How to be a Philosopher

Brook Sadler shows us some of the secrets of the trade of philosophy.

Technique 6
Respond to an article or book that you have not read. Be relentless.

The "be relentless" advice could apply to many fields, including distributed system project management.

What I read on the bus yesterday

I'm currently reading Tibor Fischer's first novel, Under the Frog. I'm only about a third through it, but I am loving it so far. He's followng the actions of a group of young men through post-war Hungary as they live a slightly better life playing on a basketball team. It isn't as far out with language as his later work (more on that in the future) but still shows off his talent. I know I will never be able to write like that, but as I tell my daughter when she gets upset at things, "That's OK".

Here's a sample. The hero Gyuri has seen a girl jump from a bridge while riding the bus to work:

She looked like a country girl, seeking a populous conurbation for taking the exitless exit and not really attractive enough to encourage diving in after her but then if she had been attractive enough to have hordes of men diving in after her, she wouldn't have had to jump in the first place.

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

I was touched by his noodly appendage. And the NYT review.

Emergency. Find first friend.

As much as the Washington Post makes fun of it, I really like the analysis features of Amazon.com. And it is going to get better.

Here's a poem made from the Concordance of Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness": Emergency. Find first friend. Give kids life. Live myth.
Yes, you heard right: This site is under deconstruction.

Link found on Blog of a Bookslut.

40 Popular Culture Events That Changed Australia

David Dale from the Sydney Morning Herald wrote this list of 40 Aussie media moments in response to an Uncut article listing the top 100 mass media moments that changed the world.

David Dale also wrote An Australian in America, a book about America from the point of view of a visiting Australian. It added to my desire to live in such a strange place.

Push the Edge of the mp3 Envelope

Get the piiPod and avoid the long term side effects of mp3 player usage while maintaining the familiar bulge in your pocket:

...it will be made entirely of wood, and is specially designed to be unable to play music and sound files.

Well I entered the competition.

Question of the Day

How come Australia and NZ are in the position of having the most expensive housing, when calculated based on median household income?

Here is the original report with city rankings organised by country and some commentary:

"Over the past 30 to 40 years, in both Australia and New Zealand, land use regulators have increasingly strangled the land supply, creating artificial scarcities and driving land prices in to the stratosphere."

Instead of watching a TV show, read its review

Sam Anderson of Slate's Culturebox commenting on his favourite reality show:

"Brat Camp was like porn for people who hate teenagers—which is probably the largest target audience possible, since it includes everyone in the world, even (and especially) teenagers."

Mortality at St George's

St George's says it is the first hospital to
publish death rates for each area of practice within the hospital.

For example, see the death rate for plastic surgery there - it averages to 0.2%.

Goldilocks Dies With Honor at the Hands of the Three Bears

Every now and then McSweeney's Lists comes up with something that raises a smile. Here is a list of Klingon Fairy Tales.

More Television Thought

There are many people who do not watch television and use that fact as a way to show some form of superiority. I wonder if the logic goes something like this:

• advertising is bad - makes us buy items we do not need
• therefore tv is bad - it is a delivery vehicle for advertising
• therefore no tv is good

The content of the shows can also be bad - too much violence, judgemental characters, poor social behaviour. Programs that show reasonable, happy people with no emotional crises probably don't sell enough advertising. So not only is advertising bad, the shows can have a negative effect on the development of one's attitudes to other people and society as a whole.

And beyond that we have television as a system to create what Alain de Botton calls 'Status Anxiety' where television contributes to the perception that viewers are under-privileged compared to their peers.

Starting from a different perspective, television is just a box that shows moving pictures with snchronised sound. Like all media, it can be abused. If we can be thoughtful with our selection of the content we can gain from the television's sensory experience. I don't have a great list of content that I consider beneficial, but here's what my family is viewing:

Musicals

Both for adults and children, watching a couple of songs from a good musical keeps my 2-year-old daughter well entertained. She sings along and dances with the people on the box. Some of the musicals we watch:

• Mary Poppins
• Singing in the Rain
• Jungle Book
• South Pacific
• West Side Story

Documentaries

These are intended to be educational and entertaining, opening a window up to other places in the world and exposing us to new ideas. Of course, the thought persists that we would be better off going to those other places and coming up with new ideas for ourselves. We do pause the show frequently and discuss thoughts that are provoked by the show. The pause/discussion behaviour is common to all our DVD watching. Sample documentaries:

• The Long Way Round
• Himalaya (or any of those Michael Palin travel documentaries)
• Guns, Germs and Steel
• Good Eats
• History of Britain
• Wild Weather
• Life on Earth (or any David Attenbrough show)

And then there's the...

Shlock

...that we watch to provoke childhood memories:

• Blake's 7
• Auf Wiedersehen Pet
• The Professionals
• Wonder Woman

I believe we are better off watching these shows than not watching them. Time spent watching broadcast tv is much more likely wasted time than time spent discussing how cool 'The Professionals' were to a 13 year old boy in London and its long-term effect on my personality.

Six months ago, Amelia Hill turned off her telly - for good

Learn about how television affects you by not watching it - Amelia Hill at The Observer.

We watch dvds at our house, mostly of old television shows from the UK (e.g. Blackadder, Auf Wiedersehen Pet) or movies for our children (Singing in the Rain, Mary Poppins). I am still wondering whether this is an effective use of a great audio-visual medium for education and entertainment or if we really would be better off without it.

Legal Affairs

Legal Affairs looks at the
similarities between terrorism and piracy. A definition of Piracy as a 'private war for private ends' does seem to have a lot in common with terrorism. Thanks to Arts and Letters Daily.

Neocon in Commentary

Comentary has an article that made me think about America's policy on the Middle East. When I look back at the Clinton years all I think of was the pathetic attempts at helping Bosnia. I wonder how I will look back at the current neocon time.

The article also contains a reusable Trotsky quote: “Everyone has a right to be stupid, but Comrade Macdonald abuses the privilege.”