Whuffie Stream

Whuffie (Longform Blog)
April 15
emergentfutures: In the face of the sharing economy, new insurance models slowly emerge Also intriguing, though more mysterious because it is still stealthy, is a UK-based auto insurance company called jFloat. Not only does jFloat aim to insure collaborative consumption, it describes itself as a “collaborative consumption self-insurance platform.” Essentially, jFloat users come together and pay the majority of their premiums into collective pools of 100 people called “floats,” which consist of extended family members and like-minded people who fill out a survey on the company’s website. The cohort can approve or deny people membership. When a member needs to pay a claim that’s below a certain amount (which founder Kim Miller would not share), the money comes out of that pool. About 80 percent of a member’s premium goes to the pool, and 20 percent goes to a reinsurer – insurance purchased by an insurance company – to handle claims that go over the maximum amount. Miller would not share reinsurance partners.     Full Story: PandoDaily

emergentfutures:

In the face of the sharing economy, new insurance models slowly emerge

Also intriguing, though more mysterious because it is still stealthy, is a UK-based auto insurance company called jFloat. Not only does jFloat aim to insure collaborative consumption, it describes itself as a “collaborative consumption self-insurance platform.”

Essentially, jFloat users come together and pay the majority of their premiums into collective pools of 100 people called “floats,” which consist of extended family members and like-minded people who fill out a survey on the company’s website. The cohort can approve or deny people membership. When a member needs to pay a claim that’s below a certain amount (which founder Kim Miller would not share), the money comes out of that pool. About 80 percent of a member’s premium goes to the pool, and 20 percent goes to a reinsurer – insurance purchased by an insurance company – to handle claims that go over the maximum amount. Miller would not share reinsurance partners.

 

 

Full Story: PandoDaily

(via futurescope)

April 13
“ The trade-off here is that as virtual value is created, real-world value is used up. About 982 megawatt hours a day, to be exact. That’s enough to power roughly 31,000 U.S. homes, or about half a Large Hadron Collider. Virtual Bitcoin Mining Is a Real-World Environmental Disaster - Bloomberg (via iamdanw)

(via notational)
April 10
“ How did you pay for your coffee this morning, by cash? By credit card? If a growing number of bank-fearing techies have their way, you’ll soon be able to pay for that mocha latte through an untraceable virtual currency called Bitcoin. You can’t touch it, it’s prized in the underworld, its creator disappeared in a cloud of mystery, and if you want to keep it safe, you should keep it hidden in a bunch of different places. Bitcoin Explainer, Mother Jones (via motherjones)

(via utnereader)
April 9
No More Typed Passwords, Berkeley Researchers Develop “Passthoughts”

infoneer-pulse:

“Instead of typing your password, in the future you may only have to think your password,” explains a UC Berkeley School of Information press release about new research that utilizes brainwaves to authenticate users instead of passwords of numbers and letters. With a $100 consumer-friendly brainwave-reading headset, the Neurosky MindSet, Professor John Chuang found that the mere task of concentrating on one’s breath was enough to uniquely identify them.

» via TechCrunch
March 31

prostheticknowledge:

BionicOpter 

Remote-controlled drone that flies and is in the form of a dragonfly - video embedded below:

With the BionicOpter, Festo has technically mastered the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly. Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.

More Here

(via gracklesstolemychildren)

March 15

Where by I pontificate (briefly) about one of the sciencey elements in my Sci Fi story “Edan” of pop-culture gizmo called “Manga 9F5”

• Gravity, time, and molecular structures are effected by this quantum tool.
• Instead of selling the technology to the government, Colin Lloyd distributes it as open source hardware and software, but also sells it as a product.
• Instead of military or scientific applications, it is used by the entertainment industry. 
• Manga 9F5 now comes in pink! 
(Via me at edanbook)

+
tacanderson: I wonder, however, if this isn’t just a case of misdirected body horror. We don’t like cyborg modification, generally. We might wax emphatically about the benefits of cochlear and retinal implants, pacemakers and insulin pumps, and praise the recent breakthroughs in prosthetic limbs. But we are still uncomfortable by them. Apotemnophilia is considered a disease. “Cyber addiction” is considered a disease. Lepht Anonym is denied health insurance, and castigated by medical professionals. We might allow the possibility of a modification as a fix for a debilitating condition, but that is because we consider it to be a debilitating condition itself. One is still “disabled”, if one must be constantly plugged into a machine. But this is not simply me stumping for the rights of grinders and bio-hackers. My concern is that while there are real issues involved with placing cameras everywhere, our discomfort with Google Glass is drawn by body horror, not fear of surveillance institutions. It is difficult to turn down necessary skepticism, but if it is not driven by the right motivations, it is more akin to fear. In the same way that the outrage against drones is, in some ways, driven by a fear of “evil flying robots” more than a political reaction to technological imperialism, it is more important than ever to think about how cameras and data actually work, whether they are strapped to an aircraft or our faces, our architecture or our appliances. (via looking through glass, into mirrors | THE STATE) I’m very optimistic on the future of wearable computing, even if I’m not as excited about this first iteration of Glass, but I also think it’s important that we stop and ask ourselves about the implications of tech on society. Even if we still (and likely will) move forward; we should do so with our eyes wide open - so to speak.  I am both disturbed and smitten with the UK’s Black Mirror (a sort of  modern Twilight Zone for those who have not seen it.) The “Grain” episode is disturbing and very well done. Aside on Drones: I don’t fear “Evil Flying Robots” - I think mechanizing killing is a very very bad idea similar to chemical & biological warfare & nuclear warfare.  It’s something we will end up swearing off (IF we survive.) and I would like to see the human race highly limit, ban, regulate these things rapidly to avoid anymore atrocities. Tac, have you read Doctorow’s “Down & Out In The Magic Kingdom”? (Excellent depiction of “grain” like software implant that detects other’s social standing or “whuffie”.)

tacanderson:

I wonder, however, if this isn’t just a case of misdirected body horror. We don’t like cyborg modification, generally. We might wax emphatically about the benefits of cochlear and retinal implants, pacemakers and insulin pumps, and praise the recent breakthroughs in prosthetic limbs. But we are still uncomfortable by them. Apotemnophilia is considered a disease. “Cyber addiction” is considered a disease. Lepht Anonym is denied health insurance, and castigated by medical professionals. We might allow the possibility of a modification as a fix for a debilitating condition, but that is because we consider it to be a debilitating condition itself. One is still “disabled”, if one must be constantly plugged into a machine.

But this is not simply me stumping for the rights of grinders and bio-hackers. My concern is that while there are real issues involved with placing cameras everywhere, our discomfort with Google Glass is drawn by body horror, not fear of surveillance institutions. It is difficult to turn down necessary skepticism, but if it is not driven by the right motivations, it is more akin to fear. In the same way that the outrage against drones is, in some ways, driven by a fear of “evil flying robots” more than a political reaction to technological imperialism, it is more important than ever to think about how cameras and data actually work, whether they are strapped to an aircraft or our faces, our architecture or our appliances.

(via looking through glass, into mirrors | THE STATE)

I’m very optimistic on the future of wearable computing, even if I’m not as excited about this first iteration of Glass, but I also think it’s important that we stop and ask ourselves about the implications of tech on society. Even if we still (and likely will) move forward; we should do so with our eyes wide open - so to speak. 

I am both disturbed and smitten with the UK’s Black Mirror (a sort of  modern Twilight Zone for those who have not seen it.) The “Grain” episode is disturbing and very well done.

Aside on Drones: I don’t fear “Evil Flying Robots” - I think mechanizing killing is a very very bad idea similar to chemical & biological warfare & nuclear warfare.  It’s something we will end up swearing off (IF we survive.) and I would like to see the human race highly limit, ban, regulate these things rapidly to avoid anymore atrocities.

Tac, have you read Doctorow’s “Down & Out In The Magic Kingdom”? (Excellent depiction of “grain” like software implant that detects other’s social standing or “whuffie”.)

March 13

hundredacrehood:

One Man Destroys The Need For Paper Money In A Single Interview

The global economy is broken; this man is here to help us fix it.

At 1:21, your dollar becomes worthless. At 3:30, he explains why this can’t be stopped. At 6:30, he obliterates the minimum wage. Then, at 7:57, he tells you why banks are better than you. And at 8:30, you start pondering a new career path.

+
Aljazeera - Bitcoin Rises, by Nicolas Mendoza

bitcoinnews:

Nicolas Mendoza (@NicolasMendo) follows up to his May 2012 article in Al Jazeera with the more recent developments.  Excerpts:

“What we have here is radically different from the current system where money creation is based on debt, politically motivated, surrounded by secrecy, inflationary, unilateralist, colonialist, and exploitative of powerless nations, etc. The flaws in the design of modern currency are at the roots of the social and ecological disasters we face today.”
-
“An economy built on debt-based currency can only “grow”, the 2008 economic collapse showed us, by putting more people deeper into debt. Inevitably, this leads to a society where the many always owe more and more to the few, eventually making democracy a farce. Bankers, as Robert Fisk puts it, are the dictators of the West.”
-
“The P2P money creation system that Bitcoin proposes is truly something else as it deflates the dark power of debt-based money in society; it allows envisioning a world where the wheels of debt are no longer at the origin of economic activity.”

 - http://aje.me/YrpzWo
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=152671.0 (Further discussion of the article)

All News - Daily E-mail Subscription - Twitter: @BitcoinNews
+
Bitcoin's Busy Year

On Wednesday, BitPay, the world’s leading Bitcoin payment processor, introduced a new WordPress tool integrating its services with Fulfillment by Amazon which stores, packs, ships and provides customer service to those using the Amazon marketplace, is available to merchants who do not sell their products through Amazon but who still want to provide the same quality services.  Less than a week ago Mt. Gox — the world’s leading Bitcoin exchange—announced their exclusive partner in the US and Canada. Just a few days earlier the first Bitcoin ATM, was unveiled. 

It’s been a busy two weeks for the cryptocurrency and its loyal followers, especially here in the United States. The first Bitcoin ATM graced the world on Feb. 23, thanks to Zach Harvey and Matt Whitlock of Lammasu Bitcoin Advisors in New Hampshire.

Mt. Gox, based in Japan, joined forces with Coinlab— the world’s first US-venture backed Bitcoin company — to cater to their customer base in the US and Canada.

The idea that WordPress users can accept Bitcoin might not sound new, and that’s because it isn’t. WooCommerce, the predecessor to BitPay WooCommerce, was released in November of last year. Now the partnership between BitPay, based in Atlanta Ga., and Amazon allows for merchants using WordPress to accept Bitcoin with ease while providing their customers with all of the benefits Fulfillment by Amazon has to offer.

BitPay has made accepting Bitcoin easier, verifying transactions, converting Bitcoin into the merchants desired currency and offering direct deposit for those payments. Adding the benefits of a Fulfillment by Amazon allows merchants to store their products in Fulfillment centers, where Amazon packages and ships the items and provides customer service in place of the individual seller.

Bitcoin has only been around since 2009 and since then it has been haunted by a shady past involving online gambling and illicit drug purchases.

But how exactly does that differ from the way any other currency is used?

(Source: priceofliberty)