Funny: There is an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Robots. They say: "Robots are people too! Or at least, they will be someday." My comment: Of course, this is a fun-site. But maybe there is some seriousness in the idea, at least it could be. The autor points to the The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and realises, that they were also ridiculed in 1890. So, it is possible that we, that our culture, is changing the idea we have of an robot in the future - in the same way we changed the concept of an animal. Via ITW

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From 12. to 15. December 2002 there will be a workshop called "Negotiating Power, Contesting Violence, and Assessing Perspectives for Transcultural Approaches: Gender and Nation State in Muslim Societies" at the Carl-von-Ossietzky-University in Oldenburg, Germany. "This workshop aims to examine gendered power relations in contemporary postcolonial nation states and national movements within Muslim societies. Fused with power, force, and violence on theoretical, structural, and institutional levels, the nation state also constitutes notions of masculinity and femininity. Thus, analyses of gender and the nation state must encompass processes of construction and maintenance as well as strategies of subversion, violation, and mediation. [...] This workshop will bring together researchers from the Mashreq, the Maghreb, South Asia, Europe, and North America with the overall aim to assess perspectives for transcultural approaches, discourses, and networks." The following panels will take place: "Frameworks: Gender (In-)Equality and Trajectories of Nation States", "Strategies against Violence: Acting within National Legal Systems", "Masculinity and the Nation State in the Middle East", and "In the Name of the Nation: Between Sacrifice and Agency". Registrations should be in by November the 15. 2002.

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