Category: Uncategorized

‘Population Collapse’ is now no Greek!

Any nation with a birth rate below replacement will eventually cease to exist. – tweets Elon Musk.

Reports coming in saying Greece is facing a population decline, possibly becoming the first country to experience “population collapse.” 

What’s population collapse?

Wikipedia says population decline, also known as depopulation, is a reduction in the human population size. It’s an alarming trend.

Throughout history, Earth’s total human population has continued to grow. The growth rate of the population accelerated to a peak of 2.1% annually during the 1962–1968 period, but since then, due to the worldwide collapse of the total fertility rate, it has slowed to 0.9% as of 2023.

Greece’s dwindling population sparked discussions on social media, with billionaire Elon Musk expressing worry. Greece lately is in the news for all wrong reasons. 

Increased mortality rates among young, healthy individuals due to conditions like heart failure, stroke, blood clots, and cancer, especially after COVID-19, are major cause of worry in the nation now.

Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described the situation as a “ticking time bomb” and a “national threat.”

According to The Hellenic Statistical Authority (2015), the unemployment rates in Greece rocketed from 7.8% in 2008 to 24.9% in 2015. 

The proportion of the population that is at risk of poverty in the country rose from 28.1% in 2008 to 36% in 2014 and 35.7% in 2015.

The reports say Greece’s population is projected to decrease by over a million by 2050. 

The country recorded just one birth per two deaths in 2022, PM Mr. Mitsotskis has stated. (So sad!)

“This is one of the most serious problems we face not only in Greece but in the EU as a whole,” Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis told news agency Reuters.

The demographic problem is due to lower birth rates, causing a negative natural population change, coupled with elevated migration.

Greece is not just alone. 

Japan is experiencing a similar trend. The country’s population is currently (2022–2026) declining at the rate of 0.5% per year.

China, whose population has peaked and is currently (2022 – 2026) declining at the rate of about 0.04%.

By 2050, Europe’s population is projected to be declining at the rate of 0.3% per year.

The UN Population Division data says that it took the world 12.5 years to go from 7 billion to 8 billion people, but it will take 14.1 years to go from 8 billion to 9 billion. It’s projected to take another 16.4 years to go from 9 billion to 10 billion.

The long-term projections give a dismal figure though. The growth rate of the human population of this planet will continue to slow and before the end of the 21st century, it will reach zero.

You know now why ‘Population Collapse’ should sound no Greek to the economists of the world.

 

Memes on SM walls win polls in India.

It’s election time, as you all know. 

When you walk in the street and happen to look at a poster (no walls are wasted, all pasted!) on the wall which has an image of the actor, director and producer Sandhana Bharathi, but the message is about Indian HM Amit Shah, you have just seen a good meme. That makes everyone laugh.

A meme is a humorous and satirical way of conveying a message or an idea into an easily translatable format. 

Social media nowadays are awash with memes. Images, videos and GIFs have all got memes as content.

Do you know how old a meme is?

The meme is as old as 1953, when the New York Times used the word in a Crossword Puzzle. The clue was; “Same:French.” (The term has a French origin).

It appeared again on the crossword in 2021, with the clue now hinting; “something that gets passed around a lot”. 

People share memes on social media and good memes can go viral in a second.

The British evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins was the first to use the term in his 1976 book, “The Selfish Gene.”

He said in his book that he needed a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.

He was actually talking about genes replicating through generations.

He wanted a name that sounded like “gene.”  And that was how the word ‘meme’ was born.

People live in a fast-paced social media world. They have little time for reading and images in the form of memes help positively influence people’s minds.

Memes form part of today’s marketing content too. Products sell faster through memes.

The popular meme creator who has a three million following on Instagram, Saint Hoax says memes are basically editorial cartoons for the internet age.

“Messages in a meme format catch your eye, and most of them can be read and understood within seconds,” says Samir Mezrahi, the deputy director of social media at BuzzFeed.

But there’s a flip side to a meme.

Some of them might just negatively impact your business and make your potential customers think twice before buying your services.

So be cautious when creating a meme and try rolling it out for circulation on social media.

Too good a partner. Yet too short to continue! Sorry!

Think of Brazil. A football legend’s name comes up. He’s none other than Pele.

Three-time World Cup champion. 1279 goals to his credit. It’s a Guinness World Record. 

Intentional Player of the Century. FIFA player of the Century. And more.

But we are not talking about Pele here.

Kaka is another popular player from Brazil. He formed part of the team which won the World Cup for Brazil in 2002.

He married his childhood friend Caroline Celica in 2005. They were living happily for 10 years before his wife announced divorce in 2015. 

What did she say the reason for the break-up?

The social media were outraged at what she did say. 

She said; “Kaka never cheated on me, he always treated me well. He gave me a wonderful family, but I wasn’t happy. 

Something was missing”.

She said Kaka was too perfect for her.

A husband as good and perfect as Kaka was too good for a wife. And that means a complete man or perfection in a man can still split a pair. 

How ironical!

Cat what? A cat who can predict deaths!

Yes, the cat called Oscar predicted the death of over 50 patients in a nursing home located in the USA. 

The nursing home cares for people with dementia.

Staff at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island didn’t believe it till about 20 patients died. All the dead were visited by Oscar during their final hours.

Oscar knew exactly when the life of a patient was going to end.

Adapted at the age of six months, Oscar was raised as a therapy cat by the nursing home. Though the cat was found aloof, not mixing with others, he provided comfort and companionship when people needed him most.

Dr. David Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar’s abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said the cat seemed to understand when patients were about to die. Perhaps through sniffing some unique whiff of death – the chemicals released by dying cells.

CBS News consulted several animal specialists who had corroborated the theory that cats could smell those chemicals and predict.

Dr. Dosa, who was an expert in geriatric care, released a book titled “Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat”.

He recounted one instance when staff at the nursing home were convinced that one patient was going to die, but Oscar wasn’t seen near that patient. 

The cat chose instead to be on the bed of another patient who was just about doing fine. 

Much to their shock, the person Oscar sat with had died first. That just proved Oscar could predict the death of a patient pretty accurately.

But some have argued that Oscar was all about a case of confirmation bias. 

People, according to the bias theory, tend to subscribe to an earlier belief which sheds a positive light. They would reject all that goes against their thoughts or expectations.

Oscar sadly died in 2022. RIP!

No regrets in life, just lessons.

Describe something you learned in high school.

Most teachers in India advise students to attend private tutoring classes. Some take those classes themselves and collect money privately from students.

Those who opt out are threatened with failure in important subjects of study.

So most of us were just pushed into this bullying trade when we were in school.

We were further told academic excellence could only be achieved if students attend private tutoring classes.

That was a huge lesson.

 

Why Marina in Chennai is a fun way to exercise?

What’s the most fun way to exercise?

Marina Beach in Chennai is the world’s second-longest urban beach. It is located along the Bay of Bengal in Tamilnadu, India.

About 15000 to 20000 people visit the beach daily. It marks a prominent landmark in the south of India.

The beach is a star attraction during peak summer, especially in the months of April and May. A fun spot for family and children.

Children run around and splash in shallow water. Horsemen on the shore wait to take visitors around. On a ride and for a ride. They make quick money.

We often visit Marina for fun, as we live close by. 

Balloon shooting is a good fun exercise.

The men who run the stall today are second generation shopkeepers. It’s a legacy that comes with a hundred balloons and three old well-oiled air rifle guns. 

Many such stalls now form part of the landscape on the Marina.

Shooting balloons has become a popular fun exercise, especially after Gagan Narang of India won a bronze at the London Olympics in 2012.

Narang won the prize for the air-rifle event. His father said he saw the spark in his son first when he was just two. Narang, as we heard, ran around in Marina and burst balloons.

The stalls give you rifles ready and loaded. People just pay and shoot. Pay ₹200 (about $2 for a pack of 10 pellets) upfront and grab a gun. Keep firing, bang… bang! 

You won’t get many shots right though. And the bonus is you get three free shots when you hit the balloon the shopkeeper points at.

There’s no stopping the fun exercise. It’s so addictive that people stay up late to break records.

But, all stories have got twists.

Some boys come real sharp. They come in a gang and start bursting balloons at the word ‘go’. They splash money.

The shopkeepers always see a profit. They make about ₹1000 ($10) a day. It’s a lot of money for them. 

They would ask the boys to go Gung ho. And the boys make merry. 

But the stalls have something up their sleeves, always. How to cut costs?

In the buzz of activities, the shopkeepers don’t load pellets when handing the rifle to people.

Boys won’t know they were just firing blank shots. The rifles go bang, bang, but the balloons just stay. 

Isn’t that a lot of fun?

Reasons why balloon shooting in Marina must rank as the best fun exercise.

Come and join us. Let’s go give a shot at one of the stalls in Marina. 

Anyone?