Professors on the Berkeley campus have received a surprising number of job offers from European institutions in recent months….The push is part of an effort by European governments to improve higher education on the continent, seen as a key to economic success over the next few decades.

One education expert said European leaders understand that they will need to improve their universities to keep up with rising economies such as India and China.  “Higher education has become a political tool for a lot of countries around the world,'’ said Lloyd Armstrong, the former provost of the University of Southern California. “They see it as a key to their economic success.’

What amazes me is that such a phenomenon can be reported, not only without any mentioned concern about the relation between education and national economy, but more importantly that it can be written without even having to explain that there is one.  We’ve now accepted this state of affairs as given. 

Tonight the Stanford Theater screened The Spiral Staircase (1947).  The bars of this staircase blasted with off-stage flood lights cast lines and lines of shadows across the face and bodies of everyone climbing up and down our wealthy homestead mansion.  Do some people indulge in self-inflicted captivity?  We watch a woman being watched walking into her house.  When this woman walks into the kitchen she scares the cook to death.  Its my favorite part.  A second ago we were frightened for her and now, look, she is the one doing the scaring.  Sharing the same point of view as the killer, does the horror genre aim to make us feel guilty for the pleasure we audience members take in watching?

Everyone’s (mine, yours, the whole entire cast’s) concern is Helen:  She suffers aphasia and the previous three women murdered in town also had ‘disabilities’ or ‘imperfections’ as our killer will later confess.  But it isn’t just that.  The film teaches us to suspect the womanizer of the film all along, even his mother thought he was the killer, but it turns out to be his step-brother, who is a much worse enemy of the people: he’s a college professor!  His unworthy profession has proven inadequately masculine to make his late father, an accomplished hunter and presumable taxidermist, proud.  The year is 1947 and against the back-drop of World War II perhaps Hollywood can’t help but depict intellectuals as either eugenicists or psychopaths.  
    
Meanwhile down the street, another coming-of-age film is being screened:  Hannibal Rising.  This time we learn exactly what triggered our generation’s most cinematic serial killer:

The story begins in Eastern Europe at the desperate end of World War II. For many it was no longer a conflict of nations but one of individual survival – at any cost. A young Hannibal watches from only steps away as his parents violently die…

I like the way our attention must be pointed to that personal, private battle of our young protagonist.  The subtitle of the film, Behind the Mask, now places captivity in the form of that private mask he must wear for our protection, rather than those more social bars of the mansion’s spiral staircase which instigated the need for protection. 

Showing a cunning aptitude for science he is accepted into medical school, which serves to hone his skills and provide the tools to exact justice on the war criminals that haunt him day and night. This quest will ignite an insatiable lust within a serial killer who was not born, but made.

You have to admire the way History whips into its opposite.  Today, school miraculously provides the means of enacting power.  The intellectual is not a sign of weakness, but the instrument of strength itself.  It’s exactly what enables us to settle all bets with our past, to become masculine and powerful once more.  The young, precocious Hannibal catches the entrepreneurial spirit of the age and turns himself into a killer, but certainly not yesterday’s stab and jab circus show, no, rather a surgical talent with a wall of medical degrees to prove it.  Our intellectual today, still a psychopath, but now one who is at the very least his own boss.

Hannibal Rising may have something to teach us about the role of nihilism in today’s academy.  Find out more about this by attending Entrepreneurial Week USA on Stanford campus this Saturday afternoon:

Kids can’t start too young to be in charge of their own education, and in charge of their own economic life. Our entrepreneurial economy presents almost unlimited opportunities for kids. . . . With Entrepreneurship Week USA about to begin, and with new technologies seeming to create opportunities for new businesses every day, now is the time to focus on giving our youth the tools for economic success.

 

In 1845 Friedrich Engels set out to describe the conditions of the working class in the prototypical industrial city of London, England.  It was clear to him that the marvels of civilization had forced Londoners to sacrifice the best qualitites of their human nature; "that a hundred powers which slumbered within them have remained inactive, have been suppressed in order that a few might be developed more fully."  Charles Dickens was there, too, to place this city into prose form, but Engels continues with unsurpassed reflective insight into the crowd:

[A]re they not all human beings with the same qualities and powers, and with the same interest in being happy? And have they not, in the end, to seek happiness in the same way, by the same means? And still they crowd by one another as though they had nothing in common, nothing to do with one another, and their only agreement is the tacit one, that each keep to his own side of the pavement, so as not to delay the opposing streams of the crowd, while it occurs to no man to honour another with so much as a glance.

Whether or not it rings true today as an accurate description of the prototypical post-industrial city does not seem a relevant question in light of the more striking fact:  Silicon Valley has no narrative culture.  The smokestack grasps a truth that the computer somehow cannot.  This may be the first social environment in the history of the world that does not produce, or even attempt to find, a voice through writing or any other cultural phenomenon.  We know the Harlem Renaissance in New York; we know James Baldwin in Chicago; London we’ve gotten from Dickens all the way to Kureishi; Baudelaire in Paris; Bukowsi in LA.  But no one writes Silicon Valley.  How does this place achieve the impossible fact of resisting representation? 

To begin facilitating a narrative culture I submit a homework assignment to all Entrepreneurial City readers:  Answer the following question to the best of your ability.  To you, what does Silicon Valley smell, taste, look, sound, and feel like? 

I just found out that Adam of The Amateur Gourmet has a law degree (from Emory, no less). This adds to a growing list of people I know (or know of) with law degrees who are not lawyers.

I’m taking the bar in July. What I will do afterwards is still an open question. 

Photo by John Linwood

 

Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers and readers of Entrepreneurial City.  All four of you!

 

If you were in Palo Alto this afternoon around 5:30 you felt the thunderhead crack open above your head.  It never thunders here.  The rain has been coming down every day for the past week.  Its a 100% humidity and nothing is dry anywhere.  Nonetheless one man set out this weekend to start a string of fires in Los Gatos.

Police say at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, they received a report of a dumpster fire on North Santa Cruz Avenue. A witness saw a man dressed in a camouflage jacket and hood over his head attempting to set fire to a dumpster.

As officers responded, they received another call of a small fire on Victory Lane and then three more fires were reported to 911. In all five small fires were set in dumpsters or on the ground during a 20-minute period and within 100 yards of each other.

You have to be in a pretty good mood to go around setting fires on a rainy day.  I mean you have to be dedicated.  Only a unique kind of arsonist can walk around soaking wet trying to set dumpster fires.  You have to be different from the rest.  You have to have a truly unhealthy conviction to your labor.  See this is my point about Silicon Valley, even its delinquents are unabashed workaholics.

 It’s been raining a lot here in San Francisco. On Friday, I wore shoes that were not waterproof, and within two blocks of walking, despite my having an umbrella, my left sock was soaked through. My right foot was merely damp. By the time I reached BART, my trousers were wet from the knee down, and damp almost to my waist. My sweater stayed dry, although my shirt-cuffs got damp.

The rain makes everything smell more. The first thing Urse and I noticed when we entered Gratitude Cafe was how grassy and faintly fermented/off it smelled. It does not normally smell of grass. I suppose the humidity made the smell of raw vegetables linger in the air, where it soon took on an off-note. Enzymes aren’t the only living things in food (technically I don’t think enzymes are actually even "alive," but whatever. Raw food tastes great!).

I also noticed that when I took a piss, the smell of ammonia was very strong, almost like cat litter. It was different from the smell of piss after asparagus or certain beans.

Damp clothes also smell, of course, and being on a crowded MUNI bus with other people whose vestments had acquired varying levels of hydration was a little unpleasant.

When it rains, I sweat inside my clothes. What I think is actually happening is that the sweat that is inside my clothes, which normally would evaporate, lingers on because of the near-100% humidity, and so develops into a sticky-damp layer. I then get shocked occasionally when my clothing shifts and a particularly cold and wet portion comes into contact with my skin.

If it got colder when it rained, that would be one thing. In San Francisco, it seems to get warmer when it rains, but not so warm that you could wear shorts, sandals or flip-flops and a t-shirt (which are, to me, the least unpleasant clothes in the rain). Instead, you walk around with long pants (wet) and shirts (damp with rain) and undershirts (damp with sweat), shoes (soaked) and socks (damp/soaked), and an outer layer (damp/wet/made of loathesome artificial fibers).

To top it all off, the flourescent light in the kitchen goes on the blink when it’s damp, bringing the gloom of the day inside.

picture from roboppy.

(if it weren’t for you darned kids).

Went to a middle school today to observe a CUAV speakers’ bureau. Kids ask some rather pointed questions when you let them know that this is okay. They know what questions will get their classmates’ attention. At one point, a big to-do was made about a question, with the person who wanted to ask it not daring to ask it and then whispering it to somebody else who then asked it for her. This much hyped question?

"Have you ever done it with a boy, and was it fun?"

The question that most surprised me (these were 14 year olds, recall):

"Are you in an open relationship?"

 
Eliot Blackwelder was the Chair of Geology at Stanford from 1923 to 1945.  His resignation meant an opportunity for the department to transform its complexion.  Its traditional interest in geomorphology (Blackwelder’s specialty) had ended with the hiring of its new chair who speciallized in petroleum geology and could thus grant the department lucrative relationships with the oil industry. 

Today, Blackwelder is primarily the temporary home of international graduate students picking up degrees in business, engineering, statistics, and management sciences, that will eventually afford them an avenue to a suburban office here or back home.  I’m organizing a talent show here.

Pijush, my fellow CA in the building, has warned me that Blackwelder residents "do not value creativity."  Like so much in Silicon Valley, perhaps it is a place that somehow does not foster superstitions, ghosts, memories, or even rumors.  A place in which one finds it hard to believe in anything other that one’s own demanding responsibilities.

Naively, I disagreed with Pijush.  On Monday, with only one person signed up, it seemed clear I had been proven wrong.  But I posted an add on craigslist about this talent show, inviting everyone in the Bay area to come perform for this busy dormitory.   

Now a breakdancing crew from Oakland, Lopsided Cirklz, wants to come over.  Barbara Sorensen from Chicago will give us at least two sing-along German folk songs on her acoustic guitar.  I also received an email from one woman saying she was a rhythmic dancer in the 2000 Olympics and she may come.  ‘The Donnas’ found out about it and they wrote me an email wishing me good luck with a dormitory jam in their old stomping grounds.  ‘Her Space Story’, now residing in Menlo Park, never responded to my personable email.

And from Blackwelder itself we got DC, who will drink a 2-liter of coke in one gulp; a woman will sing and dance a Hindi song while balancing plates on her head; a man will beatbox along to music coming from his laptop; a woman will demonstrate her vocal percussion; there is a possibility we will have someone play a traditional Columbian guitar.  The Molly McCoys will be banging flower pots and screaming.  And ChaRandle, on the piano, is going to write, on the spot, the Blackwelder theme song.

Blackwelder was named after a man who studied rocks.  And this Saturday, finally, Blackwelder is gonna get rocked. 

A google search for "silicon valley blog" at 1:54PM PST on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 generated the following top ten hits:

1) Good Morning Silicon Valley

Very techie-butch turquoise background for their masthead, with a rebellious little skull and crossbones flag sticking out of a cubicle as its graphic. A blog that seems to focus mainly on tech companies. Most recent post is about Steve Jobs’ ideas for doing away with Digital Rights Management. Post concludes with author’s somewhat pessimistic opinion of the possibility of Record companies actually taking Jobs’ suggestion. First impression: "I’m an independent thinker who’s interested in money and technology."

2) Silicon Valley Watcher

"Former FT reporter Tom Feremski and team on the business and culture of innovation" says their masthead, with a grayscale photo of a serious looking man (Tom Feremski, I guess) next to it. Third person tone of the tagline suggests more seriousness. Opening page itself is a blizzard of links. All teaser, and no continuous prose. Most recent "post" links to several posts on tech companies in China. Most recent post is about Google purchasing Xunlei.com and making a deal with a Chinese telecoms company. "Fact-y" tone, with little overt editorializing. First impression: "There is a lot of stuff to know about tech companies, and Tom Feremski and team are the ones who’ll help you know it."

3) VentureBlog

Very spare masthead. Just the site’s name in orange and gray, then the tagline "A Random Walk Down Sand Hill Road." Sans serif font makes an already clean design even cleaner. The whole page is clean clean clean. Lots of white space, no annoying banners. Mainly text. Light gray and blue are the only colors other than orange. From what I gather this is the companion blog to a podcast. Or maybe the podcast is the companion to the blog. Most recent post is a brief paragraph about their time at DEMO, a conference for startups. Also had an update about the podcast becoming available in MP3. First impression: "We’re your friendly neighborhood geeks, smart yet approachable."

4) Silicon Valley Sleuth

Masthead has transparency of a rippling U.S. flag. Font is too tall and graphic on the right makes it all very busy and cluttered. Oddly, the site’s layout is actually quite narrow, compared to other blogs, so things feel cramped. Plenty of banner ads all over the place. Posts on opening page are brief and news-y, but expand to (slightly) longer full posts. Most recent post is about how Windows OneCare and some other anti-virus programs failed to protect against known security threats. First impression: "Drop in and grab a quick piece of tech news to impress your friends at dinner."

5) Valleywag

Masthead has a red line, possibly representing a stock market trend, or maybe an ECG. In any case, there is some dramatic back-and-forthing, and then it flatlines across the page. Blogtitle is in blown up green Hercules-screen-esque font. Posts are short and gossipy, with that self-amused knowing tone that is cute when you’re in the loop, and confusing when you’re not. Most recent post is about an interview with Om Malik’s preferences in love. First impression: "We give a sassy take on a not-so-sassy part of the country. Hilarity ensues." 

6) Bayosphere/Backfence/Dan Gillmor’s Blog

Masthead is in transition. On the left, blue background and yellow title (BAYOSPHERE in all caps) with font that looks like a cross between a pharmaceutical drug and star trek (I actually find it quite appealing). On the right, green background and a cute two-speech-bubble graphic with new blog title, an all-lower-case "backfence" in white, in a font suggestive of playfulness (cute skinny serifs and the f drops below the rest of the letters). Blog is about local politics. Most recent post (other than the first one informing readers of a new RSS feed) is about why the authors decided to join backfence, which is a national group of local citizen media blogs. The post was from April of last year, by the way, so really Gillmor’s most recent post is up on backfence palo alto, which is a separate site that did not show up on Google’s top ten for my search. That post is about Windows Vista. First impression: "Local, organic media served with a side of seriousness."

7) Soccer Silicon Valley

It’s a blog about soccer in silicon valley. Site is minimalist, but not in a self-conscious way. Color scheme is extremely butch. Blue, black and dark greys. Some silver. Posts concern local soccer news, with certain events being followed closely post after post (a new stadium in San Jose, I gather?). No photos. Most recent post links to coverage of the local soccer team’s efforts to re-emerge. First impression: "We’re a soccer blog."

8) Eighth hit on google was some google-related blog linking to Valleywag.

9) Silicon Valley Media Law Blog

Masthead is beige and brown, with blue text and a photo of reassuringly-friendly-faced media lawyer and blog author Cathy Kirkman of Wilson Sonsini (a very prestigious firm in Palo Alto). Posts are long, with extensive description of developments in media law, and some concluding analysis. Most recent post is about a case where record labels sued XM Satellite Radio for copyright infringement. Comprehension of what is going on seems to me to require some knowledge of copyright statutory law. Not as commented upon as some law professor blogs I’ve seen, but perhaps practicing attorneys don’t hang out with each other online in the same way. First impression: "Informative. Clear. Media Law."

10) Tenth hit was a CNET page linking to Silicon Valley Watcher.

Because (8) and (10) weren’t blogs, I’ve decided to include two more blogs. Not that 10 wasn’t an arbitrarily decided upon number anyway, but here you go:

11) Louisgray.com: live: Silicon Valley Blog: Never Assume Rationality

Generous use of colons in blog title. I approve. Appears to be a combination of personal blog/news links/opinions. In other words, a classic blog that’s not trying to be anything else. Most recent post is about the availability of soft-core porn on Google and Youtube. First Impression: "Friendly neighborhood geek"

12) The Digerati Life

Another personal blog, with a personal finance focus. Cute abstract graphic as the logo. Lots of swirlyness. Further investigation revealed that author’s original blog title was curlytree, thus explaining the curly tree logo. Site has large fonts. Posts are teasers with a "behind the link" thing going on. Most recent post is about the merit of credit cards. First impression: "Here’s how I deal with money in the Valley."