Menu

Blog

Page 7981

Jan 30, 2020

Mark Warner Takes on Big Tech and Russian Spies

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, energy

As the vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he’s also become one of Capitol Hill’s most vocal advocates urging the country to take foreign technology threats seriously, both the possibility of kinetic real-world cyberattacks (such as disabling power plants or water systems) and already-underway information influence operations like the ones that upended the 2016 presidential election, as well as the looming challenges next-generation technologies pose to national security.


A former telecoms entrepreneur, the Virginia senator says that saving the industry (and democracy) might mean blowing up Big Tech as we know it.

Jan 30, 2020

Elon Musk: Tesla faces battery woes, but future will ‘blow people’s minds’

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI, sustainability, transportation

So what’s Tesla to do? The answers may come in the Battery Day, a forthcoming explainer that could take place in April. The day is expected to be similar in setup to the Autonomy Day in April 2019, where Musk explained to investors the company’s progress on full self-driving capabilities.

What will they show? One of the standout features may be the company’s Maxwell Technologies acquisition. The $218 million deal, announced February 2019, brings in a firm working on exotic technologies like dry electrodes and ultracapacitors. The firm has also identified a pathway to raising battery density to 500 watt-hours per kilogram. Current batteries tend to weigh around 300 watt-hours, but a jump to 500 could enable advanced uses like an electric plane.

Musk confirmed during Wednesday’s call that Tesla is working with Maxwell, while also stating that its ultracapacitor technology is an “important piece of the puzzle.” This exotic technology could transform how energy is managed within the car, and Musk was actually planning to do his PhD at Stanford University on them before he dropped out.

Jan 30, 2020

Relics washed up on beaches reveal lost world beneath the North Sea

Posted by in category: climatology

Scientists and amateur collectors unite to reconstruct vanished ice age landscape inhabited by Neanderthals, other ancient humans.

Jan 30, 2020

Spinal injury researchers find a sweet spot for stem cell injections

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

As they do in many areas of medicine, stem cells hold great potential in treating injured spinal cords, but getting them where they need to go is a delicate undertaking. Scientists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) are now reporting a breakthrough in this area, demonstrating a new injection technique in mice they say can deliver far larger doses of stem cells and avoid some of the dangers of current approaches.

The research focuses on the use of a type of stem cell known as a neural precursor cell, which can differentiate into different types of neural cells and hold great potential in repairing damaged spines. Currently, these are directly injected into the primary cord of nerve fibers called the spinal parenchyma.

“As such, there is an inherent risk of (further) spinal tissue injury or intraparechymal bleeding,” says Martin Marsala, professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UCSD School of Medicine.

Jan 30, 2020

Scientists found the head of a 330-million-year-old shark in a Kentucky cave

Posted by in category: futurism

Researchers were “stunned” when they discovered the remnants of a huge, fossilized shark head in the walls of a cave in Kentucky. The remains of the ancient animal were found in Mammoth Cave National Park, which according to the National Park Service is the world’s longest cave system.

The shark fossil, which was discovered by scientists who were investigating the cave system, is thought to be up to about 330 million years old, according to John-Paul Hodnett, a paleontologist and program coordinator at Dinosaur Park in Maryland.

The scientists sent Hodnett photos of the findings so he could help identify them. He was able to identify most of the fossils, but what got him “really excited” was to see a number of shark teeth associated with large sections of fossilized cartilage.

Jan 30, 2020

‘Absolutely Horrific’: Trump Preparing to Roll Back Restrictions on US Military Use of Landmines

Posted by in categories: geopolitics, military, policy, treaties

President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to roll back established constraints on the U.S. military’s ability to use landmines overseas despite the weapons’ long history of killing and maiming civilians around the world.

More than 160 nations have ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, which prohibits the stockpiling, production, and use of landmines. The United States is one of just 32 U.N. member states that have not ratified the treaty.


“Trump’s policy rollback is a step toward the past, like many of his other decisions, and sends exactly the wrong message to those working to rid the world of the scourge of landmines.”

Continue reading “‘Absolutely Horrific’: Trump Preparing to Roll Back Restrictions on US Military Use of Landmines” »

Jan 30, 2020

This tiny glass bead has been quantum chilled to near absolute zero

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

A new method for manipulating the quantum state of particles could one day allow us to observe an object in two places at once. The technique has been used to chill a tiny glass bead into its coldest possible quantum state.

Once you get down to extremely small scales, heat and motion are interchangeable: the more a particle is moving, the hotter it is. So to cool down a small particle, you have to stop it moving. Because the rules of quantum mechanics mean you can never know exactly how fast a particle is moving, there is a limit to how cold a particle can get. When a particle is at that limit, we call it the particle’s ground state.

Jan 30, 2020

HAARP: Secret Weapon Used For Weather Modification, Electromagnetic Warfare

Posted by in categories: geoengineering, military

You could use haarp to refreeze the antartica.


This carefully documented article on Weather Warfare was first published by Global Research on August 1, 2010.

Continue reading “HAARP: Secret Weapon Used For Weather Modification, Electromagnetic Warfare” »

Jan 30, 2020

Consideration by the United Nations of a Declaration on Human Cloning for Therapeutic Reasons

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, law

Progress must not be held back by the fearful and ignorant. Progress will be made with or without permission. New and useful technology will emerge to help humanity despite those that cannot understand how they might benefit. This is happening and will continue to happen as it has behind closed doors and in secret but it can be different. It can be well regulated, it can be well informed, and results can be more readily available for the purpose of doing great things by voting YES to Human Cloning for Therapeutic Reasons and showing support for Science.


We, the undersigned, urge the United Nations to establish a timetable for a declaration on human cloning for therapeutic reasons. As you are aware, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Resolution 59/280, containing the UN Declaration on Human Cloning, on 8 March 2005, by a recorded vote of 84 to 34, with 37 abstentions. The Declaration culminated an effort that had commenced in 2001 with a proposal by France and Germany for a convention against reproductive cloning of human beings. For three-and-a-half years a major confrontation took place at the United Nations between those states favouring a narrow ban limited to cloning for reproductive purposes, and those insisting on prohibiting all forms of human cloning, including for ‘therapeutic’ purposes.

Not only was the Declaration adopted by a vote, it was carried only by a plurality (84 states), not even a majority, of states members of the United Nations. Moreover, the text of the Declaration is ambiguous in terms of calling upon states both to adopt all necessary measures to protect adequately human life in the application of life sciences and to prohibit all forms of human cloning inasmuch as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life.

Continue reading “Consideration by the United Nations of a Declaration on Human Cloning for Therapeutic Reasons” »

Jan 30, 2020

Trump to reportedly allow use of landmines, reversing Obama-era policy

Posted by in categories: military, policy

There’s a short list of weapons that should never be used in war. Landmines are high on that list.


“Mr Trump’s policy rollback is a step toward the past, like many of his other decisions, and sends exactly the wrong message to those working to rid the world of the scourge of landmines,” said Jody Williams, who won the 1997 Nobel peace prize for her work campaigning against the weapons.

“Mr Trump’s landmine move would be in line with all of his other moves to undercut arms control and disarmament in a world much in need of them.”

Continue reading “Trump to reportedly allow use of landmines, reversing Obama-era policy” »