A rhumbline is a direct heading to a point. On a map it's a straight line. It looks like the perfect way to get where you're going. On a globe, though, it may be the long way around. For example, New York and Madrid are about the same latitude. On a map, a course due east from New York is the shortest distance to Madrid. On the round face of the earth, though, a curved path (called the great circle route) passing over Greenland and the northern Atlantic is shorter. Try it with a string and a globe if you don't believe it. That's probably what a lot of the comments on this blog will be like. Random? Disconnected? Circular? Probably. But maybe they will lead to a point eventually.



Thursday, November 3, 2011

Greek Philosophy

A few years ago when I heard the word "Greece" I thought about ancient philosophers and beautiful islands.  My, how things change.  The Greeks of today are in real trouble and none of them seem to understand it.  France for some reason is leaning toward bailing out Greece rather than French banks that will lose if Greece defaults, and Germany for some even stranger reason is going along.  The only problem is that the Greeks themselves don't understand they need bailing out. 

Bailing out the banks that own Greek debt rather than Greece might be more expensive for the EU, but unless the Greeks go along with the proposed economic reforms it's probably the best action.  Letting them fall would be devestating, but no amount of austerity will work over the long run without the support of the population.  Maybe the upcoming referendum is a good thing.
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