Lifeboat Foundation

Your dream to get a pizza delivered by a drone or an Amazon drone knocking at the door will remain a dream as researchers have revealed that a drone delivery service is not realistic and may not be possible in densely-pulated areas.

The reason is simple: Demand for drone delivery in e-retail is high but the ability to meet that demand is very low.

For a city like New York, the optimal design for the test locations, based on all factors, is three drone facilities covering 75% of NYC area and 34% of the population.

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#survival #coronavirus
In light of recent events its a good opportunity to go over the basics of pandemic preparedness.

*Correction* I need to make a correction to information provided within this video. The case-fatality rate of the Spanish influenza is often quoted by virologists as 2.5 % when in reality the math on this doesn’t add up as the population of the planet at the time doesn’t align with this statistic. This stat is misinterpreted to mean the overall case-fatality rate was (greater than) 2.5%. It is presumed a safer mortality estimate was between 7.5%-15% at the pandemics peak wave. The correct statistic is the 2.5%-5% of the WORLDS population perished as a result of this. It should be noted that there were several waves to this pandemic hence the 2.5 (greater than) statistic. The first wave was relatively tame, the second wave was devastating, the third wave was less severe. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/three-waves.htm

Continue reading “10 Steps to Survive a Global Pandemic: Coronavirus” »

Facial recognition technology is likely not as safe as you may have thought. This was illustrated by a recent test where 3D printed busts of peoples’ heads were used to unlock smartphones.

Out of five tested phones, only one refused to open when presented with the fake head.

Other biometric security measures are also showing less resilience to hacking than you might expect. A group of Japanese researchers recently showed it was possible to copy a person’s fingerprints from pictures like the ones many of us post on social media.

Front Microbiol. 2018 Sep 27;9:2338. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02338. eCollection 2018.

Influenza A virus causes periodic outbreaks and seriously threatens human health. The drug-resistant mutants have shown an epidemic trend because of the abuse of chemical drugs. Aloe polysaccharides (APS) extracted from Aloe vera leaves have evident effects on the therapy of virus infection. However, the activity of APS in anti-influenza virus has yet to be investigated. Here, we refined polysaccharides from A. vera leaf. In vitro test revealed that APS could inhibit the replication of a H1N1 subtype influenza virus, and the most obvious inhibitory effect was observed in the viral adsorption period. Transmission electron microscopy indicated that APS directly interacted with influenza virus particles. Experiments on PR8 (H1N1) virus infection in mice demonstrated that APS considerably ameliorated the clinical symptoms and the lung damage of the infected mice, and significantly reduced the virus loads and mortality.

Successfully coronavirus treatment on a critically ill 71-year woman.

Thai doctors have declared the use of anti-flu and AIDS drugs a success in reducing symptoms of coronavirus patients after using them on a Chinese woman.

Two doctors from Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok — Dr Kriangsak Atipornwanich, an expert physician, and Assoc Prof Dr Subsai Kongsangdao, a specialist — said at a briefing in Bangkok that improvements were seen in the 71-year-old woman 48 hours after administering the two groups of medications.

Continue reading “Thai doctors say two drug groups effective on patient” »

THE US military is close to unveiling new super-powered lasers capable of zapping nukes straight out of the sky.

The 150-kilowatt weapons will be fitted to warships and are able to ‘take out’ drones, aircraft, cruise missiles and even other ships.

“The previous laser prototype was tested in the Persian Gulf three years ago aboard an amphibious the USS Ponce,” said Col Mikhail Khodarenok, former editor of the Military-Industrial Courier.

Artificial intelligence and robotics architectures are often inspired by patterns occurring in nature, both in humans and animals. Patterns of movement observed in animals have been replicated in robots via a number of shape-changing mechanisms such as chemical swelling, skin stretching or origami morphing.

Researchers at Seoul National University’s Soft Robotics Research Center in South Korea and the Rebikoff-Niggeler Foundation (FRN) in Portugal have recently developed a robotic architecture structurally inspired by the pelican eel, a species of fish that lives in the deep sea. Their architecture, presented in a paper published in Science Robotics, is among the latest of a series of designs inspired by animals or naturally occurring phenomena.

Continue reading “Robotic architecture inspired by pelican eel: Origami unfolding and skin stretching mechanisms” »

On Friday we wrote about Samsung’s mysterious “artificial human” project Neon, speculating that the company was building realistic human avatars that could be used for entertainment and business purposes, acting as guides, receptionists, and more.

Now, a tweet from the project’s lead and some leaked videos pretty much confirm this — although they don’t give us nearly enough information to judge how impressive Neon is.

Continue reading “Samsung’s ‘artificial human’ project definitely looks like a digital avatar” »