All right… I am ALL for a science focused on wacky, crazy, mysterious, arcane subjects like mammal mating habits:

However, a group of scientists from Atlanta, Georgia, have discovered a way of damping their ardour. Vole reversal, if you like. By injecting them with a so-called “love gene”, the previously sex-mad beasts are transformed into soppily monogamous creatures devoted to and inseparable from their partners.

I am the first to admit this is absurdly fascinating stuff, especially since it has to do with the “VOLE,” a small rodent I had no knowledge of until today…

But the tenor or let’s say the “theraputic desire” of this type of research strikes me a bit odd and (creeping toward politically suspect terrain too). I really don’t think I need to analyse why this is so ( just read the article for yourself or for that matter infer from the title of the piece Tale of vole reversal and a possible cure for promiscuity) because it is obvious that the loose and easy assocations made between ALL ANIMALS and ALL HUMANS (mostly of the male gender, at least in some articles) are going to be suspect to a cultural anthropologist. Not to mention that I find the uber-medicalization of such things distasteful..

Yet, this little slice of news has piqued my interest in animals and their torrid sexual habits. You see, I was also recently introduced to another fine animal specimin, the echidna.

Now given its weird anatomy and features (see below), my question is….

not whether it is monogamous or “fast, loose, and dirty” but how the heck does it *even have sex* in the first place? I mean he can’t even stand up! And from the look on his face, I just know this poor echnida has yet to be deflowered. Poor little one needs some action….

[enrico] I admire the capacity of the antropologists to build a complex narration over anything!

All right, so due to massive inteventions, I have rid my blog of the “Not Wholesome” image. Too many people were apparently disturbed, so I have replaced it with its polar opposite the cutest ever Puerto Rican street mutt, (sato) until I find something more appropriate…

But in terms of shocking, I found out that our lovely Hooter’s ladies are now in our lovely friendly skies……. I tried to book a flight to see how much a flight cost but all I got was “system error.” Hmmm, solid airline…

Every once in a while I like to take a moment for retropsection and ask

A storm has blown threw Chicago. Stifling heat has been converted to cool air while thick drops of water hit with a satisfying thump against the lifeless pavement of urban city streets. The rain brings a collective relief to the streets and her inhabitant though everyone knows this treat is short lived. The heat so characteristic of Chicago summers is only bound to visit us soon again.

I have been back for over just two days and I am only now clearing the thick piles of everything (clothes, books, bills, receits, emails. odds and ends, to-do items) that were waiting for me upon my return. Since I was so busy right up till the moment I left, I have not really taken care much of anything outside of pure necessity for weeks and thus moving and flattening the pile has not been easy nor all that entertaining.

In another day or two I hope the can finish with this process of purging and maybe then these enteries might pick up pace into something more interesting than this!

I am back from Brazil and really too exhausted to blog, talk, eat, write, and think especially since my head feels MUCH larger than it should be (like the little bird in the picture) thanks to the “Debian Virus” we were all infected with in Brazil.

But despite the feeling of large and over stuffed headedness, I had a thumbs up time, which apparently is one of the more common gestures of affirmation in Brazil (or at least Porto Alegre).

I have a lot more to say than I feel like a big-headed Biella and I had a Thumbs Up Time but it will have to wait until my head deflates to write anything of more substance….

I have made it to Porto Alegre for the Debconf4 where I gave a talk on ethics and Debian.

Unlike pretty much every academic conference that I have been to, I enjoyed this. First, I was given time to talk. In academic conferences we are given 20 minutes at the most. What can one possibly say in 20 minutes except that one cannot possibly say anything of worth in 20 minutes especially when the people on the panel and in the room don’ necessarily work in your area of expertise.

I was prety stressed over the talk. As an anthropologist, giving a talk to the people you study is something like your biggest fear in the world. I mean there you are telling folks something about them (and often about things they still know a lot more about). The question always is something along the lines of “Are my ideas total fabrications?” and “Will I be able to pull it off?”

Anway, it all worked well, the Q and A period was fascinating and I got a room full of Debian geeks to laugh. Mission accomplished…. And now time for a real vacation!

You know you are addicted to coffee when……

It is nearly 2 am and you are PSYCHED to go to bed not because you are tired but because you will wake up in 8 hours and have coffee.

Pathetic.

So today at the MacLab, I ran into a friend, Bernard. Since I study hackers and Free Software I have become the resident computer expert (though if they only knew…) and thus get asked all these fanciful computer questions. I usually can’t answer and send them off to the help desk but today, I was asked about that UNIX function where you can “find out” when/where a person has last logged onto their email.

I was like “ooooooooohhhhhh, YESSSSSSSSS” finger. Of course it brought back a rush of memories from my undergraduate days when I could more or less pinpoint my b-friend’s location through this one command. A highly crude gps. So anyway, when I got home I prompted to run the command on myself and alas I was so amused by some of the terminology and categories

Login name: egcolema In real life: enid gabriella coleman

Well really in Real REAL life, I am Biella Coleman

and then there is this great section

No unread mail
No Plan.

No, No Plan…. Right, I wish I could live my life that way, No plan