Continental Drift

I’m constantly reminded in the course how deep things can go if you care to follow them. There is bedrock of ideas, experience, biology and culture that some of our most basic assumptions about how the world works are built upon. In some ways there are universals, but in many ways in class I noticed how difficult it was to get rough agreement on the edges of many topics. I was struck by something when trying to present my research: there are thoughts and modes of thinking that are by degrees inaccessible to me because of my experience. I think this is an important way to think about the course and the content are the imperceptible changes in how we are able to think about the world as we become more experienced and embedded in it.

We float on continents built of ideology. After this course I think much more about how we conform and evolve within that space and I think it shapes us far more than we shape it, at least when we fail to notice. I think part of the reason we have such a difficult time figuring out these science and culture issues, both in class and in the culture at large, is that we often don’t notice or can’t acknowledge how we are being shaped by our surroundings and the events taking place too broadly and too subtly to announce themselves to us. I want to keep reminding myself that the ground underneath us is moving, that tectonic changes are always taking places, and we are along for the ride whether we like it or not.

A new form of life

The introduction of the concept of seeing devices provided a new lens through which to view their codependent relationship of science and culture. My pregnancy provided a perfect example of a synergistic learning experience.

I know what it means to be pregnant.

So do you. Not that you necessarily have been pregnant, but you can define it. You can guess on the broad strokes of the experience and probably even sum up general expectations of the experience. I made an effort to get pregnant (in fact, it took more effort than just sleeping naked.) I knew all the things to expect that you probably would, and I knew there would be aspects I couldn't imagine. I was prepared to be unprepared. Anthropology defines a rite of passage as a ritual that moves an individual from one status to another performed at an important life event, and the liminal stage is defined as a time when a person has passed out of an old status but not yet entered a new one. Pregnancy was full of liminal stages, with technology, specifically in the form of seeing devices, being the gateway to the new status.


The first seeing devices may be obvious: the home pregnancy test. My reactions, to both negative and positive results, were not unlike that of those scripted for a movie. Before taking my own test, I view the technology as my allergy education had taught me – an ELISA to detect the pregnancy hormone hCG. (If you don’t know what ELISA and/or hCG is, here is a cool animation for you http://www.whfreeman.com/catalog/static/whf/kuby/content/anm/kb07an01.htm.) When it comes time to take it myself, the technology transforms into its own mini rite of passage. During this stage of waiting for the results, I think of that brief three minutes of anticipation, and how much longer it would be without the convenient technology. The availability of the home pregnancy test has created a new form of life: the woman who doesn't have to wait, doesn't have to seek answers from a doctor, doesn't have to share the possibility of the baby with anyone other than the Walgreens clerk. And, of course, the positive result marks the end of the first mini liminal stage by passing into a new status: pregnant.


The next: it had been four weeks and five days since conception (and the only reason I knew that so specifically was also thanks to technology.) At my (healthy childbearing) age, ultrasounds aren't usually performed so early in the pregnancy. This ultrasound was ordered to "confirm viability" (I'd rather not say why this was necessary.) It served to do that in more ways than one. I knew what to expect to see if things were normal. I knew about how big an image I would see including the level of detail. I can't say I knew what it would "mean" because that's so unspecific. It could mean so many things on so many levels, not even for the future but for that very moment. With the advances in technology today, the ones used for my ultrasound were simplistic. The image was the basic two-dimensional black-and-white, simple undetailed contrast and what I saw was what I expected visually. None of that really "meant" anything. It was the visually-unimpressive blinking light that marked a new form of life. That blinking light was a tiny heart beating inside of me 165 times a minute, and that new form of life was me. Another mini liminal stage was complete; I had gone from "being pregnant" to "having a baby."
Since she's been born more technology has allowed me to be more than just a mother. I can imagine any technology allowing me to be anything first other than a mother, but I've been able to continue something resembling a normal life a bit easier than it would without technology, from breast pumps which cut feeding time from 45 to 15 minutes, to washing machines for all the spills and leaks, to the sounds of the car rides and their instant soporific effect. Even as I am being both Mommy and student while typing this blog, the technology of voice recognition software allows me to create this blog while keeping my baby calm with the sound of my voice, since I can’t calm her by holding her and type simultaneously. I am eager to start classes again this fall and make mental notes of how technology and seeing devices allow me to continue as my Mommy-student hybrid life form.

On a funny note, when you forget to turn off your microphone before talking baby talk, it’s interpreted by the software like this: “But a silly pants in party already all I recall I would go on drawing up dry dry ENI now the PM. Neither of that ye ye year that we really care he era”

where did all the posts go?

Many of the #10 posts that were here yesterday are gone and one is just blank. What's up with Google? I will try to repost mine. I wanted to read them all!

Final Post [Black Boxes]

Though it was first introduced early on in the semester, the concept of the black box has continued to draw my interest throughout its various appearances in class discussions. The concept that we simplify, and wholly disregard things that have become commonplace to the point that we take them for granted, and, in doing so, lose sight of their physical/figurative composition, is so commonplace in itself that in the past I've overlooked it, placing it in a black box of human nature. Whoa. But really, the fact that black boxes are everywhere is both interesting and somewhat concerning. I think. Maybe it's concerning, maybe it isn't, but it's at least interesting. Regardless, the sheer number of overlooked black boxes in everyday life is daunting, and that's what draws me to it. Uncovering the previously unnoticed black boxes in my own life has kept me on my toes about what I think I know and what I know I know, and how to look out for the distinction.

Goodbye, Beloved Sugar

As I mentioned in class, I was raised on a very meat-reduced diet, and have tried to be conscious of the impact that goes into what I eat. After re-reading Omnivore's Dilemma for this course, my eating style changed, reflecting some of Hannah's sentiments below. While in the past I have always tried to think about where the food I eat comes from, and whether it is ethical to eat it, I am proud to say that I am now trying to take a much more active stance on eating local, and severely limiting my meat consumption. I am so grateful that we did the food logs in this class, because they inspired me to track different meal plans over a few month's time. As my physician, and mother, have always said, being mindful of how much water, protein, caffeine and sugar I consume in a day can really improve my quality of life. I realized through our food log that when I extremely limit my intake of processed sugar, my acne disappears, as does my intense cravings for excessive amounts of said sugar! Limiting the sugar also allows me to control my weight so much easier- I just wish these epiphanies came about eight years earlier, by c'est la vie... Also, I realized that according to current scientific research, adults need 0.8g of protein/ kg body weight per day. Before I realized this, I was getting about 20 g protein a day. Since I weigh about 115 lbs, I need 41 g protein a day, and usually a bit more, since I run 4-8 mi most days. All in all, thank you very much CSCL for motivating me to look a little more closely at my health- I feel a lot better :)

http://www.clinicalnutritionjournal.com/article/S0261-5614(08)00117-9/abstract

"Semantic Contagion"

The concept that I will bring with me the most prominently from this class will be "semantic contagion." When we think about who we are as people, we are always choosing from a range of options and there is a limit to the kinds of ways that we identify ourselves and our goals. I think it's really fascinating to think about how the circulation of an idea can change the way that an entire group of people views themselves and I think that it is something worth thinking about. Apotemnophilia will go along with this as a useful bit of cocktail chatter that will stop all the people I know who are really into body modification dead in their tracks -- because regardless of whether someone thinks that its a mental disorder in a psychological sense, it's the sort of thing that makes you stop because it's pretty wacky. The concept of "semantic contagion" and apotemnophilia also illustrates the ways in which studies and discursive constructions work to construct reality. Remember that article we read with the very limited study about a possible neurological cause? According to the wikipedia page, apotemnophilia is a neurological disorder.

I think that the debates and discussions we had about apotemnophilia really illustrated another concept that we touched on throughout the class -- which is the limits of human agency. We tend to view ourselves as able and willing to make choices and as "free." We don't often think about how we came to view ourselves that way or the ways in which the choices we make about who we are and what we want to become are always already mediated by economic factors, discursive factors, and cultural norms and developments. It's a useful thing to consider even though it gets a little unsettling sometimes.

The Final Countdown

I’m going to walk away from this class with more than a couple of things to think about. I like the idea that science can be broken down along a number of axes, which we’ve done extensively in our work. Normally, I’m only focused on the facts, which in my case are generally numbers. So, it’s particularly interesting to map out how these facts have come to be, and what they might mean to various factions. More importantly, it’s interesting to see how these factions use the facts to their advantage.

Latour’s seeing devices and black boxes are also intriguing to me. They are both used extensively in my other studies, so seeing how they operate from an observer’s perspective is thought provoking. Being able to accurately measure things is a large-ish part of what I do in a scientific capacity. In a way, engineering is kind of like making the seeing devices and promptly black boxing them. Sometimes simply figuring out how to measure things accurately is challenging enough, let alone actually measuring them and using the data productively. Thinking about this stuff definitely solidifies for me the idea that an engineer is only as good as their tools, but it makes me question the accuracy of our tools. So how do we make better tools?

I’m also going to walk away from this class with a heightened awareness of the economics of science: Does he who pays determine what the science should say? Because we still get to do science regardless of the source of funding, do we, as scientists, even care? If we do care, how do we reconcile the fact that money does influence and modify our work? If we don’t, should we at least be conscious of how our work will influence society at large?

These are just a few of the things that came to mind when I thought about my experience here this semester. Given the sheer amount of ground we covered here, there are months or years worth of material that I think would be interesting and worthwhile to discus. I think I will come away from this class with more questions than answers. This is in no way a gripe; it’s very much a good thing.

To aid you in your transition to summer and to indulge your life-long love of 80's butt-rock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

Social media as battle-ground

Last post ever: One of the most interesting things we covered this semester (to me) was our extensive coverage of social media outlets-and how they can effect the public. After reading Shae's post below (Not my final post, but my show-and-tell stuff in case any of you are interested in hackers.) I watched several videos involving the Westboro Baptist Church, and their publicized responses to pressing issues. These ignorant people are given a voice that is able to be broadcasted through millions of households everyday, with little consideration of how it may amplify the cultural stigma's we've tried so hard to break down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJwSjor4hM&feature=related

I found this to be especially relevant due to the fact that they are using social media to get there message across, which seems to be the evolution of standard Christian preaching. Now, rather than small demographics being subject to the preachings of WBC, the entire world is able to see who they are, what they're about, and what they're doing. To me, this alone is degrading to the American people, other countries will make connections with political republican figures like GW Bush, and associate this craziness with an exaggerated population of America, assuming they represent an entire ideology, rather than a few crazy, misinformed, extremists.

To further this argument, the noble hero in our online, social media fiasco, is non-other than a "Hacker" from oversea's (judging by his accent). The voice of 'Anonymous' in the clip above, is the voice of someone that (whether we realize it or not) we rely on. This 'hacker' has done what thousands have done before, which is to take a stand against the this Christian ideology after it has been tainted and abused and recomposed by an ignorant few.

This is a crusade of biblical purporting, this is our 'modern day' fight for influence, between the free & those enslaved by their own ignorance. It took movements like this to re-evaluate the Catholic church's power in Europe, during times of genocide and full-scale exterminations in the name of God, it took the few, intelligent citizens to revolt and reject the bs they are selling. This guy seems to have done that.-----So in some sort of conclusion, I think it's interesting to see where our smaller battles now lie. This ideological conflict has taken place over the web, the 'anonymous' guy's retaliation took place over the web, and now they're arguing about it over the web. This is where the battle is shifting, easier to personally communicate between entities, and definitely less bloodshed, so maybe this is a good thing?

Last Post

Of all things we covered in class, the element of it I believe stuck with me the most came from State of Fear, of all places. If you had told me at the beginning of the semester that I was going to claim a Michael Crichton novel to be the facet of this class that impacted me that most, I would have laughed, and then would have been seriously concerned over my future state of being.

But it wasn’t actually the novel itself that got to me – the plot and characters were all typical to the genre. The novel became of such importance because it demonstrated the power that is found in how one frames issues, a topic that can was proved to be important in each unit of this class. The novel drove home the fact that even facts, meaning hard concrete pieces of information that we trust to be correct, can be transformed into “facts”. Even things we believe to be unquestionable can be altered to fit a particular side of an argument. Before I would have considered this only something that opinions had the power to do. But through a look into State of Fear, as well as food advertising – be in HFCS or PETA, and Glenn Beck, it became totally apparent that rhetoric and presentation matter.

In the last week of class we had a discussion a bit like this, and presented the question of whether one can really twist “facts” to their advantage. The argument was brought up that 2 + 2 will always equal 4, and no one will dispute that claim. So yes, there are certain truths that are indisputable. But the difference between this and the “facts” presented by Michael Crichton are vast. A fact such as an easy math problem is simply to comprehend by all. It does not need representation or explanation. When you bring these two necessities in to the problem, and have a fact that is not so easy to stomach, all of a sudden these are needed. That is what Crichton, as one example as when this was applied in our class, took advantage of. Facts become “facts” when they are confusing, and unfortunately for us in today’s world, most facts come from specialists, and are things that need to be spelled out for us. Especially when it comes to science. There is a reason that I took this class when I was in the mood for something “science-y” rather than a class in the BIO department. I just don’t get hard science. Even when I try, it goes one ear and out the other. I am one of those people that necessitate the explanation to comprehend the issue. And that’s a little unsettling to me.

I don’t think it’s possible to leave all one’s opinions at the door before explaining an issue, even if that issue is fact. The presentation of that fact matters, which is influenced by the person doing the presenting and the ideas that they stand for. It will influence the rhetoric that they use to explain it to me. It will have an impact on how they angle the issue, and thus it will then impact the impression that it leaves on me.

In a way, this all goes back to Descartes, as well. While this is not a split between mind and body, it is a split within a person that science has forced us to make. It’s a more modern day split that I don’t think is any more possible that separating the body from the mind, either. But this one is forcing to split between presenting fact and emotional attachments to those facts. People, like Michael Crichton exemplified when writing State of Fear, cannot have one without the other. They are constantly going to influence each other and it is naïve to think that one is above that.

have a good summer, everyone! 

Not my final post, but my show-and-tell stuff in case any of you are interested in hackers.

In light of the end of the semester, before completing the final blog I thought I’d put up the stuff I was looking at for the final show and tell. I was thinking about how technology affects us all, and going back to the question of whether or not people should be free to choose – in this case, whether or not technology should be available to all or if some should be restricted, and what that would do to our society if technology WERE restricted. I came across some crazy stuff about hackers, and this group called Anonymous, so I thought I’d post this and see what anybody has to say about this / how people feel about this.

HACKERS OR VIGILANTES?

Scary thought: IN TODAYS WORLD IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT AND FIND A GAP YOU CAN LITERALLY STEAL THE IDENTITY OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR HOME.

I’m sure you all heard about the Playstation network crashes.

But basically it means that any information people had up on this network, including credit card numbers, bank account information, personal information such as full names, addresses, and e-mail addresses, were up for grabs to these hackers.

What did Playstation have to say about this?

“When a data breach occurs, it is essential that customers be immediately notified about whether and to what extent their personal and financial information has been compromised,” Blumenthal wrote Tuesday, dinging Sony for what he labeled a “troubling lack of notification from Sony about the nature of the data breach.”

What’s a little upsetting is the advice they had for customers was to change their passwords and that they would regain control of their system “soon”. HOWEVER, there is no possible way for customers to find out what their previous passwords were if they had forgotten them. Once signed on, a customer would rarely find themselves needing to sign back in, and therefore could easily forget their password. Wow.

Going with the hacker theme, there is of course the group Anonymous, a more or less “community” of online hackers who target government groups, groups overseas, and are responsible for aiding in the leaking of vital information that the group feels should be made public. Real quick info about this group: Wikipedia says about Anonymous (the group)

“After a series of controversial, widely-publicized protests and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by Anonymous in 2008, incidents linked to its cadre members have increased.^[6] In consideration of its capabilities, Anonymous has been posited by CNN to be one of the three major successors to WikiLeaks.”

And in society today, with the incredible importance of the internet, this is not just an innocent, albeit annoying, prank. Hacking has become something serious, and is now used as a way to strike out non-violently:

Hal Turner raid

Main article: Hal Turner

According to white supremacist radio host Hal Turner, in December 2006 and January 2007 individuals who identified themselves as Anonymous took Turner's website offline, costing him thousands of dollars in bandwidth bills. As a result, Turner sued 4chan, eBaum's World, 7chan, and other websites for copyright infringement. He lost his plea for an injunction, however, and failed to receive letters from the court, which caused the lawsuit to lapse

Despite labels given to this cyber-hacker group including “viral terrorists,” this group does actual good that goes beyond spreading information that was otherwise concealed, or causing people to more or less be forced out of the public spotlight:

Chris Forcand arrest

On December 7, 2007, the Canada-based Toronto Sun newspaper published a report on the arrest of the alleged Internet predator Chris Forcand.^[23] Forcand, 53, was charged with two counts of luring a child under the age of 14, attempt to invite sexual touching, attempted exposure, possessing a dangerous weapon, and carrying a concealed weapon.^[24] The report stated that Forcand was already being tracked by "cyber-vigilantes who seek to out anyone who presents with a sexual interest in children" before police investigations commenced.^[23]

A Global Television Network report identified the group responsible for Forcand's arrest as a "self-described Internet vigilante group called Anonymous" who contacted the police after some members were "propositioned" by Forcand with "disgusting photos of himself." The report also stated that this is the first time a suspected Internet predator was arrested by the police as a result of Internet vigilantism.^[25]

Here is an example of both an incidence of hacking, and a nice little interview with a member from Anonymous. And also a little hilarious rant by a crazy woman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJwSjor4hM&feature=related

“Anonymous Hacks Westboro Baptist Church Website During Live Confrontation”

Freedom of speech, equality, and a few final thoughts

This weekend, I found myself wrapped up in a conversation that a bit like the one we had on the last days of class, about the issues of trying to have both equality between people and the freedom of speech. This topic came up in a discussion (in a Facebook chat, of all places) with Emma, one of my friends from high school, about Youtube. “Unfortunately Youtube makes it harder to put extremists in a bubble. Which is another reason why I really hate Youtube. Honestly, I think Youtube is a horrible invention,” she said. While I still have lot of faith in Youtube, Emma makes a good point. She mentioned how small groups like the West Boro Baptist Church are able to reach an audience they never would have otherwise and get a lot of (in Emma’s opinion, undue) attention. I brought up the issue of equality and freedom of speech, as this had come up before in a discussion about our Facebook friends talking about Osama Bin Ladin in their status updates. I mentioned the struggle between equality and freedom of speech and how it’s rather hard to have both. Emma replied back, “I think so, too. But at the same time, I think freedom of speech is misunderstood to think to have equality we must love instead of tolerate.”

Emma went on to explain that in order to have equality, one must except hate as part of the deal. I thought Emma made a good point, but at the same time, I was having a hard time dealing with what she was saying. Do we see really see equality as more about loving all people than tolerating? Is there a difference? Should there be a difference? I admit, I can sometimes be a bit too Rousseauist, especially with a Catholic background mixed in there, and think that the world would just be a better place if we all got along. I realize, especially after this class, that this is not quite true. Personally, I can’t see the world being a better place if I liked someone like Michael Crichton or Glenn Beck; in fact, my intense dislike of them has taught me more than liking them ever would. Honestly, I’ve learned a lot from the things I hate and also, in some ways, have mitigated that hate (I do at least understand where Glenn Beck is coming from, even if I will disagree with him for the rest of my life). I do, however, tolerate Beck and feel he has the right to say what he says (even though I really, really wish he didn’t). The West Boro Baptist Church really complicates things, though. One could argue that if perfect freedom of speech is perfect equality, that everyone gets to say what they want, no matter how hate-filled it is, then I should just let West Boro Baptist Church say their spiel and ignore them. But it’s not that easy. Emma says extremists should be put in a bubble – but does that really work? Even Emma, who believes in this idea of equal hate, dislikes the idea of Youtube which allows for this equality. Nothing is simple, it seems.

While I’m still floundering around, trying to understand this funny little space I inhabit between Rousseau’s Romanticism and a sort of Hobbesian realism, this class has given me a better foundation for that understanding. It’s begun to clear up the complexities I have in studying psychology, using Facebook and Youtube, and investigating science in general. As I’ve said before, I definitely have more questions than answers, but they’re better questions than what I started out with. I’ve begun to see topics from our class everywhere – in the news, in other classes, on Twitter – and I definitely feel like the ideas we discussed in this class are going to stick with me for a long time.

What is your “Soma” of choice?

Over the course of this semester and out of all the topics discussed I feel the lingering effects of how The Brave New World’s soma medication for escaping the hassles of life lingered throughout our final conversations. I see how people willingly and readily take their own form of soma through many of the topics discussed and debated over. When I say take soma, I mean that we all have a way to explain how to escape from the bounds of any given topics by offering our own personal knowledge to them. I feel that the over all theme of all the topics discussed have been centered around how to explain, get through, and deal with life as we know it. Our first topics covered this though how to deal with the body you have and what you can do to it, then we moved to who we are and what we are capable of as humans and then what we accept as truth via the machines, concepts and discoveries that man has contributed to science.

As we passed through the Age of Anxiety I came to the realization that even if we don’t take anti anxiety medications most of the discussion topics, no matter how broad, always can bring each and every one of us back to our own drug of choice. For me it is the psychology of why people do it and what could contribute or be hiding under the surface of any scientific or cultural phenomenon. It is probably why I chose to focus my last post on how and why we sort out all of these issues in our own ways. For others it is in belief of the Hippocratic oath and the trust the science will prevail to keep doing great things for society. I see in others how the human rights of all emerge within every topic and that with science removed we are all Cartesian’s capable of seeking and getting to our own truths. What is amazing is everyone is taking his or her own different drugs at the same time. Some meld better then others, like when being vegetarian for the sake of animals helps you reconsider the human treatment of those who are producing your lettuce. Other ‘drugs’ have the potential of canceling each other out; like animal rights and drug development testing on animal for the sake of human treatment advances.

If anything I have learned that the drugs I choose to be on to rationalize and work through the inner working of the science and culture world work for me. I like to know I have the capability to see a bit of my drug working in all many of seemingly unrelated topics. I must question however if it is the drugs effects on me to see what it is telling me to see. To have me see everyone taking their own drugs and know that they are prescribing to one or the other maybe limits my capability of getting into the mental dimension others or in. But over all I like my drug and I think you like your too! My over all grasp is that all the drugs made this class fun, informative and really solidified the one I choose to be on. I hope it did the same for you. Or as my mom told me once about LSD, “you need to be prepared with a “spiritual guider” for that experience”; I hope that you were able to take your drug of choice and be guided by some of the others in class to reach a new understanding of why you take the drugs you do. I know I have.

Blog posting #10 (due WEDNESDAY 5/10, 11:59 P.M.) : Final reflection/discussion

This last post is real open...and meant as a kind of final reflection/discussion. I'd like you to do the following:

1) Choose one thing from this class (a text, an issue, a concept, an object, a theme, a case study, etc.) that you are taking away with you from this class -- something that still excites you, or bothers you, or intrigues you. Ideally, something that has changed, even in some small way, the way that you see and act in the world.

2) Describe it, briefly: what it is, and why it excites/bothers/intrigues you.

3) Reflect on what about it you are taking away from this class, and how it has (in whatever way) altered your thoughts about and actions in the world. If possible/appropriate, make reference to how the issue played out in class discussion, in the context of other topics/issues/themes/texts/concepts/cases we have been dealing with. If you recall what one or two of your colleagues had to say about it, bring that in too!

After we discussed technology and social media I thought you guys might get a kick out of this.

Created in 2007 , The Future of Communication.

2011's "plastic paper"= the iPad?

After I got over trying to decided what kind of accent the narrator is supposed to have, it made me laugh and then...pause uncomfortably.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu0ztxdsFis

After class I saw this serious add that was posted in a news paper. It reminded me of the fake article we talked about in class.

Human Nature

In preparation for tomorrow's "Show and Tell Day" I have posted a TED talk by psychologist Philip Zimbardo. In it he speaks about the nature of human beings and the Lucifer Effect. Along with discussion about some famous psychological experiments regarding the human capacity for evil, one of which he was in charge of.

Philip Zimbardo shows how people become montsters... or heroes.

Orlan, PETA, ProLife America

 Lateness – noun

            The quality or state of being late.

-Webster

One of my most salient childhood memories is of going to the Polk County Fair in Fertile, MN and having a run-in with the Pro-life booth.  I remember looking at the displays of aborted fetuses in various stages of development, horrified and enthralled by the bits of alien-looking flesh floating around in little jars of preservative. I didn’t believe the man at the booth’s claim that I was looking at babies.  I’m not positive I even knew where babies came from at that point, but I knew I’d never seen a baby that looked like that.  I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at.  None whatsoever. The part that stuck with me was not so much the images, but the feeling that I was looking at something that perhaps wasn’t supposed to be on open display. This was solidified by my mother’s demand that I immediately throw away all of the literature that I collected at the booth.

A few times a year, I run into a similarly themed display.  I usually have to resist the urge to ask the attendants about their heavy metal band and if they have any records for sale.  I mean if your metal band has a promo booth of that magnitude, surely you must have some merchandise to go along with it.  Promo material is expensive. 

I looked at Orlan’s manifesto (http://www.orlan.net/texts/), and I can’t help but wonder if groups like ProLife America draw inspiration from the same place as she does.  Here’s a quote from Orlan’s manifesto: “Carnal Art is not interested in the plastic-surgery result, but in the process of surgery, the spectacle and discourse of the modified body which has become the place of a public debate.”  I’ll make the argument that ProLife America’s focus is on the surgery as well:  If they are indeed really for life, should they not be for all life?  So why do we not hear them argue for things like frank and accurate birth control and sexual health awareness, more money for social welfare programs, especially those that would aid impoverished new mothers, free and easily accessible education, or the abolition of the death penalty?

PETA uses similar tactics.  PETA’s imagery shocks us into attention.  They show us things like naked bodies, skinned animals, and clinical food production plant photos in order to get us to believe their message.  PETA claims that a world free of animal bondage would benefit all of us, but we don’t hear them argue for things like aid for developing economies dependent on animal agriculture, research dollars for alternatives to animal testing, or plans for the millions of animals that currently are in bondage or the species that have been entirely domesticated.

PeTA x Dolphins

Since I’m Japanese, PeTA and Dolphines were the most interesting and catching topics for me. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the movie the Cove and the TV show Whale Wars. I know I should watch them to argue but I have researched by myself about whaling. Personally I do support whaling. The Japanese whaling is for research purpose. That means we (Japanese) could get to eat after researcher finished researching. I don’t think the group who presented about PeTA pointed this out but it is illegal to waste even a piece of whale meat. Almost all parts of whale are edible or could be used as traditional crafts. The reason we have to kill whale by harpoon is that, unlike bears, we can’t use tranquilizer to make whale sleep because they will drown. And to research what they are eating, we can’t collect their feces because feces dissolve into the ocean right away so we have to capture and open whales’ intestines.

The whale we capture is mainly Minke whale. Minke whale was classified as an endangered animal, however, couple of decades ago it reached to the K-point (carrying capacity). Carrying Capacity is the maximum population that can be supported by an environment. According to the IWC website, Japan caught 506 Minke whales on 2008 to 2009. That is 0.061% of whole population of MInke whale. On the other hand, Native Americans in the Washington State captured 140 Gray whales which is 0.52% of whole population of Gray whale. Personally I really don’t like that Whale Wars is focused on Japanese whaling and that it is sponsored by Animal Planet. Why can’t they also fight against Native Alaskans and Greenlanders?

And about the dolphins, actually I didn’t know Japan had culture of capturing dolphins and eat them. I think that is same for most Japanese people. Eating dolphins is regional culture, like eating raw horse meat. I regard capturing dolphin is same as capturing whales by Native Americans. So I don’t against it. But personally I thought it seemed cruel when I saw the trailer of the Cove. Presentation absolutely conveyed how dolphin fascinates us. My friend from Ukraine said dolphins seem different than other animals, they seem friends and you can’t eat friends. By watching dolphin videos, her opinion sounds agreeable. She also pointed out about Japanese fishing boat entering the territorial sea of Australia. The reason these topics are controversial is not only from the ethical perspective but I think there are political reasons. To me, the nations who are in the IWC makes me wonder if they are really interested in whaling by environmental reason.