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More than 100 years ago in his autobiography, Nikola Tesla reflected on the first time he had the idea to control the weather. Now, China is spending billions to prove that weather modification is possible.

Tesla wrote:

“One day, as I was roaming in the mountains, I sought shelter from an approaching storm. The sky became overhung with heavy clouds but somehow the rain was delayed until, all of a sudden, there was a lightning flash and a few moments after a deluge. This observation set me thinking. It was manifest that the two phenomena were closely related, as cause and effect, and a little reflection led me to the conclusion that the electrical energy involved in the precipitation of the water was inconsiderable, the function of lightning being much like that of a sensitive trigger.”

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Help support our video productions http://www.patreon.com/scifri.
Produced by Luke Groskin.
Filmed by Christian Baker.
Music by Audio Network.
Additional Footage and Stills Provided by Joel Simon, Pond5, Shutterstock, Nic Symbios, Pit Schuni (C.C. BY 2.0)Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (C.C. BY 2.0), Eleni Katafori, Bradely Smith, Loic Royer, Alexander Reben.

Inspired by the forces behind evolution, artist and tool designer Joel Simon programmed a network of computers to blend and “breed” together images over and over using users’ preferences as its guide. Although thousands of users, breeding millions of bizarre and beautiful images, Joel’s goal was more conceptual: He wanted to see if the system could evolve art and what types of forms might emerge from the process.

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Flexible electrodes, electronic components that conduct electricity, are of key importance for the development of numerous wearable technologies, including smartwatches, fitness trackers and health monitoring devices. Ideally, electrodes inside wearable devices should retain their electrical conductance when they are stretched or deformed.

Many flexible electrodes developed so far are made of placed on elastic substrates. While some of these electrodes are flexible and well, sometimes, the metal are fractured, which can result in sudden electricity disconnection.

Researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have recently introduced a new design that could enable the development of strain-resilient flexible electrodes that conduct electricity well, even when they are stretched or deformed. This design, outlined in a paper published in Nature Electronics, involves the introduction of a thin, two-dimensional (2-D) interlayer, which reduces the risk of fractures and retains electrical connections of metal films.

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FireEye and Microsoft on Thursday said they discovered three more malware strains in connection with the SolarWinds supply-chain attack, including a “sophisticated second-stage backdoor,” as the investigation into the sprawling espionage campaign continues to yield fresh clues about the threat actor’s tactics and techniques.

Dubbed GoldMax (aka SUNSHUTTLE), GoldFinder, and Sibot, the new set of malware adds to a growing list of malicious tools such as Sunspot, Sunburst (or Solorigate), Teardrop, and Raindrop that were stealthily delivered to enterprise networks by alleged Russian operatives.

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Advocates contend central bank digital currencies can make cross-border transactions easier, promote financial inclusion and provide payment system stability. There are also privacy and surveillance risks with government-issued digital currencies. And in times of economic uncertainty, people may be more likely to pull their funds from commercial banks, accelerating a bank run.

Intense interest in cryptocurrencies and the Covid-19 pandemic have sparked debate among central banks on whether they should issue digital currencies of their own.

China has been in the lead in developing its own digital currency. It’s been working on the initiative since 2014. Chinese central bank officials have already conducted massive trials in major cities including Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou.

“China’s experiment is very large scale,” said J. Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “When the world arrives in Beijing next winter for the Winter Olympics, they are going to be using the new digital renminbi to shop and to stay in hotels and to buy meals in restaurants. The world is going to see a functioning [central bank digital currency] very soon, within the coming year.”

Continue reading “Central banks around the world want to get into digital currencies—here’s why” | >

Summary: Combining brain activity data with artificial intelligence, researchers generated faces based upon what individuals considered to be attractive features.

Source: University of Helsinki.

Researchers at the University of Helsinki and University of Copenhagen investigated whether a computer would be able to identify the facial features we consider attractive and, based on this, create new images matching our criteria. The researchers used artificial intelligence to interpret brain signals and combined the resulting brain-computer interface with a generative model of artificial faces. This enabled the computer to create facial images that appealed to individual preferences.

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