Diebold

Oh for the good old days of paper. Two Daily Kos links on Dieblod voting machines in the news.

Diebold feels the heat
Diebold machines are scary

It's not enough to have gizmos and gadgets. Technology does not make democracy work.

11:09:56 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Making Coffee Right

Am I the only one who has trouble with coffee machines? One scoop? Two? How much water? What line? I can't see well in the dark in the morning. I can't remember well in the dark at night. Am I the only one?

As we sat that morning eating cereal and honeybuns with Headline News blaring from the TV and speeding cars streaming by on the Interstate, one of the staff came into the hotel lobby and found the coffee gone. So she opened a carafe, set it under the brewing machine, pushed the green button, and left the room.

But... she didn't change the filter, so the hot water ran thru the old grounds and the coffee came out looking like tea.

Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe it was not.

The fear of coffee machines is more widespread than we realize, more widespread than we care to admit. Like flashing clocks on VCRs, like CD players with too many buttons, like all the gizmos and gadgets that decorate our lives, the coffee makers are telling us something.

We like to congratulate ourselves on the great ascent we have made since we were hunting mammoth and gathering ripe berries in the underbrush of prehistory. We like to point to our machines and devices, at the bright lights and stainless steel surfaces of our inventions. We point to them as evidence of how far we have come.

Yet we cannot make the coffee right.

10:31:56 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []