Lifeboat Foundation

Definitely could see QC being Blackberry’s achilles heal.

WATERLOO — Advances in quantum computing could present a huge challenge to BlackBerry’s biggest competitive advantage — its vaunted security software that has never been hacked.

This seldom talked-about subject was raised recently by John Thompson, the associate vice-president for research at the University of Waterloo. Thompson was listening to a presentation by Mike Wilson, a senior vice-president and chief evangelist for BlackBerry, at a medical technology conference in Kitchener about a month ago.

Continue reading “Will quantum computing be BlackBerry’s Waterloo?” »

Blockchain World Government Through a DAO

Imagine a world of unison, unbridled innovation, and international cooperation beyond our wildest dreams, where democracy reins supreme, with each person a voice in every decision, if they so choose –like an election — except for every measure put into practice by the government. Now, imagine this on a global scale, where a world government comprised of elected officials is run through the blockchain and a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO).

Since the blockchain is a public ledger that can only grow, where the past cannot be changed (just as time cannot be reversed), and this most secure of all technologies allows for a unique private +public key to be associated with every human on the planet (which can be stored offline like a SIN card), all of a sudden, a new era would be upon us. We would no longer be the children waging wars and spats over insignificant issues, or disregarding the ways of diplomacy for unnecessary loss of life and turmoil. Along with a new birth certificate or with proof of 2 pieces of existing identification, we could all have a unique LIFE ID # assigned and voice how such a government would operate. Each decision — instead of the singular election of the decision makers — would be handled by the guardians of the system: each and every human on Earth. With contributions by every country, we could retain our national identity, whilst also recognising the planetary singularity we all share.

Because, after all, when we view the world from space, there are no borders. When we work together on projects like the Large Hadron Collider, we make groundbreaking discoveries like the God Particle, and even invent miniature black holes that evaporate, proving the truth of theories long-since-contested. It may be a scare to some, to have their world turned upside down, in a sense. It might make them feel as if they’re losing freedom, rather than gaining it, when the opposite is the real case. Hence why such a government could combine the voting on issues of a certain nation, and adhere only to those with a LIFE ID # in that geographical region, yet still allow for everyone to vote on issues when it affects the world as a whole. We could still retain our national identities, and the respective pride and voice in them, but we would become stronger as a species, and fund things that truly matter, with the combined wealth of all adding up to immense sums.

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Underground wireless charging will be a better idea!

Fossil fuels are bad for the planet, and freight haulage is one of the more carbon-intensive activities that operate today. That’s why Siemens and Scania have teamed up to trial what’s being called the world’s first “electric highway.” Much like an electrified railroad, the 1.2 mile stretch has a series of wires hanging overhead that a pantograph-equipped truck can connect to. Then, the vehicle can deactivate its fuel-burning engine and coast along on that delicious, dirt-cheap electricity, switching back when the wires stop.

Scania official Claes Erixon has said that the project is “one important milestone on the journey towards fossil-free transport.” Cleantech Canada quotes an unnamed Siemens representative, who says the move could cut energy consumption in half. As it stands, this is the culmination of a two-year project to develop this test track, with more work to be done to determine if it could be rolled out across the country. That is, unless, an alternative freight-transport network that’s even more energy-efficient and speedy, can make its case to governments across the world.

Ah, science. wink

In the right hands, broken electronics can be turned into something useful again. But useful isn’t the best way to describe Drake Anthony’s 200-watt laser bazooka made from a bunch of old DLP projectors he bought off eBay. Words like incredibly dangerous, do-not-try-this-at-home, or “are you crazy?” seem more appropriate.

Continue reading “Terrifying Laser Bazooka Is Like a Handheld Death Star” »

Astronomers have combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to conclude that a peculiar source of radio waves thought to be a distant galaxy is actually a nearby binary star system containing a low-mass star and a black hole. This identification suggests there may be a vast number of black holes in our Galaxy that have gone unnoticed until now.

For about two decades, astronomers have known about an object called VLA J213002.08+120904 (VLA J2130+12 for short). Although it is close to the line of sight to the globular cluster M15, most astronomers had thought that this source of bright radio waves was probably a distant galaxy.

Thanks to recent distance measurements with an international network of radio telescopes, including the EVN (European Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network) telescopes, the NSF’s Green Bank Telescope and Arecibo Observatory, astronomers realized that VLA J2130+12 is at a distance of 7,200 light years, showing that it is well within our own Milky Way galaxy and about five times closer than M15. A deep image from Chandra reveals it can only be giving off a very small amount of X-rays, while recent VLA data indicates the source remains bright in radio waves.

Continue reading “Clandestine black hole may represent new population” »

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos today put a spotlight on the construction of a giant rocket production facility in Florida for his Blue Origin space venture – but he also gave a shout-out to the engine production team back in Kent, Wash.

In an email to Blue Origin’s fans, Bezos noted that ground has been broken for an orbital vehicle manufacturing site at Exploration Park, just south of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Ground-clearing actually began last month.)

“The 750,000-square-foot rocket factory is custom-built from the ground up to accommodate manufacturing, processing, integration and testing,” Bezos wrote. In comparison, the production facility in Kent where Blue Origin is building rocket engines and its New Shepard suborbital spaceships takes in about 300,000 square feet.

Continue reading “Jeff Bezos provides a sneak peek at Blue Origin’s orbital rocket factory in Florida” »

Very fascinating!

A humanoid named Jia Jia has been attracting a lot of attention at the 2016 Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin, China.

Continue reading “This Chinese Robot is Said to Be ‘The Most Realistic Ever Made’” »

This is a nice story on the future. If you’re flying British Airways, give it a read in the print version:

Two very different versions of the near future, when robots have taken half our jobs.