For some time I began to think that the innovative German Vodcast Ersatz-TV had phased out. This may still be the case even though there was a new issue quite suddenly. It was a one subject issue about cranes, caterpillars and other digging machines great and small, but mostly great. It went with good camera work and good text, but without Annik and Herr Moose and so we are still waiting for the real Ersatz to continue...
More Ersatz TV:
Ersatz on swarm robotics, light art and the confusing sizes of mass produced men's suits,
Electronics, then and now,
The last before Summer break,
Ersatz TV from the Underground,
The way of the plants.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Ik ben een geraffineerde vrouw - Naema Tahir
In de laatste aflevering van KRO's voor 1 nacht was de schrijfster Naema Tahir te gast. Tahir die in Engeland geboren is uit Pakistaanse ouders en die behalve in Engeland en Pakistan, ook onder ander in Nigeria en uiteraard in Nederland heeft gewoond, brengt de thema's van identiteit (Moslima, vrouw) en sexualiteit mee in de uitzending.
Ze vertelt hoe ze haar identiteit gezocht heeft. Van een gesloten puber die haar heil in de Islam zocht, ontwikkelde ze zich tot een vrijgevochten onafhankelijke vrouw voor wie de vrijheid zichzelf te zijn het hoogste goed lijkt. Niettemin is ook dat nog een heel gevecht en de sexualiteit is een van de terreinen waarin ze dat gevecht zich ziet voltrekken. In haar Aletta Jacobslezing pleitte ze voor erkenning van de vrouwelijke sexualiteit en stelde ze dat die anders is dan de mannelijke en dat vrouwen zich niet die mannelijke sexualiteit moeten laten opdringen. Dat lijkt nogal een vage stellingname en Marc Stakenburg confronteert haar dan ook met felle reacties van vrouwen.
Het is niet zo makkelijk om er achter te komen wat ze nu precies bedoelt. Al meer wordt duidelijk als je het interview terughoort dat Martin Simek in 2006 met haar had. De RVU heeft de podcast vrijwel onvindbaar gemaakt en ik heb voor jullie gemak daarom de aflevering met Naema Tahir (met daarin haar eigen woorden: Ik ben een geraffineerde vrouw) in mijn huffduffer feed met Simek interviews gestoken.
Meer KRO's voor 1 nacht:
KRO's voor 1 nacht,
Ab Osterhaus,
Freek de Jonge,
Bennie Jolink,
Henk Spaan.
Meer Martin Simek:
Fabienne - dochter van Lucia de B (RVU),
Mohammed Jabri (RVU),
Nico Frijda (RVU),
Aaf Brandt Corstius (Elsevier),
Freek de Jonge (Elsevier).
Ze vertelt hoe ze haar identiteit gezocht heeft. Van een gesloten puber die haar heil in de Islam zocht, ontwikkelde ze zich tot een vrijgevochten onafhankelijke vrouw voor wie de vrijheid zichzelf te zijn het hoogste goed lijkt. Niettemin is ook dat nog een heel gevecht en de sexualiteit is een van de terreinen waarin ze dat gevecht zich ziet voltrekken. In haar Aletta Jacobslezing pleitte ze voor erkenning van de vrouwelijke sexualiteit en stelde ze dat die anders is dan de mannelijke en dat vrouwen zich niet die mannelijke sexualiteit moeten laten opdringen. Dat lijkt nogal een vage stellingname en Marc Stakenburg confronteert haar dan ook met felle reacties van vrouwen.Het is niet zo makkelijk om er achter te komen wat ze nu precies bedoelt. Al meer wordt duidelijk als je het interview terughoort dat Martin Simek in 2006 met haar had. De RVU heeft de podcast vrijwel onvindbaar gemaakt en ik heb voor jullie gemak daarom de aflevering met Naema Tahir (met daarin haar eigen woorden: Ik ben een geraffineerde vrouw) in mijn huffduffer feed met Simek interviews gestoken.
Meer KRO's voor 1 nacht:
KRO's voor 1 nacht,
Ab Osterhaus,
Freek de Jonge,
Bennie Jolink,
Henk Spaan.
Meer Martin Simek:
Fabienne - dochter van Lucia de B (RVU),
Mohammed Jabri (RVU),
Nico Frijda (RVU),
Aaf Brandt Corstius (Elsevier),
Freek de Jonge (Elsevier).
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Dan Carlin's history musings
Earlier toady I wrote about Bingham and Souza's grand theory of history and how I liked their appearance at the podcast New Books In History. I guess I am average in this appreciation. Maybe I should have the reservations historians in particular and scientists in general have towards grand theories, but for people like me, who enjoy educational podcasts, the grand theories deliver a certain type of entertainment. Call it the satisfaction to get a grip on it all.
Another history podcast that approaches this quality is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. I have frequently written on this podcast and emphasized its excellent narrative qualities, but together with Carlin's effective retelling of history, he also engages in exploring and analyzing generalities in history. You can call it grand theorizing, but surely it is more tentative than the thorough studies of Bingham and Souza, so it is maybe better to call it Dan Carlin's personal history musings. Dan Carlin loves to mull over history and try to discern general patterns and draw conclusions about humanity and its future. This we saw in the shows about Slavery, about Children, about Globalization and the most recent about Human Toughness.
Carlin plays with exactly the kind of thoughts I have and like to play with when having listened to one history podcast or another. One of the recurring themes in these explorations of his is how life in earlier times was so much harsher and then he assumes, if our ancestors were able to survive, what does that tell about them? Are they structurally haunted by PTSD? Should we assume they are much tougher and resilient than we are? If they were destructively traumatized, does that mean we can hope for a better future, since we are not? Or if they were stronger than we ever hope to be, does that mean we are on the way down?
What I would like to see Carlin add is the following thought: assuming that we and our ancestors are no fundamentally different, certainly biologically we aren't, could that mean we'd be able to cope with their fate just as they did? And if so, wouldn't that mean they are not more traumatized and more tough than we are? I am sure there would be things in our time that would seem traumatizing hardships in the perspective of people from other times and places- but that, Carlin never seems to consider. In spite of this reverse perspective that I find missing, Carlin dares to go where few history podcasts dare to go and he does it the best. It explains his popularity and deservedly so.
More Hardcore History:
The end of the war,
Stalingrad,
Ghosts of the Ostfront,
Dan Carlin about the East Front,
Slavery.
Another history podcast that approaches this quality is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. I have frequently written on this podcast and emphasized its excellent narrative qualities, but together with Carlin's effective retelling of history, he also engages in exploring and analyzing generalities in history. You can call it grand theorizing, but surely it is more tentative than the thorough studies of Bingham and Souza, so it is maybe better to call it Dan Carlin's personal history musings. Dan Carlin loves to mull over history and try to discern general patterns and draw conclusions about humanity and its future. This we saw in the shows about Slavery, about Children, about Globalization and the most recent about Human Toughness.Carlin plays with exactly the kind of thoughts I have and like to play with when having listened to one history podcast or another. One of the recurring themes in these explorations of his is how life in earlier times was so much harsher and then he assumes, if our ancestors were able to survive, what does that tell about them? Are they structurally haunted by PTSD? Should we assume they are much tougher and resilient than we are? If they were destructively traumatized, does that mean we can hope for a better future, since we are not? Or if they were stronger than we ever hope to be, does that mean we are on the way down?
What I would like to see Carlin add is the following thought: assuming that we and our ancestors are no fundamentally different, certainly biologically we aren't, could that mean we'd be able to cope with their fate just as they did? And if so, wouldn't that mean they are not more traumatized and more tough than we are? I am sure there would be things in our time that would seem traumatizing hardships in the perspective of people from other times and places- but that, Carlin never seems to consider. In spite of this reverse perspective that I find missing, Carlin dares to go where few history podcasts dare to go and he does it the best. It explains his popularity and deservedly so.
More Hardcore History:
The end of the war,
Stalingrad,
Ghosts of the Ostfront,
Dan Carlin about the East Front,
Slavery.
The best varied history podcast - NBIH
Anybody interested in history podcasts must keep a constant eye on the feed of New Books in History. Probably not all of the passing subjects are of your interest, but each week there is a new issue and there are over a hundred shows to look back at and there inevitably is a lot to find that is exactly to your liking.
Issues that I have browsed through over the past weeks are a couple of old ones, along with the new issues each week:
Tim Snyder, “The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of A Habsburg Archduke” An interview from 2008 about the eccentric Archduke Wilhelm of Austria.
John Lukacs, “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Dire Warning” Also an old interview from 2008, about Winston Churchill's inaugural speech in 1940.
Three new recent issues were:
Andrew Donson, “Youth in the Fatherless Land: War Pedagogy, Nationalism, and Authority in Germany, 1914-1918″
Amy Bass, “Those About Him Remained Silent: The Battle Over W. E. B. Du Bois”
Patrick Manning, “The African Diaspora: A History Through Culture”
I was especially inspired by the very last issue, P. Bingham and J. Souza, “Death From a Distance and the Birth of a Humane Universe”, which contains an interview with both these authors, none of whom are historians. They combine their knowledge in biology and social science and have come up with a theory of history. They point out how human society lives by the measure to which it can police its members and they explain the developments from the development of weapons. The weapons allow for a certain scale of policing and therefore command the size and complexity of society and hence the course of history. As the host Marshall Poe already points out, historians generally do not engage in such grand theories and it really begs the question how Bingham and Souza's work is received. For the podcast listener it is by all means interesting and thought provoking.
More NBIH:
The Caucasus,
The genocide and the trial,
Nation and Culture,
Three New Books In History,
The fourth part of the world.
Issues that I have browsed through over the past weeks are a couple of old ones, along with the new issues each week:Tim Snyder, “The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of A Habsburg Archduke” An interview from 2008 about the eccentric Archduke Wilhelm of Austria.
John Lukacs, “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Dire Warning” Also an old interview from 2008, about Winston Churchill's inaugural speech in 1940.
Three new recent issues were:
Andrew Donson, “Youth in the Fatherless Land: War Pedagogy, Nationalism, and Authority in Germany, 1914-1918″
Amy Bass, “Those About Him Remained Silent: The Battle Over W. E. B. Du Bois”
Patrick Manning, “The African Diaspora: A History Through Culture”
I was especially inspired by the very last issue, P. Bingham and J. Souza, “Death From a Distance and the Birth of a Humane Universe”, which contains an interview with both these authors, none of whom are historians. They combine their knowledge in biology and social science and have come up with a theory of history. They point out how human society lives by the measure to which it can police its members and they explain the developments from the development of weapons. The weapons allow for a certain scale of policing and therefore command the size and complexity of society and hence the course of history. As the host Marshall Poe already points out, historians generally do not engage in such grand theories and it really begs the question how Bingham and Souza's work is received. For the podcast listener it is by all means interesting and thought provoking.
More NBIH:
The Caucasus,
The genocide and the trial,
Nation and Culture,
Three New Books In History,
The fourth part of the world.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Oudenaarde and how the Dutch went bankrupt
The order in which the podcast Historyzine offers its sections is thus that the narrative of the next part in the War of Spanish Succession always comes last. A new and very good feature within the show - the interview with a historian -therefore comes previously. This makes generally good sense, as the War of the Spanish Succession is the main subject of the show, yet in the latest issue, the order might better have been reversed.
Host Jim Mowatt spoke with James Falkner, before telling about the battle of Oudenarde in 1708. (I spell this town Oudenaarde, but that is the difference between Dutch and English) He asks Falkner about the show's continuing hero, the Duke of Marlbourough, and about the outcome of the war and that is why the talk would have probably suited better after the show. In the narrative a good portion of the tension is that you do not know in advance, how things are going to work out. However, the interview talked about the war in general and extensively discussed the outcome of the war, thus defusing part of the suspense.
Nevertheless, this is once again, a great show and I hope Mowatt will continue to have interviews with specialists. It was very enlightening to learn Falkner's analysis of the war. Even though the Allies (notably the English and Dutch) won and France lost, the result was more like a stand off. France was still powerful and especially the Dutch got bad terms in the peace treaty. The war had bankrupted them and as Falkner put it, made them draw the conclusion that playing the game of empire was not something they could or wanted to keep up with. Hence, the long-term outcome was Britain's hegemony on the seas. Very interesting, but much more effective to consider, after you have heard about troops moving around a town in Belgium.
More Historyzine:
Aftermath of victory,
The Battle of Ramillies,
Winter diplomacy,
The lines of Brabant,
Historyzine at its best.
Host Jim Mowatt spoke with James Falkner, before telling about the battle of Oudenarde in 1708. (I spell this town Oudenaarde, but that is the difference between Dutch and English) He asks Falkner about the show's continuing hero, the Duke of Marlbourough, and about the outcome of the war and that is why the talk would have probably suited better after the show. In the narrative a good portion of the tension is that you do not know in advance, how things are going to work out. However, the interview talked about the war in general and extensively discussed the outcome of the war, thus defusing part of the suspense.Nevertheless, this is once again, a great show and I hope Mowatt will continue to have interviews with specialists. It was very enlightening to learn Falkner's analysis of the war. Even though the Allies (notably the English and Dutch) won and France lost, the result was more like a stand off. France was still powerful and especially the Dutch got bad terms in the peace treaty. The war had bankrupted them and as Falkner put it, made them draw the conclusion that playing the game of empire was not something they could or wanted to keep up with. Hence, the long-term outcome was Britain's hegemony on the seas. Very interesting, but much more effective to consider, after you have heard about troops moving around a town in Belgium.
More Historyzine:
Aftermath of victory,
The Battle of Ramillies,
Winter diplomacy,
The lines of Brabant,
Historyzine at its best.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Feico Houweling vertelt
Hoe zijn de grenzen in Europa ontstaan? Die vraag staat centraal bij zes gratis vertellingen over de Europese geschiedenis in de Centrale Bibliotheek aan de Rotterdamse Hoogstraat.
Wie houdt van de podcast Hoor! Geschiedenis, moet de kans grijpen om naar Rotterdam te komen. De Rotterdamse geschiedenisverteller en maker van Hoor! Geschiedenis, Feico Houweling, laat aan de hand van oude kaarten en ander beeldmateriaal zien hoe de grenzen tussen de Europese landen in de loop van de tijd vorm hebben gekregen. Elk land heeft zijn eigen geschiedenis en die ging maar al te vaak ten koste van
buurlanden. Opvallend is dat bijna elk land wel een 'gouden eeuw' heeft gekend, waarin het zijn omgeving overheerste.
Alle vertellingen worden gehouden op vrijdagmiddag:
7 mei: Frankrijk en Duitsland.
14 mei: Italië en het Iberisch schiereiland,
21 mei: Groot-Brittannië en Ierland,
28 mei: de Benelux,
4 juni: Scandinavië
11 juni: Balkan.
De vertellingen worden georganiseerd door Europe Direct en de Rotterdamse Bibliotheek. Ze vinden plaats in de Glazen Zaal op de eerste verdieping en de aanvang is steeds om 14.00 uur. Bezoekers wordt aangeraden op tijd te komen, want als de zaal vol is, sluiten de deuren.
Meer Hoor! Geschiedenis:
De Spaanse Successieoorlog,
Plakkaat van Verlating,
Willem van Oranje als Bijbelfiguur,
Dagelijks genoegen: hoor! geschiedenis,
Hoor! Geschiedenis - historische podcast recensie.
Wie houdt van de podcast Hoor! Geschiedenis, moet de kans grijpen om naar Rotterdam te komen. De Rotterdamse geschiedenisverteller en maker van Hoor! Geschiedenis, Feico Houweling, laat aan de hand van oude kaarten en ander beeldmateriaal zien hoe de grenzen tussen de Europese landen in de loop van de tijd vorm hebben gekregen. Elk land heeft zijn eigen geschiedenis en die ging maar al te vaak ten koste vanbuurlanden. Opvallend is dat bijna elk land wel een 'gouden eeuw' heeft gekend, waarin het zijn omgeving overheerste.
Alle vertellingen worden gehouden op vrijdagmiddag:
7 mei: Frankrijk en Duitsland.
14 mei: Italië en het Iberisch schiereiland,
21 mei: Groot-Brittannië en Ierland,
28 mei: de Benelux,
4 juni: Scandinavië
11 juni: Balkan.
De vertellingen worden georganiseerd door Europe Direct en de Rotterdamse Bibliotheek. Ze vinden plaats in de Glazen Zaal op de eerste verdieping en de aanvang is steeds om 14.00 uur. Bezoekers wordt aangeraden op tijd te komen, want als de zaal vol is, sluiten de deuren.
Meer Hoor! Geschiedenis:
De Spaanse Successieoorlog,
Plakkaat van Verlating,
Willem van Oranje als Bijbelfiguur,
Dagelijks genoegen: hoor! geschiedenis,
Hoor! Geschiedenis - historische podcast recensie.
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