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Tuesday, March 13, 2018

ANTHROPOLOGY 281-1005--Mid-term Exam Notes-- IN TONGUES, RELATIVELY SPEAKING.

ANTH 281-1005//Dr J Ferguson//University of Nevada, Reno//Spring 2018  15M18
     Categorically speaking, the analysis of language, in a limited and antiseptic environment such as an experiment involving observer and subject, will almost always yield results expected, from inductive or deductive calculations, by the observer. It is the inherent nature of "ethnocentrism," a word originally used by Ludwig Gumplowicz in the 19th century to justify racial and class discord as a cause for war in order for a culture to progress.
     Juxtaposing the above on to the field of anthropological linguistics, it is no wonder that results are speaking, not necessarily in tongues, but in categories. Categories of syntax, grammar, phonemes, morphemes and the like. When it wasn't enough to break down language into its components, the tendency then existed to do what every other field of scientific endeavor did in the last century, make it relative. Thus, the Edward Sapir-Benjamin Whorf theory. But like every other attempt to connect process (thought) with procedure (speaking), there would also be refutation. But in order to first do this, what little evidence exists to define a culture in terms of its language, there needed to be yet another division, hence, the "soft" and "hard" interpretations of Roger Brown,  where that dialectic could just as easily be replaced by ching and chung. 
     There seems to be little emphasis on rather obvious components of the thinking-speaking-real world chain missing here; not so much in a strict Pavlovian take on the process, but from a Darwininian  vis-a-vis BF Skinner approach.  Without going into the details of the operant reaction experiments, it will suffice to say that conditioned response, behavior reinforcement and the environment play significant roles in whether there is any kind of influence on the process chain that constitutes a linguistic theory, whether relative of universal. To what degree conclusions can be drawn from over-simplistic experiments involving color terminology or spatial representations in various cultures might explain why the theories do not hold up to criticism.
     To leave it on a metaphorical note, "the proof is in the pudding."






Monday, March 12, 2018

ENG-ANTH 281-1005--"An Endless War"--NY Times (02/17/18)--REVERSE OUTLINE, QUALLAM-3D

TO ALPHA 3212  FROM RECON-PRESSE-USA SUBJ AFTER ACTION W/MAPS

Following is the Reverse outline from the NY Times article--
University of Nevada, Reno
Spring 2018  13M18
James Langelle

"An Endless War,"  NYT (02/19/18)--Reverse Outline

1.) Introduction to the ambush on October 04, 2017 just below the Mali border in Niger that claimed the lives of 4 American soldiers.
2.) Outcome of the firefight, comparison to "Blackhawk Down" (1993, Somalia), and reaction back home of President Trump's remarks.
3.) A hastily arranged plan that led to the soldiers being caught out in the open just a few hundred yards south of Tongo Tongo village.
4.) Logistics and weapons inventory.
5.)  The debate in Congress on the so-called "war on terror."
6.) The Pentagon report is in progress, and currently over 1000 pages long. Sen. Graham remark, ignorance over troop count in Niger.
7.)  The rest of the senators with the "I know nothing " line aka Sgt. Schultz, "Hogan's Heroes."
8.) Sgt. Wright background notes.
9.) Sgt. Wright background notes.
10.) War authorization measure.
11.)  Rep B Lee (D-CA)- 9/11 AUMF vote.
12.) AUMF repeal attempt by Rep. Lee killed in House, w/ref to runup to ambush time frame.
13.)  Obama uses 1973 War Powers Act to justify Niger troop deployment.
14.) Post-ambush debate in Congress with focus on 2001 AUMF.
15.) Sgt. Black bio
16.) Sgt. Black bio, continued.
17.) Sgt. Black bio, continued.
18.)  Sgt. Black bio, continued.
19.)  Background on US involvement in Africa, 1998, Tanzania and Kenya bombings and emergence of Osama bin Laden.
20.) French intervention in Mali, 2013.
21.) Obama steps in with a plan for West Africa.
22.) President Trump and the current escalation of terror attacks by African militants.
23.) Niger escalation and the risk posed by American forces in the bush.
24.) The obfuscation from command over the role of the patrol in the bush.
25.) "Naylor Road", code name for the cattle-herder turned radical as the objective of the patrol; relation to American aid worker kidnapping. Alert sounded by electronic signal from the cattle-herder's electronic device.
26.) Heli-assault mission "Obsidian Nomad" formulated using a variety of counterterror components. Command decisions may have muddled the execution of the mission.
27.) Ground component, the ill-fated patrol, was already in place.
28.) Weapons inventory of the patrol OD-Alpha 3212; patrol leaves Quallam base at 0600, Oct. 03. Following routine mission, patrol is diverted to assist the heli-assault team.
29.) Heli-assault mission scrubbed, leaving Alpha-3212 open in the field with no air cover. The team was ordered to recon the cattle-herder's last known location.
30.) Patrol recons extremely dangerous neighborhood, where dozens of attacks had already been recorded.
31.) Air-support stands down, the team beds down and continues early on the morning of Oct. 04., eventually arriving at Tongo Tongo.
32.)  A-3212 stops for water in the village, and appear to be delayed for rather suspect reasons.
33.) 1130 hours, 500 yards south of the village, the firefight erupts with the unit taking small arms fire from a treeline to the north. There is a comm breakdown which prevent air-support from the French in Mali.
34.) Air support does arrive and med-evacs are lifted out of an LZ, (possibly the location of the red smoke in the video.) There is a very big intel gap here over whether those killed in the ambush were deserted by the others.
35.)  Trump remark on Sgt. Johnson, "knew what he signed up for."
36.) Sgt. (La David) Johnson bio.
37.) Body-camera recordings reviewed.
38.) More body-camera review.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/17/world/africa/niger-ambush-american-soldiers.html?mtrref=www.google.com

#28)--"patrol leaves Quallam base at 0600"

Below 3D sims of "Quallam base"--








Yet another reminder of the "war on terror"..