Lifeboat Foundation

At least humans can still say they are better at something… for now. 😃

What happens if you let a neural network loose on inventing names for monsters in Dungeons and Dragons? Well, it turns out it comes up with some rather ridiculous suggestions.

Research scientist Janelle Shane from Boulder, Colorado previously used a recurrent neural network to come up with some odd spell names for D&D, but this time around she turned her powers of hilarity towards creating new names for monsters.

Continue reading “AI Attempts To Create Dungeons & Dragons Monsters, And The Results Are Hilarious” »

This portable turbine uses water or wind to charge your devices and is ideal for campers, paddlers, filmmakers, and off-gridders around the world…

REST IN PEACE 🙏 Gen. Chuck Yeager, one of the U.S. Air Force’s most decorated test pilots and the first person to break the sound barrier, has died. He was 97.

Chuck Yeager was of the U.S. Air Force’s most decorated test pilots and was portrayed in the movie ‘The Right Stuff.’

Columbia team discovers 6-nanometer-long single-molecule circuit with enormous on/off ratio due to quantum interference; finding could enable faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient devices.

Researchers, led by Columbia Engineering Professor Latha Venkataraman, report today that they have discovered a new chemical design principle for exploiting destructive quantum interference. They used their approach to create a six-nanometer single-molecule switch where the on-state current is more than 10,000 times greater than the off-state current–the largest change in current achieved for a single-molecule circuit to date.

This new switch relies on a type of quantum interference that has not, up to now, been explored. The researchers used long molecules with a special central unit to enhance destructive quantum interference between different electronic energy levels. They demonstrated that their approach can be used to produce very stable and reproducible single-molecule switches at room temperature that can carry currents exceeding 0.1 microamps in the on-state. The length of the switch is similar to the size of the smallest computer chips currently on the market and its properties approach those of commercial switches. The study is published today in Nature Nanotechnology.

I’m fairly certain that ‘massive RTX 3090 heist’ was not on your 2020 Bingo card. Our friends at Tom’s Hardware originally reported that 40 cargo boxes containing RTX 3090s were stolen this morning from an MSI factory in China in what sounds like a GTA Online-esque heist.

The stolen goods (which are valued at around $336,500) consist of roughly over 200 hard-to-find RTX 3090 graphics cards. For context, the MSRP for the RTX 3090 is around $1,500 but due to the low stock and high demand, we’ve seen them being sold for well over $2,000 on various auction sites.

This theoretical engine could drastically reduce the cost of getting to space. Now two companies are trying to make it real.

“We are allocating serious resources, both financial and administrative ones, on creation and development of technologies. It is not about spending these funds, purchasing high-status gadgets and other household appliances. Artificial intelligence is not about a so-called fashion hype or a prestigious trend, that will fade away, vanish tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. No, this will not happen,” the president noted.

He recalled that “global history knows many cases when large, global corporations and even countries literally slept through a technological breakthrough and were swept off the historical stage overnight.”

“We must remember this. I want my colleagues in ministries, departments, regions of the Russian Federation, in state companies, research centers and universities to hear me now: we have to tackle issues of a fundamentally new level of complexity,” the head of state said.

“According to a statement from CareFlight on today’s launch, the zero-emission vehicle’s cruising speed is 300 kilometres per hour and its range 250 kilometres (electric-powered) or 800 kilometres (hydrogen-powered).”

A Bankstown Airport-headquartered startup, AMSL Aero, has officially launched its electric air ambulance, the Vertiia. The vertical takeoff and landing (or VTOL) vehicle — a flying car — is under development through a two-year CRC-P project, supported by a $3 million grant. It is led by AMSL, with partners CareFlight, University of Sydney and Mission Systems. According to a statement from CareFlight on today’s launch, the zero-emission vehicle’s cruising speed is 300 kilometres per hour and its range 250 kilometres (electric-powered) or 800 kilometres (hydrogen-powered).Co-founder Andrew Moore said the potential applications were vast, but they have initially targeted the area of greatest current need: providing rapid access to medical services for vulnerable remote, rural, and regional communities.

“” Martyr Fakhrizadeh was driving when a weapon, using an advanced camera, zoomed in on him,” Fadavi said, according to Reuters.

“Some 13 shots were fired at martyr Fakhrizadeh with a machine gun controlled by satellite… During the operation artificial intelligence and face recognition were used,” he said. “His wife, sitting 25 centimeters away from him in the same car, was not injured.”

“The machine gun was placed on a pick-up truck and was controlled by a satellite,” he added.”

Continue reading “Iran: Satellite-controlled machine gun used to kill top nuclear scientist” »