A Cyborg Among Us

In 1985, Donna Haraway, a professor of feminist theory and technoscience at the European Graduate School in Switzerland, published an essay titled A Cyborg Manifesto in Socialist Review. She uses the metaphor of a cyborg in order to construct a postmodern feminism and the basic thread of her argument has to do with reconfiguring human ontology. In other words, she wants to reconsider what being human is scientifically, culturally and of course technologically. Haraway's cyborg is an attempt to break away from Oedipal narratives and Christian origin doctrines like Genesis. The concept of the cyborg is a rejection of rigid boundaries, notably those separating human from animal and human from machine. Hence her ideology of feminism not only focuses on the equality of sexes but also on the equality of kinds. Yes, finally Justice For All! For Harraway, a cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction since the prefix cyber is used to address human-technology mixtures in the abstract. Fictional cyborgs are portrayed as a synthesis of organic and synthetic parts and frequently pose the question of difference between human and machine as one concerned with morality, free will and empathy. They have always been represented as visibly mechanical or as almost indistinguishable from humans. On the other hand, the aesthetic philosopher and artist Paul Ziff defines machines as incapable of having feelings or consciousness in his essay The Feelings of Robots. He poses the question of whether we can attribute feelings to a machine and in so blurring the line between a human and a machine but this is the philosophical debate of the possible existence of Artificial Consciousness and beyond our topic. However it should be mentioned that one cannot know whether or not another person has a mind or heart. Therefore one cannot find a way of distinguishing men from the machines. As Haraway reminds us that 'We Are All Cyborgs' one needs only to look around, if not at him/herself and see that we are cyborgs whether we admit it or not, whether we like it or not. Since I'm sure that I'm not a natural-born or a human-made cyborg (Ha! My own narcissism and ad hominem self-righteousness shine through again!) I naturally looked around and unbelievable but true, I personally witnessed a cyborg at my home, on my PC!

Being So Close To Robert Goren Yet No Blush, No Blink! Celebrate The Ultimate Cyborg. A Human-Made Machine With No Emotions!

How About His Temp. Partner, Lynn Bishop?

Standing Shoulder To Shoulder, Almost Touching But She Still Keeps A Straight Face!

Btw You Are On Deadly Ground Bishop!

Let's Check Another One. Handcuff Game? With Robert Goren?

I Almost Forgot To Breath Here! What About Her?

Wow, She Is Cool! Ah, She Is Good! Oh, She Is Fake!

Whoops! Tears Of Joy! She Is Real! She Is 100 Percent Real!

Crash Heart Dummies

Robert Goren For Dummies is an instructional book that is intended to present non intimidating guides for the people who are already in love or about to fall in love with Robert Goren. But before that, I hail all dummies with great respect! Come closer my curious, eager dummies, come closer! Let's start with the basics for people new to Robert Goren, shall we? Robert Goren is a fictional character, Robert Goren is a sexy detective, Robert Goren is an unreachable man. The bottomline; you can't help falling in love with him but with the help of this book written by the biggest dummy ever, you can make your life less pathetic. Well, certainly there are lots of self-help books out there and volumes of it are about love - finding it, getting it, keeping it and ridding it. Books on how to date, how to flirt, how to… Well, you know the rest. But loving Robert Goren is something different, no words can describe it. It's a lot like 'Love At First Sight Syndrome'. The French call it Le Coup De Foudre, the bolt of lightning, and thank God rarely do people get hit by lightning! Speaking of lightning, it's believed that twelve percent of lightning strikes occur at golf courses. Well, it also occurs on TV screen! As a burned, baked, broiled, carbonized, still smoldering person, oh yes, it really does occur on TV screen. Allright, let's proceed:

1. Admit the fact that you can't choose the one which your heart desires. Yes, platonic love hurts, falling in love without reciprocity seems to be a tragedy and makes you feel like a fool. But don't panic! Remember, it's all in your mind. Go ahead! Pinch yourself, lick your elbow or try to swallow your tongue. You see? There are other things in the world that hurt more and make you look like a complete idiot.

2. Noone can hand you Robert Goren on a silver platter. So stop waiting with your mouth open and start spending some quality time with yourself instead; think about penguins, repeat everything you hear in Italian accent, have a tea party with your pets, make SW lightsaber noises or read this blog. Come on! Try to have fun or at least let the people around you have fun.

3. Falling in love with Robert Goren is based on some chemical processes after all. They are the reason for the euphoria, trembling knees, heartbeating, temperature rises, loosing breath and mind at one time. In fact each time we keep busy doing something we like or perform dangerous sports or eat chocolate, the similar processes start in motion. So to get over your love sickness, be a xxxholic! Engage in skydiving, bungee jumping or buy a trampoline and jump upside down. Or just eat a chocolate for God's sake! All you need is yourself. And a chocolate. And ability to eat. Don't worry, the last one is given.

4. Love is not sex, sex is not love.. Blah, blah, blah. In our case as we can't have both, try to keep a 'who gives a damn' attitude outside. Well, don't (bother to) try this at home. Cry as much as you can when you're alone. Or curse if you like! Huh? Yeah, profanity sucks but who gives a damn?

5. The love of Robert Goren is like war: Easy to begin but hard to end. So don't begin. Or better run for your heart! If it's too late, don't forget; time does seem to be the only healer in the case of Robert Goren love. Be patient, pain will probably go away in another year or two, in a hundred years or two, in a thousand years or two... Speaking of time, most importantly don't post blogs about Robert Goren when you are supposed to be writing a thesis!

My Funny Anti-Valentine

It's that time of the year! Normally I'm closed on Valentine's Day. If you wonder why, well, I personally dislike V.D. Being in love is not about February 14th! V.D. is just a consumerist oriented, overrated, meaningless, manipulative day. Ah, who am I kidding? I'm turning 30, the man I love is out of my reach besides, since my Mr. Wrong radar has won a lifelong achievement award in the past I'm hardly a serial dater or just a dater, let's say. So naturally I'm alone! Eeek! I know, I'm kind of a hopeless case, but believe me my dear detective, a cute, little, smart hopeless case:) Did I say modest? Yes, a very, very 'modest' but a hopeless case none the less! Uh-oh! Well, but I can always sleep crossways in bed. Anyway for a change, this year I've come up with an idea for V.D. To be honest, I've never liked Cupid anyway. Chubby, naked, dangerous and armed! Kinda big, plastic, shaking device:) Speaking of a plastic device, you know what they say; love is a four letter word. And now I have another four letter word in my mind for V.D. Aarrrghh, shoot me please! NO! Not you, you butterfingered, crosseyed cupid! Not again! But before that, let me post my last wish: Valentine haters of all lands, unite! No... I'm not bitter at all. Why do you ask? Sniff...Sob...

If You Can't Make It Then You'll Have To Face The Consequences.

Don't Make Me A Cupid-Boiler! Bring Robert Goren, Regardless!

Ah Bobby ah! Why aren't you a real thing? Capital R, capital T? Can't live with him, can't live without him *sigh*. Anyway we can (ahem!) still have fun, can't we? Nevertheless happy valentine's day or single awareness day!

Earth Is Full. Go Home!

Promise, I'll Be Gentle!

The Trouble With Life Is There's No Background Music!

I'm Trying To Imagine You With A Personality.

Ai! What I Need Is An Eyepatch For Stupidity!

Thank God It's 13!

Unlucky 13? Some people believe in it and some people don't. But, most people think Friday the 13th is a good day to stay out of harm's way. Every year has at least one Friday the 13th but luckily never more than three:) The fear of 13 is called Triskaidekaphobia. It is a superstition and related to a specific fear of Friday the 13th, called Paraskevidekatriaphobia or Friggatriskaidekaphobia (God, I certainly have a weird phobia for these terms especially if someone asks me to spell it). While fear of the number 13 can be traced back to medieval times, the word Triskaidekaphobia itself is of recent vintage, having been first coined by I. H. Coriat in Abnormal Psychology. It seems to have first appeared in the general media in a Nov. 8, 1953 New York Times article covering discussions of a United Nations committee. This superstition leads some people to fear or avoid anything involving the number 13. In particular, this leads to interesting practices such as omitting the number 13, in many high-rise American hotels, the numbering of streets avoiding 13th Avenue and so on. Apparently, 13 hasn't always been considered unlucky. In fact, it appears that in ancient times, 13 was either considered in a positive light. The association of bad luck with the number 13 has been attributed to the fact there were 13 people at the last supper of Jesus, although this association seems to have originated only in medieval times. The association has also been linked to that fact that lunisolar calendars must have 13 months in some years in order to synchronize the solar and lunar cycles, while the solar Gregorian calendar in universal current usage always has 12 months in a year.

Can You Count My Fingers?

Add 2!

And Plus 1!

Triskaidekaphobia also may be related to Norse mythology, which tells how the god Odin invited eleven of his closest friends to a dinner party at his home in Valhalla, only to have his party crashed by Loki, the god of evil and turmoil, thus giving a total of 13 people. The association of bad luck with Friday appeared in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (and on a Friday fell all this misfortune) but references to Friday as a day associated with ill luck in general first appear around the middle of the 17th century. Note that the association of Friday the 13th with the arrest of Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, on Friday, October 13, 1307 by King Philippe of France. Further, the death card in the Tarot deck is numbered 13 and there are several mass murderers have 13 letters in their names: Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy. Of course, millions of people who haven't committed any murders have 13 letters in their names too.

Logically speaking, every phobia has its corresponding philia. Hence the love of 13 is called Triskaidekaphilia and I must say I’m a triskaidekaphilic:) Doubtless, 13 is my lucky number for the obvious reason. Well, for those who may not have heard before; can your heart stand the shocking fact of the shoe size of our detective? Congrulations! It's 13! Oh yes, I'm a bigfoot believer. Allright, seriously, first of all, I don't objectify men:) Second of all, I like tangible things therefore I don't believe in and rely on luck, fate, destiny, chance etc. I'm not an external locus of control person, I guess. Besides numerology, likewise astrology lack scientific evidence however narrow-mindedness sucks either. So, according to Anu Garg at A Word A Day, of all the dictionaries, today’s word, Tridecennary, is found in only one: the Oxford English Dictionary. Why? Because people don’t like to celebrate thirteenth anniversaries, it’s unlucky! Oh no, I already feel lucky to know you my dear detective so in this blog we celebrate all things 13.

13 is the natural number after 12 and before 14. 13 is the smallest integer with eight letters in its spelled out name in English. 13 is also the age at which children become teenagers. 13 signifies the age at which a boy matures and becomes a Bar Mitzvah in Judaism. 13 symbolizes the attributes of God's mercy according to the Torah. 13 is the number of important cycles of fortune/misfortune in Mesoamerican divination. 13 is considered a special number since 13 is tera in Punjabi which also means 'yours' as in, 'I am yours, O Lord' in Sikhism. 13 is also considered to be a lucky number in Italy. 13, as a letter, is the significance of love in Gematria. 13 symbolizes eternal life in ancient Egypt. 13 is the main theme of the Midnighters Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld as his book entirely based on the number 13. All the spells are based on thirteen letter words. The houses all have 13 pointed stars on the doorways. The town where it takes place has thirteen letters. And finally, it's believed that the Turks so dislike the number 13 that it's practically expunged from their vocabulary?! Despite whatever the historians say, as a half Turkish, I'm telling you: Wrong, 13 is the coolest number in the universe.

Mehr Licht

Inspired hugely from the term Phenakistoscope, in 1980 Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari wrote a book named A Thousand Plateaus as the second part of their Capitalism and Schizophrenia Project. The Phenakistoscope is an early animation device which was invented in by Joseph Plateau. Sadly fascinated by the persistence of luminous impressions on the retina, Plateau performed an experiment in which he gazed directly into the sun for 25 seconds. Consequently, he lost his eyesight later in his life. It's a sad, sad story which also brings me to my last point: Mehr Licht which means more light in English and is believed to be the last words of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe in his deathbed, is all I can say. Mehr licht helios hyperion, sic luceat lux. Or in Arthur Rimbaud words: L’eternite. C’est la mer melee au soleil. Or in Charles Baudelaire words: Homme libre, toujours tu cheriras la mer! La mer est ton miroir; tu contemples ton ame. Anyway, let's see some Heavenly Bobby.

Gorenic Airlines

Years of flying excellence, altitude and attitude, Gorenic Airlines is well equipped to meet the needs of every one from the complete beginner to the professionals. No previous flying experience is necessary. Take a seat in the cockpit for the ride of your life with most hair raising jet pilot in the world: Robert Goren. To soar through the sky with Gorenic Airlines is pure ectasy and it's absolutely legal! You can choose either the introductory option for an orientation to flying or extended flying for a longer, more in-depth lesson. In any case 100 % satisfaction guaranteed! Turn your dream into reality with Gorenic Airlines. Safety Warning Before The Maximum Ride: Overdose can significantly increase your BP and HR! In any case of heart crash, if you can survive Robert Goren, you can survive anything.

Robert Goren can damage my blood vessels and cause tachycardia?! And so can my acrophobia. To hell with it! Do I wanna fly? YES SIR YES! You are all I long for. All I worship and adore. In other words; fly me to the moon or anywhere! And who knows, I may be cured. Yeah, yeah... Things I got to do in the name of medicine! And ONE LAST THING; do I dare ask Bobby, probably your answer will make my hair stand on end nonetheless how many passengers did you have?

Bobby In Several Cockpits


A Brief Before A Potential Flight

Measure For Measure

Legion is the 18th episode from LOCI's second season. In this episode, Robert Goren and Alex Eames investigate a studio owner who brainwashes young boys with the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, an emperor of Rome, in order to use them as his little, obidient, semper fi soldiers for theft. Let's remember some Marcus Aurelius talk:

Robert Goren: An old Roman war movie... Before he went into convulsions, he was quoting Marcus Aurelius.
Ron Carver: Marcus Aurelius, the Meditations...?

Alex Eames: He was a Roman Emperor...

Ron Carver: And a follower of the Roman Stoic philosophy... But I wasn't aware that Marcus Aurelius was an advocate of suicide.

Robert Goren: Well, he wasn't... But like any belief system, in the wrong hands, Stoicism can be twisted to mean whatever you want...

Alex Eames: The wrong hands being Jojo Rios'...

Robert Goren: His idea of self-control... The way that the bodies were laid out for burial... Where they were buried... He's following the playbook! Even the name of his sound studio, Sixteen One, the year 161 A.D. The year Marcus Aurelius was made Emperor.

Ron Carver: Mr. Rios sees himself as a general, leading twelve year olds in a criminal enterprise with the help of a second century philosophy...?

Robert Goren: Uh... Stoicism inspired the Roman legions to march across Europe and Africa... I mean, if you're gonna start a gang, you could pick a worse motto.

Stoicism, whose name derives from the porch in the Agora at Athens, was one of the new philosophical movements of the Hellenistic period. The stoics were concerned with the active relationship between cosmic determinism and free will, the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will that is in accord with nature. Because of this, the stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how they behaved. For instance according to Epictetus; freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of one's desires but by the removal of desire or to Seneca; the point is not how long you live but how nobly you live or to Aurelius; to desire is to be permanently disappointed and disturbed, since everything we desire in this world is empty and corrupt and paltry.

I remember an elite man of taste also a murderer and a cannibal MD saying this: First principles, simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature? Well, my nature is plain, I'm a simple girl. Therefore I always prefer Sophism than Stoicism. The sophists were pretty simple and eager to teach anything for a price. Since the sophists were one group of rhetoricians or public speakers who focused more on the sound and style of their speeches rather than on the content; their teaching was practical instead of ethical. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, many other rhetoricians considered the sophists’ arguments shallow. In fact even today, if someone says that an argument is sophistic he means that the argument is shallow:) Nevertheless it should be kept in mind that Sophism was made famous by Plato, Aristotle and Aristophanes.

I have one more reason to like Sophism; the essence of the teaching of Protagoras, the earliest known sophist who taught for pay, is contained in the quote: 'Man is the measure of all things; of what is, that it is; of what is not, that it is not'. Ah, this great, unwritten, unspoken unacknowledged principle of measurement:)

The Visible Hand

It's beautiful, you can't miss it! Well, speaking for myself, when we can talk about the hands of Robert Goren, who cares Adam Smith's use of the metaphor of an Invisible Hand? Ah, in btw and in fact, before his most famous work The Wealth Of Nations (1776), the metaphor was already common in 17th-18th century literature and long before then in Greek and Roman times as well (for ex. the invisible hand of Jupiter). Besides unlike common beliefs the metaphor used only twice in all of Smith's writings: The History of Astronomy (Essays On Philosophical Subjects) & The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Honestly, what was his point? Laissez faire, laissez passer! Le monde va de lui-meme, oh la la:) Ah monsieur, le monde votre fortune et votre peril!

Res Ipsa Loquitur

To be honest; I never cared much about paraphilia topic while sitting in the psychopathology class. However I still know a few things about it. Well, paraphilia, known as sexual deviance, means beyond love (more literally beyong usual/typical love) in Greek and a fetish (kind of paraphilia) may manifest his/her obsession object as a desire to experience physical interaction or as a source of sexual fantasy. The term partialism (kind of fetishism) refers to a sexual interest with an exclusive focus of a specific part of the body and is categorized as a paraphilia in the DSM-IV-TR of the APA. For instance, latex is some sort of fetishistic attraction to people wearing clothing; such as leotards, bodysuits, stockings and latex gloves etc.

Hands In Glove

Hands At Work

Left: The Hand Of Sex God

Right: The Hand Of God (Michelangelo, The Creation Of Adam - 1511)

I know... I know, I'll so go to hell!

Just A Perfect Day

Ordinary day in the life of an extraordinary man which happens to be a perfect day for us. Listen to Un Bel Di by Giacomo Puccini as a background music if you like:)

And Your Cry-Baby Whiny Wacky Opinion Would Be...?

Consciousness? That Annoying Time Between Naps...

Trust Me, Even Lawyers Have Feelings...

When I Want Your Opinion I'll Beat It Out Of You!

Do You Want Your Photo Here?

Lies, Videotapes But Still No Sex!

When I Lean The World Leans With Me.

Growing Old Is Inevitable... Growing Up Is Optional.

Sympathy For Lady Vengeance

Well, I don't have any when it comes to Nicole Wallace. It would be more appropriate for me to say 'Sympathy For The Devil', I suppose:) For a brief info; Sympathy For Lady Vengeance is the third segment in Chan-Wook Park's revenge trilogy, the first being Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance and then Oldboy. Whether you are a fan of the genre or not, all three should be on your must-see list. Truly mind blowing works of art, for me, at least. Anyway, if we return to Nicole, frankly I'm just in the pursuit of a good closure, that's all. The more I write about her, the more I get frustrated. (Oh well, I have every reason to dislike her! I could give you the standard list of reasons why but I’ll skip past all that). Aside from my frustration, there is yet another blindly obvious fact: Now that she's gone, why bother spending time on her? As said by Friedrich Nietzche, 'What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger' and in many instances this is the case. However, as a matter of fact 'what doesn't kill you' just killed you which was too much hate Nicole. Btw what doesn't kill me... Hurts like hell:) Well, FYI: If things could have been completely different, it wouldn't have worked out for you anyway. Robert Goren has nothing you need and everything you don't.

Nicole Wallace alias Genus In Fur;
A Woman Leopold Von Sacher Masoch Would Love To Adore

Ai! You see! We shouldn't expect much from a woman who likes fur anyway, should we? Faux or not, it really doesn't matter. I'm against any kind of it, while I'm living and even when I'm dead. Some people may say 'I wear a fake one. I'm not bad at all, right?' Wrong. For me, this is just a politically correct fairy tale. Well, you don't have to agree with me but it is this pretentiousness, this pecuniary emulation, this very Dandyism which stimulates or motivates or reinforces, call it whatever you want, the designers to come up with more fur clothings. Shhh! Save it! I kinda suffer from Empathy Deficit Disorder when it comes to fur issue besides my blog, my ideas, my rules:) No seriously, I may have been a little too harsh, I know. Well, the thing is; Swiss Roger Federer lost Australian Open Men's Singles Final today and I got the flu - again! So far so bad! Therefore please try to forgive me if I'm acting out. I could say more, but you get the general idea, I assume and hope. Anyway so long Nicole or bye bye Le Diable Amoureux, I should say. Please don't come back.

A Blindly Obvious NY Fact For Nicole