Last winter, whilst exploring ideas for a possible research proposal, I wrote a prototype desktop web application to help people learn the Mindfulness of Breathing. It formed the basis of an assignment that you can read about in a previous blog post. The application, BreathFollower, is still running on Google…
HTML5 Geolocation Data Sucks
I have long been excited about HTML5 having access to a geolocation data. It should make it possible to build a whole range of applications for phones and other devices that are cross platform but make use of the users location. Unfortunately reality bites when you try and actually build…
Why I am Quitting the Bangor Mindfulness MSc
Edit: 2014-04-24 ~ Three Years Later ~ A friend just pointed out that this post is now coming second on a Google search for “Bangor Mindfulness”. I am somewhat amazed at this and slightly disturbed. It makes the post appear far more significant than it is. I considered taking it…
Bangor MSc
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Bangor Mindfulness 2nd Research Assignment
Find attached my fourth and final assignment for the Bangor Mindfulness course. This one is for the Research module. It is supposed to be a description of a research project that you intend to do later in the course in a form close to what would be suitable for submission…
Bangor Foundation Assignment 2 Results
Attached is my second assignment from the Bangor Mindfulness course which has now been marked. This is the document as submitted but with my name and copyright information added. Foundation_Assigment_2_blog_version.pdf. I got 64% which translates as a ‘B’. The marker made some kind comments about my “highly original ideas” but…
An areligious (not “A religious”) justification for meditation
If I start to talk about how the world is and therefore how we should best live there is a danger you will dismiss what I say as either playing with ideas that have no relation to real life (philosophy) or trying to impose some mumbo jumbo from a possible…
Extracting Data From the Rhododendron Monographs
This post deals with the semantics of extraction of data from the Rhododendron monographs. Another post will deal with the technicalities of the actual extraction. The image above shows a species description entry. It was chosen as being a small and simple example for illustrative purposes. I have marked up…
Biodiversity Informatics
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Links To All Curtis Botanical Magazine Illustrations in BHL
This is a sideline to my working on the Edinburgh Rhododendron monographs. The monographs often quote references to illustrations (icons) of species. This is useful as we know that these are illustrations that have been determined by the author of the account and are therefore “correctly” determined. What a shame…
Rhodo Monographs – Clean Up 1
The first two parts of the monograph to be looked at were published in Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – the house journal of the gardens until 1990. Cullen, J. (1980) Revision of Rhododendron. I. subgenus Rhododendron sections Rhododendron and Pogonanthum. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh….
EOL Rhododendron Monographs – Getting Started
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has a history of research into the genus Rhododendron stretching back over 100 years. The legacy of this work is a herbarium that contains many type specimens, an amazing living collection and a set of monographs that cover the whole genus. My contribution back in…
Digitisation of European Collections By Country
Following on from my previous post, European Natural History Collections – What’s Missing, it is simple to create a ranked list of countries and an estimate of the number of specimen records they have in GBIF. Countries with a score of zero don’t appear in the list. Country Specimens Spain…
European Natural History Collections – What’s Missing?
I am working on improving the metadata on European natural history collections as part of the Synthesys project. In an earlier post (Big Collections First) I did an analysis of the data in the Biodiversity Collections Index. I am now building a more detailed list of those large collections (the…
Being, Doing and Doing-Being
Cognitive dissonance is a wonderful thing. At least it is a wonderful thing once you know about it and can enjoy the way it wags your opions and actions around against your will. It is amazing what we can’t see because it is simply too unpleasant to contemplate. Of course…
Biodiversity Informatics
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Big Collections First
I’ve been slow to blog on my day job recently. Sometimes the dead ends are so embarrassing they are better not shared. One thing worth sharing is a report I did for Synthesys on improving the quality of metadata on Eurorpean biodiversity collections. It includes analysis of the data in…
Carbon Guilt and Frantic Justification
Generally we are pretty ‘right on’ as a family. We live in town in a two bed flat with all A-rated appliances – a condensing boiler etc. The building is old but we don’t have much external wall space and we have argon filled double glazing and draft proofing in…
My Problem With “Self Compassion”
Recently I’ve had a problem with the term “self compassion”. Every time I heard it my toes curled. I tried to explain this to friends and colleagues but it always met with the polite nodding and smiling that showed I wasn’t getting through. I would say that there is no…
Accreditation and Certification as a Dharma Teacher?
On reflection one of the reasons I enrolled in the Bangor Mindfulness course was that I felt a need for some kind of accreditation before I could teach. In fact, if I want to teach in the public sector, I probably do need such an accreditation. We are as well…
Contemplative Photography
A friend just introduced me to BuddhistGeek which looks like a wonderful source. I enjoyed listening to this podcast on The Practice of Contemplative Photography – which I would highly recommend. It certainly chimes with how I have felt about my own photography.
Bangor MSc
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Last Weekend @ Bangor
Mixed feelings at the ending of the last weekend of the Bangor Mindfulness course. It doesn’t look like I will continue next year for a whole host of reasons that’ll I will no doubt blog about once I have the assignments out of the way.
Colour / Mindfulness / Depression
I chew through a lot of popular science writing on the web. It is nice to have someone dig out the sparky bits of research that may not hold up in the long run but that are fun to think about and just might be the next big thing. I…
Bangor Mindfulness: Foundation Assignment 1
I just noticed that our Foundation Module first assignment has been marked and in the spirit of openness can now post my assignment here. I got a B- for it. The comments were that I could have said more on my experiences in turning towards a new way of practicing…
Bangor Mindfulness: Research Assignment 1
In an attempt to keep up with a policy of putting all of my appropriate ‘outputs’ on the blog here is my first assignment for the Research module of the Bangor Mindfulness MSc course. It has been marked and I think I got a B- or possibly an A-. There…
Random thoughts on Latest BBC ‘Happiness’ Programme
Just listened to Claudia Hammond’s BBC programme on happiness. I like Claudia’s reporting and this is a good programme but it still surfs closed to the edge of the Moral Maze debate I took exception to. We have all the usual suspects: Martin Siegelman and Wellington College plus a token…
Moral Maze: Happiness is 40 Minutes with a Straw Man
BBC Radio 4 have a programme called the Moral Maze in which a small team of people question expert witnesses and discuss the moral aspects of a particular topical issue. I don’t usually listen because it typically produces ‘more heat than light’ with people shouting things like ‘It is me…
2010 Ends Damp and Misty
After the snow was gone. These are some woods in Chilterns in South Buckinghamshire at the closing of the year.