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Google to Store, Index Personal Genome

Google is proposing to store and index people’s genome as a commercial service.

Google began work on Google Genomics 18 months ago, meeting with scientists and building an interface, or API, that lets them move DNA data into its server farms and do experiments there using the same database technology that indexes the Web and tracks billions of Internet users….. Some scientists scoff that genome data remains too complex for Google to help with. But others see a big shift coming. When Atul Butte, a bioinformatics expert at Stanford heard Google present its plans this year, he remarked that he now understood “how travel agents felt when they saw Expedia.”

Google having the ultimate information about every person’s biological makeup - there can’t possibly be any commercial exploitation potential in that, can there?

(via _ MIT Technology Review_)

Bloomberg: Solar to reach parity with electric grid in 2016

> After years of struggling against cheap natural gas prices and variable subsidies, solar electricity is on track to be as cheap or cheaper than average electricity-bill prices in 47 U.S. states — in 2016, according to a Deutsche Bank report published this week.

Why Google wants to replace Gmail

Mike Elgin predicts Gmail will be gone or replaced within five years in this _Computerworld_ article:

> Gmail represents a dying class of products that, like Google Reader, puts control in the hands of users, not signal-harvesting algorithms

I moderated a panel on the emerging third platform / “nexus of forces” at The Open Group conference in London with Ron Tolido, SVP and CTO Application Services Continental Europe for Capgemini, Andras Szakal, VP and CTO, IBM U.S. Federal IMT and TJ Virdi, Senior Enterprise IT Architect at the Boeing Company.

Obama Outperforms Reagan On Jobs, Growth And Investing

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today issued America’s latest jobs report covering August. And it’s a disappointment. The economy created an additional 142,000 jobs last month. via Pocket

Safety Worries May Slow Integration of Robots into Human Workforce

ISO is working on standards about how much robots can accidentally hurt it’s human co-workers.

The ISO’s update will, for instance, include guidance on the maximum force with which a robot may strike a human it is working with. Those limits will be based on research under way at the German Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. One part of that work involves using a machine to touch human volunteers with gradually increasing force to determine the pressure needed to cause the sensation of pain in 29 different regions of the body.

The possibilities for new Americas Funniest Home Videos notwithstanding, it’s good to see this aspect of safety being addressed proactively.

13 Scientific Reasons To Drink Coffee

> For people who eat a standard Western diet, coffee may actually be the healthiest aspect of the diet. That’s because coffee contains a massive amount of antioxidants…In fact, studies show that most people get more antioxidants from coffee than both fruits and vegetables… combined (59, 60, 61). Coffee is one of the healthiest beverages on the planet. Period.

Podcasts are back — and making money

parislemon:

Cecilia Kang:

Podcasters also like the personal connection they have with fans who listen through ear buds or headphones, which can make shows feel more intimate than other forms of media.

Mars said he keeps that in mind and mikes himself more closely than he used to. This allows him to use a quieter voice, which he calls a “head voice,” in the hopes of more closely connecting with listeners.

I like that concept.

Peter Thiel: Technology Stalled in 1970

Peter Thiel thinks tech companies can improve the world by tackling bigger problems, citing SpaceX as an example.

You have to think of companies like Microsoft or Oracle or Hewlett-Packard as fundamentally bets against technology. They keep throwing off profits as long as nothing changes.

Via MIT Technology Review