Technology 2007
Test Driving the Future: Honda's FCX Fuel-Cell Car
MSN - What's it like to drive the only
hydrogen car that's government-certified for everyday use on American
roads? It's very, very quiet. There are no engine or exhaust sounds from
the sleekly styled, 4-seat, 4-door latest-generation Honda FCX
prototype, which uses compressed hydrogen as its fuel. There's no need
for noise. In onboard, electrochemical reactions, the hydrogen is
directed to fuel cells and membranes therein where electricity is
quietly created, and the electricity then quietly powers the car.
There's no internal combustion engine under the hood or anywhere in the
FCX, so there's no volatile gasoline-and-air-mix under explosive
pressure of engine pistons. And so there's no need for a muffler. In
fact, at most, my passengers and I in the Honda FCX merely heard a bit
of wind noise and a high-pitch whine from an air pump that was working
to keep the fuel cell properly cool. There also was some
serenity-stealing tire squeal—honest—in this oh-so-environmentally
advanced car as the instantaneous torque from electric power got the FCX
wheels moving aggressively. But that was my fault. All too eager to get
going in this rare, million-dollar prototype, I learned quickly that
stepping hard on the accelerator brings a surge of electricity-supplied
torque faster and smoother than the torque from a gasoline engine.
more...
And Out of Zion Will Come the World's First Nano-Torah
Israel National News (December
31, 2007) - Out of Zion has come the world’s tiniest Bible,
engraved in gold on silicon, to illustrate the science of
nanotechnology. More than 300,000 words and 1,200,000 letters, including
vowels have been placed on less than half a square millimeter, allowing
the tiny Torah to fit inside the first dot of the first letter of a
traditional Torah scroll. “We took a piece of silicon and evaporated a
very small layer of gold over it, about twenty nanometers thick,”
explained Ohad Zohar, a Ph.D. student at the Technion, on Israel
National Radio’s Yishai Fleisher Show. A nanometer is about a billionth
of a meter.
Click here to hear the interview with Zohar on Arutz-7's
Israel National Radio “We then used a focused ion beam to
inscribe the Biblical text on it,” Zohar said. “What the focused ion
beam does is shoot gallium ions, focusing the charged particles on the
substrip [of gold]. It digs little holes and each hole is a pixel for
whatever picture you would like. In our case this is the Tanach [Five
Books of Moses, Prophets and Writings –ed.].” “What did you make this for?” asked Fleisher.
“It is not for ordinary use, of course,” Zohar said. “To read it you
need very expensive equipment. You cannot read it with a magnifying
glass or even the best optical microscope. You need an electron
microscope to read it. It is not intended to replace any storage devices
out there. We did this as part of a massive educational program aimed at
mostly high school students to explain different methods of storing
information and spark an interest in Nanotechnology.” The project was
sponsored and conducted at the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute
at Haifa's Technion Institute of Technology. more...
Mexico to use biochip to control illegal immigration
EarthTimes.org
(December 28, 2007) - Mexico's
National Migration Institute (INM) has said it will introduce electronic
registration for foreigners entering the country through the southern
border to curb illegal immigration. In a communique, the INM Thursday
said Biochip implants would be used to control the entry of workers and
visitors from Belize and Guatemala from March 2008, Spanish news agency
EFE reported Friday. The implant will replace the currently used local
pass, which can be easily modified. The biochip ID will allow total
electronic registration of entries and departures, officials said. The
INM said a migration form for local visitors will be issued to residents
of regions near the border with Guatemala, while the migration form for
border workers will benefit workers in the area bordering Belize and
Guatemala. In 2006, Mexico nabbed 200,000 people trying to enter
illegally through the southern border, according to INM figures.
RFID poised for the big time in 2008
Vnunet (December 24, 2007)
- Next year will witness the spread of RFID applications into familiar,
everyday settings, while consumer electronics, wireless technologies and
security requirements will continue to benefit from the integration of
RFID. These are just some of the predictions from AIM Global, the
worldwide industry trade association and self-proclaimed authority on
automatic identification and mobility solutions. Practical RFID
applications will find their way into familiar settings, including
sporting events, the latest toys and food safety, according to the trade
association. Next year's Beijing Olympics will see RFID applications
being used to track marathon runners to ensure race time accuracy,
watched by sports fans holding tickets authenticated by the same
technology. This year's highly publicised recalls of contaminated foods
and unsafe toys will push firms to use RFID to immediately track the
origins of compromised items, halting the production of potentially
harmful goods. 2008 will also witness the increasing integration of RFID
into mobile devices and consumer electronics, providing consumers and
business users with new and more convenient services. This technological
marriage will result in multi-functional mobile devices that allow users
to manage voice calls, email, text messages, multimedia, location-based
information, personal finance accounts and many other aspects of
everyday lives. According to AIM Global, the convergence of RFID and
other wireless technologies is now inevitable. As such the coming
together of RFID, real-time locating systems technology, GPS, sensor and
other wireless technologies will spur a "disappearance" of these
acronyms as businesses and individuals become more accustomed to the
benefits. 2008 will also see RFID addressing security vulnerabilities in
the global supply chain. From transportation worker ID cards and border
cards, to RFID-based electronic seals on cargo containers, RFID will
increasingly be deployed in a bid to improve security without hampering
international trade. more...
FBI prepares to build the world's largest database of peoples' physical
characteristics
The Washington Post (December 22, 2007)
- The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's
largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a
project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to
identify individuals in the United States and abroad. Digital images of
faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI
systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the
FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand
the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the
coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able
to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the
unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals
and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the
fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks
so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.
"Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," said Thomas E. Bush
III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information
Services Division, which operates the database from its headquarters in
the Appalachian foothills. The increasing use of biometrics for
identification is raising questions about the ability of Americans to
avoid unwanted scrutiny. It is drawing criticism from those who worry
that people's bodies will become de facto national identification cards.
Critics say that such government initiatives should not proceed without
proof that the technology really can pick a criminal out of a crowd. The
use of biometric data is increasing throughout the government. For the
past two years, the Defense Department has been storing in a database
images of fingerprints, irises and faces of more than 1.5 million Iraqi
and Afghan detainees, Iraqi citizens and foreigners who need access to
U.S. military bases. The Pentagon also collects DNA samples from some
Iraqi detainees, which are stored separately. The Department of Homeland
Security has been using iris scans at some airports to verify the
identity of travelers who have passed background checks and who want to
move through lines quickly. The department is also looking to apply
iris- and face-recognition techniques to other programs. The DHS already
has a database of millions of sets of fingerprints, which includes
records collected from U.S. and foreign travelers stopped at borders for
criminal violations, from U.S. citizens adopting children overseas, and
from visa applicants abroad. There could be multiple records of one
person's prints. "It's going to be an essential component of tracking,"
said Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Project of
the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's enabling the Always On
Surveillance Society." If successful, the system planned by the FBI,
called Next Generation Identification, will collect a wide variety of
biometric information in one place for identification and forensic
purposes. In an underground facility the size of two football fields, a
request reaches an FBI server every second from somewhere in the United
States or Canada, comparing a set of digital fingerprints against the
FBI's database of 55 million sets of electronic fingerprints. A possible
match is made -- or ruled out--as many as 100,000 times a day.
more...
Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms
Washington Post (December
17, 2007) - It has been 50 years since scientists first created
DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to
make life's most extraordinary molecule. Until recently, however, even
the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of
DNA -- an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for
example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought. Now
researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of life
forms driven by completely artificial DNA. Scientists in Maryland have
already built the world's first entirely handcrafted chromosome -- a
large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory,
containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce.
In the coming year, they hope to transplant it into a cell, where it is
expected to "boot itself up," like software downloaded from the
Internet, and cajole the waiting cell to do its bidding. And while the
first synthetic chromosome is a plagiarized version of a natural one,
others that code for life forms that have never existed before are
already under construction. The cobbling together of life from synthetic
DNA, scientists and philosophers agree, will be a watershed event,
blurring the line between biological and artificial -- and forcing a
rethinking of what it means for a thing to be alive. "This raises a
range of big questions about what nature is and what it could be," said
Paul Rabinow, an anthropologist at the University of California at
Berkeley who studies science's effects on society. "Evolutionary
processes are no longer seen as sacred or inviolable. People in labs are
figuring them out so they can improve upon them for different purposes."
That unprecedented degree of control over creation raises more than
philosophical questions, however. What kinds of organisms will
scientists, terrorists and other creative individuals make? How will
these self-replicating entities be contained? And who might end up
owning the patent rights to the basic tools for synthesizing life? Some
experts are worried that a few maverick companies are already gaining
monopoly control over the core "operating system" for artificial life
and are poised to become the Microsofts of synthetic biology. That could
stifle competition, they say, and place enormous power in a few people's
hands. "We're heading into an era where people will be writing DNA
programs like the early days of computer programming, but who will own
these programs?" asked Drew Endy, a scientist at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. At the core of synthetic biology's new
ascendance are high-speed DNA synthesizers that can produce very long
strands of genetic material from basic chemical building blocks: sugars,
nitrogen-based compounds and phosphates. Today a scientist can write a
long genetic program on a computer just as a maestro might compose a
musical score, then use a synthesizer to convert that digital code into
actual DNA. Experiments with "natural" DNA indicate that when a faux
chromosome gets plopped into a cell, it will be able to direct the
destruction of the cell's old DNA and become its new "brain" -- telling
the cell to start making a valuable chemical, for example, or a medicine
or a toxin, or a bio-based gasoline substitute. Unlike conventional
biotechnology, in which scientists induce modest genetic changes in
cells to make them serve industrial purposes, synthetic biology involves
the large-scale rewriting of genetic codes to create metabolic machines
with singular purposes. "I see a cell as a chassis and power supply for
the artificial systems we are putting together," said Tom Knight of MIT,
who likes to compare the state of cell biology today to that of
mechanical engineering in 1864. That is when the United States began to
adopt standardized thread sizes for nuts and bolts, an advance that
allowed the construction of complex devices from simple, interchangeable
parts. more...
Prince Charles will appear at conference as a hologram
Daily Mail (December
15, 2007) - His detractors may argue that his green principles do
not stand up to close examination. But now Prince Charles is set to
confound his critics by addressing an energy conference - as a hologram.
Determined to keep his environmental damage to a minimum, Charles will
save the 15 tons of carbon that would have been generated by flying
himself and his staff 7,000 miles to the World Future Energy Summit in
Abu Dhabi. Instead, a three-dimensional image of the Prince will be seen
giving a five-minute talk. Charles recorded the message at Highgrove
last month. It will be transformed into a hologram-style image using
technology based on a Victorian music-hall technique called "ghosting".
A video projector will beam an image of the Prince on to the floor. It
is then reflected up on to a paper-thin sheet of foil to create an
optical illusion that makes him appear as a 3-D image on stage. Former
US Vice-President Al Gore used similar technology to appear as a
hologram at Wembley Stadium at the beginning of the Live Earth concerts
earlier this year. Charles was heavily criticised in January when he and
the Duchess of Cornwall flew to Philadelphia with 12 staff to pick up an
award from Mr Gore honouring him as an environmentalist. That trip
created 20 tons of carbon dioxide. The idea of the virtual Prince came
from the Abu Dhabi conference organisers, who asked British events firm
Revolution to produce special events for the three-day summit which
starts on January 21. Matt Sims said: "He will appear as a
three-dimensional holographic image. All credit to His Royal Highness
who was very keen to do it. more...
Honda Robots Pair Up to Lend a Hand Associated
Press (December 11, 2007) - As if
the idea of having one robot to serve you wasn't unusual enough, Honda
says its humanoids are now ready to work in pairs—and they can even
serve drinks. At a demonstration Tuesday at its Tokyo headquarters,
automaker Honda Motor Co. showed off two of the child-sized Asimo robots
serving tea and performing other tasks in coordination with one another.
The bubble-headed robots seemed to pick their steps carefully as they
made their way around the room, picking up and putting down drink trays
and pushing around a refreshments cart. Honda said it has developed a
system to link its robots together so they can share information about
where each one is and what each is doing. The 51-inch tall Asimo is
"smarter" now, thanks to upgrades that allow it to do more tasks without
human help, the company said. The robot can, for example, recognize
drink choices and carry a tray with the requested drink to the person
who placed the order. The Asimo, which looks like a child in a white
spacesuit, also does a better job of moving around people because of
technology that allows it to better predict people's movements so it
doesn't get in the way. The robot can even automatically head off to the
nearest charging station when its batteries fall below a certain level.
Honda has been working on robots since 1986. Rival Toyota Motor Corp.
has been aggressively beefing up its own robotics team, showing off last
week a robot that could play the violin. The Japanese government has
been pushing companies and researchers to make robotics a pillar of this
nation's business. Other companies, including Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd.
and NEC Corp., are also developing robots. Asimo—which stands for
Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility and is play on the Japanese word
for "legs"—first became available for rental in 2000. It's considered
one of the world's most advanced humanoids. It can walk, even jog, wave,
avoid obstacles and carry on simple conversations. "By the end of 2010s,
we'd like to see these robots working at every street corner of the
city," said Tomohiko Kawanabe of Honda's Fundamental Technology Research
Center.
Leftover Turkey? Turn It Into Oil!
Associated
Press (November 21, 2007) -
In 1971 scientists learned how to turn sewage
into oil in just twenty minutes using heat and pressure. Now, a
lab in Texas shows that even the scraps from your Thanksgiving
turkey is a great way to make oil in just half an hour.
Evolutionists suggest that oil comes from organic material, such
as dinosaurs, that were buried and compressed for millions of
years under immense pressure. However, more laboratory research
continues to prove that it can be formed in much shorter amounts
of time. Creationists agree that oil came from organic material,
but it was during Noah's Flood that billions of plants and
animals were buried by mud and water squishing them into oil.
This happened just 4,400 years ago, not millions of years ago.
The presence of oil in the earth is just more proof that the
Bible is scientifically accurate, and that the evolution theory
is last century's "leftovers." For many more evidences check out
our DVD on
The Age of the Earth. Exoskeleton Turns Humans Into Terminators LiveLeak (November 21, 2007) - An experimental robotic exoskeleton turns grunts into super-soldiers. Video clip 02:53
Laid-Back Surfer Dude May Be Next Einstein
Fox News (November 16, 2007)
- A. Garrett Lisi, a physicist who divides his time between surfing in
Maui and teaching snowboarding in Lake Tahoe, has come up with what may
be the Grand Unified Theory. That's the "holy grail" of physics that
scientists have been searching for ever since Albert Einstein presented
his General Theory of Relativity nearly 100 years ago. Even more
remarkable is that Lisi, who has a Ph.D. but no permanent university
affiliation, solves the problem without resorting to exotic dimensions,
string theory or exceptionally complex mathematics. A successful Grand
Unified Theory would use a series of equations to show how the four
fundamental forces of nature — gravity, electromagnetism and the strong
and weak nuclear forces — relate to each other. Electromagnetism and the
weak nuclear force, which controls radioactivity, were linked more than
30 years ago, and some progress has been made with linking them to the
strong nuclear force, which binds protons together in the atomic
nucleus. But gravity has always been an outlier. Not only have all
attempts to link gravity to the other three forces failed, but
physicists still can't agree on what gravity actually is or how it
works. Lisi solves this by using the E8 lattice, an eight-dimensional
structure visualized earlier this year in a widely circulated paper. He
noticed that several of the equations used to describe the lattice
matched those he'd come up with trying to resolve the four fundamental
forces. "The moment this happened my brain exploded with the
implications and the beauty of the thing," Lisi tells New Scientist
magazine. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'" By mapping known
subatomic particles, plus 20 imaginary ones, onto the 248 points of the
E8 lattice, and then rotating the lattice in a computer model, Lisi
shows how the particles elegantly combine to form three of the four
forces. The imaginary ones combine to form gravity, for which subatomic
particles have only been theorized. "Some incredibly beautiful stuff
falls out of Lisi's theory," David Ritz Finkelstein of Georgia Tech
tells New Scientist. "I think that this must be more than coincidence
and he really is touching on something profound." But Professor Marcus
du Sautoy of Oxford tells Britain's Daily Telegraph that "there seem to
be a lot of things still to fill in." For his part, Lisi self-mockingly
calls his finding "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything," and
downplays the suggestion that it may be the Grand Unified Theory. "The
theory is very young, and still in development," he tells the Daily
Telegraph. "Right now, I'd assign a low (but not tiny) likelihood to
this prediction." He hopes the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, currently
being built on the Swiss-French border will find some of his 20
imaginary gravity-related particles. "This is an all-or-nothing kind of
theory — it's either going to be exactly right, or spectacularly wrong,"
Lisi tells New Scientist. "I'm the first to admit this is a long shot.
But it ain't over till the LHC sings." more... See video
here.
Say Goodbye To Privacy
Haaretz
(November 13, 2007) - Privacy doesn't mean
anonymity. Think about that for a bit - and get used to it. Or if you
don't like it, get a plan. But it had better be a good one. On Oct. 23,
Donald Kerr, deputy director of the Office of National Intelligence,
outlined the new order of things: "Too often, privacy has been equated
with anonymity; and it's an idea that is deeply rooted in American
culture." Well, yes, the Bill of Rights, for instance, includes
protections against "search," as well as "seizure." But that was then.
As Kerr put it, "In our interconnected and wireless world, anonymity -
or the appearance of anonymity - is quickly becoming a thing of the
past." Kerr's speech got little notice until The Drudge Report
highlighted an Associated Press write-up. No doubt, of course, the
Office of National Intelligence will soon issue a soothing statement
assuring us that the government indeed respects your privacy and your
anonymity. And we've all heard that line before: "Nothing to see here
folks, just move along." Then Uncle Sam will resume perfecting his
warrantless surveillance. In fact, the old equation - privacy equals
anonymity - is being buzz-sawed six ways. First and most obviously,
terrorism concerns. If you're walking through Times Square carrying a
backpack and acting strangely, inquiring minds will want to know why.
And Godspeed to cops brave enough to tap that shoulder. Second, and
closely related, the proliferation of cameras and Webcams. Nobody likes
to be spied on, but many people - including parents keeping tabs on
baby-sitters - like to spy. In the coming face-off, the spies have it.
Third, health insurance. We have decided, collectively, to be generous
with each other in terms of "human services." But though most Americans
are happy to operate a welfare state for Americans, they draw the line
at subsidizing the world. So as a matter of administrative necessity,
the Nurse State will have to know exactly who you are - and your legal
status. Fourth, the reality that medical treatment now depends on
medical information. If doctors are to help you, they need to know your
medical history - not just blood type and allergies, but everything
about you, including your genetic background. Such monitoring is fraught
with controversy - recent headline in The New York Times: "In DNA Era,
New Worries About Prejudice" - but this is the era of the instant Q-Tip
identity test. more...
New Transparent Plastic Strong as Steel
Spacemart
(October 8, 2007) -
By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells,
University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as
strong as steel but lighter and transparent. It's made of layers of clay
nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer that shares chemistry with white
glue. Engineering professor Nicholas Kotov almost dubbed it "plastic
steel," but the new material isn't quite stretchy enough to earn that
name. Nevertheless, he says its further development could lead to
lighter, stronger armor for soldiers or police and their vehicles. It
could also be used in microelectromechanical devices, microfluidics,
biomedical sensors and valves and unmanned aircraft. Kotov and other U-M
faculty members are authors of a paper on this composite material, "Ultrastrong
and Stiff Layered Polymer Nanocomposites," published in the Oct. 5
edition of Science. The scientists solved a problem that has confounded
engineers and scientists for decades: Individual nano-size building
blocks such as nanotubes, nanosheets and nanorods are ultrastrong. But
larger materials made out of bonded nano-size building blocks were
comparatively weak. Until now. "When you tried to build something you
can hold in your arms, scientists had difficulties transferring the
strength of individual nanosheets or nanotubes to the entire material,"
Kotov said. "We've demonstrated that one can achieve almost ideal
transfer of stress between nanosheets and a polymer matrix." The
researchers created this new composite plastic with a machine they
developed that builds materials one nanoscale layer after another. The
robotic machine consists of an arm that hovers over a wheel of vials of
different liquids. In this case, the arm held a piece of glass about the
size of a stick of gum on which it built the new material. The arm
dipped the glass into the glue-like polymer solution and then into a
liquid that was a dispersion of clay nanosheets. After those layers
dried, the process repeated. It took 300 layers of each the glue-like
polymer and the clay nanosheets to create a piece of this material as
thick as a piece of plastic wrap. Mother of pearl, the iridescent lining
of mussel and oyster shells, is built layer-by-layer like this. It's one
of the toughest natural mineral-based materials. more...
I am creating artificial life, declares US gene pioneer
The Guardian
(October 6, 2007) -
Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to
decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of
laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first
new artificial life form on Earth. The announcement, which is expected
within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of
his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant
leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to
provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could
unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global
warming. Mr Venter told the Guardian he thought this landmark would be
"a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We
are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That
gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated
before". 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. The DNA sequence
is based on the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium which the team pared
down to the bare essentials needed to support life, removing a fifth of
its genetic make-up. The wholly synthetically reconstructed chromosome,
which the team have christened Mycoplasma laboratorium, has been
watermarked with inks for easy recognition. It is then transplanted into
a living bacterial cell and in the final stage of the process it is
expected to take control of the cell and in effect become a new life
form. The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the
genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively
changing the cell's species. Mr Venter said he was "100% confident" the
same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome. The
new life form will depend for its ability to replicate itself and
metabolise on the molecular machinery of the cell into which it has been
injected, and in that sense it will not be a wholly synthetic life form.
However, its DNA will be artificial, and it is the DNA that controls the
cell and is credited with being the building block of life. more...
Nigerian polio outbreak from vaccine Associated
Press (October 5, 2007) - A
polio outbreak in Nigeria was caused by the vaccine designed to stop
it, international health officials say, leaving at least 69 children
paralyzed. It is a frightening paradox in a part of the world that
already distrusts western vaccines, making it even tougher to stamp
out age-old diseases. The outbreak was caused by the live polio
virus that is used in vaccines given orally — the preferred method
in developing countries because it is cheaper and doesn't require
medical training to dispense. "This vaccine is the most effective
tool we have against the virus, but it's like fighting fire with
fire," said Olen Kew, a virologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. The CDC and the World Health Organization
announced the cause of the polio outbreak last week, even though
they knew about it last year. Outbreaks caused by the oral vaccine's
live virus have happened before. But the continuing Nigerian
outbreak is the biggest ever caused by the vaccine. It also follows
a nearly yearlong boycott of the vaccine in Africa's most populous
country because of unfounded fears the vaccine was a Western plot to
sterilize Muslims. Officials now worry that the latest
vaccine-caused Nigerian outbreak could trigger another vaccine
scare. Experts say such outbreaks only happen when too few children
are vaccinated. In northern Nigeria, only about 39 percent of
children are fully protected against polio. The oral polio vaccine
contains a weakened version of polio virus. Children who have been
vaccinated excrete the virus, and in unsanitary conditions it can
end up in the water supply, spreading to unvaccinated children. In
rare instances, as the virus passes through unimmunized children, it
can mutate into a form that is dangerous enough to spark new
outbreaks. In 2001, officials reported that 22 children were
paralyzed from polio in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in this
way. Subsequent vaccine-caused polio outbreaks have occurred in the
Philippines, Madagascar, China and Indonesia. In the West, the polio
vaccine is given as a shot and uses an inactivated virus, but that
method is more expensive and requires training. In Nigeria, the
outbreak comes "in the wake of all the other problems they've had
in," said Dr. Donald A. Henderson, who led WHO's smallpox
eradication campaign in the 1970s. In 2003, politicians in northern
Nigeria canceled vaccination campaigns for nearly a year, claiming
the vaccine was a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. That led to an
explosion of polio, and the virus jumped to about two dozen
countries. Now, health officials' decision to keep quiet about the
cause of the outbreak for so long may look suspicious. Dr. David
Heymann, WHO's top polio official, said that because the
organization considered the outbreak to be a problem for scientists
and not something that would change global vaccination practices,
they thought it was was unnecessary to immediately share publicly.
more... This is a good example of why I don't believe we should not participate in vaccinations. Dr. Len Horowitz, author of DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral, has much to say about this topic from a knowlegable perspective, giving details about the production of vaccines and other realities kept from the public conciousness. Read about them here. The bottom line is that vaccines can do exactly what this story is about. This is why I won't get any more vaccines, rather I will trust in God. He knows what He's doing more than these pharmacies and vaccine creators. In the Bible, the word "witchcraft" is actually the Greek word pharmakeia found in Galatians 5:20. It is defined in Greek as, "the use or the administering of drugs | poisoning | sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it | metaph. the deceptions and seductions of idolatry"Galatians 5:19-21
Robot Maker Builds Artificial Boy
my way
(September 13, 2007) - David Hanson has two little Zenos to care
for these days. There's his 18-month-old son Zeno, who prattles and
smiles as he bounds through his father's cramped office. Then there's
the robotic Zeno. It can't speak or walk yet, but has blinking eyes that
can track people and a face that captivates with a range of expressions.
At 17 inches tall and 6 pounds, the artificial Zeno is the culmination
of five years of work by Hanson and a small group of engineers,
designers and programmers at his company, Hanson Robotics. They believe
there's an emerging business in the design and sale of lifelike robotic
companions, or social robots. And they'll be showing off the robot boy
to students in grades 3-12 at the Wired NextFest technology conference
Thursday in Los Angeles. Unlike clearly artificial robotic toys, Hanson
says he envisions Zeno as an interactive learning companion, a synthetic
pal who can engage in conversation and convey human emotion through a
face made of a skin-like, patented material Hanson calls frubber. "It's
a representation of robotics as a character animation medium, one that
is intelligent," Hanson beams. "It sees you and recognizes your face. It
learns your name and can build a relationship with you." It's no
coincidence if the whole concept sounds like a science-fiction movie.
Hanson said he was inspired by, and is aiming for, the same sort of
realism found in the book "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," by Brian
Aldiss. Aldiss' story of troubled robot boy David and his quest for the
love of his flesh-and-blood parents was the source material for Steven
Spielberg's film "Artificial Intelligence: AI." He plans to make little
Zenos available to consumers within the next three years for $200 to
$300. Until then, Hanson, 37, makes a living selling and renting pricey,
lifelike robotic heads. His company offers models that look like Albert
Einstein, a pirate and a rocker, complete with spiky hair and
sunglasses. They cost tens of thousands of dollars and can be customized
to look like anyone, Hanson said. more...
0:01:23
How television controls and programs minds
L. Wolfe (September
10, 2007) - Read this powerful
indictment of uncontrolled TV viewing written in the early 1990s and
then take stock of how much the Boob Tube is on in your own home.
Its message is even more important today with TVs blaring in
airports, bars, even offices. It is time to try Mr. Wolfe's therapy:
"Do you want to stay stupid and let your country go to hell in a
basket? Why don't you just walk over to the set and turn it off.
That's right, completely off. Go on, you can do it. Now isn't that
better? Don't you feel a little better already? You've just taken
the first step in deprogramming yourself. It wasn't that hard, was
it? Until we speak again, try to keep it off. Now that will be a bit
harder." -Jim MarrsTurn Off Your
Television: The subconscious is powerful. It is aware of every
particle and detail around you. But it doesn't know the difference
between fact or fiction and acts on all information passing through
the conscious mind as fact, and responds to it. So what do you think
happens when you watch silly, moron, goofy commercials and
television programs? They are training your thought processes. -Hey
buddy, I'm talking to you. Yes, you, the guy sitting in front of the
television. Turn down the sound a bit, so that you can hear what I
am saying. Now, try to concentrate on what I am going to say. I want
to talk to you about your favorite pastime. No, it's not baseball or
football, although it does have something to do with your interest
in spectator sports. I'm talking about what you were just doing:
watching television. Do you have any idea about how much time you
spend in front of the television set? According to the latest
studies, the average American now spends between five and six hours
a day watching television. Let's put that in perspective: that is
more time than you spend doing anything else but sleeping or
working, if you are lucky enough to still have a job. That's more
time than you spend eating, more time than you spend with your wife
alone, more time than with the kids. It's even worse with your
children. According to these same studies, young children below
school age watch more than eight hours each day. School age children
watch a little under eight hours a day. In 1980, the average
20-year-old had watched the equivalent of 14 months of television in
his or her brief lifetime. That's 14 months, 24 hours a day. More
recent figures show that the numbers have climbed: the 20-year-old
has spent closer to two full years of his or her life in front of
the television set. At the same time, the researchers have noted a
disturbing phenomena. It seems that we Americans are getting
progressively more stupid. They note a decline in reading and
comprehension levels in all age groups tested. Americans read less
and understand what they read less than they did 10 years ago, less
than they have at any time since research began to study such
things. As for writing skills, Americans are, in general, unable to
write more than a few simple sentences. We are among the least
literate people on this planet, and we're getting worse. It's the
change--the constant trendline downward--that interests these
researchers. More than one study has correlated this increasing
stupidity of our population to the amount of television they watch.
Interestingly, the studies found that it doesn't matter what people
watch, whether it's ``The Simpsons'' or ``McNeil/Lehrer,'' or
``Murphy Brown'' or ``Nightline':' the more television you watch,
the less literate, the more stupid you are. The growth in television
watching had surprised some of the researchers. Back a decade ago,
they were predicting that television watching would level off and
might actually decline. It had reached an absolute saturation point.
They were right for so-called network television; figures show a
steady dropoff of viewership. But that drop is more than made up for
by the growth of cable television, with its smorgasbord of channels,
one for almost every perversion. Especially in urban and suburban
areas, Americans are hard-wired to more than 100 different channels
that provide them with all news, like CNN, all movies, all comedy,
all sports, all weather, all financial news and a liberal dose of
straight pornography. The researchers had also failed to predict the
market penetration of first beta and then VHS video recorders; they
made it possible to watch one thing and record another for later
viewing. They also offered access to movies not available on
networks or even cable channels as well as home videos, recorded on
your own little camcorder. The proliferation of home video equipment
has involved families in video-related activities which are not even
considered in the cumulative totals for time Americans spend
watching television. You might not actually realize how much you are
watching television. But think for a moment. When you come home, you
turn the television on, if it isn't on already. You read the paper
with it on, half glancing at what is on the screen, catching a bit
of the news, or the plot of a show. You eat with it on, maybe in the
background, listening for a score or something that happens to a
character in a show you follow. When something you are interested
in, a show or basketball game, is on, the set becomes the center of
attention. So your attention to what is on may vary in intensity,
but there is almost no point when you are home, and inside, and have
the set completely off. Isn't that right? The studies did not break
down the periods of time people watched television, according to the
intensity of their viewing. But the point is still made: you
compulsively turn the television on and spend a good portion of your
waking hours glued to the tube. And the studies also showed that
many people can't sleep without the television turned on!
Brainwashing Now, I'm sure you have heard that watching too much
television is bad for your health. They put stories like that on the
evening news. Bad for your eyes to stare at the screen, they say.
Especially bad if you sit too close. Well, I want to make another
point. We've already shown that you are addicted to the tube,
watching it between six and eight hour a day. But it is an addiction
that brainwashes you. There are two kinds of brainwashing. The one
that's called "hard" brainwashing is the type you're most familiar
with. You've got a pretty good image of it from some of those old
Korean war movies. They take some guy, an American patriot, drag him
into a room, torture him, pump him full of drugs, and after a
struggle, get him to renounce his country and his beliefs. He
usually undergoes a personality change, signified by an ever-present
smile and blank stare. This brainwashing is called hard because its
methods are overt. The controlled environment is obvious to the
victim; so is the terror. The victim is overwhelmed by a seemingly
omnipotent external force, and a feeling of intense isolation is
induced. The victim's moral strength is sapped, and slowly he
embraces his torturers. It is man's moral strength that informs and
orders his power of reason; without it, the mind becomes little more
than a recording machine waiting for imprints. No one is saying that
you have been a victim of hard brainwashing. But you have been
brainwashed, just as effectively as those people in the movies. The
blank stare? Did you ever look at what you look like while watching
television? If the angle is right, you might catch your own
reflection in the screen. Jaw slightly open, lips relaxed into a
smile. The blank stare of a television zombie. This is "soft"
brainwashing, even more effective because its victims go about their
lives unaware of what is being done to them. Television, with its
reach into nearly every American home, creates the basis for the
mass brainwashing of citizens, like you. Who's Doing It? read
more... While I can't verify some of the specific historic claims made, this is something that we as Christians should be aware of and guarding our minds against. The mind is very easily influenced, especially when dealing with spiritual wickedness in high places. If thought is the voice of the spirit realm, then the spirit realm can affect us through thoughts and words. I know I've "zoned out" on TV many-a-time. Knowing this tool is there, how much will the subtle serpent take advantage of it and try to control it? Watch how rock n' roll has been and is being used today. They Sold Their Souls For Rock N' Roll
Human-animal embryo study wins approval Guardian
Unlimited (September 4,
2007) - Plans to
allow British scientists to create human-animal embryos are expected to
be approved tomorrow by the government's fertility regulator. The Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Authority published its long-awaited public
consultation on the controversial research yesterday, revealing that a
majority of people were "at ease" with scientists creating the hybrid
embryos. Researchers want to create hybrid embryos by merging human
cells with animal eggs, in the hope they will be able to extract
valuable embryonic stem cells from them. The cells form the basic
building blocks of the body and are expected to pave the way for
revolutionary therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's
and even spinal cord injuries. The consultation papers were released
ahead of the authority's final decision on the matter, which will mark
the end of almost a year of intense lobbying by scientists and a fervent
campaign by organisations opposed to research involving embryonic stem
cells. Using animal eggs will allow researchers to push ahead unhindered
by the shortage of human eggs. Under existing laws, the embryos must be
destroyed after 14 days when they are no bigger than a pinhead, and
cannot be implanted into the womb. Opponents of the research and some
religious groups say the work blurs the distinction between humans and
animals, and creates embryos that are destined to be destroyed when stem
cells are extracted from them. Two research groups based at King's
College London and Newcastle University have already applied to the HFEA
to create animal-human embryos, but their applications have been on hold
since November last year amid confusion over whether the authority was
legally able to issue licences. If the authority
approves the research, the applications will go forward to a committee,
with a decision on both due within three months. Professor Ian Wilmut,
whose team cloned Dolly the sheep, is waiting for the HFEA's decision
before applying to create hybrid embryos to study motor neurone disease
with Professor Chris Shaw at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.
more...
Part-human embryos are a chilling step closer as watchdog gives go-ahead
for hybrid 'chimeras' This Is
London (September
4, 2007)
- The creation of part-human, part-animal embryos looks set to be
approved by the fertility regulator tomorrow. These "hybrid" embryos
would be used for research into incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's.
The news follows a surprise Government decision not to ban the
controversial research. A shortage of human eggs has led two groups of
scientists to appeal to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
for permission to make hybrid embryos from human skin cells and animal
eggs. Cows' eggs are most likely to be used, because they are in
plentiful supply. Scientists say the creation of hybrid embryos has the
potential to revolutionise the treatment of debilitating diseases which
affect millions. But opponents believe mixing of human and animal
genetic material defies nature. They are also unhappy about the
destruction of embryos that such research inevitably entails. The
scientists' hopes to use hybrids were initially jeopardised by a
proposal to outlaw such research under a shake-up of outdated fertility
laws. But in May, Labour ministers dramatically changed their minds.
However, only scientists who are researching serious diseases - and are
licensed by the HFEA - will be allowed to carry out such procedures.
While the fertility watchdog has yet to rule on the issue, its ethical
and scientific experts are in favour of the creation of hybrids. It will
tomorrow rule on the creation of hybrids in principle. But the final
go-ahead on the applications submitted by scientists at King's College,
London, and the North East Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle will rest
with the authority's licence committee which is due to meet in November.
Although the embryos are sometimes called chimeras after the monstrous
creatures in Greek mythology, they are strictly speaking hybrids rather
than chimeras. Rather than containing two types of cells - one from each
"parent" creature - as chimeras do, hybrids have only one type of cell,
in which the genetic information from the different species mixes. This
summer the HFEA's Scientific and Clinical Advances Group concluded that
the creation of hybrids was justified by the lack of human eggs
available to researchers. However, the results of a public consultation
were mixed. Some 61 per cent backing the creation of hybrid embryos if
it would help research into diseases such as Parkinson's and
Alzheimer's. At the same time, almost half of those polled felt the
research was "meddling with nature". more...
Why so many Americans today are 'mentally ill' WorldNet
Daily (August 14, 2007) - "When I
was lying in my bed that night, I couldn’t sleep because my voice in my
head kept echoing through my mind telling me to kill them." You're
reading the words of 12-year-old Christopher Pittman, struggling to
explain why he murdered his grandparents, who had provided the only love
and stability in his turbulent life. He was angry with his grandfather,
who had disciplined him earlier that day for hurting another student
during a fight on the school bus. So later that night, he shot both of
his grandparents in the head with a .410 shotgun as they slept and then
burned down their South Carolina home, where he had lived with them. "I
got up, got the gun, and I went upstairs and I pulled the trigger," he
recalled. "Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite
TV show. You know what is going to happen, but
you can’t do anything to stop it." His lawyers would later argue the
boy had been a victim of "involuntary intoxication," since Pittman's
doctors had him taking the antidepressants Paxil and Zoloft just prior
to the murders. Paxil's known "adverse drug reactions" – according to
the drug's 2001 FDA-approved label – include "mania," "insomnia,"
"anxiety," "agitation," "confusion," "amnesia," "depression," "paranoid
reaction," "psychosis," "hostility," "delirium," "hallucinations,"
"abnormal thinking," "depersonalization" and "lack of emotion," among
others. Andrea Yates, in one of the most horrifying and heartbreaking
crimes in modern history, drowned all five of her children – aged 7
years down to 6 months – in a bathtub. Insisting inner voices commanded
her to kill her kids, she had become increasingly psychotic over the
course of several years. At her 2006 murder re-trial, Yates' longtime
friend Debbie Holmes testified: "She asked me if I thought Satan could
read her mind and if I believed in demon possession." And Dr. George
Ringholz, after evaluating Yates for two days, recounted an experience
she had after the birth of her first child: "What she described was
feeling a presence ... Satan ... telling her to take a knife and stab
her son Noah," Ringholz said, adding that Yates' delusion at the time of
the bathtub murders was not only that she had to kill her children to
save them, but that Satan had entered her and that
she had to be executed in order to kill
Satan. Yates had been taking the antidepressant Effexor. In November
2005, more than four years after Yates drowned her children, Effexor
manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals quietly added "homicidal ideation" to
the drug's list of "rare adverse events." The Medical Accountability
Network, a private nonprofit focused on medical ethics issues, publicly
criticized Wyeth, saying Effexor's "homicidal ideation" risk wasn't
well-publicized and that Wyeth failed to send letters to doctors or
issue warning labels announcing the change. And what exactly does "rare"
mean in the phrase "rare adverse events"? The FDA defines it as
occurring in less than one in 1,000 people. But since, according to an
Associated Press report, about 19.2 million prescriptions for Effexor
were filled in the U.S. alone in 2005, statistically that means
thousands of Americans could experience "homicidal ideation" – murderous
thoughts – as a result of taking just this one brand of antidepressant
drug. Effexor is Wyeth's best-selling drug, by the way, bringing in
$3.46 billion – with a "b" – in sales worldwide in 2005, almost
one-fifth of the company's total revenues. Columbine mass-killer Eric
Harris was taking Luvox – like Paxil and Zoloft (and trendsetter
Prozac), a modern and widely prescribed type of antidepressant called
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. Harris and fellow
student Dylan Klebold went on a hellish school shooting rampage in 1999
during which they killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others
before turning their guns on themselves. Luvox manufacturer Solvay
Pharmaceuticals concedes that during short-term controlled clinical
trials 4 percent of children and youth taking Luvox – that's 1 in 25 –
developed mania, a dangerous and
violence-prone mental derangement characterized by extreme excitement
and delusion. The inescapable truth is, perpetrators of many of the
nation's most horrendous murder rampages in recent years were taking, or
just coming off of, prescribed psychiatric drugs. more... Is it any wonder God is against Pharmacia, translated witchcraft in the Bible? Putting foreign chemicals made by men tinkering with variations alone is not advisable as they have no clue of the full effects that may not be seen. What people need is the foundation of YAHWEH in their lives, not drugs. Thought is the voice of the spirit realm and it is very advisable for us to begin to recognize that and capture our thoughts, compare them to scripture and reject what is not of God. Then we will live lives of selfless love and the enemy will have no foothold. Do you want to trust the God who created you to heal you or men tinkering with chemical concoctions to test their theories on you? There's another more sinister element to this coming from big pharma in the desire of the New World Order to control the populations. This is made easier the more of the population is zoned out on medications and dependent upon them. I believe if the mind can be dulled, possession and/or influence is much easier. How could this happen? Our higher education system is full of false theories and ideas expressed as truth while rejecting the spiritual. Are they in any place to understand the spiritual connection of the physical body and the spirit within it or what chemicals do to that connection? God said not to be involved in Pharmacia, I think we're seeing the reasons why.
National ID? How about a global ID?
Info World
(August
10, 2007) - A little-known
federation quietly lays the infrastructure for a universal identity
system that could eventually be implemented nationally or
internationally. The Federation for Identity and
Cross-Credentialing Systems (FiXs)
-- a little-known group of non-profits, government contractors,
commercial entities, and government agencies -- has just unveiled a
first-of-its-kind global infrastructure to support distributed,
integrated identity management and cross-credentialing across
organizations. The implementation combines several existing security
technologies along with a set of trusted models, policies, and
operating rules to insure the accurate identity of personnel
accessing physical sites or logical systems. Already in a pilot mode
at a handful of government agencies and defense contractors, the
FiXs identity management initiative does not have a hard date for
broad deployment, although the impediments do not appear to be
technical. “The cultural gap with the public in general is still too
wide,” said Dr. Mike Mestrovich, President of FiXs. “I think there
would have to be a public consensus to move us in that direction and
I don’t see that happening until at least 2009 or beyond.” Founded
in 2004 and based in Fairfax, Va., FiXs counts among its members the
Department of Defense (DoD), Wells Fargo, Lockheed Martin, EDS, and
several others. Modeled after secure electronic payment systems and
initially implemented by the DoD’s Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC),
the FiXs initiative meets the objectives set forth in the October
2006 Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-12). “Until now,
cross-bordering policies between government and industry had not
been established,” said Mary Dixon, director at the DMDC. The FiXs
implementation does not assign roles, grant or deny access, or
otherwise act as a gatekeeper. Rather, the mission of FiXs is simply
to authenticate the identity of participants within its member
organizations. Once verified by FiXs, individual site managers and
systems administrators assign or designate access controls based on
the role of the individual and the policies of a given organization.
FiXs’ capabilities allow it to cross between both public and private
sector organizations using a federated trust model. The
implementation is available worldwide in local or remote settings
via both wireless and wired environments. Access is available in
real time. An individual’s specific identity data remains within
their vetted source organization. “By its very nature, the federated
solution aids in privacy because there is no central database and
individual data can be stored in only one [vetted] place,” Dr.
Mestrovich said. Yet the distributed design and cross-organizational
model found in the FiXs implementation does offer the possibility of
a future national or international identity management system that
might cross borders and organizational boundaries. “The federated
approach can actually take the place of a mandated National ID
system,” Dr. Mestrovich stated.
Scientists reveal secret of levitation Breitbart.com (August 6, 2007) - Scientists have discovered a ground-breaking way of levitating ultra small objects, which may revolutionise the design of micro-machines, a new report says. Physicists said they can create "incredible levitation effects" by manipulating so-called Casimir force, which normally causes objects to stick together by quantum force. The phenomenon could be used to improve the performances of everyday devices ranging from car airbags to computer chips, say Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin from Saint Andrews University. Casimir force -- discovered in 1948 and first measured in 1997 -- can be seen in a gecko's ability to stick to a surface with just one toe. Now the British scientists say they can reverse the Casimir force to cause an object to repel rather than attract another in a vacuum. "The Casimir force is the ultimate cause of friction in the nano world, in particular in some micro-electromechanical systems," said Leonhardt, writing in the August issue of New Journal of Physics. "Micro or nano machines could run smoother and with less or no friction at all if one can manipulate the force," he added. And he added: "In order to reduce friction in the nanoworld, turning nature's stickiness into repulsion could be the ultimate remedy. Instead of sticking together, parts of micromachinery would levitate." Leonhardt stressed that the practise is possible only for micro-objects. But he underlined that, although in principle it may one day be possible to levitate humans, that day is a long way off. "At the moment, in practice it is only going to be possible for micro-objects with the current technology, since this quantum force is small and acts only at short ranges," he said. "For now, human levitation remains the subject of cartoons, fairytales and tales of the paranormal." Their research was to be published in the New Journal of Physics. | Technology |
Microsoft Patent: Biometric Recognition Used To Personalize Ads
Haaretz (August
1, 2007) - In the film version of
Minority Report, a personalized ad that
knows about past purchases greets a
character as he enters the Gap. Meanwhile,
American Express ads tell Tom Cruise's own
character that he looks like he needs an
escape as he's chased by authorities. Now
Thanks for the article Vera! While this may be quite handy, the Bible speaks to its end and that is not good. I believe that this kind of software running on the hardware of ink RFID could make it so that one could not buy or sell anymore because nobody would take worthless papers, especially if the banks stopped honoring them with the new RFID system in place. And even further than that, what if there was some kind of technology as part of this system that would kill those who don't worship the image of the beast. Revelation 13:15-17, "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Notice the "image of the beast should both 1) speak 2) Cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." The false prophet causes the image to kill those who refuse to worship it. On top of that, anyone without the mark will be unable to buy or sell anything. How much are you investing for your future? Would you give it up if the banks suddenly required you to get their new RFID tattoo? The governmental backbone for just the system to do that is being implemented right now in America as the RealID Act. Governments and banks are not lost on the power and control this gives them. Neither has it got past Lucifer, who began all this centuries ago with subtle doctrine slowly introduced to the population. See the History of the Mystery of Iniquity.
Israeli Researchers Take First Step toward Live
Computer Chip
Israel21c
(July 29, 2007) - Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein might have been unprecedented in its time, but since
then, popular culture has been clogged with a fascination for the
concept of artificial intelligence, from the eerily humanoid robots
of The Twilight Zone to films like AI and Robocop. People can't seem
to get enough of the idea that advanced technology may one day
create sentient life, but at the same time seem to dread the
consequences of an apparent transgression against the laws of
nature. It may therefore come as a surprise to find that advances in
the field of nano biotechnology are now taking place that have
nothing to do with creating monsters. Instead, for Professor Eshel
Ben-Jacob and his graduate student, Itay Baruchi of Tel Aviv
University's Department of Exact Sciences, the goal is to find
treatments for neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's,
and Parkinson's disease. With the use of chemical stimulation,
Ben-Jacob and Baruchi discovered that they could trigger a man-made
network of neurons to imprint patterns—the same process by which the
brain creates memories. This discovery marks an early but crucial
step toward the invention of a computer chip with the capability to
create and store information the same way our own brains do. By
linking the network of neurons to software which reads the neural
activity, the network and the computer can work together to carry
out tasks of which computers are currently incapable. "Computers
don't have cognitive function because they lack plasticity—they are
fixed," Ben-Jacob told ISRAEL21c. "We're therefore thinking of
adding features to computers to make them more flexible and
adaptable, like human brains." It's the connection between the
computer and the neural network, which would communicate with one
another, that creates a new kind of machine. Ben-Jacob elaborates:
"The network won't replace the computer, but it will do the softer
cognitive functions of decision-making, interaction with the
environment, and sound recognition." According to Baruchi,
biological computing might also lead to technology that Microsoft
has been working to achieve, without success: handwriting
recognition, made possible by virtue of the biological system's
ability to detect patterns. "The ability of the regular
silicon-based computer to detect patterns is very low, and it needs
a very sophisticated algorithm. With the biological system it's very
easy, because humans and animals can easily detect patterns," said
Baruchi, who has been working with Ben-Jacob for seven years.
more... Who Needs Israel Anyway? WorldNet Daily (July 21, 2007) - The above question, either in word or implication, is being voiced by way too many these days, as people and governments cast about desperately for lasting solutions in the Middle East. Many Western and European political leaders – having heard the deprecations and the determination to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, from the likes of Palestinian Yasser Arafat, Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and so many other power brokers in the region – have come dangerously close to deciding that little Israel is the "thorn in the side" of world order. The next logical thought is: "Who needs Israel? Let her be erased, her people dispersed (or whatever), and the Middle East can settle comfortably into a harmonious Islamic community of states. Problem solved!" What folly. What suicidal blindness. I just returned from a momentous event in our nation's capital. An organization called Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, convened 4,000 people from all 50 states in several days of briefings and strategy sessions, culminating in an exhilarating, rousing rally in the D.C. Convention Center featuring Jewish leaders and top Christian ministers celebrating the things we hold in common and the spiritual bonds that unite us. The next day, several thousand of the participants fanned out over Washington and Capitol Hill, lobbying virtually every representative and senator on behalf of Israel and its sovereignty. Why? Couldn't we all see this is an exercise in futility, an unnecessary bother … that we'd all be better off if Israel didn't exist? No, we all see clearly that the world needs Israel. The whole world. What do I mean? Consider:
It goes on and on. The Weizmann Institute of Science has been voted "the best university in the world for life scientists to conduct research." Israeli researchers have:
These are only a few of Israel's recent contributions to the welfare
of the world. There are just too many to list here. Water shortage,
global warming, space travel, anti-virus, anti-smallpox, blood pressure,
solar power, paralysis, diabetes, data storage – these and hundreds more
– are being addressed by Israel's scientists. They're pioneering in DNA
research, using tiny strands to create human transistors that can
literally build themselves – and playing an important role in
identifying a defective gene that causes a rare and usually fatal
disease in Arab infants! more... The New World Order Tracking Device: RFID RINF Alternative News (July 1, 2007) - The Bermuda Government are issuing vehicle owners with credit card sized stickers containing a RFID chip and it is expected that every vehicle in Bermuda will carry one within a year or two. The scheme is mandatory and a $10,000 penalty applies if owners remove the chips. The first country to back the system was Singapore, well known for its lack of human rights. RFID readers are being placed in telephone poles and buildings throughout Bermuda, which enable authorities to monitor the past and present location of vehicles and record the speed at which they are travelling. The information is being sent to high speed computers that calculate everything you could possibly imagine about a travellers journey, even the route taken. It is planned that the computer will compile a list of driving offences within the past 24 hours and will automatically pass this information on to the police. Roger Crombie, a Bermuda resident and victim of RFID vehicle tracking said: “It should be stated that Dr. Brown, the Transport Minister who introduced this system, has said that he does not intend the chip to be used for any purpose other than tracking down drivers whose vehicles are not registered. I believe he means it, but it is not Dr. Brown’s intentions we have to worry about. It will take time to put the system in place, and Dr. Brown has said that he does not intend to stay in power forever. “The person to worry about is the Premier who succeeds Dr. Brown, or the one who succeeds that one. The chip system is the perfect method for keeping close track of citizens, a dictator’s dream,” said concerned citizen Mr. Crombie. Similar RFID systems are being used in New York and London, which has reduced traffic and cut business profits by 40%. The use of RFID chips are increasing around the world at an astonishing rate, with continuous promotion from New World Order heavyweights including the Bush Administration and also from the VeriChip Corp, who manufacture human implantable chips and have been pushing for RFID chips to be tested on the U.S. military. more...| NewWorldOrder | Light Fantastic: Flirting With Invisibility The New York Times (June 12, 2007) - Increasingly, physicists are constructing materials that bend light the “wrong” way, an optical trick that could lead to sharper-than-ever lenses or maybe even make objects disappear. Last October, scientists at Duke demonstrated a working cloaking device, hiding whatever was placed inside, although it worked only for microwaves. In the experiment, a beam of microwave light split in two as it flowed around a specially designed cylinder and then almost seamlessly merged back together on the other side. That meant that an object placed inside the cylinder was effectively invisible. No light waves bounced off the object, and someone looking at it would have seen only what was behind it. The cloak was not perfect. An alien with microwave vision would not have seen the object, but might have noticed something odd. “You’d see a darkened spot,” said David R. Smith, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke. “You’d see some distortion, and you’d see some shadowing, and you would see some reflection.” A much greater limitation was that this particular cloak worked for just one particular “color,” or wavelength, of microwave light, limiting its usefulness as a hiding place. Making a cloak that works at the much shorter wavelengths of visible light or one that works over a wide range of colors is an even harder, perhaps impossible, task. Nonetheless, the demonstration showed the newfound ability of scientists to manipulate light through structures they call “metamaterials.” Obviously the military would be interested in any material that could be used to hide vehicles or other equipment. But such materials could also be useful in new types of microscopes and antennae. So far, scientists have written down the underlying equations, performed computer simulations and conducted some proof-of-principle experiments like the one at Duke. They still need to determine the practical limitations of how far they can bend light to their will. more... The end of the plug? Scientists invent wireless device that beams electricity through your home Daily Mail (June 8, 2007) - Scientists have sounded the death knell for the plug and power lead. In a breakthrough that sounds like something out of Star Trek, they have discovered a way of 'beaming' power across a room into a light bulb, mobile phone or laptop computer without wires or cables. In the first successful trial of its kind, the team was able to illuminate a 60-watt light bulb 7ft away. The team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who call their invention 'WiTricity', believe it could change the way we use electricity and do away with the tangle of cables, plugs and chargers that clutter modern homes. It could also allow the use of laptops and mobile phones without batteries. The inspiration came when the lead researcher, Dr Marin Soljacic, was standing in his kitchen at night staring at his mobile phone. "It was probably the sixth time that month that I was awakened by my cell phone beeping to let me know that I had forgotten to charge it. It occurred to me that it would be so great if the thing took care of its own charging," he said. To turn this dream into reality, Dr Soljacic needed a way of transmitting power wirelessly. Scientists have known for nearly two centuries that it is possible to transfer an electrical current from one coil of wire to another without them touching. The phenomenon, called electromagnetic induction, is used in power transformers and electric motors around the world. However, the coils in motors and transformers have to be close for power to pass from one to another. Attempting to transfer power over distances is impossible. The breakthrough came when Dr Soljacic realised there was another way of transferring energy through the air. Rather than sending power from a transmitter to a receiver as a conventional electromagnetic wave - the same form of radiation as light, radio waves and microwaves - he could use the transmitter to fill a room with a 'non-radiative' electromagnetic field. Most objects in the room - such as people, desks and carpets - would be unaffected by the electromagnetic field. But any objects designed to resonate with the electromagnetic field would absorb the energy. It sounds complicated, but the result demonstrated by the American team this month was a dramatic success. Using two coils of copper, the team transmitted power 7ft through the air to a light bulb, which lit up instantly. The scientists say the technique works only over distances of up to 9ft. However, they believe it could be used to charge up a battery within a few yards of the power source connected to a receiving coil. more... Talking paper made by scientists BBC News (June 5, 2007) - Digital paper that can speak to you has been created by scientists. Researchers from Mid Sweden University have constructed an interactive paper billboard that emits recorded sound in response to a user's touch. The prototype display uses conductive inks, which are sensitive to pressure, and printed speakers. The team envisages that the technology could be used by advertisers, and in the future, it might even be employed for product packaging. The researcher's display model shows its possible use for marketing holiday destinations. Mikael Gulliksson, who led the research project, told the BBC News website: "When you approach the billboard and put your hand on a postcard that shows a picture of a beach, you can hear a very brief description of that beach." The key to the billboard's capabilities is a layer of digital paper that is embedded with electronics. This is printed with conductive inks, which, when applied with pressure, relay information to a micro-computer that contains recorded audio files. Sound then streams out from printed speakers, which are formed from more layers of conductive inks that sit over an empty cavity to form a diaphragm. This functional layer is sandwiched between a thick sheet of extra-strong cardboard and another sheet of paper that is printed with the billboard's design. more... A Battery Beyond Belief? Technology Review (March 12, 2007) - Is EEStor of Cedar Park, TX, for real? The secretive company announced earlier this year that it plans to begin shipping a 15-kilowatt-hour electrical-energy storage system that can propel a small electric car 322 kilometers and takes just minutes to charge. The first customer: Toronto-based Zenn Motor, which makes electric vehicles. EEStor says its technology is a cross between a battery and an ultracapacitor (which quickly stores and releases energy) and is based on mysterious barium titanate powders. Company documents claim that the new storage system has better energy density than lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries, that it charges more quickly, and that it's cheaper and safer. The implications are enormous and, for many, unbelievable, but the company says it's all true. "We're well on our way to doing everything we said," says Richard Weir, EEStor's cofounder and chief executive. Israeli therapy kills brain cancer cells with electrical fields Israel21c (June 10, 2007) - An Israeli-developed treatment that specifically targets rapidly growing cancer cells with electrical fields shows great promise in treating patients with brain cancer. The Novo-TTF (Tumor-Treating Fields) device, invented by Technion Professor emeritus Yoram Palti, uses electrical fields to disrupt tumor growth by interfering with cell division of cancerous cells, causing them to stop proliferating and die off instead of dividing and growing. Healthy brain cells rarely divide and have different electrical properties than cancerous brain cells. This allows the device to target cancer cells without affecting the healthy cells. Early results of cell culture, animal and early phase human trials showed that compared to historical data, the device more than doubled the median overall survival rates in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive type of malignant brain tumor. The findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal article. Palti, MD, Ph.D, founded a company NovoCure in 2000 to develop his research in treating cancer with electrical fields. According to Palti, this is the first time that electrical fields are being used to kill cancer cells, and it opens the door for other forms of cancer to be treated as well. "This is a new general modality for treating cancer. In a way it's similar to radiation, it's physical in the same sense, but the major difference is that there are no side effects," he told ISRAEL21c from his office at Novocure's headquarters in Haifa. more...| Israel | Israeli portal plans to connect the world, family by family Israel21c.com |
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