Halloween

Here are a few quick shots from our Halloween around here. That's Doug A. in my Superman costume and me as a Sandman from Logan's Run. Gina Looks so good in that Jessica costume. This picture does not do Gina or the costume justice at all. Am I Francis from the movie, or am I Logan from the TV show? The answer is . . . it makes no difference at all, because when I wore the costume to work today, out of the entire company only two or three other employees knew what a Sandman was or had ever even heard of Logan's Run . . . dammit.

Microscopic "Tractor Beam"

This is actually another substantial breakthrough because it has the potential to lead to more precise testing and more, even bigger, breakthroughs, not least of all for neural electronic interfaces.

On another note, I'm sorry for the recent lack of posts here, but I've been ill. For the first time in a long while I managed to get a hell of a sore throat but I'm shaking it off finally.

The Prize is won!

Universal Turing Machine Is Proved!
This is a major breakthrough that of course the mainstream media is just too plain stupid to recognize. (There I said it!) What is noteworthy here is how long it didn't take and how simple the actual machine itself can be.
From the article:

"I had no idea how long it would take before the prize was won. A month? A year? A decade? A century? Perhaps the question was even formally undecidable (say from the usual axioms of mathematics).

But today I am thrilled to be able to announce that after only five months the prize is won--and we have answer: the Turing machine is in fact universal!

Alex Smith--a 20-year-old undergraduate from Birmingham, UK--has produced a 40-page proof."

Finding Jesus.

Good news everyone, I found Jesus!
Turns out he's been back for awhile now and has been hanging out at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
He looked good.
I spoke with him a bit and he was nice.
He says he likes the fair and that he just feels more comfortable hanging out there. I asked him about the world of today and he said that it was cool but that people should take more responsibility for themselves and their actions.
Also he suggest that everyone should read more Science Fiction.
I asked him about some of the things people have done in his name over the last 2000 plus years and he was somber.
He said, "Listen, did you ever play telephone? You know, where everyone stands in a circle and the first person whispers a message to the next person and the next person whispers it to the person after them, and so on, passing it along, and then you see how the message has changed by the time it reaches the last person?"
I said, "sure".
"Well" he said, "try playing that over two thousand years, and half a dozen languages, and see what you get."
I said that I saw his point.
Then he went off to drink some more.

Proof . . . that it's all baloney!

That's the thing about baloney, no matter which way you cut it, no matter how thin you slice it, or what else you serve with it
. . . it's still baloney.

Oh, and also, censorship is bad.

Bypassing the debate on Global Warming.

I like the idea of bypassing the nay saying and finger pointing and just figuring out what we need to do. Also I easily see myself employing this technique in my arsenal of decision making tools.

Stand by to engage the cloaking device.

Even those of us original Trek fans who bought into warp drive and phasers thought the cloaking device was more fantasy than science fiction. Yet here we are. Note the casual reference in the article to the "technological singularity". It's not even a question of 'if' anymore but simply 'when'.

Staggering . . . !!!!

Juan Enriquez: Decoding the future with genomics




Watch this over and over . . . until you get it.

A little food for thought this week

Here are some of what I think are the top science stories this week. Notice that in most of these the news is current or in the very near future. We're not talking about speculation for the next thirty years, but within the next three years.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will join scientists from SETI
The first mission for the Allen Telescope Array will be to scan several billion stars across a vast swath of our own Milky Way galaxy, said astronomer Seth Shostak, of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. That broad-brush survey will be followed in the coming years by detailed examinations of a million stars — a quantum leap in coverage of celestial real estate. In the 45 years since scientists first started looking for signals from alien worlds, only about 750 stars have gotten such close scrutiny.
"This is an exponential increase in speed," Shostak said.

Craig Venter is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
The announcement, which is expected within weeks . . .
The Guardian can reveal that a team of 20 top scientists assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.


University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.
The researchers created this new composite plastic with a machine they developed that builds materials one nanoscale layer after another.

Darpa hatches plan for insect cyborgs to fly reconnaissance
Cyborg insects with embedded microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) will run remotely controlled reconnaissance missions for the military, if its '"HI-MEMS" program succeeds.
Insect swarms with various sorts of different embedded MEMS sensors--video cameras, audio microphones, chemical sniffers and more--could then penetrate enemy territory in swarms to perform reconnaissance missions impossible or too dangerous for soldiers.

Snake and Greg Hastings

Here is a shot from this past weekend. That's me as Snake and Greg Hastings.
I had a really good time and I have to say that I was impressed by mister Hastings positive attitude and kindness. The guy just seeps positive energy, plus (as you might expect) he's a really excellent Paintball player. I ran along with him during one of the scenario sessions and I learned a lot just doing that. Also while everyone else was focused on Paintball, I was able to focus on the scenario and I wound up as the guy with the suitcase. So we ended up with the actual guy who was dressed as Snake Plissken running around the Paintball field with the suitcase.
Much fun was had by all.

On Faith presents "The Problem with Atheism" by Sam Harris

This is a bit long but certainly worth reading.
Hat tip to Posthuman Blues and KurzweilAI for pointing this out.

Detective Gina

Today is Gina's first day on a set as a member of SAG.
She's working as a stand in, as a detective and I think she said a CSI investigator.
I don't even remember what the show is, she's put in for so many. She keeps making plans and then having to rearrange or cancel them as jobs and other things come up.
For the record - she's never been happier.

Paintball this coming Saturday

I'll be playing Paintball this coming Saturday at the new "Cousins" field John O. is now managing in Staten Island.
October 6+7 they're having a 2 day scenario event at the field.
It's "Greg Hasting's Escape from New York".
The address of the field is 2727 Arthur Kill Road, Staten Island NY 10309.
Prepaid cost for the 2 days will be $49.99 per person.
Walk-ins will be $60 per day.
Paint is $79.99 for a case of 2000. Field Paint only!!
Play runs from 9:00 to 4:00.

Runner Update

I did it. I just finished running slightly over a mile.
You know, to the best of my memory, I don't think I have ever been able to run a full mile.
It's silly, I suppose, I mean I know it's not a major accomplishment or anything, but this makes me very happy. I had tried it again yesterday morning but my legs let me know in short order that they were having none of it after my last couple of runs, so I settled for a brisk walk.
I am, after all, not a teenager anymore.
Now I just want to maintain the distance and do it until it gets a little more comfortable.