Over at Read Write Web, The most excellent Marshall Kirkpatrick was suggesting and continues to think that connecting our brains to the internet – things like Internet Brain Implants – are a bad idea.

As much as I don’t like to challenge a fellow Oregonian, I could not disagree with Marshall more on this issue for several reasons:

The first is practical.   Invasive technologies that are wonderful are here already in the form of cochlear implants for hearing enhancements and even crude artificial eyes using brain implants.    Less invasive technologies that use brain wave controller devices (e.g. Emotiv Headsets and some simpler fun games) are here and will be coming soon to a brain near yours.

Regardless of whether other brain enhancements are good or bad, why fight the inevitable rather than just working with it?     Although nobody yet offers internet access it should be available within a few years.

Think of the amazing advantages, especially when we can get the communication flowing in both directions at computer speeds – which are generally much faster than those obtained via organic transmissions.     Language enhancements alone suggest to me that this would have amazing value, and I think more than a few high schoolers will enjoy computing calculus equations without any study.

Will these new abilities make us lazy?    It’s impossible to know, but I’d guess that the intellectual explosion we’ll see as enhancements hit the marketplace will bring far more solutions than problems as people can spend the huge amount of time once spent *learning*, *doing things* instead.

Brain implants?   Sign me up, Scotty!

For a more inspired Christmas I’d urge folks to consider giving tiny thoughtful gifts and then giving larger money gifts to any of the great charity groups supporting causes all over the globe. Obviously you’ll want to confirm a high ROI for your gift, where the money goes mostly to alleviating poverty rather than, say, for expensive research into an obscure disease or into marketing to convince you to give more.

A very high ROI, safe charity is Grameen Foundation, which funds small business projects by women of the developing world. Most of my giving this year will go to Grameen and instead of gifts for my family (kids excepted this year) I’m sending money in their names…to Grameen Foundation and some other charities that closely match their personal priorities.

http://www.grameenfoundation.org/catalog

I’m really looking forward to seeing CITYCENTER Las Vegas on the trip to CES 2010 in January. Just a few days ago the Aria Resort and Casino opened in a blaze of fireworks, and the Vdara Hotel opened just a few weeks ago.

Aria Resort Grand Opening Special:

Disclosure: Aria Resort and Vdara Hotel are sponsors of the CES Coverage at my Tech News and Conference blog Technology Report.

The website for the Talent Oregon Coffee Shop called the Whistle Stop Coffee Shop is currently listed far too low by  Google’s search algorithm, below two of my posts about  the Whistle Stop Coffee Shop Talent Oregon.    Hopefully this post plus some changes to titles in an earlier blog post (which had Title “Whistle Stop Coffee Shop Talent Oregon”,  plus some linkage action will fix this problem, but we’ll see.     The Whistle Stop’s website is using a Godaddy hosting template now and Google may be downranking for that or fretting over the Godaddy banner at the top which may diminish the content score (I’m just speculating here).

Blog content continues to factor very importantly into search rankings, especially (I speculate) because of the freshness and as a source of relevant links in to other content.      Confounding all SEO analyses is the fact that Google appears to treat things somewhat inconsistently to reduce the effects of really aggressive optimization tactics.    For example there are tricks that can be used that may lead to a short term big boost in rankings, only to leave a site penalized for months or even years for “manipulation of the algorithm”, which in the eyes of Google is a crime worthy of the harshest punishment.

One of the interesting challenges in search engine optimization is, as the excellent Mr. Matt Cutts at Google likes to say, that  ”Googlebot is stupid”   that might be paraphrasing but I think it’s a direct quote. He was talking about the fact that good site structure will “help” Google figure out the natural and relevant relationships between links, content, and websites.     Matt likes to point out – sometimes to some fairly hostile SEO folks at conferences – that good SEO is mostly just applying a lot of common sense “best practices” rules for websites, aka “building for the user not the search engines”.      I often give that good advice to people who ask me how to rank well even though they are usually disappointed (and skeptical) when I don’t give them hints from the bag of  secret tricks they think you learn at search conferences.     For the record it used to be a lot easier to manipulate ranks and it was a common practice, but now most quality SEO folks will advise you to avoid deception or manipulations and spend your time and money seeking legitimate incoming links and building great websites.    That does NOT always work – especially for new sites – but it’s good general advice.

So let’s see if Google can get this one right quickly.   The most relevant site for the query “Whistle Stop Coffee Shop Talent Oregon” is …

This fast paced presentation presents a cleverly graphed view of several important global development statistics. Dr. Hans Rosling is working to teach us all to work more with the data and less with our preconceptions about the ways of the world, especially with respect to approaches to health and poverty reduction. His site / project is www.GapMinder.org

The CES 2010 pitches are coming in strong now as John and I get ready to cover the year’s biggest technology event over at  Technology Report.

I was so happy today to see one of them signing off saying they were a proud supporter of the Room to Read Project, which is a major effort to work towards world wide literacy and education.   Readers of this blog know I’m a huge fan of that kind of project, and one of the reasons I’m very optimistic about the world’s future is that for I think the first time in history it’s become very, very “fashionable” to support global poverty reduction efforts in even the strongest bastions of capitalism (e.g. big time PR firms).

Now, cynics will suggest – correctly to some extent – that part of the motivation when capitalists support charity is to benefit from the positive buzz.    However I’m fine with that, and furthermore I’m *glad*  to see potential win-win economic relationships develop around charities like this.

Yes, Technology enthusiasts, it’s almost time for CES 2010 – the world’s most important technology show – and that means lots of great Las Vegas parties, especially for those of the blogging persuasion.

We now have a good  list of CES parties over at Technology Report and will continue to add them as information comes in from various other lists and sources.

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Welcome to Technology Report’s CES Party List!

Sponsored by:
Aria Resort and Casino and Vdara Hotel at Las Vegas CityCenter.

NOTE: Most of the CES parties are by *invitation only* and even with your CES pass you’ll want to confirm you are on the specific list for that party before walking the great distances required to get from venue to venue. Generally registered CES bloggers and CES press have the best party options at the show.

Tuesday January 5th

4-7 pm:    CES Unveiled – Venetian Hotel in the Venetian Ballroom. This is a major press event of the conference where several dozen sponsors set up booths to showcase their technologies to the press. Last year (2008) the dinner buffet was excellent and drinks were free. Registered CES Press and CES bloggers.

The CES Party list continues after the click  ….

IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 5, 2009
MIT RED BALLOON TEAM WINS DARPA NETWORK CHALLENGE
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that the MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team won the $40,000 cash prize in the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that required participants to locate 10 large, red balloons at undisclosed locations across the United States. The MIT team received the prize for being the first to identify the locations of all 10 balloons.
“The Challenge has captured the imagination of people around the world, is rich with scientific intrigue, and, we hope, is part of a growing ‘renaissance of wonder’ throughout the nation,” said DARPA director,
Dr. Regina E. Dugan. “DARPA salutes the MIT team for successfully completing this complex task less than 9 hours after balloon launch.”
DARPA announced the Network Challenge to mark the 40th anniversary of the ARPANet, pre-cursor to today’s Internet, to explore how broad-scope problems can be tackled using social networking tools. The Challenge explores basic research issues such as mobilization, collaboration, and trust in diverse social networking constructs and could serve to fuel innovation across a wide spectrum of applications.
DARPA plans to meet with teams to review the approaches and strategies used to build networks, collect information, and participate in the Challenge.
DARPA is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense (DoD). The Agency manages and directs research and development projects for DoD and pursues research and technology where the risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances in support of military missions.
“We need a renaissance of wonder. We need to renew, in our hearts and in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is miracle and magic.” — E. Merrill Root
-END-
Media with questions, contact Johanna Jones, (571) 218-4512 or johanna.jones@darpa.mil.

This is pretty funny, especially if you know the whole scoop.
NOTE: Stewart correctly points out at the end that this does NOT debunk warming, it just “doesn’t look good”.