Chavez calls for democracy at work

This is one of two big aluminium plants in the south-eastern city of Puerto Ordaz, where most of Venezuela's basic industries are concentrated.

It is also the test bed for a new experiment in co-management, which President Hugo Chavez says is a key step towards a "socialism of the twenty-first century".

Alcides Rivero, who works here as a maintenance electrician, says co-management means that for the first time in this company's 37 years of existence, the workforce has control.

"It's us, the workers", he says, "who decide on questions of production and technology, and it's us who elect who will be our managers."

Full article from BBC

Science and Technology in Decline?

In his weekly opinion column, Harold Evans considers rising concern in the US over the Bush administration's hostility to science.

I used to get mad at the way it was left to America to bring to full fruition fine achievements by Britain's scientists, inventors and engineers. Take Alexander Fleming's penicillin, Frank Whittle's jet engine, Alan Turing's computer and Robert Watson Watt's radar.

All these breakthroughs found their fullest exploitation in the United States. Indeed, they all contributed to America's pre-eminence in science-based manufacturing and services.

Think of the personal computer and wonder drugs, of the jumbo jetliner, video games and the pacemaker, the laser that counts your groceries and the laser, or the global positioning satellite, that tells you to turn left at the roundabout.

That is why there is furious bewilderment here in the universities and the higher levels of business at the chilly indifference - not to say hostility - of the Bush White House to science. Continue reading.

A forum posting on the same topic

Like Concorde, Space Shuttle Was Ahead of its Time

With the obvious impending demise of the Space Shuttle program, NASA is faced with the same problem as the owners of 'broken down old cars: pay for repairs or get rid of it immediately.' In this op-ed from Le Monde, a look at the global ramifications of Discovery's latest flight.

One day, perhaps, the space shuttle will be tenable. In the distant future, technological progress will permit manned space vessels to break free of the Earth and return with the occupants without much concern or effort, as it is in science fiction movies.

In the mean time, problems persist, as demonstrated by the return flight of Discovery from July 26 to August 9. And these problems can be dangerous, with passengers placed in a vehicle the components of which are likely to be damaged during launch. Despite all the improvements made over the two-and-half years since the disintegration of Columbia and the death of its seven crew members, a few chunks of insulation broke off [during liftoff], threatening the integrity of Discovery’s heat shield.

Full article translated from French with photos

The Wisdom of Crowds

The Wisdom of Crowds (2004, Full title: The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations) is a book written by James Surowiecki about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. The book presents numerous case studies and anecdotes to illustrate its argument, and touches on several fields, primarily economics and psychology.

For Reference

Running On Fumes: A Journey To The End Of Empire

"We Americans should feel a sense of jubilation regarding the coming end of an era where oil and its attendant imperialist politics have come to define the lives of multiple generations. Maybe as our dependence on oil recedes, our human thirst for the water of life will return."

August 20, 2005
By Phil Rockstroh