Environment and Green Living News
A federal judge is keeping alive a lawsuit testing the Bush administration’s warrantless-surveillance program adopted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. President Bush is leaving office in three weeks, but the case tests the power of the nation’s chief executive — whether the president can bypass Congress.
Continue reading " Judge: Warrantless-Eavesdrop Case Can Continue "
Scientists weigh in on Steve Jobs’ recent statement that he has a hormonal imbalance that has caused him to lose weight. What little detail is in the statement is contradictory, they say, and could indicate anything from hyperthyroidism to multiple myeloma.
Continue reading " Jobs’ Health Message Makes Little Sense, Experts Say "
1912: French social critic Jacques Ellul is born. He will become a thoughtful skeptic who worries about the negative impact of technology on the human condition.
Jacques Ellul wore many hats: sociologist, philosopher, humanist, theologian, law professor. He studied the work of Karl Marx and embraced a good deal of Marxist theory, which he did not consider in conflict with his religious beliefs. The son of an atheist father and Christian mother (.pdf), he was raised without religious training. He became a Christian at 22, and his strong faith — Ellul defined himself as a Christian universalist — underpinned all his work.
In his cosmopolitan family, Ellul grew up with a distrust of statism, which partially explains his attraction to Marx. His dislike of the state did not prevent him, however, from taking an active role in the French Resistance during World War II.
He was the rare French intellectual who remained a provincial all his life. He did not beeline it for Paris, as most of his contemporaries did, choosing instead to remain in the seaport town of Bordeaux, where he was born. He was a professor at the university there for most of his career.
Ellul’s ambivalence toward technology was grounded in large part in his religious and social convictions. He believed that “technological tyranny,” represented by the increasing encroachment of modern technology into our private lives, posed a threat to both human freedom and faith.
He wrote widely on the subject, including the 1964 book, The Technological Society, which is considered his most important work. Ellul was not critical of technology per se, but with the ways it is used by some to impose their will on others. He was especially critical of the mass media, which he believed is completely manipulated by powerful and generally antagonistic special interests.
He wrote:
It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale. The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed, precisely because it creates a constant environment. Mass media provides the link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.
One has to wonder what Ellul, who died in 1994, would have made of the internet’s long reach.
Source: Various
Continue reading " Jan. 6, 1912: Birth of the Supreme Tech Skeptic "
A Happy Meal lunch spread in 2013 is complete with a personal McFryer and assorted dipping sauces from Honey Mustard to BrainSpike and Endorphin Rush.
More than half of America’s air traffic control centers have exceeded their useful lifespan and many have “obvious structural deficiencies and maintenance-related issues,” the government says.
Continue reading " Air Traffic Control Towers Go From Bad to Worse "
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Most wars last just a few years. But the unexploded mines, shells, and bombs they leave behind can last decades. Getting rid of these lurking killers can be painfully slow and prohibitively expensive. That’s why Joe Trocino established the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation with the mission of helping locals dispose of ordnance using inexpensive, easy-to-find materials. Here are three of its ingenious techniques.
Sometimes explosives are close to people or buildings. That’s where Mr. BIP comes in. Just place an inverted tire rim over the bomb, secure it with rebar stakes, surround with sandbags, drop in an explosive charge, and detonate.
Construct a steel box, fill with small-arms rounds, and seal shut. Apply heat to the container using a propane, coal, or wood fire. Rather than exploding, the gunpowder slowly “cooks off”—leaving only inert metals, which can be recycled.
Unexploded tank rounds and scrap metal pipe are common in conflict zones. Luckily, they can be a disarming combo: Drop the explosive round down the proper diameter pipe and the lip of the shell catches, separating the projectile from the explosive primer.
Illustrations: Nate Van Dyke, Photos: Swiss Foundation for Mine Action
Continue reading " 3 Cheap, Safe Ways to Destroy Deadly Explosives "
