Categories
This Blog

blog redesign underway

I submitted the first changes last night. Would have hacked out the little errors sooner but I had huge problems with upgrading movable type. Everything from files not transferred properly (or at all) by the FTP client to problems to the usual “ObjectDriver, DBI::mysql” issues. To anyone facing similar issues I’ll give the following heads up.

  1. backup your previous install including all files and database
  2. reinstall all the files again, configure mt-config.cgi to point at your databaseand hope it all works
Categories
technology

The 64 Trillion dollar question

Have Steorn actually discovered a way to harness a free, renewable and plentiful energy source which will completely change the world? If it’s a hoax, it’s one of the most compelling of all time. If their serious and IF (very BIG IF) the technology is feasible it would bring about a fundamental shift in technology and geo-politics. Energy generation from natural resources is such a fundamental part of the balance (or unbalance) of financial power among the World’s nations that such a discovery would irrevocably change that. Just think, Enron II could be a network of imaginary companies pulling real world energy from an imaginary void, only kidding. Seriously though, I’m interested to see if this proposed innovation correlates with that other “energy from the void” proposal of a few years ago, Motionless Electromagmetic Generator or MEG. I’m not saying for a minute there’s will never be an established scientific basis for this but I’m surprised that no report I’ve read has mentioned the two ideas in the same breath where there appears to be a clear relationship in terms of the the technology used to realise the generators and its net effect, if you pardon the pun.
Incidentally (perhaps), steorn is an anagram of “no rest”.

Categories
This Blog

Blog redesign

Yes,the blog will get a much needed redesign over the next few weeks. I haven’t posted anything in a while as I’ve been too busy doing other things. It doesn’t mean for a second I’m less opinionated or big-headed. Just had to clear that up :-).

Categories
psychology

delusions

I had a strange thought this morning brought about by reading Sebastian Faulk’s excellent book “Human Traces”. The book deals with the early days of phsychotherapy or “mad doctoring” as it was affectionately known. Anyway, while reading I realised that most people suffer episodic but extreme delusions while watching movies and reading books. (the many ironies of this are not lost on me) It’s the basis upon which the thriller genre is based. For example take the movie the 6th Sense. Even if you guess the twist before it’s revealed you’ll still have an epiphanical moment where you realise that you’re mental picture of what you were watching is incorrect. At the end of the movie the director reveals how he has coyly sneaked references to the truth under your mental radar so that the truth is just as plausible and perhaps even more consistent than the alternative conceptualisation that most viewers have. Well, here’s the thing. Your brain has been duped by skill but what if you simply couldn’t perceive the falsehood of a pseudo-consistent view because you had a mental blind spot (lacuna) to a particular issue or experience brought about by anything from psychological to somatic trauma. We all experience this to greater or lesser degrees. Phobias prevent us from engaging with the reality of a situation as our experience is not consistent with objective reality or the objective reality of others. Some people fear flying, some spiders, some rats, some Mondays. There’s nothing that distorts the world view like living! Phobias can appear mad to others and perfectly sound to the sufferers. How fine the line is between these and more serious delusions is a matter of conjecture.