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POPSWhat international marketing is doing to contemporary fictionby
enbar Yesterday 9:24 AM Good piece by Tim Parks on how the need for English-language success is gradually sapping the distinctiveness of local literary traditions and substituting a kind of vaguely liberal aesthetic posturing for real literary creativity. I have been bothered by this for some time -- I think you see this pseudo-postmodern sensibility in English-language authors too, like Yann Martel, Zadie Smith, Angela Carter, and even T.C. Boyle. But postmodernism isn't the problem -- think Italo Calvino. And on the other hand, we still have talents like Jhumpa Lahiri writing in a related "global" idiom.
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POPSDid you know you're not allowed to say Moleskine on the web without permission? Wow, Moleskine sure has a lot of rules about what you can and can't do with the word "Moleskine" on the web. Examples: you cannot use it generically or as an adjective, you must include the (registered trademark) symbol, and any page referencing the Moleskine name must include the disclaimer, "MOLESKINE is a trademark registered by Moleskine S.r.l." Also, technically, you must have the company's permission, though the implication seems to be that they will not prosecute you if you follow the listed guidelines. Is this kind of thing common?
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POPSDeath by ennui. Yes, really In a 25-year longitudinal study, researchers found that people who complained of boredom were significantly more likely (two and a half times as likely, to be exact) to die of heart disease or stroke than others. Not too shocking, I guess, seeing as how it's not hard to imagine boredom correlating with lots of unhealthy lifestyles and habits (drinking, overeating, etc.).
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POPSScience confirms it: driving a Porsche really does make you more of a man A creative and elegant study has found that for men, driving a Porsche (and presumably other high-end, powerful vehicles) increases your testosterone levels, even -- and here's the kicker -- if no one ever sees you drive it. That means it's hard-wired, not just a "social construct." (That's what this author says, anyhow, though it's not obvious to me that that's the only explanation.) The post then goes on to say, interestingly, that this is going to be a big problem for auto designers of the future who want to be environmentally responsible, because, presumably, environmentally responsible cars aren't sexy. They'll have to "figure out how to make hybrid and electric cars cool." As in, like, raise-your-testosterone-level cool. My question is, why? Is the post implying that if electric cars don't get sexier, then we'll just continue to destroy the environment? Are those really the only two options?
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POPSListening in on the everyday lives of jihadis Thomas Bartlett, "Before Martyrdom, Breakfast," The Chronicle of Higher Education (Jan. 24, 2010). On the research of Flagg Miller, a linguistic anthropologist who has been studying a cache of audiotapes that reveal something about the day-to-day life of jihadis in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As an example, the article relates a conversation involving a veteran militant Abu Hamza, which veers from how to fry eggs on a camp stove, to wet dreams, to "the rivers of paradise."
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POPSAn eyewitness description of Blackwater's Nisoor Square shootings (Sept. 2007) The father of a nine-year-old boy, Ali Kinani, killed by Blackwater employees in September 2007 in what was apparently an unprovoked massacre of unarmed civilians, is now suing the Blackwater employees he thinks were responsible. This article provides a rundown of some of the currently available information, including Kinani's own eyewitness account of the incident. It makes pretty harrowing reading. The federal lawsuit against Blackwater was recently dismissed; the company attempted to settle with Kinani in the matter of his son's death for $20,000. (One official remarked that it was important to keep the settlements low, because otherwise Iraqis might try "to get killed by our guys to financially guarantee their family's future.")
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POPSCandidate for SC governor: helping the poor is like "feeding stray animals" This is current SC Lt. Gov. André Bauer, who is campaigning for the Republican nomination for governor (to take over Mark Sanford's seat). His astute powers of observation have also revealed that "free and reduced lunch" schools correlate with low test scores. Stop the presses! News flash! Politician discovers that poor kids perform poorly on standardized tests! Who could have guessed it? Bauer's apparent solution to poverty: take away their free lunches, and these kids will suddenly start testing better.
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POPSSatan to Pat Robertson: "You're making me look bad" I've been trying not to pay too much attention to Pat Robertson and his shenanigans, but this letter to him, written by Satan himself (channeled by a reader of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and sent to the paper's editors) is too good not to post.
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POPSThink Buddhists are all peaceniks? Think again. A new collection of academic studies reveals a strong strain of violence and militancy that runs through the world's historically Buddhist cultures. So -- it's not all about "present moment, wonderful moment" after all, I guess.
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POPSStudy suggests that most "real" news stories still originate at traditional news outlets This is pretty much what I've always thought. People say that traditional journalism and "old media" are dying. Maybe, sure, for economic reasons. People also say "you can get all your news online now." But what does that mean? You can get your news from blogs. Okay, but where are bloggers getting their news? Mostly from other bloggers. Well, if you trace all those links all the way back to the source, you usually wind up at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, a major TV network, or some other "old media" source. Someone still has to pay reporters to actually go out there and collect the news. It doesn't just materialize out of thin air. Once the newspapers and beat reporters are gone, do you think Matt Drudge is going to start going to press conferences?
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POPSA remarkably bitter take on the "top ten stories of the last decade" -- in short, we're hosed The last paragraph is worth quoting in full: "The meaninglessness of elections: This is the most embittering revelation of all. Despite the greatest electoral majority since Johnson crushed Goldwater in '64, Obama has betrayed everything he ran on. In every case where he had the opportunity to confront power " in financial bailouts, financial regulation, health care, wars and military spending, utilities and global warming, national surveillance " Obama has sided with the rich and powerful against the interests of the American people. He has probably engendered more cynicism, more disaffection with government than any president since Richard Nixon. It will deal a staggering blow to the hopes of mobilizing masses of people again for a real takeback of government. And he's not even one year into it."
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POPSEating healthfully can increase your food bill tenfold, says Ag Dept. study More evidence that overhauling the U.S. health insurance system is only a small step towards making Americans healthier. If, as the study's authors conclude, " resh vegetables and fruits are rapidly becoming luxury goods" (since their prices are most strongly influenced by inflation), then we have a structural nutritional problem built into our food system. This piece is from March 2008.
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POPS"Want to save marriage? Ban divorce," by Candace Chellew-Hodge (@revtheodyke) A good, short opinion piece by Candace Chellew-Hodge (@revtheodyke) on John Marcotte's effort to get a new, Proposition 8-like measure placed on the ballot in California to "protect traditional marriage" by making divorce illegal. After all, she points out, Jesus never mentions homosexuality, but he sure does have a problem with divorce.
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POPSThe real threat to "traditional" marriage: heterosexual couples who don't think the way they're supposed to The money quote: "There is a greater expectation that women will work, men will be more involved with their children, and household duties will be more evenly shared... In essence, straight couples are 'queering' heterosexual marriage... If neither partner conforms to his or her 'unique role,' heterosexual marriage starts to look like its same-sex counterpart and illustrates that those 'unique' gendered roles aren't as unique as the bishops claim they are. If in a heterosexual marriage a man can provide nurturing and emotional sensitivity and a woman can provide leadership and effective decision-making skills, could they not bring these traits to a same-sex marriage?"
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POPSNews from Nepal: preparations underway for world's largest mass animal sacrifice From The Himalayan Times, some information about logistical preparation for Ghadimai fair (Nov. 24 and 25), which is the site of what is thought to be the world's largest mass slaughter of sacrificial animals (mostly goats, buffalo, and fowl). 250 butchers have been appointed as official slaughterers, a stadium-sized structure for the simultaneous killing of 10,000 buffalo has been erected, and a 3-km wide stretch of land has been set aside for the butchering.
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POPSBad news for Mississippi's black colleges It looks like the end might be in sight for several of Mississippi's HBCUs. In the wake of the 1992 US v. Fordice decision -- which, ironically, represented an attempt to undo the historic effects of the state's segregated higher education system -- they were starved of funds, receiving less than 3% of the budget they were allotted. They are now being condemned as non-performers (surprise, surprise) and will probably undergo massive program cuts.
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POPS"Most sophisticated computer attack ever" drains $9M from over 2000 ATMs at once Four hackers in Russia, Estonia, and Moldova orchestrate a global attack on an ATM network, stealing over nine million US dollars from over two thousand ATMs in 280 cities on three continents, all within twelve hours. As a postscript, three of the accused hackers have now been apprehended and will be tried either in the US or in their home countries. Thanks to Rob M. for posting.
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POPSH1N1 and religion: ritual improvisation and public health A roundup of some changes made to ritual and liturgy in Montréal, Toronto, and elsewhere in Canada as strategies of counteracting the spread of the flu. The piece has a slightly puffy, amused tone, but I think this is pretty interesting, especially for what it implies about the value of ritual and community as opposed to discourse and information (e.g., if the epidemic gets worse, expect churches to tell everyone to stay home and get their sermons via podcast).
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POPSAn amicus brief for the validity of religious-law arguments in potential Eighth Amendment cases I don't know quite how i feel about this. I have a lot of sympathy for their position, but I don't get the argument for including religious arguments in an amicus brief like this. The argument is that it violates key religious provisions (ideas like mercy and compassion) to give a juvenile a life-without-parole sentence for a non-homicide offense. Part of the argument rests on the notion that the values of rehabilitation, mercy, and hope are universal across religious traditions -- those sorts of claims always make me a little skeptical.
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