Lifeboat Foundation

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NASA is a fan of making announcements about its forthcoming announcements, but so far it hasn’t failed to live up to its hype. First there was the discovery of the most Earth-like exoplanet to date, and just last month researchers shared evidence of salty, flowing water (!!) on the Red Planet.

So suffice it to say that when the US space agency says it’s got something big to share with the world, we’re going to pay attention, and this Thursday at 2pm EST it’s promising to announce “key science findings” about what happened to Mars’ now-thin atmosphere. We’ll be live reporting the announcement as it happens, and you can watch along with us from the comfort of your home or office below via NASA TV.

The question we’re all asking, naturally, is what the hell NASA might have in store for us. So far, we don’t have a whole lot to go on, but what we do know is that the research comes fom the MAVEN (Mars, Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014 and studying its upper atmosphere. These will be the first findings announced from the mission.

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Pack a heavy coat, folks, we’re going to Finland. The Finnish Social Insurance Institution, also known as Kela, has begun work on a proposal that would guarantee a basic income to every citizen of the small Nordic nation. This system of a universal state-facilitated payment delivered to every Finnish person would transform the state’s welfare system and potentially provide a blueprint for other countries looking to build a different kind of economy.

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A Byron Bay man reveals how his innovative beehive design scooped around $16.8 million in advance orders to more than 130 countries when he launched a crowd funding campaign.

#9News

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I did not see this special, but the usual negative comments follow the vid.

Aging itself IS modifiable. The question now is, is it modifiable in us?

Find out on Breakthrough, premiering Sunday 9/8c.

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Reaction wheels mounted on three faces of the cube rotate at high angular velocities and then brake suddenly, causing the Cubli to jump up.

h/t: Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

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We’ve seen Project Wing, the air-delivery service from Google, tap NASA to help sidestep reams of bureaucratic red tape and get off the ground before, and it looks like the service could soon launch in earnest. The outfit’s laying the groundwork right now and says that its goal is having the commercial flights up and running in 2017, according to Reuters. The company is one of several working with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a registry for drones and eventually dedicated air traffic control system. The former would ideally be in place by this December 20th, making sure operators are aware of rules on where, when and how to fly their aircraft.

Google’s David Vos told the audience at an air traffic control covention that his company would want low-altitude space (14,500 feet and below), coincidentally dubbed “Class G,” reserved for UAVs to fly over cities. Rather than continuously doing the hokey pokey to get past the FAA, this is a crucial step to getting more commercial drones in the air. Whether or not that’s a good thing is entirely up to you.

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The Scottish government has announced that it’s approved the construction of the UK’s first – and world’s largest – floating offshore wind development.

The world’s largest floating wind farm is set to be installed 25 kilometres off the coast of Peterhead at the easternmost point of mainland Scotland. The development, called Hywind, will be developed by Norwegian energy company Statoil and is expected to generate enough electricity to power nearly 20,000 homes.

“Hywind is a hugely exciting project, in terms of electricity generation and technology innovation, and it’s a real testament to our energy sector expertise and skilled workforce that Statoil chose Scotland for the world’s largest floating wind farm,” said John Swinney, deputy first minister.

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The AI dream is both self-congratulatory and self-loathing.

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