Lifeboat Foundation

A methodology that utilizes measurements in the variation of flux from cosmic muons (heavy cousins of the electron)—called archaeological muography—detected evidence for a possible second entrance and hidden corridor in the Great Pyramid of Giza (the largest of the Pyramids of Giza). As well, thermal imaging have revealed perplexing thermal anomalies in the Great Pyramid. Several explanations were put forward to explain the cause of the anomalies, but one particularly suggestive explanation was that it is due to increased air circulation caused by a hidden corridor or chamber — corroborating similar findings using muonic radiographic analysis.

There is also the fact that privacy crusader Max Schrems undercut Apple’s holier-than-thou privacy image last month when his digital rights group Noyb targeted the tech giant in Germany and Spain, claiming that Apple’s “Identifier for Advertisers” (IDFA) tracking ID, which is automatically generated on every iPhone during setup, allows Apple, app makers and ad networks to follow an individual user’s activities and use that data to show them ads targeted at their interests. Apple has said those claims are “factually inaccurate”.

Fundamentally though, the underlying message of Federighi’s keynote today was clear: Apple is not budging on its new privacy standards, they will come at the start of 2021, and it will play hardball with other tech giants if necessary, at least in certain markets.

Continue reading “Apple fires warning shot at Facebook and Google on privacy, pledges fight against ‘data-industrial complex’” »

Not a great look.

A wind turbine shaped like a tree! 😃

This nature-inspired wind turbine is designed like a tree to silently generate green energy using its micro-turbine leaves. (Follow Tech That Matters for more.)

Credit: New World Wind

That is partly because AI businesses are not consumer-facing. Because they are mostly providers of back end hardware and software to other businesses, or, more critically, to governments, AI business will not become giant platform companies servicing billions of users.

Nina Xiang is the founder of China Money Network, a media platform tracking China’s venture and tech sectors.

In 10 years no one will remember the names of China’s artificial intelligence unicorns. While many aspects of the coming AI revolution remain unpredictable, one thing is clear: no AI company will emerge as a Big Tech brand.

Continue reading “China’s AI unicorns reveal fatal flaw in rush to go public” »

Eighteen U.S. astronauts have been chosen to train for the Artemis missions, which aim to return humans to the lunar surface.

JILA researchers have developed tools to “turn on” quantum gases of ultracold molecules, gaining control of long-distance molecular interactions for potential applications such as encoding data for quantum computing and simulations.

The new scheme for nudging a molecular gas down to its lowest energy state, called quantum degeneracy, while suppressing chemical reactions that break up molecules finally makes it possible to explore exotic quantum states in which all the molecules interact with one another.

The research is described in the Dec. 10 issue of Nature. JILA is a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Lifeboat Foundation congratulates Guardian Award Winner Elon Musk and SpaceX on their latest accomplishment with the Starship, the world’s first reusable space vehicle. The Starship will transform our world, starting with making Starlink the first non-bankrupt LEO constellation, later bringing us to the Moon and then hopefully Mars.

We recommend that NASA redirect their funds from the dead-end SLS system towards Starship. Even if NASA continues to waste tens of billions of dollars on SLS, it is unlikely that it will ever do more than a handful of launches as the low-cost Starship program makes it obsolete.

Also, here’s an appeal to Guardian Award Winner Elon Musk:

Continue reading “Lifeboat Foundation congratulates SpaceX on its successful SN8 Launch!” »