The capricious photon: A metaphor for knowledge and ignorance

it all began in the library of my primary school, where I stumbled upon the Scott Corbett "Trick" books. This was a series of children’s books about a boy named Kerby Maxwell who becomes the owner of a magic chemistry set that becomes the center of his many adventures.

These books seem to have gone out of fashion today, perhaps because the idea of a boy who lives by the motto "A dedicated scientist never hesitates to experiment on himself," and mixes and drinks unlabeled chemicals given to him by a stranger might not seem completely safe to today’s parents.

Certainty Lost: A hollow romance: Alone in a dark, cold, lonely universe

Belief in UFO’s is like faith in the supernatural - but, today credulity among the public for tales of the astonishing is less than even a generation ago. The standard explanation attributes this to a growing skepticism. But skepticism alone is a convenient short-hand for a deeper psycho-social, historical and cultural phenomenon spanning the duration of the last two centuries. This is a book about our search for extraterrestrials, but this is a story mostly about us, people like you and I. How we have come to forge belief and what countervailing powers bring about certainty and doubt. In the classic mise-en-scène, at remote, deserted locations, country roads or woodland at nights: UFO sightings reflect our yearning of what may lay beyond, romanticized impresses of more civilized lives, of wonder, imagination, anticipation and the unknown - all at once in opposition with incredulity, suspicion and doubt.

A Life, so long in abeyance

Old man Billy hunched over in his well-worn Eames as he edged his hands towards the open hearth. He puffed on his pipe and pondered on the lesson of his life's folly - knowing he took care of those he used to call his own and kept good company till the end of time. Thinking about all that's been and all that is and all that's far beyond he closed his eyes one more time. Here was his birthplace, it’s where it all began.

Vignettes And Clinical Applications: Supporting Individuals With Neurodiverse Disabilities Paperback

Often a great deal of effort is expended by disability services to mediate challenging behaviours expressed by individuals with an intellectual disability. Even when therapeutic interventions are clinically sound, they may be poorly implemented, not adhered to over time, or suffer from the effect of several other service factors.

A growing body of literature stress the importance of systemic factors such as staff training, staff attitudes and values, resource availability, communication protocols, knowledge, and experience. Understanding the impact these pose on the success of clinical effort is an important aspect, and beyond typical mediator and ecological analysis.

This book presents six case studies involving support systems and services – all with varying themes of concern, and all having been examined by this author.

The deep end of the pool: The ontology of an accidental existence

A quest to understand understanding – this book is a series of essays reflecting the musings of a misplaced sophist. Can we for example prove that our system of axioms will never lead to a contradiction? It is impossible to write down an axiomatic system that while being consistent is also complete.

THE CLINICAL AUDIT OF BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT SYSTEMS MANUAL: for agencies that support people with intellectual disability

This text is designed to help review the effectiveness of the Behaviour Support policies and practices as implemented by agencies that provide accommodation, respite and day programs for people with intellectual disability.

We describe the approach, principles, and some of the more common service factors the clinical practitioner should consider when undertaking this service audit. As well, this text seeks to help practitioners structure the information gathering activities, and organise the collected data in a way that can aid the analysis and the formation of conclusions over factors impacting the delivery of behaviour support services.

Understanding the factors that impact on the provision of clinical behaviour support is an important step in the overall quality improvement and maintenance strategy of any Service System that provides support to people with an intellectual disability. Undertaking a audit of clinical behaviour support services offers a means by which these factors are identified, communicated, and if necessary remedied.

The clerk and the accounts department

Kurt Friedrich Gödel, Alan Mathison Turing, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman, Andrew John Wiles and John Forbes Nash; Six men of the 20th century whose stories are of the great romantic tales of mathematics. An account of triumph and tragedy, of men of genius, baring intellectual brilliance and tenacity. They prevailed against incredible adversity and whose lives, in the case of two cut short at the height of their powers.

These men proved Fermat's Last Theorem, solved the Poincaré conjecture whilst shunning acclaim and prize. Discovered the extraordinary connection, the partition function, Pi and nontrivial patterns in modular arithmetic. One developed a machine that helped break the German Enigma, another invented Game theory, making economics a practical endeavour. Gödel proved that the mathematical methods in place since the time of Euclid inadequate for discovering all that is true about the natural numbers.

The Illusion of Reality: A Public Servant’s Secret Essays

The interplay of light with elementary particles; the idea of emergence as the arrow of time and the role the conscious mind plays in integrating, and creating reality form the central thread weaved through this collection of essays.

Systogram, beyond Genograms: Symbols and conventions for use in service-based systemic therapies

This book presents a brief account of systemic methods as used in the support of people with intellectual disability as well as proposing a number of additional symbols to reflect the relational dynamics of formal support systems intended to augment those as defined by McGoldrick and others.