Archive for November, 2010
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »TSA To Implement Cattle Prod Wielding Robots
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 20, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, November 20th, 2010Okay. Maybe that’s a few years away.
 This is a still from a video of a training session with the new TSA robots. |
I’m not at all ashamed to admit that I have a profound fear of flying. It’s not that I’m afraid of flying per sé; in fact, I’ve skydived, gone hang gliding, been in a hot air balloon, and actually love being in any kind of flying vehicle. If I could afford it, I’d love to get a pilot’s license. No, my fear of flying is a very recent development, and is restricted to a fear of flying on a major airline, especially in America. Mostly because I’m afraid of how I’d react to the latest advancements in TSA procedures. And so really I guess my fear is for the well-being of TSA personnel. I really, really do not understand people who accept the newly-instituted TSA pat-down policies. I mean, I can understand why President Obama says they’re frustrating but necessary, and why John Boehner brags he’ll be flying commercial airlines more than his predecessor. Obama gets to go straight from Air Force One to Cadillac One, and Boehner – like other politicians – is exempted from all the ass-grabbing going on. What I don’t understand is why apparently 4 out of 5 Americans support the new scanners. It’s hard to decide which recent incidents are most appalling. The woman who had her breasts exposed while agents laughed? The 4-year-old boy who was strip searched? Or in light of the UCSF scientists’ letter highlighting radiation risks, perhaps the recovering cancer patients like Thomas Sawyer, who had his urostomy bag knocked loose, leaving him covered in urine, or the former flight attendant and breast cancer survivor who was forced to remove her prosthetic breast. Or maybe the absurdity of patriotic soldiers returning from the wars that are supposed to be saving us from the terrorists having their nail clippers confiscated. Keep in mind this was one of 233 people toting assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns. For a much saner and complete roundup by an actual security expert, see this Bruce Schneier post from the other day. More images and video below. Read the rest of this entry »
The Nissan iV Replaces Production Lines With Production Vines
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 19, 2010 by admin in Clean & Green
Friday, November 19th, 2010You may grow tired of looking at the swooping contours of concept cars, but with the Nissan iV the only thing you’ll grow is the car itself. It’s green because it’s made of ivy.
I think I’ve found the perfect car to drive on that solar highway that I reference whenever I can because I can’t believe it doesn’t get more press. Even if you’re into auto design, your eyes eventually grow immune to the dazzling swoopy contours of the concept cars like the ones presented at this year’s LA Auto Show . Although one assumes the designs are driven by aerodynamics, you eventually begin to feel that they’re just seeing how many swoops they can include in a design and still have it look like a car. At first glance, the Nissan iV gives the same impression, but if you look into the reasons behind the iV’s design, you find a mind-blowing futuristic functionality. Even the most sophisticated cars in production right now are still based on the basic idea of wheels on rods, with a box sitting on top. One of the most unusual design elements of the iV – the ribbon of material weaving through the wheels – is in fact brilliant functionality. You see, there’s no “hood” on this car, because there’s no engine compartment. The motors are in the wheels, freeing the design of all the additional structures necessary to hold an engine in a box and link it with a transmission, driveshaft, and gearing. But that’s just the beginning. The “biopolymer” chassis material is synthetically grown and formed from fast-growing ivy, and re-enforced with spider silk composite. Because of the lightweight yet rugged material used in the chassis, the interior (which seats four) provides a panoramic passenger experience, because it’s constructed from photovoltaic material that weighs 99% less than traditional glass. The car’s incredible range is because most of the body is a solar collector, and regenerative “super-capacitor” technology recoups 60% of the kinetic energy spent while the car is in motion. If this is the future, I’m sticking around. More images below. Read the rest of this entry »
Yeah Yeah Yeah. The Beatles Are On iTunes
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 18, 2010 by admin in Music
Thursday, November 18th, 2010The long and winding road to digital music sales for the Beatles began with one Apple, and ends with another.
The word is that the day before yesterday, after a decade long wait, the Beatles catalog finally became available on iTunes. Should we care? Well, Todd Martens of the LA Times has some reasons why we shouldn’t. Personally, you won’t see me rushing to download a bunch of Beatles songs for a price 30% higher than anything else on iTunes. But I’m not trying to persuade anyone one way or the other; I prefer you think for yourself. Except you may have noticed I’m playing a little game of trying to sprinkle Beatles song titles into what I’m saying, because I’ll make money if you follow the links and buy something. After a few sentences, you’d think I’d be getting better at it, but clearly I’m not. So I will stop now. But that silliness I just engaged in is an example of something you might want to ponder. Releasing this material on iTunes really means only one thing. Revenue. And for whom? Certainly not the two Beatles that many would agree were the cool ones. And certainly not Michael Jackson, who owned half of the publishing rights. No, in my opinion, this is the big lumbering thud of the money tree of the old music industry falling. It’s ironic to ponder that without the business model that devoured the Beatles’ profits as artists and fueled the decades of legal wrangling over them, the Beatles would probably not have even existed, let alone become the legend that they now are. And then, you wouldn’t be able to buy every song over and over and over in endless re-re-releases including absurdities like a $299 Apple-shaped USB stick
Indian Microcredit Industry About To Collapse?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 17, 2010 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010In spite of the feelgood vibe associated with microfunding for the economically challenged people of the world, no-one’s going to be singing “Tiny Bubbles” if India’s massive microlending industry bubble bursts.
 Even with microlending, there are always strings attached. |
Wow. Just when I had stopped worrying about how the collapse of Ireland’s economy might trigger the broader collapse of the global economy (it turns out Ireland’s economy isn’t dead, it’s just resting ), now I have to worry about the collapse of India’s economy. After watching America’s banking system get gutted by smart rich guys loaning tons of money to people to buy houses they couldn’t afford, SOMEONE should have noticed the potential for the same to happen with the massive microcredit industry in India. The parallels are actually rather remarkable, except the consequences are much more dramatic. This Globe And Mail piece politely refers to how the poorly-regulated microloan industry in India has resorted to “usurious interest rates and coercive means” to operate. Meaning they’ve apparently been operating much like the local loan sharks everyone was happy to see them replace. This has led to suicides by microcredit-bankrupted individuals who are now being urged by Indian legislators to “strategically default”. Which then gives the banks a fright, because they’re exposed to the tune of $4 billion on all of this lending. The tragic thing on the human end of this scenario? The worst of these overextended borrowers who are choosing suicide as a solution may only owe as little as $2,000. Too bad the Gates Foundation and others didn’t speak up sooner about how the microcredit model was so flawed. For a refresher on how this sort of crisis can play out, see the graphic below. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Johnny Can’t Read
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 16, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010Or write. Or think critically. Or contribute anything useful to society. But will probably make a good foreclosure robosigner.
I’ve longed for years to arrive at this point in my life. The point where I begin the early stages of my planned curmudgeonliness, and spend all my time complaining about “young whipper-snappers”, and how “by golly, we didn’t do things that way in MY day“. As a ninth grade dropout who remains without a degree but would have loved a different life in which I had either had less arrogance or more firm guidance as a teen with an above-average IQ, I’ve spent much of my adult life lamenting the sad de-evolution of education. The focus on test-score-driven funding and the creation of “degree mills” has left us surrounded by an amazingly dumb and inarticulate group of 18 to 24-year-olds. It’s vaguely appropriate that they’re already being called Generation Z, because their brains are obviously snagging a few. The recent flap at UCF involving widespread cheating was telling enough in its own way, and I think it’s already common knowledge that the students of the last couple decades confuse learning with the relocation of information. As is evident in the success of the term paper mills that have been making news since at least 2006. What is probably even more telling in the case of the Florida cheating scandal though, is the students’ reactions. They of course are trying to assert that cheating is “simply how it’s done these days“, and blaming the professor. I’m going to let this little bunch of morally decrepit miscreants speak for themselves. Being the cute little Digital Natives that they are, they’ve saved me some video embedding by doing it all on their school news website with a piece called UCF Students Give Their Side in Cheating Scandal With Video. I think you should pay special attention to the Quinn Confrontation video, brought to you by a young gentleman (or “fuckstick”, as a friend of mine referred to him) named Logan Herlihy. Herlihy is probably destined for success in cable news. He seems to be comfortable confusing news with vapid sensationalism, and as he says on his ModelMayhem page: “as cheezy as it may sound I really believe my body is my temple. I come from a great genetic line my grandfather and mother were both film stars and my mother and father were both international models back in the 70′s“. Reading that kind of self-assessment makes me think that while the educational system gets rid of that psyche-scarring “D” as a grade, we should add a new letter. “P”. For “precious”.