Tapestry (CBC) Face Time
If the eyes are the window to the soul, what would you call the face? The philosopher Wittgenstein called it “the soul of the body.” You can put your best face forward, face the music, put your game-face on. Somehow or other, whatever version of you that you bring to the outside world, is revealed on your face. Mary Hynes speaks to Jonathan Goldstein, Robin Ghivan, Oliver Sacks and Judith Harris.
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Wanhoffs Wunderbare Welt der Wissenschaft Sonnenbrand bei Walen und Hundebisse bei Kindern
Sonnenbrand bei Walen; Hunde beißen unbeaufsichtige Kinder, die sie “drangsalieren”; Was läßt Venusfliegenfalle zuklappen? Naturansatz bei Krebsmittel; Krebsmedikamnet aus Tabakpflanzen; Ultraschall schafft Genauigkeit bei Krebstherapie.
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De biografie van deze week in Veertien Achttien is over de Nieuwzeelandse ijzervreter Bernard Freyberg. Dit is het verhaal van een officier die met doodsverachting menig front in 14-18 bezocht heeft. Hij is een klassieke militaire held waarvan je er niet zoveel in de podcast van Tom Tacken tegenkomt.
Het cliche van de Eerste Wereldoorlog is veelal een verhaal van de dom rechtlijnige officieren die hun soldaten de dood injagen, vasthoudend aan 19e eeuwse mores en achterhaalde strategie. Of anders gaat het over de gelaten en ontnuchterde frontsoldaten die op de een of andere manier de modderhel proberen te overleven. Freyberg is enerzijds die frontsoldaat, maar hij wil maar niet ontnuchterd raken.
Het brengt Tom Tacken ertoe om zijn verhaal te vertellen met een stevige vleug van meewarigheid. Hoe indrukwekkender de vermetele manhaftigheid van Freyberg wordt, hoe meer het tegelijk ook wat potsierlijk is. Zelfs al zou je de man zelf zijn glorie laten dan tenminste is de grenzeloze bewondering voor hem, van onder meer Winston Churchill, een triest mechanisme dat de oorlog in stand houdt, zo lijkt Tacken te denken terwijl hij zijn tekst leest.
Veertien Achttien blijft een adembenemende podcast die internationaal zijn weerga niet kent. De traditionele media zouden er meer erkenning voor kunnen opbrengen. Misschien dat een korte verschijning van Tacken in het Journaal wat extra's zou kunnen brengen. Zie onderstaande video.
Radio Open Source Kwame Anthony Appiah: How to Make a Moral Revolution
Kwame Anthony Appiah in The Honor Code is inviting all of us to pick the “moral revolution” of our dreams and let him show us how to get big results fast. His exemplary case histories start with the end of dueling in England, which came swiftly on the news in 1829 of pistol shots between the Duke of Wellington (victor at Waterloo and by then Prime Minister of England) and the Earl of Winchelsea. In the same quarter century, England got out of the English slave trade and abolished slavery in the English colonies. And from the East, Appiah recounts the sudden, shamefaced end of female footbinding in China — the collapse of a thousand-year tradition within a generation after 1900. In each instance, a persistent, noxious openly immoral practice died of ridicule, as much as anything else. Appiah makes it a three-step process. First, “strategic ignorance” gets overwhelmed by a very public confrontation with an evil tinged with absurdity. Then the stakes of “honor” get redefined; no longer a prop of support, the idea of honor (as earned respect) becomes a battering ram of opposition. And finally group lobbying and popular politics seal a shift in values and practice.
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London School of Economics: Public lectures and events The Polish Question at the End of the First World War When the First World War broke out many assumed that it would inevitably lead to the re-emergence of a Polish state. As the war drew to an end the battle for Poland commenced on several fronts, both diplomatic and military. In the end, an independent Polish state would bear the mark of the way Poland re-emerged, placing the importance of nationalism above the need to build a modern democratic state. Anita J Prazmowska is professor of international history at LSE. She is the author of a number of monographs on Poland's place in European politics.
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Philosopher's Zone (ABC - Australia) The Art Instinct - evolution and aesthetics
Peacocks have tails; we have art. Dennis Dutton, Professor of Philosopher at the University of Canterbury, argues that art is a form of costly display designed to attract members of the opposite sex. But there´s more to it than that: the arts take us into the minds of the people that made them and so they´re an aspect of social life that is beneficial to human beings. This week, we explore a subtle, Darwinian approach to the painting of paintings and the telling of tales.
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New Books In History by Marshall Poe Joe Maiolo, "Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931–1941"
In Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931–1941 (Basic Books, 2010), Joe Maiolo proposes (I want to write “demonstrates,” but please read the book and judge for yourself) two remarkably insightful theses. The first is that the primary result of the disaster that was World War I was not the even great catastrophe that was World War II, but rather a new kind of state and one that is still with us. Maiolo’s second insight has to do with the origins of World War II itself. Most historians agree that it was “Hitler’s War.” He planned it, he armed Germany for it, and he started it. Maiolo doesn’t necessarily disagree with this position, but he offers an interesting counter-factual that puts it in a different light. What if there had been no Hitler? Would the statesmen of Europe have avoided a second great conflict? Maiolo suggests not, and for an interesting reason.
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Veertien Achttien Bernard Freyberg en twee vuile vingers in een wond (zondag 12 november 1916)
Commandant van de Nieuw-Zeelandse troepen in WOII, had Bernard Freyberg aan WOI al een heldenstatus overgehouden. Zijn zwempartij naar Gallipoli, zijn doodsverachting aan de Somme, zijn verovering op 11 november 1918: perfect cv voor een VC.
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Rabbi Adam Chalom (pronounce 'Shalom') can be heard on the podcast Kol Hadash. There are currently six issues in the feed that are recordings of his sermons before the congregation. The majority are connected with the recently passed High Holidays and superficially do not seem very different from any other rabbi speeching before his flock. (feed) However there is something very different.
One, the most recent, issue is about the more uncommon and complicated subject of Jews and the Muslim World. This is much less a sermon and more a lecture and a very interesting one at that, unfortunately the audio quality is below par and the rabbi can barely be understood. It gives though the first indication something is different with Rabbi Chalom. Another indicator is the name of his congregation: Kol Hadash, humanistic congregation.
Some of the sermons give a little bit of a hint what Chalom means by Humanistic. It appears Humanistic Judaism is not Orthodox, not Conservative and not even Reformed. I am going to listen to more in order to find out. It is one thing to hear the occasional sermon that I find uplifting, but I always struggle with the awkward feeling I am eavesdropping on a gathering that I am not part of, do not want to be part of and cannot be part of, because I do not believe, I do not belong and I am just this happy go lucky secular individualist. Chalom however, seems to embrace secularism. His Judaism seems to try to combine the religious tradition with modern concepts. He suggests he does not believe either, or at least does not propose you must believe. He openly questions whether one must uphold all the prescriptions, including keeping kosher and sabbath.
Not believing in god, not keeping kosher and not keeping sabbath sort of defines a very large portion of people who might feel connected to Judaism, however, I never thought they might have a congregation. I never thought they might be collectively doing something with it. That makes me want to hear more of Kol Hadash. (Which, by the way aptly means: new voice)
Harvard Business IdeaCast China's Secret Feud with Multinationals
Thomas Hout, visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong's School of Business and coauthor of the HBR article "China vs the World: Whose Technology Is It?"
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Shrink Rap Radio Mindfulness and psychotherapy with Patrick Thornton
In 1975, Patrick Thornton, PhD, who had been an evangelical clergy at the time, left the church because, as he often will say—quoting the Hebrew Prophet Isaiah— “the bed [was] too short to stretch out on, and the covering so narrow that [he could not] wrap himself in it.” He applies this quote to the doctrine and dogma of the church.
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Distillations Episode 108: Essential Elements - Fire
This week we continue our 4-part series about earth, air, water, and fire. Today’s episode is about fire and how humans have tried to protect themselves from it.
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Being aka Speaking of Faith (APM) The Dignity of Difference
Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Lord Jonathan Sacks, is one of the world's great thinkers on the promise and perils of religion. He senses that a core imperative of the 21st century is that we must cultivate strong identities as a way to honor what he evocatively calls "The Dignity of Difference."
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London School of Economics: Public lectures and events Hegemony and International Society
International relations theory is weak on how international order is managed under a preponderance of power. This lecture explores the notion of hegemony as a theoretical solution, and develops the thought of Martin Wight in this respect. Ian Clark is E H Carr Professor of International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth and a fellow of the British Academy.
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Professor Kenoyer has been doing research and archeological excavations on the Indus Valley Civilization since 1986 and before I point you to the audio and video where you can enjoy the lecture about his finds, first a few words on how I find interesting podcasting material.
One of my methods is to follow history blogs. One such history blog is Varnam which updates me frequently about Indian History. A couple of days ago, Varnam reported on a lecture about Indus Valley Civilization by Professor Kenoyer. Not only did I follow this, I also decided to look for Kenoyer on iTunes and thus I found yet another lecture. And that, of course, is another method of finding good podcasts: iTunes searches on good keywords.
In podcast you can hear Kenoyer at UCLA in a lecture that was published in the feed of The International Institute (feed) as well as the Center for Near Eastern Studies (feed). You can also see him in a video lecture which Varnam also pointed to and which can be found at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The two lectures are only slightly different so the podcast lectures have the advantage of being in mp3 and available in feed, while the video lecture allows you to look at the slides and enjoy the maps and the pictures that Kenoyer talks about. Although the Indus Valley script was not deciphered and finds are still rather few, there is much to learn from his lecture. How the valley cultures traded, how they varied, what can be deduced about their hierarchies and more.
Tapestry (CBC)
