 Nine
articles this week on completely different subjects, none of which you
will learn about from the mainstream media, because they're too complex
to dumb down to a two-minute story.
A House Design That Consumes No Net Energy: Really interesting 10-year-old concept summary for siting and construction of a house such that, in many climates, it would be entirely energy self-sufficient. Anyone know if it's been tried in practice? Thanks to Steven at Deconsumption for the link.
Brad DeLong Predicts Economic Meltdown: Lefty blogger and economist Brad DeLong, writing at Salon, weighs the odds that Bush has already pushed the US, and the world, over the economic tipping point.
American Psychological Association Justifies Member Involvement in Torture:
If you need a reason to distrust psychiatrists, psychologists and their
methods, their association's sleazy and slippery justification for
their members' involvement in US political and military torture at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and who knows where else, explained in this Salon article by Mark Benjamin, should fit the bill.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cognition: A great compendium of online articles
about philosophy, the mind, phenomenology, consciousness, and all that
stuff, assembled by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad. Thanks to Andrew Campbell
for the link.
Bono: Capitalist Tool: For those who still don't realize celebrity tinkerers are doing more harm than good
in their embrace and debate with equally clued-out political and
business leaders, Andrew Leonard in Salon will set you straight.
US War on Drugs Ignores Evidence That Suffering is the Precursor for Addiction: A fascinating article from the Guardian points to research on lab rats that suggests that only rats that live in deprived environments become addicts.
The idea that ending global poverty, violence and misery would
eliminate the need for the preposterous 'war on drugs' is, of course,
anathema to the mindset of Bush & Co.
Human-Computer Interaction: The Next Generation:
A lengthy article by John Canny reviews the history of HCI and suggests
a leapfrog is necessary to make next-gen electronics much more useful.
They need to be designed, he says, to be context-aware,
and hence to use heuristic neural processes rather than dumb analytical
ones. Once again, this is all about abandoning dysfunctional and
inadequate 'complicated' systems, methods and technologies, and
embracing complexity, with all its imprecision, unpredictability, and
wonder. Thanks to Innovation Weekly for the link.
The US is Indefensible:
Also on the subject of complexity, Ron Suskind, interviewed here in
Salon, finally makes the point that the War on Terror (like the War on
Drugs referred to above) cannot be won, because a complex democratic
republic can never be defended from all conceivable attacks. Indefensibility is not an inevitable consequence of democracy, however, but an inevitable consequence of complexity.
Peak Oil and the Threat to Knowledge (and to the Internet):
A lengthy and wonderfully-researched article by Alice Friedemann in
Energy Bulletin explains that the End of Oil threatens not only our
material well-being but our ability to maintain and retrieve our collective learning and knowledge
as well. Scary stuff. Return to an oral culture, anyone? She also
explains, again, why nukes, hydrogen cells, solar and wind cannot solve
the crisis that the End of Oil will precipitate. Thanks to Dale Asberry for the link. |
3:15:45 PM 
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