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Kurweil AI

A new Terminator T-1000 robot-style material made of wax and foam — and capable of switching between hard and soft states — could be used to build morphing surgical robots that move through the body to reach a desired location without damaging organs or vessels along the way.

Robots built from the material, described in a new paper in the journal Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, could also be used in search-and-rescue operations to squeeze through rubble looking for survivors, says Anette Hosoi, an MIT professor of mechanical engineering and applied mathematics who led the research team.

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James Vincent — The Independent

In a quiet announcement that has sent shockwaves through the scientific world, Nasa has cautiously given its seal of approval to a new type of “impossible” engine that could revolutionize space travel.

In a paper published by the agency’s experimental Eagleworks Laboratories, Nasa engineers confirmed that they had produced tiny amounts of thrust from an engine without propellant – an apparent violation of the conservation of momentum; the law of physics that states that every action must have an equal and opposite reaction.

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— BBC News

Woman on phone

Communications regulator Ofcom said UK adults spend an average of eight hours and 41 minutes a day on media devices, compared with the average night’s sleep of eight hours and 21 minutes.

Almost four hours a day are spent watching TV according to Ofcom’s survey of 2,800 UK adults and children.

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FUTURISM UPDATE (October 24, 2014)

new-2

FORBES: Three Industries Going Through Dramatic Supply Chain Transformations http://lnkd.in/drBaPhW

GEEKWIRE: Google leads $542M Magic Leap deal, betting on augmented reality http://www.geekwire.com/2014/google-leads-542m-magic-leap-in…d-reality/

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Google Invests Heavily in Magic Leap’s Effort to Blend Illusion and Reality http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/google-invests-in-mag…lity-firm/

THE NEW YORK TIMES: On the Cusp of Climate Change, that is the Global Existential Risk of the Climate at http://lnkd.in/dcENSVk

FORBES: Three Industries Going Through Dramatic Supply Chain Transformations http://lnkd.in/drBaPhW

FEDTECH: Why Data Center Consolidation Savings Are a Moving Target. Most agencies are reporting estimated savings and cost avoidance data to the Office of Management and Budget. http://lnkd.in/dFsrTm7

NEW YORK TIMES: Amazon Web Services to Open German Center http://lnkd.in/d7X2Grd

BUSINESS INSIDER: Mark Zuckerberg taught himself Mandarin, inspired by his wife Priscilla Chan, while running Facebook. He’s good enough that he was able to give a 30-minute Q&A today entirely in Mandarin at Tsinghua University in China. http://lnkd.in/dnpYPxF

GIZMODO: Compact SSDs That Outperform the Fastest USB Flash Drives http://gizmodo.com/compact-ssds-that-outperform-the-fastest-…socialflow

THE NEW YORK TIMES: On the Cusp of Climate Change, that is the Global Existential Risk of the Climate at http://lnkd.in/dcENSVk

COMPUTERWORLD: 8 big trends in big data analytics http://lnkd.in/dd_GZ8X

NASA: China launched to the Moon today. The spacecraft will have a brief 8-day mission out to the Moon and back. It is an engineering test for the technology that the future Chang’e 5 sample return mission will need to return samples to Earth. http://lnkd.in/dDktQMQ

FINANCIAL TIMES: PC market recovery boosts Microsoft http://on.ft.com/1oyRYxV

THE ECONOMIST: Japan’s new airliner. Is Mitsubishi’s new jetliner a commercially viable project? http://lnkd.in/dctx_6Z

REUTERS: Why Ukraine’s revolution has left protesters discontented and the country divided. http://reut.rs/1rlK4TV

BUSINESS INSIDER: 3 Girls Won The Google Science Fair With A Bacteria-Based Plan To Solve The Food Crisis http://lnkd.in/dHZRFP9

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: Current Sun Activity May Reduce the Speed of Climate Change and Stop Humans From Going to Mars http://lnkd.in/dnsjrdY

MOSCOW TIMES: Russia Wants State Control of Root Internet Infrastructure http://lnkd.in/d_4XqhK

MOSCOW TIMES: Russia’s CSTO Stumbles on Regional Conflicts in Drive to Rival NATO. While top Russian officials and pro-Kremlin politicians continue to paint NATO as an existential threat to Russia and even an instigator of the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has been working to strengthen the legitimacy of…more http://lnkd.in/dEKe3tE

DER SPIEGEL: The Zombie System: How Capitalism Has Gone Off the Rails http://lnkd.in/d2X-P2A

REUTERS: Microsoft sales beat Street hopes, cloud profits up http://lnkd.in/d7Dr7nz

THE ECONOMIST: Market turmoil: A blessing in disguise? http://econ.st/12kjLbc

LINKEDIN: Boards and Clients! http://lnkd.in/dA9breP

THE ECONOMIST: Unproductive production. Weakening productivity is casting doubt on the sustainability of China’s growth http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21623708…3b12a5e227

WASHINGTON TIMES: Putin emboldened by weak U.S. response to Russian aggression, analysts say: http://wtim.es/1seW6gV

FORTUNE MAGAZINE: In online sales, could Wal-Mart ever top Amazon? http://for.tn/1xevpgX

REUTERS: Merkel says EU will discuss bridging finance for Ukraine next week http://reut.rs/1ozyxEW

FINANCIAL TIMES: Chinese property prices fall across the country http://on.ft.com/1D3Xbi8

Love by Sun Tzu is paid with love by Sun Tzu.

George Soros: Russia threatens EU’s survival: http://on.mktw.net/1uM3lPv

MONEY IS NOT BACKED WITH GOLD. REMEMBER NIXON? WSJ Markets: Put your money into blue-chip stocks and watch it grow? Not so much lately: http://on.wsj.com/1ovpZ25

Bloomberg News: Drop in China home prices spreads as easing fails to halt downturn of economy http://bloom.bg/1zn4YuP

FINANCIAL TIMES: US accuses allies of buying Isis oil http://on.ft.com/1DF95B6

THE ECONOMIST: The world’s biggest economies. China’s back http://lnkd.in/dKUKrDe

BY MR. ANDRES AGOSTINI

White Swan Book Author (Source of this Article)

www.LINKEDIN.com/in/andresagostini

www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini

www.appearoo.com/aagostini

http://connect.FORWARDMETRICS.com/profile/1649/Andres-Agostini.html

@AndresAgostini

@ThisSuccess

This archive file was compiled from an interview conducted at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, 2013.

As late as the 1980s and the 1990s, the common person seeking stored knowledge would likely be faced with using an 18th century technology — the library index card catalogue — in order to find something on the topic he or she was looking for. Fifteen years later, most people would be able to search, at any time and any place, a collection of information that dwarfed that of any library. And unlike the experience with a library card catalogue, this new technology rarely left the user empty-handed.

Information retrieval had been a core technology of humanity since written language — but as an actual area of research it was so niche that before the 1950s, nobody had bothered to give the field a name. From a superficial perspective, the pioneering work in the area during the 1940s and 50s seemed to suggest it would be monumentally important to the future — but only behind the scenes. Information retrieval was to be the secret tool of the nation at war, or of the elite scientist compiling massive amounts of data. Increasingly however, a visionary group of thinkers dreamed of combining information retrieval and the ‘thinking machine’ to create something which would be far more revolutionary for society.

In the case of Google’s Amit Singhal, it was a childhood encounter with a visionary work that gave him his initial fascination with the dream of the thinking machine — a fascination that would result in his evolution to be one of the individuals who began to transform the dream into a reality. The work that he encountered was not that of a scientific pioneer such as Alan Turing or Marvin Minsky — it was a visionary work of pop culture.

More about Amit Singhal:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit_Singhal
Google Search:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search

By Chris Baraniuk — BBC Future

(Auraveda/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

The internet is one big experiment, and you’re part of it. Every day, millions of trials are manipulating what you see when you browse online, to find out how to keep your attention, make you click more links – and spend more money. And these experiments are often secret. You’ll probably never know you were part of them.

This is all thanks to something now well-known in the tech industry, called A/B testing. It means that the web pages served to you are not necessarily the same as those shown to the next person – they might have slightly different colours, an alternate headline or, on social networks, you could be shown different personal information about your friends and family.

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FUTURISM UPDATE (October 23, 2014)

a Amazon and Lifeboat

FINANCIAL TIMES: Insurers ‘unready’ for climate change http://on.ft.com/1CWVHWM

HUFF POST: Amelia: IPsoft’s New Artificial Intelligence Can Think Like A Human, And Wants Your Job http://lnkd.in/daZCHqx

CIO: Lufthansa leaves the computing to IBM http://trib.al/JPKogpE

REUTERS: Obama learns the same lesson other progressive presidents had to: You can have guns or butter, not both: http://reut.rs/1x9hbOh

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: NATO jets, including Canadian Hornets, scrambled twice in two days to intercept Russian spyplane http://goo.gl/5LvH0Z

BLOOMBERG: This is why the stock market rally is bad news: http://bloom.bg/1waFLSe

POP SCI: Four Technologies That Will Carry The Weight Of War http://lnkd.in/dcwuQNi

PEW RESEARCH: AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs http://lnkd.in/dXdr2yh

BLOOMBERG NEWS: The $13 billion plan to transform Capetown: http://bloom.bg/1FDL2o4

BLOOMBERG NEWS: Artificial Intelligence Is Next Frontier for Infosys http://lnkd.in/dthv-xm

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: Artificial intelligence could automate half of U.S. jobs in 20 years. ‘Machine learning’ could eliminate jobs like loan officer, cab driver and real-estate agent. http://lnkd.in/dbNgB5t

STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Artificial intelligence (AI) will have many profound societal effects http://lnkd.in/d_uNsr5

BUSINESS INSIDER: Artificial Intelligence Took America’s Jobs And It’s Going To Take A Lot More. The scary new dimension is artificial intelligence, which could replace as many as 50 million professional jobs. http://lnkd.in/dhaVhqP

FINANCIAL TIMES: Russian plane violates Estonian air space http://on.ft.com/1CX4S9E

WASHINGTON POST: Sweden prepared to use ‘armed force, if necessary’ on suspected Russian submarine http://lnkd.in/dTwit9i

NEW REPUBLIC: This Is What It Will Look Like When Robots Take All Our Jobs http://lnkd.in/dnsDbVq

IF YOU GET REALLY UPSET AT PUTIN, YOU WILL BE BLACKMAIL WITH M.A.D. WWIII. IN THE MEAN TIME, RE-CONQUERING EVERY NATION-STATE IS EASTERN EUROPE WILL BRING HIM GOLD AND GEOPOLITICAL AND POLITICAL DIVIDENDS, DIVIDENDS AS YOU HAVE NEVER SEEM. IN THE BACKGROUND, CHINA, A PROFITER FROM THE MOTIONS, WILL HAVE A GARGANTUAN LAUGHTER.

UPSTART: How to stop worrying about artificial intelligence and outsmart the job apocalypse http://lnkd.in/d7tyJmT

“Why Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, and the China Sea Sovereign Possessions will ONLY be of the ownership of Continental China? http://lnkd.in/dq7X6fx

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: A new breed of computer chips that operate more like the brain may be about to narrow the gulf between artificial and natural computation—between circuits that crunch through logical operations at blistering speed http://lnkd.in/d3gGtbs

THE INDEPENDENT: Advances in artificial intelligence could lead to mass unemployment, warn experts http://lnkd.in/dWn5TSn

YAHOO NEWS: DNA reveals that Neanderthals and humans first mated 50,000 years ago, researchers say: http://yhoo.it/1wkSkbe

THE ATLANTIC: Detroit and the evaporating right to running water http://theatln.tc/1wkqcVI

UNTIL POLAND IS RECAPTURED. MOSCOW TIMES: Poland Plays Hardball With Russia on Gas http://lnkd.in/dEJkJac

THE ECONOMIST: The oil price is tumbling. Is that good or bad news for the world economy? http://econ.st/1DBqrPo

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: The very laws of physics imply that artificial intelligence must be viable. What’s holding us up? http://lnkd.in/dsaDfh7

BUSINESS SPECTATOR: Future Forward: What’s next for smartphones http://lnkd.in/dhgiH7d

WASHINGTON POST: We’re failing to prepare our kids for the impending robot takeover​. Here’s what we should teach them. http://lnkd.in/dAPHbAN

BBC: Microsoft ditching the Nokia name on smartphones http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29724072

BUSINESS INSIDER: Bill Gates Makes Over $1 Million Every Day Doing Almost Nothing. http://lnkd.in/dC3qyzj

LINKEDIN: “The Future-Ready Advice Bill Gates Gave Us 15 Years Ago… And Made Him a Superbillionaire in the Process!” http://lnkd.in/dxn98d9

GET BEYOND READY. THE ECONOMIST: The future of jobs. The onrushing wave. Previous technological innovation has always delivered more long-run employment, not less. But things can change. http://lnkd.in/dRGiYdt

WALL STREET JOURNAL: The First $1 Trillion Company? Why Google Could Beat Apple to Milestone http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/10/13/the-first-1-trilli…milestone/

TECH CRUNCH: Apple CEO Tim Cook meets with China’s Vice Premier following iCloud security attack http://tcrn.ch/1wlexWw

THE ECONOMIST: Foreign direct investment into Myanmar tripled in three years to $2.6 billion in 2013 http://econ.st/12dju9V

AGAIN AND AGAIN AND ONCE AGAIN. CBS NEWS: White House on lockdown after latest fence jumper http://lnkd.in/dj8Uh8i)

THE ECONOMIST: Serbia is caught between its European ambitions and its prime minister’s autocratic drift http://econ.st/11W2ipd

ENGADGET: Atom-scale brain sensors will show exactly how your mind works http://lnkd.in/d_vhPSk

BY MR. ANDRES AGOSTINI

White Swan Book Author (Source of this Article)

www.LINKEDIN.com/in/andresagostini

www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini

www.appearoo.com/aagostini

http://connect.FORWARDMETRICS.com/profile/1649/Andres-Agostini.html

@AndresAgostini

@ThisSuccess

— The Guardian

Pentagon Building in Washington

A US Department of Defense (DoD) research programme is funding universities to model the dynamics, risks and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world, under the supervision of various US military agencies. The multi-million dollar programme is designed to develop immediate and long-term “warfighter-relevant insights” for senior officials and decision makers in “the defense policy community,” and to inform policy implemented by “combatant commands.”

Launched in 2008 – the year of the global banking crisis – the DoD ‘Minerva Research Initiative’ partners with universities “to improve DoD’s basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the US.”

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FUTURISM UPDATE (October 22, 2014)

0   GRANULARS

INFOWORLD: General Electric lays out big plans for big data http://www.infoworld.com/article/2616433/big-data/general-el…-data.html

THE TELEGRAPH: The Real Cyborgs http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/the-future-is-android/index.html

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: Who Has a Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap? Guess! http://www.21stcentech.com/climate-change-adaptation-roadmap-guess/

Russia threatens US with Five Thousand Nuclear Warheads http://lnkd.in/dPbGPZf

Wall Street Journal: U.S. to require passengers from Ebola-stricken countries to fly into 5 airports with enhanced screening: http://on.wsj.com/1wml4iU

PHYS ORG: Team advances genome editing technique http://phys.org/news/2014-10-team-advances-genome-technique.html

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Swiss Banks on Own in Navigating U.S. Offshore-Account Requirements http://lnkd.in/dVkh8jd

TIMES OF ISRAEL: Israeli rabbinate won’t invalidate Washington rabbi’s conversions. Uncertainty over converts to Judaism dispelled amid charges of voyeurism against Barry Freundel http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-rabbinate-wont-invalida…nversions/

Currents and Undercurrents? https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141017005851&#…ercurrents

Bart and Homer on The Iliad! https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141017012329&#…-the-iliad

Marilyn Monroe in London and Continuous Performance Improvement https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141018220154&#…mprovement

Road Drone #1 and Leonardo https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141021024138&#…d-leonardo

KAI: ‘Hidden brain signatures’ of consciousness in vegetative state patients discovered http://www.kurzweilai.net/hidden-brain-signatures-of-conscio…discovered

KAI: Transparent graphene-based sensors open new window into the brain http://www.kurzweilai.net/transparent-graphene-based-sensors…-the-brain

BUSINESS INSIDER: HP Is Going To Announce A Crazy New Computer That Can Scan Objects In 3D http://lnkd.in/dxrc5gv

Forbes: Daimler sold its 4% stake in Tesla for about $780 million: http://onforb.es/1sM7Ye9

BY MR. ANDRES AGOSTINI

White Swan Book Author (Source of this Article)

www.LINKEDIN.com/in/andresagostini

www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini

www.appearoo.com/aagostini

http://connect.FORWARDMETRICS.com/profile/1649/Andres-Agostini.html

@AndresAgostini

@ThisSuccess

Douglas Birch, Center for Public Integrity / News Investigation — Nation of Change

Never mind that the vehicle is a boxy, lumbering, second-hand set of wheels with a top speed of just 60 mph. To some of the fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. M1117, aka the Guardian Armored Security Vehicle, has become their favorite ride.

Or so says Jeremy Binnie, editor of Jane’s Terrorism and Security Monitor, who has monitored propaganda sites for reports of jihadis toting, towing or tooling around in some of the millions of dollars’ worth of U.S.- and other foreign-built military equipment that ISIS captured after it swept into northern Iraq in early June.

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