Just For A Giggle

Here's a little footage from the Harry Enfield/Fast Show archives. Classic, if a little naughty...

Shut Up And Listen 26/01/08 Playlist

Guest DJ: Sean Williams

1. Tiny Masters of Today – K.I.D.S.
2. Does It Offend You Yeah? – Battle Royale
3. Peter Bjorn & John – Young Folks (Punks Jump Up Remix)
4. Tapedeck – Falcon
5. Justice – Phantom
6. Friendly Fires – Your Love
7. Vampire Weekend – A Punk
8. Filthy Youth – Boys Don’t Smoke
9. High Contrast – White Stripes Blue Orchid Remix
10. Blood Red Shoes – It’s Getting Boring By The Sea (Blamma Blamma Mix)
11. Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip – A Letter from God to Man
12. Skream – Smiley Face
13. Example – Vile
14. Whitey – Stay on the Outside
15. Radiohead – Bodysnatchers
16. Late of the Pier – Bathroom Gurgle
17. Babyshambles – The Man Who Came to Stay
18. Lightspeed Champion – Devil Tricks for a Bitch
19. Danger Mouse – Public Service Announcement
20. Plan B – Missing Links feat. Radiohead
21. Maps – You Don’t Know her Name
22. Trash Fashion – Mom & Daddy (Jet Storm’s Ear Cleaner Mix)

Considering Erasmus? My advice: DO IT!

May I start by confirming the fact that choosing to do Erasmus is probably one of the best decisions you will ever make, so put aside any fears about language barrier or the distance from home! After a year you will have loads of friends from every corner of Europe, speak another language with confidence, be ludicrously employable and have had some unforgettable experiences.

In pretty much every university the Erasmus students form a very tight community, so any problems with language barrier are instantly removed by the fact that everybody else is in the same boat! I personally found the mixture of people from all different nations absolutely mind-blowing. I wasn’t very well travelled before Erasmus and thought it was going to be a problem: on the contrary, I think that’s why I enjoyed it more!

Conversations consisting of more than 3 languages at once will become the norm and you will not cease to be amazed by the cultural and linguistic peculiarities of our neighbours. Exploring the language and culture of the host country with your new Erasmus mates makes it so much less scary and a hell of a lot more fun. I met some incredible people whilst in Santander and if it wasn’t for Erasmus I would have never met anyone like them in a million years!

During the first month living in another country everything is pretty daunting, but at the same time massively exciting! The language learning curve is incredibly rapid and after 4 weeks, your confidence is sky high and you will wonder why the hell you were ever worried in the first place! And if that still isn’t enough, may I remind you that 47% of the EU speak English as a second language, so you have nothing to worry about!

It is probable that many of your fellow Erasmus students may be doing the year for little or even no credits, so keep this in mind towards the end of the year when deadlines are approaching, especially if you want to do well. If you are writing a thesis or project out there, remember to see your supervisor as much as humanly possible and continuously ask members of the group questions.

I would advise you to try and organise a language buddy with a native speaker as soon as possible, because it is tempting to only hang around with Erasmus guys which linguistically is a bad move! Also try to join a local gym, sports team or some form of club as this will allow you to widen your social network and get some good local chat on the go!

Make sure you get a Skype account for a free or very cheap way to call back to the UK and most importantly: go on a road trip with your new mates early on in the year when the work has not started to build up. I went on a 10 day road trip of 30 people to Andalucía in November and words cannot express how awesome that was!

The Meaning of Life... via text message

Last week I received a text from a company called Texperts offering me a free text message as a trial of their service. They apparently have a panel of experts that quickly answer any question that you text them for the sum of £1.

Seeing as I am studying a Philosophy module this year I used my free SMS to ask the eternal question "What is the meaning of life?", hoping to get some sort of humorous reply from a bamboozled "expert". About two minutes later I received the following answer:

"No inherent meaning to life other than to create meaning. The more one values life the more valuable it is. Each individual defines their own meaning."

Of course the first thing that came to mind was the sweet irony of receiving the answer to the eternal question of existence via a mobile telephone. Oh how technology enhances and enriches our modern lives! I wondered if it was a quote from some revered 20th Century thinker. It seemed a fair statement, albeit staunchly from the perspective of a modern atheist. But as I looked at it more and more, I started to doubt its credibility. It seems more probable that it is just some pseudo-profound waffle from the office's self-appointed "thinker".

The first part is very bleak indeed and anybody religious would be exceptionally liable to disagree. It plainly contradicts the Aristotlean idea of every life having a telos (Greek: specific end, goal or purpose) and the theistic idea of us existing due to God's grand scheme, the divine purpose.

I find the second part equally disagreeable. Can someone's life be worth more because they consider it to be? Is the life of a depression sufferer worth less than that of a happy newly-wed just because they value their life less? I find this hard to agree with; in my opinion every life has an equal and unwavering value, regardless of their state of mind.

The final part has its feet firmly embedded in the relativism that seems to be prevalent in a lot of moral thinking today. It also elevates man above God and says that our will is central to defining our own meaning. I don't like the sound of this: what happens if I believe my life's meaning is that I was put on this Earth to be an axe murderer?

Whoever wrote the text message has given an answer that ignores that we may have a specific telos or reason to exist. By suggesting that our life gains meaning depending on what we believe seems to be reminiscent of Anselm's ontological argument. Just because I believe that my life meaning is to eat muffins does not necessarily correlate with the truth. It's like saying that because I can imagine a pineapple with legs that can run as fast as an ostrich, that it must exist in reality.

I'm tempted to write Texperts an email and get them to update their answer to something a bit less bleak! What if someone in a fragile state of mind asks the same question and gets this reply? I hope that there's nobody out there vulnerable enough to take an answer to the meaning of life via text message as gospel.

Shut Up And Listen 19/01/08 Playlist

1	Akala	Electro Livin'
2	We Smoke Fags	Photo Fitness
3	Take Aim Fire	A Barren Spell
4	Bombay Bicycle Club	Open House
5	Kasha ft Composure	Hustling
6	Edan	Emcees Smoke Crack
7	Yila ft Scroobius Pip	Astronaut
8	Sway	Black Stars
9	Spank Rock and Benny Blanco ft Amanda Blank	LOOSE
10	Roots Manuva	Seat Yourself (Miami Mix)
11	The Mitchell Brothers	Don't Try This At Home
12	Timbalana ft Dr Dre, Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliot	Bounce
13	Illastate Mixtape	What You Doing
14	Tinchy Stryder	Xtra
15	Faith SFX	Oh My
16	Lady Sovereign	Chi Ching (Cheque 1 2)
17	M.I.A.	XR2
18	Bolt Action Five	Stand By Your Lover
19	The Cleft Palettes	Seasnake (Yes Sir Idol remix)
20	Simian Mobile Disco	Sleep Deprivation
21	Lillica Libertine	Diamonds
22	Yes Sir Idol	Idol vs Bul!m!atron!
23	Bloc Party	Banquet (Phones Disco Edit)
24	Hadouken!	Leap of Faith (Chase and Status Vocal Remix)

China: a nation of dichotomy

I've just finished reading two articles about China on the BBC website and I can't help but be totally flabbergasted at the difference between them. It transpires that China, the world's oldest political entity (at approximately 2,000 years old), executes more people than the rest of the world put together [1]. According to the article, Amnesty International estimates 1,010 people were executed there in 2006, amounting to 60% of global executions for that year. China does not actually release official figures on the topic, so worse still it could be "just the tip of the iceberg".

In complete contrast, there has been a recent boom in people reading the works of Confucius, with new nursery schools entirely dedicated to his teachings and a recent publication of his main sayings reaching the best-sellers list [2]. His teachings "extol the virtues of harmony, humility and courtesy to others" [2] and he has been described as "one of the most humane thinkers of all time" [3]. The discrepancy between the morals of the government and morals of he people would appear to be as divergent as one would be inclined to expect from a communist society!

Sources
[1]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7169122.stm
[2]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7169814.stm
[3]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Analects-Classics-Confucius/dp/0140443487/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1X2T99HPQIZQ4&colid=2V0GOPK79A8NQ