Lifeboat Foundation

Toyota USA thinks one of the best ways to unlock your car door, is with your face.

SCIENTISTS in China are planning to open a mass-cloning factory by the end of the year.

Three days ago, when Global Equities Research projected more than 300,000 reservations for the Tesla Model 3 electric car by the start of this week, that number seemed outlandish.

And yet, by the end of Saturday, the global total had reached 276,000, according to a tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

When the Model 3 was first unveiled in California on Thursday evening, the number of deposits that day alone had already crossed 100,000.

Continue reading “Tesla Model 3 preorders have likely doubled the electric cars sold” »

Researchers with the University of Cambridge say they have the first real evidence of a new state of matter, some 40 years after it was first theorized.

Known as “quantum spin liquid,” the matter states causes normally unbreakable electrons to fracture into pieces, called “Majorana fermions.” These fermions are an important discovery: Physicists believe the material is crucial to further develop quantum computing. Computers employing Majorana fermions would be able to carry out calculations beyond the scope of modern computers quickly, they say.

Quantum spin liquid explains some of the odd behaviors inside magnetic materials. In these materials, the electrons should behave like small bar magnets, all aligning towards magnetic north when a material is cooled. But not all magnetic materials do this — if the material contains quantum spin liquid, the electrons don’t all line up and become entangled.

Continue reading “Physicists just discovered a new state of matter called ‘quantum spin liquid’” »

Travel to the past is probably impossible. But to the future? That’s a different story. Cathal O’Connell considers the feasibility of physics.

In 2009 the British physicist Stephen Hawking held a party for time travellers — the twist was he sent out the invites a year later. (No guests showed up).

And the company behind it is ran by a brilliant 26 year old hacker.

Researchers have just discovered evidence of a mysterious new state of matter in a real material. The state is known as ‘quantum spin liquid’ and it causes electrons — one of the fundamental, indivisible building blocks of matter — to break down into smaller quasiparticles.

Scientists had first predicted the existence of this state of matter in certain magnetic materials 40 years ago, but despite multiple hints of its existence, they’ve never been able to detect evidence of it in nature. So it’s pretty exciting that they’ve now caught a glimpse of quantum spin liquid, and the bizarre fermions that accompany it, in a two-dimensional, graphene-like material.

“This is a new quantum state of matter, which has been predicted but hasn’t been seen before,” said one of the researchers, Johannes Knolle, from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Continue reading “Scientists have just discovered a new state of matter” »

This could definitely lead to other areas being controlled which could impact how companies can collect even demographics and profile online users for online ads, etc. Also, makes me wonder if we could even see a clamping down on how malls, stores, etc. collect data about consumers. I see major trickle down impacts from this.

The new rules make it nearly impossible for ISPs to track any information about your online activities, other than for network maintenance purposes.

Very nice goal to have “all things connected” in Toyota’s and Microsoft’s case is “Singularity” lite meaning physical structures are connected; however, bio connection does not exist (only consumer profile information is available and integrated). This could be considered an interim state for Singularity.

The company called Toyota Connected has a goal of simplifying technology so it’s easier to use, perhaps even getting rid of distracting and complicated touch screens that now are in most cars and replacing them with heads-up or voice-activated technology, said Zack Hicks, the company’s CEO who also is Toyota Motor America’s chief information officer. Like other automakers, Toyota Connected will research connecting cars to each other and to homes, as well as telematics features that learn and anticipate a driver’s habits. The company, like other automakers, will explore transmitting a driver’s health data to a doctor or driving patterns to an insurance company so people are insured based on where they travel, Toyota said.