Category: General

I am writing this because the graphs that one finds on Google, in the press, and on television could not only be misinterpreted by those not used to graphs, but can frighten the daylights out of them as a result of what they appear to say about the credit crunch. A graph is nothing more… Continue reading Graphs plain and simple

. Let us start with three facts. Fact one, two and a half years ago commentators, journalists, even simple men in the street like me, were bleating about the fact that the internal debt would cripple this country, and those in authority ignored us. Fact two, billions in assorted currencies are being spent on the… Continue reading To me it is serious stuff

This essay was brought about because I met a child of three who had a number of the skills of a five-year-old. It turned out that the child’s grandmother had also been gifted, and early in her school career had found herself in classes two years above her age. This process through giving her serious… Continue reading The education of gifted children

If we are going to use statisticians, we should also use common sense when applying those statistics. Politicians and TV presenters give out figures we take on face value that give the appearance of a massive change, because they are out of context. For example, yesterday on the news, they stated sales on the high… Continue reading Statisticians are a tool, not forecasters.

The other day I came across something I had written on Tuesday the 19th December 2006, entitled Crazy Mathematics, under Serious Stuff, with a forecast of the problems that would lead up to the credit crunch. I’m not stupid enough to think I’m original in my ideas and thoughts, even less do I think what… Continue reading Stop bleating like sheep, and roar like a lion

Sophistication is a two edged sword, on the one hand it has made our lives easier, and on the other it has complicated communication, information and misinformation, to such an extent that we are up to our knees in lies, half-truths, and manipulation. At one end we learn that we can communicate through music with… Continue reading The bane of sophistication

It is all right for a nonentity like me to speak his mind, there is a small audience, and in addition, you may not think it, but I’m careful in what I say and whom it can affect. The megaphone politics across the pond, damages more than it improves the thoughts of the electorate. It’s… Continue reading There are times to speak out, and times to be silent

For me, the cat is now out of the bag. I know it’s a silly phrase, but I have never really had time for celebrity worship, and have spent all my life totally unaware of their lifestyle until the silly business of Jonathan Ross’s indiscretion, minor in my view, which has been aired on the… Continue reading More than one obscenity in the Jonathan Ross case

We are all worried about something these days, but I have found one or two specifics strange enough to be worrying. It seems that to some extent we are joined at the hip with America and what happens there affects what happens here. The credit crunch has born this theory out. Therefore when you read… Continue reading It worries me, does it worry you ?

In 1914 Germany went to war for its own aggrandisement, thousands died time and again and the overall death toll was in millions. That was a war to end all wars, but it wasn’t, and the next time the death toll was obscenely high, the largest proportion of which were civilians. Yesterday when the Paras… Continue reading The futility of war and terrorism