Roger Hyam

I have been wrestling for some time with how to handle taxonomic hierarchies when combining multiple classifications. This is partly motivated by a pressure to produce consensus hierarchies for navigation (a task that I think is probably not worth doing but which is beyond the scope of this post) and partly from a need to carry out inference over multiple classifications using OWL (something that I think is an important research topic if we are to overcome the ‘taxonomic impediment’).

Take the simplest scenario where we have classification C1 that contains family Z with two genera X and Y that contain a total of three species Xa, Xb and Yc. Now let there be another classification C2 that is identical but for the species Xb being moved to the genus Y as Yb. Read more…

I have just come to the end of “Mindfulness and Mental Health: Therapy, Theory and Science” by Chris Mace. My motivation for tackling such a book is to learn more about the link between mindfulness meditation and the mental health/psychotherapy field.

The book has been an interesting but challenging read. I have a scientific training and I am a regular Buddhist meditator but I have little experience of the world of psychoanalysis/psychotherapy and other talking therapies. I saw the book as a way to glimpse into that world. Having persevered to the bitter end I feel I do have a clearer understanding of the field but that it is not a positive one. Read more…