Trivia (should have been 18 January)

Hurricane Slams D.C.: 1933
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Washington, D.C., or vicinity
“Flooding”
Aftermath of the “Chesapeake-Potomac” hurricane of August 1933, which led to the train wreck seen here a few days ago.
Who can locate this water-logged crossroads, with “Goode Shoppe” hot dogs going for a nickel?
Harris & Ewing glass negative.
View original post

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Was Shakespeare gay, and does it matter?
via Guardian by John Sutherland

Although not a new question, its re-emergence is germane to the interpretation of his plays, and not just a scholars’ spat.
Continue reading

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
In praise of cowardice
The practice of ridiculing – even killing – cowards has a long history. But sometimes they are not craven but courageous. Cowardice keeps the peace… more

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Building a 21st Century Library
via Scholarly Kitchen by David Crotty
Another look at the fascinating evolution of the library. The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library has gone through enormous renovations in recent years, and the video below explains the changes and the thought process behind them. It’s particularly interesting to see the many levels on which change is occurring, from the role of the library on campus and as part of the community, to the role of the librarian and even the purpose and design of the physical building itself.


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The Most Spectacular Place You'll Never See
via Doc Searls Weblog
Unless you look out the window.
When I did that on 4 November 2007, halfway between London and Denver, I saw this:

Continue reading to find out where this is.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Christianity and liberalism
Did Western liberalism grow out of Christianity? It’s a popular idea on the right and the left. But proving it poses problems… more
I had to stop myself reading this review all the way through -- I would not get anything done if I kept on doing this!

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Does workplace stress play a role in retirement drinking?
via OUP Blog by Kathleen Briggs and Peter A. Bamberger

Alcohol misuse among the retired population is a phenomenon that has been long recognized by scholars and practitioners. The retirement process is complex, and researchers posit that the pre-retirement workplace can either protect against – or contribute to – alcohol misuse among retirees.
Continue reading

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Driving a legobot with a simulated worm nervous-system
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
More news from the Openworm project, whose Kickstarter I posted in April: they’ve sequenced the connectome of all 302 neurons in a C. Elegans worm, simulated them in software, and put them to work driving a Lego robot.
Continue reading

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
On psychiatry
Psychiatry is the black sheep of the medical family, scorned by physicians and patients alike. The reputation is well-deserved… more

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Contaminomics: Why Some Microbiome Studies May Be Wrong
via 3 Quarks Daily by Ed Yong in Not Exactly Rocket Science
You’ve got a group of people with a mysterious disease, and you suspect that some microbe might be responsible. You collect blood and tissue samples, you extract the DNA from them using a commonly used kit of chemicals, and you sequence the lot. Eureka! You find that every patient has the same microbe – let’s say Bradyrhizobium, or Brady for short. Congratulations, you have discovered the cause of Disease X.
Don’t celebrate yet.
You run the exact same procedure on nothing more than a tube of sterile water and… you find Brady. The microbe wasn’t in your patients. It was in the chemical reagents you used in your experiments. It’s not the cause of Disease X; it’s a contaminant.
Continue reading

The Invisible Workforce: Employment Practices in the Cleaning Sector

This report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) examines the employment and working conditions of commercial cleaning workers. Noting that the non-domestic cleaning workforce is largely made up of women, migrants and older workers, the report reveals that some employers in the commercial cleaning industry are failing to meet their responsibilities in relation to such matters as pay, holiday and dignity at work.

via IDS Employment Law Brief HR Number 1004 (September 2014)

The Findings Report can downloaded in PDF or as a Word document

The Summary Report is available in PDF or a Word document and is also available in Welsh (Word only)

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Severe obesity may be a disability

I read the short report of this case (from Billund in Denmark) in IDS Employment Law Brief HR Number 1002 (August 2014) and wondered. Is it or isn’t it?
The answer is that a BMI of over 40 will create such problems with mobility, endurance and mood as to amount to a disability.

Doyle Clayton: The Employment Solicitors reflected, in its blog, the matter-of-fact reporting of IDS as did the other law firms that I found on a simple Google search.

Only the Guardian deviated and headlined “Severe obesity is a disability, European court adviser rules Advocate general issues preliminary ruling on discrimination claim by sacked Danish childminder who weighed 160kg”.
The article does go on to use the word “may”.

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Is teamwork the problem or the solution?: Other forms of co‐operation may be more effective – and save precious management time

an article by Kevan Hall (affiliation(s) unknown) published in Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 21 Issue 6

Abstract

Purpose
This paper aims to advance the view that complex organisations rely too much on teamwork, resulting in lower productivity.

Design/methodology/approach
It observes that many organisations are moving away from the hierarchical, command‐and‐control style of working, in favour of greater collaboration across departments, territories and different organizations. This is known as a matrix organisation. The reasons for developing a matrix structure are commendable. However, if implemented poorly, a matrix structure will slow down decision‐making, increase the number of meetings, increase costs and create mistrust and resentment in the workplace.

Findings
This paper highlights research by training and consultancy firm Global Integration which shows that people in large and complex organisations spend, on average, two days a week on meetings, calls and web meetings, and 50 percent of that time is wasted.

Practical implications
It examines what is really meant by “a team”, and identifies which structures are suitable for maximum efficiency.

Originality/value
The paper targets senior leaders and HR directors with a responsibility for organisational structure and team leadership. It provides thought‐leadership and best‐practice for virtual teams.

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Work preferences after 50

a report from Eurofound


People aged 50+ have a wealth of experience and contribute to society in numerous ways, including paid work, informal care and volunteering. However, particularly in the Member States that have joined the EU since 2004, the situation of people aged 50+ can be a vulnerable one – especially in terms of access to healthcare, housing quality and material deprivation.

Part-time work facilitates a better work–life balance – particularly, it seems, for people aged 50+. Among people aged 50+, both in and out of employment, there is a preference for more part-time options.

Unemployed people of all ages want to work. However, unemployed people aged 50+ who can make ends meet would prefer a considerably shorter working week than those who have difficulties making ends meet – this difference is not found in younger age groups. About half of all retirees who are not in employment say they would like to work, often part-time. Proportions are higher for younger, highly educated and healthy retirees with work experience.

The desire to work among people aged 50+, both those in and out of employment, does not seem to be opposed by partners of people aged 50+.

Download PDF (24 pages) here

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Time up for the teenager?

an article by Jon Savage published by The RSA

Our idea of 20th-century youth, battered by social and economic change, needs to be redefined for the next generation.

Continue reading

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Mad and bad media: Populism and pathology in the British tabloids

an article by Simon Cross (Nottingham Trent University) published in European Journal of Communication Volume 29 Number 2 (April 2014)

Abstract

The tabloid press is the section of the British media that has mobilised most vehemently on crime and responsibility. The logic of the tabloids is to sensationalise crime whilst insisting that criminals are morally responsible for their actions.

However, this logic is thwarted when offenders are insane.

The solution for British tabloids has been to invoke the illogical notion that mentally disordered offenders are mad and bad.

The article argues for the need to understand this tabloid heuristic in relation to the politics of mental health care in the community policy in the 1990s, and the politics of tabloid populism.

Tabloid reporting on the ‘mad and bad’ is further illustrated in the case of offenders housed in England’s top-security Broadmoor Hospital. By identifying hypocrisy in tabloid reporting on Broadmoor patients, the article concludes that British tabloid logic should be viewed as pathological.

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Is It Time to Restructure 'Failing' Jobcentres?

A new report [sorry, this was new in July 2014] for the Policy Exchange suggests that Jobcentres should be restructured because they are failing to help people find long term work. The report Joined up Welfare shows that just over a third (36%) of people using jobcentres find sustained work. Many people find themselves in and out of employment largely due to having barriers such as a health condition or a mental health issue.

The current system fails to deal with overlapping problems from outset. Policy Exchange states: “People are sometimes referred to a range of different services that operate independently of each other. For example, someone suffering from a lack of training, mental health issues and who has been out of work for a long period of time might receive support from six different providers. This is confusing and expensive”.

The Joined up Welfare report proposes a radical new structure centred around the specific needs of the individual. The main points of this proposed new approach include:

• Employment services provided by the Jobcentre should become a specialist support service, separate social enterprise which should be allowed to compete with the private and voluntary sectors as well as other public bodies.
• Creation of a Citizen Support service which would effectively act as the primary and central hub for accessing government services, enabling advisors to identify an individual’s specific barriers to work and suggest providers that could help meet that person’s needs.
• Budget allocation direct to the individual claimant, which would then be channelled to the provider of choice who is paid on the outcomes they achieve.
• One specific point of contact to act as an individual’s ‘case holder’. That lead provider will then coordinate specialist support suited to that person’s unique needs.

Full report (PDF 60pp)

Hazel’s comment:
Good employment advisers in the “old days” acted in just the manner being proposed. There was never any point in forcing someone into work if they had a sick wife/child, debts they could not manage, personal health problems or similar.
Short-term work placements look good on the statistical returns but my proudest memory is of being stopped in the Broadmarsh Centre in Nottingham by a man who said, “You won’t remember me but two years ago you found me a job. I need to thank you and tell you I’m still there.”
I did remember then – I’d worked my socks off for an unskilled man who wanted to work now that his caring responsibilities had ended.

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What can the corporate world learn from the cellarer?: Examining the role of a Benedictine abbey’s CFO

an article by Martin R.W. Hiebl and Birgit Feldbauer-Durstmüller (Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)published in Society and Business Review Volume 9 Issue 1 (2014)

Abstract

Purpose
Benedictine abbeys are highly stable organisations that have existed for almost 1,500 years. The extant literature ascribes this stability in part to the notion of Benedictine governance, which centres on the Rule of St Benedict (RB). An integral part of Benedictine governance is the cellarer, who plays a role comparable to that of a chief financial officer (CFO) in a traditional corporation. Unlike corporations, however, in which the CFO has emerged into a more important role over the past few decades, the cellarer has been an official position in Benedictine abbeys since the introduction of the RB in the sixth century. The present paper aims to explore the cellarer’s role and assesses which parts of it could be reasonably transferred to the corporate world.

Design/methodology/approach
Informed by organisational role theory, the authors conducted a single case study in an Austrian Benedictine abbey. The authors used group discussions and semi-structured interviews as the main research instruments.

Findings
The authors find that the cellarer’s behaviour shows strong signs of stewardship, which could serve as a role model for corporate CFOs. However, because of the studied abbey’s situation of financial distress, the cellarer also experienced severe role conflicts rooted in his obedience to the abbot, the high involvement of the abbey in the local economy, and the cellarer’s conscience as a Christian monk. From these findings, the authors describe those aspects of the cellarer’s role that should thus be avoided for corporate CFOs.

Research limitations/implications
The presented findings are based on a single case study. Therefore, because of the contextual factors idiosyncratic to the abbey under investigation, the results must be interpreted with care. Nevertheless, the findings explain the cellarer’s role and depict its potential benefits for the corporate world, which should induce further research.

Originality/value
This is the first paper to explore in-depth the cellarer’s role as well as one of the first to transfer the potential benefits of single roles rooted in Benedictine governance to the corporate world.

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Trivia (should have been 23rd August)

Second Life: 1943
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

April 1943. Baltimore, Md.
“Trolley of 1917 vintage. Many old cars have been reconditioned because of wartime transportation pressure”
Medium format negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information
View original post

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How Ink is Made: A Beautiful Reflection of the Analog World we still inhabit
via Scholarly Kitchen by Todd A Carpenter
In this age of digital content distribution, most of us probably think about publishing as a clean digital process with sleek computers, mutable fonts and hi-tech reading devices, rather than a messy, dirty manufacturing process. In fact, even most modern manufacturing facilities aren’t messy or dirty, but clean and efficient. The dance of creating things in those environments is so often shielded from our eyes these days that we aren’t often connected to the process that creates the thing you purchase in a store or order from an online shop. In part, there’s a loss to this, since there is a real art in manufacturing, especially in printing.
Continue reading (and watch a fascinating video)

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Silly and sweet, clowns are the epitome of buffoonish humor. And yet something sinister has always lurked beneath the face paint… more

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A New Timeline for Mysterious Permian Extinction
via Big Think by Big Think editors

252 million years ago, a massive amount of carbon was released into the Earth’s atmosphere. Where did it come from? We’re not sure. But we do know that the chemistry of the Earth’s oceans changed drastically, and up to 96 percent of all marine species became extinct.
Continue reading

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What’s climate change ruining now? Baby penguin edition
via BoingBoing by Maggie Koerth-Baker

A 28-year study of Magellanic penguins in Argentina suggests climate change plays a direct role in reducing the number of baby penguins that survive to become adults, slowly leading towards the extinction of the species.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The most interesting silence is that of a mind free of words, of thoughts, of self-regard. But if the monologue ends, where would identity be? Scary thought… more

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Lithograph of the Salem Witch Trials
via BoingBoing by David Pescovitz

Joseph E Baker’s Witch No. 1 (1892) is a stunning lithograph illustrating the imagined events that are part of the mythology of the horrific Salem Witch Trials of the late 17th century. To learn more, check out Smithsonian’s Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials

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Lawrence in Arabia
via 3QuarksDaily by Azra Raza
Jan Morris in The Telegraph

Force of personality: TE Lawrence by James McBey, 1918  Photo: Getty images
This tremendous book puts me in mind of a huge murky kaleidoscope, an ever-shifting display through which one image remains ambiguously constant. The scene is the tumultuous world of the Arabs during the last stages of the First World War; the enigmatic central figure is that of Thomas Edward Lawrence, a small Anglo-Irish archaeologist in his late twenties, later to be known as Lawrence of Arabia.
It was a populist, even patronising epithet, because there was nothing Arabian about him. This hefty volume, though, by a scholarly American journalist, demonstrates how central he was to the infinitely convoluted, deceptive and contradictory goings-on that were eventually to bring into being the Middle East as we know it now.
Continue reading

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
In the oozy stretches of eastern England, man and oyster have been on intimate terms for millennia… more

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20 Classic YA Literature Heroines, Ranked
via Flavorwire by Michelle Dean
This week, [nearly a year ago] The Book of Jezebel comes came out, and you should order it immediately – which I say because I was one of its contributors but also because it’s great – a desk reference of every bit of feminist trivia you could want. In particular, I think it’d make a great gift for young teenagers who are still coming up and learning about feminist reads on popular culture.
But let’s face it: no one starts with an encyclopedia, in evaluating these things; you start with the books girls are given as young’uns, and, troublesome lot that they are, those titles give you models of feminine behaviour and independence to measure yourself against. It’s a testament to their formative importance that women, well into their adult lives, insist that these characters shaped the way they saw themselves and the world.
Continue reading
Hazel’s comment:
As always with lists of this kind one can take issue with the inclusion/exclusion of your favourites and with the ranking that Michelle allots to them.
My main issue though is the title of the piece: “YA” literature indeed. I’d read many of these (those that were published) before I was even a teenager.

Employers’ views of learning and training for an ageing workforce

an article by Vanessa Beck (University of Leicester, UK) published in Management Learning Volume 45 Number 2 (April 2014)

Abstract

This article questions how employers view and evaluate the role of learning and training for older workers in light of the increasing number of older workers in the labour market. Learning and training opportunities could be utilised to respond to the ‘extending working lives’ agenda, but interviews with employers suggest that this is not being done.

A small number of human resource professionals, managing directors and owners were interviewed to determine what learning opportunities were offered to their older workers and how these workers’ experience could be utilised better. Respondents implicitly accepted that there were few learning opportunities for older workers and suggested that they expected this group of workers to take on additional roles in making learning and experience available to younger colleagues.

Dichotomies in employers’ views emerged in that they differentiated between groups of workers and their need for skills, experience and the ‘right’ attitudes.

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‘It’s all hands-on, even for management’: Managerial work in the UK cafe sector

an article by Caroline Lloyd (Cardiff University, UK) and Jonathan Payne (De Montfort University, UK) published in Human Relations Volume 67 Number 4 (April 2014)

Abstract

The growth in managerial jobs is often presented by policy makers as evidence of the UK’s success in developing high-skilled, well-paid employment. At the same time, concerns have been raised that the lack of higher level qualifications in the managerial workforce has a detrimental impact on productivity and performance.

This article focuses on the relatively neglected figure of the first line manager in private services through a study of the UK cafe sector. It explores the content and quality of the cafe manager’s job, and interrogates the purported benefits of upskilling through graduate level qualifications. The findings indicate that these jobs leave much to be desired in terms of pay and work content, and that managers are highly constrained by the degree of centralised control wielded by head office.

Limited autonomy and, in many cases, poor job quality raise crucial questions about the ability of lower level managers to influence performance, even allowing for higher level qualifications.

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‘Managing’ the rights of gays and lesbians: Reflections from some South African secondary schools

an article by Deevia Bhana (School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) published in Education, Citizenship and Social Justice Volume 9 Number 1 (March 2014)

Abstract

Against the backdrop of South Africa’s policies that guarantee equality on the basis of sexual orientation, this article documents the ways in which school managers negotiate and contest the rights of gays and lesbians at school, analysing the implications. It draws on a queer approach which recognises relations of heterosexual domination and subordination as well as the material and social realities through which such relations are produced.

Of importance, the study finds that the political emphasis on rights has positive effects for raising the homosexual agenda at schools. Yet, this is not the only means through which rights are managed. Discrimination, sexual denial and religious intolerance combined with racialised and cultural practices point to severe restrictions.

Nonetheless, the article provides important insights for educational management noting the broadening options amid political and policy emphasis on schools’ responsibilities for sexual rights.

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Libraries, donations and freedom of expression: The case of Scientology

an article by Paul Sturges (Loughborough University, UK) and Almuth Gastinger (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway) published in Journal of Librarianship and Information Science Volume 46 Number 1 (March 2014)

Abstract

Whilst until the late 19th century most libraries were dependent on donations for their stock, since then donations have been insignificant for the majority of libraries in comparison with purchased acquisitions. There are organisations, however, which have considerable donations programmes and the Church of Scientology is a prominent example.

Scientologists suggest that their donations of sets of the works of L Ron Hubbard are frequently ignored and discarded without due consideration. They adduce information regarding the response to donations made to libraries in Germany and France to support this suggestion. Furthermore, they cite the principle of freedom of expression as a rationale for the inclusion of Scientology material in library stock.

The relevance of freedom of expression in the matter of donations is assessed in relation to established library principles relating to balanced and representative collections. The importance of clear policies on collection development, derived from a respect for freedom of expression, is stressed as a basis for reasoned explanations to donors of why their donations might be accepted or rejected.

Hazel’s comment:
Relevant to careers information?
I believe that the answer is “yes”.
Careers libraries still rely to a large extent on free information, from training organisations, colleges, industry representative bodies, trades unions and major companies.
Making that conglomeration comprehensive whilst at the same time covering all the angles and removing any actual or potential bias is a difficult task.

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Career Decision-Making Intervention With Unemployed Adults: When Good Intentions Are Not Effective

an article by Emily Bullock-Yowell, Kari A. Leavell, Amy E. McConnell, Amanda D. Rushing, Lindsay M. Andrews, Michael Campbell and Lauren K. Osborne (Department of Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi) published in Journal of Employment Counseling Volume 51 Issue 1 (March 2014)

Abstract

This study adapted existing empirically supported interventions to explore options for serving large numbers of unemployed adults.

Participants included 150 unemployed adults (72 experimental group, 78 control group) seeking employment office services to maintain U.S. federal unemployment compensation. A 1-hour workshop was offered to the 72 experimental group participants. The same career development variables were assessed during data collection for both groups.

Results revealed the workshop had no impact on negative career thinking and potentially increased career decision-making difficulties in the experimental group. Intervention effectiveness issues, implications for future research, and intervention options with unemployed adults are discussed.

Full text available

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Gender, space and identity: Male cabin crew and service work

an article by Ruth Simpson (Brunel University, UK) published in Gender in Management: An International Journal Volume 29 Issue 5 (2014)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection of gender, sexuality and occupation and to analyse how male cabin crew utilise space in managing gender identity.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on a project where interviews were conducted with 17 male cabin crew, all aged < 35 years, from 5 different airlines in airports in the South East of England. The crew worked in a mixture of short-haul, low-cost and long-haul global carriers.

Findings
The paper shows how men in a feminised service role negotiate masculine subjectivities within and through space and how gendered meanings attached to space can impress on and both challenge and be challenged by the performances and subjectivities of individuals within them.

Research limitations/implications
The findings on which the paper is based surface the diverse challenges facing men in non-traditional roles – an area that would profit from further research in different contexts. Further, the findings have implications for work-based practices and employee relations within a paraprofessional service role.

Originality/value
The paper adds to the understanding of how gender and identity intersect as well as to how space, seen as both gendered and gendering, is implicated in the processes involved.

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The Closeness of Fit: Towards an ecomap for the inclusion of pupils with ASD in mainstream schools

an article by Mahmoud Mohamed Emam (College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman) published in International Education Studies Volume 7 Number 3 (2014)

Abstract

The number of pupils with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who join mainstream schools in the UK has been increasing over the last decade. Given the difficulties in social and emotional understanding which these children have, their inclusion in schools is likely to be challenging. Their ASD-related manifestations, moreover, tend to allow for tensions to arise between them and the different systems of the school ecology.

We examine the inclusion of these pupils from a developmental-systems perspective as articulated by the bio-ecological and the transactional models. Using data from a qualitative research project which explored the effect of autism-related difficulties in social and emotional understanding on the inclusion of 17 pupils with ASD the study describes the working dynamic of the arising tensions at the micro-system level.

The study outlines an ecopmap of the nested structures at the micro-, meso-, exo-, macro- and chrono-systems which may facilitate or impede the children’s inclusion.

Full text (PDF)

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Being occupied: An embodied re-reading of organizational ‘wellness’

an article by Karen Dale (Lancaster University, UK) and Gibson Burrell (University of Leicester, UK) published in Organization Volume 21 Number 2 (March 2014)

Abstract

‘Organisational wellness’ has become a high profile issue for businesses. We argue that a ‘wellness movement’ has sprung up around a particular coalescence of economic, ideological and organisational interests.

In this article we re-read the discourse of this ‘movement’ through the lens of ‘organised embodiment’. We argue that organisational wellness operates as a rhetorical device which masks contradictory power relations. It serves to hide differential occupational effects and opportunities for workers, and obscures the relationship between wellness and its necessary Other, unwellness.

The article suggests that employee unwellness is often produced — and required — by the different forms of organised embodiment that arise directly from occupations and employment. It analyses this corporeal ‘occupation’ in terms of the extortion, exchange and embrace of our bodies to the coercive, calculative and normative power of the organisation. Thus, our organisational experiences produce an embodied individual who is ‘fit’ for purpose in a rather more circumscribed fashion than prevailing discourses of wellness might suggest.

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The Role of Search Result Position and Source Trustworthiness in the Selection of Web Search Results When Using a List or a Grid Interface

an article by Yvonne Kammerer and Peter Gerjets (Knowledge Media Research Center, Tuebingen, Germany) published in International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction Volume 30 Issue 3 (March 2014)

Abstract

Previous research indicates that web users rely to a great extent on the ranking provided by the search engine and predominantly access the first few web pages presented. In case that the information sources presented in the top of the search engine results page (SERP) are of rather low trustworthiness, this might lead to a biased or incomplete view of the topic – especially when dealing with controversial issues.

Study 1, thus, systematically investigated whether participants who were asked to search for an unfamiliar and controversial medical issue accessed fewer trustworthy information sources and consequently included less information from trustworthy pages in their argumentation when the search results were ranked from least to most trustworthy on a Google-like SERP than when they were ranked from most to least trustworthy. Results from Study 1 confirmed these assumptions.

Furthermore, Study 2 showed that when the same materials were presented in a grid interface, the impact of the position of the search results on their selection was substantially reduced. Irrespective of whether the most trustworthy search results were presented in the top or the bottom row of the grid interface, users predominantly selected the most trustworthy search results from the SERP and included the same amount of information from trustworthy pages in their argumentation.

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Trivia (should have been 20 December)

The Paddy Wagon: 1919
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Washington, D.C., 1919
“Franklin Motor Car Co. police van”
The latest in law enforcement
Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative
View original post

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Gin Lane vs Beer Street
via Prospero by O.W.

On this day [26 October 2014] 250 years ago William Hogarth, the English painter and printmaker, died suddenly from an aneurysm at his studio in Leicester Square, London. As an artist who portrayed both the tragic and the ridiculous with aplomb, Hogarth was one of the 18th century’s most sparkling talents.
Continue reading

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Reign of the robots
Human cognition in the age of digital automation: “What if the cost of machines that think is people who don’t?”… more

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45 Transgressive Spins on Shakespeare, Past and Present
via Flavorwire by Moze Halperin and Shane Barnes
After seeing The Public’s most recent production of King Lear this summer, Ira Glass came to the incendiary conclusion that “Shakespeare sucks.” The comment riled many, for reasons that are largely obvious to anyone who understands the Bard’s place in the literary canon, but also because of the threat that such an influential public figure’s disapproval poses to an art form that’s already been noted to be “dying” at the slow pace of a stabbed Shakespearean character.
Now, some would counter that theater’s adherence to the past is what’s dooming it in the first place, and that our reverence toward Shakespeare in particular is the core of the problem. But Shakespeare has actually proven to be one of the most vital vessels for change in theater: among directors who aren’t too reverent, who see it as a basis rather than a bible, his old texts have contributed to a great deal of innovation and theatrical radicalism.
Here are 45 productions that – through radical politics, outlandish visuals, and enormous Kevin Spacey heads, might change the way you (and Ira Glass) – view Shakespeare.
Check these out for yourself

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Can You Find All The Hidden Messages In These Brand Logos?
via makeuseof by Dave LeClair
Chances are great that you’re probably heard of most of the brands featured on this infographic. You’ve probably seen each of these logos. But have you really examined them? Turns out there’s more to each of them than meets the eye. Take a look, and see if you can find all of the hidden messages. Don’t worry if you can’t figure it out, because it’s all explained on the image.
Via Made By Oomph
Continue
Even with the explanation there were a couple I simply didn't get at first.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Virtue of scientific thinking
Science once had moral authority. But today, with scientism resurgent, skepticism reigns. The cost is paid by all of us… more

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How Lincoln Played the Press
via 3 Quarks Daily by Gary Wills in the New York Review of Books

People are amazed or disgusted, or both, at today’s “power of the media.” The punch is in that plural, “media” – the twenty-four-hour flow of intermingled news and opinion not only from print but also from TV channels, radio stations, Twitter, emails, and other electronic “feeds”. This storm of information from many sources may make us underestimate the power of the press in the nineteenth century when it had just one medium – the newspaper. That also came at people from many directions – in multiple editions from multiple papers in every big city, from “extras” hawked constantly in the streets, from telegraphed reprints in other papers, from articles put out as pamphlets.
Continue reading

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25 of Music’s Most Obnoxiously Misogynist Songs
via Flavorwire by Tom Hawking
As long as there’s been music, there have been unpleasant lyrical descriptions based on the subject’s gender – songwriters have long been relying on stereotypes and/or on demonizing the opposite sex as a way of expressing their pain and heartbreak and resentment and whatever else is troubling them. None of this, of course, means that doing so is anything less than obnoxious, so as an exercise in symmetry, over the next couple of days, we’re looking at both misogyny and misandry (because, you know, that’s a real thing!) in music. First, then, the misogynist side of the equation.
Continue reading
All the songs have YouTube links.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Who was the Marquis de Sade?
120 Days, once hidden in a wall of the Bastille, is one of the most valuable manuscripts on earth. And its author, the Marquis de Sade, has become a hero in the country that once scorned him… more

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Recreations of pornographic Middle Ages badges [NSFTT]
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
“Whether these badges were worn to celebrate the misrule of carnival days, attract good sexual luck, or merely amuse and titillate their owners, they show us a whole new side of medieval culture.”
See for yourself

Trivia (should have been 14 December)

The Nursery: 1915
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

“Nursery” is all it says on this 4x5 inch glass negative, which comes to us from a seller in Minnesota. Maybe someone with the right connections could run a check on these fingerprints. Probably from around 1910-1920.
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Psychedelic Architecture for Radical Residents
via Flavorwire by Alison Nastasi
The resurgence of psychedelia comes and goes. If we can have it in our movies (see: Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England, for starters), then why can’t we have it in our architecture? After spotting a cozy home in upstate New York that one artist gave the royal psychedelic treatment, featured below, we went searching for other bold architectural statements &nadsh; structures transformed into trippy environs through paint, light, and several from the ground up. Referencing the colorful hippie communes and crash pads of the 1960s, these radical structures are sure to light your eyes on fire without all those pesky side effects.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Mystery of consciousness
We know a lot about the brain, but the mystery of consciousness remains elusive. Is this the boundary of what science can explain?… more

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Ask HTG: How Can Studios Release High-Definition Versions of Decades Old Movies and TV Shows?
via HowToGeek

One of the benefits of the widespread adoption of high-definition television sets and HD capable media players like Blu Ray players and HD-capable streaming boxes has been a push for film and television studios to re-release old content in beautiful HD. But how exactly are they producing HD content 20+ years after the fact?
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Coriander
via 3 Quarks Daily by Rishidev Chaudhuri

At first (and at second, and third) glance, the use of spices in the cuisines of the subcontinent is a subtle and mysterious art, full of musty cupboards staffed by aging apothecaries (and grandmothers) and intertwined with theories of humor-balancing and our particular relationship to the gods. Recipes and spice blends are passed on in scribbled old notebooks and on furtive scraps of paper, copied and recopied like the epics, with long lists of spices and proportions, some crossed out and replaced with others for inexplicable reasons. The spices are essential, we are told, the order in which they are added is crucial, the mind of the cook must be perfectly clear, and the incantations must be uttered perfectly resonantly.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Bonfire of the humanities
Facts are standard fare for historians, but intellectual fashions are what entices them: nationalism, Marxism, postmodernism, globalization… more

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Video: trick for drawing a perfect circle
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz



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In defence of horror
via OUP Blog by Darryl Jones
A human eyeball shoots out of its socket, and rolls into a gutter. A child returns from the dead and tears the beating heart from his tormentor’s chest. A young man has horrifying visions of his mother’s decomposing corpse. A baby is ripped from its living mother’s womb. A mother tears her son to pieces, and parades around with his head on a stick… These are scenes from the notorious, banned ‘video nasty’ films Eaten Alive, Zombie Flesh Eaters, I Spit on Your Grave, Anthropophagous: The Beast, and Cannibal Holocaust.
Well, no. They could be – but they’re not. All these scenes and images can be found safely inside the respectable covers of Oxford World’s Classics, in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, M.R. James, James Joyce, William Shakespeare, and Euripides. Only the first two of these are avowedly writers of horror, and none of these books comes with any kind of public health warning or age-suitability guideline. What does this mean?
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
On Chaucer
What was Chaucer like? Hapless, by all accounts. For more than a decade, he scraped by in the stench of a dingy London bachelor pad… more

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On This Day [18 October] in 1356, a Major Earthquake Destroyed the Town of Basel, Switzerland
via Big Think by Robert Montenegro

Major seismic activity is rare in the areas of Europe north of the Alps, yet on 18th October in 1356, a huge earthquake decimated the region and left the Swiss town of Basel in ruins. Over a thousand people perished in the destruction. Every church within 30 km of Basel was reduced to rubble. It’s said the quake could be felt as far as Paris.
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Trivia (should have been 30 November)

Two Saints: 1910
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Florida circa 1910
“St. George Street, St. Augustine”
8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
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The textile art of Michelle Kingdom
via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

“I create tiny worlds in thread to capture elusive yet persistent inner voices,” explains textile artist Michelle Kingdom.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Virtues of know-nothing criticism
Does great expertise make for great criticism? Not always. Knowing everything about a topic forecloses on original and unexpected takes… more

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50 Novels Featuring Famous Authors as Characters
via Flavorwire by Sarah Seltzer
With not one, but two novels featuring Jane Austen, one featuring the ghost of Dorothy Parker, and a third about Virginia Woolf and her sister hitting shelves soon, it seemed like a good time to survey the entire “writer-as-character” subset of novels.
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40,000 year-old Indonesian cave paintings
via 3 Quarks Daily by Helen Thompson at Smithsonian Magazine

Modern critics would probably hail the up and coming rock artists that once inhabited Indonesia. About a hundred caves outside Moras, a town in the tropical forests of Sulawesi, were once lined with hand stencils and vibrant murals of abstract pigs and dwarf buffalo. Today only fragments of the artwork remain, and the mysterious artists are long gone.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Beethoven’s personal life
Lionized in his own time, Beethoven was nonetheless in a perpetual rage. Thus his fondness for exclamation points… more

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The life of a bubble
via OUP Blog by James Bird and Lydia Bourouiba
No précis can do justice to this fascinating blog post.
From fermentation to Legionnaire’s Disease and many stops in between!

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The absurd history of English slang
via 3 Quarks Daily by Jonathon Green in Salon

Slang’s literary origins are widespread and ever-expanding. Its social roots, however, are narrow and focused: the city. If, as has been suggested, the story of standard English is that of a London language, so too is that of English slang. And the pattern would be repeated elsewhere as colonies became independent and rural settlements became major conurbations.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Physics: superstitions and allegories
Physics hinges on the idea that the human mind can encompass the universe. What if that’s wishful thinking?… more

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Rubens in Brussels
via Prospero by G.G.D.

If, like this reviewer, you generally think of Peter Paul Rubens as a painter only of voluptuous naked goddesses and monumental religious triptychs, then a new exhibition at the Bozar museum in Brussels (which arrives at the National Gallery in London in January) will come as a welcome reminder of his versatility.
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Hazel’s comment:
I thought: this is old information so I had better check for how long the exhibition is at the National and it is not. It is at the Royal Academy until 10th April.

‘Them that runs the country don't know what they're doing’: political dissatisfaction amongst members of the white working class

an article by Mary Holmes (Flinders University) and Nathan Manning (University of Bradford) published in The Sociological Review Volume 61 Issue 3 (August 2013)

Abstract

There are signs that a significant number of British people do not feel that their concerns are being addressed by the mainstream parties or the political system. This paper attends to the quality of that political dissatisfaction amongst members of ‘the white working classes’.

There is a need to extend typical concerns about youth disengagement to adults and to consider the role that class plays. Lower participation in formal democratic processes may not mean disengagement from all forms of politics, but could have considerable consequences for who gains power and for the tone and focus of political debates and policies.

Our project contributes to exploring political dissatisfaction by engaging with low wage workers in Yorkshire and the North West, where high support for the far-right BNP and low voter turnout are signs that mainstream politics and politicians are failing to impress.

We asked people about their feelings in relation to mainstream politics and their concerns. These participants feel distanced from governing elites, formal political processes and old ideologies. They are searching for ways to make sense of their struggles to live a decent life, and in doing so must contend with the dominance of racist discourses.

Hazel’s comment:
Yes, it’s really old and yes, the BNP is no longer the force it was because of UKIP but the message of this article is still, I believe, valid.

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Child sexual abuse prevention education: A review of school policy and curriculum provision in Australia

an article by Kerryann Walsh, Donna Berthelsen, Leisa Brandon, Judyann Stevens and Jerome N. Rachele (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) and Jan M. Nicholson (Parenting Research Centre, East Melbourne, Australia) published in Oxford Review of Education Volume 39 Number 5 (October 2013)

Abstract

The past four decades have seen increasing public and professional awareness of child sexual abuse.

Congruent with public health approaches to prevention, efforts to eliminate child sexual abuse have inspired the emergence of prevention initiatives which can be provided to all children as part of their standard school curriculum. However, relatively little is known about the scope and nature of child sexual abuse prevention efforts in government school systems internationally.

This paper assesses and compares the policies and curriculum initiatives in primary (elementary) schools across state and territory Departments of Education in Australia. Using publicly available electronic data, a deductive qualitative content analysis of policy and curriculum documents was undertaken to examine the characteristics of child sexual abuse prevention education in these school systems.

It was found that the system-level provision occurs unevenly across state and territory jurisdictions. This results in the potential for substantial inequity in Australian children’s access to learning opportunities in child abuse prevention education as a part of their standard school curriculum.

In this research, we have developed a strategy for generating a set of theoretically-sound empirical criteria that may be more extensively applied in comparative research about prevention initiatives internationally.

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The grip of personalization in adult social care: Between managerial domination and fantasy

an article by Karen West (Aston University, UK) published in Critical Social Policy Volume 33 Number 4 (November 2013)

Abstract

This paper examines the ‘ideological grip’ of personalization. It does so empirically, tracking the trajectory of personalization through austerity budgeting in one English local authority.

In this case, personalization continued to signify hope and liberation even though the most draconian cuts in the Council’s history effectively rendered personalization a practical impossibility. This requires critical theorization. Two bodies of theory are interrogated.

First Boltanski’s sociology of critique, and, in particular, his notion of managerial domination illuminate the way in which change imperatives and crises come to cement ideological formations. Here it is argued that the articulation of personalization with transformation lends itself to managerial domination. It is further argued, though, that while institutional actors may be able to manipulate the symbolic to evade, what Boltanski terms, deconstructionist critique, this cannot entirely explain the hold of this particular discourse.

Here, the Lacanian concept of enjoyment is deployed to interrogate its extra-symbolic function and fantasmatic form.

Finally, the paper explores the political implications of such affective attachment and, in particular, the guarantee that personalization offers in a period of welfare state decline.

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Framing fraud: Discourse on benefit cheating in Sweden and the UK

an article by Ragnar Lundström (Umeå University, Sweden) published in European Journal of Communication Volume 28 Number 6 (December 2013)

Abstract

This article analyses discourse on benefit fraud in Swedish and British newspapers. It furthermore compares discourse on fraud in newspapers and political blogs in the two countries. In Sweden, fraud is primarily articulated as a collective social problem in policy discussions related to the health insurance programme. In the UK, it is often articulated employing strategies commonly associated with crime news narratives, and centred on images of individual cheaters.

The main result of the analysis presented here is that these observed differences between British and Swedish media representations are related to the ways in which the relationship between the welfare state and the citizens traditionally have been constructed in liberal and social democratic contexts respectively. Political attempts to highlight the issue of benefit fraud, and dominant media representations of such attempts, must therefore be understood not as attempts to combat fraud, but rather as attempts to delegitimise the more general aim and purpose of the welfare state.

They challenge the deservingness of welfare recipients in general, not just the ones that cheat, and they thereby transform the conditions for public trust in the welfare state. News discourse on fraud in both countries establishes a neoliberal, financialised and individualised notion of welfare dependency, through which the relationship between social and structural circumstances on the one hand, and poverty, exclusion and inequality on the other, become blurred.

The comparison of newspapers and blogs suggests that although dominant media representations are contested through citizen-created journalism in both contexts, they also limit the conditions for discursive struggles over the issue of benefit fraud significantly.

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An intelligent integrative assistive system for dyslexic learners

an article by Daniel Mpia Ndombo and Sunday Ojo (Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa) and Isaac O. Osunmakinde (University of South Africa, Pretoria) published in Journal of Assistive Technologies Volume 7 Issue 3 (2103)

Abstract

Purpose
The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive literature survey on dyslexic learners and to propose a model for integrated assistive technology of dyslexic learners.

Design/methodology/approach
The use of the proposed model through real-life scenarios categorised as “phonological, reading and writing scenarios”. We have also surveyed some systems for use with dyslexic learners currently in use and have compared them on the basis of number of barriers, technological innovation, age group and fostering.

Findings
Dyslexic learners are characterised by slow learning, poor handwriting, poor spelling skills and difficulties in planning, organising, revising and editing texts; technology plays a major role in the educational environment; it has become crucial in impacting knowledge across the globe; and open research issues and challenges that have to be addressed in the design of the current dyslexic system have been presented in detail.

Research limitations/implications
Full implementation of the proposed model and its application in developing countries.

Practical implications
The system improves the phonological awareness, reading and writing skills of dyslexic learners and it provides a solution for children as well as adults with dyslexia.

Social implications
This survey can be used as a reference guide to understand learning barriers and intelligent systems for dyslexic learners and to promote the use of these in schools for those with learning disabilities who need assistive technologies.

Originality/value
Development of a newly proposed integrated intelligent assistive system for dyslexic learners; knowledge generation as a reference guide to understand dyslexic learning ability in general and an intelligent assistive dyslexic system in particular; and survey of open research issues and challenges to further research in intelligent dyslexic systems.

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Trivia (should have been published on 17 August)

Inner Sanctum: 1937
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

New Orleans, 1937
“Courtyard entrance, 1133-1135 Chartres St”
Seen here from another courtyard
Photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston
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Extinction is Not in Our Genes, But Misery Might Be
via Big Think by Peter Ward

I think we’re going to survive. I don’t think climate change can make us go extinct, unless we produce so much CO₂ in the atmosphere that we shut down the conveyor belt currents. These are the largest scale currents in the ocean. They are from the surface to the bottom currents, not just sideways currents. The current conveyor that takes oxygen from the top and takes it to the bottom - if we lose that, then the bottoms of the ocean go anoxic and you start down this road toward what we call a greenhouse extinction, which is the hydrogen sulfide events. It would take tens of thousands of years to get to that.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The AK-47 was the dream of every Kashmiri boy – living a life under occupation – and the nightmare of every Indian soldier… more

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50 Books Every Parent Should Read to Their Child
via Flovorwire by Emily Temple
According to a new study, the hallowed practice of bedtime reading is falling by the wayside — and that some quarter of a million children in the UK do not own a single book. This is a terrible shame, as regular bedtime stories have been shown to increase children’s performance in school, and are also awesome and can help create strong lifetime bonds, both with literature and with parents.
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50 Science Fiction/Fantasy Films That Everyone Should See
via Flavorwire by Emily Temple
Last week, Flavorwire published a list of 50 science-fiction and fantasy novels that everyone should read – an article that prompted some great discussions in the comments. Since you’re all so wonderfully geeky, we’ve decided to follow up with a list of 50 essential sci-fi/fantasy films, for those who prefer the celluloid to the cellulose. A few notes/caveats: First, this is only a list of 50, spanning two genres, so tons of great and worthy films have been necessarily left off. No disrespect meant, and classics have been given extra weight, due to the whole “everyone should see these” idea.
Next, for the purposes of this list, superhero movies, horror films (Nosferatu, Let the Right One In), monster movies (Godzilla, The Host), and movies made primarily for children (Bambi, Toy Story, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) are considered to be part of their own distinct genres and therefore ineligible. It hurts, but you’ve got to draw the line somewhere.
I could quite happily publish these at one a day for the next 50 days although my own choices would be away from the bizarre and tending to the whimsical / fantasy.
Check out for yourself.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Brain scans? What were we thinking? The era of “mindless neuroscience” is over, says Daniel Engber… more

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Why do We get Bored?

via How-To Geek
We all suffer from boredom at some point, but there is not that much to it, right? When you are bored, you are bored! But there may be more going on ‘behind the scenes’ than you know, or where it could lead when you feel bored. Michael from Vsauce discusses interesting facts about boredom in his latest video.



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Customer buys a used song book online & discovers grandfather’s signature inside

Every now and again, something remarkable happens in the used book business. Georgie Boddington from Western Australia made an online purchase of a book (pictured above) through AbeBooks called the Songs of Two Savoyards, a collection of Gilbert and Sullivan songs, and had a remarkable surprise when closely inspecting the book.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The formative figures in 17th-century science – Descartes, Newton, Bacon – were enchanted by the inexplicable: There be monsters… more

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10 Videos Exploring The Internet As It Was In The 1990s
via MakeUseOf by Dave Parrack
The history of the Internet stretches back as far as 1969, but it didn’t become popular until the 1990s when the whole thing became commercialised, ISPs started offering access, and the World Wide Web emerged to give normal people something to actually do online.
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Trivia (should have been 8 November)

Home Entertainment: 1925
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Washington, D.C., circa 1925
“Family group listening to radio”
A baseball game, maybe. The original caption label for this one has been lost.
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The secret life of Velella jellyfish
via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder

Steve Haddock of the the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (and author of the fantastic book, Practical Computing for Biologists) sent me a link to MBARI's latest video, about the wonderfully weird Velella jellyfish, aka the by-the-wind sailor.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate

The world is not falling apart
The world is always “more dangerous than it has ever been” – except it isn’t. By most measures – war, homicide, genocide – it’s more peaceful than ever… more

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The 50 Best Documentaries of All Time
via Flavorwire by Jason Bailey

This week, The Criterion Collection is giving a welcome Blu-ray upgrade to F for Fake, Orson Welles’ 1973 documentary exploration of hoaxes, fakery, and magic. It was one of his last completed films, and one of his few documentaries — and, in true Welles form, he went and made one of the greatest nonfiction films of all time. How great? Well, its re-release is as good a time as any to spotlight the finest documentaries ever made. (And just to avoid repetition, we’ll skip the music docs and concert films.)
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Could a Newly Launched Metaphorical Search Engine Really Work?
via Big Think by Neurobonkers

When I first heard of Yossarian Lives, a website that bills itself as the metaphorical search engine, I thought “no way!” Good metaphors are inherently artistic and depend on a nuanced understanding of related topics, both very human qualities. Indeed, when I had a chance to fool around with the alpha version of Yossarian Lives it seemed to function as a glorified “random” button on your average stock photo library.
Some bonkers ideas work out and some don’t, This appears to be one of the latter.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate

How I read
To read with sensitivity for nuance, meaning, and atmosphere is a tricky business. Tim Parks has a few thoughts on how to do it better… more

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The Hollywood battalion
via The National Archives by James Cronan

It’s a line up that would make any film an instant Hollywood blockbuster. In the First World War four home-grown British actors, who would go on to grace stage and screen both in the UK and in America, enlisted in the 14th Battalion, London Regiment (also known as the 14th County of London Battalion and the London Scottish). Ronald Colman was the first to enlist, followed by Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains and Herbert Marshall. The simplest explanation for this is that the London Scottish had their regimental headquarters in the Horseferry Road in Westminster, central London. Their drill hall was at 56 Buckingham Gate, around the corner from Buckingham Palace, both within close proximity to London’s West End theatres.
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Among the Kurds in southeastern Turkey
via 3 Quarks Daily by John Palattella in The Nation

The highway leading from the airport to town is new, or at least has been recently upgraded: four lanes of smooth blacktop running north-south and bordered by broad sidewalks empty under the blistering summer sun. The surrounding area is sparsely populated scrubland, but new businesses hug the edge of the road. There are car dealerships for Citroën, Fiat and Renault, and their big-box showrooms are adorned with logos that gleam as brightly as the latest models in their oversize lots. Gas stations outfitted with enough pumps to fuel a fleet of taxis are scattered along the route; several double as parking lots for idle backhoes and bulldozers. Like the airport, an elegant and airy structure where just two of the eighteen check-in windows are in use, the road is a sign of growth and a promise of more.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate

Role of cliché
“Sea change,” “drop in the bucket,” “give a wide berth” weren’t always clichés. They entered the vocabulary as clever novelties… more

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John Oliver and Cookie Monster, reporting for W-ORD
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Not the best of the Cookie Monster but comes close!