The $5,000 Home for Developed Nations

The $5,000 Home for Developed Nations

An American Confucian: The Saint Bernard

An American Confucian: The Saint Bernard: "Simon possesses one quality that is rather unusual for most Americans: he speaks six languages, three of which are not European. Granted, ..."

UCLA ALC: Asian Languages and Cultures

There are few things as daunting as entering graduate school for a Ph.D. Unlike professional schools, difficult though they be, you are not entering with 50 to 100 other students, many of whom will become your friends for life.

No.

You are entering with a class of, say 1-10 other students, all of whom possess these qualities:

1) They are probably pretty smart
2) They are nervous about that fact, so
3) They are anxious to prove it as soon as possible to practically everyone else, who are mostly students who have been there longer than the newly admitted students, which
4) Compounds their anxiety, and
5) None of them shares a specific field, which creates more anxiety to,
6) Carve out an extra-spectacular (it never is) intellectual niche because
7) New students don't have the luxury of knowing that they and a100 of their fellow students will be doing exactly the same thing for the next 2-3 years and that they can always rely on fellow students for notes and other things if they screw around and miss a class.

Humanities Ph.D.'s are also different from Science and Math Ph.D.'s because they don't get to rely on experiments and empirical data to either validate or invalidate their research.

Instead, Humanities doctoral students get to rely on their peers, who are by definition anxious, envious, and jealous, and their advisors (see previous description of student peers) and, additionally, their advisors are always centering their classes on subjects that they themselves are investigating but require additional insights to fill out the book. Professors are not above stealing their students insights for their own books and then giving them (maybe) a little acknowledgement at the back of the book.

But few departments embody cultural colonialism. Now, some people who think they are smart but after all, only possess a Bachelor's and a professional degree (those are far easier) have observed, "Wow, I've never heard a department called that before!" as if they are the last word on what is and is not a valid definition of an academic department.

These people are uninformed, ignorant, and know nothing. They should be avoided at all costs.

What's really interesting is that the ALC department at UCLA does seem to qualify for a lot of what may be legitimately considered intellectual colonialism. What can that mean? Well, for one, almost all of the content-based professors are white. And yes, they profess to know best what the condition of the respective Asian cultures covered in the department are. They find no irony in this condition. None.

Indeed, one professor who taught an introductory to cultural criticism course scoffed when he said that some of them, including Edward Said, didn't really understand what Joseph Conrad meant when he wrote Heart of Darkness.

That's not actually true. Said did know what Conrad was trying to do. But Conrad's intent still does not preclude a colonialist and imperialist narrative. For someone who is supposed to be smart, this seems to be a remarkably ignorant statement by a UCLA ALC professor.

What's more disturbing is that practically the only teachers, it's unclear if they are even professors but perhaps merely instructors (UCLA doesn't do the dreaded "adjunct") who are Asian foreign nationals are the language instructors.

That's right. There may be two, or perhaps three Asian nationals in the department who actually teach content. The rest are second-class citizens who do the grunt work of teaching languages.

Wow.

And the lack of self-awareness especially in this day and age of legitimate cultural criticism within this department is glaring and also rather shocking.

Perhaps rather than bragging that they are the premiere Asian Languages and Cultures department, they should do something about actually acquiring some true cultural and intellectual legitimacy by hiring Asian Americans who know a little bit about what it truly is to study this field that professes to "know" Asian cultures and their languages in the midst of a very Euro-American setting.

Japanese Whaling

not a lot of press is given to this in the u.s. although earlier this year, one santa monica restaurant, the hump, was fined and eventually decided to close its doors because it was caught selling whale meat. what's even more shocking is how it was stored: according to one news story, the chefs would simply go to some benz in the parking lot and retrieve it! yikes.

but watching the show, whale wars, has been been interesting. most of the time, the time, the show is just melodrama and it is clearly trying to discover ways to fill it's 45 mins of airtime (minus the 15 mins of commercials). normally, it is best to watch without the sound, because then one can forward through the melodramatic, filler, dialogue bits and the really important stuff is also closed captioned b/c of the noise.

but the japanese. so shameful. what is up with their wanting to hunt whale meat? not like they are inuits, living a sustainable life that relies on the single harpoon and a small, row-powered boat. there are times when the japanese are just soo intractable and entitled, and really shameful.

and this case of the former sea shepherd member whose boat was clearly rammed by the japanese boat, the shonan maru II (gross), is such an obvious aggressive, intentional act by the japanese whalers. yuck. shameless. they were clearly aiming for the ady gil, bearing towards starboard to hit them.

honestly. what's next? hopefully, the sea shepherd organization will continue to be successful in their attempt to discourage, if not completely curtail, the whaling done by japanese.

p.s., and that "research" pasted on the side of the whaling boats? gross.

An Open Letter to Republicans in Congress

Mass Email Republican Senators!

This was a great website for the emails of All Republican Senators on Unemployed Friends.

And if that's too much trouble, try just copying these:

alan_hanson@shelby.senate.gov, jonathan_graffeo@shelby.senate.gov,
anne_caldwell@shelby.senate.gov, laura_friedel@shelby.senate.gov,
senator@shelby.senate.gov, arne_fuglvog@murkowski.senate.gov,
amanda_makki@murkowski.senate.gov, kristen_daimler@murkowski.senate.gov,
isaac_edwards@murkowski.senate.gov, althea_stmartin@murkowski.senate.gov,
kristen_daimler-nothdurft@murkowski.senate.gov, chuck_kleeschulte@murkowski.senate.gov,
lisa@lisamurkowski.com, andrew_wilder@kyl.senate.gov, elizabeth_maier@kyl.senate.gov,
lucy_murfitt@kyl.senate.gov, tim_glazewski@kyl.senate.gov, craig_wismer@kyl.senate.gov,
jennifer_romans@kyl.senate.gov, ryan_patmintra@kyl.senate.gov,
ann_begeman@mccain.senate.gov, ellen_cahill@mccain.senate.gov,
lee_dunn@mccain.senate.gov, richard_fontaine@mccain.senate.gov,
nick_matiella@mccain.senate.gov, talal_mir@mccain.senate.gov,
mark_salter@mccain.senate.gov, elissa.scannell@mail.house.gov,
joe_donoghue@mccain.senate.gov, adam_noah@chambliss.senate.gov, Lindsay_mabry@chambliss.senate.gov, saxby_chambliss@chambliss.senate.gov, justin_clay@chambliss.senate.gov, Steven_meeks@chambliss.senate.gov,
glee_smith@isakson.senate.gov, joan_kirchner@isakson.senate.gov,
michael_quiello@isakson.senate.gov, tyler_thompson@isakson.senate.gov,
Tricia_Chastain@isakson.senate.gov, Catherine_Henson@isakson.senate.gov,
molly_manning@isakson.senate.gov, chris_carr@isakson.senate.gov,
susan_wheeler@crapo.senate.gov, marques_chavez@crapo.senate.gov,
Margaret_ballard@crapo.senate.gov, staci_stevenson@crapo.senate.gov,
Roy_Hansen@crapo.senate.gov, katie_downs@crapo.senate.gov,
gregg_richard@crapo.senate.gov, energy_prices@crapo.senate.gov,
craig_ferguson@crapo.senate.gov, Mark_Shonce@Risch.senate.gov, senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov, andy_fisher@lugar.senate.gov,
georgiana_reynal@lugar.senate.gov, aaron_whitesel@lugar.senate.gov,
mark_hayes@lugar.senate.gov, casework@grassley.senate.gov,
chuck_grassley@grassley.senate.gov, aaron_mckay@grassley.senate.gov,
beth_pellett_levine@grassley.senate.gov, Kathy_nuebel@grassley.senate.gov,
david_young@grassley.senate.gov, kolan_davis@grassley.senate.gov,
sherry_kuntz@grassley.senate.gov, Betty_Burger@Grassley.senate.gov,
mike_steenhoek@grassley.senate.gov, kurt_kovarik@grassley.senate.gov,
landon_fulmer@brownback.senate.gov, glen_chambers@brownback.senate.gov,
brian_robertson@brownback.senate.gov, john_rankin@brownback.senate.gov,
brian_hart@brownback.senate.gov, brownback@brownback.senate.gov,
melanie_benning@brownback.senate.gov, Galen_Roehl@Brownback.senate.gov,
pat_roberts@roberts.senate.gov, jackie_cottrell@roberts.senate.gov,
jennifer_cook@roberts.senate.gov, mike_seyfert@roberts.senate.gov,
sarah_little@roberts.senate.gov, molly_mueller@roberts.senate.gov,
Jennifer_swenson@roberts.senate.gov, Maggie_ward@Roberts.senate.gov,
Verna_Regier@roberts.senate.gov, jim_askins@bunning.senate.gov,
Holly_santry@bunning.senate.gov, sarah_timoney@bunning.senate.gov,
kim_dean@bunning.senate.gov, mike_reynard@bunning.senate.gov,
jim_bunning@bunning.senate.gov, Fred_Karem@mcconnell.senate.gov,
Adam_Howard@mcconnell.senate.gov, Hannah_Benton@mcconnell.senate.gov,
robert_steurer@mcconnell.senate.gov, julie_adams@mcconnell.senate.gov,
scott_raab@mcconnell.senate.gov, allison_thompson@mcconnell.senate.gov,
Reb_Brownell@mcconnell.senate.gov, leann_crosby@mcconnell.senate.gov,
Moon_Sulfab@mcconnell.senate.gov, kyle_ruckert@vitter.senate.gov, Kathryn_Fulton@vitter.senate.gov, crystal_ellerbe@vitter.senate.gov,
garret_graves@vitter.senate.gov, chris_stanley@vitter.senate.gov,
shawn_geddes@vitter.senate.gov, rachael_bohlander@vitter.senate.gov,
tonya_newman@vitter.senate.gov, suzanne_gillen@vitter.senate.gov,
Steve_Abbott@collins.senate.gov, Holly_Nesbit@collins.senate.gov,
John_Richter@snowe.senate.gov, Anna_Levin@snowe.senate.gov,
Brian_Klippenstein@bond.senate.gov, Annie_O'Toole@bond.senate.gov,
kit_bond@bond.senate.gov, kara_smith@bond.senate.gov, shana_marchio@bond.senate.gov,
mike_dubois@bond.senate.gov, kara_vlasaty@bond.senate.gov,
tom_schulte@bond.senate.gov, meagan_perry@bond.senate.gov, WriteJim@mail.house.gov,
AsktheLeader@mail.house.gov, senator@demint.senate.gov, Jim_Inhofe@inhofe.senate.gov,
Adam_Brake@LGraham.senate.gov, Alana_Hyman@enzi.senate.gov,
Andre_Harper@Voinovich.senate.gov, Angela_Mikolajewski@Voinovich.senate.gov,
Angela_Youngen@Voinovich.senate.gov, Beth_Hansen@Voinovich.senate.gov,
Beth_Martens@Voinovich.senate.gov, brendan_plack@thune.senate.gov,
Bret_Bernhardt@demint.senate.gov, bryn_stewart@barrasso.senate.gov,
Chris_Joyner@burr.senate.gov, Chris_Paulitz@Voinovich.senate.gov,
chris_tomassi@enzi.senate.gov, chris_walker@burr.senate.gov,
Colin_Allen@LGraham.senate.gov, Courtney_Shadegg@Coburn.senate.gov,
Mike_Schwartz@Coburn.senate.gov, Daffnei_Riedel@thune.senate.gov,
susan_sweat@wicker.senate.gov, Terri_Moore@johanns.senate.gov, jurani@ensign.senate.gov,
Kathleen_Amacio@johanns.senate.gov, mark_williams@vetaff.senate.gov,
Hardy_Lott@wicker.senate.gov, Jason_mulvihill@ensign.senate.gov,
john_lopez@ensign.senate.gov, johncornyn@gopsenators.com

Erase Iphone Photo Album

Well, there are a lot of threads and sites out there that profess to help you with this. None of them do.

You cannot actually erase photo albums in your Iphone. Another design flaw. Gasp! There are design flaws with Apple products!

Now that you've gotten over that, here is what you can do.

1) Determine the names of the albums you want to delete photos from. Note that you will not actually be able to delete the albums themselves. You will, however, be able to delete some or all of the photos in the albums.
2) If you want to delete all the photos in the album, make a new folder with the same name on your computer.
3) Now sync your Iphone with your computer via Itunes.
4) In the Photos tab, select the name of the folder in the phone you want to delete photos from.
5) Then "apply"
6) When you are prompted as to whether you want to change the contents of the phone folder with the computer folder, "Yes."

That's it.

If you want to delete only some of the photos, do the same thing, that is, in the corresponding computer folder, load/keep the photos you want to keep on your phone, delete/move out of the folder those you don't.

You are essentially replacing the folder on your phone with the same-named folder on your computer, in which you have already removed some/all of the photos you no longer want.

Palisades Taiji/Palisades "Taichi"

Review, "Rebirth of a Nation" by Jackson Lears

An excellent re-telling of the period between the American Civil War and the First World War, Rebirth of a Nation is ultimately a critique not merely of American Imperialism, and not even of American Racism, but of American Militaristism, as it has informed its imperalistic and racist history. On occasion enamored of densely-packed sentences reminiscent of many less artful academicians, Jackson Lears constructs a predominately accessible, readable, and fascinating narrative that tells us not just where America has been, but why it is here today.

Thus, throughout his narrative, he draws clear analogies between the choices that a militaristic Teddy Roosevelt made with the ones George W. Bush has made, decisions couched in the language of regeneration-through-blood-and-military-sacrifice that can bring an "American-styled democracy" to all lands. Should not all lands (read: economic colonies) enjoy the riches we do every day? Never mind, he reminds us, that the only way for these other colonies, like present-day Iraq, must be economically exploited for their material and labor resources to ensure the continued livelihood of large corporations whom Bush had invested in.

More importantly, Lears draws a stark picture of racism from Reconstruction onward. As Eric Foner has convincingly shown, Reconstruction was initially an experiment of joint white-black governance of the south, as well as black self-governance, quickly gutted by the successful backroom deals made between Andrew Johnson and white Democrats anxious to re-establish their power base. Too long have Americans ignored the long history of racism and its continued resonance in our policies today.

Lears shines a startlingly harsh light on all these convenient obliviousnesses and demonstrates that we cannot remain blind to these impulses, of self-righteousness in the name of Christianity, of racism couched in moral superiority, and of economic imperalism disguised as benevolent paternalism or cleansing militarism, if we intend to conduct ourselves with true integrity.

Perkins+Will Los Angeles, Architecture, and The Economic Depression

July 17, 2009 marks the beginning of the layoff process at Perkins+Will, Los Angeles. Though there have been rumblings, for example, people leaving over the past few months because of a lack of new projects for the firm, as well as four people who were laid off earlier this year, this has been the first wide-spread move. Fifteen of the staff at P+W Los Angeles were laid off on Friday. Evidently, Friday is the traditional day for such moves, presumably because that way, the ongoing staff will not become overly distressed or frightened.

But they should be. P+W, Atlanta just laid off 20 employees--no, they aren't "workers" because that is a convenient dehumanization that allows people in higher positions to forget that the people they laid off are, well, people--right after the completion of a large project they were on.

This is what happened at P+W Los Angeles. And that is just the latest in a long string of layoffs at multi-national architecture firms that a short two years ago appeared impervious to the signs of recession. Gensler, for one, began its layoff process late last year.

Indeed, the architecture field is in such dire straits right now that international firms have begun bidding for small projects that are normally the purview of small and boutique-sized firms. The first thing that disappears during an economic depression, not recession, is people's interest in building new buildings and urban projects. It's the first thing people realize they don't need more of when they can't afford to put food on the table: buildings or urban projects. Suddenly, all this appears to be a luxury rather than a necessity.

a view on stocks

some thoughts by one of our members on today's stock market:

"

yesterday was up sligtly or not down as much as previous 2 days.

i am still figuring markets down, but compared to last year, markets i think are down 50-100 points, which i think is more normal.

it was going up at about that same pace in april and may, and early june.

any plays to upside, keep tight stops.

possible plays on downside.

morning looks like might be up

markets been channeling up slowly, now seems to be channeling down slowly

agriculture sector seems to be really down.

agu, pot, mos, mos feed, But after a week or so, might provide buying opportunity

steel

internet

some financials, or the ones including ms gs

oil

are weak,

as i said, i think markets are slowly pulling back,

but this should give us opportunity to buy, we hope in a bout a week or so.

but this in heading into summer, typically slower for stock market, until later july early aug, to sep when

fall , and market picks up again."

How To Watch Foreign DVD's

Earlier, I had posted that a combination of DVD Decrypter version 3.5.4 could help with dvd's that have different region codes than the one your computer is set for because the VLC Media Player could then play the files.

Since then, I've changed my mind because my computer has Vista Home Premium, which VLC was crashing.

I then read that if you revealed the extensions on the vob (video object files) that were
made by DVD decrypter to an mpg/mpeg extension, you could play the files on Media 11 Player, which came with my Dell. That was also helpful, but it entailed a lot of work, changing all the extensions. And then you couldn't get subtitles.

Btw, I did this all in service of the complete set of Murphy's Law with James Nesbitt I had purchased from a British purveyor, where the dvd's are set to region 2.

Then I read from another website more about how to use DVD Decrypter. I didn't quite understand it all, but I read something about Daemon Tools, which would create a virtual dvd drive on your computer which could then help the dvd software program on my computer read the ISO file made by DVD Decrypter as if it were a real dvd without any region code problems.

Again, Daemon Tools was not compatible with my OS, so I uninstalled it, which was also a bit of a problem.

Then I read about another program, which is also freeware, that makes a virtual drive on your computer so that my main media-playing software, MediaDirect by Cyberlink, can play the ISO file Decrypter made for me as if it were a region 1 dvd.

It's perfect. The program, Virtual CloneDrive by Slysoft, is their only free program and it creates a single virtual dvd drive on your computer. And for my purposes, why do I need more than one?

It works a treat because now when I use Decrypter to make an ISO file of the Region 2 dvd's I bought, it immediately recognizes that it will be associated with Virtual CloneDrive. I click on the ISO file, and MediaDirect opens it right up.

Perfect.

How To Remove Splinters-Vinegar/Peroxide and Baking Soda

This is the only remedy that really works. Reliably.

Because while other suggest warm water and baking soda, or using a debriding agent like a salicylic patch, these don't work. Those methods may soften the skin sufficiently so that you can remove the splinter a bit more easily, but they don't actually cause a chemical reaction that causes an embedded splinter to move towards the surface of the skin Much as those who rely on the warm water/baking soda aver, there is no chemical reaction going on there. It's inert.

With vinegar/peroxide and baking soda, there is a chemical reaction. That initial bubbling reaction that you get may stop, but the interaction of the two ingredients that causes that initial bubbling? That continues to work more subtly on the finger. And, after about twenty minutes of soaking, the splinter will move closer to the surface of the skin. And it can then be painlessly, and I do mean painlessly, removed with tweezers.

Friends, Kitty-style

Swine Flu and the Racist Discourse

The other day, someone said that he didn't want to be around "Mexican" people at all. He then observed that he didn't feel the same way when there was the media-driven SARS scare. Of course, he is East Asian.

This is an interesting illustration of a few things. First, that while ethnic minorities cannot be racist in that they do not have the social power that allows them to act out their bigotry on a level that can intimidate on a deeper level than just a personal threat, they can harbor racist ideation. Meaning they can have racist thoughts. The big difference, obviously, is that members of ethnic/racial minorities cannot plug into, resonate with, or otherwise take advantage of a long, historically-established, set of institutionalized racist agendas that have made entire racial groups feel oppressed, fearful, and exploited because they are the victims of such behavior. Racism as a practice implies the ability to do just that: plug into a larger, institutionalized, oppressive, and exploitative discourse that regulates our institutions. However, you can be a bigot.

So that was the first interesting characteristic of this particular observation.

The second is this. That the reason this person did not fear for his health during the SARS scare was that he was Asian, and he knew that the likelihood of his contracting that illness here, in the U.S., was remote. And what's more, he knew that he, as an East Asian, had absolutely nothing to do with its spread so the idea that people were demanding that East Asians be confined if they had traveled, was not only preposterous, but as he correctly had identified, was racist.

And this is the thing about identifying these illnesses along with a particular country: they plug into, resonate with, and further institutionalize people's racist ideation, especially those Euro-Americans in power. And here is the true racism, because it can be acted upon through legal, institutional avenues that then reinforce people's racist ideas.

(Chinese) Avian flu, (Mexican) swine flu, (Asian) SARS, all of these illnesses legitimized racist discourses against an entire people, here and abroad.

On returning to this man, he further said that not only would he not want to be around any "Mexicans" at all, but that he didn't think it was safe to go to entire counties because a few "possible" cases might have been identified in those counties. That is akin to asking a person who lives in Los Angeles whether they are alright because an earthquake of 4.4 registered in Morro Bay (that is in the middle of the state). In short, it is quite ridiculous.

Moreover, the chances that you will get sick from this flu strain is very, very small. I mean, really. All the people who have been confirmed to have contracted it had mostly 1)mild symptom, and 2) have added up to may 20. Or 30. All over this nation.

Who is to blame? First, and most obviously, the media. While scientists keep telling the news media that this is not hitting people very hard, even local NPR--for shame--stations rebroadcast the "threat" on the hour, along with the hourly news update.

Second, people are to blame. For being alarmist. Gullible. And watching TV news, which is not news. It's entertainment.

This country seems filled with people who always need a scapegoat, a bugaboo, or some kind of enemy to "fight." Who knows why.