MYO - the wearable gesture interface by Thalmic Labs (YC’13). The MYO uses electromyography and accelerometers to detect your motion - no need to stay in frame like the Kinect. You can pre-order the MYO today.
Public discontent with Congress has reached record levels, and the implications for incumbents in next year’s elections could be stark. Two-in-three voters say most members of Congress should be voted out of office in 2012 – the highest on record. And the number who say their own member should be replaced matches the all-time high recorded in 2010, when fully 58 members of Congress lost reelection bids – the most in any election since 1948.
Comcast execs: Verizon deal to bring the ‘quadruple play’
Late last week, Verizon Wireless signed a deal to purchase 122 spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo, a joint venture between Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, for $3.6 billion. As part of the deal, which awaits approval from the Federal Communications Commission, the Comcast will now be able to sell Verizon Wireless service as part of their communications packages. To the casual observer, this might not sound particularly significant — in fact, it will likely prove to be one of the most consequential partnerships in the US communications industry. And Comcast executives agree. “Talk about content, you got NBC. And wireless, you got this. In perpetuity,” said Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis during the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, as quoted by Variety. “This is a deal forever. We don’t have to invest in building a wireless network. We aren’t going to acquire a wireless network. It’s quite a significant transaction.” If you’re a Comcast customer, this means that you will eventually be able to purchase cable television, Internet service, home phone service, and cell phone service, all through your cable company. It also means special deals if you buy into the the “quadruple play” option; and you’ll eventually be able to watch live TV on your Verizon smartphone, then resume watching on your television. This and other “great new innovations” will result from this partnership, Comcast Cable president Neil Smit told the group of investors at the UBS conference. For Verizon wireless customers, it means great access to a faster and faster 4G LTE network, which will come as a result of the spectrum buy. In essence, this deal is a merger without any companies actually merging. It is a substantial condensation of power in the communications industry. And while this may indeed lead to innovation for these companies, it also means other companies will either have to make partnerships of their own, or risk falling behind. And anytime that happens, it’s bad for customers.
The Master Switch is highly recommended reading for why this is a terrible, terrible idea for consumers.
If you thought that Japan was merely the master of miniaturization, tentacles, and creepy robots, think again: A group of Japanese scientists have built a massively-parallel, brain-like computer out of an organic molecule called DDQ. This computer, which is built from 300 DDQ “neurons,” has successfully calculated how heat diffuses through a medium, and the mutation of normal cells into cancer cells.
—Scientists create brain-like, massively parallel computer from molecules, with more detail over at Technology Review.
You need to be following this story.
The Cuomo administration ignored the consensus of 280 public meetings and a nine-year study process to strip transit improvements entirely from the new Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project. They then scrubbed the project’s website of all references to transit and the public process, including the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
The power elite are frantically searching for the ideological weapon that will discredit the movement. But the clarity of the protests, the painful personal stories of dislocation that are the heart of its message, and, most important, the self-discipline, despite police provocation, which has kept these protests nonviolent have advanced the movement and discredited the forces of control. The power elite, held together by the glue of force and fraud, are seeking ways to communicate in the only language they know they can master—unrestrained force. And as we enter the second month of demonstrations, the power elite fear that the core message and the calls for resistance, which resonate with a majority of Americans, will lead to a direct confrontation with the corporate state. If the movement starts to pull hundreds of thousands of people together, if it leaps across class lines, as I saw during the peaceful revolutions in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, then the corporate state is probably finished. Our corporate overlords know this. And they are doing everything in their power to make sure this does not come to pass.
—Chris Hedges (via theamericanbear)
(via theamericanbear)
Chris Hedges: “What happens is in all of these movements … the foot soldiers of the elite — the blue uniformed police, the mechanisms of control — finally don’t want to impede the movement and at that point the power elite is left defenseless … the only thing I can say having been in the middle of similar movements is that this one is real, and this one could take them all down … I can guarantee you that huge segments of those blue uniformed police sympathize with everything that you’re doing.” — Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges brings his 20 years of experience as a war correspondent, having covered movements and revolutions throughout the the world, to the discussion.
Bernie sanders on the economy, wall street, and #occupywallstreet.
BTR Pulse visits a number of Occupy Wall Street participants and watchers to see what they’re thinking and to find out what their lives are like when they’re not protesting.
