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Global warming has permanently altered our home; and we are responsible. As residents of the Anthropocene, it is no longer possible to perceive the earth as an assemblage of passive, nonhuman stuff that backgrounds human culture. Our current geological epoch arrived just as humans achieved force of nature status; and lucky us, it comes with a view called ecological awareness. But the view is stranger than we expected. Objects are active with material vibrancy and the harder we look for nature the harder it is to find. As ecology becomes a new moral compass to guide politics and social action it is important to look critically at how the concept of nature and the objects of nature shape discourse. The globalized entanglement of all contributing players makes global warming polemical at best, and paralyzing for most. Perhaps what is necessary to cut across the complexity is a fundamentally different philosophical framework with which to understand our place in the natural world. Maybe dismantling the notion of nature is the often overlooked first step towards curbing ecologically destructive human activity by opening up cracks in archaic notions of utility and dominion. Object Oriented Ontology (OOO) provides a framework to situate oneself between a mistrust of human capability and the imperative for radical change in the face of ecological disaster. Here, OOO is introduced through the Vibrant Materiality of Jane Bennett and Timothy Morton's Hyperobjects. The scale of ecological thought quickly escapes the small actions of individuals leaving them with the burning question, "What can we do?!" A possible departure point from the hard news of the Anthropocene and 000 is presented in a discussion of the production and exhibition of Charles Ray's sculpture Hinoki (2007) as a hyperobject, situated somewhere between anthropocentric action and OOO.

Related to IDRC supported Research ICT Africa (RIA) projects 101584, 103114 and 105266. ; This article reviews the progress towards universal access to telephony and other information projects in South Africa between 1996, when the last Telecommunications Act was passed, and 2000. It draws on the results of the Telecentre 2000(1) study and the Community ICT (2)research project. The Telecentre programme of the Universal Service Agency (USA) is examined in detail, with statistics on the progress of their 65 telecentres being provided. This programme is critiqued, focusing both on the problems of the telecentres and a misunderstanding of their role in creating a model for universal access. Initiatives, such as Vodacom Phone shops and the Multi-Purpose Community Centres of the Government Communications & Information Service, are also covered to show other models for community ICT projects were possible. The statistics on universal access since 1996, showing a major increase in access to telephony, are given though this has little to do with the work of the USA. The idea of a "Dig-it-all divide" is introduced. The challenges facing the country in this sector are very different from what they were in 1996, and the focus of the work in this area must shift from chasing numbers to finding real ways in which these technologies can support people-centred development.

A hierarchical model of a helicopter pilot is developed and mechanized by means of computer simulation. The basic element of the pilot model is a decision hierarchy which determines the multiloop closure and tracking characteristics of the man-vehicle system. Pilot model input is quantized and used by the hierarchy to determine the specific loop to be closed and the particular transfer function to apply to that loop. The pilot model and vehicle dynamics are implemented on a digital computer. Model validation is provided by comparison of tracking records obtained from this simulation of the vehicle with a human operator. Although developed for a vehicle with only the two lateral degrees of freedom, the pilot model is sufficiently general in form to allow its extension to six degrees of freedom. As a fourth-order system, it is applicable to the control of not only the helicopter, but all VTOL vehicles. The reduction of higher-order inputs to zero permits applicability to vehicles with lower-order dynamics. Its form is independent of the input function.