I miss you
I look at the vast endless sea before me and
I see the vast expanse of the gray skies above
I notice the little raindrops caressing the leaves,
the trees and everything around.
In all these and much more, I see my love for you
-mirrored
I no longer miss you
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
PREDICTIONS for 2058
Anticipating and predicting our future world is a huge undertaking, with twists and turns that may take us down technological roads very nearly impossible to foresee. However, 60 top professionals gave it a shot in Mike Wallace's book, The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today. These projections are from present-day geneticists, astrophysicists, neurologists, military commanders, world leaders, economists, inventors, and astronomers. The year is 2058.
1. Reprogramming aging cells to breathe new life into failing organs has the potential to increase the human life-span to over a century.
2. The paralyzed will be able to walk again due to nanotechnology. Nanofibers formed from molecules injected into the spinal cord will eliminate the formation of scar tissue and spur new cell growth.
3. We will meet with other people holographically, as well as taste, touch and smell online products before purchasing because of technological advances in the virtual world.
4. We will find a cure for AIDS and will develop vaccines against many chronic diseases such as certain cancers, heart disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autism, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis.
5. Contingent upon genetic compatibility, couples will obtain permission from the government to get married and have children. If they do not follow these guidelines, they will be charged a heavy tax based on any ill or debilitated children they bear.
6. With space-age, hand-held neuroimagers, we will be able to discern (like a lie detector test) when others are lying.
7. We will engineer germ-free meat to replace the livestock that we now consume, thus preventing the spread of diseases like mad cow and SARS.
8. Due to labor shortages as well as advances in the medical field, the offspring of the baby boomers will work well past 70 years of age.
9. We will seldom have household pets like cats, small rodents, and birds, due to the dawning awareness that animals carry and transmit many diseases to humans. Dogs, however, are not included in this list, as they have been cohabiting and sharing pathogens with humans for 14,000 years.
10. We will be able to transform information files into solid products. An example of this might be emailing a carton of milk to a friend, who will be able to print it to a desktop "nanofactory."
11. In 2058, there exists the possibility of downloading human memory into remote storage devices as well as adding memory to the human brain similar to increasing the capacity of a hard drive. Inasmuch as some think that we are the sum of our memories, the capacity to download and store a human's memories tiptoes into the area of immortality.
12. We will be able to communicate with people of all languages as we master simultaneous translation technologies. The power of nation-states will be diminished as money and information are able to flow freely across borders, allowing each individual global interdependence.
13. Privacy will be almost completely eradicated as digital data from technological advances such as face recognition software, retinal scans, full body scans, and possibly microchip implants, is forwarded to intelligence "fusion" centers. This information will give governments knowledge of the people's actions in addition to their exact whereabouts.
14. Virtual worlds will become destination points for many 21st century earthlings' vacations. Hand-held devices will be able to track friends and family as well as coordinate our vacations by matching up our free time with our destinations of interest.
15. Children born deaf and blind will be able to hear and see. This will be done by rewiring nerve signals to the brain's auditory or visual cortex.
16. Of all children born in 2058, 5-10% will start their lives with genetic enhancements, thus accelerating human evolution.
17. Scientists will develop artificial retinas, which with only a thought will allow us to switch between reality and virtual reality.
18. To prevent the spread of disease, human contact such as handshakes and kisses will only be shared between family members.
19. We will be able to fashion medical treatments to our own genetic profiles based upon our knowledge of our individual DNA sequence.
20. We will be able to recreate life in a laboratory as we come closer to understanding the origins of life.
We look forward to this brave new world!
1. Reprogramming aging cells to breathe new life into failing organs has the potential to increase the human life-span to over a century.
2. The paralyzed will be able to walk again due to nanotechnology. Nanofibers formed from molecules injected into the spinal cord will eliminate the formation of scar tissue and spur new cell growth.
3. We will meet with other people holographically, as well as taste, touch and smell online products before purchasing because of technological advances in the virtual world.
4. We will find a cure for AIDS and will develop vaccines against many chronic diseases such as certain cancers, heart disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autism, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis.
5. Contingent upon genetic compatibility, couples will obtain permission from the government to get married and have children. If they do not follow these guidelines, they will be charged a heavy tax based on any ill or debilitated children they bear.
6. With space-age, hand-held neuroimagers, we will be able to discern (like a lie detector test) when others are lying.
7. We will engineer germ-free meat to replace the livestock that we now consume, thus preventing the spread of diseases like mad cow and SARS.
8. Due to labor shortages as well as advances in the medical field, the offspring of the baby boomers will work well past 70 years of age.
9. We will seldom have household pets like cats, small rodents, and birds, due to the dawning awareness that animals carry and transmit many diseases to humans. Dogs, however, are not included in this list, as they have been cohabiting and sharing pathogens with humans for 14,000 years.
10. We will be able to transform information files into solid products. An example of this might be emailing a carton of milk to a friend, who will be able to print it to a desktop "nanofactory."
11. In 2058, there exists the possibility of downloading human memory into remote storage devices as well as adding memory to the human brain similar to increasing the capacity of a hard drive. Inasmuch as some think that we are the sum of our memories, the capacity to download and store a human's memories tiptoes into the area of immortality.
12. We will be able to communicate with people of all languages as we master simultaneous translation technologies. The power of nation-states will be diminished as money and information are able to flow freely across borders, allowing each individual global interdependence.
13. Privacy will be almost completely eradicated as digital data from technological advances such as face recognition software, retinal scans, full body scans, and possibly microchip implants, is forwarded to intelligence "fusion" centers. This information will give governments knowledge of the people's actions in addition to their exact whereabouts.
14. Virtual worlds will become destination points for many 21st century earthlings' vacations. Hand-held devices will be able to track friends and family as well as coordinate our vacations by matching up our free time with our destinations of interest.
15. Children born deaf and blind will be able to hear and see. This will be done by rewiring nerve signals to the brain's auditory or visual cortex.
16. Of all children born in 2058, 5-10% will start their lives with genetic enhancements, thus accelerating human evolution.
17. Scientists will develop artificial retinas, which with only a thought will allow us to switch between reality and virtual reality.
18. To prevent the spread of disease, human contact such as handshakes and kisses will only be shared between family members.
19. We will be able to fashion medical treatments to our own genetic profiles based upon our knowledge of our individual DNA sequence.
20. We will be able to recreate life in a laboratory as we come closer to understanding the origins of life.
We look forward to this brave new world!
Sunday, 4 July 2010
In New York, even fish-gutters embrace the can-do spirit
In New York, even fish-gutters embrace the can-do spirit
By Melissa Whitworth
Published: 7:15AM BST 02 Jul 2010
One of my favourite New York stories is about a first-generation Chinese immigrant who spent his career gutting fish at the South Street Seaport. For 40 years, he never closed his doors or took a holiday. Then, one summer day, there was a paper sign on the front of his store that read: "Closed for son's graduation today (Harvard)."
For me, that sums up what's so great about New York: the idea that anything is possible, and it doesn't matter where you come from or what you do to get there. It's in stark contrast to the attitude in England. Growing up in Surrey, I remember someone being teased at school because his family had made their fortune by selling plastic shopping bags. At university, the first question at dinner parties was always: "What does your father do?" And at a pub in Wimbledon last year, I was terribly American in singing the praises of a friend studying for a PhD in genetics, when his best buddy sneeringly interrupted: "Don't get too excited – he hasn't made it yet."
Perhaps that's why so many bright young Britons flee to the Big Apple. Last week I bumped into Ben Towill and Phil Winser, who have started an events company called Silkstone. They began by making sandwiches in a dark basement kitchen they shared with another caterer, and are now organising insanely glamorous parties and luncheons for people like Lenny Kravitz and Liv Tyler; they employ 10 people and are about to open their own restaurant on the Lower East Side, The Fat Radish.
They don't think they would have been as successful in the UK because, they say, there is something about New York that makes it the most exciting place in the world to grow a young business. As Google boss Eric Schmidt told The Daily Telegraph this week, America is a place for "crazy smart people", who "do not fit a standard European education model". Winser puts it more simply: in New York, you enter a room and everyone assumes you're the most interesting person on the planet, until you prove otherwise. In London, it's just the reverse.
...
Anna Chapman, the alleged Russian spy, certainly knew that New York was the place to be when she made it her temporary home. As she said in a video posted online this week: "America is a free country. Here is the easiest place in the world to meet successful people … Here you can go to dinner at your neighbour's house and meet the most important venture capital investor that same evening." Her success in gaining access to the best parties is shown by the fact that pictures of her are still up on society photographer Patrick McMullan's website, which upwardly mobile New York types check obsessively to see how many times they've been snapped by him (my total is a paltry 22). Of course, it helps if – like Chapman – you're wearing a dress that leaves little to the imagination.
...
After the travesty that was Sex and the City 2 (which led some of my girlfriends to declare that Sarah Jessica Parker was dead to them), the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has done an infinitely better job of explaining life as a female tourist in an Arab state.
Visiting Saudi Arabia for the latest Vanity Fair, she has a black linen abaya specially made. Her Saudi guides think it's not conservative enough, and ask her to put another over it. The country, she says is "the hardest place on earth for a woman to negotiate", needing minders or permission slips to travel on their own.
Dowd asks Prince Sultan bin Salman, the tourism minister, about the dress code. "Well, the abaya is part of the uniform," he said. "It's part of enjoying the culture." Other cultural treats – such as the lunchtime beheadings in "Chop Chop Square" – are apparently reserved for men only.
By Melissa Whitworth
Published: 7:15AM BST 02 Jul 2010
One of my favourite New York stories is about a first-generation Chinese immigrant who spent his career gutting fish at the South Street Seaport. For 40 years, he never closed his doors or took a holiday. Then, one summer day, there was a paper sign on the front of his store that read: "Closed for son's graduation today (Harvard)."
For me, that sums up what's so great about New York: the idea that anything is possible, and it doesn't matter where you come from or what you do to get there. It's in stark contrast to the attitude in England. Growing up in Surrey, I remember someone being teased at school because his family had made their fortune by selling plastic shopping bags. At university, the first question at dinner parties was always: "What does your father do?" And at a pub in Wimbledon last year, I was terribly American in singing the praises of a friend studying for a PhD in genetics, when his best buddy sneeringly interrupted: "Don't get too excited – he hasn't made it yet."
Perhaps that's why so many bright young Britons flee to the Big Apple. Last week I bumped into Ben Towill and Phil Winser, who have started an events company called Silkstone. They began by making sandwiches in a dark basement kitchen they shared with another caterer, and are now organising insanely glamorous parties and luncheons for people like Lenny Kravitz and Liv Tyler; they employ 10 people and are about to open their own restaurant on the Lower East Side, The Fat Radish.
They don't think they would have been as successful in the UK because, they say, there is something about New York that makes it the most exciting place in the world to grow a young business. As Google boss Eric Schmidt told The Daily Telegraph this week, America is a place for "crazy smart people", who "do not fit a standard European education model". Winser puts it more simply: in New York, you enter a room and everyone assumes you're the most interesting person on the planet, until you prove otherwise. In London, it's just the reverse.
...
Anna Chapman, the alleged Russian spy, certainly knew that New York was the place to be when she made it her temporary home. As she said in a video posted online this week: "America is a free country. Here is the easiest place in the world to meet successful people … Here you can go to dinner at your neighbour's house and meet the most important venture capital investor that same evening." Her success in gaining access to the best parties is shown by the fact that pictures of her are still up on society photographer Patrick McMullan's website, which upwardly mobile New York types check obsessively to see how many times they've been snapped by him (my total is a paltry 22). Of course, it helps if – like Chapman – you're wearing a dress that leaves little to the imagination.
...
After the travesty that was Sex and the City 2 (which led some of my girlfriends to declare that Sarah Jessica Parker was dead to them), the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has done an infinitely better job of explaining life as a female tourist in an Arab state.
Visiting Saudi Arabia for the latest Vanity Fair, she has a black linen abaya specially made. Her Saudi guides think it's not conservative enough, and ask her to put another over it. The country, she says is "the hardest place on earth for a woman to negotiate", needing minders or permission slips to travel on their own.
Dowd asks Prince Sultan bin Salman, the tourism minister, about the dress code. "Well, the abaya is part of the uniform," he said. "It's part of enjoying the culture." Other cultural treats – such as the lunchtime beheadings in "Chop Chop Square" – are apparently reserved for men only.
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