Posted: 05 Jan 2010 09:32 AM PST

Outskirts Press, Inc. has published Evolving Towards the Truth: Meditations on God, the Soul and Enlightenment--A Guide for Searchers by Jeff Kosmoski, which is the author's most recent book to date. The 6 x 9 paperback white in the PHILOSOPHY / Mind & Body category is available worldwide on book retailer websites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble for a suggested retail price of $19.95. The webpage at www.outskirtspress.com/EvolvingTowardstheTruth was launched simultaneously with the book's publication.

About the Book (Excerpts & Info)

Evolving Towards the Truth is a guide for searchers.
Spiritual searchers.
Searchers of the Truth.

Not the "small t" truths of yore.
Not the "small t" truths of conjecture, superstition and fear.
But the real, "Capital T" Truth.

Today, we live in spiritually challenging times.
Man's scientific discoveries regarding his universe, his origins, his body, and his mind often seem at odds with those comforting truths that come from his heart.

In the end however, there can only be one Truth.

Is there a God?
Is the Bible intellectually tenable?
Is it compatible with modern evolutionary theory?
What is the soul?
How can metaphysical consciousness arise from physical matter?
What should modern, enlightened man and woman believe, and how should their beliefs guide their lives?

One part theology, one part philosophy, and one part science, Evolving Towards the Truth provides a refreshing, "sound of two hands clapping" approach to discovering an intellectually tenable, intuitively satisfying spiritual Truth.

Deftly constructed at 315 pages, Evolving Towards the Truth: Meditations on God, the Soul and Enlightenment--A Guide for Searchers is being aggressively promoted to appropriate markets with a focus on the Philosophy / Mind & Body category. With U.S. wholesale distribution through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, and pervasive online availability through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere, Evolving Towards the Truth meets consumer demand through both retail and library markets with a suggested retail price of $19.95.

Additionally, Evolving Towards the Truth can be ordered by retailers or wholesalers for the maximum trade discount price set by the author in quantities of ten or more from the Outskirts Press wholesale online bookstore at www.outskirtspress.com/buybooks

ISBN: 9781432748128
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white
SRP: $19.95

For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/EvolvingTowardstheTruth

About the Author

Insatiably curious about matters of the spirit, inherently skeptical of all unsupportable claims, and comfortable with a scientific mindset, author Jeff Kosmoski brings a unique blend of qualifications to the endeavor of discovering spiritual Truth.

About Outskirts Press, Inc.

Outskirts Press, Inc. offers full-service, custom self-publishing and book marketing services for authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining all their rights and full creative control. Available for authors globally at www.outskirtspress.com and located on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, Outskirts Press represents the future of book publishing, today.

Honda’s design philosophy stresses function - KTVZ.com

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 07:59 AM 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.

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Mary Daly, pioneering feminist who tussled with BC - Boston Globe

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:47 PM PST

" 'The Church and the Second Sex' was every bit as important in the Catholic world as Betty Friedan's 'The Feminine Mystique,' " said James Carroll, an author and columnist for the Globe's opinion pages who formerly was a Catholic priest.

Sister Joan Chittister, a feminist author and a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pa., said Dr. Daly "literally turned the standard theological concepts upside down. Mary played with language in such a way that you simply had to stop and think. ... You couldn't use old words in the old ways."

Coining words with an Irish wit that could slip from sly to savage, Dr. Daly dismissed college officials as "bore-ocrats" who suffered from "academentia" and "predictably reacted with 'misterical' behavior" -- all in a 1996 autobiographical article for The New Yorker magazine. But beyond her choices to capitalize certain words and remold others like clay, she was deeply serious about language and the way it shapes a sense of self.

"Ever since childhood, I have been honing my skills for living the life of a Radical Feminist Pirate and cultivating the Courage to Sin," she wrote in the opening of "Sin Big," her New Yorker piece. "The word 'sin' is derived from the Indo-European root 'es-,' meaning 'to be.' When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a woman trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, 'to be' in the fullest sense is 'to sin.' "

Dr. Daly's career at BC, where she joined the theology department faculty in 1966, ultimately ended over what administrators, and many public commentators, saw as her sin of exclusivity. After the college went co-ed in the early 1970s, she only allowed women to take her classes, teaching a few men privately over the years.

She said the presence of men clouded the learning environment, and that a women-only classroom fell within the bounds of academic freedom.

"If a man were in the class he would be very likely to say, 'Oh, no. I am oppressed too.' ... He would say, 'I can't cry. I'm not allowed to express myself, wah, wah,' " she told the Globe in 1999.

The dispute spilled into the courts in the late 1990s when a male student hired a lawyer after Dr. Daly bared him from her class. The college tried to force her into retirement and she sued, claiming breach of contract.

In previous years, Dr. Daly had successfully fought BC's attempt to deny her tenure. This time, she and the college reached a settlement in 2001 and, at 72, she agreed to retire.

Those who knew Dr. Daly and her work, however, say the acrimonious dispute didn't diminish her contributions to feminist philosophy.

"I think she was a central figure for the feminist movement in the 20th century, and hopefully beyond," said Robin Morgan, who edited Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From the Women's Liberation Movement." "She had a fierce intellect and an uncompromising soul that sometimes gave even her most loving friends indigestion, but it was worth it. She redefined the parameters of philosophy. She called herself a feminist philosopher, and she really was -- she was the first.''

Chittister said: "Her legacy is a cloud of women witnesses and male theologians, too, who have now been released into whole new understandings of what the tradition really holds and really means for all of us, male and female. She was a great thinker, she was a great icon. She will be maligned by some, but history will see her very differently."

Dr. Daly grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., where her father was a traveling salesman, selling ice cream freezers. She wrote in The New Yorker that her mother, who "had been 'yanked out' of high school during her sophomore year," encouraged her to find a life outside the realm of housework.

Though she found academia generally inhospitable to a woman who wanted to study theology in the 1950s, she graduated from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., with a bachelor's degree, received a master's in English at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a doctorate in religion from St. Mary's College at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Teaching a few years left her unfulfilled, so she went to the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, from which she received four more graduate degrees in philosophy and theology.

"I was getting ready to Sin Big," she wrote in The New Yorker.

Her other books included "Gyn/Ecology, the Metaethics of Radical Feminism" (1978), "Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy" (1984), and "Websters' First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language," which she called "a dictionary for Wicked women" that she wrote with Jane Caputi in 1987.

One of Dr. Daly's caregivers was reading to her from the "Wickedary" when she died Sunday.

"She basically fairly clearly defined the outer limits of radical feminist theology," said Robert Daly, who chaired the theology department during much of Dr. Daly's tenure and was not related to her. "People around the world are generally grateful for her having done that."

An only child, Dr. Daly had no immediate survivors. Friends plan to schedule a memorial service, but noted that she had her own ideas of how her death should be marked.

"It was Mary's wish that if women or people want to memorialize her in any way they should stay in their own locality and have a get-together where they read or discuss her work," said Linda Barufaldi of San Diego, one of several former graduate students of Dr. Daly's who cared for her as her health declined.

Said Steinem: "In the way that painters and artists become more valuable after they're gone, I hope Mary will be kept alive by people going to her work."

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Offensive philosophy - Times Daily

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 01:25 AM PST

It's a skill Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain can list on his resume.

As the receivers and special team's coach at Michigan State from 2003-05, McElwain remembers one certain camp for high schoolers when a young running back caught his eye.

"Here was this little guy who was the best player in camp," McElwain said of the local player whose father played with the Spartans.

Move ahead a few years, and the assistant lands a job at Alabama only to hear coach Nick Saban tell him a running back from Michigan committed to the Tide.

"Don't tell me it's Mark Ingram," McElwain remembers asking. "That's a good get."

The last two seasons proved his eye for talent was sharp since Ingram went from a true-freshman backup to Alabama's single-season rushing leader and the school's first Heisman Trophy winner.

Gator helping Longhorn

Florida cornerback Joe Haden knows plenty about facing Alabama receivers.

His knowledge was passed along to friend Earl Thomas, Texas' star safety, in a Sunday evening phone conversation. The two were co-finalists for the Thorpe Award that went to Tennessee's Eric Berry as the nation's best defensive back.

Conference affiliations did not keep Haden from spilling the beans on the Tide.

"We had a long conversation," Thomas said Monday. "He was just telling about the running backs, were hand in hand, both of them were great. Julio (Jones) was a big receiver and he's physical. He said the offense was run, run and they'll play-action you so you have to have your eyes right."

Ingram double jinxed?

First came the Sports Illustrated cover.

A month later, Ingram won the Heisman Trophy. Superstitious observers would claim he's fighting against two bad omens when taking the Rose Bowl field Thursday evening.

The SI hex goes back years, but Heisman winners have had problems in bowl and championship games more in recent seasons.

Only two Heisman winners in the past decade claimed victory in bowl games after taking home the top individual honor in December.

None of that matters to Ingram, though.

"Everybody else is focused on little things like that, jinxes and Heisman performances," said Ingram who ran for a season-low 30 yards against Auburn on the week of his SI cover appearance. "We're not focused on all that. I'm not too worried about this Heisman jinx or anything like that."

No. 2 QB a mystery

Greg McElroy is Alabama's starter, but who would replace him if an injury knocks the junior out of the title game?

McElwain wouldn't say.

"It's one of those deals I hope we never have to worry about," he said. "I'll wait and make sure Greg is alright and we'll go from there."

He did mention the progress made by true freshman AJ McCarron, who shares the backup role with Star Jackson but has his redshirt in tact since he's yet to enter a game.

"Star did some great things," McElwain said. "And yet, AJ is going to push for it and he's done a really good job."

Haircut coming

Alabama receiver Julio Jones said it has taken him about three years to grow out his long hair, but he won't have it much longer.

"I'm going to cut it all off," he said.

When asked why, he answered, "Just because. I'll do it after the game."

When a reporter followed up with another question, asking what would happen to the hair, Jones showed a sense of humor that he doesn't display publicly often.

"I'll sell it," he said with a smile. "I'm just kidding."

McElroy's leadership

McElroy figures it's reasonable if some of his teammates have more faith in him after he led the Crimson Tide to a fourth-quarter touchdown to beat Auburn 26-21 in the last regular-season game of the season.

"I think they do look at me a little different," McElroy said. "If I saw someone step up, I might respond to them a little differently."

He added that sometimes a quarterback needs a moment like that.

"Sometimes you need a revelation," he said. "Sometimes you need to have your back against the wall and everybody saying, 'Greg, lead us.' "

Not a joke

McElwain joined the Crimson Tide after the 2007 season, but he nearly didn't because he didn't believe Saban really wanted to interview him.

McElwain hadn't crossed paths with Saban, even though both worked at Michigan State, although at different times. McElwain was an assistant there in 2003-05, while Saban was there in the 1990s.

"When he called me the first time, I thought it was one of my buddies messing with me," McElwain said.

McElwain figures his philosophy of offense isn't hard to grasp. After all, he jokes that he has only one essential general rule.

"Every offensive possession should end in a kick," he said.

Of course, that means a punt, a field goal or an extra point.

"If you do that, you're not giving the ball to the other guys," he added.

Alabama has given up only 10 turnovers this season. That is tied with Cincinnati for the lowest in Football Bowl Subdivision.

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College basketball capping a mix of chemistry, history and philosophy - Sbrforum.com

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 06:18 AM PST

With the college football season winding down this week it's time to turn your attention to college basketball. Get out your history, chemistry and philosophy books.

College basketball and NBA handicapping perhaps snuck up on others. But here is a look at some key angles in basketball betting.

Yes, we are "series-ous"

I often hear handicappers say they disregard series stats beyond the current season. On the surface their argument would pass any of those truth tables that we were taught in Philosophy class in testing logical conjunction.

Players and coaches often change, so the make-up of one or both teams can be significantly and even completely different than when a cycle of dominance started.

This truth is amplified in college sports where even redshirt athletes' careers are spread out over a maximum of five years. In top shelf basketball conferences often the stars have a one- or two-year cup of java before turning pro. Take for example the 2005 NCAA basketball national champion North Carolina, which lost all five starters.

One could present a lucent argument that anything North Carolina did even the previous year was irrelevant in forecasting the near future. Certainly any college team that has nine-year dominance over another even if not justified in talent match-ups would seem immaterial. After all, some players on each team were nine years old at the commencement of the streak.

But such a simplistic view brushes off the mental aspect of the game. In sports there is no shortage of strange superstitions, so completely disregarding that one team can have a certain mystique even if it's not warranted by players currently wearing the uniforms, can be costly.

Trendmeisters who blindly bet series stats, oblivious to the fact the status are no longer in quo are at the other and admittedly more naïve extreme. But don't out-think yourself.

Series stats should be handled with great caution and kept into their proper perspective. But the confidence level in each team or lack thereof that history can bring should not abandoned.

Those who ignore history in handicapping are doomed to not defeat it.

Not just history, but chemistry too

It happens often in the NBA, but applies in every sport. Often a star player will miss a significant number of games because of injury, but a team will play well without him. In virtually all cases, getting the star player back of course is a positive in the long term.

However we handicap that if a team prospered without him, more times than not they do take the proverbial step back before moving forward.

Of course when a stud returns to the lineup the pointspread will move in that team's direction causing further line value. The window of opportunity is rarely longer than two games.

Still, never fail to think about a key player returning to the lineup for a team streaking in the positive direction and how it does more times than not rattle a harmonious situation. Anticipating this and the temporary nature of it will turn several frowns upside down in each sport.

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Philosophy

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

“Evolving Towards the Truth, the Latest Highly-Anticipated Philosophy ... - PR-USA.net” plus 4 more

“Evolving Towards the Truth, the Latest Highly-Anticipated Philosophy ... - PR-USA.net” plus 4 more

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