tasers

I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard an interview with a biomedical engineer, Dr. Mark Kroll, from California Polytechnic State University. He was attending a three day conference on sudden death and in-custody deaths with law enforcement and medical examiners given by the U.S. Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths this week.

Dr Kroll said this morning that people do not understand electricity and they do not understand how tasers work. He said tasers are safe under all circumstances – tasers do no harm!! With a understatement destined to send shivers down pop culture media watchers – he stated that tasers were safer than Tylenol. When I heard that I instantly flashed back to the Tylenol scare in the 1980s and the fact the people actually died from taking Tylenol. I wondered what he was thinking saying such a thing. Anyhow, he denied any influence from the manufacturers of tasers, that though he teaches several times a year, he is not paid by the company.

OK what is my problem. I hear the distinct voice of scientific determinism here – science is good, but we do not understand it. If we did understand tasers/science we would appreciate how useful it is. The company who makes tasers say they are harmless, police officers say they are harmless, and yet we have more than one death in context with controlled force used by law enforcement officials.

Technology is not just good and it is not always used to further the just. Studies can be used in such a way as to make things that are dangerous seem harmless – is this the case here. I think we need to insist that studies are done by people with less motivation than the manufacturers and police who make and use the technology.

youtube

Last night we went on YouTube to see the latest news and guess what, we could not figure out how to see the videos. My techie roommate, who is comfortable anywhere there is a cyberspace, was at a loss. And we ended up returning to CBC.ca for our news on-line. I have CBC on constantly on my radio, we do not have cable or satellite TV, as a matter of fact, we have no TV at all here. We actually watch a lot of TV DVDs, just no overt commercials. of course I acknowledge that we are not in any way avoiding the pop culture infiltrations of our psyches. commerciality and consumerism are after all insidious, but we control the input of advertisements run by and for and on big media. Because we listen to and wach the nations broadcaster we are liable to hear very biased news considering the provider and who controls the purse strings at the corporation. CBC has always been a place for radicals to rest on their laurels before passing into relative oblivion and as such it is venerable. But it is NOT cutting edge in the sense that it is out there on the edge of technology. But it does have a competent web page and access to information not generally provided to listeners/viewers. For example, it has direct links on its main page to topics of concern for and about First Nations issues. CBC has also been in the forefront of the demands for clarity and truth in the taser incident at the Vancouver Airport, and CBC has done some excellent work towards child advocacy and protection. OK, the luddite speaks but just the same, if even my tech room mate cannot figure out how to get some satisfaction from You Tube and Paris Hilton can – I have to wonder what kind of world I am living in.

something new

This is the result of my successful powerpoint presentation. I sent my project to my teacher and then made sure he recieved it, with his help I was able to find it and see what it looked like. When I came home to my linux system I was unable to access it. But my teacher sent me an e-mail in response to my query about what to do. Seems  I had to enable pop-ups because my browser is not accepting things. So I learned how to do that today – probably should have learned it long ago but I have let my roomie be the tech and I need to be more involoved at least in  my own work. So, I am working on my comics and the layout of my newspaper. I have two contributors besides myself and I am harrassing the rest. I hope to have a mix of graphics and text. I was really impressed by my fellow students work in my other media studies class. I hope to learn to do some of the things that they demonstrated so well in their presentations. Like the use of graphics – clip art and pictures, and the use of colour and different fonts. It is an exciting medium for artists – computer graphics. Anyhow I should be working not talking.

facebook

Today I read a very interesting article about Facebook. The article addresses the benefits of this social network. What interested me was the way in which the users of this site created a social community. They used Facebook as a social register, as a way to stay in contact with friends from high school,and they used it to create a loose network of new friends. The article also suggests that Facebook use adds to the psychological well-being of the users.

OK, now I have to say that Facebook does not give me a sense of well-being. In fact whenever I go there I begin to feel guilty that I am not rersponding in the same way as some of my contacts. When they send me gifts and nudges and write on my wall I just feel weird and I feel worse if I have to use the ignore button. I feel as if this social utility is telling me how to relate to my friends. And even more, that I would not be even in this type of relationship willingly. I have friends on that site who have revealed the most astoundingly intimate stuff; and I have somebody who invited me to become a vampire the other day. I know its meant to be in fun, and maybe I am being too straight here, but please.

I am reasonably happy with my relationships and friendships – I admit that my life is not perfect but I seem to get sufficient stimulus and support from my real time, real life community. That makes me feel weird too. Because according to this article most college students depend heavily on Facebook to keep and make friends. The joining of virtual groups is good, but what if you do not want to join groups, does that make you an interloper on the site. Obviously, I am a reluctant user. I have friends who are non-users for reasons having to do with privacy and time. Apparently most of the users studied in this report used Facebook for at least 20 minutes every day!! If I was using Facebook that often, as well as using my hotmail, and messenger, and doing my on-line homework and research – when would I have time to say read a book, go for a walk, talk to my room mate, you know – life. Anyway, good article and very eye-opening – look for it.

Ellison, Nicole B., Steinfield, Charles, Lampe, Cliff. The Benefits of Facebook Friends: Social Capital and College Students Use of Online Social Network Sites. Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media. Michigan State University. In Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12 (2007). 1143-1168. International Communication Association.