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Viewing Essays - Page 1
| The New Document | March 13, 2013, 3:54PM |
 by: Springheel.is.dead |
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There has never been anything like the internet. Not since the formation of the Silk Road has the free exchange of information between different cultures become so available, yet the onset of the digital age far surpasses it in magnitude. The world is simply a more populous place than it was, and to offer the entirety of humans the opportunity to participate in a greater world culture is a miraculous and complicated thing. It implies change in all facets of world culture: the economy, entertainment, correspondence, publication, and language. People use the internet for lots of reasons, but it is clear that the average user wants to enjoy themselves by pursuing knowledge and experience regarding their private interests. It is the nature of entertainment to provide abstract insights into the human experience, and people who are entertaining themselves are not only seeking to understand life, but also to understand entertainment. Entertainment is comprised of common points of reason and emotional appeal. It is a person’s viewpoint applying to many, and so in seeking the human experience, humans seek to understand one-another. http://homenet.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/progress/purpose.html To understand one-another, we must speak the same language. More than fifty percent of the internet is written in English, and has been for some time. There is an implied change in this trend, but so far the internet has developed as an English place, and so participants would need to read English. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm There are many defendants of the purity of language, to the degree that certain invasive or viral words will be redefined as another word more suited to the context of the language. However, the evolution of language is an inexorable fact. As societies mix, we naturally seek to understand one-another. Sometimes the response to this is a hostile insistence on one’s own lingual point of view, but it seems that the trend of language is to change, and so those opposed to its diversity must be a minority. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/evolenglish.html The effect of this has been a necessary reduction of complicated discourse in the past, and so it is in the interest of preserving the integrity of elevated language that these proponents of lingual isolationism perhaps act. Ironically, these objections to mixing language are born from a desire to better understand one-another. In preserving the elevated functions of language by keeping the waters clear of multi-cultural discursive mud, the ability to speak and understand one-another about more abstract or academic ideas becomes cemented into an isolated culture. This presumably comes at the cost of alienating other cultural viewpoints, and so the quest for knowledge seems incomplete at either end. “…meeting places for community and university values, language, and knowledge to become mutually informative and sustaining, places where greater numbers of people have a say in how knowledge is made, places where area residents, students, and faculty explore works of art, literature, and film to find ways in which these works still resonate with meaning and inform everyday lived struggles.” The Public Intellectual, Service Learning, and Activist Research Ellen Cushman PG 810 Document page 819 https://bb.umflint.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2515070-dt-content-rid-1404255_2/courses/201320.ENG340.01/Cross-talk.pdf This passage, taken from Ellen Cushman’s article in Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, describes the aims of service-learning, where a student is made to become part of a greater community in order to learn from that community’s goal-related perspective. She talks about bringing the intellectual world down from the ivory tower to find a common audience with non-academic people. This article was written in 1999, so she may not have realized that her intended results are achieved by the internet, for the first step down from the ivory tower is one that finds common language. Many websites publish in multiple languages. There is a decidedly interested exchange of media between the two biggest web cultures: the east (China) and the west (United States). We watch each other’s movies, listen to each other’s music. We want to understand one-another, but that one frustrating barrier remains: language. The obvious answer to this is for a service to translate the web. All of it. We could reach each other in forums, share our lives through pictures and video, navigate all the websites, and generally become an absolute melting pot of all available world culture. The threat of altered language would no longer be from bilingual expressions. However, many documents would come to resemble a certain mode of discourse which comes from direct translation. Those wary of losing an international audience may necessarily have to simplify their language in order to be translated with absolute success. Academic writing in the new international context once again contradicts itself; with a desire to be complete and complex in execution tempered by the want to be heard. In the world outside academic writing, the average internet document is changing the most. The document is malleable. There is never a finished product. It can be edited at any time, updated, or otherwise changed, sometimes by many different users in a collaborative effort. The most direct expression of this is seen in articles which are literally a collaboration. They have multiple authors and can be accessed and updated by anyone. Wikipedia is a good example of this, as are google documents. Articles without explicit collaboration seem collaborative as well in that they make more available their citations in the form of hyperlinks, which perforate the work and perhaps draw the interested internet user away from the work source to chase a series of links in their pursuit of knowledge. Furthermore, collaboration occurs when commentary on the article is an available option. Comments can range from simple sentences to full-on articles in response. Authorship becomes less authoritative and more subjective. The readers are the author as much as the author is, and it is unclear who we should listen to. Mostly, authority is granted to whomever sounds convincing, and so it is assumed that this is a product of proper grammar and intelligibility. In short: we acknowledge intellectual authority based on not only a convincing use of language, but also a relatable use of language. If the reading is too dense, it is likely someone else has written it more simply, and may even be credited with a link in the article. This also may take the form of a comment in the article, which allows a user faced with acquiring the most efficient source of information another avenue through the work, circumventing the intended path set by its original author. Water takes the course of least resistance, and, with a world of information to choose from, so does the user of the internet. There is clearly a change in the way that we of the digital age acquire knowledge. “…students learn well by reading and writing with each other, responding to each other’s drafts, negotiating revisions, discussing ideas, sharing perspectives, and finding some level of trust as collaborators in their mutual development.” Distant Voices Teaching and Writing in a Culture of Technology Chris M. Anson PG 788 Document page 797 https://bb.umflint.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2515070-dt-content-rid-1404255_2/courses/201320.ENG340.01/Cross-talk.pdf Those participating in internet discourse are always collaborators, and so we are always placing our trust in that academic-sounding voice to guide our learning. Oftentimes, that voice is each other, and so we teach as we learn, offering a variety of perspectives and sources. This cloud of information is a haze in which much reading can become lost. As the user follows one link to the next, what they are reading is truncated by an attention span assaulted by a myriad of distractions. Not only is online interaction beset by life’s normal spectrum of diversion, but also things published in the document, such as advertisements, hyperlinks to other articles, and the supplementary commentary, which may be accessed first to gage the worth of the piece and its worthiness in the face of valuable and distracted time. A wary web article must consider this in addition to its international applicability, and so seeks to be brief and elegant in the points it makes. If one seeks to be a popular source, that source must be to the point enough as to represent absolute knowledge as readily available as possible. Indeed, much of the web’s knowledge-seeking behavior occurs when something is brought up in casual discourse and those participating in the collaborative learning event wish to discover the truth behind their speculation. Such a thing commonly occurs on a mobile internet-accessible device of some kind, and so brevity becomes not only desirable, but explicit, if a source is to be considered. As these knowledge absolutes, such as the kind provided in question and answer type forums, become more prevalent, the result is a reduction of discussion in general. Instead of seeking to find a reasonable truth by talking about it, the answer can simply become available. The quest for knowledge once again truncates itself, becoming ironically as brief as it is expansive and expandable. “We’re already practicing brevity constantly. Twitter maxes out at 140 characters, Facebook statuses max out at 420 and wall posts stop at 1,000. Hashtags encourage #smushingtogethershortsearchablewords and most texting services have a character limit, too.” http://www.thenextgreatgeneration.com/2011/03/the-art-of-brevity-communicating-in-the-modern-age/ Within all these paradoxes and self-contradictions, the new digital document gestates. Its real face lies in the whim of the masses, where it is continually being redefined, revised, and collaborated on. If what is popular in web documents now becomes more popular, the normative practice of writing an article will change considerably. For one, all documents will be web documents. Newsprint is on its way out. In 1999, Chris M. Anson predicted that the new newspaper will be downloaded onto a tablet, where the reader can enjoy a multimedia experience. We are not so far off from that now. Digital versions of much reading, from comic books to textbooks, are available and thriving. With this adaptation to web-living, the nature of the text is necessarily subject to the limitations (and simultaneous limitlessness) of all web documents, and so will come to resemble them more and more. The concept of necessary brevity will become a prevalent one, so much so that an article may only resemble a fraction of an article, with the option to expand by linking to another article, or engaging in the discussion that the article generates. An article will go beyond text, incorporating mixed media to grasp in hand firmly the attention span of its viewer. It will become almost a plea to listen, hashtagged somewhere in the white noise of countless voices trying to tell, sell or entertain a user. With so much to know, the only things worth knowing will be things known quickly, all in order to seek the next bit of knowledge. An article may then need to be broken into segments, with relevant headlines existing as a thesis statement, and just enough supplemental information to entice interest in the next link. The internet user wants to navigate knowledge on their own terms, and so seeks to find information from a variety of sources, even while looking for the one that reinforces or informs them absolutely. The internet user wants two very different things, then: to find reasonable truths stated explicitly, but also to find them themselves. The internet user makes the information their own when they learn to formulate the questions they want to ask in a way that the internet will respond to. Finding the right search engine terminology is essentially the act of discovering knowledge for an internet user, and so in seeking to learn what the internet has to teach us, we learn the language of the internet. Articles which exhibit phrasing common to search terms will be most often read and so most often referenced, and the kind of discourse they exhibit will inform future article writers. As aforementioned, this language will become most common because of translation and general elegance and brevity, and will be the next transformative step in the advancement of English as a language in the information age. The most explicit example of the evolution of English in the world wide web is perhaps the onset of internet slang. Internet phrasing is so prevalent a lingual phenomenon as to find use in our spoken dialect. Anagrams allow us to represent emotional states, ideas and interjections in a readily-definable and overall elegant way. It is a movement defined by one over-arching principle, which governs the change of the article as well as the change in language it implies: We all want to understand one-another as quickly and easily as possible. If the result of the multi-cultural internet phenomenon is not to adopt foreign words and phrasing, it is at least to create a language as foreign as any and intersperse it into English, which is encouraged in many ways to become more simplified as a whole. The irony lies in the fact that becoming a generally more knowledge-seeking people seems to result in a depreciation of our ability to explain said knowledge. It could be said to cheapen the experience. Where people would previously sit down to a whole knowledge meal, there is now the availability of knowledge fast food. Quick and easy may be the American way, and the internet, which is an American construct, is coming more and more to resemble that ideal. Indeed, the most popular articles are usually ones featuring a list of some kind. The ‘top ten’ something or other is a commonly circulated internet archetype. It is easy to see how this caters to a deficit attention, and provides the type of easy knowledge statements that are valued by the typical internet user. The academic up side of this is that there is simply more information to consume. While it may be more difficult to discern the type of article an academic would be interested in reading from the countless many available in the average internet experience, there will always be academic journals intent on publishing knowledge the old way, for an audience that can appreciate it. These will perhaps serve as resources for those dedicated to reforming knowledge for the new internet audience, but they will never be as popular as a short article in simple, clear language, perhaps featuring a cute video with a cat in it. | |
topic: Essays | |
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| Keeping: How Treasure Makes Monsters | March 2, 2013, 4:18AM |
by: Springheel.is.dead |
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In the early years of the 1600’s, north England and Scotland were host to monsters. The mutant tribe of Sawney Bean “lived exclusively from robbery - and from cannibalistic murder.”(Thomas) They were a family raised on a foundation of murder; acts so atrocious that they led to the manhunt and eventual public castration and execution of the whole clan. These activities were hallmarked by an attitude towards material wealth that has often been a sign of monster-dom in even the earliest instances of literature. “…the soldiers found piles of money, possessions and clothes, taken from the Beans ' many victims.” (Thomas) In addition to being murderers and cannibals, the Beans were also hoarders, a condition as indicative of their evil as taking human life. This attitude can be attributed to similar monsters; those found in the epic Beowulf. While the unprovoked murderous intent of these two monsters clearly separates them from the ranks of civilized men, their description could not be complete without their hoarding of material wealth. Indeed, it is precisely this attribute that preliminarily identifies them as monsters, and gave cause for writing them as such. To examine this necessary treatment of treasure, one should note the way that the distribution of wealth is regarded in that time. In many instances of early literature, the craftsmanship of goods, especially those made of gold, is something truly to be revered. From the annals of old Troy to Beowulf, it is not uncommon for an author to wax poetic about the gilded details of a warrior’s armor, or the lustrous sphere of their shield. It is not only the admiration of these things that distinguishes the actions of men as opposed to monsters, but the way they are handled. Kings and feudal lords, especially in medieval Scandinavia, were characterized as giving treasure to their subjects. “…he would share everything with young and old that God had given him.” (Luizza, L. 72) is said of Hrothgar. “…he gave out rings, treasure at table.” (Luizza, L. 82) This practice was so prevalent that kings were called ‘ring givers’. One can see the way that this may make a warrior into a king. Not only does it seem to trade wealth for loyalty, but sets a standard for the way that gold should be treated, and the way that it can translate into camaraderie. Set very much in contrast to this is the attitude of the monsters towards their treasure. “…he [Grendel] saw no need to salute the throne, he scorned the treasures; he did not know their love.” (Luizza, L. 168-169) In this way, Grendel rejects not only treasure, which he has mounds of back in his lair, but also the social system built upon that treasure. It is in this light that Grendel is absolutely distinguished as being a monster. While from monstrous lineage and bathed in the blood of thirty dead thanes, it is not until he rejects wealth that he is fully alienated from the social world and made a true pariah. In many ways, the Beowulf poem seems to desire to draw parallels between lordship and the moral good intended by Christianity, and so there is something distinctly anti-Christ about hoarding within the context of the poem. There is a clear distinction between “…distributed treasure and unused treasure, for the former seems to be a metonymy for lordship and the Christian ideal, while the latter seems to be a perversion of them both.” (Marshall) This ‘perversion’ is further reinforced by the actions of the dragon, who sits on an enormous treasure horde not his own. While Grendel perhaps took his treasures from his many encounters with the world of men, the dragon sits apart from it entirely, and took for himself a cave full of treasure belonging to a once-prosperous nation-state. This is perhaps even more grievous, for while Grendel seems to have ‘earned’ his horde in a sense, the dragon has just come upon his, and has no real relation to it. Unlike Grendel, he desires his treasure, noticing when even some of it comes up missing. We can see a point of contrast here between Beowulf’s earlier dealings with monsters and their wealth. While he left the hoard of Grendel, Beowulf desires the dragon’s treasure, even unto giving up his life for it. There are many reasons purported for this. Marshall notes that “given the recent destruction of his entire kingdom by the dragon, it necessarily follows that Beowulf now has virtually nothing left to dispense.” (Marshall) This makes sense, considering the attitudes towards treasure-giving being a function of a lord, but there is another nuance worth discussing: The dragon’s wealth has a known history, one which ends in the death of an entire people. The dragon’s horde is the remnants of their economy. It has not been removed forcibly from circulation by the murderous hand of an anti-Christian beast, but abandoned in perhaps the only acceptable way: a natural termination of the treasure-giving system that represents order and right in the Scandinavian world. The gold, while made unavailable by a hoarding monster, is still ready to flow through the veins of the economy once more. It was amassed there by men, not monsters, and is earmarked for use by men. It is clear that the function of distributing treasure is an important one in Beowulf. One can understand how it shapes the economic whole of the medieval Scandinavian world. This was in a place when people mostly farmed or subsisted on trade and the lifeblood of their own day’s efforts. The warrior class was made to live on plunder and the generosity of their lord. Without a person to give them treasure, the warrior’s life would be impossible. In the closing action of the poem, Wiglaf exhibits precisely this principle when he says “-he gave us these rings- that we would pay him back for this battle-gear, these helmets and hard swords.” (Luizza, L. 2635-2637) The tools of a warrior’s trade are counted among the treasure he is allowed, and they become a material symbol for the obligation one has to their lord. Because war and the men who participate in it are often romanticized, their interests were popularized as well, and so the listening populace would appreciate treasure much the same. People would enjoy these songs about violence, and so enjoy the treasure that brought it to them. Treasure was popular. It looks nice, and men paid by treasure and gratuity were their only protection against barbarian hordes and other ‘monsters’. Treasure was the most coveted representation of ‘work’ that existed, and so the exchange of it and the receiving of it was a big thing; perhaps the pinnacle of social interaction. By contrast, it is clear that the hoarding of treasure is a decidedly anti-social statement. It makes a thing into a monster not only by being in opposition to the social order, but, especially in the dragon’s case, by being in opposition to a lord. To dispense with the dragon and gain the treasure, one is gaining an increase in lordliness as well. Beowulf was able to save his people from a treasure-less life of abject poverty at the end, acting not on avarice, but on the desire to further his people, and prove himself a worthy ring-giver. “…it is important to notice that Beowulf is only gratified because he was able to acquire the treasures for his men.” (Marshall) The epic hero is set against a monster not only because the monster exists in opposition to the concepts that structure his kingliness, but also because he keeps for himself the things that allow a man to be a king; the very fuel for the fires of lordship. It seems our heroes and monsters are fated to always be opposed. The monsters represent the cease of social commerce; of keeping when we should be sharing, and keeping to ourselves when we should be working together. The heroes are the collective voice of the people, representing the bonds between men, and how they can be made stronger. It is unclear why Beowulf would be uninterested in the wealth of Grendel but later trade his life for it at the hands of the dragon. Perhaps if he were a lord with a responsibility to pay his men at that earlier time in his life, he would have chosen differently. Works Cited Bammesberger, Alfred. "Who Advised Beowulf to Challenge Grendel?" ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews. Routledge, 31 Oct. 2011. Web. 31 Mar. 2012. Thomas, Sean. "Monster of the Glen." News Bank. Daily Mail, 5 Apr. 2006. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. Marshall, Joseph E. "Goldgyfan or Goldwlance: A Christian Apology for Beowulf and Treasure." Studies in Philology. University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. Liuzza, RM. "Beowulf." The Medieval Period. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2009. 47-91. Print. | |
topic: Essays | |
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| Informative short speech Re: NDAA 2012 - Speech 148 - Vincennes University | March 22, 2012, 4:04AM |
 by: Jareth |
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Editor: If you feel it proper or necessary, the Abstract in its entirety can be removed. I would appreciate it if this could make it's way to front publication. Thank you. Informative Brief Concerning The NDAA Of 2012 Nicholas A. Corona Vincennes University Abstract In this paper, I will attempt to illustrate the ongoing issues of our Judicial, Legislative, and Administrative branches of government in relation to our Rights and our Freedoms. Focus will be brought to certain legislative measures taken during the 2011-2012 calendar year that effect American Freedoms and Rights, specifically the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012. I addressed what subject matter was covered in this bill, its relation to other bills recently passed and existing legislation. I explored these items primarily by, since they dealt with our rights and liberties, the ACLU references, Library Of Congress data, and a few other informational resources as annotated in the References enclosure. My results were derived from my study of the laws, regulations, and methods of Justice enforcement that have been available to me as a layperson with access to higher education resources. My conclusions should illustrate the vast importance of understanding what our laws are and how they can easily be affected without our knowledge or will to the detriment of our freedom. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to attempt to present you with an educational tidbit or two of information in the next few minutes. I'd like to share with you with my observations and analysis of an item that is very important to me, and I hope to you as well. This item is the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, or NDAA 2012; also known as HR 1540. (1) This document is one of a series of such documents that deals directly with monetary appropriation and disbursal for all aspects of the Armed Services as a whole, from procurement of parts and materials to the pay and compensation of all who are employed by the DOD. That, however, was the original intent of this document. Over the years with each new revision, as with just about every bill that's introduced, there are additions and subtractions made that ultimately have nothing to do with the main purpose OF the documentation. This is my own observation from studying the laws and those who've written them. These modifications are made by various senators and congressmen in an attempt to get passed into law their own pet projects with little to no opposition by either their constituents or their peers. Most of the time these efforts succeed. What we have with THIS years version of the NDAA, is a slightly more restrained version of it's originally drafted form from last year. However it could still be interpreted by the courts unfavorably for the American people. (1), (2), (3) Specifically, there are 2 sections in the NDAA 2012 that directly deal with with the powers of the President and of the Military to be able to detain people, and what qualifies them as subject to detainment: Section 1021 - p.265 Section 1022 - p.266 – pp(a)-(b) These sections are quite vague in a legal sense as to WHO qualifies, and paragraph (b) of section 1022 only removes the REQUIREMENT and does nothing to PROHIBIT these actions on citizens or legal residents. Further, paragraph ( c ), sub-paragraph (1) of section 1021 specifies detention under the law of war without trial until the end of hostilities. Referenced in paragraph (a) of section 1021 is the Authorization for Use of Military Force (4), also known as Public Law 107-40, listed as a qualifying law for this section. This law was put in place as a direct result of the terrorist acts on 9/11, and specifically authorizes the President to use any and all necessary steps to prevent future acts of terrorism, and to take said steps against “...nations, organizations, or persons he determines” had any relation or knowledge to or of these acts. While there was language in the NDAA 2012, as is stipulated by an absent section 1867 (2) that originally that DID specify indefinite detention of American citizens and legal residents, this has since been removed. However, the items that are remaining are still highly questionable. The Supreme Court COULD possibly rule in favor of detention of a citizen or legal resident, thereby setting a precedent. Here's a quote from the ACLU article by Chris Anders (3) on November 23, 2011 illustrating what is going on without much, if any, advertisement to the American People through popular means: “In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.”” President Obama had threatened originally to veto this bill (6) on account of the broad sweeping power that was implied by the language of the draft prior to the vote in December of 2011. As of February 2012, the matter of indefinite detention of Americans was brought to the Senate Judiciary committee for review and repeal. (5) However, as the references provided will show, this is a stubborn problem that has been with us as a country and as a global presence for some years now, and shows no indication of fading anytime soon. List Of References Bohm, Allie. “Angry About the National Defense Authorization Act?” American Civil Liberties Union. February 22, 2012. Web. March 19, 2012 http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/angry-about-national-defense-authorization-act (3) Anders, Chris. “Senators Demand the Military Lock Up of American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window” American Civil Liberties Union. November 23, 2011. Web. March 19, 2012. http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senators-demand-military-lock-american-citizens-battlefield-they-define-being “Toolkit: State and Local Resolutions Opposing the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)” American Civil Liberties Union. 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. http://www.aclu.org/national-security/toolkit-state-and-local-resolutions-opposing-2012-national-defense-authorization Kain, Erik. “President Obama Signed the National Defense Authorization Act - Now What?”Forbes. January 2, 2012. Web. March 19, 2012. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/02/president-obama-signed-the-national-defense-authorization-act-now-what/ (6) “Obama Seeks to Prevent Defense Bill's Indefinite Detention of US Citizens” ProCon. http://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005047, December 9, 2011. Web. March 19, 2012 (5) Senate Judiciary committee. “The Due Process Guarantee Act: Banning Indefinite Detention of Americans” February 22, 2012. Dirksen Senate Office Building. http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=8b30fa475a5089d793576cd9470701bd (1) Library Of Congress. National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. Washington DC. 2011. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr1540enr/pdf/BILLS-112hr1540enr.pdf (4) Library Of Congress. Authorization For Use Of Military Force. Washington DC. 2001. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-107publ40/pdf/PLAW-107publ40.pdf Library Of Congress. H.J. Resolution 55. Washington DC. 2011 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hjres55ih/pdf/BILLS-112hjres55ih.pdf (2) Levin, Carl. STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY S. 1867 – National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2012. Washington DC. 2011. Web. March 19, 2012 http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/112/saps1867s_20111117.pdf | |
topic: Essays | |
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| Laughing at the Darkness: The Seriousness in Comedic Dissent | February 25, 2012, 11:11PM |
 by: Satchell |
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"Comedy, we have to admit, was never one of the most honoured of the Muses. She was in her origin, short of slaughter, the loudest expression of the little civilization of men" (15). So says Victorian-era English poet and novelist George Meredith. Comedy acts as a cultural indicator, as an elevation from stress, a dissenting force from authority, a method of ridicule, a way to highlight an issue and a vulgar expression of personal urges. Comedy, while having very many applications, can be used to incite important change during very dire and trying circumstances. It is because we exist in a world that is filed with strife and hardship that we need a seriously comedic response. All life ends in death- that is to say that there are no lasting actions in this world for a living being and that all struggle is just that, struggle. It is to this challenge that the true comic tries to address through the meeting of polar opposites as seen by the mixture of the always-laughing playboy and the never-laughing killjoy. Howard Jacobson, comic novelist and winner of the prestigious Man Booker prize explains during an interview called "The Return of the Wry" that the birth of comedy is the very same as the birth of tragedy. He explains that we enjoy things because they are invariably linked to their demise. If we (mortal men and women) were locked in a state of constant suspension from suffering, there would be nothing to rejoice and that would be an intolerable experience, somewhat akin to limbo. Therefore, to be successful in meeting these challenges, we must employ a kind of serious comedy that both aims to accomplish a goal and simultaneously ridicules itself and the situation with a dissenting merriment. As mentioned before, it is because we deal with difficult problems that we must laugh at them. In "Laughing All the Way to Freedom?: Contemporary Stand-Up Comedy and Democracy in South Africa", author Julia Katherine Seirlis tells a narrative of the struggles of South Africa during a period of racial separation known as apartheid, and the effects on stand-up comedians. Under apartheid, a comedian or any person critical of the government was jailed and/or beaten. Nelson Mandela, a comedian in his own right that laughs in the face of adversity, was part of "the struggle" which ended apartheid and started a new era of democracy in South Africa. Even in a democratic South Africa, it is still a very dangerous place to live. It is from this danger that South African comedians feel they have a right and an obligation to laugh about their situations. Comedian John Vlismas mocks the total lack of danger in Australia: "Australians have no natural predators. Nothing. I went to a game park and said, 'Show me a vicious beast. In my country, we have savage monsters: rhinos, buffalos, PAGAD. Vicious. Dangerous. I want to see a flatulent fanged foaming at the mouth'- and he showed me a wombat. This isn't a beast. I've got Nigerian friends. A wombat is not a beast. It looks like a Care Bear came home drunk and pomped a slipper." It's a point to note that PAGAD stands for People Against Guns And Drugs- a popular satiric reference to gangsters who use guns and drugs. This kind of humor is a total deviation from the seriousness of tragedy. During the interview with Howard Jacobson, he explains that when God casts Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, it symbolizes the basic tragic plot line, which is a fall from grace. Just as in many Greek tragedies a person or number of people aspire to rise above the toils and suffering of their low lives and end up having quite horrific things happen to them. In Howard's example, Adam and Eve are tempted by the fruit of Knowledge and because of this, they are cast out of the perfect garden. Comedy, contrastingly, is an acceptance of the world as it is and comedy often expresses this acceptance in it's vulgarity and body humor. Harry Levin is an emeritus professor of literature at Harvard University. In his essay "Playboys and Killjoys: An Essay on the Theory and Practice of Comedy" he asserts that the character of the killjoy is "the figure who seeks to block sex, youth, ... in general to arrest life's self-renewing autonomies. He is the potentially frightening but, in comedy, always futile agent of repressive authority, sterile formalism and legalism" (51). The playboy, the antithesis to the killjoy, is youthful, highly sexual (with emphasis on recreation over procreation), and celebrates folly, bodily functions and other sorts of "pointless" recreation. Levin and Jacobson simultaneously point out that neither by themselves are capable of understanding true comedy. It follows then, based on Jacobson's argument that comedy shares a source with tragedy, that neither the playboy or the killjoy could properly understand tragedy either. As Jacobson draws the comparison between living in the Garden of Eden and an intolerable life (similar to limbo without anything positive or negative about the world they live in), it would seem that a true comic must temper comedy with tragedy. Levin makes an important note that "The propensity towards ridicule seems to have been at it's strongest among the satirists in the Age of Reason" (50). This seems to be a strong support for the need of balance between reason and absurdity, that when one becomes prevalent, the other naturally rises to suppress it, to seek a natural harmony and to correct the system. Often, when the ruling favor is tipped towards rationality and structure, the laws that are enacted actually give power to dissent. A prime example of this is in "On the Uses of Obscenity in Live Stand-Up Comedy" by Susan Seizer. She asserts that the ban of foul language by the FCC changes certain language into a transgressive act, giving it power "in direct proportion to the extent to which they are cordoned off as taboo" (210). True and proper comedians, as outlined in this essay, must use both forces in balance while retaining both within themselves. Levin explains this balance where one side "generates satire, the latter alliance tends towards romance. Comedy is compounded of the interaction of the two, varying in its emphasis from one mode to the other" (96). We see, then, that comedy, proper comedy and not the playboy lightheartedness, as it's explained previously, doesn't aim to merely entertain or make light of the situation. Quite contrary, it seeks to address the dire and possibly life threatening circumstance with a balance of spritely wit and hard-nosed determinism. George Meredith sums up this balance by saying that "Genuine humor and true wit, require a sound and capacious mind, which is always a grave one" (15). It is with both of these tools that we, each of us true comedians, have the possibility to laugh at death and overcome overwhelming adversity. For without both, you have neither and are destitute in an unbearable world. Simply, to utilize merely foolishness or merely sternness would mean unsuccessful attempts towards one's aspirations. Levin highlights true comedy further with "The most protean aspect of comedy is its potentiality for transcending itself, for responding to the conditions of tragedy by laughing in the darkness" (132). The transcending properties of comedy are due to the "gestalten" nature of utilizing polar opposites towards a single goal. Gestalt is a German word that basically means the shape or figure of the whole with the important note that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The representation of the playboy mixed with the killjoy produces something that is beyond either of them individually. This is because individually neither is functional while both together are the near-definition of what it means to be functional. All things said and considered, in order to face off any great challenge of overwhelming proportions, we must meet, within ourselves, a balance of these two factors. Harry Levin called the combination the "Comic Spirit", which could almost be read as Cosmic Spirit because in the world of Nature as well as the work of man, there must be a balance of polar opposites. Cold and warm, up and down, black and white: none of these properties are capable of existing by themselves- none are functional alone and that would be the larger significance. This is a concept that is followed much farther than that of the South African comedian or the 17th Century English page. Without one, we can't have the other because each opposite is part of the same balance that all other life is held in, and that is truly something to laugh about in the dark. Jacobson, Howard. "Return of the Wry" Sydney Writers Festival 2011: Web, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Levin, Harry. "Playboys and Killjoys: An Essay to the Theory and Practice of Comedy." New York: Oxford UP 1987. Print. Meredith, George. "An Essay on Comedy and the Uses of the Comic Spirit." The Pennsylvania State University 2003. Web. Seirlis, Julia Katherine. "Laughing All The Way To Freedom?: Contemporary Stand-Up Comedy And Democracy In South Africa." Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 24.4 (2011): 513-530. Academic Search Premier. Web. Seizer, Susan. "On the Uses of Obscenity in Live Stand-Up Comedy." Anthropological Quarterly 84.1 2011. 209-234. Academic Search Premier. web. | |
topic: Essays | |
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| Attempting to intersect Science and Psi.. | February 7, 2012, 1:52AM |
by: Jareth |
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To the Editor: If I could request this go directly to my Articles listing and forgo a headline or advertisement. I submit this for open review by the curious and invited. Let me open by stating that this article is a work in progress, essentially a draft. It's been in production for a few years and only recently have I began to place it to written word. A question has been posed to my awareness: What is the relationship between frequency and a persons general state of being? This was brought on by a curiosity as to why people in various "new age" and "occult" circles and beliefs will constantly say to "raise your vibration" to improve a state of being. This document will not be in regards to the origin of this belief. Instead it will be focused on the more realistic effects of vibrational state and physical/spiritual existence from the viewpoint of an electrician who has dabbled in occult, electronics, and physics theories. So then, what is the causal relationship between energy frequency, or vibration, and physical existence? Answering this question would require us to have some idea of the true nature of our existence. However THAT requires a confidence in the nature of reality. Most things that exist in our awareness are three dimensional in construction and exist within the confines of a 4th, time. For these to manifest in truth there must be a supporting framework, or structural mechanism. A reality. This is what traditional temporal mechanics leads me to believe. The nature of that reality dictates the parameters of the possibilities available to exist in. Reality can be conjectured upon by extrapolation from the analysis of the world in our awareness. So; to discern if this, our existence and thus our reality, is “real”or illusion, it would seem necessary to have multiple points of view. Assuming that what we exist in is real and not a willful illusion, that then leaves the proverbial doors wide open as to the possibilities in regards the previous questions. Even from our limited point of view on this existence, a wide number of modes of existing seem mathematically possible when considering the theoretical nature of reality. Our existence, as far as any scientific endeavor has been able to determine, has an ordered electromagnetic basis. Meaning the base creative elements herein are a seemingly structured chaos of electromagnetic energy of increasingly, and seemingly endless simplistic depth. The continuing layers are incompletely, but quite well described by Quantum Mechanics; which also describes very coherently the possibility, even the necessity for parallel or alternate realities with similar laws of existence as we follow and observe here, as well as the means for observing and travelling to them. Electromagnetism by its very nature allows for numerous modes of energetic existence. Which is basically reality in general as we now know it, since matter is only modulated energy as described by Einstien's theory of relativity. The “Ordered Chaos” comes into play when you analyse the base constituents of sub-atomic particles such as quarks, muons, buons, and the even smaller items of whose names elude me. The effects and existence of these are generally known and repeatable (order) though their actions and reasons for existence are not even close to being fully understood or explainable (chaos), else this would not be a theory, but a fact. To review this from a slightly different angle, look at junior and high school science education. This shows that all matter is composed of atoms. These atoms are composed of what are called Sub Atomic particles, proton, neutron, electron. When you alter the electron or proton count of an atom, it becomes an Ion which then alters its Electromagnetic properties. Electricity is electron flow. Electrons either flow from point A to point B (DC current, like a battery) or oscillate, or vibrate, between points (AC, like the wall outlet). Frequency, or vibrational rate is then, of course, the speed with which an electron goes back and forth. There is a couple of different relations between frequency and physical reality. The most easily seen is in Harmonics. Some fairly detailed studies have shown a very strong reaction in physical objects to certain frequencies. Of course you will note the vibration of your surroundings to a beat of a pounding stereo. Then there is the more classical shattering of glass to very high frequencies. Other studies have shown a wide range of effects on animate objects by frequencies of various types, either accoustic or electromagnetic. These range from plants growing voraciously to insects being put to miserable, twitching death. The effects on humans are strangely, not widely disseminated. Volunteers are wanted! As for the non-physical effects, obliquely one needs only look to your everyday magnet, speaker, tube TV, or somesuch. Not the gross physically observed effect, what causes it. The electromagnetic field itself. First of all, seeing these effects proves definitively there can be cause and effect without direct physical action. Secondly, it proves that a field can effect physicality. Now, what does vibration have to do with this? Lets delve deeper into that. To begin this part, I'll say that the intended effect typically sought by increasing vibration can be had also just by increasing the strength of vibration, which is also stated as an increased amplitude, or switching to a harmonic of your vibration. Most resistence to a state of being can be classified as the result of a Standing Wave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_wave). As the referenced link can point out, a standing wave is in essence a cancellation, or attenuation of a frequency by introduction of a matching frequency at a matching amplitude from an opposing direction, or point of origin. To whit: a 120Hz wave at 32 dB amplitude (strength) travelling from point A to point B along a wire will cease to transfer energy if a wave of the same specifications is introduced from point B to point A. This effect is used quite extensively in everyday electronics, as a matter of fact. Computer network cabling is constructed using UTP wiring, or Unshielded Twisted Pair. Which means that there is no electromagnetic shielding, such as foil or wire braid, outside of the actual network wiring. An example of a shielded wire is your TV cable. The actual conductor is the thick copper wire at the center, the shield is surrounding that. The twisted pair part describes how each wiring set, or pair are associated. Typical LAN cable has 8 wires paired off, 2 a piece. Each two are twisted together and carry the signal for that circuit. Like any electrical circuit, there has to be a supply and a return or + and -, hence the pair. By twisting each pair together any possible electromagnetic interference to other devices is reduced or eleminated. This is by the same principal as a standing wave. As current travels through a wire it produces a magnetic field around it. If of the proper frequency and strength it will interrupt your stereo or TV reception. By twisting the + and – wires around eachother the magnetic fields produced counteract eachother. This also has the added benefit of reducing the amount of noise permitted in the wiring by outside induced magnetic fields. To hit on the concept of Harmonics a little more since it is essential portion of this discussion. Harmonics can have more of an effect on the frequency compnents of a waveform than the actual power delivery of it. Lets definte a harmonic. "A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is F, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic February 5, 2012) A more strictly electrical discussion of harmonics is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonics_(electrical_power) More simply put, you have a 100Hz frequency, that is the 1st harmonic. The 2nd harmonic would be 200Hz, 3rd would be 300Hz, etc etc. Each percentage increase is based on the Fundamental and not the previous harmonic. As is illustrated here: http://www.rense.com/products/AboutFreque-08.pdf Harmonics that are complimentary or otherwise not opposed and out of phase do not essentially effect power delivery, or the amount of energy in question. What they CAN do, depending on the phase orientation of the frequencies injected into a stream, and the amount, or percentage of the harmonic being introduced, is something that is also referred to as wave shaping. This causes the frequency wave to alter shapes from say, a sinusoid, to a triangle wave. Or will introduce more peaks into an existing trangle wave. Or any number of shape changes. I would imagine this to not have an all together pleasing effect on whoever is experiencing this. | |
topic: Essays | |
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| Runes | July 27, 2011, 8:28PM |
 by: lilithgothgirl |
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When someone hears "runes" they think of the little bones and pebbles used for divination. Actually, runes get their start from the Old Italic Alphabet and is also referred to as FUþARK(futhark). The runic alphabet was used by the Germanic tribes in between the 1st and 2nd Ano Domini. No one really used written word at that time though, because they used word of mouth to tell their histories and pass along information. This alphabet was reserved mainly for magical use. "Rune" means "whisper" or "secret. The root run- can be found in Baltic languages meaning "speech". In Lithuanian, "runoti" has two meanings "to cut(with a blade)" or "To speak". The elder futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet and it consists of 24 runes or letters. These are often arranged in three groups or ætts of 8 each. Elder futhark is derived from the old italic alphabet or from the Latin alphabet itself. The angular shapes of the runes, presumably an adaptation to the incision in wood or metal, are not a Germanic innovation, but a property that is shared with other early alphabets, including the Old Italic ones (compare, for example, the Duenos inscription http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duenos_inscription). Each rune has a name chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself. These names are not attested directly for the Elder Futharc itself. Reconstructed names in Proto-Germanic have been produced, based on the names given for the runes in the later runic alphabets attested in the rune poems and the linked names of the letters of the Gothic alphabet.The 24 Elder Futhark runes are: ᚠ=fehu ᚢ=ūruz ᚦ=þurisaz ᚨ=ansuz ᚱ=raidō ᚲ=kaunan ᚷ=gebō ᚹ=wunjō ᚺ ᚻ=hagalaz ᚾ=naudiz ᛁ=isaz j=jēra ᛇ=waz ᛈ=perþ ᛉ=algiz ᛊ=sōwilō ᛏ=tīwaz/teiwaz ᛒ=berkanan ᛖ=ehwaz ᛗ=mannaz ᛚ=laguz ŋ=ingwaz o=ōþila-/ōþala d=dagaz Most names, in spite of being reconstructions, can be assumed with a fair degree of certainty for the Old Futhark because of the concurrence of Gothic, Anglo-Saxon and Nordic names. The names come from the vocabulary of daily life and mythology, some trivial, some beneficent and some inauspicious: Mythology: Tiwaz, Thurisaz, Ingwaz, God, Man, Sun; Nature and environment: Sun, day, year, hail, ice, lake, water, birch, yew, pear, elk, aurochs, ear (of grain); Daily life and human condition: Man, wealth/cattle, horse, estate/inheritance, slag, ride/journey, year/harvest, gift, joy, need, ulcer/illness. Runes are still being used for divination today, though the meaning and usage varies from tradition to tradition. Rune stones are available in semi precious stones, bone, or wood depending on the preference of the user. Like any item of this nature, whether or not runes hide great power, remains a mystery. The power of such things lies withing the person holding them? Could it be that their intense belief in their runes is what gives them power? Much is still unknown about this ancient alphabet. Runes may be portals to a fantastical realm of fae or they could be mere rocks people foolishly look to as guides to navigate their pathetic lives. No one will ever know the truth. Thank you to Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica for your wealth of information. | |
topic: Essays | |
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| The man that is LaVeyan Satanists | September 3, 2009, 7:34AM |
 by: Syn |
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On Walpurgisnacht of 1966, Anton Szandor LaVey began the Church of Satan. Beforehand, he had given lectures from his home, the infamous Black House, charging two dollars for admittance. He formed a "Magic Circle" with his closest associates, with ceremonial magic. It was suggested to LaVey that he had enough material to start an organized religion. The Church of Satan attracted a great deal of publicity. Its use of nude women as altars, and performances of a Satanic wedding and funeral service, brought it much attention. Anton LaVey shaved his head and wore a white clerical collar, sometimes even wearing horns to complete the image of the Devil incarnate. His flamboyant personality attracted many followers and admirers. In 1969, LaVey published The Satanic Bible, which, even to this day, remains the most authoritative literature on the subject of LaVeyan Satanism, outlining the basic concepts, philosophy and rituals of the religion. A companion book, The Satanic Rituals, published in 1972, presents an array of rituals associated with Satanism throughout the ages, but not necessarily central to the Church's belief system. LaVey also released other literature to further expand on the ideology, namely The Satanic Witch (previously published as The Compleat Witch), and 2 essay anthologies: The Devil's Notebook and Satan Speaks! Since its inception, many individuals sought to recreate LaVey's success by founding new organizations claiming the throne of "true" Satanism, but most were short-lived and ceased to exist altogether. Some, however, have gained remarkable success, allegedly due to the founders' previously strong relations with the Church of Satan. The reasons for the breakaway from LaVey's church were cited as being a difference in ideology, or commercialization of the institution, thus seeking to recreate its previous underground and elitist status. One notable example is the formation of the Temple of Set in 1975 by former Church of Satan member Michael Aquino, who cites disagreement over LaVey's atheism. Aquino believed in a living deity, whom he called Set. The other major organization affiliated with LaVeyan ideology is the First Satanic Church, founded in 1999 by Anton LaVey's daughter, Karla LaVey. She argues that, after her father's death, the church moved away from his original modus operandi, and shifted towards a commercial money making machine. Thus, the First Satanic Church is considered a re-founding of the original one. Today, the Church of Satan is still viewed as the de facto representation of LaVeyan Satanism in the public eye, and fresh publications are released, applying Satanic philosophies to topics of contemporary interest. | |
topic: Essays | |
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| Americans Are Overmedicated | May 15, 2008, 5:45PM |
 by: my_little_pony |
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Americans today are overmedicated because doctors are giving medications to their patients that they may not really need. “More and more, patients' reported satisfaction with a doctor's visit is linked to whether or not they are given a prescription. Many see medication as the simple and obvious answer to any health problem, which can result in physicians feeling pressured to prescribe medications, even when they are not appropriate” (Greider). The reason doctors are doing this is because the patient won’t feel satisfied after a doctors visit unless they get a prescription. Because of this, antibiotics have been abused so much that the flesh eating superbug MRSA has adapted and made most antibiotics useless against it, causing MRSA to spread like wildfire. Also, many people are on psychiatric drugs that may have been treated with other less severe methods which they have not tried as treatment because of the easiness of a pill. With all of the medications that people are taking, the side effects from those medications warrant the use for more medications specifically made for the side effects of those previous medications. When have all these unneeded medications become so vital to American society? MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is resistant to almost all antibiotics, and it’s treatments are becoming more and more scarce as time goes on. MRSA, once only a fear of and nuisance to hospitals and nursing homes, is breaking out of it’s normal habitat and leaching schools, daycares, and prisons. “Experts blame the emergence of these souped-up bugs in part on our habit of treating so many infections with powerful antibiotics; the microbes battle back by mutating to become resistant to the drugs” (Park). This outbreak of MRSA could have been prevented, or at least severely delayed by Americans taking antibiotics only in appropriate situations and only as prescribed. Part of the problem is that patients prescribed antibiotics are only taking the medicine until they feel better and not finishing the whole treatment, which gives bacteria a chance to mutate and in a sense, “conquer” that antibiotic and render it useless to that bacteria. If more people understood this then perhaps they would not be so antibiotic-happy at the doctors office and maybe another superbug may not have a chance to surface. Unlike other physicians, some psychiatrists must seek out patients by persuading them that they need treatment. Drug companies are happy to assist them in this pursuit, as it boosts their sales in the long run. With that in mind, we can now see how psychiatrists and drug companies work together to promote the connection between brain defects and mental disorders. Modern drugs are then offered as the solution for supposed chemical imbalances in the brain. “However, there is substantial evidence that mental disorders are not caused by problems in the brain and that patients are being over prescribed psychiatric drugs when alternative treatments such as psychotherapy would be more effective” (Leavitt). An example of overmedication with psychiatric drugs is the amount of children improperly diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and the serious medications that these children are put on. Millions of children are being diagnosed with ADHD and put on medication that has been proven to have dangerous short and long term effects. Medical professionals have long acknowledged there is no objective criteria for determining whether a child has ADHD. Furthermore, the symptoms of ADHD have many possible causes, from sleep apnea to lead poisoning. Parents of children diagnosed with ADHD should really know about the disorder before letting doctors dope their children up on Ritalin (a stimulant that is close to cocaine in its composition and is most doctors’ drug of choice for treating ADHD) or something similar. With all of the medications that people are taking, more medications are being developed to combat the side effects of the previous ones. Dr. John D. Griffith, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, states: "I would like to point out that every drug, however innocuous, has some degree of toxicity. A drug, therefore, is a type of poison and its poisonous qualities must be carefully weighed against its therapeutic usefulness.” Unrecognized drug side effects are particularly of concern in the elderly, who tend to take more drugs for their ailments but metabolize them differently than the younger people tested and usually represented in drug-company studies (Greider). Wayne K. Anderson, Ph.D., dean of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Buffalo, tells the story of: An eighty-year-old man who had osteoarthritis and was given a drug that made him nauseated. His doctor prescribed an anti-nauseate, which, after several months, produced a tremor. The man went to another doctor, who diagnosed Parkinson's disease and prescribed drugs to treat it, which increased the patient's nausea, resulting in an increase of anti-nausea drugs. Finally, a pharmacist had a conversation with the man's wife and recommended he be admitted to the hospital, where the drugs were carefully withdrawn. “He was discharged with a single prescription—Tylenol, for the osteoarthritis. Over the course of a year this man had become bedridden and now he was able to get back into life” (Greider). This happens all over in American nursing homes. If a resident has an itch, gas, is constipated, or has even the mildest headache some form of unnecessary medication is likely given. Why else would anyone want to go to the doctor unless it was to get medicine for their ailment? “It has been suggested that the impulse to use drugs is universal, a trait that distinguishes human beings from other animals. And isn't there something inherently appealing about taking medicine? You swallow it—you get better. Getting a medicine defines and validates one's suffering, while offering the promise of a solution” (Greider) Medicines certainly do have their advantages! Without modern medicine there would be a lot more lethal infections, people in pain, and untreated psychiatric patients. Many people prescribed certain medications do in fact need them and would suffer considerably without them. Where do we draw the line between which medication is needed and which medication is not? Doctors advise using a bit of common sense. Always ask your doctor what the medicines that he is giving you or your child are for and what side effects there will be. If he is prescribing you antibiotics ask, “If I didn’t take this antibiotic, would my body be able to fight this infection itself?” If your body can fight the infection itself, do all of us a favor and let it, because the more antibiotics are used the less effective they will become in the future when bacteria mutate even further and render antibiotics useless. Always examine possible reasons for symptoms of psychiatric disorders and don’t automatically run to a drug to solve all your problems. We are humans, we are tough, and Zoloft hasn’t been around for the first couple thousand years of our existence, why do we think that we require it now? Works Cited Katharine Greider. "Americans Are Overmedicated." At Issue: Are Americans Overmedicated?. Ed. Amanda Hiber. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Umpqua Community College. 28 Feb. 2008 Fred Leavitt. "Americans Are Overmedicated with Psychiatric Drugs." At Issue: Are Americans Overmedicated?. Ed. Amanda Hiber. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Umpqua Community College. 28 Feb. 2008 Park, Alice. "Staph on the March.(BEST INVENTIONS OF 2007)(Life: Sport - Living - History - Health - Environment - Life After Work; Health)." Time. 170. 20 (Nov 12, 2007): 123. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Umpqua Community College. 28 Feb. 2008 Bruce Wiseman. "Children Are Overmedicated with ADHD Drugs." At Issue: Are Americans Overmedicated?. Ed. Amanda Hiber. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Umpqua Community College. 28 Feb. 2008 | |
topic: Essays | |
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| Animal Experimentation is Completely Justified and Necessary Because it is Essential for Medical Progress | April 26, 2008, 6:49AM |
by: my_little_pony |
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Could you imagine what your life would be like if you were confined to an iron lung for the rest of your life with your only view being the ceiling because animal rights activists made it impossible to use animals to find the cure for polio? Animal experimentation is completely justified and necessary because it is essential for medical progress. Without the use of animals in scientific research we would not have as many preventative drugs for AIDS patients, nor as many vaccines for terrible illnesses, and also we would not have discovered the Rh factor, a very important issue when it comes to women and pregnancy. Regulations brought in to protect animals' welfare are hindering vital research, research that could possibly find the final cure for AIDS and different cancers. We need animals to test drugs to make sure that they are safe for humans before administering them to our children, parents, and ourselves. There are no substitutes for animals, other than humans, that work as well and produce such conclusive results as they do. AIDS research would be impossible without animal experimentation. In one case the bone marrow of a baboon (baboons are immune to the AIDS virus) was implanted into a human with AIDS in an experimental treatment, after which the baboon was killed painlessly with a lethal injection. Many animal rights activists disagree with what was done, but would have it been right to save the baboons life in favor of denying treatment to someone with AIDS? Animal transplants have enormous possibilities for people with leukemia and lymphoma who go without treatment in a lot of cases because of a lack of donors. Many researchers believe that through animal testing a cure for AIDS will be found, and one states that restrictive animal rights laws get in the way of progress. According to Joseph E. Murray, the 1990 Nobel Laureate in medicine, “Whenever a cure for AIDS is found, it will be through animal research.” Finding a cure for AIDS warrants the sacrifice of animal lives. In 1908, researchers Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper conducted an experiment on monkeys and by doing so changed the way animal experimentation was done. They removed part of the spinal cord of a boy who had died of polio and ground it up, filtered it and injected it directly into the spines of two monkeys. One monkey became paralyzed and both monkeys died. The spinal cords showed the same kind of damage as those of humans with polio. In a very simple way, Landsteiner and Popper had demonstrated that monkeys could be used to model human diseases. Other scientists caught on and in 1911, monkeys were found to be susceptible to measles, in 1914, mumps, and in 1928, yellow fever (Derbyshire). With his discoveries of how monkeys could be used as models of humans, Landsteiner discovered the different kinds of blood types in humans in 1930 and won the Nobel Prize. Landsteiner was particular about the kind of animals that he used and would onlyuse rhesus macaque monkeys, which was important because in 1940, he discovered a blood factor shared by the macaques and humans: the Rh factor. Short for rhesus, Rh factor refers to a cluster of highly reactive proteins on the surface of red blood cells. Most people have these proteins and are called Rh positive. A minority, however, lacks the proteins and is called Rh negative. If an Rh-negative woman becomes pregnant with an Rh-positive child, her immune system will develop an immune defense that will attack any future pregnancy with an Rh-positive child. Her immune system will rip into the fetus' alien red blood cells, jamming them together and exploding them. (Derbyshire) What an important discovery! Good thing that Landsteiner's discovery led to the development of a vaccine that blocked this terrible immune response. It is puzzling that some people would even think of saving a few monkeys rather than having this vaccine. Without animal testing many areas of research would come to a halt and many cures for things would go undiscovered. Thomas Starzl, the pioneer of the kidney transplant, was recently asked why he used dogs in his work. He explained that his first series of kidney transplant operations left the majority of his subjects dead. He figured out what enabled the minority to survive and began a second series of operations; the majority of these subjects lived. A third group of subjects received liver transplants and only one or two of them died. In his fourth group all subjects survived. Starzl remarked that it’s important to realize that his first three groups of subjects were dogs, while the fourth group of subjects were human babies. It is sad to say that some people would favor discontinuing this line of research rather than use dogs to refine the process. If animal rights activists had their way the world would by a very different place, a place which there would be very little pleasure living in. Animal activists oppose all animal-based medical research. If we had listened to their arguments 50 years ago, children still would be contracting polio (the vaccine was developed in monkeys). Diabetics would not have insulin, a benefit of research on dogs. We would also be without antibiotics for pneumonia, chemotherapy for cancer, surgery for heart diseases, organ transplants and joint replacement.(Murray) Animal rights activists believe that animals have just as many rights to life as humans do and should be treated as such. Organizations like PETA were formed to protect animal rights. People who support animal rights believe that animals are not ours to use for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other purpose. PETA is right on a lot of their values. Animals should not be used for entertainment, nor should they be used for experiments concerning cosmetics. Do we really need another hairspray? The answer is “No!” But, do we really need a cure for AIDS? The answer is “Yes!” Many animal rights activists argue that a healthy lifestyle can prevent many diseases and ailments which would warrant the need for treatment, treatment which could have been discovered using animal testing. Some animal rights activists believe that medical research altogether could be stopped if people lived healthy lives and did not require treatment for diseases and ailments. This would be nice if it were true, but sadly it is not. My aunt and uncle, Wister and Tom Hart, are people who live very healthy lifestyles. They eat well, exercise, rest well, and are generally happy people. Both have had cancer and survived. If not for chemotherapy (perfected through animal research) they would not have made it. Who would be to blame for their deaths then? Medical research needs to use animals for testing in order to progress. It is not a necessary evil; it is just necessary. Just like animals, humans have the right to further their species and protect it so that it may flourish and not become extinct. When cancer, disease, and ailments arise, it is our right as human beings to find the cure for these things, however possible, without hurting other humans, because surviving is what we are genetically programmed to do. We live in a modern world today free of many of the diseases that plagued our past. Many of us have forgotten or simply not known what a different world it was before all the cures that came of animal testing. Because of this, animal rights activists simply do not see what is needed to live in such a privileged society such as we do, where issues of our survival are rarely worried about in our daily lives. They are sentimentalists, “Save the animals!” they cry out, but when it comes down to it, what they are saying means that they are more concerned about another species than their own, even if they don’t understand that that‘s what they‘re implying. If your child had cancer, would you refuse to use chemotherapy on them because the methods used to perfect it were tested on animals? Would you deny them medicine for pain for the same reason? I think not. Works Cited Derbyshire, Stuart. "Animal Experimentation Is Justified." Current Controversies: The Rights of Animals. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Umpqua Community College. 29 Jan. 2008 http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve& tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010062239&source=gale&srcprod=OV RC&userGroupName=umpquacc&version=1.0. Murray, Joseph E. "Animal Experimentation Benefits AIDS Research." At Issue: Animal Experimentation. Ed. David M. Haugen. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Umpqua Community College. 29 Jan. 2008 http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010002205&source=gale&srcprod=OR C&userGroupName=umpquacc&version=1.0. | |
topic: Essays | |
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| Sabian vs Zildjian | March 15, 2008, 3:49PM |
by: Syn |
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Sabian is a Canadian cymbal designer and manufacturer. It is one of the largest in the world, along with Zildjian, Paiste and Meinl. The company was founded in 1981 in Meductic, New Brunswick, Canada by Robert Zildjian, son of Avedis Zildjian III, the head of the Avedis Zildjian Company. Family tradition had it that the head of the company would only pass its secrets down to the oldest son, but Avedis III gave the information to both his sons, Armand and Robert. This led to a family feud and a legal squabble, resulting in Robert leaving Zildjian to form the rival Sabian company. The companies continue to be rivals, and are both among the world's most popular cymbal brands. The settlement gave Robert Zildjian the Canadian factory that at that time produced 40% of the production of the Avedis Zildjian Company, and most notably the entire K. Zildjian line, all manufacturing in Turkey having ceased by this time. Robert agreed not to use the Zildjian name or to claim that his cymbals were the same. The most notable difference between Zildjian and Sabian is that Zildjian uses a softer, mellower sounding alloy while Sabian uses a more tin-based alloy. The cymbals of the two companies today can be distinguished by sound fairly easily. Sabians are relatively thinner for their advertised weight. Sabian cymbals have longer sustain (with some exceptions) than their Zildjian counterparts, and Zildjian have a faster response (or attack). Sabian cymbals tend to be mellower in sound overall, but all of these differences wholly depend on the individual cymbal model. Robert Zildjian formed the word "Sabian" from the two first letters of the names of his three children Sally, Billy and Andy, and initially released two lines of cymbals, HH and AA, both of them of the traditional bell bronze alloy. The HH or "hand hammered" line were widely regarded as being K. Zildjians in all but name, and there was nothing in the settlement to prevent this being the case, although Robert Zildjian was legally prevented from claiming that it was true. However it was the other line, only slightly cheaper in price, that caused a sensation. The AA line were machine-made bell-bronze cymbals. They introduced a subtly different sound that appealed to many drummers, and also a level of consistency which was at that time new in a line of bell-bronze cymbals. Currently, Sabian has nine different series of cymbals. Their B8 series and B8 Pro series are regarded as student-level or entry-level cymbals. Their Xs20 series are regarded as intermediate-level cymbals. Their AA series and the AAX series of cymbals are regarded as semiprofessional-level to professional-level cymbals. Their HH series, HHX series, and Vault series of cymbals are regarded as professional-level cymbals. Further, cymbals from the Signature series are models developed in assistance with Sabian-endorsed artists, the price and quality of which vary from cymbal to cymbal ------------------------------------------------- The Avedis Zildjian Company is a cymbal manufacturer Founded in Istanbul, Turkey. It is one of the world's largest manufacturer of cymbals, along with Paiste, Meinl and Sabian. At nearly 400 years old, Zildjian remains one of the oldest operating companies in the world. They also sell drum-related accessories, such as drum sticks. The first Zildjian cymbals were created in 1618 in Istanbul by an Armenian man named Avedis, who, while looking for a way to turn base metal into gold, created an alloy combining tin, copper, and silver into a sheet of metal that could make musical sounds without shattering. Avedis took the surname of Zildjian, from Turkish "zil+ci" (cymbal-maker/seller) and the Armenian suffix "yan" (son of), and began an industry in 1623, the details of whose main product remained secret for generations. It became family tradition that only the oldest son of the company's head would know the manufacturing process. The Zildjian Company moved from manufacturing noisemakers to frighten the enemies of the Ottoman Empire to manufacturing its cymbals as musical instruments in the 19th century. In 1908, Avedis Zildjian III migrated to Boston, while Kerope Zildjian continued to make cymbals in Turkey under the K Zildjian Constantinople name. In 1923, the Turkish Republic was established and the name of Constantinople was officially changed to Istanbul, resulting in the change of the company’s name from K. Zildjian Constantinople to K. Zildjian Istanbul. In around 1926, Aram Zildjian signed an exclusive American distribution agreement for K. Zildjian cymbals with Gretsch. Around 1928, Avedis III and Aram Zildjian began manufacturing cymbals in Quincy, Massachusetts, and the Avedis Zildjian Co. was formed in 1929, the same year that the Great Depression began, in competition with the K. Zildjian company in Turkey. Avedis made many innovations in cymbals that are still around today; he was the first to develop drum-set cymbals, and gave cymbals names such as ride, crash, splash, and hi-hat. Jazz drummers such as Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Shelly Manne, Cozy Cole, and Papa Jo Jones all used Avedis Zildjian cymbals. The cymbals were made with both automated processes and hand hammering, but Zildjian ended the latter tradition in 1964 after a rise in demand resulting from the popularity of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr on The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1968, the K. Zildjian Co. and all European trademarks were bought back by Robert Zildjian on behalf of the Avedis Zildjian Co. Zildjian was having labour requirement issues with oven room operators and machine operators, so Avedis split the production into two separate operations, one for rolling and casting only, and one for finishing work. They then opened up the Azco factory in Meductic, New Brunswick, Canada in 1968. From 1968 to 1970, the Azco factory produced Zilco cymbals. There were two types of Zilco: one was a thin rolling produced without any hammering at all, which cut costs. At about this time in the Azco factory, Robert Zildjian, with a man called Dick Dane, invented the modern process for pressing cymbals into shape. Before this it was done by bumping with the Quincy drop hammer. In 1970, Zildjian needed all their production capabilities at Azco for their regular Zildjian line, so the factory in Quincy (the then location of Zildjian) would send up castings to be finished into cymbals at Azco. At one point Azco was responsible for 40% of Zildjian's output. In 1975, there were problems with the Turkish government and Robert went over to Turkey and brought over a crew to start making K. Zildjian cymbals in the Azco plant. This was an interesting time for the Zildjian clan because it was the first time that Kerope and Avedis Zildjian had worked together to make the same Zildjian cymbals after years of competing with each other as A. Zildjian and K. Zildjian Istanbul. These were made until 1979 when Avedis died and Robert split from Zildjian amidst conflict with his brother, Armand Zildjian. Shortly thereafter, in 1981, Robert started making Sabian cymbals in the Meductic Azco factory, while Kerope and his son continued to make Sabian's early HH (Hand Hammered) cymbals. Other than cymbals, the Avedis Zildjian Company also produces products such as drum sticks and other drum accessories. The drum sticks are currently produced in Alabama. The Artist Series drum sticks allow these endorsers to personalize their own drum sticks, and these sticks are sold to the public. The Avedis Zildjian Company continues to produce cymbals today in Norwell, Massachusetts. Armand Zildjian was the head of the company after Avedis' death until his own passing in 2002. The company is now run by Armand’s daughters Craigie Zildjian and Debbie Zildjian. | |
topic: Essays | |
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