Flood Stories

An article recently in the Huffington Post touched on a few issues I have pondered for some time. Dr. Ballard's discovery of ancient coastlines and fresh water crustacean remains in what must have once been fresh water lake beds, certainly raises the likelihood that the coastline was once some distance and a few hundred feet lower than it is now in the Black Sea.

There are a number of accounts of a 'great flood' occuring in folk stories, many of which coming down to us in oral and mythological accounts recorded by several cultures. Most of us are familiar with the story of Noah in Genesis, but there are similarities to this story in Mesopotamia, India, China and even in the Americas. Most mention a person and sometimes persons building ships and taking aboard a number of animals. In the Biblical account the Ark takes aboard a pair of every living creature and tells the reader that from this single family and the shipload of animals all subsequent life is decended. Dr. Ballard professes to believe that such a flood did occur at the end of the last Ice Age and that the Biblical account is an account of a survivor from the moment, around 12,000 years ago, when the rising level in the Mediterranean finally cut a path through what is now the Bosphorus and flooded the Black Sea basin.

As I mentioned in a previous post, there is a lot of geological and other evidence that the Mediterranean sea level was much lower during the Ice Age than it is now. If we go back even further, we find that the water level was once several hundred feet lower and that there was a landbridge where the Straits of Gibraltar are now.

What Dr. Ballard's survey of the Northern Turkish coast has turned up is a large number of undisturbed wrecks from the period 100 BC to 600 AD and a few sites that archeologists describe as "ambiguous" because the materials recovered could have been deposited there by storms. What is much more difficult to explain is the presence of stone structures at least 100 feet below the present seal level. Unless we plan to revive a belief in Merman and Merwomen, we have to accept that these areas were once above the water level and built by early human farmers.

So, where does this take the story of Noah and the Ark? Essentially it confirms that there was a catastrophic flood and that some escaped by building a boat large enough to carry them and the animals and supplies they needed for survival. the sheer volume of water that must have cascaded over the breach in the Bosphorus would have thrown up a spray cloud of enormous proportions and to an eye witness unaware of what was driving it might well have believed it to be "rain." That it would have been salt as well may well have convinced him of it being the "end of the world."

Could a 'ship' with the proportions of the Ark have been built at this time? Since we know the Chinese built ships of bamboo several times the size of anything any western maritime nation could build in the 15th to 19th Centuries (our construction techniques limited the size of a wooden ship to no more than around 280 feet in length), the chance are that it was possible. However, it is more likely that the writers of Genesis (written down from several oral sources around 400 BC) drew on ships they knew and just scaled upwards to fit the 'cargo' into it. My guess would be that the "Ark" may well have been more raft-like and carried Noah, his family and servants and their domestic animals and the expansion to include everything else is probably an accretion - though it does appear in a few other accounts as well.

I look forward to Dr. Ballard's next excursion to examine the sites he and his team have now identified. Hopefully it will inspire others to look at some of the other mysetrious underwater sites that have been identified since sonar has been developed and refined in the last fifty years. Will what he discovers change my view of the Bible as the foundation of my faith? No, for it will confirm that the "flood stories" have a foundation in reality and that, in turn, confirms the historic foundations of stories gathered, and in places 'embellished' and 'enlarged' for particular audiences at particular times, but essentially founded in fact.

It is my belief that much of what Dr. Ballard may turn up will advance our knowledge of the growth of civilisation and of religion in ways we can't yet imagine, and it will, in the end, be good.

Tax and Spend ...

In the midst of all the fuss about companies like Starbucks actually obeying the tax laws set up by the Westminster Incompetents, the Guardian posted a graphic breakdown of how the money gathered in tax in in 2010/11 in the UK is actually divided up among the various Whitehall Departments. The amount involved was a hefty £691.67 billion, which was a mere 0.34% increase after adjustment for inflation, on the previous year. Several aspects are very intriguing and thanks to a friend and fellow blogger, The Gorse Fox, I am able to put them into a neat perspective.

The top five Whitehall Money Reducers are in descending order -

• The Department of Work and Pensions 
• Department of Health
• Department of Education
• HM Revenue and Customs - (The Department that actually collects the taxes!)
• Debt Interest Payments - (The Treasury itself!) 

Sixth is the Depratment of Defence, the interesting aspect being the way the costs are broken down, with the Navy in receipt of less money than the RAF or the Army. Now here is the crunch, the cost of the MoD is just 1.8% of GDP, less than most developing nations (some of them in receipt of UK 'aid' grants) spend on "defence." Another interesting revelation there is that "Administration" costs the MoD £2.3 billion. That's probably why a large number of non-commissioned ranks are also having to draw on Income Support, Housing Benefit and possibly other "social security" benefits. 

The breakdown of the Dept of Work and Pensions budget is also interesting. Setting aside the fact that, from the budget headings, "work" doesn't seem to be part of its activities, the split of spending is £79 billion on "benefits" and £69 billion on "pensions." The fact that the first part of that includes some £8.18 billion for "pension credit" - an allowance paid to those whose pensions are inadequate. Surely common sense says that should be scrapped and made a part of a targetted increase in overall State Pensions? Oh. Yes. Sorry, my mistake, we're dealing with Whitehall here, such a common sense approach would probably axe about 20,000 civil service posts, and we definitely can't have that!

Likewise, the Dept of Health gets a whopping £105 billion, of which a mere £66 billion goes to hospitals and the like, and another £21 billion goes to doctors, prescriptions and so on. So what exactly do they do with the other £18 billion? It certainly isn't obvious from the graphic.

HMRC gets a whopping £45 billion, of which some £40 billion goes to "Tax Credits" and "Child Benefit" the latter being far and a away the lesser of the sums involved. So what is it they do that costs £5 billion? Again, not explained. Seems to me that they must be overpaid and living in luxury at the HMRC sites around the UK. The Treasury itself costs around £2.43p in every £1,000 taken in tax and the school for civil servants (where they get the chip inserted that makes them useless for anything else) costs the taxpayer £0.33p in every £1,000 in tax. (My former employer which trained Fire Officers and Fire Fighters was deemed "too expensive" at around £0.03 on the same scale). 

The Cabinet Office, according to the Gorse Fox's numbers, costs £0.82p per £1,000 tax, Parliament (tricky, they spread the costs through a number of 'front' departments) costs around three times what the Lords does and both cost more than the Royals. 

What these numbers reveal is that over half the tax take goes to the Department of Work and Pensions, the Department of Health and HMRC. I think one of the major scams this reveals is that "Pensions" are classified as a "Benefit." In my view, it is something we are all required to contribute toward throughout our working lives. It is not, therefore, a "Benefit." We are merely receiving back what we've paid for - in most cases over 40 years. A "Benefit" is something one receives without having contributed toward it, but, of course, in the twisted accounting of Whitehall and the Treasury, the money we've all paid toward these pensions has been spent on all manner of other things, for which they had no income and the contributions were never invested, so now, the money is running out, and it must, therefore, be the fault of these freeloading pensioners ...

Perhaps Baroness Thatcher had a point when she said; "The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money."

I suspect we're getting close to that point. 

Doha: More Hot Air ...

So the Doha jamboree for wealthy, over educated, under employed and pampered 'activists' and their current crop of cult 'scientists,' PR people and orchestraters is over. They have been thwarted in their efforts to raise the 'cuts' they think are so essential, and have had to settle for agreement to extend the Kyoto Accord for another eight years.

Ignoring, for the moment, the fact that the 'numbers' in the Kyoto Agreement have little actual scientific value - they were selected purely on the political expediency that everyone present nodded in the right place - what has Kyoto actually achieved?

The answer is, apparently, very little in terms of arresting "climate change." Some would argue it has done a great deal of damage to western economies as those government's have introduced massive programmes intended to cut the target emissions which have had the effect of driving costs up astronomically. At the same time, China, India, Brazil and many others, have more or less ignored the agreement and for every reduction achieved by any given western government, increased their pollution exponentially. As ever, when the science is subsumed to serve political agendas and ideologies, the science very quickly becomes very questionable - especially the 'science' being pushed through PR handouts and Press Releases.

Worse, when anyone questions inaccuracies in these, you are subject to abusive name-calling, calls for being 'excluded' or barred from any platform. The BBC has now itself been exposed for a bias in the matter of "Anthropomorphic Global Warming" with the exposure of their "secret" seminar, where all the speakers turned out to be AGW advocacy campaigners, which lead to the decision to exclude anyone who expressed doubt on the 'science' they wished to promote. The real problem here is that nearly all these 'Climate Advocacy' groups are now run by people with an avowedly anti-business and socialist/Leninist agenda.

Take a carefull look at the messages they are running, the "climate change" message is increasingly mixed in with "anti-poverty" and "wealth redistribution" messages. Climate Change, we are told, will drive more people in "developing nations" into "poverty" or "prevent their being lifted out of poverty." Appeals for saving the whales or the polar bears are slowly being replaced by images of dirty slums, forest fires or the victims of "extreme weather events." Tropical Storm Sandy is constantly refered to as a "hurricane" which it wasn't (based on wind speeds when it hit New York) and now the typhoon in Mindanao is being talked up as well.

No one who has read the papers, and studied the wealth of information available on the subject, should be in any doubt that changes are occurring in the global climate systems. What is in dispute is how much impact industrial activity is having. If one believes the anti-capitalist Advocacy Groups, it is all atributable to "western Capitalist greed," but they conveniently ignore that the worst polluters in history have all been the centrally planned and controlled economies of the socialist/communist governments they wish to recreate. If one also really examines the problem holistically the biggest problem is the unrestrained expansion of human populations. If one excludes immigration from the numbers the majority of western nations would be showing a decline in population. That is not true of the "developing" nations where the populations are still exploding and that is resulting in over use of land, stripping and destruction of forests and habitats and placing large numbers of people in areas where they are more likely to be hit by flooding, hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones.

I get the feeling that the reason most government's have refused to adopt new "limits" to emissions for the simple reason they can see the pointlessness of it. I think that perhaps, rather like the boy who constantly cried 'wolf' many others have started to see the agenda hidden behind the attractive facade and realised the impact it will have on them and the things they have worked to achieve. It may also be that many government's have, at last, like King Cnut's courtiers, realised they cannot hold back the tide.

What we should never forget is that all these "Advocacy Groups" are now multi-million dollar corporations. They need to keep their fingers in the government tills and our wallets - that is probably the least ethical aspect of the whole affair. Consider, for a moment, the cost of the Doha Jamboree. Now ask the important question. Who paid for it?

The simple answer is: You. And you will continue paying for it whether you like it or not until someone, somewhere, says - enough! Or, alternnatively, we bankrupt our economies which seems to be what these young, well heeled and funded activists want.

Snow is FUN!!!

Harry spent a restless night, but is now settling in and starting to explore cautiously. He still hasn't quite got the hang of not piddling or pooping indoors, but he is still just a baby, it takes time to learn these things ...

He joined us clearing the pation of the heavy snow we currently have - a path is needed to the compost for our vege waste - and discovered the fun to be had in the snow! As the pictures show, the snow is deeper than he is tall, but it proved to be great fun to leap into it, plough through it and generally chase snow flakes, bite snow pebbles and cause the odd avalanche ...

He wasn't keen to come inside, but is now fast asleep on my lap, dry, warm and sleepy ...

Harry has landed ...

Harry vom Goldbachmoor has arrived in the lives of the Monk and Mausi. He is just over eight and a half weeks old, he has his microchip and all his shots, his pedigree, his toys and his blanket. Life should prove interesting as we wrestle with house training and adjusting our scedules to his ...

Harry is a Sheltie, otherwise known as a Shetland Sheepdog, and will be attending 'Puppy School' as soon as he is old enough. Fully grown he should stand between 35 and 40 cm in height and resemble a small Collie. He is a tricolour like his mother and his sister is a blue merle like their father.

It's exhausting work training your humans to play the games you want them to learn ...

Egypt tipping back into rebellion?

The news at present is full of the unrest in Egypt, with supporters and opposition to the President now quite openly engaged in fighting. It is suggested that the cause of the majority of these riots is the Muslim Brotherhood attempting to break up the protests against the President's decree of immunity and the apparently overly Theocratic new Constitution. In retaliation, the Brotherhood is finding itself under attack, with its offices being burned and their organisation disrupted despite military support and protection. One 'amusing' image from the scenes on television is the sight of protesters wearing the black and white plastic masks representing Guido Fawkes, the 17th Century British rebel who attempted to blow up Parliament. One wonders if they know who he was, or indeed, what he stood for?

I noted with some interest that there are a number of indications that the bulk of the Egyptian population don't want an exclusively 'Islamic' state. They have enjoyed a considerable degree of tolerance and a relaxed environment of religious and ethnic lifestyle for far longer than most other Islamic countries and it does seem that the Muslim Brotherhood is losing its early support. This does, in part, seem to be related to the behaviour of some of their supporters who have been throwing their weight around in communities and enforcing their interpretation of religious laws on everyone. There are reports of their demanding the use of private peoples toilets and access to shops and homes to 'check for un-Islamic activity.'

It doesn't look as if Mr. Mursi's demand to meet all opposition leaders tomorrow and 'discuss' their concerns, is going to get the attendance he wants. Not even his statement that his 'Decree of Immunity" is a "temporary measure" to be lifted once the referendum on the Constitution his Muslim Brotherhood chums have drawn up has gained any credibility. I doubt it's helping his image any to have troops throwing up a barricade of razor wire, anti-assault barriers round the Presdential Palace and backing it up with tanks. Nor, I suspect, is it going to help him to keep bleating that the rioting is the result of "foreign powers interfering in Egyptian affairs.' It does seem that the Constitution he wants adopted is deeply unpopular with a large section of the population, so perhaps the sensible thing to do would be to place the referendum on hold - as the opposition want - and then get everyone round the table to thrash out an acceptable alternative.

As I said, that would be the sensible thing, but then politicians driven by 'religious' conviction of the fundamental sort (whether based on religious teaching or outright opposition to any form of it) are seldom sensible - as we in the West have good reason to know both historically and in the present day and age.

Arab 'Spring' Turns Heated?

Watching the latest news from Cairo it is evident that the overthrow of the Mubarack regime, hailed by left wing and liberal western media, has failed to produce the "liberation" from tyranny they proclaimed. The elections, as I suspected, were won by the Islamic fundamentalists. It certainly didn't take President Morsi long to try and impose a Sharia based constitution severely curtailing the hard won rights of women and to try to impose absolute rule by decree immune from the challeneg of the Courts.

It does rather prove the old saying that it is sometimes "better the devil you know" since his place may well be taken by something worse. The hoped for 'liberation' from oppression seems, everywhere, to have been surrendered to fundamentalists wanting to impose a theocratic dictatorship.

It is sad, but not entirely unexpected to those who have visited some of these places and seen the tensions bubbling away beneath the surface. The "Old Regimes" were only nominally religious. Secularising policies kept the excesses of Sharia Law and the fundamentalists in check - but they were always there, always working to the moment the grip on power slipped. Now they have seized the moment, the 'liberties' and 'rights' of women and minorites are vanishing faster than I can type.

A large part of the problem - from a western perspective - is that the majorities in all of these countries are simple rural and tribal folk, many deeply religious. So they will inevitably vote to maintain the strength and power of their religious beliefs. They do not see the western model as either appropriate or desirable and they reject it. The educated city dwellers are a minority, so they will always be outvoted, out rioted and kept out of positions of influence.

The 'scholars' and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo know this. It is only a matter of time for them, and the feminists and human rights groups will be suppressed - and so will Egypt's large Coptic and Orthodox Christian population.