Dee Jayne Walker.

If we suppose, that there is a 'sum total' of all existence. Which supposes that the cosmos is finite. Which of course it might not be.....Many physcisists do disagree. (Seriously they do, always falling out that lot) Then: what does this mean? The cosmos has a begining and end? Yet the theist will say, "No! it cannot be.....   something  must be eternal!" Why? I will agree, the cosmos does seem to be eternal. If we are to think correct, Penrose, Kaku, Carrol  and the others. And I can see no good reason to doubt them But there is no logical reason we should imagine, an 'infinite regression of cause' should be named 'god', for arbritary reasons. We have no reason to think an infinite regression of cause, should represent consciousness. Life, intelligent life, Humans, minds, consciousness are trivial things, with no logical reason for a 'designer. No evidence consciousness is not just an emergent property of matter. An inevitab...

We have known, That as refugees flee the middle east, That among them The cowards hid, Terrorists, islamists. It was not weakness we opened our arms To the disposessed, The refugees. It was through strength, Our compassion for the refugees, More important than, Pandering to fears, Of violence. Violence from the very men, The refugees fleed, Might inflict on us. The terrorists forget Europe suffered Suffered the greatest, Bloody Awful war in the history of humanity. We know the consequences of intolerance, As well, If not  better, Than any region of the world. The terrorists forget, We do not pretend Not to fear, we know our fear, we embrace it. We make fear work for us not against us. For without fear There could be no courage. The bravest of men are not those Who do not fear, but those Who fear but act with discipline To defend themselves in the most effective ways That they can conceive. The terrorists forget. Because...

La version française d'un poème que je écrit en Janvier, après l'incident Charlie Hebdo. Je Suis Charlie Ainsi, les hommes armés viennent, Et pour cacher leur peur qu'ils tuent, Ils penser peut nous faire peur. Et oui nous le savons, la peur est en nous. Mais sans crainte, Comment pourrions-nous avoir le courage, Pour le courage est à craindre que, Pour faire ce qui doit être fait de toute façon. Ils pensent que parce que nous sommes inclus, Parce que dans l'histoire, Nous avons trébuché sur nos défauts, Parce que nous sommes féministe, Et se foursquare contre, Les racistes et les fascistes, Que les besoins Nous devons être faible. Mais oublions nous sommes les Gaulois, Nous sommes les Vikings, et les Jutes, Nous sommes les Saxons, les Celtes, Les Pictes, les Vandales et les Wisigoths, Le Tutons et le Hun, La puissance de Rome, La gloire de la Grèce. Pensent-ils que l'Europe va plier le genou, Pour ceux qui ceux qui craignent mots, Et...

OK. So I have been very quiet on this blog of late. Mostly processing thoughts and life in general. I also have several draft posts I haven't managed to complete to my satisfaction. But I just noticed something I had to share. Some time ago I wondered to myself what would come up if I just Googled the word evolution. So I did, as one does. I was mortified, ICR, AIG and a number of other creationist pages dominated the results. It was only on the third page that anything actually science based turned up. I also recall Google touting a little while ago that results on their search engine would at some point be ranked for accuracy. Well, long story short, a conversation today made me wonder if things had changed, so Google 'evolution' again. And lo and behold, lots of actually useful results. This might not seem that big a deal. However I wonder if it will impact on youngsters who get fed creationist spin, who then Google and find actual information, rather th...

Terraforming Titan: Way down by the Methane Sea. 

I encountered a quote today by Maya Angelou: "Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet." Much as I love Maya, I don't think it's as simple as that. Through recorded history there has always been a tendency to think some emotions are fine., happiness, love, joy: and others, like hate, anger and fear, should be exised from our lives. I have never really been convinced of this. I hate child poverty, I hate injustice, I feel angry when I hear of them and so do most people, I fear the consequences of thoughtless acts. And if none of us felt such hate, would anything ever change? The problems start when we are angry with people, when we come to hate people, and come to fear them as individuals or groups.  This is related to something known in psychology as the 'actor observer effect'. Essentially we can think about this phenomena like this. If I walk into a room and trip over the rug, I think, "that rug shou...

OK  I have a confession to make. This may shock you? This may come as a supprise? I like Americans. OK, so not all of them but more than you'd think. It has to be said I think some Americans (note 'some') are bat$#/t crazy. But then there's quite a lot of British we could say that about. Let's face it our government was elected by 25% of the people, someone hasn't been paying attention and we have minority hegenomy again. So its all evens there. And shock of horrors, I even have admiration for the American Constitution. I am a bit suspicious that, the modern influence of business on government, has become something akin to: the buying and selling of the imperium by the pretorian guard in ancient Rome. Do I think Britain is in a much better state? Not really. We still have a monarch, a symbol of privelidge by right of blood. At which point palm and face achieve close proximity. Though we do have 'Magna Carta' which put king John and every ot...