Author envisions a cash-free world in years to come

by CTVNews.ca Staff

What would life be like without money?

In his new book, "The End of Money," author David Wolman tackles that intriguing question for 21st-century citizens.

Wolman was able to answer that question after travelling the world and spending one year avoiding the use of bills and coins in his day-to-day life.

"It really wasn't that hard, up until those handful of occasions when it was totally impossible," Wolman said on Thursday on CTV's Canada AM.

From farmers' markets to shoe shine stalls, Wolman came across environments where only cash would seal a deal, even in today's age of smartphones and online technologies.

Even paying his babysitter became awkward.

"I tried to convince her dad to open a PayPal account, but he said no," Wolman said as he spoke via satellite from Portland, Oregon.

Incidents such as these often mystified Wolman, who had become "outraged" in recent years by the high costs attached to producing coins in the United States.

"A few years ago, I was reading about the lopsided economics of producing coinage, especially pennies and nickels," said Wolman.

"Right now, here in the States it costs more than the value stamped on these things," he said.

That imbalance inspired the contributing editor to "Wired" to write a tongue-and-cheek article for the American publication about living in a world without money.

"The response was thundering," said Wolman.

In the book that followed, Wolman presents an entertaining history of money across the ages.

"The End of Money" also chronicles Wolman's trip around the world to meet figures who are leading the way to a cash-free civilization in the years to come.

In Sweden, for example, the country's public buses will no longer accept cash. Tickets must be prepaid or purchased by commuters with a cellphone text message.

A growing number of Swedish businesses and banks have also stopped accepting cash.

The Royal Canadian Mint is also looking to the future with the MintChip, a new product that could become a digital replacement for coins.

Such evolution seems natural to Wolman, who voices his distaste for traditional currency throughout "The End of Money."

From start to finish, Wolman takes aim at the heavy eco-costs of mining and the pollutants created while producing legal tenders.

Wolman also highlights the health hazards of money.

"Money may be a marvelous technology, enabling life as we know it,'' he writes. "But no grandiose talk will change its microbe-infested reality.''

Wolman also makes the connection between traditional currency and criminal activities over the decades such as counterfeiting, drug trading and terrorism.

"This is analogue technology. Maybe it's time to put it in the grave," Wolman said on Canada AM.

But people living and working in developing countries may not be as eager to see cash go the way of the Dodo just yet.

Wolman noted this reluctance firsthand when he travelled to India to research his book.

"In a place like India they've dug in their heels. They need to use cash every day," said Wolman.

"If I wanted to do anything outside of my hotel room in a developing country I needed cash," he said

Giant 'UFO fragment' falls from the sky in Siberia

A giant "UFO fragment" has fallen from the sky near a remote village in Siberia, Russian media have reported.

The U-shaped object, resembling a silvery dome, is currently under inspection by Russian experts, after being covertly removed under cover of night from the possession of villagers who found it.

After discovering the device on Sunday, locals from the village of Otradnesnky had managed to drag the “UFO fragment” from the thick forest where it had fallen. They attached it onto a trailer and took it through the snow to their village, where local inspectors then examined it before alerting Moscow authorities.

In an official statement, Sergey Bobrov, who found the object, agreed to keep it safe.

But following their stealthy removal of the 200-kilogram metal fragment, police have it under close guard, on orders from unnamed authorities.

The device has not had its provenance confirmed as of yet. However, the object does not come from a rocket or missile or be in any way associated with terrestrial space technology, it has been announced.

“The object found is not related to space technology. A final conclusion can be made after a detailed study of the object by experts,” said Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

Experts have also examined the object to determine whether it poses a hazard.

“We measured the radiation level near and inside the object. We found no radiation here,” said Yuri Bornyakov, who heads the rescue service department of the Kuybyshevsky district in the Novosibirsk region.

Part of the fragment is made of ultra-strong titanium, said Valery Vasiliev, the head of the Kuybyshevsky Department for Civil Defence and Emergency Situations.

Speculation that it had come from a bungled Kazakhstan rocket or satellite launch was also denied.

“You can see inside it, all is open, it’s empty, no danger here. We were asked to take and store it. We brought it here. And now we are going to wait until they come to take it if they need it,” said local police spokesman Sergei Sulein.

Mystery of the birdman deepens: 'No one has heard of' wing suit inventor at firm where he claimed to have worked - and experts question if flight video can be real

* University and companies where he claims to have worked have no record of 'Jarno Smeets'
* Technology plausible - but signs of fakery, says ILM expert

By Rob Waugh

The mystery has deepened around the Dutch 'bird man' who posted a video showing a successful 'test flight' of a wing suit contraption.

No one seems to know 'Jarno Smeets'.

His LinkedIn biography links to Pailton Engineering Limited, a workplace which has no record of him - and there is also no record of Smeets at Coventry University, which also appears on his CV.

Scroll down for video
 

The engineer's suit is made from a 200 square foot 'kite', powered by motorised wings which 'amplify' Smeets's arm movements

 

Smeets takes a run-up for his test flight. The 31-year-old engineer claims that he 'flew' 300 feet and stayed in the air
for a minute

Smeets' video provoked controversy online, with many viewers claiming that it must be faked.

Smeets has been very difficult to contact since he posted the video this week, and has not spoken publicly.

The video shows a flight in a park in the Hague, which lasted about a minute.

Dutch engineer Smeets runs through a park in the Hague flapping enormous, kite-like wings - and suddenly 'lifts off', flying 300 feet through the air.

Smeets claims to be the first human being to fly like a bird, without a jet or rotors - instead, he says he uses wings which 'amplify' his muscles, with the motion sensors from Nintendo's Wii transferring motions into motors in the wings.

The 31-year-old engineer claims that wireless engines in the wings work as 'amplifiers' for Smeets's own arms, allowing him to flap wings that would otherwise be far too large for a single human.

The technology is plausible - in theory.

But effects experts have called into question whether Smeets' attempt is authentic.

‘They’re able to afford to build this thing, but can’t invest in proper video equipment, or a tripod,’ Ryan Martin, technical director at George Lucas's Industrial Lights and Magic effects house said in an interview with Gizmodo.

‘If I were to make a fake video with the intention of going viral, I would make certain that the quality was as poor as possible to disguise any flaws in poor animation work.

‘I am suspicious because there is not much detail shown of the actual machine,’ he says.

‘The device is also something that is only possible in recent times, given proliferation of these types of high torque, high power density brushless motors, high voltage speed controllers and lithium batteries, off the shelf carbon fiber components and so on.'

Smeets claims that the 'suit' is driven by Wii motion sensors in the arms which 'sense' the pilot's movements, helped by an accelerometer from an HTC Wildfire S smartphone. The movements are transferred into Turnigy motors which give Smeets the power to move the 200 square foot wings

'Ever since I was a little boy I have been inspired by pioneers like Otto Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci, said Smeets in a press release along with the video.

Smeets's invention uses accelerometers and motors
to 'amplify' the flapping of his arms

Smeets 'lifts off' in a bird suit built from 200 square foot kite wings with motors in the wings that 'amplify' his flapping

Smeets in triumph after his successful 'test flight' - the engineer is sharing his techniques openly online so others can build their own 'wing suits'

Secret Nuclear Drone Plan Nixed by ‘Political Realities’

Sandia National Laboratories cooks up some of the craziest new technologies you’ll ever see—and some you’ll never see. That’s the fate of a secret method for driving unmanned aerial vehicles with nuclear power, abandoned by its creators.

The plan was outlined in a document (.pdf) acquired by the Federation of American Scientists, which outlines a study Sandia conducted. The results? A new way, potentially, of powering military drones.

“As a result of this effort, UAVs were to be able to provide far more surveillance time and intelligence information per mission while reducing the high cost of support activities,” the report noted. “This technology was intended to create unmatched global capabilities to observe and preempt terrorist and weapon of mass destruction (WMD) activities.”

Essentially, the tech allowed for “ultra-persistent” drone flight that didn’t require traditional fuels. As the FAS points out, the study doesn’t ever say “nuclear,” but all of the giveaways are there: “decommissioning and disposal” wouldn’t be issues otherwise.

So what happened? “It was disappointing to all that the political realities would not allow use of the results,” Sandia laments. The lab gave up on nuclear drones due to political pressures, perceived or otherwise. “No near-term benefit to industry or the taxpayer will be encountered as a result of these studies.”

Good.

Drones crash. Compared to conventional airplanes, they crash a lot. Rough weather, communications errors, software glitches—sometimes we don’t even know what brings down a drone. But they go down, and because there’s no human inside, it’s never considered much of a loss. They’re (relatively) cheap! They’re (relatively) disposable! But with nuclear fuel inside, they’d be categorically dangerous. Even across bombed out Afghanistan, a Predator crash with nuclear consequences would be a diplomatic crisis. Suddenly, you don’t just have debris—you have a contamination zone. That wouldn’t go over well in downtown Islamabad.

And then there’s the inexorable reality of drones flying above the U.S. — above our homes. Although the propulsion tech Sandia seemed so keen on was ostensibly meant for military craft, the Homeland Security fantasy of “ultra-persistent” can’t be ignored. Domestic spies would drool and throb over this ever-watching eye as much as the Air Force or CIA.

Whatever “political conditions” grounded Sandia’s shadowy drones likely reflected the obvious: we don’t need unmanned nukes orbiting the world, whether over our own heads or the Taliban’s. But political conditions have a tendency of changing unannounced—and contrary to reason. And if weapon wonks are so in love with this technology now, let’s not pretend they’re going to give up forever just because it’s unpopular today.

A first look at world's future battleground

Defense Ministry to showcase latest developments in robotics, space and unmanned aircraft, alongside NASA, White House in Tel Aviv conference

by Yoav Zitun

Unmanned boats, cars and tanks and small remote-control operated aircraft are just some of the new developments presented at this week's AUVSI conference hosted by Israel's Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

They will also be able to take a look at two of the Air Force's star drones: the giant Eitan UAV, which foreign reports claim is able to reach Iran, and "Sky Rider" which recently supported intelligence efforts in the Gaza Strip in the latest round of violence with Hamas.

Foreign aircraft manufacturers from around the world will also be showcasing their developments.

Among the participants will be officials from NASA, General Motors and the US and British militaries. White House representatives will also be presenting the latest developments in robotics, aerospace and unmanned weapons and intelligence systems.