Links of the Day #9

Today's link round-up is a mixed bag: mapping stereotypes, academic resources, an open source operating system for anthropologists, recycling for profit, Lady Gaga, deletion, forgetting and deadly virulence in the digital age. On second thought, it looks like more of these are related than I originally intended ...

Mapping Stereotypes: The Geography of Stereotypes Posted: 18 Sep 2010 03:22 AM PDT Here are some fun infographics/maps/illustrations re-labelling Europe in accordance with nationalistic stereotypes from various countries.

Lady Gaga and the digital generation Posted: 18 Sep 2010 02:57 AM PDT Camille Paglia claims that Lady Gaga is the first major star of the digital age, and that her popularity is telling: "Generation Gaga doesn't identify with powerful vocal styles because their own voices have atrophied: they communicate mutely via a constant stream of atomised, telegraphic text messages. Gaga's flat affect doesn't bother them because they're not attuned to facial expressions. Gaga's fans are marooned in a global technocracy of fancy gadgets but emotional poverty. Borderlines have been blurred between public and private: reality TV shows multiply, cell phone conversations blare everywhere; secrets are heedlessly blabbed on Facebook and Twitter. "

Mayer-Schönberger: Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age Posted: 17 Sep 2010 10:22 AM PDT Delete looks at the surprising phenomenon of perfect remembering in the digital age, and reveals why we must reintroduce our capacity to forget. Digital technology empowers us as never before, yet it has unforeseen consequences as well. Potentially humiliating content on Facebook is enshrined in cyberspace for future employers to see. Google remembers everything we've searched for and when. The digital realm remembers what is sometimes better forgotten, and this has profound implications for us all. Academe — sterneworks Posted: 12 Oct 2010 01:46 PM PDT These pages are designed with the critical communication studies scholar in mind. They have an American bias since there are more resources online for Americans and since I started this page while living in the U.S., though much here also applies to Canadians. Of course others are welcome to it if they find it useful. Since communication(s) is a field and not a discipline, there's not a whole lot of conventional wisdom about where to look for jobs or how to go about it. Our friends in lit have the MLA job list. Our friends in Philosophy have the brilliantly named "Jobs for Philosophers." We have, well, a bunch of stuff. Anthrodyne Posted: 16 Oct 2010 08:16 AM PDT Anthrodyne, a free, open source operating system for anthropologists and other qualitative researchers. The objectives of the Anthrodyne Project (Lane DeNicola, UCL) are as follows ... Anthropology in Practice: Recycling for Profit: Rise of the Can Collectors Posted: 21 Oct 2010 05:57 AM PDT You can tell it's the night before the recycling is picked up in my neighborhood not by the number of blue recycling bins on the curb (many of which are placed on the curb in the morning before the homeowner leaves for work), but by the rattle of pushcarts that punctuate the stillness. The number of people seeking recyclable cans and bottles to return for a profit seems to have increased, including a range from dedicated collectors to those whose "amateur" efforts involve allowing their own cans and bottles to accumulate for several weeks before bringing them in to the bottle depository or working with neighbors to generate a large enough supply for a sizable return. Who are these people, and why do they persist with this dirty, smelly endeavor?

A History of Virulence: The Body and Computer Culture in the 1980s (part 1) : Antonio A. Casilli :: BodySpaceSociety Posted: 21 Oct 2010 02:46 AM PDT Over a two-year period, the dramatic tension around 'deadly viruses' polluting computers reaches new heights in the mainstream media. A simple metaphoric juxtaposition between bodily and technological contamination, triggers a complex narrative weaving together of intimate fears and public health risks, physical and informational dangers, threats to the body and threats to communication technologies. The AIDS diskette story represents an unexpected turn in the virulence discourse. This dystopian parable turns out to contain a utopian promise: the spreading of a computer virus comes to represent the possible end of a physical disease. This paradox, as I will explain in the next section, is also one of the main features of the discursive construction of virulence in the specialized and underground computer press.