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Archive for the ‘business’ category: Page 307

Feb 2, 2014

Bitcoin Micropayments Get Big Moment as Chicago Sun-Times Paywall Experiment Goes Live

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, business

— CoinDesk

Readers who visit the Chicago Sun-Times today will notice something they aren’t likely to have seen before: a bitcoinChicago Sun-Times bitcoin paywall paywall separating them from their content.

The Chicago Sun-Times is the ninth-largest newspaper in the United States, and the first major US publication to trial a bitcoin paywall.

Instead of paying for a subscription, as patrons of the The Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times do, Chicago Sun-Times readers who visit the site on 1st February will be asked to donate bitcoin payments to the Taproot Foundation, or tweet about the nonprofit, in order to read articles.

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Feb 1, 2014

The Future Observatory

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, automation, big data, biological, bioprinting, biotech/medical, business, chemistry, climatology, complex systems, computing, cosmology, cybercrime/malcode, cyborgs, defense, driverless cars, economics, education, energy, engineering, entertainment, environmental, ethics, events, existential risks, exoskeleton, finance, food, fun, futurism, genetics, geopolitics, government, habitats, health, human trajectories, information science, innovation, law, law enforcement, life extension, lifeboat, military, mobile phones, nanotechnology, neuroscience, open access, open source, philosophy, physics, policy, posthumanism, robotics/AI, science, scientific freedom, security, singularity, space, supercomputing, surveillance, sustainability, time travel, transhumanism

FEBRUARY 02/2014UPDATES. By Mr.Andres Agostini at www.Future-Observatory.blogspot.com
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Mass unemployment fears over Google artificial intelligence plans
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10603933/Mass-u…plans.html

Should We Re-Engineer Ourselves?
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pearce20140201

A New Physics Theory of Life
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140122-a-new-physics-theory-of-life/

Dr. Rachel Armstrong — Earth’s Bright Future
http://www.londonreal.tv/episodes/dr-rachel-armstrong-earths-bright-future/

Continue reading “The Future Observatory” »

Jan 30, 2014

Commercial Space Travel Training Company Gets FAA Approval

Posted by in categories: business, space, space travel

by Miriam Kramer — Space.com

Waypoint 2 Space Company to Train Spaceflyers
Do you want to fly on a suborbital space plane? What about a rocket launch all they way into orbit? A new commercial spaceflight training company wants to help you develop the right stuff for flying to space.
Waypoint 2 Space — a Houston-based company aimed at helping commercial astronauts train for spaceflight — just received Federal Aviation Administration safety approval for their plan to train would-be astronauts. Officials with the company hope to start training commercial spaceflyers for private trips to space in spring of this year. People holding tickets aboard a private spacecraft or space fans interested in learning how to fly to space are eligible to purchase a training package.

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Jan 29, 2014

Future Observatory

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, automation, big data, biological, bionic, bioprinting, biotech/medical, bitcoin, business, chemistry, climatology, complex systems, computing, cosmology, counterterrorism, defense, driverless cars, drones, economics, education, energy, engineering, environmental, ethics, existential risks, finance, food, futurism, general relativity, genetics, geopolitics, government, hardware, health, human trajectories, information science, innovation, law, life extension, lifeboat, media & arts, mobile phones, nanotechnology, neuroscience, nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, particle physics, philosophy, physics, policy, polls, posthumanism, privacy, robotics/AI, science, scientific freedom, security, singularity, space, space travel, supercomputing, surveillance, sustainability, transparency, transportation

www.FUTURE-OBSERVATORY.blogspot.com JANUARY/30/2014 HEADLINES. By Mr. Andres Agostini

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Cancer Researchers Identify New Drug to Inhibit Breast Cancer
http://guardianlv.com/2014/01/cancer-researchers-identify-ne…st-cancer/

Russia, US to join forces against space threats
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_29/Russia-US-to-join-f…eats-1145/

The rise of artificial intelligence
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-ne…317g3.html

Continue reading “Future Observatory” »

Jan 28, 2014

What Is DeepMind? The Artificial Intelligence Firm Bought By Google

Posted by in categories: business, computing, robotics/AI

By — International Business Times
DeepMind Google Acquisition Goog AI Artificial Intelligence Robots

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) confirmed that it purchased DeepMind on Monday. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company reportedly paid upwards of $500 million for the artificial intelligence (AI) firm.

So what is Google getting for its half a billion? A company that’s very good at making computers that think and act as humans do. DeepMind has not yet developed any commercial products. Its main asset appears to be its personnel, including dozens of experts in machine learning, a branch of AI that attempts to teach computers to think like humans. It’s best-known project was a computer system it taught to master Atari video games.

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Jan 20, 2014

eBay UK to allow Bitcoin sales in ‘virtual currency’ category

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, business
It seemed like it was only a matter of time before e-commerce giant eBay and its payment platform PayPal addressed the sale and use of Bitcoin on its sites. And, despite concern from government regulators, it appears the company believes in virtual currencies — so much so, that it will soon start allowing their sale on its UK site.

Last week, PayPal President David Marcus tweeted “To clarify: we have no policies against using PayPal to sell Bitcoin mining rigs. We don’t support any currency txn whether fiat or BTC… for a host of regulatory issues. But we treat BTC and any FX txn the same way. We’re believers in BTC though.”

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Jan 16, 2014

NBA’s Sacramento Kings cash in on Bitcoin

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, business, entertainment

— CNN Money

sacramento kings action

Bitcoin just got another cheerleader.

The Sacramento Kings NBA team just became the first major professional sports franchise to accept Bitcoin, according to an announcement from payment processor BitPay.

Continue reading “NBA's Sacramento Kings cash in on Bitcoin” »

Jan 11, 2014

Burritobox Joins Growing Number of Fast-Food Making Robots

Posted by in categories: business, food, robotics/AI

Written By: — Singularity Hub

burritobox-burrito-robot

Box Brands has launched the first-ever burrito-making robots at two locations on Santa Monica Boulevard — inside Mobile and 76 gas stations.

The orange Burritobox offers 6 types of burrito, including a breakfast burrito, and several sauces. The customer selects the burrito desired and which sauces from a touch-screen menu, then swipes a credit card. One minute later, the machine dispenses a hot “hand”-rolled burrito.

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Jan 9, 2014

Intel Aims For Post-Smartphone Era With SD Card-Sized Computer

Posted by in categories: business, computing, human trajectories, innovation

Written By: — Singularity Hub

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Up to now, wearable computing has been a niche market dominated, but for Google Glass, by startups. Yet, with the tiny size and low cost of sensors and chips, wearable computing could be a huge market in which smart sensors in everything from baby diapers to workout gear connect to users’ smartphones, giving them constant insight into how things formerly hidden are operating.

It may sound like yet another techno-topian promise, and before the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show it might have been. But at the annual Las Vegas tech blowout earlier this month, Intel, one of the weightiest firms in the tech industry, endorsed wearable computing with the launch of a new chip designed for it.

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Jan 9, 2014

The Bitcoin-Mining Arms Race Heats Up

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, business, computing, economics, hardware


Behind this week’s coverJoel Flickinger’s two-bedroom home in the hills above Oakland, Calif., hums with custom-built computing gear. Just inside the front door, in a room anyone else might use as a den, he’s placed a desk next to a fireplace that supports a massive monitor, with cables snaking right and left toward two computers, each about the size of a case of beer. Flickinger has spent more than $20,000 on these rigs and on a slower model that runs from the basement. They operate continuously, cranking out enough heat to warm the house and racking up $400 a month in electric bills. There isn’t much by way of décor, other than handwritten inspirational Post-it notes:

“I make money easily,” one reads. “Money flows to me.” “I am a money magnet.”

Flickinger, 37, a software engineer and IT consultant by trade, doesn’t leave the house much these days. He’s a full-time Bitcoin miner.

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