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Home Mr Technical Freelance Pedestrian Home Feed aggregator Re:Religious Rights for homophobes Church of Virus - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 17:35 Quote:[Mo] Articulating the WTF? justification to coming out of the closet . . . about anything really, but homosexuality in this particular case. That*s not to say staying in the closet on Facebook can*t be done. It*s possible, as long as you*re willing to work it like a full-time job. Keeping an eagle eye on tagged photos, pushing Facebook*s customizable privacy options to their capacity, swooping in to delete unapproved comments and wall posts, refraining from posting the new Beyonce video even though it*s so fabulous*all in a day*s work. But whereas in the recent past, being in the closet wasn*t that much work once you were out of your parents* house, now it requires real effort. Closeted people can*t just watch their own behavior anymore: they have to monitor and somehow orchestrate the behavior of others, 24 hours a day, in real time. In spite of all the painstaking labor that goes into being secretly gay in the age of information sharing, my advice to Joe to get off Facebook was mostly facetious. Clearly, that isn*t a feasible option. Facebook is now an integral part of our culture. Its precipitous growth is owed to the fact that it works only if it*s massive. The more people participate, the more utility it has, and the more utility it has, the more compulsory participation becomes. Your technophobic aunt is on Facebook not because she wants to be but because she feels she has to be, and she kind of does. Joe is 27; to sit out of Facebook is to be seen as a Luddite or, heaven forbid, the type of pretentious jackass who opts out of anything deemed to be too mainstream. Worse still, he would miss out on my status updates, which, if I do say so, are wryly observant and quite hilarious. Many gays and lesbians will never get actively involved in the fight for equal rights. They may never take part in a march or a protest, and coming out to their friends and loved ones will be the most daring and progressive act they ever commit. But its impact can*t be underestimated. According to a Gallup poll released last week, American support of gay and lesbian relationships crossed the symbolic 50 percent mark; just over half of respondents called them morally acceptable, and those who found them morally wrong dropped to the lowest percentage (43 percent) in a decade. It*s not a stretch to assume that this trend is owed, at least in part, to brave men and women coming out and forcing those around them to confront and reconcile their prejudices. A close friend of mine, from whom I kept my sexuality for years, apologizes to this day for having made me feel I couldn*t tell her. She credits me with shifting her attitudes about gays and lesbians; when forced to choose between my awesome friendship and her bigotry, she made the obvious choice.That*s not to say staying in the closet on Facebook can*t be done. It*s possible, as long as you*re willing to work it like a full-time job. Keeping an eagle eye on tagged photos, pushing Facebook*s customizable privacy options to their capacity, swooping in to delete unapproved comments and wall posts, refraining from posting the new Beyonce video even though it*s so fabulous*all in a day*s work. But whereas in the recent past, being in the closet wasn*t that much work once you were out of your parents* house, now it requires real effort. Closeted people can*t just watch their own behavior anymore: they have to monitor and somehow orchestrate the behavior of others, 24 hours a day, in real time. Categories: Transhumanism Re:Religious Rights for homophobes Church of Virus - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 14:06 [Mo]More recent gay-hating political activities of Tony Perkins and the "Family Research Council". For a supposedly straight man, he sure does spend a lot of money and effort to fight and kill gays. CHRISTIAN LOVE: Family Research Council Lobbied Congress Against Resolution Denouncing Uganda's Kill Gays Bill click on link for images of relevant documents and commentary. http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/06/christian-love-family-research-council.html It's time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to reclassify the Family Research Council as an official hate group, not merely anti-gay as they are now listed. According to the FRC's official lobbying report for the first quarter of 2010, they paid two of their henchmen $25,000 to lobby Congress against approving a resolution denouncing Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals. The resolution passed in the Senate on April 13th, but remains languishing in the House almost four months after being referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee. Did the FRC's lobbying kill it? As we learned last week with Malawi, international pressure CAN sway even the most virulently anti-gay government. Below are three screencaps of the 20-page Family Research Council lobbying report supplied to me by Duncan Osbourne at Gay City News. Among the other items they lobbied against are the overturn of DADT and DOMA, which is to be expected. But it's almost astounding, almost, that they would lobby the members of Congress against denouncing the death penalty for LGBT people. THIS needs to fucking THROWN in Tony Perkins' and Peter Sprigg's smirking faces the next time they appear on cable television to speak in soothing voices about the FRC's godly gentle love for homosexuals. The proof is right below on official United States government stationery. The Family Research Council wants you DEAD. Glory! Praise His Name! Also: Die, faggots, die! Categories: Transhumanism Re:Religious Rights for homophobes Church of Virus - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 14:06 [Mo]More recent gay-hating political activities of Tony Perkins and the "Family Research Council". For a supposedly straight man, he sure does spend a lot of money and effort to fight and kill gays. CHRISTIAN LOVE: Family Research Council Lobbied Congress Against Resolution Denouncing Uganda's Kill Gays Bill click on link for images of relevant documents and commentary. http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/06/christian-love-family-research-council.html It's time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to reclassify the Family Research Council as an official hate group, not merely anti-gay as they are now listed. According to the FRC's official lobbying report for the first quarter of 2010, they paid two of their henchmen $25,000 to lobby Congress against approving a resolution denouncing Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals. The resolution passed in the Senate on April 13th, but remains languishing in the House almost four months after being referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee. Did the FRC's lobbying kill it? As we learned last week with Malawi, international pressure CAN sway even the most virulently anti-gay government. Below are three screencaps of the 20-page Family Research Council lobbying report supplied to me by Duncan Osbourne at Gay City News. Among the other items they lobbied against are the overturn of DADT and DOMA, which is to be expected. But it's almost astounding, almost, that they would lobby the members of Congress against denouncing the death penalty for LGBT people. THIS needs to fucking THROWN in Tony Perkins' and Peter Sprigg's smirking faces the next time they appear on cable television to speak in soothing voices about the FRC's godly gentle love for homosexuals. The proof is right below on official United States government stationery. The Family Research Council wants you DEAD. Glory! Praise His Name! Also: Die, faggots, die! Categories: Transhumanism Re:unscheduled downtime Church of Virus - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 13:59 According to Lucifer we were down starting at about 5AM CST yesterday (6/4). Much of today I couldn't get through, until now. Looks like it was up and running a little over an hour ago (about 15:45 CST) I understand it was due to network problems. Perhaps some weasels ripped through some wires or something. I'm glad its fixed now. -Mo Categories: Transhumanism Scientists create artificial mini 'black hole' Kurzweilai.net - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 01:15 Scientists from China have built a device using metamaterial structures that can trap and absorb microwaves coming from all directions with a 99% absorption rate -- a property that makes the device simulate, to some extent, an astrophysical black hole. A model of the electromagnetic omnidirectional absorber, in which electromagnetic waves hitting the cylinder bend spirally in the shell region, and become trapped and absorbed by the lossy core. (Right) A photograph of the device, which is composed of 60 concentric layers of copper-coated metamaterials. (Institute of Physics) The device could have applications such as collecting microwaves and energies in free space, or as a source of thermal emission, since the device converts electromagnetic energy into heat energy. The researchers also plan to develop a device that works with visible light. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news194788240.html) Categories: Transhumanism Advanced Robotic Arm Controlled by Monkey's Thoughts Kurzweilai.net - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 00:36 Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have taught a monkey to use its thoughts to control an advanced robotic arm with seven degrees of freedom and perform elaborate and precise maneuvers with it. Sensors implanted in the hand and arm areas of its motor cortex send data to a computer that translates the patterns into commands that control the robotic arm. Researchers hope to one day be able to use the research to engineer and operate advanced prosthetics in a natural way to help paralyzed people live a close to normal life. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news194796581.html) Categories: Transhumanism The most depressing story about Faith Healing you'll read The Antichristian Phenomenon - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 00:35 Reddit delivers again, this time from the personal experience of one redditor with the Mega-conman Benny Hinn. The whole story is very cringe-worthy, particularly the way that people are manipulated shamelessly and then blamed for the lack of success. Some choice quotes that made my eyes pop in surprise. We sat next to a latino family who, by the looks of their clothes, did not have a pot to piss in. Upon the first offertory (and there were 4 offertories that evening), the family father cut a check for $3500 and slipped it into the lock box carried by one of the three dozen visibly armed ushers. Each lock box had a sign on the front reading, Suggested Donation: $1000.00. The family gave additional money each time the lock box went by, but I am not sure how much. Which is a perfect example why the poor in very religious countries have so much more difficuly rising out of poverty. The fact that the scum that is Benny Hinn can accept such donations for nothing more than a stage show is sickening. Well, the old lady who fell was crying. Not because she injured herself. But because the men in blue told her (according to one of the Pepsi Center employees who allowed us to stand nearby) that she couldn't be healed because her faith in God was not 100%. She was told to stand against the wall until she confessed to God that her faith was shaken and be forgiven for it, or confess the sin she was hiding that was preventing God from healing her. A sixtysomething woman, bawling her eyes out (old people crying really gets me). This is the face of fucking evil folks. This is what you indirectly support as a moderate christian who tolerates faith healing nonsense just because you can't bring yourself to admit that your God is not omnipotent. Fuck. This. Shit. It wouldn't be as bad if it was simply foolish people losing their money to a professional conman and thus taking themselves out of the social pool in a Darwinian sense (although that's pretty bad anyway.) It's the fact that a scum like Benny Hinn achieves so much financial power that he can easily start lobbying politicians for policies that benefit him (even scarier, imagine politicians actually attending and believing his shows...) and he can purchase and control actual capitalist businesses and run them according to his greedy-scummy nature. More Antichristianity: Child medical neglect on religious grounds | Number of the scout | A bad case of Racism Eat less, live longer? Kurzweilai.net - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 00:07 A new "dietary restriction" (not just calorie restriction) theory about how diet affects aging suggests that the drop in calories is not solely responsible for lifespan extension -- in some species at least, perhaps it is also the accompanying drop in dietary protein. Protein restriction is much less difficult to maintain than calorie restriction and may be more powerful in reducing insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in humans (a promoter of aging), says Luigi Fontana, a professor of medicine at Washington University and head of the Division of Nutrition and Aging at the Italian National Institute of Health. Fontana draws his conclusions from his studies of people who are practicing calorie restriction ("CRONies" -- short for Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition). Vegans and vegetarians have another advantage: proteins in meat and other animal products have high levels of methionine; studies show that cutting methionine lengthens life to a similar degree as calorie restriction. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627621.100-eat-less-live-longer.html?full=true) Categories: Transhumanism Part-human, part-machine transistor devised Kurzweilai.net - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 23:19 University of California, Merced scientists have embedded a carbon nanotube-based transistor inside a lipid bilayer (cell-like membrane) and powered it with an ion pump and a solution of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to fuel the ion pump. Artist's representation of a new transistor that's contained within a cell-like membrane (Scott Dougherty, LLNL) The research could lead to new types of man-machine interactions where embedded devices could relay information about the inner workings of disease-related proteins or toxins inside the cell membrane, and eventually even treat diseases. It could also lead to new ways to read, and even influence, brain or nerve cells. The headline is misleading -- the device is simply biomimetic. - Ed. (Source: http://news.discovery.com/tech/transistor-cell-membrane-machine.html) Categories: Transhumanism 8 Scientists Share $3 Million in Prizes Kurzweilai.net - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 22:04 Winners of the annual $1 million Kavli Prize in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience this year include Nadrian C. Seeman of New York University for structural DNA for use as nanorobots or in a DNA computer, Donald M. Eigler of IBM's Almaden Research Center for picking up a single atom and moving it precisely to a different location, and Thomas Su:dhof of the Stanford School of Medicine, Richard H. Scheller of Genentech and James E. Rothman of Yale, for work on the molecular basis of nervous transmission. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/science/04kavli.html) Categories: Transhumanism Artificial Astronomer Analyzes Galaxies Almost As Well As We Do Singularity Hub - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 19:00 Elliptical, spiral, and irregular galaxies. AI can recognize them all. Scientists are teaching an artificial intelligence how to classify galaxies imaged by telescopes like the Hubble. Manda Banerji at the University of Cambridge along with researchers at University College London, Johns Hopkins and elsewhere, has succeeded in getting the program to agree with human analysis at an impressive rate of more than 90%. Banerji used data from Galaxy Zoo, a massive online project which has used more than 250,000 volunteers to analyze more than 60 million galaxies. The new automated astronomer will help with even larger analytical projects on the horizon, taking care of trivial classifications and leaving the tough cases to humans. Man and machine, working together to conquer the universe. You gotta love it. Some of the upcoming classification projects are...well...astronomical in size. The Dark Energy Survey will look at some 300M galaxies while VISTA is going to map the entire Navigation southern hemisphere. These are just two examples of large scale astronomy projects. Even with crowd-sourcing initiatives like Galaxy Zoo, humans are simply not going to be able * Blogs to analyze all of this data as fast as it's coming in. Banerji is involved with both * Search projects so its no wonder she was looking for some automation to help her out. * Feed aggregator * Categories Scientists have been turning to automated solutions with some impressive results * Sources recently. We've told you about Eureqa, a program which analyzes data to come up with the underlying equations that explain a phenomena. There's also Adam, a robot which actually User login performs tedious biology experiments and makes original discoveries. The artificial astronomy, however, is simultaneously grander and simpler than either of these other Username: * projects. The data sets it reviews will be enormous, millions of digitized images to ________________ classify. Yet it won't be generating fundamental equations about the universe, or coming Password: * up with original ideas. It's a sorting algorithm. ________________ [ Log in ] A very sophisticated sorting algorithm. Banerji and the rest of the team programmed the * Create new astronomy AI to analyze galaxies for color, variations in brightness, and texture. Each account of these variables has a general correspondence to different types of galaxies (i.e. * Request new elliptical, spiral, irregular). With enough training, the AI can look at all its password variables and make a guess as to the most likely classification for the galaxy. Mr. Technical's This is completely different than what people typically do. You or I will look at an Facebook Links image and quickly classify a galaxy by recognizing the patterns of its shape. Despite the difference, the computer's method of classification agreed with Galaxy Zoo results * OFFICIAL more than 90% of the time. As described in the online paper on the subject (to be RELEASE: published by the Royal Astronomical Society), the computer was able to achieve this INTERNATIONAL success even when its training wasn't complete. That is, it could use a relatively few DAY OF SLAYER number of examples to learn how to classify galaxies like a pro. CELEBRATES YEAR FOUR ON Astronomy is a data-heavy science, but it's far from being the only one. Genetics is 06/06/2010 | right up there as well, and we're soon going to have mountains of sequenced DNA to The Official analyze with the advent of cheap whole genome sequencing. Projects like the artificial Slay astronomer are likely to be matched by even more sophisticated programs ready to tackle * Odds are about the next generation of massive analytical problems. I think its promising that these 1-in-3 that first rounds of AIs are likely to need human assistance in a small fraction of their mega-earthquake work. Putting man and machine together to classify images is a great idea. Looking will hit forward, however, there's little doubt that the human fraction is going to continue to Pacific get smaller. Banerji is already looking to improve the astronomy program. Eventually Northwest in computers may take over so much analysis that humans will be needed for very little of next 50 years, it. What happens then? Maybe rampant unemployment and world-wide chaos, or maybe we'll scientists s reach an age when human scientists are empowered to tackle any creative endeavor they * I, Lobot: A Day want to pursue. Automation and science - Best. Feedback Loop. Ever. In The Life of Lando [image credit: Hubble Heritage via Manda Banerji] Calrissian's [source: Banerji Webpage, Banerji et al 2010(ArXiv/RAS), MSNBC, Galaxy Zoo] Assistant * BP Disaster: Related Posts: Oil reaches * Adam The Robot Scientist Makes Its First Discovery Louisiana * Computers To Take Human Jobs, Shutdown Global Economy? Get Ford's Book Free marshlands - * Eureqa - Software to Replace Scientists Boing Boing * Factory, Schmactory, My Life Sciences Lab Has Been Automated for Years (video) * UK government * Complete Genomics and ISB Team Up for Huge Whole Genome Study promises immediate, Categories: Transhumanism sweeping, pro-liberty Cyberwarfare - Virtual Attacks Could Come From Anywhere reform - Boing Boing Singularity Hub - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 09:37 more Virtual war room: Insert cyber warfare operatives here. >H News and Commentary Remote-controlled war. If the concept doesn't scare the living daylights out of you, we don't know what will. A recent report compiled by former White House Homeland Security * Re:Religious advisor Paul Kurtz details an unfolding "Cyber Cold War" in which countries like the Rights for United States, Russia, China and Israel are preparing for cyber offensives by amassing homophobes cyber weapons and conducting espionage-all in preparation to use the Internet for war. * Re:Religious The report titled "Virtually Here: The Age of Cyber Warfare" says that although we Rights for haven't seen a `hot' cyber war between major powers, there is evidence that homophobes nation-states are beefing up their cyberattack capabilities. The steady rise in * Re:Religious computational power and global connectivity, along with accelerating technologies like Rights for artificial intelligence, magnify the threat of a catastrophic cyber event. But what's homophobes even more alarming is what this could mean for the future of cyber terrorism. Make sure * Re:unscheduled to check out the video below. downtime * Scientists Hackers and criminals can do enough harm to foreign or domestic networks on their own, create but when backed by nation states, the resources and potential of these mercenaries artificial mini increase significantly. Millions flock to the World Wide Web for their share of 'black hole' real-time information via Twitter and other social media platforms. But in the blink of more an eye, a multitude of connections could be pulled under by a single act of cyber terrorism, as we saw during the 2009 denial-of-service attack when Twitter, Google and Who's online other platforms were temporarily taken out by Georgian political activists. The world felt virtual aftershocks for days. But the effects of cyber terrorism aren't confined to There are currently virtual space. Whole communications infrastructures, like air traffic control operations 0 users and 1 guest at airports, are vulnerable to attack. One wrong signal or communications blackout could online. mean a great number of casualties. What's more is that cyber criminals can exploit weaknesses in networks, transforming personal computers into virtual Trojan armies. Syndicate Cultivating botnets of computers worldwide can wreak havoc on networks by proliferating spam or harmful viruses. It can also flood those networks with false traffic-like what Syndicate content happens during a denial-of-service attack-in order to cripple portions of the global network, in effect using the most constructive attributes of connectivity for insidious purposes. But familiar scenarios like these raise little concern compared with those we haven't yet faced. Fifty years following the Internet's conception, the most powerful governments can theoretically take out the power, water, communications, and information infrastructures of their adversaries without ever launching a single missile. And while advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics make it easier than ever to imagine wars without people, cyber warfare remains particularly disturbing because it lives entirely in virtual space. Because of the virtual nature of cyber warfare, it's tough to track the origin of attacks and tougher still to track who is giving those orders. Nations like China and Russia are notorious for cyber crime-it's easier to employ a mercenary to conduct your cyber espionage for you than to risk ruffling the feathers of another superpower. To compound the complexity, virtual space has always been much harder to regulate, and creating a legal framework for virtual activities is a challenge. How can governments survey-much less control-the mobilizing of cyber forces abroad? How can they effectively counter cyber espionage? United States networks are targeted by foreign cyber attacks millions of times each day; to counter this, the current administration allocated more than 350 million dollars last year to secure the nation's infrastructure and beef up intelligence around cyber activities. The U.S. has, in fact, added "cyber" as its own domain of military options, now joining land, sea and air. And while cyber threats are more than real, the nebulous nature of how and from where these attacks originate makes for an unstable situation between nation states. The AlJazeera video below gives a great overview: Before we get too anxious, there is one conceivable failsafe. McAfee, the company that released the cyber warfare report, says that what might very well keep this war from escalating is the growing state of global interconnectedness; the same network that makes this war possible can also deter it. It's a similar dynamic we've seen with the proliferation of nuclear arms-no government in their right mind would want to unleash the catastrophic effects of nuclear fallout on a global scale. But this rationale is predictable only when it comes to nation-states. There is still the matter of nations employing untraceable mercenaries to do their dirty work. There is also the question of how corporations might use cyber warfare to further profits and protect fortunes. Power in the hands of an unregulated (and largely invisible) few raises the stakes. Regulating online activities could mean a greater loss of privacy for web users in years to come. This could redefine consumer trust and what it means to be protected by one's government. New laws will dictate how the Internet is used across the board. But at least we'll be safe, right? Because the way we conduct our conflicts reflects current states of society, terrorism will no doubt follow the trend of traditional warfare in seeking out new virtual battlefields. It's a bit disconcerting to think of what a nameless hacker somewhere on the other side of the globe is capable of doing to us while we sleep. And that those orders could be anonymously coming from a government that doesn't like us very much. Cyber warfare not only represents a new consequence for failed politics, but its informational nature suggests it may be more widely used by corporations and terrorists in years to come. The implications are far-reaching, the possibilities endless. Like nuclear war before it, cyber warfare shows us, in frightening fashion, the horrifying nature of our destructive potential. But unlike nuclear war, cyber warfare offensives can be committed by a single person with a computer anywhere in the world. This reality calls for radically different solutions. We will no doubt see the threat of cyber warfare escalate as technology accelerates toward the singularity. But the real question is how we will keep this growing menace in check, and what it will mean for the First Amendment and for communication in general. [image credit: Equal-Life] [video credit: AlJazeera] [source: CNN, AlJazeera] Related Posts: * Beware the Botnets - Zombie Cyber Attacks * Wolfram Alpha Sneak Preview At Harvard On Tuesday * Singularity University's Executive Program In Full Swing * Robots Battle With Guns and Skill in Mech Warfare (Video) * Eye Popping Pics of Cyborg Animals from Photoshop Contest Categories: Transhumanism New Surgical Technique Attempts to Re-grow Breasts After a Mastectomy (video) Singularity Hub - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 07:21 A new procedure would use a patient's own stem cells to grow a new breast. Researchers at the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Melbourne, Australia are pioneering a radical new surgical procedure that would allow women to re-grow breasts after undergoing a mastectomy, a cancer treatment that removes part or all of a cancerous breast. After a decade of experiments in the laboratory as well as numerous tests on animal models, the researchers are ready to begin clinical trials to test the procedure in humans in the next few months. If all goes as planned, this treatment might become available within 3 years, providing an alternative to breast implants and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer patients. Further, if proven effective, this technology may have a wide range of applications in the clinic. Check out the video below for a CBS Healthwatch report on this exciting development! A diagnosis of breast cancer is one that most women fear. And rightfully so. According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer in the United States "is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women" (lung cancer is the leading cause by a wide margin). As is generally true for other types of cancer, early detection is crucial for survival. Starting treatment before the cancer has a chance to spread from its primary site results in a 5-year survival rate of 98%! And while being diagnosed with breast cancer is in itself devastating, the idea of losing one or both breasts is not exactly comforting either, though it's not hard to imagine that most (if not all) women would rather lose their breasts than their lives. Some women with an extensive family history of breast cancer have even opted for a pre-emptive mastectomy, before ever being diagnosed. And options after a mastectomy include silicone breast implants or painful reconstructive surgery. However, the breakthrough being reported by the Australian scientists may change all of that. The new procedure, known as Neopec, is based on the use of a woman's own stem cells to re-grow the breast. Doctors would first implant a biodegradable scaffold that is in the shape of a breast. Next, they would introduce fat stem cells into the area and nearby blood vessels would be redirected towards the implanted stem cells in order to supply necessary nutrients. Within 6 - 8 months, the cells are expected to grow and fill the area enclosed by the scaffold, which is then broken down by the body. The initial animal experiments used a non-biodegradable scaffold, requiring a second surgical procedure to remove it. Now, the procedure only requires the first surgery to implant the various components, making it less invasive and risky. Extensive testing in pigs has demonstrated the efficacy of this approach in allowing breast growth, though it remains to be seen if the clinical trials underway in humans will yield similar results. Needless to say, this development is great news for the approximately 56% of cancer patients in the US who have the procedure done. However, our understanding of the mechanism of breast cancer development is becoming more refined and early detection continues to become more sensitive. Therefore, it's not unreasonable to anticipate the development of more targeted therapeutics that may decrease the need for mastectomies altogether. So where else could this technology be applied? Initially, Neopec could be useful in cosmetic surgery. Women who desire to have larger breasts may be able to use this technique rather than having silicone implants, which already carry various risks to the patient. However, the real strength of this technology may be in applying it to regenerate other tissues and organs damaged by injury or disease. Here at Singularity Hub, we have already reported many promising attempts by scientists to engineer organs in the laboratory as well as using biodegradable implants to stimulate tissue regeneration. This latest innovation provides further evidence that we are only beginning to unlock the vast potential of stem cells as therapeutic agents. It's exciting to imagine where this technology will be within the next few decades! [image credit: perthnow.com.au] [video credit: CBSNews] [Sources: Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery, National Cancer Institute, Wikipedia, Herald Sun] Related Posts: * Man in Arizona Leaves Hospital With Artificial Heart (Video) * New Robot Has Come To Conquer Human Race...With Snacks! * Test for Cancer With a Take-Home Kit * Company Body Slams Prostate Cancer - Stock Goes Through the Roof * Dendreon Stock Continues to Climb, Prostate Just the First Cancer On the List Categories: Transhumanism The New Face of Autism Therapy Kurzweilai.net - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 01:34 Researchers are building robots sympathetic and sensitive enough to serve as both therapists and playmates to kids with autism. For example, a robot named Bandit is being programmed by University of Southern California researchers to perform simple facial expressions and movements, and researchers are working to give the robot the ability to make complex decisions in response to the child's behavior. This way, Bandit and robots like it could draw socially detached kids into simple games, like Simon Says or hide-and-seek and, ultimately, social activities with people. There is increasing evidence that kids with autism respond more naturally to machines than they do to people because robots are predictable, unlike people. (Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-05/humanoid-robots-are-new-therapists) Categories: Transhumanism Robots that learn from the environment Kurzweilai.net - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 01:11 Ian Fasel, an assistant research professor of computer science at the University of Arizona, has received two grants to train robots to learn concepts from trial and error in the world, instead of requiring a human to program them, and to seek out new information as efficiently as possible. More info: University of Arizona news (Source: ) Categories: Transhumanism Next-generation CT scanners view whole organs in real time Kurzweilai.net - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 00:53 Next-generation CT scanners now allow doctors to image an entire organ in less than a second or create a detailed 3-D movie of an organ in real time, with about half the radiation dose and half the contrast media. Using Toshiba's Aquilion One, for example, UT Southwestern physicians said they will be able to accurately diagnose a stroke or heart attack in about 20 minutes. Currently, doctors often perform a battery of tests to confirm a heart attack -- an EKG, CT angiography, nuclear testing and catheterization -- which can take hours or even days. More info: UT Southwestern news (Source: ) Categories: Transhumanism Using Neural Networks to Classify Music Kurzweilai.net - Wed, 06/02/2010 - 23:59 University of Hong Kong students have designed and trained neural networks that can correctly identify the genre of a song, based on features such as tempo and harmony, with greater than 87 percent accuracy -- considered a very hard problem in computer science. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/guest/25268/) Categories: Transhumanism Detecting Single Cancer Molecules Kurzweilai.net - Wed, 06/02/2010 - 23:49 A highly sensitive new technology capable of detecting a single, cancer-linked molecule in blood, to predict the recurrence of prostate cancer, has been developed by Quanterix. The detection technology counts the number of prostate specific antigen (PSA) molecules released by the cells of the prostate gland into the blood. PSA molecules are trapped on beads and isolated individually on arrays of tiny wells. A fluorescent enzyme added to the array lights up when it binds to PSA, revealing the number of PSA molecules in the sample. (Quanterix) (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25462/?a=f) Categories: Transhumanism Rise of the replicators Kurzweilai.net - Wed, 06/02/2010 - 23:40 Researchers and hobbyists around the world are developing desktop manufacturing plants with the aim to create a machine that is able to fix itself and, ultimately, to replicate. Already, anyone with a few hundred dollars and some spare time can build low-cost versions of a 3D printer from plans available free on the Internet. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627621.200-rise-of-the-replicators.html) Categories: Transhumanism Obama's enemies give him a political boost Church of Virus - Wed, 06/02/2010 - 22:27 [Mo] Obama's repeated political victories seemed to have pushed the GOP right over the political cliffs into insanity and self-destruction. Its almost as if they are trying to disprove conventional wisdom yet again like they did when they actually lost congressional seats in 1998 in Clinton's lame duck election. While they were busy impeaching him for a blow job. How Obama's Enemies May Give Him a Boost By MARK HALPERIN Tuesday, Jun. 01, 2010 Quote:The late, longtime New Yorker critic Pauline Kael was said to have expressed confusion over Richard Nixon's landslide re-election in 1972 * because no one she knew had voted for him. To borrow that notion, conservatives today imagine that everyone views the current occupant of the White House as they do: Barack Obama is the worst President ever. Conventional wisdom posits that this potent right-wing, anti-Obama sentiment will diminish the President's power * enough for Republicans to vanquish Democrats in November, regain control of Congress and weaken the incumbent for 2012. But this myopia has been created within an electronic cocoon of Fox News, talk radio, conservative websites and rhetoric from Republican leaders, all passionately reinforcing the message that the Obama Administration is disastrous on a historic scale. It's a message that is being transported as gamely by rank-and-file Republicans as it is by erudite conservative columnists with national readerships. [snip] Quote:In the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections, we have already seen that the anti-Obama forces are expressing their disagreements with the Administration in terms far more personal than political, tinged with an apocalyptic irrationality. The centrifugal force exerted on conservative leaders toward the extreme wing of their party is bound to lead to even more magnified rhetoric in the next few years. The contrast between those excessive attacks and Obama's famous cool will serve him, and the Democrats, well. A woman holds an anti-Obama sign at a Tea Party rally in Parker, Texas. (just a short drive down the highway from Mo) Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1993050,00.html Categories: Transhumanism * 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * ... * next > * last >> Syndicate content web hosting