Sticky Science

Geckos long thought to have thier cieling sticking abilities contirbutable to some sort of glue, have now been found to be using unique properties of "Van der Waals Forces".
These forces have been replicated in man made synthetics that are said to hold up to several kilos on the cieling. Rock climbers stick close to this one. Full story

Baby Eliot

A peek at father and blog contibutor's new 7 week old baby Eliot, who stopped by from the Pacific Northwest last night.
We had French press Hawiian Peaberry (8.99 Worldmarket for 1.5 lbs.) and the conversation covered non protestors carrying signs that said "rabble rabble" and chanting the same (Ha!), site seeing in the Seattle area from camping to seaward exploration via fairy to the San Juans, and my notion that with the advent of trilogys like the Lord of the Rings and the new Matrix movies, soon with added technological advances there will be one ongoing user particapation reality type movie that everyone will be in and that everyone will see.

Flash-Baking Anyone?

Flash-Baking Anyone?
A new virtual reality array allows an immersive experience without the disorienting 3-D goggles. Key to the installation, dubbed LiveActor, is the pairing of an optical motion capture system to monitor the body's movements with a stereo projection system to immerse users in a virtual environment. The combination lets users interact with characters embedded within virtual worlds.

According to Norman I. Badler, professor of computer and information science and director of Penn's Center for Human Modeling and Simulation, "The system is much more than the sum of its parts. Motion capture has traditionally been used for animation, game development and human performance analysis, but with LiveActor users can delve deeper into virtual worlds. The system affords a richer set of interactions with both characters and objects in the virtual environment." LiveActor will be demonstrated for journalists and others on Thursday, May 15th.

Electric Wine

Electric Wine
Scientists have extracted electrical power from a grape. The process harnesses the metabolic energy of glucose and oxygen to create a biofuel cell. This is some cheap vino too - only costs a few cents to make. According to Adam Heller and colleagues at U of Texas at Austin, the biofuel cell should also get power from body fluids. It could potentially drive a tiny, autonomous sensor implanted near a wound after surgery to sense fluctuation in body temperature that might signal inflamation and infection. Read more... On a personal note, as the mommy of a three year old who never tells me when she's hurting, I'd like to have a couple of those sensors implanted in two little ears to let me know when there is an ear infection raging - rather than rushing to the Dr.'s office with a perforated ear drum as we did this afternoon!

Adding to the Blogroll

Adding to the Blogroll
A classic genomic era thought provoking quote lifted from Geoff Cohen at coherenceengine.com
"we must recognize the potential that every protein in our bodies may in some way represent a computer a trillion times faster than one of the most powerful human-built computers in the world."

"attention-wealth"

Check out this thread by Gothwalk the pagan Irishmen here on live journal that I butted in on via trackback.
It is a good focus on something I had forgotten: The social currency of what he termed as "attention-wealth", or what we cowboys call in these parts of meatspace "Whuffie". The talking points being:
• The value of good social standing and support as opposed to the traditional currency of money
• A timely system for crediting that value to people.
So the question I have: is there warranted social change enough to support a new focus on social capital that would result in a system as suggested by Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom? Or is this a silly nerd notion that should be placed aside Star Trek enthusiasts fantasizing about transporters and holodecks (as Tim Oren suspects)? Another possible angle is that there is no such monumental change or shift in society, and that the profound change is in the ability through technology to quantify "attention-wealth". In which case I say let the revolution begin.

New World Clothing

FloatCoat
Oooh, gotta scope this artist Alex Soza and his hi-tach clothing, on the site you will find:
• Cool exco skeleton just as I requested (boredom with bots)
• A floating jacket.( imagine you come in from the cold at a party take off your jacket and it hovers over to a coatroom and deflates, when your ready to go you beep it with your watch,pda, cell phone it inflates and locates you.)
• Sleaves that roll up or down, collars that get bigger, features on a jacket wired by a thermal sensor that also tells your coat to get thicker or thinner depending on the outside and internal temp.
This site via the just blogrolled Z+Blog which was via this cool ap blogmatcher from google wannabe Ryo Chijiiwa. via Blogdex

Wired Espresso

Wired Espresso
I had heard about the notion of toasters and refrigerators connecting to the net, although an obvious evolution, I thought it was down the pike, shame on me for under processing info with my wetware, as I came across this new product in the category of "Super Autos"- not cars, espresso machines. This one in the range of $1,700, comes with a port for jacking in to the internet: "...hook up your notebook computer to this thing to program the machine, run diagnostics, and even to let Capresso Techs run diagnostics over the Internet to troubleshoot any potential problems...". This cool product via boingboing via coffeegeek, made me so excited I brewed some stout African crude and blogged this post.

Back to the Past With DiCaprio as Micheal J. Fox, and Hanks as the Proffessor?

All futurist have a fascination with the past, as we hurtle towards the technology rich gene-set we look back at yesteryears jet-set.
My wife and I give huge praise to the Steven Spielberg movie "Catch Me if You Can" with Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Not only is it a well done drama on the real life/semi fictitious story of check fraud guru gone FBI expert Frank Abagnale Jr., it is one of the best period pieces I have seen in a long time. The plot effectively takes you through the end of the 1950's up to the 1970's in way that is entirely transparent, the subtly of which is likely lost on many but not this viewer, it connected me on some subconscious way with my national heritage and past, being that I was born in the 60's it had the effect of helping me to look backward and forward at the same time. I agree with this review that the perfect contrast to light hearted retro Catch Me if You Can is the dark futuristic Minority Report. If not for any other reason see this movie just for the retro value.
Other retro movie I want to see: "Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind" stay tuned.

Monkeys fall short of Shakespearian Prose

If you give an infinate number of monkeys an infinate amount of typewriters and enough time, then they will eventually reproduce the complete works of Shakespeare. Thomas Huxley, a 19th-century scientist, is usually credited with coming up with this illustration of chance and probability. (Note: in mathematics, most anything can be "possible" with the inclusion of a few infinities...)

Some researchers in Britan left six monkeys alone with a computer for a month. The net result? No Shakespeare.

"They pressed a lot of S's," reports one researcher. "Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard."

Perhaps with the aid of flash-baking and a cure for death these monkeys might get a little closer? Or perhaps the monkeys will just figure out how to hang the mouse and keyboard from the rafters for a makeshift jungle-gym...

Do you smell cheese, or have a "point"?

This new free demo software tracks movements to replace your mouse. While they need to hire a new marketing company with a name like "Nouse", I like the idea, anyone with a usb cam can try it. I hate the mouse and the touchpad, and sore wrists. Maybe I will cross over...

A Small Slice of the Magic Kingdom

My daughter and I went to the Mall today and of course we both gravitated towards the Disney Store. I was completely amused as we walked through the doorway and I took note of the “castmember” who cheerily greeted us and made a point to let us know that they were running a special on swimsuits, “Buy a swimsuit and get a cute little coverup for FREE – a $19.50 value!”, she said while grinning from ear to ear. I thanked her, and we then wandered over to check out the merch. And fine merch it was. Got an adorable Princess swimsuit for my little one with of course the matching Princess coverup. The castmember left us alone while we looked and then reapproached after we’d made our selection to comment on how adorable the suit was and how adorable my daughter was and would be in it. We cruised around in that small little slice of the Magic Kingdom checking out the rest of the merch and then approached the register to pay. There was cheery castmember again, racking up Whuffie at every turn. She rang up the suit and coverup and then magically produced a Donald Duck whistle and, much to my daughter’s delight and my surprise, tossed it in the bag…another freebie. Scored some major Whuffie from my little one! As we departed, she cheerily bid us adieu and then turned to exact her magic on the next guest. It was just so comical…I thought that woman’s whuffie must be through the roof! Ha!

Tech Item

Introducing the "Pitch Solo" an interesting piece of tech' for controlling your PDA from your computer and back? I guess what confuses me is why isn't there a program in your PDA or software for your computer for this already? Another periphreal doesn't seem appealing. Made by Portsmith Review here from SorobanGeeks
via Linkfilter

New twist on old artform

New twist on old artform
Check Berdwin's blog that is a collection of poetry submitted via palmtop, it is pretty dark disturbing poetry verging on madness, but I was mezmorized by the entirety of the idea. Is this the way of the new world minstral? Personal thought streamed in poetic form transferred realtime to the world via handheld via blog? What if Shakespear or William Blake had blogged via wireless?

Lithium Ion a dead end?

Lithium Ion a dead end?
This news from Advanced Technology talks about two different start ups chasing fuel cells for laptop computers. (Note to Tim Oren: May be a worthy stock tip if they go public.) My understanding is that the current top dog Lithium Ion has reached maximum density, and the fuel cell route promises 12-14 hours which would outgun what is available in the current market. Fuel cells for Handdhelds or Cell phones don't sound too probable though do to fuel cell size.

One piece of paper for all info

Thin stainless steel foil becomes "future paper". "Ad signs that change as you walk by", sounds like more of Phillip K. Dicks Minority Report futurescape. Credit cards that tell you your current balance?This article from UK The Mirror has more for those interested in uploading todays paper via net on a lightweight piece of paper, and then using that same paper to read a book at lunch or while on commute. You would think that enviros' would be all over this eliminating of deadtree communications.

Where is Raed ? Salim Pax is back!

Okay aside from the Heinlein quote to the right, I kept my political views off of this blog, I assume those of you who visit here want info about reputation economics and futurism, not another blogger doting on and on like they have some original spin right or left. I feel the same way about celebrities using their fame as a platform, I don't care what they think, can they act? can they sing? I even avoided wartime posts about the GI who attacked his own troops with grenades and how they should have pinged his Whuffie. That disclaimer aside, I think this is very relevant to futurism and they way democracies proliferate now on the internet, how one man can speak to so many. I followed his blog up to a week into the invasion when he got cut off, I held my breathe, praying that he would make it back. His non-partisan yet understandably cynical perspectives are refreshing in the wash of heavy handed partisan banter we find on the net. So check out Salam Pax's blog for an ad hoc view from inside the sandbox.

Also kudos to Jeremy and Judith at futurismic for keeping the dialogue open even when we disagree. And to fine centric discourse from John Schwartz in LA at his blog with this fine peace of verbiage "...finding a new voice and having the courage to selectively blend right and left and the margin in the fight for honesty." That is what I am interested in being a part of politically speaking but who cares what I think? Whew, now that that is over with, back to topic.

In follow up: It occurred to me that I mis-spoke in saying Salim Pax perspectives are "non-partisan", of course they are non-partisan. To clarify what I mean is that I hope that we do not repeat the political behavior that was exhibited here in America should there be a war again. It became impossible to understand what was happening to the people and nation of Iraq, and what we were doing with so much pro and con war opinion. Even now few are talking about what happened, everyone is trying to use information to prove their political position. "Hi I am for the war" How are you? "I am against" Salam "-I am in the war" is so much more relevant and meaningful. I hope that makes more sense, and apologize for not communicating more clearly. If you followed the war or even if you got "warred out" I think it is worth while literature to check this blog. A few choice quotes:
"..every time the bombing starts my brother starts humming Nirvana’s 'Pennyroyal Tea'..."
"..too tired, scared and burnt out to write anything.." "..this might be a good time to sell our souls to the (US) Devil"

Joy of Segs T

Joy of Segs T
Segway fan and blogger is selling unofficial joyofsegs.com t-shirts that discibe the human tranport vehicle. Someone from Segway hire this guy and give him a transport.
Available here.

Futuristic homes insulated with "Space Gel"?

Futuristic homes insulated with "Space Gel"?
Check out this new product called "Areogel" from the people who brought us squeezable catsup packets (NASA). It was initially developed to catch comet and planetary space dust but is also being used as insulation. It is silicon based and 99.8 percent empty space. It has super low thermal conductivity so much so that pictures show crayons and matches being protected from a blowtorch by the gel. Learn more here

Small Claims Court = Negative Whuffie?

This true story about dealing with an inconsiderate telemarketer illustrates how small claims court might be considered the "negative whuffie" of our cash society. Calling to telemarket at 5:24 am definately deserves a negative whuffie hit.
via slashdot