Monday, February 18, 2008

New Podcast Reviews by Anne the Man

Within 24 hours:
- OVT (Vichy)
- The Economist: Democracy in America

Within 48 hours:
- Distillations
- The Biography Show (Alexander the Great)
- A conversation with Alan Johnston

In the coming days
- Open Source (After the Empire: Must Reading from Parag Khanna)
- UChannel Podcast
- Environmental History (Urban Air Pollution)
- Shrink Rap Radio (Mindmentor and others)
- More Simek

This month: A new podcast directory to be added, Geography Podcasts.

New podcasts on trial:
Historypod
Chronicles Radio Dispatches
Africa Past and Present


Subscribe in a reader

Paste the link
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Anne_Is_A_Man
into the RSS reader of your preference.

You can let your preferences know by commenting on the blog or sending mail to The Man Called Anne at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

Witches, plague, war and Hobbes

In a way the fall of Constantinople was not so much of a low note in the making of Europe. It basically emancipated this backwater from the east even if it suddenly had to stand up on its own facing the Islamic invaders and also lost touch with the trade routes into India and China. That is 1453, where History 5 started. The next issues were the opening up of the New World and the Reformation which, even though enough ugly stories go along with it, first and foremost exemplify the vigor of emerging Europe. In the fourth week however, History 5 plunges us without any restraint in to the depth of ugliness and the many faces it wore during the 16th and 17th century.

Part of this is the immediate result of the Reformation and the political and military consequences it took. War tore the emerging area apart. Most notably the Thirty Year's war, which killed off, up to 50% of the population in certain parts of the German lands, but not just there. Also in France, England the Netherlands and the rest of Europe war raged.

In addition to all this upheaval we have the prosecution of witches which rises to enormous heights in this era and fortunately also subsides by the end. Also there is plague, ever since the end of the Middle Ages, the black death continues to break out. Lectures 7 (Things Fall Apart: Persecution, Plague, and War) and 8 (Hobbes's World and the Emergence of Constitutional Government) of History 5 take us through these upheavals and make the connection to Hobbes's reaction in the form of a political theory asking for absolute power to the state. What is especially challenging is Professor Anderson's effort to explain the witch hunt; evaluate the various popular and scientific explanations and outline the beginning of an explanation of her own.

More History 5:
Reformation,
Europe and 1492,
The making of Europe in 1453,
From the Renaissance Until Today,
The genitals of Christ: Anne asks and then Anderson replies.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Simpleology blogging course - is it on blogging at all?

I didn't like the first 30 minutes I spent with Simpleology, so why bother at all? I blog about podcasts and loathe to engage you with thoughts on blogging at all. It just so happened Simpleology was offering this "multi-media course on blogging" which I could obtain for free if I'd announce it the way I did in the post below. I was tipped off by a blogger whom shall remain nameless, but who I highly respect. On account of my trust in him, I took over the advert, without additional investigation. And I regret it now. This post is to warn others who consider doing the same.

Immediately after I posted my embedded ad, I was allowed access to the so-called course. Before however being able to embark, I had to sign up and go through a couple of pages of account set-up which step by step made me feel worse about the direction it was taking.

On the first page, before getting anywhere, I am treated with unsolicited health advice which is summed up in two rules: chew well and drink enough water. In the process you are invited to say some of the sentences aloud (!). The rest involves a old sales trick: this is your one time opportunity to save $97 dollars and apply for a free trial of 6 more courses by Simpleology. Are they about blogging? Are they even remotely about blogging and the web? No, no, no. This is all para-medicine. How to lose fat, how to stop hair loss and stuff like that and then it is on to the next page.

The second and third pages urge me to download and install all sorts of applications and to turn the Simpleology page into my homepage. Do I want that? Do I need that? I wanted a course about blogging. Get me some content, get me some ideas first. As many other heavy PC users I have bad feelings about downloading and installing applications. This is by all standards a big no-no. And so I skipped these steps and peeked at the pdf that gave the course outline. This at face value contained lots of psychology exercises and nothing about writing, blogging, attracting traffic, keeping your readers at the site and that kind of stuff I want to know all about.

In stead, it looked like the DIY's in psychology that are so inevitable these days. That look so similar even if they claim to be utterly different and not be spawned of Scientology AT ALL. I do not care if it is Avatar, or Landmark, or Forum, or NLP, or the Purpose Centered Life (podcast), or what have you. It is all the same in my eyes: train your mind to think the right thoughts and your life will change into one sensational feast of happy successes. I am no vessel of negativity but I do not believe this for a moment and find it utterly untrustworthy, bordering on dangerous.

In short, I was seriously put off by Simpleology and stand to be corrected on my initial impression: no actual, practical course on blogging is offered at all. And as such this is a scam.

The man behind this all is Mark Joyner. He is no psychologist, no philosopher, no teacher, master, rabbi, guru of any kind. He is a marketeer. A web search on his name or on his Simpleology, will hit you nearly exclusively with shouting, singing and swinging exclamations. Well, yeah...

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

What can be expected on Anne is a Man, blog

Within 12 hours: History 5 (Witches, plague, war and Hobbes)

Within 24 hours:
- OVT
- The Economist: Democracy in America



In the coming days
- Open Source (After the Empire: Must Reading from Parag Khanna)
- UChannel Podcast (one of three: A Conversation with Alan Johnston; The Encounter of Islam with Europe; The Economics of Climate Change: Risk, Ethics, and a Global Deal.
Do you readers have a preference? Comment or send mail...
)
- The Biography Show (Alexander the Great)
- More Simek

This month: A new podcast directory to be added, Geography Podcasts.

New podcasts on trial:
Historypod
Chronicles Radio Dispatches
Distillations
Africa Past and Present


More:

I am evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

  • The best blogging techniques.
  • How to get traffic to your blog.
  • How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.



Subscribe in a reader

Paste the link
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Anne_Is_A_Man
into the RSS reader of your preference.

You can let your preferences know by commenting on the blog or sending mail to The Man Called Anne at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Lucie Stepanova (Lucie Štěpánová)

Simek had zijn reserves toen hem werd aanbevolen om de celliste Lucie Stepanova te interviewen. Een Tsjechische? Gaan dan twee Tsjechen Nederlands met elkaar spreken, omdat het radio is? Uit beleefdheid? Ondanks de terughoudendheid heeft hij de uitdaging gelukkig toch aangenomen. (stream)

Voor de podcast editie van Simek 's Nachts wordt de muziek weggeknipt, maar dat geldt alleen voor de opnames. In deze editie met Stepanova, kunnen we haar live horen spelen op de cello, en ook zingen. Zingen in het Tsjechisch en voeg daarbij ook wat woorden uit het Tsjechisch. Als het dan toch gebeurt, dan laat Martin de kans niet voorbijgaan om zijn moedertaal aan te raken. Het zorgt voor een heel persoonlijke toon van het gesprek.

Stepanova zelf maakt ook indruk. Hoewel ik meestal niet zo enthousiast wordt van de jongere gasten (ze is nog maar 30), is deze keer een uitzondering. In haar bescheidenheid vindt ze haar kracht. Bovendien wil bescheidenheid nog niet zeggen dat ze niet uitgesproken zou zijn. Dat is ze wel. Ze laat zich dus ook niet door Simek en zijn nostalgie overvleugelen. Het resultaat is een heel fijn gesprek.

Meer Simek op dit blog:
Olaf Tempelman,
Paul Gelderloos,
Bas Heijne,
Herman Finkers,
Tijs Goldschmidt.

Komende gasten bij Simek (en wellicht op dit blog):
Nico ten Berge,
Jaap van der Zwan,
Antonie Kamerling.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Friday, February 15, 2008

Free riders - Philosophy Bites

The latest issue of Philosophy Bites addresses the philosophical problem of free riding. The problem is defined as: Why should anyone contribute to a joint enterprise if their contribution is tiny and they can just as easily 'free ride' (i.e. get the benefit without making the sacrifice)? For example: why should I vote, if my vote dissolves in the sea of votes. Why should I not pollute, if my contribution is inconsequential to the environment?

I remember we discussed a similar problem when I studied philosophy of law. The example we took was about a polluted river. The question was: what justifies the prohibition to throw waste in this river, when it is so severely polluted that any addition doesn't make it worse? If justifications are only related to consequences we can't. Ethical thinking that is consequential will see here a dilemma, but if we assume value can be inherent, there is no problem. Throwing waste is in itself worng and therefore it is justified to prohibit it.

It seems to me, the free rider problem also gets entangled in consequentialism. If however we evaluate our actions also on their inherent qualities, we are capable of rationally deciding against taking a free ride. That is, as far as we can. Aren't we all free riders on the planet? Aren't we profiting left and right in our lives from the past, from the environment without making contribution?

Richard Tuck is invited to present his solution to the problem, which, according to the introduction by David Edmonds, is regarded by some as insolvable, and therefore a true dilemma. Tuck is not particularly easy to follow, so the listener be prepared. He tends to mumble a bit. Otherwise his explanations are thought provoking and take a whole different direction than my idea.

More Philosophy Bites:
Humanism,
Is war innate?
Wittgenstein,
Friendship,
Egalitarianism.


AddThis Social Bookmark Button