Centerblue.org

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done one of these–but there have been no shortage of scientific miracles in the last few months as technology continues its exponential acceleration.

MEDICINE/BIOTECHNOLOGY

Anti-aging pill on the horizon, soon to be available. This has got to be one of the most exciting technological advances of the year. Researchers are working on creating a pill that preserves the mitochondria in cells, the degeneration of which is a major cause of aging. The treatment is, in fact, entering human trials now. It is based on the compound in red wine you may have heard of called reseratrol; one pill would contain the equivalent of resveratrol found in 1500 bottles of red wine. Not only does it attack aging itself, but also shows very promising results against diseases of aging such as diabetes.

New enzyme kills HIV dead. A new enzyme has been developed that literally kills HIV inside the cells it infects, never to have it return. This isn’t just treating someone who’s HIV+. This is actually making them HIV negative again. It’s going to take some time to test it, engineer it on a large scale and make it widely available–5 to 20 years–but there is good solid hope on the horizon.

Alzheimer’s cure is found. Just what the title says–a new treatment blocks Alzheimer’s-causing amyloid plaques in the brain, and even reverses the early stages of the disease. Trials are to start within the next two years.

Artificial Life in 3 to 10 years. A widely read Associated Press article discussed the likelihood of artificial life in the test tube being possible in the next three to ten years. Why would we want to do this? Well, we could create a life form that converts agricultural waste to pure ethanol or gasoline, for example–or build a life form that can eat toxic waste and clean up the environment. Hopefully the scientists creating these critters won’t get the smart idea of allowing them to reproduce….

ROBOTICS

The amazing Robot Asimo. Just watch the video of a robot being developed by Honda. Spooky.

Robotic insects take flight. Researchers have built an insect-sized robot that can fly. Its intended use is for covert surveillance, detecting chemicals, and probably eventually delivering explosives.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

IBM develops single-atom storage capability. IBM is developing technology that allows a single atom to store computer data. Eventually this will allow you to store the equialent of all of Youtube on a device the size of an iPod.

Nanoscale data retrieves data 1000 times faster for 100,000 years. On a similar vein, UPenn researchers are using nanowires to develop computer memory that accesses data 1000 times faster than today, and can store data for 100,000 years, all using less space and power than current Flash and RAM memory.

Solar cells made from plastic are now possible. One of the biggest problems with solar technology is that it requires large, inefficient and unwieldy silicon panels. Not anymore. Scientists have developed nanotube-based solar panels that can be printed on films of plastic. These films can then be “painted on” just about anything–walls, roofs, on top of cars, whatever. Once these are developed in mass quantity you can literally have solar energy available anywhere you have a surface on which to paint the film.

Nano-generators become reality. Scientists have visions of legions of nanobots coursing through our bloodstream in a few decades, directly attacking all manner of illnesses and keeping us perpetually healthy (and young.) But they need a power source, or else these nanobots are just floating pieces of micro metal. Researchers are working on that too, recently unveiling nano-generators that can use unconventional forms of energy such as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibrations, and even your body’s blood flow to generate energy. You could also put them in your shoes, so that your walking creates energy to power devices you have on your person.

OTHER

3D desktop fabrication coming to your home. This is another wondrous technology–you can literally build objects by printing them out. This is a precursor to what nanotechnology promises to deliver, though the tech here is not nano-based. It’s still incredible enough. Watch the video yourself. It’s billed as a way of building models…but the same technology could eventually allow you to, say, download the blueprints for that fancy set of shoes you want without even visiting the store. A similar machine from another company is going on sale for less than $5000.

Photon propulsion could cut trip to Mars down to one week. A scientist is presenting his discovery of a new propulsion technology to agencies like NASA and JPL. If it pans out, it would greatly increase propulsion speeds for various space missions–including cutting down the travel time to Mars from six months to a week.

“For Republicans to consistently refuse to engage in front of an African American or Latino audience is an enormous error. I hope they will reverse their decision and change their schedules. I see no excuse — this thing has been planned for months, these candidates have known about it for months. It’s just fundamentally wrong. Any of them who give you that scheduling-conflict answer are disingenuous. That’s baloney.”

–Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, commenting on the leading GOP presidential candidates declining to appear at an upcoming minority forum, citing scheduling conflicts.

Bonus quote:

“What are we going to do — meet in a country club in the suburbs one day? If we’re going to be competitive with people of color, we’ve got to ask them for their vote.”

–Former GOP VP candidate Jack Kemp.

Meet at the country club…well yea, isn’t that what Republicans typically do?

The remnants of Bush’s remaining Iraq policy are now becoming clear: “six more months,” “six more months” until he’s out of office and can pass this unmitigated fiasco to some other sucker. Only six more months until things REALLY get better..just a few more months until we can DRAW DOWN those troops! Draw them down, of course, back to their original levels.

We hear from Petraus that Iraq is “improving”–tell that to the grieving relatives of the 250+ people mowed down by a truck bomb in August. And while we’re on the subject of Iraqis, what do THEY think about the success of the “surge” and the American presence generally?

Funny you should ask. ABC News did, in one of its recent polls (PDF). Iraqis themselves, who aren’t subject to the spoonfeeding of biased propaganda the military is feeding American news outlets, seem to think that there hasn’t been much if any improvement at all. When asked how things were since the surge, 31% said worse for their local area than before the surge and 45% said the same; when asked about Iraq as a whole, 61% said things had gotten worse overall. Other tidbits: 63% believe the US invasion was “wrong”, 47% believe coalition forces should leave immediately, and 57% believe attacks on US forces are acceptable!

Petraus points to a decrease in violence in Baghdad, without pointing out that most neighborhoods have already been ethnically cleansed, and that tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes and even the country. The exodus of Iraq’s intellectuals and elites bodes particularly poorly for those who remain.

Iraq is a victim of failure to find a political solution, not a military one. Bush sent in the troops just barely knowing the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni, without any plan for a reconstruction that would cause reconciliation between the various ethnic factions. We now have the incompetent boob Al-Maliki leading a puppet Parliament to nowhere, relying on the fact that US forces are guaranteed to stick around in the face of a feckless Congress. With the US military in their pockets, the Iraqi government can feel free to continue doing what it does best–engage in petty squabbling, bitter rivalries, and otherwise do everything except to serve their countrymen. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson these people are not.

A political failure will not be cured by a military surge or presence of any time or magnitude. Our presence there is serving only to extend the process of non-reconciliation.

Pull the troops out, seal the borders, let the Iraqis have the civil war they seem bent on having in the absence of the American crutch, and let them murder each other into submission until they get tired of it and and either exhaust themselves or get their act together with a government and police force that work. It is horrible and barbaric, but nothing could be more horrible than this gross miscarriage of a war that has now dragged on longer than our involvement in World War II.

Time for it to end, already.

The carnage is starting in the wake of the credit crunch and subprime fiasco. For years, Wall Street hedge fund traders and their ilk have been reaping unimaginable amounts of money–mostly, as it turns out, by selling toxic mortgages and bonds to each other disguised by a AAA rating from Moody’s and S&P. Now those are blowing up everywhere in a giant game of whack-a-mole, with nobody knowing where the mole portending financial disaster for a fund is going to show up next.

There is fear on the Street, especially in the wake of the stunning jobs report today showing a loss of 4000 jobs in August (compared with an anticipated gain of 100,000+), with prior months also being revised sharply downward. The “subprime contagion” that we have been so assured by the Feds would be contained is now spreading into the main economy. Those $200,000+ bonuses on Wall Street are about to be slashed–oh my, whatEVER will they do!–and they’re already bringing out the job cut scissors.

A Bloomberg columnist writes a tongue-in-cheek (I hope!) article that highlights the angst these out-of-touch rich people are suffering right now:

So right after the Bear Stearns funds blew up, I had a thought: This is what happens when you lend money to poor people.

Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing personally against the poor. To my knowledge, I have nothing personally to do with the poor at all. It’s not personal when a guy cuts your grass: that’s business. He does what you say, you pay him. But you don’t pay him in advance: That would be finance. And finance is one thing you should never engage in with the poor. (By poor, I mean anyone who the SEC wouldn’t allow to invest in my hedge fund.)

That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned from the subprime crisis. Along the way, as these people have torpedoed my portfolio, I had some other thoughts about the poor. I’ll share them with you.

(You can read the rest here.)

Anyone feeling sorry for these rich folks as they get taken through the meat-grinder after profiting for years off the backs of poor people? No?

The silence is deafening.