Lifeboat Foundation

Sir Richard Branson’s spaceplane completes the first of three key test flights above New Mexico.

Russian state media calls the Satan II “invulnerable.”

Cryptocurrency mining operators, including a Huobi Mall and BTC.TOP, are suspending their China operations after Beijing stepped up its efforts to crack down on bitcoin mining and trading, sending the digital currency tumbling.

Cryptocurrency miners, including HashCow and BTC.TOP, have halted their China operations after Beijing intensified a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading, hammering digital currencies amid heightened global regulatory scrutiny of them.

A State Council committee led by Vice Premier Liu He announced the crackdown late on Friday — the first time the council has targeted virtual currency mining, a big business in China that accounts for as much as 70% of the world’s crypto supply. read more

Continue reading “Crypto miners halt China business after Beijing cracks down, bitcoin tumbles” »

The Japanese government expects flying cars to launch full-scale in urban areas by the 2030s and wants to use the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka to promote the cutting-edge technology, as well as smooth the way for their real-life adoption.

TOKYO — With flying cars inching closer to real-world use, Japan will start working on new legislation as early as next month to allow passengers on the soaring sedans at the World Exposition in Osaka in 2025.

The Japanese government expects flying cars to launch full-scale in urban areas by the 2030s. It wants to use the expo to promote the cutting-edge technology and smooth the way for their real-life adoption.

Continue reading “Flying cars at 2025 Expo: Japan crafts ‘rules of the sky’” »

To better understand the universe, we may need to kill off one of the most important theories of all time.

IBM’s AI group released CodeNet, a 14-million-sample dataset for training machine learning models to help software developers be productive.

OLCF’s Frontier is set to use a hybrid multi-tier storage sub-system with 700PB capacity and up to 75TB/s throughput.

“This study seeks to explore the potential role of the psychoactive brew ayahuasca in settings of intergroup contact to shift the awareness and attitudes related to the relations between groups embedded in ethnopolitical conflicts, including long-term disputes between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. By doing so, the present study also seeks to 1) understand how psychedelics can affect relational and group-participatory processes and 2) expand knowledge on dynamics between these two groups by focusing on their interactions in a psychedelic group setting.”

Psychedelics are used in many group contexts. However, most phenomenological research on psychedelics is focused on personal experiences. This paper presents a phenomenological investigation centered on intersubjective and intercultural relational processes, exploring how an intercultural context affects both the group and individual process. Through 31 in-depth interviews, ceremonies in which Palestinians and Israelis drink ayahuasca together have been investigated. The overarching question guiding this inquiry was how psychedelics might contribute to processes of peacebuilding, and in particular how an intercultural context, embedded in a protracted conflict, would affect the group’s psychedelic process in a relational sense. Analysis of the interviews was based on grounded theory. Three relational themes about multilocal participatory events which occurred during ayahuasca rituals have emerged from the interviews: 1) Unity-Based Connection – collective events in which a feeling of unity and ‘oneness’ is experienced, whereby participants related to each other based upon a sense of shared humanity, and other social identities seemed to dissolve (such as national and religious identities). 2) Recognition and Difference-Based Connection – events where a strong connection was made to the other culture. These events occurred through the expression of the other culture or religion through music or prayers, which resulted in feelings of awe and reverence 3) Conflict-related revelations – events where participants revisited personal or historical traumatic elements related to the conflict, usually through visions. These events were triggered by the presence of ‘the Other,’ and there was a political undertone in those personal visions. This inquiry has revealed that psychedelic ceremonies have the potential to contribute to peacebuilding. This can happen not just by ‘dissolution of identities,’ but also by providing a space in which shared spiritual experiences can emerge from intercultural and interfaith exchanges. Furthermore, in many cases, personal revelations were related to the larger political reality and the history of the conflict. Such processes can elucidate the relationship between personal psychological mental states and the larger sociopolitical context.

“Those who experience do not participate in the world. For the experience is “in them” and not between them and the world.”

Continue reading “Relational Processes in Ayahuasca Groups of Palestinians and Israelis” »

As a photographer, adding a DJI Mavic Mini to my gear locker felt like a final puzzle piece. I know I’m not alone in this feeling as many of my fellow photographer friends became pilots, as well, in the last year. But this doesn’t mean that we use our flying cameras just for drone photography and videography.

One reason for this slight phenomenon is an increase in client expectations. Reducing the skills of a photographer to just someone with lots of gear, there’s an assumption that videography is available for the asking. While I have invested in video gear like lights, a gimbal, clamps, arms, microphones and stands, my DJI Mavic Mini is up there at the top as a piece of video gear on offer. I previously wrote about my personal intro to drone life. Here are some ways that you, as a professional or hobbyist photographer, can find value in adding a drone to your bag of gear. And tricks.

While every photographer possesses video shooting capabilities in their DSLRs, it may be easier to use a drone as your first video shooting tool. One thing that DJI has done with their drones is made them out-of-the-box-ready to use. As opposed to figuring out which lens or menu settings to use, any DJI drone can capture stunning video on your first flight.