Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 10416

Cybersecurity risks are on the rise. While the high-profile breaches at Target and Yahoo! captured our attention, they have also distracted us from the prevalence of cybersecurity risks in everyday life. The number of cyber-security breaches has more than doubled over the past few years. In the third quarter of 2016, over 18 million new forms of malware were discovered. That is nearly a quarter of a million new types of malware every single day.

Unfortunately, some of the most vulnerable companies are those that are least equipped to address these concerns. Industry experts estimate that 45% of all cyber-attacks are launched against small businesses. Almost half of all small businesses have been attacked, although most of them don’t know it. Nearly 70% of small businesses are forced into bankruptcy within six months of a particularly severe cyber-attack.

Despite the risks, small businesses are under greater pressure to cut costs. They can’t always afford top-tier protection.

Read more

“Volvo cars is taking a bold step forward,” the company explained in a video on Volvo’s official Twitter account, “heralding the end of an era for the pure internal combustion engine.”

While other companies have yet to take the leap, Volvo knows investing in electric car production makes good sense from a business perspective: “This is about the customer,” Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Car Group’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “People increasingly demand electrified cars and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs.”

It’s also a decision rooted in a sense of environmental responsibility, “We are determined to be the first premium car maker to move our entire portfolio of vehicles into electrification,” Samuelsson said in the video. “This is a clear commitment towards reducing our carbon footprint, as well as contributing to a better air quality in our cities.”

Read more

We have talked about the polarization of macrophages in a number of previous articles, but, in short, macrophages can have multiple behavioral profiles that determine what roles they play; this is known as polarization. A new study has identified a regulatory protein that controls this process.

Macrophage Polarization

For the purposes of this article, we are interested in the M1 and M2 polarization. The M1 type is pro-inflammatory and aggressive towards invading pathogens, while the M2 type of macrophage is anti-inflammatory in nature, suppressing inflammatory responses and facilitating tissue repair.

Read more

We’ve all read the headlines: the robots are coming, and they will take our jobs. In fact, up to 45 percent of tasks workers perform can be automated using current technology, let alone future forecasts.

However, there is a side of this story that is often overlooked: while emerging technologies will destroy many jobs, they will also create many new ones. In fact, over half of the jobs current middle school students will be doing in the future do not even exist today. Widespread innovation is continuing to give birth to exciting new industries, all of which are sources of new jobs.

More often than not, we have used our imaginations to envision dystopian futures where we submit to robots that leave us feeling jobless and purposeless. But we can also imagine an exciting parallel future in which technology has created even more opportunities for the workforce.

Read more

Part #1 of an awesome show with Steve and Jason on Grognostics merging together discussions on biotech, craft beer, human potential, as well as a comedic journey into the world of 2039

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/grognostics/e/53077743?autoplay=true

If you’re one of the unlucky millions of people burdened by allergies, you know that sometimes there’s only so much antihistamines can do to help.

Researchers have been working to find more effective allergy treatments, and now they’ve discovered how a particular antibody can stop an allergic reaction from happening altogether.

An allergic reaction is the immune system’s way of completely overreacting to a normally benign substance, from proteins in cat saliva to surprisingly deadly peanuts.

Read more

China has gathered 120 researchers from around the military to work for its top research institute as part of a push to develop military applications for artificial intelligence and quantum technology, state media reported.

Experts from within the military to work for its top research institute as China modernises its armed forces to give them cutting-edge equipment and arms.

Read more