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The Defense of Poesy
Otherwise known as An Apology for Poetry by Sir Philip Sidney Edited with Introduction and Notes by Alfred S. Cook 1890 The actual Defense of Poesy was only 58 pages, however with an introduction of 40 pages and 74 pages of copious notes, I was curious enough to buy this book and read it. Who was Sir Philip Sidney and why had I never heard of him? Sidney (1554-1586) was an Englishman who died young at the age of thirty-one. In that short span of years he traveled throughout Europe, he was appointed as an Ambassador to Germany, was a member of Parliament (twice), knighted by the Queen of England, married, had a daughter who became a Countess, appointed Governor of Flushing (Netherlands), fought, and later died from a wound at the Battle of Zutphen (part of the Eighty Years’ War). He is known to have written Astrophel and Stella, The Lady of May, Arcadia, and the Defense of Poesy. He was an acquaintance of both Edmund Spenser and Sir Francis Drake. This was the Elizabethan Age. What amazed me was the breadth of sources that Sidney uses in this work. He was evidently extremely well read. Not only was he…
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Elements of Philosophy
Comprising Logic and Ontology, or General Metaphysics by Rev. Walter H. Hill, S.J. 1892 After reading Aristotle’s Logic and Metaphysics recently, this book certainly clarified and explained several key concepts. Hill introduces each core topic and then goes on to explain them in a concise, easy to understand terminology. The topics move along very quickly and the concepts are only briefly explained. The author does not try to teach a new course of philosophy, but rather explain where things are as of this date (1892). There are several Latin and Greek phrases interspersed as needed, but nothing that a rudimentary knowledge of these would not be able to overcome. Reading this book gave me the impression I had the professors notebook. In the Preface it states, “The author derived much help from notes taken in private study years ago, but which were prepared with no thought of ever employing them for any other purpose than his own instruction.” Keeping that in mind, the structure makes sense. I am sure I will refer back and reread sections of this book again. The section on syllogisms I found particularly useful. “Logic explains the laws of right reasoning; it is, when considered under…
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Should Blue Laws Return?
Should we return to the days when stores were forced to shut down on Sundays so the employees had a chance to attend church and spend time with their families or go to other meeting of a more social nature? One major investment management firm thinks so. What about holidays? With Thanksgiving coming up and an increasing number of retail outlets opening for the day, we must keep in mind that each of those stores is preventing its employees from attending their family feast. Is this the employees’ wishes? Quite possibly, yes. We’ve been lowering the effective minimum wage over the years after adjusting for inflation. We’ve been eliminating the middle class in the meantime, making it more difficult for a family to support itself on only one income and continuing to push the idea of ‘keeping up with the Jones’. Are we doing the right thing? Do all of the employees working on Thanksgiving Day want to be there? Or, would they rather be home watching Dallas and Detroit play their rivals on the television? Or cooking in the kitchen, talking and having fun with family they haven’t seen in months? The answer to these questions is also ‘yes’. …
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3D Printing Impacts Us in More Ways Than We Imagined
In an age where we have machinery to plant and harvest the crops, tend to the cattle, repair the infrastructure and in general take care of every need we have; In the age we are approaching where we can tell a computer to 3D print a pizza for us and it will be ready in just a few minutes without having to go to the door to greet the delivery person; In this same age where we can have body parts printed for people who have been injured or abused their body to the point that they need new parts; In this age which is quickly approaching there will no longer be a need for the masses to work. Then, in that age, what shall we do? One will need to work only if they want something to do which cannot be satisfied by the entertainment systems of the day. TV, in the new sense, will be able to stream, on demand, whatever programming the viewer desires. Sports on the professional level could be virtual, to prevent injuries to the athlete, or they could continue to be actual physical events where people play for the thrill and the danger of…
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The Vatican: Its History – Its Treasures
Written in 1914 Being born and raised a Roman Catholic I had to buy this book when I saw it at our local Friends of the Library shop. The book is physically huge 12.5″ x 9.5″ x 2″. It is full of photographs (unfortunately black & white). Since the book was written in 1914 you get a sense of the unique political landscape at the time. The Pope (Pius X) is known as the “Prisoner of the Vatican”. The four Popes before him never set foot outside the Vatican to step on Italian soil. This was a result of political relations between Italy and the Vatican in1870. It is a little hard to imagine when we think of the modern Popes and how they travel so much. The book had four major parts. Part one covered the history and a general description of the Vatican palaces and gardens. Part two covered the state apartments and chapels. Part three the Vatican museums, collections, and mosaic factory. Part four was the administration. At times I felt like I was reading a brochure for a museum. Which by the way, the Vatican IS an excellent museum. So why did the Popes think it…
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A Writers block cure for NaNoWriMo
When writing, sometimes it is best to get away from the writing to see and experience other things. This is especially true if you are having a writer’s block. By seeing other things, you might get a new perspective on the object which has consumed most of your focus. This new perspective may be the breakthrough to help you overcome your writer’s block. Sometimes watching/reading the news will give you an idea, or sometimes you need to get out and talk to people. Perhaps go to a nearby bar to find the local color as Faulkner and Hemingway did. Or, possibly, you should do the opposite; go somewhere completely alone and commune with nature as Thoreau did at Walden. The snap peas get lonely too. (Thoreau is rumored to have talked to his vegetables.) Whatever method you use, the point is to set aside what you are working on completely. Don’t think about it at all. Give your brain a break. Just like any part of the body, the brain gets tired. Eventually, you must come back to the writing that you want to get done. At this point you put on your favorite thinking music, cozy up to your…
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Courage is facing your fears
When most people think of someone who is courageous, they think of firefighters, soldiers, and other people facing extreme danger. But courage also applies to the agoraphobe who manages to go out into public or the person afraid of spiders who must enter a shed “full” of spiders to get the lawnmower out. Fear can be a rational or irrational. Many people think that something that they themselves are not afraid of should not be scary to anyone. Nearly everyone goes out in public almost every day. Whether it’s to get groceries or go to work. They think nothing of it. But what about the woman down the street who was ‘mugged’ while at the city park. Then after recovering from her injuries, was ‘assaulted’ on her way to work. A second stroke of bad luck hits her before she had fully recovered from the first. Admittedly this is an extreme case, not something that commonly occurs, but a true event. Could you blame her for being afraid of people in general, or men who looked like her attackers in specific? And if she’s afraid of people, how could she bring herself to go to a grocery store or work.…
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Studies in Japanese Buddhism
By August Karl Reischauer 1917 This book was a good primer to Buddhism. Now before I get too far along, this book is not a catechism of the Buddhist faith, but rather a history of Buddhism and how it relates to Japan as of the early 20th century. Knowing very little personally of Buddhism and Japanese history and culture, this book was very informative. The author starts with a solid background of Buddha and the early religion. One cannot understand Gautama (Buddha) without having some idea of the times in which he lived. The path of Buddhism travels across the Asian continent where it is modified and changed by various other beliefs. Eventually around a thousand years later it reaches Japan as Mahayana Buddhism. There it is confronted with Shinto and adapts to rule as the state religion over a thousand years. This takes us to more modern time being the 19th century where Japan has its own Reformation and as of the writing of this book, Buddhism was in a decline and was trying to identify and adapt to a modern materialistic world. I want to finish with a few of what the author called “Buddhist Gold Nuggets”.…
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ADD and ADHD Children Benefit From Learning to Read Early
Many children with ADD/ADHD have language development skills that are weak. They also find it more difficult to communicate effectively to others what they want and become more easily frustrated because of that. When frustration sets in, they start daydreaming or acting out. It is difficult to recognize AD(H)D in infants. The reason for its development at all is uncertain. There are many factors suspected in playing a role in the disorder. Until we rule out the erroneous reasons, we cannot know how to prevent it. The best we can do at this point is ameliorate it. One of the ways of doing so is by increasing the child’s ability to communicate. Language learning is best done when a child is younger than 4 years of age. After 4 years of age, the myelin (material that insulates neurons) has finished much of its growth, making it more difficult to learn languages. The longer it takes to get a child started into reading, the harder it is for the child to learn to read. This is a major point of early learning centers (daycare/preschool). Any good daycare will not just allow the children to play with toys, but will have helpers…
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Abraham Lincoln: Helping a Friend, Not Enabling
I just finished reading Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln and I want to comment on one letter that particularly stood out to me. It was a letter that Abe Lincoln wrote to John D. Johnston on January 2, 1851. Abe is responding to a friend in need request. It appears John needs money, again. Now most of us at one time or another has been faced with this moral dilemma. What should you do? Abe really wants to help. So he tells his friend what he thinks is the root of his problem. “You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good whole day’s work in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it.” He goes on to tell him to get a job, and that he will match him dollar for dollar what he would earn for the next few months. This will help him get out of debt and build a good habit that will be good for him…