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Showing posts from 2010

Salt

A recent item on our local news advised that a British group is endeavouring to have the amount of salt in food reduced. The question is why, why do manufacturers add salt? The answer to that is, because it improves the taste; it tastes good. Why does it taste good? Because our bodies need salt, salt is an important ingredient to a functioning healthy body. When I was still a young man and living with my parents (over 50 years ago) my Mother read an article that said salt was not good and so she reduced our salt intake. This was fine until I came home ill one day suffering severe cramps and vomiting and even passing out several times. My parents rushed me to the doctor who looked me over and told my parents to go over the road to the Chemist shop and buy me some salt tablets, on taking two my condition improved rapidly. Salt is necessary for the body to retain fluid and not become dehydrated, which is why we provide salt lick for livestock. Salt is so essential that in ancient times th

Predictions - coming soon

Throughout history there have been many predictions about the near future, the best known is probably the Mayan calendar which ends on a specific date; December 21st 2012. Hollywood has jumped on the bandwagon and produced a movie showing disaster and extreme calamities at that time. History channel has created a whole series listing the various legends, cultures and Biblical chapters that appear to predict an end of the world in our time. None however has looked at what this concept is doing to our civilisation. In all these productions the content of the predictions has been embellished to present a picture of doom and gloom and promote an expectation of catastrophe. There are however events that will occur in the near future that will contribute to the feeling of foreboding that many experience. There will be a supernova in a relatively near star, fortunately when this occurs the Earth will be close to its furthest point from this star that its orbit takes it. The sun will be betwee

Understanding Religion

I was motivated to produce this Blog when my nine year old grand-daughter told me. “God is dead!” When I asked who had told her this she replied, “My teacher.” It is apparent that atheism is being taught in at least some Victorian (Australia) schools, whether as part of the school curriculum or just by a zealous teacher I cannot ascertain. A grandson who attended the same school had also made this statement some years earlier but I assumed that it was just an opinion garnered from friends; apparently that is not the case the doctrine is being actively promoted. It is for the benefit of these children and others like them that I have compiled this summary of religious concepts. Included is atheism because whether atheists want to accept it or not atheism is just a belief system like any other religious concept, it is no more provable than any other religion. Atheism: As asserted in the previous statement atheism is a set of beliefs that are just as much a paradigm as any other religion

Our Amazing World

In an earlier blog I examined how the magnetosphere protects the Earth from the solar wind and how the solar wind protects us from cosmic microwaves so that our home planet exists like a bubble within a bubble protected from dangerous radiation. We also live in a universe where the various forces (nuclear, electromagnetic and gravity) are incredibly finely tuned to allow not only matter to exist but life itself. The universe is fine-tuned so that twenty different constants are in remarkable balance and we have no idea why. The forces are balanced one to 10 to the 37th power (that is ten followed by 37 zeroes), one to 10 to the 40th (40 zeroes) power and one to 10 to the 55th (55 zeroes) power; in short our universe should not even exist let alone support life. Climate has also been in the news and discussed at great length over the last few years and whether you subscribe to the concept of man made global warming or disagree with the idea you need to be aware of just how finely tuned t

2012 - Civil Unrest

Throughout history there have been many predictions about the near future, the best known is probably the Mayan calendar which ends on a specific date; December 21st 2012. Hollywood has jumped on the bandwagon and produced a movie showing disaster and extreme calamities at that time. History channel has created a whole series listing the various legends, cultures and Biblical chapters that appear to predict an end of the world in our time. None however has looked at what this concept is doing to our civilisation. In all these productions the content of the predictions has been embellished to present a picture of doom and gloom and promote an expectation of catastrophe. We live in a time of increasing unrest; violence and civil disobedience seem to increase everyday. Every disaster brings looters our churches are empty and our jails are full, older citizens are generally sure that there is a connection. In my lifetime, in my home state, I have seen murders increase from about two each y