Every trip to the SEMP website is well-rewarded.
“Ballardian Catastrophe”:
described in British J.G. Ballard’s (born 1930) novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and
the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments.”
SEMP learned of this term, apparently, when mentioned in a post on thingsmagazine.net
: “The Suburban EmergencyManagement Project, always on the lookout for some major Ballardian catastrophe.”
Okay – that’s J.G. Ballard – the author of, among other things, Empire of the Sun, which (I’m given to understand) is based on his childhood experience as an internee. (Readers may be familiar with the Spielberg film, or the book of the same name).
[Cf. KayeBallard, of whom we’ve been fond since Laugh-In, but whose body of work is in no way dystopian. ]
A Bollard, however, is
a short vertical post typically found where large ships dock. While originally it only meant a post used on a quay for mooring, the word now also describes a variety of structures to control or direct road traffic.
. (For those of you who getting ready to complain about our use of Wikipedia, our two initial responses are: (1) we don’t use it for matters of apparent controversy; (2) we’d be happy to accept a contribution of an on-line subscription to Britannica, (3) in this case, I can vouch for the accuracy of the entry quoted),
Lastly, “Ballots-vs-Bullets”: my recollection is that this phrase was coined by the late Bernard Fall. Biographical summary from the JFK Library:
Journalist, author, educator. War crimes research analyst (1946-1948); professor of international relations, Howard University (1956-1967); author The Two Viet-nams (1963), Last Reflections on a War (1964), Anatomy of a Crisis (1969). Research materials, books, clippings, magazines, maps, writings, relating to Southeast Asia, China, Germany, and Vietnam.
References:
– which is remarkably cool and seductively interesting.
Hello Jon,
I have become reliant on data posted at the SEMP website. Today I was looking for an article and found the entire site gone. No evidence of articles or other sites to direct to. Do you have any information on where to find the Biot posts now?
(FEMA even referenced SEMP in a history inclusion: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/about/pub1.pdf (See page 3, footnote) ).
Any leads would be helpful. Thanks!
We have also found the site down, and are making inquiries to see if Dr. O’Leary is well, and if she’s moved her blog’s archive elsewhere. Dr. O’Leary’s work, on a site call the Suburban Emegency Management Project (http://semp.us), was and is outstanding.
Jon