a variety of links related to the Neurotechnology Industry Organization

NATIONAL NEUROTECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE (NNTI) Overview
The Neurotechnology Industry 2007 Report

DARPA unveils plans for “Luke’s Binoculars” (Connors)

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Food Sovereignty or Green Revolution 2.0?

This time the “silver bullet” has a gun

ETC Group today releases a 16-page review

of five new initiatives intended to launch what ETC dubs “Green Revolution 2.0″ in Africa.

The Brain on the Stand

an article by By JEFFREY ROSEN Published: March 11, 2007
about neurotech and impact on law
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U.N.: Hunger Kills 18,000 Kids Each Day

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Climate reengineering

The new age of climate re-engineering and the $25 million bounty from Richard Branson is discussed at open the future. It is noted that the re-engineering efforts would have the best chance of succeeding if we adjust technology and behavior to stop making the problems worse.

Gregory Benford’s proposal for climate re-engineering is discussed at future pundit The Benford proposal possesses the advantages of being both one of the simplest planet-cooling technologies so far suggested and being initially testable in a local context. He suggests suspension of tiny, harmless particles (sized at one-third of a micron) at about 80,000 feet up in the stratosphere. These particles could be composed of diatomaceous earth.

Benford says treating the Arctic would cost only $100 million per year. You could do the whole planet for a couple of billion.
for links see source

some other books may be of interest

Disease Control Priorities in developing countries

Global Burden of Disease

Priorities in Health

Center for Neurotechnology Studies Launched at Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

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The Millennium Development Goals: Beyond Averages

Read More at Source

Instant Expert: Brilliant Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years

Link to Source

Artificial Hippocampus, the Borg Hive Mind, and Other Neurological Endeavors

new column by me out

World Military Spending Out Does Anything Else

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In BRIEF: sex selection; deep freeze

Sex selection 1: undercover reporters from the Sunday Times newspaper have found that a prominent IVF specialist in London is sending patients to Cyprus so that they can choose the sex of their baby, at a cost of up to £12,000. Sex selection for “family balancing” is illegal in Britain — and it turns out that it is illegal in Cyprus as well. Cypriot authorities are investigating whether criminal charges should be laid. The Sunday Times also revealed that Rainsbury’s partner in Cyprus, the well-known Dr Panos Zavos, was also offering sex selection — but he was prepared to undercut him by £3,000. ~ Sunday Times, Nov 5

Sex selection 2: Britain’s best-known IVF expert, Professor Lord Robert Winston, has backed sex selection for “family balancing”. “I think there are a lot of shibboleths to which we have paid lip service, but when you analyse them they certainly don’t threaten the moral fabric of our society,” he told the Sunday Herald. “And one of them is sex selection. I think if sex selection was freely available in Britain it would change the balance of society hardly at all, if at all.” ~ Sunday Herald, Nov 5

Rescued from deep freeze: A Spanish woman has given birth to a baby from a donated embryo which had been frozen for 13 years in a Barcelona IVF clinic. The news is expected to give fresh impetus to researchers who claim that thousands of embryos are being destroyed every year because Britain lacks an embryo adoption program. ~ London Times, Nov 4
Link to source

Nextfest

Nextfest

Brainball: Winning by Relaxing

Brainball is a game where you compete in relaxation. The players’ brainwaves control a ball on a table, and the more relaxed scores a goal over the opponent.

Brainball is a game that goes against the conventional competitive concept, and also reinvents the relationship between man and machine. Instead of activity and adrenalin, it is passivity and calmness that mark the truly successful Brainball player. Brainball is unique amongst machines since it is not controlled by the player’s rational and strategic thoughts and decisions. On the contrary, the participants are dependent on the body’s own intuitive reactions to the game machine.

At first glance, Brainball seems similar to a traditional two player game - two people challenge one and other and take their respective positions at each end of a table that is laid out with two goals and a little ball. The rest of the game’s equipment is more special. Both players wear a strap around their forehead that contains electrodes and is wired up to a biosensor system. This system, that is used to measure the body’s biological signals, is tightly fastened to the frontal lobes and registers the electrical activity in the brain - so called EEG (electro­encephalo­gram). The players brain activity is graphed in a diagram on a computer screen so that the public can easily follow the players mental processes during the match.

The brain waves that move the ball forward, increasing the chance of victory, are called alpha and theta waves. They are generated in the brain when one is calm and relaxed. A considerably stressed player will therefore lose. The matches outcome is rarely obvious since the transition between calm and stress, and vice versa, can occur quickly. Often, the ball will roll backwards and forwards for a few minutes before the game is concluded. In this way, Brainball is an exciting and social game where the audience can follow the match by watching the ball on the table, the graph on the screens and the more or less relaxed expressions of the players.

Link to Soure

see here

TV Watching Tied To Autism, Study Says

A news release from Cornell reported that the autism rate was 1 in 2,500 children 30 years ago, but has increased to as high as 1 in 166 as TV viewing has increased.
Link to Source

My comment: Hmmm