Lifeboat Foundation

Last week, TechCrunch ran my TC-1 about Bowery Farming. What began as a piece about a heartily financed New York startup ballooned into an exploration about an emerging field with a rich and fascinating history. I sought to answer some big questions about the efficacy, profitability and sustainability of vertical farming. I would be lying if I told you that I emerged from the other side with satisfactory answers — no doubt all of the above will be clear over time.

I did, however, get the opportunity to talk to several fascinating folks with myriad views on all of the above. One of the folks I kept coming back to was Dickson Despommier — widely regarded as the godfather of vertical farming. It was in his Columbia University courses that many of the fundamental concepts around vertical farming were developed over a number of years.

Billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday asked his Twitter followers to decide whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock, promising to “abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.”

“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” the electric car maker’s CEO said. He did not directly specify where that 10% would go.

This isn’t the first time Musk has taken aim at proposals in Washington that would tax billionaires’ net worth gains. Under current US tax law, assets like stocks are taxed only when they’re sold — what’s called a capital gain. But the richest of the rich in America probably aren’t selling off their massive stock portfolios; instead, their main form of income is the value that those assets accrue, or unrealized gains.

This beer is truly out of this world.

A DDoS attack essentially tries to down a website or internet service by bombarding the system with a flood of data traffic. To do so, the hacker can sometimes harness botnets, or armies of malware-infected computers, to generate the traffic.

In this case, the attack originated from “70,000 sources” based in countries across Asia and the US, Microsoft says. Whether the hacker used a botnet was left unsaid. But the UDP protocol was exploited in what’s known as a “reflection attack” to amplify the data traffic to 2.4Tbps.

Fujitsu and the Riken research institute ended up packing 152,064 A64FX chips into what would become the Fugaku system, which is now the world’s fastest supercomputer.

Gallium arsenide (GaAs) has long been touted as the best material for making high-efficiency solar cells because of its extraordinary light absorption and electrical characteristics. It has most notably been put to use in space solar panels.

These GaAs solar cells, however, are extremely pricey to produce resulting in a demand for methods that cut down on the material usage. That’s where nanowire structures come in. These elements can potentially enhance solar cell efficiency compared to standard planar solar cells while utilizing less material.

By using GaAs in the nanowire structures, the team of researchers has found a new way to make an ultrahigh power-per-weight ratio solar cell that is more than 10 times more efficient than any other solar cell.

Penn State researchers developed a prototype of a wearable, noninvasive glucose sensor, shown here on the arm. Credit: Jia Zhu, Penn State.

Penn State researchers develop first-of-its-kind wearable, noninvasive glucose monitoring device prototype.

Continue reading “First-of-Its-Kind Wearable Glucose Monitoring Device — No Needles Required” »

The LAVO bike from StudioMOM is the world’s first hydrogen bike, requiring no heavy batteries, particulates, or CO₂ emissions for operation.

Nowadays, it seems bikes are the preferred mode of transportation in crowded cities. Traffic is no joke and public transportation has seen some major changes since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, so people are hitting the streets with shiny electric and portable bicycles. While bikes are generally more environmentally friendly than cars and trucks, they come with their own list of setbacks. Becoming the world’s first hydrogen bike, the LAVO bike from StudioMOM is a small solution to a big problem.

The contraption can charge the car in 40 hours. 🚗

The heavy trailer is bound to reduce the car’s range.

Continue reading “Tesla Owner Installs $2,500 Solar Trailer to Charge His Car While Driving” »