Situating the Yoruba Concept of “Ori” within the Soft-Deterministic Frame Work

The concept of Yoruba belief in Ori and its significance in destiny determination have been interpreted to make Yorubas hard determinists. Several scholars and Yoruba Philosophers have tempted to interpret the concepts of Ori to be the sole-determinant of a man’s destiny in Yorubas’ theology. Though the plausibility of hard-deterministic thesis may first appear great but, according to Oladele Balogun, a critical and objective look at the salient issues that surround Yoruba religio-philosophical notion of Ori shows that the role of Ori in relation the conception of personhood to be determinism and predestination has been exaggerated and misunderstood. Virtually all Yoruba African scholars and philosophers (Olubi Sodipo, Moses Makinde, Ebun Oduwole, Samuel Ali, Toyin Gbadamosi, Bolaji Idowu, Joseph Awolalu, Ade Dopamu etc) who have commented on Ori vis-à-vis the freewill-determinism problem have overlooked a point that the Yoruba theology of Ori can be used to solve the traditional freewill-Determinism Debate. But this can only be possible if such a concept (Ori) of a vast importance is well understood. Therefore, this is paper, using ethnographical method, investigates the possibility and plausibility of situating the concept of Yoruba notion Ori within the frame work of soft determinism. Keywords: Yoruba, Ori, Soft-determinism, Hard determinism, Freewil

Hard and soft news: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings

Over 30 years, a large body of research on what is often called ‘hard’ and ‘soft news’ has accumulated in communication studies. However, there is no consensus about what hard and soft news exactly is, or how it should be defined or measured. Moreover, the concept has not been clearly differentiated from or systematically related to concepts addressing very similar phenomena – tabloidization and ‘infotainment’. Consequently, the results of various studies are hard to compare and different scientific discourses on related issues remain unconnected. Against this backdrop, this article offers a conceptual analysis of the concept based on studies in English and other languages. We identify key dimensions of the concept and make suggestions for a standardized definition and multi-dimensional measurement of harder and softer news. In doing so, we propose to distinguish thematic, focus and style features as basic dimensions that – in their combination – make up harder and softer types of news

Modelling the X-ray polarimetric signatures of complex geometry: the case study of the "changing look" AGN NGC 1365

"Changing look" Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are a subset of Seyfert galaxies characterized by rapid transitions between Compton-thin and Compton-thick regimes. In their Compton-thin state, the central engine is less obscured, hence spectroscopy or timing observations can probe their innermost structures. However, it is not clear if the observed emission features and the Compton hump are associated with relativistic reflection onto the accretion disc, or complex absorption by distant, absorbing gas clouds passing by the observer's line-of-sight. Here, we investigate these two scenarios under the scope of X-ray polarimetry, providing the first polarisation predictions for an archetypal "changing look" AGN: NGC 1365. We explore the resulting polarisation emerging from lamp-post emission and scattering off an accretion disc in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole. The computed polarisation signatures are compared to the results of an absorption-dominated model, where high column density gas partially covers the central source. While the shape of the polarisation spectrum is similar, the two models differ in net polarisation percentage, with the relativistic reflection scenario producing significantly stronger polarisation. Additionally, the variation of the polarisation position angle is distinctly different between both scenarios: the reflection-dominated model produces smooth rotations of the polarisation angle with photon energy whereas circumnuclear absorption causes an orthogonal switch of the polarisation angle between the soft and the hard X-ray bands. By comparing the predicted polarisation of NGC 1365 to the detectability levels of X-ray polarimetry mission concepts proposed in the past, we demonstrate that with a large, soft X-ray observatory or a medium-sized mission equipped with a hard (6 - 35 keV) polarimeter, the correct interpretation would be unambiguous.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Security dialogues: building better relationships between security and business

In the real world, there's often a discrepancy between an organization's mandated security processes and what actually happens. The social practice of security flourishes in the space between and around formal organizational security processes. By recognizing the value of risk management as a communication tool, security practitioners can tap opportunities to improve the security dialogue with staff

Unconscious Inference Theories of Cognitive Acheivement

This chapter argues that the only tenable unconscious inferences theories of cognitive achievement are ones that employ a theory internal technical notion of representation, but that once we give cash-value definitions of the relevant notions of representation and inference, there is little left of the ordinary notion of representation. We suggest that the real value of talk of unconscious inferences lies in (a) their heuristic utility in helping us to make fruitful predictions, such as about illusions, and (b) their providing a high-level description of the functional organization of subpersonal faculties that makes clear how they equip an agent to navigate its environment and pursue its goals