Steve Naidamast The continuous mix of poorly produced software and/or its misuse in daily life is having an increasingly degenerative effect on the lives of those who use it, especially when software is misused to the extent that younger generations are now adapting to it with mobile computing devices. A recent paper clinically demonstrates…
Michael Gallagher I’m just mild about Francis: Pope Francis, that is. I’m afraid I can’t get that excited about either the Synod of Bishops, whose first session just ended, or the Pope himself. I don’t deny that gay marriage, admitting divorced Catholics to Communion, and the like are serious issues that warrant discussion and should…
Steve Naidamast Frank Drake, in the development of his famous equation in the early 1960s for the search for extra-terrestrial life, included what is known as the “L” variable. This variable stipulates, in addition to the viability of a civilization’s life-span, the concept that if an earth-like planet is found with no life upon it, this lack…
W.J. Astore. Also featured at Huffington Post. This August marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. That “Great War” was many things, but it was most certainly a war of machines, of dreadnought battleships and “Big Bertha” artillery, of newfangled airplanes and tortoise-like tanks. Industrial juggernauts like Great Britain, France, and…
W.J. Astore Twenty-five years ago, I wrote the following paper for a class in the history of technology. Back then, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and acid rain as well as global warming were issues highlighting the drawbacks of technology. CFCs were damaging the ozone layer, acid rain was poisoning our lakes and streams and damaging trees, with…
Daniel N. White I’m always glad to read anything Henry Petroski writes and I enjoyed his recent New York Times article on the decline of craftsmanship in building, but my feeling is that he dumbed things down some for this op-ed. That’s easy enough to do, given the difficulty of getting technical information across in…
Stuart Lyle. Introduction by William Astore. Ah, the Smart Phone generation. I see my students gazing into them, texting with them, flipping through photos, watching videos, taking photos, you name it. Smart phones promise to link us together, but they paradoxically encourage selfish and anti-social behavior as well. People are more atomistic and narcissistic as…
The Contrary Perspective 