Stahl Web

Apparently the psychology department at the University of Central Florida has been granted some defense dept. money to see which video game controller might be best for flying unmanned drones. Even stranger, they cited my article, which mentions the disturbing confluence of trends. If you want to know about advances in this arena see for yourself.

And by the way, have you seen the new flush of remote-controlled helicopters…ahem…I mean “drones” that have hit the consumer market? They seem to have a natural affinity for the iPhone and iPad as controllers. Apparently you can use them in networked “augmented reality” games. Using the camera on the front of the “drone,” you can view other “drones” and even people on the hand-held device and shoot them. Sounds like an effective way to augment reality to me.

Chrysler is marketing a special edition Jeep based on one designed for gameplay in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.  Goodbye Hummer, hello Jeep.   This is an interesting reversal of the usual mimetic logic of war and video games.  And of course it begs the question of what this metaphor implies about our highways and cities.  May I suggest a slogan: “Jeep: Driving the world happily and headlong into the apocalypse.”  I think it would go nicely with the visual backdrop of 9/11-style destruction. What did Walter Benjamin say?  Something about consuming our own destruction as an entertainment of the first order?  Some real copy from the ad below:

You’re a grizzled veteran.  A survivor.  One of the elite – and you’re looking for a full immersive experience.  You know who you are.  Of the millions of Call of Duty fans that (sic) will carry the Call of Duty theme into their epic day-to-day campaigns.  Only one vehicle is tough enough to play in your world.  Built on the mighty Rubicon, this fearless hero stands ready for deployment.  The ultimate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 achievement.

I was reading Johan Huizinga’s America, and I ran across this passage he quotes from de Tocqueville, which of course was circa 1840. The obvious fact suddenly struck me that perhaps the widening income gap has something to do with our increasingly vociferous political divisions.

In America, which sounds like paradise…

The wealthy are few and powerless; they have no privileges that attract public observation. Great wealth tends to disappear; the number of small fortunes to increase; extraordinary prosperity and irremediable penury are alike unknown. There is little energy of character, but customs are mild. The ties of race, of rank, and of country are relaxed. (Democracy in America, vol. II, pp. 349-350.)

Huizinga, to be fair, asks how de Tocqueville got it so wrong (perhaps he was a political idealist). But it’s nice to run into a vision of what America could be. Perhaps this is what Occupy Wall Street is up to.

I’m researching patents held for “bumper sticker holders.”  I’m not going to go into why, but I will share some very interesting language I encountered in one patent application…

It is known that so called “bumper stickers” are widely disseminated with a wide variety of printed legends thereon ranging from sincere advocation of a cause, person, or organization to humorous comments about timely subjects.  Such stickers are normally provided as a printed strip with an adhesive backing covered by a tear strip or removable sheet and they are adapted to adhered to the bumper of the vehicle.

I did a radio interview in Providence, RI with the Action Speaks network in September on the status of the “military-industrial complex.”  It was an interesting panel, recorded live in front of an audience.  You can listen to it here.

Vijay Prashad.  A very nice speech.  I was in NY this past weekend and attended Occupy Wall St.  I have to agree with him that it is refreshing that there is not a single grievance or even list of grievances.  It is inspiring to see people link so many issues together.  It’s going to take this kind of awakening and organization to respond systemically.  Thanks to Vivek Jain for this.

Just watched this 2005 PBS doc last night via Netflix instant view: Declining by Degrees.  Really draws together a number of troubling trends in higher ed.  And this was diagnosed six years ago.   I would highly recommend watching this next to the PBS Frontline documentary, College, Inc., which looks at the explosion of for-profit colleges and the next big debt bubble to pop – college loan debt – which has now surpassed credit cards as the biggest debt sector.  You can watch College, Inc. online for free here.

In a KFC on the highway. Pop art famously appropriated an ad aesthetic. These ads reverse the logic, paint splatters, canvas and all.  Reminds me of a rendition of Christ I saw recently at a wedding in an evangelical church, the kind of church with PowerPoint sing-a-longs.  It was Jesus, crown of thorns, silkscreened in four different offset colors, Warhol-style.  I believe it was the sixth sign of the apocalypse.

A wonderfully evocative sound and video performance by Bob Ostertag just after 9/11.

Finally, someone says something intelligent regarding Bin Laden’s extra-judicial killing.  Noam Chomksy sorts out the legal and political ramifications and contradictions.