Daily Archives: May 6, 2017

CME Explores Cryptocurrency Derivatives Contracts in Patent Filing – CoinDesk

Posted: May 6, 2017 at 3:18 am

Derivatives giant CME has developed a system for delivering digital currencies tied to derivative contracts, patent documents show.

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published CME's application on 4th May, entitled "System for Physically Delivering Virtual Currencies". At its heart, the concept envisions delivering cryptocurrency holdings tied to a particular contract without the clearing party actually taking possession.

The firm is already known to be looking, at least conceptually, at the idea of derivatives contracts for bitcoin miners. As previously reported by CoinDesk, the proposed derivatives would enable miners to more effectively hedge against the ever-increasing difficulty of mining (the energy-intensive process by which new transactions are added to the blockchain), as well as the declining value of their mining hardware.

The new application indicates that CME is looking at additional products tied to the tech, with the firm explaining:

"A clearing counter-party could facilitate physical delivery of virtual currency contracts by instructing the sellers of expiring contracts to transfer the virtual currencies directly to the clearing counter-party, and the clearing counter-party would then transfer the virtual currencies to the buyers."

That CME would be looking into this area is perhaps unsurprising. Last November, it launched a pair ofbitcoin price benchmarks, which would ostensibly serve as part of the infrastructure for any products it may facilitate.

Whats more, the firm'sexecutives have previouslydiscussed the prospects of financial products around digitized assets.

"In fact, some of the most exciting areas to explore are at the intersection of digital assets and tokenized fiat and tokenized commodities, CME executive director and digitization lead Sandra Ro said during an event last November.

Ro is one of three inventors listed on the patent application, along with digitization director and technology architect Ryan Pierce, and Mansoor Ahmed, who serves as director of clearing for the firm.

CME image via Shutterstock

Disclosure: CME Group is an investor in Digital Currency Group, of which CoinDesk is a subsidiary.

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Botnet Mines Over $1000 Worth Cryptocurrency Everyday – newsBTC

Posted: at 3:18 am

The new Bondnet botnet infects over 15000 Windows servers, mines cryptocurrencies worth almost $1000 a day. Read more...

Cybersecurity at the time of cryptocurrencies must be taken seriously. The sheer processing power needed to mine cryptocurrencies and the increasing value of various digital currencies has got hackers and cybercriminals exploiting the processing power of unsecure IT infrastructure. A malware developer, allegedly based out of China was recently found to be operating a botnet going by the name Bondnet after compromising over 15,000 Windows servers.

According to reports, the malware creator Bond007.01 is using the botnet to mine various cryptocurrencies. The Bondnet botnet was discovered by security researchers at the GuardiCore cyber-security firm. Their reporton the newly found botnet states that the Bondnet has been operational since December 2016, earning a small fortune daily in the process.

Even though Bondnet has been actively mining a variety of cryptocurrencies, its focus seems to be on Monero a CryptoNote based digital currency known for its anonymity. The infected Windows Servers that are part of the botnet includes those belonging to various global companies, universities, local government bodies and even public institutions. It is estimated that the person(s) behind Bondnet have been earning about $1000 or upwards of $25000 a month by harnessing the processing power of compromised servers.

Bondnet makes use of a variety of known exploits, both old and new to install a Windows Management Interface trojan. The trojan acts a link between the Command and Control and the infected server, giving Bond007.01 complete control. However, the operator of Bondnet doesnt seem to be interested in the data as he/she hasnt attempted to hold it for ransom. GuardiCore believes that the exploit is purely financially motivated, where a sustained mining operation could yield more returns than one-time ransom demand.

The botnet network is constantly expanded with about 500 new servers being added to it daily. The attack has left many owners shortchanged due to increased power consumption, with bills going up by anywhere between $1000 $2000 per month.

In order to prevent such incidents, it is advisable for businesses and server owners to frequently monitor the performance of their IT infrastructure and keep the software updated to latest versions. whenever there is any discrepancy in the performance, they should conduct a thorough investigation to find the cause and take necessary steps to mitigate the issue.

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Market Boom: The 10 Largest Cryptocurrencies Are All Up Today – CoinDesk

Posted: at 3:18 am

They say a rising tide lifts all boats.

Even as bitcoin surged above $1,500 late last night and crossed the $1,600 on several exchanges this afternoon the rest of the top 10 cryptocurrencies as listed by market capitalizationhave seen price increases of at least 8% today.

Ripple's XRP token is emerging as the early winner, rising more than 40%, with an average price of about $0.079 across exchanges. Likewise, litecoin which has already seen significant price rises in recent days ahead of an expected adoption of the scaling solution SegWit is up about 22% on the day.

And ether, the cryptocurrency underlying the ethereum network, is up about 14%, at an average price of roughly $89 to reach an all-time high.

As reported by CoinDesk, the development comes amid a larger shift in the cryptocurrency markets that has seen an increasing diversificationaway from bitcoin. At press time, the Bitcoin Dominance Index, a measurement of the percent of the total market cap invested in bitcoin, had fallen below 60% for the first time in its history.

Still, analysts were largely short on comment when reached.

While some pointed to the technical benefits of various platforms, others were at a loss for words, responding with simple statements such as "WTF" or crediting the increases to "pumping and FOMO".

Industry entrepreneur and analystPaul Buitink perhaps summed up the events the best, however, adding simply:

"Everything is going up."

Elevator imagevia Shutterstock

Pete Rizzo contributed reporting.

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Cryptocurrency Prices Explode! Bitcoin at $1600, Ethereum at $100 – Finance Magnates

Posted: at 3:18 am

Cryptocurrency prices appear to beunstoppable today, with the top four blockchain assets now worth over $1 billion each.

The London Summit 2017 is coming, get involved!

It seems much of the surge is from new money pouring into the market. This is evident from the exceptionallyhigh trading volumes, reaching new record total for the entire ecosystem of over $2.2 billion a day. One likely reason for this is that the news of recent all time highs are drawing in more and more new traders attracted to the opportunity.

Bitcoin is now at a record high of $1600, raising 7% since yesterday, giving it a market cap of over $26 billion. Ethereum is now at a record high of $100, raising 16% since yesterday, giving it a market cap of over $9 billion.Ripples XRPis now at a record high of $0.09, raising 40% since yesterday, giving it a market cap of over $3.4billion.Litecoinis now at a record high of $25, raising 20% since yesterday, giving it a market cap of over $1.3 billion.

In fact, most of the other 700+ blockchainassets traded around the world are up significantly today. In total, the combined value of the entire market is now at a record $46 billion. While the speed at which we are seeing the value grow can cause fears of a bubble, the figure is not that unbelievable if we compare it to another online payments solution, Paypal (NASDAQ: PYPL) which has a market cap of $58 billion.

All this actually leads to some contradiction regarding the strength of bitcoin. While the original blockchain is the most valuable and keep setting new records, its cryptocurrency competitors are raising relativelyfaster and bitcoins dominance of the market has fallen to just 57%.

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Get Your Essay on Cryptocurrency Topics Here – The Merkle

Posted: at 3:18 am

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If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Bitcoin surpasses $1500 milestone – MarketWatch

Posted: at 3:17 am

Bitcoin sailed past the $1,500 mark on Thursday, pushing the total value of the digital-currency market above $40 billion for the first time.

Litecoin, another prominent bitcoin rival, advanced 22% to $25, its highest level in more than three years, after Coinbase, one of the most popular digital-currency exchanges in the U.S., enabled trading in the cryptocurrency.

The top 14 most heavily traded digital currencies have all realized astounding gains over the past month as investors who have booked large profits trading bitcoin and rival Ethereum have sought to diversify and increase their chances of cashing in on the next big cryptocurrency rally, according to Chris Dannen, founder of Iterative Instinct a New York-based cryptocurrency venture fund.

Not only are the smaller coins obscure and cheap, but they represent a chance to get those huge returns all over again, Dannen said.

The price of a single bitcoin BTCUSD, +1.05% has more than tripled since the beginning of 2016, when it traded around $450. It peaked at $1,589 on Thursday, according to the CoinDesk bitcoin price index. One ether token traded at $90.95. Dash, the fifth most popular token, traded at $96.

Bitcoins advance has coincided with its growing acceptance by regulators. A law passed by Japanese lawmakers earlier this year that allows financial institutions to participate in the digital-currency market took effect in April.

Also, regulators in Russia and India have signaled their willingness to legalize bitcoin and its peers.

However, bitcoin trading volume in China, once its largest market, plunged after authorities forced the largest exchanges in the country to institute transaction fees and halt withdrawals until they could upgrade their anti-money-laundering systems. New rules require exchanges based in China to verify customers identities.

In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected two proposals that would have led to the creation of bitcoin-focused exchange-traded funds. But the decision elicited only a brief dip in the bitcoin price.

The SEC has since said it would review its March 10 decision that effectively killed the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust. Grayscales proposal to allow its Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchanges ETF platform is currently being reviewed, but a decision isnt imminent.

The value of cryptocurrencies, however, have varied dramatically between exchanges, prompting Charles Hayter, the chief executive officer and founder of Cryptocompare, to worry about a possible pullback.

On Bitfinex, one of the largest digital currency exchanges in the world, customers paid a $100 premium as they scrambled to move their assets off its platform. The exchange announced two weeks ago that it would temporarily suspend dollar withdrawals after it was effectively cut off from the financial system.

Cryptos have hit a period of volatility as the markets have become dislocated. Prices on exchanges are showing huge discrepancies in terms of pricing and arbitrage is rife, Hayter said.

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The Death of Bitcoin – The Daily Reckoning – Daily Reckoning

Posted: at 3:17 am

Warning.

What youre about to read is wildly opinionated.

But hey, its Friday. And its time to get a MASSIVE market forecast in front of you. After all, I want YOU to be ahead of the big story before it shows up on the nightly news.

My publisher, Matt Insley who rarely writes his own articles these days felt that this story was too important not to be heard.

This is a story the mainstream media isnt covering.

And millennials arent going to get the memo either, before its too late.

But, mark my words

This is the death of Bitcoin

Over the weekend we saw a random pop culture/news story hit the wire

The worlds foremost TV/movie streaming company, Netflix, was hacked. And the trail of breadcrumbs leading away from the crime scene leads me to a shocking conclusion.

The hack was simple and deliberate. A hacker by the name of thedarkoverlord gained access to the upcoming season of a popular Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black.

Long story short, the hacker stole TV content and threatened to give it away online before Netflixs intended release date. Unless Netflix paid a modest ransom of around $50,000.

Another ho-hum hacking story, right? Not so fast. This is where the story takes a turn.

Any good movie-watcher knows that when a ransom is demanded, its not the money that matters its the getaway.

After all, how are you supposed to ransom $1 Million (or in this case $50k) pick it up from a gas station trash can and actually GET AWAY with it?

Ah ha! Thats the hard part.

You see, the Netflix ransom was demanded in mysterious and untraceable Bitcoin.

And its becoming more common practice to demand ransom in Bitcoin, too. This from the NYT:

Those threats have increased with the advent of ransomware, malicious software that encrypts victims data and prevents them from accessing it until they pay a ransom, often hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency.

If you dont know the story about Bitcoin Ill get you caught up.

With my opinion of course

The cryptocurrency holds a lot of technology. And to really understand it, you need to know about blockchain. (Keep up here. Times are changing and knowing about things like blockchain matter in todays market, as youll see)

Blockchain is a distributed database that continuously evolves. Think of it as a growing list of records that cant be tampered with. Or for a real world example, pretend for a second that every single U.S. dollar bill in America was catalogued electronically in an online database by serial number. From the second it comes off the printing press the bills history is on record. Every transaction, continuously updated.

Importantly, blockchain doesnt require anyones legal name or actual address, either in that sense its anonymous.

Okay. So thats what blockchain brings to the table solid technology that can track transactions and keep tabs on digital currency.

And over the years the popularity of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin has gone through the roof

All said, Bitcoin is impressively-encrypted, money-transferring technology. From my perch, calling it a currency is a little generous.

Looking through the lens of a technology, thats where things get interesting with this Netflix/Bitcoin story.

History shows that with great technology comes great responsibility.

The revolver and semi-automatic weapons

Automobiles

Military weaponry

Even the advent of the internet

With each of these impressive technologies came a sinister downside

Bitcoin is no different. If you look under the hood youll see that what really makes Bitcoin tick is less-talked-about, more sinister transaction record. Oh if that blockchain could talk!

Money laundering. Illegal transfers. Moving money outside of U.S. sanctions. Funding offshore accounts. Funding illegal online gambling are just a few of the HUGE black-market forces that underpin bitcoin.

So, the Silicon Valley logic that bitcoin is free market technology and you can use it to protect against inflation invest pay friends shop etc is NOT the whole picture. Its also why Im all puffed-up about Bitcoin.

And mark my words, coming soon the script on Bitcoin is going to flip

Similar to the disruptive technologies I listed above, Bitcoin will undergo the standard lifecycle of development and I believe that will include swift, sweeping government regulation. Similar to gun control, car insurance, cyber regulation and more

However, unlike most of those other technologies, I dont think Bitcoin will survive this deathblow of regulation.

Heres an example of what I mean

The Netflix example above was, for all intents and purposes, harmless. Yes, hacking and demanding a ransom is illegal. But, the large scale ramifications arent that big.

Thats all going to change when the bad guys up the game.

For instance, what if someone hacks a more important/vital piece of U.S. infrastructure? Instead of the latest season of Orange Is The New Black?

Or, worse

What if American lives are at stake. What if ransoms for high-value kidnappings come tethered to one nasty little reoccurring detail pay us in Bitcoin.

Thats when the encrypted emperor will be stripped naked. Bitcoin will bear the full brunt of a media and government onslaught. It wont be pretty.

Mind you, this could happen overnight. Just like the Netflix news a few days ago.

All it takes is large-scale ransom disaster and swift action by congress. And that $30B in crypto-cash market cap could be wiped out.

After all, weve seen this exact type of action before. Much like the sanctions against countries like Russia or Iran or the financial regulation changes for say, online gambling.

You see, right now you can transfer money directly from U.S. bank accounts, through a third party, into Bitcoin.

But, like a sock puppet, the U.S. Government controls the banking system as well as the credit system.

Add it all up and one single emotional, urgent, media-driven government regulation could destroy the financial transaction that funds cryptocurrency.

Itll be the death blow to Bitcoin. And its not just me saying it either

I just heard an interview from Agora Financials Chief Technology Officer, Ray Blanco, who shares my same concerns about Bitcoin:

I look at bitcoin right now, I see huge risk. Blockchain advances all get figured out in the years ahead regardless. Bitcoin itself, its doomed. The end is near. Soon as Congress has a reason, they figure out how to shut it down. You mark my words. Too many banks have too much to lose. And if we know one thing, its that big banks and Congress are part of the same beast.

Just wait until the next hack comes to light and the victim is a bit more important than a Netflix series.

This is a story you wont find in the mainstream. And if you or any loved ones are playing around with Bitcoin accounts, this is your fair warning. This Bitcoin disaster could happen overnight. Any day.

I bet its only a matter of time.

Have a good weekend,

Matt Insley

Publisher, The Daily Edge EdgeFeedback@AgoraFinancial.com

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Louisville’s Jack Fischer activates Centaurus experiment on space station – Boulder Daily Camera

Posted: at 3:16 am

An image of Centaurus High School's flag and experiment aboard the International Space Station that was transmitted to Earth on Friday by astronaut Jack Fischer. (Courtesy Jack Fischer / NASA)

Astronaut Jack Fischer on Friday emailed a network of those following his progress at the International Space Station to say that he had just performed some work on an experiment sent to the spacecraft from his Lafayette alma mater, Centaurus High School.

Fischer, a 43-year-old Louisville native, said in a short note he thought people would "like to know that an alum worked on an experiment of his high school today that's pretty rare, and a pretty awesome testament for Centaurus."

Fischer launched with a Russian crew member on April 20, and his arrival at the ISS and entry through its hatch was celebrated by a big crowd of students at teachers at Centaurus that day courtesy of a live feed over NASA TV.

The experiment, three years in being brought to fruition, is designed to study the effects of simulated gravity on bacterial lag phase in a micro-gravitational environment.

"Jack got a chance to power it on," said Centaurus engineering teacher Brian Thomas. "I think there was some sort of issue with it last week when they first tried to plug it in. Whatever it was, it was a non-issue. It's working like a charm."

Fischer's bulletin from 250 miles above the Earth was accompanied by a picture of the Centaurus payload, emblazoned with a Centaurus flag. He also sent an audio clip to his heavily invested fan base at his old school.

"Two years ago we had that flag in the Centaurus (attendance) office, and I remember handing Jack the flag," Thomas said. "He stopped by my house last summer, and I got a chance to pass it on to him.

"He said, 'I can only take a few things, but I'm definitely bringing the Centaurus flag.' It's cool to see it up there, and have him and the support for the project."

The first iteration of the experiment was destroyed when the SpaceX CRS-7 unmanned supply mission that was originally to take it to the ISS was lost to an explosion about 2 minutes after its June 28, 2015, launch.

In rebuilding the experiment, Thomas and the students working on the project did some tweaking of its functioning,

"Since we weren't doing it from scratch, it got put together a little faster," Thomas said last month, prior to Fischer's launch "There were new design constraints. ... They were concerned that the spinning of the gears was too loud. They have to deal with that noise 24/7. They gave us a waiver on that the first time, but after the explosion they said, 'You've got time to rebuild this, let's make it quieter.' They gave us a sound meter and we had to get it under a certain sound level."

The rebuilding of the experiment took place during the 2015-16 school year. Thomas explained its purpose.

"Bacteria grows at a certain rate on Earth, and when it's in space, research has shown it grows a little bit faster, because of a number of different reasons. As it eats the bacteria food, we wanted to see if the gravitational forces were a big key player in that, or if there is something else involved. We're basically tricking it, to make it think it's on Earth," Thomas said.

"We're spinning it so that it feels 1-G; we want it to grow as if it were feeling the same gravitational forces on Earth, and compare the growth rate."

While Fischer and crew partner cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin launched April 20 and arrived at the ISS about six hours later, the experiment was part of a 7,600-pound payload that launched in an unmanned cargo spacecraft April 18 and reached the ISS on April 22.

"We're excited," Thomas said Friday. "We're ready to start collecting data."

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan

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Learning to farm on Mars could actually save agriculture on Earth – Popular Science

Posted: at 3:16 am

When I first spoke with Gene Giacomelli, he was overlooking an earthbound vineyard.

Wine tasting that afternoon in Californias Napa Valley, Giacomellis first mission was to visit his son, a viticulturist. But the plant scientist claimed his weekend would also be spent conducting important scientific research. "Of course, some day, were going to be bottling wine on another planet," he said from his perch in the back of a pickup truck.

For more than a decade, Giacomelli has overseen a project with the National Science Foundation to grow food on Antarctica, which NASA and others see as a fitting facsimile of what life might be like on the moon and Mars. While the public goal of the project is to better understand how farming would work in outer space, Giacomelli also hopes to improve farming here on Earth. Turns out, these goals may soon converge. If humankind can be convinced its too soon to abandon this planet for the next, developments in farming for Mars could come home to roost in Napa Valleyand around the country.

As just about everyone already knows, this planet is currently experiencing some pretty unprecedented challenges. So much so that Stephen Hawking claimed this week that we only have 100 years to get humans set up elsewhere in the galaxy or our entire species will face extinction. His statement is rather dubious, but it's true that our future looks pretty bleak.

Take California. Until this winter, the state had been suffocated by drought for years. The lack of rainwater led to an overuse of groundwater reservoirs on agricultural lands. Now, the states fertile inland valley is actually sinkingas fast 2 feet per yearas the water table deflates like a perforated balloon beneath the surface. And while the drought was temporarily abated by a recent snowstorm, by most estimates it's soon to return. Quite frankly, the state's future looks a lot like modern Mars.

The fourth planet has no known sources of ready water, and regular dust storms engulf large swaths of the planet. To terraform it, we'd need nuclear weapons or artificially-stimulated global warming. Even then, these processes could take as long as 100,000 years to make the planet even close to habitable. California may be drying up, but it still provides our nation with everything from almonds and avocados, while growing even the sturdiest cactusa plant known for being the exact opposite of high maintenanceis difficult to imagine in Mar's Borealis basin.

And yet, many seem to have given up on Californias pernicious problems, while holding onto Mars as an innovators playground. With the right guy and a good plan, the narrative seems to go, our nearest neighbor will be habitable shortly. Self-appointed space colonization poster boy Elon Musk is actively testing space radiation-resistant jumpsuits and rockets meant to take us to Mars. NASA and the European Space Agency have joined him in the craze, running their own lunar greenhouses and new rovers through the ringer.

Amidst the horror and hoopla, a question is begging to be asked: If we believe we can feed a small colony of human beings with food grown on an inhospitable, waterless, and oxygen-free wasteland, why can't we find ways to keep farming going on the planet we already know? Put more glibly, what's really the difference between living sustainably on Mars today or in California in 100 years?

Its not exactly a technological barrier. If someone says getting to Mars is, at the present moment, easier than improving the planet we're already on, they're probably lying. Besides, the lofty goals of off-Earthers like Musk have only been bolstered by real and relatively recent technological breakthroughs on this planet. When you do look outward you come up with a lot of innovations, as we have in the space program, says NASAs former historian Steven Dick. In the 1990s, LED lights were patented for plant growth and have allowed farmers to grow more and larger plants in less space and time. The development of hydroponic techniqueswhere plants are grown without soilis allowing astronauts on the International Space Station to grow their own salad mix in zero gravity.

Giacomelli and his team have incorporated these and other innovations into their design of a proposed closed loop lunar greenhouse. In theory, astronauts could grow half of the food they need each day and generate all of the water they need to drink and oxygen they need to breathe while living on Mars. Think of it as a biological robot, Giacomelli says of his system, which he imagines would be an 18 by 8 foot cylinder, about the size of a backyard swimming pool. An astronauts urine would be cleaned and processed and fed to plants. The plants would grow hydroponically and be fed by LED lights powered by solar panels, or even a portable nuclear reactor. As the plants grow, they would produce humidity, which would be extracted and condensed into drinking water. The cycle would repeat over and over. Youll keep the plants alive and theyll keep you alive, Giacomelli says.

But after years spent refining the idea, Giacomellis prototype remains just thata proof of concept, not a real, mean green-making machine. Though we could use the system here and now, the will to implement the technology on Earth seems limited to Giacomelli himself. He says the system will likely remain a figment until NASA or some other agency pens its charter to Mars.

Other space-y farm ventures have experienced similar skepticism from earthlings. When Dickson Despommier first proposed the idea of a vertical farm, people were certainly intrigued. But they considered it more of a science project than a viable agricultural revolution. They thought farming was such a natural thing to do that, How could you put that into a building? Despommier says. They dont think about the Dust Bowl, they dont think about crop failure, about drought in California, about pests and locusts and birds eating the seeds. We neglect to think of all of the unnatural things weve already done, he argues, and the great challenges nature continues to pose.

In the intervening decades, vertical farmingwhich involves densely stacking crops in enclosed spaces and using hydroponic and LED techniques to grow themhas failed to revolutionize farming. But it is an increasingly important part of a slowly diversifying agricultural sector. There are about 100 farms in operation in the United States today, Despommier says, and many more dotting the globe. Simple greenhouses that rely on sunlight and traditional fertilizers have been adopted more widely, with more than 230 million square feet of greenhouse production domestically. Though still dependent on natural forces like light, greenhouses are a necessary link in the evolution of farming, allowing once-seasonal crops like tomatoes to be grown year round.

Thats partly because the produce from a greenhouse is equal to outdoor agriculture in cost, but vertical farming and other space-age techniques are still priceythough no longer prohibitively so. Daniel Schubert, a space farm expert with the German Space Agency, has conducted two studies to analyze this persistent economic gap. Five years ago, he found that growing organic matter with hydroponics and LED lights cost $12.80 more per kilo than traditional farming in the German countryside. This was disappointing, but he predictedand has come to provethe price would even out as the tools of the trade became more widely available and farmers became more efficient in this new medium. Last fall, a new study revealed the current cost is just $3.20 more per kilo, and likely to continue to drop. He thinks this shows technology designed for the far reaches of space can be implemented in our own neighborhood.

In addition to these breakthroughs, there are a million other earthbound farming innovations currently underway. In Italy, researchers are testing the watersliterallyto see if underwater farming is actually viable. Monsanto and other researchers are working on developing salt and drought resistant seeds.

Despite this upward trend for alternative agricultural methods, things still seem to be moving faster on Musks drafting table for Mars than they are on the ground in California. Dangerous disruptions to Earths ancient equilibriums, meanwhile, are occurring at a faster pace than ever. In the next century, California is likely to become even more resistant to our current practices unless past carbon emissions are reabsorbed and future footprints reduced. And Mars is likely to remain inhospitable, even if a manned mission finally breaches its thin and dusty atmosphere.

Dick, the space historian, is right that we are pushed to innovate when we think about whats new and next. But I can't be the only one who feels a little dry and deflatedlike the chalky space ice cream we sampled as kidswhen faced with the prospect of giving up on this planet in pursuit of another one. Maybe we should reflect on what colonizing almost every inch of Earth has done to the planet before we head off to next one. And maybe what we need to discover isn't the promise of a new planet, but the resolve to rectify the mistakes weve already made.

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Space colonization then and now – Santa Ynez Valley News

Posted: at 3:16 am

Many years ago, when I first went to college, I joined two off-campus organizations, both of which were dedicated to getting people living and working in outer space.

I saw expansion into space as the solution to many of the worlds biggest problems, including energy shortages, overpopulation and world hunger to name a few, and I could see myself actually doing it, going off and living or working in a space colony somewhere between Earth and the moon more specifically at L5, a point in space that is always in the same spot relative to Earth and the moon.

I became somewhat of a disciple of physicist Gerard ONeill, and his cylinder design, to the point I could explain its key features and concepts to others, including mirrors, farming pods, dimensions, rotation and scenery, and the use of an electromagnetic mass driver to mine materials from the moon and asteroids, so the colony could be constructed entirely on-site, in space.

Now, with space travel finally becoming a reality thanks to billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson and their privately funded space race, I no longer have any interest in moving away from our home planet. Not that I could even if I wanted to, given the hefty price tag for a seat on any of these expeditions.

Bezos and Branson are each selling a five-minute thrill ride to suborbital space, which is about 62 miles from Earths surface, for around $250,000 a seat, while Musk is selling a one-week trip around the moon, 300,000 miles, for an undisclosed amount that is estimated to be between $35 million to $100 million a ticket.

I dont remember when it was I first stopped wanting to go into space, but my guess is it was after I moved to a place where I could live, each and every day, in close contact with the Earth and its beauty. Not that I didnt have an appreciation for such beauty before that, or I hadnt experienced its transformative effect on the heart and the senses, or I wasnt already in love with life and people, but growing up in a flat personality-less suburb, my natural impulse and inevitability was to move away and go somewhere else, and I guess a space colony was one possible place to move to, even though I knew California was the much greater likelihood.

As my love for and connection to Earth increased, my desire to leave it behind diminished.

Add to that my growing sense of self-awareness, which included the realization that I am extremely uncomfortable riding in fast cars, boats on the ocean, small airplanes performing trick maneuvers or any size plane during moments of turbulence and roller coasters and drop towers and pendulum rides and gravity rides and other such horrors at carnivals and amusement parks, and it all added up to, why would I want to ride in a spaceship of any sort?

I believe the ongoing survival of our species will necessarily involve and require space colonization. Then again, dont the Hopis say humanity already started and ended, then started again seven other times in our history, so in the big picture is it really that big of a deal? Throw in some Einstein and Mayer to remind us that energy and mass are neither created nor destroyed, but transformed, converted, redistributed, reassembled and re-expressed.

Im a fan of science, and of ever expanding our horizons, so I support space colonization efforts. But it is no less difficult or palatable for me to try and conceive of our extinction, transformation, evolution than it is to imagine us spreading our greed and war, fear and violence and prejudice and pollution to the rest of the universe.

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Space colonization then and now - Santa Ynez Valley News

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