Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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A recent analysis from a UK-based firm has determined that Tesla owners love to drive their vehicles, so much so that they actually rack up the most miles per year among specific car brands. This is a notable observation, and one that bodes well for the personal transportation industry as a whole.

Before the ongoing lockdown in the country, the RAC Foundation conducted an analysis of the Ministry of Transportation’s (MOT) data. According to the data presented, British car owners drive just a little bit over 10,000 miles per year on average during the first three years of vehicle ownership. A closer look into the data shows that this average is partly caused by the annual mileage of diesel and gas drivers.

On their own, diesel drivers average 12,496 miles annually during the first three years of ownership. This contrasts significantly with the figures from drivers of gasoline-powered cars, who average just 7,490 miles per year. This discrepancy is not that surprising, partly since diesel is usually much cheaper than gasoline, making them ideal for long trips. What is surprising is the data that came out from EV drivers.

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On Earth, there are organisms that resist radiation, heat, cold, and drying, even to the point of being able to live in the space vacuum.

Genetic biotechnology is usually discussed in the context of current and emerging applications here on Earth, and rightly so, since we still live exclusively in our planetary cradle. But as humanity looks outward, we ponder what kind of life we ought to take with us to support outposts and eventually colonies off the Earth.

While the International Space Station (ISS) and the various spacecraft that ferry astronauts on short bouts through space depend on consumables brought up from Earth to maintain life support, this approach will not be practical for extensive lunar missions, much less long term occupation of more distant sites. If we’re to build permanent bases, and eventually colonies, on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, moons of outer planets or in free space, we’ll need recycling life support systems. This means air, water, and food replenished through microorganisms and plants, and it’s not a new idea.

Continue reading “Deep-space travel, colonization may rely on genetically engineered life forms” | >

“just last year, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the organization led by Dr. Fauci, funded scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other institutions for work on gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.

In 2019, with the backing of NIAID, the National Institutes of Health committed $3.7 million over six years for research that included some gain-of-function work. The program followed another $3.7 million, 5-year project for collecting and studying bat coronaviruses, which ended in 2019, bringing the total to $7.4 million.”

Biomedical research ultimately helps protect public health, Fauci argued. The Wuhan lab that received U.S. taxpayer money is suspected of playing a role in starting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Continue reading “Dr. Fauci backed controversial Wuhan lab with millions of U.S. dollars for risky coronavirus research” | >

A Colorado prison is now the site of the state’s largest confirmed COVID-19 outbreak as mass testing confirms that 238 inmates at Sterling Correctional Facility have the virus.

The number of positive cases at the facility spiked as more results from the 472 tests administered last week became available. Of those tested, half were positive. Sixteen tests were inconclusive, 216 were negative and two were still pending Tuesday afternoon, Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Annie Skinner said in an email.

Four of the sick inmates were in the hospital Tuesday afternoon, Skinner said.

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Gerd Leonhard discussion regarding Humanism and Transhumanism.

This is an excerpt from my latest digital conference, April 23, 2020, “Humanist vs Transhumanist” featuring Calum Chace and me.

My Futures Agency colleague and fellow futurist Calum Chace disagree with me on many of my core messages on topics such as the singularity, (trans)-humanism, artificial intelligence and what I call ‘man+machine futures’.

Continue reading “Futurist Gerd Leonhard: Humanism vs Transhumanism” | >

Researchers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) have used the infrastructure of the former TAMA300 gravitational wave detector in Mitaka, Tokyo, to demonstrate a new technique to reduce quantum noise in detectors. This new technique will increase the sensitivity of the detectors comprising a collaborative worldwide gravitational wave network, allowing them to observe fainter waves.

When it began observations in 2000, TAMA300 was one of the world’s first large-scale interferometric gravitational wave detectors. At that time TAMA300 had the highest in the world, setting an upper limit on the strength of gravitational wave signals; but the first detection of actual gravitational waves was made 15 years later in 2015 by LIGO. Since then, technology has improved to the point that modern detectors are observing several signals per month. The obtained from these observations are already impressive, and many more are expected in the coming decades. TAMA300 is no longer participating in observations, but is still used as a testbed for new technologies to improve other detectors.

The sensitivity of current and future gravitational wave detectors is limited at almost all the frequencies by caused by the effects of vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic fields. But even this inherent quantum can be sidestepped. It is possible to manipulate the vacuum fluctuations to redistribute the quantum uncertainties, decreasing one type of noise at the expense of increasing a different, less obstructive type of noise. This technique, known as vacuum squeezing, has already been implemented in gravitational wave detectors, greatly increasing their sensitivity to higher frequency gravitational waves. But the optomechanical interaction between the and the mirrors of the detector causes the effect of vacuum squeezing to change depending on the frequency. So at low frequencies, vacuum squeezing increases the wrong type of noise, actually degrading sensitivity.

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Idaho-based beef purveyor Snake River Farms is donating 35,000 10-ounce steaks to Bay Area food banks, with a total value of $2 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. It’s part of a larger initiative the company announced last week, which will send $8 million worth of its American wagyu to cities around the country to feed hospital workers, laid-off restaurant staff and other communities affected by the Covid-19 crisis. Snake River is relying on regional distribution partners in Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and San Francisco to help them get their donation to nonprofits.

With restaurants shut down, Snake River Farms is giving its premium beef a good home.

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