Matt | March 14th, 2012

Human Rights and Offence

The European Convention on Human Rights was established to create basic, inalienable rights for all citizens of the EU. It has been under close scrutiny in Britain due to the underlying eurosceptic nature of our political sentiment and thus politicians have sought to provide alternatives and improvements as part of their manifestos to gain popular support. One such politician is David Cameron who pledged to provide Britain with a “British” Bill of Rights.

It is all well and good trying to establish who controls our rights, but it seems a more pertinent question to me as to what our rights actually are. The “frontline”, as it were, of our rights would seem to be that of public offence. A pertinent example at present would be that of the crucifix-bearing check-in attendants who are in the process of appealing a ruling by a British court on human rights to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The crux of the case is that their employees have prohibited them from wearing a visible crucifix while at work on the grounds that it could offend customers. It would appear that this is a good measure of the dividing line between rights and governmental interference and that the momentum for an expansion or contraction of our rights will be decided by such cases as this.

John Stuart Mill, in his renowned essay ‘On Liberty’, refers to a sphere of unalienable rights which protect the security of ourselves and everything we regard as essential for a standard quality of life. Mill asserts that any actions by others which do not alienate these rights should be permissible without legal interference. A limited form of social interference is permitted when actions purely affect the interests of others. On these grounds it has to be discerned whether a right to not being offended is one that should be regarded as essential for a standard quality of life. If it were essential then such state intervention through the Human Rights Act 1998 would be entirely warranted in order to protect the rights of individuals. I would assert, from my own opinion, that such rights against offence are not essential for a standard quality of life and it is in our best interests for them not to be as such a distinction would allow for almost tyrannical restrictions of liberty.

In order to justify this view it must first be agreed as to how someone can be offended. To what extent is it permissible that someone is offended by my actions? This is where we experience the first problem with the right against offence. It is entirely feasible that someone with enough hatred of myself could be offended by my entire existence. Is it then acceptable, in these circumstances, to correct the offending conditions in order protect that person’s right against offence? I think it would be widely agreed that such a system where this was permitted could not exist in a functional capacity and would probably bring society closer to an anarchical state.

Even if we take a weaker view of the right against offence and make it a secondary right there are still issues. A secondary right must be taken here to mean submissive to all primary rights such as the right to life and security etc. This would allow the previous case to be dismissed without interference but still leaves room for exploitation. If someone is offended by one of my actions which I consider to be sacred (for instance, someone may be offended by the islamic method of worship) then it is perfectly feasible that I may be offended at their offence. They then may be offended at my offence caused by their offence cased by my action as they see it as a personal attack on their inalienable right against offence. Things can quickly get confusing when continuing in this regard. However, the question still remains as to who should prevail in such a conflict of offence? It is clear that both sets of rights against offence are being violated in this instance but in order to correct one violation the violation of the other has to be permitted.

What can be gained from this is that there is no defining principle which separates permissible offence from unpermissible offence and as such it would be foolish to include such an indefinable clause in any Bill of Rights. Such a clause would leave the legislation vague and open to subjective interpretation that could be easily coerced and exploited. I am of the opinion that any right which can be legally challenged should be able to be proved deductively as to whether it has been alienated and should analytically valid. All legislation of this manner should be ‘black or white’ much like a right to life would be in sense that it is very clear when it has been alienated. If you’re dead then your right to life has been alienated, if you aren’t then it hasn’t. The right against offence cannot be defined in such a way and thus to implement such a right leaves plenty of scope for tyrannical and unnecessary restrictions of liberty as seen in the current case involving the crucifix.

Reference:

John Stuart Mill – On Liberty

20120314-112355.jpg


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Luke Davis | December 27th, 2011

Inside North Korea

INSIDE NORTH KOREA:
Death of big brother, Kwan-li-so, witnesses and satellite photographs

By Luke Kristopher Davis
(newphysicistphi.blogspot.com)

 

Isolated from the world since the rein of King-il-Sung, North Korea has become a cold, deluded and power monopolized nation. There ‘beloved’ leader (pictured above) has fallen due to a heart attack but his totalitarian  infrastructure still stands in all of its atrocities. Will the death of King-jon-Il initiate any internal political rebellion or movement? This may be unlikely as a surprising amount of North Koreans show actual distress and sadness through their mourning of their once leader. Also the dictatorship has been running for over half a century, which being longer and more painful than Qaddafi’s regime means more time is needed to devise any political upheaval.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j24nO2iNli8 This video explicitly shows the absurd emotion the people felt over his death. One has to ask whether all of them are honest as the punishment for not mourning properly is either a sentence to a decade of starving labor or death.
What is more likely however is the increase of external international pressure on the North Korean government to at least reduce the physical impingement of human rights on its citizens and to release prisoners from the kwan-li-so (Penal – labor camps)  and other detention facilities. This will come about through the good modern secular way: media, media, media and a bit of courageous secret service/ government services decision making. Also to help this would come from more escapees and former guards who have taken refuge  in South Korea, China or even the United States:

‘In his 1997 history Korea’s Place in the Sun, Bruce Cumings predicted, “… if and when the [North Korean] regime falls, we will probably learn of larger numbers [of people held in prisons and reform-through-labor camps] and various unimaginable atrocities…”’ David Hawk U.S Committee for human rights in NK

I think it is appropriate to replace the ‘regime’ in the quote with the death of King-jon-Il as the grapple over the nation and the National security forces (guards of camps) will leave room for escape for some extremely lucky Koreans.

Detention facilities, witnesses and Satellite location photographs
Image: United States Committee for human rights in North Korea (after a good research session)
The brutally starved child that struck you as you entered this article is most probably a product of one of these facilities. This is just one of the inhumane truths that you will find after reading evidence from witnesses from the camps (which will be provided here). It is unclear how much of the North Korean populace know about these camps, they may know about certain punishments for certain political disloyalty… make that any disloyalty to the government but not about the ’1984′ like re-education camps. Even with such knowledge it is extremely difficult for anyone to escape the borders, contact any international help or even to revolt internally.
As you can see from the image the camps are spread all over the territory but only a few are near any sort of border. From the camps that are shown it seems as if they are meant to be hidden from external eyes. The image shows 13 camps that have been photographed, but the numerical ordering of the camps (derived from witnesses, such as guards) are higher than 13. This could mean there are more camps to discover which is not  a good sign for anyone.
The camps function and label are divided by its degree of severity and importance. For example there are ‘lifetime’ camps which include political prisoners who go through starvation, painful labor, torture and psychological mistreatment due to a ‘wrong doing’. There are re-education camps for those who are not as hostile as others but are in need of indoctrination, it is not clear what the method of indoctrination is but a part of it includes physical beatings which happens in all of the camps. The prisoners include some of the family of those who have committed a crime against the ‘dear’ leader and the communist/ totalitarian ideology.

‘In the kwan-li-so, tens of thousands of political prisoners —along with up to three generations of their families — are banished and imprisoned without any judicial process for usually lifetime sentences. Their sentences entail slave labor in mining, logging, and farming enterprises in the valleys of mountainous areas in north and north-central North Korea.’David Hawk U.S Committee for human rights in NK.

This law that any wrongdoer’s family for three generations have to be captured and imprisoned is simply barbaric and it is one of many absurd consequences of the delusional regime. The working (communist) party urge that any factionalist, rebel or disloyal Korean may pass down their hatred or wrong view down the family and must be stamped out. This concept, that an idea or feeling can be passed genetically or that strongly down three generations is scientifically wrong. Also the fact that the regime is trying to ‘stamp’ out any diverging view from communism and the regime is a sign of control of the worst kind. Fundamentalism gone mad. How on earth do they think that controlling the intellectual freedom and emotions of a nation is just? I think the North Korean regime have lost any reasonable notion of just a long time ago.

Here is part of a witness’ account of his time in four penal-labor facilities:

WITNESS: Former Guard AHN Myong Chol,

Kwan-li-so Nos. 11, 13, 26, and 22

‘AHN Myong Chol was a kwan-li-so
guard. Ahn was born in 1969 in Hangwon, South Hamgyong
Province. Ahn came from a good Korean Workers’ Party family, so for his compulsory military service, he became a bo-wibu (National Security Agency) police guard assigned, consecutively, to four different kwan-li-so: No. 11, at Kyungsun, North Hamgyong Province, from May to August 1987; No.
13, at Jongsong, North Hamgyong Province, from August
1987 to the winter of 1990, except for four months during

this time when he was sent to the much smaller prison No. 26.
Ahn’s guard duties included making deliveries by truck to various parts of Kwan-li-so
No. 22. This assignment gave him unusual mobility within the camp, even for a guard.
He learned much from his conversations with other guards while making deliveries to
various sections of the camp. His work at four of the camps provided him with comparative insights into the functioning of the kwan-li-so system. Also of interest is his guard
training and indoctrination.
Ahn reports that the prisoners were referred to as “emigrants.” Great stress was placed
on the harm and threat that “factionalists” posed to the revolution; how factionalism
produces class enemies; how factionalists and class enemies have to be destroyed like
weeds, down to their roots, through the yeon-jwa-je three-generation family-incarceration system; and how guards have to exercise their control duties so as to reveal to the
class enemies the dictatorship of the proletariat. Like some of the former prisoners, Ahn
recalls the shock he felt upon his first arrival at a camp, where he likened the prisoners
to walking skeletons, dwarfs, and cripples in rags.’
.

 Number 22

USCHNK


No.22 (marked as no.5 in the overview photograph… second closet to Russia) acts as the head quarters for the Kwan-li-so and is run by “Chosun People’s Security Unit 2209”. It is 31 x 25 miles in area coverage and there are approximately 1000 guards,  600 admin staff and around 50,000 prisoners. Most of these prisoners are family of those in lifetime camps. The prisoners are made to do severe agricultural labor and other repetitive work which is part of their punishment as found in the U.S human rights report:

‘Ahn reports that the annual agricultural production quotas for Kwan-li-so No. 22 were as follows: 400 tons of corn, 100,000 tons of potatoes, 50,000 tons of lima beans, and 10,000 tons of red peppers per year. The camp also grew Chinese cabbages, radishes, cucumbers, and eggplants, and had a distillery that produced soy sauce and whiskeys. No. 22 mined coal that was shipped to the Chongjin Thermal Power Plant and the Chongjin and Kimchaek Steel Mills.’

This is beyond disgusting. Innocent North Koreans are being punished for disobedience of a delusional leader and system! The regime is also using the prisoners to generate capital and to establish trading contracts.
Slave labor rings a bell here, but hold your horses, the regime pays the prisoners 500 won a year. 1 won is nearly equivalent to 1 dollar which at this minute equates to 0.64 of a pound. Therefore the prisoners receive £320 per anum + being beaten, starved, ripped away from any notion of freedom, happiness and hope.

There are reports of over 1000 prisoners, mainly children, who die of malnutrition. Deaths were also caused from overly excessive beatings:

‘In fact, Ahn says, there were so many deaths from beatings that at one point the guards were warned to be less violent.’

Marriage in the camp is allowed to privileged prisoners (who the hell counts as a privileged prisoner?) but sex is banned. There is one account which a pregnant woman was executed for having sexual intercourse with another prisoner. In some camps the women who have sex are ridiculed and beaten.

WITNESS: LEE Soon Ok, Kyo-hwa-so No. 1

LEE

‘Soon Ok was born in 1947 into a privileged and stalwart Korean Workers’ Party family. Her grandfather had fought in Kim Il Sung’s Manchurian army against the Japanese occupation of Korea. Her son was enrolled in Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, open only to children of the elite. Trained as an
accountant, Lee rose to become a supervisor in the No. 65 Distribution Center in Onsong, North Hamgyong Province, which distributed Chinese-manufactured fabrics to party and state officials. She was arrested in 1986 in what she believes was a power struggle between the Workers’ Party, whose
members run the nationwide distribution system, and the public security bureau police, who were not satisfied with the amount of goods being provided to them by the distribution centers. She was charged with theft and bribery and held for seven months in the Onsong bo-wi-bu (National Security Agency) ka-mok (jail), where she was tortured severely because she refused to confess to the allegations against her. Then, upon her expulsion from the Party, she was transferred to an In-min-bo-an-seong (People’s Safety Agency) provincial interrogation center, where she was held for another seven months and further tortured.

To escape even further torture and threats against her family members, Lee ultimately
agreed to sign a confession. Afterwards, she was given a public trial and sentenced to
fourteen years at Kyo-hwa-so No. 1, located at Kaechon, South Pyong-an Province,
where, among other things, the prisoners manufacture garments. Though she originally
worked in the ordinary sewing lines, she was eventually transferred because of her
accounting and managerial experience to the administrative office of the prison, where
she had the opportunity to observe and learn a great deal more about how the prisonlabor camp was run.’

Number 22 and number 1 are examples of the sick, twisted and damn right irrational actions of the North Korean regime which was recently under King-jon-il’s command. If the world sent out more reports, more photographs and more evidence about camps like this, I don’t think North Korea will be able to stay hidden and as it is for much longer. This may sound very un-empirical and sloganish but as human beings we do have a moral duty towards others, this may in fact be wired into our biological systems, but it is there. As inhabitants of a secular nation where information and its playground sit on the pedistool, we have a duty to use it to increase awareness of the disgusting ignorant facism that still pervades on the surfaces of earth.

Here are more satellite images and a video taken from a documentary:

Number 14

Number 18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQXfMMHV8FM

Let’s bring down ignorance.

thanks to U.S committee of human rights for north korea and to David Hawke


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Luke Davis | July 24th, 2011

Science vs. Fundamentalism

“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.” – Albert Einstein

In the ancient battle between science and religion, evidence versus revelation and reason versus faith, many intellectuals and writers may have not explicitly highlighted who the mastermind behind religion and totalitarianism (dictatorships) really is. In this article I will introduce each position, explain its nature and effects on humans. I will also determine which position is more useful, less harmful, more productive and most importantly… which position is true. I will not merely show my opinion and say that such and such is true because I feel like it, but I will be as objective as I can, using evidence from research and surveys which are legitimate (readers can correct me).

Fundamentalism

“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.” - Bertrand Russell 

Fundamentalism is believing, using and protecting an ideology without questioning it or supporting it with evidence. For example, if I never stop believing that walking under a ladder brings me bad luck even when there is evidence against this, then I am taking part in fundamentalism (There is no physical link between you walking under a ladder and say you getting fired from your job. You got fired because of what you did on the job). This type of belief system, one that is absolute and superstitious, has many different appearances. It wears the cloak of religion, indulges in the dress of superstition and dresses in the attire of dictatorship and monarchy.

In genesis, we witness the creation of Adam and then subsequently Eve. God tells Adam that he is not to eat an apple from the tree of knowledge which would give him reason (An analogy for learning about the world), Eve becomes tempted to do so and eats an apple from the tree. God banishes Adam and Eve and all their descendants from the garden of life. This story is at the start of the christian holy bible. It promotes ignorance of anything other than Gods word. This story is sending a message to Christians: If you; Learn science, question God, challenge preachers etc. you will go to hell (or something disastrous will happen). This is an example of fundamentalism in a religion. The whole bible, Koran and pretty much every religious scripture or text is said to be the words of a divine prophet or of God. To question any commandments or teachings is a sin. This again is fundamentalism. Believers and preachers do not accept people questioning their religion because their religion is infallible (always right).

What about superstition? Well firstly a superstition is a prejudice, that is, it is not based on use or logic but based upon an instinct or emotional reaction to something. The prejudice could also just be a random guess.

Here is a list of random common supersitions:

  • Friday the thirteenth is an unlucky day
  • A rabbit’s foot brings good luck
  • An apple a day keeps the doctor away
  • To find a four-leaf clover is to find good luck
  • If you walk under a ladder, you will have bad luck
  • If a black cat crosses your path you will have bad luck
  • To break a mirror will bring you seven years bad luck
  • To open an umbrella in the house is to bring bad luck
  • To find a horseshoe brings good luck
  • Step on a crack, break your mother’s back
  • You can break a bad luck spell by turning seven times in a clockwise circle
  • Garlic protects from evil spirits and vampires
  • Our fate is written in the stars
  • At the end of a rainbow is a pot of gold

I do not believe or make use (if there is one) of these sorts of superstitions. The reasons for this is that these superstitions have not been empirically verified. You could conduct an experiment… have 200 different sorts of people who live a set distance away from the other participants, have each person ‘step on a crack’ or ‘open an umbrella inside’ and test whether those who stepped on the crack have had their mothers backs broken or with umbrellas whether they have had bad luck. The former is easy to test… see whether their backs break. However… there is no specific allotted time for this to happen. Also how do we make clear the relationship between opening an umbrella and something bad happening… it is hard to rid the experiment of other possible causes. So it is non-demonstrable. Also it is more likely that a mother breaks her back due to a slippery floor or a prior slipped disk and a minor fall (at what point does luck play its part?). Yet people believe in superstitions. I tell my friends that this is nonsense and that no evidence supports it, yet some fundamentally believe in it.

Colonel Qaddafi, Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and King Jon Il  are labelled as dictators. They ruled there territory through force and they dismissed any political opposition through force and fear. In North Korea there is a concerning concentration camp named No. 22. This camp is the size of small British town. It was designed to correct North Koreans who disagreed with King Jon Il and his establishment. King Jon Il believes that he is infallible and believes he is right without question… even his governmental advisers say he does not listen to any advice… even theirs. Hitler believed that he had found the perfect race and that his perfect race was absolute and unquestionable. Bin Laden believed that the Western secular establishment was spreading evil around the world, he believed this without giving it a second thought, without thinking ‘oh guys, let’s just check what the western world has achieved, lets make a poll and see if they really want the Middle East obliterated…  lets conduct tests before we enter into terrorism’.

Fundamentalism which has caused dictatorships has also bought lots of death and violence with it. Violence that can be avoided because bombing or shooting anyone can’t solve problems… it only destroys. If the dictators thought themselves fallible, if they were critical of their own beliefs and if they had used scientific judgement and evidence their own dictatorships would not have formed. They would have reasoned that a society full of questioning, inquiring, intelligent and politically active humans would be the most useful and efficient society to date (I do not fundamentally believe democracy is the best, we ma, in the future, construct a more efficient political infrastructure). Fundamentalism in Religion has caused a lot of harm and unnecessary conflict. It has caused conflict over who gets to live in the holy land in Jerusalem, it has caused anti-gay, anti-black and anti-women attitudes which have caused grief and violence around the western and still in the Eastern hemispheres. Religion also continues to restrain scientific development as many believers may not vote in favor of science funding or a real scientific policy.

Fundamentalism does not work with how we as humans decide what is true. We decide what is true based on mathematical logic or through observation (yes, there can be no such thing as a vague moral truth based on feeling). Fundamental beliefs are not justified by observation or logic (which is quite trivial anyway). So it seems logically improbable to verify any fundamental beliefs, even it one has been verified over time science may prove it false yet he fundamental believer won’t accept the evidence against it.

Fundamentalism above all hasn’t brought us much good, it has briefly brought us reassurance when we where primitive beings who feared nature and the universe around us. However fundamentalism has bought us religion, which in this modern world brings us prejudice against humans who are ethnically and sexually different. The overall effect of Religion is bad. The overall effect of dictatorship is horrifically bad. Fundamentalism just isn’t good. Can science do better?

Science

“It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong”- Richard Feynman

Science is very different from Fundamentalism. Scientists do not believe in absolute notions or principles, they are willing to change or discard certain beliefs about the universe we observe. They do not just pick and choose however, they have a criterion which establishes which laws and models of nature hold true. This criterion is experiment, technically it is called empirical verification. A theory is false or incomplete if it does not explain natural phenomena detected by experiment. For example Newtons (classical physics) failed to explain the probabilistic nature of the subatomic world.  Quantum mechanics had to take its place for those sorts of problems. Evolution to this date has evidence for it, but more importantly has no scientific evidence against it so therefore it is a legitimate scientific theory. Researchers often delve into a new problem or area with certain predispositions and preconceptions about what will happen, which could be based on prior experiment or just intuition. Sometimes they get it wrong, experiment disagrees with their model. They must accept this and move on, if they ignore the experiment they will not make progress… they will not make good scientists.

Probing the atomic and quantum world through the physical and chemical sciences has given us the Godlike ability to manipulate our surroundings to prolong our lives and to increase our life quality. Through the curious inquiry into electrons and certain mechanical devices the television was invented. Through Edison’s practical science, the light bulb, telegraph and many more useful gizmos came into existence. Physics has also enabled minuscule things such as sunglasses (polarized lenses), remote controls, doors, locks and electrical wiring. Physics has changed how humans transport ourselves through airplanes, cars, rail and….. skateboard. Physics has landed man on the moon and it has enabled us to probe the vast cosmos that envelopes our small existence. Chemistry has revolutionized pharmaceuticals, steering away from useless and empirical falsified herds and weird ointments. Biology has helped humans progress in sport, in health and in medicine. Science has pushed humans away from what we used to be… a confused, superstitious and slow homo-sapien. Science has bought us the internet and the glories of digital entertainment. I could go on listing great achievements.

Some argue that science has bought us nuclear weapons and other hazardous equipment that humans would be better off without. The fact is, science has bought us the knowledge and humans have put this knowledge to erroneous use. Science is merely innocent and so are most scientists.

If we apply our scientific knowledge ethically, that is, to the best of the health of all humans, then we will get rid of any harm science could bring. However science itself is not at fault.

We also use scientific reasoning in our legal systems. Barristers accumulate empirical evidence for their case, they infer what happened in the crime scene or point towards a certain conclusion. You would not here a barrister say ‘My client is appealing for an ‘intervention of God’, that is, my client did not commit this crime but God intervened with my client during this crime and therefore… because God is the causation of everything my client cannot be guilty.’ judge- ‘Case closed’. It just wouldn’t happen. You need good evidence.

Many still think that science cannot answer moral questions… such as: how should we live? What is good? However such questions can be answered by science… we should live in such a way as to increase the chemical endorphin in our bodies, increase health and the health of other animals and to increase scientific progress. To fulfill each of these to the best of our ability, we make use of biology, medicine and the knowledge of other great sciences.

We do not need religion for our morals. We should live according to fact not fiction. To live critically and without superstition.

One must realize that fundamentalism and science clash on the practical level and the abstract level. They contradict one another and contradictions are not useful, they are a sign that one or both positions are false. From the evidence presented and from the utility and progress of science we should present science with the winning trophy. Science at present is the best method to explain the universe and everything inside it. Fundamentalism is not.  Fundamentalism has had its time in the spotlight for over 2000 years. It has been proven false (the universe was spawned according to the big bang model) and as a scientist we must discard such a view.

It will take years for humans to collectively digest this. One cannot quickly eradicate a belief system, especially one as big as fundamentalism.

Let’s hope for the sake of curiosity, courage for discovery and for simple rational thinking that we will never hear someone say ” I am 100% correct” even on some mathematics problems (as Godel has proven).

Saying this… I am not 100% correct, evidence may go my way but I could be wrong. But the fact is… I can live with that.


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Matt | July 24th, 2011

The Euro Was Always A Step In The Wrong Direction

The state of the Eurozone countries has increasingly seemed to be on the verge of plunging the world into further financial meltdown over recent weeks with more rumblings from Greece and alarm bells ringing in other countries such as Spain and Italy. It looks ever more likely that France and Germany won’t be able to fully support the economic union that they dominate, coupled with America’s ongoing debt crisis the perfect storm could be in the offing.

The question does need to be asked as to why the Eurozone was set up in the first place. It is consistently muted that it is far from the perfect area to have a unified currency mainly due to the fact that the cultures are diverse leading to barriers such as languages and legislation hampering the dynamics of the joint economies. In the ideal union the member countries would almost work as singular unit so that there was free movement of resources and capital throughout the union thus increasing the synergy of the affected economies. Having synergy in the operation of the member economies is important as it allows the singular monetary policy to be beneficial to all the countries at the same time. Imagine as union where two countries are out of phase in the business cycle. Country A booms while country B is in recession and vice versa. The monetary policy that would bring country A out of recession would, most likely, cause massive amounts of inflation in country B as B is not suffering the same deficiency in actual growth as A.

The above scenario is closer than you’d think to how the Eurozone is structured at present. Take for instance the 2010 figures for GDP growth in Greece and France. Greece had a 4.5% fall in GDP whereas France’s GDP rose by 1.6%. Greece would require some extensive lowering of interest rates in order to stimulate demand whereas this same measure would hamper France’s fragile growth. As France is one of the major players in the Eurozone is is unlikely that France would sacrifice it’s own economy in order to help countries such as Greece and so the monetary policy set in the union would likely be more favourable to France’s needs (hence why Greece is now struggling so much in 2011 along with many other countries). I’ve started to come to the realisation that, with the levels of government debt relative to GDP currently leveraged in a lot of major countries, cuts in government spending are not enough to sort out the crisis and, realistically, growth needs to occur in order for the debt to be at a reasonable level for cuts to be beneficial.

This realisation does not however justify en masse fiscal indulgence. Instead it requires intelligent stimulations and investments which provide opportunities for growth without jeopardising the overall objective of debt reduction. Thus the plan in the US set out by the
Republicans with a mixture of cuts and tax breaks has the right sorts of ideas. The cuts will help to keep the debt manageable and the tax breaks will promote consumption and investment within the economy to help provide the ever elusive economic growth that is so desired in modern post-recession economies.

The countries in the same bracket as Greece in the Eurozone have never been given a real opportunity to have organic growth recently as they have little control over their own policy. Thus they now rely on cuts and multinational aid just to survive. I feel that a good plan in the short term would be to reinstate monetary control back to individual countries so that they can make personalised decisions to benefit each separate economy. Hopefully the limited flow of resources and capital would actually work in the Eurozone’s favour in this case as the monetary decisions could be able to be isolated partially between countries. This would be a decision with a view on the eventual break-up of the Euro currency and a reversion back to a more dynamic currency system that is more beneficial to the area.


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Luke Davis | July 19th, 2011

Four books you need to read before university

                                             “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”                                                        - Benjamin Franklin

Reading is important. It shapes our thought processes and feeds our hippocampus lobe with facts and our frontal cortex with puzzles. Without the ability and drive to read, our ancestors efforts to store knowledge and stories will go unrewarded. If at an instant all of humans lost the ability to read, we would literally be transported back into the prehistoric barbarian times, for all of recorded history, knowledge for us to live and build and social networking sites that intertwine humans will cease to have purpose.

Isaac Newton believed he was ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’. His discoveries were built on his predecessors works, he did this through reading.

I am a rational believer in the saying; ‘mistakes are things to be learnt from’. One mistake that I think we should all learn from is the mistake of Religion. The irrational and delusional superstitious belief in a creator has led to some, quite frankly, irrational and delusional behavior. One book that offers objective, rational and a well balanced case to why we should learn from and forget religion is the God Delusion.

The God Delusion

by Richard Dawkins

           I read this only a year ago, stumbling upon on it whilst I was in need of some decent arguments against God and all its derivatives. I had a few of my own arguments against it but I wanted to read a balanced book.

Richard seriously owns Religion in this book. His arguments are tantalizingly clear, simple and grounded in reason. He offers arguments from both sides, but any human trained in reasoning knows whose won (just in case you don’t know… it’s science).

Even if you are agnostic and ‘are on the fence’ this book will teach you how to argue and how to do it well. I have learned a great deal about religion itself and its history. You will realize the affects religion has had on our world (you can check for yourself).

This will enable you to become a mature thinker and above all will show you how to argue and reason (essential for any degree).

9/10     A MUST

The Rules of Wealth

by Richard Templar

    ‘The rules of wealth analyses the behaviours, the mind-sets, the lifestyles and the financial know-how behind becoming a richer, happier and more prosperous you.’

I have to admit… this book does not guarantee you billions of pounds. It is a guide. It is not clustered with too much economic jargon, graphs and formulas. It is written in a conversational style with plain and simple English.

The book is set out in Rules (as the title suggests), with each rule being important to you becoming more competent in your own finance. For example… Rule 59 – ‘Control spending impulses’. This may seem simple but Templar guides you into the know-how of actually using these simple rules.

If you follow Templar and use the rules to the best you can, you will definitely feel more in control of your own finance. This control is essential for university and will help you save money.

7/10   Go ahead.. nothing to lose !

 

Chaos : The amazing science of the unpredictable 

by James Gleick

 

      For any young prosperous mind, Chaos is a must read. At its heart it is an historical and simplified mathematical exploration of the amazing new science of chaos. This book is clear, fascinatingly interesting and will simply change the way you perceive and interact with the world.

You will journey through the origins of chaos and begin to build an understanding of it and of its significance not just in science but to human kind.

Chaos is at the brink of discovery, it is a new paradigm… a ground-breaking idea that will change everything. If your going into an academic world, loading yourself with at least some sort of understanding in it will help you become radical and it may affect how you form your higher education.

 

9/10 –  Pretty shmexy read

 

On Liberty

by John Stuart Mill

   On liberty is a political tour de force. Even to this day the insights into liberty and its importance are phenomenal.

Mill is an extraordinary author in this political nutshell. He argues for the individual and his/her right to live a life full of flourishment and interference from tyranny. Most of our justice system is based upon these foundations, that the individuals freedom is of utmost importance and any impingement of it will result in legal sanction.

It is quite a challenge to adjust to the lanaguage, but it is definitely worth it.

Entering university this will enable a liberal outlook on politics, science and life in general. You will become a much stronger defendant in liberties as you will understand its fundamental importance.

8/10  A graceful, important and essential read for any young intellect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Luke Davis | July 17th, 2011

Nature and disorder: Chaos theory

Chaos

 

The clockwork Newtonian world recedes in the intellectual horizon. Its time at the frontiers of our science and intuition has come to an end, the gradual rise of a new science has already begun. The seemingly orderly universe which we encounter every second is more liberal than what we thought, instead of being completely predictable and deterministic  nature is unpredictable and chaotic.

Does this mean Newton’s laws of motion and all the work derived from them are useless? Shall we hammer out our linear intuition? The answer is simply no. Simplifying data by formulating linear relationships is still useful, it still governs most of our science and economics. We cannot immediately discard what has granted us so much power and delve into a uncertain and new mathematical world. Linear science, that is, simple linear and exponential mathematical equations predicting natural phenomena is still a good investment. It is still reaping returns. Though like a new idea or business chaos deserves an investment; as it succeeds and evolves its share on the scientific market will grow.

You’re still asking the question… what is chaos? Okay I will briefly introduce it, though the concept and formulation of chaos itself is still growing.

Chaos can be defined as sensitive dependence on initial conditions. This means that a system which could be within nature e.g. organisms resulting from small changes in DNA or the weather is greatly dependent on how it starts. If you or nature changes how a system starts or tweak a factor in its initial conditions, you will observe a great difference in the behaviors of the system and as time continues the difference becomes greater. In a lecture about his paper on the chaotic behavior of the weather: ‘Non-periodic flow’ Edward Lorenz named this sensitive dependence as the butterfly effect. The effects of the butterfly on the surrounding air albeit minuscule may cause a tornado on the other side of the globe. This sensitive dependence plus the nonlinear laws that govern a system make it a chaotic one.

 

 

Here we have two images, one represents a butterfly the other a lorenz attractor (a 3 dimensional graph with lines representing variables accross time). The Lorenz attractor is determined by the other picture, that is, the variables represented on the graph is determined by the butterfly effect. The system is sensitive to its initial conditions. The graph is chaotic, it may look predictable but the variables oscillate un-predictably over time.

So why do we need to use chaos when it is unpredictable? Surely it is not very useful? It may seem that way when chaos is over-simplified. Chaos is merely a non-linear science which forms relationships and laws of nature, economics and other systems from non linear geometry and equations of a special kind. New medical research into predicting heart attacks contains chaotic methods. The pace-maker cells, blood flow and cholesterol all at first glance seem to be periodic and simple, however as small changes in the cells or small environmental or diet changes may change the conditions of this biological system. Over time chaos may perform it’s role… what at first seems minuscule may become a momentous heart attack. Like the butterfly causing the tornado.

Non-linear science arises when linear science fails to adequately explain natural phenomena. As classical physics failed to explain the wave-duality of particles and the characteristics of spin, quantum mechanics was born. The genre of phenomena that non-linear attempts to explain what linear science couldn’t is ‘self organisation’.  Self organisation is where a system which is independent of external equipment or major forces behaves in patterns that are random. Linear science needs to know the forces acting on the system… but we don’t know it… the drive of the system is in the system itself. So we need to have a science that explains how certain systems can behave randomly in patterns by themselves.

Another important concept inherent in chaos is self similarity. This concept arose from one maverick genius…  Benoit Mandelbrot. Self-similarity is where a pattern repeats itself at smaller and smaller stages and doing so infinitely. The equation that governed this fractal pattern as he coined was… Z <> Z^2 + C.  The value of Z is continually used to create the pattern. A brilliant yet complex pattern has arose from a simple equation. Our linguistic and intuitive relationship between complexity and simplicity has been overturned. They are not distinct, they are interconnected.

A Mandelbrot set with beautiful geometry. Chaoticists argue that this fractal geometry is inherent in nature.

Chaos is an amazing mathematical discovery, it has applications in nearly every scientific discipline.

What wonders will it bring? Nobody knows. Scientific and mathematical discovery may itself be chaotic, dependent on its initial conditions. I do have intuition that the elegant mathematical butterfly of chaos may evoke an intellectual tornado, changing the landscape of knowledge forever.


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Luke Davis | June 30th, 2011

The woman who cannot be stopped: Maria Sharapova

 

The woman who cannot be stopped: Maria Sharapova

 

Sabine Lisicki, the unseeded German, saw a glimpse of hope at the start of her semi-final encounter with Sharapova. She won three straight games through a fantastic array of shots and serves, though this turned. The momentum of the russian tennis juggernaut overwhelmed the german. Lisicki was merely an awkward obstacle on Sharapova’s path to success.

 

Maria was number 1 in the world in 2005 (WTA) earn’t through her powerful, sharp and majestic tennis play. She is showing those same victorious symptoms of a champion; playing with purpose, focus and extreme physical prowess.

Her serve in the last 2 years has definitely improved, becoming evermore stronger and Maria is showing confidence in her serving action. This wasn’t the Sharapova we saw in the late season of 2007 and in the year 08 and early09 as she had a crippling shoulder injury which needed surgery. She left the top 100 for the first time in 6 years, seeding no.126.

After a tournament in Tokyo Sharapova reached no.14 seed, however she ended the season losing to Peng Shuai in the third round. This progression and recovery was shaky. Many who followed her in 2010 would confirm that. She played fantastic tennis at some tournaments and at others she seemed to have lost her own tennis style. At the end of 2010 she finished no.18 seed, though after losing to Serena Williams at Wimbledon in the summer said;

“in a much better spot than I was last year.” – Sharapova

2011 was really an optimistic push for Sharapova as she hired Thomas Hogstedt who joined Michael Joyce.

Hogstedt and Joyce opened a clinic in the past and have worked on the likes of Tommy Haas and Li Na, getting them both in the top 10 world rankings. This new and effective ingredient really improved Sharapova’s game and definitely formed her new focus on self improvement rather than just pure results. In academic terms… she was focusing on gaining understanding and precise knowledge of the world than just on getting exam results. Doing the former improves the latter.

Maria’s performance in grand slams was phenomenal compared to her shaky game in the previous seasons. She lost to Azarenka in the final of Miami who was then seeded 8. Her other best tournaments were Rome which she won with a fantastic performance… not even dropping a set. She reached the final of the French open, losing to Li Na in the final.

Sharapova didn’t just enter Wimbledon with a good enough game, she exploded on the scene. She swept through the rounds beating the likes of Laura Robson, Peng Shui (whom she lost to at the China open in her injury stages), Zakopalova, Cilbukova in the quarters and Lisicki in the semi final. Lisicki was playing her best tennis and showed great promise but it was her first semi final at Wimbledon and Sharapova’s experience and drive was too much for her to handle.

If I was certain about anyone winning a title at Wimbledon this year, I would put my money on Miss Sharapova.

Let’s hope her new sportsmen and partner Sasha Vujacic gives her that boost which she clearly doesn’t need but would give her an extra assurance when things get a little out of her control.

 

 

 


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Matt | June 17th, 2011

Is The Government Too Involved?

I am writing now to provide my opinion on one of the largest and most fundamental issues in modern politics. For years it has been debated as to what the government’s role in society should be. Those of a right wing persuasion believe that the government should stay well out of into are public affairs and only pursue the essentials such as law enforcement. Those of a more left wing ideal tend to believe that the government should act as a steadying force to the ship that is the economy.

Recently I’ve started to see numerous news stories detailing recent new measures here and in the USA which permit the incarceration of civilians for what I believe are not serious crimes. A stand out example would be the posting of copyrighted music on YouTube. A bill is moving through the senate right now which fully prohibits even videos of someone lip syncing to a copyrighted song being posted on the internet without permission and carries with it a ridiculous possible jail time of up to 5 years. For me this is trivial as I don’t really feel that this is the sort of thing that the government should be dealing with. This is an issue that can be resolved between the relevant music companies and websites without having to make it a jailable offence just to unknowingly share a video. I feel that this stems from a general inability of people and citizens to enact control and responsibility for their own lives, possessions and actions.

I like to use the analogy of society being like a board game. People go about their daily lives and move about the board and in my opinion the government should be the one setting the rules so that the person who is most skilful at the game is the most likely to win. If there are too many rules then people are alienated by the board game and don’t want to play. Similarly if there are not enough rules then people will take advantage and cheat. The rules would also be looked upon trivially if arbitrary sanctions were handed out for innocuous events that need not have rules to govern them. The case of the copyrighted music could be modelled as a player not collecting rent in monopoly, or a player not declaring that they need to pay rent. It would seem weird if in either scenario the involved player were sent straight to jail without collecting £200 if they passed go. But this is how it is going down in normal society as people who make honest mistakes are provided with no forgiveness.

In the book “Capitalism and Freedom” by Milton Freidman it is mentions throughout a chapter that the government should act as more of a framework for transactions that occur in the economy and not try and influence then unless the break the laws of the the said transactions.

“To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshipped and served. “

The last sentence of this quote rings true for me in today’s society. We rely on the government for so much in terms of “favours and gifts” whether it be to help the economy, provide income support or to help get us tickets to the Olympics. We all make up the country so why not figure these things out for ourselves and make proactive decisions so that we don’t rely on the government to intervene in every aspect of our lives. Don’t like the state of the economy then find a sector that isn’t suffering, diversify or be entrepreneurial. People can’t just wait for the government to make it better because as history tells us, that rarely happens as we expect.

To inspire you to help in removing the need for en masse government control I leave my readers with a quote from the late (and great) JFK.

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country “


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Matt | June 16th, 2011

“Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn”

“Some men aren’t looking for anything logical.
They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s Butler

This is the first quote that came to mind, from the critically acclaimed movie “The Dark Knight”, as I read the maniacal ramblings of Twitter user “Lulzsec”. I urge readers to stop reading this article, open a new tab and go and read some of the posts on this Twitter account as I can guarantee you will be shocked.

Today there was a release of upwards of 62000 email addresses and passwords for accounts associated with such sites as Facebook, Gmail and Paypal. As you can imagine, the panic and pandemonium around these documents has been extraordinary. There are tweets flying around with photos of compromised Facebook accounts and emptied Paypal accounts causing the released documents to be downloaded thousands of times by concerned internet users checking to see if they need to take action.

Lulzsec claims to be a group “of lulzy individuals who feel the drabness of the cyber community is a burden on what matters: fun.”
Their website at http://lulzsecurity.com/ provides all viewers with leaked details and passwords of accounts all across the internet alongside details of top companies internet security networks.

The best analogy I can use to describe Lulzsec is that of an amoral Robin Hood. Lulzsec steals from everyone and gives to everyone, not that any of this anarchical nonsense seems to really benefit anyone except after the hacking of a number of pornographic websites when the email addresses and passwords of several US government officials (.gov emails) were retrieved to much shock and anger amongst the general public.

Lulzsec also claims responsibility for the recent compromise of the PSN network although that is yet to be confirmed. Similarities can be drawn to the ongoing scandal surrounding Wikileaks. In both cases the websites have released sensitive information to the public in an attempt to coerce a large corporation/organisation to bend to their will. Wikileaks released incriminating government documents in order to try and weed alleged corruption out of international politics. Now Lulzsec is hacking and releasing information about major firms in order to make sure these firms treat and protect customers in a more desirable manner. Or so they say.

Descriptions and posts on Lulzsec’s website and twitter account seem to contradict regularly on the motives for their numerous accounts. This could possibly be that Lulzsec is several different people all posting from the same account who have different motives for their so called “cyber pranks” or that the hypothetical PR wing of Lulzsec is trying to drum up public support from numerous sources in order to not always seem like the bad guy.

Whoever or whatever Lulzsec is, it is impossible to predict their next actions. Only a couple of days ago they redirected several thousand phone calls to the call centres of organisations such as the FBI effectively rendering the centres immobilised. It seems Lulzsec is a full incarnation of the persistently PO’ed people of the world who believe they are powerless to what they see as corrupt governments and evil corporations both fuelled by the prevalence of capitalism. This sort of thinking and publicity has given rise to the ideas of Socialism and Anarchism becoming supported on a wider scale than has ever been dreamed of since after the Cold War. Maybe it’s just the dire economic situation that it angering people but it seems some individuals have a very warped view of the world around them and a distorted sense of what is right and what is wrong. What this sort of thinking will lead to is impossible to predict but personally I hope it stays in the depths of the internet where it belongs.


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