Sunday, September 24, 2006

Audit 'du jour' (... a la Bridget Jones) ...

State of health.

Still recovering from bad cold (like half the world). What is it about Autumn?

State of exercise.

Poor. The bicycle project is still-born. This was the idea to buy a new bicycle and to exercise using it vigorously two or three times a week. I had to abandon jogging, which I did do regularly, on account of leg and knee pains. Result: bike bought but not much used. Reason - I guess the current consulting assignment just leaves no time for it.

Books to buy.
  1. Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion
  2. Rupert Smith's The Utility of Force
  3. Lee Smolin's The Trouble with Physics
  4. Edward O. Wilson's On Human Nature
Still some books from the previous Amazon round to finish first, though.

Mini-Project.

Revisit Chuang Tzu and Tao Te Ching for some insights on contemporary events. Factor in E. O. Wilson's remark (reported in today's Sunday Times) that the basic fact about humanity is that 'We are all tribesmen really' - a remark motivating evolutionary psychology (vs. the 'standard social science model' - ref). There is then something interesting to say, from that vantage point, about Taoist philosophy.

Note 1: how could Taoism either be rooted in, or consistent with, evolutionary psychology?

Note 2: I leave religion per se out of this. See Richard Dawkins.

Film to look forwards to.

'Becoming Jane' - due out next year. Biopic of Jane Austen.