Ed Dowding

Category: Being Human

Happiness, Health, and Psychology

Hubris and humus – Lessons from the garden

After a day and a half of driving rain, which seemed very befitting once the mountains and forests were made dark by the thick cloud cover, the weather cleared up on Sunday afternoon so we went out to the garden to do some pruning, since it is the season. We read up about it in ...

Our first few days at Coueillas

Time flies, it really does. Today is Saturday. We arrived here on Wednesday night. And this is the first time I’ve had my computer out to write something. In part, this is because we don’t have internet yet, despite our best attempts. And in many ways, what a relief. It has allowed us to get ...

Desire influences visual perception

Yeah like we didn’t know that already! Any man in the world will confirm that. But it’s even more quantifiable than you might think. We’re talking about actual distances to objects here. Sexy girls may be further away than they appear. The participants who had been given pretzels to eat during the experiment reported feeling ...

Quantitive psychology

I’m so glad we live in an age where people are doing large scale psychology studies, trying to discern the facts about our behaviour which our perceptions mask. This has fed into the mainstream thanks to books like Nudge and Freakonomics, and is being used politically to great effect (viz Obama). (There are fears that ...

Swiss minarets – a defence, not an attack

So the Swiss have voted to ban building of minarets. This is not an architectural decision. They have planning laws and have already used them, which is why there only 4 minarets in Switzerland at the time of writing. Neither is this intrinsically about racism or anti Islam. The religion is perfectly well protected and ...

Biological lego

Thanks to Martin Anazco for linking to this video about creating custom DNA which led me to this: The Registry is a collection of ~3200 genetic parts that can be mixed and matched to build synthetic biology devices and systems. Founded in 2003 at MIT, the Registry is part of the Synthetic Biology community’s efforts ...

The World According to Monsanto

I’ve just been watching ‘The World According to Monsanto’. It’s pretty compelling stuff. As one of the contributors says, “Seed is more powerful than bombs, more powerful than guns” and given that, you’d have thought that we’d be a little more careful about what we do it. 70% of the food in the USA contains ...

Going from good to bad.. shouldn't that be the other way around?

Have you noticed how if the Government is thinking of doing something, it leaks the idea into the papers, see how it goes down, and then a few days later we get a policy statement? Were you ever told by your driving instructor that if you’re heading towards a crash, look for the gap between ...

Perception of time

How we consider our position in time effects our outlook on life. Much like our use of language, really. More confirmation that the world is what we perceive it to be, and very little else. As Hamlet says, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_prescribes_a_healthy_take_on_time.html

Horror of Kenya's 'witch' lynchings

Why it’s not OK to promote the belief in mystic forces which go against all available evidence: I can’t see clearly what is going on, but heavy smoke is rising from the ground and a horrible stench fills the air […] Suddenly an old woman breaks from the crowd, screaming for mercy. Three or four ...

Quantum Biofeedback – giving Reiki scientific credibility

A company in Ontario has developed an Electro Physiological Frequency Xrroid (EPFX) which aims to.. well, they put it best, so: Simply put, the EPFX / SCIO is a high-tech complementary biofeedback device that assists health practitioners find stress and energetic imbalances occurring within humans and animals. […] During testing, the EPFX device resonates with ...

Free Reiki Attunement

After a week doing a yoga and climbing course, where I was introduced to Reiki, I would like to give you the gift of a free Reiki attunement. Namaste, everyone.

Another reason not to buy plastic bottled water, or plastic bottled anything for that matter.

Plastic bottles leech chemicals which cause cancer and / or mimic oestrogen. WTF?! WHY DAMMIT?! WHY WOULD YOU MAKE SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!?!! And if you knew you were, wouldn’t you stop? Reusing Plastic Bottles Can Pose Serious Health Hazards Refilling and reusing plastic bottles can release toxic cancer-causing chemicals http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/plastic_bottles.htm > Popular plastic baby bottles ...

Link Round up

Rethinking the food system – aka Food Security, with Tim Lang About 95% of people do not want ID cards Bolivia’s Chacaltaya glacier is completely melted What can we learn from the 1918 flu pandemic? Prince Charles’ Rainforest Charity – RainforestSOS.org Delivering medicines and information via Coke crates in Africa

I might have called this all wrong

I’ve just woken from a dream wherein technology saves mankind. But, like Africans and AIDS drugs, I can’t afford it; because I’ve chosen the subsistence solution.

Things to do with my life

In no particular order: Get a base with space. Be fit & healhty. Read more. Paraglide more. Get married, have children. Make the world better. Save the environment. Write a book on better business models. Prepare for Armageddon. Work out how the Californians are so bouncy. Culture the meme that >2 children is socially unacceptable. ...

Let's work together for change

A great video from Avaaz about helping America be mindful of its unique and hard-won position in the world: http://www.avaaz.org/en/for_all_of_us/?cl=139960524&v=2321

Happiness Hypothesis

I guess it’s not illegal to link to this if someone else is hosting it: http://pathfindercoaching.org/Documents/happiness_hypothesis_haidt_e.pdf I’ve recommended this book before, and will do again, so take the opportunity to grab the summary whilst you can.