Lifeboat Foundation

Ten men and women are ready to begin training so they can journey to the International Space Station, the moon and beyond. The new astronaut class of 2021 was announced by NASA on Monday.

The 10 astronaut candidates, the first new astronaut class in four years, were selected from more than 12,000 applicants. The agency’s administrator, Bill Nelson, introduced them live from Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the candidates will spend the majority of the next two years training beginning in January 2022.

“Today we welcome 10 new explorers, 10 members of the Artemis generation, NASA’s 2021 astronaut candidate class,” Nelson said. “Alone, each candidate has ‘the right stuff,’ but together they represent the creed of our country: E pluribus unum — out of many, one.”

There are many types of rocket fuel. Some are more useful on a particular planet. And some can be created by bacteria.

In the first study of its kind, researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) have demonstrated that a stem cell-based treatment delivered through an implantable device can produce insulin in the human body.

Disney+, Coinbase, Slack and other websites were taken down for some users as a result of the AWS outage.

“We are seeing improvement in availability across most AWS services,” the notice stated. “We continue to work toward full recovery for all impacted AWS Services and API operations.”

Among the services that reported issues as a result of the outage were Disney’s streaming subscription service, Disney+, Netflix, Slack, Ticketmaster, stock trading app Robinhood, and Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S.

Continue reading “Amazon Web Services outage brings some delivery operations to a standstill” »

Summary: A ten-minute run increases activation of the bilateral prefrontal cortex, improving mood and cognitive function.

Source: University of Tsukuba

Running may be a useful activity to undertake for better mental health. University of Tsukuba researchers have found that only ten minutes of moderate-intensity running increases local blood flow to the various loci in the bilateral prefrontal cortex —the part of the brain that plays an important role in controlling mood and executive functions.

Things get awkward when Will meets Sophia the Robot for an intimate conversation in the Cayman Islands. SUBSCRIBE: https://goo.gl/BUjQW8

Thanks to Hanson Robotics for providing Sophia! For more information, visit http://hansonrobotics.com.

Continue reading “Will Smith Tries Online Dating” »

Skills shortages are easily brushed off as Covid collateral, but in fact, they are much more troubling signs of an education system that is not preparing people for the future of work. These issues stem from a union of education and employment that has been designed to fill specific criteria for the workforce, but the job market that young people are training for today will require a much greater emphasis on human skills to complement the repetitive tasks handled by AI and automation.

But bringing up young people with the human skills they need for a changing world of work is a mammoth task that must combine the powers of government, businesses, and dedicated organizations to reshape our education systems and integrate them with the communities they serve. I spoke with Justin van Fleet, Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Education), about the need for a holistic and skills-centered approach to education, and how change needs to start as early as possible.

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This rover has moves that could take over a dance floor. A new video shows a simulator known as the Ground Test Model doing a sort of zombie walk over Martian-like terrain, to test out techniques for a future Mars missions.

“The rover initially has its front two wheels almost completely buried in sand, but easily escapes using its unique wheel-walking mode,” the European Space Agency said in a statement of the testing at Thales Alenia Space facilities in Turin, Italy, noting that the 6-foot drive took about 20 minutes to accomplish.

“The back wheels drag once the front four wheels have gained good traction on firmer terrain. The reason is that the wheel-walking sequence tested here has rather been optimized for climbing steep slopes with loose soils,” ESA added of the sequence.

The FlyZero aircraft is one of a range of aircraft being designed by the FlyZero program. The new concept will store hydrogen in cryogenic fuel tanks, keeping them at a temperature of minus 250°Celsius (minus 418°Fahrenheit). Two cryogenic tanks will be placed at the rear of the plane, while two smaller “cheek” tanks will be placed near the front of the plane to keep the aircraft balanced. The mid-size aircraft will have a wingspan of 54 meters, each of which will have a turbofan engine attached.

“These designs could define the future of aerospace and aviation,” said U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in the ATI’s statement. “By working with industry, we are showing that truly carbon-free flight could be possible, with hydrogen a frontrunner to replace conventional fossil fuels.”

Continue reading “A New Hydrogen Plane Can Fly Halfway Around the World Without Refueling” »