The election of the 44th President of The United States in November of last year caused many people to break out the holiday cheer a little early in anticipation of a new era of change. Obama's Inauguration on January 20th caused much the same reaction, as hopeful people poured into the streets to show their support. Both days had that near-holiday atmosphere about them. Both days will likely go down in history. But President Obama's Inaugural Address was fundamentally different from President-Elect Obama's acceptance speech.
As his now famous acceptance speech was written to celebrate the moment, to take a collective step back and look at what had been accomplished, it rightfully took on an almost joyful tone. It could be described as a pep talk to get the world through it's last two months of Bush, giving us something to really look forward to in the New Year. He also had an "element of surprise" for his acceptance speech, in that everyone was anticipating the election result, not the speeches afterwards, which benefited him when he pulled a first-class speech out of his pocket.
His Inaugural Address, however, had no element of surprise, and had less celebrate. He couldn't draw out the "look at me! I'm a black President!" factor much further, so he had to cut a path between looking back, looking down, and looking forward. And he managed it brilliantly. Following Winston Churchill's example, he promised no easy way out, but stated to Americans that through their time-tested hard work and determination, they could pull their country out of a spiral into the economic abyss. He also renewed Americas perpetual promise to extend a helping hand to those who need it.
Obama also promised "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, recriminations and worn out dogmas" that have plagued American politics in recent years; a new way forward in conjunction with the Muslim world; and, perhaps most importantly, to Obama at least, a return to the old, true values that used to drive America.
As for the new President's oratorical skill, he's the only human being capable of captivating the world with the instructions to an IKEA furniture set. He is incapable, so far, of speaking poorly, and always presents as thoroughly convincing, and comfortable in front of an audience. He has passion and energy, but not in overwhelming or inappropriate proportions. He says what needs to be said, and isn't afraid of saying. All in all, he's just plain brilliant.
In the words of Robin Williams, he's just a tanned Kennedy.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Mary Rogan on Josef Penninger
It's not often that we study the work of a classmates parent in class. In fact, I don't recall ever doing that before. It certainly does not detract from the article, however.
Ms. Rogan's sources are well chosen, and she makes the most of each of them. She appears to be tenacious in her pursuance of sources close to her subject, even travelling to Austria to speak with Mr. Josef Penninger's family, and some of his early teachers. She does not, however, appear to do this in an intrusive or rude way. That is critical when doing pieces like this. As demonstrated in the previous article of hers that we read, "Acts of Faith", she goes to great length to ensure that she is on good terms with the Dueck family, including buying Tyrel a t-shirt, and taking his mother and sister out to get their hair done. One could easily see her maintaining a friendship with those in her article for years after her work had been published. Although her article on Josef Penninger does not explicitly state that she used the same "tactics" with her sources for this article, it is probably safe to assume that she did.
For example, during her visit to Austria, she visits Penninger's mother, who lives in a hospital after being disabled by a stroke. She gained no information about Penninger's work from this episode, or really about Penninger himself, as his mother could not speak. But she was allowed a chance to look into Josef's life, and into the life of his family - a chance which she must have earned through kindness and trustworthyness. No one let's just any reporter visit their near vegetated mother/wife.
She also has the ability to look past what her sources are saying, see into them as people, look at their character. She does this with Penninger's mentor, Tak Mak, and also with both of Penninger's old teachers in Austria.
When Mr. Mak questions Ms. Rogan's reasons for doing the article on Penninger, at first she suspects jealousy, but she then discovers that Mr. Mak has had bad experiences with reporters in the past, and doesn't want Penninger to go through the same thing. When leaving her interview with Seitel, Ms. Rogan had the impression that speaking to her may only bring bad things for Penninger's old physics teacher. Probably true, seeing as the vice-principal was translating for them. And finally, she is able to tell that "Herr Teacher" is talking out his arse when he tells her that "he always saw something special in Josef." Her hunch was proved true when Josef laughed and told her that this was the same teacher who told his parents he'd never amount to anything more than a farmer.
Rogan's diction is the key part of her article, however. She is able to take extremely complex scientific ideas and processes and make them understandable to her readers. She uses the fantastic metaphor of a bicycle going downhill to describe Penninger's life, the rate at which he travels being relative to the impact his discoveries are making on science, and on human life. And he only gets faster and faster.
Interestingly, her language is a little more "uncouth" that one would expect in this type of article, but it doesn't detract from the article in my opinion. She just appears to be forcefully asserting her claim that Penninger is the greatest scientist of our time, and will save the world - again. Besides, swearing is a part of the English language, and I don't think anyone should be afraid of it.
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable, well written article, on a fascinating topic.
Ms. Rogan's sources are well chosen, and she makes the most of each of them. She appears to be tenacious in her pursuance of sources close to her subject, even travelling to Austria to speak with Mr. Josef Penninger's family, and some of his early teachers. She does not, however, appear to do this in an intrusive or rude way. That is critical when doing pieces like this. As demonstrated in the previous article of hers that we read, "Acts of Faith", she goes to great length to ensure that she is on good terms with the Dueck family, including buying Tyrel a t-shirt, and taking his mother and sister out to get their hair done. One could easily see her maintaining a friendship with those in her article for years after her work had been published. Although her article on Josef Penninger does not explicitly state that she used the same "tactics" with her sources for this article, it is probably safe to assume that she did.
For example, during her visit to Austria, she visits Penninger's mother, who lives in a hospital after being disabled by a stroke. She gained no information about Penninger's work from this episode, or really about Penninger himself, as his mother could not speak. But she was allowed a chance to look into Josef's life, and into the life of his family - a chance which she must have earned through kindness and trustworthyness. No one let's just any reporter visit their near vegetated mother/wife.
She also has the ability to look past what her sources are saying, see into them as people, look at their character. She does this with Penninger's mentor, Tak Mak, and also with both of Penninger's old teachers in Austria.
When Mr. Mak questions Ms. Rogan's reasons for doing the article on Penninger, at first she suspects jealousy, but she then discovers that Mr. Mak has had bad experiences with reporters in the past, and doesn't want Penninger to go through the same thing. When leaving her interview with Seitel, Ms. Rogan had the impression that speaking to her may only bring bad things for Penninger's old physics teacher. Probably true, seeing as the vice-principal was translating for them. And finally, she is able to tell that "Herr Teacher" is talking out his arse when he tells her that "he always saw something special in Josef." Her hunch was proved true when Josef laughed and told her that this was the same teacher who told his parents he'd never amount to anything more than a farmer.
Rogan's diction is the key part of her article, however. She is able to take extremely complex scientific ideas and processes and make them understandable to her readers. She uses the fantastic metaphor of a bicycle going downhill to describe Penninger's life, the rate at which he travels being relative to the impact his discoveries are making on science, and on human life. And he only gets faster and faster.
Interestingly, her language is a little more "uncouth" that one would expect in this type of article, but it doesn't detract from the article in my opinion. She just appears to be forcefully asserting her claim that Penninger is the greatest scientist of our time, and will save the world - again. Besides, swearing is a part of the English language, and I don't think anyone should be afraid of it.
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable, well written article, on a fascinating topic.
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