Posts Tagged ‘technology’

Zeppelin Renaissance

When the Hindenburg blew up in 1937, so did the airship industry. So why is Britain building a fleet of the world’s biggest, for the Americans, in our old Zeppelin sheds? 2015: Regent’s Park International Airport A line of limousines and taxis snakes its way into the Royal Park to deliver...

April 11th, 2011 | Science & Technology | Read More

Gold Farming: Virtual Slavery?

It was an hour before midnight, three hours into the night shift with nine more to go. At his workstation in a small, fluorescent-lighted office space in Nanjing, China, Li Qiwen sat shirtless and chain-smoking, gazing purposefully at the online computer game in front of him. The screen showed a lightly...

March 28th, 2011 | Social Insight | Read More

Hackerville: How a Remote Town in Romania Has Become Cybercrime Central

Three hours outside Bucharest, Romanian National Road 7 begins a gentle ascent into the foothills of the Transylvanian Alps. Meadowlands give way to crumbling houses with chickens in the front yard, laundry flapping on clotheslines. But you know you’ve arrived in the town of Râmnicu Vâlcea when...

February 14th, 2011 | Social Insight | Read More

The AI Revolution Is On

Diapers.com warehouses are a bit of a jumble. Boxes of pacifiers sit above crates of onesies, which rest next to cartons of baby food. In a seeming abdication of logic, similar items are placed across the room from one another. A person trying to figure out how the products were shelved could well conclude...

January 31st, 2011 | Science & Technology | Read More

DNA Teleportation?

A Nobel prizewinner is reporting that DNA can be generated from its teleported “quantum imprint” From the NewScientist A STORM of scepticism has greeted experimental results emerging from the lab of a Nobel laureate which, if confirmed, would shake the foundations of several fields of science....

January 25th, 2011 | Science & Technology | Read More

WikiLeaks cables: Bangladeshi ‘death squad’ trained by UK government

Rapid Action Battalion, accused of hundreds of extra-judicial killings, received training from UK officers, cables reveal The British government has been training a Bangladeshi paramilitary force condemned by human rights organisations as a “government death squad”, leaked US embassy cables...

December 22nd, 2010 | Social Insight | Read More

Why the world needs WikiLeaks

he controversial website WikiLeaks collects and posts highly classified documents and video. Founder Julian Assange, who’s reportedly being sought for questioning by US authorities, talks to TED’s Chris Anderson about how the site operates, what it has accomplished — and what drives...

December 17th, 2010 | Big Ideas | Read More

Wikileaks’ aim to defeat “Authoritarian Conspiracy”

The following is an interesting analysis (by ‘zunguzungu’) of a text by Wikileaks leader Julian Assange, probably written around 2006. See the paper: State and Terrorist Conspiracies For additional analysis, see here. By Michel Bauwens for the P2P Foundation Analysis: (nearly quoted in full) “Most...

December 14th, 2010 | Social Insight | Read More

‘I’m planning to retire to Mars’

Elon Musk, The SpaceX founder, is convinced that humanity’s survival rests on its ability to move to the red planet. He here speaks of how his company is making the leap to the stars an affordable dream The fresh-faced 39-year-old man, in a dark T-shirt and jeans, is talking about travelling to...

August 6th, 2010 | Science & Technology | Read More

A Brainwaving Computer

Tan Le’s astonishing new computer interface reads its user’s brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-reaching applications. Tan Le is the head...

July 28th, 2010 | Science of the Mind | Read More