making fuel from CO2 in the air

That is probably a darn good idea. Made to work by catalyst tricks, the process is very effective, and science-soon, if we are to believe the research team. This could be the pure green energy-source we have dreamt about, driven by the heat of the sun. It also spells good news for the green-house effect. Some about the stuff here.

to google or not to google?

I just stopped having Google as my preferred search engine, and switched to Ask. Why? Oh, for several reasons. One being that Google doesn't find the content I search for anymore. The once so true "I'm feeling lucky"-button is nothing more than a bad joke today. If you ask yourself, when was the last time the "I'm feeling lucky"-button took you straight to the page you wanted, I'm sure you will agree. I find that ask.com finds content a lot better.

Another thing is the targeted commercials that Google puts up on every site you visit. When I saw the ads corresponding completely with my last string of Google-searches, I got a little scared. In Denmark you are not allowed to gain access to people’s public library loan-history, because this is considered sensitive material. In the wrong hands, such material can be used for targeted persecution.

Persecution? Who would be persecuted? Well, Google’s happy helping hand in net censorship in China, should give a pointer. What would be the reason for Google’s controversial decision to help the government of China in censoring the net, other than market-cut and ultimately money?

Is it so far fetched that user-profiling could be used to help China in hunting system dissidents? Under cooperate American law no single person would be to blame, should Google decide to help China in this way. In fact the board of directors would have done their duty, by maximizing the share return. The only thing keeping this from happening is public relations, and the combined moral standards of Google itself.

Google is selling your internet habits to the highest bidder. They know your wants, as well as if you have been naughty or nice, better than Santa. This has driven me to copy my links from Google, and paste them in a new browser session, to avoid profiling. I never link out from Google. Paranoid, I know, but please consider your standing towards public libraries selling your loan-history to the highest bidder.

So what happened? My thesis is that money happened. Google was all of a sudden estimated as one of the world’s most valuable company, even though they had no production. This is due to data mining and logging of user habits. The perceived net worth, was in potential targeted marketing, and demographic profiling. Once you get money for your potential, you will have to produce.

This is a story we've heard before. Alta-Vista did the same thing, but with banner commercials, and selling search-ratings, driving their waste user base away. Hot-bot got beaten by Google's superior search routine. Now the question is: Is ask.com better at searching than Google? You be the judge.

more BCI stuff

Yes, I do get excited by small steps in controlled lab environments, and do too often take my mouth too full. But I do so knowingly, determined to maintain enthusiastic optimism for technology to make the world a happy place. So BCI is maybe not science-soon but perhaps science-rather-much-later, as roadmapped in this newsflash. Yet, who believed the computer-revolution would get such an incline back in the eighties?

While I can't help to push the development, I can stand on the sideline chanting my moronic cheers. And I will happily do so.

don't ask...

My waste network often sends me unsolicited links - I wash my hands on this.

Gotta love those Cheetahs though.

more on brain computer interface (BCI)

Exploring the plasticity of the brain, researchers at University of Washington has implanted a neurochip into monkey-brains and successfully created new pathways in the motor cortex. The brain has this lovely plasticity that allows for it to reconfigure to interpret new inputs. We will surely be able to exploit this wonderful property in a near future, giving hopes for the science-soon goals of, for instance, this company.

when I was an elite soldier...

See when I was an elite soldier, we had to drag ourselves through the mud, rain or snow (mostly head deep snow). But nowadays, you get issued these cool gadgets that make my tour in the Byronic war seem like a hike in hell. WTF??!

pure evil

I have come across the most evil link in the world!

Now my head is all fuzzy warm and soft, like the belly of Winnie the Pooh. I know there was a moral to this story, but it has slipped my mind.

against nature?

Gay relationships have long been accused of being not only against the will of God, but also unnatural, suggesting that no gay behavior is found in the animal kingdom. That is however not necessarily so.

atheism marketing crisis?

I guess that when you are an atheist, you tend to think that knowledge based belief sells itself. What rational person wouldn't demand proof of what he's told? Well, a lot it would seem based on statistics. Perhaps, one might think, it is because these good people haven't heard of evidence? Perhaps, all they need is an example? Clearly the message should be delivered in a package familiar to them.

This video of a failed attempt to market atheism by method of door to door soliciting shows us one thing: Religious people do not love to debate belief systems, dressed in slippers and morning-robe, as the rest of us do.

new catalyst reaction for polymerization

University of Penn chemists reveal way of polymerization at room temperature and in shorter time than traditional ways. The method is also said to be more environmentally friendly, due to the smaller amounts of metals involved.

bio-warfare lab bust in student housing

Earlier today, Swedish government officials raided a student apartment, and found evidence of attempts to grow weapons-grade biohazards, by means of very low-tech equipment. Unorthodoxly, the student had set up an elaborate lab of ordinary plates, pots and utensils in his room, and succeeded in growing a big payload of the still unidentified substance. “We don’t know precisely what he has been trying to grow, but it looks vile and lethal”, said a clearly taken government official at the scene. The student, still protesting his innocence, may be facing charges under the terror act.

new germinator

Californian team of researchers show new weapon of massdestruction, Platensimycin, in the War on Germs. Hailed to have germicide capacity, this baby is made from total synthesis, and is said to have stealth action, capable of bagging even multiresistant bacteria.

Patients at staph infested hospitals around the world prepare to shoot up to kill.

broken curfew

I broke curfew, gob-smacked by the fact that god hates me. I'm not too worried though, because apparently he hates a lot of other guys. And judging by the Christian justice system - he probably hates you as well, in all his mercy. Now all I need is a good fatwa, but I guess I'll get that for free from being Danish. If not, I won't be all disappointment; they are cheap to come by these days - even "big" fatwas.

Wow, I hope I don't get into trouble for breaking curfew!

note from home

Dear imagined audience,

Morten will not be able to come to his blog today. He has been grounded, due to his lack of effort in school, and forced to read a book. He has also got homework pileing up, and will not be allowed to come out and play, before he has turned in his paper.

Sincerely,
Mortens' legal guardian.

mocking the prophet again...

I think it is safe to say that I'm Danish and an atheist. I believe in evidence through logic. I do not believe that science and religion can coexist. I believe that I have the right to believe whatever I want, and that so do you. I admit that I lovingly mock believers of Intelligent Design, in an effort to provoke them to reconsider their string of "logic". But I also believe that mockery should be avoided, when nothing good can be expected to come from it.

The Danish Peoples Party's video-documented competition of Mohammad mocking comics falls into that later category, if not the categogy of utterly stupid.

I told you so

what is the human light bulb being used for? Cooperate logos, and hallucinogenic patterns to enhance your hippies high.

cooking some more noodles

I just love that picture - No other reason... I swear.

advanced warning of composite material critical failure

Bracing a diabetic foot with carbon fiber composite based orthoses yield a risk to the patient. Critical structural failure often occurs with no warning, which may result in cuts that won't heal and in worst case amputation. Getting an early warning of structure failure could change this outcome, and is thus worth considering.

Researchers has found a way to monitor the structural integrity by running a current through nanotubes imbedded in the composite material. More about it here.

So far nanotubes are rather expensive, but so is amputation.

science of the spider silk

Genetic engineered silk and glass cocktail, reveals new exotic material usable in tissue engineering.

going gecko today it seems

On a followup on the story "tapping into van der Waals forces", it would seem that researchers at BAE Systems has taken it one step further, replicating the adhesive van der Waals forces of gecko feet in a polyamide based material.

They figure that you could use the stuff to "glue" your car or pet elephant to the ceiling. Now why on earth would you want to do that? That's just cruel!

are genitals fun?

This video of a penis does it for me at least.

WARNING:

Do not click this link unless you think you are strong enough to see a partly excited very nude penis!

Note that it only is fun with sound

Well, you asked for it…

those hippie ravers...

Medicinal LSD only just being suggested, and already we start to se the impact on the garment industry. Traditional glow sticks not enough it appears, Philips saw it fit to make us into human light bulbs.

now make it into a hat please...

After a bit of research in monkey-machine interfaces, researchers at Duke are done monkeying around. Human studies have shown that the brain-machine direct link is feasible, and could be used for “neuroprosthetic” devices for severely impaired patient groups.

In the human study, the researchers place the electrodes deeper into the brain, in subcortical structures. This does not bode well for my hopes of a hat-like device, á la the thinking cap of Gyro Gearloose (sorry, couldn’t find a picture of it).

Which brings my runaway train of thoughts to this question: Why are there no animal experiments conducted at my university?

tapping into van der Waals forces

Van der Waals bonding, normally referred to as weak, is strong enough to hold a gecko hanging upside down form the ceiling. The trick is to have enough of the bonding. Though not replicating the gecko's adhesion, researchers at Berkeley have made a polypropylene material utilizing the same type of micro hair surface as the gecko's feet. The material exhibits outstanding friction properties, just by altering the surface geometry. Up next is replicating the geometry of the gecko hairs to tap the van der Waals forces of the world.

I imagine that racing will never be the same, once this idea is applied to tires.

corelations?

Only inches away from a cure for HIV and the hippies are back in town with the LSD. And we all know what that means: Promiscuousity and people in drag with pacifiers.

Please note that SI units do not always apply to written language. Inches are here used as a metaphor derived from American football.

something fishy...

Imagine that I told you: That I have a big invisible friend. That he is omnipotent. That I entrust him with all my decisions. That he alone governs all my actions. That I speak to him on a regular basis. That he tells me right from wrong. That you should see him as I do.

I think it stands a fair chance that you would advice me to seek medical attention.

So, does God exist? I see no reason why he couldn't. But I see no evidence that he does. Until I do, I will retain my right to worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster. More of it at Bobby Henderson's site.

Thanks for the link Thomas :)

human-prosthesis interface

Getting the best out of a prosthesis is about getting it to move with the skeleton bone of the residual limb. This is normally hindered in various degrees by soft tissue, and thus a lot of research has gone into prosthetic suspension.

One of the more radical solutions is osseointergration, which involves embedding a titanium pin in the distal skeletal stump, protruding through the skin. The prosthesis is then clicked on to the pin, for maximum transfer of power from skeleton to prosthesis. Though sound in theory, the procedure is associated with risk of infection to the bone marrow, where the immune system has trouble fighting it due to limited blod supply.

British scientists has given the procedure a second go, and come up with a solution, inspired by deer antlers. Though the risk of infection is still there, it has been reduced:

'Bionic' limb breakthrough made

on human-machine interfaces

Human machine interfaces always interested me. When it comes to prostheses, it is vital. One thing is the interaction of movements between human and machine, but the real pickle is sensory relay. Will we be able to make prostheses that give the user a sense of touch? Will it be possible to make the prosthesis move by the same motor nerve impulses as the limb it replaces?

At Harvard University, they are fiddling with nanowire arrays, to intercept synapses at a much smaller scale than ever before. The full article is published in the journal Science, but here’s a review:

Nanowire arrays can detect signals along individual neurons

gatherings of the manic mind started

After spamming various peoples e-mail with posts that by right should be published in a different forum, I came to the conclusion that I needed a blog.

Thus I condemmed this corner of the internet to collect my odd fixation on technology and random thoughts amongst the dust.

Yes, you are the first person to read this!