Select Page

Rand and royalty

Inevitably, the coronation of Charles III has focused many minds in the UK on issues surrounding the inheritance of wealth, power and privilege. Notably, it prompted the Guardian newspaper to undertake a detailed analysis of just how much the new king is worth, in strictly monetary terms and how much he costs his subjects. The results have been surprising, and shocking, but equally surprising, and shocking is the extent to which such information has been, and still is, concealed from those who, ultimately are paying the bills. That secrecy has been very necessary, because what it has hidden is almost impossible to justify.

The illness of Louis de Freycinet

For the first few days after the beaching of the Uranie in Berkely Sound, Louis de Freycinet proved himself a man of action, but then he became ill, and remained so for much of his remaining time on the island. However, the French editors of Rose de Freycinet’s diary, published in 1927, decided that this fact should be very largely supressed.

The perils of processing gravity data

LinkedIn is full of people claiming that just because their opinions conflict with the those of the majority, that does not mean they are wrong. No quarrel with that, but problems arise when they reverse the argument and claim that it somehow proves they are right. When, in doing so, they wander into areas about which I think I know something, I have to protest. And increasingly I see that happening when gravity is being used to investigate geology.

The Comprehensive & Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership

So the UK is now a member of the Comprehensive & Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, whose nearest member (Canada) is thousands of kilometres away across the Atlantic. In promoting the deal, the best our Prime Minister could find to say was that “British car producers would previously have paid tariffs of 30% to export their cars to Malaysia. From today, that goes down to 0%”.

The perils of big gravity data

According to NASA, the new Earth Gravity Model EGM2020, although not yet released, has been completed, .It will be based on a great deal of new data and will be a valuable addition for regional studies. But, like its predecessors, there is a danger that it will be misused.

Rand as a prophet

Ayn Rand is often credited with having made predictions that later came true, but all she ever did was follow generations of better and wiser people in deploring corruption. When it came to suggesting realistic measures to counter corruption, she failed completely.