14 June 2013

Today we have a very special edition of Filosophy Fridays for all of you Daily Quoters out there.
Philosophy os a strange kind of profession - it can be undertaken by anyone, is undertaken by everyone in a huge chunk of our conversations, yet it is widely dismissed as a real profession.

How can something to widespread, so retrospectively influential to our ideologies and social systems, be dismissed as such? What kind of people become philosophers by profession?

Today's Daily Quota comes from contributor Nick - a close friend of mine, an philosophical sparring partner, and the perfect man for the task.
Take it away!

When looking back at human achievement, one can see that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Appropriately, humans have become more interested in “higher” aspirations -Water from a tap, electricity from a socket and shelter built by contractors (called contractors for very good reasons); all for the purpose of achieving other things. 

Education has pushed and pulled this idea along, creating opportunities to produce better planes, medicine, and bridges, though arguably at some cost to our self worth. What has been taken by universities and morphed into an idea?: University = Job. True to say Lawyers, Doctors, and Engineers cannot operate in their chosen field unless they are qualified.

This weeks article is related to the debate of philosophy as a profession versus hobby. The Philosophers’ Magazine recently published an interview it conducted with Nigel Warburton, a newly resigned Professor of Philosophy at the Open University UK, and co-creator of Philosophy Bites podcast.

Other than discussing the mediums Warburton has used over the last few years, it talks about his experience as an academic and why he has left.

The question I want raise on this week’s Filosophy Fridays is: Who ought to do philosophy? Is it simply a matter for academics to ponder and squabble over minutiae, or is it an activity for all of us? 

The most recent advances in philosophy have tended to rely on mathematics and logic, descended from Aristotle and slightly harder for mere mortals to comprehend, though not out of reach. What really is in question is people’s commitment to philosophy i.e. how interested they are. As Socrates said, “the unconsidered life is not worth living”. Socrates was supposedly untrained, but did establish his own school in his later years.

READ IT HERE

13 June 2013

Another edition of Throwback Thursdays on The Daily Quota, where one can be grateful that I didn't empty my recycle bin.
Today we go back to the end of January 2013, onto a light-hearted, albeit dark topic - the evolution of The Dark Knight.

Batman fans, rejoice!

28 January 2013

I fucking love Batman. I don't know how else to say it.
My bookcase has an entire tier dedicated to Batman comics, graphic novels and memorabilia pieces. Batman statues accompany Lionel Hutz statues in my study.

As such, today's Daily Quota is an article I dug up from the July 2012 edition of The Atlantic. It's titled How the Dark Knight Became Dark Again and explores the evolving image of Batman from the Golden Age of comics, through to the Adam West caricature of the 60's, up to Nolan's most recent revamp.
For those of you that have read the comics before, you'd know that most of them are very dark indeed. Any Joker adaptation since Alan Moore's The Killing Joke has been melancholy, psychotic and outright disturbing. Batman has to keep up with his foes, lest the Biff! and Pow! days return.

What I love about this article is the articulation of an otherwise 'childish' fictional character; who is often dismissed as one without merit.
Nolan has done much to resurrect Batman from the postmodern shambles of the 90's; his sole intention being to restore the 'Dark Knight' character that first emerged in the 1980's through such writers as Alan Moore and Frank Miller.

This article is fantastic. It's on the ball, it's well researched and it's a real treat for any Batman fan - Nolan or otherwise.

READ IT HERE

12 June 2013

When you look back on your life, what are some of the regrets that you have?
Do you have any? Or, are you like me and 
Perhaps you're still young, or perhaps you just aren't a very nostalgic person.

Whatever the case, it's always an interesting topic - although ironically, the advice is swept aside by the young and useless to the old. Such is life.

For today's Daily Quota, we take a look at a recent Slate crowd-sourcing initiative titled 'When People Look Back on Their Lives, What Are Some Common Regrets They Have?'
It basically only provides two readers' opinions, but it opens the gates for more thought-provoking self-reflection.

One of the contributors split his 'regrets' into three categories:

1. Things that you did that you wish you hadn't.
2. Things that you didn't have but wish that you did.
3. The heavy cost of the time you've wasted.

Have a read, and get nostalgic!

READ IT HERE

11 June 2013

This August, I'll find myself prolonging my Euro trip (at the expense of my second semester) to tour Paris and other parts of France - in particular, Normandy.
Normandy in Northern France is famous as the 'drop zone' for the Allied D-Day Assault on the Germans in June 1944. As a modern history buff, I'm very much looking forward to this leg of my trip.

Today's Daily Quota is a recent publication in Life Magazine titled 'The Ruins of Normandy: Unpublished Colour Photos From France 1944'.
This series collects 17 rare colour photos from Normandy, including some great shots of the beach landing boats - famously included in all depictions of the bloody Omaha Beach Landings - and some vibrant shots of French villages after they've experienced Allied bombing. 

A fantastic collection, and a real treat for history buffs or curious parties alike.

VIEW THEM HERE

10 June 2013

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle"

  - Edmund Burke    

Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontent (1770)

The quote above is often attributed to the famous quote "evil prevails when good men do not act" - the origins of which nobody seems to know conclusively. 
I've always said that apathy will be the death of us.
Well, it depends who is being apathetic - if the bad guys are apathetic, happy days; but they rarely are.

Most of you would have heard of the recent leak of a classified US surveillance program called PRISM. This has been the biggest exposure of US government surveillance since Wikileaks and Cablegate back in 2010. 
Given the gravity of this information, The Daily Quota will dedicate a huge post to this leak within the week.

However, what really distresses me is that no one seems to know about it - or if they do, they are either quiet about it, or they just don't care. Not a single comment. Half a day of mainstream media exposure. Obama even admitted they were doing it - but it's 'okay because it's legal'.

Apathy will, indeed, be the end of us - and we probably deserve the fate that we will be dealt.
Today's Daily Quota is a comical prequel to this week's upcoming PRISM post. It's a light-hearted comic from the folks over at Joy of Tech which highlights the hypocritical nature of everyone's response. The sad this is it's not only true - it's a significant rarity. 

9 June 2013

The end of the week deserved an intellectual cheat meal - enter Superficial Sundays on The Daily Quota, where we pursue the trivial.

Nothing brings out the pursuit of the trivial in a human being like procrastination - particularly for Tort Law. As such, all of you lucky Daily Quoters will gain an insight into what is making me procrastinate.

Today's Daily Quota is a webpage that hosts some of the most famous tongue-in-cheek comics on the internets - Cyanide and Happiness. The humour is dark, inappropriate or so-bad-that-it's-good.

Flick through the collection via the link below.

VIEW THEM HERE

8 June 2013

Welcome back to the long-weekend edition of Sardonic Saturdays - where every silver lining has a cloud.

Every time I leave Sydney I notice something about the people sitting around me in a restaurant, cafe or  cannabis clinic. No one is on their phones. I'm very much used to the smartphone being glued to my hand, the only organ outside by body - probably a sign of a Type A Personality...or OCD.

Today's contributor David doesn't hold the same attitude to the smartphone. Or perhaps he does, but he just writes to well to the contrary. His blog TakeMeToYourReader provides an avenue for a very coherent rant, and proves what I've told him a few times - his best writing comes out when he's shitty.

Here's a sample:

You see, instead of exposing the world to your ignorant braying on yet another topic, you can look at the ubiquity of the mobile phone as an opportunity for some self-reflection – even if all that means to you is turning on the front-facing camera. Sure, you might have the latest Smartroid from that chink company in Korea, but you still can’t manage to make a phone call without fumbling open at least seven other apps, can you? To paraphrase Maurice Switzer, it’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and confirm that you are indeed just another garish blot on the genetic landscape.

Ah yes, it appears that Saturdays are Sardonic for others too.
Check out his blog post via the link below!

READ IT HERE