Babeled

“There is nothing I can’t do.”   This is what I told myself.

Mistake #1

When I was 24 years old, for the first time I clumsily clamoured aboard the FV Miss Maddy, a sixty some odd foot Scallop Boat birthed in Barnegat Light, NJ. I was about to embark on my Greenhorn Voyage as a Commercial Fisherman in the North Atlantic. I would soon learn just how tough I wasn’t.

When I first set foot on the boat, it was late April of 2004. The weather was fair, low 60’s if I recall correctly. I struggled to make my way through the entrance into what I called “the kitchen.” Mistake #2.

Let’s get this straight right here and now boy – it’s not the kitchen; it’s the galley. It’s not the wall; it’s the bulkhead. It’s not the floor; it’s the deck. It’s not a bed; it’s a rack. It’s not the toilet; it’s the head – and there isn’t one.

These would be the first words spoken to me on my first trip by John, the Deck Boss.

The deck boss went by the acronym HNIC, an acronym that I will not spell out due to the inappropriate nature of the title. The Deck Boss did the same job all the Deck hands did, worked in the same conditions, and earned exactly the same pay as the other Deck Hands. The difference being he was the most experienced and by default, third in the pecking order behind the Captain and Mate.

Before my intimidated mind could compute the fact that John had just told me I would not enjoy the privilege of a toilet for two weeks, it was the First Mate’s turn to chime in.

Congratulations, B*#%! You’re the twelve-hour man. Which means as soon as we throw the lines, you get to washin’ them dishes.

A Scallop Boat was allowed a 7 man crew. This odd number presented a challenge when attempting to evenly distribute manpower throughout the day. The result was two crews or “watches” consisting of three men. The watches were made up of either the Captain or his Mate (second in command) and two deck hands. Each watch would be “on-deck” or working for 6 hours while the other watch slept. The odd man out, the 7th man, was known as the twelve-hour man. He would work two consecutive watches, one with each crew, and then be off for two.

I made my way into the bunk room and looked around. The room, which slept four men, was about the size of my closet as a child. Standing in the middle of the room with my sea bag slung over my shoulder, I took up the entire space. I threw my gear onto the only rack available, a 5-foot long bunk with a foam rubber mattress covered with an unidentified black residue from the last guy who occupied it. I was in a hurry to get out on deck and make a good impression with my new shipmates, so I put off making my bed and stowing my sea bag and went right to work. Mistake #3.

Several minutes later, the captain looked down from his perch overlooking the deck and made the call “Let’s go Fishing.”

I had no idea what was waiting for me beyond the buoys of Barnegat Inlet. The next twelve days would prove to be the longest, most painful days of my entire life.

~Man Overboard

Recently at Babeled we have added a new feature that is not so new - Gravatars (globally recognized avatar).  These beauties are the little avatars (images) that you can now see in the comment section of all of the posts on our site.  Since we are a multi-author blog it seemed appropriate for us to add some pictures of ourselves in a hopeless effort of bringing a little more personality to this place.

Of course, we want to encourage everyone else to do the same.  The steps are simple and the service is FREE.  All one must do to obtain the almighty Gravatar is follow this simple incantation:

1. Traverse the perils of space, time, and the internets to gravatar.com
2. Select the link to Sign up now! - Do not be fooled as it is cleverly named Sign up now!
3. Enter in the e-mail address you use when commenting on various blogs or sites supporting Gravatars.
4. In moments you will receive a confirmation e-mail from Gravatar sent to said address asking you to merrily click the link for activation of your new Gravatar account.
5. Now simply upload a picture, crop it to your liking, click finish and wait a few minutes for your Gravatar to appear.

Once the blood, sweat, and tears that five minutes of sitting down can bring has passed - you too can look like a tool cool when babeling on our site.

In her book Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome [PTSS]: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary, Ph. D., proposes that the current generation of inner city African Americans are suffering a collective case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

What?

Before discussing the details of Dr. Leary’s theory, it will be helpful to review the basics of PTSD.  According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV-TR), “PTSD is marked by acute stress and anxiety provoked by memories of an extraordinary traumatic event”. Classic situations that tend to cause PTSD are war, rape, natural disasters, and negative experiences on drugs. The intensity of the symtoms vary according to the intensity of the traumatic event.

The crux of Dr. Leary’s theory is that entire communities, not just isolated individuals, are subject to PTSD. The proof is supposed to be the inner city African American community which has manifested symptoms of PTSD as a result of the intense trauma inflicted during centuries of slavery and years of segregation.

Leary’s book explains how despite the civil rights movement, and many other social advances, the majority of African Americans are suffering from a collective self esteem crisis that is reflected in the external environment of the ghetto, and the internal desire to accumulate material items to justify their superiority.  She goes on to state that this collective insecurity is a direct result of socialization within an institutionally racist society.

Say What Again.

I give Dr. Leary credit for exploring the idea of collective mental disorders.  That is a very interesting topic that most certainly needs further exploration.  However, the basis for this book is PTSD, and PTSD depends on memory for its existence. So the question is, how does an entire community with no recollection of slavery suffer from a collective disorder that relies on memory for its existence?

Collective PTSD exists in inner city African American communities not because of slavery, but because of poverty - trauma that exists at this current moment.  Because the stress of poverty is the root cause, collective PTSD cannot be race specific, but instead can be found in any poor community.  As for institutional racism - yes that is certainly a contributing factor to the cycle of poverty, but it is poverty itself that causes the collective insecurity Dr. Leary is proposing.

The purpose of labeling a mental disorder is to classify symptoms so as to more easily find effective solutions.  By using the label Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Dr. Leary seems to be suggesting that the solution to the trauma of African American inner city communities is different than the solution to the trauma of non-African American inner city communities. If this is the case, she is mistaken.

The solution to the collective ills of poverty is the eradication of poverty. That and nothing else.

Of course, how we go about ending poverty is a topic unto itself…

This past September I babeled on how the majority of American’s believe their quality of life, and their productivity in general, is greatly improved by the use of Personal Digital Assistants.  In that post I concluded that we are witnessing the beginning of what will be a radical revolution in what it means to work.

This month I want to discuss a new study that sheds light on how cell phones and the internet are bringing the human family closer together as we begin the 21st Century.

According to recent research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project,

• 89% of married-with-children households own multiple cell phones, and nearly half own three or more mobile devices
• 66% of married-with-children households have a high speed broadband internet connection at home.
• 70% of couples in which both partners own a cell phone contact each other daily to say hello or chat
• 42% of parents contact their children on a daily basis using a cell phone, making cell phones the most popular communications tool between parents and children

Clearly physical distance, the great barrier to communication in past epochs, has been conquered.  With a cell phone turned on, a person can be reached pretty much anywhere on the planet.  And one day, when internet and cell phone coverage has spread to all households on all continents, there won’t be a soul who can’t enjoy the novelty of instant communication.

The Good: Instant Gratification

The popularity of mobile phones and the internet has everything to do with freedom.  These devices allow us to communicate whenever the desire arises, and there’s nothing like instant gratification to increase an object’s popularity.

For families and couples, these devices are that much more tempting because they have the potential to decrease the amount of time spent worrying about the status of loved ones. If there’s a bomb scare at school your kids can call you immediately.  If your lover gets in an accident on the highway they can call you immediately.  If your buddy goes to order White Castle for the party but he forgets what you wanted, your instructions are just a phone call away.

The Bad: Instant Gratification

Long gone are the days of the carrier pigeon.  Long gone are the days of patience and personal space.  The fact is, the freedom mobile devices grant us is really a double-edged sword.

With the ability to initiate communication whenever we want we open ourselves to a potentially endless onslaught from the outside world.  Yes, we can always just turn the phone off and let every call go straight to voicemail. But, at the end of the day we must always return to our phone and our messages.  We must always call back.

This issue becomes especially apparent when dealing with people who have convinced themselves that instant communication is a necessity, rather than the privilege that it truly is.  With these people, it practically becomes a mortal sin to not return a message or phone call immediately after it has been received.

The Bottom Line

Time is running out to maintain any semblance of “old-world” personal space.  As the wheel of time moves on, so will global dependency on instant communication.  Future generations born into an ever-connected world will lack any memory of a life without the ability to instantly communicate whenever they feel like it.  What effect this will have, only time can tell.  But, I’m gonna go out on a limb and predict a future ripe with global ADD.

Good night, and good luck.

In the past, there have been few options for isolated areas to generate electricity. For small, out of the way towns and large industrial complexes located off the beaten path, combustion generators powered by natural gas or diesel have been the only choice.

But recently, the engineers at Toshiba have presented a new option, miniature nuclear reactors. Small potatoes when compared to their 1,500 MW cousins, these tiny 50 MW units would still be able to supply power to as many as 40,000 homes in areas far from the existing power grid.

With no need to refuel and no need for the expensive power lines required to deliver energy over long distances, these small nuclear reactors offer an environmentally friendly, cost effective, and above all reliable means to power these remote areas with little to no environmental footprint.

But these are not your Grandfather’s fission reactors. These units are self contained and use liquid Lithium-6 as a moderator instead of the Control Rods used by the larger reactors we are used to. For those of you who are new to the technology, in this case a moderator is a substance with a neutron affinity or ‘appetite’ for neutrons. They regulate the rate of fission in the same way regulating oxygen controls the rate at which a fire burns. No air, no fire - no neutrons, no fission. The fail safe design of these reactors causes the unit to automatically flood with Lithium-6 during a transient in order to “snuff out” the reaction by depriving it of the neutrons needed to continue fission.

Obviously, any new technology will have to endure the fears and lack of understanding by the under-informed. However, since 9/11 and the dramatic rise in oil prices, public opinion is finally warming to a technology that has been unjustly loathed for decades. With this waning fear and opposition to clean, safe nuclear power, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to consider this type of reactor sometime within the next ten years.

~Man Overboard