“Massachusetts officials on Wednesday ordered every road and tunnel in the city highway system examined after inspectors found at least 60 more trouble spots in the Big Dig tunnel where a woman was crushed to death on Monday by three-ton ceiling tiles.” (New York Times ) Perhaps it is because this is my city and I have driven through the new tunnels countless numbers of times, but I think everyone should be distressed by the fact that this is how it goes in one of the largest public works projects in American history. And the numerous faulty bolts (at least sixty more trouble spots as of last report) holding three-ton concrete ceiling slabs in place are probably the tip of the iceberg of the substandard and cost-cutting job done at the expense of innocent commuters’ lives. Should we have expected differently? Do we have a right to? If there is more than one way to do a job and one of them will end in disaster, someone said, than somebody will do it that way. But I suspect the fault does not lie in the engineering or technological realm as much as that of human malfeasance and sloppiness.
Daily Archives: 13 Jul 06
Paralyzed Man Uses Thoughts to Move a Cursor
“A paralyzed man with a small sensor implanted in his brain was able to control a computer, a television set and a robot using only his thoughts, scientists reported yesterday.
Those results offer hope that in the future, people with spinal cord injuries, Lou Gehrig’s disease or other conditions that impair movement may be able to communicate or better control their world.” (New York Times )
The Taming of the Slur
““Slut’’ is tossed around so often and so casually that many teenagers use it affectionately and in jest among their friends, even incorporating it into their instant messenger screen names.
Like “queer” and “pimp” before it, the word slut seems to be moving away from its meaning as a slur. Or is it?” (New York Times )
