Lifeboat Foundation

‘Zero-energy’ buildings — which generate as much power as they consume — are now much closer after a team at Australia’s University of New South Wales achieved the world’s highest efficiency using flexible solar cells that are non-toxic and cheap to make.

Until now, the promise of ‘zero-energy’ buildings been held back by two hurdles: the cost of the thin-film solar cells (used in façades, roofs and windows), and the fact they’re made from scarce, and highly toxic, materials.

That’s about to change: the UNSW team, led by Dr Xiaojing Hao of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics at the UNSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, have achieved the world’s highest efficiency rating for a full-sized thin-film solar cell using a competing thin-film technology, known as CZTS.

Continue reading “At last: Non-toxic and cheap thin-film solar cells for ‘zero-energy’ buildings” »

An industry legend returns.

Nolan Bushnell partners with a Dutch mobile publisher to develop ideas he’s been sitting on for over a decade.

Captain William D. Stanaforth (Mark Strong) is on a one-way solo mission, taking humanity’s first steps toward colonizing Mars. Although the entire world is watching him, he is completely alone in a dark and distant sea of stars. Stanaforth rockets bravely through space facing insurmountable odds, but as the journey takes a toll on his life-sustaining systems, he is forced to make impossible choices that threaten his sanity, mission and very existence.

Works from the Sundance Film Festival are making a pit stop in Manhattan for MoMA’s Slithering Screens series.

Maybe Zuckerberg can be the new Goldfinger in a James Bond movie:

Social network went from digital directory for college kids to communications behemoth – and it’s planning for prosperity with its global takeover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TLWQWhVhY4&index=7&…34A498DFE2

Enjoy this independent futuristic Sci-Fi short film project by Director Richard Oakes of Dark Fable Media. After the golden age of man and machine, humanity is split into two classes, The ultra rich industry and the surplus. However, neither side can control the bleak fate of the earth.

Shot over 4 days on a production budget of £1800.

Continue reading “A Sci-Fi Short Film HD: ‘EXIT PLAN’ — Directed by Richard Oakes” »

Playing the new experience from Fusion, NASA and MIT.

Much like in comic books, scientists are on an endless quest to discover or create the strongest, most durable substance possible. Theories about how to go about that have long circulated, but nobody has been able to overcome the challenge—until now. A team of Austrian researchers has finally worked out a way to stabilize what they are calling the strongest of all known materials, an exotic form of carbon called carbyne.

We’d already heard rumors that James Cameron had found three sequels a little limiting for his Avatar follow-ups, and on stage at CinemaCon today he made it official. The filmmaker announced that no less than four new sequels to his 3D epic are in the works, with the first hitting theaters in 2018.

The filmmaker discussed the many ways in which he is expanding the world — a theme park with Disney in in the works, and his company has signed a deal with Dark Horse Comics for graphic novel spin-offs — but the movies themselves are obviously the biggest component. The Avatar sequels have been a moving target since he first announced he was working on them, and Cameron has since assembled what amounts to a screenwriting superteam to break the story for the various films. As it stands, the second film in the series will be coming out in the holiday season of 2018, with the subsequent films arriving in 2020, 2022, and 2023.

“It’s going to be a true epic saga that’s told in this rich and complex world,” Cameron assured the theater owners, while also taking the moment on stage to voice his support for exclusive theatrical windows for movie releases — a hot topic at this year’s show thanks to the recent emergence of Sean Parker’s The Screening Room initiative, which would allow audiences to rent first-run movies from their living room. As Cameron framed it, technology threatening movie theaters was nothing new. “There’s always been some kind of threat to the theater-going experience,” he said, “but we’ve always answered that threat in the same way. By being great, and showmanship.”

Continue reading “James Cameron confirms he is making four Avatar sequels” »