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Browsing by Subject "makea vesi"
Abruptly and irreversibly changing Arctic freshwaters urgently require standardized monitoring
Heino, Jani; Culp, Joseph M.; Erkinaro, Jaakko; Goedkoop, Willem; Lento, Jennifer; Rühland, Kathleen; Smol, John P.; Britton, Robert (British Ecological Society, 2020)
Journal of Applied Ecology Volume 57, Issue 7 (2020)
1. Arctic regions support a wide variety of freshwater ecosystems. These naturally oligotrophic and cold-water streams, rivers, ponds and lakes are currently being impacted by a diverse range of anthropogenic pressures, such as accelerated climate change, permafrost thaw, land-use change, eutrophication, brownification and the replacement of northern biota with the range expansion of more southern species. 2. Multiple stressors are rapidly changing Arctic freshwater systems as aquatic habitats are becoming more suitable for species originating from more southerly regions and thereby threatening biota adapted to cold waters. The livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples of the north will be altered when ecosystem services associated with changes in biodiversity are affected. Unfortunately, monitoring of biodiversity change in Arctic freshwaters is currently inadequate, making it difficult, if not impossible, to predict changes in ecosystem services. 3. Synthesis and applications. We propose a three-step approach to better address and facilitate monitoring of the rapid ecological changes that Arctic freshwater ecosystems are currently experiencing as a result of climate change. First, we should increase our efforts in the monitoring of freshwaters across all Arctic countries by setting up a network of monitoring sites and devoting more effort to a broad-scale baseline survey using standardized methods. Second, we should enhance modelling efforts to include both ecological change and socio-economic development. These models should help pinpoint species, ecosystems and geographical areas that are likely to show abrupt changes in response to any changes. Third, we should increase interaction among scientists, policymakers and different stakeholder groups. In particular, Indigenous Peoples must be involved in the leadership, planning and execution of monitoring and assessment activities of Arctic freshwaters. The proposed approach, which is critical to detecting the effects of climate change in the circumpolar region, has broader applications for global coordination of Arctic freshwater biomonitoring. Through routine monitoring, standardization of methods, enhanced modelling of integrated scientific and socio-economic change, and increased collaboration within and among sectors, more effective monitoring and management of climate change impacts on freshwater biodiversity will be possible in the Arctic and globally.
Consistency of targeted metatranscriptomics and morphological characterization of phytoplankton communities
Vuorio, Kristiina; Mäki, Anita; Salmi, Pauliina; Aalto, Sanni L.; Tiirola, Marja (Frontiers Media S.A., 2020)
Frontiers in Microbiology 11 (2020) 96
The composition of phytoplankton community is the basis for environmental monitoring and assessment of the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems. Community composition studies of phytoplankton have been based on time-consuming and expertise-demanding light microscopy analyses. Molecular methods have the potential to replace microscopy, but the high copy number variation of ribosomal genes and the lack of universal primers for simultaneous amplification of prokaryotic and eukaryotic genes complicate data interpretation. In this study, we used our previously developed directional primer-independent high-throughput sequencing (HTS) approach to analyze 16S and 18S rRNA community structures. Comparison of 83 boreal lake samples showed that the relative abundances of eukaryotic phytoplankton at class level and prokaryotic cyanobacteria at order level were consistent between HTS and microscopy results. At the genus level, the results had low correspondence, mainly due to lack of sequences in the reference library. HTS was superior to identify genera that are extensively represented in the reference databases but lack specific morphological characteristics. Targeted metatranscriptomics proved to be a feasible method to complement the microscopy analysis. The metatranscriptomics can also be applied without linking the sequences to taxonomy. However, direct indexing of the sequences to their environmental indicator values needs collections of more comprehensive sample sets, as long as the coverage of molecular barcodes of eukaryotic species remains insufficient.
Fungal assemblages in predictive stream bioassessment: A cross-taxon comparison along multiple stressor gradients
Jyväsjärvi, Jussi; Lehosmaa, Kaisa; Aroviita, Jukka; Turunen, Jarno; Rajakallio, Maria; Marttila, Hannu; Tolkkinen, Mikko; Mykrä, Heikki; Muotka, Timo (Elsevier, 2021)
Ecological Indicators 121 (2021), 106986
Degradation of freshwater ecosystems requires efficient tools for assessing the ecological status of freshwater biota and identifying potential cause(s) for their biological degradation. While diatoms and macroinvertebrates are widely used in stream bioassessment, the potential utility of microbial communities has not been fully harnessed. Using data from 113 Finnish streams, we assessed the performance of aquatic leaf-associated fungal decomposers, relative to benthic macroinvertebrates and diatoms, in modelling-based bioassessment. We built multi-taxon niche -type predictive models for fungal assemblages by using genus-based and sequence-based identification levels. We then compared the models' precision and accuracy in the prediction of reference conditions (number of native taxa) to corresponding models for macroinvertebrates and diatoms. Genus-based fungal model nearly equalled the accuracy and precision of our best model (macroinvertebrates), whereas the sequence-based model was less accurate and tended to overestimate the number of taxa. However, when the models were applied to streams disturbed by anthropogenic stressors (nutrient enrichment, sedimentation and acidification), alone or in combination, the sequence-based fungal assemblages were more sensitive than other taxonomic groups, especially when multiple stressors were present. Microbial leaf decomposition rates were elevated in sediment-stressed streams whereas decomposition attributable to leaf-shredding macroinvertebrates was accelerated by nutrients and decelerated by sedimentation. Comparison of leaf decomposition results to model output suggested that leaf decomposition rates do not detect effectively the presence of multiple simultaneous disturbances. The rapid development of global microbial database may soon enable species-level identification of leaf-associated fungi, facilitating a more precise and accurate modelling of reference conditions in streams using fungal communities. This development, combined with the sensitivity of aquatic fungi in detecting the presence of multiple human disturbances, makes leaf-associated fungal assemblages an indispensable addition in a stream ecologist's toolbox.
Gradients of anthropogenic nutrient enrichment alter N Composition and DOM stoichiometry in freshwater ecosystems
Wymore, Adam S.; Johnes, Penny J.; Bernal, Susana; Brookshire, E. N. Jack; Fazekas, Hannah M.; Helton, Ashley M.; Argerich, Alba; Barnes, Rebecca T.; Coble, Ashley A.; Dodds, Walter K.; Haq, Shahan; Johnson, Sherri L.; Jones, Jeremy B.; Kaushal, Sujay S.; Kortelainen, Pirkko; López-Lloreda, Carla; Rodríguez-Cardona, Bianca M.; Spencer, Robert G. M.; Sullivan, Pamela L.; Yates, Christopher A.; McDowell, William H. (American Geophysical Union, 2021)
Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35(8), e2021GB006953
A comprehensive cross-biome assessment of major nitrogen (N) species that includes dissolved organic N (DON) is central to understanding interactions between inorganic nutrients and organic matter in running waters. Here, we synthesize stream water N chemistry across biomes and find that the composition of the dissolved N pool shifts from highly heterogeneous to primarily comprised of inorganic N, in tandem with dissolved organic matter (DOM) becoming more N-rich, in response to nutrient enrichment from human disturbances. We identify two critical thresholds of total dissolved N (TDN) concentrations where the proportions of organic and inorganic N shift. With low TDN concentrations (0–1.3 mg/L N), the dominant form of N is highly variable, and DON ranges from 0% to 100% of TDN. At TDN concentrations above 2.8 mg/L, inorganic N dominates the N pool and DON rarely exceeds 25% of TDN. This transition to inorganic N dominance coincides with a shift in the stoichiometry of the DOM pool, where DOM becomes progressively enriched in N and DON concentrations are less tightly associated with concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). This shift in DOM stoichiometry (defined as DOC:DON ratios) suggests that fundamental changes in the biogeochemical cycles of C and N in freshwater ecosystems are occurring across the globe as human activity alters inorganic N and DOM sources and availability. Alterations to DOM stoichiometry are likely to have important implications for both the fate of DOM and its role as a source of N as it is transported downstream to the coastal ocean.
Lakes in the era of global change : moving beyond single‐lake thinking in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services
Heino, Jani; Alahuhta, Janne; Bini, Luis Mauricio; Cai, Yongjiu; Heiskanen, Anna-Stiina; Hellsten, Seppo; Kortelainen, Pirkko; Kotamaki, Niina; Tolonen, Kimmo T.; Vihervaara, Petteri; Vilmi, Annika; Angeler, David G. (Wiley & Sons, 2021)
Biological Reviews 96(1), 89-106
The Anthropocene presents formidable threats to freshwater ecosystems. Lakes are especially vulnerable and important at the same time. They cover only a small area worldwide but harbour high levels of biodiversity and contribute disproportionately to ecosystem services. Lakes differ with respect to their general type (e.g. land-locked, drainage, floodplain and large lakes) and position in the landscape (e.g. highland versus lowland lakes), which contribute to the dynamics of these systems. Lakes should be generally viewed as 'meta-systems', whereby biodiversity is strongly affected by species dispersal, and ecosystem dynamics are contributed by the flow of matter and substances among locations in a broader waterscape context. Lake connectivity in the waterscape and position in the landscape determine the degree to which a lake is prone to invasion by non-native species and accumulation of harmful substances. Highly connected lakes low in the landscape accumulate nutrients and pollutants originating from ecosystems higher in the landscape. The monitoring and restoration of lake biodiversity and ecosystem services should consider the fact that a high degree of dynamism is present at local, regional and global scales. However, local and regional monitoring may be plagued by the unpredictability of ecological phenomena, hindering adaptive management of lakes. Although monitoring data are increasingly becoming available to study responses of lakes to global change, we still lack suitable integration of models for entire waterscapes. Research across disciplinary boundaries is needed to address the challenges that lakes face in the Anthropocene because they may play an increasingly important role in harbouring unique aquatic biota as well as providing ecosystem goods and services in the future.
Little evidence of range size conservatism in freshwater plants across two continents
Vieira, Denner S.; García‐Girón, Jorge; Heino, Jani; Toivanen, Maija; Helm, Aveliina; Alahuhta, Janne (John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2021)
Journal of Biogeography 48: 5
Aim: Range size conservatism suggests that closely-related species maintain geographic ranges of similar extent. However, consensus regarding this suggestion has not been reached. To shed more light on this phenomenon, we studied freshwater plant range size conservatism, range overlap and environmental niche conservatism using congeneric species comparison in two continents. In addition, we investigated whether a phylogenetic signal is found in the range sizes of aquatic plants. Location: Europe and North America. Taxon: Freshwater plants. Methods: Across spatial resolutions (50 km2, 100 km2 and 200 km2), we applied Spearman correlations among 347 and 730 pairs of congeneric species in Europe and North America, respectively, and 63 pairs shared between them. In addition, Spearman correlations were used to evaluate how the degree of spatial overlap influences range sizes and which environmental variables explain variation in range sizes. Brownian evolutionary model was used to assess the phylogenetic signal in species range sizes. Results: We found no evidence of range size conservatism across spatial resolutions for any species and species shared between the continents. In addition, range sizes of more closely related species did not overlap geographically more than those of distantly related ones and no support for environmental niche conservatism was evidenced. Main conclusions: We found that aquatic plants show no range size conservatism in the Northern Hemisphere. This means that it is challenging to define different range sizes of freshwater plants through species traits. Furthermore, we are unable to predict unknown distributions of extant aquatic plant species based on known distributional attributes of closely related species. However, our findings suggest that the interpretations of previous investigations on the range sizes of aquatic plants remain valid due to lack of range size conservatism. These practical implications encourage studying range size conservatism across realms and regions, especially for understudied organismal groups.
Macroecology of macrophytes in the freshwater realm: Patterns, mechanisms and implications
Alahuhta, Janne; Lindholm, Marja; Baastrup-Spohr, Lars; García-Girón, Jorge; Toivanen, Maija; Heino, Jani; Murphy, Kevin (Elsevier, 2021)
Aquatic Botany 168: 103325
Broad-scale studies of species distributions and diversity have contributed to the emergence of general macroecological rules. These rules are typically founded on research using well-known terrestrial taxa as models and it is thus uncertain whether aquatic macrophytes follow these macroecological rules. Our purpose is to draw together available information from broad-scale research on aquatic macrophytes growing in lakes, ponds, wetlands, rivers and streams. We summarize how different macroecological rules fit the patterns shown by freshwater plants at various spatial scales. Finally, we outline future actions which should be taken to advance macroecological research on freshwater plants. Our review suggested that some macroecological patterns are relatively well-evidenced for aquatic macrophytes, whereas little information exists for others. We found, for example, that the species richness-latitude relationship follows a unimodal pattern, and species turnover prevails over species nestedness, whereas higher nestedness-related richness differences are found in low beta diversity regions. Contrary to terrestrial plants, climate or history seem not to be dominant determinants explaining these broad-scale patterns; instead local explanatory variables (e.g., water quality, such as alkalinity and nutrients, and hydromorphology) are often important for freshwater plants. We identified several knowledge gaps related, for example, to a smaller number of studies in lotic habitats, compared with lentic habitats, lack of spatially-adequate aquatic plant studies, deficiency of comprehensive species traits databases for aquatic macrophytes, and absence of a true phylogeny comprising most freshwater plant lineages. We hope this review will encourage the undertaking of additional macroecological investigations on freshwater plants across broad spatial and temporal scales.
Om slägtet Spongilla
Brotherus, Arvid Hjalmar (Helsingfors : [kustantaja tuntematon], 1876)
Protected freshwater ecosystem with incessant cyanobacterial blooming awaiting a resolution
Tokodi, Nada; Backovic, Damjana Drobac; Luji, Jelena; Šcekic, Ilija; Simic, Snežana; Đorđevic, Nevena; Dulic, Tamara; Miljanovic, Branko; Kitanovic, Nevena; Marinovic, Zoran; Savela, Henna; Meriluoto, Jussi; Svircev, Zorica (MDPI, 2020)
Water 12 1 (2020)
For 50 years persistent cyanobacterial blooms have been observed in Lake Ludoš (Serbia), a wetland area of international significance listed as a Ramsar site. Cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins can affect many organisms, including valuable flora and fauna, such as rare and endangered bird species living or visiting the lake. The aim was to carry out monitoring, estimate the current status of the lake, and discuss potential resolutions. Results obtained showed: (a) the poor chemical state of the lake; (b) the presence of potentially toxic (genera Dolichospermum, Microcystis, Planktothrix, Chroococcus, Oscillatoria, Woronichinia and dominant species Limnothrix redekei and Pseudanabaena limnetica) and invasive cyanobacterial species Raphidiopsis raciborskii; (c) the detection of microcystin (MC) and saxitoxin (STX) coding genes in biomass samples; (d) the detection of several microcystin variants (MC-LR, MC-dmLR, MC-RR, MC-dmRR, MC-LF) in water samples; (e) histopathological alterations in fish liver, kidney and gills. The potential health risk to all organisms in the ecosystem and the ecosystem itself is thus still real and present. Although there is still no resolution in sight, urgent remediation measures are needed to alleviate the incessant cyanobacterial problem in Lake Ludoš to break this ecosystem out of the perpetual state of limbo in which it has been trapped for quite some time.
Rarity in freshwater vascular plants across Europe and North America: Patterns, mechanisms and future scenarios
García-Girón, Jorge; Heino, Jani; Iversen, Lars Lønsmann; Helm, Aveliina; Alahuhta, Janne (Elsevier, 2021)
Science of The Total Environment 786 (2021), 147491
Patterns of species rarity have long fascinated ecologists, yet most of what we know about the natural world stems from studies of common species. A large proportion of freshwater plant species has small range sizes and are therefore considered rare. However, little is known about the mechanisms and geographical distribution of rarity in the aquatic realm and to what extent diversity of rare species in freshwater plants follows their terrestrial counterparts. Here, we present the first in–depth analysis of geographical patterns, potential deterministic ecogeographical factors and projected scenarios of freshwater vascular plant rarity using 50 × 50 km grid cells across Europe (41°N–71°N) and North America (25°N–78°N). Our results suggest that diversity of rare species shows different patterns in relation to latitude on the two continents, and that hotspots of rarity concentrate in a relatively small proportion of the European and North American land surface, especially in mountainous as well as in climatically rare and stable areas. Interestingly, we found no differences among alternative rarity definitions and measures when delineating areas with notably high diversity of rare species. Our findings also indicate that few variables, namely a combination of current climate, Late Quaternary climate–change velocity and human footprint, are able to accurately predict the location of continental centers of rare species diversity. However, these relationships are not geographically homogeneous, and the underlying factors likely act synergistically. Perhaps more importantly, we provide empirical evidence that current centers of rare species diversity are characterized by higher anthropogenic impacts and might shrink disproportionately within this century as the climate changes. Our reported distributional patterns of species rarity align with the known trends in species richness of other freshwater organisms and may help conservation planners make informed decisions mitigating the effects of climate change and other anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity.
Revisiting global trends in freshwater insect biodiversity
Jähnig, Sonja C.; Baranov, Viktor; Altermatt, Florian; Cranston, Peter; Friedrichs-Manthey, Martin; Geist, Juergen; He, Fengzhi; Heino, Jani; Hering, Daniel; Hölker, Franz; Jourdan, Jonas; Kalinkat, Gregor; Kiesel, Jens; Leese, Florian; Maasri, Alain; Monaghan, Michael T.; Schäfer, Ralf B.; Tockner, Klement; Tonkin, Jonathan D.; Domisch, Sami (Wiley, 2020)
WIREs Water 8 (2020)
A recent global meta-analysis reported a decrease in terrestrial but increase in freshwater insect abundance and biomass (van Klink et al., Science 368, p. 417). The authors suggested that water quality has been improving, thereby challenging recent reports documenting drastic global declines in freshwater biodiversity. We raise two major concerns with the meta-analysis and suggest that these account for the discrepancy with the declines reported elsewhere. First, total abundance and biomass alone are poor indicators of the status of freshwater insect assemblages, and the observed differences may well have been driven by the replacement of sensitive species with tolerant ones. Second, many of the datasets poorly represent global trends and reflect responses tolocal conditions or nonrandom site selection. We conclude that the results of the meta-analysis should not be considered indicative of an overall improve ment in the condition of freshwater ecosystems.
Same same, but different: The response of diatoms to environmental gradients in Fennoscandian streams and lakes – barcodes, traits and microscope data compared
Kahlert, Maria; Bailet, Bonnie; Chonova, Teofana; Karjalainen, Satu Maaria; Schneider, Susanne C.; Tapolczai, Kálmán (Elsevier, 2021)
We developed and compared the performance of freshwater benthic diatom indices calculated from (i) traditional morphological species identification, (ii) Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) obtained via DNA metabarcoding, and (iii) morphological traits to indicate eutrophication in rivers and lakes in Fennoscandia. Based on the results, we provided recommendations for the future routine use of diatom bioassessment tools in environmental monitoring and assessment. Our results show that ASVs are the most promising candidates to be used in environmental assessment. Indices based on ASVs correlated better with TotP concentrations than morphological taxa data, whereas the trait indices correlated least. We could see by studying the taxonomic assignments of the ASVs that traditional morphotaxa were divided up into several ASVs with different ecological profiles, which explained part of the better index performance and also encourages further studies on diatom diversity and ecological preferences. In general, ASV- and morphotaxon-specific optima differed slightly between streams and lakes, but were significantly correlated with each other. This means that it should be possible to develop a common index that is applicable in both streams and lakes, but boundary values with respect to TotP might need to be set separately for them. More knowledge on diatom traits is required to enable their use for environmental assessment.
Seawater intrusion into estuaries and aquifers
Khublaryan, Martin G.; Frolov, Anatolii P. (The National Board of Waters and the Environment. Vesi- ja ympäristöhallitus, 1989)
Publications of the water and environment research institute 3, pp. 40-47
Spread of the waters from the River Siikajoki in the Bothnian Bay.
Myllymaa, Urpo; Ylitolonen, Anneli; Alasaarela, Erkki (Vesihallitus, 1979)
Vesientutkimuslaitoksen julkaisuja 30, 51-61
Tiivistelmä: Siikajoen vesien leviäminen.
Validation of an imaging FTIR spectroscopic method for analyzing microplastics ingestion by Finnish lake fish (Perca fluviatilis and Coregonus albula)
Uurasjärvi, Emilia; Sainio, Erika; Setälä, Outi; Lehtiniemi, Maiju; Koistinen, Arto (Elsevier, 2021)
Environmental Pollution 288 (2021), 117780
Despite the ubiquitousness of microplastics, knowledge on the exposure of freshwater fish to microplastics is still limited. Moreover, no standard methods are available for analyzing microplastics, and the quality of methods used for the quantification of ingested microplastics in fish should be improved. In this study, we studied microplastic ingestion of common wild freshwater fish species, perch (Perca fluviatilis) and vendace (Coregonus albula). Further, our aim was to develop and validate imaging Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic method for the quantification of ingested microplastics. For this purpose, enzymatically digested samples were measured with focal plane array (FPA) based infrared microscope. Data was analyzed with siMPle software, which provides counts, mass estimations, sizes, and materials for the measured particles. Method validation was conducted with ten procedural blanks and recovery tests, resulting in 75% and 77% recovery rates for pretreatment and infrared imaging, respectively. Pretreatment caused contamination principally by small <100 μm microplastics. The results showed that 17% of perch and 25% of vendace had ingested plastic. Most of the fish contained little or no plastics, while some individuals contained high numbers of small particles or alternatively few large particles. Perch from one sampling site out of five had ingested microplastics, but vendace from all sampling sites had ingested microplastics. The microplastics found from fish were mostly small: 81% had particle size between 20 and 100 μm, and most of them were polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate. In conclusion, the implemented method revealed low numbers of ingested microplastics on average but needs further development for routine monitoring of small microplastics.


text:
Black Like Me?
Bill Gallo October 30, 2003 4:00AM
The riddles of identity that drive and disturb Philip Roth's impressive body of fiction usually focus on contemporary Jewish characters whose conflicts between self-absorption and self-hate remain poignantly (and often hilariously) unresolved. But in The Human Stain, the first Roth novel to be adapted as a film in three decades, the author took on an even more daunting task: the saga of a black man passing as a Jew in the ivory tower of WASP academia.
In the film, which is directed by Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer, Nobody's Fool), a white Welshman (the magisterial Anthony Hopkins) takes on the black man's role, adding yet another layer of transformational intrigue. Of course, Hopkins has already portrayed, with undeniable force, a demented American serial killer, as well as Richard Nixon. So no dramatic miracle he pulls off at this point should come as a surprise.
For Benton and screenwriter Nicholas Meyer (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, three Star Trek movies), the challenge was to somehow capture Roth's scope and complexity. The Human Stain concerns, among other things, the betrayal of family and self in the pursuit of freedom, the costs of radical self-reinvention and the dangerous liberation of last-chance love -- and that's a lot to get onto a movie screen in two hours. Filmmakers have failed Roth before, most notably in the cartoonish, dumbed-down 1972 movie version of Portnoy's Complaint. But Benton and Meyer both have a literary turn of mind and a healthy respect for Roth, and if the full effects of the writer's sharp, wise-guy language get lost in the translation, the filmmakers nonetheless get inside the souls of his guilt-ridden hero and the damaged young woman (Nicole Kidman) who offers him a last shot at redemption. And they paint a full picture of the uneasy relationship between one troubled man and society.
Hopkins's Coleman Silk is, on the surface of things, an exemplary American success. First a brilliant professor of classics, then the silvery dean of faculty at a small New England college that he elevates from mediocrity to excellence, he is admired by his students and respected by his peers, if sometimes grudgingly, and his long marriage is happy. Silk's legacy seems ensured. But when his tiny verbal misstep in the classroom ignites a political correctness debate, Silk's equilibrium is upset. Before we know it, his wife has died, he's stormed away from his career, and the tragic secret of his past -- the classicist's own Achilles' heel -- begins once more to eat away at him. In perfect Rothian irony, Silk's unintentional verbal gaffe is held to be racist.
Hopkins's beautifully detailed, deeply felt acting remains a joy to watch, and this tale of a man whose lifelong deception is the apparent source of his triumph gives him even more to work with than the emotional repression of the butler in The Remains of the Day or the toxic genius of Hannibal Lecter. Coleman Silk is Hopkins's richest character yet. But an even greater pleasure, at least for my money, is Kidman's dark turn as Faunia Farley, the 34-year-old, working-class beauty with whom Silk falls in love, against all odds. Direct, sullen and burning with raw sensuality, she's tough and vulnerable, and she's inexorably drawn to this older man because she has her own grief-drenched secrets. "I don't do sympathy," she warns him. Despite the hazards, Silk plunges ahead into one of the most complex and compelling love affairs in recent movie history.
Less successful are the flashbacks detailing Silk's early traumas in segregated 1940s America (Wentworth Miller plays him as a young man) and the presence of Roth's old writer friend, Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise), in the twin roles of confidant and Greek chorus. As the novelist's devoted readers know, Zuckerman is the persistent, goading alter ego Roth has put front and center in half a dozen of his books since the 1970s. But Sinise's Nathan, younger and more wide-eyed than we'd expect, seems more an accessory or a convenience here than a vital character, and this Silk likely could have done without him. On the other hand, Lester Farley (Ed Harris) is essential: Faunia's jealous and crazed ex-husband propels the tragedy and casts another, harsher light on the fluidity of personal identity.
For Benton, whose career reaches all the way back to Bonnie and Clyde (he wrote the screenplay with David Newman), The Human Stain must have presented huge obstacles. With wisdom and grace -- and the courage of a wonderful cast -- he's conquered them. It's a relentlessly moving film whose emotions are the equal of its ideas, and an unsettling vision of the fatal imperfections in us all.
Bill Gallo
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John A. Schepisi is the founder of Schepisi & McLaughlin, P.A., a firm with the sole purpose of achieving clients' objectives as expeditiously and efficiently as possible. He counsels clients in matters of business law, construction litigation and real estate. Trained and educated as an engineer, Schepisi is superbly suited to represent clients in real estate, zoning and development. The firm is a trusted resource for large companies such as CNBC, J.
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As we occasionally have written about, the US Federal Reserve's massive manipulation of interest rates is not just about unprecedented low levels, but also about the duration of the distortion.
Looking at Chart I below, we can see that obscenely low 0% rates were only hit once previously in the 1950s, and even then for just a passing moment.
Additionally, each time a recession hit (grey bars in Chart I), the Fed quickly normalized rates back to higher levels after initially reducing them to help provide stimulus.
However, in our most recent cycle, the massive accommodation at 0% remained in place for nearly seven years from 2009 until December 2015!
And even today, at 0.25% it remains at unprecedented and heavily distorted lows, despite all mandated employment and inflation targets having been hit years ago.
What this means is that the economy is being driven to excess capacity relative to its natural rate, because low interest rates spur higher consumption & investment than a more natural level.
For example, with borrowing costs so low, more houses, cars, equipment, etc….are built and sold at ever higher pricing levels.
While many worship at the feet of the Fed, their distortions lay the seeds of boom & bust cycles, just as they did during the last two bull / bear cycles (e.g. dot com and real estate).
…the national drug pusher giving the US patient ever increasing doses of low interest rate drugs to produce weaker and weaker highs, while eventually causing an overdose and subsequent crash.
Far more healthy would be to stop the manipulations and let the patient experience more reasonable ever-day highs and lows.
Consider that prior to 1913, the Fed's founding year, the purchasing power of the dollar was reasonably stable under the gold standard.
However, while gold has significantly held its purchasing power, the dollar has lost nearly 97% of its value since 1913.
Further, the decline accelerated after a fully fiat currency was instituted in 1971 as the value of the dollar was unhinged from gold (see Chart II below) and the Fed fired up the US dollar printing presses without the gold wealth needed to back it.
So we have a Fed that continues to steal growth from the future, to create multiple bubbles that eventually pop, and to destroy the value of the US dollar over the long-term, making everything more expensive.
As a comparison, I can remember as a child visiting Switzerland 30 years ago and receiving 3 Swiss Francs for every US dollar I exchanged. I thought it was a great deal, and it was.
Today, a US tourist receives less than 1 Swiss Franc for every US dollar! Essentially, the US dollar has declined by 67% relative to the Swiss Franc.
And, it's not as if prices are rising everywhere so it just is what it is. Instead, prices are only rising in places like the US where currency is being depreciated.
So milk is more expensive, housing is more expensive, medicine is more expensive. Basically, everything becomes more expensive.
But for this current blog, we are going to focus on yet another unintended consequence of the Fed's action.
We will focus on how it has created an environment that is completely devoid of opportunity and yield.
Many investors are desperate for yield (otherwise defined as income from investments).
Pension funds, endowment funds, and ever-growing masses of baby-boomer retirees are truly in need of low-risk yield.
These organizations and individuals need it to pay for ever-increasing daily expenses…ones that we already discussed above.
Even younger folks appreciate the benefits of consistent yield, as it can help them navigate their day-to-day needs, and they can track consistent investment progress as compared to the public market roller coasters.
So let's review a few of the more major investment asset classes that have been impacted by the Fed's manipulations.
First off, bonds have traditionally been one of the most conservative asset classes available to investors.
But low interest rates have driven bonds to extremely low yields, paying out at 100-year lows (see Chart III below).
Furthermore, if rates were to rise, the actual underlying bond would decrease in principal value.
Understand that if you own a piece of paper that pays out 2%, and rates subsequently rise to 3%, your 2% bond is worth less than newly issued ones, so the price for your 2% bond declines.
The net-net is that at best investors can expect 2% yields, and more likely they will have flat to negative returns going forward if interest rates ever rise and the value of their bond decreases.
That is a terrible return proposition.
Investors that blindly follow the 4% annual returns pitched by efficient market enthusiasts will be sorely disappointed in the years ahead.
Next, we take a look at US public market stocks, the most popularly understood and owned asset class.
Dividends are the extra earnings that companies deliver back to investors in the form of direct payouts.
This too is an important source of yield for many investors.
Once again, given significant distortions and overvaluations, dividends are also at extreme lows (see Chart IV below).
So with no yield in bonds, no upside in bonds, and no yield in stocks…all that could remain is upside in the price of stocks.
But here too we see prices are at near 100 year historical overvaluation peaks when we look at our favorite indicator the Shiller PE (referenced in many previous blog posts).
For this post, we highlight another reliable indicator, the Market Cap of all US stocks divided by the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the US.
This just happens to be one of Warren Buffet's favorite valuation metrics (see Chart V below).
Here too, valuations are so high that a paltry 2% per year return is expected over the next 10 years, not enough to even keep up with inflation.
Many argue that the high valuations aren't that bad, because low interest rates justify higher prices.
They argue that unless the economy struggles, we should be ok.
Notwithstanding the fact that "should be ok" means 2% maximum returns, the reality is that the economy is also potentially on the verge of decline.
Historically, when corporate profits fall substantially and sustainably, as they are now, corporations begin to cut back on capital investment and then employment (see Chart VI below).
We aren't yet in a recession, but the leading indicators to previous recession are kicking in heavily now.
We also see that world trade in dollars has fallen very sharply since oil prices peaked in the summer of 2014 (see chart VII below).
Levels have fallen so low, that it too is a heavy concern for global growth going forward, having breached lower levels than even during the 2009 Great Recession.
The net-net is while many people are indiscriminately stretching for return, we think it is best to keep higher levels of cash and to hedge portfolios.
With possible 0-2% annual returns on the upside, and a likely 40-50% decline on the downside, we would rather let others pick up pennies in front of steamrollers, while we will remain ready to peal them off the floor once prices have been flattened.
Of course we can never predict exactly when the timing will occur, but the current situation reminds us of a quote from one of our favorite colleagues John Hussman.
What Else Can Be Done While Waiting?
Even if patience and prudence is the right course of action, it can be frustrating for investors to sit on their hands in boredom while waiting for the overvaluation to eventually be corrected.
They may be tempted to buy on shallow dips, and they may even sometimes be rewarded.
However, we would advise waiting until much deeper declines are realized and more attractive undervaluation levels materialize.
One other major theme we have exploited is in private cash-flow investing, especially in more inefficient markets where greater return possibilities exist.
For accredited clients, we will be coming out with a new quarterly update on the LGA private investing program tomorrow…where we are currently generating 8-12% of annualized cash flow in recession-resilient opportunities.
For non-accredited clients, we continue to work with them to increase income-producing and savings activities…so that they may too aspire to accredited status and soon access these consistently yielding private opportunities.
Stay tuned for further updates, and we will be sure to strike quickly when the opportunities arise.


OSLO, Norway -- Amy Winehouse will appeal a fine for marijuana possession, claiming Norwegian police made mistakes in the case.
Winehouse and her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, were arrested in the western city of Bergen on Oct. 18 and held overnight on charges of illegal drug possession.
They were released the next morning after paying fines of $715 each on charges of possessing seven grams (about 1/4-ounce) of marijuana, and they continued a European tour.
Winehouse's Norwegian attorney, Ole Kvelstad, said the British singer-songwriter was appealing to the Gulating district court because she hadn't understood that, under Norwegian law, accepting a fine is the same as pleading guilty.
"This is an appeal of errors police made in the case," he said by telephone Thursday.
He said she was interrogated without legal representation or an interpreter and had not fully understood the Norwegian-language charges she was signing. Kvelstad said pleading guilty in a drug case could have serious consequences when Winehouse seeks to enter the United States.
Bergen Police attorney Rudolf Christoffersen said Winehouse was questioned by an English-speaking police officer, who translated charges and explained the consequences of accepting the fine.
If the appeals court allows Winehouse to withdraw her acceptance of the fine, the original charges would normally go to trial.
Winehouse has spoken openly about her penchant for alcohol and marijuana, and her hit single "Rehab" is an autobiographical tale of her resistance to being pushed to go to rehab: "They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no, no, no."


WASHINGTON—In the wake of the $1.5 trillion tax bill's historic passage in both the House and the Senate, GOP leaders reportedly celebrated Wednesday their decisive win over everyday American citizens. "This is a monumental victory not only for us, but for everyone struggling under the reign of the average American," said Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, adding that party leaders made a promise to "take a stand against ordinary U.S. citizens," before cracking open a bottle of champagne and proudly declaring that "today, we delivered." "Of course, the fight against the people of this country is not yet over. We won this battle, but the war is still to come. However, if we carry on with the same vigor demonstrated today in our widely opposed tax overhaul, I know that we will prevail over Americans time and time again." GOP leaders also expressed confidence that they would achieve another dominant victory over the American people as they push to close the deficit by cutting food stamp programs, Social Security, and Medicare.


Below is a Mac workflow to prep a file for rendering your Cinema 4D Lite project in After Effects. We will cover how to import your Cinema 4D file into After Effects and provide the essential render settings. The final product is a quicktime file.
In the bottom Render Queue window, click on the blue text to the right of Output Module that says 'Lossless'. Click on the Video Output Format Options button.
Select H.264 from the Video Codec drop down menu. Decrease the Basic Video Settings quality to 75 and check box to Keyframe every 24 frames. Hit Okay twice.
I hope this information makes it easier to render your Cinema 4D creations. One of the goals of ScenicMentor.com is to help designers learn and work faster, giving them more time to create and more easily share their ideas with the world!


Below is a recap of the important dialing codes you may need for making calls to, from, or within Atlanta.
Atlanta phone numbers are 10-digits long consisting of a 3-digit area code and a 7-digit local subscriber number. The phone number format is the same for both landline and mobile phones.
Additional Atlanta dialing and calling information is provided throughout this site.


Electrostatic discharge (ESD) continues to impact semiconductor components and systems as technologies scale from micro- to nano-electronics. This book studies electrical overstress, ESD, and latchup from a whole-chip ESD design synthesis approach. It provides a clear insight into the integration of ESD protection networks from a generalist perspective, followed by examples in specific technologies, circuits, and chips. Uniquely both the semiconductor chip integration issues and floorplanning of ESD networks are covered from a 'top-down' design approach. Look inside for extensive coverage on: integration of cores, power bussing, and signal pins in DRAM, SRAM, CMOS image processing chips, microprocessors, analog products, RF components and how the integration influences ESD design and integration architecturing of mixed voltage, mixed signal, to RF design for ESD analysis floorplanning for peripheral and core I/O designs, and the implications on ESD and latchup guard ring integration for both a 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' methodology addressing I/O guard rings, ESD guard rings, I/O to I/O, and I/O to core classification of ESD power clamps and ESD signal pin circuitry, and how to make the correct choice for a given semiconductor chip examples of ESD design for the state-of-the-art technologies discussed, including CMOS, BiCMOS, silicon on insulator (SOI), bipolar technology, high voltage CMOS (HVCMOS), RF CMOS, and smart power practical methods for the understanding of ESD circuit power distribution, ground rule development, internal bus distribution, current path analysis, quality metrics ESD: Design and Synthesis is a continuation of the author's series of books on ESD protection. It is an essential reference for: ESD, circuit, and semiconductor engineers; design synthesis team leaders; layout design, characterisation, floorplanning, test and reliability engineers; technicians; and groundrule and test site developers in the manufacturing and design of semiconductor chips. It is also useful for graduate and undergraduate students in electrical engineering, semiconductor sciences, and manufacturing sciences, and on courses involving the design of ESD devices, chips and systems. This book offers a useful insight into the issues that confront modern technology as we enter the nano-electronic era.


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Late one evening just before the start of the new year, I was catching up with a friend.
As we slowly demolished the dessert we were sharing, we exchanged updates on life, family and work, reflecting on the year that was about to end. Both of our careers have significantly changed, in different ways, over the last couple of years. My friend returned to work last year after having her first child, her transition made more challenging by stepping into a more senior role as well as starting to work part-time for the first time in her professional career. As for me, late last year I left the company that had employed me for more than a decade and decided to venture out on my own.
My friend expressed how she thought it courageous for me to give up the security of employment. It was something she wouldn't be able to do at this point in her life, she said.
But courage comes in different shapes and sizes.
For my friend, who is seeking a balance between work and life that seemed all too elusive last year, courageous in this chapter of her career might look like: deciding to put her health first and going to bed rather than staying up to work late into the night, again; taking time to consider a new request at work, rather than saying yes immediately despite a full workload; or having an honest conversation with her manager about how she's feeling and how he can help her.
For me, courageous over the next few months is likely to involve: allowing myself to be visible and my voice to be heard more than I've previously been comfortable with; putting myself 'out there' to experiment with new approaches despite not knowing how they'll turn out; and saying no to the good (e.g. freelance work that pays well but isn't completely aligned with my desired direction) to make room for the great.
It seems that the word 'courageous' is often used these days to describe acts of heroism that are big, dramatic or public - that is, bold action in difficult circumstances that most people would agree require courage.
I believe that what matters is doing what feels courageous for you.
So courage doesn't have to mean quitting your job to be an entrepreneur or freelancer. You don't have to be saving the world or going from zero to hero in one big leap. In a work context, even 'common' actions such as speaking in front of a room, hiring someone or delegating might feel courageous for you.
Dr. Biswas-Diener says that, 'Courage is the shortest route to the good life', one that is rich and rewarding. And after all, 'everything you want is on the other side of fear', as George Addair apparently said.
Choosing to take action despite risk, uncertainty and fear isn't always easy. It requires vulnerability, and as social creatures, our desire to be liked and to belong can make it tempting to present only the shiniest, most polished and 'perfect' parts of ourselves. But Dr. Brené Brown challenges the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is really our most accurate measure of courage.
Rather than let fear drive your decisions, what would happen if you chose to be led by curiosity and courage instead?
Courage is a practice, a habit, a skill that can be learned or developed.
You can build and strengthen your courage. Start where you are, and practise taking small steps out of your comfort zone. If stepping outside your comfort zone feels scary, try thinking about it as enlarging your comfort zone instead, as Michele Woodward suggests.
One tiny courageous choice at a time.
What feels courageous for you to do right now?
It's easier to face your fears if you're clear on your 'worthwhile goal' or your 'why'.
Speak up in a meeting when you'd usually stay silent. Voice your opinion. Share what you sense or notice, in between people's words. Call out the elephant in the room. Ask the question you're afraid to ask.
Say no to something you don't have the capacity to take on, or don't want to do. Honour your self, your health and your boundaries. You can say no without being unkind.
Raise your hand for a task or project that excites you (and perhaps raises your profile) but feels like a stretch. Even if you don't feel entirely ready, or you know you might not be as awesome at it as you'd like, yet. Consider whose support you can enlist to build your confidence and provide guidance.
Change a situation that is causing you unhappiness or stress. Choose to stop making excuses and start looking for a way through (or a way out). Have that difficult or courageous conversation.
Reconnect with someone you care about. Decide that feeling awkward isn't enough of a reason to hold you back, and drop an email or call a mentor, colleague or client you haven't spoken to in a while. Most likely, they'll appreciate hearing from you and be flattered to know you were thinking of them.
Open yourself to a new experience. Take a new class, volunteer for a cause you care about, build relationships through a networking or professional group, find an industry association or conference on a topic you're interested in (even if it's outside your current industry), say yes and go along to an event you might usually shy away from.
Share a little more of yourself at work. Show your quirks and interests. Share what inspires you, and take the time to find out what motivates your colleagues. Open up about your struggles to a colleague, a mentor or your manager and together work towards a solution.
Invest in yourself. What do you want to be known for? What are you curious about? Take ownership for your education and development. Go beyond the professional development and training given to you by your employer and invest time and/or money to up-skill yourself in an area you'd like to develop. You could use your network to see if you can get a warm introduction to someone who can help you, or reach out to someone in your organisation who might be willing to share their experience. Consider signing up for some external training or partnering with a coach. If it's related to your job, your employer may even be willing to sponsor you.
Ask for what you need. Or dare to ask for what you want. You may be pleasantly surprised! And even if you don't get what you want, or it doesn't turn out exactly as you'd hoped, you'll probably come out the other side realising you're still standing, and able to tackle your next act of courage.
What will you do to practise courage today?
P.S. If you found this valuable, use the buttons below to share it with a friend or colleague who might appreciate it too.
P.P.S. An inspiring example of 'everyday' courage - demonstrated over and over again - is Daniel Flynn's journey to build social enterprise Thankyou. If you haven't read it yet check it out here - it's a fascinating story!


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text:
In Defense of Pop Philosophy:
Notes on Philosophistry
on November 9, 2021 November 9, 2021 By xenogothic
An interesting post from Simon Obirek, responding to a post of mine from a few months ago, which was about the dwindling vitality of the blogosphere. I have a few thoughts about each of the sections in Simon's post, so I thought I'd just replicate his titles and offer up some additional notes or perhaps contrasting perspectives.
Dominant Deleuze
The first part of Simon's post is broadly concerned with what many used to sarcastically call "Deleuze Studies". That the joke no longer really lands is a sign of the times. It used to be said with tongue firmly in cheek, as if nothing as unruly as Deleuzian philosophy could be subsumed within some academic cottage industry… But here we are. Now the mantle of "Deleuze Studies" has been taken up with an unfortunate sincerity.
Simon seems to share in the disappointment. "The trajectory of the blogosphere and, more broadly, para-academia must be viewed under the light of Deleuze's status within academia", he argues. This is correct, in some ways, but is the suggestion here that the popularity of the blogosphere had something to do with it? That the popularity of Deleuze online helped him take over offline? I don't see that personally. Deleuze's influence within the academy has certainly trickled outside of it, but when Simon argues this is an important point "because the thinkers engaged in this practice [of blogging?] all emerge from the same ecosystem of thought", that's not my experience of the blogosphere at all.
In fact, as the post he's responding to hopes to emphasise, that the original blogosphere was all Deleuzians is a bit of a misnomer. He was central, of course, but many of those in discussion with one another were less interested in further his influence in isolation. They were broadly engaged with what was once called "Post-Continental Philosophy".
If I'm following Simon here, I think what he's describing is applicable to the current Twittersphere — let's be clear: there is no real blogosphere left to speak of — which has been influenced by a generation of grad students learning about Deleuze at school. But the original blogosphere seemingly had a far more diverse education than that. It's not that they all emerged from the same ecosystem, as he suggests, but were attempting to populate a new platform with thinkers who properly responded to the times.
In an interview conducted by Christopher Haworth, Robin Mackay discusses the postgraduate modules undertaken by those who were at Warwick in the 1990s (and many of Warwick's graduates went on to be major figures in the first blogosphere, of course). He explains:
There were two good courses, one was called Recent Continental Philosophy, at that time taught by Keith Ansell-Pearson, and the other one was Current French Philosophy. And, you know, the very idea of there being 'recent' or 'current philosophy' seemed exciting and somewhat unexpected, even though it was not really that recent, it was post-Heideggerian and then post-'68 thinkers, in CFP mostly Deleuze and Guattari — but certainly, those were the exciting courses to be on.
I asked Robin about this a few months ago, prior to writing the post Simon is responding to, and he confirmed my suspicions. They weren't just reading Deleuze and Guattari, but also Badiou, Laruelle and Michel Henry.
At that time, people were less interested in picking a philosophical team and then defending it to the death. They were interested in philosophical buggery, marrying positions between philosophers who supposedly disagreed, finding points of intersection and tension and cracking them open. That this was arguably a central gesture within Deleuze's thought did not make him somehow immune to it in practice. A desire to complicate his reception especially was central to many of the blogosphere's better-known interlocutors. This was true enough for Mark Fisher himself, who wrote in 2005: "The most productive area of conceptual discordance is that between Badiou and Deleuze-Guattari."
Meanwhile, that the rest of academic philosophy soon fell under the spell of one figure in particular was ridiculed back then as it is by Simon now. Fisher again was frequently critical of it — I'm sure others were too, of course, but Fisher's remains the most easily navigable record of the discourse. (He even seemed to actively avoid teaching Deleuze and Guattari directly in his classes.) Back in 2004, he described the rising damp of academic "Deleuze Studies" as follows:
The whole academic lockdown on D/G proceeds programmatically:
Install 'Deleuzianism' as a research project. Typical focus: Difference and Repetition, the most boring book Deleuze ever wrote. (Interesting that Freud says that fetishists fixate on the final object they see before confronting the 'horror' of the vagina. The Philosophical establishment is similar with D and R, the last moment you could pretend what Deleuze was doing was academic philosophy.) Object: turn Deleuze's work into 'respectable' philosophy. Systematically sideline not only Guattari (i.e. refer to Capitalism and Schizophrenia as by 'Deleuze') but more importantly downgrade the whole concept of collective authorship.
It's all OK provided you don't take it seriously i.e. provided you don't really ask 'how do you make yourself a body without organs?' When they say 'sorcery' they're being metaphorical, right?
Irony: the one thing you are not allowed to do in the academy is talk about practices of intensification, still less – hah! – engage in them. Of course, what you are endlessly required to do is deconstruct your own position, worry about the politics of taste, develop negotiated readings.
Suffice it to say, the original blogosphere didn't contribute to this; it sought to resist it. If my own writing on this blog over the past year or so is fixated on historicising that era, it is to emphasise what has changed and what we have lost, because I'd love to see a return to that kind of cross-pollination. (See my post on Badiou/acc or, indeed, the post Simon is responding to, which is ostensibly about Badiou rather than Deleuze, making his response somewhat disjointed.)
It's not just about what Deleuze can offer us, but the challenges within recent Continental philosophy that are still unresolved today. That the blogosphere failed to persist in this manner is, I think, a comment on the academy's penetration into the blogosphere, not the other way round. The thrust of influence still largely goes one way. This is important to note because the tandem withering of the blogosphere and the rise of Deleuze Studies was not an example of cause and effect but a kind of dovetailing that echoes broader trends within the humanities today.
On this topic, then, I think it is fair to say that Simon and I agree.
Blogospheric Challenges
From here, I get confused. Simon seems to suggest that this "Deleuze Studies" approach has long been a pervasive tendency within the blogosphere — as shown above, it hasn't — and since Deleuze is no longer a challenge or a surprise but a part of the furniture, Simon asks: "What heresies, unorthodoxies and challenges to the status quo has occurred as a result of the blogosphere?" Though he seems to think the answer is none, he nonetheless catalogues a fair few examples himself.
Popularising chimerical political projects and experimental prose styles, exploring collective authorship on the web, welcoming a form of fiery debate that the academy would surely deem uncouth, raising awareness of certain debates that were (at that point) only happening in the academy, materially reconnecting philosophy with its cultural ground… Simon devalues these activities because they're not new to him — come on, just because you take it for granted, doesn't mean it wasn't an innovation at one time — but he also devalues these things further by comparing them disingenuously to things that academia already does. To say collective authorship or discussion online, for instance, is no different to putting together a journal is very silly when we actually consider the modes of production that are deployed to produce either one. (At that level, to say they both include multiple people who have written things is surely a non-statement boiling things down to their lowest common denominator?)
On the contrary, the blogosphere was genuinely a kind of avant-garde at that time. It defined popular conversation whilst appearing to be anything but popular. I still remember when "hauntology" became an inescapable music industry buzzword in the late-00s / early-10s. A few bloggers did that. Their grafting of Derrida's hauntological political philosophy onto Noughties dance music culture was inspired. It dragged conversations about the end of history and cultural innovation out of the academy and into the music press, and shaped a decade or more of cultural thinking. That there was later a backlash against it was welcomed too. It inaugurated a new thrust towards the future that many provocatively suggested had lapsed.
But Simon seems to think that this trajectory from philosophy to culture doesn't count for much. What really matters is an influence that proceeds the other way round:
Did blogging, then, truly update philosophy? I'd argue that it did nothing for philosophical thinking itself, but it did shift the surrounding circumstances of such a thinking.
There is a pessimism here that I've challenged repeatedly over the years, which relates to what concerned the first blogosphere explicitly — the emergence of the new. Deleuze versus Badiou; hauntology versus accelerationism — these were two sides debating the same thing, with the nerdiest heretics seeking a recombinant approach to Badiou's creation ex nihilo. I think it is telling and incredibly ironic that, in our own complaints about our current stuckness or lack of innovation, we completely ignore the innovations and challenges that resulted from that initial debate 15 years ago and just retread old ground, albeit without any of the ferocity or rigour that the old blogosphere gave the same issue. (See Alex Williams' denouncement of hauntology or his inaugural post on xenoeconomics, which the accelerationist blogosphere grew out of.)
If that weren't enough, we've already had this exact same debate a few months ago, after Matt Bluemink's excellent "anti-hauntology" post, which led to a really productive back and forth in which I personally focused in on the ouroboric hunt for "new forms of the new". In that discussion, I think we did well to outline the sort of catch-22 thinking we're often caught within, which always projects its concerns outwards but doesn't consider the fact that the real issue comes from within, that we don't actually understand how the new emerges at all at the level of pop cultural discussion, to the point that we often denounce it or ignore it completely when it appears right in front of us. That is to say, that we don't see innovation or newness says more about our own aptitude for perception beyond the ideology of "the end of history" rather than say anything of value about the actual conditions we live under.
Soon afterwards, inspired by this exchange, I presented "a brief history of the new" to the Ctrl Network — the lecture still hasn't been uploaded yet, but I'm assured it will be one day — which showed how this question of what's new and what's just a recombination of the past is one of the oldest in the history of philosophy. There are conflicting ideas about this going back to the pre-Socratics, discussing finitude and infinitude, and Deleuze and Badiou clashed on the same topic as well. (See the excellent introduction to Sam Gillespie's The Mathematics of Novelty.)
Admittedly, there's a lot more links than direct exposition above, and Simon seemed to want to hear some direct examples from me. But, to be honest, if I'm reluctant, it's because it's already out there. I just don't want to needlessly retread too much ground here.
If Simon complains that the most popular blogposts are summaries and curated lists of links, this is precisely why. People can't keep up most of the time — understandably in my case… I don't space things out much — but poor reasoning nonetheless emerges from lazy engagement. It's all out there and pretty easy to access. We don't have to make assumptions based on over a decade of lazy readings.
Of course, the biggest obstacle here is often finding a way in, and it's very easy to provide a roadmap rather than just regurgitate various past arguments. This is another point missed. That the blogosphere has dwindled has less to do with those who actively attempt to keep it afloat and more to do with other people's standards of engagement. Those sharing lists are often just trying to bring everyone up to speed, but even then it is a slow and dispiriting process.
With that in mind, I think it is wrong to blame the blogosphere — a veritable treasure trove of philosophical thinking — for its own demise when the trajectory of communicative capitalism more generally has drastically shortened attention spans. Having to curate lists and provide histories is a result of intensifying TikTok brain. Wasn't it Fisher in Capitalist Realism who declared people want an understanding of Nietzsche as quickly as they want access to a hamburger? Now people want access to Fisher himself as quickly as they want access to a meme. It's a Russian Doll of idiocy. Things are worse, in some ways, not better.
This is all to do with the conditions within which thought is produced, which Simon basically glosses over. But it is important that we unpack this point further. Because philosophy is hard. There's no getting around that. But how do you encourage people to even start the journey of unravelling it and sticking with it? How do you do that without slipping into the sort of gatekeeping associated with the academy, where most people who can afford to read and think about this stuff often don't have to worry about other things? Most of this blog was written whilst working part-time in London for less than the living wage. But I wouldn't complain too much about it, because that was by choice. The older I get, however, the less I'm able to just slum it without putting pressure on others, my partner in particular. Philosophy gets harder as drudgery increases. But that's precisely why I'm an advocate for the blogosphere. Because I struggle to think properly about philosophical questions when I've got a 9-to-5, having a blog gives me a reason to put in the extra hours. Like an amateur musician coming home from his day job and spending all evening practicing his instrument, the blog is a space to practice writing when academia isn't there to coddle you. Social media, too, gives me people to talk to about these ideas. (I generally don't talk about philosophy offline because I don't have people in my life who are interested in it like I am.) Though it isn't a paradise, when I think about what I'd be able to achieve without it, I feel better being in than being out; being online instead of off.
When we consider that people have different living circumstances, that directly impact how they are able to think and what they are able to think about, we have to be careful about demarcating certain activities or styles as having more value than others. The question is always: to whom? Though he broadly seems to be on the side of the blogosphere, that Simon argues blogging "is not a place for original thinking but rather for the proliferation of what is already out there, what is already published in journals or initially explored in books", he seems to be replicating an academic bias.
This is the crux of it. That Simon argues the blogosphere has transformed "from subversion to pop philosophy" is something most of those initially subversive bloggers would themselves vehemently reject. Pop philosophy is subversion. The lines drawn between the original and the pale imitation are often snide and prejudiced. If we want to have this conversation properly, we first need to recognize what it actually is — not a cynical question of "value," but a meta-philosophical discussion about "real" philosophy and its simulacra in our complex world of broken ideological mirrors.
Let's focus in on one point in particular:
What does it mean if, as Simon suggests, the blogosphere "did nothing for philosophical thinking itself, but … did shift the surrounding circumstances of such a thinking"? Well, what is philosophical thinking in itself if not some enclosed ideal held aloft by the academy? Where does this philosophical thinking take place exactly? Where is it deemed to be acceptable and proper? What is "real" philosophy beyond a canonical stylistic approach? Despite opening his blogpost with a dismissal of the academy and its polite publishing arm, neutralizing certain kinds of errant thought, I can't think of anything else that might count as "philosophical thinking itself" other than that ordained "official" by the academy.
As for changing the circumstances surrounding thought, isn't that as good as changing philosophy itself? "Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it" — that was Marx's line, and it fits with his materialist worldview. Thought doesn't change our circumstances nearly as often as circumstances change our thought. In fact, for many over the past few decades, changing the surroundings has broadly been the point. (See Badiou and Althusser on the "conditions" necessary for philosophy's emergence throughout the ages.) It's not a question of how the blogosphere fits into a deterministic trajectory of philosophy proper, but how it changed philosophy's direction. (It's dialectics, baby!)
Still, there is an important issue to consider here. To what extend has the blogosphere been through a process of marketisation? (If we ask this question, we must affirm that the academy has arguably gone through a more intensive version of this same process — at least in the Anglosphere). Simon argues:
Philosophy continues to be a mixture and expansion of previous philosophers, but is now starting to resemble marketing in its practices because it is centred so heavily around individuals. Matt criticises Harman for being self-serving, a criticism Brassier levels against him as well in the postscript to Pete Wolfendale's Object-Oriented Philosophy: The Noumenon's New Clothes, but Harman is really just doing what all bloggers are doing:…
Hard disagree on that point…
…fostering a certain philosophical style, a brand, a conceptual apparatus, which now comes with a domain you get to name and a colour palette you get to choose. But in a way, this mechanic was built into philosophy prior to the blogosphere. Sometimes, the only things separating two thinkers are mere semantics, minor conceptual differences, and different approaches which still end up with the same results, and this is where stylistic variations are key to understanding these particular oppositions. This has always been a question about branding even if this concept has only recently been invoked in philosophy.
I find the idea that Harman represents the true spirit of blogging nauseating considering he turned so many off it as a platform and practice. But the less said about Harman, the better. What is important to consider is the collapsing of terms here. Isn't Harman just being a philosopher in developing a style and conceptual apparatus? What is it about any of these things that is exclusive to blogging, besides the point that Harman happens to have a blog? If anything, the intense emphasis on marketing yourself as a font of public engagement, which Harman loves, is the sort of thing that the academy loves about blogging. Like many academics who run blogs, his no doubt benefits his academic position rather than existing somehow outside of any relation to it.
I'm very aware of this at the moment as I've been applying for PhDs (against all better judgement) and the repeated invitations to add my blog or social media profiles to my applications as a way to prove I have a certain public standing is very disconcerting. The amount of followers you have on Twitter can be measured against your academic publishing record these days. (Makes sense for some, but I die inside when I think about some administrator actually engaging with the content.)
But again, that's not blogging's fault. That's part of academia's attempt to capitalize on everything that might appear outside of its bounds, in accordance with the socioeconomic system at large. With that in mind, I'd also disagree that linguistic differences don't matter a great deal in discussing the finer points of certain philosopher's bodies of work… Let's not devalue conceptual engineering through pomo relativism, otherwise we're really for the shitter. (This is not the first time that Simon employs the talking points of the parasitic neoliberalising forces he's supposed to be denouncing here.)
All that being said, I do agree with Simon's characterisation — attributed to Harman — of what makes blogging great:
He champions a view of blogging where he likens it to the hurried discussions of the bar or the pub. It's a place to loosely sketch out new ideas and try them out for a wider audience and a place to receive hopefully informed feedback and responses. This would require a rejuvenation of the blogging practice and the more experienced practitioners might lend new ones a helping hand.
The blogosphere has never lost this. Twitter also carries that same sense of hurried discussion. But the point about the pub is that these discussions aren't carried out individually in public — as is the alienating nature of social media — but properly together in a social setting. The pub is the space where you get to drunkenly talk over the blowhard object-oriented philosopher. (Harman is a tenured academic who notably blocks anyone who dissents against him in a heartbeat.) It carries within it a function of collective enunciation that the individualizing tendencies of the academy cannot capture. (That these tendencies have been brought to heel online in general is an issue that far exceeds the bounds of academic Twitter, of course. Nor is it a new phenomenon — we can literally trace it back to the invention of the printing press…)
For these reasons, I also find the cynicism here — and elsewhere in this section — a bit rich. I've describe the blogosphere in these terms myself on many occasions, and very much use my blog in the same way at Simon describes. They always were and tend to remain public notebooks for a lot of people. (I don't buy into the idea of using your blog to just upload the stuff that didn't pass peer review or some journal's submission guidelines.) Forsaking that, they're really not hard things to curate. All it requires is a diminished filter, which most people don't have, perhaps because the academy teaches you to be more precious about your thought as a commodity. Harman isn't a one-man barricade in the face of this; he represents academia's appropriation of the platform.
So what are we to do about it? To be clear, this isn't me drawing a convenient line around the blogosphere in an attempt to preserve its purity, but rather talk properly about the conflicting relations that now entangle it to the structures it was once proudly an antagonisation of. We needn't denounce the blogosphere in light of this, just as we needn't denounce anything that exists within our capitalist totality. (There is no outside.)
I've written about all of this before as well. What is key here, which Simon sort of trips over as his post develops, is the ancient tension here between philosophy and sophistry — an ultimately romantic distinction, in this day and age, which smells like a neoliberal work ethic, and which means either doing philosophy as a passion or doing it whilst getting paid.
What is necessary for philosophy's survival is that we do both. If people are now trying to make a living off their various forms of intellectual-cultural production wholly outside of the academy, I don't understand how that is anything but a good thing (unless you're precious about the sanctity of the academy, which Simon began his post arguing against). Because, for too long now, philosophy has been the preserve of those who, for some reason or another, don't have to work or who have been ingratiated into the academy at a young age.
In other words, monetising non-academic philosophy doesn't denigrate philosophy as such, it denigrates the supremacy of the academy.
It's also worth emphasising the way that non-academicians are finding ways to do philosophy outside of the academy do not reflect the same processes of marketisation that the humanities more generally have gone through. In fact, they are distinct in an integral way. As I tweeted around the time that previously linked post was written, the humanities embarrasses itself when it "insists on always making the case for its existence under capitalism by announcing its contributions to GDP and uses at a managerial level". Ultimately, this "isn't a humanities worth fighting for. If that's the base line, the battle has long been lost."
Many who resist this explicitly go the other way, relishing the irony. Crit Drip comes to mind, as a jokey but also brilliantly designed clothing brand that supports the really great community that Acid Horizon have built up — it is frequently hilarious and often lampoons the relationship between philosophy and pop culture impeccably; Craig's re-imaginings of philosophical classics as pulp fiction are a brilliant example of this.
If we really want to have a struggle session over these accusations of complicity with capitalist forces, without devolving to snobbery, I think it is necessary that we treat the question of philosophy and sophistry with the appropriate rigour philosophy demands of it.
Matthew McLennan is excellent on this in his book on Badiou and Lyotard's debate on the same topic. His introduction summarises the stakes of their debate today most succinctly. I have come back to this repeatedly, and I'm sure I've shared it on the blog or on Twitter more than once. Here is the opening section in full, with a few choice annotations:
Now, as ever, the question of philosophy's definition is intimately bound to that of its survival.
Without pre-deciding the issue, let us assume for now the kind of broad definition of philosophy proffered in undergraduate courses: philosophy is an activity of higher-order questioning, a search after truth. Thus construed, in the present conjuncture philosophy is threatened on two fronts. It is in fact subject to a double bind: if unable to plead its utility, philosophy is existentially threatened; pleading its utility, it is threatened no less.
In the first place, philosophy as pure pursuit of truth is widely considered impractical or useless, and its claims to the intrinsic value of its labours tend to fall on deaf ears. But this is nothing new; Thales, traditionally considered to have been the first Western philosopher, was already subject to the ridicule of the Thracian maid when he fell in a well while gazing at the stars. More interesting is the fact that philosophy also and increasingly flirts with absorption into the very discourse of economic efficiency that undermines it. It finds a place at the table by pleading its utility, as training for the flexible, lateral thinking often said to be essential to economic and professional success.
(The most interesting philosophers online and in the blogosphere don't do anything like that… Others have fallen into that same trap, however. See Justin Murphy and Nina Power and the recently christened reactionary academy for the cancelled, Austin University — these are the types of people who claim to be subversive whilst constantly appealing to and attempting to imitate apparatuses of state power.)
Philosophy may also be tapped for its therapeutic value, to the effect that the wisdom of the great philosophers alongside yoga and other techniques helps to cultivate the contentment, health and productivity of economic contributors. Moreover, the philosopher increasingly finds a role in practical ethics training, an explosive growth field by which she contributes not only to genuine ethical deliberation, but to the alibis of institutions and the individuals who populate them.
(That my blog has been routinely nominated for annual wellness awards (as part of the same multi-level marketing scam) never ceases to amuse me on this point.)
This economic operationalization of philosophy is of course part of a global trend with much wider implications. Where the economic winners in a globalized post-Fordist system see flexibility, dynamism and opportunity, the vast majority of Earth's labourers — adjunct philosophy faculty included — see precariousness, pressure, displacement and the permanent threat of obsolescence. Frequently, formally educated labourers must retrain midstream to stay swimming, and the increasingly irrational demands on one's time and one's spatial locations push many to top up their credentials with night classes and online certification. Less and less frequently one locates the philosopher in the comfort of the ivory tower, pursuing pure research. It is increasingly common to find her on the adjunct treadmill, or at the intersection of diverse digital applied humanities courses in programmes targeting non-philosophical professionals.
(Or, having escaped that mess, the blogosphere!)
To this extent the philosopher becomes more than ever a facilitator who helps others — the real producers, the real drivers of the economy, it is said — to think differently; to look at alternative points of view; to cultivate intuition, understood as an openness to unthought-of solutions to practical impasses (and it goes without saying that such solutions are — at least on paper — to be ethically sensitive if not ethically sound).
In sum, philosophy — where tolerated — is increasingly tapped for its productive potential rather than its millennia-old and, arguably, essential link to truths. In a general way, this poses with a new urgency the question of philosophy's survival. But it also raises a more focused question: whether or not present conditions, by insisting on economic efficiency, encourage philosophy to distance itself from the standard, broad definition and even, perhaps, to slide into sophistry.
Why sophistry? Compare Socrates to Protagoras. It is widely known that Socrates took no money for his philosophical craft, and that ultimately he martyred himself for the truth. Though arguably he was Socrates's intellectual equal, the craft of Protagoras was linked in perhaps an essential way to economic and political survival and flourishing. In Plato's Protagoras (1992a) — tendentious though we may assume it to be — the character Protagoras pulls shy of the anti-democratic conclusions to which he is pushed by Socrates's rigorous questioning. He thereby demonstrates a political savvy placing him squarely and ably in the realm of doxa, mere opinion. He is no partisan of truth, but seeks above all to cause effects with language, and this with a view to human flourishing.
(In this regard, the proto-blogospheric activities of the Ccru were proudly sophist, enacting a Burroughsian magick that sought to engender cultural affects through the poetic intensification of para-academic jargon — and it clearly worked, and continues to work, on many. But truth was still never far away — this kind of sophisticated cultural activity was put to work precisely to break the veneer of capitalist realism. If we think of Plato's allegory of the cave, rather than haranguing those in chains about the blinding enlightenment that awaited them outside, the Ccru entered the cave and constructed shadow puppets of their own, revealing not an ultimate ideological truth but the very malleability of our surroundings — which arguably amounts to the same process of enlightenment anyway: different means, same end.)
Certainly, high-quality philosophical work in the Socratic/Platonic tradition of fidelity to truth continues to be produced internationally. But the existence of a hungry, desperate intellectual underclass — the army of adjunct faculty and the reserve army of underemployed and unemployed philosophy graduates seeking a toehold in the academy — favours the unmooring of philosophical technē from this fidelity.
(Blogosphere!)
Since philosophy is tied to money through the university, it is at any rate fair to question whether or not this tends to corrupt it at the pedagogical level.
(Hmmm, okay, also increasingly the blogosphere…)
Adjunct philosophical under-labourers are more competitive to the extent that they can balance the demands of challenging, even titillating their millennial students, with the demands of telling the latter what they want to hear. To be safe, one usually assumes a basically liberal-democratic framework for discussion, in which thought experiments are brought out to show instinctively liberal-democratic students the minute inflections of applied liberal-democratic thought. One challenges, but only mildly; acts the benevolent eccentric, the clown even, the fondly remembered philosophy professor, within this familiar space.
(Again, it is intriguing that Simon brings Harman into the discussion as the arch-blogger retaining a certain spirit today. This above paragraph reflects how many felt about his development, and it was precisely his success within the blogosphere, utilising these same tactics, that put many people, like Ray "The Butcher of Beirut" Brassier — certainly not known for mild challenges — most infamously off his instrumentalization and capture of recent and dischordant philosophical innovations. (The comment about the blogosphere as an "orgy of stupidity" loved by "impressionable grad students" was a dig at the husk Harman had transformed speculative realism into.)
On a cynical reading, one does so to gain favourable student evaluations by which to secure one's incumbency, and with which to pad one's portfolio in pursuit of increasingly rarer tenure-track positions. The razor-thin difference between Socrates and Protagoras has perhaps never been so important, since it is precisely by Protagorean political instinct and flattery, not through fidelity to truth, that the professional philosopher increasingly wins and keeps her place at the table.
The question of philosophy's survival, then, is tied up with its potential slide into sophistry, broadly construed as the politically astute practice of creating effects with language for a fee.
(This idea of doing it for a fee is still very much outside the remit of the blogosphere, I think. For better and for worse, our contemporary patronage model doesn't reward the creation of effects, nor does it constitute a salary. It is a mark of appreciation for what you do, like tipping your server, and as someone who has tried but generally struggled to get some remuneration for their work online, the problem is perhaps that the money people give me doesn't influence my behaviour or content very much at all. This online precarity is, of course, just another thing the academy has appropriated. Whereas I think many people expect the money they give to provide access and more professional, paywalled content, I have always been clear that it just helps me continue to do what people like. This is unlike, say, the Justin Murphys of the world, who seem to have explicitly exported academic ways of working into an online space, even continuing to trade off academic qualifications and experience to ensure would-be buyers that he and his cronies know what they're doing…)
But this poses anew the ancient question of whether the definitions of philosophy and sophistry here assumed are sound, and to what extent the line between the two can or should be drawn in any rigorous way. Indeed, not all thinkers in the ballpark of philosophical practice agree that sophistry should be quarantined from philosophy; Hegel notably assimilated sophistry to the history of philosophy and Heidegger, far from defending philosophy against sophistry, charged sophistry rather with provoking the fall of Greek thought into philosophy. In a more contemporary vein, Keith Crome has drawn attention to the crucial distinction between sophos, sophistēs and philosophos, roughly wisdom, sophistry and love of wisdom. His indispensable Lyotard and Greek Thought: Sophistry is a promising reflection on the possibility of a positive definition of sophistical intelligence, as distinct from both pre-Socratic sophos and Platonic–Aristotelian philosophos (Crome 2004). And not only the rich written corpus, but also the very career trajectory of Barbara Cassin, troubles any neat distinction between the craft of the philosopher and that of the sophist (Cassin 2014). The standard definition of philosophy is, in other words, question-begging according to some scholars on the grounds that it degrades, implicitly or otherwise, sophistical intelligence either by assimilating it to a stop on the road to philosophy, or to the status of a lesser rival. Is the story of sophistry parasitical upon that of philosophy? Is sophistry essentially autonomous? Or is the distinction between the two insufficiently nuanced to begin with?
These are questions we could do with asking ourselves. Unfortunately, I think Simon buys into the tendency to degrade and hierarchise which is already, in itself, a tired old trope of idealist academicians. Still, there's a worthwhile question here — is the blogosphere of today just sophistry?
I still think it's a cynical assessment. Academic careers are hard to come by, and most who pursue them anyway do it for love not money. Academia, in general, takes advantage of that. It is a deeply exploitative career path, as McLennard suggests (albeit without revealing the full horror of the adjunct treadmill). Against the behemoth of academia, many fighting for job security, academic freedom and non-exploitative working conditions are facing an uphill battle. It puts someone on the outside, like myself, completely off a career in teaching.
That's not to say the solution is that everyone just goes online, teaches or writes independently with no salary to speak of, martyring themselves for "truth". This just sounds like blogging with a Protestant work ethic. The blogosphere still has its problems and there are a lot of still-viable critiques we could do with discussing. (Jodi Dean's book Blog Theory is particularly prophetic and relevant to contemporary circumstances, for instance, though it's a decade old and few today seem to have read it.) But relative to the academy, the blogosphere and its ever-changing nature feels more malleable.
New approaches are emerging all the time and I'm anticipating a shift myself in the near future, as I plan my exit from WordPress to a platform that is more independent, decentralised, and can offer opportunities to share knowledge in a way that allows me to make a living and build communities. People deserve to get paid for what they do, both inside and outside of the academy, and we'd do well to further highlight the value of what people do outside rather than call it into question.
P(r)opping Up Philosophy
In the final section of his post, Simon begins working with his own definition of "pop philosophy", which I interpret as just another way of talking about "sophistry". I have little to add here beyond what has been posed above. But I think a kind of "pop (or pulp) philosophy" has already been theorised by Robin Mackay, which responds to McLennard's philosophistry problematic well.
As Robin writes:
In principle, philosophy is a popular practice, given that both its problems and the materials it uses to interrogate them are available to any modern human mind. But it's also a two-thousand-year-old discipline with its own highly technical language, which for much of its history has been the preserve of idle aristocrats and, following a brief respite during the fleeting historical episode of the welfare state, now looks well on the way to becoming, once again, an esoteric specialism accessible only to the privileged few.
Drawing on my experience as an editor and publisher, and especially the publication over ten years of the journal Collapse and its reception by non-specialist audiences, I want to examine various models for what a modern pop — or pulp — philosophy could be, asking how one can possibly maintain the careful and rigorous cultivation demanded by philosophy within the boisterous jungle of memetics, marketing, and cultural production. Pop is not just popularity, and can't be measured in audience numbers. It's an aesthetic, social, and political question that involves thinking through the relation between form and content, integrity and generosity, democratic ideals and cognitive probity, commerce and commitment.
The blogosphere as a whole, then and now, struggles with this balance, but let's not pretend there aren't plenty of us out here who keep this stuff explicitly in mind. Robin is a case in point. His lecture is the perfect response to all of the above.
Previous Narcissus in Bloom:
Talk at Newcastle University
Next Perpetual Yawn:
More from the Ex-Zer0 Set
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