Archive

Architectures of Quarantine & Containment

One very inter­est­ing addi­tion to the pub­lic space is how we are con­di­tion­ing and defin­ing the pub­lic space with regards to even­tu­al attacks. And it’s chang­ing the land­scape rad­i­cal­ly. And the very first knee-jerk reac­tion was con­crete blocks in front of many insti­tu­tions. Now they’re try­ing to design these con­crete blocks so they seem some­thing which is part of the land­scape but the pres­ence and the robust­ness is still so vio­lent that it’s hard to hide the intention.

ASU KEDtalks: Plagued with Questions

All locusts are grasshop­pers, but not all grasshop­pers are locusts. Locusts are grasshop­pers that when exposed to spe­cif­ic envi­ron­men­tal cues will form mass migra­tions and become a continental-level chal­lenge. The imme­di­ate impacts of locusts on agri­cul­ture are obvi­ous. For exam­ple, the desert locust plague in Western and Northern Africa that occurred between 2003 to 2005 cost an esti­mat­ed 2.5 bil­lion US dol­lars in crop losses. 

Reclaiming Humanity: The Utopias of World Citizenship

When we think of cit­i­zen­ship nowa­days, we most­ly see it as a con­test­ed notion for it being reduced to an admin­is­tra­tive cri­te­ri­on that is actu­al­ly selec­tive­ly dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed: inclu­sion in, or exclu­sion from the nation-state mem­ber­ship, from priv­i­leged mem­ber­ship of Western nation-states.

Disposable Life: Zygmunt Bauman

In pre-modern soci­eties there was no idea of waste; every­thing was going back into life—recycled, as we would say today. If there were more chil­dren com­ing into the world in a fam­i­ly, then obvi­ous­ly there was room for them, and extra work some­where in the farm­yard, in the field, in the sta­ble. And of course a place around the table. So the idea of being redun­dant, hav­ing no place in soci­ety, sim­ply did­n’t occur. 

Define American

The real­i­ty is we have been so busy call­ing peo­ple names, obsess­ing over bor­ders and walls, and spread­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion that we haven’t even asked hard ques­tions like why do peo­ple move? What does US for­eign pol­i­cy and US trade agree­ments have to do with migra­tion pat­terns? Remember when those chil­dren start­ed walk­ing from Central America to here, and CBS News and a lot of orga­ni­za­tions called them ille­gal immi­grant” chil­dren instead of call­ing them the refugees that they are? What did we do to Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala so that their coun­tries got so vio­lent that they have to come here? Who start­ed the drug war? What did NAFTA do not only to the United States but to Mexicans, right?

The Conversation #40 — Mary Mattingly

It’s inter­est­ing and scary to think about an Earth that could be com­plete­ly con­trolled by humans, but it seems like it’s def­i­nite­ly pos­si­ble. I could find fun think­ing about liv­ing under the sea or all the places that humans real­ly haven’t been able to sus­tain them­selves in very well. Like, if we could real­ly get con­trol of that. I mean, it’s def­i­nite­ly a dark future, but I think some­thing that I could embrace if we did go there.

The Conversation #1 — Reverend John Fife

What has redeemed the faith com­mu­ni­ty through­out the cen­turies of his­to­ry has been that there has always been a sec­tor of the faith that has not sold out, that has recalled the gen­uine moral and eth­i­cal val­ues of that faith and its tra­di­tion, and has renewed that, and there­fore moved the agen­da into the future, that is moral and eth­i­cal and just.