This above is a teaser for a 20min video. Titled, “The Story of Stuff,” the video looks at production and consumption patterns. It exposes “the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.”
For the full video, visit: http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Forget the military. When will this be commercially mass-produced for public use? I hope it would be priced like cars though, and not cost a bomb. I don’t want to be the only kid who cannot break through walls.
One contributing factor to the rapid development of the Muslim world is the use of paper.
Papers have always been cheap even since it was first invented in China. This made it an efficient and effective tool in disseminating knowledge.
Back then, the Western world was still stuck with using papyrus which are expensive and thus, impeded the recording of information and then sharing it around. This inevitably contributed to the slower development of arts and sciences in the Western Europe.
Today, paper is still abundant.
But at the same time, we have digital technology too.
Many people have suggested that papers would be replaced by computers soon.
But many have brushed off at such thoughts. It seems that papers are much too convinient too be wiped out anytime soon.
But then, this argument is not really productive.
The trick is not to ask whether or not it is time for paper to go away.
The question is to ask, how to best use both technology – paper and digital systems.
And the purpose is none other that to better the advancement of knowledge for the Muslims.
Currently, the forerunners of digital technology seems to be Extreme Aethists like Dawkins and Hitchens.
Both use the internet to preach, but at the same time, they write books.
So we can see here, the utilization of both technology.
Currently, individual Muslims have been embracing internet technology.
Typically, it is the setting up of blogs, websites and posting up video clips e.t.c….
While this is all great and dandy, it is not enough.
The Muslim academia has to get involved too.
They must utilise internet technology – to the fullest.
We can argue that we do have such instances occuring already.
SunniPath and Tajweed Podcast in English are a few examples. But I would likt to think that it would be even greater if the Muslim academia is extended to include other general subjects as well. The Mathematics, Sciences, Arts and all.
Why should we restrict the embrace of internet technology to just “religious” knowledge?
I think we can and should, embrace internet for the use of disseminating knowledge of all kind.
Only then, can we advance further.
Of course, talking and contemplating about the possibilities are easy.
Doing and implementing them is another thing altogether.
But hey, every action starts off with some fundamental ideas first.
[Add-ited: I am in no way saying that existing Islamic institutions are flawed and should be revamped. Everyone can't be doing the same thing right? There has to be specialized schools e.t.c. What I'm saying is the possibility of establishing new academic institutions that encompass a holistic outlook. I probably won't see this happening in the near future. I probably won't even see it within in my lifetime. But I think there will be efforts to move towards this holistic approach in the Muslim academia.]
“Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good” is a good read, and is actually featured in “The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2002″.
No, it’s not the salt. And it’s definitely not the sauce.
Here’s something from the initial paragraphs:
The taste of a french fry is largely determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald’s cooked its french fries in a mixture of about seven percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mixture gave the fries their unique flavor — and more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald’s hamburger.
In 1990, amid a barrage of criticism over the amount of cholesterol in its fries, McDonald’s switched to pure vegetable oil. This presented the company with a challenge: how to make fries that subtly taste like beef without cooking them in beef tallow.
A look at the ingredients in McDonald’s french fries suggests how the problem was solved. Toward the end of the list is a seemingly innocuous yet oddly mysterious phrase: “natural flavor.” That ingredient helps to explain not only why the fries taste so good but also why most fast food — indeed, most of the food Americans eat today — tastes the way it does.
Open your refrigerator, your freezer, your kitchen cupboards, and look at the labels on your food. You’ll find “natural flavor” or “artificial flavor” in just about every list of ingredients.
So, exactly what is this “artificial flavor”?
What do perfumes,shampoos and furniture polish have in common?
What do perfumes, shampoos and furniture polish have anything to do with McDonald’s Fries anyway?
To find out more, get the full flavour!
It is well known that Islam’s golden age was a time where the sciences flourished.
But how was this possible and what are the factors that led to the eventual downfall of science within the Islamic empire?
As the title suggests, this article offers an interesting perspective that give answers to these questions.
The article is written by Dennis Overbye and was featured in “The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2002″.
New York Times has now made it a ‘freeware’.
So, go on, read the full article.
Excerpts:
…Muslims created a society that in the Middle Ages was the scientific center of the world. The Arabic language was synonymous with learning and science for 500 hundred years, a golden age that can count among its credits the precursors to modern universities, algebra, the names of the stars and even the notion of science as an empirical inquiry.
”Nothing in Europe could hold a candle to what was going on in the Islamic world until about 1600,” said Dr. Jamil Ragep, a professor of the history of science at the University of Oklahoma.
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Educational guidelines once issued by the Institute for Policy Studies in Pakistan, for example, included the recommendation that physical effects not be related to causes.
For example, it was not Islamic to say that combining hydrogen and oxygen makes water. ”You were supposed to say,” Dr. Hoodbhoy recounted, ”that when you bring hydrogen and oxygen together then by the will of Allah water was created.”