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Posts Tagged 'postmodernity'
So, So, So Many Wednesday Links!
* Just in time for my next trip to Liverpool, the research from my last trip to Liverpool five years ago is finally published! "'A Dread Mystery, Compelling Adoration': Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker, and Totality."
* Social Text interviews Fredric Jameson: "Revisiting Postmodernism."
Is this sympathy for these arts of the past why in your recent work you returned to questions of modernism and realism?
The series you are alluding to [The Poetics of Social Forms] was always planned that way. I mean, I started with utopias, that is, science fiction and the future; then I went to postmodernism, which is the present, and so I'm making my way back into a certain past—to realism and then on to allegory and to epic and finally to narrative itself, which has always been my primary interest. Maybe indeed I have less to say about contemporary works than about even the recent past; or let's say I have built up a certain capital of reading but am not making any new and exciting investments any longer. It's a problem: you can either read or write, but time intervenes, and you have to choose between them. Still, I feel that I always discover new things about the present when working on these moments of the past. Allegory, for example, is both antiquated and surprisingly actual, and the work on museum pieces suddenly proves to make you aware of present-day processes that you weren't aware of.
* George Saunders has finally written a novel, and I'd bet it's not what you were expecting.
* Marquette will pilot a J-term.
* Earth First, Then Mars: An Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson.
* Relatedly: Would it be immoral to send out a generation starship?
* The Tuskegee Experiment Kept Killing Black People Decades After It Ended.
* A Brief History of Marilyn Monroe Reading Ulysses. Nabokov's Hand-Drawn Map of Ulysses.
* Donald Trump Far Behind Hillary Clinton in Campaign Cash. More. More. More! The only credible answer is that it is difficult or perhaps even impossible for him to produce these comparatively small sums. If that's true, his claim to be worth billions of dollars must either be a pure sham and a fraud or some artful concoction of extreme leverage and accounting gimmickry, which makes it impossible to come up with actual cash. Even the conservative NRO! Unraveling Con. The United States of Trump. Will Trump Swallow the GOP Whole? This number in Donald Trump's very bad fundraising report will really worry GOP donors. The Weird Mad Men Connection. There is "Incredibly Strong Evidence" Donald Trump Has Committed Tax Fraud. And these had already happened before the FEC report: Ryan Instructs Republicans to Follow Their 'Conscience' on Trump. Scott Walker agrees! Top GOP Consultant Unleashes Epic #NeverTrump Tweetstorm. Donald Trump Agreed to Call 24 Donors, Made It Through Three Before Giving Up. And the polls, my god, the polls. There Is No Trump Campaign. If things go on this way, can the Democrats retake the House? Endgame for the grift, just as Alyssa Rosenberg tried to warn us. How to Trump.
Trump status:
–38%, down 7 pts
–outspent 100%-0 on TV
–$1.3m COH, v. $42m for Clinton
–30 staff membershttps://t.co/UaHpJLICJt
— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) June 21, 2016
But this one is still my favorite:
So as it turns out, I was booted from the Trump rally because a woman saw me do the Hunger Games salute to a group getting thrown out.
— Jackson Pearce (@JacksonPearce) June 16, 2016
* Meanwhile, the DNC's oppo file on Trump seems surprisingly thin. This Is the Only Good Oppo Research the DNC Has on Trump.
In a Chicago Tribune article from 1989 (which Buzzfeed actually discovered just under a week ago), Donald Trump reveals that he "doesn't believe in reincarnation, heaven, or hell." As far as the DNC is concerned, though, it's Trump's apparent lack of faith in God's eternal kingdom, specifically, that's damning enough for use as ammo.
* Read Sonia Sotomayor's Atomic Bomb of a Dissent Slamming Racial Profiling and Mass Imprisonment.
* Cognitive dissonance watch: Could Congress Have Stopped Omar Mateen From Getting His Guns? Gun control's racist reality: The liberal argument against giving police more power. How I Bought an AR-15 in a Five Guys Parking Lot.
@gerrycanavan @Lollardfish lotta people cursing both Senate rejection of watchlist for gun control and Strieff majority's 4A logic today
— Nick Fleisher (@nickfleisher) June 21, 2016
* Anti-Brexit British MP Assassinated on the Street.
* Venezuelans Ransack Stores as Hunger Grips the Nation.
* The TSA Is Bad Because We Demand That It Be Bad. One Woman's Case Proves: It's Basically Impossible to Get Off the 'No-Fly List.'
* The hack that could take down New York City.
* Rethinking teaching evaluations.
* Study Finds 1 out of 10 Cal State Students is Homeless.
* What Are College Governing Boards Getting From Their Search Firms?
* Saying victims are to blame, at least in part, for their sexual assaults is a legal tactic used by many colleges accused of negligence.
* How Not to Write About College Students and Free Speech.
* Once they killed a president with a diet of beef bouillon, egg yolks, milk, whiskey and drops of opium, delivered rectally.
* A map of North America, in Tolkien's style. Keep scrolling! There's many more links below.
* On Thursday, Philadelphia became the first major US city to adopt a tax on carbonated and sugary drinks. I'd rather see an outright ban than an attempt to turn it into a permanent revenue stream. New "soda tax" measures show just how narrow the liberal vision has become.
* Missing Barnes and Noble.
* It's not the right question to ask "how do I get 200 students with laptops in a lecture hall to learn my course material?" Why are they in a lecture hall for 50 minutes, three days a week for 15 weeks or whatever the schedule is? Why do they need to learn the material in your course?
* The illusion of progress: Ditching the headphone jack on phones makes them worse.
* The mind behind UnREAL.
* We're All Forum Writers Now.
* Space Travel Has 'Permanent Effects,' Astronaut Scott Kelly Says.
* Sherryl Vint on China Miéville's The Census-Taker, a book that wasn't especially well-received by the other critics I've read.
* At the moment, Netflix has a negative cash flow of almost $1 billion; it regularly needs to go to the debt market to replenish its coffers. Its $6.8 billion in revenue last year pales in comparison to the $28 billion or so at media giants like Time Warner and 21st Century Fox. And for all the original shows Netflix has underwritten, it remains dependent on the very networks that fear its potential to destroy their longtime business model in the way that internet competitors undermined the newspaper and music industries. Now that so many entertainment companies see it as an existential threat, the question is whether Netflix can continue to thrive in the new TV universe that it has brought into being.
* Waukegan group offers tours to raise awareness for proposed Ray Bradbury museum.
* What's happening in Oakland is incredible.
* #TheWakandaSyllabus. Trump 101. A response to the Trump Syllabus.
* Secrets of my blogging: Study: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting.
* Homeless in Seattle: five essays.
* Jay Edidin on How to Be a Guy: After Orlando.
* Cunning Sansa, or Dim Sansa? Game of Thrones' bungled Arya plot explains why George R.R. Martin's taking so long to finish the books.
"Our fathers were all evil men." Happy Father's Day from Game of Thrones!
— Sarah Galo (@SarahEvonne) June 20, 2016
* Presenting the world's ugliest color.
* The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus's Wife. I want to believe!
* "People believe that a plane is less likely to crash if a famous person is among the passengers."
* Death of a startup.
* Such a sad story: Alligator Drags Off 2-Year-Old at Disney Resort in Orlando. My son turns two today, which is almost too much to bear in juxtaposition with this headline.
* The Pixar Theory of Labor.
* The boys are back in town. It's too late for you. It's too late for all of us now.
* Now new research helps explain the parental happiness gap, suggesting it's less about the children and more about family support in the country where you live.
* The Microsoft founder and philanthropist recently said he would donate 100,000 hens to countries with high poverty levels, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa but including Bolivia. Bolivia produces 197m chickens annually and has the capacity to export 36m, the local poultry producing association said.
* "Why Chris Pine says you can't make Star Trek cerebral in 2016." Respectfully disagree. Meanwhile, sad news in advance of next month's release of Star Trek Beyond.
* That Scrapped Star Wars TV Show Would've Starred a Sympathetic, Heartbroken Emperor. Sounds like they were aiming at a version of Daredevil's Kingpin plot.
* Laying down my marker now that Flashpoint won't save The Flash from its downward spiral. Meanwhile, DC seems utterly spooked by the failure of Batman v. Superman and has opened the set of Justice League to reporters to try to spin a new narrative. Lynda Carter is your new POTUS on CW's Supergirl. Syfy's Krypton Show Already Sounds Goofy as Shit.
* There really was a creepy fifth housemate lurking in cult British TV show The Young Ones.
* In praise of She-Ra.
* Two thousand miles away from the U.S. A-bomb tests in 1945, something weird was happening to Kodak's film.
* Why NASA sent 3 defenseless Legos to die on Jupiter. Earth's New 'Quasi' Moon Will Stick Around for Centuries. Astronomers say there could be at least 2 more mystery planets in our Solar System.
* Proportional Pie Chart of the World's Most Spoken Languages.
* True stories from my childhood having purchased the wrong video game system: 10 of the best Sega Genesis games that deserve a comeback.
* Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
* And Quantum Leap is back, baby! I have five spec scripts in my desk ready to go.
Tagged with a new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, Abraham Lincoln, academia, airplanes, airport security, alligators, Anton Yeltsin, AR-15s, Aurora, Barnes and Noble, Batman v. Superman, Bill Gates, Black Panther, boards of trustees, Bolivia, books, Brexit, Britain, brokered conventions, Cal State, CEOs, charts, chickens, children, China Miéville, class struggle, Colbert, color, comics, computers, Connor, content warnings, DC Comics, Democrats, Disney, Donald Trump, Earth, EU, extrasolar planets, Flashpoint, food, forums, Fourth Amendment, free speech, Game of Thrones, general election 2016, generation starships, George R. R. Martin, George Saunders, guns, hacking, happiness, He-Man, Hillary Clinton, homelessness, How the University Works, Hunger Games, interstellar travel, iPhones, J-terms, Jacobin, James Garfield, James Joyce, Jameson, Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Jay Edidin, Jesus, Jesus's Wife, Jupiter, Justice League, kids, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kodak, Krypton, labor, language, laptops, LEGO, liberalism, life is short, Liverpool, Lord of the Rings, Mad Men, maps, Marilyn Monroe, Marquette, Mars, Marvel, masculinity, medicine, money in politics, morality, museums, my life backing the wrong horse, my scholarly empire, Nabokov, NASA, Netflix, New York, North America, novels, nuclear war, nuclearity, Oakland, obituary, Olaf Stapledon, Omar Mateen, Orlando, outer space, parenting, pedagogy, Philadelphia, phones, Pixar, poetry, police, police corruption, police state, politics, polls, postmodernism, postmodernity, progress, publishing, Quantum Leap, race, racial profiling, racism, rape, rape culture, Ray Bradbury, Republicans, research, Sansa, science, science fiction, science fiction studies, search firms, Seattle, Sega Genesis, She-Ra, Sherryl Vint, sin tax, social text, soda tax, solar system, Sonia Sotomayor, Star Maker, Star Trek, Star Trek Beyond, Star Wars, startups, Supergirl, Supreme Court, syllabi, sympathy, taxes, teaching, teaching evaluations, television, terraforming, terrorism, The Bachelor, the bible, The Census-Taker, the courts, the CW, the Emperor, the Flash, the Internet, the law, the nineteenth century, The Young Ones, theory, they say time is the fire in which we burn, Title IX, toddlers, Tolkien, totality, trigger warnings, Trump TV, TSA, Tuskegee, two-year-olds, Ulysses, United Kingdom, UnREAL, Venezuela, Wakanda, war on terror, Waukegan, Wisconsin, words, writing
All The Wednesday Links!
* I got some really good news the other day: an NEH Summer Stipend! Here's the full list of $22.8 million in awards and offers for 232 humanities projects.
* Two of the poems from the award-winning first collection of my partner, Jaimee Hills, are up at Waywiser Press: "Synaesthesia" and "Derrida Eats a Dorito."
* I taught #GamerGate in my video game class yesterday. It wasn't my favorite day of the semester, not by a long shot, but TNI's "Gaming and Feminism" post was a great help, particularly the link to Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games: Women as Background Decoration: Part 2 and Playing with privilege: the invisible benefits of gaming while male. I didn't spend that much time on it, but I'm still tickled by Why So Few Violent Games?
* Salvage-Marxism embraces the Socialist rococo, the feel-good where we can and the feel-bad where we must, the utopian and the unflinching. Salvage will bring together the work of those who share a heartbroken, furious love of the world, and our rigorous principle: Hope is precious; it must be rationed.
* An ontology of the present is a science-fictional operation, in which a cosmonaut lands on a planet full of sentient, intelligent, alien beings. He tries to understand their peculiar habits: for example, their philosophers are obsessed by numerology and the being of the one and the two, while their novelists write complex narratives about the impossibility of narrating anything; their politicians meanwhile, all drawn from the wealthiest classes, publicly debate the problem of making more money by reducing the spending of the poor. It is a world which does not require a Brechtian V-effect since it is already objectively estranged. The cosmonaut, stranded for an unforeseeable period on this planet owing to faulty technology (incomprehensibility of set theory or mathemes, ignorance of computer programmes or digitality, insensibility towards hip-hop, Twitter, or bitcoins), wonders how one could ever understand what is by definition radically other; until he meets a wise old alien economist who explains that not only are the races of the two planets related, but that this one is in fact simply a later stage of his own socio-economic system (capitalism), which he was brought up to think of in two stages, whereas he has here found a third one, both different and the same. Ah, he cries, now I finally understand: this is the dialectic! Now I can write my report! Fredric Jameson, "The Aesthetics of Singularity."
* Terry Pratchett: "Not having battles, and doing without kings."
* Confabulation in the humanities.
* Fantasy scholarship needs theory. Badly.
* The first African science fiction short story? Leonard Flemming's 'And So It Came To Pass.'
* Adam Kotsko: Notes toward an overanalysis of a failed sci-fi spin-off.
* Did the Anthropocene Begin with the Deaths of 50 Million Native Americans? Defining the Anthropocene. The Inhuman Anthropocene.
* Scars of the Anthropocene: Japan builds a sea wall.
* Nestle Continues Stealing World's Water During Drought. A $600-Million Fracking Company Just Sued This Tiny Ohio Town For Its Water.
* Devastating report finds humans killed almost 3 million whales last century.
* Costa Rica powered with 100% renewable energy for 75 straight days.
* It's May 2065, and Cornell's Dean of Nonlitigable Revelry is angry. So good.
* Welcome to Ohio State, Where Everything Is for Sale.
It's true that some of the faculty opposed this deal (but only 84 percent,according to a survey), and it's also true that since the Australian takeover, prices for parking permits have gone through the roof. But it is not true, as has been reported in some places, that faculty have formed hitchhiking co-ops because they can no longer afford to park on campus.
The important point here is that this deal puts the lie to the complaint we hear so often that college doesn't prepare people for the real world. Our CFO, the guy who orchestrated this deal, has just landed a very lucrative job with the Australian firm he sold the parking to. It's called synergy, baby! Look it up.
* Ayn Rand comes to UNC.
* UW Struggle: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Public Authority Edition. This Is What Wisconsin's 2.5% Budget Cut Looks Like.
* Sweet Briar Alumnae Outline Legal Case Against College.
* U.Mass. Faces $3B in Debt. reclaimUC: "That's nothing." More links below the chart.
* New York Attorney General Is Investigating Cooper Union's Decision to Charge Tuition.
* "Why Tenure Matters." Holy moly.
A former administrator at Chicago State University has accused its president and other officials of firing her in part because she refused their demands that she file a false sexual-harassment charge against a faculty member critical of the leadership.
* University protests around the world: a fight against commercialisation.
* Free expression and academic labor.
It's that mass contigency– the dramatic rise of at-risk academic labor like adjuncts and grad students– that creates the conditions that Cooke laments on campus. In the past, when a far higher portion of college courses were taught by tenured professors, those who taught college courses had much less reason to fear reprisals from undergraduates. They had the protection of the tenure system and often the benefit of faculty unions that could agitate on their behalf. But with so many instructors in a state of minimal institutional protection or authority, lacking long-term contracts, benefits, or collective bargaining, the risk of angered students multiplies. Adjuncts don't even need to be fired; they can just not get any classes the next semester. Grad students don't even need to be fired; they can just have their job applications placed on the deny pile. This is why I think the problem is actually probably much larger than the high-profile anecdotes would suggest. The greatest impediment to real pedagogical and political freedom on campus is self-censorship due to labor insecurity. Discussion of contingency is almost entirely absent in Cooke's essay.
* Academics talking about money.
* On the Meaning of "Natural Born Citizen."
* What If Education Reform Got It All Wrong in the First Place?
* Nearly a quarter century ago, "A Nation at Risk" hit our schools like a brick dropped from a penthouse window. One problem: The landmark document that still shapes our national debate on education was misquoted, misinterpreted, and often dead wrong.
* Education is not a design problem with a technical solution. It's a social and political project neoliberals want to innovate away.
* Beyond Bossy or Brilliant: Gender Bias in Student Evaluations.
* What Happens When A 38-Year-Old Man Takes An AP History Test?
* How one dad opted out his kindergartner from standardized testing.
* Trying the 12-year-old "Slender Man" stabbers as adults is as illogical and barbaric as they are.
* Plane Safety Cards Explained.
*A University of Calgary professor has written "the first scholarly study of the Archie comic," titled Twelve-Cent Archie. Though some of his colleagues were skeptical, his motivation, Bart Beaty explains, was "to really challenge the kind of snobbery that's inherent in the way that comics aren't studied."
* Meanwhile, we live in very weird times: Archie vs. Predator.
* Ted Cruz, I think, speaks for us all: "My music tastes changed on 9/11."
* Lead prosecutor apologizes for role in sending man to death row.
* BREAKING: your weed killer is poisonous.
* America's race problem has been solved, and it was easier than you would have thought.
* SF Bishop Sorry Sprinklers Installed To Roust Homeless Were Discovered 'Misunderstood.'
* SMBC explains Heaven.
* Worst person in the world speaks.
* If you give a lion a CAT scan.
* This Floating McDonalds Has Sat Empty For 28 Years.
* There goes my Plan B: Business Owner Millions in Debt Arrested Two Years After Faking Death.
* Bruised Woman On Billboard Heals When People Look At Her, Reminds Passersby Of Dangers Of Ignoring Abuse.
* "As They Lay Dying": Two doctors say it's far too hard for terminal patients to donate their organs.
* 1. An Unknown Alien Being acquires a child's forgotten book and mistakenly beliefs that it depicts proper protocol for interaction with the human world. Mustaba Snoopy.
* Texas' brazen attempt to silence one of its most effective death penalty defense lawyers.
* The Wall Street Journal reports that the leading trade group for compound pharmacists is now discouraging its members from supplying the drugs necessary for lethal injections — in what represents the first official stance the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (IACP) has ever taken on death penalty issues. Relatedly.
* I'm not one for tech solutions generally but they should figure out a way to put microlocal cell phone jammers in cars. Nothing else is going to stop this from happening.
* The best description of social media I've ever seen:
Twitter is like an episode of any science fiction or fantasy show where the protagonist can hear other people's thoughts and goes mad.
— Bethany Black (@BethanyBlack) March 22, 2015
* Podcast: Government Doesn't Want Anyone to Know FBI Agents Can See They're Creating Terrorists.
* Why Health Care Tech Is Still So Bad.
* The strange things people Google in every state. The most common job in every state.
* Before Judges, the Godfathers Become Sick Old Grandfathers.
* H-Bomb Physicist Ignores Federal Order to Cut 5,000 Words From Memoir.
* The Apple Watch Is the Perfect Wrist Piece for Dystopia.
* The Second Death of Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe, no longer at ease.
* Nothing gold can stay: The Zelda TV show isn't going to happen.
* And it's not all death and destruction: There are more museums in the U.S. than there are Starbucks and McDonalds – combined.
Tagged with 9/11, academia, academic jobs, academic labor, Adam Kotsko, adjunctification, administrative bloat, adminsitrative blight, Africa, Afrofuturism, air travel, airplanes, America, animal, Anita Sarkeesian, AP History, Apple Watch, Archie, Archie vs. Predator, austerity, automobiles, blasphemy, books, brands, cars, CAT scans, Catholicism, cell phones, Chicago State University, China Miéville, Chinua Achebe, Choose Your Own Adventure, citizenship, class struggle, climate change, comics, confabulation, contingency, Cooper Union, Cornell, Costa Rica, cultural preservation, death penalty, debt, debtors prison, Derrida, domestic violence, don't text and drive, Doritos, drought, ecology, Enterprise, Facebook, fantasy, fast food, feminism, firing squads, fraud, free speech, Gamergate, games, gender, genocide, George Zimmerman, Google, Heaven, homelessness, How the University Works, hydrofracking, ICFA, Jameson, Japan, jobs, just world hypothesis, kids today, lethal injection, lions, Little Ice Age, male privilege, maps, Mark Bould, Marxism, masculinity, mass extinction, McDonald's, medicine, misogyny, Monsanto, museums, music, my scholarly empire, Native American issues, NEH, neoliberalism, Nestle, Netflix, New York, nuclear weapons, nuclearity, obituary, Occupy Cal, Ohio State, organ donation, Peanuts, pedagogy, Plans B, poison, politics, postmodernism, postmodernity, Predator, privilege, protest, race, racism, religion, renewable energy, research, Salvage, San Francisco, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, science fiction, Science Fiction Film and Television, Scott Walker, sea level rise, sea walls, sexism, Slender Man, Snoopy, social media, standardized testing, Star Trek, Starbucks, student evaluations, student movements, Sweet Briar, synaesthesia, teaching, Ted Cruz, television, tenure, terrorism, Terry Pratchett, Texas, the Anthropocene, the courts, the humanities, the law, the Left, the Mafia, The New Inquiry, the preferential option for the poor, theodicy, theory, toxic masculinity, Trayvon Martin, true crime, tsunamis, tuition, Twitter, University of California, University of Massachusetts, University of Wisconsin, Utah, Utopia, violence, war on education, war on terror, water, weed killer, whales, Wisconsin, Zelda, zunguzungu
* The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.
* The exciting return of "Is Health Care Reform Constitutional," and friends, this one could be a doozy. Here Is What Will Happen If The Supreme Court Strikes Down Obamacare's Subsidies. And from the archives: Halbig, King, and the Limits of Reasonable Legal Disagreement.
* George W. Bush, meritocrat.
* It's baaaaack: A totally legal, totally shady way that Republicans could ensure Hillary Clinton's defeat.
* The Quest for Restoration, or, Gone Girl and Interstellar Considered as the Same Film.
* As a society, we are somewhat obsessed with the risks of dying – from car crashes, cancer, terrorists, Ebola, or any of the thousands of mortal terrors that haunt our nightly newscasts. But we're less accustomed to consider the risks of living long – of outliving our retirement savings.
* Is Serial problematic? Serial: listeners of podcast phenomenon turn detectives – with troubling results. What Is An Ending? 'Serial' And The Ongoing Story Of Wanting Too Much. Alas, I listened to this this weekend and got hooked despite all my critical detachment.
* Doritos-Flavored Mountain Dew Is Real, PepsiCo Confirms. This is unfathomable. There are some lines never meant to be crossed.
* Can anyone even remember postmodernism?
* World Cup Watch: North Koreans working as 'state-sponsored slaves' in Qatar.
* Against spoiler alerts, in the LARoB.
The rise of spoiler-free criticism seems like a move away from criticism as art — and a move toward criticism as an arm of fandom marketing. It's fine to not want spoilers in your criticism. But there is something distasteful about the assumption that providing spoilers is some sort of lapse in ethics or etiquette. If you don't treat art first as a consumer product, the spoiler-free doctrine seems to suggest, you're being cruel and unfair. But critics really are not under any obligation to like what you like or to treat art with one particular kind of reverence. In the name of preserving suspense, the command to remain spoiler-free threatens to make criticism and art more blandly uniform, and less surprising.
* On artificial intelligence in board games.
* Wikipedia's list of deleted articles with freaky or inappropriate titles.
* Tig Notaro, national treasure.
* For example, research in economics has shown that the wage gap between lighter- and darker-skinned African Americans is nearly as large as the gap between African Americans and whites. In our analysis of data from theNational Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we found that the darkest-skinned African American girls were three times more likely to be suspended at school than their lighter-skinned counterparts — a disparity that is again roughly equal to the gap between blacks and whites. Alternatively put, while African American girls are three times more likely to be suspended than white girls, the darkest-skinned African American girls are several times more likely to experience suspension.
* A boy was accused of taking a backpack. The courts took the next three years of his life.
* Frenzied Financialization: Shrinking the financial sector will make us all richer. Finance as a New Terrain for Progressive Urban Politics.
* Former Football Player Sues UNC Over Fake Courses. A University President's Comments on Rape. Brown University Student Tests Positive For Date-Rape Drug at Frat Party.
* Occasion #7 is all about debt.
* Cloud computing: the race to zero.
* Telepathy is now possible using current technology.
* White men as institution.
* Let me pause and say here: of course I love many literary dudes. They are not, all of them, smug and condescending. But let me say something else: I thought for a while that the really terrible ones were time limited — that they were products of the 1950s, of a particular time period, and that it really was a viable strategy to just talk about snacks until they all retired. But I have now realized this is not true; new terrible smug dudes are coming up through the ranks. Hydra-like, smug dude attitude keeps springing forth from itself.
* The corals that came back from the dead.
* Billboard ads are expensive to construct, maintain and rent, but they don't serve any functional purposes — so Michal Polacek redesigned them to house the homeless. The next best thing to just abolishing homelessness.
* In 2012, DiMaggio released the results of his own Safe Routes to School program. Child pedestrian injury rates had plummeted, falling to half their original numbers. "We showed that kids can still be kids," says DiMaggio. "They can walk and bike to school and be safe." The project's federal funding expired last year, however, and no plans exist to extend the initiative to areas beyond the immediate vicinity of the selected schools.
* You don't have to be a monster or a madman to dehumanise others. You just have to be an ordinary human being.
* Obama endorses net neutrality.
* Incredibly misleading ad placement at Amazon inside the book description makes every book seem like it was an Amazon Editors' Favorite Book of the Year.
* "But a deep look at Mars One's plan and its finances reveals that not only is the goal a longshot, it might be a scam." No! No! I won't believe it!
* How Much of a Difference Did New Voting Restrictions Make in 2014's Close Races?
* And Jacobin remembers 1917.
Tagged with "Is Health Care Reform Constitutional?", 1917, Amazon, America, apocalypse, art, artificial intelligence, Barack Obama, Brown, Bush, cities, class struggle, climate change, climate trials, cloud computing, communism, corals, corpocracy, criticism, debt, dehumanization, doritos is people, ecology, elections, film, finance capital, finance capitalism, financialization, fraternities, futurity, games, general election 2016, Gone Girl, health care, Hillary Clinton, homelessness, Interstellar, Jacobin, Jameson, kids today, Lenin, longevity, male privilege, Mars, Mars One, meritocracy, midterm election 2014, mortality, Mountain Dew, net neutrality, North Korea, oceans, podcasts, police state, politics, postmodernism, postmodernity, Qatar, race, racism, rape, rape culture, Reddit, Risk, science fiction, science is magic, Serial, Soviet Union, spoiler alerts, spoilers, standup comedy, Supreme Court, telepathy, the courts, the law, there are some lines never meant to be crossed, This American Life, Tig Notaro, true crime, UNC, voter ID, voter suppression, when you stare too long into the abyss the abyss stares back into you, white people, white privilege, Wikipedia, World Cup, writing
Thursday!
* What happened in Atlanta this week is not a matter of Southerners blindsided by unpredictable weather. More than any event I've witnessed in two decades of living in and writing about this city, this snowstorm underscores the horrible history of suburban sprawl in the United States and the bad political decisions that drive it.
* Accreditation Standards Should Include Treatment of Adjuncts, Report Says. This has been my revolutionary scheme for a while, glad to see it could actually be feasible…
* Let Banks Fail Is Iceland Mantra as 2% Joblessness in Sight.
* "I wouldn't go so far," writes Horton of Kincaid's central thesis that short science fiction exhibits all the signs of exhaustion. "I don't think that 'all meaning has been drained from' the tropes we use, but I do think they are becoming overfamiliar. And I do think that the field of science fiction has to a considerable extent become enamoured with explicitly backward-looking ideas."
* "These findings suggest that potential harm to faculty-student relationships and academic freedom should not continue to serve as bases for the denial of collective bargaining rights to graduate student employees."
* Boom: A Journal of California interviews Kim Stanley Robinson.
* My friend Jack Hamilton eulogizes Pete Seeger.
* What STEM shortage? Electrical engineering lost 35,000 jobs last year.
* Utterly horrifying: Hanover College Told Rape Victim That Attempting To Have Her Alleged Rapist Punished Is Harassment.
* California is thirsty.
* UNC: We failed students "for years."
* Maps of Hip America.
* Many watchdogs believe the police are killing more innocent Americans than ever. But here's why they can't be sure.
* Occupy and the Academy.
* Stradivarius violin stolen in armed robbery in Milwaukee. Said to be the biggest heist in city history.
* Some Notes on the MLA Job Information List.
* What do unionizing NCAA players want? NCAA Should Be Begging for a Union.
* Capitalism, the infernal machine: An interview with Fredric Jameson.
* The police union as philosophical problem.
* The Rise of the Post-New Left Political Vocabulary.
* …41 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming people have attempted suicide, a rate far higher than the national average of 4.6 percent.
* New York Senate passes bill punishing ASA over Israel boycott.
* More on Ezra Klein's very strange idea.
* Batgirl advocates for equal pay for equal work.
* Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal wins every prize today.
* So does this Ice-T impersonator prank calling noted Ice-T impersonator Paul F. Tompkins (as played on the second episode of the new Ice-T podcast starring Ice-T).
* New York City commissioner's ancestors were slaves of Benedict Cumberbatch's family.
* Climate Change Is Already Causing Mass Human Migration.
* 10 Failed Utopian Cities That Influenced the Future.
* And The State reunites (for a segment anyway)…
Tagged with academia, academic boycotts, academic jobs, accreditation, adjuncs, American Studies, Atlanta, Batgirl, Benedict Cumberbatch, boycotts, California, capitalism, class struggle, climate change, college sports, drought, equal pay for equal work, Ezra Klein, feminism, folk music, futurity, gay rights, graduate student life, Hanover College, hipsters, How the University Works, Ice-T, Israel, Jameson, jobs, journamalism, Kim Stanley Robinson, maps, Milwaukee, MLA, NCAA, New York, Occupy, Palestine, Paul F. Tompkins, Pete Seeger, podcasts, police, police state, police violent, politics, postmodernity, priceless violins, rape, rape culture, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, science fiction, slavery, snow, STEM, Stradivarius, suburbanization, suicide, the Left, the literature of exhaustion, The State, The Walking Dead, Title IX, transgender issues, transparency, true crime, UNC, unions, Utopia, water, weather, Wisconsin
Sunday™ Reading™ Accept No Substitutes®
* Put the Student Union of Michigan in charge! In the end, the university's rationale for the campaign relies heavily on a narrative of state defunding. For example, as a Detroit News article relates, "President Mary Sue Coleman called the campaign 'audacious' and said no gift is too small since universities need philanthropy with states no longer able to support them to the degree they must for schools to be globally competitive." This narrative seems difficult to square with the actual role of the endowment in funding university operations. The endowment contributes only 4.5% (of its total holdings) to the general operation funds of university each year. The principal stays invested. Thus, if we look at the breakdown of revenue sources at the university in 2010 the endowment contributed only $253 million. Student tuition however generated over $1 billion, while state funding totaled $315 million. The endowment clearly has very little to do with making up for lost state funding. Its purpose lies elsewhere. And that elsewhere is in the university's move to behave more and more like a hedge fund, mobilizing donated capital to secure new revenue streams. It does this by taking advantage of its tax-exempt status to build up a hoard of money that it then invests around the world in shady funds and places it would rather the university community did not know about. In so doing, the university is slowly becoming an important player on Wall Street but to play with the "big boys" it needs more and more capital, which requires constant fundraising campaigns. This money is destined for investment not students. Little of it will ever reach students in the form of scholarships or be used to offset increases in tuition. (via)
* Meanwhile: The University of California Invests in Prisons.
* Yanis Varoufakis on ponzi austerity.
Whereas in standard Ponzi (growth) schemes the lure is the promise of a growing fund, in the case of Ponzi austerity the attraction to bankrupted participants is the promise of reducing their debt, so as to liberate them from insolvency, through a combination of 'belt tightening', austerity measures and new loans that provide the bankrupt with necessary funds for repaying maturing debts (e.g. bonds). As it is impossible to escape insolvency in this manner, Ponzi austerity schemes, just like Ponzi growth schemes, necessitate a constant influx of new capital to support the illusion that bankruptcy has been averted. But to attract this capital, the Ponzi austerity's operators must do their utmost to maintain the façade of genuine debt reduction.
* "I am as American as April in Arizona": Nabokov interviews at The Paris Review.
* Student Debt is Crushing the Economic Future of the Young.
* Joyless Nihilism: Adam Kotsko on the Abramsverse Star Trek, Family Guy, and zombie postmodernism.
* The Life and Times of an Aging Superhero Captured in Oil Paintings by Andreas Englund.
* In education, the problem is still poverty.
* America is a country made possible by hucksterism and carnival buncombe.
* Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt.
* The environmental scandal that's happening right beneath your feet.
* And the Philippines estimates at least 10,000 died from super typhoon. No words.
Tagged with academia, America, austerity, class struggle, climate change, David Graeber, ecology, endowments, Family Guy, flexible accumulation, hedge funds, How the University Works, hydrofracking, Lolita, Nabokov, Naomi Klein, neoliberalism, nihilism, pastiche, politics, Ponzi schemes, postmodernism, postmodernity, poverty, prison-industrial complex, revolution, scams, science, Star Trek, student debt, student movements, superheroes, superstorms, the Philippines, University of Michigan, war on education, zombies
Fall Courses: 'Postmodern American Fiction' and '21st Century Science Fiction'
ENGLISH 4560/5560: Postmodern American Fiction! Pale Fire! Beloved! Dawn! House of Leaves! And more!
ENGLISH 4710/5710: 21st Century Science Fiction! Stories of Your Life and Others! The City and the City! Oryx and Crake! Fledgling! And more!
Tagged with Marquette, postmodernism, postmodernity, science fiction, syllabi, what it is I think I'm doing
A Project Even More Vital Than That of the Relentless Critique of Everything Existing
Michael Bérubé remembers the Sokal hoax.
Tagged with climate change, critique, Michael Bérubé, postmodernity, science, science studies, Sokal hoax, Stanley Aronowitz
J.G. Ballard, "Poet of Desolate Landscapes"
Not to take away from his verdict on the 20th century: Ballard's a bard of techno-anomie, of late-capitalist disaffection, and his writings are just the tonic if your local cloverleaf traffic jam or gated community or global warming harbinger has got you feeling out of sorts. But it's precisely his grounding in deeper undercurrents of cosmic-existentialist wonder that give that tonic its fizz. His is the voice reminding you not to take the postmodern hangover too personally: it was always going to happen this way.
Jonathan Lethem eulogizes J.G. Ballard in The New York Times Book Review.
Tagged with apocalypse, J.G. Ballard, Jonathan Lethem, postmodernity, science fiction
Infinite Summer #5: Maps and Territories
Anyone who has been in graduate school as long as I have recognizes a reference to maps and territories immediately:
If we were able to take as the finest allegory of simulation the Borges tale where the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering the territory (but where, with the decline of the Empire this map becomes frayed and finally ruined, a few shreds still discernible in the deserts – the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction, bearing witness to an imperial pride and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, rather as an aging double ends up being confused with the real thing), this fable would then have come full circle for us, and now has nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra.
Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory – precession of simulacra – it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire, but our own. The desert of the real itself.
What destroys the Interdependence Day Y.D.A.U. game of Eschaton—which I must admit is another personal favorite sequence in the novel—is exactly this Baudrillardian sense of (Pemulis's words) "map-not-territory equivocationary horseshit" (337), i.e., the postmodern inability to distinguish between maps and territories that is, in the end, the inability to locate "territory" at all. For Pemulis this kind of cognitive breakdown threatens our ability to think at all:
Pemulis howls that Lord is in his vacillation appeasing Ingersoll in Ingersoll's effort to fatally fuck with the very breath and bread of Eschaton. Players themselves can't be valid targets. Players aren't inside the goddamn game. Payers are part of the apparatus of the game. They're part of the map. It's snowing on the players but not on the territory. They're part of the map, not the clusterfucking territory. You can only launch against the territory. Not against the map. It's like the one ground-rule boundary that keeps Eschaton from degenerating into chaos. Eschaton gentlemen is about logic and axiom and mathematical probity and discipline and verity and order. You do not get points for hitting anybody real. Only the gear that maps what's real…
…and Pemulis shouts across that it's so totally beside the point it doesn't matter, that the reason players aren't explicitly exempted in the ESCHAX.DIR is that their exemption is what makes Eschaton and its axioms fucking possible in the first place. … Pemulis says because otherwise use your heads otherwise nonstrategic emotions would get aroused and Combatants would be whacking balls at each other's physical persons all the time and Eschaton wouldn't even be possible in its icily elegant game-theoretical form. He's stopped jumping up and down, at least, Troeltsch observes. Players' exemption from strikes goes without saying, Pemulis says; it's like preaxiomatic. Pemulis tells Lord to consider what he's doing very carefully, because from where Pemulis is standing Lord looks to be willing to very possibly compromise Eschaton's map for all time. (338)
It's not hard to see Pemulis's impotent, rage-filled anxiety over the fate of Eschaton's objective purity as, in miniature, the reaction of traditional Enlightenment rationality to its challenge from an increasingly hegemonic postmodernity that is characterized by cognitive decentering, indeterminacy, irrationality, and labyrinthine self-referentiality. Pemulis is not the first to shout that we must build floodwalls against certain lines of speculation and deny the possibility of alternate subjectivities for fear of total cognitive chaos (whether said chaos is named postmodernism, social constructivism, cultural relativism, theory, or something else entirely)—to claim, in other words, that only a sufficiently abstractive and "objective" faux universality, the terms of which have always been agreed upon in advance, properly counts as Thought in the first place.
Two further thoughts emerge: first, that this anxiety about maps and territories is clearly a central problem for the reader of Infinite Jest as well, who, I think, must struggle to stay afloat in a narrative whose irony is confusingly unstable, with satire that is constantly threatening to devolve into parody and even to mere gag. 390 pages in, I find that I am still trying to get a firm grip on what is "real" and what is "not real" in this text, that is, what is best understood through a conventionally realist interpretive lens and what is better described as hyperbolic and hyperreal in the style that James Wood famously named hysterical realism.
And second, that the opposition between maps and territories laid out in the Eschaton section is central to one of the more memorable turns of phrase that DFW uses throughout IJ: the endless variations on "eliminate his own map for good" as a euphemism for suicide. That we ourselves are maps, not territories suggests, on the one hand, a idealist vision of the universe in which objective reality takes a backseat to our subjective understanding of it and on the other a psychoanalytic framing of consciousness itself as essentially false and illusionary—the latter take driven home at the end of the section by Hal's need to feel his own face to see if he is wincing (342). What do we do if consciousness itself is a simulacrum without a referent, and all self-reflection therefore a kind of hopeless mise en abyme?
Posted in readings
Tagged with Baudrillard, Borges, consciousness, David Foster Wallace, Enlightenment rationality, Infinite Jest, Infinite Summer, maps, postmodernism, postmodernity, suicide
'A dull and self-absorbed new generation of citizens falling prey to demagoguery and brazen power grabs'
At 28½, I'm just old enough to look down on Mark Bauerlein's "Dumbest Generation."
The way Bauerlein sees it, something new and disastrous has happened to America's youth with the arrival of the instant gratification go-go-go digital age. The result is, essentially, a collective loss of context and history, a neglect of "enduring ideas and conflicts." Survey after painstakingly recounted survey reveals what most of us already suspect: that America's youth know virtually nothing about history and politics. And no wonder. They have developed a "brazen disregard of books and reading."
Things were not supposed to be this way. After all, "never have the opportunities for education, learning, political action, and cultural activity been greater," writes Bauerlein, a former director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. But somehow, he contends, the much-ballyhooed advances of this brave new world have not only failed to materialize — they've actually made us dumber.
The problem is that instead of using the Web to learn about the wide world, young people instead mostly use it to gossip about each other and follow pop culture, relentlessly keeping up with the ever-shifting lingua franca of being cool in school. The two most popular websites by far among students are Facebook and MySpace. "Social life is a powerful temptation," Bauerlein explains, "and most teenagers feel the pain of missing out."
This ceaseless pipeline of peer-to-peer activity is worrisome, he argues, not only because it crowds out the more serious stuff but also because it strengthens what he calls the "pull of immaturity." Instead of connecting them with parents, teachers and other adult figures, "[t]he web . . . encourages more horizontal modeling, more raillery and mimicry of people the same age." When Bauerlein tells an audience of college students, "You are six times more likely to know who the latest American Idol is than you are to know who the speaker of the U.S. House is," a voice in the crowd tells him: "'American Idol' IS more important."
Better pretend my last post wasn't about comic books.
Tagged with a dull and self-absorbed new generation of citizens falling prey to demagoguery and brazen power grabs, digitality, dumbest generation, Facebook, Internet, kids today, MySpace, postmodernity, social networking, Won't somebody think of the children?
Against Reruns
NBC Universal took a big step toward undoing one of the television industry's oldest traditions by announcing Tuesday that it would move to a year-round schedule of staggered program introductions. The move is intended to appeal to advertisers, who crave fresh content to keep viewers tuned in.
And if it succeeds — and leads other broadcast networks to shift from their focus on a mass introduction of new shows — it could alter an American cultural cycle that extends all the way back to the days of radio, when families gathered around the Philco every September, as the school year began, to sample the new entertainment choices.
I'm amazed it took the networks decades to do this—a perpetual TV season always been an obvious opportunity for a short-term profit grab, though it's irreversible once the trigger is finally pulled.
In any event, that last quoted paragraph is dripping with such absurd nostalgia for consumption that I can barely wrap my head around it; I think this is my new go-to example for postmodernity.
Tagged with consumer culture, nostalgia, postmodernity, television
Memories of Marshall McLuhan
Memories of Marshall McLuhan.
Like all original thinkers from Blake to Einstein, McLuhan was much misunderstood. He never promoted TV over books as popular accounts gave out. He never expressed a preference for tribal culture over individualism. He never said the patterns of perception imposed by the ear are superior to those of the eye. One small aphorism sticks with me: "When the globe becomes a single electronic web with all its languages and culture recorded on a single tribal drum, the fixed point of view of print culture becomes irrelevant, however precious." However precious! Those are the operative words, about as far as McLuhan went in taking sides. But they also bring his innermost sympathies to the fore.
Tagged with books, globalization, Internet, late capitalism, Marshall McLuhan, postmodernity, print culture
If the Band You're In Starts Playing Different Tunes
Today's chilling vision of postmodernity (via Gravity Lens): Polka Floyd. It's been forever since a band affected me like this.
Warning: After this nothing will ever be the same.
Brain Damage/Eclipse
We Don't Need No Education
Dark Side of the Moon medley
Tagged with Dark Side of the Moon, Hurra Torpedo, music, Pink Floyd, Polka Floyd, postmodernity, the future is now, YouTube


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Home Patients Treatments & Therapies About Enterra Therapy Personal Stories
Leita's Story
Leita, a student studying for her PhD in cellular and molecular biology, woke up one day with an earache and nausea. Within 3 days she experienced vertigo and nausea, and couldn't keep down food or drink. "When you love food so much and it becomes your enemy," she says, "it's heart breaking."
Arlene's Story
Arlene always prided herself on taking good care of her health. So when she started having troubling symptoms that affected her digestion, she "knew there was something going on." Her weight plummeted from 108 to 82 pounds.
Molly's Story
As someone who has had type 1 diabetes since age 6, Molly was diligent about monitoring glucose levels and taking insulin. Beginning in her 20s, her glucose levels began to dip dangerously low, especially in the middle of the night. These episodes often sent her to the emergency room, and left her wondering what was wrong. "What I didn't know was that my dinner wasn't digesting at all," she says.
Jim's Story
Jim was beginning to lose hope for a normal life when his doctors prescribed gastric electrical stimulation. Soon, Jim could eat small mouthfuls of food. Eight weeks later, his diet was closer to normal.
At the start of her senior year at a Connecticut college, Lynn was on the road to achieving her dreams. As the fall semester progressed, however, Lynn developed a chronic gastrointestinal condition that baffled her doctors. "I was vomiting 10 to 15 times a day, every day," says Lynn. Eventually, Lynn was diagnosed with gastroparesis.
Karen, a 47-year-old mother of three, loves to participate in activities with her large extended family – from school events to church functions to birthday celebrations. In late 2001, however, Karen was diagnosed with gastroparesis, a condition characterized by chronic nausea and vomiting. The condition left her bedridden.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Rising Star Gymnastics, established in 1982, is a fully equipped gymnastics club offering classes for both boys and girls, tots through young adults. Our outstanding, fun-filled program is designed to teach the young student poise, character, and self-discipline, all while developing a physically fit and responsible individual. It is our mission to provide gymnastics instruction to all students enrolled in our program in both a fun and safe environment. Every child, regardless of ability, deserves the best instruction possible.
We at Rising Star Gymnastics provide each child with a rewarding experience by developing a POSITIVE SELF IMAGE that is based on confidence and self-worth as learned through the experience of accomplishing skills and tasks. We utilize the United States Association of Gymnastics ten-level achievement program as a guideline for teaching gymnastics skills and routines to our students. Its objective is to provide a motivational series of progressively difficult gymnastics skills for the student to work on and master. Our structured program challenges and rewards all of our students, from those just beginning gymnastics up through our advanced competitive athletes.


Did someone say science fair-off? Two of my favorite characters in Marvel dish it out on the main stage in a battle of wits and science "stuff". In one corner, Dr. Hank McCoy and in the other, Professor Spider-Man; now let the main event begin at the annual Jean Grey School Science Fair event! Ok ok, so there is no science fair but there is a gladiatorial battle as the students and professors battle Deathbird's symbiotes. Also, we have space travel, the Peak, the S.W.O.R.D. agency, the number twenty-nine villain in Marvel history, Glob is a hero, and the mole is revealed…finally!
The Peak is to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial threats, the Peak first appeared in Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #6. It is under the protection of S.W.O.R.D. which stands for the Sentient World Observation and Response, which used to work with S.H.I.E.L.D but that is no longer the case. S.W.O.R.D. is a counter terrorism and intelligence agency involved in extraterrestrial threats to world security which explains its orbit around Earth. Now back to the review!
As Spider-Man is discussing the history between himself and the symbiote, Rachel Summer breaks into the conversation stating that she still believes that Spider-Man is hiding something as he knows too much about the symbiote, but she cannot remember (please see review 4). Luckily for Spider-Man, Beast intervenes and wants Rachel to calm down so they can rescue Beast's girlfriend, which is thru the Bamfgate. As Beast and Spider-Man go through the portal, the young X-Men rush through as Storm is trying to stop them. These young X-Men are under the guidance and leadership of Spider-Man, so what does one expect? A plan, a committee discussion, or just rush forward not knowing what is on the other side? Well you guessed it reader and I like to call it the Spider-Man way, yea just go through and it will work out. As Beast and Spider-Man arrive through the gate they notice that the S.W.O.R.D. headquarters is in ruins and is overrun with the symbiote. "…Being attacked by aliens is basically S.W.O.R.D.'s mission statement" says Beast. As the symbiote hoard begins its attack, Spider-Man does not want them to use the gate. Rockslide assumes this means destruction and so he takes care of the portal by destroying it. Spidey is not pleased but what do you expect from his team of young X-Men as they are hasty and young-minded teenagers. Spider-Man says, "Rockslide, now we're are stuck here with no backup! Which we need since none of us have flame or sonic powers." This is very similar to past issues as they are always without that "something" they need. The next few pages show the symbiote designed as bugs, Beast is fighting his girlfriend, and Kalan keeps up with the whimsical humor between Beast and Spidey as they deal with their problems.
As the young X-Men keep up with Spidey, they run into the nest of Deathbird and the symbiote Imperium. Spidey speaks to Deathbird about the power of her consciousness overriding the insanity of the symbiote. There is no chance in this tactic and Spider-Man request the help of Hellion with one of the symbiote skins. Spidey is planning to attach the symbiote to himself in order to utilize its powers. He also has No-Girl watch his mental "back" in order to keep his sanity and to not lose himself. The quirky humor of Spider-Man is non-stop as he states, "…I swear if you turn on me 'cause you're secretly working for Deathbird, I have to flunk you." Spider-Man is now in the black suit and who does not like seeing Spidey in black suit; it is such a nice color and a personal favorite of mine. As he fights Deathbird, No-Girl is fighting in Spider-Man's subconscious. These next few panels within this book are powerful in the portrayal of what it is like to fight in the dark and desolate mind of the symbiote parasite. No-Girl states, "Mr. Spider-Man, it's like fighting an ocean!" As Spider-Man is losing against Deathbird, his consciousness is slipping and so is No-Girl. Deathbird is able to regain her consciousness by thinking of her baby with the help of Spider-Man. As Hellion captures the symbiote from Deathbird, Spider-Man has lost his consciousness and becomes Venom. Venom begins to attack the X-Men, but Beast uses a sonic focus beam to release Spidey from the symbiote. Soon after the team has saved the Peak but there is no chance of returning home until repairs are complete. Glob decides to help out the team by becoming the heat shield to enter the Earth's atmosphere. The next few pages are a great combination of art and humorous writing from Kalan and Failla. As the team reaches Earth, Glob is detached from the ship and slams into the ground. He is not dead and Spidey is relieved as almost every one of his students has been in an ill-fated scenario since the first issue.
It has been a fun ride in reading these past four issues. Each one of them has been better than the last and with the return of Failla, the art is back on par to what I have expected. The writing of Kalan is getting better every issue and his humorous writing is shining nicely through Spider-Man. I also liked how Hank McCoy had character as well. It has a quick speed to it and even a quicker resolve within its twenty pages. As much as I like this issue, I have some concerns on the pace. It sped through once again and felt rushed. I do not have any concerns with character development and there is much to read outside the boxes when it comes to the X-Men lore. I am Spidey fan and had to stop and read about some of the events from previous material in order to be up to speed with X-Men history, locations, villains, Deathbird's baby, and Beast's girlfriend. That is not a huge concern, but a concern if are not familiar with the X-Men lore. I also would have liked to see what happened to No-Girl as she was swallowed up in the subconscious of Spider-Man as he became Venom.
This was a great issue that involved more of the X-Men lore (which I enjoy researching), space travel, Spidey's sense of quip humor, the symbiote, and a final page of the Sinister. I am enjoying this work from Elliott Kalan and look forward to the final issue.


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Fables of the Reconstruction, também conhecido como Reconstruction of the Fables, é o terceiro álbum de estúdio da banda americana de rock alternativo R.E.M., lançado pela I.R.S. Records em 10 de junho de 1985. O álbum produzido por Joe Boyd foi o primeiro gravado pelo grupo fora dos Estados Unidos. É um álbum conceitual com temas e personagens de contos góticos do sul americano.

História
Apesar do público crescente e da aclamação da crítica pela banda após seus dois primeiros álbuns, Murmur e Reckoning, o R.E.M. decidiu fazer mudanças notáveis em seu estilo de música e hábitos de gravação, incluindo a mudança de produtor, que viria a ser Joe Boyd, e do local de gravação, desta vez em Londres, Inglaterra. Boyd era mais conhecido por seu trabalho com músicos ingleses de folk contemporâneo, incluindo artistas como Fairport Convention e Nick Drake.

Ainda era um disco conceitual para os padrões do R.E.M.: liricamente, o álbum explora a mitologia e a paisagem do sul, e o título e refrão de "Cant Get There from Here", o primeiro single do álbum (intencionalmente incorreto, como a maioria das contrações e possessivos nos títulos R.E.M.), é um coloquialismo rural americano às vezes usado em resposta a um pedido dos viajantes por direções difíceis (o vídeo da música recebeu uma transmissão na MTV).

Música e temas líricos
A música de abertura, "Feeling Gravitys Pull" (sic), descreve o adormecer durante a leitura; as letras de Michael Stipe também fazem referência ao fotógrafo surrealista Man Ray, dando o tom para o álbum. A música foi uma partida musical para a banda, usando uma figura sombria e cromática de guitarra de Peter Buck, e um quarteto de cordas, enquanto os álbuns anteriores do R.E.M. foram abertos com canções de rock rítmicas e "jangly".

"Maps and Legends" se encaixa no som anterior e apresenta vocais de harmonia distintos do baixista Mike Mills, cantando letras diferentes de Stipe. A música é dedicada ao reverendo Howard Finster, um notável artista outsider que a banda considerou "um homem de visão e sentimento - um bom exemplo para todos" (Finster criou a capa de Reckoning no ano anterior).

"Driver 8" descreve o cenário em torno dos trilhos de trem em termos um tanto abstratos. Os trens são um tema frequente na música rural americana, sugerindo a liberdade e a promessa de uma fuga do ambiente doméstico. Impulsionado por um riff de guitarra distinto, "Driver 8" foi uma das músicas do álbum que foram executadas nas rádios universitárias e a gravadora também autorizou a criação de um videoclipe.

Começando com uma introdução suave, "Life and How to Live It" nos carrega através de outro arranjo atmosférico de folk rock e narrativas referenciadas. Sem mencioná-lo pelo nome, a música era sobre o autor Brivs Mekis, de Athens, Georgia, como mencionado na performance ao vivo no disco bônus And I Feel Fine... (Mekis escreveu um livro intitulado Life: How to Live e mandou imprimi-lo, apenas para ter todas as cópias existentes empilhadas em seu armário).

Grande parte do material de composição da banda nessa época veio das próprias experiências dos membros, que viajaram pelo país em turnês quase constantes nos anos anteriores, bem como de um crescente senso de ativismo político que encontraria expressão nos álbuns subsequentes, Lifes Rich Pangeant e Document. Stipe disse posteriormente que suas letras anteriores nunca tiveram realmente nenhum significado literal, e que a essa altura ele havia começado a escrever letras que contavam histórias.

A música "Green Grow the Rushes" é um excelente exemplo, que contém a estrofe "the amber waves of gain", que o biógrafo Marcus Gray pensa ser sobre trabalhadores agrícolas migrantes e que também faz alusão à música folclórica "Green Grow the Rushes, O". Natalie Merchant afirmou que essa música foi escrita como parte de um pacto que ela fez com Stipe para escrever músicas sobre o genocídio dos nativos americanos; sua música, "Among the Americans", apareceu no álbum de 1985 do 10,000 Maniacs, The Wishing Chair.

"Kohoutek" (escrito incorretamente como "Kahoetek" nas notas de encarte do álbum) faz referência ao cometa Kohoutek, e talvez seja uma das primeiras músicas do R.E.M. sobre um relacionamento romântico, usando o cometa como uma metáfora de um amante: "like Kohoutek, you were gone" (traduzindo: "como Kohoutek, você se foi").

A música "Auctioneer (Another Engine)" se desvia do som típico do R.E.M. da época, com riffs de guitarra irregulares e mais referências aos velhos modos de vida rurais.

A lamuriosa "Good Advices" contém a seguinte letra de Stipe, citada em contextos musicais e literários: "When you meet a stranger, look at his shoes / keep your money in your shoes" (traduzindo: "Quando você encontrar um estranho, olhe para os sapatos dele / mantenha seu dinheiro em seus sapatos".

A celebração de um indivíduo excêntrico é o tema de "Old Man Kensey" (que tem letras do amigo de Stipe, Jeremy Ayers) e da faixa final "Wendell Gee". A última, uma balada com piano e mais harmonias de Berry e Mills, foi o terceiro e último single do álbum apenas no Reino Unido, embora não tenha causado nenhuma impressão comercial por lá.

Lançamento
Após o lançamento, Fables of the Reconstruction alcançou o 28º lugar nos Estados Unidos (alcançando o disco de ouro em 1991) e foi a melhor performance da banda nas paradas do Reino Unido até então, chegando ao 35º lugar. Gravado durante um período de conflito interno - em grande parte devido à sensação de deslocamento dos membros da banda e um inverno desagradável em Londres - a visão pouco entusiasmada da banda sobre o álbum é pública há anos e é frequentemente refletida entre os fãs e a imprensa. O baterista Bill Berry foi citado no início dos anos 90, dizendo que Fables of the Reconstruction "era péssimo". O guitarrista Peter Buck descartou o single "Driver 8" dizendo: "Eu posso escrever esse tipo de coisa enquanto durmo". O vocalista Michael Stipe uma vez compartilhou da opinião, mas posteriormente disse que a considera a coleção mais forte de músicas entre os álbuns dos anos 80, afirmando ao produtor Joe Boyd que ele aprendeu a amar o álbum.

Peter Buck, nas notas de encarte da edição de luxo de 25º aniversário, disse: "Ao longo dos anos, um certo equívoco se formou sobre Fables of the Reconstruction se formou. Por alguma razão, as pessoas ficaram com a impressão de que os membros do REM não gostam o disco. Nada poderia estar mais longe da verdade. [...] É um favorito pessoal e estou realmente orgulhoso de como ele é estranho. Ninguém, exceto o R.E.M., poderia ter feito esse disco."

Fables era frequentemente caracterizada por um ritmo lento e um som intencionalmente sombrio, em contraste com o som mais alegre e "jangly" (se igualmente abstrato) do material anterior do R.E.M.. No entanto, o foco em instrumentos do folk americano, como o banjo em "Wendell Gee" e algumas orquestrações adicionais (instrumentos de cordas em "Sentindo Gravitys Pull" e metais honking em "Cant Get There from Here") iniciou a rota da banda em direção ao som acústico, em camadas, que eles adotaram para seu avanço popular no final dos anos 80 e no começo dos anos 90, com álbuns como Document, Green, Out of Time e Automatic for the People.

Recepção

Fables of the Reconstruction, no geral, recebeu críticas positivas. Parke Puterbaugh, da Rolling Stone, atribuiu quatro estrelas de cinco ao álbum, afirmando: "ouvir Fables of the Reconstruction é como acordar em um mundo ameaçador, mas maravilhoso, abaixo daquele que conhecemos." Robert Christgau, do Village Voice, afirma que "trocando energia por texturas cada vez mais ricas, seu impressionismo sacrifica seu nervosismo paradoxal: é doloroso, mais lento, solidamente fundamentado, mas ainda assim mais difícil de dançar."

Lista de faixas

Créditos
R.E.M.
 Bill Berry – bateria, backing vocals (creditado como "WT Berry – Best Boy")
 Peter Buck – guitarra, banjo, gaita (creditado como "PL Buck – Ministry of Music")
 Mike Mills – baixo, backing vocals, piano (creditado como "ME Mills – Consolate Mediator")
 Michael Stipe – vocais (creditado como "JM Stipe – Gaffer Interpreter")

Músicos adicionais
 David Bitelli – saxofone tenor e barítono em "Cant Get There from Here"
 Camilla Brunt – violino em "Feeling Gravitys Pull"
 Jim Dvorak – trompete em "Cant Get There from Here"
 Philippa Ibbotson – violino em "Feeling Gravitys Pull"
 David Newby – violoncelo em "Feeling Gravitys Pull"
 Pete Thomas – saxofone tenor em "Cant Get There from Here"

Produção
 Joe Boyd – produção
 Berry Clempson – engenharia de áudio
 Tony Harris – engenharia de áudio
 M. K. Johnston – fotografia e arte

Tabelas e certificações
Álbum

Singles

Certificações

Ligações externas

Álbuns de 1985
Álbuns de R.E.M.
Álbuns de rock alternativo
Álbuns de folk rock
Álbuns da I.R.S. Records

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Home / Newsroom / News / 2018 / Military Cooperation Talks with Moldova at JFC Naples
Military Cooperation Talks with Moldova at JFC Naples
(Left to right) French Army Colonel Franck Faubladier,  Military Partnership Branch head,  Moldovan Army Lieutenant Colonel Gheorghe Oarza,  Director of Defence Policy and Planning,  and German Army Brigadier General Reinhard Kloss,  Assistant Chief of Staff J9,  meet to discuss NATO and Moldova's partnership. Courtesy Photo.
NAPLES, Italy – The Allied Joint Force Command Naples Military Partnership Branch hosted a Moldovan Ministry of Defence delegation on August 8 at JFC Naples.
The Moldovan delegation, led by Lieutenant Colonel Gheorghe Oarza, Director of Defence Policy and Planning, were hosted by German Army Brigadier General Reinhard Kloss, Assistant Chief of Staff J9, and French Army Colonel Franck Faubladier, Military Partnership Branch head. Also included in the delegation were Colonel Ruslan Cojocaru, Moldovan General Staff J7 head of division, and the national military ePrime coordinator.
The Moldovans described current work on their National Defence Strategy and how the upcoming parliamentary elections could influence cooperation with NATO. They provided a comprehensive briefing on the Defense Strategy of Moldova, including a strategic analysis of threats and a detailed outlook on the 10 year plan of their defense sector reform.
Kloss was delighted when the Moldovan Director of Defence Policy advised that the Moldovan Armed Forces will be adding a further two Infantry Companies to the Operational Capability Concept pool of forces. Furthermore, the Moldovans highlighted that they will continue to contribute a contingent of 41 soldiers to the JFC Naples commanded Kosovo Force mission. Additionally, the allocation of seats on NATO courses and JFC Naples provided Mobile Training Team activity for 2019 were also discussed. With approximately 100 planned partnering events in 2019, Moldova is an active partner country.
The Moldovans were impressed not only by the quality of partnering support provided by JFC Naples staff, but also by the beauty of region, where the headquarters is located.
The annual cooperation talks are an important part of NATO's partnership plan with Moldova. The talks contribute to a further increase in mutual trust between NATO and Moldovan Armed Forces.
At the end of the talks, Lieutenant Colonel Oarza handed over a book about the Moldovan Armed Forces to his hosts with the stating, that in a couple of years, he will bring another book as a gift and the Moldovan Armed Forces will then be different and more professional due to the assistance given by NATO. Following with, through the efforts in educating and training the Moldovan Armed Forces security, NATO is helping build security far beyond its borders.
Story by JFC Naples J9


This workshop was brings together presentations of three concrete experiences at different levels of governance, supported by a range of instruments from national and regional ERDF OPs to Territorial Cooperation. A further set of presentations of on-going work in strategic and capitalization initiatives highlights emerging issues for Smart Specialisation. Finally, a round table discussion of several regions will draw the conclusions on the relevance to their specific strategies and the potential for inter-regional cooperation.


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Malamute vs Siberian and Alaskan Husky: What's the Difference?
Siberian Husky (left) and Alaskan Malamute (source)
Ever seen a Husky-like dog but couldn't tell if it really was a Siberian Husky?
You were probably looking at one of its cousins, probably an Alaskan Malamute or an Alaskan Husky.
These three dogs share a wolf-like appearance and a sled dog heritage. However, they each have characteristics that make them unique.
Let me tell you all about the similarities and differences between three of the most popular Northern breeds today
Similar looks, different backgrounds
The origin of Malamutes
The history of Siberian Huskies
What about Alaskan Huskies?
The features of the Alaskan Malamute vs the Huskies
Malamutes are bigger than Siberian and Alaskan Huskies
They have different eye colors.
The personalities of these Arctic dogs
Are they suitable for first-time dog owners?
Do they make good guard dogs?
Are they good family dogs?
Alaskan Malamute vs Siberian and Alaskan Husky: which is easiest to groom?
Feeding a Husky vs feeding a Malamute
Which of these Northern breeds is prone to more health issues?
The price of a Malamute puppy vs. the cost of a Husky puppy
Malamute and Husky breeders you can trust
Adopting Malamutes and Siberian and Alaskan Huskies
A comparison table of the Alaskan Husky vs the Siberian Husky vs the Alaskan Malamute
So, will it be a Malamute, a Siberian Husky, or an Alaskan Husky?
The Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky (Sibe), and Alaskan Husky are all sled dogs, bred for speed, endurance, and strength. You'd think they'd have the same background, too, but that's where you'd be mistaken.
Here's a quick history lesson so you can learn all about where these hardworking dogs came from.
Did you know that a 2013 study identified the Alaskan Malamute as a basal breed?
Like the Basenji and the Shiba Inu, Malamutes are thought to have existed before modern dog breeds emerged in the 19th century.
The Malamute got its name from the nomadic Inuit tribe called Mahlemuts.
Trained as an all-around or utilitarian dog, the breed was considered an excellent hunter able to take down big game such as bears and seals.
The breed became extremely popular during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896, as prospectors and settlers needed a dog strong enough to pull heavy freight.
People began to cross the Malamute with other dogs in the hope of replicating the purebred's strength.
The interbreeding became uncontrollable. It came to the point that the ancient DNA of Malamutes almost disappeared.
Fortunately, a breeder named Robert J. Zoller became involved in the breed's revival, creating the Husky Pak line of dogs.
All modern Malamutes are thought to be descended from early strains of this line.
Siberian Huskies, on the other hand, have roots in Eurasia.
Directly descended from the original sled dog, these hardy canines were originally developed by the Chukchi tribe in eastern Siberia.
Huskies were bred to endure long travels in harsh, extremely cold weather. They were not only sled dogs, but they also helped in hunting prey and the herding of livestock.
Many of them even helped explore uncharted territory, helping tribes look for potential settlements.
The breed has always been raised in a family setting, which is why they have such a gentle, friendly temperament.
In 1909, the Siberian Husky came to America to compete in the All Alaska Sweepstakes, a famous sled-dog race.
The competition cemented the Huskies' reputation when they finished third place.
Soon after, many competitors started having the dogs compete in the race because of their unbelievable speed and endurance.
The breed's popularity skyrocketed when a team of Huskies completed the Great Race of Mercy in 1925, a run covering more than 600 miles of Alaskan territory.
Alaskan Husky (source)
The question of "Alaskan Husky vs Siberian Husky?" is a common one. Let's make some things clear, once and for all.
An Alaskan Husky is a type of dog rather than a breed. He's a mix of the Malamute, Siberian Husky, Inuit Husky, Eskimo Dog, and German Shepherd, among other breeds.
These canines are bred purely for performance. They're used as working dogs and, more commonly, as racing sled dogs.
Some are capable of distance racing, going as many as 1,000 miles in one race.
Alaskan Huskies have their own differences from Sibes. For one, the Alaskan Husky tends to be taller.
Alaskan Huskies are usually faster than their Siberian counterparts, too. They're are unmatched among the Northern breeds when it comes to speed and endurance, so these Huskies are highly prized in the world of dogsled racing.
These sled dogs share a similar look. Their coat colors and facial markings tend to be the same. Their fluffy tails, which they tuck over their noses for warmth, also curl up over the back.
However, there are differences in the appearance of these three dogs. If you take a closer look, you'll be able to spot a few distinct characteristics in each breed.
Check out this video of an Alaskan Malamute and a Siberian Husky playing and try to tell which is which:
There's a marked difference between these dogs when it comes to size, with the Malamute usually being much bigger than the Siberian and Alaskan Huskies. You'll easily notice the difference if you look at a Malamute and a Husky side by side.
Bred for strength, an Alaskan Malamute can be classified as a large to giant breed. A female Malamute's height plays between 22 to 24 inches (55 to 63 cm) and weighs 71 to 84 lbs (32 to 38 kg).
The height of male Malamutes ranges from 24 to 26 inches (63 to 66 cm) and they can weigh as much as 95 lbs (43 kg). There are also Malamutes that can stand up to 35 inches tall and weigh more than 100 lbs!
Siberian Huskies, on the other hand, tend to be more slender. They were bred for faster movement and maximum stamina; that's why they range only from medium to large size.
A female Siberian can measure between 20 to 22 inches (50 to 55 cm) in height and weigh between 31 to 51 lbs (14 to 23 kg), while male Sibes can reach up to 24 inches (63 cm) tall and weigh anywhere from 44 to 60 lbs (19 to 27 kg).
As we've mentioned, Alaskan Huskies are taller than their Siberian cousins, as many of them reach a height of up to 26 inches (66 cm). The two Huskies usually share the same lean build.
Alaskan Husky (foreground) and Alaskan Malamute (source)
Huskies and Malamutes have striking almond-shaped eyes that seem like they're staring right through your soul – a trait that endears both breeds to many owners.
But while Malamutes and Alaskan Huskies have eyes that are different shades of brown, Siberian Huskies can have eyes in more colors, including brown, blue, black, or green.
Some Sibes even have parti-colored (two colors in one eye) or bi-colored (each eye is a different color) eyes. The latter is also known as heterochromia.
When it comes to temperament, the Malamute and Alaskan and Siberian Huskies have a few differences. But, first, let's talk about what these dogs have in common.
Being pack-oriented dogs, the Malamute and Huskies share a sociable nature. They're usually friendly around people, and they love being the center of attention. Family members can expect a lot of cuddles from these dogs.
They're highly intelligent canines, resourceful and independent. Training any of them will definitely be an interesting experience.
Don't expect a Malamute or a Husky to follow your commands all the time, as they easily get bored.
In addition to being stubborn, the Malamute and Siberian will have a hard time staying calm around smaller animals because of their high prey drive.
The Alaskan Husky, on the other hand, may not give chase to the neighbor's cat or your pet bunny because he has little to no background as a hunter.
Compared to the Huskies, a Malamute tends to be a more dignified creature. With this attitude come an aloofness or even an aggression around other dogs, especially of the same sex. This characteristic is caused by the breed's strong pack nature.
Malamute (source)
The truth is that any of these three dogs will be challenging for a first-time dog owner.
If you're looking for your first four-legged, furry buddy, you may want to look for a breed that's easier to train.
Malamutes and Huskies need to know who the alpha of the pack is, and they will try to assert dominance if they don't see one.
Unless these dogs see you as the alpha, you can't expect them to obey a simple command like "sit".
It's up to you to establish yourself as the pack leader as early as possible. This will make training significantly easier.
They also have high energy levels, so they need plenty of exercise. Expect to give your Malamute or Husky at least one to two hours of vigorous physical activity daily. Mental stimulation is important for these canines, too.
If they get bored or don't release their pent-up energy, they'll resort to destructive behavior like chewing up your shoes or furniture.
The short answer is: NO.
None of these three dogs will be reliable as a guard dog; they're too friendly to have a protective instinct. The Siberian and Alaskan Huskies will greet strangers with a happy expression and a wagging tail, like they would a family member.
So is the Malamute a better guard dog or watch dog? Not really. Malamutes love getting attention, and they won't be able to resist pats or belly rubs from strangers.
With their wolf-like features (and the Malamute's impressive size), these dogs may be effective as a visual deterrent for intruders, but that's the extent of their guard dog abilities.
Siberian Husky with a baby (source)
The Alaskan Malamute and the Siberian and Alaskan Huskies are suitable pets for the family.
They're pack-oriented dogs, so they crave companionship and will love spending time with their family.
Their gentle nature makes them particularly good around kids. Sibes were trusted by the Chukchi even around babies and young children.
Just a heads-up, though: Malamutes may have some aggression issues around other dogs.
Early socialization can help prevent problems between a Malamute and other canines in the household.
Malamutes may also be more suitable for families with older children. Given this breed's size, he can easily knock down a small child and inadvertently cause accidents during playtime.
There's not much difference when it comes to the grooming and maintenance of Malamutes and Huskies.
All three dogs have a double-layer coat composed of an undercoat and a topcoat. The thickness of their coats protects them from freezing temperatures and reflects heat in the summer.
Siberian and Alaskan Huskies' fur is usually short to medium-length, while the Malamute will have longer and thicker fur. They all have similar shedding pattern, though: they blow their coat twice a year, usually with a major season change.
Siberian Husky with loose fur
This intense shedding period can last up to 3 weeks, during which the dog's undercoat will fall off in large clumps. You need to brush the coat once to thrice daily to remove loose fur from the coat.
If you don't want a house completely covered in fur, be sure to ready your vacuum cleaner and high-quality brushes.
Devote yourself to a brushing schedule and you'll see a glossy and healthy looking coat on your Malamute or Husky.
One great thing about these dogs is that their coats are essentially self-cleaning. They don't develop odor or accumulate dirt like other double-coated breeds. You may even get away with bathing your dog just once a year.
Due to their nature as sled dogs, Huskies and Malamutes tend to share the same dietary requirements.
These dogs can survive and work off little food. They're usually given small amounts of high-calorie food rich in protein and fat. This diet keeps the dogs' muscles and bones strong and sustains their energy levels throughout the day.
Thanks to their metabolism, Malamutes and Huskies can get by with less food compared to other breeds their size. They'll be just fine with 2 to 4 cups of dry kibble daily, divided into 2 meals.
Huskies are known to stop eating when they are full. On the contrary, Malamutes are notorious for their voracious appetite. A Malamute will keep eating as long as you keep giving it food; this makes the breed more prone to obesity.
Siberian Husky (source)
Huskies and Malamutes are considered to be some of the healthiest breeds today. These dogs are all equally healthy, especially compared to dogs their size.
However, these dogs can still acquire health problems, most of which are genetic.
Many Malamutes and Huskies suffer from hip dysplasia and eye problems such as cataracts and progressive retinal atrophy.
Alaskan Huskies can also develop hypothyroidism, while Sibes can experience seizures and congenital laryngeal paralysis.
An Alaskan Malamute can live up to 12 years while the Siberian and Alaskan Huskies can live up to 14 years and 15 years, respectively.
Malamute and Husky puppies usually come at different prices, with the costs varying depending on factors like lineage and gender. Show-quality Huskies will also be more expensive compared to pet-quality pups.
On average, a Malamute puppy will cost $1000, while Siberians may cost around $800 to $2500. Alaskan Husky pups may be sold by breeders at $1000 to $1500 each.
Superior-pedigree puppies from these breeds may have price tags upwards of $6500.
Finding breeders of Malamutes and Huskies won't be a problem, as these are popular dogs. The trick is locating a trustworthy breeder who will provide you with a puppy that has a clean bill of health.
It's always best to check with clubs like the Alaskan Malamute Club of America, the Siberian Husky Club of America, or even the American Kennel Club for affiliated breeders.
Here are some breeders you can trust:
Kalamals Alaskan Malamutes (Virginia) – This breeder has been producing champion-line Malamutes since 1989. Focused on breeding physically and mentally sound Mals, they have produced over 26 champions from their line.
Harvest Moon Malamutes (New York) – If you are looking for Giant Malamutes, this breeder is the perfect find. Their family-run breeding program is focused on producing the best M'loot Giant Alaskan Malamute lines today.
Bama Huskies (Alabama) – Bama Huskies offers Siberian Husky puppies from champion bloodlines. This breeder has a spacious kennel and whelping area, climate-controlled feed rooms, and even its own healthcare lab for Husky pups.
Loyal Siberian Husky (South Carolina) – This breeder has been producing top-quality purebred Siberians since 1992. They guarantee that each of their puppies is registered with the AKC and compliant with USDA regulations.
Deer Creek Sleddogs (Wyoming) – Deer Creek started out with rescuing Siberians and having them compete in races, eventually branching out to Alaskan Huskies. In addition to racint these sled dogs, they also occasionally put up Alaskan Husky litters for sale.
Alaskan Malamute puppies
The number of abandoned Huskies and Malamutes has significantly risen since 2010, and shelters attribute the increase to the show Game of Thrones.
Without proper preparation and knowledge about these breeds, fans of the show are buying Huskies and Malamutes because of their resemblance to direwolves.
Why not give these abandoned dogs a second chance at a loving home? Adoption will also be more affordable compared to getting a pup from a breeder.
You can start your search here:
Arctic Rescue (Utah and Colorado) – Most of their rescues are northern breeds, including Huskies and Malamutes. They save almost a 100 relinquished sled dogs a year.
NorSled (California) – This shelter also specializes in rescuing, rehabilitating and fostering Huskies, Malamutes, Samoyeds, and other similar breeds.
Free Spirit Siberian Rescue (Illinois) – Founded in 1999, this organization is focused on reducing the number of homeless Siberian Huskies. Since its founding, it has rehomed more than 1000 Huskies.
Traits Alaskan Husky Siberian Husky Alaskan Malamute
Purebred? No Yes Yes
Size Up to 26 inches (66 cm)
40 to 60 pounds (21 to 25 kg) Up to 24 inches (63 cm)
44 to 60 lbs (19 to 27 kg) 24 to 26 inches (63 to 66 cm)
Up to 95 lbs (43 kg)
(biggest)
Eye color Any color but often brown Brown, blue, green, parti-colored, bi-colored All shades of brown
Coat Double coat, short to medium-length Double coat, short to medium-length Double coat, long
Good with kids? Yes Yes Yes (supervision needed because of his size)
Friendly with people? Yes Yes Yes
Good guard dogs? No No No
Gets along well with other pets? Yes Yes Needs more socialization with other dogs
Prey drive Moderate High High
Energy levels High High High
Lifespan 10 to 15 years Up to 14 years Up to 12 years
Average price per puppy $1000 to $1500 $800 to $2500 $1000
When it comes to the debate of 'Malamute vs Husky', there's no clear winner. Each of these dogs is unique in its own way.
No matter which one you choose, what's important is that you're adequately prepared to meet its needs, especially when it comes to training and exercise.
What these three have in common is that they're high-energy breeds, so they'll need plenty of physical activity.
They're also smart dogs, so they'll easily get bored of repetitive training routines.
One distinct difference between these breeds is that Malamutes are considerably larger than Siberian and Alaskan Huskies.
You'll have to take that into consideration when it comes to the dog's living space.
What do you think about these sled dogs? Share your thoughts with us by commenting below!


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De Japanse visluis (Argulus japonicus) is een visluizensoort uit de familie van de Argulidae. De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1900 door Thiele.

Argulidae


December is a great month to rekindle love!
It's the Christmas season, and at this time of year it's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of events, parties, presents, cards, and family that sometimes we forget that December is a GREAT month to rekindle love with your spouse. When we're under stress it can be really a blessing to have a spouse that is like a safe haven, and nothing can make home seem warm and wonderful like slowing down and simplifying the holidays. So take the time this month do so some of these simple things with your spouse (just the two of you!) and rekindle the smoldering ember of love between you.
1) Put up Christmas lights together.
2) Drink some hot cocoa or eggnog together.
3) Watch silly Holiday movies together (like "The Santa Clause" or "Polar Express")–it will bring out the childhood wonder.
4) Read a Christmas book or story together–even "T'was the Night Before Christmas" or Luke 2 can be very special!
5) Start or keep a Christmas scrapbook with the things you do, photos, etc.
6) Bake some holiday treats together that you keep and eat! My dear hubby and I make pumpkin pie and eat it with plenty of whipped cream.
7) Make a modern version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" and give your spouse little gifts for 12 days.
8) Put together a Gingerbread House. You can buy a kit, use graham crackers, or go crazy and bake the gingerbread!
9) Pick one charitable thing and do it together: volunteer at the local nursing home or homeless shelter, buy an extra toy for a less fortunate child, or send cards to soldiers who are far from home. You'll feel GREAT!
11) Remember strings of popcorn on the tree? Yeah, do that again..or construction paper chain. You'll feel young.
12) Have one night where you light up your whole bedroom with CANDLES! Those beautiful Christmas ones are the best!
13) Have a "bubble bath night"–each one of you prepare a bubble bath for the other!
14) Do something adventurous that you've never done (or haven't done for a long time) like sledding or ice skating.
15) Listen to some classic Christmas carols–sing along if you want!
16) Go hear Handel's Messiah or go to the Nutcracker.
17) Remember mistletoe? Use it.
18) Go for a drive and see the Christmas lights on the houses.
20) If your stuck for ideas go to Loving You at http://www.lovingyou.com because they have literally thousands of romantic ideas and suggestions. You can borrow liberally!
It only takes a little time every day that you give to your spouse during this Christmas season to rekindle the love.


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FAITH IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS
Amber Morson is a facilitator of success who believes that with faith, vision, and action anything is possible. She is an ambitious follower of Jesus Christ who is passionate about helping others be all God destined them to be. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Amber is living out her purpose as a faith-based life coach and speaker through Advised by Amber, LLC.
Being that Amber is very observant, she quickly became content in being just that – an observer. She observed as many of her peers struggled to find their purpose, lost their sense of self-worth, and willingly accepted less than what they deserved – all of which she fell victim to. As an overcomer, she feels it is her calling and responsibility to help others be the same.
Amber is a young professional speaker throughout metro Detroit and is recognized as the 38th woman you should know in Saving Her Elegance "100 Women You Should Know" national campaign. She is a content writer for the Bible App and her plans engaged over 100,000 readers in the first year.
Amber is a proud Detroit native, member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., social entrepreneur, and author. She published her first book, entitled No Prayer, No Power which was featured in Blavity Magazine as one of Blavity's Favorite Things.
She studied psychology while at Michigan State University and received a Master in Social Work, in the management of human services from the University of Michigan. She intentionally proceeds to work in spaces that allow her to cultivate confidence in the lives of many people who wish to be successful. On a mission to empower millennials, Amber believes that her generation is the catalyst for an exceeding future!
It's On You
FAITH, VISION, and ACTION – it's on you, to take a step in securing a better life because you deserve it, you can do it and I'm willing to help. -Amber
Plans fail for lack of counsel,
but with many advisers they succeed. - Proverbs 15:22 (NIV)
How I Can
College & Career Consulting
ABA Publishing
Faith Focused Coaching
Pathway to Purpose
Self Care & Balance Coaching
advisedbyamber@gmail.com
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