Alternative News

Quantum Teleportation Between Atomic Systems Over Long Distances — New Reliable Technique

"A new milestone has been reached in the development of a practical quantum teleportation system — researchers have for the first time succeeded in the teleportation of information between two separate clouds of gas atoms, over long-distances. And not just once, the method is apparently already extremely reliable — working every single time that it’s been attempted. There are two glass containers, each containing a cloud of billions of caesium gas atoms. Both glass containers are enclosed in a chamber with a magnetic field. Information is teleported from the one glass cloud to the other by means of laser light." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingQuantum Teleportation Between Atomic Systems Over Long Distances — New Reliable Technique

The first-ever 3D-printed battery is less than 1mm wide

"In order to make a battery so small, the Harvard and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign team used a 3D printer to create tiny stacks of battery electrodes. Each electrode is thinner than a strand of human hair. The battery is of the standard lithium-ion variety, so with it comes all of the faults and benefits of lithium-ion. The custom 3D printer employed by the team uses special inks that are electrochemically active, and harden into cathodes and anodes once extruded from the printer’s nozzle. The anodes and cathodes were printed in a pattern similar to a common comb, then a case and electrolyte solution were added as finishing touches." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe first-ever 3D-printed battery is less than 1mm wide

Maker Nabs A 3D Model Of Marcus Aurelius With Google Glass

"In what looks to be a first for the technology, designer and engineer Todd Blatt took 30 pictures of a bust of Marcus Aurelius with Google Glass and created a downloadable 3D model that you can grab and print. It’s fascinating that, in a few minutes, he was able to render a physical object digitally and then reprint it. These methods aren’t foolproof, but they’re very nearly so. What does this mean for the future? Well, almost anything can be copied now, from a car to a tourist’s trinket. It also means that nothing is 'safe' anymore – all it takes for IP theft of object designs to happen is a few winks with a good enough camera." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMaker Nabs A 3D Model Of Marcus Aurelius With Google Glass

Want to Defend Your Privacy?

"We all have to accept the cold, hard fact of the matter, which is that this cat-and-mouse game is likely to be with us for a very long time. Those who believe they have the right to spy on us will develop ever more sophisticated ways of doing it. Those who believe we have a Constitutional right to privacy will fight tooth and nail to protect it. It's possible that the one side eventually will develop an unstoppable offense or that the other will come up with a defense that can't be breached. But that's not the way to bet. In the end, technology is completely neutral. It will evolve with no regard to how it is used. Expect those cats and mice to continue chasing each other." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWant to Defend Your Privacy?

Female inmates sue Texas county for running ‘rape camp’ at jail

"Two female inmates have sued a Texas county and three former jailers for running what they said was a 'rape camp' at the county jail. In a court filing obtained by Courthouse News Service, inmates J.A.S. and J.M.N name Live Oak County and former jailers Vincent Aguilar, Israel Charles Jr. and Jaime E. Smith as defendants. Although the three guards were arrested in 2010 on charges of sexual assault and are now serving time in Texas state prisons, the women have brought to light new disturbing details about the abuse. They are seeking punitive damages for civil rights violations, assault and emotional distress." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFemale inmates sue Texas county for running ‘rape camp’ at jail

Down With the Supremes

"The United States Supreme Court made a serious and harmful blunder in its decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. Their first holding was that a gene or portion of a gene extracted as a strand of DNA from a genome is not an invention, but something found in nature, and thus not patentable. So far, so good. Unfortunately, they erred in reaching their second holding, that a strand of cDNA, which is derived by a different process, and contains only a single gene, is patentable. This means that genes do, despite the headlines, remain patentable." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDown With the Supremes

CA Medical Marijuana Dispensary Numbers Shrink in Two-Pronged War of Attrition

"Anyone who is following the situation in the Golden State at all closely has seen a numbing litany of reports of dispensaries forced out of business, including from some of the most venerable, respected, and law-abiding operations in the state. What had been the occasional raid or prosecution by the DEA or federal prosecutors during the early years of the Obama administration has turned into a heightened onslaught since the issuance of the notorious Cole memo, written by Assistant Attorney General James Cole, two years ago next week and the announcement by California's four US Attorneys that fall that they were declaring open season on dispensaries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCA Medical Marijuana Dispensary Numbers Shrink in Two-Pronged War of Attrition

The War on Asparagus

"American asparagus farms were worth just over $233 million in 1999. A decade later, those farms (or, those which still existed, as the farm sizes fell by two-thirds over that same decade) were worth just under $90 million. The drop off is stark, but it’s not because of a lack of demand from American consumers. In the 1990s, the United States started paying Peruvian farmers to grow asparagus, hoping they’d forgo growing coca (the plant used to make cocaine) and instead grow the totally legal vegetable. In 2004, the New York Times estimated that the cost of this program ran the United States around $60 million per year. The effect: a lot of cheaper-than-typical asparagus." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe War on Asparagus

Review: Ploom Model Two

"The San Francisco-based company is out to make the Nespresso of vaporizers, complete with a sleek, Made in California aesthetic and proprietary pods filled with all-natural tobacco. If vaporizers are going to get anywhere near the mainstream, they need to dispatch the silly glowing tips, finicky and flawed hardware, and horribly named 'e-juice.' They need class and sophistication, and the Ploom Model Two delivers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReview: Ploom Model Two

“Miracle” Cannabis Oil May Treat Cancer, But Money and the Law Stand in the Way of Finding Out

"All 26 of Finley's referrals had stage 4 cancers — brain tumors, colon cancers, lung cancers — which means the malignant growths had metastasized to other organs. Most had prognoses of a few months to live, some had less than six weeks. All complemented modern Western medicine treatments such as chemotherapy with the concentrated oil — and all but one have survived, she says. A patient's prognosis can very widely depending on the type of cancer, but the disease is a reliable killer at stage 4, meaning Finley's patients' 96 percent survival rate is unheard-of. Most maddening to some is the fact that none of this is new." Continue reading →

Continue Reading“Miracle” Cannabis Oil May Treat Cancer, But Money and the Law Stand in the Way of Finding Out