Other cool stuff:

1-Billionth Scale USS Enterprise

The more I study nature and biology, the more I see that anthropomorphism gets in the way of understanding animals as well. Certain birds, cats, dogs, and even rodents are intelligent, but thinking of their intelligence merely as inferior to humans is not the whole story. Different forms of intelligence have to be understood on their own terms — not through starting with an archetype of human intelligence and making incremental modifications to that archetype. That sort of thinking can lead to anchoring.

- Michael Anissimov

Read the whole thing on Michael’s blog.

Vanguard has some of my favorite reporting on global events and trends. This week they investigate robotic warriors, a subject which I have written about in the past. The only thing which was really news to me was the fully-automatic shotgun (3:20). Scary stuff.

The internet is a basket of wonderful things.

My favorite web tool, Google Reader, recently added a feature called Popular Items, which has opened up the best of the internet that I don’t actively follow. I am increasingly pleased with my ability effortlessly to coast on a wave of interesting items which trigger the quiet drip of pleasure chemicals deep within my skull. The trick now is to learn to reward myself with novelty, and not drown myself in it.

“We took a wrong turn when doctors stopped being doctors and became businessmen,”

This is the best piece of journalism I’ve seen in a while.

I suggest that everyone who is slightly interested in health-care read it. It’s eight pages, but well worth it.

Web Data:


* Huge number of volunteers for genome database

Telepathy:
* “Force Trainer” toy provides MRI for kids.
* Implant wires motor cortex to computer.

“Green” tech:
* “Mission One” electric motorcycle goes 150mph, with a 150-mile range and an optimum charge time of 2 hours.

I’ve been thinking about the future of currency this evening, and oh! I made a quick little simulation of the Fibonacci sequence the other day.

The following (including music) is entirely the product of computer algorithms; a.k.a. procedurally generated content:

We’re getting closer to good brain-interfaces:

I think that the above video is the equivalent of watching a tech demo of cell phones in the late 1980s. Give it 20 years and it’ll be everywhere, give it 40 years and it’ll be unthinkable to control a computer with something other than the brain.

Other things that have been exiting for me:
* Exoplanets
* Exoskeletons
* Netbooks (more)

Take note: The collision between cellphones and personal computers is happening. A good amount of resistance to adopting netbooks probably comes from PC gaming (it certainly does for me) and lack of good cloud-based applications. These problems are being solved though, and I anticipate a full integration by 2015.

EDIT: Oh! I forgot this one!