signalnoise

Piggy-backed Liante on over here. She generally has a good nose for conversation and people. Besides, you seem a pretty intelligent and well informed dude, and I like contacting people in my area, so there you have it.

That is seriously brilliant. I'd pay for that.

Heck, you could go the Alexander the Great route and let people get buried with relics that made them seem more powerful to future archaeologists. "Fossil Enhancement: Because the Future is Too Important to be Left to Your Past."

Love it. LOVE IT.

Sounds profound. I try and remember that any day could be my last. It helps me to avoid things that are meaningless. When peple complain at work, I ask them, "would you say that if you knew it were your last day on earth?" It gets people to stop and think. I hope it doesn't make me look like I have a morbid fascination.

have you ever been to the holocaust museum in DC?

Yeah, yeah. But see, I took the intro stats class because I figured, "hey, I could probably teach myself enough to get up to speed and take the slightly higher-level one, but why not have an easy class?"

I have been calculating standard deviation and probability by hand, over and over again, all semester. Seriously, our problem sets are like, here are twelve billion numbers. Calculate their mean, median and mode. Question 2: here are thirteen billion numbers...

So how did the fondue turn out?

We just fell hook, line & sinker for all the ads we saw throughout the MLB Playoffs! Fucking fantastic payoff too!


Trust me, we're back on LOST from here on out.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. The article literally makes me laugh out loud and almost want to cry a bit. And, you know, when it's all said and done, your original point is right. Blasphemous or not, there is something in common between a Kubrick and a Foucault or a Lvi-Strauss.

In terms of the artist/scientist comparison, you know, if it's a question of rigor (though I know you are talking about more than that), then absolutely, I agree with you. Masters like Almodvar aren't just executing a nack for making pretty things. When you have some time, read this. It's really quite hilarious and fun, but also very telling. I reference that story about the Napoleon archive all the time. Kubrick is my possibly my archetypal artist.

Your journal is interesting. I don't happen to watch reality tv, but it is fascinating, and as a social phenomenon, even more so.

"The simulacra replacing the real..." I like this investigation, man. Future research project? Cultural studies crossover? Argh, I'm guessing that maybe it's already been done.

Not how he is these days. A steroid-muchin' addict with kids?? Puh-LEEZE.

Ugh. Dude.

you are the most ill cat to roam the south side...dont let any muthafuckers tell you otherwise, kid.

or you could be the first american with the bird flu virus.

Re: SCOTUS.

I think you're underestimating the impact of the court. It's not a policy-setter, really, no. But a lot of stuff goes on in the court system itself - to give just two important examples: challenges to extraordinary detentions and trials (e.g., Hamdi) and reproductive rights claims (the fight is no longer over legislation; at the moment it's over whether the states can make the process impossible to navigate). And, the way our system is set up, we have torts where many countries have crimes (e.g., for most kinds of pollution) - part of why we're perceived as so litigious.

Now, of course, the court system is much more than just the SCOTUS. But SCOTUS sets policy for all the lower courts (er... maybe except the 9th circuit), so it's pretty damn important.

Yes, of course Brown would have meant little without muscular enforcement. But it's not as if Eisenhower would have gone and enforced desegregation WITHOUT Brown.

I also have to disagree with you about Edwards. Aside from a couple good lines about the "Two Americas" he was just as hollow and practical policy-less on the campaign trail as Kerry (though more likeable, which would've meant something in the general). He's done little of note in his rump Senate career, and now he's out of politics. I like Obama too (though I'd like to see some ACTUAL action out of him to match the hype - it's not like he's been a notable leader in the Senate too far), but he'll still be too young for the top slot in 2008. If these are our idea men, we're in deep shit.

Not that I have much in the way of a better suggestion. I supported Dean last time around because, frankly, he and Kucinich were the only two candidates who had POSITIONS on anything, as near as I could tell (and I didn't agree with Kucinich). Clark *almost* took stands on things, but he turned out to be a nightmare of a campaigner. Clinton is positioning herself as "Bill, but more socially conservative and without all that economics stuff," which I can't get behind. The most interesting Dem politician I can think of at the moment is Eliot Spitzer, and he's not running for President any time soon.

Library Science, American Literature, and History

Mostly, I am hoping to get a position in an Academic library and the pursue a Phd in lit.

Congrats! And I wouldn't sweat the comments too much. My advisor was scary-smart, and so getting totally crushed by his comments was an occupational hazard. About halfway through, I think someone taught him the "compliment sandwich" approach, because he'd ALWAYS preface everything with something complimentary, no matter how much of a stretch it seemed ("you're making progress" and "you've got some interesting ideas" were popular with me) before launching into his scathing, soul-destroying explanation of why nothing you'd said worked. Nice guy, but he'd driven at least two other grad students out of the program entirely...

I love motown!

Walter Mondale got his ass whupped! I was rooting for him, though.

The buddhists say "If you can do something about a problem, there's no point in worrying. If you can't do something about a problem, worrying will do no good." Fear & anxiety are usually irrational and/or based out of self cherishing. Compassion is your greatest protection.

Catholicism & poli sci don't mix, man....

I'm a faculty brat, I grew up in college towns.

I'm writing this on my new iBook! I forgot to register for classes today!


[Edited on Nov 01, 2005 12:12AM]

Oh my, The Birth of the Clinic...so difficult! What does he says in the beginning, "This book is about space...?" Or is it the gaze? Whatever, it's all downhill from there in terms of lucidity. Good luck on that one.

I was thinking about all of this stuff tonight.

I really think Foucault's chief concern is the partitioning off of groups and their subsequent marginalization, oppression, etc. This really is the trajectory of Madness and Civilization. It's so less about madness, so much more about power, division, and the production of the (mad) subject. There is a remark from the Foucault-Chomsky debate that should be noted. He says:

So, if you would include ossification as part of all this, I am with you. Or maybe ossification is just a question of temporal degree (in other words, it's long enough to care about), in which case I think we also agree.

But the whole point of genealogy being break, discontinuity, and shift, it seems to me that the everything is continually up for grabs and changing. But there always is the unbalance, and hence the marginalized.