The Transgenic Animal Center (TAC) at the National Institute of Biological Science in Beijing has spliced panda genetic material with the genetic material of a dog in order to create a new species: The Panda Dog. Transgenic Panda Dogs have been produced by fertilizing normal panda eggs with dog sperm cells that have incorporated foreign DNA to act as biological bridge between the two species. The use of foreign DNA for bridging purposes is a new Chinese technique that may be the key to many more transgenic species in the future. The foreign DNA used must be tweaked for success between different species but in general the same foreign DNA is used and is the first instance of a true universal transgenic DNA type. This procedure is called bridged sperm-mediated gene transfer (BSMGT). A spokesperson for TAC thinks the Panda Dog may be the pet of the future. The same Chinese lab is also working on a lion dog, tiger dog and zebra dog but these new species will not be available for awhile.
I first saw the Bicycle Thief when I was in Venezuela as a kid. This means I was around eight at the time and it was 1964. I remembered being bored to death and crying. The film was Italian with subtitles. I had started to learn to read on my own around five by reading comic books. When I was young I mostly read Casper and Archie comic books and had only recently graduated to super hero stuff. However, the subtitles were way beyond my comic book learned reading levels. My dad was not a big fan of young boys that cried in movie theaters and gave me a nice slap across the face to shut me up. My dad had this very special way of slapping me across the face that really was quite skillful. I have a baby face and have always had a baby face. I have lot of body fat in my cheeks that provides a lot of protection to my face. I have been slugged on the cheek and light punches just bounce right off. My dad had figured out that if he slapped me across the cheek he could get in a pretty solid blow without doing much damage. That slap generally did shut me up later but at the time the slap just made me cry some more and we were asked to leave the theater!
There weren’t a ton of Americans watching movies in Venezuela in 1964 and I remember Venezuelans staring at us as we left the theater. I remember some of them saying “gringo” this and “gringo” that. I think this was the first time I consciously realized I was not just judged as a person but as a representative of a country. I grew up in a world without internet, only 3 B&W channels and very few TV shows from Italy with subtitles so I really didn’t see that movie or think about it for years. My dad started teaching a cinema class at Michigan State University in the American Thought and Language Dept. were he was professor in the seventies. My dad included the Bicycle Thief among the films he showed
in the class. I watched the film for the first time in many years during one of
his classes. I was about 14 at the time. My dad had a cup of coffee after the class as was our custom and we discussed the role of neorealism in general and how there was a need for these sorts of films in US cinema but that this was probably not going to happen due to the interests of the ruling class of the US. For the record, that was my view of the world at 14 since then I have become convinced that chaos generally rules human affairs and the idea of a ruling class of any sort that really controls political events is a fictive. Chaos not China will soon replace the Pax Americana and thoughtful humans will regret the passing of the days of relative order we once enjoyed.
I mentioned the film incident in Venezuela and he assured me this incident had never happened. I lived with my mother not my father at that time. Later I talked with my mom who had divorced my dad several years earlier and she remembered the incident in detail including a blow by blow description of what the Venezuelans said in Spanish. My mother was a professor in Spanish before she retired and understood a lot more than I had. My mom claimed she had been very ashamed of my father’s behavior. My mom is Peruvian and I know from experience she feels more shame when something like that incident happens in front of fellow Latin Americans than when stuff happens in front of “gringos”. I guess some of the Venezuelans had made comments along the lines of “that’s what happens when you marry a gringo” while giving my mom the once over with their eyes. Latin Americans have a way of talking with their eyes that I have inherited from my mom that most Americans are oblivious to. I am sure my dad, who was just learning Spanish, did not understand most of what was being said. Most Americans don’t realize this but your typical Latin American admires the work ethic, democratic and scientific habits of Americans but do feel we are not as well mannered and you know what? Maybe they are right! Today I ran into Harvey Pekar’s description of the Bicycle Thief in a comic book of his I downloaded and a flood of memories overwhelmed me. This in turn motivated me to write my 200th post! The Bicycle Thief comic book story is part of the American Splendour comic book series.
I want to do a comic book story about my reaction to this comic book page!
Being a werefox is not easy. The origins of my condition are genetic. My grandfather often transformed. The condition skipped a generation and my
father has never had to endure a transformation. The family story is that my great, great, great grandfather had a dalliance with a gypsy girl in Ireland in the 1700’s. My great, great, great, great grandfather broke the gypsy girl’s heart. He was a lord and lords did not marry gypsy girls in that period. The gypsy girl’s mother cursed the family. Our family had a different surname back then but due to our werefox condition we gained the surname Fox over the centuries. Fortunately, the condition has weakened over the centuries. I do become a little feral when I transform but generally can control my blood lust. Some have even said I look cute when I transform. Only on Halloween when the barrier between
the world of spirits and the world of humans is weakened do I become a wild
werefox. My werefox appearance also changes. My teeth and eyes become much
larger, and do not look cute at all. Also, zombies are drawn by my animal energy
and we roam the wilds together. I can only control the blood lust with great difficulty during Halloween.
I never know when a transformation will occur!
I was on my way to the Khao Kaew Open Zoo near Pattaya, Thailand when suddenly I transformed from my human form to my werfox form! I was a little nervous since I have found that animals often respond to me aggressively when I turn into a werefox. Dogs just flip out and bark at me like they had just gotten a case of rabies. Fortunately I also scare dogs when I turn into a werefox so they keep their distance despite their barking.
Well I am happy to report the animals at the zoo are super mellow unlike dogs and none of them acted crazy at all. The zoo was great except for one thing. The zoo includes an American raccoon. That poor raccoon is very obviously dying of heat. American raccoons live outside in super cold states like Alaska in the winter. The raccoon is not adapted for the tropics at all. The raccoon was panting profusely and just looked miserable! Poor baby! I think the raccoon would appreciate some sort of pool and an occasional slab of ice to play with.
Several internet sites suggest that there are modern Western myths and the following characters are cited as examples: the Code Fairy, Easter Bunny, Father Time, the Grim Reaper, the Invisible Pink Unicorn, J.R. Bob Dobbs, Lady Luck, Mother Nature, Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy. Does this claim of the existence of a modern Western mythology withstand scrutiny? Each character will be looked at individually and an overall conclusion will be arrived at. Myths, as opposed to stories in general, in this article are assumed to explain phenomena and elicit or elicited some degree of belief in this explanation. People no longer believe Zeus creates thunder but Zeus is still a myth because people once believed in that explanation of thunder.
Generally, the Code Fairy is considered a very weak example of a modern Western mythology. The Code Fairy is a fictional spirit said to eat semicolons and curly braces from computer source code. The Code Fairy is an example of folklore mythology which non-programmers know is fiction, but which is sometimes presented by computer programmers as fact, as a way to explain how a computer program stops working after compiling it, without altering the source code. The explanation is silly but further analysis may yield a surprising result. While probably programmers do not believe in a code fairy as such, the code fairy is a safe way for a computer programmer, who is supposed to be hyper rational, to suggest sometimes things do go bump in the night in a way that cannot be explained even in the rational world of programming.
The code fairy is a good example of a post-modern myth which overtly deconstructs the concept of the myth while at the same time providing a covert mythological function. The code fairy pretends to be a non-myth or parody of a myth. Covertly the Code Fairy allows for the communication of how some phenomena defies explanation even in an area of human endeavor where explanation and control should always be possible. Humans rely on computers more and more and any suggestion by computer professionals that computers are affected by hard to define influences is disconcerting in the extreme. The Code Fairy is also a safe way to express anthromorphic views about computers that are not acceptable in a positivistic work atmosphere but do play some part in the thinking of humans no matter how rational they are expected to act in public. The Code Fairy with its contradictory explanatory functions is probably
better classified as a postmodern rather than modern myth.
The Easter Bunny is supposed to bring Easter eggs to an outside area and then the children look for the hidden Easter eggs. Both rabbits and eggs are ancient symbols of fertility and the Easter Bunny can be seen as an updated version of customs going back to Roman times. The Easter Bunny is an ancient symbol revamped but not necessarily an ancient myth. Rabbits and eggs do not explain fertility but represent fertility. The Easter Bunny is often classified with the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus as an example of a modern mythical figure. I disagree! The Easter Bunny is different from Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy in that children are not taught to actually believe that the eggs are planted by the Easter Bunny but rather the Easter Bunny story is understood to be a fanciful story even by children. The Easter Bunny is not a mythic figure but a story with older symbolic origins that is used to amuse children.
Father Time is a modern version of Chronos the Greek
god of time. People do not believe that Father Time does exist but the origins of Father Time in prior myth means that Father Time can be considered a newly named myth rather than just a story.
The Grim Reaper is a modern version of Death. The idea of a skeletal figure that brings death to people is quite ancient. Like Father Time, the Grim Reaper can be seen as myth that once was believed in under a different name.
“The Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU) is the goddess of a parody religion used to satirize theistic beliefs, taking the form of a unicorn that is paradoxically both invisible and pink. She is a rhetorical illustration used by atheists and other religious skeptics as a contemporary version of Russell’s teapot, sometimes mentioned in conjunction with the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The IPU is used to argue that supernatural beliefs are arbitrary by, for example, replacing the word God in any theistic statement with Invisible Pink Unicorn. The mutually exclusive attributes of pinkness and invisibility, coupled with the inability to disprove the IPU’s existence, satirize properties that some theists attribute to a theistic deity”. No one believes in the IPU. The IPU has modern origins unrelated to prior myths. Clearly the IPU is not a myth but a critique of myth.
J. R. “Bob” Dobbs is the figurehead of the Church of the SubGenius. His image is derived from a piece of 1950s clip art. According to SubGenius dogma, “Bob” was a drilling equipment salesman who, in 1953, saw a vision of God (JHVH-1 according to Church scriptures) on a television set he had built himself. The vision inspired him to write the “PreScriptures” (as described in the Book of the SubGenius) and found the Church. The theology holds that “Bob” is the greatest salesman who ever lived, and has cheated death a number of times. He is also revered for his great follies and believed to be a savior of “slack”.
J.R. Dobbs has similarities with the IPU in that both are modern, artificial creations that have mythic properties in order to deconstruct the idea of a myth in the first place. Both also serve a satirical function with the satirical function of J.R. Dobbs being more prominent than in IPU discussion.
IPU has a more philosophical tone. J.R. Dobbs like the IPU is not a myth but a critique of myth.
Lady Luck is a modern incarnation of the Roman goddess of luck, Fortuna and is therefore like Father Time and the Grim Reaper an old myth given a new name and therefore is myth due to origin. While modern thinking probably does not allow for the personification of luck most human probably do believe in good or bad luck. People are assumed to have good or bad luck. People commonly believe in lucky numbers and lucky days. Comic books refer to stochastic fields that characters like the Scarlet Witch can generate to create hexes but this is of course scientific mumbo jumbo. The idea of luck as an explanation contrary
to a purely scientific, materialistic view of the universe is alive and well.
Mother Nature is yet another example of a modern incarnation of an older mother of the Earth that has existed in many pantheons of the past. One version of ecology suggests that Earth is a synergic ecological whole that can be referred to as Gaia. This suggests that Mother Nature exists as myth both due to origin and reintegration into our scientific positivist world view via modern ecological conceptualization.
Santa Claus
“Santa Claus, or “Santa“, is a figure in North American culture with legendary, mythological and folkloric aspects who developed from an amalgamation of Dutch Sinterklaas, English Father Christmas and other traditions of Christmas gift-bringers. Santa Claus is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24.”. Santa Claus is a myth due to origin but beyond this Santa Claus is a belief held by young children in the present. Young children in many countries do believe in Santa Claus. If you like Santa then you will love My Asian Adventures as Santa Claus.
Tooth Fairy
The belief in faeries is a very old one. The Tooth Fairy like Santa Claus, and unlike other characters on this list, is a myth both due to origin and due to the fact young children believe in the Tooth Fairy. Upon closer examination characters that are lumped together as examples of modern Western myths do not belong together. The IPU and J.R. Dobbs are not myths. Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy clearly are myths because of origin, explanatory power and most importantly children believe in them. Other characters on this list can be seen as myths due to origin rather than in the fact that they are believed in currently. Mother Nature
is myth given new scientific identity. Analysis of the Code Fairy shows that a new type of myth may have evolved in the 20th century. The Tooth Fairy has both an overt and covert message. Overtly the construct is satire but covertly the construct is explanation. The Code Fairy may be a new type of postmodern
myth.
Eveready is selling a waterproof flashlight that is only five bucks and uses two AA batteries. I added this flashlight to my standard travel bag around town in Thailand for several reasons. A flashlight is always handy but a waterproof flashlight is especially well adapted to a tropical country with a great deal of rainfall and the giant water fight called Songkran that happens once a year in Thailand! The flashlight uses AA batteries not D batteries like most flashlights. This means the flashlight can act as a waterproof container for AA batteries which my digital camera also uses!
Since I started carrying my flashlight, I have discovered that if you shine the light of a flashlight into the eyes of a barking wild dog at night then the dog generally goes away! I had read that lights scare away wild animals in general and coyotes specifically and wondered if the same technique would work on wild dogs and I have tested the technique on about a dozen dogs so far with great success. I have also found that the way you can make sure you are getting the dog straight in the eyes is to get their eyes to glow in the dark with your flashlight. This action works from at least 50 feet and beyond! This means I can start to shoo the dog away from quite a distance.
The whole problem of being barked at by wild dogs is bigger for Westeners than Thais since the dogs do tend to bark more at Westerners than Thais. I think we just have a different smell than Thais due to diet and the dogs aren’t sure what we are. However, Thais are not totally immune from the actions of wild dogs and Thais do get bit now and then. The big problem is not the bite, which is usually minor, but the rabies shots that you should take and are not fun at all according to Westerners I have known who have been bitten.
The only drawback of the AA flashlight is that the flashlight is very light, much lighter than your typical D battery flashlight, and therefore useless as a club against the insane wild dog I am sure to eventually run into that ignores the light in their eyes but that is why I always carry an umbrella.
Thais are good Buddhists and never actually kill wild dogs no matter how insane they might be but the security guards will get a nice long bamboo stick and chase away especially insane wild dogs from the piece of real estate that they are charged with guarding. This is sometimes done while the security guard is on a scooter and the technique seems to work since a dog once shooed away in this manner stays away! This means that most insane wild dogs in Thailand do know what sort of damage a human can do with a stick and just raising your umbrella over your head scares them! I do not think dogs are smart enough to figure out that an umbrella is nowhere near as heavy and durable as a long length of bamboo so for this reason the bluff seems to generally work. A long but relatively weak umbrella probably does a better job of scaring a dog than a shorter but more deadly D battery flashlight.
I am interested in scaring the dogs away rather than engaging in actual gladiatorial combat so the umbrella technique works just fine for me. All in all wild Thai dogs are more bark than bite but better safe than sorry. If you do see a wild dog that is acting aggresively do not run! Dogs like most predators have a chase reflex and running makes them more aggresive not less aggresive. Also, they have four legs to your two and the chances of out running a dog are slim. I have found standing your ground generally works. Do not charge the dog but do not run away from the dog. Use the flashlight and/or umbrella to scare them away. Even a wild dog is a product of tens of thousands of years of domestication and you can use simple psychology on them. Dogs are not coyotes and I think it’s just a lot easier to scare them away than truly wild animals.
There is actually very little on the internet about defense against wild dogs and I am starting to feel like a bit of an expert due to my almost daily experience dealing with this problem. Some sites suggest using a stun baton or better yet firearms! Oh yeah! Lets shoot the dog! Come on! I like dogs and don’t want to shoot them. I just want to scare them away! Dogs aren’t evil. The dogs are just doing what comes naturally to them and as an intelligent, hopefully, human I should try to out smart the dogs rather than hurt the dogs.
Heck, I try to be a good Buddhist and, like many Thais, will endevour to catch an insect in my apartment and release the insect outdoors and I like dogs about a 100 times more than bugs! Oh, this catch and release system does not apply to mosquitoes and ants! Any mosquitoes and ants found in my living space are doomed. Interestingly enough I will go out of my way to catch and release spiders since I find spiders beautiful in their own way. Gekkos get a free pass all the way! Gekkos can have the run of the apartment no problem! I have absolutely no fear of snakes and would only worry about getting a poisonous bite but otherwise would try to catch and release a snake if one decided to visit me.
“Cogito ergo sum” means “I think I am”. My version is “I think therefore I
eat”. There is no word “eato” but typically the Japanese take an English word and add “o” to the end of it to make it a loan word or “gairaigo”. For example, “set” becomes “seto”, short” becomes “shorto” and so on. I did a
Gairaigo rap while in Japan:
Superman verbally renounces his US citizenship in Action #900 (The
Incident, pgs 70-78). Superman decides to show up at Azadi square in Tehran. Iranian pro-democracy protestors are in a face-off with Iranian security and Superman flies down and plants himself between the protestors and Iranian security. Iranian security does not fire on the protestors probably because of Superman’s presence. When Superman flies away after 24 hours, one of the protestors offers a rose to an Iranian policeman who has a rifle aimed at the protestor and the Iranian policeman lowers his weapon and accepts the flower.
This upsets the US government so much that a meeting with Superman is demanded Superman meets with a National Security advisor in a park. Superman spots a couple of US government snipers with rifles aimed at him and loaded with kryptonite bullets in winter cameo that he can spot anyway with his infrared vision. The National Security advisor tells Superman the snipers are there just in case because his actions have alarmed the US government. The story is interesting on several levels. Action #900 is acknowledging the current Arab Spring, Superman is engaging in international political activism but most of all renounces his US citizenship because in his words, “truth, justice and the American way. It’s not enough anymore”.
In my post The Myth of Superman Revisited, I comment on Umberto Eco’s critique of Superman. Eco points out that Superman engages in tasks such as catching bank robbers that are a waste of time relative to his potential. Superman could deal with root causes of the human malaise and change fundamental economic and political conditions. In this post I point out that while Superman has kept his boy scout persona, the issue of superheroes taking extreme political action has been explored a great deal since Eco wrote his article. Superman political activism or lack of it is an interesting issue but in this post I want to focus on a legalistic issue about Superman’s renunciation of his US citizenship.
Perhaps Superman cannot renounce his US citizenship since he may be an illegal alien! Superman landed in a cornfield in Kansas and was adopted by the Kent’s but never applied for citizenship and therefore is in the US fraudulently.
In the Silver Age, Superman was given UN citizenship more than once and so this would make Superman citizen of the US since the US is part of UN. The problem with UN citizenship is that it would be an extension of the dual citizenship concept and would mean that Superman would have both the rights and responsibilities of all the countries he is a citizen of. That’s an awful lot of taxes and an awful lot of laws to memorize and follow. Like many Silver Age constructions, the UN citizenship idea can be dismissed as fanciful and irrelevant.
In the Death of Superman story arc, Superman was given honorary US citizenship. The problem is that Superman is an alias not a legal identity. Can you give citizenship to what is essentially a non-person legally? You might even have the very confusing situation whereby Superman is a citizen and not Clark Kent. This seems like legal contradiction that cannot be accepted. So does this mean Superman cannot renounce his US citizenship because he is not a citizen legally in the first place?
Maybe not, the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 allows certain foreign-born,
biological and adopted children of United States citizens to acquire United
States citizenship automatically. The child must have at least one U.S. citizen parent by birth or naturalization, be under 18 years of age (have been born on or after February 27, 1983) live in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent, and be admitted as an immigrant for lawful permanent residence. In addition, if the child is adopted, the adoption must be full and final.
Superman appears to meet all this criteria except for being born on or
before February 27, 1983. So whether or not Superman is a US citizen in the first place is dependent on the date of his birth. Superman is perennially middle
aged, thirty-something. If Superman was born in 1983 then he would be 28 in 2011 and this is unlikely. Therefore Superman is not a US citizen in the first place so his renunciation is invalid!
Even if Superman is a US citizen then renouncing citizenship is a really bad idea. Renunciation of citizenship includes renunciation of all rights and privileges of citizenship. A person who wants to renounce U.S. citizenship cannot decide to retain some of the privileges of citizenship, as this would be logically inconsistent with the concept of renunciation. Only citizens can enter
and leave the US without a visa. Superman would have to apply for a visa every time he landed on US soil! All this time getting a visa will seriously hamper his crime fighting career.
Superman could fly over the US but even that would be problematic. There
is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace (the
boundary between outer space— which is not subject to national jurisdiction—and national airspace), with suggestions ranging from about 30 km
(19 miles) (the extent of the highest aircraft and balloons) to about
160 km (99 miles) (the lowest extent of short-term stable orbits). Superman could apply for a multiple re-entry visa but such a visa probably would not be given to a person who has renounced US citizenship in the first place.
I have been told by a friend that is an executive at NBC that a new show called “The Office: Boulder” is in the planning stages. Steve Carrell, who played the boss Michael Scott, will play a sales person at a dysfunctional office that manages an herbal tea business set in Boulder, Colorado. Steve Carrell will not be the boss in this show but will still be the main character. NBC is jealous of the success that CBS has had with its various CSI franchises such as CSI: Miami and CSI: NY and wants to do something similar with The Office. NBC has had some success with Law and Order: Los Angeles and hopes to have similar success with The Office: Boulder. The Office is actually a transplant itself! The Office started in Britain under the auspices of BBC and the concept was transplanted to the US. The same concept as also had some success as German and French remakes.
Steve Carrell was apparently tempted into doing the new show with promises of more input into production including more writing and directing duties on the show. The same mocumentary style will be followed and the explanation is that the same company that filmed him in Scranton found him so amusing they decided to send a new second new crew to follow his travails in Boulder. Steve
Carrell also wanted The Office Boulder to be more edgy than the original The
Office and deal with current issues like unemployment.
Steve Carrell also wants to add a philosophical dimension to the new version of The Office concept, and in his words, “explore the lost summer of love”. The new show will explore the hippie counterculture elements that exist in the real life Boulder. The original founder of the company is a self styled hippie that doesn’t want, as the character puts it, “to sell out” but comically is the worst example of corporate greed Michael Scott has ever seen. The new show will explore the disconnect between American idealism and American corporate behavior. Also, in the words of Steve Carrell, “The show will provide a valuable analysis of the American Dream and educate as well as entertain”.
If The Office: Boulder is a success then The Office: Los Angeles may follow and the main character may be Charlie Sheen who will essentially play himself and play a boss that is running a casting agency in LA. Cindy Lohan may or may not be involved in the project. The idea is that both these actors will attract viewers regardless of their personal problems. There is a concern that Cindy Lohan is too unstable and unmanageble even when compared to Charlie Sheen. The idea of poaching and successfully managing a major star from the CBS show Two
and a Half Men pleases the executives at NBC who have lost substantial market share to CBS in the last few years. The current philosophy at NBC is that they need to take more chances in order to survive. The Charlie Sheen idea is extremely controversial at NBC and another actor may be chosen for The Office: Los Angeles.
Dr. Hugh Fox III 