As I munched the first burger I’ve eaten in years (homemade with relish and a fab side salad) in a small cafe in Glastonbury, I read with interest an article in the Daily Mail by Christopher Booker entitled ‘Pandemic of Panic‘ (p14, Thurs 30/04/09 if you’re interested) and contemplated BSE and CJD.

I was struck by so much of what he was saying and suggesting about the scares that we seem to endure on a regular basis.  His basic premise (and I concur) was that they all seem to follow the same basic pattern:

1. Dubious ’scientific’ research reported in the academic sector
2. Picked up and reported as ‘fact’ to those in authority who have neither the wisdom nor the wit to question what is being told them
3. ‘Leaked’ to the world’s media who jump up and down in glea at the thought of finding yet another ‘news’ item that they can promote to a largely indifferent public as the next ‘big worry’ that we must all subscribe to.
4. Only to be slip into some sort of non-event oblivion (sometimes within just a few days) which we all remember with amusement at a dinner party ten years down the road – shades of my reaction to the millennium bug spring to mind here, but that’s a story for another occasion.

However, what I found noteworthy was not so much what he was saying as what he was NOT saying.

My own view (completely unsubstantiated and purely subjective – soon to be addressed though) is that these moments of national and international panic usually occur at a moment of crisis for those powers that be who feel themselves threatened in some way by something or other..

I believe a time like that exists now, the so called global ‘credit crunch’ (which was probably started as a diversionary tactic for something else) has spiralled out of control and now risks becoming a reality as nations talk themselves into it.

So, what are the options? Firstly, it is worth bearing in mind that, although there have been 158 deaths in Mexico so far and one in the US, several thousand people die in the UK every year from ‘normal’ flu anyway.  Perhaps one of the problems is a lack of consistent data from any nation to which we can compare things.  You can check out this forum posting to see how confusing it can get: http://www.jabs.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=58 (posted 01/08/2006).

One thing I plan to do is to have a look at just what was going on in the world at the time of the last major ‘panics’ we had – once again this will be purely circumstantial with no evidence put forward; however given the fact that our own NHS can’t come up with accurate or even complete statistics, then I guess that won’t be a problem !!!

It’s amazing how easy it is to have your prejudices challenged.  For instance, one of the places I visited whilst on holiday in Spain was Orihuela – recommended by the guide book I was using as being one of the top 25 places to see on the Costa Bognor.  It’s cathedral was also highly recommended, but the thing that clinched it was the promise that it would be free from tourists and ex-pats ….. mmmmmm, we’ll see I thought!

It was true, Spain, real and uncluttered with the trappings of holiday makers and I counted on the fingers of one hand the numbers of those speaking English.  My slightly extended Spanish (thanks to the phrase book picked up the day before) enabled me to order coffee AND a still mineral water this time … I’m getting good at this!!

There I was sat enjoying the sights and sounds of the real Spain when my prejudices arose like a wave and were then severely dashed on rocks that I hadn’t realised were below the surface.  Sitting near to me were some of those few Brit’s, one was covered from head to foot in tattoos, the others were only slightly less adorned.  Strong regional accents confirmed my worst fears, until I closed my eyes and actually started to hear snatches of the conversation.  They were all talking about their Christian Ministry and the Church to which they all belonged; discussing the politics that existed within the hierarchy and how best to approach some of the problems of accepting both themselves and others and giving to God.  My first reaction was to smile, and my next was to realise just how much I’d pre-judged them.  A gentle slap on the wrist was self administered and yet another lesson was learnt.

I find I’m learning lessons like this everyday, sometimes several times a day, at the moment; and it’s been like this for the last couple of years.  Each time a realisation, understanding or awareness strikes, it is like a layer of the onion has been peeled back and like pandora’s box, I know that things will never be quite the same again, because of course, you don’t know, what you don’t know – but when you do finally know it, everything changes; your perceptions of yourself, others and the way the world around you works.

There was something inherently special about the time I had to myself in Spain, a stranger in a strange land.  I’ve realised I can actually cope with anything, that I’m independent, have an adventurous side I never knew existed and yet I still love England, really because I like my countryside manicured!

Way back when, in my early 20’s I came across a novel called Schrodinger’s Cat – I’m sure that those of you who are interested in quantum physics and alternative states of reality may well have heard of it.  Well, it’s been on my mind for several months now – not sure why but there you go, these things come to haunt us for a while.  I discovered it was out of print but I purchased a used copy on Amazon a couple of days ago and it has finally arrived.  I shall relive some of my youth reading this book again.

Anyway, the purpose of this post wasn’t really to talk about my purchase of the book, but to explain a little about what schrodinger’s cat actually is.  No, it isn’t the name of a famous composers favourite pet, but rather is the title of a thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrodinger that was devised to demonstrate the quantum theory of superposition – in other words can something be in two places/states at the same time – the answer is of course Yes.  In this particular case, a cat is locked in a steel box with a poison of some description, a small amount of radioactive material and the box is sealed.  If a small amount of the radioactive substance decays it triggers a relay mechanism that breaks the vial of poison and so kills the cat – however, as we aren’t in the box and are unable to see what has happened to the box, the cat is still both alive and dead at the same time – the observers paradox if you will because the outcome doesn’t exist until it has been observed!

This brilliant little cartoon may help to explain it far better than I can!

And now that I’ve had my blog for the day, I’ll go to bed with my new/old book!  And by the way, no animals were harmed in the making of this blog article – in fact to my knowledge this experiment has never been performed, it is just a  THOUGHT experiment!

I was reminded of this reality when visiting a website I had been recommended called TUT – it’s also something I regularly come across when I’m working with clients on making the Internet a more effective sales channel.  According to research by Alta Vista, around 80% of web searches are totally unique which just goes to show the authenticity of the title of this post.

It’s strange to think that no-one is ever going to think the same thoughts that I think, that no-one else will ever have the same unique perspective on life that I have and no-one will ever feel exactly the same way that I do – I am a totally unique personality with those totally unique thoughts.  So, to end, here’s my thought for today;

“If two birds were to fly towards each other at break neck speed, which one do you think would brake first”

See, totally unique (and I’m not sure it even really means anything, but hey ho back to work we go!  Of course I could go with that old koan “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” but that’s an old chestnut everyone has heard of haven’t they.

I assume that by now, many people reading this will have received an email that is doing the rounds that suggests that buying petrol from Esso and BP is not a good idea and if we can refrain from giving them profits by purchasing at Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco et al we will in fact be able to leverage the power of the consumer and force them to reduce prices……!

Hum …. I wonder …… I mean who supplies Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco with the petrol that sits in their pumps?  Sure that course of action would have an impact on local garages, which may result in closure or redundancies, but would it actually have enough of an impact to have an impact, if you know what I mean?

I’m not convinced, those that know me well are well aware of my tendency to look beyond the obvious to see if there are any other connections going on and I’m still trying to work them out at the moment.  But, just for starters there is no real evidence to show that we are running out of oil just yet (the so called ‘peak oil’ theory) – just that certain resources are less productive than they once were (or for the more cynical amongst us, more expensive to continue to work!).  You can read more on this at the CERA website or here at Ludvig von Mises Institute blog or even at the Times Online.

Perhaps it is time to remind ourselves that matter can be neither created nor destroyed!  and that the only people who benefit from such myths as this are the oil companies who have the perfect opportunity to ramp up the price of petrol by creating a climate of fear that we all have bunker down and protect ourselves and our own.

Well, it’s been a few months since I last put a post on the blog and now seems like as good a time as any to start once again feeding the mountain of information that is held by the wonderful, the amazing, the fabulous web!!

When I read that I often wonder what people must make of me – I guess most probably see me as slightly odd, not quite ‘with it’ in the general scale of world politics, economics etc…. Does, that bother me, no, not really.  I like the fact that I think out of the box, that I see a broader view of the world than most and can attribute much of what happens in politics to just someone else’s point of view.

So, here’s my question of the week – the one I’m currently working on as it were:

How come, since we are simply creatures sitting on a rock that is spinning through space, do we think we can actually control the thing we call ‘life’?

If anyone has an answer let me know, although I appreciate that no one is actually reading the words I write.

I was with my husband and some friends last Thursday night and the conversation came around to sailing (as it so often does with these particular friends as they have a catamaran in Greece). While we were talking someone mentioned the phrase ‘nautical miles’, so being the curious person I am I just had to know what the difference was between a nautical and a normal mile. Well it turns out that a nautical mile is 1.85200km and 1.1508 to a normal mile (so roughly half a mile extra).

Well, then we got on to how they are calculated and I was informed by my oh so clever spouse and one of my very favourite friends that the circumference of the world is divided into 360 degrees and each degree is divided by 60 minutes and 1 minute = 1 nautical mile.

Ah ha said I ’so why is the earth divided into 360 degrees, wouldn’t it be easier to have it divided into 400 – because 360 is just an arbitrary figure isn’t it?’ So the conversation moved on apace with a furious discussion taking place about the fact that it has to be divisible by 12 etc…. blah blah blah – ‘but why is it divisible by 12?’ I asked.

And do you know what – there was no adequate answer so I decided to investigate because it seemed odd to me that someone had to have invented the reason why the earth was divided into 360 degrees. And I was right, it is arbitrary and was decided upon by the ancient Greeks who divided the year into twelve parts that they called months, each month was then divided in 30 parts called days. This meant that their year had 360 days and as the earth goes round the sun in around about 1 year in an almost circular transit, they decided to divide the world into 360 degrees. You can read all about it at: http://www.arcytech.org/java/clock/clock_history.html if you really want to find out as well.

Now the next question almost certainly has to be why twelve months and 30 days? – was this something to do with the sun coming back to the same place in the heavens each year – or is this another example of arbitrary inventions of men trying to pin something down and call it a ‘fact’.

Well, here I am back again in the land of blogging and after reading the last post I made I have to laugh really as I’m now moved into my new home, have sold and completed on the last one and all is well – well almost!

It is amazing how things turn out.  Not long after writing my blog, my surprise happened! The buyer turned up unexpectedly, I hadn’t met him before as he had been shown round by the agents.  We had a long, full and frank discussion about all the problems and concluded that the problem lay with the Estate Agents, Domvs and their inability to communicate with anyone.

I had already agreed to allow the surveyor in although very reluctantly and explained this to the buyer.  I also told him what my fears were.  The following day I told all this to both estate agents and to solicitors who were fairly dubious.  But the survey came back with nothing to report (despite my fears), and the exchange of contracts took place on the Thursday and we completed on 30th August, just in time for the end of the month and not having to pay an extra months mortgage, insurance, and utility bills.

It really has made me stop and think about just ‘letting it go’ and accepting that whatever will be, will be.

I’m not busy trying to get quotes for attic conversions, replacement windows, removals of internal walls and garden design – so I don’t think I’m out of the woods just yet.  My husband has also sold his house and will be moving in shortly which is frightening as this house is about 1/3 smaller than what we are used to – so lots of things have got to be sorted out and ‘let go of’.

Bye for now

Remember my feeling of something (event) being imminent, well during my crop circle weekend I started to do a lot of dowsing. Dowsing is something I have been using for a couple of years now, but I haven’t really been completely confident in my own intuitive sense. That all changed this weekend, I feel in some ways as if I have ‘been woken-up’ maybe it was the ‘Keys to the Acturians’ presentation that I went to on the Saturday night.

Dowsing is a very ancient art, and it is stil used in the rural communities in Dorset today, to find the location of water, gas and electricity pipes. My step-son was very sceptical of it, until he started working with an agricultural fencing company and the guys he was working with were using their rods to locate pipes and other things before sticking a post in the ground. He became a convert very quickly!

Anyway, although I have some rods, I tend to use a pendulum mainly because I am trying to tap into my own intuitive knowledge. What I got when I was asking a series of questions on Friday evening was that there would be an ‘event’ somewhere in Asia (possibly India) during November (probably mid-November) that would be natural, but would be from outside the earth (ie something like a meteor strike). This event would be significant, but it would occur away from major centres of populations (fortunately), however it would have an impact on natural resources in some way (unspecified). Apparently Governments around the world are aware of this event, but aren’t doing anything about it, because they can’t.

Anyway, that is my prediction for the day – we shall see if my ‘intuitive powers’ are a force to be reckoned with or just for my own use thank you very much!

PS. Dowsing seems to work best when you have no attachment to the outcome, it seems to create a more accurate response!

Recommended Reading:

For the sceptics amongst you! http://www.randi.org/library/dowsing/index.html and http://www.lysator.liu.se/~rasmus/skepticism/dowsing.html

For those who think there may be something in it try: http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/dowsing.htm and http://www.crystalinks.com/dowsing.html