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Dec 20, 2013

Surveillance blimp will help police border

Posted by in categories: geopolitics, law enforcement, surveillance

By DAN SANTELLA The Monitor

PEÑITAS — It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … no, it’s a Border Patrol blimp. Mobile, unmanned, aerial security surveillance has arrived in the Rio Grande Valley.

A so-called aerostat surveillance blimp was unveiled to media Thursday afternoon in a field south of Interstate 2/Expressway 83. Standing behind a U.S. Department of Homeland Security dais, local and national officials introduced the big, white airship and fielded questions about its upcoming use.

Noting how border fencing ends near Peñitas, Rosendo Hinojosa, chief patrol agent of the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, said that the aerostat will provide Valley authorities with means previously unavailable to them.

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Dec 20, 2013

Singularity: Reading our genes like computer code

Posted by in categories: big data, biotech/medical, singularity

He knows this because when he had his genetic code read, he found out that he was likely to get age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The disease leaves the sufferer with a very narrow field of vision.

As head of bio-technology at the world’s most futuristic learning institution, Singularity University, he found the news “burdensome” at first.

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Dec 20, 2013

Bitcoin donations welcome, Newport Beach City Council candidate says

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, government

When Newport Beach City Council candidate Michael Glenn thinks of freedom, that includes the freedom to choose how to donate — be it with dollar, peso or bitcoin.

Glenn claims to be the first local politician to accept campaign donations in the esoteric digital currency. He is running against businesswoman Diane Dixon and Harbor Commissioner Joe Stapleton for the Balboa Peninsula’s 1st District council seat.

Glenn’s announcement comes just weeks after customers used bitcoins to pay for a Tesla, and then a Lamborghini, from a Costa Mesa dealership.

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Dec 19, 2013

First Tricorders, Next Artificial Intelligence — A Moonshot Project

Posted by in category: scientific freedom

Tom Spendlove

Peter Jansen wants us, especially kids, to make little discoveries everywhere and at any time. He developed the tricorder to give people a tool for scientific learning and visualization.


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Dec 19, 2013

Overstock.com Will Start Taking Bitcoin Next Year

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, business

Online retail outlet Overstock.com will start accepting Bitcoins as early as the end of Q2 2014, according to CEO Patrick Byrne.

They will be the first major online retailer to do so. The news was first reported on newsBTC.

Byrne told us by phone this afternoon that he considers himself a believer in the Austrian economics school, which says fiat currency, like the U.S. dollar, is fundamentally flawed since it is prone to inflation and manipulation. Bitcoin, like gold, is immune to this, since there is a fixed supply.

Philosophically, we support Bitcion,” he said.

Dec 19, 2013

Transcendence

Posted by in categories: entertainment, futurism, human trajectories, singularity

http://youtu.be/HL9ati3TGfE

Two leading computer scientists work toward their goal of Technological Singularity, as a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.

Dec 19, 2013

The Seven Fallacies of Aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, futurism, life extension, transhumanism

Some people become incredibly confused about the effort to eliminate aging, which they see as a nebulous, ill-defined process. I refer to the concept of radical life extension, when aging as a process has been abolished. I am not referring to simple healthy longevity (the effort to live a healthy life until the current maximum lifespan of 110–120). Here are some common misconceptions:

1. The Fallacy of words

Eliminating aging will make us ‘immortal’ and we will live forever.

No, it won’t. If we eliminate aging as a cause of death, we may be able to live for an indefinite (not infinite) period, until something else kills us. Even in a world without aging, death can happen at any time (at age 10, 65 or 1003) and for any reason (a shot in the head, malaria, drowning). If we manage to eliminate aging as a cause of death, the only certain thing would be that we will not necessarily die when we reach the currently maximum lifespan limit of around 110–120 years. We would certainly NOT live for ever, because something else will kill us sooner or later. Our organs cannot be repaired if we perish in a nuclear explosion for example, or in a fire. Some statisticians have mentioned that, without aging, we may be able to live to 1700–2000 years on average before death happens due to some other catastrophic damage. This is a long time, but it is not ‘forever’.

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Dec 18, 2013

Minimally Invasive Medical Technology – For the betterment of the human condition.

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, augmented reality, bioprinting, biotech/medical, drones, futurism, robotics/AI, transhumanism

image credit - Protomag.com

Technology for pain-free healing:

“Your threshold for pain is near zero”, said my dentist, as she deftly moved the extremely thin fiber optic laser head away.

“That’s why I chose to fly in here. Gum filet carving doesn’t appeal to me”, I mumbled, my lips feeling leathery from the anesthetic spray.

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Dec 18, 2013

The Age of Surprise: Predicting The Future Of Technology

Posted by in categories: futurism, human trajectories, singularity

Reuven Cohen,

It’s that time of the year again. You know, that time of year when technologists, pundits and bloggers get into the festive spirit and share technology predictions for the coming year. Being partially curious and possibly not wanting to be left out of the fun, I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring with my own set of prognoses. In terms of timeframe, whether it’s 2014 or 2050 is another story. Alas, this is a story about intersecting trends, asking the simple yet infinitely complex question of where is technology taking us?

The famous computer scientist Alan Kay can best sum up my opinion on technology predictions in his famous 1971 quote; “Don’t worry about what anybody else is going to do… The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Really smart people with reasonable funding can do just about anything that doesn’t violate too many of Newton’s Laws!”

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Dec 18, 2013

Eye Cells Inkjet-Printed for First Time

Posted by in categories: bioprinting, biotech/medical, health

The yellow arrow points to retinal ganglion cell, responsible for transmitting signals from the eye to the brain.

Using an inkjet printer, researchers have succeeded in printing adult eye cells for the first time. The demonstration is a step toward producing tissue implants that could cure some types of blindness.

Scientists have previously printed embryonic stem cells and other immature cells. But scientists had thought adult cells might be too fragile to print. Now, researchers have printed cells from the optic nerves of rats, finding the cells not only survived, but also retained the ability to grow and develop.

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