Patahistory: A Hot & Infinitely Dense Blog

New Blog

2008-05-06T17:23:00.000-07:00

Ok. here's the beta of the new blog.

Re/Creating Tampa

My Gamma Blog Empire

2008-03-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

I'm slowing moving all my blogging interests onto one site. the alienintelligencer domain will now contain most of my blogging efforts. It is currently in "gamma" release which is my term for something that isn't even ready for a beta release. The top page will cover pop science, humor and whatnots on the internet. Sibling pages will contain restaurant reviews of Tampa (as well as posts on food and dining, and book reviews of books about food, like Michael Pollan). Greening Tampa will be about urban design and the efforts to turn Tampa into a sustainable city. More will be added, but it's all gamma right now.

I just printed out the first draft of my thesis. I'm not particularly ahead of the game, but neither have I fallen behind. It looks like I should have a completed thesis by the end of the month. And then begins the month of cocktails!

Tips on How to Speak/Lecture

2008-03-01T10:10:00.001-08:00

Lecture Tips from Patrick Winston

Video of a lecture on how to lecture. Some good tips for those uncomfortable in front of an audience.

Sleep Replacement

2008-02-14T18:39:00.000-08:00

When will we live in a world of open-source pharmaceuticals?

Not only will sleepy grad students have to wait for a decade or two until orexin A hits the market, but it will probably only be available by prescription.

When can I just download this stuff and print it out?

"A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests.
...
Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug."

Bucket

2008-02-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

The complete Walrus Bucket saga.

Shorter version here. (If you don't know what any of this means start with this link.)

Strawberry Cheetos

2008-02-14T15:55:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I fantasize about opening a little shop. Perhaps I'd rent obscure movies and documentaries, or sell breakfast tacos all day long. One element of this fantasy that remains consistent is the display case of snack items not normally seen in the US that I would sell. Strawberry Cheetos, for example.

And Poutine chips.

And Wasabi Flavoured Indonesian Shrimp Chips.

I Write to My Senator

2008-02-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

Last time I forgot to copy my message, so this time I'm copying and pasting here. If I get a response I'll put the two together.

Here's my email to Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fl) -

Senator Nelson - Previously you wrote to me that

"I introduced an amendment to the bill which would have taken away retroactive immunity from the telecommunications companies..."

And yet I see you voted nay on the Dodd amendment which would "strike the provisions providing immunity."

Will you be releasing a statement to clarify this seeming contradiction? Why would you introduce an amendment taking away retroactive immunity, then vote against an amendment that would take away retroactive immunity?

Thank you,
David Davisson

The rule of law, or the rule of men?

Permanent Kitten

2008-02-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

I don't know if this appeared first at Wired or at Next Nature, but it's a strange future that lies ahead.

"Next year, expect a transgenic cat, which will remain kitten-size throughout its life."

BTW, check out Next Nature for some mindbending future strangeness.

Unnecessary Censorship

2008-02-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've ever watched the Jimmy Kimmel show, but this clip is pretty funny.

Periphery-to-Periphery and Wallerstein Critics

2008-02-04T14:38:00.001-08:00

Anyone know of any good critics of Immanuel Wallerstein? I'm finding little that isn't completely ahistorical.

I probably have enough stuff right now to string together a thesis about itinerants, but what I want to bring out is their role in state formation/political integration/cultural exchange. I want to argue that there's a lot going on in periphery-to-periphery exchange that gets overshadowed by over-reliance on a core/periphery model.

So far the thesis is coming together quickly. All that preliminary work is paying off. I may be delusional, but I think I may have my first draft by the end of the month!

From Yahoo to Google

2008-02-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

I got my first Yahoo! email address ten years ago. It's still my primary address. Four years ago I started paying Yahoo! every month to serve as my ISP for another page I maintain.

When Yahoo! beta was first released I switched over, but quickly switched back because it seemed half-baked. When it was rolled out again I switched, but again quickly returned to the standard.

A few weeks before I heard the acquisition rumors I decided to switch to Google as my primary email and portal.

I've been a Yahoo! advocate for years, but this year they lost me for good. The new beta upgrade is actually a downgrade. Where once Yahoo! held hundreds of my RSS feeds, it now demands that I cap at three hundred, and then won't recognize when I drop to less than that. As an ISP Yahoo! will not allow me access to MySQL, and the customer service has zero explanation, except that they know it's a problem with some clients. Beyond that there is no attempt at a solution or a expectation of when the problem will be resolved. Not only that, but getting customer service is nearly impossible.

Will Google be better? I don't know. Some friends tell me I shouldn't even use a web-based email, but should switch to Thunderbird, or another email client.

As far as reading the internet goes, I think I'm off Yahoo! and replacing it with a mix of del.icio.us, bloglines, and Google.

Passed

2008-01-30T11:18:00.000-08:00

I finally got word today that I passed my comprehensive exams. I think I'll go out for dinner.

Welease Womney

2008-01-27T14:10:00.001-08:00

In Monty Python's Life of Brian there's a scene where the rabble is mocking Pilate's speech impediment by asking him to release people who have the letter R in their name.

Pilate: Whom would you have me welease?
Man: Welease Woger!
Crowd: Yeah! WELEASE WOGER! WELEASE WOGER! Hahahahaha.
Pilate: Vewwy well. I shall welease woger!
Crowd: Yay. Yay.
Cntrian: Sir, eh. We don't have a Woger, sir.
Pilate: What?
Cntrian: Eh, we don't have anyone of that name, sir.
Pilate: Ah. We have no Woger.
Crowd: Aaaaaah.
Man: Well what about Wodewic then.
Crowd: Yeah. WELEASE WODEWIC! WELEASE WODEWIC!
Pilate: Centurain. Why do they titter so?
Cntrian: Just some, uh, jewish joke, sir.
Pilate: Are they... swagging me?
Cntrian: Oh, no, sir!
Pilate: Vewwy well. I shall welease Wodewic!
Crowd: Waaahahahaha.
Cntrian: Sir, we don't have a Roderic either.
Pilate: No Woger, no Wodewic.
Cntrian: Sorry, sir.
Pilate: Who is the Wog...
Who is the Wodewic to whom you wefer?
Man1: He's a wobber.
Crowd: Ahhhhahahah.
Man2: ... and a wapist.
Crowd: Ahahahhahah!
Woman: ... and a pickpocket!
Crowd: Aaah no. ssssssh.
Pilate: He sounds a notowious cwiminal.
Cntrian: We haven't got him, sir.
Pilate: Do we have anyone in our pwisons at all?

Eventually Judith runs up and demands that Pilate release Brian. Everybody joins in on the joke, believing Brian is another joke name with an 'R' in it. It turns out there is a Brian in prison and he is scheduled to be released.

I think of this scene when I see the faux (presumably) enthusiasm among the left for a Romney campaign. Atrio, Kos, and Josh Marshall are all faux-enthusiastic supporters of a Romney campaign. They remind me of the rabble in the Life of Brian scene. Evidently a Romney campaign strikes them as utterly hilarious.

I, on the other hand, like the hyper-serious Judith, am not sure what the joke is. Maybe, like Judith, I showed up too late. But I feel pretty confident Mitt Romney is going to be the next president of the United States, and the thought of it doesn't make me chuckle.

The Second World

2008-01-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

I've never been a fan of Wallerstein's core/periphery model, and I'm spending some time this semester making sure I understand his argument. My most immediate dislike comes from its binary nature. It seems like a restatement of the 1st world/3rd world model of the world. The problem with 1st world/3rd world thinking, however, is the neglect given to a presumed 2nd world.

Coincidentally, while I have this percolating in the back of my brain, I came across Parag Khanna's analysis of the decline of US geopolitical power, "Waving Goodbye to Hegemony." Khanna meditates on the changing nature of "second-world" nations and how they are aligning themselves geopolitically.

It's a great, thought-provoking piece adapted from his forth-coming book, The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order.

Jack Handey Reminds Us That History Is Not Dull

2008-01-27T09:07:00.000-08:00

"Many people think that history is a dull subject. Dull? Is it 'dull' that Jesse James once got bitten on the forehead by an ant, and at first it didn't seem like anything, but then the bite got worse and worse, so he went to a doctor in town, and the secretary told him to wait, so he sat down and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and then finally he got to see the doctor, and the doctor put some salve on it? You call that dull?"
–Jack Handey

Forthcoming Projects

2008-01-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the crimson tide
Call me deacon blues
-Steely Dan

While I am writing my thesis I'm also putting together a couple of other projects. One is a community-oriented web site, and the other is a work of history. Since I'll be writing for a popular audience instead of an academic audience I decided to do a work of political history. But, instead of writing about the winners, I'll be writing about the losers. On the one hand this will be a series of biographies, anecdotes and vignettes, but on the other hand I hope to inject a meditation on the meaning of loss and losing in US culture and how ideas of losing have changed over time.

Right now I'm assembling a bibliography. Any suggestions on political loss, or on losing in general?

Support Artists, Not Multinationals

2008-01-26T16:01:00.000-08:00

This is a one-minute public service video from the European Green Party endorsing movie sharing. I Wouldn't Steal.

Media Watching Eyeware

2008-01-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

Here's the most recent iteration of the image-projected-into-spectacles i/o device, or I suppose, output device.

This sort of eyeware would be fun to use with a documentary of a city. You could watch the movie while walking around the city.

Myvu personal media viewer for iPod. Only $200.

Virtual Communities/Social Media syllabus by Howard Rheingold

2008-01-24T11:19:00.000-08:00

Here is the syllabus for a class Howard Rheingold is teaching at UC Berkeley this semester.

Here are the readings

* Ferdinand Tonnies, excerpts On Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

* Barry Wellman, The Network Community

* Marshall Berman, All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity, 1988 (New York, Penguin), pp 41-60. (READER ONLY)

* Ray Oldenberg, The Great Good Place , Chapters One and Two (Page numbers TK) (READER ONLY)

# Ronald E. Rice, James E. Katz, Sophia Acord, Kiku Dasgupta, Kalpana David,92004) "Personal Mediated Communication and the Concept of Community in Theory and Practice," in P. Kalbfleisch (ed), Communication and Community, Communication Yearbook 28, Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp 1-20 attached

# Amy Bruckman, (2006), "A New Perspective on "Community" and its Implications for Computer-Mediated Communication Systems," In Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Extended Abstracts (pp. 616-621). Montréal, Québec, 22-27 April, 2006. available online.

# Barry Wellman and Milena Julia, (1999), "Netsurfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities As Communities," in Communities in Cyberspace, Kollock and Smith, eds., Routledge, available online

* Licklider, J. C. R., & R. W. Taylor. (1968). "The computer as a communication device," Science and Technology, April. Republished in SRC Research Report 61, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1990. Available online as PDF

* Howard Rheingold, (1992) "A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community," available online.

* Fred Turner, "Where the counterculture met the new economy: the WELL and the origins of virtual community," Technology and Culture, Volume 46, Number 3, July 2005, pp. 485-512 available online as PDF.

# Howard Rheingold, (1993) "The Heart of The Well," from The Virtual Community, available online.

# Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar, (1990) The Lessons of Lucasfilms Habitat, available online

# Trebor Scholz, (2007) "A History of the Social Web" available online

* Manuel Castells, "Why Networks Matter," Network Logic: Who Governs in an Interconnected World?, Helen McCarthy, Paul Miller, Paul Skidmore, eds, London: Demos, 2004, pp 221-224; available online

* Albert-László Barabási, Linked: The New Science of Networks, Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2002, pp 41-63. (READER ONLY)

* Mark Granovetter, "The Strength of Weak Ties, A Network Theory Revisited," Sociological Theory, Volume 1(1983), 201-233 available online

* danah boyd,Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites

* danah boyd, "Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace" available online

* Barry Wellman, "Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Personalized Networking," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25 (2001), Special Issue on "Networks, Class and Place," edited by Talja Blokland and Mike Savage. available online.

* Garrett Hardin, (1968) "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science, 162(1968):1243-1248. available online.

* Peter Kollock, "Social Dilemmas: The Anatomy of Cooperation," available online.

* Elinor Ostrom, (1990) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp 1-28. (READER ONLY)

* Summary of Governing the Commons

* Robert Axelrod, "Three Conditions for Human Cooperation." available online

* Mancur Olson (1965), The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1965), pp 1-52

* Pieter Boeder, Habermas Heritage: the future of the public sphere in the network society, First Monday, volume 10, number 9 ( September 2005)

* Cass R. Sunstein, "The Daily We: Is the Internet really a blessing for democracy?." Boston Review, October 20, 2003 (Reader)

* Phil Agre, The Practical Republic: Social Skills and the Progress of Citizenship

* Rolling Stone comment thread

* Democratic Deliberation and Mobilization on the Internet

# Sherry Turkle, (1995) "Aspects of the Self," Chapter Seven from Life On The Screen, Simon & Schuster, pp 177-210(READER ONLY)

# Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , Introduction and Chapter One, (pp 1-50) (READER ONLY)

# Julian Dibbell, (1998). A Rape in Cyberspace. In My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World (pp. 11-30). New York: Henry Holt and Company. available online.

# danah boyd, 2006. "Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace." American Association for the Advancement of Science, St. Louis, MO. February 19. available online

# What Designers Can Learn From Facebook’s Beacon: the collision of fronts

# Donath, J. (1999). "Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community,"In M. A. Smith & P. Kollock (Eds.), Communities in Cyberspace (pp. 29-59). New York: Routledge. available online

# Regina Lynn, "Virtual rape is traumatic, but is it a crime?," Wired, May 4, 2007, available online.

# Rheingold Mind-to-Mind with Sherry Turkle available online

* John Coate, "Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community," available online.

* Peter Kollock, (1996), "Design Principles for Online Communities," Harvard Conference on the Internet and Society. available online.

* Amy Jo Kim, (2000) "Purpose: The Heart of Your Community," from Community Building on the Web, Peachpit Press, pp 1-18, available online.

* Howard Rheingold, (1999), "The Art of Hosting Good Conversations Online," available online.

* The WELL Host Manual, chapter two, available online.

* Mike Godwin, "Nine Principles for Making Virtual Communities Work," available online.

* Robert Putnam, (1993) Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton University Press, 1993, pp 121-181. (READER ONLY)

* Paul Resnick, (2007) "Beyond Bowling Together: Sociotechnical Capital" HCI in the New Millenium, edited by John Carroll. Addison-Wesley attached.

* Ronald Burt, "Social Origins of Good Ideas," pp 2-10, 34-41 available online

* Howard Rheingold, (2002) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, (Cambridge: Perseus), pp xi-xxii; 157-215. (READER ONLY)

* Ethan Zuckerman, "Mobile Phones and Social Activism,", available online.

* Jean K. Min, "First Hand Report on the Korean Elections," available online.

* Tomi T. Hanonen, Alan Moore, "Alpha users and communities in politics—March 2004 Spanish general elections," available online

* Yochai Benkler, (2006) The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale University Press, Chapters One and Four: available online: Chapter One, Chapter Four

* Peter Kollock, "The Economics of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace," in Smith and Kollock, Communities in Cyberspace, available online.

* Sherry Turkle (2007), "Can You Hear Me Now," Forbes, May 7, 2007 available online

* Katherine Hayles, (2007), "Hyperattention" MLA Profession attached: Hayles-hyper.doc

* Walter Kirn, (2007), "The Autumn of the Multitaskers," The Atlantic Monthly, November, 2007. (READER ONLY)

* danah boyd, (2007) "Incantations for Muggles," Presentation at O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference, February.available online.

My Desk Returns

2008-01-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

Months ago my desk vanished under tottering towers of articles, unopened mail, and stuff-to-get-to-later. Tonight, as I was wondering what to do with my abrupt no-longer-studying-for-comps freedom, I found myself reclaiming my desk.

I think I'm going to like this post-comps life.

For the next few months I'll be writing a thesis about early British America itinerants. Studying for comps alerted me to some postcolonial and state-formation works I need to read soon.

My online focus will be shifting as well. I always thought of Patahistory as a very graduate-student-flavored blog, and now that I'm wrapping up my history grad student life, I'm also wrapping up Patahistory.

Doing research last spring about digital history, and web 2.0 stuff, inspired me to channel my internet attention to my community. The lightning bolt that struck me while doing that research was this -- the internet is a participation platform as much, or more than, it is a publication platform.

A year ago I started blogging about local eateries (on another page), and I've had a lot of fun doing it. Now I'm going to expand that page, and interest, to other local concerns.

What that means for this page is that there will be a lot more posts over the next few months, and then I'll move to a new address and new page.

The posts, however, will now be about all the stuff catching my attention, rather than just history/academia posts. In some ways this is morphing into what will become the main page on the Unnamed Tampa Blog Project.

non sequitur

Here are the ten songs that played while I wrote this post:

Rock This Town - Daniel Johnston

Fairies Wear Boots - Black Sabbath

Til the End of the Day - Big Star

Blue Day - Heartless Bastards

Summer Nights - John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John

Why Do Fools Fall in Love - The Four Seasons

The Darktown Poker Club - Phil Harris and his Orchestra

Stairway to Gilligan's Island - (Theme from Gilligan's Island set to the music of Stairway to Heaven) - Little Roger and the Goosebumps

Traces of Love - Classics IV

Devil in My Car - B52s

Comps Exhaustion

2008-01-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

My comprehensive exams are now behind me. In a few days I'll know whether I passed.

In the midst of my post-comps fog I received the following. Last semester the TAs were evaluated by the students (the first time for this program). Here are the comments I received.

Section 006
"Will make a fine teacher."

Section 003

"Was available to discuss wide range of history topics."

"Learned more in this class that in Morgan's"

"Great teacher, really cared about his students. He was knowledgeable w/ the material."

"Very knowledgeable, full of useful/random fun information."

"I thought Davisson was an excellent assistant and I learned a lot from him. He has a great way of connecting to the students."

"David Davisson was an excellent Graduate Assistant. Very Helpful! Great!"

"Very helpful and considerate."

I had a Sally Field moment. Tomorrow, back to the internets and somewhat regular posting!

A Brand New Future

2008-01-01T09:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

The good news - I passed my Spanish exam with a mark of "excellent." (It's actually only pass/fail, but the grader characterized my translation as excellent, so that's what I'm going with).

More good news - Comps were moved back to January 22. This gives me some breathing space between the two seminar papers due at the end of the fall and the language exam and comps. I now feel like it's all doable and that I'm on track. I've been reading non-stop (well, except for last night, and the minimum family-visiting and friend-socializing I can get away with) since the end of the semester.

After the 22nd my life should be relatively normal again. I'll be working on the thesis, but I don't have any classes, so I can research and write all day. Sounds like fun.

The bad new - My career as a historian-in-training is coming to a screeching halt. The Ph.D program that everyone was so optimistic about is not going to happen. The program will remain masters terminal. Since I have no desire to leave my happy home I will not be applying to any history Ph.D programs.

What this means is that I will probably be ending both Patahistory and my involvement in Revise and Dissent sometime over the course of the semester.

What does the future hold? I'll probably go to library school and work on becoming more active in my community. I am planning a new blog/website/community page, but it will probably be this summer before details can be unveiled.

I also intend to write. I'll probably try my hand at writing some popular history. I have about a half-dozen projects I want to flesh out over the next five months. We'll see if any of them can sustain the attention necessary for a book-length work, and if I have the chops to write something engaging and publishable. I'll have a better idea of how practical a writing life appears later this spring.

Anyway, no matter how good your 2007 was, I hope everybody's 2008 is better than their 2007!

My Interminable Silence

2007-10-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

I am preparing for my comps, so every spare moment I have is spent reading rather than on the internet. I suppose I might scratch together a spare moment or two, but my workload is ridiculous this semester.

Do We Learn From History?

2007-09-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

I was recently introduced to The Chasers, a group of Australian pranksters. In this segment, to learn what we learn from history, they attempt to smuggle a Trojan horse into gated areas.

2:43

They recently gained global attention when they breached APEC security with a pretend motorcade.

4:06

I Should Really Be Working...

2007-09-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

...instead of day-dreaming about how potentially awesome this rock opera could be.