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Ray Kurzweil has to be one of the smartest man on this Earth. His message for the future is something to take note of.
In this keynote speech at the Singularity Summit he gives a deep and insightful vision of the technological advancements we can expect for the next years and decades.
Ray has been predicting the future for more than twenty years using the premise of exponential growth in almost all sectors of the information technology field.
These advancements will touch our lives in the coming years. We are at the brink of a revolution of sorts where the processing power of computers will be greater than the human mind and eventually even the human race!
If you want to get a better feeling for what is coming I highly recommend you read his books:
I know quite a bit about YouTube, but I was still stunned by anthropologist Michael Wesch’s recent presentation for the Library of Congress about why YouTube is meaningful and significant, representing a cultural shift far beyond silly cat videos.
He explains in very compelling and easy-to-understand terms how participatory media is changing how we see ourselves, our communities, and the people around us. And beyond that, how we’ll need to rethink copyright, ethics, privacy, commerce, love, and so on. It’s very inspiring.
People use simple equipment to make short videos that can get extremely popular. At the same time they are very personal. This is a new level of reality TV. As the big TV networks are loosing their viewers the YouTube community and content is growing at an amazing rate! Micheal talks about how this media scape is changing the individual human experience and the world as we know it.
As you can see, my immediate reaction, is to blog it and share it with the people that read this blog. More than that I am getting more attracted to the idea of video-blogging myself, but I haven’t acted too much on that yet. Perhaps I will
Presented at the Library of Congress, June 23rd 2008. This was tons of fun to present. I decided to forgo the PowerPoint and instead worked with students to prepare over 40 minutes of video for the 55 minute presentation. This is the result.
They are the modern version of the old magnifying glass in the sun trick. This time the sunlight is collected from a lot larger area and the result is HUGE. Check out these videos and see for yourself what it can be used for.
FRESNEL SOLAR STIRLING ENGINE SUN POWER ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
SOLAR STILL DISTILLED WATER FRESNEL LENS PURIFICATION GREEN
4 SOLAR COOKING PASTA FRESNEL LENS STOVE OVEN SOLAR POWER
Well - you shouldn’t believe anything you see on TV but this is just amazing. I knew this blog is getting a LOT of exposure but this is kind of getting out of hand…
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…only problem is that just like Schwarzenegger I am just not eligible for president - sorry to disappoint you
Being a webmaster of your own sites can be daunting. You actually have to DO most of the work yourself or find someone else who can do it for you. Some tasks are easier to do using the right software and some are easier using a service.
Using Amazon Mechanical Turk is one of the more brilliant ways to outsource. Of course you have to think about tasks that are easy and quick to work on but still need human intelligence. After funding your account, you create Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs for short) and submit them to the Mechanical Turk. After a surprisingly short time you get results coming in from workers around the globe.
I am just starting to experiment with the possibilities but already find this extremely useful.
Example - using the Advanced HIT tool:
Title: Do You LOVE your Digital Camera?
Description: Give us your quick view on it.
Keywords: digital photo,digital camera,nikon,canon,olympus,pentax,minolta
SPOT is the World’s first satellite messenger. It is the only gadget of its kind that uses the GPS system to get its position and send a message with the location along with your name by satellite and make it available on the internet via email and Google Maps or just a plain SMS message.
You can use SPOT simply to let others know where you are or if you need help.
Unlike an ordinary GPS system that only receives signals and calculates position, the SPOT uses two types of satellite systems. One to determine the location and the other to send along predefined messages to those you want to get it.
SPOT’s Satellite Messenger boasts up to 1 year battery life, it has global coverage and the ability to track your position using Google Maps, along with 9-1-1 alerting for real emergencies. The bright orange handheld device is water- temperature -and shock-proof. SPOT even floats!
Send a signal even in areas with no cell phone coverage. SPOT uses 100% satellite technology, so you don’t have to worry about land based communication. SPOT covers virtually all of North America, Europe, and Australia, most of South America, northern Africa and northeastern Asia, and hundreds or thousands of miles offshore of these areas.
Satellite technology allows SPOT to work around the world - even where cell phones don’t. Using SPOT requires a subscription service that costs about $10 pr. month. Additional services and options available.
Icelandic truckers have been active in protesting the rising cost of fuel as well as recent EU laws on truck drivers rest time. They started earlier this month and have used their big vehicles to close roads. The police have been mild until now.
Last Monday the protests got violent when the police started using more aggressive riot tactics. This time the police came in force with shields and batons to beat the protesters - and they used gas. 21 where arrested and a few had to visit the hospital.
Here is a video from the action.
Hilary Whiteman from CNN called me up for an interview and you can read the full story here:
As you may know, Leifur Eiriksson or Leif Erikson was the first European to discover America. The website www.islendingabok.is (Book of Icelanders) allows me to look up my relation to all Icelanders - living and dead. So I found out how we are related. Our common ancestors Úlfur and Björg where obviously born in Norway, since they were born around 850 and Iceland was found in 874 and settled in the years after.
For many, Leif Erikson is almost a mystical legend than a real person! But here he is and I have followed his line as his great nephew around 25 generations back! Yeah - it’s amazing how close to these times a family tree like this makes us feel
Erik the Red was a Norwegian who fled high taxes and came to Iceland. Erik The Red’s real Icelandic name was Eiríkur “rauði” Þorvaldsson. Living from around 920 - 1006. He moved to Greenland in 986 and built his farm “Brattahlíð”. This was written in the book “Landnáma” (Book of Settlers).
Everyone in Iceland knows that his son Leif was the first man from Europe to go to America. There has been some controversy about the nationality of Leif the lucky. Leif was born in Iceland and therefor Icelandic.
Check out these blogs about the legendary Leif Ericson:
We have never been on a cruise ship before and never to the Caribbean so this is going to be an adventure to remember! Among the thousands of passengers on board the Freedom of the Seas are Webmasters from SBI who organized the cruise on the Caribbean.
Freedom of the Seas is currently the largest cruiser ship in the world. At an overall length of 338.77 meters (1.111.5 ft), width (beam) of 38.6 m (126.65 ft) it is truly massive.
IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) ruled today that the prosthetic feet used by double amputee, Oscar Pistorius give him too much of an advantage over other contestants! Oscar is consequently banned from competing in the Beijing Olympics.
Pistorius lost both his legs as a child and is using prosthetic feet designed and manufactured Ossur. The feet are made of carbon and are light and strong as well as highly flexible.
According to the findings of the IAAF the feet make it possible for Pistorius to run at 25% less energy use than an able bodied athlete. No wonder Pistorius has got the nickname “Blade Runner”.
“An athlete using this prosthetic blade has a demonstrable mechanical advantage (more than 30 per cent) when compared to someone not using the blade,” the IAAF said.
After winning gold and bronze at the Special Olympics in 2004, Oscar wanted to compete on equal terms with able bodied athletes at the Beijing Olympics.
This is a big disappointment for Oscar who is at his peak of his career and still only 21.
