Welcome to 2012

30/12/2011 by Ted.

Here we are at the doorway to year 2012, or as much of it as we get - for 2012 is, according to some, the year the world comes to an end - again. I have no doubt, however, that I will be updating this blog at this time next year. This particular “end of the world”  is just one more item of the untested media-driven information overload to which we are subjected on a daily basis. For me there are too many crackpots out there, each being listened to and publicised by the media without any justification whatsoever. I suppose it sells newspapers.

The advantage of science is that when a scientist has an idea, perhaps a seemingly crackpot idea, it is tested to see whether it is in fact demonstrably true. If so it is publicised - if not it is discarded.  The trouble with so many “discoveries” today is that they are publicised to millions of people as facts whilst  still at the unproven - and often crackpot - stage from which they never recover. 

Well, nothing seems to have changed. Ted is still having a moan about something even though it is 2012! Sorry about that.  But, hey, do you want to know something - in another thirty days I will have reached the ripe old age of 78 years. I can’t believe it. I certainly don’t feel old and I continue to enjoy perfect health and when I shave each morning the face I see in the mirror doesn’t look any different (just as handsome as ever!!!). So I am looking forward to 2012 and all the new things which it will bring - lets get at it. And a happy and prosperous new year to every one of us.

And we are going out just as we came in. I read today

“Brazil overtakes UK in world economic league

UK Taxpayers are funding aid to Brazil even though it has become richer than Britain, Whitehall officials admitted yesterday”. Magic!!!!!!

I calculated the other day that, like every other lower rate (so called) tax payer in this country I, by PAYE and VAT and fuel duty, am paying around 40% of my pension to the Government in taxation. As a pensioner I could certainly do with that money myself to help pay rising energy and food bills. To know that it is being shovelled into the coffers of nations richer than ourselves - as well as countless poor nations, not to mention into the pockets of the hordes of benefit seeking immigrants who flood our shores daily - well, God bless them all.  May I live long so that they can continue to enjoy it!

And of course that is what the media tells us so often - we are all living a lot longer.  My neighbour four doors away doesn’t believe them - he just died at 46 years of age.  Definitely not one of the “all” . And I believe that living a lot longer is not a good thing anyway. Nobody improves as they get older, let alone old - it is a downward thing with no recovery - not to be longed for at all. To go out with a full head of steam after a satisfying life is much to be desired. My dream is to have a massive fatal heart attack half way up Black Coombe. I may not have made it to the top, but what a way to go. The soft grass, the smell of the bracken and the tinkling of the stream. A delightful place from which to slip into the next dimension and all that waits there. Can hardly wait. And for me that “next dimension” is real.  I have spent the last five tears researching the non-religious evidence for and against its existence.  There is a mass of evidence for it - and none against it!  If you don’t believe me have a look yourself .

Whether you do or not, have a wonderful 2012. And as the song says, Remember if you are down and out - the only way is up! Hey!

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