Minding The Planet is Nova Spivack’s weblog on emerging technologies and trends. It focuses on ways in which the Web is becoming more present, personalized and precise.
Nova Spivack is a technology futurist, entrepreneur, angel investor, and a leading voice on search, collective intelligence and the Semantic Web. More...
I came across this interesting project that aims to stop online pedophiles by setting 100,000 online honeytraps. It calls for 100,000 volunteer adults to post online profiles in various services posing as minors. They then use these a bait and wait to be contacted by pedophiles. Once contacted they basically set the hook and then [...]
Wow — As of 2000, of the world’s 100 largest economic entities, 51 are corporations and 49 are nations. Related Posts:The e-G8 Summit, UnveiledPeace in the Middle East: Could Alternative Energy Be the Solution?Help the People of Burma — Post this Meme on Your Blog!Dangerous Situation in Burma DevelopingNew Cancer Wonder Drug: No Pharma Will [...]
I am concerned by what I’m viewing in our national media lately. Viewed from outside (and also from wihtin the USA), it would appear that our nation is obsessed with, and plagued by, an increasing spree of horrible crimes and abuses of human rights. Is this really what it is like to live in America, [...]
This article discusses a new research project at Google where they are working on a way to run contextual ads on your computer that reflect what is taking place in the room around you. The technology works by using the computer microphone to make brief snippet recordings of your room where you are. It then [...]
This article from the Guardian raises the red flag about the vast amount of personal information that search engines are collecting, and the risks to individual privacy that entails. The article was really well written and made some good points. I’ve blogged about my thoughts about this issue in a previous post. Related Posts:Color Laser [...]
The recent negative hype about the lack of privacy in search results got me thinking about the needs of online services versus those of individuals. Is there a way to satisfy both constraints? AOL’s accidental data release was one thing that worried me. Google’s "personal search" feature, where the log of all your searches is [...]
A tribe in South America has been found to have a reverse concept of time from all known cultures: New analysis of the language and gesture of South America’s indigenous Aymara people indicates they have a concept of time opposite to all the world’s studied cultures — so that the past is ahead of them [...]
Chinese officials are preparing to "strike hard" against civil unrest. Are they planning another Tiannamen-style massacre? There is something fundamentally wrong with a government that has to torture, repress, and murder it’s own people (and its neighboring peoples) on a regular, systematic basis in order to maintain stability. China isn’t the only country guilty of [...]
The ACLU has a nice little animation of what life will be like once the government, and corporate America, have access to all personal data. It’s a nice little simulation. Related Posts:Big Thinkers' Most Dangerous IdeasThe American Conservative Magazine endorses…Kerry?How to Save the Upcoming Elections from Terrorism Alert ManipulationSecret Pentagon Report Leaked: Warns of Coming [...]
The Norwegians are planning to create a deep underground vault near the North Pole to house a backup copy of seeds for all known varieties of crops. The goal is to ensure food supplies and enable humanity to regenerate in the event of nuclear war, global warming or other catastrophes. It’s a good idea. This [...]
The Edge has published mini-essays by 119 "big thinkers" on their "most dangerous ideas" — fun reading. The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about [...]
This is a fascinating article by an investigative reporter for CBS News on the various tactics used by opposing parties who want to prevent, spin, or kill negative articles in the press. Quite interesting, and unsual to find coming from a major news organization. (And here’s an interesting post about this post). Related Posts:Peace in [...]
A truly horrible innovation. Someone has figured out how to patent storylines, for example unique plots and they have a published (but not issued) patent. Hopefully writers everywhere will blow this out of the water. Related Posts:Contextual Ad Targeting On Your Life20% of Your Genes Belong to ThemThe Actual Situation in Madrid: Unsanitized NewsThe e-G8 [...]
From Boing Boing today: Xeni Jardin: A report in this week’s issue of Science says 20 percent of human genes have been patented in the United States: The study (…) is the first time that a detailed map has been created to match patents to specific physical locations on the human genome. Researchers can patent [...]
This is really fascinating: Scientists used to consider the frequency band of 500 hertz and below in the human voice as meaningless noise, because when a voice is filtered, removing all higher frequencies, ne hears nothing but a low-pitched hum. All words are lost. But then it was found that this low hum is an [...]
This article presents some fascinating evidence that nutrition has a direct relationship on behavior, particularly antisocial behavior. Related Posts:New Aspartame Concerns — Study Finds Link to Cancer At Lower LevelsBig Thinkers' Most Dangerous IdeasAspartame (Nutrasweet) Proved to Cause Cancer at Human Levels of IngestionSuperwater Kills Bugs DeadA Bottle That Purifies Enough Water for a Year
Oy Vey. CNN just reported that Virginia Democrats are rumored to be asking Ben Affleck to run for the Senate. Note to the Virginia Democrats: Ben Affleck is an A-C-T-O-R not a politician. Am I the only one who is completely fed up with actors running for (and holding) public office? I mean what exactly [...]
A cutting-edge research program is injecting human brain cells into monkey brains, to investigate whether this causes their brains to become more "human." This poses a potential ethical challenge: If the monkeys do become more human, would they be considered "human subjects" and be protected by ethical guidelines governing research onto humans? At which point [...]
This article is very interesting not only because it provides an unusually detailed scenario of what would happen if a nuke was detonated in the Washington DC area, but also because it provides counter-intuitive guidance for how to survive such a situation, as well as information about new medical treatments for helping both first-responders and [...]
Significant new research findings indicate that a new ice age may be starting sooner than anyone expected… CLIMATE change researchers have detected the first signs of a slowdown in the Gulf Stream — the mighty ocean current that keeps Britain and Europe from freezing. They have found that one of the “engines” driving the Gulf [...]
Check out http://www.facster.com/ — it’s a site that provides some cool features on top of the US Statistical Abstracts and State Abstracts data-sets. This site seems to be just the kind of "statistics portal" I daydreamed about a while back. Very useful idea. Related Posts:Video: My Talk on The Future of Libraries — "Library 3.0"Privacy [...]
Here is an article written by an MD about what the coming H5N1 flu pandemic will be like, based on historical records of the 1918 flu pandemic. Scary reading. Related Posts:Big Thinkers' Most Dangerous Ideas20% of Your Genes Belong to ThemHuman-Brained Monkeys Pose Ethical ChallengeNew Technique Turns Animals into Drones; Humans Next?Using Nanoparticles to Augment [...]
A recent article on Boing Boing reports the most recent round of Chinese cyberattacks on the Tibetan government in exile. China has increasingly aimed its sophisticated cyberwar teams at the low-tech, peace-loving Tibetans. I know dozens of Tibetan lamas and their staffs and they all use PC’s — and none of them know anything about [...]
by Nova Spivack, Minding the Planet, http://www.mindingtheplanet.net This news article reports that the FBI is investigating a situation in which mobsters deliberately contaminated their drug money with a virus in order to deter in-house theft by members of their organization. Several years ago, during the days of collective paranoia following 9-11, I started thinking about [...]
It’s finally happening in the USA — your cell phone is about to morph into a credit card, and soon will evolve into your digital wallet. Read more. Related Posts:WiTricity Coming SoonNew Wireless Power Technology — No More Wires!Scale-Free Networks and Mobile ServicesStoring Data In the Human BodyMicrosoft Patents using Human Body to Transmit Power [...]
A new study has found that exposure to even low levels of second-hand smoke at home had a significant negative impact on children’s reading and math performance at school. Related Posts:A World Without ElephantsBig Thinkers' Most Dangerous IdeasRussian Doc Predicts Bird-Flu Will Kill 1 Billion; Possibly This Year…A Bottle That Purifies Enough Water for a [...]
New research has found that people select mates by smell. People fall into distinct smell-types that appear to be directly related to corresponding types of immune systems. The study found that members of couples tended to NOT be of the same smell-type and thus also to not have the same types of immunities; perhaps because [...]
Media Mammon is a new stock market for memes. You can invest play money in words and phrases that are spreading through the media. May the best meme win! See also: A Physics of Ideas. Related Posts:My "A Physics of Ideas" Manifesto has been Published!Big Thinkers' Most Dangerous IdeasGreat Article on Psychohistory and Sociophysics — [...]