Moral Relativism - Thinking Allowed podcast review

I am still trying to get the hang of BBC's podcast Thinking Allowed. The personal touch of host Laurie Taylor is much less distanced than that of In Our Time's Melvyn Bragg and apparently I was expecting a social sciences show with a Melvyn Bragg. Taylor is more involved, more opinionated and even mildly joking from time to time. He is also actively relating to the audience. Now there is a nice opening for us podcast listeners: send mail to the show and interact with it.

The last show, about moral relativism almost begs for contribution. There is the beginning of discussion. The moral absolute and the tolerance of other cultures are sufficiently posed before each other and then what? The item is already over, because the show is really short (less than 30 minutes) and there is ample time used for Taylor's musings and reactions.

That is a pity because, as I see it, we were about to draw a major conclusion (or slide into the tedious and repetitive discussion between cultural tolerance and the absolute of human rights) and that is: our culture bears both principles within its moral framework. We have learned both to respect other cultures, opinions, values and morals and yet we have a couple of profound and allegedly universal values. The real issue is not how to choose between either, but rather how to weigh them together. Certainly the guests eventually seem to lean in that direction.

More Thinking Allowed:
Male Immaturity.

Anne is a Man - hoping for more growth

I have been reporting every quarter about the growth of Anne is a Man's readership and this time around I am not sure if I can really report actual growth. The feeling is that we are stabilizing and however nice that is, I am still hoping for more. The graph below shows the blog statistics (by statcounter) which is only one of the indicators. What you see is a stable interest that boils down to around 200 visitors per day.



Other indicators are the feed statistics (by Feedburner) which indicates the amount of regular readers who follow the blog not by visiting, but rather from an RSS reader. These are not caught by Statcounter and, once a visitor decides to start following through RSS, he or she will far less frequently visit the page. In other words, the blog stats are bound to lose to RSS readers. This is indeed what seems to be happening in the last three months. While my the amount of visitors stabilized around 200, the amount of feed readers shot up from a little over 50 to around 100.

The last two indicators are for one my Technorati rating which counts how many sources on the web point to the blog over the last 180 days. This number has gone down from 22 to 18. (Hey, where are those links?!) The second indicator is the following on Networked Blogs, which I set up only recently and has added already over 30 followers.

Previously:
Rss following at the beginning of 2009,
October 2008: continued growth,
July 2008: small but growing.

Martin Simek podfaded en in de wacht

Het is sneller gegaan dan gerechtvaardigd. Simek 's Nachts is met ingang van 2009 als radioprogramma verdwenen, maar als podcast had het best nog iets langer mogen bestaan. Hoeveel podcast luisteraars downloaden nog uit de feed weken na verschijning - velen, vraag het maar aan onwillekeurig welke podcaster.

De RVU heeft echter de podcast feed al gede-activeerd. De laatste twee uizendingen hebben zelfs nooit in de feed gestaan en zijn alleen van de site (die is er nog wel) te downloaden: Tjeerd Bomhof en Sander de Kramer (Kramer alleen in stream). Verder zijn van de site alleen nog de uitzendingen van 2008 op te halen. Ooit was er een archief dat terugging tot voor 2005, met werk uit Kleur Bekennen dat -meen ik- al sinds 1995 bestond. Allemaal weg, fantastische audio met eeuwigheidswaarde. Nu alleen nog onbereikbaar achter de RVU-deuren.

Wat kan ik er verder nog over zeggen? Ik heb nog de interviews met K. Schippers en Theo Maassen kunnen beluisteren. Daarin is Simek zoals we hem gewend zijn. Met Schippers zijn er interessante verhalen over zijn jeugd in Amsterdam, met Maassen over lef op het toneel. Het is wachten of er nog wat komt van het eigen intitiatief van Martin Simek, samen met Gijs Groenteman op een eigen site.

Meer Simek:
Dhyan Sutorius,
Louis Tas,
Piet Hein Eek,
Ernst van de Wetering,
Ageeth Veenemans.

The Hebrew Bible - Open Yale course review

I knew Yale offered great on-line audio, I just ignored them for a long time for the simple reason the content is not syndicated. The courses do not come in a feed. The audio is not a podcast. However, it is a damn pity to let the courses pass on a mere technicality.

One of the jewels in the menu is Professor Christina Hayes' Introduction to the Old Testament, that is to the Hebrew Bible. In addition to the audio/video of 24 lectures, also the handouts and other course material is available. This course invites for such serious study, that more than ever I regretted not being able to follow the discussion sections. Or abandon my day job and blogging and take up one story in the Tanakh and engage in the kind of analysis Hayes relates to us.

The truly amazing thing in this course is that Hayes manages to reveal a world of investigations and interpretations of the Bible's content, covering an enormous amount of it. Each story could receive an entire course in itself, but she has to move on. Yet, never does one feel the course becomes too superficial. Overall, the course deconstructs and reconstructs the Bible, from the revered unified source, to an inapt, compromised compilation of competing traditions, yet, still powerful in its narrative and inspiring for one who agrees to be open for the overt or concealed messages.

More Bible History:
MMW 2 - Classical Traditions,
MMW 3 - History Guided by Religions,
Early Christianity,
Samson, the conflicted hero,
The Historical Jesus.

More Open Yale:
Introduction to ancient Greek history,
Game Theory.

Formations of Modern Art

This review basically comes too late. I was just in time to download the lectures of UCSD's Formations of Modern Art by William Bryson. This was, as so often, recommended by DIY Scholar. Now that the podcast has podfaded, I am working my way through the lectures and have a sufficiently good time I want you to be alert, for UCSD will soon enough bring this one out again.

The code is: VIS 22. The title: Formations of Modern Art. The lecturer is William Bryson and this is especially worthy of note, because Bryson personality is one of the dimensions that make this series attractive - or repulsive if you are not in to it. Bryson has a flamboyant and affected speaking style that is very 'gay' so to speak. It makes for colorful and expressive comment, but again, you have to like it.

If you do, it adds to the entertainment of the series. The fact that art is discussed and necessarily not visibly (it is audio after all) may be a terrible disadvantage, but I find it just an additional challenge.

Dagelijks genoegen: hoor geschiedenis podcast

Een van de meest geslaagde podcasts van de laatste tijd begeleidt me elke dag. Het is Hoor! Geschiedenis, van Feico Houweling. Ik vind het indrukwekkend hoe Houweling er in slaagt om stipt elke dag een nieuwe vijf minuten uit te brengen. Elke dag ook weet hij zich te beperken tot een miniem aspect van de aanloopgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden. Een aspect dat klein genoeg is dat hij het in vijf minuten kan uitleggen en dat weer aansluiting zoekt bij de grote lijn van de historie.

Het is een knappe prestatie in meerdere opzichten. Het is knap om in vijf minuten een verhaal af te krijgen - de meeste podcasters lukt dat niet. Het is knap om de connectie met de grote lijn vast te houden. In kortere historische podcasts beperkt de verteller zich meestal tot het oplepelen van feiten. En het is knap om de gestage, dagelijkse productie op peil te houden. Vele podcasters knokken om een wekelijkse of tweewekelijkse productie vol te houden. Dagelijks is iets dat alleen Bob Packett klaarspeelt in History According to Bob. Bob daarentegen meandert door de geschiedenis en weet mij niet te binden zoals Houweling dat kan.

Zoals gezegd, voor mij is het een groot genoegen, iets dat het begin van elke werkdag markeert. Behalve zondag, want dat is voor Houweling geen werkdag, maar dan is er de onvolprezen Volkis Stimme.

Meer Hoor! Geschiedenis:
Hoor! Geschiedenis - historische podcast recensie.

Meer History according to Bob:
Pick and choose,
1000 AD according to Bob,
The battle of Tours,
The Franks,
Virginia Oldoini.

Meer Volkis Stimme:
Angela Merkel in Volkis Stimme,
Volkis Stimme - recensie van een Duitse podcast.