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Mar 10, 2016

Watch a Spectacular Lightning Show Splinter Across the Skies Over Dubai

Posted by in categories: climatology, habitats

Dubai’s skyline is an ever-growing collection of impressive towering skyscrapers, including the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. And you know what loves tall buildings even more than tourists do? Lightning.

Instagrammer faz3, also known as Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (the Crown Prince of Dubai), captured this amazing lightning show over Dubai at 1,977 frames per second, turning what is normally a split second occurrence into a beautifully drawn-out ballet of bolts splintering their way across a dark stormy sky.

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Mar 10, 2016

AlphaGo machine-learning program defeats top Go player in first match

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

AlphaGo (via DeepMind’s Aja Huang) vs. Sedol in last minute of Match 1 (credit: DeepMind)

Google DeepMind’s machine-learning AlphaGo program has defeated South Korean Go champion Lee Sedol in the first match of five historic matches between human and AI, taking place in Seoul.

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Mar 10, 2016

There are ways the FBI can crack the iPhone PIN without Apple doing it for them — By Peter Bright | Ars Technica

Posted by in categories: privacy, security

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“There may well be approaches that don’t require Apple to build a custom firmware to defeat some of the iPhone’s security measures.”

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Mar 10, 2016

Terra Bella and Planet Labs’s Most Consequential Year Yet

Posted by in category: futurism

Thanks to a small group of Silicon Valley’s satellite startups, we may never look at our planet again the same way.

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Mar 10, 2016

Interstellar Missions Survey

Posted by in categories: evolution, physics, space travel

An interstellar precursor mission has been discussed as a priority for science for over 30 years. It would improve our knowledge of the interstellar environment and address fundamental questions of astrophysics, from the origin of matter to the evolution of the Galaxy. A precursor mission would involve an initial exploration probe and aim to test technological capabilities for future large-scale missions. With this survey we intend to identify potential backers and gauge the public’s interest in such a mission.

This survey is conducted by the International Space University (www.isunet.edu) in collaboration with the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (www.I4IS.org). Your data will not be shared with any other organisation.

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Mar 10, 2016

This 3D-Printed Human Tissue Contains Blood Vessels

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical

New to 3D-bioprinting: Blood vessels. http://voc.tv/14JQHoo

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Mar 10, 2016

AstroPubls: Publications by Robert Freitas

Posted by in categories: life extension, neuroscience

The preview image below thanks Robert Bradbury(no not Ray Bradbury) who is no longer with us but you can find his work concerning Matrioshka Brains and he has a great life extension lecture on youtube.


The author greatly appreciates and thanks Robert J. Bradbury for doing the painstaking and often tedious original html coding job for 25 of these papers, among the many linked papers cited on this page.

Last updated on 6 July 2013.

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Mar 10, 2016

Puzzle game launched to help program quantum computers

Posted by in categories: computing, entertainment, quantum physics

Researchers developing large-scale quantum computers hope that playing a video game will provide the solutions they need to program their advanced machines.

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Mar 10, 2016

Horizon Media Study Finds Two Thirds of Americans Unaware of Virtual Reality Devices

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, virtual reality

The realities of VR.


NEW YORK, March 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Horizon Media, the largest and fastest growing privately held media services agency in the world, announced today its most recent research on consumer interest in virtual reality devices. The research was fielded in Finger on the Pulse, the agency’s proprietary online research community comprised of 3,000 people reflective of the U.S. population, and with the social media expertise of Horizon’s Distillery social intelligence team. The research shows that despite extensive media coverage of Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard and other virtual reality devices, fully two thirds of consumers are unaware of the technology.

Virtual reality – often referred to as “VR” – has been readily embraced by the mainstream media as the shiny, new, technological advancement. Marketers are also understandably excited about the possibilities unleashed by VR technology. But while there is interest among consumers, the survey findings suggest that companies would be well served to walk before they run when incorporating virtual reality activations into marketing plans, at least until the technology reaches greater awareness and scale.

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Mar 9, 2016

GE wants to use CO2 pollution to make huge solar batteries

Posted by in categories: habitats, solar power, sustainability

Two big problems have been vexing environmental scientists for decades: How to store solar energy for later use, and what to do with CO2 that’s been captured and sequestered from coal plants? Scientists from General Electric (GE) could solve both those problems at once by using CO2 as a giant “battery” to hold excess energy. The idea is to use solar power from mirrors to heat salt with a concentrated mirror array like the one at the Ivanpah solar plant in California. Meanwhile, CO2 stored underground from, say, a coal plant is cooled to a solid dry ice state using excess grid power.

When extra electricity is needed at peak times, especially after the sun goes down, the heated salt can be tapped to warm up the solid CO2 to a “supercritical” state between a gas and solid. It’s then funneled into purpose built turbines (from GE, naturally) which can rapidly generate power. The final “sunrotor” design (a prototype is shown below) would be able to generate enough energy to power 100,000 homes, according to GE.

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