This month's Wired

Skimming through this month's Wired...

• Humans have been changing the climate for eons. There's reason for hope. - This short article posits that we've been changing climate for a lot longer than just since the Industrial Revolution but rather much, much longer - since the development agriculture which lead to the first part of our recent, sharp increase in CO₂ levels and then the development of rice paddy farming which lead to another spike, in methane levels. If it's true, it means we've been terraforming far longer than most of us believe we have been. It also means that we might be more likely to undo what we've done.
• Futurist Ray Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity - This guy's crackers. He's thinking that within his lifetim - and he's doing everything possible to extend that lifetime so he'll be around - computing power will increase enough that he can make himself eternal by dropping his conscious into electronic media. Crackers - and Wired just about says so in the sidebar with the article.
• Wired's Geekster Handbook, a Field Guide to the Nerd Underground - I certainly recognize a few of these geek types from 'round PHS.
• Clive Thompson on Why the Next Civil Rights Battle Will Be Over the Mind - An interesting proposal by Thompson pondering whether the growing ease of use of truth-detecting equipment will someday make us consider whether we have freedom to lie, to think dishonest thoughts. Let's hope that we take some precautions before it becomes an issue.
• Test: 1080p Projectors for Less, Pared-Down Multitools, VHS-to-DVD Converters - The Girl and I have talked about out next TV - and we will need to replace things within the next year (or go for a converter box) - and considered replacing our current one with an LCD projector, so we're going to have to do some research in this area. The biggest initial issue (other than the $$ requeired) is trying to get it to receive the signals as most projector's don't have any sort like that - at least we'll need a second bit of equipment stuck up there to the ceiling. Plus it still looks like it's going to be a pricey investment.
• Hype Machine: Searching for ZAP's Fleet of No-Show Green Cars - Now there's a charlie foxtrot (look it up, I'm not linking). The electric car has been right around the corner for decades now, and I certainly don't see more of them driving around than I saw when I was young. This company has, however, or at least the couple of folks at the top of the company have made a buttload of money on promising folks electric cars left and right for the past decade. It's a cautionary tale for folks looking to do a little green investing.

I do dig the subscription to Wired as it's the only magazine to which I currently subscribe. It's an interesting read through the world of tech and tech-science each month. Good stuff.

Weirdly, however, Wired.com isn't the magazine. Apparently they're now different business interests, and the magazine is Wired.com/wired. Odd but good to know.ul>