Futurist

There are 396 posts filed in Futurist (this is page 23 of 40).

Human Evolutionary Change 100 Times Higher in Past 5,000 Years

Fascinating.

“We are more different genetically from people living 5,000 years ago than they were different from Neanderthals,” according to John Hawks -University of Wisconsin anthropologist. “Five thousand years is such a small sliver of time – it’s 100 to 200 generations ago. That’s how long it’s been since some of these genes originated, and today they are in 30 or 40 percent of people because they’ve had such an advantage. It’s like ‘invasion of the body snatchers.’What’s really amazing about humans,” Hawks continued, “that is not true with most other species, is that for a long time we were just a little ape species in one corner of Africa, and weren’t genetically sampling anything like the potential we have now.”

via Human Evolutionary Change 100 Times Higher in Past 5,000 Years Today's Most Popular.

Six things you might not know about solar panels

Solar PV deck

Solar PV deck


Recently a neighbor asked about our home’s solar photovoltaic (PV) system. Since he’s not the first I thought I might write about our system, specifically a few things people might not know about PV systems. This reflects my experience and may differ from others. As always, your mileage may vary.

Solar PV is not rocket science. Solar PV literally once was rocket science, as one of its first practical applications was to power orbiting satellites. Apollo astronauts even left solar panels on the moon. Fortunately, a PV system no longer requires a NASA-sized budget nor an engineering degree. While the jargon may be confusing at first, you’ll quickly learn what’s what and things will start to make sense.
Continue reading →

Poor password management by banks

I recently signed up to the site of one of my (many) 401K administrators. When it came time to pick a password for my account, I was disappointed to see the kind of restrictions the bank put on my choice of password:

Password requirements:

Must contain 8 – 20 characters
Must contain at least one letter and one number
Is case sensitive (e.g. “MyPassword” with an uppercase “M” and “P” is different from “mypassword” with a lowercase “m” and “p”)
Cannot contain any spaces
Cannot contain special characters (e.g. !#$%^&@,;*( )+~?<>‘\”)
Cannot contain more than 2 of the same consecutive letters or numbers (e.g. aaa or 222)
Cannot be the same as your previous 6 passwords
Cannot be the same as your Username

I understand some of these, but not allowing spaces or special characters? That significantly reduces the complexity of available passwords, making the password easier to crack. Now perhaps they get around this by giving the user x number of tried before locking her out, but why not just allow special characters?
Continue reading →

Ancient DNA mapped from 700,000-year-old horse

Fascinating.

Gene experts said Wednesday they’ve been able to unravel the genetic blueprint of a prehistoric horse that lived in Canada some 700,000 years ago, the oldest DNA mapping effort ever attempted.

A dramatic extension of the limits of ancient DNA recovery, the advance re-creates a gene map, or genome, which is roughly 10 times older than the previous record-holder. The feat suggests that ancient DNA may be recoverable from frozen remains almost a million years old, raising the possibility of someday recovering even more ancient gene maps of humanity’s primitive ancestors.

via Ancient DNA mapped from 700,000-year-old horse.

Nextdoor and neighbors

My friend Reid Serozi wrote a blog post in support of Nextdoor.

Almost one year ago, I started questioning the value of using Google Groups and started to wonder if there was a better way to communicate with my neighbors. I discovered Nextdoor in early 2012 and immediately recognized the value and how it could address the pains I found with using Google Group for a neighborhood/community communication tool.

He makes some good points, but doesn’t address the issue of how poorly Nextdoor deals with neighborhood boundaries. Reid ran into this issue himself this week, as this post to the Oakwood mailing list shows:

I am trying to reach the Historic Oakwood Nextdoor lead.

It appears we have a boundary issue, since the Mordecai CAC overlaps your neighborhood boundary near East Franklin.

Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. All these boundaries. Virtual gated communities is what it is. Even with Nextdoor’s announcement that they’re reenabling their Nearby Neighborhoods feature doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Maybe I’m a geezer (okay, maybe the question should be how much of a geezer I am), but I’m all about open, open, open. Let everyone participate, don’t put up barriers (i.e., membership). Let people own their own data.

Then again, I didn’t see the value of Facebook but now I visit it constantly. You kids get off my lawn!

via Nextdoor Explosion | Reid Serozi – Civic Geek.

Everybody’s in

One of my shipmates, an engineer who served with me on the Elliot, posted a comment to one of my NSA Facebook posts that made me think. Referencing my cryptologic technician past, he said.

You should have been an engineer. No one would care what you say or think.

This implies that I have something worth listening to – which as anyone who’s ever read this blog knows is patently ridiculous. Tales of my past as a crypto tech are about as far removed from James Bond as possible. It would bore anyone to tears.
Continue reading →

Zeo says goodnight

I was sad to learn this evening that Zeo, the makers of a wonderful sleep-tracking device, shut its doors late last year. It’s a real shame.

Since late last year it has been something of an open secret in some digital health circles that Newton, Massachusetts-based sleep monitoring and coaching company Zeo was winding down its operations and searching for a buyer. At least one investor was making veiled references to the company running out of money during various question-and-answer periods at the mHealth Summit in Washington DC last year. Zeo’s absence from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year — a must-attend for any company selling devices and companion services to consumers — was telling.

via Exclusive: Sleep coach company Zeo is shutting down | mobihealthnews.

Avila and the broadband divide

It’s refreshing to see Rep. Marilyn Avila express some concern about the lack of broadband.

Avila was praised by N&O executive editor John Drescher in her defense of requiring local governments buy newspaper space for their legal notices:

“Are our citizens going to have to bookmark every website for every department in every division and check it every day to figure out what we’re up to down here?” she asked, adding that many residents don’t have Internet access.

Continue reading →

Fields of electrons

White Post Road solar farm in Bath, NC

White Post Road solar farm in Bath, NC


I found a page about this solar farm in Bath, NC yesterday. It quietly generates 15.5 MW over 85 acres, selling the power to Duke Energy.

Earlier this year, Duke Energy shelved plans to build another reactor at the nearby Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant. The plant property encompasses over 20,000 acres. If Duke were to build a 20,000 acre solar farm on the Shearon Harris property it could generate over 3,000 MW of safe, clean electricity: more than that produced by 3 nuclear reactors. The cost would be about $3 billion, which is 1/3rd of what just one reactor would cost to build.

While nuclear plant construction costs continue to skyrocket solar PV costs continue to plummet. Which technology does it make sense to invest in?

Flying spaceships

The International Space Station over Raleigh, 16 May 2013.

The International Space Station over Raleigh, 16 May 2013.


NASA’s Spot The Station email alerts tell me that the International Space Station will be sailing over the house early tomorrow morning (5:45 AM). I’ll be awake as usual and will go out to see it.

Every time I get a chance to watch the space station fly by I’m in awe all over again that we live in an age where spaceships silently sail above us – all the time. It’s pretty mind-blowing if you think about it.