Articles Books

This article introduces you to the world of demolition derby through the eyes of a teenage girl. She obviously loves derby and is a good writer. The short essay, which I actually read in the original publication, is an interesting trek through her world and her words can inspire young people to explore the possibilities around them. I would recommend having preteens and young teenagers read this article if they are in any way interested in "non-typical" teenager things. They might find it refreshing and empowering. Especially young women, since the author is a young woman living in a male dominated sport.

This is one of the best pieces I have read on Jose Marti. I even purchased the book reviewed by Mr. Eduardo Gonzalez after reading his excellent review article. Other readers I have talked with have expressed their interest in this review, so far one of the best I have read at "Chasqui" which unfortunately seems to concentrate on topics of personal interest and preferences instead of known writers and literary expression of our Americas.

A glimpse into the world of NYC in the mid-1980s in the East Village, wacky modern dance performances at Washington Square Church, psychotic actors on Second Avenue, and the "show must go on" world of the theater. The Cosmopolitans song she mentions Wild Moose Party: Pom Pom Girls Gone New Wave NYC 1980-1981 is hysterical and also fuels the craziness going on. And finally, a glimpse into the psyche of wanna-be singers and how it is passed on to future generations. A great listen!

I wonder why on earth Lafcadio Hearne's remarkable life has never been the subject of a motion picture? That's a tremendous oversight on Hollywood's part that deprives the public of coming to know a man whose lifetime accomplishments were every bit as fascinating and unbelievable as those of his contemporary, the famed British explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton.

In Period of the Gruesome, author Jon Christopher Hughes has done a very glorious thing. He has gone back through microfilm and dusty stacks of newspapers and gathered dozens of Hearne's articles that he wrote while working as a reporter at several Cincinnati newspapers in the 1870's. Hearne's writing is flawless, the style is literary and intelligent, but the subjects about which this 19th century Leonardo wrote are both wickedly lurid and wonderfully tabloidesque. I once let a friend of mine read the account of a police raid on an 1870's "abortion factory" in the West End of Cincinnati, and she ran screaming from the room. Yep, Hearne's newspaper pieces are still 130 years later THAT vivid.

Hearne was an amazing man. He was born a westerner with a curiosity for all things scientific, literary and unusual, and after working his way from one North American coastline to another as a newsman, he crossed to Asia and become a mountain climber. Later in life, he was the first Westerner to visit Tibet and meet the Dalai Lama. Hearne eventually retired to Tokyo to write poetry and tend to his gardens and died in old age a Japanese citizen. He was one part daredevil (he made a bare-handed climb of the 200-foot steeple at Cincinnati's St. Peter in Chains Cathedral as part of a publicity stunt) and part old-time journeyman reporter, who went out and found his stories--generally the most chilling sorts of them, too. Hearne prowled Bucktown (later made infamous in the novel and movie Beloved) which is today right about where the US Bank Arena sits on the riverfront, and was then the murder capital of the USA, a hangout for thieves, morphine-shooters, drunken rivermen, hobos, gamblers and other assorted ne'er do wells.

Hearne loved to shock and amaze, and he had a real gift for doing exactly those things in what he wrote. In one newspaper article included in Period of the Gruesome, Hearne attends along with lawmen while the body of a local businessman is unearthed after a fortnight's burial at Spring Grove Cemetery, in order for the Hamilton County coroner to examine the corpse for signs of blunt cranial trauma, indications that would point to the cause of death being murder, as the man's brother in law was suspected of committing against the late businessman. (The trauma was discovered, the brother in law charged, convicted and a year later, hanged.) Hearne also interviews "Resurrection men" grave robbers who stole bodies on behalf of medical colleges; murderers; opium dealers; a seller of therapeutic 'bovine blood cocktails' and writes some of the most spine tingling articles any media has ever featured.

In these essays about murders, gross-out accidents, abortionists, slaughterhouses, Fourth Street opium dens, executions and corruption among elected officials, Hearne makes the Cincinnati of his era seem a match for Sherlock Holmes' London across the ocean. Who would look out at the sedate landscape of our modern city's seven hills and guess that a half-dozen generations ago such depravity went on here and filled the headlines of the daily papers?

This book is disturbing, disgusting, exciting, amazing, and most of all completely true.

I read these works for a graduate seminar on Aristotle.
Definition of Rhetoric- capacity of persuasion. Plato is critical of the Rhetoric and the tragic poetry. Rhetoric is approach to political public speeches in the forum. Plato thought that they clouded the mind and thus created a part of his critique of democracy in general. Plato thinks Socrates was killed by rhetoric used by the Athenian democracy. Plato feared the danger of democracy. Poetry appeals to the base human emotions rhetoric, and poetry block rational truth according to Plato. Rhetoric is psychological force of language vs. logical force of language. Psychology leads people to believe things based on emotions. Speech must appeal to the masses in a democracy. Psychology is persuasion, logic is truth. Deduction and induction is arguing logically. Plato says rhetoric is not a technç, (craft) nor is poetry, because they are undisciplined and not uniform in design. Thus, appeal to psychology and emotion can never be done away with in a democracy, thus Plato abhors them and democracy. Plato calls it sophistry this psychological appeal and democracy requires this to exist, so the problem persists. Plato is clear and consistent in his abhorrence of sophistry and democracy.

Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics are an alternative to Plato. Aristotle's rhetoric tries to strike a middle position. Aristotle says rhetoric and poetry are a technç, the Rhetoric is a handbook. Aristotle says speaker needs to appeal to appropriate information for the particular setting. Much like a lawyer's argument, not just relying on facts, need to appeal to people's emotions. Aristotle does understand that rhetoric can be used in a harmful way.

Aristotle lays out three features in rhetoric:
1. Ethos= character of the speaker, also charisma, speaker earns the audience's trust, use of body language.
2. Pathos= condition of the hearer.
3. Logos= essential bearing on political persuasion, truth.

Thus, Plato's concern by definition excludes speech because it deals with emotion. These three conditions must be in play for a speech to be successful. The rhetoric contains a detailed analysis of the different human emotions and how to elicit them in a speech. Aristotle knows the speaker must be a good student of human nature to tap into human emotions.

Epistçmç is scientific knowledge. Phronçsis is the capacity of the soul for using education, experience and habit all this is in the ethics. This is the same in political world so politics is not an episteme no scientific reasoning. The things that come up in politics are not deduced scientifically. In politics, humans use deliberation between several possible outcomes unlike math where there is only one correct answer. Political speech is contentious because the nature of politics is contentious.

There are two circumstances in rhetoric.
1. Judicial rhetoric has to do with the past like in a court case.
2. Deliberative rhetoric has to do with the future, what decision should we make in political policies.

I recommend Aristotle's works to anyone interested in obtaining a classical education, and those interested in philosophy. Aristotle is one of the most important philosophers and the standard that all others must be judged by.

Prof. Jinyan Li, who teaches at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Toronto, Ontario, has favorably reviewed this book. Her review appears on page 272 of the current issue of Canadian Tax Journal and may be accessed via the following URL:

http://www.ctf.ca/PDF/2008ctj/08ctj1-ctr.pdf

According to online sources including WorldCat.org, over 60 university libraries have acquired this book, including Harvard, Chicago, Michigan, Boston, and UCLA in the U.S.; Alberta, Manitoba, Osgoode Hall, McGill, and Dalhousie in Canada; and Victoria-Wellington in New Zealand.

Personal Futuring: a step-by-step guide
by Verne Wheelwright

This article, which is well-written, outlines broadly a personal strategic planning model developed by Verne Wheelwright, a PhD student. The author calls it the 'Personal Foresight System'. Technically, it resembles a scenario planning model used in the corporate world. The central philosophy of the author is to show you how to think like a futurist & use the model to learn more about your personal future(s).

It originally appears in the 'Futurist' magazine, May-June 2006, published by the World Future Society. [This organisation has many excellent books, reports & other resources which are worth exploring.]

In a nut shell, the model looks at the following key components:

Personal Research: explains how to look at your past & present in order to explore the future, with the following steps;

Life Stages: the first step in understanding the rest of your life & the lives of your family members;

Personal Domains: the second step examines the primary driving forces in your life;

Future Life Events: the third step discusses events that will probably occur in your life that can, in many cases, be anticipated; doing this exercise helps you to understand the different kinds of life events and which events you should prepare for;

The foregoing stages will form your personal framework. With the information from your personal framework, you are now in a position to construct scenarios that describe your plausible futures. They will be your Personal Scenarios.

In the last part, you will create a vision of your future, then develop plans & strategies to achieve that future. Contingencies are considered here,too. This is your Personal Strategic Plan.

Readers who are really keen to explore the model in greater depth should visit the personalfutures website created by Verne Wheelwright.

From the standpoint of my strategy consulting work with professional adults, I find that there are really application merits in the 'Personal Foresight System' outlined in this article. It is definitely worth pursuing.

[Readers who just want to read the article can visit the accessmylibrary website.]

As the author of the article, I can share the fact that over 2 years were involved in working with Dr. Rosenblatt to understand how these tools may help an organization identify and retain key team members. The testing not
only helps an individual understand his or her preferred approach to team
work, but also helps the organization make better decisions by recognizing balanced input. I would be happy to answer any specific questions about the research and experiences. Call me at 954-336-3722. Thank you.
Keith Wintermeyer, M.D., CHE

Despite the dry title, this is a remarkable piece of science, and reads like a riveting, scientific whodunnit. As Epi wonks know all too well, the elusive WNV/asthma link is something of a public health Great White Whale, and Karpati et al have more or less harpooned it and landed it. Even without the authors' considerable gifts, these data practically leap off the page - Karpati only has to softly underscore a few key points and the whole message shifts into sudden, crystalline focus.

This paper should be required reading for epidemiologists and, for that matter, any other health care professional that aspires to clear, convincing scientific prose.

Federico Fellini was on of the freest filmmaker in the history of cinema. His irreverence is far to be a simple stylistic pose, his films always dealt with those permissible insanities that dwell bellow the term of "cyclic nature of the quotidian way of living or feeling" , but we are so accustomed to analyze some customs from the same perspective, that turning just a little bit the reference patterns, we assist to a mess of incalculable proportions.

And Fellini always knew to bring us a funny glimpse ( the Strada or The Nights of Cabiria) a sympathetic gaze around our modern frivolities ( La dolce vita), a satiric vision around our inner demons ( 81/2 or Gulietta of the spirits) or autobiographical memories (Amarcord or The clowns), nobody like him made and expressed with such meridian clarity those little sins, the small vices, and some normal extravagances of our modern society.

His author Bondanella offers a through analysis of his filmic works with febrile abundance of valuable information.