That's not Hi-Cool, That's Genocide:
On the general theory that it is as well to know which tunes the devil is playing, I usually pick up a copy of the New Statesman each time I visit England. (I used to read it more often on line, but since they instituted a pay-per-view system for all on line content, I've always ended up deciding that there are better ways to spend my allowance. For the price of a single NS article, you can get half a pint of lager in London, for instance: a much better deal, if you ask me.)Me too, particularly here in Pirate Satellite Command Central (TM) where I have a horde of computers exhausting innumerable watts. Much more by following the link and also be sure to check out his post on ethnography:
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I did quite enjoy, however, the piece by Dan Rosenheck on the politics of air conditioning. Or rather, I suppose I should say, "the American cultural construct of air conditioning."
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The article itself, however, for me, is a mere framing device for a couple choice quotes from what appear to be an entire anti-air conditioning book by one Marsha Ackerman. (Cool Comfort: America's Romance with Air Conditioning.) "[Americans] don't think about when they need to use air conditioning and when they don't," she says. "They don't think about other values in their lives." Guilty as charged, I suppose. I'm all about the AC as anyone who knows me knows.
