Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Imagine this scenario: You’re deployed to some godforsaken hellhole downrange, in desperate need of additional ammo and chow. You call your superior officer for a very special airdrop: with approval from the U.S. Transportation Command, your cargo is launched into low earth orbit in a rocket-assisted payload. Within an hour, voila — fresh 5.56mm rounds and some delicious pizza MRE, ready to refresh your arsenal and renew your spirit.

The idea of space-borne resupply pods may seem like something out of science-fiction but it could someday be a reality for troops downrange, according to Army officials.

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If Facebook’s AI research objectives are successful, it may not be long before home assistants take on a whole new range of capabilities. Last week the company announced new work focused on advancing what it calls “embodied AI”: basically, a smart robot that will be able to move around your house to help you remember things, find things, and maybe even do things.

Robots That Hear, Home Assistants That See

In Facebook’s blog post about audio-visual navigation for embodied AI, the authors point out that most of today’s robots are “deaf”; they move through spaces based purely on visual perception. The company’s new research aims to train AI using both visual and audio data, letting smart robots detect and follow objects that make noise as well as use sounds to understand a physical space.

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A team of scientists and students from the University of Sheffield has designed and built a specialist microscope, and shared the build instructions to help make this equipment available to many labs across the world.

The microscope, called the smfBox, is capable of single-molecule measurements allowing scientists to look at one molecule at a time rather than generating an average result from bulk samples and works just as well as commercially available instruments.

This single-molecule method is currently only available at a few specialist labs throughout the world due to the cost of commercially available microscopes.

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A new version of Tesla’s Model 3 has arrived in Hong Kong. Driving UpCar shared a first look at it on YouTube. DDcar also reported that Hong Kong Tesla has officially brought the new 2021 Model 3 into the K11 Mall in Tsim Sha Tsui for public display. This batch of Model 3 cars was made in the Fremont factory and is expected to have basically the same configuration around the world.

Some of the changes discussed in the video include a minor change in the headlights, new design on the wheels, all-black trim, and door handles, of which they say, “I believe it’s not that easy to leave a fingerprint on them now.”

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Intel, in its latest acquisition spree, has acquired Israel-based Cnvrg.io. The deal, like most of the deals in the past, is aimed at strengthening its machine learning and AI operations. The 2016-founded startup provides a platform for data scientists to build and run machine learning models that can be used to train, run comparisons and recommendations, among others. Co-founded by Yochay Ettun and Leah Forkosh Kolben, Cnvrg was valued at around $17 million in its last round.

According to a statement by Intel spokesperson, Cnvrg will be an independent Intel company and will continue to serve its existing and future customers after the acquisition. However, there is no information on the financial terms of the deal or who will join Intel from the startup.

The deal comes merely a week after Intel’s announcement of acquiring San Francisco-based software optimisation startup SigOpt, which it did to leverage SigOpt’s technologies across its products to accelerate, amplify and scale AI software tools. SigOpt’s software technologies combined with Intel hardware products could give it a major competitive advantage providing differentiated value for data scientists and developers.

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An asteroid that could be almost 600 feet wide is set to fly by Earth on Saturday, passing us at a speed of more than 29,000 miles per hour.

The asteroid, named 2020 TY1, was first discovered in October. It is expected to pass at a distance of around 3.5 million miles, which is about 14 times the distance between Earth and the moon, meaning it poses no risk to our planet.

It is one of the largest asteroids to pass Earth in recent weeks, with the last of a similar size passing by on October 22. The space rock is estimated to be between 260 and 590 feet wide, making it around the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is 455 feet tall.

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The U.S. drone delivery company Zipline is getting ready to begin commercial operations in Israel next year, TheMarker has learned. The company has begun the regulatory process and is in talks with potential customers.

Zipline hopes to begin its pilot program in Israel early next year, delivering blood and medicine to hospitals in the north and south of the country. While the company has drawn up detailed plans for entering the local market, there’s no guarantee that the pilot will develop into a commercial launch of the service.

Founded in 2014, Zipline has raised around 230 million to date and has a valuation of more than $1 billion. It’s considered the most prominent player in the field: The company has operated commercial drone delivery services since 2016 and has carried out more than 70,000 deliveries.

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