Would you like your genome shone 30-40 kilometres into the atmosphere from the middle of the desert with a giant laser? What are we saying, of course you do.

Burning Man laser show will project human genome into atmosphere

It’s not true that we can’t solve big problems through technology; we can. We must. But all these elements must be present: political leaders and the public must care to solve a problem, our institutions must support its solution, it must really be a technological problem, and we must understand it.

The Apollo program, which has become a metaphor for technology’s capacity to solve big problems, met these criteria, but it is an irreproducible model for the future. This is not 1961: there is no galvanizing historical context akin to the Cold War, no likely politician who can heroize the difficult and dangerous, no body of engineers who yearn for the productive regimentation they had enjoyed in the military, and no popular faith in a science-fictional mythology such as exploring the solar system. Most of all, going to the moon was easy. It was only three days away. Arguably, it wasn’t even solving much of a problem. We are left alone with our day, and the solutions of the future will be harder won.
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Great article!

Why we can't solve big problems

The near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis, which is about 3 miles wide, will zoom within 4.3 million miles of Earth during its closest approach early Wednesday morning, Dec. 12.

Slooh will webcast Toutatis views from a scope in the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa beginning at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) Dec. 11. Another show will follow at 10 p.m. EST tonight (0300 GMT Wednesday), with footage from an instrument in Arizona. You can watch them at Slooh's website: http://www.slooh.com.

3-mile-wide asteroid to buzz planet Earth tonight

It might, but funding for the technology has all but dried up.

Could smart gun technology make us safer?

The sweeping database software that stores top-secret information inside the National Security Agency may yet be adopted by the rest of the U.S. Defense Department and other government agencies, after a change to the proposed Defense Department budget for the coming year.

This week, the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees made their final changes to the National Defense Authorization Act — the Congressional bill detailing the Defense Department budget for 2013 — and this included the removal of language that threatened to curb the use Accumulo, the massive database developed by the NSA and then shared with the world as open source software.

NSA’s Super-Secure Database Dodges Bullet From Senate

Filling the night air with roaring engines and screeching tires, youths in bandannas tear down a highway in souped-up motorcyles, pulling wheelies and dodging cars in a cat-and-mouse with police.
Drag-racing in California, you say? No, this is Baghdad

Giving themselves names like "Wheelies to the Death", groups of Iraqi bikers gather on Fridays in Jedriya district to taste the thrill of speed, test authorities and forget the worries of living in a city still struggling with bombings and blackouts

Burning rubber, Baghdad bikers race to escape

The pressure in Mount Fuji's magma chamber is now higher than it was in 1707, the last time the nearly 4,000-metre-high Japanese volcano erupted, causing volcanologists to speculate that a disaster is imminent.

The new readings, taken by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, reveal that the pressure is at 1.6 megapascals, nearly 16 times the 0.1 megapascals it takes to trigger an eruption.

Pressure in Mount Fuji is now higher than last eruption, warn experts

wow.

Atlanta Mourners Shut Down Highway With Donuts For Dead Friend

Go to Burning Man, and you’ll find everything from a thunderdome battle between a couple in tiger-striped bodypaint to a man dressed as a gigantic blueberry muffin on wheels. But underneath it all, says the festival’s co-founder, Larry Harvey, is “old-fashioned capitalism.”

The main-street Republican values of ... Burning Man?

The home-brew movement serves as a lesson in DIY innovation.

What Beer Can Teach Us About Emerging Technologies