Do you know somebody on a protease inhibitor who needs to know this information immediately?
“One of the most commonly used herbal remedies, St. John’s wort,
substantially reduces blood levels of the HIV-fighting drug indinavir, and may cause treatment failure in
some HIV-infected patients, US researchers report.” [Reuters]
Author Archives: FmH
Nelson Mandela celebrates the 10th anniversary of his release from 27 years of political imprisonment by the U.S.-backed South African apartheid regime for “high treason” .
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Unveiling a plaque at a new monument in Mvezo, part of rural Transkei, where he was born July 18, 1918, the son of a chief’s adviser. (photo: Juda Ngwenya/Reuters)
“Cyborgasms:” An Ethnography of Cybersex in AOL Chat Rooms
“Cybersex Amongst Multiple-Selves and Cyborgs in the
Narrow-Bandwidth Space of America Online Chat Rooms.” Robin Hamman’s 1996 master’s thesis in sociology from the University of Essex (UK). By the way, she requests: “Please link to this paper by linking to my homepage at: http://www.cybersoc.com/” .
Excited to learn from Lindsay Marshall’s weblog that Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast novels have been adapted for the screen and just telecast on BBC. This was one of my favorite fantasies as I cast about after a J.R.R. Tolkien phase in early adolescence. Unique, very atmospheric; this darkly gothic fantasy world is an entire kingdom in a sprawling labyrinthine, uncharted castle. It’s something I can’t wait to read aloud to my children. “(The show) was very good, though there some rather OTT performances which were
weak (Warren Mitchell and Spike Milligan were the worst offenders). I don’t know why people are saying it was a failure
because it was anything but. Whatever else it is a fantastic snapshot of the state of British acting at this time.”
While we’re on the topic of network maps, see this nifty Java-based interactive map “… of some of the players in the internet space along with a portion of the alliances they have
formed. This visualization demonstrates the forces that agents exhibit upon each other in a complex interconnected
system. The interactions amongst the nodes emerge from the pattern of direct, and indirect, ties throughout the network.” You can play with it, drag nodes around to change the scale and explore the network’s innards. Does this remind anyone else of the visualization and manipulation of similar data Gibson describes in “Neuromancer”?
Comments from the weblog lake effect about this week’s DoS attacks on prominent websites. I agree; we’re going to continue to see this happening, it’s so absurdly easy to do, it seems. “The big media are missing the key point on this DoS Hell Week. The
computer security of the sites attacked — Amazon, Yahoo, CNN, et cetera —
is not in question. The cause of these attacks is lax security on possibly as
many as 100,000 compromised sites where the hackers install their proxy
tools. These tools — which can be effective with as few as 100 compromised
sites — are the result of security research in the last year that turned up a
variety of Denial-of-Service Tools and techniques (here documented at
CERT). In short, this was a problem that was simmering quietly on the stove
while almost nobody paid attention — until this week, when the techniques
began to be used for the first time against high-profile sites. This problem
will only get worse, as the number of poorly-managed systems with 24/7 net
connections continues to rise. New products like Norton Internet Security (a
one-PC firewall) will help — except in this case, where the compromised
systems are Unix-based. I don’t know of one at this moment, but a Windows
client can’t be far behind.”
Arrest of Wisconsin man with mental illness quells public alarm about mysterious vials found taped to utility poles in several Wisconsin communities. The suspect told police they contained plain water and he’d taped them to utility poles because he was testing radio frequencies he believed were bombarding him, authorities said. When you reflect on it, it’s much more likely than the scenarios that were probably going through people’s minds about biological terrorist attacks, isn’t it? As a psychiatrist, I teach trainees that there is a way in which the distress we feel when we’re engaged with someone with mental illness is, in an initially mysterious way that has to begin to make sense to do this work, an inroads into the internal distress that the client feels. But I’ve never seen it illustrated in quite this way, or affecting an entire community. The story, it seems to me, isn’t over now that the mystery is solved and the “perp” arrested; the interesting part, I hope, might just start now. It could have a positive effect on the ongoing public misconceptions about and stigmatization of those with psychiatric illnesses if anyone speaks out, in a manner akin to my point above; or it could merely reinforce…
A Picture of Weblogs mapped onto a linkage space. I’m a peripheral participant in this weblog phenomenon but continue to be fascinated by its sociology. Somewhere down below, I said something about the incestuousness of the blog community, I think. This makes it graphical. Is there any comprehensible reason the weblog-space organizes itself this way? Something about the balance between momentum and gravity? “a picture of approximately 240 weblogs and the links connecting them. Weblogs are denoted by a box, a link is
denoted by a line. Clicking on a box will show the URL of the weblog that was scanned.” What the author of this mapping application needs to do is make it possible for the viewer to navigate to the sites by clicking on their loci, IMHO…
Ford’s Astoundingly Better Idea. Commentary from Jon Katz (Slashdot) on Ford’s announcement that it will be giving computers and net access to each of its 350,000 employees and their families. Other corporations are reportedly already following suit. Possibly good business sense and potentially socially transformative, when you think about it:
“If other American companies adopted Ford’s model, the technological gap looming between
the middle-class and underclass would begin to close. The United States workforce would
become the most technologically sophisticated in the world. The high-tech workforce would
expand dramatically, along with the educational, cultural, social and economic benefits of
computing still unavailable to more than half the American population.”
So You’ve Decided to be Evil Given the “banality of evil,” I knew there must be a DIY manual for this somewhere!
“Cyborgasms:” An Ethnography of Cybersex in AOL Chat Rooms
“Cybersex Amongst Multiple-Selves and Cyborgs in the
Narrow-Bandwidth Space of America Online Chat Rooms.” Robin Hamman’s 1996 master’s thesis in sociology from the University of Essex (UK). By the way, she requests: “Please link to this paper by linking to my homepage at: http://www.cybersoc.com/” .
Excited to learn from Lindsay Marshall’s weblog that Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast novels have been adapted for the screen and just telecast on BBC. This was one of my favorite fantasies as I cast about after a J.R.R. Tolkien phase in early adolescence. Unique, very atmospheric; this darkly gothic fantasy world is an entire kingdom in a sprawling labyrinthine, uncharted castle. It’s something I can’t wait to read aloud to my children. “(The show) was very good, though there some rather OTT performances which were
weak (Warren Mitchell and Spike Milligan were the worst offenders). I don’t know why people are saying it was a failure
because it was anything but. Whatever else it is a fantastic snapshot of the state of British acting at this time.”
While we’re on the topic of network maps, see this nifty Java-based interactive map “… of some of the players in the internet space along with a portion of the alliances they have
formed. This visualization demonstrates the forces that agents exhibit upon each other in a complex interconnected
system. The interactions amongst the nodes emerge from the pattern of direct, and indirect, ties throughout the network.” You can play with it, drag nodes around to change the scale and explore the network’s innards. Does this remind anyone else of the visualization and manipulation of similar data Gibson describes in “Neuromancer”?
Comments from the weblog lake effect about this week’s DoS attacks on prominent websites. I agree; we’re going to continue to see this happening, it’s so absurdly easy to do, it seems. “The big media are missing the key point on this DoS Hell Week. The
computer security of the sites attacked — Amazon, Yahoo, CNN, et cetera —
is not in question. The cause of these attacks is lax security on possibly as
many as 100,000 compromised sites where the hackers install their proxy
tools. These tools — which can be effective with as few as 100 compromised
sites — are the result of security research in the last year that turned up a
variety of Denial-of-Service Tools and techniques (here documented at
CERT). In short, this was a problem that was simmering quietly on the stove
while almost nobody paid attention — until this week, when the techniques
began to be used for the first time against high-profile sites. This problem
will only get worse, as the number of poorly-managed systems with 24/7 net
connections continues to rise. New products like Norton Internet Security (a
one-PC firewall) will help — except in this case, where the compromised
systems are Unix-based. I don’t know of one at this moment, but a Windows
client can’t be far behind.”
Arrest of Wisconsin man with mental illness quells public alarm about mysterious vials found taped to utility poles in several Wisconsin communities. The suspect told police they contained plain water and he’d taped them to utility poles because he was testing radio frequencies he believed were bombarding him, authorities said. When you reflect on it, it’s much more likely than the scenarios that were probably going through people’s minds about biological terrorist attacks, isn’t it? As a psychiatrist, I teach trainees that there is a way in which the distress we feel when we’re engaged with someone with mental illness is, in an initially mysterious way that has to begin to make sense to do this work, an inroads into the internal distress that the client feels. But I’ve never seen it illustrated in quite this way, or affecting an entire community. The story, it seems to me, isn’t over now that the mystery is solved and the “perp” arrested; the interesting part, I hope, might just start now. It could have a positive effect on the ongoing public misconceptions about and stigmatization of those with psychiatric illnesses if anyone speaks out, in a manner akin to my point above; or it could merely reinforce…
A Picture of Weblogs mapped onto a linkage space. I’m a peripheral participant in this weblog phenomenon but continue to be fascinated by its sociology. Somewhere down below, I said something about the incestuousness of the blog community, I think. This makes it graphical. Is there any comprehensible reason the weblog-space organizes itself this way? Something about the balance between momentum and gravity? “a picture of approximately 240 weblogs and the links connecting them. Weblogs are denoted by a box, a link is
denoted by a line. Clicking on a box will show the URL of the weblog that was scanned.” What the author of this mapping application needs to do is make it possible for the viewer to navigate to the sites by clicking on their loci, IMHO…
Ford’s Astoundingly Better Idea. Commentary from Jon Katz (Slashdot) on Ford’s announcement that it will be giving computers and net access to each of its 350,000 employees and their families. Other corporations are reportedly already following suit. Possibly good business sense and potentially socially transformative, when you think about it:
“If other American companies adopted Ford’s model, the technological gap looming between
the middle-class and underclass would begin to close. The United States workforce would
become the most technologically sophisticated in the world. The high-tech workforce would
expand dramatically, along with the educational, cultural, social and economic benefits of
computing still unavailable to more than half the American population.”
So You’ve Decided to be Evil Given the “banality of evil,” I knew there must be a DIY manual for this somewhere!
I’ve always been a cult-watcher. Sometimes I’ve been fond of saying that there’s little difference between our indoctrination into our common cultural dream and what cults do to hook their members. One cult I find particularly insidious, both because of their web presence and their anti-psychiatric biases, is Sc*ent*l*gy. Here is a massive collection of links to web information about them from the alt.religion.sc*ent*l*gy Usenet newsgroup.
I’ve always been a cult-watcher. Sometimes I’ve been fond of saying that there’s little difference between our indoctrination into our common cultural dream and what cults do to hook their members. One cult I find particularly insidious, both because of their web presence and their anti-psychiatric biases, is Sc*ent*l*gy. Here is a massive collection of links to web information about them from the alt.religion.sc*ent*l*gy Usenet newsgroup.
Asian Recipes . with herbs, culture, ingredients, glossaries and cooking from Afghanistan to Vietnam.
The Ad Critic: Super Bowl XXXIV Coverage If you don’t watch football but you want to stay attuned to the state of the art in the battle for your heart, mind and bank balance, (or maybe you just enjoy ads! My wife’s father was an advertising executive and she tells me that, growing up in her household, commercials were watched with rapt attention and the programs in between were just interruptions one could talk through) this site will provide quicktime videos of all the TV commercials from this year’s Superbowl.
Pro-choice Democratic women candidates: EMILY’s List
“identifies viable pro-choice Democratic women candidates for key federal and statewide
offices.
EMILY’s List has helped elect six pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. Senate, 44 to
the U.S. House, and three women governors.”
Caught this comment at the Evhead weblog: “I predict, the next big thing in
weblogging will be actually have a rest of a site — wherein, the weblog is but a feature.
Ah hell, what am I talking about, that sounds like work.” Well, I’ve got you covered; for some of us newcomers to weblogging, the site came first…
BBC News | EUROPE | Profile: Controversy and Joerg Haider Some details on the Austrian far-right leader with a history of praising Nazi policy, whose inclusion in the new governing coalition is so controversial. The next leader of Austria?
New Scientist: Backwards to the future A paper published in the last days of 1999 suggests there is no theoretical reason why there might not be regions of the universe in which time runs backwards.
Asian Recipes . with herbs, culture, ingredients, glossaries and cooking from Afghanistan to Vietnam.
The Ad Critic: Super Bowl XXXIV Coverage If you don’t watch football but you want to stay attuned to the state of the art in the battle for your heart, mind and bank balance, (or maybe you just enjoy ads! My wife’s father was an advertising executive and she tells me that, growing up in her household, commercials were watched with rapt attention and the programs in between were just interruptions one could talk through) this site will provide quicktime videos of all the TV commercials from this year’s Superbowl.
Getspeed.com. Find out if broadband internet access services are available at your location by entering your zipcode.
The American Experience | Race for the Superbomb | Nuclear Blast Mapper My most passionate activism has been for disarmament. I went to the UK once just because I had been so enamored of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). I helped Helen Caldicott and others found Physicians for Social Responsibility when I was a pre-med and medical student. In large measure, I was “turned” by my exposure to the BBC film “The War Game,” a ground’s-eye neighborhood view of the effects of a nuclear attack that I believe was banned in the UK for many years because it was so disturbing. (Do you remember the network media event of “The Day After”? This was a decade earlier, and without the Hollywood bathos and glitz.) Disarmament activism works best when it brings the effects of a nuclear blast home to your dinner table, as does this site. Here is what happens to my part of the country from a 25 megaton air blast.
Fantastic Prayers
“Fantastic Prayers describes an urban landscape inscribed with memories of lives
lived, objects possessed or discarded, and places inhabited. In eight magical
environments, you become a visitor, who, like an archeologist, is invited to dig
through and uncover fragmentary narratives, laden with physical and
psychological histories.”
“Don’t do housework on
New Year’s Day. Sweeping dirt out through
the front door was akin to sweeping away the
family.”
—One tradition to consider following
today, the inauguration of the
Chinese New Year of the Dragon. Happy new year! I was born in a year of the dragon myself.
Pro-choice Democratic women candidates: EMILY’s List
“identifies viable pro-choice Democratic women candidates for key federal and statewide
offices.
EMILY’s List has helped elect six pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. Senate, 44 to
the U.S. House, and three women governors.”
Caught this comment at the Evhead weblog: “I predict, the next big thing in
weblogging will be actually have a rest of a site — wherein, the weblog is but a feature.
Ah hell, what am I talking about, that sounds like work.” Well, I’ve got you covered; for some of us newcomers to weblogging, the site came first…
BBC News | EUROPE | Profile: Controversy and Joerg Haider Some details on the Austrian far-right leader with a history of praising Nazi policy, whose inclusion in the new governing coalition is so controversial. The next leader of Austria?
New Scientist: Backwards to the future A paper published in the last days of 1999 suggests there is no theoretical reason why there might not be regions of the universe in which time runs backwards.
Getspeed.com. Find out if broadband internet access services are available at your location by entering your zipcode.
The American Experience | Race for the Superbomb | Nuclear Blast Mapper My most passionate activism has been for disarmament. I went to the UK once just because I had been so enamored of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). I helped Helen Caldicott and others found Physicians for Social Responsibility when I was a pre-med and medical student. In large measure, I was “turned” by my exposure to the BBC film “The War Game,” a ground’s-eye neighborhood view of the effects of a nuclear attack that I believe was banned in the UK for many years because it was so disturbing. (Do you remember the network media event of “The Day After”? This was a decade earlier, and without the Hollywood bathos and glitz.) Disarmament activism works best when it brings the effects of a nuclear blast home to your dinner table, as does this site. Here is what happens to my part of the country from a 25 megaton air blast.
Fantastic Prayers
“Fantastic Prayers describes an urban landscape inscribed with memories of lives
lived, objects possessed or discarded, and places inhabited. In eight magical
environments, you become a visitor, who, like an archeologist, is invited to dig
through and uncover fragmentary narratives, laden with physical and
psychological histories.”
“Don’t do housework on
New Year’s Day. Sweeping dirt out through
the front door was akin to sweeping away the
family.”
—One tradition to consider following
today, the inauguration of the
Chinese New Year of the Dragon. Happy new year! I was born in a year of the dragon myself.
Is anybody reading this weblog? If you’re out there, please drop me a line to let me know. I fear I’m sending these thoughts out into the utterly cold and empty void to dissipate as random electrons…
The Bush Bubble by William Saletan
Well, I’m violating a promise I made to myself that this blog wouldn’t get involved in the largely meaningless and inconsequential quadrennial quibbling we call Presidential politics. If there are any Bush supporters reading this (and there probably aren’t, if you’ve followed my ideological bent as previous postings reflect it…), William Saletan (in Slate) thinks you’re not thinking for yourself: “Here’s what George W. Bush has accomplished: He won the
governorship of a big state without Republican opposition in a
year in which every palatable Republican nominee was swept
into office. He administered that institutionally weak office
during a national boom that poured surpluses into state
treasuries and enabled governors and legislators to cut taxes
without cutting spending. He accumulated enough time in
office to become a plausible presidential candidate just as the
country’s Democratic president was discrediting his heir
apparent with yet another scandal, and just as Republican
congressional leaders were discrediting themselves by
reducing their agenda to the president’s impeachment, thereby
clearing the Republican presidential field for Bush.
You were supposed to vote for Bush because everyone else
was supposed to vote for him. In New Hampshire, they didn’t.
Bush says it’s just a blip in the market, and you should keep
holding his stock. But he’s already lost most of his lead in
South Carolina. If he suffers another defeat there, people will
begin to ask why they should vote for him even if he’s not
inevitable or more electable than his rivals. McCain, Alan
Keyes, and Gary Bauer have spent two years explaining why
you should vote for them even if nobody else agrees with you.
Bush ought to be able to answer the same question.”
“The Turning Point Project was
formed in 1999 specifically to design and produce a series
of educational advertisements concerning the major issues
of the new millennium. The ads will appear in The New
York Times and, funds permitting, other newspapers
through spring of 2000. The issues discussed are those that
will be crucial in determining the quality of life on Earth in
the near and distant future. Despite this, they have not been
given the in-depth coverage in the major media that they
deserve.” Their list of featured issues includes the extinction crisis, genetic engineering, industrial agriculture, economic globalization, and “technomania”. Their board of directors includes the estimable Jerry Mander, whose thinking and agitating I have been influenced by since his “Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television” in the ’60’s (read it if you can find it!).
CRT – Campaign for Responsible Transplantation
Raises concerns about the risk of facilitating the transfer of devastating animal viruses to the human population through xenotransplantation. “The Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and
eminent scientists have acknowledged that xenotransplantation could
transmit deadly animal viruses to patients and the general public.
Baboon Cytomegalovirus was recently detected in stored blood from
a recipient of a baboon liver who died in 1992. Pigs can carry
bacterial, viral, fungal, protozoal and helminth pathogens, as well
as prion proteins, implicated in ‘mad cow disease’. Known pig viruses
include the porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) that have infected
human cells. In 1998-99, the novel Malaysian “Nipah” virus jumped
from pigs to humans, infected 269 people, killed over 100, left dozens
brain-damaged, and led to the mass slaughter of one million pigs. The
swine flu epidemic of 1918 killed 20-40 million people worldwide. We
know relatively little about pig viruses, or animal viruses in general.
There may be dozens waiting to be discovered.” Of course, several recent devastating infectious diseases, including HIV and gruesome hemorrhagic fevers such as Marburg and Ebola, presumably made the jump from animal reservoirs… On the other hand, are we merely tapping into a new virulent arena for human xenophobia?
Is anybody reading this weblog? If you’re out there, please drop me a line to let me know. I fear I’m sending these thoughts out into the utterly cold and empty void to dissipate as random electrons…
The Bush Bubble by William Saletan
Well, I’m violating a promise I made to myself that this blog wouldn’t get involved in the largely meaningless and inconsequential quadrennial quibbling we call Presidential politics. If there are any Bush supporters reading this (and there probably aren’t, if you’ve followed my ideological bent as previous postings reflect it…), William Saletan (in Slate) thinks you’re not thinking for yourself: “Here’s what George W. Bush has accomplished: He won the
governorship of a big state without Republican opposition in a
year in which every palatable Republican nominee was swept
into office. He administered that institutionally weak office
during a national boom that poured surpluses into state
treasuries and enabled governors and legislators to cut taxes
without cutting spending. He accumulated enough time in
office to become a plausible presidential candidate just as the
country’s Democratic president was discrediting his heir
apparent with yet another scandal, and just as Republican
congressional leaders were discrediting themselves by
reducing their agenda to the president’s impeachment, thereby
clearing the Republican presidential field for Bush.
You were supposed to vote for Bush because everyone else
was supposed to vote for him. In New Hampshire, they didn’t.
Bush says it’s just a blip in the market, and you should keep
holding his stock. But he’s already lost most of his lead in
South Carolina. If he suffers another defeat there, people will
begin to ask why they should vote for him even if he’s not
inevitable or more electable than his rivals. McCain, Alan
Keyes, and Gary Bauer have spent two years explaining why
you should vote for them even if nobody else agrees with you.
Bush ought to be able to answer the same question.”
“The Turning Point Project was
formed in 1999 specifically to design and produce a series
of educational advertisements concerning the major issues
of the new millennium. The ads will appear in The New
York Times and, funds permitting, other newspapers
through spring of 2000. The issues discussed are those that
will be crucial in determining the quality of life on Earth in
the near and distant future. Despite this, they have not been
given the in-depth coverage in the major media that they
deserve.” Their list of featured issues includes the extinction crisis, genetic engineering, industrial agriculture, economic globalization, and “technomania”. Their board of directors includes the estimable Jerry Mander, whose thinking and agitating I have been influenced by since his “Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television” in the ’60’s (read it if you can find it!).
CRT – Campaign for Responsible Transplantation
Raises concerns about the risk of facilitating the transfer of devastating animal viruses to the human population through xenotransplantation. “The Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and
eminent scientists have acknowledged that xenotransplantation could
transmit deadly animal viruses to patients and the general public.
Baboon Cytomegalovirus was recently detected in stored blood from
a recipient of a baboon liver who died in 1992. Pigs can carry
bacterial, viral, fungal, protozoal and helminth pathogens, as well
as prion proteins, implicated in ‘mad cow disease’. Known pig viruses
include the porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) that have infected
human cells. In 1998-99, the novel Malaysian “Nipah” virus jumped
from pigs to humans, infected 269 people, killed over 100, left dozens
brain-damaged, and led to the mass slaughter of one million pigs. The
swine flu epidemic of 1918 killed 20-40 million people worldwide. We
know relatively little about pig viruses, or animal viruses in general.
There may be dozens waiting to be discovered.” Of course, several recent devastating infectious diseases, including HIV and gruesome hemorrhagic fevers such as Marburg and Ebola, presumably made the jump from animal reservoirs… On the other hand, are we merely tapping into a new virulent arena for human xenophobia?
Panorama: Transcript of a special BBC report on a physician who may have killed as many as one hundred of his patients.
Swiping at Crime Solving cases with the help of metrocard records: ”
A swipe at a turnstile in
Manhattan, for example,
demolished a crime suspect’s
alibi that he never left Staten Island the day of a
Central Park West robbery, authorities said.” Never use your farecard on the way to or from a compromising position, I guess. Not to mention your car’s toll transponder, or your credit card, or your ATM card, or….
Panorama: Transcript of a special BBC report on a physician who may have killed as many as one hundred of his patients.
Swiping at Crime Solving cases with the help of metrocard records: ”
A swipe at a turnstile in
Manhattan, for example,
demolished a crime suspect’s
alibi that he never left Staten Island the day of a
Central Park West robbery, authorities said.” Never use your farecard on the way to or from a compromising position, I guess. Not to mention your car’s toll transponder, or your credit card, or your ATM card, or….
Don’t Let Them Take Your Mind and Spirit:
On Being Called a “Provider”
By Karen Shore, Ph.D. “The language of managed care represents the dominance of the impersonal industrial culture in health care, a culture that has begun to eradicate the humanitarian
culture to which we held. It is no accident that the MC industry uses the term
“behavioral health care” rather than “mental health care,” and focuses on
“functioning” rather than on the totality of a person’s behaviors, thoughts,
feelings, dreams, memories, attitudes, capacity for relatedness, fears, hopes,
and potentials for satisfaction and happiness.”
It is also no accident that the MC industry calls us and our colleagues from
other disciplines “providers” rather than “clinicians,” “practitioners,”
“professionals,” or “caretakers.” I feel a deep demoralization each time I hear
one of us use the word “provider” because I know this means that that
person’s mind has begun to be influenced by a dominating culture, that that
person has begun to accept the dominance of MC and its culture, even if
he/she hates MC. And I know that his/her perceptions of self and others has,
without awareness, begun to change.” An important essay on the relationship between naming and political power, addressing the current battle for hearts and minds (and pocketbooks) in my profession.
Don’t Let Them Take Your Mind and Spirit:
On Being Called a “Provider”
By Karen Shore, Ph.D. “The language of managed care represents the dominance of the impersonal industrial culture in health care, a culture that has begun to eradicate the humanitarian
culture to which we held. It is no accident that the MC industry uses the term
“behavioral health care” rather than “mental health care,” and focuses on
“functioning” rather than on the totality of a person’s behaviors, thoughts,
feelings, dreams, memories, attitudes, capacity for relatedness, fears, hopes,
and potentials for satisfaction and happiness.”
It is also no accident that the MC industry calls us and our colleagues from
other disciplines “providers” rather than “clinicians,” “practitioners,”
“professionals,” or “caretakers.” I feel a deep demoralization each time I hear
one of us use the word “provider” because I know this means that that
person’s mind has begun to be influenced by a dominating culture, that that
person has begun to accept the dominance of MC and its culture, even if
he/she hates MC. And I know that his/her perceptions of self and others has,
without awareness, begun to change.” An important essay on the relationship between naming and political power, addressing the current battle for hearts and minds (and pocketbooks) in my profession.
CNET.com – News – The Net – Privacy fears raised by DoubleClick database plans
“Having sealed its purchase of a direct marketing company, DoubleClick has begun signing up sites to create a network that will tie Web surfers’ travels with their personal information and shopping habits–online and off.” This article links to the page at DoubleClick’s website where you can “opt out” of accepting their insidious cookies.
CNET.com – News – The Net – Privacy fears raised by DoubleClick database plans
“Having sealed its purchase of a direct marketing company, DoubleClick has begun signing up sites to create a network that will tie Web surfers’ travels with their personal information and shopping habits–online and off.” This article links to the page at DoubleClick’s website where you can “opt out” of accepting their insidious cookies.
IPS – World News – Index “IPS Inter-Press Service, the world´s leading provider of information on global issues, is backed by a network of journalist in more than 100 countries, with satellite communication links to 1,200 outlets.”
Wild Wilderness Homepage Organizing against U. S. Forest Service access fees. Helping to prevent the commodification of wilderness.
IPS – World News – Index “IPS Inter-Press Service, the world´s leading provider of information on global issues, is backed by a network of journalist in more than 100 countries, with satellite communication links to 1,200 outlets.”
Wild Wilderness Homepage Organizing against U. S. Forest Service access fees. Helping to prevent the commodification of wilderness.
Boston RadioWatch Probably only of local interest… Very grateful someone’s interested in doing this…
[RRE]Paul Hawken’s essay on the WTO protests in Seattle
“This was to have been a celebration,
a victory, one of the crowning achievements to showcase the Clinton
administration, the moment when it would consolidate its centrist
free trade policies, allowing the Democrats to show multinational
corporations that they could deliver the goods. This was to have been
Barshevsky’s moment, an event that would give her the inside track to
become Secretary of Commerce in the Gore Administration. This was to
have been Michael Moore’s moment, reviving what had been a mediocre
political ascendancy in New Zealand. To say nothing of Monsanto’s
moment. If the as-yet unapproved draft agenda were ever ratified,
the Europeans could no longer block or demand labeling on genetically
modified crops without being slapped with punitive lawsuits and
tariffs. The draft also contained provisions that would allow all
water in the world to be privatized. It would allow corporations
patent protection on all forms of life, even genetic material in
cultural use for thousands of years. Farmers who have spent thousands
of years growing crops in a valley in India could, within a decade,
be required to pay for their water. They could also find that
they would have to purchase seeds containing genetic traits their
ancestors developed, from companies that have engineered the seeds
not to reproduce unless the farmer annually buys expensive chemicals
to restore seed viability. If this happens, the CEOs of Novartis and
Enron, two of the companies creating the seeds and privatizing the
water, will have more money. What will Indian farmers have?
But the perfect moment for Barshevsky, Moore and Monsanto didn’t
arrive. The meeting couldn’t start. Demonstrators were everywhere.” Courtesy of Phil Agre’s important and idiosyncratic Red Rock Eaters’ mailing list.
International Chindogu Society
Dogu is Japanese for “tool” and chin is Japanese for “weird”. Thus, a chindogu is a weird tool. The term was coined by Japanese commedian Kenji Kawakami, who invented the chindogu pictured in these
pages…”
Boston RadioWatch Probably only of local interest… Very grateful someone’s interested in doing this…
[RRE]Paul Hawken’s essay on the WTO protests in Seattle
“This was to have been a celebration,
a victory, one of the crowning achievements to showcase the Clinton
administration, the moment when it would consolidate its centrist
free trade policies, allowing the Democrats to show multinational
corporations that they could deliver the goods. This was to have been
Barshevsky’s moment, an event that would give her the inside track to
become Secretary of Commerce in the Gore Administration. This was to
have been Michael Moore’s moment, reviving what had been a mediocre
political ascendancy in New Zealand. To say nothing of Monsanto’s
moment. If the as-yet unapproved draft agenda were ever ratified,
the Europeans could no longer block or demand labeling on genetically
modified crops without being slapped with punitive lawsuits and
tariffs. The draft also contained provisions that would allow all
water in the world to be privatized. It would allow corporations
patent protection on all forms of life, even genetic material in
cultural use for thousands of years. Farmers who have spent thousands
of years growing crops in a valley in India could, within a decade,
be required to pay for their water. They could also find that
they would have to purchase seeds containing genetic traits their
ancestors developed, from companies that have engineered the seeds
not to reproduce unless the farmer annually buys expensive chemicals
to restore seed viability. If this happens, the CEOs of Novartis and
Enron, two of the companies creating the seeds and privatizing the
water, will have more money. What will Indian farmers have?
But the perfect moment for Barshevsky, Moore and Monsanto didn’t
arrive. The meeting couldn’t start. Demonstrators were everywhere.” Courtesy of Phil Agre’s important and idiosyncratic Red Rock Eaters’ mailing list.
International Chindogu Society
Dogu is Japanese for “tool” and chin is Japanese for “weird”. Thus, a chindogu is a weird tool. The term was coined by Japanese commedian Kenji Kawakami, who invented the chindogu pictured in these
pages…”
‘O CXICTIKON XAOC Fractal chaos: Gregg Geist’s gallery of original creations demonstrating some of the attractive possibilities of fractal art.
the Problems of Consciousness from David Chess and collaborators.
“Consciousness, or subjectivity, or the inwardness of human experience, or whatever we are going to call it, is a unique
problem. In fact, many of the features that make it unique are the very features that make it a problem in the first place.” This is tentative, but it’s good to see an attempt at serious philosophical musing on the web.
Advertising nonconsumption:
“Inspired at least partially by the Viridians and AdBusters and them sorts of folks, I thought it’d be fun, and
possibly even productive, to speculate about what would result if someone seriously tried to use all available
advertising and media tricks to produce non-consumption behavior of various kinds. This is a result of that sort
of woolgathering.”
‘O CXICTIKON XAOC Fractal chaos: Gregg Geist’s gallery of original creations demonstrating some of the attractive possibilities of fractal art.
the Problems of Consciousness from David Chess and collaborators.
“Consciousness, or subjectivity, or the inwardness of human experience, or whatever we are going to call it, is a unique
problem. In fact, many of the features that make it unique are the very features that make it a problem in the first place.” This is tentative, but it’s good to see an attempt at serious philosophical musing on the web.
Advertising nonconsumption:
“Inspired at least partially by the Viridians and AdBusters and them sorts of folks, I thought it’d be fun, and
possibly even productive, to speculate about what would result if someone seriously tried to use all available
advertising and media tricks to produce non-consumption behavior of various kinds. This is a result of that sort
of woolgathering.”
“Most people don’t have the time to send these badly needed messages, because
they are doing other things. But our computers have the time, and want to go to work
for you. If you join us, we’ll send you proposed email letters. You can tell us to send
each one for you, and we send it out over your return address.”
Protest.Net: A calendar of protest, meetings, and conferences.
“Protest.Net is a site to help progressive activists by providing a central place where the times and locations of protests and
meetings can be posted. I can’t possibly keep up with all the actions, so if you find about a protest or meeting, please post that
information to protest.net.”
Science — Hofstadter 281 (5376): 512 Douglas Hofstadter worries about the future of rational inquiry. This is not so new — from July of 1998 — but the concerns are worthy of ongoing attention even in this brief-attention-span post-MTV world. I’m not sure, however, I totally agree with Hofstadter. While I’m a scientist, I am exposing my children to the joys of the pseudo-scientific, the eerie and unexplained. These two are not necessarily dichotomous.
-(SCRIBBLE)-(JOTTING)(weblogging: lessons learned) Some of this is trivially obvious, some worth listening to even if it has a chip on its shoulder.
beebo.org: metalog
The most
frequently
linked-to sites, as
selected by over
250 weblogs.
Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names
“Believe it or not, some chemists do have a sense of humour, and this page is a testament to that. Here we’ll show you some real molecules that
have unusual, ridiculous or downright silly names.”
“Most people don’t have the time to send these badly needed messages, because
they are doing other things. But our computers have the time, and want to go to work
for you. If you join us, we’ll send you proposed email letters. You can tell us to send
each one for you, and we send it out over your return address.”
Protest.Net: A calendar of protest, meetings, and conferences.
“Protest.Net is a site to help progressive activists by providing a central place where the times and locations of protests and
meetings can be posted. I can’t possibly keep up with all the actions, so if you find about a protest or meeting, please post that
information to protest.net.”
Science — Hofstadter 281 (5376): 512 Douglas Hofstadter worries about the future of rational inquiry. This is not so new — from July of 1998 — but the concerns are worthy of ongoing attention even in this brief-attention-span post-MTV world. I’m not sure, however, I totally agree with Hofstadter. While I’m a scientist, I am exposing my children to the joys of the pseudo-scientific, the eerie and unexplained. These two are not necessarily dichotomous.
-(SCRIBBLE)-(JOTTING)(weblogging: lessons learned) Some of this is trivially obvious, some worth listening to even if it has a chip on its shoulder.
beebo.org: metalog
The most
frequently
linked-to sites, as
selected by over
250 weblogs.
Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names
“Believe it or not, some chemists do have a sense of humour, and this page is a testament to that. Here we’ll show you some real molecules that
have unusual, ridiculous or downright silly names.”
Update on Unabomber’s appeal (from Sacramento Bee)
Update on Unabomber’s appeal (from Sacramento Bee)
Looked around at some other people’s logs, and some logs of logs, this evening. One conclusion: very few people out there have anything approaching a clever NAME for their weblog. (Not that “Follow Me Here” is anything to write home about…) Another: it really is getting to be a movement, or a community, out there. Not necessary in a laudable sense; there’s something really incestuous about people’s reciprocal pointers to the other weblogs they each follow. Everyone seems to circulate the same stories, which I won’t dignify by recycling here. Perhaps they were interesting the first time they were referenced. Must be sort of like the frenzied efforts reporters take not to get scooped. The important thing, it would seem, is to find something original that your readers would find enlightening and/or enlivening…
Looked around at some other people’s logs, and some logs of logs, this evening. One conclusion: very few people out there have anything approaching a clever NAME for their weblog. (Not that “Follow Me Here” is anything to write home about…) Another: it really is getting to be a movement, or a community, out there. Not necessary in a laudable sense; there’s something really incestuous about people’s reciprocal pointers to the other weblogs they each follow. Everyone seems to circulate the same stories, which I won’t dignify by recycling here. Perhaps they were interesting the first time they were referenced. Must be sort of like the frenzied efforts reporters take not to get scooped. The important thing, it would seem, is to find something original that your readers would find enlightening and/or enlivening…
End of the galaxy (but don’t hold your breath)
“It will be a major car wreck, and we’re the
Yugo in this one,” said Ohio astrophysicist Chris Mihos.
Street Gang Dynamics, by Steve Nawojczyk, gangwar.com …including a primer on the interpretation of graffiti.
Rapture Index How is the world doing today on each of forty-five millenial indicators? The author of this website apparently finds that these indicate how close the Biblical “rapture” is…
Who Are the Tibetan Lamas? by Matt Alsdorf
Last week the Karmapa Lama, a 14-year-old Tibetan
Buddhist Leader, fled to India from Chinese-controlled Tibet.
Five years ago, the Chinese government sparked controversy
by nominating a different boy for the position of Panchen
Lama than the one the Dalai Lama had chosen. Who are all
these lamas?
End of the galaxy (but don’t hold your breath)
“It will be a major car wreck, and we’re the
Yugo in this one,” said Ohio astrophysicist Chris Mihos.
Street Gang Dynamics, by Steve Nawojczyk, gangwar.com …including a primer on the interpretation of graffiti.
Rapture Index How is the world doing today on each of forty-five millenial indicators? The author of this website apparently finds that these indicate how close the Biblical “rapture” is…
Who Are the Tibetan Lamas? by Matt Alsdorf
Last week the Karmapa Lama, a 14-year-old Tibetan
Buddhist Leader, fled to India from Chinese-controlled Tibet.
Five years ago, the Chinese government sparked controversy
by nominating a different boy for the position of Panchen
Lama than the one the Dalai Lama had chosen. Who are all
these lamas?
