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Sep 8, 2014

Hitachi developing reactor that burns nuclear waste

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

By — Gizmag

Hitachi is developing a new reactor that burns transuranium elements, such as those produc...

The problem with nuclear waste is that it needs to be stored for many thousands of years before it’s safe, which is a tricky commitment for even the most stable civilization. To make this situation a bit more manageable, Hitachi, in partnership with MIT, the University of Michigan, and the University of California, Berkeley, is working on new reactor designs that use transuranic nuclear waste for fuel; leaving behind only short-lived radioactive elements.

In popular imagination, nuclear waste is a wildly radioactive goo that glows like the back end of a lightning bug. But in real life, the real problem of nuclear waste isn’t the “hot” stuff, but the mildly radioactive elements with atomic numbers greater than 92. That’s because highly radioactive elements have short half lives. That is, they burn themselves out very quickly – sometimes in a matter of minutes or even seconds.

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Sep 7, 2014

The Police Tool That Pervs Use to Steal Nude Pics From Apple’s iCloud

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

By — Wired

icloud-hack-tools-inline

As nude celebrity photos spilled onto the web over the weekend, blame for the scandal has rotated from the scumbag hackers who stole the images to a researcher who released a tool used to crack victims’ iCloud passwords to Apple, whose security flaws may have made that cracking exploit possible in the first place. But one step in the hackers’ sext-stealing playbook has been ignored—a piece of software designed to let cops and spies siphon data from iPhones, but is instead being used by pervy criminals themselves.

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Sep 6, 2014

Why Germany Outrules and Outsmarts the Entire World! By Andres Agostini at www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini

Posted by in categories: economics, education, futurism

In Pictures.

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Sep 6, 2014

How to Save The Net

Posted by in category: internet

By

It’s impossible to overstate how much the Internet matters. It has forever altered how we share information and store it for safekeeping, how we communicate with political leaders, how we document atrocities and hold wrongdoers accountable, how we consume entertainment and create it, even how we meet others and maintain relationships. Our society is strengthened and made more democratic by the open access the Internet enables. But the Internet as we know it is at risk from a variety of threats ranging from cybercrime to its very infrastructure, which wasn’t built to withstand the complications our dependence upon it causes.

We asked some of the Net’s biggest stakeholders and thought leaders to lay out ways we can maintain the Internet as a home for innovation, community, and freely exchanged information. We are excited to present you with these six takes on what could go wrong—and how to bring us back from the brink.

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Sep 5, 2014

What Boeing’s space taxi could mean for the future of commercial space travel

Posted by in category: space travel

By Robin Burks — TechTimes

http://images.techtimes.com/data/images/full/15679/illustration-of-boeings-cst-100.jpg

Not only is Boeing looking to replace the space shuttle with its new Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program, but it’s also hoping that this new “space taxi” will someday carry commercial passengers to space.

When NASA’s space shuttle program retired in 2011, American astronauts were left with no way of transport to and from the International Space Station, except by Russian spacecraft. Considering tensions are now high between the two countries, thanks to Russia’s takeover of the Crimea region of Ukraine, NASA is looking for new options.

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Sep 4, 2014

Navy’s Next Fighter Likely to Feature Artificial Intelligence

Posted by in categories: defense, robotics/AI

By: — USNI News

Boeing concept for F/A-XX. Boeing Image

Artificial intelligence will likely feature prominently onboard the Pentagon’s next-generation successors to the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.

“AI is going to be huge,” said one U.S. Navy official familiar with the service’s F/A-XX effort to replace the Super Hornet starting around 2030.

Further, while there are significant differences between the U.S. Air Force’s vision for its F-X air superiority fighter and the Navy’s F/A-XX, the two services agree on some fundamental aspects about what characteristics the jet will need to share.

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Sep 3, 2014

Five Myths and Facts About Robotics Technology Today

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Sep 2, 2014

3D Printed Prosthetics

Posted by in category: 3D printing

TJ McCue — Forbes

Image Courtesy of Melissa Ng website.

Depending on where you get your statistics, there are between 10 and 15 million amputees in the world. People who lose a limb go through a lot of pain obviously and the challenge to get a prosthetic limb that allows them to fully function again often doesn’t lessen the emotional pain aspect. It is a difficult process. Plus, it is not inexpensive. In this week’s news, there is a post about a young man in Ottawa who needs help to purchase a new prosthetic leg and he’s taken his need to crowdfunding on YouCaring.com.

Selvan Mohan is a PhD candidate at Carleton University. The university will help cover $10,000 of the $22,000 needed. His campaign is almost 50 percent funded. A group of people, friends included, got together to help him create the video which you can watch here. I found Mr. Mohan’s story compelling and worthy (check out the video), but what do you do if you cannot take your case to the powerful crowd-funding platforms?

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Sep 2, 2014

Virtually Human, by Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D.

Posted by in categories: life extension, transhumanism

In Virtually Human, you’ll have the privilege of meeting Bina48, the world’s most sentient robot, commissioned by Martine Rothblatt and created by Hanson Robotics. Bina48 is a nascent Mindclone of Martine’s wife that can engage in conversation, answer questions, and even have spontaneous thoughts that are derived from multimedia data in a Mindfile created by the real Bina (be sure to check her out on Twitter too – @iBina48!).

If you’re personally active on Twitter or Facebook, share photos through Instagram, or blog regularly, you’re also already on your way to creating a Mindfile – a digital database of your thoughts, memories, feelings, and opinions. And soon, this Mindfile can be made conscious with special software—Mindware—that mimics the way human brains organize information, create emotions and achieve self-awareness. Virtually Human is the only book to examine the ethical issues relating to cyberconsciousness and Rothblatt, with a Ph.D. in medical ethics, is uniquely qualified to lead the dialogue. On sale Sept 9th, I wanted to be sure everyone at Lifeboat knew about it, and you can pre-order your copy today: http://smarturl.it/vhaz and http://smarturl.it/bnVh.

Sep 1, 2014

Two numerical Sinai-type Theorems

Posted by in category: particle physics

T1: A numerical instability applies to time-inverted trajectories in deterministic statistical thermodynamics.

T2: A numerical instability applies to non-time inverted trajectories in deterministic statistical cryodynamics.

Cryodynamics in contrast to thermodynamics is based on inter-particle attraction rather than inter-particle repulsion. T2 implies that in numerical simulations of attraction-based gases, markedly deviating trajectories are necessarily generated. Since this fact went unrecognized, a whole new time’s arrow got overlooked numerically.

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