#knowledge of the past is necessary to avoid its repetition

[armsmaster-mando]

https://chng.it/C4tdRtyCjV

Record labels are trying to get rid of the Internet archives and the Waybac Machine, both of which are vital to all kinds of historical websites and incredible for historical research! Please help us stop this!

[whencyclopedia]

Thucydides: The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians

Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" is a timeless classic that offers not just a historical account of a conflict between two ancient Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta during the 5th century BCE, but also profound insights into humanity, politics, and the nature of war itself. The narrative delves into the causes, campaigns, and consequences of the war with a depth of analysis, making it essential reading for scholars, students, and general readers alike.

Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is a timeless masterpiece of ancient historiography, offering a detailed and profoundly insightful account of one of antiquity's defining conflicts. Written with a precision and analytical depth that transcends its era, Thucydides' narrative delves into the causes, conduct, and consequences of the war between Athens and Sparta with a keen eye for human nature. One of the remarkable aspects of Thucydides' work is his emphasis on the role of human agency in shaping historical events. He famously asserts that the Peloponnesian War was not just a clash of arms but a contest of competing interests, ideologies, and power dynamics. His examination of the motives and actions of key figures such as Pericles, Cleon, and Alcibiades offers valuable lessons in leadership, strategy, and the complexities of political decision-making.

History of the Peloponnesian War is not just a record of past events but a meditation on the cyclical nature of history. Thucydides believed that by studying the past, future generations could gain insight into the patterns of human behaviour and avoid repeating the mistakes of their predecessors. Beyond its immediate historical context, Thucydides' work offers broader lessons about the nature of power and the dynamics of international relations. His famous assertion that "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must" encapsulates a realist understanding of politics that continues to resonate in contemporary discourse on statecraft and diplomacy.

Jeremy Mynott's translation presents Thucydides and the writing in their proper historical context. Mynott's work is particularly sensitive to the risks of anachronism, and the notes and extensive reference material provide students and scholars with all the necessary historical, cultural, and linguistic background they need to engage with the text on its own terms. Mynott's suitability as a translator for Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is evident in his combination of scholarly expertise, linguistic acumen, and deep immersion in ancient Greece's historical and cultural context. As a distinguished classicist and translator, Mynott brings to the project a wealth of knowledge and experience that enriches his interpretation of Thucydides' text.

Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War undergoes a remarkable transformation in Mynott's hands, emerging as a magnum opus of historical and literary scholarship that transcends the boundaries of time and language. Mynott's translation represents a Herculean effort to bridge the gap between ancient Greece and the modern world, breathing new life into Thucydides' ancient text while preserving its essence and integrity. This translation is characterized by its sensitivity to Thucydides' rhetorical strategies employed by Thucydides to persuade and engage his audience. Mynott deftly reproduces Thucydides' rhetorical devices, such as repetition, parallelism, and irony, enhancing the rhetorical force of the text and illuminating its persuasive intent. Mynott's translation thus captures both the literal meaning of Thucydides' words and their rhetorical and stylistic significance, allowing readers to experience the full impact of his narrative artistry.

At the heart of Mynott's translation lies a profound understanding of the ancient Greek source material and the nuances of contemporary English. His mastery of language allows him to capture the subtle nuances and complexities of Thucydides' prose, from the poetic cadence of his narrative to the precision of his analytical insights. Mynott's translation is not merely a mechanical rendering of words but a creative act of interpretation, imbuing Thucydides' text with a vitality and immediacy that speak to readers across centuries.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Mynott's translation is his ability to navigate the linguistic and cultural differences between ancient Greece and our world today. Through careful attention to detail and a deep appreciation for the historical context of the Peloponnesian War, Mynott ensures that Thucydides' message resonates with contemporary readers. His translation captures the ethos of ancient Greece while also making the text accessible to a global audience, thus fulfilling Thucydides' timeless aspiration to speak to all humanity.

In addition to his skillful translation, Mynott enriches the reading experience with a wealth of supplementary material, including extensive notes, annotations, and a comprehensive bibliography. These resources serve as invaluable guides, providing readers with essential context, elucidating obscure references, and offering insights into Thucydides' historical and philosophical perspectives. Mynott's annotations are not mere footnotes but scholarly exegeses that deepen our understanding of the text and illuminate its relevance to contemporary concerns.

Mynott's edition reflects his deep engagement with Thucydides' world and his commitment to presenting the author and his text in their proper historical context. Through meticulous research and rigorous scholarship, Mynott situates Thucydides' work within the broader intellectual and political currents of ancient Greece, shedding light on the motivations and aspirations that shaped the course of history. His translation is thus not just a window into the past but a mirror that reflects our own world and its enduring dilemmas.

Ultimately, Mynott's translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War stands as a towering achievement in the annals of literary and historical scholarship. Through his extraordinary skill as a translator, his profound understanding of the ancient text, and his unwavering commitment to scholarly excellence, Mynott invites readers to embark on a journey through one of the defining conflicts of antiquity, offering them a deeper understanding of the past and its enduring relevance to the present. This edition is not just a book but a testament to the enduring power of literature to transcend time and space, enriching our understanding of the human experience and our place in the grand tapestry of history, making it essential reading for scholars and students of ancient history, politics, and philosophy alike.

Continue reading...

[nursingwriter]

¶ … athletic coach I have garnered a wide variety of skills, as well as an extensive understanding of the standard practices and procedures an individual in the field of exercise science should possess. My past experiences have provided me with substantial knowledge of the principles involved in the prevention and care of athletic injuries. With the following, I hope to illustrate that my experiences and subsequent research have provided me with a broad awareness of typical athletic injuries and treatments as they apply to exercise science. When a member of my dance squad sprained her ankle it became necessary for me to tape it as to provide additional support. I employed the traditional Gibney basket weave procedure. This consists of an interwoven network of stirrup strips "which cover the plantar surface of the hindfoot and extend proximally on both the medial and lateral aspects of the leg, and horseshoe strips, which are applied perpendicular to the stirrup strips on the hindfoot." (Journal of Athletic Training 2002). Although I recognized that this could not be a permanent solution, it did provide her with a slight amount of external support for her ankle. I advised her avoid testing its limits so it could heal more readily. This proved to be sound advice because she was back to regular activity within the span of two weeks. During my time as a coach for distance runners I came to realize that a large percentage of running-related injuries could be prevented with the universal use of arch supports. Through my research I found that shin splints, tibial stress syndrome, tibial stress fractures, Achilles tendonitis, heel pains, and arch pains can all not only be treated by using arch supports but can also be prevented with arch supports (Levy 183). Accordingly, I made some form of supports mandatory for my distance squad as a preventative measure. The move paid-off, because none of my athletes suffered from any major arch related injuries that season. In my years as a cheerleading coach I have found that cheerleaders experience injuries similar to those suffered by gymnasts. Additionally, they experience high levels of groin pulls as a result of performing splits, as well as shin splints from extended activity on hard floors. Of course, the greatest risk in associated with pyramids and other types of lifts. These sorts of stunts must be planned with the utmost attention to safety. Awareness of possible injuries like whiplash dislocation of cervical vertebra, although rare, is necessary. From my time as a swim team coach I have always felt that it is best to remain aware of the most dangerous injuries that sometimes occur. Diving accidents are infrequent, but one mistake can be extremely costly. Among the more common ailments are swimmers ear, irritated eyes, swimmers shoulder, collarbone pain, and swimmers knee. Fortunately, I was never required to treat any injury more serious than irritated eyes -- which can easily be treated with better goggles. Distance runners, however, can experience a myriad of injuries from repetitive activity. Many of them can be treated with better arch supports, or better shoes. Stress fractures and hamstring pulls are not uncommon. I have found that lower back pains and knee problems can also arise. Many of the injuries associated with distance running can best be treated with rest. A parent once asked me exactly what I kept in the bag I brought to competitions, and this forced me to identify the equipment that was most essential to a coach. The following is a list of items that most coaches or trainers should carry regardless of the particular sport as compiled from my own experiences and research (Boyle 103): Suture materials: superglue, needle holder, scissors. Inhaled bronchodilator, for treating asthmatics. Injectable adrenaline, for asthma or insect stings. Blood pressure cuff. Stethoscope. A cake icing, for diabetics suffering from an insulin reaction. Splints. Screwdrivers. Fluorescein dye, to test for corneal abrasions. Saline, for rinsing eyes. Eye patches. Moleskin. An otoscope and ophthalmoscope, for looking into eyes and ears. Alkali solution, for cleaning lost teeth. A cell phone, to call 911 if necessary. Although most minor injuries can be treated by a trainer -- with the aid of these materials -- it is important to recognize when emergency medical assistance is required. Skull, neck, and spinal injuries should warrant an immediate call for assistance from the nearest medical facility, regardless of apparent severity. In the case of an unconscious person CPR should be performed, but a rescue squad should also be called. Even injuries of this nature that appear minor should be treated with utmost caution, before the individual is allowed to return to competition (Boyle 35). Broken bones or dislocations of extremities should also warrant a call to 911 if the pulse is weak or the limb begins to turn cold -- this could be a limb threatening injury. Also, trainers or coaches involved in contact sports should be aware of potential injuries to the spleen. "Always consider the possibility of a splenic when a player complains of lower rib pain, and call 911 if there is any suspicion of this injury." (Boyle 58). Essentially, my research into the necessity of emergency calls has resulted in the theory that an athlete who has sustained a serious injury should be checked for a clear airway, breathing, and circulation. A failure in either one of these warrants a call to 911. I have found that athletic trainers, on the high school level, are responsible for much more than just ensuring the safety of the athletes. In fact, it has often become necessary for me to inform the athlete's parents of my capabilities and reassure them of their child's safety. This is frequently the case because parents are regularly more concerned for their young athlete's physical security than the children themselves. Therefore, I feel that it is essential for athletic trainers to, not only be prepared for any potential mishaps, but also to exude a professional and calm persona. I believe that there are two primary ways by which someone can gain the qualifications necessary to be a capable athletic trainer. The first is the traditional method, and the way I came into the practice: apprenticeship or internship structure, where the primary focus is on attaining practical skills to provide service for athletes. I gained the majority of my skills through direct experience and observation. However, it has been increasingly more common for athletic trainers to begin their learning in an academic setting, with a more rigorous and organized method. I believe that in the future a clinical education model will be the standard by which trainers learn their trade. Currently, both paths are acceptable and both types of athletic trainers can be equally competent. In fact, I feel that the vast majority of topics that are covered in my classes I have already encountered in my own experiences. An athletic trainer is responsible for the prevention and care of athlete's injuries, as well as introducing programs that may produce the greatest gains in performance. This includes strength training, cardiovascular, flexibility exercises, and equipment recommendations. Although the specifics of day-to-day responsibilities may vary from place to place, these are the essentials of the position. In addition to the supplies that I carry in my medical bag to each event, I also find it necessary to have full access to a treatment facility during the regular working day. This way, when an athlete sustains an injury during the course of a practice or workout it is possible for me to assess their injury and suggest a treatment. I always keep in this facility many of the larger supplies that I may be unable to transport to ever single sporting event. These supplies include: crutches, leg braces, slings, ankle braces, bandages, as well as pain relievers. Of course, all of the emergency materials that are kept in the medical bag should also be available in any other treatment facility. I have found that one of the most common injuries that can potentially become serious generally occurs when an athlete is poked in the eye. A corneal abrasion can often occur; I always test for this immediately if an athlete complains of eye pain. A member of my distance squad during a practice run had her eye poked by a hanging tree branch. She was in extreme pain and tested positive for a scratched cornea. I thoroughly rinsed her eye with saline and covered it with a protective patch before instructing her to visit a doctor. This turned out to be the correct course of action because the doctor confirmed the abrasion, and no further complications were sustained. From my time as a distance runners' coach I have investigated the mechanics behind the most common types of injuries associated with running. Subsequently, I have learned that "95% of these problems are due to the foot striking the ground improperly." (Levy 199). Generally speaking, three specific types of problems are most common in runners: a pronating foot, a Morton's foot, and a supinating foot. "A pronating foot rolls toward the inside. A supinating foot rolls toward the outside. A Morton's foot is a combination of these two abnormalities." (Levy 199). A pronating foot can result in knee problems from the joint being repeatedly twisted. I have found that most people with a pronating foot can be treated with a simple arch support, but naturally, this is not the right answer for everyone. I have learned that, "For 10% of runners, an arch support provides too little lift, and for another 10% an arch provides too much lift. These 20% of runners need a custom-made shoe insert, or orthotic device." (Levy 200). This is why -- for my distance team -- although I require every member to use an arch support, if they cannot become accustomed to it, I allow them to return to what they are most accustomed to. Obviously, the most common ailment I have encountered in my years as a coach is muscle soreness. "This soreness, or more specifically 'delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS),' usually peaks between 24 and 36 hours after the exercise bout." (Brown 3). It is predominately the lengthening portion of the muscular activity that causes tiny tears in the muscle fibers, and thus soreness. An additional cause can be prompted by the body's natural response to send lactic acid to overworked muscles. I have always found that there are three general ways to reduce muscle soreness. First, stretching and warming-up of the muscles is essential. Obviously, this prevents more injuries than just muscle soreness and should be done by everyone before and after exercise. Second, since soreness usually occurs when an athlete performs an activity that is in some way new to their muscles, they should repeat this activity until their muscles can "adapt." (Brown 3). Third, following a rigorous workout I always insist that my athletes complete a gentle "cool down" run. This can help to flush out some of the first lactic acid on the scene that the body initially sends to the muscles. I have always found that athletes, particularly good athletes, seem to feel that they know what is best for their own bodies. I have told athletes suffering from asthma that the most effective way to overcome the problem is to stay active, and they look back at me like I have lost my mind. I repeatedly hear the phrase following certain tidbits of advice, "Ya, but my body is weird." Although this statement may be true in some respects there are many general scientific notions that all athletes can benefit from. A read a book where basketball great Charlie Ward admitted that for the first portion of his career he was convinced the best way to gain muscle was to eat as much fat as possible (Schlosberg xxvii). Eventually, athletic trainers set him straight. It has become one of my goals to convince my athletes, with a scientific basis, the value of my advice and the things it can help them to achieve. Flexibility is the best way to prevent most injuries associated with sports. It seems, however, that most athletes do not recognize the importance of stretching before and after a workout. When people who can hardly reach their hands over their head, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, are idolized in our society this fact is not surprising. Early on as a coach I found it difficult to convince a number of my athletes to stretch extensively, especially after a workout. This became much easier when I began requiring members of the cheer squad to stretch as a team before and after all practices, and always under my supervision. A preventative measure I have taken with my distance runners is to encourage them to run on the grass on training runs, rather than on the sidewalk or the street. This has the effect of lessening the repeated impact on the lower body. Yet, it is simply not possible for runners to run on grass or dirt all of the time. Fortunately, "Today's shoes are designed to run on asphalt. The idea of the cushioned sole is to make the asphalt as easy on the body as grass. You can even run on concrete in these shoes, but asphalt is much better." (Garrick 257). However, on the high school level it is difficult to supply runners with proper running shoes. So I find that I can only encourage athletes and parents to buy the proper equipment. Psychogenic, or emotional, factors in sports can be extremely important. Emotions not only influence an individual's performance, but can also cause some physical disorders. By referencing the Journal of Athletic Training I found that psychogenic factor can play significant roles in disorders as serious as seizures. More pertinent, however, is the influence psychological factors can have on an athlete's understanding of an injury. Some athletes seem to constantly believe that they have sustained some type of injury; others will refuse to admit to themselves or the trainer when they are hurt. One member of the poms squad I coached had me look at one limb or another almost every day. Naturally, I could never find anything seriously wrong but my advice was always the same: I had her sit out of the practice and work on her injury. It is always better to be wrong and be safe, than to insist that an individual partake in an activity that could potentially harm them. On the other end of the spectrum, one of my best runners on the distance squad suffered from severe blisters covering the entire bottoms of both feet. She never revealed the injury to me because she knew what my reaction would be. Although from a competitive standpoint she was invaluable to the team, competition cannot be a coach's primary concern. When I happened to see her feet after a race I promptly sterilized them, punctured the blisters with a sterile needle, and advised her to cover them with a piece of moleskin. I also had her sit-out of practice for the next three days, despite her vocal opposition, to allow the blisters to heal. When she returned to action her feet no longer bothered her. A understand that protective equipment is essential in many sports. As a poms coach is was necessary to practice all lifts and potentially dangerous moves on safety mats. Because of proper spotting procedures the mats were merely the last stop in the effort to prevent injury. Clearly, contact sports require much more protective equipment than running, poms, or dance. Helmets, mouth guards, cups, shin guards, kneepads, and similar equipment should all be employed and inspected before any competition. For a practitioner in the field of exercise science there are an abundance of resources available. Thousands of books on exercise and exercise science have been published, but it can sometimes be difficult to discern what types of sources can be trusted. Therefore, I feel that it is essential to refer to sources that have been peer reviewed and are generally accepted by practicing trainers or doctors. I have made frequent use of the Journal of Athletic Training, because of both its good reputation and the broad range of topics that can be found in it. Additionally, the journal can be located online and searched for a wide variety of topics. I commonly use this as a supplemental resource for crosschecking any information I find in other books, magazines, or others in the field of exercise science. Exercise science and sports training is an exponentially growing field. Just fifty years ago the best advice most athletes received was from informational movies, encouraging hygiene and stretching. Today, sports trainers are at every school in America, and every major sports team is backed by an equally formidable team of trainers. In the past fifteen years there has been a dramatic transition from apprenticeship type learning to a formal schooling approach to the field. There is an ever increasing demand for qualified trainers who come armed with the latest and most effective techniques to improving athletes' performance. Professional sports teams invest substantial amounts of money in finding the best athletic trainers. As coaches and athletes in more and more sports look to exercise science to improve results, more and more employment opportunities arise. Since demand has risen, and such a large amount of capital has been invested in athletic trainers, the necessary commitment and schooling has also increased. At my start as an athletic coach I earned no money -- I did it out of pure enjoyment. Not only did I coach these youngsters, but I informed myself of the best ways to keep them safe and get the most out of them. However, in the field of exercise science I quickly found that theories and methods change so frequently that it is almost a full-time job to keep pace. Accordingly, I doubled my efforts to ensure that I did keep pace. I feel that this level of commitment is essential; but also, a love of the job is necessary. I believe that strength training is important for proper physical fitness. I have learned through my research that a solid guideline for most people is to combine aerobic exercise with anaerobic exercise. Most people begin lifting weights to build muscle mass or tone, and generally speaking these are positive effects. However, I feel that the most important use of weight training for an athlete is as a preventative measure to injury. Weight training can strengthen the muscles around joints and ligaments; helping to prevent sprains and strains. I have also learned that, "Weight training can zero in on any particular muscle group and help build strength." (Garrick 267). Not surprisingly, there are right and wrong ways to strength train. Stretching and flexibility are often overlooked by people who weightlift often. It is also important to utilize a full range of motion with controlled and deliberate movements. Additionally, it is good to have a spotter and to take frequent breaks. Cardiovascular training is equally, if not more important to strength training. For all athletes conditioning can improve performance. Running is perhaps the best activity to increase endurance, but it is not always an option for all people. It can be trying on the bones and joints. Therefore, it is important for people to choose the form of cardiovascular training that suits them or their sport best. As aforementioned, it is often good for athletes to alternate strength and endurance training. It is important with both types of activity to provide the body with ample time to rest and recover. Alternating from day-to-day running and lifting is usually a good idea. But within that general framework it is also important to alternate what kind of lifts and what kind of runs are performed. For example, it would be a huge mistake if I were to ask my distance team to run the same distance every day. Read the full article

[nitor-infotech]

Exploring Black Box Testing: Techniques, Pros, and Cons  

If you’ve ever wondered how software applications get tested without delving into their code, you’re thinking of black box testing. In software engineering, this type of testing evaluates the functionality of an application without examining its internal workings 

But how do testers approach Black box testing in practice? Let’s look at some proven techniques. 

How to use black box testing? 

Boundary value analysis: It focuses on edge cases, such as maximum and minimum input values. 

Equivalence partitioning: It divides input data into invalid and valid sets for efficient testing. 

State transition testing: This tests how software behaves when it is transitioning between states. 

Decision table testing: It maps inputs and expected outputs in complex scenarios. 

Error guessing: It is based on the tester’s past knowledge and intuition to discover bugs in the system. 

What are the types of testing under black box testing 

But where do we use these black box testing techniques? Here’s a look at their types and practical uses in testing. 

Functional testing: This checks what the application does. Think of it as testing buttons on a laptop work or if the login screen is doing what it is supposed to. For example, whether you can log in with the right username and password, whether the ‘reset password’ field works or what happens if you forget your password. Retesting an application is done to ensure that if something that was broken, it is now fixed.  

Non-functional testing: This checks how the application performs. It’s like testing how strong or fast something is. Here are some smaller types of non-functional testing: 

Performance testing: This tests how well the application works. Can it handle a lot of users at the same time? 

Accessibility testing: Is it easy for people with disabilities to use it (like hearing or vision impairments)? 

Usability testing: Is the app easy to use and can it be used without instructions? 

Security testing: Is your personal data safe with the app? Can someone hack into your system? 

Regression testing: This makes sure that new changes in the application don’t interfere with the old stuff.    

Knowing the types of black box testing demonstrates its breadth, but what about the benefits of black box testing? 

What are the benefits of black box testing? 

Black box testing brings several advantages to software testing. 

It simplifies the process by focusing more on the output rather than the code. 

It enhances the overall software development quality by focusing on end-user scenarios. 

Automation testing can help speed up repetitive tasks, improving efficiency and identifying the cost of fixing bugs later. 

No process is perfect, and black box testing is no exception. Here are some hurdles to consider. 

What are the problems with black box testing 

Limited scope: Testers can lose edge cases without access to the code and understanding of the business domain. 

Test case dependency: There is a dependency on well-defined test cases since continuous evaluations of the test cases are necessary to make sure that there is comprehensive coverage. 

The pesticide paradox: Running the same tests repeatedly can lead the software to adapt to the defects. To avoid this, testers need to regularly diversify and update their test cases including new techniques and scenarios. 

Thankfully, automation tools help testers to cover the execution of the repetitive scenarios and focus on identifying Edge Cases, exploratory testing  

Automation and black box testing 

Incorporating automation tools into black box testing can significantly improve efficiency. Automated testing scripts are invaluable for performance testing or running regression suites.  

Black box testing is an integral part of software development services, offering an end user-centric perspective to ensure performance and functionality. By using robust testing techniques and automation testing, software developers can create software that’s scalable, reliable and ready for modern users. Visit Nitor Infotech to learn more about our software development services.

[postsify]

Why Every Injured Worker Needs a Workers' Compensation Attorney in NJ

When injuries occur on the job, the subsequent steps and decisions can significantly impact one's health and financial future. NJ workers comp lawyer is enacted to protect workers, but navigating its intricacies often requires more than just a cursory understanding. This is where knowledgeable NJ workers’ comp lawyer steps in – advocating for your rights and securing the benefits you deserve.

Workers' compensation is a state-mandated insurance program that provides benefits to employees who have been injured or become ill due to their job. In the state of New Jersey, most employers are required to provide workers’ compensation coverage for their employees. These benefits include medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for permanent disabilities.

Understanding Workers' Compensation

Workers' compensation in New Jersey is designed to provide medical treatment, wage replacement, and permanent disability compensation to employees who suffer job-related injuries or illnesses. Eligibility criteria for workers’ compensation are straightforward: if you are injured while performing your job, you are generally covered.

The common types of workplace injuries qualifying for workers’ comp range from slips, trips, and falls, to repetitive stress injuries, and even psychological stress. However, understanding what workers’ comp covers is only the beginning. A skilled workers’ compensation attorney in NJ can guide you through the claims process and ensure that you receive all of the benefits to which you are entitled.

The Role of a Workers' Compensation Attorney

Having a workers' compensation attorney in NJ on your side can be invaluable. These legal professionals specialize in the workers’ comp legal landscape and can help you to:

Understand and meet all critical deadlines and documentation requirements.

Gather the necessary medical evidence to support your claim.

Represent you at workers’ compensation hearings.

Negotiate with insurance companies to ensure fair settlement terms.

Maximize the compensation for your injury or illness.

An attorney’s assistance is particularly important when insurance companies seek to minimize payouts or when medical benefits are unjustly denied.

When to Hire a Workers’ Compensation Attorney

Here are some indications that you need to consult an NJ workers comp lawyer:

You are unsure of how to proceed with a workers’ comp claim.

Your claim has been denied or you have received inadequate benefits.

Your employer disputes that the injury occurred on the job.

There are complexities in your case (e.g., pre-existing conditions).

You have a permanent disability or are unable to return to work.

By working with an attorney from the early stages of your claim, you can ensure that your rights are protected and your best interests are represented.

Note that there are strict time limits, known as statutes of limitations, for filing a workers' compensation claim in New Jersey. These make it imperative to seek legal advice early to avoid missing out on entitled benefits.

How to Find the Rising Attorney

In your search for a workers compensation attorney in NJ, consider the following:

Look for a lawyer who specializes in workers’ compensation claims.

Check their reputation, including reviews and past case results.

Schedule consultations to assess their understanding of your case.

Ensure they communicate effectively and keep you informed.

Consider their fee structure and potential for success.

By thoroughly researching your options, you can find a rising attorney who is experienced, skilled, and passionate about fighting for the rights of injured workers. With proper legal representation, you can focus on your recovery while your attorney handles the legal aspects of your claim.

The right attorney will not only be experienced and knowledgeable but also attentive to your individual needs as an injured worker.

Real-Life Examples and Case Studies

The benefits of hiring a workers’ compensation attorney are better understood through real-life examples. Consider how a construction worker suffering a back injury received substantial compensation for medical treatment and wage loss, thanks to the expertise of a NJ workers comp attorney. Contrast this with cases where workers go unrepresented and settle for far less than their claim's worth – sometimes failing to cover basic medical costs. These scenarios illustrate the critical role a workers' compensation attorney plays in securing just compensation.

While New Jersey's workers' compensation system aims to protect employees, navigating its complexities can be challenging for the average worker. A qualified and experienced NJ workers’ comp attorney can provide invaluable support by ensuring you meet all requirements and receive fair benefits for your injury or illness.

For injured workers in New Jersey, obtaining a fair workers' compensation settlement is often essential for recovery and financial stability. An experienced workers compensation attorney in NJ will fight to protect your rights and ensure that you receive the comprehensive benefits you are entitled to.

[englishbhashi]

English Grammar Masterclass: Unlocking Fluency

Fluency in any language is a cherished skill that opens doors to effective communication, both personally and professionally. When it comes to English, being proficient in its grammar is the key to unlocking fluency and expressing oneself with clarity and precision. Whether you are a native English speaker looking to refine your language skills or a non-native learner seeking to improve, this English Grammar Masterclass will equip you with the necessary tools to achieve linguistic excellence.

Expand Your Knowledge with EnglishBhashi!

1. The Foundation: Parts of Speech Understanding the basic building blocks of language is essential. Dive into the world of parts of speech — nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Grasping their roles and relationships within sentences lays a strong foundation for constructing meaningful expressions.

2. Sentence Structure: The Art of Syntax Explore the art of constructing sentences with proper syntax. Unravel the various sentence types — simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex — and discover how to use them effectively. Comprehending syntax empowers you to create varied and engaging sentences, adding depth and nuance to your communication.

3. Tenses: Unraveling Time Tenses play a crucial role in English grammar as they indicate the time of an action. Master the twelve tenses, including present, past, and future, both simple and continuous forms. With a firm grasp on tenses, you can effortlessly narrate events, express desires, and speculate about the future.

4. Navigating Articles and Determiners Delve into the world of articles and determiners, and learn when and how to use “a,” “an,” and “the.” Gain insight into possessive forms and quantifiers, enabling you to be more specific and accurate in your descriptions.

5. Modifiers: Adding Precision Modifiers, such as adjectives and adverbs, lend precision and vividness to language. Learn how to use them judiciously to describe nouns and verbs, intensify meanings, and express degrees of comparison.

6. Mastering Pronouns Pronouns simplify communication by replacing nouns. Discover the different types of pronouns, including personal, possessive, demonstrative, relative, and reflexive pronouns. Understanding pronoun usage fosters smoother and less repetitive dialogue.

7. The Art of Punctuation Punctuation is the roadmap of expression. Learn the rules governing commas, periods, semicolons, colons, exclamation marks, and question marks. Mastering punctuation ensures that your writing and speech are coherent and convey the intended message effectively.

8. Active vs. Passive Voice Distinguish between active and passive voice, and recognize when each is appropriate. Active voice imparts directness and clarity, while passive voice is useful for emphasizing the receiver of an action. Strike the right balance to maintain coherence and style.

9. Conditional Sentences: Unleashing Possibilities Conditional sentences allow you to express possibilities, hypotheticals, and consequences. Delve into the four types of conditional sentences and their nuances to convey subtle meanings in conversations and writing.

10. Reported Speech: Relaying Messages Learn how to transform direct speech into reported speech. This skill is invaluable when conveying conversations or narrating stories in a more structured and coherent manner.

11. Idiomatic Expressions: Embracing Colloquialism Familiarize yourself with idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs, which add flavor and authenticity to language. They are prevalent in everyday conversations and understanding them elevates your language prowess.

12. Common Grammar Pitfalls Confront common grammar pitfalls, such as the misuse of homophones, subject-verb agreement errors, and dangling modifiers. Avoiding these mistakes enhances the credibility of your language and prevents misunderstandings.

Conclusion Mastering English grammar is a journey worth embarking upon, as it empowers you to articulate your thoughts with eloquence and confidence. This Grammar Masterclass has provided you with a comprehensive toolkit to unlock fluency in English. Remember that practice is the key to mastery, so apply these principles consistently and embrace the beauty of this rich and versatile language. With determination and dedication, you will conquer the realm of English grammar and become a proficient and persuasive communicator.

Share this post with your friends and family who are eager to enhance their English skills. Let’s inspire and empower each other on this incredible language-learning path. Together, we can achieve greatness! So, what are you waiting for? Visit EnglishBhashi today and embark on an exciting adventure of language learning.

[thefloatingstone]

hello cpuff, how are you?

i have an adhd related question and need your advise

i would like to try a medical treatment for my adhd again but im very traumatised by my first time. it was apparently a small dosage and the side effects were horrible (i do believe my therapist was only for children too)

how did you find out what treatment was right? do you need a treatment to get by in everyday life?

im going to university soon and i dont want to fuck it up.. :')

thanks in advance!

Hey Toast!

I'm in a unique position in that despite being born in the late 80s and growing up in the early 90s, my dad is a doctor and my mom was heavily involved in his medical practice. So I was very lucky to be diagnosed with "Type 2 ADD" from the age of 4 or 5. My mom did have me on Ritalin as a small child but I wasn't on the medication long although she can't remember why she discontinued it. But something wasn't working for me.

As an adult, my ADHD is a type that is high functioning for most things, thankfully. I still have big struggles, and as a result I developed the fun little splinter skill called "Anxiety disorder" to counteract the forgetfulness, procrastination, avoidance and general executive dysfunction. It works for a lot of things... but it's still an anxiety disorder which has its OWN symptoms and detriments.

As a result, I'm not on any ADHD specific medication. Although most of them are illegal here anyway due to them being an amphetamine. The medication I am on is for the anxiety disorder which became necessary after some extremely traumatic events in 2018 when I hit my limit.

When I was in matric, I self medicated with vasts amount of diet coke (it was the caffeine which helped focus). I still have an extremely difficult time with studying if it's a subject I don't find interesting as my brain will heavily resist the study period itself and will "dump" any information I learn during studying because it doesn't produce dopamine and so the brain function considers it "useless information." (this isn't me trying to be cute. This is a gross simplification of what actually happens cognitively).

At the moment I am trying to study for the ILETS exam and I admit it's very difficult and I am avoiding it a lot.

I am using a star sticker reward system which has worked for me in the past. (it doesn't seem as effective these days but it used to work very well). And I try and limit how much I study to extremely short sessions more frequently than doing long study periods. I also do a lot more cramming the day before as a result of how my brain treats "undesired information".

The flip side is I remember random trivia and knowledge in subjects I enjoy for literally decades...

Anyway I'm rambling.

I don't know if it would be beneficial to you and your ADHD make-up, but I find that behavioural therapy, reward systems and structure work better for me in lieu of medication. (outside of the anxiety meds to manage anxiety symptoms. The medication does not take away the functional anxiety that counter-acts the ADHD luckily). The only downside here is that BECAUSE of my ADHD I struggle to do a lot of the therapy practice specifically designed to help manage my symptoms. (but I am not in a place where I can find ADHD specific therapy to help me with how my brain functions). But I DO find repetitive practice, structure, and breaking things down into the tiniest most basic tasks does help a TINY bit.

That, and doing more than one thing at once. THAT one is a winner for me. Cooking supper? Put on a video to listen to as I do so. Driving? podcast time. Working? youtube tutorial time. reading? music time. (just no lyrics). Jogging? More podcasts/audiobooks.

As well as different methods of processing information. If you can, try to find places that present the material you want to learn in a unique manner. I'm currently 1/4 through the first Dune novel because a DJ made a 23 hour video putting the audiobook to his own lo-fi mixes and trippy visuals. Which resulted in me very quickly memorising a LOT of names and world building which I'm normally terrible at. I tend to internalise information best through video than reading. But when I do read a physical book, audio input is a big must as my brain gets bored otherwise and I lose focus.

My friends with ADHD have great success with journalling in bullet point although it doesn't work for me. (I start, it works great, then I stop doing it and forget it was a working method.) They found breaking things down into bullet points helps them bring order to their thoughts. Same with calendars.

Use multi coloured pens. This is a BIG help. Just writing every paragraph in a new colour helps so much for re-reading notes and stops you skimming a huge text wall.

Speak to your lecturer and make them aware that you will doodle in class while they lecture, and that you are doing so because it stops you from getting visually distracted while they lecture and helps you process audio better. Maybe they won't care but it's best just to let them know "I'm not ignoring you so don't call me out."

I hope some of this can be helpful in SOME way... I still struggle a lot so I don't have a lot of answers because I mostly feel like I don't function well at all. And what I do function with I only function with out of dumb luck.

I know I have adult mutuals who also have ADHD so maybe some of them can help chime in with more tips. (I won't tag them because I don't want to call them out without permission)

[zeeshanabro]

AI and HR – WebHR’s Leap into the future  by: Anna Naveed

The world as we know it, has been consumed by the onslaught of inflation and disease and with it are gone archaic ways of business and work ethics. Our destiny has been shaped by the dire need of connectivity and virtual presence on a global scale. The obligations to be physically present and conduct various business operations has been obliterated and has been replaced with zoom calls, virtual board-room meetings, virtual conferences, meet ups and remote working situations. The need for all of it, to be efficient and fast has never been felt more than now. Even with the pandemic reducing force, the workplace has become more hybrid and hence the need for automation of a multitude of tasks is required more than ever. We need better ways of recruiting, connecting teams and evaluating wellness via surveys that predict the outcomes of employee retention. All these and more can be done by the help of predictive analysis using Artificial intelligence tools.

At WebHR, we have been stressing on the use of such technologies, years ago and have been constantly working towards the achievement of these goals. We at WebHR have identified the heightened need for faster, virtual recruitment, along with training, evaluations, surveys, onboarding, vaccine checks, health checks, wellbeing, social connectivity, rewards, facebook like structure of a tribe formation, and software that builds up a global family of companies. We have taught our systems to help the top tier decision makers to view the performances within seconds by generating complex reports, with just a click of a button. Our systems can predict the trends that might change the course of very important actions, necessary to avoid overspending or under-spending and save time, in making those decisions. Many companies seem to have been trying their hands at this approach, to get it right, while they may be in their infancy, WebHR has tried and tested these mechanisms with years of research to account for. We know for sure, that we have only scratched the surface of the wide horizons of possibilities of HR automation and are headed towards the right direction.

While AI seems to be the indispensable reality and there is no turning away from it in the future, we know human resources is one field which is incomplete without human touch, our tools are designed to make the HR managers at any organization way advanced than ever before, their work has been made easy by automating daily HR tasks so much so, that they have time on their hands to deal with human emotions and needs at workplaces. AI has enabled us to have chatbots do most of the repetitive work that requires unnecessary involvement of teams that could do more in the same time frame. Our super fast communication tools have made sure the privacy of logging into external systems for deals that need secrecy are done in a safe and secure environment, by staying at the same platform. In the past, companies had the ordeal of switching and juggling between multiple layers of systems to get simple tasks done, and then going further to make them all linked to produce data that can be handled at the same platform. WebHR has eliminated the need to have 100s of applications to solve major tasks at any company. Companies as small as five employees and as large as thousands of employees have the same level of sophisticated multi-task solving automation provided by the software, this has caused the clients to adhere to the software for all the major and minor HR needs. From the feedback that comes directly from the users, we have realized that we have solved a very complex system of handling all aspects of the organization’s very basic need – managing their most important asset “their employees” very efficiently. The always available presence of chatbots, has ensured that companies could now engage their teams at work into more productive tasks than before. Hiring, retaining and managing the best talent is now done swiftly with these tools,  With the customized knowledge that we possess, professional user presumptions are high. The end users want data input to be processed in seconds, rather than days, to quickly access HR resources, get notified of their availability and match with certain positions based on their area and localities.

With the raging agonies of the pandemic, it will become impossible to move towards modernization and a better company culture without the adoption of such tools, since we know that the market is ripe for change, as predicted by our team at WebHR, for years now.

We can’t stress enough about the importance of automation but, that being said, communication is the key. The leaders at every organization must make an informed decision and educate the teams at work by approaching these methodologies that can pave the path for future success. We need to address the looming dread, felt by many, that AI will eventually replace them for good and provide comfort in the promise that these tools are here to make their jobs easier and not to steal them in any way.

More comprehensible techniques can help the teams slip into varied environments, if applied at the right time and with the right people. A detailed road map towards the tasks to be automated should be provided to the task forces and enough time should be given for them to get comfortable with the learning curve, making sure that the employees are constantly aware of the fact that their input and creative desires are always respected, when it comes to solutions that need a special human touch. Every human alive somehow functions higher than their capacity by going above and beyond when they see recognition and appreciation for their efforts and hence, comply with these decisions when put forward in a gentle and intelligent manner.

Constructing A Mechanism of Understanding and Acceptance towards AI

To emphasize the dire need , there has to be a display of its potential in every aspect of the operations at any business by a practical addition of AI all throughout. AI is a robust way of supplementing and boosting all HR operations like hunting and recruiting suitable talent, hiring, evaluating their performance and comparing it to threshold criterion of successful parameters, pre-selected through algorithms that gauge and provide accurate results of how to improve them.

The top tier management can assist and augment by jacking their revenue at businesses, through incorporation of right methodology, developed using deeper insights into growth strategies and data obtained by AI, that are inline with the company’s motto, goals and targets. This can be done by matching the right kind of talent with the jobs in focus, that can only indicate one thing, a wide ranged adaptability and acceptance of these advanced technologies and removing all constraints that stand in the way of incorporating these tools, that bring an ease of work at all levels in the company and mitigate all fears and concerns. We need teams and forward thinking, open minded professionals that do not fear change and positivity that shapes progressive future for AI. A harmonious alliance of human elements, amalgamated with technologies , to equip and re-shape the way future trends predict and to look forward to the growth trajectories that are both beneficial in long term and time saving. In these disruptive times, securing and rationing resources is what we can best do, to provide some relief to the exhaustive talent acquisition and training procedures, we need to learn to become more proactive towards the adoption of these high-tech tools, not just for the sake of efficiency but also to seal the drainage of precious capital that is wasted away, the “cash burn” that eventually leads to the demise of a budding business.

Hope is futile, if it is not backed up with strong actions and emotions. Yes, “emotions” cannot be ignored when it comes to bringing AI to the front table. It will call for immense emotional understanding and intelligence. These qualities will most probably be the only growth markers of a successful future alliance of technology and human behavior, shaping a society that lives harmoniously, making use of the advanced and high-tech AI tools. We are looking towards building a world where human beings will be able to deliver their creativity into designing and implementing breakthrough technologies, best suited for the development of modern, more sophisticated workplaces.

[thevividgreenmoss]

A Nietzschean sense of the ‘modern’ also informs the work of the most influential of American deconstructionists, Paul de Man, though with an added twist of irony. For ‘active forgetting’, de Man argues, can never be entirely successful: the distinctively modernist act, which seeks to erase or arrest history, finds itself surrendered in that very moment to the lineage it seeks to repress, perpetuating rather than abolishing it. Indeed literature for de Man is nothing less than this constantly doomed, ironically self-undoing attempt to make it new, this ceaseless incapacity ever quite to awaken from the nightmare of history: ‘The continuous appeal of modernity, the desire to break out of literature toward the reality of the moment, prevails and, in its turn, folding back upon itself, engenders the repetition and the continuation of literature.’ footnote3 Since action and temporality are indissociable, modernism’s dream of self-origination, its hunger for some historically unmediated encounter with the real, is internally fissured and self-thwarting: to write is to disrupt a tradition which depends on such disruption for its very self-reproduction. We are all, simultaneously and inextricably, modernists and traditionalists, terms which for de Man designate neither cultural movements nor aesthetic ideologies but the very structure of that duplicitous phenomenon, always in and out of time simultaneously, named literature, where this common dilemma figures itself with rhetorical self-consciousness. Literary history here, de Man contends, ‘could in fact be paradigmatic for history in general’; and what this means, translated from deManese, is that though we will never abandon our radical political illusions (the fond fantasy of emancipating ourselves from tradition and confronting the real eyeball-to-eyeball being, as it were, a permanent pathological state of human affairs), such actions will always prove self-defeating, will always be incorporated by a history which has foreseen them and seized upon them as ruses for its own self-perpetuation. The daringly ‘radical’ recourse to Nietzsche, that is to say, turns out to land one in a maturely liberal Democrat position, wryly sceptical but genially tolerant of the radical antics of the young.

What is at stake here, under the guise of a debate about history and modernity, is nothing less than the dialectical relation of theory and practice. For if practice is defined in neo-Nietzschean style as spontaneous error, productive blindness or historical amnesia, then theory can of course be no more than a jaded reflection upon its ultimate impossibility. Literature, that aporetic spot in which truth and error indissolubly entwine, is at once practice and the deconstruction of practice, spontaneous act and theoretical fact, a gesture which in pursuing an unmediated encounter with reality in the same instant interprets that very impulse as metaphysical fiction. Writing is both action and a reflection upon that action, but the two are ontologically disjunct; and literature is the privileged place where practice comes to know and name its eternal difference from theory. It is not surprising, then, that the last sentence of de Man’s essay makes a sudden swerve to the political: ‘If we extend this notion beyond literature, it merely confirms that the bases for historical knowledge are not empirical facts but written texts, even if these texts masquerade in the guise of wars and revolutions.’ A text which starts out with a problem in literary history ends up as an assault on Marxism. For it is of course Marxism above all which has insisted that actions may be theoretically informed and histories emancipatory, notions capable of scuppering de Man’s entire case. It is only by virtue of an initial Nietzschean dogmatism—practice is necessarily self-blinded, tradition necessarily impeding—that de Man is able to arrive at his politically quietistic aporias. footnote4 Given these initial definitions, a certain judicious deconstruction of their binary opposition is politically essential, if the Nietzschean belief in affirmative action is not to license a radical politics; but such deconstruction is not permitted to transform the metaphysical trust that there is indeed a single dominant structure of action (blindness, error), and a single form of tradition (obfuscating rather than enabling an encounter with the ‘real’). The Marxism of Louis Althusser comes close to this Nietzscheanism: practice is an ‘imaginary’ affair which thrives upon the repression of truly theoretical understanding, theory a reflection upon the necessary fictionality of such action. The two, as with Nietzsche and de Man, are ontologically disjunct, necessarily non-synchronous.

[...]

‘Modernism’ as a term at once expresses and mystifies a sense of one’s particular historical conjucture as being somehow peculiarly pregnant with crisis and change. It signifies a portentous, confused yet curiously heightened self-consciousness of one’s own historical moment, at once self-doubting and self-congratulatory, anxious and triumphalistic together. It suggests at one and the same time an arresting and denial of history in the violent shock of the immediate present, from which vantage-point all previous developments may be complacently consigned to the ashcan of ‘tradition’, and a disorienting sense of history moving with peculiar force and urgency within one’s immediate experience, pressingly actual yet tantalizingly opaque. All historical epochs are modern to themselves, but not all live their experience in this ideological mode. If modernism lives its history as peculiarly, insistently present, it also experiences a sense that this present moment is somehow of the future, to which the present is nothing more than an orientation; so that the idea of the Now, of the present as full presence eclipsing the past, is itself intermittently eclipsed by an awareness of the present as deferment, as an empty excited openness to a future which is in one sense already here, in another sense yet to come. The ‘modern’, for most of us, is that which we have always to catch up with: the popular use of the term ‘futuristic’, to denote modernist experiment, is symptomatic of this fact. Modernism—and here Lyotard’s case may be given some qualified credence—is not so much a punctual moment in time as a revaluation of time itself, the sense of an epochal shift in the very meaning and modality of temporality, a qualitative break in our ideological styles of living history. What seems to be moving in such moments is less ‘history’ than that which is unleashed by its rupture and suspension; and the typically modernist images of the vortex and the abyss, ‘vertical’ inruptions into temporality within which forces swirl restlessly in an eclipse of linear time, represent this ambivalent consciousness. So, indeed, does the Benjaminesque spatializing or ‘constellating’ of history, which at once brings it to a shocking standstill and shimmers with all the unquietness of crisis or catastrophe.

High modernism, as Fredric Jameson has argued elsewhere, was born at a stroke with mass commodity culture. footnote5 This is a fact about its internal form, not simply about its external history. Modernism is among other things a strategy whereby the work of art resists commodification, holds out by the skin of its teeth against those social forces which would degrade it to an exchangeable object. To this extent, modernist works are in contradiction with their own material status, self-divided phenomena which deny in their discursive forms their own shabby economic reality. To fend off such reduction to commodity status, the modernist work brackets off the referent or real historical world, thickens its textures and deranges its forms to forestall instant consumability, and draws its own language protectively around it to become a mysteriously autotelic object, free of all contaminating truck with the real. Brooding self-reflexively on its own being, it distances itself through irony from the shame of being no more than a brute, self-identical thing. But the most devastating irony of all is that in doing this the modernist work escapes from one form of commodification only to fall prey to another. If it avoids the humiliation of becoming an abstract, serialized, instantly exchangeable thing, it does so only by virtue of reproducing that other side of the commodity which is its fetishism. The autonomous, self-regarding, impenetrable modernist artefact, in all its isolated splendour, is the commodity as fetish resisting the commodity as exchange, its solution to reification part of that very problem.

It is on the rock of such contradictions that the whole modernist project will finally founder. In bracketing off the real social world, establishing a critical, negating distance between itself and the ruling social order, modernism must simultaneously bracket off the political forces which seek to transform that order. There is indeed a political modernism—what else is Bertolt Brecht?—but it is hardly characteristic of the movement as a whole. Moreover, by removing itself from society into its own impermeable space, the modernist work paradoxically reproduces—indeed intensifies—the very illusion of aesthetic autonomy which marks the bourgeois humanist order it also protests against. Modernist works are after all ‘works’, discrete and bounded entities for all the free play within them, which is just what the bourgeois art institution understands. The revolutionary avant garde, alive to this dilemma, were defeated at the hands of political history. Postmodernism, confronted with this situation, will then take the other way out. If the work of art really is a commodity then it might as well admit it, with all the sang-froid it can muster. Rather than languish in some intolerable conflict between its material reality and its aesthetic structure, it can always collapse that conflict on one side, becoming aesthetically what it is economically. The modernist reification—the art work as isolated fetish—is therefore exchanged for the reification of everyday life in the capitalist marketplace. The commodity as mechanically reproducible exchange ousts the commodity as magical aura. In a sardonic commentary on the avant-garde work, postmodernist culture will dissolve its own boundaries and become coextensive with ordinary commodified life itself, whose ceaseless exchanges and mutations in any case recognize no formal frontiers which are not constantly transgressed. If all artefacts can be appropriated by the ruling order, then better impudently to preempt this fate than suffer it unwillingly; only that which is already a commodity can resist commodification. If the high modernist work has been institutionalized within the superstructure, postmodernist culture will react demotically to such elitism by installing itself within the base. Better, as Brecht remarked, to start from the ‘bad new things’, rather than from the ‘good old ones’.

That, however, is also where postmodernism stops. Brecht’s comment alludes to the Marxist habit of extracting the progressive moment from an otherwise unpalatable or ambivalent reality, a habit well exemplified by the early avant garde’s espousal of a technology able both to emancipate and to enslave. At a later, less euphoric stage of technological capitalism, the postmodernism which celebrates kitsch and camp caricatures the Brechtian slogan by proclaiming not that the bad contains the good, but that the bad is good—or rather that both of these ‘metaphysical’ terms have now been decisively outmoded by a social order which is to be neither affirmed nor denounced but simply accepted. From where, in a fully reified world, would we derive the criteria by which acts of affirmation or denunciation would be possible? Certainly not from history, which postmodernism must at all costs efface, or spatialize to a range of possible styles, if it is to persuade us to forget that we have ever known or could know any alternative to itself. Such forgetting, as with the healthy amnesiac animal of Nietzsche and his contemporary acolytes, is value: value lies not in this or that discrimination within contemporary experience but in the very capacity to stop our ears to the siren calls of history and confront the contemporary for what it is, in all its blank immediacy. Ethical or political discrimination would extinguish the contemporary simply by mediating it, sever its self-identity, put us prior or posterior to it; value is just that which is, the erasure and overcoming of history, and discourses of value, which cannot fail to be historical, are therefore by definition valueless.

[...]

The contradiction of modernism in this respect is that in order valuably to deconstruct the unified subject of bourgeois humanism, it draws upon key negative aspects of the actual experience of such subjects in late bourgeois society, which often enough does not at all correspond to the official ideological version. It thus pits what is increasingly felt to be the phenomenological reality of capitalism against its formal ideologies, and in doing so finds that it can fully embrace neither. The phenomenological reality of the subject throws formal humanist ideology into question, while the persistence of that ideology is precisely what enables the phenomenological reality to be characterized as negative. Modernism thus dramatizes in its very internal structures a crucial contradiction in the ideology of the subject, the force of which we can appreciate if we ask ourselves in what sense the bourgeois humanist conception of the subject as free, active, autonomous and self-identical is a workable or appropriate ideology for late capitalist society. The answer would seem to be that in one sense such an ideology is highly appropriate to such social conditions, and in another sense hardly at all. This ambiguity is overlooked by those post-structuralist theorists who appear to stake all on the assumption that the ‘unified subject’ is indeed an integral part of contemporary bourgeois ideology, and is thus ripe for urgent deconstruction. Against such a view, it is surely arguable that late capitalism has deconstructed such a subject much more efficiently than meditations on écriture. As postmodernist culture attests, the contemporary subject may be less the strenuous monadic agent of an earlier phase of capitalist ideology than a dispersed, decentred network of libidinal attachments, emptied of ethical substance and psychical interiority, the ephemeral function of this or that act of consumption, media experience, sexual relationship, trend or fashion. The ‘unified subject’ looms up in this light as more and more of a shibboleth or straw target, a hangover from an older liberal epoch of capitalism, before technology and consumerism scattered our bodies to the winds as so many bits and pieces of reified technique, appetite, mechanical operation or reflex of desire.

If this were wholly true, of course, postmodernist culture would be triumphantly vindicated: the unthinkable or the utopian, depending upon one’s perspective, would already have happened. But the bourgeois humanist subject is not in fact simply part of a clapped-out history we can all agreeably or reluctantly leave behind: if it is an increasingly inappropriate model at certain levels of subjecthood, it remains a potently relevant one at others. Consider, for example, the condition of being a father and a consumer simultaneously. The former role is governed by ideological imperatives of agency, duty, autonomy, authority, responsibility: the latter, while not wholly free of such strictures, puts them into significant question. The two roles are not of course merely disjunct; but though relations between them are practically negotiable, capitalism’s current ideal consumer is strictly incompatible with its current ideal parent. The subject of late capitalism, in other words, is neither simply the self-regulating synthetic agent posited by classical humanist ideology, nor merely a decentred network of desire, but a contradictory amalgam of the two. The constitution of such a subject at the ethical, juridical and political levels is not wholly continuous with its constitution as a consuming or ‘mass cultural’ unit. ‘Eclecticism’, writes Lyotard, ‘is the degree zero of contemporary general culture: one listens to reggae, watches a western, eats McDonald’s food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and “retro” clothes in Hong Kong; knowledge is a matter of TV games.’ It is not just that there are millions of other human subjects, less exotic than Lyotard’s jet-setters, who educate their children, vote as responsible citizens, withdraw their labour and clock in for work; it is also that many subjects live more and more at the points of contradictory intersection between these two definitions.

Terry Eagleton, Capitalism, Modernism and Postmodernism

[razaks-wheel]

Summary: Bthunkagr and Sotha Sil exchange knowledge from their respective cultures.

Rating: G

Notes: *casually drops a reference to Razak the Obscure Dwemer into a fic*

Response to a prompt from @alxxiiswrites​ in @nirnwrote​. The prompt was "Does that feel better?" for Bthunkagr.

Unbound Magic

Bthunkagr arrived in Mournhold with a full pack. She had promised Sotha Sil that if the opportunity arose, she would acquire the parts to instruct him in "proper" Dwemeri automaton construction techniques. ("Not that your methods are improper, of course," she had clarified. "They're impressive for someone who has no background in Dwemeri construction or knowledge of the language.") Over the past few weeks, she had managed to get all the necessary parts and then some in preparation for her visit today.

Sil proved to be a receptive student, eager to finally learn what he had only been able to approximate for a few centuries. Before long, they had a spider constructed and lying on the table in front of them. Next came the task of activating it.

Bthunkagr rummaged through her pack. "Did I not bring a control rod?" she asked herself aloud. "All these miscellaneous...bits...and not the one thing I needed to make this thing get up and move outside a stronghold."

"You don't need a control rod inside a stronghold?" Sil asked.

"Hm?" Bthunkagr looked up. "Oh, no, there's enough power and Calling networked into the strongholds that they can run without direct oversight."

"I see," Sil said. "I assume none of the miscellaneous bits you brought could be combined into a control rod?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out now. We might have enough..." She kept searching through her bag, pulling out several of the aforementioned bits and laying them on the workbench, while her mind returned to the previous question. "I've heard of a Western engineer who seems to have figured out how to get automata to work outside of strongholds without control rods. Hasn't really, uh...picked up steam?" She looked up again to draw her attention to what she was saying. "No, that's a literal translation. What's the Chimeris version of that? Hasn't really...gained support over here."

She let her focus return to her bag. "Speaking of Razak, or razak, really"—she gave the second repetition a different tone than the first—"we'll need a tonal modulator, which I think I have...yep, there it is."

She set her bag aside and began assembling the control rod, explaining the parts and processes to Sil as she went. The construction went smoothly for a time, but when it was almost done, she came to a realization and halted.

"Ahrk vanch," she swore, setting the device down. "We don't have the right kind of capacitor." She glanced over a few of the spare parts. "I don't think we could make one, either."

"Would a controlled burst of lightning magic be effective?"

Bthunkagr laughed as she paused to consider the suggestion. "'Controlled' and 'burst of magic' are words that do not often co-occur where I come from."

"I can see why that would be,, if you do not use unbound magic frequently," Sil said. "Perhaps I could return the favor and offer some instruction of my own. Have you ever used magic without a device before?"

"They teach us the basics of channeling and shaping...magicka? That's the Chimeris word, right? We don't have a separate word for it." She waited for Sil to nod and continued, "I've never used actual lightning magic before, though."

"If you can channel magicka, you're already halfway there," he said. He showed her the method of shaping magicka into lightning. Then, as an extra demonstration, he drew a current between his hands. "You don't need metal hands, of course, though that does make it a little easier."

"Does that not hurt?" Bthunkagr asked.

"Not at all," Sil said. "When you're using hands of flesh, you concentrate the magicka just above your skin, or include a resistance effect. What I am doing, using my hands to create a sort of resonance to use less magicka, could hurt, but I have negated the sense."

Bthunkagr nodded and nervously looked at her own hands.

"If you'd like to try, you can create the bolt against my hand," Sil said. "That way, I can dissipate it if it does not work."

Bthunkagr took a breath and held up her hand, and Sil mirrored her.

"Right. Here goes." She channeled the magicka, shaped it, and sent the lightning forth. Her eyes clamped shut at the last second before it released.

There was a bang, followed by some clanging sounds on the far side of the room. Bthunkagr opened her eyes to see that she had apparently missed, hitting a shelf on the far wall instead of Sil's hand.

"I—I'm sorry," Bthunkagr stammered.

"No, that was very good," Sil said. He chuckled and waved a telekinesis spell to pick up the shelf and its contents. "It does help to keep your eyes open, however." He turned back to Bthunkagr and held up both hands this time, giving her a wider target. "Would you like to try again?"

She did, this time forcing herself to keep her eyes open. The bolt hit Sil's hand and crackled up his arm. Her eyes widened and she moved to help, but Sil seemed unfazed by the coursing shock. He touched a nearby rod and discharged the remaining energy, and then turned back to her.

"Excellent work," he said. "Now, I suspect we'll need a sustained current in order to power the control rod. Am I correct?"

Bthunkagr nodded.

"Why don't you try to create a current between your hands, like I did earlier? The same principles apply." He demonstrated again, explaining as he went this time.

Bthunkagr mirrored the positioning of his hands, holding both out in front of her. With her right hand, she sent forth a pulse. With her left, she made to catch it, and—

She was momentarily blinded by a flash of light and a burst of pain in her left hand. In the ensuing fractions of a second, she realized she had not left a buffer of space between her hand and the magicka channel. When the afterimage dissipated, she saw charred skin on her hand, an a concerned look on Sil's face.

"Are you okay?" Sil asked.

She nodded, biting her lip to distract herself from the pain.

"That sort of thing does happen, unfortunately," he said. "I'm not much of a healer, but I keep supplies around just in case."

Bthunkagr noticed that he had some bandages and a jar of something that she assumed was a salve in his hands. He must have gotten them while she was still blinded.

"Why don't you sit down?" he suggested, guiding her to a chair. "May I see your hand?"

She held out her burned hand. Sil examined the wound briefly and began applying the salve. The relief was instant. The pain was not entirely gone, but the alchemical properties in the salve seemed to be lifting the heat right out of the burn and starting to repair the flesh.

"It's potent stuff," Sil said, noting her change in expression. He wrapped the bandage around her hand when he was done applying the salve. "There. Does that feel better?"

"It does, a great deal," she said. "Thank you, serjo."

Sil gave her a kind nod in response. "Perhaps I should be the one to power the control rod?"

"I think that would be for the best," Bthunkagr agreed with a light laugh.

They both turned their focus back to the spider on the workbench. Sil picked up the control rod and created a tiny current between his thumb and index finger and placed them on the conduits. With his free hand, he manipulated the dial on the front of the device.

The spider sprang to its feet, did a small dance, and bounced idly as it awaited instructions.

"It works!" Sil said. He looked almost giddy with excitement.

Bthunkagr showed him how to execute a few simple commands, and soon he had the spider racing around the room while he laughed with joy.

"Ah, thank you for this lesson, Bthunkagr," he said when he finally brought the spider to a halt at their feet. "This was truly enlightening, and quite enjoyable."

"It was no trouble at all, serjo."

"I am sorry about your hand. In retrospect, powering the control rod required precision that I should not have expected you to attain so quickly. I suppose I just wanted to offer knowledge for knowledge."

Bthunkagr started to wave her hands to dismiss the thought, but cringed as she agitated the wound.

"It was a worthwhile lesson—in both the techniques of unbound magic and its dangers," she said with a small smile. "And I appreciate your faith in me, even if it turned out to be an overestimate."

"I hope this does not cause you to reject unbound magic altogether."

Bthunkagr looked at her hand again. "Not altogether. I have to admit it was exhilarating, even if the results were exactly along the lines that they warn us about."

"I assure you that with practice comes fewer injuries," Sil said. "Well, that is not entirely true. Sometimes proficiency brings with it the desire to push one's limits. That, in turn, leads to more injuries. But with practice and care, the risks are limited."

"I think I'll avoid practicing unless I have supervision," Bthunkagr said.

"That is wise, yes," Sil said with a nod.

"Maybe you could help me again sometime?" she suggested. "I could try to find some parts to make a more complicated construct in exchange. Next time, I'll try to bring an actual control rod."

"I would be happy to offer more instruction. And to learn more about proper Dwemeri construction methods."

"I look forward to it, then," Bthunkagr said. She bowed in Chimeri fashion and took leave of her friend to return home.

[bryonysimcox]

Four wheel driving, van repairing and living slowly: Week 6, Spain

It was a week mostly spent in a cottage in the hills, editing films, fixing the van and exploring Iberic villages. It was a week of taking things slow. Here’s my round-up of week six on the road.

By far, this has been the least ‘eventful’ week on the road. By that I mean we haven’t done loads and loads of travelling around, exploring or seeing lots of different stuff. But it has made me realise two things. Firstly, the reality of vanlife is that there will always be weeks like this one just past, where we knuckle down with work and van admin. And secondly, that time is the greatest asset of all.

Living slowly is a revelation.

I’ve always been the kind of person who tries to cram as many things as possible into a  day. Even if I’ve got a spare ten minutes, rather than just chill out I’ll look for any small job or activity I can do to ‘make the most of’ that time. The downside of this approach is that you’re always rushing around, you sometimes don’t give a task or activity the attention it deserves, and you’re often late because you never quite finish one thing before another pops up!

Life on the road feels like a therapeutic process which is deconditioning me from being so busy all the time. Rather than thinking about the next job I need to do or how I could make something even more time-efficient, I’m taking things one by one and really relishing activities which I might’ve previously avoided because they were ‘indulgent’ or slow. That has meant reading more books, cooking, and this week even playing my violin (which I promised myself I’d play, given that we’ve brought it all this way!). It has also meant reaching out to friends and family, and being there for others.

(image) ‘It’s okay, I’m right behind you’, my latest collage for Analogue Bryony which was made in the Barraca.

I think there’s something in the ‘slow movement’ that we should all consider. In the modern world, the idea that time is the most valuable resource we have and that we should indulge ourselves in it has been replaced by the idea that time is money and efficiency is king. It’s kind of scary that I’ve had to embark on a trip like this to see how wrong that is, and to unburden myself from being a slave to efficiency.

Spending solid days and long hours working on filmmaking and admin for Broaden makes day trips and adventures even sweeter when they come.

On Thursday, I insisted that we get out and about. Even though we have spent most of the week staying in the ‘Baraca’ (the small cottage in last week’s post), George transformed the van parked on the driveway into his own editing office and practically locked himself in there from 9am - 8pm most days. By Thursday, I was keen to explore the region around us, and George was keen to test Suzi’s 4x4 abilities, so we headed north, up towards the Iberic villages of Ullastret, Peratallada and Palau-Sator.

It was only thanks to recommendations from a family friend that we found the villages, as they were tiny settlements away from the coast. We took some pretty sketchy roads to get there, but were really impressed by how well the van can handle off-road situations, especially when put into four wheel drive. Suzi the HiAce has selectable 4WD, which means that she’s only in 4WD when you switch a button and go outside, twisting the locking hubs on the front two wheels. This manual 80s style approach may seem antequated, but so far seems pretty foolproof and means that we can cruise along in 2WD most of the time when it suits.

(images) A pretty fun morning of proving Suzi’s off-road abilities!

A series of fortified medieval towns with narrow streets and stone buildings, the Iberic villages were utterly charming.

Ullastret, Peratallada and Palau-Sator all had a similar urban structure, with an old town wall and circular street pattern. Churches, markets, towers and prisons were some of the key historic buildings, and Peratallada even had a castle situated in its core. Ullastret was perhaps my favourite, not least because so many of the modified buildings featured beautifully-designed and understated architectural interventions. It was definitely apparent that Catalunya is a wealthy region, because even civic elements like street lamps, bins, railings and paving stones are well-designed and well-made, carefully crafted to remain in-keeping with the impressive historic setting.

(images) The historic Iberic villages: peaceful and charming.

(images) Sophisticated architectural detailing characterised these towns.

From the villages, we headed east to find one of the famous beaches along the Costa Brava - a beach I’d been recommended called ‘Aigua Blava’. We’ve had so many great travel recommendations, and surprisingly many of them have been from Australian acquaintances (it really is true that you Aussies see a lot of Europe when you visit this part of the world!). Aigua Blava lived up to its name, with aquamarine water framed on both sides by fancy hilltop houses and a small sandy beach. Unspoilt by the tourists of summer season, we practically had the whole beach to ourselves. Of course, I had to go in for a swim too.

Wild swimming feels like another part of living ‘slowly’ and of being present. It’s my way of connecting with my surroundings, of celebrating the natural world and the incredible opportunity George and I have to explore these places.

(image) Another wild swim in the bag, still cold this time of year but the stunning setting of Aigua Blava made up for it.

On the note of celebrating the natural world, I’ve been determined to spend as much time as I can outside. That said, it can still be pretty chilly here in Spain even though it’s been really sunny. Whilst George spent most of the week putting the final touches into the running documentary in his van-office, I stubbornly insisted on working on my laptop outside, on the porch in front of the cottage and wrapped up in lots of layers! From my ‘outdoor office’ I wrapped up some graphic design for the running documentary (artwork to be released soon), researched film festivals to enter it into (any recommendations welcome), and pitched our videography services to countless potential clients.

(images, left to right) George editing in his van office, me wearing all the necessary gear to be working outside, and the grape vines which surrounded our cottage.

Launching a videography channel and company can feel like a bit of a daunting task, but I’m generally finding that George and I have a lot of complementary skills. It’s really nice having someone to bounce ideas off, and the more we produce, film and edit together, the more we can learn from each other and fill in the gaps of our knowledge. I know it feels like every week I say we have video content coming soon, but I really can’t wait to release some stuff to show you all. That said, filmmaking is a time-consuming process and in the name of living slowly, I’m going to embrace taking as long as we need to get the videos ready!

Sunday was our last day at the cottage and saw us dedicate our time and energy to Suzi the van.

There had been a growing ‘to do’ list for the van, and so we finally set about getting it done - cleaning her out and fixing her up. It’s hard to admit it after the painful van-building process, but George and I have realised we actually really miss having a building project on the go. We both love making things, and are already plotting future tiny-houses and electric campervan conversions (yep, just six weeks into this trip…!). So on Sunday, it was all hands on deck. I cleaned the floor and all the drawers and shelves, which collect dust and dirt so quickly. I also installed some latches on cupboard doors, which have been propelling themselves open when we drive around corners.

Meanwhile, George set about replacing the headlights and reversing lights with LED bulbs. A few had blown, so we decided that if we were going to try and take off the light clusters, we might as well upgrade all the bulbs for brighter ones at the same time. The light clusters are an absolute pain to take off, and involve removing the grill and other parts (confusing construction seems to be a trend for 90s Japanese car design). Unfortunately the bulbs we had ordered for the rear lights and the fog lights weren’t the right fit, so those two are a job for the future.

George also fitted an LED light bar below the rear bumper so that we can see more with the reversing camera, and it worked first time! It’s so cool how many different types of LEDs there are on the market these days and how affordable they are. With a little bit of electrical knowledge you can do a lot of lighting modifications.

(images, left to right) Replacing old (and dim) bulbs, removing the headlight units to get to the bulbs, and George working underneath the van to wire up our new reversing light.

Ready to hit the road again, we rounded the week off by heading south towards Valencia.

Valencia is our next destination, but we plan on splitting the journey over a few days. The first leg involved us skirting around Barcelona, naïvely taking the ‘no toll road’ option which involved a huge detour and some insane elevation. The price of the toll would’ve probably been less than the time (and fuel) spent slogging up towards Manresa at about 40MPH! Nonetheless, we battled the hills and some insane winds and finally made it back to the coastal road.

Late Monday afternoon we stopped at Torredembarra and wandered along the beach. Eerily quiet, it seems this area is popular with holidaymakers through peak season and almost abandoned off-peak. We only stayed for about an hour, walking against strong winds with a beer in hand and photographing repetitive apartment block designs. It is the curious places like this that make travelling by road so worth it, because you can stop by for a short stay and see the in-between places, places just as locals see them, and places in their off-peak state.

(images) Golden hour scenes from the empty beachfront of Torredembarra.

It feels great to be living in the van again. We had a marvellous stay at the cottage near Palamós, but Suzi is our home, wherever that may be. I’m going to carry on living slowly and take each day as it comes.

Next week, Valencia.

[jiadamanalo-blog]

COMM 10 Assignment #2

a. What are the differences between primary oral cultures and literary cultures? How arethey related with each other?

Differences in oral and literate cultures settle in the notion of methods in structuring both oral and written pieces and the media used. Primary oral cultures, defined as “a culture untouched by writing” is characterized by having less elaborate and fixed grammar and is implied as rather more dependent on linguistic structure. Oral cultures deliver knowledge through repetitive direct spoken utterance and are only limited in the minds, whereas literary cultures provide substantial storage of information because the texts are applied in spaces and forms. Writing introduced changes in thought and expression which transformed human consciousness. This paved the development and modifications of communication from the oral verbalization to literacy and vice versa.

b. What does Walter Ong mean by the intersubjectivity of communication? How does this differentiate communication from media?

According to Walter Ong, communication is intersubjective. Human communication is never one way. This means that in the sender-receiver position of channeling messages, the two persons communicating should both be the sender and receiver. It follows that this can only be achieved through exchanging feedbacks to one another. In the media model, however, the message is moved from sender-position to receiver-position. Thus, an actual feedback does not surface. For a genuine communication to manifest, each party should somehow create some sense of mental connection.

c. How does the ‘media’ model of communication show chirographic (i.e. writing) conditioning?

Dwelling with the media model of communication shows chirographic conditioning. Chirographic cultures generally consider speech as more specifically informational and more performance-oriented than oral cultures. Further, the written texts come apparent to be a one-way informational street where no real recipient (reader, hearer) is present when texts are brought into existence. But of course, in speaking and in writing, some recipient must be present or there can be no text produced. Instead, the writer conjures up a fictional person or persons. ‘The writer’s audience is always a fiction’ (Ong 1977, pp. 54–81).

d. What are the industrial or economic factors in the evolution of media from print to radio to television?

Current media trends are shaped through the changing consumer preferences and the traditional media outlets constantly trying to keep pace. Consumers’ media habits have fundamentally changed and the shift toward digital consumption is due to more convenient and personalized engagement the new media provide. Millennials now watch video content on their devices, stream on music services like Spotify and subscribe to online news and entertainment contents. Although experts say that media industry transformation is still in its early stages, media and communications companies are pressured to rethink how they monetize audiences by cultivating an ecosystem of producers, distributors, and partners.

 e. What does the digitization of videos mean for information producers and consumers?

Industries that utilize digitization in which any form of information are converted into digital formats have the big advantage of lower cost and shorter span of production. Video digitizing is the process of capturing, converting and storing video images for use by computer. Video is a medium of communication that delivers more information per second than any other element of multimedia. For consumers, digitizing information makes it easier to preserve, access, and share compared to physical video media which are subject to damage, loss and sometimes exclusivity.

f. What are the pros and cons of media accessibility?

The accessibility of media has created a platform for societies to be connected. People from all over the world can know what is currently happening, learn the cultures of others, and respond to arising crisis across the globe. However, the ‘accessibility’ of the media itself pose these people to risk and danger of data exposure, theft and loss. As we establish ourselves in this platform, the concern of privacy and identity protection has become an ever more necessary measure.

g. What constitutes a convergent media? How is it differentiated from traditional media? Would you consider convergent media under the categories of new media? Explain your answer. 

Media convergence is simply the merging of different media types into one. It is a ‘cooperation and collaboration’ between previously unconnected media forms and platforms. While media convergence can be referred as an innovational and emerging dynamic platform, traditional media however is the conventional means of mass communication that had existed since time immemorial and that has been used by various communities and cultures. From the definitions, we can assert that media convergence is the interaction between old (traditional) and new media forms, thus new media is just a component of media convergence.

h. How does convergent media empower individuals to assert themselves in the bigger society? Think of the metaphor of David and Goliath.

Media convergence can be regarded as a powerful tool that can yield the appropriate person more than enough power to somehow control or manipulate the mass or society. An individual can establish oneself in a media convergence platform and influence his followers through giving content of their same interests.

i. Compare and contrast the evolution of communication from orality to literacy and the evolution of media from traditional media to convergent media. Reflecting on how these developments came about, what could be assumed (or predicted) for the future of media production and consumption and/or mass communication?

The evolution of communication from orality to literacy and the evolution of media from traditional media to convergent media emerged through the interactions between each of their components in order to develop and modify means of better communication. Though their evolution are not entirely similar for convergent media is a unified technological media platform while literacy is a developed and modified communication from orality. Through these we can assume that the future of media production and consumption/mass communication will be in constant effort to produce or create a platform in which the demand of time, necessity and creativity are met.

j. What is Bitzer’s definition of a rhetorical situation?

Bitzer defines the term rhethorical situation as “the context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse”. Bitzer emphasizes the importance of the situation which people have to respond to. For Bitzer, rhetors create arguments when a situation demands some kind of response. Since there is rhetoric, Bitzer argues that there must be a situation/context for rhetors to create arguments. One example is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address that was in response to a particular situation.

 k. What are the different aspects of a rhetorical situation?

 The three main components of a rhetorical situation are: 1) Exigence is an urgent problem which demands a response; something in the world is not how it ought to be, but can be fixed by using rhetoric 2) Audience who must listen, interpret, and (hopefully) be moved to action 3) Constraints beliefs, personal histories, values, etc. which affect the rhetor and the audience.

l. Which of the issues you encounter today do you think warrant rhetorical discourse?

I really want all of the people to conduct a global campaign and discuss about the situation of climate change. For the past years, the scientists have been giving us facts and data that climate change is happening and it is real as it can be. But people tend to ignore this and instead discuss other irrelevant things. It’s as if those things will keep them alive or provide them a natural habitat.\

m.i. What were the different persuasive strategies mentioned in the chapter?

1. Taking and Avoiding Sides 2. Explicit Appeals to Common Ingroup Membership 3. Constructing Aspirational Identities 4. Implicit Displays of Rhetorical Alignment 5. Who are “We”? Flexibility and Vagueness in the use of First Person Pronouns 6. Using Pronouns to Display Complex Political Allegiances 7. Using First Person Plural Pronouns to Convey Ideological Messages

m.ii. Of these strategies, which have you encountered during political campaigns?

Constructing Aspirational Identities strategy is very common especially the use of an alternative strategy termed as constitutive futurity. It is widely used especially by position runners in the national elections. Duterte for instance promised to the Filipinos that in our country, “Change is coming.”

 m.iii. Were these strategies effective for you? Why or why not?

I don’t really rely on these facades when I look into the qualifications of a prospect national leader. But I must admit that when we will all go back to the time of election campaigns where Duterte has not yet committed violations in the constitution, the people are quite moved by his promise. Duterte has been known to be an effective mayor in Davao, and he uttering those words just doubled the impact. Who wouldn’t want change? It is basically what Filipinos wanted from the previous presidents and administrations.

[bukegumin]

Personal skill development and goal

Now I have stayed at Sunderland University for five months. When I came shortly, but it was enough to make me feel worthwhile. In my opinion, this school can provide everything I want, all the facilities, teachers, and staff are professional. I have never heard of anyone who has sought academic help from a school or teacher, and the library has a lot of online databases that can download all the papers and reports you want without spending a penny. Thinking and analyzing myself for personal development is very important for my future life.

 Self-evaluation

Excellent: optimistic and positive, self-motivated, team-oriented and collaborative, with strong innovative meaning, strong hands-on practical ability, and self-learning ability. Strong enthusiasm for the cause, strong sense of responsibility, principle of doing things, calm, consider the problem is comprehensive and thoughtful; face the problem to develop a good habit of independent thinking; be honest and kind to friends, can get along well with others; the only deficiency Is a bit introverted, not very communicative, not good at expressing

 Professional values

Based on family conditions, first consider the higher-paying jobs, and have the opportunity to learn from them and gain new knowledge for the chosen career; of course, if there is no wage income limit, I will consider my favorite job first. At the same time, consider whether the job can achieve your goals or your own ideas; finally, consider whether this job is suitable for me, whether my ability is competent, and so on.

 According to my own interests and the majors I have studied, I will make a preliminary plan for the coming year as follows:

Personal development, interpersonal relationship, and willingness of the personality of the will: During this period, we will do a good job in the basic work of the career, actively complete the tasks, strengthen communication, humbly ask for advice, maintain interest in new things, and be close to the complex society. As well as people who are optimistic, I believe that there will always be solutions to any difficulties encountered, and they will dare to adhere to themselves but learn to listen to others first. Be able to uphold justice and uphold one's own principles,

Lifestyle, hobbies: In a proper social environment, try to form a regular and good personal habit, and participate in social activities such as gatherings, as well as necessary fitness activities, such as walking, playing badminton, etc. Reward social charity activities, such as actively participating in donations to help the poor, blood donation activities, and so on.

 For professional interests, although I am not sure that I am in a specific occupation, I really don't like to learn theoretical knowledge, so I am more loyal to the actual work. Maybe my hands-on ability is generally not very strong, so during college, I will focus on developing my own hands-on ability to lay a good foundation for future careers. I have always believed in my ability and treated things very seriously. I pursue to be able to do things better, to have my own opinions on things, and to learn from others' good methods and listen to other people's suggestions.

Then, Talking about the reading skills I have learned. Learn the background of this book. Before I read a book, I will quickly search the Internet to see the background of the writing, the environment, the author, and then browse the book's comments, find a concise summary of the summary, read the recommendation. This key step can help me prepare for what I want to read and let me know the author's motivation. Once the focus of reading is clear, it is time to ask specific questions. Write down five to ten specific questions that you would like the author to answer. By asking some questions before you start, you first set up an objective basis for why you read this book. These questions will make it easier for you to determine if your reading has achieved your goals when you read them. Before I start reading the first page, I will first study the catalog to see how the chapters and chapters are constructed. Then I browsed the book and the section title. Next, I read the chapter outline and even the conclusive chapter. Anything that looks like a short summary will be read first (and frankly, I often read the last page before reading the first page). Then I was ready to start reading the preface. Readers often want to plunge into the book, but the time spent viewing a book is a rewarding investment. This step will also protect me from wasting time reading mediocre books! In the process of reading, we must develop a habit of reading with purpose and focus, so that we are good at discovering key points, new problems, new ideas, and new materials when reading. Some point at the beginning and end of the article to point out the central idea, while others express the central idea through the main events, as long as the main event can quickly determine the central idea, and so on. If there is a direct discourse in the text, mark it down; if not, just summarize it in a short discourse. Thinking after reading. After you have finished reading a book, stop and give yourself some time to make a final summary and evaluation. Go back to the inside pages of the book or write these ideas in your notebook. Construct a mind map. When you finish reading a book, you can re-screen it in your mind. The blurred place can be folded back. Then you can make a mind map of the whole book (or a part) and sort out the main characters, deeds, opinions.

 Reading an English original and encountering a word you don't know, don't worry about it. You can try to guess the meaning of the word according to the context. After reading it, check it out to see if your guess is accurate. Over time, you will find that your skills are becoming more and more proficient, and you will be able to cope with the exams when you encounter words that you don’t recognize in reading comprehension.I recommend all kinds of newspapers, because many of the articles in the newspaper are commentary, and the writer persuades you to believe his point of view. This is the same purpose as the one you wrote.

 Then, with regard to word skills, my general opinion is that it can only be regarded as a kind of pure physical labor, and it requires repeated manual labor. I mean that learning English requires repeated memories. Memory is the reflection of past experience in the human brain. It includes four basic processes of memorization, preservation, reproduction and recall. Its forms include image memory, conceptual memory, logical memory, emotional memory, and sports memory.

 However, the enemy of memory is forgotten. To improve memory, the essence is to avoid and overcome forgetting. I will concentrate on my class. When you remember, you can only concentrate on your mind, concentrate on distracting thoughts and the outside world, and the cerebral cortex will leave a deep memory trace and not easy to forget. If the spirit is distracted and used with one heart, it will greatly reduce the memory efficiency. Strong interest. If you are interested in learning materials and knowledge objects, even if you spend more time, it is difficult to remember to understand memory. Understanding is the foundation of memory. Only things that you understand can remember and remember for a long time. It’s not easy to remember if you just rely on rote memorization. For important learning content, if you can understand and memorize, the memory effect will be better. Over-learning. That is, on the basis of remembering the learning materials, remember a few more times, to the extent of memorizing and remembering. Review in time. The speed of forgetting is fast and slow. For those who have just learned the knowledge, it is an effective means to strengthen the memory traces and prevent forgetting. Frequently recalled. When studying, constantly trying to recall, can make the errors in the memory be corrected, the omissions can be made up, and the difficult points in the learning content can be remembered more firmly. In my leisure time, I often recall the objects I remember in the past, and I can avoid forgetting. Audiovisual combination. Simultaneous use of language functions and visual and auditory organ functions to enhance memory and improve memory efficiency. This is much better than a single silent read.

 Then talk to manage time. The necessity of efficient manager time management Why do efficient managers manage time? This is a matter of opinion. However, because many college administrators do not manage the time scientifically and effectively, they often cause exhaustion, but they can’t catch big things, small things can’t catch them, and waste time is widespread. There are many reasons for the waste of efficient management time. Subjectively, on the one hand, it may be because managers want to do too many things, but because there is no scientific distinction between priorities and even lack of clear goals, It leads to a lack of prioritization of work, and may end up with no tail; on the other hand, it may be because it is not good at authorization, it has to spend a lot of time on specific matters, or because of hasty decision-making, the entire school time and other resources are wasted.  Objectively speaking, the reason for efficient managers to waste time comes from superior leadership, work systems, and living and working conditions. Regardless of the reason, once the time of the efficient manager is wasted, the damage to the entire department or even the entire efficiency is extremely great, which may lead to the efficient and inefficient repetitive work of the department, the unit and the whole, and the final result is not good. In order to avoid the recurrence of wasted time, it is necessary to manage the time of efficient managers. Efficient managers never have time to do everything, but by managing time, they are guaranteed to have time to do the most important things.

 According to the situation, the classification memory and chart memory are used flexibly to shorten the memory process. Or use the methods of editing, taking notes, making cards, etc. to enhance memory. best time. Generally speaking, for me, 9-11 in the morning, 3-4 in the afternoon, and 7-10 in the evening is the best memory time. I like to use the above time to memorize hard points and learning materials, and the effect is much better. Science uses the brain. Scientifically use the brain on the basis of ensuring nutrition, active rest, and physical exercise to maintain the brain. Only by preventing excessive fatigue and maintaining positive and optimistic emotions can we greatly improve the efficiency of the brain. This is the key to improving memory.

 Defining the goals that you want to achieve, making yourself aspirations for longing and pursuit, and forcing your attention to focus on reminding and urging yourself to complete tasks; second, relying on self-control and self-regulation, with a strong will All kinds of outsiders are struggling to fight, reaching out to the ears, and quietly overtaking my mood.

Mastering the rules and methods, and paying attention to scientific principles should run through the entire learning process of students. There are three steps in this learning process: one is the preparation, the second is the class, and the third is the review. Prep is to understand yourself, mainly to understand what you don't understand.

About English Listening List the words you need to pay attention to during class. List some of the words you often hear during the class. Bring this list to the class and pay attention to the words above. Every time you hear a word, make a mark next to it to see which words appear most frequently. When preparing the list, you can write in advance the words that you think need attention. For example, if you are learning about tourism, you can write more travel English vocabulary. This kind of listening practice allows you to understand and grasp the context and specific usage of these words in specific scenarios. When you are familiar with the most frequently heard words, you can turn your attention to other words on the list that are less marked. Ask your classmates. After you have learned a lot with the teacher, asking for more classmates will also make you gain something. Find a classmate who is willing to study with you. Listen to a podcast, speech, song or other audio content together, and then find some words to test each other.

Two people can learn from each other to learn from each other - some words that you don't understand, maybe your classmates understand, and vice versa. In addition to improving your English listening, this will also allow you to increase your understanding of each other and relax more in class.

 Academic planning is the most important stage of life learning habits. Hard work and hard work, every step of university life is not only a reliable guarantee for completing university tasks but also a necessary condition for future work and lifelong learning. I give myself 2 hours a day to do my favorite things. In this semester, I started to learn video production, hoping to become a good video producer, hoping to share my joy and happiness. During the video production study, I plan to collect some Sunderland videos every week to show the international students' struggle and hard work in Sunderland, hard work and sweat, harvest joy and so on.

 Improve interpersonal communication skills, learn how to behave, and learn how to do it. Carefully plan your own study plan, take the initiative to train, humbly ask the teachers and classmates to do their own work seriously, really care about each classmate, and get along with the students. Students in the school earnestly practice making friends and accumulate rich extracurricular knowledge. You should fully understand your major, consider whether you are studying or working in the future, test your knowledge and skills, improve your sense of responsibility, initiative, and frustration, and begin to selectively supplement other professional knowledge to fill yourself.

 To sum up, When you look up at the sky, don't forget to be down to earth. Looking up at the stars and down to earth must be combined. At the same time of starting a business, we must move forward step by step, and finally, achieve success. At the same time, recognize the gap between the current state and the ideal state, pay attention to the focus on time, and take precautionary measures on the risk to eliminate interference, and do not blindly compare.

[nanjgelsolutions]

How to Build an Effective Security Awareness Training Program

How to Build an Effective Security Awareness Training Program

Over the past year, the cybersecurity threat landscape has transformed. Organizations face record-breaking cyberattacks as hackers increase the frequency and price tag attached. The average ransomware requests soared from $5,000 to $200,000, with one organization even reportedly paying hackers $40 million to regain control of its network.

The shift to hybrid working is partly responsible. It forced the rapid adoption of new communication forms and data sharing across organizations, breaking the traditional security network perimeter. IT departments rushed to deploy new technologies, and employees were left scrabbling to keep up.

Cybercriminals saw these changes as an opportunity to target the people within an organization and exploit their potential vulnerabilities. It’s unsurprising, then, that human error is reported to be responsible for 95% of all data breaches.

Such insider vulnerabilities are often exacerbated by poor cyber hygiene. When one user has poor password strength or uses public Wi-Fi to access confidential databases, opportunities for cyber-attacks start to arise. The network is left open with hackers able to exploit the gaps.

The current threat landscape is showing no signs of slowing down, so maintaining cybersecurity best practice is necessary 365, 24/7. With suitable measures in place to combat human error, organizations can start reducing the threat their people may pose.

One of these measures needs to be a structured cyber security awareness training and phishing simulation program.

When designing an effective program, here are the five best practices you should keep in mind:

Time

Scheduling time for an employee to complete any form of training can often be a challenge. Therefore, delivering training in short, bite-sized portions will prove more effective. It avoids interfering with employees’ diaries and keeps them engaged with snippets of information.

Relevance

The success of a training program often comes down to the levels of engagement, so having relatable and relevant content is key. The threat landscape is evolving at a rapid rate, and current content is critical to ensuring your end users are up to speed on the latest threats.

Repetition

 Repetition is the key to retaining information. Especially as only 20% of information is retained 28 days after a training course. Regular training will ensure your employees don’t slip into bad habits. To support this, phishing simulations are a great way of reinforcing the training. They are an effective way of testing knowledge, and in turn, identifying any risk areas or individuals.

Monitor

An effective program will allow you to monitor individuals’ performance and progress, giving benchmark risk levels. You will then be able to offer support to the individuals or departments who need extra help. Plus, with all this information, reporting to senior management is made easy.

Leadership support

It’s important to make sure that cyber awareness is intertwined with the culture of the organization, instead of an afterthought. If it’s part of the norm, people won’t see it as a change. This starts from the top. If board-level employees are involved and support the plan, end users will feel confident in the approach.

How Nanjgel can help?

Nanjgel is Partnered with Censornet, where we can offer real-world attack simulation and interactive user training. We are your employees with the knowledge and practices they need to prevent cyber-attacks.

Awareness training, reinforced with regular automated phishing emails will help equip users with the skills they need to begin to identify phishing attacks and secure their business.In addition, you’ll be able to track users’ performance in real-time allowing effective monitoring. You will have the tools you need to identify areas where employees may need additional help, and the training to support them

[fastessaypapers]

The Best Ways To Write An Essay In Less Than One Day

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Introduction

If there’s one exam most students dread, it’s the essay test. Given that the essay format is often used to test knowledge and not so much analytical thinking, one might argue that it’s irrelevant in today’s fast-paced world where thinking on your feet is essential for almost any career. However, as you will soon discover, it is not so much about what essay tests are but how you can use this format to showcase your skills as a student. Because of this, we have prepared some helpful tips on how to write an Essay In Less Than One Day. Essays are a great way for any instructor to gauge your overall understanding of the course material and pinpoint the areas where you need to put in more effort. That being said, if you find yourself panicking at the mere sight of an essay question, don’t worry—we have you covered with these tips on how to tackle your next essay assignment under pressure and meet its deadline with flying colors.

Before you begin writing, make a plan

Before you even think about putting pen to paper, you need to have a general idea of how you want your essay to flow. While you might be tempted to dive straight into writing, this is not a good idea because it will only end up causing you additional stress. Instead, you need to take a step back and look at the essay prompt as an opportunity to showcase your skills as a student. If you were given several essays prompts to choose from, try to select one that allows you to show off your strengths and interests. Once you have done that, you need to decide how many paragraphs your essay will contain and what each paragraph will be about. This is necessary because it will allow you to structure your essay logically and prevents you from rambling. Once you have a general idea of how you want your essay to flow, it’s time to get started.

Write a strong introduction

The introduction is the most important part of your essay because it will set the tone for the rest of your work. It is also where you need to introduce yourself and briefly explain what you are going to be discussing in the rest of your essay. You should also include references and make sure that any information that you provide is relevant to what you are writing about. If possible, try not to copy and paste information from other sources because this can cause plagiarism issues.

Write a sample body paragraph

After getting an overview of the topic, it’s time to start writing! You should write a short paragraph explaining why the topic is interesting and why it should be discussed at length by others. After stating your point of view, try not to repeat yourself too much as this can make your argument seem weak and repetitive. Also, avoid using passive voice in this paragraph as this can make it difficult for readers to understand exactly what you are trying to say. Finally, try not to add too many details to this section as this will only confuse readers who don’t know much about the issue at hand or who aren’t interested in reading about them! Instead, highlight key points from the sources that have been cited for readers to understand.

Use the Scannable Strategy

One of the biggest challenges students face when writing an essay is trying to maintain a consistent, logical flow throughout the entire piece. While it is not necessary to write your essay linearly, you must have a general idea of where you are going with your essay, and what you want your readers to take away from it. When writing your essay, try to think of your readers and imagine how they would skim through your essay. If you notice that a paragraph doesn’t make much sense or seems to be irrelevant, cross it out and reword or rearrange your paragraphs until everything makes sense. This will allow you to create a scannable essay that will be easy to read and understand.

Go through your lecture slides again

This is the best way to familiarize yourself with the topic and allows you to identify any gaps in your knowledge that you need to fill in. While reviewing your lecture slides, pay close attention to any examples or topics your professor has discussed that may be relevant to the essay prompt. This will help you to create relevant content for your essay and prevent you from wasting time trying to come up with ideas out of nowhere.

Write a paragraph summarizing each lecture slide

Once you have reviewed your lecture slides and identified key topics, you need to turn these into paragraph form and write a short introduction for each one. This will allow you to organize your thoughts and get a general overview of what needs to be included in your essay.

Read over what you wrote and identify key points

Once you’ve written your introductory paragraph, you can go back and read the rest of your essay. This will allow you to identify the key points that you need to address in your essay and the paragraphs where you can add them. This will help you to avoid unnecessary rambling and make sure that your essay is well-structured, with each paragraph addressing one specific topic.

Combine the key points from each paragraph into a thesis statement

Having identified the key topics you need to cover in your essay, you can now focus on creating a thesis statement that encompasses each topic. The thesis statement is essentially the main message of your essay, and you must get it right. A poorly constructed thesis statement will make your essay sound disorganized and unimpressive. Your thesis statement should be clear, concise, and address the topic of the essay prompt. Don’t try to make it overly long or it will sound too broad and unspecific.

Once you have your thesis, rewrite your introductory paragraph

Once you have come up with a thesis statement, you can begin writing your introductory paragraph. Use the thesis statement as a guide and make sure that every sentence in your introductory paragraph has a clear purpose and leads your readers to the main message of your essay. Make sure that you don’t jump around and address each point separately; instead, try to use transitions to tie all the points together. Your introductory paragraph should be clear and concise, and it should make the reader excited to read the rest of your essay. You must address the topic of the essay prompt and create a general overview of how you plan on addressing it. Once you’ve done that, you can proceed to the rest of your essay. Remember, your introduction is crucial. The introduction should introduce your thesis and make the reader excited to read the rest of your essay. It should not address any specific aspects of the topic, though it may touch upon some of them to give a broader picture.

The body paragraphs

After you have written your introductory paragraph and introduced your thesis, you can move on to writing the body paragraphs. These are paragraphs that follow after the introductory paragraph and are meant to address different aspects of what you had discussed in the introduction. Write each paragraph with a clear purpose in mind so that you can avoid writing sentences that don’t add anything to what was already said in your introduction or thesis statement. If you do this correctly, then each sentence in each paragraph will effectively support what was said in those two sections, making for coherent and well-organized essays. In general, there are two types of body paragraphs: supporting and concluding. Supporting body paragraphs support what was said in your introduction (i.e., they expand on it) while concluding body paragraphs bring everything together (they summarize everything). A good opening line will help you decide which type of paragraph is needed for a given essay prompt; if it seems like there is more than one point being made or if it seems like an argument needs to be presented then a concluding paragraph will help strengthen that argument or point made by the first sentence that made up the opening line. Once again, make sure that every sentence has a clear purpose and helps the overall message.

Conclusion

Writing an essay can be a daunting task for any student, but with a little bit of planning and organization, you can easily finish it in less than a day. All you have to do is familiarize yourself with the essay format and identify the key topics that you need to address in your essay. Once you have done that, you can begin drafting your essay and make sure that every paragraph addresses one specific topic. Once you have your essay written, you can proofread it and make corrections if necessary. Then, all you have to do is submit it to your instructor and wait until you get your grade. Whom Can I Trust To Write A Quality Essay For Me: Number 1 Fast Essay Help How to Write an Effective Research Paper without Plagiarism A Comprehensive Guide on How to Write an Essay for Medical School Admission Read the full article

[queernuck]

Trans-Inclusive Radicalism and Contemporary Feminism in Postmodern Feminist Thought

If one wishes to rescue a concept of political lesbianism, one must recognize both the lesbian phallus as a part of certain lesbian political ideologies, and must further engage in a process of understanding the many differentiated flows of lesbian desire, flows that absolutely must include trans women, flows that take on a radical character in defiance of materialist feminism and not directly as a form of proletarian feminism, and accepting this as part of accepting a certain postmodern posture. There is a fear among certain feminists of the postmodern, of poststructural acts of signification, specifically because of how the ideological structures they depend on are repetitions of an Oedipal burden, are part of a means by which sex is codified and essentialized in order to understand it as a central aspect of oppression separate from conventional historical materialism. 

The definition of these terms: political lesbian, radical feminism, and the lesbian phallus as a demarcation of exactly what goes on in political lesbian acts of filiation, affection, identification is a difficult task specifically because so many of these terms have changed not only in assemblage with one another, but as independent structures of realization, as part of larger assemblages of identity and community. The importance of realizing this, realizing that radical feminism was not and need not be so singularly associated with trans-exclusionary ideology, that the “trans-exclusion” at hand is itself a misnomer, that it in fact welcomes certain realizations of transition as a process and uses them as a means of increasing precarity for trans women both in feminist spaces and in larger communities, as part of making trans women acceptable targets. The presence of a lesbian phallus, that is, the specific conceptual “lack” of a phallus that is filled through the reinvention of Lacanian flows of exchange between women, when previously such flows were conceived of strictly as heterosexual, is discussed by Judith Butler specifically in order to critique the means by which lesbianism becomes clear, becomes that which it is most readily identified as. Frequently, identities such as “butch” or “femme” are understood rather shallowly as mere resignifications of heterosexuality, in the same way that top and bottom are for gay men. Penetrative acts become central in a fashion that first demands the crudely-manufactured phallus become clear, the insertion of discourses of penetrative acts into a voyeuristic understanding of sexual intercourse, sexual intimacy, before the subtler flows of phallic desire are able to exist between two women. The apparent refusal of this by denying any penetrative act, by acting as if penetration cannot be a lesbian act, a process that is frequently realized by admonishing trans women for their heterosexuality even if they are involved in sex with another trans woman, is central to certain notions of political lesbianism that merely resignify feminist action, acts of feminist concentration on womanhood and building community with women over men as not only a substitute for any sexual act, but in fact far greater than it, a more meaningful realization of lesbian identity. 

This is not to say that all “political lesbians” make this distinction: certainly, a bisexual woman who specifically concentrates on building community with women in a fashion that involves an exclusively woman-oriented character in her attraction, expression of desire, expression of her most immediate senses of community could be described as engaging in a certain sort of political lesbianism, but moreover doing so in relief of bisexuality as an identity and a structure of identification. Political lesbianism as a distinction that dictates not the lack of a phallus (that knowingly invites its resignification) but rather a new series of schizophrenic affinities, desires that form along new lines of flight and specifically act in an Anti-Oedipal fashion, thus becomes a potential singularity of identification. This would include recognizing womanhood as a contingent structure, as one that involves both sexing and gendering of the body, in a fashion that implies the two as singular yet separate, a kind of univocality of the body that trans women are far too familiar with. For trans women who are unable to pass, who have features that are commonly understood as markers of maleness, the apparent-privilege they enjoy seems an especially ironic sort of joke: it is those features which mean they are not enough of a woman, and yet those exact features which mark them as a woman especially deserving of violence, a woman who must be tested and observed and studied in order to find possible moments at which she is unbecoming of a woman, a kind of becoming-transgender, becoming-transsexual, becoming-tranny that is not the molecular becoming that belongs to a man, but in fact a far different status akin to the revelation of the “real” seen time and time again in comedies where a trans woman is undressed against her will and made to stand naked, her sex revealed and thus her gender resignified in an instant. For trans women to concentrate on the well-being, safety, happiness of other trans women in a fashion that may involve sexual intimacy but is far more focused on a network of attachment, a rejection of the suturing of the stunted phallus to the body of the trans woman attempted by a kind of reversal seen in the popular discourses around the vaginoplasty that describe it as dead, always bleeding, as the sort of wound the vagina is often imagined to be.

The deeply physical, sex-based language combined with an ontology of performativity often used in radical feminism means that transness is impossible to conceive of except as a sort of degeneracy, akin to most other reactionary notions of it, always coming from an impossible “other” that cannot be truly met, in numerous different discourses coming from an Orientalized Other, a decadent Western influence, the collapse of an arboreal and Oedipal concept of the family as bound through the taboos surrounding the traumatic formation of family bonds, the way in which one creates a transhistorical notion of sex and sexual identity through the colonial resignification of structures of knowing and naming the body as ontically bound to sex and gender, as part of a kind of rhizomal resignification where sex and gender were not only always one another even in difference, but in fact present the sole and singular point at which transhistorical convergence can be noted. There is, thus, a kind of transcendence of the body but moreover a transcendence that is bound to an ascension of the supposed female body into something that cannot be critiqued specifically because it lies beyond coloniality, despite the profoundly colonial character of many discussions of gendering of the body and the attempts to realize the language of gender as inadequate but the most readily available means of expressing certain knowledges of the body in a context of decolonization. Effectively, the sort of desire that radical feminism claims to reject is imposed specifically through a radical feminist epistemology. This is not comprehensive over radical feminist thought, and indeed one can read even explicitly transmisogynist works against themselves in order to develop a kind of trans-focused radical feminism: the example of deconstructing and admiring the SCUM Manifesto as a trans woman is a particularly pertinent one given the way in which it describes a kind of abolition of manhood and makes cast-off remarks about men transfigured into women, men who have become women in order to avoid this cleansing and who instead admire, love, wish to be women. The eventual outcome of this, then, is a refusal to recognize the rather obvious means by which one finds shifting, flowing schizzes and breaks in the manifestation of gender not as genuine changes that can be deconstructed, approached materially, or even affirmed: instead one finds them all as a singular, monolithic whole, gathered into an arboreal singularity of gendered nightmares.

The move away from a strict materialist approach to gender should be one that benefits women of all sorts, including trans women: so much of what is considered “material” is developed out of a range of epistemic holdings that are influenced by an ontology of phallogocentrism, that exclude women by their very conception, are intentionally ignorant on the matter of women and their experiences. Even adapting these frameworks in order to offer a properly historically materialist understanding will be marked by this lack, just as the phallus and its lack are signifiers of the same affinities, same concepts of desire. Postmodernism, as a means of developing through dialectic methodologies a new understanding of deconstruction and its application past traditional notions of textuality, of exactly what a text constitutes, toward the same openings necessary for postcolonial scholarship, critical theory as a vector for decolonization, eco-deconstruction as a part of realizing these potentialities, and numerous other sorts of critique. The importance of gender to these, given the way that postmodernism has so often been driven by women, by women looking through a queer lens at texts, leads to not only the origins of condemnation by supposed-radical theorists, but the reversal of this, the potential for reaching toward radical critique through a specific evocation of reactionary strains of radical feminist thought. By comparing them to other feminisms, attempting to enter into critique that does not presuppose any singular one as an incorruptible source of knowledge-making, privileging any single feminism at the risk of privileging a remaining and lingering ontology of biological essentialism borne out of capitalist and colonialist violence, one seeks to then allow for a genuine process of restorative communal knowledge making which expands phenomenology beyond its primacy as a male way of knowing the world. 

The maleness of phenomenology, the apparent antifeminism of an author such as Merleau-Ponty, is specifically due to a certain lack in their own work, one that Sartre admits about his classic lecture “Existentialism is a Humanism”: the frame of reference specifically involves certain points of privileging, certain relationships within one’s material situation that then go on to become realized in one’s phenomenological interfacing with the world at a level below any understood threshold, as a part of the phenomena of life itself. Feminist application of Merleau-Ponty has borne this out: when girls, due to an ontology of biological essentialism, are taught from a young age to behave in a way they are by necessity prevented from understanding, acting in a fashion restricted by pedophilia as a cultural norm, sexualization of unknowing subjects driving restrictions on what girls may wear, how they may participate in valuable spaces of community from sports fields to preschool classrooms, seen as subjects of interest for their male peers in a way their gaze cannot return, girls are refused childhood, are eternally moving toward a teleology of womanhood which is beyond them. That trans women are not understood in the exact same fashion, that their experience is differentiated, does not prevent it from becoming realized in the exact same fashion. Rather, it is expressed in different traumatic realizations, the waves of Oedipal becoming-woman washing across the body in the same way they wash across other women, the acts of restriction and ontological determination forced on the body from birth becoming clear. The notion of “male socialization” as an unbreakable and fundamental aspect of trans womanhood when, in fact, this represents a source of trauma, a specific and important point at which trans women first realize their location as a specific sort of woman, even before being able to name themselves as women, begin becoming-woman, is far more similar to the childhood that reactionary feminists describe girls as having than to the male socialization they imagine.

Thus, in understanding these structures of desire, terms such as “lesbian” and “political lesbianism” one must eventually reach a point at which certain basic assertions are questioned simply because as categorical markers, rather than individual identities, they lead to certain violent acts of demarcation and separation that bear no resemblance to the material or hyperreal processes of encountering gender, becoming-woman, becoming-gendered, becoming-sexed, becoming-trans, becoming-trans-woman that shapes trans womanhood. This is not at all meant to deny the critique that desirability as a singular paradigm eliminates the potential of ugliness, undesirability, community founded in fostering a kind of gleeful embodiment of such qualities and that a desire to be desirable is largely about colonial and capitalist acts of making the body worthless that are repeated violently upon mirrored, desired bodies. It is not a claim that any specific organ, specific woman, specific description of desire is to be ignored, rejected, is to be examined specifically due to trans women. Trans women, rather, are a single group within the larger structure of encounter that forms desire, and the presence of colonial ontologies in founding and maintaining exactly what desire must mean, must present itself as, is part of what exactly makes desire such a precarious point of identification. That is why, then, lesbianism must be extended in a fashion that resembles political lesbianism in some fashion: it is a specific choice regarding how one understands men, chooses to express oneself in relation to the notion of manhood and the phallogocentric necessity of such, to identify as a lesbian. That trans women are prevented from becoming even subjects of encounter unless made undesirable, unless restructured through the same sorts of flows of violent desire derided by so many radical feminists, that trans women are treated in such a specifically ironic fashion, is one of the fundamental inadequacies of certain sorts of radical feminist thought and the point at which radical feminism must thus change dramatically.