A Spring In My Mind
Spring returned today : sunshine, 16 degrees and boules resumed, which means I can emerge from my last two weeks' hibernation. However, one of the things I started during that hibernation will continue : reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.
I've read only a third so far but the book has already shocked me and given me one important new insight and that is more than I expect of most books. The shock was the assertion, which I take to be true, that the so-called Mind Gym has been adopted by hundreds of UK schools. The insight was to do with placebos.
Adoption of Mind Gym, which is essentially a load of pseudo-scientific nonsense (the target of the book), suggests that the UK educational authorities are simply not up to their job. A cynic might respond: what's new? But I find the scale of incompetence this suggests appalling; it certainly shocked me. I gave up teaching with some reluctance. Being able to show a kid that he could do something he/she thought he/she could never do gave me the biggest of kicks. For me it was a real emotional high (better than sex?). But I felt my own mind was going to rot and needed to do something about that. I had, along the way, formulated the idea that what kids should essentially be taught (academically) was straight and crooked thinking (logic) and sources of information; everything else was perhaps important but peripheral. Given those two tools and the motivation to learn something, I thought and still think kids can potentially learn anything. I never bought into the idea that kids are good at either science or arts; that was a function of the educational system that forced the dichotomy. I remembered at an earlier time a Latin teacher explaining that learning Latin was a good idea because it taught you logical thinking. And I remembered thinking at the same time that if learning logical thinking was a good idea (I thought it was and still do) then why not teach it directly rather than through Latin? (Logic wasn't in the syllabus.)
I also remember my daughter, when she had written a thesis for her degree, refusing my offer to read it through for her on the grounds that I would criticise her grammar, which she knew was weak. It was weak because it wasn't taught in schools in her time. I had had enough discussion with teachers at her secondary school to know that not only was grammar not taught, it couldn't be; the teachers themselves hadn't been taught it and so had nothing to pass on.
These are criticisms of the UK school system but actually teaching hokum as gospel is on another level. Who on earth agreed to this? And, for Heaven's sake, what were their credentials for doing so? Not teaching logic is one thing; actually teaching the opposite is quite another.
On to placebos. I'm familiar with the general idea as are, I am sure, most people. What I had not realised was the power and intricacy of the placebo effect, which the book describes well. It does so as part of an aggressive deconstruction (even destruction) of homeopathy but, incidentally, points to the curative power the placebo effect has. The crux is essentially mind over matter and seems to me to have enormous implications which, unfortunately, the book does not explore. It is not the purpose of the book, I suppose.
Overall, the book illustrates well how the public is being manipulated in the medical arena. I'm sure I won't be alone in hating feeling manipulated in any way and, whilst many of the manipulations discussed are fairly obvious, some are not and have added importantly to my critical toolbox.
jeudi 16 février 2012
lundi 13 février 2012
Psychiatry And Winter Ruminations
Cold Thinking
The cold spell shows no sign of easing in the near future ; it is apparently the coldest continuous spell since 1985 so at least we shouldn't have to put up with it too often. Below is a picture of the fountain in the old railway station square, which gives an idea of what is happening.
Despite the weather I decided to venture out from the cocoon my house has become to the English Library in Beaumont, to hear a talk by one of the members on a book he has written and which has just been published. Albert Rothenburg is a professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and his book, called Madness And Glory, is a novel based around the actions of man named Pinel during the French revolution. Albert claims Pinel was the first ever psychiatrist. At the time, those deemed insane for whatever behavioural, social or political reason were normally locked up, chained and left to rot, perhaps occasionally being brought out for public entertainment. Pinel apparently changed all that (or started the change). I learned some useful nuggets both about psychiatry and the French revolution and so was pleased that I went.
After the talk I asked Albert for a definition of sanity. He replied that a psychiatrist would never use the word. There was an official definition but it was a legal one. So what happens when a court seeks expert advice as to whether a defendant could be considered insane? Albert said it was a matter of the defendant's grasp of reality. And the definition of reality....? Albert dodged again by saying that definition was legal too. I wanted to pursue the point further but wanted also to let others ask their questions so I let the matter drop for the time being. I do think concept definition must be a problem in psychiatry, particularly where there are no clinical indicators, but have little idea how psychiatrists go about resolving it.
On the drive to Beaumont I started to ruminate on what I think of as “triggers” in nature; conditions that make things happen or start to happen. I might not have gone to the talk had the day been warm and sunny; as it was, the weather provided an incentive, a trigger, to escape from the house.
But what was exercising my mind was the type and reason for such triggers in nature. Temperature is obviously one trigger. The warm autumn started my bulbs growing and the recent cold has totally stopped them. Hibernating animals, for instance, also respond to temperature to determine when they will arouse from hibernation and temperature rather than time seems to govern bird migrations. Water can be another trigger; most deserts have a form of spring season that occurs after rainfall and there are sticks of apparently dead wood that you can buy in garden centres that sprout when put in water. Animals too can use water as a trigger, as with fish eggs in deserts. Time, in some sense, is yet another, although I can think of few examples. Animals have a normal gestation period (an example of elapsed time) and some also have a more or less fixed spawning time (point in time). Crabs and turtles come ashore on some tropical islands to spawn, mate or whatever at known times of the year. Then there is fire as a a trigger for some seeds, global catastrophe for spurts in variety of species and, finally, the only other trigger I could think of, light also can play the same rôle. For bats, for instance, and some flowers open only when the sun is on them, closing if a passing cloud throws a shadow.
This is all probably elementary for a biologist but it caused me to wonder how these triggers came to evolve over what must gave been many millennia of widely varied climatic conditions. Only time as a trigger, and then only where the climate is even over a year, could have been constantly appropriate and yet time seems to play a minor role. And there are still some examples I find difficult to explain: the flowers that open only when the sun is on them, for example. The purpose of the flower is to attract insects and I know of no insect that buzzes around only when the sun is on it. Solar panels for insects haven't evolved yet, as far as I know. That could be my lack of biological knowledge or it could be an error in evolution, evolution being a fairly hit or miss affair. A problem with trying to puzzle out this kind of thing is that I seldom know which plants or animals have become extinct, perhaps because conditions changed and a vital trigger became inappropriate. Ah well, it's strange what thoughts a winter afternoon and an idle mind can evoke. Maybe I should stop musing on subjects I don't know enough about.
The trouble is I got used to playing the role of intelligent idiot early in my IT career. People who knew a lot more about IT than I did at the time used me to think of possibilities that they could not or would not or start a new train of thought because their experience constrained their thinking. It's a role you can play for only a short time in any one sphere of activity because you gain experience and thus you too become similarly constrained.
Footnote
After proposing to take my idea of a filmed portrait of the village to the mayor and getting the whole village involved, friend Daniel has backed out altogether. He thinks the idea is too ambitious and doesn't want to pursue it. I think something new and ambitious is just what we both need. Anyway, I shall continue; it will at least make me learn to use my camcorder more effectively and I'll do what I can with the editing software I have.
The cold spell shows no sign of easing in the near future ; it is apparently the coldest continuous spell since 1985 so at least we shouldn't have to put up with it too often. Below is a picture of the fountain in the old railway station square, which gives an idea of what is happening.
Despite the weather I decided to venture out from the cocoon my house has become to the English Library in Beaumont, to hear a talk by one of the members on a book he has written and which has just been published. Albert Rothenburg is a professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and his book, called Madness And Glory, is a novel based around the actions of man named Pinel during the French revolution. Albert claims Pinel was the first ever psychiatrist. At the time, those deemed insane for whatever behavioural, social or political reason were normally locked up, chained and left to rot, perhaps occasionally being brought out for public entertainment. Pinel apparently changed all that (or started the change). I learned some useful nuggets both about psychiatry and the French revolution and so was pleased that I went.
After the talk I asked Albert for a definition of sanity. He replied that a psychiatrist would never use the word. There was an official definition but it was a legal one. So what happens when a court seeks expert advice as to whether a defendant could be considered insane? Albert said it was a matter of the defendant's grasp of reality. And the definition of reality....? Albert dodged again by saying that definition was legal too. I wanted to pursue the point further but wanted also to let others ask their questions so I let the matter drop for the time being. I do think concept definition must be a problem in psychiatry, particularly where there are no clinical indicators, but have little idea how psychiatrists go about resolving it.
On the drive to Beaumont I started to ruminate on what I think of as “triggers” in nature; conditions that make things happen or start to happen. I might not have gone to the talk had the day been warm and sunny; as it was, the weather provided an incentive, a trigger, to escape from the house.
But what was exercising my mind was the type and reason for such triggers in nature. Temperature is obviously one trigger. The warm autumn started my bulbs growing and the recent cold has totally stopped them. Hibernating animals, for instance, also respond to temperature to determine when they will arouse from hibernation and temperature rather than time seems to govern bird migrations. Water can be another trigger; most deserts have a form of spring season that occurs after rainfall and there are sticks of apparently dead wood that you can buy in garden centres that sprout when put in water. Animals too can use water as a trigger, as with fish eggs in deserts. Time, in some sense, is yet another, although I can think of few examples. Animals have a normal gestation period (an example of elapsed time) and some also have a more or less fixed spawning time (point in time). Crabs and turtles come ashore on some tropical islands to spawn, mate or whatever at known times of the year. Then there is fire as a a trigger for some seeds, global catastrophe for spurts in variety of species and, finally, the only other trigger I could think of, light also can play the same rôle. For bats, for instance, and some flowers open only when the sun is on them, closing if a passing cloud throws a shadow.
This is all probably elementary for a biologist but it caused me to wonder how these triggers came to evolve over what must gave been many millennia of widely varied climatic conditions. Only time as a trigger, and then only where the climate is even over a year, could have been constantly appropriate and yet time seems to play a minor role. And there are still some examples I find difficult to explain: the flowers that open only when the sun is on them, for example. The purpose of the flower is to attract insects and I know of no insect that buzzes around only when the sun is on it. Solar panels for insects haven't evolved yet, as far as I know. That could be my lack of biological knowledge or it could be an error in evolution, evolution being a fairly hit or miss affair. A problem with trying to puzzle out this kind of thing is that I seldom know which plants or animals have become extinct, perhaps because conditions changed and a vital trigger became inappropriate. Ah well, it's strange what thoughts a winter afternoon and an idle mind can evoke. Maybe I should stop musing on subjects I don't know enough about.
The trouble is I got used to playing the role of intelligent idiot early in my IT career. People who knew a lot more about IT than I did at the time used me to think of possibilities that they could not or would not or start a new train of thought because their experience constrained their thinking. It's a role you can play for only a short time in any one sphere of activity because you gain experience and thus you too become similarly constrained.
Footnote
After proposing to take my idea of a filmed portrait of the village to the mayor and getting the whole village involved, friend Daniel has backed out altogether. He thinks the idea is too ambitious and doesn't want to pursue it. I think something new and ambitious is just what we both need. Anyway, I shall continue; it will at least make me learn to use my camcorder more effectively and I'll do what I can with the editing software I have.
vendredi 3 février 2012
The Film And Politics
The Film
I've been putting down some first thoughts on the film, which I think should be called something like “Portrait Of A Village”, and had a chance to check them out today with Daniel. He invited me for lunch and I had already invited him, Mana and Steve to eat in the evening. We seemed to agree broadly about the approach and subject matter but....................
Daniel wants to go to the Mairie and not only get it cleared there, so that everybody is in the know as to what is going on, but also to extract some money for the film from village funds. I feel fine with the former point; we don't want to make enemies unknowingly and any help and cooperation on offer would be welcome. The latter point worries me a bit. Daniel says he would need extra tape cartridges for his ancient camcorder and Martine could do with some money. OK again. He went on to suggest we could charge 20 euros for the resultant disk to get the money back and there's the rub. He did say we could give a number of disks away but I'd like to see the film, if we ever get to produce it, on the Web. The 20 euros conflicts directly with my stated aim, which Daniel has agreed, to get publicity for the village. To maximise that, the film has to be freely available. Maybe I can slip it past Daniel and Martine that we put the film freely downloadable from the Web as well as charge 20 euros for the disk. Daniel may not see the conflict but I suspect Martine will.
So the story begins.........................
Politics
Inevitably we got to talking politics and Steve asked Daniel and Mana whom they thought would win the upcoming presidential election. Mana was uncertain, Daniel thought definitely that Hollande would win. Currently, Holland is 5-6 points ahead of Sarkozy in the polls but their combined share of the vote comes to only around 60%. Around 25% appear to be unaccounted for, Marie Le Penn has 17-18% and a left-wing consortium which includes the communists has about 7-8%. The consortium votes would appear to be destined eventually for Hollande but, according to Daniel, the votes for Le Penn won't necessarily go to Sarkozy. Daniel argues that Le Penn's appeal is essentially simplistic and Sarkozy's arguments are complex, so the simple-minded may eventually vote left. Whatever; the outcome is most surely in the balance right now.
We got onto Europe and Mana's hope was that a future Hollande-led France would say “No” to Europe's financiers and powers-that-be and find a new direction. Steve and I both pointed out that such a “No” would be a “No” to Europe more generally. Mana said that that was not necessarily so if the rest of Europe took the same line. And so we came again to the fundamental anomaly of France as a principal supporter of a unified Europe. If there is to be a European club of some sort, there have to be club rules. France is fine with this as long as the rules are French rules; if not, the French feel they should be free to ignore or breach them. (I often wish the UK government would take the same approach.) However, it makes the French positioning of the UK as the European disruptive bogeyman look more than somewhat suspect.
Weather
And the cold weather continues. It was minus 6 degrees during the day today; Heaven knows what the temperature will be overnight.
I've been putting down some first thoughts on the film, which I think should be called something like “Portrait Of A Village”, and had a chance to check them out today with Daniel. He invited me for lunch and I had already invited him, Mana and Steve to eat in the evening. We seemed to agree broadly about the approach and subject matter but....................
Daniel wants to go to the Mairie and not only get it cleared there, so that everybody is in the know as to what is going on, but also to extract some money for the film from village funds. I feel fine with the former point; we don't want to make enemies unknowingly and any help and cooperation on offer would be welcome. The latter point worries me a bit. Daniel says he would need extra tape cartridges for his ancient camcorder and Martine could do with some money. OK again. He went on to suggest we could charge 20 euros for the resultant disk to get the money back and there's the rub. He did say we could give a number of disks away but I'd like to see the film, if we ever get to produce it, on the Web. The 20 euros conflicts directly with my stated aim, which Daniel has agreed, to get publicity for the village. To maximise that, the film has to be freely available. Maybe I can slip it past Daniel and Martine that we put the film freely downloadable from the Web as well as charge 20 euros for the disk. Daniel may not see the conflict but I suspect Martine will.
So the story begins.........................
Politics
Inevitably we got to talking politics and Steve asked Daniel and Mana whom they thought would win the upcoming presidential election. Mana was uncertain, Daniel thought definitely that Hollande would win. Currently, Holland is 5-6 points ahead of Sarkozy in the polls but their combined share of the vote comes to only around 60%. Around 25% appear to be unaccounted for, Marie Le Penn has 17-18% and a left-wing consortium which includes the communists has about 7-8%. The consortium votes would appear to be destined eventually for Hollande but, according to Daniel, the votes for Le Penn won't necessarily go to Sarkozy. Daniel argues that Le Penn's appeal is essentially simplistic and Sarkozy's arguments are complex, so the simple-minded may eventually vote left. Whatever; the outcome is most surely in the balance right now.
We got onto Europe and Mana's hope was that a future Hollande-led France would say “No” to Europe's financiers and powers-that-be and find a new direction. Steve and I both pointed out that such a “No” would be a “No” to Europe more generally. Mana said that that was not necessarily so if the rest of Europe took the same line. And so we came again to the fundamental anomaly of France as a principal supporter of a unified Europe. If there is to be a European club of some sort, there have to be club rules. France is fine with this as long as the rules are French rules; if not, the French feel they should be free to ignore or breach them. (I often wish the UK government would take the same approach.) However, it makes the French positioning of the UK as the European disruptive bogeyman look more than somewhat suspect.
Weather
And the cold weather continues. It was minus 6 degrees during the day today; Heaven knows what the temperature will be overnight.
jeudi 2 février 2012
Lunch, La Tribune And The Weather
Old Fogies' Lunch
We duly had the lunch that I had been looking forward to all week, for everyone over 65 in the village, paid for out of village funds. It didn't disappoint. The menu this year was:
Aperitifs
Salad with shrimps and crayfish tails
Fillets of perch in a butter sauce
Trou Provencal (peach sorbet bathed in marc)
Duck breast with mushrooms
Cheese
Baked Alaska flambé
Coffee
The meal was served by the Mayor and village councillors, with red and rose wine throughout and sparkling Clairette de Die with the dessert. I didn't think the cooking this year was quite up to the high standard of last year but it was again a really enjoyable occasion.
One of the gratifying (non-gastronomic) points for we old fogies was the mayor's short introductory speech. This year, as last, he said that the village was as it was was because of contributions to it that we had all made in the past and that was why the village was proud to offer us the lunch.
Two points of interest came out of conversations during the lunch. I mentioned to Daniel that, of the ~150 people there, I probably new only about half-a-dozen apart from the twenty on my table, expecting him to point out others that he knew. But he didn't know any more people than I did, which surprised me.
The other point was that I had taken my new camcorder with me to take some shots of the event and the thought came to me that it would be possible to make a short film of life in the village. Daniel already has footage of the Christmas carol singing; we could take footage of, for instance, the Feu De La St Jean, the Painters in the Streets and the Fête Votive later on, the village team at the regional boules tournament, etc and gradually piece together a snapshot of village activities over a year. I mentioned this thought to Daniel and the Mayor and both seemed supportive; so, we shall see..........The idea is actually beginning to excite me the more I consider the possibilities.
Carol Singing
Our carol singing got a write-up in the local paper, La Tribune. I'm not sure who did the write-up as Guy Tissier, the normal scribe for village events for La Tribune wasn't around at the time. I'm slihjtly puzzled by what I perceive to be a couple of grammatical errors in the text, which I've pointed out below; I'll get these checked. Since the article is short and provides a chance to get some French into my blog I include the write-up below. The article is headed “Chants de Noël en Trois Langues”.
« Sur l'initative d'une poignée de Mollanais auquel se sont greffes des amis du canton, une chorale éphémère est née puisqu'elle n'aura durée que le temps nécessaire a cette journée,
En effet, ces chanteurs ont propose 8 chants de Noël anglais, français et allemand au cours de deux représentations : la première au foyer logement St Louis et la seconde au bar du pont.
Les spectateurs n'en ont pas cru leurs oreilles telle la surprise était de taille ! En effet ce petit concert était de qualité : on était très loin de la chansonnette que l'on chante dans sa salle de bain !
Une soirée très agréable qui s'est terminée devant un buffet de friandises. «
I think “auquel” in the first line should be “à laquelle”; I also think that “allemand” in the second paragraph should have an “s” on it. As I said, I'll check these points out.
(PS Armelle has kindly confirmed that these are indeed errors, although you could argue that since we sang only one carol in German “allemand” needn't have an “s”. The point hadn't occurred to me and could be a very subtle way of conveying that meaning but I doubt it was intended.)
From The Sublime To The Gor Blimey
Only ten days ago I was happily recording games of boules in 17 degrees of sunshine. Last Tuesday morning it started snowing and continued for most of the day. The snowing has stopped but the snow remains. It has been minus 2 degrees today and was minus 16 overnight,
In these conditions there is a sense of being trapped in the village, under siege by the weather. All the principal roads out of the village describe successions of hairpin bends as they climb, bends that can be liberally covered with black ice and which have a steep drop on one side. They are not an inviting prospect to drive on. Already one villager, Jacques Thibault, has slid off the road, although his upturned car was fortunately arrested before it could plunge into the valley below. Despite this I did drive into Vaison today as I needed a new battery for my watch. But I drove very, very slowly.
We duly had the lunch that I had been looking forward to all week, for everyone over 65 in the village, paid for out of village funds. It didn't disappoint. The menu this year was:
Aperitifs
Salad with shrimps and crayfish tails
Fillets of perch in a butter sauce
Trou Provencal (peach sorbet bathed in marc)
Duck breast with mushrooms
Cheese
Baked Alaska flambé
Coffee
The meal was served by the Mayor and village councillors, with red and rose wine throughout and sparkling Clairette de Die with the dessert. I didn't think the cooking this year was quite up to the high standard of last year but it was again a really enjoyable occasion.
One of the gratifying (non-gastronomic) points for we old fogies was the mayor's short introductory speech. This year, as last, he said that the village was as it was was because of contributions to it that we had all made in the past and that was why the village was proud to offer us the lunch.
Two points of interest came out of conversations during the lunch. I mentioned to Daniel that, of the ~150 people there, I probably new only about half-a-dozen apart from the twenty on my table, expecting him to point out others that he knew. But he didn't know any more people than I did, which surprised me.
The other point was that I had taken my new camcorder with me to take some shots of the event and the thought came to me that it would be possible to make a short film of life in the village. Daniel already has footage of the Christmas carol singing; we could take footage of, for instance, the Feu De La St Jean, the Painters in the Streets and the Fête Votive later on, the village team at the regional boules tournament, etc and gradually piece together a snapshot of village activities over a year. I mentioned this thought to Daniel and the Mayor and both seemed supportive; so, we shall see..........The idea is actually beginning to excite me the more I consider the possibilities.
Carol Singing
Our carol singing got a write-up in the local paper, La Tribune. I'm not sure who did the write-up as Guy Tissier, the normal scribe for village events for La Tribune wasn't around at the time. I'm slihjtly puzzled by what I perceive to be a couple of grammatical errors in the text, which I've pointed out below; I'll get these checked. Since the article is short and provides a chance to get some French into my blog I include the write-up below. The article is headed “Chants de Noël en Trois Langues”.
« Sur l'initative d'une poignée de Mollanais auquel se sont greffes des amis du canton, une chorale éphémère est née puisqu'elle n'aura durée que le temps nécessaire a cette journée,
En effet, ces chanteurs ont propose 8 chants de Noël anglais, français et allemand au cours de deux représentations : la première au foyer logement St Louis et la seconde au bar du pont.
Les spectateurs n'en ont pas cru leurs oreilles telle la surprise était de taille ! En effet ce petit concert était de qualité : on était très loin de la chansonnette que l'on chante dans sa salle de bain !
Une soirée très agréable qui s'est terminée devant un buffet de friandises. «
I think “auquel” in the first line should be “à laquelle”; I also think that “allemand” in the second paragraph should have an “s” on it. As I said, I'll check these points out.
(PS Armelle has kindly confirmed that these are indeed errors, although you could argue that since we sang only one carol in German “allemand” needn't have an “s”. The point hadn't occurred to me and could be a very subtle way of conveying that meaning but I doubt it was intended.)
From The Sublime To The Gor Blimey
Only ten days ago I was happily recording games of boules in 17 degrees of sunshine. Last Tuesday morning it started snowing and continued for most of the day. The snowing has stopped but the snow remains. It has been minus 2 degrees today and was minus 16 overnight,
In these conditions there is a sense of being trapped in the village, under siege by the weather. All the principal roads out of the village describe successions of hairpin bends as they climb, bends that can be liberally covered with black ice and which have a steep drop on one side. They are not an inviting prospect to drive on. Already one villager, Jacques Thibault, has slid off the road, although his upturned car was fortunately arrested before it could plunge into the valley below. Despite this I did drive into Vaison today as I needed a new battery for my watch. But I drove very, very slowly.
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