Despite widespread consensus that China's digital revolution was sure to bring about massive democratic reforms, such changes have not come to pass. While scholars and policy makers alternate between predicting change and disparaging a stubbornly authoritarian regime, in this book Shaohua Guo demonstrates how this dichotomy misses the far more complex reality. The Evolution of the Chinese Internet traces the emergence and maturation of one of the most creative digital cultures in the world through four major technological platforms: the bulletin board system, the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Guo transcends typical binaries of freedom and control, to argue that Chinese Internet culture displays a uniquely sophisticated interplay between multiple extremes, and that its vibrancy is dependent on these complex negotiations. In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, this book examines the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content. Offering a systematic account of how and why an ingenious Internet culture has been able to thrive, Guo highlights the pivotal roles that media institutions, technological platforms, and creative practices of Chinese netizens have played in shaping culture on- and offline.

A revealing genealogy of image-recognition techniques and technologies   Today’s most advanced neural networks and sophisticated image-analysis methods come from 1950s and ’60s Cold War culture—and many biases and ways of understanding the world from that era persist along with them. Aerial surveillance and reconnaissance shaped all of the technologies that we now refer to as computer vision, including facial recognition. The Birth of Computer Vision uncovers these histories and finds connections between the algorithms, people, and politics at the core of automating perception today. James E. Dobson reveals how new forms of computerized surveillance systems, high-tech policing, and automated decision-making systems have become entangled, functioning together as a new technological apparatus of social control. Tracing the development of a series of important computer-vision algorithms, he uncovers the ideas, worrisome military origins, and lingering goals reproduced within the code and the products based on it, examining how they became linked to one another and repurposed for domestic and commercial uses. Dobson includes analysis of the Shakey Project, which produced the first semi-autonomous robot, and the impact of student protest in the early 1970s at Stanford University, as well as recovering the computer vision–related aspects of Frank Rosenblatt’s Perceptron as the crucial link between machine learning and computer vision. Motivated by the ongoing use of these major algorithms and methods, The Birth of Computer Vision chronicles the foundations of computer vision and artificial intelligence, its major transformations, and the questionable legacy of its origins. Cover alt text: Two overlapping circles in cream and violet, with black background. Top is a printed circuit with camera eye; below a person at a 1977 computer.

This second collection of studies by Maurice Crosland has as a first theme the differences in the style and organisation of scientific activity in Britain and France in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Science was more closely controlled in France, notably by the Paris Academy of Sciences, and the work of provincial amateurs much less prominent than in Britain. The most dramatic change in any branch of science during this period was in chemistry, largely through the work of Lavoisier and his colleagues, the focus of several articles here, and the dominance of this group caused considerable resentment outside France, not least by Joseph Priestley. The issue of authority in science emerges again, within France under the rule of Napoleon, in a study of the exceptional power exercised by the great mathematician Laplace both in theoretical science and in academic politics. This exploration of organisation and power is complemented by a comparative study of the practice of early 'physics' and chemistry and their different reliance on laboratories. This raises the question of whether chemistry provided a model for later experimental work in other sciences, both through the construction of pioneering laboratories and in establishing early schools of research.

The Republic Aviation Corporation F-84 series, the Thunderjet, Thunderstreak, and Thunderflash was the United States Air Forces first Post World War II jet fighter. As a somewhat sad result of this, it has been ignored by most aviation historians and aficionados. It was not the Air Forces first operational jet fighter, as that honor went to the Lockheed F-80 which was created during World War II. And it did not receive the glory of the North American Aviation F-86, which followed it in sequence and was more photogenic, faster, and more involved in the glory of aerial combat. Nevertheless, the F-84 performed its unheralded role in a true yeoman fashion. It, and its pilots and groundcrews, fought the air-to-mud role as a fighter bomber in Korea. It served as an interceptor, and in photo reconnaissance. It was the first jet fighter to be operationally capable of air refueling, and it was the first to be able to deliver a nuclear weapon. 4300 of the straight-wing F-84s were built, along with 2713 of the swept-wing F-84Fs, and 715 of the reconnaissance RF-84Fs. Almost 8000 unrecognized fighters, of which half of those produced served as a deterrent to enemy forces during the Cold War while being flown by friendly foreign countries.

No story about one type of aircraft could be more complete than this coverage about the B-57 Canberra. A brief history of its British inception sets the stage for the conversion that took place to American standards for production in the United States. The Canberra was needed to fill the night intruder role in the USAF that was identified during the Korean War. The B-57, did that, and far more.\n The author, who flew the B-57 over a 15-year period, covers all aspects of the 28 years of operational service of the B-57. Initially, the B-57 outfitted four combat wings in the bomber version, along with many units in the reconnaissance role. Missions changed and units faded, but the Vietnam War set the history for this remarkable airplane. It remained in combat for eight years, and many of these daring missions are covered in detail in this book. This becomes another informative reference book dealing with the lively aaspect of the Vietnam War.\n The book is filled with many rare action pictures of this airplane in color and black and white. The expanded appendices contain many historical points such as units and time period of assignment, production records, individual line entries for the history of each aircraft, and many more details that appeal to the airplane historian. \n Robert C. Mikesh had accumulated 2,000 hours in flying the B-57 Canberra, beginning with the first USAF unit to receive the bomber version. Enamored from the very beginning with this airplane, the thought of one day writing a book about the B-57 inspired him to gather detailed notes over the years while the airplane was operational. This brings to life this airplane story that could not be compiled any other way than through this first hand experience.\n Mikesh served a 21-year career in the USAF as a pilot, having spent much of this time in the Far East. During the Korean War he flew a tour in Douglas B-26 night intruder missions over North Korea, and during the Vietnam War he was a Forward Air Controller in the Cessna 0-2A, directing air strikes, many being his comrades in B-57s. \n After retiring from the Air Force in 1970, Mikesh joined the National Air and Space Museum as curator. He became responsible for managing the worlds foremost collection of historic aircraft. This not only included locating and gathering historic and technologically significant aircraft and acquisitions, but overseeing their restoration as well. Now retired from NASM as of 1991, Mikesh devotes much of his time to aviation writing and consulting work for museums and aircraft restorers.

This volume, the first in the One World Archaeology series, is a compendium of key papers by leaders in the field of the emergence of agriculture in different parts of the world. Each is supplemented by a review of developments in the field since its publication.

Contributions cover the better known regions of early and independent agricultural development, such as Southwest Asia and the Americas, as well as lesser known locales, such as Africa and New Guinea. Other contributions examine the dispersal of agricultural practices into a region, such as India and Japan, and how introduced crops became incorporated into pre-existing forms of food production.

This reader is intended for students of the archaeology of agriculture, and will also prove a valuable and handy resource for scholars and researchers in the area.

Ashworth traces the growth of customs and excise, and their integral role in shaping the framework of industrial England. He examines their influence on elements such as state power, technical advance, and the evolution of a consumer society. If there was a unique pathway of industrialization, it was less a distinct entrepreneurial and technocentric culture, than one predominantly defined within an institutional framework spearheaded by the excise and a wall of tariffs.

The epic story of one of the highest scoring fighter units in the southwest Pacific. Aces included McGuire, Loisel, MacDonald, Roberts and Bong.

This is the jaw-dropping "real" story of the legendary corruption and bribery in the years of the copper mines in Butte, Montana, the richest hill on earth.

Some years ago when I was chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering, a colleague introduced me to a visitor from Sandia Laboratories, perhaps the largest developer of armaments and weapons systems in the world. We had a nice visit, and as we chatted, the talk naturally centered on the visitor's engineering work. It turned out that his job in recent years had been to develop a new acoustic triggering device for bombs. As he explained it, the problem with bombs was that the plunger triggering mechanism could fail if the bomb hit at an angle, and thus the explosives would not detonate. To get around this, he dev- oped an acoustic trigger that would detonate the explosives as soon as the bomb hit any solid surface, even at an angle. As he talked, I watched his face. His enthusiasm for his work was clearly e- dent, and his animated explanations of what they had developed at Sandia exuded pride and excitement. I thought about asking him what it felt like to have spent his engineering career designing better ways to kill people or to destroy property - the sole purpose of a bomb. I wondered how many people had been killed because this man had dev- oped a clever acoustic triggering device. But good sense and decorum prevailed and I did not ask him such questions. We parted as friends and in good spirits.

Angelo Secchi was a key figure in 19th century science. An Italian Jesuit and scientist, he helped lead the transition from astronomy to astrophysics and left a lasting legacy in the field. Secchi's spectral classification of stars was a milestone that paved the way for modern astronomical research. He was also a founder of modern meteorology and an innovator in the design and development of new instruments and methods across disciplines.This contributed volume collects together reviews from an international group of historians, scientists and scholars representing the multiple disciplines where Secchi made significant contributions during his remarkable career. It analyzes both his famous and lesser known pioneering efforts with equal vigor, providing a well-rounded narrative of his life's work. Beyond his scientific and technological work, his role as a Jesuit priest in Rome during the turbulent years of the mid 19th century is also described and placed in the context of his scientific and civic activities.

In his book, pending between history and sociology, on engineers in thirteen countries of the western part of Europe, Professor Rolf Torstendahl approaches the development from around 1850 up to the present situation from different angles. - One examines the educational patterns and the author shows how widely different types of formation of engineers existed in Britain, France and Germany in the early period. They were paradigmatic for other countries. Differences remain but patterns have gradually become similar. - From another angle the author makes professional organisations of engineers a main object of study, and they vary from alumni associations to powerful lobby organisations. - A third approach in the book is to examine engineers versus sociological theories of professionalism on the one hand and theories of managerialism on the other. In the last chapter the author also discusses topics like technocracy and the responsibility of engineers.

Theorizing vision and power at the intersections of the histories of psychoanalysis, media, scientific method, and colonization, "Scenes of Projection" poaches the prized instruments at the heart of the so-called scientific revolution: the projecting telescope, camera obscura, magic lantern, solar microscope, and prism. From the beginnings of what is retrospectively enshrined as the origins of the Enlightenment and in the wake of colonization, the scene of projection has functioned as a contraption for creating a fantasy subject of discarnate vision for the exercise of "reason."

Jill H. Casid demonstrates across a range of sites that the scene of projection is neither a static diagram of power nor a fixed architecture but rather a pedagogical setup that operates as an influencing machine of persistent training. Thinking with queer and feminist art projects that take up old devices for casting an image to reorient this apparatus of power that produces its subject, "Scenes of Projection" offers a set of theses on the possibilities for felt embodiment out of the damaged and difficult pasts that haunt our present.

Robert Stephenson, the leading engineer of the mid-nineteenth century whose substantial public works brought about considerable social change is now the subject of this excellent new biography: Robert Stephenson - The Eminent Engineer. Stephenson's engineering practice was responsible for major railway building programmes in Britain and overseas. He oversaw the building of many bridges, particularly the innovative tubular bridges in North Wales and was influential in the development of England's railway network. Stephenson's engineering practice in Westminster, whose many associates were engaged throughout England, were responsible for substantial railway building programmes during the 'mania' years of the 1840s. By 1850, he was associated with one third of the railway network. His overseas railway involvements included building many miles of line and developing national transport plans. Robert Stephenson - The Eminent Engineer also considers Stephenson's public roles and shows how he was perceived by his contemporaries. Stephenson was a Member of Parliament and Commissioner for the Great Exhibition, was well respected as an arbitrator, received several British and overseas honours and was President of both the Institutions of Civil and Mechanical Engineering.

Painting with Fire shows how experiments with chemicals known to change visibly over the course of time transformed British pictorial arts of the long eighteenth century--and how they can alter our conceptions of photography today. As early as the 1670s, experimental philosophers at the early Royal Society of London had studied the visual effects of dynamic combustibles. By the 1770s, chemical volatility became central to the ambitious paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds, premier portraitist and first president of Britain's Royal Academy of Arts. Valued by some critics for changing in time (and thus, for prompting intellectual reflection on the nature of time), Reynolds's unstable chemistry also prompted new techniques of chemical replication among Matthew Boulton, James Watt, and other leading industrialists. In turn, those replicas of chemically decaying academic paintings were rediscovered in the mid-nineteenth century and claimed as origin points in the history of photography. Tracing the long arc of chemically produced and reproduced art from the 1670s through the 1860s, the book reconsiders early photography by situating it in relationship to Reynolds's replicated paintings and the literal engines of British industry. By following the chemicals, Painting with Fire remaps familiar stories about academic painting and pictorial experiment amid the industrialization of chemical knowledge.

This four-volume reference set provides a comprehensive exploration of key themes in the history of technology. Drawing on material from the mid-1970s to the present day that examines diverse cultures and time periods, Suzanne M. Moon and Peter S. Soppelsa enable interested readers to explore key thematic divisions that structure research in the field and read influential works that bring the major concerns, methods, and insights of the history of technology to life. With 50 seminal articles included across the set as a whole, the volumes are broken down into four crucial thematic areas: Building, Creating, Designing, Maintaining; Technology, Power, and Sociopolitical Order; Technology, Nature and Environment; and Circulations and Connections. Four set-wide themes are then used to tie the collection together: technology and the body; technology's relationship with science, globalization, information, and media; and cultures of technology - with critical editor introductions providing invaluable context for each volume. The History of Technology: Critical Readings is a vital resource for the study of the history of technology.

This book tells the story of government-sponsored wiretapping in Britain and the United States from the rise of telephony in the 1870s until the terrorist attacks of 9/11. It pays particular attention to the 1990s, which marked one of the most dramatic turns in the history of telecommunications interception. During that time, fiber optic and satellite networks rapidly replaced the copper-based analogue telephone system that had remained virtually unchanged since the 1870s. That remarkable technological advance facilitated the rise of the networked home computer, cellular telephony, and the Internet, and users hailed the dawn of the digital information age. However, security agencies such as the FBI and MI5 were concerned. Since the emergence of telegraphy in the 1830s, security services could intercept private messages using wiretaps, and this was facilitated by some of the world's largest telecommunications monopolies such as AT&T in the US and British Telecom in the UK. The new, digital networks were incompatible with traditional wiretap technology. To make things more complicated for the security services, these monopolies had been privatized and broken up into smaller companies during the 1980s, and in the new deregulated landscape the agencies had to seek assistance from thousands of startup companies that were often unwilling to help. So for the first time in history, technological and institutional changes posed a threat to the security services' wiretapping activities, and government officials in Washington and London acted quickly to protect their ability to spy, they sought to force the industry to change the very architecture of the digital telecommunications network. This book describes in detail the tense negotiations between governments, the telecommunications industry, and civil liberties groups during an unprecedented moment in history when the above security agencies were unable to wiretap. It reveals for the first time the thoughts of some of the protagonists in these crucial negotiations, and explains why their outcome may have forever altered the trajectory of our information society.

This book is about the archaeology of science, or what can be learnt from the systematic examination of the artefacts made by precision craftsmen for the study of the natural world. An international authority on historical scientific instruments, Gerard Turner has collected here his essays on European astrolabes and related topics. By 1600 the astrolabe had nearly ceased to be made and used in the West, and before that date there was little of the source material for the study of instruments that exists for more modern times. It is necessary to 'read' the instruments themselves, and astrolabes in particular are rich in all sorts of information, mathematical, astronomical, metallurgical, in addition to what they can reveal about craftsmanship, the existence of workshops, and economic and social conditions. There is a strong forensic element in instrument research, and Gerard Turner's achievements include the identification of three astrolabes made by Gerard Mercator, all of whose instruments were thought to have been destroyed. Other essays deal with the discovery of an important late 16th-century Florentine workshop, and of a group of mid-15th-century German astrolabes linked to Regiomontanus.

Does the Military-Industrial Complex as we understand it still exist? If so, how has it changed since the end of the Cold War? First named by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address, the Military-Industrial Complex, originally an exclusively American phenomenon of the Cold War, was tailored to develop and produce military technologies equal to the existential threat perceived to be posed by the Soviet Union. An informal yet robust relationship between the military and industry, the MIC pursued and won a qualitative, technological arms race but exacted a high price in waste, fraud, and abuse. Today, although total US spending on national security exceeds $1 trillion a year, it accounts for a smaller percentage of the federal budget, the national GDP, and world military spending than during the Cold War. Given this fact, is the MIC as we commonly understand it still alive? If so, how has it changed in the intervening years? In Delta of Power, Alex Roland tells the comprehensive history of the MIC from 1961, the Cold War, and the War on Terror, to the present day. Roland argues that the MIC is now significantly different than it was when Eisenhower warned of its dangers, still exerting a significant but diminished influence in American life. Focusing intently on the three decades since the end of the Cold War in 1991, Roland explains how a lack of cohesion, rapid change, and historical contingency have transformed America's military-industrial institutions and infrastructure. Roland addresses five critical realms of transformation: civil-military relations, relations between industry and the state, among government agencies, between scientific-technical communities and the state, and between technology and society. He also tracks the way in which America's arsenal has evolved since 1991. The MIC still merits Eisenhower's warning of political and moral hazard, he concludes, but it continues to deliver, by a narrower margin, the world's most potent arsenal. An authoritative account of America's evolving arsenal since World War II, Delta of Power is a dynamic exploration of military preparedness and current events.

This new large format volume is a grand tribute to all of those who served in SAC from its inception in 1947 to its disestablishment in 1992. The great variety of aircraft and missile systems of Strategic Air Command are shown in over 800 color and black and white photographs, making this volume one of the definitive pictorials on the subject.

The book presents thirty great Chinese inventions, both ancient and modern, which are original, distinct, have made outstanding contributions and had extensive influence in China and around the globe. It also clarifies the misunderstandings and provides a clear definition and classification of the evaluation criteria for great inventions. Each invention is presented with color pictures and comprehensive discussions. The book not only offers readers the fascinating stories behind the greatest inventions of all time from China, such as the compass, paper, and tea making & planting, but also allows them to be inspired by the great Chinese inventors' inherent spirit of innovation and creativity.

It is clear that artifacts have the power to provoke thought, inspire action and arouse passions. There is evidence of this in the ever-increasing number of museums as well as in the ability of those museums to stimulate controversy through exhibits. As a consequence, much has been written analyzing the interaction between objects and museum visitors. Less well recognized, or understood, is the value of objects for historical research. In this series of books we propose to show by example how artifacts can be employed in the study of the history of science and technology in ways ranging from motivating a line of research to providing hard evidence in the solution of an otherwise insoluble problem. The first volume focused on medicine; in this, the second volume, the topic our authors address is electronics. As readers will discover, there is considerable scope in the range of topics and in the range of uses of artifacts. There is also a section that suggests to readers what kind of questions they might consider when they visit electrical exhibits, and where those exhibits are to be found.
This series is sponsored by the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Science Museum in London, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, with help from professional historians in other museums and elsewhere.

Number 7 in the Luftwaffe Profile Series describes the design and use of the Heinkel He 60.

One of the most exhilarating true adventures in history, the race into space was marked by courage, duplicity, political paranoia, astonishing technological feats, and unbelievable triumphs in the face of overwhelming adversity. It is the story of an unparalleled rivalry between superpowers and of the two remarkable men at the center of the conflict. On the American side was Wernher von Braun, the camera-friendly former Nazi scientist, who was granted hero status and almost unlimited resources by a government panicked at the thought of the Cold War enemy taking the lead. The Soviet program was headed by Sergei Korolev, a former political prisoner whose identity was a closely guarded state secret. Korolev was expected to--and did--work miracles on a shoestring budget, his cooperation assured through intimidation and threats of possible disgrace or death. These rivals were opposite in every way, save for one: each was obsessed with the idea of launching a man to the Moon.

Deborah Cadbury's extraordinary history combines action and suspense with a moving portrayal of the space race's human dimension. Using source materials never before available, she tells a riveting story of the espionage, ambition, ingenuity, and passion behind humankind's mind-bending voyage beyond the bounds of Earth.