Menu

Blog

Page 11836

Dec 21, 2013

Homes on Mars? 3D Printing Could Make That Possible, Says NASA

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, space

By AOL Real Estate Editors

Thinking about building a home on Mars, but having trouble finding a contractor? That might no longer be such a problem, thanks to a new technology that one day could make it much faster to build one there than it takes us now on Earth. A professor at the University of Southern California has designed an automated 3D printer that, he says, would make it “possible to build an entire home within a day.” “You press a button and it will be built,” says Behrokh Khoshnevis, who teaches industrial and systems engineering at USC.

contour crafting robot lays concrete

The process, called “Contour Crafting,” was conceived as a way to quickly construct emergency housing on this planet out of concrete. But NASA sees other applications for Khoshnevis’ homebuilding innovation — for starters, projects such as an airport on the moon. “Behrokh’s work is one of the most creative and far reaching concepts I’ve seen,” said Jason Derleth, the program manager for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, in a news release this past summer. “He really has a chance to change the world by robotically printing buildings here, and he may even change the next human world by doing the same on the moon and Mars.”

Read more

Dec 21, 2013

How Corporate Data Centers Can Mine Bitcoins After Employees Leave For The Day

Posted by in categories: big data, bitcoin, business

By

Here’s an interesting idea: Maybe your company could be raising extra money by using its data center to mine for bitcoins at night.

The thought was half seriously suggested by Jason Langone, director of Federal Sales at a hot Valley startup called Nutanix. He wrote a blog post that explains how it could be done.

Dec 20, 2013

Drones and robotic warfare you just can’t imagine

Posted by in categories: defense, drones, human trajectories, military

Mary (Missy) Cummings is Associate Professor at Duke University and Director of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Humans and Automation Laboratory.

In just the past two years, it seems as if drones are everywhere in the news. This technology has been around for more than 60 years, but has only recently captured both national and international attention. This is primarily because of the increasing use in the military, but also because of concerns that such technology will be turned on a country’s own citizens.

The average person thinks of a drone as a flying spy camera, loitering overhead waiting to spot a target and then possibly launching a weapon when that target is labeled as a threat. To be sure, this is indeed one mission of drones, typically of organizations like the CIA.

However, this is by far the least common mission. The vast majority of military drone missions today are data and image collection. Their ability to provide “situational awareness” to decision makers on the ground is unparalleled in military operations since drones can essentially conduct perch and stare missions nearly endlessly.

Dec 20, 2013

Gorgeous Robox 3D printer hopes it can do for 3D printing what the iMac did for personal computing

Posted by in category: 3D printing

Robox 3D printer

The printer will be available to the public in early 2014 for about $1,400. CEL CEO Chris Elsworthy said the machine could someday be used to 3D scan an object or ice a cake.

In 1999, my elementary school got every single kid to love computer class with a single move: It replaced a fleet of Macintosh Classic IIs with iMac G3s. The candy-colored shells, bright graphics and whimsical shape made it feel like you were spending time with some hip, space-age machine. Computing was so in that year.

The G3 bas been discontinued for a decade, but it is still an icon of the optimism of the computing industry in the 1990s. 3D printers are going through a similar phase right now, as machine after machine hits the market. While they haven’t quite hit the ease-of-use of a 1990s era computer, they’re certainly getting there.

Continue reading “Gorgeous Robox 3D printer hopes it can do for 3D printing what the iMac did for personal computing” »

Dec 20, 2013

Survey reveals regulatory agencies viewed as unprepared for nanotechnology

Posted by in category: nanotechnology
(Nanowerk News) Three stakeholder groups agree that regulators are not adequately prepared to manage the risks posed by nanotechnology, according to a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One (“Expert Views on Regulatory Preparedness for Managing the Risks of Nanotechnologies”).
In a survey of nanoscientists and engineers, nano-environmental health and safety scientists, and regulators, researchers at the UCSB Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS) and at the University of British Columbia found that those who perceive the risks posed by nanotechnology as “novel” are more likely to believe that regulators are unprepared. Representatives of regulatory bodies themselves felt most strongly that this was the case. “The people responsible for regulation are the most skeptical about their ability to regulate,” said CNS Director and co-author Barbara Herr Harthorn.
“The message is essentially,” said first author Christian Beaudrie of the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, “the more that risks are seen as new, the less trust survey respondents have in regulatory mechanisms. That is, regulators don’t have the tools to do the job adequately.”

Read more

Dec 20, 2013

The Future Predictive Scenario – The Hunger Games

Posted by in categories: food, human trajectories

In post-apocalyptic North America, the Capitol composed of the elite and the rich, controls 12 Districts of Panem. Every year, two representatives from each district are chosen, one boy and one girl, to compete for food supply, thrown in the arena created by the Capitol to fight. Only can be the winner. They called it – Hunger GamesThe Future Predictive Scenario – The Hunger Games.

Based on Suzanne Collins’ trilogy novel, “The Hunger Games” has created immense popularity among movie and novel enthusiasts. But for some, it has drawn fears and futuristic theories. They fear that Hunger Games can be our future predictive scenario. Who wouldn’t blink at an idea like this?

World hunger, in its basic definition, is the want and scarcity of food aggregated to the world level. Evidently, a disparity between human and food resources can cause unparalleled precondition – hunger revolution. Now, with a place ravaged by war, greed, statuses, and human right abuses, ask yourselves, “Are you the next Katniss and Peeta? Or are you part of the Capitol using food hoarding and killing as form of entertainment?”

Read more

Dec 20, 2013

Youth-drug can ‘reverse’ ageing in animal studies

Posted by in categories: biological, biotech/medical, life extension

US scientists have performed a dramatic reversal of the ageing process in animal studies.

They used a chemical to rejuvenate muscle in mice and said it was the equivalent of transforming a 60-year-old’s muscle to that of a 20-year-old — but muscle strength did not improve.

Their study, in the journal Cell, identified an entirely new mechanism of ageing and then reversed it.

Other researchers said it was an “exciting finding”.

Read more

Dec 20, 2013

Surveillance blimp will help police border

Posted by in categories: geopolitics, law enforcement, surveillance

By DAN SANTELLA The Monitor

PEÑITAS — It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … no, it’s a Border Patrol blimp. Mobile, unmanned, aerial security surveillance has arrived in the Rio Grande Valley.

A so-called aerostat surveillance blimp was unveiled to media Thursday afternoon in a field south of Interstate 2/Expressway 83. Standing behind a U.S. Department of Homeland Security dais, local and national officials introduced the big, white airship and fielded questions about its upcoming use.

Noting how border fencing ends near Peñitas, Rosendo Hinojosa, chief patrol agent of the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, said that the aerostat will provide Valley authorities with means previously unavailable to them.

Continue reading “Surveillance blimp will help police border” »

Dec 20, 2013

Singularity: Reading our genes like computer code

Posted by in categories: big data, biotech/medical, singularity

He knows this because when he had his genetic code read, he found out that he was likely to get age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The disease leaves the sufferer with a very narrow field of vision.

As head of bio-technology at the world’s most futuristic learning institution, Singularity University, he found the news “burdensome” at first.

Continue reading “Singularity: Reading our genes like computer code” »

Dec 20, 2013

Bitcoin donations welcome, Newport Beach City Council candidate says

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, government

When Newport Beach City Council candidate Michael Glenn thinks of freedom, that includes the freedom to choose how to donate — be it with dollar, peso or bitcoin.

Glenn claims to be the first local politician to accept campaign donations in the esoteric digital currency. He is running against businesswoman Diane Dixon and Harbor Commissioner Joe Stapleton for the Balboa Peninsula’s 1st District council seat.

Glenn’s announcement comes just weeks after customers used bitcoins to pay for a Tesla, and then a Lamborghini, from a Costa Mesa dealership.

Read more