Writers are 'liars and thieves'
Not that long ago, I
watched the British movie 'Tamara Drewe' based on the cartoons
of Posy Simmons. Among the many enjoyable scenes,
one particular quote stood out, spoken by the
author character in the film. He said that 'all
writers are liars and thieves'. It's a harsh
statement but, over the last year, I've realised
that it does have a core of truth. Being an
aspiring writer, or an actual writer depending on
how you look at it, I'm forever drifting into the
thought:
'Should my next idea be very original or conveniently
similar to existing, successful
works?'
Dr Rupert Sheldrake and morphic fields
Last year, I wrote to Rupert Sheldrake, a fascinating man who developed the theory of morphogenetic fields and is the author of books such as 'Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home' and 'Seven Experiments That Could Change the World', both of which I recommend. I wanted to make him aware of the intriguing research that Luc Montagnier has been carrying out with water and DNA. He very kindly replied and agreed it was very interesting and threw up a lot of questions but he couldn't see on first glance how it could connect to his theory of morphogenetic fields. Here's my reply:
Read More...Consciousness thoughts - sixth bit
Fortunately, as Libet himself pointed out, that
depressing conclusion may not be justified. We may
not control our brains’ actions all the time
but we may be able to suppress certain
actions or initiate actions that our brains
wouldn’t automatically carry out by themselves. If
that’s true, I wondered, are there some situations
which we can use to test that idea?
There is one such possible situation; that of the
optical illusion.
My 'Ender's Game' book review is on the sci-fi now website
Being special and different is the mainstay of many
classic science fiction stories, from ‘More than
Human’ to ‘The Chrysalids’ and ‘Flowers for
Algernon’. They all revolve around a compellng
situation; a special person or small group of people
that have an ability or physical attribute that makes
them feel alone, separated from the rest of humanity.
Their ‘specialness’ makes them a subject of ridicule
or fear or plain incomprehension...
My sci-fi now competition entry, 'The film that scared me the most', won!
Just a quick note to say that my competition entry for the sci-fi now competition, 'the film that scared me the most', won! A bag of blu-ray, books and other merchandise is on its way to my door.
Read More...Doctor Who: Season six and my Tarditis
It was near the end of Doctor Who season six that I knew I'd developed Tarditis. Read More...
Consciousness thoughts - fifth bit
Sci-fi now competition: 'The film that scared me the most'
It was The Thing.
That wasn’t the
scariest part. The Thing was scary, very scary, but
the scariest part was that it was my first experience
of watching a scary movie with my mates.
I say mates; looking back, I’d be hard pressed to
think of a definite example in which any of them
acted selflessly on my behalf. It never seemed to be
like ‘Stand by Me’ in which the youngsters band
together and face down fears and dangers because they
love their friends. It was more like a prelude to The
Road. They’re friendly and want your company but you
realise that if they get hungry enough, it won’t be
‘you go! I’ll stay and fight them off!’, it’ll be
‘what’s the big deal? We only want your left
leg.’
Consciousness thoughts - fourth bit
My Star Wars: conception article is on the Sci Fi now website
Read
More...
Consciousness thoughts - third bit
Our minds are separate
from our brains and
can influence them.
This is a fascinating conclusion,
although Rene Descartes came up with it over three
hundred years ago so it’s actually no big deal.
Fortunately, thanks to the progress of science, we’ve
now got ways of actually proving that this is the
case. We can use electroencephalograms (E.E.G’s) and
electronic random number generators (R.N.G’s) to test
what the mind and brain can do.
The film 'Star Wars' is really about... conception!
Consciousness thoughts - second bit
Consciousness thoughts - first bit
Read
More...
Carry a Rubber Ball. Make it part of your healthy lifestyle!
The power of 'up to'
Are we missing something here? Are these companies, with their skilled and experienced staff, pointing us in a new direction? If using ‘up to’ is such a gold mine, should we be trying to use it in aspects of our own lives? Maybe the power of ‘up to’ can be used in our emotional relationships?
Read More...Navigation and the Ladies Internation Rescue Organisation
It’s always a good
thing for men and women to find ways to understand
each other better. If done properly, good male/female
communication can, in particular, save the bloke from
endless arguments, cold silences and comments like
‘that’s stupid’, ‘you’re not listening’ and sentences
beginning with ‘my mum was right...’. To help improve
this, I thought I’d write a short article about
navigation.
Imagine that you’re in your car with your dearly
beloved - your lovely female partner without whom
life would be an empty wasteland of loneliness and
poor personal hygiene. You’re both in the car on your
way to an important social event, a place that you
both will reach in time, if all goes well, but
there’s not a lot of room to spare. You’re driving
along and you spot a side street. You realise that if
you head down that side street, there’s a very good
chance that you’ll end up on a road you know that’ll
take you to the destination quicker. ‘Ahah!’ you
think, ‘I’ll take that shortcut and I’ll have
improved my knowledge of the area, speeded up my
journey and my dearly beloved will be really
grateful. We’ll be at the
wedding/christening/graduation ceremony with time to
spare. Hooray!’
I have three words of advice to give at this point:
Don’t do
it!
Santa Claus is coming to town. (Scream!)
Santa’s a strange guy. I was watching ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ yesterday and I was fascinated by the character of Santa Claus, so wonderfully played by Richard Attenborough. Who was this guy with his white and red outfit, black boots, white beard and twinkling eye? Why would people start to think that someone would come down their chimney at night and give their children presents? It’s a strange double standard for modern parents to have: ‘Don’t ever take sweets from strangers, go with them anywhere or let them into your house!’ ‘But mummy, what about Santa Claus?’ ‘Oh, him, that old, bearded guy? That’s perfectly okay. You should let him climb down the chimney and sneak into your rooms at night. In fact, make an effort to leave food at night for him just so he’s in a good mood.’ Dodgy guy on the street, stay away; stranger entering your rooms through the chimney at night, give him a mince pie!
Read More...The Utter horror of the 'three for two' offer
Film tie-ins aside, I
picked up the two books by Lindqvist that I wanted.
Sorted! I could go home and have a cup of tea. Then I
spotted something. Sitting prominently on the front
cover of both books was a sticker marked ‘3 for 2’.
Oh. That’s good, I thought. I have two books I want.
I can pick up a third for nothing. I looked around
casually. There were lots of ‘3 for 2’ books on the
tables around. I’ll definitely want one of those.
The only thing was, each one I spotted I didn’t want.
Read More...A simple guide to how homeopathy might work
Note: This is a
long blog entry. If you'd like to read it as a pdf
document, click
here.
Extra note: This long blog entry now has its own web
page
here.
For some reason, a lot of people seem to get very
worked up about homeopathy. They make comments like
‘if it’s only water, we can throw it in the sea and
make everyone well!’ or ‘it’s just a placebo, you’re
all being fooled!’ or ‘it’s quackery and should be
banned!’ or ‘burn them! Burn them all and their test
tubes and little boxes with ground up plants! Burn
them!’ Perhaps I’m getting a little exaggerated on
that last one but you get the idea.
The thing is, homeopathy does seem to work, at least
for some people. Now, it is certainly possible that
their improvements may be down the placebo effect;
that the psychological effect of them taking a
medicine has cured them rather than the medicine
itself. The placebo effect does also work. The only
problem with this idea is that vets have used
homeopathic remedies on livestock with success. It’s
hard to imagine the cows getting better through the
placebo effect.
So if it’s not psychological, what is it? A sensible
first step is to understand the rules and theory of
homeopathy. With that under our belts, we can then
start to investigate how that procedure and theory
might fit with what we do know about how the body
works.
How owning a DVD ruined my evening
Then a grim truth hit me. I already owned an 'Indiana Jones and the last crusade' DVD. There was no need to wait until wednesday evening. I could watch it whenever I liked.
I was completely deflated. Weird, isn't it? Read More...
The cheapest way to upgrade? - fool yourself
The treadmill conundrum
To try and reason out how this could be done, I thought up a fictitious room. In it, a group of people would be standing on a treadmill. They would run on the treadmill and thereby generate power. To keep them going while doing this work, food and drink would be given to them at regular intervals while they ran on the treadmill. This, in a very simple way, could represent a society. People work together to generate output and receive sustenance in return. Read More...
Lycra louts and trouser suits
One phrase that has puzzled me in recent years is ‘lycra louts’. It is used regularly and with a fair amount of emotion but I really don't know why. I can understand ‘lager louts’ since drinking lots of lager can make the best of us into anti-social idiots. But why do people demonise cyclists wearing clothing that reduces chafing? If anything, you’d think it would be the opposite way around. The cyclists without the lycra would be the menace. If I cycled for four hours in damp underwear that had been rubbing itself against my sensitive areas with all the delicate softness of a cheese grater, I would scream and shout if someone got in my way. But it’s the opposite. Read More...