Lifeboat Foundation

“It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really; it’s an imperative.” — Michael Collins, former astronaut

By Paul Rubens — BBC

Passwords are a pain. We choose simple words that are easy to remember, but equally easy for hackers to guess.

Yet we still forget them. And they also get stolen with alarming frequency.

Continue reading “Has the flawed password system finally had its day?” »

Quoted: “The Factom team suggested that its proposal could be leveraged to execute some of the crypto 2.0 functionalities that are beginning to take shape on the market today. These include creating trustless audit chains, property title chains, record keeping for sensitive personal, medical and corporate materials, and public accountability mechanisms.

During the AMA, the Factom president was asked how the technology could be leveraged to shape the average person’s daily life.”

Kirby responded:

“Factom creates permanent records that can’t be changed later. In a Factom world, there’s no more robo-signing scandals. In a Factom world, there are no more missing voting records. In a Factom world, you know where every dollar of government money was spent. Basically, the whole world is made up of record keeping and, as a consumer, you’re at the mercy of the fragmented systems that run these records.”

Continue reading “BitCoin, Cryptocurrency, and Blockchain Technology — FACTOM” »

FUTURISM UPDATE (November 20, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: The Cognitive Usefulness of the Internet of Things http://lnkd.in/dqVF9PX

ZDNet: Internet of things: Poised to be a security headache? Nearly 95 percent of enterprises are at least concerned about the security of the Internet of things. Here’s a look at a potential security model. http://lnkd.in/dBvktGj

CNNMoney: FAA can regulate drones http://lnkd.in/dX2iKEH

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (November 20, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon” »

By Ben Coxworth — Gizmag

Four years ago, we first heard about how Korean scientists had proposed using sound to charge mobile phones. They explained that it could be done via a piezoelectric effect, in which zinc oxide nanowires converted sound-caused vibrations into electricity. At the time, the researchers couldn’t generate enough of a current to actually charge a phone. Now, however, scientists from Nokia and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have succeeded in doing so.

Like the Korean team, the Nokia/QMUL researchers utilized zinc oxide, in the form of a sheet of tiny nanorods. As is the case with other piezoelectric materials, zinc oxide produces an electrical current when subjected to mechanical stress. The nanorods will actually bend in response to sound waves, creating that stress in the process.

Read more

FUTURISM UPDATE (November 19, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon

FINANCIAL TIMES: Object 2014-28E – Space junk or Russian satellite killer? It is a tale that could have come from the cold war. A mysterious object launched by the Russian military is being tracked by western space agencies, stoking fears over the revival of a defunct Kremlin project to destroy .… http://lnkd.in/d-YWkfx

ZDNET: Data science: ‘Machines do analytics. Humans do analysis’ http://lnkd.in/dzfvjdp

TIME: New York Is Transforming Its Old Payphones into Wi-Fi Hotspots http://lnkd.in/dqHpQUW

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (November 19, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon” »

NBCNews

Though it’s existed for decades, the swirling collection of debris particles and trash adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is attracting renewed attention from scientists and environmental experts with the return of a research vessel that has been collecting data from the gyre — a circular system of rotating ocean currents — for the past several months. Charles Moore, who is credited with discovering the gyre on a yachting race in the North Pacific, led a team of scientists on a two-month expedition to the heart of the Garbage Patch beginning in July, and what they saw shocked them.

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FUTURISM UPDATE (November 18, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon

The Economist: Genetically modified crops. The biggest study so far finds that GM crops have large, widespread benefits The biggest study so far finds that GM crops have large, widespread benefits http://lnkd.in/diqjQp4

The Economist: What next for retail banks? http://lnkd.in/dahXnmU

Bank of Canada: Money in a Digital World http://lnkd.in/dnwMD4p

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (November 18, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon” »

Preamble: Bitcoin 1.0 is currency — the deployment of cryptocurrencies in applications related to cash such as currency transfer, remittance, and digital payment systems. Bitcoin 2.0 is contracts — the whole slate of economic, market, and financial applications using the blockchain that are more extensive than simple cash transactions like stocks, bonds, futures, loans, mortgages, titles, smart property, and smart contracts

Bitcoin 3.0 is blockchain applications beyond currency, finance, and markets, particularly in the areas of government, health, science, literacy, culture, and art.

Read the article here » http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/swan20141110