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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Think Twice About The Singularity And Immortality

Ah yes, "The Singularity." Ray Kurzweil's dream of ending mortality, when humanity is fully integrated with computers. I've always considered the notion a fool's errand.

Now I have support from none other the Joichi Ito, the director of MIT's Media Lab.

"I'm on the other side of the singularity guys. I don't think immortality is a good thing," Ito said. People who think about maximizing efficiency "don't think about the ecological, social-network effects. In the future, every science invention we do should be at least neutral," and preferably positive. "When you introduce immortality, you have to think about what does it do to the system."

I couldn't have said it better. If you'd like to read the entire article as it was posted on CNET, click HERE.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Travel Photo of the Week


Aescher Hotel, Appenzellerland, Switzerland

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Model Agency Focuses On Unusual Looking Models

Ugly Models Agency provides just that: models that are not exactly (outwardly) beautiful. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm going to let this video speak for itself.

Monday, January 28, 2013

SpaceLiner To Fly Passengers By 2050

From Scientific American comes news of "space plane" that could make the trip from Europe to Australia in an hour and a half. That's what Martin Sippel, project coordinator for SpaceLiner at the German Aerospace Center is working on.

The rocket booster powered, hypersonic vehicle would reach an altitude of about 47 to 50 miles before gliding back to Earth at hypersonic speeds of more than 15,000 mph.

I won't be holding my breath waiting for this one. The project is not expected to fly before 2050. By that time we may have transporters.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Composer’s Dream: Housing For ‘Nice’ People

From the New York Times. Mitch Leigh is advertising for nice people to populate, in the words of the article, "an entirely new village of sorts in central New Jersey, with apartments and stores, a hotel and an Imax movie theater, surrounded by hundreds of acres of green space. It will have an eye toward creating a community for artists, and also, the developer insists, toward “nice” people."

This sounds like something people have been trying since the Utopian Movement of the 1800s, but Leigh, who was the composer of "Man of La Mancha," has been working on this impossible dream for over twenty years. Over 1000 acres of New Jersey has been purchased with "La Mancha" money for the purpose. And now he's advertising for inhabitants. And he's serious about the nice people part. At the end of the TV ad he says.......

“If you’re not a nice person, please don’t call.”

If you're a nice person, you may contact him at jacksontwentyone.com. I think I'll do that right now. Below is Mitch's pitch.


Saturday, January 26, 2013

Fun Time! Food In Space!

Ever wonder how food in space has evolved? From Laughing Squid come this photo essay.

My favorite photo. Almost looks like something from Star Trek, doesn't it?

Friday, January 25, 2013

Fast Food Linked to Asthma and Allergies in Kids

This crossed my desk a little over a week ago. From Time Magazine's Health and Family website comes word of a study that links fast-food consumption to allergies and asthma.

European researchers analyzing data from participants in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood have found that eating fast food meals at least three times a week is linked to a 39% increased risk of severe asthma in teenagers and a 27% increased risk among children between ages six and seven.

From the article: “This is the largest study to date on allergies in people around the world, and the findings are remarkably consistent when it comes to looking at specific regions of the world and within affluence and sex,” says study author Hywel Williams, a professor at the Centre for Evidence Based Dermatology at the University of Nottingham. “If true, our findings have big public health implications given that these types of allergies are on the rise and fast food is so popular.”

Oddly enough, they also found that eating fruit had the opposite effect.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

The Automata Blog

I have always loved automata - animated machinery (usually) representing living things. Most often they are toys from the past. Many are elaborate mechanisms designed to impress young and old alike.

The Automata Blog features the finest of these devices with information on their history and makers. Below is  a video of the automata collection of Richard Garriot de Cayeux from the website.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Travel Photo of the Week


Siwa, Egypt

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Scientists Create New Gasoline Substitute Out Of Plants

With yesterday's post about a new designed, highly efficient engine, I thought I'd add a note about a new biofuel.

The folks at UC Berkley have created a fuel from a process that "uses a century-old fermentation process to transform plant material into a propellant, could eventually replace gasoline and drastically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions."

"It's a much more efficient way of (creating renewable fuel) than many of the other products being considered," said Harvey Blanch, a professor of chemical engineering at Berkeley. "This product is one that may be closest to commercialization."

This means that almost any fast growing plant like corn, sugar cane, grasses or even trees such as eucalyptus can be used. It could be the end of petroleum as a fuel source.

Here's more information from the San Francisco Chronicle article.

Monday, January 21, 2013

An Engine That Uses 30% Less Fuel

From MIT's Technology Review website comes word of an engine design that uses 30% less diesel fuel. Achates Power, based in San Diego, California, has redesigned the German Jumo engine from the 1930s and the U.S. Army has given Achates, and partner AVL Powertrain Engineering, $4.9 million to build a complete multi-cylinder prototype.

Diesel engines are already very efficient, but this improvement could result in an engine that’s 50% more efficient than those run on gasoline and could cost 10% than a conventional diesel engine.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

$35k Owner Built Home

From Mother Earth News, here's another owner-built, smallish home. Built for $35k on 13 acres in Northwest, Pennsylvania, the 40 x 40ft quonset hut design has been given a beautiful interior and the unique exterior finish gives the whole thing a very modern look.

The complete construction story is here.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Fun Time! 16 Signs Improved By Hilarious Graffiti!


Found this on Funny or Die. For the other 15 signs click on the link.


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Eric Standley’s Intricate Laser Cut Stained Glass Paper Windows

Eric Standley uses hundreds of layers of laser cut, colored paper to make insanely intricate stained glass windows. Gorgeous!

Here's a link to the High Fructose webpage, where I found this image. There are many more there.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Travel Photo of the Week

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Preschool Ditches Brand-Name Toys For Cardboard Boxes, Shocked To Discover That Kids Don’t Care

Have kids? Spend much on toys? Guess what. Cardboard works just as well. Watch the video, if you don't believe me.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Can Music Make You More Productive?

Many of us listen to music while we work. It makes the task at hand more enjoyable. But did you know that music can make you more productive? And did you know there are people trying to make you even more productive through listening to music?

Focus@Will is a company that has developed a streaming service with eight channels and the company estimates its selections can help people focus up to five times longer than the typical 20-minute period you normally are able to focus without music.

“It’s like the music version of [attention deficit disorder drug] Adderall,” says chief music officer John Vitale.

Right now, the service is free, but expect a subscription plan with paying users being able to take advantage of a variety of extras.

Here's a link to the original article in the WSJ's Marketwatch.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Playing Music Through A Squid

Here's an interesting item from the Science Friday webpage. I seems that squids not only change their colors to match their surroundings, they also change to the sound of music. Here's short video of the phenomena set to the music of Cypress Hill’s, “Insane in the Brain,” which just happens to be one of my favorite rap songs.


Friday, January 11, 2013

Light Emitting Dots Produced By Earthworms

One of the more interesting ideas these days is to use biological organisms to produce needed drugs, chemical compounds and other substances that can't be synthesized in a lab or a normal industrial process.

A recent example is getting earthworms to produce nanometre-sized chunks of semiconducting metals that fluoresce intensely because of the way their electrons behave. These "quantum dots" are being used in applications such as solar panels and display screens.

It seems that when you feed the worms the right mix of chemicals, they make the dots. Mark Green, at King's College London, exposed the worms to cadmium chloride and sodium tellurite and found that they moved the metals to the equivalent of their liver, where they became cadmium telluride quantum dots. The earthworms make dots because they want the metals out, says Green. "It's a biodefence mechanism."

Another useful application: the dots were able to light up cancer cells in an imaging experiment.

If you want to read more, here's a link to the article in New Scientist.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

DIY Cryogenic Fluid

Do you need a really cold liquid, but can't find or afford liquid nitrogen? Here's a video on how to prepare  poor man's liquid nitrogen. It's quite easy, all you need is...

Dry ice (several pounds). 16 oz Isopropyl rubbing alcohol, 99% grade. Scissors. A large plastic cola bottle and a small plastic cola bottle.

The temperature you'll achieve will only go down to -110F (liquid nitrogen is -320F), but that's cold enough to do most of the things you'd want to do. Just don't stick your fingers in it.



Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Travel Photo of the Week


Aurora Borealis, Iceland

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Adafruit to Teach Electronics Through Puppets in New Kids’ Show

Most of my generational is woefully ignorant of the principles of electronics. Even many young people today have little idea of what goes on the their phones and iPods.

Adafruit, the kit-based electronics retailer is trying to change that with a new online show called Circuit Playground that aims to teach the basics using puppets.

Episodes will begin this March on Google+ and Ustream. The hope is to inspire a new generation of designers and builders.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Your Brain On Big Bird

As a follow up to yesterday's post, here's an article from Time Magazine's Heath and Family webpage about Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive scientist at the University of Rochester and her colleagues looking at the brains of preschoolers watching Sesame Street to see how they develop as they learn math and reading skills.

From the article: "In the study, Cantlon and her team placed 27 kids between the ages 4 and 11, and 20 adults in the fMRI machine as the participants watched 20 minutes of Sesame Street, which featured short clips on numbers, shapes and language. After the episode, the kids took standardized tests that assessed their math and verbal abilities. Using the fMRI scans, the researchers created neural maps of the kids’ thought processes and compared those maps to the patterns found among the adult participants."

"They found that kids whose brains worked in similar ways to that of the adults received higher scores on their standardized tests. This suggests that the brain develops along a predictable pattern as we age, dedicating certain regions and networks to specific tasks, such as reading, or problem solving. The same brain images also revealed where verbal and math skills tend to develop."

These types of studies will help researchers understand the differences in the way children's brains develop and provide insights into helping with their learning disabilities.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

How Your Brain Works

At UC Berkley, scientists have constructed a map of how (and where!) the brain organizes visual information. To do this, the brain activity of five researchers was mapped by MRI as they watched two hours of movie clips while the blood flow was measured across thousands of locations in their brains.

Here's a video that discusses this in more depth.



Here's a link to an interactive map that you can explore yourself and a link to the UC Berkley article about this.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Friday, January 4, 2013

Babbage's Difference Engine

The folks over at xRez Studios have created an extremely high resolution photo series of the Babbage Difference Engine at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

Words really fail when it come to describing the beauty and sheer elegance of this machine (on so many levels), so I'll just include a teaser picture and a link so you may peruse this wonderful device for yourself.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

The Single Theory That Could Explain How Life Developed

One of life's greatest puzzles is life itself. How did it start? How did it organize itself and evolve from single celled organisms and on to humanity and all the other creatures in our world?

This article posted on the MIT Technology Review website posits that the action of autocatalytic sets is the motive force behind the mystery,

I have often wondered whether the formation of life (and everything else in our universe) was governed by some inherent and inexorable force. This theory gives some support to that notion.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Travel Photo of the Week


Bangkok, Thailand


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Gravity Powered Lights

Here's a great idea that's being crowdfunded on Indiegogo right now. A gravity powered light that's cheaper than solar.

As the site says: "GravityLight is a revolutionary new approach to storing energy and creating illumination. It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight which powers GravityLight, creating 30 minutes of light on its descent. For free."

I love those last two words; for free. Below is a video about GravityLight.