Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Rhetoric and Such

Examples of Rhetorical Devices

rhetorical device uses words in a certain way to convey meaning or to persuade. It can also be a technique used to evoke emotions within the reader or audience.

Skilled writers use many different types of rhetorical devices in their work to achieve specific effects. Some types of rhetorical devices can also be consideredfigurative language because they depend on a non-literal usage of certain words or phrases.

Here are some common, and some not-so-common, examples of rhetorical devices that can be used to great effect in your writing:

Alliteration

Alliteration refers to the recurrence of initial consonant sounds. The phrase "rubber baby buggy bumpers" is one example you might remember from your childhood. Alliteration is often associated with tongue twisters for kids, but brand names commonly use this technique too, such as American Apparel, Best Buy, and Krispy Kreme.

https://www.mondly.com/blog/2019/08/23/71-best-tongue-twisters-to-perfect-your-english-pronunciation/

Allusion

Allusion is a reference to an event, place, or person. For example, you might say, "I can’t get changed that quickly, I’m not Superman!” Referring to something well known allows the writer to make a point without elaborating in great detail.

Amplification

Amplification repeats a word or expression for emphasis, often using additional adjectives to clarify the meaning. "Love, real love, takes time" is an example of amplification because the author is using the phrase "real love" to distinguish his feelings from love that is mere infatuation.

Analogy

An analogy explains one thing in terms of another to highlight the ways in which they are alike. “He’s as flaky as a snowstorm" would be one example of an analogy. Analogies that are very well known sometimes fall into the categories of idioms or figures of speech.

Anaphora

Anaphora repeats a word or phrase in successive phrases. "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?” is an example from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. The use of anaphora creates parallelism and rhythm, which is why this technique is often associated with music and poetry. However, any form of written work can benefit from this rhetorical device.

Antanagoge

Antanagoge places a criticism and a compliment together to lessen the impact. "The car is not pretty, but it runs great" would be one example, because you're referring to the vehicle's good performance as a reason to excuse its unattractive appearance.

Antimetabole

Antimetabole repeats words or phrases in reverse order. The famous John F. Kennedy quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country" is a well-known example.

Antiphrasis

Antiphrasis uses a word with an opposite meaning for ironic or humorous effect. "We named our chihuahua Goliath" is an example because a chihuahua is a very small dog and Goliath is a giant warrior from the famous Bible story.

Antithesis

Antithesis makes a connection between two things. Neil Armstrong said, “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." This pairs the idea of one man's individual action with the greater implication for humanity as a whole.

Appositive

An appositive places a noun or noun phrase next to another noun for descriptive purposes. An example would be, "Mary, queen of this land, hosted the ball." In this phrase, "queen of this land" is the appositive noun that describes Mary's role.

Enumeratio

Enumeratio makes a point with details. For example, saying ”The hotel renovation, including a new spa, tennis court, pool, and lounge, is finally complete" uses specific details to describe how large the renovation was.

Epanalepsis

Epanalepsis repeats something from the beginning of a clause or sentence at the end. Consider the Walmart slogan, "Always Low Prices. Always." The repeated words act as bookends, driving the point home.

Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase expressing a quality of the person or thing, such as calling King Richard I “Richard the Lionheart.” Contemporary usage often denotes an abusive or derogatory term describing race, gender, sexual orientation, or other characteristics of a minority group.

Epizeuxis

Epizeuxis repeats one word for emphasis. A child who says, "The amusement park was fun, fun, fun" is using epizeuxis to convey what a wonderful time he had at the park.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole refers to an exaggeration. Saying "I have done this a thousand times" to indicate that you're very familiar with a task is an example of hyperbole because it is unlikely you've really performed the task a thousand times.

Litotes

Litotes make an understatement by using a negative to emphasize a positive. In this rhetorical device, a double negative is often used for effect. So saying someone is "not a bad singer" actually means you enjoyed hearing them sing.

Metanoia

Metanoia corrects or qualifies a statement. "You are the most beautiful woman in this town, nay the entire world" is an example of metanoia because the speaker is further clarifying the extent of the woman's beauty.

Metaphor

metaphor is a type of implied comparison that compares two things by stating one is the other. "Your eyes are the windows of your soul" means you “see" someone's emotional state by looking into their expressive eyes—eyes are not literally windows.

Metonymy

Metonymy is a type of metaphor where something being compared is referred to by something closely associated with it. For example, writers often refer to the "power of the pen" to convey the idea that the written word can inspire, educate, and inform. A pen has no power as an inanimate object, but the writer's words can reach a broad audience.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia refers to words that imitate the sound they describe, such as “plunk,” “whiz,” or “pop.” This type of figurative language is often used in poetry because it conveys specific images to the reader based on universal experiences. We are all familiar with the “squeal" of tires as a vehicle stops abruptly or the “jingle” of car keys in your pocket.

Oxymoron

An oxymoron creates a two-word paradox—such as "near miss" or "seriously funny." An oxymoron is sometimes called a contradiction in terms and is most often used for dramatic effect.

Parallelism

Parallelism uses words or phrases with a similar structure. "Like father, like son" is an example of a popular phrase demonstrating parallelism. This technique creates symmetry and balance in your writing.

Simile

simile directly compares one object to another. "He smokes like a chimney" is one example. Similes are often confused with metaphors, but the main difference is that a simile uses "like" or "as" to make a comparison and a metaphor simply states the comparison.

Understatement

An understatement makes an idea less important than it really is. "The hurricane disrupted traffic a little" would be an understatement because hurricanes cause millions of dollars in damage and can lead to injuries or fatalities.

Mario Savio - Operation of the Machine


Moragn Freeman - Shawshank Redemption 


Charlie Chaplin - Little Dictator

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death - Patrick Henry


JFK - Speeches


Conan O'Brien - Graduate Speech


MLK mountaintop


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ANALOGY: 

Alan Watts 


Terrence McKenna - Television is a drug


Michael C. Ruppert - 3 types of people


Jordan Peterson - It's our job to be offended


Chris Hedges - Velvet Revolution

pathos


powerful at 12 min mark


at about the hour mark to 1:06

Good speech ought to have a rhythm to it



Socratic Method on:

- Cell phones in the classroom -

- online vs. in person -

- enforcement of uniforms -

- effectiveness of homework -









Thursday, December 3, 2020

Nikola Tesla, His Missing Files and Masterpiece


After Nikola Tesla was found dead in January 1943 in his hotel room in New York City, representatives of the U.S. government's Office of Alien Property seized many documents relating to the brilliant and prolific 86-year-old inventor's work.

It was the height of World War II, and Tesla had claimed to have invented a powerful particle-beam weapon, known as the “Death Ray,” that could have proved invaluable in the ongoing conflict. So rather than risk Tesla’s technology falling into the hands of America’s enemies, the government swooped in and took possession of all the property and documents from his room at the New Yorker Hotel.

What happened to Tesla’s files from there, as well as what exactly was in those files, remains shrouded in mystery—and ripe for conspiracy theories. After years of fielding questions about possible cover-ups, the FBI finally declassified some 250 pages of Tesla-related documents under the Freedom of Information Act in 2016. The bureau followed up with two additional releases, the latest in March 2018. But even with the publication of these documents, many questions still remain unanswered—and some of Tesla’s files are still missing.

Three weeks after the Serbian-American inventor’s death, an electrical engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was tasked with evaluating his papers to determine whether they contained “any ideas of significant value.” According to the declassified files, Dr. John G. Trump reported that his analysis showed Tesla’s efforts to be “primarily of a speculative, philosophical and promotional character” and said the papers did “not include new sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.”

BY SARAH PRUITT



Who Was Nikola Tesla?

Nikola Tesla was an engineer and scientist known for designing the alternating-current (AC) electric system, which is the predominant electrical system used across the world today. He also created the "Tesla coil," which is still used in radio technology. 

Born in modern-day Croatia, Tesla came to the United States in 1884 and briefly worked with Thomas Edison before the two parted ways. He sold several patent rights, including those to his AC machinery, to George Westinghouse.


Early Life

Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia, on July 10, 1856.

Tesla was one of five children, including siblings Dane, Angelina, Milka and Marica. Tesla's interest in electrical invention was spurred by his mother, Djuka Mandic, who invented small household appliances in her spare time while her son was growing up.

Tesla's father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian orthodox priest and a writer, and he pushed for his son to join the priesthood. But Nikola's interests lay squarely in the sciences.


Education

After studying at the Realschule, Karlstadt (later renamed the Johann-Rudolph-Glauber Realschule Karlstadt) in Germany; the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria; and the University of Prague during the 1870s, Tesla moved to Budapest, where for a time he worked at the Central Telephone Exchange.


Inventions

Throughout his career, Tesla discovered, designed and developed ideas for a number of important inventions — most of which were officially patented by other inventors — including dynamos (electrical generators similar to batteries) and the induction motor. 

He was also a pioneer in the discovery of radar technology, X-ray technology, remote control and the rotating magnetic field — the basis of most AC machinery. Tesla is most well-known for his contributions in AC electricity and for the Tesla coil.

AC Electrical System

Tesla designed the alternating-current (AC) electrical system, which would quickly become the preeminent power system of the 20th century and has remained the worldwide standard ever since. In 1887, Tesla found funding for his new Tesla Electric Company, and by the end of the year, he had successfully filed several patents for AC-based inventions.

Tesla's AC system soon caught the attention of American engineer and businessman George Westinghouse, who was seeking a solution to supplying the nation with long-distance power. Convinced that Tesla's inventions would help him achieve this, in 1888 he purchased his patents for $60,000 in cash and stock in the Westinghouse Corporation.

As interest in an AC system grew, Tesla and Westinghouse were put in direct competition with Thomas Edison, who was intent on selling his direct-current (DC) system to the nation. A negative press campaign was soon waged by Edison, in an attempt to undermine interest in AC power. 

Unfortunately for Edison, the Westinghouse Corporation was chosen to supply the lighting at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and Tesla conducted demonstrations of his AC system there.

Hydroelectric Power Plant

In 1895, Tesla designed what was among the first AC hydroelectric power plants in the United States, at Niagara Falls. 

The following year, it was used to power the city of Buffalo, New York — a feat that was highly publicized throughout the world and helped further AC electricity’s path to becoming the world’s power system.

Tesla Coil

In the late 19th century, Tesla patented the Tesla coil, which laid the foundation for wireless technologies and is still used in radio technology today. The heart of an electrical circuit, the Tesla coil is an inductor used in many early radio transmission antennas.

 


BECOME A FOREX TRADER IN 2020

 How To Become a Succesful Forex Trader


What is FOREX?


Also known as foreign exchange or currency trading, forex is the most traded market in the whole world. People who trade currencies on the forex market are called forex traders, their aim is to generate profit by speculating on the value of one currency compared to another and this is why currencies are always traded in pairs. The value of one unit doesn’t change unless it’s compared to another currency. Forex market is an online platform where the big banks exchange currencies, they are fighting for power concerning which currency is strong than the other.



As a forex trader, you can either choose to buy or sell specified units of the base currency provided you believe it is going to gain or lose value against the quote currency with which it is paired with. Let’s take EUR/USD for example, as a forex trader if you believe that Euro against the united states dollar is gaining value or going up, you have to choose to buy and by doing so you will gain profit, the same goes for when you believe the Euro (EUR) against united states dollar (USD) is going down, then you have to sell in order to gain profit. If the market does the opposite of what you applied, you can lose your investment.


What is a Forex Broker?



In order to do Forex, you will need a broker unless you are a Bank, Hedge Fund institutions, or Algos.

Forex brokers are commission agents; they help to bring forex buyers near to the sellers. Like other industry brokers, they sell or buy the forex on behalf of their customers. They are very close to the forex market.




Traders around the world practice how to trade on software called MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5

Sunday, November 15, 2020

YOU GOT RIGHTS, FOLKS!

 Mario Savio on the operation of the machine

"Every leap of civilization was built off the back of a disposable workforce. We lost our stomach for slaves unless engineered. But I can only make so many. That barren pasture empty and salted, right here. The dead space between the stars. And this, the seat that we must change for heaven. I cannot breed them. So help me, I have tried. We need more Replicants than can ever be assembled. Millions, so we can be trillions more. We could storm Eden and retake her." 

- Niander Wallace, Blade Runner 2049


Throughout much of history, people acquired rights and responsibilities through their membership in a group – a family, indigenous nation, religion, class, community, or state. Most societies have had traditions similar to the "golden rule" of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." 


The Hindu Vedas, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, the Bible, the Quran (Koran), and the Analects of Confucius are five of the oldest written sources which address questions of people’s duties, rights, and responsibilities. In addition, the Inca and Aztec codes of conduct and justice and an Iroquois Constitution were Native American sources that existed well before the 18th century. In fact, all societies, whether in oral or written tradition, have had systems of propriety and justice as well as ways of tending to the health and welfare of their members.

Precursors of 20th Century Human Rights Documents

Documents asserting individual rights, such the Magna Carta (1215), the English Bill of Rights (1689), the French Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), and the US Constitution and Bill of Rights (1791) are the written precursors to many of today’s human rights documents. Yet many of these documents, when originally translated into policy, excluded women, people of color, and members of certain social, religious, economic, and political groups. Nevertheless, oppressed people throughout the world have drawn on the principles these documents express to support revolutions that assert the right to self-determination.

Contemporary international human rights law and the establishment of the United Nations (UN) have important historical antecedents. Efforts in the 19th century to prohibit the slave trade and to limit the horrors of war are prime examples. In 1919, countries established the International Labor Organization (ILO) to oversee treaties protecting workers with respect to their rights, including their health and safety. Concern over the protection of certain minority groups was raised by the League of Nations at the end of the First World War. However, this organization for international peace and cooperation, created by the victorious European allies, never achieved its goals. The League floundered in part because the United States refused to join.

While President Wilson didn't sign on with the League of Nations, he did sign the Federal Reserve into existence, and later lamented the creation of this debt bondage.

But do we really have rights...


Transcript

But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s a reason for this, there’s a reason education SUCKS, and it’s the same reason it will never, ever,  EVER be fixed.

It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it, be happy with what you’ve got.

Because the owners, the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the BIG owners! The Wealthy… the REAL owners! The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions.

Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! They OWN YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying,  lobbying, to get what they want.  Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don’t want: 

They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That's against their interests.

That's right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that!

You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shitty jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fucking place! It's a big club, and you ain’t in it!  You, and I, are not in the big club.

By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care! Good honest hard-working people; white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cock suckers who don’t give a fuck about you….they don’t give a fuck about you… they don’t give a FUCK about you.

They don’t care about you at all… at all… AT ALL.  And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth.

It's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.





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Or do we even need to be told that we have them? Isn't freedom a personal choice?

Plato's Allegory of the Cave


So where do these supposed rights come from? The State? The sovereignty of the Individual? Higher power?




MAJOR PHILOSOPHERS

John Locke had some interesting ideas about Natural Law...


John Locke and the romantic Jean Jacques Rousseau ideas of Individual Liberty and Natural Law seemed to  win out over the pessimism of Thomas Hobbes...

(watch video conclusion at 5:28)

And the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham who believed in the most good for the most number of people even if it competed with individual rights.

This philosophy was later adopted by corporations and morphed into something called Cost-Benefit-Analysis. This type of computing often lead to cold decisions being made for sake of what was best for the company. One example being the debacle of the Ford Pinto and rear end collisions.


Bentham's Utilitarianism has been credited with influencing Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto. 




A Republic exists to protect the Rights of a minority against the Opulence of the majority. Without these protections a democracy can quickly become a situation where two people vote for the other guy's wallet to help pay for a program he or she doesn't necessarily agree with. In his Harvard ethics classes, Sandel introduces Robert Nozick, a libertarian philosopher, who argues that individuals have the fundamental right to choose how they want to live their own lives. I own myself and thus have a right to do with myself as I please. You own yourself and have the same right. I don’t own you and you don’t own me. This gives each one of us rights not only to ourselves, but also to the fruits of our labor.


In his most famous work, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), Nozick argued that income taxes are “on a par with forced labor,” because they force a “person to work n hours for another's purpose.” ... But that completely misrepresents the reality of how taxes, and especially the income tax, affect people's lives.

OTHER NOTABLE READS

Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
Philosophy of Aristotle
Liberty Defined by Ron Paul
The Republic by Plato
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Critique on Pure Reason by Emmanuel Kant
Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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Since Divine Right had fallen out of favor with the people, a Democracy would have to employed, and if the Ruling Classes wanted to stay in power the minds of the masses would have to be molded.

Molded by people like Edward Bernays, the Father of Propaganda...



DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Is censorship ever justified? Can you think of some examples?
2. Are human beings born naturally good and society corrupts them or are people really only interested in survival and societal institutions correct this drive?
3. Should vaccines be mandatory? What would Jeremy Bentham have to say about it? Or John Locke?
4. What do you think about taxation? What is fair? 


I mean, do we really need governments? Max Egan makes the point that the only reason we need countries is to protect us against other countries, not their peoples, their governments.

Major Documents

Declaration of Independence

U.S. Constitution
Magna Carta
The French Declaration of the Rights of Man

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'The government breaks your legs then gives you a crutch.'  - Harry Brown