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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I had to part with my Mom’s Sunbeam
mixer, as it just couldn’t cream butter anymore (it had had a good run, maybe
even 35 years). Really made me sad, though -- I learned to bake with it as a
girl by her side (and got to lick the batter off its beaters!). I also had to
give up on my stepmother’s old ‘portable’ Singer, when it
couldn’t be reliably repaired, but it, too, was probably 40 years old. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Don’t get me started on shoes and
clothing. I have dresses that are probably 40 and 50 years old and look fine, and
my son has worn some of my brother’s baby clothes, which I know are 50
years old. I even have two blouses that belonged to my grandmother, who was
born in 1895. They are delicate but still wearable. I have shoes and clothes
that I bought as a teenager, too. Have several of my Mom’s old aprons ...
the list goes on.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>And furniture... what happened to building
with real wood? Press board doesn’t last, and you can’t give it
away after a few years. (Sal Army will not pick up press board furniture
donations.)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>The esprit de corps around keeping and
reusing definitely seems to be different now than it was when I grew up and
when I was a young adult. I think there’s also a bit of a West Coast
thing going on (too hard to schlep antiques across the country). Maybe my
family was unusual, maybe it’s a Midwestern thing, or maybe because I
grew up with a grandmother who guided her family through the Depression (including
dealing with losing their house), the belief that waste is sinful was instilled
in me.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>There’s no doubt that obsolescence
is planned into many products and plain old low-quality is the rule for most
others. I like to feel the years in a tool and touch those memories when I hold
it, though there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a new outfit or gadget too.
It’s important to have a balance. Tom, I think your earlier caution about
consumption is very on the mark. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I’m not sure why/how the values around
consumption and waste in this country have changed so much since I was a kid,
but maybe we can all spiral back to less waste-creating beliefs in an even
better form.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Erin<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
social-bounces@lists.deeptrouble.com
[mailto:social-bounces@lists.deeptrouble.com] <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On
Behalf Of </span></b>Tom Radulovich<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, June 07, 2010 5:26
PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> Social<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: SOCIAL: Fwd:
Introducing iPhone 4.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>After I sent this, I looked around at the dead electronics in view, and
tried to imagine the tons and tons of water, oil, coal, ore, trees, etc. that
went into making them, and the tons of carbon dioxide, soot, mine
tailings, fly ash, hydrocarbon sludge, etc. that they left as waste; it
would fill the room I am in several times over - perhaps the entire building!
Sobering.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Then I think about my aunt's KitchenAid mixer, or my grandmother's
chairs, flour sifter, and rolling pin, which still serve me well although they
are all older than I am. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Some folks are thinking about designing things in very different
ways. Worldchanging had an article about designing for durability and continued
usefulness – "heirloom design" which I quite liked. Think
about a fine pen or a watch you can imagine leaving to your grandchildren (or
grandnieces and grandnephews)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009630.html">http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009630.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I imagine that at some point, technology will stabilize, and many
devices will do pretty much everything you need them to do, and do it
elegantly. Apple makes quite elegant products, if not particularly durable
ones. Maybe one day there will be the mobile phone equivalent of the KitchenAid
mixer, that will last for decades.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>On Jun 7, 2010, at 5:03 PM, Amandeep Jawa wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>What Tom said is how it is.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I will only add that that is why Apple has very consciously moved to
making things out of high grade aluminum and glass rather than plastic. We
have pointed out numerous times that we do this because these materials
(particularly the high grade versions we use) are sought after in recycling
because they are the most valuable.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I'm not saying that is everything, but it is something.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>On Jun 7, 2010, at 4:40 PM, Tom Radulovich wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>It's an excellent point, Palak. These machines are the product of a
culture that plans in obsolescence. Even if you want to hold on to them (as I
do, not necessarily out of virtue, but rather because I am cheap, and don't
like to have to learn how to use new gadgets) they aren't made to last, or the
company that makes them quickly stops supporting them. As I write this, I am
sitting in an office with four non-working printers that need to be disposed
of. I just took a bunch of mobile-phone chargers to Goodwill for electronics
recycling yesterday, and was reminded of how wasteful (and expensive!) it is
that every phone seems to have a unique charger – while I understand that
the EU now requires that all phones sold in Europe from now on have a standard
charger, it seems a way off here in the US.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I started reading John Thackara's book, In the Bubble, which is about
design. He has a great chapter on how much waste that the electronics industry
generates:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>"Apart from its impact on the wider economy, information
technology is heavy in itself. It's a heavy user of matter in all the hardware
needed to run it. One of the hidden costs of the misnamed sillicon age is the
material and energy flows involved in the manufacture and use of microchips. It
takes 1.7 kilograms of materials to make a microchip with 32 megabytes of
random-access memory - a total of 630 times the mass of the final product. The
"fab" of a basic memory chip, and running it for the typical life
span of a computer, eats up eight hundred times the chip's weight in fossil
fuel. Thousands of potentially toxic chemicals are used in the manufacturing
process. A single microchip is, it is true, a small thing – on its own.
But there are a lot of them about – and many more to come. Promoters of
ubiquitous computing promise us that <i><span style='font-style:italic'>trillions</span></i>
of smart embedded devices are on the way.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>" The ecological footprint of computing is not limited to the
chips. The manufacture of electronic devices also involves highly intensive
material processes. A great deal of nature has to be moved during the
production of communications equipment. Many components require the use of
high-grade minerals that can be obtained only through major mining operations
and energy-intensive transformation processes. One of the most startling pieces
of information brought to light in Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter
Lovins' <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Natural Capitalism </span></i>is
that the amount of waste matter generated in the manufacture of a single laptop
computer is close to four thousand times its weight on your lap. Fifteen to
nineteen tons of energy and materials are consumed in the fabrication of one
desktop computer. To compound matters: As well as being resource-greedy to
make, information technology devices also have notoriously short lives. The
average compact disc is used precisely once in its life, and every gram of
material that goes into the consumption or production of a computer ends up
rather quickly as either an emission or as solid waste. In theory, electronic
products have technical service lives on the magnitude of thirty years, but
thanks to ever-shorter innovation cycles, many devices are disposed of after a
few years or months."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>On Jun 7, 2010, at 3:55 PM, palak joshi wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
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<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I am not sure if i am supposed to feel like this but I do anyway.
Maybe someone will have an explanaiton that will make me feel better.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I do understand evolution and how things get better with time..after
usage and with new technology. But i cant help but get a little upset over the
fact that the iphone that i had excitedly bought a couple of years ago is now
'outdated'. It doesnt have any of the things that 4 g (right) have! <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Am I supposed to stay committed to my existing phone (its cracked!) or
go for the better one? When does one 'settle down' with a technology...does
that happen when one dies or when one doesnt have any money ...and to me both
sound like extreme. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>What is the fine line
between consumerism and getting excited with new technology? I have had these
qustions bother me many times...I would love to talk about it if any body else
feels the same way..if not i will wait around for the next topic on
social :) <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 3:47 PM, Amy Muller <<a
href="mailto:amymuller@gmail.com">amymuller@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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