Who will get the biggest slice of 3D-printed pie? | Crave - CNET via futuramb

Ugh. I think I almost barfed when I heard her say “It’s like a mash-up of Facebook and iTunes — where you can print at home or from us in the cloud.” I don’t even know where to begin. And then she starts talking about app developers?!

I had my reservations about Bre because he doesn’t acknowledge the RepRap foundation enough — but in this video he comes off as a saint for not calling her out more than he does AND mentioned the RepRap project.

(via emergentfutures)

Genjix Descibes The “Work” That Bitcoin Mining Performs

A post by Amir Taaki (genjix) on Bitcoin Media (@BitcoinMedia) describes how and why bitcoin mining performs “work”.  Excerpts:

Another property of a good hash function is small changes in input lead to large changes in output. This makes it difficult (practically impossible) to reverse a hash function.

A bitcoin miner is constantly hashing a block to see if it passes the above check. If not then it slightly modifies the block and tries again. It keeps doing this until it finds a block that passes. A valid block has been found, and the miner will broadcast this block to the network.

A miner’s task is to make a block and keep modifying that block so that it produces a different hash, until that hash passes a [specific] test. 

Creating a block is not easy. It takes computational processor cycles. Ergo it takes electricity. Ergo it costs money. Creating a block usually has miniscule profit or even negative expected value. As more people mine and create blocks, the network drives up the difficulty squeezing out all the profit.

via bitcoinminer:Previous Posts

Alexander: Back in May 2011 I wrote about the idea of an inflationary bitcoin economy. Finally someone has implemented a very similar project. (… I’m assuming their phrase ‘negative interest’ means inflation. Do any [armchair] economists out there know if I’m wrong on this?)

Introducing The Occcu - 99% Unlike Bitcoin via bitcoin

A new complementary currency, the Occcu, falls under the category of a “basic-income currency” which is like a form of social security paid to all individuals.  About the only thingOcccu has in common with Bitcoin is that they both can be traded person-to-person online.

A promotional flyer for the Occcu describes it as “a fair global currency”.  To prevent hoarding the Occcu imposes “demurrage” (negative interest).  You’ll want to spend your Occcus right away as anything you don’t spend loses its value — 25% of any unspent balance after thirty days goes back to the community chest.

The currency can be spent from a mobile through the web interface.  Paper checks are available but simply act as a receipt for the payment recipient to hold until the sender manually enters the information at a later time once connectivity is available. 

The currency was introduced at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos.

The name Occcu comes from OCCupy-CUrrency, a currency that would be desirable to (some/many in) the Occupy movement.  Users registered with the Occcu.com website receive a chunk of the currency during sign-up and will receive the basic-incoome allotment monthly.  The Occcu website lets registered users view and place ads for trade, make payments and P2P transfers.

It is not apparent yet how counterfeiting will be prevented as currently a single individual can create multiple identities and receive the full basic-income for each.

There have been calls from some individuals for Bitcoin to be forked or to be superceded with an alternate blockchain to introduce features such as demurrage.  Many Bitcoiners are attracted to Bitcoin specifically because its current economic properties.   The the software could technically accommodate these changes, buy-in would need to come from these individuals as they hold the power to refuse to switch to software the devalues the currency they hold.

However just as Bitcoin was the catalyst for the conversation on various aspects of money the Occcu will likely cause further conversation as well.

Previous Posts

Cupertino high school student Angela Zhang may know the cure for cancer:

 As a freshman, she started reading doctoral-level papers on biological engineering. By her sophomore year in high school, she managed to convince Stanford University to let her use their laboratories, and by junior year, she began doing her own research that led her to develop a recipe that boggles even her chemistry teacher.

Zhang’s recipe won her a $100,000 award at a national science competition sponsored by Siemens.

Her method of curing cancer by aiming an infrared light at mutated cells killed cancer in mice; it will be a few more years before it can be determined if the method works in humans. Nevertheless, Zhang’s three years of research is considered a breakthrough. [CBS News]

via mindbabies:rararamyeon:producermatthew

via braiker

(Source: spocko, via evangotlib)

Alexander: In the ‘90 the Baby Boom generation convinced itself that 40 was the new 30. Now we’ve got an economy and a generation of youths for whom 30 is the new 20.

Rick McKee via azspot

“TIGER” from Sol of Auburn. 2007-2012.

agritecture: An extremely inspirational TedTalk by Steve Ritz, a south bronx teacher who has brought green walls into his classroom changing hearts, minds, and diets. This man is spreading “the new green graffiti” in communities that need it the most. Never ceases to amaze me what one person can do. Amazing images of his work in the slides as well.

owsposters

(via liberalsarecool)

Transforming Parking lots into food forests through Permaculture. via locustsandhoney

Work imitates life.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation For Breast Cancer removed over $400,000 worth of funding from Planned Parenthood, which, you know, screens for breast cancer. This is all, of course, due to right-ring pro “life” group pressure.

They Komen Foundation DID - however - think it was totally OK to put their branding all over this Smith & Wesson 9mm! Firearms were the second most common cause of violent death among women, just after car crashes! Take that, Planned Parenthood!

Let’s not forget the pink-chicken-buckets from KFC a couple of years ago, which again were another bizarre PR grab from the Susan G. Komen Foundation, because when you think of “health” you ALWAYS think of KFC, right? You’d think if they wanted to actually stop cancer they’d put more funding towards breast cancer screenings, but there we go. This is where we’re at right now. 

via skeptictank:nedhepburn

Hybrid cats are the product of a serval and a domesticated cat, AND said cat is likely to have the personality of a dog… Sign me up for a Savannah Cat. 

(Source: section9)

Remember that we are done in by our sins — and not for our sins. Also, recall that in nature there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ choice — simply a decision with consequences.

These aren’t personal quotes — but they were in my head this morning. I felt bad because I didn’t get very far on my mask design (for copper electro-plating) last night. … Now it’s going to be a long day.