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Technology

U=(N/T)M*G: Debris

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Earth surrounded by debris.

The announcement of the mission extension for the ISS gives me mixed feelings. I mean, I love the Station. Wrote about it here a few times. Hell, wrote a whole trilogy on board the “little” thing. I’m such a nerd about it that I’ve got the Haynes manual. It’s a thing I plow through regularly. I’m pretty concerned about it though. Not the drama over Russia’s will they, won’t they attitude in regards to continuing with the Station’s mission. I always knew they’d keep on with the ISS. I’m talking about all the little bits and bobs of debris up … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Snow

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Tubular model for fluid dynamics.

Physics is weird. Of course, I mean that in the most respectful way possible, but physics is weird. Weak forces and strong forces and thermodynamics. Fluid dynamics. Quantum mechanics. I sort of understand most of it, but did science, as a whole field, really have to make the whole thing as opaque and esoteric as possible? For instance, I was reading articles on the probability of snow falling upwards under the ice sheets covering Europa. Super cool stuff. I had to crawl through about six articles packed full of the science lingo before I figured out what was going on. … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Meltdown

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Computer chip

I guess Google had a meltdown? It lasted long enough for people to notice? I must have been at the day job when that happened and missed it. It’s pretty funny how weird that sounds. I first jumped online as a wee teenager back when AOL and Netscape were the major players, when dial up was the only way to get online. When the first Diablo game was super popular. If something like Google crashed back then, we’d collectively shrug and find a different search engine. No big deal. Not to get political about this, but this is why monopolies … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Shaun

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Artemis - NASA

It always surprises me when NASA is about to do something major, and their collective goofiness as people and nerds smacks me right in the face. The Artemis launch is one such example, though there have been many. The Mission Control mohawk guy is probably still one of my favorites. I have no doubt the Artemis mission will be a success, and with it humanity’s ambitious plan to set up the first major part of our path to Mars. It’s a wildly exciting time for space nerds like me and I’m vibrating in my chair with anticipation. A lot of … Read more

Elon Musk: Tesla To Launch Humanoid Robot Next Year

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robot - pixabay

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk on Thursday said the electric automaker will probably launch a “Tesla Bot” humanoid robot prototype next year, designed for dangerous, repetitive, or boring work that people don’t like to do. Speaking at Tesla’s AI Day event, the billionaire entrepreneur said the robot, which stands around five foot eight inches tall, would be able to handle jobs from attaching bolts to cars with a wrench, or picking up groceries at stores. The robot would have “profound implications for the economy,” Musk said, addressing a labour shortage. He said it was important to make the machine … Read more

You Knew They’d Make Robots for This

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Henry the Sex Robot

New sex robots from leading AI robotics company RealDoll will be programmable as gay or straight, depending on your preference. RealDoll famously created Harmony, an AI sex robot with an animatronic head and Scottish accent, in 2019. Although Harmony was apparently designed a “bisexual flavour”, the company is now working on its first-ever male sex robot, Henry, and is creating artificial intelligence that will allow customers to programme their robot’s sexual orientation. In a video posted by company representative Brick Dollbanger on Instagram, Matt McMullen, CEO of RealDoll subdivision Realbotix, said developing Henry’s AI software was “complicated”. He said: “Not … Read more

When Robots Paint

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Ai-Da Robotic Artist

The world’s first robotic self-portraits, painted by an android called Ai-Da, have been unveiled at a new art exhibit in London, despite the “artist” not having a “self” to portray. The surprisingly accurate images question the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in human society and challenge the idea that art is exclusively a human trait, according to her creators. Ai-Da is a life-size android artist powered by AI — computer algorithms that mimic the intelligence of humans — that can paint, sculpt, gesture, blink and talk. Ai-Da is designed to look and act like a human woman with a female … Read more

SPACE: MOXIE Will Soon Make Oxygen – On Mars

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MOXIE - Nasa

Having safely landed on Mars on Feb. 18, NASA’s newest rover, Perseverance, is just beginning its scientific exploration of the Red Planet. But sometime in the next few weeks, the car-size robot will also help pave the way for future humans to travel to our neighboring world with a small instrument known as the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE). MOXIE, which will soon be pulling precious oxygen out of Mars’ poisonous atmosphere, is gold-colored and about the size of a bread box. It sits tucked away inside Perseverance’s chassis, where it will conduct the first demonstration on another … Read more

What’s An EmDrive? And Could It Take Us to the Stars?

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The “EmDrive” claims to make the impossible possible: a method of pushing spacecraft around without the need for — well, pushing. No propulsion. No exhaust. Just plug it in, fire it up and you can cruise to the destination of your dreams.  But the EmDrive doesn’t just violate our fundamental understanding of the universe; the experiments that claim to measure an effect haven’t been replicated. When it comes to the EmDrive, keep dreaming.  It goes by various names — the EmDrive, the Q-Drive, the RF Resonant Cavity, the Impossible Drive — but all the incarnations of the device claim to … Read more

Scientists Can Now Insert Ideas Into Your Dreams

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dream - pixabay

MIT scientists have figured out how to manipulate your dreams by combining an app with a sleep-tracking device called Dormio. In their new study, the researchers were able to insert certain topics into a person’s dreams, with some pretty bizarre outcomes. To do so, the researchers at MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces — a group that develops wearable systems and interfaces to enhance cognitive skills — used a technique called targeted dream incubation (TDI). Prior studies have shown that during a rare dream state known lucid dreaming, in which a sleeper is aware that a dream is taking place, dreamers … Read more