Lifeboat Foundation

When Holly Brockwell wrote about the fact that she doesn’t want to have children, she knew her stance was controversial. But she never expected the sheer volume of backlash and abuse that would force her offline.

After 36 hours, she’s back online and set on fighting the trolls for her right — for all women’s rights — to express their opinions without fear. 👊

The 29-year-old, who is founder of the women’s tech and lifestyle site Gadgette, was commissioned by the BBC to write a piece about her — clearly divisive — stance on reproduction as part of their ‘100 Women 2015’ series.

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A spokesperson from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has confirmed that Apple has acquired face motion capture software developer Faceshift, TechCrunch reports. Though Apple hasn’t disclosed its strategic objectives, it seems likely that Faceshift’s technology can enhance several Apple products.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” was Apple’s stock comment. However, the previously rumored acquisition has been confirmed, and it appears that several Faceshift employees are now working for Apple.

Note: You might be interested in ‘10 reasons why Apple stock is underpriced’

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Watch Arthur C. Clarke describe the Internet — in 1974.

In ‘C for Computer’, first broadcast on 29 May 1974, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that by 2001 every household will have a computer and be connected all over the world. — with Arthur C. Clarke.

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By combining experiments with computer simulations, scientists have come up with a mathematical model that explains blood vessel formation.

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There are probably plenty of things that frustrate you about air travel, but waiting to take off or disembark is probably high on your list. Why should you have to board well before the plane is ready to get moving? Airbus might have a way to cut that idle time to near zero, though: it recently received a patent for a detachable passenger cabin that would lift into the airport gate. Your aircraft would only show up when it’s actually ready to go, and would spend far less time on the ground as a whole (as it’s just swapping cabin pods). It could also eliminate the convoluted boarding process, since you could take your seat right away instead of forming a queue in the terminal.

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Watch the humanesque robot walk about in this remarkable video.

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Well if we do have a major SHTF event even though we don’t have many skilled tool makers any more. Then at least the remains of society should be able to teach itself tool making.

A new study from the University of Exeter has found that teaching is not essential for people to learn to make effective tools. The results counter established views about how human tools and technologies come to improve from generation to generation and point to an explanation for the extraordinary success of humans as a species. The study reveals that although teaching is useful, it is not essential for cultural progress because people can use reasoning and reverse engineering of existing items to work out how to make tools.

The capacity to improve the efficacy of tools and technologies from generation to generation, known as cumulative culture, is unique to humans and has driven our ecological success. It has enabled us to inhabit the coldest and most remote regions on Earth and even have a permanent base in space. The way in which our cumulative culture has boomed compared to other species however remains a mystery.

Continue reading “New study finds that teaching is not essential for people to learn to make effective tools” »

A common criticism of a total transition to wind, water and solar power is that the US electrical grid can’t affordably store enough standby electricity to keep the system stable. Now a researcher proposes an underground solution to that problem.

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Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a first-of-its-kind self-healing gel that repairs and connects electronic circuits, creating opportunities to advance the development of flexible electronics, biosensors and batteries as energy storage devices.

Although technology is moving toward lighter, flexible, foldable and rollable electronics, the existing circuits that power them are not built to flex freely and repeatedly self-repair cracks or breaks that can happen from normal wear and tear.

Until now, self-healing materials have relied on application of external stimuli such as light or heat to activate repair. The UT Austin “supergel” material has high conductivity (the degree to which a material conducts electricity) and strong mechanical and electrical self-healing properties.

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