Well we looked at the weather report for Yellowstone and saw that it was to be a high of 49 and rainy so we said to ourselves Selves Let's go to Yellowstone on the way home or not instead of on the way up and we'll stop in Glacier on the way up instead. So here we are in Montana. Hi Montana friends We came up I15 which we had never done before. Quite a good road This campground has a
We Made it to Cool Weather and Snow
Wednesday June 23ndDaily Information High temp 78Low temp 54Highest Elevation 8700rsquo above sea levelLowest Elevation 2950rsquo above sea levelCampground Elevation 7432rsquo above sea levelTraveled 316 milesDeparted 900 AM MDT warm and sunny. HighlightsFollowing the Oregon TrailMajor TStorm Midnight 100AM Wind Lightning and Hail wow quite a nightCrop DustersEntered Wyomi
Beautiful Magnificent Jasper Banff NPs
Happy Birthday Barbara and PeggyWe left Hinton ready to see Jasper and Banff National Parks after hearing so many times how beautiful they are. And believe me they did not disappoint. Jasper started out with Jasper Lake and the Athabasca River. Then Pyramid Mountain covered with snow came into view. Around each curve it got more beautiful more snow on the mountain tops more glaciers mo
Back in the USA to Glacier NP
We got up this morning to clearer skies after last nightrsquos rain. We closed up the campers and drove back to Lake Louise to see the sun on the glaciers and the water of the lake. The clouds had snuck back in but the view was still spectacular.We went back for the campers and headed south to the town of Banff. I erred in not choosing the more scenic Bow Valley Parkway choosing instead th
game night
People can drink publicly I knew that but it's still weird to see it. People by themselves and in groups on the bus hanging out on the corner walking around town with their country colors and get ups on and their beers in hand. Kinda like how it used to be at Grand Ol' Day when folks could walk through the streets with a drink. very festive. But it wasn't as mayhemic as I anticipated unt
Day 14 Resting in Kalami area
What a way to find out my decision to walk yesterday was the correct one...............I am woken just after 5am by the mother of all thunderstorms which seems to be directly overhead. The lights went out the windows and shutters all rattled as the thunderclaps deafened me. The rain was very heavy and the lightening lit up the sky behind so in fact the worst of the storm was not over Kalami but t
Guizhou exploration Bijie Region 1
16610A long and tiring bus journey for the last few days. Through Gejiu Mile overnight in Qujing before heading into Guizhou the sky made it known right after we drove over the border fog prevailing the air the space between valley became narrower and need more time to covered short distant. Heading up northward through many mining town along the Yunnan border I got to Xinfang where I would
You guessded it ….more impala
Day 6More driving spotting etc and whilst enjoyable nothing too much to write or I suppose blog home about until making my way back to camp as ever I was running a bit late but saw a car stopped so I slowed I looked out but couldnrsquot see anything and was just about to leave when a head popped up next to the road it turns out that this was a wild dog kennel I donrsquot know if tha
The Coolest Place in China
I've been meaning to blog about this for months unfortunately I've had camera problems. So now feast your eyes and minds upon the glories of Xi'anHalfway into the TwoWeek Chinese New Year mid February of 2010 I took a trip up to Xi'an to meet my good friend ChinaMike. I couldn't get a sleeper so this was my first Chinese train trip on a seat. Luckily not many people travel during the soca
Closing out and headed back soon
Well guys this is probably the last blog of this trip that I will be posting. I have 1 more day to chill and another of travel back to san Jose to prepare for my journey back to the Good Ol USA. I am by far not ready to leave this amazing paradise that I came to. Although I need to head back.Mytrip has been the best thing that could have happened to me. I have met people from Iran Germany Hollan
23 juin Toujours SaintJean Port Joli
Finalement nous avons dcid de ne pas bouger aujourd'hui ni demain parce qu'ils annoncent une petite dpression pour ce soir et une bonne partie de la journe de jeudi. Comme notre prochain arrt est prvu aux Iles du Pot l'eau de vie un mouillage il aurait fallu surveiller le changement de vent EstOuest et peuttre changer de place en pleine nuit... pour finalement passer la journe de je
How Golden is the Gate on a Foggy Day
A walk across the Golden Gate Bridge on a foggy summer day is always a special treat. I cannot remember the first time I walked or cycled across the bridge. But I do remember the first time I saw it and crossed it in my parents' car back in the fifties. We were on one of our typical summer car vacations. We were on our way to the East Bay and the Dixon area where my Dad had some relatives. W
Herald Sydney
We took an overnight bus from Brisbane to Sydney eating up the miles along the Gold Coast over a long 16 hour journey. The trip meant that we missed out a few famous places like Byron Bay but with the weather still poor the beaches held little allure. Plus wersquod arranged for a press loan from Volkswagen Sydney in exchange for writing a camping feature in Australia thanks to John Rawlings
First Day in Quebec
Long day Safe on time trip We hung out at the airport while we waited for the rest of our tour group. We're with groups from VA and TX. Dana our director is great Discovered Tim Hortons our new favorite fast food place think Dunkin DonutsStarbucksGourmet sandwiches ordered as a combo meal YUMAfter the TX group arrived we boarded the bus for Old Montreal hung out there then ate din
Keeping your Android safe – AndroidSPIN (blog)
Keeping your Android safe AndroidSPIN (blog) Hiding his code in an innocuous application, within 24 hours after upload the app had already seen 200 downloads. To take over those users' phones, ... |
On Skeptically Speaking this Friday
I will be on Skeptically Speaking this coming Friday June 25 at 8:00PM EST. I will be having a conversation/debate about transhumanism with World of Weird Things blogger Greg Fish. More specifically, we will "explore the predictions and the problems in the quest to “enhance” human beings."
While the show will be broadcast live over the air on CJSR 88.5 in Edmonton, it will also be made available live over the internet (and eventually distributed to over 22 radio stations across North America). It's also a call-in show, so feel free to call me during the broadcast.
Peter Singer on artificial life: Scientists playing God will save lives
Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer provides his take on the recent synthetic life breakthrough:
Patenting life was taken a step further in 1984, when Harvard University successfully applied for a patent on its "oncomouse", a laboratory mouse specifically designed to get cancer easily, so that it would be more useful as a research tool. There are good grounds for objecting to turning a sentient being into a patented laboratory tool, but it is not so easy to see why patent law should not cover newly designed bacteria or algae, which can feel nothing and may be as useful as any other invention.
Indeed, Synthia's very existence challenges the distinction between living and artificial that underlies much of the opposition to "patenting life" – though pointing this out is not to approve the granting of sweeping patents that prevent other scientists from making their own discoveries in this important new field.
As for the likely usefulness of synthetic bacteria, the fact that Synthia's birth had to compete for headlines with news of the world's worst-ever oil spill made the point more effectively than any public-relations effort could have done. One day, we may be able to design bacteria that can quickly, safely, and effectively clean up oil spills. And, according to Venter, if his team's new technology had been available last year, it would have been possible to produce a vaccine to protect ourselves against H1N1 influenza in 24 hours, rather than several weeks.
Hmmm, now who else recently said we shouldn't patent sentient life and use it as a laboratory tool? Oh, yeah—that was me at the Humanity+ Summit at Harvard last week.
Kyle Munkittrick: From Gears to Genes: A Sea Change in Transhumanism
Kyle Munkittrick has penned a nice little retraction to Mark Gubrud's suggestion that transhumanism won’t work because mind uploading is impossible:
Only in the past decade have we started to realize that transhumanism won’t realize its dreams through mechanization and computerization. Though seminal authors on transhumanism, like Kurzweil, Moravec, Drexler, and More focus on nanotechnology and cybernetics, those technologies haven’t seen real progress since the 70’s.
But genetics and biotech has. Starting in the 1950’s with the Pill, vaccines, and antibiotics, our knowledge of medicine and biology radically improved throughout the second half of the twentieth century with assisted reproduction technologies like IVF, not to mention genomic sequencing, stem cell research, organ transplantation, and neural mapping, advances in biology and medicine are what are driving the transhumanist revolution. When someone like Mark Gubrud starts arguing transhumanism won’t work because we can’t upload our minds into robot bodies, one has to gawk for a moment in awe at the irrelevance of the argument. It’s like arguing we can’t ever cure cancer because cold fusion is impossible.
Transhumanism is the idea of guiding and improving human evolution with intention through the use of technologies and culture. If those technologies are not robotic and cybernetic but, instead, genetic and organic, then so be it. And that seems to be the way things are going.
Totally agree. I've also argued that uploading may not be possible, but that it's not a deal-breaker in our quest to live 'outside' our bodies.
Kris Notaro: Will gender exist 100 years from now, or does it already not exist?
Kris Notaro of the IEET ponders a postgendered future:
Traditional values of looking at gender in binary fashion grow less and less important as scientists show that gender identity is diverse in nature and is caused by many biological and social conditions. If one were to look at the pure science of gender identity, it not only appears that a postgender society is possible but it seems we are already living in one.
More on postgenderism.
Nick Bostrom on the Fermi Paradox [video]
IEET Chair Nick Bostrom discusses the Great Silence with Robert Lawrence Kuhn on Closer to the Truth. Nick and I are totally on the same wavelength here, including our agreement over the suggestion that the discovery of life in the solar system would be bad news.
