I mentioned that this site here on WordPress.com was a temporary location for what I wanted to explore, more or less so I could start getting some of my ideas down while mulling over potential names for the site which would need a unique URL.

Come to the new site.

Well I’ve finally settled on a name and as it turned out I’ve ended up returning to the first name I chose temporarily for here – Inspired Acceptance.

Like most names on the internet, Google, Rotten Tomatoes or Zen Habits, the name becomes synonymous with the site and content rather than the other way around. I also had to find something still available after dealing with all the domain squatters out there taking the easy names and not using them.

The site is still brand spanking new and I have a lot to do before it’s fully frocked up but I’ve imported the posts I initially put here and I’ll soon be back into creating some new content. I have many draft posts already and hundreds of notes to flush out new posts so content is only a matter of time.

There is already an email subscription so you can get to posts sent to you like was available here as well as a RSS feed if that suits you. Both are in the side bar.

If what you’ve seen here interests you please come across to http://InspiredAcceptance.com/

Let’s start talking about these topics. I know I have much to learn from you

There you are in the kitchen, just washed your hands in the sink, wet and slippery. Open the fridge door, reach down for a bottle and as you lift it you feeeel it slip through your fingers… Time sloooows dooown. The last you know of it and it’s chilled glassy goodness is as the lid leaves your fingertips. NOOOOoooooooo! Then in slow motion it hits the floor, smashing into a bizillion pieces, scattering shattered glass across the room and spilling the contents everywhere.

…BUGGER!

Well Bugger me!

For most people, as the bottle hits the floor, it’s F*#k, S#@t or some expletive to express their displeasure. Determined to rally against the unfairness of life.

Sorry folks, life’s unfair and sometimes things just don’t go as you’d like.

Ideally when the bottle smashes on the floor, without a blink you turn and clean up the mess, then return to whatever you were doing without your heart-rate rising or any extra angst in your day. But just maybe, as yet, you’re not a Zen master. That’s okay there are ways to help you get to that state and it’s all about the above ad.

What I love about ‘Bugger‘, is how it expresses surprise of the changed circumstances but instantly also accepts the new reality. It is a vocal reinforcement of the change and affirmation of having to deal with the consequences.

**Bugger is a colloquial term often used in Australia & New Zealand and I’m doing all I can to spread its use as a humorous way of accepting changes in life.

Acceptance – It’s a little game I play, to test myself.

It’s easy to philosophise what to do when things go wrong but it’s when you’re broad-sided by the unexpected that the real test occurs.  Can you remain calm and collected without missing a beat even when it all goes south?

In one moment the expectation is of pouring a cool refreshing drink, in the next it’s all changed. Why fight the moment. You’re not going to have that drink, *insert cliché*, “You can’t cry over spilt milk”. The new reality is, you’ll be cleaning up a mess.

Without missing a beat, in your real, everyday life can you just turn and start cleaning up?

And if you need to expel a little energy to help express acceptance… well, Bugger!

]]> http://iankath.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/well-bugger-dealing-with-unexpected-disasters/feed/ 1 Ian http://iankath.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/using-art-to-share-the-wonder-of-science/ http://iankath.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/using-art-to-share-the-wonder-of-science/#comments Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:32:04 +0000 Ian http://iankath.wordpress.com/?p=217 ]]> Somethings are so very hard to express.

It’s easy to share some things – Look over here and see the wonder of a sunset. “Ahhhh, yes, it’s beautiful.” *Insert gentle melody played on strings*

Other things are not so easy – Look at the wonder of that star, third from the right as it moves into it’s later stages of existence and start to burn metals. “Eh? What? It’s just a star!”

Sharing the wonder of science.

The problem… The most important problem for the sciences, above everything else, is how to communicate immensely complicated topics and concepts without turning the audience against you. From the days of Pythagorus and Copernicus this has been the issue but occasionally some very cleaver people involve artists in the task of getting across some of the concepts that normally need a PhD to start to feel it’s wonder.

This isn’t about the deep, literal understanding but more about grasping the emotions of those incredibly complex topics. And for most of us, that’s all we want. To be impressed with the good work which is going on and then to leave the Boffins to get on with what they’re doing.

Go on Boffins, do what you do, but please use the artists to share the wonder, so we to can understand how amazing our universe is.

Food has been with us since our distant ancestors absorbed it through cell membranes way back when we were pond scum on the recently habitable Earth. Back then food was simply nutrition for growth, energy and dodging falling meteorites. Then it became something more.

1920′s Family Meal

Looking at the world differently means there are no sacred cows to opinion, belief or reality. Everything can be reassessed including something as simple as the food we eat.

You know the use of food as a cultural expression. It connects us in ways nothing else does. Connection between people from a birthday party to a United Nations conference will involve food in one way shape or form. Just imagine a world without the ritual of food and the eating of it. But it is still nutrition, and sometimes it’s too much of a good thing or as is often the case in a world of cheap mass produced food, too much of a bad thing.

Food for nutrition and food for culture.

Everything you need for a meal.

Okay we have the food for significant events sorted. There is no issue of creating as much quality food for all the events of our life as we want or need. But what about the more mundane times in our life where we just want to get on with it and it’s all about fuel and nutrition? And if people to date are grabbing fuel in the form of a greasy, cheap, mass produced burger with fries and a coke couldn’t we find something better?

Everything you need in a puce coloured drink.

Rob Reinehart has done just that. All the nutrition you need in one place and he’s tested it on himself. Rather than repeat the story here, there is a much better interview well worth a read on Vice. If you what to see the full list of ingredients have a look at Rob’s site and read of his experiences, advantages and warnings along with many comments worth reading.

Would you augment you diet with a product like this?

Bees can see into the ultraviolet and snakes the infrared but we can only see the colours of the rainbow. And for some of us we can’t even see all of those colours. Imagine if you could perceive more of the world you’re immersed but oblivious to.

The human eye can’t see beyond these limits but here’s Neil Harbisson who’s someone who can perceive colours beyond the limits of normal human senses. Being completely colour deficient Neil is augmented, to hear colours and is extending his range well beyond what we can see into the realms of science fiction. It’s one way of getting around some of the issues of qualia by moving input of one sense to another.

Here is a worthwhile impromptu conversation with Neil by Julian Treasure sharing some of the more interesting aspects of audio relating to colour and the world around us.

But best of all Neil is known for his TED talk.

Being someone colour deficient I find this particularly interesting but it also cracks open the whole idea of augmenting ourselves with technology to perceive more of the world around us beyond what we are naturally endowed with.

Would you augment yourself with technology?

On the 17 February 1872, William Chester Minor committed a terrible murder. A murder out of paranoid panic which threw poor George Merrett’s six children and pregnant wife further into the squalor that was the working class Dickensian life in Lambeth, London.

No public hanging for William Minor

The punishment for murder in 1872  was death but with the Criminal Lunatics act of 1800 a finding of criminal insanity had W.C. Minor locked away at ‘His Majesties Pleasure’. In this case it was the rest of Minor’s life, until when elderly he was shipped back to the United States where he remained in the care at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.

As an educated surgeon and veteran of the American Civil war and with the accompanying pension Minor, was able to amuse himself in his confinement with interests in literature and study, eventually to notice in one of the many books he had purchased, a pamphlet asking for help in compiling information on the use of words in english for the ‘Great Dictionary’ being compiled by Professor James Murray.

Oxford English Dictionary

And so the story unfolds in Simon Winchesters book The Professor and the Madman, of a life long collaboration to help create one of literature’s greatest works.

A compassionate society.

If this story had unfolded in an earlier era when the defence of criminal insanity wasn’t in place and the order of the day for murder was capital punishment, Minor would never have had the chance to use his intellect and abundant time to help contribute to the OED.

Story of madness but a great mind.

The defence of criminal insanity is one of compassion saying someone is too mentally ill to function with rational abilities but isn’t this the case for all of us on a long scale from sane to insane. Aren’t we all at some time a little unbalanced from societal norms due to experiences, emotion or illness.

William Chester Minor undoubtedly had a major mental illness which contributed to the murder of Merrett but although extreme isn’t this a little like all of us. When are we 100% rational and sane for that matter? If we have to cut Minor some slack for what he did, shouldn’t we also have some compassion for those around us who do odd things because of their situation.

With W.C. Minor’s abilities and self financing and due to the compassion of his time, the great works he was able to achieve despite his illness are still of benefit to our culture today but how many people have missed the opportunity to achieve their potential due to our lack of compassion for their situation and individual insanity, instability, eccentricities, moodiness, personality.

Giving everyone opportunity, including yourself.

There are people all around us, who are a little, ‘left of centre’ so to speak. Who only need some support in one form or another to enable them to reach their potential and add greatly to society. We’re all too ready to judge others biased on our own thoughts and attitudes but a little compassion for the idiosyncrasies which we all have, would create a more friendly, compassionate society and as is the case with W.C. Minor, create opportunities for a full life for the benefit of everyone.

Just maybe you’re the one needing some compassion to be wonderfully eccentric and give the world something special.

It’s often said we create our own reality.
Here in 2:04 minutes you can get overview on how we perceive that reality… and maybe a little of where it’s taking us.

Bit of a wild trip eh?

What are your thoughts?

Day by day, hour by hour I make decisions.
I look at the options, weigh up the alternatives, measure the tangibles and feel my desires, then I make a decision because…

I have Free Will!! I do! I can feel myself make the decision.
Don’t I?

It’s how it feels to me.

As I make any decision, from if I should have my fifth coffee for the day to which colour to have my new hovercraft in, I have the Free Will to make my decision based on my desires and judgements. This is how it feels to me, Damn it! I have Free Will.

Maybe there is no free will.

I’ve read, watched and listened to a variety of publications explaining, with well referenced examples of the falsehood of our beliefs in Free Will. Recently I downloaded a copy of Free Will by Sam Harris which I will happily admit, I’m a little nervous to start reading.

Knowing the falsehood of Free Will.

I’ve lived my whole life living in a society which says I have the ability to create any future I desire simply by making a decision, then acting on it. This doesn’t seem to be the case and the reverse is true.

What seems to be happening is I’m acting out a life based on the cascade of events which has lead me to this moment and any decision I make is based on the sum total of all the previous events in my existence. I have no choice but to act as I am. Therefore I have no free will, just the illusion of it.

The real issue isn’t, do I have or not have Free Will, but more, how do I deal with the intelligent understanding of the reality of ‘No Free Will’. I feel like I can make a decision using Free Will and determine the things in my life, to have some control and sense of order over it. But this seems to be a falsehood and contradictory to the reality of ‘No Free Will’.

How do I reconcile this?

I don’t know but I think it’s about Acceptance and I hope to inspire that.

As we develop this site I’m intending to delve deeper and deeper into this topic, to explore what’s going on and how that impacts us on our normal every day routine along with the major challenges in life.
Stay tuned

You know the feeling, don’t you? That day to day grind of wake, work, sleep, watch, buy… or variations there of. Mix it up with kids, holidays and maybe even the occasional adventure but really when you come down to it, what’s it all about? Eh?

Here’s a cute little video by Adam Marr which may resonate with some things in your life also.

Have you seen any other insightful videos that hit the mark?

One of the things concerning me in writing here is if I’m falling into the trap of reinforcing my beliefs without considering the full gamut of possibilities. It’s just too easy to stay within the range of a topic without looking at any fringe possibilities.

Belief gets in the way of the answers.

In days past how could I possibly imagine the Earth revolving around the Sun when everyday all I ever see from experience and thought is the Sun rising and setting, obviously going around the Earth. It’s not until I consider odd, transient and subtle effects like the seasons and movement of the stars and planets that I would start to doubt the original assumption. Sadly most of us reinforce our prejudices without looking at the alternative possibilities, especially if they contradict our beliefs and put risk to our opinions.

In a rather lengthy but well put post in Letters to Atarasia Arjuna says…

… the mathematician becomes more mathematically minded and sees arithmetical insights everywhere, and so it is with the religious minded, the empiricist, or the aestheticist.

As a result we are susceptible to being trapped by our favourite framework biases, which although plastic, as they are based upon malleable neural networks, acts as though they are not because the output of the system creates a magnifying and reconfirming feedback loop between observations and conclusion…
…The result is a “hardened” or “over-specialised” neural system and the consequence for the agent is a deeper commitment to the reified ontology

We can all be accused of bias in our speciality.

The secret to understanding the reality of any situation is to consider every possibility without favour until the truth surfaces (and even then maintain a little doubt). Often this is difficult as it challenges long-held beliefs and the accompanying egos and cultural norms. Sometimes it’s simply a concept so far away from what we’re used to that it’s hard to imagine the possibility of it’s existence.

We’ve all been rattled by a new understanding which has changed our world view. It’s best to remember this could apply to everything in our life and looking for it helps to reveal the truth.

Many thanks to Nicolaus Copernicus. You got it right buddy despite what seemed obvious.