Archive for the 'Current Affairs' Category

The Bankers

Published by bcg on 29 April 2012 in Culture and Current Affairs. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

There possibly is no dirtier word in Britain at the moment than 'banker'.  They have become villains of almost pantomime proportions, with people practically hissing whenever anyone mentions 'the bankers' on the BBC's Question Time.  People get so very angry, 'The bankers caused this crisis,' they say, 'so they should pay for it – why should my taxes pay for their incompetence / greed / etc?'

The BBC recently published this article in their online magazine, explaining the maths behind the Black-Scholes equation which calculates the prices of futures and derivatives, and lies at the heart of many if not all investment computer systems.  One of the mathematicians who invented and developed it was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1997, two years after the other died.

The question is: whose fault is the crisis?  Is it the 'greedy bankers' who cheated and lied in their accounts, inventing clever ways of moving money around to make it look as though they were making a profit, selling debt as an asset, lining their pockets with wads of cash and driveways with sports cars?  Or is it the mathematicians who inadvertently derived a formula which now pretty much runs the world of investment banking (apparently)?

Or, is it the society which created them, the society which decided that greed is the primary and best motivating force for generating money (which it is), and that generating money is the primary function of an economy (which it shouldn't be)?  Is it the society which wants ever improving healthcare and free education, the society which wants a constantly-improving standard of living (which is mathematically impossible to sustain)?

Is it, in fact, greed – not just the greed of the bankers, but the greed of all of us, wanting what we haven't got and can't afford?  In the U2 song Gone Bono sings a line: 'What you thought was freedom just was greed.'  To me that line perfectly summarises the problem: unchecked capitalism does not create more and more freedom for society, but more and more greed.  And for that, we are all complicit, and therefore all deserve to pay the price.

Thankfully God's economy of grace is a bit more forgiving than that..

Skynet is Coming

Published by bcg on 8 October 2011 in Current Affairs. 0 Comments Tags: , .

It's an ominous sign... Microsoft to win approval for Skype deal.  Who knew James Cameron had a gift of prophecy?

End of the World?

Published by bcg on 21 May 2011 in Bible and Current Affairs. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Surprisingly (or not) the world is not ending today – probably!  This guy has the right idea:

An atheist and entrepreneur from North Hampshire, Bart Centre, is enjoying a boost in business for Eternal Earth-bound Pets, which he set up to look after the pets of those who believe they will be raptured.

He has more than 250 clients who are paying up to $135 (£83) to have their pets picked up and cared for after the rapture.

They would be disappointed twice, he told the Wall Street Journal. "Once because they weren't raptured and again because I don't do refunds."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13468131

The arguments are well-worn: the Bible does not contain hidden 'codes', that's not what Jesus meant when he said he spoke in parables; the Bible tells us no-one knows when Judgement Day will occur, not even Jesus (Matthew 24.6), and that it will come 'like a thief in the night' (1 Thessalonians 5.2-4); similes are not literal statements (2 Peter 3.8).

And, the 'rapture' is a North American conceit, having little to do with what the Bible actually says about the end of the world.  It is founded on half-truths, snippets of verses, and who knows what else.  If you want to read a really careful exploration of the end of the world as the Bible tells it, I recommend Simon Ponsonby's book, 'And the Lamb Wins' (available here).

The 'end of the world' syndrome is not unique to religious nuts – I think it is something to do with being human.  Remember the Millennium bug, or the Large Hadron Collider creating a black hole at the centre of the earth?  Or how about the regular scares about asteroids hitting the earth, or the North and South pole switching polarity and heralding a new ice age?

People are people – crazy, impressionable and gullible.  But also wonderful and beautiful, inquisitive, caring and loving.  Whatever you think, please don't write off all Christians because a few people do crazy things.  Most of us are really quite sensible!

Osama bin Laden is Dead

Published by bcg on 2 May 2011 in Current Affairs. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I woke up this morning to the news that Osama bin Laden has been killed and buried at sea by American forces.  He was found in Pakistan, which is not a surprise, but near Islamabad rather than in a cave, which is a surprise.

He is personally responsible for leading terrorist attacks around the world, and deserved to be brought to justice.  Given al Qaeda's tactics, it is probably better he was captured dead rather than alive, to stop reprisal kidnappings of innocent NGO workers.

However, I'm not comfortable with the scenes outside the White House.  I understand the depth of feeling – this man led one of the largest ever terrorist attacks, on American soil, killing over 3000 innocent civilians.  However, the dancing and cheering is no better than the dancing and cheering seen after 9/11.

Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but that doesn't exclude seeking to bring people to justice, and even punishing them for their crimes.  We must protect the innocent, and we must seek justice, especially against those who kill indiscriminately, but we should never gloat over our enemies, and we should not celebrate the death of anyone, even Osama bin Laden.

 

Online Security

Published by bcg on 29 April 2011 in Current Affairs and Sci & Tech. 0 Comments Tags: , .

With the recent nightmare scenario surrounding Sony's Playstation Network (PSN), a lot of people are concerned about online security.  Sony have admitted that personal information, including dates of birth, mother's maiden names, addresses and credit card numbers are included in the data stolen by hackers.  This is a major incident in the world of the web, one of the largest security breaches ever.

Is the web safe?  How can I protect myself from fraud and identity theft?  Is there any way I can protect myself?

The web is by definition a public area.  Celebrities especially seem to forget this when posting on Twitter or Facebook.  The greatest strength of the web – that you can access all of it, from anywhere in the world, all the time – is the reason why security breaches like the one affecting the PSN are inevitable.  The web is not inherently safe, but you can protect yourself to a certain extent if you follow the following guidelines:

  1. Use credit (not debit) cards
  2. Use different and strong passwords (a password manager helps)
  3. Protect your data
  4. Use up-to-date software

If you keep these things in mind when using the web, you will protect yourself from the majority of attacks, and minimise the impact an attack has if you do fall victim to one.  The web is a wonderful resource, I love it and can't imagine living without it now, but common sense should prevail with these things, always remembering: the web is public, not private.

Continue reading 'Online Security'

NHS Statistics

Published by bcg on 11 October 2010 in Current Affairs. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I was extremely annoyed this evening to see a Newsnight report in which one lady announced that there are two managers to every nurse in the NHS and how can it possibly take 100 people to run a hospital.  From her non-existent experience of working in a hospital, she told the world that you can run a hospital on far fewer people if they are the right staff.

Well, I found the NHS Information Site and here are the numbers of employees across the NHS as of March 2009:

Doctors: 140,897
Qualified nursing staff: 417,164
Qualified scientific / therapeutic / technical staff: 149,596
Qualified ambulance staff: 17,922
Professionally qualified clinical staff: 725, 579

Support to clinical staff: 377,617

Central functions: 115,818
Hotel, property and estates: 75,625
Manager & senior manager: 44,661
Infrastructure support: 236,103

Other non-medical / unclassified staff: 364

Other GP practice staff: 92,333

As you can see, there are not two managers to every nurse.  In fact, there are nearly ten nurses to every manager.  Of the 1,431,996 members of staff, just over 3% are classified as 'manager' or 'senior manager', compared to over 29% which are classified as 'qualified nursing staff', so say nothing of the other 'professionally qualified staff' that make up over half of the NHS workforce.

The number that surprises me is the 75,625 people working in hotel, property and estates!  I suppose that must include the builders / plumbers / electricians / gardeners who keep the property going.

Anyway, the point is, it seems to be that the ratio of professionally qualified clinical staff to support staff is about right – such an enormous and far-reaching organisation needs a lot of people to keep it running smoothly.  No doubt there is inefficiency, and over-spending on IT etc, but many of the 'facts' that I hear peddled about the NHS and the numbers of nurses & managers are simply not true.

Seriously, journalists?

Published by bcg on 6 April 2010 in Current Affairs. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

After my recent post about journalism, I was surprised to read this. It was made worse by the Daily Mail (of course). The Mail's article says:

But now, to the horror of the purists, the game's makers are throwing out the old rule book and allowing proper nouns.

Worse still, not only will the names of places, trademarks and people be permissible, but even words spelled backwards or placed unconnected to other pieces.

Now, it seems that actually this is what's actually going on:

Mattel, which owns the rights to Scrabble in England, is going to release a completely new version of the game there called Scrabble Trickster, in which anything goes, including the use of proper nouns, spelling words backwards, stealing letters, and so on.

No 'throwing out the old rule book' after all then.

Thanks to CNET for sorting out the problem. Shame on the BBC for shocking reporting – it relegates the the true story almost to the end of the article:

[Mattel] will continue to sell a board with the original rules.

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