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Jul 20, 2023

AI-Powered NPCs: A Game-Changing FREE Demo

Posted by in categories: media & arts, robotics/AI, virtual reality

Once this is added to a VR open world, like low-fi, I may never come out!


The Unreal Engine combined with the power of OpenAI’s GPT has opened up a lot of possibilities for the future of video games. This demo created by Replica Studios allows us to directly interact with NPCs. It’s surprisingly good, and gives some insight into where things might be heading.

Continue reading “AI-Powered NPCs: A Game-Changing FREE Demo” »

Jul 20, 2023

Amazon rolling out new payment tech at all Whole Foods stores

Posted by in categories: food, mobile phones

Amazon announced Thursday it is rolling out its pay-by-palm services in Whole Foods Market stores across the country, making it possible for customers to use their palms for purchases without a wallet or phone.

The palm recognition service, called Amazon One, will be available for payment and Prime membership benefits in all Whole Foods Market locations by the end of this year. Instead of traditional payment methods, Amazon One allows customers to hover their palm over an Amazon One device.

Customers who link their Prime membership with their Amazon One profile will also automatically receive savings once their palm is registered, according to the Seattle-based retail giant.

Jul 20, 2023

Malaysia issues license to Musk’s Starlink to bring internet services to remote areas

Posted by in categories: education, Elon Musk, government, internet, satellites

KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 (Reuters) — Malaysia has issued a license to Starlink, the satellite communications service started by Elon Musk, to provide internet services in the country, particularly in remote areas, its communications minister said on Thursday.

Minister Fahmi Fadzil said in a Facebook post that Starlink, which is operated by Musk’s SpaceX, would begin by providing its services to schools and higher education institutions.

The government was also prepared to work with satellite communications firms, including Starlink, to ensure 100 percent internet coverage in populated areas, Fahmi said.

Jul 20, 2023

Falcon 9 puts on a show in the Californian skies

Posted by in categories: internet, robotics/AI, satellites

Last night at 9:09 p.m. PT (04:09 UTC), SpaceX successfully launched 15 V2 mini Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

Following a last-second aborted launch attempt the previous night, SpaceX teams performed checkouts of the Falcon 9 and determined another attempt to launch the next-gen satellites was good to go. During the previous attempt, the launch was held early in the countdown due to a “perceived leak” in the second stage, then eventually, the automated abort at T-minus 5 seconds.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/CzetVZFGbv

Jul 20, 2023

Extracting a Clean Fuel From Water — A Groundbreaking Low-Cost Catalyst

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

A plentiful supply of clean energy is lurking in plain sight. It’s the hydrogen that can be extracted from water (H2O) using renewable energy. Researchers are on the hunt for cost-effective strategies to generate clean hydrogen from water, with an aim to displace fossil fuels and battle climate change.

Hydrogen is a potent source of power for vehicles, emitting nothing more than water. It also plays a crucial role in several industrial processes, particularly in the production of steel and ammonia. The use of cleaner hydrogen in these industries would be extremely beneficial.

A multi-institutional team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has developed a low-cost catalyst for a process that yields clean hydrogen from water. Other contributors include DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as Giner Inc.

Jul 20, 2023

New computer simulations follow the formation of galaxies and cosmic large-scale structure with precision

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, physics

York University and an international team of astrophysicists have made an ambitious attempt to simulate the formation of galaxies and cosmic large-scale structure throughout staggeringly large swaths of space.

First results of their MillenniumTNG project are published in a series of 10 articles in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The new calculations help to subject the standard cosmological model to precision tests and to unravel the full power of upcoming new cosmological observations, say the researchers including York Assistant Professor Rahul Kannan.

In recent decades, cosmologists have gotten used to the perplexing conjecture that the universe’s matter content is dominated by enigmatic dark matter and that an even stranger dark energy field that acts as some kind of anti-gravity to accelerate the expansion of today’s cosmos. Ordinary baryonic matter makes up less than five percent of the cosmic mix, but this source material forms the basis for the stars and planets of galaxies like our own Milky Way.

Jul 20, 2023

We Finally Know Why Ancient Roman Concrete Stood The Test of Time

Posted by in category: materials

The ancient Romans were master builders and engineers, perhaps most famously represented by the still-functional aqueducts. And those architectural marvels rely on a unique construction material: pozzolanic concrete, a spectacularly durable material that gave Roman structures their incredible strength.

Even today, one of their structures – the Pantheon, still intact and nearly 2,000 years old – holds the record for the world’s largest dome of unreinforced concrete.

The properties of this concrete have generally been attributed to its ingredients: pozzolana, a mix of volcanic ash – named after the Italian city of Pozzuoli, where a significant deposit of it can be found – and lime. When mixed with water, the two materials can react to produce strong concrete.

Jul 20, 2023

A Dive into the Mysteries of Perception and Consciousness

Posted by in category: neuroscience

The researchers suggest that they may have located the brain region where images are held during the moments we consciously perceive them.

Jul 20, 2023

Discovery may lead to terahertz technology for quantum sensing

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, quantum physics

Visible light is a mere fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the manipulation of light waves at frequencies beyond human vision has enabled such technologies as cell phones and CT scans.

Rice University researchers have a plan for leveraging a previously unused portion of the spectrum.

Jul 20, 2023

Engineers Create Bacteria That Can Synthesize an Unnatural Amino Acid

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, genetics

Amino acids serve as the foundational elements of proteins, vital to the optimal functioning of biological structures. Proteins in all life forms are composed of 20 core amino acids.

<div class=””> <div class=””><br />Amino acids are a set of organic compounds used to build proteins. There are about 500 naturally occurring known amino acids, though only 20 appear in the genetic code. Proteins consist of one or more chains of amino acids called polypeptides. The sequence of the amino acid chain causes the polypeptide to fold into a shape that is biologically active. The amino acid sequences of proteins are encoded in the genes. Nine proteinogenic amino acids are called “essential” for humans because they cannot be produced from other compounds by the human body and so must be taken in as food.<br /></div> </div>