SCIENCE

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
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PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

Science is great. I love science. It confirms us as brilliant thinking
beings. But there are many problems with science. It has been so
successful that for too many people it is the only system that
counts. Unfortunately, single systems are always wrong.

Typically, it holds little
moral guidance.

Further, our knowledge is always reflected in how society thinks of
itself. Science confirms a universe that is chaotic, fragmented and
without meaning. So society behaves as if it is too. Knowledge should
be balanced by a belief, as used to be provided by religion. But belief
can only be superstition in the modern world. This, too, holds a
problem for science. It is so fundamental a means of knowledge,
banishing the idea of belief, that nothing can ‘be’ unless science can
measure it. Thus, unknown dangers could exist because science has
not yet caught up with nature. But these dangers are ignored in a
process I call ‘anti-superstition’. Most of science is not actually
science, but validation. There have been very few true scientists –
people who have moved forward our knowledge in a paradigm-shifting
way. These scientists were rebels at odds with the established view.
This confirms that the validators who follow are actually guardians of
old knowledge. Science is also choosy about what is valid data.
Without a hypothesis with which to sieve data, data seems chaotic.
It can only become ordered once a hypothesis is made. Yet if the
established view is more a guardian and validator of old knowledge,
hypotheses will reflect this and be dictatorial in nature, locking out
contrary data from analysis. Surviving hypotheses eventually become
theories within which data gives a probability of correctness. This
becomes scientific truth, but too often the ‘probability’ factor is not
understood by the public. This leads to a feedback loop of consensus
reality. Because the world clearly offers evidence of action, the idea
grows that the theory answers how that action occurs, and ‘reality’
becomes a mind model as opposed to a definite. Of course, this
process cannot be proved to occur, but neither can it be disproved,
as evidence would be identical whether it was true or false. Yet the
simple possibility should be enough to demand a little more humility
from science.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: The Police are becoming
worried by the number of private security
firms policing UK streets. Typically they don’t seem
to grasp that they may be to blame. Policing only works
properly when police are within the community. The Police have
divorced themselves from the people over the last 30 yrs under the
pretence of efficiency. Well, it doesn’t seem very efficient to me.

WORLD NEWS: As it becomes clear that democracy won’t work in
Afghanistan, moves seem to be coming to set a timetable for
withdrawal. It was an error to think democracy could work,
and is now compounded by an error in signalling to an
enemy your intent. The first rule of warfare – take
the enemy by surprise. Do modern governments
know the first thing about war? No wonder
there’s so many tragedies.

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – Friday Flash 55
Three Word Wednesday

MIGRATION

I’m fed up here – getting dull,
All is done, can feel the pull,
Of new experience to be explored,
Of new thoughts racing – I’m so bored!
I’m leaving now for another host,
Sorry to leave you as a ghost,
But your body’s shot, and I’m still whole,
Goodbye from this migrating soul

FIND THE MOLE

Fiction: The Square. How did Brand end up here? It
was a normal square – shops, cafes, people milling around – which
ones would kill him? He’d been sent in to find the Mole – get him out
before he was compromised. But as their agents closed in on him
quickly, Brand realized it was maybe too late. Except … Well, he was
an optimist, and even if the Mole had been caught – was being
interrogated – he’d have left a path to the information. And sure
enough, as he played ‘spot the spy’ in the square, he knew all the
signs on his dangerous investigation led here. And it had certainly
been dangerous, nearly cornered twice, shooting his way out of
trouble. And as he surveyed the square, he felt the cold comfort of
his gun. Soon sure he had identified the agents he began to watch
the shops. Was it to be one of those? He thought. Of course, he
eventually worked it out – broke cover as he moved forward, his
disguise hopefully fooling the agents. And as he walked into the
taxidermist’s, he found the information – in the mole.

ADOLESCENT MEAL

Sausage, egg, beans & chips,
Food for life, culinary quips,
Sausage for body and friends untold,
Egg for vitality, feelings bold,
Beans for flavour, life’s delicate mix,
Chips for experience, fragmented picks,
Adolescence, that time so mad,
Rushing from the good to bad,
With brief excursions to the cafe to eat,
No time to choose, life to greet

FLASH 55 – THE RARE FIND

Fiction: It was a rare find – among the masses of humanity, who would
have thought? Of course, experts debated. How could it be? Would it
be a one-off; would it blossom into a better world? Though the
consensus grew that it was an evolutionary oddity. But who would
have thought? A banker with a conscience.

THE GIVER

To give it freely, asking for nothing,
It wasn’t his fault they ended up coughing,
Obvious thanks were nowhere to be seen,
As temperatures rose, a sweaty sheen;
He simply went about with a runny nose,
A handkerchief sodden with nothing to oppose,
Passing it on through fingers and sneeze,
Let’s not be so giving, if you please

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

RELIGION

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

GURU TONY

I cannot believe in a God-form so what can I reason? Much conflict
has been placed at the door of religion. I don’t accept this. Conflict is
caused by politics, whether in a religious or secular culture. I am not
religious, but I am spiritual. To me, the former is a social interaction of
shared belief. The latter is an inner feeling – a bonding to fellow man,
environment & universe.

The two can work together
but are different.

If you strip culture from any religion you usually find the same things –
belief in higher intelligence, a way to commune with it, memory of a
previous perfect state, an understanding of our imperfection and a
moral code. Similarly, almost all major religious icons share a life
pattern. Frustrated in youth, they question. This leads to a spiritual
crisis within which they overcome adversity. This turns them into a
charismatic on a single-minded path to change things. We can argue
that below all religious expression there exists an ‘under religion’
shared by all, suggesting that all religion begins in a ‘universal
psychology’. Upon this a specific cultural story is built. This is
powerful and gives people meaning and direction. When the stage is
reached where a whole society believes, doing real physical things in
society, then the God-form takes on an element of reality, for if it is
‘truth’ or not, the outcome would be the same. A cultural force
becomes existent above the individual, and takes on an intelligence all
its own. This element is what I call OverMind. Thus, religion can be
seen to have a universal oneness in ‘under religion’, which is all
inclusive; and specific elements of OverMind based on culture or
environment, which fragments mankind. Could an understanding of the
former lead to a new tolerance in the latter? This said, I am
convinced that a real form of universal intelligence could exist. For
analysis of this, you need to read THE UNEXPLAINED page accessed
from top of this site, which delves into the possibility in the last two
parts. But as a taster, science tells us that evolution destroys the
idea of intelligence. Yet computer programs now exist that are
evolutionary in nature, evolving new programs of their own. Yet
before this can occur, a form of subtle direction must be placed in
the form of a ‘basic design function’. Is this so with the universe?

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

GREEN NEWS: The International
Energy Agency claims we are running
out of oil faster than thought. A clear sign
for Big Biz to go Green? Don’t you believe it. Green
tech can be done by smaller companies. Big Biz will go Green
when they’ve found a replacement that guarantees the big systems
they need to survive. Until then, the planet can go boil.

BRIT NEWS: The Tories will shrink the State, says would-be PM, David
Cameron. Social issues are best handled by private/volunteer
organisations working at the local level. Couldn’t agree
more. Big Govt places directives from the centre
based on ideology rather than need. The
only problem is, can we trust the
Tories to get it right?

READ WITH MUMMY

The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

THE MONSTER

Searching for monster, it’s here somewhere,
Turn my back I can feel its stare,
Its ravaging this land, getting its way,
Then its gone, as if a fey;
Things went wrong so it had to exist,
Solutions, hunters, got to enlist,
But the monster wasn’t there before the excuse,
Our inner terror can have devilish use

THE SOUL

Fiction: So often I feel disconnected. Go through life, traveling, trying
to find a place where my soul can be as one with I, but always I fail,
with just brief moments of calibration. Messages fill the ether now, all
we are is accessed through the keyboard, leaving man soulless, kexy,
aretaloger. And I feel it in every fibre of my being – this pointlessness.
But I caught my soul as this life tried to destroy it. I snatched it, filled
my gardeviance with it, so occasionally I can feel fulfilled, have
meaning, have dreams. And in those beautiful moments I sit, open
the trunk, take out my books and read.

aretaloger – endangered
kexy – more hollow
gardeviance – trunk

MONSTER WORDS

Procrastinate, prevaricate, a plethora of prose,
Monster words that don’t allow you to doze,
But how on earth did we end up with pea?
With its pernicious prickle of platitudinous glee!
No polyglot’s language can allow this to survive,
Pea must be plastered, processionally proscribed,
Choked in a parallelogram ’til porous, can’t flee!
We’re saved, at last! It’s a posthumous pea

FLASH 55 – HITCHHIKING

Fiction: He was hitchhiking. It had been so long since he started, he
hardly knew where he was going. The land just seemed to pass by,
ethereally. Of course, he knew he was hitchhiking to nowhere. He
used to hitchhike to somewhere – before he was killed. The car stops.
‘Hey, thanks for the lift,’ he says.

THE O B SCENE

The out-of-body scene is a spirited affair,
Swapping with another host, the public unaware,
‘He’s not himself,’ you may well say, and how close to the truth,
If only you knew how we could flit you’d certainly say ‘strewth!’
Sometimes there’s an accident and we fall into the wrong mind,
Behaviour becomes obscene as you’re disloyal to your kind,
But it gives a whole new meaning to wife swap and other things,
Fancy a vacation from your cell? What benefits it brings,
But animating corpses can bring the greatest fun,
Wandering around spookily ’til the rising of the sun

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

QUESTIONS

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

REMEMBRANCE DAY

11 November, Remembrance Day,
Think of those not here today,
Died in service to freedom’s song,
Taken from those to whom they belong,
Cherished always, such regret,
The glorious dead, never forget

BLOGGER BARD

Questions are intellectual milestones along a journey of discovery. I
say ‘questions’, and not ‘answers’, because whilst questions are
definite, answers rarely are. In all my years of research, answers have
been elusive. Indeed, I’m satisfied that, what we class as an ‘answer’
is really the latest definition of how we see ourselves as being, rather
than a reality. This is so for a specific reason.

We always answer a question
within a paradigm.

Questions mainly come in two forms – ‘how’ and ‘why’. ‘How’ questions
are based within a scientific methodology, whilst ‘why’ questions tend
to be of a religious or spiritual nature. Prior to Monotheism, most
questions seem to be about ‘why’. This was because intellect was
locked in a cyclical mindset based around nature. Most eastern
philosophy is still based in this mindset. However, in the idea of the
One God, monotheism broke the cycles, instigating a linear mindset
where man had to advance, providing a definite beginning and an end.
This would eventually lead to the ‘how’ questions of science. But
further to this, with the breaking of the cycles, our mindset moved
from nature to society, and thence to the individual. The new
paradigm was materialist, atheistic and scientific. Hence, we can see
‘how’ and ‘why’ questions as coming from specific mindsets, with any
answers based fundamentally within the attitude. To me, this has
proved destructive for knowledge. Such questions should not be
polarities – should not lead to conflict – but should form a duality of
knowledge – distinctly different, yes, but in intellectual balance. The
day we realize the importance of this duality of knowledge, then
knowledge may be just that.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: Bosses told make
new jobs fit in with family life. This
seems a good idea at first, but the reality
is it is about choice for the individual rather than
the family – part of the move towards giving you the
power to design your own life divorced from all other influence.
Except, of course, the provider of the means. Consumerism.

BRIT NEWS: It is clear by next Summer the Tories will be in govt. I’d
like to introduce the main characters to my o’seas friends. PM will be
David Cameron, who once said we should hug a Hoodie. Other
principles will be George Osborne, William Hague (a Yorkshireman, he
cannot pronounce ‘h’), portly Europe lover Ken Clarke, and on the
sidelines London Mayor Boris Johnson, and how about Anne
Widdecombe for good measure. I’ve decided on a Robin Hood theme
for these people, so from now on they will be Cameron Hoodie,
Sir G of Osborne, William Ague, Friar Ken, The troublesome
Sheriff of London and Maid Widdecombe. Of course,
Robin Hood took from the rich to give to the poor.
Hhhmmm. We’ll see.

BRIT NEWS: So the Lisbon Treaty is sealed and a
bureaucrat run European Super-State is with
us. For a brief moment I thought I’d vote
UK Independence Party in the coming
election as a protest, but realised it
is more important to get Labour
out. So I’ll vote Tory, and
when they’re in power
I’ll expect them to
save the UK from
totalitarianism.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

UNIVERSE INCARNATE

To die, dark tunnel, heavenly light,
Particle sucked into darkest night,
Soul enlightened, sent right back,
Black hole munching matter snack,
Reborn in another man,
Reality recycled to a plan,
Planets and lifeforms at their end,
Reform, reborn, eternal blend

PLANET ECHO

Sci Fi: They landed on the planet amid a battle. The small settlement
was under siege and the peaceful looking aliens looked so frightened.
This was in stark contrast to the attackers, who you could tell lived
for war. The Earthers immediately ran for cover into a cave. It was
there they found the ancient rimestock, and learnt of the sorrowful
history of the place; and it was obvious it would pudify. As one they
seemed to know what they had to do. Taking up arms, they counter
attacked, and soon the settlement was saved. Thanked, the Earthers
took off to carry on their journey. Leaving orbit, the wormhole took
them by surprise and they landed on a planet amid a battle. It was a
different area to where they had previously been, or been before
that, and before that, and before that … But they knew nothing of
this. They simply found an almanac and felt ashamed. Confabulation,
knew the aliens, made excellent mercenaries.

confabulation – false memory
pudify – to cause to be ashamed
rimestock – almanac

I DON’T DREAM

I don’t dream – well, no! I suppose I must,
Yet before I awake they always combust,
Mere fragments, incomprehensible in every way,
Those impressions simply refuse to stay,
No nightmares have I ever had,
I suppose for that I should be glad,
But I feel I’m missing out on such a lot,
Sometimes it’s hell being a soulless robot

FLASH 55 – THE ALIENS ARE HERE

Sci Fi: The alien pressed a button and another UFO shot through the
sky. Immediately, he began posting on the internet, stirring up
interest; the odd bug-eyed picture. How ugly that alien looked. Who
will it abduct today? Satisfied, he’d created enough conspiracy
theories to guarantee no one would believe he was here for another
day.

THE ABDUCTOR

There’s no doubt he was an errant soul,
Hankered to always achieve his goal,
Though his people had had enough of him,
Murky past, acting on perverted whim,
So banished, he was, to another world,
There he wouldn’t get the girl,
But they forgot his flying saucery,
And birthed the alien abduction story

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

POLITICS

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

POLLY TICKS

Democracy is the best political system but has yet to be understood.
Born out of individual empowerment, it can only thrive in an ideology
which shares this value. Hence, democracy is actually the political
arm of capitalism, and can only work in a capitalist system.

This said, single systems
are always wrong.

They lead to tunnel vision and totalitarianism. Hence, a true
democracy should always have differing systems below the political
ideal, be they religious, philanthropic or socialistic. Similarly,
democracy provides no meaning or moral ethic against excess, so
underlying systems are required to define these influences. There is
always a danger of such influences becoming fanatical. This is always
wrong. Indeed, there could well be a ‘law of opposite effect’ which
states: the more fanatical a person or system, the greater the
chance of it achieving the opposite effect. Hence, essential to all
systems is the requirement of moderation and tolerance to other
systems. Any system should be seen as nothing more than a guide.
However, balanced debate requires such systems to be vocal.
Non-vocal debate – as seen in centre ground politics – does not
achieve this, resulting in extreme law. Vocal debate irons out all
issues and actually leads to moderate law. Counter to true democracy
is the political party. Parties infiltrate underlying systems into the
legislature where they do not belong. Further, parties offer careers to
members and inhibit members’ freedom of speech. These influences
take away their loyalty to electorate and conscience, and lead to a
system having overall power in society. Parties should be degraded by
the instigation of a system that encourages independent
parliamentarians. Such representatives would guarantee greater
debate and whittle away the power of all parties. Another important
factor is the ratio between representative, electorate and legislature.
If a parliamentarian represents too many people to allow adequate
access, he is divorced from the people and a single system will be his
primary concern. Similarly, if a legislature has too many
parliamentarians, it becomes nothing more than a rubber stamp for an
over bearing executive. As I see it, the very maximum of people per
representative is 100,000, and the maximum number of
parliamentarians per legislature is 600. If either of these numbers is
higher, the balance shifts from the people to the system, and
democracy moves towards totalitarianism.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: There is a covenant
between govt and forces concerning
responsibility of the former to the safety of
the latter. In 2006 a Nimrod plane blew up in flight
over Afghanistan, killing 14 personnel. The inquiry has now
directly blamed the govt for penny pinching above safety. This govt
should hang its head in shame. It is unworthy of leadership.

WORLD NEWS: Tony Blair never said he wanted to be the first
President of Europe, but we all know. But now it seems
the other leaders may not want him … err, excuse
me?!!! A political President decided by leaders?
No democracy, then. What a totalitarian
mess Europe is. Indeed, I won’t
cooperate on anything in
Europe until it is about
cooperation, and
not integration.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

DEPARTED

He’s departed – I know, I put him there,
Lying before me; those eyes, they stare,
Everything within him has now gone,
How can I ever belong?
It departed a little earlier for me,
Any sense of morality,
Reason, too – it took a bow,
And I killed him – I’ve departed now

UNWILLFUL DEATH

Fiction: They thought it was complete intellectual pigritude. After all,
what was the point? The psychologist thought it utible, if for nothing
more than finding out if hypnosis CAN overcome a subject’s moral
responsibility for action. And even though his words were tristifical,
the small gathering looked on. The subject had been hypnotized and
stood in the street, a shotgun in his hands. The instruction had been
given: to kill the first person to walk up the street. Of course, the
person selected was wearing body armour, but unbeknown to the
subject. As if on cue, the target rounded the corner and began to
approach the subject. Those gathered could see the increasing
anxiety on the subject’s face as he fought his moral values. But then,
decision made, he fired … There was shocked silence for many
seconds, and then they rushed to observe the body on the floor. Who
had won the argument was irrelevant now. The subject had shot the
sign – which had duly dropped on the head of the target.

tristifical – causing to be gloomy
pigritude – laziness
utible – useful

THE OTHER PERSON

Two people sit, shards on the floor,
One a woman, the other a bore,
He’s going now, his purpose done,
She’s regretting what she did – so much fun,
Driving her on to depravity and vice,
Never even thinking twice,
Until he appeared – her conscience, alas,
He’s going – she smashed the looking glass

FLASH 55 – THE SONG MAN

Fiction: Memories impact upon behaviour. And often it is through
music. He remembered many songs of love, and whenever he found a
new woman he would sing them in his head. His ways never failed and
she was his. It is then that the song that makes him kill comes into
his head. It’s playing now.

WHEEL OF CRIME

So Many lives you’ve ended up here,
Karma seems to offer no fear,
No progression up the Wheel of Life,
Cannot obey, always strife,
So down you go from human to critter,
Arachnid, insect, plants that wither,
Always you end up criminally insane,
And now as a virus, so much pain

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel