Lifeboat Foundation

On Oct. 16 2021, our Lucy spacecraft will begin its journey to visit a record-breaking number of asteroids. The 12-year mission starts from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center where it’ll launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket. From there, Lucy will be the first spacecraft to visit a record number of destinations in independent orbits around the sun – one main belt asteroid and seven of Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids. Like the mission’s namesake – the fossilized human ancestor, “Lucy,” whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity’s evolution – Lucy will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system.

Lucy’s first launch attempt in its 21-day launch window is scheduled for 5:34 a.m. EDT on Oct. 16. Launch coverage starts at 5 a.m. EDT on NASA TV, the NASA app, and @NASA social media. Be a part of Lucy’s historic launch day by using the hashtag #LucyMission!

Continue reading “Launching Lucy, NASA’s First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids” »

Sixty-three percent. That’s the proportion of mammal species that vanished from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula around 30 million years ago, after Earth’s climate shifted from swampy to icy. But we are only finding out about it now. — HeritageDaily — Archaeology News.

Hope you all have fun and make a million with this.

It’s free and it’s legit.

Continue reading “Pi Network” »

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have built a bipedal robot that combines walking with flying to create a new type of locomotion, making it exceptionally nimble and capable of complex movements.

Part walking robot, part flying drone, the newly developed LEONARDO (short for LEgs ONboARD drOne, or LEO for short) can walk a slackline, hop, and even ride a skateboard. Developed by a team at Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST), LEO is the first robot that uses multi-joint legs and propeller-based thrusters to achieve a fine degree of control over its balance.

“We drew inspiration from nature. Think about the way birds are able to flap and hop to navigate telephone lines,” explained Soon-Jo Chung, Professor of Aerospace and Control and Dynamical Systems. “A complex yet intriguing behaviour happens as birds move between walking and flying. We wanted to understand and learn from that.”

Sophia’s Artificial Intelligence technology gives you the ability to increase your knowledge and language through sensors and cameras. This ‘sensitivity’ system captures all the information it receives from the outside and replicates human behaviors in the most natural way possible, even gestures. Therefore, her ‘desire’ to have a baby and start a family would only be a programming of her system to imitate social behaviors.

This is not the first time that Sophia has starred in a controversy. In 2,017 when she was named a citizen of Saudi Arabia 0 many people protested that, even though she is a robot, she has more rights than human women in that country.

Continue reading “Sophia, the first android with citizenship, now wants to have a robot baby” »

It’s piloting the new delivery model in Logan, Queensland.

Alphabet subsidiary Wing has launched a pilot program that will have its drones fly products from the rooftops of shopping centers. In fact, it has already started the program in its biggest market, Logan, Australia. The subsidiary has teamed up with Australian retail property group, Vicinity Centres, to test the new model at Logan’s Grand Plaza, where Wing’s drones have been flying orders to customers from businesses directly below their launching pad.

Wing has been operating in Logan over the past two years, but up until now, businesses have had to co-locate their products at the company’s delivery facility. This is the first time the subsidiary is conducting deliveries from participating merchants’ existing location instead. Wing has been flying its drones from the rooftop of Grand Plaza since mid-August, delivering sushi, bubble tea, smoothies and other products from merchants in the shopping center. Starting today, the drones will also deliver over-the-counter medicine and personal care and beauty products.

Continue reading “Alphabet’s Wing tests drone deliveries from shopping center rooftops in Australia” »

Effort to scan the entire Human Brain continues.

Summary: A new, non-invasive neuroimaging technique allowed researchers to investigate the visual sensory thalamus, a brain area associated with visual difficulties in dyslexia and other disorders.

Source: TU Dresden

Continue reading “Charting Hidden Territory of the Human Brain” »

New potential drug combo for kids with brain cancer found using BenevolentAI.

This week, The European Parliament, the body responsible for adopting European Union (EU) legislation, passed a non-binding resolution calling for a ban on law enforcement use of facial recognition technology in public places. The resolution, which also proposes a moratorium on the deployment of predictive policing software, would restrict the use of remote biometric identification unless it’s to fight “serious” crime, such as kidnapping and terrorism.

The approach stands in contrast to that of U.S. agencies, which continue to embrace facial recognition even in light of studies showing the potential for ethnic, racial, and gender bias. A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that 10 branches including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, and Homeland Security plan to expand their use of facial recognition between 2020 and 2023 as they implement as many as 17 different facial recognition systems.

Commercial face-analyzing systems have been critiqued by scholars and activists alike throughout the past decade, if not longer. The technology and techniques — everything from sepia-tinged film to low-contrast digital cameras — often favor lighter skin, encoding racial bias in algorithms. Indeed, independent benchmarks of vendors’ systems by the Gender Shades project and others have revealed that facial recognition technologies are susceptible to a range of prejudices exacerbated by misuse in the field. For example, a report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology details how police feed facial recognition software flawed data, including composite sketches and pictures of celebrities who share physical features with suspects.