Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

Saturday, January 09, 2016

Monday, July 13, 2015

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Hyperloop



New York to Los Angeles in 45 minutes is mind blowing. That might be the most popular track.




It takes an Elon Musk to save America the embarrassment of China and Japan outdoing it on bullet trains.



The Hyperloop could actually be producing excess energy. If there are solar panels on the top everywhere, that is more energy than it needs. Good thing.




The Hyperloop would be a great way to connect India's four largest cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata. Why are they still talking bullet trains in India? The Hyperloop is cheaper. Much cheaper. Just like India skipped landlines, and went straight to mobile phones, it should skip bullet trains and go straight to the Hyperloop.

Elon Musk has a Head Of State status. He is totally making impact. This guy will soon qualify for a membership of the G7.




Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Space Travel And Showing Skin

Planets of the Solar System
Planets of the Solar System (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Space travel damages skin but makes hair grow FASTER: 'Astromice' study discovers the lesser-known impacts on astronauts
some astronauts experience skin dryness and itching after spending time in space - making them more vulnerable to scratches and irritation...... the astronaut underwent an accelerated skin ageing process in space...... ‘Weightlessness as experienced by astronauts during space flights affects physiological functions of the human organism that has evolved, like other organisms living on Earth, through continuous adaptation to the permanent gravitational field.’ ...... a study on 19 crew members of six Nasa-Mir missions from 1995 to 1998 indicated small skin injuries were the most frequent medical incidents including dryness and itching. ..... several cutaneous physiological changes were recorded after the mission such as coarsening and decreased skin elasticity ....... there might be more detrimental effects than thought on missions into deep space, such as to Mars

I have known this all along. We are not supposed to travel vast distances. We are supposed to take good care of earth. Maybe moon, maybe Mars. But there is nothing much going on either on Moon or Mars. Other than having a backup plan that might be needed a million years from now, I don't see the point. What would it take to recreate Tribeca or Chinatown on the moon or Mars? A lot. You will probably ended up creating a parking lot up there.

There is a reason why everything out there is measured in light years. We are supposed to stay back and measure, use telescopes and things, take in the incoming information if we ever got so curious. We are not supposed to go there. We are supposed to stay put.

I get the impression we experimented on people before we experimented on mice. Beware, time travels faster for the skin out there.

But if this is only about gravity, Mars has gravity. As long as you can survive the journey and make it fast, you should be okay. Right?

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Lab Grown Meat, Vertical Farms

Painter of the burial chamber of Sennedjem
Painter of the burial chamber of Sennedjem (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For me the number one concern is cost. It has to cost less than how they do it now, much less. Or why bother?

Feeding Tomorrow’s Billions: Lab-Grown Meat Products, Vertical Farms, AI-Designed Recipes, and More
Food and agriculture accounts for about 5.9% of the global GDP. Global food retail sales alone account for about $4 trillion/year, and food accounts for 15% of what American households spend each year. .... In 1790, farm jobs accounted for 90% of US jobs, compared to less than 2% today. ...... they won't be meats in the conventional sense, but something altogether new. ...... In 2012, it took 60 billion land animals to feed 7 billion humans. If successful, cultured animal products have huge advantages: 99% less land, 96% less water, 96% fewer greenhouse gases, and 45% less energy. ........ We will increasingly rely on genetically engineered crops. In 1996, there were 1.7 million hectares of biotech crops in the world; by 2010, the number had jumped to 148 million hectares. ..... More than a trillion GE meals have been served, and not a single case of GE-induced illness has turned up. ...... Vertical farms will be immune to weather, so crops can be grown year-round under optimal conditions. One acre of skyscraper floor produces the equivalent of 10 to 20 traditional soil-based acres....... Employing clean-room technologies means no pesticides or herbicides, so there's no agricultural runoff. The fossil fuels now used for plowing, fertilizing, seeding, weeding, harvesting, and delivery are gone as well. On top of all that, we could reforest the old farmland as parkland and slow the loss of biodiversity. ....... The average American foodstuff travels 1,500 miles before it's consumed. As 70% of food's final retail price is from transportation, storage, and handling, these miles add up quickly. With vertical farming and genetic engineering, production will become decentralized and distributed, allowing food to be produced nearer the location of consumption,

and food's price to plummet

....... companies turning plants into foods that look and taste just like meat and eggs.... data scientists are actively weeding out billions of proteins from hundreds of thousands of plants to learn what could form the equivalent of a chicken's egg. ....... IBM's Watson uses machine learning to construct new recipes and cocktails that no human chef would come up with....... As technology converges, the future will be a tasty, and abundant, one.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Reverse Brain Drain?

Best viewed large. The main terminal of the br...
Best viewed large. The main terminal of the brand new Bangalore International Airport. I was one of the first few people at the airport. My mother arrived on the third flight into this new airport. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Top Indian talent in Silicon Valley moves back home to join star startups
Top Indian talent is moving from globally iconic American technology companies to India's star startups. And homes are being shifted from Bay Area to Bangalore. ...... from Google to Flipkart, from Disney and Facebook to Zomato, from Symantec to Snapdeal ..... Matching dollar salaries and the sheer range of future career opportunities are the hooks India's tech blue chips are offering to Indian talent in Silicon Valley. ...... "The smart entrepreneurs have already returned, tens of thousands more will return over the next 2-3 years" ...... being wooed by at least half-adozen Indian startups valued anywhere between $1 billion and $15 billion. ...... All salaries look handsome and Silicon Valley-competitive in dollar terms, and most assignments involve complex technology solutions for the mobile platform...... startups such as Zomato, whose restaurant discovery app is now present in 22 countries, are articulating their ambitions on a global scale. For Silicon Valley's top talent, nothing attracts more than a mission to dominate the world. "The idea is always world domination, if you speak anything less than that, you are not ambitious enough. ......... Both are being paid Valley salaries too — $5-6 million annual packages. ...... but it's just a whole new level of intensity here ..... "India is at the forefront of the mobile innovation" ...... "I made the decision to move here in less than 30 seconds," said Mani. "Hundreds of millions of Indians will experience the Internet for the first time on a smartphone in the next few years" ........ "India will see a technology boom over the next 5 years that will make the US dotcom boom look lame. There will be dozens of billion-dollar companies emerging from India's ecosystem which will transform business, industry and society." ......... "History is witness to the savviest, smartest and most entrepreneurial people usually going off to crazy places at regular intervals. This is relatively reasonable"

 

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

European Angst On GAFA

English: Google Logo officially released on Ma...
English: Google Logo officially released on May 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
GAFA is apparently what Europe calls Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple.

My first reaction (years ago) was Europeans are sore losers. Instead of innovating they are hammering. They are just jealous of Google.

Now I think differently. Instead of Silicon Valley sucking money in from all over the world like the British Empire stole gold from India, these Internet behemoths should pay taxes in each jurisdiction they generate revenues in.

There should be a global regime. So there is an upper limit. Maybe you should not have to pay more than 10% in sales taxes in total at all levels of government put together.

Google is cashing on the infrastructure built by these countries. And I don't mean just broadband. Google thrives on educated populations. And Google should give back as a matter of business decision.

Such negotiations have to be global. That might also push us towards a world government (which both Bill Gates and I think would be a good thing).

The simple formula is, every Internet company should track as to where a sale got generated, and they should pay sales taxes in those jurisdictions, up to a maximum 10%.