Menu

Blog

Page 10963

Aug 9, 2016

China’s tech giants spread their wings abroad but keep share safe at home

Posted by in categories: computing, space

Gone are the days for US Tech on quick and easy money — China is making the US Tech face the realities of being relevant or being replaced. My suggestion for folks like Apple, Microsoft, FB take a chapter from Alphabet’s playbook and focus on those technologies that truly revolutionize the technology landscape, multiple industries, etc. Stop throwing money at gadgets and easy replicated apps and services. Let China own it because eventually they will. Focus on things like biocomputing, QC, space, etc. Because anything copied multiple times and quickly means it is easily replaced by the next cheaper and better gadget.


The recent Uber acquisition drama in China has given a new twist to the country’s technology sector.

Domestic tech companies are straining at the leash to go global while also defending their home markets from foreign competitors.

Continue reading “China’s tech giants spread their wings abroad but keep share safe at home” »

Aug 9, 2016

The First Footage From Arrival is Here, and It Looks Incredible

Posted by in category: entertainment

Finally a trailer for this!

And it looks like it’s been worth the wait!

Continue reading “The First Footage From Arrival is Here, and It Looks Incredible” »

Aug 9, 2016

Strange structures orbiting distant star could still be proof of aliens

Posted by in category: space

And honestly, even if this isn’t an Alien Structure of some kind, it won’t be long before we DO spot some form of alien mega-structure somewhere in this galaxy of ours. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that we ALREADY have, but mistook it for a natural structure of some kind.


The leading natural explanation for the ‘alien megastructure’ star has been discredited, leaving ET as a viable possibility.

Read more

Aug 9, 2016

Bebionic Photo

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, transhumanism

Did you know…individual motors in each finger are positioned to optimise weight distribution – making the hand feel lighter and more comfortable.

Read more

Aug 9, 2016

China’s Hybrid Spaceplane Could Reset The 21st Century Space Race

Posted by in category: space travel

It takes off from a runway, flies at hypersonic speeds, then rockets into orbit.

Read more

Aug 9, 2016

Prospector-1™

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

1™, the world’s first commercial interplanetary mining mission, will fly to and rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid to determine its value as a source of space resources. The destination asteroid will be chosen from a group of top candidates selected by the world renowned team of asteroid experts at Deep Space Industries.

Once the spacecraft arrives at the asteroid, the autonomous spacecraft will map the surface and subsurface, taking visual and infrared imagery and mapping overall water content. With the initial science campaign complete, Prospector-1 will use its water thrusters to gently touch down on the asteroid, measuring the target’s geophysical characteristics.

Prospector-1 is a small spacecraft that strikes the ideal balance between cost and performance. In addition to radiation-tolerant payloads and avionics, all DSI spacecraft notably use the Comet line of water propulsion systems, which expel superheated water vapor to generate thrust. Water will be the first asteroid mining product, so using water as propellant will provide future DSI spacecraft with the ability to refuel in space.

Read more

Aug 9, 2016

VR VCs examine the gap between expectations and reality — By Dean Takahashi | VentureBeat

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, finance, virtual reality

vr-panel-2-784x600

“Waves of virtual reality and augmented reality startups have their funding. Venture capitalists invested $1.7 billion in the AR/VR sector in the 12 months ended March 2016, and $1.2 billion of that was invested in the first quarter of this year alone, according to Digi-Capital.”

Read more

Aug 9, 2016

When Every Company Is a Tech Company, Does the Label Matter? — By Jeff Sommer | The New York Times

Posted by in category: finance

07STRA-blog427

“These days every company is a tech company, but some have better niches, faster growth, more attractive offerings or more favorable share prices than others.”

Read more

Aug 9, 2016

Crowdfunding a Universal Cancer Treatment: Only a Few Days Left in the Fundraiser

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, life extension

With only 9 days left on the SENS cancer fundraiser here is an article from Fightaging! that explains why finding novel solutions to treating cancer is critical in the roadmap to longer healthier lives.


This year’s SENS rejuvenation research crowdfunding event puts the spotlight on the SENS Research Foundation’s cancer program. So far more than 300 people have donated, and more than $26,000 has been raised; with ten days left to go, it won’t take that much more of an effort to reach the same number of donors and the same level of support given to last year’s fundraiser, and which led to the success in that research program. As for all of the SENS research initiatives in the science of aging, the SENS Research Foundation’s work on cancer aims to support a big, bold goal in medicine: to build a single type of therapy that can be used to effectively treat all forms of cancer. When achieved, that will greatly increase the pace of progress towards control of cancer, the goal of finally ending cancer as a threat to health. At present the cancer research community spends much of its time and funding on approaches that are highly specific to only one or only a few of the hundred of subtypes of cancer. That is no way to win any time soon, as even with the vast funding devoted to cancer research, there are just too many forms of cancer and too few researchers. What is needed is to change the strategy, to focus on approaches to the treatment of cancer that are no more expensive to develop, but that far more patients can benefit from.

The most promising approach to a universal cancer therapy is to block telomere lengthening in cancerous tissues. Telomeres are a part of the mechanism that limits cell division in all human cells other than stem cells, repeating DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes that shorten every time a cell divides. In order to achieve unfettered growth all cancers must bypass this limit by continually lengthening their telomeres, a goal that is achieved through mutations that allow cancer cells to use telomerase or the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) processes. If both telomerase and ALT can be blocked in cancer tissue, then the cancer will wither; this is such a fundamental piece of cellular machinery that there is no expectation that cancer cells could find a way around it. Block only one of these two methods of telomere lengthening, however, and the cancer will probably switch to use the other. This has been observed in mice.

Continue reading “Crowdfunding a Universal Cancer Treatment: Only a Few Days Left in the Fundraiser” »

Aug 9, 2016

Can the Bioweapons Convention Survive Crispr?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, security

Crispr is a biotechnology that’s making genetic editing easier, cheaper, and far more accessible, but it has also been called a major security threat. Do such advances in biotechnology make the bioweapons convention obsolete?

Read more