I have delayed this post until the last minute, because I had a dilemma over commenting on blogs. I had set myself a target of 100 comments per week, which I managed for two weeks, but struggled to find time for anything else.

There’s no point setting resolutions that I don’t think I can achieve. I’m not sure I can maintain commenting on 100 blogs per week, so I was going to have 50 as my target which would be easy. But perhaps TOO easy,  so I am setting 75 as my target. Hard enough, but achievable.

We are constantly told to make a plan if we want to achieve anything, whether with business or in our social lives. The first plan I ever made was to be a genius in two years time.  

I was 12 years old and fascinated by the Theory of Relativity. “Einstein must be the cleverest person in the world,” I thought , “I wish I could be like him.” Then my prayers were answered.

On TV I saw an advert for an Encyclopedia called ‘Mind Alive’, it would be published in 100 weekly parts, and available from a Newsagent. “Great” I thought, “all I have to do is read every word and I will be a genius in two years.”

A ‘picture is worth a thousand words’, and many people rely on TV news to keep up with current events. Visual images are powerful, but can be very deceptive.  I was first aware of visual deceptions while on holiday in Berlin in 1987. 

I wanted to see the Brandenburg Gate, but as I walked towards it I noticed that the whole road had been blocked by American Tanks, with US  soldiers operating a checkpoint. Most people were turned away, but a select few were let through. These were all American passport holders; US diplomats, US servicemen their wives and families.

When Franz Kafka wrote ‘The Trial’ it was meant to be a parody and warning about the power of the State. In  the novel Josef ‘K.’ is arrested and taken to trial, but he is never told what crime he was supposed to have committed. At the end of the novel he is executed, still completely unaware of what he has supposedly done wrong.

Unfortunately parody has become reality in todays Pakistan. Aaisia Bibi has been sentenced to death for blasphemy, but she doesn’t know what words she was supposed to have uttered, as to repeat them would be an insult to Islam.

The psychologist Carl Jung had a synchronicity theory whereby highly unlikely events, apparently completely unconnected, come together and create significance for the observer. I don’t fully understand the theory but Jung appears to imply that there is some sort of outside force producing synchronicity.

I’m a non believer, but my non-belief was shaken by a recent coincidence. One evening I was randomly browsing YouTube for some comedy sketches and watched the following Peter Cook clip;

Peter Cook jokes about being the manager of Scunthorpe United. The very next morning, commenting on my post ’5 Topics for Blog posts’  Don says  “Why don’t you write a blog about Scunthorpe and see how that affects your ratings.”

What shocked me is that Don lives in AUSTRALIA , and Scunthorpe is an obscure northern English town of no particular significance (apologies to any residents who may be reading).

According to Douglas Adams in the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to the ultimate question is …….42!  

Possibly the most famous line in the whole book is the “answer to life, the universe, and everything” given by the supercomputer, Deep Thought.

“For seven and a half million years, this stupendously powerful, office-block of a machine had whirred. When it came to announcing what it had discovered, crowds had quite understandably gathered. “You aren’t going to like it,” Deep Thought warned. “Forty-two,” it said, with infinite majesty and calm.”

Robin Hood was one of the world’s first super heroes. He used his super archery skills to rob the rich and give to the poor. Now there is a new political campaign to emulate this hero.

The Robin Hood Tax campaign started as an idea. People liked it. It became a movement, and it’s growing.

Robin Hood supporters are committed to reducing poverty and tackling climate change by taxing financial transactions.

I believe it’s time to rewrite the contract between banks and society. The Banking Crisis can be the World’s Opportunity.

Who are the Robin Tax Supporters?

An estimated 17 to 21 million people in the USA are affected by a fear of Friday 13th. Some people are so paralyzed by dread  that they avoid their normal routines in doing business, taking flights or even getting out of bed.

In numerology twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness.

I’m hoping the blogosphere can help solve something that has puzzled me for 40 years now, ever since I first came across the issue in “The Jesus Scroll” by Donovan Joyce.

The book itself makes many ridiculous claims about Christianity, ala Dan Brown and his ilk, and is just a psuedo-science work of fiction. However I did come across a problem with Christianity that I was unaware of.

The problem is this; Jesus never claimed he was the Son of God.

When at his trial he was asked “Are you the Son of God”? Jesus’s reply was “I am the son of man.”…….. WHY?…..Why did he answer this way?

Size really does matter, especially when it comes to Newspapers. In the UK the popular press (The Sun, Daily Mirror, Star) are ‘Tabloid’ size (small), and the quality press (The Times, Telegraph, Independent and Guardian) are ‘Broadsheet’ (large).  Or at least, all the quality press USED to be broadsheet, until the Times reduced their pages to tabloid, and lost me as a reader.

I have always read broadsheet newspapers, and the reason is they don’t just print the news! You get features on the latest developments in Science, Philosophy, the Arts, Medicine, Astronomy, anything that they think will be of interest to their readers. Yesterday was a case in point.