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Technology

GEEK OUT: Aliens Traveling on Radio Beams

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Aliens Radio Beams

Two Harvard University scientists are suggesting that mysterious fast radio bursts, detected in faraway galaxies, may be evidence of aliens traveling through the cosmos. FRBs are extremely bright flashes of radio waves that last for only a thousandth of a second and are detected by earthbound telescopes. Since the first one was observed 10 years ago, 17 have actually been reported, although scientists think there are thousands of them a day. At first, Abraham “Avi” Loeb said, he took a conservative approach to explaining them. “It looked like the simplest explanation would be flares from stars in the Milky Way … Read more

Where No Gay Has Gone Before: Back to the Moon?

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How many of you have wanted to go to the moon?  Everybody?  Well, we’re all nerds here so I’m not surprised. What is a surprise is NASA’s announcement that there is the possibility of astronauts returning to the moon as early as next year.  2018 is the fiftieth anniversary year of Apollo 8, which was the first spacecraft to reach and orbit our natural satellite.  Commander Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders left Earth’s orbit, circled the moon a few times and returned home safely. Acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot said last month he wants to fast-track the heavy-lift … Read more

TECHNOLOGY: Shybot Roams the Desert, Avoiding Humans

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Shybot

A lone little robot roamed California’s Sonoran Desert for a week this month. Its only mission: Avoiding humans. “Shybot” was part of a weirdly mesmerizing art project in early March. It was designed by the Italian artist Norma Jeane and engineers for the Desert X Biennial, which uses the “canvas” of the Coachella Valley in southern California and its desert landscape. It’s one of several projects ongoing through the end of April. The rover’s camera streamed its experiences back to The Lab art gallery in San Francisco, which presented the work in collaboration with the city’s Italian Cultural Institute. The … Read more

TECH: My Flying Car is Almost Here

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flying car

Traffic could be a thing of the past if this new concept design from Airbus ever comes to fruition. The Pop.Up is the aircraft company’s epic idea for a hybrid driving and flying machine that would serve commuters in a transportation network. Its detachable capsule connects to either a four-wheeled driving base or a set of high-tech wings, depending on road conditions. Simply plug your destination into the capsule’s app, wait for it to arrive, and let it drive or fly you from Point A to B. By Suzy Strutner – Full Story at The Huffington Post

Creepy Robot File: It Jumps!

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Handle robot

Handle is a research robot that stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4​ ​feet vertically. It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge. ​​​Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles​ found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex. Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere: by combining wheels and legs Handle can have the best of both worlds. By … Read more

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

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Elon Musk talked about something interesting recently, which is not surprising at any given time. Musk’s ideas border on hard science fiction more often than not. But in this instance, he was stating a mere fact. Eventually, humanity is going to end up more machine than man. Me personally, I think it will be pretty damned cool. Sort of like Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies books without the over-emphasized idea of beauty or terrorists that started that entire world-building scenario off. I could download a complete manuscript from my brain onto the Net without the whole hassle of publishers, editors, and artists … Read more

NEWS: Losing Your Partner to VR

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Virtual Reality

Virtual reality can be pretty engrossing. Like, really engrossing. Comedian and YouTube star Natalie Tran demonstrated just how all-consuming the VR experience can be in “VR Partner Life,” a video posted on Monday. It shows her partner, Rowan, playing what appears to be some sort of driving game. Meanwhile, Tran demonstrates some expert karaoke and dance moves as she cycles through the varied emotional stages of losing your man to another woman a video game. By Hilary Hanson – Full Story at the Huffington Post

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

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Something pretty awesome happened a couple of weeks ago. Well, it started with something very bad, and led to awesome. And I never thought I’d see the day. Donald Trump gagged scientists working for the government. I don’t mean he put a hold on any official statements from departments that did scientific research until he could get a handle on what was going on n those areas. I mean he gagged the individual scientists. That’s the bad part. Ordering scientists to without information, especially when it’s taxpayer funded data, is unprecedented in this country to my knowledge. But a few … Read more

Future Talk: Robot Marriage, Coming Soon?

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robot - pixabay

Experts are predicting that humans will be able to marry robots by 2050. David Levy, author of a book on human-robot love, made the prediction at a ‘Love and Sex with Robots’ conference. It’s claimed that because society used to look at same-sex marriage as unthinkable, which is now legal in some countries, the prospect of robot marriages is now on the cards. The University of London event predicted that the human-robot marriages will be legal by 2050. Though it may seem far flung, robots that humans can have sex with have long been in the pipeline. Now those in … Read more

Technology: Oculus Rift Adds Touch to Virtual Reality

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Oculus Rift Touch

The Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset earlier this year to much fanfare, but it was missing something that would have made playing around in the digital world even better: the ability to move your hands independently. Oculus has released a pair of new controllers, called Touch, which give you a controller to use with each hand. It’s hard for me to overstate how much of a difference this makes in terms of immersion. Everything feels different when your arm and hand movements are reflected into the digital world — pointing at objects, reaching for handholds and even pulling a trigger is … Read more