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Showing posts from May, 2006
TOOLS, THE MEASURE OF HUMANITY Peter Brown Through history and pre-history, scientists have learned to understand groups of people by the tools they left behind. Whether small family units or large masses of humanity, society has best expressed itself in the ways they devised to get their jobs done. Whole eras, sometimes spanning thousands of years, have been categorized by the broadest extensions of their simple implements. The stone age, broken down into the various ways that stones were transformed into useful devices, like the polished stone era, the small chip era where knapping was done in a way to maximize the aesthetics and enhancing functionality. The Bronze Age with its brilliant Greek weapons of war and even more beautiful pottery and jewelry are prime example of the tool being an extension of the tribal ethic. There are even occasions where the absence of tools has left us wondering about the level of civilization achieved by a society; the pyramids of Egypt were built w
What Is Alternate Energy? The term alternate energy refers to a number of energy sources that have not reached mainstream production yet. They are considered alternatives to existing sources for a number of reasons, not all of which are rational. Historically we consider one of the oldest sources of energy as derived from burning wood to produce heat and to enable cooking. The wood stove was first replaced by the coal stove and later by natural gas and electricity. More modern forms of energy for cooking are the microwave, radiant heat and convection. The last three are electrically produced. So what is the alternate energy? Well, in heating, one of the latest forms of energy is derived from wood pellets. This is a situation where an energy source has come full circle. But in the broader context, alternate energy is anything that is not coal, hydro, gas, petroleum or nuclear. Some would not put nuclear energy as a standard form of energy, and since Three Mile Island and Chernob
Great, now the Christians are up in arms about a fictional story concerning a mythical character. The Da Vinci Code movie is out, and in the spirit of Muslim tolerance, we are being urged not to see the movie. The idea of a horde of suicide bombing followers of Christ is pretty funny since that particular form of mythology actually spawns meek and meager victims rather than angry young people with too much time on their hands blowing up airplanes. No, much better to have irritated Christians than pissed off Muslims, but that can change. All we need is for some Ayatollah to declare that his kids care more for the Prophet than our kids care for Christ and off we go into the suicide finals. Showdown at the Roman corral. Hey 12 really bad cartoons compared to a very boring, two hour, movie! Sounds like a deal to me, besides, I always preferred cartoons, it kept me from having to think. The old Playboy mantra, it's not the pictures it's the articles.
I stand in awe of the visionary solution to the imminent threat of invasion by millions of disenfranchised Mexican pouring over our borders on a daily basis (whew, what a mouthful) Seriously, how original, how blindingly simple, let's build a 700 mile long wall to keep the immigrants on their side and the prisoners on our side. Brilliant, but I would like to offer a solution to the obvious questions that will go begging in the wake of this gigantic building program. Who will build it? I suggest that we round up the illegal immigrants and put them to work on their wall, poetic, no? We get all the illegally imported Mexicans to stay on their side of the wall to build it, we pay them minimum wages and make sure that after working on the damn thing for several years they are aware of the Wall and its purpose, plus, they'll be on the other side of the wall when it's finished, neat and clean. I already hear your objections, what about our side? Who will build our side of the