One example of "one size fits all" design is the modern internal combustion engine. While there is currently a movement to incorporate electricity driven, hybrid, or ethanol-based engines for automobiles, for many years, nothing was done to modify the internal combustion engine's reliance on gasoline. The lack of innovation in that field over the last 100 years is greatly burdening our national economy and national security, not to mention the wallets of "Joe the everyman".
One example of eco-effectiveness design

Automatic Milking....?!?

A brief history of automatic milking:

"
o First Patents in Early '70s
o First Prototypes 1984 - 1986
o First implemented in Europe in 1992
o 2002: Over 1000 'robotic farms' in 18 countries, including 7 in the USA

"

What exactly is involved with automatic milking systems?

o Milking Stall
o Teat detection system
o Robotic arm for attaching teat cups
o Control Mechanisms including sensors and software
o Milking machine (including cleaning)

"Automatic Milking System" is a machine that allows a farmer to more freedom concerning cattle. It used to be that a farmer would have to keep to a rigorous schedule and perform the laborious activity of milking cows. Automatic Milking Systems free the farmer from being so entrenched in the milking process, reducing him to a more managerial role.
The first patents for Automatic Milking Systems appeared in the 1970's. The first prototypes were completed between 1984 and 1986, and were first applied to a commercial farm in England in 1992. Some farmers were dissatisfied with the process, citing concerns in technical problems, economic issues, and milk quality. Nevertheless, by 2002 more than 1000 Automatic Milking Systems were in use, including seven in the United States of America.
However, Automatic Milking Systems tend to be used more in areas without open pastures for grazing. In the Netherlands, for example, land is precious and valuable, so cows are guided through a maze-like barn. Often, the "milking station" will be positioned in the door way to the feeding, in order to lure the cow to get milked. The sensors in the unit detect where the utters are and a robotic arm moves suction cup-like pumps to the teats. Sensors indicate whether or not the cow is due to be milked. If the cow is due to be pumped it is, if not, it is guided away from the machine. Open grazing pastures are detrimental for the milking machine due to the fact that it is harder to lure the cows with food, as well as studies show that cows will not go to the machine if it is too far away.
There are many catalysts and corrosions in the area of automatic milking. There are concerns with the lack of contact between the farmer and the animal--making it harder for problems to be detected by the farmer. The Somatic Cell Count (SCC) is usually lower in machine-extracted milk, probably due to increased milking (as opposed to two milking sessions per day) but is a concern for milk quality. Having cows cooped up is not good, either, because it increases the amount of excrement around the cows, which is a health hazard for the cows. The initial cost of implementing the system is also an issue.
The biggest advantage, of course, to automatic milking is freeing up the farmer. Milking cows is a tedious and laborious task, and the machine allows the farmer to attend to other animals or crops, and reduces the stress on the farmer. Output is generally increased, allowing for more efficient and plentiful product. The software constantly monitors cows in the herd, so subtle shifts in response to changes in the feed or condition of the cattle can be more easily documented and compounded more often. Because the milking is "elective", it is believed to reduce the stress on cows that having a standard milking time produces.

Windows' Rise to Domination

Windows Timeline -- The first 20 years.


1975 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen, under the tentative name of “Micro-Soft” write the first language program for personal computers, a modified BASIC code designed for the Altair

1980 – IBM hires Bill Gates and Paul Allen to write an operating system for IBM PCs. They develop versions of programming languages BASIC, COBOL, and PASCAL

1981 – After buying the rights to a simple operating system developed by Seattle Computer Products, Allen and Gates develop MS – DOS – Microsoft’s Disk Operating System.

1981 – August MS – DOS 1.0 is released

1983 – May 2 – Microsoft unveils the “mouse” a handheld device that allows the user of an IBM PC to quickly move a cursor across the screen.

1983 – September 29 – Microsoft Word for MS – DOS 1.0 is announced; a demo is packaged with PC World on a floppy disk. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) is Word’s theme that sets it apart from competitors, allowing the user to see and view boldface, italics, and underlined text.

1983 – November 10 – Microsoft announces Microsoft Windows, the first operating system operating on a Graphical User Interface (GUI) an extension of MS - DOS, the highlight of which is the ability to switch through virtual “windows” and view unrelated programs simultaneously.

1985 – November 20 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
The following set of mini applications debuted with Windows
MS-DOS Executive
Calendar
Cardfile
Notepad
Terminal
Calculator
Clock
Reversi (a strategy game)
Control Panel
PIF (Program Information File) Editor
Print Spooler
Clipboard
RAMDrive
Windows Write
Windows Paint

1987 – April 2 – Microsoft announces the Microsoft Operating System/2 (MS OS/2) a new operating system, the first fruit of a partnership with IBM. Microsoft also announces Microsoft Windows 2.0, which is compatible with all existing Windows applications and is designed to work seamlessly with MS OS/2.

1987 – Microsoft reaches $100 per share

1990 – Microsoft releases Windows 3.0, which goes on to sell more than three million copies in the year.

1990 – Microsoft becomes the first company whose profits exceed $1 billion dollars.

1992 – Microsoft releases Windows 3.1, which sells over a million copies in two months.

Global Cities = Flat World?

Sassen defines global cities as cities "where international financial functions are disproportionately concentrated and whose economies are most closely integrated with the global economy". Part of Sassen's argument includes the theory that the global cities act as hubs for financial functions, and other, smaller cities act as virtual nodes, using the global cities to send and receive information all over the world. For example, In order for a business in Scranton Pennsylvania to interact with a business in Dublin, Ireland, the transmission might go from Scranton, to New York, to London, to Dublin, using New York and London as vehicles to transfer the communication. The globalization of cities occurred primarily due to the awesome inventions in telecommunications over the last 20 years. In The Wold is Flat, Thomas Friedman defines those forces which have "flattened the world", and reason number two, second only to Windows, is the internet--more specifically, the internet as a vehicle for work-flow software.

The internet, as a vehicle for work-flow software is by far and wide the biggest catalyst of the rise of global cities. It allows businesses and financial advisers to communicate with the touch of a button. It is the reason an international bank in Rio de Janeiro can send a a year's worth of financial records to New York in seconds. Work-flow software is what allows companies to outsource and offshore certain jobs to reduce labor costs and increase profit margins, which make for more lucrative investments for affluent people in any part of the world. The globalization of cities allows for an investor in Tokyo to easily invest in an American company such as Dell.

However, work-flow software can hurt just as much as it can help. While increasing profit margins is well and good for the prosperity of businesses, one corrosion of the advancements in work-flow software involves the economies of these global cities. If a company in a global city is offshoring work, it is laying off jobs and hurting a neccessary piece of the city--whether it is global or not--the economy. Less people employed means less money circulating. That, combined with the shady investments of investors in these global cities, can lead to a big economic crash, such as the one that happens to be occurring in what is arguably the greatest global city on Earth--New York. The current economic crisis facing not only America, but the rest of the world as well, displays a corrosive flaw in the very structure of the global city--too much interdependence.

We have seen how much prosperity globalization can cause, and it is scary to think we just might now be seeing how much harm it can cause, as well.

Dumbing Down Warfare

Technology has always been a measurement of warfare—of history. Periods of human history are defined by the tools available at the time—the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, and the steel age are all named for how mankind has been able to adapt and use such materials. Warfare has evolved with mankind’s discoveries and innovations. The club, the bow and arrow, the sword, the musket, grenade, the machine gun, the airplane, the missile, biological weapons and the atomic bomb have all defined how humans wage war; create destruction. Wars have always been judged by the damage caused, the carnage inflicted. War has always been a serious subject, a last resort, due to the toll it takes on a nation’s population. It has always been personal, bloody, and terrifying. Due to innovations in the last sixty years, the seriousness in which we consider war may have come to an end—thanks to the most advanced harbinger of destruction invented—the “smart” bombs.

“Smart” bombs are explosive devices that can strike pinpoint targets in an extremely accurate fashion from very far away. The first “smart” bomb was deployed by the Nazis in World War II when an Italian submarine was struck by a missile guided by radio. Thanks to the creation of global positioning systems, “smart” bombs can be more accurate than any weapon in history. A famous picture from the first Gulf war depicts a missile blazing through the door of a building—an amazing amount of precision. Part of the pitch for Operation Iraqi Freedom involved Boeing’s Joint Direct Attack Munitions—“smart” bombs which are “10 times more accurate than an unguided bomb but 10 times cheaper than a laser guided bomb.” Theoretically, “smart” bombs such as the Joint Direct Attack Munitions could revolutionize the way wars are approached and fought, yet there are some pros and cons with this technology that should be taken into consideration.

One of the heaviest factors in even deciding whether or not to wage war—to evaluate the worth of fighting for an ideal such as democracy—is the possible casualties. For example, 40 million people died in World War I alone. Ever since, great consideration has been given to stop such casualties from ever occurring again. “Smart” bombs could take away from military casualties. “Smart” bombs theoretically allow a country to strike targets from miles away with absolutely precision, doing away with the need for ground insurgents and brutal campaigns throughout enemy territory. “Smart” bombs increase the opportunity to end wars quickly, eliminating wars of attrition such as World War I, where fighting lasted for four years. Quick wars spare human lives. Due to their precision, “smart” bombs can spare civilian lives on either side of a war, taking away the collateral damage aspect caused by dropping unguided bombs from airplanes. Smart bombs are also remarkable for defense, being able to shoot other missiles straight out of the sky.

No matter how amazing the catalysts of “smart” bombs appear, their corrosions cannot be ignored. Ideally, “smart” bombs such as the JDAM have a 98% hit accuracy, with 2% allotted for technological mishaps , but this is a very rosy figure. While the U.S. Government would have us believe that most of the “smart” bomb attacks at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom were successful, in the documentary Why We Fight it is reported that virtually none hit their respective targets. U.S. intelligence had Saddam Hussein was visiting his sons and daughters at Dora Farms in Baghdad. Four satellite guided, bunker buster GBU-27s were dropped on the complex. One missile missed entirely, and the other three went over the wall of the complex. The attack killed one civilian and injured 14 others. As it stands, no matter how promising they are “smart” bombs are not yet accurate enough to commit an entire war to—a fact the United States learned the hard way. JDAMs are quite expensive—not as expensive as their predecessors, laser guided missiles, but they still carry a price tag of around $24,000 a piece. This is quite expensive if you imagine the scale at which they are used on both fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially when they are not as accurate as boasted about. JDAMs are susceptible to GPS jamming equipment, which can be made by spare parts in any electronics store. The U.S. military claims that the GPS they use is encoded differently from civilian GPS systems, but that does not bode well for $24,000 investments which are so lauded for their accuracy. Finally, JDAMs, while powerful, have the opportunity to accomplish that which has been feared for a long time—the dehumanization of war. War’s are so terrifying and serious because of the toll they take on humanity; because of the blood, sweat, tears, trials, and tribulations. If “smart” bombs, such as JDAMs, become the standard of warfare, it will be infinitely easier to combat one’s enemies without putting one’s soldiers and civilians in mortal danger. The day war becomes blasé, the day war becomes less personal and horrific is the day that the military-industrial complex is building towards, and the day the world, as we know it, will end.

A Science of the State

Catalysts and Corrosions: Transportation

1. What are the catalysts of transportation in support of the state?

a.) Transportation makes for a more united nation--it is easier get information and important people to and from the capital.

b.) The maintenance of roads and highways creates more jobs for citizens

c.) Transportation boosts the local economy, making it easier for people to travel for tourism and making it easier to ship goods throughout the state quickly and efficiently.

2. What are the corrosions of transportation that undermine the support of the state?

a.) Unrest of the people--the policy of Eminent Domain as roads, highways, and railroad tracks are built.

b.) Paying workers to keep roads and highways and maintaining them puts stress on the state budgets.

c.) Transportation, at least as it is now, causes interdependence on foreign sources of fuels, which, at the moment, is causing fuels to be inordinately expensive and hard on the state and the consumer. This dependence of foreign oil is also weakening the American dollar, which is not good for the state's station as a world power.

Artificial Politik

It is slightly hard to imagine that artifacts of human creation can have politics, but it is absolutely true. The most common example of this would be the stop sign. What is a stop sign? It is an octagonal sheet of metal, usually red, with four white letters on it, that sits on top of a metal pole. Even if the face of the sign is worn, letters nearly unreadable, drivers everywhere know what it is and what to do when they arrive at one--stop the car. The stop sign represents law and order, controls the way people drive their automobiles and interact with each other on the road. As a pedestrian, the stop sign protects us and watches out for us, a silent guardian. If a person does not see it or chooses to speed right past it, it also punishes us, bringing down the full power of the law (if there is a police officer around to see it). It is amazing what a sheet of metal can contribute to society, when infused with a little politics.