BlindFish Ideas

Celebrating the Dead **An updated, edited re-post from last year**    If you have never heard of this festival before you can read  Wikipedia summary or watch this excellent   BBC documentary  on this fascinating festival.   I tried to read as much as I could about this Mexican tradition and the wider catholic tradition of All Saints and All Souls day. In all my research I was stuck by one over arching idea. Death is not a taboo subject that is feared in Mexico. Death is celebrated as an essential, positive and even humorous part of existence. The festivals seems to have two sides, the remembering of dead relatives (with associated belief of the souls returning to earth) and the celebration of death. Both sides intrigue me but I am hesitant about the belief in souls returning. I am not claiming it is impossible (I think it may be impossible but I'm not certain) I am claiming that the story  when  King...

BBC3 takes a frank look at how a sexual health clinic operates in Manchester. Following a n umber of young people as they go through the process of testing, waiting, getting results and then if needed getting treated. Mixing true life stories and high quality sexual health advice this show has the power to do some good.  Revealing some shocking attitudes in the youth. Especially in regards to condom use. By both males and females. Plus the voice over guy has some great one liners. You can see the shows official page here  and if you live outside the UK and want to watch this show have a quick look at TunnelBear  .  "I love dripping willies,   because    then you know what they have" For me the best part of the programme is seeing how the staff are professional and friendly. I really hope and believe that this programme will help increase the number of people going as now they have an idea what will happen. The mystery of sexu...

Like many in West I have watched the Arab Spring with fascination, sometime horror and hope. Praying that the turmoil will be proven to have benefited the people. Since I read that Syria has been laying landmines against its own fleeing civilians I have feared that Syria was going to much bloodier then Egypt or even Libya. Today sitting in a Vietnamese Cafe in Hoi An not far from the site of the DMZ I read this article. Outrage grows over Syria massacre I read of the European countries, Arab countries and USA coming together to protest and call for an end to the violence. I imagine that the calls for military intervention will grow. From wisphers at the fringe into the central halls of power. The two big players who stand apart are China and Russia. Sitting in Vietnam that seems an earily similiar political divide. I can not begin to suggest what should happen next. I feel the UK (and probaly other friends of Syria countries) is tired with war abroad. Tired to see men dying in othe...

The BBC is currently running a season on sex on its BBC 3 channel and the first show was a programme called web sex. You can watch it on iPlayer here  http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b019gc2h/   (If you live outside of the UK  http://www.tunnelbear.com/  can get you around the country restrictions).  The shows was trying to explore how young people are using the internet and mobile phones for their own sex lives. Now the programme starts with two interviews with a guy and a girl who claim that the interweb has had a very positive impact on their sex lives. The guy has a pretty rotten attitude towards women (in my opinion) with him using social networks to maximise the number of women he can have sex with. The 2nd interview talks to a girl who has found social networks as a way to build her personal confidence and improve her self esteem.  The show moves on to the detail other ways social networks, mobile apps and websites are used by young peop...

Just read this article at Practical Fishkeeping Fish evolve quicker then you think . It made me think about what is a good definition of evolution? and how does it differ from adaptation? does it matter?  For many Darwinist and creationist they terms matters a lot and they go to great lengths to specify  exactly  what they support (or don't). I can imagine that individuals on both side would argue at great length about this particular bit of research. Claiming it is either proof or a mini distraction.   Personally this research chiefly makes me question how much things can change in the animal world under what kind of timescale. I can think of at least two examples where speedy adaptation would be a great help to a species survival (not sure how much adaptation would happen before it becomes a new species but that is a secondary point.) i am thinking about polar bears and coral reefs. Both are under ...

Celebrating the Dead For something different with the students I decided to do a lecture exploring the Mexican day of the dead. The main reason for this was to practice the critical evaluation process for religious events. I choose Dia de Los Muertos as I guessed (rightly) that they did not have a pre-existent understanding of the religious, cultural and theological elements of the celebration.  Great summary of the festival can be read here .  In my own research for the lecture I tried to read as much as I could about the Mexican tradition and the wider catholic tradition of All Saints and All Souls day. In all my research I was stuck by one over arching idea. Death is not a taboo subject that is feared in Mexico. Death is celebrated as an essential, positive and even humorous part of existence. The festivals seems to have two sides, the remembering of dead relatives (with associated belief of the souls returning ...

Looks like an interesting series, i read in the lonely planet magazine that they will be looking at sea gypsies from Indonesia. People who spend almost all their life at sea! they get sick coming back to land