More Ridiculous Augmented Reality Technology

The progress on augmented reality for personal cell phones that has been reported in the media in just the past few weeks has been staggering. I suppose its the next big frontier to be explored in programming and business circles.

Keep it coming. (hat tip Rick)

Augmented reality concept unveiled

Non-Governmental Intelligence Gathering

Intelligence analysts from Jane's Defense Weekly looked at commercial satellite imagery to determine that the T-72 tanks from MV Faina, which was hijacked by Somali pirates, are being staged northeast of Nairobi, Kenya on their way to Southern Sudan. (story)

I would be willing to bet that many intelligence agencies and the US military knew where those tanks are, but obviously are not sharing it with the rest of the world. The difference is that now non-governmental organizations have the wherewithal and the access to high grade commercial satellite imagery to compete with governments in analysis of military and security situations.

One major difference between government military/intelligence gathering capabilities and non-government/regular citizen intelligence analysis are the numbers of people devoted to such pursuits and their access to recent imagery. The more people have access to such imagery, the more we will see quality intelligence analysis coming from the private, non-governmental, or joe-shmo sectors.

Call this the decentralization of intelligence analysis.

Augmented Reality Goes Mainstream

A new iphone application just became available to the public that uses augmented reality overlays to display where the nearest London tube stations are (story with video). The application combines the GPS, internal compass, camera, and computer graphic overlays to display in real-time the closest tube stations when you point the iPhone in a certain direction in the city of London.

I would expect that most major cities will have a similar application by the end of the year, or at least one year from now, given the current state of technology and media maelstrom surrounding augmented reality applications.

The augmented reality technology is benefiting greatly from a new perspective on an old technology: the camera. Think about how many years phones have had camera in them. Then think about how many years internet connectivity has been available on phones. GPS has been on handheld devices for over a decade. All it took was a change in perspective from the camera being a framing device with the intention of capturing a moment in time (or a 30 sec video clip) to being a viewfinder, or a portal between the real-world and the plethora of information on the internet. I am positive we will see some fantastic progress and innovation in mobile augmented reality over the next few years as people invent new ways to use the vast information on the web and combine it with mobile communication devices.

(hat tip Rick)

Nano-Progress

"Scientists from Israel's Technion University have unveiled a tiny robot, made using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, purportedly able to crawl through a person's veins in order to diagnose and potentially treat artery blockage and cancer." (story with pictures)

This is exactly the type of progress that will occur towards a revolution in nanotechnology in a decade or two. The device is one millimeter and can be controlled from outside the body. Obviously there are other applications beyond exploring the human body (searching for liquid leaks in urban water distribution systems), but the invention of such a device is an important milestone towards the miniaturization of technology.

Keep your eyes posted for more stories like these.

US Aid Will Backfire

The United States is seeking to fund democracy movements and human rights organizations in Iran to bolster the demonstrations we have seen over the past few weeks.

Boy, is this the wrong maneuver. I work in an office that is intimately involved with USAID and the State Department in funding foreign governments and non-governmental organizations to promote US interests and build partner capacity to reduce under-governed areas and thus dry up the swamp for terrorists. The US has numerous programs and funds millions, and sometimes billions, worth of aid to these governments and organizations.

However, the idea of funding democracy movements or human rights organizations in Iran right now is just plain dumb.

The same argument that is used to counter the promotion of using psychological operations or information operations on certain population groups could be used to counter this idea for aid to Iranian groups: when US fingerprints are on a program the population you are intending to help or influence often has a visceral negative reaction. People do not want to receive their information or messages from a military or government program without knowing about it. Neither do they want aid for organizations that will only stir up more government comments about "US meddling in Iranian affairs" and provide a pretext for the Iranian government to crack down on dissidents even harder.

This is the catch-22 of US foreign aid. Most of the time, in order for a movement or organization to succeed, US fingerprints (re: money) cannot be on it. US aid sometimes achieves exactly the opposite effect of what we intend because of where the money is coming from.

This should not be surprise. Just look at the governor of South Carolina's position on bailouts and subsidies to state governments (well, before his affair anyway). He did not like where the money was coming from, the federal government, and thought it would have too much influence over states' rights. The "where" of the money was the corrupting factor and ultimately led to his rejection of much of the stimulus money for his state.

This same mindset is present in all people, especially ones we are trying to "influence" overseas. If the US wants to promote democracy and human rights, often the best thing to do is keep the federal government's hands off.

Record Breaking Solar Cell

A company has created a new type of solar cell designed to tune itself to light from a particular latitude. This new cell has broken a 21 year old record on solar cell efficiency for a certain type of cell.

Again, the engineers and scientists put to shame any simple calculation on what is possible and what is not with technology.

Ants Are Taking Over the World

Cool article about super-colonies of ants that stretch across every continent around the world, except Antarctica.

The ants are originally from Argentina and have a penchant for creating super-colonies that stretch for hundreds of miles. Researchers have found that the ants from Japan, California, and Europe are friendly to one another like "old friends."

Looks like we are the only species to spread across the earth, multiply, and alter the environment according to our wishes.

The Ascent of Money

I got Niall Ferguson's "The Ascent of Money" over the Christmas holiday as a gift. What a fantastic book. Ferguson is a first rate historian, but also a compelling story teller. He wrote a controversial book about World War I, The Pity of War, that blames Britain's ambiguous foreign policy rather than Germany's belligerance as the cause of conflict.

His newest book about money traces the human invention of barter, coins, money, credit, markets, stock, insurance, and more throughout civilization's evolution. There are many references to the current (2008 at the time of writing) financial and economic crisis to provide context for historical events. Eventually he demonstrates that bubbles are a naturally occurring part of the system and that if you accept free markets you accept bubbles. Luckily, an open market will be quicker to rebound and gain broader momentum than the restricted growth potential of any other type of economic system.

If you cannot or will not read the book, I recommend watching a multi-part series online that summarizes much of "The Ascent of Money."

Ron Paul Wants to Edit the Fed

Representative Ron Paul, who's underdog political campaign came to an end a year ago, has a new piece of legislation, popularly know as the "Audit the Fed" bill. Amazingly, it has drawn support from 244 other Congressional representatives acting as co-sponsors, including major Democrats and Republicans. Consider that the controversial Cap-And-Trade bill recently passed by the House only did so by the thinnest of margins, 219-212. Thus, 244 is quite an impressive achievement of support for more transparency of the Federal Reserve.

No one knows what the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve looks like. It is now buying Treasury notes that it is trying to sell on the market (creating the potential for inflation). Because the Federal Reserve lies outside the traditional space of public institution like one of the three branches of government or the private space of a bank. Each is required to maintain certain levels of transparency about its assets, debts, and cash flow. The Fed, because of its unique roll has much less stringent transparency reporting requirements.

244 representatives is impressive. It is only a start. Paul will need to marshall even greater support if his bill is to overcome the executive branch's inclination to keep the Fed's books closed.

EPA Hides Dissent on Global Warming

CNET is reporting that the Environmental Protection Agency suppressed a report skeptical of claims of global warming. Can you imagine if the Bush administration suppressed a an environmental report that supported global warming? That would be HUGE news.

This actually does not surprise me at all. It is just another piece of evidence that global warming is a political issue rather than a scientific one. If it were a true scientific issue then there would be open debate and countering viewpoints until truth emerged. That is how science works. Instead, scientists have become ensconced with politicians because they see one side of the issue as a venue for advancing their political agenda. And that type of science sucks and has always suct.

Look how foolish the Catholic church looks several hundred years after Galileo and Copernicus demonstrated that the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around. Instead of letting scientists study the issue in order to determine the nature of reality, the church advanced its political agenda in support of one side of the issue because it had implications for the basis of their power. You could make a case that the proponents of global warming are something similar.

Science is about asking questions and posing hypotheses, not coming to a conclusion despite contradictory evidence and then ignoring it to support a political agenda.

I think anyone who is interested in the topic of global warming ought to read Bjorn Lomborg's book "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming." It addresses the issue scientifically and politically without charged emotion. He admits global warming is occurring it is serious and an important problem, even though I disagree with his assessment, but that in a cost-benefit calculus there are myriad of other issues that ought be addressed first with limited resources.

It saddens me to see the scientific community so polarized over this issue of politics rather than devoting time, energy, and resources to understanding nature. One can only wait and hope the scientific community sheds its pursuit of power and political influence in search of a higher calling for the pursuit of truth.

Lighweight, Denser Batteries On the Way

Technology Review article on Lithium-Air batteries

Keep it coming.

The Revolutions in Technology on the Horizon

This article in The Atlantic follows a familiar pattern like the writing of Vernor Vinge or Ray Kurzweil. Jamais Cascio writes this 4,000 word essay about the future and the developments in technology, humanity, and social relations he believes will occur now that we do not have to rely on natural evolutionary processes but “can do it for ourselves.”

Cascio discusses two of the GNR triumvirate that Kurzweil says are the driving factors in future development in his book The Singularity is Near. (GNR refers to Genetics, Nano-tech, Robotics which includes artificial intelligence) He limits his essay to genetics and pharmacological changes to emotions, behaviors, talents, a la Brave New World with a positive spin on it. He also discusses the emergence of a superior non-biological intelligence (AI) that will truly depart from the thousands and millions of years of natural evolution, an event termed “the singularity” by Vernor Vinge (because like the singularity in physics or math, one cannot see beyond it and all prediction and models break down as you approach it such that non-sensical conclusions emerge right at the singularity).

It is a long article, but will give you a nice flavor of the futurist genre and the type of writings they do. The article will help the reader survey the myriad patterns an author could focus on if he or she so chose. For instance, Cascio focused on pharmacological enhancement, internet enhancement, intelligent digital personal assistants, artificial intelligence, information overload and data mining, the cultural differences between enhanced humans and non-enhanced humans. He could have also discussed space pioneering, nano-technology, alternative social organizations, evolution of religion, and on and on. So keep a skeptical eye on any futurist, but understand that they are taking the patterns they see and drawing the thread out further in a unified vision of how the world will be when they are old and gray.

There are a few concepts Cascio discusses that I would like to highlight and comment on.

I just bought a book called the Economics of Attention. I don’t know what its about other than the title (yes, I do judge a book by its cover and often buy or don’t buy a book based purely on the title and the cover….I’m a cover-ist). I imagine that it has to do with the information overload we all feel at some point. Our senses are being stimulated an overwhelmed by images, sounds, and information at a rate unprecedented in human evolution and our minds sometimes cannot cope. A friend of min told me about a business professor he had who used the concept “attention units” when referring to someone’s ability to multitask or receive stimuli. I really like that concept and think about it often when I think about the number of issues that cross the president’s desk. Cascio writes that Google is not the solution or the end, but rather the beginning. It was the first major successful attempt at organizing the ridiculous amount of information on the internet. There will be others, and technologies that help someone manage their attention units will be a big technological leap now that we already have a ton of information “out there.”

I’m sure you’ve all seen those motivational posters that have a cool picture with black borders and a saying like “Teamwork,” “Perseverance,” or “Leadership.” I am also sure you’ve seen the clever and funny posters mocking the inspirational ones called demotivators. There is one in particular I am thinking of now that says—“Motivation: If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will soon be doing.” (Note: I kept this on my shelf above my desk for several years at work) This quote from Cascio made me think of that, “Any occupation requiring pattern-matching and the ability to find obscure connections will quickly morph from the domain of experts to that of ordinary people whose intelligence has been augmented by cheap digital tools.” Think of the evolution of arithmetic and the ability to do it well as qualification for the title “smart.” Students had to memorize tables and equations. Then slide rules helped with complicated relationships like logarithms or trigonometric functions, but still required skill. Then simple calculators reduced the need to memorize simple functions like multiplication or division. More recently calculators can plot 3D graphs of chaotic fluid dynamics in seconds. So how is someone who can add, subtract, multiply, and divide very fast any “smarter” than a person with easy access to a computer or calculator? Increased access to technology and calculating machines will only further alter and transform what humans use as a measuring stick for someone who is “smart” and it will only become squishier with all the non-biological aids at their fingertips.

Robert Wright wrote a book called Non-Zero about the evolution of civilization being driven by non-zero-sum interactions in the technological development of energy, transportation, and information. Non-zero-sum interactions are ones where the parties involved are incentivized to cooperate on some level rather fight. They are most easily demonstrated in the area of trade because for each transaction both parties benefit from the transaction rather than to not cooperate over the conditions involved. The GNR revolutions on the horizon are interesting to me because if the authors (Kurzweil, Vinge, Cascio and others) are right then society has shifted to a point in its civilizational development from further advances made by technological leaps in energy, transportation, and information to one in which genetics, nanotechnology and information are the driving factors. This inflection point would certainly make our current generation important in the history of civilization for bringing about this shift in technological advancement.

The last point I wanted to highlight is that Cascio makes a good point about the further divergence between the “haves” and “have-nots” because those developed countries with technology and infrastructure can take advantage of the coming GNR revolutions, while the less developed countries (third world) cannot. Increasing returns is the concept that underpins the ability of the developed nations to out distance the less developed nations. In other words, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Those who have money, technology, rule-sets and other elements of infrastructure can take advantage of technological advances, while those without cannot.

One final thought. Maybe it is more important to lead the developing nations through the traditional civilizational advancements in energy, transportation, and information before we worry ourselves with bringing them through the genetic, nano-tech, and robotics revolutions on our doorstep.

Science Journalism Faces Tough Questions

Science journalists are facing stiff competition from bloggers, twitterers, and other assorted everyday folks. These journalists typically cover science conventions or conferences and have strict limitations on what they can write or report about the details from presentations scientists and engineers give.

That business model and model of journalism is under threat now that any person interested in scientific subjects can go to these events with a computer, digital camera, and internet connection to provide up-to-the-minute news to the entire world. The bloggers say that because conventions and conferences are often oversubscribed, people in distant locations want information and news from the scientists and engineers and they are just providing it. The difficulty is with conference organizers who put restrictions on what journalists can say (so that what is reported does not overshadow research papers from journals like Nature or Scientific American) and from researchers who are more reluctant to publish their information in public.

This is just another venue where modern communication tools is upending the traditional social order and structure. My guess is that scientists who have a history of publishing their work and collaboration rather than secrecy will move on to a happy new compromise sooner than many other venues (traditional media, recording industry, etc.).

Government Competence

Good blog by Shannon Love on the nature of government competence...or lack thereof.

Pension problems, environmental regulation problems, and regulations of subways leading to deaths in DC are all indicators of government incompetence.

There is a great quote that I will probably misremember, but it goes something like this: Never ascribe a conspiracy to the government when incompetence will do. In other words, Occam's razor when analyzing government actions. Is it more likely that the government could coordinate massively complex actions to do something under the radar or is it more likely that government bureaucrats are incompetent and don't coordinate their actions with the rest of the government agencies?

I am not suggesting the traditional alternative to the government, markets and businesses, are always the answer or always clean and ethical. What I am saying is that relying on the government for proper goods and services, when it has clearly demonstrated a pattern of incompetence in a wide variety of services.

Map of Iranian Protests

This Wired article is about Iranian protesters using Google map technology to map where protests are occurring, where shots have been fired, and where security forces have been seen. Crowd sourcing, the wisdom of crowds, emergent coordination. Call it what you want, but Iranian dissidents are using as many of the modern internet tools available to them to fight guns, helicopters, and water cannons.

It's pretty cool to see where all these protests are taking place. If the traditional media cannot go anywhere to report anything because the regime has restricted their access, then this is the only way for the world to find out what is going on.

It looks like the augmented reality I blogged about a few days ago (here) is coming to a cell phone near you. A Dutch company called SPRXmobile has developed an augmented reality browser for Android phones, called Layar. It uses GPS coordinates and an internal compass to determine where you are and what you are looking at. It overlays visual information on the display (in camera view) when you pan around your environment. It can identify houses for sale, ATMs, and local clubs and bars. It will debut in the Netherlands soon and will be available in the US later this year.

I think the augmented reality on phones is a hop-skip-and-a-jump away. Many companies and services already exist to provide that type of information on a GPS map, and it doesn’t take that much more imagination to see how cool it would be to apply that same information to a streaming picture in the cell phone’s display.

Nano-geometry and Concrete

MIT scientists have determined that nano-scale deformations are responsible for large scale warping of concrete over time (article here). By creating denser concrete, this will limit the nano-scale deformations and possibly allow concrete structures to last beyond the current threshold of 100 years to a timeline an order of magnitude larger.

Cool story that shows how nano-scale changes in chemistry and physics can have large scale effects on human creations. By changing the geometry of the particles at the nano-scale humans may be able to extend their physical creations from hundreds of years to tens of thousands of years. Not very appealing if you are an environmentalist, but appealing for those who need to build structures that house all the nuclear waste humans have generated.

Additionally, I wonder if the nano-scale changes in concrete proposed by these scientists will make concrete roads (as opposed to asphalt or gravel or dirt) more plausible in the third world. Lack of transportation networks is what limits much of the development of the third world and the roads they do have make NY city streets look like a beacon on a hill for how to make roads. Any developments in simple transportation technology could be a boon to the development of the third world and open up huge new markets for the west.

Evolution and Cooperation of Iranian Dissidents

The revolutionary spirit occurring in Iran is the next stage of evolution in the interaction between modern technology (texting, internet, cell phones, youtube, etc.) and informal social organizations. We can trace the anti-government social behavior to the Rose and Velvet revolutions, to the Chinese outrage at corrupt politicians and culpability for death and destruction from the earthquake, to Iraq next door sharing new ideas and ways of organizing. Glenn Reynolds calls it an “Army of Davids.” Howard Rheingold calls it “Smart Mobs.” Scientists would call it complex adaptive systems. Regardless of what we call the essence of what is happening in Iran, it is another mutation in the techno-social ecosystem.

How do I know this is another mutation and something fundamentally different than the previous demonstrations, color revolutions, or non-governmental/non-business cooperation we see all the time? This article in Wired magazine.

Iranian democracy advocates are being aided by two wildly different social organizations and it seems to already be making an impact. The Pirate Bay, operators of the world’s largest copyright infringement organization according to the recording industry RIAA and newest political party in Europe with one member of parliament advocating looser copyright restrictions, has teamed up with Anonymous, a prankster group of hack-tivists dedicated to exposing Scientology’s crimes, to set up a website to “offers tips on how to navigate online in private, upload files through the Iranian firewall, find the best activist Tweeters, and launch attacks on pro-government websites.”

These groups set this website up in less than a week with message boards, information tips, tweeter threads, and how-to’s for lots of anti-government activities. I have studied political science and history for many years now, and this is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen evolve in terms of social group coordination and cooperation.

A group of software engineers and businessmen dedicated to file-sharing MP3’s just evolved into a political party in Sweden because of its David-and-Goliath fight against the recording industry. This in and of itself is monumental. Talk about a new way to grow a political party from the grass roots. Then we have Anonymous which is a group of hack-tivists who threw up their arms and said “no mas” when Tom Cruise and Scientology tried to censor the internet and keep information from reaching the people. They helped coordinate and propagate protests against scientology headquarters while conducting low-level hacks against scientology networks to harass, annoy and keep off balance.

Just about the only thing these two organizations have in common is the belief in a free internet without censored information flow. They are not governments. They are not traditional businesses (even though Pirate Bay does make money). They are not non-governmental aid organizations. Their mission statements have nothing to do with the Middle East, Iran, democracy, Islam, or anything else related to the current situation in Iran.

Yet here they are cooperating in less than a week after the Iranian elections providing a coordinated and information rich service to those Iranians caught behind the Ayatollah curtain. If the Iranian dissidents achieve a degree of success, then this new approach to social organization will be copied and spread to others just as any mutation, if successful, spreads throughout the community. If the Iranian government is able to violently crush the dissidents and stamp out any new social organizations, then you will see further mutations and evolution beyond what we are witnessing.

Technology is enabling a panoply of new social relationships and organizations. Just as a species evolves with random mutations and an exploration of the fitness landscape, so too will social organizations evolve and mutate to achieve greater effectiveness. And if the social organizations’ goals are to take down tyrannical regimes, those regimes better watch their back.

Building a Partnership with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani May Be Paying Off

And it may be paying off in spades.

According to ThreatsWatch, a report from Saudi Arabia's al-Arabiya says that Rafsanjani, one of the political dissidents allied with Mousavi who lost the s-"election," is seeking to eliminate the Supreme Leader, not just the guy, but the entire position as the sole authority over the country of Iran. That is an unbelievable statement. It is almost so over the top it sounds like a disinformation campaign by the Iranian government. But according to al-Arabiya's sources, it is in fact true.

Religious leaders are thinking about eliminating the Ayatollah position in Iran and form an alternative collective leadership as a replacement organization instead of one man. So where does al-Sistani come in to this story.

Apparently, religious leaders and members of the assembly have conducted secret meetings in the holy city of Qom, and that they have included a representative of Ali al-Sistani, the foremost Shiite leader in Iraq. ThreatsWatch mentions that Sistani made two important statements in 2007 that have a bearing on the current situation: "I am a servant of all Iraqis, there is no difference between a Sunni, a Shiite or a Kurd or a Christian," and that Islam can exist within a democracy without theological conflict.

Now his representative is meeting with religious leaders and members of the assembly in secret meetings that potentially could lead to the elimination of the Ayatollah and his position within Iranian politics. This is a huge development, and could be the compromise solution instead of violent revolution and violent government crackdowns. Although, at this point, anything less than the full surrender of either side will leader to violent confrontation, but this may be an practical solution instead a a functioning western democracy by August 1st.

Remember, it took 15 years from the Boston Tea Party to the emergence of the constitution in 1789. Give the revolutionaries some time. It does not have to happen overnight.

US soldiers and government officials spent countless hours building a relationship with al-Sistani. His wise decision to stay out of Iraqi politics while remain an objective observer in regards to US actions and involvement in Iraq provided him the moral authority and objective point of view to be able to influence the emergence of an alternative power structure. As a professional in the world of "building partnerships" with foreign leaders, countries, and organizations, I would say that this is one huge big payday.

A “Man-Cession” Instead of Recession?

According to this article, 80 percent of the 5.7 million jobs lost between December 2008 and May 2009 were held by men. The reason is that the manufacturing and construction industries, predominated by men, are the hardest hit with the highest unemployment.

The article goes on to talk about the political aspects of the Obama stimulus plan and how it helped women more than men. It created more office jobs than infrastructure creation. It invested in human infrastructure rather than physical infrastructure. I don’t know about that argument, but it seems like politics as usual for a town dedicated to it. As Mark Twain said, “ Politics: Poly meaning many, and tics meaning blood-sucking things.”

What surprised me about this article was that middle and lower class men were most likely to be unemployed by this economic crisis. It makes sense that the two industries where men are heavily represented (manufacturing and construction) are facing the most dire circumstances because of the economy. Therefore, men would be let go or fired, or have to find a new job after their company collapses without manufacturing and construction jobs.

I wonder if there is some potential in the combination of out-of-work construction workers, social networking technologies and behaviors, and informal groups (as opposed to businesses or governments). Could that combination lead to construction of local projects, conservation of certain environments, or decentralized participation in alternative energy projects? I have no idea, but I wonder if some of these construction workers or manufacturers, who are good with their hands, have practical knowledge in how to build things, and time on their hands may try forming new groups to achieve objectives no one had thought possible. Of course these men are forced to work at whatever they can find because they need to pay the bills, but if enough of them reach a tipping point in organization we may see something we have not seen before.

Massively Multiplayer Grand Theft Auto

The game designer of Grand Theft Auto has created a new game called APB that will come out next year that takes the coolest parts of GTA and combines it with the growing massively multiplayer online (MMO) capabilities.

The idea is for each person playing in a group of 50 will have a target of another person. Half the players will be cops, while the other half are criminals. The bigger and badder a criminal gets, each mission gets more cops assigned to it so that eventually a criminal-god could have all 49 other players chasing him down.

Beyond that, the rule sets that were created to guide behavior and reduce the chaos and confusion seem pretty smart. For those who love chaos and confusion there will be a game mode where absolutely anything goes. Will the fictional town of San Paro in GTA become like Somalia with quickly evolving bands of brigands and criminals running around amidst general chaos and destruction, or will it emerge as a Los Angeles with distinct gang dominions and clear boundary lines that keep a fragile peace.

I look forward to playing this game and finding out what playing a fun game like GTA will become when 50 random strangers are added to the mix.

$134 Billion in Fake Bonds Puts Everyone on Edge

Two men with Japanese passports attempted to cross from Italy into Switzerland. The customs officers discovered a false bottom in their suitcase and found $134 billion worth of US bonds in certificate format.

There has not been much media discussion of the event, but it has gotten the notice of the bond markets and currency markets. The most recent news is that the bond notes have been determined to be forgeries (the US doesn’t create bonds in the denominations the men used), but that has not settled the markets. Why?

The fact that two individuals were carrying (fake) US bonds that would have made them the fourth largest creditor to the US in world creates anxiety in the countries that do in fact hold the real US debt. Is it that easy to create forged US bonds that an individual can have $134 billion worth, which if introduced to the market could easily distort global bond markets? The US Secret Service and Treasury department have always been worried about forged US currency, but the percentage of counterfeits to the total (even when including the North Korean Supernote) was always negligible. This case is different. $134 billion in notes is significant and if forgeries and counterfeits are widely distributed part of the system then investors will lose faith in the US bond, the dollar currency, and the financial system itself. That is why everyone from the White House to Treasury to Beijing to Europe is nervous about what is really going on here.

The conspiracy theories are flying around the internet and financial bulletin boards at the speed of light, because this story is so “out there” and the denominations are so ridiculous. Hopefully the Italian authorities will release more information when they conclude their investigation and that the US will shed some light on how these individuals could counterfeit US bonds so easily.

Wind Power Design Gets a Makeover

The problem with small wind turbines for the roofs of houses and urban landscapes is that they require 7 to 8 mph winds to overcome the friction of the gears, and thus are not economically feasible for small business owners or home owners.

Imad Mahawili, a chemical engineer and wind energy consultant, decided to change the mechanics of the wind turbine design by removing the gears and replacing it with a hub and bearings. He placed magnets near the rim to generate electricity. This new design allows the turbine to operate in winds as low as 1 mph.

Urban landscapes still suffer from unpredictable and varying wind patterns and wind generation may not be the long term economic solution, but new designs never hurt and this design may be incorporated in other wind turbines for the future when they are deployed to New Mexico and Texas.

Chalk up another point for engineers and the market based system in achieving significant gains in alternative energy as compared to the government.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Part VIII (zombies and technology)

I don't know if this is actually Part VIII, but I know I use "favorite things" generously in my blogpost titles when I see something cool enough to blog about. I am not trying to steal Julie Andrews' list, but create my own.

In this case researchers at my alma mater, Georgia Tech, have combined two of my passionate interests into one: high-tech and killing zombies. I know what you're thinking; you probably didn't know that I was passionate about killing zombies, or even that it was a passion anyone could have. Yet, in this day and age where everyone can join a group for anything (like Northeast Georgia's Dungeons & Dragons Fruit Eating Seminar) I like to kill video game zombies.

So what did Georgia Tech researchers do? They modified a device that looks like an iPhone so that it could generate augmented reality graphics. Then they layed a flat gameboard that looks like a city on the table. The video game player then uses the device to look at the game board. The augmented reality program makes city buildings appear as if they actually existed on the game board, when in fact, they do not. The board is flat. But looking at the iPhone-like device, you can see a bunch of 3D buildings. Very high tech, with loads of potential.

Next, the researchers added the zombie element. Now that they had 3D buildings they needed to use the "city" as the background for a video game. So they injected a bunch of zombies running around trying to kill civilians. As the game player, your objective was to see the zombies through the iPhone-like device like a regular video game and kill the zombies using a reticle on the screen and pushing a button on the device.

So what? Well, the video game was taking place inside a handheld device, using the background and schematic structure from the real world as the constraints on the players in the game. That is pretty freaking cool. Obviously it is very simple, but think about what happened to the video game industry when Atari first debuted its capabilities.

With augmented reality platforms becoming part of the cutting edge defense related technologies for our soldiers, the impetus to improve the technology will only grow in the private sector. The increase in computing power, shrinking component size, reduced power consumption, and hopefully increased battery life will decrease the costs for implementing effective portable augmented reality capabilities to be used by everyday people.

The question is whether the video game industry is one of the driving factors or whether it follows the defense and computing industries.

Iranian Courage And Conviction

This picture is definitely worthy of one thousand words. Suffice to say, I am glad to see the Iranian youths rising up against a totalitarian regime using the same tools people in the West take for granted as a birthright.

I hope this picture becomes the quintessential moment that the Iranian theocracy began to crumble into oblivion. I'll raise a glass to that, even if no one in the US government will.