Lifeboat Foundation

By Ashlee Kieler — The Consumerist

For years, laws have been put into place to discourage distracted driving: no texting while driving, no talking on the phone while driving, the list goes on. General Motors is taking things a step further by commissioning a vehicle that detects and alerts drivers to their distracted behavior.

The Financial Times reports that General Motors is preparing to launch the first mass-produced vehicles with eye- and head-tracking technology to detect distracted behaviors in drivers.

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FUTURISM UPDATE (November 23, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon

THE ECONOMIST: Quantum biology. How quantum theory is helping to explain the mysteries of life science http://lnkd.in/ePv-wAq

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: The Genetics Epidemic. The Revolution in DNA Science — And What To Do About It http://lnkd.in/diHn3YP

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: Neuronal “Superhub” Might Generate Consciousness. Could a thin, enigmatic layer of nerve cells be a key component of the networks generating conscious experience? http://lnkd.in/dPmnSHz

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (November 23, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon” »

RT

Russia’s ‘Breakthrough’ energy project enables closed a nuclear fuel cycle and a future without radioactive waste. The first batch of MOX nuclear fuel has been manufactured for the world’s only NPP industrially power generating breeder reactors.

The first ten kilograms of the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) — a mixture of plutonium and uranium dioxides (UO2 and PuO2), have been industrially produced by Russia’s nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, at the Mining & Chemical Combine (GKhK) in the Krasnoyarsk region.

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The movie is grandiose and beautifully done. Especially the young girl at the outset is an incredibly strong real-life personality. The movie brings together the issue of planetary survival – under the onslaught of a never explained progressive lethal scourge – with the redeeming power of black holes used as a vehicle to reach a distant twin earth to be colonized by a select few.

The scenario is ingenious because the two topics – planetary survival and black holes – are intertwined on our own planet as well. The movie therefore functions much like a nightly dream which reshuffles some elements of the daylight reality to enable the sleep to go on while still remaining decipherable after waking up. The current terrestrial situation is not at all unrelated – with black holes figuring decisively in it as well.

In this optically and acoustically overwhelming immersion, for the first time in history the basic effect which a black hole exerts on its vicinity is made palpable. The viewer becomes an eyewitness to the emotional ordeal gone through by the protagonist (a trained jet pilot originally) when he suddenly realizes what it means that he and his buddy are by a technical problem forced to stay for a few more minutes fairly deep down in the gravitational funnel of a giant black hole: That this means that decades will pass by on the outside during those very minutes – so his young daughter whom he so much longs to see again will afterwards be older than he is now. And indeed, when he returns at the end of the movie, she is lying on her death bed in old age, with all her descendants assembled around her.

The movie thereby makes “gravitational time dilation” a palpable experience on the viewer’s own body and mind. And it does the same thing to the specialists’ minds, so I am sure. Textbook knowledge can never replace being made an eyewitness in person. You are now able to realize yourself what happens if you get even closer to the surface (or “horizon” as my friend Wolfgang Rindler named it) of a black hole. The answer is that you will in the limit of going down to the horizon itself be faced with an infinitely old universe on your return.

Continue reading “INTERSTELLAR – Blockbuster Movie features Decisive Black-Hole Effect” »

FUTURISM UPDATE (November 22, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon

BBC NEWS: Robots face new test of creative abilities. A US professor is proposing a new way to test whether artificial intelligence (AI) is on a par with that of humans. http://lnkd.in/eq8HWGx

FINANCIAL TIMES: Google break-up plan emerges from Brussels. The European parliament is poised to call for a break-up of Google, in one of the most brazen assaults so far on the technology group’s power. http://lnkd.in/eBaysU3

THE ECONOMIST: Is Germany’s economy getting too weak to pull Europe out of its crisis? http://lnkd.in/e6vF9kU

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (November 22, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon” »

Dezeen Magazine

News: building work has begun in Beijing on the National Art Museum of China by French architect Jean Nouvel, who beat Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid in a competition for the project in 2013.

The design for the National Museum of China (NAMOC) by Jean Nouvel features an intricately patterned perforated facade, which wraps around part of the building.

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FUTURISM UPDATE (November 21, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon

CleanTechnica: Biomimicry Run Amok: New Micro Air Vehicles Can Swarm Like Bees http://lnkd.in/dMpRCPB

FINANCIAL TIMES: Space junk or Russian satellite killer? It is a tale that could have come from the cold war. A mysterious object launched by the Russian military is being tracked by western space agencies, stoking fears over the revival of a defunct Kremlin project to destroy satellites. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cdd0bdb6-6c27-11e4-990…z3JdykV8Dw

TECH CRUNCH: Eric Schmidt’s Farm2050 Collective Will Back Agriculture Tech To Feed Earth’s Growing Population http://lnkd.in/eBAaTfe

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (November 21, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon” »

Quoted: “Bitcoin technology offers a fundamentally different approach to vote collection with its decentralized and automated secure protocol. It solves the problems of both paper ballot and electronic voting machines, enabling a cost effective, efficient, open system that is easily audited by both individual voters and the entire community. Bitcoin technology can enable a system where every voter can verify that their vote was counted, see votes for different candidates/issues cast in real time, and be sure that there is no fraud or manipulation by election workers.”

Read the article here » http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239809?hootPostID=ba473f…aacc8412c7

“It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really; it’s an imperative.” — Michael Collins, former astronaut