“The Dirt in the New Machine” fails to support its initial condemnation of cell phone use. As the article progresses, Blaine Harden (its author) names factor after mitigating factor that diminishes the link between cell phones and coltan mining. Moreover, he fails to demonstrate that coltan mining is truly a detrimental practice. Harden’s article would read much better if it forwent the initial guilt trip and skipped directly to an analysis of the facts of the situation.
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