Musings from the Edge

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-258033252024-09-04T11:56:40.271+00:00Musings from the EdgeShare your thoughts from the Edge of whatever personal, social, cultural, scientific, or spiritual boundary you find yourself pushing.Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-35592871195800680052007-04-10T21:46:00.001+00:002008-11-10T12:25:51.839+00:00Of Fish, Fishing, and the Folly of Men

Spring mornings, English gardens, and the music of Kevin Kendle, which almost fills my iPod as much as it fills my soul.Apparently, an Inspiring combination.Of Fish, Fishing, andthe Folly of Men"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life."Or so the saying goes,To teach men the difference betweenKind hearted folly and thoughtful wisdom.Yet if the

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-82820040965513629272007-04-09T00:25:00.000+00:002007-04-10T22:19:06.564+00:00The Case for Anonymity

In a recent NY Times article, it was stated that:When someone is anonymous, it opens the door to all kinds of antisocialbehavior...While I agree that anonymity can be used as a mask behind which to perpetrate acts of hatred and Evil in relative safety, I feel that statement is an unfair over-generalisation, and that there are other reasons to remain anonynous.My own reasons for using The White

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-53364940637000884132007-04-07T12:38:00.000+00:002007-04-07T13:02:08.273+00:00A Prayer is Answered

This came to me during a peaceful moment in the garden, following some rather active contributions on the Intent Blog, The Maltese Donkey's Great Adventure, and some half-IMs with Isaac.I would like to say it is all mine, but some of it felt like it came from a voice I'd heard long ago as a child, when I was not paying much attention.A Prayer is AnsweredOne night, I prayed to God:Lord, help me

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-71502642142120904962007-04-02T02:00:00.000+00:002007-04-04T17:03:00.972+00:00Why "The White Charger"?

OK, so I've been asked a couple of times why I use "The White Charger" as my Internet handle.The simple reason is that many years ago, before blogs existed, I wrote a kind of blogging system for my place of work to share information. For some reason I chose "The White Charger" as my handle: I thought it was kind of random and unconventional, and in-keeping with my generally unconventional

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-73928236497358166662007-03-31T22:10:00.000+00:002007-03-31T23:13:39.165+00:00Evolution at Play

Though during my spare time I've been quite engrossed in working what next step I want to take with A Simple Indulgence, I've managed to find time to comment on not one, but two of Deepak Chopra's posts on the Intent Blog recently.It struck me how relevant one of my comments was to where I intend to go with A Simple Indulgence, in terms of describing A Universal Evolutionary Principle.So even

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-69243759987387693522007-03-16T09:21:00.000+00:002007-03-16T13:25:43.788+00:00Learning from Nature

In a recent article from New Scientist, scientists try to emulate the processes in plants that breakdown CO2, and synthesize it into more useful chemicals.This made me think again about the Virgin Earth Challenge, and how if scaled up, this idea could be a worthy entry.Except of course that it does not address the issues of Global Dimming, which are potentially catastrophic if they were not

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-56065269113908036012007-03-13T11:50:00.000+00:002007-03-13T12:52:04.088+00:00A Bit of Nostalgia

I was reading a friend's blog the other day, in which he reminisced briefly about TV programs and adverts from his youth.His point was that until recently such reminiscences were simply recalling common memories with friends, but that now you can actually find clips on the Internet, for an altogether more realistic and spooky trip down memory lane.Carrying the theme on (OK maybe plaguerising his

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-15884961339236568062007-03-11T11:20:00.000+00:002007-03-12T23:08:13.168+00:00Who is The Devil's Advocate?

The Devil’s Advocate made an interesting comment on my previous post The Truth is Out There…Normally I wouldn’t honour such an obvious troll with a response, but in this case I will make an exception, as I think it illustrates some significant points.Firstly I am not entirely certain what point The Devil’s Advocate is making.To me they seem to be offended by my attitude of not wanting to let

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-78842470681769651102007-03-09T15:56:00.000+00:002007-03-09T16:25:39.776+00:00The Truth is Out There…

…or is it?Following on from a very interesting and thought provoking discussion with a work colleague, I decided to peruse Loose Change 911: a Web site exploring / promoting a conspiracy theory for the atrocity of 9/11.My position on this has been that while I don’t believe that the Official Story presented by the 9-11 Commission report is the whole truth, I also don’t fully buy into any of the

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-22978316595884971722007-03-06T02:09:00.000+00:002007-03-06T03:00:00.321+00:00Impressive Effort...

...by one man pushing the edge of living the Icarian dream.I think EasyJet are safe for a while longer though...

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-75533876690603708582007-03-05T20:39:00.000+00:002007-03-06T02:59:43.722+00:00Geek Humour

The sad thing is, I really have seen code like this.

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-36452375120205074102007-02-26T18:33:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:46:10.298+00:00A Simple Indulgence

We all know that there is an alluring elegance in simplicity, hence the saying "less is more".However sometimes we can overlook the power of simple ideas, especially when trying to understand or explain the very complex: we become fixated on the minute detail, and fail to see the blatantly obvious. Not seeing the wood for the trees I guess. Or as Bruce Lee said in one of his famous quotes:It is

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-4683060560139027982007-02-13T10:32:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:45:44.545+00:00Water Water Everywhere...

The Maltese Donkey posted:We're now in Taupo, a city built ostensibly around a lake - a huge lake (by Brit standards), that is apparently clean enough to drink directly. Given what people often do while swimming in Lakes, I'll skip that nourishing exercise, but it's beautiful nonetheless... I find this a very interesting comment.I totally sympathise with the "ick" factor of drinking water from a

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-76200026591805826122007-02-10T08:37:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:45:26.154+00:00Weird Timing

So on Tuesday I publish a post on the need to start acting in harmony to save the Earth from man-made or natural catastrophes, and on Friday Sir Richard Branson announces the Virgin Earth Challenge: a $20M prize for the inventor of a device / technology that can counter-act global warming.Now, ignoring how bizarre the timing of this is, I also noticed on Friday a tabloid headline claiming a £250M

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-10540810865442930052007-02-09T07:35:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:44:06.496+00:00The End is Nigh

You could be forgiven for believing that if you listened to the media hysteria about yesterday's weather.We had some snow.London's transport infrastructure was severely disrupted for most of the morning.The media were advising people to take extreme care getting to work/school, and some radio stations were advising people to stay at home.In my corner of SW Greater London, we had 3-4 inches of

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-5100072746177400302007-02-06T13:40:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:43:44.927+00:00And now for something completely different...

Given the deep and slightly depressing nature of the last post, I thought I'd post a link to this excellent bit of humour. Maybe :)

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-83810395160236583752007-02-06T11:29:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:43:27.702+00:00Point of no return (revisited)

In the "Bodies..." posting of his Great Adventure, the Maltese Donkey said:And no doubt with the population requirements, and export, they have to increase efficiency of agriculture like everybody else, which can lead to pollution runoff.As I mentioned in a previous post, we are creating an artificial environment around us, which is too brittle to sustain the continued growth and evolution of our

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-1154995850917110172006-08-07T22:56:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:40:03.216+00:00It's odd how things work out...(part 2)

So let's get one thing straight, right from the start:The scientist in me rejects the notion that Fate is anything more than a mind-made association between un-related events, to give us humans a nice warm feeling that we are not living our lives at the whim of random events, or in an uncaring Universe which is oblivious to our existence.The spiritual side of me is not so sure, as my day-to-day

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-1145022127530563232006-04-14T13:22:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:39:49.036+00:00It's odd how things work out...

I'm due to go on a business trip to the US in the next few days, and will be flying to a number of different cities in different timezones, with a relatively tight schedule.One of the cities I will be going to is LA, somewhere I've not been before. When setting up the meeting and flight schedules, I tried to arrange to get an extra day in LA, so that I could maybe do some touristy things. However

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-1144862163733094312006-04-12T16:31:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:39:33.295+00:00Where are they now?

There are approximately 6 billion people alive today on the planet.That is more than have lived and died in total since humanity first evolved.While that is a worrying thought for the ecological burden we are putting on our planet, to me it inspires a somewhat different line of thought:Consider all the people throughout history who have made such a mark on the world that we remember their names

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-1144774950897001232006-04-11T14:07:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:39:17.839+00:00Point of no return?

I've always been fascinated by the evolution of societies and cultures.In particular I find it intriguing that no complex society seems to survive for more than a few thousand years at most, before it decays or is overthrown and replaced by a younger society / culture, with a huge loss of the body of knowledge and cultural beliefs and drivers of the original society.You see this pattern repeated

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25803325.post-1144685214954246102006-04-10T15:45:00.000+00:002007-03-04T12:38:34.684+00:00Welcome

Well, I guess it was inevitable that I eventually became blog-enabled.It's not that I am a techno-phobe, quite the reverse. But when your life is a complex as mine, and when you have as many interests and opinions as I do, committing time to anything new is definitely an Action from Beyond the Edge.Still to all things there is a Time, and I think the Time for this is now.Why "Musings from The

Mike Bardzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11515837700798433596noreply@blogger.com0