Short Attention Span Blogging, July 4, 2010

By | July 4, 2010
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…where science, futurism, and anything else Stephen finds interesting are thrown together in an informational stew for your consumption.

Enjoy!

Follow Stephen on Twitter: @stephentgo

  • MJSL2050: New US satellite to monitor debris in Earth orbit.

    “If all goes as planned, the Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite, scheduled for a July 8 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., will have an unobstructed, around-the-clock view of the increasingly heavy traffic in Earth orbit – something the Air Force doesn’t have now.”

  • Life in 2050: healthier, longer, more urban, more of us.
  • Nanopore single molecule DNA sequencing – goal: reduce cost of sequencing a human genome to between $100 and $1,000.

    A “nanopore” is a hole as small as 1 nanometer across!

  • tobiasbuckell:
    1 bar cellphone reception here on my father in law’s farm. Internet speed check: 80kbps. I feel like I’m in one of Vernor Vinge’s slow zones.

    Proving William Gibson’s observation that, “The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed.”

  • VFW91:
    FACT Jefferson & Adams were the only presidents to sign the Dec. of Independence & they both died on its 50th anniversary July 4, 1826.

  • Hyperspectral analysis of Declaration of Independence draft shows Jefferson changed “subjects” to “citizens.”

    Good change!

  • nytimesbooks
    Essay: Ben Franklin Is a Big Fat Idiot

    And the title is a big fat head fake. The author does not think Ben Franklin is an idiot. Instead, he makes the point that even a genius can have an off day. We remember “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” We forget “Every little makes a mickle.” Shakespeare wrote “Hamlet,” but he also wrote the forgettable (and forgotten) “Pericles, Prince of Tyre.”

    There’s something reassuring about the filter of history.

  • jpegpak
    Grid computing helping with cancer research.

    My kids have recently geeked out about this. They have their Playstation 3 working on the folding@home project.

  • ebertchicago:
    Oh. My. God. The Southern Lights (aurora australis) photographed by astronauts.

    southern lights.jpg

  • donttrythis
    For the record, I re-read both the Declaration of Independence AND the Bill of Rights every year at this time. Both amazing documents.

  • TED_TALKS:
    Mitchell Joachim: Don’t build your home, grow it!

    This idea has a looong way to go before being ready for prime time.

  • Taking the first steps toward living machines.
  • “@TranscendentMan: for ‘Minority Report Interface’ That Blew People’s Minds at TED.”

  • I’m currently reading new book, “The Rational Optimist”

    Quote: “Humanity is experiencing an extraordinary burst of evolutionary change, driven by good old-fashioned Darwinian natural selection. But it is selection among ideas, not among genes. The habitat in which these ideas reside consists of human brains.

    …at some point in human history, ideas began to meet and mate, to have sex with each other.”

  • Only humans and whales live . Evolutionary benefit: teaching time??

    Because ideas are “mating” within our collective minds, the current generation gets a survival benefit if grandparents live long enough to pass on the wisdom that their long lives have allowed them to accumulate.

  • John Smart & Ken Hayworth created Brain Preservation Foundation to spur development of new methods – like plastization.

    Cryogenics without the problem of maintaining a deep freeze.

  • No problem with iPhone antenna -problem with software that calculates how many bars. Hasn’t worked since original iPhone.

    Now, can we get a fix please?

  • Using quantum dot printing to make lasers, TV screens, solar cells & more.
  • 75 years since thought experiment. Both Schrödinger and cat definitely dead.

To freedom loving people everywhere: “Happy Independence Day!”