Thinking Mythologically: Black Hawk Down, the “Platoon Movie,” and the War of Choice in Iraq

While preparing the 2003 invasion of Iraq, President Bush invited his advisors to screenings of Black Hawk Down (2002). “Bush . . . told his aides that America’s hasty exit from Somalia after 18 soldiers died in the 1993 raid made famous in the movie . . . emboldened America’s terrorist enemies” to attack us on September 11. This study explains the ideological force of Black Hawk Down by framing it as the culmination of developments in American national mythology, and the mass culture genres that carry it. The “Platoon Movie” developed during WW II propagated a new myth of multi-ethnic American nationality, and a “war imaginary” which figures WW II as the “Good War.” That myth was discredited by defeat in Vietnam; but starting in 1980, American war films, and war-themed science fiction films, seconded the work of neo-conservative policy makers to recuperate the “war imaginary.” This entailed a sharpening of racialist interpretations of international conflict, and tension between the multicultural symbolism of the “platoon” and the idealization of Whites as “real Americans.

Cwbr Author Interview: No Quarter: The Battle Of The Crater, 1864

Interview with Dr. Richard Slotkin Interviewed by Nathan Buman CWBR: My first question, what led you to venture away from your three-volume study of the American frontier in Gunfighter Nation, The Fatal Environment, and Regeneration Through Violence to examine the Battle of the Crater during the American Civil War

Collage Vol. I

JUDY COCHRAN: Editorial MICHAEL TANGEMAN: Haikus 2-5 ELISE ALBRECHT, CURTIS PLOWGIAN: French Calligrams 6 JASON VARDEN: Waiting 7 ALEXANDER GREEN: Photo 8 EDUARDO JARAMILLO: Formas violentas 9-11 GABRIELE DILLMANN: Photo 12 MICHAEL GOLDSBERG: Funf fur Ashley 13 MEGAN CARLSON: Fur Jared (German) 14 MAGGIE GLOVER: For Jared 14-15 CHRIS FAUR: Painting 16 LINDSEY ESHELMAN: Stuhl (The Chair) 17 HALLE THOMPSON, GWENN DOBOS: Les Bouches 18 JILL BOO: Lacheln (A Smile) 19 ALEXANDER GREEN: Photo 20 JULIA GRAWEMEYER: Villanelle 21, Expressions francaises (French Figures) 22-23, Pour me rappeler (So that I\u27d remember) 24 MICHEL CLIQUET: Photo 25 CHARLES O\u27KEEFE: Photos 26-28 LINE LERYCKE: Photos 29-32 MICHEL CLIQUET: Pierre docile (Docile Stone) 29-32 LOGAN FAVIA: Ataraxia 33 AVRITA SINGH: Absence 34 RACHEL GROTHEER: Compassion 35, Ligne (Line) 36, Nuit, douce nuit (Night, gentle night) 37, Rouge (Red) 38, Bonjour Bleu (Hello Blue) 39, Ligne courbe (Curved Line) 40 AMELIA DUNLAP: Compassion 41-42 KYLE SIMPSON: Separation 43 ALEXANDER GREEN: Photo 44 GWENN DOBOS: Ataraxia 45 SARAH SLOTKIN: Separation 46 CURTIS PLOWGIAN: Absence 47 ELISA VER MERRIS: Photo 48, Attachement (Attachment) 49 JENNIFER JOHNSON: Attachement (Attachment)50 ANNA KELLY: Compassion 51 RICHARD BANAHAN: Photo 52, Mon grand-pere et moit (My grandfather and me) 53 MEREDITH KATZ: Separation 54 BRENDA HEATER: Compassion 55 ZACHARY WALSH: Ataraxia 56 MICHEL CLIQUET: Photos 57-5

From Sacred to Scientific: Epic Religion, Spectacular Science, and Charlton Heston’s Science Fiction Cinema

This paper analyses how long-1960s cinema responded to and framed public discourses surrounding religion and science. This approach allows for a discussion that extends beyond a critical study of the scholarly debates that surround the place of religion in science during a transitional period. Charlton Heston was an epic actor who went from literally playing God in The Ten Commandments (1956) to playing “god” as a messianic scientist in The Omega Man (1971). Best known for playing Moses, Heston became an unlikely science-based cinema star during the early 1970s. He was re-imagined as a scientist, but the religiosity of his established persona was inescapable. Heston and the science-based films he starred in capitalized upon the utopian promises of real science, and also the fears of the vocal activist counterculture. Planet of the Apes (1968), Omega Man (1971), Soylent Green (1973), and other science-based films made between 1968-1977 were bleak countercultural warnings about excessive consumerism, uncontrolled science, nuclear armament, irreversible environmental damage, and eventual human extinction. In this paper I argue that Heston’s transition from biblical epic star to science-fiction anti-hero represents the way in which the role and interpretation of science changed in post-classical cinema. Despite the shift from religious epic to science-based spectacle, religion remained a faithful component of Hollywood output indicating the ongoing connection between science and religion in US culture. I will consider the transition from sacred to science-based narratives and how religion was utilised across the production process of films that commented upon scientific advances

Detailed Analysis of a Contiguous 22-Mb Region of the Maize Genome

Most of our understanding of plant genome structure and evolution has come from the careful annotation of small (e.g., 100 kb) sequenced genomic regions or from automated annotation of complete genome sequences. Here, we sequenced and carefully annotated a contiguous 22 Mb region of maize chromosome 4 using an improved pseudomolecule for annotation. The sequence segment was comprehensively ordered, oriented, and confirmed using the maize optical map. Nearly 84% of the sequence is composed of transposable elements (TEs) that are mostly nested within each other, of which most families are low-copy. We identified 544 gene models using multiple levels of evidence, as well as five miRNA genes. Gene fragments, many captured by TEs, are prevalent within this region. Elimination of gene redundancy from a tetraploid maize ancestor that originated a few million years ago is responsible in this region for most disruptions of synteny with sorghum and rice. Consistent with other sub-genomic analyses in maize, small RNA mapping showed that many small RNAs match TEs and that most TEs match small RNAs. These results, performed on ∼1% of the maize genome, demonstrate the feasibility of refining the B73 RefGen_v1 genome assembly by incorporating optical map, high-resolution genetic map, and comparative genomic data sets. Such improvements, along with those of gene and repeat annotation, will serve to promote future functional genomic and phylogenomic research in maize and other grasses

Serotonin synthesis, release and reuptake in terminals: a mathematical model

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that has been linked to a wide variety of behaviors including feeding and body-weight regulation, social hierarchies, aggression and suicidality, obsessive compulsive disorder, alcoholism, anxiety, and affective disorders. Full understanding of serotonergic systems in the central nervous system involves genomics, neurochemistry, electrophysiology, and behavior. Though associations have been found between functions at these different levels, in most cases the causal mechanisms are unknown. The scientific issues are daunting but important for human health because of the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and other pharmacological agents to treat disorders in the serotonergic signaling system.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We construct a mathematical model of serotonin synthesis, release, and reuptake in a single serotonergic neuron terminal. The model includes the effects of autoreceptors, the transport of tryptophan into the terminal, and the metabolism of serotonin, as well as the dependence of release on the firing rate. The model is based on real physiology determined experimentally and is compared to experimental data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We compare the variations in serotonin and dopamine synthesis due to meals and find that dopamine synthesis is insensitive to the availability of tyrosine but serotonin synthesis is sensitive to the availability of tryptophan. We conduct <it>in silico </it>experiments on the clearance of extracellular serotonin, normally and in the presence of fluoxetine, and compare to experimental data. We study the effects of various polymorphisms in the genes for the serotonin transporter and for tryptophan hydroxylase on synthesis, release, and reuptake. We find that, because of the homeostatic feedback mechanisms of the autoreceptors, the polymorphisms have smaller effects than one expects. We compute the expected steady concentrations of serotonin transporter knockout mice and compare to experimental data. Finally, we study how the properties of the the serotonin transporter and the autoreceptors give rise to the time courses of extracellular serotonin in various projection regions after a dose of fluoxetine.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Serotonergic systems must respond robustly to important biological signals, while at the same time maintaining homeostasis in the face of normal biological fluctuations in inputs, expression levels, and firing rates. This is accomplished through the cooperative effect of many different homeostatic mechanisms including special properties of the serotonin transporters and the serotonin autoreceptors. Many difficult questions remain in order to fully understand how serotonin biochemistry affects serotonin electrophysiology and vice versa, and how both are changed in the presence of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Mathematical models are useful tools for investigating some of these questions.</p