Of course, that assumes we think things should be “fair”.

Looking around, my conclusion is that we pretend to think it’s important but only if it doesn’t affect us too much personally.

Oh, the second Word of Mass Destruction? You’ll have to wait till next time …..

By Chris Snuggs

In the shadow of a rainbow

A truly magical experience between man and bear.

Regular readers of this Blog will know that Naked Capitalism is a daily read for this author. Yves Smith always includes her ‘antidote du jour’ picture of animals. How Yves finds these is beyond me but her antidote of the 14th November really was special. The original author of the piece, Tom Sears, is encouraging the distribution of his story and pictures and it’s a pleasure to do so via Learning from Dogs.

Black bears typically have two cubs; rarely, one or three. In 2007, in northern New Hampshire, a black bear Sow gave birth to five healthy young. There were two or three reports of sows with as many as 4 cubs, but five was, and is, very extraordinary. I learned of them shortly after they emerged from their den and set myself a goal of photographing all five cubs with their mom – no matter how much time and effort was involved. I knew the trail they followed on a fairly regular basis, usually shortly before dark. After spending nearly four hours a day, seven days a week, for more than six weeks, I had that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and photographed them. I used the equivalent of a very fast film speed on my digital camera. The print is properly focused and well exposed, with all six bears posing as if they were in a studio for a family portrait.

bearfamilyadults

I stayed in touch with other people who saw the bears during the summer and into the fall hunting season. All six bears continued to thrive. As time for hibernation approached, I found still more folks who had seen them, and everything remained OK. I stayed away from the bears as I was concerned that they might become habituated to me, or to people in general, and treat them as `approachable friends’. This could easily become dangerous for both man and animal.

After Halloween, I received no further reports and could only hope the bears survived until they hibernated.

This spring, just before the snow disappeared, all six bears came out of their den and wandered all over the same familiar territory they trekked in the spring of 2007.

I saw them before mid-April and dreamed nightly of taking another family portrait, a highly improbable second once-in-a-lifetime photograph.

On 25 April 2008, I achieved my dream.

bearfamilybabies

When something as magical as this happens between man and animal, Native Americans say, “We have walked together in the shadow of a rainbow”. And so it is with humility and great pleasure that I share these exhilarating photos with you. Do pass them on!

By Paul Handover

Single-handed sailing

A personal reflection on this rather strange way of travelling!

The recent Post about young Jessica Watson sailing alone around the world raised a few comments but also reminded me of my own experiences of solo sailing.

Some years ago, having successfully sold my own IT company, I warmed to the idea of being a full-time yachtie! A second-hand Tradewind 33 was discovered on the Island of Corfu. (Now here’s a surprise! I was just browsing the web looking for a picture of a Tradewind and came across my old yacht currently up for sale. Her name is Songbird of Kent! Picture below.)

Anyway, the deal was done and having sold my house in England I flew out to Corfu to collect Songbird of Kent. Inevitably it was a number of months before the boat was ready to head out into the Mediterranean but in early Spring 1988 it was time to explore the long coastlines of Greece and Turkey.

After a fantastic summer cruising from one idyllic anchorage to another mostly with friends or family on board, it was time to find a winter haven. Many recommended Larnaca Marina in Cyprus. Thus it was late in the summer of 1988 that I said goodbye to friends and set out on my own to cross from Antalya in Turkey to Cyprus and for Larnaca, on the SE side of the island.

That sea crossing, only a little over 200 nautical miles, was to become a regular solo experience at the start and end of each summer season. Impossible to do in a single day it was always a night at sea and rarely, if things didn’t go well with the weather, a couple of nights. I hated it! Maybe it was the sudden transition from coastal sailing to a deep water crossing, often going from having friends on board to being alone, but whatever it was I never enjoyed my time on my own and knew that long-distance solo sailing was never going to be my scene.

Remarkable people: Benjamin Zander

Music is his base

Very few people demonstrate and explain the benefits of responding positively to the world around us as effectively as Benjamin Zander. The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra is “semi-professional”, which means that it is a volunteer orchestra who play to professional standards. He has conducted the orchestra for 30 years; and his standing as a professional cellist and conductor is without question.

Leadership is his forte

But his contribution as a musician is exceeded by his contribution as a speaker on leadership.

He combines speeches on leadership with his musical performances and has given keynote speeches at the World Economic Forum on at least four occasions.

In the book ,”The Art of Possibility”, which he co-authored with his partner Rosamund Stone Zander, they relate the following moving story.

A New Children’s Story

A little girl in second grade underwent chemotherapy for leukaemia. When she returned to school, she wore a scarf to hide the fact that she lost all her hair. But some of the children pulled it off, and in their nervousness laughed and made fun of her. The little girl was mortified and that afternoon begged her mother not to make her go back to school. Her mother tried to encourage her, saying. “The other children will get used to it, and anyway your hair will grow in again soon.”

The next morning, when their teacher walked in to class, all the children were sitting in their seats, some still tittering about the girl who had no hair, while she shrank into her chair. “Good morning, children, “ the teacher said, smiling warmly in her familiar way of greeting them. She took off her coat and scarf. Her head was completely shaved.

After that, a rash of children begged their parents to let them cut their hair. And when a child came to class with short hair, newly bobbed, all the children laughed merrily – not out of fear – but out of the joy of the game. And everybody’s hair grew back at the same time.

Isn’t that wonderful?

Contrast that with the narrow thinking behind a recent incident at at school in the Australia when a child shaved her head to raise money for a charity in support of her father’s illness. She was barred from the school. The story is described here.

How daft is that? As others have asked, what would they have done if a pupil had lost her hair as a result of chemotherapy?

Sometimes you might wonder whether we live on the same planet!

Take time to watch …

If you are not familiar with Benjamin Zander’s presentation, then this is an uplifting experience. For example, this presentation (of more than an hour) was given at the World Economic Forum 2009 (and never mind the image quality, it is good enough!):

Sabi – the Afghan homing dog!

Sabi – an Australian Army bomb-sniffing dog makes it back to base.

This is a lovely story that has been doing the news rounds recently, and not without good cause. It’s the sort of ‘cuddly feeling’ story that we all need from time to time. Anyway, first a thanks to Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, who included a link to the BBC story in her daily summary on November 12th.

Sabi

In the words typical of many online newspapers:

(AP) SYDNEY — A bomb-sniffing dog that disappeared during a fierce battle in Afghanistan between Australian troops and militant fighters has been found and returned to its unit after more than a year.

And Sabi the black Labrador is getting a celebrity welcome home.

Sabi was with a joint Australian-Afghan army patrol ambushed in restive Uruzgan province in September 2008, triggering a gunfight that wounded nine troops and earned one Australian soldier the country’s highest bravery medal.

From the Times Online:

Sabi, a four-year-old black labrador, was returned to the Australian base at Tarin Kowt after an American soldier found her wandering in a remote area of the southern province of Oruzgan last week.

The US soldier, named only as John, knew that his Australian counterparts had lost their canine companion during a gun battle between Australian, US and Afghan special forces and Taleban insurgents in south east Afghanistan last September. Nine Australian soldiers, including Sabi’s handler, were wounded during the assault and Sabi went missing.

Sabi, who was on her second tour of duty in Afghanistan, was officially declared missing in action. It is not known how she survived the past year, presumably eluding the Taleban, before being discovered by the soldier, who realised that she was not a stray dog because she understood certain commands.

Nice one, guys!

By Paul Handover

Our next generation.

Here’s a great role model – and she’s 16!

Jessica Watson is a teenager. She is hoping to break the record for the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the World. Whatever modern materials and technology can do to make sailing easier, sailing solo for weeks on end is grindingly tough at any age. She’s a wonderful example of the next generation!

Jessica left Sydney Harbour on October 18, 2009 sailing her sloop Ella’s Pink Lady. Her course is an estimated 23,000 nautical miles requiring her to be roughly 230 days at sea.

As was said, this is no mean feat for any person. Read more about her on her website and her Blog.

Wish her luck and fair winds.

Jessica Watson3

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Music is his base

Leadership is his forte

Take time to watch …

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: