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October 10, 2004
science, surveillance, spooks!
As I was sitting reading in my underwear of a lazy Sunday morning, I was reminded that there are two kinds of eggheads in this world, Evil Eggheads
(representative quote~Military scientists long ago figured out how to put electronics into the brains of rats, and to cause them to move forward, backward, left, right by pushing buttons on computer keyboards. Imagine the fun these scientists will have if they figure out how to do this to women’s hips.
Recent research has been aimed at co-opting the rats’ will. Scientists put an electrode near a pleasure center in the rat’s brain, and others to stimulate whiskers on each side of the rat’s nose. The scientists then trigger, for example, implants near the left whiskers, and follow that by triggering the pleasure center. This convinces the rat to move left. After only ten days of this, rats can be trained to climb trees, walk, and stand in the open, or do many other things rats don’t normally like to do, controlled by technicians issuing commands from laptop computers up to 550 yards away. As a reporter for the Washington Post put it, not disapprovingly, “The rat thus becomes a living robot, controlled remotely by a human handler but able to go anywhere a rat can go.”
“I like the results,” said a scientist at Northwestern University.) (Oh and just so you know, this article is about much more than robotic rats, its also about surveillance, science, and spooks! And is co~written by nice egghead Derrick Jensen.There is also a highly recommended foray into pond life and the intimate lives of dragonflies! Ooh la la! )
And Nice Eggheads. (representative quote~“the conflict between Athens and Sparta hits very close to home. The first stirrings of my political consciousness came not upon hearing, as I no doubt did, words like Reaganomics, and Apartheid but during soccer practice. I, an unfortunate dreamer of eight or nine, had been, by some tragic parent-teacher miscommunication, conscripted to play on a team of would-be soldiers, all outfitted in camouflage pants and T-shirts with slogans like Kill em all, let God sort em out. The coach was of a similar disposition. He had a tyrannical moustache and wore a tool-belt with a hunting knife on it.
I wanted nothing more, as long as I had to be there, than to stand about on the field, counting dandelions, observing the dragonflies in their mysterious flight formations, feeling the warmth of the sun. Occasionally, the ball would come my way, and I would kick it, not in the service of the team, no, but just to get it away from me. The coach, invariably, would yell something about teamwork, and the boys would communicate to me, through words, gestures, and stares, that I was hated, and that my failure to kick the ball in the right direction, with enough force, was in fact just an early symptom of a general deviance that would grow, in time, to include political convictions, morality, and aesthetic sensibility. In a word, they were trying to live in accordance with Spartan virtues. I wanted Athens.
Fortunately, American society had been diverse enough to allow me to spend my teens and young-adulthood in the company of like-minded idle dreamers and yakkers. Now, I fear, it's as though that soccer team has seized power and is seeking to impose its set of virtues on all of America.“)
Even if you are short of reading time and loathe to click on links to obscure, long winded rants which have nothing to do with anything, let me say that it is worth a taking a moment to scroll to the bottom of the Nice Eggheads link, and peruse Dr. Smith s timely advice for resisting the Spartanization of our culture. Trenchant indeed!
As for knitting, the black sweater is grooving along, now that the rest of the Rowan Wool Cotton arrived (really quickly! I was amazed by their lightning speed!) from Jimmy Beans Wool. They have a really nice dog on their website, too. Not as photogenic as Marcel but few dogs are.
I also spent waaaaay too much money on Kidsilk Haze for a very gossamer poncho, and now am questioning this decision.. it is like knitting a spider web. I have to squint a lot of times to see the yarn at all, and it is difficult if not impossible to count stitches, if one loses count, which I totally have, because I cant see the individual stitches! The knitted fabric itself (what there is of it~ it is taking a long time to get going) is somewhat worth it, although I am wondering if it is too delicate to wear. So we shall see.
Posted by at October 10, 2004 10:43 AM
Comments
A small disk of gold should be secreted in a tiny knitted pouch for each stitch you knit and each dandelion you may count. And someday that secreted cache should ope' its bounty, for the endless support of your creativity and vision.
Posted by: Bertrand Russell at October 10, 2004 06:27 PM