More neotoy continuum cmap items.. memirod blueskin hydrosphere time region-hot region-cold region-temperate twilight-of-mankind xviann denizens insight polytoy toy neotoy-manga school-black-aslo trains eyes coloquin neotoy-design-project morality delta the-last-renaissance goodbye-world infinite This is a huge mess, I say don't bother going to any of these pages yet. This post is more for my own personal indexing purposes than anything else. But for anyone who's morbidly curious, there they are. List of currently active aspects of the neotoy continuum connectivity map Y08 M12 D06 Note: These are almost all parsed from ancient drafts dredged up from my neotoy archive. After I get the index fully fleshed out I'm going to go back and update each entry with the most recent information. I'll also add links to new entries as they are populated. Be warned, there's a fair amount of inconsistency. I'm not massively impressed with my old writing, but without some kind of foundation this is never going to get anywhere. Also, one last thing, wherever you see [[*]] double brackets around a word or phrase, that is where a future link to an article will be. automat bubble-type clothing currency dais delta existential-energy frame infinity ku ku-black ku-gray ku-white manticorn mask mercy neotoy neotoy-continuum neotoy-dot-tripod opensource overmetto para-industrial-earth pearl polytoy silver-forest space-puma transcendence September Update Part 2 Y08M11D25 Some more links.. I'm not really in the mood to write much on these, kind of drained. It's hard to stay level in the current environment, everyone I know is having some trouble. Also my personal ideology may be shifting due to new information I've been parsing. In short, the more I learn, the less I believe that there is a general coherency to life. Note, I am not saying that I am losing faith in connectivity, instead it's society and people that I'm talking about; and by extension our control over our lives, technology, etc. All that is looking more and more like an illusion every day. Control only exists on a individual level, and even that is extremely limited. I keep wondering if the next step is gaining control on a more holistic level, but that only seems possible through natural 'evolution', which is another word for chaos. The economy, the ecosystem, politics, all are connected, yet, none are under our control. "Our", "we", just more shameless anthropomorphism, totally failing to define reality. Study: Calif. dirty air kills more than crashes http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27697708/ Crashes kill more than 40,000 a year, injure 3,000,000 in the US alone.. This is just madness. The fact that people can talk about terrorism ad nauseum, as if it were a threat to our survival, while tens of thousands of lives are sacrificed to dysfunctional infrastructure and sociopathic industrialization. About 2000 people die every year in terrorist attacks, that's worldwide. You couldn't make this shit up. How to Get Lucky (not about getting laid) http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/how-to-get-lucky/article27664.html I find this a 'must read' article. Someone thinks they studied luck. However the article is really more about tactics that will allow you to live better. Anyway it's packed with insight, and statistics that may mean something. I've known people who were lucky and those who weren't, it had nothing to do with their attitude, choices or response to circumstance. Is there such a thing as consistent randomness? If so, why do some people have it more than others? Is Recycling Worth It? http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/how_your_house_works/4291566.html?series=15 What a stupid question. Recycling isn't even necessary if things are designed and built in a sane and sustainable way. Articles like this force us to accept the persistence of the status quo, even while it's painfully obvious that the status quo is a profound failure of conception. Is Our Lifestyle Worth It? It won't be. New Wind Turbine Technology To Be 50% More Efficient http://devicedaily.com/environment/new-wind-turbine-technology-to-be-50-more-efficient.html You know I love efficiency, this design clearly makes huge sense, in fact it makes me wonder why no one thought of it before now. Wind turbines are not exactly bleeding edge technology. None of that matters though because solar is infinitely superior to wind power. This is another dead end, there is never going to be a holistic ROI for wind power. Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good http://www.rense.com/general7/whyy.htm This article is mind expanding in so many ways. Another 'must read'. But be prepared to have your consciousness altered. We are already living in a brave new world. My conclusion is that at some point all of this fakery will need to be stripped away for humanity to survive.. problem is, so much has become fake, if you took it all away there might be nothing left. Of course by comparison this is nothing next to growing meat in a vat. Better living through chemicals, or suicidal hubris? Either way, it's what's for dinner. Moscow super skyscraper halted http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7742538.stm I actually laughed when I read this. Now I have nothing against Russia or Russians, in fact I love Russia and Russians.. I laughed because this is such a great example of how stupid humans are. Building these giant fucking towers, these totally impractical structures that make absolutely no sense what-so-ever in any context other than our abysmal ignorance and breathtaking arrogance as a species. Ironically we're apparently smart enough to build giant fucking towers, or at least start building them until we run out of money. IBM to build brain-like computers http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7740484.stm The brain is the most complex structure in the known universe, that fact always amazes me. I really admire IBM, one of the few companies that has managed to keep it professional and keep it together for a very long time in technological terms. If anyone can do it, IBM can. This won't be the first time that a firm has attempted to build a computer based on our brains, although that is a pretty subjective statement since we don't even fully understand how they work. European Scientists: 'Let's Set Up A Global Solar Energy Grid' http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/european-scient.php Yes let's. World’s First Chlorophyll Organic Battery Runs on Any Liquid http://cleantechnica.com/2008/10/31/worlds-first-chlorophyll-organic-battery-runs-on-any-liquid/ I'm all about the "organic" technology. Nature has already solved so many problems for us, why bother with mechanical or digital solutions? This is obviously more of the same hyper-speculative tech that will probably never see mass production, still pretty neat. Gold unexpectedly not shining as an investment http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27522861/ Yeah, gold is worthless. Shocked? It's a soft metal with very few practical applications, it's also rare and very hard to extract from the earth. Of course this article is about the gold market and not really the metal itself. The premise makes perfect sense. It's also possible that this is a holistic reaction, as I first predicted a few years ago. This line of reasoning was the main reason that I decided not to support Ron Paul in the 2008 election. I knew he had no chance of winning, but that's not really a factor when voting for a president. Frankly the whole monetary system is flawed, whether the currency is fiat or not; it's all based on our contrived human-centric values. Real value on the other hand is absolute, not relative. SolFocus Installing World’s Largest Concentrated Solar Project in Spain http://cleantechnica.com/2008/11/03/solfocus-installing-worlds-largest-concentrated-solar-project-in-spain/ The title says it all. Nanotubes turn on the tunes http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081103/full/news.2008.1201.html It's not a miracle, it's just connectivity. The smaller you go, obviously the more applications you're going to have for energy wavelengths and waveforms that correspond to the scale and proportion of the nanoverse. In a Novel Theory of Mental Disorders, Parents' Genes Are in Competition http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/health/research/11brain.html I just found this to be a brilliant new perspective on gene mechanics, lots of insight inherent to this comically sexist theory. Like they said in the article, it will probably prove to be totally absurd and wrong, but it's really an exceptional example of thinking outside the box; which is absolutely essential if there is to be any real progress in science. Evolution's new wrinkle: Proteins with cruise control provide new perspective http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S22/60/95O56/index.xml?section=topstories It's quite typical that the theory of evolution is always evolving, or in some cases being totally rewritten to suit new information that doesn't perfectly mesh with the original vision; just like any decent religion.. just kidding.. sort of. This article is hardly rewriting evolution, maybe reinterpreting is a better word. Ah, who am I kidding, this article is just plain bizarro with staggering implications. Anderson downgrades Long Tail to Chocolate Teapot status http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/21/anderson_long_tail_fail/ Long Tail Fail? Yet another mind-bending look into an esoteric process, courtesy Eric Schmidt. Admittedly I don't care much for Chris Anderson's consumer-centric myopia, although I always thought his long tail theory was fairly intriguing. Now that theory is being tested, perhaps this is a perfect time to reflect on more corporeal things like amoral slave labor and Laissez-faire economics? Nanotech clothing fabric 'never gets wet' http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16126-nanotech-clothing-fabric-never-gets-wet.html I'm betting it never biodegrades too. Imagine the product life cycle, assuming that clothing was made out of this material, where does it end up? A landfill? Shredded and drifting thought billions of gallons of seawater? Fibers finding their way into fish, and crustaceans, eventually into us. God only knows what kind of bacteria might grow on such material once it enters the ecosystem. And you thought it would be a challenge getting all of those plastic shopping bag particles out of the ocean, try it at the nano scale sucker. Who would agree that doing this now and finding out the effects later is a good idea? The same people who thought that asbestos was a new miracle insulation, and that mercury was ideal for sticking in our mouths.. oh brother, here we go again. September Update Part 1 Y08M11D10 America's second largest ethanol producer goes titsup http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/04/verasun_is_veradone/ This isn't directly related, but I was just thinking.. about the bailout, the banks, the insurers, the auto industry; at what point does society have to evaluate the salvageability of an industry and potentially accept that it is an inherent and absolute failure? Furthermore, to recognize if and when it becomes a wretched millstone around all our necks. The ethanol industry was doomed from the start, the holistic value was clear and undebatable. It was common knowledge even before the first ethanol production plant was erected that it takes more energy to create a gallon of ethanol than could ever be extracted from a gallon. An absolute fools industry. And yet, companies like verasun got massive government subsidies, tax breaks, and more media attention than Al Gore. Still, even run as a pure charity they still didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of survival. Now that the whole world is going through a transformation, from ecological ignorance to acute awareness; how will society respond to increasingly frequent instances of failure in core industries, once thought to be invulnerable to economic turbulence? Breakthrough Solar Technology That Addresses the Global Energy Crisis http://www.coolearthsolar.com/ Cool. Yet another "revolutionary" utilization of solar power technology. So, once we have all the electrical energy we could ever want or need, what then? I was just musing about this today, thinking yet again, that a lack of energy is still actually pretty low on the global list of critical priorities. In fact, it's more like a frivolous luxury only truly appreciated by the obscenely rich. But who knows, maybe it's more of a linchpin than I realize. Safety fears over nanocosmetics http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7706818.stm Too little way too fucking late.. Oh, god. Honestly, WTF can I say about this that I haven't already, a million times before. Let me be more direct. There is no historical precedent for this kind of scientifically ignorant behavior ever being purely beneficial, furthermore there are countless examples of how humanity has fucked itself over time and time again, thinking, and quite wrongly, that it had somehow outwitted nature with new technology. With cosmetics we're not even talking about something that has the potential to improve our quality of life, to take such extreme risks for something so meaningless, is nothing short of obscene. I may be going out on a limb here, but there's no way this is going to end well. US Army to Push X-Files Tech Development, Invade World of Warcraft http://gizmodo.com/5077240/us-army-to-push-x+files-tech-development-invade-world-of-warcraft It occurs to me that for someone who is as obsessed with AI as I claim to be, I don't post very many related articles. Obligatory skynet reference goes here. The technology already exists to build robots capable of doing this IRL. Which is I expect, exactly what the army has in mind. How long before AI killbots and unmanned aerial drones are fighting our wars for us? Not that war could look any more idiotic than it already does in the 21st century, but wouldn't that kind of eliminate the need for us? Still I look forward to the day when the first machine vs. machine casualty takes place. How Green Are Rechargeable Batteries? http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-11/st_kia I find myself constantly questioning the sincerity of so-called "green" technology and its purveyors. I tend to anthropomorphize all industry, typically I view the average corporation as a strung-out drug addict, hopelessly ensorceled by the many compelling lies of American style capitalism. Each new product and its accompanied marketing blitz is like a hit direct to the vein, factories spring up, shelves are stocked, product moves.. meanwhile it's business as usual in the ecocidal back alleys of the corporate underworld, regardless of the merchandise. Whether it's melenine laced milk-flavored protein powder for baby, or reusable petroleum based tote bags for groceries; the corporations always make money hand-over-fist and the environment always pays the full price. Which is why it's actually nice to read an article that at the very least assures me that I'm slowing down the inevitable collapse of the ecosystem. Homeowner denial: My home is gaining value http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27648884/ The article makes a great connection between the loss of property and the emotional connection created between people and material subjects influenced and modified by the owner. In this instance, an abbreviated version of the classic loss response applies: denial, anger, despair, moving on. But what if we are able to skip this process entirely and jump straight from loss to moving on? Does that make one a sociopath? Or merely emotionally advanced, on a level similar to a digital device that only deals with absolutes. When augmented by technology, as humans increasingly are these days, the validity and value of emotions is constantly being challenged, at what point is it safe, or even necessary to "move on" from our emotions? I find this article particularly insightful mainly because I think it provides a glimpse into the pervading psychosis of the average first world citizen.. in effect this phenomenon is a localized version of what will happen when our civilization is eventually forced to accept the many painful impositions of the real world. October Update Part 2 Y08M10D28 Suicide linked to brain changes http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7689522.stm No brainer? Sorry, tasteless joke. I've opposed study of the brain in the past, I regret that a little after reading this article. Although there's no guarantee that these findings are conclusive, given the overall lack of understanding in brain mechanics. Still if they are indeed correct the implications are pretty staggering. My personal view is that this is definitely something to watch out for, especially given the dramatic increase in mental disorders over the last decade. Careless, profit-centric industrialization being the most likely culprit. In line with my own predictions, this could lead to global mass suicides at some point, assuming that a pathogen or effector capable of altering brain chemistry in this manner was released into the environment via a mass produced product. GM, nano, chemical, EM radiation, etc. The vectors are almost limitless and increase in magnitude with each nascent industry. Scientists seek to make energy as plants do http://www.physorg.com/news144307026.html I love how they totally dis conventional technology.. and of course they're absolutely right. Even our most advanced science can't hold a candle to billions of years of natural evolution. Nature has already perfected solar power, but can we adapt it to our needs? The potential consequences seem extreme, so do the benefits. The Public's Dangerous Misunderstanding of Climate Change http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1853871,00.html Might as well write another article titled "The Public's Dangerous Misunderstanding of Everything", until civilization gets serious about education humanity will continue to wallow in suicidal ignorance. New solar cell material achieves almost 100% efficiency, could solve world-wide energy problems http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39807/113/ What world-wide energy problems? Consume less, problem solved. Yet another check in the awesome column, sadly also probably another check in the vapor-ware column :( Beaches in U.S. Host Drug-Resistant Bacteria, Researchers Find http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aDIghkmGcAM8&refer=environment Ecosystem, ecosystem, ecosystem, it's everything. Holistic science could have predicted this decades ago, if the scientific community had possessed the foresight to establish the field. Antibiotics save lives, but at the same time they accelerate and focus the survival response of the very pathogens that they subdue. The main question in my mind given the nature of the process is this: If we just let people die of infections rather than giving them antibiotics, would that effectively prevent the manifestation of more "superbugs"? Thinking long-term, if future versions of these hyper-pathogens suddenly become a global epidemic, millions or even billions may die as a result. Will that offset the billions (millions?) saved over the decades because of antibiotic use? Someone should do the math, there's more at stake here than just human health, the ecosystem which is far more important than we are may be further imbalanced by these essentially man-made super bacteria. CCD (colony collapse disorder anyone?) Experts: Staph germs becoming harder to treat http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27405953/ Since I read this article the same day, I thought it was worth adding to the thread above, they go hand-in-hand. The question here is: how long until 'harder to treat' becomes 'impossible to treat'?? Scary thought. Scientists grow bigger, better diamonds http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27407771/ I'm no expert in diamond economics, but this fascinates me; in theory shouldn't the diamond market have collapsed by now? If we can make them on demand, doesn't that mean that diamonds are now essentially worthless? Or is this one of those never-never-land phenomenons where as long as people continue clapping maniacally, the magical fairy that is the diamond industry will never die. I'm guessing that within ten years or so, allowing that civilization doesn't collapse, similar technology will make it possible to synthesize gold, silver, platinum, and any other "valuable" element.. what will happen to the market then I wonder? Earth on course for eco 'crunch' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7696197.stm Naturally I put the most important link at the bottom. No one cares. Or at least out of the many billions of people on earth, there just aren't enough of them who do. I've been making this particular point for a few years now, the modern world is built on ecological credit, and only a few people are paying it back. When the planetary repomen come a knockin' on the first world's door, a lot more than our kneecaps are going to get busted up. Learn to live within your means, or lose your way of life. SUPER SPECIAL UPDATE Y08M10D27 Despite the total awesomeness of this post, I would still like to include a small disclaimer: this is a BETA release. And by beta I mean very beta! That aside.. This is the first official release of the long anticipated neotoy continuum connectivity map - for those of you who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, this is basically the release of a draft design for an entire universe!! Sounds impressive right? Well the one downside right now is that while I essentially have all the copy needed to populate the dozens of blank pages that make up the cmap, only about 1% of it has actually been parsed :( and only 13 of the current 72 files have been fractionally updated, so expect to see a lot of blank pages; sorry about that. However the point of this preemptive release was not really to drop the cmap H-Bomb onto y'all, this is just me making a note on the front page that in 2008 I finally started to finalize the neotoy project after a decade + of dicking around. WOO! This shit is official yo! lulz.. Anyway, check it out, if you dare. October Update Part 1 Y08M10D17 Black Silicon To Revolutionize Solar Cells http://devicedaily.com/misc/black-silicon-to-revolutionize-solar-cells.html Is this cost effective? Seems very promising on the surface, but the process does not seem like it would scale very easily, although I'm no expert in the laser lithography field. 'World's first' WiMax mobile phone spied http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/10/htc_wimax/ As many readers will know, I was one of the first recipients of Netgear's original SPH101 Skype Wifi Phone prototype. At the time I proposed a design for a modular VOIP phone design that would consist of a transceiver free phone body with a PCMCIA slot- this would allow the phone to be upgraded with each new wireless technology as it became finalized. If Netgear had made such a phone I would not need to buy a new handset, just buy a WiMax PCMCIA card and slap it into my old phone. This is quite possibly the beginning of the end for "cellular" phones and networks. WiMax has the range of current cell technology yet exchanges information via internet protocol- this allows phone owners to use a variety of free-to-exceptionally low cost VOIP applications rather than bullshit proprietary networks and services. The regular networks will never be able to compete openly with VOIP, all they have is their cell towers, that's the only value they represent to the market. The thing to note is that most likely the cell industry which is one of the largest and most profitable in the world, will certainly react aggressively to this threat to their core business. Will they be able to kill or cripple the WiMax phone though? Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7662565.stm You won't see this bulletin plastered on any mainstream media kiosks for more than a split second.. In the immortal words of Frank Herbert "The spice must flow!" - likewise the multinational Juggernaut that is the planet destroying corptocracy must continue to circlejerk to the tune of "money" until the ecosystem collapses and we all die. World's First Glass-Packaged White LED http://www.infoniac.com/hi-tech/worlds-first-glass-packaged-white-led.html The LED is probably one of the greatest technological achievements mankind will ever make, one day all lighting will based on LEDs, and this particular innovation is a huge step in that direction. Pollution linked to appendicitis http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7654140.stm Yet another article reinforcing the general theory that industrialization has far-reaching mostly unknown side-effects. Mental disorders, diseases, infertility, accidental death, at what point do the benefits proffered by technology need to be reevaluated, or at the very least openly compared to the risks they represent? More important question: why are people so fucking stupid that they do not realize this automatically? Of bulbs and bubbles http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7651407.stm Brilliant article, I don't post this kind of thing very often, but this is one of those unmissable, consciousness-expanding, transcendental works of art that must be read and appreciated by everyone. Scientists Develop Commercially-Viable Carbon Nanotube Sheets http://devicedaily.com/misc/scientists-develop-commercially-viable-carbon-nanotube-sheets.html We all knew this was coming, it was only a matter of time before it became economical, now that it has, how will the world change? Also as pointed out in a previously posted article, carbon nanotubes have characteristics similar to asbestos. I do not advocate irrational fear of technology, but I do demand that health and safety concerns be given priority over the theoretical benefits of new untested technology. New Solar Cell Sets 40.8% World Efficiency Record http://www.electricalengineer.com/index.php?option=com_zippynews&id=236&task=detailnews&cid= While interesting this is not really all that noteworthy, mainly because the real solar revolution is yet to happen. Imagine 95% efficiency, multispectral energy absorption (meaning 24/7 energy production). Still every step forward is a good thing, since solar is the future of energy. AC3D program http://www.inivis.com/ A program that makes it possible to easily build sculpties in Second Life (please don't ask). Bacteria ready to make plastic from sugar http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26903611/ This is both cool and stupid, plastic can already be synthesized from almost any organic material, hemp, potato starch, etc. Despite the assurances of the biotech industry, it's obvious that GM bacteria poses a very serious risk to the ecosystem. But it's going to happen inevitably, just like loss of containment, environmental contamination, and a host of chaotic and completely unknown consequences. There is no reason for this idiocy, decades of study are still required. All that being said, the concept is very cool. Bacteria can be GM'd to do just about anything, perhaps even synthesize gold at some point. SanDisk's "slotMusic" software/hardware hybrid http://www.slotmusic.org./index.php This is right in line with some of my more long-term predictions about media and information. Mainly this is a fascinating case study because it is the first real application of merging media with hardware in a mainstream way. This is significant for a few reasons, the biggest one being the fact that hardware media can make it a lot harder to pirate IP, initially. Which is obviously what SanDisk is going for here, I've always hated this company. Even though they do deserve some credit for making flash memory ubiquitous, which is a great thing. As far as how they conduct themselves professionally though, they remind me of Adobe; basically fucking over the consumer whenever possible with the sole purpose of self-enrichment. They also have a really bad tendency to promote vaporware products years before their official release. September Update Part 2 Y08M09D16 Sharp powers solar panel plant with solar power http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/24/sharp-partly-power-solar-energy The title is kind of deceptive, the whole plant does not run on solar power, however this is a great case study for the future of energy. My question: Yes, but for how long? 20 years? 40, 50? How many years worth of resources are required to build and maintain such a plant? Common plastics chemical linked to human diseases http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSLF18683220080916 This article is all about the ongoing study of BPA. For me personally this is a perfect example of the hidden costs of blindly embraced, perceptually beneficial technology. Let me be straight for a moment- there are literally millions of things in our world that are produced by mankind, some wholly artificial, some augmented, some merely utilizing the naturally occurring resources already available. Every one of these things has two distinct functions: 1st is the intended function, 2nd is the unintended consequences. Most people, and by that I mean 99% never even imagine for a split-second that something as benign as a hammer could do anything besides pound nails into a board, metaphorically speaking. That's because things like hammers are all about human ego; we made them for a specific purpose, so naturally it's unimaginable that they can do anything besides what they were designed for. Well, as complexity goes up, so does functionality; not all that functionality is visible, or it may even extend deeply into the 4th dimension beyond even our ability to predict. These are realizations that are not casual, they are crucial. Honestly, a person should not even be allowed to pick up a hammer until they understand its entire history and most of its future. That is holistic doctrine; the big picture. Take a look at the trends; there are thousands of well documented instances of this very same abuse: most of them are at the heart of our most pressing contemporary crisis. The primary cause is a bitter mixture of ignorance and hubris. -- The following is part 2 of a previous post on why solar power is the only viable option for long-term energy production: Part 2. After writing this first part of this post I realized that I had left out a few things. Namely, the other, more controversial problems with solar power, i.e. the low efficiency of many PV devices + the prohibitive cost of solar technology in comparison to conventional electrical energy production sources. Additionally there is the subject of current and future advancements in solar efficiency + the much needed yet often ignored comparisons between low-tech and high-tech solar power. Lastly the secondary yet integral specter of all electrical power utilization that all too often is not even discussed; of course I'm talking about battery/capacitor technology, because obviously solar power in its current form has one glaring flaw: power is only generated during the day and therefore must be stored in some form of media for later use. I'll profile these in reverse order since the second point is more important than the first. While there's no end of talk and speculation about things like nano assisted solar, full-spectrum solar, genetically engineered biologically based solar.. all of this speculative science revolves around untested, energy intensive processes. Yet there has always been a high-efficiency low-tech solar process; the elegantly simple use of reflective collectors to focus light and heat water, which then becomes pressurized and runs through a turbine attached to an electric generator. Really, could it get any more refined and robust than that? I watched a special on solar towers recently that featured another version of this basic system; utilizing solar collectors to heat air which then rises up a shaft that channels the heated air through turbines. Apparently this will have to be a 3 part series, because I don't have time right now to finish it. September Update Part 1 Y08M09D08 Once again I have collected a bunch of links with the intention of writing a battery of editorials.. however I find that most of my time is taken up by other far more important tasks, like screwing around on the internet and playing shitty chinese MMORPGs that I quit after one day. The executive summary is this: no matter what, the future looks both impossibly bright and impossibly dark at the same time. Long-term things look very bad. Short-term, the world of mankind will probably not fall to ruin before I'm long gone. This of course is not an excuse to become apathetic or nihilistic. Physicists spooked by faster-than-light information transfer http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080813/full/news.2008.1038.html?s=news_rss The universe is solid state, there is no space or time, at least for entangled photons. Nanoantenna Arrays Seen As Possible Solar Cell Replacement http://cleantechnica.com/2008/08/11/nanoantenna-arrays-seen-as-possible-solar-cell-replacement/ Brilliant, although admittedly I never see the word "nano" without thinking about the myriad of very probable environmental and health concerns that particles small enough to pass through human cells entail. A New Green City for China (Corrected) http://cleanerairforcities.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-green-city-for-china.html First dubai and now china, I'm sensing a trend here, probably because there is at least a percentage of sane people scattered around the world with access to simulation data and the vast resources required to build cities that do more than just destroy our invaluable ecosystem. Overbuilt market creating modern ghost towns http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25887040/ Every time I drive through a major US city, I imagine how it will react to an energy and amenities crisis. There is not a city in the entire country that could survive a simple cessation of a single key resource; yet there are many cities that require these key resources to be imported from hundreds of miles away. The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5 I'm sure some people find articles like this to be torture. However, diesel is still not the answer, in fact given the emissions, it's even worse than gasoline. The worst case scenario is not running out of oil, the worst case scenario is a bunch of idiots coming up with a substitute for oil that shackles us to the internal combustion engine for another decade. Energy Ball - A Cheap And Efficient Wind Turbine http://devicedaily.com/environment/energy-ball-a-cheap-and-efficient-wind-turbine.html Great design. It's probably not economical when you calculate the cost of manufacture, however if you're going to go with this kind of system anyway, I've seen far worse. Beyond Nano Breakthrough, MIT Team Quietly Builds Virus-Based Batteries http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/science_news/4279923.html My first thought is; why bother with this middle step? Just jump right to genetically engineering biological batteries. There are even preexisting models to copy.. electric eels, bioluminescence, etc. there are organisms that turn organic matter into electrical energy.. in the long run biology is going to be infinitely more efficient than some manmade nano-bullshit. 2 Large Solar Plants Planned in California, Each Will Be 10 Times Bigger Than Largest Now in Service http://cleantechnica.com/2008/08/14/2-large-solar-plants-planned-in-california-will-each-be-10-times-bigger-than-largest-now-in-service/ Given the economics of current PV technology this is basically a huge scam.. however the future has to start somewhere, these plants will act as a model for future solar centers based on superior technology. Coal Power Plant Retrofit With Solar http://ecoworldly.com/2008/08/20/coal-power-plant-retrofit-with-solar/ It's this kind of innovation that should be getting the most coverage. Not only is it the perfect transitory step between old and new, it's also a shining example of taking something destructive and stupid and applying modern knowledge to make it smart and productive. Revealing the pyramids of the future (Dubai's latest offering is a carbon-neutral 'pyramid' city) http://worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=10224 Just another update on the fantastical things going on in dubai. If you really want to see into the future, talk to the people sitting on the last vestiges of the incalculable fortunes garnered through oil exploitation. They know there's no future in fossil fuels, and you can bet that they're getting out right now, before it's too late. JAPS/NEOTOY - The Telomerase (dedicated to Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn) Y08M08D24 The sable cervidae of Neotoy are quite special, although they have nearly been whipped out by the ignorance of the very people they serve. This fact however is made more understandable if one is to visualize in the mind's eye a distinct yet all too typical image that was quite commonplace until the modern age. Modern age, another backwards lie, because isn't it more true that with each consecutive age things only become less modern, less sophisticated, less refined, as if the whole world, nay, the whole universe were unraveling, bit by bit. Picture in your mind if you will, in the quasi dream like darkness of the very early morning, approximately 5:00. Before you lies a large clearing, this term is especially apt, because despite the presence of numerous anti-organic hard geometric forms which surround us on every side, in the middle, in this warm center space that feels hollow, there is the pervading, almost unnerving sense that we are entering a reliquary of the old forgotten time, a glade. However this is not a green glowing cradle of life, or at least not today. Before us is a scene of abject carnage, during the previous day a fight has taken place. The details are unclear, but it undoubtedly is just another routine ideological clash between black and white Ku students. Great pools of blood are coagulating like ponds in the process of freezing, sanguine and thick. There are body parts also, numerous and in various stages of familiarity, scattered about, some left partially standing like anonymous headstones. As we gaze unflinchingly down upon this tremendously horrific nightmare scene, a solitary face, stark and unnerving in its surreal umbrae beauty meets our eyes. She stares, not so much as a molecule of air stirring about her graceful yet muscular form. Watching, assessing, eyes two white pinholes in a face that seems all but silhouette; her lower lip twitches, and without so much as a wink her neck arches back downward in one clean, effortless motion, her tongue returning to the deep and open wound in the half-naked body of some unnamed denizen caught in the crossfire. She is not alone, there are dozens, silently like battlefield ghosts they step from one body to the next, seeming to float or at least glide over the ghastly landscape. At this point it is all quite understandable how the casual observer might be inclined to label these phantasmal creatures as death eaters, killers, or demonic entities having risen from the abyss to consume the souls of the dead, but nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, if we continue watching, despite the temporary discomfort of being confronted with our own mortality, we will experience something quite unique and bear witness to the closest thing to magic that still takes place in the natural world. If one could but approach these fair ladies of the night and watch them at their work, it would be immediately obvious that the touch of their delicate gesticulations are the blessings of a goddess rather than a curse of the devil. For from their open mouths flow the iridescent quicksilver of eternal life. And while they do take nourishment from the blood of the fallen, for each drop consumed they return in excess the mythical elixir of cellular rebirth. Glimmering and glowing under the first suggestions of dawn, the silver saliva flows like liquid metal around their soft open lips, pouring into deep mortal wounds like living water. Bones knit, muscle regrows, skin heals, even brain tissue will regenerate when assuaged by their silver tongues. There is a method to their madness, the Telomerase have an innate understanding of life and death, they search out only those victims that are still capable of entertaining the mortal coil, and they prefer those less inclined to violence. Although it is always a certainty that if denied their drastic treatment, each and every patient would die as surely as the sun will shortly rise. And that is their unfortunate sign, because the Telomerase are the divine agents of the great shadow, they do their work only under the cover of darkness. Once they veil has been lifted on the world they must return to the wood or face extinction. This is best, because the secret they carry inside their slender artful bodies is not a small one. In the morning shapes will stir, once broken and disfigured forms will shudder and rise, whole again, casting about them they will behold the day once more and wonder but never know how they might have escaped the clutches of death unscathed. Sun King (solar, PV, electricity, ecology, sustainability is key) Y08M08D11 Solar is the ONLY energy source that makes sense for long term use. Let me provide an airtight argument in support of this statement. Also, there are some interesting links at the bottom of the article. First, what is and will continue to be the single most important form of "energy" utilized by humans for all purposes? Answer: electricity. Electricity is both the most versatile and efficient of all currently known energy media. It can be used to create heat, light, locomotion, fabrication, sound, radio waves, wireless communications, etc. There basically isn't anything that it can't do. And when compared to all other known energy media it is the most clean and efficient method for these uses. If there is any doubt at all in the mind of anyone reading this that these words are 100% true, then please stop reading right now and find some other site to visit, because this is indisputable fact, and only an absolute crazy person would attempt to suggest otherwise. Second, what is the number one problem with using localized (planetary domestic) energy sources? Answer: sustainability. And what is the number two problem? Answer: environmental impact. Let's address these two problems. Even "green" energy sources like geothermal, hydroelectric, and wind power all present a serious problem to sustainability. Although excluding only geothermal, all of these energy sources are derivatives of solar energy; the problem with tapping localized energy sources in general is that it will always have a long term impact on the net energy balance of the entire planet. For example, converting kinetic energy from wind and waves into electricity is going to slowly drain that energy, leading to far-reaching unintended consequences. Eventually even these so called "renewable" energy sources will not be able to keep up with demand. This leads to the second problem; the ecosystem requires a diverse portfolio of energies to remain healthy, the environment has become dependent on forces like wind and ocean currents for ecological sustainability. If humans convert these forces into electricity without understanding the critical energy balance, it's only a matter of time before these vital processes begin to fail. The impact will be global and catastrophic. Geothermal is also a great example; the temperature of the earth's molten core is finite, if we were to tap that energy on a global scale it would begin to cool at a faster rate. Obviously this would cause significant problems. The essence of these remarks is this; finite domestic energy sources should not be converted from one energy media to another without first knowing the impact on sustainability and the environment. But beyond that, it's even more important to note that most of these energy sources are already the indirect result of extraterrestrial solar radiation. So, in conclusion it makes the most sense to make the conversion at the point of entry, rather than indirectly through incidental forces. This will raise efficiency and keep calculations as clean as possible. Now that, that is out of the way. Let's address the current problems with solar technology. Number one is cost of production. Obviously that is not monetary cost, but energy cost and hence ecological cost. The majority of current energy comes from coal and then oil, two sources which threaten the continued health of the ecosystem. In order for solar technology to be economical, the lifetime energy production of the solar product must dramatically exceed the initial manufacturing cost. This includes all elements, from the R&D, to the raw materials, to the labor, transportation, installation, lifecycle, disposal/recycle, etc. This brings us to problems number two and three. Durability and efficiency, respectively. How long will the solar energy device last? How long can it reliably produce electricity? Even at a relatively low efficiency, if it can produce for centuries it will be superior to a model that has a very high efficiency yet breaks down in a matter of a few years. Ideally however the device is both ultra-high efficiency and ultra durable. Lasting for hundreds of years and maintaining consistent high-energy output. Most enterprises will really not want to accept this next statement, but it is perhaps the most important overall. If these metrics cannot be calculated within an acceptable margin for error, say less than 1%, the idea of sustainable energy is ludicrous. Never forget. This is possible. Sustainable energy may be impractical. Evolution is fundamentally random, and failure is just as likely as success. From a scientific perspective there is no guiding force in human history, our freedom to fail or succeed is only limited by the natural laws that govern the known universe. Laws that we only know by our caliginous human perceptions of a reality so vast that our entire species is comparatively nothing more than a spark leaping from a cosmic fire. Sunflower is First Solar Concentrator Safe for Rooftops http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1976/83/ New Study Says City-Based Rooftop Wind Power Doesn’t Pay Off http://cleantechnica.com/2008/08/07/new-study-says-rooftop-wind-power-doesnt-pay-off/ Oil 'could hit $200 within years' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7549044.stm First Drive: 2010 Mitsubishi i MIEV Plug-In Electric http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=124867 100,000 Signatures (Bring George W. Bush and his shameful administration to Justice) Y08M08D07 Yeah I fucking signed it, and if you're a real American patriot you will too. The president of the United States is sworn to uphold the constitution, not defile it. > Illegal undeclared war > Authorized torture > Lying under oath > Domestic spying > The "Patriot" Acts > Revocation of habeas corpus When is enough enough? What exactly does Bush have to do before the average America stops taking it up the ass? At least 100,000+ have had the guts to stand up to the tyranny of an administration that has no respect for the constitution or for the people. What the fuck are you waiting for? Add your voice to the declaration, enough is enough! SIGN THE PETITION RIGHT NOW across the universe Y08M07D11 Words are flying out Like endless rain into a paper cup They slither while they pass They slip away across the universe I took this photo, but those are not my words. June Update (Big oil, Solar, Bush, Broadband) Y08M06D19 Links & Notes: Follow the Oil Money "Follow the Oil Money is an interactive tool that tracks the flow of oil money in US politics. Click on one of the search tools on the right to find out which companies are pumping their dirty oil money into politics, who is receiving it, and how it correlates to key climate, energy and war votes." I watched a documentary on the making of There Will Be Blood, yes it is just a movie. However I think it does an excellent job of exposing the inherent psychosis that is nothing less than the stone-cold, filth-ridden, squalor saturated soul of the oil industry. Let's put things in perspective, oil is prehistoric garbage, the liquefied remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. We then dig up this environmental excrement and use it to power our civilization. To label this behavior insane, simply wouldn't do it justice. There's only one way to crawl out of this wretched, tar-slick pit we've dug ourselves into. We must learn to recognize oil for what it really is: Abhorrent filth that any sane organism would stay the hell away from. Oil is not a natural resource. Oil is not a commodity. Oil is not a fuel source. Oil is toxic waste and should be treated like it; not traded on the motherfucking stock market! Furthermore, people who continue to insist that oil is a legitimate industry should be locked up in the loony bin where they belong. If the total world market had one ounce of sense, it would take every last penny from every oil company on earth and use that money to do what should have been done decades ago. Bring our civilization out of the fossil fuel dark ages. It's time to stop letting this disgusting black slime dictate the future of our species. I dare you to tell me that we can't find a better solution. It's already been proven mathematically that the Cost of converting the entire U.S. to electric cars would be zero. So, WTF are we waiting for?! Fuck big oil and fuck these asshole politicians who keep perpetuating this degrading, and shameful way of life at our expense. World's biggest solar farm at centre of Portugal's ambitious energy plan Does it really take a brain to see that this is the future we've been waiting for? Is America going to be left behind while the rest of the world frees themselves from the tyranny of fossil fuels? Solar Power's New Style Why are we still debating this? Why are we still pouring billions of dollars into the oil industry every quarter? That primate George W. Bush actually had the gall to petition congress to repeal the 27 year coastal oil ban and drill in the Alaska wildlife refuge! That's because he's in the pocket of big oil. Big oil who said that this is the ONLY way to lower prices in the short term. However, it will take TEN years for the drilling projects they have planned to even impact the oil market! Is 10 years short term? I don't think so! Fuck George W. Bush, and fuck Congress for even considering these proposals. Broadband Census This is a really useful link for finding broadband in your area. I found out about it after watching a Google presentation and I recommend watching all of these great videos that Google has generously posted on YouTube. The hidden costs of Democratization Y08M05D23 From an external perspective, what looks worse, actors living in poverty or living beyond their means? If the observer is impoverished and the actor is impoverished it is a case for empathy and sympathy. If the observer is impoverished and the actor is affluent it is a case for envy and resentment. If the observer is impoverished and the actor is gratuitous it is a case for animosity and hostility. You really can't blame democracy for the establishment of a kind of lifestyle that is predominantly gratuitous, because ultimately democracy is just a mechanism that allows people to collectively have an elevated level of self-determination. So, if such a lifestyle develops in a democracy it is really nothing more than the manifestation of the will of the members of the democratic collective. This includes the education and curriculum responsible for initiating the members into an active adoption of the lifestyle, as well as the oral and anecdotal family traditions that cement it. The real enigma in this kind of situation, is where does the ignorance of one's own lifestyle originate? In other words, how is it possible to live a complex and artificial lifestyle every day, and yet chronically fail to recognize the glaring flaws and inherently destructive aspects of that lifestyle? The most disturbing answer to this question, is that the members of the democratic collective are not ignorant of the real world impact their lifestyle generates, but in fact actively choose to pursue a lifestyle that they know is harmful and obscene to external observers. A far less critical analysis would be that due to the striking lack of popularized compelling information, gratuitous actors are content to live mentally and spiritually in a kind of ambivalent gray haze of moral ambiguity. Rather than challenging themselves with factual statements like: "My gratuitous and sickening fossil fuel addiction results in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths each year." It's much more democratically palatable to say something like: "I'm not sure about the impact of my gratuitous and sickening fossil fuel addiction, so I'll continue to cause harm due to my obscene and criminally gross negligence, until someone beats me over the head with the facts I was too lazy to find on my own.. because basically nothing is for certain in this life, in this gray dream that I call a life, and I really could care less about the ill effects of my lifestyle, unless it somehow affects me directly." I'm guessing that most Americans would not be comfortable with that second statement, and yet, how does it really differ from reality? It's hard to disassociate the historical course of the United States from certain religious texts, namely the "Bible". So I would like to quote a choice passage from the book that I think many Americans might have overlooked at some point. Matthew 7:5 "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." The fact of the matter is that we are not Americans first, we are humans, and as part of the human race we share certain obligations with our brothers and sisters, whether they live next door or across the ocean. I'm sure a lot of you have also heard another biblically derived platitude that rings true in this instance, "Robbing Peter to pay Paul." The core of this expression is our intrinsic connectivity and interdependence; a concept that the United States, and indeed many other nations around the world seem to have forgotten. Perhaps that's because of the giant freaking log that seems to come as a complimentary part of the first world nation status package? Our nation isn't rich just because we have a democratic system of government, we're rich primarily because of our collusion with countless greed obsessed commercial entities that have made a very profitable career out of unilaterally robbing and exploiting the weak and the defenseless around the world, all in order to perpetuate a variety of factually delusional American myths. This practice goes way beyond something as trite as an inconvenient truth. Am I bashing America? No, I'm bashing all the people who call themselves Americans, yet don't have the courage, or the moral integrity to dig beneath the superficial ideals lauded by blind, unquestioning patriots and ask themselves in all seriousness and honesty: Is our democracy really working? It's a question that I personally find prudent, given the absurd atmosphere of flag waving and chest beating that permeates our rapidly declining culture. May Update Part 2 Y08M05D21 I feel like hell. And it's not because of the news for once. So yeah, more links, yay! I had another kind of revelation lately, and this relates to prioritization mechanisms, mathematical and others. I was watching a video about a trash collecting strike and a city buried in trash, it got me thinking about something very obvious (I imagine) to people who write algorithms. Volume is a lot more important than the other factors taken by themselves. If I were to list them in order of greatest importance it would look something like this: Volume Frequency Duration This differs from the previous system, which probably looked more like: Frequency Duration Volume Let me try to put this in a way that makes more sense. Using the trash strike as an example, the impact is extreme mainly because of the volume, rather than the frequency as one might initially assume. The trash piles up, not because it needs to be taken out often, but because so much of it is being generated. This is the direct result of the middle operand frequency, not of the modularization process, but of extreme volume on the opposite end. The other end being the production infrastructure. I guess if it were visualized it would look something like an hour glass (ironic?). The key here is in understanding that while small things happening over a long period of time can have a massive effect - massive things happening just a few times for a short duration have a greater impact. The strange thing about this, is that it requires the whole process to be traced, which I guess makes perfect sense. It's just an awkward way to visualize this kind of dynamic. But whatever, that's a lot of noise. How it applies to my own personal method, is that I should probably re-prioritize according to initial volume (production volume). Rather than the end product volume. I'll give it a try, see if it's reliable. 235 MPG car Yeah, whatever. Someone's a bit late to the party. IBM claims major boost in solar cell efficiency Solar is our only real hope at this point, but if the technology can't last long enough to power its own replication, it's irrelevant. 'Asbestos warning' on nanotubes There are three industries that offer the greatest potential for revolutionary science, and simultaneously the greatest potential for wholesale death and destruction. Wireless, Nano, GMO. Even with significant overwatch I doubt that government can protect people from the hubris of a handful of overzealous technicians. XO2 Laptop draft design Seems to me that this project is going down hill.. in other words it's falling to the overbearing strong arm of the world's most competitive industry. Meanwhile the value of the project while inspiring is still uncertain. Only time will tell. Only Carbon Matters I really like the good points that this article makes.. not sure if I agree 100% with the headline. My basic interest in the premise is that everything and everyone can benefit from prioritization. Is there one ultimate, or overriding phenomenon that demands all of our attention, that we ignore at our peril? Or is the situation far more diverse, with a billion cataclysms on the brink, with every single one of them needing immediate attention? I think the later is more likely. However, at some point it becomes a race to see which Armageddon will come knocking first. May Update Part 1 Y08M05D17 A bunch of links from my notes that I'm basically too lazy to write entire articles about: the truth about biofuels in america Pretty much everything I suspected about the western political response to one of the biggest future crisis is true. Because in the end, the argument is not about fuel at all, it's about energy. It makes no sense to discuss potential fuel sources without first going to the root of the equation; which is energy. Why? Because it takes energy to make and utilize fuel. If we don't analyze the actual cost of production and then balance it against the benefit of use, the whole process is cataclysmic waste of time because it's not under our control. You can't manage what you can't see. Although along with this comes the shocking insight of the mentality behind the vast majority of people (both consumers and producers), as long as money is being made, everything is justifiable. Money that is nothing more than a crude and uninformed representation of commodities that have a very real negative impact on global civilization and ecology. In the days to come this message will begin to resonate with increasing intensity until the point where it begins to tear the financial centers of the world apart. Here in America we're not about to enter a recession, a depression, a stagflation, or any other cutesy name financial pundits may come up with. We're about to enter an 'adapt or die' scenario. Oh, did I forget to mention that in Asia and Europe they have cars that get 100 mpg? But there's not much point in ranting about all that is there. Nothing can stop what's coming. XO Laptop Design Superiority why your laptop is crap yeah, we're pretty much fucked Once the ocean goes, the food chain will collapse. But you knew that already right? pharma water Once again humans are only thinking of themselves.. what about bacteria, other micro-organisms, the environment at large? monsanto whistle-blower I am not anti-GMO. However, this isn't science, it's experimentation. Corporations like Monsanto need to be shut down right now. Not because they're inherently evil but because of the total lack of maturity and overwatch exemplified by the genetics industry. Also see wireless tech as it relates to the credit bubble, same basic strategy, short-term benefit elevated above common sense and long term integrity. anecdotal vaccine autism link It's not a fact, but that's not the point. The point is that we have a problem and no one is doing anything about it. What is the motivation for delaying research, and getting answers? Billions of dollars. Vaccines are obviously a good thing, but what if there's a long-term cost? Shouldn't we be taking that into account and adjusting our strategy? GMO recombinant mystery The More We Know About Genes, the Less We Understand, kind of says it all. Meanwhile companies like Monsanto are converting our staple crops for profit using bad science.. unbeliveable. truth about shoes It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the human foot. But we're wrecking it with every step we take. I started wearing sandals about 6 years ago, and I haven't worn anything else since then. Of course if you live in Alaska that's not an option. labor credit in action Eventually the gravy train comes grinding to halt, if you're fueling it exclusively on dreams and labor credit. But that's nothing new, slavery just doesn't work. fat kills One of the many reasons to do everything possible to limit calorie intake. Recently I started a personal program attempting to limit my own intake (not for weight purposes), I'm able to stick to it about 50% of the time. I've found many benefits. Food tastes better, I enjoy eating a lot more, I'm actually hungry when I do eat, I spend a lot less on food, I eat much healthier. Seriously it's a win-win situation. autism 2 I think they call this a cascade. If we don't find out what's causing the nearly 300% increase in diagnosed cases of Autism, in a matter of a few generations it's not going to be a disorder any longer, it's going to be the norm. bees knees And here I was thinking that CCD was a phase. Apparently not. I read recently that 1/3 of all our food comes from sources dependent on bee pollination. This is the next big crisis after our failed energy policy. Initial studies have suggested that a mutated form of fungus may be responsible. I speculate that this is linked to GMOs, pesticide use, or just pollution in general. Whatever the cause, we need to find out soon. The city sleeps Y08M05D04 This place used to be a lot more interesting before I started to become all "political". Now it seems that all I write anymore is editorials about the stupid election. So, I've decided to take a break from all that, for awhile. What I'd really like to get back into is a project that I had started in the middle of last year, and that was a catalog of designs for advanced city infrastructure.. this of course relates to the Neotoy project, and to the broader overall goals of the non-fictional aspect of the site. Currently in our world, there is only one initiative in progress that even comes close to what I think of as "advanced" city infrastructure. I've mentioned it before, it's called the Masdar Initiative (watch the video), and it's funded by and located in Abu Dhabi.. Why is all this important? Because modern cities are built and maintained in an unsustainable way. Meaning that if the fundamental architecture is not changed they will inevitably become uninhabitable. This is a problem because every year more people move from a rural environment to a city environment. So, you might be wondering, what is the LCD (lowest common denominator), or weakest link/bottle neck responsible for this situation? The idea of cheap energy. I say idea because that's exactly what it is; there is no such thing as cheap energy. There is however a monumental amount of energy credit. Contemporary civilization is built on this credit, in this instance the bank is the environment.. you could call the currency of choice 'natural resources', but that would be an oversimplification. The currency is a little more complex, I would call it ecosystem functionality. Resources are just part of an ecosystem, there are renewable resources and non-renewable resources.. however the resources themselves are far less important than the inherent ecological functionality that they provide, or immobilize. In order to understand their value and significance, we cannot evaluate them independently, these resources must be viewed both as discrete units AND as links in a potentially infinite ecological chain. The fate of humanity hangs by this chain. At this time in history many of the most essential links have been worn to a fragile band that could snap if put under the slightest stress. Living beyond our means. This is an interesting paradox, it seems absurd to argue that civilization is over extended while so many our institutions seem to be moving forward, expanding. But this superficial analysis fails to take the long-term cost of the expansion process into account. Behind everything that humans have erected over the last two hundred years or so, is the conversion of combustible resources into mechanical and electrical energy, along with more waste and environmental degradation than could be measured in one lifetime. Steam engines, coal and oil engines, these are the literal foundation of everything we have today. Without them, our civilization even in its current technologically advanced form would collapse in a matter of days. So, it becomes impossible to ignore the significance of the ecological impact of combustion. No matter how you slice it, there is a huge and often undisclosed cost associated with burning fuel to produce energy. We focus on the benefits, but ignore the fact that we have become entirely dependent on the method. In essence, we are not living by our own means, our civilization has become the completely impractical side effect of a process that we pioneered (ironically) in order to gain greater independence. Naturally it makes perfect sense that the structures and societal fixtures that would arise from this process would likewise be dependent on the primitive combustion model. Even after the advent of nuclear power, solar power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, we still can't survive without burning coal and oil in ever increasing quantities. Even if it was a clean process that provided some ecological benefit, it would still ultimately be proving that our species can't sustain its own growth. This is the truth that contemporary humanity is reluctant to accept, we are an ecological failure. And it is only by the grace of god, and countless metric tons of carbon that we have anything beyond a patch of dirt and a dingy hut to call home. Combustion based technology has allowed us to expand in an ecologically destructive way, mega agriculture has allowed our widely dispersed populations to explode, electrical energy has allowed us to build monumental cities and to stock them with controlled environments and commodities, industrialism has allowed us to create a cornucopia of mass produced hardware and perpetuate the lie we've all come to implicitly know and love. We've conquered the planet, yet profoundly failed to address our own flaws as an animal that has all the power in the world, but not enough net brains to spread on a piece of toast. What we've built is truly fantastical, a feat of psychotic inspiration that cannot be denied. But, it's time to face the dark side of the city, and of our civilization in its current form. What we've built simply can't be sustained with our archaic energy production technology. We have only one option: Solve the fundamental problem of producing vast amounts of energy without destroying the ecosystem. If we can't find a solution then we will fall. Not in fifty or a hundred years, but in ten or perhaps even as little as five. Notes: The amount of coal and oil we have is no longer relevant, it's the result of its consumption that has become important. And the fact that everything we have as a culture and as a civilization would disappear without it. We are faced with a generational enigma; how much of a destructive dependence can we afford? And if we can't? Then how extensive will the restructuring be? How many levels of dependence will we need to strip away before our society is able to reach an ecological equilibrium? What does America and the Pope have in common? (jesus, another goddamn rant neotoy?) Y08M04D24 A distinct lack of infallibility. I have realized something important, but before that, a little self criticism. I am too verbose, I know this, it is a problem, probably not solvable in one lifetime, sorry about that. Second I appear to be descending back into my infamous cycle of rage. Once again, sorry about that. Meanwhile.. Only my close friends know about this, I have a strange dislike for "New Yorkers" (yes it relates). Why? You might ask. It's not a good reason really, but essentially what it comes down to is their attitude. Now I realize that many people who live in, or are from New York are not bad people, nor do they embody many of the things that I have come to hate about the characteristics (caricature) that I typically imagine. It's just a thing I have. However, today I had this kind of crystallization about my dislike of New Yorkers. Mainly this revelation came through listening to Hillary Clinton wax poetically (politically) about how awesome America and Americans are. And then it hit me. You know what, Hillary Clinton doesn't have a fucking clue. While Barack is busy trying to unite everyone, there is something prevalent that overshadows all the pomp and analysis of the primaries. Something that no one is willing to acknowledge, despite its obscene and undeniable presence. The country we live in is really two nations. There is an economic threshold, and an income gap so vast that it makes the grand canyon look like a crack in the sidewalk by comparison. I laughed out loud when Hillary cited her contrived campaign terminology "commander in chief threshold" in an interview, but now I realize that she was exposing the genuine guts of her posturing bid for the presidency. Sometimes we call it a ticket, or platform, yet more commonly known as point of view. People who are paid more than they deserve, live in an entirely different world from the rest of us. Does it really matter where that money comes from, or how they come by it? Ultimately all it means is that they don't have to work to survive. In this respect they live in a world where everything that occupies their time and attention is isolated from the reality that "normal" people face every day. The result of this elevation is a sense of entitlement. Not to put to fine a point on it, but these affluent types simply take real life for granted, and why shouldn't they? It doesn't concern them. They are not subject to it's laws and whims, they exist beyond it all, floating on a cloud high above the pandemonium and petty life or death struggles of the proletariat. There are two sides to America, the rich side and the poor side. The focus of this editorial is on one thing alone; the stark and fundamental injustice of average Americans not getting paid fairly for the work that they do. Although in many circumstances this inequality can only be highlighted after pointing out how overpaid other Americans are. For example, some people work three jobs and yet barely make enough money to feed their families; while other people work a couple of hours a day and make more money than they could spend in a lifetime. A hardcore capitalist might argue that you get out what you put in.. but that's simply not true. Only wealthy people have the luxury of thinking in such simplified terms. For most people there are circumstances that prevent them from finding good opportunities. They are trapped by an unjust economic hierarchy that systematically exploits their time and energy while rewarding them by reducing their options for upward mobility. This is nothing new, it's the basis upon which all world class civilizations are historically founded. We used to call it slavery, but the modern form is far more sophisticated than that. Politicians don't have the guts to acknowledge that they are all out of touch with the real American people. They don't know who the American people really are, because they don't live among them. The message, the pitch, the promise is always to the comparatively small number of people just like them. And that's what I hate about "New Yorkers", this attitude that the only (relevant) people worth caring about are those just like them, the baseless assumption that they have found the key to success, and that everyone else is just too dumb to follow their example. You could almost call it a classic American attitude. It never occurs to this type of personality that the reason they are so well off is because of all the people they have effectively enslaved. Is that really something to be proud of? You may be clever, but you're also a fucking asshole. Of course I've known New Yorkers who are nothing like that. Really it's more of an image thing, a projection to fool other predators. I don't want a president who doesn't realize how inherently fucked up America is right now. I know it's not politically acceptable to admit something like that, but it's the truth. There are a lot of Americans doing well for themselves, but for every one of them there's 10,000 others who are doing everything they can and still coming up short. What we have is a superficial society of people who are lucky and like to pretend that they are responsible for it. These people have nothing exceptional aside from a tendency to succeed in a sociopolitical system that rewards a minority of people randomly, and punishes everyone else for not being lucky. A just system that actually made sense would give everyone an equal opportunity to succeed. While people like Hillary, Obama and McCain are all too happy to reiterate rhetorical lines like "God bless America", none of them have the guts to face the facts about how they got to this point. Or more importantly, the things that are strikingly absent from their lives that would have prevented them from even coming close to the presidency. For how many Americans is a political office completely out of reach? Just about as far as the average politician is out of touch with the American people. Our political system has become nothing more than an elitist country club that only accepts members who can pay their exorbitant social and financial dues. Notes: Ever had that feeling where you're really angry and hurt and you just lash out of control for awhile? Yeah? Me too. p.s. I'm still voting for Barack, TBH he's the only reason I've given politics a second chance. If Obama can drag someone like me out of political apathy and disillusionment; I think he could do great things for America. Bitter, frustrated? You don't know the half of it. Y08M04D23 Pennsylvania.. Notes: The annoyance of not knowing. These close races. I hate my occasional forays into the fringe of conspiracy theory. When I look at the results however my first thought is that all of this is for the benefit of dividing democrats, the obvious intention is John McCain winning the general election by default. Just like George W. Bush did nearly eight years ago. Not that any of that matters.. Which is really what's bothering me. All of this primaries bullshit is just one elaborate retard distraction from the ultimate failure of our representative democracy to make the world a better place. One can only conclude that even if it is "working" then we as Americans are to blame for some of the worst acts in modern history. Hope. It's all we've ever had. Because of people like Hillary and John McCain, even Obama is a millionaire.. The super rich elite. No matter how you slice it, to them, we're nothing. And that's not by any virtue or hard work on their part, it's all due to an idiot market, an idiot ethic, an idiot nation. Even calling them elite is pathetic, they're only elite because of our lemming like recognition of a contrived social status that is neither deserved nor real. When did politicians become celebrities? For the people, my ass. The status of people like the president has been transformed over time into something more akin to a monarchy than a democracy. America in its current state stands for corporate profit, thinly veiled imperialism, and a bunch of self-entitled dicks with nothing better to do than brag about how rich they are to their similarly rich friends. Wealth which characteristically is the product of generations of degenerate exploitation. We have nothing worth boasting about, our culture couldn't even survive without the slow yet inevitable destruction of the rest of the planet. At the end of the day all we have to leave as an American legacy is an empty attitude of stupid supremacy and a dream that our most popularized political figures know nothing about and have never believed in. Personally I can't think of a better symbol of the American way of life than someone like John McCain or Hilliary Clinton. Rich, white, arrogant, hedonistic, morally bankrupt and utterly self-serving. TBH I almost hope McCain gets elected. Why? Because that's just what America deserves, another clueless, over-privileged, military-industrial stooge to drive this bitch right down into the biggest ditch on earth. I'm sure Hillary would be glad to help, maybe she can get her old job back at Walmart? Represent. Assuming that Pennsylvania voters really did vote for Hillary with all the sincerity in their hearts, I can only draw one conclusion. They are cowards who live in constant fear of manipulative, manufactured threats, they are subservient serfs who enjoy licking the boots of their affluent corporate sponsored overlords, and they are too stupid to realize the difference between a candidate that they don't deserve and one that will sell them down the river at the first opportunity. Fucking primates, why don't you all just crawl back into the primordial ooze. Bush's Colombia free trade deal in plain language that any idiot can understand Y08M04D14 A response to Bush angered over Colombian deal Trade tariffs and other tolls force corporations to consider their bottom line (profit) when appraising the potential benefit of moving their industrial plants into other countries, i.e. Colombia; where essentially the average worker makes less than $1USD per day. Here is the basic equation for the mathematically challenged: 5000 Colombian workers who earn $1/day = $5000 in wages. 5000 American workers who earn $80/day = $400,000 in wages! Now what tariffs and tolls do is remove the incentive of American corporations to move their factories to Colombia, because, even if they are only paying their workers $1/day, they will have to pay the government an additional $79 for each worker per day. Unsurprisingly President Bush wants to remove this obstacle, so that American corporations can move to Colombia and set up shop. With free trade they will be free to pay just $1/day (or less) to impoverished Colombian workers, who from a corporate perspective have about the same human rights as lab rats. Then these corporations will ship their manufactured goods back over the border into the United States, where outlet stores like Walmart will then offer these items for a price just below that of American made products; which are produced by fairly paid middle class American workers who make on average $20,000 - $60,000 a year! But not for long! Because Walmart will sell for less, always! Bush had the gall to say "It is not in our country's interests that we stiff an ally like Colombia" - the problem here is that we're not stiffing Colombia, we're stiffing America and the average American worker. That's right, true to form Bush is once again trying to undermine his own country and everything it stands for. That's because he doesn't give a fuck about America or American workers. The only entity being served by this bullshit agreement is the gross profit margin of multinational corporations that only care about one thing, money! The same corporations that treat their workers like slaves, the environment like their personal toilet, and their customers like a two dollar hooker. These corporate institutions make Bin Laden look like some kind of fucking saint, and Al Qaeda a humanitarian charity by comparison. They are the true enemy of the United States and of all Americans, and if left unchecked, they will put this country into the ground. George W. Bush is a coward, a traitor, and he continues to undermine and compromise the last vestiges of the dying American dream with every fiber of his being. Personally I'm surprised he takes all the multinational cocks out of his mouth long enough to give these inspiring speeches, letting us know how much he hates freedom, and human rights. Maybe he should just cut to the chase and rape the statue of liberty? March Notes Partial Summary (pesticides Parkinson's link, Obamanomics, oil = death, the google bubble) Y08M03D28 Mega agriculture allows populations to explode. But for every perceived societal benefit there is an associated real world cost. Ultimately these processes are about the transmutation of natural resources (some good, some bad). Raw or inert elements are conditioned and combined to form highly complex compounds like fertilizer and pesticides which are then mass produced. These substances are then introduced into the environment, changing the ecological landscape in significant and often detrimental ways. When are people going to stop pretending that eating poison makes sense? -- Obama economics (Obamanomics?). Barack delivers yet another inspiring, visionary speech. This time he takes on the economy and Wall Street (to task), and all I can say is wow. Not only is he extremely well informed, he actually has a plan that makes sense. But that's not enough for Obama, he takes it to a whole new level by deftly addressing not only the technical challenges, but making the philosophical importance of our connectivity a central theme, driving the point home that prosperity only succeeds when people view it as a mutual venture. Duh! When I think about the disparity between George W. Bush and Barack Obama I have to laugh. It's insane, that's the only word for it. That someone like George W. Bush should be considered for any job other than flipping burgers in some out-of-the-way backwater McDonald's is a miracle in and of itself. Then we have Obama, a man who almost seems to be more than America deserves. I think the media said it best; Obama talks to Americans like adults. If that's true then George W. Bush talks to Americans like retarded step-children that he wishes would go away or just die while he skull-fucks their mother into a coma. Notes: Scalable infrastructure.. his most important point was that the regulation has not evolved while the market has. So obviously whatever future plan is put into place it must be assumed that such a plan will not last for many decades, but will instead be a fluid and flexible strategy that must simultaneously adapt to the market evolution AND maintain its own integrity and standards of service to the people. -- One nice thing about being an analyst, ever so often you get to report the news before it happens.. although unfortunately most of the time this is done while looking on in horror as an unspeakable tragedy unfolds. Just as I predicted™ the trucking companies are beginning to feel the inevitable crunch of higher fuel prices. In reality what is really going on here is a market correction. Almost two centuries worth of correction. As America and the rest of the world wake up to the reality of so-called "cheap energy".. the fact is, it isn't cheap, it's actually more costly than expensive energy. Predictably the initial response will be to utilize alternatives that are similarly impractical; ethanol, hydrogen, biomass, et al. All of these fuel sources are just more ecological credit, they will result in more long-term corrections. Mainly this is the result of the core process, the method of consumption, the inherent physical properties of the sources and the fundamental nature of energy production.. all of which is essentially ignored by way too many people who really should know better. This is the reality that we must face. It becomes necessary to stop thinking about the end product (energy) and start thinking about the process. We need to define a criteria for energy production that fulfills certain key requirements. Obviously if these requirements are not met the end product is not acceptable. Duh! Notes: Real impact of inclusive analysis, I report the news before it even exists. Adapt or die. Next they will be telling us that not only do we need to stop immediately, we need to start eliminating current carbon as well. -- The google bubble. People just never learn. Why? Because they are looking at an economic process without really seeing it. All they can see is money and activity, what they do not see is the fact that real-world (holistic) processes are not iconic but are instead nebulous in nature. Most analysts look at the center of the cloud, the most concentrated part, they focus on this area. What they do not realize is that the center is nothing more than a symptom of the larger unspecified mass which is much larger and more significant in size. The latest internet bubble is exactly the same way! Many nascent industries are viewing advertising as the next big thing. Companies like google made billions of dollars exploiting this phenomenon. However, advertising is not a product. At some point a threshold is always breached, this is when the market comes to the collective realization that it has been cannibalizing itself. It has been feeding on the illusion of activity while continually sustaining significant and very real losses. In this instance you have to look at market prioritization which is often based on bad math rather than real measurable results. A good example of this is slave labor and the exploitation of archaic third world infrastructure (political and technical). These forms of cost cutting are actually just another form of credit, the cost is a human one, but a cost none-the-less. This system of prioritization finances poverty, it creates a demand for poverty. Inevitably the higher tiers of the market minority become saturated with product, at this point the lower impoverished mass market becomes the new target demographic. But they are unable to afford the product because they are selling it for more than they can afford to pay, the result is that the bubble bursts. Notes: Advertising only works when people have money to spend. The new credit bubble, slave labor. All for nothing Y08M03D23 This year of all years, for at least one-and-a-half centuries, may be the most important for Americans; understandably the 2008 presidential election has become the biggest deal in American politics since the civil war. The whole world is watching. They are watching because the outcome of the 2008 presidential election will not only decide the fate of the United States, but have an unprecedented impact on the international space; including the political, the economic and the environmental. All will be permanently and significantly impacted. However, it may already be too late for that to matter. The hope I've gained from senator Obama's fair speech has been evenly tempered by the sheer audacity of an unexplained contradiction which exists like a giant mental and moral obstruction blocking the nation's clear path to change and progress. And I am forced to ask myself, given the gravity of the situation, given the undeniable severity of the charges, is this not all nothing more than a massive farce? At the very least it is profoundly unsettling. No I am not talking about the comments of Reverend Wright and Geraldine Ferraro, nor John McCain's Iran Al Qaeda gaffe. I am talking about something far more recent, far more relevant, far more systemic and threatening to the survival of the United States. Let me provide a handy metaphor to clarify the situation to which the majority of Americans seem to be blissfully unaware. Say you are living in a large and diverse house, on more than one occasion you happen to witness that the head of the household routinely acts in an extremely inappropriate way in regards to the other inhabitants. Now by "extremely inappropriate" I do not mean drinks out of the milk carton when no one is looking. I mean things on the level of gambling away all the rent and food money and then bragging about losing. Things like molesting the children and then holding a press conference to celebrate his latest sexual conquest. Or how about pissing and shitting all over the priceless furniture. Yeah, that's right, I'm talking about George W. Bush. A man, no an epic idiot, who should by all rights be rotting in some jail cell at this very moment. George W. Bush is a traitor to the United States of America, he is a scoundrel, a liar, a crook, and an international disgrace. He should be taken at this very moment from his position of power, charged with the crimes to which he is evidently and undeniably guilty and then incarcerated in federal prison; just like any other American would be if they had trampled the constitution, repeatedly violated international law, and lied pathologically under oath. What most Americans don't seem to get is that this is not a debate. This is not something that you can argue against and simultaneously expect to be taken seriously. Make no mistake, if you, no matter who you are, were to commit even a fraction of the crimes that George W. Bush has committed during his nearly two terms in office. You my friend would be rotting in a cell, right now. Mental retards might argue, "But he's the president, he deserves special treatment, he's above the law, he can do whatever he wants, suck it." Wrong. Of all the people in the United States, it's the president who must be held to the highest possible standard of law and national ethics. Our current president however, based on his authorizations is as follows: a spy, a torturer, a terrorist, an embezzler, a thief, a liar, an enemy combatant, a war criminal, a murderer, and ultimately a grand traitor to everything American stands for, and everything American's believe in. In fact, in the entire history of the United States there has never been such an obscene and reprehensible administration, responsible for an unparalleled scope and scale of damage, not only domestic but globally as well. In just under eight years, George W. Bush has set America back by half a century. The only circumstances under which he would deserve to be cut any slack, is if he was diagnosed with a severe degenerative mental condition rendering him essentially retarded. Instead it's America and Americans at large who should be diagnosed with such a condition. Why? Because you idiots have not forcibly dragged George W. Bush off his throne and cast him down into the deepest, darkest, dungeon the nation has to offer. You fucking morons actually have the guile to let that mother fucking monkey fucker get up in front of a podium and continue to spout his derange, reality detached rhetoric day in and day out. As if he deserved to enjoy the freedoms that he has continually disrespected and defiled. The only thing that asshat should be doing in front of a podium is begging for the goddamn forgiveness of the entire global community. Then, after he's apologized himself half to death, it's time for him to answer a few questions. To explain his deplorable and despotic conduct in earnest. No more evasion, no more half-truths, explain to America, to Americans what psychotic impulse inspired you to shame our entire country, to break our most sacred laws, to wage unconstitutional war, to bankrupt our future, to generally treat us and the world community at large like meaningless and expendable second-class citizens, all while you enjoyed and abused the privileges of your office.. Meanwhile Obama gives historic and eloquent speeches, Hillary will say and do anything to get elected including sabotaging her own party, McCain marches ever onward into the delusional republican dream world of eternal war and ill gotten gains, and Ron Paul rants the truth about the mighty dollar and no one listens. And as great as all that is, I have to ask myself, what does it fucking matter. As long as George W. Bush remains in office, everything they all say might as well be empty lies. If they can't recognize the glaring outrage of a traitor in their midst, how the hell do they expect to run a country? And furthermore, if Americans can't recognize the travesty of the Bush administration, really what hope do we have? March Update Part 2b (focus + the 14 questions) Y08M03D14 As of this moment I have a rough content backlog about six pages long. That's six pages of headlines, links and abstracts, not articles. The problem with being an analyst is that the more you analyze the more you become a macrocosm of your subject matter; for me that would be the entire known universe and then some. Obviously my biggest problem does not involve finding things to editorialize, my problem is finding the most reliable method for topic prioritization, so that I can 'attack' the most relevant issues first. Second, I must be able to write clear and concise arguments to support my theoretics. Third, I should have enough net flexibility to frame my articles in such a way that they do not become tedious to produce and absorb. Moving on.. The National Academy of Engineering has come up with a list of The 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering, being something of an engineer I thought I might address them in my own way by adding a few short comments after each one. 01. Making solar energy affordable: How do you convert and store the power of sunshine at a cost competitive with fossil fuels? Answer: It already is. The only reason fossil fuels are still used today is because the fossil fuel industry has a death grip on every major political, industrial, and economic entity on earth. Although, if you really want to ask an absurd question, why not start by asking the automotive industry why they are still selling vehicles that get 14MPG, when they are capable of making vehicles that get 69.9MPG. 02. Providing energy from fusion: How do you sustain a controlled fusion reaction for commercial power generation? Answer: Fusion it stupid and pointless, we don't need it. Given the cost of development and potential risk of fusion reactors, it really doesn't make sense to invest in this technology; especially when far more intelligent solutions like solar are already available. 03. Developing carbon sequestration methods: How do you capture the carbon dioxide produced from fossil-fuel burning, and confine that excess carbon underground? Answer: First stop producing excessive levels of carbon dioxide, second, don't be stupid and create more problems by attempting to "dispose" of CO2 in insane and untested ways. Humans have a really bad habit of burying their waste underground, and it has come back generation after generation to bite us in the ass. This whole ecological credit mentality must go. We need to deal with these problems now rather than wasting time coming up with solutions that may result in unpredictable long term problems. 04. Managing the nitrogen cycle: How do you develop countermeasures for fertilizer use, internal combustion and other activities that contribute to pollution? Answer: Easy, stop being fucking stupid, we don't need countermeasures, we need to stop engaging in mega-agriculture, internal combustion, and other sources of extreme and unjustified pollution. The systems we currently use are only practical for short term use; this becomes more apparent day by day as the environment continues to degrade. 05. Providing access to clean water: How do you address the short supply of water for personal use and irrigation in many areas of the world? Answer: These problems have already been solved, it's just not profitable because the people who need clean water the most, are also the poorest people on earth. Might as well be asking; how do we stop obsessing over our short-term benefit and then start caring about the well being of other people enough do something about it? 06. Restoring and improving urban infrastructure: How do you renew aging infrastructure while bringing cities into better ecological balance? Answer: We don't need to restore it or renew it, we need to scrap it. The current infrastructure is not sustainable, nor is it healthy or beneficial to humans. New infrastructure needs to be engineered from the ground up, old infrastructure will need to be torn down or abandoned. Do you really want to see into the future of urban infrastructure? Look no further than The Masdar Initiative. In 50 years it may be the only human inhabited city left on earth. 07. Advancing health informatics: How do you identify the specific factors behind wellness and illness, and follow through on the promise of personalized medicine? Answer: Personalized medicine depends entirely on genetic science. In all possibility our understanding of how DNA works is incomplete at best, and entirely wrong at worst. Most human illness is the product of irresponsible personal and environmental practice, including unregulated agriculture and industry. Solve these problems first, then worry about informatics. 08. Engineering better medicines: How do you find new treatments for age-old scourges such as malaria as well as newly emerging diseases? Answer: Treatments are not a solution, we need cures. Pick the most deadly disease worldwide, focus exclusively on it until we find a cure. With each new affliction that falls to science our understanding of genetics and pathology will advance. The reason that modern medicine keeps coming up with half-assed treatments is because the community is a huge fragmented mess; jack of all trades, master of none. And that's just how the giant pharmaceuticals like it. 09. Reverse-engineering the brain: How do you unlock the secrets of brain function, to heal human diseases and advance the field of artificial intelligence? Answer: The brain is the most complex structure in the known universe, it should come last and shouldn't even be on this list. 10. Preventing nuclear terror: How do you head off threats from agents who are bent upon bringing ruin to industrial society? Answer: Industrial society in its current form will bring ruin upon itself. Nuclear terror is not a significant threat, we have more to fear from nuclear power plants than we do from terrorists. Each year approximately 2,000 people die in terrorism related attacks. Meanwhile, during that same year, 20 times that number have died in car accidents, while thousands more have succumbed to an assortment of stupid accidents and curable diseases. 11. Securing cyberspace: How do you protect the global information infrastructure from identity theft, viruses and other threats without bogging down the flow of data? Answer: You can't. Security will always be an evolving battlefield. The best solution is to split the Internet into two entities; one open and one "secure". The secure Internet will require identity verification to connect and interact, all traffic will be fully logged, and mesh encrypted by the sum distributed computing power of the entire available network. 12. Enhancing virtual reality: How do you use computer technology to create imaginative environments for education and entertainment? Answer: Our five senses and physical being limit the potential for human/computer interaction. Only something as advanced as a Star Trek holodeck will be visceral enough to qualify as real VR. So until we have the technology to create physical objects out of thin air, VR is a pipe dream. 13. Advancing personalized learning: How do you move from a "one-size-fits-all" style of education to more engaging teaching techniques? Answer: You can't. one-size-fits-all is bullshit. Humans are not machines, each person has a different learning style and personality. What we need are more qualified teachers and a greater respect for education in society. 14. Engineering the tools for scientific discovery: How do you improve our methods for exploring the frontiers of life, the atom and the cosmos? Answer: The last question on here is the only one worth looking at. Without accurate metrics nothing else on the list would even be possible. In science there's nothing more important than integrity, of information, of personnel, of equipment, of results. A big step would be for the community to take a good long hard look at itself. This ridiculous list is a pretty obvious example of how far "science" has to go before it can be taken seriously. In its current form there is far too much fanciful speculation, ego, cliques, myopia, and an inexplicably paradoxical, nearly pathological disrespect of the scientific method in popularized science. An Open Letter to Chris Anderson Y08M03D10 If you want to know more about the impetus for this letter click here Summary: There is an entire generation of loudmouthed baboons born in affluent nations like the US, who are fundamentally incapable of seeing the world outside of their egotistical, consumercentric, technology facilitated myopia. I think the most poignant example of Chris Anderson's unsighted hubris that I can extract from his mental train wreck of an article would be this quote "Now you can get a T-shirt for less than the price of a cup of coffee, thanks to China and global sourcing." No Chris, not thanks to China, thanks to slave labor. T-shirts do not self-assemble, nor do they materialize out of thin air. They only reason that they cost less than a cup of coffee is because of social injustice and exploitation, to which people like you turn a blind eye because it makes them feel uncomfortable. I've heard arguments like yours a thousand times. I believe in the potential of a utopia just as much as anyone, but what I don't believe in is the fanciful ravings of a lunatic who lacks the most basic understanding of real world economics. Until we all live in the matrix there is always going to be a cost to everything, whether it's in dollars or in human lives doesn't really matter. If low cost and slave labor (thanks a lot global sourcing) were to disappear today, you'd see an almost immediate end to everything we take for granted, including bandwidth and even electricity. From your point of view things appear to be costing less and less for two reasons. First, your entire way of life revolves around metaphysical ideas and events, you are living in a kind of economic dream world where no boundary exists between the manufacture process and the end product. You are a user in the truest sense of the word. In your mind everything can be free because ultimately nothing requires more time and effort than a text message, or stock trade. Second, aside from blurring the lines between the digital the the physical, you conveniently ignore the fact that in order for everything in your technologically focused, consumerism based universe to keep functioning; somewhere, somebody has to deal with the raw materials, has to spend time producing what you eventually buy for the lowest possible price. The magic of which is made possible not by an army of zero-point-energy robots, or a vat of self-replicating nanomachines, but by actual human beings. How would you like to make a shirt with your own two hands and then sell it for less than a dollar? That is assuming your Chinese employer would even pay you. Most likely you would be under the age of 16, working 18 hour shifts, and considering yourself lucky to get enough rice every day to keep you from starving to death. You see, in the physical world (the one where most of us live), things are never going to be free, that's because we have enough respect for other human beings and enough common sense to realize that everything comes at a price. You may not pay it personally, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Go ahead, take your supposition to the next level, try to imagine a future world wherein everything is free thanks to advertising revenue. Better start getting those Monsanto tattoos today, you'll be working in the fields tomorrow. Hey Texas, Ohio; fuck you. Y08M03D05 You retards do realize that if McCain gets elected it will mean the end of America as we know it? Four more years of this war and you rubes will be digging your dinner out of a trash can. Although really I'm trying not to get too incensed by this whole primaries idiot circus. Given the recent news regarding OPEC.. I'd say that America has a lot more to worry about than a stupid preliminary election, even if it is for the position of the lord god super king and ultimate mega master of the United States. Oil is up over $104 a barrel. Sweet light crude, black as the devil's asshole, pumping through the cholesterol clogged veins of America like our literal life's blood. Eventually that premium will reach a critical threshold, the tipping point where trucking countless tons of stuff from coast to coast every day ceases to be cost effective. And what happens then? Nothing. Our entire society will grind to a halt. This is one problem a stimulus package isn't going to be able to remedy. Only more oil will make a difference, oil we don't have and can't get. America is about to realize the true cost of frivolous speculation. To this day, there is not one person on earth who understands the totality of the dynamic oil market. Furthermore the controlling interests of the supply do not even know the holistic energy value of their own product. At any given moment it may become apparent that the relative market value of oil is actually less than production+distribution cost. At which point supply will become irrelevant, reserves will become irrelevant, the entire oil/energy based economy will become irrelevant. That is the inevitable result of such an extreme economic oversight. Even though demand will still exist, the market will no longer be profitable, the industry won't be able to function even if it wants to. Oil companies continue to search for more oil, but even if they find more it won't matter. Why? Because they're greedy. OPEC is going to cross the threshold artificially a long time before we run out of oil. Once they do, it will be obvious to the whole world that oil has a negative holistic value. My guess is that the industry may already knows this, which is why they are continuing to artificially inflate the market value by limiting the supply. They now know that oil is not profitable, so they are attempting to raise the market value above the holistic value. However they do not know the holistic value. Most likely they have a very poor estimate. I'm no mathematician, but I would guess that the holistic value of oil is somewhere along the lines of $500-$2000 a barrel. The OPEC estimate is probably more like $200-$400 a barrel. If it costs a trucker (40HPW * 50MPH = 2000M / 20MPG = 100G * 4DPG = $400D) $400 per work week just for fuel, how cost effective will that be if the price of diesel continues to rise, say to $10 per gallon. That's $1000 just for fuel. While the holistic price may be ten times that. If it costs $10,000 to haul 9 tons of produce 2000 miles, analysts must ask themselves; on average will 9 tons of stuff net $10,000? Not that it really matters, no one is going to pay $100 per gallon for diesel or gas. So, OPEC obviously has a problem. How do they sell fuel worth $100PG for $4PG and still make a profit? Answer: they don't. March Update Part 2 (raw, fat, food, energy, tires, Israel vs. Palestine) Y08M03D03 So I've been thinking, maybe I've been too formal lately, maybe it's time to turn the dial back a few notches, return to my roots, the raw ones. With each day that goes by a whole new paradigm comes and goes, quite honestly I'm getting sick of it, I want off this wack ride. You know what I'm talking about. Prepare yourself for an assault of information. Living on $1 a day First with the personal again. I was watching another one of those pesky world view presentations, this one was about crime in Brazil. A couple of quick facts: Juvenile delinquents are lucky to be in prison, they get three meals a day totaling approximately $1USD in allocated funds.. this will mostly likely be the best time of their lives. I'd known for awhile how frugal most of the world was, but watching this documentary inspired me to try harder. Fact #2: To maintain an avatar in Second Life uses the same amount of energy the average Brazilian will use in an entire year. I'm not a big spender, on average I might spend $10 a day on food.. in context of most of the third world however, that kind of excess is basically unattainable, in fact it's about 20 times unattainable. My response is to try and cut my spending on food by 50% - I will be modifying my diet to eat on approximately $5 a day. Currently I'm on day 4. This is not about the money, this is not a response to increased food and fuel prices. I am doing this because I can't justify the kind of gratuitous decadence that is the average American meal any longer. When it comes right down to it, food is not about calories, it's about energy. Money is a representation of what people think a product is worth, although the energy cost may far outweigh the ultimate sale price. I'm limiting myself to $5 because it's the best I can do. There is an epidemic in the US right now, I'm talking about obesity if you can believe it. Now I know it's painful to have a weight problem, and a lot of people do, and it's serious business.. but I just have to say this: people don't get fat because of magic. Now before I continue, keep in mind that I understand that a certain percentage of overweight people have chronic conditions that influence their weight; my criticism is not aimed at them. My criticism is aimed at people who could and would lose weight if they just stopped eating so much so often. When I go out, I just can't believe how many fat people I see, 8 out of 10 people are overweight, and not because they have a medical condition, it's because they are taking in an obscenely disproportionate number of calories for their strikingly anti-energetic lifestyles. This kind of behavior is reprehensible on many levels. If you have an eating problem, get help. If you weigh close to 300 pounds and yet measure well under 9 feet tall, you need to do something about it. Not because you look fat, not because it's unhealthy, not because it costs a lot to maintain, but because while you're stuffing your fat face with food your body doesn't need or want, there are people in other places dying of starvation. Don't you people think about this shit? How do you justify eating enough food every day to feed an entire 3rd world family for a week? There's no excuse for it. Tire on the beach I was down on a small local beach today and I noticed that someone had dumped an old tire right in the middle of it. The same crew I'm guessing was responsible for a nearby fire and a few dozen discarded beer bottles tossed into the bushes or smashed on the rocks. People who pull that kind of bullshit should be shot on sight. It's very common though. I only bring this up because just the day before I watched a documentary on malaria and yellow fever. Apparently a big part of the problem is rubber tires, especially the discarded kind. They hold water at almost any angle and incidentally provide the ideal breeding ground for the mosquitos that carry these infections diseases. I think this is a great example of how certain technology, or more specifically, designs can have significant and far-reaching side effects. Rubber air-filled tires stand out as one of the worst industrial designs ever conceived by mankind. And even in an era where vastly superior variations exist (solid polyurethane), they can still be found all over the world, not just on cars, but in massive landfills, burning in fires, scattered in forests, deserts, oceans, rivers, clogging streams, polluting the ecology wherever they are, enduring for decades as a perpetual environmental hazard and general eye sore. I think they are somewhat iconic and work as a physical representation of everything that is wrong with civilization. The rubber tire represents the thoughtless, lazy, inbred, retard redneck in every one of us. Thousands of people die every year because of rubber tire blowouts. Millions of hours are wasted every year due to flat tires. Countless kWs are spent pumping out even more of these industrial abominations. The environmental damage caused by rubber tires over the last 200 years is simply incalculable. The next time you see a car commercial for the latest model, take note how the tires never change, they persevere as an immortal testament to how fantastically stupid we really are. Palestinian vs. Israeli conflict I've been following this tragedy for some time now, and so has the rest of the world. There's no shortage of subterfuge. Mainly there is a huge bias associated with each point of view. The so called "Jews" have a massive persecution complex, which is of course somewhat justified given the holocaust. The so called "Arabs" on the other side now find themselves in an eerily similar position to the Jews during the early 1940s. The other players all have their own personal agendas: The US wants Israel to survive so that it might maintain a strategic foothold in the oil rich middle east. Of course this is old world reasoning, Illuminati type nonsense, a bunch of dull old men who have yet to get the memo about our doomed oil economy and the ultimate lack of strategic value therein. The UN made a huge mistake in 1947 but it's too late to go back in time, so now they must do everything in their power to maintain the illegal state in order to save face in light of their growing political irrelevance. Iran, radical Islamic organizations, our own domestic arms dealers, et al are only too happy to finance the terrorists on both sides. The bottom line is this: Israel cannot survive without financial and military assistance. Without money from the US, without UN interference, the alleged state of Israel would cease to exist. Of course checking recent history reveals that the UN illegally, and under heavy Arab opposition created the partition plan that lead to the establishment of Israel. Since 1948 Israel has been expanding illegally into Palestine territory, attempting to take over the entire region. The United States has been financing the entire operation, giving Israel enough money and weapons to provide it with one of the most modern and powerful militaries in the entire world. Clearly the US has intended to indirectly politically colonize Palestine via Israel because they want more control over the region. This shameful conduct, just like many of the other harebrained schemes hatched by the pentagon and other "intelligence" agencies, has only succeeded in creating further instability and insecurity in the world at large, especially for the US. They fail to grasp that while being an international asshole may work for a few centuries, civilization and society evolves over time, this isn't cowboys and Indians anymore. Technology has changed the battlefield forever. The time for fighting wars over things like oil, or ideology has passed. The people who continue to live in this dream world are like old impotent men fantasizing about fucking underage girls. I will tell you this much, there are only two possible results for the current conflict. 1. The fighting will go on until environmental changes force a mass exodus. 2. The entire region is obliterated by weapons of mass destruction. There is no middle ground in the middle east. March Update Part 1 Y08M03D01 It's been awhile. I've been running on low power mode for several weeks now. Now I'm checking back in just to update y'all with the latest news. Guess I'll get the personal stuff out of the way first, it's of very little consequence, so I'll keep it brief. I sold my land in Second Life and downgraded my account. Why? Because Linden Labs sucks and they deserve a smack in the face not money. Some idiot bought my huge chunk of worthless land for 50,000 Lindens! That's about $175USD, and I sure was glad to be rid of it. Am I still building stuff in SL? Yes of course, as long as it stays free. In fact I'm even using SL now as a demo and modeling system for some of my technical designs. I think it really has a future for that kind of thing. Although I really owe my friend ******** for inspiring me to use SL in new ways that I never would have thought of on my own. God I feel rusty behind a keyboard.. This is the first time I've written anything substantial in at least a month. I apologize in advance for the clunkiness of my words. In the world a lot is happening, some good, some bad. As usual I feel compelled to say something about it, even though I am more certain than ever that writing about it won't do much good. The more I see, the more I just want to look away. TBH I never could have imagined the epic levels of stupidity and blindness people were capable of. The same goes for epic levels of intelligence and insight that go largely unnoticed. Where, oh where to begin. I will try to start with the most significant and important thing in my very long list. Maybe I should start with that. The biggest problem I can think of right now, is the trouble people have prioritizing and/or focusing on the critical information. Which is why I started working on this: Working on a process for defining holistic strategies for problem solving and probability branch reduction in regards to advanced optimization. But that was as far as I got. Let me at least try to explain the strategy. First of all, holistic perspective is paramount in any process. My guiding principal is the statement "Everything is connected." - I believe this to be a universal truth. With it comes the double-edged realization, or perhaps paradox, that while it's impossible to have true TIA (total information awareness), it's in our best interest to know as much as possible. Yet, the more we know, the less "freedom" we have to act. This suggests to me that power is inversely proportional to consciousness. Which is one hell of an irony. Personally I can only assume that somewhere out there is the perfect or 'optimized' balance between observation and intervention. Really this is just the classic quantum puzzle on a much higher level of magnification. How can we observe an experiment, when the very act of observation changes the results? The more I write about all this, the more I realize that it is thematic in my life; in fact all of my interests and arguments orbit around this central riddle. Freedom is inherent to living things, but it is freedom within a framework. This suggests to me 'levels' or a hierarchy of liberties. Which are to the holistic kingdom nothing more than natural processes. To us they are limited freedoms, a term that seems contradictory. I mention all this because I think it is important that one does not end up at war with primal universal constants. Perhaps one visualization of the collective consciousness might be an unimaginable mess. Maybe it is meant to be that way, attempting to iron it out might be impossible. Because of connectivity, one can only assume that if order is relevant it will form naturally as just another process, part of the whole. What is most confusing is the fact that we live in a world where both extreme order and extreme chaos coexist. We are able to observe that order is possible, that by using our consciousness we are able to influence the outcome of a diverse spectrum of events. At the same time we observe that some things are simply beyond our control, beyond our ability to rationalize or even comprehend. This forces us to analyze and identify both our freedoms and limitations; not just as individuals but as a species. Still assuming that everything is connected, it's not unreasonable to speculate that all of these processes are at some level malleable to our will; since it exists within the framework. So I've made a little progress, but still have a potentially infinite distance left to travel. Since I'm still in transit I reserve the rate to "go off" on tangents that may or may not be relevant. For example: Something that's been bothering me a lot. You know how Bill Clinton was impeached (later acquitted by the Senate) based on a sex scandal? Meanwhile George W. Bush, with the lowest approval rating in history remains in office. A man who is guilty of repeatedly lying to America, starting an illegal and undeclared war, violating countless constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, authorizing torture, and in general acting like a treasonous, anti-american dictator; is allowed to continue his tyrannical behavior. This reminds me of the way Sex vs. Violence is treated in the US. You might hear a statement like this: So it's OK to show someone being brutally murdered or tortured on television, but it's not OK to show people having sex, because that is "inappropriate". Why does this statement never sink in? Really there's only one kind of response that this kind of brainless discrimination deserves. Fuck you. Yeah, that's right. Fuck you. If you are one of those apparent hapless millions of Americans who continues to honor and uphold such a sickening and utterly psychotic double standard; I can really only say one thing: Fuck you. Fuck you for hating Bill Clinton for getting a blow job and yet allowing an amoral monster like George W. Bush to remain in power. You people are dumber than shit. De-Evolution the potential result of Random choices Y08M02D11 After reading A Primeval Tide of Toxins today, an interesting idea occurred to me. Assuming that the world our civilization came into was relatively balanced, having endured billions of years of change and ecological layering, all of which was essentially "settled" a long time before mankind learned how to walk upright. And by 'settled' what I mean is gave way to a superior system based on balance and sublimation rather than perpetual biological turmoil and geological aggression. For example, the dinosaurs all died and turned into a rich reservoir of oil buried deep under the earth. So it occurs to me as I am reading this article about what can be best described as an ecological reversion or de-evolution to a previous era.. I am thinking that energy as we currently understand it may be far more dynamic in nature than science has so far assumed. Considering for a moment that without coal and oil the technological mechanisms that allow this kind of reversion to take place would not currently be possible. As overly simplistic as it sounds, the nature or schema of the energy associated with fossil fuels may actually be related in some way to the prehistoric world. The very act of extracting and then consuming this energy may inevitably lead to just such an ecological reversion as is currently being experienced at various locations around the world. From my point of view the choice of what fuels to use and how to consume them is for all intents and purposes random. Because no real thought went into these choices, other than a mechanical desire for a senseless outcome; the result is not guided by humanity but rather by the energy contained within the medium. -- Something related; it seems that DNA has been found to have "impossible" telepathic properties, but rather than say something bat-shit crazy like that, I'd rather phrase the headline more like this: Most of the key mechanical aspects of molecular biology are still unknown to us. This is of course not the first time that new and paradigm smashing information has surfaced about DNA, and while fantastical advances have been made in genetic science since its discovery, we are ultimately no closer to understanding how it works, now, than 50 years ago. Since it constitutes life in the classical sense, that is not surprising. Viewing DNA from a more objective standpoint, it could be considered a consciousness generator. Any idiot is capable of understanding how profound consciousness can be.. why then would anyone assume that DNA is as figuratively complex as a few interlocking blocks? If anything DNA is as sophisticated on a molecular level as an entire solar system is on an astronomical level. Scientists will always say things like "mysterious", "amazing" or "unexplainable" -- but what they really mean is that they have no idea what is happening; this is not an indication of something paranormal, it is just a reminder that while the universe is conceivably infinite, our knowledge is conceivably infinitesimal. All of these remarks are made with the intention of getting people to think more and assume less. This is flaw in humanity that simply cannot be underestimated. Most of the problems in the modern world stem from an essential lack of critical thinking. Way too much is assumed or presumed as the case may be. Thinking Different? Y08M01D17 If Apple is good at anything, it reliably manages to stir up the media and the industry. The new "Air" laptop is no exception. Apple's products however just don't live up to the incessant hype. Thin? When did thickness become the most important aspect of laptop design? Certainly it's not a bad thing, but is it significant enough to base and entire product line on? This reminds me of when Apple tried to market the original iPod shuffle; they focused on its 'randomness' as if that was a desirable feature. In essence they were selling an incidental aspect of the device that had no real value to the consumer. Critics of Apple will always bash their new products and insist that they will be commercial failures; what these critics don't seem to get (or forget) is that Apple does not sell their products to ordinary people, Apple sells their products to affluent fanatics. Apple has an exclusive customer base, consisting of approximately 3-7% of the total worldwide PC/gadget market. No matter what Apple makes, their irrationally loyal and often financially blase fan base will buy it. Why? Because they can, and because they are in love with Apple. I'm not suggesting that Apple makes crap and consequently rips off their customers. I will however come right out and say that Apple does charge way too much for what is basically an over-designed version of something far more generic, but they have to, Apple is a small company, they can't compete openly with companies like DELL or HP. But whatever, I got sidetracked. Small innovations do not constitute a revolution, correct? Especially ones that are not even all that innovative, like thickness. IMHO the most advanced part of Apple's new laptop is ironically the lack of a built-in optical drive. Can you believe that floppy-drives are still an option when you buy a new PC? Most modern motherboards still include a FDD socket! Who uses these things? You can buy a 1GB flash drive for less than $20 - that's over 710 floppy disks!! Even in laptops it's not uncommon to see 300GB disk drives, so honestly, why would you want a shitty optical drive? They're slow, they waste tons of energy, the media is fragile and oversized, if you are still listening to CDs perhaps you should be carbon dated? Of course given the inferred irrelevance of Apples "Air" to the market at large it hardly matters. Then again the most annoying thing about Apple is not their own questionable design choices but the fact that every insignificant thing they come up with becomes the subject of yet another barrage of hype-induced mediocre knock-offs. Just in case you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at Apple's now defunct "click wheel", and then compare it to the innumerable permutations spawned by the design departments of some of world's top electronics manufacturers who never even bothered to ask themselves if it was a good design in the first place: To this day, the ubiquitous "click-wheel", or at least the symbolic shape of it continues to be used as the generic or default interface for modern mp3 players. It sucks, it always has sucked. Now that Apple has announced "Air", expect a similar assault on the integrity of international design ingenuity as everyone and their monkey's uncle throws common sense out the window and emulates Apple like there's no tomorrow. As for the segment of the world that hasn't gone totally stark raving mad, there's things like the OLPC project, where real innovations are still being made to the laptop platform, rather than just superficial adjustments that don't count for much in the real world. I think it's also pretty shocking to point out that you could buy 18 XO laptops for the price of a single MacBook Air. Some Notes Y08M01D11 Bullshit Age Verification Mechanisms Every once in awhile you click on a link and get one of these mind numbingly stupid age verification boxes. A set of tedious pull down menus are all that stands between the viewer and the content. See below: They are designed to prevent minors from accessing adult content. But in reality they're total perfunctory bullshit, more specifically they are a complete waste of time for real adults and utterly fail at preventing anyone (except those too lazy to select an arbitrary date) from accessing anything. To all sites who use this worthless technology: Please stop. They do not work. You look like idiots. This is a perfect example of how knee-jerk sociopolitical policy wastes valuable time and compromises the functionality of the internet. To all people who are concerned about shielding their poor, innocent, virginal lambs from the unimaginable horrors of sex and violence on the internets: Stop behaving like irresponsible cowards, it's your job to watch over your children, not technology. Stop foisting your insane paranoia and profound lack of parenting skills onto other people via stupid bullshit like this. It's just embarrassing. CDs, DVDs, next-gen and the so-called 'format wars' Most people of course won't notice all the nonsense going on about HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray as the next-gen (whatever) entertainment/data media/system/scam. Of course even the enthusiasts won't dare to ask the industry the most obvious question ever: You idiots are all using the same basic compact disc form factor media, so why then is it so damn hard for you to agree on an encryption/compression standard? Furthermore, no one has the guts to point out that the almost 30 year old (est. late 1982) media format is the real problem. Of course none of that matters because the internet is the next home entertainment center. However I think it's worth pointing out that by the time these fools are done fighting over who makes better garbage they will have become entirely irrelevant to the average consumer. Happy New Year Y08M01D01 For those who come from YouTube and other sites, try the 2007 Link at the bottom of the page. For everyone else, Welcome to Neotoy 2008!

everything_is_connected ~ neotoy@hotmail.com

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