http://futureben.net "this exciting but somewhat risky project." -futureBen's committee Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:31:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Oh hell yes. An MIT group has made a small sensor that is powered by the electrolyte gradient between the tree roots and the soil. The Voltree power supply is a great idea. Can a tree power more than a ... http://futureben.net/2008/09/26/tree-batteries/ Really I just wanted to get the Anarchy player running on the site. I can't decide which is more obnoxious though. The Anarchy splashpage or the Youtube watermark. Option A. sany0076 Option B. http://futureben.net/2008/06/03/ulterior-motives/ Blinkynoise boxes Right , so I was at the Bent Festival a few weeks ago, which turned out to be more of the Chiptune festival, since most of the stuff I saw was made from scratch. These little suckers you could actually buy. They make a nice coffee table item, ... http://futureben.net/2008/06/03/ive-seen-some-stuff/ It suddenly occurred to me that one of the best support sources for open source biotech would be the open source software movement. Google offers scholarships to students to take on summer coding projects with open source foundations. Is there any Bioinformatics in there? Just two that I can see. GenMAPP ... http://futureben.net/2008/03/27/googles-summer-of-code-and-open-source-biotech/ I presented a talk to the NYU Biotechnology club today, Metabiotechnology: or Why Biotech Sucks Right Now. Attendance was low but the crowd was more bemused than offended at the title. Often as you put a presentation together your thesis develops. And feedback from your audience is even better for ... http://futureben.net/2008/03/24/metabiotechnology-or-the-perils-of-an-iconoclastic-title/ I went to one of Rhizome's New Silent panel discussions at the New Museum. (Damn what a sexy marquee they have in the front!) Some of the presentations were pretty good. I liked the work of Caitlin Berrigan and Brandon Ballengee. What I appreciated the most from these two artists ... http://futureben.net/2008/03/20/media-art-in-the-age-ofblah-blah-blah/ The ever enlightening site edge.org poses a question to noted thinkers every year. This year's question is, "What have you changed your mind about? Why?" Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?" There is ... http://futureben.net/2008/01/14/edge-world-question-center/ So started reading anAleister Crowley and honestly I am inspired. The poor bastard has so much about the universe and yet he admits that it is all just symbolism. He doesn't even attempt to rectify astrology with astronomy. And honestly I don't really care very much about either circa the ... http://futureben.net/2007/11/13/i-dont-get-it/ Somehow I stumbled across this beginners guide to transhumanism. I skimmed it. What do you want? I just finished Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near" I get it! So what is transhumanism to me? It begins with the idea that we are less that we can imagine ourselves to ... http://futureben.net/2007/10/04/transhumanism-wtf/ Man I've done nothing but crew other people projects for the past year. I've been busting ass on the Madagascar spider, Image Node and Tod's LED sign. All of these are worthy projects, and I learned a lot working on them, but in the end they don't go into my ... http://futureben.net/2007/09/20/futureben-is-becoming-talent/