Lifeboat Foundation

👽 New beetle

Fyodor R.

Researchers have developed a tiny wireless camera that is light enough to be carried by live beetles.

Continue reading “Beetle-mounted camera streams insect adventures” »

Posthuman Buddhism isn’t restricted to human-era schools or traditions, These (previously unpublished) tsakli are from all Vajrapani schools. Unlike Eastern cultures, in the West we do not require a “Guru” and tsakli can be used for “self-initiation”. Unlike religions that make truth claims for supernatural beings or impossible events, Buddhism sees any deities (peaceful or wrathful) as self-originating. The future surely lies with psychomorphological approaches that are amenable to — and not contradictory — to science.

This new book, 4 in the series, contains fourteen rare and unusual C17th or C18th “Grande Tsaklis”, another four late C18th examples reportedly originating from Tsurphu monastry, plus two extremely large tsakli (giants in tsakli terms) one depicting a wind horse whilst the other shows a figure in historically early clothes with butterlamp, male and female deer and an elephant, C16th to C18th. All fronts and reverse (texts) of tsakli are shown.

These 13 plus (1 from different series of the grandes tsakli) detail rituals to be performed at certain times of the year that promote longevity and ward off evil influences. Astrological and various motifs and ritual implements are shown in the compartments, and crucial text is in the triangles. Some have damage (below missing top part of red border). All 20 are rare.

Continue reading “20 Grand Tsakli of Tibet and relaunch of tsakli” »

Let’s talk about science! In the latest episode of #EZScience, learn about the upcoming launch of NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover targeted for liftoff on July 30. Dr. E and Dr. Z talk about the technological advancements of the newest Mars rover (and helicopter!).

The latest AI algorithms are probing the evolution of galaxies, calculating quantum wave functions, discovering new chemical compounds and more. Is there anything that scientists do that can’t be automated?

Researchers have developed AI that lets drone swarms navigate cluttered, unmapped spaces without collisions.

To treat the mice, the team gave them brain implants: a fiber optic that shined light onto a region called the paraventricular thalamus and blocked withdrawal symptoms. A day later, the mice no longer sought out morphine and relapse — or at least do the lab mouse version of relapsing — even after two weeks.

According to the new research, published Thursday in the journal Neuron, people relapse partially because they miss the high, but more so because the symptoms of withdrawal can often be overwhelming. By down those symptoms, the mice appear to be able to kick the habit more easily.

“Our success in preventing relapse in rodents may one day translate to an enduring treatment of opioid addiction in people,” CAS researcher Zhu Yingjie said in a press release.

In order to see and then grasp objects, robots typically utilize depth-sensing cameras like the Microsoft Kinect. And while such cameras may be thwarted by transparent or shiny objects, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a work-around.

Depth-sensing cameras function by shining infrared laser beams onto an object, then measuring the amount of time that it takes for the light to reflect off of the contours of that object, and back to sensors on the camera.

While this system works well enough on relatively dull opaque objects, it has problems with transparent items that much of the light passes through, or shiny objects that scatter the reflected light. That’s where the Carnegie Mellon system comes in, by utilizing a color optical camera that also functions as a depth-sensing camera.

Digital identity capabilities from Trust Stamp are now being integrated with Mastercard’s Wellness Pass solution, which it will launch in cooperation with Gavi in West Africa. Proving identity without revealing any information about it is the idea behind Trust Stamp’s zero knowledge approach to online identity verification, according to a profile by Mastercard.

Gareth Genner, Trust Stamp co-founder and CEO, explains in an interview how the company’s Evergreen Hash technology uses biometrics without taking on the risk of spoofing or a data breach that he says come with standard biometric implementations.

The Evergreen Hash is created from the customers face, palm or fingerprint biometrics, which the company uses to generate a “3D mask,” discarding raw data and adding encryption to associate the data with the user.

Please stop saying “There is no treatment for coronavirus”, coronavirus can be treated many ways. Anything can be treated many ways. When one says, “This can not be done”, one has already given up. When one says, “I can”, one at least makes an effort, and even failure is a lesson that leads to success. The WHO is already promoting the Moderna vaccine, yet it takes years to develop a vaccine properly. Any scientist will tell you it is faster to repurpose drugs than to develop a vaccine. Even in Kenya, they will not tell you how people are being treated, but already they are talking about the Moderna Vaccine.

Sometimes, old drugs find a new purpose. A widely available steroid called dexamethasone might hold the potential to save a lot of lives that otherwise would be lost to coronavirus. Preliminary results released from a randomized and controlled clinical trial involving more than 6,000 patients found that administering dexamethasone significantly reduced deaths among those with severe COVID-19 illnesses.

The study, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, found that the drug reduced deaths by one-third among patients on mechanical ventilators, and by one-fifth among patients receiving other forms of supplemental oxygen. Although dexamethasone is a far cry from a coronavirus cure, it feels like the first good news to transpire since earlier this spring, when the antiviral drug remdesivir showed it could modestly improve survival among COVID-19 patients.