World Wide Willis

Science the poetry of creation

2011-02-28T22:55:00.002Z

“Why do you have to keep reducing everything to science?” asks Jackie Tyler of the Doctor in Doctor Who, Series 2 “Army Of Ghosts”. Jackie’s way of thinking about science has never occurred to me.

I’ve always viewed science as being a portal to a truly beautiful cosmos. However, Jackie’s view is not unique. To many people, scientists are not real people, they have no sense of humour, very few social skills and always wear white coats.

This could be a masked fear people have, not of science, but of the more terrifying aspects of cosmology. The supernova of a star, a massive explosion which often has a blast area of several light years reminds people that we are very fleeting beings and even our planet Earth, is a temporary home for us humans.

Poverty, famine and wars seem to be constant companions though aeons of time. Technology affords greater life spans. We have a burgeoning population of 80 to100 year olds but our financing of retirement pensions does not afford the greater number of people who are no longer working. There is little that young people in the 1960’s could have done to manage and provide for their old age now.

At first, when I listen to Gustav Holst’s The Planets “Saturn” I am reminded of Saturn, the bringer of old age. It sounds distressing at first, but the piece evolves into calm and serenity. It is at this point, that I view old age as being a chance to smell of that coffee we never got the same chance to, while we were working and raising families.

“Creation” means something a little different when you’re an Atheist.

Not a God created universe. No-one can explain now or before, (and they may probably never will), how the universe came into being. That flashpoint, in order to have an existence, must have straddled the boundaries of our physical universe and that point where time and space were yet to exist.

While I’m pondering that, I’m looking at clouds. Rather a lot to look at in an English winter. I’m struck how beautiful they are. They are only water vapour. Now why do I have to keep reducing things to science?

Oh…

The Coalition

2011-02-26T20:34:00.005Z

I well remember people saying "why can't we have a coalition government?"

We were a bit niave in those days. A coalition government would be about parties all working together for the common good. And not about the Tories telling the Lib-Dems to get stuffed, after all.

In life, I've always noticed that it's a tiny minority of families on estates who bring down the reputation of the estate. This eclipsing of the decent majority has a lot to do with our media, hell bent on selling their newspapers, because for some reason, they judge us to be only interested in bad news.

School bullies are probably no more than about a dozen, out of a school roll of 1500. In the course of my union work, I've met a great deal of people who have been bullied at school. Again, bullies seem to be very far reaching, given their very small numbers.

I have always believed that politicians, (of whatever persusaion), go into politics because they believe that they can make changes for the better. I still believe that today.

I can't help but wonder how so many would be councillors or MP's feel when they have these great ambitions steamrollered by some pompous political grandee's desire to replace their ludicrously expensive bird table, have their moat cleaned, or supply their husband with a porn DVD courtesy of the tax payer.

So are these the same MP's who've frozen for 2 years public sector worker's pay* (who didn't cause the recession) and allowed bankers bosses (who DID cause the recession) to collect huge bonuses?

*(That's of course, except for the 425,000 public sector workers who will be losing their jobs).

Ah yes, we're getting a day off on Friday 29th April. The wedding!

Come on, it's not as though we're paying for it, is it?

Happiness

2010-11-28T18:38:00.005Z

Our government wants to know if we’re happy.

This is refreshing news.

I can’t recall any previous government before asking us this question. Our governments seem to be permanently locked into a continuous battle of capital versus labour. Occasionally, they say they've seen a "third way" - but I notice that it's still all rates of mortgages, unemployment that figure in their election leaflets, defining their successes. So it's not suprising that we’re still left with the same old questions. We still have a society that bases itself on citizens being enriched by hard currency, alone and not being happy, after all.

“Are we happy?”

“Is being happy what we’re supposed to be here for?”

“Are we supposed to be happy?”

We, in the west, are pretty sold on the idea, that happiness isn’t about money. I’m not at all sure about that. As someone who’s never had much money, I can tell you that there is little happiness in being poor. I have been happy, in spite of being poor. If I suddenly became rich, I predict that I would use money to free myself and those who I love, from the stress and worry that goes with not having enough money to pay the bills.

We babyboomers were not poor in a sense that our parent’s generation understood. Being poor, these days, is often a very relative state. Our parents did not have enough money to buy enough food. Actually, pretty well all parents in those days were poor. Our generation feels deprived when we can’t send our kids to school in the same trainers. So we’re aware of a bigger rich/poor gap. The pain we feel is not because we don’t have the same, it’s because we are made to feel excluded because we’re told we have failed to have the same.

If our society were more “poor-friendly” we would feel no pain about not having the same material wealth and things as our richer peers. We would simply be living different lives and we wouldn’t be feeling that our lives were somehow “inferior” just because we were poor.

Being a socialist, I am much more inclined to believe that if we were brave enough to try for a much more equal society, not only poorer people would be happier, but rich people would be too. Poor families can often be very creative when it comes to being happy. An evening with a box full of clothes, where people can dress up as a pirate or a policeman can be sometimes surprisingly wonderful. We are truly playing.

That's not to say that I wouldn’t turn my nose up at the latest Nintendo Wii, Playsation or X-Box, but neither would I turn my nose up at the box full of pirate costumes either. Or a game of "shove ha'penny".

Consider these quotes about happiness:

“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.”

Groucho Marx

“The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy.”

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

The surprising thing is that each of those quotes could’ve been written by the other author. And yet, how differently we view Groucho Marx from Tenzin Gyatso the,14th Dalai Lama. We appear to be very much in unison about what happiness really is.

I can bear this wisdom out personally.

"Have no friends not equal to yourself."

Confucious (551 - 497 BC) Chinese philosopher.

Nothing is more miserable than when you don’t feel equal to someone who you’re trying to be friends with.

My life has been very varied. I have probably done it all, compared to a lot of folk. I have been married, and now, I am single again. My single life is not spent in miserable isolation, which is what many people have wondered about, when I tell them about my singleness. Perhaps I am happy being single and living alone, with no intention to become part of a couple again, precisely because I have had experience of being married. I have, like my mother, spent most of my life, living a life where I am often alone, so emotionally, that I am used to it and now have the emotional intelligence to actually relish my aloneness.

As an atheist, my idea of happiness is not seeing this life as a prelude to a better life to come. Suppose there isn't one? Wouldn't we feel cheated about.... Oh, I suppose we wouldn't know whether or not we had lived our lives not in a way that we could have chosen, had we known what would be in store for us, if you see what I mean?

A terminally ill patient usually lives life to the full. Somehow a mental, emotional focus, that eludes many of us, takes over. They do say live your day as though it were your last, don't they?

Aloneness is not interchangeable with unhappiness. It’s simply a different way of living. I found that out from a friend who is truly inspiring on lone living at its best. She packs her art, her love of creating it, learning all about history and making it her business to know about the fascinating city she lives in. Learning and the excitement you feel as it evolves you, really rocks her world. You could say that she is living life to the full, as though it were her last day.

Happiness is universal. The pathways to it are myriad. Mine is music, writing and astronomy. One never really knows why we are here. Created, evolved, sent here, who knows? It's a fair bet that while we are here, the pursuit of happiness is probably a pretty damn good shot at guessing the right reason as to why we're here. And even if that's the correct reason, well, who cares?

The government may well define happiness in a completely different way to me. So now, if the government really are serious about wanting to know whether I'm happy, what do I put on the flippin' form?

Writing

2010-02-27T01:08:00.002Z

Yes, writing.
I seem to spend most of my waking hours writing something. It’s one of those magical pursuits where you can dream up a story, taking place 210 light years from Earth, in a different time and under two suns instead of one. Err.... not too much detail... you’ll have to buy the rest!

If I ever finish the thing!

On the other hand, my story could be just down the road, a few minutes walk from the Post Office, or the Co-op. It could be fiction, or fact. Writing about people, places and events is always interesting. I was sitting in a car, just resting, from a hard day’s work, waiting to go into Tesco’s supermarket. I thought of a story about the car parking space I was in; the lives it had seen, the life I was leading at that time. My story would follow the lives, events, the heartaches and the joys of the people who use that car park space.

Writers have a hard time getting life into their books. Every now and then, a writer conveys that spirit of life into their story. You can put yourself into their space, their place and feel their wonder, their fear, their incredulity of the fantastic things that happen to them, as well as the mundane, the everyday things. These things are just as amazing, and just as hard to do well, when I set them down before my reader.

Sometimes, it’s not just one story, but the other that follows it that enhances the whole experience. I’m talking about Doctor Who, the new series, series 2. I’d just seen “The Girl in the Fireplace” set in pre-Revolutionary Versailles. An alien race from the 50th century was stalking a young woman in the 18th. Although very sci-fi, the story belonged firmly to the 18th century.
The Doctor, Rose and Mickey, left 18th century Versailles and materialised on a parallel Earth, in a parallel modern England and met parallel versions of themselves and their families. At their new destination they were also facing an old enemy in “The Rise of the Cybermen”.

I was very conscious of the story it had followed, and I think it was a very powerful illustration of how incredible the Doctor and his TARDIS is. It was sheer brilliance to follow the “The Girl in the Fireplace” with “The Rise of the Cybermen”. It showed how amazing travelling though space and time is, let alone falling out of our universe altogether and ending up in a parallel one.

Like many rookie writers, I suspect, we are like the stereotypical American tourist, who is, in my opinion, is very culturally honest when he says, “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like!” As though we are supposed to have read all the classics, all the great works of literature. If I read all that I’ve been told I am supposed to have read, as my literary ballast, I would have live as long as Doctor Who!

Learning all of the devices, like where to end the narrative and let the dialogue do the story telling is a skill worth knowing. Omission, where you allow your reader to imagine for them, is a very powerful technique and a holy grail for the writer. There’s a parallel in art, where you leave white space, which adds dimension to what you’re drawing, or painting. I read a review from last Saturday’s Guardian of an eclectic band of writers who give advice to the aspiring writer.

Some of it appears contradictory and yet taken together, it, nevertheless, makes sense. A bit like that last sentence! I’ve heard of stream of consciousness, studious outlining and then drafting before committing to the main road writing. I get the idea that there are, after all, as many different approaches as there are writers. This would appear to lead one to assume that there is no right or wrong way. Just a way as individual as you are.

There is some wonderful core stuff the writers all seem to agree on. Make a space for your writing; Physical space being a kitchen table, a desk, preferably in a private, quiet study. I have a desk listening to music from KCRW an eclectic radio station that streams from Santa Monica College, before it streams over the Internet to me. So I hope that’s a recommendation.

Mental space, or schedule space. Do your writing at specific times. It should be inked in, (as opposed to pencilled in, which you can rub out!) After all, wouldn’t your writing evening class be inked in?

The other thing is to do the writing.

It is amazing how many of us tell people of our writing. And yet, the finished product is less grand than our enthusiasm. When I’m not doing the writing, it does seem to be something you seem to want to put off. This makes you conclude that you can’t be much of a writer and you lack that vital dedication. This might be true. If you’re like me, you’ll find that perhaps it’s the daily routine that detunes you as a writer. Usually when you write regularly, you find you can re-tune back quicker and you can enjoy it quicker, even though it is very, very hard work indeed.

My enthusiasm is very genuine, otherwise, I guess, I wouldn’t be able to write. What I do lack is a solid grasp of project management, which plagues many writers, I am certain. Effective project management seems to go against the grain with our artistic and creative natures.

Why? Is it real? Or is it something we tell ourselves?

I can’t do recipes. Never have, never will. Instead, I learned some very rudimentary ideas about ingredient combinations, (usually based on my being reluctant to visit the supermarket!) I’ve developed an instinct about food. I learned one day, I was doing “art” with food. This empowered me to try other things with food and it occurred to me that I could transpose this to letters and paints too. The “storehouse” idea, where you store your ingredients for your writing, crops up quite a few times. So yes, those books on writing were right after all!

While I’m writing this, I am not finishing the story I’ve started. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not I’ve learned from my experiences, or my mistakes!

Happy writing!

Science and God

2009-08-09T23:55:00.004+01:00

I've never been one for this Science vs. God thing.

I much prefer the science is the" how?", and God is the "why?"

Stephen Hawking's book, his first one, (that I also haven't yet finished!), "A Brief History of Time" has a foreword written by Carl Sagan, which implies that Stephen's work and the predictions that arise thus, leave little for a God to do.

As I grow ever weary of organised religions, I find that they have no place in either my values, morals and ethical system. Perhaps it's better to say that my ethical system seems to flourish without a God. However, I do dismiss the cliched "religions are the cause of all wars". I find people are much more of a help to global disintegration than religions.

Why is it that whenever you read the Bible, or the Koran, they do start off with the idea of a perfect world, God and then we enter the picture, and from thereon in, it all goes pear-shaped?

We can all point to things in the Bible that appear to justify our values, or, even our bigotry.

Anti-homosexuality, and transgenderedness, is dealt with in Deuteronomy 22:5

"The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man,

neither shall a man put on a woman's garment:

for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God."

And yet, we're told as Christians, we do not follow the Old Testament? Even if we were required to follow this tract, "abomination " is pretty strong stuff from a God that loves us like a father. If parents loved us as conditionally as this, they would be viewed as pretty lame parents.

When parents find their son or daughter is gay, or they find that their son or daughter needs to change from their born gender, they try to overcome their shock, they usually fend off attacks from people with negative views about their child and in the end, hopefully, they arrive at a place where they can find the love in their hearts again.

It really does seem that God, thus described, really does believe that there is little for a creator to do. Perhaps what is meant by this, is that God would not be involved in our day to day lives. He would love us from a distance, the way a mother or father would, when their child is away at university? Like a parent, God will have done the work earlier. It is up to us kids to use what our parents taught us. More about us being wise, loving, peaceable and stable in an unstable world?

Parenting still goes on. But the work you did early, still counts for most of how the kids turn out. You can't make hasty revisions when they are 14. It's too late.

It is a fact that the Earth is 4.3 billion years old, (there is astounding forensic evidence to suggest that it is indeed that old), and not 6,000 years old, after all. We came about, through a bewildering chain of events where whole species were wiped off the face of the Earth. Had this not happened, it is likely, we would be astoundingly a different species ourselves. If we were to exist at all?

The Solar System, according to our best knowledge at the moment, perhaps evolved the way it did partly because there was a succession of planetary collisions. Hundreds of different planets, radically different in size, existed in the early dawn of our Solar System. We Earthlings nearly did not get here, but even more amazingly, also the very planet Earth itself nearly didn't get here!

The planet Uranus orbits the Sun lying on its back. This was almost certainly due to another planet, (possibly an Earth-sized planet), smashing into Uranus and causing its North pole to point slightly downwards while slightly tipping up its South pole.

The evolution of the universe, from where time, space and matter began, would appear to be not the territory of a Creator after all. Perhaps, a Creator's job was completed just the moment the universe exploded into being? And not governed, after all, where Brian likes to dress as Brianna; or where Gary hasn't got Diana as his lover, but Steve instead?

Perhaps that's why a Creator has little to do? It was already done before?

Radio and writing

2009-03-14T01:23:00.002Z

Quite a lot going on at the moment. A few months ago, I joined Gateway FM, which is a community radio station in Basildon, Essex. I'm learning how to "drive the desk", which is a strange feeling, after having become so familiar with the desk at Hospital Radio Chelmsford for the past 4 years.

Gateway FM, is a fairly new station. It is not on FM at the moment, as there is a licence application going through for a full time licence. There is to be another RSL (a 28 day broadcast) on FM, which is expected to be the station's final RSL. The station broadcasts over the internet. I did have a go on the air and it was a strange feeling to know that it's possible that I could be heard anywhere in the world.

I can't wait to get hold of a recorder and do some interviews. Making radio programmes where the people of Basildon are the stars is very exciting.

The other thing I am doing is writing two Doctor Who stories. I have no idea whether they'll ever be published. The prime motivation for me is to have two good Doctor Who stories, good stories, that have been written by me. Although, just in case, I am writing them to an existing publisher's format!

Wouldn't it be great if I could progress further in both these ventures and become a writer and a broadcaster!

Coming Home

2009-01-21T23:38:00.006Z

I've been talking about Obama for months and months. And yet, I missed seeing live, the most exciting and truly symbolic Presidential inauguration for many years.

All my life, I've always believed that America is really a great country. However, it seems almost always, America's critics seemed to have been proved annoyingly right. Nationalistic, isolationist, a belief that it ought to single-handedly police the world fuelled by its unhealthy phobia of communism. America seems have been much more willing to prove that it is right, through its military might, rather than the strength of its belief in those iconic statements of what it stands for. "The Constitution".

Britain has an "unwritten constitution". Some would say that's very wise. After all, we can always say, "ah well, we never really said that" when we find ourselves in one of those moral quandaries where we feel that we're required to uphold something, when clearly its bananas, after all.

Perhaps "the right to bear arms", may well have made sense during those pioneering days of the USA. There was a justice system, but that was not accessible to all. People felt, that they couldn't ensure that their freedom and safety. In the 2000's, the right to bear arms is obselete.

The original reason for it has gone. Indeed, almost gone even in the 1880's. American towns and cities were becoming much more law-enforced. Incredible progress was made, although that was overshadowed by what people believed to be wrong with the USA, rather than reality. The stuff of the "Westerns" would probably have seemed unreal to many people, who were actually lived through those times.

Racial prejudice was rife in those days. People, even very "respectable" people simply were unable to believe that they could have, black sheriffs, black judges or black Senators and Congressmen. Not just white people, but black people themselves, couldn't counter any white originated arguments that would put the case about their true equality.

I heard someone observe today, that sixty years ago, almost any USA restaurant would have refused to serve Obama's own father. And now, his son is President of the United States of America. It clearly points the way to how the USA has and is, truly evolving.

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness " never was, and is certainly not now, merely the right of some Fundamentalist religious right, corpulent, white conservative. It truly means, at last, it is indeed, an inalienable right for all Americans.

The British are extremely pleased with the Obama victory, not merely because it represents some narrow based political victory, but because they feel when one nation truly heals, especially a strong, rich one like America, it also brings about much more hope for the whole world. Leading by example. It can't be long before we have our first black Prime Minister and that will be good for Britain on so many levels, not just for black people, but for people of all kinds of races and creeds. America's authority abroad is going to be greatly increased, and that implies that they will be much more sucessful agent in realising world peace.

As I see the deluge of images flowing from Washington DC, I see true patriotism flow from those steps where Abraham Lincoln's statue sits, one hopes, seeing something on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, worthy of what he strove to achieve himself. He will be be so pleased as, he will see a new black President of the United States. A truly free America, united, after being so divided for so long.

Welcome home, America.

Stars in my eyes

2009-01-21T00:39:00.006Z

I've seen this all before.

A recession is something that you just shouldn't panic about. Using the wisdom you were born with, and some you've gained along the way, you ensure that you adapt to the recession. After all, my mortgage is the same. The Diesel I put in my car is a lot cheaper than a year ago! I am still going to work, doing a job that is needed. (I was clever, or lucky, enough to go into something that is much more likely to remain needed).

So, just before the recession became "official" - I bought myself a telescope and hopefully, when I get a clear night, (that'll teach me to live in England!), I will be able to gaze at the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, a mere 2 million light years away and a whole host of other cosmic goodies.

The beauty of the cosmos, and perhaps its relative immortality, up there, compared to us guys, with our 3 or 4 score years down here, really does teach us that all of our narrow-minded, parochial stuff here, really doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

Picture credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage

(STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
The European Homepage for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

http://www.spacetelescope.org/index.html

My conclusion? Just look at a picture of the Orion Nebula, that is a perspective!

Does Labour deserve to win?

2008-10-18T22:46:00.003+01:00

Damn right it does!

First, the economy. The Stock Exchange stopped going down yesterday and actually went up. That couldn't have happened if the banks were still in free-fall. I find that this month isn't markedly different from around 4 months ago, when this crisis first appeared in the news. Actually, tomorrow, when I fill my car with diesel, it will cost me less than it did 4 months ago. My mortgage is the same now as it was then. My other bills haven't gone up. Food did go up, but is now on the way back down. World leaders have complimented Gordon Brown's bold handling of this crisis. People here in the UK are slowly catching on to that, judging by the Opinion polls, finally favouring Gordon's handling of the economy.

Employment. Correct me, if I'm wrong, but didn't the Tories have much higher unemployment than we do now? Double now? Many more people were benefit-trapped. We are a much more service-based economy than we used to be, so we have no more, or little more, manufacturing base to lose. Labour introduced Sure Start, the Minimum Wage, Childcare and after school clubs, which has enabled many, particularly single parents to re-enter the job market.

Education. Schools were dire when I was at school in the 1960's. Schools didn't even try to move around 75% of their students forward to college, grammar schools or university. During the first year in the newly elected 1964 Labour government, one teacher told us that Labour was spending £25 million on education. £25 million was a huge amount back then.

Law 'n Order. Finally, Labour has been proving that this topic is no longer exclusive Tory turf. It never has been, in fact. But for some reason, people's perception is that Tories are tough on crime. Probably because the right of the party succeed from time to time in attempting to return the Death Penalty. They always fail and they always will.

Crimes get reported now much more than they ever did before. There's always been murders, robberies and fraudsters. There's always been crooks and paedophiles. There's always been knife crimes, bombings and shootings.

The irony is, that the authorities are more successful than ever, in both catching and punishing criminals, although this is overshadowed by so much more information about how violent a place any nation can be.

Of course, it is always right to campaign, and do whatever we can to rid the streets of murderers, rapists, paedophiles and thieves. Education is key here. Crime is a weed that's fertilised by people who are excluded. Criminals prey on their need for money, drugs and drink, and even sex. The weeds take over the garden. The best way to make sure you don't have weeds is to have a tidy garden in the first place.

Labour has probably only achieved a small part of what people, and good, loyal Labour people, believe it should achieve. World class schools, colleges, universities, hospitals and also decent affordable homes for people who would like to improve their lives and for those who simply can't.

The Tories believe in an Excel spreadsheet where only companies and shareholders matter. Everyone else is rewarded as an afterthought. Without the "afterthoughts", there would be no companies to have shares.

What Gordon Brown's been trying to do, is to help our country and also the world to avoid a terrible depression. If people refuse to co-operate and try to make political capital out of this situation, then that's all they'll end up with. Political capital. Even America, that proud bastion of Western capitalism, is wising up that their government and opposition alike, will need to unite to see us through this. If the majority of people refuse to co-operate over here, then we're all really going to head for all time economic nose-dive - and we'll have deserved it, if we're that daft!

Learning by mistakes; or not....

2008-09-14T21:58:00.003+01:00

I've always assumed that to become an MP, you need to be above average intelligence, have a modicum of common sense and have the ability to learn not to repeat mistakes.

The Labour MPs, who have been requesting nomination papers, don't seemed to have benefited by Labour's own mistakes in the 80's and the Tories, in the 90's.

Voters have never re-elected a governing party who is at war with itself. Neither have they voted for a party who have had a leadership election a year before a general election is due. A party, especially a party that is governing the country, simply cannot put into a place a proposal that is credible to the people in such a short time.

If these MPs reckon that Gordon Brown is such a bad leader, then they should have made this plain when Tony Blair left. Gordon Brown is not a bad leader. He is simply facing economic circumstances that Tony Blair never had to face. The irony is that most people, if they're honest, accept that Gordon Brown delivered Tony Blair's leadership a mightily improved economy, when he was Chancellor.

Mortgages and prices were low enough and stable enough for me to succeed in buying my flat.
I am as clearly convinced as it's possible to be, that this was because Labour was in power and not the Tories. Most of my success is my own, but Labour definitely helped me.

2008-07-08T18:20:00.002+01:00

In the 1950's, the city of Los Angeles had a streetcar system. It was ripped up and replaced by busses. NCL was an organisation formed to acquire streetcar facilities and NCL was owned by Firestone Tyres, General Motors, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum.
Perhaps in the 1950's, this de-railing of the streetcars didn't seem such a bad idea.

However, in London, in 2008, I would've thought London voters would have known better. Mayor Ken Livingstone bravely introduced the Congestion Charge. Personally, I have never needed dissauding from driving into London's city centre, even before the introduction of the Congestion Charge. It was hell to find a place to park and when you did, it cost a fortune, you could walk to where you were going, faster, than you could drive there.

Mayor Boris has scrapped the £25 charge for Chelsea Tractors. Apart from being total gas-guzzlers, they take up far more space than my modest 1.6L car. Are roads going to be enlarged to make room for these huge vehicles? I even saw a Chelsea Tractor that was so large that it couldn't even get into a car park!

The more sinister overtone for London is that Porsche's involvement in city politics. Well, the London voters apparently agree with Porsche and Boris?

Anglia Ruskin University the first 150 years!

2008-01-18T21:26:00.000Z

Of course, we've only been entitled "university" since 1992. John Ruskin, the famous art critic, author and poet, opened, in 1858 , the School of Art in Sidney Street, Cambridge. Ruskin thus laid the foundation for what is today, Anglia Ruskin University.

In 1976, the Mid-Essex Technical College, merged with Brentwood College of Education to form the Chelmer Institute Of Higher Education.

A series of other changes took place and in 1992, Anglia Polytechnic University was born. Public perception of the term "polytechnic" was that this somehow subtracted from the university.

The title "Anglia Ruskin University" was granted by the Privy Council in 2005. Anglia Ruskin University seems to have more energy these days, perhaps because of this rebrand.

I enjoy working here. There's something very rewarding about being a part of providing resources and services to enable to students to gain their degree and realize their ambitions, make their dreams come true. Most importantly, in this ever increasingly competitive world of work, gaining a firmer foothold there and the confidence that goes with that.

You could say we're a dream factory!

Enviroment and how we save it

2008-01-05T11:19:00.001Z

It occurred to me that I've said almost nothing about the environment. And you may wonder what the EU flag is to do with this. More about that, later.........

Like so many people, up and down the land, I'm still struggling, as I'm confronted with a myriad of different rubbish containers. Bags, wheelie bins, white sacks with pink writing, white sacks with green writing and little bins. I spend more time being informed what I can't put in, rather than what I can.
Oh yes, and they're about to ban plastic carrier bags from supermarkets. The reason is that that are bad for the environment.
"Oh, so what do I put my rubbish in then?" I asked.
"Black plastic bags"
"Ah yes, don't tell me, aisle 14, next to the Persil?"
"Now you're gettin' it!" winked the checkout lady.
So now I'm paying for black plastic bags that don't break down.
That'll help!

I have always agreed that something must be done. But this does my head in. Like anything new, we should expect to be on a learning curve.... (God! how I hate that expression! I hope I don't say "level playing field"..) I am sure that it's top of the agenda....

During the mid-seventies, I saw the firm I worked for throwing out wooden crates and burning them in a field behind the factory! A double tragedy. If they were intent on burning them, couldn't they at least burn them in a furnace attached to a generator?

If they generated greenhouses gas that way, at least this would be partly offset by the saved electricity. Even in those days, the Netherlands were racing ahead of us in adopting, what we now call carbon offsetting practices, in the workplace. The Dutch seemed to be able generate megawatts of power from almost any waste. Dear old England always said that it wouldn't work on this side of the North Sea. The main reason why it didn't work in Britain was that they never even bothered. So I guess they were right!

I joined Labour in 1982. My local party then talked endlessly about the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, fighting the Imperialist American-backed contras. I sided with the Sandinistas, sure, but I wasn't that sure how to get more local issues onto the floor. After the meetings, I asked the question. "How much better off are the people of Chelmsford, now, compared to before the meeting?" At least one was worse off. Labour meetings really did take place in smoke-filled rooms!

Neither Labour or Conservative governments of the day seemed remotely interested in adpoting the Netherland's energy saving practices. I don't recall any Liberal comment either. In many other European countries at that time, there was some movement of policies, that would be helpful in at least, slowing down the huge waste and environmental damage. But not dear old Britain.

In Britain, recycling, through the 80's and 90's, was still perceived to be very "brown rice, brown sandal brigade" led. Perhaps people were worried that they might have to re-use toilet paper? Britain, even today, is still the laziest recycler in Europe, despite any government spin to the contrary. To the government's credit though, there has been significant improvement.

Wind power.
Various people commented that wind power
would never work.
"We don't have enough wind in this country" they said.
"We do, just attach a wind turbine to the House Of Commons!"

I am very proud of that comeback!

http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp

They would still argue that in the 1970's we didn't have good enough technology. Probably true, but at least we would've known that the technology would improve in the future. We would be investing into a wind power infrastructure. The level of technology would've been more likely, even higher, as the research and development in the field is always better.

I am glad to see that these wind critic's arguments have been blown away!

Britain's record shows that no nation state can, alone, would be able to enact, enforce and most importantly, punish polluters. If the EU can take a central role in this, then we can, at least in Europe, look forward to the promise of environmental recovery.

Mars - we want the canals back!

2007-12-30T22:26:00.001Z

This is the Mars I grew up with. There was a confidence that there was life up there. Mariner 4 put pay to all that. The pictures that came back seemed as though Mariner 4 had detoured to the Moon, or Mercury instead.

Ray Bradbury in his "Martian Chronicles" hinted at Martians having been there, being there when the astronauts finally landed on the red planet. Ray's book brought back my boyish vision of Mars, rather than the "real" one, gradually revealed by Mariner 4 and the other Mariners. I also read other tales about Mars written by Captain W.E. Johns "Return To Mars". I can't remember much about the book itself. I'm almost reluctant to re-read it, in case it destroys my precious image of it, consisting of the rexine bound and lavishly coloured drawings I can just recall from it.

The black lines you see in my experimental colour pencil drawing, (to remind myself how I did it!), were once thought to be canals, built by intelligent Martians to irrigate their exceedingly arid planet. Imagine. Martians investing in a planet-wide irrigation system. How much money would that need?

Later, Viking 1 and 2 actually landing on surface of Mars! Wow! I am so honoured that I witnessed the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.

Think about it. I witnessed humankind setting foot on to the surface of another world. And hopefully, I should still be alive when humankind land on Mars. These are events that no other generation will ever witness. Sure, we'll land on other planets of our solar system and later, of other stars.

I just hope we don't ever "know" to much.

Moon Conspiracy Theories

2007-10-14T18:07:00.000+01:00

I'm surprised that this still persists. There are still people who believe we never set foot on the Moon. There are a number of things that baffle me, if what the conspiracy theorists say, is true. The alternate events posed by the conspiracy theorists would require a level of secrecy which would be extremely difficult to maintain.

The radio signals that were used to communicate were in the high VHF/low UHF band. Analogue, this was years before digital and so perfectly accessible to all of the best equipped amateur radio operators all over the world, except those of course on the wrong side of the planet. What would be in it for the amateur radio operators to be quiet about the alleged hoax?

Surely, at the height of the Cold War, it must've crossed the minds of the Soviet government in Moscow to check where the signal was really coming from? If an HF radio signal, allegedly coming from the Moon, wasn't coming from the Moon, even a high school student with suitable radio rig would soon know that the signal wasn't coming from the Moon?

That being said, the Conspiracy Theorists are doing science a service. After all, ever since I heard about their claims, I've been checking and re-checking what I believe in. And that's got to be a good thing.

Library away day

2007-09-06T18:09:00.001+01:00

Today, I went to Pathway to Success. This is a library away day for staff, in the lovely grounds of Fulborn, just outside Cambridge.

Fulborn used to be a mental hospital and it must've had a very different atmosphere, in those far off Victorian days, compared to it's present role as one of the homes for Anglia Ruskin University's Faculty of Health.

AwayDays have an energy all of their own. They are very empowering for the university's staff. It's always good to be asked how best to ensure that the delivery of our services is accessible and is helpful to our students in their quest for their degree.

We all enjoyed mooching around the huge verdant estate of Fulbourn. This away day is currently a one-off, but I am convinced that we should have this regularly. The cream cakes didn't influence my decision one bit. Well..... not that much, well, I say not much ... well.. quite a bit, really... yeah...

Unitarian Universalist Churches

2007-08-17T01:00:00.000+01:00

I began taking an interest in this church, when I discovered that Doctor Pat Robertson, described the Unitarian Universalists, on his fun programme, "700 Club" as "going straight to hell" It's at this point I tend to take more of an interest. I find what Doctor Pat Robertson opposes to be a great endorsement system!

Liberals are asked for millions of litmus tests, from the Christian right, to demonstrate that their faith is "correct" and "true", (which I've always thought was missing the point of faith).
Faith is where you bring up your kids, the best way you know how. If you've been a good parent, you've led by example and you got the ground rules right, then more often than not, you will find your kids will suprise you with how good they are.

You never subject your family or your friends to a barrage of tests. You don't have to boss them to care for others and accept them for who they are. Equally, our sons know bigots whenever they see them. They don't need any parental prompting from me!

A church, like Pat Robertson's, that says that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people are sinful, is not speaking for God. Surely this rainbow of sexual and gender design is God's own?

Don't these right wing evangelist churches ever read the news? All of the wars on the planet are fuelled by people who haven't merely got a temporary dispute going on. They are fuelled by people who want us British and Americans dead. Just like Hitler wanted all the Jews dead. Simple. We will beat them, because we must. Not from making bigger wars, but by fighting for peace and leading by example. This is the way we prove ourselves to be decent.

Pat Robertson, just like those warring factions, can't live with people who are part of the gender/sexual rainbow, those who don't fit neatly into the straight man and straight woman orthodoxy. This kind of human bar-coding is the stuff of wars.

Look at all of the societies which were liberal, before we arrived. Polynesia, certain parts of Africa and also the various tribes of native Americans, like the Berdache. They all worked perfectly well. Where you have acceptance and tolerance of people's differences, you have peace.

Christopher Reeve was a great friend of the Unitarian Universalist Church. The more I read of him, it becomes clear to me that he was a super man. A kind, quiet, diginified and gentle man who clearly had great strength. A church with people like that is certainly worth joining.

It's an 11 dimension universe folks!

2007-08-14T18:26:00.000+01:00

But guess what? There's strings attached....

Greatest Wonders

2007-08-03T22:55:00.000+01:00

"Kizzy, Behold! The only thing greater than yourself!" cried Kunta Kinte, in the life story called "Roots". For a very long time before that 1970's TV series, a much younger Mark Willis had stared into the night sky and wondered what was out there.

Most people are humbled by the awesome majesty of the cosmos. Our tiny pale blue planet circling it's local star, called simply, the Sun, seems so fragile, like our own lives. The distance between our existence as living beings and being departed, seems so hair's breadth sometimes, when you reflect upon it. Our planet, being hurled around the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour, while we turn at 1,000 miles per hour, seems unreal. And yet, we live our lives, most of us, as though we are quite impervious to any dangers out there.

Kunte Kinte must have reflected upon what was in the heavens above him and his lovely daughter, like so many people before him and since. For centuries, people with inquiring minds, have always wondered that when they look at almost any star in the sky, it could well be the host sun to another planet like our Earth and on that planet too, there'll be people driving around in their cars, being late for work, getting married, getting sacked, dying and being born.

We cannot actually see stars that are the same size as our Sun, because our Sun, is a main sequence star. Our Sun becomes quite a lot dimmer, even just outside our own solar system, a few billion miles distant. Our Sun is a bit of a stellar nobody really. Not too small, not too big, but just right. I've learned that there are stars that are like ours, classed as a G2V star on the astronomer's stellar league table called the "Hertzsprung-Russell diagram".

It is fascinating to speculate on the possibility of life on other planets. What do we know so far? Well, from life in our universe, we know that in one solar system, 8 out of 9 planets, (I still count Pluto), seem unlikely to have life on them like us. One planet does have intelligent, (well the potential of intelligence at any rate), life on it. To look for life like us, it seems reasonable to look for another G2V star, with say, 8 or 9 planets around them. Find one planet that is, like Goldilocks and the three bear's porridge, not too hot, not too cold, but... just right.

Further, the same size, or nearly, as Earth and also, in order to have the porridge just right, be about 149 million kilometres or 93 million miles distant from it's Sun, which of course will have two different names. The name we've given it and also the name that the locals have given it.

With only one known planet bearing life, we simply have no way of being able to determine very intelligently, just how likely life is on other planets. It could be that there are 20, 100 or even 1,000 solar systems without any life in them at all. Equally, unlike our solar neighbourhood, there could be 5 out 8 planets inhabited with alien life.

There are stars about 11 light years away that are very like our own sun. Superimposing our own solar system knowledge over that 11 light years distant one, it might seem reasonable to assume that we could have another "Earth" quite nearby. If so, they may be able to, if they've developed technology like ours, be able to hear our radio and see our television, although with an 11 year delay. Programmes being broadcast today in 2007, therefore won't be picked up by them until 2018.

With only that one template of the only solar system we have, our own, to go on, it is very difficult to make anything but a best "educated" guess.

So from the dramatic proclaimation of Kunte Kinte, we end with Patrick Moore saying "Frankly, we just don't know!"

2007-07-10T09:05:00.000+01:00

Schools to teach feelings

About flippin' time, too!

For too long, boys have been victim to this feelings trap. To put it another way, boys aren't supposed to have feelings to discuss. Even if they experience feelings they can't handle alone, even in 2007, it's still not "masculine" to discuss or share their feelings. Let alone 1961 to 1965 when I was of secondary school age!

Many boys are born, who are sensitive, caring and gentle. You can't expect to automatically become a competitive, hunter gatherer, just because because people say you must be, just because you're a male!

I've seen so many men, who've bought into this thinking, and as a result, they experience severe emotional problems and even poor mental health. You should always be who you are and be who you like being.

Remember these people who say you shouldn't, you should be more "manly" (their version of manliness); will they appreicate you being in pain all your life?
They won't even know, they won't even care and they certainly won't like you any better anyway. And you wouldn't want someone like that who doesn't like who you are, as a friend, why the hell should you?

This new education is brilliant and hopefully will save young men from suffering the way I did.

Took me a while, but I am getting there!

A momentous week!

2007-06-30T14:35:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know what's on everyone's lips right now. Mark is finally on the Internet at home!

It's so handy being able to look up your calendar, the work one and your personal one. The paper ones become that bit less central. The joy of being able to chat to friends on the other side of the planet. I e-mailed a very dear friend in the United States. It feels so different somehow. I was cooking a veggie burger while I was chatting too. That is a peculiar experience.

Usually, it's work, or a library that I use to surf. I connected it myself too.

Oh yes, we have a new Prime Minsiter too. That happened this week too....

Played Tennis and then a radio show

2007-05-06T13:15:00.000+01:00

I played tennis today. We all did pretty well. Had a meal around my son's and then later Mark's Lazy Sunday on HRC (Hospital Radio Chelmsford) - What a full life I lead!

Epilepsy

2007-05-01T16:10:00.000+01:00

I first encountered epilespy when I was 17, in 1967. I was walking in the town on the way home from work. Now, here's the funny thing, you don't remember you were walking on your way home.... until .... you come round! Losing conciousness is indeed a wierd experience!

Facts about epilepsy:
No-one really knows what causes it (in cases like mine where the cause wasn't physical)
Many great historical figures had epilepsy (epilepsy didn't stop Julius Caesar from conquering Britain!)
We know so little about it
The best fact: 70% of people diagnosed with epilespy go on to become seizure-free, once their specialists have got to grips with the individual's particular condition!

I haven't had a fit since June 4th 1971 - (only had one then, because during some exploratory procedure, it was necessary to take me off my prescription)
I can drive a car!
I lead a perfectly normal life.

The only drawback is that the drugs make me tired, just a little more quickly than I would otherwise be.

The solution? To immerse yourself in enriching hobbies and interests that challenge you!
Challenging your brain and your intellect .... I am told, is also a good anti-Alzheimer's strategy!

Singing

2007-04-23T13:22:00.000+01:00

There are many things said about singing. One of the most impressive claims is that, while it does not cure, it seems it opens up patients with Alzheimer's. One patient, who was previously unable to communicate with his wife, before singing, can now communicate better. If this is proven, this is wonderful news!

I've been singing in a choir since 1994, one of the first things I did when I joined this university, was to join the choir. I have no doubt of the therapeutic value of singing, even though I can't point to any scientific proof. I have epilepsy. I am sure that the trick with epilepsy is to make sure you don't have seizures. The longer you can do that, perhaps the pathways, that were damaged, become clearer and work more normally?

Part of my therapy is drugs. Perhaps without knowing it, another part is singing?

Drawing Florence

2007-04-23T13:11:00.000+01:00

This is a sketch of Florence that I did, while I was in Cromer, Norfolk, of course!