A question

If you could name one single piece of technology the elimination of which would most improve life on earth for us humans, what would it be?
  ¶ 12:17 PM

 

The World Wide Web is 10

The first browser that made it easy to go to internet sites with text and graphics, and therefore inititated the World Wide Web, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It is hard to believe it has only been 10 years.  ¶ 9:03 AM

 

Public Transportation

Check out this story. Make sure you follow the link in the story to see the actual ad.  ¶ 8:52 AM

 

Thoughts about blogs

I would be interested in any comments you might have about this weblog assignment, as an alternative to requiring 12 posts on a web board on which I post a new question each week. I was hoping the weblog would give students more sense of ownership of what you write. I did make a tactical error not putting on it at least one mid-semester deadline, but if I did that would you prefer it to the web board assignment?  ¶ 8:35 AM

 

An interesting Berry article

The Prejudice Against Country People  ¶ 1:26 PM

 

War and archaeology

Along with everything else, many historians are deeply upset about how the treasures of ancient Iraq are being destroyed by this war and the resulting looting. Here's a summary.  ¶ 11:19 AM

 

Risk

I wasn't careful about time yesterday--I would have liked to have more time to talk about risk. Compare and contrast the risk of an accident to the space shuttle and the risk of an accident at a nuclear power plant. Do you think one needs to be safer than the other? Why? What kinds of risks are you valuing more and what kind less when you make your evaluation?  ¶ 1:59 PM

 

Columbia accident

I'm in a panel discussion tonight about the Columbia accident, and looking to make sure I have a good overview I found a useful set of Frequently asked questions.  ¶ 11:24 AM

 

future computers

I argued today that what computers do for us changed fundamentally with the development of the personal computer, that our very idea of what a computer is changed. How do you think what computers are and what they do might change in the next 20 or 30 years?  ¶ 11:21 AM

 

War and Television

Historians make an argument that public opinion about the Vietnam War was fundamentally transformed because it was the first war with live television coverage. I'm personally not watching the television coverage of this current war because I am bothered by the sense that war is being treated as a spectator sport. How do you think television is affecting public attitudes towards this war? Are those effects the result of new technology or of programming decisions and new military rules for journalists?  ¶ 7:32 PM