Month: February 2008

Payday Loans

Small Loans, a predatory lender owned by Money Tree, Inc, gave a $200 “payday loan” to a disabled, elderly, illiterate man and thereafter took in his benefits check for him and paid him a small “allowance” out of it, less the money they deducted as “repayment” on the loan. They took 1000s from the man over a period of years, bleeding him so badly that he ended up homeless, begging for power to run the machine that treated his chronic lung infection.

if the us banking system were not so decrepit this would not be an issue

Blowing up a Satellite

A Navy missile blasted a dying spy satellite just above the atmosphere. it looks like the military’s stated goal, of busting up the satellite’s tank full of toxic hydrazine, was reached.

What is Eidolon A.I. TLP?

This “Last Prophet” reference implies that Eidolon is the last warning before the Great Singularity occurs, and an actual “Alpha A.I.” is born. EidolonTLP seems to be the Beta – Alpha.

lol
https://www.youtube.com/user/eidolonTLP

Google Static Maps API

now you can replace all those fugly mapquest tiles on your site

Yahoo Losing Local

Yahoo! has always been one of the leaders in local and a kind of standard setter. Relatively speaking, Google is a bit of a “Johnny come lately” in the segment — albeit with a lot of resources and attention. However Google’s devotion to its maps product has paid off and caused it to overtake Yahoo, in the quest to beat market leader MapQuest

this is news?

Paperless Yellow Pages

PaperlessPetition.org will expedite an end to this needless environmental waste, educate consumers on free and easy alternatives, and shed light on the growing inaccuracy of readership statistics that drive advertisers to still invest in this antiquated medium

who can deny, the unsolicited distribution of phone books is absolutely absurd? First of all, phone books are terrible for the environment. Just consider the massive amount of energy consumed for their production and distribution. 540 million are doled out every year. And even though many are 40% post-consumer recycled, phone books still require enormous quantities of paper, ink and oil. When we throw them out–usually within 5 seconds of finding them on the doorstep–they steal space in the local landfill. Second, NOBODY EVER USES PHONE BOOKS! Honestly, when’s the last time you opened one? They’re absolutely outmoded dinosaurs. Who needs them when there’s Google 411? Besides, doesn’t everybody know the best escort services are listed in the alt-weekly? Ok, ok. I’m being a bit extreme. Of course, not everyone has internet access and many people use phone books for local listings. Yet, given today’s information age, is it not possible to have a strict solicit-only system for these energy and resource sucking manuscripts? I raise my glass to such a concept. If you agree, here are some simple ways to join the fight against useless phone book distribution.

unclear why this travesty hasn’t been put to sleep yet.
obsolete technology

walking around here today, i was greeted by these 2 sad views: stacks of unloved yellow pages, delivered unasked to disinterested customers. this is what an industry in transformation looks like. maybe this helps to illustrate my fitness allegory, and why going to the GYM is not the answer for these companies.

one shouldn’t underestimate the “Gore” effect, where there is a consumer backlash against pillaging our forests to produce a product that has limited value and that few people use.

+1 stop wasting that paper already!

You’re asking me to tell my advertisers to invite criticism? You’re asking me to actually create a platform that lets that criticism happen? Are you nuts?

When I answer the phone I usually say “James Governor”. Here is a helpful hint – when someone says their name when they answer the phone, its best to not then say “Could I speak to Mr Governor?”

yp sales droids have some learning to do

online media companies collectively will sell more ads in local markets this year than such individual hometown media as newspapers, broadcasters and yellow pages

excellent.

90% CO2 reduction required

I’m increasingly hearing science-based realism described as a 90% reduction in the US climate footprint by 2030, partnered with massive effort to diffuse the resulting innovations around the globe.

Blinding CCTV

bright infrared LED devices that overwhelm the CCDs in security cameras, allowing you to move through modern society in relative privacy.

here we go. the cat and mouse game begins

Engineering Biology

30 years into biotechnology, despite all of the successes and attention and hype, we still are inept when it comes to engineering the living world. We haven’t scratched the surface of it, and so the big question for me is, how do we make biology easy to engineer? For comparison, if you look at other examples of technology, there are many of them. Take modern electronics, during and following World War Two, people are building computers. Von Neumann is building a nice machine in the basement of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. The official purpose of this machine is to design hydrogen bombs and compute the trajectories of munitions. And he of course is apparently running artificial life programs on it, because that’s what he’s more interested in Let’s say it was 1950. The Apple One, the personal computer is only 25 years later.

interview with drew endy, the guy behind parts.mit.edu

IGEM

The iGEM Competition gives students the opportunity to push the boundaries of synthetic biology by tackling everyday issues facing the world. Made up of primarily university students, multidisciplinary teams work together to design, build, test, and measure a system of their own design using interchangeable biological parts and standard molecular biology techniques. Every year 6000 people dedicate their summer to iGEM and then come together in the fall to present their work and compete at the annual Jamboree.

looks like fun