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Figured this deserved its own post:

The other day i had this idea for wind farms on the far Northern end of Canada, where it is basically a treeless desert, and have those running along the whole coast up there. I remember Japan was working on some wind power system where if it got hit by a typhoon it would supposedly produce 50 years worth of power. The main issues would be the cost of the wind systems, i don’t even know if they are commercially available yet, secondly hooking them up to the power grid and trying to run it into the greater North American power grid, i don’t know if the power grid stretches from up there down to the main grid. The plus to this as opposed to solar is this could be running up there 24÷7÷365. Cost to do something like this, to start, probably in the neighborhood of 5 to 10 million dollars US, and would require a ton of connections.


Typhoons are generally associated with mass destruction, but a Japanese engineer has developed a wind turbine that can harness the tremendous power of these storms and turn it into useful energy. If he’s right, a single typhoon could power Japan for 50 years.

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John Searle one of the world’s great philosophers of mind and language, has spent fifty years stimulating thinking around the world. What he says about consciousness as a biological phenomenon will challenge you! Cogitation, Consciousness & The Brain.

I’m going to talk about consciousness. Why consciousness? Well, it’s a curiously neglected subject, both in our scientific and our philosophical culture. Now why is that curious? Well, it is the most important aspect of our lives for a very simple, logical reason, namely, it’s a necessary condition on anything being important in our lives that we’re conscious.

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She goes on to detail which expressions and messages can increase public acceptance and which have proven to be counterproductive. Related cognitive biases are also briefly discussed.

Elena is a LEAF/Lifespan.io Director of the Board and the head of its Outreach/Fundraising committee, and has been a longevity activist and advocate since 2013. Since then she has organized educational events to make new evidence-based methods of healthy life extension more popular, and is member of the Russian transhumanist movement.

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Anxiety is one of most prevalent mental health disorders, with 1 out of 14 people around the world being likely affected. Leading up to conditions such as depression, increased risk for suicide, disability and requirement of high health services, very few people who often need treatment actually receive it…

In her talk “How to cope with anxiety”, Olivia Remes of the University of Cambridge will share her vision on anxiety and will unravel ways to treat and manage this health disorder. Arguing that treatments such as psychotherapy and medication exist and often result in poor outcome and high rates of relapses, she will emphasise the importance of harnessing strength in ourselves as we modify our problem-coping mechanisms.

Olivia will stress that by allowing ourselves to believe that what happens in life is comprehensive, meaningful, and manageable, one can significantly improve their risk of developing anxiety disorders. At TEDxUHasselt 2017, Olivia will stress that by allowing ourselves to believe that what happens in life is comprehensive, meaningful, and manageable, one can significantly improve their risk of developing anxiety disorders.

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Researchers at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) conducted a study in 2012 on rats and found that a diet high in fructose hinders learning skills and memory and also slow down the brain. The researchers found that rats who over-consumed fructose had damaged synaptic activity in the brain, meaning that communication among brain cells was impaired.

Study’s lead author Dr. Fernando Gomez-Pinilla said in a statement that “Insulin is important in the body for controlling blood sugar, but it may play a different role in the brain. Our study shows that a high-fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body.”

In addition to the damaging effects on cognition and mood, sugar also has drug-like effects in the reward system of the brain. Neuroscientist Nicole Avena presented the effect of sugar on our brains and bodies in TED-Ed’s animated installment.

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When Volkswagen unveiled the ID Buzz, the assumption was that it would meet the same fate as many concept cars: it’d look good at an auto show, and promptly disappear when cold economic realities set in. Thankfully, the Buzz won’t suffer that fate. VW has announced that it will put the Microbus-inspired EV into production, with a launch expected by 2022. We wouldn’t expect everything about the Buzz to remain intact (those large wheels are likely the first things to go), but the ’60s-inspired styling, semi-autonomous driving and all-wheel drive option will carry over. VW is even teasing a cargo variant, so couriers may have a clean (and slightly kitschy) alternative to the usual vans.

The EV is primarily targeted at China, Europe and North America.

The melding of a nostalgic vibe with electric transportation is the primary allure, of course, but VW notes that going electric should make it very practical. As it doesn’t need a giant gas engine, there’s a tremendous amount of space. You’d get as much passenger room as a big SUV in the size of a compact commercial van, VW says. It’s also practical for the automaker. If prior leaks are accurate, VW is producing the Buzz precisely because it’s based on the same platform as other ID cars, making it far less expensive to develop than the previous Microbus concept (which had a one-off platform).

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