{ When it comes to secure messaging, nothing beats quantum cryptography, a method that offers perfect security. Messages sent in this way can never be cracked by an eavesdropper, no matter how powerful. At least, that’s the theory. Today, physicists say they have broken a commercial quantum cryptography system made by the Geneva-based quantum technology startup ID Quantique, the first successful attack of its kind on a commercially-available system. | The Physics arXiv Blog | full story }

photos { Guy le Baube | Daemian and Christine }

quote { via Orion Magazine }

{ iPhone Deconstruction by Ben Millen | Enlarge/Zoom in | Barry Ritholtz }

There was a peculiar atmosphere at a recent technology conference in Silicon Valley. The glow of laptops was mostly absent and few gazed distractedly at their smartphones. Instead the audience was rapt, entirely focused on the speakers on stage.

“This is the best audience ever,” said Chris Sacca, an early investor at Twitter and a regular at tech conferences. “You’re actually listening to me.”

This was the first Wisdom 2.0 summit, which convened a few hundred spiritually minded technologists – everyone from Buddhist nuns to yogic computer scientists – for two days of panels and presentations on consciousness and computers. The goal: to share tips on how to stay sane amid the tweets, blips, drops and pings of modern life. (…)

“The problem with the kind of jobs we have is that there is no knob to dial down,” said Gopi Kallayil, an Indian-born marketing manager for Google who studied yoga at an ashram when he was younger. He spoke for many of the participants who professed a deep frustration with their inability to find serenity in an increasingly wired modern world. (…)

It seemed that almost everyone believed that our constant web surfing, no matter how noble its intent, is not conducive to the spiritual life. “As much as we’re connected, it seems like we’re very disconnected,” said Soren Gordhamer, the conference organiser. “These technologies are awesome, but what does it mean to use them consciously?”

One obvious way to bridge the techno-spiritual chasm is to make the cubicle a bit more like a temple. This, however, involves more than burning a stick of incense in the office. Google’s “Search Inside Yourself” programme encourages its employees to embark on a spiritual path. Twitter’s conservatively dressed chief technology officer, Greg Pass, said he teaches a form of Tai Chi in the company’s office.

{ Financial Times | Continue reading }

photo { Henri Cartier-Bresson | image #16 in the slideshow }

A major international study into the link between cell phone use and two types of brain cancer has proved inconclusive.

A 10-year survey of almost 13,000 participants found most cell phone use didn’t increase the risk of developing meningioma — a common and frequently benign tumor — or glioma — a rarer but deadlier form of cancer.

There were suggestions that using cell phones for more than 30 minutes each day could increase the risk of glioma, the study by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said. But the authors added that “biases and error prevent a causal interpretation” that would directly blame radiation for the tumor.

{ AP/Star Tribune | Continue reading }

The latest volley in this fray was released yesterday in the form of a new report of the results of an ongoing study examining whether there is a correlation between cell phone use and cancer. For once, news reports seem to be getting it right in that the results are “inconclusive.” Of course, I would have been shocked if the results had been conclusive. Based on this study, there are two things I can say with confidence. First, it will settle nothing, and, second, it will be attacked by those who, despite all the evidence against it and the incredible implausibility of a link between cell phones and cancer, deeply believe that there is just such a link. No doubt such attacks will include a mention that part of the funding for the study came from the Mobile Manufacturers’ Forum (MMF) and the GSM Association, both industry groups. True, the funding from these organizations went first through a “firewall mechanism,” but that won’t stop the criticisms.

{ Respectful Insolence/ScienceBlogs | Continue reading }

related { Cellphones now used more for data than for calls. }

What recent technological trends do you personally find exciting?

Real-time technology is a huge interest area of mine, especially in terms of analyzing giant datasets. I’m especially interested in areas like agriculture, weather and macroeconomics, where we are getting far better at finding ways to identify interesting and important data before it comes out to bite us. For the longest time, this has been a highly marginalized area. Part of the problem was our inability to extract signal from noise in big, messy, real-time datasets in order to describe what was happening in the economic world. But we’re finally seeing a confluence of computing power, data availability, algorithmic improvements, and visualization techniques that are allowing us to do some pretty useful and important things.

What technologies do you think are overhyped?
Social media. I think we overestimate its importance while underestimating some of the schismatic effects it has on us by allowing people to create their own little self-reinforcing communities. These communities aren’t particularly functional from a societal standpoint of allowing us to have common interests or some shared set of beliefs. Strangely, for all these wonderful things social media can do, it can also be greatly limiting. With social media, it’s easy to never see anything other than the things that reinforce your perspective. It’s easier than ever to live inside of an echo chamber of unified people who do things the same way you do, and you’d never know that there’s anything else out there. I think treating social media as if it were some sort of unallied force for societal cohesion is just kidding ourselves, as I think it’s actually leading to much more dysfunctional places than the utopians out there might believe. Frankly I find most of it very disappointing.

{ Paul Kedrosky interviewed by Josh Wolfe | Forbes/Wolfe Weekly Insider Newsletter, May 14, 2010 }

{ Mark Rothko, No.14, 1960 | Unrelated: A way of reconstructing randomly scattered images allows pictures to be transmitted through opaque objects. | How to take photographs through opaque objects | full story }

{ A white woman who had a black baby claims she fell pregnant while watching a porn movie in 3D }

What kids searched for this summer. Seeing “sex” and “porn” at #4 and #6 reminds me of how, from age 10 to 15, I looked up “fuck” every time I picked up a dictionary. Some terms you might also need to Google:

• Webkinz (#16)
• Runescape (#37)
• Nigahiga (#99)
• Miniclip (#18)
• Poptropica (#54)
• Hoedown Throwdown (#61)
• naked girls (#86)

{ Fimoculous | Kids’ Top 100 Searches of 2009 }

In the early years of the new century, huge force-on-force clashes and low-level irregular warfare aren’t the only threats faced by US military forces. Relatively small hostile groups either have or could acquire in the next few years access to sophisticated and lethal weaponry.

With modest training, modern communications, and strong command and control, these forces can employ such advanced weapons in concert with established guerrilla tactics and gain lethal effects once unavailable to such fighters.

Analysts are calling this type of conflict “hybrid warfare”—blending elements of different forms of combat. Participants in hybrid contests will comprise both nation-states and nonstate actors—sometimes with both on the same side, sometimes opposing one another. This distinctly new type of military challenge requires national security strategists and force planners to understand new realities and prepare America’s armed forces.

Hybrid warfare blurs the distinction between pure conventional and pure irregular warfare. At present, it is also a term with at least three applications. Hybrid can refer, first, to the battlespace environment and conditions; second, to enemy strategy choices; and third, to the type of force the US should build and maintain. Early examinations of this phenomenon have often used the term to apply to all these possibilities. In February, Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, head of US Joint Forces Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, referred to both hybrid enemies and a hybrid force the US might build.

{ Air Force magazine | Continue reading }

{ Spring/Summer 1999, Mcqueen ended his show w/ model Shalom Harlow standin’ in a white dress on a rotatin’ platform, bein’ spray painted by robotic arms. }

Silicon photonics could save the computer industry

The future of computing may need a light touch – literally. As chips move more and more data around, the metallic wiring on and between them eventually won’t be able to keep up.

The solution may be silicon photonics, a technology that employs silicon as an optical material. If compatible with standard CMOS semiconductor processing, silicon photonics promises inexpensive optical devices, easy integration with electronics and speedy data delivery.

First, though, researchers must grapple with a variety of issues, including reducing the cost to virtually nothing and finding ways to overcome a basic material drawback.

“The fundamental problem is silicon doesn’t emit light. It’s an indirect bandgap material,” said John Bowers, a leading researcher in the field and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

{ Photonics.com | Continue reading }

photo { Stephen Gelb }

{ Robert Carlsen | Continue reading | via Nick Bilton | Read more: At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business | NY Times }

Officials from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the United States Secret Service today unveiled the new design for the $100 note. Complete with advanced technology to combat counterfeiting, the new design for the $100 note retains the traditional look of U.S. currency. (..)

There are a number of security features in the redesigned $100 note, including two new features, the 3-D Security Ribbon and the Bell in the Inkwell. These security features are easy for consumers and merchants to use to authenticate their currency.

The blue 3-D Security Ribbon on the front of the new $100 note contains images of bells and 100s that move and change from one to the other as you tilt the note. The Bell in the Inkwell on the front of the note is another new security feature. The bell changes color from copper to green when the note is tilted, an effect that makes it seem to appear and disappear within the copper inkwell.

{ Federal Reserve | Continue reading }

Mobile Phone Harrassment: An exploration of students’ perceptions of intrusive texting behavior

Limited research has explored the link between mobile phone use and harassment behaviors. This paper details the findings from a preliminary study that examined perceptions of unwanted communication. (…)

Findings indicated that harassment by text is more prevalent than other forms of off-line stalking and, despite recipients reporting being distressed, there was still a higher level of acceptance of this form of harassment than other forms.

Furthermore, responses to text harassment were associated with a high frequency of behaviors perceived as not actively discouraging further texts, therefore having the effect of prolonging unwanted contact.

{ Emma Short and Isabella McMurray/Human Technology | PDF }

With social networking sites enabling the romantically inclined to find out more about a potential lover before the first superficial chat than they previously would have in the first month of dating, this is an important question for the future of romance.

{ Meteuphoric | Continue reading }

photo { Stephen Shore, Amarillo, Texas, August, 1973 }

When the University of Massachusetts Lowell launched its nanotechnology center six years ago, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs were dreaming big dreams about small things, like miniature generators to replace batteries and microscopic robots to repair human tissues.

State officials and economic developers imagined new industries and jobs. Universities jockeyed for billions in research money. The news media hyped it as the next big thing.

So what happened?

A lot, actually. While nanotechnology — working at a scale that is one-thousandth the width of a human hair — may have faded from the public’s imagination, the field has made substantial progress in recent years, opening new frontiers in electronics, medicine, and materials.

Nanotech products have begun to enter commercial markets. Components such as nanoparticles and tiny conductive wires called carbon nanotubes are being standardized and mass-produced. New discoveries are being made. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, researchers recently found that carbon nanotubes can not only conduct electricity, but generate it.
“Nanotechnology may have faded from view,’’ said Michael Strano, who led the MIT team that made the discovery, “but it has dissolved into a sea of science.’’

At UMass Lowell, researchers have built working prototypes of sensors with components smaller than a grain of sand, able to detect chemical weapons, biological weapons, and previously undetectable cracks that threaten the integrity of ceramic body armor. They have also developed a process, similar to ink jet printing, to rapidly apply the sensors to soldiers’ equipment. (…)

Nanotechnology is at about the point that IT had reached in 1975, said Roco, but has gotten there much faster. Roco estimates nanotechnology will reach IT’s 1995 stage by 2020.

{ Boston Globe | Continue reading | via Josh Wolfe }

Buildings consume more energy and materials than any other human activity – a reality that, for decades, has fueled interest in any improvements able to save energy and reduce costs. As energy prices continue to rise and resources dwindle, interest in “green buildings” has sparked a growing industry. According to a new report from Lux Research, the market for energy saving green buildings technologies will expand from $144 billion today to $277 billion in 2020, representing a 6.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). (…)

“The developed world’s 728 billion square feet of residential, commercial, and government floor space account for nearly 40% of its primary energy use, and consume 72% of its electricity,” said Michael LoCascio, a Senior Analyst at Lux Research, and the report’s lead author. “But while there’s increasing interest in cost-saving green building technologies, the market remains poorly defined.” (…)

The report focuses on energy-saving green building technologies, and examines the prospects for more than thirty “established green” and “emerging green” technologies, based on primary interviews with engineers, contractors, architects, and technology suppliers, as well as rigorous secondary research of technology development and pricing trends. Among its key conclusions:

1.) The energy-saving equipment category will gear up to reach $146 billion in 2015. The market’s largest segment, green building equipment, comprises lighting, HVAC and water heating systems; as well as energy-generation technologies, such as rooftop solar, building-integrated PV, and combined heat and power systems. The segment represented an impressive $67 billion in 2009, but new growth in LEDs, smart lighting, and advanced heat technologies will help sustain a 7.3% CAGR through 2015.

2.) The services segment will deliver the most robust growth. The green services category encompasses energy service companies (ESCOs), demand response, building energy management, and smart meters. In 2009, it represented only 11% of the green building market with $16 billion in revenues. But strong expansion of emerging technologies, like demand response, will expand the segment’s revenues to $55 billion in 2020, reflecting a robust 12% CAGR.

3.) Materials are the slowest growing segment, with a few bright spots. Energy-saving green building materials, such as insulation, windows, and structural materials amounted to $62 billion in 2009; the segment will reach $75 billion in 2015, a relatively slight 2% CAGR. Emerging technologies to watch, however, include electrochromic, thermochromic, and thermoreflective windows, which control how much sunlight windows admit.

“The adoption cycle for green building technologies is comparatively long, and growth will rely in part on subsidies,” said LoCascio. “The biggest driving factor, however, is straight-up economics. Technologies that can provide a payback in three years are more likely to be adopted by commercial building owners. Those providing payback in five years, however, are still attractive for government buildings.”

{ Josh Wolfe, Weekly Insider, April 9, 2010 }

Lines at the grocery store might become as obsolete as milkmen, if a new tag that seeks to replace bar codes becomes commonplace.

Researchers from Sunchon National University in Suncheon, South Korea, and Rice University in Houston have built a radio frequency identification tag that can be printed directly onto cereal boxes and potato chip bags. The tag uses ink laced with carbon nanotubes to print electronics on paper or plastic that could instantly transmit information about a cart full of groceries.

“You could run your cart by a detector and it tells you instantly what’s in the cart,” says James M. Tour of Rice University, whose research group invented the ink. “No more lines, you just walk out with your stuff.”

{ ScienceNews | Continue reading }

logotype { Forest Young }