Nanotech Conjures Maxwell's Demon

Let's start with something small. It doesn't get much smaller than the new creation out of Edinburgh University. The assembly works on the scale of nanometers, about one 80,000th the thickness of a human hair, and it was 140 years in the making. It began as a hypothetical question posed by brilliant mathematician and physicist James Clerk Maxwell. He pondered the possibility of violating the second law of thermodynamics through the intervention of a hypothetical "demon". This demon, being small enough to control individual molecules, could cheat the laws of physics and arrange molecules away from their normal state of entropy. Known as Maxwell's Demon, this thought experiment has been fodder for chemists and physicists ever since.

Thanks to Professor David Leigh and his team at Edinburgh, the demon is no longer the stuff of fantasy. Professor Leigh has created a nano-engine that can move a chemical system out of equilibrium. This tiny wonder works on very simple albeit very small mechanical principles. Leigh constructed an assembly of rotaxanes and put them to work. A rotaxane is basically a long barbell shaped molecule threaded through a second ring shaped molecule. The ring molecule moves chaotically from one end of the axle to the other, but cannot pass over the ends of the barbell. With many of these rotaxanes in parallel, on average you will see an even spread of the rings along the barbells. Some at one end, some at the other, some in the middle. That is until Dr. Leigh turns on his machine.

By shining a beam of light into the device, the axles of the barbells change shape in the presence of the rings. If the ring is on the right for instance, the axle thickens, trapping it there. If the ring is in the center, or left, the axle remains narrow enough for the ring to continue moving. In short order you end up with the majority of the rings on the right side... Order from chaos. Now, this machine doesn't violate thermodynamics of course, because it requires a light beam as a power source. But it does arrange molecules using only their natural motion. Something that up until this moment has occurred only in nature. Dr. Leigh has succeeded in building a workingNanomotor, driven by nothing but light.

Motors like this, that manipulate individual molecules are a prerequisite to creating fully functional nano-constructors. This is a stepping stone to the machines that will construct our future, one molecule at a time. They may take the form of VonNeumann machines that will replicate and build in trillion member swarms. Or more likely, we will see Leigh's technological descendants toiling away inside a future desktop factory like the one in this STUNNING VIDEO.

That particular conceptual animation is courtesy of Nanorex. Nanorex is a company local to Michigan that is working with K. Eric Drexler himself, the godfather of nanotech, to devise new microscopic miracles using cutting edge open source software. Oh, and they render them using distributed computing technology. Nanomachines, open source, and distributed computing, I have no idea how they fit so much awesome under one roof. Check out their gallery for more infinitesimal goodness.

One last word. There seems to be an underlying uneasiness or outright fear in some people whenever the word nano is invoked. No doubt brought on by too many camp fire stories about grey goo or exposure to Michael Crichton novels. Well, breathe easy friends. There are no out of control microscopic robots on the horizon. Even Dr.Drexler , who first postulated the idea of grey goo, has suggested that we all move on to the real hurdles and remarkable possibilities that nanotechnology presents us with. Perhaps, many decades hence, we may have to worry about some one's crude attempt toweaponize nanotech. But until then, don't sweat the small stuff. [via Engadget]


"...if we conceive of a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule in its course, such a being, whose attributes are as essentially finite as our own, would be able to do what is impossible to us." - James Clerk Maxwell

X PRIZE Cup Underway

The Wirefly X PRIZE Cup competition has begun in Las Cruces New Mexico! Prizes totaling 2.5 million dollars are being sought by teams of space engineers and rocket men. The event runs from this morning until tomorrow afternoon, and for those of us that cant be out in New Mexico, SPACE.com is providing a live video feed for the duration.

Three potentially historic contests will be taking place over the next two days. Two of the competitions will focus on new lunar and planetary landing technology. Both the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge and the Vertical Rocket Challenge involve the take off, landing and return of prototype lander vehicles. Decendents of this technology may some day carry us to the moon and other worlds beyond. The favorite for the Lunar Lander prize is Armadillo Aerospace, founded by John Carmak, the millionaire creator of both Doom and Quake.

The third contest may have the most long term ramifications. It is Spaceward Foundation's Space Elevator Games. A contest in two parts, the Space Elevator Games hope to spur the development of a material strong enough to act as a tether into space, as well as new ways of beaming power to tether climbing robots. These students, enthusiasts and engineers are laying the ground work for a highway to the stars. "Up is good", as X PRIZErs are fond of saying.

In addition to the contests, there will be a slew of special events and exhibits. Including prototype engine test firings, sounding rocket launches, and amateur rocketry events. "Rocketman" Dan Schlund will fly around Las Cruces with a rocket belt (jetpack). The Rocket Racing League's new X-Racer will be unveiled to the public as well. A T-38 astronaut training jet will fly over the competition, and the X PRIZE Cup event planners have also promised "other surprises".

For anyone who is even remotely interested in the future of space flight, these next two days should be very exciting. The upstarts of space travel are all gathering in one place to compare notes and field their inventions. And the best thing is that they are not the result of a billion dollar space program, not NASA starched shirt types or foreign government space program representatives. They have talent, big aspirations and know how. But they are regular folks. They are us... Reaching for the stars on their own terms.


"I could have gone on flying through space forever." - Yuri Gagarin

A Future Without Flats

Early last year at the North American International Auto Show, Michelin gave us a glimpse into the future of where the rubber meets the road. They unveiled a high tech replacement for the classic 60 year old radial tire. It's a tire-wheel hybrid they have unfortunately named the Tweel. Michelin's radial tire concept which debuted in 1946, has kept the world rolling for over half a century. But it has many drawbacks that we over the years have had to learn to deal with. Flats, blow outs, pressure checks, air pumps, and other problems are facts of life with the industry standard radials. But with the advent of the tweel, all of those things may become artifacts of a pneumatic past.

Tweels are airless. They consist of a semi deformable central wheel, which behaves some what like a conventional car wheel. Branching off from the wheel are flexible spokes that act as shock absorbers. Around the ring of spokes is the actual tread of the tire on a thin band. The tweels are all one piece and provide many advantages over classic radials. First and foremost is their lack of a pressure system. The spokes of the tweel do the job that a pneumatic cushion would, without the dangers of a flat or blow out. Secondly, because of the nature of the tweel, engineers now have have the freedom to focus on both comfort and performance.

With a typical tire, there are two types of rigidity. To increase the handling of a car, you want a tire that is stiff laterally. But for a comfortable ride, you want a vertically stiff tire. With a conventional radial tire that relies on air pressure, there is a limit to the amount of one that you can have without sacrificing the other. But with the tweel, you can optimize both the lateral and vertical stiffness of the spokes and hub independently. Thus without loosing the slightest bit of comfort, you can drastically improve a cars handling. This is the real reason why engineers at Michelin are giving the tweel a spin. In the long run, it stands to completely out perform radials.

For now the tweel is still in the design and testing phases. Michelin has approved the tweel for use in low weight low speed vehicles, such as Dean Kamen's tall standing stair climbing wheelchair, the iBot. They are also experimenting with military applications. Vehicles equipped with tweels are much less likely to be immobilized by explosives or other damage than vehicles with pneumatic tires. Further down the list are heavy equipment and construction vehicles that could benefit from improved performance. But the endgame sees the tweel much closer to home.

Michelin has outfitted an Audi A4 with prototype tweels. Eventualy, they would like to see tweels on passenger vehicles and beyond. But there are issues that must be overcome. At high speeds, tweels suffer from both excess vibration and unacceptable noise. Michelin engineers have been working diligently to solve those problems in the year since the tweel's debut. Already the tweel has been noted "one of the most amazing inventions of 2005" by Time magazine, and "Best of Whats New" in Automotive Technology by Popular Science. Earlier this year the tweel earned a gold medal for innovation at Intermat 2006 in Paris.

Have a look at this promotional video of tweeled vehicles in action. Once these airless wonders are ready for prime time, I can see them catching on quickly. No doubt they'll cost a premium for their performance, at first being the domain of auto enthusiasts. But eventually a robust tweel technology could become the new standard, leaving radial tires in the dust. Either way, true innovation is a rare gem in the automotive industry. We have been doing a lot of the same things the same way since the time of our grandparents. It's good to see that in a field dominated by convention and the status quo, some one has the wherewithal to reinvent the wheel. [via WallStreetFighter]


"One sees them all about—men who do not know that yesterday is past, and who woke up this morning with their last years ideas [...] there is a subtle danger in a man thinking that he is ‘fixed’ for life. It indicates that the next jolt of the wheel of progress is going to fling him off." - Henry Ford

X PRIZE for Genomics

The X PRIZE foundation is at it once more. Two years ago Space Ship One rose to the occasion and collected the first X PRIZE. A ten million dollar bounty was awarded to Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the heroes of private spaceflight, as they returned from their second 100 kilometer trip into the heavens. The Ansari X PRIZE has stimulated a storm of growth and progress in the commercial space flight industry. And the fun didn't stop in October of 2004. Rival teams continue to compete in an annual X PRIZE Cup event for millions in awards. This year the X PRIZE Cup is being held in New Mexico, and includes contests for lander module technology and space elevator development. A few million in fame and fortune put out by the X PRIZE foundation has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in research and technological advancement.

With the marked success of the Ansari X PRIZE , it's no surprise that the foundation has decided to explore other avenues of science. Today, on the second anniversary of the Space Ship One flight, the X PRIZE Foundation announced the creation of the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics. This prize of $10 million will be awarded to the first group that can successfully meet the Archon challenge. That is, to sequence no less than 100 human genomes in no more than ten days. Keep in mind, that the original Human Genome Project to map a single human genome took more than a decade, and $3 billion in funds. For some one to claim the Archon X PRIZE, they must do a hundred times the work of the HGP and all in a tiny fraction of the time.

If the Archon prize is half as successful as it's space faring brother, this will mean a leap forward in genomics so drastic, the rules of the game will change. With the technology to sequence 10 genomes in a single day, personalized medicine could become common place. Fore knowledge of genetic maladies, drug susceptibilities and biological tendencies could have an effect on medicine greater than the invention of the microscope. And that is just the beginning. The more genomes that are mapped, the greater our collective understanding of of who we are. With a thousand genomes to compare and contrast, we'll learn a little more about ourselves. With a million, whole new fields of bioinformatics will form. And with the knowledge gained from a billion sequenced human genomes, the foundation would be laid for real human genetic engineering.

When the Ansari X PRIZE was offered up, rocket men from all over the country took notice. Enthusiasts, wide eyed millionaires, dedicated engineers, mavericks, and geniuses huddled around blueprints and scale models and tanks of liquid oxygen in an attempt to reach the stars. And ultimately, they went above and beyond and are still moving forward. The effect of the original X PRIZE has been nothing short of amazing. Now the same carrot is being dangled in front of geneticists. Three teams have already entered the running in the brief time since the Archon X PRIZE has been announced. Winning the Archon will require a breakthrough idea that will change the way we look at the very building blocks of life. Already dozens of scientists are clamoring to find it. That, my friends, is the real prize.


MEMEPUNKS UPDATE: After doing some further research I found an article that lends a bit more depth to the story. First, there is a follow up reward for the winners of the Archon X PRIZE if they decide to claim it. 100 additional volunteers have signed up to have thier DNA sequenced. If the winning team choses ot map the genomes of the "Genome 100", they will net themselves another cool million. The volunteers will be a mix disease sufferers nominated by charities, and high profile celebrities. The charities believe that by decoding the genomes of patients, insight will be gained about the nature of the disease. The X PRIZE foundation hopes that big name celebreties will increase awareness of the event and make it more relavent to everyone. Names already on the list include Paul Allen, Larry Page, and Stephen Hawking.

Also, the source of the $10 million prize money is notable. A Canadian geologist named Stewart Blusson is funding Archon. Dr. Blusson used advanced geology and surveying techniques to locate gold and diamond mines in the northern hemisphere. He has a stated love for science and out of the box thinking. In 1998 he donated $50 million to his Alma Mater the University of British Columbia, specifically for reaserch and academic excellence. [via Slashdot]


"We've discovered the secret of life". - Francis Crick

We Can Rebuild Him. We Have the Technology.

Oscar Goldman's intro voiced over Steve Austin's transformative surgery thirty years ago is now a part of the American psyche. The idea of bionics and cyborgs, once solely the domain of science fiction, is becoming undeniable fact. Advanced prosthetics are now being integrated directly into the minds and bodies of those without arms or legs. We are no longer talking hooks and claws and pink plastic over hollow inert limbs. This is real cybernetics, electronics wired right into your nerves, a technological extension for an injured or incomplete human form.

We may not have quite reached the stage of "better, stronger, faster". But we do now have the technology to restore real quality of life and natural capabilities to those without limbs. there are an estimated 1.8 million people in the US alone that have lost limbs. And this a country that isn't currently war torn, one without land mines scattered across the landscape, where most of our crippling diseases are under control. Looking to the third world, you'll see even more people that could benefit from limb replacement technology. Up until recently, science's reach has exceeded it's grasp in creating an effective artificial limb. Although they have been slow to develop, newly effective bionic prosthesis are nothing short of miraculous.

The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago has been quietly implementing it's Bionic Arm technology for the last few years. Created by Todd Kuiken, M.D., Ph.D. director of RIC’s Neural Engineering Center for Bionic Medicine, This new limb is head and shoulders above the rest. The myoelectric arm works by receiving the electrical signals sent by the brain and then activating small motors at the joints of the arm. Doctors at the RIC have rewired nerves meant for a flesh and blood arm to muscles in the chest. Surface electrodes are then placed against the pectoral muscle to intercept signals sent by the brain. The amputee thinks about moving the original missing limb. Muscles in the chest respond accordingly, and wires there convey the signal to the artificial arm.

Using this technique, patients are able to move and manipulate their mechanical arms and hands just like anyone else. They think about it, and it happens. The first man to get the Bionic Arm was a double amputee that barely survived a horrific electrocution. But now, with the Bionic Arm in place, and it's three motors whirring away, Jesse Sullivan has regained a great deal of both form and function. Have a look of this video of Jesse showing off his fantastic thought controlled prosthesis. Built into the arm is a 64 bit computer that translates the nerve impulses into literal motor control. It takes about six months to retrain an amputee to use the Bionic Arm as if it were their own. But as you can see the results are remarkable.

But Jesse's amazing limb is already last years model. Dr. Kuiken and his team have improved upon the original design and amputee Claudia Mitchell has been selected to test drive it. A former military service woman who lost her arm in a motorcycle accident, Claudia was seen as an ideal candidate for the newest limb. The new Bionic Arm has six motors instead of three. Twice as much articulation and the ability to do such things as lifting the arm over her head make Claudia's prosthesis peerless. And there is more to the story than just a design overhaul and some supped up servos. The nature of Claudia Mitchell's operation and augmentation are on a different order than Jesse's all together.

First off, Claudia's nerves were rewired successfully without any loss of tissue. Normaly, an operation like this would require a disfiguring removal of surface tissue to provide better reception to the electrodes. But most interesting is exactly how Claudia has been rewired. Using a new technique, the Bionic Arm is no longer just a one way interface. Doctors have rewired a softball sized patch of skin on her chest to send signals to the brain as if it were coming from a living arm. And then they wired the myoelectric arm to send feedback signals to that patch of skin. Now, Claudia can tell if she is holding something hot or cold in her completely mechanical hand. This is a first in prosthetics of any kind. Soon doctors plan to wire pressure sensors in the arm to Claudia's rewired sensory skin patch. Restoring, for the first time in history, an amputees sense of touch.

Keep in mind that the 3 million dollar Bionic Arm program is still in the experimental phase. "This is very much a prototype device. We have a lot of smoke in this lab. We fry a lot of transistors." says Dr. Kuiken. But with the success he has seen thus far, and more than 400 amputees coming back from the middle east war zone alone, it wont be long before an incarnation of the Bionic Arm becomes an every day cure to a world wide problem. Desinged for healing and not augmentation, we wont see any iron bar bending or Robocop hand shakes any time soon. But I cant help to think, with their beaming smiles and computer controlled myoelectric feedback sensing bionic limbs, that Jesse and Claudia are waving at us from the future. [via Digg]


Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling - William Butler Yeats

"Guilt Free" Embryonic Stem Cells

Last week, biotech company Advanced Cell Technology announced a break through in the field of embryonic stem cell research. One that at first glance stands to put the "ethical" debate about embryonic stem cells behind us for good. But as the days wear on, controversy and fallout continue to plague this remarkable discovery. It began with a press release for an article to be published in Nature magazine. Advanced Cell Technology declared that they had developed a technique to derive stem cell lines from embryos without causing the embryos any ill effects. And they did it using a method which has been around in IVF circles for years.

The technique is called PGD or preimplantation genetic diagnosis. It was originally developed in the field of invitro fertilization. When the embryo is at a very early stage of development, often even before the blastocyst stage, a tiny amount of genetic material is taken. A microscopic breach of the cell wall would be made chemically, mechanically, or using a laser. And the embryo would regrow the lost material without any ill effect. Initially, that extracted cell has been used by concerned families to scan their perspective child for any number of genetic maladies. Robert Lanza and his research group at Advanced Cell Technology have succeeding in giving another purpose to that little snippet of biopsied genes... Using them to create new stem cell lines. The technique hasn't been perfected yet. After 91 PGD biopsies, only two new stem cell lines were created. But Lanza and his team have shown that the procedure is viable.

So that's it then. A new procedure that will allow us to create stem cell lines from embryos without effecting the embryos developmental potential. Does this mark the end of the stem cell debate? Are we to expect wide smiles and thunderous applause from both side of the isle? Hardly. If anything this new procedure has further stoked the fires of debate.

First of all we have the nature of the study Professor Lanza conducted created stem cell lines from PGD material. The team at Advanced Cell Technology used only 16 embryos for their study. To minimize the number of embryos to be manipulated, rather than performing 91 separate PGD on 91 separate embryos, they used only 16. Which means that multiple PDGs were performed on individual embryos, eventually harvesting all of their genetic material and destroying the embryos outright. This has raised the ire of the religious and "bio ethicists" created an uproar and cause outlets such as the New York Times, Nature, and The Scientist to carefully reword their coverage of this breakthrough. Noting that the embryos used were in fact destroyed, and it doesn't end there.

Those on the right are appreciative that scientists are looking for a way to avoid "killing" embryos, but they are also extremely critical of any embryonic research, believing that destruction of genetic material is tantamount to the destruction of the embryo. And they fear a trade or market will develop for embryos if there is ANY successful way to derive stem cells from them, whether it is harmful or not. But you expect flak from the bio-conservatives when it comes to embryo research of any kind. It's Bush's witless veto all over again. What is surprising is the response coming from those in favor of embryonic stem cell research.

Embryonic stem cell researchers are leery of any sort of practice that kowtows to the embryo hugging right wingers. Reaserching ways to avoid "killing" embryos just validates the side of the argument that embryos can be "killed" in the first place. Also some scientists feel that the limited genetic demographics of those that use IVF clinics would limit the usefulness of any stem cell lines derived from them. And others like Arthur Caplan see the catch 22 inherent in the system...

"if you are going to use blastomeres from embryos where would you get them. from human embryos! so either you make them just to get blastomeres which means destroying embryos and makes no sense or you get them at fertility clinics. but the only people who will let you pull a blastomere off of one of their embryos are people who dont plan to use them anyway! So they are going to destroy their embryos, making it senseless to use a blastomere."

There is validity to the points made by concerned stem cell researchers that have to fight tooth and nail for every bit of funding and political support they get. But the real matter of substance here is getting more stem cell lines. Perhaps techniques like this will lend a bit of credence to the superstitious right. Perhaps all the stem cell lines derived from WASP dominant IVF clinics wont be the most useful for curing diseases that target minorities. Maybe there is some faulty circular logic to the whole affair. But in the end, if the result of this breakthrough is more stem cell lines, access to government funding, and another tool in our stem cell harvesting arsenal, then I say have at it!

Now there are three legitimate criticisms coming from some research circles that raise some indisputable points. One is that this particular success has yet to be repeated outside of ACT's laboratory. We will definitely need positive verification before this discovery can move any further ahead. Another concern is whether stem cells created using this method will have the same miraculous properties of lines created using entire embryos. This I think is the most over riding concern, and will require further and very deep investigation. And lastly, "moral" concerns aside, will even a procedure that leaves an embryo unharmed satisfy our administration's draconian laws on stem cell funding? Or is this end run pointless to begin with?

Only time will tell whether this breakthrough will usher in a new era of stem cell research, or just be one more foot note in the history books when we look back at the early years of embryonic stem cells. It does seem to me that we are in a very dangerous place now, where scientific decisions are made not by scientists at all, but by lobbyists and politicians. I'll be keeping that in mind when the mid term elections roll around in November. And I'll be voting pro stem cell all the way. At this point I would even settle for one of those little check boxes on my tax form. "Do you want 35 dollars of your Federal Tax to go toward embryonic stem cell research? This will not effect your return." But of course that check box is needed to collect presidential election funds. Next time, maybe we should elect a scientist. [inspired by Wired's Bodyhack Blog]


"I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think Mother wants us to." - Willard Gaylin

It's Pronounced MEEM-PUNKS

This marks the official 100th post here at Memepunks! A few months ago this site was little more than one person's hesitant attempt to give blogging another try. And now the Memepunks adhocracy is charging headlong into the future. We've exceeded our expectations by leaps and bounds. That can happen when you set up shop on a little place called The Internet.

Our post on the space elevator grabbed the attention of the amazing folks at Liftport. We started people talking all over the Internet with our coverage of America's war on science. And our post on the possibility of a Google AI spread like wildfire, making the top spot on Reddit. It was linked to by author, and Boing Boing band manager Jon Battelle's Search Blog. Former Harvard Business Review executive editor and Rough Type creator Nicholas Carr even jumped into the fray. Tens of thousands of you stopped by to see what all the fuss was about. Many of you have stayed around for the duration. "Memepunks", a non existent word 4 months ago, now gets 30,500 hits on Google.

To our fans, commenters, and anyone that has taken the time to read one of our posts. Thank you, thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts. Memepunks isn't just us, it's you too. We would also like to thank all of those who contributed above and beyond the call of duty. Most especially B, who has warmed into being a full time contributor, editor, webmaster and member of the ad-hoc. Couldn't have done it without you bro... not by half. We would also like to thank (in no particular order) MJL, Don, Gynkoba, Micker, Minister, Cory, TheMadElf, Shadowhawck, Marty and the BBC, Scathatch and the crew at AVcorp, Smokey and the CSS master, KC and Natalie, Jonathan, Rook and family, Brent, Stella, Vince, and all the rest of our friends and families. If we forgot anyone, rather than apologize to you, just gmail us or comment. We'll try our hand at revisionist history and add you to the list.

Now, what's in store for the future? The proposed redesign of the site is still going strong and is only about a month behind schedule. We have a couple of extraordinary media events coming up, which we will announce soon. We are welcoming a guest blogger, who will bring an eye for trends, an ear for music, and matching X chromosomes to the mix. Look for MJL's inaugural post shortly. Memepunks will be attending the annual meetings of the Cryonics Institute and the Immortalist Society next month. And We'll be establishing a presence in Second Life, so we can start reporting on all the great things that go on there. Memepunks will also be revisiting some previous posts to see how some of these big future filled projects are progressing.

Look for more reviews of books, movies and music on the horizon. And of course we'll be putting up a torrent of posts on biotech, robots, web 2.0, space travel, nanotech, computers, AI, the IP wars, the Google revolution, cutting edge science, paradigm shifts and Internet weirdness. All in all, not a bad first 100 for a couple of computer techs from the suburbs of Detroit. Thank you again for making the first 100 possible. And here is to 1000 more! Onward and Upward.


“All this will not be finished in the first hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Movie Review Snakes on a Plane

As if you didn't know, the most highly anticipated movie of the summer made its debut last weekend. Of course I'm talking about Hollywood blockbuster Snakes on a Plane! You wont find any shakespearean soliloquies or Oscar worthy material on board this 747. What you will find is a legion of deadly poisonous snakes. Originaly, Snakes on a Plane was off to a rocky start. With a so/so script, and a wishy washy studio going back and forth on changing the title to something "less campy" and more respectable, Snakes had the makings of a cinematic tour de turds. But it turns out this mid-budget fright fest had two power houses in it's corner. Samuel L. Jackson and the Internet.

When the studio big-wigs renamed the film Pacific Air Flight 121, Samuel L Jackson had some things to say about that. Namely... "Nobody wants to see Pacific Flight 121. That's like saying 'Boat To Heaven.' Bullshit! C'mon! People know what they want to see. People either want to see this movie, or they don't. So let 'em know, if you're coming to see this movie, you're going to see a plane full of deadly-ass snakes. That's what it should be called: Deadly Ass Snakes on a Plane" On March second, the studio caved, and thankfully returned the film title to it's former glory. Sam also wanted them to film the movie with an R rating in mind, rather than the watered down PG-13.

But the real driving force behind Snakes on a Plane arriving in it's final form at the box office was the mighty world wide web. Second only to Sam Jackson in it's ability to kick ass and take names, the Internet adopted Snakes on a Plane as its own long before it was a finished film. It started innocently enough a year ago with a single post by indy blogger Josh Friedman on his blog "I find your lack of faith disturbing". News of Snakes on a Plane quickly saturated the web. There were fake movie posters, Music Videos, movie contests, T-shirts, poster parodies, clips and comedy routines. And of course, millions upon millions of iterations of a made up line of dialog from the movie where Sam Jackson's character angrily refers to "motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" There were even rocky horror style movie participation groups passing a script around the web months before the movie was scheduled to open.

The Internet buzz eventually went mainstream, with appearances on the Daily Show and the Colbert Report among other places. Better late than never, the studio caught on. They went back and re shot five days worth of footage, cranking up the movie to an R rating to appeal to the growing online fan base. They also made sure to include Samuel L Jackson's "motherfucking snakes" line. They jumped onto the viral marketing bandwagon as well, organizing online fan contests, and adding a way to get personalized calls from SLJ himself to your friends via the web. So what did all of this do for the movie itself? What did we end up with when the house lights went down and the projector started rolling? We ended up with Snakes on a Plane.

Jackson is as bad a motherfucker as ever. Sam delivers his lines as only he can, and almost makes wading into a horde of poisonous snakes with only a tazer and an attitude believable. He stars as FBI agent Neville Flynn. He and his partner Agent sanders, played by Hong Kong veteran Mark Houghton, find them selves escorting a young extreme sportsman turned murder witness from Hawai'i to Los Angles to testify against a ruthless Asian mobster. The RedBull drinking, Kawasaki riding, surfer witness is portrayed aptly enough by Wolf Creek Alumni Nathan Phillips. Terry Chen swings for the fences as the villainous Chen Leong without chewing the scenery. ER's Julliana Margulies plays lead flight attendant and heroine Clair Miller.

The premise of the film is simple. To kill the witness on his way to testify, mob boss Chen arranges to have 400 deadly snakes unleashed on the plane. This is were the movie happily goes right over the top. Take a host of stereotypical passengers; a richdebutante with a dog in her purse, a stuck up brit CEO, an effeminate male flight attendant, an Asian kickboxer, a dirty minded co-pilot, a rap star complete with entourage, a pair of young children traveling alone for the first time, a mother with her new baby, a young couple in love. Then instantly add hundreds of slithering, biting, "deadly ass",poisonous snakes. That's when the fun begins. The violence comes at you fast and furious and much of it catches you by surprise. And it's not just snakes that kill people, the general chaos that ensues also results in a slew of fatalities.

Some shots of the snakes are arguably real animals. But most of the violent snake attacks come from computer generated reptiles. It doesn't quite mesh with the real backdrop and human actors, but it's close. More along the lines of Alone in the Dark than Jurrasic Park's raptors or WETA's Balrog. There are scenes shot from the snakes POV, in green hazy Snake-O-Vision. Which brings back fond memories of Predator and Wolfen. The survivors fight a losing battle against the rampaging snakes that puts the passengers of Tail Sting to shame. They use broken bottle spears, home made flame throwers, tazers, and everything else on the plane to repel the ophidian invaders. The movie just keeps building, at one point even introducing a 30 foot long man eating anaconda!

As the movie goes on, you do start to feel for some of the characters, even in this completely unbelievable situation. And Snakes goes out of its way to break the molds of the various stereo types it establishes at thebeginning. Away from the plane, we have a stalwart FBI administrator and a snake expert coordinating things on the ground. I wont give away scenes or reveal too much of how the movie closes. But suffice it to say, I got my popcorn chewing moneys worth. And to quote Josh, "What else do you need to know? How the snakes get on the plane, what the snakes do once they're on the plane, who puts the snakes on the plane, who is trying to get the snakes off the plane...This is not for you to ponder. There are snakes on the plane. End of fucking story."

Was Snakes on a Plane a success? With a budget of only 36 million, Snakes made almost half of that in it's opening weekend. Beating out Talladega nights as the top movie of the weekend. And although the studio calls the numbersdisappointing, wait until the DVD comes out.
Wired already appointed SoaP the Best Worst Movie of the Year. And Sam Jackson has gone on record, perhaps sarcastically, stating that Snakes will win MTV's Best Movie award.

But Snakes on a Plane isn't just a movie anymore, it's also a meme. And I give them both Four Motherfucking Memestars.

Robot Update 014

The pinnacle of many a technology is to be seamlessly integrated into our lives. Cellphones, ATM cards, automobiles, remote controls, etc... We don't really marvel at them any more, it's just the way things are. In order for new technologies to pervade our way of life, they either need a new infrastructure built to support them, or they must be able to thrive wholly within the existing one. This is why many roboticists and engineers have been chasing the grail of the humanoid robot. In theory, a robot with two arms and two legs can go anywhere we can; our offices, our homes, our schools, and our market places. A robot that shares our dimensions can use our doors, travel along our sidewalks, and share our public spaces.

But thus far, humanoid robots have been underachievers. Although they are near miracles of coordination and technology, they are inevitably slow, awkward and expensive. Even the most out of shape human can literally run circles around our most agile high tech humanoid robot. There is another approach now being studied that may allow for societally integrated robots, while the humanoids are still finding their stride. It's called Ballbot, and it is today's robot.

Ballbot is the fruit of the labors of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. Lead by Professor Ralph Hollis, the engineering team developed a robot that stands and travels by balancing itself on a single steel sphere. The robot was built to human dimensions, tall and thin by robot standards. It's 1.5 meters tall (four foot nine), is 400mm in diameter (16 inches), and ways 45 Kilograms (just under 100 pounds). Ballbot works on a principle similar to the old track balls and ball computer mice, but in reverse. Rollers powered by a drive motor spin against the single steel drive ball, and act to keep Ballbot upright and propel it in any direction, without the need to turn or corner.

The robot is basically a cylinder that consists of three aluminum channels that hold up a series of circular shelves, like a book shelf or layer cake. Each shelf contains a different component. One houses Ballbot's 200MHz Pentium brain and 802.11b Wifi link. Another holds the 48V lead acid battery that gives Ballbot a few hours of operating time. About halfway up the robot sits the IMU, an Inertial Measuring Unit that emulates a vertical gyroscope and provides Ballbot with his remarkable sense of balance and high center of gravity. Three "leg" pylons deploy when Ballbot is without power, preventing it from falling over in the event of a malfunction.

Due to Ballbots layered and modular construction, it can be reconfigured and modified without requiring a redesign. This also makes Ballbot inexpensive to build and maintain, another trick the humanoid robots have yet to master. The next incarnation of Ballbot will see the addition of a head with a variety of sensors, and a pair of articulated arms to the chassis. This will increase Ballbots ability to stay balanced, and also ad a whole new level of functionality to the Ballbot framework. In a combination of simplicity and genius, Professor Hollis and his team have created a machine that can travel effortlessly in spaces made specifically for humans, and do so without unnecessary complication or expense.

Professor Hollis has been building and designing robots since before robotics was even a recognized field of study. Have a look at the Microdynamics Physics Laboratory project page for the Ballbot to find additional information that the team has provided. This includes addition hi-rez pictures, white papers, and a couple of neat videos of Ballbot in action. Still there are miles to go before Professor Hollis and his team can sleep. "We want to make Ballbot much faster, more dynamic and graceful," he said. "But there are many hurdles to overcome, like responding to unplanned contact with its surroundings, planning motion in cluttered spaces and safety issues."

So before we finish, lets get the Dalek jokes out of the way. Certainly even the best designed robot which balances on a single sphere will be incapable of navigating stairs. This is something that true integration into our living and working spaces will require. But with the minor addition of more ramps and elevators in everyday locations, the world could easily accept a host of rolling Ballbots. It will have the added bonus of making the world a nicer place for Murderballers and the occasional legendary physicist too. [via Slashdot]


"Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home. Understand?" - Miyagi Sensei

Those Who Ride the Lightning

Back in April I posted an earth day follow up and touched on how better hybrid car technology was on the horizon. Well as usual, the future has arrived ahead of schedule. We might be leapfrogging hybrids all together in favor of cars that are 100% electric. Historicaly, the problem with electric cars has been the technology. Due to battery constraints, inefficient motors and lack of research funding, the electric car has been relegated to novelty status. Most of them look like little more than glorified golf carts; short range, slow, and tiny. Concessions made to the technology took too much from both the form and the function of electrics, keeping them well outside the mainstream for most drivers.

There were exceptions of course, but never in enough numbers to impact the trillion dollar auto industry. At last, the technology is catching up with the visionaries. Electric cars are now being built that not only match their internal combustion counterparts for speed and power, but leave them in the dust. The most visible poster car for electric performance is the bright yellow Zooop. The Zooop tops out at 112 mph, with a range of 280 miles, all without needing a single drop of exorbitantly priced gas. It is the product of a Parisian fashion house of all things, Maison de Courrèges. The one unfortunate aspect of the Zooop (apart form it's name) is the cars appearance. It looks like the car Electra Woman and Dyna Girl would drive if they were still fighting crime. But the Zooop isn't built to be a production car, it's as much a work of art as it is a zero emissions sports car.

The real future of the automobile is being built at America's newest car company. On the opposite side of the country from the "Big 3" and the "Motor City", this automotive start up is based out of silicon valley. Tesla Motors recently revealed their spectacular new street machine, the Tesla Roadster. Named for the father of AC current, the roadster was unveiled on the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birth, July 10th 2006, the year of Tesla. Unlike the Cartoonish Zooop, the Tesla roadster is a full blooded sports car.

The unlikely mind behind the Tesla Roadster is Martin Eberhard, inventor of the Rocket E-book reader. An expert in portable electronics, Eberhard was the farthest thing from an automotive engineer. But after some big money investments from the founders of Paypal, Google, and Ebay, Martin has made his dream of a non oil dependent sports car a reality. Tesla Motors has partnered with Lotus for the final design and assembly of the Tesla Roadster.

The technical specifications of the Tesla are amazing. The car is capable of instant acceleration, 0-60 in less than four seconds. The top speed of the roadster is right around 130 mph, its range is 250 miles, generating 248 horsepower. The 2 speed 185Kw electric motor redlines at over 13,000 RPMs, has only one moving part, and is the size of a shoebox. That's another draw to this electric marvel. No oil changes, no belts or filters or spark plugs, no waiting for the engine to "warm up" the heater, none of the baggage that comes along with internal combustion. In fact, the only maintenance that Tesla Motors recommends in 100,000 miles is break and tire service.

The styling of the car oozes speed and performance, but that's no surprise coming from Lotus. There are things that may cause some gear heads to take a step back from the Tesla Roadster. For starters, the car is silent. No throaty Corvette roar, no Ferrari whine that suggests speed lives under the hood. And of course the Tesla must be plugged in periodically to charge the batteries, which is something sports car owners might take exception to. But at one penny per mile, and having the freedom to drive passed any and all gas stations at 130 mph, defying convention isn't an obstacle, it's a perk.

The Tesla Roadster may not be for all of us, with production models costing as much as $80,000. But Tesla Motors is also working on a sedan for everyday driving. And other conventional car companies like Mitsubishi are now announcing fully electric production vehicles that will hit the market in the next 1-5 years. With the stir that the Car 2.0 start up is creating, it's no surprise that many competitors are now working to steal Tesla's thunder. It remains to be seen if Tesla will become another Tucker or DeLorean. But just looking at the rolling wonder that is the Tesla Roadster, I am of the opinion that Martin Eberhard has caught lightning in a bottle. [inspired by Wired]


“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.” - Nikola Tesla

Robot Update 013

A while back, I talked about the mars rovers, and more recently SPHERE, NASA's floating helper bots. This weeks robot is a sort of hybrid of those two ideas, with some distributed computing, ad hoc networking, and colony intelligence thrown into the mix. They are called Microbots, and they may soon be bounding across the surface of an extraterrestrial planet near you.

Stephen Dubowsky, an engineer for MIT's field and space robotics laboratory is leading the project that will bring the microbots to life. The concept behind the little spherical exploration machines is a time honored one. Many hands make for light work. Each microbot will weigh less than 100 grams, or right around 3.5 ounces. They'll be baseball sized, constructed of light weight but very strong composite materials. Pound for pound, for the cost and effort of delivering one spirit or opportunity style rover to mars, you could instead send more than 1000 microbots. In it's life time, a single colony of 1000 of the little guys could explore more than 50 square kilometers of martian surface. That's an order of magnitude more area than any current ground based rover could cover.

Although the microbots design is simple, there is some pretty sophisticated technology at work under their tiny transparent hoods. microbots will get their power from miniature fuel cell technology. Conventinaly, something like this would run off the same sort of Lithium Ion battery that powers my laptop. But because of the microbots unique use of energy for motion, a fuel cell is ideal. Speaking of motion, that's one of the microbots coolest qualities. They will use artificial muscles called dielectric elastomer actuators. These alloys contract or expand in the presence of electricity. Meaning that a microbot will generate force in the same way we do, by flexing its muscles. The actuators will work to both change the orientation of the small robotic sphere as well as powering a mechanical "foot" concealed within it. Microbots will move by rolling, bouncing and hoping from place to place. MIT engineers estimate that any given microbot will be capable of making meter high jumps on a planet with mars like gravity.

Suites of spectrometers, cameras, and other measuring devices will be nested in the heart of a microbot explorer. And although each robot on it's own wont have much by way of memory, communications range, or processing power, together they will accomplish feats no rover can. For instance, to explore areas where long range communication back to the mother ship is impossible, a colony of microbots could link up like a string of pearls or trail of bread crumbs. Each one acting like a WiFi signal repeater, one robot could be talking to NASA from the open air of mars, while one member of the colony is deep under the surface recording and exploring. Also it would now be conceivable to sacrifice a microbot, or ten, or a hundred to explore interesting features that would be inescapable. Such as martian lava tubes or deep craters, where water might be abundant. After a handful of microbots took a one way trip down a lava tube and sent back their finding, the rest of the collective could go on exploring, losing very little of their effectiveness.

There are plenty of terrestrial uses for microbots as well. They could be deployed in disaster areas to search for survivors, sweep hot zones for IEDs, even be sent out to discover portions of our own planet we have yet to fully explore. The MIT team will be testing the first colony of microbots this fall. There is quite a future for hordes of well designed collectively intelligent highly mobile robot colonies. Perhaps they will be the harbingers of human landers and astronaut boots as we make our way across the solar system. Eventually, to explore new worlds, we'll just have to follow the bouncing ball. [Via Robots.net]

Book Review: ECHELON

The original plan was to start off the stream of Memepunks book reviews with this years Hugo Award nominees. But we were contacted just recently by the good folks at Random House, and offered a review copy of of a newly released speculative fiction novel. The theme of the book is government surveillance and data aggregation, two topics very near and dear to our hearts, so of course we agreed. With out further ado... ECHELON


ECHELON is the first novel of author Josh Conviser. The trade paperback weighs in at a 289 pages and retails for 13.95. Although it is a work of speculative fiction/sci-fi, ECHELON has it's roots in the US government's very real electronic surveillance program of the same name. That, combined with the current wiretap scandals and domestic spying programs coming out of Washington, makes ECHELON's theme very poignant.

The novel is set in a not so distance future where the government spy machine has long since graduated from the small potatoes of running any one particular country. Echelon is now a deeply secret almost legendary organization that directs the fate of the world by controlling the the flow of information. The populace live very safe, albeit completely controlled lives. But this isn't the Oceania of Orwell's 1984. There is no jack booted gestapo or shining faced Supreme Leader. Echelon dominates quietly, unseen by the huddled masses. They employ force either by manipulating global military powers, or through the use of highly trained well equipped covert operatives.

The book has some very noticeable flaws, but that is to be expected in a new author's first endeavor. Josh Conviser made his creative bones in Hollywood and that is apparent in much of the writing. The dialog descends into witty banter more often than it should, and combined with the adrenaline soaked action that ensues, the book has a very cinematic feel. Some of the action scenes go over the top or beyond the levels of believability without needing to. For instance, the addition of a Nitrous Oxide element to an already harrowing escape sequence. In addition, occasional instances of Conviser's prose piles up the descriptors to a point that borders on melodrama. He also falls victim to a couple of rookie writing habits, such as using a reflective surface to trigger a characters description.

But the good points of ECHELON greatly outweigh its faults. First off, the characters are what really pull you into the story. The two leads are a duo of Eschelon operatives. One, Ryan Laing is a spy/commando who is augmented with some bleeding edge nanotechnology that makes him super human and nearly indestructible. He begins the story as a gung-ho field agent with a collection of gear that would shame batman. His partner/controller is Sarah Peters, a young but gifted hacker that is constantly immersed in the global flow of data. She is a much more "human" character that is often literally in the back of Ryan's mind. The two of them develop as the story progresses, and their plights succeed in keeping you in the action and turning pages. The supporting cast includes the fatherly Christopher Turing (his name no doubt a tip of the hat to the man himself), head of Echelon. The shadowy administrator Jason Sachs, who oversees Echelon's daily operations and dirty work. And David Madda, Echelon gadget man, a 21st century hybridization of James Bond's Q and Max Headroom's Bryce.

Through out most of the story, you are unsure of who exactly the heroes are, and seeing as all of this is coming from the perspective of a globe controlling intelligence agency, it begs the question are any heroes at all. One of the initial hang ups I had with ECHELON was the moral ambiguity of it. While settling into the book, everything was filtered through the eyes of the Echelon organization. But once things really get moving, not only does Conviser land on solid ground, but he does so without preaching or getting heavy handed. This made the initial skewed perspective even more prevalent to the story.

Truly globetrotting, the settings are varied and interesting, ranging from luxurious wine country, to far east wasteland, to tropical paradise without missing a beat. Reference to adventurous sports abound, including fencing, kayaking and rock climbing scenes. And the technology often takes center stage without stealing the show. Characters are equipped with sonic weapons, lasers, combat suits, railguns etc. Josh has a thing for next generation vehicles too, including hovering "coil bikes", gyroscopic "wheels" that work like supped up Embrios, and even a submarine that can break the sound barrier by traveling within it's own air bubble.

But some of the technology becomes far more than nerd candy or clever plot devices. The nanomachines within Ryan's body are a story element all their own, and a very good one. Conviser paints a unique picture of invasive nanotech, disquieting without being alarmist. The "Flow", which is the virtual reality representation of the collective computer networks of mankind, is much more than window dressing. Indeed, the Flow is the central over riding element of the story, being both the means of Echelon's control, and the proving ground for the worlds future.

In the end, there were two salient points I took away from ECHELON. One is the old debate about security vs. freedom. Something that is now more important than ever. Conviser makes an end run around the choice itself, as to whether we should give up one for the other. Instead, he presents us with a future where the powers that be are more than willing to make that choice for us. The other was the leap that Conviser makes from the old school of cyberpunk. ECHELON demonstrates that the future is about much more than connectivity and information. The real golden apple isn't the machines or the bits inside of them. It's about the dissemination of the information, the aggregation of the data into something useful, or misleading or powerful. We are beginning to leave behind the age of information and move on to the age of relevance and understanding. ECHELON has fun telling us that it just might be a bumpy ride.

Well done Mr. Conviser. As first novels go, you've come through with flying colors. We at Memepunks are already waiting to read the next one. 3.5 Memestars.




"Thousands can see it. If they can't tell millions, it doesn't exist."
"Truth tempered by dissemination" - ECHELON

Taste the Future

There is something prehistoric about human beings eating meat. Despite our cultural advances, when it comes right down to it, a steak is still the result of a slaughtered cow and some fire. The problems with the historical meat model are many; Diseases like mad cow, famine in places that lack substantial farming, the health factor of fatty meats, not to mention hordes of dead animals. A small percentage of the population work themselves out of the equation by foregoing meat entirely. However, most of us still like a good steak or a juicy hamburger now and again, not to mention a chicken wing or a slice of bacon. So why is the meat business still struggling with the industrial revolution while other major commodities are already moving to hyper industrialization or new models entirely?

Part of the problem is the "ethics" of meat. The other hurdle, like with the farming of food crops, is that some people simply have an aversion to science encroaching on their dinner table. But despite a few stumbling blocks, there are some people working to bring meat out of the dark ages. The first tentative steps were taken over a decade ago in Europe, when Marlow developed a product called Quorn. Quorn is relatively new in the states, but Europe has been enjoying it for years. It's remarkably like chicken, but contains no real meat at all. Quorn is actually mycoprotein, derived from a previously obscure fungus and fermented in massive bioreactors for your dining pleasure. It may not sound appetizing, but I am told that Quorn is far more like real meat than any other substitutes, and loads more "authentic" than products made from soy.
I will be picking some up after posting this article and giving Quorn the Pepsi challenge.

Wired covered Quorns emergence into American kitchens back in 2002, and results were mostly positive. There was a dust up over Quorns original claims that it was made from mushrooms. But a quick look at their website tells you that the makers of Quorn are now proud of it's high tech mycoprotein roots. But although Quorn solves some of the problems with the meat model, it's not really playing by the rules. Deliciousness aside, although similar to meat, products like Quorn and the new Valess are still just synthetic meat substitutes. So where are the T-bones of he future?

They are currently taking shape inside Dutch bioreactors and labs in Maryland and Hawai'i, if New Harvest has anything to say about it. The Dutch government recently allocated $2.5 million for research into growing real meat from cell cultures on an industrial scale. Lead by Professor Henk Haagsman of Utrecht University, the dutch team is attempting to grow minced pork meat from pig stem cells in mass quantities. They predict successful results by 2009. In Hawai'i, Tissue Genesis' vice president of engineering Paul Kosnick, believes that with the proper funding a vat grown meat product would be possible within five years.

Jason Mathery, director of New Harvest and a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, envisions scores of industrial bioreactors. Some for producing the originating stem cells, some for producing the medium that the meat will have to be grown in, and some actually growing the meat in thin sheets to be layered into finished products. This would eliminate all of the overhead of running an old school animal farm. And in fact could take place inside any suitable structure from first cells to final product. No longer would the third world have to worry about good grazing lands or diseased animals. And test tube meat is an order of magnitude more efficient than the animal variety. With the animal, you have a whole life cycle to worry about, and all the energy that goes into keeping a fully living body in healthy shape. But in the lab, you only need to see to the needs of the actual tissues being grown for consumption. Mathery says;

"To produce the meat we eat now, 75 (percent) to 95 percent of what we feed an animal is lost because of metabolism and inedible structures like skeleton or neurological tissue. With cultured meat, there's no body to support; you're only building the meat that eventually gets eaten."

This may sound ghastly to some of you, but Jason has a very interesting way to look at it.

"We already eat meat that's processed in vats - chicken nuggets. But if we grow a better steak using cell cultures, we could give it the fat content of salmon, eliminate pathogens like salmonella, and save tens of millions of animals a year. Sure cultured meat isn't natural But neither are the processes for creating cheese or wine - not to mention stuffing 10,000 into a metal shed and pumping them with drugs."

One of the big positives in cultivated meat is that we could decide on its make up as it was being made. Beef, pork, chicken or what have you could be a hundred times more healthy than its "natural" counterpart. It could also be grown to specific compositions, textures, and tastes. I could foresee a time when meat cultivation centers become as famous for particular cultures of meat, just like certain vineyards are now renowned for their unique wines. And why stop there. What's to say that you couldn't put a microwave sized bioreactor in every kitchen, where tomorrow's New York Strip could be grown to order today.

It would be healthier, more plentiful, made to suit individual tastes, dead animal free, and available anywhere you had some floor space and some sunlight. When New Havest starts passing out the cultivated vat grown cheese burgers at the 2009 BBQ, I'll be a the head of the line. Until then, I suppose we'll have to get our delicious beef the old fashioned way. Bon appetit! [via Wired]


"The flesh. It should make the computer crazy, like those old ladies pinching babies. But it doesn't, not yet. I haven't taught it to be made crazy by the flesh, the poultry, the steak. So I'm going to start teaching it now!" - Seth Brundle

State of The Blog

As you know, we will soon be unbanned in India, as we are moving the blog to a legit web host, and officially taking up residence at www.memepunks.com for good. (no more domain forwarding). Our original plan was to ease up on the posts, work really hard at getting the CSS, Wordpress, and graphic elements under control. Then get the site moved over ASAP. However, the amount of content we were maintaining during that time was unacceptable. So, we are going to slow down the transition process a bit. Hopefully still being able to get everything up and ready by August 1st, but also keeping the posts coming strong in the mean time. Thanks to all of you for your patience, thanks for sticking with us through the slow spots, and as they say in the country where we are banned... Namaste.