Category Archives: beliefs

amusements, arts, beliefs, books, memes, nudism, thoughts, topographical

Friday Five: Wishes

OK so here, a bit late, is this week’s Friday Five …

1. Name one movie you wish everybody could watch.

  • None of them. I dislike movies and wouldn’t cry if they sunk without trace. Doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t watch them, just don’t expect me to or to share your enthusiasm.

2. Name two books you wish everybody could read.

  • Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time. Well it’s one novel in 12 volumes, so I’ll count it as one. Read it if only as a social history of England from 1914 to 1970. Oh come on, you expected me to say that, didn’t you?
  • Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (by which I mean the two works Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass). Read them and think about the logical conundrums presented; now apply them and change the way you look at the world!

3. Name three goals you wish everybody could achieve.

  • True inner peace and happiness.
  • Reconciliation and friendship with their parents.
  • To always treat others as you would like to be treated yourself (it’s part of what the Dalai Lama calls “compassion”).

4. Name four people you wish everybody could know.
I am going to assume the people don’t have to be alive now, but could come from any era. So I’ll nominate:

  • Richard Feynman; for his logic, his insights, his humour and his determination to overcome obstacles.
  • Galileo Galilei; a profound scientist who wasn’t afraid of standing up and being counted.
  • Leonardo da Vinci; another way out mind as well as a superb artist.
  • The present Dalai Lama; for his profound thinking, his happiness and his compassion.

That was hard! Four people I wish I knew would be easy, but to translate that into something for everyone is much, much harder.

5. Name five places you wish everybody could visit.

  • Rural England
  • Japan
  • A nudist community; to see just how it isn’t like everyone seems to think it is and to experience the freedom of life without clothes.
  • A small town in medieval England (or Europe at least) to see just what life really was like 600+ years ago and how far we have come.
  • Their special place. I believe we all have at least one place which is special and energises us (just as we have people who do this for us). It may be a town somewhere, or a country, or just a building (I know Stonehenge does it for some people, though not for me). Finding it is a whole different matter though.

[Brought to you courtesy of Friday Five.]

beliefs, medical, science, thoughts

Quote: Decency

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

[Pablo Casals]

amusements, beliefs, science, thoughts

Zen Mischievous Moments #140

The following is from the Feedback column of the current issue of New Scientist …

The $500 cable

EAGLE-EYED readers have pointed us to an intriguing offer. The US website for Japanese electronics giant Denon is inviting consumers to pay $499 for what appears to be a 1.5-metre network cable of the type that usually costs only a few dollars. So what’s so special about Denon’s AK-DL1 patch cord?

According to Denon’s website it has “woven jacketing to reduce vibration” and the cable structure is “designed to thoroughly eliminate adverse effects from vibration”. In addition, “signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer”. Plus, the AK-DL1 is made from “high purity copper” which “will bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction”.

As puzzled as our readers, we emailed Denon via the website to ask for an explanation of what causes vibration in a network cable, what the adverse effects are, why signal directional markings optimise signal transfer, and how high-purity copper wire brings out the nuances of a digital signal.

Within minutes an email winged back that failed to answer any of our questions. Although the AK-DL1 may look like an ordinary ethernet cable, it told us, “the similarities end there… the cable is designed in such a way that vibration is all but eliminated so that sound being passed is as pure as possible… That being said, this cable is not going to provide you with much of a difference unless used with top of the line equipment across the board.”

Denon helpfully gives some examples of such equipment, including a DVD player that costs $3800 and an amplifier costing $7000. So all we have to do to check Denon’s claims for the $500 cable is pay $10,800 for something to plug it into. Isn’t that nice?

Shortly after this exchange with Denon, we came across an item on the BoingBoing gadget site at www.cablereviews.notlong.com. It quotes “brilliant” reviews of the Denon cable from what BoingBoing describes as “perhaps the best Amazon [reader] reviews page of all time”. Our favourite is this: “A caution to people buying these: if you do not follow the ‘directional markings’ on the cables, your music will play backwards.”

beliefs, current affairs, freedom of speech, science, thoughts

Seven Reasons Why People Hate Reason

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The current issue of New Scientist has a 13-page series of items on “Reason” with the title “Seven Reasons Why People Hate Reason” from authors as diverse as the Archbishop of Canterbury, mathematician Roger Penrose and linguist Noam Chomsky. Taken as a whole – indeed even taken individually – the short articles are philosphically incredibly deep and quite difficult. They bear reading and I think probably re-reading. As New Scientist doesn’t make its full material; available online except to subscribers, what follows is a cherry-picked selection of what are (for me) soem of the highlights and insights. I offer them without commentary, and without the attribution to their specific authors, as food for thought.

From the 16th century, reason came to be seen as opposed to tradition and authority. Faced with the expectation of believing something just because a particular sort of person said so, the reasonable person was now the one who asked: “What are the arguments for this?”

This focus on rationality doesn’t speak to how people usually understand their lives and so they reject it for homeopathy, diet pills and […] stories about planes on Mars. People understand the world in stories, not dry rationality.

Do we know for certain that 2 plus 2 equals 4? Of course we don’t. Maybe every time everybody in the whole world has ever done that calculation and reasoned it through, they’ve made a mistake. Maybe it isn’t 4, it’s really 5. There is a very, very small chance that this has happened.

[There are] people saying we shouldn’t turn on the Large Hadron Collider experiment because a small probability exists that it might create black holes that would annihilate Earth. Sensible scientists say that this is ridiculous, there’s no chance. On the other hand, there’s a small chance that accepted theory is wrong, so there is a chance!

The central question here is about trust. What do you put your faith in? The kind of faith that Nehru expresses in science is absolute. It is not at all the qualified, provisional acceptance that might suit actual scientific findings. It claims to answer not just factual questions but every kind of social and moral dilemma. It offers general salvation. This sort of unconditional, general reliance on a single authority is never sensible, whatever god it may invoke. No system provides an infallible oracle; different problems need different ways of thinking.

Reason is “dangerous” because it leads you to question faith, not just faith that the world was created 6000 years ago but faith in the secular religions that lead to state power.

[…] governments and big corporations have hijacked the language and methods of reason and science in their PR and advertising to subvert the ability of people to judge for themselves – an end directly opposed to the Enlightenment values we supposedly hold dear.

[…] the concern that science and reason are increasingly seen as providing not just scientific, technical and military fixes, but answers to everything that matters in the world. This alienates people […] because it leaves no room for morality, art, imperfection and all of the things that make us human. Is it really surprising that so many turn to pseudoscience?

[…] even when we think we are being reasonable, we aren’t. Our decisions are based on gut instinct, then justified post hoc – and they are made better when we don’t consciously think about them. Researchers are also starting to realise that individual judgements they had long categorised as emotional and irrational may actually be beneficial when seen in the context of a group.

beliefs, current affairs, freedom of speech, thoughts, topographical

On the Extinction of the Knife

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So, our beloved Prime Minister, and his hench-chav-girlie Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, have decreed that carrying a knife (no qualifications; no excuses) is a criminal act. So it must be. Any knife, including the old blunt dinner knife I use in the garden or my 1″ long Swiss Army knife, is now illegal in a public place. Mere possession is a criminal offence. The result is to have my life ruined with a criminal record and go straight to jail. (Can’t have community service ‘cos the tabloids sez “nah”!) 🙁

What a complete load of ancient cobblers! Bollox to the fact that the PM’s whim does not make law — in the UK that is the prerogative of Parliament. Nor does the PM absolutely decree how the law determines any miscreant has to be treated — it is determined by the law itself, by case law and by things such as sentencing guidelines. So much for our new-found love of eating outside the bistro, continental-style — Heaven forbid, we might use our fish-knife to skewer some feral yoof. And bollox to commonsense … for if I dispose of an old, blunt, useless knife in my dustbin then it is still a knife and the Recycling Manager (aka. the binman) who takes my garbage sack bag to the dustcart is guilty of an offence for he is momentarily in possession of a knife in a public place.

Scalpellum vulgaris, the knife, that first tool made by man many millennia since, is now spiralling down the steep slope to extinction. All knives are now isolated populations in the properties they inhabit. We have no legal means of moving them from A to B or of acquiring new blood (ouch!) as it has just become impossible to purchase a knife as it cannot be transported, nohow!

These ID10Ts — politicians, the media and the plod — have absolutely no clue. The loonies really have taken over the nut house. (How long before nutcrackers are outlawed?) Last one out turn off their food and water supply?! 🙁

beliefs, memes, photography, thoughts

Reflection of a Window

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Reflection of a Window, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 20/52 (2008 week 28).

I think it is also time that I did another 13 things list, mainly for the Flickr “Thirteen Things” group, so here are …

13 Thinks I Believe

  1. There is no supernatural deity.
  2. All Christians (indeed all theists) are actually Devil-worshippers.
  3. Evolution is the only testable explanation we have for life as we know it.
  4. There is life elsewhere in the cosmos; but we’d better not assume what it looks like.
  5. All life does not have to be based on water and/or carbon.
  6. The scientific method works well until scientists get preconceived ideas or stop testing their (all too frequent) assumptions.
  7. Time, like space, progresses at a variable rate.
  8. Religion has done more harm than good in the world, however religion has also been responsible for much of the great art in the world.
  9. We should all be taught much more about sex and our bodies and this should be discussed openly; this would make us a lot more relaxed and able to talk about such things with each other, our children and medics – which has to be good for everyone’s health.
  10. Freedom of speech is sacrosanct. You are entitled to believe, and say, anything you wish. But I do not have to listen to or agree with you.
  11. Nudity and sex are both natural but do not necessarily go hand-in-hand.
  12. There are more things in heaven and earth than we understand.
  13. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
beliefs, people, personal, sexuality, thoughts

Rules for Living Life

I recently came across a weblog posting by Jonathan Fields over at Awake at the Wheel where he suggests “Six timeless rules for my 6-year-old daughter“. Never having had children, let alone a six-year-old, I’m not going to discuss the merits or otherwise of Jonathan’s rules. But they set me thinking: What rules for life would I commend? And I came up with these seven.

  1. Change happens. The only thing which doesn’t change is something which is dead. We all change; it’s called life. Some change is good, some is bad; that’s called evolution. You can either fight change or go with it. Fighting it is destructive; you can’t stop change, so much better to go with it and see what opportunities are presented.
  2. Life isn’t fair; deal with it. Things aren’t always going to go your way, and neither should they. If they did we would never learn. There is nothing you can do about most of the unfairnesses and stupidities, so quit worrying about them and let them flow over you. Accept it when things don’t go your way, try to understand why, and move on.
  3. Live the now. Go for it; grasp opportunities when they’re offered. As my wife’s favourite aunt used to say: “I take my treats as they come.” That doesn’t mean you should always live for the here and now, and never plan ahead. Clearly there is a balance. But don’t shut yourself off from the present and from opportunities because you’re worrying about what might happen – it might not and you will have missed out!
  4. Trust your gut instinct, but consider the consequences of your actions. We all spend too much time thinking and worrying. Yes, we must be aware of the consequences of our actions – not to do so is selfish and would ultimately lead to anarchy (as well as violating rule 7). But don’t over-analyse. There comes a time, usually sooner rather than later, to make a decision. Go for it. Sometimes despite your head’s better judgement your gut instinct will say: “but that isn’t the right choice for me”, “it doesn’t feel right”, “I know it’s risky but that’s what I really have to do”. Trust your gut and your heart to make the right choice. If we only ever trusted our heads, we’d never fall in love!
  5. Learn; don’t regret. We can only ever make the best decision we can at the time with the information available. We usually don’t have enough information or we’ll make a wrong choice. There is no point looking back and regretting your decision, or worrying about what might have been; you can’t change the decision; you did the best you could at the time. Try to understand why your choice was not the best and move on. I always say I have no regrets; I admit there are things I have done which I should not have done and wouldn’t do again, but I hope I’ve learnt from them and that is valuable – so why should I regret having done them, except perhaps in as much as it hurt other people.
  6. Communicate. Probably the biggest cause of things going wrong or misunderstandings is a lack of communication. We always say that communication is the most important factor in any marriage/relationship; and it’s true. But it applies equally to everything we do. If you don’t communicate, how do others know what you think, what you’re going to do, or what you want them to do? And communication doesn’t mean just talk; it isn’t all one way: you outwards! It means listen as well; listen hard and properly to what is being said to you; make sure you understand it.
  7. Treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself. This is perhaps most important of all; if you can achieve this most of the rest will follow. It is the cornerstone of my personal management method (which I call “Ethical Management” although it’s really about getting the best from people – but that’s something for another day). It isn’t “do to others before they do unto you” as seems so common today. It is “do to others what you would like them to do to you”. If you treat other people fairly then the wheels will turn more easily. People are like wasps: they’re essentially good; respect them and they’ll respect you; they only get vindictive when you get snotty with them. Don’t just screw someone for your personal short-term gain. Don’t do things to gratuitously annoy someone. Try to understand the world through their eyes. Why are they in a grumpy mood? Sympathise – better empathise — with them. Understand that it isn’t they who made that error and try to help them to help you to put it right. The Dalai Lama’s word is compassion, meant in its broadest sense. Treat others with compassion.

I do try to live by these rules myself, although I have to admit I didn’t always; I’ve had to learn them for myself, the hard way. I don’t always succeed, but that’s part of learning: if you’re not failing occasionally then you’re not taking enough risks to move “the business” (whatever that is; read “life”?) forward.

I would commend these to anyone. OK maybe not in this form until that someone is in their teens, at least, but I’m sure they can be packaged in suitable words for people of any age.

beliefs, books, freedom of speech, memes, science

Book Meme

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OK just for something a bit different, here’s a book meme I came across the other day …

One book that changed your life:
Anthony Powell; A Dance to the Music of Time

One book that you have read more than once:
Martin Gardner; The Annotated Alice

One book that you would want on a desert island:
Latham & Matthews; Diaries of Samuel Pepys. That’s apart from Dance!

One book that made you laugh:
Douglas Adams; Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

One book that made you cry:
Mervyn Peake; Gormenghast

One book you can’t read:
Amongst a number of others: Salman Rushdie; Satanic Verses

One book you wish you’d written:
Almost anything really; I just wish I had the skill and imagination to write a book.

One book you wish had never been written:
Not sure I think any book shouldn’t exist (that’s a variant of free speech), but if I really had to choose I’d pick two books: the Bible and the Koran; they’ve done more damage in the world than possibly all other books put together.

One book you’re reading:
Jennifer Ouellette; Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales of Pure Genius and Mad Science

One book you’re going to read:
John Aubrey; Brief Lives

The usual rules apply: tag a few friends (say 3 or 5), leave then a comment to tell them they’ve been tagged, and leave a comment for the person who tagged you.

I’ll tag Jilly at jillysheep, Noreen at Norn’s Notebook, Jamie at Duward Discussion.

beliefs, current affairs, medical, science, sexuality, thoughts

Sex Education

There’s an interesting article in last week’s issue of New Scientist in which Hazel Muir questions why it is that governments (indeed whole societies) ignore scientific evidence when making policy. Of particular interest to me was the comments on federal funding of sex education programmes for teenagers. As the full article isn’t available to non-subscribers, I give you a couple of telling paragraphs …

Among other requirements, the [abstinence-only sex education] programmes must teach “that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects”. A 2004 report commissioned by a Democratic congressman concluded that four-fifths of the curricula contained false or misleading information, such as hugely exaggerating the risk of pregnancy or HIV transmission when condoms are used.

“The origin of this programme was not in science or research by any means, but in an ultra-conservative, ultra-religious ideology,” says James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a non-profit organisation in Washington DC that champions informed decision-making about sexual behaviour. “You could almost see the abstinence-only movement as the sexual health equivalent of creationism.”

Several studies, including a Congress-funded randomised controlled trial involving more than 2000 teenagers, showed the abstinence-only programmes were no more likely than conventional sex education to prevent or delay teenagers having sex, or reduce their number of sexual partners. Yet Congress continues to fund the programmes. Peer-reviewed studies of more than a dozen well-considered programmes for scientific sex education show these programmes can both make teenagers delay having sex and increase contraceptive use if they do have sex: “But how many of these would be eligible for federal funding? Zero,” Wagoner says.

Now why does the US have the highest rate of unplanned teenage pregnancy in the western world? Makes you think, doesn’t it!?