Archive for the 'Technology' Category
U.S. Intelligence Exploring Polymers for Future of Data Storage
June 12th, 2018Via: Nextgov: The U.S. intelligence community wants to unlock more efficient ways to store the trove of data humans generate every day, and it believes our DNA holds the key. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity last month issued a broad agency announcement seeking research teams for the agency’s Molecular Information Storage program, which aims […]
Solar Has Overtaken Gas and Wind as Biggest Source of New U.S. Power
June 12th, 2018Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Bloomberg: Despite tariffs that President Trump imposed on imported panels, the U.S. installed more solar energy than any other source of electricity in the first quarter. Developers installed 2.5 gigawatts of solar in the first quarter, up 13 percent from a year earlier, according […]
Two Quantum Computing Bills Are Coming to Congress
June 12th, 2018Disclosure: I am long Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL). — Via: Gizmodo: Quantum computing has made it to the United States Congress. If this field of quantum information is the new space race, the US doesn’t want to fall behind. After all, China has funded a National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences, set to open in […]
Sweden Tries to Halt Its March to Total Cashlessness
June 12th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: A key committee of Swedish lawmakers wants to force the country’s biggest banks to handle cash in an effort to halt the nation’s march toward complete cashlessness. … The move is a response to Sweden’s rapid transformation as it becomes one of the most cashless societies in the world. That’s led to concerns […]
Police Dogs Trained to Find Hidden Electronic Storage Devices
June 12th, 2018Via: cnet: Only one out of every 50 dogs tested qualifies to become an electronic storage detection, or ESD, dog, says Kerry Halligan, a K-9 instructor with the Connecticut State Police. That’s because it’s a lot harder to detect the telltale chemical in electronics than it is to sniff out narcotics, bombs, fire accelerants or […]
Homeland Security’s Massive New Database Will Include Face Recognition, DNA, and Peoples’ “Non-Obvious Relationships”
June 10th, 2018Via: EFF: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly building what will likely become the largest database of biometric and biographic data on citizens and foreigners in the United States. The agency’s new Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) database will include multiple forms of biometrics—from face recognition to DNA, data from questionable sources, […]
“Those People Who Dug the Big Hole Under Switzerland Looking for the Higgs Boson Particle” Bought New Zealand Dairy Farm
June 9th, 2018Everyone knows about the billionaires buying up rural land in New Zealand. They’re not the only ones. CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research) is getting in on the act too. Obviously, I expect to receive many nothing-to-see-here emails, but CERN is very strange. Also, I wish Bruce Cathie was still alive. Via: Stuff: The […]
Inside Tesla’s Model 3 Factory
June 9th, 2018There are some interesting photos of the Model 3 assembly line in this piece. Via: Bloomberg: On the Model 3 body line on a Tuesday afternoon in early June, everything is still. Tesla Inc. is just coming off a week of downtime during which workers added a new production line, improved ventilation after a fire […]
Netherlands: 3D Printed Houses
June 9th, 2018Five. It would be much more interesting if the number was 5,000 or 50,000. Well, it’s early days. This reminds me… I recently read an interesting sci-fi/cyberpunk/dystopia novel called Voidstar by Zachary Mason. In the near future, the sprawling favelas that exist between San Francisco and Los Angeles have been 3D printed by autonomous machines. […]
A Mall in China Put in a Traffic Lane Just for People Staring at Their Phones
June 9th, 2018Reader DF sent in this video a few days ago. Via: FastCompany: According to the New York Times, the new lane of traffic was intended to address the needs of the so-called “heads down tribe,” people who find the world around them so dull that they can’t bear to look up from their phones, even […]
