The Big Picture - Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Technology, and Digital Media

Entrepreneurial mycologist Paul Stamets seeks to rescue the study of mushrooms from forest gourmets and psychedelic warlords. The focus of Stamets’ research is the Northwest’s native fungal genome, mycelium, but along the way he has filed 22 patents for mushroom-related technologies, including pesticidal fungi that trick insects into eating them, and mushrooms that can break down the neurotoxins used in nerve gas.

There are cosmic implications as well. Stamets believes we could terraform other worlds in our galaxy by sowing a mix of fungal spores and other seeds to create an ecological footprint on a new planet.

“Once you’ve heard ‘renaissance mycologist’ Paul Stamets talk about mushrooms, you’ll never look at the world — not to mention your backyard — in the same way again.” -Linda Baker, Salon.com

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The mushroom biologist talks about the antimicrobial properties of fungi, how they can be used as potent insecticides, and how they may help boost the human immune system.

The Solar System” is a simulation/educational program designed to help make the experience of learning more enjoyable. Even if facts aren’t your interest, it’s a great way to explore the universe around us.

It has been designed from the ground up with the distinct intent to make exploring and learning about the solar system fun, entertaining, informative and very naturial.

What makes this different from most outer space applications out today is that never before have you been able to explore the solar system with such freedom and beauty. It isn’t enough to simply read about the world around us, you need to experience it.
If you would like to support this project, the links are provided to the right. We greatly appreciate any help you can provide.

One of the things I have taught myself to do over the years was to think in different time frames. This includes very long geological epochs and astronomical eons.

Maybe it was an interest in dinosaurs and astronomy as a kid, but historical time frames was a concept I was familiar with. Perhaps that was the basis of this week’s time frame discussion of Trading vs Investing. Understanding the very  l o n g  term is an important concept, in terms of getting what the long cycles can look like as well as crowd psychology.

These days, the crowd is suffering from a malaise. They are fearful of losing their jobs, not interested in buying homes, deeply concerned about the future. Following a Great Recession, this is to be expected. So too is the rise of the End of Worlders and the Zombie Bears. These folks are best ignored, as they are money losers who can damage your outlook.

I bring all of this up, because I spent this weekend looking at new start ups. I had lunches and dinners with young entrepreneurs and techies, and their angel funders. (Josh describes all of the start ups here). The ideas, the people, the energy, the competencies are just astounding. It is impossible to be long term negative when you see what is coming down the pipe.

If you want to understand the future of America, if you want to grasp why we are not doomed, then you MUST spend some time with entrepreneurs like these. The creativity, business acumen, technological insights are uplifting, energizing, empowering. We have a fertile crescent of ideas, not just in Silicon Valley but in pockets throughout the United States, like NY, Boston, Miami, San Diego, Denver, Atlanta. That is where economic growth will come from.

YOU CAN SEE THE FUTURE FROM HERE AND ITS NOT REMOTELY BLEAK.

The youth of America are full of ideas and energy. They don’t give a shit that their parents fucked everything up — they are going to steam roll over the old order and replace it with one of their own. They understand that future is not about the past. They know that they are a business of one, that no company or government is ever going to offer them economic security. They are their own team, brand and idea factory.

There are lots of things people are rightfully upset about — I lost my voice ranting last night about eejit economists who think the crisis was caused by “predatory borrowing” (it wasn’t). But that’s not what is going to be propelling us forward.

Don’t look to DC — the political debates there are laughable. Its like watching two different T-Rex debating who gets to eat the dead plant eater unaware of the the giant asteroid hurtling their way. Their  argument gets resolved when the asteroid turns their summer into nuclear winter.

The old order, the political hacks and hangers on, the whiners and recession porn stars and permabears — the dinosaurs — all have no idea WTF is coming their way. They are going to be mowed down like so many extinct species before them. They cannot see the asteroid hurtling their way from the deep black depths of space.

The Future of America is coming. It is not being driven by Goldman Sachs or the GOP or Obama. That’s old school, the old order, yesterday. It’s coming, and coming sooner than most people imagine.

When you get run over, don’t say you weren’t warned . . .

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Sources:
Tales from Lindzonpalooza (TRB, April 14, 2012)

After a recession, the least rational rise (temporarily) to prominence. Ignore them. (Washington Post, June 4, 2011 )

Are You Left or Right Brain? www.onlinecollege.org/left-or-right-brain

Read the rest of this entry »

Within the past 24 hours, the Pacific “Ring of Fire” – the region of the world where 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur and 75% of the world’s volcanoes are located – has been hammered with earthquakes:

• 8.6 in Indonesia

• 7.0 in Mexico (in the state of Michoacan)

• 6.9 in Mexico (in the Gulf of California)

• 5.9 off of the Oregon Coast

• 5.6 near Fukushima, Japan *

Click here to see the United States Geological Survey’s recent earthquake tracker.

* The spent fuel cooling system at Fukushima reactor number 4 has been suspended for the time being. However, this occurred prior to the earthquake, and – hopefully – will be started back up soon.

We live pretty close to the Sound (about 500 yards) and the mosquito problem last year was pretty bad.  Given the mild winter probably did little to keep the native population down, this summer is likely going to be pretty bad.

I am willing to try most anything to preempt these pesky varmints in my backyard — although my preference is to avoid anything that leads to debilitating neurological disease and a slow painful death; Also, toxic cancer causing chemicals are similarly to be avoided.

I am willing to try building a bat house, propane based solutions, organic sprays,  even the annoying bug zappers. Since I have no idea how bad this year will be, I am looking for two different possible suggestions:

• A reasonable cost repellent that eliminates annoying mosquito bites;

• A money-is-no-object-kill-the-bastards-dead-with-extreme-prejudice solution;

There are a number of urban anti-mosquito myths — Listerene, Bounce Dryer Sheets, bug zappers, etc. (none work). I’ve also heard of organic solutions that get added to your sprinkler system, but they have a reputation for gunking up the heads.

Any ideas?

New research from geophysical scientist Junjun Zhang and colleagues at Origins Lab at the University of Chicago, suggests that the giant impact hypothes of the creation of the Moon might be wrong. The team found that in comparing titanium isotopes from both the moon and the Earth, that the match is too close to support the theory that the moon could have been made partly of material from another planet.

According to the giant impact hypothesis, there was once a Mars-sized body referred to as Theia orbiting in our solar system. Theia would have formed in about the same orbit as Earth, but about 60° ahead or behind. When the protoplanet had grown to be about the size of Mars, its size made it too heavy for its orbit to remain stable. As a result, its angular distance from Earth varied increasingly, until it finally it crashed into the Earth.

The collision would have occurred 4.533 billion years ago when Theia would have hit the Earth at an oblique angle, and destroyed itself in the process. Theia’s mantle and a significant portion of the Earth’s silicate mantle were thrust into space. The left over materials from Theia mixed with the materials from the Earth and eventually formed the Moon. Read more here>>>

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Source: Daily Galaxy

This is one of the most potentially transformative,  disruptive, and exciting technologies we’ve come across in some time.

Qualcomm has teamed up with the X PRIZE Foundation to promote innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies.   They’re offering $10 million in prize money to the team of entreprenuers who create a mobile device which is easy for individuals to use and is capable of capturing key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases

Qualcomm further defines the concept and competition on their website,

Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, wireless sensing, imaging diagnostics, lab-on-a-chip, and molecular biology will enable better choices in when, where, and how individuals receive care, thus making healthcare more convenient, affordable, and accessible. The winner will be the team whose technology most accurately diagnoses a set of diseases independent of a healthcare professional or facility, and that provides the best consumer user experience with their device.

The Prize: Empowering Personal Healthcare

As envisioned for this competition, the device will be a tool capable of capturing key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases. Metrics for health could include such elements as blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature. Ultimately, this tool will collect large volumes of data from ongoing measurement of health states through a combination of wireless sensors, imaging technologies, and portable, non-invasive laboratory replacements.

Given that each team will take its own approach to design and functionality, the device’s physical appearance and functionality may vary immensely from team to team. Indeed, the only stated limit on form is that the mass of its components together must be no greater than five pounds. But because an important part of the qualifying round will be evaluating consumer experience in using it, the limitations set by this competition will force teams to make choices. Teams will have to consider tradeoffs amongst weight, functionality, power requirements, battery life, screen resolution, AI engine location, diagnosis capability, end consumer cost, and so on.

Beyond the weight requirement, there is no limit as to how many discrete components constitute a viable solution. For example, teams may use sensors that are attached to a phone-like control unit, fastened individually to the consumer, or kept apart and reserved for occasional use or home monitoring. Similarly, teams may create a tool that has a large screen, a small screen, or perhaps even no screen (audio only). Systems must include a way for consumers to store and share their information, which must be accessible remotely via the Internet. Additionally, teams are expected to follow guidelines and protocols that help ensure that consumer safety is held in the highest regard. This includes avoiding harm from electrical energy, thermal energy, chemical exposures, needles, lancets, and infection.

We have no doubt that Dr. iPad will be making house calls in the next few years.  Simply amazing!

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Healthcare in the Palm of Your Hand – Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE

Imagine a portable, wireless device in the palm of your hand that monitors and diagnoses your health conditions. That’s the technology envisioned by this competition, and it will allow unprecedented access to personal health metrics. The end result: Radical innovation in healthcare that will give individuals far greater choices in when, where, and how they receive care.

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Click to enlarge:

Source: Scientific Reports

Fascinating concept:

“The wide adoption of social media has increased the competition among ideas for our finite attention. We employ a parsimonious agent-based model to study whether such a competition may affect the popularity of different memes, the diversity of information we are exposed to, and the fading of our collective interests for specific topics. Agents share messages on a social network but can only pay attention to a portion of the information they receive. In the emerging dynamics of information diffusion, a few memes go viral while most do not. The predictions of our model are consistent with empirical data from Twitter, a popular microblogging platform. Surprisingly, we can explain the massive heterogeneity in the popularity and persistence of memes as deriving from a combination of the competition for our limited attention and the structure of the social network, without the need to assume different intrinsic values among ideas.”

Sanjay Gupta reports on new research showing that beyond weight gain, sugar can take a serious toll on your health, worsening conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer.

Is sugar toxic?

If you are what you eat, then what does it mean that the average American consumes 130 pounds of sugar a year? Sanjay Gupta reports on new research showing that beyond weight gain, sugar can take a serious toll on your health, worsening conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer. Some physicians go so far as to call sugar a toxin.

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