Lifeboat Foundation

NASA combined 10 years of solar observations into a single, gorgeous time-lapse video.

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk called Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos “a copy cat” on Twitter after the online retailer announced it is acquiring self-driving startup Zoox Inc.

.@JeffBezos is a copy 🐈 haha

Amazon acquires self-driving start-up Zoox for over $1.2bn https://t.co/76W80p2RTJ— Financial Times (@FT) June 26, 2020

Continue reading “Elon Musk calls Jeff Bezos a copy cat after Amazon buys self-driving startup” »

The microchips can be used as a key fob, a time card, a credit account for the cafeteria or vending machines, or even as a way for employers to track employee productivity.

“With the way technology has increased over the years and as it continues to grow, it’s important Michigan job providers balance the interests of the company with their employees’ expectations of privacy,” said the bill’s sponsor Michigan State Rep. Bronna Kahle. “While these miniature devices are on the rise, so are the calls of workers to have their privacy protected.”

The bill will be introduced to the State Senate where, if it passes, Governor Gretchen Whitmer will be able to sign the legislation into Michigan law.

Continue reading “Michigan House passes bill to make employee microchips voluntary” »

In wartime, Chinese submarines might slip through the Sunda Strait or Lombok Strait. These pass between the chain of Indonesian that separate the Pacific and Indian Oceans. One advantage over the Malacca Strait, which runs past Singapore, is that it would deliver the submarines to the deep water of the eastern Indian Ocean. From there they could take less obvious routes to their targets.

The Sunda Strait would be the shortest route, but it is very shallow at its eastern end so the deeper Lombok Strait might be preferred. There a submerged passage is likely considered feasible to the Chinese Navy.

Once through into the Indian Ocean, the submarines could get rearmed or resupplied without having to return to China. The Chinese Navy has already built a base in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. Even if the submarines themselves did not call in to the port, which would be closely monitored, vessels could operate from there to carry out at-sea replenishment.

BELL COUNTY, Texas (KWTX) — Days after searching a local river, Texas EquuSearch continued their efforts Wednesday in the search for missing Fort Hood Pfc. Vanessa Guillen, 20, and they may have been productive.

A huge plume of dust and sand, blown by the wind from the Sahara Desert, has finally reached the U.S. mainland.

It’s one of the most significant Saharan dust events in decades, forecasters said.

The densest plume of dust began to emerge off western Africa last weekend and has now moved into the Gulf of Mexico and the South, the Weather Channel said.

The launch of NASA’s next Mars rover has been delayed to no earlier than July 22 due to a contamination issue with ground support equipment, the space agency said today (June 24).

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance was scheduled to launch toward the Red Planet on July 20 from a pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. But a problem cropped up as engineers worked to encapsulate the rover in the nosecone of its Atlas V rocket, which was built by United Launch Alliance.

SpaceX called off the launch of its latest Starlink satellite mission Friday (June 26) to allow more time for preflight checks.

Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionise the way we solve hard computing problems, from creating advanced artificial intelligence to simulating chemical reactions in order to create the next generation of materials or drugs. But actually building such machines is very difficult because they involve exotic components and have to be kept in highly controlled environments. And the ones we have so far can’t outperform traditional machines as yet.

But with a team of researchers from the UK and France, we have demonstrated that it may well be possible to build a quantum computer from conventional silicon-based electronic components. This could pave the way for large-scale manufacturing of quantum computers much sooner than might otherwise be possible.

Continue reading “Quantum computers could arrive sooner if we build them with traditional silicon technology” »