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On a rudimentary level now: Double E students at U of Michigan used to tell me that the U had basic classes in English comp---and then special English comp classes for engineering students ['real life' was omitted from the latter classes, they said]. Just as with accounting students, I found the double E guys [no females that I recall] the wittiest [mebbe their 'Way Removed From Reality' quality provides them a wit-base the rest of us don't have]. After graduating, I got only one job offer [having mailed out 150 letters/CVs]----and it was to teach English to engineers at the densely snowy Houghton-Hancock MIT in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I went to Chicago instead. Wonder what I missed? <g> Judy 2009/11/13 Chris Jones <[log in to unmask]> > On Thu, 2009-11-12 at 11:29 +0000, Dominic Fox wrote: > > Owned by Murdoch. Assume the worst. > > Enough said. I get the message. > > It was as I suspected; myspace spamming itself. (Still think it is best > to treat this as legit but for complex reasons.) > > Both facebook and myspace look like pop network theory along the line of > six degrees of separation. The problem is that connections need to be > made, so it may seem, and spamming seems to be an easy engineering > solution to the problem of this apparent lack. > > However, based on real life concrete empirical experience, having > studied electrical engineering at the most elite academic institution in > the country and having worked for one of the most respected engineering > consultancies in the country, I do know that engineers think in a very > abstract academic idealised way foreclosed to the concrete facts of > everyday real life. Just because if I jump out of the tenth level of a > high rise building and hit the pavement, this would kill me, does not > mean that the integration of F=ma will also kill me. This is the basic > problem of Sokal's brand of privileged academic ontological idealism > which is shared by the elite idealist academic investments in knowledge > known as electrical engineering. (Of course, the epistemological > consequences which, if Sokal is to be honest and act in good faith, are > interesting. However he seems more concerned with his ruling class > investments in knowledge, so cannot be trusted, as it currently > appears.) > > So, we have the engineering solution of myspace spamming itself in an > ideal hope of creating network links which cannot be realised in the > real everyday concrete lives of real living human beings. One could > perhaps laugh to cover ones embarrassed pity? > > best wishes, Chris Jones. > > (Trust my dialogic sense of humour is understood. I have that itch to > read Bakhtin's Dialogic yet again.) >