http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 2 Nov 2004 11:19:05 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/02/111905.php Kiersten MarekIn studying the Google stock message boards at Yahoo, Clearstation, and MSN, I find there is a pattern of pro-Bush long traders on Google and pro-Kerry shorters. I can't imagine Google has really all that much to do with politics, although some have complained that their news section has a liberal bias. That being the case, it is interesting that the liberal postings on the Google boards are mostly betting on a correction, if not a cratering, in the near future for the stock. Are liberals basically more realistic? Do they avoid buying into stock manias, preferring rational grounds for stock-buying?Perhaps this pattern of Pro-Bush-long-on-Google/Pro-Kerry-short-on-Google is about a bigger question of the basis for one's optimism, and whether you believe in Google in the same way some people believe in America and God -- in some unequivocable and largely irrational way. Don't get me wrong -- Google is a great company, but at nearly $200 a share, something's gotta give. On Clearstation the number of professed shorts outnumbers the professed longs 3 to 1. This being the case, one might infer that John Kerry will be our next President. Plus, according to Ron Insana in The Message of The Markets, the presidential challenger almost always wins in a year like this year when the stock market is down. And Kerry also has the statistical height advantage (the taller candidate almost always wins), being the long and leggy Lincoln lookalike that he is. Politics21762@blogcritics.org Tue, 2 Nov 2004 11:19:05 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/10/25/104712.php Kiersten MarekThe Google stock buyers are all gaga about what to do with the media monster. For fun (not because I own the stock, although I might decide to dip in, once a clear direction forms) I have been watching Google (GOOG) since its IPO release and studying the message boards at Yahoo, MSN, and Clear Station. All I can say is, people are all over the map on this one. There are Stong Buy recommendations and Strong Sell recommendations. There are those who keep reminding us that Google has no portal and no browser, that Barron's wrote a negative outlook article on them, that Yahoo just bought another company and is becoming more competitive. One poster was even calling for Attorney General Spitzer to investigate for fraud and listed the handles of a bunch of other posters he/she considered to be "pumping" Google stock. Then there are those who say Goog will go to 250 easily and 500 eventually. It's hard to know who to believe which is why, for now, it's best for amateurs like me to stay on the sideline. Culture21385@blogcritics.org Mon, 25 Oct 2004 10:47:12 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/10/14/141921.php Kiersten MarekHere's some news you can use: if you're a woman and you want to lower your risk of breast cancer, stop wearing your bra. You can read all about it at Brafree.org, run by Dr. Elizabeth Vaughan, age 48, a bonafide Bra-free doctor. The research on this issue is fairly extensive, although Dr. Vaughan notes that no MD will tell you there's a scientifically proven link between wearing bras and breast cancer. Then again, no MD would tell you there was a link between smoking and cancer for most of the past century.I always suspected there was something wrong with wearing this wiry thing that shoved your breast tissue into uncomfortable positions. I started wearing sports bras after I became a mother because I found they gave me the easiest access to the goods for my little one. But after reading about how bras may be part of the problem, I'm ready to join the braless brigade. I feel sorry for women whose breasts are so large that this does not seem like an option. Culture20987@blogcritics.org Thu, 14 Oct 2004 14:19:21 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/10/01/164719.php Kiersten MarekDear Readers, The October 2004 issue of Kmareka.com is now online, featuring: The Personality of a Purse, The Hattitude of a Hat: An Online Exhibit of the Works of Carolyn Daniel Carolyn Daniel is a fabulous clothing designer. Unfortunately, she is also a member of the growing number of breast cancer survivors out there. In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, we are exhibiting her works. National Breast Cancer Awareness Memoir: Joan's Healing from Cancer "I quietly said, only you, Lord, know what lies ahead for any of us. Please, be with Joan, no matter what this day brings..." Read moreUsury: How the IMF Exploits Poverty in Developing NationsFinancing the Third World is an excellent business. Poor countries become increasingly poorer, and the resources that should be channeled into development policies are allocated to pay interest on the loans granted by the International Monetary Fund. Read moreA note from the editor: It has been a whirlwind of a week, between editing and designing the new issue and also submitting a grant proposal due today. Our website statistics indicate that our traffic is up -- we are currently in the 80,000 range for page requests per month, although many of these are search engines. Nevertheless, we are growing at a steady pace. Your support is essential at this point! If you can, please go to our homepage and make a donation through our Paypal link in the left column. Remember, your donation is fully tax-deductible as charitable giving. If you would prefer to make a donation through the mail, please let me know at kmarek@kmareka.com.Best wishes to all for a joyful weekend. Kiersten Marek, editor, Kmareka.com Culture20542@blogcritics.org Fri, 1 Oct 2004 16:47:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/15/153231.php Kiersten MarekClass Dismissed is about the education crisis in Oregon, which resulted in school ending after only 159 days, and class sizes rising dramatically. This story has a companion piece by Dave Eggers about how most teachers work part-time jobs or second jobs. In addition, strictly on the local level in terms of good information about the cost and quality of RI education, visit Information Works! 2004 to learn where your community stacks up.This isn't news, but it is always edifying to go back and read an old interview with a politician and think about whether they are doing what they promised to do. While you are there, look for the Talking Presidents ad -- these are presidential actions figures that speak with their own voices! Books16547@blogcritics.org Tue, 15 Jun 2004 15:32:31 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/02/084751.php Kiersten MarekTrauma Survivors, Secret Keepers, and Goofy People with Hearts of Gold: Social Workers in Contemporary Fictionby Kiersten MarekNovels about social workers are not plentiful and, in fact, I was not able to find any that feature Master's level social workers as their main characters. Why is this so? Laura Kalpakian's main character in Graced Land, provides one provocative answer to this question:"Why are there all those cop shows on TV and not one about social workers? I'll tell you why! Because the poor people on cop shows, they're doing something about their situation! They're colorful and desperate! They're out there robbing banks or ripping off gas stations, forging checks, risking their lives to peddle drugs! That's who the cops get to deal with! Who does the social worker get to see? Day in, day out? Just a bunch of women who've screwed up their lives and don't know what to make of it, or where it all went wrong or how, except that they've been screwed, really screwed."Emily Shaw, the main character and fledgling caseworker in Graced Land, says this in a fit of exasperation over her new job, but it's only one side of her rant, for the rest of her monologue goes on to praise one of the exceptions to her diatribe, the client whom she has gotten overinvolved with, Joyce Jackson. Joyce is not taking life as a welfare recipient lying down. Like many quietly powerful people, Joyce Jackson is a subversive: she is creatively finding ways to make money on the side, to give to those less fortunate than herself, and to live the way she wants to live, devoted to the music and the memory of Elvis Presley. One of the striking things about Graced Land is the nuanced understanding that Ms. Kalpakian conveys for the social worker's plight: wanting to help, but being able to only help so much, lest we become "unprofessional" in our genuine caring for our clients. Emily Shaw is constantly stumbling over boundaries, moving between chatting with her clients like they are coeds in her esteemed sorority, the Tri-Delts, to taking them up on their offers to join them for drinks. While she gets categorized as "goofy" by some, she is not much more goofy than I was as a beginning social worker. While at times I cringed with self-recognition, for the most part I appreciated Kalpakian's gentle mockery of her novel's protagonist.Joyce Jackson's 12-year-old daughter, Cilla, has a shrewd and convincing voice which shares the telling of the story with Emily Shaw's point-of-view. Cilla lives in mortal fear that she and her mother will be "found out" for their tag-saling and mending of clothes and cutting up of scrap material to make faux-antique quilts. Graced Land also has some colorful minor characters in the social work field including "Large Marge," Emily's supervisor, who is hell-bent on using her bureaucratic power to make miserable the lives of the uppity poor like Joyce Jackson. And there is even a social work Knight in Shining Armor waiting in the wings to save Emily from her destined-to-be-horrible marriage to Rick, who is away at law school prepping to join her father's law firm:"[Rick] would come back to California, pass the bar exam first time through and join the lucrative butter-slathered practice of her father's Newport firm, Shaw, Swine, Swill, Slime, and Turdlock, which is the way Emily usually thought of her father's partners. Rick did not think this funny at all. Quite the contrary. He reminded her that Shaw, Shine, Brill, Syme, and Turlock would enable the two of them to have a lovely, opulent Laguna Beach life where they would entertain lavishly..."While I started the novel as decidedly not an Elvis fan, I have to admit that I am now ready to quote Elvis lyrics at the drop of a hat (it's all about Money, Honey) and I have a newborn respect for The King and his rise from poverty to performing more than 1000 shows in his final years. I can't help but admire someone who had that much rockin' and rollin' and crooning to give to live audiences. More than causing me to love Elvis, however, the Elvis part of the story caused me to consider the complexity of devotion -- of how and why a person chooses to devote their life to another person or to a cause, or to a Rock 'n Roll icon, as in the strangely compelling case of Joyce Jackson. You get the impression that Laura Kalpakian had a good time writing this novel, with all the richness of the Elvis world strewn throughout, and also playing with the acronyms that seem to creep in and take over in the social work vocabulary, as in: "The county has this program, the GGP, the Good Grades Program for AFDC mothers, and if you keep your grades up, the county pays your fees at SECC, St. Elmo City College."Graced Land is by far the most polished, entertaining, and fully articulated of the three novels. I could read it again and, in fact, have enjoyed rereading particularly fabulous passages, such as Chapter 13, a streaming ode to passion, with its wonderfully placed refrain of Oh Burning Love sprinkled throughout. The First Annual Soci AwardsThe copy of Graced Land that I got out of my local public library had been checked out 18 times since its publication in 1992, for an average of 1.5 readers of the novel per year. While this may cause some to despair at how little literary interest there is in us, I say it's time for a positive reframe: Graced Land was actually the most-checked-out of the three books that I read for this article. At 1.5 readers a year, it's a comparative best-seller.Given the lack of attention to social work novels, I've decided to establish a new category of awards: the Soci (pronounced so-shee) Awards, akin to the Emmy Awards, for the best social work novel published that I know about. Laura Kalpakian is the 20th Century's winner for the Most Engaging and Insightful Novel about a Fledgling Social Worker. I'm sure Ms. Kalpakian is thrilled beyond words at this honor.Zachary's Wings by Rosemarie Robotham is decidedly more realistic, and takes on a rare bird in a fictional subject category already rarefied -- the male social worker. The book stars Zachary, a twentysomething African American guy living in Philadelphia and moseying along as a caseworker for the chronically mentally ill. Zachary hooks up with Korie, a Jamaican-born reporter for a magazine that seems to be based on the magazine Life. It's the '80's, and drinking and drugging are part and parcel of the lifestyle for both Zachary and Korie, except that Zachary, who has been drinking since childhood when his single mother gave him beer on the porch most evenings, can handle his intoxicants, while Korie, the child of affluence and a troubled first marriage, can't handle life or drugs, and is in over her head on both counts. Zachary becomes her caretaker as she spirals into full-blown addiction. He accepts a role similar to the role he played with his mother as a child: secret-keeper and pain-bearer. With a kind of devotion that is both beautiful and tragic, Zachary keeps on helping, taking on the care of Korie's first husband, a task which gets uglier unto death. Meanwhile, Korie becomes incapable of reciprocating Zachary's deathless devotion, unable to desire anything but her next high. Zachary's Wings had some striking insights on addiction and the addictive lifestyle. One of these insights is about how the substance a person craves gives them stability and predictability in life. In Korie's voice, after she has entered into recovery and is watching the movie Drugstore Cowboy, we get this glimpse:"'Most people don't know how they're going to feel from one moment to the next,' the Matt Dillon character says at the end, 'but the junkie has a pretty good idea.' That's the thing about drugs. About life. About those of us who feel buffeted by a surfeit of emotion. Drugs hook us because it seems they offer a little certainty. You do the drug, you know how you're going to feel. I guess only when the uncertainty the drugs ends up giving becomes greater than the uncertainty of life itself does it become possible for a junkie to dream of quitting."For Korie, whose life becomes mired in harsh losses that she can't predict or control, drugs become the reliable consolation that she craves, until finally she ends up in "the rooms," -- what she and other people in recovery call the anonymous meetings they attend for support. Here again Robotham provides rich and unique description:"Most of them are located in church basements, and the people who assemble here are an extraordinary assortment of lost and found souls: thirtyish types like me, trying to start over; street people in rags who come in for free coffee and to escape the cold; corporate executives down to their last dime; artists, musicians, teachers, housewives, thieves, rich kids, gang kids, firefighters, lawyers, and actors whose faces you've seen on TV."My public library's copy of Zachary's Wings had been checked out 8 times since its publication in 1998, for an average of 1.3 reads a year. Zachary's Wings gets the Soci Award for Best Social Work Novel about Addiction. Bravo, Rosemarie Robotham. We'll toast you at our next substance-consuming event.Of the three novels I read for this article, Madchild Running by Keith Egawa was the story most fully grounded in the world of social work, primarily taking place within the confines of the social service agency that Levi, the main character, works for : The Urban Native Support Services, a social service agency for Native Americans in Seattle, Washington. Levi gets involved with all sorts of families that were immediately familiar to me. Also, the dilemmas that Levi comes up against, particularly the dilemmas around custody of children in abusive homes, were dilemmas that I ran up against (and continue to run up against) frequently in my work. For a first novel, Egawa has written a book of great emotional strength. His prose carefully express the tenuous position of Levi as he straddles the issues of identity (Levi, like the author, is part Native American) both personal and professional. At one haunting moment in the book, Levi comes across a bag of valium in the possession of his 12-year-old-client, Nicki, a girl who looks like his younger sister, and who later gives him his Indian name, a critical step toward the development of his own Native American identity. Against his own better judgment, Levi promises not to tell anyone about the pills. "I had promised not to tell. What was I? I couldn't say I was a social worker. I was a lie, a mass of unavailing good intentions set afire by the things I had witnessed and the inability to answer my own questions. I felt that I had to get out soon, but I knew that I would not."Levi is in too deep and can't tell why, until the flashbacks start -- flashbacks to his own father's beatings of his mother -- flashbacks that explain his misguided protectiveness for Nicki. Like the Indigo Girls sing, What would you give for your kid fears? Levi wants to give everything to protect Nicki from his "kid fears," his fears of abandonment and loss of his mother at the hands of his father's brutality. But in doing so, he loses perspective. He becomes a child again with Nicki, an impulse that I can at once recognize from my own experience as a social worker. Unfortunately, Levi is destined for the worst kind of punishment for his transgression.Having seen a lot of dead people on gurneys from my two years working in the ER -- people taken from this life by murder, suicide, fire, drowning, alcohol and drugs, car crashes -- it takes a lot to make me cry. Keith Egawa did it, which means he gets the Soci Award for Most Grim and Tragically Realistic novel about a social worker. Thank you, Keith Egawa. Weep, weep, sigh.Published in 1999, Madchild Running had been checked out 5 times since arriving at my public library, giving it a solid average of 1 read a year. Given these averages, I am a bit consoled that no agent has been chomping at the bit to represent my novel about two Masters level social workers. Clearly, writing about social workers is a labor of masochism and/or love. Books16179@blogcritics.org Wed, 2 Jun 2004 08:47:51 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/04/19/120903.php Kiersten MarekKiersten Marek, editor, Kmareka.com In the category of news you can live without, but that I can't help passing on, this is a spoof website for an organization calling itself The Godsend Institute: http://Godsendinstitute.org. It's actually just a promo job for a movie coming out April 30, 2004 starring Robert Deniro, but if you go to the website without any knowledge of this (like I did) you start feeling like you're in an episode of The Twilight Zone. A Cloning institute in Cohasset Massachusetts? Now suddenly cloning is okay, and not only that, it's available in Cohasset, Massachusetts?Who knows how long The Godsend Institute will remain online before someone starts screaming about medical ethics violations. The URL is reportedly owned by Lion's Gate Films, the producers of the movie. I came across The Godsend Institute while checking my google ad links on the story I did on nanotechnology in January. (I don't get paid for clicking on my own google ads, by the way, it's part of quality control to screen out some). They even list a phone number, which I might call to ask a few questions, like how to do you think this joke makes real childless couples feel, if they come across The Godsend Institute and are momentarily filled with hope that technology is going to help them in some new way. While the Godsend Institute's website is professional and full of happy pictures of anonymous people, there were several tell-tale signs of hokeyness, the first being the picture of Dr. Wells standing in the snow, which looked too much like a movie still, and, indeed, it is. For those of you inclined toward playing sadistic jokes, you can tell people about The Godsend Institute like it's a real thing. I'm more for letting people in on it, and hoping the movie is worth all the buzz they are trying to generate. You can see photos from the movie Godsend here and a trailer here. Sci/Tech14884@blogcritics.org Mon, 19 Apr 2004 12:09:03 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/04/04/164909.php Kiersten MarekTrauma Survivors, Secret Keepers, and Goofy People with Hearts of Gold: Social Workers in Contemporary Fictionby Kiersten Marek, http://kmareka.comNovels about social workers are not plentiful and, in fact, I was not able to find any that feature Master's level social workers as their main characters. Why is this so? Laura Kalpakian's main character in Graced Land, provides one provocative answer to this question:"Why are there all those cop shows on TV and not one about social workers? I'll tell you why! Because the poor people on cop shows, they're doing something about their situation! They're colorful and desperate! They're out there robbing banks or ripping off gas stations, forging checks, risking their lives to peddle drugs! That's who the cops get to deal with! Who does the social worker get to see? Day in, day out? Just a bunch of women who've screwed up their lives and don't know what to make of it, or where it all went wrong or how, except that they've been screwed, really screwed." Emily Shaw, the main character and fledgling caseworker in Graced Land, says this in a fit of exasperation over her new job, but it's only one side of her rant, for the rest of her monologue goes on to praise one of the exceptions to her diatribe, the client whom she has gotten overinvolved with, Joyce Jackson. Joyce is not taking life as a welfare recipient lying down. Like many quietly powerful people, Joyce Jackson is a subversive: she is creatively finding ways to make money on the side, to give to those less fortunate than herself, and to live the way she wants to live, devoted to the music and the memory of Elvis Presley. One of the striking things about Graced Land is the nuanced understanding that Ms. Kalpakian conveys for the social worker's plight: wanting to help, but being able to only help so much, lest we become "unprofessional" in our genuine caring for our clients. Emily Shaw is constantly stumbling over boundaries, moving between chatting with her clients like they are coeds in her esteemed sorority, the Tri-Delts, to taking them up on their offers to join them for drinks. While she gets categorized as "goofy" by some, she is not much more goofy than I was as a beginning social worker. While at times I cringed with self-recognition, for the most part I appreciated Kalpakian's gentle mockery of her novel's protagonist.Joyce Jackson's 12-year-old daughter, Cilla, has a shrewd and convincing voice which shares the telling of the story with Emily Shaw's point-of-view. Cilla lives in mortal fear that she and her mother will be "found out" for their tag-saling and mending of clothes and cutting up of scrap material to make faux-antique quilts. Graced Land also has some colorful minor characters in the social work field including "Large Marge," Emily's supervisor, who is hell-bent on using her bureaucratic power to make miserable the lives of the uppity poor like Joyce Jackson. And there is even a social work Knight in Shining Armor waiting in the wings to save Emily from her destined-to-be-horrible marriage to Rick, who is away at law school prepping to join her father's law firm:"[Rick] would come back to California, pass the bar exam first time through and join the lucrative butter-slathered practice of her father's Newport firm, Shaw, Swine, Swill, Slime, and Turdlock, which is the way Emily usually thought of her father's partners. Rick did not think this funny at all. Quite the contrary. He reminded her that Shaw, Shine, Brill, Syme, and Turlock would enable the two of them to have a lovely, opulent Laguna Beach life where they would entertain lavishly..." While I started the novel as decidedly not an Elvis fan, I have to admit that I am now ready to quote Elvis lyrics at the drop of a hat (it's all about Money, Honey) and I have a newborn respect for The King's and his rise from poverty to performing more than 1000 shows in his final years. I can't help but admire someone who had that much rockin' and rollin' and crooning to give to live audiences. More than causing me to love Elvis, however, the Elvis part of the story caused me to consider the complexity of devotion -- of how and why a person chooses to devote their life to another person or to a cause, or to a Rock 'n Roll icon, as in the strangely compelling case of Joyce Jackson. You get the impression that Laura Kalpakian had a good time writing this novel, with all the richness of the Elvis world strewn throughout, and also playing with the acronyms that seem to creep in and take over in the social work vocabulary, as in: "The county has this program, the GGP, the Good Grades Program for AFDC mothers, and if you keep your grades up, the county pays your fees at SECC, St. Elmo City College."Graced Land is by far the most polished, entertaining, and fully articulated of the three novels. I could read it again and, in fact, have enjoyed rereading particularly fabulous passages, such as Chapter 13, a streaming ode to passion, with its wonderfully placed refrain of Oh Burning Love sprinkled throughout. The First Annual Soci AwardsThe copy of Graced Land that I got out of my local public library had been checked out 18 times since its publication in 1992, for an average of 1.5 readers of the novel per year. While this may cause some to despair at how little literary interest there is in us, I say it's time for a positive reframe: Graced Land was actually the most-checked-out of the three books that I read for this article. At 1.5 readers a year, it's a comparative best-seller.Given the lack of attention to social work novels, I've decided to establish a new category of awards: the Soci (pronounced so-shee) Awards, akin to the Emmy Awards, for the best social work novel published that I know about. Laura Kalpakian is the 20th Century's winner for the Most Engaging and Insightful Novel about a Fledgling Social Worker. I'm sure Ms. Kalpakian is thrilled beyond words at this honor.Zachary's Wings by Rosemarie Robotham is decidedly more realistic, and takes on a rare bird in a fictional subject category already rarefied -- the male social worker. The book stars Zachary, a twentysomething African American guy living in Philadelphia and moseying along as a caseworker for the chronically mentally ill. Zachary hooks up with Korie, a Jamaican-born reporter for a magazine that seems to be based on the magazine Life. It's the '80's, and drinking and drugging are part and parcel of the lifestyle for both Zachary and Korie, except that Zachary, who has been drinking since childhood when his single mother gave him beer on the porch most evenings, can handle his intoxicants, while Korie, the child of affluence and a troubled first marriage, can't handle life or drugs, and is in over her head on both counts. Zachary becomes her caretaker as she spirals into full-blown addiction. He accepts a role similar to the role he played with his mother as a child: secret-keeper and pain-bearer. With a kind of devotion that is both beautiful and tragic, Zachary keeps on helping, taking on the care of Korie's first husband, a task which gets uglier unto death. Meanwhile, Korie becomes incapable of reciprocating Zachary's deathless devotion, unable to desire anything but her next high. Zachary's Wings had some striking insights on addiction and the addictive lifestyle. One of these insights is about how the substance a person craves gives them stability and predictability in life. In Korie's voice, after she has entered into recovery and is watching the movie Drugstore Cowboy, we get this glimpse:"'Most people don't know how they're going to feel from one moment to the next,' the Matt Dillon character says at the end, 'but the junkie has a pretty good idea.' That's the thing about drugs. About life. About those of us who feel buffeted by a surfeit of emotion. Drugs hook us because it seems they offer a little certainty. You do the drug, you know how you're going to feel. I guess only when the uncertainty the drugs ends up giving becomes greater than the uncertainty of life itself does it become possible for a junkie to dream of quitting." For Korie, whose life becomes mired in harsh losses that she can't predict or control, drugs become the reliable consolation that she craves, until finally she ends up in "the rooms," -- what she and other people in recovery call the anonymous meetings they attend for support. Here again Robotham provides rich and unique description:"Most of them are located in church basements, and the people who assemble here are an extraordinary assortment of lost and found souls: thirtyish types like me, trying to start over; street people in rags who come in for free coffee and to escape the cold; corporate executives down to their last dime; artists, musicians, teachers, housewives, thieves, rich kids, gang kids, firefighters, lawyers, and actors whose faces you've seen on TV." My public library's copy of Zachary's Wings had been checked out 8 times since its publication in 1998, for an average of 1.3 reads a year. Zachary's Wings gets the Soci Award for Best Social Work Novel about Addiction. Bravo, Rosemarie Robotham. We'll toast you at our next substance-consuming event.Of the three novels I read for this article, Madchild Running by Keith Egawa was the story most fully grounded in the world of social work, primarily taking place within the confines of the social service agency that Levi, the main character, works for : The Urban Native Support Services, a social service agency for Native Americans in Seattle, Washington. Levi gets involved with all sorts of families that were immediately familiar to me. Also, the dilemmas that Levi comes up against, particularly the dilemmas around custody of children in abusive homes, were dilemmas that I ran up against (and continue to run up against) frequently in my work. For a first novel, Egawa has written a book of great emotional strength. His prose carefully express the tenuous position of Levi as he straddles the issues of identity (Levi, like the author, is part Native American) both personal and professional. At one haunting moment in the book, Levi comes across a bag of valium in the possession of his 12-year-old-client, Nicki, a girl who looks like his younger sister, and who later gives him his Indian name, a critical step toward the development of his own Native American identity. Against his own better judgment, Levi promises not to tell anyone about the pills. "I had promised not to tell. What was I? I couldn't say I was a social worker. I was a lie, a mass of unavailing good intentions set afire by the things I had witnessed and the inability to answer my own questions. I felt that I had to get out soon, but I knew that I would not."Levi is in too deep and can't tell why, until the flashbacks start -- flashbacks to his own father's beatings of his mother -- flashbacks that explain his misguided protectiveness for Nicki. Like the Indigo Girls sing, What would you give for your kid fears? Levi wants to give everything to protect Nicki from his "kid fears," his fears of abandonment and loss of his mother at the hands of his father's brutality. But in doing so, he loses perspective. He becomes a child again with Nicki, an impulse that I can at once recognize from my own experience as a social worker. Unfortunately, Levi is destined for the worst kind of punishment for his transgression.Having seen a lot of dead people on gurneys from my two years working in the ER -- people taken from this life by murder, suicide, fire, drowning, alcohol and drugs, car crashes -- it takes a lot to make me cry. Keith Egawa did it, which means he gets the Soci Award for Most Grim and Tragically Realistic novel about a social worker. Thank you, Keith Egawa. Weep, weep, sigh.Published in 1999, Madchild Running had been checked out 5 times since arriving at my public library, giving it a solid average of 1 read a year. Given these averages, I am a bit consoled that no agent has been chomping at the bit to represent my novel about two Masters level social workers. Clearly, writing about social workers is a labor of masochism and/or love. Books14385@blogcritics.org Sun, 4 Apr 2004 16:49:09 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/19/144753.php Kiersten MarekThere is a great deal going on in the world that cannot be seen with the naked eye. These things are happening on the nano scale. Nano is a Greek prefix which means "thousand millionth," but actually, nanotechnology is the manipulation of materials and devices that are as small as a billionth of a meter. Current nanotechnologies include "gene knockout technology" and "advanced solubilisation." Nanotechnology may have a hand in everything from fuel cells to toilets cleaners in the US, with major breakthroughs expected in media including hard-disk drives and televisions. Everything from your toaster to your tap water is probably going to be affected by nanotechnology.Investing in Nanotechnology: A Cautionary WordJosh Wolfe, editor of The Nanotech Report, published by Forbes, had this to say on the risk factor of investing in nanotechnology: that there is a great deal of "firm-specific volatility," and that investors are "at a higher risk than ever of being in on the bad stocks." This added volatility is partially because much of nanotechnology hinges on intellectual property rights, and the barriers for patenting are getting higher. Smaller players or players who are not as financially endowed or as skilled at the complex legal and scientific process of protecting their intellectual property, will likely get squeezed out of the market with little to no warning for the investor.Wolfe also warned about pseudo-nanotech companies: companies who use the nano prefix in their corporate name when their product does not really use nanotechnology. He predicted that there will be a surge of nano-naming, with the nano prefix showing up in all sorts of new places in the coming years. Nano-Social Work? I tend to doubt it. But there is no doubt that nanotechnology will have a profound effect on the practice of social work in the coming years. From Skyepharma's improved drug delivery methods to Nanogen and Lexicon's gene research that could bring on treatments for cancer, diabetes, obesity, and deafness, nanotechnology will transform our world. The three companies I provide thumbnail profiles on will have the most implications for social workers in medical settings, but other nanotechnology will affect social workers in education, government, family service agencies, and private practice. Social workers, like all professionals, are well advised to stay abreast of nanotechnology and how it is affecting, and will continue to affect, their work.Allow me to take you on a short tour of some pioneers in the land of nanotechnology.Lexicon Genetics (LEXG)This is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery of breakthrough treatments for disease. Among the illnesses that Lexicon drugs are targeting for treatment are obesity and diabetes, two diseases which are rampant in the US and also, I believe, more prevalent among lower income families. This is big news for social workers who advocate for and serve lower income families. Lexicon is also advancing drug discovery for atherosclerosis (heart disease), cancer, inflammation, and cognitive disorders.Lexicon has two facilities, one in The Woodlands, Texas, and one in Princeton, New Jersey. They have 579 employees and their stock has been trading in the $4 to $7 range in the past six months. For more information, visit the company's website at www.lexicon-genetics.com.Nanogen (NGEN)I'll start with a disclosure, which is that we own 100 shares of Nanogen. Nanogen appears to be one of the leaders in broadening ownership of intellectual property that applies to nanotechnology. They are a small firm with some big ideas for the broad applications of nanotechnology.The NanoChip® Molecular Biology Workstation is Nanogen's first commercial product. The company website describes it as "an automated, multi-purpose instrument primarily used for DNA-based analyses." In other company news, Nanogen recently signed a license agreement with Institut Pasteur that grants Nanogen exclusive rights in Europe to certain patents and patent applications relating to the GJB2 gene for the diagnosis of hereditary deafness. The company plans to develop a molecular diagnostic product that can be customized by European labs to screen newborns for hereditary deafness. "Early identification of deafness in infants is critical to providing clinical care and ensuring social development," said Howard C. Birndorf, Nanogen's chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Hearing loss is still one of the most common disabilities in newborns, so any breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment could have profound effects.Nanogen's stock had been trading in the $4-6 dollar range, rising in early December on news of another patent acquisition. On 12-26-03, shares of NGEN took another jump to close at $7.50. On 12-29-03, shares took another jump to the $9 range. For more information on Nanogen, visit their company website at www.nanogen.com.SkyePharma (SKYE)Skyepharma is a London-based company that specializes in developing methods for drug delivery in the human body. This company recently welcomed news that a controlled-release version of Paxil that they receive royalties from GlaxoSmithKline on, was shown to be more effective than immediate-release selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. There are now 9 approved products that incorporate Skyepharma's technologies in areas of oral, injectable, inhaled and topical drug delivery.Shares of SKYE have gone up from $8 to $13 dollars in the past six months, dipping back to 10 briefly in October 2003 before briefly heading over $14 in late November. To learn more about Skyepharma, visit their website at www.skyepharma.com.Kiersten Marek is executive editor of Kmareka.com Books12937@blogcritics.org Thu, 19 Feb 2004 14:47:53 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/17/131924.php Kiersten Marekby Kiersten Marek, Kmareka.comIn early November 2003, lots of people called Senator Lincoln Chafee's office. They wanted to demand that he veto the energy bill being put forth by the Bush administration because it was chock full of pork-barrel giveaways for corporate America. Many of the people who called Senator Chafee did so after receiving an email from the influential new nonprofit organization, Moveon.org, informing them about the pending vote. After receiving many phone calls, on November 21, 2003 Senator Chafee voted against the bill, along with 40 other Senators, and the Bush-Cheney Energy Bill was rejected.Ten years ago this wasn't happening. Ten years ago it was harder to get ahold of droves of people all over the country and quickly inform them about an important piece of pending legislation. Moveon.org estimates that 20,000 people responded to the energy bill email alert campaign, demonstrating an amazing mass of voters concerned about the direction that the Bush administration is trying to take the nation on energy policy. Because of organizations like Moveon.org, the Union for Concerned Scientists, and FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), ordinary citizens are becoming more active in local, state, and national politics, and are holding both politicians and journalists more accountable.FAIR to Journalists: Quit Sucking Up!Since 1986, FAIR has advocated for accurate and independent journalism as an essential underpinning of a functional democracy. While FAIR is a professional watchdog organization rather than a citizen activism organization, it plays an important complementary role to political action organizations like Moveon.org. Recently, FAIR studied the media coverage of the Iraq war and found that only 3% of guests on major network talk shows voiced an antiwar opinion, while polls showed that 27% of Americans were against the war. Consequently, FAIR has done action alerts to prod the network media into providing coverage that more accurately reflects the American public. "Rather than sucking up to those in power, we ask that journalists go to those in power and hold their feet to the fire," says Steve Rendall, a Senior Analyst for FAIR, who has been with the nonprofit organization since 1988. FAIR recently did an action alert about NBC's decision to no longer provide coverage of the democratic presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun, and Al Sharpton. While NBC did not change its plans to stop covering these candidates, FAIR's action alert caused them to explain their decision, and might influence future decisions on when and how candidates are narrowed out of the field.Rendall says that he sees an improvement in Fair's ability to contact members and involve them in action alerts in the past few years as more people have gotten online and the internet has started its post-bubble resurgence. Donations to FAIR are tax-deductible, since they are a 501(c)(3) organization. This is an important distinction for middle-income people like me who want to donate to a cause for which they can get a tax deduction. You can learn more about FAIR by visiting their website at fair.org.Get a Moveon.orgSome of the most successful Internet-based action campaigns are being conducted by Moveon.org. According to Eli Pariser, the Campaign Director for Moveon.org, the organization now has about 1.5 million members, all able to log on and be called to action on various issues. In 2003, Moveon.org had successful campaigns to stop the FCC from loosening regulations that keep media monopolies from getting too big, to stop the Bush-Cheney Energy Bill, and to raise Frequent Flyer miles to give to soldiers in Iraq so they can come home for the holidays. In a recent introductory speech of Former Vice President Al Gore, Mr. Pariser described Moveon.org as a "loud and important voice for common sense in national affairs." Vice President Gore also acknowledged the value of Internet-based organizations in providing a robust debate on national issues of importance. "This methodology (Internet-based organizing) represents one way to try to fix things," said Gore, to an audience that included over 500 Moveon.org members.Moveon.org is actually three organizations in one, a "501(c)(4) organization primarily focused on education and advocacy on important issues," a Political Action Committee, and a third part called Moveon.org Voter Fund, a 527 organization which "primarily runs ads exposing President Bush's failed policies in key 'battleground' states." To learn more, go to Moveon.org. Union of Concerned ScientistsThe Union of Concerned Scientists was founded in 1969 by a group of MIT faculty members and students who were worried about the misuse of science and technology in society. As a member of the Union of Concerned Scientist Online Action Network, members receive emails about important legislative initiatives that involve science. For example, in 2003, the UCS had an action to write to your Congressperson and urge support of the Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, to help eliminate the unnecessary and harmful use of antibiotics in livestock. In concert with this political action campaign, the UCS persuaded McDonald's to adopt a new policy for reducing the overuse of antibiotics by its poultry suppliers. The UCS is a 501(c)(3) organization like FAIR, and therefore donations are tax-deductible. You can learn more about the Union of Concerned Scientists or participate in one of their actions by going to ucsusa.org.Non-Profit Computer Geeks Needed: Apply WithinComputer programmers, webmasters, and technicians are important (indeed essential) engines to the growth of nonprofit action and education organizations. Computer literacy on the part of young citizens will likely continue to fuel this new form of democratic communication.The hoped-for result of these organizations is enhanced participation in democracy and the consequential improvement in government and media. The fear is that every special interest on the planet will bombard politicians and journalists with email, and that conservatives will use this new form of communication in a more aggressive and cut-throat, and consequently effective, way than liberals. Right now organizations like Moveon.org, FAIR, and the Union of Concerned Scientists appear to have a leg up on conservatives with accessing people online and mobilizing them on key issues. Let's hope it lasts. Books12850@blogcritics.org Tue, 17 Feb 2004 13:19:24 EST