DoD Announces DARPA IPO on NASDAQ

This is what the headline would read if the US did what Great Britain’s Ministry of Defence did in 2006.

QinetiQ is the British equivalent of Area 51, D.A.R.P.A., Los Alamos, Sandia, and M.I.T. all rolled into one . They are often referenced as the inspiration for the James Bond “Q-Division” from the Ian Fleming 007 series of spy novels.

In 2006 the company was floated on the London Stock exchange.

Nowhere is the Anglo-American “special relationship” more evident than with this organization. QinetiQ, along with B.A.E.S., is one of the largest defense contractors in the war on terror.

It’s extremely controversial because two civil servants became multi-millionaires when the offering took place.

Protein that destroys HIV discovered | KurzweilAI

Super cool. But still a little scary, considering it’s a protein. I worry about prions.

Loyola University researchers have identified the key components of a protein called TRIM5a that destroys HIV in rhesus monkeys.The finding could lead to new TRIM5a-based treatments that would knock out HIV in humans, said senior researcher Edward M. Campbell, PhD, of Loyola University Health System.

via Protein that destroys HIV discovered | KurzweilAI.

The Believable World of the Venture Bros. – (a.k.a. The Rusty Venture Backstory)

Rusty’s a good scientist.

It’s not that he’s unable to come up with anything good; rather, society views his inventions as too radical.

Rusty is dealing with Luddites.

We’ve certainly seen him develop new creations. Unfortunately, the “Joy Can” was powered by an orphan heart. This is comparable to modern society’s struggle with stem cell tissue research. It is conceivably his own creation.

At the very least, it was one of his father’s many fantastic unfinished creations. It is likely that any project his father would have abandoned would have been stopped because of moral or ethical considerations. Although, the Ooo ray was technically a “weapon of mass destruction” Rusty had never considered it as such.

Some famous scientists are only able to narrowly focus their attention on their particularly narrow field.

Then there’s the metasonic locator. We never get to see this actually in action, other than it emits large white rings, awakens “Ghost Astronauts” and comically oversized shellfish. But, according to its description, this device is some sort of time travel viewer that can be shown on objects to reveal what they looked like in the past.

Lest us forget, Rusty does, in fact, locate the flying saucer.