Taking five minutes off to review Maroon 5

Currently, I am working in a site of historical interest in Sussex. It I an unusual site because it contains a medieval structure, but also later developments – including a school. Today there is going to be a wedding here and I am getting ready to for it. I hope it turns out well, although the weather at the moment is somewhat rainy.

As I sit here I am thinking of the new Maroon 5 album ' it won't be soon before long' which I recently bought. I will review it here.

This is a good album with a number of catchy songs. I especially the b sides on this album such as 'back at your door' and 'better that we break'. Other songs, such as sweet kiwi, whilst acceptable, lack the 'humability' of other songs on the previous album ' Songs about Jane'.

Another difference between the two albums is there thematic nature. Songs about Jane was a concept album and achieved an excellent sense of unity and progression from a simple love affair to something deeper and darker. It won't be soon before long', by contrast has no story riding through it which I think is a shame. Instead, Maroon 5 have turned more 'poppy' with this album they confine themselves to love songs.

Adam Levine et al are such clever and talented people. They demonstrated on songs about Jane that they could play in a variety of styles and use quite different sounds between songs; whilst also keeping a strong rhythm going. Instead, it would be soon before long is more one dimensional. The album is good, but would be better with some acoustic numbers and a few where Adam Levine sang high and low. Topics other than love and relationships might have featured on the album such as what the band were doing between 2002 and 2007.

Overall, I give this album 7.5/10. It is easy to listen to and it grows on one. At least 4 songs are catchy and the rest are acceptable. Buy this album if you want 80's inspired pop/indie songs or you liked songs about Jane – but don't expect to be totally blown away.

Experience, feelings, beliefs and decisions

I will freely admit that I frequently get into long debates about the nature of feelings in the decision making process which have in the past been of limited success. Such debates often occur with Dantares and though such discussions are not confined to his company, it is usually with him that I am challenged the most. I hope here to have bring some insight.

Partly out of a wish to clarify my own thinking on the matter and partly out of a desire to see what other people I offer the following as a starting point for discussion both on the blog and more generally: with a view to finding the forces that best sum up decision making.

On the most simple level, it may be observed that decisions are a logical process. One of two or more propositions is selected from a list – simple logic – nothing to it.

On a deeper level, though I would argue that this interpretation seeks to cut out the ‘subjective’ self or perceiver from the equation. Doing so renders the model at best simplistic and at worst unhelpful because as I will argue subjective factors influence the logic used to answer the question. It is therefore necessary to look at accounts that factor in subjective qualities.

Many times we have heard people say that ‘logically that is possible but it just does n’t seem right’. In such cases people effectively are resorting to the store of their past experiences and understanding of other’s experiences to determine that which is subjectively true. This is because people are limited in their perceptions in the sense that the cannot see all things from all positions. They are confined to their current individual attention. Thus they make a selective interpretation based on what they know. But, that knowledge is ultimately subjective.

That subjectivity is further more expressed as a feeling which informs people’s perceptions of ‘what life is really like.’ Were people to have a series of dramatically different experiences compared to their earlier ones, they beliefs feelings about what life is would be altered quite dramatically. Given this altered feeling, one would then make new statements based on logical processes. Thus for Descartes, the existence of God was ‘logically’ proven because for him his experiences informed his feeling about how life ‘really was’. From that starting point, a philosophy was built which used many logical steps, but which started from a feeling based on his prior experiences.

Whilst we’re on the subject experience and beliefs tend to be relatively stable in most people, which for many, gives the illusion that the two have only a limited relationship. I suggest that in fact they have a strong correlation. Though hard to measure with existing technology, I think that beliefs are formed of experiences which impact on consciousness and are perceived somewhere on the spectrum between good and bad. Based on the number of events of Good or Bad, people form beliefs and from these beliefs they continue to form new experiences which are in line with their existing beliefs.

I also argue that from a conscious attempt to experiences new things, even by just concentrating one’s attention on a different component of known thing, people can change their beliefs. For example, someone who believed that the NHS was a waste of money, might consider the price that private health care problems cost the Americans.

Beliefs can create experience, experience can create beliefs – the two are like Siamese twins – joined at the hip but with an important story of its own. It is also interesting to consider how readily people ignore some of their experiences and some of their beliefs when they conflict with their more deeply held attitudes and memories.

Current business

Owing to the nature of current revision requirements, articles have been kept to a minimum of late. I hope to rectify this soon. In the mean time, I hope to entice you to keep checking for updates by telling you some of the topics I have planned for the near future:

1. placebo effects - what do they show about will power
2. the rules science lives by - what are the paradigms that affect the studies we put so much store by?
3. consciousness - what is it and does anyone know - can we ever know?

In the mean time, two exam left.

Almost there…

The exam season finishes for me in three days. As of Friday, I will be a free bird until the BPS exams in July and I must say I will be delighted to finish this round of exams.

It has been, in so many ways, an extremely busy year. I feel I have progressed in all sorts of ways and the course has provided me with an excellent grounding in psychology. That is not to say, however, it has been a bed of roses. Working at part time jobs – 15 hours a week during term time 45 during the hols, applying for future courses, attempting to buy a piano for my family have all taken up considerable amounts of time and I feel in need of some time to myself soon.

Still, here I am… the end is in sight and I will make a good finish. To those of you who still have exams on, good luck!

And the Personality of the week is…

Once again it has been some time since the last episode of Personality of the week hit the café Lumiere headlines. It is back for another episode now and I think you will be pleased with this week’s choice, it is the antidote to Eurovision its…..

Lord W. F. Deedes, aka ‘Dear Bill’.

W. F. Deedes is quite a remarkable man and here is why…

Born on the fringes of the extremely wealthy and influential in 1913 Deedes was brought up in Saltwood Castle Kent and educated at Harrow until the age of 17. Owing to the 1929 financial depression, however, his father suffered very severe money problems; and young William’s promising academic career was cut short before he could attend university.

He became a journalist in 1931, writing first for the Morning Post and after 1937 the Daily Telegraph, for which he still writes today – yes, you did read that correctly, he is still active!

During world war two he fought with distinction and gained the military cross. After the war, he served as minister under Churchill and Macmillan before leaving politics (at least in Parliament) in 1974. After that he was editor of the Telegraph 1974-1986 when he also developed a friendship with the late Denis Thatcher, husband of the prime minister. Private Eye, during the 1980s, ran a famous column entitled ‘dear Bill’ which satirised the relationship between these two eccentric men.

Deedes was made a life peer in 1986, but that has not slowed him down, it would seem. He has appeared on Have I got news for you (twice) and continues to write and work for the abolition of Land Mines.

He family also takes it lead from him. His son, Jeremy Deedes, is a director of the Telegraph Group.

One of my favourite things about W.F. Deedes, is that he is a link with an age that is almost out of living memory. When I read his short book ‘brief lives’ it was quite incredible to realise that he actually met the people detailed in the book – who included Stanley Baldwin, Princess Diana whilst also surviving them to be able to write in a meaningful way about their legacy or some aspect of their personalities that has been largely missed . In his autobiography, ‘Dear Bill: a memoir’ one received a sense of the extremely sharp mind, yet humane soul that is at work in Deedes.

He reported alongside the young Evelyn Waugh in Abyssinia in 1936. It is sometimes claimed that ‘Boot’ the journalist in Waugh’s Scoop is the young Deedes. It should be noted though, that Bill Deedes has always denied this; saying only that there are ‘passing similarities’. I am not sure he has convinced me on that point.

Nevertheless, his writing continues to impress and inspire me. He is a fine example of Britishness and manhood.

Lord Deedes, a free coffee awaits you!

Dinner is served...

Though I am mainly revising these days, a man still has to eat. Consequently it seems appropriate to show you what I ate this evening.

Sometimes when you come to prepare a meal, you find yourself presented with leftovers from the rest of week. Rarely was this more true than of tonight’s proprietor’s special at the Café. The meal is called Quinoa chez Highfield. Although it may look like couscous it is in fact a more unusual ingredient called quinoa added to tomatoes and in this case sausages etc. It is a seed which comes from South America and I have developed quite a partiality for it of late.

Quinoa chez Highfield bears a close resemblance to another dish called Pasta chez Dilettante, after the person who showed me the method. That pasta dish resembles Quinoa chez Highfield in two main respects: 1. chopped tomatoes provide the base on to which you can place almost anything you like, 2. sugar can be added liberally, along with herbs to provide more variation. To the best of my knowledge, however, quinoa has not yet been tried in maison Dilettante.

What were the outcomes of this meal? I was filled up and I enjoyed the it. I conclude it was a success!

Reasons to be cheerful

Reasons to be cheerful…

Why, might you ask, am I still reasonably cheerful despite the prospect of six exams imminently?

Here are a couple of reasons:

1. Two days ago, I got course work marks back. I got the highest marks for the year on two course work essays. One was on social Psychology (74%) and one was on the Psychology of Religion (76%). I am extremely pleased that these are the areas I scored best in because these are the kind of areas I would like to focus on in my academic career.

2. I have got all my course work for the year out of the way now and I dare say quite a lot of the readers of the blog do too. I will not have to revisit my coursework for another month and even then hopefully only fleetingly. In July, I have yet another series of exams with the BPS and they require me to submit this year’s course work before they will allow me into the exams. Still it is nice they are all out of the way for the time being.

3. Government authorities in Spain have seen fit to produce an excellent ‘Green’ power station. It uses sun rays to power solar panels which produces enough electricity for around 6000 homes. Another clever thing is that it uses heat from the sun as well which is stored during the day, then released at night after the sun has completely gone for the night. It is heartening to see this kind of project getting off the ground - tee hee hee.
   (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6616651.stm)
   

4. After many lunch times watching Jeremy Brett over a bread roll and cheese, I have finished the entire span of Sherlock Holmes episodes in which he featured. I don’t know how many episodes that is exactly, but I believe it is around 18 DvDs, of which at least three are film length rather than three episodes. Brett’s final line at the end of the final episode was unexpected and pleasing, “there must be some meaning to all this – for to think there is no meaning is unthinkable – but a meaning which, as yet, logic has not provided an answer to.” I could n’t help wondering if there was going to be some sneaky shot of Arthur Conan-Doyle’s work on spiritualism, but alas not on this occasion. Still, a worthy end to a very enjoyable series of adaptations. I now feel I can say I 'know' the Sherlock Holmes stories pretty well.

5. Maroon 5 are releasing their new album "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" later this month!

Back to exam revision I go now. To all of you sitting exams at the moment, or in the near future, Good Luck!

(my thanks to Mr. Amazon for the picture of Maroon 5, and www.dnrec.state.de.us for the image of success and the BBC for the image of the power station in Seville)

Christianity and Reincarnation

Though in the west today, we consider reincarnation an Eastern philosophical and theological issue, it has not ever been thus.

In the early days of Christianity, by that I mean 0 CE-200CE, it was not uncommon for writers to draw on Plato and others who wrote of reincarnation. There is also some support for reincarnation in the bible itself. To take three examples:

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from his mother's womb. And his disciples asked him, saying, 'Teacher, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'"
John 9:1-2 – The point being that since the man was blind since the womb, he could not have committed any crime in this life – implicitly reincarnation.

"When Jesus came into the country of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, 'What do men say concerning me, that I am merely a son of man?' They said, 'There are some who say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets."
Matthew 16:13-14 – again, if reincarnation is so wrong, does not Jesus not rebuke the disciples for implying it here?

Though strictly speaking this is re-animation, the distinction is an extremely small one. The underlying principle is that spirit control the body; not the body controlling the spirit.

Lazarus, who having died comes back to life again. Without relating the whole story, the reference ends at “And he that was dead came forth” John 11:44.

Prior to 553, a few groups, including some Origenists, had been quite happily putting a Christina façade over a religion that resembled Hinduism and very closely Platonism; allowing both class structures and re-incarnation. However, one woman got in the way of this potential link up. Her name was Theodora. She was wife of Emperor Justinian.

Theodora could not stand the various rumours that abounded that she might come back as some lower animal in the next life because of her misdeeds and murders. Perhaps not surprisingly as she had started out pretty lowly in that life she sought to avoid going down any notches on the social ladder. Thus she wanted Christianity changed and those who spoke of reincarnation declared heretics.

Using her influence with Justinian, she had doctrine changed in order to prevent any further links with Karma. By the Fifth Ecumenical Council 553, the soul was deemed to be part of the body, which only came into existence once the foetus had been conceived.

One can only wonder what people presented with this doctrine might have thought happened to their souls once the body died, with this change to church philosophy. Anyone who did not abide by this doctrine was considered a heretic and would die as such.

The sad thing is, that this arbitrary decision:

a) continues to inform the abortion debate without people being aware of it.

b) prevented a more unified approach with the East and a faster exchange of information between our cultures.

c) causes considerable muddiness of thinking surrounding issues of the life force in human beings and where it comes from.

(my thanks to for the picture of Yin Yang energies. http://www.healingtherapies.info/images/Yin__Yang.gif)

How my last piece of course work yielded a fragment of Roman History

Funnily enough, yesterday was my last course work deadline. A tremendous feeling of relief flooded over me when it sank in that – yes ! – really, that was the last piece of work I would hand in with a deadline at Holloway; unless I come back for a PHD. I celebrated as best I knew how… I spoke with a friend and we went for a drive in my car, Pegasus.

The friend, Dantares, also had finished his work for the year and we decided to go out together. With no particular plan, but my car at our disposal we headed for a motorway.

After a little while, we spotted a village with a ridiculous name. Such is our mutual sense of silliness that we decided immediately that the place must be worth of a visit. As it is so beautiful I am tempted not to tell everyone its name, lest some less discerning people come to hear of it. For that reason, we will call it simply Silly Bottom Wick.

Many qualities about the place seemed like they were from a blissful time 50 years ago. There was plenty of green open space, trees and quietness. Around us, buildings from every age before the 1930s could be seen. Occasionally a classic British sports car could be seen parked in a rural and tasteful drive way. The road did n’t even have road markings most of the time. The take home message was, this is a place with ‘good taste.’

The sophisticated grace of the three manor houses was particularly praise worthy. One day I aspire to own a house similar to one of them. They appeared to be largely Georgian houses, but with earlier constructions still visible in places. Even more unusually, they were not spoiled with excessive property developments, but rather stood in tasteful company with only a few ‘comfortable’ houses a short walk away.

Then something a little unusual happened. We took a short walk into a field and Dantares saw a pile of debris that interested him. Like a tracker dog smelling the scent, he bent down and soon held up about an inch square of pottery.

‘It’s Roman I would say… you can tell by the lack of crystallisation... since the Romans cooled their pots very quickly there was not chance for the crystals for form.’

Such are the benefits of studying classical archaeology, being able to spot Roman pottery at 10 paces! A free cup of Café Lumiere coffee to you Mr. Dantares!

(my thanks to http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/reticulum/HOWWEKNOW/Archaeology/PotSherdHandsSml.jpg for the image)