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#conversation

6 posts6 participants1 post today
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10bmnews

​9 books that help magically improve communication and conversation skills

'We Need to Talk’ by Celeste Headlee Be it your conversations in a professional setting, or everyday talks with little children, this book addresses it all. Headlee says that with the tech-age, interpersonal skills are on the decline, and in the book talks about listening, empathy, and more. #books #magically #improve #communication #conversation #skills

10bmnews.com/2025/03/9-books-t

10bmnews - · ​9 books that help magically improve communication and conversation skills - 10bmnews'We Need to Talk’ by Celeste Headlee Be it your conversations in a professional setting, or everyday talks with little children, this book addresses it all. Headlee says that with the tech-age, interpersonal skills are on the decline, and in the book talks about listening, empathy, and more. #books #magically #improve #communication #conversation #skills
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RaymondPierreL3

This #Conversation article is a good ‘opener’ into a Defence/ADF debate that must be had, not just by experts and polies, but by all Australian given it goes to the issue of our collective physical security ( theconversation.com/should-aus ). There is no denying the naiveté in thinking we can ever live our lives peacefully, isolated from the troubles around us. Thinking that we can count on enduring alliances for help when we are threatened is also delusional given history is replete with contradictory tales. So #Defence concerns all of us and is an integral part of politics (I.e. Foreign affairs by other means).

I like the opinion of Jennifer Parker and Peter Layton best of the bunch of opinions expressed by the ‘experts’ because they go to the ‘core’ of what Defence means in practice at the ground level. The process is very simple (the helo view). It is for govt to strategise what must be done to keep Australia as safe as possible and develop any number of Defence policy goals for study by Defence experts. Those Defence experts than come back with Force Plans for each policy goals. After that, it’s up to govt to expand its range of policies to accommodate the defence plans and find the money to fund the most pressing goal achieving preparedness (the more goals can be addressed the more secure Australia will be).

In all cases, ‘preparedness’ is the foundation stone of any defence planning and subsequent actions.

/Arm-Chair General signing off…

The ConversationShould Australia increase its defence spending? We asked 5 experts
More from The Conversation AU + NZ
Public
C.

Reposting this from my back catalogue:

> Trying to understand something isn't validating it.
>
> Understanding something isn't endorsing it.
>
> Explaining something isn't justifying it.
>
> Questioning something isn't attacking it.
>
> Disapproving of something is not approving its opposite.
>
> And agreeing with something isn't blind, unquestioning reverence to it.

#discourse#discussion#conversation
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Lupposofi

Hieno Emilia Männynvälin kirjoitus polarisaatiosta ja järkevän keskustelun (vähistä) ehdoista KU:ssa, ku.fi/artikkeli/5136263-polari

Tuota voisi jatkaa vaikka puheella episteemisestä turvallisuudesta bbc.com/future/article/2021020 ja ties mistä, mutta sellaisenaan mainio.

#polarisaatio#keskustelu#ajattelu
Public
Robin

With the state of the world as it is, we like to press the seriously challenging issues with a in depth conversation over a lazy Sunday morning coffee. This morning;

Praline's

The once expensive emergency gift, once considered special, is now everywhere and a bit cheap and nasty.

Like finding a praline in a box of handmade chocolates, they put it in, because they ran out of ideas for the last chocolate!

#offline#sundaymorning#conversation
Public
RaymondPierreL3

I am coming back to the subject of the #Australian GO8 universities definition of #antiSemetism because the controversy is an itch I feel compelled to scratch. It follows my reading of an article published by The #Conversation (whose authors’ biases are duly noted in the margin) which highlights the weaknesses of our language when it is used to define and pin down the meaning of a word describing ‘others’. This weakness is mostly evidenced when emotions are at play, and there are few subject matters where emotions rules our head more than when we talk about ‘others’.

As the authors explain, “[the] Controversy has centred on where the definition moves to conflate antizionism and antisemitism. Some scholars and activists believe it mutes legitimate discussion about Israeli state violence towards Palestinians.

The competing Jerusalem Declaration was subsequently endorsed by around 370 leading scholars of Holocaust history, Jewish studies, Antisemitism studies, and Middle East studies. It defines antisemitism as “prejudice, discrimination, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews”. Its authors claim the declaration aims “to protect a space for an open debate about the vexed question of the future of Israel/Palestine”.

I have to say that the latter (The Jerusalem Declaration) is the better and more workable definition in a context where policies and actions of the #UltraNationalist #Netanyahu govt can rightly be condemned and criticised without expressing anti-semitic sentiments. Most, if not all, other definitions would favour one extremist ideological perspective over another.

Source: theconversation.com/a-new-defi

Just as we know and understand that a fascist State (Russia) misuses the term #fascism as a false flag to legitimise its invasion of a neighbour’s (Ukraine) internationally recognised territory, we should also recognise that the terms anti- #Zionism and anti- #Semitism are conflated by ultra nationalists in the State of Israel and those who support their expansionist and racist ideologies.

For the record, I support a two state solution even if I cannot see how we get there given past and present circumstances. Perhaps the toppling of the Netanyahu’s govt is a small step along that road. And my saying this should in no way be construed as expressing anti-semitism.

As this example shows, definitions of Semitism need not exclusively describe the Jewish people which is a recent (late C19th) trend.
Semitism: “Cultural characteristics attribute to the semetic people.” (Source: EOD)
“Semitic people or Semites is a term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East, including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. The terminology is now largely unused outside the grouping "Semitic languages" in linguistics.” (Source: Wikipedia)

This broader meaning only serves to confuses contemporary discussions at large (trust our media outlets to confuse us all further for clearly political reasons).

The ConversationA new definition of antisemitism from Universities Australia is attracting criticism – two historians explain why
More from The Conversation AU + NZ
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