Lifeboat Foundation

Fifty years after the Apollo 11 lunar landing proved that America could meet President John F. Kennedy’s challenge and beat Russia in the space race, man is walking on the moon once again. This time inside a Lunar Dome at the Rose Bowl.

“Apollo 11 — The Immersive Live Show,” which is in previews and officially opens Wednesday, promises a multimedia spectacle under a gigantic $5-million dome designed to tell a big story in a big way: with live actors, documentary footage, archival audio, 360-degree video projection and props that will simulate a rocket launch and include a life-size re-creation of the lunar landing module. Yes, the one with funny foil hanging around it.

The project is the brainchild of British producer Nick Grace, veteran of international tours of the musical “Mamma Mia!” and Blue Man Group. (Grace’s production is also at the center of an L.A. Times Ideas Exchange program on July 20.)

The rate and total number of people who die over 24 hours.

Why die? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C25qzDhGLx8

Continue reading “24 Hours of Death, Part 1” »

Whether or not creating an AGI is even possible remains up for debate. Meanwhile, others may cringe at the thought of an AI with the intellect to match and exceed humanity. However, OpenAI has been bullish on the prospect. The company points to the breakthroughs researchers have made in last decade in getting AI algorithms to recognize images, translate languages, and control robots. One of OpenAI’s own AI projects can write fiction like a human can (sort of).

However, creating new AI-based technologies costs a lot of money. Not only does it require programming, but also renting access to thousands of servers. So OpenAI has been seeking funding. “The most obvious way to cover costs is to build a product, but that would mean changing our focus. Instead, we intend to license some of our pre-AGI technologies, with Microsoft becoming our preferred partner for commercializing them,” Altman wrote in a separate blog post.

• The AI Breakthrough Will Require Researchers Burying Their Hatchets.

What are the problematics of infrastructure? What criterias can one enunciate and argue to understand the status of a country’s infrastructure?

Lee explains America’s failing infrastructure.

Continue reading “The Impact of America’s Failing Infrastructure | Let Lee Explain” »

60 percent increase in users hit by password stealers in the last year.

A few years ago, researchers discovered that abnormalities in microbial communities, or microbiomes, in the intestine appear to contribute to childhood malnutrition. Now comes word that this discovery is being translated into action, with a new study showing that foods formulated to repair the “gut microbiome” may help malnourished kids rebuild their health [1].

In a month-long clinical trial in Bangladesh, 63 children received either regular foods to treat malnutrition or alternative formulations for needed calories and nutrition that also encouraged growth of beneficial microbes in the intestines. The kids who ate the microbiome-friendly diets showed improvements in their microbiome, which helps to extract and metabolize nutrients in our food to help the body grow. They also had significant improvements in key blood proteins associated with bone growth, brain development, immunity, and metabolism; those who ate standard therapeutic food did not experience the same benefit.

Globally, malnutrition affects an estimated 238 million children under the age 5, stunting their normal growth, compromising their health, and limiting their mental development [2]. Malnutrition can arise not only from a shortage of food but from dietary imbalances that don’t satisfy the body’s need for essential nutrients. Far too often, especially in impoverished areas, the condition can turn extremely severe and deadly. And the long term effects on intellectual development can limit the ability of a country’s citizens to lift themselves out of poverty.

Scientists ponder how the deadly fungus arose and became so resistant to treatment.

• By Helen Branswell, STAT on July 23, 2019

Cilantro, also known as coriander, has been traditionally used as a folk medicine for thousands of years, with one of those uses being as an anticonvulsant to prevent the onset of epileptic seizures. New research from University of California, Irvine, has now for the first time homed in on the specific molecular action that explains how this herb can reduce seizures.

Technological advances are driving down the cost and ease of getting into space, allowing a crowd of new actors, from developing countries to small start-ups, to get into the game. In the next space race, the main challenge will be figuring out how to regulate all the new activity.