History 323
Ash Wednesday
I usually go to the 7 am
service on Ash Wednesday, and often on that day students ask me about the ashes on my forehead and we spend a few minutes talking about it in class. I don't usually bring it up if no one asks, unless it is a class in which we talk about religion. But perhaps I should have brought it up, as someone asked me after class what had happened to me, thinking the ashes on my forehead were a bruise.
Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans celebrate Ash Wednesday with a service that includes ashes.
global warming
An interesting
article about a Pentagon report about the impact of global warming.
artificial intelligence
Is already a reality, argues
this article. Or would you prefer
robots?
Technology Elite
There is clearly a technology elite in the United States - the 31% of the population (Internet and non-Internet users alike) who are high-end technology adopters. This elite comprises three distinct sub-groups of Americans who are the most voracious consumers of information goods and services in the United States.
- The Young Tech Elites make up one-fifth of the technology elite. The average age
for this group is 22 years.
- Older Wired Baby Boomers make up the remaining one-fifth of the technology elite. The average age for these baby boomers is 52.
- Wired Generation Xers (GenXers) make up most of the technology elite (about 60%). The average age for this group is 36 years.
Technology elites in the United States have more than just a lot of technology, although they have plenty of that. For this group, the Internet, cell phone, digital videodisc player, and personal digital assistant are commonplace; many of them access the Internet wirelessly and are starting to pay for online content. What is distinctive about them is that new electronic communications technologies come first. They would rather do without their wireline telephone than their computer.
This is from
Consumption of Information Goods and Services in the United States, thanks to
Connect and Empower.
reading
What strikes me, reading
Mama Learned Us to Work, is that it gets beyond seeing history as winners and losers. In Hist 122 I sometimes ask the question whether any new technology always disadvantages someone (the best counterexample anyone has come up with is eyeglasses). But what strikes me in this book is that the people who seem to be disadvantaged, left out by the progress of technology, are also using technology in creative ways to improve their situation.
around the blogs
Karsten has some interesting review thoughts.
Jim asks if we would be better off with a scientists or engineer as president. He is only half serious, but the issue of whether more decisions should be made by experts and fewer by means of democracy is an interesting one.
Jacob proposes a high speed rail system for the southeast. Is this an idea whose time has come or gone?
Ryan writes about co-oping for GE.
Javier asks why can't spam be regulated?
Chris writes about Patterson NJ.
Sarah writes about how technology has changed farming.
Elizabeth says she will try to contain how much she dislikes computers. Actually, I think that an excellent topic to write about. In what respects are computers an example of technology that seems to be just a tool but in fact limits our world?
brain drain
An article on how creative technical people no longer see the United States as the only place to be, thanks to
Relevant History.
Agriculture
Anyone with experience on the impact of technology on agriculture please write about it in your blog. How will new technology transform agriculture? Are you ready for genetic engineering of
naked chickens?
