Lifeboat Foundation

Astronomers have spotted a monstrous stellar flare coming from a baby star 685 light-years away that’s estimated to be 10,000 times larger than any such event emitted by our sun.

Experts say the stellar ‘tantrum’ could provide a window into the birth of potentially habitable exoplanets, revealing how huge events shake up the material orbiting distant stars.

Continue reading “Astronomers spot baby star emitting huge flare in a stellar ‘tantrum’” »

Companies use different algorithms based on different sets of data. Most of that data comes from people of recent European ancestry.

The problem, obviously, is that a lot of people don’t have grandparents or great-great-great-grandparents from England or Italy or Denmark. Most people on Earth, actually! That means if you’re from, say, Asia or Africa, you might not get as detailed a profile as you’d like.

My mother, who was born in the Philippines, actually got an update from 23andMe with new information about her heritage. Her history didn’t change. But as the company gets more DNA kits from people of Asian descent, the algorithm churns out modified results. Which is great … but that does mean right now, if you’re not white, you might have to wait a bit longer for more accurate results.

Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, erupted on Monday, sending a huge column of ash into the sky and causing the closure of Catania airport on Sicily’s eastern coast.

A chain of around 130 earth tremors have rocked the volcano since around 0800 GMT on Monday, Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology said, with the strongest posting a magnitude of 4.0.

There were no reports of any injuries.

Continue reading “Authorities close airport as Italy’s Mount Etna erupts” »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MdsF3P8bjw

I was in a really interesting 1-hour debate yesterday with Jean-Francois Gariépy who runs a well-known YouTube channel The Public Space, sometimes associated with the Alt-Right. We discussed #transhumanism. I think the debate caught a lot of people by surprise. While I believe in and embrace total diversity, I despise the oppression of human biology and death, and advocate for any means possible to overcome it—including genetic modification and merging with machines. The debate makes me look like the aggressor. But it only proves what I’ve always said, that issues of race and traditional cultural bigotry are minor compared to the issues of humanity battling aging and death itself. All of us are currently in a war to not die:

An important debate on whether or not humanity should play with their own genes. Guest: Zoltan Istvan, transhumanist.

Continue reading “Should We Replace Ourselves? | Zoltan Istvan vs. JFG, TPS #257” »

Ok, the new version of my global risk prevention map is up (pdf link is in comments) and now it is accompanied by recently the published article “Approaches to the Prevention of Global Catastrophic Risks.”

Abstract: Many global catastrophic and existential risks (X-risks) threaten the existence of humankind. There are also many ideas for their prevention, but the meta-problem is that these ideas are not structured. This lack of structure means it is not easy to choose the right plan(s) or to implement them in the correct order. I suggest using a “Plan A, Plan B” model, which has shown its effectiveness in planning actions in unpredictable environments. In this approach, Plan B is a backup option, implemented if Plan A fails. In the case of global risks, Plan A is intended to prevent a catastrophe and Plan B to survive it, if it is not avoided. Each plan has similar stages: analysis, planning, funding, low-level realization and high-level realization. Two variables—plans and stages—provide an effective basis for classification of all possible X-risks prevention methods in the form of a two-dimensional map, allowing the choice of optimal paths for human survival. I have created a framework for estimating the utility of various prevention methods based on their probability of success, the chances that they will be realized in time, their opportunity cost, and their risk. I also distinguish between top-down and bottom-up approaches.

New program coming on-line at Bioquark Inc. (www.bioquark.com) — Ectocrine interactions (the“Ectocrinome”) represents a completely unexplored area related to human health

https://www.prweb.com/releases/bioquark_inc_and_ectocrine_te…004155.htm

An Engineer Jostles Living Brains To Learn How Hits To The Head Cause Injuries : Shots — Health News A question about heading soccer balls inspired a series of experiments to understand how the brain changes shape when someone’s head takes a hit.

The disaster hit without warning.

Many of the hundreds of people who died when a tsunami struck the Indonesian coast Saturday night were nowhere near shelter. Quite simply, they had no idea it was coming.

That’s because despite a history of tsunamis caused by volcanoes and earthquakes, Indonesia has not had an effective early warning system for years.

Continue reading “How Indonesia’s tsunami warning system failed its citizens again” »

The year 2019 is going to be a big one for movies. There are several movies coming out in the upcoming year with all genres of film getting some big titles.

A lot of science fiction movies are hitting theaters in 2019, but fans will have to wait a bit longer for some anticipated titles.