…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
- Music to read by. The “Tron: Legacy” score!
Daft Punk – Tron Soundtrack (Sampler) by Some Kind of Awesome
- Thomas Hoover’s 1992 novel “” now available for free download at Manybooks.net.
- Thanks a lot: The Fengyun satellite that China blew up in 2007 is the number one source of space debris.
- John Scalzi: “Just watched the new Clash of the Titan… what a terrible film.”
First rule of remakes – make it better… or don’t bother.
- The plot of Inception as an infographic.
Spoilers there… of course.
- Michael Anissimov on his FastForward Radio interview.
In response to a question about ethics, I replied that many of the speakers will touch on ethics, some talks can be interpreted as primarily about ethics/philosophy (like Eliezer’s talk), and that to say something coherent on ethics, people need to know about the technology first.
Here’s the FastForward Radio show.
- : David Keith talks about Geo-engineering to slow global warming.
Bottom line: we can fix global warming, and relatively cheaply, when we decide to do so.
- In the Future, We’ll All Wear Clothes Made by .
Experimental 3D printed clothes are already a reality. My prediction: you’ll start seeing them in your closet in 10 years. In 15 years your kids will be printing their own custom designs.
- Scifipop.com News: Blog – Porsche to Make a Plug-in Hybrid
All good news here: plug-ins are powered by environmentally friendly lithium ion batteries, electricity is far cheaper per mile than gas, and hybrids are a manageable first step to EV’s.
- Incredible pic of Martian crater… and an origin mystery:
A coincidental double impact? The author has a better theory.
- BoingBoing reports that the activities on the Wii are half as effective at burning calories as the real activities they’re modeled on.
Good news actually. Who expected Wii Tennis to be as good as the real thing? Nobody. And playing the Wii is still better than sitting on the couch.
- First molten-salt solar thermal power plant just opened in Sicily, capable of generating enough to power 5,000 homes.
Two innovations: this plant uses both photovoltaic and heat energy from the sun, so its more efficient. And, using that energy to melt salt allows continued power production after the sun goes down.
One of the biggest technical difficulties is the fact that salt is corrosive.
- Digitize your handwriting.