Friedrich Nietzsche – October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive German language style and displaying a fondness for metaphor and aphorism.
Nietzsche’s influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth raise considerable problems of interpretation, generating an extensive secondary literature in both continental and analytic philosophy.
Nevertheless, some of his key ideas include interpreting tragedy as an affirmation of life, an eternal recurrence (which numerous commentators have re-interpreted), a rejection of Platonism, and a repudiation of both Christianity (especially 19th-century) and Egalitarianism (especially in the form of Democracy and Socialism).
Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. At the age of 24 he was appointed to the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel (the youngest individual ever to have held this position), but resigned in 1879 because of health problems, which would plague him for most of his life. In 1889 he exhibited symptoms of serious mental illness, living out his remaining years in the care of his mother and sister until his death in 1900.
The above painting done by Derren in 2000 is available as a print in the art shop.
Enigma 2009 Limited Edition Tour Poster – On Sale Now!
After many requests for these and only being able to find a few packs of mass printed venue versions – we asked the creator of the Enigma Tour poster to let us have a tweaked version for the fans. So we decided to put out a special limited edition tour poster. It contains a little surprise for some of the early buyers and is made specifically to size for easy framing purposes.
We’ll try to stop ebay abusers going mental and if you’ve attended a show and want to purchase MORE THAN ONE print – send proof with a phone pic or scan of your tickets – but hurry as once these are gone we will not reproduce.
enjoy!
Prank at Bristol Zoo
Those of you who have read Tricks of The Mind may remember the spider prank I played with a flatmate. He’s just rather brilliantly amused himself at Bristol Zoo and sent me this little film of the result. It’s priceless. Go and see it if you’re nearby. It’s a lovely zoo – I used to take myself there every year on my birthday – and tell the staff you think this is a fine and witty feature. It’s still there apparently.
Is Derren Brown the Anti-Christ?
Everything on Punch Your Face is 100% fact. It’s run by a group of misfits who call themselves: “the Mermen”. They have definitive proof that Derren is the devil incarnate. So now that he’s been outed we suggest you go there and let them know that the “Cult of Derren Brown will issue a blood-curse upon them”.
Oh and don’t forget to tell him about the “box”.
Making Music Hacks Your Hearing
After years of Mom telling you to turn off the music to protect your ears, there’s finally scientific evidence that music can be good for your hearing.
New research reveals that musicians can pick out relevant speech sounds from a noisy environment better than non-musicians, suggesting that musical training helps people hear better under “speech-in-noise” conditions like a restaurant or crowded room.
“Speech-in-noise is challenging for everyone, but it’s especially challenging for older adults and children with learning disabilities,” said neuroscientist Nina Kraus of Northwestern University, who co-authored the paper published this month in the journal Ear and Hearing. “If we could establish that musical experience could help perception of speech-in-noise, that has all kinds of provocative implications in terms of encouraging policy-makers and parents to pursue musical education for their kids.”
Kraus and colleagues compared the performance of 16 musicians and 15 non-musicians on two tests of speech-in-noise perception. In the both experiments, participants had to listen to simple sentences under noisy conditions and repeat back what they heard. By adjusting the level of background noise and counting the number of correctly repeated words or sentences, the researchers calculated a threshold signal-to-noise ratio for each person.
On both speech tests, musicians dramatically outperformed their non-musician counterparts and also demonstrated better working memory. “The extent of musical experience also mattered,” Kraus said. “The earlier you began and the more years you had been practicing, the better your speech-in-noise perception.”
Wired (Thanks BethanDenro)
Alice Cooper banned from gig for anti-Christian values
Alice Cooper, of ‘School’s Out for Summer’ and ‘I’m 18′ fame, was told that his show can’t go on in Finland. Cooper and his band were booked to perform at Tampere Areena Oy, an arena in Tampere, Finland Dec. 11. However, the owners of the arena cancelled the event when the supposedly dark nature of Cooper’s ‘Theatre of Death’ show came to light.
Harri Wiherkoski, managing director of the arena said that ‘artists who express suspicious values from Christianity’s point of view cannot be allowed to perform at the venue.’ He also told reporters that his venue doesn’t ‘arrange concerts where Satanism or non-god-worshipping occurs.’
Concert promoter Kalle Keskinen, said ‘We never imagined that a rock veteran who has performed in Finland in four separate decades without any problems and who has spoken in public of his own religious convictions would not be allowed to perform at Tampere Areena in 2009.’
Cooper, who is a practicing Christian, told Cross Rhythms magazine last year that he reconciles his stage persona with his personal faith without problem. ‘As a Christian, I don’t declare myself as a ‘Christian rock star.’ I’m a rock performer who’s a Christian. Alice Cooper is the guy who wants to entertain the audience – it happens that he’s a Christian. Alice (the character I play on stage) began life as a villain and he remains one. There’s a villain and a hero in every Shakespeare play,’ he said.
Examiner (Thanks Kirsty)
Why humans can’t navigate out of a paper bag
The journey seemed simple enough, on the map anyway. Allison Fine left her home to drive to Vermont, just a few hours north on a major highway. She had studied the route and had a GPS gadget to help her. Nevertheless, she soon had absolutely no idea where she was.
“I don’t know what happened,” she says, “but I pulled over in tears, called my husband and said, ‘find me on Google Maps and talk me to Vermont’.” This he did, staying on the line for more than an hour.
Fine is an extreme case, but the feeling of getting hopelessly lost is something that most of us can relate to. In fact, along with our flair for language and our unparalleled intelligence, less-than-stellar navigational skills are among the things that can be considered uniquely human. While the vast majority of animals have no trouble finding their way around, most people, when stripped of maps or signs, are notoriously bad at it. A handful are so terrible at orienting themselves, even in places they know well, that they rarely leave the house alone (see “Lost in space”). “I try to study maps,” says Fine. “But when I get out into the real world, it just looks completely different.”
Until recently, little was known about how the human inner compass works. This is partly because “sense of direction” is not one neatly defined ability. Instead, it is made up of many different skills, such as awareness and memory of your surroundings, sensing your speed and direction changes over time, and tracking the location of objects and places relative to you as you move through an environment. These skills rely on many different parts of the brain, including those involved in vision, memory and imagination, which are tied together into a “cognitive map” by the hippocampus.
Now researchers have begun to unravel how this system works, and to ponder whether we have LOST our way somewhere in evolution, or whether our inner homing pigeon is simply lying dormant, waiting to be released.
New Scientist (Thanks Tiram)
Tea Blog
I’m repeating myself here, as I just popped this on Twitter, but this really is a rather lovely blog – quite an oasis in the hectic, genital-ridden world of Her Majesty’s Internet. I have met the lady in question (that is NOT her in the picture above: that’s Phillis): she is extremely lovely and runs a very famous independent book-shop. I did not know at the time of her tea obsession. I can say without fear of ridicule that I have my own tea imported from Paris, (the chai-curious may wish to begin exploring Mariage Freres here), and am currently sipping at a rather good Ying Long White Tea from the sensational Algerian Coffee Company, poured from a nifty little double-walled glass Bodum baby – this one, in fact, seeing as you asked.
Have a little look, and have a lovely evening. x
Why insults are better taken lying down
If you really must offend someone, wait until they are lying down: people handle anger differently when they’re lying on their backs, compared with sitting upright.
University students who heard personal insults while seated exhibited brain activity linked to so-called “approach motivation” – the desire to approach and explore something. This potential urge disappeared when students took their insults lying down, despite their anger remaining.
“In the upright or leaning forward state one might be more likely to attack,” says Eddie Harmon-Jones, a cognitive scientist at Texas A&M University in College Station, who led the study. “Maybe in the reclining state you’re more likely to brood.”
New Scientist (Thanks Eliza)
Tiny Fijian island bans pants on Sundays
Men living on a tiny Fijian island have been ordered to wear a skirt instead of trousers on Sundays to avoid offending God.
The Methodist Church on Bua island has ruled that men must wear the traditional island sarong, called a sulu, on Sundays to learn to respect the significance of the holy day.
Families cannot travel on any motorised transport or do any form of work, including hanging out clothes to dry, until they get the message, Galoa Village headman Josefa Baleinasiga has told the Fiji Times newspaper.
“The ban is meant to bring good luck to the island as we respect the day of the Lord,” he said.
Live News (Thanks Tammy)
