Markwadsworth

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4337 )

• Reader's Letter Of The Day

  From The Metro: Government has its limits... So Gordon in Sunderland blames the government for the decline of the high street (MetroTalk, Thu) rather than the... Read more

  Posted on 04 January 2019 DEBATE

• Hyvää Uutta Vuotta!

  After 31/12/1999 (we were at Potter's Field Park in central London, great atmosphere, great fireworks), any New Year's Eve is going to be a bit of an... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2019 DEBATE

• Do Private Schools Increase Competition?

  Somebody at a political discussion meeting made a throwaway remark that he thought grammar schools/private schools were A Good Thing because they "increase... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2018 DEBATE

• Calculating the Surface Area of a Two and Half Sided Regular Polygon

  Part 2 of this post. I struggled for a day over this. First, write down what you know... 1. Any regular polygon can be split up into equal isosceles triangles,... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2018 DEBATE

• A Regular Polygon with Two and a Half Sides

  

  You calculate the interior angle in degrees using the formula ((N-2) x 180)/N. For a four sided regular polygon (spoiler alert: a square) has an interior angle... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2018 DEBATE

• Help to Buy Pay Dividends

  George Osborne introduced 'Help to Buy' in March 2013. Here are the changes in dividends per share paid 2013 (or 2014 if I can't find 2013) vs dividend per shar... Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2018 DEBATE

• Read It and Weep.

  Email from HR. The list of 'don'ts' is so long, it would probably have been quicker telling us what people are allowed to do: The festive season is here and I a... Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2018 DEBATE

• Expected and Observed Galactic Rotation Curves

  

  Interesting article from Forbes ("Rotating Galaxies Could Prove Dark Matter Wrong") which includes the following graphic: You can't argue with facts. The... Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2018 DEBATE

• Yet Another Example of How Terrible Universal Credit Is...

  ... it even fails on its own terms. From the BBC: The Universal Credit system leaves too many UK claimants with children facing a stark choice between turning... Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2018 DEBATE

• Clever Definition of "land" in Economic Terms

  One KLN (Killer Argument Against LVT, Not) which I have heard too many times is that 'land' (in the physical sense) is 'not so important any more in a modern... Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2018 DEBATE

• "Gritter Lorry Smashes into House in Helsby"

  

  Full story at the BBC. I've tracked down the exact house* on Google Maps (to the left of the red arrow marked 'Helsby Running Club'), and the strange thing is,... Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2018 DEBATE

• Band Aid (1984) Vs Band Aid 20

  

  I'm not familiar with Band Aid II (1989) or Band Aid 30 (2014), so can't comment on those. Band Aid (1984 original) and Band Aid 20 (2014 remake) are exactly th... Read more

  Posted on 21 December 2018 DEBATE

• Agricultural Subsidies

  A debate on Twitter has helped me clarify my thoughts on agricultural subsidies: Dr Sarah Taber @SarahTaber_bww: So ... yeah. Sometimes rural land ownership is... Read more

  Posted on 21 December 2018 DEBATE

• An Alternative Explanation for the Shape of Spiral Arm Galaxies (part 2)

  

  And lo, the second and final part in my mini-series on why the planets revolving a sun follow Newton's rules/General Relativity (the larger the orbit, the slowe... Read more

  Posted on 16 December 2018 DEBATE

• Questions to Which the Answer is No.

  Via @SOLZ_ZYN, from Property 118, article reproduced in full: Negative equity – are the banks responsible? A few of my houses are coming to their end of term an... Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2018 DEBATE

• An Alternative Explanation for the Shape of Spiral Arm Galaxies (part 1)

  We are familiar with spiral arm galaxies. The 'problem' is that to maintain their shape, the rotational speed of the outer stars must be the same as inner stars. Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2018 DEBATE

• An Alternative Explanation for Why Planet Earth Bulges at the Equator

  Easy explanation - the world is spinning round, so the equator gets thrown outwards slightly, like people spinning balls of pizza dough into flat pizza bases. O... Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2018 DEBATE

• Absolute and Relative Values

  Example One - Ted Heath. Having stoked the house price bubble in the early 1970s (the top of an eighteen year cycle), UK governments then had to spend five year... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2018 DEBATE

• Dark Fluid: This Bit Doesn't Make Sense

  From Space Daily: The preamble: Our best theoretical model can only explain 5% of the universe. The remaining 95% is famously [what sort of justification is... Read more

  Posted on 07 December 2018 DEBATE

• Clean Brexit 'Cliff Edge' Fallacy

  The fallacy of the 'cliff edge' when (if?) we leave the EU without a 'deal' with it. Evidence 1. Chat with major insurer underwriting admin. bod in Major... Read more

  Posted on 07 December 2018 DEBATE