The Art of Slow Reading

The art of slow reading Patrick Kingsley If you’re reading this article in print, chances are you’ll only get through half of what I’ve written. And if you’re reading this online, you might not even finish a fifth. These are the two findings from two recent research projects, which both suggest that many of us no longer have the concentration to read articles through to their conclusion. The problem doesn’t just stop there: academics report that we are becoming less attentive book-readers, too. So are we getting stupider?Is that what this is about? Sort of. According to The Shallows, a new book by technology sage Nicholas Carr, our hyperactive online habits are damaging the mental faculties we need to process and understand lengthy textual information. Round-the-clock news feeds leave us hyperlinking from one article to the next – without necessarily engaging fully with any of the content; our reading is frequently interrupted by the ping of the latest email; and we are now absorbing short bursts of words on Twitter and Facebook more regularly than longer texts.Because of the internet, we have become very good at collecting a wide range of information, but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, contemplate, and relate all these facts to each other. Still reading? You’re probably in a dwindling minority. But no matter: a literary revolution is at hand. First we had slow food, then slow travel. Now, those campaigns are joined by a slow-reading movement – a disparate bunch of academics and intellectuals who want us to take our time while reading, and re-reading.They ask us to switch off our computers every so often and rediscover both the joy of personal engagement with printed texts, and the ability to process them fully. Lancelot Fletcher, the first present-day author to popularise the term â€Å"slow reading†, argues that slow reading is not so much about unleashing the reader’s cr eativity, as uncovering the author’s. And while Fletcher used the term initially as an academic tool, slow reading has since become a more wide-ranging concept.Slow reading, like slow food, is now, at root, a localist idea which can help connect a reader to his neighbourhood. Slow reading is a community event restoring connections between ideas and people. The continuity of relationships through reading is experienced when we borrow books from friends; when we read long stories to our kids until they fall asleep. But our era’s technological diarrhea is bringing more and more slow readers to the fore. Keith Thomas, the Oxford history professor, is one such reader.He doesn’t see himself as part of a wider slow community, but has nevertheless recently written about his bewilderment at the hasty reading techniques in contemporary academia. â€Å"I don’t think using a search engine to find certain key words in a text is a substitute for reading it properly,â €  he says. â€Å"You don’t get a proper sense of the work, or understand its context. † â€Å"The words of the writer,† suggests sage Nicholas Carr, â€Å"act as a catalyst in the mind of the reader, inspiring new insights, associations, and perceptions. And, perhaps even more significantly, it is only through slow reading that great literature can be cultivated in the future. As Carr writes, â€Å"the very existence of the attentive, critical reader provides the spur for the writer’s work. It gives the author the confidence to explore new forms of expression, to blaze difficult and demanding paths of thought, to venture into uncharted and sometimes hazardous territory. † The internet is probably part of the problem. It accustoms us to new ways of reading and looking and consuming. It fragments our attention span in a way that’s not ideal if you want to read.The real issue with the internet may be that it erodes, slowly, one’s se nse of self, one’s capacity for the kind of pleasure in isolation that reading has, since printed books became common, been standard. What’s to be done, then? Most slow readers realise that total rejection of the web is extremely unrealistic, but many felt that temporary isolation from technology was the answer. Some people have advocated turning their computer off for one day a week. But, given the pace at which most of us live, do we even have time? Some people think the iPad might just be the answer.It’s pleasant and fun, and doesn’t remind people of work. But, for the true slow reader, there’s simply no substitute for particular aspects of the paper book: the binding of a book captures an experience or idea at a particular space and time. And even the act of storing a book is a pleasure. Personally, I’m not sure I could ever go offline for long. Even while writing this article I was flicking constantly between sites, skimming too often, absorbing too little; internet reading has become too ingrained in my daily life for me to change.I read essays and articles not in hard copy but as PDFs, and I’m more comfortable churning through lots of news features from several outlets than just a few from a single print source. I suspect that many readers are in a similar position. But if, like me, you just occasionally want to read more slowly, help is at hand. You can download a computer application called Freedom, which allows you to read in peace by cutting off your internet connection. Or if you want to remove adverts and other distractions from your screen, you could always download offline reader Instapaper for your iPhone. If you’re still reading, that is.

Control of the Distribution of Goods from the Colonies Essay

Control of the Distribution of Goods from the Colonies - Essay Example Enumerated goods are goods not available naturally in England, which included wood, tobacco, sugar, dyes, hemp, furs, coffee, silk, and other native items from conquered lands. While items like coffee and sugar were luxuries, other items like wood were necessities. If England controlled the enumerated good of wood, construction on British projects was advanced. The more ships built meant a greater navy. A greater navy would not only conquer more colonies but could be used against other European countries. Enumerated goods helped England fortify their position as a leader. Â  England controlled the distribution of enumerated goods in order to provide for the British. The enumerated goods of coffee, sugar, cocoa, silk, and furs helped boost the economy. Shipbuilders and crews would give the government a tax or percentage of each cargo. The crews would receive salaries. Then the backer of the expedition would receive money for the rest of the cargo. The merchants that bought the items would sell them to the public making a profit. The consumer would receive these luxuries. The England and the British colonies were benefiting from these goods economically as well as politically. Â  Finally, the control of enumerated goods encouraged English shipbuilding. The wood used to build ships was harvested from native lands. The more wood that England controlled, the more ships could be built. Ships were the key to exploration, colony formation, and the importation of enumerated goods. A greater number of English ships meant more exploration, colony formation, and importing of enumerated goods could be achieved. Â  Domestic shipbuilding also took pressure off of the Crown. If rich individuals were building ships, the Crown benefited. Without any expense of their own, the Crown would tax cargo and shipments. They were receiving money without any cost.

How strong was Tsarism in 1914 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

How strong was Tsarism in 1914 - Essay Example If one looks at Russia before 1914 it may be possible to come to some ending about these various views. In the course of 1905 to 1907 there had been significant peasant unrest intended mainly at the gracious landowners. ‘’A lot of this had been put downward by oppression but the government also approved a number of measures intended to alleviate the circumstances, including the elimination of redemption duties and the addition of credit via the Peasant Land Bank’’ (Wade, 2005.p.25). ‘’Once he became Prime Minister, Stolypin set himself the job of pacifying the peasantry as the key to Russia’s long-term stability’’ (Gatrell, 1994.p.461). During the conflict, the administration had observed that the community had not been a warranty of rural steadiness. Indeed, it gave turbulence their consistency and organization. Thus, the solution was to support peasants to leave the community and to become confidential landowners. ‘ ’Stolypin’s plan was to make a group of peasant administrators with a stake in sustaining the regime (Polonov, 2005.p.50)’’. They could then be relied on to hold their radical neighbours in check. The rationale Stolypin surrendered the Duma for the agrarian reorganization was his wish to make a class of small, free farmers a gamble on the abstemious and the strong, which would be hard working and innovative. It was felt that the presented system encouraged the rising disintegration of the land because of the rise in population, and did not give the incentive to make advancements because the land did not stay in the family. In quintessence, what Stolypin planned was privatization. In August 1906, Stolypin prepared 6 million hectares of state and crown land obtainable for peasant buying and in October, the new management eliminated all limitations on peasant movement. Nevertheless, ‘’the key measure was his Land Law of 9 November 1906’⠀™ (Geary, 1989.p.17).’’The verdict passed this and Duma did not approve until June 1910’’ (Gatrell, 1994.p.78). ‘’It stated that in the third duma (1907-12) the main position was held by the Union of 17 October , the date of the regal manifesto of 1905, which was dedicated to working with the administration for improvement in the agrarian civil rights , field, worker’s insurance, education, justice and local regime’’(Mendum & Waugh,2001.p.47). They approved Stolypin’s agrarian improvement, passed unevenly under disaster verdict in 1906. ‘’The graciousness, which had endorsed Stolypin’s agrarian improvement, opposed him on a number of other problems where they felt their welfare or that of the realm threatened and they used their central location’’ (Saul, 1997.p. 45). If the duma had a small number of successful changes to its credit, it did alter extremely the climate of Russi an government by bringing bureaucrat mistreatments out into the open, and by empowering public talk of contentious problems. ‘’From 1912 there was a renaissance of workers’ actions following the slaughter of activists at the Lena gold mines in Siberia’’ (Bagnall & McGonigle, 2004.p.481) ‘’. Ultimately, this caused the erection of blockades and to street hostility in St Petersburg on the eve of the First World War’’ (Saul, 1997.p.34). ‘’Visions of a latest era of industrial harmony and prosperity were rudely shattered by a fresh wave of Labour complaint that began in April, 1912, once

Attitude of the Socrates towards the gods in Euthyphro Essay

Attitude of the Socrates towards the gods in Euthyphro - Essay Example "But I will not change the definition to say that what all the gods hate is unholy, and what they all love is holy and what some of them love and another hate is both or neither" (Biffle 14).This paper seeks to analyze the attitude that Socrates has over the gods in Euthyphro. The discussion concerns the virtue that is usually considered as a manner of the living that helps to complete one's role either at the individual level or to God. It is of a specific interest as far as the fate of the Socrates is concerned even though he has been charged with impiety, and he is almost facing trial before the court to determine whether he is guilty or innocent. He is quite sure that most of the Athenian people has little understanding of the very nature of piety or impiety and thus forcing Socrates to ask Euthyphro a question about his understanding of the piety. He has a good reason for doing this: he wants to justify if Euthyphro is really wise as he usually claims to be, and if he is not Socrates is very ready to expose the depth of his claim. Euthyphro has a good reputation amongst his people of being very wise, a soothsayer, and he is also known to be a diviner. On his role as a teacher, he instructs his people on both political and moral issues and even on the practical problems of the daily life.

Current real estate market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Current real estate market - Essay Example at are easy to distinguish from regular paragraph content, but the online format has been cleverly designed to be more practical and versatile for the everyday user, especially if that user happens to be a buyer, seller, or real estate professional. The purpose of this essay is to describe the content found in the real estate section of a newspaper of this type—including updates on interest rates, surveys of construction costs and sales prices, and articles referencing legislation or other issues that have an effect on the real estate market—as well as to respond to the located material, pointing out how such content could be helpful to a real estate appraiser. Located in the center of the real estate section of the newspaper’s website was an absolutely indispensable tool to a real estate appraiser. It provided links to articles and information on some incredibly specific areas related to real estate, including general real estate news; homes; condos; second homes; money issues; trends; and neighborhood information. Clearly, such a vast wealth of information can be utilized using this tool that it has been categorized to make it easier for those with a vested interest in real estate to locate what they are searching for. Interest rate information was available through two major sources in the newspaper: articles discussing interest rate trends and tools and calculators that would allow one to calculate such a rate using information such as the purpose of their desired loan, the type of loan, the discount point range, and the estimated loan amount. Obviously, tools of this type can only provide rough estimates as financial figures such as interest rates are based on a variety of factors outside of the tool’s capabilities, such as creditworthiness. There were literally tons of articles in the newspaper that pointed to a vast increase in the number of foreclosures over the course of the past year, provided information detailing the differences between

VACUUM ASSIGNMENT Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

VACUUM - Assignment Example were developed and used to meet the stringent demands on these semiconductor devices. However, the semiconductor films produced by these processes were not structurally equivalent t the bulk material and hence were not of device grade. The problem associated with vapor phase deposition processes was differential vapor pressure of different constituents. For example vapor pressure of Ga and As differs by as much as two orders of magnitude at temperatures useful for thin film deposition. Therefore, to achieve equal vapor pressure and hence equal flux of arrival of Ga and As on the substrate by thermal evaporation of separate As and Ga sources will require too stringent control on the temperature to be achieved [1]. Many research groups tried to overcome this limitation by innovative approaches. One remarkable approach by Collins et al [2] involved using two separate crucibles containing Ga and Sb to deposit films of GaSb onto a glass substrate by evaporating these substances. His basic idea was to exploit decrease in angular decrease in the flux and hence to place the substrate at an angular location with respect to the individual crucibles where the two atomic fluxes will be equal and hence a stoichiometric film will be produced. However, the films he could produce were polycrystalline. GÏ‹nter K. G. [3] tried to arrive at appropriate vapor ratio by control of the temperatures of the evaporating species and the substrate separately. However, he could also not produce quality ordered films. During those days (1960 s) it was not easy to characterize the condition of the substrate, the quality of the vacuum and the composition and crystallinity of the films. The researchers had to do electron-diffraction after growing the films and this was taking much longer. It was development of small mass spectrometers, auger electron spectroscopy and compact electron diffraction instruments which made it

Chicago as global city_Census analysis_1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 Dissertation

Chicago as global city_Census analysis_1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 - Dissertation Example Methodological Framework. For the purposes of the present study, a problematique of urban restructuring serves as its principal object. With this in mind, two core aspects will be highlighted. The first one is connected with the occupational shift brought about by neoliberal globalization, which is inescapably followed by the emergence of the â€Å"dual city† (Mollenkopf and Castells) class structure, i.e. the development of the new professional-managerial class, on the one hand, and the growth of the ranks of service worker-composed underclass, on the other. The latter aspect is, in fact, adjacent to the former one, resulting from the need to cope with the problem of the formation of new consumption models that are directly tied to the newest changes in production/occupational patterns. For that reason, the research in post-modern urban geography, with a specific focus on its relationship with capitalism, is of utmost importance – as demonstrated, inter alia, by the pi votal works by David Harvey. That said, an examination of the intricacies of the neoliberal transformation of Chicago in the decades from the 1980 on is scarcely possible without taking into account the results of the censuses that document the demographical changes that transpired in the city for the duration of this period. That is why it is necessary to turn the attention of a researcher to these data. Chicago Census Data as a Source. The main purpose of a census is to provide information on socio-economic and demographic variables of a given population groups. That is why the use of U.S. Censuses and related datasets are of utmost importance within the context of the present study. The comparative analysis of the cumulative changes in Chicago’s demographics and particularly occupational structure will be duly reflected in this study’s analysis. Chicago’s Data for the Period of 1980 – 1990 Summary. Within this period, the city of Chicago still retained certain basic elements of a Fordist, industry-dominated, social structure. The following table may reflect some underlying trends that nevertheless brought about a gradual shift towards a more ‘post-modern’ situation. Missouri State Census Data Center: Basic Demographic Trend Report United States Cities AREA: Chicago city GEOCODE:17-1051 IL ------1980------ ------1990------ ----CHANGE---- CHG VARIABLE VALUE PCT VALUE PCT AMOUNT PCT IN % ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- T1. TOTAL PERSONS....... 3,005,078 100.0% 2,783,726 100.0% -221352 -7.4 LIVING IN FAMILIES.... 2,519,648 83.8% 2,274,594 81.7% -245054 -9.7 -2.1 IN GROUP QUARTERS..... 46,066 1.5% 46,903 1.7% 837 1.8 0.2 IN RURAL AREAS........ 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0 T2. RACE / HISPANIC WHITE................. 1,512,411 50.3% 1,265,953 45.5% -246458 -16.3 -4.9 AFRICAN-AMERICAN...... 1,197,174 39.8% 1,086,389 39.0% -110785 -9.3 -0.8 ASIAN & PAC. ISLANDER. 73,745 2.5% 104,141 3.7% 30,396 41.2 1.3 AM. INDIAN, ESK. ALEUT 6,804 0.2% 6,761 0.2% -43 -0.6 0.0 HISPANIC (ANY RACE)... 423,357 14.1% 535,315 19.2% 111,958 26.4 5.1 T3. PERSONS BY AGE UNDER 5............... 231,181 7.7% 214,994 7.7% -16,187 -7.0 0.0