Some random items of interest:
- Engadget. Toy gun + RFID zapper. Nice. I want one with more range for zapping embedded electronics.
- WSJ: Legalizing Marijuana in the US (already in process in CA, WA, and MA) would cut Mexican drug gang revenues by 50-65%.
- Integral. Using trade barriers for corruption.
- BBC. Crowd sourced surveillance on the Mexico/US border. 130,000 virtual deputies have yielded 21 arrests in a year. The costs is a negligible $4 m (compared to government alternatives it's the equivalent of free). Systems like this are easily replicable, at a fraction of even this low cost, within Darknets.
- Ramthemdown: Crowdsourcing a competitor to FedEx. Hilarious.
- Goldman Sachs buys into the military industrial complex (the L-3 spyplane) through its purchase of Hawker Beechcraft.
- Internet Triad in China -- able to influence public opinion through manipulation of the Internet terrain. Lots of people/companies try to do this (from penny stock manipulation to damaging the brand of a competitor). Few can really do it at a level that matters. My company's new software has the potential enable this at a master class level.
- Home batteries from Panasonic. A weeks worth of electricity. Resilient electricity won't come from the grid since the investment required is a huge step function (even more remote given national/global political and economical dysfunction). It will come through decentralized investments by individuals/families/communities (in a very similar way to how interactive TV never arrived, but computers + modems bought by individuals/families/communities allowed the Internet to take off).
- Gizmag. 3D printer for human arteries and organs. The 3D bio-printer allows scientists to place cells of almost any type into a desired 3D pattern. It includes two print heads, one for placing human cells, and the other for placing a hydrogel, scaffold, or support matrix. The cells used by the device need to be the cells of what is being regenerated – building an artery requires arterial cells for example. Because the patient’s own cells are used the new organ will not be rejected by the body. The printer fits inside a standard biosafety cabinet for sterile use.