Category Archives: Transhuman News

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I should state that my prof probably wouldnt support me posting such a public critique of another academic, but in my profs own words..We are baby academics...and as a baby I think I have license to discussing my ever changing ignorant and informed perspective(s)..

Who is the subject in the future?

It becomes increasingly difficult to comprehend the diversity of Queer Theory. The comprehension of diversity possibly requires us to specify theoriesin "..document or legitimizing installment.."(Manalansan2014)or archival efforts in colonial desperation. MartinF. Manalansan's"The Stuffof Archives | Mess, Migration, and Queer Lives" offers a possible contemporary contribution to a post-colonial diversity. Even though this "..theoretical and ethnographic explanation" (Manalansan2014) situates itselfin New York City at the brink of the millenniumit may not be effortless to justify the "Contestationsof citizenship, hygiene, and social order."(Manalansan2014) thatManalansaninsists. This response essay will cover what is empirical, objective, but subjectiveabout Manalansan'spiece.Is there validity to positive and negative messes"(Manalansan2014)? Mess as Queer.

The piece situates itself in a "..gentrifying neighbourhood.."(Manalansan2014) NYC at the end of the AIDScrisis. Proposes the "The Queer Six" (Manalansan2014)to state a case for empirical observation. A Filipinatrans woman, two South-asiangay men, an Ecuadoranlesbian, and two Colombians, a lesbian and a bisexual..begs the question of appropriate diversity. What is so disheveled about this isolated group of "..minorariansubjects.." (Manalansan2014)? If"..mess is not limited to bodies, objects.."(Manalansan2014) then where are bodies of majoritarian? Limited by what Manalansanconstitutes "..material culture studies.."(Manalansan2014). Post-colonial means no-colonial? Empirical is concerned with the verifiable through observation interrogates the absence of neo-culturalIntegration.

To vindicate the "..untidy disorganization of bodies, things, emotions.."(Manalansan2014) as additions to the archive Manalansansheds light on "..culture of underrecognizedpractices.."(Manalansan2014). Using examples such as television show What Not to Wear as a "..pathology to normality.."(Manalansan2014) evidentiallyand objectively explores reasonings for these under recognized practices and bodies. Objectivity situates itself in neutrality. Words of scientific comedianEmily Levine "The subject subjugatingthe object" How is Manalansansubjugating the evidence?Indications of "..the idea of a hotmess involves less a clear-cut binary than a highly gendered one.." (Manalansan2014)implicating "..positive and negative messes.." (Manalansan2014)curiously invokes us to ask..who are the actual subjects in this allegedObjective commentary.

At further dissection, "The Queer Six" disguisesitself as subjects of "..ephemeral evidence.."(Manalansan2014) at the trenches against "..traditional historiography.."(Manalansan2014). For the reasoning inManalansan'sargumentgive impressions of morality. Unexpectedly, the subject becomes principlesof positive and negative as a rational for Mess as Queerness. Expansion on "..science of systems management.."(Manalansan2014) could have providedManalansanwith better substantiatedclaims. Though, the inclusion of BinarySystems offers an acceptable provocation "..of marginalized queers.."(Manalansan2014) as apposed to "..locating the quotidian.."(Manalansan2014) in the sensationalizedand evidencing irrelavant"..pleasures and fabulousness.."(Manalansan2014).

Who is the subject subjugatingthe object?.. in another contemporary effort "..to officialize and further historialknowledge.."(Manalansan2014)? As briefly analyzed in this responsiveessay ofMartinF. Manalansan's"The Stuffof Archives | Mess, Migration, and Queer Lives"; issues of inclusiveness, subjectivity, and evidence come into discourse. What is true substantiatedevidence in order to justify a new generation of archival practices? In Manalansan'sown conclusion "..hint at political potential.."(Manalansan2014) or "..alternative narratives enable an openess to multiple futures.."(Manalansan2014) claims fanaticaloptimism with aninsignificantglimpse at tangible solutions. Value in the fabrication in conversational literature may provoke changes in theoreticalperspectives. A material solution of the subject(s) "..queer immigrant archive.."(Manalansan2014) or the subject(s)"..traditional historiography.."(Manalansan2014) subjugating the objects of scientific inquiryin Queer Theory quarrels a different post-human future. Responses whetherMess as Queernessexists as a priority.

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Who is the #SUBJECT in the #FUTURE? - Huffington Post

Horrifying details have been released from inside a Syrian human slaughterhouse where up to 13,000 prisoners have been tortured and executed in the government facility.

Former inmates detail the shocking extent of the abuse they experienced in Saydnaya, a facility deigned to humiliate, degrade, torture and ultimately kill those trapped inside.

Amnesty International, which published the report on Tuesday, believe that the suffering and appalling conditions at Saydnaya have been deliberately inflicted on detainees as a policy of extermination.

Amnesty International

The findings of the report are based on an investigation carried out between December 2015 and December 2016.

Amnesty International spoke to 84 witnesses, included former Saydnaya guards and officials, detainees, judges and lawyers, as well as national and international experts on detention in Syria.

Between 2011 and 2015 up to 13,000 people were killed.

Groups of up to 50 people were taken out of their cells and hanged, the report states.

Hangings at the prison were carried out at least once a week, sometimes twice, Amnesty International said.

Detainees were transported to another prison building on the grounds of Saydnaya, where they were hanged. Throughout this process, they remain blindfolded.

They do not know when or how they will die until the noose is placed around their necks.

They kept them [hanging] there for 10 to 15 minutes. Some didnt die because they are light.

For the young ones, their weight wouldnt kill them. The officers assistants would pull them down and break their necks, said a former judge who witnessed the hangings.

Amnesty International

Guards collected detainees from their cells in the middle of the night, usually on Monday and Wednesday.

If you put your ears on the floor, you could hear the sound of a kind of gurgling. This would last around 10 minutes We were sleeping on top of the sound of people choking to death.

This was normal for me then, said Hamid, a former military officer arrested in 2011.

Amnesty International

The cell floors were described as having blood and puss from prisoners wounds. Guards collected the bodies of dead detainees each morning at about 9am.

Nader, a former Saydnaya detainee, said: Every day there would be two or three dead people in our wing I remember the guard would ask how many we had.

He would say, Room number one how many? Room number two how many? and on and on... There was one time that the guards came to us, room by room, and beat us on the head, chest and neck.

Thirteen people from our wing died that day.

Nicolette Waldman, the reports author, said: The vast majority of victims in Saydnaya who are being subjected to mass hangings and extermination are civilians.

Their most common profiles are human rights defenders, political dissidents, journalists, students, demonstrators.

They have not committed any crime other than being perceived to oppose the Syrian government.

Amnesty International

Not one of the detainees condemned to hang at Saydnaya Prison is given a fair trial, Amnesty reports.

Before people are hanged, theyundergo a perfunctory, one or two-minute procedure at a so-called Military Field Court.

One former judge from a Syrian military court told Amnesty International the court operates outside the rules of the Syrian legal system.

The judge will ask the name of the detainee and whether he committed the crime. Whether the answer is yes or no, he will be convicted... This court has no relation with the rule of law. This is not a court, he said.

The convictions issued by this so-called court are based on false confessions extracted from detainees under torture.

Detainees are not allowed access to a lawyer or given an opportunity to defend themselves.

Those who are condemned to death do not find out about their sentences until minutes before they are hanged.

Amnesty International

Rape was used as a form of torture, with prisoners in some cases being forced to rape other inmates, the report released on Tuesday states.

Vahid Salemi/AP

Amnesty International said such war crimes and crimes against humanity are authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government.

Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty Internationals regional office in Beirut, said:The horrors depicted in this report reveal a hidden, monstrous campaign, authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government, aimed at crushing any form of dissent within the Syrian population.

We demand that the Syrian authorities immediately cease extrajudicial executions and torture and inhuman treatment at Saydnaya Prison and in all other government prisons across Syria. Russia and Iran, the governments closest allies, must press for an end to these murderous detention policies.

The upcoming Syria peace talks in Geneva cannot ignore these findings. Ending these atrocities in Syrian government prisons must be put on the agenda.

The UN must immediately carry out an independent investigation into the crimes being committed at Saydnaya and demand access for independent monitors to all places of detention.

Link:
Syria's Saydnaya Prison A 'Human Slaughterhouse' Says Amnesty International Report - Huffington Post UK

Detectives are trawling the missing persons database as they attempt to identify a body found beside the A404 .

Human remains were discovered by a Thames Valley Police officer next to the slip road near the Handycross roundabout from the road to the M40 northbound, High Wycombe on Saturday, February 4.

A post mortem revealed it is a man's body but the cause of his death is still unknown.

Investigating officer, Detective Inspector Simon Marples said: We are still working hard to identify the person so we can inform any next of kin, however it has now been established that it is the body of a male.

We are reviewing our missing people database as well as liaising with the community, other police forces and partners to establish who the person is.

A post mortem was held yesterday [Monday, February 6] but the cause of death was inconclusive so more tests will be carried out.

The death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious at this stage of the investigation."

A scene watch remains in place while police carry out further work in the area but the road is fully open.

The remains were found at around 1.40pm on Saturday by the officer during a routine patrol.

The road was reopened after an investigation on Monday, February 6 at around 1am.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously 0800 555 111.

Read more:
Results of A404 human remains post mortem released by police - getreading

LONDON Inspired by his belief that human beings are essentially terrified of robots, Ben Russell set about charting the evolution of automatons for an exhibition he hopes will force people to think about how androids and other robotic forms can enhance their lives.

Robots, says Russell, have been with us for centuries as Robots, his exhibit opening Wednesday at Londons Science Museum, shows.

From a 15th century Spanish clockwork monk who kisses his rosary and beats his breast in contrition, to a Japanese childoid newsreader, created in 2014 with lifelike facial expressions, the exhibition tracks the development of robotics and mankinds obsession with replicating itself.

Arnold Schwarzeneggers unstoppable Terminator cyborg is there, as is Robby the Robot, star of the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, representing the horror and the fantasy of robots with minds of their own.

There are also examples of factory production-line machines blamed for taking peoples jobs in recent decades; a telenoid communications android for hugging during long-distance phone calls to ease loneliness; and Kaspar, a minimally expressive social robot built like a small boy and designed to help ease social interactions for children with autism.

When you take a long view, as we have done with 500 years of robots, robots havent been these terrifying things, theyve been magical, fascinating, useful, and they generally tend to do what we want them to do, said Russell, who works at the science museum and was the lead curator of the exhibition.

And while its human nature to be worried in the face of change, Russell said, the exhibit should help people think about what we are as humans and realize that if robots are going to come along, youve got a stake in how they develop.

A total of 100 robots are set in five different historic periods in a show that explores how religion, industrialization, pop culture and visions of the future have shaped society.

For Rich Walker, managing director of Shadow Robot Company in London, robotics is about what these increasingly sophisticated machines can do for humans to make life easier, particularly for the elderly or the impaired.

Im naturally lazy and got involved so that I could get robots to do things for me, Walker said. His company has developed a robotic hand that can replicate 24 of the 27 natural movements of the human hand.

As humans have a 1 percent failure rate at repetitive tasks, committing errors about once every two hours, the hand could replace humans on production lines, he said.

Walker concedes further erosion of certain types of jobs if inventions such as his are successful, but says having repetitive tasks performed by automatons would free up people to adopt value-added roles.

The issue is to rebuild the economy so that it has a holistic approach to employment, he said.

This in turn leads to questions, raised at the exhibition as well as by the European Union, of whether or not robots should pay taxes on the value of their output as part of the new industrial revolution.

Read this article:
Our obsession with robots keeps getting creepier - New York Post