] Six blind volunteers now have an electrode-studded sliver
] of silicone tacked to one of their retinas. A digital
] camera mounted to sunglasses feeds images wirelessly to
] this implant, whose 16 electrodes zap retinal nerves to
] produce impressions of light in the brain. Although the
] resolution is crude next to the 100-million-pixel
] resolution of a healthy eye, the volunteers can
] distinguish cup from plate, light from dark, and they can
] tell when someone strolls past on the sidewalk.

I'll probably need this sooner than I'd like.

The Bionic Eye

] Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring
] from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really
] Want to Give You One

Ten reasons why you should never accept a diamond ring

In this dawning era of genomic medicine, the concept of private health insurance, which is based on actuarially pooling risk within specified, fragmented groups, will become obsolete.

I thought this was very timely given our dinner conversation on Friday. While I don't think a single payer system is worthwhile (or will happen) in the US, I do believe that the author flirts heavily with what *is* a likely outcome: a realignment of stakeholders.

Consider that the NHIN/HIT initiatives in the US when at critical mass will allow a degree of transparency and incentive that has neverbefore been possible. It's not totally necessary to move the physician and the patient into a direct customer/provider fiduciary exchange if you can clearly see where the money is going and how service is provided by those dollars. I think that the system today is very broken and that the first inclination is to throw it out and start over with a very different architecture. But that's obviously next to impossible in today's world. What is very likely is that the system will reconfigure itself and become optimized in a way that has not been possible previously. Transparency and appropriately motivated incentives will make the system optimized.

That will eliminate a lot of the concern over genomics being used to deny and game the pool. Everyone will be able to procure healthcare just as everyone is able to procure other basic necessities. It'll just be that the richer you are, the better product you'll have access to.

Decoding Health Insurance

] Is a complete electronic record of your medical history
] available to you or your doctors? Chances are, it isn't.
] At least not yet. Find out how personal health records
] could change that and thereby improve the quality, safety
] and efficiency of health care.

yes, PHRs are important and simply having one is better than not having one. But like all things complicated, the network effect is what's needed. How do you get all 100K physicians on the network? How do you incentivize consumers to use it? To interact with it on a regular basis?

I think I know...

Personal health records

] Young white men get the most 100-mph tickets. Nearly
] three-quarters are younger than 30, nearly two-thirds are
] white, and eight of nine are male.

] Three-quarters of the high-rollers are in cars, most
] commonly Hondas, Fords and Nissans. An additional 12
] percent were on motorcycles, and the rest were in sport
] utility vehicles, vans and pickups.

hmmm... guilty, I guess. What about young white males in suped up Kraut-rockets?

I guess I disagree with the premise of this article to some degree. I mean, I've had my license suspended. A lot. And I can tell you that the bureacracy and unmitigated extortion that happens when you just get a ticket is unbelievable. I've had pretty much every situation you can imagine happen to me in this regard, from people of trust and power lieing to my face, to being trapped in some kind of Kafka-esque nightmare trying to clear my license because the computer system at the Department of Safety for TN had an error in my record (resulting in my arrest!).

If you tallied up all the time, frustration, and real money that's been extracted from me (lost wages, insurance fraud... I mean premiums, fines, fees, etc), then I feel that it's ample compensation. Yes yes yes... people always talk about the 'danger' aspect of it and that I'm potentially risking people's lives. I suppose that's true statistically speaking. But given that I've been forced to take literally dozens of hours of driving classes, and I actually do my own track time on both bikes and autos, then I feel as though it's a calculated risk. Granted, the street has innumerably more variables and a much higher degree of unpredictability than any track, but that's what reflexes are for, right?

100-mph drivers often get just a slap on wrist

] Mashing up Google maps and Gasbuddy = locations of cheap
] gas in your area on a Google map (map or satellite view).
] Just choose a city- then the data on the right side is
] updated cheapest gas prices. If you have mobile high
] speed access you could add a GPS and have this running
] while you drive. In the future, maybe our cars will do
] this for us.

YES! YES! Yet another application for my EVDO project. The 22nd century is rapidly approaching.

Find Cheap Gas with Google Maps

] The companies' divergent fortunes -- symbolic of the two
] nations' broader auto industries -- have Japanese auto
] and government officials worried about a replay of the
] "Japan-bashing" trade friction of the 1980s, when Toyota
] and others were blamed for stealing car sales and U.S.
] jobs, prompting outraged auto workers to smash Japanese
] cars in protest.

What's worse? That this could potentially happen again? Or that in today's age, there are actually people who could get this upset about it happening at all?

Toyota fears U.S. backlash as GM struggles

] Lucas may not have profited from this galaxy of
] businesses, but he's earned lasting respect and gratitude
] from his fans as well as many in the movie industry

yes, you can say what you want about George not being a good director, or even a good writer, and certainly not a good businessman. But his impact on content production is immense and greater even than people like Samuel Meyer because he fundamentally changed so many things about how film, television, and content in general are made and experienced.

'Star Wars' spawned a galaxy of technologies

Brittney Gilbert's take on the con. This link will self destruct in one week.

BlogNashville

] Across the US some 185,000 households have switched from
] the local power company to their own homegrown, renewable
] energy.

I'm planning on doing this as part of my house renovation project. In doing my research over the last 3 years, I've noticed that there's a boom in information and products available for everything from solar to fuel cell to natural gas. It's definitely gotten easier.

The New Power Generation