tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73580604841449406562023-11-16T03:54:31.887-08:00Mundane CyborgAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-6434704410683380802013-06-24T22:29:00.000-07:002013-06-24T22:38:02.892-07:00Mix tapes and High Fidelity part one<div class="MsoNormal">
1. My memory of the 1980s regarding mix tapes and taping in
general are mixed. Yes I just wrote that.</div>
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2. I had a cool rig in 1985 that taped from the radio, and I taped some radio
shows, the way you'd listen to Pandora now. Santa Cruz, KUSP, Friday night with
Lance "Give Thanks To Lance" Linares. My first tape: a Lee Scratch
Perry set complete with rare 45s and the utterly transcendent
"Labrish." These are, you understand, tapes; you turn on the radio
and hit the button, and then think in 45 minute blocks. I taped a great
"British Invasion" set and a Motown set that turned me on to
"Give it up Part 1," the Marvin Gaye song that I later played to fill
the dance floor. Then in 1986 I moved to San Francisco and made my signature
mix "North Star," refined over a few tries. This involved raiding my
roommate Lynn's record collection, and doing the gently-lift-needle-and-drop
while hitting-tape-button-a-second-later. I called the mix North Star because
it had a Darryl Hall song "North Star" on it that I absolutely loved.
The opening was pretty cool: North Star, then Peter Gabriel's Here Comes the
Flood (I was doing anti-nuclear work at the time, and the song's apocalypse
felt way too likely) and then Howard Jones singing "No One Is To
Blame." The mix also had some Annie Lennox and some Heads. But that
opening was always my favorite because of the way the first two songs connected
with each other, and then this total pop song says "Oh and by the way love
is its own apocalypse and maybe it shouldn't be." The mix also had
"Excellent Birds" (Lori Anderson and Peter Gabriel). And it had War
(The Temptations, not Edwin Starr), and some Frankie Goes To Hollywood and a
quote from Che.</div>
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3. For me mixing that tape was like writing crossed with collage (or more
properly, audio collage). Like collage, the edges count. North Star is utterly
transcendent, with Hall's voice floating, suspended over the hushed
instrumental like an incantation:</div>
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North Star</div>
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We stare</div>
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How far</div>
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How clear</div>
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The star is unimaginably far away; touch brings us from that distance to its
opposite, an intimacy as sublime as the distance of stars. Putting this next to
Here Comes the Flood is like taking a passionate, plaintive image of distance
and touch, cutting it out as a shape, and then pasting a nuclear and/or
environmental apocalypse image next to it. Neither is unaffected; both are
heard differently, which is the beauty IMHO of those mixes. </div>
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3. So I spent all this time winding and rewinding and plunking down
turntable arms and lifting them and hitting stop and record and play and
rewind, and when I think back I try to count the hours and it seems like...I
don't know, maybe 6 hours a tape minimum? To get one precious tape that I could
then copy, and give to friends (Paula, Sigrid, Paxus, that guy from Zagreb).
And it was time that felt almost sacred, as if this thing that I was producing
was somehow a representation of my Self, or less grandiosely, my musical self
and tastes and sense of sequence and progression. North Star gets at my hyper-romantic
side, and my political/apocalyptic side, and my poppy and fun side, and my
iconoclastic side. Collage self, in a way. </div>
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4. And I played the tape a bunch on my Walkman (yes, those headphones, that
clunky rig, but man it was righteous to listen to music and ride a bike all
over San Francisco). And I took the tape to Europe and gave it away (in Zagreb,
in Greece) and later wondered if anyone had copied it and spread it around or
used part of it to build on. </div>
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5. Now I spend a good deal of time making mixes and burning them onto CD's, and
giving them to people. I often gather a bunch of songs together in a big
uber-list, then feel for beginnings and progressions, and try out things and
eliminate things and replace things. I like the collage feel, and the idea of
working quickly and not overthinking a mix, and letting all my rules be more or
less tacit. I also like the metaphor of a mix as a kind of letter or poem to an
audience. And here is where the High Fidelity link comes in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZb95GCCBhebk7TiQVJXZJJlaebGjqzzpaLvfpr46QtUnb7rhF7x0NOwSysUfno7lqwE3a6ZNlNAqV9Yn6J7r8MmuxUeKPf1JTkepnXy2YU17XBCzUtcUk3BUBMUe1Qgt9iXHrNMcS-JtX/s1600/7511845.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZb95GCCBhebk7TiQVJXZJJlaebGjqzzpaLvfpr46QtUnb7rhF7x0NOwSysUfno7lqwE3a6ZNlNAqV9Yn6J7r8MmuxUeKPf1JTkepnXy2YU17XBCzUtcUk3BUBMUe1Qgt9iXHrNMcS-JtX/s320/7511845.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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6. It is written in Wikipedia: "The high point of traditional mixtape
culture was arguably the publication of Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity in
1995." I really can't argue with this; I remember reading the novel in the
late 90s and LOVING the whole obsessive way the protagonist, Rob Fleming, sets
about making a mix tape, often in the context of reaching out to a potential
love interest. (Well, pretty exclusively in that context!). In its way the mix
tape is a love letter, but a love letter of indirection, the way some
Elizabethan courtier might write a sonnet that indirectly gets all of its
romantic points across AND deploys clever rhetorical moves and a heightened
sense of aesthetic shape in order to more completely underline said romantic
points. (When said Elizabethan court poet dies, and the coterie of people who
could "read" the double messages were also dead, then we are left simply
with the sonnet itself; when Paula and Sigrid and I are dead, no one will know
the personal connection of Here Comes the Flood to an 80's sense of nuclear
dread. But in each case you have this thing: a mix tape, a sonnet.)</div>
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Here is the great paragraph where Rob lays it out:</div>
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To me, making a tape is like writing a letter — there's a lot of erasing
and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up,
is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I
started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind", but then realized that she
might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she
wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've
got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and
black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you
can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the
whole thing in pairs and...oh, there are loads of rules. </div>
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Well, yeah. And of course every rule is made to be flouted at some point, and
Rob has a way of overthinking everything in his life INCLUDING his mixes (which
are never listed in the novel, of course; naming the songs would unduly expose
him (and Hornby) to the scorn of...readers like Rob. His reluctance to commit
to the woman in his life, Laura, is like his reluctance to commit to a system
for arranging his LPs, and his constant anxiety about which songs ought to go
in which place in the mix. </div>
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7. In the old days, the process of erasing and redoing was (even when a labor
of love) a wildly onerous process. Now? I make a mix quickly, shift things
around with ease, make versions of versions of mixes so that there are several
generations of some (May Bee, Picnic, Reggae Street, SkiSun). And yet...at the
end of the day I like burning a mix to a CD, making it an object, even though I
know that CDs will most likely go the way of all flesh, digital and analog. I
like that Cat has a different version than Claire and that Ribi and Kelsey both
have version 2 of a mix I have three other versions of. So, both infinitely
editable AND each CD is a kind of commitment to this and not any other
sequence. Postmodern and modern; a digital Elizabethan love letter to the
world, to one's friends, and a kind of making instead of simply consuming and
listening. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-64301376096516170892013-06-17T15:43:00.000-07:002013-06-17T15:43:22.945-07:00It is time to begin blogging again, and catching up on the things that matter to me AND that seem to commingle: cyborgs of course, but also education, and politics (especially environmental, but also political economics), and community.<br />
<br />
I thought I'd start with a long-ago and far away piece: an interview from 1996, when the Cyborg Handbook had just come out, and Chris Gray and I were speaking to interested media (film crews, editors of technology 'zines, academics, the occasional SF fan). I'm almost as curious about what I did not think to say as what I said; still, this seemed like a good jumping-off point.<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: medium;">http://www.apogeebooks.com/omnimag/archives/chats/em101496.html</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Prime
Time Replay:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Steven Mentor<br />
on Cyborg Culture<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(1)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:00:37 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.9</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Good evening! It's Monday, and time for another
session of "eMedia." Tonight's guest is Steven Mentor, who
co-authored "The Cyborg Handbook," with Chris Hables Gray. Steven,
are you online now?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(3)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:03:39 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Howdy! I'm "here"</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(5)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:06:01 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.17</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Steven, I'd like you to get into your experience
and background in cyborg life. What made you interested in cybernetic organic
culture?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(6)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:06:54 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Paulette - my human self wants to know how to
get quickly around again - is it controlhome? Or some other set of keys?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(7)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:08:03 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.9</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Got it. It's Control-home to get to the top of
your screen, and control-end to get to the bottom. Also, if you have it, change
"20" to how many messages you want to see on your screen. I suggest
"5" or "10", to make it easier.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(8)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:08:54 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">I initially got interested in cybernetics after
reading Donna Haraway as a grad student at UCSC in the early 80s, but I think
behind that lies 10 years of activism around nuclear weapons and energy. I
wanted to understand how technological systems worked, but more importantly,
how they were changing human beings as political animals. But once I'd read
Donna, I started to see cyborgs everywhere - not only in sci fi but in literary
Modernism, in the hospitals my wife works in, and of course everywhere on television.
And so this figure - only one way to understand technology and humans, to be
sure - became productive for me, and I ran with it.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(9)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:11:05 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.9</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">How did you meet with Chris Hables Gray? (Gray
was the 1993-1994 NASA Fellow in History, and is currently an Einsenhower
Fellow to Czechoslavakia.)</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(11)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:15:59 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Chris is one of my oldest friends, and in many ways
my political mentor. I met Chris at Stanford; I was a grad student in English,
and he was helping launch the anti-apartheid movement on campus. Since then
we've been political partners in organizing, have lived together in collective
households for many years, and spent a lot of parties raving in the kitchen
with whoever wanted to theorize and drink beer. Our biggest campaign together
was the anti-Diablo nuclear plant direct action campaign, and he's always felt
sort of like a war buddy to me after that.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I suppose I ought to
mention dates! We met in 1976.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(14)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:19:45 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.9</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">I'll agree with seeing cyborgs everywhere. After
reading the essay collection in "Cyborg Handbook," it puts a new
perspective on what I'd consider cyborg and otherwise. But I also noticed that
the book's slant is decidedly feminist. Is this because of Haraway, or is it
because cyborg culture seems female?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(15)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:24:00 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Well, to use Donna's language, the knowledge
that Chris and I bring to cyborgs is situated; we always felt that feminism was
one of THE crucial discourses of social change, and worked hard to explore how
men could embrace feminist ideas and political practices. Of course we had a
lot of help from many of the women in political groups!! But I do think that
Donna's spin on cyborgs as transgressive, as compatible with certain kinds of
feminist visions, certainly influenced me. Her notion of cyborg is a far cry
from, say, Van Damme's or some of the other hypermasculine cyborgs in popular
culture.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(18)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:28:38 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.17</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">That's something else I wanted to ask about,
too. How do you feel about films like "Terminator I & II" and
"Universal Soldier," where we're presented with ultra-male
representatives of technology? Although I have to say I think James Cameron
favors extraordinarily strong women....</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(23)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:41:55 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">To respond to your question about Terminator - I
loved it, independent of any camp or ironic position I might also have. I think
Jonathan Goldberg's piece in our Cyborg Handbook - "Recalling
Totalities" - does a fantastic job of exploring the connection of
masculinity and cyborgs. I tend to see both anxiety about masculinity AND an
interesting use of machinery to promote the "organic" in the
bodybuilding movment, which is of course always present in a film with Arnie.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While I'm waiting for
cyberspace to send your words winging - I'd like to explain anxiety and
cyborgs. The technology for shapig our bodies is both enabling and disabling -
just like technologies for more serious cyborg morphing, such as genetic
engineering. On the one hand we can engage with machines to literally shape our
organic bodies. On the other hand, much of this shaping is driven by anxieties
brought on by machines themselves, or rather, by the society we live in. That
cyborg society clearly replaces many human functions with machines; many
traditional masculine activities are no longer very relevant to suburbanculture,
for example, and so we get pathetic versions - dad with a bar b que fork as The
Hunter. So we use cyborg tech to reachieve a masculinity we can
"see."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(25)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:45:45 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.33</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Where can we see cyborg products working in real
space, as opposed to what's presented on film?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(28)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:51:52 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Well, "real space" certainly is
contested these days! But one thing that I find fascinating about the cyborg
figure - you can find so many of them outside of sci fi films! A pedestrian
example - or rather,a nonpedestrian example - we are all driving huge
prosthetic metal bodies around. Soon we begin to configure time and space as if
we were a car. Cyborgs experience new kinds of time and space due to their
intractions with machines, and their new human/machine sensoria. Other places I've been interested in: military, medicine, work, and politics. Oh and certainly
in aging.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(30)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 21:57:25 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.9</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The car is a very good example, and one I
thought of reading through the "Genesis" chapters of "Cyborg
Handbook." The most interesting chapter in this section is about Africa as
the origin of cybernetic organic culture. But is something which apparently
seems Northern-oriented being used to assist African societies? Or is cyborg
studies exclusive to the First World?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(32)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 22:00:44 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Here's another cyborg space - the complex notion
of cyberspace, which includes both what is "behind the screen" and
also the material spaces of logging in. I await your reply; in some ways I am
much blinder as a cyborg here than I would be if we were IRL. My material
"real" is something you can't know, and often feels completely
irrelevant when I'm surfing the Net or chatting with friends in a MOO or MUD.
This disconnection of my virtual self from my material self is a truism in
cyberpunditry. But again, the agency involved is complex.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes - Ron Eglash's work on
African material culture and cybernetics is wonderful - his slide show includes
many more images than we were able to print in Cyborg Handbook. But I think
this question of whether cyborg = North in a North/South divide gets at a key
element of cyborg politics: the extent to which the tech which makes us all
cyborgs - communications nets that enable transnational corporations as well as
nongovernmental organizatins - are both undermining and enabling certain kinds
of liberatory visions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Example: someone can
mobilize worldwide support for Tien an Mien by sending images via the Net, or
can update people on Bosnia or Somalia or even places closer to home like East
Palo Alto - underdeveloped, to use the euphemism. But while the new tech
enables new players, it also strengthens the hands of many
"old"players who are in a position to morph themselves into global
cyborg bodies. Here, transnational corporations are much faster than say
governments, and so a true map of the world would look at nets of wealth and
communication rather than simply at lines which say "nation-state."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(36)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 22:11:54 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.33</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Eglash's essay is very much like the foundation
for modern art: how Picasso and Miro took imagery from African art and
rearranged it in such a way that it seemed radical to Western culture. Yet
African art and imagery is very organic. How would cyborgian culture
interact with the Third World? But to follow up on what you just said: it goes
against the way most films present cyborg culture--as something controlled by
the gov't, when in fact, it seems to usurp gov'tal control. Would cyborg
politics be considered chaotic?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(38)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 22:16:50 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Well of course one way it interacts is precisely
the way Picasso and Braque operated: appropriation! If commodity culture drives
the economies that drive cyborg societies, than the thirst for the new will
always circle round from domestic to exotic. But I want to pick up on another
element of your question: the element of Picasso and collage. Picasso used
those masks to do something to his own art culture: to defy painting. And
collage, which is so crucial to 20th c art, is a big part of how I see cyborgs.
Picasso used collage to fragment and augment the human body, the figure, in
time and space. AND he used a collision of painterly techniques and
"real" objects to fragment theillusin of 3D space. This is the world
that cyborgs live in; and it is a world which ironically expands the role of
the imagination, myth, projection, etc., in the otherwise apparently austere
and routinized world of engineering and Taylorized labor and buy or die
consuemrism.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As to your question about
chaos and whether cyborg tech is a state conspiracy - in a way, the notion of
the State controlling everthing is a 50s cold war nostalgia. The X-files is a
perfect example: all the loose ends of our questions tie up in a shadowy room,
figures smoking, coherent bad guys with coherent and unified aims. Yeah, right.
I think a better way to plot cyborg politics is to look back over those classic
political texts, called Star Trek. The first Star Trek theorized the Cold War:
boy, those evil empire Klingons/Russians sure seem outdated compard to our
snazzy corporate outfits! Then Star Trek Next Generation theorized the post
Cold War world: the Russians are our allies, sort of, and yet there are new
enemies on the horizon, and some small fractures in our alliances. Now if you
live in a country that was targeted by the CIA like Guatemala was, this view of
things might feel a bit off! But then we go to the real Chaos of post cold war
world: Deep Space Nine, where the chaos is at home at the space station, and
where our lives are lived next to a worm hole, and both sides contain confusing
choices of allies and enemies: more the world of "terrorists"
(whether state or nonstate) than the comfy world of Federation Peace. More and
more non-Northern perspectives work their way into the First World.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">=</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(44)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 22:35:05 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.33</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Star Trek! Now I understand its appeal from a
more scientific point of view. I also enjoy the way cyborgs on the programs
aren't necessarily sinister; that they're not programmed to "complete a
mission," as T2's terminators are. But it also brings to mind that many
people are using cybernetic organic tech now, in the form of pacemakers and
artifical, mechanical limbs. Are organ transplants part of cyborg science, or
does cyborg science deal only with the relationship between humanity and the
machines they create? Is the brain a cybernetic organism?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(45)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 22:41:23 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Yes, of course organ transplants are cyborg
tech. I've always been struck by how the origins of cyborgs - at NASA, and
later by writers like Halacy in Cyborg: Evolution of the Superman, all make
medicine central. If we go back to that collage idea again: instead of an
inviolate organic body, we imagine a space of functions, and varius solutions
to those</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> functions.If </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">a heart
wears out, we can replace it with another organic heart, or a machine, or some
hybrid - or perhaps even find ways to eliminate tht function altogether, as the
original Cyborg astronaut article suggested! Eliminate everything, from lungs
that breathe air (can't do that in space) to elimination itself! Many of the
extremes of cyborg engineering can be seen in domesticated versions in medicine
involving aging, reproduction, prosthetics, etc.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now, the brain as a
cybernetic organism - there's a knotty question! Heidi Figueroa-Sarriera writes
on masculine fantasies of total escape from the body (the meat) into Mind - the
ultimte Cartesian wet dream! And I think many cyber-enthusiasts embrace one or
another fantasy of total trascendence of the body and mortality. Me, I like my
body a whole lot - I agree with Katherie Hayles' critique of all this
bodilessness among (mostly) male theorists. But having said that: of course the
brain is a cybernetic organ! Norbert Wiener, founding "father" (in
many senses of that term) of cybernetics, often made the comparison between
thinking machines, learning machines, and the original learning machine - homo
sapiens. Beyond the reductive language of Artificial Intelligence, the mind -
the embodied mind - is still the coolest thing in My world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(47)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 22:47:33 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.33</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Are diseases cybernetic as well? It seems that
as our medical technology progresses, so does the strength of certain viruses.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(48)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 22:53:09 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">You want to read two incredible stories about
this? Blood Music by Greg Bear - the whole novel is the answer "yes"
to your question. And Bruce Sterling's short story Our Neural Chernobyl - whose
title alone gives you the sense of it. But technomedicine also pushes our sense
of what is alive - are viruses alive? Yes and no. What if we were to consider
ourselves made up of a multitude of living systems, each with compatible but
also competing aims. Now that is a collage cyborg! A cybernetic organic collage
of systems. To descend to (or rise to) this view would mean an end to the figure
of human, in some ways.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I think we are seeing many
cases of positive feedback in our world - not just the feedback between
diseases, antibiotics, and evolved diseases that evade or conquer these
"cures", followed by new cures etc etc - but also bad positive
feedback between many systems of life: the soil and oil-based agriculture, for
example. Or the feedback system of logging and destruction of salmon runs in
the Northwest. In fact, the original cyberneticists - the Macy Group, which
included Wiener, Margaret Mead, von Neumann, Greg Bateson, many others -
imagined a way to solve complex human/political/ecological problems by looking
at ALL the systems involved, not simply one. The hubris of engineering meets
the desire of post World War 2 humans to find some way back/forward from the
various Holocausts of this century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(49)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 22:55:20 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.17</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Two final questions (or one, if you haven't seen
the program): Does "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest" (new) display
a comprehensive study of cybernetic technology and culture? And, if humanity is
still capable of evolving, will we become more mechanical, or organic?</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(51)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 23:03:52 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Sadly, I haven't seen the new Jonny Quest - no
excuse for that! To answer the second question: in some ways evolution is like
weather - we can affect it, but it happens independently of conscious human
agency. That wasn't meant as a New Age statement either! But (holding a card to
my head, eyes closed, reading the future) I believe that humans (if they
survive the coming collapses - oil, other ecological hard landings, also
collapse of various social systems based on older tech and values) - if we
survive, we will experiment with our sensory organs, and with various plug-ins
to the CNS. All the stuff from cyberpunk will be normal: porn in Sensurround, children
growing up surrounded by Data and its servo mechanisms. The very notion of
Human as a coherent figure will come into question with these add ons, these
prosthetics - with their attendant amputations and losses.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But I think a true
coevolution is possible because we can imagine it, and perhaps some places on
earth - and not necessarily First World ones alone - will support those kinds
of experiments, and resist teh worst excesses of cyborg culture as a militry
and ecological nightmare. I have a son by IVF and he is my version of
coevolution - I liketo think he will have more tools than I did for making
difficult choices about technologies and our fragile social and ecological
systems. Make it so!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(52)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 23:06:01 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paulette</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">152.163.233.17</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Thanks, Steven, for a very good online interview
tonight! We're out of time. Those seeking more info on cyber-culture should
check out Steven's website at</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.converger.cyberhutch.com</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">. Next
week, Michael Sanchez from Do Something and Litespeed Media discuss
"Webstock96," an interactive, four-day lovefest on behalf of the Do
Something foundation.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">MsgId:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">*emedia</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">(54)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Date:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mon Oct
14 23:07:41 EDT 1996</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From:</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">cybunny</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">At:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;">199.182.129.232</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">It's been lovely - thanks! over and out, steven</span></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.apogeebooks.com/omnimag/resources/copyright/index.html">Copyright
(C) 1996 by Omni Publications International, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-61373144811134620332012-06-10T17:55:00.000-07:002012-06-10T17:55:26.751-07:00one flew over the cuckoo's nestI went to the play last night, then talked late into the night about it: about lobotomy and shock therapy, about the play's connection of shock and therapy language with loss of democracy and "democracy" as control. We talked about how Nurse Ratched was the face of oppression and masculinity (sexual potency, independence, the Tall Tale Americans of Paul Bunyan and John Henry) was the apparent cure. I drove up with Kevin Claire and my brother Peter and read bits from my dissertation on the rhetoric of lobotomy and its connection to mind control.<br />
<br />
Later I thought about my own reactions to ADD medications, and considered that.<br />
<br />
Now I'd like to write the play/book into my dissertation chapter as part of the revision.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-70474251535384370722012-03-06T14:11:00.000-08:002012-03-06T14:11:55.537-08:00SharpiedI woke up today with a telephone number Sharpied on my arm: 916-498-8452.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQB1Lx9nvDNbgtv52edMOLv5w342jFPhOE7gcRGXtD5ujWpOHUA35gmiAyOfC6h6_6cZunOXky43hDbwv5wkDI187cSGvGvC6bFiXOpY5hnsCV6JBlOx3ZkFqZ8oNwsvG15MwG2Aw-zsIQ/s1600/IMG_2842.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQB1Lx9nvDNbgtv52edMOLv5w342jFPhOE7gcRGXtD5ujWpOHUA35gmiAyOfC6h6_6cZunOXky43hDbwv5wkDI187cSGvGvC6bFiXOpY5hnsCV6JBlOx3ZkFqZ8oNwsvG15MwG2Aw-zsIQ/s320/IMG_2842.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>The sun was exactly where it usually is in my bedroom in March, and I got up and woke up my 16 year old and he hauled his always tired in the morning body to the shower. My wife had been on call all weekend (midwifery's least favorite feature) and was fast asleep. Our house guest met me in the kitchen on his way to a 14 hour day of work on Liz's new office, more drywall and carpentry, and off he went. Craig our friend and renter poked his head in and asked me how it had gone, and it was then, right in the middle of scrambling eggs and toasting bread and making chai, that I remembered the number.<br />
<br />
I'm in my fifties, late ones at that. Married, and for a long time at that. So this isn't the kind of number one might have in one's twenties. Or thirties for that matter I suppose! And it wasn't the kind of number you write on your arm to make sure you know who your ride is from some giant event, or who the designated driver is and how he might be contacted at last call.<br />
<br />
No, it was the legal support number from Occupy Sacramento. I"d written it down partly because I did a nonviolence training in the Rotunda corridor at 5:30 (the building closes at 6 and the many CHP officers were getting ready to issue a dispersal order to the couple hundred people still in the building). And of course I also wrote it down in case, as can easily happen, the police aren't too picky about who wants to be arrested at a civil disobedience action, and who would prefer not to be, thank you very much.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcytlq7kNdj6VPAG325-AnUT7lpudv63ZmuxKAusmAp2otpSe6JKVQRTd8t0wiBQxW1K-umEBeApb5q-HqvgfNhqTS1bGHGJHTfp5siYF6oRn4PJJOvUMfXb5XJIK3oTIX-ZZlvfDWnMA/s1600/IMG_2854.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcytlq7kNdj6VPAG325-AnUT7lpudv63ZmuxKAusmAp2otpSe6JKVQRTd8t0wiBQxW1K-umEBeApb5q-HqvgfNhqTS1bGHGJHTfp5siYF6oRn4PJJOvUMfXb5XJIK3oTIX-ZZlvfDWnMA/s320/IMG_2854.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>I'm going to grade papers now - back to mundane reality - and then talk more about the action, and what I felt and learned, and some thoughts on Occupy 2.0.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-15348568190695349752012-03-04T10:23:00.000-08:002012-03-04T10:23:43.243-08:00Perfect Day day part 1Some days are like words spoken lightly; ephemeral, they float off. Perhaps they are stored in the memory's body fat, accumulating until a host of everyday days are burned off by some wild bender.<br />
<br />
Some days, you wake up and suddenly it dawns on you (yes that was a terrible pun): now THIS is going to be one of those days. And sometimes they are.<br />
<br />
At 10 am on Friday I was sick. I knew I wasn't going skiing. Even though the snow is new and fresh and calling in the way only snow can call. At 1 pm I was wavering. Maybe I'll feel better. At 4 I was packing. At 6 I was in a car on my way to Kirkwood. At midnight I was at altitude, ready for that strange sleep I get: air different, sleep light, easily disturbed, rarely more than five hours, and then waking up one eye at a time. How am I? Groggy like a boxer losing in the fifth round? Elated with breathing the rare air, light on the earth?<br />
<br />
Wake up to rituals of fending off certain illnesses: netti pot with salt, zinc in capsules, doing that thing that person told you to do to imagine getting better. Then breakfast: the fresh ground coffee brought from the flatlands, the eggs with the right salsa, juice and toast and eat it at the kitchen bar on a high stool in front of the computer. Make the new playlist for that day because you have a feeling it might be one of those days. Mixing, listening, talking to Ian about writing and Pete about skiing, cleaning up, finding every bit of ski gear right where you left it.<br />
<br />
Leave the house with this playing in your helmet:<br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">Endless Reverie (Zaman 8 Remix)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Azam Ali<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Innocente (Falling In Love) (Mr. Sam's Remix)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Delerium Feat. Leigh Nash<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Big In Japan<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Alphaville<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Forever Young</div><div class="MsoNormal">love letter to japan<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>the bird and the bee<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Answer (Feat. Big In Japan<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>UNKLE<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Young Forever (feat. Mr. Hudson)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jay-Z<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Joan Talvin Singh<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Cities On Flame With Rock and Roll<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Blue Öyster Cult<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">(Dawning Of A) New Era<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Specials</div><div class="MsoNormal">Don't Go Back To Sleep Vision II- Sprit Of Rumi/Graeme Revell</div><div class="MsoNormal">Star Shpongled Banner<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Shpongle<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Always<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Blind Pilot<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Vibrate On Augustus Pablo & Upsetters<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Man in the Street<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Skatalites </div><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our Lips Are Sealed Dub<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Fun Boy Three</span><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Step into the brilliant sunlight, another bluebird day, and hoist the skis and the boots. Three, four hundred yards to the lift, as the lungs get used to the effort and the body shifts and it occurs to you that you aren't ill, in fact...the opposite. The mountains are forever, and this life is not, unless this moment is forever, and the mountains as well, and all these bipeds doomed to die, and their muddles and fears and glimpes of eternity.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-12809643766830444452012-01-16T20:57:00.001-08:002012-01-16T20:57:46.602-08:00Man Cave 2: The early days<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>251</o:Words> <o:Characters>1432</o:Characters> <o:Company>Evergreen Valley College</o:Company> <o:Lines>11</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>2</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>1758</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Man Cave 2: The early days </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yes, I understand that the early days could easily be simple: cave men are men in caves. But we don’t know a whole lot about how these caves were appointed, as it were. Did early tool use lead to the first Laz-E-Boys? Were the first cave paintings precursors to NFL and Bikini team posters? It is hard to say. But I’m guessing, no. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Instead, the early caves were probably more like studio apartments in the current economy: dad, mom, vulnerable progeny, too-small stove, bad ventilation…or else, as theorized in various places, caves could also be very short term rentals. As in, humans find cave, fall in love with cave, move in, and have an enjoyable day or twelve until the previous owner – sabre tooth tiger, perhaps, if those were around in the early humans making housing mistakes era – returned. Then, fairly nasty eviction notice followed by a dinner of “homo sapiens du jour.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">No, the early days I’m talking about begin around 1570, when Michel de Montaigne, the Renaissance essayist, decided to retire from his job. He had just been denied a better job due to politics, and was sick of his job in the Bordeaux <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">parlement</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So at the advanced age of 37, he decided to pack in the daily grind and retire to the first and perhaps greatest of all man caves: his Tower.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Montaigne lived in pretty sweet digs for the 16<sup>th</sup> Century. Imagine one of those swank estates they are always showing in Downton Abbey or Upstairs/Downstairs or Ivory/Merchant films. Now take the estate, and put three huge castle walls in front of it; then (for some reason I always think of Legos) put two four-story towers on the front two corners. Plenty of woods and land to ride your horse (precursor of the ATV). Servants. </div><!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-86660141119508170572012-01-11T16:53:00.000-08:002012-01-11T18:29:00.482-08:00Man Cave #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFZti6G5QFbb3Q2yYPtJuceqnlGmNzaRhO5l6bWZnTlBwSFP4NPC-IAh7CO3FMgiOnGwq5dXOe15g1DTZotCHkbIYpjb4EXMYC7jmemvBCAp1Nvzf0ephPD7aKDMOikgY_BMJdO8Wm7xEi/s1600/ManCave+Sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFZti6G5QFbb3Q2yYPtJuceqnlGmNzaRhO5l6bWZnTlBwSFP4NPC-IAh7CO3FMgiOnGwq5dXOe15g1DTZotCHkbIYpjb4EXMYC7jmemvBCAp1Nvzf0ephPD7aKDMOikgY_BMJdO8Wm7xEi/s1600/ManCave+Sign.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
1. My friend Kevin has a man cave. And when I say cave I mean door is blocked by man stuff so you have to climb over boxes of computer hardware and old programming textbooks, spilled boxes of CDs of various ilks, snake-cables in search of VGA connections. Musical instruments. Piles of books hunted and gathered from the local used bookstore. I mean a couch that hasn't been sat on for weeks because it is covered with man-ivy: tendrils of telephone wire and Ethernet connections and aforementioned cables woven into clothing and plastic bags of unknown provenance.<br />
<br />
The story goes that a friend took a photo of Kevin's office in Washington and when people saw it they assumed that it was the after shot of the earthquake that had recently hit. Nope. Pre-earthquake. No one would have known that an earthquake had hit Kevin's office. Or if thieves had ransacked his place looking for those small thumb drives with information that could convict higher-ups in the FBI.<br />
<br />
Kevin has a man cave. It has a moat (an anteroom you must maneuver, often filled with dangerously unstable piles of gear and bicycles propped against walls like traps to snare the unwary). It is dark. It has a big desk that covers two walls and a big monitor that lets you watch film of the Grand Canyon at actual scale. It has a real turntable but also a digital thingy to take the turntable's weak original signal and turn it into a badass male signal worthy of the shielded speakers lurking darkly in the corner.<br />
<br />
It is clear. A man had been here. AloneAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-89493030603229979972011-08-08T14:16:00.000-07:002011-08-08T14:16:30.930-07:00Cyborg sports: blade runners and androgen insensitivity<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI53QKcBuaeWWrZdNvds2G2xEcn60N9DicIY5EG-W5LrNfebDBbeR83HiEZr8jLFofB9Qn7_nQn_WO5QGds6lPjV9d8J8TLcXE4fiA1u6Fz2x_ZZqKrpJH9-pbvf-X0VhLHCQ8_mWy3O1E/s1600/oly_g_pistorius_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI53QKcBuaeWWrZdNvds2G2xEcn60N9DicIY5EG-W5LrNfebDBbeR83HiEZr8jLFofB9Qn7_nQn_WO5QGds6lPjV9d8J8TLcXE4fiA1u6Fz2x_ZZqKrpJH9-pbvf-X0VhLHCQ8_mWy3O1E/s320/oly_g_pistorius_400.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="213" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">1.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Remember the bread crumb idea? First attempted in Hansel and Gretel, with poor results: the birds eat the crumbs and Hansel can't get home. (Of course going home to parents who hate you and abandon you in a forest is another matter...). Later in the Extremely Early Days of computing and the net, I came across the breadcrumb notion:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">A Web site navigation technique. Bread crumbs typically appear horizontally near the top of a Web page, providing links back to each previous page that the user navigates through in order to get to the current page. Basically, they provide a trail for the user to follow back to the starting/entry point of a Web site and may look something like this:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">home page --> section page --> sub section page</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">This technique also is referred to as a bread crumb trail.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">The good news is that Angry Birds don't eat virtual breadcrumbs. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK4E_rx7_L58sl2A6gpk8mT__tP71eyGibCTe8iOdfzF4PLUEPKV64gNUEIUOFiKjKgztV3Pg1UNLseWeZ0P5JQsUFALxwDT1MwF0dVph7tie_Vx5oKzOidqRXCD_hnK3XAdlGA-S-XCOr/s1600/espn_a_pistorius_sy_200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK4E_rx7_L58sl2A6gpk8mT__tP71eyGibCTe8iOdfzF4PLUEPKV64gNUEIUOFiKjKgztV3Pg1UNLseWeZ0P5JQsUFALxwDT1MwF0dVph7tie_Vx5oKzOidqRXCD_hnK3XAdlGA-S-XCOr/s1600/espn_a_pistorius_sy_200.jpg" /></span></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">2. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">So today I got back from errands determined to write a blog on...well, not on this topic of distraction. I was going to write about Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody, which has me thinking more about cyborgs and networks, and how the new social media technologies have changed many of the behaviors and altered many of the limitations previously attached to organizing groups of people. As I sat down I realized I might want to watch the highlights of the Red Sox victory over the Yankees from last night (3-2, 10th inning walk off hit by Reddick). So I went onto ESPN's website, and promptly found a story about...Oscar Pistorius. Oscar is a double amputee running on carbon blades, and previously he had been banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations from able-bodied competition. The IAAF argued that the blades gave him an unfair advantage; but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (you did know such a court existed, didn't you?) ruled in his favor. (Pistorius is a multiple Paralympic gold medal winner). Cyborg sports! Carbon blades! The whole question of what constituted advantage (Pistorius isn't likely to win or even make it through the heats, though his personal best time of 45.07 for the 400 meters is quite good). And most important: Pistorius, picked to represent South Africa, will compete not only in the world championships in South Korea, but also in…drum roll…the Summer Olympics in London! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">The lead article had a link to a more in-depth conversation, so of course I clicked and read Johnette Howard's story at http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/page/howard-110804/oscar-pistorius-meets-olympic-qualifying-standard-400-meter-time-renews-controversy-prosthetic-legs.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">And what I read was fascinating in a number of ways. Since cyborg sports is already a reality (human bodies augmented by drugs, but also by complex biomechanics measurements and training techniques, cutting edge equipment like the shark-mimicking suits for swimmers and those big-ass drivers all golfers now must have) this next phase really intrigued me. If I am an amputee, and must use these legs to run at all, should I be able to? What if those prosthetics give me an advantage; is that like taking steroids? Or does the fact that I'm an amputee balance that out? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">The answer is…we don't have an answer to whether Oscar's carbon blades (he's nicknamed Blade Runner of course) give him an advantage, unfair or not. Oscar has seven experts on a team that helped him overturn his ban. Howard comments, </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">All of them provided their unpaid help to Pistorius on the condition they would independently reach their own conclusions and retain the right to publish their work when his last-resort appeal of the IAAF ruling to the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) was done.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">While all seven agreed the specific scientific report the IAAF used to ban Pistorius was faulty -- which was the only (and very narrow) criteria argued in his appeal before the CAS -- the same experts have since admitted they disagree on the bigger issue of whether Pistorius gets any sort of advantage from his prostheses. The different views are succinctly explained in this point/counterpoint debate that appeared in the Journal of Applied Physiology.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">With the Iraq and Afghan wars producing young men and women who have lost legs, this dissuasion is likely to grow. I heard a Gulf War amputee speak at the Iron Man in Idaho a few years ago, and he says sport saved his life; he was depressed and thinking of suicide when he saw someone in carbon blades running competitively. The biomechanics are complex, but the moment when Pistorius crossed the finish line in Italy and knew he'd not only won the race but crushed his best time AND made the world championships and probably the Olympics - that's simple. It's fricking amazing. At the end of the race the second place finisher, Jamaican Lanceford Spence, "comes rushing up to Pistorius, clapping and smiling and finally embracing him in a bear hug that sends both men falling to the track."</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Simple. Inspiring. Perhaps, for some out there, life saving.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">And…well, the story doesn't stop there, because there was another cyborg sport story embedded in the first one.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3dQ0sll2rf3Q6Jhu6CiJvBhVGiLgWSQG0oChQxRSqzyzop26wr-Dyb4TdtxxoABUR9ZGTNwjIB0GqEXCEpjpJh4fLI04J1ZJXaiBnrfgtuYta_8csjVzsLaE2SHZ3lobCpE_4mlMxWhcP/s1600/article-1207653-0613853E000005DC-238_233x659_popup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3dQ0sll2rf3Q6Jhu6CiJvBhVGiLgWSQG0oChQxRSqzyzop26wr-Dyb4TdtxxoABUR9ZGTNwjIB0GqEXCEpjpJh4fLI04J1ZJXaiBnrfgtuYta_8csjVzsLaE2SHZ3lobCpE_4mlMxWhcP/s320/article-1207653-0613853E000005DC-238_233x659_popup.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="212" /></span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">3.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">The article about Blade Runner also included a second story about Caster Semenya, the women's 800-meter world champion. She does not run on carbon legs - she has the original equipment, those amazing powerful legs that world class runners all have.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Her cyborg issue is not able/not abled, but male/female. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Semenya has had a sensational career - she's only 19 - and she won the Berlin world championships in August 2009 with a time of 1:55.45 for the 800 meters. that was the fastest time in the world, period. She was 18. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">After her victory many, including Time Magazine, questioned her gender, and the IAFF (remember Pistorius?) required her to take a number of psychological, gynecological and endocrine tests. This meant she couldn't train for 11 months, and set off a storm of protest from South Africa's government and populace.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Unlike, say, the East German women swimmers who now appear to have taken serious amounts of performance enhancing drugs to win their Olympic gold back in the Cold War days, Semenya is thought to have what is called androgen insensitivity syndrome. According to CBS news:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">People with this rare condition appear to be female, and they are, for all practical purposes. Yet in actuality, they have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome in each cell, the pattern normally found in males, according to WebMD. Some women don't find out that they have the Y chromosome until they try to conceive and end up getting the news from a doctor in a fertility clinic.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">So should she have been tested? The CBS article points out that the Olympic Committee stopped testing in 1996 when 8 female athletes tested positive for the Y hormone; they stopped because it isn't clear that this gives an advantage, but also because it isn't something the person "did." </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Like Pistorius, she too has been "cleared" to run. Her version of the carbon blades is her physique, which is extraordinary, and which has set off a whole popular media frenzy in which some articles refer to her as he, and other articles try to re-dress the gender issue by dressing her up in more womanly attire. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2RJ858EWePEqOXNAeLh5arWfJHxrBqoRG1eLScAiAloIj-g73cvpOypR0joYMwTi0pdDw5eGCrV3OBxVEIbhI_p7S9LBniSql-M-n5-6CIpu5Zt9kexEcNJe79ORswDLnSTwMUsQz42jA/s1600/caster-semenya--is-a-man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2RJ858EWePEqOXNAeLh5arWfJHxrBqoRG1eLScAiAloIj-g73cvpOypR0joYMwTi0pdDw5eGCrV3OBxVEIbhI_p7S9LBniSql-M-n5-6CIpu5Zt9kexEcNJe79ORswDLnSTwMUsQz42jA/s320/caster-semenya--is-a-man.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">4.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Central to the cyborg debate is the question of augmented vs. restored. If an amputee has function restored, that fits more or less easily into our categories. He lost something; we are giving him that [human] thing back. Or in the case of Semenya, she did not do anything to augment her performance, and though she occupies a middle place in gender, she presents as a woman in the crucial areas. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">But as I follow the bread crumbs back, it is clear that notions of able and dis-abled, female and male, are radically in question as we head into the second decade of the 21st century. And as with Hansel and Gretel, there is likely to be no way back to the home one had (clear and obvious roles for men and women, clear differences between able bodiedness and its lack). Do we want to go back to that home? I don't. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-67196394592799584162011-08-03T02:06:00.000-07:002011-08-03T02:08:48.149-07:00insult to injury<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">I was thinking the other day of a possible blog called "insult to injury" about aging and being in your fifties. Part of this was a cyborg reflection that aging is a software and hardware issue, and that a lot of cyborg narratives are driven by a human desire not to age as quickly as we do. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">So part of my fifties is being an athlete and beginning to get injuries based on this aging of the body, with the concomitant knowledge that my own inability to shift practices as my body changes is partly to blame for two torn muscles, a messed up knee, some emerging back issues (twice I've frozen up like some great insect with a carapace instead of a flexible spinal column). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">This would have to include the phrase fiftying it, a phrase Will Forest and I have developed. Fortying it meant you did something you used to do easily (make sharp field cuts, jumping with power, etc) and getting hurt. Fiftying it meant you did nothing noticeable and yet you STIILL GOT HURT. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">I've fiftied my ankle and my back, and I've spent four months in PT coming back from a two week span of trashing my knee (stuck on a mountainside above Desolation in Tahoe with a full pack trying to get down dead ends and free climbing pitches; drilling my knee on rebar and doing stupid Bike tricks that put too much jolt on my knees at Burning Man), and I've learned that the PT you are doing to get back function is actually the practice you ought to do anyway to retain function at this age.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">And so the insult to injury is that it implies you have not, even now, learned your body very well, or well enough to avoid injury. And that a cleverer approach, a more disicplined approach, might well result not only in strength and lack of injury, but also...new/old body knowledge.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">My friend Cat says that with our bodies now, everything old is new and everything new is old. She's right about that. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">And on top of all this, one has merely to look at one's desk (if one has a Memento Mori on it as the medieval philosophers did; mine is on my window ledge next to a spiral shell and a cup of pens) to see that these bodies that are no longer new also have a shelf life, a strange number which indicates the years this body will have this or that function, be able in these ways and less in those ways. Death is the whisper behind injury, is the spectre haunting the self we've cobbled together out of learning and myth, impulse and repetition, allegiance to some social norms and inevitably resistance to others.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7hM5kaujB_Su9Iyi576EUnFlEG1kxqONf7oGyKjAmxkGS_96Ttga9ReOgkILy9rztRZDls0v9Tndiz4BMAFVwhggmi5SEVgc66GRAUlyZjmHDcOhD9u-o5Ttni2pQXwMB6VPdSwT45ctP/s1600/MaxfieldParrish_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7hM5kaujB_Su9Iyi576EUnFlEG1kxqONf7oGyKjAmxkGS_96Ttga9ReOgkILy9rztRZDls0v9Tndiz4BMAFVwhggmi5SEVgc66GRAUlyZjmHDcOhD9u-o5Ttni2pQXwMB6VPdSwT45ctP/s320/MaxfieldParrish_1.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="202" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Kelsey my neighbor said tonight in the hot tub that balance is the result of failure as well as success; each stumble is a chance to learn that balance. She is young and very immortal feeling, just out of college and on her way. She had her head back and knees up and looked very Maxfield Parrish. My brother Peter added that most adults are not really as shaped or formed as they appear; he quoted Louis CK: one of us is 5, and one of us is 8, and one of us is 37, but usually we are all down on the level of the 5 year old. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">And so we have failing and still capable and desired bodies, many of us. We think we should know more by now and we are right. The insult of lack of self knowledge is added to the injury of aging.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">And yet...I sometimes think I always always knew it would be like this. Somewhere when I was 13 I was also 56. And so far 56 has felt wide open; what is old is new and what is new is old. I can sit at a computer that wasn't even a glint in Eniac's eye when I was 13 and remember 1967, </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">It turns out that most of us do not learn along some nice curve. At least we don't for many of the most important challenges facing us as crazy monkeys, a species on the brink. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">I believe all the important questions have a location along the interface between body and world. And that body is linked to body and bodies, and bodies are linked to bodies that include machines (computers are a clear but not the only example of networks of humans and machines, with the networks and the humans doing real work to continue the life of the network). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">The pendulum swings from the philosophizing of the fifty year old to the fifty year old body and the self wound around each other like DNA strands. We talk about global warming and then about the confusions of gender, of power, of communication, of media, of humans cut off from feedback loops and thus unaware of the shit that is about to hit the world's fan. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">So perhaps once in a while one's body must be injured, so that the insult of not knowing is again felt, like a hot lash, a slap, a wakeup call. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">PS when I searched for a Parrish image of Kelsey I found this as the caption:</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: small;">Barn's burnt down --<br />
now<br />
I can see the moon.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> Masahide</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJgGyZfJBblBoHHzBvq5VjDtzkCnV3n_ZlFccVih_PZnub5npGJXVr2HX8KmPreSm1N9QQ_6X6U1OPQj25g3DOCO2Wp2REPIStQaeuXU_qwIYt7IqYssOyyxe8Wxb497Wb7Qpl1ldx1_1S/s1600/IMG_2339_edited-2+%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJgGyZfJBblBoHHzBvq5VjDtzkCnV3n_ZlFccVih_PZnub5npGJXVr2HX8KmPreSm1N9QQ_6X6U1OPQj25g3DOCO2Wp2REPIStQaeuXU_qwIYt7IqYssOyyxe8Wxb497Wb7Qpl1ldx1_1S/s320/IMG_2339_edited-2+%25283%2529.jpg" width="284" /></span></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-16414596589722953372011-07-29T17:31:00.000-07:002011-07-29T17:31:11.197-07:00cyborg teacher 1<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoCMj1C92XqgeJbVVsgwC99oZML-Dp_GeQiIB8Wcx8jLMVu_kV6P9iaZchRTqco2dkyueC80vZexTH-e7pE3blgg4Oa7kf2x4bhAOrhqB4w6dYl3nWaPDfNHGZm8ikK8mj32kl3dt4a8M3/s1600/9118614001194362926yh5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoCMj1C92XqgeJbVVsgwC99oZML-Dp_GeQiIB8Wcx8jLMVu_kV6P9iaZchRTqco2dkyueC80vZexTH-e7pE3blgg4Oa7kf2x4bhAOrhqB4w6dYl3nWaPDfNHGZm8ikK8mj32kl3dt4a8M3/s320/9118614001194362926yh5.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="226" /></a>I was curious about whether there have been film representations of cyborgs as teachers, so I decided to google cyborg teacher. Of course, what I got was a wild array! The first link I clicked was for a real stinker of a movie, Class of 1999, in which cyborg teachers have been placed in "out of control" schools, to whip the attitudinal teens back into shape. Stacy Keach has, like, no eyes. Malcolm McDowell is uber scary. One of my favorite scenes is when the new "teachers" scan the students, and the audience views the readouts on how many gang members are in the crowd in front of the school. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's an interesting dilemma: the school really does have a gang problem; the cyborgs make it better at first, and then...the school has a cyborg problem. There is sadly a second movie, Class of 1999 2: The Substitute. One of the cyborg teachers from the first film comes back...and once again, substitutes get a really really bad rap. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the first version of cyborg teachers is aimed at the classic issue of classroom discipline, and imports the basic RoboCop logic. Society, and the soft nonaugmented humans who make it up, has failed; kids are in gangs and anarchy is loosed upon the blackboard jungle world. There is no pretense of learning; it is simply a struggle to see which war lord will control the mostly terrified students. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course novels and films about the problems schools face with violent students is an old story (see Blackboard Jungle among many takes). And of course there is the classic 1980s Reagan era solution to all problems like this: terrorists? Columbine? Just get a cyborg superhero, or a truly heroic American on steroids, to take on these shitheads and beat sense into them (or the life out of them). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I'm struck by the 1990ness of these images. Cities, public schools, the world has somehow all been taken over; the people who used to run things are now victims, and the erstwhile victims are now aggressors. But the people who used to run things (read: white middle class filmgoers and voters) have a (literal) new weapon: technology. Technology can help them regain control, and control, it turns out, is what it (school, urban life, geopolitics) is all about. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, as the U.S. government teeters on debt failure, a crisis completely designed and constructed by ideologues intent on making good all those rabid right wing radio ideas...I consider how to teach, what to teach, to my students in the fall. In a way, I want them to be competent cyborgs in a world where media representations outnumber actual representations. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is another site dedicated to cyborg teacher:</span><br />
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<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.7em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The classroom is itself a technology that I would argue is a virtual space, designed, organized, enclosed, no different than a space comprised of bytes; the classroom is a part of a larger education system whose parts are cooected to every aspect of American culture: home to road. The teacher and the student walk “into” the classroom from some other place and erect the theater of the system as they go about their business. The teacher stands at the front of the room, the student sits, listens, and writes notes. If a student leaves the room, he or she will walk down the hall and look into other “rooms” in which others are pretty much doing the same.</i></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.7em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>This illustration of the cyborg is mearly a test, a hypothesis, a means of seeing, not meant to be factual. It’s meant to be pleasant, perhaps a distraction; it’s meant to invite a game into the picture: to create learning spaces just as virtual as the classroom. What is this learning space: Interactive Fiction, of course.</i></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.7em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.steveersinghaus.com/archives/294</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.7em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That is, the face to face classroom according to Steve Ersinghaus might be fruitfully reimagined as a place where people are partly somewhere else (as in my online course) but also synchronically linked (that is, in that virtual place at the same time). </span></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cyborg teacher as cyborg enforcer looks at students from the point of view of enemies, of uncontrollable violence animals with a patina of humanity. The cyborg teacher as teacher of cyborgs imagines that the students are always already partly elsewhere, with different goals and priorities, and that a good deal of what modern teachers teach is how to think through things over time with some degree of time commitment and focus. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes I think that given our media saturated and information-centrifugal world, everyone in the US is ADD. Learning to attend - not attend as be in your seat, but to attend to what is being offered as learning, to attend to one's own priorities and skills - turns out to be a massively cyborgian task.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About one month to go on this sabbatical, and I'm getting ready to dive back in to this task. I can imagine a prompt that asks students to "read" classrooms, and teachers, and what combinations are best for learning. I want my students to use social media to connect with other people, students and otherwise, to produce real knowledge, to join forces and collaborate on real problems. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXJgf8mIuycrcpEFg3cgbVYWXZI1IlpBITlHx8txvR0L7m70WwuK10bxJURLa7BtU_EW6p4vCZkJiilY0-uRYYfqJawFnB4Jt9SQgkPiYyPW-LuGjiR8bmuKmtcn_PBvwf4RAMXDAZXRDd/s1600/class99b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXJgf8mIuycrcpEFg3cgbVYWXZI1IlpBITlHx8txvR0L7m70WwuK10bxJURLa7BtU_EW6p4vCZkJiilY0-uRYYfqJawFnB4Jt9SQgkPiYyPW-LuGjiR8bmuKmtcn_PBvwf4RAMXDAZXRDd/s320/class99b.jpg" width="228" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First cyborg stop: teaching the frack out of Fracking in Monterey County.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-50930210378869305052011-07-17T16:56:00.000-07:002011-07-17T17:12:38.386-07:00Reading The Dada Cyborg<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-9Drfomq7eWUrFj6IDmFU6L7eoiYaUi9AHghl4oGbtOhz5BH01ckOSyextF1iQgTSqpxbwILthWPdhkgCfwN_eDGfPJjg039JFio-O9_YD_DkdwrfJyzFHDPUpoW5uyKlrjD4eShX2GT/s1600/dada-cyborg-visions-new-human-in-weimar-berlin-matthew-biro-paperback-cover-art-704186.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 285px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-9Drfomq7eWUrFj6IDmFU6L7eoiYaUi9AHghl4oGbtOhz5BH01ckOSyextF1iQgTSqpxbwILthWPdhkgCfwN_eDGfPJjg039JFio-O9_YD_DkdwrfJyzFHDPUpoW5uyKlrjD4eShX2GT/s320/dada-cyborg-visions-new-human-in-weimar-berlin-matthew-biro-paperback-cover-art-704186.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630477810305189202" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjanoreEhG5ErvRYtvXVAAdqg9LLN2Frc2QdYoXzzdDsfYy21Ti0q2UejG5FVEdpwGO2QB5wnrnaR130m9QF_xByjsGijzwX-Vipfttp53BwEzW3hnnV_rLf5ubE0LCiMtZoBKPGkRLDY3r/s1600/dada_berlin_08-771936.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span></span><!--StartFragment--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I am loving this book to pieces, partly because it deals so well with Hannah Hoch, a terrific Dada artist. It is giving me good ideas about how to negotiate between the early cyborg meanings in Norbert Wiener's style of cybernetics, and later more "pomo" meanings in the work of Donna Haraway and others. I'm also interested in ways the cyborg can allow artists and activists to begin intervening to challenge reactionary and militarist political trends. Weimar feels so often like a too-contradictory republic/Statist cyborg, one that "resolved" into fascism. And the United States post Reagan feels that way as well.</span></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">For now I want to simply post Matthew Biro's answer to the question,</span></span></b></span><b><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> "In a nutshell, what is the Dada cyborg?"</span></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The Dada cyborg is a motif or image type that I kept identifying in Dada art and, in particular, the work of the Berlin Dada artists. As I investigated Dada cyborgs and, simultaneously, the concept of the cyborg as it was developed in cybernetics and cultural theory after World War II, I came to the conclusion that the cyborg frequently appeared in Berlin Dada art because it could represent a new conception of hybrid or “networked” identity. By analyzing various appearances of the Dada cyborg between 1919 and the early 1930s, my book thus traces an emerging pattern of cultural activity that links Dada art with the rise of mass media as well as the (roughly) contemporaneous cultural theory of Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, Ernst Jünger, and others. It is a concept of identity that appears across multiple media and shows us the roots of our own media- and conflict-saturated consciousnesses today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><!--StartFragment--></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">http://www.uminnpressblog.com/2010/01/dada-cyborg.html</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Hannah Hoch's photomontages are amazing. Here is one form 1919-20 that Biro discussed in great detail, analyzing (among other things) the human/machine hybrids of the Kaiser and of her lover, the Dada artist Raoul Haussman. It is called "Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany." </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjanoreEhG5ErvRYtvXVAAdqg9LLN2Frc2QdYoXzzdDsfYy21Ti0q2UejG5FVEdpwGO2QB5wnrnaR130m9QF_xByjsGijzwX-Vipfttp53BwEzW3hnnV_rLf5ubE0LCiMtZoBKPGkRLDY3r/s320/dada_berlin_08-771936.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630477808823800242" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 254px; height: 320px; " /></span></p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-75674013443140593812011-07-11T20:25:00.000-07:002011-07-11T20:55:51.045-07:00The golden header<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00G4FvQQi841jNCkovwtXAAdPNLRkIMJxYOUgkwCm6d0MLjiaKhxrW_mJCB6I36YAmAM3aUg95H1S4kt4NByETG-ehBEl8F_AM88YihJpcXF7FZAs0zbqUQoNpiOYYWYcZT2gZg6D7jcR/s1600/mediaManager-4.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX6FogGYfTH_C_6SA162W_nmqGoMGHGiCcQoJ6zNp50YExN9Oylvib-fPCKRALwF_IozKAZ6VKjbj3VMfHFsWTV-haUX7G_i6IIj7b7BoKiHl858z_YLhjOe109XmEVpJJg_5w51hbjlfb/s1600/mediaManager-3.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5AhcNXyI2aD4hkHStjpS1xNGrR4lAv8flWwWVKLARiT3YjYIHxJFN4u8HqUurjjXoJPMtTitN-KIUyybF5UqyHf2Jr0LTzkk0UIlmgPd0h-y0YudgTs2h3uopUdv9jMyTlZ_-EquHsxfS/s1600/mediaManager-1.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5AhcNXyI2aD4hkHStjpS1xNGrR4lAv8flWwWVKLARiT3YjYIHxJFN4u8HqUurjjXoJPMtTitN-KIUyybF5UqyHf2Jr0LTzkk0UIlmgPd0h-y0YudgTs2h3uopUdv9jMyTlZ_-EquHsxfS/s320/mediaManager-1.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628309260285093762" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">1.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I first found out on my way to watch the last minutes of a depressing game.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">My bro called me "Did you see it? Did you see it? Did you?"</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I could only think...no. We scored? The US women scored? But...isn't the game more or less over?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">It was so awesome getting all that from one sentence repeated in a frenzy.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Telephones are pretty awesome for getting good news fast.</span></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">2.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The Women's World Cup of Soccer is front and center on my Summer Sports agenda. I watched France-England and a bunch of Sweden-US (we lost 2-1 on a freak carom off of our wall) and US - North Korea.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">When we scored in the 76th...SECOND!!!!! I was both delighted and...well, and had that slightly doomed feeling you get when things come quickly and easily. When we missed a close off the bar header I felt proud of our attack.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Then came the penalty on </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Rachel Buehler. The amazing, insane stop by our goalie Hope Solo. Then the heartbreaking calling back of the play, giving Brazil a second chance. (At the time there was no apparent explanation; later we learned that one of the US players crossed the line and encroached, but...this is NEVER called this tightly, as far as I can tell). Then Marta scoring the penalty kick to tie it.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">AND the red card sending Buehler off for the rest of the entire frickin' game (awful call upon awful call). Then...</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00G4FvQQi841jNCkovwtXAAdPNLRkIMJxYOUgkwCm6d0MLjiaKhxrW_mJCB6I36YAmAM3aUg95H1S4kt4NByETG-ehBEl8F_AM88YihJpcXF7FZAs0zbqUQoNpiOYYWYcZT2gZg6D7jcR/s1600/mediaManager-4.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00G4FvQQi841jNCkovwtXAAdPNLRkIMJxYOUgkwCm6d0MLjiaKhxrW_mJCB6I36YAmAM3aUg95H1S4kt4NByETG-ehBEl8F_AM88YihJpcXF7FZAs0zbqUQoNpiOYYWYcZT2gZg6D7jcR/s320/mediaManager-4.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628309264147175234" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 228px; " /></a><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">well this is one of those moments when it seemed the US really woke up as a team. They played on fire. Even with Marta putting in a marvelous goal to go ahead. Even with a player (why do they keep saying "man?) down? But effort after effort was repelled by the back on its heels Brazilian defence.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;">And then the Play.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX6FogGYfTH_C_6SA162W_nmqGoMGHGiCcQoJ6zNp50YExN9Oylvib-fPCKRALwF_IozKAZ6VKjbj3VMfHFsWTV-haUX7G_i6IIj7b7BoKiHl858z_YLhjOe109XmEVpJJg_5w51hbjlfb/s320/mediaManager-3.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628309264827162418" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 205px; " /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;">3.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;">I've seen The Catch: Montana throw to Dwight Clark for the winning score in the 1982 NFC title game against Dallas. I've seen Viniateri kick that insane field goal in 2002 after the Tuck Rule saved the Patriots' season in the snow against Oakland. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;">But I think The Play is...well, I can't get it out of my head. I've seen it maybe thirty times on YouTube and ESPN. Rapinoe cruising up the left side, hauling, then putting her head down and hitting an absolutely perfect, probably religion-founding, cross, just out of the reach of the Brazilian goalkeeper, curving just enough toward the US striker.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;">And then Abby went up (afterwards it almost looked like a dolphin just about to break the surface of the ocean after a dive). And never ever blinked. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;">I am in love, seriously. I went to bed and closed my eyes and saw Abby hit it again, some kind of halo around her head, like a soccer saint. Ball. Goal. Tie. Hope.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-size:medium;">Honestly. The best.</span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-78266038654374807782011-06-28T22:20:00.000-07:002011-06-28T23:08:39.749-07:00Playing in Rain, I meet Tom Bombadil<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1E5RFsTUVyTEVTv7AMR7OMmXHoA55x7MZuwLCjmBTcDk-Q-oT6MmRHLH6BEvhEBSkPxpJ8wqJFzIrwJ94CIH5iQKHU7YsoPdji_VF5e_RwyN-CsgCB4Da0LlN1aprDcCblBd4jeZgFWBV/s1600/bombadil.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDqgvkJ7lU40tFGSDqLPcvsz_m5PExYKzymHPvkqbwGz1gMmCrf-i89DGokAT-pB51d2U5M6VTJ71sLQxtMIZUEtQabhyphenhyphenCI9ufZkHxPJp3S1SQ6wLaiksXwSPqleHWsSsJgoEOIoH8iT3b/s1600/3_11_10+026.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDqgvkJ7lU40tFGSDqLPcvsz_m5PExYKzymHPvkqbwGz1gMmCrf-i89DGokAT-pB51d2U5M6VTJ71sLQxtMIZUEtQabhyphenhyphenCI9ufZkHxPJp3S1SQ6wLaiksXwSPqleHWsSsJgoEOIoH8iT3b/s320/3_11_10+026.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623519320021564242" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">1</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">When I was a new dad, I'd come home from teaching in San Jose around 330, round the summit of Highway 17 and see that big old ocean stretched out below. Like a window on another world.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">And it was. The window was from 330 to about 530, when I'd have to be home in time to cook food for my family and take care of the little guy. And that window often was filled with disc golf. One problem: in the winter it rains, and so it would rain, and I'd try to gauge the amount of rain on my windshield as I approached the exit. Either get off here and play, or admit it was too wet and go on home.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">I played in a lot of rain.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">2</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Today I woke up to a cold threatening to rain day. Great: roofers are on my house, the paper is down but the shingles aren't all on. Solar panels are waiting to be lifted and put on the roof. Oh well. Take the boy to his math class; take the dog for a walk in the chill air; go to the doc for a look at the overall health of the body; drop by the local skateboard store to see about possible teen jobs for the son and heir. Then to the cafe for caffeine in its most glorious form, and writing until the computer says "running on reserve battery."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Then grab a sandwich and play some disc. Except it is dumping rain. So eat food and wait for the run to stop. And when it doesn't go to the course and wait. And read. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The rain pauses for a long couple minutes. Then back comes the rain.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">3</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Sitting in the car does things to a man. Well, not quite like being out at sea for months. But the rain sleets down the windshield, and so if you watch the trees through the water they seem to shiver and melt, like some Hollywood hallucination special effect. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Ok time to do this. Patagonia rain shell with hood, check. Ski hat with brim, check. T shirt to wipe down discs, check.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The plan: throw from under the trees on hole 20 over to the practice basket, then run and putt out and run back and dry off and do it again.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">No cars in the parking lot by now. 5 pm and I've got the place to myself; even the birds are safe inside, doing whatever birds do when they are hiding out from rain. Reading bird books? Considering new migration routes?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">And then I meet Tom Bombadil.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">3</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Tom (not his real name) drove up in a slightly beater car of uncertain coloration. I've seen him up at de la (the name of our arcadian disc golf course) many's the time, over the course of 14 years. He's got the weatherbeaten face of someone who spends a good deal of time outdoors, and for all the time's I've seen him playing, I've also seen him working on the course or taking with someone, usually about their lost disc.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Both Toms are merry fellows,who wanter and explore the natural world. Both are known for the quality of their voices. The Tom with the beater car proceeded to tell me stories about finding discs in the most amazing places, including 300 feet down a huge arroyo way off the beaten path of Hole 4, and underneath a massive tree that had fallen in the night. The discs thus found are mysterious and epic, like any number of things from Tolkien. No “one ring” discs, but certainly discs of uncertain provenance and ancient manufacture. One disc in particular got my attention, an almost mythic disc I've never heard of: the fabled Pegasus.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">As the rain fell and the day wound down, Tom regaled me with tale after tale of discs found and lost, rare plastics unearthed, valuable ace-run discs stolen by scoundrels, the Building of the Course at Pinto Lake. He was out in the rain to pull poison oak, which when wet gives up its long long runner roots (unlike weedwacking or cutting which only lets it come back bigger and badder than ever). </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">I bade him farewell, threw a final set of discs out into the now ridiculous rain, and hauled to my car. As I looked back, I saw Tom traipsing off into the brush. And thought of that rhyme from time out of mind:</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow;<br />Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1E5RFsTUVyTEVTv7AMR7OMmXHoA55x7MZuwLCjmBTcDk-Q-oT6MmRHLH6BEvhEBSkPxpJ8wqJFzIrwJ94CIH5iQKHU7YsoPdji_VF5e_RwyN-CsgCB4Da0LlN1aprDcCblBd4jeZgFWBV/s320/bombadil.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623519320535971906" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 207px; " /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--> <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></div><div><br /></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-62254424257847150102011-06-28T13:10:00.000-07:002011-06-28T22:09:52.701-07:00Bionic Dog<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDcbVOmQE8p2pE-JHx9aDGE9ZfZuRJqTHO-7aHzowHxQJxkqbEg74uNpycIjkpTLUC5LHt6vWOCnmRcKFM-f1OKGpCco8ELlpYyz6JJe2bl1ciMrxzamNF5ta_5HCcVifMlfAYWqT-Fxu/s1600/nakio4leg.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDcbVOmQE8p2pE-JHx9aDGE9ZfZuRJqTHO-7aHzowHxQJxkqbEg74uNpycIjkpTLUC5LHt6vWOCnmRcKFM-f1OKGpCco8ELlpYyz6JJe2bl1ciMrxzamNF5ta_5HCcVifMlfAYWqT-Fxu/s320/nakio4leg.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623379492734981970" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaF8iSW4rdF9E1vL_7IxI1bZ-AR4wxXQcAxWTxii6IR9txX6KAbbrquU3DPss-pj9-1gWUDgBhv1kn_rn_mbDScCvLaYpH3_mp1AWL_HI6_hq1f5731slel4bQoIpb9Pr_9Z8MjSGh4nN/s1600/0242-640x480600x450.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I am at The Verve on a cold maybe gonna rain Tuesday in Santa Cruz. The coffee is excellent (well when the café is also a great local roaster and the beans are roasted Next Door, that’s going to happen). I’m massively cyborged right now: phone is hopping with pictures, texts, email alerts; MacBook is working overtime on a wide variety of tabs and themes. Women’s World Cup (US women win 2-0 over North Korea). I read the comments on ESPN’s GameCast site, check the Giants game (holy crap! Up 11-3 over the Cubbies and it is only the 5</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> inning!). Email: send messages to my son’s math tutor, check for “trouble” email from school/work/home, read some FPIF (Foreign Policy in Focus) on the amazing Chinese art at the Tate:</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">In the vast exhibition hall of London's Tate Modern, the installation looks from a distance like a huge patch of gravel. Perhaps it is the first stage of a construction site or the last stage of a demolition. Only when you come closer and crouch down can you identify the little objects. A discerning eye might determine that they are reproductions. The rest of us rely on an </span></span></i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PueYywpkJW8"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">accompanying video</span></span></i></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> about Ai Weiwei's project, which explains that the Chinese artist had commissioned a village of artists to produce the porcelain objects and paint them to resemble the real thing. What from far away looks like a gravel parking lot is actually one hundred million artfully produced sunflower seeds. http://www.fpif.org/articles/art_v_state</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The brain is racing around a wild and bizarre racetrack, a steeplechase shaped like the inside of a computer merged with the global pings of a manic caffeine driven pingpong ball or pinball. I’m reading about the fickle nature of capital, the recent release of Ai Weiwei from Chinese prison, meanwhile mulling over the NPR show I heard on the way here (a frankly disappointing, much too limited discussion of “fracking” on Diane Ream show) and wondering how “clean” it would be to frack with natural gas to get natural gas, instead of using other dirtier methods…</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And then I found a bionic dog in my Inbox.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">2</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The email included a complete cut and paste of a SFGate article on Naki’o, “the first-ever “bionic man's best friend."” Below the print were two videos, one from ABC News, showing Naki’o running on four prosthetic legs, and generally acting like a happy energetic puppy. The story has big pathos: <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></i></o:p></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Abandoned by a family fleeing their foreclosed home last year, Naki'o and his </span></span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Cattle_Dog"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">red heeler </span></span></i></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">[Australian Cattle Dog] littermates barely survived the harsh Nebraskan winter. In his weakened state, Naki'o stepped into an icy puddle in the basement and got stuck in the freezing water. The 5-week-old puppies were eventually rescued and taken to an animal rescue center. But Naki'o lost his paws and the tip of his tail to frostbite. Under the shelter's care, his paws healed to rounded stumps, but he was left unable to walk.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">As a dog owner and I suppose now a dog “person,” (a funny phrase and probably worth pursing – as opposed to a cat person, but also as opposed to a person person?), I had predictable reponses: restored function, happy dog, happy adoptive humans, great ending to a sad story. Then other questions came up: how much did this cost? Who did the work? And is this going to be an option for pet owners, and if so, is this gong to move us into the big-cost insurance world for pets that already exists for humans? (for the answer to this last question, I recommend the terrific series on animal insurance on This American Life at http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/392/someone-elses-money). <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></span><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The story is that </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">veterinary technician Christie Tomlinson found the dog (where?) both “charming” and “crawling on its belly</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">to get around.” So she raised $1300 to have Naki’o’s two back legs fitted with prosthetics; when he did well the company Orthopets offered to fit the front legs for free. The total cost was $4500, thoug it isn’t clear if some of this was donated by Orthopets. It was this last fitting that made the dog into the first fully “bionic” dog.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:16px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaF8iSW4rdF9E1vL_7IxI1bZ-AR4wxXQcAxWTxii6IR9txX6KAbbrquU3DPss-pj9-1gWUDgBhv1kn_rn_mbDScCvLaYpH3_mp1AWL_HI6_hq1f5731slel4bQoIpb9Pr_9Z8MjSGh4nN/s1600/0242-640x480600x450.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaF8iSW4rdF9E1vL_7IxI1bZ-AR4wxXQcAxWTxii6IR9txX6KAbbrquU3DPss-pj9-1gWUDgBhv1kn_rn_mbDScCvLaYpH3_mp1AWL_HI6_hq1f5731slel4bQoIpb9Pr_9Z8MjSGh4nN/s320/0242-640x480600x450.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623379487140976914" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The prosthetics look totally cool to me; they are meant to mimic dog limbs, and it does indeed look as if the dog can move freely and happily. So. Happy ending right?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">3</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Increasingly I have been reading the comments at the end of articles like this. For many cyborg readers (that is, reading articles online and linked to sites that allow a wide audience to comment, flame, spam, etc) the end comments represent much of what is awful about the internet. My friend Crystal hates the mostly inane and often hateful posts; the author Jarod Lanier in his manifesto You Are Not A Gadget calls out the lurkers and trolls that destroy coherent conversations on the Net. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">But for some reason I’m drawn to what people say about articles. Perhaps it is the writing teacher in me; I want to know what a wide range of people will say because that gives writers information. And it isn’t hard for me to move past the empty comments in order to find the spread of responses from a potentially huge audience.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">In this case, the comments mirrored my own responses. First of course, admiration for the people who designed and perfected and fitted these prosthetics, and empathy for animals who have been abandoned or injured. Second, the feel-good part of the human story: people showing large amounts of empathy for suffering and dong something about that. Then…just as in the comments, I wonder about the people who abandoned these animals. Do I have the whole story? Are they cruel people? Bad people?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Here are a couple sets of comments:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:19.0pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:11.0pt .5in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Diana</span></span></span></i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> says: </span></span><a href="http://www.incrediblefeatures.net/blog/2011/06/nakio-the-first-dog-with-four-prosthetic-paws/comment-page-1/#comment-510"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">23 June 2011 at 10:33 am</span></span></span></a></span><span style=" font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">That story is so sweet it makes me want to cry. </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:19.0pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:11.0pt .5in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Dogs Rule</span></span></span></i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> says: </span></span><a href="http://www.incrediblefeatures.net/blog/2011/06/nakio-the-first-dog-with-four-prosthetic-paws/comment-page-1/#comment-511"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">23 June 2011 at 10:55 am</span></span></span></a></span><span style=" font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Freeze the limbs off the idiots that abandoned Naki’o and his siblings!</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:19.0pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:11.0pt .5in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Empathy builds the animal-centric community, and that community can also express a wide range of emotions at those who are outside it. Anger against those who hurt or abuse pets serves to constitute a part of this community.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:19.0pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:11.0pt .5in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">This it is only a matter of time before the accumulatin of pro-prosthetic and pro-animal sentiments produce a response by those outside:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:19.0pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:11.0pt .5in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></span></i><i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">K Fils</span></span></span></i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> says: </span></span><a href="http://www.incrediblefeatures.net/blog/2011/06/nakio-the-first-dog-with-four-prosthetic-paws/comment-page-1/#comment-516"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">24 June 2011 at 7:46 am</span></span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Bravo Orthopets! How wonderful that there are still so many kind and giving pet doctors! With all the poor animals that end up as amputees, I wish there was an Orthopets everywhere. I hate that people lose their homes and simply abandon their pets. Pets are family and should be treated with the love and respect that family deserves. Karma will get these folks. </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:19.0pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:11.0pt .5in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></span><i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Kat</span></span></span></i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> says: </span></span><a href="http://www.incrediblefeatures.net/blog/2011/06/nakio-the-first-dog-with-four-prosthetic-paws/comment-page-1/#comment-517"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">24 June 2011 at 9:00 am</span></span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">So glad you could hit in the gut those poor people who cannot pay for medical coverage for their human problems. Paying $6000 to buy the new feet for that god, plus the surgery itself, really says how important humans are. Great the animals are being helped, but many humans need help, and the humans aren’t getting the help. In some countries, the humans would eat the dog, because the humans can’t afford the food. </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:19.0pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:11.0pt .5in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I agree with Kat</span></span></span></i><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> says: </span></span><a href="http://www.incrediblefeatures.net/blog/2011/06/nakio-the-first-dog-with-four-prosthetic-paws/comment-page-1/#comment-521"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">24 June 2011 at 4:46 pm</span></span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS";mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS"; font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Seems like a lot of resources wasted on an animal when people could use help. In a way the story is heart warming, but also indulgently disgusting. How strange… </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-Trebuchet MS";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And that was my own response, partly informed by how I often read: how will others read this? And how do I read through a wide range of eyes, including first second and third thoughts? People were quick to jump on Kat, for assuming that people who help pets don’t help humans in need…</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">But this is what writing is (often) supposed to do: generate not simply agreement, but a variety of responses, so that we see what was assumed, left out, needed to be developed.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The comments are prosthetic to the article. Poorly designed or not, they are crucial. Technology lets us see what otherwise would remain invisible: this range of responses, this range of emotions. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Both sides have some work to do, it seems. And the comments allow them to see that work, and to do it. To design better writing prosthetics for a wider reading community to use.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-73443493983754974502011-06-26T17:34:00.000-07:002011-06-26T18:09:15.432-07:00Death in the AfternoonYesterday I got my dog and ran over to Meder Street Park, where I found a memorial going on, about 75 people. I decided to run and then attend to see what was happening. When I got to the dog park I found out that the memorial was for 25 year old Zachary Parke, the bike messenger and climber who was killed in a hit and run on Empire Grade Road on June 8, a couple weeks ago. He was hit from behind on a narrow dark road by Elliot Dess, who fled the scene, failed to call 911, lied to the police, and is now facing felony manslaughter and hit and run charges.<div><br /></div><div>Man. I sat at the park and thought about bikes, and cars, about mixed use conflicts (bikes vs hikers, cars vs bikes, cars vs pedestrians).</div><div><br /></div><div>I thought about two lives, one ended, one about to become a kind of hell. No way to hit rewind. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I got back to the memorial, I walked among the mourners and well wishers, seeing many young faces, some drawn and sad, others talking and smiling in the perfect June sun, all trying in their own ways to come to terms with what had happened. Cliff met all the dogs at the memorial, and I stood in front of a table full of Zach's mountain climbing gear, including chalk bags that he had made himself. Long shadows from the trees...I tried to imagine his life, his family, all the people affected by his too early departure from this glorious life. </div><div><br /></div><div>I took a flyer with images of Zachary on it, and then looked at some other pictures of him, one as a little kid with whipped cream on his face. That little kid, smiling into the camera. </div><div><br /></div><div>At the food table a woman said "Please take some bananas" so I took a bunch (literally) and Cliff and I walked home, past the Jewish cemetery on Meder. I stopped and thought back; when I'd walked by this earlier, I had seen all the cars parked and thought there was a funeral, but all I saw was the usual Arcadian scene: gravestones, trees, grass, birds hopping from branch to branch. And now I understood that there had been a death, and the funeral/ritual was a new kind of funeral: mostly to honor the life of the fallen young man, but also to bring friends and fellow cyclists together to ask questions about safety of roads, about justice. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I got home I put the bananas on the dining room table, and the pictures of Zach next to my computer. Lia and Paul came in from a ride, hot and tired and happy, newlyweds. I showed Lia the images of Zach and she was quiet as she read about his life and death. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I asked her where she'd biked to, she said, "Up Empire Grade Road to Bonny Doon and back."<br /><div><br /></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-1338396773974898692011-06-25T16:07:00.000-07:002011-06-25T16:45:22.637-07:00Reading Shteyngart<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt_3LpPix3HYoO7whPsRquiNbZ1unqHsdhbSa677G0jyqiMp6t0GNLNMFkhT56Pb6ayg2YZbe3qWpQR94F6OWX2T7pPy5dJ-8nHooN5G2u4YzWQKrhgDSeFiM97ixYQhsY8LSzRqOb8Nw3/s1600/tumblr_kxbsmwcGJv1qaouh8o1_400.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 203px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt_3LpPix3HYoO7whPsRquiNbZ1unqHsdhbSa677G0jyqiMp6t0GNLNMFkhT56Pb6ayg2YZbe3qWpQR94F6OWX2T7pPy5dJ-8nHooN5G2u4YzWQKrhgDSeFiM97ixYQhsY8LSzRqOb8Nw3/s320/tumblr_kxbsmwcGJv1qaouh8o1_400.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622307526427285586" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlLKJsntCAO3ZMiuCyUMFmExeKGRH8kOxt-IYgnx2YPYWBuUYwSvIKjutL3-yS1bTK5k_brqAglSk3AQxRcxSW6-OzrhS-iEinGXWcLdibbpJEYIHvdFfvfWI1yTT__pHfd8cl1EZMCQk/s1600/shteyngart184.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a>At 476 pages, Gary Shteyngart's The Russian Debutante's Handbook is decidedly Russian in length. (For comparison, the Bantam Classic version of Crime and Punishment is 576 pages; don't even get me started on the Norton Critical Edition at 704 individual leaves with writing on them).<div><br /></div><div>And it is drop dead funny, lie in bed in the morning reading more even though you should be rising to start your day engaging. Russian. Jewish. 1993 American. So encompassing that as I was sitting out in the California June sun this afternoon, I felt only partly present; another part of me was in a lower east side office dealing with psychotic Russian fathers of mafiya Russian sons named The Groundhog. Or in a fictional Eastern European former Soviet nation, Stolovaya (Russian for cafeteria) and its down at the medieval heels capital Prava (part Praha/Prague in the go go 90s, part Pravda meets the National Enquirer). </div><div><br /></div><div>I simply wanted to take a moment to do something that "Housekeeping vs The Dirt" did: try to represent, not "the text" and its meanings and successes/failures, but instead a record of my own reading of it. And so: I begin reading it on a whim, finding it on my wife's nightstand, and wondering what it was doing there. Not that my wife isn't a voracious reader; she is. But for a moment I wondered if this book slipped in undercover, a wild and wooly Philip Roth meets V Nabokov, Evelyn Waugh and Martin Amis with an accent that gets more pronounced as it imbibes more alcohol (of which there is a stunning amount). I am not sure why it is named as it is, unless Vladimir Girshkin, the main character, is said debutante...more likely it is one of those "how can we sell more of these? let's get a chick lit title and surprise the hell out of all those beach blanket readers from the Hamptons!</div><div><br /></div><div>Vladimir's story is "part P. T. Barnum, part V. I. Lenin." It takes aim at the new immigrant experience, as well as the American and Wester ex-pat experience (again, I kept seeing Czech Republic, and all those Americans descending on the New Place to Be). It sends up the weird Bohemia of Manhattan in the early '90s, and the weirder Bohemia of Eastern Europe after the wall fall. So much of the language is comic, you don't expect the accumulation of comic moments to end up serio-comic, with quite a lot to think about after all. </div><div><br /></div><div>One moment worth considering. At the beginning Mr Rybakov, the "fan man" who cheerfully introduces himself as psychotic, is trying to get our hero to help him gain his U.S. citizenship. (He almost got it but failed the citizenship ceremony; when it came to the part about protecting the US from enemies domestic and foreign, Mr. R began to beat an enemy-appearing hapless Turkish man with his crutches). When Vladimir says that there is nothing he can do to influence the INS, "ten hundred-dollar bills, ten portraits of purse-lipped Benjamin Franklin, were unfurled on the table to form a paper fan."</div><div><br /></div><div>First, instinct: Vlad grabs the hundreds and stuffs them in his shirt. Then, American reflex: "What are you doing? You cannot give me money. This is not Russia!"</div><div><br /></div><div>And the response: "Everywhere is Russia," said Mr. Rybakov philosophically. Everywhere you go...Russia."</div><div><br /></div><div>This turns out to be way truer than the reader can possibly predict. For a Russian, and especially for a Russian Jew...and an immigrant at that...Russia is everywhere, and what is happening in post-Communist Russia is, indeed, happening in other places as well. </div><div><br /></div><div>What that means exactly is the burden of the book, and the sum total of the many many spot-on details of psychology and economics in this novel. Let's just say mafiya, Ponzi schemes, glossy brochures advertising nonexistent industries, uncertain allegiances of former security forces, and the kinds of ethical and personal quandaries such things are likely to engender, flourish in places like New York City and Miami. </div><div><br /></div><div>I wonder if Bernie Madoff is reading this novel in prison. Hey Bernie, did you like the part where the mafiya Groundhog gets beaten by Slavic airport guards? Oh that side splitting comic sense of justice...</div><div><br /></div><div>PS Here is the picture of Gary Shteyngart on the back, which partly made me want to read this:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlLKJsntCAO3ZMiuCyUMFmExeKGRH8kOxt-IYgnx2YPYWBuUYwSvIKjutL3-yS1bTK5k_brqAglSk3AQxRcxSW6-OzrhS-iEinGXWcLdibbpJEYIHvdFfvfWI1yTT__pHfd8cl1EZMCQk/s320/shteyngart184.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622307524859398178" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 184px; height: 149px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-87483019983502567152011-06-24T23:58:00.001-07:002011-06-25T00:02:44.639-07:00Nuclear/Rabbit<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5l8My7IwzHKTdZMZ95q1rt-4ZEQtmjGMQZ5UPD28kWKp-gaDXEULk-c5Gz3uDwCnHZIQVjtWfaM2obY1io5allqRX5Yc1kMDUvQjxIYT2TtSVc6uWNsZqx3xN2mrtR65D54-zEZdYOsTE/s1600/Blinky-300x251.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCJQDwBLTRLV5y3MeOVeS6G8Vt52qSsW3a4R0FS1O-RcNZ3RaLc4GVOef-id12-pFhAEythPT6dWU5Qwltlkbnz2O1Bd92UR1giHPbDqML-4_HoG4F2SMZ_3C6FBikN98hTNH_JTOgNWQD/s1600/s-EARLESS-RABBIT-large300.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCJQDwBLTRLV5y3MeOVeS6G8Vt52qSsW3a4R0FS1O-RcNZ3RaLc4GVOef-id12-pFhAEythPT6dWU5Qwltlkbnz2O1Bd92UR1giHPbDqML-4_HoG4F2SMZ_3C6FBikN98hTNH_JTOgNWQD/s320/s-EARLESS-RABBIT-large300.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622048511121241506" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQi2bG_0S_nTHW-vV4WZOs-RCfJcZmF2nHAjTI5ZqHBxcq8m4B_Rn9LbzF12WRYwvxsnNv6EMbJE4M83Bjwt4MmnI5DCu2g2PB1f9j3M3PIetvMJBzXWVHxpHpEDZFEK_V5xiEZzUcPXQp/s1600/nightofthelepus-150x223.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a> </span></span><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi- mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Periodically I write on nuclear issues. And most people in my life call me Rabbit. (Or bunny, or buns, or…perhaps this is too much information?). But it isn’t often that the rabbit and the nuclear overlap. This is one of those times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi- mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I was congratulating a friend’s daughter on her upcoming bat mitzvah. I wanted to sign my email </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">mazel tov</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">, [Hebrew name for rabbit]. So I googled “rabbit in Hebrew” and got:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family: Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">arnevet</span></span></span></i><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> (hare)<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">arnavon/arnavoni</span></span></span></i><span style="mso-bidi- line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> (little sweet bunny)<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family: Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">shafan</span></span></span></i><i><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family: Times;mso-bidi-mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi- mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I found this at the “House Rabbit Society” website, “</span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family: Times;mso-bidi-mso-bidi-font-style:italicfont-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">An international nonprofit organization that </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">rescues rabbits from animal shelters </span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">and educates the public on rabbit </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">care</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> and </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">behav</span></span></u></span><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">ior.” </span></span><a href="http://www.rabbit.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">http://www.rabbit.org/</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi- mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The site also had news of rabbits around the world, including “Japan's Earless Rabbit Sparks Worries About Radiation, Mutation.” Posted on June 9, the article begins:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">“It's no Godzilla, but an earless rabbit allegedly born near Japan's severely-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has become the latest poster child for the side-effects of radiation exposure.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The bunny -- purportedly captured on video just outside the crippled plant exclusion area and </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqVY9azhH3U&feature=player_embedded"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">posted on YouTube</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> on May 21 -- has become big news in Japan and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere, stoking fears that contamination from the damaged facility could cause genetic mutations.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Here is the YouTube link: <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqVY9azhH3U&feature=player_embedded</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Now you, Dear Reader, may well be saying, Wait a minute, small eared Rabbit. This story is most likely a hoax! Allegedly! Purportedly! And of course you might well be right. First, the YouTube video’s poster has not been found, so this rabbit could have been from anywhere in the world. Second, it is hard to identify the exact causes of birth defects in animals. And third, it turns out this might not be a birth defect/mutagenic problem at all. Mary Cotter, a veterinarian from the House Rabbit Society, reported that she’s encountered two earless rabbits, whose mothers had most likely over-groomed their baby’s ears. (And I thought it was bad when my aunt used to spit on her handkerchief and wipe things off my eight year old’s dirty face!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">For the record, the two earless bunnies were named "Stubs" and "Nubbins."</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQi2bG_0S_nTHW-vV4WZOs-RCfJcZmF2nHAjTI5ZqHBxcq8m4B_Rn9LbzF12WRYwvxsnNv6EMbJE4M83Bjwt4MmnI5DCu2g2PB1f9j3M3PIetvMJBzXWVHxpHpEDZFEK_V5xiEZzUcPXQp/s320/nightofthelepus-150x223.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622048510265442722" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 223px; " /></span></span></p><div><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">2<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">So it is hard to know whether this bunny really is a victim of Fukushima. And I was impressed by the strong assertions in the article regarding radiation and genetic mutation. It cites F. Ward Whicker, professor emeritus at Colorado State University's Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, to the effect that natural radiation can also cause such anomalies, that usually the cause cannot be determined:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">"So far as science has shown, there have never been mutations produced by ionizing radiations that do not occur spontaneously as well."<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And then an even bigger gun is wheeled out: nuclear historian Richard Rhodes. He points to the research done after the atomic bombing of Japan:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">"In the years after World War II, there was a major American commission that looked into the health ramifications of the atomic bombings, and it found no genetic changes in the populations of Hiroshima or Nagasaki," said Rhodes, who has written extensively on the bombings. "There were no birth defects attributed to the bombing, and no genetic consequences."<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Now this was interesting. An American commission you say? And no genetic consequences to the massive doses of radiation encountered by Japanese downwinders/survivors? Or wait…none “attributed” to the bombing. It isn’t that I doubt Rhodes (though I believe he is a strong proponent of nuclear power, which is a different title than “nuclear historian”). But…since much of the article asserts that it is next to impossible to attribute birth defects to a particular cause, then I must assume that the number of birth defects after World War 2 did not rise significantly. Was this the case? How good was the study? Honestly, it is hard for me to imagine that there were no consequences to the bombing. But I’m off to see what the study indeed says, and who conducted it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">3<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Meanwhile, the rabbit has become indeed a kind of poster animal for Fukushima in a variety of news reports, all generated by the YouTube viral video (</span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">268,298 hits as of today). What happens when you eat nuclear grass. Not good science. Of course, neither, in my opinion, is a nuclear power plant you can’t turn off. Meanwhile, in the absence of a real public debate about the Fukushima accident and its implications, and in the wake of new and ever more frightening revelations about the severity of the radiation releases from the land of Godzilla and Tepco, the viral earless rabbit circles the globe, ambassador of a kind of deep fear of what, after all, is not being heard.</span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-line-height: 150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5l8My7IwzHKTdZMZ95q1rt-4ZEQtmjGMQZ5UPD28kWKp-gaDXEULk-c5Gz3uDwCnHZIQVjtWfaM2obY1io5allqRX5Yc1kMDUvQjxIYT2TtSVc6uWNsZqx3xN2mrtR65D54-zEZdYOsTE/s320/Blinky-300x251.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622048515618092610" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 251px; " /></span></span></p><div><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:150%;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-mso-bidi-font-weight:boldfont-family:Arial;font-size:22.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 255); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"><br /></span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-58364245038250684582011-06-23T18:48:00.000-07:002011-06-23T18:57:15.214-07:00Dog Park: CandaceI was walking back from the dog park when Candace walked by trailing dogs like the pied piper of the canine set. She has a very cool cowboy hat, shades, and she is a total Jedi when it comes to the dogs around her. <div><br /></div><div>They know - almost every one and I'd place bets on it - that she makes contact with each of them, and that they make contact with her. Dogs have their name said by her, treats given by her, wisdom and advice dispensed by her...</div><div><br /></div><div>I wish you could have seen it dear Reader. Across a neatly cropped suburban park at the edge of Santa Cruz, in a lake of June sunlight (the same sunlight that falls on San Francisco and Point Reyes and on a good day on Monterey for that full Steinbeck look...).</div><div><br /></div><div>She was striding with these great gorgeous Irish wolfhound dogs this furry round poodle-something my dog the black terrier/Chinese crested. Maybe. My 12 pound running partner and cross between a skunk and a prospector.</div><div><br /></div><div>Right exactly out of a fair tale.</div><div><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-53763318676377995252011-06-15T15:56:00.000-07:002011-06-15T16:05:10.831-07:00Blog for Market Day<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"> I’m reading a novel by Helon Habila called Oil on Water. And after reading The Windup Girl, I’ve been thinking a lot about how technology and capital follow closely on each other to destroy fragile human political and social arrangements.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Habila novel takes place in “the oil rich and devastated Niger Delta,” as the bookjacket announced. The plot takes us up river, similar to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and as the two journalists seek the wife of a oil executive, kidnapped by militants, we see the horror of this devastation firsthand. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Indigenous people who sold their rights to clean water and their original life to oil companies and ended up with broken VCRs and a river awash in life-destroying oil, dead fish and armed resistance, a government keen on keeping oil revenues flowing even if it means the flow of blood and the flow of pollutants. And those who tried to resist the oil money? Who made the “right” choice? Their chief is taken and executed; the soldiers come back with his “confession” and his “signature” on papers, and the oil companies win anyway.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The mixing of valuable natural resources and neocolonial multinational corporations and infinitely corrupt and corruptible “governments”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>- well. When you read Conrad and get to the horror, the horror, you know what he’s talking about, his code for the horror of the Western mix of naïve and arrogant idealism and decidedly non idealistic strategies for the taking of things from those with flatter noses and darker complexsions. Not much has changed, except perhaps for the extent of the environmental devastation that now accompanies the extraction of what the white men value. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hannah Arendt said that fascism and totalitarianism always come home; the strategies practices “over there” come back with the people who practiced them. Now we have fracking, the extraction of natural gas from bedrock, a mind numbing technology for destroying water sources and land on the way to finding “clean” natural gas. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Those of us who have learned to distrust the adjective clean will not be surprised when the head of an energy corporation smiles into the camera and makes fracking sound like a miracle of human ingenuity which will help heat homes employ people bring us safe and clean energy. And that is part of what novels like Habila’s do: they help us not only see and think, but feel, and feel again, the human and environmental horror visited by the neverending search for resources. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The modern curse: to live over or next to things the first world needs, and needing, feels it owns. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m at a Farmers Market and it is June and everything feels hopeful, sustainable, a moment when humans can and do pull off a marvelous cultural action. It is strange to be writing this post amidst such a scene. And these burgundy red cherries will taste sweet on the tongue later. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A sweet side to life, and a shadow side, always.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-90922278764663899482011-06-07T23:17:00.000-07:002011-06-08T00:12:40.834-07:00The cell phone in the Garden<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvoNG0iph0fYufy8o2kB5E4IywSN1fMkujEfLVGFr0sb_44NSQdXyMYXv3GO3l3bZ29XomNHIGn1tFu6IqeuZ5dYcSwYv9jyaGYhABXcTc7vDdrjoxGl4UdsMbStNpvPn0X9hIt_OKxQCd/s1600/hiking-using-cell-phone-530x354.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2Fv6TJ_6Ixs6mbyhIVyMCCd5I4yG9AJ76z9TzBbXevDDjR6hH6j5YXz6dY45sUh51_bKxkUYBCZPgo9JeksFNEIE6ZMvkyBYMU6kZxLGolSPRDCh2FKy0SToxE5izSPHw9XcgrMf1TEr/s1600/dccbd_4767312732_291e39781a.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2Fv6TJ_6Ixs6mbyhIVyMCCd5I4yG9AJ76z9TzBbXevDDjR6hH6j5YXz6dY45sUh51_bKxkUYBCZPgo9JeksFNEIE6ZMvkyBYMU6kZxLGolSPRDCh2FKy0SToxE5izSPHw9XcgrMf1TEr/s320/dccbd_4767312732_291e39781a.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615743144528571858" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">In Leo Marx’s book The Machine in the Garden, Nathaniel Hawthorne has an a-ha moment. In his notebooks he describes an Arcadian moment; he is sitting enjoying nature when he hears the shrill (and peace-shattering) blast of a locomotive engine. Marx goes on to notice that this exact scene is reproduced in text after text in American literature. Whatever else the machine does for us and to us, it destroys a certain kind of contemplative life, and replaces the possibilities of Arcadia with the imperatives of machine time and machine space.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I’ve just read two nonfiction studies, Distraction by Damon Young, and Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers. Both contain a Hawthorne-like “cell phone in the garden” moment, meant to personalize and dramatize one main feature/bug of cell phones: they distract us. Damon Young describes wandering with his wife in a little Greek village on the island of Ithaca (of Odyssey fame). He describes how Ithaca differs from the party islands like Santorini, and allows the village to come to life as a place out of time: “strangely deserted,” melancholic, full of grape vines and fat green and purple fuit and stone walls and an old almond tree. </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Finally they come to a cliff-top resting place that is “pure poetry.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And that is when it happens: in Arcadia, in this garden of slow time, his cell phone rings. Just like Hawthorne’s steam engine, Young’s cell phone interrupts a reverie: “The white cliffs, the herbs, the sunlight and the sea – all these blessings slowly dimmed as I was wrenched out of my reverie.”</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And he goes on to reflect on the unconscious reflex that answering the “digital nagger” has become, and within a sentence this reflex has grown into “something slightly sinister,” an addiction.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvoNG0iph0fYufy8o2kB5E4IywSN1fMkujEfLVGFr0sb_44NSQdXyMYXv3GO3l3bZ29XomNHIGn1tFu6IqeuZ5dYcSwYv9jyaGYhABXcTc7vDdrjoxGl4UdsMbStNpvPn0X9hIt_OKxQCd/s320/hiking-using-cell-phone-530x354.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615743145284909842" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; " /></span></p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Young includes this scene in a book devoted to the causes of and “cures” for modern distraction. True to his calling (he is a philosopher), Young finds that distraction and its obverse, focus or attention, are always already problematic in mortal human lives. It isn’t that we have too much information now and didn’t before; it isn’t that we have cell phones or the Internet or that we are somehow radically less able than our predecessors. Or rather it is not these things alone; instead, these seem to make more difficult an already difficult task: to flourish given that we must attend to this and not that, to make thoughtful choices about where our attention ought to go.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Powers repeats this cell phone in the garden trope in his chapter on Hamlet and his “tables” (the Elizabethan version of a blackberry, a wax writing pad that can be erased and used again each day). And even more uncannily, the scene Powers draws is a repeat of Young: a phone call from his mother. He is on his way to her house when he gets her call; her picture comes up, the “Kabuki” drama of him being late and her agreeing to hold dinner unfolds, and then they sign off. As he drives, the call stays in his mind: he feels an “unexpected surge of emotion” about how much he loves her, how good-natured she is, how his son seems to have inherited these traits. The music playing in the car (jazz), the scene unfolding outside the car (pine woods) all merge with the memories of his mother, and these build in each other to an absorbing joy. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">So not the machine in the garden? No. But that is not to say that cell phones are not exactly as Young would have it. The difference is the gap between the call, and the deeper experience he found he had. The gap was created artificially by being in the car, and cut off from other mundane tasks:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">[The joyful epiphany about his mom] “happened after what we typically think of as the connection, the call itself, was over. There was a gap between the practical task and the deeper experience that followed, If that gap had not been there, would I have reaped the same benefits?” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">In fact, he says, the cell phone and its ilk (screens of all kinds) are not bad in themselves, but in that we constantly move from one communication to another, we lose the chance to give “room” to the “after” of communication, to the room in ourselves for reflection. And this is the point that Young is making as well. This link between the utilitarian side of digital experience and the “vital significance” side is, he argues, what is missing in our current technophilia, our belief in our devices. We can have these significant moments and do, but only when we allow a gap or a pause between the rush of communicative events. And this gap allows us to reflect, as Young would have us do, on which elements of the communication are worth focusing on, are of value.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I’m not exactly sure what to make of these two scenes. But one thing is clear: the feeling that a machine (the railroad, the cell phone) is somehow connected to an interruption of reflection and of deeper feeling. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Cyborg anxiety. The anxious feeling that even when we are “controlling” machines, they are somehow also controlling and shaping us in ways we don’t like and can’t, well..control.</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-45754552367603413332011-06-03T19:17:00.000-07:002011-06-03T19:54:55.675-07:00susan leigh star<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirjzDF3uKBuHzYTqB4HM1w4supaNLbkc5nMXQCeGcLxPqLXd-pR_vTLs9ozMNK3H4k87vtlPl3-4omxgQnltJ8U4FRlmTddPeGgiLfdYU4WOuDxxJASZE7iOGViQ0vvudChCy8EOIivk_B/s1600/susan-leigh-star.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirjzDF3uKBuHzYTqB4HM1w4supaNLbkc5nMXQCeGcLxPqLXd-pR_vTLs9ozMNK3H4k87vtlPl3-4omxgQnltJ8U4FRlmTddPeGgiLfdYU4WOuDxxJASZE7iOGViQ0vvudChCy8EOIivk_B/s320/susan-leigh-star.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614192652204481778" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I am meeting Susan Leigh Star for the first time, and she is dead.</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I am reading Susan Leigh Star for the first time, reading her semi famous essay about the onion, "</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Power, technology and the phenomenology </span></span></span><span style="font: 18.4px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">of </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">conventions: </span></span></span><span style="font: 18.3px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">on </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">being allergic to onions." Personal; political. Critical; theoretical. Insider; outsider. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Poetic. A writer of poems as well as essays and books and theory.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Her essay on onions and justice begins with an Adrienne Rich poem:</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Today I was reading about Marie Curie.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">she must have known she suffered from radiation sickness</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">hr body bombarded for years by the element</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">she had purified</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">It seems she denied </span></span></span><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">to </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">the </span></span></span><span style="font: 10.0px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">end </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span style="font: 10.0px Times"></span>the source </span></span></span><span style="font: 10.1px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">of </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">the cataracts on her eyes </span></span></span><span style="font: 12.3px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">. . . </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span style="font: 12.3px Times"></span>She died</span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">a famous woman</span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">denying </span></span></span></div><div><span style="font: 10.0px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">her </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">wounds</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Times;font-size:18px;"> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">denying </span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">her </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">wounds came</span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">from the same source as </span></span></span><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">her power</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">(Rich, </span></span></span><span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">'Powcr', </span></span></span></span><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">1978)</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">This means across a wide range of emotions for me (a friend has cancer, she is facing radiation, I was in the snow watching snow fall after Fukushima wondering if my tongue could taste the radiation on the flakes).</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Susan Leigh Star did not deny her wounds nor did she neglect to find the source of her power.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I am struck by how present she is, and how many clues are dropped by those who, guilty by association, share her drive to theory and feminism and justice. </span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I am surrounded, here at her festschrift, at this celebration of her work, by her. She is living in the words her friends are saying, living in her own words illuminated on the big screen in PowerPoint so that a quotation form her book Ecologies of Knowledge glows carmine and hovers above us. She is living in her partner Geoff Bowker, in Donna Haraway and Katie King and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa. </span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Thursday night, the University Center was late-lit by the in and out sunlight filtering through redwoods. Crystal and I found Warren and we talked until the presenters began presenting, and I listened and felt a ghost suddenly collect herself and float unseen into the room, listening to herself being invoked and represented and admired and honored. The woman behind the words. </span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Friday we gathered around the comforting altar of coffee urns, then Jenny Reardon invoked her yet again and back she came, and each speaker in her own way was dancing with her, moving as she/they moved, moving us, letting themselves be moved. Astrid Schrader and harmful algae; Maria and the many meanings of soil; Katie King and boundary objects and transcontextual feminism. Karen Barad and the Judaism she shared with Leigh and the meanings of these days between Passover and Shavuot, the days of the counting of omer, of grains, the harvest, a counting and economy not of capitalism but of justice. Tikkun, the healing of the world and ourselves at the same time.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Karen noted that there is the justice of thou shalt not, and the justice of Omer, of thou shalt: thou shalt leave a corner of the field unharvested so the hungry can glean and eat. Each day read against and through seven values of justice.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Today: compassion read through grounding</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Yesterday: boundary making read through grounding.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Since Leigh was a theorist of boundaries, of boundary objects (one of her theoretical hobbyhorses and contribution to STS, science and technology studies). I shivered a little when Karen lined up the talk of boundary objects yesterday, and the ancient practice, generations considering boundaries. </span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span><!--StartFragment--></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">So we hear amazing and brilliant women theorize using Leigh Star's work, honoring but also extending and using. And she was present for this; she was doing work still, beyond the grave, or perhaps not in the ground only. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And after lunch (with Donna and Katie and others, that kind of conversation across food and among scholars that I love love love) I drove with Crystal down from on high to the flatter lands below the University, my brain buzzing and blooming, and I thought, oh. This is our first meeting, Susan, and I just hope I held up my end of our encounter, hope I helped bring you around if that is your desire, hope I played a role in the honoring of your soul's sleep, if that is your current state.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">You asked important questions, cui bono, who benefits? And I'll take up that banner, if you please. I think we all are looking beyond for the more that we are, that can be, that exists as surely as you continue, just that surely, not less or more.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Lifting my virtual glass to you, and the incredible community you gathered around you.</span></span></span></p></span><p></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.9px Times"><span style="font: 9.9px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:10px;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9.4px/normal Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-13868781282490605172011-06-01T21:42:00.000-07:002011-06-01T21:50:46.482-07:003/11<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ODy7vScKSiXswMVwdeu2l73AQpB5gdXgsfL4T38pjXMtieyhjA6BTzYj-xbj-gN76m9T6k7_XyqOI4Vd6g_a0lgW1B4J4WjAIQTH_4RPbrfX2zKeuKWY2F8wjnI7Fvv7NXJ-yepxfms4/s1600/4846news_fukushima_kordian_resized.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmGQr7DSi9kKE7n5W9Em9kXlYVBbgIUbBtm7whEtYQkl9EWiNrAD30IIncCdlk3d4tXFvAkKFyTrKr9V7e9kX1e55Khp8UDU0-kqoWmQtbmnWv1Rk4N0SEuQnJVy_YYU9ZI_WUQCoLj8A/s1600/0316-Fukushima-NUCLEAR-CRISIS_full_600.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmGQr7DSi9kKE7n5W9Em9kXlYVBbgIUbBtm7whEtYQkl9EWiNrAD30IIncCdlk3d4tXFvAkKFyTrKr9V7e9kX1e55Khp8UDU0-kqoWmQtbmnWv1Rk4N0SEuQnJVy_YYU9ZI_WUQCoLj8A/s320/0316-Fukushima-NUCLEAR-CRISIS_full_600.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613479433575385282" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">3/11 11<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">We learn some new words: Venting. Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1. General Electric Boiling Water Reactors. General Electric Mark I reactor. Containment. Evacuation zone. Cooling. TEPCO. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">We learn that there are six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power site. We learn that there are four nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daini site. We learn that these reactors are 200 miles north of Tokyo. And they are run by Tokyo Electric Power Company, Tepco.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Take a huge complex and dangerous power plant. Imagine an earthquake and a tsunami as a huge hand unplugging the power plant. Now imagine that without power, the plant cannot manage its dangerous fuel. Now imagine that pressure is rising in the plant, like blowing up a balloon to bursting. Now imagine “venting” the balloon so that it does not utterly pop; and that the air inside the balloon is toxic. Really toxic. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">You are no longer sitting safely wherever you live now. Instead, you are one of the 3000 people living within a few kilometers of the site. You gotta get out, now. Or you are living ten kilometers away; you don’t need to go, just stay inside. Keep those windows closed. Try not to breathe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLg9XwplwsVNEJ1XV1JdH4eiqdS8wH4jA3xDjhGfIGnEiXcU7FQrS45rs7eiQhObceM3ePCSDAsO9ixlNJwxV1XEJM5w2rmj1dWtsp_elJ9vR41PfttIGrl_PqpnMEb9opQQlNVZ6UF0-a/s320/FukushimaWorkers415.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613479445049378658" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 225px; " /></span></span></p><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Now you are starting to get it. 3/11 is 9/11 for the earth. It is Katrina and New Orleans; it is BP and its oil rig. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">They are not going to protect you, whoever you think they are: the corporations that run these massive technologies. The government agencies that pretend to regulate them. The media that we imagine are watching the agencies watching the massive technologies and the corporations that deploy them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3f82G5TsP3EvVwwuqFMHhBvLuuC6f3WyYQlHgcNff5V4VcNUywAFOW4lAlwmLSKFVJEZHP3P3PP5d7qR5-zxBhlA27VVoSlfa6lZ1tub1sL7E0SdFjnAyQ3Fjfx6uR83W7DvLMx5EOfIU/s320/Fukushima+nuclear+power+plant+explosion.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613479441870479586" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></span></p><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">So. What are you going to do? Yes, the world is in a fix, and there is no place to escape. But you’ve been escaping for years. Hoping they will not fuck things up. Hoping they will take their obscene profits and run things reasonably well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Well, they didn’t. They never will. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ODy7vScKSiXswMVwdeu2l73AQpB5gdXgsfL4T38pjXMtieyhjA6BTzYj-xbj-gN76m9T6k7_XyqOI4Vd6g_a0lgW1B4J4WjAIQTH_4RPbrfX2zKeuKWY2F8wjnI7Fvv7NXJ-yepxfms4/s320/4846news_fukushima_kordian_resized.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613479438053026914" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 257px; " /></span></span></p><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Now it is that time, in the movie, when the main characters – the plucky teens, the isolated and marginalized hero and heroine, the animals threatened with extinction – find a way, however unlikely, to change the story line, to pull it out in the ninth inning, to hit the eleventh hour and find resources they never knew they had.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Ok, let’s roll the film.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-51281029396103853932011-05-31T22:10:00.000-07:002011-05-31T23:10:07.487-07:00Iron Man 2 as a cyborg fable<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS717E3fV_MbqJxYS24u_VE1Et7sb6LRQYWSOqR2jOjFPrz2sE-pg_dKa0Llsk5_YemYPpo2KLbZW1Y_X4PCCF08kgekyr597XRDX4MV2bATn2wMCuzsbxDdIKofw0YkR38YgusYzRYW8O/s1600/iron-man-2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS717E3fV_MbqJxYS24u_VE1Et7sb6LRQYWSOqR2jOjFPrz2sE-pg_dKa0Llsk5_YemYPpo2KLbZW1Y_X4PCCF08kgekyr597XRDX4MV2bATn2wMCuzsbxDdIKofw0YkR38YgusYzRYW8O/s320/iron-man-2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613129446770511506" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-JtYLIU0qt6guq645YFuRxyWtmMdf8FrZjGTMkj4r2T5zpagk8oHi1jfLheqnRZGw8EJLvsHGIye3USahLFlNxqJI3jrUXKlEsjwvWtxOjqbdVMM5w_5lHbKJ_mxOdI7FdXC4TDrHh0c/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-05-31+at+9.21.20+PM.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:21.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Last night I worked with my son on an exam about World War 1 for quite a long time. We went over the Mandate system, reparations, the War Guilt Clause, the Schlieffen Plan. So when our neighbor asked if we wanted to watch Iron Man 2, we took a welcome break, threw the textbook down, and went to watch Robert Downey Jr. test his blood toxicity for almost the entire movie. Since most of the people watching knew I write about cyborgs, I asked the assembled – two parents, three teenage boys – to be on the lookout for cyborg themes. My son replied “yeah we’ll be sure to watch for the way exoskeletons make us stronger.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:21.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">First of all, it is sort of funny that my 15 year old knows the word exoskeleton, and probably not from me. Second…well, it is interesting, isn’t it, that Iron Man 1 & 2 are both kinds of fables about technology, the kinds of exoskeletons we don, and the purposes for them? At one point before a Senate committee, the sleazy senator played by Gary Shandling demands that Tony Stark give his weapon-cyborg system to the US military. And Stark replies that it isn’t a weapons system, it is a kind of prosthetic. He is making a cyborg argument, and only half of it; of course it CAN be a weapon system. In fact, when the action scenes start, a lot of the subtlety (well what passes for subtle in a blockbuster) of the film’s anti-militarist, anti-proliferation stance is lost. We just want to see battles between new kinds of superheros in flying armor. Or at least the 15 year olds seem to take this position.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:21.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 37px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">So it was with interest that I came across the article “When Power Armor Makes You a Cyborg.” </span></span></span><u><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">[http://io9.com/5743585/when-power-armor-makes-you-a-cyborg]</span></span></span></span></u><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">, which asks the question </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">“</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">But what happens when the armor changes you?” The article samples some film and a lot of gaming cyborgs, and concludes – as I do – that these technologies are not simply “tools” to be used by good guys for good and bad guys for bad. Instead, the armor or exoskeleton effects the user’s personality. Consider how people change when they get behind the wheel of a car, especially certain cars (SUVs, offroaders, high performance cars). But the article focuses on people who become cyborgs WHEN they put on their power armor prosthetics. So Darth Vader doesn’t count (already was a cyborg).</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:9.0pt;line-height:28.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The article focuses on Iron Man the comic hero, not the film hero:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">You could definitely argue that Tony Stark becomes a cyborg the moment he needs his arc reactor in his chest to keep his heart beating. But several times in the comics, Tony's gone a lot further towards cyborg-hood. In particular, in one storyline, Tony gets injected with Extremis, a techno-organic virus that rebuilds Tony's body — and gives the ability to link to any computer on Earth. With his upgraded technology, Tony has the Iron Man armor inside his body, until nanobots bring it out of him. </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-JtYLIU0qt6guq645YFuRxyWtmMdf8FrZjGTMkj4r2T5zpagk8oHi1jfLheqnRZGw8EJLvsHGIye3USahLFlNxqJI3jrUXKlEsjwvWtxOjqbdVMM5w_5lHbKJ_mxOdI7FdXC4TDrHh0c/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-05-31+at+9.21.20+PM.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-JtYLIU0qt6guq645YFuRxyWtmMdf8FrZjGTMkj4r2T5zpagk8oHi1jfLheqnRZGw8EJLvsHGIye3USahLFlNxqJI3jrUXKlEsjwvWtxOjqbdVMM5w_5lHbKJ_mxOdI7FdXC4TDrHh0c/s320/Screen+shot+2011-05-31+at+9.21.20+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613128775229624658" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 192px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></i></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">In the comic and in the film, Tony Stark begins as a selfish narcissistic playboy, and ends up “more” human than he was (though still with flaws like alcoholism). The technology forces him to realize his vulnerability (this is particularly true in the film) and that of others who may need what his now-necessary cyborg prosthesis can deliver. Hence the way the armor comes "inside."<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">In contrast, the anime and manga series Evangelion feature a number of Iron Man-like suits, called mecha or gundam. This is a cyborg post-apocalyptic action story that features hostile space beings called Angels, and a paramilitary organization called Nerv which fights them. Evangelions are giant mecha or cyborg suits worn by teenage pilots, “plain human kids,” from the Nerv, including the hero, Shinji Ikari.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Unlike Iron Man, the Evangelions or EVAs highlight the neurological link that the human teens have with their cybernetic prostheses. This constant linkage with the prosthetic has implications:</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">in the second [Evangelion] movie…we're told over and over again that if Shinji Ikari and the other pilots descend too deep inside an EVA, they will change and become something no longer human. And this keeps happening, with the pilots evolving into something post-human in the process.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Ever since the earliest cyborg stories like No Woman Born, the addition of a cyborg shell or a new metal/cybernetic body chances the human. Something metal affects the female protagonist of No Woman Born, and she no longer has prototypical 1940s “female” emotions. Yet this was seen (at least in one reading of the story) as a potentially positive thing for the woman who had been burned horribly in a fire, and who before that had been more or less controlled by her two male handlers (husband, manager).</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">In the anime series of Evangelion, the goal is (according to the io9 website) </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Shinji’s goal is “to merge with his EVA</span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">,” after which "Shinji's mind will evolve beyond individuality in its merge with his EVA." This notion of merging with the prosthetic can also be seen in the film and manga Ghost in the Shell, with its ongoing story of how the cyborg body of Major </span></span></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoko_Kusanagi"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Motoko Kusanagi</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> seems to flatten her emotions while enabling her to perform superhuman bionic acts. And in the end of Ghost in the Shell, Motoko merges with a bodiless AI called the Puppetmaster, and responds to a call from a ghost-like being that inhabits the entire Internet and offers Motoko new powers and transcendent knowledge. Because she is cyborg and not simply human, this appeals to her, as a logical extension of what she already feels.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">In Iron Man 2, the arc reactor that powers Tony Stark and keeps him alive is also poisoning his blood with its metal, Palladium. Of course, the technophilic film shows Tony inventing a new element that allows him to survive and keep his cyborg powers. But the notion that our prosthetics infect us, one way or the other, and lead us past a particular notion of “human,” is found in most cyborg stories. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Let’s end with this: unaugmented humans are, themselves, poisoned with elements of their (prosthetic) identities. They are not inevitably more capable of emotion, or better. In some ways cyborg stories, and their cyborg protagonists, make this poison visible. </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:15.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-81303390740406169982011-05-30T13:21:00.000-07:002011-05-30T14:13:55.250-07:00My friend Pax's blog<p>I've been reading my friend Pax's blog "your passport to complaining." (Find it at http://paxus.wordpress.com/). Pax and I are old friends, and have both been anti-nuclear activists. So it is with great interest that I am reading his nuclear blogs, and wanted to share a few of the highlights.</p><p>First is his concept of being "information rich." When Pax was organizing in the Czech Republic against Brno and other reactors, he needed to be able to compress arguments because the translators were going to spend twice that long in taking his words and making them Czech-friendly. </p><p>Second is the notion, possibly obvious but often not acted upon, that "The media people always come with a story, they have written at least part of the story before they arrive. We are supposed to prove that some thesis of the story is write." In Pax's case the media story is that "the tsunami-earthquake of 3/11 was as transformative event for Japan as 9/11 was for the US." The role of a good information rich media wrangler is to challenge this story enough to make your own points dramatic, and to avoid being made part of a packaged story that contains and domesticates whatever you say, including radical challenges to said story. So Pax's line is that whereas 9/11 "permitted the civil and legal rights of many US Americans and even more internationals to be violated," he hopes 3/11 will help the Japanese people to act boldly to get rid of toxic nuclear power, as the Germans have. Here the information rich add-on (did the media get how huge the German and Swiss moves to get rid of nukes are?) tilts the story on its ear. Wait - are nations actually doing something based on Fukushima? </p><p>The Swiss and German stories are to say the least underreported in the mainstream/corporate US press. And at the end of the day, coherent stories and not overly listy arguments are more likely to be successful in getting a wide range of people to begin rethinking how we get energy. The Swiss phase out of nuclear is quite slow (2034) but the halt of new plants in two countries that are seen as technology-savvy is huge. If they imagine it can be done without nukes, well, maybe there is something to this notion. And it provides a counterweight to the huge propaganda push to see nukes as carbon-friendly alternatives to dirty coal and the awful natural gas options.</p><p>So it is important to be information rich, to be constantly updated and do your homework (when I was at Stanford, as activists we always tried to do our homework, to really educate ourselves not just with antinuclear facts but also counterarguments, and to have every person involved as aware as possible). But it is also HUGELY important to have a coherent story. This is why ever nuclear story is a story about coal. About global warming. About consumption. About peak oil. About governments that govern in the name of corporate profits, and about moving those governments toward governing for survival.</p><p>Pax says as much in a blog on German responses to nuclear power: "Nuclear power only survives thru a collection of interlinked paradoxes: The denial of the link between civil and military nuclear programs. “Confidence” that high level waste can be managed, when ever nation has failed for decades. Claims that new reactors are economic or even will be “too cheap to meter” while it is really “<a container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/" title="2007 Economist article on Nuclear Renaissance " href="http://www.economist.com/node/9762843" target="_blank">too expensive to matter</a>.”</p><p>These paradoxes don't stand up very well to scrutiny, which is why it is so valuable to keep shining a light into these dark places.</p><p>One last point: Pax lays out the German commission's findings on the future of nukes:</p><p> </p><p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">1) The 8 closed reactors will remain closed</p> <p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">2) The 9 younger reactors will be closed by 2022</p> <p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">3) Since civil and military nukes cant be separated, they are calling fro the reform of the IAEA</p> <p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">4) Waste storage locations more than Gorleben need to be located and waste must be retrievable.</p> <p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">[Here is the Greenpeace <a container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/" title="Greenpeace Press Release on German Nuclear Shufdown" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S2TmjEaMXJCSlGH586wHqqEY4bpP6fHZwsPA-b8B_EQ/edit?hl=en_US" target="_blank">full press release</a>]</p><p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">Pax's point isn't simply that this supports anti-nuclear positions, but that before Fukushima this policy would have been UNTHINKABLE except for...wait for it...radical anti-nuclear activists. Second, his language here is terrific: "This is Fukushima’s very expensive silver lining. While closing the reactors will grab the headlines, it is points 3 and 4 which dare to touch key nuclear paradoxes that are especially important."</p><p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">He then lays out the problem of having the UN's nuclear watchdog IAEA caught between supposedly promoting "safe" nuclear power and on the other hand preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons. Except for China, all the nuclear states got weapons from reactor technology: India, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa. So when you see who wants to sell reactors to Iran, you need to see that they are selling the ticket to the nuclear weapons club. PS guess who was selling nuclear reactor technology to Vietnam? Wait for it....TEPCO. In a partnership with the Japanese government. </p> <p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">So the information is rich, but it usually is not valuable unless places in a story, in this case, a story about the paradoxes of nuclear energy. And...the story gets more complex as it winds outward (nukes, to energy in general, to use of energy, to obstacles in front of any solution to energy issues, to immense difficulty in getting political unity to do anything) the story has to stay coherent, clear and simple enough to convince. </p><p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/">Can we do it? My friend Chris, at the end of a lot of reading on evolutionary psychology, has come to the conclusion that we are, in the end, crazy monkeys. I think we need to see, really see, how bad things can get. And, like, evolve. Or evolution will move on without us.</p> <p container="http://paxus.wordpress.com/2011/05/"><br /></p><p></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358060484144940656.post-45483693943662843922011-05-26T23:21:00.000-07:002011-05-26T23:26:05.369-07:00William Gibson, Dr. Satan, and cyborgs<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6CzGsSs5ks2MtNEbxtEmLnP9nrX0QXY5u6MgKvZbirBavzC4Tz0KDl0TDD3nGzx7VIqUCu8XabizEYDNe0yyh6XplQL8btKoks8Ofu-sLABk7BfBnW40y51OrYRbxwJkAbQN5aVsghUw0/s1600/drsatan.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 252px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6CzGsSs5ks2MtNEbxtEmLnP9nrX0QXY5u6MgKvZbirBavzC4Tz0KDl0TDD3nGzx7VIqUCu8XabizEYDNe0yyh6XplQL8btKoks8Ofu-sLABk7BfBnW40y51OrYRbxwJkAbQN5aVsghUw0/s320/drsatan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611278001910002802" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhK99CWthsfCpEzUZdsZjDt2165Ob8UIwdTex8grcceHCSXiCP0O60h_NkmnXh1gwvFwePiDMajtuyPHezjxy_ew_1IXudof-7lYpctxBV7Ri5336Y6ESzsIP48IK2qEF-Kx_UcNx2ucBS/s1600/dr_satan.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0in;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0in;mso-outline-level:5"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of humans and technology, and whether novels – particularly cyborg novels, or novels that emphasize human-machine symbiosis and integration – are useful for predicting the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0in;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0in;mso-outline-level:5"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0in;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0in;mso-outline-level:5"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">One thing struck me: a lot of the early cyborg fiction emphasizes physical invasion. The early Clynes astronauts surgically remade beyond what is recognizably human, the similar cuttings and pastings of human and monstrous in Cyborg, the 6 Million Dollar Man, RoboCop, Man Plus…all these have a lot of surgery in them. And for that matter, so do may of the cyborgs in William Gibson’s novels.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0in;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0in;mso-outline-level:5"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0in;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0in;mso-outline-level:5"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I found Gibson’s one piece of writing specifically on cyborgs at:</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/archive/2003_01_28_archive.asp. It is called “In the Visegrips of Dr. Satan (with Vannevar Bush) and it is (like Gibson’s other nonfiction work) clever, funny, and insightful. (I still love his piece “Disneyland with a Death Penalty’ about Singapore).<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Gibson gave the talk at the 2002 Vancouver Art Gallery show on cyborgs called The Uncanny. His main points:</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">1.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">We often get things wrong. So in the shows like the</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">1940 Republic serial called THE MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN, there are proto-cyborgian robots who are controlled by Dr. Satan’s remote control giant knife switch. Gibson watched it in the early 1950s as a kid, and so was about to learn about “the electronic brain,” but most postwar sci fi was about the rocket ship and not the electronic brain. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">2.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Second, Gibson talks about “Steam Engine Time”: “The observable fact that steam, contained, exerts force, has been around since the first lid rattled as the soup came to a boil. The ancient Greeks built toy steam engines that whirled brass globes. But you won’t get a locomotive ‘til it’s Steam Engine Time.” Ditto with an electronic brain; you could maybe put it in a factory to make stuff, but you wouldn’t connect it to a typewriter and a TV (like the one at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">So the electronic brain in a robot, robots in general, and space ships didn’t seem to be where the interesting work lay. It makes you wonder: what aren’t we able to see? What about our time isn’t steam engine time yet, for some ensemble of technologies? <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">3.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Instead for Gibson, the sci fi of the 60s was interesting because it involved the politics of perception, which he connects in retrospect to various evolving ideas of the cyborg. I think he is thinking of books like The Ship Who Sang (with a human mind embedded in a rocket ship). The line I most like about this is: “There’s a species of literalism in our civilization that tends to infect science fiction as well: it’s easier to depict the union of human and machine literally, close-up on the cranial jack please, than to describe the true and daily and largely invisible nature of an all-encompassing embrace.” This is what I am onto about the mundane nature of so much “cyborg” technology and evolution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhK99CWthsfCpEzUZdsZjDt2165Ob8UIwdTex8grcceHCSXiCP0O60h_NkmnXh1gwvFwePiDMajtuyPHezjxy_ew_1IXudof-7lYpctxBV7Ri5336Y6ESzsIP48IK2qEF-Kx_UcNx2ucBS/s1600/dr_satan.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhK99CWthsfCpEzUZdsZjDt2165Ob8UIwdTex8grcceHCSXiCP0O60h_NkmnXh1gwvFwePiDMajtuyPHezjxy_ew_1IXudof-7lYpctxBV7Ri5336Y6ESzsIP48IK2qEF-Kx_UcNx2ucBS/s320/dr_satan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611277995090222850" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 174px; height: 320px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">4.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And so the real cyborg, for Gibson, isn’t the organic being with a positronic brain, or Arnold, or any of that. Not even the cyborgs in his own novels. Instead, he makes the move that Chris Gray has made about the meta-cyborg:<br /><br />“The real cyborg, cybernetic organism in the broader sense, had been busy arriving as I watched DR. SATAN on that wooden television in 1952. I was becoming a part of something, in the act of watching that screen. We all were. We are today. The human species was already in process of growing itself an extended communal nervous system, then, and was doing things with it that had previously been impossible: viewing things at a distance, viewing things that had happened in the past, watching dead men talk and hearing their words. What had been absolute limits of the experiential world had in a very real and literal way been profoundly and amazingly altered, extended, changed. And would continue to be. And the real marvel of this was how utterly we took it all for granted…The world’s cyborg was an extended human nervous system: film, radio, broadcast television, and a shift in perception so profound that I believe we’re yet to understand it. Watching television, we each became aspects of an electronic brain. We became augmented.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">5.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">So why don’t we see this? Why don’t we see that we already were linked into networks of extended nervous systems before the full development of the Internet that sealed, or is sealing the deal? Because “We are already the Borg, but we seem to need myth to bring us to that knowledge.” And the myth is the set of cyborg narratives that help us bring this largel invisible phenomenon into focus. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">6.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And so finally, past rocket ships and a world of robots (for whom we have had all these sci fi explorations of ethics and so on), past the humanoid cyborg figures that we seem to need but which are in their own way versions of those Dr Satan robots…we have a world where the reality of the cyborg is much richer and less figurally clear than we imagine:</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">“Interface evolves toward transparency. The one you have to devote the least conscious effort to, survives, prospers. This is true for interface hardware as well, so that the cranial jacks and brain inserts and bolts in the neck, all the transitional sci-fi hardware of the sci-fi cyborg, already looks slightly quaint. The real cyborg, the global organism, is so splendidly invasive that these things already seem medieval. They fascinate, much as torture instruments do, or reveal erotic possibilities to the adventurous, or beckon as stages or canvasses for the artist, but I doubt that very many of us will ever go there. The real cyborg will be deeper and more subtle and exist increasingly at the particle level, in a humanity where unaugmented reality will eventually be a hypothetical construct, something we can only try, with great difficulty, to imagine -- as we might try, today, to imagine a world without electronic media.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Gibson’s piece gets at the limits of so many popular culture images of “the” cyborg, and allows us to move past the necessary but not sufficient myths about human-machine interfaces. It allows us to imagine the whole “Drone Wars” scenario playing out in Afghanistan and Israel and elsewhere as a cyborg narrative; it lets us also predict that many of the ways we figure (or represent, or embed into a tellable tale) “the” cyborg will be plain wrong. And that the “steam engine time” for organic-machine hybrids of the future may well move beyond humans to insects, plants (GMOs, pharming), and entire biospheres (geoengineering, in all its superscary Big Tech gory glory).</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Times;font-size:10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Times;font-size:10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Times;font-size:10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12541105897717018094noreply@blogger.com0