Reality TV shows are anything but. They are sold to you as good viewing because, unlike soaps or crime series etc., you are seeing “real life” unfold in front of your eyes. However, if it really were real life (and there have been some so-called “slow TV” shows made that could claim that) then the vast majority of the programme would be dull and unwatchable (always assuming that any show of this genre can claim otherwise. 😀
Cognition
Going Right Back To The Beginning
Almost nine years ago now since I started this blog – although I had been blogging on my work intranet for a few years before that. I decided that now is a good time to recap on the raison d’etre of what I am writing here.
Face It – You Don’t Know
I am no expert, but I suspect that those that control the press (these days I guess it should be “the media” to be more inclusive) have always been viewed with a certain amount of suspicion by some elements of the populace – for all sorts of different reasons. This, of course, has come to a head in a big way in modern day USA where the “fake news media” are regularly blamed for many things.
Thickening Up Facebook
Its a common complaint and a justified one in my opinion that Facebook has too much “junk” and not enough content. I have been challenged over recent days over what I could do about that and this is my first attempt at formulating those thoughts.
Recognition Comes Too Late
One thing that I used to dread when I was working was someone asking me “what do you do at work then”? I suspect that I must have written about this somewhere, but the answer “I do modelling” is perhaps the most accurate and yet least informative one that I could give. Suddenly “modelling” is becoming quite the in-thing.
This Time It Wasn’t a Butterfly
Its Chaos Theory time. No – not when everything goes awry – although given the situation in the world today that could well be true(-ish). I’m talking about the mathematical version of chaos – small changes in initial conditions make huge differences in outcomes – another subject that I have talked about often. Its most ‘famous’ instantiation is perhaps Lorenz’s “Butterfly Effect” – but as the title says we cannot blame the butterfly this time – or perhaps, more correctly, it is likely that no butterfly was involved – we cannot be sure.
Every Little Thing They Do…
….is magic! The coronavirus pandemic has triggered two different posts – this being the first – which are not necessarily about the virus itself, but comment on some aspects of life that the current outbreak highlights rather well. We hear a lot these days about invisible illnesses and – whilst covid-19 is not always such, sometimes there are no symptoms and neither the person who is ill, nor their friends and relatives will have any idea that they are carrying and spreading the virus.
Science And Spiritual Practices : Reconnecting through direct experience
Anyone who has trawled through this large list of “books I have read” will notice that there are some authors who appear frequently – Neal Stephenson, Terry Pratchett, Robert Harris – and others – and amongst the ‘serious” books are many by Rupert Sheldrake. There is a lot of repetition and cross-over within his books – but that is not surprising as what he is really outlining in all of them is his journey towards a very original worldview – and one that I, for one, can take on board as being not too far from my own.
The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena
A new author for me, but it is clear from the recent books on this list that there is a bit of a theme going on.
A Matter of Perspective
I was watching TV the other evening and switching between a few channels to see what was on and came across something on BBC4 which was described as “A spectacular aerial journey following the world’s longest monument … in slow-TV style”. I have watched bits of other programmes which were “in slow-TV style” and generally they are, actually, rather attractive – in that they draw you in to watch what is, often, not very much!! This one was the same – although actually compared to the journey along a canal this was not quite so slow as it was more like ‘highlights’ than true “slow-TV”. Doing the maths they were in effect travelling at over 1500km/hr – hardly slow.