The Superfuture Times.

[red]

post essays, articles, stories, etc. youve written.

i dont know if anyone else is interested, but i like reading some of the essays (not robi's critiques) some of you post. which reminds me, ive got that MBV thesis that some one posted somewhere on my hardrive and ive always been meaning to read it.

[red]

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!i!!!!!!!1i!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[poly800rock]

a my bloody valentine thesis? please post.

[poly800rock]

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!i!!!!!!!1i!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!i!!!!!!!1i!!!!!!!!!!! !!!

[jeepster]

post essays, articles, stories, etc. youve written.

i dont know if anyone else is interested, but i like reading some of the essays (not robi's critiques) some of you post. which reminds me, ive got that MBV thesis that some one posted somewhere on my hardrive and ive always been meaning to read it.

didnt i send that to you red?

haha, well, once i get my stuff all sorted out, ill start posting some of my journalism pieces (for journalism class, and the local paper, respectively). i have other stuff, but its gotta be edited a lot and my creative writing is too abstract to be enjoyed.

i did enjoy my battle with robi a couple weeks back. i got about 350+ rep points from that

[wEstSidE]

cuz of moniez extraction govt will soon regul8 industrial denimz millz causin the wholesal price of denimz 2 skyroket

u will all no longr b able 2 afford vintage style denimz frm japan r amerikka millz bcuz will fale 2 meet minimumz.

levi's lobbyin power winz!!!!!~~

[red]

here ya go.

http://rapidshare.com/files/59455156/loveless_thesis.pdf.html

[Carl]

thread has potential...

[jeepster]

so ill post my latest article once my editor clears it for publishing..

that is all.

[RAISED BY WOLVES]

See: most of my posts.

[jeepster]

Music's Head-case

A few weeks ago, a cryptic message appeared on the website of the alternative rock band Radiohead. The site at the time, stark in shades of grey, only displayed the numbers “10.1.07.” Obviously, they were hinting at the first of October. But what did it mean? Well, if you knew that Radiohead’s record contract with EMI had expired three years ago after the release of their last effort, Hail to the Thief, then you would know they have been relatively quiet since that time, except for mysterious allusions to the possibility of a new album.

So, October 1st has come and gone, and along with it something completely different. Yes, it is a new Radiohead album, but it’s much more than that. With no obvious record contract or distribution deal, the band decided to release their newest creation, In Rainbows, purely on their own accord. Now this idea is nothing new, especially in the independent music scene. The concept of do-it-yourself, or D.I.Y. as it is most commonly known, has been around for as long as recorded music. But the way in which it was executed, especially by a band as famous and inventive as Radiohead, has pulled the rug out from under the record industry.

If you return to Radiohead’s website now, it has come alive with a mash of colors and black stripes. Visitors to the site are immediately routed to a wildly colorful page that bluntly announces, “Radiohead have made an album. So far it is only available from this website.” Translation: Radiohead’s new album can only be downloaded from their site at this point in time. Moreover, what’s so amazing about what Radiohead is doing is that the band is encouraging fans to pay whatever they want for the new album (as long as they pay something). This simple, minimalist, even avant-garde message is what has flipped the record industry on its head. While it’s no mystery that the record business itself has been ailing for much of the last two decades, no major artists have taken such a dramatic step away from the standard marketing practices that the record companies have enforced for so long. Downloading music directly from the artists for a price determined by the purchaser is a completely new variable that few if any record companies have ever considered because it is antithetical to their notion of how to make a profit.

But this is exactly the challenge that the music industry is confronting these days. The music industry is going broke daily, despite innovations in the digital music field and its means of distribution (for example iTunes and the iPod). Radiohead’s move to release their album on their own terms relative to time, cost and mode of distribution is very much a death knell to the business of music as a whole.

Should we be worried? Is it our fault? Do we care? I, for one, am not too concerned about the future of music moguls who have effectively become the middlemen and whose marketing tactics and profit motives have dulled with the immediacy of the music itself. Radiohead is restaking its claim to the direct connection between bands and their fans, a connection that we have all experienced in a great concert.

Concerts are the great equalizer. I can still remember my first concert. It took place on a clear, warm, and average Saturday in July, just over five years ago. The concert was Sonic Youth at the Central Park Summerstage and the whole concept of it was more intimidating than I could even imagine. When we arrived and saw the mass of sweaty hipsters, nodding along to the drones and feedback coming from the stage, it was enough to make any seventh grader wish for their Green Day Greatest Hits CD and a nice car ride home. That did not stop the concert from being one of the most unique and defining experiences of my life, though.

And the concert still is one of the greatest experiences one can have. I still have vivid memories of every concert I’ve ever been to, and I cherish them all. Concerts are about our visceral connection with the band and its music, eliminating the middlemen of the record business, and giving us instantaneous and spontaneous musical gratification. Even when the bands are not famous.

For example, one of my good friends books bands to play locally at Trackside and other area venues. These bands, though small, always seem to draw a loyal audience. Maybe it’s the internet [read: MySpace], that allows for these bands to continuously bring in a good size attendance, or maybe it’s because the concert experience allows for a personalized and direct way of hearing the music.

I’ve had the pleasure of talking and casually hanging out with many of the bands that have stopped in our humble little town, and the constant theme in the conversations I’ve had with the different members seems to be how much they appreciate people actually showing up to hear them. It doesn’t matter if it’s five people or five hundred, though the latter is nice: anyone who makes an appearance makes the gig that much more meaningful.

Maybe that’s why the music industry album is dying. Maybe Radiohead realized that bringing the music to the people via direct download is much more worthwhile, and approximates the intimacy of the concert experience when that experience can’t always be had. Both literally and figuratively, In Rainbows marks the return to a more valued musical experience – putting the fans first, giving them an opportunity to be partners in the band’s creativity and success.

by Max Gardner, 2007.

so its not hemmingway or fitzgerald, but its my most recently article for the local newspaper (im a contributing writer), and it has to relate back to the town or me in someway, so it comes off a little rah-rah in some parts and a little oversensitive (and somewhat supersillious) in others. anyways, enjoy. this is my version, my editor split it up into different sized paragraphs to make it more readable in print. enjoy.

[soepom]

a paper i wrote back in a time when virtual communication was almost wholly textual (ie. pre-wawyt era)

(excerpts)

"When Goffman wrote The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life in 1959, he employed the metaphor of “theatrical performance†in his analysis of social interaction, coining the term “dramaturgy†to describe the processes of “impression management†(1959: 226). Whilst the usage of a the stage metaphor to describe social life was not novel (I refer of course to the all too famous quote from Shakespeare’s As You Like It – “All the world’s a stage/ And all the men and women merely playersâ€), it was probably unprecedented for a collection of sociological theories to be represented by a single metaphor, in particular that of the theatre. Almost a decade after his death, the popularisation of the Internet saw the emergence of another metaphor (in fact several metaphors) that soon became a dominant if not definitive aspect of the modern experience of social interaction – that which we call “Virtual Reality†(and a whole host of metaphorical relatives such as “Cyberspaceâ€, “World Wide Web†etc.). The advent of the Internet and the myriad communication tools associated with it have opened up a whole world (or perhaps even worlds) of possibilities in the area of social interaction that Goffman had no access to, and possibly no anticipation of. According to the social psychological theories that deal with human communication and the concept of self (represented by Mead, 1934, and later by Goffman, 1959, 1974), meaning is “created, recreated, and assigned to objects in a continuous interaction. In this interaction, also the self is created and recreated.†(Alvehus and Lindstrom, 1998:396). Arguably, the creation, expression and maintenance of social identities are primary processes in human interaction, whether offline or online, real or virtual. In this paper, I will elucidate the modus operandi of social interaction in the virtual context, through which I hope to examine the relevance and inadequacies of Goffman’s concepts of Self-Presentation, specifically, that of Impression Management."

......

"Consequently, virtual impression management is mostly about self-monitoring through the management of the textual only. Monitoring and manipulating may be considered easier for virtual communication as such because instead of meanings being “given off†(Goffman (1959:229) makes a distinction between signals that we “give†and we “give offâ€, the first being more deliberate and conscious and the latter non-deliberate and less conscious, though not necessarily always so) through multi-channels (e.g. verbal, body language) that the individual is unaware of and has arguably little concern and control over, there is now only one channel (the text) for communication. Thus, there is presumably greater focus and control over what is being “given†in the interaction. Also, because of the asynchronous nature of most computer-mediated communications, there can be greater deliberation and contemplation in the messages sent. Before an email or an ICQ message is sent, it can be read, re-read, thought through and carefully calculated to produce anticipated responses. Also, the nature of typing on the computer is such that editing is easy and does not leave any visible trace, therefore making vetting highly convenient – an ICQ message may be typed, deleted and re-typed a hundred times without the recipient being aware of it. Therefore “performance disruptions†(Goffman, 1959:239) such as “unmeant gestures, inopportune intrusions, faux pas, and scenes†can be more easily avoided or prevented."

......

"Because whatever impression formed is predicated on the interpretation of expression and since we have heightened control our expression in asynchronous, purely text-based communication, the term “expression management†has been suggested (Alvehus and Lindstrom, 1998:400) as a more appropriate term to describe the monitoring of the self in these contexts. Certainly, Computer-mediated Communication technologies are not the first of such asynchronous, text-based communications- older forms such as conventional letters and telegraphs etc. are its predecessors. However, it is only in recent times that such media have become so pervasive and widely used as supplements, or even substitutes to face-to-face communication. "

......

"Given that there is considerably greater control over one’s virtual self-presentation as well as greater efficiency in managing impressions (or expressions for that matter), it is not difficult to understand why the virtual environment is so conducive for the proliferation of the notion of multiple selves. The anonymous nature of some forms of virtual communication (such as IRC where anyone can join a chat session under a pseudonym or what is more commonly referred to as a “nickâ€- abbreviation of ‘nickname’) allows for the creation of multiple identities (and arguably multiple selves) since anonymity liberates the online individual from existing expectations about the real-life (offline) self and “gives people the chance to express multiple and often unexplored aspects of the self, to play with their identity and to try out new ones†(Turkle, 1995:12). "

......

[soepom]

a paper i wrote back in a time when virtual communication was almost wholly textual (ie. pre-wawyt era)

(excerpts)

"When Goffman wrote The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life in 1959, he employed the metaphor of “theatrical performance†in his analysis of social interaction, coining the term “dramaturgy†to describe the processes of “impression management†(1959: 226). Whilst the usage of a the stage metaphor to describe social life was not novel (I refer of course to the all too famous quote from Shakespeare’s As You Like It – “All the world’s a stage/ And all the men and women merely playersâ€), it was probably unprecedented for a collection of sociological theories to be represented by a single metaphor, in particular that of the theatre. Almost a decade after his death, the popularisation of the Internet saw the emergence of another metaphor (in fact several metaphors) that soon became a dominant if not definitive aspect of the modern experience of social interaction – that which we call “Virtual Reality†(and a whole host of metaphorical relatives such as “Cyberspaceâ€, “World Wide Web†etc.). The advent of the Internet and the myriad communication tools associated with it have opened up a whole world (or perhaps even worlds) of possibilities in the area of social interaction that Goffman had no access to, and possibly no anticipation of. According to the social psychological theories that deal with human communication and the concept of self (represented by Mead, 1934, and later by Goffman, 1959, 1974), meaning is “created, recreated, and assigned to objects in a continuous interaction. In this interaction, also the self is created and recreated.†(Alvehus and Lindstrom, 1998:396). Arguably, the creation, expression and maintenance of social identities are primary processes in human interaction, whether offline or online, real or virtual. In this paper, I will elucidate the modus operandi of social interaction in the virtual context, through which I hope to examine the relevance and inadequacies of Goffman’s concepts of Self-Presentation, specifically, that of Impression Management."

......

"Consequently, virtual impression management is mostly about self-monitoring through the management of the textual only. Monitoring and manipulating may be considered easier for virtual communication as such because instead of meanings being “given off†(Goffman (1959:229) makes a distinction between signals that we “give†and we “give offâ€, the first being more deliberate and conscious and the latter non-deliberate and less conscious, though not necessarily always so) through multi-channels (e.g. verbal, body language) that the individual is unaware of and has arguably little concern and control over, there is now only one channel (the text) for communication. Thus, there is presumably greater focus and control over what is being “given†in the interaction. Also, because of the asynchronous nature of most computer-mediated communications, there can be greater deliberation and contemplation in the messages sent. Before an email or an ICQ message is sent, it can be read, re-read, thought through and carefully calculated to produce anticipated responses. Also, the nature of typing on the computer is such that editing is easy and does not leave any visible trace, therefore making vetting highly convenient – an ICQ message may be typed, deleted and re-typed a hundred times without the recipient being aware of it. Therefore “performance disruptions†(Goffman, 1959:239) such as “unmeant gestures, inopportune intrusions, faux pas, and scenes†can be more easily avoided or prevented."

......

"Because whatever impression formed is predicated on the interpretation of expression and since we have heightened control our expression in asynchronous, purely text-based communication, the term “expression management†has been suggested (Alvehus and Lindstrom, 1998:400) as a more appropriate term to describe the monitoring of the self in these contexts. Certainly, Computer-mediated Communication technologies are not the first of such asynchronous, text-based communications- older forms such as conventional letters and telegraphs etc. are its predecessors. However, it is only in recent times that such media have become so pervasive and widely used as supplements, or even substitutes to face-to-face communication. "

......

"Given that there is considerably greater control over one’s virtual self-presentation as well as greater efficiency in managing impressions (or expressions for that matter), it is not difficult to understand why the virtual environment is so conducive for the proliferation of the notion of multiple selves. The anonymous nature of some forms of virtual communication (such as IRC where anyone can join a chat session under a pseudonym or what is more commonly referred to as a “nickâ€- abbreviation of ‘nickname’) allows for the creation of multiple identities (and arguably multiple selves) since anonymity liberates the online individual from existing expectations about the real-life (offline) self and “gives people the chance to express multiple and often unexplored aspects of the self, to play with their identity and to try out new ones†(Turkle, 1995:12). "

......

[soepom]

"Whilst the anonymous nature of the virtual medium provides suitable conditions for creating multiple identities, it is the ease with which virtual text-based interactions can be subject to effective impression management that makes it possible to maintain these newly created multiple identities. [......] Whilst Goffman does acknowledge that the individual plays many roles and some of these roles may be mutually contradictory and hence result in “role conflictâ€, his theory appears to presuppose that the self is one unified entity, albeit one that plays many roles. Goffman defines “performance†as “all the activity of a given participant on a given occasion that serves to influence in any way any of the other participants" (Goffman, 1959:26) and that this performance is put up for a social audience in order to maintain a stable self-image. Ostensibly, this notion of a stable self-image is somewhat contradictory to social psychologist Kenneth Gergen’s description of the postmodern identity as

a pastiche of personalities†in which the test of competence is not so much the integrity of the whole but the apparent correct representation appearing at the right time, in the right context, not to the detriment of the rest of the internal “collectiveâ€.

Turkle, 1995:256"

......

"However, a return to Mead’s theories of Symbolic Interaction and the emergence of the self, from which Goffman’s theoretical conception of self was drawn, shows that although existing theories of self-presentation might perhaps need some adjustment in order to adequately address issues pertaining to evolving notions of self, they certainly are far from obsolete. Mead states that the self “arises in the process of social experience and activity…develops in the given individual as a result of his relations to that process as a whole and to other individuals within that process†(Mead, 1934:135) In applying this to the virtual context, the nature of the medium is such that it makes it possible for the “process of social experience and activity†that takes place online and that “process†which takes place offline to be conceived of as separate and in some cases mutually exclusive. Therefore the self that emerges in each of these separate processes can be construed as separate entities and consequently, self-presentation operates on separate systems (of values, norms and expectations etc.). [/font]"

......

"Virtual reality has made it possible for the individual to create an interactive persona (which may or may not be considered as “selfâ€) on a tabula rasa. The physical self that results through the processes of interactions in real life often has roles or identities ascribed to it (e.g. ethnic group, kinship ties etc.) and part of impression management of the physical self is to be convincing in the performance of these ascribed roles/identities. How convincing the performance is depends on how well the expectations are met. The virtual, created, persona in the case of a MUD character for example, is however a completely ‘achieved’ (in contrast to ‘ascribed’) identity. In short, “in this [context] the self is constructed and the rules of social interaction are built, not received.†(Turkle, 1995: 10) As such, impression management of the persona appears to be a much easier task since there are no existing expectations of the new persona and therefore no expectations to fail to meet up to. However, it is precisely this lack of a common “stock knowledge†(Schutz, 1967) that defines reality for the personas (involved in inter-persona rather than interpersonal relationships) that might make impression management a challenging task since the rules of interaction and expectations of a what is a “successful†performance are constantly being negotiated and therefore highly volatile and unpredictable. Impression management in the context of a completely new persona is therefore less of a reflex action (conditioned by familiarity), but is instead highly reflexive and conscious of itself. An analogy can be drawn to when one walks into one’s living room, the familiarity of the place and the inhabitants allows it to be taken for granted, as compared to when one enters a room full of strangers, one tends to be more aware of oneself. Thus the virtual arena might well be a good place to test and hone the art of impression management given that it takes a prominent place in certain virtual interactions. "

......

"Goffman suggests that “any social establishment may be studied profitably from the point of view of impression management†where such “social establishment†is “any place surrounded by fixed barriers to perception in which a particular kind of activity regularly takes place†(1959:238). In a day and age where space is no longer conceived of as necessarily one that is physical (with reference to the metaphor of Cyberspaceâ€), it is certainly not unthinkable for the virtual space created by technology to qualify for “social establishment†as Goffman intended. Goffman’s theories of Impression Management can be appropriated in the understanding Computer-mediated Communications (albeit not always neatly), and I would boldly suggest that in the very nature of CMCs (especially that of ICQ and IRC), being one that is dyadic with communication saturated in a singular sign-vehicle, is a distilled form of the communication context that Goffman founded his early theories upon."

J. Dong, 2002

[soepom]

"Whilst the anonymous nature of the virtual medium provides suitable conditions for creating multiple identities, it is the ease with which virtual text-based interactions can be subject to effective impression management that makes it possible to maintain these newly created multiple identities. [......] Whilst Goffman does acknowledge that the individual plays many roles and some of these roles may be mutually contradictory and hence result in “role conflictâ€, his theory appears to presuppose that the self is one unified entity, albeit one that plays many roles. Goffman defines “performance†as “all the activity of a given participant on a given occasion that serves to influence in any way any of the other participants" (Goffman, 1959:26) and that this performance is put up for a social audience in order to maintain a stable self-image. Ostensibly, this notion of a stable self-image is somewhat contradictory to social psychologist Kenneth Gergen’s description of the postmodern identity as

a pastiche of personalities†in which the test of competence is not so much the integrity of the whole but the apparent correct representation appearing at the right time, in the right context, not to the detriment of the rest of the internal “collectiveâ€.

Turkle, 1995:256"

......

"However, a return to Mead’s theories of Symbolic Interaction and the emergence of the self, from which Goffman’s theoretical conception of self was drawn, shows that although existing theories of self-presentation might perhaps need some adjustment in order to adequately address issues pertaining to evolving notions of self, they certainly are far from obsolete. Mead states that the self “arises in the process of social experience and activity…develops in the given individual as a result of his relations to that process as a whole and to other individuals within that process†(Mead, 1934:135) In applying this to the virtual context, the nature of the medium is such that it makes it possible for the “process of social experience and activity†that takes place online and that “process†which takes place offline to be conceived of as separate and in some cases mutually exclusive. Therefore the self that emerges in each of these separate processes can be construed as separate entities and consequently, self-presentation operates on separate systems (of values, norms and expectations etc.). [/font]"

......

"Virtual reality has made it possible for the individual to create an interactive persona (which may or may not be considered as “selfâ€) on a tabula rasa. The physical self that results through the processes of interactions in real life often has roles or identities ascribed to it (e.g. ethnic group, kinship ties etc.) and part of impression management of the physical self is to be convincing in the performance of these ascribed roles/identities. How convincing the performance is depends on how well the expectations are met. The virtual, created, persona in the case of a MUD character for example, is however a completely ‘achieved’ (in contrast to ‘ascribed’) identity. In short, “in this [context] the self is constructed and the rules of social interaction are built, not received.†(Turkle, 1995: 10) As such, impression management of the persona appears to be a much easier task since there are no existing expectations of the new persona and therefore no expectations to fail to meet up to. However, it is precisely this lack of a common “stock knowledge†(Schutz, 1967) that defines reality for the personas (involved in inter-persona rather than interpersonal relationships) that might make impression management a challenging task since the rules of interaction and expectations of a what is a “successful†performance are constantly being negotiated and therefore highly volatile and unpredictable. Impression management in the context of a completely new persona is therefore less of a reflex action (conditioned by familiarity), but is instead highly reflexive and conscious of itself. An analogy can be drawn to when one walks into one’s living room, the familiarity of the place and the inhabitants allows it to be taken for granted, as compared to when one enters a room full of strangers, one tends to be more aware of oneself. Thus the virtual arena might well be a good place to test and hone the art of impression management given that it takes a prominent place in certain virtual interactions. "

......

"Goffman suggests that “any social establishment may be studied profitably from the point of view of impression management†where such “social establishment†is “any place surrounded by fixed barriers to perception in which a particular kind of activity regularly takes place†(1959:238). In a day and age where space is no longer conceived of as necessarily one that is physical (with reference to the metaphor of Cyberspaceâ€), it is certainly not unthinkable for the virtual space created by technology to qualify for “social establishment†as Goffman intended. Goffman’s theories of Impression Management can be appropriated in the understanding Computer-mediated Communications (albeit not always neatly), and I would boldly suggest that in the very nature of CMCs (especially that of ICQ and IRC), being one that is dyadic with communication saturated in a singular sign-vehicle, is a distilled form of the communication context that Goffman founded his early theories upon."

J. Dong, 2002

[notesee]

Interesting thread. I have some philosophy papers and a paper about Blade Runner, and Blue Velvet, all of them I wrote last year. I can dig 'em out and post them up if anyone wants to read.

[notesee]

Interesting thread. I have some philosophy papers and a paper about Blade Runner, and Blue Velvet, all of them I wrote last year. I can dig 'em out and post them up if anyone wants to read.

[red]

Interesting thread. I have some philosophy papers and a paper about Blade Runner, and Blue Velvet, all of them I wrote last year. I can dig 'em out and post them up if anyone wants to read.

*raises hand*

[red]

Interesting thread. I have some philosophy papers and a paper about Blade Runner, and Blue Velvet, all of them I wrote last year. I can dig 'em out and post them up if anyone wants to read.

*raises hand*

[diewhitegirls]

Well if any is really bored and wants to feed their inner conspiracy theorist (although that really wasn't the intent of the paper), they can read this shit:

https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/katechis/Final_Draft_Research_paper.doc?uniq=-e3r781

Now, it was the first research paper I'd ever done and I know it has a lot of flaws, but it's at least interesting. Seriously! And to answer the potential question: no, I don't think George Bush is responsible for 9/11,

[diewhitegirls]

Well if any is really bored and wants to feed their inner conspiracy theorist (although that really wasn't the intent of the paper), they can read this shit:

https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/katechis/Final_Draft_Research_paper.doc?uniq=-e3r781

Now, it was the first research paper I'd ever done and I know it has a lot of flaws, but it's at least interesting. Seriously! And to answer the potential question: no, I don't think George Bush is responsible for 9/11,

[Ahlvahroe]

i havent read this since i wrote it for my nutrition class. im assuming it sucked cause i half assed most elective classes. ill assume no one is gonna read this so yeah. cut and paste, from my own archives

Alvaro Torres

April 14, 2004

Nufs. 139

Professor Coffeng

TH 12:30 –13:45

Section 5

Pesticide Pros and Cons

Introduction

The use of pesticides is a very tricky subject matter because there are two views on the subject. There are views that it is good, there are views that it is bad, there are some that say that pesticides are a necessary evil, some just say that it is a form of destruction. Whether they are necessary or not, does not make a difference because people need food and if food needs special attention to grow it will be done without hesitation. Pesticides have been in use for many years and their production will continue to be used and the controversy will continue to surround it until there is an alternative done or if all pesticides are discontinued.

History

The first pesticides were not human made they were instead natural chemicals made by plants to ward off natural predators of the plants, and plants have been doing this for ever 200 million years. (Klein, 2001) The real first generation pesticides were created from natural substances from tobacco and chrysanthemum plants. (Klein, 2001) The second generation pesticides did not appear until the year 1939, when Entomologist Paul Mueller found that a compound know as DDT could be used as a powerful insecticide, which went on to become the most popular insecticide of that time soon after. (Klein, 2001) Since then over 25,000 types of pesticides have been developed, and worldwide 2.5 million tons of pesticides are used yearly. (Klein, 2001) This shows that pesticides are a vastly used product that the entire world chooses to use in the production of crops even though most say that it is dangerous.

The Pros of Pesticides

By breaking down the word Pesticide, into Pest-icide one can see that it says that it is a killer of pests. Pests are organisms whose presence creates some form of conflict to humans. (Persaud, 1999) There are pesticides for many pests such as weeds, rodents, insects, and more. Also pesticides if used correctly can be used to increase the yield of crops and they can also control the use spread of diseases. (Persaud, 1999) In a study presented by the University of Massachusetts’ Plant Pathology Department, it shows that there was a study conducted in Germany between 1967 and 1975. This study showed the effects of pesticides on 2 different orchards of apples, Cox Orange Pippin and Golden Delicious apples, and the yield of pesticides on half of each type of apples. The studies show that without pesticides Cox Orange Pippin apples yielded a percentage of 35 of all grown apples, and Golden Delicious yielded 25 percent of possible apples without pesticides. When pesticides were used on the orchards of apples the Cox Orange Pippin yielded 85 percent of total apples, and Golden Delicious yielded 80 percent of all possible apples with the pesticides. (Cooley and Manning, 1994) They also did another study in Germany that showed the output of grapes when pesticides were used. This was a study that was done between 1895 and 1970. Between 1895 and 1925 there were two fungicides used and there was an average of 20 hectoliters of grape juice per year and in 1926 they increased the fungicide and production went up to 60 HL a year. In the next twenty years fertilizer and organic fungicides were used and production went up to 70 and 80 HL, respectively. Finally, in 1965 they benzimidazole fungicide and it got production up to 90 Hectoliters a year. (Cooley and Manning, 1994) Not just are pesticides good for the production of food it is a good way to get larger portions of food and lower the prices and get more people fed. The Department of Agricultures says that every year pests destroy 45% of the worlds food supply, and that the $3 billion that the US spends on pest control yields $12 billion in increased crops. Also, the Department of Agriculture says that foods costs in the United States are 30 to 50 percent cheaper in this country than if pesticides were not used. (Persaud, 1999) While pesticides are used in order to kill pests they are also help with keeping foods cheap and plentiful.

The Cons of Pesticides

Pesticides are not a natural way to get food production up and they definitely are not a good source of nutrients for a person to ingest. In a study done by the Toxicology Consulting Services Inc. they did a study on pesticide use in India. In 1958 India was producing over 5000 metric tons of pesticides, and has grown to 85000 tons in the mid nineties. (Gupta, 2004) They are starting to recommend that 4 steps be put into effect, which are: 1. Regulating pesticide use. 2. Use of biotechnology. 3. Use of bio-pesticides, such as use of enemies of insect pests such as parasitoids, predators and insect pathogens. 4. Use of pesticides obtained from natural plant products. (Gupta, 2004) The pesticide use has also caused poisoning of many of the people; the first report of this was in 1958 after 100 people died after eating contaminated wheat flour. Then, it came to a peak in 1984 when 8,000 died from the pesticide Methyl isocyanate. (Gupta, 2004) The pesticides proved to be very disruptive in the way of life of the India people because even though they might have increased the food production there were many people who died from it. People should also look to alternatives to pesticides when they are trying to increase the production of food. In a study done by the Center for Environment and Society and Department of Biological Sciences they recommend 3 options that one should do in order to increase food supplies. The first is creating or acquiring more land for agriculture, the second is importing food, which might not be an option for poorer countries, and the third is to increase the total farming in developing countries. (Pretty, Morison, and Hine, 2002) They should also learn to work with the environment such as using clean water, create flood protections, and protect it from wildlife. It was found that the four biggest improvements in the farms surveyed were: 1. Intensifying the farming of a single type of crop, 2. Supplementing production, such as raising shrimp in rice fields, 3. Better uses of land and water, and 4. And appropriate crop varieties to regenerate the land. (Pretty, Morison, and Hine, 2002) The study also talks about improving the quality of foods with three steps: 1. More efficient use of land and water, such as knowing what grows in what type of land, 2. Keeping the land healthy, by using compost, and doing soil rotations in order to keep the land healthy, and 3. Which is pest and weed control without pesticides, because if you use pesticides on rice you cannot raise fish or shrimp in that same area. (Pretty, Morison, and Hine, 2002) Looking at the different alternatives one can see that pesticides are not necessary in order to get good food.

Conclusion

Pesticides can be good when it comes to business agriculture, but when one is farming to survive one should be cautious. Eating pesticide-contaminated food could end up being fatal if one is not careful, but when one is farming to live and not just to eat there might not be a choice. When everything is done pesticide will always be a struggle to find a compromise.

References

Cooley, D., & Manning, W. (1994, April) Estimating the Risks and Benefits of

Pesticides: Considering the Agroecosystem and Integrated Pest Management in

The Use of EBDC Fungicides on Apples. Environmental Pollution, 88 pg. 315-

320 Retrieved April 13, 2004 From ScienceDirect Database

Gupta, P.K. (2004) Pesticide Exposure—Indian Scene. Toxicology, 1. 1-8 Retrieved

April 13, 2004 from Science Direct Database

Klein, A. (2001) The Pros & Cons of Pesticides. Retrieved April 13, 2004 from the world

wide web:

http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/allschools/providence/keenan_files/student%20pages/

Klein/Pesticides.htm

Persaud, N (1999, January 1). Agrochemical Pesticides. Retrieved April 13, 2004 from

the World Wide Web:

http://www.cee.vt.edu/program_areas/environmental/teach/gwprimer/group11/ind

ex.html

Pretty, J.N., Morison, J.J.L., & Hine, R.E. (2002, May) Reducing Food Poverty By

Increasing Agricultural Sustainability in Developing Countries. Agriculture

Ecosystems & Environment, 95, 217-234. Retrieved April 13, 2004 from ScienceDirect Database

[Ahlvahroe]

i havent read this since i wrote it for my nutrition class. im assuming it sucked cause i half assed most elective classes. ill assume no one is gonna read this so yeah. cut and paste, from my own archives

Alvaro Torres

April 14, 2004

Nufs. 139

Professor Coffeng

TH 12:30 –13:45

Section 5

Pesticide Pros and Cons

Introduction

The use of pesticides is a very tricky subject matter because there are two views on the subject. There are views that it is good, there are views that it is bad, there are some that say that pesticides are a necessary evil, some just say that it is a form of destruction. Whether they are necessary or not, does not make a difference because people need food and if food needs special attention to grow it will be done without hesitation. Pesticides have been in use for many years and their production will continue to be used and the controversy will continue to surround it until there is an alternative done or if all pesticides are discontinued.

History

The first pesticides were not human made they were instead natural chemicals made by plants to ward off natural predators of the plants, and plants have been doing this for ever 200 million years. (Klein, 2001) The real first generation pesticides were created from natural substances from tobacco and chrysanthemum plants. (Klein, 2001) The second generation pesticides did not appear until the year 1939, when Entomologist Paul Mueller found that a compound know as DDT could be used as a powerful insecticide, which went on to become the most popular insecticide of that time soon after. (Klein, 2001) Since then over 25,000 types of pesticides have been developed, and worldwide 2.5 million tons of pesticides are used yearly. (Klein, 2001) This shows that pesticides are a vastly used product that the entire world chooses to use in the production of crops even though most say that it is dangerous.

The Pros of Pesticides

By breaking down the word Pesticide, into Pest-icide one can see that it says that it is a killer of pests. Pests are organisms whose presence creates some form of conflict to humans. (Persaud, 1999) There are pesticides for many pests such as weeds, rodents, insects, and more. Also pesticides if used correctly can be used to increase the yield of crops and they can also control the use spread of diseases. (Persaud, 1999) In a study presented by the University of Massachusetts’ Plant Pathology Department, it shows that there was a study conducted in Germany between 1967 and 1975. This study showed the effects of pesticides on 2 different orchards of apples, Cox Orange Pippin and Golden Delicious apples, and the yield of pesticides on half of each type of apples. The studies show that without pesticides Cox Orange Pippin apples yielded a percentage of 35 of all grown apples, and Golden Delicious yielded 25 percent of possible apples without pesticides. When pesticides were used on the orchards of apples the Cox Orange Pippin yielded 85 percent of total apples, and Golden Delicious yielded 80 percent of all possible apples with the pesticides. (Cooley and Manning, 1994) They also did another study in Germany that showed the output of grapes when pesticides were used. This was a study that was done between 1895 and 1970. Between 1895 and 1925 there were two fungicides used and there was an average of 20 hectoliters of grape juice per year and in 1926 they increased the fungicide and production went up to 60 HL a year. In the next twenty years fertilizer and organic fungicides were used and production went up to 70 and 80 HL, respectively. Finally, in 1965 they benzimidazole fungicide and it got production up to 90 Hectoliters a year. (Cooley and Manning, 1994) Not just are pesticides good for the production of food it is a good way to get larger portions of food and lower the prices and get more people fed. The Department of Agricultures says that every year pests destroy 45% of the worlds food supply, and that the $3 billion that the US spends on pest control yields $12 billion in increased crops. Also, the Department of Agriculture says that foods costs in the United States are 30 to 50 percent cheaper in this country than if pesticides were not used. (Persaud, 1999) While pesticides are used in order to kill pests they are also help with keeping foods cheap and plentiful.

The Cons of Pesticides

Pesticides are not a natural way to get food production up and they definitely are not a good source of nutrients for a person to ingest. In a study done by the Toxicology Consulting Services Inc. they did a study on pesticide use in India. In 1958 India was producing over 5000 metric tons of pesticides, and has grown to 85000 tons in the mid nineties. (Gupta, 2004) They are starting to recommend that 4 steps be put into effect, which are: 1. Regulating pesticide use. 2. Use of biotechnology. 3. Use of bio-pesticides, such as use of enemies of insect pests such as parasitoids, predators and insect pathogens. 4. Use of pesticides obtained from natural plant products. (Gupta, 2004) The pesticide use has also caused poisoning of many of the people; the first report of this was in 1958 after 100 people died after eating contaminated wheat flour. Then, it came to a peak in 1984 when 8,000 died from the pesticide Methyl isocyanate. (Gupta, 2004) The pesticides proved to be very disruptive in the way of life of the India people because even though they might have increased the food production there were many people who died from it. People should also look to alternatives to pesticides when they are trying to increase the production of food. In a study done by the Center for Environment and Society and Department of Biological Sciences they recommend 3 options that one should do in order to increase food supplies. The first is creating or acquiring more land for agriculture, the second is importing food, which might not be an option for poorer countries, and the third is to increase the total farming in developing countries. (Pretty, Morison, and Hine, 2002) They should also learn to work with the environment such as using clean water, create flood protections, and protect it from wildlife. It was found that the four biggest improvements in the farms surveyed were: 1. Intensifying the farming of a single type of crop, 2. Supplementing production, such as raising shrimp in rice fields, 3. Better uses of land and water, and 4. And appropriate crop varieties to regenerate the land. (Pretty, Morison, and Hine, 2002) The study also talks about improving the quality of foods with three steps: 1. More efficient use of land and water, such as knowing what grows in what type of land, 2. Keeping the land healthy, by using compost, and doing soil rotations in order to keep the land healthy, and 3. Which is pest and weed control without pesticides, because if you use pesticides on rice you cannot raise fish or shrimp in that same area. (Pretty, Morison, and Hine, 2002) Looking at the different alternatives one can see that pesticides are not necessary in order to get good food.

Conclusion

Pesticides can be good when it comes to business agriculture, but when one is farming to survive one should be cautious. Eating pesticide-contaminated food could end up being fatal if one is not careful, but when one is farming to live and not just to eat there might not be a choice. When everything is done pesticide will always be a struggle to find a compromise.

References

Cooley, D., & Manning, W. (1994, April) Estimating the Risks and Benefits of

Pesticides: Considering the Agroecosystem and Integrated Pest Management in

The Use of EBDC Fungicides on Apples. Environmental Pollution, 88 pg. 315-

320 Retrieved April 13, 2004 From ScienceDirect Database

Gupta, P.K. (2004) Pesticide Exposure—Indian Scene. Toxicology, 1. 1-8 Retrieved

April 13, 2004 from Science Direct Database

Klein, A. (2001) The Pros & Cons of Pesticides. Retrieved April 13, 2004 from the world

wide web:

http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/allschools/providence/keenan_files/student%20pages/

Klein/Pesticides.htm

Persaud, N (1999, January 1). Agrochemical Pesticides. Retrieved April 13, 2004 from

the World Wide Web:

http://www.cee.vt.edu/program_areas/environmental/teach/gwprimer/group11/ind

ex.html

Pretty, J.N., Morison, J.J.L., & Hine, R.E. (2002, May) Reducing Food Poverty By

Increasing Agricultural Sustainability in Developing Countries. Agriculture

Ecosystems & Environment, 95, 217-234. Retrieved April 13, 2004 from ScienceDirect Database

[Ahlvahroe]

wow, i just found a short essay that i wrote, not gonna post that one. about what is teh popes job. its so bad i wont subject you to it.

[Ahlvahroe]

wow, i just found a short essay that i wrote, not gonna post that one. about what is teh popes job. its so bad i wont subject you to it.

[red]

superfuture has the cancer.

[eastcoastrider27]

superfuture has the cancer.

Royal Tenenbaums reference?

[subarashii_kudamono]

...The idea of a self-contained nation is a narrative symbolic force. They are mythical spaces constructed from preserved memory, rooted in the ‘politics of difference’ and carved out from larger cultural systems of disposition. These narratives harbor an understanding of ‘inside’ and ‘out’ and culturally privileged articulations of a vocabulary that come to represent a singular social identity. However, as the realm of private interests increasingly assume significance in the public realm, a cultural osmosis breaks down the singular notion of the ‘nation’. This ambivalence between systems create the possibility for new directions of articulating social identity, and by extension, for defining the nation as a form of “cultural elaboration†and forms a kind of pluralistic historicism, where history is in a process of constant reconstruction of itself.

This examination of nation-space allows for new meanings and directions for history, because it assumes that history may be “half-madeâ€. In other words, when the self-contained narratives of a previously singular identity is viewed as only partial, the notion of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ becomes a hybridity of spaces. To reveal the margin of a singular nation-space contests claims to cultural supremacy, because it is

caught, uncertainly, in the act of ‘composing’ its powerful image. In this light, it is no surprise that Devils on the Doorstep begins in medias res.

At first glance, the film appears to be a black and white war documentary from the 1940’s. The postmodern production consciously applies archival cinematographic properties to a set of appropriated visual tropes from documentaries from the period of the Japanese occupation in China. The effect of this stylistic mimeses is a reproduction of the past in images, but more importantly, a recollection and displacement of a cultural past. This pastiche of simulated historical motifs and iconography sets a backdrop for a plot which simultaneously revisits and rearranges an established milieu of binary oppositions that compose cultural myths that are deeply woven into the narrative of historical national identity. Devils on the Doorstep does not try to deconstruct national history, but rather attempts to reconstruct an ongoing creation of history in which the past and present and myth and reality are diffused, allowing for an emergence of a pluralistic national narrative...

[red]

Royal Tenenbaums reference?

i dont know what youre talking about.

[subarashii_kudamono]

...The nature of religion and religious truth has always plagued intelligent, reflexive human beings with the problem of definition. On the one hand, language is at the apex of human communication, and gives one the means to access the ‘divine’, yet on the other hand, it’s limitations prevent us from being able to elucidate the phenomenon with adequacy. The relationship religious language has with religion is a metonymic one: only fragments of it can be expressed or represented in words. However, as James put it, having their names, one can hold the gods “subject to his willâ€. Thus the bilopolarity of this relationship is effective to the human need to probe for truth. Consequently, religious truth is validated by rational, worldly human reality (with language as it’s common denominator,) while simultaneously, the relative understanding and access of ‘truth’ through such means affect the mutable individual notion of reality...