Ray Kurzweil is a guy I would love to sit down with, over a Guinness and just listen.

He is one of those guys that might just be mad enough to be right about things in the future.

You can read more at his site, kurzweilai.net

He is planning for The Singularity.

The technological singularity is the predicted imminent creation by technology of entities with greater than human intelligence.

This event is thought to be of major importance by its promoters because of the acceleration of technological progress that is likely to follow as a consequence.

Futurists give varying predictions as to the date, the cause, the consequences and even the likelihood of the event.

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Very interesting breakthrough recently that could allow us to use carbon dioxide as fuel.

Organic, carbon-based molecules generally have very strong bonds.  Carbon likes to hang on to its bonded atoms tighter than MJ’s grip on a 12-year-old, so cleaving such molecules is usually more work than it’s worth.

But scientists at Max Planck Institute have managed to do it with much less energy.  Increasing the energy yield could mean that eventually we can pull the very byproduct of our fossil fuel usage out of the atmosphere and use it, in turn, as fuel.

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Some guy is claiming to have invented a windmill that not only spins on much less wind than your average windfarm mill, but extracts water from the air

Inventor, Paul Muad’Dib

At this point it’s still just a “claim”.  There’s no evidence of it in action, or how it works.  However, the inventor seems reputable enough, so let’s keep our fingers crossed!

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After years of the collective wisdom telling us to get out of the sun lest we get cancer, new findings prove that the sun is now good for your skin.

Evidently, sunlight (I’m thinking specifically, UV light, although the article doesn’t say), triggers your body to send T-cells to the skin surface, thus removing damaged skin cells.  I, for one, am not surprised by these findings.  I enjoy a good light bronze color, so I lay out for brief periods in the summer and even hit the tanning beds for 10 minutes a month during winter to keep that tan.  And as you probably have all experienced, when you get a bit of sunlight (not enough to burn), ya just feel gooood.  You feel both relaxed and energized at the same time.  Must be those T-cells workin’!

So remember, kids!  Sunlight causes/prevents cancer!

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The minor snowstorm we experienced this weekend in KC got me thinking about snow.  So, I started tooling around the web to git me some lernin’ on it, and I came upon .  Some scientists have crunched the numbers and determined that perhaps two snowflakes can be alike.

Personally, the scientists’ “findings” really don’t interest me, but the article does have lots of links to other cool stuff about winter and weather.  If you’re liking the image above, be sure to go directly here to see some really cool snowflake images.  Truly amazing how beautifully Mother Nature organizes herself, eh?

Oh, and they have more than snowflakes on that site.  Here’s their Image Gallery directory.  Embrace your Inner Nerd!

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With all the talk of global warming, most people’s focus has turned to emissions from automobiles.  But an interesting new study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization shows that the biggest source of environmental destruction is our love of hamburgers.

UN Food & Agriculture Organization scientists

According to the study, our meat consumption is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, 20% of the total terrestrial animal biomass, and other cool and alarming stats.

I know where I’m putting my future investment dollars!  Mmmm…Petri meat…

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I love technology.  And being that I want to live 800 years, get a degree in Martian soil terraforming at the not-yet-founded University of Kick-Ass Shizzle, and go make Mars a livable planet as my 500 year “mid-life crisis” career switch, I obviously keep up on all the cool new medical breakthroughs.  Well, this past week has been a doozy.

First, Harvard published a study on the compound resveratrol, a chemical found in grapeskins.  This magic bullet not only increases lifespans in mice by 30%, it has now been found to counteract the effects of obesity and turn mice into super-athletic freaks of nature.  Normal mice can run one km before collapsing from exhaustion (what a fun experiment to be a part of, eh?  “Hey Bob!  Let’s see how far this mouse can run before his heart explodes!”).  Mice that received a high dose of resveratrol were able to run twice the distance.

And now I just read a report that scientists have successfully messed with a chicken (not in the rural Arkansas farmer sense) and coaxed it to regenerate a perfect wing.  We’ve long known that a select few animals can regrow missing or damaged limbs, but wondered what the mechanics at work were and whether “higher organisms” have that ability lying dormant in our genetic makeup somewhere.  Well, it seems we probably do.

Can you imagine the possibilities?  Did you just wake up with your arm under the pillow of some stranger that looked sooo much better last night when you were three sheets to the wind?  Well now you can just sever that appendage, make your getaway and grow a new one!  Are you a talented yet misunderstood artist who feels the only way to show your affection to a woman is to cut off your ear and send it to her?  Imagine how short-shrifted his third girlfriend felt.  Not anymore!

Endless possibilities around the corner, readers.  My only (well-justified, I might add) fear is that long before these technologies ever make it to humans, we accidentally let loose a super-race of bionic, immortal super-chickens and “X-Mice” who form an alliance and destroy humanity.  Uh huh, scoff at me now, but don’t come banging on my bomb shelter door when Earth has become an apocalyptic landscape of death and destruction at the hands (yes!  they have hands!) of our 8-foot tall chicken oppressors and I’m the only one on the block with arsenic-laced chicken feed.

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With the massive upward swing of the technology J-curve in our current age, it is increasingly difficult to determine what innovations are quaint little doodads, and which represent a revolutionary shift.  Only the future will tell, but I believe the Silent Aircraft Initiative (SAI) is birthing one of those revolutions: the SAX-40 blended-wing aircraft (quick design primer).

Since its beginning, most aircraft have followed the “winged tube” design.  It’ll get you from A to B, but has several design flaws that hinder fuel efficiency and make for a lot of noise.  The SAX-40 design (developed by a team of MIT and Cambridge engineers) reduces fuel usage by up to 35% and is purported to be 3000 times quieter than today’s airliners.

Keep your eye on this project.  I think this is the future of air travel.

– SAI official site

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The best channel in the world, Discovery Channel, just brought us the human-machine hybrid, Robo Sapien.

It was part of the Big Science programming the other night.

Truly amazing technology and a glimpse into the future.

It’s a long clip but worth the wait if you are into robotics and what the future will bring.

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The robot, Big Dog, isn’t really dancing, the title is a little misleading.

The way the legs on this robot move does look like two people bodyless people doing the quick step, even when it’s kicked.



Here is a little more on the Big Dog from Boston Dynamics:

The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth

BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog’s legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.

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