Category Archives: New Utopia

Here's the thing I love about Cory Doctorow: No one is weirder than he is.

And I don't mean run-of-the-mill weird. I don't mean personally weird (though he might be, I don't know him), but as a writer? Super-weird in the best possible way. And he's deep-weird, not gimmicky-weird. Weird in the sense that he has done the math, calculated the forking paths, and is presenting to you a world which isn't just amusing and borderline plausible, but a dispatch from next Tuesday.

His novels read less like speculation than prediction a hardcore nerd's careful read on technology and biology and entropy, impeccably sourced and, in their own way, as real and present and hopeful as the augury of a Bizarro World Cassandra with carpal tunnel and grease under her nails.

Walkaway is his newest, and it is remarkable. It's one of those books that I don't want to describe at all, because doing so would ruin the new car smell of stepping into a fresh-off-the-lot universe. It would sour the joy of getting face-punched over and over again by the utopian/dystopian ideas, theories, arguments and philosophies that Doctorow lays down. It would, in short, wreck the fun.

But let's do this, okay? I'm going to tell you the basics. Because going in, there are some things you should know. Walkaway is, as the title suggests, a story of abandonment. Of giving up an old thing for something new, risky and beautiful. In the near future, the world (more specifically, Canada) is a mess. Global ecological catastrophes, refugee crises, out of control wealth disparity it's all come true. Basically take the front page of any newspaper today, fast forward by a decade or so, and you're at home in Walkaway.

Enter Hubert, Etc. (so-called because of his 19 middle names) and his buddy Seth. They're both poor, slightly over-the-hill scenesters refusing to give up on the tatters of their fading youth. Borderline survivors of a post-scarcity world and a gig economy gone full-tilt dysto, they show up at a "Communist Party" being thrown by Natalie, renegade daughter of a super-rich family (zottarich in Doctorow-ese) who is an expert at taking over old industrial spaces, sweet-talking the mothballed machinery into operation, adding a DJ and some 3D printers and making a free-for-all rave of it.

The cops come. Drones descend. Bad things happen. Natalie, Etcetera and Seth flee and, in short order, decide that they're sick of The Man and The Man's rules and they're just gonna, you know, walk away.

They're not the first. Doctorow's world is one where most people live in "Default" as in the default reality of cities, bills, jobs, whatever. But in between these spirit-crushing bastions of old thought and old rules are a million miles of everything else. Fields. Wildflowers. Entire abandoned cities left to rot. And in Doctorow's fantasy, it is into these spaces that all the world's smart people and capable people and pissed-off people have gone.

"The point of Walkaway is the first days of a better nation," says one of Doctorow's characters. Says many of them, actually. That's the recurring belief-system on which the book runs. It is the story of precisely this what comes after the slow-burn apocalypse we all secretly fear is coming, how it will work, how it will all go wrong and how it will get made right again with drones, wet printers and elbow grease. It's like the Genesis story of a world not yet here, but maybe dangerously close. After the flood, this is how we rebuilt ...

And yes, it sometimes reads like a series of philosophical set-pieces stitched together with drone fights and lots of sex. Like a Michael Bay movie if all the explosions were emotional. But the philosophy is fascinating and, somehow, rarely dull because it, like Walkaway culture, revolves around sharing, fierce debate and open-sourced best practices. It is world-as-lesson-as-world. An anti-Atlas Shrugged. An origami argument that unfolds into a novel.

By my own (admittedly poor) math, it presents roughly ten thousand new, mind-bending and ground-breaking ideas per page. There are words in here that only otherwise exist in insular pockets of the maker/hacker/open source/thingiverse sub-sub-culture. In terms of its geek heroism, epic, generational scope and high stakes (only the survival of the human race, after all, and possibly the cure for death), the only literary comparison I can make is to Neal Stephenson's hard science disaster masterpiece, Seveneves, but Walkaway is more human. More squishy and close to home.

It's the story of a utopia in progress, as messy as every new thing ever is, told in the form of people talking to each other, arguing with each other and working together to solve problems. It's all about the deep, disturbing, recognizable weirdness of the future that must come from the present we have already made for ourselves, trying to figure out what went wrong and what comes next.

Jason Sheehan knows stuff about food, videogames, books and Starblazers. He is currently the restaurant critic at Philadelphia magazine, but when no one is looking, he spends his time writing books about giant robots and ray guns. Tales From the Radiation Age is his latest book.

Originally posted here:

In 'Walkaway,' a blueprint for a new, weird (but better) world - Minnesota Public Radio News

Throughout Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the concepts of consumption and utopia are constantly juxtaposed and compared to determine whether or not they are genuinely compatible. Although one could state that the citizens of this world in Brave New World are genuinely happy, this is more a result of ignorance and blindness rather than a truly fulfilling sense of bliss. Because the state in Brave New World has meticulously given consumption an almost holy significance, the culture that exists around it must accordingly be conducive to it.

As a result as the constant emphasis on consumption in Brave New World" the signifiers of identity such as a concept of nature, religion, and self, have been obliterated to foster a powerful and complete reliance on the state. Because of the almost infantile degree of dependence the state has created in Brave New World the culture of consumption is able to thrive. It is only through the character of John, who is most allied with our perception of reality, that the reader is able to discern how the ideas of consumption and utopia cannot be compatible. Through his eyes, it is possible to see how instead of creating happiness in Brave New World by Huxley the combination of these two opposing forces breeds dependence and destroys the individual.

The culture of consumption in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is the engine driving the success and happiness" of the state. Although to the masses it may seem as though identity is something secure and comfortable, it is rather based upon identity-obliterating principles of mass-production and consumerism. All traces of human elements of individuality and identity have been replaced by the concept of the common good and even ideas about love, family, and sex have been reduced to the maxim, which is one of the important quotes from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, everybody belongs to everyone else" (26). Furthermore, the basis of life in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley an idea that is sacred and personal in our society, is firmly rooted in Fords famous model of productionthe assembly line. With the help of science, human beings are created according to a narrow set of specifications (which class they will eventually belong to) and their lives, once no longer useful are considered meaningless, especially since they can be easily replaced.

As Mr. Foster, who presides over the conditioning and hatching" of the new human lives says in one of many important quotes in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Murder kills only the individual and, after all what is an individual? We can make a new one with the greatest easeas many as we like" (133). Even from the beginning of the text we are forced to question the concept of mass-production and consumption in terms of humanity. We are introduced to the process of (re)production, which describes how, a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult" (4). With the aid of technology, identity and the function of nature have been both combined and destroyed simultaneously. After the process of conditioning, the concept of the self will be even further limited to an individuals participation in the economy and his or her value or obedience as member of a caste. In other words, by obliterating the concept of the individual, all that is left is the state and its capacity to meet the relatively simple supply and demand-based needs of the citizen. This fact in turn makes the individual completely reliant on the state to provide for them and allows this state to completely control all aspects of society, including the individuals understanding of the natural world, their sense of place within the grand scheme of things, and thus by proxy, the concept of God. At the pinnacle of all concernsboth by the citizens and their stateis an almost holy reverence for consumption.

As this thesis statement for Brave New World by Aldous Huxley states, just as the state has destroyed the meaning and value of the individual in Brave New World so too has it altered the individuals understanding of the natural world. This seems only just considering that this is a culture driven by the forces of science and technology, but the conditioning against the love of nature has deeper significance for the state. Throughout the text, the state seems keenly aware of the fact that nature and consumption are essentially at odds because, in other words, A love of nature keeps no factories busy" (19). Here it is directly expressed that the enjoyment of the masses is directed toward what is economically desirable instead of what is personally enjoyable and thus, because of the mass acceptance of such a paradigm, individual fulfillment is inexorably linked to economic stability and consumerism. As the reader is told, conditioning has caused the masses to hate the countryto love all country sportsand have all country sports entail the use of elaborate apparatus" (23).

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley : An Analysis of the ...

Wisconsin Public Radio News

Greendale, A Depression-Era Experiment In Utopia Wisconsin Public Radio News The first families moved in to Greendale, Wisconsin, in late April of 1938. One of three "greenbelt" towns, Greendale was a Depression-era experiment to create a new American way of life. Greenbelt towns were a project of the Resettlement ...

Excerpt from:

Greendale, A Depression-Era Experiment In Utopia - Wisconsin Public Radio News

Common Dreams

Because It's Time for 'New, Radical Ideas,' TED Talk on Universal Basic Income Gets Thunderous Applause Common Dreams The concept the Utopia for Realists author is floating is far from new, and recent examples are easy to find. As Laura Williams, activism officer at the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, noted recently: "In 2008-2009 Namibia experimented ... Venture Capital For The People: Making The Case For A Basic IncomeFast Company all 2 news articles »

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Because It's Time for 'New, Radical Ideas,' TED Talk on Universal Basic Income Gets Thunderous Applause - Common Dreams

anchor

Image: Desert Cloud 1972. Credit: Graham Stevens.

Pneumatic architectureaka inflatableshave been a mainstay of avant-garde and experimental architecture for decades. Back in the 60s, figures like Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto, alongside radical practices like Haus-Rucker-Co, Utopia and Ant Farm, pioneered the use of these structures. Theyve also been used by more mainstream studios, from Diller Scofidio + Renfro to Grimshaw.

Now, theyre the subject of an exhibition at BSA Space in Boston. Entitled The New Inflatable Moment, the exhibition, which opens on May 3, will explore inflatable structures used in architecture, art, and engineering since the emergence of the hot air balloon, with a particular focus on their role in envisioning utopia.

The exhibition is inspired by a recently-released book, The Inflatable Moment: Pneumatics and Protest in 68. It looks at renewed interest in the architectural media within this historical context.

With this exhibition, we revisit the moment of the 1960s explored by Dessauce to suggest that utopian thought is re-emerging today in architecture and art as evidenced in projects involving inflatables, say Mary Hale and Katarzyna Balug, the curators.

The exhibit will run through to September 3, 2017. Admission is free. More info here.

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2017 Julius Shulman Photography Awardee Todd Eberle to exhibit his portraits of architecture's icons at WUHO Gallery

The rest is here:

'The New Inflatable Moment' at BSA Space will explore the role of pneumatic architecture in envisioning utopia - Archinect

Posted April 24, 2017 09:18:14

Decades of failed visions, like the collapse of communism, mean the idea of utopia has come to have pejorative connotations.

It's been tarnished by an association with fanatics, like Hitler and Pol Pot.

And to pragmatists, utopia might be a byword for the pointless pursuit of impractical and unachievable goals.

But although we live in a very different era to when Thomas More coined the word in his landmark book The New Island of Utopia, just over 500 years ago, there are scholars who say these ideas still have a place.

Jacqueline Dutton is an expert on the history of Australian utopias, and sees manifestations of utopianism all around us, in ideas like co-housing, urban agriculture, recycling, "second chance" food, and "sharing economy" innovations like Uber, Airbnb and couchsurfing.

"These ideas were considered counter-cultural and only belonging to hippy communities or radical people in the 1960s and 70s," she says.

"[They] were incredibly radical and marginalised ... and it's actually only taken us 50 years really to embrace [them] as part of our everyday life."

Even commonplace technocratic language like "alternate scenario planning" hints at utopianism, Dutton believes.

"It sounds a bit more boardroom than utopianism, but essentially it's about projecting a different way of being," she says.

"Basically, behind utopia, there is this desire for a better way of being in the world."

It is easy to dismiss grandiose gestures and lofty ideals as unworkable even if you are a philosopher striving to live a life according to your moral principles.

When asked to address an "abolish fishing" rally, philosopher and author Peter Singer, a practising vegan, says he challenged the organiser: "Isn't it a bit utopian to think that you are going to, by marching, abolish fishing?"

According to Singer, the organiser replied: "What I want to do is to plant the seed so that maybe in 100 years' time, people will realise that fish are sentient beings ... that we cause a lot of suffering to them."

"In one sense," Singer continues, "you could say it's utopian to think we will stop eating animals.

"In another sense, you could say, who knows? Conditions could change. We'll find other things to eat. We are already producing more plant-based foods."

Singer and Dutton were speaking at a recent Utopia 500 forum at the National Library of Australia, organised by ANU's Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities.

Dutton revealed, astonishingly, that there was a time when Australia existed only as an exotic, fantastical utopia in the imaginations of those living in the Old World of Europe.

"For about four centuries, Australia was imagined by the Europeans," says Dutton, "before it was actually known."

She says one of the first utopian visions of Australia was conceived by a Frenchman, Gabriel de Foigny, in 1676.

"It was called The Southern Land, Known, and it was a 'projection' of the Australian continent, the southern land it wasn't known as Australian at this stage," she says.

Inhabited by people de Foigny described as "hermaphrodites", the imagined Australia was "a place of hybridity, monstrosity [and] extreme otherness ... that cannot really be reconciled with a European understanding of the world".

"The idea that anything could be possible in this southern land made Australia a blank canvas a tabula rasa upon which pretty much anything could be projected," Dutton says.

The 16th century, when More was penning his Utopia, was an epoch of wonder and possibility. Europeans made landfall in what would become known as the Americas. The New World was coming into being. There were voyages of discovery and exploration. These were fertile times for imagined utopias.

Yet, we now know, complex civilisations in the New World predated the arrival of the Europeans by millennia.

Indigenous Australians, of course, existed on the great southern continent for tens of millennia prior to European exploration and colonisation. But did they have a concept of utopia in their dreaming stories?

Aboriginal writer and Miles Franklin-winning novelist Alexis Wright doesn't think so.

"I think our culture is structured differently. It's structured around the ancestral story, the creation story ... and our responsibilities were to maintain harmony and balance in the country, to traditional lands," she says.

"I think we were realists and we were tied to the land. There was a law structure, a spiritual structure.

"There's only one utopia I know and that's a [former] cattle station," she jokes, in reference to the Aboriginal homelands region near Alice Springs.

Dutton says while the notion of a desire "for a better way of being in the world" transcends cultures, the idea of utopia is essentially "a Western Christian construct".

Within these cultural parameters, though, there are virtually limitless visions.

One version, which harks back to More, envisages an age of leisure even if it is unclear how this lifestyle would be achieved in the modern industrialised world.

"Thomas More had this idea that work is not good for you. It's bad for your health. It should be minimised, as opposed to expanded," UCLA's Professor Russell Jacoby told the Utopia 500 forum.

In this respect, More may belatedly get his wish. Advanced automation, enhanced technology and robotics are predicted to result in the widespread displacement of labour in the near future.

"The question of labour is the vexing issue of contemporary society," Jacoby says.

"As we become more productive, increasingly we can't find jobs for people. Where is the work going to come from? We can't figure it out."

But unemployment and underemployment do not equate to leisure. Not unless the idle are paid not to work, as some have indeed argued they should be.

Utopian thinking does not provide tangible solutions to society's wicked problems. Nor is it intended to. Instead, it widens the scope of what might be possible in the future; of what we should aspire to.

Perhaps, too, it ought to prompt us to consider not just the possibilities, but also the question of what is perfection and what is socially desirable.

"Is there a role for people with a disability in a utopian society?" an audience member asks Singer at the conclusion of the Utopia 500 forum.

Singer, whose writing on bioethics has been controversial, responds: "I suppose you could imagine in a complete utopia there might be ways of learning what causes people to have disabilities.

"And then maybe people would choose not to have children with disabilities. That's a possibility.

"Some people would say, in that case, you lose something from society. You lose a certain kind of diversity, a certain kind of caring. But my view would be, if you did have the knowledge, then parents ought to have the choice.

"In many respects we do have that choice now through prenatal diagnosis. And the overwhelming majority of parents, when they have a prenatal diagnosis of a serious condition ... decide to terminate the pregnancy.

"I don't think in any utopia you would remove that right of choice."

Topics: philosophy, history, community-and-society, australia

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Where have all the utopian thinkers gone? - ABC Online

Automation is disrupting society, but will it destroy or reaffirm our faith in democracy and its freedoms?

The far reaching potential of hyperconnectivity, the Internet of Things and automation is discussed in the media every day. The speculation on how society will be affected is wild, reserved, optimistic and pessimistic. It covers everything from the impact on jobs to infrastructure, standards of living and communication. But how will these rapid technological advances impact democracy? This blog discusses whether hyperconnectivity and automation will lead to a new utopia (autopia anyone?!) or a nightmarish Orwellian 1984 in which we can't be truly free.

Automation and Freedom

When the internet first went live, many commentators assumed it would provide a pure form of democracy. Everyone was given the same platform; age, race and gender were no longer relevant and we were all anonymous. But the reality was more chaotic, as we struggled to comprehend the power of a new tool that would revolutionize human life. This strange world was somewhere we could get lost and detach ourselves from everyday existence, but often it was also a quasi-reality that proved overwhelming and dangerous.

Yet slowly we have found structure. Society has become inherently more intelligent - we can find the answer to almost anything at the click of a button. Those at the cutting-edge can now gain previously unimaginable insight into human tendencies and interests. From here they can make tangible benefits to our lives. We can order a taxi, monitor our home, obtain recommendations on new music that suit our tastes and even meet our future partner; all from our phone through automated data-driven processes.

Freedom, a fundamental tenet of democracy, is inherent to automation when implemented correctly. For instance, in the workplace many employees were previously shackled by tedious repetitive manual tasks, but they now have more freedom to work on creative, complex and specialized projects. This is also true outside the office; administrative tasks that constrain us and consume much of our time have been removed - just think of paying money to a friend on a mobile app compared to visiting a bank. So automation and the Internet of Things are already beginning to reconstruct our daily routines, providing us with more time and freedom to pursue new interests and engage with society on a deeper level.

Big Data and Big Change

The power of automation depends on our ability to harness the explosion in volume, variety, veracity, velocity and value of data. Big data has significantly changed what is possible and has immense potential if we can learn to understand it.

Traditional media, which has historically shaped society's perspectives under the command of a few large corporations, has lost its stranglehold on information that has now been democratized. Examples of which extend to bloggers, vloggers and almost anyone who has been able to get an audience on a social media platform.

In the same way that savvy tech businesses can utilize data to better understand their customers, political and social groups will soon be able to understand human tendencies. Now interests and behaviors can be rationalized with precise data from large samples of society, rather than the guesswork and opinion of just a few who claim to represent diverse groups of people with only a postcode in common. Decisions can be made on analytics rather than emotions and instinct. At no point in history have governments had so much information available to make the correct decisions, or the public so much information to hold politicians accountable for their actions.

Empowerment Through Automation

Most definitions of democracy include the idea of empowerment: giving a voice, a right to vote, the right to free speech etc. The Internet of Things can and should be used to empower us. Everyone everywhere is gathering information at an exponential rate, and even if it does seem daunting at times it is a fantastic opportunity.

Critics would argue automation is destroying the labor market and sending collective organization into spiraling decline. However, technology provides a platform from which any disruption can be reordered. Automation will not take our jobs (scientific studies typically argue the reverse). Sure, it might restructure the way we work, the roles we take and the way our society functions. But we should use these incredible tools to enhance society and reconcile it rather than blame them for divisions.

Information is available to the public who can use it for good. Knowledge is power and we are seeing a dramatic shift in a transfer of knowledge. No longer should it be the exclusive property of small and privileged enclaves of society.

So What Does the Future Hold?

Clearly modern technology has disrupted society. The challenge therefore is to overcome our fears, embrace it and adapt in the right way. Because, never before have we had so much opportunity at our fingertips. It is, I would suggest, a cause for enormous optimism and the way it is used is up to us.

Continued here:

Automation And Society: Will Democracy Survive The Internet Of Things? - Huffington Post UK

New York Times

She Was the Orchestra's Only Black Musician, Until She Formed Her Own New York Times For Chi-chi Nwanoku, coming up with the right name for her new minority orchestra was a stressful experience. Though Ms. ... The first concert in 2015 during the Africa Utopia festival sold out, and fans lined up outside the concert hall hoping to get in. and more »

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She Was the Orchestra's Only Black Musician, Until She Formed Her Own - New York Times

Its hard to imagine a more generic name for a reality show than Southern Charm. Thats the Bravo series that started Season 4 this month and drew a solid 1.25 million viewers in the desirable 18-to-49 age bracket for the premiere.

Whats making people tune in?

The show (9 p.m. Mondays) revolves around characters in their late 20s and early 30s who live in Charleston, S.C. Many of them look so much alike that even they cant tell themselves apart. Is that tousle-haired, grinning party boy Shep or his protege, tousle-haired, grinning party boy Austen? Which slender blonde woman is Naomie and which is Cameran? The beauty of the show is that it really doesnt even matter because they all like a) day-drinking parties, b) complaining about the 150 degree heat and c) wearing pastels.

For comic relief, theres an older socialite, Patricia, and her plump pug, Chauncey. She lolls in bed in her palatial estate, summons her butler and asks why the buzzer to summon him isnt buzzing. He dutifully replies, Im sure the batteries have worn down.

For tragedy, theres the broken couple of Thomas (whos in his 50s and a former treasurer for the state of South Carolina) and 20-something Kathryn. Her use of drugs and alcohol brought their relationship to an end. Wealthy blue blood Thomas has custody of their young offspring. Thomas explains that the two children live in his guesthouse with a nanny because children are messy and hed rather they spit up on a $200 guesthouse rug than a $30,000 main house rug. Hes currently looking for a woman who feels privileged to be with me.

So beneath the shows bland title lie Southern self-indulgence, Southern snootiness and Southern sorrows. Maybe thats why people are watching!

Meanwhile, the unsung star of the series is Charleston, with its enticing palm trees and Spanish moss, refreshing river vistas and inviting front porches. Unlike the shows boorish humans, the Palmetto City oozes Southern charm.

Read more of Marcs TV musings:

Can millennials create a new utopia in Jungletown?

Brockmire turns a crisis into a home run

Yes, Crashing is another sitcom based on a stand-up comic. Yes, you should watch it.

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What's making people tune into 'Southern Charm'? - Washington Post

Lucknow, April 22 (PTI): The new police chief of Uttar Pradesh, Sulkhan Singh, on Saturday vowed to crush goondagardi and warned that even so-called VIPs would not be spared.

Singh said his priority would be ensuring unbiased policing.

Those indulging in goondagardi and criminal activities will be dealt without mercy. They cannot escape. And even VIPs will not be spared, the 1980-batch IPS officer said without mincing words.

He was talking to mediapersons after taking over as the Director General of Police from Javeed Ahmed, who was shunted to the Provincial Armed Constabulary as its director general on Friday night in the first major shuffle of the top police hierarchy by the Yogi Adityanath government.

Singh, the senior most officer of the Indian Police Service in the state, said there will be no compromise in ensuring security to the common man.

Uniform action will be taken against any wrong doer. There will be no bias, whosoever the culprit is or whatever political connection the person flaunts, he said, talking tough on the first day of assuming charge.

He said maximum cases will be filed and police will get full freedom to work without fear or pressure from any quarter.

Asked about his priorities, Singh said: My effort will be ensuring unbiased policing and keeping the morale of the force high.

When it was pointed out to him that he did not have a long tenure as his superannuation was due later this year, Singh, known for bringing several reforms in police, said, I have to prove my worth during this period.

To another question pertaining to allegations of rampant corruption in the police machinery, he said, Fair inquiry will be done in all cases.

My top priority would be to make policing humane and courteous, the DGP said.

Singh said policing should be impartial and the objective is to ensure relief to the common man.

Police should avoid high-handedness as every citizen belongs to the state. No one is an outsider, he said.

As DGP, Singh said his priority was the safety and security of women, who should feel safe even in the late hours.

In reply to a question, he said though he has come to know about Islamic State sympathisers in the state through the media, he would look into this challenge also on a priority basis and asserted that the force was highly capable to deal with any situation.

When asked about the sagging morale of the police force in view of over 100 cases of assault and killing of the men- in-khaki, Singh said that it was a contentious issue.

But, definitely if there is any demoralisation in the force, I would address it on top priority, he said.

Singh, who enjoys an impeccable record, was shunted to posts quite below the level of his seniority during rule of the Samajwadi Party, dislodged by Adityanath and the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier this year.

During the Bahujan Samaj Partys rule between 2007 and 2012, Singh had probed a scam in police jobs said to have taken place during 2003-2007, when Mulayam Singh Yadav and his SP ruled the state.

His report indicted several IPS officers. In 2012, when the SP came to the power again, he was sent to the Police Training Centre at Unnao as the principal, a post far below his rank.

Another landmark in his career was prison reforms as inspector general of jails. He has worked for human rights of prisoners and improving facilities for inmates.

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Utopia? UP's new police chief promises unbiased policing, end of goondas - Calcutta Telegraph