I'm back...

I am back after being sick most of the weekend. And instead of doing homework, like I was supposed to, I found a new diversion: Eve Online - I downloaded the Free Trial and I am fascinated by it's complexity, which is probably why most people don't like it. I think I am hooked. I hope my grades don't suffer... NAWH!

Anyway, here are some more of the new developments I love:

• Cesar: Geek out your powerwheels - Autonomous kid cars, this is very cool.
• Longest Piece of Synthetic DNA Yet - DNA synthesis is really taking off!
• Nano-Prospecting - Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), which includes Halliburton Energy Services, BP America, and ConocoPhilips, will continue to put millions into a sinking ship, and disregard the impact to the environment. Sadly shortsighted.
• Richard Branson’s Remarks at the SpaceShipTwo Unveiling - Richard Branson is indeed a visionary, and one who's wealth can make a significant difference in the world for the better.
• The Coming Wave of Gadgets That Listen and Obey - It is interesting that DNA is proving easier to engineer than voice recognition...Hmmmmmm.
• Universal Influenza Vaccine Tested Successfully In Humans - This is great news! I hope that illness and aging will soon, like 15-20 years, be a thing of the past.
• Scientists hit back at Catholic church over 'cybrids' - Why is the Catholic Church always in other peoples business? It's as if they think, "If it's not good for us, It's not good for anyone, and should be banned!" They refuse to be educated on the issue, and tend to twist what little they actually understand all around for their own skewed, anti-science purposes. If they truly believe in respecting our common humanity, they would allow scientific progress that alleviates suffering and death, as human cloning shows just this sort of promise. I say get over it and help these people, instead of getting in the way for all the wrong reasons!
• Microchips Everywhere: a Future Vision - The concept of privacy is just a short term experiment. It came with the invention of Industrialization and developed as cities grew and as individuals left the small village, where everyone knew your business, to the city where you were just a faceless citizen in the collective crowd. I believe monitoring is all right, even desirable, as long as it works both ways. The monitoring agencies need to be monitored as completely and deeply as we are monitored by them. If you want to know what I do in the "privacy" of my own home, go ahead, but don't hold it against me, don't be offended, don't force me to change, because I am doing the same to you! The surveillance must be equal or the balance of power is lopsided and broken. Secrecy is the true problem, not privacy. Transparency can be very distopian or utopian, its our choice.

Hope you all have a great day!