Lifeboat Foundation

And they say computers can’t create art.

In 1642, famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn completed a large painting called Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq — today, the painting is commonly referred to as The Night Watch. It was the height of the Dutch Golden Age, and The Night Watch brilliantly showcased that.

The painting measured 363 cm × 437 cm (11.91 ft × 14.34 ft) — so big that the characters in it were almost life-sized, but that’s only the start of what makes it so special. Rembrandt made dramatic use of light and shadow and also created the perception of motion in what would normally be a stationary military group portrait. Unfortunately, though, the painting was trimmed in 1715 to fit between two doors at Amsterdam City Hall.

Continue reading “An AI algorithm just completed a famous Rembrandt painting” »

“We’re excited to share that AWS has acquired Wickr, an innovative company that has developed the industry’s most secure, end-to-end encrypted, communication technology,” Stephen Schmidt, Amazon Web Services’ vice president, wrote. With a nod to the company’s ever-deepening relationships with the military, and Washington in general, Schmidt added that Wickr’s features give “security conscious enterprises and government agencies the ability to implement important governance and security controls to help them meet their compliance requirements.” Schmidt himself has a background in this space: his LinkedIn profile notes he spent a decade at the FBI.

Wickr’s app — like secure messaging competitor Signal — has been popular with journalists and whistleblowers; it’s also been a go-to for criminals, Motherboard notes. It’s unclear if the proximity to the tech monolith will impact the app’s popularity for free users.

In Amazon’s case, Schmidt indicates the acquisition was at least partially influenced by the need to preserve information security while working remotely. “With the move to hybrid work environments, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises and government agencies have a growing desire to protect their communications,” he wrote.

In September 1983, the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence produced a report: “Soviet Satellite Defense Against the US Miniature Vehicle Antisatellite Weapon.” The report stated that “Our estimates of Soviet technological advances and of Soviet perceptions of the ASAT threat indicate a moderate likelihood that the Soviets will develop additional defensives—decoys, electronic countermeasures, and signature reduction—by the late 1990s.”

Scientists have given the all-clear.

A new study from U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) scientists reveals there’s nothing stopping the military from producing walking combat vehicles—at least from a power perspective, anyway. The research shows legs use essentially the same amount of power as wheels or tracks, so there’s no disadvantage to using them.

In the PLoS ONE study, scientists say both artificial and biological locomotion systems—literally from 1 gram to 35-ton vehicles—have approximately the same power requirements to move a unit of mass over land. Animals or machines using legs, wheels, or tracks use the same amount of energy.

Continue reading “The Army Might Really Build Walking War Machines” »

Fast transport of equipment and personnel using rockets similar to that of SpaceX.

Travelling through space will be far faster than atmospheric flight.

Continue reading “The Pentagon Just COPIED SpaceX and Elon Musk” »

Hyundai Motor Group said Tuesday that it has officially completed its acquisition of robotics company Boston Dynamics. The deal was announced in December and valued Boston Dynamics at $1.1 billion. The purchase sees Hyundai pick up an 80 percent controlling stake in the company, with the previous owner, Softbank, retaining 20 percent ownership.

The deal will hopefully create a stable home for Boston Dynamics, which has continued to pump out the world’s most impressive robots despite continual ownership changes. The company was spun off from MIT in 1992 and survived for most of its life on DARPA research grants. Google acquired the independent Boston Dynamics in 2013 as part of a brief interest in robotics led by Android co-founder Andy Rubin. Google freed the company from surviving on military contracts, but when Rubin left Google a year later, the executive interest in robotics left with him.

It’s been over for human fighter pilots, it will come down to who has the best AI fighter aircraft. AI will also take over ground combat vehicles (tanks), ships, and last will be armed humanoid robot combat soldiers.

The reported testing of AI against Chinese fighter pilots mirrors US military efforts and underscores China’s major investments in this technology.

Continue reading “Chinese Pilots Are Also Dueling With AI Opponents In Simulated Dogfights And Losing: Report” »

Here’s the secret to the self-sustaining tokamak concept.

Could the future of nuclear fusion be a much smaller, self-sustaining tokamak reactor? Researchers at the General Atomics DIII-D National Fusion Facility, the largest nuclear fusion research facility in the U.S., think so. The secret is the pressurized plasma.

The scientists from DIII-D have designed a full “compact nuclear fusion plant” concept and detailed the plans in a new paper in Nuclear Fusion. In simulations, their 8-meter-wide pressurized plasma fusion concept is powerful enough to generate 200 megawatts (MW) of net electricity after the energy cost of the fusion itself.

Continue reading “This Is the First Fusion Power Plant to Generate Net Electricity” »

A Middle Eastern advanced persistent threat (APT) group has resurfaced after a two-month hiatus to target government institutions in the Middle East and global government entities associated with geopolitics in the region in a rash of new campaigns observed earlier this month.

Sunnyvale-based enterprise security firm Proofpoint attributed the activity to a politically motivated threat actor it tracks as TA402, and known by other monikers such as Molerats and GazaHackerTeam.

The threat actor is believed to be active for a decade, with a history of striking organizations primarily located in Israel and Palestine, and spanning multiple verticals such as technology, telecommunications, finance, academia, military, media, and governments.