August 2018 – Page 2

This astrophysicist explains the surprisingly complex concept of ‘nothing’

August 27, 2018

Philosophers have debated the nature of “nothing” for thousands of years, but what has modern science got to say about it?

In an interview with The Conversation, Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, explains that when physicists talk about nothing, they mean empty space (vacuum).

This may sound straightforward, but experiments show that empty space isn’t really empty – there’s a mysterious energy latent in it which can tell us something about the fate of the universe.

Rees was interviewed for The Conversation’s Anthill podcast on Nothing. This Q&A is based on an edited transcript of that interview.

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Automobiles, communication, Crazy Stuff, Science & Technology News

Mercedes-Benz Digital Light LED headlights display messages on the road

August 27, 2018

With more than one million micromirrors per headlight, Mercedes-Benz Digital Light HD headlights do much more than just illuminate the highway.

Drivers can project messages on the road in front of a car equipped with the new headlights. The lights can also project navigation guides and road conditions or traffic warning symbols.

Digital Light onboard computers control the HD headlights, which are available in limited quantity for Mercedes-Maybach S-Class sedans. The car shown in the images and video that accompany this article is the Mercedes-Maybach S 560 4Matic, which has a $168,600 U.S. starting list price.

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Apple, Employment, Google, IBM

Apple HR couldn’t care less if you have a college degree

August 27, 2018

You can get hired at Apple even without a fancy piece of paper telling people you got a lot of book learning.

The traditional life plan includes four years of college then a good job. But not everyone takes this path, and sometimes the lack of a college degree keeps some people from getting a job they are otherwise qualified for. But not at Apple.

Following a non-traditional career path is no problem getting hired at Apple. And that goes for positions beyond working at its retail stores.

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Biotech, Breakthrough Thinking, Engineering, Medical Breakthrough

The high-stakes race to create the world’s first artificial heart

August 26, 2018

World-famous Houston surgeon Bud Frazier spent decades developing a revolutionary device that could save millions of lives. In this exclusive excerpt from ‘Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart,’ he attempts to implant it in a human for the first

The kids fell in love with him first. Back in the late eighties, Craig Lewis lived three houses down from Linda Sanders. He was a quiet, solitary beanpole of a man with a copper-colored golden retriever named Shogun. He looked to be in his late thirties, and Linda knew from neighborhood gossip that he had one marriage behind him, just like she did. Back then, Shogun seemed to be his constant companion. Craig had taught that dog to do just about anything; of course he could sit, stay, and fetch, but he also knew how to play hide-and-seek with even the canniest kid. That was why, as soon as Linda’s children saw Craig’s pickup pull into his driveway in the early evenings, they were out the door. Leslie was six and Eddie four, two blond-haired kids on the run, raising small clouds of dust as their feet slapped the parched summer grass. “Don’t wear out your welcome!” Linda warned to the sliding door they slammed behind them.

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Bitcoin, Blockchain, government, Money Talk

Will cryptocurrency replace national currency in the future?

August 27, 2018

Wrapping one’s head around the craze that is, cryptocurrency can often be downright confusing.

However, despite the influx of uncertainty, the digital commerce could become the global finance standard in the near future.

For starters, cryptocurrency is any form of currency that only exists digitally or virtually, and “usually has no central issuing or regulating authority,” according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Based on blockchain technology, the digital currency market determines the value due to supply (amount in circulation) and demand (volume of buyers and sellers).

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China, government, Internet

China reaches 800 million internet users

August 25, 2018

China’s internet population has now grown beyond 800 million, according to the latest data from the Chinese government.

A new report [in Chinese] issued by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) put the number of people in China with access to the internet at 802 million. The agency — which is a branch of the Ministry of Industry and Information and is responsible for controlling the .cn country code — estimates that 29.68 million people in China came online for the first time in the second half of 2018.

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Fashion, Health & Fitness, Latest Trend, women

Tattooed eyebrows? Microblading makes its mark

August 25, 2018

More and more women are binning their eyebrow pencils and going under the scalpel. But is it worth the sting?

“You have tensed up!” the therapist says, snapping on her latex gloves. I look down at my balled-up fists and laugh nervously, trying not to think about the small scalpel that she is holding near my ear. Soon she will dip the blade in pigment and etch short strokes into the skin underneath my eyebrows in an effort to make them appear naturally fuller and more shapely. This is a procedure known as “microblading”. Provided I don’t sweat excessively or sleep on my face and rub it all off, the tattoo will, I’m told, last up to a year.

Semi-permanent cosmetic tattooing has a long history. Sutherland Macdonald, the first tattooist in Britain, boasted in 1902 of his ability to produce in ladies an “all-year-round delicate pink complexion” with a “slight pricking” of a needle. It has also long had an image problem, evoking an older woman who looks at best permanently surprised, at worst like a terrifying marionette, thanks to her overly thick lip-liner and needle-thin, over-arched, carbon-black eyebrows. But in recent years cosmetic tattooing has itself undergone a make-over. New techniques which use impermanent pigments rather than tattoo ink achieve a subtler look. Freckles can be applied to give the wearer the semblance of sun-kissed skin. The lips can be tinted to provide more definition.

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Alternative Transportation, Automobiles, Driverless cars, Transportation

A day in the life of a Waymo self-driving taxi

August 25, 2018

Waymo is ready to start charging for its self-driving trips, but first, it needs to master the dreaded art of fleet management.

In a nondescript depot in suburban Arizona, the future of transportation is getting a tune-up. This is where Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, houses its growing fleet of self-driving cars: hundreds of Chrysler Pacifica minivans fitted with highly advanced hardware and software that enables them to safely ride on public roads without a human driver behind the wheel.

For over a year, Waymo has been offering trips to the 400-plus members of its Early Rider program who use Waymo’s ride-hailing app to summon the minivans for free trips to school, the mall, the gym, or elsewhere within its suburban Phoenix service area. Soon, Waymo will make that service available to the general public and it will start charging money for it, too. At the outset, the company plans on offering fully autonomous rides with a Waymo employee in the car only as a chaperone. And when that happens, it will make history as the first fully driverless taxi service in the world.

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Entertainment, Latest Trend, Travel

How technology has revolutionized the cruise industry

August 24, 2018

The cruise industry is one which has undergone enormous change in recent times. A huge amount of money has been spent on revamping the cruise ships with new facilities and new technology to define new levels of luxury and comfort. This, and making cruises more affordable through places like Bolsover Cruise Club, has made cruise vacations much more appealing to a younger audience and transformed the industry.

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Biotech, brain hacking, brain-computer interfaces, Hacking, Science & Technology News

Five emerging technology trends that will blur the lines between human and machine

August 24, 2018

The 35 must-watch technologies represented on the Gartner Inc. Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2018 revealed five distinct emerging technology trends that will blur the lines between humans and machines. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), play a critical role in enabling companies to be ubiquitous, always available, and connected to business ecosystems to survive in the near future.

“Business and technology leaders will continue to face rapidly accelerating technology innovation that will profoundly impact the way they engage with their workforce, collaborate with their partners, and create products and services for their customers,” said Mike J. Walker, research vice president at Gartner. “CIOs and technology leaders should always be scanning the market along with assessing and piloting emerging technologies to identify new business opportunities with high impact potential and strategic relevance for their business.”

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China, Energy, Latest Trend, Solar Power, Space

Supersized solar farms are sprouting around the world (and maybe in space, too)

August 24, 2018

In a quest to cut the cost of clean electricity, power utilities around the world are supersizing their solar farms.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in southern Egypt, where what will be the world’s largest solar farm — a vast collection of more than 5 million photovoltaic panels — is now taking shape. When it’s completed next year, the $4 billion Benban solar park near Aswan will cover an area 10 times bigger than New York’s Central Park and generate up to 1.8 gigawatts of electricity.

That’s roughly the output of two nuclear power plants combined and almost double the planned capacity of the vast Villanueva facility now growing in the Mexican state of Coahuila — currently the largest facility in the Americas. (The largest solar farm in the U.S. is the 580-megawatt Solar Star facility near Los Angeles.)

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Analysis, Business, Employment

Remote workers are outperforming office workers—Here’s why

August 23, 2018

Research shows that office workers cannot concentrate at their desks.

Have you seen any of these gimmicky office designs? Candy dispensers in conference rooms. Hammocks and indoor treehouses. Tech companies tend to be the worst offenders with the startup favorites: beer taps and table tennis.

Maybe there is fun for a moment when the candy bar drops — but does all that money spent on gimmicks deliver anything meaningful for the people who work there?

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