CIS Focal Issue

In around two months, the team behind the solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 will attempt the first ever around-the-world flight powered only by sunlight.

After taking off in Abu Dhabi, the Solar Impulse 2 will make stops in Oman, India, Myanmar, China, the US, and Southern Europe or North Africa before landing back in Abu Dhabi sometime in August.

The Solar Impulse 2's across-the-world flight should clock 500 hours total flight time and around 21,748 miles

The City Council's Housing and Buildings Committee heard testimony Tuesday from residents, housing advocates, city officials and companies about the effects of the growing industry on the city.

In November 2014, about 15,300 New York City listings were entire homes or apartments representing about 59% of the available listings on the site that month, according to Slee. There were also 9,704 listings for private rooms, and 753 listings for shared rooms. The analysis also showed that 2,764 users were renting out two or more units, which opponents have cited as evidence the service is helping illegal hotels. More than 200 users were renting out five units or more

Airbnb is calling for "smart regulation," which it has had success with in cities including Portland, Oregon; San Jose and San Francisco, California; Amsterdam; and Paris. Airbnb collects lodging tax directly from hosts in those cities, and several local governments have passed laws that allow short-term rentals in some form.

Microsoft unveiled a new hologram platform today as part of its new operating system

The holographic software is built into Windows 10 already, the company said. Though Microsoft is working on its own hardware, the platform will also work for other virtual reality software like Oculus Rift and Google Glass

Microsoft executive built a virtual flying drone, which the company then showed could be 3D printed. Alex Kipman, who helped lead the project, called it “print preview for 3D printing”.

Nickelodeon UK’s launch of a website called Code-It that aims to teach programming skills to 6-12 year-olds.

While they will earn badges for their progress through the site’s set lessons, children will also be able to write their own programs animating the characters, and share them with their peers.

In May 2014, producer Aardman Animations launched Shaun’s Game Academy - a website challenging children to create and share their own games

Дело в гуманизации безопасности. И в воплощении в политике идеи, что мир состоит прежде всего из людей, а не из государств.

Российское государство ни в какой из своих инкарнаций не было чемпионом защиты индивидуальной безопасности и формирования среды.

Мы уже недалеки от признания, что индивидуальная и национальная безопасность исключают друг друга.

федеральной целевой программе «Укрепление единства российской нации».

В мае первые 23 организации такого типа получили первые 1,1 млрд руб.

в 2015 г. в рамках ФЦП еще 958 млн руб. будут выделены на создание духовно-просветительских центров. Весь бюджет ФЦП на 2015 г. составляет 1,4 млрд руб.

The new Russia doesn’t just deal in the petty disinformation, forgeries, lies, leaks, and cyber-sabotage usually associated with information warfare. It reinvents reality, creating mass hallucinations that then translate into political action.

there is one great difference between Soviet propaganda and the latest Russian variety. For the Soviets, the idea of truth was important—even when they were lying.

today’s Russia, by contrast, the idea of truth is irrelevant. On Russian ‘news’ broadcasts, the borders between fact and fiction have become utterly blurred.

Its newest toy is called Barco Escape and right now it’s essentially three theater screens in one space — the main screen and then additional screens on the left and right walls. The effect is a 270-degree image that makes viewers feel like they are in the middle of the action.

It’s the kind of premium experience that most people would expect to pay extra for but Schilowitz says part of the point of Escape is to give viewers a more theme-park like experience without charging any more for a ticket.

One of the biggest trends right now is people watching other people play video games.

The SUPER AWESOME ME experience begins when the fan visits an in-store scanning station where a 3D face scanner captures their likeness to create a 3D model.

At launch, fans can visit one of 10 Walmart or two Sam’s Club stores to create a personalized 12” action figure. The SUPER AWESOME ME figure features a traditional 12” articulated plastic action figure body and a full color 3D printed head. Recommended for fans ages 4 years and older and available for an approximate retail price of $45, the SUPER AWESOME ME figure will be available for pick up at Walmart locations or ship to Sam’s Club customers in four weeks.

Though characters like Woody and Buzz Lightyear are wonderfully realistic and lovable, the relationship that kids have with them is largely one-sided. Kids can hear these characters talk—not only through movies, but games, toys, and other movie merchandise—but they can’t engage them.

It was this idea that inspired Jacob to team up with his former Pixar colleague, Martin Reddy, and launch a new company, ToyTalk. The San Francisco-based outfit develops mobile games that let kids have conversations with animated characters—dialogues that can last for hours

Known as PullString, it’s equal parts speech recognition engine and script writing tool, and it’s quite a departure from other speech rec tools developed by the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Apple. It’s tailored specifically to kids, whose sentence structure, pitch, and vocal tone have posed challenges for traditional tools.

it will certainly transform our daily routines: imagine driving hands-free while having the luxury of reading a book, taking a nap, or guiltlessly texting on the road. At the same time, something far more interesting - and still unexplored - is the potential transformation of our cities themselves

blurring the distinction between private and public modes of transportation. "Your" car could give you a lift to work in the morning and then, rather than sitting idle in a parking lot, give a lift to someone else in your family - or, for that matter, to anyone else in your neighbourhood, social media circles, or city.

This implies a city in which everyone can travel on demand with just one-fifth of the number of cars in use today

The technology, known as UltraHaptics, is a haptic feedback system using ultrasound that provides users with a buzz-like feeling of pressure on their hand.

The technology does not just provide the sensation of flat surfaces, but can also be used to create the feel of 3D objects.

Sculptors could also use the technology to shape virtual objects using just their hands

When Virgin Galactic finally takes its first tourists to space, it'll just be a a stepping stone to what the company's ultimate mission is: Flying people from one place on Earth to another place on Earth, just like any other airline. Except in this version, you'll travel through space and be able to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in an hour.

He's discussed creating a supersonic passenger plane himself, but why settle for an incremental change when, if it works, "point-to-point suborbital space transportation" promises to be a complete paradigm shift?

Virgin's daring, sometimes insane chairman Richard Branson has long had his eyes on a supersonic commercial airline

Сегодня нижняя палата парламента приняла  в первом чтении поправки в закон «О средствах массовой информации»,

запрещается «владеть, управлять или контролировать прямо или косвенно (в том числе через подконтрольных ему лиц или посредством владения более 20 процентов долей (акций) любого лица)

ограничение с 1 января 2016 года предполагается ввести для «иностранного государства, международной организации, а также находящихся под их контролем организаций, иностранных юридических лиц, российских юридических лиц с иностранным участием, иностранных граждан, лиц без гражданства, граждан Российской Федерации, имеющих гражданство другой страны».