I’m going to mull this over and see if I’m inspired. There have been some great fairy tale retellings (with Beauty and the Beast, Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella probably the most popular source material).

Bear in mind that these are stories that have been around for a long time and been polished like stones in a stream; Cinderella is known from Europe to China in various versions, and there’s supposedly one story that goes back to the Bronze Age.

Originally shared by ExtremeTech

A new cybernetic device could greatly improve your memory.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/234619-implantable-memory-prosthetic-opens-new-horizons-for-cyborg-future

Originally shared by David Brin

Much buzz about the new planet found to orbit Proxima Centauri, the (small) star closest to Earth and a loosely affiliated member of the Alpha Centauri triple star system that’s featured in Liu Cixin’s “The Three Body Problem.” Though Proxima b’s year only lasts 11.2 days, it appears to be in Proxima’s CUZ or Continuously Habitable Zone because Proxima is small and dim. That nearness also probably has locked planet b with one face always sunward, as our moon always faces Earth. That, plus Proxima’s likely fluctuations as a flare star, means that any life would likely cluster along a “twilight zone” where slanting sunlight and shaded zones allow water to pool and organisms to duck away from sleet storms of ionizing radiation.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/27/exclusive-heres-what-life-on-the-newly-discovered-second-earth-would-probably-look-like/#ixzz4Ia6byiWU

Originally shared by David Brin

My friend and fellow futurist Glen Hiemstra – founder of futurist.com – is interviewed by Popular Mechanics on the pitfalls and rewards of trying to peer ahead into tomorrow’s Undiscovered Country.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/news/a22354/how-to-see-the-future/?utm_source=SNSINEWS-new&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SNS+iNews+Highlights+for+August+17+2016

I found this fascinating. Things I noticed:

– For a much longer time than I’d expected, city formation is slow, and confined to the Middle East.

– About a thousand years in: Gilgamesh.

– Gradually, cities spread east and west, then fill in the gaps.

– Some cities I think of as really old are not nearly as old as some less well-known cities.

– Some cities I think of as very modern are actually old.

– Lots of cities in Africa, many of them medieval or before.

– Unsurprisingly, things start to get busy around the early Middle Ages.

– There’s a slowdown around, I think, the time of the Black Death, but no caption for it.

– Things get really busy around 1800.

– Surprisingly many cities were founded in the 20th century.

Originally shared by Amanda Patterson

http://metrocosm.com/history-of-cities/

Originally shared by Fred Hicks

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-37186135?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_news_ni&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=northern_ireland

Sharing this to read later.

Glancing over the titles and abstracts, it strikes me that one of the most important things we can do is attempt to transform our political and economic systems from ones that primarily benefit those who already have access to power and wealth into ones that protect and provide for everyone and share the benefits more widely – not only for the liberal reasons of justice and fairness, but for the conservative reasons of security, liberty and opportunity.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

From universal basic income to the gig economy, there’s no denying technology is going to cause sweeping changes.

http://suhub.co/2bPn42g

It’s like brain surgery.

Originally shared by Walter Roberson

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/essential-tremor-health-surgery-clinical-trial-brain-disease-1.3732875

Originally shared by ExtremeTech

A historic discovery — Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our own Sun, has a planet circling it.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/234398-astronomers-confirm-closest-earth-like-exoplanet-in-the-nearest-star-system