Musings of Flash Gordon

Approximately every two decades, federal policy shifts between a conservative laissez faire delegation of power to the states and a liberal, often paternal, centralization of power within the federal government. The latest development in the cycle, according to the authors of Forced Federalism, is the new federalism that began more than twenty years ago. Corntassel and Witmer argue that forced federalism has arrived unnoticed, with most people thinking, if they think about it at all, that Indian policy remains as it was in the 1960s. Under Lyndon Johnson federal policy was liberal, and indigenous people were allowed a significant amount of self determination as well as a large amount of federal support. In the late 1980s under the new federalism, specifically in 1988 with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the federal government abdicated its role in Indian affairs and gave the states the responsibility for Native American populations. Indian nations are sovereign entities, comparable to the federal government, whose relations with the United States are set by treaty. Dealing with the states rather than the federal government as such produces a loss of status for Native American nations. The entire review can be found here:

Writers of the Future Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Dark Fantasy Contest

1. No entry fee is required, and all rights in the story remain the property of the author. All types of science fiction, fantasy and dark fantasy are welcome.

More here: http://newgreatbooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/science-fiction-fantasy-and-dark.html

Travel Writers Can Change the World: Planet Earth 2010

Sustainable travel — eco-travel — green travel — cultural travel . . . what does all this mean? The current trend of travel experiences that enrich and fulfill the traveler while contributing to the welfare of a place and its inhabitants presents a grand opportunity for us as writers.

By choosing to focus at least some of our work on such topics as philanthropic travel opportunities; resorts, hotels and tour companies that operate sustainably; travel with a purpose; responsible tourism; and/or “cultural sojourns” (as described in the New York Times 2009 summer travel magazine), we become part of a new millennium crusade to appreciate and to save the planet and its inhabitants.

http://newgreatbooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/calling-all-travel-writers-to-enter.html

Videos on the indigenous peoples massacre in Peru.

http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=823:videos-of-peruvian-indigenous-struggle-bagua-grande&catid=68:videos-and-movies&Itemid=96

Bagua, Peru (June 6, 2009) – In the early morning hours on Friday, Peruvian Special Forces staged a violent raid on a group of indigenous people at a peaceful blockade on a road outside of Bagua in a remote area of the northern Peruvian Amazon resulting in 25 civilians confirmed dead and over a hundred wounded. Over 600 police attacked several thousand unarmed Awajun and Wambis indigenous peoples including many women and children and forcibly dispersed them using tear gas and live ammunition.

http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=804:police-open-fire-on-indigenous-blockade-in-the-peruvian-amazon-25-civilians-and-9-police-dead-150-injured&catid=53:south-america-indigenous-peoples&Itemid=75

The use of genetic data in forensic science, demographic and population history, archaeology, and a variety of other disciplines has been one of the most rewarding advances in recent times. Allowing for a level of detail and traceability not found in the other methods used by these disciplines, genetic data has provided a wealth of information on population movements, cultural histories, genealogy, and on and on. In fact, the use of genetics to study population history has recently reached a milestone with the study of large genome-wide data sets that provide a wealth of information concerning contemporary and historic population relationships. However, it is not without its faults and limitations, especially when used to understand cultural affiliation among indigenous groups, such as Native American Indians. In studies of cultural affiliation between contemporary and prehistoric populations, for example, there is a dependence on much smaller-scaled data, typically from either the mitochondrial genome of the female or the Y chromosome of the male. Similarly, the datasets from these prehistoric populations is often small and spans a wide chronological or geographic range.

http://www.bauuinstitute.com/Articles/GeneticDataAffiliationNatives.html

Let's talk secret bouldering areas for a second. After word got out back in the 90s about Rocky Mountain National Park bouldering - Chaos Canyon, Upper Chaos, Moraine Park boulders, the boulders at the bottom of the Diamond and down valley, Upper Thunder Basin, Emerald Lake boulders, and others - traffic in the Park really started to pick up. Now, if you go up there on a weekend, you might as well just go to the gym as there are on average 50+ people climbing in the Chaos Canyon area alone.

Groups of industrious boulderers began to hunt out other high alpine bouldering areas in the hopes of finding more gems, classic lines, and a break from the crowds and hot summer temps. Evans - although already known - became another Front Range favorite as it has more moderate problems and landings then the Park. Guanella Pass also got a second or third look. Swissco was found and developed, although the long 4x4 road has kept it fairly quiet despite it having some major undone roof problems. A couple other places were also found and developed: the Eldora walls, Empire boulders, Cameron Pass, and the Keystone boulders.

Read more about bouldering at Keystone: Colorado alpine boulders for summer here.

The Archaic period has been a working concept within archaeology, and even other social sciences, for well over half a century. Long thought of as the stage between the initial peopling of the Americas (sometime in the late Pleistocene) and that of large-scale societies (a few hundred to a thousand years ago), the Archaic has long been a period of simplistic understanding and characterization. One of the most influential characterizations of this period was developed by archaeologists Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in their now classic Method and Theory in American Archaeology (Classics Southeast Archaeology). Defined “as the stage of migratory hunting and gathering cultures continuing into environmental conditions approximately those of the present” (Willey and Phillips 1958:107), it is only recently that this characterization has been challenged by new archaeological evidence. In a recent issue of the SAA Archaeological Review, Kenneth E. Sassaman introduces several papers that discuss new archaeological evidence that is shifting our understanding of the period, particularly for the Southeast of North America. Key points of these papers, as articulated by Sassaman include:

1) Although the concept of a pan-continental Archaic period in North America has fallen into disfavor, there still exists a tendancy among American archaeologists to gloss the enormous diversity of things Archaic within the broader tropes of “hunter-gatherer” and “primitive” that have shaped anthropological inquiry since the late nineteenth century.

Read the other Archaic Period archaeological southeastern key points here.

The Seventh Annual Conference of the Association for Anthropology and Gerontology will be held at the University of Oklahoma-Norman from June 5 - 7, 2009. This year's theme broadly focuses on "Aging and the Indigenous People of North America." Any topic is welcome; examples include aging and health issues, the revitalization of culture and language, and overviews of the field as a whole. The conference is an interdisciplinary small-scale meeting emphasizing the close critique of works-in-progress. It includes a workshop focused on the future of gerontological work with the indigenous people of North America. It also features an optional mentoring component for students and junior researchers, who are paired with senior researchers who offer technical assistance concerning research proposals or manuscripts.

Papers from the conference will be considered for publication either individually or as a special issue of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. Presenters are invited to submit a one-page abstract by February 15, 2008 to Dr. Lori L. Jervis, University of Oklahoma, lori.jervis@ou.edu. Registration forms are available here.

Read more about Aging and Indigenous Peoples of North America here.

There are a lot of conspiracy theories in the world, ranging from the Apollo Moon-Landing Hoax, which suggests that some or all elements of the Apollo missions were faked by NASA, to the Death of Marilyn Monroe. Some of the most exciting recent books that I have read, such as The Map Thief, and The Forgery of Venus have involved conspiracy theories in their plot. However, a lot of recent thrillers that I have seen on the shelves involve some of the same old conspiracy theories with little or no new plot twists. Not very exciting for an avid reader like me.

Recently, though, I had the pleasure of reading DNAby seasoned author W. Craig Reed. Combining a number of intricate plot twists, individual and social enemies, and a unique take on one of the most controversial of the well known conspiracy theories, DNAis a fresh take on a common plot.

Ever since The Andromeda Strain(1969), by Michael Crichton, and it’s techno-thriller plot documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that rapidly and fatally clots human blood, numerous other thrillers have attempted to copy this plot line. Reed, on the other hand, avoids the mistake of attempting to rehash this classic, and rather takes the conspiracy component of the thriller one step further – all the way back to the origins of the human race!

Read more about DNA: The Thriller on Darwins Evolution and Intelligent Design here.