New Google Tool Yields Interesting Results

Using Google's new tool, Google Insight, you can zero in on a population's interest in a particular subject.

Smoke without Worry

Advances in Nanotechnology Lead to Healthy Cigarette

Nanotechnology has paved the way for a healthy cigarette -- one whose filter can absorb every impurity and release small doses of oxygen to the smoker, which doctors say will keep the smoker alive on average 5-10 years longer than a non-smoker.
This technology reportedly cost Big Tobacco $1-$2-billion dollars to develop and was years in the making. It is code-named "Last Laugh." It is expected to reap big rewards for Big Tobacco, which saw its fortunes decline dramatically when it was sued by several states in the '90s for malfeasance.
Essentially, the space-age filter is made of micro fibers, which can convert--or invert--toxins into pure oxygen. This has even health nuts taking notice.
"It will allow former smokers to return to their first love, smoking. It will allow lifelong non-smokers to finally puff up. It will allow us to market to grade-schoolers now," said Chief Technological Officer, Bill Wade.
"Really, the only thing about smoking that will stay the same is the smell," Wade said. "We found smokers are very nostalgic about the smell, so we didn't mess with it."
Wade said the smell of cigarettes will now be associated with "health" and "longevity," instead of the more negative associations of the past.

Event

New Addiction

My posts may be spotty for the next couple of weeks because of a new addiction called Team Fortress 2.
I rate this "ESE": Extremely satisfying escapism.

SL/at "Hippie Pay Island"

Hadda Doobie: i walked past 72 of you here and not a single one of you is wearing a shred of tie dye

Morgantown Voom: hadda im not a hippie

Hadda Doobie shouts: you should all be arrested

Morgantown Voom: lol

Morgantown Voom: if it makes u feel better

Morgantown Voom: I dont got no shoes on

Hadda Doobie: how is your hair?

Hadda Doobie: nice and neat?

Morgantown Voom: bald lol

Hadda Doobie: ok lol

Hadda Doobie: you are excused

Morgantown Voom: hahahha

[a guy wearing tight white shorts walked by]

Hadda Doobie: i can't believe some of you are wearing preppy tennis outfits here

Morgantown Voom: hahahaha

Doba Despres shouts: i may not wear tye dye but i'll be dayam'd if i'm ever gonna wear anything preppy!

[Then he saw him]
Hadda Doobie: dude, that crocodile on your shirt




Cat Tomorrow shouts: Hadda: who made you the hippie fashion police anyway?
Hadda Doobie shouts: is that an IZOD??

SL/Ol' McDonald's

My first chance to talk to a Serbian in roughly two weeks...

I remember Milo telling me there was a McDonald's in Serbia (which has since burned down due to rioting). I wanted to ask about the McDonald's as soon as I could.

Patric Styrian: How is Serbia?
Konza Roundabout*: like always...bad
Patric Styrian: are you there right now?
Konza Roundabout: yes, im in Belgrade
Patric Styrian: is the mcDonalds back up yet?
Konza Roundabout: hahahahahaha
Konza Roundabout: i hate them
Konza Roundabout: i mean not McD
Konza Roundabout: hypoctrites
Konza Roundabout: they're destroying and tomorrow will eat big mac
Patric Styrian: true
Konza Roundabout: they didn't destroy pizza hut
Patric Styrian: i wonder why not
Konza Roundabout: i dont know
Konza Roundabout: stupid Serbs didnt know that hut is also american
Patric Styrian: poor things
Konza Roundabout: yea it's kinda..i feel sorry coz of ppl
Patric Styrian: as an American, i can't show my face there right now
Konza Roundabout: lol
Patric Styrian: i dodged milo earlier today
Konza Roundabout: we will say that you r from Kosovo
Konza Roundabout: :)
Patric Styrian: i like spelling Kosovo
Konza Roundabout: ahhh
Konza Roundabout: why must it be so complicated here
Patric Styrian: according to milo, serbia is surrounded by countries it dislikes and distrusts
Konza Roundabout: not really
Konza Roundabout: dont trust milo
Konza Roundabout: he's radical
Patric Styrian: milo and i share a house, and i remember coming home and seeing portrait of slobodan milosevic on wall
Konza Roundabout: pih
Konza Roundabout: i was in prison 1998
Konza Roundabout: political dissident
Patric Styrian: did they treat you well?
Konza Roundabout: what u think?
Patric Styrian: well, we have some prisons over here that are considered white collar
Konza Roundabout: ppl in america don't go to prison because of their political opinions
Patric Styrian: well, some do for not paying taxes
Konza Roundabout: hahaha
Konza Roundabout: yea
Konza Roundabout: you can even find hundreds of pages about our situation on net
Patric Styrian: one day and night, i'm going to do nothing but read about serbia
Patric Styrian: better yet, i think i'll give serbia an entire weekend
Konza Roundabout: ahh you dont have enough time for it in your life
Patric Styrian: i want serbia monday-tuesday, albania tuesday-wednesday, Bosnia wed-th...
Patric Styrian: i never will have time for america
Konza Roundabout: well you will finish albania in one week
Patric Styrian: lol
Konza Roundabout: Serbia is toooo old
Patric Styrian: Serbia is very young in our eyes
Patric Styrian: they haven't caught up to our technology yet, so they are young
Konza Roundabout: ahhh
Konza Roundabout: we don't have many kids
Patric Styrian: no?
Konza Roundabout: nope
Konza Roundabout: we r duying
Patric Styrian: awwww
Patric Styrian: i hope serbia can hang in there
Konza Roundabout: i dont know...first time since shit started i cant handle it anymore
Patric Styrian: conflict gets old
Patric Styrian: boring
Patric Styrian: predictable
Konza Roundabout: i want to come to usa
Patric Styrian: i want to go to holland
Patric Styrian: holland is full of nice people on here
Konza Roundabout: my best friend is living in amsterdam
Konza Roundabout: they all get high
Patric Styrian: mmm
Patric Styrian: country seems to run itself
Patric Styrian: everyone can get high there and country gets away with it
Konza Roundabout: And you can buy weed when you r not sick
Konza Roundabout: ;)
Patric Styrian: they allow weed there for when you're perfectly "well"
Patric Styrian: and it makes you "weller"
Konza Roundabout: yapo

*a pseudonym

Graphic

This graph seems to prove that news outlets prefer covering "money" more than "love" or "sex"; whereas, people doing searches overwhelmingly pick "sex" over "money." Love comes somewhere in between.

SL/Before my screen went black

SL/At nude beach

Zooming in to see if those are tattoos or clothes.

Virtual Reality IS Reality, says famed Inventor

In a recent interview and speech, inventor/futurologist Ray Kurzweil said the following will happen:

* Ordinary machines will achieve human-like intelligence in the next 20 years.

* We will have the option of having tiny robots transplanted into our brains, which will increase intelligence.

* Every part of our body will have an artificial counterpart enabling us to live longer.

* Virtual reality will compete with "ordinary reality" as a viable alternative.

These advances will come from a mind-boggling "billion-fold increase in the price-performance of computers in the next 25 years," he said, combined with computers getting vastly smaller. How small? "100,000 fold smaller" (according to the BBC), which "would lead to blood cell-size devices... that can go inside our bodies and keep us healthy and inside our brain and expand our intelligence."

These "blood cell computers" would be able to "produce full immersion virtual reality from inside the nervous system," he said.

"Virtual will compete with reality," Kurzweil was quoted telling the Game Developers Conference.

Here is a neat summary of what Kurzweil said about virtual reality:

"In virtual worlds we do real romance, real learning, real business. Virtual reality is real reality.

"Games are the cutting edge of what is happening - we are going to spend more of our time in virtual reality environments.

"Fully emergent games is really where we want to go. We will do most of our learning through these massively parallel interactions.

"Play is how we principally learn and principally create."


After posting this, I saw these headlines--all quite randomly.