Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | :
It's a commonplace on this blog that nuke power's a bad idea because of the security issues. And this incident shows how easy it would be for a hijack to take place and it also reminds us of the possible consequences of accidents -another factor; it's not only power station accidents or leaks that need to be factored in.
"Activists said the accident showed how difficult it was to guarantee the security of the cargo as it travelled along the nation's rail network.
'A train could hit something at any moment, and there's nothing that the SNCF nor the organisations which are meant to provide security can do about it,' the local Green leader, Serge Billon, said."
10 November 2004
grAttitude
Good to be reminded of theimportance of gratitude and this practical article encourages us to cultivate it. There is much truth in the observation that gratitude fundamentally changes our outlook and has a knock-on effect into the rest of our life.
The artilce states: "Gratitude can never be solicited. It can only be freely given." and this is true. The parent's demand of the child to 'say thank you' often produces a grumpy verbally correct reply which is evidently not heart-felt and so not really an expression of thanks.
However, I did wonder whether there is a contradiction, or at best a paradox in this article and, indeed in exhortations to give thanks: it runs the risk of reproducing that child's response; an un-heart-felt appearance of gratitude. So perhaps it is that the third suggestion in this is sometimes the most important: "consider what you possess rather than what you lack. ". The childs formalisitc response is still driven by the fundamental focus on what they do not have or have been denied. The way out of the impasse of being albe to freely give thanks to order is probably to cultivate the habit of focusing on what we have or what there is that is good and on noticing our appreciation for those things and giving them expression. This creates a habit of mind which begins to be more aware of what there is to appreciate.
I think too that doing so makes us less prey to the blandishments of marketting and less controlled by the consumerist agenda. Gratitude is an act of resistance in a society intent on stirring up discontent in order to monetarise it by transforming discontent into desire for objects or services that are portrayed as fulfilling in themselves.
Eucharist, ='thanksgiving, is the central act of Christian corporate worship. It is also potentially life changing individually as we seek to make it a central feature of our thought life and so to shift our attitudes and perspectives.
The only quibble I really have with this article is that it doesn't note how 'hallowed be your name' in the Lord's prayer implicitly carries a payload of thanksgiving. God's name is hallowed as we recall God's blessings in common and saving grace.
The artilce states: "Gratitude can never be solicited. It can only be freely given." and this is true. The parent's demand of the child to 'say thank you' often produces a grumpy verbally correct reply which is evidently not heart-felt and so not really an expression of thanks.
However, I did wonder whether there is a contradiction, or at best a paradox in this article and, indeed in exhortations to give thanks: it runs the risk of reproducing that child's response; an un-heart-felt appearance of gratitude. So perhaps it is that the third suggestion in this is sometimes the most important: "consider what you possess rather than what you lack. ". The childs formalisitc response is still driven by the fundamental focus on what they do not have or have been denied. The way out of the impasse of being albe to freely give thanks to order is probably to cultivate the habit of focusing on what we have or what there is that is good and on noticing our appreciation for those things and giving them expression. This creates a habit of mind which begins to be more aware of what there is to appreciate.
I think too that doing so makes us less prey to the blandishments of marketting and less controlled by the consumerist agenda. Gratitude is an act of resistance in a society intent on stirring up discontent in order to monetarise it by transforming discontent into desire for objects or services that are portrayed as fulfilling in themselves.
Eucharist, ='thanksgiving, is the central act of Christian corporate worship. It is also potentially life changing individually as we seek to make it a central feature of our thought life and so to shift our attitudes and perspectives.
The only quibble I really have with this article is that it doesn't note how 'hallowed be your name' in the Lord's prayer implicitly carries a payload of thanksgiving. God's name is hallowed as we recall God's blessings in common and saving grace.
Fat Accompli
| Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist Magazine Never thought of this angle before; higher average weight of passengers means higher carbon emissions. Fat is an environmental issue! Presumably this applies not just to aircraft but to all transport, to some degree. Just that it'd be more pronounced in aircraft.
Post Romantic?
maggi dawnMAggi, to avoid more hate-comments is having a comment holiday on her blog; so I'm reflecting here on this post.
In it she says: "we compared the Romantic setting to the postmodern,"
Been thinking about that a bit since we spoke briefly at GreenBelt. I realised I knew a bit more than I knew in that I have studied bits in foreign languages [French mainly]. I was putting this together with the observation that a lot of contemporary cultural artefacts [ie film, TV etc] seem to exalt in something rather like bits in Falubert's Madame Bovary where Flaubert is both using a romantic style and then -as if he can't quite take it seriously- puts in some 'back down to earth' details. Very resonant with what I keep noticing in contemporary culture of late. So While I think that it is true that there is a good deal of Romantic reprise in pomo, I wonder whether we are seeing something else happening; the reprise to the post-Romantic reaction?
Deserves some further thought, not least to gather some instantiations of this 'post-Romantic' come-down.
In it she says: "we compared the Romantic setting to the postmodern,"
Been thinking about that a bit since we spoke briefly at GreenBelt. I realised I knew a bit more than I knew in that I have studied bits in foreign languages [French mainly]. I was putting this together with the observation that a lot of contemporary cultural artefacts [ie film, TV etc] seem to exalt in something rather like bits in Falubert's Madame Bovary where Flaubert is both using a romantic style and then -as if he can't quite take it seriously- puts in some 'back down to earth' details. Very resonant with what I keep noticing in contemporary culture of late. So While I think that it is true that there is a good deal of Romantic reprise in pomo, I wonder whether we are seeing something else happening; the reprise to the post-Romantic reaction?
Deserves some further thought, not least to gather some instantiations of this 'post-Romantic' come-down.
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Just a place-marker for this idea of trying to steer between technophobic and free-for-all approaches to the possibilities of human technological enhancement.
09 November 2004
Clean Power Estimator
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Clean Power Estimator We could do with something like this in Britain....
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