Book - "The Singularity is Near"

This book by futurist Ray Kurzweil is absolutely mind blowing!  I mean, I think you have to be kind of a science geek to really get into it, but I'll tell you about it anyways...  Kurzweil wrote this 652-page doorstop (harhar) to help us imagine the future, synthesizing our current technologies & predicting the developing ones, by explaining the practical applications.

Is this how you picture nanobots?

A lot of the book is about nanotechnology, which for me is the totally trippy part.  We are currently developing microscopic robots that mimic the functions of our own body's cells--blood cells, pancreatic cells, respiratory cells.  Do you realize the implications of this kind of technology?  No more diseases!  Because the teeny tiny robots swimming around in your body will fix all that!

This is not a joke, or some fairytale.

Kurzweil says, "Nanoscale scaffolds have been used to grow biological tissues such as skin.  Future therapies could use these tiny scaffolds to grow any type of tissue needed for repairs inside the body" (242).  ...Which theoretically means we'll be able to live forever!

This is a cell.

How exciting is that?  I'd love to hear what you think.

TOMS - One for One

At first, I thought TOMS was just a gimmick to make white middle-class consumers feel good about buying an over-priced pair of shoes...  But that was before I read about the creator of TOMS, Blake Mycoskie.  He's an amazing person, and I was so impressed by him that I read his book, "Start Something That Matters."  The book explains Blake's business model, which somewhat improves the "evils" of capitalism.  His story made me inspired to do my own charitable business kind of thing--I re-opened my Etsy shop and decided to donate 50% of the sale price of each item to my chosen organization.

Generate Hope is the organization that I chose because it's based in San Diego and it helps women who are victims of sex-trafficking, which is a cause I'm passionate about.  I feel like, now knowing what the abused women go through, how could I not help prostitutes?  It's something that pulls at my heart.

It's more common than you think.

Now, I want to write a letter to Blake and buy TOMS for everyone I know.  I want to spread his story to all who will listen!  I would even love to work for TOMS, but I don't know what the chances of that are...  What I am going to do is organize a "One Day Without Shoes" group to promote his compassionate message.

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/photowall

All I need now is my own pair...  Luckily, I dug up a Nordstrom's gift card that I had been saving for something special.  My TOMS will arrive in the mail any day!

My Stats

Cool!  While I live in the United States, I have some readers from United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Russia...

Film - "Blade Runner"

I've heard that Blade Runner was "one of the best movies of the eighties"--a decade I am very disappointed to have missed--so I decided to watch it tonight.  First, it was waaayyyy different that I expected!  And not really in a good way...I chalk it up the sociocultural differences between now & 1982.

When I first saw Pris, I thought she was a transgender prostitute because she was walking on a dark street.  What a dork.  But when I Googled Daryl Hannah I found out she was in one of my favorite movies!

...And then I felt dumb for not recognizing her.  Pris ended up being my favorite character; partly because she was the only one that seemed "human."  I just could not understand  the other characters and why they did what they did.  I guess you could say they weren't relatable.

I totally didn't get what was up with this guy...but then again, I'm a little slow.  He looked really cool anyways.

Of course, I'm a fan of Rachel and her 1940's/Goth awesomeness.  No surprise there.

I was pretty disturbed by this scene--it seemed like he was trying to rape her.  Even more disturbing, I think it was supposed to be sexy.  Ugh, it was creepy!

Some parts were pretty racist.

But I really liked the music!

Yay for Lana Del Rey!

She's effing weird and I love it!