Politics · 10 February 2011 ·
Democracy
The great danger in any democratic republic is the danger that people think democracy is an automaton—that is to say, an engine that goes of itself without any effort and that like the battery in the advertisement, it just keeps going and going and going. But, in fact, democracy doesn’t keep going and going and going. It requires the fuel of active citizenship. — Benjamin Barber
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Psychology · 7 February 2011 ·
What's insane anyways?
It’s already hard to define insanity, but it’s even harder to define what’s sane. What is considered to be sane behaviour in one condition might be considered completely insane in another, but even this depends on the context. If you see an old man crouching crouching and quacking through his garden, it is likely to think that this man must have lost his mind. But when you know that this man was the famous ethologist Konrad Lorenz, trying to imprint a group of ducklings hidden in the grass, you would interpret the actions quite differently (Watzlawick et al., 1967, p. 20). Thus, sanity has a lot to do with the intentions we are trying to attribute to another’s mind: If we can follow them, they are sane, otherwise not.
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Personal · 17 September 2010 ·
Sunshine
I am running out of puns on suns, but here are some final pictures of the refurbished Sun bike. It looked shiny, and almost as-new, when I picked it up from the Commonwheel Project on June, 28th. Since then it has accumulated quite a bit of dirt, but I have dug up a few old photos from the tour to Tyndrum I did with a few friends of mine shortly after.
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Psychology Science · 9 July 2010 ·
Fear, Faces and the Amygdala
Brain imaging techniques such as CT, fMRI and EEG have revolutionised psychology. They are indeed exciting technologies that can offer insights into the way our brain works. And thus, scientific columns in newspapers regularly report that a behaviour or perception can be linked to a certain brain area. The idea is that if we know that if a brain area is active during a certain task that is otherwise not, it is involved in the process, or, if a brain area is defective and with it specific cognitive functions, then these are linked, too. But things are not as simple. (They never are) Just because an area is active during a cognitive process does not necessarily tell you what it actually does.
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Personal · 22 June 2010 ·
The Sun is, as a matter of fact, green
My Sun frame is back from the powder coaters in a lovely British Racing Green. I will get some white paint and do the appliances over the weekend. After that, the folks from Common Wheel are going to take over again and do their mastery, to bring this old frame back to glory.
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Personal Tech-stuff · 20 June 2010 ·
The Sun is rising...
Since my bike got stolen over Easter, I need a new one. I decided to go back to the Common Wheel Project, a Glasgow-based charity that employs people with mental illness to build and repair bikes. It’s a brilliant project and they do a very good job at building bikes, too. Plus, they are a bit geeky.
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Music · 4 June 2008 ·
Immergut Festival 2008
Every year, near the end of May, there is a small festival in a town called Neustrelitz, about 100km north of Berlin. Since 2001 independent fans from all over Germany have been coming to this place to celebrate the Immergut Festival, a festival dedicated to independent music.
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Music · 16 April 2008 ·
Portishead, Corn Exchange Edinburgh - 12/04/2008
I was fortunate enough to get hold of some tickets for Portishead’s gig at the Corn exchange.