Lifeboat Foundation

SALT LAKE CITY — Officials are still tallying, but the path of destruction left behind by last month’s 5.7 magnitude earthquake is racking up tens of millions of dollars in damage.

So far in Salt Lake County, inspectors have found the quake has damaged 107 government buildings — including dozens of schools — with early estimated costs hitting the $48.5 million mark, according to Clint Mecham, Salt Lake County Emergency Management division chief.

That’s not a final total — and it doesn’t even include homes and businesses.

Circa 2019

The world record for the deepest dive in history has just been broken by Dallas businessman and explorer Victor Vescovo, who plunged down 35,853ft into the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep—the deepest known point on Earth.

The depth achieved by Vescovo was 66 feet deeper than the previous record for a solo dive, held by film director James Cameron, who reached 35,787ft in 2012. The previous record for the world’s deepest dive (not solo) was 35,813ft, performed in 1960.

Continue reading “Meet Victor Vescovo, who just broke the world record by diving 35,853 feet into the deepest part of the ocean” »

These days, neural networks, deep learning and all types of sensors allow AI to be used in healthcare, to operate self-driving cars and to tweak our photos on Instagram.

In the #future, the ability to learn, to emulate the creative process and to self-organize may give rise to previously unimagined opportunities and unprecedented threats.

Continue reading “The Future is Now | Life after Artificial Intelligence” »

A heads up: Dyson has “created 44 engineering and science activities for children to try out while at home during the coronavirus pandemic, from making a balloon-powered car to building a bridge from spaghetti,” writes the Dezeen website. They go on to add: “Comprised of 22 science tasks and 22 engineering activities, the Challenge Cards can be completed by children using common household items such as eggs, string and balloons.” You can also find a related playlist of videos on YouTube, one of which appears above.

This engineering/science activities have been added to our refreshed collection, 200 Free Kids Educational Resources: Video Lessons, Apps, Books, Websites & More. If you know of any great K-12 resources, especially ones that are always free, please add them in the comments below, and we will try to add them to the list.

Continue reading “Dyson Creates 44 Free Engineering & Science Challenges for Kids Quarantined During COVID-19” »

Welcome to the twilight zone.

TOKYO (Reuters) — Spring graduation ceremonies in Japan have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, but students at one school were able to attend remotely by controlling avatar robots while logged on at home.

The robots, dubbed “Newme” by developer ANA Holdings, were dressed in graduation caps and gowns for the ceremony at the Business Breakthrough University in Tokyo.

Continue reading “Robots replace Japanese students at graduation amid coronavirus” »

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the combination of zinc and hydroxychloroquine may be beneficial for the treatment of Covid-19:

We have been asked again and again — “What else can I do, apart from social distancing, hand hygiene, and so on, to protect myself from COVID-19?” There are additional actions that can be taken.

Continue reading “COVID-19 Update 8: Zinc and chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19?” »

Ladies Monday with ReallyGraceful.

This is a video about the philanthropic billionaire, Bill Gates. We go into his family history, his early childhood, education, extracurriculars, and time at Harvard to answer the question “Who was Bill Gates before Microsoft?” Support my channel on Patreon: http://patreon.com/reallygraceful

Continue reading “Who was Bill Gates Before Microsoft?” »

NASA, one of SpaceX’s biggest customers, also prohibits its employees from using Zoom, said Stephanie Schierholz, a spokeswoman for the U.S. space agency.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston office on Monday issued a warning about Zoom, telling users not to make meetings on the site public or share links widely after it received two reports of unidentified individuals invading school sessions, a phenomenon known as “zoombombing.”

Investigative news site The Intercept on Tuesday reported that Zoom video is not end-to-end encrypted between meeting participants, and that the company could view sessions.

Past public health crises inspired innovations in infrastructure, education, fundraising and civic debate.