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Jul 14, 2014

Space giants join forces to battle SpaceX: This is how cheap space travel begins

Posted by in category: space travel

By — ExtremeTech
An Ariane 5 rocket launch
Two of Europe’s largest companies, Airbus and Safran, are joining forces to fight SpaceX’s attempts to steal away their majority share of the lucrative commercial space launch business. This is one of the first times that one of the larger, entrenched, government-backed aerospace consortia has deigned to raise a quizzical eyebrow in acknowledgement at the presence of SpaceX — but it certainly won’t be the last. SpaceX, after a series of cheap, successful space launches, is now starting to make waves: After decades of expensive, monopolistic control of space travel, companies like Boeing, Lockheed, and Airbus are finally going to have to slash their costs to stay competitive. This is how the era of cheap space travel begins.

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Jul 14, 2014

“The World in 2025″ Predicts Abundant Solar Power and Food, Tailored Drugs, Gene Therapies

Posted by in category: futurism

Written By: — Singularity Hub
solar panels
In a recently released vision of the future, Thomson Reuters analysts predict solar power will be the dominant form of energy by 2025.

Further, the report states genomic testing and manipulation will be common and lead to better prevention and treatment of diseases. Cancer treatments will be more targeted and less toxic. The world’s infrastructure will be smart, connected, and responsive to our needs. We’ll no longer grapple with food shortages and price volatility. And scientists will begin experimenting with teleportation of stuff, if not humans.

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Jul 14, 2014

Get Inside Whisper’s Secret Economy

Posted by in category: software

By Austin Carr — Fast Company

http://d.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/1280/poster/2014/07/3032951-poster-p-1-whisper-app-welcome-to-the-secret-economy.jpg

Michael Heyward is scouring the web for military secrets, though not of the Julian Assange variety. Over black tea at a dark hotel bar in downtown Los Angeles, Heyward and I sit next to each other, noses to a laptop as he searches on Whisper, the mobile service he created that lets anyone share their innermost secrets anonymously. He’s using an internal company tool called Predict to dig up Whispers on specific topics–in this instance, about soldiers who are agonizing over their sexual preferences. Heyward zeroes in on locations like Kandahar and Bagram Airfield, in Afghanistan, soon landing on a Whisper from a bisexual Marine near Kabul who is afraid to come out to his platoon. “This guy thinks he’s the only person on the planet with this emotion, but there’s no reason he should feel alone–tons of people are like him,” says Heyward. “We created this place so you can connect with people. It’s like a Wikipedia of human emotion.”

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Jul 13, 2014

Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini

Posted by in category: futurism

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Amazon Asks FAA For Permission To Test Its Delivery Drones http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/10/amazon-asks-faa-for-permiss…ry-drones/

How DARPA’s Brain Chip Could Restore Lost Memories http://www.fastcompany.com/3032898/healthware/how-darpas-bra…t-memories

DARPA developing memory-restoring neural prosthesis http://www.cnet.com/news/darpa-developing-memory-restoring-neural-prosthesis/

Continue reading “Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini” »

Jul 12, 2014

Online anonymity, privacy, and longevity

Posted by in categories: life extension, privacy

Or: Relinquish your privacy if you want to live longer

At first, it may appear strange to suggest that living longer has something to do with using pseudonyms online. However, it is true. I am suggesting that people who are well known online, those who are hyper-connected, and those who facilitate others to have access to relevant and meaningful information, are more likely to live longer.

It works like this: Humans are continually evolving and adapting to their environment. Our current environment is one of technology, digital communication, intense information-sharing and hyper-connection. Within this society we are exposed to vast amounts of both trivial and relevant information, which reaches our brain and may alter our basic biology causing a series of beneficial cellular and molecular changes which promote healthy lifespan (http://benthamscience.com/journal/abstracts.php?journalID=ca...=122290").

Looking at this from a different perspective, it is known that agents which are useful to the collective are retained longer within the system (http://xxx.tau.ac.il/abs/1402.6910). This can be true of any agent (i.e. any autonomous actor) such as a computer node, a human neuron, or an entire human. In this case, humans are digitally connected to other humans within a higher entity called the Global Brain (http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/03/16/francis-heylighen-on-the…l-brain/). The more well-connected you are, and the more useful you are to the evolution of the Global Brain, the more likely it is that you will be retained by the system, i.e. you will live longer within this system.

Continue reading “Online anonymity, privacy, and longevity” »

Jul 11, 2014

Making opinions matter: making headlines

Posted by in categories: internet, journalism, media & arts, philosophy

.#democracy. #you. #indie. #webcontent. #contentmarketing. @HJBentham.


Ever wanted to be the subject of international news, or to be recognized as an expert in your field? In the age of the web, both are relatively easy for anyone to accomplish – and it really matters. Thanks to digital culture, equal opportunity is becoming an unstoppable reality rather than an empty promise from ultimately self-centered authorities and companies.

Continue reading “Making opinions matter: making headlines” »

Jul 9, 2014

Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini

Posted by in category: futurism

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REUTERS: German court rules Motorola infringes antenna patent http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/09/us-motorola-patent…UB20140709

REUTERS: Senate Intelligence Committee approves cybersecurity bill http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/08/us-usa-cybersecuri…LG20140708

THE ATLANTIC: When These Experts Savage US. Drone Policy, It’s Time to Worry www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/when-even-these…ry/374132/

Continue reading “Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini” »

Jul 9, 2014

Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini

Posted by in category: futurism

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It’s time we conserve the building blocks of life. http://ensia.com/voices/endangered-elements/

The human brain’s remarkably low power consumption, and how computers might mimic its efficiency http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185984-the-human-brains-r…efficiency

NASA’s new astronaut-replacing robots, powered by Google Tango smartphones, launch into space this week http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185991-nasas-new-astronau…-this-week

Continue reading “Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini” »

Jul 9, 2014

The global-c “Catastrophe” in Physics

Posted by in categories: existential risks, particle physics

To elder children and young adults, it is a bonanza since everything becomes transparent. The “ugly” dependency of the speed of light on the local pull of gravity – that it is slowed in the vicinity of the sun (Shapiro) and comes to a standstill at the horizon of a black hole (Oppenheiumer) – is gone since the distances travelled are proportionally enlarged. Simultaneously, the so far assumed to be added-on expansion speed of the universe ceases to be an option so that the “Big Bang” is no longer a physical reality. A new freedom – a vast new spatial reality to roam – opened itself up.

The same liberation has almost the opposite effect on slightly older young people – those who have to pass an exam or defend a thesis in a physical discipline. They are at a loss as to what still to believe and defend. Most textbooks have become obsolete. How discuss the new situation with Stephen Hawking, for example, or with CERN? Most importantly: How reconcile it with Einstein’s own work?

The latter job is a joy. A renaissance of the young Einstein – of the three years of his miraculous period ranging from 1905 until late 1907 – follows. These years were fueled by the universal constancy of the speed of light c in the vacuum as is well known.

What about the famous “Einstein equation” of late 1915, however: Has it become obsolete since its c is not a global but only a local constant? The equation only needs a re-scaling. The “too short” spatial distances for the elongated light travelling times just get proportionally stretched. The “Shapiro time delay” is now accompanied by a space dilation (“Shapiro-Cook space dilation”) and the infinite temporal distance to the horizon of a black hole is accompanied by an equally infinite spatial distance valid from outside.

Continue reading “The global-c ‘Catastrophe’ in Physics” »

Jul 8, 2014

Something is Amiss with Light in the Universe –“Photons May Be Coming from Some Exotic Unknown Source”

Posted by in category: space

The Daily Galaxy
Dark-energy

The vast reaches of empty space between galaxies are bridged by tendrils of hydrogen and helium, which can be used as a precise “light meter.” In a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists finds that the light from known populations of galaxies and quasars is not nearly enough to explain observations of intergalactic hydrogen. The difference is a stunning 400 percent.
“The most exciting possibility is that the missing photons are coming from some exotic new source, not galaxies or quasars at all,” said Neal Katz a co-author from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. For example, the mysterious dark matter, which holds galaxies together but has never been seen directly, could itself decay and ultimately be responsible for this extra light.
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