Feelings by Morris Albert

art

Standard Loneliness Package by Charles Yu

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Charlie Kaufman

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

commerce

Affective Labour, Pret a Manger and the political economy of post-recession England by Paul Myerscough

AKB48 member’s ‘penance’ shows flaws in idol culture

Private Dancer by Tina Turner

Beautiful Agony by Richard Lawrence and Lauren Olney

science

Humors

Oxytocin increases trust in humans by Michael Kosfeld, Markus Heinrichs, Paul J. Zak, Urs Fischbacher and Ernst Fehr

Professional sociopath Rush Limbaugh admits to OxyContin use

Scientology by Lawrence Wright:

To advance such lofty goals, Hubbard developed a “technology” to attain spiritual freedom and discover oneself as an immortal being. “Scientology works 100 percent of the time when it is properly applied to a person who sincerely desires to improve his life,” a church publication declares. This guarantee rests on the assumption that through rigorous research, Hubbard had uncovered a perfect understanding of human nature. One must not stray from the path he has laid down or question his methods. Scientology is exact. Scientology is certain. Step by step one can ascend toward clarity and power, becoming more oneself—but, paradoxically, also more like Hubbard. Scientology is the geography of his mind. Perhaps no individual in history has taken such copious internal soundings and described with so much logic and minute detail the inner workings of his own mentality. The method Hubbard put forward created a road map toward his own ideal self. Hubbard’s habits, his imagination, his goals and wishes—his character, in other words—became both the basis and the destination of Scientology.

Technologies of Self by Michel Foucault:

My objective for more than twenty-five years has been to sketch out a history of the different ways in our culture that humans develop knowledge about themselves: economics, biology, psychiatry, medicine, and penology. The main point is not to accept this knowledge at face value but to analyze these so-called sciences as very specific “truth games” related to specific techniques that human beings use to understand themselves.

As a context, we must understand that there are four major types of these “technologies,” each a matrix of practical reason: (I) technologies of production, which permit us to produce, transform, or manipulate things; (2) technologies of sign systems, which permit us to use signs, meanings, symbols, or signification; (3) technologies of power, which determine the conduct of individuals and submit them to certain ends or domination, an objectivizing of the subject; (4) technologies of the self, which permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform I themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.

Science and History of Treating Depression

An antidepressant like Paxil or Prozac, these new studies suggest, is most likely not acting as a passive signal-strengthener. It does not, as previously suspected, simply increase serotonin or send more current down a brain’s mood-maintaining wire. Rather, it appears to change the wiring itself.

Yet though the role of the House of Lords was historically conservative and reactionary, and thus an easy target for criticism, the argument in our previous book, Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, suggests that it may have also played a useful role: in the sense that the House of Lords had the veto power against very radical redistributive programs may have made British elites more secure that the new democracy would not threaten their interests too much, and thus more accommodating to democratization at first and the rise of the Labour Party later.

prevously and elsewhere

TO THE HYPHENATED POETS

Richer than mother’s milk
is half-and-half
Friends of two minds,
redouble your craft.

Our shelves our hives, our selves
a royal jelly,
may we at Benares and Boston,
Philly and Delhi

collect our birthright nectar.
No swarm our own,
we must be industrious, both
queen and drone.

Being two beings requires
a rage for rigor
rewritable memory,
hybrid vigor.

English herself is a crossbreed
mother mutt,
primly promiscuous
and hot to rut.

Oneness? Pure chimera.
Splendor is spliced.
Make your halves into something
twice your size,

your tongue a hyphen joining
nation to nation.
Recombine, become a thing
of your own creation,

a many-minded mongrel,
the line’s renewal,
self-made and twofold,
soul and dual.

–Amit Majmudar

As Noel Perrin wrote in Giving Up the Gun: Japan’s Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879, cultures can change their violent ways, but building such a cultural consensus takes more effort and persuasion that just passing new gun-control laws.

Yes, but passing new gun-control legislation does a great deal to advance that cultural consensus. By defining guns – and some more than others – as dangerous and problematic, we impact cultural norms as well as individual behavior. Laws not only exist to punish law-breakers but to inspire the law-abiding; they provide a template for how we want to live.

Yes, the movie Prometheus is about creation, but, like its predecessors, its strongest when the creation being interrogated is literal, carnal. The Engineers are decorative, alabaster figures carved into the exterior of a vessel for serving up black goo. Its strongest theological argument is ontological.

I wonder if, say for the final season of Mad Men, AMC’s clients could be talked into having their creative redone to match the time period depicted in the series. (For example, the early 1970s.) Would it make those spots all the more talked about, noticed, viral?

Spanish tapas are said to have been invented in the 13th century when the Spanish king Alfonso X The Wise required that all bars serve a plate of cold cuts along with every glass of wine. (The word “tapas” means “covers” as in a small plate of food which covers the glass of alcohol with which it is consumed.)

Alfonso’s alleged goal was public health: preventing the over-intoxication of workers who might otherwise go drinking on an empty stomach – and/or preventing insects from entering cups, etc. In other words, the evolution of one of the world’s best foods (cf. El Bulli) might be traced back to a law which regulates the consumption of drugs. (i.e., Alfonsocare.)

Whether apocryphal or not, the fact that this story endures suggests it has resonated for many generations of Spaniards. That the story is older than the Council of Trent makes it not unlike religious teachings: it is true enough.

In Spain, at least, laws that regulate commerce have fostered innovation and improved public health. Libertarians are right to point out the idiocy of laws that impede innovation in the marketplace. But they’re foolish to insist that all laws do so.

Television sets often determine the layout of the furniture in communal rooms. Their position in the typical American home is a clear testament to their social function, a purpose that can be traced back to the origins of theater and other communal rituals.

Television programmers have always been involved in family and/or group dynamics. Successful programmers must not only persuade individual viewers to watch a show, they must also win over the viewer’s family and/or co-habitants. (This network often extends to peers and friends but it’s unlikely to exclude the home.)

This inherently social context is not solely a function of the linearity of traditional television – the fact that it is distributed at set times with an emphasis on those times when most viewers are available (i.e., “prime time.”)

Non-linear or video on demand is also, in its own way, a very social practice. In order for a “web video” to become popular, it must be shared by its viewers. Thus, even though such programs are often consumed by a solitary individual on a personal device (computer, tablet, smart phone), they are still dependent on group dynamics for their success.

Thus, whether programming a linear or non-linear channel, the programmer must consider the social role of the experience – how it will be presented by one viewer to another, how it will impact their relationships, how it will be used – for it to reach its maximal audience.

in the actor-spectator relationship, both participants experience self-knowledge by “trading places” with another person.

for the actor, self-knowledge is gained by looking inward, as if into a mirror. the actor is trained to master her own mind and body so that she may produce the gestures and voice that convey another person. the better the actor is at playing someone else, the more in control she must be of her own mind and body.

for the spectator, self-knowledge is gained by looking out at someone else, as if through a window. the spectator hopes to be transported elsewhere: into another room, seeing the world through another person’s eyes.

this experience of being somewhere and someone else would be incomplete if it did not come to an end. the spectator expects to be returned feeling refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated. the more enjoyable the show, the more the spectator has come to recognize, albeit unconsciously, something about themselves.

the drama has to “hit home”. the joke has to be “so true” it’s funny. the elaborate plot has to, ultimately, “make sense”.

in a successful actor-spectator exchange, none of the participants are fully “there” – each is someone, somewhere else. the person most present has been conjured, as if by a seance.

It may be tempting for companies with unpopular products to cut costs in order to hide a shrinking or flat market share. This is cost management as denial.

A free marketplace does not forgive companies that fail to produce better products. Time and again, consumers have rejected the more affordable product for one they perceive to be better. (Before Starbucks, who paid $3 for a cup of coffee?)

Cost management helps companies with already successful products increase market share.

Take Apple. First, they create a must-have product that does not compete on price. Then they make it cheaper so that more people can buy it. This approach has made them the most profitable in their sector.

This is cost management as an accelerant.

So, does the inverse hold: do bad companies fire more employees, more often?

This may be a matter of correlation, not causation. Also, perhaps, this has already been investigated by economists.

From the standpoint of the psychology of authorship, it is noteworthy that keeping notebooks is in itself a kind of tradition among litterateurs. A commonplace book of literary memoranda may serve as a symbol to the keeper, therefore, of the person’s literary identity (or something psychologically not far-removed), quite apart from its obvious value as a written record. That commonplace books (and other personal note-books) can enjoy this special status is supported by the fact that authors frequently treat their notebooks as quasi-works, giving them elaborate titles, compiling them neatly from rough notes, recompiling still neater revisions of them later, and preserving them with a special devotion and care that seems out of proportion to their apparent function as working materials.

The writing being performed via collecting is thus somewhat unconscious; the sum greater than its parts.

In our age, visual communication is as commonplace as literacy. Thus, for at least the last century, scrapbooks have consisted of both clever phrases and the equally smart typography in which they are set, of notions of selfhood as well as the fashion with which these identities are performed.

Tumblr circa 1912

Recent tools like Ffffound, Tumblr, Polyvore and Pinterest not only facilitate the practice of collecting but, also, transform this once personal process into both a performance and/or a collaborative process.

before

The frontier – the unsettled terrain – is thus not just an economic and political prize but also, importantly, a stage for intellectual and spiritual advancement. To travel to distant lands is to make the world known.

after

The system which emerges, beginning with the colonization of the Americas and ending with the Cold War, is the largest cosmos to date; so ubiquitous, it is capable of viewing itself from orbit.

hello, world

A new self-image, a more unified self is the destination of every figurative voyage. Thus, the lore of the traveler is that of self-discovery. In such representations, any vessel is a means to a psychological end.

hello, ego

The more perfect vessels offer us shortcuts by becoming mirrors. Such reflective ships move the traveler, inwardly. To a world always in creation, one that can never be fully known.

2) Pintxos tacos: Northern Spain. e.g., tacos de pulpo con papa or tacos de bacalao. Anchoas.

Few movies so deftly tackle this whodunnit as well as Blue Valentine. Using the techniques of a mystery – the withholding of information, presenting events out of sequence, framing characters as suspects – it offers an honest account of romance; the falling in and out of love.

Perhaps, all love stories are mysteries, filled with ambivalences, contradictory accounts and unknown motives. For what is love but a suspense: the suspension of doubt, of self and even of reason as the distinct perspectives of two people merge together, drift apart and, sometimes, reunite.

As in Julio Cortazar’s novel Hopscotch:

You look at me, you look at me closely, each time closer and then we play cyclops, we look at each other closer each time and our eyes grow, they grow closer, they overlap and the cyclops look at each other…

The questions come later because they were always already there.

Related: Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together.

Catholics who do not accept the phony argument over contraception are said to be “going against the teachings of their church.” That is nonsense. They are their church. The Second Vatican Council defines the church as “the people of God.” Thinking that the pope is the church is a relic of the days when a monarch was said to be his realm. The king was “Denmark.” Catholics have long realized that their own grasp of certain things, especially sex, has a validity that is lost on the celibate male hierarchy. This is particularly true where celibacy is concerned.

Thus, by far the most important political role of sham elections during the past dozen years has been the way they have allowed Putin to display his capacity for manipulating them in an orderly and predictable way and thereby, paradoxically, to demonstrate his authoritarian credentials. Rigged elections, known to be rigged, are the cheapest and easiest way for the regime to mimic the authoritarian power it does not actually possess and thereby to bolster its faltering grip on the country, or at least give itself more breathing room. It takes only modest administrative capacity to rig an election; but a rigged election produces a disproportionate increase in the government’s reputation for power and control. Organizing a pseudo-election is like wearing sheep’s clothing to prove that you are a wolf. Non-competitive, Soviet-style elections simulate a centralized power that Putin’s Kremlin spectacularly lacks. In a sense, fixed elections serve the same function as Red Square parades after the collapse of Russia’s military strength: they allow the regime to thump its chest, even if many of the missiles turn out, on closer inspection, to be duds.

via The Browser

The plot is achingly simple: Kelli is a reservist who returns from war, loses her way, then her job, her car, her husband, her children and finally her freedom.

Why do these bad things happen to her? Time and again, Kelli is asked if something happened to her while she was at war. Each time she declines an easy answer, noting that nothing special happened to her over there. She has no story that would make sense of her confusion, her misfortunes or her increasingly reckless behavior.

And that’s the brilliant conceit of the movie: Kelli isn’t the only one who lacks a war story, it’s everyone around her – the audience included – who want for an explanation.

Through Kelli’s search for meaning, Johnson reminds us of the gaping holes in our grand narratives, from the missing weapons of mass destruction to the alleged benefits of creative destruction.

That the movie, like its protagonist, declines to provide an explanation for the circumstances that afflict its protagonists is to Johnson’s credit: that responsibility lies with us and the policies we support.

Their imagined community is obsolete to an increasingly multiracial, multicultural and anti-heterosexist majority. Quite simply, the numbers do not support their story of self. (Not that they ever did.)

Meanwhile, this ruling minority are also experiencing a crisis of faith, as their religion, high finance, keeps failing to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Thus, perhaps, a great deal of panic. From Wall Street to Main Street and back.

But viruses are more than a MacGuffin, they’re the intersection between the organic and the inorganic, between that which lives and that which exists. Viruses may be responsible for some of the biggest upheavals in human history and they continue to impact human behavior in ways that undermine our identity.

Consider Kathleen McAuliffe on T. gondii and more:

But T. gondii is just one of an untold number of infectious agents that prey on us. And if the rest of the animal kingdom is anything to go by, says Colorado State University’s Janice Moore, plenty of them may be capable of tinkering with our minds. For example, she and Chris Reiber, a biomedical anthropologist at Binghamton University, in New York, strongly suspected that the flu virus might boost our desire to socialize. Why? Because it spreads through close physical contact, often before symptoms emerge—meaning that it must find a new host quickly. To explore this hunch, Moore and Reiber tracked 36 subjects who received a flu vaccine, reasoning that it contains many of the same chemical components as the live virus and would thus cause the subjects’ immune systems to react as if they’d encountered the real pathogen.

The difference in the subjects’ behavior before and after vaccination was pronounced: the flu shot had the effect of nearly doubling the number of people with whom the participants came in close contact during the brief window when the live virus was maximally contagious. “People who had very limited or simple social lives were suddenly deciding that they needed to go out to bars or parties, or invite a bunch of people over,” says Reiber. “This happened with lots of our subjects. It wasn’t just one or two outliers.”

More, previously.

perhaps, by believing, however remotely, that one is in the company of the very food we are consuming.

What’s crackin!       Wassup, bro!!!!!

Hey pal, can I join you?

Clemente arrived to interrogate the suspect, a handcuffed middle-aged man named Zaid, and underneath a napkin on the table, he found a small device, the size of a brick, with a hand crank and wires with alligator clips at the ends. Clemente shut down the interrogation, took Omar for a walk.

“Is that how you do police work?”

“Of course. We torture them.”

“Don’t you try to figure out what they are doing first, and who they work for?” Clemente asked.

Omar said, “No, why should I? This guy is a terrorist — he was going to blow up people.”

“We can flip him,” Clemente said. “Let me talk to him.”

Back in the room, he uncuffed the man. “Zaid, did Al Qaeda pay you to bury the bomb?”

“Yes.”

“How much?”

“$150.”

“Do you have a job?”

“No.”

Clemente pulled out a photo of his children. “I have eight children,” he said, “and if my kids were starving, I would do anything to put food on the table.” Clemente put a hand on Zaid’s shoulder.

“What if I could pay you more money to not make bombs?” Clemente had convinced the FBI to give him plenty of cash to pay informants to make his plan work. Zaid took a breath. Omar gazed at him intently.

“I’ll pay you to tell us whenever you see bad men planning or doing bad things.”

Finally, Zaid said, “How much can you pay?”

Clemente looked at Omar. Bingo.

The findings at Göbleki Tepe suggest that we have the story backward—that it was actually the need to build a scared site that first obliged hunter-gatherers to organize themselves as a workforce, to spend long periods in one place, to secure a stable food supply, and eventually to invent agriculture.

Exhibit A: The Firearms Philosophy of Ivan Chesnokov

I didn’t know I had any desire to learn about firearms until I stumbled on this collection of satirical forum posts penned in the style of a Soviet-era Russian who speaks ENTIRELY IN ALL CAPS:

MAN WHO ARGUES ONE SHOT DEATH BY PROUD MILITARY CALIBERS IS FUCKING FOOL. I EXPLAIN WHY.

THIS MAN LOOKS FOR PISTOL TO HIDE ON PERSON TO SHOOT MAN FROM STREET WHO WOULD DO CRIME TO HIM. MAN WHO WOULD DO CRIME IS NOT LIKE BANZAI CHARGE OF JAPANESE INFANTRY. HE IS NOT IN “GROUND OF DEATH” FROM EPISTLE OF WISE SUN TZU. MAN WHO WOULD DO CRIME IS NOT FIGHTING FOR LIFE OR FREEDOM OF PEOPLE. HE FIGHT ONLY FOR THINGS, HE CAN GET SOMEWHERE ELSE FROM SOMEONE ELSE. THIS MAN DOES NOT FIGHT TO DEATH. THIS MAN FIGHT ONLY UNTIL IS CLEAR MAN WITH PISTOL RESISTS AND SO HE RUN AWAY.

PISTOL OF 9 MILLIMETERS OR CALIBER OF .45 IS GREAT SHOCKING HOLE IN BODY. IS GIANT SPOUT OF BLOOD AND PAIN OF MORTAL WOUND. MORE MEN DIE FROM BULLET OF THESE TWO CALIBERS THAN ALL OTHERS IN HISTORY OF WORLD.

I ADVISE AND YOU LISTEN. LAST TIME ARMY CARRY BAD PISTOL INTO COMBAT WAS NAMBU OF JAPANESE EMPIRE. SINCE THAT TIME MILLIONS OF MEN CARRY PISTOL OF 9 MILLIMETERS. IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM WITH STUPID GENEVA TREATY BALL BULLET. IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU WITH TEN ROUBLES PER CARTRIDGE HOLLOW NOSE BULLET AND FANCY BRASS OF NICKEL PLATING. YOU PRACTICE WITH MANY MAGAZINE, YOU CARRY MANY CARTRIDGE. WHEN MAN WAVES GUN AT YOU, FILL HIM WITH BULLETS FAST AND STRAIGHT. MORE HOLES IS BETTER THAN BIG HOLES. CARRY PISTOL WITH LARGE MAGAZINE AND MANY CARTRIDGE.

IN THIS WAY YOU DEFEAT CRIMINAL.

Poetry. Worth a read.

Chadwick relates the story of a wolverine kit that perished during its first winter. Researchers later found the tiny body in a depression scraped from the ground, and covered with pieces of wood chewed from a nearby log. It was, in the words of the researcher, undoubtedly a wolverine burial site.

Take, for example, the war in Iraq. When the war broke out, North Korean newspapers would report: “Iraqi army is bravely battling against America’s imperial army, downing two fighter jets and five missiles.” With this report, North Korean people would think: “Ah, there is a war in Iraq. There would have been a lot of fighter jets, and they only got two. They have no chance — America would win pretty soon.” And in fact, the reports on the exploits of the Iraqi military would decrease over time, and then completely disappear from Rodong Shinmun. Then the people would think: “Iraq is losing the war.” Some time later, upon seeing the reports that say “Iraqi patriots are bombing the American military base in Baghdad,” North Korean people would think: “So Iraq is now under American rule.”

previously: why are there newspapers in north korea?

recently, i went to check out one of the most expensive high tech gadgets you can buy: a new car. 

perhaps, our experience was atypical. but I suspect not given the larger transition underway in the auto industry.

at one dealership, only a single dealer – out of say 10 – knew about the model we were after. and that dealer wasn’t in.  

at another dealership, two sales reps traded rough words almost within earshot of us while discussing which of them was allowed to show us the car we wanted to see.

can you imagine going into an Apple store and finding nine sales associates who know all about iPhones but nothing about a MacBook? Or striking up a conversation with a sales person only to see them get into it with another one about which products they’re allowed to demo?

i understand that commissions are at the heart of the auto sales business. but do they need to be?

could a  bonus for which dealership has the best customer service drive more sales across the board? could a higher baseline salary produce a more democratic and a more collegial work place where everyone knows the products and everyone can sell the products?

consumers are already changing the way they shop by going to web sites to research big ticket purchases. a more informed consumer will expect a more informative salesperson. and a more integrated sales experience, from vehicle maker web site to dealership, could benefit all involved – not just the consumer.

for example, if the car marker’s web site encourages potential buyers to schedule an appointment to see the vehicle in person, rather than dropping by without warning, the dealership could hire fewer warm bodies and focus only on retaining the superstars. such a referral process could even generate helpful leads.

a differently trained sales team could also bubble up important consumer insights to the engineering and marketing teams. after all, who better to capture the “deal breakers” than the deal makers?

update like so.

The Moral Majority was just entering its apex and small town America was a pop cultural phenomenon (months after Footloose was released, Farm Aid hit the air and Small Town reached #6). There was also, generally, lots of dancing in the streets.

Fast forward to 2011 and covens of sexy but celibate vampires play a bigger role in the popular imagining of white adolescence than uptight congregations. So while Footloose (2011) had no problems putting butts in seats, I don’t think anyone – not even its makers – believes it put its fingers on the pulse of young Americans.

And, yet, if the 2011 retelling had been set in a city like a Salinas, CA (pop. 150,000, 75% Latino, 40% under 18) it could have represented a community at the crossroads: teeming with young kids rebelling against their hick parents, caught up in a mess of gangs, a shitty economy, starved government, fire and brimstone preachers, and a dance trend that combines (Mexican) country with techno.

What RSS promised, Facebook delivered: easy to use, personalized news. There’s tremendous canny in shortening “subscribe” to “like”.

revised

Glass Milk Half Pint Creamer

Olive, El Bulli

Soy Darks

The cast of Jersey Shore Italy

korean tacos

War: Cisco Kid (YouTube) 1972

Steely Dan: Do It Again (YouTube) 1972

Malo: Suavecito (YouTube) 1972

Santana: Evil Ways (YouTube) 1969

La Surtidora Abarrotera Mercantil “Julio Gabriel Verne” is the old-timey sounding name of a new restaurant which serves the most traditional and basic Mexican dishes as they are meant to be experienced: in the present.

It is, not surprisingly, located in Mexico.

While its quirky name and spare decor are just as affected as that of a restaurant named after a colonial-era landmark and decorated with hand-wrought ironwork, the social and political implications of its affectations are very different.

We use the word “nostalgia” to refer to a temporal longing – the desire to go back in time – but the root of “nostalgia” means literally a pain for returning home; from whence we came. It is an understandable desire: to undo the passage of time is to escape our certain fate: change, death.

Life is thus a journey away from our origins, away from sameness, towards difference and disruption. As much as we may want to end up where we began (an odyssey) the very journey transforms us – just as entropy and others will have transformed whence we came.

People have many reasons for becoming a steward of tradition – whether by preserving a recipe or a relic – but such traditionalism does a disservice to the very roots it seeks to preserve when it denies them a chance to grow, branch out and bloom anew.

Many religions offer the promise of a supreme and perfectly fair authority. Such an eternal and just arbiter offers relief for people who live daily under unjust, biased and/or inhumane authorities.

Consider who is keeping Christianity and/or Catholicism alive in many parts of the United States. Undocumented migrants live in terror of being seized and punished solely for wanting to work in a productive economy and to raise their children in a safe society. They are like other groups around the world, in the Middle East, in Africa, in Pakistan, who turn to religion to restore their faith in a just order.

Rather than sating their thirst for justice, such a faith must also whet it. Perhaps, they take religion seriously because it takes seriously the matter of justice. Some religious citizens could thus be motivated to participate in a coalition that addresses the glaring injustices in civil society.

For example, those bringing light to the plight of the 99% might consider using posters that remind TV viewers that the Christian God expects more from the 1 percent than largesse. Something about camels being passed through the eye of a needle. Or about being generous when you yourself have received the generosity of others.