The Ambidextrous Mind

The mind is a remarkable thing, perhaps more remarkable than we dare imagine. Take, for example, this image. Which way is it turning? Clockwise or anti-clockwise? “Why, don't be silly,” I hear you saying, “Of course it's turning clockwise.” Ah... you must be right-handed.

You see it's actually not turning clockwise or anti-clockwise. It's an illusion. It will turn which ever way you want it to turn. Don't believe me, give it a try. As you're reading, slowly become aware of the shadow at the bottom of the image. Try to ignore the legs and just let your eye settle on the shadow and, presto, you'll see she begins to turn anti-clockwise.

Ah... the ambidextrous mind. Now, are you ready for a real challenge? Can you make her turn either way at will? That's a real test of mental strength. You can do it, the trick is in training your mind to recognise which leg she has extended. If her right leg is raised, she'd be turning clockwise. If her left leg is raised, she'll be turning anti-clockwise. It helps if you focus on the shadow again.

The funny thing is, it is harder to unlearn. Getting her to turn clockwise again is harder than getting her to turn anti-clockwise the first time. The mind loves a rut :)

Isn't it bizarre how you can literally talk your mind into seeing whatever you want to see? There's a lesson in there somewhere...

Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)

Looking for some light reading? Then this book probably isn't for you. But, regardless, it is well worth adding to your collection.

Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) is a rare look into the sordid world of self-justification. It examines how decisions that are clearly wrong can be made by people and justified or even strengthened when events go belly up.

Take, for example, a cult that believed the world would end on December 21st and that they would be spared by being abducted by aliens at midnight on the 20th. Surely, you would think, when 12:01am rolled around, the faithful would be faithless. In a rational world that would be the outcome, but not in the surreal world of emotional illusions. By 4:40am, when it was absolutely clear to the most ardent of the faithful that the prophecy had failed, the prophet had another vision (what a surprise). And the vision was that the steadfast belief of the faithful (a group of about 30) had spared the Earth (the billions of us outside the fold). The "salvation" of the entire Earth lay with those 30 kind souls. Quite thoughtful, really. After this, instead of loosing momentum, the "faithful" then became more passionate and devoted than ever before.

Ah... I hear you saying, but I'm no freak. That could never happen to me. Yet this same mental mechanism, cognitive dissidence, works on numerous levels. Consider smoking. The consequences of smoking are inescapable and horrendous and yet still millions persist.

Moral of the story. Whether its alien saviours or a fag after a pint, Proverbs 21:2 still holds true, every man is right in his own eyes.

I've painted myself into a few corners over the years and got my feet dirty trying to get out of them... Mistakes were made by me...

Here's a few others worthy of note in this category...

The Lucifer Effect With a title like that, how can you resist?
Dont Believe Everything You Think is another...
A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives brings some humour and wit to the arguments

...so if you're stuck in the middle of the UK floods and a little bored, go to Amazon.com and order some of these. The military may not be able to get help to you, but Amazon will :)

Winning the Lottery

On the train into work this morning I caught sight of a fellow passenger sharing indignation with the Sun newspaper. Mugger won £4m on lottery! It turns out the winner had previously mugged an 88 year-old lady for £6 to fuel his gambling habit. Apparently, fury among readers of the Sun is stoked by such an undeserving winner.

Well gamblers and readers of the Sun... that's how gambling works. You see, winners are not chosen on merit. A person gambles in the hope of getting something without earning it. It seems just a little two-faced to get upset that someone else gained what he never deserved.

A gambler's winnings are wholly at another's loss. But don't let the exploitation gnaw at blunted conscience - the odds are overwhelmingly in favour of once again becoming one of the chumps funding another unworthy winner.

The Dutch Kidney Scramble

I suspect the reality show is closer to reality than we care to admit. While the 'best' reality shows are spectacularly contrived and ever more bizarre, it is their connection to the human condition that makes them work.

Three contestants whose own kidneys have failed will - with their families - attempt to outdo each other in miserable accounts of pain and heartache, while a terminally ill kidney donor selects the winner to receive the kidney. Viewers will phone and text in with their votes. The predictable facade of 'money to charity' and 'raising awareness' is both glib and clichéd.

While it would be fun to examine the ethics at stake, I'm also interested in where this 'reality' thing can go from here. What's next? I understand people have already had their marriages chosen by reality show. Perhaps potential suicides will be voted on or off with... "Is life worth living? Dial now to bring your favourite jumper in off the window ledge". How far will this degradation go?

And yet it's really not a sign that things are getting worse. I'm reminded of Pilate who asked the mob who he should release from the death penalty - Barabbus the murderer, or Jesus Christ who had committed no wrong. The mob was thick and the mob was easily manipulated. This is undoubtedly compelling theatre, but hardly the soundest decision making process.

Birmingham Girls Too Ugly

The city of Birmingham failed to find anyone suitable for the Miss Great Britain beauty contest. 50 miles to the north, they found Sophie Wilson from Stoke-on-Trent who has never even lived in Birmingham. Oh, the humiliation.

What does it mean when a Miss Great Britain spokesman says, "We were desperately looking for a Miss GB entrant from Birmingham but in truth, there was no-one suitable who entered"?

On reflection, I suspect that it's not so much the lack of lookers in Birmingham as the preponderance of thicko's in Stoke-on-Trent with nothing better to do than enter beauty pageants.

Science and Fashion

I've long felt that popular science is as subject to whim as any other fashion. Studies come and go - especially relating to health. Just pick the ones you like, and ignore the rest until they pass out of vogue.

Here's one for tea drinkers. A cuppa protects against heart disease and cancer!

And don't forget to finish up with an ale for long life!

Beautiful Singapore

This is not the first time my holiday has begun with a stopover in breathtakingly beautiful Singapore. This tiny, stunning country may be the greatest argument for socialism (which my every instinct detests) on the planet. The government rules all, even the unions - as our self-employed taxi driver explained with indignant mock disbelief. "I am treated like an untrusted employee - although I lease this franchise from the government union - paying them!" He receives nothing for his extra taxes but the privilege to drive a taxi through this suffocatingly over-regulated city-state.

"Look at that!" he exclaims pointing to the roadside warning, then the automatic meter on the dash registering a $2.50 charge for crossing an otherwise invisible electronic boundary. (Ken Livingstone would salivate.)

And the bossy government brooks little dissent. A 40% vote for the opposition yeilds only 2 opposition MPs from 80. (Check the stats with my taxi driver.)

Yet Singapore works. Landed at 7:15, through friendly and efficient immigration, tidy baggage claim, and in the taxi by 8:00 - slowed only by my delay at the ATM and kid's restroom stops. Please send someone from Heathrow to see how it is done!

There is an unadvertised racial divide in this city. The Chinese restaurant was filled with Chinese on the inside tables and outside under sun umbrellas. I ate well for two dollars something (£1), then bought more steamed rice, sweet and sour meat and veg for the family sleeping off jet lag at the hotel. The neighbouring halal restaurant full of Muslims diners may have been equally tasty. I felt no more inclined to enter than the local Chinese.

In the evening, past English football on shop window TVs, I took my book over the bridge for a stroll. I'd planned to read a chapter with a beer in the hot open nighttime air. Live music at the riverside Crazy Elephant drew me in. A rock and blues band made up of an Australian and some local musicians brought in the crowd. Each band member threw his heart into his own solo winning fulsome cheers from a rocking audience. The Crazy Elephant was waited entirely by Malay girls. Just as achingly beautiful as the "Singapore girl" of the national airline, but not so porcelain. Surely employment selection programmes in Singapore are not operated wholly on merit.

Then on to New Zealand.

Racism on Big Brother

The news, the papers and even the prime minister in parliament are talking about racism on TV. The limeys have been bullying Shilpa Shetty in that menagerie that is Big Brother.

Now an Indian junior government minister of external affairs is "considering a formal approach to the UK over the programme."

Perhaps Gordon Brown (on his self-aggrandisement tour of India) can tell the junior minister that if he gives a hint of credence to anything on the damnable show he's as thick as Jade Goody.

For a more thoughtful post, try Morag The Mindbender.

All Men Are Created Equal

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
- - The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

No one person is born more important than another. No elite has a right to rule over the masses by virtue of their birth. There is no blue-blood, there is no ruling class.

I've heard it argued that these assertions are neither true nor self-evident. But what Thomas Jefferson and friends were saying is that they held them to be true, and were not planning to waste their breath trying to convince the vested interests in the mother country. They said no one people has a divine right to rule over another people.

Jefferson apparently believed that we are all created, and I agree. I think that the Creator sees the beauty and value of every person.

Comments on my previous post leave me wondering whether I should be ashamed of the post. I never said that one race was superior to another (because I don't think this). In fact, I think it's kind of irrelevant because I'm not defined by my race.

I did argue that some ethnic groups run faster runners than others. Then I asked the question of whether other abilities could be stronger in one ethnic group than another. This is a reasonable step of logic. This is also an interesting question because it is so highly charged. Particularly with respect to intelligence.

But this is not a judgment of a people or an ethnic group. It's a question. Upon reflection, I think that if no one were racist, it would be OK to ask this question.

I love the quote in which Martin Luther King looked to the day that persons "will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Are Whites Smarter Than Blacks?

I'm intrigued by opinions that should not be expressed - questions that should not be asked.

If I said, "New Zealanders are smarter than Australians", you might conclude I'm a New Zealander looking for a bite. You'd be right. But if I say, "whites are smarter than blacks", there'd be trouble. Why? I think there are two reasons. One is that a history of exploitation makes this no laughing matter. A belief in white superiority has been used to justify many atrocities.

The second reason, and the more interesting to me is that people are afraid that it might be believed.

Can one ethnic race be superior to another in anything? Let's say we select the five fastest women from a great nation of 1 billion. Pit them against the fastest women from a tiny island nation of 250,000. Who would you put your money on? The large nation is India, the small is Barbados. My money is safe on the five from Barbados.

I'm always amused by the refusal of athletic commentators to acknowledge the glaringly obvious. The 100 metre finalists are black! Their ethnic origin is west central Africa. They may be from Canada, the USA, the Caribbean, but their genes are not. Sure there's an occasional white finalist pumped up on Romanian steroids, but that only highlights the point!

I think that the average black is no faster than the average white. (I love these clumsy generalisations.) Well, maybe on average slightly faster, but not so that you'd notice. I don't think you'd notice the difference until you get to the elite. That's where the tiny difference shows up. Once you've selected the very fastest men and women on the planet, they are black.

My first trip to Kenya taught me lesson. As I stepped out into Nairobi I was surprised to see that Kenyans are fat and thin, tall and short, just like English people. Half of them looked like they wouldn't make it around the block (just like New Zealanders). Unknowingly, in the back of my mind was expecting a nation of long-distance runners. "Ah", the locals told me, "the runners all come from that region...", pointing vaguely into the distant mountains. The best up there are among the best in the world.

If one ethnic group has the edge in sprinting, another for endurance running, then can an ethnic race produce better thinkers? Ability to think is not on a linear scale like sprinting. But outstanding thinkers do... well... stand out.

Happy New Year

Back to work today. All my clothes have shrunk.

Moral Fashion

When my five year old came home from school chanting:
"Eenie meenie mynie mo..."
I thought, here we go...
"Which will stay and which will go...?"
I'm sure we used to say, "catch a nigger by the toe." Ah hem. I flinch as I type this. "If he squeals, let him go..." Ah, stop! Excuse me. But no one battered an eye back then. I suppose a few did, but I wasn't aware. I didn't even know what a nigger was!

This year I've been fascinated to watch the new ethical fashions come and some of the old go. There's been a clear establishment of the view that drug sellers are bad while drug users are victims. With the five murders in Ipswich there's been a surge of acknowledgment that those selling sex are victims while the users are bad.

I think it's fair to say that these were not widely held views a generation ago. Fashions in morals seem as fluid as any other field. Perhaps more so with the abandonment of an absolute standard in the slide to a secular society.

There are issues we debate, and there are underlying assumptions accepted by both sides of the debate. A few swim upsteam... one columnist had the audacity to suggest that the prostitutes lives were of less value than most - no great loss, he implied. He was roundly put down by left and right, by legalist and libertarian. Most agree that an individual murder victim's social position should not prejudice the vigour of the investigation nor the exactness of justice. But that has not always been the prevailing moral climate. There is little reason to think it will remain as it is now.

There are two possibilities here. Either we have just arrived at the final and complete set of ethical standards for humanity... or fashion will change again. (It would be a remarkable coincidence if this is the age that finally figured it all out.)

It is a near certainty that our children, as post-enlightened adults (or whatever they'll call themselves) will look back on some views held today with a roll-of-the-eyes and mock embarrassment - "oh, that's just how people thought in those days." So I asked myself, what thoughts and values are approvingly smiled upon today by the great and the good, but will seem ridiculous to a new generation?

Perhaps discrimination against the thick will become unacceptable. Nowadays stupid people get an awful rough time, low pay, over-representation in prisons. In future, employees telling jokes about dummies will be frog-marched to tolerance classes. We'll observe Meat-Head Awareness Week, and Dim Pride! No longer will promotion by merit sound so noble... perhaps.

I'm not making judgements about what morals I approve or disapprove of here, I'm just wondering what current standards will prove less enduring than they feel today.

Any other ideas?

Putting Christ Back Into Christmas - Again

Ok, the Christmas post is late. But so is Christmas!

Jesus was not born in December. And if you check with your local C of E vicar, I'm sure he (or she - but that's a post for another day) will tell you that no one in the church is seriously suggesting that Christmas is the anniversary of Jesus' actual birth.

The pagan celebration of the winter solstice and the Roman feast of the birth of Sol (the sun-god) are among the pre-Christian festivals whose timing and customs were adopted when their adherents converted to Christianity. That's when they first put Christ in Christmas, so-to-speak.

Today as a wave of atheism purges 'Winterval' of any Christian reference, a rearguard of Christians urge us to remember what the season is all about! I read one columnist (Jeff Jacoby) who hurls any Xmas card without Christian reference straight into the cylindrical file. "Remember the true meaning of Christmas that we've trowelled on after we pinched the celebration from the pagans!"... lacks a certain ring as a rallying cry.

(Now I don't mind trying to be accurate about the birth of Jesus Christ since the subject comes up at Christmas. So while I'm at it...
There is no mention in the Bible of three kings at the birth of Jesus. An unknown number of magi visited the young child Jesus, perhaps years after his birth.
The angels never sang, they spoke.
The angels didn't fly, neither is there any suggestion of wings, they stood.

But Christian friends, please don't alter the words in Christmas carols to make them Biblically accurate. Oh, it hurts.)

I find myself trying to balance two arguments. On the one hand, the Apostle Paul said he rejoiced that Christ is preached "whether in pretence or in truth". In other words, be thankful that someone is speaking up for Christ, even if they got half the facts wrong. So sing those ridiculous carols! On the other hand, Paul and the first century church got along fine without "Christ in Christmas".

I guess Jeff Jacoby wouldn't accept any Christmas cards from First Century disciples. Especially if they look like this.

Drinking for Longevity

I've always thought you should pick your health studies by how much you like the conclusions (and never read the small-print). There are always a few around that extol the virtues of tobacco, coffee and chocolate.

Here's a study that says drinkers live longer.

Instant Family

A woman with two wombs has had triplets. Identical twins from one womb, another baby from the other. "The odds of having triplets from two wombs are around 25 million to one."

I'll bet this woman knew she was pregnant! Well done.

Girl Gives Birth at School

I loved reading that a 15 year old Catholic school girl had arrived for class in the morning, gone into labour, and given birth before the ambulance showed up. She was apparently unaware of her pregnancy! The youth and vigour of it all is inspiring, don't you think?

A Spokesman for the Catholic Diocese said "It is not going to help to go moralising on the whole situation. That is not important..." Is that the new Catholic position on morals? The Catholics have had a few run-ins with morality over the years, and wouldn't want any morals ruining their Christmas good cheer. "...the girl is OK, the baby is OK, and hopefully they will be home this weekend and spend Christmas at home," Lovely. (And of course it makes no different that this was a Catholic school, other than to spice up the story a little.)

Now I find morals uplifting, not oppressive or condemning as the Catholic spokesman seems to fear. Given the right moral framework, I think a 15 year old can be well equipped to raise great kids. Mary was about that age when she gave birth to Jesus. What an impressive culture that produced teenagers morally and emotionally prepared for marriage and kids!

Marriage is Best

Half of co-habiting parents split by their child's fifth birthday, while only one in 12 married couples do. The Conservative policy group has pointed out this stark reality that deluded lefties have denied for years.

This family breakdown leads to massive problems of poverty, underachievement, hopelessness and unemployment, crime and drug abuse. The Tory group costed this at £20 billion a year.

For years socialist politicians have insisted that any "loving, stable relationship" is of equal value, arguing for equal recognition of de-facto or same-sex relationships. The sad debris from this social experiment is the feckless underclass that expect to contribute nothing but dead weight.

And yes, there are thousands of tremendous, contributing individuals who come from broken homes (and there are worthless scum from married parents). The individual can overcome any "statistic". But is it willful ignorance to deny the superiority of marriage over de-facto relationships in family outcomes.

One of the greatest things people can ever do for children is marry and make it work. About the greatest thing a father can ever give for his kids is faithfulness in marriage to their mother.

In response to the BBC article:
He [Ian Duncan Smith] insisted that the focus of the report was not to "lecture" people to get married, but to help couples, both married and co-habiting, to stabilise their relationships.
And they will fail because they are still too spineless to conclude the obvious - that co-habiting will remain inferior and less stable than marriage because it is a deliberate rejection of the traditional commitment. The outcomes for children are catastrophic.

No one is asking the Conservative party to "lecture" people what to do, just tell the truth!

Mr Duncan Smith said he was not making a moral judgement about marriage.
That's because the Tories have no morals. They abandoned conservative morality when it went out of fashion.

Actual Conversation

me: Can I ask you a question?
Four year old son: Daddy, you can ask me three questions.
me: Ok. Question one - are you going to finish your pasta?
Four year old son: Yes.
me: Can I save my other two questions for later?
Four year old son: Yes, you can use question number two and question number three next time.
me: Will you answer my two remaining questions?
Four year old son: Yes.

As pasta disappeared, I savoured the knowledge that I had gained the upper hand in some future interaction... if only I use my questions wisely. Patience.

World Heroes

I was interested to see Linus Torvalds (author of Linux) makes Time Magazine's heroes of the past 60 years. The programmer is listed among 'Rebels and Leaders' alongside Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher.

The rest of the list is peppered with the brave, the visionary, the busybody do-gooders and a fair number of names I didn't know.

Any other surprises in there?

Victoria Beckham

Now I wouldn't normally comment on fashion, but I'm hoping this new look from Posh catches on. Think of the savings to the family clothing budget!

Even with a few more kebabs inside (which the doctors must surely recommend), you could loosen the binding-twine, shake out some more sacking, and it's still a top look. Respect!