Passions

The Best of Passion (So Far)
$17.98
This album contains some classic songs, but I found after listening to the album, that they are the EXACT SAME releases of the songs on previous passion albums. I thought maybe there would be new versions of these songs, but they are the live worship versions of songs previously released.
Now, you may be saying, well, it is a "Best Of" album. True. But honestly, if you have the first couple of passion CDs, you have all of these songs. Everything these guys put out is pretty darn good, so, if you have the albums, don't buy this one.
The first CD is almost ENTIRELY the 2006 Passion release. If you own that album, and you thought, "Oh cool, Digital Remaster", let me tell you, I am a high-fidelity listener and I couldn't hear a bit of difference. It's all the same. The "We Fall Down" version is the same one where Chris Tomlin videos-in Africa and sings "Muy Saku" ...
If you DON'T have these Passion albums, this is a GREAT BUY. If you have any of the previous albums, you're better off skipping this one and getting other entire Passion albums. I love all of them except this paltry re-release.

KIND Plus Passion Fruit Macadamia, 1.4 Ounce Bars (Pack of 12)
$22.80
These bars are a great meal replacement or snack item. They are healthy but also taste great!

The Passion of the Christ (Full Screen Edition)
$19.98
This is one of those rarest of films whose trajectory penetrates all of the intermediary sensory and cultural tissues and impacts the fibers of one's soul. It is not seen and heard, it is felt. It is nearly perfect in its power of telling.
Whether deist, theist, agnostic or atheist, the viewer may briefly taste the sum of all the world's pain. The sensations may engender knowledge. And with this knowledge, the beginning of wisdom?

Passions Within Reasons
$16.66
The sheer volume of literature devoted to understanding behavior in humans and animals underscores how tricky understanding behavior is. A fraction of this literature, including this book, devotes particular attention to the problems that humans and animals encounter within social and natural environments. With a grasp of the important problems people encounter, a new perspective arises that identifies behavior as stragegic, attempted and on average efficient solutions to specific problems.

But these problems though hinted at here and there are rarely understood well by even the elite of the academic world let alone found within the common knowledge. Arguably among the more important problems that shape behavior are the freerider problem, the prisoner's dilemma, the problem of mutually offsetting investments, the problem of uncertainty, and the commitment problem. Robert Frank is perhaps the commitment problem's best spokesperson.

Often a person or an animal must convince a mate, an rival, or a predator that one is committed to taking a course of action that will require a substantial investment and perhaps substantial risk. If the commitment has convincing force, often the investment and risk will not be necessary. So the best course of action in a situation can seem highly counterintuitive. Behavior that might seem irrational or crazy can actually be the most efficient resolution to a competitive or cooperative circumstance. The commitment problem arises because in order to take advantage of these efficiencies, one must convince others that one is not bluffing and is actually fully committed. Robert Frank explores these situations including the cooperative enterprise of marriage and other social relationships. The explanatory power is impressive.

Frank argues that emotions in general are essentially technologies designed to solve the commitment problem. Emotions convey to others that one is committed to certain perspectives or courses of action. The significance of this insight cannot be overstated. Those who are privy to evolutionary psychology and the evolutionary perspective will appreciate how this theory of emotions fits into the paradigm of selective pressures and adaptive behavior. This book can be read right along with Darwin's "The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals."

Why is the commitment problem an important idea? One reason is that many philosophies, including Objectivism, treat emotions as the polar opposite of logic and rationality. The commitment problem underscores the logic behind emotions.

As an aside, Frank is the perfect explanation of why some economists are among the brightest social scientists. The economic perspective includes the idea that rationality is strategic and that in order to make the most efficient choice, often problems are encountered that require tradeoffs. So, economists are among the first to discover or elaborate on specific and pervasive problems that people and other organisms encounter.

Lastly, to argue that emotions are strategic is not to say that the strategy is conscious. As the emotional animals illustrate, the strategy of emotions can be carried out by instinct. Cases where the emotional strategy leads to sub-optimal results doesn't contradict the theory either. The proliferation of emotional animals illustrates this as well.

I challenge that anyone who studies the emotions is in the dark ages without understanding the ideas in this book. From my experience, many PhD trained social scientists and educators don't have a good grasp of this material.