Californication meets Tranpacificism

So, what exactly am I doing here in Parras? As aforementioned, I’m on a school program studying Spanish (Español, o Catalano?) and Apropriate Technology (AT, o tecnologica apropreada). The latter will likely end up as part of my Environmental Sciences degree, or on the off chance I switch to ERE, a minor. It’s cool because we have a Campus Center for Appropriate Technology at Humboldt, which is pretty cool. Check it to understand/feel it better.
Here’s the slightly wordsmithed definition that our class came up with through use of a group process:

“Appropriate Technology (AT) encompasses thoughts, tools, implementations and observations, dependant upon cultural, political, economic and geographic context. In addition, AT works with and mimics the flow of nature to improve over existing impacts. AT includes adaptability, durability, and lifecycle analysis, while facilitating nonviolence and empowerment through community identified and locally maintainable/operable holistic approaches to meeting needs for present and future generations.”

I was debating replacing/adding to the aforereferenced wikipedia definition, but I never came to any sort of a conclusion about that, especially since I’ve really only truly discovered the wikipedia within the last year. (As with so many computer-related things! I wonder whatever happened to everything2.. eh.

Here’s that definition translated to spanish, which a professor here at UTC, Eduardo “Eddy” helped us (Alyssa Grassi) to translate from our above English definition, hopefully it’s good:

“Tecnología Apropiada (TA) según la descripción de los estudiantes de HSU, abarca las ideas, observaciones, herramientas e implementaciones que se adaptan a una cultura, una política y una economía en una zona geográfica especifica. La TA además funciona imitando el flujo de la naturaleza, cuidando el impacto humano sobre ella. La TA incluye aspectos como la adaptabilidad, la durabilidad y el análisis de los ciclos de vida, a la vez que conlleva un principio de no-violencia y un control democrático por parte de la comunidad, identificando aproximaciones totalizadoras e inclusivas de mantenimiento y funcionamiento con un control local para satisfacer las necesidades del presente y de las generaciones futuras.”

So, I’m enrolled in Spanish 3 (107), audited Spanish 4 (207), and we’re also all taking a Spanish Conversation class as well. For AT, we’re taking a lecture (CR/NC?) class, AT 114, in which we’re reading “Gaviotas,” AT 305 which is where the real meat of the course, labs/etc, are, it’s known as “Whole Earth Engineering.” The last class is AT 480, which is for our project. That’s what I meant to write about here, but that’ll have to come in another entry.

The town I’m in, Parras de la Fuente, has a Population of 26,160 (1990) is at Latitude 25°30′N and Longitude 102°11′W. Truthfully, I just put that there more for my own future reference! It’s not too blatant/unrelated
though. What would be more weird is if I linked the slashdot article about DMCA-like provisions in the CAFTA, or the article on fixing the patent system, which is awesome, if techies, lefties/etc can all agree on something, it’s clear that something’s GOT to happen!
Well, time for bed, I’m tired.. Hasta luego!
-Ajay

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