download a PDF of the full June 2011 issue - Watt Now Magazine

Watt’s
WATT’S HAPPENING
1> Comment
Advance of the machines - our laws lag behind.
12> Africa’s agricultural sector. What needs to
be done?
Paddy Hartdegen takes a look at the role that engineering,
science and technology have to play in order to make
Africa’s agricultural sector into the productive and profitable
enterprise that it could be.
14> Automating dull jobs into obsolescence
In this article Gavin Chait explains how mechanisation over
the years has changed the face of industry and agriculture, in
most instances making the world a safer, more productive place.
Innovation in the future will driven by cost; eliminating monotony
and danger; and performing tasks that are beyond human capability.
18> Who will watch the watchers?
Has technology run ahead of mankind’s ability to behave responsibly?
Gavin Chait reviews the inventiveness of modern technologies and warns
that they could lead to the erosion of personnel privacy, particularly in the
hands of those governments opposed to civil liberties.
45> Watt’s green
Jo’burg’s project to build five landfill electricity sites; Wind energy coming
to Cookhouse.
5> WATT’S GOING ON?
$650-million more to be invested in Maputo; $40-billion
a year being sent home to Africa by migrants; Toll
roads are here to stay; Change apprenticeship laws;
Mtunzini residents want dune mining outlawed;
South Africa must start nuclear procurement
next year; SA company invents anti-piracy
deterrent; Transnet to invest R110-billion
over the next five years; Wealthy councils
battle with service delivery; Fracking
will not affect the SKA radio
telescope.
46> SAIEE
INSTITUTE PAGES
Tsitsikamma Power Station; President’s Invitation Lecture;
Great Brak plaque unveiled; WWF Energy report; CPD courses.