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February 22, 2005

free mojtaba & arash (very not funny)

Posted by matti at 05:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 20, 2005

you had me at mutatio controversiae

many people believe the arab world needs to undergo their own enlightenment period before they can really integrate into the western-owned world. i won't pretend to be able to really evaluate that statement, don't have the necessary understanding of the mechanisms of western history, much much less that of arab cultures. it sounds to me of course ethnocentric and determinist, but looking past that, there's a valid point there: every culture needs a century or so of pompous philosophers and naturalists alike running around cataloguing things.

here's an example. this is a bit late to the game enlightenment-wise, but schopenhauer is so sticking to linnaeus' guns it's hilarious: the art of controversy.

here's what it consists of:

1. Preliminary: Logic and Dialectic.

some etymology: logizesthai vs dialegesthai, and what the role of logic vs dialectic has been semantically; nothing new here if you've read your diogenes laertius but who the fuck has? so this is interesting. also, some amusingly straight talk:

"Dialectic, then, need have nothing to do with truth, as little as the fencing master considers who is in the right when a dispute leads to a duel."

this is good stuff, and i mean that in the sincerest way: this is good straight-talk that leaves the smart reader in control of the irony adjuster. (you know, unlike your typical half-witted wannabe-machiavelli types.)

2. The Basis of All Dialectic.

if you're pressed for time, lazy, or not inclined to generally waste your life with stuff like this, this is a good place to stop. this is where, in best enlightenment fashion, schopenhauer starts to shine the bright miner's hat flashlight of his mind into the mystery of dialectic, and of course, the de rigueur way about it is by analysis, in the strict sense:

"Our opponent has stated a thesis, or we ourselves,—it is all one. There are two modes of refuting it, and two courses that we may pursue.

I. The modes are (1) ad rem, (2) ad hominem or ex concessis."

and then there are two courses for those two modes, and generally everything divides neatly into subcategories, until (and this is the keystone of analytical philosophy) you're so completely divorced from your subject matter that further analysis would be, well, beside the point.

3. Stratagems.

this is money.

dude lists and explains, in detail, the methods of refuting your opponent in dialectic (there are 38 of them). i'm not making this up. apparently there are thirty-eight ways to jab, dodge, parry, camouflage, annoy or obfuscate. and reading this catalogue makes you a better conversationalist much in the same way that memorizing the dewey decimal system makes you an author.

however, with all of his philosopher's arrogance, his concluding statements win me over. dude had an ego the size of hegel's System and an annoying presumption of superiority, but i think he was a gentleman at heart:

As a sharpening of wits, controversy is often, indeed, of mutual advantage, in order to correct one’s thoughts and awaken new views. But in learning and in mental power both disputants must be tolerably equal. If one of them lacks learning, he will fail to understand the other, as he is not on the same level with his antagonist. If he lacks mental power, he will be embittered, and led into dishonest tricks, and end by being rude.

"The only safe rule, therefore, is that which Aristotle mentions in the last chapter of his Topica: not to dispute with the first person you meet, but only with those of your acquaintance of whom you know that they possess sufficient intelligence and self-respect not to advance absurdities; to appeal to reason and not to authority, and to listen to reason and yield to it; and, finally, to cherish truth, to be willing to accept reason even from an opponent, and to be just enough to bear being proved to be in the wrong, should truth lie with him."

Posted by matti at 04:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 19, 2005

bullshit (not funny)

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit", begins the essay On bullshit by harry frankfurt.

this is the story of how the essay sucks.

that beginning right there sets up some towering expectations. indeed, do we not live amidst what comes across to us as bullshit? we have to learn to ignore most people tugging at your sleeve, like advertising, but what can we take at face value anyway--surely not the dark matter of commodified media culture the ads come wrapped in? and if you're of critical bent you're at least slightly suspicious of classic culture (inasmuch its the dead tissue of society, the ghoulishly traditionalist pretentiousness of an established sub-elite), as well as the modern varieties, if only for the ubiquitous sense of "youre whole life is a lie! fuck you! love me."

i mean, not that you go around saying "this is shit", but a well-tuned bs detector hooked up to your reality filter is a mental health sine qua non, no?

is this a cultural thing? is this just a thing about being human? did/do people in "premodern" agrarian societies have this experience?

cos you can't really do much to define "bullshit" dictionary-style. or if you do, you lose the magic, the common thread, the experience of incredulity it conveys.

of course this is but dilettantish dark-stabbery. that's why I was stoked that a princeton dude, with what must be an enormous mind, loads of time and interest in the topic (fact: people with tenure can live up to 250 years old) and a safe and nurturing environment for thinking about bullshit was taking a stab that that topic. sweet! a rogue academic's tongue-in-cheek cross-disciplinary glimpse into a fantastically atypical POV into culture and experience and everything.

to start the essay like a true diligent (which is another word for "intellectually submissive"), conscientious academic, dude sets out to, yes, define bullshit using bigger words! he ends up accepting, interexchangeably, max black's definition of humbug: "deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes."

how big of a letdown is that? now we're suddenly in the realm of semantics of misrepresentation. ok. now is he going to delineate the history of bullshit discourses, showing how we've come to accept the same level of self-serving half-truth in matters of literally life and death (politics, war) as we expect in advertising? is he going to take a scalpel to the workings of your mind, talk about all those things you know you think and how you deliberately misrepresent yourself and you think nobody knows? will it make you first ashamed, then stronger for the sheer excruciating insight?

why no. dude actually uses most of the 8000 words in defining bullshit. the great funny here is, that itself is fucking bullshit, yet it falls outside his definition.

in the last fifth of the essay, dude starts tackling issue:

"Why is there so much bullshit? Of course it is impossible to be sure that there is relatively more of it nowadays than at other times."

thanks, sherlock. next:

"The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality and which therefore reject the possibility of knowing how things truly are. These “anti-realist” doctrines undermine confidence in the value of disinterested efforts to determine what is true and what is false, and even in the intelligibility of the notion of objective inquiry."

ok now i get thrown a bit by all those big words, but to my best understanding, i think what he's saying is that the late 20th C deconstructionist/postmodern/critical (i.e. french) movements that questioned the notion of capital-T truth have actually somehow contributed to the proliferation of half-truths..? am i reading this right? how fucking PETTY is that?

this essay has been published as a book so i tried looking at the positive reviews at amazon; they all seemed to say pretty much "smart man deals with funny topic! side-splittingly literate." or something, and i don't see anybody gleaning any insight from this.

i don't think i'm being fair with it, though. so, please, if you take a look at the essay and find a good thing in it, drop me a line, tell me what i'm missing. cos i'd really, really like to have some respect for "one of the most prominent moral philosophers of our time."

update: there's a video interview available, i saw it after writing the above, and i would like to point out two short segments that are very much worth watching.

Are more highly educated people more likely to engage in bullshit?

and

Can you give us any salient examples of bullshit today that we might be familiar with?

Posted by matti at 06:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 18, 2005

the uncalled-for career advisory

"information wants to be free", they say.

well so does every convicted felon out there. i'm sure martha stewart wants martha stewart to be free, but do YOU want that monster out of the slammer? see what i mean?

here's an example.

first thing at office this morning:

my immediate superior, whom i sit back-to-back with, swiveled around in his chair and addressed me.
"guess what i dreamt about last night?"
"tell me", i said, pretending to adjust my chair but in fact trying to find an 'eject' button.
"you and me quit our jobs here to become firemen."

see what i mean? some information just should be left to rot in a dungeon. to repent. some information just has no place in civilized society.

Posted by matti at 02:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 16, 2005

comments

i'm doing this first-time comment approval thing to stop comment spam. it should let your later comments thru once i've approved the first one. which i'll invariably do, it's not for purposes of censorship. (duh.) however, i frequently edit the contents of your comments to suit my agenda and to flatter myself. carry on!

Posted by matti at 10:56 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 15, 2005

tape!

now that streets are saturated with ipods and it's become essentially the new fm radio, it's time to make a stand.

i'll be rocking this with the pod earbuds for now tho. if i witnessed a scenario where somebody was wearing the iconic white buds, then reached into a pocket and busted out the cheesiest cut-rate walkman ever, there was tape flowing out everywhere and they'd use like a pencil to wind it back in? i'd SO snap a pic and blog.

but this is only until i find some beastly, eye-grating late 80's / early 90's headphones to match. (got some? let me know and we'll negotiate.)

Posted by matti at 04:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

we have arrived

move your bookmarks from keltanen.typepad.com to this address.

Posted by matti at 02:41 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 10, 2005

wired

a hideously deranged consultant snapped and created an effigy of me out of wires, a trashbin, headphones and a trucker cap.

yeah.

i think i'll leave work, hang out a bit, take it easy and treat myself to maybe an uerige and a flight the hell out of here.

(the scary part is, it's a pretty accurate likeness.)

Posted by matti at 03:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 09, 2005

schweinebrötchen is for pussies

it's not that food here is out of control, it's just that it is.

behold the schweinehaxen (pronounced 'schweinehaxen'), or "pork motherfucking knuckle".

Posted by matti at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)

***** would have this heart attack again

lunch: wurst with truffel mayo.

fucking truffel mayo. gourmet junk is on.

joint was called curry, it's basically a hip hot dog vendor. wurst with a vengeance.

Posted by matti at 02:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

architecture studies, part one

i don't know if it comes through in pictures but this building emanates some serious geschnellsnurwissengeschaft, which translates roughly to "an imposing sense of superiority by a lozenge-shaped object" 

Posted by matti at 01:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 08, 2005

guten tag. you're it!

hotel kastens has it all: more typefaces than rooms, some serious 80's, and--i was holding my breath for this--glass chairs built into the wall. there's a "wtf" behind every "huh?" if you care to look, you can spend a few days here easily without giving a single thought to how depressing single hotel rooms always are.

Posted by matti at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

a vote for public transport

when david cooper wrote "people do not in fact go mad, but are driven mad by others who are driven into the position of driving them mad by a peculiar convergence of social pressures", i'm sure "drive" was the operative word and more specifically, he had german traffic in mind.

unfortunately i haven't got pictures of either one of these, but these are from like my first hour today in this blessed country:

1. the final descent to this runway we landed on was directly above, and parallel to, an autobahn. now i know the airbrakes were on, landing gear was down, but it's still a goddamn jet plane and .. shit.. cars below were speeding past us.

2. my taxi passed this guy doing maybe 50km/h in a tiny peugeot. this champion was sporting--and you need to picture this:
- a bumpersticker that said "keine panik"
- another sticker on the side of the car saying "joker" in rainbow colours
- a facial expression that i couldn't tell was either a very long yawn or, more likely, he was addressing the general public of his own private kingdom going "RRRRRRRAAAWWWWRR"

Posted by matti at 11:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

luggage couture

you basically can't leave home without a bindle these days. it's THE business travel must have of 2005.

Posted by matti at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2005

quote, with illustration

(from an instant message conversation with [beep])

"[i am watching a] ..streaming media link to a panel session from streaming media conference (..) and while I skip through the stream, the sound goes away"

Posted by matti at 04:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

konnichiwa, nakagawa-san. chorizo! hai.

ok.. so i just saw the grudge. fuck! thank you; now i harbor an intense fear of japanese people, awkwardly moving female figures, houses, wrinkly glass, reflective glass, children, hair, wind chimes in reverse, bill pullman* and THAT FUCKING THROAT SOUND.

seriously, the film was not so much a story with a plot and whatnot as it was 2 hours of creepy-creepy-what's that - WHAM! - sheeeit - does-anybody-in-the-audience-know-CPR stuff. well done, too.

not to spoil, but the lethargic old lady struck me as a distinctly western archetype of a kind of negatively-defined madness. you knew she knew something others didn't. had i my copy of folie et deraison here.. what was that about madness as some sort of lost truth, or madmen as truth-tellers? is that the same in japan, where you'd expect a wholly different mythology of loony?

anyways, go see it. like any horror flick, you need to check your disbelief at the door, and it doesn't hurt (much) to not eat anything for a day before it and then run a few clicks to the theater, faint from low blood sugar sex magik levels and then see the film like i did. or just rent it when it's out in three days or whatever the cycle is nowadays.

* not because of the film, though. it's just.. crikey. brrh. did you know if you stand reeeeal still, bill pullman can't see you?

update, a few hours later: when you've seen this film and you're an idiot with a syncopated circadian rhythm and a particularly nasty case of the deadlines, it's late and you're at an office with plenty of hallways, the absolute last thing you want to hear when walking to get some coffee is someone's desk phone ring while you're walking by. jesus. even more so when you don't locate which phone it is in time so you could answer and it'd just be a wrong number or something.

Posted by matti at 12:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 06, 2005

¡enhorabuena!

let's hear it for our own newly-minted m. psych, the wonderful and ever-photogenic mónica!

extra super props to la familia for the fantastabulous chow and thanks to all involved.

Posted by matti at 06:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

house of horrors

then there was this one guy everybody called 'skull doctor'. rumor has it no man alive has defeated him in pong.

Posted by matti at 05:18 PM | Comments (0)

quote of the day

ihmisten välisten suhteiden todellisuus (ja niiden elävyys ja muuttuvuus esim. taide-käsitteen suhteen) on yhtä todellista (hyökiöyden aiheuttama masennus jne) kuin turpiin saaminen (Pa = N / m^2, joka ei ole elävä ainakaan samalla tavoin), vaikkakin erilaisilla tavoin tutkittavaa (joonas)

eat your heart out, steven pinker!

Posted by matti at 02:42 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 04, 2005

current biology

Here, we show that monkeys differentially value the opportunity to acquire visual information about particular classes of social images. Male rhesus macaques sacrificed fluid for the opportunity to view female perinea and the faces of high-status monkeys but required fluid overpayment to view the faces of low-status monkeys.
Link: Current Biology -- Deaner et al..

fascinating stuff of course, but what irks me is the scientific nonchalance with which some explicit theory is critiqued while the racinating paradigm ossifies. taking 'status' as a one-dimensional quality of social nodes is just dandy if you're, say, karl marx, but when we're talking about socially positioning inclinations, perceptions and actions, should we not take some time to reflect on the 'process 'nature of social hierarchy itself? i haven't a proper critique here, i just have a nagging feeling that i get whenever social distributions are being talked about cos i always think it's too many nouns and too little verbs.

however! using monkeys is good for shits and giggles. i salute you, robert o. deaner, amit v. khera, and michael l. platt.

Posted by matti at 02:50 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

charity time

help skot. seriously.

if his story of illness does not touch you, you are a bad, bad person.

Posted by matti at 02:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

poetry mash

Tyger, Tyger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Was it the wizards? No.
Was it the goblins?
Was it the elves?
Was it the dwarves? No.
Was it the kestrels? No.
Was it the satyrs? No.
Was it the brain police? What?

Was it the man with the key to the door of reality,
underneath the mat of insignificance? Nope.

Well, who was it then?
Was it the terrorists? No.
Pterodactyls? No.

It was Terry!

(original authors)

Posted by matti at 01:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 03, 2005

one more

this book won Most Inspirational Title in Social Sciences.

Posted by matti at 08:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

another book of the month

they figured out the word frequencies of best-selling books' titles, and then this guy worked out the formula and he's taking bets that in a year a book with this title couldn't help but end up on every 12-year old girl's shelf (even though it's actually about AIDS)

Posted by matti at 06:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

this book will change your life

my therapist recommended this book.. finally found it from my local bookstore, in the Self-Help section, under Damage Control

Posted by matti at 05:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 01, 2005

Whey!

i have it on good authority that a man must at some point go down a number of roads. however, i maintain that in life, protein supplement powders are pretty fucking optional. now, i have to admit that as someone naturally averse to considering the body itself an object to be manipulated and tweaked by external means  (in fact, make that "averse to considering the body, full stop") i'm a bit apprehensive about diving into this particular cultural perversion.

i mean, fuck, it says right there on the bag: "warning! do not use. side effects may include nausea, vomiting, death, consumption, the vapors,the bends, the clash, the white stripes and projectile dysfunction."

Posted by matti at 11:58 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

60°10'N

south central, hyperborea.

dawn. 9am.

Posted by matti at 04:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

no more fun and games

somebody poked sauron out.

Posted by matti at 09:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack