The Philosopher’s Attic

The owner of the Religion, Philosophy & Ethics Blog at the University of Gloucestershire, UK sent a message lately over the PHILOSOPH mailing list inviting people to take part in a discussion about friendship.
This is a weird proceeding also called “spamming for traffic”. But since Blogs have become so numerous and it is kind of hard to get people to come back and enter a significant discussions on the topics you are addressing in your blog - especially concerning such heavy weight things like philosophical questions - I can understand the need to fish for traffic in mailing lists that share your interests.
Being the nice and loyal (especially when it comes to peers) person that I am, I went to have a look and I sincerely hoped to join into the discussion… and then devil hidden in the detail (or the code of blogspot.com or blogger.com blogs) showed his ugly face. …continue reading »»

Funnily enough I have been writing three different posts these last four days, but haven’t gotten around to either finish or published only one of them.
At first I thought that it’s the usual “something always gets in the way” thing. Then I thought it was because I had chosen such heavy topics. And then of course I started to think about how I wanted to change the style of my blogging and writing all together.

It seems that I am not the only one having these issues at the moment. Reading Wil’s thoughts on the matter struck a cord in me. I have been feeling like that a lot lately. And I mean: a lot.
Not only does it affect my writing or my blogging. It also affects my work and all the things I should do throughout the day (and night). It’s not something I am entirely unfamiliar with, since it has happened to me before. And while Wil is trying to just write something to get over what I call the pause phase, what I need to get out of such a mode is inspiration.

I strongly believe that such a thing like writers block as a simple blockade does not exist. I find the concept appalling. I cannot believe in any writers block to just dissipate to get me going again. A writers block is nothing else than your mind telling you: I need time to think. Or: I need another piece of the puzzle to finish the thought. And like with any other problem that can be solved in dreaming or sleeping, by letting our subconscious take care of it, most slowdowns like this can be solved in the same way: take your mind off it. Find some other inspiration. Get passionate about something. Read something else, something new. Watch a new movie. Or have a good discussion with someone around you.

And then…

Sleep. Dream. And then start writing again.

Thanks Wil, for proving me right within the hour.

My local newspaper (Basler Zeitung) comes with a special ‘Culture’ magazine every day complete with all the latest music, cinema and theatre critics and columns. Once a week the magazine has some additional columns and appreciations.
Now it seems that we don’t have any decent columnists in Switzerland any more and so the BaZ has decided to bless us with the German author Sibylle Berg. She has got to be one of the most pretentious and foul mouthed columnists this world has ever seen. On top of that she really seems to have some serious sexual frustration bottled up. I have rarely read someone so belligerent, insulting and plain rude in a printed newspaper. Is this what happens to the so-called German ‘new avantgarde’ authors once they’re passed their ‘best before date’? If you have a look at her homepage you’ll get my drift… …continue reading »»

First the good news:
There is a vaccine that can prevent risks of certain cervical cancer-types up to 80%, according to a study and mathematical risk analysis published by PLoS Medicine in May 2006.

The bad news:
Nobody knows and nobody talks about it.

Cervical cancer is one of the “lethal three” cancer types (together with breast cancer and lung cancer) and the second most common cancer type in women under 45.

Interestingly enough statistics regarding cervical cancer vary on their country of origin. For instance the incidence and mortality figure for the U.S. are almost half of what they are in the rest of the world. The explanation is simple: cervical cancer can be cured in 90% of the cases if it is caught at an early stage. Prevention and constant screening with a test called the Pap smear can help detect any change in the cervical tissue. Yes, cervical cancer can be prevented. …continue reading »»

As someone that works within the University and is considered an Intellectual, it is getting harder and harder to stay in touch with the various ‘news’ of my field of expertise. Several things contribute to that fact.
For one the internet has facilitated and changed the communicational channels through which professionals stay in touch with their peers and the research going on around the world. On the other hand the internet and it’s fairly easy use have led to a huge number of discussion groups, mailing lists, newsletters, websites, info sites etc. etc. - needless to say that with a steady rising number of these communication knots the time and resources it takes to stay informed has increased as well.
To this is added the fact that although I might be called a Historian of Philosophy (at the moment) specialising in Medieval Philosophy, I have a deep urging to keep up to date with some other parts of the current philosophy movement as well. And mailing lists are just a brilliant invention for exactly that.

It so happens that I am a subscriber of one of the oldest philosophy news lists on the net: PHILOSOP (run by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Louisiana USA.) A part from a lot of conference calls and Call for Papers, something reached me last week that prompted … well, let’s say, a strong reaction: a call for papers for a volume on Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy. …continue reading »»

Before I start the new year with another entry of my continuous rumblings, let me first wish you all a wonderful new year. All of you - the silent readers, the casual ones, the ones that just drop by while searching something and of course all the rest. May you have a good year, filled with laughter, joy and happiness. May everything you are bold enough to wish for come looking for you. May this year of 2007 be kind to you, your close ones and may you accomplish most of your goals in the next 12 months (only ‘most of them’ since fulfilling everything would just be way too boring…).

* * *

I am not one that believes in the whole concept of new years resolutions. For me, a new year, isn’t much more than a simple date change. And since that actually happens once every 24 hours, I don’t see much sense in having any new years resolutions. If you want to change something, make a new start, dare something or just try to lead a more fulfilling life, you can do it everyday. Every day is a possibility for a new start. My mother used to tell me that during the difficult years of adolescence and it sort of stuck with me. Every day has it’s tiny steps and progress cannot be accomplished from one day to another, but from all the tiny steps put together.

The use to start cleaning up stuff at the beginning of a new year is not completely lost on me, however. And with a little push

…continue reading »»

So it seems that the weather gods will not bless us with snow, ice or even usual December cold for Christmas this year. On the contrary, we’ve had stable 10° for the last few weeks now and I think today was the first morning that my car was frosted over…
While the scientists still bicker about whether this is all due to global warming or not, I “dugg” this up: a picture from 1911 when the Niagra falls were frozen over.
This picture actually reminds me of Anna Karenina, but that’s a different story. The picture really is quite amazing and it reminded me of the stories my grandpa and dad used to tell me about the Rhine being frozen over in Basel. “That never happened…!” will some of my Swiss friends say. Well, but it did.
The winter of 1962/3 was one of the coldest of the 20th century and it was the last time that the Rhine froze completely over.
Pictures: One - Two - Three
(courtesy of www.wetter-schwoerstadt.de)

It started in November and the ice stayed until March of ‘63. People were able to wander from Bad Säckingen to Kaiseraugst on the Rhine, taking skates and eating saussages (Wienerli) at the various stands that immediately started to spring up all around the border. Speaking of border, I wonder what the border control had to deal with… seeing that the Rhine is the natural border between Germany and Switzerland.

That same year we had -13° in the Alps and Guam was almost completely erased by a Taifun. Oh, and Patras was under water by the end of December. By January, Spain and Portugal were frozen as well, Venice was completely blocked and Rotterdam had no drinking water any more. 125 days of frost in a row.
Guess what was on the front pages of the news by the time the calendar wrote April: “Are we steering towards a new Ice Age?”

Hmm… so within 40 years only have we come from a new ice age to global warming. What a nice synthesis Hegel would be able to construct out of this… *sigh*

Btw: the Rhine hasn’t frozen over since 1962 because a new water electricity plant has been constructed at Schwörstadt and this plant controls the height of the water according to the water power needed, thus making it impossible for the Rhine ever to freeze over again. No, it’s not due to Global warming…

Technorati Tags: Rhine, ice age, Niagara falls, Basel, Global Warming, 1962

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