Last week's violent government attack on the hugely popular site Megaupload -- the U.S. government arresting Belgian citizens in New Zealand, of all places, and stealing at gunpoint servers bank accounts and property -- has sent shock waves through the entire digital world. The first shock was the realization that the ...read more

There's been a long debate over digital technology. Does it help or harm the cause of liberty, individualism and human rights? People who say it has hurt point out that government has been able to use the products of private innovation for its own purposes. The government can watch us ...read more

A staple of action/thriller movies like the Mission: Impossible and the James Bond series is that the government agencies have all the cool gadgets, stuff we can’t get. There’s usually some opening scene featuring geeky scientists displaying the latest technology, such as a pen that is really a flamethrower or ...read more

In the days following the gift-giving holidays, many millions of people stand in judgement over the quality of the gifts they gave and the gifts they receive. Did they arrive on time? Did the quality hold up? Did the reality match the advertising hype? The Internet ads an extra wrinkle. ...read more

For years now, I've been telling my subscribers that Geron (NASDAQ: GERN) is not a serious player in the stem cell space. Financial and non-financial media, however, have inevitably treated the company as if it is the only really important stem cell company. I've said repeatedly, in fact, that the company's ...read more

Recently I saw a Youtube clip of Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, in which he claimed that the Apple’s iPad will be the cause of future unemployment. His claim was that people will no longer buy actual books and everything will be downloaded onto e-readers. This is supposed to destroy ...read more

Pushing Buttons Like The Jetsons In the classic and futuristic television series from 1962 to 1963 – I admit that I adore this show and could watch every episode 100 times – people work only a few hours a day, travel at 500 miles per hour in flying cars that go ...read more

Patrick Cox of Breakthrough Technology Alert wrote about the nuclear renaissance just a few months back, before the Japanese tsunami brought such negative attention to nuclear: Today, we’re experiencing what has been termed the “Nuclear Renaissance.” There are two aspects to this. One is domestic. The other is international, but related ...read more

Emerging transformational technologies, as economist Joseph Schumpeter pointed out, do not advance the economy by consistent predictable increments. Rather, they disrupt and destroy, bankrupting entire industries by offering clearly superior alternatives. Historically, however, these technological advances have rarely been recognized and welcomed when they first appeared. For the most part, they ...read more

Computer processing power, as you know, has been growing exponentially for decades. Our means of interacting with computers, however, have changed little since they first appeared, but that’s changing now and the manner in which it’s changing will both drastically improve how computers enhance our lives. Computers still convey information to ...read more