Geography C110 - Berkeley Lecture series

There is a Geography course on Berkeley's Webcasts called Economic Geography of the Industrial World (link) by Professor Richard A. Walker. The list of subjects look very promising. It looks very economic also, but in the first lecture Walker emphasizes the geographical nature of the course. This means, less equations than to be expected in economics and more importance attributed to geographical notions such as regions, resources and so on.

The first lecture is also an expose about crisis and Walker claims he has been able to explain and even predict the most economic crises of the last decades. His analysis, if not convicing, at least shows how regions are important. The housing crises, now and the one of the early nineties, he demonstrates, occurred in very specific and even roughly the same areas and left the rest of the country rather unaffected. What he goes on to explain about price and credit developments not only sounds completely economic, but also the dynamic doesn't seem to me entirely alien to what economic models show.

So it is going to be really interesting to see how this claim of geography on economic issues will develop. The course is easy to follow, even if you miss out on the graphs Walker shows. I am definitely goign to sit this one out until the end. When relevant, I will write more reviews.

More geography:
Global Geopolitics,
Geography of World Cultures,
Natural Resources and Population,
Plate Tectonics.

Cooking with Forgotten Classics - podcast review

Mostly Forgotten Classics is about fiction; Julie reads a novel to you. Here is an episode that is about cooking though. The major part of this, rather long, podcast consists of Julie reading from John Thorne's Mouth Wide Open.

I found it the most interesting part where Julie reacted to the content and told how she deals with recipes and how others she knows do. She sees two types of people: those who roughly follow recipes, and make their variations as they go and those who either improvise while cooking, or follow recipes and then follow them rather strictly. In theory there would be people who only cook by recipes and then follow, but nobody seems to know them.

John Thorne explains, among others, in the sections that Julie reads out loud, why he hardly ever cooks from recipes and when he does, he allows himself vast freedom to alternate. His way of dealing with cookbooks, is read them. The recipes are not to be tried, but to be learned from, to give ideas. In addition there are thoughts about traditional cooking, theme cookbooks, cooking magazines and on and on. The reading section is actually too long, I think. And the whole subject, is much more alive when Julie discusses it. I think she could have summarized Thorne's view and made more of a free-style podcast. But hers is a podcast in which she reads to the listener. And this she does very, very well.

More:
Forgotten Classics - podcast review,
Podcast history of cooking,
Anne is a Man - recipes.

Ancient Philosophy - Berkeley lecture series

Berkeley's Course about Ancient Philosophy covers, according to the first lecture Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, which needless to say leaves out no small number of ancients, but surely is a fine traditional, classical approach. Should you decide to go follow, get out your Crito and start reading already.

I do not know this course from any earlier incarnations, but it sure kicks off rather nicely. The lecturer - David Ebrey - is clear, sympathetic and inviting. Apart from teaching Socrates and so on, Ebrey wants to hone his students' philosophical skills. That is what is always the most exciting part, I think, of philosophy courses: to be challenged in the way of thinking. Thinking harder and thinking differently and in many ways more accurately.

It doesn't always makes for easy podcasts, so that is why you are advised to try and keep up with readign if you can. Also, due to some copyrighted content, the second lecture was not recorded and so you jump from the introduction, straight into the third. The intention is that there will be no more skips like these.

More Philosophy:
East Asian Culture,
Philosophy Bites,
Existentialism.

The battle of Blenheim - historyzine

Historyzine is one of the great amateur podcasts about history. Host Jim Mowatt is no historian, has no radio station, university or newspaper to back him up; it is just him and his passion for the subjects he tells about. And that is, first and foremost, the war of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714)

His latest episode went back to the original format of the show in which Jim not only pays attention to his main topic, but also delivers a podcast review and the history behind a word or a phrase. The reviewed podcast is Stanford's lecture series about Hannibal by Patrick Hunt, which has been reviewed on this blog as well. The linguistic section explains everything you need to know about the Jacobites.

Unfortunately the main chapter was a bit less strong this time around. The recounting of the Battle of Blenheim was a bit tough to follow on account of the vast amount of data. I felt he tackled the geography and chronology rather well, which I guess is the hardest to get clear in the retelling. But I lost track with the names of the players and their connection with the various sorts of troops around; cavalry, infantry, English, Dutch, Austrians, Bavarians, French and on and on. It is a stumbling block many history podcasters struggle with: to balance the amount of data and the clarity of the story, or their own level of knowledge and that of the listener.

More Historyzine:
Reliving the War of Spanish Succession,
The year 1703,
On admirals and more,
18th Century Warfare,
Spanish Succession and History Podcasts.

Letters and Science - physics podcast review

A new course in UC Berkeley's podcast (and vodcast) directories is Letters and Science by Professor Richard Muller. (audio feed, video feed) Over the semesters this course has been delivered frequently and always under another title; Physics 10 and Descriptive Physics among others. The oldest and in many ways still the best title, however, is Physics for Future Presidents. The intention for Muller is to inform the wider audience about physics facts and data that are required in order to be able to have an informed opinion and partake in public debate on issues such as global warming.

Not only does Muller greatly succeed in delivering the subject, including hugely complicated stuff such as quantum physics, but also he manages to be highly entertaining and provocative. Therefore, after one lecture, I can only recommend the series once more.

For the Fall 2008, the course has also been updated. It will still be very familiar to those who have followed it before, but at the same time, Muller promises to pay more attention than ever to global warming. I find the lectures sufficiently accessible also in audio, but it makes sense Berkeley also filmed Muller's performance, so that you can keep track of the visuals and actually see the various experiments and demonstrations he performs.


Previously on Physics for Future Presidents:
Roswell New Mexico,
Nukes,
Hydrogen versus Gasoline.

Alexander von Kluck - veertien achttien recensie

Tom Tackens podcast over de eerste wereldoorlog, veertien achttien, vertelt het verhaal van de Grote Oorlog in 228 korte biografieën. Dat is misschien wel de mooiste manier om het fenomeen in beeld te brengen, maar herbergt de potentiële zwakte van versnippering. Hoe kan je met een reeks van schetsjes een beetje overzicht behouden, laat staan krijgen?

Tacken weet dit in de laatste aflevering echter heel erg goed te ondervangen. Het levensverhaal van de Duitse generaal Von Kluck dient leidraad voor een bespreking van een van de Duitse oorlogsstrategie in het algemeen en het tot in de puntjes voorbereide Von Schlieffenplan in het bijzonder. Wat was het plan? Hoe heeft Von Kluck het uitgevoerd? In hoeverre liep een en ander volgens plan? (Meer dan ik verwachtte) En waar werd er afgeweken? Ook komt aan de orde de vraag of het plan wel zo goed was, of dat de aanval geslaagd was, als er nog nuawgezetter aan het plan was gehouden.

Hoe het ook zij, Von Schlieffen ging uit van een Blitzkrieg. Zes weken kregen de Duitse legers om het westelijk front te bedwingen. Dan zou Rusland gemobiliseerd zijn en de oorlog in het oosten beginnen. Maar het westelijk front liep vast, het oostelijk ging al eerder open en niet alleen werd het de gevreesde oorlog op twee fronten, maar bovendien een stellingenoorlog en geen mobiel conflict, waar de Duitsers zo goed in waren. Dat het dan toch nog vier jaar duurde kwam doordat de geallieerden ook weer niet zo sterk waren dat ze de vastgelopen Duitse oorlogsmachine definitef konden verslaan. Zo min als Parijs, werd Berlijn gehaald. Wat bleef was de blubber van Ieper, de Somme, Verdun en het oostfront.

Ook van Tom Tacken:
Alexander Samsonov,
Dicke Bertha; Bertha Krupp,
Veertien Achttien - recensie,
Sterke Geschiedenis.