Wikipedia: Ed Poor

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Software Engineer, father of two. Interested in philosophy, science (and the history of both), pizza, music, children, and world peace -- not necessarily in that order.

Among my contributions are:

I have mucked around with:

I am harboring possibly stupid stuff at:

I love science, but I am only a layman

I have been trying to remove "bias" from Wikipedia articles on controversies dear to me, but I recognize that what I call "bias" may merely be ideas I misunderstand. I may in some cases also fail to distinguish between personal belief and documented fact, whether through wishful thinking or sheer sloppiness. Feel free to set me straight at any time. When I feel I've absorbed the lesson, I'll add it to my /Learning page.

I respond to praise, reason, and pizza -- not necessarily in that order!!

Hi Ed, I just wanted to say welcome to Wikipedia, and tell you not to be discouraged by criticism of your contributions; its par for the course around here. You don't seem to be taking it personally though, and that will take you far around here. :) --STG

Ed, on MichaelTinkler/Talk you'd asked about Galileo and his struggles with the church. After the Greeks a lot had been lost, or put on the back burner, even during Roman times. But there was still a lot there, and throughout the Middle Ages there was a great deal of interest in ancient philosophy. At the time of Galileo the works of Aristotle were widely supported, and the church had recently decided to adhere to them dogmatically. This second was a temporary development, owing to attempts to define a more comprehensive canon for Catholicism in the face of religious criticism. A century earlier the heliocentric theory of Copernicus passed with little remark, and actually the church initially showed a relatively large amount of leniency with Galileo, allowing him for instance to right a comparison of heliocentric and geocentric models so long as he didn't attempt a full scale attack on the church's position. He did, of course, and was forbidden from publishing as a result. Later, when a friend of his became the pope, he decided to risk publishing something anyways, and this is what got him in trouble - mainly because the pope saw the Aristotelian Simplicio as a caricature of himself. All in all it can be said that, though the church was being oppressive, Galileo showed a considerable lack of tact in dealing with it, and was unlucky to be alive at that particular time. Only a relatively short while later Kepler and Newton found themselves essentially unopposed from that quarter.

Looking for a home for the following observation:

: Many religious people and theologians study scriptures in their original language. Jews who can, study the Torah in Hebrew. Christians and New Testament scholars study Aramaic or ancient Greek. Krishna devotees study Sanskrit to study the Baghvad-Gita (sp?), and Unificationists (are told to) study Korean to understand the [Divine Principle]? and the sermons of Sun Myung Moon.

I really don't know what to make of this. Is there any article this belongs to? --Ed Poor

: Hi Ed. I think the best place would be on the Scriptures page. It should be very easy to work in, especially since tht pageis a bit of a mess it the moment. :) It would probably be useful to include what language the scriptures of each reigion were originally written in, too. BTW, Christian scholars also study Hebrew. --STG

Hi Ed! Welcome (kinda late, I know...). Just wanted to say that it's great that you are so open to people checking you for NPOV, etc., but I've been wondering what draws you to write on subjects (especially as a major contributor) where you seem to be pretty sure you will have trouble being neutral...Not that this is bad -- I'm just being nosy! ;-) JHK

: Why should that be a problem? I'll just lay out the "truth" as I see it, same as anyone else -- then we can all wikify the heck out of the article. All opinion removed or attributed, and so on.

: Suppose, for example that I believed that corporations were wicked but free markets were good? Would that automatically disqualify me from authorship on those two topics?

: To take another example, many of the writers and for the Washington Times and the World&I magazine are members of the Unification Church, but they manage to attain enough journalistic objectivity as to be taken seriously. As a conservative paper the Washington Times isn't seen as any more biased (in its news reporting) than liberal papers such as the Washington Post or New York Times. (At least, I think not, but I don't know much about politics.)

: I believe it is possible for a person with strong opinions to express them in an acceptable form, so long as that form does not require an explicit repudiation. NPOV forever! Ed Poor

Hello Ed. This is H.W. Clihor. I see social dynamics as a field of study was removed because a source said it wasn't a viable area of study. I'm not sure who your source is, but situational dynamics as well as Social Psychology have been around for years. It is now multi-disciplanary in scope. Here are a few citations with only a limited 45 minutes of research:

Iverson Software: Glossary / Dictionary of Terms & Terminology of Sociology definition of the situation - The determination of which statuses and roles are relevant in a social situation.

Thomas and Thomas (1928) wrote "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (page 571-572). W.I. Thomas and D.S. Thomas (1928). The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

See the site regarding contributors to modern sociology: http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/INDEX.HTML, including W.I. Thomas' expanded definition of a situation. From W. I. Thomas, The Unadjusted Girl. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1923

CRIME PROFILES The Anatomy of Dangerous Persons, Places, and Situations Second Edition Terance D. Miethe, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Richard C. McCorkle?, University of Nevada, Las Vegas ISBN 1-891487-54-X (amazon.com, search)

New Brunswick 2001 Summer Session Catalog SOCIOLOGY 920 UNDERGRADUATE : INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY: Relations between social structure and psychological structure; processes of socialization; interaction of biological, situational, and social factors on personality and behavior.

Labeling Theory and Ethnomethodology (these ideas are drawn from Goode: 1994, 1997, 2001; and Pfohl, Images of Deviance and Social Control, 1985) Theoretical Perspective rooted in Symbolic Interactionism The Definition of the Situation. Verstehen (insiders view, Goode, "On Behalf of Labeling Theory"). Action is based on meaning, Meaning is created through interaction, Meaning is continually modified and interpreted. Focus on the situational dynamics out of which meaning emerges. Social Response <http://www.crimetheory.com/Archive/Response/index.html>;

Research: Mailman School of Public Health: Columbia University: New York City. Situational Contexts of Gun Use Among Young Males This research examines the situational and transactional dynamics by which disputes escalate either to lethal gun violence or to non-violent outcomes.

Scientifically Dissecting Violence Canela-Cacho, MacCoun? Are Part of an International, Interdisciplinary Consortium to Develop Theories on Violence by Fernando Quintero Copyright 1996, The Regents of the University of California. Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley His interests include analysis of social situations that lead to violence, particularly the impact of drug dealing on communities. "Right now, we know remarkably little about the dynamics of community violence," MacCoun? said. "Does putting a drug dealer behind bars create a situation for violence because it opens up the potential for turf wars? We don't know the answers to these kinds of questions."

A compelling HIV prevention study released today by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation Compelling HIV prevention study by SFAF sheds new light on sexual risk-taking among gay and bisexual men Condom access not the issue -- situational dynamics often barriers to protected sex

Drs. Thomas Petee and Janice Wittekind of Auburn University presented a talk called, "Mass Murder in America: Copycat Effects and Other Situational Dynamics."

Jill Harries, Law and Empire in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. ix, 235. ISBN 0-521-41087-8 (amazon.com, search) Reviewed by Charles Pazdernik, Emory University In place of institutions and static constitutional formulae, H.'s emphasis is upon situational dynamics and shifting coalitions of interest groups comprising both the organs of Roman government and the parties to particular disputes which become the subjects of litigation.

THE JOURNAL OF JAPANESE STUDIES Abstract Takeyuki Tsuda The Stigma of Ethnic Difference: The Structure of Prejudice and "Discrimination" toward Japan's New Immigrant Minority

By analyzing the "negative minority" status of Japanese-Brazilian return migrants in Japan, this paper explores the complex relationship between ethnic prejudice and discriminatory behavior in the context of the experience of self, relative social status, and social situational pressures. A rather complex structure of Japanese ethnic prejudice toward the Japanese-Brazilians has developed based on the stigma of their past emigration legacy, their currently low social position as unskilled migrant workers, their "Brazilian" cultural characteristics, and psychocultural feelings of ethnic "impurity." The direct expression of such derogatory attitudes in discriminatory Japanese behavior varies according to the dual structure of self and shifting situational dynamics.

Volume 24, Number 2 (Summer 1998)

Mermaids and Ethics: The Role of Women in Organisations Eva E Tsahuridu Edith Cowan University, Faculty of Business & Public Management Pearson Street, Churchlands, Western Australia 6018 Hoffman's (1998) research attributes the lack of consensus in the ethical responses between males and females to the fact that the situational dynamics affect an individual's response, and in some instances gender and situational dynamics combine to affect an individual's ethical response

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIANS. MIRONENKO, Irina A.; Humanitarian University of TU, St. Petersburgh, Russia. An important part of the totalitarian system in soviet Russia was the ideology higherly integrate and comprising all aspects of social life: education, art, mass media, etc. The system was aimed at creating in all soviet people a congruent and positive image of the world and self-concept. No one could escape this influence and for every Russian the crash of the totalitarism implied a loss of this congruence. In the light of the Cognitive Dissonance theory a number of psychological phenomena are viewed concerning situational dynamics of personality and self-identification and its impell on social adaptation and political sympathies. The major plot of the empirical data considered relates to attitudes and behavioral performance towards mass media.

While I am not sure this will impact your decision or not, it is being studied carefully by Criminology, Sociology, Psychology, Ethics, Ethnology, Anthropology and (-- Because of our newer understanding of complex animal and insect behavior -- Biology.) and quite a few other disciplines. But Social Psychology is where it germinated, thanks to W.I. Thomas early in the 20th century.

-- H.W. Clihor. If you would like to dicuss this further, feel free to contact me at: tekumel@hotmail.com anytime.

: Looks like you have the makings of an article there, pal. When you have it written and are ready to post it, there's an empty page waiting for you at Social Dynamics. <= Click on the little question mark, and good luck.

Thanks for considering my information Ed. If you could please spare some expert advice. I know the article as written is somewhat clinical and not concise enough. Should I remove the annotations within the explanatory text and place them at the bottom?