Month of March , 2008

There's a reason I'm up at 2:30 in the morning. I'm trying to wrap my head around a concept I came across in my research for the paper I'm presenting at the Chicago conference on anthropology and counter-insurgency. Here's the quote that's got me all worked up:

One of the most useful contributions of native anthropology could be the "decontamination" of settler youth by building the analysis of the formidable role of non-knowledge in settler culture into their training for the profession [or anthropology]. (Gwaltney, John L. "On Going Home Again -- Some Reflections of a Native Anthropologist". Phylon 37:3. 1976/ Pp. 241-2.)

This morning I launched The Writer's Technology Companion, a new blog covering the tools of the writer's trade. This is a project I've been working on for several months, now -- I wanted to make absolutely sure I could keep it up for the long haul with everything else that's on my plate. So a lot of planning went into the site, with several dozen posts written and "in the can" so I don't have to worry about running short on content anytime soon.

For some reason there's been an especially high level of spam lately. A lot of it's for ForEx (foreign exchange) schemes, which makes sense with the dollar tanking -- a small investment in Euros or Pounds a couple years ago would have made a nice return. I'm not sure teaming up with the guy that's spamming you about it is really the best way to enter the field, though.

But the spam that's really getting my attention is the stuff with totally made-up words. This morning, I submitted spams with titles like "intercalative parafloccular" and "jager nomistic fipple". I mean, how gorgeous are those phrases? A science fiction writer could name an entire galaxy of futuristic devices, new worlds, and extraterrestrial characters from what I delete from my spam queue every morning!

I've been invited to speak at a conference next month of anthropology and counter-insurgency. Details are still sketchy; all I know so far is that the conference will be held at the University of Chicago on April 25-26.

That means I have just over a month to write something new and meaningful. I'm thinking of surveying the history of anthropological involvement with the military, and closing with a list of fundamental incompatibilities between military practice and anthropological practice.

More info to come...

Free Poverty is another click-for-charity site, with a twist: to win fresh water for impoverished nations, you have to identify where places are on a map of the world. There are several rounds, ranging from "Easy" (with places like Seattle, WA and London, UK) to "Medium" (Rabat, Morocco) to "Hard" (Angkor Wat, Cambodia) to "Super-Hard" (Sunshine Coast, Australia). Maybe higher; I only made it to "Super-Hard", donating 302 cups of water in the process. The closer you get, the more they donate, with 10 cups for each perfect answer.

Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War: The Influence of Foundations, McCarthyism and the CIA went on sale a couple of days ago. As far as I can tell, it's now available worldwide, wherever fine books are sold.

Order your copy today!

Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with a former student about math. That's right: math.

The Women's Studies department I teach in has a sort of open adjunct/student lounge with computers and a small library and a table and such -- a place to hang out and get a little work done or chat online or whatever. This student was working on some algebra, and was clearly frustrated. She turns to me and says, "Why do we have to learn this stuff?! When am I ever going to need to know about imaginary numbers?"

Two things you should know about me. First, I started my academic career as an engineering major -- aerospace, to be precise. While I quickly bailed out of engineering, I have a great respect for the applied sciences, and the sciences in general.

During the several years I spent researching and editing Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War, I wrote several pieces on the themes covered in the book (or closely related issues) at Savage Minds. For your convenience, here is a quick guide to related information at Savage Minds.

1. Anthropologists as Counter-Insurgents: My first look at the work of Montgomery McFate (a lead author of the Army's counter-insurgency handbook and a strong advocate of anthropology as a military tool).
Read the rest of this entry »

I don't know the story behind these images at all, but they certainly say more than their allotted 1,000 words! The creators of these pictures of free range workers say only that they wanted to illustrate the commonality between office working conditions and the way chickens are raised (i.e. in cage batteries vs. free-range). Of course, no matter how chickens are raised, no matter how happy or unhappy they are on their farms, their ultimate end isn't all that pleasing for the chicken (I imagine -- I've never asked a dead chicken how they felt about it all).

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, has died.