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Unlivable Cities
China's megalopolises may seem impressive on paper, but they are awful places to live.
In Invisible Cities, the novel by the great Italian writer Italo Calvino, Marco Polo dazzles the emperor of China, Kublai Khan, with 55 stories of cities he has visited, places where "the buildings have spiral staircases encrusted with spiral seashells," a city of "zigzag" where the inhabitants "are spared the boredom of following the same streets every day," and another with the option to "sleep, make tools, cook, accumulate gold, disrobe, reign, sell, question oracles." The trick, it turns out, is that Polo's Venice is so richly textured and dense that all his stories are about just one city.
In Invisible Cities, the novel by the great Italian writer Italo Calvino, Marco Polo dazzles the emperor of China, Kublai Khan, with 55 stories of cities he has visited, places where "the buildings have spiral staircases encrusted with spiral seashells," a city of "zigzag" where the inhabitants "are spared the boredom of following the same streets every day," and another with the option to "sleep, make tools, cook, accumulate gold, disrobe, reign, sell, question oracles." The trick, it turns out, is that Polo's Venice is so richly textured and dense that all his stories are about just one city.
A modern European ruler listening to a visitor from China describe the country's fabled rise would be better served with the opposite approach: As the traveler exits a train station, a woman hawks instant noodles and packaged chicken feet from a dingy metal cart, in front of concrete steps emptying out into a square flanked by ramshackle hotels and massed with peasants sitting on artificial cobblestones and chewing watermelon seeds. The air smells of coal. Then the buildings appear: Boxlike structures, so gray as to appear colorless, line the road. If the city is poor, the Bank of China tower will be made with hideous blue glass; if it's wealthy, our traveler will marvel at monstrous prestige projects of glass and copper. The station bisects Shanghai Road or Peace Avenue, which then leads to Yat-sen Street, named for the Republic of China's first president, eventually intersecting with Ancient Building Avenue. Our traveler does not know whether he is in Changsha, Xiamen, or Hefei — he is in the city Calvino describes as so unremarkable that "only the name of the airport changes." Or, as China's vice minister of construction, Qiu Baoxing, lamented in 2007, "It's like a thousand cities having the same appearance."
Why are Chinese cities so monolithic? The answer lies in the country's fractured history. In the 1930s, China was a failed state: Warlords controlled large swaths of territory, and the Japanese had colonized the northeast. Shanghai was a foreign pleasure den, but life expectancy hovered around 30. Tibetans, Uighurs, and other minorities largely governed themselves. When Mao Zedong unified China in 1949, much of the country was in ruins, and his Communist Party rebuilt it under a unifying theme. Besides promulgating a single language and national laws, they subscribed to the Soviet idea of what a city should be like: wide boulevards, oppressively squat, functional buildings, dormitory-style housing. Cities weren't conceived of as places to live, but as building blocks needed to build a strong and prosperous nation; in other words, they were constructed for the benefit of the party and the country, not the people.
Even today, most Chinese cities feel like they were cobbled together from a Soviet-era engineering textbook. China's fabled post-Mao liberal reforms meant that the country's cities grew wealthier, but not that much more distinct from each other. Beijing has changed almost beyond recognition since Deng Xiaoping took power in 1978, but to see what Beijing looked like in the past, visit a less developed part of China: Malls in Xian, a regional hub in central China famous for its row upon row of grimacing terracotta warriors, look like the shabby pink structures that used to dot western Beijing. Yes, China's cities are booming, but there's a depressing sameness to what you find in even the newest of new boomtowns. Consider the checklist of "hot" new urban features itemized in a 2007 article in the Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, including obligatory new "development zones" (sprawling corporate parks set up to attract foreign direct investment), public squares, "villa" developments for the nouveau riche, large overlapping highways, and, of course, a new golf course or two for the bosses. The cookie-cutter approach is such that even someone like Zhou Deci, former director of the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design, told the paper he has difficulty telling Chinese cities apart.
This model of endless fractal Beijings wouldn't be so bad if the city itself were charming, but it is a dreary expanse traversed by unwalkable highways, punctuated by military bases, government offices, and other closed-off spaces, with undrinkable tap water and poisonous air that's sometimes visible, in yellow or gray. And so are its lesser copies across the country's 3.7 million square miles, from Urumqi in the far west to Shenyang way up north. For all their economic success, China's cities, with their lack of civil society, apocalyptic air pollution, snarling traffic, and suffocating state bureaucracy, are still terrible places to live.
I spent seven years in China, living there until the end of last year. I've visited 21 of China's 22 provinces and all five of its questionably named "autonomous" regions. In a traffic jam in the central metropolis of Wuhan, a barrage of car horns honking at once nearly made me deaf; smog the color of gargled milk hung over Nanjing the week I spent there, obscuring the city's old rivers and bridges; at one of the nicest hotels in Tangshan, a city of 3 million famous for its steel industry, its 1976 earthquake, and its cabbage, I opened my window and found myself surrounded by smokestacks. I spent six years in Beijing, two months in Shanghai, a week in Tianjin, and 45 minutes in a cab on the way to the Chongqing airport. But of all the places I've been, I'd vote Harbin China's least livable metropolis, at least during the three winter months I spent there as a student in 2005.
Chinese central government propaganda has gotten more sophisticated, even believable over the years, but official descriptions of cities are a major exception. Xiamen, for example, a sweltering concrete mess across the strait from Taiwan, is known as the "Garden of the Sea." Harbin, a gray Manchurian industrial powerhouse 300 miles south of Siberia that McKinsey says will be the world's 55th-most dynamic city in 2025, gets the award for the worst abuse of language: It is widely known in China as "The Little Paris of the Orient," even though the two cities have nothing in common besides roads, people, buildings, and a fondness for bread.
In the early 20th century, Harbin had a large population of fleeing white Russians. In the 1950s, because of its strategic location, the Soviet Union sent advisors to help develop the city; they are in part responsible for the soulless apartment blocks and the creepy concrete dormitories that ring the campus of the Harbin Institute of Technology, the city's most prominent university.
Harbin now houses nearly 6 million people, some of whom had fled from bleaker towns farther north, in a wide, flat city bisected by the cleverly named Central Avenue. Aboveground malls compete for customers with massive underground shopping centers that used to be bomb shelters. The post offices, banks, and counterfeit DVD stores looked like run-down versions of the ones in Beijing; even the bus-stop map seemed to be designed by the same person.
Besides karaoke rooms and KFC, popular destinations for locals include the mostly frigid Sun Island Park, across the street from Stalin Park, which features imitation Russian architecture and the Railway River clubhouse, administered by a local railways bureau (and yes, it's that Stalin). For most of the year, real outdoor activities are difficult: When I arrived in February, the temperature regularly dropped below -15 degrees Celsius; buffeted by Siberian winds, it was physically painful to be outside. Locals have probably gawked at St. Sophia Cathedral, built by the Russian army in 1907, at least once or twice. And some have visited the Siberian Tiger Park, climbing into rickety vans as the guides drive among the tigers (for $8 your guide will toss a chicken at the patiently waiting animals; for $300, he'll release a cow), and the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, billed as one of the world's "four largest ice and snow festivals."
But mostly, people drink. Chinese alcoholism statistics are hard to come by, but Harbin hits the bottle hard. One Chinese website in 2008 ranked Harbiners as China's No. 1 beer drinkers, claiming that they drink more than 85 liters of beer a year, on par with Lithuania and nearly twice as much as China's second-ranked city, also in Manchuria. Many drink in restaurants or in clubs, like the popular Blues, a cavernous dance hall that featured a massive silk-screen print of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on the wall and a fake octopus hanging from the ceiling, and where a Mongolian prostitute smacking a Korean prostitute with a chair would interrupt only the person who had been sitting on the chair. A Beijing-based blogger who lived in Harbin in 2003 told me about leaving Blues after several drinks and flagging a taxi driver, whom he recognized. "The taxi driver told me, 'Hi, I just came from a wedding and I'm soused. You drive." So he drove himself home through Harbin's icy, deserted streets.
Like many Chinese cites, Harbin can be extremely challenging to the health — and not just due to the sometimes scandalously toxic food served in dim, poorly lit restaurants. Hospital bathrooms in Harbin and elsewhere often lack soap and toilet paper, ostensibly out of fear that residents will steal the items. Six months after I arrived, a benzene spill in the nearby Songhua River briefly left the city without running water. The air in Harbin was so polluted that I felt as though the coal dust had sunk into my lungs, and a fine layer of black soot seeped in through our windows overnight. But even Harbin wasn't as filthy as Linfen, a city of 4 million people in central China's Shanxi province that Time in 2007, on a list of the world's 20 most polluted cities, said made "Dickensian London look as pristine as a nature park."
The most livable parts of Chinese cities tend to be those that existed before Communist Party control. Teahouses, sometimes in elaborate, winding wooden structures, populate Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province; the areas around West Lake of Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province near Shanghai, feature an urban peacefulness and quiet. In an essay, dissident artist Ai Weiwei listed a "few nice parks" as one of the two things he liked about Beijing (the other was that "people still give birth to babies"). Chinese cities have little crime; one can stroll safely through Beijing's magnificent Temple of the Sun park at midnight and lie on the altar, roughly 20 feet high, where the emperor used to offer sacrifices to the sun, and marvel at the luxury of so much space in a crowded city. And on the rare day when the sky is clear, you can even see the stars.
Many of China's most tolerable areas, though, have foreign elements. Shanghai owes its cafe culture, its warrens of charming alleys, and its stately waterfront buildings to foreign colonization. The former foreign concession Tianjin, a municipality roughly the size of Beijing and 30 minutes away by high-speed rail, still retains some delightfully ramshackle mansions from that period. (Many Chinese, however, see the foreign concessions as a reminder of the early 20th-century colonization and therefore shameful, and some see American cities, with their GDPs expanding at glacial rates of 1 to 2 percent, as relics of the past.) Despite the best efforts of local governments and developers to raze old neighborhoods, the Silk Road oasis of Kashgar and the Tibetan capital of Lhasa still harbor majestic temples and mosques. The former foreign concession Gulangyu, a five-minute ferry ride from Xiamen in South China's Fujian province, is one of the most pleasant spots in China. A carless island, filled with less than 20,000 residents, it's experiencing a boom because tourists "want to experience Western culture," a woman named Xie Lida told me in 2010; her family owns one of the island's most popular coffee shops, called Zhu Family Garden, on the first floor of their massive villa. The European parlor-style decoration features paintings of the British countryside, overstuffed chairs with rose patterns, and Earl Grey served from an imitation British tea set.
Cities that try to replicate the success of places like Gulangyu often do so by plunking a massive Western structure in the center of their city. In 2003, Dalian erected a hulking Bavarian-style fortress above the conference center near where the World Economic Forum held its "Summer Davos"; the castle looked more at home in a Mario Bros. video game than a coastal Chinese city. (It was torn down in 2010.) The southern boomtown of Shenzhen boasts an Eiffel Tower 25 percent the size of the original; Hangzhou's version is 33 percent. In 2003, Fuyang, an impoverished city of 8 million people in central Anhui province, built a massive government office, at a cost of nearly $5 million, resembling the U.S. Capitol. ("Without the red flag, you can't tell if it's America or China," one local resident quipped to a Chinese state journalist.)
The copycat ethos also extends to domestic landmarks. The Water Cube, where Beijing hosted its Olympic swimming events, has spawned a look-alike spa in the metropolis of Chongqing offering brothel service, at least until a 2010 police raid. Chengdu has built a fake version of the Great Wall. Even China's iconic Tiananmen Square, the site of Mao's 1949 proclamation of an independent China and 1989's student massacre, has a fake version in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia autonomous region. These faux landmarks, built for the prestige of Chinese mayors and party secretaries, rarely become integrated into the city. According to a photographer who visited Hangzhou's Eiffel Tower in 2011, migrant workers now use the land adjacent to the tower to grow crops.
And even where China's urbanization boom has produced impressive architectural feats, it's not always clear that the country's cities are ready for them: A free-spending checkbook for development hasn't yet translated to a way around the Communist Party's stronghold on history, politics, and everything in between. So yes, there are impressive new urban meccas for the performing arts, like the soaring glass Guangzhou Opera House designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid that cost more than $200 million to build, or French architect Paul Andreu's Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts, a gorgeously situated dome that looks like an egg floating in water, with a price tag of more than $300 million. But a pervasive fear of censorship means that many of the best plays and artwork — the lifeblood of great cities — never get created or performed.
That's not to say Chinese cities aren't improving. Pictures of Harbin in the 1980s make it look like Pyongyang with smog and traffic. Most Chinese lived in dormitories with shared kitchens or bathrooms, and few appliances.
"The yard is just two metres square," writes author Ma Jian in the travelogue Red Dust, about the "crumbling old shack" he lived in off a Beijing courtyard in 1981, an improvement from his previous quarters in a dormitory. "In the summer months, watermelon skins and empty ice-cream cartons fall from the flats and attract swarms of flies and mosquitoes, so I tend to stay indoors. Winter is the best season as my neighbours seal their windows." Antoaneta Becker, a former journalist from Bulgaria who studied at Peking University, Beijing's premier college, in the late 1980s, said that it was so boring that "there was nothing to do but sit and meditate on the meaning of existence."
Now, great noodle and sushi joints dot the capital; bars mixing $15 martinis are upstairs from little tents serving beer of dubious provenance for under a dollar. Foreign and Chinese hipsters have colonized some of Beijing's traditional hutong (small alleys that ramble throughout the center of the city) neighborhoods. The capital's best microbrewery, Great Leap, set up a bar in one these alleys — its subversive name is borrowed from the Great Leap Forward, Mao's disastrous forced industrial campaign that led to the starvation of 20 million to 30 million people.
But there is much work to be done before China's urban wastelands measure up to the world's great cities. In a different era, but one suited to China's present condition, England-based novelist Henry James wrote, "It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent." After three decades of breakneck growth and 5,000 years of history, China's cities have most of that going for them. Now they just need to work on the magnificent.
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Now that President Barack Obama has won election to his second term, he is free to pursue some of the goals he considered but backed away from due to public outcry during his first four years.
A tax on carbon emissions such as those from burning fossil fuels including coal, oil and natural gas, reportedly is on the White House drawing board.
U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., has launched a pre-emptive strike against Obama on that score. Last week, he introduced a resolution opposing any proposed new carbon tax.
"A carbon tax would increase the cost of everything from driving a car to heating and cooling a home," McKinley pointed out to a reporter. It would harm the economy, hitting the pocketbooks of both low- and middle-income Americans hard.
Obama's war on coal already has hurt that industry badly. Within the next few years, it will result in higher electric bills for millions of Americans.
Now he is considering a plan through the carbon tax to take more money out of our pockets. McKinley's resolution should be approved quickly in the House – then the U.S. Senate.

subset: commoncrawl


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This article is more than 1 year old
Cloud Security Alliance crosses the Pond
Bringing cloud to the masses
"The cloud agenda has to move beyond the security field and into business," says Jacqui Taylor, freshly minted director of communications for the UK and Ireland wing of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).
"There is an education process that has to be done, and it needs an independent voice. That is where we come in."
A not-for-profit organisation, the CSA was set up in the US to establish and promote best practice for IT security in cloud computing.
Local heroes
The launch of the local chapter, CSA UK & Ireland, earlier this year was prompted by a recognition that the issues raised by cloud computing vary hugely across regions, and that local context is needed to provide the best guidance to members.
But even this remit is too narrow.
"We held a meeting at Infosec this year," Taylor says. "Something like 80 or 90 people came and most stayed for the whole debate. We are still pulling together all the strands from that, but it is clear that we are not at the point where we can focus just on IT security professionals."
Cloud is now a mainstream proposition, attracting interest from users outside IT: teachers, small businesses, parents and executives.
"Cloud can deliver what a business needs, while it still needs it. We are not talking two or three years development time, but months or even weeks from someone having an idea to being able to realise it," Taylor says.
"In my day job, we see much less technical involvement in these projects. It used to be maybe 80 per cent IT, 20 per cent management. Now it is the other way round, and that is going to increase as generation Y comes into the workplace. They don't have a background of doing it the hard way."
Age of innocence
The explosion of mainstream interest in cloud means it is necessary to take a step back and "re-do cloud 101". It is also dangerous to assume too much technical knowledge.
"I don't think we realised when we launched how much we had to explain. The brief is wider in terms of our members," Taylor says.
"We see people who are using cloud but have no idea they are doing so"
"Before 2011, I don't think we were having these debates. It was all very industry focused. We are still dealing with early adopters, but the curve is growing. We see people who are using cloud but have no idea they are doing so."
The members of the CSA UK & Ireland board come from a range of backgrounds. Some, such as Peter Wood, are dyed-in-the-wool IT security professionals; Amanda Goodyear works in security in government and Benedict Olaoya works in the NHS.
It means that in the course of their normal work they confront just about every issue cloud computing can raise, and bring that experience to the alliance.
Free speech
It also means president Des Ward can draw on a good roster of speakers to help pursue the next goal: that no cloud or security-related conference agenda should be without one of the alliance members appearing as a speaker.
The task now is to sift through the mountains of feedback and suggestions for research. "I'd love to tell you what is on the list, but the shortlist has 45 proposals still. We need to prioritise," says Taylor.
She adds that the organisation also aims to make information available on the web site.
"We will start by collecting the information that is already there and making it available to people who want to use it," Taylor says.
"That includes material from presentations any of our board members make, but we will develop new material, too, such as whitepapers, presentations and so on.
"We want to be the first resource for people who want to know about security and the cloud." ®


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The Trayvon Martin Race Trap
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Here are the basic facts of the Trayvon Martin case, as we know them today.
Seventeen year old Trayvon Martin was walking back from the store through a neighborhood that has had a number of burglaries. The Hispanic neighborhood watch captain, 28 year old George Zimmerman, thought he looked suspicious. Zimmerman called the police to report Martin's presence and the police told him not to follow Martin — but he did anyway. Apparently, Martin got creeped out because Zimmerman was following him and ran. Martin pursued him. According to someone Martin was talking to on his cell phone, Martin asked Zimmerman why he was following him and Zimmerman asked why he was in that neighborhood. At that point, Zimmerman claims he was attacked by Martin and he responded by shooting and killing him. There don't appear to be any eyewitnesses to the crime and so far, Zimmerman hasn't been arrested. There was a "preliminary investigation (that) indicated no crime was committed under Florida law," but that being said, the case probably will go before a Grand Jury and it's still very possible Zimmerman may have to go to trial for what he did.
I think that's appropriate. The situation, even as Zimmerman describes it, makes him sound like an overzealous neighborhood watch captain who scared the living hell out of Martin and gave him good reason to be deeply concerned about his safety. So, even if Martin did attack Zimmerman, he had reason to do so. Zimmerman, who then created the entire situation with his reckless behavior, shot Martin to death.
This has been played up as a racist incident, in part because Zimmerman was initially misindentified as white and there have been fictional claims that Zimmerman used a racial epithet. In fact, Zimmerman is Hispanic and there were no racial epithets used. Additionally, there's no way to know whether Zimmerman would have behaved similarly with a white kid wearing a hoodie.
(On a side note, I had this exact same sort of thing happen to me once. I was walking my dog through a local area just as it started to get dark. It was an area I had walked through dozens and dozens of times before — except this time, an old man decided to follow me in his car. The same car kept showing up behind me, passing, and circling around behind me for a good 3/4 of a mile. Eventually, as I stood well off the side of the road and stared at him as he drove past me, the guy rolled down his window and demanded to know who I was and where I lived. I told him to get away from me. When he kept following me even after that, I cursed him out, picked up a rock the size of my fist and told him that if he kept following me, I was going to smash his car window with it. I wasn't armed, I had no idea if he was, and I had no idea what his intentions were; so I stayed well clear of the car so I could break for cover if he pulled out a gun. But, I can tell you that if the guy had gotten out and come over to me like Zimmerman apparently did to Martin, my reaction would have been EXTREMELY violent because the guy's behavior seemed loony to me and my thinking was, "If he makes it him or me, it's DEFINITELY going to be him."
During the middle of this, a couple of neighbors drove by, told him I walked through there all the time and suggested he go home. Eventually Senile McSherlock decided to stop following me and he did go home. And that was that.
This weird, sad incident with Trayvon Martin has gotten a lot of attention despite the fact that roughly 7,000 black men are murdered a year and 93% of the time, their killers are other black Americans. That's partially because professional race hustlers like Al Sharpton and the NAACP need to constantly shout "racism" to make a living and it's partly because of the sad way black Americans are falsely indoctrinated with the idea that most white people hate them because they're black.
If you want to see a great example of the latter mentality, you can go to a website called the Black Snob that has up an article called, "No Apologies: On The Killing Of Trayvon Martin And Being 'Good'." Basically, the author manages to tie Trayvon Martin's death into a narrative that spans her entire life and I felt honest-to-goodness, genuine pity for her and the tens of millions of people who've been brainwashed in the same way as I read her piece.
In the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin, there's no safe place. There's no real excuse to cling to. None of the usual dismissals work or fit. It's just bad. Real bad. And sits there and stares at you with it's cruelty and unfairness and ugliness and says, "Take this."
Take this load. And pick it up.
Just take it. And accept it. And choke back the lumps in your throat. As it has happened before. And it will happen again. And again you will be told to "take this."
Take this burden and just accept it as your burden. It's just "how it is." You're all statistics. Take these statistics. And black people get shot everywhere everyday by everyone. Police. Non-police. Crazy people. Bigots. Their parents. Other kids. Just take it. It's part of your Life In America, Black People. Accept this tragedy and go through the motions of appealing to people's decency and demanding justice and having protests and press conferences and crying and asking why and demanding answers and then eventually getting that bad dead cold thing that just sits there and says, "Take this."
It's easy to understand black Americans getting upset about living in violent neighborhoods, but it's not some racist plot. It's mostly black gang members shooting at other black gang members and whomever gets in their way. I think that's tragic, but the fix for it is more police in those neighborhoods, harsher jail sentences, more "snitching," less tolerance of drug dealers and gangbangers in black America, and more kids being raised in two parent families. Unfortunately, it's unpopular to say that and those are tough things to fix. It's a lot simpler to just throw up your hands and cry "racism!" It doesn't ever solve anything, but it's easier and more comfortable; so people do it.
A long, long time ago when I was young my parents told me I had to be the best to make it in this world. Averageness was something only the white and the male could afford and as a black woman, I was neither.
I think it's a good idea to push your kids to be their best, but I don't know why anyone would think average white males get handed the world on a silver platter. I know liberals love to talk about "white privilege" and how easy white people have it — but, I don't see it and honestly, I don't think most people see it. Maybe 50 years ago, sure, but not in my lifetime have I ever had a job or a profession where it was an advantage to be white. In every job I ever had in my life, poorly performing black workers were less likely to be fired than similarly performing white workers and high performing black workers were more likely to be promoted over a white worker of similar skills.
This is no secret. Once when I was younger and didn't understand how the world worked as well, I asked a boss why he just didn't fire a black employee at our company who constantly showed up late — when she showed up at all. I noted that I thought he'd fire me if I did the same thing. He told me that was true, but said she was black, and before you could fire someone who's black, you had to have a long paper trail. I didn't make a big deal of it then or now, but it's worth noting because I haven't ever seen any actual evidence in my life that black Americans have it tougher on the job or in life in general, than white people in the same situation. If anything, when it comes to getting into a university or on the job, being black seems to be a big advantage.
In fact, the whole idea reminds me of a classic Eddie Murphy skit from Saturday Night Live.
I promise you; this isn't actually how the world works. Nobody gives you a free ride because you're white.
That same year, the eighth grade, my history teacher moved my seat in the front of the class to the back with a pair of boys who harassed me, teased me and made trouble with me every day. Then, because I'm near-sighted, my vision worsened and I needed new glasses. I couldn't read the blackboard. I told my teacher of both, the harassment and the inability to see.
He, oddly, agreed I was being harassed, but thought I was "weak" to complain. As for my inability to see, he told me I was lying.
Even though I wore glasses. We got a doctor's note from my optometrist that I needed new glasses and should sit up front until they were ready.
The teacher suddenly decided everyone in the class could sit where ever they wanted.
He never apologized.
My mother, far more blunt than I, called it what it was. I was black. My teachers were white. The school was mostly white. It was racism. Even though all my teachers, even the jerk ones, thought I was a bright and talented student who was polite and respectful. They would lose my extra credit homework on purpose rather than add it towards my grade, lest I test higher than whoever they would always hope would beat me when the boys would play the girls in History Bingo.
Here's an alternate theory: maybe your teacher was just a creep. Maybe someone just lost your extra credit homework rather than trying to screw up "History Bingo" for you or whatever. I once had a teacher take POINTS OFF of my test because he didn't like my extra credit answer. He didn't apologize either and happily, I didn't spend time brooding at home, thinking about how racist the world is because of it. Everything isn't race. In fact, for most white people who aren't 80 years old, very little is race. They don't spend a lot of time thinking about it, paying attention to it, or plotting how they want to screw you over in "History Bingo" because you're black.
That if we're just "good" we'll be safe. If your son doesn't listen to hip hop, goes to the church camp, gets A's and Bs in school, is polite, says "sir" and "ma'am," if he's a good kid, he'll be safe. That's the bargain black parents make with their children.
If you are "good" the gangs and the violence and the racism won't get you. You will be safe. You will live to see 25. You will have a great life. Opportunity will abound for you. We will be proud of you. The community will be proud of you. You will be Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and life will be beautiful if you just want it enough.
Just be "good." Be good, Trayvon Martin. Stay in school. Listen to your parents. And you'll be safe.
But that's a lie. No one came make you safe. No one can save you for that day some sick person just decides you're the bad guy because you're black and carrying a bottle of ice tea and some Skittles and he self-appointed himself neighborhood watch and some black teenage boys aren't good, therefore ALL BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT GOOD. And you are a black person. And you're a boy. And you had on a "hooded sweatshirt." So, you're dead now.
You lose.
This is the same thing all kids are taught. That's the message of every fairy tale. Virtue is rewarded. Bad guys may be stronger, but they eventually fail because goodness is somehow, someway, inherently stronger. It doesn't always work out that way in the real world. In the real world, sometimes bad things happen to good people — including white people. I really promise you, random bad things happen to white people, too. Really, they do. Not every bad thing that happens to non-white people is a result of racism. Sometimes, life being life,doesn't go all that well.
If you have a child, what do you tell them? Especially him. What do you tell him? How do you tell him as his mother or his father or his grandmother or grandfather that you, the person he loves and trusts and believes in more than anyone in the world, that you can keep him safe? How does he believe you now? He knows you're full of shit now. He's on Facebook. He's heard and read about Trayvon. Someone who looked like him. Someone who was "good." How do you tell him that if he just stays in school and is "good" it will be OK? How do you tell him to handle something like this?
When you get older, you realize Santa Claus doesn't exist, goodness isn't always rewarded, and you're not invulnerable. It's part of life. Why is this even supposed to be a black thing as opposed to a "growing up" thing?
The impetus is not on the kid walking home from the 7-11. But on the self-proclaimed, gun-wielding, one-man-neighborhood watch, calling the Sanford Police more than 40 times in the last year. It is not Trayvon's job, or your job or my job to make bigots feel more comfortable with us because there is no way to get their comfort. It is a lie.
I've already said that I think George Zimmerman should be put on trial for what he did, and maybe he will turn out to be a bigot, but we don't know that yet and the people who see him as a bigot, probably see bigots everywhere. They're the school teachers, the cops, their boss, the guy serving them dinner, etc., etc. It's a filter that warps and ruins their world because it makes them into victims and gives them a completely false picture of the world. How hard life must be when your own mind sees so many enemies where they don't exist.
A woman, much older than I, who I've known most of my life, used to say "I feel like my purpose in life is to make white people mad." I used to think that what she said sounded really silly. She was born under Jim Crow (hence her tendency to talk of white people as if they're monolithic) and was a long-time housewife. All she'd ever done was marry a nice guy and have lovely children. She'd lived a quiet, sweet sort of life, isolated from most of the drama anyone — white or black — ever has to deal with. I thought the statement was awkward and short-sighted and weird. I would smirk and brush it off. What the hell was that supposed to mean? You're not Angela Davis, I'd think. No one is shaking in their boots at night, worried about the fur coat wearing black housewives of Florissant, Mo.
Then, in a conversation with a friend of mine, Dr. Jason Johnson, I told him of what she said and he actually argued my pampered housewife had a point.
To paraphrase: "When you really think about it," he said. "What she did … falling in love, getting married, staying at home and raising her children … that's not what she and her ancestors were brought to this country to do. We weren't brought here to go to college, fall in love, get married and live our lives. We were brought here to work and live the lives others wanted us to have."
Jason said our lives as free people is a protest to this society that criminalizes a boy just for being black.
Our love for each other. Our community. Our friendships. Our bonds are a form of protest.
Because we aren't doing what we were brought here to do.
How sad is it that you have intelligent adults who actually think going to college, falling in love, and getting married is a protest against white people? I really wish there were a way to let people like this actually see into the mind of the white people they think hate them so much. It would shift their whole reality — well, maybe. When your life is built around a lie, that you're a hated victim of white people, who for the most part neither think about you at all nor even think about race unless someone else brings it up, it would be hard to see the world as it is.
When you talk about someone who lived under Jim Crow laws, you can understand their holding on to an archaic view. That person grew up in a much uglier world. Now, however, we've gotten to the point where many of the people raving about racism haven't ever experienced anything that can even clearly be recognized and defined as racism. Oh, I had a schoolteacher who was a jerk, just like you — but in my case, the teacher must have acted that way because of racism. It's a mentality that's so at odds with reality that it's hard to see how you even begin to change it — and it's bad for the country and sad for the people who are afflicted with it.
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Transcript: Bush, Berlusconi news conference
ROME, Italy -- Following is a transcript of a news conference held Monday, July 23, 2001, by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and U.S. President George W. Bush:
SILVIO BERLUSCONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): ... It's as a friend that I receive him in a free country, a democratic country, that has always been a friend of the United States of America, which, with the United States of America, has had for over 50 years a very special cooperation based on the feelings of the Atlantic Alliance, the European Union.
Our country is a country that looks to the United States of America with a recognition that must be steadfast, a recognition that derives from a very profound feeling, Mr. President, of those who are aware of the fact that precisely, thanks to your country, to your great democracy, to the young lives that the Americans sacrificed in Italian territory over 50 years ago, Italy ended a very dark moment where totalitarianism had got rid of freedom, and thanks to the sacrifice of the United States and its allies, we were able to reach democracy, freedom and we had a period of over half a century in freedom, democracies and in prosperity.
Therefore, with the feelings of a very great friend where we recognize the feelings that are at the basis of the American feelings with the same values that are the basis of your political action that we receive you, Mr. President, and we, as we know in Genoa, have spent very special moments in Genoa, moments that I will always remember with great pleasure, and I must tell you that in Genoa I admired the way that you opened up towards others. I have to tell you that you conquered American journalists, you conquered everyone because you were so spontaneous, so natural. It was such a frank way to say things because yes is yes and no is no.
In politics, we weren't used to seeing all this, and we were always beating around the bush and we were taking things from the left or the right, up, down and so on. With President Bush everything is simple and, at the very end, all the other leaders truly appreciated the manner in which you were pragmatic, you were concrete, and that is how you face all of the problems.
And I also must add, and here I will end, I, who have already directed a G-8 in Naples seven years ago, found a new atmosphere, a more positive atmosphere with a greater closeness amongst leaders and I made this reflection; I said, it is almost a miracle today at the beginning of a new century, at the beginning of a new millennium of having, around a table, people looking at each other in their eyes with faith and with friendship. We have the prime minister of Japan, the president of the United States of America, the prime minister of Germany and the presidents of England, France and Italy and, again, the United States president and the president of the Russian Federation.
Only 13 years ago, the world was divided in two -- there were two ideologies, a wall in the middle and we thought that France and collective economies could be a competitive economy against our system of free markets and free enterprise. How the world has changed and, therefore, I have to tell you that as a citizen and anybody I must say that from Genoa, from the talks of President Bush and the other leaders, just by the way you had these relationships with the other leaders in such a frank and open way, we have greater hope.
The world today is much more safe than it was a few years ago, and we can truly build and construct for our people, but for other peoples as well, calling them within the virtuous cycle of trade, of exchanges, as friends with faith and confidence, we can definitely build a better world, and thank you for history, in a sense, in this specific instance, I must say thank you to President Bush.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much.
Perhaps the interpreter got it wrong when she says that my performance at the G-8 conquered the American press. If so, I would expect their stories to reflect it from now on.
But one thing is for certain, on this, my first trip as president to Italy, I've really enjoyed myself. I can see why so many Americans choose Italy as the place to visit: fantastic history, beautiful buildings and monuments and wonderful people.
Prime Minister, I appreciate your leadership as well. We share an entrepreneurial spirit. We understand the role the entrepreneur in our societies. After all, this good man came from humble beginnings to not only build a business enterprise that employs thousands of people, but also had the courage to seek political office, and I firmly believe the people of Italy will be well off with my friend as their leader.
BUSH: And I've got some experience to say that because I saw him at the G-8. We had meetings where there was nobody else in the room except the leaders of the industrialized world. We had good and honest discussions, but the prime minister was a pro, an expert at encouraging dialogue and expressing his opinion. I want to thank the people of Genoa again for the sacrifices they made. I want to thank the law enforcement officials for providing security. I appreciate the prime minister and his government for making available the opportunity for those of us who lead our respective nations to come together, have a good, frank dialogue, to talk about ways to improve relations amongst ourselves as well as ways to help those nations that are not as fortunate as we are.
You deserve a lot of credit, Mr. Prime Minister.
Secondly, we've had good discussions today about our bilateral relations. We've got great trade between our nations, and we could work together to make sure that trade continues. We've got good military cooperation between our respective lands, and we'll continue to do so.
And I reconfirm for the prime minister that which I said at NATO, that America came into the Balkans with our friends, and we will leave with our friends. And I appreciate so very much the Italian leadership in the Balkans, not only the general who led our troops at one point in time, but as well, the troops that our still there. Our two nations comprised a large part of the force in keeping the peace.
I also want to say something about the development in Indonesia. The people of Indonesia, by addressing their leadership crisis under their constitution and laws, have shown commitment to the rule of law and democracy.
We hope all parties will work together to maintain peace, support the constitution and promote national reconciliation. We appreciate President Wahid's work the last two years in leading Indonesia through its democratic transition.
We look forward to working with President Megawati and her team to address Indonesia's challenges of economic reform, a peaceful resolution of separatist challenges and maintaining territorial integrity.
Mr. Prime Minister, once again, thank you for your friendship and thank you for the friendship of the Italian people with the American people.
BERLUSCONI (through translator): Thank you.
There were agreements and we, through the journalists, that are going to ask the questions, the name that was given to me is the name of Mr. Dennison (ph).
QUESTION (through translator): Mr. President, the Pope's statement was a surprise on the manipulation of embryos and how do you intend to take this into consideration as far as federal subsidies are concerned. They were talking about the research...
QUESTION: ... was it a surprise? What do you feel today from the Holy Father, his declarations non manipulations of embryos and how do you intend to take it into consideration as you examine the decision about federal funds to research, especially in view of what you said before regarding your decision?
BUSH: Yes, thank you.
QUESTION: To President Berlusconi, the relationship between Italy and the United States, does it go through Europe or on one topics do you believe that Italy has a privileged and specific role because the communique was not very precise on this?
BUSH: That's a two-question strategy. The person's allowed to ask one question, but they managed to convert it to two. I suspect that may be the case with some of the American press as well.
First, let me say how honored I was to be able to be in the presence of the Holy Father. It was a moment that I was looking forward to because of his profound impact on the world. He's an extraordinary man who is, by virtue of his leadership and his conscience and his presence has not only affected political systems, but affected the hearts and souls of thousands of people all around the world and it's hard to describe. I'm not poetic enough to describe what it's like to be in his presence.
Nor was I surprised to hear his strong, consistent message of life. It's been his message ever since he's been the Holy Father. He's never deviated. He's sent a consistent word throughout the church and through society that we ought to take into the account the preciousness of life. I hear that message from his cardinals and bishops throughout our country.
One of the things about the Catholic Church that I admire is that it's a church that stands on consistent and solid principle and, of course, I'll take that point of view into consideration as I make up my mind on a very difficult issue confronting the United States of America. It's the need to balance value and respect for life with the promise of science and the hope of saving life.
BUSH: And so, I will go back home after what has been a very successful trip, continue to listen to points of view and make up my mind when I'm ready to and when I do I'll make the case to the American people.
BERLUSCONI (through translator): As far as the question that was asked, I think that the statement comprises all of the centers where we all had the same views and, therefore, we have the same political identity that derive from the same values, from the same way of looking at things and the events in the world. I think that this is the basis of a cooperation that can be a very tight one, indeed.
As far as the European Union, we know that the European Union wants to have a task force that will cooperate and work with NATO. It asks NATO to provide the element that the task force in the beginning would not have on its own but, again, with cooperation and working with NATO, and I do believe that this is something positive because it would not be logical, it would not be possible to continue for NATO to come in, intervene on its own in all of those situations that arise in the world in order to make sure that they go in to take care of those wounds that become chronic ulcers. Therefore, I think that it's fair that if Europe wants to become politically strong, that wants to express itself with a single voice, I was say it should have its own military force. However, I believe that this military force must be fully synchronized with the NATO forces and it might be able to intervene by itself with preventive agreements with NATO so that NATO does not have to face every single situation in the world.
As far as the United States, there's a very intense trade relationship in both directions. Last week we signed an agreement for a greater cooperation in technological and scientific research. I believe that this can be useful even in difficult situations like the situation of the factors that increase the temperature on the planet. I think that every single topic, every single situation should go back to the fundamental agreement that is born from the historic reasons that I mentioned and which consolidate itself due to the fact that we have a common basis of values and principles and today also due to the human liking and the sympathy that we have that has developed between the president of the Italian government and the president of the United States.
QUESTION: Mr. President (OFF-MIKE) regarding stem cell research. I was struck by the fact that the Pope specifically condemned the creation of embryonic stem cells for the purpose of research when, in fact, one central element of what you're grappling with is the research on existing stem cells. Can you elaborate on what you two discussed in that regard? Are there areas that you're considering that he did not address?
And I'm not asking you to provide us with what you're going to do, but can you at least share with us what options are out there, what compromises you might be looking at?
BUSH: I think it's important for the American people to know that I take this issue very seriously because it is an issue that on the one hand deals with such hope, hope that perhaps through research and development, we'll be able to save lives. It's also an issue that has got serious moral implications and our nation must think carefully before we proceed and, therefore, my process has been, frankly, unusually deliberative for my administration.
BUSH: I'm taking my time. I, frankly, do not care what the political poles say. I do care about the opinions of people, particularly someone as profound as the holy father, but I will tell you that the first time the subject came up was when he read his statement at the palace, at his summer palace. And my discussions with the Holy Father were more about an informed policy. He was interested in my view of the world and my discussions with President Putin for example.
He was most interested in what went on at Genoa, and so his statement was very consistent, a consistent part of the philosophy that the Catholic Church has embraced. But that's the only time it came up.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) BUSH: Well, I'm thinking about all options, but I'm thinking about them privately. With all due respect to a great -- one of several great news organizations -- I'd rather not be expressing, laying my options out on the air because I have yet to reach a conclusion.
And when I do, I will lay it out for you. I don't know if you'll be first, but I'll lay it out to the American people. And the American people will know that this decision has been made in all deliberations, with sound deliberations, that it is an important decision. And I think that people understand that it is that way.
And it is important for America to fully understand the ramifications, and time has helped people understand the complexities of the issue. And when I get back, I will continue my deliberations. And when I'm ready, I will lay out my decision.
QUESTION: Mr. President, yesterday there was a step ahead made in the relations between Russia and the United States for the defense missile system. Don't you think that the United States and President Bush perhaps need a more explicit support from its European allies in this type of a dialogue? Are you will to do this as opposed to other European countries?
QUESTION: You have been (inaudible) for about $6,200 billion of investment for this strategic missile defense. Will you share some of that money with European companies in investments in technology and especially with some of the Italian companies?
BUSH: We did have a major discussion about how best to keep the peace. I was really pleased with the conversation I had with President Putin. It was the second such conversation I've had, and we're making good progress toward understanding, and the understanding is that the Cold War is over. Russia is not the enemy of the United States.
And that freedom-loving people should address the true threats of the 21st century and those threats are, amongst other things, the ability of a rogue nation to have a weapon of mass destruction which could affect the United States or Italy or Russia or anybody else who embraces freedom.
And it seems to me that we must do the research and development necessary, research and development prohibited by the current treaty, that codifies the old Cold War mentality of distrust and we have yet to do that. We have yet to fully explore the opportunities and options available to not only the United States, but our allies, as to how to keep the peace, and so it's premature for me to answer not only how much the systems will cost, but who will participate.
I will tell you this, the spirit of collaboration and cooperation should indicate to our friends and allies that we're more than willing to cooperate. We've discussed the issue and I'm so thankful to my friend for being supportive and forward-leaning when others have been skeptical and we will, in the appropriate time when we figure out the best way to address the true threats, which is the ability to intercept launches of twos or threes that could hold us hostage and affect all our foreign policies, then we will work on the development and the development of the systems may very well entail cooperation with our friends and allies. I'm very open-minded on this subject.
BERLUSCONI (through translator): As President Bush has just mentioned, in Brussels during the NATO meeting I spoke and then I spoke at (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the dinner that we shared and I said that I was in agreement with what President Bush had said very clearly, the world scene has changed. There is no antagonism between Europe and the United States on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other hand. The Soviet Union is something different and we're very interested, as Europeans, with the support of the United States.
We look to a progressive journey of the Russian Federation. Maybe tomorrow or the day after, the Russian Federation might even become part of the European Federation where we have countries that share a common Christian civilization and I believe that in the future we will also be able to speak of a Russian Federation that becomes part of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) alliance. Our enemies are elsewhere. Potentially, our enemies are elsewhere.
Of course, we know that we will need some time before certain countries that do not give us full confidence will be able to build strategy weapons with a range that allows them to go to far off places like the United States, but undoubtedly the situation is worrisome and I believe that it would be logical to preserve the security of Europe and the United states making sure that we keep an eye on these potentialities, on these dangers.
BERLUSCONI (through translator): I think that President Bush was extremely clear when he said that these topics, the United States is willing to talk about with the European allies on our side. I think that this is something that must be done.
We have said this. We will always be next to the United States in order to take part of this discussion, going well beyond the attitudes of certain European states which still, today, have not, in my opinion, understood how the world has changed and how we should start worrying about the future.
QUESTION: Mr. President, if I could follow up on missile defense. It seems there was a little bit of ambiguity about what happened yesterday. Does the agreement that you reached with President Putin yesterday commit your administration to slowing down or in any way delaying the development of missile technologies and the withdrawing the ABM treaty until after the two nations have reached an agreement about both offensive and defensive systems? Or will you just continue to develop these technologies and withdraw from the treaty when you see fit?
And Mr. Prime Minister, if I could just follow up, how important is an agreement, a formal agreement between Russia and the United States on these matters to Europe-wide support of the U.S. developing these technologies.
Thank you. BUSH: Since this is your country, I'll give you the last word.
I have told President Putin that time matters, that I want to reach an accord sooner rather than later, that I'm interested in getting something done with him. That's my first priority.
The American people, our friends and allies and others should take me for my word when I said, in the campaign and since being the president, that I will consult with our friends and allies, that I will work with Russia, but make no mistake about it, I think it's important to move beyond the ABM treaty.
I would rather others come with us, but I feel so strongly and so passionately on the subject about how to keep the peace in the 21st century, that we'll move beyond if need be.
But first things first, and that is to give President Putin and our friends and allies ample time to discuss, consider and understand what I'm trying to say. My friend has been quick to grasp the notion about changing the security arrangements in the words, but others who have said that mutually assured destruction will keep the peace in the future, "It's worked in the past, therefore it should be around in the future," need some time to understand the full implications by which we're discussing, and I understand that, particularly President Putin.
His nation has been bound by the treaty. It's a treaty, of course, from which either party can withdraw with ample notice. And I can understand why he wants time, and I'm going to give him some time, but I also want to emphasize to you that time is of the essence. It is time to move beyond. It is time to begin the research and development, which we have yet to do, the research and development constrained by the ABM treaty, to determine that which is feasible.
And it's important to do so for a couple of reasons. One, it's important to discard the old Cold War mentality, and I explained that to President Putin, and I believe he understands that America is no longer Russia's enemy, that we have a chance to fashion a new strategic framework, beyond just missile defenses, a strategic framework that says we'll reduce our own offensive weapons, a strategic framework that says we'll cooperate on security matters, particularly as it relates to terrorist activities, a security relationship where we'll work for safer nuclear storage and safer nuclear energy.
It is a different framework, a different frame of mind, that I truly believe will make the world a more peaceful place and since I feel this so strongly, if we can't reach an agreement, we're going to implement. It's the right thing to do. It's what I told the American people we're going to do. It's what I've explained to our allies what we're going to do, but I believe we've got a great opportunity to welcome others into this strategic framework.
You saw the president yesterday. I thought he was very forward- leaning, as they say in diplomatic-nuance circles. We signed an agreement, that should say something about the intentions and about how far we've progressed on this issue, Mr. Prime Minister. BERLUSCONI (through translator): I have to confirm the judgment on the president on this and I can also bear witness to the fact that during the G-8 summit we spoke about this topic. In fact, in a bilateral meeting, I met President Putin and with the invitation of the other allies, I, in fact, spoke about the problem of the atomic potential in his country.
I began expressing the preoccupation of the Western world, vis-a- vis, the nuclear stations in Russia because you were talking about the maintenance of the old ones and the building codes for new nuclear stations. President Putin said that he would face this very openly. He spoke to us about their plans for these places and he also said that he will continue to cooperate with western technicians as far as the building codes of a new plant.
BERLUSCONI (through translator): And after that, we spoke -- and I must say that I spoke to him directly on the atomic potential. But here, I would like to digress. We also have to understand the psychological aspect for the president and for his people. They come from a past, they were a world power, they had a very strong fall as far as their economy was concerned, their global revenue is well below the other countries of the G-7, but they still have that old pride. And above all, they have that atomic stockpile that is still an extraordinary one. It's huge.
Therefore, we must be very tactful. We must take the entire situation into account; the psychological and actual situation. We must proceed with patience on a road which is the one expressed by President Bush that cannot be hurried on. The reactions that we saw from President Putin make us believe that we will be able to cooperate and I think that we're on the right path in order to reach an agreement that would obviously imply certain modifications in the existing treaty and I believe that this can all be done without any unilateral measures.
On the other hand, President Bush also confirmed the will of the United States of America to talk with the allies to not do anything without having a discussion with the allies first. So I believe that this is an issue that has been well placed and is on the right path.
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From the 7th to 10th of July, the "Emerging Design Month" event took place at the Museo del Traje clothing museum, Madrid, with the aim of introducing the talent of a new generation of designers. Nine of the most important Spanish fashion design schools presented their work at this exhibition.
One of the participating centres was the Escuela de Arte Nº1 de Cantabria art school. The students of the 2nd year of the "Artistic Jewellery" higher degree had collaboration from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of the Government of Cantabria. Transformaciones Cántabras de Madera "TCDM" contributed to the school, giving a speech in which students learned to get the most from KRION®, the solid surface from PORCELANOSA Group, helping the young artists to depict their concerns in these very interesting pieces of jewellery.
KRION®, presented by PORCELANOSA Santander, is proud to have collaborated in this project for emerging designers. Congratulations to all participants!
KRION® Solid Surface


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The more I read, the more I read for an author's offering of interior access to his or her characters, and for years I have felt that fiction is the narrative art that best enables this access. With a simple "He thought" or "She imagined" in a text, we as readers are welcomed into a hidden world—the thoughts of others, to which we have no entry in our daily lives. We simply cannot hear the unadulterated thoughts of other human beings, and we never will. But in fiction we can.
For years I have always emphasized to my fiction writing students that movies and television are primarily visual narrative forms, and so aren't as well equipped to express the depths of interior revelation. No matter how expressive an actor's face, for example, the emotions conveyed there can't reveal as much as the detailed memories or fantasies of a character in a novel or short story.
Over the years, I've found more than enough exceptions to my criticism. Of course. Art always finds a way to try to express the inexpressible, whatever that art might be. My favorite examples are Being John Malkovich (written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (written by Charlie Kaufman—him again!—and Michel Gondry, and directed by Michel Gondry). In these movies, all the attention seems to be directed at cracking open the brains of the characters and looking inside.
In Being John Malkovich, a strange little portal is found behind a filing cabinet in an office, a portal that leads to the brain of the actor John Malkovich. For fifteen minutes, a person can enter into his thoughts, until being dumped in a ditch in New Jersey (ho ho). The movie is also a hilarious dig at the narcissism of actors—in Malkovich's thoughts, everyone has his face, even babies! This film is breathtaking in the risks it takes, its humor, and the new territory it carves out for film (should anyone care to follow).
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is just as audacious, but far more emotionally affecting. Turns out there's a medical practice in town that employs a technique of erasing memories from willing patients. Want to get rid of a traumatic event, an annoying relative? Well, now there's a place you can go. So when a couple in the movie has yet another cruel argument, first the woman and then the man go through the procedure and erase each other from their lives. Problem is, at bottom they are truly in love, and so the story proceeds with their halting efforts, in a dangerously altering dreamscape, to try to remember each other.
Which brings me to the immediate reason for this post, a video of the song "These Days" by Ane Brun, a Norwegian singer/songwriter of impeccable pop artistry. The complexity and clarity of her storytelling/songwriting chops, and her singing, place her in a hang-out pantheon with Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell.
In "These Days" we are confronted with Brun only, her ashen face bordered by a black hoodie, singing directly to us. At first, it seems that she is singing to an ex-lover, and this remains one of the possibilities embedded in the lyric. It hasn't been an easy ride:
There were nights and mornings
When you came to me
Found your way into my bones, my joints
Into my veins
Like an animal you coiled your darkness around me
You spelled your name in charcoal
All over my body
Brun's face is starkly expressive, anguished. And yet slowly, after about a minute into the video, thin lines begin to appear across and up and down her face, appearing, disappearing, and reappearing. They seem to reflect the scars left behind after this relationship, or at least the marks of change that can't, normally, be seen from the outside, and yet are certainly there. Everyone has been marked in life by troubled relationships, and those marks remain largely invisible to the world. The brilliance of the video is the exposure of this reality, one that everyone has experienced—it enables us to see our lives anew.
The song, however, isn't necessarily about a physical ex-lover. The lyrics also hint at a different kind of relationship, with one's inner voice of self-doubt and criticism:
The things you've shown me over the years
The roads you blocked and how you'll define me
Here, the antagonist of the song cannot ever be truly escaped. Our negative inner voice will always be there, at best, perhaps, managed at a distance:
These days
I let you stay
A little further away
But I walk with you
These days
I let you stay
In this interpretation, those sinuous lines tracing the singer's face are generated from within, patterns of self-reproach and doubt that remain part of the invisible fabric of her inner life. And we all have such lines that others cannot see.
Either way (or perhaps both, depending on one's interpretative mood?), this song and video display how a visual narrative form can find an inventive way to crack open the façade of appearance, and approach the insinuating interior depth of fiction's power.
Soon after writing this post, I became aware of a marvelous short film by Julie Gautier, "Narcose," that explores the hallucinations experienced by a diver, Guillaume Néry, who can hold his breath for several minutes at a time (those hallucinations are caused by carbon dioxide narcosis as his dive extends in time). Here is another film that digs a little deeper into mental landscapes, a brilliant display of the physical drama of Néry's dive, juxtaposed with the unfolding drama of his dream-like inner life that occurs at the same time.Go to post page
August 6th, 2014 by admin


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HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Oct. 19, 2018 (HealthDay News) — As the use of marijuana is growing, with Canada legalizing the drug just this week, a new study that ties pot to a raised risk for stroke might give users pause.
The risk for any stroke could increase by 15 percent and it could jump 29 percent for an ischemic stroke — the most common kind, said lead investigator Dr. Krupa Patel. She is a research physician at Avalon University School of Medicine in Willemstad, Curacao.
Patel cautioned that the study can't prove that using marijuana causes strokes, only that the two are associated.
"We can't establish causation, but what we can say is that recreational marijuana users are at higher risk in terms of stroke," she said.
In addition, the researchers don't know if the risk is tied to smoking marijuana or ingesting it in other ways, and whether it depends on the amount of the drug used or if it is due to other psychoactive ingredients mixed in with the marijuana.
Patel said the risk may be exacerbated by chronic medical conditions of the marijuana users who had strokes, such as diabetes or obesity.
Also, the researchers could not tell from the data whether marijuana users used other drugs like cocaine or smoked tobacco, she said.
Still, more strokes occurred among marijuana users than nonusers, which leaves open the question of what accounts for the increase in risk.
"At this point we can just say there is this increased risk," Patel said.
The best way to sort out whether marijuana is truly associated with an increase in stroke is in a clinical trial, said Dr. Thalia Field, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
"It's too early to say that this is causative," she said. "It has to be borne out in other studies."
In the study, Patel and her colleagues found that among more than 2.3 million American recreational marijuana users who were hospitalized, the risk of stroke rose, compared with people who didn't use the drug.
Between 2010 and 2014, strokes among marijuana users steadily increased, even though the overall stroke rate remained unchanged, Patel said.
Among marijuana users in the study, more than 32,000 had a stroke — including nearly 19,500 who suffered an ischemic stroke. Ischemic strokes occur when a clot blocks blood vessels in the brain.
Over five years, the rate of all types of stroke increased from 1.3 to 1.5 percent among marijuana users, and the rate of ischemic stroke rose from 0.7 to 0.9 percent, the researchers found.
The increase in strokes among marijuana users was across all age groups — for people in their teens to those in their 80s, Patel said. In addition, costs to care for these patients rose between 2010 and 2014, from $71,000 to $92,000, she said.
The findings were to be presented Friday at the World Stroke Congress, in Montreal. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Paul Armentano, deputy director of the marijuana advocacy group NORML, said, "This finding is inconsistent with other population-based studies, which failed to identify cannabis as an independent risk factor for stroke in younger subjects."
NORML, however, recognizes that the data on this subject is evolving and that cannabis smoke can cause a cardiovascular response, he added.
People with a history of heart disease or stroke may be at an increased risk for adverse side effects from marijuana, particularly smoked cannabis, Armentano acknowledged.
"As with any drug, people should consult their doctor before deciding whether the medical use of cannabis is safe and appropriate," he said.WebMD News from HealthDay
SourcesSOURCES: Krupa Patel, M.D., research physician, Avalon University School of Medicine, Willemstad, Curacao; Paul Armentano, deputy director, NORML; Thalia Field, M.D., assistant professor, neurology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Oct. 19, 2018, presentation, World Stroke Congress, Montreal
Copyright © 2013-2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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Robert Fischell says matter-of-factly that what he does is simple, pragmatic stuff, although one of his inventions may have saved more than 65,000 lives. That contrast is evident everywhere in his life: He can sit back and sip ice tea on a quiet summer afternoon, but he is also driven to change the world. At 74, retired from his position as a principal staff physicist and chief of technology transfer at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, Fischell still puts in 60-hour workweeks, cranking out innovative ideas. "Every day I wake up wanting to invent," he says.
Photograph by Amanda Friedman
Robert Fischell's gift was to see that a cardiac pacemaker was much like a tiny satellite traveling within the atmosphere of the human body, an insight that led him to medical patents that have saved countless lives.
Fischell trained as a physicist, and for 15 years at Johns Hopkins he worked with NASA on developing and improving the reliability of space satellites. But he found his calling in the late 1960s as he began to identify and build bridges between the world of satellites and the world of medical devices. As an inventor, Fischell sees connections and analogies that most people do not see. He looked at the idea of an implantable heart defibrillator and saw something like a satellite in space-a remote mechanism that needed to be controlled from afar while it gathered, stored, and transmitted information about an interesting phenomenon—in this case, the heart.
His career as a medical inventor was launched the day he spotted an advertisement for pacemakers with batteries that had to be replaced every two years. He told a cardiologist friend at Hopkins that he could build a smaller unit, one that would run, as satellites did then, on a rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery that could last almost indefinitely. Three days later, he and his colleagues at the lab had built an effective prototype that changed the way pacemakers were built. "I became enthralled," he says now. "Satellites were great fun, but the prospect of saving lives felt more important."
Fischell now holds 117 licensed medical patents, including a radio-controlled rechargeable pacemaker, an implantable insulin pump, and a wide variety of stents designed to hold obstructed arteries open. But for sheer dramatic impact on humankind, the development and refinement of the implantable cardiac defibrillator leads the list.
Ventricular fibrillation, whether brought on by myocardial infarction or as the result of chronic instability of the heart's rhythm, is a killer. Instead of beating with a steady, controlled synchronous beat, the heart quivers. It gets no oxygen, pumps no blood, and unless the pattern is reversed, the patient dies. The implantable defibrillator is a lifesaver. The device consists of a tiny computer that monitors the electrical signal of the heart's rhythm, leads that are attached to the heart, and a battery to power the whole operation. When the computer detects that the signal has stopped or gone awry, the device sends out a corrective jolt, forcing the heart to return to its normal rhythm.
The idea for the defibrillator first came to Michel Mirowski, a physician in Israel whose mentor, Harry Heller, died in 1966 of a heart attack brought on by malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Grieving for Heller, Mirowski asked whether his death might not have been preventable. He reasoned that a miniaturized, automated defibrillator could have saved Heller and might save others. He moved to the United States and began working on a device with Morton Mower, a cardiologist, at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore in 1969. Their prototype was insufficiently reliable and so bulky that doctors would have had to implant it in the abdomen. However, in animal testing, it worked.
Mirowski and Mower brought their defibrillator to Fischell and his team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in 1978. Fischell says he saw the potential of the device immediately, but he also saw that it wasn't ready for use in humans. His task was to make the device smaller, more communicative, and more dependable. At that time, Fischell was also chief engineer of the Hopkins space technology program. He saw similarities. "There was a great analogy between the two. We could use an implantable defibrillator in much the same way we used a satellite," he explains. "With a satellite, you can't touch it because it's too far away, and with the defibrillator, it's the same thing because there's a skin barrier and it's hidden in the body. Both could be programmed by radio waves, and both could send data back out to us by radio waves." Fischell added a command and telemetry component to the defibrillator so that a doctor could study how the heart had malfunctioned after the fact.
Fischell added more than just space-based mechanics to the defibrillator. As Mower explains, he also "put the device through tremendous paces and tested it up one side and down the other." Working with reliability tests first used in preparation for satellite launch and orbit, Fischell subjected the defibrillator to sustained vibration trials and temperature-cycled it from zero to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
Since it was first implanted in a human 23 years ago, the defibrillator has rendered drug treatment for the prevention of fibrillation obsolete. The survival rate when using defibrillators is almost 10 times better than the survival rate with medication. The reason, Fischell says, is simple: "Fibrillation is an electrical problem in the heart, not a chemical problem."
With the help of his sons David, a physicist, Tim, a cardiologist, and Scott, an M.B.A. who handles the business side of things, Fischell is at work on three projects. He's developing a transcranial magnetic stimulator to cure migraine headaches, another implantable device that will signal a heart attack even before symptoms manifest, and a tiny computerized mechanism implanted in the cranial bone that will anticipate and short-circuit epileptic seizures. Speaking of this last, Fischell says, "Some patients with epilepsy have 10 to 50 seizures a day—they have no lives."
Fischell gets great pleasure when patients benefit from his inventions. But he has also been hounded and driven by self-doubt over the years. "I think one reason I'm a successful inventor is that my parents just absolutely ignored me," he says. "They had no comprehension of me and what I was doing. I grew up feeling very insecure about myself. I was going to prove to the world that I was OK." Only in the last few years has he allowed himself to appreciate his own achievements: "I've started to look around and think maybe I am OK."
"This is the best time of my life," he says. "I think I'm probably one of the luckiest people ever born, actually. I've been able to invent. I've had a world-class wife for 52 years who created beautiful children who've joined with me to create things that have aided mankind. What more could a person want?" But he still goes to work every morning. "Retire? No, no, no. They'll have to carry me out feet first."


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EBEY ISLAND — Bruce King has been raising pigs in the Snohomish River Valley for seven years.
The land, adjacent to the U.S. 2 trestle, is low, flat and prone to flooding. But it has its benefits. "As a retail place to sell pigs, it's fabulous," King said.
Since the passage of the state's initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults, King has been giving serious thought to growing marijuana.
King said he's not the only farmer in the area thinking about legally growing pot. "Every single farmer I've talked to has had this thought cross their mind," he said.
The new state system, regulated by the state's Liquor Control Board, would license marijuana producers, processors and retailers, with the first stores scheduled to open in 2014.
"I've never smoked pot and have no interest in doing drugs," he said.
Yet King, 49, said he thinks the law will set off a pot boom, a kind of agricultural Gold Rush. "Who will bring the crop to market first?" he asked.
The Liquor Control Board has been getting lots of calls from people interested in producing pot for sale in the new state system, some of whom say they're growing pot now, said Brian Smith, an agency spokesman.
The state agency is accepting public comment on rules for growers and will hold two public hearings in April before adopting the final regulations in May.
King said he'd like to see farmers get the first shot at the state's licenses for pot growers.
"There's no reason we can't have people in this economy benefit from what they voted for," he said.
"My attitude toward people who use pot has changed," he said. "It's a legal product."
The state application fee for each producer license is $250, with an annual $1,000 charge to renew the license.
King said he hasn't committed to growing pot, but has done some business calculations. "It just looked good, every time I ran the numbers," he said.
He figures the net return for growing pot could be $60,000 an acre. "That beats the heck out of milk," he said. "Somebody's got to grow it."
Growing pot would be something of a market switch for a farmer who sold 2,300 pigs last year.
He already has a greenhouse, which produced 15 tons of basil last summer and in which he also grows tomatoes, melons and lettuce.
That greenhouse probably wouldn't be tall enough to grow marijuana plants, he said. But he's been pricing greenhouses large enough to grow pot.
He said his biggest concerns are what, exactly, the state's regulations for growers will be and whether the federal government will take any actions to slow or halt the state's marijuana law. Marijuana growing, distribution and possession remain violations of federal law.
In December, President Barack Obama said that prosecuting recreational users in Washington and Colorado, the states that have legalized it, wouldn't make sense. But the Justice Department has yet to issues its guidelines.
King remains intrigued with the possibility of becoming a legal marijuana grower.
"If I choose to grow it, I will screw up my first crop, maybe my first 10 crops," he said. But the risk is worth it, King said.
"There isn't another crop on this earth that has the kind of profit potential this one does," he said.
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If you understand the importance of building strong, healthy relationships then Val Baldwin may be one of the most valuable speakers you will ever hear!
Val Baldwin, CPC, is a dynamic speaker, ABC TV personality and certified Relationship Coach. She's inspired thousands of people across the country with her quick wit and upbeat energy showing people how to build sensational relationships for greater success in life.
BACKGROUND: Educated and certified in business, psychology and life and relationship coaching, Val combines her 23 years of corporate expertise with her relationship coaching practice techniques. The result is a wealth of knowledge and tips to boost people skills, enhance communication and strengthen relationships in all areas of your life.
AUDIENCES: Val speaks to a wide variety of organizations ranging from Nike, youth leadership groups, entrepreneurs organizations and high-tech companies to women's organizations, singles groups and couples events. Her clients understand the value of boosting people skills and creating strong, fulfilling relationships.
TV APPEARANCES: For 5 years Val's humor and valuable tips reached thousands each month on the Portland ABC TV show AM Northwest. With Val's move to Salt Lake City, she now shares her life-enhancing techniques on the ABC TV show Good Things Utah, the ABC4 Midday News and Fox 13 Good Day Utah weekend show.
Contact Val to take your relationships to a happier, higher level!


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If you follow cloud computing, you're no doubt familiar with software as a service, typically associated with Salesforce.com, or infrastructure as a service, which was pioneered by Amazon.com. But how about CaaS, SECaaS, DaaS, MaaS and BaaS?
According to industry consortium The Open Group, these new "as-a-service" acronyms fall into the category of XaaS (pronounced "zass"), a generalization for all cloud-related services per the NIST definition.
XaaS describes any service that can call up reusable, fine-grained software components across a virtualized cloud network. And if you add up the market forecasts for applications, application infrastructure and systems infrastructure to be delivered as public cloud services by 2015 worldwide, the XaaS market will reach more than $40 billion.
This story, "The cloud is at your service" was originally published by Network World.


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Chocolate Massage
Although we at Massage Professionals of Jackson Hole don't offer chocolate massage, here's a superb article, thanks to Yogawiz.com, that allows you, finally, to indulge in (literally) chocolate – especially for Valentines Day …and other days:
While there is no doubt that chocolate is the best pick-me-up around, it has always got a bad rap for being full of calories and fat. Chocolate has also been considered one of the culprits for bad skin as too much consumption can lead to acne and skin blemishes.
Of late though, the view on chocolate massage for the skin has taken an about turn. High-end spas all around the world have introduced the latest in skin care – chocolate spa treatments! From soothing chocolate massages and body wraps to indulgent chocolate facials and invigorating chocolate body scrubs, suddenly chocolate is everywhere. Using cocoa-based creams, lotions, and oils, you can now choose to get your chocolate fix without the calories.
Some of the benefits of chocolate massage include:
- Firms the skin – The caffeine present in chocolate stimulates the circulation and improves blood flow. This in turn improves and invigorates skin cells, decreases the aging process and increases firmness of the skin.
- Rich in anti-oxidants – The darker the chocolate, the more powerful are the antioxidant properties. It is also important that you choose your creams and lotions carefully before you begin using them. Products that contain more than 35% of pure cocoa are more effective when it comes to revitalizing the skin and giving it a plumper and firmer feel. Antioxidants also help increase the level of collagen and elastin in the skin and thereby reduce the effects of aging. Fine lines and wrinkles can be treated with regular chocolate treatments as antioxidants lessen the damage caused by free radicals in the body.
- As a moisturizing agent – Cocoa butter contains high amounts of natural oils and emollients necessary for treating dry, rough and flaky skin. A chocolate massage or chocolate body wrap using a cocoa-butter based massage cream will help remedy rough skin especially on those stubborn spots such as the elbows, knees and feet. The higher the percentage of cocoa butter in the lotion or cream, the better moisturized the skin stays long after the treatment is over.
- Good for health – Studies have shown that eating a small bit of dark chocolate every day can improve your cardiovascular system, and help prevent atherosclerosis and chronic fatigue due to its antioxidant properties. Chocolate also has the power to improve a person's mood and cause feelings of euphoria. Even the smell of chocolate can accomplish this positive effect on the brain; making chocolate massages an ideal way reap the health benefits of without any of the guilt associated with eating too much chocolate.
- Good for cellulite – Chocolate contains theobromine that helps burn fat and get rid of cellulite. A chocolate massage or chocolate body wrap helps work the chocolate-based lotion or oil into the skin for the best results.
- Calming effects – Who hasn't calmed down after biting into a chunk of chocolate? In much the same way, a chocolate massage helps reduce stress and tension and eases tight and sore muscles.
You can also make your own chocolate massage lotion at home in a few simple steps:
- Mix together a quarter cup of cocoa powder with one cup of shea butter and a quarter cup of chamomile oil. You can use a blender for this to get a nice smooth consistency.
- Mix till the lotion is smooth and free of lumps. If you would like it thinner, add some more oil. If you prefer a thicker cream, add some more shea butter. Make sure that the shea butter is at room temperature for the best results.
- Pour this lotion into a jar with a tight lid and store in a cool dark place.
- Use to massage into the skin or as a moisturizer. It is gentle enough for everyday use.
Thanks also to Everyday Health for this wonderful chocolate massage post.
Be Well,
Hamish and Rochelle


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A Division of Fun Hogs Sport Fishing
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Your Captain - Mike Holmes is one of Hawaii's most accomplished watermen.
Former Waikiki lifeguard, he is also a veteran bodyboarder, surfer, outrigger canoe paddler and steersman, world-class sailor and chief fun hog.
Molokai to Oahu canoe race experience - 8 crossings including paddling and steering and one record setting crossing.
He has coached various outrigger canoe crews for more than twenty years.
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Mike has accumulated over 30 years fishing experience around the main Hawaiian Islands, the US East and West Coasts, the Bahamas, Mexican Pacific Coast and Tahiti.
He holds a 100-ton captain's license.
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