Island Eudaimonia

Chrissy Love, Steve McKinney & the Future of ZNS - Bahama Pundit By far, my favourite blogger on all matters Bahamian. Well researched, most importantly, and well written. Thanks Bahama Pundit!

Ever since Christian Bale took over as Batman , the franchise's fortunes have changed for the better. Who can forget Heath Ledger's mesmerizing performance as The Joker ? If the latest promotional poster is anything to go by, the newest addition to the series should be phenomenal.

Have you seen our throne ? The throne pictured here (bottom left of photo) has apparently gone missing or been stolen. Usually, our Governor General , the Queen's  representative, uses it. It was recently used outside at another location for the swearing in ceremony of the new government and the ministers . It really is just tragically funny, given that we just had elections and one of the major issues that all our parties focused their rhetoric  upon was crime . Now, a tief  has run off with the symbolic chair of sovereignty . This happened almost on the same day as our former Prime Minister retired  after recently  losing the popular vote  in our last elections, which I'm proud to say were internationally observed, certified and, for the most part, peaceful. We are one of the oldest continuous Parliaments in the western hemisphere . That's kind of cool. In the mean time, have you seen our throne?

CNET.UK has reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S3 and have decided to use the words ' Ferrari of Android '. That about sums it up. Having used the Samsung Galaxy S2 , it's predecessor, I would agree.

Beach, Please! | Culture | Vanity Fair Some awesome photography for TGIF .

About 40 years ago, George Carlin fought for our civil liberties by challenging the ability of the FCC to censor freedom of speech . The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court .  Carlin stands as one of the greatest comedians  and counter-culture critics of our time. He began his challenge with an unlikely monologue about the 7 Words You Can Never Say on Television . At the time, they were: shit piss fuck cunt cocksucker motherfucker tits Now, some might say, but those words are awful. Yes, I somewhat agree, but awful belongs in the realm of poor taste and societal censorship should suffice on such matters. It should never be the business of the government to harass, arrest or otherwise intimidate anyone for simply having poor taste. Speech that directly threatens another person or group of people is another matter, but that wasn't the issue with these words. In the end, the FCC established limits on speech designed to limit the exposure of children,...

Thank you to Being a Geek for sharing. Game of Thrones is fantastic. If you haven't read the books , read them. In the world of fantasy  literature, there have been a lot of average writers, but three great writers stand as colossi . In my view, they have defined the genre: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and the mythology it spawned. Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and the mythology it spawned. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and the mythology it spawned. And if you haven't seen the HBO show yet, then get on it. The show is approaching the end of Season 2. Season 1 was fantastic. Season 3 should be amazing as the show's popularity has amped up HBO's spending. It's available via HBO On Demand  or catch it on HBO on Sunday evenings. Another HBO show that is amazing is Boardwalk Empire , be sure to check that out. It's about Prohibition and features Al Capone as one of the characters.

This is excellent. Priceless use of The Simpsons . Thank you to Native Stew for sharing. It's particularly hilarious because while attending university in North America, people were stunned that someone like me could be from the  Bahamas . Once that shock had dissipated, I was asked questions about our use of straw, thatch and other native materials and people were astonished that I had normal clothes and that people used cars in the Bahamas . It makes you realize just how superior first worlders  believe their countries to be, as their media constantly portrays developing countries as total backwaters. It's quite humorous. It's an ever more globalized world and lazy writers, like the lady who wrote the original article, need to be more aware of that fact. For background reading on the story: From The Tribune , click here . From The Tribune as well, click here . An even better rebuttal:

For those of you interested in the universe and space . Have you heard of SpaceX ? If not you should, they made big news recently. Co-founded by Elon Musk , also one of the co-founders of  PayPal , SpaceX was the first commercial company to privately launch a rocket into space. The message, dream big! Here's more info: http://www.youtube.com/spacexchannel https://plus.google.com/104512038508075599339/posts https://www.facebook.com/SpaceX http://vimeo.com/spacexlaunch

Photos: Inside the Life of the Ambani Family, Owners of the World’s Most Lavish Home | Society | Vanity Fair For the full VF article, click here . I find it disconcerting that we are returning to an era that is reminiscent of the Gilded Age , especially in the developing world. The chasm between rich and poor grows greater and greater and is exemplified by this unbelievable display of Pharaonic  wealth. I'd be embarrassed to live in such opulence, surrounded by slums . If you haven't seen the amazing film, Slumdog Millionaire , do yourself a favour and watch it.

Today, history is being made in Egypt as voters go to the polls for the first time for what will hopefully be free and fair elections . Remember Obama's speech in Cairo entitled New Beginnings ? Only a short few months later, Mubarak's regime fell due to the demand for freedom of the Egyptian people as they flooded Tahrir Square and would not be moved or silenced. Let's hope it goes well. Best wishes to my Egyptian friends.

ESPN Soccernet - Correspondents - FC Barcelona - Why Pep Guardiola left Barcelona

Skyfall looks well done. According to VF , the trailer premiered in  Cannes  this evening. The franchise has delivered solid popcorn consumption inducing films for a long time and the quality has improved with such recent hits as  Casino Royale . The casting of Daniel Craig as the famous 007 has definitely helped the franchise as well. Top 5 Bond films? What are yours? Here's my list: Goldfinger Casino Royale Dr. No ThunderBall Golden Eye The Spy Who Loved Me Golden Eye, the film, was also a great game, Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64 . In its day, one of the best multiplayer first person shooters on the market.

Photos: The Vanity Fair Cannes Festival Party at the Hôtel du Cap | Hollywood | Vanity Fair And Hollywood now...

Photos: The Best of Classic Cannes | Hollywood | Vanity Fair Just a fantastic photo article from Vanity Fair .

Religulous is a film by one of my favourite comedians, Bill Maher . I agree with Bill Maher when it comes to organized religion , although I must say that I am a little more sensitive towards deeply held personal beliefs than he is. It is the political reality of religion that I abhor, not its moral or spiritual aspects, usually. In my experience, few people who are zealously religious demonstrate behaviour that I would call spiritual, but I've met many spiritual people who professed being religious, they just weren't zealous. The primary problem with zealots is that they close their minds off to other ways of looking at the world, especially science. This post is doing the rounds on facebook, it seemed quite apropos, although it should be titled Organized Religion :

An old friend of mine, who has always been a natural comedian, took the plunge and did a stand up gig and recorded himself in front of a live audience. That takes courage, because chasing a dream is hard. Keep on keeping on Joe!

This article should alarm people. It's from the  Guardian UK . It's a discussion of the rising tide of anti-intellectualism in the United States . There is a deliberate effort with mass support from the fundamentalist Christian right that is attempting to roll back the enlightenment and all of its tenets. This movement wants to do away with cultural and philosophical self-criticism  and reflection , which are the only path to cultural growth and evolution and are essential to a cosmopolitan society . I have never understood the drive of religious fundamentalists to return us to the Dark Ages .

Thomas Friedman is one of my favourite writers and thinkers. He's the NYTimes foreign affairs op-ed columnist and an accomplished writer and journalist. I have read most of his books and try to read all of his columns. Here's one of his latest columns . They are all great and I recommend reading them regularly, but his books are equally fantastic. Here are some of my favourite and one that I haven't had a chance to read yet: From Beirut to Jerusalem  is about Middle East affairs. The Lexus & the Olive Tree should be required reading for anyone who thinks about the world. Longtitudes & Attitudes is a collection of his columns around the time of 9/11. The World is Flat should also be required reading. Picks up where Lexus left off and updates it. Hot, Flat & Crowded is another collection of columns. Worth reading. That Used to Be Us is his latest book. I haven't read it yet, but very excited to. His insights are priceless.

Great news! One of my favourite activities on the planet, drinking coffee , has just been declared officially good for you according to the latest and widest study ever conducted on coffee drinkers health versus non-coffee drinkers health. Enjoy!

Recently watched an amazing documentary on HBO called Soundtrack for a Revolution . It is about music during the Civil Rights era. Quality documentaries really shine as exceptional film.

While on the topic of music, it would be remiss of me not to mention one of my favourite songs of all time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that someone had taken the trouble to put it to high quality video footage of nature scenes. A photo of dolphins and dogs was making the rounds on facebook today. This link features video of the same incident in the photo. Thought it was worth a share:

Recently, NPR has attracted more and more of my time because they really do a great job of digging into modern culture. This project, All Songs Considered , is a good example of this. It is remarkable because it forces you to look at things you like with empathetic eyes and try to imagine if other people would really like them too. I've always enjoyed such thought experiments. I definitely agree with Pink Floyd , Bob Marley and The Beatles being on the list. I'm a big fan of De La Soul and Paul Simon , but not sure they if they were quite as transcendent.

Awareness is and should be an important part of life, but in the modern era, finding reliable and pertinent news information quickly, despite the myriad of sources, can be very difficult. In the 21st century , we now know there is no such thing as objective news, so the best one can do is seek for a kind of intersubjectivity that allows one to develop one's own subjectivity in the hope of fostering a kind of refined or cultivated objective perspective that appreciates from whence differing opinions came from. Marcus Aurelius said, "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." This intersubjectivity can only be achieved via a plethora of news sources from a diversity of backgrounds and cultures. Unfortunately, that is very time consuming. I tend to check these services as I can: CNN International BBC World Service The Week The Economist NYTimes WSJ euronews Bloomberg FT The Guardian NPR Le Monde ...

A friend of mine took this one at Grabbers on Guana Cay in the Abaco Islands . There really aren't any words to describe an exquisite Bahamian sunset. You have to see one for yourself. Please peruse his web page to learn more about his amazing photography.

An amazing photo I was fortunate to snap with my previous phone. This photo proves that sometimes pure luck can snap you a sweet shot. Managed to liberate it from the device before it completely died on me. This was taken at Snappa's in Marsh Harbour, Abaco.

This blog is possible because of a few key pieces of technology: 1. Google Chrome , the fastest browser to date, in my experience. 2. Samsung Galaxy S2 , currently available at BTC at amazing prices. Fantastic video review here. 3. Google Android , which is about to get upgraded to the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. 4. Google Blogger  is the amazing program that creates these ready made Blog templates.

This was a hell of a lot of fun to do. More importantly, there's a little Island Eudaimonia in this photo for sure. Gotta love the Bahamas ! My girlfriend and I were lucky enough to be able to do this together, get paid for it and enjoy a day at the beach with a gourmet lunch. It is better in the Bahamas! Unfortunately, that is not our yacht in the background. Ironically, the VISA people wanted to have the yacht moved for the photo. The Bahamians tried to explain that it could only add to the photo. They eventually shot anyway.

The spirit of this blog can be summed up thus: Know thyself! These words were inscribed in the stones of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi  and they are the essential mystery of the human experience, both as an individual and as groups, throughout time.

Eudaimonia  can be understood as living well or human flourishing, but is literally translated as well spirit . Islands are usually imagined as beautiful environments where life's troubles melt away, if only it were so easy. Island Eudaimonia is about the simplicity and the complexity of  life . It is a philosophy  built on an understanding that knowledge and wisdom are more powerful than ignorance and ideology . It is a way of life that embraces histories and cultures , celebrating their diversity , while  conscious of the universal essence of shared human experience on earth . It celebrates humanism and reminds us that most of the concerns of humanity are ancient, even if modern life accelerates experience . By exploring the  art , history , mathematics , science , technology ,  architecture ,  economics , politics  and philosophy  of both the ancients  and the moderns , we will share in knowledge that be...