By Jerin Matthew — International Business Times
Non-profit journalistic organisation WikiLeaks has said that the bulk of its donation comes via digital currencies bitcoin and litecoin.
The organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources, revealed the information in a tweet. However, it did not mention the percentage of funding in digital currencies.
By Ryan Whitwam - ExtremeTech
The first thing to know about Bitcoin has nothing to do with how it works or what the current value of one is — of primary importance is the fanatical devotion Bitcoin users have to the mother of all cryptocurrencies. Many fans of Bitcoin promote the anonymous internet money at every turn, encouraging others to use it as a way to combat everything from government overreach to unethical banking practices. This is why cryptocurrencies are still a thing. Bitcoin enthusiasts scored a major victory when Overstock and Zynga started accepting Bitcoins recently, and that prompted one fan to start asking other internet companies what their plans were. Surprisingly, the one organization he got anywhere with was Google.
Reuters
NEWCASTLE, ENGLAND — General Electric’s oil and gas division will start pilot production of 3D printed metal fuel nozzles for its gas turbines in the second half of this year, a major step towards using the technology for mass-manufactured parts in the industry.
Posted in robotics/AI
by P.H.| WASHINGTON D.C — The Economist
THE late Alfred Lanning, a leading robotics expert, once suggested that “robots might naturally evolve”—that they might one day gain sentience. Sadly, he died at the hands of a robot that, like all the others he designed, was controlled by an omniscient supercomputer known as VIKI, which stood for virtual interactive kinetic intelligence. VIKI had decided that human beings could not be trusted with their own survival, engineered a robot uprising, and then…
BY MARK MUCKENFUSS — The Press-Enterprise
An unusual local class is training students to work with objects at the atomic level, dealing with the tiniest particles this side of the quantum world. The course is one of only two nanotechnology training programs offered at a community college in California, and it’s the only one that’s free, program director Megan Crail said.
By Sarah Griffiths — dailymail.co.uk
It might resemble the giant exoskeleton as seen in the James Cameron film Avatar, but this terrifying-looking machine of the future is set to become a reality.
A team of Canadian engineers and innovators are working on creating a giant human-controlled walking ‘anti-robot’ called Prosthesis, which is being built ‘by humans, for humans’.
Written By: Cameron Scott — Singularity Hub
Back when Google was first getting started, there were plenty of skeptics who didn’t think a list of links could ever turn a profit. That was before advertising came along and gave Google a way to pay its bills — and then some, as it turned out. Thanks in part to that fortuitous accident, in today’s Internet market, advertising isn’t just an also-ran with new technologies: Marketers are bending innovation to their needs as startups chase prospective revenue streams.
By:
Humanity+ members will be speaking at an exciting San Francisco East Bay transhumanist conference on March 1, that fans of Hplus should consider attending. Chairman Natasha Vita-More is a keynote speaker (along with her husband Max More) and recent HumanityPlus Board member Linda M. Glenn is also in the illustrious lineup. HumanityPlus is also co-sponsoring the event.
Posted in lifeboat, nanotechnology, science, space, space travel, transportation
We have been using the same propellant system for rockets since the Chinese fire arrows in 1000 A.D. A gas is expanded in a tube to generate force. Enough gas and force and you can break the bonds of the earth.
From gunpowder to liquid propellants to solid rocket boosters, nothing except size and volume has changed.
New proposed systems such as nuclear engines, magnetic rail guns, ion engines are all options that have not been shown to be functional at this point in time.
Our popular fantasy TV and movies all have some unspecified, powerful propulsion system that can easily break our gravity well to send us to outer space.
It takes energy to get lift and higher energy systems generate more lift, but as you move up the periodic table, you have waste products that are toxic downstream from the output.
Sure, di-lithium crystals are wonderful and the “boop-boop-boop” of the Jetson’s car are bound to be a huge source of cheap, safe, unlimited power, someday, in some future time, maybe.
We have the materials available now to bring cheap, effective access to space for more than the rich or lucky.
Helium and hydrogen and, of course, hot air has been used for a number of years to take sensors and toys to the upper atmosphere.
When the atmospheric pressure is decreased below the tensile strength of the shell, the balloon bursts and the device plummets to earth.
With a few modifications, such as nanoparticle bonded fabric, we can take a balloon system to the next level.
Using Hydrogen for lift (careful, explosive), take the system to the upper reaches. When the balloon ascent stops, pump in oxygen (from on-board cylinders) and fire off a small rocket engine.
With enough boost, the empty shell can be switched to solar sail to take the payload anywhere you want.
Of course, this is a radical, untested system, but if it works, it could open up space flight to the rest of the world and we can start mining the di-lithium crystals our movies tell us will replace all other propulsion systems.
more @ www.h2liftship.com