Insights

General insights from Miguel Bigueur.

USS Saratoga CV60 “Death at Sea”

/ Miguel Bigueur / 23 Comments

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This is a true story that happened to me when I was in the Navy.

A Chilling Night in the Red Sea

It was just another night aboard the USS Saratoga, or so I thought. The aircraft carrier had dropped anchor off the coast of Haifa, Israel earlier that evening on December 22nd, 1990. While many of my buddies went ashore for some well-deserved shore leave, I opted to stay behind and catch up on sleep after the grueling flight operations of the previous nights.

Little did I know, my decision to remain on the ship would be a fateful one.
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Mikhail Bakhtin’s “Theory of Socialization”

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Mikhail Bakhtin

“I am conscious of myself and become myself only while revealing myself for another, through another, and with the help of another. The most important acts constituting self-consciousness are determined by a relationship toward another consciousness (toward a “thou”)… The very being of man (both external and internal) is the deepest communion. To be means to communicate… To be means to be for another, and through the other, for oneself. A person has no internal sovereign territory, he is wholly and always on the boundary: looking inside himself, he looks into the eyes of another or with the eyes of another… I cannot manage without another, I cannot become myself without another; I must find myself in another by finding another in myself (in mutual reflection and mutual acceptance)…”

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“Audio File Formats”

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File formats most definitely play an important role in their use. For me personally, I prefer to use the lossy MP3 file format only when storage issues are a concern. For instance, if a person owns an 8 Gig IPod, then the 128Kbps MP3 file format would be suitable for allowing more music to be added to the device. I have a 32Gig IPod Touch and prefer the MP3 file format at 320Kbps. I can personally hear the difference when MP3 files are compressed any lower than 320Kbps. I also prefer the MP3 file format when encoding for Internet usage. This allows for faster downloads and/or streams to multicast end users. Continue reading →

Life on the Greens

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golfing

I’m not a golfer and I don’t know much about golfing. Not having the ability to play golf and not having the knowledge for the terminology used to communicate between golfers is what will inhibit my ability to study this group from an insider perspective. I will have to spend time with the golfing community to have a better understanding of their purpose and to become familiar with what the boundaries of this group are.

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Cafes and the Coffee Drinking Culture

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This study will revolve around the culture associated with drinking coffee. What exactly is it that attracts people to the coffee shops and in many cases, repeatedly as regulars. I chose to perform my studies at the local Peet’s coffee shop located inside of the Raley’s supermarket. This Raley’s supermarket is a place that I frequent quite often to do my own grocery shopping. The Peet’s coffee shop is a new addition to the grocery store and serves as an added convenience to the shoppers there.

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View on Anthropological Studies

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My views most closely relate to Steven Miska’s and David Vine’s. I agree with the two of them in their analogies of the use of Anthropology in combat zones. I believe that Anthropology is useful in combat because it saves lives by helping our troops understand the intricacies of foreign culture. By understanding foreign culture, our troops have a better understanding of how to react to a situation that may be otherwise considered hostile. This in itself saves lives by avoiding misunderstandings between the coalition forces and the native people. Continue reading →

The Cyber Classroom

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I find it very interesting to read some of the other students’ ideas of online education. Personally, I think online education is terrific and is real world. I work at AT&T a worldwide communications company. I work with people all over the world that I never meet face to face, but I do still have established relationships with them to the point they tell me whenever I’m in town, to look them up. So, this class is very realistic in its approach to worldwide education. Let’s face it, not all of us have the ability to meet everyone we come into contact with in another part of the world face to face so should that mean that we should avoid using technology as an instrument to establish that contact because it dehumanizes us? I say no!!!

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“Pathological Rationalism” – Media & Advertising

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AdvertisingI would use the media to my advantage. There are all these messages constantly bombarding me day in and day out. This is excruciatingly annoying, to say the least. How dare they try to make decisions for me! Who do they think they are trying to sell me a pack of cigarettes? I know they cause cancer! Do they think I’m stupid? Well, I’m smarter than they think.

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“Pathological Rationalism” – Housing Bubble!

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burbuja-650x400The housing bubble has busted and many people are feeling the effects, not only locally, but worldwide. California was, at one time, the 5th largest economy in the world and now it’s the 8th. California has a larger GDP than most countries on planet earth!!! Why is it that we cannot balance our budgets and keep employment rates from declining? This is due mainly to greed, ignorance and political agenda.

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