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Dario Izzo

Extreme weather events study - 2 views

www.thegwpf.org/...Khandekar-Extreme-Weather.pdf

climate

shared by Dario Izzo on 27 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 27 Nov 13
     
    Is this correct? The conclusions indicate that contrary to what felt extreme weather events are not increasing?? Where is the trick?
  • Paul N on 28 Nov 13
  • LeopoldS on 03 Dec 13
     
    don't get fooled, this is the same strategy employed successfully by the tabac industry: installing doubt - all under the cover of science of course and using its methods; remember all these publications showing the overall beneficial effects of smoking, the "un-clear" link to lung cancer etc ... same here
johannessimon81

Evolutionary strategy: song birds search food in morning, go eat it in afternoon - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/24458583

BIO

shared by johannessimon81 on 11 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • johannessimon81 on 11 Oct 13
     
    Song birds don't eat in the morning because the added weight makes them slow and easy prey for other birds. They look for good food places during the early day and come back to eat as late as possible. Correlation of this behavior with the number of predators has been found as well...
Christophe Praz

Small cube robots that self-assemble - 3 views

www.youtube.com/watch

robot self-assembling technology AI

shared by Christophe Praz on 14 May 14 - No Cached
  • Christophe Praz on 14 May 14
     
    Using the angular momentum transmitted by an internal flywheel as an impulse, these cubes can move, jump, roll across the ground and climb over and around one another. They stick together using a set of small magnets, smart !
  • Thijs Versloot on 19 May 14
     
    That is indeed a great way of using modular robots to build larger structures. I think we did bump into this some time back, but never really considered it much. Considering now the working group on structure assembling, I think we should add it to the list of building strategies and seriously consider it.
Alexander Wittig

SpaceX founder files with government to provide Internet service from space - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...5-a0dc-2b6f404ff5cf_story.html

technology space

shared by Alexander Wittig on 11 Jun 15 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Alexander Wittig on 11 Jun 15
     
    Elon Musk is moving forward with space based internet service...
  • ...3 more comments...
  • Alexander Wittig on 11 Jun 15
  • LeopoldS on 11 Jun 15
     
    reading the qz article, it is not clear to me that google dropped out as one of the main investors in SpaceX? did I miss something?
  • jcunha on 12 Jun 15
     
    I attended a presentation by H. Hemmati, formerly at NASA's JPL, now at Facebook working to "connect the unconnected" during a panel session of the Workshop "Shining light on future space optical communications". I gather that they are targeting a combined strategy of HAP (with solar powered planes at 20-25 km), balloons and satellites. The rationale behind is that each solution is best suited for different population density zones, i.e. satellites while expensive (total cost of 100MUSD after Hemmati) are the only way to provide internet in remote zones, while balloons seem to be one inexpensive solution for densely populated areas. Funfact: he mentioned that the main drawback will be some crashes of HAP elements...
  • jcunha on 31 Jul 15
     
    Facebook announced they are ready to test of of their High Altitude Platform element, a drone of the size of a Boeing 737. See the new here http://phys.org/news/2015-07-facebook-ready-giant-drone-internet.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ctgr-item&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter. It seemed interesting for me that they are developing also a reliable optical communication between this element and scattered ground stations.
  • Thijs Versloot on 31 Jul 15
     
    Nice link, that thing is huge and I would love to see a drone that size fly. Also, Facebook's Aerospace Team? :)
pacome delva

You Are Now Free to Move About the Insect - ScienceNOW - 1 views

news.sciencemag.org/...-now-free-to-move-about-t.html

bio flies optic_flow

shared by pacome delva on 24 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Researchers thought that flies chose their altitude based on optic flow, a phenomenon familiar to anyone who has ridden an airplane.
  • The team's observations, published online today in Current Biology, suggest that flies base their cruising altitude on horizontal edges and landmarks—such as table surfaces or tree tops—and not on how fast the ground is moving beneath them. The edge-tracking strategy may enable flies to keep tabs on possible landing spots.
  • This may be the general principle" for all flying insects, he says.
Tobias Seidl

Looting, Cannibalism and Death Blows: The 'Shock and Awe' of Ant Warfare | Danger Room ... - 2 views

www.wired.com/...gallery-ant-warfare

BIO AI organisation

shared by Tobias Seidl on 05 Aug 10 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Tobias Seidl on 05 Aug 10
     
    Just some ant suff again.
  • LeopoldS on 07 Aug 10
     
    what strategies!!!
pacome delva

Fruit Fly Aerial Maneuver Explained - 1 views

focus.aps.org/st13

bio biomimicry fruit_fly

shared by pacome delva on 12 Apr 10 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Insects can execute flying feats more impressive than fighter jets, and a team of researchers has now learned the trick behind one of them. They used high speed video cameras and a new 3D reconstruction technique to show how fruit flies execute their acrobatic turns. As they report in the 9 April Physical Review Letters, despite the complex wing motions, a fly can execute quick pirouettes by adjusting just a single parameter that controls the difference between the way its left and right wings oscillate. The results may be relevant for engineers designing flight control strategies for tiny robotic insects for search-and-rescue and surveillance.
Nicholas Lan

how-the-atom-bomb-gave-birth-to-the-internet - 1 views

arstechnica.com/...gave-birth-to-the-internet.ars

fun

shared by Nicholas Lan on 25 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Nicholas Lan on 25 Feb 11
     
    nice book extract on the influence of cold war strategy on the development of the internet, RAND corporation etc.
Luís F. Simões

Shell energy scenarios to 2050 - 6 views

www.shell.com/...shell_energy_scenarios_2050

energy future forecast politics economy climate_change

shared by Luís F. Simões on 09 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Luís F. Simões on 09 Mar 11
     
    just in case you were feeling happy and optimistic
  • ...7 more comments...
  • Francesco Biscani on 09 Mar 11
     
    An energy scenario published by an oil company? Allow me to be sceptical...
  • Joris _ on 10 Mar 11
     
    Indeed, Shell is an energy company, not just oil, for some time now ... The two scenarii are, in their approach, dependant of economic and political situation, which is right now impossible to forecast. Reference to Kyoto is surprising, almost out-dated! But overall, I find it rather optimistic at some stages, and probably the timeline (p37-39) is unlikely with recent events.
  • Luís F. Simões on 10 Mar 11
     
    the report was published in 2008, which explains the reference to Kyoto, as the follow-up to it was much more uncertain at that point. The Blueprint scenario is indeed optimistic, but also quite unlikely I'd say. I don't see humanity suddenly becoming so wise and coordinated. Sadly, I see something closer to the Scramble scenario as much more likely to occur.
  • LeopoldS on 12 Mar 11
     
    not an oil company??? please have a look at the percentage of their revenues coming from oil and gas and then compare this with all their other energy activities together and you will see very quickly that it is only window dressing ... they are an oil and gas company ... and nothing more
  • Joris _ on 14 Mar 11
     
    not JUST oil. From a description: "Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies." Of course revenues coming from oil are the biggest, the investment turnover on other energy sources is small for now. Knowing that most of their revenues is from an expendable source, to guarantee their future, they invest elsewhere. They have invested >1b$ in renewable energy, including biofuels. They had the largest wind power business among so-called "oil" companies. Oil only defines what they do "best". As a comparison, some time ago, Apple were selling only computers and now they sell phones. But I would not say Apple is just a phone company.
  • LeopoldS on 14 Mar 11
     
    window dressing only ... e.g. Net cash from operating activities (pre-tax) in 2008: 70 Billion$ net income in 2008: 26 Billion revenues in 2008: 88 Billion Their investments and revenues in renewables don't even show up in their annual financial reports since probably they are under the heading of "marketing" which is already 1.7 Billion $ ... this is what they report on their investments: Capital investment, portfolio actions and business development Capital investment in 2009 was $24 billion. This represents a 26% decrease from 2008, which included over $8 billion in acquisitions, primarily relating to Duvernay Oil Corp. Capital investment included exploration expenditure of $4.5 billion (2008: $11.0 billion). In Abu Dhabi, Shell signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to extend the GASCO joint venture for a further 20 years. In Australia, Shell and its partners took the final investment decision (FID) for the Gorgon LNG project (Shell share 25%). Gorgon will supply global gas markets to at least 2050, with a capacity of 15 million tonnes (100% basis) of LNG per year and a major carbon capture and storage scheme. Shell has announced a front-end engineering and design study for a floating LNG (FLNG) project, with the potential to deploy these facilities at the Prelude offshore gas discovery in Australia (Shell share 100%). In Australia, Shell confirmed that it has accepted Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s entitlement offer of new shares at a total cost of $0.8 billion, maintaining its 34.27% share in the company; $0.4 billion was paid in 2009 with the remainder paid in 2010. In Bolivia and Brazil, Shell sold its share in a gas pipeline and in a thermoelectric power plant and its related assets for a total of around $100 million. In Canada, the Government of Alberta and the national government jointly announced their intent to contribute $0.8 billion of funding towards the Quest carbon capture and sequestration project. Quest, which is at the f
  • Joris _ on 14 Mar 11
     
    thanks for the info :) They still have their 50% share in the wind farm in Noordzee (you can see it from ESTEC on a clear day). Look for Shell International Renewables, other subsidiaries and joint-ventures. I guess, the report is about the oil branch. http://sustainabilityreport.shell.com/2009/servicepages/downloads/files/all_shell_sr09.pdf http://www.noordzeewind.nl/
  • LeopoldS on 16 Mar 11
     
    no - its about Shell globally - all Shell .. these participations are just peanuts please read the intro of the CEO in the pdf you linked to: he does not even mention renewables! their entire sustainability strategy is about oil and gas - just making it (look) nicer and environmentally friendlier
  • Joris _ on 16 Mar 11
     
    Fair enough, for me even peanuts are worthy and I am not able to judge. Not all big-profit companies, like Shell, are evil :( Look in the pdf what is in the upstream and downstream you mentionned above. Non-shell sources for examples and more objectivity: http://www.nuon.com/company/Innovative-projects/noordzeewind.jsp http://www.e-energymarket.com/news/single-news/article/ferrari-tops-bahrain-gp-using-shell-biofuel.html thanks.
pandomilla

Bioinspired self-repairing slippery surfaces with pressure-stable omniphobicity : Natur... - 3 views

www.nature.com/...nature10447.html

biomimetics plant self-repairing

shared by pandomilla on 22 Sep 11 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • a strategy to create self-healing, slippery liquid-infused porous surface(s) (SLIPS) with exceptional liquid- and ice-repellency, pressure stability and enhanced optical transparency. Our approach—inspired by Nepenthes pitcher plants13—is conceptually different from the lotus effect, because we use nano/microstructured substrates to lock in place the infused lubricating fluid. We define the requirements for which the lubricant forms a stable, defect-free and inert ‘slippery’ interface.
  • ts capability to repel various simple and complex liquids (water, hydrocarbons, crude oil and blood),
  • pandomilla on 22 Sep 11
     
    ...This slippery surface was bio-inspired by the carnivorous plant I showed you sometimes ago! I was sure it was a good idea! next time I will be quicker!!
  • ...1 more comment...
  • LeopoldS on 22 Sep 11
     
    Shit. I am sure that there is more to do on this. Let's have a closer look.
  • LeopoldS on 22 Sep 11
     
    And a good lesson that it is important to proceed quickly when you have an idea and don't wait ...
  • pandomilla on 23 Sep 11
     
    Yes, I will see what we could do, but they really did a good job, from the biomimetic of the surface, up to the realization of the material, and the tests...
LeopoldS

SPACE.com -- Presidential Panel Narrows Options for NASA's Future - 0 views

www.space.com/...human-spaceflight-options.html

space policy strategy NASA US

shared by LeopoldS on 07 Aug 09 - Cached
  • LeopoldS on 07 Aug 09
     
    a lot in this reads like our Aurora plan about seven years ago ...
ESA ACT

Everything you always wanted to know about Google... - 0 views

www.techcrunch.com/...ys-wanted-to-know-about-google

internet economics google strategy business research

shared by ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09 - Cached
  • ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09
     
    Actually quite interesting and in-depth
ESA ACT

The Sociocratic Method - 0 views

www.strategy-business.com/...06314

management Organisation decision

shared by ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09 - Cached
  • ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09
     
    A method on how to run businesses based on consent (not consensus).
Francesco Biscani

Tom Sawyer, whitewashing fences, and building communities online - 3 views

darkmattermatters.com/...nd-building-communities-online

open innovation open source

shared by Francesco Biscani on 11 Nov 09 - Cached
Ma Ru liked it
  • If you are looking to ideas like open source or social media as simple means to get what you want for your company, it’s time to rethink your community strategy.
  • I’ve talked to people at companies who are considering “open sourcing” their product because they think there is an army of people out there who will jump at the chance to build their products for them. Many of these people go on to learn tough but valuable lessons in building community. It’s not that simple.
  • Francesco Biscani on 11 Nov 09
     
    Illuminating article about corporations trying to exploit "open source" and not getting what they want.
  • LeopoldS on 12 Nov 09
     
    I like the red had definition: "To be the catalyst in communities of customers, contributors, and partners creating better technology the open source way."
  • Juxi Leitner on 12 Nov 09
     
    yeah, it is the same with crowdsourcing in general, when some company "managers" see how much cheaper they could do it but don't understand where it comes from...
Dario Izzo

Elon Musk describes AI as 'summoning the devil' - 4 views

www.itpro.co.uk/...ibes-ai-as-summoning-the-devil

AI

shared by Dario Izzo on 31 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 31 Oct 14
     
    A good idea for a card in one of our ACT magic decks!!! In his words AI is "our biggest existential threat" - lol
  • ...5 more comments...
  • Dario Izzo on 31 Oct 14
     
    Discussing with myself :) .... He must have forgotten climate change .... or maybe not?
  • anonymous on 03 Nov 14
     
    Well, I have to quote one of the 21st century classics on this one: "I'm sorry mr Musk I can't hear you because of all the Latin chanting. In the meanwhile can you hand me another goat to drain? I'm quite behind on my blood pentagram drawing" - Paul N., AD 2014.
  • Paul N on 15 Nov 14
     
    Mr. Musk declined to comment :P
  • LeopoldS on 21 Nov 14
     
    given that they apparently can't decide between two moral options (probably such as humans), should we be more concerned about their stupidity or their intelligence http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.2842
  • Paul N on 22 Nov 14
     
    I personally don't even trust people to make "moral" choices in conditions of warfare. History is way too full of examples.
  • LeopoldS on 23 Nov 14
     
    the "even" in your comment is the key word
  • Luís F. Simões on 28 Nov 14
     
    Edge.org recently had an interesting piece that ties into all of this recent AI fear mongering: http://edge.org/conversation/the-myth-of-ai
aborgg

Nuclear cycler: An incremental approach to the deflection of asteroids - 1 views

www.sciencedirect.com/...S0273117715008339

asteroid deflection nuclear explosions natural formation orbits technology space

shared by aborgg on 21 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • aborgg on 21 Jan 16
     
    This paper introduces a novel deflection approach based on nuclear explosions: the nuclear cycler. The idea is to combine the effectiveness of nuclear explosions with the controllability and redundancy offered by slow push methods within an incremental deflection strategy. The paper will present an extended model for single nuclear stand-off explosions in the proximity of elongated ellipsoidal asteroids, and a family of natural formation orbits that allows the spacecraft to deploy multiple bombs while being shielded by the asteroid during the detonation.
Dario Izzo

Critique of 'Debunking the climate hiatus', by Rajaratnam, Romano, Tsiang, and Diffenba... - 8 views

radfordneal.wordpress.com/...-romano-tsiang-and-diffenbaugh

critique climate

shared by Dario Izzo on 13 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 13 Jan 16
     
    Hilarious critique to a quite important paper from Stanford trying to push the agenda of global warming .... "You might therefore be surprised that, as I will discuss below, this paper is completely wrong. Nothing in it is correct. It fails in every imaginable respect."
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Paul N on 15 Jan 16
     
    To quote Francisco "If at first you don't succeed, use another statistical test" A wiser man shall never walk the earth
  • LeopoldS on 15 Jan 16
     
    why is this just put on a blog and not published properly?
  • Paul N on 20 Jan 16
     
    If you read the comments it's because the guy doesn't want to put in the effort. Also because I suspect the politics behind climate science favor only a particular kind of result.
  • LeopoldS on 21 Jan 16
  • LeopoldS on 21 Jan 16
  • Athanasia Nikolaou on 28 Jan 16
     
    just a footnote here, that climate warming aspect is not derived by an agenda of presenting the world with evil. If one looks at big journals with high outreach, it is not uncommon to find articles promoting climate warming as something not bringing the doom that extremists are promoting with marketing strategies. Here is a recent article in Science: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26612836 Science's role is to look at the phenomenon and notice what is observed. And here is one saying that the acidification of the ocean due to increase of CO2 (observed phenomenon) is not advancing destructively for coccolithophores (a key type of plankton that builds its shell out of carbonates), as we were expecting, but rather fertilises them! Good news in principle! It could be as well argued from the more sceptics with high "doubting-inertia" that 'It could be because CO2 is not rising in the first place'', but one must not forget that one can doubt the global increase in T with statistical analyses, because it is a complex variable, but at least not the CO2 increase compared to preindustrial levels. in either case : case 1: agenda for 'the world is warming' => - Put random big energy company here- sells renewable energies case 2: agenda for 'the world is fine' => - Put random big energy company here - sells oil as usual The fact that in both cases someone is going to win profits, does not correllate (still not an adequate statistical test found for it?) with the fact that the science needs to be more and more scrutinised. The blog of the Statistics Professor in Univ.Toronto looks interesting approach (I have not understood all the details) and the paper above is from JPL authors, among others.
Guido de Croon

New theory allows drones to see distances with one eye - 2 views

www.tudelft.nl/...nes-afstanden-zien-met-een-oog

AI science BIO

shared by Guido de Croon on 07 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Guido de Croon on 07 Jan 16
     
    Inspired by the work that was done at the ACT, I continued working on optical flow landing at TU Delft. Today Bio & Bio published my article on a new theory that allows drones to see distances with a single camera. It shows that drones approaching an object with an insect-inspired vision strategy become unstable at a specific distance from the object. Turning this weakness into a strength, drones can actually use the timely detection of that instability to estimate distance. The new theory will enable further miniaturization of autonomous drones and provides a new hypothesis on flying insect behavior. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm7SMJp8EA4&feature=youtu.be Article: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/11/1/016004
Alexander Wittig

Astronomical engineering: a strategy for modifying planetary orbits - 2 views

arxiv.org/0102126

shared by Alexander Wittig on 25 Apr 17 - No Cached
  • Alexander Wittig on 25 Apr 17
     
    The Sun's gradual brightening will seriously compromise the Earth's biosphere within ~ 1E9 years. If Earth's orbit migrates outward, however, the biosphere could remain intact over the entire main-sequence lifetime of the Sun. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of engineering such a migration over a long time period. (via Nina)
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