October 16, 2013
‘The Will to Believe‘ is a lecture by American philosopher and psychologist William James, first published in 1896, which defends, in certain cases, the adoption of a belief without prior evidence of its truth. In particular, James is concerned in this lecture about defending the rationality of religious faith even lacking sufficient evidence of religious truth.
James’ argument hinges on the idea that access to the evidence for whether or not certain beliefs are true depends crucially upon first adopting those beliefs without evidence. For example, it can be rational to have unsupported faith in one’s own ability to accomplish tasks that require confidence. Importantly, James points out that this is the case even for pursuing scientific inquiry. James then argues that like belief in one’s own ability to accomplish a difficult task, religious faith can also be rational even if one at the time lacks evidence for the truth of one’s religious belief.
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October 15, 2013
Mothra is a kaiju, a type of fictional monster who first appeared in the serialized novel ‘The Luminous Fairies and Mothra.’ Since her film début in the 1961 film ‘Mothra,’ she has appeared in several Toho tokusatsu films. Mothra is a giant lepidopteran with characteristics both of butterflies and of moths.
She closely resembles an Inachis io, or a European Peacock Butterfly, but it is said that the Atlas moth is its inspiration. The name ‘Mothra’ is the suffixation of ‘-ra’ (a common last syllable in kaiju names (e.g. ‘Goji-ra’ [Godzilla]) to ‘moth’; since the Japanese language does not have dental fricatives, it is approximated ‘Mosura’ in Japanese. Continue reading →
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October 14, 2013
René Redzepi (b. 1977) is a Danish chef and co-owner of the two-Michelin star restaurant Noma in Copenhagen. Redzepi is noted for his work for the reinvention and refinement of a new Nordic cuisine and food that is characterized by inventiveness and clean flavors. He trained at Pierre André in Copenhagen, before visiting El Bulli in Spain as a guest in 1998 and subsequently working there during the following season.
Back in Copenhagen he started working at Kong Hans Kælder which had been one of the city’s leading gourmet restaurants since the mid-1970s. In 2001 he spent four months working at French Laundry in California but returned to Kong Hans Kælder. In 2002, Redzepi was contacted by Claus Meyer, who had been offered to operate a restaurant at the North Atlantic House, a former 18th century warehouse which was being turned into a cultural centre for the North Atlantic region. Noma was opened in 2004 with Redzepi as the head chef.
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October 12, 2013
The Gilroy Garlic Festival is one of the largest food festivals in the United States, held annually in the town of Gilroy outside San Francisco on the last full weekend in July. At the last event 108,526 people attended, sampling such diverse creations as garlic flavored ice cream and garlic french fries. Attendees also enjoy three stages full of musical entertainment, a Great Garlic Cook-off, celebrity cooking demonstrations, a garlic braiding workshop, a children’s area, arts and crafts, and many interactive displays.
A Miss Gilroy Garlic Festival Queen is also crowned yearly, chosen by a panel of five judges, based on her personal interview, talent, garlic speech and evening gown. Her court is also chosen, for the purpose of representing Gilroy at various festivities and ‘having a garlicy good time with fellow lovers of the pungent bulb.’ The festival was founded in 1979 by Dr. Rudy Melone, Don Christopher, and Val Filice, and has been a fundraiser for local charities.
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October 11, 2013
5 Pointz: The Institute of Higher Burnin’ or the 5Pointz Aerosol Art Center, Inc. is an outdoor art exhibit space in Long Island City, New York, considered to be the world’s premiere ‘graffiti Mecca,’ where aerosol artists from around the globe paint colorful pieces on the walls of a 200,000-square-foot factory building.
The complex was first established as the ‘Phun Phactory’ in 1993 by Pat DiLillo under a program called ‘Graffiti Terminators’ to discourage graffiti vandalism by encouraging artists to display their work in a formal showcase. In 2002, Jonathan Cohen, a graffiti artist operating under the name ‘Meres’ began curating the work. If he is not familiar with an artist, Cohen will ask for a sample of their work; if it is a mural, he will ask for a layout as well. Continue reading →
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October 10, 2013
‘Phantom of the Paradise‘ is a 1974 American musical film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The story is a loosely adapted mixture of ‘The Phantom of the Opera,’ ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray,’ and ‘Faust.’
It was panned by critics and failed at the box office, but has since acquired a cult following. Its music was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
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October 9, 2013
Victor Papanek (1923 – 1998) was a designer and educator who became a strong advocate of the socially and ecologically responsible design of products, tools, and community infrastructures. He disapproved of manufactured products that were unsafe, showy, maladapted, or essentially useless. Papanek was a philosopher of design and as such he was an untiring, eloquent promoter of design aims and approaches that would be sensitive to social and ecological considerations.
He wrote that ‘design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments (and, by extension, society and himself).’ With his interest in all aspects of design and how they affected people and the environment, Papanek felt that much of what was manufactured in the U.S. was inconvenient, often frivolous and even unsafe.
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October 8, 2013
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged, initially in Northern England in the late 1960s, from the British mod scene (a youth subculture). Northern soul is devoted to American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound.
The movement, however, generally eschews Motown or Motown-influenced music that has met with significant mainstream success. The recordings most prized by enthusiasts of the genre are usually by lesser-known artists, and were initially released only in limited numbers, often by small regional United States labels such as Ric-Tic and Golden Records (Detroit), Mirwood (Los Angeles) and Shout and Okeh (New York/Chicago). Continue reading →
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October 7, 2013
Mad Pride is a movement of the users of mental health services, former users, and their allies. The first known event, called ‘Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day’ in Toronto in 1993, was held in response to community prejudices towards individuals with a psychiatric history living in boarding homes in the Parkdale area of the city, and has been held annually since.
By the late 1990s similar events were being organized in London and around the globe according to MindFreedom International, a US mental health advocacy organization. Events often include music, poetry readings, film screenings, and street theater, such as ‘bed push’ protests, which aim to raise awareness about the poor levels of choice of treatments and the widespread use of force in psychiatric hospitals. Continue reading →
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October 7, 2013
Counterintuitive means contrary to what seems intuitively right or correct. A counterintuitive proposition is one that does not seem likely to be true when assessed using intuition or gut feelings. Scientifically discovered, objective truths are often called counterintuitive when intuition, emotions, and other cognitive processes outside of deductive rationality interpret them to be wrong.
However, the subjective nature of intuition limits the objectivity of what to call counterintuitive because what is counter-intuitive for one may be intuitive for another. This might occur in instances where intuition changes with knowledge. For instance, many aspects of quantum mechanics or general relativity may sound counterintuitive to a layman, while they may be intuitive to a particle physicist.
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October 7, 2013
Rick Roderick (1949–2002) was an American professor of philosophy, best known for his lectures for The Teaching Company. Roderick was born in Abilene, Texas, son of (by his own description a ‘con-man’ and a ‘beautician.’
He taught at several universities, where he was much revered by many students for a Socratic style combined with a brash and often humorous approach. His breakthrough into wider circles came with his engagement with The Teaching Company where he recorded several memorable lecture series. Rick Roderick died in 2002 from a congestive heart condition.
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October 7, 2013
A foam hand, also known as a foam finger, is a sports paraphernalia item worn on the hand to show support for a particular team. The first such hand was originally created by sportsfan Steve Chmelar in 1971, who constructed it from hardware cloth and paper mache for the 1971 Iowa High School Athletic Association Boy’s State Basketball Finals.
In 1978, Geral Fauss created foam fingers to show support for the team at the high school where he taught, to raise funds for the industrial arts club, and as a project that his industrial arts class could produce themselves. His first prototype foam finger was actually made out of plywood and had a painting of a ‘number one’ done in the school’s colors. The success of the hand led Geral Fauss to venture into the sports merchandise business, by making hands to sell at the 1978 Cotton Bowl game, and later by founding Spirit Industries for the large scale manufacturing of foam fingers the following year.
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