« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »
March 31, 2005
fallenarches
Working on making friends at livejournal.
Posted by Steph at 12:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 30, 2005
Terry Schiavo and things to come
Becky sends this. It's a good one. We are at risk, if not in an immediate personal sense, in the kind of historical one that catches up to individuals.
OP-ED COLUMNIST
What's Going On?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 29, 2005
Democratic societies have a hard time dealing with extremists in their midst. The desire to show respect for other people's beliefs all too easily turns into denial: nobody wants to talk about the threat posed by those whose beliefs include contempt for democracy itself.
We can see this failing clearly in other countries. In the Netherlands, for example, a culture of tolerance led the nation to ignore the growing influence of Islamic extremists until they turned murderous.
But it's also true of the United States, where dangerous extremists belong to the majority religion and the majority ethnic group, and wield great political influence.
Before he saw the polls, Tom DeLay declared that "one thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America." Now he and his party, shocked by the public's negative reaction to their meddling, want to move on. But we shouldn't let them. The Schiavo case is, indeed, a chance to highlight what's going on in America.
One thing that's going on is a climate of fear for those who try to enforce laws that religious extremists oppose. Randall Terry, a spokesman for Terri Schiavo's parents, hasn't killed anyone, but one of his former close associates in the anti-abortion movement is serving time for murdering a doctor. George Greer, the judge in the Schiavo case, needs armed bodyguards.
Another thing that's going on is the rise of politicians willing to violate the spirit of the law, if not yet the letter, to cater to the religious right.
Everyone knows about the attempt to circumvent the courts through "Terri's law." But there has been little national exposure for a Miami Herald report that Jeb Bush sent state law enforcement agents to seize Terri Schiavo from the hospice - a plan called off when local police said they would enforce the judge's order that she remain there.
And the future seems all too likely to bring more intimidation in the name of God and more political intervention that undermines the rule of law.
The religious right is already having a big impact on education: 31 percent of teachers surveyed by the National Science Teachers Association feel pressured to present creationism-related material in the classroom.
But medical care is the cutting edge of extremism.
Yesterday The Washington Post reported on the growing number of pharmacists who, on religious grounds, refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control or morning-after pills. These pharmacists talk of personal belief; but the effect is to undermine laws that make these drugs available. And let me make a prediction: soon, wherever the religious right is strong, many pharmacists will be pressured into denying women legal drugs.
And it won't stop there. There is a nationwide trend toward "conscience" or "refusal" legislation. Laws in Illinois and Mississippi already allow doctors and other health providers to deny virtually any procedure to any patient. Again, think of how such laws expose doctors to pressure and intimidation.
But the big step by extremists will be an attempt to eliminate the filibuster, so that the courts can be packed with judges less committed to upholding the law than Mr. Greer.
We can't count on restraint from people like Mr. DeLay, who believes that he's on a mission to bring a "biblical worldview" to American politics, and that God brought him a brain-damaged patient to help him with that mission.
What we need - and we aren't seeing - is a firm stand by moderates against religious extremism. Some people ask, with justification, Where are the Democrats? But an even better question is, Where are the doctors fiercely defending their professional integrity? I think the American Medical Association disapproves of politicians who second-guess medical diagnoses based on video images - but the association's statement on the Schiavo case is so timid that it's hard to be sure.
The closest parallel I can think of to current American politics is Israel. There was a time, not that long ago, when moderate Israelis downplayed the rise of religious extremists. But no more: extremists have already killed one prime minister, and everyone realizes that Ariel Sharon is at risk.
America isn't yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren't sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here.
E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com
Posted by Steph at 11:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
parsing
I've heard this term, and maybe used it once or twice. Hoping I had it "right". :-) did you know there are many different techniques? After reading this explanation, I'm not sure I've used it correctly OR understood it right. Alas!
I think I had it sortof backwards - more of a "putting together" rather than a "taking apart." Might these be two sides of the same spinning coin?
Posted by Steph at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
promotion - cute!
It's an ad, but it's getting around...wonder how it will change in a few days?
It incorporates animated ASL, which I haven't seen before.
Posted by Steph at 12:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 29, 2005
1 + 1 = 3
Exoteric - Esoteric. Are these in opposition or in conjunction? This is one theme in Enoch's class on consciousness.
Another is number. I can only find definitions on the www that privilege its material, conventional construction. From this view, 1+1 can only equal 2. Another view, that of sacred geometry, poses a different answer.
A geometrician takes us through the vesica piscis, which is where the equation 1+1=3 originates.
After 3 comes 4, the square.
The Egyptians were the first to figure this out, but you have to do a bit of intellectual sifting to give them due credit, as Pythagoras is most often associated with it (the Greeks claim many "origins" which were borrowed or learned from other cultures - this is Enoch's claim, and it seems sensible to me, although I haven't done my own research to verify such and un-do my own socialization into historical origins of knowledge). The vesica piscis has been adapted to various symbolic meanings.
What really got me jazzed up was the discussion of there being a whole (1), which becomes divided (where else would another number come from?), and this division occurs because of desire: the desire to know oneself. Division casts a gaze upon itself, becoming two. Subject becomes subject AND object, and the result (function) of two-ness is the generation of knowledge - creation (and now we have 3).
Multiply this a bunch of times and we have the interlocking, co-creative play of desires withing the whole producing the flower of life (scroll down to the end). Looks an awful lot to me like intersubjectivity. :-)
The whole was conceptualized way way back in the original Hebrew as the ayn soph. Here's one explanation that comes close to what Enoch provided: "Emptiness, Ayn Soph, God. Use "God the Father" (better: substitute the unspeakable name YHWH) as placeholder for the ineffable emptiness that transcends subject/object dualities; for Nirvana, for the Real. This is expressed in Kabbalistic jargon as the notion of God ayn soph. The consequence of this is an ultimate principle that cannot be grasped, comprehended, or communicated except through meditative kenosis, the miracle of its direct self-disclosure to an enraptured spiritual being, or the apprehension of apophatic riddle in a moment of spontaneous insight. In any event, that which is "revealed" is not a datum, but the meaning event itself; that enlightenment in which one perceives the non-duality of phenomena, their emptiness, the absence of subject/object distinction." from Meta-Mythological Template.
I'm having trouble locating the original ying-yang-yuan symbol with the red dot. Found one that sort of hints at it - using a red star. There's a bunch of pages in Chinese...might have to pester a friend to help with this. :-)
Posted by Steph at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 28, 2005
more on ethics/civil society
I read a piece James gave me from opendemocracy.net today, and now this link included in the AoIR list's debate on universal ethics, Think Again: Civil Society makes some of the same points. This is one of the macrosocial themes I think my research will speak to, the other is transnational citizenship - transnational referring to individuals who have family and business ties to two or more countries and citizenship referring to legal status and political rights (as it is now, there is not much choice in this, one's "nation" is typically inscribed at birth and usually limited to one country).
Posted by Steph at 11:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
world enough and time
don't I wish. I want to re-read the book of that title by Robert Penn Warren someday because I remember being affected by it, deeply, yet recall no details or any of hint of why. The sentiment the title invokes has, however, always stayed with me, and I remember it most at those moments when I'm most aware of feeling like there is not enough time. But then, the title isn't implying there's enough "time", is it? Just enough world.
I want to spend more time on the question of internet research ethics, as Radhika and a colleague have been discussing first on the AoIR list and then to Paula's blog, It ain't universally so . . ..
Posted by Steph at 09:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
game of life?
Kathy sent this link to the game, Nomic, the point of which is to change the rules. Maybe I'll get to play it this summer? I think it could be fascinating to observe/participate in a setting in which one cannot rely on the rules staying the same. Could be quite the mind-f*ck, eh?
Of course, I'm all about changing the rules. :-) No wonder I stress folks out so much, sometimes. But I like certain rules to stay the same too - so the art of change, perhaps, is flexing with the flow of each other's static and fluid rule systems?
It can definitely generate grumpiness in me if something I expected doesn't pan out as I anticipated. And, since life does have its unpredictabilities....keeping everything else as even as possible does kinda make sense. Except when it doesn't. ;-)
So, DK's getting ready to rend my funding proposal into tiny shreds. Actually, he asked me a dozen questions and I already know many things wrong with it. I'll be thrilled if he identifies anything "right" with it! Just talking about it was helpful. Somehow, the questions he asked got me thinking about the proposal and what I want to accomplish just differently enough that some pieces have been clicking into place.
Discourse analysis instead of ethnography. It's a preliminary study and I can't do an ethnography justice. But I can do a discourse analysis justice, and the goal is to produce a wedge into the language policy debates for interpreting practitioners. Not as in a representative here or there, but as in a compilation of expertise gleaned from the discourses of communities of practice (it might be a stretch to invoke the theoretical construct, I'll have to check, but I do mean the discourses of practitioners, and within two distinct "communities").
If I do it well (I have no doubt there are incredible diagnostic and descriptive themes, possibly prescriptive ones as well that may be intriguing), then I can argue to return for a proper ethnography.
Another revelation, is that people read me as seeking to impose a prescription and I've resisted this but I think its right. The thing is, I don't have any
The zeitgeist of our time, it seems to me, is not to fall prey to the zeitgeist. And maybe its not everyone in "our time", just the old fogies. The "kids" I teach (!) have embraced the times and are forging full steam ahead. So are the young uns whose livejournals I've been checking out recently. Maybe it's me, feeling my age, or maybe it's them, feeling theirs? :-)
Speaking of my students, they flurried away with blogposts all evening. We just might yet pull out of the counterdependent tailspin and re-cohere as a class. We might not. :-) I see signs of both possibilities. The real challenge, for me, now, is to stay out of the way - I don't mean don't exercise my authority as necessary, but not to use my authority position to try and influence them too much. Meanwhile, maintain structure, expectations, and capture ("act into" - Vernon's really gotten in deep!) moments of opportunity when they emerge.
Posted by Steph at 12:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
hurry . . .
Extra travel day if I purchase by March 31.
Also, if my mind/eyes don't deceive me, and Air France flight from Strausbourg to Budapest for 99 euros would make my day. Have emailed oh please universe be merciful and grant this deal!
Posted by Steph at 12:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 27, 2005
branching out
What's up with livejournal?
I'm a gonna find out . . .
Posted by Steph at 02:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
new BiBi thesis
Kathy sends this link to Nassira Nicola's thesis Signs of Conflict: Language, Power, and Bilingual Deaf Education in Montreal.
I say, hey! congrats Nicola! I'm not a livejournal member (yet) so can't comment on your site, but have downloaded your paper and will even read it one of these days...
Posted by Steph at 12:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
cool blogs
here's another one.....for the rss that used to be and will hopefully someday be again!
At least for awhile, on first glance it's rather tech-sophisticated...
And Radhika is trying to encompass cyberspace it seems - http://www.livejournal.com/users/cyberdivalive. How does she manage it all?
Posted by Steph at 12:12 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 26, 2005
no evidence!
I think Sam convinced the staff at Eden Park to go along with an early April Fool's Day joke - there is no physical evidence that he fell on his head last week! Actually, there is the tiniest reddish patch right in the center of his "headfore" (as Hannah used to say) at the hairline, so it does look like maybe something happened. He loved Mangeca's tease about the Margarita's. :-)
He thinks it was about five minutes before someone found him, and there is an alarm now on the wheelchair, so if he falls out again they'll know right away. He was reaching for the controls on the tv and just slid out onto his knees and bonked into the tv stand before toppling over. He made it sound almost graceful. ;-)
He did tell me tonight that he's been thinking about his mortality in ways he never has before. Ever since the bad flu he had a month ago. ("Aha!" I exclaimed when he said this, "It wasn't just me that was afraid!") I don't think he's actually afraid, though, just aware. He said he feels mortal, these days. He catches himself watching tv, and an ad for an upcoming movie will come on and he'll think, "I'd like to watch that." Which is different than when he used to think, "I will watch that."
We talked about it a bit, because I wondered two things. First, is he thinking this way because he actually senses that his time is short (as some people apparently do), or is he just aware of it because it's a change in his thinking that wasn't there before? He insists he "feels fine," and I'd say he looks and "feels" fine to me too - his energy, in the way I sense his "Sam-ness" :-), hasn't changed. (Then, at the end of my visit tonight he wanted to know how to get ahold of me in case he needed me, so I think he is a little freaked out about thinking this way, even if he doesn't think he's leaving anytime soon.)
The second thing was me wondering if it was similar to the conversations we had the first year he was in the nursing home, when we read the book by Ram Dass together and talked incessantly about dying. No, he said, this is different. Then, I think it was more intellectual, now I think it's more visceral. I'll check out this distinction with him next visit.
I teared up at one point and told him it's gonna be hard for me when he's gone. He said, "We won't think of that now."
Ok.
Mangeca, Sam was delighted to hear from you although not so happy to learn you're facing more chemo. :-( He also appreciated your frankness about feeling crappy and just putting it out there. He never was one for faking much, y' know?
Pat, I'm sorry we lost your long entry when the comment feature crashed last week. I agreed with you that all of Sam's friends probably did tie up the phone lines inquiring about his health but you know Sam, he shook his head in embarrassment, "Naahhhh."
Nona, Sam grinned at your comment about those bucking horses. And he does want more of your jokes!
Dick, very glad to hear Emily is doing so well, although it sounds like recovery is slow? And I'm sorry you were also caught in the stupid comment feature glitch.
I'm not sure what happened, but you should all be aware, now, that the next time you comment its going to ask you to "register". Its no big deal, but its a way of keeping all the spam out (porn, poker, real estate, etc). If any of you want to share such stuff with the rest of us (!), I won't stop you - but I sure didn't like all that anonymous, repetitive, and obnoxious automatic stuff.
Jennifer - Sam enjoyed your long email (that you'd tried to post as a comment, alas!)....he didn't have any comment about your planned spring trip today; I'll keep you posted if he expresses any preferences about when to come. btw - I told you this briefly in my email response, but the rest of you should know that
Sam's speech is a million times better in the morning! The last several times I've visited him as been in the evening after he's tired. The last time I saw him was in the morning and it was much easier to understand him. So - any of you planning visits might want to think about ways to get there earlier rather than later. Although if the choice is to see him or not see him, he definitely rather see you whenever than not at all! His speech tonight was actually pretty dang good. The only difficulty was getting an accurate interpretation of his "feeling mortal" story above. More abstract things are harder for him to express; I had to do a lot of rephrasing, verifying, and posing possible interpretations before I actually got "the point" of that one. Which was simply him telling me he was aware of the change in his consciousness. (But he started this right after I read him Mangeca's comment so I thought he was responding to her....but he had connected something she'd written to his own current experience - those internal leaps of logic are the ones that are sometimes tricky to figure out.)
Back to you Jennifer, Sam was tickled to hear about your date. I think he might enjoy a few more details...? ;-)
Bea, Sam was thrilled to see you, and he munched on what was left of the cookies you brought him. His pleasure eating them was obvious. :-)
Sam was also glad to see Karen, Erica, and Bob this evening. I guess I missed you all by about a half hour. :-( Sam said you had your color back, Karen, and hopes all goes well with you now (me, too!). He said he hadn't seen Erica since Christmas, and Bob only once since then. He let you all do most of the talking - interested in what you had to say. He did have a question about Karen & Paul's upcoming trip to Switzerland (which sounds like a blast to me, smile): is this trip related to a document Omi didn't sign? He didn't try to explain the context to me, so I'm not sure if the two stories were actually related or not, maybe that's his question.
Speaking of questions, Lou - Sam is curious about your work! He mentioned this to me a couple weeks ago and I forgot to write it in here. He knows you do a lot of driving, but I think he's unclear exactly why, where you go, and what you actually do? :-) He's grateful you sat with him at Elaine's funeral last weekend. That was very kind of you. He also appreciated that Elaine's son, Peter, made sure the audio of the service was broadcast into the basement so that he could hear everything. (I think he was a bit embarrassed that he didn't recognize Peter in his beard and mustache.)
He felt good about the service overall, tragic as the circumstances were. All Elaine's relations said something, and he thought the a capella number was beautiful and appropriate. Sam was very glad to be there - thanks Tom & Lou for playing taxi! And it made him feel special that it meant so much to the family that he was able to make it. You all have quite a neighborhood.
Wow. This is another long one! A few more tidbits:
Sam: "How is Nora? Does she show?"
Steph: "She's big!"
Sam: "She might have twins."
I tried to imagine the expression on Nora and David's faces, and cracked up laughing. :-) I reminded Sam that you're due in April - 3 or 4 weeks is all now, yes? He says Hello to both of you, even though he hasn't met Nora (yet - hint hint).
Lee, the air purifier is awesome! "Almost soundless," Sam said. And he feels better, noticeably so. Good call!
Whew! We strategized a bit about how to keep in touch over the summer. I'm going to go by Monday to talk with Shirley about contacting me (am a bit frustrated that hasn't been processed yet...) and also with Brian or Fred (the maintenance guys) about cable...if we can get Sam hooked up to cable, maybe we can do some laptop to laptop real time communication while I'm gone this summer....if we can get a few volunteers to learn how to turn the silly thing on...
and, the last thing. I told Sam a bit about a book I just finished for my class, Anthropology of Consciousness, called Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief. It presents neurobiological evidence that the brain is built to experience god through a mental state they call Absolute Unitary Being. This is a state of mind most commonly reached through intensive meditation. What the authors have done is researched meditators in the meditative state and been able to map what the brain is actually doing in those moments when the meditators experience transcendence. Then they've correlated these experiences with the reported accounts of mystics from all religions throughout the ages, positioned science as a "mythology" in its own right (premised upon the belief that materiality is the only "real" reality), and demonstrated - rather convincingly! - that science and religion are NOT in conflict and that science certainly hasn't disproven the existence of god but in fact confirms the capacity of the human brain to experience god.
Sam suggested that I might be interested in this book he read sometime (I'm not sure when, he has someone who reads to him these days, and he's always read a lot), Many Masters Many Lives. It does look interesting....I don't know personally where I am on the question of reincarnation, except that I've had experiences which could be explained in that way. And I certainly know people (some dearly) who are completely convinced not only in its theoretical possibility but as factual in regard to their own experiences and understandings.
and with that - hugs to all!
Posted by Steph at 10:19 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
March 25, 2005
good ol' days?
They did not run conventions like Fantasm in my day! Or, maybe they did, but as a teen in the 70's I missed the connections or clues at the Star Trek centered cons I attended. Not at all as wild as museumfreak.
I did wear vulcan ears and a long nose to junior high school one April Fool's Day....
:-)
Posted by Steph at 06:06 AM | Comments (3)
March 24, 2005
tell me I'm not a phenomenologist!
Briankle was in a rare mood last night - he inquired about my oh-so-close-to-psychological thoughts. Well, he asked me to "say something" at a moment when I was thinking about my own theoretical problem - of trying to enact a consciousness premised upon an epistemology that accepts the principles of relativity and quantum mechanics. (btw - I'm not very good at it.)
I think the psychological is a contamination of my language that contradicts my intellectual bent. It's gotten me into trouble numerous times, however, and I've simply got to get more clear. I think timing has been unfortunately anti-synergistic (if such is possible?) because my general depression (yeah, its still here, as if you couldn't tell, sigh) comes through more "loudly", I think, than whatever I say. At least this has been operational, recently, more often than not. I have had glimpses and moments of life beyond the pale ... is that too extreme a metaphor to use? It has truly and totally sucked, that's for dang sure. :-(
At any rate, reading about Husserl's Logical Investigations in Moran's Introduction to Phenomenology, Moran quotes Husserl:
Phenomenological study is "...a turning of intuition back towards the logical lived experiences which take place in us whenever we think but which we do not see just then, which we do not have in our noticing view whenever we carry out thought activity in a naturally original manner (p. 93)."
Now, here's where intersubjectivity enters. My hesitation when Briankle asked me if it wasn't too simplistic to say that I was just interested in empathy, in understanding the other, was because it is only a third, or maybe even a quarter of the "object" I wish to examine. Yes, my desire to know another, to put myself in their shoes and perceive through their worldview can be extrapolated as a strand out of a rope of intention which equally and simultaneously must include their desire to know me, my shoes, my perception/worldview. Before I complete the equation, let's ponder: am I prescriptive or descriptive here?
Perhaps prescriptive, since my desire to be known belongs to me as much as my desire to know others, and others may not wish to know me at all, or not at this level. (Would we call this intimate? Private? Public? (overlap with another debate.)
Yet, there is a reflection in the absence or rejection of desire just as much as in the presence of desire. And here is where I see description as the actual aim because it encompasses all forms and - I need to make the case - can do so without disrespect. Again, it seems I'm not too skilled at this yet (shall we hope there is hope for improvement, smile), and I might need help with the double negative. I often think of "honoring" as the act of recognition that perceives the other as "other" and just leaves be, but it seems too culturally-laden to serve as a theoretical term.
In other words, a choice not to engage me (I'm being particular for immediate social and interpersonal reasons as well as theoretical reasons) carries no intrinsic value. Because I've communicated my desire - Briankle's basic conception of communication, as I understood it from his explanation tonight, being that what is communicated most effectively in each and every act of communication is the wish to communicate; and the subsequent "demand" this puts on "the receiver" (to put it in linear giver-receiver terms) - does not mean there is a moral obligation on anyone to respond.
If I/we respond psychologically, I'd suggest that this is the combined result of our interaction and, as such, is "the effect" of the communicative interaction (no one will dispute that silence is also communication). The challenge, in my mind, is to continue to work (via experimentation, I'm afraid) to reduce the psychological so that we can get at the phenomenological. Uh oh, does this bring me back 'round to prescription? You see how much trouble I'm in . . . . !
Back to the equation. If my "acts of meaning-intention:your acts of meaning-confirmation" are a third or quarter of the equation, and your "acts of meaning-intention:my acts of meaning:confirmation" are the constitutive parts of a whole, then the "sum" or "product" or "effect" (obviously no clarity here, yet, or even a pretense at one!) is "the answer" - yet these three "things" are braided together in such a way that one cannot appear without the other.
Any reduction then will be one-sided unless and until subjectivities mutually engage the act(s) of reduction together. I suppose my desire for this experience provokes prescription...I am not clear if this can be avoided! Or, at least, not within the limits of my present vocabulary.
Posted by Steph at 03:35 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 23, 2005
the dissident now
Radhika asks if one can be liminal, really, ever - "in any context."
If time is, then existence is pertually liminal, always becoming, what Enoch called "the dissident now."
Now is described as "dissident" to emphasis the notion of existence continually coming into being (in a quantum mode, and/or in keeping with ancient mystical epistemologies) against popular "commonsense" linear conceptions of temporality.
The problematic, then, may not be where/when, but rather how. (Ah, cyberdiva is ahead of me on this, too!) :-) "...wondering how "how" figures into all this..."
"How" is the relation to context...
If now is always becoming then context does not preexist. No determinism whatsoever. Context is itself a relation, is (co?)constructed by the relation rather than providing limits of contingency for a relation.
If it ain't discourse, it's dialectic (follow up on this link)! Hmm, note the archaic definition of discourse: The process or power of reasoning. Here's another definition arguing that use of the term, "discourse", presumes an intellectual component is involved in the interaction.
Too many tangents! I wanted to note the different applications (epistemologies?) of the term, relation:
logical,
equivalence,
binary. I can't even do this now (!), but here's more on binary relations which might hint at the difference between "number" (ref. Pythagoras) and "mathematics" that Enoch mentioned....(maybe).
This online poetry journal, Voice in the Wilderness: art and the shame of being human, looks hot.
Posted by Steph at 04:36 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 22, 2005
on desire
Enoch challenged us to problematize desire. Is it possible that desire itself is an evolutionary cause? Did fish grow legs over millenia because of desire to leave the water? Or small mammals wings from desire to fly? Or humans consciousness out of desire to understand?
Here are some quick results of a google search:
Painless Civilization
: A Philosophical Critique of Desire (2003) by Masahiro Morioka . The full text is still in translation, but the opening reads: "I would like to deliver this book to those who are in the midst of anxiety covered over with pleasure, in the midst of repetition without any joy, and in the midst of an endless labyrinth without exit, but are nevertheless willing to live their lives without regret in a corner of their minds."
We were discussing repetition in class tonight in reference to Vasistha's Yoga and life in general.
This book,
Philosophy of Desire in the Buddhist Pali Canon is described as "addressing the idea of a paradox of desire, whereby we must desire to end desire, the varieties of desire that are articulated in the Pali texts are examined."
This essay argues that desire has taken two predominant forms in the West: sex and power.
This looks interesting, someone's compilation of musings on philosophy and desire, including a section on unconscious desires. If I'm not mistaken, he makes a similar argument to that which Enoch made: ' It seems, then, that even when we intensely desire things, the desires themselves are not making up consciousness. Instead, the desires cause other things ñ feelings of knots in stomachs, feelings of pounding hearts, mental imagery ñ and these other things are what actually make up consciousness. They tell us that we have a desire, and they even help us know what the desire is, but they are not the desire itself. The desire itself remains outside of consciousness."
Posted by Steph at 11:02 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
itinerary
David just added a destination to my European travels this summer, Molvania. I'll go there after Budapest, and before I head to Brussels. I'm sure I'll be able to find some interpreters there to be part of my research, even though they seem more invested in pop culture than citizenship and transnational identities. :-)
Posted by Steph at 10:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
never again!
I beat Raz at ping pong tonight. I'm sure it was an aberration. He took revenge swiftly, beating me three straight and I never got out of the single digits (well, maybe once). :-) That young woman he hangs out with kept saying something about his "masculinity"....??? (gasp!)
I was surprised when I won but I think our favorite young man was downright shocked! He'll deny it of course, humble guy that he is. :-) I won't go into the details of the other young man at ABC who thought he had a chance at stealing his girl away from Raz. That was the most amusing part of the evening!!
Posted by Steph at 10:28 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 21, 2005
comment feature fixed
Hello everyone. This is a quick one just to let you know that I'm sorry the comment feature wasn't working when I sent out the last long posting about Sam. It is is working now. You can comment here, or return to that long one and comment there.
fyi, also, Sam is ok, but he fell out of his wheelchair earlier today and did take a trip to the hospital to get checked out. Everything seems fine except for a bump and bruise, and he's back at Eden now. I think this is the second time it's happened; he leans forward for something and gravity pulls him right on down.
I'll see him Saturday and will, of course, let you all know what's what.
Posted by Steph at 11:11 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Read this
Posted by Steph at 08:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Althusser v habermas?
We (thankfully) postponed Habermas for a week, and I'm trying to prep for Mass Comm this afternoon - have finished Gramsci and now onto Althusser, which I did read before (last year, Li gave it to me thinking it might relate to the mentoring project, hmmmm. :-)
There's a section here that has me thinking back on the private-public debate between me and Stephen (last entry February 21).
Althusser writes: "The distinction between the public and the private is a distinction internal to bourgeois law, and valid in the (subordinate) domains in which bourgeois law exercises its 'authority'" (1971, 137).
Continuing, Althusser explains how there can be no "public" or "private" without the existence of "the State, which is the State of the ruling class" because the State is "the precondition for any distinction between public and private" (emphasis mine, 137-138).
I will definitely be thinking about this as I read for next week. In particular, the function of education as an ISA (applied to us, smile), and the way it "function[s] massively and predominately by ideology, [and] secondarily by repression, even if ultimately, but only ultimately, this is very attenuated and concealed, even symbolic" (italics in original, 138).
Althusser's claim reverberates for me: "the Ideological State Apparatuses may be not only the stake, but also the site of class struggle, and often of bitter forms of class struggle" (italics in original, 140).
Note to self: Be sure to follow up on this link to A Critique:
Competing Interpellations and the Third Text.
Posted by Steph at 12:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
one of my optional days
Paula told us we could selectively choose two days in which we did not complete the readings. Here comes the first of mine, regrettably on a heavily foundational day. :-( But.
And. Other things have taken precedence. I hope at least to get through Gramsci on Americanism and Fordism.
Spent hours on Hall (enjoyably so).
Posted by Steph at 10:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
re-invention
Liminality. Who will I be? Who do I want to be?
In LinguaMoo I want to be rewind. (I wanted to be endless reflexivity but it wouldn't accept that - I think I needed an underscore. Oh well. rewind is better.)
In pmc2 - a different space. How do these relate to each other? LinguaMoo is e-theory...experimentation and application of/with theory (or so I gather...)
pmc2 is ... for play? Or, perhaps, for plurking? (although I wager such is welcome in LinguaMoo, too).
Posted by Steph at 10:15 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
March 20, 2005
Berkelian philosophy
Matter does not exist, according to George Berkeley, "one of the three most famous eighteenth century British Empiricists" (along with Locke and Hume), who utilized "strictly empiricist principles in defence of the view that only minds or spirits exist."
Motto: esse is percipi, to be is to be perceived.
Did I ever read Sophie's World? The story is familiar, I guess what's more to the point, is did I learn anything from it? Can't say as I recall a single durn thing. Either it was prior to me actually arriving - phenomenologically - in my own body (after an early disassociation that exceeds memory) or those long-term memory banks never did their thing.
This entry extends the sa-cyborgs google group discussion and marks my virgin entry into pmc2. Some nice ballet dancers held my hands and didn't let me fall. :-)
Posted by Steph at 08:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sa-cyborgs
Careen says:
"You're not outside what you want to be inside of."
I'm holding this despite all evidence to the contrary! ;-)
Posted by Steph at 07:14 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
after SDP online
Well. Anne and I debriefed yesterday. It was quite a ride! We've got our action plan and to do lists. We did decide its worth going back next year and trying again, but would like to recruit more Deaf to be involved. And I know I need to pay attention to register - academic jargon is not accessible!
Stuart Hall is good for many things. :-) It's hard to imagine what would have been different if I had read him earlier (besides everything!) - but I'm content. My epistemological path (how I learn and continue to come "to know" things) has been what it has been. Just fine. :-) Lots of opportunity, growth, development, fun and challenging people . . . wishing it were different would be a waste of time and energy. And, in truth, it's really ok.
So, check out what Hall says about discourse. This may well tie in to the RID presentation this summer which is starting to percolate in my mind...
Discourses are
- different ideological frameworks that use
- different 'systems of representation' each of which
- produces different definitions of the (any) system and
- locates us (as subjects) differently thus
- "situat[ing] us as social actors or as members of a social group in a particular relation to the process [whatever it is] and
- prescrib[ing] certain social identities for us" (italics in original, bold mine, 1986, p. 39-40).
So, when I try to explain that I'm looking at the interaction between
1) an interpreter discourse about interpreting (which might include key symbols like "being in role" or "out of role" and other common metaphors and imagery)
and
2) a deaf discourse about interpreting (which might include key symbols such as INTERRUPTING, TAKING OVER, and FLOW)
I'm trying to describe the effects and functions of the actual discourses (how people talk naturally) in terms of
a) ideolog(ies), representation(s), and definitions of the system of interpreting, and
b) the ways in which these first three things locate and situate us (deaf and non-deaf) as social actors (e.g., empowered, privileged) in relation to interpreting, with which operational identities.
While I/we get this somewhat sorted out (assuming such might occur within a standard lifetime!), I hope that the very process of trying to sort it out will generate new terms and practices that relieves some frustration and provides tangible information for Deaf advocates and interpreter educators (and language policy planners, but hey, that might be a stretch). :-)
Posted by Steph at 05:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
metonymy
Dang. Have I had metonymy all wrong? Hall describes is a linguistic term in which a part is substituted for the whole inadequately because, as a one-sided or single moment it can never provide or capture a process (or object or event or . . . ) holistically, in all its dimensions, moments, and aspects.
I've been considering it alternatively as a representation or symbol in which the whole enacts itself within the part.
". . . it is not attempting to classify something by placing it as a species within a genus.
Worth a serious follow-up while I'm there this summer: The Metaphor and Metonymy Group.
Wikipedia has multiple links and at least part of explanation that seems more in keeping with where my head's been: "... is the use of a single characteristic to identify a more complex entity." And there's this, which is contexted as a rhetorical use: "Metonymy works by contiguity rather than similarity. Typically, when someone uses metonymy, they don't wish to transfer qualities (as you do with metaphor); rather they transfer associations which may not be integral to the meaning." I have to think on this more, because I like the continguity but need to be clear on the difference between "associations" and "qualities." And how associations might not be "integral to meaning."
Ah - this looks even closer: "In cognitive linguistics, metonymy is one of the basic characteristics of cognition. It is extremely common for people to take one well-understood or easy-to-perceive aspect of something and use that aspect to stand either for the thing as a whole or for some other aspect or part of it." The Wiki site (link above) includes links to cognitive linguistics and cognition. Do follow up! (There are several more leads there - gesture, sign language, perhaps links to consciousness...)
ps. Don't forget Hall's contrast of metonymy with fetishism (37). First time THAT's made sense (too?)! ;-) "
Posted by Steph at 04:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"distributed communications"
"It was in 1964, when Paul Baran introduced his work on "distributed
communications". That's were it started to become reality.
http://www.rand.org/publications/RM/RM3420/RM3420.chapter1.html
BTW, the graphic there is quite good also to understand the shift within
societies from centralized to de-centralized to (more or less)
participatory ones. So, technology is influencing the shaping of society
and also the other way round.
Best,
Laurent" [to the AoIR listserv}
Posted by Steph at 03:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
spring equinox
Careen gave me a load of guidance the other day. I have framed it (epistemologically) as preparation for the vernal equinox today, although I've been catching whiffs for the past two weeks.
The precise moment when day and night were balanced at 12 hours each was at 7:33 this morning (EST). Which is awfully dang close to when I woke up! :-)
This just isn't any ordinary Sunday very briefly describes the christian significance of the day, hinting at the cooptation of the preceding pagan mythology of the day of "Eostre [which] gave a rabbit friend the power to lay eggs once a year - on the spring equinox. Eggs symbolized new beginnings and the rabbit symbolized fertility."
Even NASA pays attention, with a Sun-Earth day of observation.
The International Language of Candy reminds me of my own childhood (!). I remember decorating easter eggs with my Aunt Jane, and a story about my mom not being able to find an egg one year and her parents not remembering where it was, until weeks later the stench drew them to it tucked in some ornate picture frame.
I remember Hannah's thrill when the Easter Bunny found us on Cumberland Island. :-)
Posted by Steph at 10:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
copyright
and what to call the medium of interaction enabled by technology...
New Yorkers for Fair Use's brief in the Grokster "P2P
Filesharing" case:
We ask the Court:
Did the Court of Appeals rightly conclude that the doctrine of
contributory copyright infringement cannot be used to prohibit
the Internet?
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20050301_fsf_nyfu.pdf
We put the same question to the Federal Trade Commission at their
recent "P2P Filesharing" workshop:
http://www.nyfairuse.org/action/ftc/
Last year, we pulled many voices concerned about the Internet
together at the Internet Commons Congress:
Seth Johnson
New Yorkers for Fair Use
[CC] Counter-copyright: http://realmeasures.dyndns.org/cc
I reserve no rights restricting copying, modification or
distribution of this incidentally recorded communication.
Original authorship should be attributed reasonably, but only so
far as such an expectation might hold for usual practice in
ordinary social discourse to which one holds no claim of
exclusive rights.
Message: 9
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 02:47:16 -0500
From: Seth Johnson
Subject: Connectivity -- Re: [Air-l] we need a new word?
To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org
Cc: aoir list
Message-ID: <423D2A84.6F726C88@RealMeasures.dyndns.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
It all comes down to connectivity. End-to-end connectivity.
So:
Connectivity Technology
How about that?
Seth Johnson
New Yorkers for Fair Use
Barry Wellman wrote:
I was speaking at a seminar for non-techies at MIT yesterday (not a
contradiction, as these were community development folks from across the
USofA).
And I found myself saying -- and my PPTs reading -- "Internet" -- but then
verbally qualifying by saying, "well I really don't mean the traditional
email Internet, but also IM, chat, lists, video, etc." (add your favorite
including Usenet and BBS).
What to call it? "Computer mediated communication" is a mouthful, jargony
and chews up PPT space. "New media" is too indistinct and PoMo: moreover,
is email "new media" any more? We should focus on the affordances of
the media and not on the newness.
So what to call it. My first thought at the breakfast table was "e-media",
but I am open to other suggestions. I also am putting it on the list,
because I am confident that others have had similar dilemmas, and that it
would be best if we had a standard word.
Barry
_____________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director
wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto
455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162
To network is to live; to live is to network
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________
The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list
is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
http://www.aoir.org/
Posted by Steph at 09:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
identity politics
Interesting NCA paper, on Reading Identity Politics through Marx.
Critique of Althusser and also of Foucault: A Lover's Discourse: Using French Social Thought for Media Criticism.
Posted by Steph at 12:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
what's happening to my kiddo
ìHow we come to speak ëspontaneouslyí, within the limits of the categories of thought which exist outside us and which can more accurately be said to think usî (30).
Through language, "the same social relation can be differently represented and construedî (36).
Stuart Hall. The problem of ideology: Marxism without guarantees. 1986.
Posted by Steph at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 19, 2005
ideology
According to Raymond Williams.
I'm trying to find the full text of a quote excerpted and ellipsed by Stuart Hall (1986). The closest I've found is:
"...apparently more neutral sense of ideology in some parts of Marxís writing, notable in the well-known passage in the Contribution to the Critique of Political Philosophy (1859):
"The distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of productionÖand the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic ó in short, ideological ó forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out."
Hall (a busy man) starts with "ideological" and deletes the hyphen right after it - which makes the rest of the sentence seem much more definitive. Also, he has deleted "this", which refers the entire point back to the transformation of production and its conflict (his word!) with the institutions (and their institutionalized discourses?) listed above. Except there is another ellipses preceding the list of so-called "ideological forms" which is why I'd like to see the whole dang thing!
Mick Underwood's awesome summary of uses and definitions for "code".
Includes a much needed definition for discourse!
Posted by Steph at 10:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
platter
one of these days I have to follow up and deal with my sheer clumsiness - www.replacements.com.
Posted by Steph at 07:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
map of cyberspace
![Internet history](http://www.december.com/web/text/images/cyberland.gif">from 1994</a>, but still....</p>
<p>and here){kind=link}
thanks to the good people at AiOR, particularly Mag. Laurent Straskraba.
Posted by Steph at 06:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
open source
The new AoIR website is cool (well, those parts I can access while getting my paid membership processed). It's run on an opensource software called drupal.
I had an idea about the blog, about creating an internal "door" to a second blog (or some such) where I could write the more intrapersonal, subjective "oh just me" stuff. Maybe if folks wanted to read that they'd have to join and get a password for access? And the rest of Reflexivity would remain pretty much as it is....
Do-able?
Posted by Steph at 04:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 18, 2005
"withdrawn"
I just finished an amazing team interpreting job with someone who does healing work as well.
Interesting, as we were hanging out before the job began, she asked if I was tired....turns out she had read my energy as "withdrawn."
I'd say that's definitely how I've been feeling. Self-protective. Wary. And yet more and more aware of a range of perception and sensitivities that haven't previously been within my range.
What was totally cool, was how we were then able to transfer this recognition into some of the most effective team interpreting I've ever done. :-) It's an encouraging illustration of what's possible if I can allow myself to relax within this zone and trust myself to respond within it.
Posted by Steph at 12:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
the lifeworld
Working with James (we are going to get this piece published!) -
"According to Husserl, intersubjective experience plays a fundamental role in our constitution of both ourselves as objectively existing subjects, other experiencing subjects, and the objective spatio-temporal world. Transcendental phenomenology attempts to reconstruct the rational structures underlying ó and making possible ó these constitutive achievements."
and
"Husserl's notion of lifeworld is a difficult (and at the same time important) one. It can roughly be thought of in two different (but arguably compatible) ways: (1) in terms of belief and (2) in terms of something like socially, culturally or evolutionarily established (but nevertheless abstract) sense or meaning.
(1) If we restrict ourselves to a single subject of experience, the lifeworld can be looked upon as the rational structure underlying his (or her) "natural attitude". That is to say: a given subject's lifeworld consists of the beliefs against which his everyday attitude towards himself, the objective world and others receive their ultimate justification. (However, in principle not even beliefs forming part of a subject's lifeworld are immune to revision. Hence, Husserl must not be regarded as an epistemological foundationalist; see F¯llesdal 1988.)
(2a) If we consider a single community of subjects, their common lifeworld, or "homeworld", can be looked upon, by first approximation, as the system of senses or meanings constituting their common language, or "form of life" (Wittgenstein), given that they conceive of the world and themselves in the categories provided by this language.
(2b) If we consider subjects belonging to different communities, we can look upon their common lifeworld as the general framework of senses or meanings that allows for the mutual translation of their respective languages (with their different associated "homeworlds") into one another."
Excerpts from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/husserl/.
Posted by Steph at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 17, 2005
transition
I saw Sam last Saturday....five days ago. It took me four days to think about what I wanted to say, and I've been flat out so - finally - here I am. A lot has happened, Sam's friend and neighbor Elaine Dixon died after several days of being in critical condition from an accident, she was hit and run over by a car. Some of Sam's good friends have arranged for him to get to the funeral this Saturday, bless them. I know its important to Sam.
He's having a rough time. He won't admit it, probably, but here's my suspicion. The reality of the decay of the speech center and fine motor control muscles that produce speech is here. His mind is still as sharp as ever, but its harder to tell because it takes him so much effort to speak. Folks have to be more patient than ever, adjusting to his speed, and reading very small cues. I gave him a hard time about not giving cues sometimes when he thinks what he wants is so damn obvious any fool would get it (!) - but folks are trying to be respectful and be sure. I said he's gotta give us those cues even when it seems obvious to him.
The flip side, is folks being in a hurry and not waiting for his response. An aide came in while I was there the other day and asked Sam the same question three times in a row with barely 2 seconds pause in between. Sam surely had the answer in his mind, but there's some massive organizational process that has to occur to get his mouth to cooperate, and you've just got to hang in there with him.
i've been thinking about a communication board. A friend recommended a few places to look today - at VR, RSVP, the COA....it seems to me the social worker at Eden ought to be right on top of this, but maybe she just needs a nudge, or maybe we need to make it happen. If anyone has immediate knowledge of where, how, who please let me know, would you?
Meanwhile, I told Sam I'd be gone for the summer and he was downright sad. I hadn't expected that, as avid a traveler as he's always been, and as much as he's encouraged me to leap on any opportunity that came my way. So that was my clue there's a bit more going on in that ol' geezer. His mood's good, but I think visitors are more important than ever now, and especially those with the patience to let there be silences while Sam musters up the resources to articulate. I think because its so much work, he's a lot more selective in what he tries to say also. If its a minor point, or a small misunderstanding, he's likely to just let it go, because he'd rather focus on saying other, more important or meaningful things. Like the messages he wanted me to relay to all of you who responded to the last entry with posts and emails. :-)
Ruth - Sam smiled big remembering our drinking! He wants you to drink in his honor; we couldn't tonight because he's still on antibiotics. Oh - he's off the oxygen machine now, that happened sometime last week. And he looks tons better, must be close to finishing this second round of high-powered drugs.
Nona - Sam loved the joke you sent! He was a little surprised that you sent it! I guess he's under the impression you didn't share his taste in jokes?!! Anyway, he says, "Keep 'em coming!" He also wants to know what courses Kelly is taking. :-)
Dick & Emily - Sam's wondering how Emily is doing? He remembers college too. :-) And wants to know who you think you are teasing him about being in the warm weather while winter is still dumping 7 inch snows on us?!!!! Of course, its a tease. He hopes you're both doing well.
Larry - Sam invites you to drop by anytime, with or without a movie or drink. He'd love to see you. :-) And I thank you for giving me the correct term. Paul Gustafson holds the Durable Medical Power of Attorney for Sam. If I'm lucky, I'll get by tomorrow to talk with Shirley about being added to the list of people who'll be notified asap if something happens to Sam and there's time for folks to come and be with him.
Bea - Sam thanks you for thinking of him. Of course he'd love to see you, you and Alvino, you and a friend, in fact any combination of you solo or with others would make him quite happy. :-) Regardless, he hopes you and your family are doing well.
Ana Elisa - oh if I could describe to you Sam's face when I read your message to him! He simply beamed with delight. :-) You made him so happy with just those few short lines! He misses his Brazilian family very much. Of course he's glad you're all doing well. He wants you to know that he was sick for awhile, the doctor came and gave him medicine and put him on an oxygen machine, and now he is all better.
David, Sam says hello. :-)
Lee and Christine, Sam kept talking about the two of you! He's really looking forward to the air purifier which should be arriving anytime now (maybe it already has). He thinks he's got it arranged for one of the staff to set it up for him. Chris, Sam wants you to know how much he enjoys your wedding picture. He certainly enjoyed your visit. :-)
Sam shared a bit about his routines in the nursing home. He goes to physical therapy three times a week to work on his eyes, hands, arms, and legs. his right side has kinda started to collapse on him, so he needs a fair bit of propping up. He kept slumping over this last time and I asked if I should just lay down on the floor so we could have easy eye contact while talking. It was a tease, of course, but it may come to that at some point, who knows? Anyway, Sam finds the PT enjoyable.
He needs to see a dermatologist, but otherwise, he was in really good spirits. As i said, he wasn't too excited I'd be gone for the summer, and he wants you all to know I won't be able to post these summaries for awhile. Maybe we can work out some alternative - actually, Sam suggested that Tom and Lou and I might be able to coordinate some way for me and Sam to keep in touch. If we work that out then I'll still be able to share a little bit here.
For someone who can't talk very much, Sam conveyed a lot of information during that visit! He told me how he used to run his leadership seminars and about his summer job working at the Carl Rogers Institute: "I gave good phone," he bragged. (Can you imagine?!!) He also proudly described himself as a phd dropout. He completed all his coursework in organizational psychology but never took comps. Just stopped. Obviously other things were more compelling to him then, and frankly, he had quite the life without the title, can't see as it hurt him much at all.
With that, I'll call it a wrap for this evening. Hugs and love to all, you know Sam holds you close in his heart.
Posted by Steph at 11:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 16, 2005
exhausted!
The conference was fantabulous. But I am toast! The hosts, Direct Learn Online Conferencing did a tremendous job. So did all of the presenters and participants.
Some links:
Center for Excellence for the Study of Sign Language Interpreting at RIT.
International Congress on Education of the Deaf
There are more that were posted in the actual papers, I'll dig 'em all out and post them here soon.
Now, I'm off to the gym and then a yummy Mexican dinner - my reward!
Posted by Steph at 04:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 15, 2005
online conference
Supporting Deaf People Online has been pretty much taking up my entire life the last three days, but it's pretty cool. Anne and I have a lot of fascinating discourse to think about.
One downside is fewer deaf participants than I remember from last year. :-( Really thought there would be more.
BUT - the collegial environment and quality of discussion has been, I think, phenomenal. I'm really pleased we were able to present, and quite satisfied with the result. I think I even made some new friends! Always a happy thing. :-)
Posted by Steph at 01:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 14, 2005
future retrospective
This clip from the "Museum of Media History" reminds me of that book (by David Mamet, but not the famous playwright?) I couldn't finish because it was too weird. Actually, the concept wasn't weird, it was an illustration of what historians do, trying to piece together the (or a) "story" about something that happened when only bits of the archival record remain.
According to John Laprise's posting to the AoIR list, the clip "presents a great futurist history peering at where the Internet is going." The art of it is (given my newfound "understanding" gleaned from Darian Leader) the empty and confused (poorly transmitted) places, the passages of temporal (mis)transmission that (en)force silence and waiting. Anticipation and impatience fill this time-space of nothing, capturing that which we don't usually perceive - the headlong rush of activity and momentum.
Posted by Steph at 05:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Can you say "propaganda"?
Should we be surprised that the Bush administration and media outlets have sidestepped or otherwise ignored the law regarding disclosure of government funding of television programs? Donna sends along the activism:
StopFakeNews provides information and an email to send to the FCC and also to the Justice Department. The story, Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News, ran in the NYTimes yesterday.
"...at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production."
Posted by Steph at 04:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 13, 2005
Carbaugh-Fiske
Donal held up his own very well last Thursday, when a handful of us met to continue discussing the merits of the debate between these two titans. Click and scroll down for a summary of our last (the first) discussion.
The way I see it, the basic conflict comes to whether one assumes race, gender, other social identities, are always relevant to communication or not. Donal recognizes that they could be, but reserves the ideal that they may not be and proceeds on the assumption of either possibility. Fiske assumes they always are, and its just a matter of how we bring our epistemological frames to bear that determines whether or not we can identify their inflection(s) on the communicative practice.
Posted by Steph at 09:31 PM | Comments (1)
"bargaining"
A dozen COM department graduate students descended upon the bargaining session between our union (GEO) and the university administration's team this past Friday morning. First, we were bluffed into the wrong room, thus arriving late (not our plan) but perhaps the late en masse entrance was a precursor to the tension that erupted periodically throughout the session?
We had two secret weapons, the baby-to-be-born in April, whose mother is emphatically not a GEO member (don't you forget it, either! Being married to one doesn't count!), and our favorite toddler, Lucas, who cried on cue when the admin's team rhetorically situated themselves as the victims of the negotiating process. It was truly an amazingly infuriating discourse. As if graduate students are somehow "holding out" on the admin's earnest desire to simply save money for the University! I mused, at break, that Susan (head of the admin's team) must really enjoy the competitive aspect of this situation. Someone else said she must really believe in neoliberal capitalism. Li, during the session, in his mild and steady manner, asked directly why the admin team kept framing the issue as one of students' "unwillingness" to pay instead of acknowledging that the real issue is one of "capacity" or ability to pay. (There was no response.) Students from other departments also spoke passionately on this topic, which I think gave our negotiating team quite a boost. It definitely mattered that we were there!
I could be wrong, but it seemed to me there were two openings - one when Susan asked if she explained the University's reasons for "not being able to move" would that provide a sufficient basis for the GEO team to be able to move? This didn't get picked up on; perhaps because the team knew it was meaningless, a tangent, or otherwise would prove ineffective. To me, it seemed like the more we know about their "reasons" the more effectively we can poke holes in them. Like the guy from English did at the end when he got Susan to admit that in fact the only beneficiary of the current proposal would be "the university". As in, not graduate students (neither individuals nor those with families).
I'll admit to some confusion on the second opening, which was an offer to make the 10% health care fee for families (a reduction) permanent along with the 10% health care fee for individuals (an increase). However, in fact even with this plan BOTH individuals AND families will pay more, because currently the "individual" member of a family who is a grad student is exempted from paying anything. So its an increase all the way around. Period.
What a game of posturing, misdirection, and casting blame! I've never seen anything like it.
The one point of leverage that seemed to make a difference was the comparison of UMass to other