February 19, 2013
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is one of the world’s biggest hackers organizations. The CCC is based in Germany and other German-speaking countries. The CCC describes itself as ‘a galactic community of life forms, independent of age, sex, race or societal orientation, which strives across borders for freedom of information….’ In general, the CCC advocates more transparency in government, freedom of information, and the human right to communication.
Supporting the principles of the hacker ethic, the club also fights for free universal access to computers and technological infrastructure. The CCC was founded in Berlin in 1981 at a table which had previously belonged to the Kommune 1 (the first politically motivated commune in Germany) in the rooms of the newspaper ‘Die Tageszeitung’ by Wau Holland and others in anticipation of the prominent role that information technology would play in the way people live and communicate.
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February 19, 2013
2600: The Hacker Quarterly is an American publication that specializes in publishing technical information on a variety of subjects including telephone switching systems, Internet protocols and services, as well as general news concerning the computer ‘underground’ and left wing, and sometimes (but not recently), anarchist issues.
The magazine’s name comes from the phreaker discovery in the 1960s that the transmission of a 2600 hertz tone (which could be produced perfectly with a plastic toy whistle given away free with Cap’n Crunch cereal—discovered by friends of John Draper) over a long-distance trunk connection gained access to ‘operator mode’ and allowed the user to explore aspects of the telephone system that were not otherwise accessible.
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February 18, 2013
The Pink Pistols are a gay gun rights organization in the United States and Canada. Their mottos are ‘Pick on someone your own caliber’ and ‘Armed gays don’t get bashed.’
Inspired by a Salon.com article written by Jonathan Rauch, Krikket (aka Doug Krick), a libertarian activist from Illinois while living in Massachusetts, founded the Pink Pistols in 2000. The organization now has 60 chapters in 33 states and three countries that are principally made up of gun-owning LGBT individuals, though neither status is mandatory for membership.
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February 18, 2013
‘Private Guns, Public Health‘ is a 2004 non-fiction book by David Hemenway, an economist who has served as Professor of Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health as well as the Director of Harvard’s Injury Control Research Center. He argues that the widespread ownership of firearms in private hands in the U.S. promotes the spread of the ‘disease’ of gun violence, and he takes a collective interpretation of the Second Amendment while stating that increased regulations are absolutely necessary in the purposes of public safety. Hemenway makes the central case that ‘more guns in a community lead to more homicide.’
Hemenway interprets the issues of gun violence and gun politics in the U.S. through a public health lens, which he believes ’emphasizes prevention rather than fault-finding, blame, or revenge.’ He writes that he is not ‘anti-gun’ or ‘anti-gun owner’ any more than people who advocate for consumer safety measures in cars are ‘anti-cars.’ He sums the goal of the book up as ‘injury prevention.’
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February 18, 2013
‘More Guns, Less Crime‘ is a book by economist John Lott that says violent crime rates go down when states permit the concealed carry of guns. He presents the results of his statistical analysis of crime data for every county in the United States during 29 years from 1977 to 2005. The book examines city, county and state level data from the entire United States and measures the impact of 11 different types of gun control laws on crime rates. The book expands on an earlier study published in 1997 by Lott and his co-author David Mustard in ‘The Journal of Legal Studies.’
Lott also examines the effects of gun control laws, including the Brady Law. His conclusion is that ‘shall issue’ laws, which allow citizens to carry concealed weapons, steadily decrease violent crime. He explains that this result makes sense because criminals are deterred by the risk of attacking an armed victim. As more citizens arm themselves, the danger to criminals increases. Lott also examines the effects of training requirements on crime rate and accident rate. He finds that training requirements have very little effect on both crime rates and accident rates.
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February 18, 2013
Concealed carry, or CCW (carrying a concealed weapon), refers to the practice of carrying a handgun or other weapon in public in a concealed manner, either on one’s person or in proximity. Concealed carry is legal in most areas of the United States. A handful of states and jurisdictions restrict or ban CCW, but all states except Illinois make provision for legal concealed carry via a permit or license, or via constitutional carry (CCW authorized by a State constitution).
Most states have ‘shall-issue’ statutes; that is, if a person meets the requirements to obtain a permit, the state must issue one. Some states, including California, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts have ‘may-issue’ statutes; these states may (or may not) issue permits to carry if a person meets the requirements to obtain one. States with may-issue statutes typically do not issue permits unless the applicant provides a documented need for a concealed weapon, such as for retired police officers, judges, and federal agents.
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February 18, 2013
Gun control is any law, policy, practice, or proposal designed to restrict or limit the possession, production, importation, shipment, sale, and/or use of guns or other firearms by private citizens among others. Gun control laws and policy vary greatly around the world. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Austrailia, have very strict limits on gun possession while others, such as the United States, have relatively modest limits. In some countries, the topic remains a source of intense debate with proponents generally arguing the dangers of widespread gun ownership, and opponents generally arguing individual rights of self-protection as well as individual liberties in general.
High rates of gun mortality and injury are often cited as a primary impetus for gun control policies. There is general agreement that gun violence is a serious public health and economic concern. Yet, society remains deeply divided over whether more restrictive gun control policies would save lives and prevent injuries. Scholars agree the rate of gun violence in the United States is disproportionately high relative to other wealthy countries. Nevertheless, strong disagreement remains among academics on the question of whether a causal relationship between gun availability and violence exists, and which, if any, gun controls would effectively stem the violence.
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February 15, 2013
The Zeitgeist [tsahyt-gahyst] (spirit of the age or spirit of the time) is the intellectual fashion or dominant school of thought that typifies and influences the culture of a particular period in time. For example, the Zeitgeist of modernism typified and influenced architecture, art, and fashion during much of the 20th century. The German word ‘Zeitgeist’ is often attributed to the philosopher Georg Hegel, but he never actually used the word. In his works such as ‘Lectures on the Philosophy of History,’ he uses the phrase ‘der Geist seiner Zeit’ (‘the spirit of his time’)—for example, ‘no man can surpass his own time, for the spirit of his time is also his own spirit.’
Other philosophers who were associated with such ideas include Herder and Spencer and Voltaire. The concept counters the ‘Great Man theory’ popularized by Thomas Carlyle which sees history as the result of the actions of heroes and geniuses.
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February 14, 2013
‘The Rebel Sell: Why the culture can’t be jammed’ (published in the US as ‘Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture’) is a non-fiction book written by University of Toronto philosopher Joseph Heath and Canadian journalist Andrew Potter in 2004. Their central claim is that counter-cultural movements have failed, and that they all share a common fatal error in the way they understand society; thus counter-culture is not a threat to ‘the system.’
Following their claim that conformity isn’t something perpetuated by mainstream media, Potter and Heath identify other sources of conformity using work from Hobbes, Rousseau, and Freud. They describe conformity as often the byproduct of simple market preferences or, alternatively, as an attempt to resolve a collective action problem. For instance, they claim that school uniforms curb the fashion ‘arms race’ created between students when no restrictions are in place, and that they are not intended merely to stamp out individualism, as many counter-cultural figures have suggested.
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February 11, 2013
Commodification (or commoditization) is the transformation of goods, ideas, or other entities that may not normally be regarded as goods into a commodity. American author and feminist bell hooks refers to cultural commodification [kuh-mod-uh-fi-key-shuhn] as ‘eating the other.’ By this she means that cultural expressions, revolutionary, or post modern, can be sold to the dominant culture. Any messages of social change are not marketed for their messages but used as a mechanism to acquire a piece of the ‘primitive.’ Any interests in past historical culture almost always have a modern twist.
According to Mariana Torgovnick, ‘What is clear now is that the West’s fascination with the primitive has to do with its own crises in identity, with its own need to clearly demarcate subject and object even while flirting with other ways of experiencing the universe.’ Hooks states that marginalized groups are seduced by this concept because of ‘the promise of recognition and reconciliation.’ ‘When the dominant culture demands that the Other be offered as sign that progressive political change is taking place, that the American Dream can indeed be inclusive of difference, it invites a resurgence of essentialist cultural nationalism.’
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February 10, 2013
Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order.
The reader follows the narration of junkie William Lee, who takes on various aliases, from the US to Mexico, eventually to Tangier and the dreamlike Interzone (international zone, a type of extraterritoriality governed by international law). The vignettes (called ‘routines’) are drawn from Burroughs’ own experience in these places, and his addiction to drugs (heroin, morphine, and while in Tangier, ‘Majoun’—a strong marijuana confection—as well as a German opioid, brand name Eukodol, of which he wrote frequently).
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February 8, 2013
‘A Study of History‘ is the 12-volume magnum opus of British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, finished in 1961, in which the author traces the development and decay of all of the major world civilizations in the historical record. Toynbee applies his model to each of these civilizations, detailing the stages through which they all pass: genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and disintegration.
The major civilizations, as Toynbee sees them, are: Egyptian, Andean, Sinic, Minoan, Sumerian, Mayan, Indic, Hittite, Hellenic, Western, Orthodox Christian (Russia), Far Eastern, Orthodox Christian (main body), Persian, Arabic, Hindu, Mexican, Yucatec, and Babylonic. There are four ‘abortive civilizations’ (Abortive Far Western Christian, Abortive Far Eastern Christian, Abortive Scandinavian, Abortive Syriac) and five ‘arrested civilizations’ (Polynesian, Eskimo, Nomadic, Ottoman, Spartan).
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