57658431
submission
SpankiMonki writes:
Following on the heels of the Mt Gox, bankruptcy, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) plans to impose new regulations on currency exchanges dealing in bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Virtual currency exchanges would need to verify their customers' identities and report any suspicious transactions under the new rules.
The MAS said its regulation of virtual currency intermediaries — which include virtual currency exchanges and vending machines — was tailored specifically to the money-laundering and terrorism financing risks they posed. However, the new regulations would do nothing to ensure the solvency of virtual currency intermediaries or the safety of their client's funds.
57622001
submission
SpankiMonki writes:
Joshua Turner, a physicist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has proposed using the orbits of electrons around the nucleus of an atom as a new means to generate the binary states used in computing. Turner calls his idea orbital computing.
Turner points to recent discoveries (including a new material that allows rapid switching of it's electron states and new low-power terahertz laser technology) that could lead to the development of a computer with vastly improved performance over current technologies.
57466619
submission
SpankiMonki writes:
Austin-based design studio Chaotic Moon has created a drone armed with a Phazzer Dragon "Conductive Energy Weapon" as a tech demo. Chaotic Moon's CUPID (Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone) is based on a Tarot Hexacopter which typically carry digital SLRs for aerial video and photo shoots. CUPID could be quickly brought to production if security or law enforcement agencies express an interest in the system.
Chaotic Moon intern Jackson Sheehan was used as the system's first human target; Sheehan was clearly subdued by the drone, falling onto safety mats against his will.
57422455
submission
SpankiMonki writes:
A US patent has been granted for a new machine that stimulates orgasms for women at the push of a button. The device, which is a little smaller than a packet of cigarettes, is designed as a medical implant that uses electrodes to trigger an orgasm. The device could help some women who suffer from orgasmic dysfunction.
55903183
submission
SpankiMonki writes:
Natalie Wolchover at Quanta Magazine has written an article about how Jeremy England, a MIT professor, may have found a theory of the origin of life grounded in physics. In a paper published last August by The Journal of Chemical Physics, England describes his theory, the "Statistical physics of self-replication".
Wolchover writes:"England['s]...formula...indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life."
England says his ideas pose no threat to Darwinian evolution: "On the contrary, I am just saying that from the perspective of the physics, you might call Darwinian evolution a special case of a more general phenomenon.”
