Interstellar chemistry, Liftport back in business, “finger vein money”, Ellis interviews Gibson, geo-engineering plausible (but a last ditch solution), electronic smog is bunk …

• 1 – Charging Up Interstellar Chemistry

  “Do life’s origins go back to the chemistry found in exotic places like the space around VY Canis Majoris?” Panspermia gets another wee boost.

  (tags: panspermia science components life molecules anions chemistry medium interstellar space)

• 2 – Liftport: A boost from balloons?

  “Laine still isn’t out of the woods, but today he says he’s on the verge of a business deal that could revive the dream, based on Liftport’s work with balloon-borne platforms for communications and surveillance.” wh00t!

  (tags: business beanstalk elevator space Liftport)

• 3 – Hitachi finger vein money

  “… a biometric cardless credit payment system, called “finger vein money,” which allows shoppers to pay for purchases using only their fingertips.” One less thing to lose, I guess.

  (tags: vein finger shopping payments finance technology identity biometrics)

• 4 – 10 free ways to gain exposure for a young blog

  “Well, growing traffic will take patience, and you won’t get a flood of new visitors overnight (at least, not without some luck).”

  (tags: tips advice subscription audience development blogging writing)

• 5 – Q&A: William Gibson Discusses Spook Country and Interactive Fiction

  “I can’t make a narrative up beforehand, can’t write before I start typing, so I literally don’t decide what a story is or where it goes.” But a quickie – questions by Warren Ellis, no less.

  (tags: cyberpunk fiction interactive storytelling writing interview WilliamGibson)

• 6 – No evidence for cellphone mast illness

  “There is no evidence that cellphone masts cause fatigue, anxiety or headaches, according to one of the largest studies of their possible effects on health.” Peel the tinfoil off the loft beams, folks.

  (tags: research medicine debunked technophobia EHS fatigue illness radiation mast cellphone)

• 7 – Garnet Hertz – Experiments in Galvanism: Frog with Implanted Webserver

  “Akin to Damien Hirst’s bodies in formaldehyde, the frog is suspended in clear liquid contained in a glass cube, with a blue ethernet cable leading into its splayed abdomen.” Erm, OK.

  (tags: weird webserver frog cyborg computer biology bizarre art)

• 8 – Climate Engineering Is Doable, as Long as We Never Stop

  “… the geo-engineering process would have to continue as long as carbon-dioxide levels were elevated. A quarter of the carbon dioxide that comes out of your car’s tailpipe is still in the atmosphere a thousand years later …”

  (tags: warming global carbondioxide atmosphere environment change climate geo-engineering)

• 9 – Renewable energy could ‘rape’ nature

  “Ausubel says the key renewable energy sources, including sun, wind, and biomass, would all require vast amounts of land if developed up to large scale production – unlike nuclear power.” Hmmm.

  (tags: Ausubel generation power nuclear fuels renewable environment change climate)