Al Fin The Next Level

Unschooling: "Growing Without School" -- Beyond Childhood Competence

2012-02-11T09:51:00.000-08:00

Almost every parent wishes their children to become skilled, competent, confident, accomplished adults. But almost no parents in the modern world understand how to help their children to achieve such a happy result. Instead, parents almost inevitably turn their children over to the governmental school system, with increasingly dismal results. John Holt wrote several books on the state of

...All Zombies Now ....

2012-02-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

Effective total brain control -- or zombification -- depends upon a fine enough level of control, or resolution, over the pertinent brain centers. Early methods of brain control depended upon the crude tools of pharmacology and macro-electromagnetic stimulation. But we are on the verge of a level of fine-grained brain control which puts us within reach of our goal: total world domination!

Laggard Science of Artificial Intelligence Belatedly Discovers Embodiment

2012-02-07T10:16:00.000-08:00

Researchers at the Artificial Intelligence Lab of the University of Zurich are challenging the basic underpinnings of artificial cognition research. The implications of their research -- if they are correct -- may shake the AI establishment to its roots. ...the notion of intelligence makes no sense outside of the environment in which it operates. For them, the notion of embodiment must, of

Brain Hacking: Homebuilt tDCS and More

2012-02-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

Stuart Gromley sits hunched over a desk in his bedroom, groping along the skin of his forehead, trying to figure out where to glue the electrodes. The wires lead to a Radio Shack Electronics Learning Lab, a toy covered with knobs, switches, and meters. Even though he’s working with a kiddie lab, Gromley, a 39-year-old network administrator in San Francisco, can’t afford to make mistakes: he’s

Near Term Plans of the Seasteading Institute

2012-02-04T10:28:00.000-08:00

From Russia and the Middle East to western Europe and the United States, dissatisfaction with politics and politicians has led to protest, conflict and, in many cases, violence. But it doesn't have to be that way, according to a US think-tank _SciAm As long as the Seasteading Institute remains small, and its

Humans, Apes, Addicts, and Microbes: Common Thread

2012-02-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

The common thread that links life on Earth is the thin thread of DNA that coils, circles, and works its way through the generations, through the species, changing the face of the planet as it evolves. Economist Our brains are formed by our genes, working through the environment. Some genes control an entire platoon of other genes. The genes that determine how our brains grow and function are

Transcranial DC Brain Stimulation: Is It An Ethical Question for Elite Overlords to Settle?

2012-01-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

Transcranial direct current stimulation (or TDCS), is a type of non-invasive brain stimulation in which weak electrical currents are applied to the head via electrodes for a short time (about 20 minutes). The effects of this brain stimulation can last up to 12 months and can elicit changes in neurotransmitter concentrations. Most research has focused on using this type of stimulation as a means

Aerogel "Liquid Smoke" Gets Tougher and Finds Wider Use

2012-01-28T13:20:00.000-08:00

Aspen Aerogel Aerogel has proven to be a great insulator both on Earth, on Mars, under the oceans, and even in extreme expedition clothing, for use in both very cold and very hot environments. Aerogels are finding wider use as insulators in the construction market, and have now reached the high end of home construction:Over 70 years ago, scientists invented aerogel, the least dense solid

Cold Plasma Shield in Upper Atmosphere

2012-01-27T00:39:00.000-08:00

The Earth's plasmasphere is an inner part of the magneteosphere. It is located just outside the upper ionosphere located in Earth's atmosphere. It is a region of dense, cold plasma that surrounds the Earth. Although plasma is found throughout the magnetosphere, the plasmasphere usually contains the coldest plasma. _NASACold plasma has been well-hidden. Space physicists have long lacked clues to

An Optimistic Look at the Future of Vital Resources

2012-01-25T08:34:00.000-08:00

Back in 1980, the great libertarian economist, Julian Simon, and the prepetually wrong Malthusian biologist, Paul Erlich, entered into a little wager regarding population growth and resource scarcity. They decided on using the inflation-adjusted prices of five metals to decide the bet. Simon allowed Erlich to pick the five metals. If the 1990 prices were higher, Erlich would win. If they were

Obama a Terrible Venture Capitalist! President Backs 12 "Green Energy" Failures With $Billions of Taxpayer Dollars

2012-01-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

Play CBS News Video CBS News counted 12 clean energy companies that are having trouble after collectively being approved for more than $6.5 billion in federal assistance. Five have filed for bankruptcy: The junk bond-rated Beacon, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, AES'

Future of Human Species: Hybrid Plant:Animal?

2012-01-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

The small animal in the photograph is Mesodinium chamaeleon, a ciliate that incorporates algae into itself to become a hybrid plant :: animal, capable of producing its own food.M. chamaeleon is a ciliate – a kind of single-celled animal covered in hundreds of tiny "hairs" called cilia. It was discovered in Nivå bay in Denmark by Øjvind Moestrup of the University of Copenhagen, also in Denmark,

Unconscious Control of the Unconscious Mind

2012-01-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

There's a wonderful experiment I heard described at a conference in Kyoto a few months ago. What the Japanese scientists did was to get their subjects to play a cooperation game, a prisoner's dilemma game, online. Subjects could choose to act generously, trust the opponent, or mistrust and default on the exchange. Now, to one side of the computer on which subjects were playing this game, the

More on Kahneman's Insights, from Freeman Dyson

2012-01-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

Reflecting fifty years later on his experience in the Israeli army, Kahneman remarks in Thinking, Fast and Slow that it was not unusual in those days for young people to be given big responsibilities. The country itself was only seven years old. “All its institutions were under construction,” he says, “and someone had to build them.” He was lucky to be given this chance to share in the building

Revolutions in Learning: A Better Reinforcement Schedule?

2012-01-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

Researchers of learning have been looking into schedules for reinforcement and learning for quite some time. Now, U. Texas scientists led by John H. Byrne have returned to the Aplysia sea slug to write a new lesson in optimal reinforcement schedules of learning.Byrne's team deployed a computer to model 10,000 permutations of intervals between pulses to try to coordinate activation of enzymes and

The Curse of Bad Governance Hangs Over Earth Like a Shroud

2011-12-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

Australia's Finance News Network recently interviewed Jim Rogers by teleconference from his home in Singapore. Rogers' insights into the sad underpinnings of the ongoing global economic crisis are useful for anyone who is making short, medium, and long-term plans. First Rogers explains his pessimistic outlook for the US and Europe, then he moves to Asia:... Lelde Smits: You say Asia will

Novel Approach to Architecture Without an Architect: How to Seed the Universe in Preparation for the Human Epoch

2011-12-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

The initial key to a successful out-migration of humans into the solar system and the larger universe, is to develop the ability to prepare the ground ahead of human colonists. When human settlers arrive on Luna, Mars, Titan, and other potential colonies, they should find working habitats and vital infrastructure waiting for them. Here are a few basic ideas on complex systems and autopoetic

Los Alamos Scientists Mimic Neuron Function to Help Computers to See More Clearly

2011-12-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

The brain has an uncanny ability to detect and identify certain things, even if they’re barely visible. Now the challenge is to get computers to do the same thing. And programming the computer to process the information laterally, like the brain does, might be a step in the right direction. ...“This model is biologically inspired and relies on leveraging lateral connections between neurons in

The Ascendancy of the Unconscious Mind

2011-12-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

Scientists are beginning to zero in on the different types of unconscious brain activity which underlie and inform ordinary conscious awareness. From mathematics to music to visual awareness to moods, our unconscious minds form the foundation and framework for whatever our conscious minds choose to build. We have looked at Daniel Kahneman's theories of the fast mind (intuitive, automatic,

Accelerating Convergence of Hand-Held Technologies

2011-12-09T07:58:00.000-08:00

Wired We are accustomed to using our hand held devices for media play, reading, web search and email, telephoning, as still and video cameras, playing games, etc. But hand held electronics devices can provide a wide range of functions that are more serious. The oscilloscope device pictured above is a serious instrument useful for both hobbyists and researchers. Hand held iOS devices can also

Daniel Kahneman's Hard-Won Insights on Thinking

2011-12-08T00:57:00.000-08:00

Daniel Kahneman is a retired psychologist in his late 70's, who as a boy was forced to hide out in a chicken coop to survive Hitler, and who grew up to win the Nobel Prize in economics. His latest book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow," was meant as something of a parting shot to the world, from a man who has experienced the best and the worst of it, and through it all had come to understand his

When Will We Develop a Human Superbrain?

2011-12-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

Pharmacological enhancers of cognition promise a bright new future for humankind: more focus, more willpower, and better memory, with applications ranging from education to military combat. Underlying such promises is a linear, more-is-better vision of cognition that makes intuitive sense. This vision is at odds, however, with our understanding of cognition’s evolutionary origins. The mind has

Understanding Network Threat to Industrial Infrastructures

2011-12-04T08:05:00.000-08:00

SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) generally refers to industrial control systems (ICS): computer systems that monitor and control industrial, infrastructure, or facility-based processes, as described below:Industrial processes include those of manufacturing, production, power generation, fabrication, and refining, and may run in continuous, batch, repetitive, or discrete modes.

The Importance of a Citizenry Possessing Practical Skills

2011-11-30T18:56:00.000-08:00

For decades, the emphasis in US secondary education has been to prepare every student for college. As a result, dropout rates have soared, too many incapable HS graduates are attending college (and dropping out with huge debts), and vocational and technical skills have languished and US industry has found it difficult to field a skilled workforce.The National Association of Manufacturers found

We Are Marching to Utopia! A Holiday Encore

2011-11-30T00:26:00.000-08:00

...optimists and idealists -- with their ignorance about the truths of human nature and human society, and their naive hopes about what can be changed -- have wrought havoc for centuries....instead of utopian efforts to reform human society or human nature, we [should] focus on the only reform that we can truly master -- the improvement of ourselves through the cultivation of our better instincts

The Incredible Shrinking Spy: Surveillance Scales to Miniature

2011-11-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

The new generation of spies tend to be on the small side. Some of the new, advanced mobile "bugging" devices actually are bugs: insect cyborgs to be more precise. SD Professor Khalil Najafi, the chair of electrical and computer engineering, and doctoral student Erkan Aktakka are finding ways to harvest energy from insects, and take the utility of the miniature cyborgs to the next level. "

Wilderness Videos of Two of the Last Rough Men

2011-11-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

Dick Proenneke http://www.talkingcircletv.com/flash/videos/DickProenecke.swf (via Evenfall Woodworks) Dick Proenneke learned many practical skills during his childhood in Idaho, his time in the Navy, his schooling as a diesel mechanic, his work on a sheep ranch in Oregon, and his life as a skilled mechanic and salmon fisherman in Kodiak and King Salmon, Alaska. He put those practical skills to

Coevolution of Species: Microbes and Vertebrates (Including Humans)

2011-11-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

...in the June 13, 1997, issue of Science [a report] by Frederico J. Gueiros-Filho and Stephen M. Beverley of Harvard describes the "Trans-kingdom Transposition" of a gene-size piece of DNA known as a transposable element (19). The particular transposable element they studied, called mariner, has already been found in planaria, nematodes, centipedes, many insects, and humans (20). Until recently,

Fusion Energy: The Big and the Small

2011-11-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

The general principle behind fusion is relatively simple. If you can fuse together lightweight atoms, you can create a heavier atom plus lots of energy. The trick becomes that in order for the atoms to fuse together, enough energy needs to be provided to heat atoms into the range of 150 million degrees (Celsius). _Thomasnet Los Alamos National Lab The current approaches to large scale fusion

Brave New World of Unlimited Food and Fuels c/o Craig Venter

2011-11-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

Microbes will be the (human) food- and fuel-makers of the future, if J. Craig Venter has his way. The man responsible for one of the original sequences of the human genome as well as the team that brought you the first living cell running on human-made DNA now hopes to harness algae to make everything humanity needs. All it takes is a little genomic engineering. "Nothing new has to be invented.

News From the World of Nuclear Fusion

2011-11-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

A major upgrade to the DIII-D tokamak fusion reactor operated by General Atomics in San Diego will enable it to develop fusion plasmas that can burn indefinitely. Researchers installed a movable, 30-ton particle-beam heating system that drives electric current over a broad cross section of the magnetically confined plasma inside the reactor's vacuum vessel. Precise aiming of this beamline allows

What Would the Emergence of A New Human Species Look Like?

2011-11-10T02:51:00.000-08:00

What if a new species of human emerged, with larger brains and higher neuron counts than the average human possesses? Would this new species have an advantage over regular homo sapiens sapiens? It depends upon whether the excess neurons were well integrated with the rest of the brain, and added additional functionality or thinking power. For this exercise you are encouraged to suspend judgment

Farming the Desert: Pulling Water from the Air via Airdrop

2011-11-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

Wired Australian Ed Linacre has devised a way of farming the drylands down under. He calls his device the "Airdrop," and it has won him a James Dyson Award. He has installed the first device in his mother's backyard.Airdrop consists of a mast-like tube with a wind-powered turbine that sucks air down into a coiled metal pipe. The air descends under the earth and cools until it hits 100% humidity

Evolving New Species of Humans

2011-11-05T09:18:00.001-07:00

...one of [Enriquez'] most revolutionary ideas, which he discuses in the book New Human Species, is the expected evolution of a new hominid species in near future. The homo evolutis, which he said he speculates will be the most adapted hominid, endowed with tremendous mental capabilities, he said, “Twenty thousand species have gone around and become extinct,” Enriquez said. “I believe that we’re

Future of Flight? First Manned Multi-Copter Flight by e-Power

2011-11-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

The e-volo multicopter is an innovative, vertically starting, human carrying transportation device that is uncatagorisable to its current flight counterparts. The e-volos sixteen propellers allow it to take off and land similar to a helicopter. Its massive plus points compared to a helicopter are the simplicity of its engineered construction without complicated mechanics and its redundant

Re-Booting Civilisation from the Ground Up

2011-10-26T20:01:00.003-07:00

Global Village Construction Set - TED Talk from Open Source Ecology on Vimeo.Have you ever considered how you would go about re-starting civilisation if the Earth were struck by a comet, or suffered some other widescale, civilisation-ending catastrophe? The people at Open Source Ecology have, and they are in the process of building the Global Village Construction Sett. This construction set is

Growing Crops Without Soil -- Using Aerogel Films to Grow Plants

2011-10-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

This development from Japan is said to reduce the water requirements for vegetable gardening by 80%! The thin aerogel films are said to be reusable for up to 3 years per film. Consider this only the beginning for this new approach -- halfway between hydroponics and aeroponics. This type of farming should be useful for future space and lunar colonies, as well as for farms in deserts, polar

A Dumbing Demographic Presents Special Challenges to the Next Level

2011-10-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

The gravity of Europe’s demographic situation became clear at a conference I attended in Singapore last year. Dieter Salomon, the green mayor of the environmentally correct Freiburg, Germany, was speaking about the future of cities. When asked what Germany’s future would be like in 30 years, he answered, with a little smile, ”There won’t be a future.” Herr Mayor was not exaggerating. For

Is the Singularity Near? Kurzweil vs. Allen

2011-10-21T10:00:00.001-07:00

When will humanity reach Singularity, that now-famous point in time when artificial intelligence becomes greater than human intelligence? It is aptly called the Singularity proponents like Ray Kurzweil: like the singularity at the center of a black hole, we have no idea what happens once we reach it. However, the debate today is not what happens after the Singularity, but when will it happen. _

Extinction Events, Anoxic Oceans, and the Quest for Ancient Oil

2011-10-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Expansion to Extinction Over Last 540 Million Years Mass extinctions have played an important role in the evolution of Terrestrial life. With each mass extinction, the way is cleared for the spread and adaptation of surviving species, and for the emergence of new species. But that is not what we will talk about today. Recent findings in geochemistry have called into doubt some of the pet

Looking for a Home Safe from Zombies, Disasters, and Global Collapse

2011-10-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

Ancient Zombie-Proofing When the ancient people wanted to be safe from zombies, wild animals, and other enemies, they would locate their homes in difficult to access places. In cliffs, caves, or underground, they would take advantage of natural havens, and sometimes dig into sheer rock, to find safety for themselves and their tribe. Modern people also dig deeply through solid rock, to seek

Re-usable Spacecraft Want to Bring Down the Costs of Space Travel

2011-10-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

SpaceX Reusable Rocket (TechnologyReview) Imagine how much it would cost to fly from San Francisco to London if the airlines had to destroy every airliner after each use. But that is the same basic logic that is used for space launch, where spacecraft typically do not survive the journey, requiring a new craft to be built for each trip. But what if you could re-use all parts of your craft, with

Can the Skolkovo Innovation Centre Save Russia?

2011-10-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

The Skolkovo innovation center is a high technology business area being built near Moscow. It will host five scientific communities that carry top priority for Russia -- energy, information technology, telecommunications, biomedicine and nuclear technologies -- as the country diversifies from being largely powered by natural resources. The 600 hectare complex designed by French architects AREP

Evolving Landscapes of Mind

2011-10-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

Just because we are conscious does not mean we have the smarts to make consciousness ourselves. Whether (or when) AI is possible will ultimately depend on whether we are smart enough to make something smarter than ourselves. We assume that ants have not achieved this level. We also assume that as smart as chimpanzees are, chimps are not smart enough to make a mind smarter than a chimp, and so

Is This Historical Reprieve from Violence Only Temporary?

2011-09-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

Images via Steven Pinker Edge.orgIn a recent Edge.org article, Steven Pinker describes how human violence has subsided in recent years. The images on this page are a small sampling of Pinker's visual substantiation of his "reduced violence" thesis. For the most part, Pinker's argument is fairly persuasive. As seen above, deaths from warfare in the UK have come down significantly from

Babcock and Wilcox Moves Ahead With mPower Small Modular Reactor

2011-09-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

B&W mPower SMR Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are poised to change the world of power and energy -- if the US government Nuclear Regulatory Commission will do its job of fairly licensing the safe, clean, new nuclear reactors. Instead, developers of newer, safer reactors must jump through hoops, spend exorbitant fees, and wait many years or decades before the fat and lazy NRC will get off

Gas to Liquids and Coal to Liquids Etc: Trillions of Barrels and More

2011-09-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

Peak Oil Chased Away by Massive Energy Resources There is always big money to be made in substituting a lower cost feedstock or commodity for a higher priced one. The obvious big money substitution opportunity in the energy field, is the substitution of low cost natural gas or coal for high priced oil. Natural gas is difficult to transport globally, unless it is transformed into a denser

Impulsive Violence: Can Brain Implants Affect Poor Impulse Control?

2011-09-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

Poor decision making and impulsive behaviour are hallmarks of youth, sociopathy, and the violent criminal. Interestingly, Parkinson's Disease patients can also exhibit impulsive behaviours -- often as a side affect of treatment. Both drug treatment for Parkinson's and deep brain stimulation (DBS) via implants can increase impulsive and dysfunctional behaviours in Parkinson's patients.

70 Kg Seaplane from Finland

2011-09-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

PO This one-seater carbon fibre plane lands and takes off on water, and weighs but 70 kg. It was designed by a Finnish aerospace engineer, has a topspeed of around 140 kph, and a wingspan of 5m. It will come in multiple models, with prices starting at US$ 39k. The company plans to start taking orders in 3 months.The first version, one electric only, and two fuel based versions. The

State of the Art in Energy Storage

2011-09-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

The state of the art for energy storage leaves a lot to be desired at virtually every scale. Power grids and individual businesses, institutions, and residences are far too vulnerable to power fluctuations and unpredictable outages.Images via ESA (ht NBF) For those who are curious about the state of the art, the Electricity Storage Association provides a useful comparison for different methods

Creative Use of Concrete Shutters for Zombie-Proofed House

2011-09-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

All Images from All-that-is-interesting Above you can see the zombie-proof house with all shutters fully closed. In this setting, the only access into the house is via a drawbridge, which must be lowered for entry. Now you can see the shutters as they begin opening. Beneath the large front concrete shutter is a secondary steel shutter, for added zombie-proofing. Concrete shutters are now fully

The Brief Exhilarating Eroticism of Youth

2011-09-24T07:52:00.001-07:00

"With girls, Nature has had in view what is called in a dramatic sense a 'striking effect', for she endows them for a few years with a richness of beauty and a fullness of charm at the expense of the rest of their lives; so that they may during these years ensnare the fantasy of a man to such a degree as to make him rush into taking the honourable care of them, in some kind of form, for a

Men Waiting to Start a Family: Mature Men and Younger Women

2011-09-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Young women hold a strong erotic attraction to men of all ages. So it is natural for mature men, once they have achieved success and comfort in life, to seek relationships which give him the most pleasure. Throughout history, older men have started families with younger women, who are still in their fertile period. In most human cultures such things are considered normal and natural. But in

Human Babies Born with Intuitive Sense of Numbers

2011-09-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

Humans have an intuitive sense of number that allows them, for example, to readily identify which of two containers has more objects without counting. This ability is present at birth, and gradually improves throughout childhood_ScienceDaily Johns Hopkins scientists have tested the Approximate Number Sense (ANS) in human pre-schoolers, then compared their ANS scores with later standard tests of

EU: Europeans Must Learn to Live on Insects

2011-09-06T00:36:00.000-07:00

Telegraph It is easy to grow tasty insect larvae almost anywhere, on scraps and waste. But these plump, juicy larvae are not only suitable for fish bait. According to the EU, an entire continent of humans can and should be taught to live on insects. Experts in Brussels believe insects and other creepy crawlies could be a vital source of nutrition which will not only solve food shortages but

Brave New Baby: Genius Training for Infants

2011-09-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

Image Source We have heard of the "better baby" and even the "superbaby." But those approaches to creating the "brave new baby" have been around for a while, and yet, here we are. Still looking for workable ways of training smarter, more cognitively capable children. University of London researchers have come up with a new approach, beginning with 11 month old infants:The researchers trained

Important Information for Would-Be World Dictators

2011-09-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

By manipulating the activity of particular brain areas, scientists can now make people more vulnerable to marching in lock-step with the crowd. Controlling conformity will make it easier for would-be world rulers to capture the masses in one fell swoop. TelegraphVolunteers whose posterior medial frontal cortex, an area in the middle of the brain that is associated with reward processing, were

Improving Higher Education in the US

2011-09-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

Many universities, and not a few colleges, have come to resemble Fortune 500 companies with their layers of highly paid executives presiding over complex empires that contain semi-professional athletic programs, medical and business schools, and expensive research programs along with the traditional academic departments charged with providing instruction to undergraduate students. Like other

Finding One's Place In The Known Universe

2011-08-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Video via Tahoe Is Walking On Our brains require nourishment, exercise, and frequent stretching. If we are to lay the groundwork for the next level of human existence, we need to think outside of the box, outside the lines, beyond conventional limits. Assembly line schools and universities cannot prepare you for what the real universe is like. The ruling classes want you to be a good drone

Genetics and Intelligence: Steve Hsu's Google Tech Talk

2011-08-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

PDF Slides for Steve Hsu's talk Genes and Intelligence study looking at genes of individuals with IQ > 145: High IQ volunteers needed This talk by Hsu is likely to be a very big deal, simply due to its clarity of presentation, vast quantity of reliable evidence, and its venue. IQ is not everything, in terms of life success. Executive function and conscientiousness, as well as a certain

With This Kind of Heat You Can Kill Peak Oil

2011-08-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

With plentiful process heat provided at temperatures between 700 C and 950 C, a person could kill peak oil and have plenty of energy left to power industry and a broad spectrum of industrial processes. Specifically, one could: Unlock the trillions of barrels oil equivalent in oil sands (PDF) Unlock the trillions of barrels oil equivalent in coal to liquids and gas to liquids (PDF) Unlock the

Peter Thiel, SeaSteading's Financial Backer, Doesn't Like Boats

2011-08-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

SeaDragon The website "Details.com" provides an interesting profile of the billionaire backer of the Seasteading Institute, Peter Thiel. One of the things you learn is that Thiel doesn't particularly like boats, and doesn't plan to be an early adapter of seasteading. Another thing you will learn is that Thiel is something of a maverick provocateur.If the seasteading movement goes forward as

Mega-Super WiFi 802.22 Can Cover 12,000 Square Miles

2011-08-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

To put it in a nutshell, 802.22 was designed to run on a totally new spectrum which was made available when analog TVs were outlawed some years back in the US. For those who prefer more solid scientific figures, the 802.22 spectrum will work in ranges from 54MHz to 698MHz, where such frequencies are the perfect vehicle for long distance transmissions. Imagine sending out 22 Mbps of data within a

Las Vegas Hot and Dry for Black Hat Conference

2011-08-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Black Hat security conference opens in Las Vegas, Nevada, today to hot, dry weather, and a very full schedule.Security researchers will demonstrate new hacking techniques that probe networking devices, exploit holes in common database management systems and target vulnerabilities deep inside various operating systems. Other experts will reveal research into the destructive power of new, more

Who Can Defend Planet Earth from the Real Threats?

2011-07-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Power Point Slide Presentation via Brian Wang The US is dismantling its space program, piece by piece, and neither Europe nor Russia can afford their ambitious space goals. Only China appears to be in a position to pursue the vast opportunities, riches, and challenges of space travel, exploration, colonisation, and . . . . yes, militarisation. It is the high ground, after all. Unless humans

Lori Gottlieb and the Collapse of the American Empire

2011-07-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

The message we send kids with all the choices we give them is that they are entitled to a perfect life—that, as Dan Kindlon, the psychologist from Harvard, puts it, “if they ever feel a twinge of non-euphoria, there should be another option.” Mogel puts it even more bluntly: what parents are creating with all this choice are anxious and entitled kids whom she describes as “handicapped royalty.” _

Solar Cycles Stalling: Ice Age On Its Way?

2011-07-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

Average temperatures in Britain could fall by two degrees centigrade, according to the study led by Mike Lockwood, professor of space environment physics at Reading University, because of a drop in the amount of sunspot activity. _DailyMailLittle Ice Age Plunging In? The Earth's climate is chaotic by nature, and given to drastic changes and shifts as a matter of course. The many overlapping

A Biological World: Sustainable Materials and Fuels

2011-07-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

GCC Global industry is looking for alternatives to fossil fuels, as feedstocks for the production of fuels, plastics, high value chemicals, lubricants, and other materials. The planet Earth is highly prolific in its biological output -- and it could be far more biologically prolific, given just a little help. The image above depicts the scheme of Montana startup Blue Marble Biomaterials, which

Chinese Cargo Cult Mimicry: If We Build It Will They Come?

2011-06-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

China is building a replica Alpine village in a grimy industrial city. It hopes the chalets in the southern city of Huizhou will be sought after by homesick Europeans. The village will be a £5.7billion copy of Hallstatt in Austria, complete with artificial lake. Posing as tourists, the Chinese have been photographing every building there for three years. _DailyMailHallstatt, Austria on Lake

D-Dalus: A Possible Revolution in Flight from Austria

2011-06-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

At the heart of D-DALUS is a revolutionary propulsion system containing a number of patented inventions, including a friction free bearing at the points of high G force, and a system that keeps propulsion in dynamic equilibrium, thereby allowing the guidance system to quickly restore stability in flight. The propulsion consists of 4 sets of contra-rotating disks, each set driven at the same rpm

What Does it Mean for Africa to Grow at 4.9% per Year?

2011-06-21T00:54:00.000-07:00

Africa boasts an abundance of riches: 10 percent of the world’s reserves of oil, 40 percent of its gold, and 80 to 90 percent of the chromium and the platinum metal group. Those are just the known reserves; no doubt more lies undiscovered. _MQGlobal Map of Nations by per cent Living Under $1.25 per dayMcKinsey Quarterly has published a fascinating look at recent economic growth in the continent

Bitcoin Anonymous Virtual Currency Stimulates New Marketplaces

2011-06-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new money or tracks transactions. These tasks are managed collectively by the network. Bitcoin is meant to be an anonymous digital currency placed online, beyond the whim and caprice of greedy governments and their corrupt co-conspirators. An anonymous marketplace where almost anything could be bought or

National Debt by Country

2011-05-24T05:56:00.000-07:00

Public Gross Debt as Percent of GDP by Country – 1992-2011 gfmag This table uses data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and measures gross debt as a percent of GDP. Most major statistical organizations measure debt with fairly consistent results, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Eurostat. The 2007-2009 financial crisis led to a

China's Command Economy Builds Toward Ultimate Collapse

2011-05-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here are two videos on China's Ghost Cities, and excerpts from recent economic looks at China's recent economic growth. Can the growth be sustained, even though it is built upon massive loans and expenditures on infrastructure growth which no one is using? Keep in mind that buildings, bridges, tunnels, towers, and overpasses in China collapse regularly due to shoddy construction and corrupt

Billionaires Who Are Pushing the Future Forward

2011-05-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

"I've been rich and I've been poor, and rich is better."hplus Opportunity societies such as the US once was, allowed large numbers of relatively young (mainly) men to achieve great wealth. Some of these young and young-at-heart men are devoting a considerable amount of their wealth to drive future-oriented enterprises such as access to outer space, advanced nuclear fission and fusion, and more.

Secrets of Sleep, Learning, and Renewable Brains

2011-05-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

Levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of cells, in rats increased in four key brain regions normally active during wakefulness. Shown here is the energy surge measured in the frontal cortex, a brain region associated with higher-level thinking. Credit: Courtesy, with permission: Dworak et al. The Journal of Neuroscience 2010. We spend roughly 1/3 of our lives in the state of

Humans Still Do Not Understand Oceans or Planet

2011-05-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

Wiki Popular culture is immersed with the message that "humans are killing the oceans" and "man is destroying the planet." But science is so abysmally ignorant about what is actually happening in the seas and on land, that the faux environmentalist message of doom is based upon a blooming ignorance, and little else. Take a recent declaration of "plankton apocalypse" by researchers from

Gyroplanes of the World

2011-04-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

From Sport Copter of Oregon: In case you didn't already know, "gyrocopter", "gyroplane", "autogiro" and "autogyro" all mean the same thing, and the most important feature shared by gliders, airplanes, helicopters and gyroplanes is that they all use wings to fly. It's just that on helicopters and autogyros the wings are mounted on pylons and spin in circles, but they are rigidly affixed to the

Electromagnetic Brain Stimulation More Popular

2011-04-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

Neuroscientists at the University of New Mexico asked volunteers to play a video game called “DARWARS Ambush!”, developed to help train American military personnel. Half of the players received 2 milliamps of electricity to the scalp, using a device powered by a simple 9-volt battery, and they played twice as well as those receiving a much tinier jolt. The DARPA-funded study suggests direct

A Thick Dome Arcology with Sunroofs

2011-04-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

Inhabitat Think of it as a skyscraper laid on its side, curved into a dome with large holes in it. There is a lot of living and working room implied, depending upon the thickness of the dome itself, and its diameter. This proposed arched building is a unique solution to the question of how to create density without dominating a skyline or swallowing green space. Proposed for the city of Rennes,

North Korea Completing Devastating EMP Weapon?

2011-04-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

The North is believed to be nearing completion of an electromagnetic pulse bomb that, if exploded 25 miles above ground would cause irreversible damage to electrical and electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers, radio and radar, experts say. _abcnewsFuturescienceA specialised EMP nuclear burst high above the atmosphere, could knock out continental-sized power grids. Much of the entire

Is AI Finally Acknowledging the Existence of Bio-Brains?

2011-03-29T00:03:00.000-07:00

Randal Koene - Whole Brain Emulation from Raj Dye on Vimeo. The above is a video from a conference on artificial general intelligence (AGI) held in Switzerland, last year. The speaker is a neuroscientist -- an outsider to the typical AI person who attends AI conferences. His appearance at the AGI conference indicates that the entire approach to AI is in a state of flux. The attitude up until

Smart Drugs? No, Just Quicker at Being Stupid

2011-03-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

Update: A review of an array of "smart drugs" from a company that actually sells them. A brief description of one instance of Provigil use from a Times reporter Why Smart Drugs Don't Work Like NZT What are smart drugs? Pills that are supposed to enhance a person's cognitive abilities in some way. Anything from Ritalin to Amphetamines to Provigil might qualify, as well as a wide range of lesser

Building a Neo-Nano-Neuro-Brain from Scratch

2011-03-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

Nanonerves Human brains are amazing mental machines. As far as we know, there is nothing else quite like them in the universe. But we always wonder whether perhaps, we could build something just a bit better? Observe all the hoopla and expenditure over the past 60+ years in the field of "artificial intelligence." What a disappointment that has been so far. It seems we may be taking the wrong

Overlapping Climate Cycles Lead to Natural Climate Chaos

2011-03-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

Earth's climate is driven by multiple ongoing cycles on many levels. When natural resonant cycles overlap -- at whatever level -- they can contribute to a chaotic pattern.When the overlap starts, many higher-order resonances are also involved so fairly large areas of phase space have their tori destroyed and the ensuing chaos is "widespread" since trajectories are now free to wander between

Brian Wang Hit by a Firestorm of Uninformed Criticism

2011-03-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

In a recent NextBigFuture article, Brian Wang takes a cautious look at the IQ of nations and possible relationship between a nation's wealth and its average population IQ. Brian's modest observations were greeted by a veritable firestorm of politically correct monkeys lobbing handfuls of shite in comments. This is par for the course, whenever contemporary university "educated" people are

One Reason Why "Peak Oil Doom" Is No Cause for Panic

2011-02-25T15:10:00.000-08:00

The Group's technology makes viable the distributed production of fuels from gas biomass, coal and waste. Microchannel processing is emerging at a time of the discovery and development of vast shale gas reserves in North America, increasing focus on the utilization of stranded and associated gas and the emergence of biomass-to-liquids (BTL) and waste-to-liquids (WTL) as a viable option for the

Massive Entitlement Spending Growth Prevents a Better Future

2011-02-21T13:45:00.000-08:00

Images via MJPerry The US government is stuck in the entitlement racket -- the "votes for cash" scam. By channeling more and more private sector income through government redistribution channels, more private citizens are becoming dependent upon government incomes -- and forgetting how to take care of themselves. This wholesale shift to government dependency might be okay if it were sustainable.

Survival Rations Part I: Puffed Grain Cakes

2011-02-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

Sniffing Out Ancient and Future Oil

2011-02-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

ImageSource Most crude oil comes from ancient marine organisms which bloomed, died, sank, and were covered by sediment to transform under conditions of heat and pressure into petroleum. The organisms required sunshine, CO2, and nutrients -- plus sedimentary cover. These conditions were best met in tropical seas which received nutrient-rich outflows from either rivers or rich sea currents and

The Final Frontiersman of ANWR: A Week in the Life

2011-02-06T19:10:00.000-08:00

Heimo Korth is "The Final Frontiersman." He and his wife Edna are the last legal full time residents of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They move between three cabins every year, so as not to deplete the game as they trap and hunt for a living. The book linked above is quite good, written by a cousin of Heimo's who lived with the family for several months and dug deeply into the couple's

Lifehacker's Top 10 Tips and Tricks to Supercharge Your Brain

2011-02-02T07:59:00.000-08:00

Lifehacker Top 10 is a service of Lifehacker.com for people who are in a hurry and want to jump to the heart of the matter quickly. Today's Lifehacker Top 10 deals with ways of building your brainpower. Some methods seem like common sense -- good nutrition and exercise -- but others are less obvious. Make Lifehacker a regular stop on your daily internet tour. Here is the link to the original

Wikimedia: Dumbing Down the Idiocracy?

2011-01-31T12:44:00.000-08:00

NYT Several areas of commerce, enterprise, and science remain the province of mainly-male participation. Physics, mathematics, advanced computer science, technical engineering, math-intensive sciences, aircraft test pilots and combat pilots, commercial sea captains, and so on. Most informed people understand that research is dominated by males, but few people realise that technical information

The "Skyscraper Index" and China's Building Boom

2011-01-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

Table 1: World's Tallest Buildings Completed Building Location Height Stories Economic Crisis 1908 Singer New York 612 ft. 48 Panic of 1907 1909 Metropolitan Life New

Bombing the Planet with Tree Seedlings: Terraforming Earth?

2011-01-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

macleansIn most modern forestry operations in the developed world, at least 5 new seedlings are planted for each tree that is cut down. But in the third world, the emerging world, and in the non-forestry world, there is plenty of room for planting new trees. MIT researcher Moshe Alamaro wants to pull fleets of old military transports and bombers out of mothballs, and use them to bombard the

What if the Sun Erupts in 2012 in the Way it Did in 1921?

2010-12-30T11:37:00.000-08:00

SolarFlare NASA What would happen to electrical infrastructure on Earth if the sun passes through a period of massive solar flaring as occurred in 1859 or 1921?On Earth, power lines, data connections and even oil and gas pipelines are potentially vulnerable. An early warning of the risk came in 1859, when the biggest CME ever observed unleashed red, purple and green auroras even in tropical

Singularity University Class of 2010

2010-09-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

SingularityHubSingularity Hub presented a wrap-up of 2010's Singularity University second summer session. The wrap-up was a close follow-up of a comprehensive video look at the full range of projects undertaken by SU's students this summer. Students were busy working on energy projects, water projects, food projects, space projects, and "up-cycle" projects -- a focus on sustainability. It

Who Is John Galt?

2010-08-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

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We Are Marching to Utopia, Heaven Help Us!

2010-07-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

These Homes Will Last for Centuries

2010-07-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

Well-made monolithic domes, as described in the video, are expected to last for centuries. As described at the dometech.com website: Lifespan With the exterior protection of polyurethane insulation and the waterproof roof membrane, the steel reinforced concrete dome will not weather or decay. The life span of these buildings will be measured in centuries. Strength The monolithic concrete dome