Ursula Franklin (born 1921) is a Canadian metallurgist, research
physicist, author and educator who has taught at the University of
Toronto for more than 40 years. She is the author of The Real World of
Technology, which is based on her 1989 Massey Lectures, and The Ursula
Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map, a collection of her papers,
interviews, and talks. Franklin is a practising Quaker and has been
active in working on behalf of pacifist and feminist causes. Franklin
has received numerous honours and awards, including the Governor
General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case for promoting the
equality of girls and women in Canada and the Pearson Medal of Peace
for her work in advancing human rights. Franklin is best known for her
writings on the political and social effects of technology. For her,
technology is a comprehensive system that includes methods, procedures,
organization, "and most of all, a mindset". She distinguishes between
holistic technologies used by craft workers or artisans and
prescriptive ones associated with a division of labour in large-scale
production. Franklin argues that the dominance of prescriptive
technologies in modern society discourages critical thinking and
promotes "a culture of compliance".
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Franklin>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1272:
The first session of the Second Council of Lyon was held to discuss,
among others, the pledge by Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos
to end the Great Schism and reunite the Eastern church with the West.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Council_of_Lyon>
1824:
Ludwig van Beethoven's last complete symphony, the Symphony No. 9 in D
minor, which incorporates part of Friedrich Schiller's poem "Ode to
Joy" in its fourth movement, premiered at the Kärntnertortheater in
Vienna.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_%28Beethoven%29>
1895:
Alexander Stepanovich Popov presented his radio receiver, refined as a
lightning detector, to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Stepanovich_Popov>
1915:
World War I: The German submarine Unterseeboot 20 torpedoed and sank
the ocean liner RMS Lusitania , killing 1,198 on board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania>
1920:
Soviet Russia recognized the independence of the Democratic Republic of
Georgia by signing the Treaty of Moscow, only to invade the country six
months later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Moscow_%281920%29>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
countenance (v):
To tolerate, support, sanction, or approve of something
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/countenance>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If nature has been frugal in her gifts and endowments, there is the
more need of art to supply her defects. If she has been generous and
liberal, know that she still expects industry and application on our
part, and revenges herself in proportion to our negligent ingratitude.
The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated,
shoots up into the rankest weeds; and instead of vines and olives for
the pleasure and use of man, produces, to its slothful owner, the most
abundant crop of poisons.
--David Hume
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Hume>