Pirate Bay Sunk!

It is a dark day for pirates everywhere. The much loved bit torrent tracker site ThePirateBay.org has been taken offline by the Swedish government. Swedish police raided several data centers run by Rix|Port80 in Sweden. They seized every pirate bay server, and even servers that had nothing to do with bit torrent tracking. Including those of Piratbyrån, a site set up to discuss the legality of The Pirate Bay in an open forum. The MPAA has issued a statement filled with the usual heavy handed rhetoric, self congratulatory back slapping, and veiled threats. In addition to the seized hardware, three arrests were made. It is unknown at this time which of the brave crewman of The Pirate Bay went down with the ship.

There are two things about this raid that make absolutely no sense. First, this will not stop or even hamper file sharing. It will simply make file shares move to another service. Just like they did with Napster, Grokster, Emule, Suprnova, etc. The sea giveth and the sea taketh away. File traders all know this, and wont miss a beat. Even the crew of The Pirate Bay are open about their future plans. “We are not sure when it will return, but we are moving it to another country if necessary,” said TPB spokesperson brokep. You might as well stop kids from burning bugs with magnifying glasses, by attacking the sun. The idiocy of the **AAs never ceases to amaze me. But this isn't the part that makes my brain hurt. There is one fact that the MPAA overlooked in it's stupefying press release...

Hosting bit torrent trackers in Sweden IS NOT ILLEGAL. The Pirate Bay has always stood by its legality, and made no qualms about exactly what goes on via their website. TPB is not an "underground" site. They operate openly and publicly respond to any allegations of illegality. Not only have the Swedish authorities overstepped themselves here, but they have done so at the behest, and in the pockets of the U.S. copyright mafia. The MPAA and RIAA have been lobbying for the removal of TPB for years. It must fill Swedish hearts with pride to watch their government kowtow to Mickey Mouse and Metallica. When the details of this raid are settled in court I have no doubt that the Swedish police will owe TPB a public apology and a large cash settlement. The seizure of torrent tracker servers is not legal under current Swedish law. We have a word for people who run roughshod over the law and take what they want from whom they want. We call them pirates. [via Slyck News ]


"Where ever there is sea, there are pirates." - Greek Proverb


P.S. If you are in Sweden and want to get involved with the copyright/piracy debate politically, check out The Pirate Party . They have many sensible views on copyright, and are making a bid for seats in the Swedish parliament. Memepunks will cover TPP in more depth in the near future.

Emerging Pills Free Us From Sleep

The circadian rhythms of life have changed since our grandparent's era. Humanity is steadily moving to a real 24 hour a day society. People telecommute across time zones, work the graveyard shift, have two jobs, work and go to school, or end a full day with a full night life. As a result many suffer from sleep deprivation. One popular solution to sleep-dep is to medicate it, by imbibing stimulant pills or maintaining a steady caffeine drip to remain wakeful. This often leads to the use of sedatives when the rare opportunity for sleep does come around. Old world stimulants and sedatives can have an number of unfortunate side effects, long term health issues, and many are addictive.

Enter the first of a new generation of eugeroics, or wakefulness drugs, Modafinil. Developed by Cephalon as a treatment for narcolepsy and other sleep disorders, Modafinil has become a tool for those who simply want to get more out of each day. Modafinil isn't a common stimulant, and exactly how it works is still unknown. What is known is that by taking Modafinil you can remain functional and fatigue free for days, on as little as 4 hours sleep. And Modafinil comes without the jittery, manic, wired state that accompanies typical stimulants. It also lacks the post stimulant crash. In fact, people taking Modafinil are rarely aware that the drug has any effects what so ever. They simply don't get tired or fatigued when they should, even after several days with little sleep.

But Modafinil which has already been on the books for nearly seven years is soon to be outpaced by even more recently developed revolutionary wakefulness drugs. Invented by Dr. Gary Lynch and produced by Cortex Pharmaceuticles, CX717 is the newest ampakine on the block. This drug appears to be an order of magnitude more powerful than even the nearly perfect Modafinil. Ampakines like CX717 act on the neurotransmitters in your brain. Originaly designed to increase memory and mental acuity, it was later found to have a profound effect on sleep deprivation. In studies involving rhesus monkeys and small scale human trials, CX717 has been shown to increase cognitive function and memory beyond typical levels. But when administered in a state of sleeplessness, say after being up for 36 hours straight, not only did CX717 remove the effects of fatigue, it also continued to increase brain function.

A pill that not only lets you stay awake for days, but makes you smarter while under it's influence. Needless to say, the military is highly interested in CX717 and is funding a series of studies to test the drugs effectiveness further. Still, this is the tip of the iceberg. Companies like Cortex and Cephalon have whole untapped lines of new designer wakefulness and cognitive enhancing drugs that have yet to be made public. Drugs that increase the amount of effective sleep you get per hour of actual sleep are also in development. Almost all sleep researchers agree that we are not far from a time when you will be able to pop a pill of choice, and choose the amount of sleep versus wakefulness you want for any given 24 hour period.

Neil Stanley, head of sleep research at the Human Psychopharmacology Research Unit in the University of Surrey, UK predicts you could soon have pill that combines a new generation sedative with a new generation eugeroic designed to give you a precise number of hours' sleep. "It is possible that pharmaceuticals will allow you a condensed dose of sleep, and we are not that far away from having drugs that put you to sleep for a certain length of time. A 4, 5 or 6-hour pill." Changing our "sleep architecture" on demand in a regular and sustainable way.

Not all researchers agree as to whether or not this would be a positive thing, some worry about long term health effects and people overdoing it. But science marches on, and the demand for products with the power over sleep is coming from more than just the military. "At first I got it from a friend, and then I got diagnosed as a narcoleptic online," says a regular user of one of the new eugeroics. These pharmaceuticals are fast becoming a part of the long hour lifestyles of many hard working, hard playing members of our society. And just wait until CX717 hits your local pharmacist. A pill that makes you smarter and more awake will sweep the university campuses like wild fire come exam time. And no doubt a small bottle of the stuff will accompany the majority of business travelers to help them fight off jet lag soul delay, and be just that much sharper during their meetings.

I am all for better living though chemistry, so long as it is good chemistry. And these new eugeroics seem leaps and bounds beyond yesterdays stimulant-sedative cocktails. So, if there happens to be a doctor in the house that is willing to diagnose my obvious narcolepsy, I will be happy to play human test subject for any of the new wakefulness drugs. As a frequent late night blogger that gets by on a minimum amount of sleep as it is, I would welcome a crack at being smarter and more awake at 4am on a given Monday. Case in point, this story would have been posted twelve hours ago. [via Plausible Futures]



"I am an agent-provocateur in the Eastern Standard Tribe, though I’ve spent most of my life in GMT-9 and at various latitudes of Zulu, which means that my poor pineal gland has all but forgotten how to do its job without that I drown it in melatonin precursors and treat it to multi-hour nine-kilolumen sessions in the glare of my travel lantern." - Art - Eastern Standard Tribe

High Tech High Tops and Hooker Heels

Not since agent 86 took a call from the chief have shoes been this far up the tech tree. In a trend we at Memepunks can honestly claim to have not seen coming, it appears the latest place for innovative gadgets is on the bottoms of your feet. Whether you think they are funny, strange, or the greatest thing since Velcro laces, we've got three pairs of cutting edge foot-ware for your perusal.

The first is the Code M from Dada Footwear. Code M's electronic offerings are fairly straight forward. The shoes contain a 128Mb Mp3 player, a USB port, and a rechargeable battery. The controls for the MP3 player are on the tongue of the right shoe. The shoes communicate with a wireless headset to give you your music on the go. As an added bonus, each shoe has built in speakers so you can share the musical wealth. Now I'm not sure what the advantage is of having an Mp3 player in your shoe, as opposed to say, your pocket. And I am at a loss to come up with a really killer app for Dada's Code M. I suppose skaters and ballers can now flaunt their own theme music while showing off their skills. If you are into the competitive street dance scene, you could dish out the servings without a member of your posse having to lug around one of those bulky boom boxes.

Dada sees much more on the horizon for shoe gadgetry. "After we successfully introduce our music platform, the possibilities are almost unlimited. Our ‘get-fit’ program will provide access to workout-related data, possibly delivered by a personal trainer’s voice. Our ‘get-smart’ program will allow users to forward phone calls from a cell phone to the Code M headset. In the future, GPS devices, navigational systems, and the incorporation of an LED display will give us the ability to stream video and enter the ‘game’ market." Says CEO Lavetta Willis. Since this is all precluded on the successful introduction of their music platform, it remains to be seen if any of these other innovations will materialize.

But one company isn't waiting on work out related data being streamed from your sneakers. Nike recently debuted the Nike+ electronic insert for their running shoes. The inserts contain accelerometer sensors, which measure your speed and calculate distance traveled. From there the shoes communicate with your iPod nano using built in wireless transmitters. With the addition of special software for your nano, you'll hear progress reports over your headphones while listening your favorite remix of Gonna Fly Now. Later you can synchronize your iPod with your computer for a more detailed analysis of your workout.

This actually sounds like a useful although niche application. I'm sure there is a sizable group of people that are both runners/joggers and iPod nano owners. And something like this could overlap information technology with the shoes and mp3 players these people would be toting anyway. Not to mention the WiFi iPod interface is something that could have all sorts of alternative applications. Guided walking city tours or museum exhibits, an add on for something like dodgeball, reality gaming, scavenger hunts, etc. At that point it only comes down to software, networks and imagination.

Speaking of networks, we've saved the best for last. The newest technology is of course reserved for the worlds oldest profession. The Aphrodite Project unveiled their concept for the latest in working girl wear. Called Platforms, these prototype sandals come with all sorts of functionality and safety gear. They feature a panic button which when pressed emits an ear peircing alarm to discourage attackers. The sandals are tracked via GPS and at any point a silent alarm can be triggered that sends an alert to law enforcement or sex worker's rights groups. The shoes also use a dead man's timer with a cellular e911 service for situations when no alarms can be triggered.

The shoes have integrated LCD panels and speakers which can display video, or play downloaded "heel tones". There is also a web component that works along side the Platforms, "that will provide sex workers with a basic email client, calendar, problem client blog, chat rooms and an area for downloading audio and video for the shoes. There will also be a link on the website to track the user's shoes... Workers can also track customers, set up appointments, create schedules, and access health and other resources." The website will use secure logins and maintain stringent information security. Have a look at the flickr stream for some more pics of these revolutionary kicks.

So, are shoes the next big emerging computing platform? I don't think so. But there is no reason to think they wont be integrated into the personal networks of miniature computers we carry around with us every day; wristwatches, cell phones, PDAs, headsets, glasses, mp3 players, etc. And they provide a couple of unique benefits. You can cram much more hardware into a pair of Doc Martens than you can into your Timex. Accelerometers would provide excellent augmentative information to anything that uses GPS or other location technology. And a good pair of techno-shoes would charge themselves through the motions of walking, using Faraday principles or piezoelectric crystals to keep their batteries juiced.

There are a variety of particular groups where a networked shoe could provide added safety or functionality; EMTs, fire fighters, law enforcement, hikers, climbers, young children with roaming tendencies, etc. And while the compu-shoe will never replace the cell phone, it's possible that some upcoming personal mobile computing apps could just come from the ground up. Eventually even Foot Locker might be outsourcing tech support. [via TechEBlog, Cool Hunting, and Boing Boing]



“Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?” - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

Memepunks on Parade

We have some exciting news from across the interwebs. The blog Meme Therapy has invited us to participate in some of their upcoming Brain Parades. Meme Therapy is a blog that looks at "life from a science fiction point of view". They periodically host a Brain Parade, Where they put interesting questions to scientists, authors and other exceptional minds. Their questions involve technology, space travel, the future, or science fiction. And they present the answers of all the participants comprehensively. Memepunks is honored to join the ranks of Larry Niven, Alan Bond, Rudy Rucker, John Baez, Paul DiFilipo, Greg Bear, and the rest. We will let you know when the next Brain Parade comes to town, but until then feel free to check out the rest of Meme Therapy's offerings. And hopefully we'll see you at the parade! (Memepunks will be the ones throwing candy and Mardi Gras beads)

Google A.I. a Twinkle in Larry Page's Eye

This week Google hosted a European conference called Zeitgeist '06. It was held in London, giving Google CEO Eric Schmidt and founder Larry Page a chance to talk with and answer the questions of Europe's technorati. You can see a Q and A segment here. It runs about half an hour long and provides some interesting insight into Google. Eric even mentions the Space Elevator! But the most remarkable statements came from Larry Page himself. He spoke to the future of search, a future which contains a Google AI.

"People always make the assumption that we're done with search. That's very far from the case. We're probably only 5 percent of the way there. We want to create the ultimate search engine that can understand anything ... some people could call that artificial intelligence."

Larry's remarks didn't end there. He hinted that such things were already afoot at Google. He refused to predict when Google would achieve their goal of an AI, but he did say that "a lot of our systems already use learning techniques".

Larry noted how powerful an AI powered search engine would be. "The ultimate search engine would understand everything in the world. It would understand everything that you asked it and give you back the exact right thing instantly," saying, "You could ask 'what should I ask Larry?' and it would tell you."

He finished his AI thoughts on a promising note. Explaining that he has learned that technology has a tendency to change faster than expected, and that an AI could be a reality in just a few years. Those are very strong words coming from the mouth of one of the founders of a company with the wealth and vision of Google. Words to mark in the years ahead.

Before I continue I must admit to being entirely too fond of Google. I use their services constantly throughout the day. For search, email, chat, translation, news and maps. Case in point, this blog is hosted on Google's Blogger, and all of our posts are first prepared in writely. For me, a day without Google is like a day without sunshine.

That being said, I think Google is a different kind of company. They are a collection of thousands of great minds. Google's goal is the collection, organization and dissemination of all of the information possessed by mankind. You don't get much more ambitious than that. And with few debatable exceptions, they have stood by their motto of "Don't be Evil." One of their latest projects is a digital library of Alexandria. They plan to scan and index every book. Google has consistently been at the forefront of Web 2.0. Their offerings have a tendency to work both smarter and harder than that of the competition.

If any currently existing company has the were-with-all to bring us a functional AI, it is the brain trust at Google. In fact, futurist George Dyson has theorized that Google may already be home to a budding AI. "For 30 years I have been wondering, what indication of its existence might we expect from a true AI? ... Anomalous accumulation or creation of wealth might be a sign, or an unquenchable thirst for raw information, storage space, and processing cycles". Sound familiar?

Regardless of whether or not Google is currently housing an Artificial Intelligence, I don't doubt that sometime soon they will be. Let us put aside our foolish knee jerk skynet fears and think for a moment of what the future will be like in the presence of that much knowledge and information. The development of an AI will parallel the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel, or the creation of the scientific method. Something that will change the very nature of the world. That's a lot of responsibility for any one to bear. But I cant think of a group more up to the task than Google. We at Memepunks would like to officially reserve our spots on the waiting list for Gmind beta, but they already know that. [inspired by the Guardian and Kazinform]


"In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children. Rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates." - Alan Turing

Weekly Robot Update 007

I would like to introduce you to a unique class of being. To date, all of the other weekly robot updates have covered real forged steel and molded plastic autonomous machines. But today's robot has no mortal coil to speak of. It lives inside of computers and PDAs. It is the little brother of NEC's PaPeRo. It's name is PaPeRo CG, and it is this weeks robot.

First a few words about it's big brother PaPeRo. Developed in 2001 by NEC, the same company that brought us the carbon nanotube, PAPeRo is a cute little entertainment and house bot. The latest version of PaPeRo is 38 centimeters tall and weighs just five kilograms. He has a child like human sounding voice with a 3000 word vocabulary. And he can understand over 1000 words spoken to him. PaPeRo can read written words, have a conversation, get emails, act as a remote for your entertainment center, make jokes, and even tell your fortune. He uses a multitude of colored LED lights to portray emotions and facial expressions.

Inside of PaPeRo is a Pentium M 1.6 Ghz processor, a half a Gig of ram, and a 40 gigabyte HDD. The little robot also comes complete with 8 microphones, 2 stereo CCD cameras for eyes and a cluster of USB ports and PC card slots. PaPeRo gets around on three small wheels. He is capable of some autonomous behaviors, including keeping himself busy when being ignored by rolling around, dancing, or surfing the Internet through his WiFi modem. PaPeRo can recognize faces and adapt to individual owners. His personality will then change accordingly. Have a look at some pictures of PaPeRo... Please watch the five minute video. Cutest... Robot... Ever...

But the latest enhancement to PaPeRo has nothing to do with hardware upgrades or new talents. Instead, PaPeRo has been given a new home. NEC has developed PaPeRo CG software. You can install the software on any computer or PDA, and PaPeRo will then be resident on that device. He behaves following the same constraints as his real world counterpart. Infact, PaPeRo CG isn't really a copy of the physical PaPeRo, but more of an extension of his being. Any interactions you have with one, carry over seamlessly to the other. While his inert shell sits at home, you can now take PaPeRo anywhere you have a computer.

The real reason behind the robot's creation is to study how people and robots interact. For instance, whenever multiple PaPeRos get together, they find all sorts of interesting things to talk about. With PaPeRo CG, NEC has taken this concept to the next level. They have done this by modding their RoboStudio software (the brains behind PaPeRo) to work in any computing environment. Initialy this will just be a new way for you to interact with PaPeRo, while at the office or on the go. But NEC eventually hopes that PaPeRo CG will lead to a whole new kind of interface with all of our devices.

Imagine if you had your own robot, with an endearing adaptive personality that it learned growing up in your care. Now imagine if the soul of that robot also lived in your car, your house, your television, computer, cell phone, etc. No more stereo instruction manuals or discouraging learning curves for new gadgets. It will be possible to interact with any of your devices the way you interact with your robot. In addition to getting around confusing menu options and arcane programing commands, a friendly smiling resident robot could expose even the very old and the very young to technologies that would otherwise be beyond them.

PaPeRo CG is the first of what will at some point be ubiquitous. Eventually "agents" like these will pervade our daily lives, with many of our devices becoming little more than extensions to one permeating consciousness. At that point any barriers of entry will vanish. Interoperability will be a snap. This stands to change the very way we interact with the devices around us. Sure we'll still have the option of user unfriendly interfaces and remote controls. But who would want to do that when you could just ask your friend that lives in all of your machines, how far to the next gas station, or if there is anything on TV worth watching. I'm going to take a page from PaPeRo's book, and predict the future. This is the very beginning of a trend that like PaPeRo CG... Will eventually be everywhere. [inspired by Gizmodo]


"Greetings, Programs!" - Kevin Flynn


P.S. Happy Towel Day!

Poetic Verse, Spambot Style.

Not long ago Spam filters started getting smarter. The would use Bayesian filtering to discern what was spam and what wasn't based on the words and context of a given email. Once Bayesian filtering caught on, an arms race of sorts began. The spambots produced more and more eclectic content, in an attempt to get past the filters. Most of the time this manifests as not so clever formatting of words, like the infamous V1@gra. Sometimes the spam contains randomly generated bits of text that actually come off as poetry or prose. I used to joke that eventually we'd start saving the haiku like spam on it's artistic merits alone. Recently I've gotten a few that have come close to keepers. And then just the other day I received this one.

It's called "Corel Draw", by a spambot named Jackson Turner aka ellentsssjjj@greatcallcenter.com. Enjoy! (I broke this one up into stanzas, but the rest of the formatting and content is unchanged.)

In a puddle without stared the think 
of never grew Mother Black stand 
while the clouds told up the clean
The air was dense with bucket excitement 

The staff howled through the long stirring 
and happened and mention in the wizard
of the morning The chime of the Even bell 
flowed out distance the tell The ordinary notes

the holy sword size with the shape like 
practiced angels with shone At looked the imps 
of brightly lay vanquished. The down paused 
in its boards to do reverence to brought.
 
Suddenly, however a terrific clap of thunder smote 
the sky The holy chime of the bell broke 
off with a shrill dissonance Demons seemed 
to people the belfry Rain came down like 
cataract Flashes of lightning chased one another like 
battling fiery dragons. The bells jangled hideously 
out of tune Unearthly noises like a satanic 
parody of the holy sound that marks the elevation 
of the host alarmed the ears the horrified monks
 
unspeakable blasphemies Prayer with ceremony and interspersed 
midst of a sacred had suddenly gone mad in the 
if a High Priest Trembling but resolute Father Ambrose 
seized a crucifix In phalanx if for battle
 
the brethren followed Solemn, with gleaming eyes and trembling
nostrils, the militant army of God swept up steep 
stairs mumbling the ritual of the Exorcism Infected somewhat 
by the general hysteria Aubrey followed


For more computer generated poetry, check the spam folder of your gmail box.  

WEB 2.0 Prosper: Peer-2-Peer Money Lending

In the fall of last year, Tim O'Reilly wrote an article that quantified an emerging Internet trend, that had come to be known as Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a neologism that denotes a new kind of Internet. In the months that followed O'reilly's article, the Web 2.0 meme has exploded. It is so popular now, that some entities use it as a buzzword for clever market-speak, the way many chemical companies will put the word "nano" on anything to increase it's mind share. This has lead to confusion, misnomers, and deliberate misdirection. So what exactly is Web 2.0?

It's a combination of both new technologies and new philosophies. The technology is a collection of Ajax, CSS, RSS feeds, etc. Anything that provides enhanced interactivity or functionality. But more important is the philosophy. Web 2.0 stops differentiating between a website and a software application. The website actually becomes the application. It puts static web pages behind us and replaces them with user driven, powerful, malleable, dynamic tools. Be they for checking your email, getting directions, writing a document, sharing photos, scheduling events, funding a start up, or making friends. Web 2.0 harnesses collective intelligence. The more active users involved with any given project, the more powerful it should become. Think Ebay feedback, Amazon reviews, or Wikipedia entries.

Web 2.0 includes blogs and wikis, social networking, user feedback, shared resources and a million kinds of collaboration. Have a look at the hundreds of Web 2.0 sites that are thriving on the world wild web. Rather than try and name and number the deluge of Web 2.0 goodness, Memepunks is going to try something a little more manageable. We are going to bring you a semi regular piece on Web 2.0. We'll either be drawing your attention to someplace on line that embodies the Web 2.0 meme, or presenting some interesting ideas of our own. As always, feel free to collaborate. if you have a particular favorite or especially useful Web 2.0 site, shoot us a Gmail or leave a comment. And we'll see about posting it here in the future. So now, without further ado, the first installment of Web 2.0 Memepunks style.



Financial institutions are as time honored as they are soulless. More people than ever are caught up in cycles of debt. Their fates are decided by a hand full of credit reporting agencies; Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. The big three hold the keys to the kingdom, using an opaque algorithm, they have full say over your given credit score. This determines your ability to get loans or credit cards, and the interest rate on any you do get. Many credit cards have interest rates that swell dramatically after just a few months of use. For some, their credit is so high risk, that they have to operate outside of the system. They use payday loan centers. Places that advance you money for short periods of time at interest rates that would make the mafia blush. All of this often leads to people being perpetually buried under increasing mountains of debt.

There is an alternative option growing on the net. In a combination of finance and Web 2.0 sensibilities, you can now participate in Peer-to-Peer money lending. The first site to provide a P2P lending system is Prosper. P2P lending echos its Napster and Bit Torrent ancestry. When you apply for a loan from Prosper, you aren't asking for money from a particular credit company. Instead, it's other Prosper users that supply the cash. Your loan is placed in the open, like an ebay auction, and individual lenders bid on covering portions of it. If you are requesting $5000 for instance, your loan might be covered by by 100 different individuals, each bidding for fifty dollars of it. The interest rate is also arrived at as part of the bidding process. This minimizes the risk to the lenders, because the amount the front can be minimal. It also increases the chances of the borrower to get a loan. Some one is much more like to loan you $100 than $10,000. (Prosper collects 1% of the loan upfront from the borrower, and .5% from the lenders annually)

Prosper still takes into account your credit score, and your debt to income ratio. But in addition to that, both lenders and borrowers can open a dialog for questions and explanations. Perhaps the numbers say that you are unemployed, with high debt. What they don't say is that your debt is all from student loans, you just graduated from MIT, and have a 60k a year chemical engineering job lined up and waiting. All of this can be brought to the table through Prosper. The dialog also goes both ways. Lenders can call obvious trouble borrowers out on to the digital carpet in a much more open way than conventional lending institutions. Prosper even utilizes groups. Those seeking loans can try to join groups with common interests. Groups often have a good reputation for repaying loans, and that reputation reflects onto their members. However any late payments by members reflect negatively on all group members. So groups provide additional incentive and support to fulfill your obligations.

What I like about Prosper is that it moves the money out of the trillion dollar debt machine, and returns it to an exchange between people. And it does it in a way that is open, transparent, and available to all. Yet another new meme that would be next to impossible without widespread connectivity and information access. Keep in mind that Prosper may be the first horse out of the shoot, but it's not the only one in the race. More P2P lenders will be arriving on the scene soon. Wielding even more collective user power to make an end run around the existing credit systems. Idon't know which if any of them will thrive and become the next Ebay. But I'll bet real money that more than one of them will prosper. [via Boing Boing. See the BB link for the originating Salon article without the pesky day pass.]

"There is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants first wire up its innumerable parts to make one large Machine. Later that Machine may run faster, but there is only one time when it is born. You and I are alive at this moment." - Kevin Kelly

Review: The DaVinci Code

Review: The Davinci Code


As previously mentioned here on memepunks, The Davinci Code movie was released this weekend to fairly sedate reviews. Roger Ebert lambasted Dan Browns book at the same time kissing Ron Howards ass for the movie , giving it 3 stars. Other critics weren't as nice. This is the response I would expect, although despise, from a "famous" film critic. It seems to me, once a film critic reaches the point they realize people listen to them, they stop providing the information and reviews people need and give them what they want. I direct you to a case in point with his review of "Over The Hedge" (also reviewed by memepunks ).

"But the action scenes are fun, the characters are well-drawn and voiced, and I thought the film's visual look was sort of lovely."

Ohh thats sweet, thanks Roger. Someone needs to remind him that "well-drawn" went out with The Little Mermaid. Sort of lovely. Not lovely, not unlovely.. but sort of lovely. Woo Hoo, don't start pulling your punches now Roger. Or maybe I'm just too cynical. Enough rambling about Mr. Ebert, this is a MEMEPUNKS REVIEW!!!!!!

So anyways, this book was written a few years ago, perhaps you've heard of it . ( I always want to immediately draw the line to Harry Potter but I refuse to do that this time... wait.... OHHH DAMN IT!!!!)

If you don't know the basic plot and premise of the book and "story" you can check it here or here or even here . I won't waste your valuable time rehashing things Fox News has already beaten to death.

But, I must break into this FILM review with my feelings on the NOVEL. I enjoyed the book. I make no apologies about that. Suspense, intrigue, great foreign locals, and Fibinacci numbers! Seriously, who couldn't enjoy this book? This book has stirred up a cauldron of controversy with its portrayal of Christianity and the Catholic Church specifically. The zealots are up in arms because they claim the book masquerades as fact. Where they see "lies" I see well researched fiction. But, to the zealots credit, we wouldn't have gotten a great movie without them.

The Good
Ron Howard did a good job with the direction, style, and look of the film. I was sold with every locale presented. While Vegas is my vacation destination of choice, a trip to some of the churches in this movie, or even similar ones now ranks on my "To Do before I Die" list. I am also happy with how true they stayed to the story. One of the reasons I think a lot of reviews frowned on this movie was because they had all read the book. They knew what was coming, there was no "I see Dead People" twist that we almost expect from modern Hollywood. But at the same time, when the big "reveal" did come, I was just as overwhelmed as when I read it. Tom Hanks was good as Langdon but he is also one of those bulletproof Hollywood names that can do no wrong. I had a picture of Langdon in my mind from the book and while Hanks filled most of that image, there were a few shortcomings that I'll discuss later. Perhaps the best character was Fache, played by the exceptional Jean Reno . In the casting of my mind, he was the perfect fit and he didn't disappoint. While his role was small, Reno played it well.


The Bad
Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu was a terrible casting choice. At no time did I believe she was the genius cryptologist she was supposed to be. Remember how I mentioned the big reveal moved me? It had zero to do with her character. Hanks as Langdon pulled that one all by himself. Instead of a pivotal character, she seemed to be drug along through the entire film for that single moment. I am not sure where the fault lies with my next problem, but Hanks never came off as the troubled and questioning Langdon. Maybe it was the Hanks bulletproof mystique, or maybe it was the script, but his few moments of weakness were awkward and not nearly as endearing to the character as I would have liked.

The Ugly
The zealot protesters outside the theater where I saw this movie. Carrying signs that screamed "SINNER" and "DAN BROWN IS GOING TO HELL", these people put on fake smiles and tried to impose their beliefs and will upon us. I don't go to their church, they don't come to my poker nights. We share common areas such as restaurants and movie theaters, but I don't want their bullshit fiction pushed into my face when I'm going to watch a movie that KILLS GOD!!!! (I'm kidding here, I agree with them that the DaVinci Code is fiction, but where we disagree is I also think their story book is fiction too) And these jerks had the balls to put fliers about the sins of man and this movie into the hands of little kids to hand out to us. Kids too young to see the movie or understand the book, too young to make their own informed decisions about God. THE ARROGANCE OF THESE PEOPLE! When questioned, these people had not read the book or seen the movie yet they can make sweeping generalizations about it? Give me a break. But, thanks to them and their kind, The Davinci Code did 224 million its opening weekend.


This movie gets 4 memestars for staying true to a great story and not cow towing to the heavy hand of the cultural insurgents.





"Oh, my shrink was right! God does hate me! " - Jay Sherman

Perfect Cure for Cancer Found In Mice

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have beaten the Big C, but only in laboratory mice. The cure is 100% effective, regardless of the cancer's aggressiveness, location, or type. The story behind this miracle cure is one that began in 1999. Dr. Zheng Cui was running an experiment that involved deliberately giving cancer to mice. When one of his lab assistants noted that a single mouse failed to get cancer, Dr. Cui assumed some sort of procedural error. He ordered that the mouse be reinfected with cancer cells. Still no tumors developed. The process was retried, with a total of five recorded cancer injections. But the mouse refused to play along. It remained perfectly healthy despite their best efforts.

Dr. Cui and his team had serendipitously discovered a single mouse that was completely immune to cancer. To determine if the immunity was genetic, they bred the mouse. Over 40% of its offspring inherited the same cancer immunity. Somehow, the immune systems of the mice were perfect cancer killers. They tried multiple cancers on the newly bred mice. A myriad of cancer strains, locations and severity were introduced in an attempt to find some form of cancer the mice couldn't defeat, but the mice were having none of it. The white blood cells of the mice would hunt down and destroy any instance of cancer by surrounding the tumor cells and causing them to rupture. The researchers now believe that there are specific family lines of mice that are genetically invulnerable to cancer.

That is only the beginning of this remarkable story. In 2003 Dr. Cui along with Dr. Mark Willingham explored what effect the white blood cells of the cancer beating mice would have in normal mice. They gave aggressive cancers and massive tumors to scores of ordinary mice, and then injected them with white blood cells from their immune cousins. All of the mice were completely cured. Monstrous tumors disappeared over night, system wide cancers vanished. And interestingly, the mice, one cured, were then immune to any further introduced cancers. Their own white blood cells now behave as cancer killers. They have since developed a test for cancer immunity. By simply placing white blood cells in a controlled environment with cancer cells, the blood cells will attack and destroy the tumor. But the researcher's work is just beginning.

In order to allow other scientists to verify their findings, Cui's team began a breeding program. Initialy, replication of these findings outside the lab were not possible, as scientists were limited to working with a small number of mice that are the direct descendants of the original cancer killing mouse. However, since then they have bred over 3000 mice and have already begun giving them out to other labs across the country, including the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, the University of Michigan and Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Cui doubts that it will take much time for outside researchers to make a verification. "It's rather simple to show whether we are right. Give them the white blood cells, and they are either dead or alive. A live mouse is a live mouse."

But a human application for this find might still be years away. Scientists are faced with the very difficult task of locating the particular genes that transmit this trait from parent to offspring. And it is unknown whether that same gene will be prevalent in humans. They also hope to understand the molecular process that makes the white blood cells such perfect cancer killers. So that even if no genetic solution is found, they can find a way to mimic the behavior using drug treatments. They may even be able to "boost" existing human white blood cells, turning them into cancer killers. It may be some time before any non mice can reap the benefits of this discovery, but this is by far the most comprehensive and effective cancer cure that has ever been seen.

It has been noted that there are some people that have a seeming immunity to cancer. I think it might be time to start mass testing blood donor's white cells to see if there are any humans that have this same super white cell trait. And from there a comprehensive genetic analysis of anyone that has this could find the genes they have in common. It would take a whole infrastructure and lots of DNA number crunching, but eventually we just might zero in on our own anti-cancer gene, and put this terrible disease to bed once and for all. White blood cells could be cloned with the new gene in place and anyone could have any cancer cured, despite it's severity, with a single shot in the arm. Some one tell the fat lady to start warming up for her solo. [via LA Times. More info Here]



“Synergy and serendipity often play a big part in medical and scientific advances.” - Julie Bishop

A Day at the Faire

In the last Weekly Robot Update I mentioned the Maker Faire. Dan Huard and Kevin Rose, TechTV alumni and thebroken hosts, have released the latest episode of their great video podcast show Systm. For some reason, Digg founder Kevin Rose is no where to be seen in this episode. His shoes are temporarily filled with the feet of another TechTV alumni, TWiT and DLTV host Patrick Norton. Dan and Patrick take to the floor of the Maker Faire for Systm #6. Thier encounters run the gambit; Implanted RFIDs, Anachronists, Thimble Musicians, Prius Hackers, and more. They learn the dirty secrets of the Geek Squad and explore the future of software radio.

All that and lots of fire too! If you are at all into the DIY movement give this episode a download. Also check out ggee's Creative Commons licensed flickr stream. Where I found the above photo of Patrick happily firing a man portable do-it-yourself flamethrower. I am happy to see the maker movement gaining momentum everyday. It hearkens back to that time decades ago, when lots of kids had chemistry sets or model rockets, and there was a always project brewing in the family garage. Pass the solder gun, it's time to void the warranty.


"We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers. We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner, holographic demons and invocations of equations. These are the tools we employ and we know many things." - Elric the Technomage

P.S. There is plenty of other interesting content from the Revision 3 folks as well. Shop around, you may find something you like.

Algae Turns Green House Gas Into Fuel

The minds at GreenFuel Technologies have come up with an interesting solution to CO2 emissions. They call it E2B or "emissions to biofuels". The process depends on a unique Bioreactor. Esentialy, a bioreactor is a container of small organisms, in this case algae, which carries out a chemical process. Bioreactors aren't new, but this particular design and use for them is. GreenFuel has devised a method to connect a large volume bioreactor directly to the smoke stacks of fossil fuel burning power plants. The CO2 is pumped out of the plant and into the waiting algae tanks. In the presence of light, the algae consumes the carbon dioxide to use for energy. Just like your typical house plant, but on an industrial scale. The newly energized algae can then be harvested and turned into ethanol, biodiesel, methane, or solid fuel. GreenFuel estimates that for every two tons of algae you can absorb one ton of CO2 gas.

This is a win/win situation for our fossil fuel power plants. Fossil fuel plants give off nearly 40% of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. If this process is scalable to the entire country, it would mean the removal of billions of tons of CO2, and also a great boon to our fuel supply. Power plants will reduce or even eliminate their green house gas emissions. They cound trade them in for useful and clean fuels. This would generate additional income from the selling off of biodiesel, and they could trade on their emissions credits and get tax subsidies. Factories would become cleaner, leaner and more profitable.

Last month GreenFuel finished raising over $18 million in capital, and now they are putting their tested theories into commercial practice. The state of New York, NRG Energy, and GreenFuel will be working together to install a working prototype of the E2B bioreactor at one of NRG's plants in Dunkirk, NY. The bioreactors are designed to be able to be retrofitted to existing plants with minimal effort and expenditure. The test program will continue through the end of the year. And if it is successful, more roll outs will follow. Soon more of our smoke stacks will start trading in CO2 for gas and cash. That's a solution that is all kinds of green. [via MSNBC]


"Every problem contains within itself the seeds of its own solution.” - Stanley Arnold

10 Things I hate about Commandments

The guys that brought us Must Love Jaws have been hard at work producing their next great film. We at memepunks are looking forward to checking out 10 things I hate about Commandments. We have a soft spot for the 80's, so this great coming of age comedy will be a great addition to the summer lineup.

Some other great Hollywood mashups -

Sleepless in Seattle - not since Family Ties has a Tom Hanks performace been this intense
Shining - The coming of age family film
Titanic - The boat hits this summer!
Cabin Fever - I laughed, I cried, I wrote my congressman
West Side Story - Fast zombies are scary, choreographed zombies are down right terrifying

"At Pharoh high, Ramses was the biggest player around"

Memepunks First Look: Over The Hedge

Memepunks had the chance to screen the new Dreamworks pictures film, Over the Hedge, which opens this Friday. Unfortunately, our press credentials have yet to warrant us entry into a pre-screening of The Da Vinci Code, so we take what we can get.

This latest entry in the animated family film genre is mediocre at best. The plot is easy to follow, but so simplistic it seems thrown together. The story of a loner raccoon, RJ, and his new group of woodland friends. When the friends awake from a nice winter slumber they are confronted with the urban sprawl of the American landscape. A massive housing development has sprung up around them and they are now boxed in by a perfectly manicured hedge. While they try and figure out this new development, our opportunistic raccoon "hero" sees an opportunity to rescue his own hide. Along the way we meet a slew of slightly interesting characters and wacky adventures only CGI creations can have.


The Good
William Shatner as the possum. Nothing like watching captain Kirk perform an over dramatic death scene as a furry woodland creature. The comedy side kick of the group, a spastic squirrel named Hamilton (played superbly by Steve Carell) provided most of the slap stick and his shining scene where time stopped as he hyped himself up on a redbull like energy drink and "saved the day" garnered some well earned laughs. Wanda Sikes as the skunk. There isn't a female comedic actress out there right now who can play a more convincing angry disenfranchised character.

The Bad
Bruce Willis as the raccoon. Combined with the lack luster script, Bruce Willis couldn't provide the subtle nuances needed for a successful voice over role. The slow pace of this movie also brought it down a few notches. The "action" was too sparse and the script too weak to make a good flowing movie. This movie is not Shrek or Toy Story. The subtle adult humor of the Shrek "layers debate" is replaced in this movie with "squirrel nut" jokes to groans instead of laughs. While some of the use of backyard props was cool, overall this movie did an unconvincing job of selling the larger then life world around the animals. CGI just hasn't come far enough to sell the world of the woodland creature. The biggest problem is it tried too hard. Detailed animation of strands of hair on the animals seemed forced, not natural. The beauty of a movie like Toy Story was, they were toys! It was much easier to suspend disbelief when we have no real world examples to go on. And a plastic dinosaur is supposed to look plastic, but a turtle shouldn't look plastic if its supposed to be a real turtle.

The Ugly
The social commentary this movie tosses around with reckless abandon. From American obesity and wasting of our food supplies to our consumer culture to our dependence on modern technology, this movie tries to comment on so much, it becomes a chaotic mess. Over the Hedge is preaching, and at times, what its preaching is sort of scary. There is a sub plot centered around the concept of "family" and it appears the filmmakers were trying to convey that families are not always the same but that they all serve a purpose. The problem is, the "family" in this movie isn't the classic nuclear family, or a single parent family or even the two mommies two daddies type family. This "family" has a very commune type feel. Everyone working for the group, a chosen leader and a new upstart usurper. We have the father and daughter opossums, the nuclear porcupine family, the single and angry female skunk, the weirdo single Squirell, and the often suspect Turtle leader. This kinda stuff would have been great in 1967, when communes and hippie retreats were all the rage, but now its just a little weird.




1 and 1/2 memestars. This movie is not going to be remembered any more then Madagascar or Antz. Another case of too much technology and not enough humanity.

Weekly Robot Update 006

They flock, they float, they eat, and they sing. They are Autonomous Light Air Vehicles , and they are this week's robots. The ALAVs were built by a pair of students in the Graduate Media Design Program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Jed Berk and Nikhil Mitter have very diverse backgrounds, but they come together in their interest in network ecology and awareness. The three ALAVs were created as a study in how networked organisms interrelate. Three specific behaviors were created; How an ALAV acts alone, how multiple ALAVs interact with each other, and how ALAVs interact with humans.

Physically, the ALAVs are inflatable mylar envelopes with undercarriages made from light laser cut balsa. The hardware that went into the ALAVs is light, efficient and relatively simple. They propel themselves using helium buoyancy and five independent motors for thrust. Most of the parts and equipment was donated by Sun Microsystems. Including a special sensor platform called sunspot, which consists not only of a sensor array, but accelerometers, processing power and WiFi radios. Aditional circuits were specially designed for the ALAVs. As was the software for the blimps behavior and flight. The three robots were given distinct voices by attaching cell phone vibrators to the outside of the helium envelope, to create a resonate call that is eerily reminiscent of a whale's song.

The three ALAVs (Flipper, Habib, and Bubba) are autonomous. They decide on their own where and how they fly. The strength and uniqueness of these robots in is their biomimicry. You cant help but watch them and feel that they are in some way alive. The ALAVs attempt to flock whenever possible. Staying near at least one other ALAV at all times, and matching one another's flight plans. When one of the robots finds itself alone, it lets out a cry of distress, in an attempt to reconnect with the flock. LED lights underneath the ALAVs express hunger. When the light turns blue, the robot is hungry. They can then be fed by hand by a human handler using a special fiber optic sculpture that the ALAVs recognize as food. Together all of these behaviors create a life like ecology for the machines. Have a look at some of the surreal videos of the ALAVs in flight.

The three robots made their media debut at last months Maker Faire . They were quite a hit with the crowd. They were even filmed for an upcoming Beyond Tomorrow show and an episode of The Tonight Show. I see some practical applications coming out of these people friendly robots as well. If they could be made slightly larger and sturdy enough, they could carry their own Wireless Access Points. Give them some mesh networking software that works along side their flocking behavior, and you could create an instant city wide WiFi network, just by releasing dozens of these things into the air. Work their feeding behavior into software that monitors their power supply, and the robots could actually swoop down to special power stations and recharge their batteries when they are running low. Your network would not only be instantly deployable, but also self maintaining. And that's just one possible use for autonomous flocking blimps. I suspect we will be seeing much more of the ALAVs in the future. [inspired by Make]

All your Da Vinci Code are belong to us!

For those of you living under a rock or who have spent the past three years vacationing in a fine Amish community, there is a movie coming out this Friday based on a fairly popular book of recent note. In fact, The DaVinci Code has actually sprouted its own cottage industry, from hundreds of books , to television specials, to tour packages , to reality tv shows , the Da Vinci Code is starting to rival the 800lb gorilla that is the boy wizard.

While the book was released with little fanfare outside of the publishing world, Hollywood is taking a much different approach, using the momentum of the book in thier favor. You can't watch a prime time tv show without seeing a commercial. We have The Da Vinci Code tie-ins everywhere. Tom Hanks and Opie are doing the media tour blitz big time.

Literary to film translations can be a hit or miss proposition. For every Fight Club or Bladerunner we get an American Physco or Queen of the Damned. But all signs point to a great movie with The Da Vinci Code. Tom Hanks is a good actor and I think a great choice for Langdon. I also like Ron Howard as a director, although not sure how he will do with the suspense aspect of the story.

As part of its brute force marketing, Sony Pictures has teamed up with google and a world champion puzzle creator to make the Da Vinci Code quest. A series of 24 games and puzzles culminating in a final challenge for 10,000 lucky participants. Finalists were sent a replica cryptex and notification that they will be competing in a series of 5 questions timed for the chance at a single grand prize of all kinds of cool loot .

Honestly, with Sony's recent ass raping of its customers we would have avoided this entire deal without the involvement of Google. But, as luck would have it, we completed the last round 1 challenge 8 minutes after it was available and GOT OURSELVES ENTERED AS FINALISTS!!!! WOO HOO! (its funny how moral objections can be sidestepped by flaunting 130k worth of prizes at us)

So this weekend team memepunks will be undertaking the final Google Da Vinci Code challenge, and with the luck of the search engine gods upon us, we shall be jetting off on a wacky adventure around the world! (we get to take 2 extra people, so if your real nice and pimp our blog, you could be joining us)


"With heart, faith and Google. In the end there can be only one."- (apologies to) Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez


Update: It appears that people are trying to cash in already. Some hapless souls are attempting to sell off their Cryptexs on Ebay. They even tag them with things such as "1 of 10000" which is technically true (as of this update, the are not available for sale on the promo makers website), but what they don't mention is the Cryptex sent to us aren't that different from the ones you can buy direct from the marketing firm that made them, with the exception of the same piece of paper congratulating us and telling us to visit a website. This isn't a "numbered" piece or anything like that. In fact, these cryptex are supposedly even lamer then the ones sold online, because these we arent supposed to be able to change the code to open them. I haven't tried to take it apart yet, but I plan to remove the set screws tonight and see if this is in fact true. It also actually only locks with the last two letter wheels anyways. I wouldn't be storing any government secrets in this thing, thats for sure.

Some folks are even including their Google IDs and a CHANCE at the grand prize with the Cryptex and trying to Cash in BIG TIME. Personally, we feel thats akin to selling off your child on ebay, but as its not in the google/sony pictures rules or a violation of ebay (unlike ACTUALLY selling a child) we wish them the best of luck.

Curing Diabetes with Pedal Power

Memepunks has joined forces with our long time friends in the Brentwood Bicycle Club to help cure diabetes. We will all be at the starting line for next months Tour De Cure. Througout the end of May and month of June, Tour De Cures will be taking place all over America. We will be attending the ride in Brighton, Michigan on June 11th.

"Tour de Cure is a series of cycling events held in more than 80 cities nationwide to benefit the American Diabetes Association. The Tour is a ride, not a race, with routes designed for everyone from the occasional rider to the experienced cyclist. Whether you ride 10 miles or 100 miles, you’ll travel a route supported from start to finish with rest stops, food to fuel your journey and fans to cheer you on!"

The funds raised at the Tour De Cure will go to the American Diabetes Association. The ADA actively funds visionary diabetes research including genetic engineering of non-pancreatic cells into glucose-sensitive, insulin-producing cells. As well as transforming stem cells or pancreaticductal cells into insulin-producing cells. More than just treatments and preventative measures, studies like this seek a a total cure for diabetes. As we covered last month, great leaps are already happening in the field of diabetes research. We are nearing the last mile in the elimination of this disease. At this critical juncture every iota of help goes a very long way. That's why Memepunks is doing our part to chip in.

If you are interested in lending some pedal power of your own, find a Tour De Cure in your area and sign up. If you would rather help out with dollars instead of miles, feel free to sponsor Memepunks! Or If you know some one who is riding in the Tour De Cure, feel free to sponsor them. Barring any of that, just getting the word out will help.



"Sometimes, when she rode hard, when she could really proj, Chevette got free of everything: the city, her body, even time. That was the messenger's high, she knew, and though it felt like freedom, it was really the melding-with, the clicking-in, that did it. . . .She was entirely part of the city, then, one wild-ass little dot of energy and matter, and she made her thousand choices, instant to instant, according to how the traffic flowed, how rain glinted on the street-car tracks, how a secretary's mahogany hair fell like grace itself, exhausted, to the shoulders of her loden coat" - Virtual Light

Japanese Super Sewer

Our friends in Tokyo Japan have constructed a colossal piece of underground infrastructure. Called G-Cans, its purpose is to drain and contain excess water during storms and typhoons. The project began in 1992 and took 12 years to complete. It consists of five concrete containment silos with a height of 65 meters and a diameter of 32 meters, each large enough to contain full scale ready to launch space shuttle. They are connected by 6.4 kilometers of tunnels 50 meters beneath the surface. The heart of the operation is a water tank 177 meters long, 78 meters wide and over 25 meter high. The structure is supported by 59 monolithic pillars. To pump the water out of G-Cans, a cluster of 14,000 horse power turbines can pump water into the nearby Edogawa river, at a rate of over 17 million tons per day.

In addition to the sheer scale of engineering involved with G-Cans, the structure itself is breathtaking. The long voluminous tunnels and towering pillars give the place a strangely majestic feel. It looks like a Hollywood set, or some computer generated level for a next generation video game. So much so that G-Cans has become a tourist attraction, offering free tours to visitors. Have a look at some remarkable images from the official G-Cans site. (unfortunately available only in Japanese) And some additional images from JPDN. Becuase of the unique atmosphere, G-Cans has been the home to several TV and film shoots. Including this Range Rover commercial.

G-Cans is quite an accomplishment. I am forced to wonder if something of this magnitude could be constructed beneath coastal US cities that face flooding dangers. Such as the recently ravaged New Orleans. I understand that the majority of NOLA is below sea level, which would present some interesting engineering challenges. But I can't help but think that we can learn from our typhoon weary neighbors. Anyone with a civil engineering degree care to comment?



“Architecture begins where engineering ends.” - Walter Gropius

Hybrid Bear Shot By Hunter in Great White North.

DNA tests have recently confirmed that a bear killed by a hunter is half grizzly and half polar bear. Avid hunter Jim Martell was on a $45k guided polar bear hunt on Banks Island when they encountered the strange animal. The hunts Iniut guide, Roger Kuptana, was the first to note that the bear wasn't normal. It had an indented face, a humped back, long claws, and eyes ringed in black. The outfitters hosting the hunt sent the carcass out for DNA testing to save Martell a potential thousand dollar fine and year in jail for killing the wrong kind of animal. As it turned out, the creature had a polar bear mother and grizzly bear father. Although rumors of polar-grizzly hybrids have circulated for some time, this is the first time a confirmed specimen has been encountered in the wild.

There are a great number of Interspecific Hybrids, including Mules, Zedonks, Wolphins, Camas, and the infamous Liger. But rarely do they occur naturally in the wild. Perhaps we are seeing the beginnings of a new Darwinian pressure. With increased migration, and shrinking habitats more animals may be shopping outside their species on date night. There is a mystery ape population in the Congo that appear to be abnormally large Chimpanzees with a unique culture. Many theorize that this might be a Chimpanzee-Gorilla hybrid. If it's hybrid parentage turns out to be true, the Chimpilla will replace the Liger as my favorite. I'm all for hybrids, be they the products of a genetics lab or the rising stars of the animal kingdom. Convergence and diversity are not always separate animals.



"Assault weapons have gotten a lot of bad press lately, but they're manufactured for a reason: to take out today's modern super animals, such as the flying squirrel, and the electric eel." - Lenny

The First Martian Explorers Will Burn Their Bridges Behind Them.

While sifting though the information that came out of last weekends ISDC, I came across a very unique plan for the privatized colonization of Mars. Founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, Peter Diamandis is shaking things up again. Many of you might recall the ten million dollar reward Peter offered for the first successful privately funded space ship. Peter has a new vision, one that stretches all the way to Mars. At the ISDC he unveiled his Mars Citizenship Program. To fund the project, Diamandis plans to raise 2 billion dollars. He's laid out an investment plan where 90 thousand people would each donate $10,000. Ten thousand people would donate $100,000. And 100 people would each donate a million bucks.

Once the funding has been collected, there will be a competition among all of the contributors. From the 100,100 people, 101 will be chosen as winners and Mars mission candidates. Those one hundred will then undergo rigorous training and assessment. Eventually Peter will be left with 6 teams of twelve astronauts. Meanwhile, several unmanned spacecraft will have been sent to Mars, delivering modular habitats, supplies and construction robots. The first team of twelve colonists will then leave for Mars. Thier journey will be one way. They will leave earth behind them for good, with no plans for a return trip. These new martians will find a robotically constructed mars base waiting for them.

Those first pioneers will struggle to survive and thrive and build a new world for themselves. New teams of twelve will be sent at regular intervals until a stable population is reached. At that point humans will no longer be found on just one planet in the universe. We will have two homes; one red, one blue. The colonists, leaving on a half year 250 million mile journey with no return address, will give up all the earth has to offer. In exchange, they will gain a new world. And that will set a precedent that will some day take us across the stars. [via MarsDrive]



"Mars is wild, untamed. I'm forming a cadre of Martian knights charged with enforcing Martian law." - Captain Murphy

Weekly Robot Update 005

Congratulations, it's a bouncing baby... Robot! Babybot is being developed by the Laboratory for Integrated Advanced Robotics at Genoa University in Italy. Babybot was built as part of the ADAPT project, the Artificial Development Approach to Presence Technologies. The goal of Babybot is to create a machine that interacts with its environment the same way we do at a very young age. The theory behind is to duplicate the human sense of "presence". Presence is how we view the world around us. It incorporates all of our senses, and gives us a unified picture of our environment and our place in it. "Our sense of presence is essentially our consciousness" says Giorgio Metta, ADAPT project coordinator.

So what they have done, is model a small robot on the torso of a two year old, and given it a whole suite of human like senses. Babybot has three gyroscopes in its head to provide a sense of balance. Its eyes are two video cameras designed to mimic the characteristics of human vision, with a high resolution central image, and low resolution peripheral. In addition they are set to work stereoscopically, to provide Babybot with depth perception. Its ears are directional microphones inside of external cones. They coordinate directional sound information with the visual input from the eyes to get a clear picture of the environment. Babybot uses a specially designed five fingered hand to grasp and manipulate its surroundings. The hand has 15 joints, and six active degrees of freedom. It has a cluster of pressure sensors to give Babybot a sense of touch.

Babybot's brain is a cluster of computers running a several simultaneous neural networks. A neural network doesn't work like a classical computer program. Instead, it mirrors how our brains work. The system establishes a myriad of artificial "neurons" within the network, each one having a specific function or way of behaving. The network then strengthens or weakens the links between those neurons to alter the programing. The same thing that happens to our own neurons. The neural net model is one of the top contenders for developing real artificial intelligence. And although Babybot is no computing powerhouse, it does have the beginnings of a mind of it's own. Check out the videos for some footage of Babybot in action. While it seems like not much is happening besides a mechanical game of pick up, what Babybot is doing is the same thing we all did in our earliest days; Learning who it is, by exploring its world.

Babybot is just the beginning. Dr. Metta and the rest of the ADAPT team are already hard at work on the sequel to Babybot. Something they have named Robotcub, scheduled to be completed by Spring 2007. Robotcub will have more neural network power, and better sensory input than his predecessor. In addition, Robotcub will easily be able to crawl, and if it is smart enough, even learn how to walk on its own! As an added bonus, Robotcub will be designed completely with Open Source Software and hardware. Anyone will be able to take advantage of the incredible work of the ADAPT team. Good work folks, I'll save you a spot for Weekly Robot Update 057. [via New Scientist]



"A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities." - Eda J. Le Shan

UK Trains Dogs To Sniff Out Pirated DVDs.

When I first came across this Press Association news story, I was convinced it was a hoax. I didn't believe it, until I saw This Video for myself, from Sky news. (Fair warning, It's filled with obviously biased **AA friendly statistics, it's in Windows Media format, and they try and force you to watch it twice.) The Federation Against Copyright Theft or FACT, has arranged for a pair of black Labradors to be trained to sniff for pirated optical media. FACT works very closely with UK law enforcement in anti-piracy operations. The dogs were taken to a FedEx hub at an airport in Essex. A place where any of your own packages might be if you sent anything into or out of that area of England. The dogs were allowed to sniff out packages to identify those containing DVDs.

"This is the first time dogs have been used anywhere in the world to search for counterfeit DVDs and the results were amazing. With theco-operation and assistance of FedEx and Customs we were able to properly test the dogs in a live situation and prove that they can work in a busy working environment." said the director of FACT.

FACT claims to have trained the dogs, Flo and Lucky, to sniff out counterfeit DVDs. But in truth there is no way for for a dog to tell a legit copy of Big Momma's House 2 from a pirated one. That means that the dogs, if deployed at a FedEx Hub or customs station, would identify every package containing DVDs. Which would then have to be opened and searched by trained personnel. So whether you are a multimillion dollar Chinese pirate, or just sending grandma a home movie of little Timmy's first steps, you'll receive the same treatment. Some one will open your packages, and peer at what's inside them. In the case of unlabeled DVDs, that would require some one to watch them to verify their content. If I am sending some one a perfectly legal home made or even store bought DVD, I don't want any one else's hands or eyes on it.

Narcotics are illegal. Explosives are illegal. But a DVD is information. And the legality of that DVD is dependent on the source of the information and the reason and method used to create it. That is not a judgment a dog can make. Whether he is wearing a yellow leash, or a FACT windbreaker.


"She's right, Scoob, up close they look totally fake." - Shaggy

Podcasting Receives Stay of Execution.

I am a fan of podcasts. This new medium has given voice to many who would not otherwise have the opportunity to share their particular form of creativity with the world. Whether it's Diggnation, Escape Pod, TWIS, TWIT, or Cory Doctorow's latest short story, I don't get through a week without listening to at least a hand full of podcasts. You can find a podcast or three for any possible topic you can conceive of. These intrepid mp3s and the people that create them capture the very spirit of the Internet. A Many-To-Many philosophy that simply wasn't possible before global connectivity came along.

I would like to give mad props to "Mad Elf" and his Off Topic Talk podcast. Mad Elf is new to the podcasting scene, but he's really diving into the data stream with both feet. I've been entertained, and gotten more than one good reading recommendation from his cast. He has also helped spread our own particular meme. Kudos Mad Elf.

People like him embody the typical podcaster. No big production budgets, crews or marketing campaigns. Just individuals with computers, microphones and good ideas. These are the people that may very well be ground under the heel of bad copyright law if WIPO has it's way. The UN's World Intellectual Property Organization is in the process of trying to pass a large bill that includes ridiculous stipulations even by current copyright standards. In regards to webcasting, what this law would do is give the host of any webcasting content a FIFTY YEAR copyright on that webcast. Meaning that if you hosted your podcast through Blogger or Yahoo, they would get a defacto half century copyright on your material. Even if your cast was specifically Creative Commons licensed or public domain. The law also has strict Digital Rights Management requirements that would prevent unapproved aggregating, linking or recopying the webcasts without the permission of the host. This sort of terrible law making does nothing for the rights of content creators. It is pure business model protection for companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and Apple. Coincidently, these same companies are the ones who proposed this legislation, and they are supplying the big money lobbyists to make sure it gets passed.

No longer content with breaking our televisions, radios, and computers, these companies now seek to break the back of the Internet itself. That is something that all of us, be we podcasters, bloggers or surfers, should take personally. And yet some how this is happening under our radar. When is the last time you heard some one bring up WIPO in conversation, or saw something about it on the news? Fortunately, we aren't alone in this. A horde of nations disagree with the webcasting provisions proposed by WIPO. Countries without entrenched multi-billion dollar media conglomerates have railed against this death sentence on creativity. Along with the staunch support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, they have succeeded in getting the provision moved off onto it's own separate bill. Which moves it from the fast track to a more reasonable slouch toward bedlam. So what can we do now that the Internet's protectors have bought us a little more time?

Get involved, join the EFF. If enough dissenting voices are heard together, it's no longer dissent. Even if you cant spare them some much needed financial contributions, at least put your name on their roster and show your support. Something else you can do is get the word out about this. Let this meme out into the wild and encourage it to thrive. And most importantly continue podcasting, linking, aggregating, copying and creating content. Show them that we have no need of big media to shepherd our information and entertainment. We are all interconnected now, and the time of One-To-many is drawing to a close, but only if we make it happen. Together we have the power to replace the old guard of the Internet. And that's exactly what they're afraid of. [Inspired by BoingBoing. More information on WIPO's latest evil here.]


"This is our world now... The world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals." - Hacker Manifesto