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POPSWhy George Orwell wrote 1984 Orwell served in Burma as a member of The Indian Imperial police, saw poverty and failure, but the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Hitler, and the NAZIs, gave him a political direction, and his work after 1936, was to warn against the establishment of a totalitarian state. There is more at the site, with more background. Orwell died Seven months after 1984 was published, due to the effects of tuberculosis, and an allergic reaction to a new medication. While he was in Hospital, writing 1984 they took away his typewriter, but he continued to write longhand with a ballpoint pen, despite his failing health
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POPSWhat is the power of things we hold dear? "In the interest of enriching these connections, Turkle pairs each autobiographical essay with a text from philosophy, history, literature, or theory, creating juxtapositions at once playful and profound."
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POPSOnline Papers in Philosophy This is fantastic. What is the point of this site? Many philosophers provide drafts of new papers on their websites; Online Papers in Philosophy keeps track of all the sites I’m aware of, and alerts readers to newly posted papers. Here are the sites I am currently tracking. (Actually, that list might not be completely up-to-date; as new pages are submitted, I add them to the list that my software uses; I periodically update the online list to match.) Checking in regularly with OPP will keep you aware of at least most of the new papers being posted on the web. Check out which sites are being tracked here: http://philosophy.jollyutter.net/opp/?page_id=6 I just clipped a few papers, click source ... really ...
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POPS"Politics and the English Language" - George Orwell Geroge Orwell on the art of writing clear English and how the language is abused at the hands of politics. One of Orwell's most famous essays and still as relevant as ever. Advice from the author: 1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. 3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. 4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable.
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POPSPhilosophers without Gods
From book blurb on site: Atheists are frequently demonized as arrogant intellectuals, antagonistic to religion, devoid of moral sentiments, advocates of an "anything goes" lifestyle. Now, in this revealing volume, nineteen leading philosophers open a window on the inner life of atheism, shattering these commonstereotypes as they reveal how they came to turn away from religious belief. These highly engaging personal essays capture the marvelous diversity to be found among atheists, providing a portrait that will surprise most readers. Many of the authors, for example, express great affection for particular religious traditions, even as they explain why they cannot, in goodconscience, embrace them. None of the contributors dismiss religious belief as stupid or primitive, and several even express regret that they cannot, or can no longer, believe. Perhaps more important, in these reflective pieces, they offer fresh insight into some of the oldest and most difficultproblems facing the h
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POPSWhy Nude Recreation? See also: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/8CCCEAB7-A413-4A47-9E18-03B3BD4F3F3C/ and: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/FB61BFCC-2C0B-40FA-A0DB-38449512EE0D and: http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3100
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POPS"There is no question more important to us than our mortality" "A second possibility is more daring and probably much harder to become a reality. Combine human cloning with a mechanism to store all our memories in a giant database. Inject the clone of a certain age with the corresponding memories. Voil€! Will this clone be you? No one really knows. Certainly, just the clone without the memories won’t do. We are what we remember. To keep on living with the same identity, we must keep on remembering (unless you don’t like yourself). So, assuming such tremendous technological jump is even feasible, we could migrate to a new copy of ourselves.”
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POPSPenguins Penguin Books is a British publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane. Lane's idea was to provide quality writing cheaply, for the same price as a pack of cigarettes. He also wanted them to be sold not only in bookshops but in railway stations, general stores and corner shops.
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POPSEinstein's Essays on Society Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society. The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil. (Albert Einstein, 1949)
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