searching for the ineffable
“The Norwegian solar energy adventure continues, with Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) announcing heavy investment in their facility in Telemark.
“REC said that they would be doubling their production capacity of silicon wafers, needed to manufacture solar cell panels, at their Herøya facility in Telemark County in southern Norway.”
I swoon, and once again want to live in that part of the world.
Not that I was ever inclined to go see Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto in the first place, but this Wired blog entry debunks some myths Gibson is trying to perpetuate in this movie with Cold Hard Facts… or history, it’s one of the two. In any case, a reasonably short and very satisfying read.
ETA: ok, I’m reading the many, many comments on that blog entry bashing the author and the review. Somehow, I’m still feeling that sense of satisfaction at Gibson-bashing. He’s been on my $hit-list for a while now. So judge for yourself whether it’s an accurate review, is what I’m saying. :)
Behold what I found googling around tonight: the Digby 23 project at Baylor University. From their home and “About” pages:
The Digby 23 Project is an electronic archive devoted to the study of Oxford Bodleian MS Digby 23. This codex contains two works, copied during the twelfth century and assembled at a later date: Plato’s Timaeus in the Latin translation by Calcidius, and the Old French Chanson de Roland.
[…]
Upon completion, the Digby 23 Project will include:
(1) Detailed XML transcriptions of the Latin and Old French texts (including all marginalia and scribal notes)
[…]
(4) A database for the study of the language, themes, and poetics of the Old French Roland: by adopting a compatible format with the Charrette Project, scholars will be able to explore the similarities and differences between eleventh-century epic and twelfth-century romance;
(5) A detailed critical apparatus for the study of the manuscript.
Please, just try to imagine my glee right now. I just sent an email to the project’s general editor, with a Roland-related question and introduction. We’ll see if she responds; but man, the project is just starting out, and they’re doing (semantically encoded, I’m assuming) themes! I’d love to talk to these folks about Roland, and what themes they see fit to encode.
Ohboyohboyohboy. I feel about ten years old now.
Good morning.
Scary Mary. Hide your children!
Just saw this in Wired: “The Last of a Dying Breed.” The caption is, “What is being lost as technology kills off the Renaissance man? Our souls, perhaps?”
The author-commentator Tony Long sings praises of his friend John, who just passed away (RIP).
John was a dabbler, a sort of Renaissance man, if you will. And you just don’t see a whole lot those around anymore, not in this age of narrowly defined interests. He [had driven a cab, was an artist/painter/sculptor/poet, played guitar and piano, scuba dived, swam competitively, travelled a lot, spoke some languages, was married a bunch].
But he never learned how to use a computer. What’s more, he never had any interest in learning. For John, life existed “out there,” not on a screen. He never owned a cell phone, or any phone, for that matter. Didn’t have a TV. Probably never heard of an iPod. But he was one of the most interesting people I’ve ever known.
I think what made John so interesting, beyond the adventures he had and the great stories he loved to tell, was that there was always momentum to his life. He could make a lot out of a little. His days were full and I’ll wager that, after Viagra came along, his nights were pretty busy, too. He personified the active over the passive.
So, Tony Long isn’t anti-technology, and neither was John, if Viagra came into use.
He was a doer, not a watcher. Which is probably the biggest reason John didn’t care about computers. Yes, they’re efficient and good for business, if business is what you care about. But sitting at a computer when you don’t have to is to be cripplingly passive, even if you’re playing the bloodiest, most maniacal shooter game ever. Sorry, podnah, but that doesn’t make you Billy the Kid. You’re just a couch potato with twitchy fingers.
Er, computers have also changed the nature of our social life, our view of the other side of the world as a bit more accessible, and the kind of information we can get in five minutes’ time to help us pursue our hobbies, whether they be scuba diving, model planes or rock climbing. Networked computing makes things like Burning Man and the Skin project much easier, and allows more people to participate. How’s this killing the Renaissance man?
Society hasn’t changed into a buncha couch potatoes, not any more than it already has been (and I’m talking before TVs, too). Those who want to do, do. And perhaps do more now that they have access to a lot more information.
I’m a bit surprised that this is in Wired. They of all people should know better. Computer != first-person-shooter! Not by anyone’s definition, except, it seems, Tony Long’s.
You know what I’d like? I’d like a piece of OS X software that will pull a black veil over, black out, everything on my screen that’s not the window (of whatever software) I’m looking at. No cluttered desktop, no other windows, nothing. Like WriteRoom but letting me use, say, TextEdit.
And while we’re at it, I’d love the use of a Mac that can run Classic and has it installed.* For a full day, if possible. Anyone reasonably local (Boston-Providence) have access to such and a kind heart? :)
*I’d thought it stopped shipping with OS 10.4, but mindlace says it’s 10.3. So pre-10.3, I guess?
If you know me at all, you know that the senseless, expensive, misguided “war on drugs” is a bit of a hobby-horse of mine. Today I saw streetdrugs.org for the first time, and decided to look at what they say about marijuana.
Why pot? Well, because it is (as streetdrugs say) “the most widely used illegal substance in the world today,” and because it’s a Schedule I drug (rated as dangerous as heroin, and more dangerous than cocaine). Also, because marijuana prohibition has a long political history having to do with disliking immigrants. No, really: go read this FAQ (and its various disclaimers) on Erowid.
Before we go any further, here’s another useful link to an article titled “The top 10 pot studies government wished it had never funded.” Now, to the streetdrugs article about marijuana.
Marijuana is made from the plant cannabis sativa…
Actually, sativa is only one of three species of the cannabis genus that qualify as sources of “marijuana”: sativa, indica and ruderalis.
The plant, cannabis sativa, contains chemicals called “cannabinoids.” THC (delta-9-tetrhydrocannabinol) is the cannabinoid believed to be responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis.
THC can be found in all parts of the cannabis plant, including hemp. This is why hemp is regulated carefully–some hemp products such as clothing, rope, yarn, lotion and soap are legal products because they do not cause THC to enter the human body.
Would be nice if you’d mentioned that the cannabinoids are also produced endogenously in our brains. Not only that: in order to react to any chemical, we have to have a receptor for it, and we certainly do have cannabinoid receptors. Studies of whether we can take advantage of having these receptors by tickling them with THC seem to have promise in many areas of medicine, including treatments of Tourette Syndrome and cancer.
Streetdrugs quoting the DEA:
There are no FDA-approved medications that are smoked. For one thing, smoking is generally a poor way to deliver medicine. It is difficult to administer safe, regulated dosages of medicines in smoked form. Secondly, the harmful chemicals and carcinogens that are byproducts of smoking create entirely new health problems. There are four times the level of tar in a marijuana cigarette, for example, than in a tobacco cigarette.
True enough, about tar. Problems, though: (a) I have never heard of anyone smoking the equivalent of 20+ joints a day, whereas the pack-a-day cigarette habit is quite common; and (b) why doesn’t anyone ever talk about vaporizers in the “mainstream”? THC evaporates at a lower temperature than is needed for combustion – voila, no (or few) bad volatiles.
Streetdrugs quoting NIDA:
Smoking marijuana may increase the risk of cancer more than smoking tobacco. Marijuana smoke contains 50% to 70% more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke. It also produces high levels of an enzyme that converts certain hydrocarbons into their carcinogenic form–levels that may accelerate the canges that ultimately produce malignant cells.
See the link to Ten Studies above. To their credit, Streetdrugs go on to add:
In May 2006, a study was published by UCLA that disputes the claims that marijuana causes lung cancer. To read the press release, click here.
Moving along:
Marijuana is usually smoked in the form of loosely rolled cigarettes called “joints,” hollowed out commercial cigars called “blunts,” smoked in pipes or bongs. Joints and blunts are sometimes laced with a number of adulterants including PCP, cocaine and embalming fluid (a chemical traditionally used to preserve dead bodies)–resulting in a wide range of effects…
You know, you could just say formaldehyde. But whatever. I’ve no idea whether street-purchased marijuana is laced with anything, but somehow I seriously doubt that all those hippies (not to mention the many peoples who used pot way before we were born, we’re talking Biblical times here) would do such a thing. You want to combat drug selling on the streets, fine, but don’t be blaming cannabis for human hubris.
SHORT TERM EFFECTS of marijuana use include impaired short-term memory, impaired concentration, attention, and judgment; impaired coordination and balance, increased heart rate, blood shot or red eyes, dry mouth and increased appetite (the “munchies”).
Fair enough, these are some widely known effects (not all of them necessarily bad, by the way) of ingesting marijuana. But consider this: it’s a plant. It can be bred. Forget human intervention; natural means it mutates. Don’t you think it’s possible that some strains of pot have different effects, like increased concentration? Erowid (link above) lists its classifications as “Intoxicant; Stimulant; Psychedelic; Depressant.” That’s a hell of a range.
LONG TERM EFFECTS of marijuana use include addiction (psychological), paranoia, persistent anxiety, impaired learning skills and memory difficulties.
Kudos – seriously – for not claiming that there’s physical addiction associated with marijuana. As for the rest, particularly learning and memory, see the Tourette’s-treatment link above.
MEDICAL COMPLICATIONS associated with marijuana use include an increased risk of chronic cough, bronchitis, and emphysema; increased risk of cancer of the head, neck, and lungs; a decrease in testosterone levels and lower sperm counts for men and an increase in testosterone levels for women and increased risk of infertility.
Nice, returning to the cancer-risk bogeyman and painting it as a definitive complication even though they themselves linked to the UCLA study. The rest of these aren’t substantiated by Streetdrugs.
More information claimed to be from NIDA:
Within a few minutes after inhaling marijuana smoke, an individual’s heart begins beating more rapidly, the bronchial passages relax and become enlarged, and blood vessels in the eyes expand, making the eyes look red. The heart rate, normally 70 to 80 beats per minute, may increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute or, in some cases, even double. This effect can be greater if other drugs are taken with marijuana.
OK, let’s see. Bronchial passages enlarged… it’s a bronchodilator! I wonder if we can treat asthma with it? Also, I’m assuming the blood-vessel expansion isn’t limited to the eyes (why would it be), and together with an increased heart rate that means better blood flow. Then again, blood vessel dilation is also a “known cause” of headaches (NYTimes article, not freely available so not linking). But is headache listed as one of the effects of smoking pot? No.
Studies show that approximately 6 to 11 percent of fatal accident victims test positive for THC. In many of these cases, alcohol is detected as well. In a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a moderate dose of marijuana alone was shown to impair driving performance; however, the effects of even a low dose of marijuana combined with alcohol were markedly greater than for either drug alone.
“Many of these cases”? How many? And what other substances are found in their bodies? And how many fatal accident victims have nicotine in their blood? What about alcohol (and only alcohol)? “6 to 11 percent” means little if you don’t compare it with other numbers. As for the NHTSA study: a moderate dose vs. a low dose combined with alcohol. What’s wrong with this comparison?
Cancer of the respiratory tract and lungs may also be promoted by marijuana smoke. A study comparing 173 cancer patients and 176 healthy individuals produced strong evidence that smoking marijuana increases the likelihood of developing cancer of the head or neck, and that the more marijuana smoked, the greater the increase. A statistical analysis of the data suggested that marijuana smoking doubled or tripled the risk of these cancers.
Here we go again! OK, I get it. You want me to think that pot smoking causes cancer. This isn’t presenting information, at this point, because (a) you’ve already mentioned cancer, and (b) what study? Where are the findings?
Necessary disclaimers: I Am Not An Expert. I am not contesting the possibility that marijuana smoking may have negative side effects. I am, however, railing against the ubiquitous misinformation about it out there, and severely displeased with how much money has been spent on holding up this straw man. How about closing the doors on the War on Drugz, and instead pouring all that money into real research? Maybe we’ll cure cancer in our lifetime.
I’m so tired of travel.
On Friday I came back from the latest – to Maryland on Tuesday, to give a talk at MITH; and then DC for the Reinvention Center conference. This was my fourth trip in just under two months: the other three were to Nebraska (digital humanities workshop), Fredericton (text-analysis conference) and Chester, Vermont (Readex Digital Institute, which got extensively blogged here). On Tuesday I leave for Chester again, to return on Wednesday after a meeting. This is the blessed last trip for the foreseeable future.
Don’t get me wrong: all the events I went to have been fabulous (see below), and I’m looking forward to going back to Readex. But – and I’ve known this from the start – this is too much travel right now.
The talk at MITH went well. I guess the crowd was a bit diminished compared to their usual; it was election day, and there was a Human-Computer Interaction event precisely coinciding with my talk. Nevertheless, it was a good group, and boy, they really mean it when they call these things “Digital Dialogues.” They jumped right in about five minutes into my talk, and the lively conversation didn’t stop for the next hour and a half or so. I showed the Virtual Humanities Lab and we talked about collaboration, its logistical issues and benefits-vs-drawbacks and ways in which VHL can be made a more friendly collaboration environment. It was great to receive feedback from people not only interested, but way more knowledgeable about the state of the field. It felt easy to be there; they’ve created a great atmosphere both for conversation and for work.
Wednesday I took advantage of MITH’s generous offer to use their “coffeehouse” space for work. That evening I found myself at the downtown Washington hotel where the Reinvention Center conference was to take place in the next two days.
I’ve a ton of notes from that conference. I only got to go because my dissertation director was leading one of the sessions, and asked me to be his session recorder; this way the Center gives a few grad students the opportunity to see what’s going on in research universities around the country, while at the same time getting young’uns to more or less write the proceedings. A more than fair price, I must say.
So I’d been reasonably interested in the conference, but had no idea how useful it would be and how much new information I would get that will be applicable in my near-future work. For one thing, I saw the largest concentration of high-level university administrators that I’ve ever seen before. Not sure what the ratio of administrators (and staff, like librarians) to faculty was, but it felt something like 2:1 or maybe even 3:1, and perhaps 300 people in attendance. (I may be wildly off here. It’s just an estimate.) I’ll have to go over my notes later and perhaps write it up here, if I get to it.
If I get to it. Friday I came back; and yesterday my adored husband took me out for a romantic evening out that stretched well into this morning. I had no idea what we were doing; turned out, we were going to an Ani DiFranco concert. Well, holy shit: I hadn’t been to a concert in a long, long time, and had only seen Ani in concert once. It was a treat. Not only does she rock the the house, but she is touring while quite pregnant, and her happiness with where she is and what she’s doing could be felt all the way at the back bar where we were standing. She had with her a stand-up-bassist and a percussionist with a xylophone and a steel drum and a bunch of other unusual rhythm instruments. Beautiful sound, mostly good crowd, amazing energy.
Then we reconnected over dinner and conversation and general dalliance. This past summer, going into early fall, was difficult for both of us. We both had to reduce and eventually stop taking anti-depressants: welcome to U.S. health care, which left us scrambling for two months (three in Ethan’s case). In the fall we both dove into new work, and have been trying to catch up with each other ever since. Last evening (orchestrated in part by a kind friend – many thanks!) was a badly needed one.
And now… now there’s more work. The final VHL report to the NEH is due at the end of the month. My write-up of our session at the Reinvention Center conference is due at the same time. I’ve got a job app to send out tomorrow, blessedly almost done but still on the to-do list. Tuesday-Wednesday there’s the trip, and my next task for the dissertation is the transcription and encoding of around 600 lines of poetry. Then there’s another fellowship app to get together.
And then there’s the social life, without which Vika gets to be a dull and sad girl. Tonight we were treated by our fabulous housemate to Marie Antoinette the movie, which had an unexpected soundtrack (Aphex Twin!) and was generally not half bad. Monday (tomorrow!) we have a friend visiting. Haven’t seen her in a long long time, so I’m really looking forward to it, and to the inevitable good food associated with the visit.
So what do I do? Instead of getting some sleep I write a long blog entry. Ah well, at least now I have a de facto to do list. There’s more to write about – details of the movie, Sean McMullen’s The Miocene Arrow which I’m enjoying these days, my relationship with the uncertainties of life after May, various anxieties about whether I’ll finish the dissertation in time. But all these can wait. Good night now.
Meant to write a mini-news-update on Denmark and Norway, who’ve had a particularly productive news day today. Behold:
Denmark leads social justice rankings, says a German think tank. *wistful sigh* Color me transplant-wannabe, and that’s just the first link.
Over 7000 Swedes commute to Denmark daily for work, and a new EU directive may relieve the tax burden on Danish employers, who at the moment are technically supposed to pay a sizeable chunk of cash in taxes to the Swedish government in addition to what they already pay to the Danish one. I’m not sure how it is that Sweden wins, here; it’s likely to be a touch-and-go process. But if they do succeed in working something out to everyone’s benefit, great.
Denmark, the brand name. They’re putting forth a serious effort to promote their country, presumably to drum up tourism and improve the country’s image (as if it needs to be improved, much). Go go Denmark gadget; given funds availability, I’d go there again in a heartbeat. Then again, see transplant above.
Compare and contrast to Norway, whose chief profits are still coing from oil. From conversations with Jill a few years ago, Norway at least seems to be going about oil production more responsibly than most other countries that have access to this resource.
“High consumption lands Norway among world’s worst: Norway, which generally prides itself on maintaining high environmental standards, seems to actually be using way more than it should of the world’s natural resources.” Oh yeah, Norway? Well, the good ol’ USA is second in the worst-offenders list, compared to your paltry 11th! We sure showed you!
Oy.
Finally, the young Norwegian who cracked DVD protection a few years ago claims to have done the same with the dread iTunes/iPod combo. “Johansen claims he’s mastered the inner workings of the iPod and its FairPlay encryption technology, allowing him to remove many of the restrictions Apple places on its users. Today, songs purchased from Apple’s iTunes store can’t be played on non-iPod devices, and, if you’ve bought songs from other music stores, the chances are you won’t be able to play them on the iPod either since they use a form of copy protection that Apple doesn’t support. […] Johansen’s driving force is his belief that users have the right to listen to songs they have bought legally on any device they own. […] Unlocking the iPod-iTunes ecosystem is seen by many as a good thing for consumers, as it will most likely result in increased competition to the iTunes Store, possibly resulting in lower prices and a higher quality service.” No particular comment here, except that I’m pleased: the iTunes/iPod black box has gotten on my nerves more than once.
Top 10 Pot Studies Government Wished It Had Never Funded.
That’s excellent. Now I can point people to one handy link when they start spouting bullshit about marijuana use, users, function as a Gateway Drug ™, etc. without actually knowing anything about its socio-political history.
