George Steiner 'On Difficulty'

Thanks to S. Casey on The Laughing Bone - Web: Notes On Difficulty for this excellent apperatif prior to studying the acclaimed essay 'On Difficulty', written in 1978 by George Steiner:

Essentially, Steiner breaks difficulty into four types: contingent, modal, tactical and ontological. (Now, hang on for a second). His primary focus is with poetry: why certain poems are so difficult to understand. But as I indicated above, what was most fascinating to me was the application of the types to the more elusive difficulties of a life. It was one of those reading experiences where you begin to smile with understanding and then end up laughing out loud at how each new paragraph unfolds. It was like a clockwork play, a perfect sonnet, a shimmering fugue quartet. I have read a fair amount of George Steiner but this was a virtuoso perfomance. In fact, it would be the first thing I would refer people to if they were unfamiliar with Steiner's work. (That Jones pushed Real Presences into my hands before this bewilders me.) So I recommend it. Highly.

I wish I could just post the entire essay here but I don't feel right about that. But here are the four types with passages from Steiner. The concern is poetry but turn them outwards, maybe to something or one that isn't necessarily a poem but is poetic - difficultly so - and see how appropriately they might apply.

A good example of how this form of assessment can be applied to a literary work is provided by critic John Kenny about Hugh Maxton's new book in the Irish Times of July 11 - 'Twenty 16 Vision' A novel to exercise the head - The Irish Times - Sat, Jul 11, 2009

Amartya Sen in Dublin

Professor Amartya Sen is the Nobel prize-winning economist from India who teaches at Harvard and travels on lecture tour. Curiously, writer William Butler Yeats had championed the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore to Western audiences, and Tagore would later found the school which Sen attended and gave him the name Amartya, or “immortal”. The economist's influence on practical arrangements has been profound in certain quarters and he is fearless in toppling the sacred cows of capital that do not serve people.

He spoke 'On Global Confusion' at Trinity College Dublin last Thursday 9 July, and the talk can be heard at this link:

The Irish Economy » Blog Archive » Amartya Sen in Dublin

The following article is a nice overview of his relevance -
Beacon of light in a dismal science - The Irish Times - Sat, Jul 11, 2009

Goto Theory Talks for some other high-profile talks.

Right about Now

It's around the first anniversary of the time I set up this blogsite with its own domain name last year. I did not have specific or major ambitions, and at the beginning hoped to post about twice a week. This soon speeded up to almost one blog entry per day.

Now I am to decide whether to keep the 'brand' NoRoomToMove or let it lapse for hire by someone else. It does not matter very much one way or the other and the fee is small. For the sake of having the option of a repository for memes that mean something to me, I will carry on, if not with the same regularity. Visitors have left me to continue digging undisturbed. I have not used Search Engine Optimisation or any other tactic to provide a head-start for the site in catching browsers' attention. Nevertheless, sometimes the material is unusual enough to appear at the top of the first page of a search. I hope that occasionally the accidental chance visits or otherwise to these pages have proved worthwhile.

Let's take a breather for a few days to mark the year before resuming.

Bon continuation!

Idiosyncrasy of Jacko RIP

An amusing affectionate take on Michael Jackson's inimitable style -

The Parapsychological Association

The Parapsychological Association, Inc. (PA) is the international professional organization of scientists and scholars engaged in the study of ‘psi’ (or ‘psychic’) experiences, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, remote viewing, psychokinesis, psychic healing, and precognition.

Such experiences seem to challenge contemporary conceptions of human nature and of the physical world. They appear to involve the transfer of information and the influence of physical systems independently of time and space, via mechanisms we cannot currently explain...

... Psi experiences have been reported throughout history, in all cultures. Even today, as multiple surveys show, a wide segment of the world’s population reports having had at least one experience that they believe to have been psychic.

These experiences, and the phenomena associated with them, are the subject matter of parapsychology. PA members use well-developed scientific methods to determine to what extent psi phenomena can be explained through presently understood processes -- whether physical or psychological -- and to what extent they may point to unknown forces and laws, or necessitate a revised model of consciousness and its relationship to the world.

Historically, science has made major advances in its understanding of the world through observation of ‘anomalies’– phenomena or data that did not fit into the concepts of the time. On the other hand, scientific and academic institutions are justifiably cautious about adopting radically new principles, and they tend to be quite conservative in accepting the reality of anomalous phenomena.

The PA is dedicated to ensuring that legitimate caution does not equate to dismissal or active avoidance, thus merely propagating our ignorance. To preclude science from stagnating into dogma, it is vital that we improve our understanding of our world, of ourselves and our experience. If new principles of physics, biology or psychology do underlie psi experiences, then our current knowledge of human nature and the world around us is incomplete -- and it will remain so, until the scientific community makes a sustained effort to understand these experiences...

Lots more information at What is the PA? Mission Statement

An Expert on the Unexplained

Hans Holzer died on April 26, 2009, at the age of 89. Dr. Holzer was a pioneer and trail-blazer in the paranormal community. Jeff Belanger interviewed him for Ghostvillage.com earlier this year:

After penning 138 books as well as several plays, musicals, films, and documentaries and hosting a television show, the only thing that slows him down today is a mishap from an operation on his leg three years ago. What does it slow him down from? “Swing dancing,” he said. I laughed. Then I realized he wasn’t kidding. “Not just swing dancing, any kind of dancing!”

Supernaturally speaking, Dr. Holzer has seen and heard it all. He’s worked with psychic legends like Sybil Leek, he’s investigated some of the most prominent haunted locations around the world, and he’s come as close as a living person can to touching the “other side of life” – a term he’s quick to point out that he invented...

...“I’ve read you don’t like the term ‘supernatural’,” I said.

“I use the term because it is the one that people use,” Holzer said. “But nothing in my scientific view does not have an explanation. The question is, sooner we get it or later we get it, but there has to be an explanation. You can’t say nobody knows. I don’t accept that. And the paranormal is part of our experience – we just don’t always understand it as such.”

Eventually, we did get to speak about some of Holzer’s personal experiences. And while some people in this field of study have had personal experiences and believe that in itself makes them expert on knowing if a location is haunted, Holzer wants witnesses – several of them preferably, and the not-crazy kind. “That’s why I want to know my witness,” he said. “I ask them, ‘Who are you? What do you do for a living?’ I interview the witnesses. If there is a crazy in front of me, I’ll know it.

“My first visual experience was when I lived in New York City with my father in a penthouse apartment on Riverside Drive. I was asleep in bed, and I woke up and there was my mother dressed in a white nightgown, pushing my head back onto the pillow. My head had slipped off the pillow. At that time I was subject to migraines. Had I not had my head back on the pillow, I probably would’ve had one, and there would’ve been dizziness and I would’ve been out of business for a day. I said, ‘Oh, hello, Mama.’ And she disappeared.”

We talked about the difference between a ghost or a spirit – how a ghost is a residual entity, like a psychic imprint left in an area that some people can pick up, whereas a spirit is intelligent and interactive. Holzer also mentioned a third category I hadn’t heard about before: the “stay behinds.”

“‘Stay behinds’ are relatively common,” he said. “Somebody dies, and then they’re really surprised that all of a sudden they’re not dead. They’re alive like they were. They don’t understand it because they weren’t prepared for it. So they go back to what they knew most – their chair, their room, and they just sit there. Next, they want to let people know that they’re still ‘alive.’ So they’ll do little things like moving things, appear to relatives, pushing objects, poltergeist phenomena, and so on...”

Dr. Hans Holzer interview - A Lifetime of Explaining the Unexplained

Faith in Public Life

The Pope delivers a sound message reinforcing the value of social capital some days ago -

"Today's international economic scene, marked by grave deviations and failures, requires a profoundly new way of understanding human enterprise," Benedict wrote in his latest encyclical, which is the most authoritative document a pope can issue. "Without doubt, one of the greatest risks for business is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limited in their social value."

In the sweeping document, Benedict denounced the private sector and blamed "badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing" for causing the current economic meltdown. He said that the primary capital to be safeguarded is people, and cautioned that economic systems need to be guided by charity and truth.

"We have the globalization of economics, technologies and societies, without an accompanying growth in global ethics to guide these new practices," said Maryann Cusimano Love, associate professor of politics at Catholic University's Life Cycle Institute. "This encyclical tries to bridge these ethical gaps, applying ancient ethics to 21st-century problems."

The encyclical comes one day before President Obama and leaders of other wealthy nations are set to gather in L'Aquila, Italy, to discuss the global economic crisis at a G8 summit. Benedict is scheduled to meet with Obama on Friday and is expected to raise the issues discussed in his encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth). He has been working on the document since 2007, but said he refrained from issuing it earlier in order to make updates that reflect the world's current economic troubles. ..

Read more at:
Faith in Public Life :: Newsroom

All Adya/(-ology), is Destiny?

...Tami Simon: When you describe the rocket ship, you use the metaphor to talk about nonabiding awakening versus abiding awakening, with the idea that abiding awakening means you are permanently outside of the gravitational field of the dream state, outside of our habitual tendencies to constellate as a separate self. Are you outside of that gravitational field?

Adyashanti: I always hesitate to answer a question like that, but I’m going to try to answer it. I don’t feel that I can say, “Yes, I am outside of the gravitational force.” It’s not really like that. That’s where the metaphor breaks down. All of these metaphors, all these ways of explaining things, they’re just that—they’re metaphors, and they do have certain limitations.

I would say that my experience is that I no longer believe the next thought that I have. I’m not capable of actually believing a thought that happens. I have no control over what thoughts appear, but I can’t believe that the thought is real or true or significant. And because no thought can be grasped as real, true, or significant, that itself has an experiential impact; it is the experience of freedom.

If somebody wanted to call that “being beyond the gravitational force of the dream state,” fine, but I am always hesitant about claiming something. I always remind everybody I talk to that all I know is right now. I don’t know about tomorrow. Tomorrow a thought could come by that could catch me, Velcro me, pull me into separation and delusion. I don’t know—maybe it will, maybe it won’t. I have no way of knowing that. All I know is right now.

That is why I hesitate to say, “Oh yes, I have crossed a certain goal or finish line,” because I don’t see it that way. It sounds like that when I’m teaching, but that is the limitation of speech. What I really know is that I don’t know. What I really know is that there are no guarantees. I don’t know what may happen tomorrow, or the next instant, whether I’ll be deluded one instant from now. What I do know is that I can never possibly know that...

This is an excerpt from a candid interview with spiritual teacher Adyashanti, titled The End of Your World - Sounds True Interview: The End of Your World with Adyashanti

Plenty more such 'insights at the edge' in audio at your finger-tips: Sounds True: Insights from the Edge

Woman on Mars Tomorrow?

In her recent book The Myth of Mars and Venus, ‘Do men and women speak different languages?’ is the rhetorical question posed by Deborah Cameron, who is Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication at Oxford. A thriving industry has grown up over the past few years of self-help books – such as Deborah Tannen’s You Just Don’t Understand: Men and Women in Conversation (1990) and John Gray’s Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (1992) - based on the assertion that there are fundamental differences in the way men and women use language to communicate. -

Culture Wars | The Myth of Mars and Venus: Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages?


This article links to a number of others providing more indepth discussion:
The Myth of Mars and Venus « Feminist Philosophers

Here is a video of the author herself outlining her premise:
Meet the Author USA | Search for an Author | Deborah Cameron | The Myth of Mars and Venus

Man on the Moon 30 Years Ago

The launch of Apollo II happened on July 16th 1969 to deliver the first human beings to the moon. The awe at the achievement lingers on, and a philosophical dedication to the event as an enduring symbol of man's greatness follows:
The Ayn Rand Institute: Apollo 11: A Symbol of Man's Greatness

And here:
Apollo 11 on Human Achievement Day

Demand Dignity with Amnesty International

- About Demand Dignity: Human Rights = Less Poverty
The global economic crisis is driving millions more people into poverty and placing them at increased risk of human rights violations such as food insecurity or forced eviction. The world urgently needs a different kind of response and a different kind of leadership if we are to reverse this dramatic escalation of human misery.

This is a human rights crisis. Billions of people are suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity around the world. The solution can only be found through a coordinated and concerted response rooted in human rights and the rule of law. This requires strong leadership.

Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity campaign aims to end global poverty by working to strengthen recognition and protection of the rights of the poor. The campaign will demand the leadership, accountability and transparency that are essential to end the human rights violations that keep people poor.

This is a campaign about all rights. It is the combined abuse of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights that drives and deepens poverty. By demanding dignity we are demanding that all states adopt and implement the laws, policies and practices that will end deprivation, insecurity, exclusion, and voicelessness.

Participation and involvement in the decisions that impact on our lives are essential to human rights. By including all rights holders in policy making governments are at once creating a framework for accountability, transparency, inclusion and empowerment. These are the prerequisites to ending poverty.

The Demand Dignity Campaign will put rights at the centre of poverty eradication, and make rights protection efforts work for all people. The stories and solutions that people living in poverty have to tell will be the centrepiece of this worldwide mobilisation...

Amnesty International is asking everyone to add their voice to the petition - http://demanddignity.amnesty.org/campaigns-en/

Paranoid Androids are We.

- Fears about other people seem to have reached new heights - whether they be terrorists, binge-drinking youths, child abusers, or criminals. And recent scientific research has revealed that suspiciousness is much more common than had previously been believed. So if you're worried about other people, you're certainly not alone: around a third of the population regularly has suspicious or paranoid thoughts. In fact, paranoia may be almost as common as depression or anxiety. And just like anxiety and depression there is a spectrum of severity of paranoia in the general population. Many of us have paranoid thoughts from time to time. -

The website Paranoid Thoughts is about the states of having unfounded or excessive fears about others. It contains information, self-assessment exercises and so on.

'I'd rather not get involved'...

Morrissey performing "Death Of A Disco Dancer" at O2 Wireless Festival on 4th of July 2008 in London Hyde Park (I was there) -



YouTube - Morrissey- Death Of A Disco Dancer. O2 Wireless

Lyric -
The death of a disco dancer
Well, it happens a lot 'round here
And if you think Peace
Is a common goal
That goes to show
How little you know

The death of a disco dancer
Well, I'd rather not get involved
I never talk to my neighbour
I'd rather not get involved
Oh ...

Love, peace and harmony ?
Love, peace and harmony ?
Oh, very nice
Very nice
Very nice
Very nice
...But maybe in the next world

Love, peace and harmony ?
Love, peace and harmony ?
Oh, very nice
Very nice
Very nice
Very nice
Very nice
...But maybe in the next world
Maybe in the next world
Maybe in the next world

Oh, love, peace and harmony ?
Love, peace and harmony ?
Oh, very nice
Very nice
Very nice
...Oh, but maybe in the next world
Maybe in the next world
(In the next world, in the next world, in the next world)
(In the next world, in the next world, in the next world)
The next world, the next world
Oh ...

The death of a disco dancer
The death of a disco dancer
The death of a disco dancer
- The Smiths

Moral Disengagements & Effects: Bandura

Abstract:
The present paper documents the influential role played by selective moral disengagement for social practices that cause widespread human harm and degrade the environment. Disengagement of moral self-sanctions enables people to pursue detrimental practices freed from the restraint of self-censure. This is achieved by investing ecologically harmful practices with worthy purposes through social, national, and economic justifications; enlisting exonerative comparisons that render the practices righteous; use of sanitising and convoluting language that disguises what is being done; reducing accountability by displacement and diffusion of responsibility; ignoring, minimising, and disputing harmful effects; and dehumanising and blaming the victims and derogating the messengers of ecologically bad news. These psychosocial mechanisms operate at both the individual and social systems levels.

The full theoretical essay can be read at:

http://des.emory.edu/mfp/Bandura2007MDEcology.pdf

Using Media Imitation Well

...One of Sabido's favorite experts is the psychologist Albert Bandura, of Stanford University, whom he described as "the greatest American since Benjamin Franklin." Bandura's "Bobo doll studies," conducted in the late nineteen-fifties and the sixties, showed that children, observing adults in violent forms of play, mimicked those behaviors. The best way to teach new behaviors, Bandura found, was to give people models that they could bond with and who could guide them through concrete, realistic steps. Sabido visited Bandura at Stanford to discuss plot ideas.

In a Sabido soap opera,there is always one positive, aspirational character, usually someone whose social status is slightly higher than that of the typical viewer. At the other end of the spectrum is a negative character-a superstitious mother-in-law or a thuggish husband. The most important member of the cast is the "transitional" figure-the fallible character who struggles to behave decently. This is the person with whom the audience is meant to identify.

"A typical soap operareflects the values of the culture and rarely stops to question them," Alice Payne Merritt, the deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, told me. "The women are generally passive and follow the leads of the men. They rarely step out of their expected roles to become agents of change." Characters in Sabido soaps who act in ways that international aid workers consider beneficial-who, say, don't ostracize a cousin because he has AIDS-often have a hard time at first, but in the end they triumph. The assumption-perhaps an optimistic one-is that viewers, even those facing extreme economic and social disadvantages, can gain much more control over their lives if they are shown how to go about it.

Telenovelas are, in some ways, the ideal vehicle for such messages. Unlike soap operas in the United States, they are aired during prime time and are not considered the sole province of housewives. An American soap opera follows a vortex structure, with a few central characters and several story lines swirling around them, and is meant to continue indefinitely. A telenovela has one main plot, with a principal heroine, and four or five subplots that move toward a conclusion within six months to a year.

In Sabido soaps, like most programs in the genre, high dramas are staged in mundane settings. In "Bai Xing" ("Ordinary People"), Luye, an unmarried rural Chinese girl, has a baby and moves to the city. In the third season of the show, which is now airing in China, two characters learn that they have AIDS. (This is almost unheard of on Chinese television.) "Tsha Tsha," a 2003 South African soap, is a sort of "Dirty Dancing" set in a fictional village. Viwe is a haughty, spoiled rich girl who steals her rival's dance partner, Andile. Just before the final round of a big dance contest, she finds out that she was infected with H.I.V. by a former boyfriend, and tells Andile, "You should find another partner. I'm gonna stop dancing."

He answers, "It is hard, but life goes on. You're healthy and fit, and you can dance. And this competition means a lot to me."...

The full article from the New York Times published in June 2006 is available to view here - Human Spirit

Views on Problematic Computer Overuse

In this video interview, Frontline Digital Nation representative Rushkoff interview Dr Jerald Block, foremost American psychiatrist in the field of computer addiction. An excerpt follows:

"RUSHKOFF: Thanks so much for talking to us today. We've got a lot of questions for you. To start out, maybe you can just give us an overview. Explain to us what, exactly, is Internet addiction?

BLOCK: Well, Internet addiction... let's start with the term. Some people have called this disorder "Internet addiction." I much prefer the tem pathological computer use. The reason why is we're talking about computer use which may not involve Internet. It may be single-person games or Instant Messaging through phones. So that's one issue, it may not involve the Internet. The second issue is, addiction is a very loaded word in our vocabulary. And it's probably better to disentangle that a bit and remove the word from the actual clinical disorder. Now, what is pathological computer use? Really consist of four things. The first is it has to be excessive use of the computer, and that, or electronic media, and that probably consists of around 30-40 hours a week, more generally. But it can vary. I mean, if you're in the North Pole, or in Antarctica, and you don't have a lot to do, it may be very reasonable to be playing games for that period of time. However, if you're carrying a job or going to school, that may be difficult. So excessive use is the first criteria.

The second criteria is, it has to be producing real, serious problems in one's life. Someone has to be claiming, very, very loud. So we're not talking about causal use where you're just concerned, it has to be producing real problems. Someone has to be complaining. The third issue is mood symptoms when you try to stop playing, or after prolonged use. So often people describe a sense of anger, frustration, depression, that results when they're playing for a long period of time or when they try to stop playing. And the fourth criteria is a sense of tolerance, or a need for more over time. So you need either more equipment, so people spend thousands of dollars on better equipment, more software. They might be buying 2 or 3 computer games each week. Or in general, a more involved experience...

...RUSHKOFF: It's easy to anthropomorphize it on that level, but there's something about it that's drawing, that feels that, unlike a television or a radio or a comic book, that this technology reaches out and sort of grabs you by the lapels, and is categorically, fundamentally different than what went before it. I mean, have you had that sense of it?

BLOCK: Um, it's not passive in the way that, like TV, or watching a movie is. It is in part under your control. I mean, there's a real sense of control when you're using technology. And a sense that you're dealing with, perhaps, a partner, that if you do everything right, they're going to do everything right. And so it's a matter of getting, figuring out the puzzle, and making sure everything works. So it's a back and forth. Much more so than many other forms of media.

RUSHKOFF: Do you think that the implicit covenant between us and the technology is just one-way, though? That we expect, if we do everything right, that it's all going to work out in our favor, but the technology isn't not making that agreement at all, is it?

BLOCK: Well I think people feel betrayed when the technology bites them. Um, I, uh, I mean, I think that's part of the confusion about that happens about virtual reality. People get very enmeshed and immersed in that, in those worlds. And then, um, something unjust occurs. Or the technology lets them down. Or the world behaves in a way that's not fair. They get very enraged and angry. And it's, you know, in some sense, you expect, um, uh, problems and uh, issues to come up in real people's interaction with you. But when you're dealing with the virtual, it's, um, it's supposed to be fair, and uh, it's supposed to be, um, logical. And when that fails you, people can get very upset. I don't know if that's kind of muddled, but, uh..."

The full video clip and transcribed interview is at: FRONTLINE: digital nation: interviews: jerald block | PBS

John Irving: See how he runs!

John Irving Shares His Writing Process, as uploaded on the site 'Writers' Blog'-

Bestselling author John Irving (The World According to Garp) discusses his next book, Last Night in Twisted River, and his writing life with Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the New York Times Book Review. It's an interesting interview. Irving was at his doctor's office and the last line of the book came to him in a flash of inspiration (which is always what comes to him first). Having no paper he started writing on a prescription pad, which pretty much freaked out the nurse when she came into the room and saw him apparently writing his own prescription. He also shares the first and last sentences of his new novel. Take a look:

Writer's Blog: John Irving Shares His Writing Process

Economic Growth Can Be Uneconomic

Herman Daly has recently posted an exploration of other ways to make sure there is enough for humanity to live into the future, and in it he grapples informatively with economic sacred cows. It’s at - The Oil Drum | From a Failed Growth Economy to a Steady-State Economy

The piece is strung around these two questions:

“First, there is a deep theorem in mathematics that says when something grows it gets bigger! So, when the economy grows it too gets bigger. How big can the economy be, Professor? How big is it now? How big should it be? Have economists ever considered these questions? And most pointedly, what makes them think that growth (i.e., physical expansion of the economic subsystem into the finite containing biosphere), is not already increasing environmental and social costs faster than production benefits, thereby becoming uneconomic growth, making us poorer, not richer? After all, real GDP, the measure of “economic” growth so-called, does not separate costs from benefits, but conflates them as “economic” activity. How would we know when growth became uneconomic? Remedial and defensive activity becomes ever greater as we grow from an “empty-world” to a “full-world” economy, characterized by congestion, interference, displacement, depletion and pollution. The defensive expenditures induced by these negatives are all added to GDP, not subtracted. Be prepared, students, for some hand waving, throat clearing, and subject changing. But don’t be bluffed.

Second question; do you then, Professor, see growth as a continuing process, desirable in itself– or as a temporary process required to reach a sufficient level of wealth which would thereafter be maintained more or less in a steady state? At least 99% of modern neoclassical economists hold the growth forever view. We have to go back to John Stuart Mill and the earlier Classical Economists to find serious treatment of the idea of a non-growing economy, the Stationary State. What makes modern economists so sure that the Classical Economists were wrong? Just dropping history of economic thought from the curriculum is not a refutation!…”

Rockin' in the Free World - Neil Young

Link:

There's colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin' their feet
People sleepin' in their shoes
But there's a warnin' sign
on the road ahead
There's a lot of people sayin'
we'd be better off dead
Don't feel like Satan,
but I am to them
So I try to forget it,
any way I can.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

I see a woman in the night
With a baby in her hand
Under an old street light
Near a garbage can
Now she puts the kid away,
and she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life,
and what she's done to it
There's one more kid
that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love,
never get to be cool.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

- Neil Young

Self-Determination please!

"Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro-theory of human motivation concerned with the development and functioning of personality within social contexts. The theory focuses on the degree to which human behaviors are volitional or self-determined - that is, the degree to which people endorse their actions at the highest level of reflection and engage in the actions with a full sense of choice.

SDT is based on an organismic-dialectical meta-theory, which begins with the assumption that people are active organisms, with innate tendencies toward psychological growth and development, who strive to master ongoing challenges and to integrate their experiences into a coherent sense of self. This natural human tendency does not operate automatically, however, but instead requires ongoing nutriments and supports from the social environment in order to function effectively. That is, the social context can either support or thwart the natural tendencies toward active engagement and psychological growth. Thus, it is the dialectic between the active organism and the social context that is the basis for SDT's predictions about behavior, experience, and development.

Within SDT, the nutriments for healthy development and functioning are specified using the concept of basic psychological needs, which are innate, universal, and essential for health and well-being. That is, basic psychological needs are a natural aspect of human beings that apply to all people, regardless of gender, group, or culture. To the extent that the needs are ongoingly satisfied people will function effectively and develop in a healthy way, but to the extent that they are thwarted, people will show evidence of ill-being and non-optimal functioning. The darker sides of human behavior and experience are understood in terms of basic needs having been thwarted.

SDT is a general theory of motivation and personality that evolved over the past three decades as a set of four mini-theories that share the organismic-dialectical meta-theory and the concept of basic needs. Each mini-theory was developed to explain a set of motivationally based phenomena that emerged from laboratory and field research focused on different issues. Cognitive evaluation theory addresses the effects of social contexts on intrinsic motivation; organismic integration theory addresses the concept of internalization especially with respect to the development of extrinsic motivation. Causality orientations theory describes individual differences in people's tendencies toward self-determined behavior and toward orienting to the environment in ways that support their self-determination. And basic needs theory elaborates the concept of basic needs and its relation to psychological health and well-being. Together these mini-theories constitute SDT.

Overviews of the theory can be found in Ryan and Deci (2000) and in Deci and Ryan (1985, 2000). Relevant research reports and theoretical discussion are listed in the Publications section, organized by topic.."

More at: Self-Determination Theory

Rudeness Cripples Colleagues

"Seeing one person be rude to another can stunt a person's creativity, impair their mental performance and make them less likely to be civil themselves. Christine Porath and Amir Erez, who made this finding, say it has profound implications for the workplace, where rudeness has been described by some as a modern epidemic.

Across three studies, Porath and Erez recruited undergrad students to take part in what they were led to believe was an investigation into personality and task performance. Porath and Erez contrived situations in their lab so that the student participants witnessed either a researcher be rude to a student for turning up late, or one student be rude to another student for taking so long over a consent form.

Witnessing an act of rudeness, whether committed by a researcher or student, led the participants to solve fewer anagrams, come up with fewer uses for a brick (and to come up with more aggressive uses!), made them less likely to offer to participate in another study, and lowered their mood.

A third study showed that the harmful effects of witnessing rudeness were greater when students were enrolled in a collaborative group task, compared with when they were enrolled in a competitive group task where they had something to gain from the rudeness victim's ordeal. Although the harmful effects were lower in the competitive scenario, they were still present.

Porath and Erez said this is the first study to their knowledge that has investigated the direct effects of merely witnessing rudeness as opposed to being the target of rudeness. Future research is needed to explore the mechanisms by which witnessing rudeness leads to the harmful outcomes reported here.

"The conclusion that rudeness may not be contained within the instigator-target dyad and that it affects performance is theoretically and practically significant because it implies that the organisational functioning and climate could be affected by isolated rude incidents," the researchers said.
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Porath, C., & Erez, A. (2009). Overlooked but not untouched: How rudeness reduces onlookers’ performance on routine and creative tasks Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109 (1), 29-44 DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.01.003"

This report, and other curious findings, are available and regularly updated at
BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Search results for rudeness

Validation: the movie

"Validation" is a charming fable about the magic of free parking and similar connundrums. Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne. It is a multiple award winning short film.



YouTube - Validation

Help with the Human Emotion Art Project

A project initiated and overseen by Alison Williams invites international artists to record and interpret human emotion visually using film/video for global screenings. It is arranged so that the curators involved are responsible for selecting the screenings by country. Collaborations are also acceptable.

A selection of proposed contributions from around the world have been posted on -
HUMAN EMOTION PROJECT(HEP) 2009 - artreview.com

A European Cultural Parliament

- "The "European Cultural Parliament" is a forum for European personalities in the fields of arts, culture and letters for dialogue, discussions and debate about crucial and burning issues of importance for European co-operation, European democracy and European culture.

The belief of the "European Cultural Parliament" is that the European idea is based on a balance between respect for the diversity of cultures in Europe and cross-cultural tolerance and understanding.

The purpose of the "European Cultural Parliament" is to strengthen the role of cultural and artistic ideas in the debate on the future of Europe. The Parliament will stand for common values, cultural identity and diversity as well as tolerance and will promote bridge building with other cultures.

To this end the "European Cultural Parliament" offers a forum for regular debate on crucial issues between independent artists, writers, musicians, historians, philosophers, designers, architects and other cultural personalities from all European countries. The forum also provides a European meeting place, where important networks, ideas and initatives are created."

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About ECP - European Culturial Parliament

Animal, Animal!! - Def Leppard

- A wild ride, over stony ground
Such a lust for life, the circus comes to town
We are the hungry ones, on a lightning raid
Just like a river runs, like a fire needs flame
I burn for you

I gotta feel it in my blood
Whoa-oh
I need your touch don't need your love
Whoa-oh
And I want, and I need, and I lust
Animal
And I want, and I need, and I lust
Animal

I cry wolf, given mouth to mouth
Like a movin' heartbeat in the witching hour
I'm runnin' with the wind, a shadow in the dust
And like the drivin' rain
Yeah, like the restless rust
I never sleep


I gotta feel it in my blood
Whoa-oh
I need your touch don't need your love
Whoa-oh
And I want, and I need, and I lust
Animal
And I want, and I need, and I lust
Animal

Huh!
Oh!
Cry wolf baby
Cry tough
Gonna hunt you like an, uh, uh, animal
Gonna take your love n' run

I gotta feel it in my blood
Whoa-oh
I need your touch don't need your love
Whoa-oh
And I want, and I need, and I lust
Animal
And I want, and I need, and I lust
Animal

And I want (And I want)
And I need (And I need)
And I lust (And I lust)
Animal (Animal)
And I want (Take me)
And I need (Tame me)
And I lust (Make me)
Animal (Your Animal)
And I want (Show me)
And I need (Stroke me)
And I lust
(Let me be your...)
Animal (Animal)
And I want (I want)
And I need (Ooh-ooh-ooh)
And I lust (Yeah Animal)
Animal
(Animal)
(Heh! heh!) -

- Def Leppard