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Blood Music, anyone?
Apr. 7th, 2006 11:56 amBe afraid, be very afraid. This is not an April Fool:
Researchers trying to make tiny machines have turned to the power of nature, engineering a virus to attract metals and then using it to build minute wires for microscopic batteries. The resulting nanowires can be used in minuscule lithium ion battery electrodes, which in turn would be used to power very small machines, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Anyone who has read the book Blood Music will see where I am coming from, here.
No matter how much scientists (or engineers) assure you that there is nothing to worry about, you only have to look at the one in a million chance (say, the impact of the experimental drug on those six volunteers in north-west London) to realize that, in the famous words of the IRA when talking about the failed assassination attempt on Margaret Thatcher, "We only have to succeed once".
Viruses are bastards. They aren't like bacteria (which are veritable blundering giants by comparison). They are minuscule, they hide well, and the medical world doesn't really understand the ones already in existence, despite their simplicity. It can't cure Shingles. It can't cure herpes, and it certainly can't cure HIV. And, well, it doesn't seem to do that well against 'flu. "The bloody things keep mutating", they cry, as if this is some kind of unfair trick outside the rules of the game.
While the world and Greenpeace warn of global warming, or running out of oil, or denaturing the planet, we are happily creating new viruses when we can't even control the old ones already around. And for why? So that the battery that powers your Ipod can be smaller and last longer.
What an irony that would be. Humanity destroyed in search for longer-lasting battery.
+++++
What's happening to the Vegas I Love?
Someone asked me the other day about the plot of land between the Wynn and the Venetian. I had vaguely assumed that it was going to be an extension of one or the other, but the horrible truth emerged this morning.
Las Vegas Sands Corp, owner of the famed Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, announced today that Barneys New York will open a flagship store in the company's new Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino currently being constructed next to The Venetian on the Las Vegas strip.
"Barneys is the preeminent name in luxury retail and is a perfect match for the style and sophistication visitors have come to expect at The Venetian and will soon experience at The Palazzo," said Robert Goldstein, president of The Venetian and The Palazzo.
Opening in the summer of 2007, The Shoppes at The Palazzo(TM) will offer an upscale shopping experience with Barneys, one of the most sophisticated and well known luxury retailers in the country, serving as the anchor of the 450,000 square-foot retail complex.
This is one more nail in the coffin of Las Vegas as a gambling centre and one more screw in the dry-walling of the new Las Vegas. The US has always had a kind of dichotomous relationship with LV -- its gambling decadence sits uneasily with what is, at heart, a deeply conservative country. They liked it, but they felt guilty about it, so it was kept separate.
However, Americans do not feel guilty about consumerism. Indeed, it's almost a religion. Out with the old and in with the new. You don't have to see Death of A Salesman, but once you do, you never look at advertisements the same way again. The recreation of Las Vegas as a paean not to gambling (slightly dirty) but to consumerism (a wonderful thing in all respects) will end up with the largest shopping mall on earth, with a bit of gambling and decadence thrown in on the side.
Already the "naughtiness" is being shifted away from the strip. Chicken McNuggets, or whatever that famous lap dancing place is called, is situated a few hundred yards West-south-west of the Stratosphere, but it might as well be on a different planet from the Fashion Mall. And, note, you are not assaulted by slot machines in the Fashion Mall. How long before the slot machines are removed from the airport, as LV rebrands itself as a collection of condos and hotels with great shops and, oh, we have a casino as well.
At least, some of them will have. While the new mega-developments have gambling attached, it is very much an attachment rather than a central theme. The central theme is, yes, shopping.
Researchers trying to make tiny machines have turned to the power of nature, engineering a virus to attract metals and then using it to build minute wires for microscopic batteries. The resulting nanowires can be used in minuscule lithium ion battery electrodes, which in turn would be used to power very small machines, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Anyone who has read the book Blood Music will see where I am coming from, here.
No matter how much scientists (or engineers) assure you that there is nothing to worry about, you only have to look at the one in a million chance (say, the impact of the experimental drug on those six volunteers in north-west London) to realize that, in the famous words of the IRA when talking about the failed assassination attempt on Margaret Thatcher, "We only have to succeed once".
Viruses are bastards. They aren't like bacteria (which are veritable blundering giants by comparison). They are minuscule, they hide well, and the medical world doesn't really understand the ones already in existence, despite their simplicity. It can't cure Shingles. It can't cure herpes, and it certainly can't cure HIV. And, well, it doesn't seem to do that well against 'flu. "The bloody things keep mutating", they cry, as if this is some kind of unfair trick outside the rules of the game.
While the world and Greenpeace warn of global warming, or running out of oil, or denaturing the planet, we are happily creating new viruses when we can't even control the old ones already around. And for why? So that the battery that powers your Ipod can be smaller and last longer.
What an irony that would be. Humanity destroyed in search for longer-lasting battery.
+++++
What's happening to the Vegas I Love?
Someone asked me the other day about the plot of land between the Wynn and the Venetian. I had vaguely assumed that it was going to be an extension of one or the other, but the horrible truth emerged this morning.
Las Vegas Sands Corp, owner of the famed Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, announced today that Barneys New York will open a flagship store in the company's new Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino currently being constructed next to The Venetian on the Las Vegas strip.
"Barneys is the preeminent name in luxury retail and is a perfect match for the style and sophistication visitors have come to expect at The Venetian and will soon experience at The Palazzo," said Robert Goldstein, president of The Venetian and The Palazzo.
Opening in the summer of 2007, The Shoppes at The Palazzo(TM) will offer an upscale shopping experience with Barneys, one of the most sophisticated and well known luxury retailers in the country, serving as the anchor of the 450,000 square-foot retail complex.
This is one more nail in the coffin of Las Vegas as a gambling centre and one more screw in the dry-walling of the new Las Vegas. The US has always had a kind of dichotomous relationship with LV -- its gambling decadence sits uneasily with what is, at heart, a deeply conservative country. They liked it, but they felt guilty about it, so it was kept separate.
However, Americans do not feel guilty about consumerism. Indeed, it's almost a religion. Out with the old and in with the new. You don't have to see Death of A Salesman, but once you do, you never look at advertisements the same way again. The recreation of Las Vegas as a paean not to gambling (slightly dirty) but to consumerism (a wonderful thing in all respects) will end up with the largest shopping mall on earth, with a bit of gambling and decadence thrown in on the side.
Already the "naughtiness" is being shifted away from the strip. Chicken McNuggets, or whatever that famous lap dancing place is called, is situated a few hundred yards West-south-west of the Stratosphere, but it might as well be on a different planet from the Fashion Mall. And, note, you are not assaulted by slot machines in the Fashion Mall. How long before the slot machines are removed from the airport, as LV rebrands itself as a collection of condos and hotels with great shops and, oh, we have a casino as well.
At least, some of them will have. While the new mega-developments have gambling attached, it is very much an attachment rather than a central theme. The central theme is, yes, shopping.
