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modern poetry

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:08:04 GMT

clipped by: doodleicious
clipper's remarks: am clipping this for a writer friend of mine..............

Modern Poetry with Professor Langdon Hammer

About the Course

This course covers the body of modern poetry, its characteristic techniques, concerns, and major practitioners. The authors discussed range from Yeats, Eliot, and Pound, to Stevens, Moore, Bishop, and Frost with additional lectures on the poetry of World War One, Imagism, and the Harlem Renaissance. Diverse methods of literary criticism are employed, such as historical, biographical, and gender criticism. view class sessions >>

This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2007.

Tags: modern, poetry

In fear of 'Eurabia'?

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:19:50 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

The images were clearly intended to get out the vote, and judging by the 57 per cent "yes" vote to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland on Sunday, they worked all too well.

They included the depiction of minarets piercing through the Swiss flag; minarets on top of the flag, with a menacing, niqab-wearing Muslim woman in the foreground.

One could be forgiven for imagining that the Muslims were at the gates of Vienna, or even Lucerne, threatening to overrun Christian Europe. And of course, for the proponents of the ban, that is precisely the situation Europe faces today

For centuries, the peoples of Europe have defined their continental identity against the threat of Islam. So much so that it is hard to imagine a European identity that does not have Islam as its foil.

There are, of course, good historical reasons for this.

From the eighth century Europe was in fact surrounded by Muslims to the East and South, who ruled much of the Eastern continent for the next millennium.

Tags: racism

Death By Bad Reviews

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:32:57 GMT

clipped by: Mike Danger
clipper's remarks: Poetry is a deadly game.

Clip Source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

Who killed John Keats?

A letter by Keats's old friend makes clear how much "sensative-bitterness" the poet felt after attacks on him by critics

The letter’s account of Keats’s sensitivity to the critics’ attacks has never been fully integrated into the poet’s biography. That may be partly because the identity of Y is not entirely certain, and partly because Blunden’s book, which was printed in a limited edition of 390, is a collector’s item usually lodged in rare book rooms. But there may be another more important reason. At the heart of the letter is a description of Keats lying awake “through the whole night” talking with “sensative-bitterness” [sic] about the attacks by his critics. This challenges Keats’s own claims that the hostile articles written about him in Blackwood’s and the Quarterly affected him less than his own self-criticism (claims always cited to rebut the myth that he was killed by a review).

Tags: poetry, death

Irish Sisters of Mercy to pay $193,000,000 in Abuse Reparations

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:50:35 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Hypocrites. You've got to love 'em!

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The Irish Sisters of Mercy is to supply a 128m euros (£116m) package as reparation for decades of child abuse in its schools and orphanages.

The order of nuns ran five schools named in the damning report, including the notorious Goldenbridge.

Overall, the offer is the largest made so far by any of the 18 Catholic religious bodies whose institutions were severely criticised for systemically abusing children in their care.

Cash of 20m euros will be transferred to a trust for former residents

Properties valued at 107.5m euros to be transferred to the state (80.8m euros), a trust for former residents (11.6m) and to voluntary groups (15m euros)

The order has already contributed 33m euros and has committed to pay 1.9m euros to counselling charity Faoiseamh over the next five years

More than 2,000 people told the commission they had suffered physical and sexual abuse as children in the institutions, which included schools and orphanages.

Fear of Fear Itself

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:31:48 GMT

clipped by: chestnut501
clipper's remarks: A recent study links fear of feeling anxious to depression.

Clip Source: www.scientificamerican.com

Most psychotherapists would agree that depression is anger and sadness that has been repressed. And it can lead to a state where the afflicted feel there is nothing they can do to change their situation. A hopelessness emerges.

Another key characteristic is anxiety. But scientists have recently focused on a specific type of worry that is significantly linked to depression. This is anxiety about feeling anxiety. Here a person thinks that something catastrophic is going to happen if they allow themselves to feel anxious.

The two dimensions of so-called anxiety sensitivity that are most strongly linked to depression are fear of loss of cognitive control and fear of revealing anxious symptoms in public.

The authors note that current depression therapies focus on depressive symptoms and not anxiety sensitivity. They suggest therapists might want to consider helping people change their perception of anxious emotion, to not see it in such a negative light.

Tags: science, psychology, depression, anxiety, fear, emotions, therapists

The Experience of Anger

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:27:59 GMT

clipped by: Kelika
clipper's remarks: More: "The sociological analysis of anger can shed light on the ways that the conditions of society influence emotional inequality," says Schieman. "Why do some people seem to experience more anger than others? And what does this say about social inequality and its impact in our everyday lives?"

Clip Source: www.brainmysteries.com

Younger people experience more frequent anger than older adults. This is mainly due to the fact that younger people are more likely to feel time pressures, economic hardship, and interpersonal conflict in the workplace (three core stressors that elevate anger levels);

Feeling rushed for time is the strongest predictor of anger, especially the "low-grade" forms like feeling annoyed;

Having children in the household is associated with angry feelings and behavior (i.e., yelling) and these patterns are stronger among women compared to men;

Compared to people with fewer years of education, the well-educated are less likely to experience anger, and when they do, they are more likely to act proactively (e.g., trying to change the situation or talking it over);

Individuals who experience more financial strain tend to report higher levels of anger. This relationship is much stronger among women and younger adults.

A cloud still hangs over Bhopal

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:13:58 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: More:

What’s missing in the whole sad story is any sense of a human connection between the faceless people who run the corporation and the victims. In 1995, a Bhopali woman named Sajida Bano sent a handwritten letter to Union Carbide. The factory had killed her husband in 1981 in an accident, and then, on the night of the disaster, her 4-year-old son. “You put your hand on your heart and think,” she wrote, “if you are a human being: if this happened to you, how would your wife and children feel?” She never received a response.

The survivors of Bhopal want only to be treated as human beings — not victims, not greedy money-grabbers, just human beings who’ve gone through hell and are entitled to a measure of dignity. That includes concrete things like cleaning up the mess and providing health care for the sick, and also something more abstract but equally important — an acknowledgment that a wrong was done to them, and an apology, which Bhopalis have yet to receive.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

IN the Mumbai kindergarten my son went to, the children never had to clean up after themselves; that was the servants’ job. So I really liked the school my son attended when we moved back to Brooklyn, where the teachers made the children tidy up at the end of the day. “Cleanup time, cleanup time!” my 6-year-old sang, joyfully gathering his scraps. It’s a wonderful American tradition: you always clean up the mess you made.

This is the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster

when a pesticide plant owned by the American chemical giant Union Carbide leaked a cloud of poisonous gas

almost 4,000 human beings

sank to their knees and did not get up. Half a million more fell ill, many with severely damaged lungs and eyes

That was another fine thing my son learned in the Brooklyn school: when you’ve done something bad, you should say you’re sorry. After a quarter of a century, Dow should acknowledge that it is responsible for a very big mess. And now, it’s cleanup time.

Tags: bhopal, india, chemicals, america, apologies, reparations

Financial Crisis Hits Dubai, in pictures [37 photos]

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:09:21 GMT

clipped by: clip-on-tie

Clip Source: blogs.denverpost.com

(AP) Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai’s explosive growth, the city is now so swamped in debt that it’s asking for a six-month reprieve on paying its bills – causing a drop on world markets Thursday and raising questions about Dubai’s reputation as a magnet for international investment.

The fallout came swiftly and was felt globally after Wednesday statement that Dubai’s main development engine, Dubai World, would ask creditors for a “standstill” on paying back its $60 billion debt until at least May. The company’s real estate arm, Nakheel – whose projects include the palm-shaped island in the Gulf – shoulders the bulk of money due to banks, investment houses and outside development contractors.

Clip Source: www.copytaste.com

via

Clip Source: blogs.denverpost.com

In total, the state-backed networks nicknamed Dubai Inc. are $80 billion in the red and the emirate needed a bailout earlier this year from its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Tags: dubai

What Do Health-Care Reform, the 40-Hour Work Week, Unemployment Insurance, the Minimum Wage, Have in Common?

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:03:32 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "In each case, the vast majority of political conservatives opposed them. They told us that businesses would be ruined, that the problems ... would be worse than if we left things as they were, that implementing them would make us non-competitive, ... that the good life as we know it would be gone if we were so foolish as to pass these pieces of legislation"

Clip Source: blog.sojo.net

What Do Health-Care Reform, the 40-Hour Work Week, Unemployment Insurance, the Minimum Wage, etc., Have in Common?

they were all brought to you be political progressives, they were all opposed by political conservatives, and they all are now viewed as fundamental presuppositions of a healthy society by virtually everyone. Okay, all but health-care reform

the list actually includes many, many more

—child labor laws, basic workplace safety rules, social security, Medicare, and so on

In each case, the vast majority of political conservatives opposed them. They told us that businesses would be ruined, that the problems resulting from implementing the initiatives would be worse than if we left things as they were, that implementing them would make us non-competitive, or, more generally, that the good life as we know it would be gone if we were so foolish as to pass these pieces of legislation

Tags: conservatism, healthcare

Israel Proposes Work Camps for Illegal Migrants

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:11:38 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Arbeit macht frei!! Tss.

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

Israel proposes work camps for illegal migrants

The government is considering establishing work camps in the south of the country, where illegal migrant workers will receive shelter, food and medical care, Army Radio reported Wednesday. In exchange, illegal migrants would perform manual labor outside the camps, but would not earn a salary.

They would stay at the camp until their asylum claims are decided, which could take months or years.

Their salaries would go to the state, in order to fund the camps.

"I fear how far we have fallen," said MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) in reaction to the work camp proposal

Amnesty International also criticized the proposal

The group's Israel director, Itay Epstein, said: "The crazy idea of housing refugees in work camps in the south by force is contrary to international law and to every international treaty to which Israel is a party."

They certainly should not be employed by force, as we profit from the distress of survivors of genocide and persecution."

6 feet away from a rat "Wigan Ukulele Club"

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:23:20 GMT

clipped by: wiganfootie

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Thoughts on Death

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:59:45 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Walt Whitman described it in Song of Myself:

All goes onward and outward,
nothing collapses,
And to die is different
from what anyone supposed, and luckier.

Clip Source: quantumpranx.wordpress.com

Death

is as natural as birth, just as the falling of leaves in autumn is as natural as their unfolding in spring. Every form of life perishes and yields place to the new.

A great deal of information and guidance, both ancient and modern, is available for us to learn about coping with death

all of us are going to die, so we should make preparations for that

The best preparation for a good death is a life well lived. So the sooner we start preparing to die well, the better we will live in the meanwhile.

Learn to adapt, to “go with the flow.”

Expect differences.

Take daily stock of yourself.

This evaluation is not a judgment of what was good and bad, but a simple awareness of one’s actions and responses.

Establish a frame of mind transcending everyday experiences.

Think about life in a larger context.

Remember that what you are now is the result of your past actions and thoughts

Visualize yourself as you would become.

consciousness can move freely, observe without obstruction

travel where it wishes.

our lives are filled with worthless crap that's destroying the earth:here's what you can do....

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:18:01 GMT

clipped by: doodleicious

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Our Lives Are Filled With Worthless Crap That's Destroying the Earth: Here's What You Can Do

The way to lower the quantity of energy required to make and distribute short-lived consumer goods is to make them durable, repairable and upgradable.

By the time my own children were born, America was flooded with cheap and cheaply made goods. So while my parents continued working at the sturdy antique desks they inherited from my grandparents and sleeping beneath a hand-crocheted bedspread, my children and their friends became the first and last owners of a seemingly endless supply of plastic toys and particle-board furniture.

Functional, or planned obsolescence is the purposeful decision by designers and manufacturers to ensure things don’t last, so that consumers must buy new ones. Fashion obsolescence is the related decision to offer new features and aesthetic changes to entice consumers to discard their old items in favor of updated and supposedly better ones.

Tags: obsolescence

The Scandal of Hunger in America

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:04:30 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Tax dollars are wrongly spent on all level of government. For example, in Los Angeles, the lion share of the city budget is spent on the police department. State wide the amount of money spent on the prison system is astronomical. Instead of hiring more cops and incarcerating more people, it would be a wise and durable investment to invest in good and free public education. Federally, the waste of our tax dollars and resources is just as absurd. President Obama will try to justify his escalation of the war in Afghanistan. By sending more troops to Afghanistan, the astronomical defense budget will keep going up and is likely to reach 700 billion in 2010.

1 billion people suffer from chronic hunger. It is Thanksgiving, and while the executives of Goldman Sachs, which are getting ready to pay themselves 21 billion in bonuses, have too much to be thankful for, the 49 million Americans going hungry every day should be resentful of a system that has let them down.

Clip Source: www.sott.net

Today, about 49 million Americans experience what the US government refers to as "food insecurity with hunger"

One in six people in America suffer from chronic hunger. In a nation that is both, the world's largest economy and its most productive food producer

"food insecurity" is real, and it is on a dramatic rise all across America.

In the wake of the economic crisis, with unemployment numbers increasing and families losing their homes to foreclosure, more and more people are becoming food insecure.

The ruling class of conservative Republicans, corporate Democrats and CEOs are de facto practicing social Darwinism. The super rich in America

give to charities in large amounts. But this substitution of what should be good governance and local, state and federal social safety net for 49 million Americans is not truly helping. It helps the super-rich feel less guilty, but it doesn't change the system or even start scratching the surface of the root problems hiding in plain sight

Irish Catholic Church Covered Up Child Abuse

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:42:55 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: edition.cnn.com

The Archdiocese of Dublin and other Catholic Church authorities in Ireland covered up clerical child abuse until the mid-1990s, according to a government-commissioned report released Thursday.

The Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation's 720-page report said that it has "no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up" from January 1975 to May 2004, the time covered by the report.

"The Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets," the report said.

"The welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages," it said.

Tags: ireland, church, catholic, children, abuse, sex, crime