Last spring, in a piece at TechCentralStation, I disputed the notion that the world was “using up its resources,” and I cited the prevailing belief about the fate of the Easter Islanders:

There was a recent story in The Guardian about a new United Nations study, with the misleading headline, Two-Thirds of World’s Resources “Used Up”. It’s not the first time we’ve seen such hysteria, and it certainly won’t be the last. But relax — the sky isn’t falling. The headline is nonsensical, because it falsely implies that “resources” are a static quantity, and non-renewable. As an example, they often cite Easter Island, whose civilization supposedly failed due to running out of them.

At least one commenter at the time questioned the use of the word “supposedly,” asking (if I recall correctly) if anyone disputed that.

Well, apparently some people do now.

[Via Iain Murray]

Researchers have been able to achieve electrowetting of nanotubes with mercury. If they can do it with other metals at higher temperatures, it could lead to reliable nanowires.

Somehow, I suspect that there will be a lot of demand for this product, at least among men.

…if I still lived in the Great White North. Behold, the Chevy 454 big-block snowblower. I’ll bet that sucker will toss your driveway’s contents into your neighbor’s yard. You know, the one three blocks away?

Somewhere, Tim the Toolman is grunting. And drooling.

Get down on your knees and beg, Mother Nature! Who’s your daddy now?

…toward utility fog? And get your bumper sticker.

Here, at long last, is what the world has been waiting for. First came sliced bread, and now, finally, we have the temperature-controlled butter keeper.

Ah, life in the twenty-first century.

[Update at noon]

We do indeed live in an age of technological wonders. How did we ever roast marshmallows without it?

And what marsh do marshmallows grow in, anyway?

The new version of Firefox is out.

Stephen Gordon has some thoughts on Asimov’s Three Laws, post-humanism, and personhood.

I have no doubt that this will be militarily very effective, but I wonder what kind of safeguards they have in place to keep the bad guys from getting their hands on one, in such a way as to use it?

I’d like to think that at some point these weapons will have security measures, such as temporary codes (good for, say, an hour), to prevent them from being used by the terrorists. I don’t know whether it’s practical or not, but as our weaponry continues to advance, so will theirs if they can get access to it.

I have no doubt that this will be militarily very effective, but I wonder what kind of safeguards they have in place to keep the bad guys from getting their hands on one, in such a way as to use it?

I’d like to think that at some point these weapons will have security measures, such as temporary codes (good for, say, an hour), to prevent them from being used by the terrorists. I don’t know whether it’s practical or not, but as our weaponry continues to advance, so will theirs if they can get access to it.