Gling Glo

Sorry we've been away for a while, but on Thursday Laura and I were at a conference in Cambridge. This was surprisingly good fun, particularly for Laura I think, mostly thanks to the Wittgensteinian leanings of talks and attendees. For me it was a little bit like attending a conference in a foreign country. Although everyone spoke my language, there was definitely some kind of intellectual culture these people shared, but which I did not. Thankfully, Crispin Wright was there to give voice to my mainstream unease with the various talks. While I enjoyed Avner's talk on contextualism and Wright's talk on rule-following, Laura headed up to Scotland for Jane's wedding. Now that I'm back, and enjoying Sunday with my ever expanding music collection, I just popped on to share with you this amusing description of an excellent (though deeply obscure) Bjork album I've been listening to a lot lately. It's translated pretty roughly from Icelandic, but somehow I suspect that even with better translation, it wouldn't make very much more sense than it does now. The album is one of Bjork's early collaborations with a jazz trio of all things, and is a tour de force of her unique vocal stylings.

...when the forces of nature Bjork Gudmundsdottir enwraps it self, the partners [the trio] fly high and deep into the core of the jazz-pop of the fifties to the extend that they escape time and space. Listeners will get an unique opportunity on this CD to experience the mysterious and random meeting of umbrellas of the past and sewing-machines of the present, on the keyboard. Katie rocks in Bjork's disguise. Bjork is Bella telephone-operator and Adda Ornolfs. Bjork is Ingibjorg, Sigrun and Soffia. Bjork is. The lyrics span old and classic realms of passion. These are the final scenes of Electra and Oedipus. It is man's wish to kneed together, from time and space, their own special dream-dough. Here is where the dream comes true. Enjoy. (From Bjorkish.net)

The Uses of Philosophy

I found this story (discovery courtesy of the Guardian's Wrap service) somehow reassuring. Even if I don't manage to make it clear to anyone over the course of my career what possible use philosophy might be to anyone but philosophers, perhaps someone else might come along one day and do it for me.

Housemates Needed!

Jane and Steven have decided to move out! They both seem very ready for a place of their own, and good luck to them. But it leaves us needing a couple or at least two individuals to fill their room (and/or the spare room). I attach the following ad in case any of you know someone who knows someone, etc. or in case in a freakish coincidence someone who is looking for a place in Sheffield stumbles upon our humble blog.

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ROOM TO LET - NETHER EDGE

Us
Three open-minded, quiet but friendly academics who like home-cooking, drinking wine and looking out for each other.

You
One couple, or two individuals (two double rooms available), vegetarian/pescetarian, friendly (and eco-friendly) professionals or students (esp. postgrad or mature); chilled, quietly sociable, open-minded, tidy.

The House
Modern 4-bedroom, 5-person house in Nether Edge (near Jacksons); rather gorgeous for the money (excellent kitchen with tiled floor & high quality appliances; bright living room with hardwood floor, bay window and working fireplace, lovely large bathroom & separate shower room); landlord requires non-smoker, prohibits pets & DHSS; we prefer to share household & food expenses; Rent is £150 pcm/pp (excl. bills), £250 pcm/pp (inc. bills: 2GB wireless, cable TV, food, council tax, etc.); available immediately.

Contact
Comment on this post!

Gilliam for Potter & Pullman!

A fun interview with top-notch, underappreciated film director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, Time Bandits) also featuring everyone's favourite movie critic Mark Kermode and an amusing discussion of the merits of Pirates of the Carribean (I'm with Gilliam on this). But most of all it makes you think, how cool would it be to have Gilliam doing Harry Potter 5 or the Philip Pullman films (His Dark Materials), he would be perfect! In fact, he's the only director I can think of who might pull off the Pullman books without ruining them. Alas, it looks to me like these magical stories are at the mercy of a bunch of hacks. How on earth is Chris Weitz of all people going to cope with the extremely tricky religious material? My greatest fear is that he simply won't bother with it, spoiling the real substance of the books.

Our Strange Academics and Intellectuals

I hesitate to recommend this, because it's surprisingly disappointing, yet it might well be something people should look at, in case they're curious about the strange worlds and minds of contemporary academics. It's a Slate feature, whose premise is a rather irritating man interviewing a large number and variety of influential academics on various topics, all with distinctly religious under/overtones. Among the guests are our beloved (ahem) Dan Dennett, Francis Fukuyama, Steven Pinker, and lots of others I'm not so familiar with. Apart from the interviewer going on at greater length than seems to me polite, never mind interesting, the attempts of some of our supposedly greatest academics to talk about these really exciting and interesting issues are often disappointingly dull. I'm sure there are some gems in there however, so perhaps people could comment if they have the patience to search and manage to discover something amusing. The following link is to Dan Dennett discussing death and the afterlife. Notice his rather poor initial effort not to 'disparage' the comforting illusion of an afterlife!

By the time he was 27...

...Stephen Arnold Douglas had been appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
...van Gogh had been a theology student, a semi-trained evangelist in the slums of London and the mines of Wasmes (in Belgium), a French tutor, an unsuccessful art salesman and spurned by love. [I got to that one way earlier!]
...Yann Martel was earning his living as a writer.
...Cho Chik-un held four major Japanese titles as a player of 'Go'.
...Orson Welles had already made Citizen Kane.
...Louis the XV had already fathered ten children.
...Tom Brady (quarterback for the Patriots) had already won three superbowls.
...Alexander the Great had already conquered 90% of the known world.
...Kurt Cobain was dead.

Hmm. Maybe I have some work to do? Or maybe I'm doing pretty well?

(By the way, there are now more holiday snaps on the Flickr page)

On the Market

We're back, and very slowly getting around to the idea of blogging again. (I haven't yet tried persuading Laura to come back to her nice photo post, but once I get hold of some cake I will get to work straight away). In the meantime I just thought I would share with you the news that my humble little Edinburgh flat is now on the market. So, in case any of you are looking to invest, or know someone who might be, you can have a look at details on the ESPC website and get bidding! (Or more likely, you can just have a nosy at where I used to live when I was an undergraduate.) I have also posted a few initial holiday photos on the Flickr page.

Holiday Hiatus

Laura and I are heading off to France for two weeks, so there will be a hiatus from blogging during that time. I've left a few new pictures for you to look at over at the flickr page, including some from Laura's birthday. There are many more of these, which we were hoping to have shared by now. Alas, as is customary whenever Laura tries to do technological things, events conspired against her: Blogger mysteriously crashed and ate up the post. In understandable despondency she has elected to leave reconstructing the post until after the holidays. Maybe after a relaxing fortnight I'll be able to persuade her that blogging really can be fun.

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

The results are out for what is usually the most entertaining award ceremony of the year, and this year is no exception. My favourite passage is probably this one from the romance category, though they are all tremendous examples of really, appallingly bad writing.

“Despite the vast differences in their ages, ethnicity, and religious upbringing, the sexual chemistry between Roberto and Heather was the most amazing he had ever experienced; and for the entirety of the Labour Day weekend they had sex like monkeys on espresso, not those monkeys in the zoo that fling their faeces at you, but more like the monkeys in the wild that have those giant red butts, and access to an espresso machine."

Dennis Barry, Dothan, Alabama

You can read a few more here.

My Mum's Retirement Party

As promised some news and pictures from this weekend's trip to Scotland. Laura and I had a lovely time. We were on the catering staff for much of the Sunday, which was mostly quite good frantic fun, although only because the majority of the food was provided by Marks & Spencer.

(Apologies for the strange layout errors, it seems that Blogger's handling of images is only partly fixed.)

My dad and my sister did an amazing job arranging a number of lovely surprises for my Mum, one of which was the treble clef cake. The guy who made it did a bang-up job except for failing to notice there are five lines on a stave and not four.

My Dad holding my nephew Gregor. I was really struck by the different colours and textures of their skin (less obvious in this copy than in the original, which I might post on Flickr). I think it makes for an aesthetically pleasing contrast.

Laura spent lots of time playing with Gregor, as did we all since he's so much fun at the moment, but I think they formed a special bond.

Gregor in a gigantic chair. I think it speaks for itself.

Ruth and Laura in a spare moment - when we weren't running around refreshing drinks or organising food - having a natter.

Infuriatingly, I didn't manage to get many decent shots of my Mum, this one is the best I can muster (and I had to modify it a bit). This is partly because she was darting around talking to so many people, and partly because I found myself shooting into the light all the time. I still have so much to learn about photographing people.

Back Issues

(I think there might be an endless supply of puns involving the word 'back').

For those of you who care or are at least slightly interested in the continuing medical saga of my back pain, I thought I would post the latest, closest thing to a diagnosis I've received, from a large Swedish chiropractor. I am sending this theory around every expert I know, hoping for some reassurance that the several hundred pounds this will all cost might end up being worth it. If any of you know enough about physiology to tell me if this sounds plausible (although I realise it's a little bit sketchy), I would be hugely grateful for your feedback.

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The chiropractor writes...

"I believe that your problem is essentially one of lack of strength in your spinal supportive musculature. Partly due to chronic deconditioning because of your long term back pain and partly due to the inhibited nerve supply to your lower limb and pelvic musculature. Therefore I do not believe that stretching is useful at this stage - it may even work against you. The more mobile you are - the more your weak muscles will struggle to support you at the end range.

We first need to restore normal mechanics to your spine which should get your nervous system firing again. Then, it is a matter of a fairly intensive rehab regime in order to build your supportive muscles up again.

4-6 treatments in phase 1 should get the mechanics pretty well sorted out and then we switch to phase 2 which is the intensive rehab. Phase 3 is then to increase the 'self-management' and reduce the need for treatment."

New Stuff on Flickr

Sorry all, but the Blogger technical woes continue. You can find some more recent sights and inconsequential tidbits on the Flickr page, featuring summer chillies, self-portrait, new fish for old fish, a mystery door and traditional Yorkshire confectionery.

I am swamped with thesis work at present - I'm now officially behind schedule, alas, so I haven't had time or inclination for more detailed musings. Laura and I are heading up to Scotland again on Sunday, and Laura's birthday is next Thursday, so there should be news and pictures aplenty from the end of next week or so.

Technical Problems

Sorry for the hiatus from posting folks. Blogger seems to be having some technical difficulties with uploading images, and I've been chiefly trying to share some recent images with you all. Since I've yet to receive any word back from blogger's support team, I'm sending those of you who might be interested to the Flickr page for updates on what we've been up to. Just follow the link to Andrew's Flickr page on the sidebar.

The headlines are:

Last weekend we entertained Laura's dad Mike. Laura and Mike went off for a nice walk round Burbage valley on the Saturday morning, while I was stuck at home having a rather awkward house chat with one of our housemates. The chat was aimed at resolving some difficulties we've been having with him not pulling his weight on the cleaning/cooking/generally contributing front. We all decided, without nearly as much awkwardness as I was expecting, that it was best if he moved out. So come August it should just be Jane & Steve, Laura & me, and occasionally Professor Bob Hale. Hooray for our cosy little den!

After this I joined Laura and Mike for a home-made picnic at Grindleford Station, followed by a saunter around Chatsworth, including some award-winning ice cream. After this we took afternoon tea in Bakewell then later an evening of Sushi with our friend Jules.

The one and only picture I got around to taking all weekend (the housemate situation had me flustered and I kept forgetting to take my camera with me) is of Laura and Mike at lunch on Sunday afternoon at a great pub called The Cricket out in Totley. The food is scrumptious there, and for anyone in the area I thoroughly recommend a visit.

Laura has been adding that proverbial 'woman's touch' to our room with some nice plants, pictures of which you will find on Flickr. I was hoping to upload pictures of both the citrus tree and the Orchid, but it turns out I've run out of space for the month, so all you are getting is the Citrus tree.

Yesterday and today are departmental 'research away days', meaning we're both holed up in a conference room with a bunch of philosophers learning about having a career in academia. It's not nearly as tedious as it sounds, especially because everything, including food is laid on free by the department. I presented a ten minute summary of my thesis yesterday, which seemed to go down reasonably well, and we enjoyed several other such summaries, right up until my back started to give in and we decided to take a break. We returned later for free Indian food however, and had a lively evening of socialising and free wine. Today Brad Hooker will be talking to us about current developments in moral philosophy and how to get published.

Pandora's Box

Three pieces of (vaguely) music-related news.

First, I've been taking some photos this morning for the monthly competition on myfuji.com, which I try to enter as regularly as I can. The competitions are useful for the very large number of comments one typically receives. The theme is 'straight lines' and my chosen subject was my acoustic guitar (a Takamine TD-32 for anyone who might care). Two of the batch, done in black and white came out quite nicely, so I've stuck them on my Flickr page. Comments/suggestions are gratefully received.

Second, I've discovered this great new web-radio thing called Pandora, an offshoot of the 'music genome project'. The project is a massive database of music organised and interrelated based on its musical characteristics, i.e. things like its tonality, rhythmic pattern, style of arrangement, use of vocal harmony and so on. Pandora is a web-radio station that you can customise by entering bands or artists you like: Pandora will then use the genome database to select other music with the same musical 'genes'. This means it's a great way to discover new music, though not by any means an infallible one, since there is plenty of very bad music out there with the same musical characteristics as what we consider to be good music. Still, Pandora 'learns' as you listen - you give each tune that plays a thumbs up or a thumbs down, and Pandora will change its future selections accordingly. You can also add multiple artists to one radio station to skew its choice in a certain direction. Its dead easy to use and you can find it here.

Finally, I've recently created a MySpace page for one of my many music side projects 'Best Boy Electric'. It's electronic music, made on my Mac when I need a creative outlet but can't be bothered with guitars and microphones, so it's probably not something most of you would enjoy, but if any of you are curious about what keeps me sane while writing this thesis (besides Laura) please visit and (if possible) enjoy.

The Compassionate Omnivore

I've been considering eating meat again lately. It's not that I crave the stuff, I'm not actually that fond of most kinds of meat. It's also not for nutritional reasons, though admittedly meat makes getting complete protein a lot easier (many people don't realise we vegetarians have to combine foods quite carefully to ensure we get enough protein - either that or eat Quinoa every day). It was a colleague of mine who recently pointed out that there might be good ethical reason - at least for someone like me who doesn't object to eating animals in principle - for buying meat occasionally, thereby supporting what's known as the 'compassionate omnivore' movement. This just means buying high-welfare organic meat, thereby ensuring that the relatively few farmers out there who treat their animals well can make a decent living. I was also spurred on by this piece on a philosophy blog I read. Here's an excerpt from the conclusion.

I suspect that most non-compassionate omnivores are simply unaware of what happens to the animals whose meat they eat. Luckily, I have just given the readers of this blog the means of disabusing themselves of any misconceptions they might understandably have about how modern farm animals are often raised. As a result, ignorance will not suffice as a justification. Moreover, neither will simply pointing out how delicious meat is. After all, I have not suggested that people should not eat meat at all. I have only suggested that certain forms of meat eating are morally suspect. Indeed, if anything, the meat produced by small family farms that treat their animals well and do not pump them full of hormones and antibiotics should taste better than meat produced by confinement agriculture--plus, it's better for you. This leaves cost as perhaps the main justification for eating factory farmed meat. But I am skeptical that enough moral mileage can be gotten out of cost alone to justify the practice under consideration. Would the people in this country really be that worse off if they ate meat a little less often? The statistics concerning obesity suggest we could all stand to eat a little less of nearly everything (except perhaps fruits and vegetables!). So, what (if anything) justifies non-compassionate omnivorism?

Gregor's Day

Can this really be the first time we've posted since Laura got here? Scandalous isn't it? We have some sort of excuse, in that I've been snowed under with work, as usual and we spent this past weekend in Livingston with my parents. This visit was in honour of my nephew Gregor, for whom Ruth and Dean decided to hold a little ceremony to welcome him into the family and into the world. It wasn't a fancy or formal affair, just a few nice poetic readings, the planting of a lovely little tree, and a lot of eating and drinking. Nevertheless, there was sunshine aplenty, much enjoyable and raucous banter and even an impromptu boules tournament on the lawn. I've posted a selection of photos from the event on my Flickr page, a link for which you'll find on the sidebar on the right of this page.

Shaving Trends

I've just stumbled upon an hilarious, rather ballsy (forgive me!) website, advertising a product designed to capitalise on one of the more bizarre recent fashion trends to sweep America (or so I'm told). Be sure to play around a bit, and especially to try the 'test drive', which is particularly funny. Am I the only one who finds this whole idea hard to take seriously enough to even consider spending money on it?

Happiness Myths

An interesting, if disappointingly peremptory article here on why most of us suck at predicting what will make us happy. Of particular note to me and my Buddhist housemates is the conclusion that the 'myth of fingerprints' (I always wondered what that Paul Simon song was about!) seems to be one of the biggest problems with our predictive powers. Maybe you blog readers would consider posting a comment telling Laura and I what makes you happy, especially if they are things you think we might not have tried. Not that we're not happy people of course, it's just that there is always more to learn (and that fact makes me very happy).

Back Again

Most of you know I've spent the last 18 months battling an as yet unidentified and unexplained back problem. Whilst there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon (I have recently found somewhere willing to give me a proper x-ray) I learned two bits of unfortunate news today.

First I visited my GP to refill my prescription of Diazepam, a small dose of which is handy if I have a particularly bad day or night, or need to travel or attend a conference. Dr. Pickering is strange about doing this, he always makes the same joke - "I guess we can safely say you're not addicted to it then". It's one of those remarks that's supposed to be rhetorical, but it always feels like I'm supposed to respond in some way. But how exactly does one respond? Does he really expect me to say 'No, I'm not a drug addict', or maybe I should say 'Just give me the goddam drugs old man!' (obviously not, but it would be fun to watch his face). Anyway, my other reason to visit was to ask him about Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). As a knock-on effect to my dodgy back, I've been experiencing pain in my arms and shoulders, which is clearly related to my computer habits (it gets worse when I type and better when I don't). He groaned when I asked him what he knew. It turns out he's the 'Occupational Health' doctor for the university. 'Oh good', I foolishly thought, 'he'll know all about it'. He said he would arrange to get me into the Occupational Health centre, which is technically only open to staff, to get some 'bumph'. When he said this - he didn't ask me any questions about my problem, what I was feeling, what I knew about it, what I was doing about it - my heart sank. Was this going to be useful? Or was it just going to be a load of stuff I already know? I should have been more assertive then and there of course, but I didn't want to seem rude, since he was doing me a favour of sorts.

Well, I wasn't surprised to find that the material I got was an extremely poor, misleading or just plain misguided version of all the things I've already read and known about for over a year now. Get up and stretch, position your monitor thus, blah de bloody blah. Heard it, done it chapter and verse, and got the pain anyway!

So far, I've found my doctor to be a nice chap, genuinely concerned about my problem and eager to help, even though he regularly reminds me that his own knowledge about back pain is almost non-existent. (This in itself is sort of astounding, given that every statistic I've ever seen puts the number of people experiencing back pain in their lifetime at between 6 and 8 out of 10... isn't that something GPs should know a bit about?). But this time I felt a bit disappointed in him for underestimating me in such an unflattering way. I mean, he knows he's sitting opposite a PhD student who spends most if not all of his time researching. It's what I'm good at, it's probably my primary way of entering and exploring the world. Does he really think I would come in asking about RSI knowing nothing? I've read extensively on the subject, and as it turns out, it looks like I know more than he does - and he's the bleeding occupational health doctor for the university!

This is a mistake a lot of people seem to make about academics. I know there are lots of us who actually do live in ivory towers where all we think, talk and read about is our subject, be it Iranian pottery or the mating habits of octopi. But there are also quite a lot of us who actually live in the world and put our skills to practical use on a daily basis. The academics I know are generally very astute consumers for example, because they like to learn all about a type of product, read reviews, know how it works, etc. before they buy it.

Anyway, ranting aside, on occasions when I despair of the National Health Service I console myself with the admittedly dim possibility that with a US citizen for a partner, it may be that if things get really bad I can go and try my luck with the US health care system. But reading this article today I realised I was being silly - no company is going to insure me for a problem like this, not when I've had it for years without anyone having the foggiest clue how to diagnose, never mind treat it. And by the sound of it this is an increasingly common problem in the US.

So maybe I should be looking to get a job in France or something, since they are supposed to have a healthcare system that works (although it sounds like it's one of the last things that does!). I could take up deconstruction, coffee and smoking. I think I'd prefer a hacking cough and regular headaches to this constant, unfathomable back ache.

Reading Genesis

Thanks due to the Guardian's excellent weekly 'wrap roundup', for my discovery of a highly entertaining blog about the Torah on Slate. It is a relief and a pleasure to discover that even those with faith in God find the Old Testament stories - as I do - to be at best morally ambiguous, and at worst to make some of Hollywood's most gratuitous recent excesses seem positively tame (though perhaps Sin City, which I saw for the first time today, might give Genesis a run for its money; it's not for the faint hearted). Here's an excerpt (I had exactly these kinds of thoughts when I attempted the bible properly for the first time a few years ago). The full blog is here.

Chapter 19

This chapter makes the Jerry Springer Show look like Winnie the Pooh. The Sodom business is worse than I ever imagined. Two male angels visit Lot's house in Sodom. A crowd of men (Sodomites!) gathers outside the house and demands that the two angels be sent out, so the mob can rape them. Lot, whose hospitality is greater than his common sense, offers his virgin daughters to the mob instead. Before any rapes can happen, the mob is blinded by a mysterious flash of light. The angels lead Lot, his wife, and daughters out of the city, and God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah with brimstone. Lot's wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt. (God may have listened to Abraham's rebuke, but He surely didn't heed it. What of all the innocent children murdered in Sodom and Gomorrah? What of Lot's innocent wife?)

But the chapter's not over. After the attempted mass gay rape, the father pimping, the urban devastation, uxorious saline murder, it looks like Lot and his daughters are finally safe. They're living alone in a cave in the mountains. But then the two daughters—think of them as Judea's Hilton sisters—complain that cave life is no fun because there aren't enough men around. So, one night they get Lot falling-down drunk and have sex with him. Chapter 19 poses what I would call the Sunday School Problem—as in, how do you teach this in Sunday school? What exactly is the moral lesson here?