Thursday, November 30, 2006

When knowledge is cold comfirt

Knowledge is or can be cold confirt. there will always be what we know and what we don't know.
  • What is your relationship with what you don't know?
  • Do have a need to explain and rationalise everything you come accross?
  • To match it to your current frameworks for how the world works to safely package and categorise the new?
We can learn and we can also accept.
If we cannot accept what will the learning be like?
What is ther relationship between what we can learn and what we accept?

Might the learning be hollow and ineffective.....

Monday, November 27, 2006

Learning at the edges only?

Research suggests that we can only learn effectively if what you are learning is within reach of what you already know. Not sure what this means. if it means that I cannot comprehend complex maths without going through some principles and some simply math then that seems reasonable. But also a little linear. Is all learning linear like this our can we job and around and connect the dots later?

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Better Buddha

Those indeed are conquerors who, ......, have conquered the intoxications (the mental intoxication arising from ignorance, sensuality or craving after future life).

Evil dispositions have ceased in me; therefore is it that I am a conqueror !

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Genetics vs the environment

Genetics vs the environment is the classical arguement that have raged for 50 years.

Genetics direct the way the brain growth and functions. Environment has big impact also in how we grow, learn and react. Twin studies tell us a lot – However the issues are not resolved.

Genome – well understood. It is more than just DNA. DNA + proteins = CHROMATIN chromosomes. If DNA is hardware then CHROMATIN is the software. It can turn genes on or off. This is very important, 3rd ascept to how and who we are.

DNA replication solved in the 1950’s. CHROMATIN replication still a mystery.

Epigenetics
is the study of epigenetic inheritance, a set of reversible heritable changes in gene function or other cell phenotype that occur without a change in DNA sequence (genotype). These changes may be induced spontaneously, in response to environmental factors, or in response to the presence of a particular allele, even if it is absent from subsequent generations.

Friday, November 17, 2006

A dark day today

An Age is called dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.-

James Michener

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

All the world's a stage

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Line Riding

The latest craze.

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/

Skill and danger in one. Go to you tube to see the experts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJSEUbAH9-M

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Reality

Do you think reality is made up of matter?
Or is reality made up of what matters?


Is pain real? Then there is the answer.
Research suggested that this is very strongly held that is our realities are what matters to us and we only notice what matters to us. So there are our realities. phew.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Windmills of Your Mind - song for today

Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnaval balloon
Like a carousell that's turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it's own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream.

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle your head
Why did summer go so quickly
Was it something that I said
Lovers walking allong the shore,
Leave their footprints in the sand
Was the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And a fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circle that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Sunday, November 05, 2006

What is Music? Why is Music?

We have figured most things in our world, Music Speaks about what we have not figure out. Music is ineffable. Music is beyond rational explanation or verbal formulation or criticism. Yet, Music is accessible to everyone. Easily accessible, we all get it immediately. How can something be so universal and yet so unexplainable.

Like looking into the night sky or at the grand canyon, it speaks to us and is beyond the normal every day world.



Thanks Dr Jordan Peterson for a thought provoking lecture

What mistakes will the next generation make and y

Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door

I know that Im a prisoner
To all my father held so dear
I know that Im a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thought
Stilted conversations
Im afraid thats all weve got

You say you just dont see it
He says its perfect sense
You just cant get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defence

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
Its too late when we die
To admit we dont see eye to eye

So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
Its the bitterness that lasts

So dont yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different day
And if you dont give up, and dont give in
You may just be o.k.

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
Its too late when we die
To admit we dont see eye to eye

I wasnt there that morning
When my father passed away
I didnt get to tell him
All the things I had to say

I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
Im sure I heard his echo
In my babys new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
Its too late when we die
To admit we dont see eye to eye



Thanks Mike and the Mechanics

Free cycle

Better than eBay. Recycling one gift at a time. Remember -

http://www.freecycle.org/

Saturday, November 04, 2006

The Butcher's Wife

And the therapist that knows it all......

A clairvoyant thinks she's met her husband to be because she's seen him in her dreams.
They marry and return to the husband's ("the butcher"), home in the city.
She has a big impact on everyone she meets by anticipating their questions and actions and advising them on their love life.
Her interference then brings her into contact with the real man of her dreams.

The terapist knows it all and nothing.

A great sunday afternoon in winter movie