"On one occasion he decided he did not want to eat a particular vegetable for dinner. We said that he wouldn’t be leaving the table until he did so. I said, 'now use your game theory to forecast what the outcome of this is and let me know what you decide.' He laid out his options, our reactions and everyone’s payoffs and worked out that he would do well to eat his vegetables sooner rather than later."

"As the ship of New Labour tilts precariously in the waters, and the Conservatives struggle to define what they stand for other than a change of personalities at the top, various attempts are being made to define a new politics to fill the void.

This post makes a stab at trying to map the new ideological terrain that is opening up. Needless to say, ideological positions are fluid and imprecise things, and any effort of this kind is going to risk some oversimplification. In addition, by no means all interesting thinking going on at the moment can be fitted into categories like those I am about to use. But, caveats aside, here goes…"

"We took some time to play around and get used to the dynamics of the clay print process. ... After some calibrating I decided to print a test design that would be hard to make using conventional techniques: a double walled vessel with fins connecting in- and outside."

You can see that there are clearly a lot more questions that need to be answered about gaming services like OnLive both in terms of the user experience and how it will interact with the rest of the gaming community at large, both PC and console. I see a lot of potential for OnLive to revolutionize gaming and how this entertainment medium works across any number of platforms.

"The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation.

But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body.

Finally because it is much more focused in its effects, it can also be switched off with an antidote, leaving the drinker immediately sober. "

Boeing is equipping factory-floor workers with a modified VR setup - and rapidly cutting the time it takes to wire new jetliners.

"The group is developing silk-silicon LEDs that might act as photonic tattoos that can show blood-sugar readings, as well as arrays of conformable electrodes that might interface with the nervous system."

"The PyTEC system heats mixed waste, releasing a gas that can be burned to produce five times more energy than is required to drive the system. ... The approach could see use in urban areas, reducing municipal waste volume by 95% while producing energy."

"Microsoft Research has just surfaced some of its incredibly wild multitouch mouse prototypes. Each one uses a different touch detection method, and at first glance all five seem to fly in the face of regular ergonomics."

"This week, Jase Kuriakose an engineer at CAT turned on the UK’s first totally renewable micro grid. The systems works by combining all the wind, solar, bio mass and hydro energy we produce at CAT and storing it in a battery bank. When it needs more energy it simply connects to the grid through an intelligent electronic control device to take more, when we are producing too much it gives the energy to the national grid."

"Singularity discussions seem to be splitting up into three major schools of thought: Accelerating Change, the Event Horizon, and the Intelligence Explosion."

She poured a coffee, then touched the breakfast table. “Where are my shoes?” “Your sister borrowed them.” “Again? Where is Susan?” “She’s downtown now.” “Susan! Why did you swipe my favorite shoes again?” “Look at this dress.” “Oooh, that dress is darling.” “It would look even better on you.” “You’re right. Get it for me. You can’t have it.” “Trade you for these shoes.” “Let me check that with Henry. Yeah, okay.” Karen had another sip of fair-trade coffee. It tasted weird, but it was still hot.

"We have built a lens with one LED, which we’ve powered wirelessly with RF. What we’ve done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology."

"It's 2045 and nerds in old-folks homes are wandering around, scratching their heads, and asking plaintively, "But ... but, where's the Singularity?" Science fiction writer Vernor Vinge--who originated the concept of the technological Singularity--doesn't think that will happen, but he explores three alternate scenarios, along with our "best hope for long-term survival"--self-sufficient, off-Earth settlements."

"A second possible basin of attraction is a system of decentralized, cooperative communities, whose relations are based on affinity—because we all share the same biosphere—and which maintain a high level of connectivity with one another. This form of social organization is perpetually open and always seeking new connections. In the spirit of complexity theory—and unlike previous revolutionary movements—this system embraces no determinism. The logic of autonomy allows the components of the system to optimize their own connections, and so connect to people, materials, passions and places in a manner that takes optimal advantage of material and energy flows."

"Certainly not! That’s the beauty of our approach! Machine translation has never been “Artificial Intelligence”—that’s where your natural language intelligence is sorely needed! Five centuries of “papers” make a truly enormous bulk of machine-searchable material. The Semantic Web has made profound advances! So today our stochastic ontological schemata have dissolved hundreds of so-called “scientific disciplines,” and their millions of paper “journals,” into one vast Google-soup of navigable, searchable, ontologically linkable “language product.”"

"Jingle Nodes comes in place with the goal of making more nodes available, as it makes the task of having public relays close to trivial, as you just need to run an XMPP client with a Public Node Policy available for everyone. Also makes every buddy in your contact list a potential Node. Another positive point is that a client don't need to implement a Relay Node if not applicable ... Skype Network works in a similar way except that on Skype you can't choose whether share your bandwidth or not. And as a closed protocol you can't do anything about it.

"Jingle already have specifications for Direct Media, P2P based on ICE-STUN, but it needs an extension to cover Jingle Relay Nodes.
The long term goal is to have Jingle widely deployed across the world and collaborate to this adoption by providing "easy to use" and "always works" solutions."

"the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, a group headed by three former presidents—Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, César Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico—published a report arguing that the violent crime and corruption generated by drug prohibition is undermining democracy and that the drug war has “failed”. They called for a public debate on alternatives, including treating drug use as an issue of public health rather than criminal law, and decriminalising marijuana."

"At this year's Computex, [InnoDisk] showcasing yet another new storage model: the 128GB SATA nanoSSD. The tiny device was even strapped onto a motherboard that was vibrating out of control in order to show its resistance to the shakes, which honestly, is the most provocative aspect of the whole thing. Hop on past the break to see what we mean."

"If you're like me, you had no idea there was so much HTML 5 already in play."

"From a simple, simple project that is suffering from an inexplicable near complete lack of attention from the free software community comes a revolutionary change in the way that free software is developed and distributed. ... It's just that the implications of its deployment really haven't been fully uncovered. Those that have been discussed here are pretty monumental. "

"The tiny antennas absorb mid-infrared rays. Infrared rays are constantly emitted by the earth as heat after absorbing energy from the sun. Because these infrared rays are being constantly emitted, the nanoantennas can absorb the energy both day and night."

"Of the remaining 32 [of 37] states, 27 were completely, correctly predicted, or a success rate of 84.375%! That's certainly not bad, especially considering that no political knowledge was used for the predictions; they could be done completely by machine

"the socio-semantic web opens up for a more social interface to the semantics of businesses, allowing interoperability between business objects, actions and their users."

"What I'd like is a personal CMS that is a) open source, b) has it's own blogging system, both publication and aggregation, and c) can used as a platform for one's online/digital identity"

"Michael Fish's infamous weather forecast 20 years ago today, in which he seemed to scotch rumours of a hurricane, has gone down in broadcasting history. There's only one problem - that wasn't what happened"

"... add a pink flag to any and all women living in the area that are my age, and have their social networking profiles set to single. one persons utopia is another's dystopia of course but I like the concept."

"Mobile VoIP services have yet to make their mark on the telecoms market, despite the availability of suitable technology."

To watch.

"To date Höller has installed six smaller slides in other galleries and museums, but the cavernous space of the Turbine Hall offers a unique setting in which to extend his vision." ... he sees it as a prototype ... in which slides could be introduced acr

"The team at Intel estimates that within 2 years or so, the hardware will exist that will allow "game quality" ray tracing on a desktop machine.\

"Their goal is to invent a system whereby a facial image can be matched to your gait, your height, your weight and other elements, so a computer will be able to identify instantly who you are."

"Scientists are working on a new type of nanogenerator that could draw the necessary energy from flowing blood in the human body, by using the beating heart and pulsating blood vessels. Once completed, this new cellular engine could find various applicati

Roland Piquepaille's blog on "How new technologies are modifying our way of life".

"Donald Davis was commissioned to do paintings for NASA in the 1970s and is now offering them to the public domain. The 'toroidal shaped space colony' above is an incredible piece of paleo-futuristic art from 1975."

"The DishMaker is a new kind of appliance that can replace dishes altogether by making cups, bowls and plates on demand and recycling them when you’re done. the device uses up the same room and energy as a dishwasher, while it replaces all the cabinets

"Russ Reynolds, that’s me. You probably remember my name from when I ran the country for three days. Wasn’t that a wild time?"

A review of the technology Star Wars predicted a long time ago in a.. [That's enough! -Ed]

"This montage of AT&T ads came from a 1993 Newsweek CD-ROM, when Newsweek thought that one day, magazines would be sent to you in CD-ROM form, sponsored with ads. It's an interesting view of the future."

Interesting timeline of future events for planet earth. Didn't know about the likelyhood of our galaxy colliding with another before the well known "sun expanding" event.

An interesting comparison between what books did for society 500 years ago and what computers might do for us in the near future.

Wisdom of crowds vs. wisdom of the few.

Thoughts on copyright of the past and future using an economic simulation model.

The definition of a 'feral city'.

"AI is not enough. You need Friendly AI. That changes everything. It alters the entire strategic picture of AI development."

In 2033, age 70 is the new 30.

Google has five advantages that will keep all but the most determined innovators from beating it to artificial intelligence.

10 cutting-edge network research projects you should know about.

Opinions on what the cities and society will be like in 2050.