Why Critical History in a Postcolonial World? Part 2

Continued from Part 1...

In order to effect comparisons and determine positions in a hierarchy, differences must be made commensurate, usually by the application of a universal category. If by definition universal (Encarta: "applicable to all situations or purposes") means there is nothing outside the universal, how do universals deal with difference? Partha Chatterjee shows that under colonialism claims of both universality and difference had a tendency to slip into a development narrative, as we saw in Hegel, which was a way of temporizing and therefore assimilating cultural and historical difference. Difference thus produced deferral, based on an expectation of education, improvement and progress. Through this not-yet, primitive India could be brought into the grand master narrative, though not equally with Europe. What Chatterjee calls the "Rule of Colonial Difference" meant a deferral of identity or sameness, possibly an eternal deferral: if Europe is still progressing and India is behind, can it ever catch up?

This is the situation inherited by nationalist movements. Fanon explains that colonialism, "not simply content to impose its rule upon the present and the future," also "distorts, disfigures, and destroys" the past of the colonized societies. To fortify and legitimize collective identity in the present, nationalism must rehabilitate the past. Fanon sees this as a response to colonialism's totalizing discourse. In the nationalist psyche, to recreate a pure and uncolonized past is to find and recover the national culture. But for Fanon the attempt to recover the glory of a past civilization is doomed. It makes culture, which should be in constant motion and full of vitality, into an artefact, preserved like a museum piece, dead. This kind of nativist history is, in Nietzsche's words, not serving life. It resembles antiquarian history, which "merely understands how to preserve life, not how to generate it." Mummified, decaying, this is the past sucking the vigour from the present. We can see exactly this tension in Nehru. Although he wants to rejuvenate the universals he finds in India's past (to make that past live), he is also searching for mythological origins of the nation's essence.

This search for origins and essential identities often has the purpose of buttressing boundaries, demarcating identities, making precise the inside and outside of "authentic" culture. Tradition is one familiar means for this, and its invention and preservation seem to have been a feature of nearly all decolonization struggles. This reproduction of the (imagined) past often involves enforcing custom and tradition, sometimes in a repressive manner: "the fact that something has become old now gives rise to the demand that it must be immortal." (Nietzsche) Obsession with tradition is yet another form of fetishism of the past, privileging it over the present. In opposition to the domination of the West, difference is privileged. In the name of emancipation, this nativist history reverses the binary, valorizing the past and rejecting the modern. Different problematic same thematic, it remains within the colonial logic, since it presupposes that the colonized are living in the past, while Europe is modern and more advanced on the unilinear historicist scale.

This is the general problem for Others trying to reconstitute their selves as subjects, because, as Fanon says, sealed in Otherness the only way to have a subject position is to accept being the voice of the Other, to fetishize themselves, reproducing the racialized logic of same and other. It also explains the performance of nativism by native intellectuals and elites who feel they must "go native" to "get away from the white culture." As if the only way to participate in politics and society is to take on these identities. However, identity politics is simply another form of mimesis: first determine the Indian way of doing things, and then follow that script. It is puppetry, following the black man script because that appears to be the only way to enact a subject position. But whiteness has constructed blackness, so this is playing someone else's part without authenticity or real agency; taking on the voice of the Other is about sheer instrumentality.

What is tricky, as Chakrabarty reminds us, is to take on a subject position of difference that does not repeat the racialized self-other logic. Fanon recognizes how difficult this is, and says it indeed produces a sort of melancholy because for this there's no script. We want a living culture, a community with national consciousness, but what the hegemonic order means by "culture" is a given political identity. If culture is that which cannot be captured, the living vanishing present, what Balibar calls everyday practices of meaning, "culture can also function like a nature, and it can in particular function as a way of locking individuals and groups into a genealogy, into a determination that is immutable and intangible in origin."

Part 3

(07.31.08) Recommends:

Starting Your Day With a Breakfast Burrito.




We regularly sustain oursevles throughout the day on nothing but nuts and Diet Dr. Pepper. We are also regularly early risers, but today woke up at an hour that was uncharacteristically early even for us -- we're noticing a case of Wednesday-onset insomnia and we think it's our immune system not being able to handle what has heretofore been a disappointing season of Project Runway -- so while driving around aimlessly before work (read: while sitting in traffic because there is traffic regardless of the time or day around these parts), we decided to finally stop in and give D/Los Burritos (not sure which one it actually is) a try, breakfast burrito style.

Well, it was an unmitigated success. We walked out of there with a bounce in our step ready to tackle another day in the world. It's gonna be a good Thursday. And we can't wait until the next case of Wednesday-onset insomnia.

Parliamentary Debate Workshop Underway

Faculty pose: Bojana Skrt from Slovenia, Nicole Colston from Vermont, Steve Llano from St John's in NY and Debbie Newman from the UK (coach of England World Schools team). Alfred Snider from Vermont not shown.

The World Debate Institute's 2008 College Parliamentary Workshop is well underway. The intensive five day program is training students in the basics of parliamentary debating by using the WUDC or "worlds" format.

Each day features a mix of lectures, drills, elective classes (several different subjects offered at once) and two debates.

Steve Llano said of day 1:

The first day wasn't just housekeeping matters and such - we managed to get right into the material and had a very nice practice debate on the motion "This House would ban consumption of tobacco products." The round I saw was quite good even though it featured one team that was new to the format, and another that was totally new to debate.

For those of you interested, today's schedule is:

WEDNESDAY

9-11:30 AM
9:00-9:45 AM Lecture: Proposition-Skrt
9:45-11:30 AM Coaches: Session 4
9:45-10:00 AM Prep for debate
10:00-11:30 AM Debate 4 with Critique

11:30-1:30 PM Lunch

1:30-4:30 PM
1:30-2:30 PM Elective 1
2:30-3:00 PM Prep for debate
3:00-4:30 PM Debate 4 with Critique

4:30 PM End of Day

Ritzenhoff - Taça Mon Amour

Mon Amour

Simplesmente com leite ou adicionado café e natas pode deliciar-se comendo os seus cereais favoritos ou uma magnifica salada de fruta. Estas taças Mon Amour fazem parte de uma vasta colecção, sempre com uma face de alegria, comforto e satisfação. São varios os artistas, arquitectos e designers que dão alma a esta colecção. Podem ser lavadas na maquina e ir ao microondas. Dê alegria à sua vida.

Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
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Cascais / Portugal

(07.29.08) Recommends:

5.8 Reasons Why It's Acceptable To Drink A Beer Over Lunch Today.



More here about the earthquake that shook our office today in downtown los angeles.




UPDATE: The earthquake was lowered to 5.4. We are more than willing to give our extra 0.4 worth of beer to this person.

Alivar - Kiron

Banco Kiron

Alivar lançou o seu novo banco Kiron, perfeito para espaços modernos, onde a sofisticação e o design se conjugam, feito em policarbonato transparente ou mate, com base em aço cromado, o seu mecanismo a gas permite varios ajustamentos em altura e total rotação do banco, graças a sua ergonomia é bastante confortavel, adapta-se na perfeição à sua casa ou a espaços comerciais, disponivel em varias cores.

Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

(07.28.08) Recommends:

Quite The Sales Plug.

For a few months now, we've been kicking around the idea of purchasing a scooter. Large parts of LA are not covered by the metro line, large parts are not pedesterian-friendly, and oddly, at the same time, large parts aren't really car-friendly, either: the streets are too narrow; the stop lights rarely seem to be synched up; there are rarely turn signals, resulting in at least four drivers attempting to turn on every yellow/red light, at least two of whom with not use their turn signal; the main requirement to be a driver of a city bus is to be completely unreasonable; gas is $4.50 per gallon and on and on and on. As a result: we've become very interested in the idea of buying a scooter.

So on Friday we noticed this article in the Boston Globe for the Vectrix scooter. The numbers are insane. It's electric so it gives off zero emissions. It costs one cent per mile to run the thing. It gets the equivalent of 357 miles per gallon. The California Air Resource board will subsidize $1,500 of the purchase. Apparently the thing can even go on the highway.

Since we've read the article, all we notice are scooters around us; we've become like those women, desparate to become mothers, who break into tears at the sight of a baby. Next up in the due diligence process is learning about the Vespa.

Update: The Vespa LX. A very handsome looking scooter, yeah?

Kartell - Candeeiro Easy

Candeeiro Easy

Candeeiro desenhado por Ferruccio Laviani, suspenso isoladamente ou em conjunto podem criar ambientes fascinantes, fabricado em policarbonato enriquecido particulas reflectoras, disponivel em varios acabamentos e cores. lampada E14 max 40W (incluida).

Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

Why Critical History in a Postcolonial World? Part 1

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post.

Let nothing be called natural
In an age of bloody confusion,
Ordered disorder, planned caprice,
And dehumanized humanity, lest all things
Be held unalterable!
Bertolt Brecht

The past has passed, meaning it is no more. By definition not present, it no longer exists. So why bother attending to it? Whether we attend to it or not, we cannot escape the past, since it produced our present – what exists is inherited from whatever came before. Perhaps we could just forget the past and be as happy as Nietzsche's cows. With no memory, they would be forgiven for taking themselves to be the general case. They might assume the whole world is an eternal pasture, and that a herd is the only natural way of being. But this is exactly the concern. Without attention to historicity we run the risk of naturalizing a particular kind of subject, society, culture, economic system, or set of power relations, universalizing the particular, making natural a product of history. Not only does this reduce anything (or anyone) different into an Other, an aberration, it leaves little room for change. The colonial order, racial hierarchies, gender inequality all appear natural and timeless.

A diachronic perspective, by contrast, can show us that things have not always been the way they are now, and therefore immunize us from assuming things will be thus forever. How we tell our past-narrative, our history, impacts how we imagine ourselves, our present, and our future. This is precisely the reason postcolonial thinkers have concerned themselves with the past. Of course, as Nietzsche points out, not just any attention to the past will do – history should serve life. Whatever falls outside of the grand universal narrative of historicism, akin to monumental history, is produced as an Other. Nativist history, a response to this othering, makes a fetish of the past (as does antiquarian history), but is unable to break free of the othering discourse. In contrast critical history and attention to historicity are concerned with the present and have the potential to go beyond the othering discourse.

The grand sweep of colonial history could be seen as an attempt to deal with difference met in the colonial encounter. In order to persevere, historicism had to find a way of fitting very different societies into its universal temporal narrative. Often seen as unhistorical, in stasis, outside of time, these colonized societies were only wrenched back into the stream of time by colonial rule. Although back in the narrative, they were then behind, backward. The colonies were seen as Europe's own past, like Europe but at the same time not like Europe. Historicism is then about both sameness and difference. It brings difference into sameness by temporizing. Nietzsche could have been writing about this when he wrote of monumental history: "how much that is different must be overlooked, how ruthlessly must the individuality of the past be forced into a general form …" Monumental history is inspirational. It advises us that greatness is once more possible if we imitate past greatness. Monumental history thus produces a script, forcing out all specificity. It is nothing but lifeless mimesis, producing "nothing but timidly disguised universal men."

Hegel exemplifies historicism. His juggernaut of a master narrative simply rolled right over alternative histories. He could subjugate them, bringing them all into the grand narrative, because of the totalizing progress of spirit (geist) through the ages. To be all-encompassing his system had to find ways to make these varied narratives commensurate, which is why the India we meet in Hegel's narrative is so distorted. Hegel's question of how to deal with discrepancy – India – was solved by the explanation that ancient India was once great but got stuck in stasis, while Europe kept on progressing. For Hegel, self-consciousness is produced dialectically through experience of the other: "those peoples therefore are alone capable of History... who have arrived at that period of development... at which individuals comprehend their own existence as independent, i.e. possess self-consciousness." But the Indians, steeped in spirituality, did not exercise their reason to separate Man from Nature and God. Without differentiating themselves from the universal, the dialectic could not function. The irrationality and lack of individuation of Indians ("In India we have only a division in masses..." explains Hegel) thus retarded the development of reason. And because reason, or Spirit, is the great mover of history, without it the Indians could have no history or progress. They were doomed to be stuck in the past – at least until Europe's convenient intervention; it was "the necessary fate of Asiatic Empires to be subjected to Europeans." In Hegel, India is othered, then the other is conquered by the same. As Chakrabarty explains this is a united world with an internally articulated hierarchy – the world is both one and unequal.

Part 2 here

Top 20 Arquitectos Mundiais

1 - Nikken Sekkei, Japan, http://www.nikken.co.jp/
2 - Gensler, USA, http://www.gensler.com/
3 - HOK, USA, http://www.hok.com/
4 - Aedas, UK, http://www.aedas.com/
5 - SOM, USA, http://www.som.com/
6 - BDP international, UK, http://www.bdp.co.uk/
7 - Perkins & Will, USA, http://www.perkinswill.com/
8 - Foster & Partners, UK, http://www.fosterandpartners.com/
9 - RTKL Associates, USA, http://www.rtkl.com/
10 - HKS Inc, USA, http://www.hksinc.com/
11 - P&T Architects and Engineers, China, http://www.p-t-group.com/
12 - NBBJ, USA, http://www.nbbj.com/
13 - Perkins Eastman, USA, http://www.perkinseastman.com/
14 - Smith Group, USA, http://www.smithgroup.com/
15 - Leo A Daly, USA, http://www.leoadaly.com/
16 - SMC Group, UK, http://www.smcgroupplc.com/
17 - KPF, USA, http://www.kpf.com/
18- Callison, USA, http://www.callison.com/
19 - Burt Hill, USA, http://www.burthill.com/
20 - Nihon Sekkei Co, Japan, http://www.nihonsekkei.co.jp/

Why I Study History

When I was younger (19 or so) I had an.. um... let's just call it a mind-expanding experience. It became so clear to me all of a sudden just how far we as a society are from our roots, or from our foundations. I mean this in a pretty concrete way. From a handful of extended family tribes living close to the earth, we built up these incredibly complex civilizations - technology, religion, bureaucracy, global transportation, trade, electronics, communications. We take it all for granted: cities, highrises, airplanes, universities, supermarkets. But most of it is pretty new.

Catastrophe is always lurking around the corner, as a potentiality. Climate change is one likely trigger for many potential catastrophes, and it is possible that our civilization will end with it. Think about Rome. It was around for a thousand years, and it fell. In post-Roman Britain, for instance, with nobody to maintain the infrastructure in the cities there was hunger and plague. People pretty much abandoned the cities and went back to barely scratching out a living, with small scale subsistence farming. These were what we know as the Dark Ages. If it could happen then, it can happen now. And eventually it will. That is certain; the time frame and causes are less so.

Humans have found and continue to find many solutions to the problems of survival. We must fulfill our needs for shelter, food, companionship, etc. But we have a lot of flexibility in exactly how we do this. The incredible variety and creativity of solutions that people have found become apparent when studying in a field like history (and probably anthropology, too). I love learning how different peoples have organized their societies: the religions and culture and social structures, the ethics and cuisine and mythologies.

In addition, if there are so many different ways we have organized our societies, than that tells me that this particular one is not the immutable reality. That means there is also hope for change. We can do things differently, because we have already done them differently in the past. I wrote a whole theoretical paper going into this in more detail - if anyone is interested, I can post it here (here, actually).

As some of you know, I'm currently working on an MA in History (and International Relations) and considering applying to do a PhD. Problem is, I am interested in everything and have such trouble deciding what to focus on. But I'm pretty sure at least that I want to stay in the field of history.

South Asian Students at World Debate Institute Do Television

Islamophobia program

The US Department of State, the Study United States Institute and the World Debate Institute at the University of Vermont have been working with 18 students from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan on debating skills and public communication this last week.

On Thursday afternoon the students composed, practiced, arranged and taped three television discussion programs for broadcast in Vermont and to offer online. The topics of the discussions were:

• Islamophobia
• Global Food Crisis
• World War Three Happening Now

All three can be seen starting later today at http://flashpointtv.blogspot.com/

The first of the three programs is linked above.

Rosenthal - Versace

Versace - Dedalo

A Rosenthal possui divinais serviços de jantar da Versace, o Requinte, a Elegancia e o Glamour são transmitidos aos seus convidados servem de suporte as mais divinais excentricidades culinarias são peças fabulosas igualmente para a sua Lista de Casamento.

Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

(07.25.08) Recommends:

A Blogger in the White House.

So yesterday we ranted about the old guard media. While we were hammering out that post, Barack Obama was, as you know, giving a speech in Berlin. There was a lot in there that we've heard before: skinny kid, funny name, goat herders, army cooks, coming to america, Kansas, Kenya, etc.

But near the end he slipped something new in there:

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here...Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe?

There's a blogger in his campaign who has his ear. And that's a very good sign. It also makes sense. Obama understands the power of networks. He started off as a community organizer. During the primary he leveraged the internet to reinvent campaign fianance (click on this very cool pdf for a graphical depiction of the reinvention). He knows that the power of this country lies in its citizens. As more and more of those citizens share their wisdom and talent with others through tools like blogging software, sources like CNN will be forced to change or die. Having a president with blogger advisors will not change the health care system or cure the economy or the environment. But we're convinced that having a strong blogging culture is a step in the right direction.

4UDECOR - Vamos até si

Vamos até si
Se tem o seu tempo todo ocupado e não consegue deslocar-se à nossa loja em Cascais, nós vamos ao seu encontro, à sua casa, à sua empresa, tentando encontrar sempre a melhor solução para o seu caso, projectamos, orçamentamos e decoramos todos os espaços por si selecionados.

Com uma equipa especializada e competente em todas as areas dedicamos a maxima atenção aos nossos clientes com o objectivo da sua total satisfação.

Contacte-nos já:

geral@4udecor.com

Telf:214 867 378

Tlm: 966 312 602

Cascais / Portugal

(07.24.08) Recommends:

Understanding that if CNN Really Is The Most Trusted Name in News Then We Are All Really, Really Fucked.

So, we have this friend, Fellow Blogger. She's among the smartest people we know. Both book smart and current event smart and generally just smart at life. So once a week or so, she'll send us a ridiculous headline from CNN.com. A common example is something like "54% of Americans think we may be headed toward a recession." Or "George Bush doesn't think we are headed for a recession." Everytime they are Very Serious headlines from a Very Serious news source. And everytime they are completely and utterly useless.

We never check CNN.com unless we get these articles, but we always sort of figured Fellow Blogger was just cherry picking the worst articles.Umm , we now seriously doubt this. For this morning, we casually checked out CNN.com. And this is what greeted us (click for larger image):



Yikes. Where do we even start with this? First of all, the fact that there are Black people in America? Is this really a Live! Developing! Story! And not just that but do we really need Your! Reaction! to the fact that there are Black people in America? I mean, is this Turn Back The Clock To The 1800s Day on the Internet? Moving on to Latest! News! check out those stories.

Is marriage only for white people!
Black people not playing football!
Mississippi closed for the day!
Kids playing with sawdust and paper!
Helping whales help themselves!
Video sluts pissed off that people think they're slutty!
Kid Rock! At the Waffle House!
All this, plus super heroes and Salman Rushdie!

Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Okay, my head just split in two; no more, please!

I guess this should not be too surprising. CNN, the television station, is pretty absurd. There's Lou Dobbs, a border-line xenophobe. Larry King, a border-line robot. Anderson Cooper, who used to be the host of reality game show The Mole, and who often produces Hard! Hitting! Journalism! a representative example of which is how the fact that prostitution is legal in parts of Mexico is evidence of international sex-trafficking. And, lest we forget, there's Wolf Blitzer. Who can forget Wolf Blitzer, just last week, on the Situation! Room! running around, mouth agape, eyes bulging out of head, convinced that No American could possibly understand that the New Yorker is a liberal magazine known for producing satirical cartoons (the same Americans who, before this morning, were unaware of the existance of Black Americans).

So here's what we're thinking about this morning: As newspapers continue with massive lay-offs and the unending tide continues toward the internet and 24-hour cable television for news, should we be concerned that CNN.com, presumably one of the most trafficed web properties, offers up almost nothing but steaming piles of horse shit?

We, unlike Wolf Blitzer, believe that the vast and overwhelming majority of reasonable Americans understand that the New Yorker is liberal and the cover was satire. To that end, we are hopeful that the vast and overwhelming majority of reasonable Americans understand that CNN is completely full of shit and offers, perhaps, 5% news and 95% foaming at the mouth nonsense.

Two questions we have this morning. Is this a reasonable hope? And, even if it is a reasonable hope, what pressures, if any, does the success of CNN.com (and CNN) put on sources who actually are trying to enlighten, educate, edify our society?

Iren Uffici - Mobiliario Escritorio

Iren Uffici

Uma colecção elegante e unica para a sua empresa com mesas de direcção e de apoio, a sua base possui uma forma de troncos de arvore o que confere a capacidade de transmitir emoções e atmosferas que possibilitam a reconciliação com a natureza.

Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

Egizia - Objectos

Egizia

Desde há 50 anos, um grupo de homens e mulheres trabalha para aprofundar as possibilidades de uma realização muito particular: a serigrafia manual sobre vidro. Sob a direcção da Ettore Sottsass Associati, um grupo de designers, na sua maioria jovens e desconhecidos, uniu o seu potencial criativo à frescura e vontade de inovação, para oferecer à Egizia uma gama de novas decorações e objectos. O resultado desta colaboração é a colecção “Handle with Care”.

Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

"War on Terror" turns into war on charities

NGO "Blacklist" Unfair and Arbitrary, Groups Say

After the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., Congress gave the government sweeping new powers to crack down on not-for-profit organisations that were using their charitable status as cover for funneling funds to terrorist groups.

These powers include the authority to designate any charity as a material supporter of terrorism. This action demands virtually no due process from the government, denies the target to see the evidence against it, and can result in freezing of a charity's assets, effectively shutting it down. Since 9/11, the government has shut down dozens of charitable groups, but only three have ever been charged and brought to trial for supporting terrorist causes. None has been convicted.

It seems the government can designate any organization as terrorist without proof, and can freeze assets without showing ties to terrorism or illegal acts. A report Collateral Damage: How the War on Terror Hurts Charities, Foundations, and the People They Serve estimates that since 9/11 it is estimated that over $6 Billion in assets, from charities and foundations labeled as terrorist organizations, have been frozen. A charity without access to its funds is often effectively shut down.

It also asserts that the government has used its surveillance powers against charitable groups for political purposes. It charges, "In addition to providing aid and services to people in need, charitable and religious organisations help to facilitate a free exchange of information and ideas, fostering debate about public policy issues. The government has treated some of these activities as a terrorist threat. Since 9/11, there have been disturbing revelations about the use of counterterrorism resources to track and sometimes interfere with groups that publicly and vocally dissent from administration policies."

In 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) launched its Spy Files Project and uncovered an intricate system of domestic spying on U.S. non-profits largely condoned by expanded counterterrorism powers within the USA PATRIOT Act.

Many legitimate and effective organisations have suffered because of the undemocratic and heavy-handed application of these powers.

The report finds that "U.S. counterterrorism laws have made it increasingly difficult for U.S.-based organisations to operate overseas. For example, after the 2004 tsunami, U.S. organisations operating in areas controlled by the Tamil Tigers, a designated terrorist organisation, risked violating prohibitions against 'material support' when creating displaced persons' camps and hospitals, traveling, or distributing food and water."

For aid organisations like the International Red Cross, compliance with U.S. counterterrorism laws can force NGOs to violate standards of neutrality in their work. The Principles of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Response Programmes state, "The humanitarian imperative comes first. Aid is given regardless of the race, creed or nationality of the recipients and without adverse distinction of any kind. Aid priorities are calculated on the basis of need alone."

In some cases, the report declares, counterterrorism laws have caused nonprofits to pull out of programmes.

So, right-wingers are always promoting charity as the alternative to public programmes and social services... how can they be effective when they have to face these kinds of problems?

(07.23.08) Recommends:

The Track "Ten Dead Dogs" from Wild Sweet Orange's "We Have Cause To Be Uneasy" (Canvasback Music, forthcoming, July 29, 2008).

As we mentioned in our last update, we haven't been blogging here lately as much as usual, as we've been playing around lots on Twitter and we've been fumbling around on Tumblr -- one anonymous tumblr that if you're savvy enough and/or have too much time on your hands you can find by scrubbing this blog, and another double secret Tumblr that we can tell you right now you'll never, ever discover, so don't even bother asking.

In addition, we've been listening almost exclusively to this WSO track, Ten Dead Dogs. We first saw WSO back in March -- my goodness, has it really been over four months since that show?? -- and about a month ago their full-length debut showed up in our mail boxes.

Let's back up though. When we say we've been listening almost exclusively to this track, we actually mean we've been listening almost exclusively to the first forty-five seconds of this track. As we Twittered earlier, the first :45 might be our favorite music released this year. Not an understatement: on the rare occasions in which we drive to work, our commute takes up to forty five minutes, which means we regularly listen to this part of the song 60 times in a row. But it's not just us who are crazy: we introduced this song to Law School Friend -- one of the few humans whose picture has ever appeared on the blog here, here, here -- during her ridiculous July 4th cookout. Last weekend, when we hung out with her again, she informed us that she had not been able to stop listening to the song. We may or may not be exaggerating when she said she listened to it 45 times consecutively.

While that may sound quaintly amateurish compared to our devotion, it is still a sign, we think, that this song is like E. Coli: some people will come in contact with it and won't notice anything every happened; others will have their bodies completely overtaken for 5-7 days before returning to a normal state; large numbers will die. Okay, probably this song won't kill you, but it will vanquish any chances you have of being productive, because you'll find yourself having to stop to hit the "back" button to start the song over. You'll do this repeatedly -- so you can try to copy his enunciation on "apartment," so you can try to hit the high note on "omen," so you can do that little "buh da doom" part, so you try to match his voice on "I watched the sky turn from blue to black to red and yellow, too," they'll be others, trust us -- until you notice that it's an hour later and all you have to show for it is the sad realization that, despite your best protestations, it probably wasn't lack of time committment to singing in the shower that prevented you from being a rock star.

Okay. Enough talking. On to the music, maestro.

Wild Sweet Orange -- Ten Dead Dogs -- mp3.

Future South Asian Leaders Get WDI Debate Training

Eighteen students from South Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) are attending a one-week session at the World Debate Institute at the University of Vermont as part of a US Department of State month-long program centering an the Study of US Institutions (SUSI for short).

The debate session involves public speaking training, argumentation and refutation drills, debating in the WUDC format and is then finished as students tape three television programs of discussions they have researched and implemented on selected topics. The taping will be Thursday, and the topics are: Islamophobia, 21st Century as a New Age of Conflict and the Crisis of Rising Food Prices.

The program is taught by Alfred Snider of Vermont and Rhydian Morgan of the UK. "These students are immensely talented," said Snider, "and I think it is a great idea to also help them sharpen their oral communication and critical thinking skills."

In other parts of the program students learned about US political institutions, worked with community groups to develop an appreciation for service learning, engaged in sporting events designed for the disabled, attended fireworks and a small-town 4th of July parade and will be visiting Boston and Washington DC.

For more WDI news go to http://worlddebateinstitute.blogspot.com/

World Schools Session Concludes

Top four speakers: Becker, Lee, Hayes and Fuentes

The World Schools Debate workshop at the World Debate Institute at the University of Vermont came to a close on Monday and students departed on Tuesday. The session ended with a tournament, a final round, speaker awards and certificates presented to the attendees. The final night involved dinner downtown and a supervised taste of Burlington night life.

Students and faculty from six nations (Korea, Slovakia, Mexico, UK, Slovenia & USA) made the two week session intense from a debating perspective but also gave people an opportunity to make international contacts and learn from each other.

The final round was won by the team called "Slomerica" consisting of Jacob Klein, Sebastian Becker and Katarina Krasulova, although Katarina had to catch her plane for Europe and missed the final round itself. They triumphed in a 3-2 decision over the team called "Electric Pleasure Trio" consisting of In Hyok Lee, Andrew Hayes and Willis Danielson.

The top four speakers, pictured above, were:

1. Andrew Hayes, USA
2. In Hyok Lee, Korea
3. Aurea Fuentes, Mexico
4. Sebastian Becker, USA

The workshop was directed by Bojana Skrt of Slovenia, with the assistance of Rhydian Morgan of the UK. Other faculty involved were Jackie Massey of Oklahoma, Alfred Snider of Vermont and Mandy Frank of Vermont.

Magis - Pipe Dreams

Pipe Dreams

Chegou o seu regador com um design inovador, divertido e com as mais variadas combinações de cores, foi desenhado por Jerszy Seymour, em polietileno e suficientemente resistente para uso exterior, possui a capacidade de 2litros de agua.

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Cascais / Portugal

WDI 2008 Shirt is Unveiled

The WDI shirt has become fairly famous in the last 26 years. Ever since our very first one, with a huge red star ringed by "People's Republic of Burlington" we have produced a lot of collector's items.

Other shirts have included, "Brain Farm - we grow em big," "Turning Weapons Into Words," "Emancipate Yourself from Mental Slavery," "Logic & Love," to "Critical Thinking Creates a Better World." A few years ago the CEDA college national debate championship was won by two WDI graduates, and one wearing his WDI shirt.

This year we seem to have another winner. On the front it has a repeat of the "critical thinking" slogan, but the back has a comment balloon with "Where the future is born." We like to think about the amazing young people we are training and how they will make a difference in the future, hopefully for the good. Always optimistic is how we feel at WDI.

We also used navy blue as the color because we have not had a navy shirt ever, and we want to keep mixing it up.

They are not available for sale. You need to be here to get one.

Join us next year and get your own.

Decoração de Interiores

Agora que comprou a sua Casa nós ajudamos a Decora-la não tem de gastar milhões temos as melhores soluções para si, desde o projecto de decoração de interiores até à sua conclusão acompanhamos sempre o cliente, garantimos a total satisfação graças a uma Equipa Profissional, onde o Rigor e a Exigencia são os pilares do nosso Sucesso. Teste-nos garantimos o cumprimento dos prazos estipulados.

Ganhe dinheiro connosco e não dores de cabeça.

Visite-nos hoje mesmo / Visit us today:
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He Really is Quite Savage

Who said this?

[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." See, everyone had asthma from the minority community.

The same guy who said autism is a

fraud, a racket. ... I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.'

I'd say I'm shocked, but sadly, I'm not.

From Media Matters

See for yourself:

Varenna - Cozinhas

Varenna

Estas são as Melhores Cozinhas Italianas, temos a sua Cozinha, onde pode criar os seus pratos
Num ambiente sofisticado pode elaborar todas as suas refeições, fazendo a sua familia feliz !!!
Através da planta da sua Casa, transformamos a sua Vida

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WDI Instructor Heads for Serbia, But Will Return

Steve Llano, right, with Sam Nelson of Cornell and Bojana Skrt of Slovenia

Steve Llano of St. John's University directed the Coach/Teacher workshop at WDI this year. He is now on his way to Serbia to do a debate workshop there before returning to WDI to teach at the College Parliamentary workshop. He leaves with fond memories of his stint at WDI so far.

Here are some passages from his own blog, found at
http://progymna.blogspot.com/2008/07/notes-from-wdi.html

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Notes from the WDI

There are a few things I expect to do every summer that I come to the University of Vermont to teach at the World Debate Institute.

One is that I'll eat Ben & Jerry's. Another is drinks at Red Square. A trip to the KKD is in order as well as Ali Baba's, the Red Onion Deli, and possibly a new place to eat as the turnover is pretty darn high around here.

Other things - I know I'll have to walk up that damn hill too many times. And I know I'll be tired, and I know that I'll meet a lot of people who will point out to me in a lot of ways how much learning I have left to do.

No disappointment this year. Even as an instructor I found the courses to make me think in new ways about teaching debate. Everything old is new again. This is exactly why I choose to teach at WDI in the summers when I could easily just stay home and relax. Already looking forward to next year.

In a couple of hours I'm off to Belgrade for more teaching and learning debate. This is a new workshop for me so I'm very interested to see how it goes. Then after that I will return to Vermont for WDI's World Style Debate institute. With over 30 students registered, it should be a really good workshop.

More from Belgrade tomorrow as I settle in and get a lay of the argumentative land.

How Walkable is Your Neighbourhood?

To answer that question, you could go outside and try walking around and see how well it goes, or for those who prefer the virtual to the physical, go to Walkscore.com and type in your address. Based on things like density and proximity to shops and services, the software will give a ranking. It works for the US, Canada and the UK.

Of course, the really cool thing is seeing how walkable other cities and neighbourhoods are - you know, the ones you can't access by stepping outside your door. Unsurprisingly, San Francisco and New York City and Boston are the most walkable cities in the USA.

They don't have rankings of the most walkable cities in Canada, but you can search for addresses to get a score. Toronto didn't fare too badly, but it depends on where you live, really.

What does this all mean? They explain:

Picture a walkable neighborhood. You lose weight each time you walk to the grocery store. You stumble home from last call without waiting for a cab. You spend less money on your car—or you don't own a car. When you shop, you support your local economy. You talk to your neighbors.

(Screenshot found here)

Walk Score admits there are many features currently overlooked by the software - like weather, design, safety, or topography, but it is still a pretty cool tool. Via Grist.

Iittala - Jarras Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto, Nasceu na Filandia, graças à sua Originalidade, Estilo e Talento, é um dos Grandes nomes da Arquitectura e Design . Durante a sua carreira desenhou inumeros edificios em varios Paises: Salas de Espectaculos, Livrarias, Hospitais, Museus e Casas Particulares.

Criou para a Iittala estas Jarras com as mais variadas Formas, Tamanhos e Cores. Deixou sempre que fosse o Cliente a decidir qual o uso que lhe iria dar.

Estas Jarras são Imagem de Marca da Simbiose entre a Iittala e a Industria Vidreira Finlandesa.

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Coach/Teacher Workshop Draws to a Close

Steve Llano of St. John's University and Rhydian Morgan judge a debate

The five-day Coach/Teacher Workshop is drawing to a close here at the World Debate Institute. It has been an action packed week for them, and they have gotten even more than they bargained for. On Thursday, for example, each coach was presented with a huge pile of DVDs and CDs of instructional materials in every single debate format of interest. They have been introduced to Lincoln Douglas, policy, parliamentary and public forum debate. They are full of questions and anxious to learn.

Steve Llano of St. John's University has been directing the classes, but has had help from Jackie Massey, Rhydian Morgan, Alfred Snider and others. Steve is perfect for this position because he has been both a high school and a college coach and has experience in all of these formats, as well as having a doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

About the class, Steve said, "It was engaging, enlightening and practical. The teachers discussed everything from the basics of modern argumentation theory to the pragmatics of how to have the first meeting to start their debate teams off. Any teacher interested in improving the quality of critical thought at his or her school would have no trouble finding all the tools to do so in this workshop."

EMU - Cadeiras / Sofas de Exterior

Temos as mais confortaveis cadeiras / sofas de exterior em Ratan Sintetico

Adaptam-se aos mais requintados ambientes, iates, marinas, restaurantes, jardins, etc

Entre no exclusivo e exotico clube dos mais exigentes.

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Stelton - Jarro Termico

Jarro Termico

A Stelton criou um dos mais conhecidos Jarros Termicos

Ganhou um Premio em 1977 atribuido pela Sociedade de Design Industrial Dinamarquesa

Com imuneras cores disponiveis

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Rosendahl - Grand Cru

Moinhos de Especiarias

A Rosendahl possui os Moinhos de Especiarias com melhor design do mercado

O Aroma e o Sabor das Especiarias é conservado só sendo libertado quando moido

O Moinho Grand Cru possui um mecanismo em Ceramica ajustavel de elevada durabilidade e facil limpeza, tem uma Garantia de 25 Anos

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(07.16.08) Recommends:

Not Choosing the 'Format' Option on Your Camera.

Hitting format, it turns out, formats the camera's memory stick. Formatting the camera's memory stick, it turns out, erases everything on the memory stick. See, it's technology. It's all so obvious.

Anyway. In addition to playing around elsewhere in the blogospohere lately, we've also been silent around these parts because everything we heretofore were going to post now no longer exists. Enter: slow, pained, expression. So, what you would have seen, had we not been so Webst2.0pid.

1. A self created photo-tour of the street art of LaBrea Avenue, including all your street art faves -- Shepard Fairey! Banksy! MBW! The band Slayer! (the effing band Slayer!! Not even kidding about that one. Sigh)

2. A video of Albert Hammond Jr. + band performing at Spaceland.

3. Sheaprd Fairey's new Kobe Bryant pieces at Hollywood/Gower.

4. A Fourth of July photo-blogged cookout.

5. A photo-blogging adventure of Mazinga-Z,host of the finest happy hour in Korea Town, if not all of Los Angeles. This place is festooned with comic book wallpaper and robots and full of impossibly beautiful Asian women, at least three of whom will be smoking cigarettes. Indoors. And in blatant contravention of all California laws. Because Mazinga-Z is, apparently, its own sovereign Asian territory.

6. Pictures of Stevie Wonder at the Hollywood Bowl. (doh! doh! doh!)

7. And about 80 other pictures about which I either cannot remember or am repressing from memory.

Man, man, man. Losing lots of pictures, it turns out, is crappy.

Public Forum Debate Workshop Reaches "Hump Day"

Jackie Massey helps a student

It is Wednesday and the five-day Public Forum Debate workshop reaches its mid-point. The program is directed by Jackie Massey and Steve Llano as well as Rhydian Morgan have been helping him.

Jackie Massey, University of Oklahoma
Has qualified teams to elimination rounds at CEDA Nationals and the NDT at every school he has coached at. Has brought Oklahoma from a brand new program to one of the most competitive in just four years. His team was CEDA National Champion in 2007. Specialties include breaking down resolutions to reveal underlying grounds for argument, creation of new frameworks for debate decision-making, getting conservative judges to vote for radical strategies, making debate relevant to a multicultural world and gaining advantages over top teams through innovation.

They have been debating a lot as well as preparing arguments. Tonight, however, they go down to Church Street to visit Ben & Jerry's I stroll among the shops. Then, back to work tomorrow.

Lista de Casamento

Lista de Casamento

Vai Casar e não sabe onde vai fazer a sua Lista de Casamento?

Temos tudo para si e para os seus convidados

Grandes ofertas para os Noivos

Oferecemos a Gravação das Alianças

Entregamos as suas prendas em Casa

Entre muitas outras excelentes Ofertas

Faça Já a sua Lista de Casamento

geral@4udecor.com

Telf: 214 867 378

Cascais / Portugal

Continuing Education Helps Three WDI Programs Roll Smoothly

While the academic portion of the World Debate Institute is organized by professional academics from the University of Vermont and many other schools, the program itself is administered by the Division of Continuing Education at the university. They arrange housing, food, classrooms, copying, library privileges and many other things. They train and employ Resident Assistants who live with the underage students in the dorms. They have a lot to do with why three programs now in session are rolling smoothly.

There are regular meetings of a working group, and the one pictured above happened this morning. The above picture shows many who are involved in the program. A big thanks to one person not in the photo, Janet Nunziata.

The meeting talked about smoothing the departure of current groups and arrival of the next groups, and also spoke glowingly about the current group of students.

Kartell - Bubble

Bubble

Tecnologicamente Evoluido este Sofa é 100% Plastico

Muito Confortavel Sofa de 2 Lugares Espacosos ou Poltrona

As suas Caracteristicas permitem que Resista perfeitamente no exterior sem se danificar

Disponivel em varias cores.

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Zen Moments in the City

This evening, eating ice cream outside near Mel Lastman square, there was a baby falcon sitting on a telephone wire. There were a couple of people taking photos, and one guy told us that this baby had just flown for the first time yesterday. The family of three live atop a highrise at Elmwood (on the small green roof that we could see from the ground). Apparently there are only 74 of these falcons in Ontario, so these three are extremely important. There are all kinds concerned citizens watching out for their well-being. I was too awed to even think of taking a photo of the baby - who was really close - but I did snap a pic of the poppa falcon flying. Please excuse the poor quality as I took it with my cell phone cam.

I feel so lucky to have experienced this!

(07.14.08) Recommends:

Two New Additions to the Blog.

For the past week or so we've been playing around in other areas of the blogosphere. The focus of this blog has always been a bit random, but there seems to be a directional shift in focus over the past several months. We've been wondering if there might be more cohesion to the blog by segregating certain blog topics (e.g., quick, straight-up music recommendations vs. photo-blogging adventures vs. etc) among various blog tools (music blasts to twitter vs. photo-blogging to blogger vs. somehow incorporating tumblr and/or flickr). We're still batting around ideas in our head, and welcome any advice, design or otherwise. Two additions to the blog that we'll quickly mention:

1. First. Twitter at the upper right hand column. As mentioned above, we may use this for short music blasts or for other things too short for a full-length post.

2. Second. You'll notice a new tag, "90068." This tag corresponds to our zip code, and we've added it so our feed will be picked up by outside.in so we can leverage their new GeoToolkit service. Go here for more info on outside.in. We recommend all fellow bloggers who read us to start geo-tagging as well.

Lecture on Debating Nuclear Energy

Lecture delivered by Alfred Snider at the World Schools Debating workshop at the World Debate Institute. The lecture explores the background and the competing arguments about nuclear power as a source for electricity.

Interested in becoming more self-sufficient

but live in an apartment? or don't have time to make that commitment? How about trying self-sufficientish living?

The idea behind self-sufficientish-ism is although many of us would love to live on a farm, grow all our own food, brew pea pod wine, live the 'Good-Life'. Not all of us have the means the space or are perhaps unwilling to give it all up and suffer the highs and lows of going it alone on a smallholding.

Although total self-sufficiency is appealing the thought of giving up the little luxuries in life may not be. I grow a lot of my own food eat wild foods and when I have the money buy organic fruit and vegetables but I still enjoy beer in a pub and like to go to the cinema or eat out occasionally.

Self Sufficientish-ism was created for these reasons. It is for all those who have limited time, space or money but would like to have a go at growing their own food or brewing their own alcohol or want to know which wild foods are good to eat. We also aim to offer advice on a whole host of other subjects from a low-ecological impact perspective.

Benefits include saving money, sustainability, good healthy eating, a chance to play farmer in the city, and it's kinda fun!

You'll find tips like 66 uses for a bread bag, natural pest control, flat dwellers guide to being self-sufficientish, lots of recipes, and how to brew. I want to try making sage and seed bread. mmmm

Via eco worrier

Busy Sunday - Lectures, Debates, Arrivals

While Sunday morning was free at the World Debate Institute, the rest of the day was packed with activity. There were two lectures (one on argumentation and the other on nuclear energy, the next topic) and a full critiqued debate on the topic of banning makeup in middle schools.

There were also arrivals for the Public Forum Debate workshop as well as for the Coach/teacher workshop. Faculty Jackie Massey from Oklahoma and Steve Llano from St. John's arrived.

Here is a video of the argumentation lecture by Rhydian Morgan, always a fascinating speaker.

Moroso - Little Albert

Little Albert

Desenhada por Ron Arad em 2000, estrutura em Aço coberta por Esponja e Poliuretano Injectada. São reconhecidas Mundialmente pelo seu Design. Disponivel em Varias Cores: Preto, Amarelo, Vermelho, Laranja, Branco e Branco Tansparente. Excelentes para Espaços Comerciais, Empresas e mesmo para Sua Casa. Transmitem uma Imagem de Requinte e Elegancia

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Calligaris - Prateleira Seattle

Prateleira Seattle

É uma Peça Unica e Modular permite uma Enorme Variedade de Formas Decorativas consoante a sua Imaginação, por esse facto existem Esquerdas e Direitas.

Disponiveis em diversos Acabamentos.

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Cascais / Portugal