Books — Leave a comment
23
Oct 11

Book Review: REAMDE

Neal Stephenson’s REAMDE: Excellently written, ambitiously epic technothriller.

I first read Neal Stephenson at least ten years ago. Published in 1991, Snow Crash was set in the early 21st century. Jacking into a computer virtual reality was a common way of escaping the realities of the massive corporate owned enclaves that used to be the United States. It was Stephenson’s vision of how a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the near future.

Snow Crash’s virtual reality is said to be a strong influence in the development of Second Life, a wildly popular online virtual world launched in 2003.

Stephenson was amazingly close with his Snow Crash predictions, and he takes us beyond current massive on-line gaming state-of-the-art with his latest techno-thriller REAMDE.

REAMDE is an epic novel that is built around a massive online multi-player virtual reality game called T’Rain. Richard Forthrast, who founded the profitable game, is very wealthy, but uncomfortable with the lifestyle that comes with corporate success. He justifies his success by quietly financially helping out his family. His favored niece, adopted into the conservative mid-western family, is now utilizing her geoscience degree to work as a technician in the T’Rain world, designing the geosystems that deposit precious metals where gold-farmers (an integral part of the T’Rain economy) can dig it up.

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Humor / Science & Technology — Leave a comment
23
Oct 11

Pizza Math

Health / Science & Technology — Leave a comment
23
Oct 11

Scientist proves potential of new nanoparticle design for cancer therapy

Drug delivering Nanoparticle

A new type of nanoparticle developed in the laboratories at the University of North Carolina has shown potential for more effective delivery of chemotherapy to treat cancer. Wenbin Lin, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy, and colleagues report their finding in the Sept. 14, 2011 issue of Angewandte Chemie.

In laboratory studies, Lin and colleagues developed and tested a new type of nanoparticle that can deliver larger amounts of a drug and will not leak the drug as the particle circulates through the blood stream on its way to the target.

In the proof-of-concept experiments, they tested the nanoparticle’s ability to deliver therapeutic doses of the chemotherapy drug oxaliplatin to colon and pancreatic tumors. The oxaliplatin-based particles showed significant growth inhibition of pancreatic tumors that are extremely difficult to treat. The nanoparticle has two to three times therapeutic efficacy over oxaliplatin.

The nanoparticle is different from other nanoparticles in its very high drug loading and in the ability to release in the chemotherapeutics in a controlled fashion. The release of therapeutic cargoes depends on the naturally occurring molecules that are more abundant in many tumors.

Lin explains, “The polysilsesquioxane (PSQ) particle we have developed carries extremely high loadings of oxaliplatin-based chemotherapeutics. The particles are stable under normal physiological conditions, but can be readily reduced to release the platin cargoes in highly reducing tumor microenvironments that have high concentrations of reducing agents. As a result, they have very little background release and are more easily targeted to tumors than most existing particles. We need to thoroughly determine the pharmacokinetics and other important properties of the PSQparticle in order to translate this particle platform to the clinic.”

Via PsyOrg.com

Business and Politics — Leave a comment
23
Oct 11

CEO Paycheck = 500 X Average Worker Paycheck

Art / Humor / Photography — Leave a comment
22
Oct 11

Real-Life Angry Birds


Artist Mohamed Raoof has a passion for the very popular game Angry Birds. So much so that he took the time to do a little touch-up on photos of real birds, making them appear as real-life Angry Birds!

How cool is that?

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Art / My Photos — Leave a comment
21
Oct 11

Evergreen



Evergreen, originally uploaded by James Milstid, aka PapaJames.

When one lives in western Washington, there are a couple things seen in abundance. Pine trees and rain. The Evergreen State is just that… green!

Clark Lake Park, Kent, WA, USA

Art / My Photos — Leave a comment
21
Oct 11

Autumn on Clark Lake

I caught this photo of Clark Lake in Kent, WA just before the downpour!

Business and Politics — Leave a comment
20
Oct 11

Moonbase Shanghai: Could China Own The Moon?


By James Milstid

China holds 16% of America’s total national debt.

This excerpt from Wikipedia should concern us greatly:

As of May 2011 the largest single holder of U.S. government debt was China, with 36 percent of all foreign-held U.S. Treasury securities (16% of total US public debt). China’s holdings of government debt, as a percentage of all foreign-held government debt, have decreased a bit over the last year, but are up significantly since 2000 (when China held just 6 percent of all foreign-held U.S. Treasury securities).

That works out to a cool $6.25 trillion… not a paltry sum! China has loaned us, the USA, an obscene amount of money over the years. And we’ll most certainly go back for more.

In 1990’s there was a huge influx of wealthy Chinese immigrants to Vancouver, BC. So large was the influx, the city was tagged with the name “Hongcouver”. Since then, much of the city is under Chinese ownership. At first, the Vancouverites were thrilled with the boost in their economy. The housing market boomed and the suffering economy was greatly strengthened. But now that the Chinese essentially own Vancouver, there are second thoughts.

These facts and having recently read Albert Brook’s 2030: What Really Happens to America, is why this article caught my eye…

China could own the moon by 2026, U.S. space entrepreneur warns

by JohnThomas Didymus
A U.S. space entrepreneur, Robert Bigelow, has sounded alarm that China could own large portions of the moon by 2026, edging out the United States in the race for ownership of the moon.

Mr. Bigelow made this warning at the 2011 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight on Wednesday.

Robert Bigelow, according to Space.com, said China’s growing technological capability, economic buoyancy, motivation and will to win the space race to “own the moon” places it at advantage to the U.S. which he said is still “basking in the lunar glory from 40 years ago.”

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Books — Comments Off on 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America
20
Oct 11

2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America

Book Review by James Milstid

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

It was so real that I kept finding myself thinking, “This is happening right now!”.

Albert Brooks has crafted an excellent thought-provoking scenario that is very believable. It’s one of those books that is difficult to put down and at the end you want more.

Well written, humorous, and poignant, Mr. Brooks pleasantly surprised me with his knowledge, insight and wordsmithing mastery.

Very highly recommended! Just read it!

Warning: This story will haunt you; it stays with you long after you’ve finished reading it.

From the Barnes and Noble website:

Is this what’s in store?

June 12, 2030 started out like any other day in memory—and by then, memories were long. Since cancer had been cured fifteen years before, America’s population was aging rapidly. That sounds like good news, but consider this: millions of baby boomers, with a big natural predator picked off, were sucking dry benefits and resources that were never meant to hold them into their eighties and beyond. Young people around the country simmered with resentment toward “the olds” and anger at the treadmill they could never get off of just to maintain their parents’ entitlement programs.

But on that June 12th, everything changed: a massive earthquake devastated Los Angeles, and the government, always teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, was unable to respond.

The fallout from the earthquake sets in motion a sweeping novel of ideas that pits national hope for the future against assurances from the past and is peopled by a memorable cast of refugees and billionaires, presidents and revolutionaries, all struggling to find their way. In 2030, the author’s all-too-believable imagining of where today’s challenges could lead us tomorrow makes gripping and thought-provoking reading.

Barnes and Noble

Science & Technology — Leave a comment
20
Oct 11

Robotic Umpires? Why not?

Since its inception a decade ago, K Zone has won over many, but many still remain against an official role in pitch calling.

Is It Time For Professional Baseball To Adopt Robot Umpires?

by Peter Murray October 20th, 2011

It’s one of the important questions facing American society today. On the one side are the liberal-minded who want more regulation; on the other side, conservatives who despise any proposals put on the table.

I’m speaking, of course, about the debate of whether or not technology should be used to call balls and strikes in baseball.

This same question was posed recently on Slashdot with an invitation for readers to comment – and comment they did, 141 times. The original question entertained the use of “robot umpires” to “either replace or enhance the human umps’ work on the field.” And it considered how to go about developing technologies such as “touch-sensitive bases/foul lines, etc.” rather than simply calling balls and strikes. But I’m going to limit our own peregrination on this topic to the strike zone simply because the technology’s already here to potentially improve this central part of the game.

And yet we’re not using it.

Not surprisingly the Slashdot discussion centered mostly on the question of the strike zone. Is there really a need for an upgrade at the umpire position? If so, would the current “robot umpires” do a better job than their human counterparts? I’ll get to the comments, but first let’s take a look at what the human umps are up against.

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