Knowledge makes the brain grow better

I’m lucky to live with people who not only have good brains and use them well, but are also tolerant enough to both provide me with thoughts I wouldn’t otherwise have and to listen to the mad ideas that pop in my transom.

Case in point:

Seeing the recent study on the change in brain wiring of London cab drivers gave me an idea. The study showed that cabbies brains showed strong development changes in the hippocampus region – it got bigger.

Long ago, I learned from Malabar that one of the most noteable neurological changes in adults who are survivors of childhood physical and sexual abuse is atrophy of the hippocampus, which is hard to correct in adults.

So… abuse survivors could train in The Knowledge. The process of learning the thousands of possible routes through London (usually done on bicycle/moped) seems to provide a specific stimulus to hippocampal growth. (Maybe this is due to the vast amount of visio-spacial processing required to gain The Knowledge, possible helped by the other senses – the smell of the brewery round the corner and the chippy near the roundabout, the sound of Speaker’s Corner…)

Hippocampus is stimulated, grows. Helps heal the damage. Once qualified, they could volunteer to drive for women-safe cab services.

Just an idea…

Anathem

Just started Neal Stephenson’s latest doorstop epic novel Anathem. Not a light-weight read, in any sense – but after the first seventy-or-so pages, one does settle into the universe he creates. By page 300, I’m completely enthralled.

Only six hundred to go…

In short, if the size and sheer amount of data thrown at you by the Baroque Cycle was manageable, you’ll dig this.

For a taster, here’s an interesting  and about 90+% accurate video trailer for the book (yeah, weird idea but increasingly common one), with some of the heavily math-inspired music recorded for the book.

Colours of Chaos

I made my way down to London at the weekend for the Colours of Chaos one-day event – a series of talks on chaos magic followed by an evening of ritual.

I had a splendid time. Met some old friends and made some new ones. All the talks had some food for thought – I especially enjoyed those by Julian Vayne and The Kite. The ritual working in the evening was superb  – five potent rites with a group of fifteen or so IOT initiates and a further sixty-odd attendees. Nothing quite like that size of crowd for some serious chanting and energy!

My thanks to the IOT of the British Isles for putting on such a fine event.

So Say We All

I don’t post much on US party politics – I don’t trust any of the fuckers – but this says everything so perfectly…