...To what extent is the book ‘Amusing Ourselves To Death’ by Neil Postman relevant today? Be specific. Give details and examples. As William James rightly said, “Man can alter his life by altering his thinking” (James). Our lives are shaped by the way we think which, in turn, is highly influenced by the things we do. Hence, I would attribute most of my shy and quirky behavior to my involvement in technology from a very young age. Though the various mediums of communication persist, the dominant medium changes with generations and this medium influence our ways of thinking. As a result, it changes our habits, our perceptions and our lifestyle as a whole. The arguments made by Postman in his book in 1985, ‘Amusing Ourselves To Death’, are mostly persuasive. However, taking into account the advancement in technology and the cultural differences since, there has been a tremendous change in the culture that some aspects may not apply today. In the nineteenth century, around 12,000 people watched a seven-hour debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas (Neely). “These were people who regarded such events as essential to their social lives, and who were quite accustomed to extended oratorical performances” (Postman 44). It is impossible to imagine anybody in the modern world doing anything for seven hours. The attention spans of humans have drastically descended since. Although, in the most modest sense, I am a gaming addict, I believe I lack the patience to game for that...
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...-“Strauss versus Brains and Genes or the postmodern vengeful return of positivism.” This essay first started as an answer to what I deemed very problematic, i.e. the disputation which I found in bad faith (un-authentic to use a philosophical term or an existentialist term), of the mediatic, dashing Harvard cognitivist/linguist, Steven Pinker, in his article “Neglected novelists, embattled English professors, tenure-less historians, and other struggling denizens of the Humanities, Science is not your Enemy—a plea for an intellectual truce,” (The New Republic--August 19). Then the counter-arguments against Steven Pinker’s conception of the “human animal” developed into an essay arguing that the New Positivism, not science, or technology per say, was the enemy of humanism and its avatars as such. The point is not to become a postmodern anti-scientific Luddite. Genomics are changing the world in ways we barely imagine yet and will re-define what it means to be human (a becoming already imagined by science fiction writers, social critics and critical thinkers such as the feminist Donna Haraway with her “Cyborg”). The point is also not to turn “anti-brainiac.” Without a brain we would become vegetative, a vegetal…, i.e. a purely “natural body,” a “zombie.” If we make use of this “computer” allegory which is an analog but not a homologue, and which is used ad nauseam used by psycho-biologists, without a hard-drive there is no software. But is this a reason to say that the software...
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...Not only does the denial of access to culturally embedded culinary practices cause a “slippage of subjectivity” into something else, but the food itself does not seem like food at all, eliminating a bodily need that was constitutive of individual identity and destabilizing the donor identity as it interrupts its biological processes. More than forcing different cultural standards on the Prakesh family’s consumption habits, Ginny has seen to it that they receive only nourishment that has been so mitigated by technology that it no longer resembles food in any “natural” sense at all. Rather than rice, fish, or potatoes, their kitchen is stocked with “multi-colored pellets” and a specialized “cooking device.” The kitchen itself, as a space highly productive of identities marked by difference, has been “dismantled.” Concerning this food-stuff Detsi-Diamanti writes, “Being constantly monitored and fattened like the proverbial lamb before the slaughter, the characters begin to lead antiseptic lives, eating multicolored pills instead of food, avoiding human contact for fear of contamination” (italics mine, 115), of which one should note the animal comparison. In this fashion, Ginny does not merely invest in her donor population, but rather erases their own domestic identity, and replaces it with the sterilized version suitable to her commodification of their bodies and organs, as she has ordered that the guard “cleans and swabs the entire area.” Similarly, in factory farm environments...
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...exhibits, researches for the purpose of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of men and his environment". Generally speaking, museums collect objects of significance that comply with their mission statement for conservation and display. Many assert that the primary function of art museums ought to be research and scholarship, staunch in their pursuit of objectivity, while others insist that it is about pluralism, the fortification of diversity in a pleased and intrigued public. Art Museums, not only because of the scientific and humanistic disciplines practiced in them, such as conservation, art history, archaeology etc., are seen as preservers of the community’s official cultural memory. Consequently, it can be argued that museums should be placed at the centre of the modern relations between government and culture. As a powerful social metaphor and as an instrument of historical representation, museums are crucial barometers of social changes. The need for museums in a society directly correlates with the roles that they play in bringing about positive impacts in that society. One of the ways in which museums make their importance...
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...Search Go! Going Global: The Impact of Satellite Television on News and Society "Consider man, the prosthetic god. Not being able to run very fast or for very long, he has grafted onto himself additional feet, until he can travel farther and faster than any other animal, and not only on land but also on and under water and in the air. He can reinforce his eyes with glasses, telescopes, and microscopes. Thanks to orbiting satellites, he can, without displacing himself, count wildebeest in the African veldt, or missile silos outside Novosibirsk. Lacking the dolphins ability to communicate great distances, he amplifies his voice with the aid of radio waves...[H]e has acquired a perpetually growing communal memory in the shape of the written word, the photograph, and the recording. Everything we know now, we know forever." –W. Rybczynski (1983) from Taming the Tiger: The Struggle to Control Technology Introduction Satellites have changed the way news is distributed and received around the world. Privatization of news media has allowed global news networks, namely CNN and the BBC, to break up longstanding government monopolies. Continuous news has found a global audience, both for convenience and the most updated story details. Breaking news relies on up to the minute updates, and every second counts in the competitive global news arena. CNN dominates the global airways, but critics maintain that this product is merely a cultural export from the United States. E...
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...FINAL EXAM OUTPUT IN PRODUCTIVE KEYBOARDING MWF 2:00-3:00 PM SUBMITTED TO: PROFESSOR MARIDEL OROPESA CASAS MARCH 9, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to give my unending gratitude to my parents for their love and support in my entire life. Thank you both for giving me the courage, strength, and guidance in reaching my stars and chasing my dreams and goals. I would like to give thanks to my three wonderful brothers, aunties, uncles, and other relatives that always been supportive since in my first day here on earth. I would also like to give thanks to my Professor in Productive Keyboarding, Professor Maridel Oropesa Casas from Adamson University, for her guidance and support throughout this study. Thank you Ma’am Casas for sharing your knowledge in this subject and its application in life. I believed I learned from the best. Thank you to my friends and especially to the sisters in my dormitory who are always there for me in my ups and downs in life. You guys made my life extra special. Lastly, I give thanks to the Almighty God for being there for me. This project will never exist if you weren’t here for me. Gracias! Table of Contents I. Introduction 4 II. Computers, Robots, and Artificial Intelligence 5 a. Computer 6 b. Artificial Intelligence and Robots 7 III. Information Age and Information Society 8 a. Knowledge 9 b. Global mind 10 c. Global brain 11 IV. The Machine and the Machine of Mind 12 a. The Machines of Mind 13 b. The...
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...Stockholders Joel H. Amcrnic UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO and Russell J. Craig AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY ACCOUNTABILITY AND RHETORIC DURING A CRISIS: WALT DISNEY’S 1940 LETTER TO STOCKHOLDERS Abstract: In 1940, Walt Disney was faced with crafting a message of corporate accountability under duress. His company, the product of his creative genius, had been forced to submit to public accountability. It had a pressing need to raise preferred equity finance for a major expansion during a period of market uncertainty, war, and reported losses. This paper conducts a “close reading” of the “Letter to Stockholders” in Walt Disney Productions’ 1940 annual report, the first such letter signed by Walt Disney. The letter’s rhetorical features, including metaphor and ideology, are examined in the context of the times. What is revealed is an accountability document skillfully crafted with the exigencies faced by Disney’s company firmly in mind. The letter offers suggestive insight to the world as Disney made sense of it. The paper contributes to understanding the use of rhetoric by top management in activities related to aspects of financial accountability and reporting. It also helps to understand better a significant public persona of the 20th century, Walt Disnev. Acknowledgment The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of the reviewers. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES Analysis of annual reports, including letters by CEOs to stockholders, has a long history in management and accounting literatures...
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...considering different alternatives. One alternative was to attack Harley Davidson’s niche with a Ducati interpretation of a cruiser. Was this broadening of Ducati’s traditional niche the right move to sustain the profitable growth of the company? The Market for Motorcycles in 2001 The roots of the motorcycle industry date back to 1868, when Louis Perraux installed a steam engine on a rudimentary bicycle. In 1894, the Hildebrand brothers and Alois Wolfmüller produced the first motorcycle with an internal-combustion, two-cylinder gasoline engine. The motorcycle quickly became a cultural icon. As T. Krens, the curator of “The Art of the Motorcycle” exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, observed: The motorcycle is a perfect metaphor for the twentieth century. Invented at the beginning of...
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...were considering different alternatives. One alternative was to attack Harley Davidson’s niche with a Ducati interpretation of a cruiser. Was this broadening of Ducati’s traditional niche the right move to sustain the profitable growth of the company? The Market for Motorcycles in 2001 The roots of the motorcycle industry date back to 1868, when Louis Perraux installed a steam engine on a rudimentary bicycle. In 1894, the Hildebrand brothers and Alois Wolfmüller produced the first motorcycle with an internal-combustion, two-cylinder gasoline engine. The motorcycle quickly became a cultural icon. As T. Krens, the curator of “The Art of the Motorcycle” exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, observed: The motorcycle is a perfect metaphor for the twentieth century. Invented at the beginning of the industrial age, its evolution tracks the main currents of...
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...Analyzing Ava ta r: A Rev iew Essa y Nekeisha Alexis-Baker By the time I decided to see James Cameron’s Avatar, I had already heard enough about the film to be unsure whether it would be worth the time, effort and petroleum to see it. People’s comments about the film ranged from praise for its groundbreaking 3D animation; to criticism of its racist portrayal of the indigenous; to disappointment with the overly predictable storytelling; to appreciation for its critique of colonization and civilization. I even heard complaints from fellow peace church Mennonites about its overwhelming use of redemptive violence. After seeing the film through my Christian anti-civilization (anti-civ) anarchist vegan antiracist woman of color lenses, my sense is that Avatar is more complex than many of its detractors or advocates acknowledge. Set on the planet Pandora, Avatar is a sci-fi story of a mercenary-backed corporation’s attempt to confiscate and mine the land inhabited by humanoid aliens known as the Na’vi. Enter Jake Sully, the paraplegic U.S. marine protagonist who joins the science and anthropology wing of the operation as a substitute navigator for his deceased twin brother’s avatar. Early in the film, we discover that the avatar is an expensive high-tech clone that allows its user to temporarily experience and subsequently infiltrate the Na’vi community. After a series of unexpected events during his first avatar excursion, Jake finds himself living amongst the Na’vi clan known as...
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...Career Management Guide In the current career environment, individuals with alternatives obtain more challenging and growth-oriented opportunities. Individuals with alternatives need not accept consequences, rather they create opportunities for themselves. Career Management Guide Section 1 Paaggee 11 SECTION 1: CAREERS TODAY Part 1 - The Environment, Career Issues and Trends The Importance of Education and Experience In the current economic environment, education is becoming increasingly critical to career success. While employment rose for Canadians with university and college educations, 651,000 fewer jobs existed for those people without high school qualifications. Unemployment rates in the U.S. exceed 10% for those with less than a high school diploma and approximately 2.5% for college graduates.1 When professional designations (i.e., accounting, engineering) are taken into account, the data on employability and income is skewed in favour of the professional, relative to those who possess only a post secondary educational background. However, in order to maintain a competitive edge, individuals must continue to invest in their development throughout their careers. Specifically, with respect to the future for business and accounting positions, “growth due to the increasing number and complexity of business operations will be offset somewhat by corporate restructuring and downsizing of management, resulting in average growth for executive, administrative and managerial...
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...r Divine-Human Synergism in Ministry Dennis Bratcher A paper presented to the Breckenridge Conference on Clergy Preparation I. Introduction II. Synergism: A Biblical and Theological Base III. The Church's Mission and Ministry: A Recovery of Balance IV. Divine-Human Synergism in Ministry Footnotes Bibliography I. Introduction The Issue In Context The Church In this series of conferences begun last year, we are in process of reflecting on the direction and focus of the ministry and ministerial training in the Church of the Nazarene as our community of faith moves into the twenty-first century. We have attempted to approach our task from two complimentary perspectives, caricatured last year as the "field" of hands-on work and the "realm" of reflective inquiry (although I think there are serious problems inherent in such an artificial dichotomy of responsibilities). -1- From our initial attempts, it has become obvious that we face a multiplicity of issues in such an endeavor. The range and diversity of these issues arise partly from the variety of theological, historical, and practical concerns operating with each of us as individuals and partly from the assumptions and perspectives imported from particular arenas of ministry. One common element that keeps reappearing in various forms is the issue of the nature and mission of the Church. This issue is not unique to our enterprise in these conferences, as the new eleventh Article of Faith on...
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...International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2008, Vol. 4, Issue 1, pp. 49-65. The Internet in developing countries: a medium of economic, cultural and political domination Abdulkafi Albirini University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA ABSTRACT The last decade has witnessed an unprecedented diffusion of network technologies into developing countries. The technological discourse attending this diffusion has presented the new media as a utopian, egalitarian and empowering tool with the potential of ushering in a new era of development, democracy, and positive cultural change. This paper examines the economic, cultural, and political effects of the Internet within the historical context of developing countries. The paper traces the politically-inspired evolution of the Internet, its transfer into developing countries, and the economic, cultural, and political consequences of this transfer. Existing data indicate that the implementation of the Internet in most developing countries has served as a drain to the local resources, thus exacerbating their economic dependency on foreign nations. On a cultural level, the Internet’s predominantly Western design, content, and language have facilitated the proliferation of alien cultural patterns at the expense of the social experiences of the local cultures. Lastly, the Internet’s build-in tracking capabilities and its current manipulation for political purposes on international...
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...Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XLV (March 2007), pp. 83–126 A Flat World, a Level Playing Field, a Small World After All, or None of the Above? A Review of Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat EDWARD E. LEAMER∗ Geography, flat or not, creates special relationships between buyers and sellers who reside in the same neighborhoods, but Friedman turns this metaphor inside-out by using The World is Flat to warn us of the perils of a relationship-free world in which every economic transaction is contested globally. In his “flat” world, your wages are set in Shanghai. In fact, most of the footloose relationship-free jobs in apparel and footwear and consumer electronics departed the United States several decades ago, and few U.S. workers today feel the force of Chinese and Indian competition, notwithstanding the alarming anecdotes about the outsourcing of intellectual services. Of course, standardization, mechanization, and computerization all work to increase the number of footloose tasks, but innovation and education work in the opposite direction, creating relationship-based activities—like the writing of this review. It may only be personal conceit, but I imagine there is a reason why the Journal of Economic Literature asked me to do this review. 1. Prologue hen the Journal of Economic Literature asked me to write a review of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2005) by Thomas Friedman, I responded with enthusiasm,...
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...Section 1 Organizational Culture: set of artifacts, values and assumption that emerge from the interaction of organizational members Open social system operating a dynamic environment. CRITERIA to identify something as culture: 1. Deeply felt or held 2. Commonly intelligible 1. Accessible to a cultural group Organization = Ordered and purposeful interaction among people. Purposeful, because its members produce (supero-rdinative) goal-directed activities. Organizational communication is a continuous process through which organizational members create, maintain and change the organization. (it includes business communication) N.B. All organizational members take place in it; messages are produced to create a shared meaning of messages, but it is not always achieved. Those messages vary in form according to various factors (power distances, roles, goal, method, non-verbal), and to be fully understood have to be considered in their contexts Culture: "the collective programming if the mind that DISTINGUISHES the members of one group tor category of people from another" (Hofstede 2001) Is both a process and a product; is confining (imitates groups) and facilitating (gives us a way to better understand what is happening) Cultural Symbol = physical indicators of organizational life (Rafaeli & Worline 2000) ARTIFACTS: visible/tangible, are also part of them norms, standards, customs and social convention. Norms: pattern of behaviors or communication...
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