Penned in the first person : setting and theme in the lyrics of Thomas Hardy

Bibliography: pages 240-258.This thesis arises from the conviction that the Hardyan quality of mind, a mind at once tentative and courageous, is of supreme importance in our time and is most distinctly and decisively present in Hardy's short poems. The chief aim of this thesis has been to offer students of Hardy thematic and aesthetic guidelines for reading his poems so as to encounter that quality of mind first-hand. In order to develop those guidelines, I have rooted them in primary materials and biographical details germane to demonstrating Hardy's achievement as a poet. The main title of this thesis, for instance, is meant to emphasise the complex relationship between the poet and the man: culled from the preface of his third volume of verse, Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, the simple yet apposite phrase, "penned in the first person," is the invention of Hardy himself

Heroic Consciousness

This article describes heroic consciousness – how heroes perceive, experience, and think about the world. I describe the transformation of consciousness from its pre-heroic state to its heroic state. Pre-heroic consciousness is characterized by nescient and maladaptive thinking, dualism, separation, mono-rationality, and a naïve sense of empowerment. Heroic consciousness is exemplified by nondualism, unity, transrationality, and the wisdom of tempered empowerment. Heroic consciousness is achieved via three routes: (1) traversing the hero’s journey, (2) effective use of specific spiritual practices, and/or (3) participation in hero training programs. I discuss the implications of heroic consciousness for individual and global well-being

Heroic Consciousness

This article describes heroic consciousness – how heroes perceive, experience, and think about the world. I describe the transformation of consciousness from its pre-heroic state to its heroic state. Pre-heroic consciousness is characterized by nescient and maladaptive thinking, dualism, separation, mono-rationality, and a naïve sense of empowerment. Heroic consciousness is exemplified by nondualism, unity, transrationality, and the wisdom of tempered empowerment. Heroic consciousness is achieved via three routes: (1) traversing the hero’s journey, (2) effective use of specific spiritual practices, and/or (3) participation in hero training programs. I discuss the implications of heroic consciousness for individual and global well-being

An investigation into the role of lamin A in the progression of colorectal cancer

Nuclear lamins are type V intermediate filaments which form a proteinaceous meshwork, termed the nuclear lamina, which underlines the inner nuclear membrane and provides mechanical strength to the nucleus and maintains nuclear shape. A-type lamins in particular have been implicated in DNA replication, the regulation of gene transcription, apoptosis and nuclear migration. Expression of lamin A/C is closely associated with the differentiated phenotype and loss of lamin A/C xpression has been correlated with increased proliferation, especially in tumours. I sought to investigate the expression and regulation of A- and B-type lamins during colorectal cancer (CRC) progression.Preferential down-regulation of lamin A expression over lamin C was observed in the most dedifferentiated CRC cell lines. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR suggested that this was achieved by both transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. A connection between loss of lamin A/C and proliferation was ruled out. Instead immunohistochemical analysis of CRC tissue sections indicated loss of lamin A may correlate with the differentiation status of cells. In normal colonic crypts lamin A/C expression was greatest in the differentiated compartment, whereas lamin A was absent and lamin A/C was present at barely detectable levels in Dukes' A malignant polyps with high grade dysplasia. Stable re- expression of lamin A constructs in SW480 colon cancer cells whichexpressed almost no endogenous lamin A rescued two-dimensional growth. Subsequent RNA profiling of 325 genes with reported relevance to colorectal carcinogenesis and general tumourigenesis confirmed that proliferation indices were unaffected by changes in the level of lamin A. Synemin, a cytoskeletal linker protein, was found to be significantly down-regulated in SW480 GFP-lamin A transfected cells versus SW480 GFP transfected cells. This suggests that lamin A functions to maintain nuclear and cellular integrity by indirect modulation of components of cytoskeletal architecture

The Self and the Structure of the Personality: An Overview of Sri Aurobindo’s Topography of Consciousness

Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga aimed not only at what he called the realization of the Divine, but also at an integral transformation of human nature under Divine influence. For this exceptionally wide aim, he developed an exceptionally deep and comprehensive frame for understanding human nature. His concepts, as discussed in this paper, must be understood on their own terms, which are often different from meanings attributed in the conventional language of Western psychology. This paper provides a detailed account of Sri Aurobindo’s conceptualization of the various centers of identity and of the vertical and concentric dimensions he used to describe the structure of the personality. It explains the importance Sri Aurobindo gave to the location where one places one’s consciousness, and indicates why he argued that consciousness is not only awareness, but also force. Finally, this paper describes how Sri Aurobindo visualized the still ongoing evolution of consciousness and humanity’s role in it

Comparison of the vocabularies of the Gregg shorthand dictionary and Horn-Peterson's basic vocabulary of business letters

This study is a comparative analysis of the vocabularies of Horn and Peterson's The Basic Vocabulary of Business Letters1 and the Gregg Shorthand Dictionary.2 Both books purport to present a list of words most frequently encountered by stenographers and students of shorthand. The, Basic Vocabulary of Business Letters, published "in answer to repeated requests for data on the words appearing most frequently in business letters,"3 is a frequency list specific to business writing. Although the book carries the copyright date of 1943, the vocabulary was compiled much earlier. The listings constitute a part of the data used in the preparation of the 10,000 words making up the ranked frequency list compiled by Ernest Horn and staff and published in 1926 under the title of A Basic Writing Vocabulary: 10,000 Words Lost Commonly Used in Writing. The introduction to that publication gives credit to Miss Cora Crowder for the contribution of her Master's study at the University of Minnesota concerning words found in business writing. With additional data from supplementary sources, the complete listing represents twenty-six classes of business, as follows 1. Miscellaneous 2. Florists 3. Automobile manufacturers and sales companie

Spirit calls Nature: Bridging Science and Spirituality, Consciousness and Evolution in a Synthesis of Knowledge

This is a technical treatise for the scientific-minded readers trying to expand their intellectual horizon beyond the straitjacket of materialism. It is dedicated to those scientists and philosophers who feel there is something more, but struggle with connecting the dots into a more coherent picture supported by a way of seeing that allows us to overcome the present paradigm and yet maintains a scientific and conceptual rigor, without falling into oversimplifications. Most of the topics discussed are unknown even to neuroscientists, biologists, philosophers, and yet are based on the findings published in their own mainstream peer reviewed literature or on deep insights of the scientific, philosophical and spiritual giants of the past. A scientific, philosophical, and spiritual overview of the relationship between science and spirituality, neuroscience and the mystery of consciousness, mind and the nature of reality, evolution and life. A plaidoyer for a science that goes beyond the curve of reason and embraces a new synthesis of knowledge. The overcoming of the limitations of the intellect into an extended vision of ourselves and Nature. A critique of physicalism, the still-dominant doctrine that believes that all reality can be reduced to matter and the laws of physics alone. A review and reassessment of the old and new philosophical and metaphysical ideas which attempts to bring closer Western and Eastern traditions where science, philosophy, consciousness, Spirit and Nature are united in a grand vision that transcends the limited conventional scientific and philosophical paradigm. A possible answer to the questions of purpose and meaning and the future evolution of humankind beyond a conception that posits a priori a purposeless and meaningless universe. A report of the new scientific discoveries of a basal intelligence in cells and plants, on the question if mind is computational, the issue of free will, the mind-body problem, and the so called ‘hard problem of consciousness’. An essay on ancient as modern philosophical conceptions, from the One of Plotinus, the God of Spinoza until the recent revival of panpsychism or the universal consciousness. A journey into quantum physics from the perspective of philosophical idealism and an invitation to adopt new ways of seeing that might help us to transform our present understanding, expanding it into an integral cosmology, with a special emphasis on the spiritual and evolutionary cosmology of the Indian seer Sri Aurobindo. Not just a philosophical and metaphysical meditation but, rather, an appeal to work towards a change of consciousness, a widening of our perspective towards a new way of seeing beyond a purely mechanistic worldview to avoid a social, environmental and economic collapse. Humans are transitional beings that will have to make a choice: relapse into a pre-rational state or evolve towards a new trans-rational species supported by an ideal of human unity in diversity as the expression of a spiritual evolutionary process, the call of the Spirit on Nature

Beyond commercial design: a critique of design and graphic design writings in Emigre and Dot Dot Dot magazines

Graphic design faces the contradictions of commercial intent and social relevance. This study explores the contribution of criticism, in two independent, seminal graphic design magazines, towards shifting the dominant preferences of graphic design from a purely commercial pursuit to a human-centred practice. Emigre magazine (c.1984 - 2005) and Dot Dot Dot magazine (c.2000 - 2010) are recognised for their critical intent and within them are emerging critical issues that suggest a potential niche for graphic design beyond consumerism and commerce. In the discipline of graphic design, designers define what it is to be human (and thus equally the realities of dehumanisation) in very particular ways (Rose, 2001:135; Freire, 1993:43). Graphic design has a history of commercial practice. This commercial history continues to define its identity and reinforce a particular body of knowledge. Graphic design criticism, however, is an inventive voice that has the potential to contribute to change. Both Emigre and Dot Dot Dot were representative of a “constructive marginality” (Bennett, 1993:64), drawing from their own set of references and awareness of graphic design’s potential to inform their identities, instead of looking to established definitions of practice to do so. This analysis explores how they anticipated a modern conception of graphic design that has become part of a recently adopted (2015) and more widely embedded discourse. This discourse involves critical design that interrogates multiculturalism, interdisciplinarity, environmental sustainability, social and political agency, and speculative futures. Graphic design engages social institutions and practices that denote social constructions of difference and inequality, and is never neutral. Any work, any representation of ideology, is at once individual and discursive at the level of social, cultural and political formations. The critical issues evident in Emigre and Dot Dot Dot, with the exception of an absence of speculative futures, anticipate a more humanising perspective in graphic design. They invite critique and the potential for change that is relevant to the surrounding world, as a counter to commercial self-interest

Designing epistemology

This is a personal account of a design practice considered from a first-person perspective. I review several decades of design activity in order to better understand my own philosophical trajectory. I form an understanding of my own design practice in virtue of the conceptual frameworks forged in the design activities investigated. The process is therefore entirely recursive, and is a design activity in itself. Its principle value has been to give me a much deeper understanding of the dynamics of a design practice focusing on the designer and his ways of thinking rather than on the work. I come to understand that a designer’s frameworks determine much of what can be understood, that frameworks are implicated in the problem itself. I propose that designers first uncover the tacit frameworks that guide their practices through an examination of the failures, surprises or unexpected results that occur in work guided by them. Designers might learn to set aside their frameworks when they no longer serve. I call this process ‘Anamnesis and Amnesia’: first remember and then forget. I believe that this view has had great value to my practice of teaching design. I offer it to others in the hope that they may find similar value in this strategy, or to be inspired to undertake a journey of their own

Integral Review Vol 8 No 1 July 2012 full issue

The articles in this special issue of INTEGRAL REVIEW highlight selected contributions to the 2011 Symposium on Integral Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) (www.ciis.edu ). This annual symposium provides a forum for CIIS community members and friends to exchange and deepen their understanding of integral consciousness, its evolution, and its relationship to the current planetary challenges and transformational processes. Each year there are several themes covered in a variety of presentation formats: keynote and standard presentations, as well as a number of interactive sessions and workshops