Author Archives: Phil Bowermaster

The Most Important Scientific Discovery of the Year?

A paper of extreme importance for fighting aging came out in the Nature journal on Thursday. A research group from Buck Institute lead by Professor Gordon Lithgow was able to prolong life of nematodes by 78% by adding one compound to the worms’ diet – a dye Thioflavin T. The authors showed that the effectof the dye was due to activation of stress resistance mechanisms, which lead to significant increase in median (60%) and maximum lifespan (43-78%). Thioflavin T is used to mark the amyloid protein aggregates inAlzheimer’s disease. Dr. Lithgow’s group showed that this compound regulates protein homeostasis, which leads to life extension in nematodes and improvement of their health later in life.

This article proves the possibility to prolong life by activating stress resistance using chemical compounds simply added to the diet.

Konovalenko points out that the word “stress” here is being used in its technical / biological sense to refer to a broad range of damage. And yet apparently this one agent, Thioflavin T, was effective against stress generally, leading to this significant increases in lifespan.

In principle, a change in diet here brings about a major increase in life span. If there is a something we can add to the human diet that will have anything like the impact that Thioflavin T has on these worms…we’re talking about a huge marekt for some ambitious supplement distributor.

Mercury as Seen from Orbit

A new view of the planet closest to the sun.

mercuryseenfrom space.jpg

Spacecraft sends a new view of Mercury

NASA has released the first image ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the solar system’s innermost planet, Mercury.

The image was captured at 5:20 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

The dominant rayed crater in the upper portion of the image is Debussy.

The bottom portion of this image is near Mercury’s south pole and includes a region of Mercury’s surface not previously seen by spacecraft.

Pretty darn cool!

FastForward Radio — the Future of Publishing with Tobias Buckell

Phil and Stephen welcome Tobias Buckell back to FastForward Radio to
hear about his latest project and to discuss the future of publishing.

Listen to internet radio with The Speculist on Blog Talk Radio

About Our Guest

Tobias
S. Buckell is a Caribbean-born speculative fiction writer who grew up
in Grenada, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He
has published stories in various magazines and anthologies. He is the
New York Times Bestselling writer of Halo: The Cole Protocol, as well as
a number of other novels. His next book, Arctic Rising, comes out in
early 2012.

Little Helicopters Playing Catch

The name says it all.

Book Review: "Wil Wheaton's The Day After and Other Stories"

I’ve enjoyed Wil Wheaton’s writing at his blog, so when I heard he had about this short story collection and that it was only $2.99 in the Kindle eBook format – I grabbed it.

This collection is pretty short – really an afternoon’s reading only, but the price is right.

“The Day After” is the longest piece. Excellently written. A hopeless situation at the end of the world. How do people deal with that? This does what good stories with fantastical elements (in this case zombies) always do: give us believable characters to hook ourselves to. This story is very cinematic. I would not be surprised to see this filmed or expanded into novel length at some point.

“Room 302″ is spooky. Its not much more than an impression of a story, but my mind filled in a backstory and a resolution. I wonder if what I came up with was similar to where the author was going and what other readers thought? I wish I could share without spoiling the story. Eh, it doesn’t matter – you’ll come up with your own ending.

“The Language Barrier” is the weaker piece in this collection, but its still a good read. It asks an interesting question: can language BE a barrier?

“Poor Places” is a Poker story. [mild spoiler] This piece has some autobiographical elements in it: the protagonist is formerly famous. He’s an ordinary guy now that ordinary people befriend and his past is rarely mentioned. He’s keeping himself (barely) fed in an interesting way. Wil communicates, I think, some of the disappointment he’s had to deal with – a life that has not quite gone the way he expected it to go when he was younger. I think Wil’s also imagining that with just a few easy, bad choices his life could have been much worse. He could have been Charlie Sheen without the money. The story made me happy for how well the author is doing today.

Book Review: “Wil Wheaton’s The Day After and Other Stories”

I’ve enjoyed Wil Wheaton’s writing at his blog, so when I heard he had about this short story collection and that it was only $2.99 in the Kindle eBook format – I grabbed it.

This collection is pretty short – really an afternoon’s reading only, but the price is right.

“The Language Barrier” is the weaker piece in this collection, but its still a good read. It asks an interesting question: can language BE a barrier?

Choose Yourself

JibberJobber Blog directs us to an inspiring piece by marketing guru Seth Godin, Reject the Tyranny of Being Picked: Pick Yourself.

Amanda Hocking is making a million dollars a year publishing her own work to the Kindle. No publisher.

Rebecca Black has reached more than 15,000,000 listeners, like it or not, without a record label.

Are we better off without gatekeepers? Well, it was gatekeepers that brought us the unforgettable lyrics of Terry Jacks in 1974, and it’s gatekeepers that are spending a fortune bringing out pop songs and books that don’t sell.

I’m not sure that this is even the right question. Whether or not
we’re better off, the fact is that the gatekeepers–the pickers–are
reeling, losing power and fading away. What are you going to do about
it?

I’ve written many times about the drivers that enable such magnificent achievements. It begins with de-industrialization, a process whereby capabilities that once belonged only to large companies or government entities are passing increasingly into the hands of individuals. Today anyone who wants to can record a single, produce a TV show, or become a radio talk show host. I referenced this process on last week’s Transparency Revolution (one of the two Internet radio shows for which I have picked myself to be host), which I’ll just share with you here in case you missed it:

I wrote not long ago about how automation has turned us all into our own travel agents, check-out clerks, and gas station attendants. The same wave of technology is now turning us all into our own gatekeepers. You see, a choose-yourself world isn’t all upside. As Seth points out, when there are no gatekeepers telling you “no,” what is your excuse for not telling yourself “yes?”

Face it: there is no excuse. That’s a scary proposition. If you never give it a try…well, there’s no one to blame but you. If you try, you might fail. But surely it’s better to fail spectacularly in a choose-yourself world than it is to live in frustrated “safety” in a world where the gatekeeper passed you by–especially if the gatekeeper is you.

(Cross-posted to Transparency Revolution with some organizationy stuff thrown in to make it a little more, you know work-like. Please leave comments on that version as I have closed them here. And thanks for the link, Glenn!)

FastForward Radio — BIL Recap

It’s been called the “poor man’s TED,” although it describes itself as “an
ad-hoc participant powered unconference.” It’s the BIL
conference — a series of fascinating talks about technology, society, and the future. The most recent BIL took place March 5-6 on the Queen Mary in
Long Beach, CA. A panel of four BIL insiders join us to discuss the
conference:

Simone Syed
Alexis Bright
Cody Marx Bailey
Reichart
Von Wolfsheild

Listen to internet radio with The Speculist on Blog Talk Radio

About Our Guests:

Image by inACtion via Flickr

Simone Syed identifies as a Bio-technoprogressive, Builder of Better Futures, Sustainable Emerging Technolust, Occasional Poet, Full-time Ingenue, Gardener Extraordinaire, Expertly Weird, EcoGeek and co-founder of BIL. Simone is a recent transplant from Tucson, Arizona, where she honed her skills in management and social architecture while practicing as a counselor for people suffering from substance disorders, running three car care enterprises, directing special event, chairing various clubs and organisations on and off campus, and generally finding herself the eye of well directed storms. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona with degrees in Evolutionary Biology and Cognitive Psychology. She was president of the H+ chapter at Tucson, co-organizer of SustainaBIL, a former grease monkey, avid climber, burner, and skeptic.

Image by glennharper via Flickr

Alexis Bright recently accepted a part time position with Voxer.com as office manager, because who doesn’t want to work for an awesome startup? It also helps to support her learning addiction. She enjoys learning about the effects of trauma and how to treat it, willpower, self-compassion, and meditation. Her long-term goal is to become a licensed psychotherapist. Currently she has a part-time psychotherapy internship working with trauma survivors. Her hobbies include training for the Tough Mudder run, coordinating events for friends, and spending time with loved ones. She is also a co-founder of BIL, a
founding member of Hike the Geek and lover of bacon.

Image via Wikipedia

Cody Marx Bailey is an advocate and leader in open source, free culture and distributed organizations. His focus on pragmatic approaches to solutions has lead to the creation of The Creative Space, the first coworking office in Texas. He is also a cofounder of the BIL Conference, an egalitarian run unconference held in Long Beach, CA. More recently, he has honed his sense of management and development towards entrepreneurship and culture. His involvement with the revitalizationof Downtown Bryan, TX has been instrumental in the economic, cultural and professional development. He has over a decade and a half of web development and electronic collaboration experience. Cody Marx Bailey began his career working for VA Linux Systems while in High School in South Texas. In his spare time, he is an avid gardener, learner and music producer.

Baron Reichart Von Wolfsheild is Chief Software Architect, CTO, and Co-founder of Qtask, where he specializes in complex platform software architecture, including accelerated cross-platform development, lossless compression technology, encryption, gambling systems, and multi-point real-time communication systems. He has played a key role in the conception and creation of a wide array of entertainment titles including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Die Hard, Walt Disney World Quest Magical Racing Tour, 102 Dalmatians, Matchbox Caterpillar Construction Zone, Caterpillar Gold Mining, Hot Wheels Crash, Shrek Fairy Tale Freak Down, and Shrek Swamp Kart Speedway among others. Plus he he designed and created the award winning Walt Disney Animation Studio, and the multi-million dollar original video game franchise Return Fire. In addition to lecturing at universities and speaking at industry conferences, Reichart has appeared in magazines such as Time, Life, and Business Week. He has made appearances on MTV, C-Net, and All Games Radio, and has been featured on ” Entertainment Tonight.” Von Wolfsheild is also a co-organizer BIL conference “The un-conference”, and a co-founder international www.HIKEtheGEEK.com.

Speculist Survey: What Sucks the Most?

On Saturday’s podcast I posited that the story of humanity is one of human beings confronting and, where possible, overcoming things that suck. Here’s the podcast to refresh your memory.

So what are the sucky things that humanity is working on overcoming now? What is the most likely to be fixed? What is the most urgent? And what is the suckiest of them all?

An End to War?

Over at I Look Forward To, Christian asks Matt Ridley and some dude with an extremely elongated head claiming to be me whether super-abundance might bring an end to war as we know it.

Plus: Matt gives his views on why the pessimistic outlook is so cherished.

[Link is fixed. Thanks, Sally!]

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