Welcome to Kashmir

At the Line of Control:

I peered through binoculars

at men peering through binoculars
at me …

-- Isabel Hilton, “Between the Mountains”, 11 Mar 2002 The New Yorker

Enjoy your stay in Srinagar !

In the deserted lobby,

Muzak was playing

to empty armchairs.

-- Isabel Hilton, “Between the Mountains”, 11 Mar 2002 The New Yorker

A Puzzler

As you ponder your personal relation to Appearance and Reality,

ask yourself  this simple yet probing question:

“Am I in a German  book ??”

Cf. an online comment by a reader, during the 2015 Merkelmanic Flüchtlingsfiasko:

Ich habe das Gefühl  im falschen Film zu sein

.

Kafka im “Hotel Lux”

Franz Kafka once spent a single night in the “Hotel Lux”;  he left hastily at dawn, and never referred to the incident again.  But he left a hand-penned fragment in a desk, that was recently unearthed.  In its entirety:

» Wir kommen abends gleich zu euch rüber«

rief Ernst  der jungen Frau  nach,

bevor sie,  scheu und schnell,

ohne mich zu begrüßen,    schräg gegenüber

hinter einer  Zimmertür  verschwand.

[Source: Ruth von Mayenburg, Hotel Lux (1978), p. 39]

SRO Lux monostich

zwischen vier engen Wänden     die Einsamkeit

[ -- Ruth von Mayenburg, Hotel Lux (1978), p. 251]

Local News

Yesterday evening, I almost blogged about two things.

(1)  As those of you know who are on my mailing list:  Last night, my wife and I witnessed what might have been the aftermath of a gruesome and macabre murder.  As nothing whatever appeared in the media for some hours after the discovery of the corpse, I considered at least mentioning it online.

[To be continued, D.V.  My wife needs the computer, and so I retire for the night.

However, should I (cholilleh) by any chance tomorrow turn up dead --

Don’t believe what you might read in the press:

It wasn’t suicide.

The finger points to …

=>   MR  BIG  <=

…   …      ……………………..  ]

[Update]  To resume.

However,  abstention was in order.  For, interesting though the incident might be for those who have often walked that bucolic lakeside dock, improbably  overlooking the lieu des faits, it really is nothing more than a local police-blotter fait-divers, of which the world has millions every day.  To discuss the matter on this site would (especially as I have no inside dope whatsoever) to descent to the level of FaceBook, that venue of the ephemeral.

The only detail possibly worth sharing, as presenting a sign of the times, was the sight of a team of grim-faced burly firemen, carrying a long gaff suitable for fishing cadavers out of the slimy depths, incongruously decked out in pale pink shirts.  When I mentioned this to a friend at work, she explained that it was for “Breast Cancer Awareness”.  But in that case, why weren’t the gentlemen likewise decked out in sombreros?  (Hispanic Heritage Month.)

[Later update]  The story is getting weirder, so I’d better elaborate.  This, from an e-mail sent to friends:

Early this evening, S. and I walked to the library, via the dockside on Lake *****.   There were half a dozen people standing around, and a couple of policemen.  Someone pointed to what they thought looked like a human corpse floating not far from the dock.  I peered to make it out;  it looked like Hollywood’s idea of a zombie.

Now, today at work, a friend had given me a nice Halloween drawing, so the first thing that occurred to me was that it was a Halloween prank.  A couple standing beside us concurred.

Twenty minutes later, as we returned from the library, we saw: half a dozen patrol cars; two or three fire engines; a large inflatable boat labeled “marine rescue”; an ambulence or two; and various other vehicles with flashing or whirling lights.  Some firemen were trudging back from the scene, one of them holding a long gaff.  “Uhh… looks like it wasn’t a Halloween prank”, I said.  The fireman would neither confirm nor deny, saying only “The police are handling it.”

The dock was now surrounded by yellow tape.  No attempt had been made to fish the body out.  From a new angle, and now taking the whole thing more seriously, I could see that it was indeed human, or had been;  its hands stuck up from the water, rigid as claws.

[Update 10/10/13]   I shared this incident with some friends and coworkers, current or former residents of this town, and however slight it be in the larger scheme of things, it piqued their interest.  One of them today asked whether the “Flyer”, the local giveaway rag, had reported on the story (which is indeed a big one for our sleepy hamlet).   And so I dragged today’s issue from our sopping front lawn, dried it, and perused.

My heart gave a start, confronted with a large color photograph of the dockside area of that very lake!  Only -- no mention of the body.   Instead, a story about the little three-foot-by-three-foot artificial boxed islands, planted with tall grass, which have been dubbed “floating wetlands”.  Cute, but actually a silly designation, since the point of wetlands is to absorb excess water, whereas this particular lakelet, itself brought into being only by the labors of engineers, suffers rather from chronic aqueous insufficiency.

[Update, a couple of days later]  Finally, the briefest of mentions has appeared on the Web.  The deceased was in his thirties, race and name unknown, of no known address.  But -- get this -- the police are saying, “No signs of foul play.”

Corpse appears in broad daylight in six inches of water, looking like a mummy that has been dead ten thousand years.  No-one knows how it got there.  Hands turned into zombie claws.  “No signs of foul play.”

Right.

[Update, evening of 20 October 2013]  No -- Wait -- this is too weird.

My wife was driving home from the computer lab this evening, on **** **** Parkway, which runs by that very lake, and noticed two squad cars.  Between them, on the roadway … a large, compact pile of human intestines.  But no body.   “They looked fresh,” she said.

[Update 22 October 2013]  And again, no reflection of this in any news source that I can discern.

My wife commented:   If we just chanced upon these incidents, within a few days and within walking distance of each other, and they go unreported -- how much else might be going on that we don’t know about?

Both these bizarre incidents look less like accidents, or any sort of crime that makes straightforward sense -- more like warnings, like the horse’s head in the bed.

This hamster is for deliminative purposes only, demarcating between two unrelated topics.

(2)  Like several million other folks, I watched, more or less mesmerized, that video taken by the helmet cam of a biker, part of the wolfpack running down a motorist from out of town, in a car likewise containing his wife and young child.  But again, the interest of the incident does not necessarily extend beyond the confines of Manhattan.

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

But since this week’s New Yorker promotes it to its Talk of the Town section which goes out to the whole world,  presumably the proverbial Ladies of Dubuque are even now Tweeting about it, so I’ll toss in my dime (inflationary value of two cents):  the moreso as Mr. Paumgarten’s effort in that magazine turns out to be a strange, free-associational piece, by no means reportorial, but starting elsewhere (in the movies), then meandering into the incident, and back out again.

The streetscape is the sort to which we have become acculturated by video games:  featureless, depopulated.  And with the anomie common to such pastimes (such as Grand Theft Auto, where we are set into the driver’s seat of a criminal), human values mean nothing:  we can equally well identify with the biker posse of pursuers (Git ‘im!) or with the automobile driver (knock off as many bikers as you can -- pock, pock, pock).

Nevertheless, it is a real street, behind the shaded windows of which (we presume) actual people have been born, and have died, and have watched TV.   Which leads us to the actual mini-observation that I wanted to get off my chest.

Chase scenes are among my favorite things in movies;  the medium is suited for this like no other.   But for these to work, certain liberties must be taken with engineering realities and the laws of physics.   Thus:  Vehicles keep racing along despite sustaining improbable levels of damage;  traffic (when present at all) always obligingly lets the racers by;  and when the inevitable crash eventually comes, airbags do not deploy (since that would obscure our view of the highly-paid star).

Of the conventions involved in movies shot in New York City, one that most requires the suspension of disbelief, is that, whenever the hero needs to go out and brood, or the like, the streets are conveniently deserted.   That never happens in actual life, save perhaps the early morning of New Year’s Day.    So in this video, since it is a video, we don’t immediately cluck in derision at the fiction of their being no traffic other than that required for the chase, on this major street in broad daylight -- but then we realize with a shock -- Wait -- This is a real street, in real time, and the chase is real, and several people really did get hurt.

End-Of-Text hamster hereby ends this essay.

[Afterthought, 20 October 2013]  The reasons I blogged about the latter incident, were:

(1) The creepily intimate weirdness of having a first-person, helmet-cam view  of an ongoing violent incident.

(2) The increasing resemblance of life to a video-game.

However, the reason this story figured prominently in the media  had nothing to do with that, but rather the fact that  one of the bikers who attacked the driver  was an undercover cop.

A very tricky job, that;  we salute those who can pull it off.  His participation in the gang’s crime  is suggestive of the Stockholm Syndrome, but probably goes deeper than that.  After all, the hostages didn’t choose to be hostages;  whereas an undercover cop chooses that risky line of work, and already at the outset  joins the gang.

Further reflection would take this insight deeper still:  the way in which we are, each one of us, undercover in whatever environment life has currently thrown us into.  As:  An old antiwar guy, who finds himself in a work environment which ….

.

Digitizing into Oblivion

[Update 15 Jan 2012]
Read it and weep:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/us/politics/mitt-romney-offers-praise-for-a-donors-business.html?_r=1&hpw
Truly, this guy is scum.

[Update 28 April 2012]  No but -- for real.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/opinion/collins-a-very-pricey-pineapple.html?src=me&ref=general

~

A new movement  within, or we might say against, education, conveniently combines increased profits for tech companies (and perks for the bureaucrats who award those contracts) with the broader attack against unions in general and teachers in particular.    It downgrades the pesky human factor, and provides students instead with a digital simulacrum or cybernetic prosthesis.   This teaching-style is ideal for raising a generation of autists.  Your can read all about it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/technology/idaho-teachers-fight-a-reliance-on-computers.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

A comment on the human costs here:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/01/word-of-week-to-downromney.html

Now, folks, I am no Luddite.   I majored in math with a minor in physics, and took biology, astronomy, and chemistry-for-chem-majors as well.  While editor-in-chief at Franklin Computer/ Franklin Electronic Publishers, I crafted electronic reference products for schools.  The Web is wonderful;  I burn frankincense before Wikipedia in little jade bowls.   But I sense a scam here.

For one thing, the effects of such technology-driven juggernauts  are visible in my own very large public-sector workplace -- one which is extravagantly well-funded in some ways, unbelievably underfunded in others  -- mostly in ways that inconvenience the workforce . 

Some of these technology ‘upgrades’ obviously waste money and may be the result of sheer inertia or even kickbacks.  As when the old photocopiers that worked just fine (and which are decreasingly needed as the office is now largely paperless)  are replaced by monstrous behemoths, split for some reason into two different units connected by cables that eat up floorspace (itself at a premium  since we're crammed-in like pickles in a jar), and which jam all the time.  Or, thousand-dollar “smartboards” that nobody uses.

Tellingly in this context, one of the (by far) lower-cost items -- books -- have come in for particular budgetary axing, and ideological attack.

Judging by our old holdings, we once had a respectable if not world-class collection  in such areas as languages and mathematics.   (As, a multi-volume masterpiece on Yemeni tribal poetry, written in French by an eccentric Swedish count, based on his travels in the nineteenth century.  Or, the Gesammelte Abhandlungen of Hermann Weyl.)  These treasures were spread principally over three locations:  the main campus, the research campus, and the school.

Then they closed the libraries at the school and at the research facility.  The books went into boxes, maybe some into the dumpster, I don’t know.

Then the remaining library was starved for funds.  It has not been able to buy new books for years; key journal subscriptions have lapsed.

Lost in the stacks

The last time I visited the remains of our main library,  the comfy chairs had been stacked in a corner with a sign “Do Not Move”.   The map-room had been roped-off:  “No admittance”.    And the librarians had a haunted, hunted air -- it felt like Fahrenheit 451. 

Though the fact has absolutely not been publicized, and is to be presented rather as a fait accompli, our last remaining library is in fact scheduled for the chopping block.   The books might just be pulped. (I’ve been working with a sister institution to see if it will house the refugees.)   And a nervous librarian told me that, in the mean-time,  “We’re not supposed to use the word ‘library’ anymore.” 

What, I said, uncertain of having heard aright.  Some new taboo?  That-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named ?

“We’ve been told to say ‘data delivery portal’,” or something like that.  And printed matter (what our grandparents referred to as “books”) is to be replaced by software.   The new system is already in beta, only it’s a strange kind of beta, since none of the library uses are aware of it and hence are not trying it out, and indeed the librarian had been warned that she was not to let people know of its existence.  Feeling as though I had stumbled into some paranoid thriller set behind the Iron Curtain, I followed her as, in a hush, she penetrated to the rear of her ill-lit cluttered office, and she demonstrated how it works.

I wanted to browse recent issues of the American Mathematical Monthly.  The system, it seemed, wasn’t really set up to do that, but you could seek a particular article if you already knew its title and so forth.  We tried a few, and most had only the title and perhaps an abstract, with “Text Unavailable”.  But finally we found one that said Click here for full text.  We clicked.  No text.

I raised a skeptical sexagenarian eyebrow.

She shrugged helplessly.  “That’s what it does.  I’ve told the development team several times, but they say they are satisfied with the way it works.”

Well of course they are !   On-time and under-budget!  The actual utility of the product doesn’t matter -- none of the people who sign off on  or enforce these things  do actual research.

And the kids will look great for the photographers, posed before the rows and rows of screens.

Two options confront us.

(1)  Fight this thing.

(2)  Shut up and drink the Kool-Aid, and sing this merry tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ&NR=1

~    ~    ~

There are many well-thought-out experience-based Readers’ Comments on the NYTimes article.  Samples:

I see that most readers were not fooled by this computer snake oil. I am a former computer industry engineering director, now a college professor and also a faculty advisor for "Mastering Physics" one of the best (the best?) online learning systems for physics. I STILL think the teachers are right. My students do use Mastering Physics, but if I had smaller classes I would use it less. There is something about working with pencil and paper in math and science that involves you with your thoughts in an intimate way that no computer can. The famous mathematician Ramanujan used a slate and chalk because he had no pencil and paper. Our students would probably be OK to use a tablet computer if they treat it like Ramanujan's slate. I agree with others that having a computer on invites multi-tasking and distraction. I also note that my students treat online homework like a computer game. They guess at answers rapidly and see what sticks rather than carefully working out solutions and then entering a final result. The Mastering Physics software attempts to guide them through the solution process, but it is still much better if they can accomplish the work without a guide.

~

I am a former 3rd grade teacher from a low income school in NYC. I was an education major years ago when it really was a serious subject with courses in developmental psychology, philosophy, etc etc. I wanted to teach and took it seriously. Of course we had no computers then, but I know I would have embraced them and used them well. However, I went into teaching because I wanted to help kids learn and they knew that. I became attached to lots of the kids, and them to me.

Many years later, I got a calll from a psychiatric facility that a former student of mine was hospitalized. He told the nurse that he remembered me and that I said I would help anyone of my students if I could. The nurse put him on the phone, and we chatted a while, and he calmed down. What an honor for me (and he was not the only student I ever heard from, there have been many).

Now I know this is emotional and intense but I ask, how many students would remember a computer or an online instructor who never saw them in person, and would have done this??

~

Technology in the classroom is a nuanced issue, and the Idaho legislature has approached it with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. In my experience with technology in the classroom (which includes a high school that required laptops), the results were definitely a mixed bag.

Unrestricted laptop use in class encouraged online chatting, and I can honestly say that I do not remember anything from my two online undergrad courses.

~

There are also a few posts, diametrically opposed, saying, basically, “Gleichschaltung!  Get with the program!!”  But, interestingly, though all the posters’ names are different, they each manage somehow to slip in the name of a certain ostensibly-not-for-profit company (that is for accounting and reporting purposes;  doesn't mean the insiders don't get rich)  that stands to benefit from this scam.  Additionally, since online content increasingly involves advertising, you can figure out cui prodest.  (There is a precedent in Chris Whittle's ad-infested classroom videos.)

~

[Update 5 Jan 2012]

Another pertinent reader comment:

As a proud ex-Boise Brave, a student at the only high school in the state that consistently listed as one of the top 500 (or whatever the listing is) schools in the nation, I have one question:

How is the state with one of the worst internet speeds/cellphone coverages, where apparently BEARS TAKE OUT THE INTERNET, supposed to handle this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/downloads-are-slowest-in-idaho-stud...

Same deal at our language campus:  It was without Internet access for weeks, owing to some stupidity on the part of Verizon (which denied all responsibility).

So, if you use the Web as a teaching auxiliary, fine, wonderful;  but have a back-up plan.  (When I give a talk at work, I always bring paper handouts,  in case the computer doesn’t work, which is often the case.)

[Update April 2012].  Tetelestai.
The volumes have been carted offsite  to what we can only call a Konzentrationslager for books.
The vandals who accomplished this  are hopping about, scratching their armpits, and awarding each other  promotions.

Word of the Week: to “downromney”

downromney:  a (very) transitive verb.

[etymology:  From down- (as in downsize; also as in Down’s syndrome,  which anyone who would seriously vote for this guy  must be suffering from) + Mitt Romney, an early 21^st-century corporate raider] :  to seize a healthy company using wads of borrowed cash, somehow making the victim rather than the raider responsible for the resultant debt; debt-service subsequently bankrupts the company and the workers are fired.
Note:  This maneuver differs from the traditional ‘downsizing’ in that, in that case, management at least made a show of shedding crocodile tears over the workers thrown out the door;  whereas when workers get downromneyed, they are given to understand that they are themselves to blame for their miserable fate, and that the crushing of the working class is part of a historical process of “Creative Destruction”, in which they should feel honored to be permitted to play a part.)

THIS IS NOT A CAPTION (since the cartoon itself already has two)

Bonus fun !
Test your Downromney IQ !
Take this simple quiz:  http://www.romneygekko.com/quiz/

[Update 4 January 2012]

It turns out that the threat may extend beyond private-sector potential takeover targets.

A friend who teaches at a public high school (a Christian, a social conservative, and the holder of a doctorate), writes that he is himself worried about the possibility of being downromneyed -- his union protection being a frail reed  in the face of relentless reactionary attack :

What I'm concerned about is that within two years education has evolved to find a way to get rid of well paid people like me and my wife and replaced us with mere functionaries that take attendance while kids supposedly teach themselves online. That's seriously where it may be headed--and fast. And I think that the politicians who are calling for educational reform are already poised and invested in the companies that will pop up over night to provide this online "instruction" in place of unionized teachers.

So, I will keep this job as long as I can. But I can't not be looking around frantically at the same time, because if Romney is elected president, this will happen in months, not decades.

We’ve heard murmurings of this extraordinarily ill-advised idea of replacing classroom teaching with remote-access digitized solipsism.  It essentially gives up on the idea of community, socialization, or the Social Contract.  And yes, it’s being driven by entrepreneurs and their procurement-department enablers.

[Breaking update here.]

[Update 5 January 2012]

Remarkably, such humorous-polemical neologistic proposals can succeed wildly.   Just Google “santorum”.  You will not believe what tops the list:

http://spreadingsantorum.com/

Try it yourself.

A well-researched account of this escapade may be consulted here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_%22santorum%22_neologism

“Busy, busy, busy,” as Bokonon used to say …

[Update 9 Jan 2012]

Romney: ‘I like being able to fire people who provide services to me’

In fact, it gives him a warm feeling all over.

Which side are you on ??

[Update 12 Jan 2012]  We're having fun here... but to be fair :
Here's a well-written and more balanced account of all this:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-private-equity-20120112,0,2710198,print.story

Just so you know -- We do enjoy our satire on this site, but no we do not literally believe that Mittney “Mitt” Romney is actually, zoologically, taxonomically  a blood-sucking maggot.  That was simply a figure of  speech -- a simile, if you like.  In point of fact,  Willard “My Name is Not Willard” Romney  is not  strictly speaking  a maggot of any description, neither blood-sucking nor pus-licking.  For one thing a maggot (as all of you know who paid attention in biology class) is a larva of the order Diptera;  whereas Mitt “Willard” Romney is, quite definitely, a carnivore.   (Order Carnivora.)

[Update 15 Jan 2012]
Some quite interesting and damning testimony from an unexpected source -- a fellow Wall Street moneyman:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-romney-ran-bain-capital-his-word-was-not-his-bond/2012/01/12/gIQACvQxwP_print.html

[Update 26 Feb 2012] Labor-baiter:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-labor-20120226,0,7725322.story

Advanced Robotics

[Please!  This post is intended for the Asperger’s community only.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ&feature=related

Your assignment:

   (1) Tap Tap Tap with your left-left hand,

   THIS time THAT time T’OTHER time, yah.

   (2)  Prove Goldbach Conjecture.

Kthxbai.
 

~     ~     ~

[Update 30 Nov 2011]
Good news from our metallic chums:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2011/11/29/01003-20111129ARTFIG00677-coree-du-sud-des-robots-surveillants-de-prison.php

Humans Need Not Apply:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

 

Poetological exegesis

Judging by the lack of resounding worldwide response, it would appear that the global literary community somewhat underestimates the depth and complexity of that last post, which indeed represents the cusp and culmination of the Western philosophico-poetic tradition of the past two thousand years.  It is a masterpiece of concision, expression, and empathy -- almost to the point of metempsychosis.  Scholars of comparative literature will already have noted the thematic consonance with that earlier masterwork, in which the empathetic process is caught in mid-flight, rather than in a state of perfection.

Note in particular the very different meanings of the first line and the third. 

The first is the hemipteran equivalent of the Cogito -- an existential epiphany as the monad is born into the world. 

The third line, by stark contrast, is addressed to the world at large.   The monad has accepted and introcepted the role and the being assigned him by his Creator, and presents himself as such to the rest of the Creation.  The response of the angelic choir, to this magnificent effusion, is omitted from the text of the poem, but is implied.

There are many levels to the next few lines, but to unfold them would take a lifetime.  At any rate, the final death-bed reflections are particularly moving.

*

*     *     *

~ Commercial break ~

Relief for beleaguered Nook lovers!

http://murphybros.blogspot.com/p/read-murphy-on-your-nook.html

We now return you to your regularly scheduled essay.

*     *     *

~

Compare now as well, this pair, of superficially similar twins:

     monostich(XXIX)

versus

     monostich(XXX)

The first one, “word/less/ness”, is devoid of emotional or philosophical content.  It is really just a sort of jest in the direction of Minimalism, which is the theme of our sequence of Monostichs.   We posted it (if memory serves) as a sort of placeholder, simply to have something to put up that day, lest the blog grow stale.   We should probably have deleted it, did not its very shallowness point up the profundity of “de-sire / less / ness”,  its successor.

            Of desirelessness (technically:  anhedonia), I almost dare not speak -- you see, indeed, with what effort, or rather with what lack of force, the word was uttered in its monostichal setting:   each syllable simply washed outwards as you exhale (thus the whole word takes four full cycles of inspiration and expiration  to enunciate).   It is a state, so they say, sought-after by yogis or whatever they are -- deus avertat, for any Christian.   In my sloppy, soupy adolescence (no worse than yours -- not whining here), I wrote a pseudo-ballad, whose concluding line was

I wish I could feel some emotion

if only sorrow or disgrace.

(the first hemistich snarl-sung as in Dylan; the second recititivo).

This had not even the virtue of being original, being but a recycling of the classic (and jollier) “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all”.

It is a state  not of pain -- indeed it presupposes painlessness -- but of absence, absence of anything at all.  Not depression;  not indecision.   A state of calm, and lucidity.  Just only … you desire nothing.   And it is next door to Despair.

(“I want nothing.” -- G.K. Chesterton explores the terrifying triple meaning of this dreadful phrase, in his consummate story, “The Wrong Shape”.)

God shield us from the sins towards which we strive in our desires;  yet much more keenly, shield us, Lord, from such Desirelessness.

~

The relatively poor quality of Monostich XXIX (“Not up to his usual stellar standards”, later critics will shake their heads), I have revised it, thus:

            monostich(XXIX -- resartus)

(“Resartus” -- patched up.)   And what a difference !   Where XXIX had been purely passive, applicable to someone who simply clammed up, XXIX-bis is actively straining to express the ineffable.