anti-RobotWisdom rant at Bloghop.

By the way, you can now give me a Bloghop rating. Somewhere over in the left sidebar you’ll see the series of little face icons, smiley and otherwise:

Vote early, vote often…

Gesture: The Living Medium: announcement of the forthcoming First Congress of the International Society for Gesture Studies, June 2002, Austin Texas. ‘As inaugural congress of the International Society for Gesture Studies, Gesture: The Living Medium is intended to convene the “state of the art” in research and theory on gesture and to serve as a forum for a broad and lively interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, observations, and research findings. One aim of the conference is to take stock of what we know about the transformation of bodily experience and embodied knowledge into gestural symbolism and conceptual patterns in social interaction, work, and other realms of everyday life. However, we invite proposals for papers, panels, and other programs from all disciplines, including technology and the arts, and covering all aspects of the practice of gesticulation.’

David M. Friedman’s A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis “…convincingly suggests that humankind’s various and contradictory attitudes toward the penis have been instrumental in mapping the course of both Western civilization and world…” forthcoming from Amazon

Conservative Texas Rep. Ron Paul suggests the use of that old anti-piracy tool, Letters of marque and reprisal as an anti-terrorist tool: “This constitutional tool can be used to give President Bush another weapon in the war on terrorism. Congress can issue letters of marque against terrorists and their property that authorize the President to name private sources who can capture or kill our enemies. This method works in conjunction with our military efforts, creating an incentive for people on the ground close to Bin Laden to kill or capture him and his associates. Letters of marque are especially suited to the current war on terrorism, which will be fought against individuals who can melt into the civilian population or hide in remote areas. The goal is to avail ourselves of the intelligence of private parties, who may stand a better chance of finding Bin Laden than we do through a conventional military invasion. Letters of marque also may help us avoid a wider war with Afghanistan or other Middle Eastern nations.”

Review of Peter Singer’s Writings on an Ethical Life — ‘The New Yorker has called Singer “the most influential living philosopher,” while his critics sometimes call him the most dangerous man in the world. Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values, has challenged our most closely held beliefs on infanticide, euthanasia, and the moral status of animals. This volume presents a comprehensive collection of his best and most provocative writings on animal rights, environmental accountability, abortion, euthanasia, and the ethics of our responsibility for the world’s poor.’ British Medical Journal

The Tehran Times has an alternate view of why the US bought the exclusive rights to images from Space Imaging’s Ikonos satellite, about which I reported below. Since military imaging is already estimated to be 6-10 times more precise than Ikonos’ 1-meter resolution, there’s no intelligence need; the US must be trying to hide something. If the US had used its legal “shutter control” authority instead of buying out the marketing rights to the pictures, the media could have challenged it as ‘prior restraint censorship’. What are they censoring? The Tehran Times suggests it must be evidence that civilian casualties have been far greater than reported. [thanks, Holden]

‘The idea of k.i.s.s. of the panopticon is to give people a quick, user-friendly, one-stop shopping guide to …cultural/critical theory (critical theory, cultural theory, media literacy, new media literacy, visual literacy) and its relationship with communications and new media, including the Internet. It might also help to get people thinking and maybe, just mebbe, provide a fresh perspective on how this stuff really affects our lives.

‘One of the cool things you might realize from this site (if you hadn’t already done so) is that a lot of the postmodern European intellectual stuff that sounded just plain crazy a few years ago is now actually starting to make sense in the age of the Internet. Baudrillard’s and Eco’s ideas on hyperreality, just to grab one example, suddenly seem a little more real and a lot clearer within the computer-mediated realm of hypertext and hyperlinks. At the same time, we need to understand the older paradigms of mass media and society (Marx and all that lot) before we can really get a grip on the “new” stuff. ‘

And now for the humorous segment of our show: (we can do that again, can’t we??)

Paul Krassner: ‘ I reminded the audience that ABC correspondent Cokie Roberts had been asked if there was any opposition to the war. “None that matters,” she replied. “Well,” I continued, “would you all care to join me in saying, ‘Fuck you, Cokie Roberts’ when I count three? Okay, one . . . two . . . three . . . ” And it came at me like an audio tidal wave — thousands of voices shouting in unison: “FUCK YOU, COKIE ROBERTS!!!” ‘ LA Weekly

Sample of Larry Ellison’s new National ID Card

Germ Expert Says Panicky People Can Iron Mail Reuters

First US ground mission a failure: report: “More than 100 US special troops which landed from helicopters in Kandahar’s western outskirts near Babashahi hill, found themselves in an area densely controlled by the Taliban and had to retreat without achieving the main goal of the operation to attack their secret airfield, the Interfax source said.” The Times of India On the other hand, there are reports that this action was a cover for a more covert special ops incursion.

Something 2 Die 4? John McWhorter, controversial professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley and author of Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America, examines whether we ought to remember Tupac Shakur as a reverently-embraced ghetto saint or a foul-mouthed punk rapper. The New Republic

Psychological implications of chemical and biological weapons: long term social and psychological effects may be worse than acute ones. The most relevant model may indeed be mass sociogenic illness (the technical term for “mass hysteria”; emphasis added).

The ostensible purpose of chemical and biological weapons is to endanger lives. Biological agents, however, are particularly ineffective as military weapons, while chemical weapons have only limited uses. This may be why armies have generally acquiesced in international treaties to contain these unpredictable weapons and feel capable of waging war without them. Instead, chemical and biological weapons are quintessentially weapons of terror. The now routine journalistic association between chemical and biological weapons and the word terror confirms that the purpose of these weapons is to wreak destruction via psychological means — by inducing fear, confusion, and uncertainty in everyday life. These effects will take two forms, acute and long term. It is customary to expect largescale panic if such weapons are ever effectively deployed or thought to be deployed.

We do not, however, know whether such panic would materialise. Media stories emerging from the United States in the past few days are not encouraging, but we should remember that history teaches us that civilian populations have been able to withstand previous “terror” weapons such as aerial bombing, despite warnings to the contrary. However, one psychological reaction that can be anticipated, because it has already started to materialise, is mass sociogenic illness. On 29 September 2001 paint fumes set off a bioterrorism scare at a middle school in Washington state, sending 16 students and a teacher to the hospital. On 3 October over 1000 students in several schools in Manila, Philippines, deluged local clinics with mundane flu-like symptoms such as cough, cold, and mild fever after rumours spread via short text services that the symptoms were due to bioterrorism. On 9 October a man sprayed an unknown substance into a Maryland subway station, resulting in the sudden appearance of nausea, headache, and sore throat in 35 people. It was later determined that the bottle contained window cleaner.

Examples of mass sociogenic illness remind us of the dangers of inadvertently amplifying psychological responses to chemical and biological weapons and thus adding to their impact. One example is the routine use of investigators clad in space suits to assess possible terrorist attacks. Another is that the United States government is considering placing detectors to identify chemical warfare agents on the Washington DC subway system. It is possible that these alarms will in practice cause greater disruptions to transport systems than the attack itself, given the high probability that such detectors may give false alarms. There were 4500 such alerts in the Gulf war and none was associated with a confirmed attack.

The long term social and psychological effects of an episode of chemical or biological attack, real or suspected, would be as damaging as the acute ones, if not more so. For example, a serious physical impact of the accidental discharge of sarin nerve agent during the destruction of an Iraqi weapons depot after the end of the Gulf war has not been documented, but the psychological, social, and political consequences have been substantial and continuing. Even if the short term consequences of an attack with chemical or biological weapons turn out to be less than some of the apocalyptic scenarios currently being aired by the media, the long term disruptions may be worse than anticipated. Experience from other incidents involving confirmed or alleged incidents of toxic contamination suggests that these might cluster around four major health concerns: chronic injuries and diseases directly caused by the toxic agent; questions about adverse reproductive outcomes; psychological effects; and increased levels of physical symptoms.

The general level of malaise, fear, and anxiety may remain high for years, exacerbating pre-existing psychiatric disorders and further heightening the risk of mass sociogenic illness. The current uncertainty over the chronic health effects of low level exposure to toxic agents will further increase anxiety in the affected communities. Because health officials cannot provide blanket assurances that no harm will result from brief or non-symptom producing exposure to toxic agents, frustration and then a growing distrust of medical experts and government officials may result, robbing state institutions of the trust they need to manage recovery. Lastly, unconfirmed or controversial hypotheses about the health effects of exposure to chemical and biological weapons will probably become contentious scientific and media issues in the years ahead, as has occurred after numerous chemical and radiological incidents, the Gulf war, and the Balkans deployment.

British Medical Journal

Weapons-grade anthrax? Think Russia, not necessarily Iraq: ‘ If the finger of suspicion falls on any one country “the obvious

one is Russia, it’s a league ahead of Iraq”, said David Kelly, a

senior adviser to UN weapons inspectors for Iraq…

Unemployed top Russian scientists who helped to run the

Soviet Union’s illegal and secret germ warfare programme

appear to be a likely source of the anthrax outbreak in the

United States. It is known that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida

network has tried to buy ingredients for weapons of mass

destruction in Russia in recent years.’ Independent UK

Andrew Sullivan’s jihad: This is interesting. On the one hand, Salon’s founder and editor in chief, David Talbot, harbors Andrew Sullivan’s bile at Salon but wants to show he doesn’t have to like it. On the other hand, castigating Sullivan seems an excuse so he can go on at length blowing his own horn about how tolerant Salon is. On the third hand, in touting Salon’s defense of Sullivan against the recent scandal over the exposure of his sexual orientation and charges of sexual hypocrisy, Talbot repeats the claims, surely mudslinging no matter how delicious this particular mud will feel to many in his audience. Crafty devil.

In recent weeks, Sullivan has taken it upon himself to evaluate whether his fellow writers and commentators are sufficiently patriotic. He broods darkly — in the pages of his native British press, on his Web site and on the Op-Ed pages of the Wall Street Journal — that America harbors nests of traitors, or in his words “decadent left enclaves on the coasts [that] may well mount a fifth column.” And like all Manichaean guardians of national security, from the days of the Alien and Sedition Acts to those of Joseph McCarthy, Sullivan has turned his pumped-up and disproportionate rhetoric toward rooting out these disloyal Americans in his midst.

Since Sullivan has unleashed the hounds of patriotic fury, I’ll respond with some nationalistic zeal of my own. It’s repellent to be lectured about my commitment to America, which is deep and true, by an arrogant and self-important Brit. And it’s equally galling to be scolded about my supposed intolerance of conservative dissent in Salon when I have made a consistent effort to include Sullivan’s own voice and that of many of his fellow conservatives in our pages. Sullivan has often fallen to his own knees before President Bush in Salon. In fact there is no political journal in the country — on the left or right — that publishes as eclectic a mix of opinions as we do. The same week we published the interview with Sontag, Salon ran a cover essay by her son, David Rieff, blasting the Berkeley City Council’s anti-bombing resolution and the “depraved rationalizations of the American left.” When Sullivan seeks ideological variety, does he eagerly reach for the latest National Review or Weekly Standard? His own site is rigorously monochromatic — one-note blasts from the increasingly narrow confines of his own head.

Saudis consider asking US military to leave. Ending US military presence would alleviate intense pressure from Islamic opposition. Two rivals to the throne, Crown Prince Abdullah and Defense Minister Prince Sultan, are on opposing sides of the iddue. Middle East Newsline [via Ethel]

Novel Security Measures: carrying no carry-on baggage but the wrong book can get you bumped off your flight for interrogation these days. Philadelphia City Paper

Columbine Shooting victims’ families sue maker of anti-depressant Luvox (fluvoxamine). Here we go again. As much sympathy as I have for their loss, this is slummin’ avarice. Reaching for the deep pockets of the pharmaceutical industry in their grief is thoughtless and unscrupulous. Just as in the Paxil-induced murder claim lawsuit I wrote about last year, the grounds for suing revolve around the claim the the firm fails to warn doctors about side effects. This is specious on several accounts:

• violence is not a side effect of fluvoxamine or other SSRIs
  

• the manufacturer does warn of side effects, in the form of its prescribing literature. Ironically, companies set themselves up for added liability because they are overinclusive in listing potential side effects.
  

• If there were liability (and I don’t believe there is), it would be on the prescribing physician instead, who is responsible for adequate familiarity with the assessment of the effectiveness and complications from a drug s/he prescribes.
  

• Claiming that “manic and psychotic” effects of the drugs caused the gunman’s violence is a slur on those with mental illness, who are less violent than the population at large, and perpetuates fear-provoking, ignorant, unjust prejudices.

Of course, whether the case has merit bears no relationship, in the scheme of things, with whether a ‘jury of peers’ having ther heartstrings plucked by ambulance-chasing three-piece suits will bring back a just finding. Ananova

Ralph Nader to HHS Sec’y Thompson: “We were shocked by your comments in the October 17, 2001 Washington Post, indicating

that you do not have the legal authority to authorize generic production of ciprofloxacin, a

drug used to treat victims of an anthrax attack. This, of course, is not true. As your own

staff is well aware, you may use 28 USC 1498 to issue compulsory licenses for patents,

and you could immediately authorize the five companies who have already satisfied U.S.

FDA requirements for the quality of their products to speed the manufacturer of

ciprofloxacin, and indeed this could and should be done for any other medicine needed to

confront the current crisis.”

Eavesdropping, U.S. Allies See New Terror Attack — “In interviews over the past week,

intelligence officials in six countries in the Middle East and Europe said

they were unsure where to expect the attacks or whether they would be

with explosives or with chemical or biological weapons. But they said their

intercepts and other tools convinced them that a second and possibly a

third wave of attacks were planned.” NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

“UN set to appeal for halt in the bombing and allow time for a huge relief operation.

UN sources in Pakistan said growing concern over the

deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country – in part, they

say, caused by the relentless bombing campaign – has forced

them to take the radical step. Aid officials estimate that up to

7.5 million Afghans might be threatened with starvation.

‘The situation is completely untenable inside Afghanistan. We

really need to get our point across here and have to be very bold

in doing it. Unless the [US air] strikes stop, there will be a huge

number of deaths,’ one UN source said.” Guardian UK

Military analysis: U.S. Got a Chance to Show It Learned Lessons of the Past: “The United States commando

raid in Afghanistan reflected the start of a new, fast

paced and, the military hopes, determining stage of the war.” NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

The Return of Teach-Ins: “Those who remember the bitter

recriminations and violence that

convulsed campuses during the Vietnam

era will welcome the searching tone of the

discussion at universities about America’s new war. Faculty members and

students alike ought to take advantage of this moment to rekindle the

study of subjects that have traditionally been neglected at American

schools.” NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

Keeping Panic at Bay: Prof. Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel: the fate of human societies, on what we can learn from ancient terrorist tactics. NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”] And the parallels with the war against piracy of two hundred years ago. Washington Post

Is Camel Pox Coming? Maureen Dowd in the NY Times about the state of modern fear.

Washington is rife with contradictory signals. The White House urges us to

go out while Dick Cheney is under wraps. Congress urges us to stay calm

and go about our business while the entire House takes a powder at the

first sign of powder. We are supposed to shop till we drop, literally, as

the F.B.I. and C.I.A. warn of major attacks at any moment.

The capital is the heart of confusion. The U.S. has been at war with the

Taliban for two weeks so . . . we can reinstate the Taliban? The Post

Office is sending us mail warning us . . . about opening mail?

Nothing seems to track: Gov. George Pataki said he was taking Cipro but

wouldn’t get tested. Senator John Breaux said he got tested but might not

take Cipro. Dan Rather said he hadn’t been tested or taken Cipro. Tom

Brokaw ended the NBC news with “In Cipro we trust.”

I went to the White House, seeking some answers from Tom Ridge at his

briefing on Friday. But he looked a bit like a big Pennsylvania deer in the

headlights. He didn’t even know what CNN had been running — that an

assistant to a New York Post editor had contracted anthrax.

When Mr. Ridge said they didn’t know if the anthrax came from a foreign

or a domestic source, he was slapped around by Helen Thomas, doyenne

of the homeland. “And why are you so slow in finding the actual source?”

she asked tartly. “I mean, is it that difficult really?”

Tommy “Plenty for Everyone” Thompson was still buddying up to the

pharmaceutical industry, refusing to break Bayer’s patent to ensure

generic Cipro for everyone…

Psychological implications of chemical and biological weapons: long term social and psychological effects may be worse than acute ones. The most relevant model may indeed be mass sociogenic illness (the technical term for “mass hysteria”; emphasis added).

The ostensible purpose of chemical and biological weapons is to endanger lives. Biological agents, however, are particularly ineffective as military weapons, while chemical weapons have only limited uses. This may be why armies have generally acquiesced in international treaties to contain these unpredictable weapons and feel capable of waging war without them. Instead, chemical and biological weapons are quintessentially weapons of terror. The now routine journalistic association between chemical and biological weapons and the word terror confirms that the purpose of these weapons is to wreak destruction via psychological means — by inducing fear, confusion, and uncertainty in everyday life. These effects will take two forms, acute and long term. It is customary to expect largescale panic if such weapons are ever effectively deployed or thought to be deployed.

We do not, however, know whether such panic would materialise. Media stories emerging from the United States in the past few days are not encouraging, but we should remember that history teaches us that civilian populations have been able to withstand previous “terror” weapons such as aerial bombing, despite warnings to the contrary. However, one psychological reaction that can be anticipated, because it has already started to materialise, is mass sociogenic illness. On 29 September 2001 paint fumes set off a bioterrorism scare at a middle school in Washington state, sending 16 students and a teacher to the hospital. On 3 October over 1000 students in several schools in Manila, Philippines, deluged local clinics with mundane flu-like symptoms such as cough, cold, and mild fever after rumours spread via short text services that the symptoms were due to bioterrorism. On 9 October a man sprayed an unknown substance into a Maryland subway station, resulting in the sudden appearance of nausea, headache, and sore throat in 35 people. It was later determined that the bottle contained window cleaner.

Examples of mass sociogenic illness remind us of the dangers of inadvertently amplifying psychological responses to chemical and biological weapons and thus adding to their impact. One example is the routine use of investigators clad in space suits to assess possible terrorist attacks. Another is that the United States government is considering placing detectors to identify chemical warfare agents on the Washington DC subway system. It is possible that these alarms will in practice cause greater disruptions to transport systems than the attack itself, given the high probability that such detectors may give false alarms. There were 4500 such alerts in the Gulf war and none was associated with a confirmed attack.

The long term social and psychological effects of an episode of chemical or biological attack, real or suspected, would be as damaging as the acute ones, if not more so. For example, a serious physical impact of the accidental discharge of sarin nerve agent during the destruction of an Iraqi weapons depot after the end of the Gulf war has not been documented, but the psychological, social, and political consequences have been substantial and continuing. Even if the short term consequences of an attack with chemical or biological weapons turn out to be less than some of the apocalyptic scenarios currently being aired by the media, the long term disruptions may be worse than anticipated. Experience from other incidents involving confirmed or alleged incidents of toxic contamination suggests that these might cluster around four major health concerns: chronic injuries and diseases directly caused by the toxic agent; questions about adverse reproductive outcomes; psychological effects; and increased levels of physical symptoms.

The general level of malaise, fear, and anxiety may remain high for years, exacerbating pre-existing psychiatric disorders and further heightening the risk of mass sociogenic illness. The current uncertainty over the chronic health effects of low level exposure to toxic agents will further increase anxiety in the affected communities. Because health officials cannot provide blanket assurances that no harm will result from brief or non-symptom producing exposure to toxic agents, frustration and then a growing distrust of medical experts and government officials may result, robbing state institutions of the trust they need to manage recovery. Lastly, unconfirmed or controversial hypotheses about the health effects of exposure to chemical and biological weapons will probably become contentious scientific and media issues in the years ahead, as has occurred after numerous chemical and radiological incidents, the Gulf war, and the Balkans deployment.

British Medical Journal