Archive for 2013

FASTER, PLEASE: Amputee: Bionic leg controlled by brainwaves “blew my mind.” “When a person thinks about moving, a signal is sent from the brain down through the spinal cord. These impulses control the muscles. After an amputation, the muscles are no longer there but the nerves are. Zac underwent surgery to move these nerves to his hamstrings. Sensors relay these nerve signals to a computer, which instructs the knee and ankle how to move.”

THE BUSYBODIES CAN’T HELP WEIGHING IN: Pregnant Weight Lifter Stirs Debate. The Insta-Wife lifted at the gym until the day before delivery; she had a very comfortable pregnancy and a very easy delivery.

NEW BREAKTHROUGHS IN ENDOCHRONIC TRADING: US Fed probing market trades before policy release. “The Fed said it would be reviewing how it disseminates often market-moving monetary policy decisions after an analyst said that movements on the gold exchange just before the release last Wednesday could suggest someone had the information early.” The movements in thiotomiline futures were sublime.

READER BOOK PLUG: Reader Thomas Alexander’s book, Mistress of the Dancing Bones, is a free Kindle download for the next few days.

CHANGE: The First Carbon Nanotube Computer: “For the first time, researchers have built a computer whose central processor is based entirely on carbon nanotubes, a form of carbon with remarkable material and electronic properties. The computer is slow and simple, but its creators, a group of Stanford University engineers, say it shows that carbon nanotube electronics are a viable potential replacement for silicon when it reaches its limits in ever-smaller electronic circuits. The carbon nanotube processor is comparable in capabilities to the Intel 4004, that company’s first microprocessor, which was released in 1971, says Subhasish Mitra, an electrical engineer at Stanford and one of the project’s co-leaders.”

ROGER KIMBALL: Racism, Inc. “The deployment of power always attracts acolytes and entrepreneurs. So it is no surprise that a thriving cottage industry has grown up around accusations of racism.”