Andy Grove on Our Electric Future - "Energy independence [viz.] is the wrong goal. Here is a plan Americans can stick to." Perhaps some infrastructure spending^1,2 is in order? [etc., &c., cf.]
posted on Jul 15, 2008 - View this thread

Women's rights: What's in it for men? - "Women in rich countries largely enjoy gender equality while those in poor countries suffer substantial discrimination. This column proposes an explanation for the relationship between economic development and female empowerment that emphasises changes in the incentives males face rather than shifts in moral sentiment. Technological change that raises demand for human capital may give men a stake in women's rights."
posted on Jun 29, 2008 - View this thread

Dean Kamen's Artificial "Luke" Arm - Segway inventor reinvents the prosthetic arm: "I've been able to do stuff with this that I haven't, seriously haven't, done in 26 years... uh, pick up a banana, peel a banana and eat it without it squishening... I can't wait to get one of these in a real environment, a home environment, and actually my wife can't either. She's going, oh yeah, I got lots of stuff for you to do."
posted on Feb 19, 2008 - View this thread

'Race' graphically illustrated - "most Europeans" vs. Ashkenazim (previously; see also IQ & Gladwell, viz. ;)
posted on Jan 23, 2008 - View this thread

The dangers of living in a zero-sum world economy - naked capitalism reprints (with added commentary) an FT article by Martin Wolf on why it's vital for (civilised) society to sustain a 'positive-sum' world, otherwise: "A zero-sum economy leads, inevitably, to repression at home and plunder abroad." Wolf's solution? "The condition for success is successful investment in human ingenuity." Of course! Some are calling for more socialism, while others would press on to build more megaprojects. For me, at least part of the solution lies in environmental accounting and natural capitalism :P
posted on Dec 19, 2007 - View this thread

The Edison of our age? Stanford Ovshinsky may not be a household name, but his inventions have the power to change the world.
posted on Jan 1, 2007 - View this thread

Steven Levy and Mark Pesce on the future of television. Oh and Conan O'brien! :D [via]
posted on May 23, 2005 - View this thread

Hi-Tech's New Day - Since the collapse of the Nasdaq bubble and the dotcom fizzle, the last five years have been particularly hard on technology entrepreneurs. But lately, there's been a bit of a resurgence (what with the Google IPO and Apple's second wind and all). Not that the boom is going to resume, by any means, it's just encouraging that tech innovation continues apace and is again being rewarded in the marketplace! [really i'm just posting this cuz there seems to be a new intarweb celebrity power couple on the block (via a.whole #1) :]
posted on Apr 7, 2005 - View this thread

People of the pancake: "I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self—evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the 'instantly available'. A new self that needs to contain less and less of an inner repertory of dense cultural inheritance—as we all become 'pancake people'—spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button." Writing on the Edge, Richard Foreman and George Dyson speculate on a 'thin-client' view of the self where most cultural processing occurs not only somewhere else, but by something else! [reality checks provided by Kevin Kelly, Jaron Lanier, Steven Johnson, Marvin Minsky and Douglas Rushkoff, among others :]
posted on Mar 13, 2005 - View this thread

Laser Weapons like in Real Genius, but for real! Combine them with GPS and you get Death Rays!! The technology is there, but how will it change warfare? (via drudge :)
posted on Feb 17, 2002 - View this thread

Before you get that cell phone check to see where the tantalum inside it comes from. You could be funding a civil war in the Congo.
posted on Jun 6, 2001 - View this thread