Definition: “technology”

SYLLABICATION: tech·nol·o·gy
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. tech·nol·o·gies
1. The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives. 2. A force believed to be able to eliminate the need to choose between competing ends. 3. A minor deity of the 19th to 21st centuries AD, notable for not demanding sacrifices from its worshippers.
EXAMPLE: “There is a way [...]

Our slimy aquarium

I do not want to live in the London of 2027. In Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men, which came out in the waning months of 2006, the city is presented as a drab, wire-meshed, half-empty capital that would look dour even in Soviet-dominated eastern Europe – though it might do as a modernized version of [...]

He can look you in the eye as he says it, too

Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen captured as a fifteen-year-old by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in July of 2002, has been classified an “unlawful enemy combatant” by the Court of Military Commission Review, a status which gives the much-critized military commissions system jurisdiction over his case. Khadr is now 21.
Although Canada’s Conservative government has been content to [...]

Sweet victory

The United States over the past week has once again managed to temporarily achieve one of its key goals in Iraq, uniting the factionalized Iraqi government — against the United States. “Blackwater Shooting Crisis Rallies Baghdad” (registration req’d) is the title of a Wall Street Journal story on the fatal shooting by Blackwater military contractors [...]

Reflections on an American convoy in Iraq

It appeared, under the circumstances rather agreeable to him to see the common people dispersed before his horses, and often barely escaping from being run down. His man drove as if he were charging an enemy, and the furious recklessness of the man brought no check into the face, or to the lips, of the [...]

The spiral speeds

The ice cap on the North Pole is vanishing. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice during this past summer season was 4.13 million square kilometers. The previous record low, in 2005, was 5.32 million sq km.
Chorus: Alarmist! Unproven! How do you know the ice wasn’t [...]

The pope is infallible

Scott Horton’s invaluable No Comment blog directs my attention to a pleasing fact: the longstanding opposition of Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican to much of America’s present foreign policy, including its abhorrent use of torture. In a Dec. 13, 2005 address marking the Vatican’s World Day of Peace (held every New Years Day), Pope [...]

Giuliani’s global alliance

Visiting London, Rudy Giuliani suggested yesterday to the New York Times that Israel should be invited to join NATO: “They are a democracy,” he said. “They are an ally of the United States. They would have to decide whether that would be in their own national interest.” And in a speech that night to conservative [...]

Serious responsibilities

As others have already pointed out, being considered a “serious” member of the American foreign policy community has one overwhelming requirement: you must firmly believe, without a shred of doubt, in the right of the United States to use military force to violate the sovereignty of other countries in pursuit of its own national interests [...]

Unpacking

Well, here I am. The old house (www3.sympatico.ca/ian.g.mason/archipelagoes) was a good one, but it required a lot of upkeep. Tweaking HTML can really put a damper on a guy’s urge to post. Anyway, this new place is classy-looking and has all the mod-cons: comments, search fields, categories, you name it. And all for free. Not bad.
WordPress: You can [...]