Byzantine Culture - Entitled Opinions

In a fascinating double edition of Entitled Opinions, Robert Harrison had a two hour conversation with Panagiotis Agapitos, Professor of Byzantine Studies at the University of Cyprus, about the history, literature and culture of Byzantium. For the history I think you'd better check with the podcast 12 Byzantine Rulers and several issues of MMW at UCSD. From there, the addition of Entitled Opinions is that of insight in a forgotten treasure trove of culture.

It is a question that possibly gets a beginning answer on these podcasts why Byzantium is largely ignored in the Western Perspective. In addition from professor Agapitos we learn of the great influence of Byzantine culture on ours. And when you come to think of the high standards it had during the Middle Ages, it is only natural that such is the case. Haven't we all read the romances? But shouldn't we know that the roots go back to Byzantium?

While on the subject of literature, Harrison and Agapitos take us further in an inspiring conversation about literature in general. I was thrilled by their opinion literature is actual three dimensional as opposed to film which is two-dimensional. I tend to agree, but I am sure a whole generation tends to think otherwise. It may seem that film is more immersing and it is very valuable to learn why literature may be more so. If only to be drawn to read Eco's Name of the Rose rather than see the movie - no matter how splendid.

More Entitled Opinions:
Jimi Hendrix,
Nietzsche,
Romanticism,
Sartre's Existentialism,
Five Free Favorites of Jesse Willis.

New Humanist podcast review

The New Humanist magazine, has a promotional podcast that gives a flavor of what is to be expected in the coming issue. (feed) New Humanist editor Casper Melville speaks with a couple of contributors to the issue about their articles. Judging from the feed, the podcast faded about half a year ago and has been revived just now.

So the latest issue is a first in what is hopefully coming to be a regular series. It was recommended, if I recall correctly, by the makers of Philosophy Bites through Twitter. In any case I picked it up on Twitter. The subjects are: Genetically Manipulated food, the New Economy hype and internet porn from the perspective of classical theory. The last subject seems to be the most sexy, but in effect it is the first. About porn you will learn just what you already knew; it is plain, superficial, predictable and lacking any form of story.

The question about genetically manipulated food is, what is it? What is good about it and what might be bad? Agricultural products are, already, the outcome of ages of breeding and amelioration. We have always striven to get out of our crops more yield, whether it is more harvest, bigger size, more nutrition or more resistance to disease or other failure. With new genetic technology the same aims are pursued on the molecular level. New Humanist sees no problem with it. The negative ideas about it are contributed to an intuitive revulsion. I hope to find a podcast some time that will shed more light from that angle.

Human Impact on the Environment - UCSD lecture series

An interesting summer course in Biology on the University of California San Diego (UCSD) is BILD 18 - Human Impact on the Environment by professor Milton Saier. (feed, website) As usual with UCSD courses, one is advised to download all lectures as soon as possible as they will be taken off line immediately at the end of the course.

In Saier's course the human impact on the environment is nothing to be proud or happy about. The nut shell example is the history of Easter Island. When humans first set foot on the island, it was a lush place with palm tree forests and a rich variety of fauna. For humans it was a good place to live. Plenty of food was to be had. Not just from the vegetation and animals on the island, but also, with the help of canoes, they could go out fishing and enrich the diet even more, notably with dolphin flesh. The famous statues of Easter Island are a distant memory on how rich life on Easter Island has been once upon a time. Yet, in order to build the canoes and move the statues about, the palm trees were cut. Once they were gone, so was part of the fauna and eventually also new canoes. The inhabitants had destroyed their habitat and fell to war and cannibalism.

In Saier's mind climate change, pollution and the rapid extinction of species on the entire planet are a large scale repetition of Easter Island's fate. So while he teaches the specifics of how humans impacted the environment, the facts speak for a normative conclusion. We bear the full guilt of the planet's impending collapse and radical change is needed to prevent disaster and contain the huge damage done already.

More Human and the Environment:
Defining Environmental History,
Climate Change will make us pay,
Electric Cars,
Good climate for everyone,
Lord Lawson and the alarmists,
Hot, Flat and Crowded,
Stern Review.

Downshifting with Marco Mattheis - German podcast review

Ganz Einfach Leben is a German podcast that takes environmentalism and economizing to the personal level. Host Marco Mattheis allows us to take part in his personal life and his personal strife to simplify his life. Eventually this is an excercise in discovering the good life with the minimum of means. (feed)

The effort to down shift, while obviously inspired by the need to bring down consumption for the sake of environmentalism and the need to simply cut costs, takes on a larger meaning of the good life. How to reduce stress, anxiety, compulsivity and the drive of the rat race by means of reducing the economic volume of ones life. Sticking to the minimum of possessions, to the minimum of credit should actually increase freedom and joy in life. The title of the podcast acquires a double meaning, not just to live simply, but also to simply live.

One can follow Mattheis on his quest to acquire this good life and both on the blog and the podcast see how this boils down to practical life. How decisions are taken what to purchase and why. What to cut away and why. Eventually this is not just an example one may consider to follow and take the podcast as a kind of guide, but it is also a possibility to connect with a community of people of like minds.

The need for Community - RSA podcast

The podcast RSA current audio contains recordings from lectures held at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (in short RSA). Usually these lectures are also compiled into the UChannel Podcast, which makes them to be available in both feeds. And consequently I pick them up, once in the one and then again in the other. This one lecture featuring, among others, Amitai Etzioni, about community, I picked up directly from RSA.

My first encounter with Etzioni, sociology professor at the George Washington University, was through the VPRO program Tegenlicht, where he was featured as an inpsiriation of a new generation of politcians among them Blair, Clinton and Kohl and Dutch Prime Minister J.P. Balkenende. Etzioni's sociology emphasizes values and community. At the RSA he was invited to answer the question whether people need community anymore. Based on my previous knowledge, the reply was expected; of course people do.

The basics of this idea are that the social fabric has gone bad, actually, once you have to 'bring in the lawyers and accountants'. Etzioni argues people need some kind of inner incentive to play by the rules and it is suggested community instills this in the individual. And then the really interesting question is: what is community? Where do you find it? And how does community help the social fabric remain intact? Here you will meet several levels of community and also will find Etzioni point out the darker side of community.

More RSA:
The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind,
Israel and Palestine,
Terror and Martyrdom,
Keynes.

Der Sonntagssoziologe - German Sociology with a wink

I suppose Der Sonntagssoziologe is a word that has a similar meaning in German as a 'Sunday's Sociologist' in Dutch would have; a less than serious sociologist. René Lehnert, the host of Der Sonntagssoziologe, is a sociology student who makes the occasional podcast, usually around a question (Frage den Sonntagssoziologen), in order to quickly clarify an issue from sociology or a sociological perspective. Always with a tongue in cheek. (feed)

Invariably, the question is read by a woman (Tabitha Hammer) with a French accent in her German and the answer can be a short as the one to the question What is Murphy's Law. The podcast breaks down, before the Sunday Sociologist succeeds in speaking. And so, this poking at sociology is apart from parody, also a bit of an audio play.

The most charming issue, I found, the one that tried to address the definitive question, What is sociology. Here the question doesn't come from the nice French girl, but rather from the Parents. 'Your brother makes machines, and you? You make... sociology?' Yes, I studied sociology at some point in my life, so I commiserate. René takes us down the line of the gruesome jargon of sociologists, deliberately mauling the answer. I hope his parents still love him.