Technology And Culture

Nel “Palazzo delle asce di rame” della città del Bronzo Antico IIIB (2500-2300 a.C.) di Khirbet al-Batrawy sono stati rinvenuti tre dischi superiori di tornio da vasaio, una delle maggiori innovazioni tecnologiche del IV-III millennio a.C. Questa scoperta ha portato ad una riconsiderazione dello strumento in tutti i contesti noti del Bronzo Antico palestinese al fine di indagarne i risvolti socio-economici all’interno della società sud-levantina del periodo.

Keywords: potter’s wheel/tournette; Khirbet al-Batrawy; Southern Levant; Early Bronze Age; ceramic manufacturing production

Now, plenty of people do really believe that form can follow function, and that if you thoroughly analyse the activity proper to the thing you are designing, then your analysis will provide all the information needed, and the design can be derived logically from the function. Plenty of people still believe that" purely functional" designs are possible, and believe that they themselves produce them, what is more! But none of them has yet divulged what an analysis of a function looks like and what logical steps lead from it to the design. ...

""Netzbasierte Kommunikation, Identität und Gemeinschaft" – in diesem Band finden sich zwanzig Beiträge versammelt, gruppiert um ein thematisches Zentrum: sich verändernde Muster individueller und kollektiver Identitätsbildungen in Verbindung mit sich verändernden Formen in der Assoziation zusammen lebender, interagierender oder miteinander kommunizierender Personen.
Als "sozio-kulturelle Transformationen" sind diese Veränderungen nicht einfach Folge erweiterter technischer Möglichkeiten oder deren breiterer Nutzung. Internet, computervermittelte Kommunikation und neue Medien zeichnen sich vielmehr dadurch aus, dass sie die Verhältnisse von "Virtualität und Realität" sowie von "Raum und Zeit" in einem bisher unbekannten Ausmaß gesellschaftlich verfügbar und gestaltbar machen.
Für uns ergeben sich damit neue Bedingungen und Modalitäten in der Expression und Wahrnehmung eigenen und fremden "kommunikativen Handelns" sowie im Arrangement des räumlichen und zeitlichen aufeinander Bezugnehmens von Interaktionen. Zu diskutieren sind daher ebenso vielfältige wie weitreichende Konsequenzen für unser Selbst- und Weltbild, unsere Vergesellschaftungsformen, die politische Willensbildung und die Diversität sprachlich-kultureller Praktiken überhaupt."

L’article porte sur une rumeur, apparue au Nigeria en 2004 et largement diffusée en Afrique et en Asie, selon laquelle certains numéros de téléphone portable provoqueraient la mort subite de ceux qui répondent à l’appel. Après avoir retracé la diffusion internationale de la rumeur, l’article montre que cette histoire de numéros tueurs exploite une inquiétude inhérente à la communication téléphonique : la menace des appels anonymes. Alors que les numéros tueurs font leur apparition en Afrique comme une forme inédite de sorcellerie, en Asie, cette version sorcellaire cède la place à une nouvelle variante : un virus téléphonique serait à l’origine du phénomène. L’article propose en définitive une épidémiologie culturelle de la rumeur attentive aux circonstances locales qui permettent de rendre compte de ses variantes régionales, mais aussi aux facteurs plus généraux qui expliquent sa diffusion et sa stabilité relative à l’échelle internationale.

To become successful in any professional practice today, students need to
demonstrate the ability to locate information in an efficient and effective
manner. They also need to be able to demonstrate proficiency in evaluating
information once it has been collected, and apply it appropriately.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) tools have been very
useful in knowledge gathering and information sharing. Unfortunately, many
students are using the same ICTs tools wrongfully for academic dishonesty,
cheating, and plagiarism. This paper seeks to provide an overview of the
literature related to the issue of academic dishonesty in institutions of higher
education and suggest some prevention methods. Hopefully, this paper will
provide educators with the information they need to better battle the
increasingly prevalent issue of cheating in our institutions

While technology and globalization continue to pervade every aspect of the world, the scope for the sustenance of national or regional culture is rapidly disappearing. This paper will seek to use the lessons and experiences obtained through the controversies in the use of Direct Broadcasting Satellites in its more initial years and apply the same to the Internet to assess its effect on the culture of developing States. The eventual thesis proposed here argues that the freedom of information upheld through technology, and the human right to culture need not be seen as perpendicular interests, but that the latter may be secured by its active participation in the market place of ideas (or cultures) i.e. by its projection rather than protection. Further, by drawing analogies with the evolution of principles for the protection of the environment, this paper offers a psychological framework for the development of a larger normative standard on which developing nations can base their struggle to correct the existing technological imbalance and demand technology transfer and knowledge sharing as matter of right and thereby ultimately, competitively project their culture.

The application of 3D digital technologies in the archaeological research expands more and more during the last decades. 3D recording, visualisation, representation and reconstruction of archaeological sites, monu-ments and artefacts become almost a common trend in the archaeological work. Moreover, CAD reconstruc-tions, 3D simulation, computer animation and other uses of computer systems change the traditional work-flow. The archaeological experience, though, recognizes these tools more for the general public in order to offer a visualisation of the target object than as a mechanism that can offer new possibilities for the research itself.
The focus of this article is to take a look at some of the opportunities given to the research field of archaeology by 3D technologies. Specifically the article will look into technologies regarding the 3D recording, processing, visualisation and representation of archaeological data. Through the use of specific case studies we will investigate how applications can contribute to the understanding first and the interpretation later on of a certain archaeological object. Issues such as the types of questions and problems that can be faced and answered with these 3D technologies will be raised and discussed. The possibility to get an expansion of the archaeological research in new aspects, as it happens with other technological tools (e.g. databases), will be also examined. In addition to these, the disadvantages and limitations of the application of these 3D tech-nologies in the archaeological field will be also looked at, in order to accomplish a more complete view of its usage.

This Impact Report identifies and summarises the diverse impacts, resulting from the £500m of UK funding of Science and Technology in 2013, using numerous quantitative metrics and short case study extracts.  It shows how the varied impacts of a national science and technology organization and its many funded programmes can be annually identified, captured, tracked, and summarised in a public document.

The report was produced for, and by, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) -  the UK Research Council responsible for funding: (1) all UK astronomy, particle and nuclear physics research, (2) related UK science and technology facilities (e.g. as Harwell and Daresbury), (3) the UK contribution to international science (e.g. CERN, international telescopes and space missions), (4) innovation and business spin-off programmes, and (5) UK public engagement activities.

The Report was co-researched and co-authored by the STFC Impact Team, including myself while Impact Evaluation Manager in 2013, with Dr. Claire Dougan-McCallie (lead author/Head of Impact) and Jenny Beard, with additional input from senior managers, and many data and case study contributions from other key managers across STFC.

Varied key impacts are identified and reported including:

• Research amongst the best (by citation impact) in astronomy, nuclear and particle physics.
• Supported research of 226 Principal Investigators in 70 universities, led to 1,100 peer-reviewed papers in 2012.
• Facilities (the Diamond Light Source, ISIS and CLF) were used in 2012/13 by over 4,200 unique users , in over 2,400 experiments, producing over 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

• Technology from CERN benefited the UK economy by over £100 billion every year.
• Funding the development of the UK’s space, internet and computer animation industries, returned over £500 billion to the UK economy per annum.
• Funded Innovation Campuses hosted over 230 enterprises and supported over 5,000 jobs.
• UK industry won £43 million in contracts from the international subscriptions funded, and had accumulated a total of £150 million since 2005.

• Funded research inspired future generations to study STEM subjects, attracting 90% of UK undergraduates to study physics, funded 782 PhD students  and 16,800 student training days.
• Between 2009 to 2012 public engagement programmes engaged people on 58 million occasions, with 2 million people engaged in face-to-face activities in 2013 alone.

Many scholars assume that industry meddles in scientific research in order to defend their products. But this article shows that industry meddling in science can have a variety of consequences. American food manufacturers long denied that trans fats were associated with disease. Academic scientists, government scientists, and activists in fact endorsed trans fats as a healthier alternative to saturated fats. But in 1990, a high-profile study showed that trans fats increased risk factors for heart disease more than saturated fats did. Industry funded a U.S. Department of Agriculture study that they hoped would exonerate trans fats. But the industry-funded U.S. Department of Agriculture study also indicated that trans fats increased risk factors for heart disease more than saturated fats. Industry quickly began developing trans fat alternatives. This confirms that corporations get involved in science in order to defend their products. But involvement in science can be the very means by which corporations persuade themselves to change their products.