The Singularity approaches

Computer genuis Steve Jobs didn’t live to see the technological singularity he helped usher in, but it may be coming faster than predicted. Most futurists speculate the techno-singularity will be set off by the creation of hyper-intelligent machines with intellectual and problem solving capabilities as far ahead of their human creators as we are ahead of rabbits. Our only real hope to remain relevant in such a future would be to augment our own capabilities and/or integrate with our artificial counterparts.

IBM has announced they hope to reach one of the first major milestones on the way to the singularity within ten years:

Big Blue is working hard to make sure that the next decade is its biggest yet in computing advances, with projects in the works to create the world’s most powerful supercomputer and one with the same number of nodes as the human brain.

These future devices don’t have to be aggressive, Skynet is not inevitable, they may be downright helpful. It’s just that humans are made of atoms that they might be able to use for something else …

Steve Jobs dead at age 56

I remember the first time I heard the term personal computer: in a Radio Shack I used to hang out at and buy little electronics kits. My last one had been something called a binary counter, with four little lights that could add in base two. One of the staff who took the time to guide me on what I should consider for the next project, and more importantly, what I could handle putting together with my dad’s ancient soldering iron at age 12, told me about a new Heathkit coming out. My own computer. I eagerly told some friends about it later, one of them asked what in the world are you going to do with such a thing?

I couldn’t think of a good answer, then. Little did I know, at the same time Heathkit piqued my interest, a young Steve Jobs had already persuaded Steve Wozniak to build their first home-made device, and glimmers of an answer to that question was already in the process of growing into a groundswell  no one would have dared predict. In my opinion the best part of the revolution led by Jobs was that there’s a subtle, hard to define, yet overpowering and terribly democratizing effect of putting the power of computers into the hands of We the People.

Those two Steve’s would go on to change the world, for the better by most any measure. With his departure … it feels as though part of my youth has been taken. Maybe that’s why it saddens me, a lot more than I would have thought, that one of those Steve’s is now gone forever.

Tax the class-holes & Job Destroyers

How’s that for framing? Tax the class-holes that destroyed the economy and created the worst unemployment since the Great Depression, and then demanded We the People bail them out with a trillion dollars, right before claiming they should have special privileged status to pay a lower tax rate than teachers and troops:

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said the surtax would raise $445 billion over 10 years, just about the amount needed to pay for the jobs bill. Mr. Reid said his proposal would “have the richest of the rich pay a little bit more” — “5 percent more to fund job creation and ensure this country’s economic success.”

Of course conservatives won’t go along with it, or even let it come up for a vote in the House. That’s fine: that’s the whole point of proposing legislation like this. To make it crystal freakin clear who’s on the side of 99% of us and who’s on the side of the Job Destroying 1%.

Scientists able to twin embryonic stem cells


A new paper in the journal Nature outlines how researchers were able to use somatic cell nuclear transfer to create new embryonic stem cells:

The achievement, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, is significant because such patient-specific cells potentially can be transplanted to replace damaged cells in people with diabetes and other diseases without rejection by the immune system.

A rational person would think this would be welcomed by the usual suspects. No human embryos would have to be used. But alas, the usual suspects are idiots — they consider diverting a few embryos from the medical waste incinerator for research to be killing children — and will probably consider this cloning. And everyone brainless wingnut peon knows we have to keep the world safe from manimals and evil clones!

GOP trying to reclaim scientific integrity: good luck with that

The old saying goes, I didn’t leave the Republican Party, it left me. Nowhere is this more acute than in science. Denial of reality is so endemic in today’s Teaparty GOP that simply recognizing the fact of evolution or the readings of super accurate thermometers managed by NASA climate scientists has become political suicide. Some in the GOP are reportedly, finally, trying to push back:

Former South Carolina GOP Rep. Bob Inglis, who lost his primary race last year in part because of his acknowledgment of the problem of climate change, is now giving speeches and lectures across the country about the need for conservatives to acknowledge the problem of climate change and work on solutions. He warns that the Republican Party will be branded “anti-science” if it doesn’t. He is bringing his message to conservative strongholds such as Federalist clubs and conferences of the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The effort is duly noted, good luck, but the fact is the Republican Party has been branded antiscience for a long time and for a very good reason: they are anti-science. [Read more…]

Dominionists allegedly beat gay couple in church parking lot

I suppose it should come as no surprise that a group of Jesus loving fundamentalists attacked fellow church members in broad daylight right in the parking lot for being gay. What makes this attack particularly sickening is it was instigated by one of the victim’s fathers, and local police may have acted as lookouts for the bullies:

The attackers also verbally assaulted the couple continually with anti-gay verbiage which continued even after a Sheriff’s Deputy arrived on the scene. Bystanders and other congregants made no effort to stop the assault. For that matter, neither did the Deputy Sheriff. Once the barrage of punches ended, the Deputy refused to let the two victims press charges

The Gibson County Sheriff contact info is here, hopefully someone will check into this.

An insider look at dominionist culture

Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann at a Faith and Freedom Coalition rally in Orlando, Florida. Photograph: Keystone/USA-Zuma/Rex Features

Writing at the Guardian, Karl Giberson reviews the pernicious effects of the religious right on science, history, politics, and on his own development growing up in the midst of it:

Unfortunately, millions of evangelicals – and this would include much of the political base being courted by the GOP presidential candidates as well as the candidates themselves – are trapped in an alternative “parallel culture” with its own standards of truth. [A]ll have media empires that spread their particular version of the gospel. Millions of dollars every year support the production of books, DVDs, radio shows, school curricula, and other educational materials. Very few evangelicals grow up without hearing some trusted authority – perhaps even with a PhD – tell them that the age of the Earth is an “open question”. Or that scientists are questioning evolution. Or that gays are getting spiritual help and becoming straight. Or that secular historians are taking religion out of US history.

The flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz scared the living shit out of me and my big sister when we were nine years-old. We would run and hide when that part came on, and that was with my mom or dad sitting right there telling us it was all make-believe and nothing to worry about. Imagine you were told by sources you trust from an even earlier age that there is a real war between good and evil, where a particular party or ideology or field of study is in cahoots with the scariest real-life, highly intelligent monsters you can possibly envision, that these monsters have supernatural powers, including the ability to brainwash or torture you and everyone you care about for eternity, and that the entire fucking world was going to end any day. That would really scare a kid, and probably scar an adult for life.

Occupy Wall Street goes national

Map created with BatchGeo

My colleagues at the Great Orange Satan posted a really cool and very useful drillable, scalable, interactive map of the Occupy protests going on around the country. I’m going to give it a test run here but I don’t know if the image will render or cause problems. A query has been put in to a tech buddy at Daily Kos to see about that. I may have to remove it or it may play games with some broswers. If it’s not working for you just click on this link for information about protests near you.

What’s great about these protests is they are leaderless and party-less. We all saw what happened to the conservative and libertarian dominated version of the outrage over the bailouts for billionaires and butkiss for average wage earners: it was hijacked by corporate whores and turned into the Teaparty which now works as hard as they can to deliver more tax cuts and government subsidies to the people and corporations they were angry with. Job Destroyers were recast as Job Creators, penalties and investigations into the serial malfeasance became Big Government Interference. Requiring insurance companies to treat children with preexisting conditions transformed into Death Panels and various forms of tyranny. 

Something like that could happen here, too, but at least it’s a chance to start fresh.

SOLO would be the hottest mission in space

An artist's depiction of SOLO on station a mere 26 million miles from the sun. Image courtesy ESA

The European Space Agency is developing an observatory that would settle questions about the sun from a unique location: inside the orbit of Mercury. The Solar Observatory, or SOLO, would perform heretofore unprecedented measurements of the heliosphere and solar wind as well as magnetic storms and coronal mass ejections, not easily available from our neck of the solar system due to the sun’s 25 day sidereal rotation and small obliquity with respect to the plane of earth’s orbit:

The spacecraft will provide remarkable views of the Sun’s polar regions and farside. Its elliptical orbit will be tuned such that it can follow the star’s rotation, enabling it to observe one specific area for much longer than is currently possible.

That kind of proximity doesn’t come without consequences to design and cost. SOLO will dwell well inside the Goldilocks’ Zone where water is a liquid, making one orbit about every 60 days. In this vicinity exposed surfaces could be roasted to a toasty 800° depending on the material . SOLO survives and thrives only by staying oriented behind a robust heat shield with slots through which cameras and other detectors peer out at a sun many times larger than seen from earth. That’s why the fully equipped spacecraft could run a whopping one-billion euros and may not be ready for launch until 2019.

Hank Williams Jr. issues apology

Hank Williams Jr. has apologized for using an analogy comparing President Barack Obama to Hitler on Fox and Friends Monday morning. The 62 year-old country music star said in part:

“The thought of the leaders of both parties jukin and high fiven on a golf course, while so many families are struggling to get by simply made me boil over and make a dumb statement,” Williams wrote on Facebook and his website. “I am very sorry if it offended anyone.”

In addition Williams publicist issued this statement late Monday evening:

“Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme — but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was. They’re polar opposites and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the president.”