Wednesday, January 13, 2010

“Consider Implementing Domestication Philosophy’ - Graphic Ghaha” plus 4 more

“Consider Implementing Domestication Philosophy’ - Graphic Ghaha” plus 4 more

Consider Implementing Domestication Philosophy’ - Graphic Ghaha

Posted: 13 Jan 2010 06:52 AM PST

ThePresident of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, Apostle John Adotey, has described the late GCPP leader, Mr Dan Lartey's philosophy of domestication as the sure way of turning the fortunes of the country around and urged the government to consider implementing it as a policy.

He said the practice of domestication was the key to developing the economy of the country noting that "it promotes self-reliance and makes a country truly independent".

Apostle Adotey said countries such as China had enormously benefited from the practice and were making strides on the international market.

Apostle Adotey was speaking to the Daily Graphic when the executive of the Ghana Pentecostal Council paid an official visit to Mr Dan Lartey's  family.

The Apostle noted that the setbacks the country had encountered were because successive governments had neglected and refused to maintain good policies made by their predecessors.

 The Apostle described the late Lartey's contribution to the Operation Feed Yourself Programme when he was the special advisor to the late Gen. I. K. Acheampong's National Redemption Council, as the best thing to ever happen to Ghana.

He said the contribution of the late Mr Lartey to the development of the country should not be neglected, adding that "it should be incorporated for the good of our nation"

He described the late Lartey as a man of tenacity who did not allow the unfriendly remarks of others to deter him from holding dear his philosophy of domestication in his quest to develop the country he held dear.

He urged the family of the bereaved to celebrate his life, since his ideologies and philosophies would live on.

Family members took turns to thank members of the council for their concern and words of encouragement.

The late GCPP leader, Mr Dan Lartey, popularly called 'Domestication', became popular for advocating that the country's economic freedom lay in domesticating the economy.

He died on December 28, 2009 at his Citadel House at Kaneshie in Accra after receiving medical attention in the US for six months.

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Jim Haslett Hiring by Redskins Signals a Significant Shift in ... - Bleacherreport.com

Posted: 13 Jan 2010 09:01 AM PST

The Redskins named former Rams and Saints coach Jim Haslett to be their defensive coordinator under new Washington head coach Mike Shanahan.

The fiery and disciplined Haslett's statistics as a defensive signal caller are somewhat questionable, but his hire (and the process by which he received the job) signals a significant philosophical switch for the Washington Redskins—and for once, it's for the better.

Every coach hired under Redskins owner Dan Snyder came in with his own great ideas about how to run things, and that always brought a personnel overhaul—football terms for "we're going to cut a whole bunch of players and spend years rebuilding the roster from scratch, which means we're going to suck for a couple of years."

Love him or hate him, Shanahan has always been praised for making the best of what he had—adjusting the system to fit the talent he's got.

Now, make no mistake, the offense will be completely overhauled, but that's because there isn't much talent there to begin with.

If, as expected, Randy Thomas and Chris Samuels retire, the offensive line has only two viable starters. At the skill spots, the running back position has aging stars, the receiver corps lacks a true No. 1 guy, and we have yet to hear whether or not quarterback Jason Campbell will be back.

But the defense, which Haslett will coach, has much more talent than most give it credit for. In fact, just rating defensive units by pure talent, Washington's is probably among the top five in the league. However, it has suffered from poor coaching and terrible play-calling for the last two years.

First and foremost, the talent on this defense is best suited to run out of a 3-4 front, rather than a 4-3. That's exactly what Haslett proposes to install.

Any good 3-4 blitzing defense needs to have two quick edge rushers, which the Redskins have in Andre Carter and Brian Orakpo, both of whom registered double-digit sacks in 2009. The pair would be the bookend outside linebackers in the new 3-4.

The middle linebackers would certainly be Rocky McIntosh and London Fletcher. McIntosh is a light, athletic linebacker who is best in coverage, and Fletcher is aces in run support. Together, the pair are virtually textbook middle backers for a 3-4.

Up front we find pass-rushing DT Albert Haynesworth making the transition to defensive end. He'll play opposite Jeremy Jarmon, a rookie who got better every week last year. Both are solid pass rushers and have the body type to hold up at the point of attack.

The only weakness up front would be at nose tackle, where Cornelius Griffin simply might not fit. Griffin has been on the downside the last couple of years and may find himself released to make way for a better fit at this spot.

The Redskins secondary has been the source of much contention by pundits. True, there is no shutdown corner in the mold of Champ Bailey or Nnamdi Asomugha, but the team does boast three solid man-to-man cornerbacks and a couple of legitimate young guys behind them.

Frankly, no position was so ill-used by former defensive boss Greg Blache as the cornerbacks. Often, they started 15 yards off the ball and backed up even further after the snap; if you were watching on television, you might have wondered if the Redskins even HAD any corners on the field.

Though it did prevent the big play, Carlos Rogers, Fred Smoot, and DeAngelo Hall had virtually no chance to make plays on the ball. They often came in late and were forced to make tackles, which these corners simply aren't very good at.

If the corner position was the most ill-used, then safety LaRon Landry was the player who was most often forced out of position. Landry haters will tell you that he's not coachable; he's often way out of position, doesn't play with the team, and may simply not have the intelligence to play the NFL game.

Don't believe them.

Landry was drafted and brought to the Redskins to play the position of strong safety. He's an instinctual, athletic ball-hawk. He's meant to play close to the line of scrimmage, stalk running backs and tight ends in the flats, and assist in run support with his patented vicious hits.

Where Blache has forced him to play, more often than not, is the free safety position, which, for Blache, was 25-30 yards off the line of scrimmage. He was asked to read and diagnose pass plays and adjust to deep routes and double moves, none of which he's been very good at.

All this occurred because the Redskins simply refused to bring in a legitimate free safety. The ones the team did draft were much like Landry; both Chris Horton and Reed Doughty are better close to the line of scrimmage too. In the end, the team even began working with Smoot the cornerback at the position.

Bringing in Haslett to coach what's there, the Redskins have nine of 11 starters in place for their new defense, which will allow the team to concentrate the bulk of its personnel acquisitions on the offense.

All of which means the team should get back to respectability that much quicker—and that's not such a bad thing.

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My blogging philosophy? Bob Dylan was right: play it loud - The Guardian

Posted: 13 Jan 2010 07:49 AM PST

Bob Dylan

Not in the ivory tower … Bob Dylan. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

I shouldn't really offer advice to celebrity tweeters and bloggers about handling the occasional shaft of abuse that may – just now and then – interrupt the civilised banter that is interactive online journalism. Stephen Fry's complaints about intemperate comments on his tweets recently drew attention to the pain that can be caused, the feelings that can be aroused, by the hurly-burly of these new media. He has stopped tweeting (albeit insisting that it's temporary, while he finishes a book).

So I won't offer advice on how to survive the storm of words, but I would like to propose a kind of aesthetic of blogging. Some writers seem to see it as an assault on their craft – and no wonder. For the past 250 years, going back to the rise of critics and pundits in the Enlightenment, authorship has been synonymous with authority. To be an author is to be a commanding voice – and that means by definition a singular voice, the more singular the better.

But the majestic author in a silent study is only one way of imagining authorship. In the Renaissance, a more polyphonous – "many-voiced" – attitude prevailed. The greatest writer ever, Shakespeare, didn't even try to publish his works in his lifetime: he shaped his plays in the give and take of popular theatre and threw away the most beautiful lines ever written at the groundlings. Who doubtless "blogged" back in their own way. Heckles are not recorded in the posthumous Folio edition, but surely they happened.

Modern creative figures have sometimes followed Shakespeare in choosing to speak against noise, instead of in the silence of the author's ivory tower. Bob Dylan is perhaps the most inspiring example to the modern journalist. In the early 60s, he played to silent, rapt audiences, but he chose to shatter that authority and to provoke people to answer back. The film of his contentious English tour, when he shocked folk fans with electric guitar and rumbling keyboards should be the inspiration to anyone who enters the lion's den of online journalism. "Judas", yells a heckler. Dylan turns to the band and delivers a manifesto: "Play it FUCKING LOUD."

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Central High offers first philosophy class in district - Chattanooga Times Free Press

Posted: 12 Jan 2010 08:58 PM PST

Walking through the doorway into John Daum's classroom at Central High School, students get a pretty good idea about his philosophy of life.

"Question everything," a sign beneath his nameplate reads. Under that is a piece of paper with nothing but a giant black question mark.

Mr. Daum has been teaching history and religion at Central for the past eight years, and this semester he got the opportunity to teach the class he says he's been waiting to teach his entire life: introduction to philosophy and ethics.

Mr. Daum, lead teacher in Central's humanities academy, has been instrumental in bringing electives such as film studies and world religions to the high school this year. So far, Central is the only public high school in Hamilton County to offer a philosophy course.

"To come to Central High School and get the liberal arts education we offer, that's an easy sell to parents," Mr. Daum said. "We're really trying to bring college down to high school."

The philosophy class is a senior-level elective meant to help students think about their own lives and figure out what they believe to be true, Mr. Daum said.

Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Kristin Shropshire writes questions Tuesday morning during an exercise in her philosophy class at Central High School.

Students in the class said they're excited about something that's so different from the typical math and English classes they're used to.

"I want to nail down my beliefs and, in preparation for college, listen to what other people believe," said senior Hannah Yancey, 18. "I want to develop my own philosophy of life."

Philosophy class begins at 7:20 a.m., and students say that on Thursdays they're planning to show up at 6:40 a.m. for a philosophy and coffee club.

"I love starting out my day thinking about these things," said senior Amy Gerlach, 17.

"Yeah, if you get this stuff off your chest first thing in the morning, it makes the day more meaningful," added Blake Smith, 18.

In his class, Mr. Daum said, he plans to make his students do more than memorize names of famous philosophers and their theories. Thanks to last week's snow days, the class was just getting under way Tuesday, and Mr. Daum had his students spend time brainstorming their questions about life.

Many students' papers were covered with questions they had written about spirituality, God and religion.

"I think I realized that there are a lot of things I don't know the answer to," said Brad Brown-Rinkvist, 18, during the ensuing class discussion. "Especially with religion: the existence of God, whether he is in control."

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Students will explore the key terms, thinkers and issues in the field of philosophy and ethics. The goal of the course is for the students to cultivate a curiosity about life. The course will serve as a catalyst for the students to discover their own philosophies of life. Students actively will engage the essential questions of the human experience and learn how to order and articulate their own beliefs.

After about 20 minutes of writing down questions, some students said they began to wonder if ignorance really is bliss.

"If you spend your whole life asking questions, are you really living life?" asked Rachel Cramer, 17.

Administrators at Central had to apply to the district and then the state Department of Education to receive a special course code to teach philosophy, said Ava Warren, Hamilton County Schools' assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. No other schools offer the course, but Dr. Warren said that once word gets out, she suspects other schools might follow suit.

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Honda’s design philosophy stresses function - KTVZ.com

Posted: 12 Jan 2010 08:15 PM PST

Honda isn't typically singled out for its design expertise. Instead, it is the fun-to-drive and rock-solid aspects of Honda vehicles that usually get top billing. But quietly, Honda has been capturing more and more international kudos for its leading-edge design work, and we were pleased to have the opportunity to meet with Nobuki Ebisawa, the corporate managing director and general manager of styling and design development, to talk about it.

Ebisawa stressed two simple and overarching themes for Honda design: dynamism and functionality. He said the company's designers still draw inspiration from the functional designs of the first-generation Civic and first-generation Accord that were drawn in the same nondescript design studio in which Ebisawa and his crew work today. And at the same time, they look back all the way to the 1963 S500 sports car to channel the dynamism that helps set the brand apart. 

Ebisawa is proud of what he calls "an unbroken chain of dynamism and functionality" that stretches from those earliest models through the legendary Acura NSX sports coupe of the '90s to the Honda Odyssey minivan that transformed its segment. He expects that the upcoming hybrid Honda CR-Z, which was shown in concept form at the recent Tokyo Motor Show, will draw on both aspects of the Honda personality. Functionality will be characterized by the fuel-efficient hybrid drivetrain, and dynamism will be expressed by the car's style and fun-to-drive nature.

While the exterior design of Honda vehicles has not always been highly praised, the interior of its vehicles -- and especially their instruments and controls -- have routinely been lauded around the globe. Ebisawa cites his group's intense study of the "man-machine interface" for this, noting that Honda has long relied on the philosophy "Man maximum, machine minimum" in its designs. This means that Honda's controls are intended to be intuitive, not intrusive: to help the driver, not to challenge the driver or to make a design statement for design's sake.

An example of this effort is the bi-level instrument panel seen on the current Honda Civic. Intuitive operation and instant recognition were keys in the design, and Ebisawa said that in the "layered construction," perceived space is enhanced and line of sight movement minimized to prioritize information. Special effort goes into achieving natural hand position and create buttons that are easily understood. Ebisawa believes that voice support is the next frontier in making things simpler and more functional.

Since 2000, said Ebisawa, Honda design execs made the conscious decision to add emotional appeal to the company's vehicles without compromising functionality. In keeping with the "man maximum, machine minimum" philosophy, space has been intentionally reduced for mechanical components, and interior space with long rooflines has been increased to maximize usable roominess.

The Honda CR-Z, which will be launched next year, will encapsulate all these ideas in a vehicle that is functional and emotional, dynamic yet pragmatic. It draws on Honda's long heritage while at the same time presenting a new face and a new heart. The CR-Z will also be the harbinger of even more fascinating products from the carmaker that was once best known for its motorcycles.

Tom Ripley Driving Today Contributing Editor Tom Ripley writes frequently about the auto industry and the human condition from his home in Villeperce, France. He is a big fan of the art world. 

Copyright (c) 2009 Studio One Networks. All rights reserved.

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