Dream of the Dragon

Category: Uncategorized

July 3, 2010

Avatars: Going the Distance

by Justin

Who doesn’t want to recreate themselves? To build something consciously and meticulously, assemble the pieces and craft a persona?

Part of the appeal of Facebook and Twitter and all the social networking giants is that users get a chance to curate the information received. Upload select photos, un-tag the embarrassing ones posted by friends, post status updates that illustrate your assets and interests. This style of self-defining is something new and invites user to decide who they are. We’re all wrapped up in this to differing extents, even if you’re just the voyeur consuming these web personalities. Interestingly, the same reckless abandon that most people practice in ‘real life’ can be exercised online. The more fluid the medium becomes the less curated the material, the less thoughtful the updates, etc. And for networking addicts the sheer volume of interaction (comments, re-tweets, whatever) makes it effectively impossible to control the entire construct. Read the rest of this entry »

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June 22, 2010

Making Rape More Dangerous

by Justin

This beast speaks for itself: http://www.antirape.co.za/intro.htm. Rather than explaining the way it operates, I suggest getting the info direct from the source – complete with an uncomfortably straight-forward animated gif.

The anti-rape condom is being given out in South Africa right now in an effort to curb the grotesque and effectively unchecked prevalence of sexual assault in the country. In 2002 South Africa ranked second globally for instances of rape followed by arrest with 54,000, though it ranks 26th for overall population – the same site ranks it number one per capita. The United States has nearly double the number of convictions, but ranks 3rd in total population and 9th per capita. What’s worth noting is that in the US we have a broader definition of what constitutes rape, significantly more effective and accessible venues to report sexual assault, and a far less corrupt justice system. It’s worse in South Africa than the numbers suggest.

A 2009 study by South Africa’s Medical Research Council produced more revelatory results after anonymously polling 1738 men: Read the rest of this entry »

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April 13, 2010

Redirection.

by Justin

As it turns out, endlessly fascinating and deep as China may be, I want to write about more varied news stories. There’s neither the time nor the focus for me to juggle multiple blogs, so I’ll have to diversify this beast. It’s a wonderful testament to my attention span that it took less than a week for this transformation to happen. An article I read today by Roger Cohen didn’t leave me much choice but to spread the word and offer the briefest of commenaries.

Anyway, had to happen. It’ll be a more interesting blog at the end of the day.

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