This comment from a lawyer about the new practice of injecting potassium chloride into fetuses in the womb to ensure that they don’t survive the abortion brings up a question that perennially perplexes me.

Regardless of one’s position on the death penalty, why is it so damned hard for the state to come up with a way to execute someone painlessly? Apparently, this “three-drug cocktail” they’ve come up with can be quite painful if not done properly, or with the proper doses.

I just don’t get it. There are a number of ways that people die accidentally, with no apparent knowledge that they are going. Carbon monoxide kills many people every year with no warning to the victim. Maybe it’s only painless because it happens in their sleep, but how about this example?

Before the first Shuttle launch, some ground crew died in the engine compartment of the orbiter, because they were in there during a nitrogen purge. They apparently never knew they had a problem, but simply passed out. If there’s a CO2 buildup, the body knows it’s asphyxiating, and tries to do something about it, but no such warning mechanism has ever developed for a pure nitrogen atmosphere, because no animal would have ever encountered such an environment in nature.

So why not simply bring back the gas chamber, but instead of a toxin, simply remove the air and replace it with nitrogen? I’m sure there are other examples, but I fail to understand why this is such a difficult problem.

This is a nice incremental breakthrough from a “save the planet” standpoint, but they miss out on another benefit, I think:

In laboratory tests, these new boric acid suspensions have reduced by as much as two-thirds the energy lost through friction as heat. This could result in a four or five percent reduction in fuel consumption, according to Ali Erdemir, senior scientist in Argonne

The Star Wars land speeder is scheduled to head into commercial production in 2008 or 2009. It looks more like a flying saucer than a roadster. It uses ground effect. Safer and simpler than a helicopter? Stay tuned.

Here’s a brochure, a spec sheet, and a FAQ.
I asked Bruce Calkins, press contact at Moller about it.

Transterrestrial Musings: Is it street legal?

Bruce Caulkins, Moller International: It falls into a new category. While no one has claimed it, it remains to be seen who will want to regulate its use.

Continue reading Interview with Land Speeder Manufacturer →

I don’t text much, but it sounds like a handy skill to have in an emergency:

The three company representatives were unanimous in their No. 1 piece of advice for cell-phone users:

“The biggest tip is to understand the importance of text messaging,” Smith said. “Text messaging uses far fewer of our network resources.”

…against spam. It’s an interesting history, but a little depressing.

[Via Geek Press]

Looks like it’s finally coming. I’m not sure that this is the ultimate technical solution, though. 1.5 Mbs won’t go very far with a plane full of browsing passengers, and it won’t work for international flights over the oceans. Ultimately, they’ll have to find a satellite solution, with more bandwidth.

Tesla Motors, the electric high-end sports car maker brought to you by SpaceX rocket man, Elon Musk, is sold out for one year. They are calling their August 2008 deliveries still the 2008 model year Roadster, but they have customers who have put $30,000 down instead of the usual $50,000 for the $100,000 car for deliveries through 4Q08. That’s somewhere between 25% and 50% of their academic year 08-09 production.

I wanted to buy one except for
1) “No, we don’t take trade-ins at this time”
2) No financing on the down payment until delivery (although it is refundable until about 3 months before delivery)
3) The Lotus Elise frame won’t really accommodate someone who’s 6’1″ without taking off the roof to get through the door. Maybe if I lose a second 20 pounds, I’ll try again.

I look forward to their next offering and I hope it has a slightly bigger cockpit. Other than to support Elon Musk, I want one because they are novel. That I’ll be burning cheap coal as opposed to expensive oil is a nice way to subsidize my taste for novelty.

Continue reading Electric Roadster →

Ron Bailey has a dispatch from last week’s transhumanist think-in in Chicago.

Kind of like jumbo shrimp. An odorless durian? It seems to me that it sort of defeats the purpose. You can’t really separate odor from taste, because odor is a vital part of taste (people who can’t smell have taste suppression as well). It might be some interesting new fruit with an interesting taste, but it wouldn’t be durian.

A long but interesting article on the history, and current state of the art:

Cog was designed to learn like a child, and that