>>> context weblog
sampling new cultural context
| home | site map | about context | donate | lang >>> español - català |
friday :: november 26, 2004
   
 
elixir of transition

The serbian artist, dressed as a pioneer, shows a bottle labeled 'Elixir of Transition.' Antea Arizanović's 'Elixir of Transition' is half local rakiya and half 'Ginco Bilobil,' a medicinal plant extract of Chinese provenance.

"The drink Elixir of Transition is a medicine for people in times of transition to understand political, social and cultural differences and make it a big new thing. A drink from a bottle helps you get better. This is a way for people to integrate in to Europe at the same level with less differences. A drink helps if You drink it in drops but it is very dangerous to drink a whole bottle. So it has two faces." >from *45th October Art Salon/Continental Breakfast* Belgrade, September 11 - October 31, 2004


fullmoon openfriday@straddle3
·········································
pioneers' meeting, with balkanic muzik and video
'room service for bombed buildings' by dionis escorsa
+ pioneering exercises by josé sanchez
friday, november 26, 2004. 20:30 h
straddle3. c/ riereta, 32 1-3
barcelona

related context
>
pioneer movement. 'the pioneer movement is an organization for children operated by a communist party in the former soviet union and eastern europe, and remains the case in for instance cuba.'
> artists and cosmonauts: art in zero gravity. 'the cosmonaut sergei krikalev, inhabitant of mir and 'last soviet citizen' stranded aloft during the coup against gorbachev.' february 28, 2002
> make world festival. 'make world' is a unix command used to completely update an operating system. it's designed to follow the latest developments once local sources are synchronized. typing 'make world' in the command line initiates a rebuilding and renewal of the whole system while it's running.' curated by olia lialina. munich, october 2001

imago
>
transition bottles for an elixir

| permaLink

 
friday :: november 19, 2004
   
 
mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of iraq

Civilian deaths have risen dramatically in Iraq since the country was invaded in March 2003, according to a survey conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Columbia University School of Nursing and Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. The researchers found that the majority of deaths were attributed to violence, which were primarily the result of military actions by Coalition forces. Most of those killed by Coalition forces were women and children. However, the researchers stressed that they found no evidence of improper conduct by the Coalition soldiers.

The survey is the first countrywide attempt to calculate the number of civilian deaths in Iraq since the war began. The United States military does not keep records on civilian deaths and record keeping by the Iraq Ministry of Health is limited. The study is published in the October 29, 2004, online edition of The Lancet.

“Our findings need to be independently verified with a larger sample group. However, I think our survey demonstrates the importance of collecting civilian casualty information during a war and that it can be done,” said lead author Les Roberts.

The researchers conducted their survey in September 2004.

The results were calculated twice, both with and without information from the city of Falluja. The researchers felt the excessive violence from combat in Falluja could skew the overall mortality rates. Excluding information from Falluja, they estimate that 100,000 more Iraqis died than would have been expected had the invasion not occurred. Eighty-four percent of the deaths were reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces and 95 percent of those deaths were due to air strikes and artillery.

“There is a real necessity for accurate monitoring of civilian deaths during combat situations. Otherwise it is impossible to know the extent of the problems civilians may be facing or how to protect them,” explained study co-author Gilbert Burnham.

“Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey” was written by Les Roberts, Riyadh Lafta, Richard Garfield, Jamal Khudhairi and Gilbert Burnham. >from *Iraqi Civilian Deaths Increase Dramatically After Invasion* October 28, 2004

related context
>
message from the people of fallujah. october 31, 2004
> art and war: the role of artists and scientists in times of war. 'what can artists and scientists do when there is a war? how can we be useful? how can we help to find solutions? how can we avoid the use of the military while at the same time protecting the lives of innocent civilians? what educational work can we do to avoid violence and war?'
> deadly medicine: creating the master race". 'many of the most important issues in medical ethics today — from genetic testing and stem cell research to caring for prisoners of war are directly affected by the experiences of medicine leading up to and during the holocaust.' november 5, 2004
> oil peak: the most pivotal challenge facing modern civilization. 'it is time to come together and acknowledge our collective vulnerability, and begin working to change the structure of our culture and civilization in ways we've never attempted before.' june 23, 2004
> cradle of civilisation at risk: preserve world's oldest cultural heritage. 'iraq is the home of some of the world's oldest and most significant archaeological and cultural sites.' march 21, 2003
> another world is happening: network-based movements. 'the vast, coordinated protests that occurred february 15th worldwide were just the latest manifestation of the power of the loose, non-hierarchial, evolutionary movements that have been enabled by the development of the Internet.' march 3, 2003

imago
>
the people of Fallujah

| permaLink

 
friday :: november 12, 2004
   
 
neighbornodes: wireless extensible neighborhood network

Neighbornode is a project that merges the location-specific nature of the neighborhood with the universal, networked nature of the web, allowing strangers who live on the same street to post messages to each other and engage in dialogue via a web bulletin board. Residents access these common web spaces via an open wireless node placed on their street that directs them to the boards.

Neighbornode is part of a bare-bones software package provided by NYCWireless, a volunteer advocacy group instrumental in turning places into public hot spots. The group is encouraging people to set up their own hot spots and electronic bulletin boards to let communities of otherwise anonymous urbanites find one another.

The NYCwireless Community Hotspot Kit allows to create a Community Hotspot anywhere, with only an old PC and a few extra items. Configuring the kit is easy and takes only a few minutes. Once configured, people can instantly run Neighbornode and Wi-Fi Thank You (a site where you can post a thank you to anyone who provides a free Wi-Fi access point), which come with the kit, or can create an entirely new Comunity Hotspot application of they own.

Many people choose to leave their wifi access open, allowing others in the vicinity free access to the Internet. These are known as open access points. What turns these ordinary wifi access points into Community Hotspots is when the owner takes the additional step of configuring software on the access point that allows everyone who logs on to interact with each other in some way. With this extra step, access points that were formerly an anonymous experience for users become flashpoints for communication and exchange between people in a local area. The result is an online space where communities can grow and flourish.

Dana Spiegel and John Geraci leads Community Hotspot Project. Neighbornode is an example of Community Hotspot applications created by Geraci. Dana Spiegel work on "creating visualizations of social groups online and...creating richly visual and intuitive online and augmented real-world social spaces; " she was one of producers of Spectropolis, the mobile media and art event. >from *Neighbornodes* and related web sites.

related context
>
open spectrum international. 'open spectrum has grown into a 'free speech' movement for the era of media convergence. more and more countries accept wi-fi without requiring end-user licenses. but a deeper reconsideration of the role of licensing in wireless communications has barely begun. osint hopes to promote international awareness of open spectrum as a practical and desirable option.'
> physical space, virtual space, and interface, 'analyzes the intersection of three monumental trends: accelerating interconnectivity of the physical world, increasing accuracy of the simulated world, growing intelligence of the human-machine interface. each of these alone is powerfully impacting society today. together, they paint a truly transformative picture of the future.' accelerating change 2004, november 5, 2004. via roger
> urballon: an urban media space, 'presented at spectropolis, an event that highlighted the diverse ways artists, technical innovators and activists are using communication technologies to generate urban experiences and public voice.' october 8, 2004
> fused space: new technology in/as public space. 'an international, on-line competition for innovative applications for new technology in the public domain.' july 23, 2004
> fadaiat: a new kind of public space. 'the mix, local-global, physical-digital, of outgoing and incoming streams will produce a new kind of public space.' july 23, 2004
> open source city. 'the open source concept, applied in contemporary practice of architecture, locative art and streaming media.' may 7, 2004
> civic tv: alternative visions of the urban experience. 'the open source concept, applied in contemporary practice of architecture, locative art and streaming media.' november 21, 2003
> psy-geo-conflux: the meaning of living in a city. 'an event dedicated to current artistic and social investigations in psychogeography (the study of the effects of the geographic environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals).' november 21, 2003

imago
>
hermanos de al lado,
skin walls fall but community is alive

| permaLink

 
friday :: november 5, 2004
   
 
deadly medicine: creating the master race

The practice of medicine in Nazi Germany still profoundly affects modern-day medical ethics codes, according to Alan Wells, an expert in medical ethics with the American Medical Association (AMA) and Patricia Heberer, historian at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). To teach those lessons to the next generation of physicians, the AMA and the USHMM announced plans to deliver a lecture series on the subject to medical schools around U.S. The collaboration between the AMA and the Holocaust Museum coincides with the Museum's special exhibition, "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race."

"During the 1930s, the German medical establishment was admired as a world leader in innovative public health and medical research," Dr. Wells said. "The question we want to examine is: 'How could science be co-opted in such a way that doctors as healers evolved into killers and medical research became torture?'" Dr. Wells and Dr. Heberer said. "The story of medicine under Nazism is instructive and an important theme in understanding the evolution of the Holocaust," said Dr. Heberer.

"Many of the most important issues in medical ethics today — from genetic testing and stem cell research to caring for prisoners of war are directly affected by the experiences of medicine leading up to and during the Holocaust," Dr. Wells said. "Physicians need to explore these issues without getting caught up in political agendas or the results can be something we never intended and cause great harm."

According to Dr. Wells, World War II era Germans were extremely advanced in medicine, technology and public health research but these successes have largely been overlooked by history because of the medical extremes of the Holocaust. These advances and campaigns, however, were eventually aimed exclusively at the "Aryans" — the Nazi ideal of the "master race."

"Adolf Hitler spoke of Germany as a body with himself as the doctor," Dr. Wells said. "He wanted to make Germany 'healthy' by eliminating diseased, unhealthy parts of the body. At first this meant killing the disabled. But because the Nazis also believed that Jews possessed 'bad' genes, they, too, came to be portrayed by public health 'experts' and 'scientists' as a threat to racial purity and a healthy nation."

These actions grew from a theory called 'eugenics' (using selective breeding to improve the genetic quality of a species), which came from a distortion of Charles Darwin's theories of "survival of the fittest," according to Dr. Heberer. Some eugenics programs, such as laws sanctioning the sterilization of the 'feeble minded,' initially met with resistance throughout the world, including in Germany. But when the Nazis came to power, and particularly during World War II, these constraints disappeared as the Nazi regime was able to implement its radical version of medicine. >from *Nazis and Medical Ethics: Context and Lessons* october 13, 2004

related context
>
deadly medicine: creating the master race". museum exhibition. april 22, 2004 - october 16, 2005
> alleged north korean human experimentation. 'there have been several reports of alleged north korean human experimentation. if true, these reports show human rights abuses similar to those of nazi and japanese human experimentation in world war II.'
> eugenics and america's campaign to create a master race. war against the weak by edwin black. 'how american corporate philanthropies launched a national campaign of ethnic cleansing in the united states, helped found and fund the nazi eugenics of hitler and mengele — and then created the modern movement of 'human genetics.'
> science misuse. 'according to the scientists, the bush administration has, among other abuses, suppressed and distorted scientific analysis from federal agencies, and taken actions that have undermined the quality of scientific advisory panels.' february 24, 2004
> racism can make you stupid. 'harboring racial bias in an increasingly diverse society may be bad for one's cognitive performance.' december 1, 2003
> mirroring evil: nazi imagery/recent art. 'these artworks draw us into the past, leading us to question how we understand the appalling forces that produced the holocaust. these works also keep us alert to the present, with its techniques of persuasion that are so easily taken for granted, its symbols of oppression that are too readily ignored.' march 22, 2002
> attacks on science: ethics and public health. 'to ensure the appropriate use of scientific evidence and the protection of the scientists who provide it, institutions and individuals must give deferential response to honest scientific challenges versus those from evident vested interests, build and diversify partnerships, assure the transparency of funding sources, agree on the rules for publications, and distinguish the point where science ends and policy begins.' january 11, 2002

imago
>
medical ethics? nazis and medicine

| permaLink

 





> context weblog archive
december 2006
november 2006
october 2006
september 2006
august 2006
july 2006
june 2006
may 2006
april 2006
march 2006
february 2006
january 2006
december 2005
november 2005
october 2005
september 2005
august 2005
july 2005
june 2005
may 2005
april 2005
march 2005
february 2005
january 2005
december 2004
november 2004
october 2004
september 2004
august 2004
july 2004
june 2004
may 2004
april 2004
march 2004
february 2004
january 2004
december 2003
november 2003
october 2003
june 2003
may 2003
april 2003
march 2003
february 2003
january 2003
december 2002
november 2002
october 2002
july 2002
june 2002
may 2002
april 2002
march 2002
february 2002
january 2002
countdown 2002
december 2001
november 2001
october 2001
september 2001
august 2001

more news in
> sitemap

Google


context archives all www
   "active, informed citizen participation is the key to shaping the network society. a new 'public sphere' is required." seattle statement
| home | site map | about context | donate | lang >>> español - català |
03 http://straddle3.net/context/03/en/2004_11.html