Animals, government, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

DARPA to use brain scans to recruit the smartest military dogs

DARPA plans to pre-select the smartest recruits using newly available brain-scanning methods.

Long before Rin Tin Tin, dogs have been been an important part of military operations—from bomb-sniffing to supply-delivery. But training military working dogs is an expensive and time-consuming process. Anyone who’s spent any time trying to get a dog to even follow the “sit” command knows that some dogs are sharper than others.

 

 

Continue reading… “DARPA to use brain scans to recruit the smartest military dogs”

Analysis, Education, Globalism, Internet, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

Eight brilliant people talk about the future of online education

Online education will have an enormous transformative impact on billions of people around the world.

The single most important technological development of the millennium is the advent of massively open online classes (MOOCs).  The first reason it is so important is the enormously transformative impact MOOCs can have on literally billions of people in the world.  And the second reason is for the equally disruptive effect MOOCs will inevitably have on the global education industry.

 

 

 

Continue reading… “Eight brilliant people talk about the future of online education”

Analysis, Art, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

Trust the Process

The process of creating art can take less than an hour or go well into extra innings, extending across years as the artist returns to a work that isn’t complete. Da Vinci’s beguiling Mona Lisa was a work in progress when he died.

Raymond Alvarez: Professionals and students alike may wonder what interest an artist/writer has in learning Ruby on Rails. My quick answer is it can’t hurt. The real answer is coming to me.

 

 

Continue reading… “Trust the Process”

Science & Technology News

China tests smart-grid technology

The State Grid Corporation of China is running the smart-grid project using passive optical networking technology.

Smart-grid technology testing has begun in China hat could eventually be deployed nationwide to make the delivery of electricity more reliable and efficient. It might also serve as a way to deliver high-speed Internet, TV, and telephony to the farthest reaches of the country.

 

 

 

Continue reading… “China tests smart-grid technology”

Analysis, facebook, Latest Trend

NFL fandom based on Facebook likes

Facebook took a look at football fandom across the country as the Super Bowl gets closer.

The National Football League is one of the most popular sports in America with some incredibly devoted fans. At Facebook we have about 35 million account holders in the United States who have Liked a page for one of the 32 teams in the league, representing one of the most comprehensive samples of sports fanship ever collected. Put another way, more than 1 in 10 Americans have declared their support for an NFL team on Facebook.

 

 

Continue reading… “NFL fandom based on Facebook likes”

Business, Science & Technology News, Space

Las Vegas businessman bets $500 million on space hotel

Pictured with Bigelow is a BA 330 module, similar in function to what the new Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will be.

Robert Bigelow is a hotel ans aerospace entrepreneur,  He got rich off budget hotel suites that start at $189 a week. Now they are funding his dream of building inflatable space habitats with rates topping $400,000 a day.

 

 

Continue reading… “Las Vegas businessman bets $500 million on space hotel”

Analysis, Business, Culture, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Why do Americans love the iPhone but hate Android

Americans prefer the iPhone over Android.

Americans overwhelmingly prefer iPhone over Android while the rest of the world has overwhelmingly embraced Android.  According to IDC, Android has a 75% market share in smartphones, versus 15% for Apple, worldwide.  But in the U.S. the iPhone still rules.  Sixty-three percent of smartphone sales at Verizon and 84% of smartphone sales at AT&T are the iPhone.

 

 

Continue reading… “Why do Americans love the iPhone but hate Android”

Business, Latest Trend, People Making a Difference

Y Combinator – Nonprofit startups are just like their counterparts

Watsi.org co-founders.

Is there a difference between building a successful for-profit and nonprofit startup?  Not much, according to Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, there isn’t much of a difference. Y Combinator is an elite accelerator program in Mountain View, Calif., that accepted a nonprofit for the first time this month, Watsi.org. “You could never tell there was a nonprofit mixed in,” he said in a phone interview recently.

 

Continue reading… “Y Combinator – Nonprofit startups are just like their counterparts”

Business, government, Latest Trend, Twitter

U.S. is the most data hungry country according to Twitter’s Transparency Report

“These growing inquiries can have a serious chilling effect on free expression – and real privacy implications.”

The Government wants more of your data, but copyright holders are getting slightly less active in requesting tweettakedowns. The social/news/media network published its second Twitter Transparency Report today in conjunction with #DataPrivacyDay. Twitter’s goal is to be open about revealing how many government requests it gets for user information and DMCA copyright takedowns. Its first Transparency Report was published seven months ago, in July.

 

 

Continue reading… “U.S. is the most data hungry country according to Twitter’s Transparency Report”