It was designed in the 1950s as a highflying spy in the sky, able to snoop on sensitive military installations far above the range of Soviet missiles. At least until 1960, when the Russian military figured out how to shoot one down, sparking an international incident.
But despite its notoriety, the Lockheed U2 remains a workhorse of American military reconnaissance. Even in an age of satellite surveillance and unmanned drones, the ungainly, difficultto- pilot jet fends off its date with the scrapheap by providing essential battlefield intelligence, The Times reported. Not bad for a plane designed with slide rules and pencils.
But like alligators and sharks, a timeless design can defy obsolescence, proving its worth against upstart competitors through decades, if not eons, of evolution.
So never send a high-tech sensor, gizmo or gadget to do a dog’s job. Dogs outperform human technology at a wide range of tasks, including drug detection and bomb sniffing, and they even rival M.R.I. scanners at detecting cancerous tumors.
Recently, a mutt named Sable has been sniffing out water pollution in Lansing, Michigan. If even a hint of raw sewage or detergent finds its way into the city’s water pipes, it won’t get by Sable. And he is far cheaper and faster than lab tests, some of which can cost up to $100,000, The Times reported. Elsewhere, dogs are being considered to sniff out bacteria in swimming beaches and shellfish beds.
Unfortunately, dogs won’t be needed to pinpoint subtle traces of oil on the threatened beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. The massive oil spill there is all too easy to locate. But again, low-tech solutions have become the main, if not necessarily the best, line of defense.
As The Times reported, the technology for deep-water drilling has advanced continuously. But when attempts to plug the leak with deep-sea robots and a hastily constructed concrete dome failed, the oil industry was left with the same old booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants.
Judith Roos, a vice president of the Marine Spill Response Corporation, which is largely funded by big oil companies, told The Times that much of its equipment was bought in 1990. “The technology hasn’t changed much since then,” she said.
Another low-tech ingredient in containing the spill is hair, known for its ability to sop up oil (as anyone who hasn’t shampooed in a while can attest). As The Times reported, salons and pet groomers are donating tons of hair and fur while hosiery companies are contributing nylon stockings. Combined, they make a usable, if improvised containment boom.
Meanwhile, the more music technology progresses the more some cranky, retroleaning aficionados look back. But these musical Luddites are right to argue that the vinyl copies of “Dark Side of the Moon” they played continuously back in the 1970s had a richer sound than the iTunes versions of the same songs.
As Joseph Plambeck wrote in The Times, “to many expert ears, compressed music files produce a crackly, tinnier and thinner sound than music on CDs and certainly vinyl.” Better-sounding digital music files will replace MP3s someday. Until then, serious music fans fetishize the analog artifacts of yesteryear, like turntables and vacuum tube pre-amplifiers.
Jon Zimmer, a consultant for Stereo Exchange, a high-end audio store in Manhattan, told The Times that the obsession with analog gear will continue so long as MP3s are still “sucking the life out of music.”
KEVIN DELANEY
Simpler solutions can outperform technology. A worker holds a “hair boom” filled with clippings to help contain oil in the Gulf of Mexico. / PAUL BUCK/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
