Journal articles on the topic 'Max Mara (Firm)'

This article discusses that the business of engineering has challenges of its own. Engineer-to-order (ETO) differs from make-to-stock or make-to-order businesses primarily in the amount of designing that takes place after a firm receives an order. For either of the two make-to systems, post-order engineering is insignificant. ETO firms depend heavily on engineers and designers inside the order cycle because the machine has to be imagined, then designed and detailed, before it can be built. Handling specialty is a typical ETO manufacturer. It builds lifting and turning equipment used by everyone from automakers in Toronto to stage builders in Las Vegas. Although it makes equipment mostly of a particular kind, no two orders are exactly alike. In order to make a transition from entrepreneurial, family-owned firms to professional ones, ETO companies need to make business information available to employees throughout their organizations.

Penelitian bertujuan untuk menganalisis perbedaan persepsi tiga dimensi family business brand (family firm identity, family firm image, dan family firm reputation) antara incumbent-keluarga, incumbent-non-keluarga, dan generasi penerus. Penelitian berikut diharapkan dapat memberikan pemahaman terkait bagaimana tiga subsistem yang berbeda dalam suatu bisnis keluarga memiliki pemahaman terhadap family business brand. Apabila terdapat peredaan persepsi maka akan diusulkan strategi yang tepat agar operasional perusahaan dapat lancer dan terjadi peningkatan nilai merek perusahaan tersebut. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah seluruh pemilik bisnis keluarga dari kelompok Family Business Universitas Ciputra angkatan VIII, penentuan sampel dilakukan berdasarkan purposive random sampling dengan kriteria tertentu.Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah uji beda nyata One Way ANOVA yang dioperasikan menggunakan program IBM SPSS Statistics 23. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan di antara ketiga kategori responden pada dimensi family firm identity dan family firm reputation. Sedangkan pada family firm image tidak terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan di antara ketiga kategori responden.

This article presents the transformation of drilling and fracturing industry. More recent efforts have studied the use of flared gas to treat the flowback water that follows fracking. While the emergence of such technologies is encouraging, the solutions involve expensive infrastructure, which often reduces the economic advantage of flared gas utilization projects. Researchers are working to increase the performance of the condensers by coating the condenser tubes with water-shedding super-hydrophobic materials, which drain the condensed water and can increase the thermal performance by a factor of ten. The paper also discusses the benefits of a solution named atmospheric water harvesting (AWH). AWH can benefit oil-producing regions such as the Middle East and portions of Africa, which flare large volumes of gas, face perpetual water crises, and have year-round high humidity. The technology can also be positioned as an alternative to desalination in humid places with high flaring rates, but which lack brackish water sources that could be treated.

This article discusses the efficient frontier, initially conceived within the realm of economics and business that is essential to the practice of engineers as they pursue goals and objectives set forth by employers. Engineering courses, from undergraduate through doctoral studies, have a primary concern with efficiency and how it relates to the physical world. The paper also highlights that it is frequently the engineering talent within a company that best understands how to harness the organizational capital required either to move toward the current efficient frontier or to exceed it. Furthermore, it should be noted that as companies within a given industry strive to improve their operational effectiveness, any advantage this might provide would usually be short lived. The efficient frontier should not be regarded as merely a conceptual tool, with little applicability to daily work or strategic planning activities. The paper also discusses that additionally, by earning increased profits, a firm can invest some of the additional funds in activities intended to further the distance between it and its competitors on the efficient frontier.

Forest fire was a persistent concern management in conservation areas of Mount Ciremai National Park (MCNP) and Kuningan Botanical Garden (KBG). Many of the forest fire was sparked by anthropogenic ignitions like careless fire use for extracting forest honey. This study aims to map multi stakeholder roles on fire management in conservation areas. Twenty-seven actors were interviewed to learn who are the fire actors and network. These multi stakeholders included government officials, local businessmen, non-governmental organizations and community members. Study site and data collection were carried out in seven villages around conservation areas from July to September 2019. The relationships between the actors were analyzed with the software Node XL Basic and Gephi 9.0.2 using the Social Network Analysis. Our results identify close relationships and strong connections to all actors of more than half (63.2%) but social or personal approach between all actors were still required. Head of MCNP, Head of KBG and Head of AKAR (Aktivitas Anak Rimba) acted as the important actors. To prevent the area from further fire occurrences, management authorities should establish mutual confidence and make other actors believe that heads of conservation areas are a solid team to prevent conservation areas from burning.

In the last decade, both natural and man-made disaster events in Malaysia bring hindrance to construction firms’ operations. Disaster events causing stress, anxiety and depression among people which leads to lose of working days. This research reports on psychosocial environment factors to private construction firms in the event of disaster. A semi-structured interviews were conducted among six (6) construction firms and the data were analysed using content analysis. The findings revealed that three (3) psychosocial environment factors (i.e., job characteristics; role in organisations; and social aspects) affected by man-made disasters; while job prospect and organisational factors distressed by natural disasters.Keywords: Man-made Disaster; Natural Disaster; Private Construction Firms; Psychosocial Environment FactorseISSN 2398-4279 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. https://doi.org/10.21834/ajqol.v3i11.130

This article reviews risk analysis that involves the estimation or calculation of possible failures and then the possible consequences of those failures. Some tools involve the study of probable results of combined abnormal environments, such as fire with crush and puncture at a time when the item of concern is in a very cold environment. The record of past experiences can be both a look back at a disaster and a look forward to managing risk. With a necessarily strict approach to risk assessment as it is applied to nuclear armament, the final matrix is that of surety: safety, reliability, security, and control of human factors and access. Engineering advances will always result from dreams and aspirations of practitioners in the field. If no one attempts the unknown, the store of knowledge and experience will forever be capped at present levels.

A modelagem do risco espacial de incêndios florestais tem o objetivo de determinar as regiões mais susceptíveis ao fogo, baseando-se em variáveis que representam a facilidade de ignição e de propagação do fogo. Nesse contexto, utilizando-se das variáveis: sistema viário, densidade demográfica, uso e ocupação do solo, malha hidrográfica, inclinação e orientação das encostas, foram elaborados mapas de riscos preliminares, que, posteriormente à ponderações das mesmas pelo método AHP, foram integradas por meio da calculadora Raster em um mapa final de risco de incêndio florestal para o município de Inhambupe, Bahia, Brasil. Com base no modelo utilizado, 75,46% da área de estudo apresenta-se classificada como de maior risco, representado pelas classes “alto”, “muito alto” e “extremo”. Ao comparar o mapa final do risco de incêndio florestal para a área de estudo com o histórico de áreas queimadas, verificou-se que 94,83% dos registros de incêndios florestais estão alocados nas áreas de maior risco.Spatial modeling of forest fire risk for the Municipality of Inhambupe, Bahia State, BrazilSpatial modeling of forest fire risk has the aim to determine areas most susceptible to fire based on variables that represent facility of ignition and propagation. This work developed a forest fire risk map for the Municipality of Inhambupe, Bahia State, Brazil, by elaborating thematic maps of the following variables: road system, population density, land occupation and use, watershed network, slope and aspect. These were evaluated by the analytic hierarchy process and integrated with map algebra. Based on the developed model, 75.46% of the studied area was classified as “high”, “very high” and “extreme high” fire risk. When comparing the forest fire risk map with historical data of burned areas, 95% of the fires were in these areas.Index terms: Forest protection; Fire susceptibility; Risk map

Compliance en innovatie. Twee thema’s waarvan de natuurlijke samenhang misschien niet onmiddellijk voor de hand ligt. Op het eerste oog lijken het immers twee werelden, een reactieve en een proactieve. Compliance wordt in de (van De Nederlandsche Bank afkomstige) Regeling Organisatie en Beheersing gedefinieerd als ‘de naleving van wet- en regelgeving, alsmede het werken volgens de normen en regels die een instelling zelf heeft opgesteld’. Daarmee is de verleiding groot om compliance te zien als reactief. Er gebeurt iets, er wordt regelgeving ontwikkeld, bedrijven implementeren die regelgeving in de vorm van interne normen, regels en processen, en compliance ziet op de naleving daarvan. Plaats daar tegenover het begrip ‘innovatie’, door het Amerikaanse US Commerce Department gedefinieerd als ‘design, invention, development, and/ or implementation of new or altered products, services, processes, systems, organizational structures, or business models for the purpose of creating new value for customers and financial returns for the firm.’ Een begrip dat juist het proactieve benadrukt. Sterker nog, men zou zelfs kunnen beargumenteren dat innovatie wordt tegengehouden door regelgeving en compliance. De autonome Google-car, een groot aantal biogenetische ontwikkelingen zijn twee voorbeelden van innovaties die technisch gezien nagenoeg implementatie- rijp zijn, maar waar wet- en regelgeving waarschijnlijk een zeer serieuze vertraging in de marktintroductie gaan opleveren.

MAPPING DISASTER RISK BY FOREST FIRE IN THE AMAZON: a multifactorial approach in the municipality of Moju (PA)MAPEO DEL RIESGO DE DESASTRE POR INCENDIO FLORESTAL EN LA AMAZONÍA: un enfoque multifactorial en el municipio de Moju (PA)RESUMONo estado do Pará o município de Moju é um dos que apresentam a maior quantidade de focos de calor conforme dados oficiais. Note-se que a base de suas atividades econômicas são a agricultura familiar e as plantações de dendê e coco-da-baía, diante disso propôs-se questionar sobre o risco não apenas da existência de incêndios florestais, mas da magnitude das consequências socioeconômicas deles. A pesquisa bibliográfica e documental em artigos acadêmicos e científicos, dissertações e teses possibilitou a compreensão do significado de mapeamento de áreas de risco de incêndio florestal identificadas no mapa de risco, bem como a possibilidade de desenvolver com base teórica e metodológica a criação de um mapeamento e ponderação de aspectos socioeconômicos expressado no mapa de vulnerabilidade, a fim de refinar um produto final na elaboração do mapa de risco de desastre. Assim, objetivo deste artigo é mostrar e discutir a incorporação de fatores sociais e econômicos na formulação dos mapas de risco de incêndio florestal. Mais precisamente, um Mapa de Risco de Desastre por Incêndio Florestal (MRDIF), que consiste na fusão entre Mapas de Risco de Incêndio Florestal e um Mapa Avaliativo Socioeconômico. Como resultado imediato da formação do MRDIF é o planejamento de ações preventivas. Percebeu-se que houve variação nas áreas de risco dos mapas com e sem a inclusão dos aspectos socioeconômicos, o que pode indicar quais sejam as áreas principais para ações a fim de diminuir os riscos ou as consequências dos possíveis desastres causados por incêndios florestais. Palavras-chave: Gestão de Risco; Incêndios Florestais; Uso do Solo na Amazônia; Cartografia.ABSTRACTIn the state of Pará, the municipality of Moju is one of those with the highest number of hot spots according to official data. It should be noted that the basis of its economic activities are family farming and oil palm and coconut plantations. In view of this, it was proposed to ask about the risk not only of the existence of forest fires, but of the magnitude of their socioeconomic consequences. Bibliographic and documentary research in academic and scientific articles, dissertations and theses made it possible to understand the meaning of mapping areas of forest fire risk identified in the risk map, as well as the possibility of developing a mapping with theoretical and methodological basis. and weighting of socioeconomic aspects expressed in the Vulnerability Map, in order to refine a final product in the preparation of the disaster risk map. Thus, the objective of this article is to show and discuss the incorporation of social and economic factors in the formulation of forest fire risk maps. More precisely, a Forest Fire Disaster Risk Map (FFDRP), which consists of the merger between Forest Fire Risk Maps and a Socioeconomic Assessment Map. As an immediate result of the formation of FFDRP is the planning of preventive actions. It was noticed that there was variation in the risk areas of the maps with and without the inclusion of socioeconomic aspects, which may indicate what are the main areas for actions in order to reduce the risks or the consequences of possible disasters caused by forest fires.Keywords: Risk Management; Fire Forest; Land Use in the Amazon; Cartography.RESUMENEn el estado de Pará, el municipio de Moju es una de las regiones con el mayor número de focos de calor según datos oficiales. Cabe señalar que la base de sus actividades económicas son la agricultura familiar y las plantaciones de palma aceitera y coco, en vista de esto, se propuso preguntar sobre el riesgo no solo de la existencia de incendios forestales, sino de la magnitud de sus consecuencias socioeconómicas. La investigación bibliográfica y documental en artículos académicos y científicos, disertaciones y tesis permitió comprender el significado de las áreas de mapeo de riesgo de incendio forestal identificadas en el mapa de riesgo, así como la posibilidad de desarrollar un mapeo con base teórica y metodológica. y ponderación de los aspectos socioeconómicos expresados en el mapa de vulnerabilidad, con el fin de refinar un producto final en la preparación del mapa de riesgo de desastres. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de este artículo es mostrar y discutir la incorporación de factores sociales y económicos en la formulación de mapas de riesgo de incendios forestales. Más precisamente, un Mapa de Riesgo de Desastres por Incendios Forestales (MRDIF), que consiste en la fusión entre Mapas de riesgo de incendios forestales y un Mapa de evaluación socioeconómica. Como resultado inmediato de la formación de MRDIF es la planificación de acciones preventivas. Se observó que hubo variación en las áreas de riesgo de los mapas con y sin la inclusión de aspectos socioeconómicos, lo que puede indicar cuáles son las principales áreas de acción para reducir los riesgos o las consecuencias de posibles desastres causados por incendios forestales.Palabras clave: Gestión de Riesgos; Incendios Florestales; Uso del Suelo en la Amazonia; Cartografía.

a b s t r a c tThe fire disaster was one of the disasters that frequently occurred in Indonesia. Fires often occur in particular in the area of dense population average is affected by the presence of shorting electric and gas leakage from household kitchens. many cases fires are known at the time of the fire, and little has happened can be detected early. Based on community-based information system that has been done today, then needed a fire disaster information systems that can provide information and notification in real-time in the form of initial conditions information from source fire and its location to the firefighter or the community effectively and efficiently. The purpose of the research was the design of a prototype fire information system building based Google Map using lines of communication the GSM module. The prototype was built using the DHT11 temperature sensor, Sensor Smoke MQ2, Arduino Uno, GPS module and GSM modem SIM9000. The research produces information systems monitoring fires in two systems namely fire detection system and information systems fire location based Google Maps. Both systems have been run in accordance with experiments that have been conducted resulting in fire occurrence data location information with data on the condition of the presence of smoke and temperature/temperature. And expected with this prototype development research community or parties associated with catastrophic fires can be helped to anticipate disasters and takes a lot of sacrifice.Keywords: Early Warning Systems, Fire, GSM, Google Maps, Arduino a b s t r a kBencana kebakaran merupakan salah satu bencana yang kerap terjadi di Indonesia. Kebakaran sering kali terjadi khususnya di kawasan padat penduduk yang rata-rata dipengaruhi oleh adanya korslet listrik dan kebocoran gas dari dapur rumah tangga. banyak kasus kebakaran diketahui pada saat sudah terjadi kebakaran dan sedikit dapat dideteksi lebih awal. Berdasarkan sistem informasi berbasis masyarakat yang telah dilakukan saat ini, maka diperlukan sebuah sistem informasi bencana kebakaran yang dapat memberikan notifikasi dan informasi secara real-time dalam bentuk informasi dari awal kondisi sumber kebakaran dan lokasinya kepada pihak petugas pemadam kebakaran maupun masyarakat secara efektif dan efesien. Tujuan penelitian adalah perancangan prototipe sistem informasi kebakaran gedung berbasis Google Map dengan menggunakan jalur komunikasi modul GSM. Prototipe dibangun menggunakan sensor suhu DHT11, Sensor Asap MQ2, Arduino Uno, modul GPS dan modem GSM SIM9000. Penelitian menghasilkan sistem informasi monitoring kebakaran dalam dua sistem yaitu sistem deteksi kebakaran dan sistem informasi lokasi kebakaran yang berbasis Google Maps. Kedua sistem telah berjalan sesuai dengan percobaan yang telah dilakukan sehingga menghasilkan informasi data lokasi terjadinya kebakaran beserta data kondisi adanya asap dan suhu/temperatur. Dan diharapkan dengan penelitian pengembangan prototipe ini maka masyarakat atau pihak terkait dengan bencana kebakaran dapat terbantu untuk mengantisipasi bencana yang lebih besar dan memakan banyak korban.Kata Kunci:Sistem Peringatan Dini, Kebakaran, GSM, Google Maps, Arduino

AbstractThe quality of medical records describes the quality of health services provided. The return of the medical record file starts from the file being in the treatment room until the file is returned to the medical record unit. Incomplete and not immediately filled out medical resumes cause delays in returning medical records. Therefore, the return of the medical record system is quite important in the medical record unit. This study is a literature review, to see the causes of delays in returning medical records at hospitals in Indonesia. Sources of data come from published research literature, with a total of 18 research articles. Data collection was carried out from March to June 2020. The factor causing the delay in returning medical records was the highest due to the input component. From all journals, 100% of the delays in returning medical records were caused by the input component (Man, Money, Materials, Method, Machine) and 33.3% by the process component. Of the input components, 83.3% were caused by Man factors, 77.8% Method factors, 33.3% Materials factors, 27.8% Machine factors, and 5.5% Money factors. Each hospital must have a clear and firm policy in overcoming delays in returning medical records, with clear and firm policies, the causative factors such as Man, Money, Material, Method, Machine can be minimized and the accuracy of returning medical records can be maximized.Keywords: return, incompleteness, medical records, literature, reviewAbstrakMutu rekam medis menggambarkan mutu pelayanan kesehatan yang diselenggarakan. Pengembalian Rekam Medis dimulai dari berkas tersebut berada diruang rawat sampai berkas tersebut kembali ke unit rekam medis. Pengisian resume medis yang tidak lengkap dan tidak segara dilakukan menyebabkan keterlambatan pengembalian rekam medis. Maka dari itu, pengembalian rekam medis sistem yang cukup penting di unit rekam medis. Penelitian ini merupakan literature review, untuk melihat penyebab keterlambatan pengembalian rekam medis di Rumah Sakit di Indonesia. Sumber data berasal dari literatur hasil penelitian yang telah dipublikasikan, dengan jumlah artikel penelitian sebanyak 18 artikel. Pengambilan data dilakukan dari bulan Maret-Juni 2020. Faktor penyebab keterlambatan pengembalian rekam medis tertinggi disebabkan oleh komponen input. Dari semua jurnal sebanyak 100% keterlambatan pengembalian rekam medis disebabkan oleh komponen input (Man, Money, Materials, Methode, Machine) dan sebanyak 33,3% oleh komponen proses. Dari komponen input tersebut, sebanyak 83,3 % disebabkan oleh faktor Man, 77,8% faktor Methode, 33,3% faktor Materials, 27,8% faktor Machine, dan 5,5% faktor Money. Setiap rumah sakit harus memiki kebijakan yang jelas dan tegas dalam mengatasi keterlambatan Pengembalian Rekam Medis, dengan kebijakan yang jelas dan tegas, faktor penyebab seperti Man, Money, Material, Method, Machine dapat di minimalisir dan ketepatan Pengembalian Rekam Medis dapat dilakukan secara maksimal.Keywords: keterlambatan, pengembalian, rekam medis, literature review

Research background: Budgeting was developed during the Great Depression as a mana-gerial tool to help enterprises survive a critical period characterized by fluctuations in mac-roeconomic indicators. Now, after more than eighty years, budgeting is criticized for the same reason why it was created — for lack of adaptability to unexpected changes in the business environment. Based on these facts, the presented study focuses on the specifics of budgeting in the current business environment.Purpose of the article: The aim of the work is to explore selected aspects of budgeting process in Czech firms, and to assess how the budgetary process is influenced by the pro-gression of the business environment.Methods: To achieve presented target, the authors designed the questionnaire survey sub-mitted to employees of companies in the Czech Republic.Findings & Value added: The first part of this paper displays the state of knowledge on budgeting, the following part presents results of the survey. The study identified several trends, especially in the use of budgeting in Czech firms, characteristics of budgets in these subjects and evaluation of the sustainability of a company´s environment.

This paper tries to offer a historical perspective of higher cinema teaching in Spain, from its origins in the 40s to the present. The current map of official studies in film, courses, workshops, seminars, etc., in Spain is very complex. This is the reason why we offer a complete diagram of university subjects related to the cinema in higher education in all the autonomous regions. El artículo trata de ofrecer una perspectiva histórica de la enseñanza superior del cine en España, desde sus orígenes en los años cuarenta hasta la actualidad. Dada la complejidad del mapa actual de titulaciones, cursos, talleres y propuestas docentes sobre la cinematografía, se ofrece también un cuadro sinóptico bastante amplio de las asignaturas universitarias vinculadas al cine –al margen de las troncales de Comunicación Audiovisual– que se ofrecen en los centros de enseñanza superior de las distintas Comunidades Autónomas.

Manfaat warna dalam film mampu menciptakan look (nuansa) dan mood (suasana) serta memberikan bentuk tontonan baru terhadap masyarakat. Pancer dalam bahasa Jawa mempunyai arti jiwa, yang mana jiwa adalah unsur kelima pembentuk manusia. Dalam filosofi Jawa manusia terlahir dari 5 unsur yaitu "Kakang Kawah, Adhi Ari-Ari, Getih, Puser, Kang Limo Pancer". Pancer yang menjadi unsur terakhir inilah yang kemudian mampu menjadi jiwa dan terlahir sebagai manusia. Karya ini menitikberatkan pada teknis warnanya yang tidak konvensional untuk memunculkan pesan utama pada setiap proses hidup yang dialami manusia yaitu ingatan, perasaan, pikiran, dan kesadaran yang terjadi sepanjang hidup manusia Jawa. Film ini mencoba menjadi alternatif baru sebagai tontonan yang mengutamakan warna dan unsur visual sebagai pembawa pesan pada setiap adegannya.Warna yang digunakan dalam film merupakan warna dengan makna tertentu yang mampu menjelaskan filosofi Pancer. Warna tersebut mengambil dari struktur pohon kelapa gading yaitu : merah, kuning, putih, dan hitam. Kelapa gading dalam Jawa mempunyai filosofi semua bagian dari pohon kelapa mempunyai manfaat bagi kehidupan. Dalam teknis videografi warna dapat diciptakan melalui pencahayaan, artistik, properti dan kostum (tata busana). Color in the film is able to create the look and mood as well as giving a new shape to the public spectacle. Pancer in the Java language has meaning soul, which is the fifth element forming the soul of human. In Javanese philosophy humans are born of five elements, namely "Kakang Kawah, Adhi Ari-Ari, Getih, Puser, Kang Limo Pancer". Pancer who became the last element is then capable of being a soul and a human. This work focuses on the technical unconventional color to bring up the main message at every process of life that people experience are memories, feelings, thoughts, and consciousness that occurs throughout the life of Java man. This film tries to be a new alternative as a spectacle in which the color and visual elements as a messenger in every scene. Color used in the film is a color with a specific meaning that is able to explain the philosophy Pancer. The color take from the tree structure that ivory palm; red, yellow, white, and black. Kelapa Gading in Java has a philosophy all parts of the coconut tree has benefits for life. In technical videography colors can be created through lighting, artistic, props and costumes (fashion).

Perkembangan zaman yang semakin hari semakin berubah dan meluas hingga memberikan dampak yang sangat signifikan di kehidupan manusia. Dari berkembangnya zaman ini sudah pasti akan memberikan berbagai dampak baik itu negatif dan positif. Kritik mengenai zaman globalisasi ini salah satunya dilontarkan oleh seorang filsuf Jerman ternama dan juga seorang pemikir kiri baru yang bernama Herbert Marcuse. Perkembangan zaman yang membuat masyarakat saat ini berkiblat hanya pada satu dimensi saja yaitu kapitalisme. Kemudian dari kejadian ini lahirlah suatu budaya baru yang dinamakan budaya konsumerisme. Budaya konsumerisme ini adalah suatu paham atau ideologi yang dijadikan panutan oleh masyarakat modern dalam segi gaya hidupnya yang menganggap bahwa barang-barang yang mewah merupakan tolak ukur dari kebahagiaan, kesenangan, dan pemuas hasrat manusia. Kegemaran masyarakat pada era modern ini dalam hal berbelanja dan memenuhi kebutuhan menjadikan budaya ini menjadi budaya yang tidak hemat. Adapun yang dimaksud dengan masyarakat modern adalah masyarakat yang ditandai dengan berbagai teknologi yang mereka miliki. Masyarakat modern ini sangat mudah untuk diidentifikasi, semakin canggihnya teknologi yang mereka punya maka itulah yang disebut dengan masyarakat modernPenelitian ini dilakukan untuk lebih mengetahui mengenai masyarakat modern dan juga berbagai bentuk konsumerisme masyarakat modern dalam kajian Herbert Marcuse. Kecanggihan dari teknologi dan kemajuan dari globalisasi memang sangat memberikan dampak baik bagi kehidupan manusia, namun tidak menafikan juga terdapat dampak buruk yang sangat besar yang dialami oleh manusia. Maka dari itu dengan lebih dibahasnya permasalahan mengenai masyarakat modern dan konsumerisme ini, maka diharapkan dapat digunakan sebagai bahan referensi agar masyarakat tidak terbuai dengan berbagai efek negative yang diberikan oleh arus globalisasi.Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kualitatif deskriptif melalui studi pustaka. Studi pustaka merupakan metode dengan tahapan mengumpulkan berbagai data dan penelitian terdahulu guna menjawab permasalahan masyarakat modern dan bentuk konsumerisme masyarakat modern yang terjadi pada era globalisasi saat ini. Adapun berbagai sumber data yang digunakan berasal dari buku, artikel, jurnal, skripsi, atau bahkan dari film. Penelitian ini disusun dengan cara mendeskripsikan berbagai macam pengertian dan sumber yang ada kemudian dibahas serinci mungkin.Hasil penelitian ini kemudian menemukan bahwa perilaku masyarakat modern saat ini memang menjadi suatu perilaku yang sulit untuk dihindari. Mengingat semakin berkembangnya kemajuan teknologi membuat masyarakat terbuai dengan kenyamanan yang diberikan oleh zaman modern ini. Berbagai kebutuhan palsu dapat berubah menjadi kebutuhan pokok yang harus dipenuhi. Meningkatnya budaya baru yang disebut Budaya Konsumerisme merupakan suatu budaya yang dilahirkan dari kemajuan arus globalisasi. Masyarakat kemudian menjadi makhluk dengan tingkat refresif yang tinggi. Dalam bukunya One Dimensional Man, Herbert Marcuse dengan gamblang mengatakan bahwa masyarakat modern saat ini merupakan masyarakat berdimensi satu yang telah telah berkiblat pada satu budaya yaitu budaya konsumerisme.

No início deste século, o conflito entre as culturas percorre o mapa-múndi como um meridiano em chamas. Por um lado, esse conflito parece uma válvula de escape para antigos conflitos de classe e, por outro, manifesta-se nesse conflito um novo potencial destrutivo, que não pode ser explicado com o instrumental clássico das ciências sociais. O diálogo intepcultural se entende como um tom inter e transdisciplinar para a construção de um novo instrumental teórico e prático em favor da paz da humanidade que convive numa tensa vizinhança universal. Depois de refletir as condições fundamentais para o diálogo intercultural, o Autor propõe, inspirado por místicos como Nicolau de Cusa e Mestre Eckhart, o paradigma da "concomitância diferenciada e articulada que resgata o silêncio entre as palavras e o mistério no desencantamento, gumdando no kairós histórico a memória de toda a história e na parcialidade de cada cultura os anseios de todos.Abstract: As the century begins, the conflict between cultures travels over the world map like a meridian on fire. On the one hand, this conflict seems like an escape valve for the old class conflicts and, on the othel; it carries within a new destructive potential that cannot be explained with the help of the traditional instruments ofthe social sciences. The intercultural dialogue expands in theform ofan interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary forum that attempts to build new theoretical and practical instruments in favour of peacefor this mankind that coexists in such a tense universal community. Having reflected on the fundamental conditionsfor the intercultural dialogue, the Author, inspired by mystics such as Nicolau of Cusa and Master Eckhart, proposes the paradigm of "diffaentiated and articulated concomitance" that rescues the silence existing between words and the mystery in disenchantment, keeping in the historical reco'ds the memory of all history and in thepartiality ofeach cultuæ the hopes ofall cultures.

<p><strong><em>ABSTRAK</em></strong><strong><em>SI</em></strong><strong><em>:</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><em>Semenjak tahun 1957 hingga 2010, Malaysia telah membangunkan dasar dan angkatan pertahanan. Sejajar dengan kepentingan bagi sesebuah negara </em><em>dalam </em><em>menjaga dan melindungi keselamatan, Malaysia telah membangunkan DPN </em><em>(</em><em>Dasar Pertahana</em><em>n</em><em> Negara) dan memodenkan angkatan pertahanan semenjak tahun 1990. Kerajaan Malaysia juga turut menwar-warkan mengenai kemampuan dan keupayaan ATM </em><em>(</em><em>Angkatan Tentera Malaysia) untuk menjaga kedaulatan dan keselamatan negara. Walau bagaimanapun</em><em>,</em><em> DPN </em><em>mengenai </em><em>pertahanan yang dibentuk </em><em>telah </em><em>menimbulkan persoalan</em><em>,</em><em> </em><em>iaitu </em><em>sejauh mana kemampuan DPN </em><em>dapat </em><em>diamalkan. Ini kerana terdapat pelbagai masalah dan isu yang membabitkan pertahanan dan keselamatan</em><em>,</em><em> seperti serangan pengganas, keyakinan rakyat terhadap kemampuan ATM</em><em>,</em><em> dan sebagainya. Justeru, </em><em>kertas</em><em> ini menganalis</em><em>is</em><em> adakah DPN yang diamalkan oleh </em><em>negara </em><em>Malaysia </em><em>itu </em><em>kukuh</em><em> atau tidak</em><em>. </em><em>Akhir sekali, s</em><em>ebuah negara yang hidup dalam sistem antarabangsa yang bersifat anarki</em><em>,</em><em> </em><em>ianya </em><em>perlu menjadikan aspek pertahanan dan keselamatan sebagai self-reliance</em><em>,</em><em> kerana pergantungan kepada aktor bukan negara bukan satu jaminan. </em><em>Dapatan penyelidikan juga mencadangkan bahawa </em><em>DPN yang diamalkan oleh Malaysia perlu mengambilkira konsep pertahanan yang lebih komprehensif</em><em>,</em><em> kerana konsep ancaman sentiasa berkembang yang bukan hanya membabitkan aspek ancaman tradisional sahaja</em><em>,</em><em> sebaliknya membabit</em><em>kan</em><em> aspek bukan tradisional. Dengan kelemahan dan permasalahan ini</em><em>,</em><em> ia</em><em>nya</em><em> menunjukan</em><em> bahawa</em><em> DPN </em><em>di Malaysia </em><em>adalah </em><em>masih </em><em>lemah.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>KATA KUNCI</em></strong><em>: Dasar </em><em>p</em><em>ertahanan </em><em>n</em><em>egara, </em><em>k</em><em>eselamatan </em><em>n</em><em>egara, </em><em>a</em><em>ngkatan </em><em>t</em><em>entera Malaysia</em><em>,</em><em> memodenkan </em><em>tentera,</em><em> </em><em>dan </em><em>keyakinan rakyat</em><em>.</em><em> </em></p><p><strong><em>ABSTRACT</em></strong><em>: “</em><em>Malaysia National Defence Policy: Is </em><em>i</em><em>t </em><em>Firm</em><em>?</em><em>”. From</em><em> 1957 to 2010, Malaysia developed policy and defense forces. In line with the importance for a country to maintain and protect the security, Malaysia has developed a</em><em>n</em><em> NDP </em><em>(</em><em>National Defence Policy) and modernize</em><em>d</em><em> the defense forces since 1990. The Malaysian government has also talked about the ability and capability of the ATM </em><em>(</em><em>Mal</em><em>a</em><em>ysian Armed Forces) to protect the sovereignty and security </em><em>of the </em><em>countr</em><em>y</em><em>. However</em><em>,</em><em> the form</em><em>ation </em><em>of NDP has raised questions about </em><em>its </em><em>ability. This is because there are many problems and issues affecting defense and security</em><em>,</em><em> such as terrorist attacks, public confidence in the ability of ATM</em><em>,</em><em> and so on. Thus, this paper analyzes whether the NDP practiced by Malaysia is firm or not.</em><em> Finally, as country that lives in the anarchical international system, it is necessary to make defense and security aspects as self-reliance, for reliance on non-state actors is not a guarantee. The findings of the research also recommended that the NDP practiced by Malaysia should take a more comprehensive concept of defense, because the concept of threats is constantly evolving which does not only threatens the traditional aspects, but also the non-traditional ones. With these weaknesses and problems, it is concluded that the NDP in Malaysia is still weak.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>KEY</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em>WORD</em></strong><em>: National </em><em>d</em><em>efence </em><em>p</em><em>olicy, </em><em>n</em><em>ational </em><em>s</em><em>ecurity, Malaysian </em><em>a</em><em>rmed </em><em>f</em><em>orces</em><em>,</em><em> modernize</em><em>d</em><em> the forces</em><em>,</em><em> </em><em>and </em><em>public confidence</em><em>.</em></p><p><img src="/public/site/images/wirta/09.a_.faisol_.my_.ok_.jpg" alt="" /> <img src="/public/site/images/wirta/09.b_.pakeer_.my_.ok_.jpg" alt="" /> <img src="/public/site/images/wirta/09.c_.suhib_.my_.ok_.jpg" alt="" /></p><p><strong><em>About the Authors:</em></strong> <strong>Dr. Mohamad Faisol Keling</strong><strong> </strong>dan <strong>Md Shukri Suhib</strong><strong> </strong>ialah Pensyarah Kanan di College of Law, Government &amp; International Studies UUM (Universiti Utara Malaysia), Sintok, Kedah Darul Aman, Malaysia. <strong>Ahmad Shah Pakeer Mohamed</strong> ialah Pensyarah di Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies UiTM (Universiti Teknologi MARA [Majelis Amanah Rakyat]), Campus Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Alamat emel penulis: <a href="mailto:m.faisol@uum.edu.my">m.faisol@uum.edu.my</a> dan <a href="mailto:ahmadshah6767@gmail.com">ahmadshah6767@gmail.com</a></p><p><strong><em>How to cite this article?</em></strong> Keling, Mohamad Faisol, Ahmad Shah Pakeer Mohamed &amp; Md Shukri Suhib. (2016). “Dasar Pertahanan Negara Malaysia: Adakah ianya Kukuh?” in <em>MIMBAR PENDIDIKAN: Jurnal Indonesia untuk Kajian Pendidikan</em>, Vol.1(1) Maret, pp.101-122. Bandung, Indonesia: UPI Press. <strong></strong></p><p><em><strong><em>Chronicle of the article:</em></strong> </em>Accepted (February 9, 2015); Revised (February 19, 2016); and Published (March 11, 2016).<em><br /></em></p>

This article discusses that orbiting laboratories such as the International Space Station can provide unique environments for developing new medicines, industrial materials, and communications technology. They also may serve as stepping stones for more ambitious colonization projects, which will require humans to be self-sustaining on distant planets. Orbital Technologies Corp., or Orbitec, is a Madison, WI, research and development firm that is providing NASA with the advanced tools needed to grow plants in space and the finite element analysis know-how to make sure these tools can be safely transported. Astronauts will use the company’s new Biomass Production System to conduct biotechnology plant research and metabolic experiments on photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration on the middeck of the NASA Space Shuttle and rack facilities on the space station as well. Orbitec’s design features a double-locker enclosure, which more effectively optimizes the available volume over previous payloads. The double-locker design is twice the height of a single locker, enabling scientists to conduct more extensive and flexible experimentation with the possibility of one large, two tall, two wide, or four small chambers. In the future, Orbitec plans to design a larger, next-generation plant research unit for use on long-duration space station missions.

This article discusses about a requirement that aims to protect occupants from dangerous smoke concentrations and keep escape routes clear in a building that houses a restaurant in Zurich, Switzerland. It has to be ventilated with windows in the roof that open automatically in case of fire. For a substantial building, the difference between automated venting for one percent and two percent of a roof surface can represent tens of thousands of dollars. The AFC Air Flow Consulting hired by the restaurant uses computational fluid dynamics and visualization software to improve construction and product design before too much time or money is committed. The company has provided solutions for flow problems ranging from cold downdraft along facades to droplet dispersion. A field of growing interest for AFC is industrial engineering. The company optimizes the airflow to accommodate various parameters in technical parts, such as the airflow in a medical inhaler for homogeneous distribution of droplets, or the air intake device of a car ventilation system for water separation.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi obter o Zoneamento de Risco de Incêndio Florestal para o estado do Paraná (ZRIF-PR), considerando o efeito integrado da presença humana, cobertura vegetal, condições meteorológicas e características topográficas. Para esta análise utilizou-se um Sistema de Informações Geográficas. Foram preparados mapas de risco preliminares para cada uma das variáveis em estudo. Estes mapas foram sobrepostos, e o resultado deste cruzamento de informações resultou no ZRIF-PR. De acordo com o ZRIF-PR, 51,87% da área foi classificada como risco moderado e 30,16% como risco alto. Para a validação do ZRIF-PR, o mesmo foi comparado com o mapa de focos de calor e o mapa das ocorrências de incêndio registradas entre 1991 e 2001. O modelo de integração proposto é o mais indicado para gerar o ZRIF-PR porque emprega maior número de variáveis e foi elaborado a partir de condições ambientais similares às do Paraná. Abstract The objective of this research was develop a forest fire risk map through the integrated analysis of human presence, vegetation cover, meteorological variables, fuel moisture, elevation, slope gradient and aspect. For this analysis the Geographical Information System (GIS) was used. The forest risk map (ZRIF-PR) was the result from the superposition of the thematic maps. The fire risk map obtained showed that 51,8% of the area was under moderate risk and 30,16% under high risk.

This research aims at development of Participatory Evacuation Map Making (PEMM) for Kotagede, Yogyakarta – Indonesia. The research area is one of an important cultural heritage sites in Indonesia which is subjected towards earthquake hazard. The preliminary observation revealed that the area is a densely populated area, which characterized by dense wooden building structure, narrow street and minimum information of evacuation route which increase their vulnerability potentials. This leads to the idea of developing the PEMM to improve their awareness and preparedness during disaster events and creates sustainable condition for local livelihood security. The method develops within this research is actually a lesson learn from Ritsumeikan University, that has developed CSR for integration disaster management into heritage sites at Kyoto Prefecture. Their CSR covers several activities such as developing disaster information via vending machine and tourism map. Since Yogyakarta and Kyoto are engaged in “Sister City Development Program”, hereafter Universitas Gadjah Mada tries to do similar thing. Map making is an alternative prior to community experience in map making is rather frequent compare to vending machine habit. The preliminary finding of this research indicates that the Kotagede community has been involved in several map making activity, such as “Green Map” and “Rehabilitation Sites Map”. However, they have not yet any experience to create any map which includes information such as evacuation route, fire extinguisher, shelter information center and important meeting points. An improved critics from this research is to include meeting points level. As we all aware off, each meeting point have significant carrying capacity, thereby in the future a research on similar topics should add level and or category of meeting points. This is an important steppingstone for the research to conduct further research.

Visando contribuir para o Plano de Gestão (Manejo) da Floresta Nacional de Ipanema (FLONA), o presente trabalho objetivou espacializar sua vegetação natural potencial e realizar o mapeamento da vegetação e usos atuais das terras, oferecendo subsídios básicos para seu planejamento ambiental. Para tanto, foi elaborado um croqui, espacializando a vegetação potencial da FLONA, utilizando: as descrições da paisagem de viagens de naturalistas (Saint-Hilaire, Spix e Martius) ao Brasil, no século XIX; estudos mais recentes sobre a vegetação da FLONA e a caracterização edáfica da área apresentada pela Carta de Solos da Fazenda Ipanema (escala 1:10.000). Com base na interpretação de fotos aéreas (escala 1:25.000 – Terrafoto, 1972) e verificações de campo, organizou-se o mapa de Vegetação e Usos Atuais das Terras (na escala 1:35.000). Considerando-se os conceitos de clímax climático e clímaces edáficos concluiuse que a vegetação potencial da FLONA seria de Floresta Estacional Semidecidual com manchas das diversas fisionomias de cerrado, limitadas em seu desenvolvimento pela ação do fogo, que no passado teria causas naturais. The potential natural vegetation and current land use mapping of Ipanema National Forest, Iperó/SP: conservation and environmental management Abstract Aiming at contributing to the management plan of the Ipanema National Forest, the present research set out to make a map of the potential natural vegetation and land current usage, offering basic aid to environmental planning. Moreover, a sketch-map was prepared, the potential FLONA vegetation, by means of: details of naturalist’s trekking routes (Saint- Hilaire, Spix and Martius) in Brazil, in the nineteenth century; more recent studies of the FLONA vegetation; and the edaphic characterization of the area presented by the Soil Chart of Ipanema Farm (scale 1:10.000). Data were collected based on the interpretation of aerial photos (scale 1:25.000 – Terrafoto, 1972) and site inspections, as well as the map of Vegetation and the Current Usage of the Land (scale 1:35.000). Based on the concepts of climatic climax and edaphic climaxes it was concluded that FLONA potential vegetation would be a seasonal semi-deciduous forest with diverse semblances of scrub land, restricted in its development by fire acts, which in the past were natural causes.

Following the success of the film American Beauty, in 2000, the script writer and producer Alan Ball created the series Six feet under for HBO, the cable television channel. The awards, recognition and excellent reviews, as well as the national and international public response, have confered the series with a seal of unanimous approval. But, why is Six feet under a quality series? What do we mean by that? What are the basic features that explains such a great welcome throughout the world? Our purpose is to address these and other questions through the narrative analysis of the pilot program. First of all, the program welcomes its potential audience and introduces them to its most characteristic features. But, at the same time, it sets the distinctive traits of a serialized discourse with long-lasting prospects. As such, that first program is the prototype of the product's expressive personality and creates the genetic map that will guide its development before the public's watchful eye. For all those reasons, we feel we should reflect on the more outstanding narrative aspects of Six feet under's first program. In particular, we are proposing an analysis centered around the building of the dramatic tenor of the series, in the introduction of the characters, in the establishment of exclusive singularities, in the parameters of the story structure and in the introduction of the plot being developed continuously from the start and that will help to put together the narrative framework for the present season and even future ones – that's why they are known in some circles as horizontal plots -. Likewise, we will dwell on those aspects related with the subject matter at hand. We shall definitely try to untangle the reasons why Six feet under is considered as a clear show of quality television, with a blend of black humour and drama, of custom and fantasy, of the common and the strange. En el año 2000, y tras el éxito cosechado con el largometraje «American Beauty», el guionista y productor Alan Ball creó la serie A dos metros bajo tierra («Six feet under») para la cadena de televisión por cable HBO. Los premios, los reconocimientos y las excelentes críticas, así como la aceptación del público, tanto nacional como internacional, han otorgado al producto un sello de calidad generalmente admitido. Pero, ¿por qué es «A dos metros bajo tierra» una serie de calidad? ¿Qué entendemos por tal? ¿Cuáles son las cualidades básicas que explican su encomiable consideración en el panorama televisivo mundial? Nuestra comunicación pretende dar respuesta a estas y otras cuestiones a partir del análisis narrativo del capítulo piloto. Dicho capítulo, en primer lugar, da la bienvenida a los espectadores potenciales de la serie y los introduce en sus señas de identidad más características. Pero, complementariamente, fija los rasgos distintivos de un discurso serializado que tiene la vocación de prolongarse en el tiempo. Ese primer capítulo, por lo tanto, es prototípico de la personalidad expresiva del producto y fija el mapa genético que guiará su desarrollo ante la vigilante mirada del público. Por todos esos motivos, nos parece interesante reflexionar sobre los aspectos más sobresalientes establecidos en la primera entrega de «A dos metros bajo tierra». Concretamente, proponemos un análisis centrado en la construcción del tono dramático de la serie, en la presentación de los personajes, en el establecimiento de posibles franquicias– o singularidades exclusivas– , en la delimitación de las estructuras del relato y en la introducción de las tramas que serán desarrolladas a partir de ese momento de arranque y que –por eso son conocidas en algunos sectores como tramas horizontales– servirán para la articulación del esqueleto narrativo de la temporada de marras e incluso de las futuribles. De igual modo, nos detendremos en los aspectos relacionados con el ámbito temático del discurso propuesto. Intentaremos, en definitiva, desentrañar las razones que justifican que «A dos metros bajo tierra», con su matizada mezcla de humor negro y de drama, de costumbrismo crítico y fantasía, de cotidaneidad y extrañeza, sea tenida por una diáfana muestra de televisión de calidad.

Art Imitating ArtThis article discusses the global, historical and literary references that are present in the video game franchise Bayonetta. In particular, references to Dante’s Divine Comedy, the works of Dr John Dee, and European traditions of witchcraft are examined. Bayonetta is modern in the sense that she is a woman of the world. Her character shows how history and literature may be used, re-used, and evolve into new formats, and how modern games travel abroad through time and space.Drawing creative inspiration from other works is nothing new. Ideas and themes, art and literature are frequently borrowed and recast. Carmel Cedro cites Northrop Frye in the example of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. These writers created stories and characters that have developed a level of acclaim and resonated with many individuals, resulting in countless homages over the years. The forms that these appropriations take vary widely. Media formats, such as film adaptations and even books, take the core characters or narrative from the original and re-work them into a different context. For example, the novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1883 was adapted into the 2002 Walt Disney animated film Treasure Planet. The film maintained the concepts of the original narrative and retained key characters but re-imaged them to fit the science fiction genre (Clements and Musker).The video-game franchise Bayonetta draws inspiration from distinct sources creating the foundation for the universe and some plot points to enhance the narrative. The main sources are Dante’s Divine Comedy, the projections of John Dee and his mystical practices as well as the medieval history of witches.The Vestibule: The Concept of BayonettaFigure 1: Bayonetta Concept ArtBayonetta ConceptsThe concept of Bayonetta was originally developed by video game designer Hideki Kamiya, known previously for his work including The Devil May Cry and the Resident Evil game series. The development of Bayonetta began with Kamiya requesting a character design that included three traits: a female lead, a modern witch, and four guns. This description laid the foundations for what was to become the hack and slash fantasy heroine that would come to be known as Bayonetta. "Abandon all hope ye who enter here"The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri during the 1300s, was a revolutionary piece of literature for its time, in that it was one of the first texts that formalised the vernacular Italian language by omitting the use of Latin, the academic language of the time. Dante’s work was also revolutionary in its innovative contemplations on religion, art and sciences, creating a literary collage of such depth that it would continue to inspire hundreds of years after its first publication.Figure 2: Domenico di Michelino’s fresco of Dante and his Divine Comedy, surrounded by depictions of scenes in the textBayonetta explores the themes of The Divine Comedy in a variety of ways, using them as an obvious backdrop, along with subtle homages and references scattered throughout the game. The world of Bayonetta is set in the Trinity of Realities, three realms that co-exist forming the universe: Inferno, Paradiso and the Chaos realm—realm of humans—and connected by Purgitorio—the intersection of the trinity. In the game, Bayonetta travels throughout these realms, primarily in the realm of Purgitorio, the area in which magical and divine entities may conduct their business. However, there are stages within the game where Bayonetta finds herself in Paradiso and the human realm. This is a significant factor relating to The Divine Comedy as these realms also form the areas explored by Dante in his epic poem. The depth of these parallels is not exclusive to factors in Dante’s masterpiece, as there are also references to other art and literature inspired by Dante’s legacy. For example, the character Rodin in Bayonetta runs a bar named “The Gates of Hell.” In 1917 French artist Auguste Rodin completed a sculpture, The Gates of Hell depicting scenes and characters from The Divine Comedy. Rodin’s bar in Bayonetta is manifested as a dark impressionist style of architecture, with an ominous atmosphere. In early concept art, the proprietor of the bar was to be named Mephisto (Kamiya) derived from “Mephistopheles”, another name for the devil in some mythologies. Figure 3: Auguste Rodin's Gate of Hell, 1917Aspects of Dante’s surroundings and the theological beliefs of his time can be found in Bayonetta, as well as in the 2013 anime film adaptation Bayonetta, Bloody Fate. The Christian virtues, revered during the European Middle Ages, manifest themselves as enemies and adversaries that Bayonetta must combat throughout the game. Notably, the names of the cardinal virtues serve as “boss ranked” foes. Enemies within a game, usually present at the end of a level and more difficult to defeat than regular enemies within “Audito Sphere” of the “Laguna Hierarchy” (high levels of the hierarchy within the game), are named in Italian; Fortitudo, Temperantia, Lustitia, and Sapientia. These are the virtues of Classical Greek Philosophy, and reflect Dante’s native language as well as the impact the philosophies of Ancient Greece had on his writings. The film adaption of Bayonetta incorporated many elements from the game. To adjust the game effectively, it was necessary to augment the plot in order to fit the format of this alternate media. As it was no longer carried by gameplay, the narrative became paramount. The diverse plot points of the new narrative allowed for novel possibilities for further developing the role of The Divine Comedy in Bayonetta. At the beginning of the movie, for example, Bayonetta enters as a nun, just as she does in the game, only here she is in church praying rather than in a graveyard conducting a funeral. During her prayer she recites “I am the way into the city of woe, abandon all hope, oh, ye who enter here,” which is a Canto of The Divine Comedy. John Dee and the AngelsDr John Dee (1527—1608), a learned man of Elizabethan England, was a celebrated philosopher, mathematician, scientist, historian, and teacher. In addition, he was a researcher of magic and occult arts, as were many of his contemporaries. These philosopher magicians were described as Magi and John Dee was the first English Magus (French). He was part of a school of study within the Renaissance intelligensia that was influenced by the then recently discovered works of the gnostic Hermes Trismegistus, thought to be of great antiquity. This was in an age when religion, philosophy and science were intertwined. Alchemy and chemistry were still one, and astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler and Tyco Brahe cast horoscopes. John Dee engaged in spiritual experiments that were based in his Christian faith but caused him to be viewed in some circles as dangerously heretical (French).Based on the texts of Hermes Trismegistas and other later Christian philosophical and theological writers such as Dionysius the Areopagite, Dee and his contemporaries believed in celestial hierarchies and levels of existence. These celestial hierarchies could be accessed by “real artificial magic,” or applied science, that included mathematics, and the cabala, or the mystical use of permutations of Hebrew texts, to access supercelestial powers (French). In his experiments in religious magic, Dee was influenced by the occult writings of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486—1535). In Agrippa’s book, De Occulta Philosophia, there are descriptions for seals, symbols and tables for summoning angels, to which Dee referred in his accounts of his own magic experiments (French). Following his studies, Dee constructed a table with a crystal placed on it. By use of suitable rituals prescribed by Agrippa and others, Dee believed he summoned angels within the crystal, who could be seen and conversed with. Dee did not see these visions himself, but conversed with the angels through a skryer, or medium, who saw and heard the celestial beings. Dee recorded his interviews in his “Spiritual Diaries” (French). Throughout Bayonetta there are numerous seals and devices that would appear to be inspired by the work of Dee or other Renaissance Magi.In these sessions, John Dee, through his skryer Edward Kelley, received instruction from several angels. The angels led him to believe he was to be a prophet in the style of the biblical Elijah or, more specifically like Enoch, whose prophesies were detailed in an ancient book that was not part of the Bible, but was considered by many scholars as divinely inspired. As a result, these experiments have been termed “Enochian conversations.” The prophesies received by Dee foretold apocalyptic events that were to occur soon and God’s plan for the world. The angels also instructed Dee in a system of magic to allow him to interpret the prophesies and participate in them as a form of judge. Importantly, Dee was also taught elements of the supposed angelic language, which came to be known as “Enochian” (Ouellette). Dee wrote extensively about his interviews with the angels and includes statements of their hierarchy (French, Ouellette). This is reflected in the “Laguna Hierarchy” of Bayonetta, sharing similarities in name and appearance of the angels Dee had described. Platinum Games creative director Jean-Pierre Kellams acted as writer and liaison, assisting the English adaptation of Bayonetta and was tasked by Hideki Kamiya to develop Bayonetta’s incantations and subsequently the language of the angels within the game (Kellams).The Hammer of WitchesOne of the earliest and most integral components of the Bayonetta franchise is the fact that the title character is a witch. Witches, sorcerers and other practitioners of magic have been part of folklore for centuries. Hideki Kamiya stated that the concept of” classical witches” was primarily a European legend. In order to emulate this European dimension, he had envisioned Bayonetta as having a British accent which resulted in the game being released in English first, even though Platinum Games is a Japanese company (Kamiya). The Umbra Witch Clan hails from Europe within the Bayonetta Universe and relates more closely to the traditional European medieval witch tradition (Various), although some of the charms Bayonetta possesses acknowledge the witches of different parts of the world and their cultural context. The Evil Harvest Rosary is said to have been created by a Japanese witch in the game. Bayonetta herself and other witches of the game use their hair as a conduit to summon demons and is known as “wicked weaves” within the game. She also creates her tight body suit out of her hair, which recedes when she decides to use a wicked weave. Using hair in magic harks back to a legend that witches often utilised hair in their rituals and spell casting (Guiley). It is also said that women with long and beautiful hair were particularly susceptible to being seduced by Incubi, a form of demon that targets sleeping women for sexual intercourse. According to some texts (Kramer), witches formed into the beings that they are through consensual sex with a devil, as stated in Malleus Maleficarum of the 1400s, when he wrote that “Modern Witches … willingly embrace this most foul and miserable form of servitude” (Kramer). Bayonetta wields her sexuality as proficiently as she does any weapon. This lends itself to the belief that women of such a seductive demeanour were consorts to demons.Purgitorio is not used in the traditional sense of being a location of the afterlife, as seen in The Divine Comedy, rather it is depicted as a dimension that exists concurrently within the human realm. Those who exist within this Purgitorio cannot be seen with human eyes. Bayonetta’s ability to enter and exit this space with the use of magic is likened to the myth that witches were known to disappear for periods of time and were purported to be “spirited away” from the human world (Kamiya).Recipes for gun powder emerge from as early as the 1200s but, to avoid charges of witchcraft due to superstitions of the time, they were hidden by inventors such as Roger Bacon (McNab). The use of “Bullet Arts” in Bayonetta as the main form of combat for Umbra Witches, and the fact that these firearm techniques had been honed by witches for centuries before the witch hunts, implies that firearms were indeed used by dark magic practitioners until their “discovery” by ordinary humans in the Bayonetta universe. In addition to this, that “Lumen Sages” are not seen to practice bullet arts, builds on the idea of guns being a practice of black magic. “Lumen Sages” are the Light counterpart and adversaries of the Umbra Witches in Bayonetta. The art of Alchemy is incorporated into Bayonetta as a form of witchcraft. Players may create their own health, vitality, protective and mana potions through a menu screen. This plays on the taboo of chemistry and alchemy of the 1500s. As mentioned, John Dee's tendency to dabble in such practices was considered by some to be heretical (French, Ouellette).Light and dark forces are juxtaposed in Bayonetta through the classic adversaries, Angels and Demons. The moral flexibility of both the light and dark entities in the game leaves the principles of good an evil in a state of ambiguity, which allows for uninhibited flow in the story and creates a non-linear and compelling narrative. Through this non-compliance with the pop culture counterparts of light and dark, gamers are left to question the foundations of old cultural norms. This historical context lends itself to the Bayonetta story not only by providing additional plot points, but also by justifying the development decisions that occur in order to truly flesh out Bayonetta’s character.ConclusionCompelling story line, characters with layered personality, and the ability to transgress boundaries of time and travel are all factors that provide a level of depth that has become an increasingly important aspect in modern video gameplay. Gamers love “Easter eggs,” the subtle references and embellishments scattered throughout a game that make playing games like Bayonetta so enjoyable. Bayonetta herself is a global traveller whose journeying is not limited to “abroad.” She transgresses cultural, time, and spatial boundaries. The game is a mosaic of references to spatial time dimensions, literary, and historical sources. This mix of borrowings has produced an original gameplay and a unique storyline. Such use of literature, mythology, and history to enhance the narrative creates a quest game that provides “meaningful play” (Howard). This process of creation of new material from older sources is a form of renewal. As long as contemporary culture presents literature and history to new audiences, the older texts will not be forgotten, but these elements will undergo a form of renewal and restoration and the present-day culture will be enhanced as a result. In the words of Bayonetta herself: “As long as there’s music, I’ll keep on dancing.”ReferencesCedro, Carmel. "Dolly Varden: Sweet Inspiration." Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2.1 (2012): 37-46. French, Peter J. John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus. London: London, Routledge and K. Paul, 1972. Guiley, Rosemary. The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. Infobase Publishing, 2009. Howard, Jeff. Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives. Wellesley, Mass.: A.K. Peters, 2008. Kamiya, Hideki.Bayonetta. Bayonetta. Videogame. Sega, Japan, 2009.Kellams, Jean-Pierre. "Butmoni Coronzon (from the Mouth of the Witch)." Platinum Games 2009.Kramer, Heinrich. The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. Eds. Sprenger, Jakob, or joint author, and Montague Summers. New York: Dover, 1971.McNab, C. Firearms: The Illustrated Guide to Small Arms of the World. Parragon, 2008.Ouellette, Francois. "Prophet to the Elohim: John Dee's Enochian Conversations as Christian Apocalyptic Discourse." Master of Arts thesis. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2004.Treasure Planet. The Walt Disney Company, 2003.Various. "Bayonetta Wikia." 2016.

Introduction One of the ways in which ‘country’ is made to work discursively is in ‘country music’ – defining a genre and sensibility in music production, marketing and consumption. This article seeks to excavate one small niche in the historical geography of country music to explore exactly how discursive antecedents emerged, and crucially, how images associated with ‘country’ surfaced and travelled internationally via one of the new ‘global’ media of the first half of the twentieth century – sheet music. My central arguments are twofold: first, that alongside aural qualities and lyrical content, the visual elements of sheet music were important and thus far have been under-acknowledged. Sheet music diffused the imagery connecting ‘country’ to music, to particular landscapes, and masculinities. In the literature on country music much emphasis has been placed on film, radio and television (Tichi; Peterson). Yet, sheet music was for several decades the most common way people bought personal copies of songs they liked and intended to play at home on piano, guitar or ukulele. This was particularly the case in Australia – geographically distant, and rarely included in international tours by American country music stars. Sheet music is thus a rich text to reveal the historical contours of ‘country’. My second and related argument is that that the possibilities for the globalising of ‘country’ were first explored in music. The idea of transnational discourses associated with ‘country’ and ‘rurality’ is relatively new (Cloke et al; Gorman-Murray et al; McCarthy), but in music we see early evidence of a globalising discourse of ‘country’ well ahead of the time period usually analysed. Accordingly, my focus is on the sheet music of country songs in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century and on how visual representations hybridised travelling themes to create a new vernacular ‘country’ in Australia. Creating ‘Country’ Music Country music, as its name suggests, is perceived as the music of rural areas, “defined in contrast to metropolitan norms” (Smith 301). However, the ‘naturalness’ of associations between country music and rurality belies a history of urban capitalism and the refinement of deliberate methods of marketing music through associated visual imagery. Early groups wore suits and dressed for urban audiences – but then altered appearances later, on the insistence of urban record companies, to emphasise rurality and cowboy heritage. Post-1950, ‘country’ came to replace ‘folk’ music as a marketing label, as the latter was considered to have too many communistic references (Hemphill 5), and the ethnic mixing of earlier folk styles was conveniently forgotten in the marketing of ‘country’ music as distinct from African American ‘race’ and ‘r and b’ music. Now an industry of its own with multinational headquarters in Nashville, country music is a ‘cash cow’ for entertainment corporations, with lower average production costs, considerable profit margins, and marketing advantages that stem from tropes of working class identity and ‘rural’ honesty (see Lewis; Arango). Another of country music’s associations is with American geography – and an imagined heartland in the colonial frontier of the American West. Slippages between ‘country’ and ‘western’ in music, film and dress enhance this. But historical fictions are masked: ‘purists’ argue that western dress and music have nothing to do with ‘country’ (see truewesternmusic.com), while recognition of the Spanish-Mexican, Native American and Hawaiian origins of ‘cowboy’ mythology is meagre (George-Warren and Freedman). Similarly, the highly international diffusion and adaptation of country music as it rose to prominence in the 1940s is frequently downplayed (Connell and Gibson), as are the destructive elements of colonialism and dispossession of indigenous peoples in frontier America (though Johnny Cash’s 1964 album The Ballads Of The American Indian: Bitter Tears was an exception). Adding to the above is the way ‘country’ operates discursively in music as a means to construct particular masculinities. Again, linked to rural imagery and the American frontier, the dominant masculinity is of rugged men wrestling nature, negotiating hardships and the pressures of family life. Country music valorises ‘heroic masculinities’ (Holt and Thompson), with echoes of earlier cowboy identities reverberating into contemporary performance through dress style, lyrical content and marketing imagery. The men of country music mythology live an isolated existence, working hard to earn an income for dependent families. Their music speaks to the triumph of hard work, honest values (meaning in this context a musical style, and lyrical concerns that are ‘down to earth’, ‘straightforward’ and ‘without pretence’) and physical strength, in spite of neglect from national governments and uncaring urban leaders. Country music has often come to be associated with conservative politics, heteronormativity, and whiteness (Gibson and Davidson), echoing the wider politics of ‘country’ – it is no coincidence, for example, that the slogan for the 2008 Republican National Convention in America was ‘country first’. And yet, throughout its history, country music has also enabled more diverse gender performances to emerge – from those emphasising (or bemoaning) domesticity; assertive femininity; creative negotiation of ‘country’ norms by gay men; and ‘alternative’ culture (captured in the marketing tag, ‘alt.country’); to those acknowledging white male victimhood, criminality (‘the outlaw’), vulnerability and cruelty (see Johnson; McCusker and Pecknold; Saucier). Despite dominant tropes of ‘honesty’, country music is far from transparent, standing for certain values and identities, and yet enabling the construction of diverse and contradictory others. Historical analysis is therefore required to trace the emergence of ‘country’ in music, as it travelled beyond America. A Note on Sheet Music as Media Source Sheet music was one of the main modes of distribution of music from the 1930s through to the 1950s – a formative period in which an eclectic group of otherwise distinct ‘hillbilly’ and ‘folk’ styles moved into a single genre identity, and after which vinyl singles and LP records with picture covers dominated. Sheet music was prevalent in everyday life: beyond radio, a hit song was one that was widely purchased as sheet music, while pianos and sheet music collections (stored in a piece of furniture called a ‘music canterbury’) in family homes were commonplace. Sheet music is in many respects preferable to recorded music as a form of evidence for historical analysis of country music. Picture LP covers did not arrive until the late 1950s (by which time rock and roll had surpassed country music). Until then, 78 rpm shellac discs, the main form of pre-recorded music, featured generic brown paper sleeves from the individual record companies, or city retail stores. Also, while radio was clearly central to the consumption of music in this period, it obviously also lacked the pictorial element that sheet music could provide. Sheet music bridged the music and printing industries – the latter already well-equipped with colour printing, graphic design and marketing tools. Sheet music was often literally crammed with information, providing the researcher with musical notation, lyrics, cover art and embedded advertisements – aural and visual texts combined. These multiple dimensions of sheet music proved useful here, for clues to the context of the music/media industries and geography of distribution (for instance, in addresses for publishers and sheet music retail shops). Moreover, most sheet music of the time used rich, sometimes exaggerated, images to convince passing shoppers to buy songs that they had possibly never heard. As sheet music required caricature rather than detail or historical accuracy, it enabled fantasy without distraction. In terms of representations of ‘country’, then, sheet music is perhaps even more evocative than film or television. Hundreds of sheet music items were collected for this research over several years, through deliberate searching (for instance, in library archives and specialist sheet music stores) and with some serendipity (for instance, when buying second hand sheet music in charity shops or garage sales). The collected material is probably not representative of all music available at the time – it is as much a specialised personal collection as a comprehensive survey. However, at least some material from all the major Australian country music performers of the time were found, and the resulting collection appears to be several times larger than that held currently by the National Library of Australia (from which some entries were sourced). All examples here are of songs written by, or cover art designed for Australian country music performers. For brevity’s sake, the following analysis of the sheet music follows a crudely chronological framework. Country Music in Australia Before ‘Country’ Country music did not ‘arrive’ in Australia from America as a fully-finished genre category; nor was Australia at the time without rural mythology or its own folk music traditions. Associations between Australian national identity, rurality and popular culture were entrenched in a period of intense creativity and renewed national pride in the decades prior to and after Federation in 1901. This period saw an outpouring of art, poetry, music and writing in new nationalist idiom, rooted in ‘the bush’ (though drawing heavily on Celtic expressions), and celebrating themes of mateship, rural adversity and ‘battlers’. By the turn of the twentieth century, such myths, invoked through memory and nostalgia, had already been popularised. Australia had a fully-established system of colonies, capital cities and state governments, and was highly urbanised. Yet the poetry, folk music and art, invariably set in rural locales, looked back to the early 1800s, romanticising bush characters and frontier events. The ‘bush ballad’ was a central and recurring motif, one that commentators have argued was distinctly, and essentially ‘Australian’ (Watson; Smith). Sheet music from this early period reflects the nationalistic, bush-orientated popular culture of the time: iconic Australian fauna and flora are prominent, and Australian folk culture is emphasised as ‘native’ (being the first era of cultural expressions from Australian-born residents). Pioneer life and achievements are celebrated. ‘Along the road to Gundagai’, for instance, was about an iconic Australian country town and depicted sheep droving along rustic trails with overhanging eucalypts. Male figures are either absent, or are depicted in situ as lone drovers in the archetypal ‘shepherd’ image, behind their flocks of sheep (Figure 1). Figure 1: No. 1 Magpie Ballads – The Pioneer (c1900) and Along the road to Gundagai (1923). Further colonial ruralities developed in Australia from the 1910s to 1940s, when agrarian values grew in the promotion of Australian agricultural exports. Australia ‘rode on the sheep’s back’ to industrialisation, and governments promoted rural development and inland migration. It was a period in which rural lifestyles were seen as superior to those in the crowded inner city, and government strategies sought to create a landed proletariat through post-war land settlement and farm allotment schemes. National security was said to rely on populating the inland with those of European descent, developing rural industries, and breeding a healthier and yet compliant population (Dufty), from which armies of war-ready men could be recruited in times of conflict. Popular culture served these national interests, and thus during these decades, when ‘hillbilly’ and other North American music forms were imported, they were transformed, adapted and reworked (as in other places such as Canada – see Lehr). There were definite parallels in the frontier narratives of the United States (Whiteoak), and several local adaptations followed: Tex Morton became Australia’s ‘Yodelling boundary rider’ and Gordon Parsons became ‘Australia’s yodelling bushman’. American songs were re-recorded and performed, and new original songs written with Australian lyrics, titles and themes. Visual imagery in sheet music built upon earlier folk/bush frontier themes to re-cast Australian pastoralism in a more settled, modernist and nationalist aesthetic; farms were places for the production of a robust nation. Where male figures were present on sheet music covers in the early twentieth century, they became more prominent in this period, and wore Akubras (Figure 2). The lyrics to John Ashe’s Growin’ the Golden Fleece (1952) exemplify this mix of Australian frontier imagery, new pastoralist/nationalist rhetoric, and the importation of American cowboy masculinity: Go west and take up sheep, man, North Queensland is the shot But if you don’t get rich, man, you’re sure to get dry rot Oh! Growin’ the golden fleece, battlin’ a-way out west Is bound to break your flamin’ heart, or else expand your chest… We westerners are handy, we can’t afford to crack Not while the whole darn’d country is riding on our back Figure 2: Eric Tutin’s Shearers’ Jamboree (1946). As in America, country music struck a chord because it emerged “at a point in history when the project of the creation and settlement of a new society was underway but had been neither completed nor abandoned” (Dyer 33). Governments pressed on with the colonial project of inland expansion in Australia, despite the theft of indigenous country this entailed, and popular culture such as music became a means to normalise and naturalise the process. Again, mutations of American western imagery, and particular iconic male figures were important, as in Roy Darling’s (1945) Overlander Trail (Figure 3): Wagon wheels are rolling on, and the days seem mighty long Clouds of heat-dust in the air, bawling cattle everywhere They’re on the overlander trail Where only sheer determination will prevail Men of Aussie with a job to do, they’ll stick and drive the cattle through And though they sweat they know they surely must Keep on the trail that winds a-head thro’ heat and dust All sons of Aussie and they will not fail. Sheet music depicted silhouetted men in cowboy hats on horses (either riding solo or in small groups), riding into sunsets or before looming mountain ranges. Music – an important part of popular culture in the 1940s – furthered the colonial project of invading, securing and transforming the Australian interior by normalising its agendas and providing it with heroic male characters, stirring tales and catchy tunes. Figure 3: ‘Roy Darling’s (1945) Overlander Trail and Smoky Dawson’s The Overlander’s Song (1946). ‘Country Music’ Becomes a (Globalised) Genre Further growth in Australian country music followed waves of popularity in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, and was heavily influenced by new cross-media publicity opportunities. Radio shows expanded, and western TV shows such as Bonanza and On the Range fuelled a ‘golden age’. Australian performers such as Slim Dusty and Smokey Dawson rose to fame (see Fitzgerald and Hayward) in an era when rural-urban migration peaked. Sheet music reflected the further diffusion and adoption of American visual imagery: where male figures were present on sheet music covers, they became more prominent than before and wore Stetsons. Some were depicted as chiselled-faced but simple men, with plain clothing and square jaws. Others began to more enthusiastically embrace cowboy looks, with bandana neckerchiefs, rawhide waistcoats, embellished and harnessed tall shaft boots, pipe-edged western shirts with wide collars, smile pockets, snap fasteners and shotgun cuffs, and fringed leather jackets (Figure 4). Landscapes altered further too: cacti replaced eucalypts, and iconic ‘western’ imagery of dusty towns, deserts, mesas and buttes appeared (Figure 5). Any semblance of folk music’s appeal to rustic authenticity was jettisoned in favour of showmanship, as cowboy personas were constructed to maximise cinematic appeal. Figure 4: Al Dexter’s Pistol Packin’ Mama (1943) and Reg Lindsay’s (1954) Country and Western Song Album. Figure 5: Tim McNamara’s Hitching Post (1948) and Smoky Dawson’s Golden West Album (1951). Far from slavish mimicry of American culture, however, hybridisations were common. According to Australian music historian Graeme Smith (300): “Australian place names appear, seeking the same mythological resonance that American localisation evoked: hobos became bagmen […] cowboys become boundary riders.” Thus alongside reproductions of the musical notations of American songs by Lefty Frizzel, Roy Carter and Jimmie Rodgers were songs with localised themes by new Australian stars such as Reg Lindsay and Smoky Dawson: My curlyheaded buckaroo, My home way out back, and On the Murray Valley. On the cover of The square dance by the billabong (Figure 6) – the title of which itself was a conjunction of archetypal ‘country’ images from both America and Australia – a background of eucalypts and windmills frames dancers in classic 1940s western (American) garb. In the case of Tex Morton’s Beautiful Queensland (Figure 7), itself mutated from W. Lee O’Daniel’s Beautiful Texas (c1945), the sheet music instructed those playing the music that the ‘names of other states may be substituted for Queensland’. ‘Country’ music had become an established genre, with normative values, standardised images and themes and yet constituted a stylistic formula with enough polysemy to enable local adaptations and variations. Figure 6: The Square dance by the billabong, Vernon Lisle, 1951. Figure 7: Beautiful Queensland, Tex Morton, c1945 source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-vn1793930. Conclusions In country music images of place and masculinity combine. In music, frontier landscapes are populated by rugged men living ‘on the range’ in neo-colonial attempts to tame the land and convert it to productive uses. This article has considered only one media – sheet music – in only one country (Australia) and in only one time period (1900-1950s). There is much more to say than was possible here about country music, place and gender – particularly recently, since ‘country’ has fragmented into several niches, and marketing of country music via cable television and the internet has ensued (see McCusker and Pecknold). My purpose here has been instead to explore the early origins of ‘country’ mythology in popular culture, through a media source rarely analysed. Images associated with ‘country’ travelled internationally via sheet music, immensely popular in the 1930s and 1940s before the advent of television. The visual elements of sheet music contributed to the popularisation and standardisation of genre expectations and appearances, and yet these too travelled and were adapted and varied in places like Australia which had their own colonial histories and folk music heritages. Evidenced here is how combinations of geographical and gender imagery embraced imported American cowboy imagery and adapted it to local markets and concerns. Australia saw itself as a modern rural utopia with export aspirations and a desire to secure permanence through taming and populating its inland. Sheet music reflected all this. So too, sheet music reveals the historical contours of ‘country’ as a transnational discourse – and the extent to which ‘country’ brought with it a clearly defined set of normative values, a somewhat exaggerated cowboy masculinity, and a remarkable capacity to be moulded to local circumstances. Well before later and more supposedly ‘global’ media such as the internet and television, the humble printed sheet of notated music was steadily shaping ‘country’ imagery, and an emergent international geography of cultural flows. References Arango, Tim. “Cashville USA.” Fortune, Jan 29, 2007. Sept 3, 2008, http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/01/22/8397980/index.htm. Cloke, Paul, Marsden, Terry and Mooney, Patrick, eds. Handbook of Rural Studies, London: Sage, 2006. Connell, John and Gibson, Chris. Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place, London: Routledge, 2003. Dufty, Rae. Rethinking the politics of distribution: the geographies and governmentalities of housing assistance in rural New South Wales, Australia, PhD thesis, UNSW, 2008. Dyer, Richard. White: Essays on Race and Culture, London: Routledge, 1997. George-Warren, Holly and Freedman, Michelle. How the West was Worn: a History of Western Wear, New York: Abrams, 2000. Fitzgerald, Jon and Hayward, Phil. “At the confluence: Slim Dusty and Australian country music.” Outback and Urban: Australian Country Music. Ed. Phil Hayward. Gympie: Australian Institute of Country Music Press, 2003. 29-54. Gibson, Chris and Davidson, Deborah. “Tamworth, Australia’s ‘country music capital’: place marketing, rural narratives and resident reactions.” Journal of Rural Studies 20 (2004): 387-404. Gorman-Murray, Andrew, Darian-Smith, Kate and Gibson, Chris. “Scaling the rural: reflections on rural cultural studies.” Australian Humanities Review 45 (2008): in press. Hemphill, Paul. The Nashville Sound: Bright Lights and Country Music, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970. Holt, Douglas B. and Thompson, Craig J. “Man-of-action heroes: the pursuit of heroic masculinity in everyday consumption.” Journal of Consumer Research 31 (2004). Johnson, Corey W. “‘The first step is the two-step’: hegemonic masculinity and dancing in a country western gay bar.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 18 (2004): 445-464. Lehr, John C. “‘Texas (When I die)’: national identity and images of place in Canadian country music broadcasts.” The Canadian Geographer 27 (1983): 361-370. Lewis, George H. “Lap dancer or hillbilly deluxe? The cultural construction of modern country music.” Journal of Popular Culture, 31 (1997): 163-173. McCarthy, James. “Rural geography: globalizing the countryside.” Progress in Human Geography 32 (2008): 132-137. McCusker, Kristine M. and Pecknold, Diane. Eds. A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music. UP of Mississippi, 2004. Peterson, Richard A. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1997. Saucier, Karen A. “Healers and heartbreakers: images of women and men in country music.” Journal of Popular Culture 20 (1986): 147-166. Smith, Graeme. “Australian country music and the hillbilly yodel.” Popular Music 13 (1994): 297-311. Tichi, Cecelia. Readin’ Country Music. Durham: Duke UP, 1998. truewesternmusic.com “True western music.”, Sept 3, 2008, http://truewesternmusic.com/. Watson, Eric. Country Music in Australia. Sydney: Rodeo Publications, 1984. Whiteoak, John. “Two frontiers: early cowboy music and Australian popular culture.” Outback and Urban: Australian Country Music. Ed. P. Hayward. Gympie: AICMP: 2003. 1-28.

Cyborgs already walk among us. (“Cures to Come” 76) This essay was begun as a reaction to a Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie called Sweet Nothing in My Ear (2008), which follows the lives of two parents, Dan, who is hearing (played by Jeff Daniels), and Laura, who is deaf (Marlee Matlin), as they struggle to make a decision about whether or not to give their 11-year-old son, Adam (late-deafened), a cochlear implant. Dan and Laura represent different perspectives, hearing and deaf perspectives. The film dramatizes the parents’ conflict and negotiation, exposing audiences to both sides of the cochlear implant debate, albeit in a fairly simplistic way. Nevertheless, it represents the lives of deaf people and gives voice to debates about cochlear implants with more accuracy and detail than most film and television dramas. One of the central scenes in the film is what I call the “activation scene”, quite common to cochlear implant narratives. In the scene, the protagonists witness a child having his implant activated or turned on. The depiction is reminiscent of the WATER scene in the film about Helen Keller, The Miracle Worker, employing a sentimental visual rhetoric. First, the two parents are shown seated near the child, clasping their hands as if in prayer. The audiologist, wielder of technology and therefore clearly the authority figure in the scene, types away furiously on her laptop. At the moment of being “turned on,” the child suddenly “hears” his father calling “David! David!” He gazes angelically toward heaven as piano music plays plaintively in the background. The parents all but fall to their knees and the protagonist of the film, Dan, watching through a window, weeps. It is a scene of cure, of healing, of “miracle,” a hyper-sentimentalised portrait of what is in reality often a rather anti-climactic event. It was certainly anti-climactic in my son, Michael’s case. I was taken aback by how this scene was presented and dismayed overall at some of the inaccuracies, small though they were, in the portrayal of cochlear implants in this film. It was, after all, according to the Nielsen ratings, seen by 8 million people. I began to wonder what kinds of misconceptions my son was going to face when he met people whose only exposure to implants was through media representations. Spurred by this question, I started to research other recent portrayals of people with implants on U.S. television in the past ten years, to see how cochlear implant (hereafter referred to as CI) identity has been portrayed by American media. For most of American history, deaf people have been portrayed in print and visual media as exotic “others,” and have long been the subject of an almost morbid cultural fascination. Christopher Krentz suggests that, particularly in the nineteenth century, scenes pairing sentimentality and deafness repressed an innate, Kristevan “abject” revulsion towards deaf people. Those who are deaf highlight and define, through their ‘lack’, the “unmarked” body. The fact of their deafness, understood as lack, conjures up an ideal that it does not attain, the ideal of the so-called “normal” or “whole” body. In recent years, however, the figure of the “deaf as Other” in the media, has shifted from what might be termed the “traditionally” deaf character, to what Brenda Jo Brueggeman (in her recent book Deaf Subjects: Between Identities and Places), calls “the new deaf cyborg” or the deaf person with a cochlear implant (4). N. Katharine Hailes states that cyborgs are now “the stage on which are performed contestations about the body boundaries that have often marked class, ethnic, and cultural differences” (85). In this essay, I claim that the character with a CI, as portrayed in the media, is now not only a strange, “marked” “Other,” but is also a screen upon which viewers project anxieties about technology, demonstrating both fascination fear. In her book, Brueggeman issues a call to action, saying that Deaf Studies must now begin to examine what she calls “implanting rhetorics,” or “the rhetorical relationships between our technologies and our identity” and therefore needs to attend to the construction of “the new deaf cyborg” (18). This short study will serve, I hope, as both a response to that injunction and as a jumping-off point for more in-depth studies of the construction of the CI identity and the implications of these constructions. First, we should consider what a cochlear implant is and how it functions. The National Association of the Deaf in the United States defines the cochlear implant as a device used to help the user perceive sound, i.e., the sensation of sound that is transmitted past the damaged cochlea to the brain. In this strictly sensorineural manner, the implant works: the sensation of sound is delivered to the brain. The stated goal of the implant is for it to function as a tool to enable deaf children to develop language based on spoken communication. (“NAD Position”) The external portion of the implant consists of the following parts: a microphone, which picks up sound from the environment, which is contained in the behind-the-ear device that resembles the standard BTE hearing aid; in this “hearing aid” there is also a speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone. The processor transmits signals to the transmitter/receiver, which then converts them into electric impulses. Part of the transmitter sits on the skin and attaches to the inner portion of the transmitter by means of a magnet. The inner portion of the receiver/stimulator sends the impulses down into the electrode array that lies inside the cochlea, which in turn stimulates the auditory nerve, giving the brain the impression of sound (“Cochlear Implants”). According to manufacturer’s statistics, there are now approximately 188,000 people worldwide who have obtained cochlear implants, though the number of these that are in use is not known (Nussbaum). That is what a cochlear implant is. Before we can look at how people with implants are portrayed in the media, before we examine constructions of identity, perhaps we should first ask what constitutes a “real” CI identity? This is, of course, laughable; pinning down a homogeneous CI identity is no more likely than finding a blanket definition of “deaf identity.” For example, at this point in time, there isn’t even a word or term in American culture for someone with an implant. I struggle with how to phrase it in this essay - “implantee?” “recipient?” - there are no neat labels. In the USA you can call a person deaf, Deaf (the “D” representing a specific cultural and political identity), hearing impaired, hard of hearing, and each gradation implies, for better or worse, some kind of subject position. There are no such terms for a person who gets an implant. Are people with implants, as suggested above, just deaf? Deaf? Are they hard of hearing? There is even debate in the ASL community as to what sign should be used to indicate “someone who has a cochlear implant.” If a “CI identity” cannot be located, then perhaps the rhetoric that is used to describe it may be. Paddy Ladd, in Understanding Deaf Culture, does a brilliant job of exploring the various discourses that have surrounded deaf culture throughout history. Stuart Blume borrows heavily from Ladd in his “The Rhetoric and Counter-Rhetoric of a 'Bionic' Technology”, where he points out that an “essential and deliberate feature” of the history of the CI from the 60s onward, was that it was constructed in an overwhelmingly positive light by the mass media, using what Ladd calls the “medical” rhetorical model. That is, that the CI is a kind of medical miracle that promised to cure deafness. Within this model one may find also the sentimental, “missionary” rhetoric that Krentz discusses, what Ladd claims is a revival of the evangelism of the nineteenth-century Oralist movement in America. Indeed, newspaper articles in the 1980s and 90s hailed the implant as a “breakthrough”, a “miracle”; even a quick survey of headlines shows evidence of this: “Upton Boy Can Hear at Last!”, “Girl with a New Song in Her Heart”, “Children Head Queue for Bionic Ears” (Lane). As recently as January 2010, an issue of National Geographic featured on its cover the headline Merging Man and Machine: The Bionic Age. Sure enough, the second photograph in the story is of a child’s bilateral cochlear implant, with the caption “within months of the surgery (the child) spoke the words his hearing parents longed for: Mama and Dada.” “You’re looking at a real bionic kid,” says Johns Hopkins University surgeon John Niparko, proudly (37). To counter this medical/corporate rhetoric of cure, Ladd and Blume claim, the deaf community devised a counter-rhetoric, a discourse in which the CI is not cast in the language of miracle and life, but instead in terms of death, mutilation, and cultural oppression. Here, the implant is depicted as the last in a long line of sadistic experiments using the deaf as guinea pigs. Often the CI is framed in the language of Nazism and genocide as seen in the title of an article in the British Deaf News: “Cochlear Implants: Oralism’s Final Solution.” So, which of these two “implanting rhetorics” is most visible in the current construction of the CI in American television? Is the CI identity presented by rendering people with CIs impossibly positive, happy characters? Is it delineated using the metaphors of the sentimental, of cure, of miracle? Or is the CI identity constructed using the counter-rhetorical references to death, oppression and cultural genocide? One might hypothesize that television, like other media, cultivating as it does the values of the hearing hegemony, would err on the side of promulgating the medicalised, positivist rhetoric of the “cure” for deafness. In an effort to find out, I conducted a general survey of American television shows from 2000 to now that featured characters with CIs. I did not include news shows or documentaries in my survey. Interestingly, some of the earliest television portrayals of CIs appeared in that bastion of American sentimentality, the daytime soap opera. In 2006, on the show “The Young and the Restless”, a “troubled college student who contracted meningitis” received an implant, and in 2007 “All My Children” aired a story arc about a “toddler who becomes deaf after a car crash.” It is interesting to note that both characters were portrayed as “late-deafened”, or suddenly inflicted with the loss of a sense they previously possessed, thus avoiding any whiff of controversy about early implantation. But one expects a hyper-sentimentalised portrayal of just about everything in daytime dramas like this. What is interesting is that when people with CIs have appeared on several “reality” programs, which purport to offer “real,” unadulterated glimpses into people’s lives, the rhetoric is no less sentimentalized than the soaps (perhaps because these shows are no less fabricated). A good example of this is the widely watched and, I think, ironically named show “True Life” which appears on MTV. This is a series that claims to tell the “remarkable real-life stories of young people and the unusual subcultures they inhabit.” In episode 42, “ True Life: I’m Deaf”, part of the show follows a young man, Chris, born deaf and proud of it (his words), who decides to get a cochlear implant because he wants to be involved in the hearing world. Through an interpreter Chris explains that he wants an implant so he can communicate with his friends, talk with girls, and ultimately fulfill his dreams of having a job and getting married (one has to ask: are these things he can’t do without an implant?). The show’s promo asks “how do you go from living a life in total silence to fully understanding the spoken language?” This statement alone contains two elements common to the “miracle” rhetoric, first that the “tragic” deaf victim will emerge from a completely lonely, silent place (not true; most deaf people have some residual hearing, and if you watch the show you see Chris signing, “speaking” voluminously) to seamlessly, miraculously, “fully” joining and understanding the hearing world. Chris, it seems, will only come into full being when he is able to join the hearing world. In this case, the CI will cure what ails him. According to “True Life.” Aside from “soap opera” drama and so-called reality programming, by far the largest dissemination of media constructions of the CI in the past ten years occurred on top-slot prime-time television shows, which consist primarily of the immensely popular genre of the medical and police procedural drama. Most of these shows have at one time or another had a “deaf” episode, in which there is a deaf character or characters involved, but between 2005 and 2008, it is interesting to note that most, if not all of the most popular of these have aired episodes devoted to the CI controversy, or have featured deaf characters with CIs. The shows include: CSI (both Miami and New York), Cold Case, Law and Order (both SVU and Criminal Intent), Scrubs, Gideon’s Crossing, and Bones. Below is a snippet of dialogue from Bones: Zach: {Holding a necklace} He was wearing this.Angela: Catholic boy.Brennan: One by two forceps.Angela {as Brennan pulls a small disc out from behind the victim’s ear} What is that?Brennan: Cochlear implant. Looks like the birds were trying to get it.Angela: That would set a boy apart from the others, being deaf.(Bones, “A Boy in the Tree”, 1.3, 2005) In this scene, the forensics experts are able to describe significant points of this victim’s identity using the only two solid artifacts left in the remains, a crucifix and a cochlear implant. I cite this scene because it serves, I believe, as a neat metaphor for how these shows, and indeed television media in general, are, like the investigators, constantly engaged in the business of cobbling together identity: in this particular case, a cochlear implant identity. It also shows how an audience can cultivate or interpret these kinds of identity constructions, here, the implant as an object serves as a tangible sign of deafness, and from this sign, or clue, the “audience” (represented by the spectator, Angela) immediately infers that the victim was lonely and isolated, “set apart from the others.” Such wrongheaded inferences, frivolous as they may seem coming from the realm of popular culture, have, I believe, a profound influence on the perceptions of larger society. The use of the CI in Bones is quite interesting, because although at the beginning of the show the implant is a key piece of evidence, that which marks and identifies the dead/deaf body, the character’s CI identity proves almost completely irrelevant to the unfolding of the murder-mystery. The only times the CI character’s deafness is emphasized are when an effort is made to prove that the he committed suicide (i.e., if you’re deaf you are therefore “isolated,” and therefore you must be miserable enough to kill yourself). Zak, one of the forensics officers says, “I didn’t talk to anyone in high school and I didn’t kill myself” and another officer comments that the boy was “alienated by culture, by language, and by his handicap” (odd statements, since most deaf children with or without implants have remarkably good language ability). Also, in another strange moment, the victim’s ambassador/mother shows a video clip of the child’s CI activation and says “a person who lived through this miracle would never take his own life” (emphasis mine). A girlfriend, implicated in the murder (the boy is killed because he threatened to “talk”, revealing a blackmail scheme), says “people didn’t notice him because of the way he talked but I liked him…” So at least in this show, both types of “implanting rhetoric” are employed; a person with a CI, though the recipient of a “miracle,” is also perceived as “isolated” and “alienated” and unfortunately, ends up dead. This kind of rather negative portrayal of a person with a CI also appears in the CSI: New York episode ”Silent Night” which aired in 2006. One of two plot lines features Marlee Matlin as the mother of a deaf family. At the beginning of the episode, after feeling some strange vibrations, Matlin’s character, Gina, checks on her little granddaughter, Elizabeth, who is crying hysterically in her crib. She finds her daughter, Alison, dead on the floor. In the course of the show, it is found that a former boyfriend, Cole, who may have been the father of the infant, struggled with and shot Alison as he was trying to kidnap the baby. Apparently Cole “got his hearing back” with a cochlear implant, no longer considered himself Deaf, and wanted the child so that she wouldn’t be raised “Deaf.” At the end of the show, Cole tries to abduct both grandmother and baby at gunpoint. As he has lost his external transmitter, he is unable to understand what the police are trying to tell him and threatens to kill his hostages. He is arrested in the end. In this case, the CI recipient is depicted as a violent, out of control figure, calmed (in this case) only by Matlin’s presence and her ability to communicate with him in ASL. The implication is that in getting the CI, Cole is “killing off” his Deaf identity, and as a result, is mentally unstable. Talking to Matlin, whose character is a stand-in for Deaf culture, is the only way to bring him back to his senses. The October 2007 episode of CSI: Miami entitled “Inside-Out” is another example of the counter-rhetoric at work in the form of another implant corpse. A police officer, trying to prevent the escape of a criminal en route to prison, thinks he has accidentally shot an innocent bystander, a deaf woman. An exchange between the coroner and a CSI goes as follows: (Alexx Woods): “This is as innocent as a victim gets.”(Calleigh Duquesne): “How so?”AW: Check this out.”CD: “I don’t understand. Her head is magnetized? Steel plate?”AW: “It’s a cochlear implant. Helps deaf people to receive and process speech and sounds.”(CSI dramatization) AW VO: “It’s surgically implanted into the inner ear. Consists of a receiver that decodes and transmits to an electrode array sending a signal to the brain.”CD: “Wouldn’t there be an external component?”AW: “Oh, she must have lost it before she was shot.”CD: “Well, that explains why she didn’t get out of there. She had no idea what was going on.” (TWIZ) Based on the evidence, the “sign” of the implant, the investigators are able to identify the victim as deaf, and they infer therefore that she is innocent. It is only at the end of the program that we learn that the deaf “innocent” was really the girlfriend of the criminal, and was on the scene aiding in his escape. So she is at first “as innocent” as they come, and then at the end, she is the most insidious of the criminals in the episode. The writers at least provide a nice twist on the more common deaf-innocent stereotype. Cold Case showcased a CI in the 2008 episode “Andy in C Minor,” in which the case of a 17-year-old deaf boy is reopened. The boy, Andy, had disappeared from his high school. In the investigation it is revealed that his hearing girlfriend, Emma, convinced him to get an implant, because it would help him play the piano, which he wanted to do in order to bond with her. His parents, deaf, were against the idea, and had him promise to break up with Emma and never bring up the CI again. His body is found on the campus, with a cochlear device next to his remains. Apparently Emma had convinced him to get the implant and, in the end, Andy’s father had reluctantly consented to the surgery. It is finally revealed that his Deaf best friend, Carlos, killed him with a blow to the back of the head while he was playing the piano, because he was “afraid to be alone.” This show uses the counter-rhetoric of Deaf genocide in an interesting way. In this case it is not just the CI device alone that renders the CI character symbolically “dead” to his Deaf identity, but it leads directly to his being literally executed by, or in a sense, excommunicated from, Deaf Culture, as it is represented by the character of Carlos. The “House Divided” episode of House (2009) provides the most problematic (or I should say absurd) representation of the CI process and of a CI identity. In the show, a fourteen-year-old deaf wrestler comes into the hospital after experiencing terrible head pain and hearing “imaginary explosions.” Doctors Foreman and Thirteen dutifully serve as representatives of both sides of the “implant debate”: when discussing why House hasn’t mocked the patient for not having a CI, Thirteen says “The patient doesn’t have a CI because he’s comfortable with who he is. That’s admirable.” Foreman says, “He’s deaf. It’s not an identity, it’s a disability.” 13: “It’s also a culture.” F: “Anything I can simulate with $3 earplugs isn’t a culture.” Later, House, talking to himself, thinks “he’s going to go through life deaf. He has no idea what he’s missing.” So, as usual, without permission, he orders Chase to implant a CI in the patient while he is under anesthesia for another procedure (a brain biopsy). After the surgery the team asks House why he did it and he responds, “Why would I give someone their hearing? Ask God the same question you’d get the same answer.” The shows writers endow House’s character, as they usually do, with the stereotypical “God complex” of the medical establishment, but in doing also they play beautifully into the Ladd and Blume’s rhetoric of medical miracle and cure. Immediately after the implant (which the hospital just happened to have on hand) the incision has, miraculously, healed overnight. Chase (who just happens to be a skilled CI surgeon and audiologist) activates the external processor (normally a months-long process). The sound is overwhelming, the boy hears everything. The mother is upset. “Once my son is stable,” the mom says, “I want that THING out of his head.” The patient also demands that the “thing” be removed. Right after this scene, House puts a Bluetooth in his ear so he can talk to himself without people thinking he’s crazy (an interesting reference to how we all are becoming cyborgs, more and more “implanted” with technology). Later, mother and son have the usual touching sentimental scene, where she speaks his name, he hears her voice for the first time and says, “Is that my name? S-E-T-H?” Mom cries. Seth’s deaf girlfriend later tells him she wishes she could get a CI, “It’s a great thing. It will open up a whole new world for you,” an idea he rejects. He hears his girlfriend vocalize, and asks Thirteen if he “sounds like that.” This for some reason clinches his decision about not wanting his CI and, rather than simply take off the external magnet, he rips the entire device right out of his head, which sends him into shock and system failure. Ultimately the team solves the mystery of the boy’s initial ailment and diagnoses him with sarcoidosis. In a final scene, the mother tells her son that she is having them replace the implant. She says it’s “my call.” This show, with its confusing use of both the sentimental and the counter-rhetoric, as well as its outrageous inaccuracies, is the most egregious example of how the CI is currently being constructed on television, but it, along with my other examples, clearly shows the Ladd/Blume rhetoric and counter rhetoric at work. The CI character is on one hand portrayed as an innocent, infantilized, tragic, or passive figure that is the recipient of a medical miracle kindly urged upon them (or forced upon them, as in the case of House). On the other hand, the CI character is depicted in the language of the counter-rhetoric: as deeply flawed, crazed, disturbed or damaged somehow by the incursions onto their Deaf identity, or, in the worst case scenario, they are dead, exterminated. Granted, it is the very premise of the forensic/crime drama to have a victim, and a dead victim, and it is the nature of the police drama to have a “bad,” criminal character; there is nothing wrong with having both good and bad CI characters, but my question is, in the end, why is it an either-or proposition? Why is CI identity only being portrayed in essentialist terms on these types of shows? Why are there no realistic portrayals of people with CIs (and for that matter, deaf people) as the richly varied individuals that they are? These questions aside, if these two types of “implanting rhetoric”, the sentimentalised and the terminated, are all we have at the moment, what does it mean? As I mentioned early in this essay, deaf people, along with many “others,” have long helped to highlight and define the hegemonic “norm.” The apparent cultural need for a Foucauldian “marked body” explains not only the popularity of crime dramas, but it also could explain the oddly proliferant use of characters with cochlear implants in these particular shows. A person with an implant on the side of their head is definitely a more “marked” body than the deaf person with no hearing aid. The CI character is more controversial, more shocking; it’s trendier, “sexier”, and this boosts ratings. But CI characters are, unlike their deaf predecessors, now serving an additional cultural function. I believe they are, as I claim in the beginning of this essay, screens upon which our culture is now projecting repressed anxieties about emergent technology. The two essentialist rhetorics of the cochlear implant, the rhetoric of the sentimental, medical model, and the rhetoric of genocide, ultimately represent our technophilia and our technophobia. The CI character embodies what Debra Shaw terms a current, “ontological insecurity that attends the interface between the human body and the datasphere” (85). We are growing more nervous “as new technologies shape our experiences, they blur the lines between the corporeal and incorporeal, between physical space and virtual space” (Selfe). Technology either threatens the integrity of the self, “the coherence of the body” (we are either dead or damaged) or technology allows us to transcend the limitations of the body: we are converted, “transformed”, the recipient of a happy modern miracle. In the end, I found that representations of CI on television (in the United States) are overwhelmingly sentimental and therefore essentialist. It seems that the conflicting nineteenth century tendency of attraction and revulsion toward the deaf is still, in the twenty-first century, evident. We are still mired in the rhetoric of “cure” and “control,” despite an active Deaf counter discourse that employs the language of the holocaust, warning of the extermination of yet another cultural minority. We are also daily becoming daily more “embedded in cybernetic systems,” with our laptops, emails, GPSs, PDAs, cell phones, Bluetooths, and the likes. We are becoming increasingly engaged in a “necessary relationship with machines” (Shaw 91). We are gradually becoming no longer “other” to the machine, and so our culturally constructed perceptions of ourselves are being threatened. In the nineteenth century, divisions and hierarchies between a white male majority and the “other” (women, African Americans, immigrants, Native Americans) began to blur. Now, the divisions between human and machine, as represented by a person with a CI, are starting to blur, creating anxiety. Perhaps this anxiety is why we are trying, at least in the media, symbolically to ‘cure’ the marked body or kill off the cyborg. Future examinations of the discourse should, I believe, use these media constructions as a lens through which to continue to examine and illuminate the complex subject position of the CI identity, and therefore, perhaps, also explore what the subject position of the post/human identity will be. References "A Boy in a Tree." Patrick Norris (dir.), Hart Hanson (by), Emily Deschanel (perf.). Bones, Fox Network, 7 Sep. 2005. “Andy in C Minor.” Jeannete Szwarc (dir.), Gavin Harris (by), Kathryn Morris (perf.). Cold Case, CBS Network, 30 March 2008. Blume, Stuart. “The Rhetoric and Counter Rhetoric of a “Bionic” Technology.” Science, Technology and Human Values 22.1 (1997): 31-56. Brueggemann, Brenda Jo. Deaf Subjects: Between Identities and Places. New York: New York UP, 2009. “Cochlear Implant Statistics.” ASL-Cochlear Implant Community. Blog. Citing Laurent Le Clerc National Deaf Education Center. Gallaudet University, 18 Mar. 2008. 29 Apr. 2010 ‹http:/ /aslci.blogspot.com/2008/03/cochlear-implant-statistics.html›. “Cures to Come.” Discover Presents the Brain (Spring 2010): 76. Fischman, Josh. “Bionics.” National Geographic Magazine 217 (2010). “House Divided.” Greg Yaitanes (dir.), Matthew V. Lewis (by), Hugh Laurie (perf.). House, Fox Network, 22 Apr. 2009. “Inside-Out.” Gina Lamar (dir.), Anthony Zuiker (by), David Caruso (perf.). CSI: Miami, CBS Network, 8 Oct. 2007. Krentz, Christopher. Writing Deafness: The Hearing Line in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Chapel Hill: UNC P, 2007. Ladd, Paddy. Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Limited, 2002. Lane, Harlan. A Journey Into the Deaf-World. San Diego: DawnSignPress, 1996. “NAD Position Statement on the Cochlear Implant.” National Association of the Deaf. 6 Oct. 2000. 29 April 2010 ‹http://www.nad.org/issues/technology/assistive-listening/cochlear-implants›. Nussbaum, Debra. “Manufacturer Information.” Cochlear Implant Information Center. National Deaf Education Center. Gallaudet University. 29 Apr. 2010 < http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu >. Shaw, Debra. Technoculture: The Key Concepts. Oxford: Berg, 2008. “Silent Night.” Rob Bailey (dir.), Anthony Zuiker (by), Gary Sinise (perf.). CSI: New York, CBS Network, 13 Dec. 2006. “Sweet Nothing in My Ear.” Joseph Sargent (dir.), Stephen Sachs (by), Jeff Daniels (perf.). Hallmark Hall of Fame Production, 20 Apr. 2008. TWIZ TV scripts. CSI: Miami, “Inside-Out.” “What Is the Surgery Like?” FAQ, University of Miami Cochlear Implant Center. 29 Apr. 2010 ‹http://cochlearimplants.med.miami.edu/faq/index.asp›.