Resources for September 24, 2014

"Members of Pussy Riot Launch Independent News Service in Russia." Voice Project (September 4, 2014)

Cronk, Jordan. "Mean Streets." Reverse Shot (September 19, 2014)







Orr, Christopher. "Burn After Reading: Sex farce masquerades as a spy flick in the brothers' blackest comedy." The Atlantic (September 30, 2014)





I disagree with everything you say, but I shall fight to the death for your right to say it -- Voltaire (1694-1778)


'As we are told endlessly, journalists do not express opinions; they simply report the facts. ... 'This is an obvious pretense, a conceit of the profession. The perceptions and pronouncements of human beings are inherently subjective. Every news article is the product of all sorts of highly subjective cultural, nationalistic, and political assumptions. And all journalism serves one faction's interests or another.' (Greenwald, Glenn. No Place To Hide, 2014, p.471)


Orr, Christopher. "Blood Simple: Revisiting the lethal cunning of the filmmakers’ debut." The Atlantic (September 8, 2014)


Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day

teleological \tel-ee-uh-LAH-jih-kul\

adjective: exhibiting or relating to design or purpose especially in nature

EXAMPLES:

At dinner, Sandra and Miguel debated whether or not the complex structure of the human eye implied a teleological origin.

"There is also something of a teleological aspect to all this urbanization hoopla, one that suggests that man was put on this planet to shop at Whole Foods." — Lionel Beehner, USA Today, February 25, 2014

Teleological (which comes to us by way of New Latin from the Greek root tele-, telos, meaning "end or purpose") and its close relative teleology both entered English in the 18th century, followed by teleologist in the 19th century. Teleology has the basic meaning of "the study of ends or purposes." A teleologist attempts to understand the purpose of something by looking at its results. A teleological philosopher might argue that we should judge whether an act is good or bad by seeing if it produces a good or bad result, and a teleological explanation of evolutionary changes claims that all such changes occur for a definite purpose.