Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category
Some Dr.Who parodies:
Hunter S. Thompson
A short audio interview given about ‘hells angels’;
and the problem between the blurring of fantasy and reality:
gonzovision:
The Cartoons of Katou Kunio
Well,I’m home for xmas so I ’should’ either be spending time with the family or doing my dissertation *shudder*.. So what am I doing? Watching odd Japanese cartoons. They are pretty cool though…
‘The Apple Incident’
‘The Diary of Tortov Roddle’ - The Melancholy Rain
Granted,they are a bit heavy on atmosphere and what plot there is in the cartoon’s I’ve seen so far are limited,but still,if you like these there are plenty on youtube…
The Battle of Algiers
Recently ‘had’ to watch this as part of an International Relations course. Very enjoyable though it does take about 30 minutes to get good:
The Root of all Evil - Uncut Interview
Interesting interview here - the one thing I really like is how Dawkins comes across as a much more polite and reasonable person in these clips with Alister McGrath:
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The information age in numbers
Interesting stuff:
An Ethical Question:
‘Referring to Kantian ethics - Is it right or wrong to sell parts of your body/organs for financial (or equivalent) reward?’
Anyone have any Ideas where I can get good articles on this? Proving a bit difficult atm..
Just one of those things that made me laugh today;
The Times biography book of ‘Great Lives of the 20th Century’ from 2005 features Pope John Paul the second on page 666. I’m not joking - look it up.
The begining of history?
Interesting article here from the BBC website by Sci-fi author Charles Stross - in it he suggests that ‘history has only just begun’ because while we can guess at the ‘wide stuff’ the day to day minute of peoples lives are largely unknown.
His idea? As I can figure it its that with modern technology being what it is future history students may use my blog, facebook and bebo accounts to reconstruct my life (or at least a significant portion of it anyway). Its an interesting idea but I’m not sure if its totally convincing….
My lack of belief lies mainly on the grounds of whether the technology he talks about will ever become fully available and even if it does finding the time to figure it all out would be ridiculous. I mean, in some ways I’m reminded of an issue of Warren Ellis’ future set ‘Transmetropolitan’ comic where the lead character points out that even big business or government groups hardly even bother to hide information becuase the sheer amount of information they release by themselves is nearly impossible to follow and that’s without contextualisation - so even if it Stross’ idea is the right one it may be a case of ‘drought to a flood’…
”Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature”
From ‘Psychology Today’ supposed truths about human nature that you won’t hear said too often owing to their un-pc nature. Some of them ring fairly true or at least as being somewhat correct - why men are better off in monogamous societies or why men like thin blonds;
Men prefer young women in part because they tend to be healthier than older women. One accurate indicator of health is physical attractiveness; another is hair. Healthy women have lustrous, shiny hair, whereas the hair of sickly people loses its luster. Because hair grows slowly, shoulder-length hair reveals several years of a woman’s health status.
Men also have a universal preference for women with a low waist-to-hip ratio. They are healthier and more fertile than other women; they have an easier time conceiving a child and do so at earlier ages because they have larger amounts of essential reproductive hormones. Thus men are unconsciously seeking healthier and more fertile women when they seek women with small waists.
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But not all of them ring as true - the claim that ‘men sexually harass women because they are not sexist’ is one that I just can’t follow (whether its just a case of me needing to reread it a few times or whether its a case of it being rubbish I’ll leave you to decide) or the part about what Bill Gates and criminals have in common for example which ends with this paragraph
Women often say no to men. Men have had to conquer foreign lands, win battles and wars, compose symphonies, author books, write sonnets, paint cathedral ceilings, make scientific discoveries, play in rock bands, and write new computer software in order to impress women so that they will agree to have sex with them. Men have built (and destroyed) civilization in order to impress women, so that they might say yes.
which to be honest I don’t fully accept. I do know the logic of it is good, but at the same time I know there’s something wrong with that argument - perhaps its just a feeling that the example is a bit too OTT?Still though, its worth a look.