In Harmonium

Being in the main the musings of a Symbolic Anthropologist

An important letter on the state of science

| October 12, 2010

This letter if from Harold Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Here is his letter of resignation to Curtis G. Callan Jr, Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society. Anthony Watts describes it thus: This is an important moment in science history. I would describe it as a [...]

Crowdsourcing the Army Capstone Concept

| October 15, 2009

The 2009 Army Capstone Concept will be released on Dec. 21, but until then, Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center’s Concepts Development and Experimentation Directorate, invites the public to preview and provide feedback for the draft copy on the Small Wars Journal blog. Source: Draft Army Capstone Concept hits Web [...]

What is “leadership”?

| August 30, 2009

This is a question that has been gnawing at me for some time now.  Recently, two totally different events came together for me, and I wanted to take some time to reflect on what it might be.

Rule of Law?

| July 10, 2009

Q: Since when are university regents “administrative officials performing functions analogous to those of judges and prosecutors” (quoted here)? A: Since July 7th, 2009.

What is “harm”?

| September 30, 2008

One of the nice things about being a pessimistic romantic is that one can still have a sense of wonder about everyday things.  That sense of wonder kicked in again today upon reading a very nice, plain English exposition by Cobalt on why Anthropologists working with the US military can be unethical (actual, “a dick”; [...]

Evangelists and evangelical networks

| September 25, 2008

Galrahn over at Information Dissemination, just produced another brilliant piece on the realities of 21st century networks called The Challenges of the 21st Century Conversation.  While the subject of the post is US Naval “evangelists” (“Champions” in business terms), the post itself examines the complex interplay between narrative, myth, discourse control and the role of [...]

“make the case for ‘Culture’”

| September 15, 2008

“The question comes down to how we can as artists make the case to Canadians that the arts deserves healthy vigorous funding,” S. Randy Boyagoda, a novelist and a professor of literature based at Ryerson University, said on Thursday. Source CBC.ca Canada seems to have a love-hate relationship with the Arts.  On the one hand, [...]

Silo’s, Technology and Professions

| July 3, 2008

In a recent blog entry, Matt Armstrong draws on the recent thread on Information Operations at SWC and on some of my posts on the topic and, towards the end, asks some really good questions. are we simply recreating stove-pipes? Is IO strategic, operational, or tactical? Where does IO, for example fit in with Countering [...]

Structure and Function in Information Operations

| June 29, 2008

In my last post, I laid out what I consider to be the start of developing a theory of Information Operations (IO). Most of that post deals with an attempt to crate a definition of IO. In the end, the definition I came up with was Information Operations are a) actions taken by actors, b) [...]

Of joking relationships

| June 21, 2008

The (potential) role of Anthropology operating with the military has been a topic of rather heated discussion for some time. In some cases, the reactions by Anthropologists have been close to witch hunts, while in other cases they have been quite positive. The latest foo-forah comes with the revelation that Montgomery McFate may also be [...]