http://www.thirdeyemag.com Using Creativity to Build Better Communities Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:03:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/reviews/film-review-the-cave-of-the-yellow-dog/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/reviews/film-review-the-cave-of-the-yellow-dog/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:22:16 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/reviews/film-review-the-cave-of-the-yellow-dog/ When at its best, cinema transports its audience to another time and place, freeing the throngs of weary cubicle-dwellers from the throes of their everyday existence. A film usually does this in one of two ways: by providing a penetrating look at our own world that is somehow more real than the reality it portrays, or by offering entry into a fantasy realm—a world of imagination recognizable by virtue of its being unrecognizable. The Cave of the Yellow Dog, a genre-blurring docudrama about a real family scratching out a traditional existence on the desolate plains of Mongolia, does both.]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/reviews/film-review-the-cave-of-the-yellow-dog/feed/ 0 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/opinion/please-have-your-fame-spayed-or-neutered/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/opinion/please-have-your-fame-spayed-or-neutered/#comments Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:53:57 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2007/10/14/please-have-your-fame-spayed-or-neutered/ I had a tragic epiphany while watching Bob Barker on The Price is Right the other day [...]]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/opinion/please-have-your-fame-spayed-or-neutered/feed/ 1 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/philosophy/the-meaning-of-life/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/philosophy/the-meaning-of-life/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2007 01:18:55 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2007/09/03/the-meaning-of-life/ Why are we here? What is our purpose? Mustn’t there be a point to this vast, remarkably complex drama being played out on this relatively tiny little speck in the cosmos? In short, what is the meaning of life? By definition, there cannot be a more important question. Surprising, then, how little attention it receives. Most academics will scoff at attempts to approach the issue in a scholarly context. [...]]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/philosophy/the-meaning-of-life/feed/ 0 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/an-objective-report/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/an-objective-report/#comments Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:03:04 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2007/07/04/an-objective-report/ Three primates died today while traveling in a motorized vehicle in an arid region between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Although we can state nothing with absolute certainty, the three “humans” — basically hairless, cognitively advanced monkeys with a striking genetic similarity to the common chimpanzee — were most likely killed by some sort of explosive device as it incinerated the vehicle beneath them. Over six thousand miles away, another primate of the same species claimed that those killed were members of a group he called “The United States Army.” Upon further investigation, membership in this “army” is marked chiefly by clothing, as well as by certain behavioral traits. The exact purpose of the army’s presence in the region, called “Iraq” by some, is under fierce debate.]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/an-objective-report/feed/ 0 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/atheists-gravatus/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/atheists-gravatus/#comments Thu, 03 May 2007 20:12:38 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2007/05/03/atheists-gravatus/ “I am nothing,” she says, her eyes avoiding mine. In her face I see contradictory tinges of apathy and embarrassment, further complicating the interpretation of her already polysemous declaration. I am nothing. Maybe she thinks her life is a failure. Maybe she feels ineffectual in some specific regard. Or maybe she has accepted her relative unimportance in the vast cosmos. [...]]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/atheists-gravatus/feed/ 1 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/in-the-eyes-of-the-beholder/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/in-the-eyes-of-the-beholder/#comments Thu, 04 Jan 2007 05:36:49 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2007/01/03/in-the-eyes-of-the-beholder/ In order to protect certain inalienable, universal human rights, a just society must place a limit on its tolerance of the practices of other, less just societies. This statement seems innocuous enough, and repeated aloud in most social circles in the U.S. or Europe it is unlikely to draw harsh opposition. Some may even deride it as being a statement of the obvious. Considering, however, that the West is scarcely more than a century removed from the age of colonialism and slavery, perhaps we should be a little shy about affirming any ideology that alludes to concepts like inalienable, universal, or just. [...]]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/in-the-eyes-of-the-beholder/feed/ 0 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/the-true-cost-of-war/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/the-true-cost-of-war/#comments Tue, 04 Jul 2006 05:57:25 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2007/10/17/the-true-cost-of-war/ A grim milestone was observed in June when the 2500th American serviceperson was killed in the most recent Iraq war. Even more startlingly, when assessing the damage to U.S. military personnel and their families, that figure may be misleadingly low. No precise means exists to tally broken lives, damaged relationships, and the general psychological trauma of soldiers asked to do what is otherwise unthinkable in our society — kill. But a survey of the headlines suggests that there is more afoot in Iraq than loss of life. [...]]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/the-true-cost-of-war/feed/ 0 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/imperial-evanescence/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/imperial-evanescence/#comments Thu, 04 May 2006 06:01:27 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2006/05/03/imperial-evanescence/ The limited perspective offered by the relatively short human lifespan has been cause for much observational error. Even in a postmodern existence where constant change has become the norm and the term progress rendered redundant, the common individual still acts as though - substantively, at least - things have always been and will always be just as they are now. [...]]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/imperial-evanescence/feed/ 0 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/opinion/dangerous-distractions/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/opinion/dangerous-distractions/#comments Fri, 03 Mar 2006 19:29:36 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2006/03/03/dangerous-distractions/ How are we to expect this man to be aware? His life is an amalgamation; a twisted one with no synergy and little coherence. He spends almost nine hours preparing to leave for, traveling to, engaging in, and returning from work. Work itself is a self-contained reality with laws, relationships, hierarchies, and consequences entirely divorced from the outside world. There, the sun rises and sets based on things like dividends, profit margins, sales goals, and overhead.]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/opinion/dangerous-distractions/feed/ 0 http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/aid/ http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/aid/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2006 19:36:34 +0000 Les Beldo http://www.thirdeyemag.com/wordpress/2006/01/03/aid/ It wasn't as if domination was their manifest purpose. They claimed they were there to help. And some of them believed it. The objects of their assistance were underprivileged and backwards, nobly trying to grasp the concepts of a new era but disastrously unable to do so. What they needed was the golden touch - the magnanimous muscle of giants born into privilege. I speak, of course, of foreign aid. Or maybe old world colonialism. The similarity between the two is a theme woven throughout a groundbreaking narrative by experienced aid worker Michael Maren entitled, The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity.]]> http://www.thirdeyemag.com/nonfiction/essays/aid/feed/ 0