It's A Dream Come True

Finally, science has brought us monkey controlled robots.


Sweet.

This American Life

For those of you who haven't heard of This American Life, I would recommend checking it out. It is a radio program on NPR whose format could be described as "story telling". I subscribe to the podcast myself, and the shows are also available for download, or can be listed to online. If you're not sure where to start, check out the favorites section.

Let Your Children Grow Up To Be Geneticists

Synthetic life forms are coming back into the news as work is progressing on man-made bacteria. I've mentioned my thoughts on this type of technology before, but I recently came across a lecture that I thought was interesting about making modifications to DNA to change the way things work that seemed timely. Though not the same as synthetic life forms, modified life forms encompass many of the same possibilities and questions that wholly synthetic life forms do.


Programming DNA

Cyberwarfare

"We have information that cyberattacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the U.S.," Donahue said. "In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities."

This CIA statement at a recent SANS conference is the first official word I've heard of successful attacks against power grids. I wonder if it is related to the attacks on Estonia last year.

In a way I see these types of attacks as part of our transition to a Type I Civilization. I first heard about the civilization types from an interview of Michio Kaku. While the civilization types on the Kardashev scale refer specifically to harnessing energy, Michio Kaku describes it in a more general sense, where many aspects of society can be classified on this scale. This always made sense to me, our society is greatly affected by the technology available to us, which is directly dependent on the energy we have available. I highly recommend the article by Dr. Kaku, however, for those of you that want the short version, a Type I Civilization is a global civilization. We are currently a Type 0 or a pre-global civilization, but we are well on our way to Type I (we're about a 0.7).

If the internet could be called a Type I communication system, then these attacks utilizing the internet to target cities or nations could be called Type I attacks. Likewise, I think that The Pentagon's New Map as a way to transition from Type 0 security, to Type 1 security. Where Dr. Barnett may describe it as a transition from a disconnected society, to a connected society in the process of globalization, I see it as the first step necessary to insure our survival, something I've touched on before. I actually considered talking about the civilization types in my previous article, and I actually did end with that scalar progression.

If we get off this planet, then we can survive a global event. (Type II) If we spread beyond the solar system, we can survive the unfortunate star deaths that occur every now and then. (Type III) If we spread beyond the milky way, chances are pretty good that's we'll be around till the end of the universe, (Type IV) which will hopefully give us enough time to find a new one of those too (Type V).

Of course, we still need to make it to Type I.

2 Tons of Rodent

Forget the capybara, this is the real giant rat.

Capitalist Russia

Thomas Barnett pointed out a great article on Russia, and the position they've taken on the world stage. I've found myself captured by these kinds of articles lately while reading Dr. Barnett's book "The Pentagon's New Map". It turns out that he spoke about some of the topics in his book at Ted back in 2005.

You Smell Like Sad

Apparently, depressed people also have a depressed sense of smell, and end up slathering on the perfume and cologne. Feel free to make up your own "being in a funk" joke. Try not to be alarmed when your shrink begins sniffing you.

On the up side, depression leads to weight loss, and will likely be available in pill form at some point. I would recommend taking them in combination with the memory loss pills, then it's like a do-over.

I Wish I Could Make Up Stuff This Funny

Scientists who want to gain a better understanding of why the polar ice is receding, have designed the first ship capable of crushing ice in all directions, while simultaneously drilling a hole through millions of years worth of ice down to the sea floor. The captain of the ship had these words put in his mouth.

No one will question whether or not humans are responsible for the disappearance of the ice caps once we get done... with our research.

The ship will be named the Aurora Borealis, of course named after the pretty lights in sky that signify when cosmic death rays are injecting our atmosphere with vitamin cancer.

Pet the Dog

Some of the music I ask for over the holidays always seems to be hard to find. This year the problem CD seemed to be Paw, which I was kind of surprised of, since they're local. And really, how can you not love a grunge band from Lawrence, Kansas with refrains like:

I ran away, dog tagged along
I lost the dog, it broke my heart

Paw - Jessie
Yes, "Scratch my ear" indeed.