18
POPSDeath, similar and different it is fascinating to see how death and identity are related. both in the personal experience and the cultural one. i wonder how it would change when and if immortality emerges?
17
POPS"Zorba the Israeli" His most famous book, "Zorba the Greek," was published in 1946. Its appearance in English in the United States, in 1954, made its author a runaway success that exposed him to the rest of the world. Zorbas became an adored figure in Western culture, and his prescription for life, passions and animal instincts were idealized. He came to represent all of Greek culture. Kazantzakis wrote many books. "The Last Temptation of Christ" roused a storm of controversy when it appeared. (the film version of the book was released, directed by Martin Scorsese with a soundtrack composed by Peter Gabriel.) "It's the combination of the landscape and the people," Melzer a former philosophy professor says "Greeks have an endless ability to be happy, and we Israelis can only learn from them."
15
POPSIn Love with Love: Watch Out!
By the second half of the 20th century, though, this culture of restraint had been jettisoned, and replaced by the idea that self-denial was self-abnegation. Now, in its general thrust, our culture is in love with the idea of love, awash with cock-eyed romanticism and unable to tell any more what's attraction, what's lust and what's love. Puberty, and even childhood is suffused with a popular music soundtrack that peddles endless trite paeans to the central importance of modern romance. The most surprising of people want naff anthems celebrating some songwriter's long-since ruined "true love" at their weddings. At some point, most teenage girls at least flirt with the idea of giving attraction a dry run by developing a crush on a pop star. Heaven knows what Wagner would make of it all. On the whole, people don't really like it when scientists tell them that attraction is all down to pheromones, or waist-to-hip proportion, or instinctive recognition of genetic differentiation.
14
POPSThe Birth Control of Yesteryear
Unlike many other medicines of its time, silphium was not thought of as a mere folk remedy; Scholars and doctors of the day openly praised the plant's effectiveness as a contraceptive. Ancient Rome's foremost gynecologist– a physician named Soranus– wrote that women should drink the silphium juice with water once a month since "it not only prevents conception but also destroys anything existing." Alternatively, a tuft of wool could be soaked in the juice and inserted into the vagina as a pessary. During laserwort's heyday, Rome's birth rate decreased considerably despite increasing life expectancy, plentiful food, and relatively few wars or epidemics, and some historians cite this as evidence of the herb's effectiveness. Unfortunately, modern science will probably never determine whether the fennel's extract was really an effective form of parenthood prevention, nor will it measure laserwort's merit as a medicine. By the end of the first century AD, following a fifty year decline in s
12
POPSHistory of Western Civilization lost in Iraq "It was there, in what the Greeks called Mesopotamia, that life as we know it today began: there people first began to speculate on philosophy and religion, developed concepts of international trade, made ideas of beauty into tangible forms, and, above all developed the skill of writing." And US invaders stood by and watched as irreplaceable world history was hauled off by unarmed looters.
10
POPSMoscow’s Plan is to Redraw the Map of Europe: Mikheil Saakashvili
Since Russia’s invasion, its forces have been “cleansing” Georgian villages in both regions – including outside the conflict zone – using arson, rape and execution. Human rights groups have documented these actions. It hopes the west will forget ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia drove out more than three-quarters of the local population – ethnic Georgians, Greeks, Jews and others – leaving the minority Abkhaz in control. Last week Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president, put us on alert: “Russia does not really know where it begins and where it ends.” He noted that the Moscow regime is “a lot more sophisticated” than the Soviets under Leonid Brezhnev. He should know – he was on the front line the last time Russia invaded a European country. Backing Georgia with Europe’s political and financial institutions is a powerful response. The most potent western response to Russia is to stay united and firm by providing immediate material and political support.
9
POPSThe Lion Of The Senate Child of privilege that he undoubtedly was, Kennedy also stood for a second quality that is fading: the belief that after the accumulation of wealth came an ambition -- indeed, an obligation -- for public service."
8
POPSThe rudest travel book ever written A vintage version of the kind of person waxes so strongly about something he/she could not possibly have any insight on; in this case foreign lands by someone who's who's never stepped out of his/her immediate borders (city/country). This would be a 19th century masterpiece if ignorance were a collectible... Check out more splendid ignorance @ source. :p
Most Pops
see Most Pops
12
Clips
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update