Anjan Contractor and his startup, Systems and Materials Research Corporation, is planning on building a food printer, which may be utopian or dystopian depending on your sensibilities. Some of the choiciest information bits:

1. This makes it possible to produce delicious food from unappetizing sources such as insects and grass. We can thus produce food in a much more humane and environmentally friendly manner.
2. This makes tracking nutrients and planning diets much more straightforward. Health benefits, especially for those requiring highly specific diets.
3. Recipes will be software. Nutrition facts will be software. This opens very interesting possibilities.
4. This potentially makes food cheaper to produce (see insight 1) and store, as food will be stored as ingredient powders.

Still, though, it’s a bit… disconcerting… to think humans will eventually consume food in this manner. I guess it takes most of the fun in eating.

Concisely sums up my thoughts and reflections on my first ever national vote. Three of the choicest quotes:

Condemning the “stupidity” of the masses is only a sure sign that you aren’t paying attention to the real issues at hand, such as how inaccessible quality education is to so many, and that they’re not even on the internet to plug into the information and discussions that we share.

Perhaps instead of tweeting, “Pilipinas, kelan ka matututo?” what we should be rubbing our faces into instead is that we live in a country where it will take so much more involvement than casting your own ballot to see change. Baka ikaw ang kailangang matuto.

It’s about digging your teeth into the fact that in order to be empowered, you need to empower other people. And that anytime you manage to convince yourself that someone is of lesser value and consequence, it is the most ridiculous form of self-flattery. 

Don’t blame the victim, blame the system. And the biggest problem of this country is not the stupidity of the electorate, it’s the apathy and the holier-than-thou attitude of those who should know better. It’s time we get our hands dirty.

I am liking the new pope. :O Even if his history is questionable, the message of this recent homily is very admirable. I’m surprised that someone this liberal has ever reached the top of the conservative Vatican.

“They complain,” the Pope said in his homily, because they say, “If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good.” And Jesus corrects them: “Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good.” The disciples, Pope Francis explains, “were a little intolerant,” closed off by the idea of ​​possessing the truth, convinced that “those who do not have the truth, cannot do good.” “This was wrong … Jesus broadens the horizon.” Pope Francis said, “The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation”

“The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can… “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!”.. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

Yahoo’s on a roll. First, they redesign their home page, then they acquire Tumblr. Now, they turned boring old Flickr into something new, cool and beautiful. Mayer’s the best thing to happen to Yahoo.

The best feature length article yet about the “Internet of Things” or the “Sensor Revolution.”

We are surrounded by tiny, intelligent devices that capture data about how we live and what we do. Soon we’ll be able to choreograph them to respond to our needs, solve our problems, and even save our lives.

The future: chips and sensors in everything, from clothes, to doors, to cars, wallets, coffee makers, ovens. Our appliances will soon self report their status - the oven will inform you once your food is finished cooking, the clothes hung to dry will alert you once it started raining outside, and more. Furthermore, these inanimate objects will soon talk with each other; your sofa will tell your TV to turn itself on once it detects the presence of your butt. Everything will be partially automated; everything will be programmable. It’s like we’re wielding some form of God-like magic where we simply will our appliances and objects to do this and do that. Except this time, these objects have their own limited brain; they can talk to each other and anticipate our needs.

This, and wearable computing, will be the next technological revolution. It will follow the smartphone and internet revolution, and will be followed by goodness knows what. We have exciting times ahead.