Libel Court ‘Is Not The Right Place For Faith Disputes’
“One of Britain’s most senior judges said yesterday that libel courts must not become places where religious and doctrinal differences are hammered out.
Mr Justice Eady made his comments while summing up his reasons for suspending a defamation case brought by an Indian ‘holy man’ against a British journalist.
The dispute centred around an article published by Hardeep Singh in the Sikh Times in August 2007 entitled: ‘Cult divides Sikh congregation in High Wycombe’. Mr Singh, a freelance journalist and a practicing Sikh, was investigating the links between a North Indian religious organisation and three gurdwaras (Sikh temples) in Britain.
At the time the article was published, followers of the Nirmala Kutia Johal, a Sikh sect based in the Punjab, were divided over the accession of Sant Baba Jeet Singh, who had become their leader in 2002 following the death of the group’s previous guru.
Mr Singh’s article described Nirmala Kutia Johal as a ‘cult’ and said that disagreements over the accession of the group’s new guru had spilled out into the open among supporters in High Wycombe. Baba Jeet Singh, an Indian national who has never travelled to the UK, issued libel proceedings in the British courts against both Mr Singh and the Sikh Times, which later went bust.
Baba Jeet Singh claimed that Hardeep Singh’s article defamed his character by describing him as a leader of a cult and an impostor who had disturbed the peace in the Sikh community of High Wycombe, and had promoted blasphemy and the sexual exploitation and abuse of women.”
Read more at The Independent (thanks, Tammy)
Virtual Reality Used To Transfer Men’s Minds Into A Woman’s Body
“Scientists have transferred men’s minds into a virtual woman’s body in an experiment that could enlighten the prejudiced and shed light on how humans distinguish themselves from others.
In a study at Barcelona University, men donned a virtual reality (VR) headset that allowed them to see and hear the world as a female character. When they looked down they could even see their new body and clothes.
The ‘body-swapping’ effect was so convincing that the men’s sense of self was transferred into the virtual woman, causing them to react reflexively to events in the virtual world in which they were immersed.
Men who took part in the experiment reported feeling as though they occupied the woman’s body and even gasped and flinched when she was slapped by another character in the virtual world.
‘This work opens up another avenue for virtual reality, which is not just to transform your sense of place, but also your sense of self,’ said Mel Slater, a virtual reality researcher at the Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies and University College London. ‘There isn’t any other technology that allows you to look down and see another body that isn’t yours and give you the illusion that it is,’ he said.
‘If you can temporarily give people the illusion that their bodies are different, then the evidence suggests it also affects their behaviour and the way they think. They can have new experiences: a person who is thin can know what it’s like to be fat. A man can have an experience of what it’s like to be a woman.’”
Read more at The Guardian (thanks, Tammy)
Ball Lightning May Be All In Your Head
“Mysterious floating blobs of light known as ball lightning might simply be hallucinations caused by overstimulated brains, a new study suggests.
For hundreds of years eyewitnesses have reported brief encounters with the golf ball- to tennis ball-size orbs of electricity. But scientists have been unable to agree on how and why ball lightning forms, since the phenomenon is rare and very short-lived.
Ball lightning is often reported during thunderstorms, and it’s known that multiple consecutive lightning strikes can create strong magnetic fields. So Joseph Peer and Alexander Kendl at the University of Innsbruck in Austria wondered whether ball lightning is really a hallucination induced by magnetic stimulation of the brain’s visual cortex or the eye’s retina.
In previous experiments, other scientists had exposed humans to strong, rapidly changing magnetic fields using a medical machine called a transcranial magnetic stimulator, or TMS. The machine’s magnetic fields are powerful enough to induce electric currents in human brain cells without being harmful.
Focusing magnetic fields on the visual cortex of the brain caused the subjects to see luminous discs and lines. When the focus was moved around within the visual cortex, the subjects reported seeing the lights move.”
Read more at National Geographic (thanks, SuZi)
Homeopathy Is Witchcraft, Say Doctors
“Homeopathy is ‘witchcraft’ and the National Health Service should not pay for it, the British Medical Association has declared.
Hundreds of members of the BMA have passed a motion denouncing the use of the alternative medicine, saying taxpayers should not foot the bill for remedies with no scientific basis to support them.
The BMA has previously expressed scepticism about homoeopathy, arguing that the rationing body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence should examine the evidence base and make a definitive ruling about the use of the remedies in the NHS.
Now, the annual conference of junior doctors has gone further, with a vote overwhelmingly supporting a blanket ban, and an end to all placements for trainee doctors which teach them homeopathic principles.
Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee in England told the conference: ‘Homeopathy is witchcraft. It is a disgrace that nestling between the National Hospital for Neurology and Great Ormond Street [in London] there is a National Hospital for Homeopathy which is paid for by the NHS’.”
Read more at The Telegraph (thanks, PaulB)
Win Stoke Regent Enigma tickets
If you’re lucky enough to live in Stoke-on-Trent right now then you’re eligible for our new competition. Simply email competitions@derrenbrownart.com with a good reason as to why you should be picked and 2 Tickets for Stoke Regent 19th May will be yours.
Test Confirms Darwin’s Theory of Universal Common Ancestry
“More than 150 years ago, Darwin proposed the theory of universal common ancestry (UCA), linking all forms of life by a shared genetic heritage from single-celled microorganisms to humans. Until now, the theory that makes ladybugs, oak trees, champagne yeast and humans distant relatives has remained beyond the scope of a formal test. This week, a Brandeis biochemist reports in Nature the results of the first large scale, quantitative test of the famous theory that underpins modern evolutionary biology.
The results of the study confirm that Darwin had it right all along. In his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, the British naturalist proposed that, “all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form.” Over the last century and a half, qualitative evidence for this theory has steadily grown, in the numerous, surprising transitional forms found in the fossil record, for example, and in the identification of sweeping fundamental biological similarities at the molecular level.
Still, rumblings among some evolutionary biologists have recently emerged questioning whether the evolutionary relationships among living organisms are best described by a single “family tree” or rather by multiple, interconnected trees—a “web of life.” Recent molecular evidence indicates that primordial life may have undergone rampant horizontal gene transfer, which occurs frequently today when single-celled organisms swap genes using mechanisms other than usual organismal reproduction. In that case, some scientists argue, early evolutionary relationships were web-like, making it possible that life sprang up independently from many ancestors.
According to biochemist Douglas Theobald, it doesn’t really matter. “Let’s say life originated independently multiple times, which UCA allows is possible,” said Theobald. “If so, the theory holds that a bottleneck occurred in evolution, with descendants of only one of the independent origins surviving until the present. Alternatively, separate populations could have merged, by exchanging enough genes over time to become a single species that eventually was ancestral to us all. Either way, all of life would still be genetically related.”"
Continue reading at Physorg.com
Men are bigger liars than women, says poll
“Men are more likely to tell lies than women and feel less guilty about it, says a survey. In a poll of 3,000 people, researchers found that the average British man tells three lies every day, that’s equivalent to 1,092 a year. However the average woman appears more honest, lying 728 times a year – around twice a day. Mums are the people mostly likely to be lied to, says the Science Museum who commissioned the survey. Twenty-five per cent of men say they’ve lied to their mother, but only 20% of women admit to having lied to their mum. In comparison, only 10% of people said they are likely to lie to their partner.
Concerning the kind of lies we tell, men said that they most often lie to their partner about their drinking habits. “I didn’t have that much to drink” is men’s most popular fib. Whereas women use the line, “Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine” most often to hide their true feelings. “It’s just what I’ve always wanted” is the tenth most likely lie to be told to a loved one by either men or women, suggesting that men and women are quite discerning when it comes to buying presents for each other.”
Read more at BBC News
Wimbledon
Tucked up on a train to Stoke. Wimbledon was a lovely week. The first couple of days suffered (in terms of numbers) from last year’s London run, so the place was not as packed as the other venues. Monday offered a quiet, older audience and, Tuesday a younger, livelier bunch.
Wednesday was our first filming day. It was the best first filming day so far: normally I get a bit disgraced by the cameras and mess things up. As it was, it was a good night. Thursday, our second filming night, was terrific. The crowd was on its feet way before the end and such a joy. Thank you everyone. Friday and Saturday were a delight too: Friday I had family in to see the show, which always makes it a proper treat. The show looked its finest too, as the lighting had been ramped up to its glamorous, previous West End state. Even the nice floor was re-instated. All in all a good week for the show. The TV production team were great, despite a broken generator. When you watch the show (it’s not as good on TV, and we’ll only be able to include about 70 mins of a 150 minute show) please note the plaster on the ring finger of my left hand. I managed to RIP MY NAIL OFF the night before filming. IT STILL HURTS.
In the few afternoons I had free, I worked on a new picture of Rufus Wainwright. This one has taken some wrangling to get right, and now I must leave it alone for a while to continue with the show. But it’s a relief to leave it in a presentable form. It’s at least better than the old one, which I painted before I knew him well.
Those who know the previous work will see a move towards less caricatured images. I’m rather enjoying that. After a break of eighteen months, this is a new direction. When he is finished, I will post it here and add the recent batch (Michelangelo, Thatcher, Dench and Rufus) to the gallery at derrenbrownart.com. I am getting asked how long these take: the best answer is ‘a few days’. I have to do the piecemeal at the moment as I have so little time to dedicate to them. But it’s such a pleasure. I listen to Rufus constantly when painting anyway: I switched back and forth to Richard Strauss, which I think he would like. The new album has hints of Debussy, so he has too been included: some varied sounds have wafted from my studio this last week.
Tonight brings episode 2 of Derren Brown Is Kind Enough To Spend A Few Moments Of His Valuable Time Taking A Jolly Good Look At This And That. I do hope you enjoy. If not, your bum stinks.
Derren Brown Investigates tonight 10pm Ch4
Tonight at 10pm on Ch4 – the second episode of Derren Brown Investigates.
Many modern day forms of spiritualism, life skills and self-help systems have taken on a “pure science” motif. They claim to have discovered unique techniques, based on scientific methods that deliver actual results, but only when you attend their 6 week course at a special introductory rate.
Scientology focuses on the nature of personal development at the core of it’s spiritual message, NLP claims to give you life tools to help improve yourself or rid yourself of phobias and many new age spiritual gurus like Deepak Chopra will commonly feature their own slant of quantum physics in conjunction with enhanced human capability.
In this show Derren visits Europe where he engages with the Bronnikov Centre, a school that claims it has managed to create a bio-computer you can install programming on, to achieve incredible results. From blindfolded reading to diagnosing illness without the use of any equipment – Derren Brown Investigates.
To discuss the show click here to head over to our Derren Brown Investigates Pages.
The Art of Mindreading: Empathy or Rational Inference?
The ability to infer what another person is thinking is an essential tool for social interaction and is known by neuroscientists as “Theory of Mind” (ToM), but how does the brain actually allow us to do this?
We are able to rationally infer what someone knows, thinks, or intends, but we are also able to “slip into their shoes” and infer how they feel, and it seems that the brain processes these different types of information in different ways, as confirmed by a new report in the June 2010 issue of Elsevier’s Cortex.
More at Science Daily
