"Life Enhancement Organ Surgery, or some kind of name..."

Picture from http://phys.org/news/2016-12-clock-human-embryonic-stem-cells.html

(Left to right: Images of an early, three day-old human embryo, five day-old human embryo, a colony of the new 3i human ESC cells developed by the Zambidis laboratory, and a colony of a conventional human ESC, which is developmentally more mature. Human ESC colonies are stained for nuclei (blue), the stem cell marker OCT4 (red), and the stem cell marker TRA-1-81 (green). Credit: Elias Zambidis and Yulian Zhao)

From article, "Researchers turn back the clock on human embryonic stem cells"

(Johns Hopkins scientists report success in using a cocktail of cell-signaling chemicals to further wind back the biological clock of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs), giving the cells the same flexibility researchers have prized in mice ESCs.)

The i

Me, "Great news. This will go along way to help mass produce custom Human Organs to use in emergency surgeries. Where people have to wait years for a donor organ now, more people will survive with this discovery and live out their natural lifespan. It could also increase lifespans by giving older patients, whose organs are aging and are reaching the end of their life span, to implant replacement organs. Like in an automobile where you can extend its use even as it ages with replacement parts.. It could jump start a new medical field, "Life Enhancement Organ Surgery, or some kind of name..."



Continuing from article, (The investigators say the ability to reset the stem cells' developmental clock to an earlier stage offers new opportunities to successfully coax human stem cells into making any kind of cell on demand for use as transplants and in genetic disease modeling. Eventually, they may be used to create chimeric animals from which human organs could be harvested.)

Elon Musk Takes On More Responsibilities.

Elon Musk. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

From article, "Elon Musk and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick are joining Trump's economic advisory team"

(Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick, the chief executives of Tesla and Uber, are joining US President-elect Donald Trump's new economic advisory board.)
And...
(Launched in early December, the forum will provide economic advice and will "be called upon to meet with the president frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as the president implements his plan to bring back jobs and Make America Great Again," the initial announcement said.)

Me, "The thing is...Will Trump listen to them? Obviously, if Trump agrees with their views, he will implement them, but what if he disagrees? Will this economic board be scrapped? Probably not. 
We can all agree, that at least, Trump is open to setting up this economic board, and wants to hear their views."

Continuing from article, (During the election, Musk, who in addition to the electric-car company Tesla is CEO of the aerospace firm SpaceX, supported Hillary Clinton and was critical of Trump, saying, "I think a bit strongly that [he] is probably not the right guy" to be president. Kalanick, the CEO of the ride-hailing company Uber, has also joked about the Republican president-elect, saying in 2015: "Oh my god, Donald Trump's gonna win. I'm going to move to China if Donald Trump wins." 

Me, "Hopefully, personal views will be left at the front door, and they can, meaningfully, advise Trump on important economic policy issues."

It Is A Start.

Picture from, https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-prime-air-delivery-by-drone-just-became-a-reality/


From article, "Amazon Prime Air's delivery by drone just became a reality"

(Rush orders just got a whole lot speedier.

Amazon on Wednesday said it has delivered its first Prime Air order. Last week, one of the company's drones dropped off an Amazon Fire TV and bag of popcorn in the backyard of a customer near Cambridge, England -- 13 minutes after the customer ordered it online.)

Me, "I can't tell you how important commercial drones will become. They will be the predecessor of flying cars. All the flying regulations that will be created for them: where they can fly, how high, what do they have to avoid, where can they land, how will they be insured in case of an accident, etc., will all be created because of them. It seems the UK seems more friendly to Amazon about starting test flights and real flights. The problem with ordering things online is how long they take to ship to the person ordering them. True, not everything on Amazon will be able to ship this way. But its a start."

Continuing from artice, (The UK program, still in a private beta, aims to drop off a package in 30 minutes or less after you place an order. Customers can order from thousands of items seven days a week during daylight hours, weather permitting.

The project has started with just two customers in the UK, but Amazon plans to expand participation to dozens of customers living several miles from its UK facility and hopes to eventually expand to hundreds more. At least for the private test phase, these customers won't have to pay any additional shipping costs; no word on whether that could change as the program grows.)

Me, ";-)"

Uber Beaks Into A New Market For Its Self-Driving Vehicles And May One Day Cut Down On Stress.

Picture from https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/14/ubers-self-driving-cars-start-picking-up-passengers-in-san-francisco/


Me, "Once again Uber is pushing the limits of its technology for self driving cars. It is getting the customers used to the idea, and building out the technology slowly but safely."

From article, "Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco"

(Uber’s self-driving cars are making the move to San Francisco, in a new expansion of its pilot project with autonomous vehicles that will see Volvo SUVs outfitted with sensors and supercomputers begin picking up passengers in the city.

The autonomous cars won’t operate completely driverless, for the time being – as in Pittsburgh, where Uber launched self-driving Ford Focus vehicles this fall, each SUV will have a safety driver and Uber test engineer onboard to handle manual driving when needed and monitor progress with the tests. But the cars will still be picking up ordinary passengers – any customers who request uberX using the standard consumer-facing mobile app are eligible for a ride in one of the new XC90s operated by Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group (ATG).)

Me, "Once again Uber has lifted the bar with another location to test its car. The difference being the environment the cars will drive in. The best way to test self driving cars is out on the open road. With Taxi hailings, you never know where your journey in the car will go so; it tests Uber's self-driving cars in real world conditions. 

And it seems there was a reason they picked Volvo for its introduction taxi car..."

Continuing from, article, (Uber didn’t pick a partner blindly – Sweeney says they found a company with a reputation for nearly a hundred years of solid engineering, manufacturing and a commitment to iterating improvement in those areas.)

Me, "Could it be that Volvo would be a safer car to use if the Self-driving car got into an accident or could it be Volvo's reputation as a leader in new safety technology which self-driving cars would bring?"

Continuing from article, (Uber’s pilot in San Francisco will be limited to the downtown area to start, and will involve “a handful” of vehicles to start, with the intent of ramping up from there according to the company. The autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh will also continue to run concurrently with the San Francisco deployment. Where Pittsburgh offers a range of weather conditions and other environmental variables for testing, San Francisco will provide new challenges for Uber’s self-driving tech, including denser, often more chaotic traffic, plus narrower lanes and roads.)

Me, "Well it should be interesting to watch how self driving tech takes off. I myself can't wait to let a car I am in drive itself. I am sure a lot of people will agree that driving is stressful. And who wants to be stressed? A side point to this technology is the Self-driving car could even lengthen our lifespan by reducing this stress."