Torture, Tongues, and Treason Arredondo, Christopher Britt
South Central review,
04/2007, Letnik:
24, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
"Torture, Tongues, and Treason": It is difficult to write freely as an American about torture today. This difficulty arises from the fact that we Americans use two contradictory languages to speak ...about torture: the international language of human rights (by means of which we condemn torture), and the new Bush-speak on torture, (by means of which we sanction torture). This contradiction undermines the consistency of American political discourse; it permits systematic acts of cruelty to be confused with patriotic expressions of loyalty to the homeland; and it justifies abuse as an exceptional but necessary means to securing America's enduring freedom. At what point does inconsistency of this sort cease to be merely contradictory and become treasonous? Torturers, like censors, aim to control how their victims use language. Whereas torturers command their victims to speak in response to abuse; censors command their victims to keep silent about the abuse. By working in tandem, torturers and censors assure that their victims emit only the sounds and silences of the language of betrayal. As such, they effectively strip their victims of freedom of speech, transforming them into involuntary servants who must contradict and literally speak against themselves. But such forced betrayal is not a reflection of the victims' loss of freedom only; it also highlights the radical freedom enjoyed by torturers and censors. Insofar as this abusive freedom is a total freedom, it is consistent with the ambitions of a totalitarian regime. But when freedom is abused by agents of a republican regime in order precisely to defend the democratic freedoms of its citizens, the resulting contradictions constitute an act of betrayal. Indeed, the traitors that American torture in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Cuba has helped to create are not among the victims only. There are traitors among the perpetrators too. To write on torture in America with these treasonous patriots in mind requires that one speak the language of betrayal with a split tongue, and betray the betrayal.
"Totalitarian Lust: From Salò to Abu Ghraib": As Dahlia Lithwick expressed it recently, the purpose of our open torture camps, scientific torture methods and torture laws is not to manipulate or ...destroy people, nor to win a war against a conceptually volatile representation of terrorism. The rationale of torture precisely in its most arbitrary, irrational and useless forms, as shown in Abu Ghraib or in Guantánamo, is the spectacle of an absolute power. This explains why torture nowadays (as it was in the era of the Inquisition under Spanish-Christian imperialism) has become a public fact, a media show, and even an academic debate (unlike other even more lethal topics such as the use of depleted or enriched uranium in postmodern missile warfare). Spectacle is not just a system of representations, as cultural studies scholars believed. Its function is the constitution of hard facts, powerful realities, and new orders. My essay points out the mere fact that in the history of modern civilization, as defined by the Christian theology (Eymerich), or by enlightened secular philosophy (Sade), torture has had and still has a moral and political function constitutive of any rational system of totalitarian power.
Radio sources in the Chandra Galactic Bulge Survey Maccarone, Thomas J.; Torres, Manuel A. P.; Britt, Christopher T. ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
11/2012, Letnik:
426, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Abstract
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards (ULLYSES) program is a HST Director's Discretionary program that is in the process of ...obtaining a large library of ultraviolet spectroscopic observations of young stars of both high and low masses. We present information on close companions to the T Tauri stars CVSO 109 and CVSO 165 in Orion that were observed with the HST as part of this program. CVSO 109 has a fainter companion at an angular separation
ρ
= 0.″64 near PA = 218° and Δ(F28X50LP) ≈ 0.6 mag, while the CVSO 165 companion is at
ρ
= 0.″30 near PA = 326° with Δ(F28X50LP) ≈ 1.7 mag. Both components of CVSO 165 appear to be active stars with strong emission features, while the CVSO 109 companion shows only modest indications of stellar activity. Extracted spectra for each of these components will be included in ULLYSES Data Release 2.
We present the first Data Release (DR1) from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards (ULLYSES) program, a Director's Discretionary program ...devoting approximately 1000 HST orbits to the production of an ultraviolet spectroscopic library of young high- and low-mass stars in the local universe. The science products in this release are combined from individual, extracted and calibrated spectra obtained with the COS and STIS instruments aboard HST. Products are made using both archival HST data and new HST observations obtained through the ULLYSES program. DR1 acts as the first step toward completing a goal of generating a fully public data set for the purpose of enabling, supporting, and stimulating a broad range of transformative astrophysical research.
An experiment comparing the dry matter yield of intensively managed short rotation coppice (SRC) under factorial combinations of two plant varieties (
S. viminalis cv. Jorunn and
S. x dasyclados), ...five planting densities (10,000–
111,000
plants
ha
−1
) and two harvesting frequencies is reported. Data are presented from the first biennial and triennial harvest cycles at two sites (East Anglia and Warwickshire, UK) planted in spring 1996 and flailed in autumn 1996.
Higher annual yields were attainable by more intensive packing of plants combined with more frequent harvesting. With
S. viminalis cv. Jorunn, yield increased by 34% between the lowest and highest planting densities. Biennial harvesting increased yield compared with triennial harvests.
S. viminalis, on average, yielded
2.7
t
ha
−1
yr
−1
more than
S. x dasyclados, with peak yields of
11.4
t
ha
−1
yr
−1
. Significant differences in yield between sites were noted, with an average of
1
t
ha
−1
yr
−1
benefit on a mineral soil compared with a peaty loam. There were no statistically significant interactions in the data.
Biennial plots reached peak heights of 254–
297
cm
(
S. viminalis) and 239–
273
cm
(
S. x dasyclados) in 1998. Peak heights of triennial plots (achieved in 1999) were 401–
515
cm
(
S. viminalis) and 316–
420
cm
(
S. x dasyclados). There was a gradual increase in height through the three years and a non-significant trend towards decreased height with increasing planting density at the ends of the growing seasons. Both varieties demonstrated phenotypic plasticity, with individual plant weight and stem number decreasing as a function of increasing density.
A range of parameters including stem width reduction, stem mortality and plant mortality were seen to vary. The population of primary stems was found to increase up to the time of canopy closure, on a per plant basis and per unit ground area basis. After this time, competition for light resulted in self-thinning of stems through until final harvest for
S. dasyclados but not
S. viminalis. Stem numbers per plant, recorded after leaf fall, showed different responses between both harvesting frequency and variety. With
S. viminalis, stem numbers remained constant after cut back for up to
2
yr
, but increased rapidly as a result of a harvest after
2
yr
. With
S. x dasyclados, a similar regrowth of stems was observed after a 2-yr harvest. Prior to the harvest, stem numbers per plant decreased steadily for 2 of the
3
yr
depending on harvest cycle. After
3
yr
stem populations with
S. x dasyclados were also decreasing.
The degree to which non-destructive measurements could be used to (a) determine annual increment and (b) be used to predict eventual yield was examined. Cylindrical volume was the only growth measurement that enabled a reasonable fit between crop morphology and final yield to be made. The relationship was found to be a good fit and the fit improved with a longer harvest interval. Regression equations were not significantly different between sample sites but were significantly different between both variety (
P<0.001) and harvest interval (
P<0.05).
In summary, we deduce that modern varieties of
S. viminalis such as Jorunn, are more suited to higher planting density and intensive harvesting, due to more erect growth reducing intra-specific competition at high planting densities.
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