Author: Paul Handover

2001: A Space Odyssey

Even today, still an amazing film

Jean and I watched this film the other evening.  I have seen it a number of times but Jean just once before when it first was released in 1968!  Yes, over 40 years ago!

What struck me watching it today was how beautifully slow the film was.  I mean in the sense of camera and scene changes.  I had forgotten just how beautiful the film was from a technical perspective.  It held the eye and brain in a way that seemed so foreign to the way that films have been made in the last so many years.

WikiPedia has a very good summary of the film.

And there are more summaries on the INDB website, here’s an example:

“2001” is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past, someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith on Earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well). Evolution then enabled humankind to reach the moon’s surface, where yet another monolith is found, one that signals the monolith placers that humankind has evolved that far. Now a race begins between computers (HAL) and human (Bowman) to reach the monolith placers. The winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be.

The sign!

What is just as interesting is remembering the feelings that I had when I first saw the film, probably in 1968 or 1969, when I was living out in Australia, aged mid-twenties!

I was incredibly fascinated by the US expeditions out to the moon with the actual landing in July 1969.  Indeed, I rented a TV and took a complete week’s holiday from work just to watch every minute of this historical event.

So the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, seemed to capture, for me anyway, the feelings and mood of a brave new world reaching out beyond Planet Earth.  The year 2001 felt like aeons away.  It was obvious that when we eventually got to the 21st century, mankind would be unbelievably advanced in many exciting and positive ways.

Ah, the dreams of the naive young!

Now here we are heading towards the year 2011 and the world, I mean mankind, seems to be going where?  Here’s Jon Lavin’s rather sombre view:

Have been musing about the part failure of the Russian grain harvest and the resultant speculation, that has forced the grain price up astronomically, the impact on bread/food/beer etc., evidence of the same mentality that kicked the banks/investments recession off.

Also, the fact that Lloyds TSB are 43% owned by the British people and are charging interest on non-approved loans of 165% and have a bonus fund of half billion pounds that certainly they have not asked my permission about.

This continuing lack of integrity, in the face of food shortages, untold hardship for millions of people, just goes to show that until an absolute calamity strikes to stop the whole of mankind in our tracks, it’s business as usual for the financially-led people and get-rich-on-the-back-of-anything-and-anybody crowd.

Are we still at consciousness level 204 or have we crossed back below the threshold, back below integrity 200, where falsehood rules?

The answer is to retain faith in the future, faith in the power of love and compassion, and faith in the fact that being the best that we can be today, now, in the present, just as dogs are so wonderful at doing, will bring us the better tomorrows we all dreamed about in 1968.  Here’s a reminder:

By Paul Handover

P.S. Serendipity at work.  Saw this from the BBC less than 5 minutes after completing this Post!

Not always as it seems

A dog retrieves another dog hit on a busy Chilean highway.

This video has been widely circulated to many television stations around the world.  Some commentators say that the rescued dog lived.

Most who watch it think that the rescuer is risking its own life to save or retrieve the wounded dog.

Most who watch it also think that it is an amazing example of the love of a dog for another dog.

But the truth is probably less romantic.  Feral dogs do eat their brethren when the opportunity arises.  Having watched feral dogs in Mexico, it beggars belief as to the lengths that they will go to in order to survive.

Most likely this was the poor dog’s next meal being dragged off the highway.

By Paul Handover

Tough day? Try this!

It will take at least four months to rescue 33 miners trapped underground in Chile, the head of the rescue operation has said.

From the BBC.

Ouch, ouch and ouch!

So if you are having a bad day, stop and think about these 33 souls buried some 4.5 miles (7km) inside a Chilean mine some 2,300 feet (700m) down .

The announcement that they were still alive was made on Sunday by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.

Surrounded by relatives of the miners who have gathered outside the mine, he held up a note from the miners saying: “All 33 of us are fine in the shelter.”

“It will take months to get them out,” Mr Pinera said. “They’ll come out thin and dirty, but whole and strong.”

Amen to that!

Todd Russell and Brant Webb endured 14 days in a Tasmanian mine in 2006.  This is what Todd told the BBC World Service:

Todd Russell, an Australian miner who was trapped 3,000ft underground in Tasmania after an earthquake in 2006, said he and a second miner who survived the collapse relied on each other for support.

“It’s amazing what your body can do,” he told the BBC World Service. “We survived on hope and courage, and each other, [and] we were lucky enough to have a bit of underground mine water.”

“They’re lucky that they’ve got 33 guys there with them that they can rely on each other,” Mr Russell said.

Here’s some footage of their rescue:

Let’s all pray that these 33 Chilean miners end up arm-in-arm back on the surface as Todd and Brant did.

Brant Webb and Todd Russell

By Paul Handover

Battle of Britain, postscript

Living it day-by-day, 70 years ago.

Just a quick follow-on from the Post yesterday to say that the BBC have published an excellent graphic that allows one to review the events of the Battle of Britain day-by-day.

The link is here – well worth looking at.  If only because it shows that the week of the 23rd August 1940 was one of the more bloody weeks in the whole battle.  From that BBC web page:

The defence of Britain by RAF Fighter Command against extensive air raids by the German Luftwaffe in 1940 ensured Britain’s survival and blocked the possibility of invasion. Roll over the graphic to see the daily toll inflicted on men and machine in the Battle of Britain and read James Holland’s commentary on why Germany lost.

Very sombering.

By Paul Handover

Battle of Britain, memories

Seventy years on – many still remember.

Many of the English readers of Learning from Dogs will comfortably skip this Post as already much of the news has been reporting the fact that we are 70 years after the Battle of Britain in 1940.

But for those that are from other places, where the BoB is not in the psyche of their national bloodstream, these links may be of interest.

The BBC has been doing well in presenting material.

Here’s a good piece setting the scene:

While memories of the Battle of Britain remain fresh in the minds of The Few who flew, and the staff who supported them, veterans fear its significance could soon be forgotten by others.

A Messerschmitt ME-110 bomber is shot down by a Hurricane The Luftwaffe lost 1,733 aircraft and the RAF 915 in the Battle of Britain

Seventy years ago the RAF was locked in a life and death struggle with the Luftwaffe in the skies over England.

The three weeks between mid-August and early September in 1940 were decisive for the Battle of Britain.

The bravery of the RAF pilots was captured in Winston Churchill’s speech on 20 August when he said “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”.

Those left of The Few, as those pilots became known, are now in their 90s. Some of them fear they will soon not be around to remind people of the events that summer.

And if you want a flavour of what it was like to fly a Spitfire, then click here – excellent piece from Evan Davis of the BBC.

Seventy years on from the Battle of Britain, can the current generation comprehend what it is like to fly a Spitfire?

To find out, BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter Evan Davis took a flight with The Aircraft Restoration Company’s chief engineer and test pilot John Romain.

See more on the Today website.

Well done, lads. And thank you!

And a thank-you to my Uncle who, despite being rather ill, is still alive.  He was in the RAF and stationed at Biggin Hill during those demanding months in 1940.

By Paul Handover

Silent river runs deep!

And how so …

Wikipedia has been quick to register an account of something that I saw on the The Daily Telegraph website on the 1st August, 2010.

That is:

Researchers working in the Black Sea have found currents of water 350 times greater than the River Thames flowing along the sea bed, carving out channels much like a river on the land.

The undersea river, which is up to 115ft deep in places, even has rapids and waterfalls much like its terrestrial equivalents.

If found on land, scientists estimate it would be the world’s sixth largest river in terms of the amount of water flowing through it.

The researchers at the University of Leeds in England used a robotic submarine to carry out the investigations, as their news item explains.

These channels are the main transport pathway for sediments to the deep sea where they form sedimentary deposits. These deposits ultimately hold not only untapped reserves of gas and oil, they also house important secrets – from clues on past climate change to the ways in which mountains were formed.

Now the team, led by Dr Dan Parsons and Dr Jeff Peakall from the University of Leeds, has been able to study the detailed flow within these channels. Dr Parsons, said: “The channel complex and the density flow provide the ideal natural laboratory for investigating and detailing the structure of the flow field through the channel.

Fascinating!

Black Sea underground 'river'.

By Paul Handover

Feeling the sun from both sides

Another great lesson from dogs.

Humans understand, if we stop and think about it, that the most powerful force in the world is …. love!

As the American psychiatrist, David Viscott put it, “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.”

That’s one reason why dogs are so special to humans.  Dogs naturally and easily demonstrate unconditional love which is the highest form of love.  Even dogs that have been terribly treated in previous times, if given sufficient space and patience, will let their instinct to love come to the fore.

We have 13 dogs here at home and one of them, Loopy, is a great example of that.  Loopy was a Mexican rescue dog that took weeks and weeks before she would even allow one of us to touch her.  Food had to be left at a distance.  It took nearly a year before I could cuddle her and even longer before we trusted each other sufficient for me to put my face up against the side of her jaw.

Compare that to my German Shepherd, Pharaoh, whom I bought out from England in 2008, who has been loved by me since he was 6 weeks old.  He and I trust each other so deeply that we can get up to all sorts of fun things.

For example, a few years ago I was at the private airstrip where I used to keep my Piper Super Cub.  It’s a large grass airstrip and while I was pottering around the aircraft, Pharaoh was enjoying the wide open spaces and all the great smells.  The plan was to go off for a short flight on this wonderful spring day.

I walked back to the hangar to fetch something just prior to putting Pharaoh in the car for 30 minutes while I did my flight.

Pharaoh, as is his way, must have worked out that he was due to be shut in the car because as I came out of the hangar, Pharaoh was running towards the open cockpit and with one bound had jumped up into the rear passenger seat.  Miraculously, as he leapt up, he had placed his feet on the hard wooden edge to the fuselage and not punched a hole through the fabric!

I turned back and grabbed his body harness from the car, walked up to the Super Cub and proceeded to strap him tightly into the rear seat.

There was no way that it would have been safe to fly with him but I was interested to see how he would react to me taxiing around the grass airfield.  That’s when his trust towards me paid off.

I started the engine – no reaction at all.  Even to the powerful draft coming off the propeller through the open door.

Then I taxied slowly – again no reaction at all.  Unless one can count what looked suspiciously like a grin on a dog’s face!

Smiles from ear to ear!

Then I taxied quickly – same result.

Then I lined up at the start of the runway, closed the door, put on full power and let the aircraft accelerate until we just lifted clear of the grass.  Almost immediately I closed the throttle, we touched down and slowed to a walking pace and we returned to the hangar.  There was no question of us flying even though it looked like it would have been a non-event!

That was one of the many highlights of being Pharaoh’s friend, companion and protector – just as he is towards me.  That sort of closeness would have been impossible without huge trust from Pharaoh that I would never do anything to hurt him.

So the moral of this message?  That is, that when we love everyone and everything around us, it is reflected back to us – every moment of the day.  This allows us to live in a world of mutual trust and reap the rewards of closeness.

We feel the sun from both sides!

By Paul Handover

Statistical impressions!

Or as I would prefer to call it: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics!

From time to time, I have mentioned David Kauders of Kauders Portfolio Services

I was a client for many years but had to terminate that client relationship when residence in the USA became highly likely!  Very happy with the service and advice provided – extremely so!  (I have no relationship at any level with that firm now!).

Anyway, David publishes what he calls Contrary View from time to time.  His latest is reproduced with his permission.

No. 074 9th August 2010 A statistical impression

Over the last few weeks a number of graphs have appeared showing how the economy has apparently picked up to where it was before the credit crunch started. Such graphs invariably show a ‘U’ shaped curve demonstrating perfect recovery. This is the impression easily formed by a glance at such a graph, but it is the wrong assumption to make.

National Statistics reports Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as two different measures, both estimates showing a decline in GDP.  Here are the latest figures (estimated), taken from their website last week:

3rd Qtr 2008 Index 102.6

2nd Qtr 2010 Index  99.0

This GDP index shows a permanent loss of output.

Detailed figures are also available (Table 1.02 of the UK economic accounts) and on the same estimating basis, seasonally adjusted, report:

3rd Qtr 2008 GDP £340,780 million

2nd Qtr 2010 GDP £328,766 million

No matter how you look at these figures, there has been a permanent loss of output of just over 3.5% in this period.

This loss of output means less work, so debts are more difficult to service.  Why do the press produce graphs showing an apparently perfect recovery? The answer is that the graphs are taken from the National Statistics press release, for example on 23rd July 2010. The graph that is offered is a rate of change, not the level of output, and may simply have been copied without consideration of the impression formed.

The graph mentioned in the text. Ed.

http://www.contraryview.co.uk, published by Kauders Portfolio Management

WARNING: The firm can only be responsible for action taken on our advice given personally and specifically to be suitable for each individual. Statements on this site do not, on their own, constitute advice. Please note that UK regulatory requirements prevent us commenting on your existing investments or giving specific advice, unless you first sign one of our portfolio service agreements.

As I mentioned in a comment to a regular reader of Learning from Dogs:

To me, sufficiently old to have watched Governments for some decades now, the most striking thing about the present circumstances is the terrible decline in political integrity.

By Paul Handover

Green shoots

New thinking is our only solution

Came across an interesting organisation the other day, the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Do drop in to the web site and read what they are all about.

Common sense!

And then reflect about Easter Island.

It’s almost unimaginable that Planet Earth could go the same way.  Then again, anyone over the age of, say 60, would find where we are today, in terms of mankind’s long-term survival, equally unimaginable from how the world looked 40 years ago.

An early predictor of Planet Earth?

By Paul Handover

Working dogs!

No surprise really! Want to increase office productivity? Bring a dog to work!

Once again, this Blog is indebted to Naked Capitalism. There in the list of links was a story originally published in The

Different outcome!

Economist about some tests to see the effect of dogs in the office. Here’s the link to that Economist story.

http://www.economist.com/node/16789216?story_id=16789216.

Here’s a snippet:

THERE are plenty of studies which show that dogs act as social catalysts, helping their owners forge intimate, long-term relationships with other people. But does that apply in the workplace? Christopher Honts and his colleagues at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant were surprised to find that there was not much research on this question, and decided to put that right.

And the article concludes:

Mr Honts found that those who had had a dog to slobber and pounce on them ranked their team-mates more highly on measures of trust, team cohesion and intimacy than those who had not.

But do read the article in full because the conclusions are quite significant. Once again, the link is below:

http://www.economist.com/node/16789216?story_id=16789216.

Working effectively!

By Paul Handover