Growing up, I always looked forward to summer as a time to unwind.  This summer was different - I’ve been working my tail off on a variety of different projects.  Right now, I am getting ready to teach my favorite course again.  Technically, it is theory and methodology in Interdisciplinary Studies, but I like to think of it as a course in applied epistemology.  In reality, it is a course in teaching people how to think about their thinking and then how to communicate their thoughts.

Since I run the course as a seminar and require everyone to write a 15+ page paper for it, I think it’s only fair that I write one as well (I did last year and it was published in Vol 7 of Small Wars Journal).  This year I am writing a paper on Virtual Warfare combining my longtime interest in cyberspace with my interest in the military.  I’m planning on using two case studies, if I can get enough data: the Estonian cyberwar of April/May 2007 and the use by Al Q’aida of the ‘net for recruitment and logistics.

Amongst other things, I have been attempting to rework my operational definition of “culture”; that lovely, and highly ambiguous term, that is at the core of Cultural Anthropology.  Having been influenced by Charles Laughlin, I have always had an interest in the effects of neurobiology on culture and, after reading Daniel Levitin’s This is your brain on music, I am starting to get a much clearer idea of how to proceed.