Thinking About: Dreams

Most of the dreams I remember have involved combat of one sort or another. This is hardly surprising considering the books I read, the games I play and the movies I enjoy. In my dream life I have fought in conflicts all over the world and throughout time. When people tell you that if you die in your dream you die in real life (sounds a bit like The Matrix doesn’t it?) I can tell you for a fact that they’re wrong. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve died in dreams. The one I remember most vividly is being shot by a German soldier whilst crashing through a roadblock in an old truck. From the make of the vehicle and the clothes we were wearing I suspect it was during the German Occupation of France. I can tell you it felt very real indeed.

Not all of my dreams involve warfare though. Another vivid dream – or at least part of one – had me literally wading through a river of blood (and body parts) carrying a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. From the look of absolute devastation around me I took it to be Hades. One of my favourite dreams – which I related to a therapist – was more Sci-Fi than Horror. I was a member of an expeditionary mining team on an alien world. Everything seemed ordinary at first until we started noticing things going missing – particularly our equipment. One by one things either vanished or simple stopped working. Before we were trapped on the planet most of the team attempted to escape but the planet seemed to come alive and destroyed all of the ships both on the ground as well as in orbit. Slowly the survivors – except for myself – vanished until only I remained, alone and naked. It was only then that I met a survivor of a previous expedition previously unknown to us. It was he who taught me to stop fighting the world and to become one with it – twinning twigs and mosses in my hair and painting my body in various shades of green and brown. It was a very strange experience.

Recently I had what was possibly an even stranger one. At this stage I can only remember fragments so it probably won’t make a whole lot of sense. I remember that weird ability of being able to see through my own eyes and from an exterior vantage point at the same time as if I was watching myself. At some point the Universe literally came alive and reached out to touch me. For the briefest of moments I knew, with the utmost clarity, everything there is to know. I cried out with the joyful pain of ultimate knowledge. But as quickly as the feeling had erupted in my head it subsided leaving a singular message: The Journey is not the Journey (or possibly The Path is not the Path). Don’t you just wish that the Universe could be a little less cryptic at times like these? It could have least given me next weeks lottery numbers so I’d know it was on the up and up!

Apart from the occasional nightmare – now thankfully rare – I do enjoy my dream-states. I have no idea what they mean (probably nothing) but they are normally rather entertaining. On more than one occasion I have woken up – without any memory of the dream I has having before waking – with a feeling an enormous joy that sometimes lasts for several days but, saying that, I have also woken up in tears before now with a feeling of endless bottomless sadness. I guess even in dreamland you have to take the rough with the silky smooth.

Cartoon Time.

US Scientists Defend Darwin From Attacks on Evolution

From Agence France Presse

Friday, February 13, 2009

CHICAGO - While the rest of the world feted the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, US scientists were forced to defend the theory of evolution from a skeptical public and a concerted attack campaign. Top researchers gathered in Chicago presented papers showing how evolution can be witnessed in everything from the genetic similarities between humans and Neanderthals to the way planets form and crows use tools to catch bugs.

Mugs depicting the evolution of man are pictured at British naturalist Charles Darwin's home, Down House, in Bromley, Kent. While the rest of the world feted the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth Thursday, US scientists were forced to defend the theory of evolution from a skeptical public and a concerted attack campaign. "Evolution is not an idea. It's a fact," James McCarthy, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said Thursday at the launch of a conference whose theme celebrated Darwin 's work. "It's impossible to deny evolution: the development of drug resistant microbes, pesticide resistant insects, there are abundant examples in ordinary life." But the message has not gotten through to the US public. Just 40 percent of Americans say they believe in the theory of evolution, according to a Gallup poll published Wednesday. And previous polls taken over the past decade have consistently found that between 44 and 47 percent believe God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so. "It's a uniquely American problem," McCarthy said.

Evolution is not well taught in US schools and many religious groups advocate a literal interpretation of the Bible. One such group, which runs a 27 million dollar "Creation Museum" in Kentucky where animatronics dinosaurs frolic with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, is hosting a free conference this weekend refuting evolution. There are many more working behind the scenes to challenge or limit the teaching of evolution in the classroom, said Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education. "There has been a concerted effort by a pretty well funded movement to educate the public that evolution is weak science, and scientists are giving up on it and making the argument that you have to choose between evolution and religion," Scott told AFP.

The vast anti-evolution movement has developed over the decades, but has been sharply drawn in the courts since the famous 1925 case when a young biology teacher, John Scopes, was put on trial for teaching evolutionary theory in Dayton, Tennessee. It was not until 1968 that the Supreme Court struck down an Arkansas law making it a crime to teach evolution and ruled that it was unconstitutional to ban the teaching of evolution under the powers of the separation of religion and state. In 1987, the Supreme Court then ruled it was against the constitution to force creationism to be taught in schools, as that would be promoting religion in the state education system. In the last decade, a number of attempts have been made to promote the teaching of "intelligent design" -- the contention that life is too complex to have originated without a creator -- as an alternative to evolution. That theory has also been unable to pass the religious test in the courts, and so anti-evolutionists are instead trying to force teachers to allow for "criticism" of controversial science.

An "academic freedom" bill was passed in Louisiana last year and five other states are currently considering similar legislation, Scott said. "The latest strategy is not to promote the frank teaching of intelligent design, but to sneak it in through the back door," she said in a telephone interview." In the biology business we'd call that adaptation - if nothing else evolves, the creationists do. They're always coming up with ways to subvert evolution."

[Several things amaze me about the whole anti-Evolution idea. Firstly that a significant number of people don’t ‘believe’ in Evolution – which is to me like not ‘believing’ in Gravity – and that there appears to still be much hatred directed at Darwin and his dangerous idea. I mean, what’s all that about? That people can reject reality to that extent bewilders me completely. Does the fact that we are animals descended from other creatures over billions of years really cause that much offence? Personally I have no issue with recognising that I am related to pond scum or trees or the birds that I feed in my garden. Being part of the web of life is a source of joy and celebration not of condemnation or anger. Creationists might not like Evolution but they can’t change reality merely by denying it.]

Number of alien worlds quantified

From the BBC

Thursday, 5 February 2009

Intelligent civilisations are out there and there could be thousands of them, according to an Edinburgh scientist. The discovery of more than 330 planets outside our solar system in recent years has helped refine the number of life forms that are likely to exist. The current research estimates that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000. The work is reported in the International Journal of Astrobiology. Even with the higher of the two estimates, however, it is not very likely that contact could be established with alien worlds.

While researchers often come up with overall estimates of the likelihood of intelligent life in the universe, it is a process fraught with guesswork; recent guesses put the number anywhere between a million and less than one. "It's a process of quantifying our ignorance," said Duncan Forgan, the University of Edinburgh researcher who carried out the work. In his new approach, Mr Forgan simulated a galaxy much like our own, allowing it to develop solar systems based on what is now known from the existence of so-called exoplanets in our galactic neighbourhood.

The first assumed that it is difficult for life to be formed but easy for it to evolve, and suggested there were 361 intelligent civilisations in the galaxy. A second scenario assumed life was easily formed but struggled to develop intelligence. Under these conditions, 31,513 other forms of life were estimated to exist. The final scenario examined the possibility that life could be passed from one planet to another during asteroid collisions - a popular theory for how life arose here on Earth. That approach gave a result of some 37,964 intelligent civilisations in existence.

While far-flung planets may reduce uncertainty in how many Earth-like planets there are, some variables in the estimate will remain guesses. For example, the time from a planet's formation to the first sparks of life, or from there to the first intelligent civilisations, are large variables in the overall estimate. For those, Mr Forgan says, we will have to continue to assume Earth is an average case. "It is important to realise that the picture we've built up is still incomplete," said Mr Forgan. "Even if alien life forms do exist, we may not necessarily be able to make contact with them, and we have no idea what form they would take. Life on other planets may be as varied as life on Earth and we cannot predict what intelligent life on other planets would look like or how they might behave."

[Here’s hoping it’s in the upper range of things. After all the existence of merely 300+ civilisations would make looking for a needle in a haystack look positively child’s play.]

Just Finished Reading: Dead Things by Richard Calder

In the near future the world is suffering under the disease known as META. The virus turns females into Dead Girls who become obsessed with sex, and males into Dead Boys who become obsessed with death. The virus also distorts the perceptions of those it infects and has started to bend reality itself. Lord Dagon – a Dead Boy Inquisitor - along with his sassy weapon called Gun has just returned to Earth from a millennia long Galactic killing spree. Arriving before he originally left (care of the wonders of Relativity) Dagon and his fellow Inquisitors vow to end META once and for all by detonating the Reality Bomb in the heart of the infection. But on the eve of their greatest body count Dagon finds out that reality is not what it seems – and neither is he.

As you can probably tell from the synopsis above, this was hardly a straight forward novel. Reality is warped and the narrator is far from reliable. Memories are either false or have been tampered with and Dagon is also quite possibly insane. Added to this was the sheer weirdness of the future world so you can appreciate that this was at times a very difficult read. The first 100 pages in particular were very strange and I admit in my younger days I probably would have given up well before then. However, at just about the half way point the plot took a serious 90 degree shift which helped explain all of the preceding craziness. If you do feel up to this challenge I must warn you that this novel is certainly not for the faint hearted. There is much death and much sex both of which go beyond the merely kinky. If you are of a sensitive nature this is most definitely not the book for you. However, if you do have the stomach for it the novel is often rewarding both in its poetic style and haunting imagery. It undoubtedly burnt itself into my consciousness! A very strange read but I’m glad that I finally finished the trilogy which started with Dead Girls and Dead Boys.

Pulp Fiction.

Cartoon Time.

Review: Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne

From New Scientist by Rowan Hooper

05 January 2009

The first "why" that struck me on seeing Why Evolution is True was why do we need yet another book on evolution? There are lots of good ones out there already and nothing less than a mountain of evidence to support the reality of evolution by natural selection.

But we do need another, insists Jerry Coyne, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the University of Chicago, because creationism is spreading. And he's right - creationism is all over the place, not just in the US, where it often gains huge amounts of publicity. In December, a UK poll found that 29% of science teachers thought that creationism should be taught in science classes alongside evolution; a state of affairs that Richard Dawkins called "a national disgrace". It is also on the rise in Islamic countries. Creationism, Coyne tells us in this wide-ranging, beautifully written account, is like a roly-poly clown that pops back up when you punch it. But he resists the temptation to punch. He seeks to persuade, by carefully leading the reader through the overwhelming evidence, that evolution is a fact. The audience is those who are uncertain about explanations of life's diversity. The book is not aimed at people who hold faith-based positions - Coyne considers them to be lost causes - but you have to wonder how many people who are "uncertain" will be won over.

Coyne describes, for example, giving a talk on evolution versus intelligent design/creationism to a group of rich Chicago businessmen. You would think that people in the business world might think that evidence for something is worth taking into account, but this was the response Coyne got from one audience member after his lecture: "I found your evidence for evolution very convincing - but I still don't believe it". It is unfortunate that there are large numbers of people for whom no amount of evidence and elegant argument will do. For those of us comfortable with the fact of evolution, even those already familiar with many of the arguments and the examples demonstrating evolution, there is much in his book that is new and stimulating, even refreshing.

I loved reading of how Raymond Dart was literally handed the greatest fossil find of the twentieth century - the "missing link" between apes and modern man - while dressing for a wedding. Other highlights include a section on the remnant signs of evolution, such as the vestigial tail at the end of our spines, and a fascinating account of how evolution and even speciation can be seen occurring before our very eyes in the lab. Coyne ends by asking where evolution leaves us, and shows that it ennobles us, that human civilisation has improved despite our animal nature. That's why, when creationism is spreading to the extent that there is even a creationist church in the main town in the Galapagos, of all places, that we need another book on evolution. This is a marvellous one.

[It certainly sounds marvellous. So much so that I bought it in hardback 3 days before Amazon said it was going to be published. I shall be reading it during the Summer & will post my review then.]

Cartoon Time.

Is love just a chemical cocktail?

By Pallab Ghosh for the BBC

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

It is said that love is a drug. But is it just a drug? That is the contention of Larry Young, a professor of neuroscience at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Writing in the respected scientific journal Nature, Professor Young argues that love can be explained by a series of neurochemical events in specific brain areas. If it is true, he says, people will no longer have to rely on oysters or chocolates to create a loving mood. Instead, it will be possible for scientists to develop aphrodisiacs - chemicals that would make people fall in love with the first person they see. And for those who have fallen in love with someone they shouldn't have, there could be an antidote to unrequited love. There is even the prospect of a genetic "love test" to assess whether two potential love-birds are predisposed to a happy married life.

Poets would have us believe that love is one of those things that are beyond understanding. But that concept is anathema to Professor Young. "I'm not sure we'll be able to understand it fully," he said. "But my belief is that our emotions have evolved from behaviours and emotions that are in the animal kingdom. I don't think that the way a mother loves her baby is that different to a mother's love in a chimpanzee or a rhesus monkey - or even a rat." In animals, scientists have observed that a chemical called oxytocin is involved in developing a bond between a mother and her young. Professor Young believes it is very likely that a similar process is going on in humans. "It's just that when we experience these emotions they are so rich we can't imagine that they are just a series of chemical events," he said. But even if that is true of maternal love, is romantic love simply down to a squirt of oxytocin and a few other love chemicals at a timely moment? Professor Young thinks it might be.

Researchers have found that oxytocin is involved in the bonding of male and the female prairie voles, which like humans, form an intense bond with each other that lasts for a very long time. And there have been studies in humans that show that oxytocin increases trust - the ability to read the emotions of others. So, Professor Young argues that it makes sense that the same sort of molecule might be involved in strengthening the bond between individuals. He believes there are other chemicals involved too - it is just a matter of doing the research and finding out which ones they are. "I'm sure that we are just beginning to tap the surface," he said. "There are hundreds of signalling molecules in the brain - they all act in different brain areas. I think one day we will have a much better understanding of how all these chemicals interact and act in specific brain areas that have specific function that give rise to these complex emotions." Other scientists argue that upbringing and psychology play a part. Professor Nick Bostrom, director of Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute, said: "We shouldn't think that this perspective on its own provides a full understanding of what love is. There are also evolutionary, psychological, sociological, phenomenological (a philosophical approach and method of qualitative research) and humanistic perspectives that offer important insights. Nurture has an important part to play," Professor Young conceeds. "But the way nurture works is through changing neurochemistry. We know from studies in humans that women that have experienced abuse or neglect early in their life have decreased levels of oxytocin in their brain. So I totally agree that our experiences have a huge impact on our ability to form relationships - but that impact occurs through changes in neurochemistry and gene expression."

So, if love really is just a complex chemical reaction, could that most powerful of human emotions be manipulated? "Oxytocin increases eye gaze, increases our ability to recognise emotions in others," Professor Young said. "It may actually enhance our ability to form relationships, and so it is a very real possibility that something like oxytocin could be used in conjunction with marital therapies to bring back that spark."

There are already perfumes on the market containing oxytocin, but Professor Young believes the levels are too low for it to be an effective aphrodisiac. "But I think in the future we can develop drugs that readily pass into the brain and can target certain brain areas that could do this," he said. Professor Bostrom believes it will become increasingly possible to manipulate the neurological mechanisms that play a role in romantic attachment. "Used wisely, such pharmacology could enhance human experience and mitigate unnecessary suffering. However, this kind of manipulation would raise a thicket of ethical and cultural issues, which would need to be carefully explored."

[What a Brave New World our children are going to inhabit – where it is possible to manufacture love in a bottle or, far more marketable I think, pop a pill and fall out of love with someone who doesn’t love you (or what remains of the rational part of your brain knows is very bad for you). I can’t help but wonder just how much neuro-chemical manipulation is possible? Can we manipulate any emotion and any thought we have simply by ingesting the right pill at the right time? What a truly bizarre world that would be!]

There's something about Goth Girls......

Just Finished Reading: Somewhere in the Night – Film Noir and the American City by Nicholas Christopher.

Feeling much more than its 266 pages (in a good way) this was an excellent cultural and historical investigation into Film Noir and the place of the American city within the genre. Christopher treats the city more as a stock character, like the Femme Fatale, rather than a mere backdrop against which the action develops and he makes a very good case to support it.

Film Noir is essentially American and dates, for very good historical and cultural reasons, from the Second World War. Its dark disturbing themes are laced through with themes of Totalitarianism, Atomic destruction, Psychoanalysis, Urbanisation, Political and personal corruption and the ever present possibility of violence. Despite its antecedents in the European movies of the 20’s and 30’s Film Noir is a mid 20th Century American art form par excellence. The author maintains that it just couldn’t have happened anywhere else – at least in the way it emerged from Hollywood. Only the confluence of events – the end of World War II, the fear of the Russians and especially Atomic destruction (already visited on Japan), the growing craze of Psychoanalysis and the burgeoning economy with its ever increasing supply of consumer durables could have produced this dark mirror of a movie genre – reflecting back on its audiences their deep fears and paranoia which later led to the insanity of McCarthyism.

This is a well researched, engaging and stimulating read. I certainly learnt a great deal about a movie style I have long enjoyed in comparative ignorance until now. It has also helped me focus on acquiring a collection of Noir movies on DVD that I have been slowly working through over the last few months. I’m positive that some of them at least will be showing up in my Favourite Movies posts. I shall be watching and appraising them with ‘new eyes’ after reading this book – so be warned. A must read for anyone interested is this most fascinating of movie genres.

Snowed in.... [laughs]

Cartoon Time.

Poster Time.

My Favourite Movies: Hellboy

In several ways this is a rather surprise entry for me. I first saw this movie with the guys and really didn’t like it – it basically left me cold and very unimpressed. Unfortunately, I had already promised to see it again with CQ who was away visiting her Mother at the time. Anyway, I gritted my teeth and dragged myself off to the cinema for a second showing – and, much to my surprise, actually quite enjoyed it. A little while later one of the guys at work gave me a downloaded copy I hadn’t even asked for. So I ended up watching it a 3rd time on a slow weekend – and found myself liking it even more. Eventually (actually last week) I bought a legitimate copy and watched it yet again – for probably the 7th or 8th time.

Despite seeing most (if not all) of the recent spate of super-hero or comic-book movies it’s a genre that I’ve never found particularly interesting. Despite the promptings of several of my friends I just don’t ‘get’ comics. To be honest I find them incredibly dull. So how is it that I find myself really liking this movie? Firstly its very well made. From the set design to the script to the acting, the whole thing is pretty much flawless. I liked how it didn’t take itself too seriously – without falling into comedy or slapstick. I always like it when obviously fantastic themes are played straight and deadpan as if (and rightly so) this kind of thing happens every day. I liked the fact that the baddies where almost cartoon Nazi’s of the type I enjoyed in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But what I really loved about this movie was its central characters played by Ron Perlman (sheer perfection as Hellboy), Selma Blair (as his beautiful, troubled and conflicted ‘firestarter’ girlfriend), the always wonderful John Hurt (as his adopted ‘Father’and head of the Paranormal Division), Rupert Evans (as the innocent neophyte FBI Agent), Karel Roden (as the completely evil Gregory Rasputin) and finally Biddy Hodson (as the equally evil and probably psychotic Nazi lover of Rasputin, Ilsa Haupstein).

The storyline was almost archetypal in its use of themes – a hero completely out of his normal environment with a destiny and identity unknown even to himself, an evil genius with a burning desire to destroy the world, a good man who is on the point of death just when he’s needed the most, a woman who needs to accept what and who she is become she can gain control over her amazing abilities… it just goes on. This film is basically a master class in how to make good fantasy films which are strong on plot and character whilst avoiding the pitfalls many of the other movies of this genre keep falling into. To date this is (pretty much) the only super-hero/comic-book film I would rate as above average. Most of the rest didn’t even make my Bronze list. But this film just seems to get better every time I watch it. Brilliant.

Cartoon Time.

Thinking About: Being Psychic

There was a funny incident at work this week. I was talking to a colleague and noticed that she was bundling together a bunch of cable-ties. “62” I said. “What?” she replied. “62 cable-ties”. “How did you know?” she enquired, looking confused. Of course I didn’t know and told her so. “Are there really 62?” I enquired. She nodded and looked a little spooked out.

Actually this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Some years ago after a long day, after an even longer week, a group of us were tidying some stuff away when the Boss asked how many instruction sheets we had left over. They were in envelopes so I picked up a handful of them and waved them in front of my face. “27” I said. The Boss gave me a rather unkind look and advised me to count them properly. Which I did – to find that there were indeed 27 envelopes.

Even stranger, some years earlier I was doing A Level Psychology at college when another study group needed volunteers for a set of ESP experiments. The one I was given was guessing the suit of playing cards as each one was presented face down to me. As I guessed one after the other the girl conducting the experiment began to look more and more uncomfortable. After a few minutes she suddenly looked relieved. I enquired what the matter was and she told me that until that moment I had correctly guessed 29 cards in the correct sequence.

During my teenage years I experienced déjà vu on an almost monthly basis and for my own amusement told people exactly what was going to happen in the next few minutes. More often than not I was right. On another occasion I heard my brother call my name from another part of the house so I went looking for him. When I asked him what he wanted he informed me that he hadn’t called me. He was going to but then decided against it. Both my Mother and I have had dreams that have come true – though famously she got my sex wrong before the birth. We also have been known to answer the phone before it rings. In fact I did that just last week at work.

The guys at work have a good laugh about my ‘psychic abilities’ and I do find them highly amusing. You might find it odd that I don’t believe that there is anything supernatural going on – or even anything particularly strange. I know lots of people who have had prophetic dreams, or déjà vu or any number of so-called psychic experiences. As far as I am concerned it’s just a normal non-supernatural part of life. The brain is an incredibly complex organ which we are only just beginning to understand. So-called ‘psychic’ abilities are nothing more, I suspect, than the brain doing things that we have always been able to do – except that now in this high-tech age we have forgotten that we can. So if weird stuff happens to you from time to time my advice is to enjoy it while it lasts and not to take it too seriously.

Just Finished Reading: Tides of War by Steven Pressfield

In the 5th Century BC two of the great super-powers of the age engaged in a bloody war of domination. For 27 years the city states of Sparta and Athens hammered away at each other resulting in the deaths of countless thousands and the wholesale destruction of many cities. Told through the eyes of Polemides, a captain in the Athenian marines, this is a tale of courage, honour, sacrifice and ultimate betrayal. Told primarily in ‘flash-backs’ as Polemides awaits execution for the assassination of the great Athenian General (and traitor) Alcibiades – who was the main focus of the novel - this epic work is a delight to read.

Pressfield again, after Gates of Fire, shows that he has the uncanny ability to put you in the heart of the story, make you feel for the characters and begin to look at their world through their eyes (rather than our own). For the Ancient world is not our world and ancient ways are not our ways, except of course – and this is where Pressfield shines – humanity has remained the same through the ages. We still love, we still fight and we still grieve as the ancients did. Human nature hasn’t really changed in the last 2 thousand years so identification with Athenian or Spartan soldiers and their families is no more difficult that identifying with peoples experiences today.

I did find the political manoeuvring a little slow in places but the battles where beautifully (and bloodily) rendered. When nearly all fighting was hand-to-hand and you saw the man you where killing up close and personal it couldn’t be anything but brutal. I knew a little bit about the Peloponnesian War before reading this and now want to know a whole lot more. I have three more of his books and am looking forward to every one of them. So prepare to see his name here at least a few more times. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the Ancient world, war novels or just a very satisfying read.

Pulp Fiction.

Cartoon Time.

Swirling waters boost chance of life on Europa

by David Shiga for New Scientist

10 December 2008

WITH Jupiter stirring the pot, the planet's icy moon Europa may be brewing a more nutritious soup for life than anyone had expected. Ice-floe-like features on Europa's surface and certain characteristics of its magnetic field suggest there is an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface. The heat needed to keep it liquid has long been thought to be produced by Jupiter's gravity: Europa's distance from the gas giant changes during its orbit, which means the planet's gravitational pull on the moon varies. This stretches and squeezes the moon's rocky core, producing heat by friction. However, new calculations show that additional variations, due to a suspected slight tilt of the moon's spin axis relative to its orbital plane, make it possible for Jupiter's gravity to warm Europa's ocean directly by stirring up currents within it. The heat produced this way could exceed the amount generated by the flexing of Europa's core, according to Robert Tyler of the University of Washington in Seattle (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature07571).

If a lot more heat is being generated inside the moon than has been assumed, the icy shell could be thinner than expected: until now estimates of its thickness have ranged from less than 1 kilometre to more than 100 kilometres.If more heat is being generated inside the moon than has been assumed, the icy shell could be thinner than expected A thin shell would be good news for the possibility of life, which would have a tough time surviving without a supply of oxidising chemicals needed for metabolism. These chemicals could be generated on the surface when ultraviolet rays from the sun hit the ice, but would not benefit life unless they could get down into the water through cracks or partial melting of the shell, says Terry Hurford of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The thinner the ice is, the more likely that the surface can communicate with the ocean," says Hurford. He adds that the effect may also apply to other icy moons, such as Saturn's Enceladus.

[Europa is a great candidate for life in the Solar System. I’m certainly keeping my fingers crossed. With that and the possibility that the methane plumes on Mars might possibly be the result of biological activity, the chances of other life right here in our backyard is definitely looking up.]

Cartoon Time.

UFO claim over wind farm damage

From the BBC

Thursday, 8 January 2009

UFO enthusiasts are claiming damage to a Lincolnshire wind farm turbine was caused by a mystery aircraft. The turbine at Conisholme lost one 66ft (20m) blade and another was badly damaged in the early hours of Sunday. County councillor for the area Robert Palmer said he had seen a "round, white light that seemed to be hovering". Ecotricity, which owns the site, said while investigations continued they were not ruling anything out - but the extent of damage was "unique". The turbine is one of 20 at the Conisholme site, which has been only been fully operational since April 2008. The broken blade has been recovered and is being examined. Local ufologists said they had received many reports of activity in the area and had teams searching for clues.

Mr Palmer said: "I actually saw a white light - a round, white light that seemed to be hovering. "That is the only way I can explain it - it wasn't a flare-like light - it was just round, white light with a slight red edge to it that seemed to be over the wind turbines." Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, said the company was keeping an open mind about the incident. "We don't have an explanation at the moment as to what the cause was," he said. "We have been crawling all over it and have sent bits off for analysis to see if we can work out what caused it. Until we have some idea, some plausible explanation that it was not a UFO, I don't think we should rule it out". He added: "To make one of these blades fall off, or to bend it, takes a lot." Russ Kellett, from the Flying Saucer Bureau, said witnesses had told him of activity in the area. "One saw what they at first thought was a low-flying aircraft on the Saturday evening and another heard a loud banging in the early hours of Sunday," he said. "This is the second most reports of activity we have ever had - I have had over 30 phone calls and emails. To hit two of the blades, any object must have been about 170ft long."

But some technical experts have suggested a more mundane explanation. Dr Peter Schubel, from the University of Nottingham, is an expert in the design and manufacture of wind turbine blades. He said that if the turbine blade was still, it would take the equivalent of a 10-tonne load to do that kind of damage, but if it was rotating, or hit by a moving object, the force could be a lot less. He said of the possible cause: "It's definitely not a bird. It could be ice thrown from a neighbouring turbine that struck it. Most turbines have an anti-icing system on the blades and maybe it failed to prevent the ice build-up."

The Ministry of Defence said it was not looking into the incident. A spokesman said: "The MoD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity. Unless there's evidence of a potential threat, there's no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported." Ecotricity said it hoped to have the turbine back in action within a week.

[I love UFO stories – they’re just so funny. My (uninformed) guess is metal fatigue enhanced by the particularly cold weather – or possibly poor manufacture or maintenance. I wonder if we’ll ever find out?]

Arms Manufacturers concerned about the World recession begin to target a new consumer base...

Just Finished Reading: A Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Yes, another ‘school’ book. First published in 1755 this 100 page book attempts to answer the question: ‘What is the origin of the inequality among men, and is it authorized by natural law?’

Rousseau splits his response into two parts. In Part One he discusses man in his natural state – the state of nature which, he proposes only contain natural inequalities – such as strength and other natural attributes which make people different in every day life. This is actually – and especially for its time – a creditable attempt to discern the origins of mankind without any reference to creation and precious little mention of God. It posits “thousands of centuries” for man to develop from ‘beasts’ to pre-civilised humans in a time where Young Earth Creationism was generally considered the consensus view. Part Two concentrates on where it all went wrong for mankind. Basically, Rousseau considers the move from the ‘state of nature’ to what we would regard as civilisation as a backward step – though unfortunately one from which we are unable to recover. The source of our trouble and inequalities he places firmly on the discrepancies in property ownership that began almost as soon as the idea of property first entered our minds. With increasing wealth came increasing influence and power. The rich rose to rule whilst the poor served or starved. It was only on the eve of war between the few rich and the many poor that the famous Social Contract was enacted in order to make civil society possible - but the amazing thing is (and I was honestly shocked when I read this – having already read his later book of that title) that Rousseau considered this first Social Contract as a con perpetrated by the Rich to enslave the poor further under the disguise of equality and freedom.

Over the last few weeks reading this and the Social Contract (plus elements of his other works) I have become increasingly impressed by Rousseau. Not only does he seem to have some very modern ideas – which must have been very radical 250 years ago – but I can’t help but admire his decidedly left leaning views. This is a quick and easy read for anyone interesting in 18th Century political thought (and who wouldn’t be?) as well as those interested in understand just where many of the debates about government originated. This is definitely worth a few days of your time to read and ponder over.

Poster Time.

Cartoon Time.

My Favourite Movies: 300

Obvious I know, but I do so love this film. For those of you who have never seen it, 300 tales the oft told story of the 300 Spartans who stood and died at the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC facing a huge Persian horde bent on the destruction of the Greek city states.

This particular version of the story is highly stylised being produced by the same team that brought us Sin City. In this case the stylisation makes the movie both mythic in quality – it became a myth (something larger than life) apparently shortly after the actual event – and other-worldly. Though not quite as simple as the movie portrays 300 Spartans, along with several thousand allies, did fight a battle over three days against an estimated 250,000 Persians (not the 2 million sometimes quoted) and died to a man. It’s arguable that Thermopylae is one of the most important battles ever fought on European soil.

The movie portrays this pivotal battle as one not only between men but between cultures – the upright democratic Greeks and the decadent theocratic despotism of the Persians. The portrayal of the Persians actually came in for a lot of criticism as did a throwaway line about the Athenians being ‘boy-lovers’ but I’m sure that was something the Spartans would’ve said – so it was totally in character as was the totally off-colour humour before, during and after the seemingly endless battle scenes. I loved Gerard Butlers role of Leonidas, Lena Heady as his queen and a very honourable mention goes to the narrator Dilios played with aplomb by David Wenham – he of “it’s only an eye Sire, the gods saw fit to furnish me with a spare” quote.

I loved this film for so many reasons I hardly know where to start. But staging classical Greek single combat to thumping rock music has got to be one of them. If you want to be totally wowed – and you haven’t seen this film yet – you really need to watch it. Now.

Cartoon Time.

Please click on image in order to read.....

Prisoner star McGoohan dies at 80

From The BBC

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Emmy-winning actor Patrick McGoohan, best known for starring in cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner, has died at the age of 80. He died in Los Angeles after a short illness, his film producer son-in-law Cleve Landsberg told Associated Press. McGoohan played the character Six in the surreal 1960s show, filmed in the north Wales village of Portmeirion. He won two Emmy awards for his work on TV detective series Columbo, playing different characters. The first came for an episode of the series in 1974, with another 16 years later.

The screen star also won a Bafta award for best television actor in 1959 for his role in The Greatest Man In The World, a one-off drama in ITV's Armchair Theatre series. In more recent years, McGoohan played King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film Braveheart. The actor, who was born in New York and raised in England and Ireland, came to screen prominence in TV series Danger Man, in which he played a secret service agent. The programme later aired as Secret Agent in the US. He was later considered for the role of James Bond for the movie Dr No. But McGoohan was chiefly associated with cult ITV drama The Prisoner, writing some of the episodes himself under a different name. His character spent the entire time attempting to escape from The Village and finding out the identity of his captor, the elusive Number One. He repeatedly declared: "I am not a number - I am a free man!" In 2000, McGoohan reprised his most famous role in an episode of The Simpsons.

Residents of Portemeirion, which has its own The Prisoner shop selling memorabilia from the show, have paid tribute to the star. Councillor Dewi Lewis said: "It helped to put Portmeirion the village on the map during the 60s and we are still benefiting from that today." Mr McGoohan is held in high esteem in the area for the work he did - it still has a loyal following of people who come to Portmeirion annually." Robin Llywelyn, managing director of the Portmeirion village resort, added: "What he created out of The Prisoner is a lasting piece of TV at its best - it achieved cult status. It's something that we are very proud of." Last year, ITV confirmed that Passion of the Christ star Jim Caviezel would take the role of Number Six in a remake of The Prisoner, which will also star Sir Ian McKellen. "His [McGoohan's] creation of The Prisoner made an indelible mark on the sci-fi, fantasy and political thriller genres, creating one of the most iconic characters of all time," AMC, which is co-producing the remake, said in a statement. "AMC hopes to honour his legacy in our re-imagining of The Prisoner." McGoohan's last role came in 2002, as a voice artist in animated picture Treasure Planet.

[Iconic indeed – and one of my early heroes. The Prisoner probably had a significant effect on my earliest political beliefs for which I thank him. Number Six is Dead. Who is Number One? Be seeing you Patrick.]

Just Finished Reading: The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

This is yet another book that has been sitting on my shelves for quite some time. I bought it as a part of the collection of 20 Great Ideas books that changed the World sort of thing. Of the 20 I’m afraid that this is only the 2nd volume I’ve read to date – shame on me.

Anyway, I finally had to read this for my university course and polished it off in only a few days. Written in 1762 this classic of political philosophy is both surprisingly modern and easy to read. Rousseau puts forward the then revolutionary idea that the people, rather than the absolute monarch or aristocratic elite, and the sovereign entity in any state and that they – and they alone – can determine the type of government they will allow to govern them. This was incendiary stuff in the later 18th Century and copies of this work were actually publically burnt in his home city of Geneva (which personally I would count as quite an accolade).

Famous for his championing of the noble savage, Rousseau considered that the invention of society had been a basic error of judgement that, unfortunately, could not easily be undone so attempted to devise the best form of governments in the circumstances. He suggested that Monarchy was the best form of government for large countries or empires, that aristocracy (in the Ancient Greek sense of the best) for medium sized countries and democracy was only fit for small poor countries. He was also – despite being a devout Calvinist – dead set against the involvement of religion (in particular Catholicism) in the running or influencing of the State.

Despite being very much of its time The Social Contract (and its predecessor – of which more later) is a surprisingly modern sounding book. His analysis of political power and its abuses could easily be written today. His warnings about the corrupting effect of money could, likewise, be taken from the pages of today’s newspapers. Rousseau is definitely still worth reading and is, I think, more than capable of shining a light on modern political events. Highly recommended.

Pulp Fiction.

Cartoon Time.

And There Lie the Bodies

by Gideon Levy for Haaretz

Published on Sunday, January 4, 2009

The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape's topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe's diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place.

Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest. They liquidated Nizar Ghayan? Nobody counts the 20 women and children who lost their lives in the same attack. There was a massacre of dozens of officers during their graduation ceremony from the police academy? Acceptable. Five little sisters? Allowed. Palestinians are dying in hospitals that lack medical equipment? Peanuts. Whatever happened to the not-so-good old days of Salah Shahadeh? When we liquidated him in July 2002, we also killed 15 women and children. At least back then, moral qualms were raised for a moment.

Here lie their bodies, row upon row, some of them tiny. Our hearts have turned hard and our eyes have become dull. All of Israel has worn military fatigues, uniforms that are opaque and stained with blood and which enable us to carry out any crime. Even our leading intellectuals fail to speak out on what havoc we have wreaked. Amos Oz urges: "Cease-fire now." David Grossman writes: "Hold your fire. Stop." Meir Shalev wants "a punitive operation." And not one word about our moral image, which has been horribly distorted. The suffering in the south renders everything kosher, as if the horrible suffering in Gaza pales in comparison. Everyone is hungry for revenge, and that hunger is excused by the need for "deterrence," after it was already proved that the killing and the destruction in Lebanon did not achieve it.

Yes, I know, war is war. After all, they brought this on themselves. They are a terrorist organization and we are not. They want to destroy us and we seek peace. Still, is there nothing here that will stop this blood pipeline? Even those whose hearts are hardened by "moral righteousness" will have to momentarily halt the bombing machine and ask: Which Israel do we have before us? What will become of its standing in the world, which is now watching the events in Gaza? What are we inflicting on the moderate Arab regimes? And what of the simmering popular hatred we are sowing throughout the world? What good will emerge from this killing and destruction?

It is doubtful whether Hamas will be cut down to size as a result of this wretched war. Yet, the face of the state has been cut down to size, as have civilian elites who are apathetic and scared. The "peace camp," if it ever existed, has been cut down to size. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz authorized the Ghayan killing, regardless of the cost. Haim Oron, the leader of the "new left-wing movement," supported the launch of this foolish war. Nobody is coming to the rescue - of Gaza or even of the remnants of humanity and Israeli democracy. The statesmen, the jurists, the poets, the authors, academe, and the news media - pitch black over the abyss. When the time comes for reckoning, we will need to remember the damage this war did to Israel: The blood pipeline it laid has been completed.

[What is war without restraint but murder on a massive scale? Since when do we accept the slaughter of women and children as justified as long as some terrorists die in the process? Since when is it acceptable to fire artillery shells into heavily populated areas and still have the gall to say that civilian casualties are being minimised? Is it any wonder why so many people hate the West and its sponsorship of such horrors? When are we going to learn that some things are simply not done – no matter what the provocation?]

Cartoon Time.

Thinking About: The Meaning of Life

Those of you who have been reading this Blog for a while now will be aware that, as far as I know, there is no greater meaning to our lives over and above the one(s) we give it. In effect I’m saying that certainly from the Christian point of view that I hold life to be essentially meaningless. The trick, if I want to use such a word in this context, is what we should do about it. How should we respond to life’s inherent lack of meaning?

As I’ve mentioned in other posts you could always invent a meaning or adopt someone else’s. That’s what most people do. Most people adopt the meaning prevalent in the culture they accidently happen to have been born into – normally called religion. Others discover (or invent) their own meaning like climbing mountains or being the best kazoo player in the world. Some of these people go on to achieve amazing things.

But what if you really believe that life is without meaning? Then what? The danger of this belief is that it’s entirely possible to fall into total despair and basically give up – sometimes followed by suicide. It’s certainly a valid answer to the problem and a permanent one. Alternatively you could 'live' feeling dead inside and responding to life with neither pleasure nor pain, though this sounds rather dull. The classic way to respond to a meaningless life is the well worn track of hedonism – living for pleasure. I’ve known a few wannabe hedonists in my time who expended lots of energy on finding the next high or sleeping with the next girl. Funnily none of them seemed very happy for very long. This was, I believe, because they made the fundamental error of equating pleasure with happiness. Some of them never learnt that they are not the same thing. The problem with all external pleasures is that they’re dependent on other people or other things over which you have little or no control. Being dependent on these things – especially when you crave them – is a recipe for unhappiness rather than the reverse.

I did come across an interesting solution recently which appeared to offer a way of life for those who fail to see any meaning in existence. A response to the challenge of nihilism designed for people who accept the fact that life can be, by its very nature, deeply absurd. That response is heroism. By that I don’t mean going around rushing into burning buildings saving kittens or throwing yourself on grenades in Afghanistan to save the lives of your team mates. I mean recognising that life is indeed meaningless on any level and still living it to the best of your ability – with a real and sincere smile on your face. To laugh in the face of adversity and death knowing in your bones that it doesn’t matter what you do but you continue to do it anyway and to see the absurd in everything around you and respond with humour because that is the only rational response to such an impossibly ridiculous situation. I obviously need to think and read more on the subject but I think I’ve found a trail worth investigating. I will of course let you know what I find on my travels. If you see someone whistling through adversity with a grin on their face it’ll probably be me – so say hello.

Picture Time.

Just Finished Reading: Trilobite! – Eyewitness to Evolution by Richard Fortey

It’s something you can pick up cheaply in most gem shops – fossilised Trilobites that look like squished odd-looking insects encased in rock. I certainly knew of them before reading this book but I didn’t know that much about them. Trilobites were amongst some of the earliest fossils found back in the 17th Century starting the debate about their place in the scheme of things that eventually led to the Theory of Evolution. They also helped identify the ages of rocks across the whole planet. Once this was established it prompted ideas about plate tectonics and Continental Drift which is so important in understanding geological processes such as earthquakes..

Trilobites are fascinating creatures – the beetles of their time with hundreds of species spanning the whole globe and lasting some 300 million years – that’s 200 times longer than we’ve been around – so they where very successful whichever way you look at them. Part of the fascination of the narrative in this book is that its told as a very personal tale of discovery from the author as a small boy unearthing his first fossil to his life in palaeontology where not only did he have the privilege of naming newly discovered species but also got to name the long vanished oceans they swam in. His stories from all over the world – both personal and historic – bring the study of immense timescales down to a much more human dimension. His comments regarding the Cambrian Explosion – brought to the world’s attention by Steven J Gould – gave me some serious food for thought which will lead to further investigation.

I did struggle with this book a little possibly because it was slightly outside my normal comfort zone – not having read much real science for a while – or possibly that Fortey was so into his subject that he did tend to milk a subject area a little too much on occasion. One thing I do think though – that I might start collecting examples of these fascinating little beasts next time I see one on sale. I can already envisage the glass case full of interesting fossilised creatures. All in all this was a very good start to my anticipated science reading this year. It’s about time I read more things like this

Poster Time.

Cartoon Time.

Why Bombing Ashkelon is The Most Tragic Irony

Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by Robert Fisk for The Independent

How easy it is to snap off the history of the Palestinians, to delete the narrative of their tragedy, to avoid a grotesque irony about Gaza which - in any other conflict - journalists would be writing about in their first reports: that the original, legal owners of the Israeli land on which Hamas rockets are detonating live in Gaza.

That is why Gaza exists: because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it - Askalaan in Arabic - were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They - or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren - are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don't come from Gaza. But watching the news shows, you'd think that history began yesterday, that a bunch of bearded anti-Semitic Islamist lunatics suddenly popped up in the slums of Gaza - a rubbish dump of destitute people of no origin - and began firing missiles into peace-loving, democratic Israel, only to meet with the righteous vengeance of the Israeli air force. The fact that the five sisters killed in Jabalya camp had grandparents who came from the very land whose more recent owners have now bombed them to death simply does not appear in the story. Both Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres said back in the 1990s that they wished Gaza would just go away, drop into the sea, and you can see why. The existence of Gaza is a permanent reminder of those hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who lost their homes to Israel, who fled or were driven out through fear or Israeli ethnic cleansing 60 years ago, when tidal waves of refugees had washed over Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War and when a bunch of Arabs kicked out of their property didn't worry the world.

Well, the world should worry now. Crammed into the most overpopulated few square miles in the whole world are a dispossessed people who have been living in refuse and sewage and, for the past six months, in hunger and darkness, and who have been sanctioned by us, the West. Gaza was always an insurrectionary place. It took two years for Ariel Sharon's bloody "pacification", starting in 1971, to be completed, and Gaza is not going to be tamed now. Alas for the Palestinians, their most powerful political voice - I'm talking about the late Edward Said, not the corrupt Yassir Arafat (and how the Israelis must miss him now) - is silent and their predicament largely unexplained by their deplorable, foolish spokesmen. "It's the most terrifying place I've ever been in," Said once said of Gaza. "It's a horrifyingly sad place because of the desperation and misery of the way people live. I was unprepared for camps that are much worse than anything I saw in South Africa."

Of course, it was left to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to admit that "sometimes also civilians pay the price," an argument she would not make, of course, if the fatality statistics were reversed. Indeed, it was instructive yesterday to hear a member of the American Enterprise Institute - faithfully parroting Israel's arguments - defending the outrageous Palestinian death toll by saying that it was "pointless to play the numbers game". Yet if more than 300 Israelis had been killed - against two dead Palestinians - be sure that the "numbers game" and the disproportionate violence would be all too relevant. The simple fact is that Palestinian deaths matter far less than Israeli deaths. True, we know that 180 of the dead were Hamas members. But what of the rest? If the UN's conservative figure of 57 civilian fatalities is correct, the death toll is still a disgrace.

To find both the US and Britain failing to condemn the Israeli onslaught while blaming Hamas is not surprising. US Middle East policy and Israeli policy are now indistinguishable and Gordon Brown is following the same dog-like devotion to the Bush administration as his predecessor. As usual, the Arab satraps - largely paid and armed by the West - are silent, preposterously calling for an Arab summit on the crisis which will (if it even takes place), appoint an "action committee" to draw up a report which will never be written. For that is the way with the Arab world and its corrupt rulers. As for Hamas, they will, of course, enjoy the discomfiture of the Arab potentates while cynically waiting for Israel to talk to them. Which they will. Indeed, within a few months, we'll be hearing that Israel and Hamas have been having "secret talks" - just as we once did about Israel and the even more corrupt PLO. But by then, the dead will be long buried and we will be facing the next crisis since the last crisis.

[I despair, I really do. When will we learn that killing people never solves political problems? It only makes things worse.]

Cartoon Time.

Just Finished Reading: The Carnival of Destruction by Brian Stableford

In 1918 as the Germans advance towards a defenceless Paris a young French sniper lies dying in a foxhole. As he dies he sees for a moment a spectral Maid of Orleans who offers him a deal. If he will act of her behalf she will save his life. He accepts her offer and becomes a foot-soldier in a much larger conflict that has been raging on Earth since the beginning of human existence. For Earth is a battleground fought over by seven creatures some call Angels. These so-called Angels have the power of creation as well as terrible powers of destruction and have used humans – and creatures of their own creation – to operate for them in the material realm. But their time is finally coming to an end. Humanity is about to answer the question that drives them like no other: Who and What they are.

This third book in the trilogy (preceded by The Werewolves of London and The Angel of Pain) can only be described as rather strange. In some ways it isn’t really a novel at all but a great thought experiment played out against a fantasy backdrop. There is a sort of plot behind it all as well as characters from the previous two books and yet there isn’t really a storyline in any conventional way. What little action there is in these 500 pages is separated by long discourses between the antagonists on the meaning of history and the origins of the universe (amongst other things). We are flung into alternate worlds – which were very reminiscent of H.G Wells or Olaf Stapleton - and alternate utopias so that particular characters can make particular philosophical points. It was often very bizarre indeed. Whilst inevitably verbose (given what I’ve already said) and rather too long – a common complaint from me I know – this book was a more than interesting read. Stableford is a difficult author to pin down. He’s certainly a master of the big idea and writes beautifully but he does sometimes run with an idea a little too far. He is a great pleasure to read but honestly can go on a bit. I still think that The Werewolves of London was one of the best books I’ve read though I honestly struggled with the second book. This final volume was worth the effort it took tracking it down – it’s presently out of print I believe - and I’m glad I finally read it. As to whether or not it was any good – at this point I honestly couldn’t say. It does kind of haunt you though. [muses]

Church attendance 'to fall by 90%'

Jamie Doward for The Observer

21 December 2008

In one of the most holy weeks in the Christian calendar, a report says that in just over a generation the number of people attending Church of England Sunday services will fall to less than a tenth of what they are now. Christian Research, the statistical arm of the Bible Society, claimed that by 2050 Sunday attendance will fall below 88,000, compared with just under a million now.

The controversial forecast, based on a "snapshot" census of church attendances, has been seized upon by secular groups as proof that the established church is in decline. But the Church of England has rejected the figures, saying they were incomplete and ignored new ways of worshipping outside the church network. According to Dr Peter Brierley, former executive director of Christian Research, by 2030 just under 419,000 people will attend an Anglican Sunday service. By 2040 the number will be down to 217,200, falling to 153,800 five years later. By 2050, if the trend prediction is correct, only 87,800 will be attending. The figures stand in contrast to the picture of faith described by the prime minister earlier this month. In a preface to a new report, Faith in the Nation, Gordon Brown said: "Faith in Britain today is very much alive and well. At the last census, more than three-quarters of the population said they belonged to a faith ... people's religious identities go right to the heart of their sense of themselves and their place in society and the world."

Keith Porteous-Wood of the National Secular Society said: "Church attendance has already been in decline for over 60 years, all over Britain, in all major denominations and across all age groups, except the over-65s. Independent statisticians now have enough data to predict confidently that the decline will continue until Christianity becomes a minority sect of largely elderly people, in little more than a generation." The forecast was made by Christian Research in its annual statistical publication, Religious Trends. Benita Hewitt, the organisation's new executive director, said she accepted that the figures were disputed and stressed she did not believe they showed people were turning away from religion. "As with all forecasting, we are living in rapidly changing times at the moment and it is very difficult to predict what things will look like in the coming years," she said.

The Reverend Lynda Barley, head of research and statistics for the Archbishops' Council, said the figures represented only a "partial picture" of religious trends, adding: "Church life has significantly diversified so these traditional statistics are less and less meaningful in isolation." Studies suggest figures for Sunday attendance represent only 58 per cent of the number of people who attend in an average month. Attendance at Church of England cathedral services has been growing , while church groups have attracted new congregations by holding meetings in venues such as pubs or at car boot sales.

[Whilst somewhat less than definitive this report does seem to indicate that religious observance within the UK is in terminal decline – no matter what others inside and outside the church claim. I wonder if there will be a time in the not too distant future when people will only know about Christianity (or maybe even religion in general) through the study of history.]