Lifeboat Foundation

“Airbus has filed a patent for the world’s fastest helicopter.”

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PlaNet, made by a team led by Google computer vision specialist Tobias Weyand, can determine the location of photos just by studying its pixels.

You can usually tell where a picture was taken by recognizing certain location cues within the photo. Major landmarks like the Great Wall of China or the Tower of London are immediately recognizable and fairly easy to pinpoint, but how about when the photo lacks any familiar location cues, like a photo of food, of pets, or one taken indoors?

People do fairly well on this task by relying on all sorts of knowledge about the world. You could figure out where a photo was taken by looking at any words found on the photo, or by looking at the architectural styles or vegetation.

Continue reading “Google’s Superhuman Computer Can Tell Where Nearly Any Photo Was Taken” »

Advances in microchips—particularly the graphics-processing units pioneered by Nvidia—are fueling growth in machine learning, a programming approach in which computers teach themselves without explicit instructions.

This week, Lockheed Martin revealed its Mars Base Camp concept, a space station that will orbit the Red Planet and help astronauts prepare for landing.

An experiment claims to have invalidated a decades-old criticism against pilot-wave theory, an alternative formulation of quantum mechanics that avoids the most baffling features of the subatomic universe.

A modified version of the Drake Equation, and what it tells us.

My new story for Salon, which is about Christian Relativism and how it’s forcing religion to modernize to try to remain relevant. Lots of science and transhumanism in this article:

The impact of Christian relativism: To remain a dominant force, formal religion must bend and adapt.

The new Wherecom S3, from Omate, has the ability to send the wearer’s GPS location to specific contacts in the event of an emergency.

A new smartwatch is promising something different: Keeping your grandparents safe. The new Wherecom S3, from Omate, was launched on Tuesday. It’s an Android-powered smartwatch with GPS, Wi-Fi, and 3G cellular connectivity, this means that the tech can function without a smartphone.

The watch has the ability to text, call, track paths through GPS, and remind individuals when it’s time to take medication. The S3 also has an emergency alert function in the form of a red SOS button on the side of the watch, which can be pressed in the event of an emergency to send the wearer’s GPS location to specific contacts.

Continue reading “This Smartwatch for Seniors Has GPS, WiFi, Cellular Connectivity, And an SOS Button” »