Owner: Karma URL:http://karma-action.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:15:33 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Personal blog reflecting on events, mostly from a Buddhist point of view. Also includes some reflections on politics, home improvements and anything else that takes my fancy. Links to my other blogs where I record poems, essays, short-stories and money Site statistics:Click here
Water Margin - book cover 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I noticed this morning that a couple of people had hit by blog looking for The Water Margin
and Atsuo Nakamura. It reminded me to put an image of the cover of the David Weir adaptation here. This book is a fairly loose adaptation of the original stories but is actually better than the TV adaptation it was written for, and has aged better. David Weir wrote the British version of the dialogue for the other Oriental cult classic of the period, Monkey. Although I'd read this story when I was about 12 and thoroughly enjoyed it (but not really understood a lot of it) I never got into the TV adaptation, whereas I was addicted to The Water Margin and am now the proud owner of both the David Weir book and the series on DVD. Unfortunately after seeing House of Flying Daggers, the old TV series does leave a lot to be desired. Best to follow the adage "There is no going back".(c) Hal Westhead 2005 Read more:book cover
The Wind, the Snow - the winter 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The thursday before last the UK was struck by some unusually strong winds.I live in a fairly flat county famous for its Plain, and apparently the winds that swept the county were the worst for 20 years. One person was killed and the County Council is faced with a bill £150,000 for the clear up. When you compare that with hurricane Katrina it is peanuts really, but the storm has left visible damange around and about.Then last week we had snow. Not much, but it lingered a while in the cold air. The first day of snow my wife and I had to travel across to Derby for a funeral, and the hilltops en route were white and picturesque.Now its back to much milder weather and damp. Was that the winter
?The last few years have been pretty mild - much milder than the ones we had when we first moved to this house. This has been a great disappointment to our kids, and a great relief to us. We live on a really steep hill and snow is quite problem.(c) Hal Westhead 2005
Nostalgia-fest 1970-01-01 00:59:59 For some odd reason I've been having a small nostalgia-fest this evening, checking out website about 'Four Feather Falls', 'Space Patrol', 'Torchy' and 'Ivanhoe'.'Four Feather Falls' was the Gerry Anderson production that came before 'Supercar'. Whilst I clearly remember Supercar I only have a rather sketchy memory of 'Four Feather Falls'. And I discovered today that the voice of Tex (the sherriff) was none other than Nicholas Parsons (which in turn reminded me of Arthur Haynes - another piece of nostalgia).'Space Patrol' was another puppet program, but not from the Gerry Anderson stable. I remember watching it and loving it at the time.I certainly remember watching 'Torchy' - an early Gerry Anderson venture - but it is like remembering a dream. It is quite an odd sensation trying to bring it back to mind.As for Ivanhoe (starring a rather young Roger Moore) all I remember is seeing the title sequence. Another thing I've learned today is that another actor from
Climate change, scientific evidence and the religious-right 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I was listening just now to a radio report saying that the degree of scientific concensus on climate change has passed a tipping point in the debate. The question is no longer 'is it happening', or 'is human activity involved', but simply a question of what we do.It is widely reported that the US government shows the greatest reluctance to concede the argument. It occurred to me as I listened to the report that there is a parallel with the evolution debate. In addition to the 'moral majority' there is also the 'medieval majority' that prefer to ponder ancient words rather than look at the evidence before their eyes as a source of information and truth. Perhaps we do share the universe with higher powers that have considerable control over the outcome of events, but that does not (for most of us) that we drive along roads with our eyes closed and ignore signs of danger. If we take responsibility over events that affect us on individual level, it seems only sensible to take res Read more:religious
, Climate
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The Two Truths, the Middle Way and Deism/God-belief 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This entry really needs to be expanded to something of essay length and put on my Essay blog, but I'm just going to jot down a few notes here this morning while this is at the forefront of my mind.One of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism is that of 'the two truths' - conventional truth and ultimate truth. 'Truth' in this sense means 'reality'. You could, if you wanted to be fancy, call it Epistemology and Ontology but they carry the burden of Western philosophical meanings, so it probably isn't that helpful.Whilst many people root this teaching in the work of Nagarjuna, what he did was to draw out in a rather stark form the implications of the historical Buddha's teaching on the three marks of existence (Unsatisfactoriness/Pain, Impermanence, and Essencelessness).Many people are familiar with the association between Buddhism and the phrase 'The Middle Way'. This is sometimes interpreted as some kind of flacid, easy going, not going to extremes. Indeed it is a teachin Read more:belief
Prayers and consequences 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I wonder if, when people pray for a certain outcome ('Please let little Johnny live' etc), they include in their prayer that such a thing should be without further consequence.Suppose (and this is just a fictional for-instance) that when Adolf Hitler was a little child he has been very ill, and nearing death. Suppose also that people in his family, in his neighbourhood, in his parent's church prayed fervantly for his life to be spared. All they wanted was for this little child to live - a desire so human as to be beyond objection. Yet suppose the illness and the approach to death was part of a greater plan, a plan guided by a mind that could see the likely future of that life if it was allowed to continue.Yes, an extreme and overly melodramatic example. But do people ever think of the unintended consequences
of asking for a change in the 'great celestial plan'?(c) Hal Westhead 2005
Blackpool in the News 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I was listening this morning to a news items about Blackpool
and the likely effect of them not getting the awarded the bid for the Super-Casino. It reminded me of an article I'd seen in a Children's Encyclopedia about the proposed 'Sun Ray Hotel' for Blackpool. The book was published in 1933. I wonder what ever happened to those plans - maybe WWII? The proposals are quite amazing. Here is the description: If you look at the picture [...] you will will see that the building is set back in tiers from bottom to top. This allows flood lighting to play an important role. The 'sun ball' at the top will be lighted with bright organg rays, and reflected light willappear through the slots in the square section below the ball. Directly behind these slots are water tanks for the water supply.The total height of the building will be 511 feet above the general level of adjoinging land. This is roughly the height of Blackpool Tower.The 'sun ball' is 27 feet 6 inches in diameter and wil
Vulcan - it's a planet Jim, but not as we know it. 1970-01-01 00:59:59 When I was a kid we had several encyclopedias and other books of general useful information about the house, and these I used to love to dip into. They all seemed quite old, but they were only about 30 years old - equivalent to a 1970s encyclopedia now.One of my favourites was the News Chronicle Everything Within edited by A C Marshall and published by George Newnes of London. It is one of those heroic attempts to pack a bit about everything into a single book, ranging from cookery to careers and including the wonderfully worthy 'Profitable Hobbies'.I inherited the book when my mother died. Though I don't dip into it so much now, having many other compendia of trivia to distract me, I do look at it from time to time. A few days ago I was browign through the section of Questions and Answers when I happened across this list of lengths of days on different planet
s. The most striking feature is the inclusion of Vulcan
.Long before Star Trek was a gleam in Gene Rodenberry's eye, he
Dreams, jobs and premonitions 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A fews years ago I had one of the most amazing dreams I've ever experienced. The part that I remember is very short, but the amazing part was not the content but the feeling (if that is the right word) I was left with. I was at the bottom of a short flight of steps. They were the kind of step that lead up to a temple or a grand civic building. At the top of the steps was an entrance of some kind guarded by two Grim Reaper figures with their scythes cross (in the manner of mediaeval guards with spears crossed to block an entrance). I continued up the steps, was challenged by these figures and got by them. At this point I awoke with the most amazing thrilled feeling. It was such an astonishingly strong sensation. I was really buzzing. I felt more than awake. I can't describe the feeling, and, to my regret, I cannot feel it with the same strength now as I felt it then - all I can do is try to give an impression of it - a thrilled buzz. For some while now I have been convinced t Read more:Dreams
Road pricing, Carbon taxes and the Arts 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The New Labour government is keen to test out and introduce a road pricing scheme, so that people pay for the miles they travel. There has been a lot of comment about the fact that more than one million signatures have gone on a petition against road pricing, yet the government saying it is sticking to the policy. My own view is that they are acting rationally. No matter how many signatures there are on a petition, that does not change what is the rational thing to do ... however it might well change what is the politically expedient thing to do. My main concern with the scheme is more to do with the government being about to track people using the road pricing scheme. (Incidentally, many years ago the Hong Kong administration - before handover to China - dropped a proposed road pricing scheme because of opposition on the grounds of 'significant' people not wanting their movements to be tracked).It did occur to me, in a flight of rather tangential thinking, that road pricing and the Read more:Carbon
Informed consent and Government consultation 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today a Judge threw out what the New Labour government claimed to be a consultation process on Nuclear Power. Not because nuclear power is right or wrong but because the process they had used was fundamentally flawed and misleading. Like with Iraq, they had edited the truths they published to the point where their overall message came close to being a lie.Alistair Darling said on the new that he would be looking closely at the Judge's comments. Somehow suggesting that he and his department need to subtly work out what the Judge was getting at - whereas what it really meant was that they were so unfamiliar with genuine consultation that it was going to be difficult to find somebody straight enough within the department to know to engage in such a democratic process.Tony Blair clearly thought that the consultation was just a piece of decoration. His responses was along the lines of 'what is the alternative to nuclear power'? He could well be right. There might be no alternative. Read more:Government
Nalanda and Alexandria - victims of narrow minds. 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Nalanda and Alexandria
- separated in time and space but with three things in common (at least):Seats of learningDamaged by firesDestroyed by religious zealots.Maybe that is the distinguishing mark that separates the genuine spiritual seeker from the religious zealot: the former welcomes knowledge and understanding, whereas the later fears it.Of course book-burners don't have to be motivated by religion - it's just that they often are. (c) Hal Westhead 2005 Read more:minds
Kelly Taylor, Thought for the Day and the Right to Die 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Each morning I usually have the radio on in time to catch Thought for the Day on Radio 4.This week I must admit to being mildly annoyed by one piece but positively incensed by another - I'm rarely moved that much by the content of these 'thoughts'.The mild annoyance was something said by the Rev. Tom ('was he drunk or was he mugged') Butler. What he said was subtle but extremely misleading and subversive. 'I am the silence behind the words' he quoted from Buddhist teachings. Apart from probably being meaningless to the vast majority of hearers, what is wrong with that. It was the context in which he said it. He had just quoted a Christian text in which the 'I' was clearly intended to be god, so he was equating the 'I' of the Buddhist text with god also. An implication which conflicts with the very heart of Buddhism. Making the 'silence behind the words' an 'I' isn't insulting (like the the cartoons of the Islamic prophet). Far worse it is corrupting. Indeed if Read more:Taylor
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Downing Street Petition 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Tony Blair caused a bit of a fuss today by sending an email in which he implied that the Police would be able to trawl through the proposed Immigration and Nationality Database to check fingerprints and other data against that taken from around 900,000 unsolved crimes.The Superintendents' Association was delighted - another way to solve crimes (and thus improve their performance statistics). Several MPs were very unhappy because they had been assured by ministers that this would not be an implication of the Bill. And the response by a government spokesperson amounted to; 'Well you should have read the small print. It was there in the Bill.' One of the responsibilities of MPs is to scrutinize the actual text of Bills to ensure that they actually say and do what Minister's have glibly promised they will do. Tony Blair is probably only second to Jeffrey Archer in the art of the inaccurate precis, so it is vital that legislation is carefully scrutinized. However the government business Read more:Downing
, Street
Civil Order - USA and Iraq 1970-01-01 00:59:59 What is it that keeps society ticking over steadily each day? If you think about day-to-day life in a small town in England, it really wouldn't take much of a determined effort to bring chaos if there were a group of people so minded. It certainly hasn't taken much in the past when there have been race-based or religious-based riots (Brixton, Bradford etc).Now think about what happens when there are Police strikes or power-outages in the USA. The TV always (as far as I can tell) shows pictures of widespread looting. So the gap between daily activity and widespread lawlessness is really quite small.Somebody on TV made this point very forcefully yesterday: suppose somebody invaded the UK and disbanded the Army, the Police and the Civil
Service - what would be the result. Utter chaos. But that is exactly what the 'liberators' did in Iraq
. In addition to which Haliburton used foreign labour in the reconstruction work, thus ensuring that a lot of jobs did not go to Iraqis.The po Read more:Order
Hypnotism, inductions and Religious literalism 1970-01-01 00:59:59 One of the characteristics of a person in a hypnotic state is their strong tendency to interpret instruction literally. (There is a whole interesting area of discussion here about the apparent conflict between this and the widespread use of metaphor and imagery in Eriksonian inductions, but that is for another day). A post-hypnotic suggestion needs to be given in the clearest and most direct terms. In general it won't be interpreted, it will be taken at face value.I doubt this is a new insight, but it occured to me this morning that this bears a striking similarity to religious literalism. And many religious ceremonies have all the aspects of an induction.There is nothing 'mysterious' (in a religious sense) about hypnotism - it is simply part of the human condition. It doesn't require magic powers - just the application of learnable routines. Most people are susceptible to some degree and a proportion of people are susceptible to a very great degree.There are restriction (in Read more:Hypnotism
Certainty and religious knowledge 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This last week there has been a meeting of the great within the Anglican communion to tackle the thorny issue of homosexuality and homosexual activity in the clergy. Broadly (and very crudely) there is a split between the conservatives who are against toleration and see it as a perversion and the liberals who see it is part of the human order.What puzzles me in all of this is the following. Christians talk about a 'living god'. By this I understand them to mean a god which is present and among them (and all of us) here and now. They also talk of being in communication with god through the power of prayer. Presumably both sides of this argument are in daily contact with this living god through prayerful contemplation. And yet on this issue threatening to cause a schism within the Anglican communion they cannot get a clear answer.Now that is the crucial point: no clear answer.What does this mean:that there is nothing out there?that there is no one voice speaking to them?that the Read more:Certainty
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Bang & Olufsen - what are they doing? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 My wife got a piece of marketing from Bang & Olufsen
. We have a B&O shop in our nearby town. Once upon a time I like the B&O look, but recently I've tired of their rather desperate attempts to define a look. They certainly seem to have lost the knack of Scandanavian elegant simplicity. However the front cover of their glossy brochure was in a class of its own. What were they trying to convey with this eclectic gathering of crass styles? The the B&O TV stood out as elegant? Or that it fit in with everything? Or that .... I just don't know. It seemed to be saying that even somebody completely devoid of all taste and aesthetic sensibilities would choose B&O. Quite bizarre.(c) Hal Westhead 2005 Read more:doing
Playing with my Megxon 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I recently bought myself a digital camera off Ebay. It's my first decent digital camera and I'm already a total fan. Megxon is not the most familiar brand in the world - yet another product of the dear old People's Republic of China. So just to celebrate going out today to play with the camera, here is a picture of Bollington.(c) Hal Westhead 2005
Class and Education 2007-03-04 20:42:00 This morning I listened to a crazy conversation on radio about whether there was a class bias in providing educational opportunities for children. It appears that middle class parents find better opportunities for their children's education.Surely 'middle class' people tend (on the whole) to be those with better education and the ones who have shown their competence in other walks of life apart from parenting. So naturally they use the competence to give advantage to their children. Not all 'middle class' will actually be competent, nor will they all be assertive (or pushy). Equally so, some 'working class' parents will be well aware of how to work the system and may well be just as pushy as the middle class (but they may not have the financial power to implement their plans). How can it be any surprise that competent people use the competence when it comes to finding educational advantage for their children.It seems me that the efforts to advantage the disadvantaged will m Read more:Education
Predictable events and planning 2007-03-05 19:22:00 Churchill famously observed that the hardest thing to deal with in politics is events
. Things just happen beyond the control of even the most powerful. After all the planning
for contingencies and arranging for backup plans, there are some things that happen beyond any power to control. However the better the contingency planning, the better the preparedness, then the more chance there is of dealing with or at least mitigating what the world throws at you.So it saddens (and to some extent amuses me) when people and organizations give as their reason for failing to deliver on a promise Christmas, New Year and other public holidays. Fixed points in the calendar predictable not just months ahead, but years ahead and yet somehow we are supposed to believe that they leap out from behind a bush and cause a surprise.A similar piece of implausible explanation was being discussed on the radio this morning. Ten years ago local authorities were given a transition period to ensure that men and Read more:Predictable
Vickie Oddino on Roark inspiration 2007-03-06 22:05:00 I get a regular update by email from Atlasphere Columns aimed at people like me who are inspired by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, and The Fountainhead. Sadly, sometimes I find that the content is just romanticist rubbish that I believe Ayn Rand would disdain. This week was one of them.Vickie Oddino had penned an article called: The Roark School of Coping with Critics. It was the tag line that gave me cause for concern: "But despite the sting of harsh words, we have a role model in Howard Roark, who teaches us not to pander to those who would criticize us. "Sounds ok on first glance ... but Howard Roark is a character in a novel. The difference between a fictional character and a genuine role-model is this: there are real outcomes from the behaviour of genuine role-model. We can see whether their behaviour really works to achieve their ends (or the ends we hope to emulate). A character in a book can do pretty much what they like and the author can make their world work however the au
Get over it 2007-03-06 21:12:00 It's quirky, it's odd and it's really funny. On the whole I'm not a fan of high school/teen movies. They tend to be just a collection of cliches apparently written by committee. However Get Over It is different. Yes there are some stock situations (the party while the parents are away, for instance). But somehow this film really works in bringing Shakespeare (A midsummer night's dream) into the world of teenage angst.Martin Short was perfect as the wannabee famous director.(c) Hal Westhead 2005
eXistenZ 2007-03-06 19:28:00 I watch eXistenZ again last weekend. I really like David Cronenberg films. Although they are of variable quality through their length, the overall effect and the subject matter he deal with make them fascinating. (I'd say unmissable but I guess they are not for everyone).Although I love The Matrix, eXistenZ deals with very similar ideas in a much deeper and subtler way. On the whole I'd say it is the better film.Another winner from David Cronenberg.(c) Hal Westhead 2005
Lakeland - what a weird search algorithm 2007-03-07 21:37:00 I was looking for some new table mats. So I put the search 'table mats' into Winzy and one of the sponsored results that came back was for the Lakeland company. They have a store fairly close to where I live so I clicked on the link. One of the things that infuriates me about search engine results is hits high up the results that have absolutely nothing to do with your search. Sometimes they can be quite entertaining - like putting Rosie Winterton into Google and being offered the chance to buy a Rosie Winterton on Ebay (sorry, even if it was true that is an offer I wouldn't bid on). So when I got to the Lakeland page and it was saying 'Sorry We Can't Find this Product' I wasn't happy.However I thought I'd just put 'Table Mats' into their search box and see if could come up with anything. This was where I entered the Twilight Zone. The results were ... surreal: Everlasting Tulips, One Click Computer Mains Panel, .... there were more and all just as bizarre.Whoever has d Read more:algorithm
Gobal Warming and selective deafness 2007-03-10 11:34:00 Listen to radio or watch TV and you will come across a fascinating phenomenon.You hear scientists distinguish between global warming and man-made global warming, and you then hear journalists failing to make the distinction.What is really interesting about this is not the scientific incompetence of most journalists - this is such a commonplace as to be totally unremarkable. What is remarkable is the lack of perspective. The Earth's climate has been reasonable stable over the last 100 years - a time frame which is barely a blink in the life of the Earth - there is the assumption that if the world is changing it must be humans causing the change. The world had dramatic climatic and continental changes before humans were even in existence. For instance the Himalayas are relatively young mountains - there was a time not so long ago (geologically speaking) when they simply did not exist.Humans may be contributing to the change. We might even be a catalyst for change. But we are not
The Trident Debate 2007-03-14 20:35:00 By the time I write this the vote will have taken place in Parliament and the decision made (almost certainly) to spend the money on the next generation of Trident
system (or whatever it gets named).I must admit to being utterly split on this issue.On the one hand, what possible conceivable circumstance could justify the use of the Trident nuclear weapons? As weapons of war surely their best targets would be naval (such as taking out an aircraft carrier) but they are very difficult target to hit. Would we ever wipe out a remote terrorist training camp with a nuclear strike? The emotive and iconic status of nuclear weapons, not to mention the very practical problems of fall-out being carried by the wind, mean that any use of them must be perfect and final or else they signal all out utter destruction. They are practically the national equivalent of suicide-bomber's explosive belt. So why would we want to spend 20 billion pounds on building the next generation of system (and that i Read more:Debate
Women's prisons and suicide 2007-03-14 01:22:00 A report was published today in the UK about women's prisons
and the reforms needed. The whole review was sparked off by a spate of deaths in women's prisons. They have a much higher suicide rate than men's prisons. This fact in itself tells you there is something wrong in the system. Wrong, not because women try to kill themselves more, but because they succeed more. The system itself, whether for men or women, is supposed to be the limiting factor on the rate of suicides, not the determination of the prisoners.UK prisons are used to house a lot of people with mental health problems. Its a simple system: you wait until somebody with a mental health problem commits a crime and then lock them up. The process of arrest and trial is much more expensive than Sectioning, but I guess the housing cost must be less (and it comes out of the Home Office Budget rather than the DoH).But isn't all this just special pleading for women. Perhaps the report is claiming that women have unfair Read more:Women
Microdirect.co.uk - a bad experience shopping with them 2007-03-17 13:33:00 I decided to buy an external USB disc drive to supplement the storage on all the family computers and laptops. Unfortunately my choice of supplier - Microdirect.co.uk - has proved to be a bad choice.The package arrived well wrapped and very promptly - so far so good. Unfortunately it contained someone elses order, including the other person's Sales invoice (and certain of their personal details). Ok, that is simple human error - anyone could have made a mistake. My order number was one digit difference from the one I received. So I spoke to their service desk (only open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm). It seems that the guy who had received my order had already spoken to them so they knew about their screw up.The guy I spoke to was very polite and helpful and said that since I wasn't far from their Stockport shop the easiest thing would be for me to go to the shop where they could sort this out.So this morning I spent two hours getting to and from their shop. Actually it was 'wa Read more:experience
Joined up thinking versus Government thinking 2007-03-20 21:24:00 When New Labour came into power one of their catch-phrases was 'joined up government'. This meant getting the disparate bits of government working together in a coherent way. It turns out that this was just spin for 'centralisation', but it sounded good at the time.So 10 years on you'd think they would have a pretty good handle on this 'joined up government' thing. The implications of the blindingly obvious would be worked through rigorously - you'd think.This morning there was news report about the inquests into service deaths being moved from Oxfordshire to Wiltshire. Under the curious rules of jurisdiction we have on this subject, the coroner responsible for holding the inquest on a death overseas is the coroner in the place where the body enters the country. Nearly all the service deaths are brought back to RAF Brise Norton in Oxfordshire, so it falls to coroner there.One of the issues about Service inquests has been the back log because of Oxfordshire coroner being ov Read more:thinking
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