Peter "I'm not a Fool, but I play one on the Internet" Michaels maintains "a webpage dedicated to exploring the complex mythic/archetypal figure of Trickster" called Fool's Paradise. The page starts with a quote out of genius Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary:

Fool, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude, and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught nations war--founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine, and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting--such as creation's dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existance headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand has warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man's evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization.

Besides an absolutely encompassing, comprehensive and commented link-collection on the trickster, the site hosts an ever growing bibliography of trickster-related printed matter. Also included is a section on 'tricksters in real-life', which on the one hand reminds me of the Culture Jammer's Encyclopedia and on the other hand of my still not yet published dissertation ... (c;

... Link (3 comments) ... Comment

A cinema in Berlin shows a line of movies about the favelas in the megacities of brasil. Telepolis reports in german with a lot of interesting, additional information about culture and history of the favelas.

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment

The controversial Human Area Relations File (HRAF) at Yale University offers free database trials for the eHRAF collections ethnography and archaeology. "The eHRAF Collection of Ethnography and the eHRAF Collection of Archaeology are Web-based, multi-cultural databases for scholars, researchers, and students with an interest in cultural diversity. The annually-growing eHRAF databases are unique in that the information is organized into cultures, ethnic groups and archaeological traditions and the full-text sources (books, articles, and dissertations) are numerically subject-indexed at the paragraph level." Passwords, tutorials and more info ...

... Link (4 comments) ... Comment

It's a common belief that the internet, as it is decentralised, is nearly undestroyable. Scientists from the Ohio State University now disproved this assumtion. In the years of commercialising the vulnerability of the net increased, they say. BBC (english) and Spiegel (german) are reporting. But I would add, that we should watch critically, what solutions to this problem will follow. Look at other recent attempts of the government of the USA to rise fear of terror attacks and in this way also higher the acceptance of guarding, protecting and lastly controlling things as the net. See also this Washington Post article. But maybe some kinds of "guarding" only decrease the openess of the net? Decentralizing, as the scientists want, should also mean to build net hubs outside the US. This again could be done together with development assistance, especially in "internet-suffering" countries in africa or asia (we reported). Just a thought ... Via ITW

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment