Lifeboat Foundation

It aims to introduce engineered optical materials (EnMats) and associated design tools for creating innovative optical systems with improved performance, new functionality, and drastically reduced size and weight.

It will do this by finding ways to manipulate light in ways beyond the conventions of classical reflection and refraction, delivering optical systems the size of a sugar cube.

If successful, EXTREME could introduce a new era in optics and imagers for national defense.

Continue reading “DARPA’s EXTREME Program will Manipulate Light to Strengthen US National Security” »

I hate saying “I told you so”; however, it has happened. Whenever, technology is easily acquired means the bad people also has the same access via many sources.

As early as November 2004, Hezbollah sent Iranian-supplied Mirsad drones into Israeli airspace on spy missions, catching Israeli air defenses off guard. Shortly thereafter, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed that the Mirsad could penetrate “anywhere, deep, deep” into Israel while carrying more than 200 pounds of explosives.

It was a bold claim for the time. The United States was the first country to deploy a modern, armed drone—the Predator—in 2001. For several years, America possessed a virtual monopoly on weaponized flying robots.

Continue reading “Hezbollah Drone Is a Warning to the U.S” »

Washington, DC — The creation of a new material has long been either an accident or a matter of trial and error. Steel, for instance, was developed over hundreds of years by people who didn’t know why what they were doing worked (or didn’t work). Generations of blacksmiths observed that iron forged in charcoal was stronger than iron that wasn’t, and iron that was forged in a very high-temperature, charcoal-fired furnace and rapidly cooled was even stronger, and so on.

While we’re still learning things about steel, we now have all kinds of recipes that we can use to make steels with different properties depending on the application, but those recipes took a lot of time, sweat and toil to develop. Wouldn’t it be great if we could skip over all the trials and errors and design new materials from scratch with the exact properties we want?

Innovation is all the buzz in Asia. Australia, China, Korea, Vietnam, and now lets look at India.

Personally, I believe there is great potential in India for some amazing innovations. Just look at their own historical sites and artifacts, art, etc.; no one can claim creativity, imagination, etc. does not exist. And, not to mention the engineering feats that have been proven by India many times.

India has moved 16 rungs up the global ranking for innovation in 2016, as compared to 2015, but still remains a lowly 66th, well below Malaysia and Vietnam, leave alone China in the middle-income category and far below countries like South Korea and Japan, and other high-income innovation hubs like Switzerland, the US, the UK and Singapore. What can be done to make India a hub of innovation? Improve the quality of education across all levels. A technology policy that incentivises genuine R&D is required. Ease of entry and exit of firms, competition, a vibrant financial sector that allocates capital to new profit potential, a culture of entrepreneurship and an end to failure-shaming would help. The least obvious requirement is political empowerment of the common man.

Continue reading “How to make India an innovation hub” »

China means business; and what will the long-term impacts to SV be? Could the US see a brain drain soon?

China has been encouraging its industrial firms to rise up the value chain through technical innovation and tougher efficiency standards, with the aim of creating globally competitive conglomerates.

It has vowed to be more selective in the way it disburses funds, and aims to cut off credit for non-competitive firms that are unable to upgrade.

Continue reading “China launches $30 billion state-controlled venture capital fund” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=q90JYGxk5xw

The company is now marketing software to help banks and online stores distinguish good users from criminals.

It does make you wonder.

This may be Russia’s worst investment decision, ever.

Adults are starting to behave like toddlers as social media and video games lead to a craving for instant gratification, a leading neuroscientist fears.

Baroness Susan Greenfield, who is a senior research fellow at Oxford University, said the obsession with games like Pokémon Go is causing the “infantilisation” of adulthood.

The trend of shunning the outdoors and live social contact in favour of social media is also contributing to grown-ups exhibiting traits associated with toddlers, including neediness and a short attention span, she added.

Continue reading “Adults acting like toddlers because of technology obsession, warns neuroscientist” »

Researchers display an earth-based telescope in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Aug. 17, 2016. China successfully launched the world’s first quantum satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gobi Desert at 1:40 a.m. on Tuesday. Five earth-based telescopes distributed across the country will be used in the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS), four of which were developed by the Institute of Optics and Electronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Chengdu. (Photo/Xinhua)