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Archive for the ‘food’ category: Page 313

Feb 21, 2016

The audacious plan to end hunger with 3D printed food

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, food, materials

Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.

But Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3D printing, envisions a much more mundane—and ultimately more important—use for the technology. He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3D printer, and the earth’s 12 billion people feed themselves customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. Contractor’s vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years, so that each cartridge, whether it contains sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein or some other basic building block, would be fully exhausted before being returned to the store.

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Feb 16, 2016

How blockchain will save us from the perils of central bank price fixing

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, economics, finance, food

What will be interesting most about block chaining is when more countries drop their own traditional currency models & move to block chaining like one of the countries in Africa announced 2 weeks ago. I do know that many 2nd & 3rd world countries are finding electronic currency more appealing due to the Central Bank’s policies; however, what will be the impacts at the end of the day felt across the world as more and more 2nd & 3rd world markets switch their models. Immediately, we see risks with central banks; the question is where else (WBO, WTO, US, etc)


Many countries have experimented with price fixing and central planning over the last century. Right now, Venezuela’s government is fixing the prices of many products. This has resulted in widespread shortages of goods which we, as the lucky inhabitants of semi-free economies, take for granted.

Price fixing has failed in every area of the economy in which it has been tried. But while few serious economists would suggest that we have a team of bureaucrats set the price of rubber, wheat or coffee, we do have one sphere of the economy which is still centrally planned – our monetary system. This will fail just like all central planning fails. We are now moving into a dangerous new phase of price fixing by central banks. Having failed to stimulate economies with years of zero per cent interest rates, they are now discussing the prospect of negative interest rates (and some have even introduced them), the reductio ad absurdum of modern monetary economics.

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Feb 15, 2016

7 of the Craziest Predictions for the Future, From the Past

Posted by in categories: food, neuroscience

Here is a funny Time Magazine article highlighting all those dire predictions made decades ago:


Mind control, a steep uptick in kelp farming, and other crazy predictions that have yet to come true.

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Feb 14, 2016

History: I know that we often write about the future, etc

Posted by in categories: education, food, habitats, security, sustainability

However, one also must look at the past for insights and guidance on things that were done wrong to ensure bad history is not repeated.

Therefore, let me share with you a part of history that we need to be aware of and protect our future from ever repeating again.

Many folks have never heard of Poor Farms in the South and Poor Houses in some parts of the Midwest. Before soc. Security and Welfare we had poor farms/ houses. They date from the late 1800s until 1930s.

Poor farms/ houses were often filled with the elderly and others that had no money or anyone to take care them. People often worked the land for 16+ hours days, dressed in rags, and had very little to eat. Once you were there you could not leave ever until you died.

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Feb 14, 2016

Cotton Candy May be the Key to Creating Artificial Organs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, food

Cotton Candy’s new inspiration.


Scientists are now able to spin a three-dimensional slab of gelatin that contains a microvascular network, something very like our capillaries, using a cotton candy-esque machine.

What do cotton candy and artificial organs have in common? More than you might think.

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Feb 13, 2016

Interesting Futurism Animation 22

Posted by in category: food

Rice planting machine.

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Feb 11, 2016

Mammal brain frozen and thawed out perfectly for first time

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, neuroscience

Interesting. What do you think of this?


A mammal brain has been defrosted from cryogenic storage in an almost perfect state for the first time. This breakthrough, accomplished using a rabbit brain, brings us one – albeit tiny – step closer to the prospect of reanimating a human brain that has been cryogenically preserved.

After death, organs begin to decay, but we can delay this by cooling these tissues, just like freezing food. But in the same way that a frozen strawberry becomes soggy when defrosted, it is difficult to perfectly preserve mammals at cold temperatures. We, and strawberries, contain large amounts of water, which freezes into ice crystals that damage cells.

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Feb 10, 2016

Inside SU’s First Salon: Lab-Grown Organs, Cybersecurity, and AI Music Apps

Posted by in categories: computing, cyborgs, food, media & arts, quantum physics, robotics/AI, singularity, transhumanism

“We will find new things everywhere we look.” –Hunter S. Thompson

At the rate of 21st century technological innovation, each year brings new breakthroughs across industries. Advances in quantum computers, human genome sequencing for under $1,000, lab-grown meat, harnessing our body’s microbes as drugs, and bionic eye implants that give vision to the blind —the list is long.

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Feb 9, 2016

Scientists create synthetic biopathway to turn agriculture waste into ‘green’ products

Posted by in category: food

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have engineered a new synthetic biopathway that can more efficiently and cost-effectively turn agricultural waste, like corn stover and orange peels, into a variety of useful products ranging from spandex to chicken feed.

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Feb 5, 2016

Robot Chef Serves Up the Future of Home Cooking

Posted by in categories: business, food, habitats, internet, robotics/AI

Moley Chef Robots reappearing again today across the web. These do hold a lot of opportunity for restaurant franchises as well as homes. However, AI in a business has a break even point before the investment is no longer a wise or sound investment.

Always step back and look at the bigger picture 1st (e.g. look at all costs & any risks/ liabilities). Look at initial purchase/ lease costs, any write off/ depreciation opportunities, know your customer & your brand (if your restaurant is because of your master chef then a robot is a line chef which you consider how much your spending on a line chef as well as replacing them v. a robotic chef), know your local food & safety regs. Never good to put in a series of robotic chefs and local ordinances and city committees pass restrictions that forces you to de-install your $60K robot after 1 or 2 yrs.

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