Freyburg

Fast Company has come out with a well-written but flawed story about how little genetic research has done to improve our health. Which would be fine and dandy, were it true or if the writer of the article, David Freedman, had the slightest bit of foresight. Freedman delineates how many promises were made once the human genome was decoded, and how far we’ve come in the 10 years since that event. And to be fair, there hasn’t been a huge leap in progress…yet. But biotech is roughly at the place computing was in 1980. Today we carry around the equivalent of a Cray supercomputer in our pocket, use cameras that recognize faces, shoot HD video onto tiny cards and network with people around the world. We have made some progress, with recent gene therapy breakthroughs ending color blindness in monkeys and restoring immune systems. We’re on the bottom end of a big curve with genetics and biotech, and I think ten years from now people will look back at this article and scoff, if they even remember it all.

Ian Goldin, one of the many smart people to speak at the always excellent TED conference, lays down the challenges facing us in the next 30 years. The takeaway? The coming decades are full of amazing technologies, but if we don’t find new ways to co-operate, we’re all screwed.

I’ve always been interested in the coming convergence of genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotech, and one of the best places to read about the latest developments in those fields is H+ Magazine, published by R.U. Sirius of Mondo 2000 fame. I’m pleased to announce that the first of my articles for H+ about a personal supercomputing company in Calgary has now gone live on their website. A couple more articles are still to come, and I encourage everyone who has an interest in where science is taking us in the next few decades to check out H+.

Just having a lazy Sunday in Osaka, and came across this cool trailer for a documentary premiering October 20th on TVO. “The Quantum Tamers” is all about the amazing and oftern mind-benindg tech we may be able to harness once we gain a measure of control over the quantum world. What’s coming up? Well, quantum computing, where a computer figures out every possible answer to a question at once and spits out the solution, and quantum teleportation, which is purest madness.

While I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Rachel Maddow (I don’t mind her, I just don’t like being lectured at even if I happen to agree with the lecturer currently wagging the finger), I have to agree with most of what she says about Obama’s “ehh?” Nobel Peace Prize. See below:

Noted scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins took on noted jackass and demagogue Bill O’Reilly on the matter of evolution and intelligent design recently on O’Reilly’s show. In the process Dawkins told O’Reilly to stop shouting, and for his part O’Reilly told Dawkins that science “hasn’t advanced the human moral condition.” Funny, the lack of public crucifixes and blaming disease on demons would have me thinking otherwise, but watch for yourself.

Rumours, rumours and more rumours were grist for the RFS mill this week, as the Three Who Rule speculated on a new, possibly leaked list of Season 5/1/31 writers (and confirmed one or two writers and directors along the way), watching Phil (friend of the show) Ford’s reactions to watching Dreamland (very meta) and DVD speculation run amok. All this and a Fiona Cumming Miniscope.Rumours, rumours and more rumours were grist for the RFS mill this week, as the Three Who Rule speculated on a new, possibly leaked list of Season 5/1/31 writers (and confirmed one or two writers and directors along the way), watching Phil (friend of the show) Ford’s reactions to watching Dreamland (very meta) and DVD speculation run amok. All this and a Fiona Cumming Miniscope.

Since I’ll be in Beijing at the end of October, this report from the Globe and Mail about the massive changes that have swept over China in the last 50 years is pretty interesting.

When I first saw the video features on the iPhone 3GS, I was at best mildly interested. I already have a Flip Cam, and with a year or more left on my iPhone 3G contract, I wasn’t about to go out and score a new phone. But Hand Held Hollywood almost makes me want to go out and get a 3GS, just to pull off what these guys are doing. The blog posts periodic updates about all the different apps available for the iPhone to make the lives of filmmakers easier, and it not only looks great but is pretty damn informative about some of the great production tools available via the iPhone.

In fact, this blog makes me want to dig out the Flip Cam and start doing some quick and dirty Freyburg-centric content soon, given enough time. Maybe our upcoming trip to Japan and China will be fodder for some vlogging.

Charlie Brooker, best known for the brilliant Screenwipe series on UK television, is also a scowling mendicant within the pages of the Guardian. Uusually he comments on the media, but this week’s column focuses on the zealotry of Mac users (he hates them) and the idiocy of MIcrosoft’s upcoming Windows 7 “launch parties”. Brooker not only admits that he’s a glutton for punishment by continuing to use Windows, but that any company that comes up with ridiculous infomercials starring Z-grade actors to promote their operating system is to be both mocked and feared. Whether you’re a PC user or a Mac fanatic, this is an entertaining read.