"Men whose masculinity is challenged become more inclined to support war or buy an SUV, a new study finds.

I could have told them that.

Fakta: stavekontrollen i Word har ingen problemer med navnet Victor Moritz Goldschmidt. Lise, Einar, Ragnar, Otto, Arild og Ragnhild, derimot, har den store problemer med å tro på.

the paradox of politics in the 21st century

...as seen from the year 1948:

as early as the beginning of the twentieth century, human equality had become technically possible. (...) But by the fourth decade of the twentieth century all the main currents of political thought were authoritarian. The earthly paradise had been discredited at exactly the moment when it became realizable. Every new political theory, by whatever name it called itself, led back to hierarchy and regimentation. And in the general hardening of outlook that set in round about 1930, practices which had been long abandoned, in some cases for hundreds of years — imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages, and the deportation of whole populations-not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.
-- George Orwell, "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" (in 1984)

Oh, and he pretty much sums up the whole Guantanamo- Abu-Ghraib- 9/11-changed-everything- schtick in there as well.

Here's a collection of George Orwell's essays. All of them should be read and some of them should be memorized.

Most surprising moment of hypertextual bliss this month? This list of the world's most magnificent trees. It made me feel young and small.

I put on my stupid head this morning, I think.

i anledning verdens diktdag

VIKTIG

Viktig: at fiolinen er stemt
at G-dur-konserten overdøver
to maktblokker
Viktig: at sangkoret
vet forskjell på gass og luft
Viktig: å bygge vinden om til orgel

Viktig: å bygge skrivemaskinen
om til maskingevær
som skifter til rødt fargebånd
mens ørnene stivner til rutefly
Viktig: at pennen er spiss
og stikker øyenhull i masken

Viktig: å spre, men ikke tro
selvmorderens løpeseddel
en hvit lapp som samtidig er
dikt, tegning og konsertprogram
Viktig: å sitte på konsert
under eksplosjonen

Viktig: at lerretet er spent
når statuen Matterhorn
signeres av Sveits' nasjonalbank
Viktig: å male sjø med vann
Viktig: å ha vist
bildet sitt til en blind

-- Georg Johannesen, Nye Dikt (1966) --

I'm working at an undisclosed location*, and not available for blogging or comment, but I think that you should see Jon Stewart completely wipe the floor with the Bush administration's former UN Ambassador John Bolton. It doesn't just demonstrate how the administration's ideological standpoint doesn't stand up to honest debate, I also think that Jon Stewart is a beacon of sanity and reasoned argument here. I love how he's always courteous to his opponent in person, where others might be tempted to gloat.

* The 2nd floor of the University Library, all the way to the right.

Josefsen ikke sterk nok i innvandrerspørsmålet

(NTB, Oslo) - Det er fortsatt mulig at Svein G. Josefsen ikke får være vikarprest i Oslo bispedømme. Det sjokkerer presten.

Oslo bispedømmeråd ble tirsdag enig om å finne ut hvorvidt Svein Josefsen allerede var ansatt eller ikke juridisk sett og hvilke arbeidsrettlige forpliktelser de har. På spørsmål om undersøkelsens underliggende motiver svarte Oslo-biskop Ole Christian Kvarme:

- Vi undersøker vikartjenestens reglement fordi vi føler at Josefsen ikke har et sterkt nok standpunkt omkring forsvar for de fattige. Guds ord handler om generøsitet, kamp for de svake og åpenhet og inklusjon i det store, guddommelige felleskapet. Bibelen sier eksplisitt at alle fattige skal få deres gjeld ettergitt hvert syvende år, og vi kan virkelig ikke se at Josefsen gjennom sin livsstil har kjempet hardt nok for dette standpunktet. Han bor tross alt i et av de rikeste landene i verden.

Biskopen la til:

- Vi kan heller ikke se at Josefsens livsstil i tilstrekkelig grad har bekjempet undertrykkelse av innvandrere. Altså, helt alvorlig: Bibelen kunne ikke være tydeligere på dette: "Mishandl ikke de fremmede, for thi var i ikke fremmede selv i Egypt?" Og "hvis en slave søker tilflukt hos deg, lever ham ikke tilbake til hans herre." Jeg kan ikke se at hans rulleblad på dette spørsmålet er tilstrekkelig.

- Og hva med fredsarbeide? Det må da være noe av det viktigste kristne driver på med? Har Josefsen engasjert seg i kamp mot undertrykkelsen i Palestina? Darfur? Irak? Hva hendte med lammet og løvene, for søren? (Unnskyld, Gud.)

Vikarprest Svein G. Josefsen er svært overrasket over at biskopen i Oslo nå skal vurdere det juridiske i saken.

- Dette er noe av det underligste jeg har opplevd fra en arbeidsgiver. Jeg trodde den pressemeldingen fra bispedømmerådet og biskopen var relativ entydig og enkel å forstå. Jeg er veldig overrasket over det som har skjedd, sier Josefsen.

Kvarme, på sin side, lovet at hans bispedømme i fremtiden skal engasjere seg på det aller sterkeste i kampen mot inntak av skalldyr som mat.

- Det er et av de mindre kjente sakene i Bibelen, og det er på tide at dette vitale aspektet ved kirken fremheves. Visste dere for eksempel at skalldyrspørsmålet blir omtalt i like sterke ord i Mosebøkene som homoseksualitet, og faktisk får fire ganger så mange linjer der? "Det er styggedom". Det blir ikke mye tydeligere enn det.

The Liar's Paradox

A man says that he always lies. Is what he says true or false?

I'm in ur blog

changing ur posts

I just got a facebook account. It's under my name, so if you know me, look me up. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

Transcript

This transcription of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's tribunal is immensely interesting. My first reactions:

1. I love how the moment he starts talking about torture and ill treatment by the CIA, things start being [REDACTED].

2. This guy is toast. Not just because he's admitted doing what has now, in mass consciousness, become symbolic of Absolute Evil, but because he has accepted the terms of the trial. I think that psychologically, he has accepted the moral terms in which he will be tried, and that means that he has already found himself guilty in some sense. Fascinating how he has accepted large parts of the US discourse so readily. With the US' worst enemy, the conversation still happens on the US' terms. The same thing happened with Saddam, I remember, though he and Milosevic seemed much more unapologetic during their trials.

3. In those confused ramblings of his, there are numerous entry points to understanding the perspective of Al-Qaeda. I am almost certain none of them will be used.

4. I'm pretty sure he's boasting about some of the operations he was in charge of.

5. He makes a couple of points, which is really sad. He asks for the release of innocents from Guantanamo. "For me, I have patience (...) The Americans have human right." "God knows that many that many who been arrested, they been unjustly arrested." He points out that "enemy combatant itself, it flexible word". How sad that even the terrorists have to point this out.

6. Oh how I wish that Mohammad's trial was carried out in public, under just circumstances. You know, like an actual trial. Actually using democracy to bring down the man who was responsible for 9/11? Imagine the symbolic effect.

7. Near the end of his statement, he says: "military throughout history know very well. They don't war will never stop. War start from Adam when Cain he killed Abel until now. It's never gonna stop killing of people.

He could have been talking about the war on terror.

Also, guitar music is on the way out

Bruce Sterling:

SXSW Science fiction writer and professional pundit Bruce Sterling has cracked bloggers with the extinction stick, saying the plebs will crawl back into their ooze by 2017.

'There are 55 million blogs and some of them have got to be good,' Sterling said, during a speech here at the SXSW conference in reference to the slogan on blog search site technorati.com. 'Well, no, actually. They don't.

'I don't think there will be that many of them around in 10 years. I think they are a passing thing.'"

I'm too tired to argue against this, but dude, no.

And just last week he was all up in flames about how right he was about the green thing.

Oh, Jesus Christ. Dawkins: would you please for the love of God just sit down and STFU? You're giving atheism a bad name. I'm going to start going to church soon just so I'm not associated with you.

I Ching

Light spills in through the upper floors of the library, creating an I Ching pattern.

Whenever I'm under pressure (like now, with the thesis), I start looking for signs in everything around me. My iPod's shuffle function, random conversations, the weather, my dreams (my brother kills the prime minister by leaping out of a snuff box dressed in highwayman gear - what does it mean?), anything. Call it aleatoric hermeneutics or whatever.

So I looked up the I Ching pattern I found this afternoon, and guess what it means?

64. Wei Chi - Before Completion

-----
-- -- above Li The Clinging, Flame
-----
-- --
----- below K'an The Abysmal, Water
-- --

The Judgement

Before Completion. Success.
But if the little fox, after nearly completing the crossing,
Gets his tail in the water,
There is nothing that would further.

The Image

Fire over water:
The image of the condition before transition.
Thus the superior man is careful
In the differentiation of things,
So that each finds its place.

Changing Lines

Changing yin at the bottom means:
He gets his tail in the water.
Humiliating.

Changing yang in the second place means:
He brakes his wheels.
Perseverance brings good fortune.

Changing yin in the third place means:
Before completion, attack brings misfortune.
It furthers one to cross the great water.

Changing yang in the fourth place means:
Perseverance brings good fortune.
Remorse disappears.
Shock, thus to discipline the Devil's Country.
For three years, great realms are awarded.

Changing yin in the fifth place means:
Perseverance brings good fortune.
No remorse.
The light of the superior man is true.
Good fortune.

Changing yang at the top means:
There is drinking of wine
In genuine confidence. No blame.
But if one wets his head,
He loses it, in truth.

I get it. I do, really.

UPDATE: Actually, hang on. In Chinese one reads right to left, so this I Ching can also mean...

63. Chi Chi - After Completion

-- --
----- above K'an The Abysmal, Water
-- --
-----
-- -- below Li The Clinging, Flame
-----

The Judgement

After Completion. Success in small matters.
Perseverance furthers.
At the beginning good fortune,
At the end disorder.

The Image

Water over fire: the image of the condition
In After Completion.
Thus the superior man
Takes thought of misfortune
And arms himself against it in advance.

Changing Lines

Changing yang at the bottom means:
He brakes his wheels.
He gets his tail in the water.
No blame.

Changing yin in the second place means:
The woman loses the curtain of her carriage.
Do not run after it;
On the seventh day you will get it.

Changing yang in the third place means:
The Illustrious Ancestor
Disciplines the Devil's Country.
After three years he conquers it.
Inferior people must not be employed.

Changing yin in the fourth place means:
The finest clothes turn to rags.
Be careful all day long.

Changing yang in the fifth place means:
The neighbor in the east who slaughters an ox
Does not attain as much real happiness
As the neighbor in the west
With his small offering.

Changing yin at the top means:
He gets his head in the water. Danger.

An article from Daily Kos on the span of human history.

Ok, så jeg er for trøtt for å skrive min årlige kvinnedagspost. I stedet får dere gå hit og lese.

Jean Baudrillard took place

Jean Baudrillard died yesterday in Paris, aged 77.

Though it seems a bit callous to say so after his death, I didn't like Baudrillard. I can't remember reading a single thing by him that I thought wasn't arrogant, pessimistic, obtuse and uninteresting. The few texts I have read (4 or 5 shorter articles, so take with pinch of salt) gave me the distinct impression that Baudrillard really was the thing that Alan Sokal was attacking: a thinker uninterested in community and communication, rigorous thinking and the sharing of ideas, using language not as a device of trust and constructive communication (of whatever sort) but as a smokescreen for banality. I think he gave postmodernism a bad name, and it's a shame he's been grouped together with great thinkers like Jacques Derrida and the like.

His ideas about simulacra leads to ideas of originality and reality which I think is a throwback to Plato, and very unfortunate for the development of criticism of media, culture and capitalism. But most of all, really, I don't like Baudrillard for his pessimism. He was a cultural defeatist, mourning the passing of the real, of the center which never existed. Any philosophy which doesn't point to something constructive, something we can do, is meaningless in my eyes. Why even write, when there's only sadness and defeat? And why write so densely and confusingly? For one self?

So far, the only good thing I have seen that came out of Baudrillard was the misunderstanding of him that lead to the Matrix. Though only the first one, mind, the two next ones were just simulacra of good films. No, never mind that: they were real, but crappy films.

the zen of breaking a fall

photo: tine grüner larsen

Tip 1: don't use your forehead, like I do.

"Scooter" Libby has been convicted of perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice. He is the vice-president's chief of staff. (Well. Former chief of staff.)

Said one senior administration official, "a few bad apples, bla bla, liberal bias in the media, bla bla, September 11th changed everything, bla bla".

By the way, folks, you know why America will prevail? It has better music. The video is fantastic, and (I think) not ironic. Go see.

kritikk, kunst og kniver

1. Jeg er syk. Jeg var knapt kommet hjem fra Hoth før jeg

a) bommet med tomatkniven og åpnet fingeren min som var den en boks med tomater.

b) pådro meg alle influensaers mor. Gårsdagen var helt jævlig. Intens sykdom får en liksom til å tenke over de store tingene i livet, f.eks. hvor mange muskler man egentlig bruker på å skrive en epost eller nøyaktig hvor deilig Coca-Cola er.

2. Jeg har et forsvar for subjektiv kunstkritikk i kommentarfeltet til denne artikkelen av Jørgen Lund borte på Kunstkritikk.no.

the last transport is away

Well, we finally got the hyperdrive on our ship, the trusty Millännium Falk, fixed, and are now safely back in Oslo. I made a photo set of our excursions to the Hoth surface. I never got around to photographing our trusty taun-tauns, though. Every time I turned the camera on they got antsy and spat at me.

who's scruffy-looking?

white world

We're on the surface of Hoth. Photos in Flickr. Further updates later.

Echo station 3-T-8. Imperial skiiers on the North Ridge

On Sunday, Ragnfrid and I went skiing with some friends in Nordmarka. I hadn't skiied in about 6 or 7 years. Now we're off on the early morning shuttle to enjoy the arctic weather and fantastic skiing on the ice-covered planet Hoth. Rumour has it they have the internets there, but we'll see if anything gets posted for the next couple of days.

Oh, and the photo collective Magnum has a blog. That goes straight to the feedreader.