Archive for February, 2011
Ray Kurzweil: No Energy Or Water Shortages, Climate Change Is No Problem
Ray Kurzweil. Photo by Michael Lutch. Courtesy of Kurzweil Technologies, Inc.
Lauren Feeney elicited some gems from futurist Ray Kurzweil in her interview for PBS. Among his predictions:
- “In 20 years we’ll be meeting all of our energy needs with solar.”
- Life extension technology is about to take off — meaning far greater life expectancy.
- There will be no water shortage as we use the abundant electricity to convert polluted water.
- We are going to have plenty of food from “vertical agriculture, where we grow plants, fruits, vegetables and meat in computerized factories by artificial intelligence; hydroponic plants tended by intelligent robots to create fruits and vegetables, in-vitro cloned meats, basically just cloning the part of the animal that you want to eat, which is the muscled tissue.”
- We shouldn’t worry about climate change — the new technologies we’re developing will beat it.
Crazy stuff! I’m not sure I want to eat cloned portions of animals grown…
Insects Will Be Our Meat In The Future
According to the Wall Street Journal’s Marcel Dicke and Arnold Van Huis, insects are nutritious and easy to raise without harming the environment. They also have a nice nutty taste…
At the London restaurant Archipelago, diners can order the $11 Baby Bee Brulee: a creamy custard topped with a crunchy little bee. In New York, the Mexican restaurant Toloache offers $11 chapulines tacos: two tacos stuffed with Oaxacan-style dried grasshoppers.
Could beetles, dragonfly larvae and water bug caviar be the meat of the future…
Fox News: YouTube May Encourage Self-Injury
That darn Youtube! Fox News reports:
One of the most popular sites on the Internet, YouTube, started as a place for web users to share comedy skits, music, movie trailers, and other miscellaneous content. Now a study warns that a new kind of video is the latest trend on the site—cutting and other self-injury methods.
The data from the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found more than 5,000 YouTube videos on self-injury, including live enactments and graphic images of cutting arms and legs with razors—complete with haunting music, attracting millions of hits from viewers.
The videos have officials and parents alike worried that the videos may trigger the self-injuring behavior in others.
Canadian psychologist Stephen Lewis, a study co-author, said the study focused on 100 videos the authors found in December 2009. Their analysis was published online Monday in Pediatrics. The 100 videos were viewed more than 2 million times and generated many…
Libya Air Force Bombs Protesters Heading For Army Base
Haaretz reports:
Libyan military aircraft fired live ammunition at crowds of anti-government protesters in Tripoli, Al Jazeera television reported on Monday, quoting witnesses for its information.
“What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead,” Adel Mohamed Saleh said.
Saleh, who called himself a political activist, said the bombings had initially targeted a funeral procession.
“Our people are dying. It is the policy of scorched earth.” he said. “Every 20 minutes they are bombing.”
Asked if the attacks were still happening he said: “It is continuing, it is continuing. Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car they will hit you.”
No independent verification of the report was immediately available.
The protesters were reportedly heading to the army base to obtain ammunition of their own, but witnesses said the air force bombed the demonstrators before they could get there…
For more information, see original…
Anonymous: It’s A Trap! (From the Westboro Baptist Church)
Ms. Smith writes on Network World:
According to Anonymous, Westboro Baptist Church was behind the Open Letter allegedly from Anonymous, and then added fuel to the flames with WBC’s “Bring it” reply. Anonymous warns don’t DDoS, it’s a trap to collect IPs for suing.
Twitter is on fire with the news of an upcoming troll-on-troll feud of Anonymous vs. Westboro Baptist Church. In case you missed it — in an Open Letter, Anonymous allegedly told the anti-gay, fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church to stop the hate now or else “the damage incurred will be irreversible” and “neither your institution nor your congregation will ever be able to fully recover.” The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church struck back, telling Anonymous to “bring it!” and that God hates “lousy hackers.”
In-between the two, this other Open Letter from Anonymous gained less attention, but told WBC that Anonymous knew it was a trap, and the short-on-money, thrive-on-attention WBC…
Trapped Chilean Miners Smoked Pot Underground Sent in Family Letters
Good to have family, but man, it had to come from family letters? Josh Visser writes on CTV Edmonton:
33 Men details the miner’s initial 17 days in excruciating detail — the mold that was growing on their skin in 35 degrees Celsius heat, the 25-calorie spoonfuls of tuna every two days and how close they were to death when the first drill reached them.
But after rescue workers made contact with the miners and were able to send items down the shaft, the miners’ dark thoughts turned to more base desires to help pass the time.
Family members smuggled pot to the miners in their letters, and small groups of the miners would sneak off to smoke it, leaving others out of the loop.
They “never even offered me one,” miner Samuel Avalos is quoted.
The drugs, instead of promoting camaraderie, were divisive to group morale, officials thought, and they considering using drug sniffing dogs…
A Sensor System To Reveal When And How You Are Being Monitored
A system called the sensor tricorder would allow individuals to scan locations with their smartphones to detect CCTV cameras and microphones, and receive information on how the recorded data was being used. Use would depend on manufacturers’ implementing the technology into their surveillance devices, however. New Scientist reports (in a dismissive-of-privacy-concerns fashion):
A new system designed to reveal when microphones, cameras and other sensors are recording could reassure those who are paranoid about their privacy.
Each device would carry a screen displaying a QR code, a kind of two-dimensional barcode that can be read by a smartphone camera. Every 5 minutes the tricorder system generates a new QR code that encodes a privacy report detailing the sensor’s activities, such as whether it is recording, where the material being stored and how long it will be kept. The report also includes a log of past sensor activity, so you can check whether you have…
Egyptian Dad Names Child ‘Facebook’
Via CNN:
A man in Egypt has named his newborn daughter “Facebook” in honor of the role the social media network played in bringing about a revolution, according to a new report.
Gamal Ibrahim, a 20-something, gave his daughter the name “to express his joy at the achievements made by the January 25 youth,” according to a report in Al-Ahram, one of Egypt’s most popular newspapers.
Many young people used Facebook and other social media networks to organize the protests, which began January 25 and ultimately led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power.
Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who organized a Facebook page on his own time, became a central figure of the revolution.
Earth Could be ‘Unrecognizable’ by 2050
Via Discovery News:
A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an “unrecognizable” world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday.
The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, “with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia,” said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.
To feed all those mouths, “we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000,” said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
“By 2050 we will not have a planet left that is recognizable” if current trends continue, Clay said.
On Chinese Television, Obama Stars As Fast Food Mascot
True story: travel to the opposite side of the world, and everything is reversed. In China, Barack Obama is a wacky fast-food mascot plugging fish sandwiches (while, presumably, the Hamburglar is head of state):
Ron Paul On The War On Drugs And Problem Solving
From 1988, on the Morton Downey Jr. Show…
Unrelatedly, Fox News uses CPAC 2010 footage of Paul’s CPAC win then (when many in the audience booed), to pretend it was the same reaction this year…
Henry Kissinger Says Obama Must Create New World Order
Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney tipped us off to this statement by Henry Kissinger, asking “Why is he still calling the shots on U.S. foreign policy?”:
“The President-elect is coming into office at a moment when there are upheavals in many parts of the world simultaneously. . . . He can give a new impetus to American foreign policy, partly because the reception of him is so extraordinary around the world. I think his task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period when really a New World Order can be created. It’s a great opportunity…”
Libya’s Gadaffi Will ‘Fight To Last Man Standing’
Muammar Gadaffi. Photo: James (Jim) Gordon (CC)
It doesn’t look good for a peaceful revolution in Libya, where Muammar Gadaffi confirms the West’s worst fears about his intentions for dealing with the many protestors demanding his exit. The latest from Reuters:
Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi will fight a popular revolt to “the last man standing,” one of his sons said on Monday as people in the capital joined protests for the first time after days of violent unrest in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Anti-government protesters rallied in Tripoli’s streets, tribal leaders spoke out against Gaddafi, and army units defected to the opposition as oil exporter Libya endured one of the bloodiest revolts to convulse the Arab world.
Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi appeared on national television in an attempt to both threaten and calm people, saying the army would enforce security at any price.
“Our spirits are high and the leader Muammar Gaddafi is…
The United States Economy: One Massive Ponzi Scheme?
Bernard Madoff
Thank you, Bernie, for breaking your silence – even if you are still clinging to that cover-up mode you adopted since you took the entirety of the blame for your crimes.
What is clear is that ripping off the rich is punished far more severely than ripping off the poor. The lengthy sentence you were given spared countless other greedsters and goniffs from facing the music – what music there is.
In an interview – with a reporter from The New York Times who is writing a book to cash in on a man who has already cashed out – we learn, in the vaguest terms, that Mr M believes the banks he did his crooked business with “should have known” his figures did not figure. Keeping with the deceit that has served him well over the years, he names no names.
That said, how right he may be. There were many who should…
Kazakhstan Presidential Candidate Vows To Legalize Polygamy
Sheikh Absattar Derbisali, the Grand Mufti of Kazakhstan.
The Telegraph reports:
Amantay Asilbek is bringing a little colour to the Central Asian republic’s depressingly predictable poll with his traditional Kazakh dress, eccentric antics and colourful views.
“In Kazakhstan, there are a lot of single women, and it is a national tragedy, because we lose potential mothers,” Mr Asilbek said in an interview with Adam, a local magazine. “I think polygamy would solve this problem.”
Mr Asilbek, 70, went on to say that he, himself, had considered a second wife. “Young girls often come to my home, dreaming of becoming my wives. But none of them could so far pass the ‘quality test’ of my current wife.”
The Kazakh air, he claimed, made men remain virile into old age.
“From the earliest times in the Kazakh steppe, elder men were able to father children up until their eighties and nineties,” he said. “That’s because when they are close…
You Can’t Un-Watch Klaus Nomi
Lady Gaga has nothing on Klaus Nomi, the surreal German countertenor whose short career spanned 1977-1983.
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Sadly, Nomi died of AIDS in 1983 before he had the chance to render 80’s pop culture even more bizarre than it eventually became. As he was dying, Nomi gave this especially poignant performance of the “Cold Song” (lyrics follow)…
How ‘OK’ Took Over The World
BBC News reports:
It crops up in our speech dozens of times every day, although it apparently means little. So how did the word “OK” conquer the world, asks Allan Metcalf.
“OK” is one of the most frequently used and recognised words in the world.
It is also one of the oddest expressions ever invented. But this oddity may in large measure account for its popularity.
It’s odd-looking. It’s a word that looks and sounds like an abbreviation, an acronym.
We generally spell it OK – the spelling okay is relatively recent, and still relatively rare – and we pronounce it not “ock” but by sounding the names of the letters O and K.
Visually, OK pairs the completely round O with the completely straight lines of K.
So both in speech and in writing OK stands out clearly, easily distinguished from other words, and yet it uses simple sounds that are familiar to a multitude of languages.
Almost…
Danish Supreme Court Deals Blow To Hippie Enclave
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Author: Локомотив (CC)
NPR reports:
The Danish government on Friday won a legal battle against a freewheeling neighborhood that has remained largely self-governing since its creation by hippie squatters four decades ago.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision from 2009 saying the roughly 900 residents of Christiania have no irrevocable right to use the former naval base as their home.
The decision ends a six-year legal standoff and means the government can go ahead with plans to “normalize” the neighborhood and tear down scores of ramshackle homes built at the site without permits.
Residents say they will resist any attempts to evict them from the neighborhood, which has become a major draw for tourists curious about its counterculture lifestyle and liberal attitude toward soft drugs.
“The court process is now finished,” Christiania spokesman Thomas Ertman said. “We have to now look to the future and need to sit down with the state and work…
Major Energy Interests Linked To Attacks On ‘Gasland’ Film
I had a chance to attend a screening of Gasland last year. It is an eye-opening film which exposes the severe dangers fracking presents to the environment and the public. Naturally, any controversial documentary is bound to make a few enemies. MNN reports:
Josh Fox, the director of the Academy Award nominated documentary Gasland isn’t surprised at the recent reports that oil and natural gas front groups are behind campaigns aimed at discrediting him and his film.
On Thursday, Brendan DeMelle reported on Desmogblog.com and the Huffington Post that a memo had surfaced linking the group Energy in Depth with oil and natural gas interests. In recent months Energy in Depth has been at the center of criticism aimed at not only Gasland, but also reporters at ProPublica and the Associated Press following stories that reflected negatively on the hydraulic fracturing industry. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it has become known, is a process where chemicals are injected deep into the ground at a high pressure to get to natural gas reserves.
