LinkDiscuss
With a new school year upon us, kids may soon have the chance to eat healthier and also help the environment, using something unique wrapped around their tuna, turkey or PB&J sandwiches. Edible vegetable and fruit wraps, among the latest developments from modern chemistry, could keep lunches fresher longer and be substituted for some non-biodegradable wraps, says the creator, food chemist Tara McHugh, Ph.D.
(Thanks, Stefan!) [Boing Boing]
You’re going to think I’m weird. Maybe this is surprising coming from a computer programmer.
But listen, the only thing that makes microprocessors tolerable is that they don’t really think.
On Thursday Robert Scoble wrote about how analog thinking is Microsoft’s biggest enemy. And the biggest enemy of Linux and so on.
As I read that, I was thinking about how much I love pen and paper. And record albums. And shoes. And grass.
The analog world is made up of atoms of poetry. The digital world is made up of bits. [Inessential.com]
McCarthy invokes Clarke's Law (sufficiently advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic) in respect of these Quantum Dots (regarding which he holds a patent that is itself a fascinating appendix to the book), and as he lays out the science and the possibilities of dots (in language eminently accessible to the laiety), there's a sense that he's onto something really important -- the kind of thing that scientists and science fiction writers will be exploring for decades to come. At the same time, there's a sense of restraint, even as he spins out wild scenaria for superconducting houses that spill heat into the Earth's crust and for computers that measure their power in ME's -- Millennial Equivalences, or "all the computing power on Earth circa 2001." He's a science fiction writer, but he's trying to be sober-sided here, trying to convey that the possibilities are real and even probable.
Which brings me to book number two, The Wellstone, a science fiction novel set in a world dressed in "Wellstone," a programmable matter built out of Quantum Wells. If Hacking Matter is restrained, The Wellstone is almost out of control. It's a boy's-own-adventure story in the tradition the juveniles Heinlein wrote for Scouting mags in the fifties, but gender-balanced, and full of utterly gonzoid, Rucker-grade speculation about a universe dominated by programmable matter and practical immortality, teleportation, and other post-classical physics technology. The novel's a gripper, fast-paced and funny and quite touching at the close. It's the perfect companion to Hacking Matter -- in fact, I think I wish I'd read it first.
In the future, all my devices will be sheathed in writhing plasma-plates like this killer casemod's.
(via Inquirer UK)
[Boing Boing]
LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing]
The patient, a Mr. Gary Warren, presented symptoms typical of extreme mental distress--elevated pulse, perspiration, acute abdomen, dilated pupils--at the Queen St. Mental Health Center, where a preliminary diagnosis of acute stress disorder was made. The patient's serotonin levels were normalized through quick trepanning, and he was entered into a course of group therapy sessions in the newly installed microgravity chill-rooms. Mr. Warren's symptoms worsened, however, despite daily trepannings. The only visible relief came when in close proximity to diagnostic equipment (EEG, e-meters, MRI/CT Scan apparatus). Even a wall-clock, a PDA, or a thermometer seemed to help.
Mr. Warren was moved to the Bertelsmann-AOL-Netscape-Time-Warner clinic and into the care of Dr. Jojo Fillipo, a specialist in media disorders. Under clinical observation, Mr. Warren was presented with a variety of diagnostic tools, beginning with those found on his person at his admission:
* A Palm Computing "Wrister" wristwatch* A small, homemade RFI detector
* An integrated wireless appliance of baroque appearance
* A multifunction handheld medical unit, apparently stolen from a Mexican clinic (sphygnomometer, EEG, blood-sugar/HIV/Hep G/Pregnancy diagnostic)
* An elderly, analog light-meter
* A DNA-signature encoder
* A distributed location/presence device marketed to children for the purposes of playing text-based role-playing games
* An elderly "turnip"-style pocket watch--not working
* A "commando"-style knife with an integrated compass and thermometer
Devices were provided to the patient singly and in combination. Alone or in small groups, the devices produced a marked lessening in the patient's symptoms--in fact, the mere presence of devices intended to measure Mr. Warren's symptoms appeared to alleviate them. In larger groups, or in certain combinations (the wireless appliance and the location/presence-device, for example), symptoms were exacerbated to alarming levels. At one point, Mr. Warren lost consciousness for a period of three days, during which doctors defibrillated his heart twice due to unusual cardiac events.
(Thanks, Tara!) [Boing Boing]
S
Today, American forces face instability in Iraq, where they are losing soldiers almost daily to escalating guerrilla attacks, the cost of occupation is exploding to almost $4 billion a month and withdrawal appears untold years away."
Bring 'Em On! [metafilter.com]
Zouhair Yahyaoui is a 35-year-old Tunisian blogger and journalist who's currently serving a two-year jail term -- under what supporters describe as extremely harsh, inhumane conditions -- for criticizing the Tunisian government on his website. His case returns to the highest Tunisian court this Friday, July 11. Supporters are hoping for a new investigation of his case, saying that the original trial was unjustly conducted, serving effectively as a state formality before imprisoning him for political reasons. The jailed blogger recently engaged in a hunger strike that lasted over 35 days, and last month was awarded first "Cyber-Freedom Prize" by Reporters without Borders, which works to raise awareness about human rights abuses against journalists around the world. Fiance and campaign organizer Sophie Elwarda tells BoingBoing:
"Following on from the information communicated by his solicitor Mr Abdelwahab Mataar, who was representing him, Zouhair Yahyaoui's case will pass in front of the highest court this Wednesday 11th July at 9.00 am.
The highest court will investigate the file to determine if the tribunal has done there job correctly of not. And they will therefore evaluate the manner in which this justice has been delivered. There are currently 2 possibilities, confirmation or cassation, if the judgement is confirmed, that would indicate the end of any judiciary proceedings, in case of cassation the affair will again go before the court of appeal for a new
investigation."
Link to RSF website with more information about Yahyaoui's case and the Cyber-Freedom Prize, Link to Yahyaoui's "Tunezine" blog (now a "Free Zouhair" support website), More background, previous BB post (1), (2). Discuss [Boing Boing]
"I've been thinking about September 11th. I've been thinking about the United States response - The Patriot Act. Invading Afganastan & Iraq. Death. Fear. Oppression.It seems to me that this is NOT the America I want the world to know. So I propose a blogwide Photoblog your Life day on September 11th. Take your camera with you. Take pictures. Show the world your life. Show the world your daily delights. Show the world that we choose life, happiness and freedom."
LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing]
AS far as the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) was concerned, commercial wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) services, and even Bluetooth use, was still "illegal" in certain regions in the Philippines, including Metro Manila, an official of the regulatory body said over the weekend.
Edgardo Cabarios, director of the common carrier department of the NTC said that the body was still drafting guidelines to regulate commercial Wi-Fi activities and boost their deployment and development in the country."I think (commercial Wi-Fi) services have to stop because it is against the law," he said.
A new unmanned robot with lots of weapons will be used as soon as 2007 by the Marine Corps to control angry crowds, reports the Honolulu Advertiser from Camp Smith, Hawaii. "The 4-foot-tall, 1,600-pound concept vehicle recently was demonstrated at Camp Smith, launching dozens of smoke rounds downrange that could have been tear gas, or stingball and flashbang grenades." The Gladiator should be availble by 2007 for about $150,000 apiece. Look at this summary for more details including the scenario of the demonstration and the kind of weapons carried by the Gladiator. The Marine Corps also has a story about this robot, "Gladiator flexes its muscle on Camp Smith," which carries additional photographs.Discuss [Boing Boing]
"Hi, Xeni -- Photographer Jook Leung took on a very hard task here. He had to shoot the images for the panorama handheld, as he was not allowed to bring his tripod up at the Empire State Building. The guards said it was for security reasons. Taking handheld panoramas is one of Jook Leung's specialties, but the low light made this especially difficult to do."
Link to 4th of July Fireworks from the Empire State Building, Discuss
[Boing Boing]
LinkDiscuss
The people of the planet Mars have no literature. The colonization of Mars was unforgiving, and the exiles had no time to spend in writing. But still they have stories, the tales they told to children too young to really understand, stories that these children tell to their own children. These are the legends of the Martians.
Not one of the stories is a love story.
In those days, people fell out of the sky. They fell through the ochre sky in ships that were barely functional, thin aluminum shells crowded with fetid humanity, half of them corpses and the other half little more than corpses. The landings were hard, and many of the ships split open on impact, spilling bodies and precious air into the barely-more-than-vacuum of Mars. And still they fell, wave after wave of ships, the refuse of humanity tossed carelessly through space and falling onto the cratered deserts of Mars.
(Thanks, Geoff!) [Boing Boing]
LinkDiscuss
Over 1.000 HP fans want after the translation of HP, succeeded
well, tape 4 also the new factory: "HP and the order OF Phoenix"
translate together, because English actually so with difficulty at all
is not.
How does that function? Everyone, which wants to go through, selects a
section section (usually 5 pages), and mailt the own translation 1 to
4 weeks later to Harry up German community back; if the translation is
useful, then one gets as thank-beautifully gradually the translations
of the others Mituebersetzer inside zugemailt;
The project is absolutely non commercial and is to make above all the
fun involved;
(via Kottke) [Boing Boing]
Two years ago today I posted a list of cool American people and things. Probably the only time you’ll see Rosa Parks, the Federalist Papers, and Iggy Pop all on the same page. [Inessential.com]
Well, I don't have anything other than my own experience to go on, and no empirical measurements of that, but I've been multitasking since I was a child, and I feel that I'm very, very productive. It's true that I have a panicky terror at the thought of being bored, but at the same time, I would argue that my five-things-at-once always-connected way of being is a successful adaptation, not a harmful addiction.
Neil Postman argues that due to telecommunications, our attention-spans have been debilitatingly foreshortened, and he convincingly illustrates this by comparing the reasoned and lengthy rhetoric of the Lincoln-Douglas debates with the soundbite-driven Reagan-Dukakis (?) debates.
The experts cited in this piece seem to be arguing the same thing, along the lines of, "That danged Internet is so slippery and fluid, it's taken away peoples' ability to watch television."
When do we stop lamenting a change like this and start looking for the value of the new trend? When do we start examining the upsides of fluid and multifarious attention, rather than popping off reactionary warnings about the dangers of being "addicted" to communications?
When do we get to consider the benefits of living with one foot in the Net and the other in meatspace?
LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing]
Dr. Hallowell and John Ratey, an associate professor at Harvard and a psychiatrist with an expertise in attention deficit disorder, are among a growing number of physicians and sociologists who are assessing how technology affects attention span, creativity and focus. Though many people regard multitasking as a social annoyance, these two and others are asking whether it is counterproductive, and even addicting.
The pair have their own term for this condition: pseudo-attention deficit disorder. Its sufferers do not have actual A.D.D., but, influenced by technology and the pace of modern life, have developed shorter attention spans. They become frustrated with long-term projects, thrive on the stress of constant fixes of information, and physically crave the bursts of stimulation from checking e-mail or voice mail or answering the phone."It's like a dopamine squirt to be connected," said Dr. Ratey, who compares the sensations created by constantly being wired to those of narcotics — a hit of pleasure, stimulation and escape. "It takes the same pathway as our drugs of abuse and pleasure."
LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing]
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
