Lifeboat Foundation

Where is PETA when you need them.

When we think of drones, we still often think primarily of their military uses, despite the fact that they’re increasingly becoming a part of our everyday lives. Drones serve an impressive range of roles in the military, commercial, public, and civilian sectors. They’re also becoming more and more affordable and accessible. If you’ve been to an open-air event with a decent crowd lately, there was probably at least one person there flying their personal drone around, taking aerial footage to upload to social media.

Continue reading “10 Crazy Things Drones Are Being Used For Right Now” »

We saw the animated video; now check out the real thing.

What was once a crazy bus/train-hybrid idea has turned into reality, as China’s elevated bus has just undergone its first test run in Qinhuangdao. The Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) was first touted in 2010 as a solution to the traffic woes in the country, and was revealed in miniature form during the 19th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo in May this year.

Continue reading “China’s elevated bus is real, travels above car traffic” »

What does George Osborne have in common with Stephen Hawking?

The answer is not much.

Not unless David Cameron’s controversial resignation honours list is approved.

Continue reading “Should George Osborne share honour with Stephen Hawking?” »

Interesting and true on many situations; and will only expand as we progress in areas of AI, QC, and Singularity as well.

The use of algorithms to filter and present information online is increasingly shaping our everyday experience of the real world, a study published by Information, Communication & Society argues.

Associate Professor Michele Willson of Curtin University, Perth, Australia looked at particular examples of computer algorithms and the questions they raise about personal agency, changing world views and our complex relationship with technologies.

Continue reading “How computer algorithms shape our experience of the real world” »

Southern US is having a bad summer. Zika in FL and Brain eating amoebas in SC.

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. — A patient in South Carolina has tested positive for Naegleria fowleri, the so-called “brain-eating amoeba,” The Centers for Disease Control confirmed in a statement.

Health officials think the patient may have been exposed during a July 24 swim at Martin’s Landing in the Edisto River, which runs through the southeast portion of the state through the Ernest F. Hollings Ace Basin National Wildlife park.

Continue reading “South Carolina patient has rare ‘brain-eating’ amoeba, CDC confirms” »

The findings showed that the shrinking of the hippocampus — brain region associated with learning and memory — actually precedes the onset of a change in behaviour — namely the loss of memory. “Until now, no one knew the evolution of these changes. Does the hippocampus shrink before or after memory loss? Or do the two happen handin- hand,” said Sumantra Chattarji, Professor at National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru, Karnataka, in a statement.

Using rats as a model system which reacts to stress much as humans do, the team studied how the brain changes in structure during stress. The results showed that when under stress, rats develop anxiety-related behaviours and their ability to form memories are affected. In the study, rats were subjected to stress for two hours every day over 10 days. The brains were examined with MRI scans on several days over the course of the study, and their ability to form memories were assessed repeatedly.

After just three days of stress, the hippocampus of every stressed rat had shrunk. “Normally structural changes are seen in the brain after a long time — say 10 to 20 days. Three days doesn’t even count as chronic stress,” Chattarji added. Five days after stress exposure, the rats’ hippocampus-based ability to make memories was tested again. The stressed rats were found to perform almost as well as unstressed rats, the researchers said. “Volume loss and shrinkage has happened, yet spatial memory is still holding up,” Chattarji said.

Continue reading “Brain scan during stress may predict memory loss” »

I see many uses for this such as provider services including front office & hospital admissions, security in assessing people in line or trying to gain entry, etc.

Machines are taking over more and more tasks. Ideally, they should also be capable to support the human in case of poor performance. To intervene appropriately, the machine should understand what is going on with the human. Fraunhofer scientists have developed a diagnostic tool that recognizes user states in real time and communicates them to the machine.

The camera firmly focuses on the driver’s eyes. If they are closed for more than one second, an alarm is triggered. This technique prevents the dangerous micro-sleep at the wheel. “It is not always as easy for a machine to detect what state the human is in, as it is in this case,” says Jessica Schwarz from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE in Wachtberg, just south of Bonn.

Continue reading “Computers will be able to assess humans’ state of mind” »

WOW — now that’s an engineering feat.

While Dubai is keen to become a 3D printing world leader with their Dubai 3D Printing Strategy, they are by no means the only Middle Eastern nation to look into this technology. Last week a delegation of Chinese WinSun officials traveled to Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to discuss construction 3D printing. Among others, the Chinese construction 3D printing pioneers were invited to 3D print up to 1.5 million housing units over the next five years.

Continue reading “Saudi Arabia plans to 3D print 1.5 million houses with WinSun’s construction 3D printing tech” »

Impressive.

3D printing services will grow from $2.5bn in 2013 to $16.2bn in 2018, according to Canalys Tags: 3D printing, Cloud computing.