Big Data Visualization

New database technology speeds up visualizations by as much as 70 times on ordinary computers.
Short Video at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/video/520481/visualizing-big-data-in-milliseconds-on-cheap-computers/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20131022

10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2013

1)   Deep Learning: With massive amounts of computational power, machines can now recognize objects and translate speech in real time. Artificial intelligence is finally getting smart.
2)  Ultra-Efficient Solar Power: Doubling the efficiency of solar devices would completely change the economics of renewable energy. Here is a design that just might make it possible.
3)   Big Data from Cheap Phones: Collecting and analyzing information from simple cell phones can provide surprising insights into how people move about and behave—and even help us understand the spread of diseases.
4)   Temporary Social Media: Messages that quickly self-destruct could enhance the privacy of online communication and make people feel freer to be spontaneous.
5)   Smart Watches:   The designers of the Pebble watch realized that a mobile phone is more useful if you don’t have to take it out of your pocket.
6)   Memory Implants: A maverick neuroscientist believes he has deciphered the code by which the brain forms long-term memories.
7)   Baxter: the Blue-Collar Robot: Rethink Robotics’ new creation is easy to interact with, but the innovations behind the robot show just how hard it is to get along with people.
8)   Additive Manufacturing: GE, the world's largest manufacturer, is on the verge of using 3-D printing to make jet parts.
9)   Prenatal DNA Sequencing: Reading the DNA of fetuses is the next frontier of the genome revolution. Do you really want to know the genetic destiny of your unborn child? 
10)   Supergrids: A high-power circuit breaker could finally make DC power grids practical.
More:

http://www.technologyreview.com/content/10-breakthrough-technologies-2013/

An interesting idea

David Keith's idea:

A cheap and easy plan to stop global warming

Customize several Gulfstream business jets with military engines and with equipment to produce and disperse fine droplets of sulfuric acid. Fly the jets up around 20 kilometers—significantly higher than the cruising altitude for a commercial jetliner but still well within their range. At that altitude in the tropics, the aircraft are in the lower stratosphere. The planes spray the sulfuric acid, carefully controlling the rate of its release. The sulfur combines with water vapor to form sulfate aerosols, fine particles less than a micrometer in diameter. These get swept upward by natural wind patterns and are dispersed over the globe, including the poles. Once spread across the stratosphere, the aerosols will reflect about 1 percent of the sunlight hitting Earth back into space. Increasing what scientists call the planet’s albedo, or reflective power, will partially offset the warming effects caused by rising levels of greenhouse gases.

For more: 
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/511016/a-cheap-and-easy-plan-to-stop-global-warming/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130208

2011 Turing Award Winner - Prof. Judea Pearl

2011 A.M. Turing Award Winner Judea Pearl's innovations have enabled remarkable advances in the partnership between humans and machines that is the foundation of Artificial Intelligence. Pearl has also pioneered developments in probabilistic and causal reasoning and their application to a broad range of problems.
For more:
http://amturing.acm.org/

Helix Nebula ‐ the Science Cloud

Big science teams up with big business to kick-start European cloud computing
Geneva, Switzerland - 1st-March-2012
‘Helix Nebula ‐ the Science Cloud’, will support the massive IT requirements of European scientists, and become available to governmental organisations and industry after an initial pilot phase.
The partnership is working to establish a sustainable European cloud computing infrastructure, supported by industrial partners, which will provide stable computing capacities and services that elastically meet demand.
For more:
http://www.cloudsigma.com/en/about-us/press-releases/211

Cloud computing standards - Coming Soon

The University of Melbourne has joined NTT Data and over 300 other companies collaborating on standards to help businesses specify their cloud-computing requirements under the auspices of user-focused group the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), the group announced today as it celebrated its first anniversary in an update briefing in Melbourne.
For more:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/nab-bmw-show-off-cloud-standards-progress-339332889.htm?ocid=nl_TNB_02032012_fea_1

Venture Capitalists: Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley

Despite a still sluggish economy, venture capital firms poured a total of $28.4 billion into 3,673 deals last year—one of the highest levels of dollar investments of the decade—with the majority of deals going into the software and biotechnology industries.
The annual figures represent an increase of 22 percent in dollar terms and a 4 percent increase in the number of deals compared with the 2010 figures, according to The MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.
for more: http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/07/venture-capitalists-favor-silicon-valley-but-silicon-alley-is-rising-fast/