Monday, April 23, 2007
How to Speak KhoeKhoegowab - Click Language
Via: VideoSift
This is the language of Nama. There are 31 consonants: 20 clicks and a simple set of 11 non-clicks. Can you do it?? Hmmmmm? Probably ought to add this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nama_language
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries - Prof. Borg's Nightmare
Via: VideoSift
Wild Strawberries a 1957 film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman.
Isak Bork is a medical doctor and professor who is forced by nightmares, daydreams, his old age, and his impending death to re-evaluate his life while driving with his daughter-in-law from Stockholm to Lund in order to receive an honorary degree from Lund University.
Asch's Conformity Experiment
Via: VideoSift
A classical social psychology experiment carried out by S. Asch. The power of conformity
Love Connection’s Best Named Guest.
Chuck Woolery introduces the best named guest on Love Connection.
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Via: VideoSift
This is the film by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick. An introduction to the life, work and ideas of Noam Chomsky that takes in a wide variety of subjects to show how the media chooses what and how much much to cover of their news stories.
A long film, but an extremely important one. The Internet Movie Database page for it is here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104810/
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Pistachio Cake
Via: VideoSift
I love pistachios, but never heard of them used in cakes until someone at work brought one in, which prompted me to find a recipe. This is from Fontana Murata restaurant, in Sicily (?)
Father and Daughter: A Short Film about Longing
Via: VideoSift
"Father and Daughter is a film about longing, the kind of longing which quietly, yet totally, affects our lives." -- Michael Dudok de Wit, animator.
This wonderful short took an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, the Grand Prix at Annecy, and dozens of other major awards.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
mc nuts - william wordsworth rap
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud has undergone the “rap” treatment in the bicentenary year of its publication to help the next generation of Lake District visitors connect with his work.
The new “hip-hop” version of the famous poem and an accompanying pop video can be listened to and watched for free at Cumbria Tourism’s website at www.golakes.co.uk/wordsworthrap It features MC Nuts in the leading role – better known as Sam - the Lake District Red squirrel mascot for Ullswater Steamers.
The modern re-working manages to stay true to the original sentiment but with some slight variation of the lyrics.
As well as making the works of Wordsworth relevant to a new, younger audience, it also shows how modern-day rap and its clever use of wordplay is a distant relative of poetic rhyming verse.
The video was shot on the banks of Lake Ullswater which provided the original inspiration for the poem, as well as around Ullswater Steamers, the grounds and gardens of the luxury Sharrow Bay Hotel, and Grasmere where Wordsworth made his home.
A spokesman for Cumbria Tourism, which was behind the innovative approach to the poem, said: “Wordsworth’s Daffodils poem has remained unchanged for 200 years and to keep it alive for another two centuries, we wanted to engage the You Tube generation who want modern music and amusing video footage on the web.”
“Hopefully this will give them a reason to connect with a poem published in 1807 as well as with the works of Wordsworth and the stunning landscape of The Lake District that inspired him.”
David Wilson, the Robert Woof Director of the Wordsworth Trust, said: “Wordsworth’s poem, I wandered lonely as a cloud, always achieves very high ratings in any survey of favourite English poems.
“It is a poem about the mind's growing awareness over time of the deepening value of an experience, in this case observing the dancing daffodils. Two hundred years after it was published, the poem is still reaching new audiences and inspiring people. Part of our work here at Grasmere is demonstrating how Wordsworth's poetry is relevant today and encouraging young people to enrich their lives by exploring his poetry in their own ways.”
Visitors to www.golakes.co.uk are also encouraged to give a donation to the Wordsworth Trust at Grasmere, which is dubbed “the finest literary museum in the world,” for its collection of books, manuscripts, paintings, drawings and prints from the Romantic Period. Wordsworth Trust Robert Woof Memorial Fund
The Wordsworth Trust says the famous poem was composed in 1804, two years after Wordsworth saw the flowers on the shores of Lake Ullswater. The area is also one of the last remaining strongholds of the Lake District red squirrel.
His inspiration for the poem came from an account written by sister Dorothy. In her journal entry for 15th April 1802, she describes how the daffodils: “Tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, that blew upon them over the lake.
Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty
Joshua Beckman & Matthew Rohrer created these poems in live improvisational collaboration at The Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. What follows in the link is the their CD, Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (Verse Press), and other collaborations by Beckman and Rohrer can be found on and in their book, Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press).
LINK
LINK
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Satan sings 'Minnie the Moocher'
Via: VideoSift
If you are averse to gratuitously topless women or actors wearing blackface, consider yourself warned. Anyway, in this scene from Richard Elfman's bizarre indie film "Forbidden Zone," one of the characters is brought before Satan himself, portrayed here by Richard's brother Danny (yes, THAT Danny Elfman). Apparently the devil is a big fan of Cab Calloway. He is accompanied by his band, whose full name at the time was "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo."
Kaye Effect: Jumping Liquids.
Here’s a weird behavior of complex liquids, called the Kaye Effect, named after British engineer Arthur Kaye, who first discovered it in 1963. When a thin stream of viscous fluid is poured onto a surface, a stream of jumping liquid can be seen!
An Interview With Michel Gondry
Via: VideoSift
Mark Kermode has a chat with the genius responsible for some of the most memorable music videos of recent times as well as the Oscar winning film Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Tonight Show -- Fruitcake Lady Remembered
Via: VideoSift
"Marie Rudisill, (March 13, 1911 - November 3, 2006), was a writer and television personality, best known as the nonagenarian woman who appeared in the "Ask the Fruitcake Lady" segments on The Tonight Show."
Monday, April 09, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
David Lynch
David Lynch (legendary filmmaker and rare genuine auteur) provides an insight into his creative imagination and worldview. He reveals his views on politics, success, and visual composition via his idiosyncratic use of metaphor - including windows, doughnuts, and 'eye of the duck'.(Excerpt from BBC series Scene by Scene with Mark Cousins)
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Monday, April 02, 2007
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Sepak Takraw
From Neatorama:
Once upon a time, volleyball and soccer were in love, but their parents disapproved and kept them apart. Now, the only remnant of their brief union is a lovechild called sepak takraw. The sport inherited its mother’s net and, sadly, its father’s aversion to using arms. Consequently, the game challenges a player to pass the ball over the net using the feet, legs, body, and head.
Commonly played on a badminton court, takraw (as the pros call it) was first introduced in Southeast Asia. Today, it’s the national sport of Malaysia and an official event at the Asian Games.
Birds of Paradise.
Male Birds of Paradise in Papua, New Guinea have a bizarre courtship dance you must see to believe. This fellow’s “housecleaning” beforehand is pretty impressive, too!
Clive Wearing: Living Without Memory
Via: VideoSift
Clive Wearing (born 1938) is a British musicologist, conductor, and keyboardist suffering from an acute and long lasting case of anterograde amnesia. Specifically, this means he lacks the ability to form new memories, dubbed the 'memento' syndrome by laypeople and the media.
Forged Art
A fun contest at Worth1000: fine arts that somehow seems suspiciously like counterfeits! I continue to be amazed at how good these photoshoppers are!
This one above is "a suspicious copy" of "Socrates Death"
LINK
Saturday, March 31, 2007
A Conversation with Stephen Colbert
Via: VideoSift
the interview was done at Harvard. The action really picks up about 15 minutes in, so don't be dissuaded by the weak performance of the college student that dominates early on.
Alice's socks come alive: Něco z Alenky; 1988
Via: VideoSift
Stop-motion combined with live-action cinematography.
From Wiki article: Alice (original name: Něco z Alenky) is a 1988 Czech surrealist film by Jan Švankmajer. It retells the classic Lewis Carroll stories (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass). While the original stories were more whimsical and light-hearted, Alice is a more dark, bleak portrayal of the "Wonderland" saga.
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekend: Survivalists
Via: VideoSift
Louis spends time with groups of (mostly) politically extreme people in the North West of America. The focus is on families and groups (or a horrific neo-nazi church in one part) which believe in and prepare for a 'New World Order'
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPJVwmHj6EM
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV3MMEvd1VI
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzCOj1irwIc
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iFv4om2xlo
Friday, March 30, 2007
The 5 Basic Tastes - Salt, Sweet, Sour, Bitter & Umami
Via: VideoSift
I for one had never heard of the last taste (Umami). It basically means 'Savouriness' and is a Japanese term - the literal translation of Unami is 'Delicious Flavour'.
The Century of The Self - Part 1 of 4
Via: VideoSift
"This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud's theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their "engineering of consent".
Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the "father of the public relations industry". Freud's daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as well as Wilhelm Reich, the main opponent of Freud's theories.
Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.
The business and, increasingly, the political world uses PR to read and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. He cites a Wall Street banker as saying "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs."
In Episode 4 the main characters are Philip Gould and Matthew Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. They were part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in USA and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the "Democracity" during the 1939 New York World's Fair.
To quote the BBC site:
To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
More posts in a week
I'm going to out of town and out of reach of my computer until this Thursday, so new posts will be unlikely until then. Instead of just checking back, I suggest you peruse the archives. Here are a few staff favorites:
Look Around You: Maths
28 Days Slater
How to Quit your Job
Unknown White Male
Look Around You: Maths
28 Days Slater
How to Quit your Job
Unknown White Male
The Kids' Complaints Choir Of Poikkilaasko
Via: VideoSift
The Poikkilaakso Elementary School joined the Complaints Choir movement with this hilarious song. Composed by Matti Salo, Choir conducted by Elisa Hilli.
TEDTalks: Malcom Gladwell (2004)
Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer for The New Yorker, and best-selling author ofThe Tipping Point and Blink. In this talk, filmed at TED2004, he explains what every business can learn from spaghetti sauce. (Recorded February 2004 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 18:15)
TEDTalks: Barry Schwartz (2005)
Barry Schwartz is a sociology professor at Swarthmore College and author of The Paradox of Choice. In this talk, he persuasively explains how and why the abundance of choice in modern society is actually making us miserable. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 20:22)
Owning the Weather
Via: VideoSift
Discovery Channel piece that looks at the history of weather modification and its use by the military. Among the topics covered are: cloud seeding, HAARP and declassified experiments. May be of particular interest to weather geeks and conspiracy theorists.
TEDTalks: David Deutsch (2005)
Legendary physicist David Deutsch is author of The Fabric of Reality and the leading proponent of the multiverse intrepretation of quantum theory ��� the astounding idea that our universe is constantly spawning countless numbers of parallel worlds. In this rare (and delightfully engaging) public appearance, he weaves a complex and captivating argument placing the study of physics at the center of our species' survival. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 19:45)
Richard Dawkins on the strangeness of science: TEDTalks
Mind-expanding talk that probes the limits of human understanding: Why can't we see atoms? Why can't we hear color? How can we understand randomness? Dawkins suggests that the true nature of the universe eludes us because the human mind has evolved mainly to understand other humans -- and to look for human motives even in natural processes. Thus, we create a humanlike God to explain phenomena we can't otherwise comprehend; right or wrong, we're simply wired for it. Dawkins is Oxford's Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, and the author of the landmark 1976 book The Selfish Gene and the 2006 bestseller The God Delusion. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK)
Helen Fisher on love, lust and antidepressants: TEDTalks
Anthrolopogist Helen Fisher outlines the bio-chemical foundations of love, lust and intimacy, discusses the changing role of women, and ends with a warning that antidepressants may be killing love. Fisher is an anthropologist at Rutgers, specializing in gender differences and the evolution of human emotions, and author of Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA)
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Turkish Star Wars - final scene
The Turkish recreation of Star Wars. My favorite moment is when Luke karate chops Darth Vader in half near the end.
Dad Pranks Kids Awake
Via: VideoSift
At the end one of the kids shouts to his father "what's wrong with you?" Part of me is inclined to ask the same question. The not laughing part.
Steven Levitt: the Freakonomics of inner-city gangs
Steven Levitt is an economics professor at the University of Chicago and the best-selling author of Freakonomics. In this talk, filmed at TED2004, he goes inside an inner-city gang to examine economic principles at work in the real world. (Recorded February 2004 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 22:00)
Sunday, March 18, 2007
best of colbert
Via: VideoSift
Keith Olbermann gathers together the best moments of Stephen Colbert's interviews with congress critters. Olbermann took offense to recent reports that Rahm Emmanuel has cautioned freshmen Congressmen to avoid going on the Colbert Report because it could be damaging to their political careers.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
McLibel: Two People Who Wouldnt Say Sorry (2005 documentary)
Via: VideoSift
The McLibel Trial is the infamous British court case between McDonald's and a former postman & a gardener from London (Helen Steel and Dave Morris). It ran for two and a half years and became the longest ever English trial. The defendants were denied legal aid and their right to a jury, so the whole trial was heard by a single Judge, Mr Justice Bell. He delivered his verdict in June 1997.
Principles of economics, translated
Via: VideoSift
Yoram Bauman's presentation from the 2007 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Friday, March 16, 2007
From Mental Floss: 9 Bad Boys of Philosophy
1. Socrates, the Barefoot Bum
Notoriously ugly, clad in one coat long beyond its years, and always shoeless, yet possessed of charisma that made the youth swoon, Socrates was a fixture in the marketplace of Athens.
There he would engage people with the Socratic method, beginning with a question that seemed straightforward and easy enough to answer, such as, What is virtue? Never content with the first answer, his irony and follow-up questions would inevitably lead to contradictions or admissions of ignorance on the part of his interlocutors.
Socrates rubbed some people the wrong way, though, and was brought to trial on trumpeted charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. Defiant to the end, Socrates suggested that the proper sentence for his “crimes” would be free meals at the public expense, as he had done the city good. The jury gave him a hemlock cocktail instead.
2. Diogenes, a Cynic’s Cynic
Always suspicious of society and philosophers, Diogenes (died ca. 320 BCE) would stop at nothing to make a point. He once ripped the feathers out of a live chicken to disprove Plato’s account of human beings as the only featherless biped. Asked once what wine he liked best, his cynical response was “other peoples’.”
Alexander the Great, intrigued by stories about Diogenes, sought him out and announced, “I am Alexander the Great. What can I do for you?” “Stand back – you block my light” was Diogenes’ response. While the ordinary person would have lost his head after such an insult, Diogenes was admired all the more, as the great conqueror said, “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”
3. Peter Abelard (1079-1144), the Castrated Cleric
Sex scandals are nothing new to the Catholic Church. Take the case of Abelard, the influential medieval philosopher who, ironically, did important work in ethics and logic. The young cleric fell in love with a beautiful young girl named Héloïse, whom he was supposed to be tutoring, and they married secretly, though they lived apart.
Héloïse’s uncle, however, mistakenly thought Abelard had discarded Héloïse by placing her in a convent, and he took revenge by having servants castrate Abelard in his sleep. Abelard woke up and things were never the same between him and Héloïse (needless to say, things were never the same between his legs either).
The ill-fated pair were, however, reunited in death, buried together at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris and immortalized in song by Cole Porter: “As Abelard said to Eloise, ‘Don’t forget to drop a line to me, please’” (from “Just One of Those Things”).
4. Marx: Big Heart, Skinny Wallet
Unable to find work as philosophy professor, Karl Marx (1818-1883) plotted a revolution. Working intermittently as journalist and largely relying on the charity of friends, Marx lost many apartments and even some children for lack of financial resources.
Declaring religion “the opiate of the masses,” Marx found no solace in a better world to come, but instead sought to change the one he inhabited. “A specter is haunting Europe,“ he said, “the specter of communism. The workers of the world have nothing to lose but their chains.”
History revealed Marx didn’t adequately anticipate capitalism’s ability to shift and change to avoid the revolution, as later workers’ movement won concessions in the form of labor laws, the welfare state, and five-day work week. So, the next time you sleep late on a Saturday, make sure to give props to the man who made the dream of the weekend off a reality.
5. Arthur Schopenhauer, Poodle-Loving Pessimist
The ultimate pessimist, Schopenhauer (1788-1860) viewed reality as a malicious trap, believing we live in the worst of all possible worlds. A notorious misogynist, Schopenhauer once pushed a woman down a flight of stairs. Grudgingly, he paid her regular restitution for her injuries until her death, when he recorded in his journal, “The old woman dies, the burden is lifted.”
Schopenhauer despised noise but inexplicably had a fondness for something more odious, poodles. A series of disposable poodles were his constant companions for most of his life.
Not a pleasant academic colleague, Schopenhauer resented the success of Hegel, whose philosophy he thought was the worst kind of nonsense. Perhaps planning to undo Hegel, Schopenhauer scheduled his course lectures at the same time as Hegel’s. The result, however, was an early retirement for Arthur.
6. Nietzsche: A Bad Boy Who Wasn’t
One might think he railed against the corrupting influence of Christianity and declared “God is dead,” because of his own misery (Nietzsche suffered from migraine headaches and poor digestion, topped off with bouts of insomnia). But the guy whose autobiographical Ecce Homo includes such chapters as “Why I Am So Wise,” “Why I Am So Clever,” and “Why I Write Such Good Books” was actually an unassuming, mild-mannered man. His belief in “the will to power” as the most basic human drive finds little reflection in his own life outside his fantasies.
Though he fancied himself a warrior and a ladies’ man, Nietzsche’s military service was brief and unspectacular, and he never had a lover. As a bad boy in college, he may have visited a brothel or two, though. One theory suggests that the insanity that cut his career short and institutionalized him for the last 11 years of his life was the result of untreated syphilis.
7. Heidegger, Nazi Sympathizer
Though he originally planned to become a Catholic priest, this philosopher of being was far from holy. He carried on an extramarital affair with his gifted student Hannah Arendt, who later fled Germany to avoid persecution as a Jew. This might seem a peccadillo, except that Martin Heidegger was an anti-Semite who embraced the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich.
Notoriously, Heidegger had his dictation page in his Being and Time removed in subsequent printings of the book, as it paid homage to Edmund Husserl, his former teacher, a Jew. At a time when intellectuals should have risen up, Heidegger sank to the lowest common denominator. What’s worse, he never recanted or apologized.
8. Bertrand Russell, Cambridge Casanova
An innovator in mathematics and logic, and one of the founders of analytic philosophy, at first blush Russell sounds like a dry guy. Yet his life was anything but dull. Plagued by bouts of terrible depression as a young man, Russell learned to cultivate a zest for life. This heavy-drinking, pipe-smoking professor was notorious for having affairs with his friends’ wives. He rejected organized religion with his famous essay “Why I Am Not a Christian,” but nonetheless had a passion for social justice, flirting with runs for political office and doing jail time for political protest, that last time at age 94. Notably, Russell was a leading intellectual voice against the war in Vietnam.
9. Michel Foucault, the Marilyn Manson of Philosophy
Always the outsider, Foucault (1926-1984) was the voice of the marginalized and oppressed, notably as a supporter of an inspiration for the Paris student uprisings of 1968.
Making use of Nietzsche’s insights on the nature of power and the method of historical investigation and exposure known as genealogy, Foucault challenged the legitimacy of dominant cultural structures. Suspicious of institutions, in works such as Madness and Civilization, The Birth of the Clinic, and Discipline and Punish, Foucault called for the abolition of prisons and asylums.
Himself a homosexual, Foucault challenged our idea of what is normal in The History of Sexuality. As a visiting professor at Berkeley, Foucault frequented the San Francisco bathhouses and developed a passion for S&M. Though he kept his disease a private matter, he was the first (and to date only) major philosopher to die of AIDS.
Bonus: Pure Genius – Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus (ca. 624-546 BCE), the first Western philosopher, set the standard for absentminded professors to come. Lost in thought, gazing at the sky, Thales fell into a well.
Ridiculed as an impractical dreamer, Thales set out to show that philosophers could do anything they set their minds to, including amassing wealth. One winter, using his knowledge of meteorology and astronomy, Thales predicted a bumper olive crop for the coming season. He cornered the market on olive presses in Miletus and made a fortune when the olive harvest met his expectations.
Remarkably, Thales predicted the solar eclipse of 585 BCE. He also measured the height of the Egyptian pyramids using their shadows. Thales is perhaps best known for arguing that water is the basic source element, that ultimately all things are made of water. He also argued that “all things are full of gods and have a share of soul,” a poetic rendering of the insight confirmed by much later science that all matter is always in motion.
Notoriously ugly, clad in one coat long beyond its years, and always shoeless, yet possessed of charisma that made the youth swoon, Socrates was a fixture in the marketplace of Athens.
There he would engage people with the Socratic method, beginning with a question that seemed straightforward and easy enough to answer, such as, What is virtue? Never content with the first answer, his irony and follow-up questions would inevitably lead to contradictions or admissions of ignorance on the part of his interlocutors.
Socrates rubbed some people the wrong way, though, and was brought to trial on trumpeted charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. Defiant to the end, Socrates suggested that the proper sentence for his “crimes” would be free meals at the public expense, as he had done the city good. The jury gave him a hemlock cocktail instead.
2. Diogenes, a Cynic’s Cynic
Always suspicious of society and philosophers, Diogenes (died ca. 320 BCE) would stop at nothing to make a point. He once ripped the feathers out of a live chicken to disprove Plato’s account of human beings as the only featherless biped. Asked once what wine he liked best, his cynical response was “other peoples’.”
Alexander the Great, intrigued by stories about Diogenes, sought him out and announced, “I am Alexander the Great. What can I do for you?” “Stand back – you block my light” was Diogenes’ response. While the ordinary person would have lost his head after such an insult, Diogenes was admired all the more, as the great conqueror said, “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”
3. Peter Abelard (1079-1144), the Castrated Cleric
Sex scandals are nothing new to the Catholic Church. Take the case of Abelard, the influential medieval philosopher who, ironically, did important work in ethics and logic. The young cleric fell in love with a beautiful young girl named Héloïse, whom he was supposed to be tutoring, and they married secretly, though they lived apart.
Héloïse’s uncle, however, mistakenly thought Abelard had discarded Héloïse by placing her in a convent, and he took revenge by having servants castrate Abelard in his sleep. Abelard woke up and things were never the same between him and Héloïse (needless to say, things were never the same between his legs either).
The ill-fated pair were, however, reunited in death, buried together at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris and immortalized in song by Cole Porter: “As Abelard said to Eloise, ‘Don’t forget to drop a line to me, please’” (from “Just One of Those Things”).
4. Marx: Big Heart, Skinny Wallet
Unable to find work as philosophy professor, Karl Marx (1818-1883) plotted a revolution. Working intermittently as journalist and largely relying on the charity of friends, Marx lost many apartments and even some children for lack of financial resources.
Declaring religion “the opiate of the masses,” Marx found no solace in a better world to come, but instead sought to change the one he inhabited. “A specter is haunting Europe,“ he said, “the specter of communism. The workers of the world have nothing to lose but their chains.”
History revealed Marx didn’t adequately anticipate capitalism’s ability to shift and change to avoid the revolution, as later workers’ movement won concessions in the form of labor laws, the welfare state, and five-day work week. So, the next time you sleep late on a Saturday, make sure to give props to the man who made the dream of the weekend off a reality.
5. Arthur Schopenhauer, Poodle-Loving Pessimist
The ultimate pessimist, Schopenhauer (1788-1860) viewed reality as a malicious trap, believing we live in the worst of all possible worlds. A notorious misogynist, Schopenhauer once pushed a woman down a flight of stairs. Grudgingly, he paid her regular restitution for her injuries until her death, when he recorded in his journal, “The old woman dies, the burden is lifted.”
Schopenhauer despised noise but inexplicably had a fondness for something more odious, poodles. A series of disposable poodles were his constant companions for most of his life.
Not a pleasant academic colleague, Schopenhauer resented the success of Hegel, whose philosophy he thought was the worst kind of nonsense. Perhaps planning to undo Hegel, Schopenhauer scheduled his course lectures at the same time as Hegel’s. The result, however, was an early retirement for Arthur.
6. Nietzsche: A Bad Boy Who Wasn’t
One might think he railed against the corrupting influence of Christianity and declared “God is dead,” because of his own misery (Nietzsche suffered from migraine headaches and poor digestion, topped off with bouts of insomnia). But the guy whose autobiographical Ecce Homo includes such chapters as “Why I Am So Wise,” “Why I Am So Clever,” and “Why I Write Such Good Books” was actually an unassuming, mild-mannered man. His belief in “the will to power” as the most basic human drive finds little reflection in his own life outside his fantasies.
Though he fancied himself a warrior and a ladies’ man, Nietzsche’s military service was brief and unspectacular, and he never had a lover. As a bad boy in college, he may have visited a brothel or two, though. One theory suggests that the insanity that cut his career short and institutionalized him for the last 11 years of his life was the result of untreated syphilis.
7. Heidegger, Nazi Sympathizer
Though he originally planned to become a Catholic priest, this philosopher of being was far from holy. He carried on an extramarital affair with his gifted student Hannah Arendt, who later fled Germany to avoid persecution as a Jew. This might seem a peccadillo, except that Martin Heidegger was an anti-Semite who embraced the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich.
Notoriously, Heidegger had his dictation page in his Being and Time removed in subsequent printings of the book, as it paid homage to Edmund Husserl, his former teacher, a Jew. At a time when intellectuals should have risen up, Heidegger sank to the lowest common denominator. What’s worse, he never recanted or apologized.
8. Bertrand Russell, Cambridge Casanova
An innovator in mathematics and logic, and one of the founders of analytic philosophy, at first blush Russell sounds like a dry guy. Yet his life was anything but dull. Plagued by bouts of terrible depression as a young man, Russell learned to cultivate a zest for life. This heavy-drinking, pipe-smoking professor was notorious for having affairs with his friends’ wives. He rejected organized religion with his famous essay “Why I Am Not a Christian,” but nonetheless had a passion for social justice, flirting with runs for political office and doing jail time for political protest, that last time at age 94. Notably, Russell was a leading intellectual voice against the war in Vietnam.
9. Michel Foucault, the Marilyn Manson of Philosophy
Always the outsider, Foucault (1926-1984) was the voice of the marginalized and oppressed, notably as a supporter of an inspiration for the Paris student uprisings of 1968.
Making use of Nietzsche’s insights on the nature of power and the method of historical investigation and exposure known as genealogy, Foucault challenged the legitimacy of dominant cultural structures. Suspicious of institutions, in works such as Madness and Civilization, The Birth of the Clinic, and Discipline and Punish, Foucault called for the abolition of prisons and asylums.
Himself a homosexual, Foucault challenged our idea of what is normal in The History of Sexuality. As a visiting professor at Berkeley, Foucault frequented the San Francisco bathhouses and developed a passion for S&M. Though he kept his disease a private matter, he was the first (and to date only) major philosopher to die of AIDS.
Bonus: Pure Genius – Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus (ca. 624-546 BCE), the first Western philosopher, set the standard for absentminded professors to come. Lost in thought, gazing at the sky, Thales fell into a well.
Ridiculed as an impractical dreamer, Thales set out to show that philosophers could do anything they set their minds to, including amassing wealth. One winter, using his knowledge of meteorology and astronomy, Thales predicted a bumper olive crop for the coming season. He cornered the market on olive presses in Miletus and made a fortune when the olive harvest met his expectations.
Remarkably, Thales predicted the solar eclipse of 585 BCE. He also measured the height of the Egyptian pyramids using their shadows. Thales is perhaps best known for arguing that water is the basic source element, that ultimately all things are made of water. He also argued that “all things are full of gods and have a share of soul,” a poetic rendering of the insight confirmed by much later science that all matter is always in motion.
Atheism: A Brief History of Disbelief - The Final Hour (3/3)
Via: VideoSift
From Youtube:
The hard-to-find third (and final) part to Jonathan Miller's a 'Brief History of Disbelief' - the emotional end being by far the best part of the three, in my opinon. Looking at the modern rise of disbelief in society via science - and the natural conclusion to Jonathan's discussion, death.
"loyalty" - Zefrank
In the way Ze describes the mythology of acting might an interesting way to reconsider the teaching of poetry with it's shamanic creation/inspiration myth.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Dreams That Money Can Buy - Hans Richter Art Film
Via: VideoSift
Dreams That Money Can Buy is a 1947 American experimental feature color film written, produced, and directed by surrealist artist and dada film-theorist Hans Richter. Collaborators included Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Alexander Calder, Darius Milhaud and Fernand Léger. The film won a special prize at the 1947 Venice Film Festival.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039340/
"M" by Fritz Lang (1931 masterpiece pre-dating film noir)
Via: VideoSift
(117min)'M' is the story of a child murderer, loose in 1930's Berlin. Police are at a loss to find the serial killer; the criminal underground mounts an effort in order to distance themselves from the monster. A defining movie in early cinema, director Fritz Lang's first 'sound film' creeps through the shadowy world of film noir, long before such a genre existed, to portray the histeria in which a fearful society operates.
First sci-fi film ever (1902) with modern soundtrack, 6 mins
Via: VideoSift
This represents several months of work. Bruce Sterling has taken Georges Méliès' 1902 classic film "A Trip to the Moon" (Une Voyage dans la Lune), the first science fiction film ever produced, and dubbed on an original soundtrack!
The Art and Crimes of Ron English
Via: VideoSift
Ron English is a contemporary pop artist who explores popular brand imagery and advertising.
One aspect of his work involves 'liberating' commercial billboards with his own messages. Frequent targets of his work include Joe Camel, McDonalds, and Mickey Mouse. Ron English can be considered the "celebrated prankster father of agit-pop", who wrangles carefully created corporate iconographies so that they are turned upside down, and are used against the very corporation they are meant to represent. Ron English has also painted several album covers including The Dandy Warhols album cover "Welcome to the Monkey House". Some of his paintings are also used in Morgan Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me.
for more see - http://www.popaganda.com/
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Happy Pi Day!
Today is Pi Day! Why? Because the date on the calendar is 3/14. Someone offered me a celebratory cow pie, which is think is made of steak.
Anyhow, here's a pi day anthem (actual song length 3:14).
Via: VideoSift
LYRICS:
When ink and pen in hands of men
Inscribe your form, bipedal P
They draw an altar on which
God has slaughtered all stability
No eyes could ever soak in all the places you anoint
And yet to see you all at once we only need the ·
Flirting with infinity, your geometric progeny
That fit inside you oh so tight
With triangles that feel so right
(3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841 9716939937510582097494459)
Your ever-constant homily says flaw is discipline
The patron saint of imperfection frees us from our sin
And if our transcendental lift shall find a final floor
Then Man will know the death of God where wonder was before
Yeah, I know this Pi shit backwards and forwards
Check it out
I did three chicks then I pointed at the door
A girl entered in so that made it four
I snapped one time in came another five
Add 'em all up and that makes nine
The average age 26.5
Now that's what I call gettin' some pi
Five of the chicks wore 6-inch heels
Two of the nine squealed like seals
514 was the area code
Quebec, Canada my winter abode
And my 1.3 million dollar chalet
Pi backwards, pi forwards, all night and all day
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993
751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421
170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253
59408128481117450284502(fade out)
Slo-Mo Home Depot
From improveverywhere.com: 225 Improv Everywhere Agents shop in slow motion at a Manhattan Home Depot.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
1922 Classic Horror: Nosferatu
Via: VideoSift
Originally released in 1922 as "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens," director F.W. Munarau's chilling and eerie adaption of Stoker's Dracula is a silent masterpiece of terror which some believe to this day is the most striking and frightening portrayal of the legend.
Earning your Science Merit Badge
The Order of the Science Scout of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique has a set of badges for its members who are into such things: Link
Anton Chekov back from the dead and touring
Nearly two years ago Agent White pitched the idea "Meet Anton Chekov" to Improv Everywhere. The plan was to set up a card table in Washington Square Park with a large sign that read "Meet Anton Chekov" and have someone sit behind it claiming to be said Russian playwright....decided to take Agent White's "Meet Anton Chekov" pitch one step further, and stage a reading by Chekov, pretending to be a part of the Barnes and Noble "Meet the Writers" series. After staking out several downtown Barnes and Noble locations, I chose Union Square as our target. The "Meet the Writers" area on the fourth floor was the perfect setting. It features a large stage with podium in front of a seating area with around 150 seats. Customers tend to sit in the area and read quietly when there is no presentation happening; we would have a captive audience.
To read more and find out what happened click the LINK
'Boyz Allowed: The New Voices of Islam' - BBC Documentary
Via: VideoSift
This interesting BBC documentary explores the complex relationship between music and Islam. Native Deen and Seven8Six are two American Muslim bands, who perform to sell-out audiences across the world and have a fast-growing fanbase in Britain. They are part of a new wave of Muslim, or Nasheed, music, which allows the current generation of Muslims to engage with pop music while staying true to the principles of Islam.
Both the bands have a fusion of styles, but Native Deen are often classed as a Hip Hop group, while Seven8Six are more R'n'B. The latter's slick, boy band appeal has won them a lot of admirers, particularly among young girls, but that's also causing them a few problems with more conservative elements of the Muslim community.
Issues came to a head in August 2006, when the two bands were flown to the UK by the Islamic Forum Europe, to take part in a major Islamic event at Manchester's MEN Arena.
Seven8Six had no sooner landed than they were dropped from the line-up of the Manchester event by the very organisers who had paid for their visit. Although the band was never given a reason, it was understood that, for at least some of the event's organisers, a band consisting of five single, good looking, westernised young men in their twenties was projecting the wrong sort of image of Islam and attracting the wrong sort of attention.
"There are certain individuals that have issues with our image. I think you can't blame them, because its almost one of those things which is so new that you see five guys who dress like everyone else, who've got spiky hair and they get up and sing about being Muslim and proud of it and that's not what has been traditionally seen. It's been the long robes and big beards, which is... nothing wrong with that, but... our religion teaches us that you can't judge a book by its cover. So, that's one of the things that we're trying to get across: you can't make a judgement on this guy walking down the street, because he doesn't have a beard or he's not wearing a kufi on his head. You don't know what is in his heart." - Shahaab from Seven8Six
"Long live Seven8Six! They're very close to us. Sometimes, we call them our younger brothers, because they used to listen to us when they were a little bit younger and I think we helped inspire them to do it themselves. They have beautiful voices and they've gotten some problems before. They are attractive guys they have beautiful voices and so it gets a certain response from the audience and maybe a lot of the women in the audience and sometimes maybe organisers don't want to be associated with that. Maybe that's looking too mainstream, [but] the brothers are doing this for the same reasons that Native Deen is: we want to get this message out there we want to inspire people." - Joshua from Native Deen
"Image is a big deal to us. We really try to make sure that we carry ourselves in a manner that's appropriate and according to rules of Islam, but also still true to our identity as youth in western society, and a lot of times I think that people start to look at that and say, 'Well, these guys, they're too young and too hip and too cool.' And I think a lot of times we lose credibility because of that and it hurts, because you never want to be judged as based on your image, what you look like, and a lot of times that's gotten us in trouble. The real good fortune for us is, when we do go to events, people can see that beyond the spiky hair and the jeans that these are five guys that are actually sincere, and if you actually listen to the words of what they say that it actually means something positive. That, to us, is more important than image." - Zafur from Seven8Six
Despite the best efforts of their manager to get the Seven8Six re-instated to the line-up, the band weren't allowed to play. Events then took a turn for the worse as the band, and their manager, were even refused entrance to the MEN Arena as paying members of the audience.
Several fans were left disappointed and confused as to why the band didn't appear. Naseem Younis, mother of 11 year old fan Jinan, said, “Nobody really understood why they weren't performing. There wasn't an explanation. They just announced that they weren't performing without saying why. And there was definitely an “Ahhh” from the whole audience, because many people had come to see them.”
Even leaving aside the issue of Seven8Six's image, music is a complicated issue in Islam, with many different views on what is acceptable. Some Muslims believe that string and wind instruments are haram (unlawful) and should be forbidden. Here's what the band members themselves have to say on the issue:
"Some scholars say it's legitimate, some scholars say its not. One thing we can say that we all agree is that songs that are about sex, drugs, violence are not legit. Some scholars say, 'Hey, as long as the music is good and you don't lose yourself in it, it's legitimate.' Other scholars say. 'Even if it's good lyrically, if there are certain instruments that are used, like string instruments, like guitars, piano and wind instruments, studies have shown that it makes a person get into it more than they should. So, what is permissible, in the most conservative opinion, is percussion. So, that's what we subscribe to as a group. What we put out on our albums is vocals, it's our voices and just beats. So that makes us get creative with the way we do things. Now to a non-Muslim that, in itself, is hard to understand, but that's probably as basic as I can make it." - Shahaab from Seven8Six
"There is a strong opinion in Islam that wind and string instruments are forbidden. That may not be our opinion, but it is an opinion so we don't use it. Any time you buy a Native Deen CD, you will not find any wind or string instruments used on it because we respect that there are differences of opinion.Joshua from Native Deen
We felt that our message is paramount. We wanted the most Muslims to benefit from our work, so we use percussion only, when we're on stage. But then you have like amazing artists, like Yusuf Islam, [formerly Cat Stevens], who's recently picked up guitar again and you have Dawud Wharnsby Ali who's picked up a guitar again and Sammi Yusuf, who's putting on amazing forty piece orchestras around the world. It seems there will always be a debate on right and wrong [on any topic], but we try our best to have a middle path in everything we do and hopefully we're blessed for it and continue on it." - Naeem from Native Deen
For both bands, there are challenges in combining life on the road with the requirements of Islam, but they do their utmost to reconcile the two - always ensuring they fit prayers into their hectic schedules. Keeping focused on their religious motivation is not always easy: the pressures of delivering top class performances, the disapproval of some more conservative Muslims and the adoration of young fans are all constant struggles for the band members.
There is always a danger that you need to be on stage... and I think some people get drunk off their own stardom. We need to guard against that and that's why, before every programme we do, we make a prayer and say, 'Keep us guided.' One of the main songs that we do is called Intentions and that one we do that almost every set if we have the time, because it's like telling people: 'These are our intentions,' so we don't get caught up in the celebrity of things. We are just regular guys like you'd see at the grocery store and whatever. We just perform every once in a while and have a good time doing that." - Naeem from Native Deen
"There was definitely a fear in the beginning and I clearly remember Saad's father telling us about this whole fame and people idolising you or adoring you or whatever you want to call it. He said it's a definite danger, because it can go straight to the head and once that happens its very hard to recover from that. Thank God, we got that bit of advice very early on in our career and now we pay attention to it, and to us the fame doesn't really matter. In fact, it doesn't matter at all. We would rather be unknowns and everyone listen to our music and develop or understand the message that we're trying to put through." - Shahaab from Seven8Six
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Chuck Woolery introduces the best named guest on Love Connection.
