Lifeboat Foundation

From Earth’s vantage point in one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms, the structure of our galaxy is pretty difficult to reconstruct.

That’s because gauging the distance to something in space when you don’t know its intrinsic brightness is really, really hard. And there are a lot of objects in the Milky Way whose brightness is unknown to us. This means that sometimes, we can totally miss huge structures that you’d think should be right under our noses.

A new set of such enormous structures has now been unveiled at the outer regions of the Milky Way disk: massive, spinning filaments with unclear provenance. Astronomers will be conducting follow-up surveys to try and solve the mystery.

Nio’s soon-to-arrive ET7 is practically tailor-made to challenge Tesla’s Model S, and now the company appears to have a (partial) answer to the Model 3. Electrek says Nio has introduced the ET5, a more affordable “mid-size” electric sedan. It starts at RMB 328,000 (about $51,450), or well under the roughly $70,000 of the ET7, but offers similarly grandiose range figures. Nio claims the base 75kWh battery offers over 341 miles of range using China’s test cycle, while the highest-end 150kWh “Ultralong Range” pack is supposedly good for more than 620 miles. You’ll likely pay significantly more for the privilege and may not see that range in real life, but the numbers could still tempt you away from higher-end Model 3s if long-distance driving is crucial.

You can expect the usual heapings of technology. The ET5 will have built-in support for autonomous driving features as they’re approved, and drivers get a “digital cockpit” thanks to Nreal-developed augmented reality glasses that can project a virtual screen equivalent to 201 inches at a 20-foot viewing distance. Nio has teamed with Nolo to make VR glasses, too, although it’s safe to say you won’t wear those while you’re driving.

Deliveries are expected to start September 2022. That’s a long way off, but Nio appears to be on track with its EV plans as it expects to deliver the ET7 on time (if only just) starting March 28th.

Plutonium cores, or pits, act as the triggers for thermonuclear weapons. The goal is to make 30 new cores by 2026.

The new prototype is part of a program designed to replace the aging Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellites on orbit.

“Looking at the starry sky, with those thousand-year-old walls embracing the ancient constellations and the passing, modern ISS, was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Masi said in a statement on Thursday.

Masi also released an annotated version of the image showing constellations marked and labeled, from Pegasus to Ursa Minor.

The Colosseum is nearly 2,000 years old. The ISS has been in space for over 20 years. They are very different kinds of monuments, but they meld together beautifully in an image that speaks to the past and the present and how far humans have traveled.

A zoom into M87’s monster black hole, thanks to Hubble.

The supermassive black hole located at the heart of the M87 galaxy is home to one of the most impressive natural patterns in nature.

In this short video, filmed at ASTRO 2021, Siemens Healthineers’ Gabriel Haras introduces the company’s portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI)-based products. Such technologies support the entire care pathway for cancer patients, from screening and diagnostics to treatment and follow-up, including innovations such as AI-based autocontouring and generation of synthetic CT from an MRI scan for radiotherapy planning.

Next, Varian’s Kevin O’Reilly comments on the combining of Varian and Siemens Healthineers into one united company. He notes that the integration of AI capabilities has increased Varian’s ability to innovate, and will help accelerate its intelligent cancer care strategy: accelerating the path to treatment, increasing global access to care, exploiting data-driven insight and improving personalization.

Digital fashion marketplaces have recently opened, including DressX, hoping that shoppers will be keen to start a virtual wardrobe. Credit: DressX

Outfitting our digital personas is nothing new, from making pixelated Dollz in the early 2000s to shopping these days for new wardrobe additions in Animal Crossing. The video game industry has more recently laid the groundwork for digital fashion, with outfits or “skins,” in games like Overwatch and Fortnite generating billions in revenue.

Some major fashion players have already begun capitalizing on the gaming market — in 2019, Louis Vuitton designed skins for League of Legends, and Nike and Ralph Lauren have this year offered avatar accessories through the virtual world-building platform Roblox. Outside of gaming environments, NFTs — or non-fungible tokens, which use blockchain technology to verify ownership of digital assets — have allowed digital fashion to be monetized more broadly as well. (This fall, Dolce & Gabbana’s NFT collection sold out for 1,885.719 ETH, at the time equivalent to $6 million).

2021 saw massive growth in the demand for edge computing — driven by the pandemic, the need for more efficient business processes, as well as key advances in the Internet of Things, 5G and AI.

In a study published by IBM in May, for example, 94 percent of surveyed executives said their organizations will implement edge computing in the next five years.

Continue reading “Top 5 Edge AI Trends to Watch in 2022” »