Lifeboat Foundation

Two celebrated volcanoes—one of them very tall, the other very active—frame this large national park. From glowing lava flows and earth-shaking tremors to wind, rain, and waves, the geological and meteorological forces that shaped our planet are fully on display on the Big Island. While volcanism rules the day, pockets of rainforest and grassland shelter rare Hawaiian flora and fauna.

“Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble.” Shakespeare could just as easily have been describing Hawaiian volcanoes rather than a witch’s brew in Macbeth. No other national park produces so much drama on a regular basis.

Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Its monthslong 2018 event destroyed hundreds of homes, sent massive plumes of ash rocketing into the air, and collapsed nearly 2,000 feet of the crater’s summit. Its most recent and currently ongoing eruption began in September 2021.

A ‘dead’ sunspot on the surface of the Sun has erupted, and as a result, a massive plasma ball has been blasted straight towards Earth.

The promise of robotic furniture is that it can turn single rooms into multipurpose spaces.

“Robotics, AI, and many things will disrupt what we know now. Taking advantage of such has great benefits, especially if focused on demand”-me.

Since May, the engineering team with NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft had been trying to solve a mystery. The 45-year-old spacecraft seemed to be in excellent condition, receiving and executing commands from Earth, along with gathering and returning science data — but the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) was sending garbled information about its health and activities to mission controllers.

The AACS controls the spacecraft’s orientation and keeps Voyager 1’s high-gain antenna pointed precisely at Earth, enabling it to send data home. Though all signs suggested that the AACS was still working, the telemetry data was invalid.

While the spacecraft continues to return science data and otherwise operate as normal, the mission team is searching for the source of a system data issue.

Continue reading “The 45-year-old probe is aging gracefully” »

Circa 2020

The idea of humans living underwater may not be as crazy as you think. An idea once reserved for video games or science fiction, underwater cities may be a viable solution for humanity in the distant future.

Continue reading “7 Things You Should Know About the Future of Underwater Cities” »

New incentives could help make buildings (and cities) greener.

Americans keep moving to where the water isn’t and where extreme weather is becoming the norm.

People are still flocking to Sunbelt regions where the housing is cheaper and plentiful — but climate change and extreme weather are worsening.

Our innovative ocean cleaning system is already removing plastic from the Pacific Ocean. Combined with our Interceptor river solutions deployed around the world, we aim to reduce floating ocean plastic by 90% by 2040.

Trillions of pieces of plastic float on the surface of our oceans, damaging habitats and contaminating food chains; a problem forecast to worsen exponentially as the stream of plastic flowing into the ocean from rivers increases. We address the plastic problem with a dual strategy: removing plastic that is already polluting the oceans, while also intercepting plastic in rivers to prevent it reaching the ocean and adding to the problem.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, our ocean cleaning system has been harvesting plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), estimated to contain around 100,000,000 kilograms of plastic. Each branch of this strategy is essential to efficiently rid the oceans of plastic.

Billionaire Elon Musk is known for being frugal. In June of 2021, he tweeted about living in a tiny house, stating: “My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though.”

That home is so small that it does not even have space for his mom when she visits. As such, the matriarch has to sleep in the garage.

@MattWallace888 My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though.

Continue reading “The billionaire owns a small three-bedroom house” »