Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: sustainability – Page 358

Beats road traffic any day.

As the world progresses towards electric vehicles and flying cars, a team of researchers from the Washington State University is working with ZEVA Aero, a Tacoma-based start up to test different components to create a single passenger, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

It’s interesting to note that ZEVA Aero has already completed a functional prototype of a very futuristic looking eVTOL vehicle which has been assigned to use by first responders and emergency services before the general public. The prototype is capable of flying at 160 mph for up to 50 miles (80km). When it takes off from the ground, it hovers just like a helicopter and then tilts horizontally to fly more efficiently like a plane. This enables it to take advantage of the reduced drag and travel at faster speed as compared to other eVTOL vehicles.

Read more | >

What do the founders and leaders of Tesla, YouTube, and LinkedIn have in common? They all started their early careers at PayPal, the online payment company. This group of highly ambitious twenty and thirty-year-olds has been dubbed the “PayPal mafia” and once even dressed up as mafia members for the cover of Fortune magazine.

They went on to found or run some of the largest tech companies in the world. Elon Musk was absent the day of the shoot because of a scheduling conflict. This is by no means all of them. Peter Thiel estimates that the “mafia” is around 220 people.

Thiel is a famous start-up investor often referred to as the “don” of the PayPal mafia. PayPal began when Thiel and Max Levchin created software company Confinity as a way to transfer money through the once-popular Palm Pilot.

Read more | >

The noise barriers built in Switzerland can supply up to 101 gigawatt hours of solar electricity every year. The prerequisite is that all noise barriers are covered with solar installations, as far as this is possible and economical. This would be possible with a solar capacity of 111 megawatts. This is the result of a study commissioned by the Swiss Federal Council at the instigation of Bruno Storni, a member of parliament from the Swiss Social Democratic Party.

This potential is far below what is technically feasible. However, the authors of the study subtracted the potential that would hardly be economically feasible according to the current state of the art. In addition, they had to take into account site conditions such as shading of the walls or safety aspects.

101 gigawatt hours sounds a lot. But this is only 0.15 per cent of the usable solar potential on roofs and facades used for comparison in Switzerland. For the federal road administration Astra and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), however, it is nevertheless a major step towards climate neutrality. After all, solar installations on noise barriers near road tunnels alone cover eleven per cent of the potential on Astra’s total surfaces.

Read more | >

Cutting the price of CO2 removal to under $100 per ton.

Reducing global carbon emissions can go a long way in reducing the impact of climate change, though it may not be enough.

In a bid to turn the tide around amid dire scientific predictions, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced ambitious new plans to accelerate the development of carbon capture technologies, a report from The Verge explains.

Read more | >

Head on over to https://CharityStars.com/nowyouknow — help a great cause and enter for your chance to win this awesome prize — the Tesla Model Y Performance and $10,000 cash! And don’t forget to use the code NOWYOUKNOW when checking out to get 250 additional free entries and increase your chances of winning!

To get the 100 pk of blades for free, make sure to add it to your shopping cart, and use the code ‘nowyouknow’. Thanks again to Henson Shaving for sponsoring this episode!
Henson Shaving: https://bit.ly/3CMf5Mq.

#sandymunro #munrolive #tesla.

Use the code NOWYOUKNOW to get 5% your purchase today at https://www.BigBattery.com.

Want to buy Zac and Jesse’s shirts and help support the show? Visit https://nowyouknow.ecowear.us/ to get your merch!

Use promo code “NowYouKnow” to get your free trial of A Better Route Planner Premium.

Continue reading “China is Coming: Observations from an Expert | In Depth” | >

A US$500 billion accelerator of human progress — mansoor hanif, executive director, emerging technologies, NEOM.

Mansoor Hanif is the Executive Director of Emerging Technologies at NEOM (https://www.neom.com/en-us), a fascinating $500 billion planned cognitive city” & tourist destination, located in north west Saudi Arabia, where he is responsible for all R&D activities for the Technology & Digital sector, including space technologies, advanced robotics, human-machine interfaces, sustainable infrastructure, digital master plans, digital experience platforms and mixed reality. He also leads NEOM’s collaborative research activities with local and global universities and research institutions, as well as manages the team developing world-leading Regulations for Communications and Connectivity.

Prior to this role, Mr Hanif served as Executive Director, Technology & Digital Infrastructure, where he oversaw the design and implementation of NEOM’s fixed, mobile, satellite and sub-sea networks.

An industry leader, Mr Hanif has over 25 years of experience in planning, building, optimizing and operating mobile networks around the world. He is patron of the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals (ITP), a member of the Steering Board of the UK5G Innovation Network, and on the Advisory Boards of the Satellite Applications Catapult and University College London (UCL) Electrical and Electronic Engineering Dept.

Prior to joining NEOM, Mr Hanif was Chief Technology Officer of Ofcom, the UK telecoms and media regulator, where he oversaw the security and resilience of the nation’s networks.

Continue reading “Mansoor Hanif — Executive Director, Emerging Technologies, NEOM — An Accelerator Of Human Progress” | >

Dr. Yuval Noah Harari, macro-historian, Professor, best-selling author of “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus,” and one of the world’s most innovative and exciting thinkers, has a few hypotheses of his own on the future of humanity.

He examines what might happen to the world when old myths are coupled with new godlike technologies, such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.

Harari tackles into today’s most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future.

According to Harari, we are probably one of the last generation of homo sapiens. Within a century earth will be dominated from entities that are not even human, intelligent species that are barely biological. Harari suggests the possibility that humans are algorithms, and as such Homo sapiens may not be dominant in a universe where big data becomes a paradigm.
Robots and AI will most likely replace us in our jobs once they become intelligent enough.

Although he is hopeful that AI might help us solve many problems, such as healthcare, climate change, poverty, overpopulation etc, he cautions about the possibility of an AI arms race.

Furthermore Dr. Yuval Noah Harari suggests this technology will also allow us to upgrade our brains and nervous systems. For example, humans will be able to connect their minds directly to the internet via brain implants.

Continue reading “Yuval Noah Harari on The Future of Humanity” | >

AArtificial photosynthesis turns CO2 into sustainable fuel: Carbon capture is the idea of taking CO2 from the air and storing it. Carbon conversion is taking that same CO2 and turning it into something useful. CO2 can be used for a number of products, but one of the most exciting is alternatives to fossil fuels.

If we look at what’s possible with batteries today, you can do a lot. You can electrify certain portions of aviation, but they’re just never gonna touch that jumbo jet full of a couple of hundred passengers going a thousand miles. And that’s where sustainable aviation fuels come in.

Jason Salfi, CEO of Dimensional Energy, a company using artificial photosynthesis to produce carbon-neutral alternatives to fossil fuels. Their first product, a carbon-neutral jet fuel.

Read more | >