Is this interesting enough?
Probably not, but it's a test if nothing else.  

Ah, that brilliant picture of one of my historical heroes laddie from the South. Robert e. Lee a true gentleman and great man who was admired by those who served with him. When soldiers get together to see you have a brand new uniform before signing a sad agreement tells you something!

Thanks Mr. Howie!

This month, for all of the controversy surrounding it, is Confederate History Month, at least in the South. Not sure about the rest of the country. So for a month, General Lee shall be my avi.

I'm in Georgia today. Just heard a rebel yell.
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This is presently the most interesting thread I've ever seen in either Opera or DnWhatever this is.

I love this one.

Well I am sorry that poster was ever to be. The North had no right to be sanctimonious what with the hypocrisy and then the way they devastated the South. Sherman was a fanatical zombie and the carpetbaggers a disgusting aftermath. Small wonder there was so much ill-feeling over the Mason-Dixon.

Now having dealt with the Northerner may I say Colonel that I  was unaware of the Confederate celebration  and would have loved that. Earlier on Friday evening I went several minutes from my hoe to pick up a prescription from my local chemist (drug store over there) and the young woman who served me turned out to be a Southerner. I didn't yeaa-haw as she came from Missouri not Texas. Still think the Confederacy had some great generals and the way the US treated the CSA Presient was disgusting what with being wrapped up in chains.

Just saluted the general up on the wall......

I suggest we could use this thread to bud possible new topics - which will either appear as threads or...

E.g.,

'Sometimes you get professional people on £60,000 salaries dropping in.
..They have just been made redundant and feel embarrassed to be here. They still have the trappings of a good job, like Sky TV and iPhones, which are under contract, but they can't afford to eat.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2608606/No-ID-no-checks-vouchers-sob-stories-The-truth-shock-food-bank-claims.html

[move]I don't find this thread interesting enough.[/move]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2611967/At-Im-alive-BBC-presenter-tells-left-coma-like-state-drugged-Ketamine-beaten-gang-nightmare-ten-hour-ordeal-holiday-Costa-del-Sol.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss

Alan Tait, who presents The Golf Show on BBC Radio Scotland, was on a three-day golfing holiday in Spain when a gang spiked his drink with horse tranquiliser ketamine, robbed him and left him for dead last Friday night...

At least I'm alive

Damn Spaniards and Belfrager has to live next door.

Damn Spaniards and Belfrager has to live next door.

Probably not Protestants either.

Probably not Protestants either.

Damn Spaniards and Belfrager has to live next door.

Olé!!

I wonder how many True Type fonts were available at that time.

Mutatis mutantis, it seems like SmileyFaze posts.

Is down under interesting enough? Once in a lifetime snow experience in Australia
https://www.9news.com.au/national/weather-arctic-blast-brings-snow-to-nsw-blue-mountains-orange-oberon-victoria/c8d8491f-c089-4279-99ae-6e2d989d8505

It kind of is, isn't it?

In addition to other problems, Japan is losing even professional criminals

Turf wars that were once settled by younger men eager to impress their bosses are now being waged by men well into middle-age. When two gangsters connected to a Yamaguchi-gumi rival were shot dead in the street last October, police arrested a 68-year-old suspect.

In the past, younger gangsters would commit crimes on the orders of their oyabun bosses and be out of prison still in their 40s with their reputations enhanced and financial futures secure. But longer sentences - including life terms for some murders - mean rewards for bravery and loyalty are no longer guaranteed.

...

Combined with more than two decades of economic uncertainty, stricter laws have weakened the yakuza's role in Japanese social, political and economic life, Suzuki said. "Although the police won't admit as much publicly - they don't want to talk themselves out of a job - we have already entered a time when the yakuza are becoming irrelevant in Japanese society," he said.

Where Japan goes, so go all of us, just on slightly different time scales.

Our world is ageing fast. Take this 150 year animation 1950-2100 (obviously half historical data, half projection).

In 1950 only a handful countries had a median age above 30. To list: Austria (35.7), Germany (35.2), Scandinavia (31.7-32.4), Australia (30.4), and the USA (30.2). Japan had a median age of 22.3 years.

Now in 2020 it is fairly even mixed, the world median age crossed 30 years last year. Japan has a median age of 48.2.

In 2100 only Niger in the Sahel is projected to have a median age below 30 (29.4). Japan would have a median age of 51.8.

(They would join Spain (51.7), South Korea (51.6), Poland (51.5), Iran (51.2), Nepal and Costa Rica (51.1), Brazil (50.8 ), Bangladesh (50.6), Italy and Thailand (50.5), Mexico (50.4), Turkey (50.2) and Chile (50.1) in having a median age over 50. )


Our World in Data: median age 1950-2100
More recent studies indicate we will age somewhat faster than the UN projections. Here's an animated GIF of the UN data.

In 1950 only a handful countries had a median age below 30. To list: Austria (35.7), Germany (35.2), Scandinavia (31.7-32.4), Australia (30.4), and the USA (30.2). Japan had a median age of 22.3 years.

I assume you mean above, not below.

A very big question immediately raised by 1950 is what about roughly 1930-1940. Perhaps it was more like 1970-1980.

Absolutely, and fixed.


WWI and WWII did affect the German population pyramid.

Germany 1950


11 years earlier interwar Germany, with anschluss'd Austria:



Clearly the world wars whittled down the base of the population pyramid of Germany (and Austria), particularly on the male side, and that increased the median age. 

But it is not the whole story. Sweden was neutral in both world wars, but had undergone the demographic transition. By 1950 the "pyramid" was bullet shaped.

Sweden, 1950


In Sweden the smallest cohorts were born in the 1930s, and there had been a sharp fall from 1900 in fertility rates (from 4 to below 2) and crude birth rates. In 1900 Sweden did have a clear pyramid (in darker gray):

Another thing to note, countries that we thought of as "young" when we were, but since had a rapid demographic transition, will actually have a higher median age in a few years from now. Bangladesh, for instance, would be an older people's home than Sweden, because the Bangladeshi "bump" will grow older, while Sweden's population structure will stay fairly straight as above.