Writing and the zeitgeist

Have contemporary writers anything to say about their times and, if so, have they the nerve to say it? This article argues that there is much failure of vision and failure of nerve on the part of today's writers. Because they lack the clarity and courage to come to terms with the times, they succumb to its deceptions and seductions. Its thesis is is that the power and value of writing is in the scope and depth of its engagement with the zeitgeist; in how perceptively a writer captures the spirit of the age, expresses the temper of the times; in how much of what is there in the air, throbbing in the collective psyche, pulsing in the ever shifting social order, a writer gathers up and expresses in accurate and resonant images, in provocative and paradigmatic stories. This is pursued in reflection on attitudes expressed at two international writers conferences and in polemic against the prevailing views expressed

To the Crucible: An Irish engagement with the Greek crisis and the Greek left

A monumental drama is playing out before our eyes. It is a true Greek tragedy. The plot: A society is being pushed to its limits. The denouement is not yet determined, but survival is at stake and prospects are precarious. Greece is at the sharp end of a radical and risky experiment in how far accumulation by dispossession can go, how much expropriation can be endured, how far the state can be subordinated to the market. It is a global narrative, but the story is a few episodes ahead here. Greece is the crucible. It is a caldron where concentrated forces are colliding in a process that will bring forth either a reconfiguration of capitalism or the dawn of its demise

Linfield College: Study Abroad in Austria

This letter from returnee Helena Frueh explains the value of studying abroad in Austria

Philosophers, scientists and the unity of science

This paper examines historical images of the unity of science and makes a case for a contemporary conceptualisation of this project for our own times. It argues that, to overcome the fragmentation of knowledge, it is necessary to have an adequate and appropriate philosophy. This paper outlines the parameters of such a philosophy

A two factor long memory stochastic volatility model

In this paper we fit the main features of financial returns by means of a two factor long memory stochastic volatility model (2FLMSV). Volatility, which is not observable, is explained by both a short-run and a long-run factor. The first factor follows a stationary AR(1) process whereas the second one, whose purpose is to fit the persistence of volatility observable in data, is a fractional integrated process as proposed by Breidt et al. (1998) and Harvey (1998). We show formally that this model (1) creates more kurtosis than the long memory stochastic volatility (LMSV) of Breidt et al. (1998) and Harvey (1998), (2) deals with volatility persistence and (3) produces small first order autocorrelations of squared observations. In the empirical analysis, we use the estimation procedure of Gallant and Tauchen (1996), the Efficient Method of Moments (EMM), and we provide evidence that our specification performs better than the LMSV model in capturing the empirical facts of data

Periódicos de Oporto, públicos de la ciudad : la construcción de la identidad editorial y las audiencias

The three Oporto daily newspapers O Comércio do Porto, O Primeiro de Janeiro and Jornal de Notícias were founded during the XIX century and steadily grew in prestige and respect amongst the national Portuguese press. These papers began as local and ideological projects supported by political parties and a powerful commercial association but gradually evolved to more comprehensive newspapers with a wider range of lectors. Each particular profile was built through editorial policies which led to strategies of audience identification, underlined by the charisma of their owners and directors. The aim of this study is to identify the engagement processes with readers in their early days and the methodology will rely on sources such as newspapers contents and some other specialized publications. The key moments of evolution in Comércio, Janeiro and Notícias will be tracked by the adaptation to the modernization challenges according to reports, newspapers and some senior journalists’ testimoniesLos periódicos de Oporto O Comércio do Porto, O Primeiro de Janeiro y Jornal de Notícias, surgieron en el siglo XIX y gradualmente se tornaron títulos nacionales de prestigio. Inicialmente dos de ellos eran proyectos ideológicos de partidos políticos locales y el tercero tenía el respaldo de la asociación comercial, pero con el tiempo fueron evolucionando hacia modelos de información más anchos, ampliando el círculo de lectores. El perfil informativo de cada uno se construyó en articulación con públicos específicos y a través de la promoción de procesos de identificación, reforzada por la acción de propietarios y directores carismáticos. El objetivo de este estudio es identificar estas características editoriales y procesos de conquista del público en sus primeras etapas, según una metodología basada en el contenido de los periódicos y publicaciones especializadas. Los momentos clave de la transformación serán identificados por los periódicos, informes y testimonios de periodista

Knowledge Discovery in Documents by Extracting Frequent Word Sequences

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