Year: 2018

Impact Lab > 2018
Automobiles, Electric Automobile, Environment

Even more evidence that electric cars could save the planet

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The latest numbers say that as the American grid shifts toward renewables, the positive impact of electric cars is increasing.

EVERYONE’S SAYING IT: The future of driving is electric. The big-name car companies have plans to start giving Tesla some tough competition. Jaguar’s I-Pace electric SUV will be on sale soon, and Porsche is teasing a new concept Mission E Cross Turismo, which looks like an SUV’d Panamera (in a good way). And normal cars for regular people are going the same way. Combined, Ford and GM plan to offer 34 full electric models in the next five years.

Continue reading… “Even more evidence that electric cars could save the planet”

Genes, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine

In surprise result, gene therapy reverses blinding eye disease

China, government, Law Enforcement, Wearables

Beijing police are using facial-recognition glasses to identify car passengers and number plates

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A promotion video shows an actor wearing LLVision facial recognition smart glasses during a demonstration at the company’s office in Beijing, China February 28, 2018.

Beijing police began testing facial-recognition glasses last week.

They appear to be similar to those first used by police in a Henan railway station last month.

Continue reading… “Beijing police are using facial-recognition glasses to identify car passengers and number plates”

3D Printer, Architecture, Breakthrough Thinking, Housing

This $10,000 3D printed house can be built in 24 hours and is bigger than a studio apartment

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One of the less obvious products being unveiled this week at SXSW is a small concrete house. On the outside, it doesn’t look like anything particularly special, although the covered patio and spacious windows are less common on tiny poured-concrete buildings.

That’s because the innovation isn’t in the structure or materials — it’s in the design and building. ICON, the company that builds the 650-square-foot house, claims it costs just $10,000 to build, and can be 3-D printed by a Vulcan printer in 12 to 24 hours using the most common building material on Earth.

Continue reading… “This $10,000 3D printed house can be built in 24 hours and is bigger than a studio apartment”

Breakthrough Thinking, cutting edge, Engineering, Future, New Inventions, People Making a Difference

XPRIZE Founder Peter Diamandis: ‘We’re Living at a Time When Individual Entrepreneurs Are More Powerful Than Governments’

The Venture Final Pitch Sponsored By Chivas

Peter Diamandis is the founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which designs and operates large-scale incentive competitions to, in essence, change the world.

In the words of its own criteria, an Xprize must be bold, audacious, and achievable. It must target market failure, drive investment, and give birth to a new industry. And, of course, it must give other innovators hope.

Continue reading… “XPRIZE Founder Peter Diamandis: ‘We’re Living at a Time When Individual Entrepreneurs Are More Powerful Than Governments’”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Entertainment, Games

Fox to kick off the human-robot war with a new AI-based game show

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As children, most of us humans are taught not to be a “sore loser” by throwing some kind of tantrum when we lose a competition. The idea of gracefully accepting defeat forms the basis of friendship, democracy, and game shows, but Fox is risking the sanctity of all of that by developing a new show in which humans must compete against malevolent entities that know nothing about the danger of being a sore loser. We are talking, of course, about evil robots—or at least neutral robots that have the potential to become evil.

Continue reading… “Fox to kick off the human-robot war with a new AI-based game show”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligence, Machine Learning

Paul Allen wants to teach machines common sense

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“To make real progress in A.I., we have to overcome the big challenges in the area of common sense,” said Paul Allen, who founded Microsoft in the 1970s with Bill Gates.

Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen said Wednesday that he was pumping an additional $125 million into his nonprofit computer research lab for an ambitious new effort to teach machines “common sense.”

Continue reading… “Paul Allen wants to teach machines common sense”

Agriculture, Big Problems, Farming, Food

Fake processed food is becoming an epidemic in African urban life

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In late February, 14-year-olds Nahima and Yayaya, died after eating tainted biscuits at a classmate’s birthday celebration in their school, located just outside Nigeria’s capital Abuja. Several other children in their class were hospitalized. Panic and threats from angry parents forced a temporary school closure, but to date, there have been no efforts to investigate the root causes nor track or shut down the responsible company.

Continue reading… “Fake processed food is becoming an epidemic in African urban life”

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