Sunday, March 15, 2015

Japan Space Scientists Make Wireless Energy Breakthrough

Japan Space Scientists Make Wireless Energy Breakthrough
W460
Japanese scientists have succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly, in a key step that could one day make solar power generation in space a possibility, an official said Thursday.
Researchers used microwaves to deliver 1.8 kilowatts of power -- enough to run an electric kettle -- through the air with pinpoint accuracy to a receiver 55 metres (170 feet) away.
While the distance was not huge, the technology could pave the way for mankind to eventually tap the vast amount of solar energy available in space and use it here on Earth, a spokesman for The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
"This was the first time anyone has managed to send a high output of nearly two kilowatts of electric power via microwaves to a small target, using a delicate directivity control device," he said.
JAXA has been working on devising Space Solar Power Systems for years, the spokesman said.
Solar power generation in space has many advantages over its Earth-based cousin, notably the permanent availability of energy, regardless of weather or time of day.
While man-made satellites, such as the International Space Station, have long since been able to use the solar energy that washes over them from the sun, getting that power down to Earth where people can use it has been the thing of science fiction.
But the Japanese research offers the possibility that humans will one day be able to farm an inexhaustible source of energy in space.
The idea, said the JAXA spokesman, would be for microwave-transmitting solar satellites -- which would have sunlight-gathering panels and antennae -- to be set up about 36,000 kilometres (22,300 miles) from the earth.
"But it could take decades before we see practical application of the technology -- maybe in the 2040s or later," he said. 
"There are a number of challenges to overcome, such as how to send huge structures into space, how to construct them and how to maintain them."
The idea of space-based solar power generation emerged among U.S. researchers in the 1960s and Japan's SSPS program, chiefly financed by the industry ministry, started in 2009, he said.
Resource-poor Japan has to import huge amounts of fossil fuel. It has become substantially more dependent on these imports as its nuclear power industry shut down in the aftermath of the disaster at Fukushima in 2011.

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A New Way To Be Human: The Plan Is To Replace Existing Humans With ‘Transhuman’ Hybrids

A New Way To Be Human: The Plan Is To Replace Existing Humans With ‘Transhuman’ Hybrids

Michael Snyder
The American Dream
March 14th, 2015
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Transhumanists believe that the time has come for humans to take control of their own evolution.  Many of them are fully convinced that we can use emerging technologies to “fix” the flaws in the human race and ultimately eradicate sickness, disease, poverty and war.  So would you like to have the eyesight of an eagle?  Would you like to download an entire library of information directly into your brain in just minutes?  Would you like to rid your family line of all genetic diseases?  Would you like to extend your lifespan to 500 years or even longer?  Transhumanists promise that all of these things will soon be possible, if we are willing to embrace a new way of doing things.  They foresee a future in which we will all have lots of little nanobots running around inside of us, in which we are all connected directly to the Internet, and in which we have all been genetically modified to at least some degree.  In fact, one prominent transhumanist recently stated that he believes that “eventually every human will be designed on a computer“.  In the end, the goal is to produce a vastly improved version of the human race which will usher in a golden new age for the planet.  But as we merge ourselves with animals, machines and weird new technologies that scientists cook up, at what point do we cease to be human?
And when I say “weird new technologies”, I am not overstating things in the least.  Just consider what one transhumanist says that they have planned for us
As with all radical social movements, there is bound to be resistance. After all, transhumanists are interested in some pretty bizarre things: mind uploading, living indefinitely through life extension science, biohacking themselves to install cyborg body parts, and creating artificial general intelligence. Each of these areas of research will radically change the lives of people—and some, such as cyborg body parts, are already doing so.
Once upon a time, the only people that talked about “cyborgs” were science fiction geeks.
But today, many transhumanists speak of us becoming “cyborgs” as if it was some sort of foregone conclusion.  It is almost as if they are the Borg, and they are telling us that there is no choice but to assimilate.
And this assimilation is already happening to a certain degree.  If the idea of humanity “merging with machines” sounds bizarre to you, just check out the following excerpt from a recent Vice article
Next up are brain implants, tiny computer chips inserted surgically directly into the brain itself. So far, they’ve been used mainly to help treat patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and epilepsy.
But some scientists are now tinkering with brain implants that enable more physical pursuits, from controlling people’s prosthetic limbs to ​restoring movement in paralyzed rats. Scientists say that the capabilities of brain implants are only in their infancy, and some of them envision a near-future where brain implants can even be installed in healthy people to connect them directly to the internet and improve memory] a la Black Mirror. The US military agency DARPA is already building such memory chips, and wants to develop implants that could be installed throughout a soldier’s nervous system to provide advanced, on-the-spot healing of conditions from mental illness to arthritis.
Of course, most of those developing these new technologies believe that they are doing something wonderful for humanity.
And in many cases they are.
But at what point do we enter a danger zone?
In a previous article , I noted that one recent survey discovered that approximately one-fourth of all professionals in the 18 to 50-year-old age bracket would like to connect their brains directly to the Internet.
I don’t know about you, but that is something that I will never be doing.
Meanwhile, scientists continue to push the envelope when it comes to merging humans with animals.
Most people don’t realize this, but today we are creating genetically modified cattle with human DNA, we are growing human kidneys in rats, and we are experimenting on human-mouse hybrids with freakishly large brains.
Once again, those involved in this kind of research believe that they are finding “cures for diseases” or that they are working to make life better for all of us somehow.
But when we combine animals and humans, what exactly are we creating?
Are they animals?
Are they humans?
And where do we draw the line?  Will we someday have creatures that are 50 percent human and 50 percent animal walking around our cities?
For much, much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “The Era Of Chimeras: Scientists Fearlessly Create Bizarre Human/Animal Hybrids“.
Another area that transhumanists are extremely excited about is the ability to use technology to genetically edit our children.
At Harvard, researchers now believe that it will soon be possible to completely remove genetic diseases from our family lines
As I listened to Yang, I waited for a chance to ask my real questions: Can any of this be done to human beings? Can we improve the human gene pool? The position of much of mainstream science has been that such meddling would be unsafe, irresponsible, and even impossible. But Yang didn’t hesitate. Yes, of course, she said. In fact, the Harvard laboratory had a project to determine how it could be achieved. She flipped open her laptop to a PowerPoint slide titled “Germline Editing Meeting.”
Here it was: a technical proposal to alter human heredity.
“Germ line” is biologists’ jargon for the egg and sperm, which combine to form an embryo. By editing the DNA of these cells or the embryo itself, it could be possible to correct disease genes and to pass those genetic fixes on to future generations. Such a technology could be used to rid families of scourges like cystic fibrosis. It might also be possible to install genes that offer lifelong protection against infection, Alzheimer’s, and, Yang told me, maybe the effects of aging.
And “maybe the effects of aging”?
Life extension technologies are something that many transhumanists are particularly obsessed with.
For example, Bloomberg recently did an interview with one technology executive that believes that it will eventually be possible for all of us to live to the ripe old age of 500…
“If you ask me today, is it possible to live to be 500? The answer is yes,” Bill Maris says one January afternoon in Mountain View, California. The president and managing partner of Google Ventures just turned 40, but he looks more like a 19-year-old college kid at midterm. He’s wearing sneakers and a gray denim shirt over a T-shirt; it looks like he hasn’t shaved in a few days.
Maris is using his position to pour millions upon millions of dollars into companies that are developing radical life extension technologies that they hope will enable people to live for hundreds of years.  Maris just hopes that he can stay alive long enough to take advantage of them…
“We actually have the tools in the life sciences to achieve anything that you have the audacity to envision,” he says. “I just hope to live long enough not to die.”
And of course Maris is far from alone.  The most famous transhumanist on the entire planet, Ray Kurzweil, is absolutely obsessed with immortality.  He takes 150 vitamin supplements a day in a desperate attempt to extend his life until more advanced life extension technologies can be developed.  In chapter 7 of “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology“, he expressed his thoughts on where the future is taking all of us…
“Evolution moves toward greater complexity, greater elegance, greater knowledge, greater intelligence, greater beauty, greater creativity, and greater levels of subtle attributes such as love. In every monotheistic tradition God is likewise described as all of these qualities, only without any limitation: infinite knowledge, infinite intelligence, infinite beauty, infinite creativity, infinite love, and so on. Of course, even the accelerating growth of evolution never achieves an infinite level, but as it explodes exponentially it certainly moves rapidly in that direction. So evolution moves inexorably toward this conception of God, although never quite reaching this ideal. We can regard, therefore, the freeing of our thinking from the severe limitations of its biological form to be an essentially spiritual undertaking.”
But what about those of us that do not want to be a part of this future?
Is there any room for people that do not want to be genetically modified and that do not want to merge with animals and technology?
Some transhumanists believe that those that do not adapt will eventually be wiped out because they simply will not be able to survive in the new world that is emerging.
Other transhumanists believe that in order to truly have a world where there is no sickness, disease, poverty and war, all of the “inferior” humans will ultimately have to be “removed”.
But what almost all of them agree on is the fact that the future belongs to them and not to us.
So what do you think?  Is humanity on the verge of a great leap forward, or are these new technologies actually opening up a door for great darkness? Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

Contributed by Michael Snyder of The American Dream.
Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream , The Truth and Economic Collapse Blog.


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NASA Scientist Warns "California Has One Year Of Water Left"

NASA Scientist Warns "California Has One Year Of Water Left"

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Authored by NASA Senior Water Scientist Jay Famiglietti, originally posted Op-Ed at The LA Times,
Given the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California's winter was as well.
As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We're not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we're losing the creek too.
Data from NASA satellites show that the total amount of water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins — that is, all of the snow, river and reservoir water, water in soils and groundwater combined — was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014. That loss is nearly 1.5 times the capacity of Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir.
Statewide, we've been dropping more than 12 million acre-feet of total water yearly since 2011. Roughly two-thirds of these losses are attributable to groundwater pumping for agricultural irrigation in the Central Valley. Farmers have little choice but to pump more groundwater during droughts, especially when their surface water allocations have been slashed 80% to 100%. But these pumping rates are excessive and unsustainable. Wells are running dry. In some areas of the Central Valley, the land is sinking by one foot or more per year.
As difficult as it may be to face, the simple fact is that California is running out of water — and the problem started before our current drought. NASA data reveal that total water storage in California has been in steady decline since at least 2002, when satellite-based monitoring began, although groundwater depletion has been going on since the early 20th century.

Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing. California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain.
In short, we have no paddle to navigate this crisis.
Several steps need be taken right now.
First, immediate mandatory water rationing should be authorized across all of the state's water sectors, from domestic and municipal through agricultural and industrial. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is already considering water rationing by the summer unless conditions improve. There is no need for the rest of the state to hesitate. The public is ready. A recent Field Poll showed that 94% of Californians surveyed believe that the drought is serious, and that one-third support mandatory rationing.

Second, the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 should be accelerated. The law requires the formation of numerous, regional groundwater sustainability agencies by 2017. Then each agency must adopt a plan by 2022 and “achieve sustainability” 20 years after that. At that pace, it will be nearly 30 years before we even know what is working. By then, there may be no groundwater left to sustain.

Third, the state needs a task force of thought leaders that starts, right now, brainstorming to lay the groundwork for long-term water management strategies. Although several state task forces have been formed in response to the drought, none is focused on solving the long-term needs of a drought-prone, perennially water-stressed California.
Our state's water management is complex, but the technology and expertise exist to handle this harrowing future. It will require major changes in policy and infrastructure that could take decades to identify and act upon. Today, not tomorrow, is the time to begin.
Finally, the public must take ownership of this issue. This crisis belongs to all of us — not just to a handful of decision-makers. Water is our most important, commonly owned resource, but the public remains detached from discussions and decisions.
This process works just fine when water is in abundance. In times of crisis, however, we must demand that planning for California's water security be an honest, transparent and forward-looking process. Most important, we must make sure that there is in fact a plan.
Call me old-fashioned, but I'd like to live in a state that has a paddle so that it might also still have a creek.
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