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Apr 19, 2016

JROC Speeds Up & Opens Up: Reforming The Dark Heart of Acquisition

Posted by in categories: military, security

Nice and long overdue; however, finally happening and that’s good as long as security and safety are not compromised.


PENTAGON: One of the most important — and most maligned — elements of the Pentagon bureaucracy has gotten 30 percent faster, according to data exclusively compiled for Breaking Defense by the staff of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council. In a new drive for openness, the infamously opaque JROC is also bringing in outside expertise from industry, military laboratories and the Defense Department’s in-house disruptive innovators at DARPA.

Reforming the Joint Requirements Oversight Council is a big deal. The military’s weapons-buying bureaucracy is a maze, and at the dark heart of the labyrinth lurks the JROC, which must approve the official wish list — the requirements — for almost any major program. Led by the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Paul Selva, and comprising the No. 2 officers of each service, supported by lesser boards and lower-ranking working groups, the JROC has a reputation for delaying, watering down, or killing the armed services’ proposals. Many believe it’s where good ideas go to die — slowly.

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Apr 19, 2016

Cosmic Ray Tech May Unlock Pyramids’ Secrets

Posted by in category: engineering

A new generation of muon telescopes has been built to detect the presence of secret structures and cavities in Egypt’s pyramids, a team of researchers announced on Friday.

Built by CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) the devices add to an armory of innovative, non-destructive technologies employed to investigate four pyramids which are more than 4,500 years old. They include the Great Pyramid, Khafre or Chephren at Giza, the Bent pyramid and the Red pyramid at Dahshur.

The project, called ScanPyramids, is scheduled to last one year and is being carried out by a team from Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering and the Paris-based non-profit organization Heritage, Innovation and Preservation (HIP Institute) under the authority of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.

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Apr 19, 2016

A Sci-Fi Short Film HD: “EXIT PLAN” — Directed by Richard Oakes

Posted by in categories: entertainment, media & arts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TLWQWhVhY4&index=7&…34A498DFE2

Enjoy this independent futuristic Sci-Fi short film project by Director Richard Oakes of Dark Fable Media. After the golden age of man and machine, humanity is split into two classes, The ultra rich industry and the surplus. However, neither side can control the bleak fate of the earth.

Shot over 4 days on a production budget of £1800.

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Apr 19, 2016

A Silicon Valley entrepreneur says basic income would work even if 90% of people smoked weed instead of working

Posted by in category: economics

Even in the worst-case scenario, everything would be fine.

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Apr 19, 2016

Augmented-reality contact lenses to be human-ready at CES

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, wearables

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DF7OvoHzL8I

While Google works to bring a polished Glass device to market, wearables startup Innovega is taking head-mounted displays a step further: contact lenses that interact with full HD glasses.

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Apr 19, 2016

Interesting Futurism Animation 28

Posted by in categories: futurism, materials

New stretchable material could lead to artificial muscles.

Research Paper: http://bit.ly/1StvU6b

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Apr 19, 2016

The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution

Posted by in categories: evolution, neuroscience

Interesting thoughts.


Book by Alex M. Vikoulov, Overview #SyntellectHypothesis

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Apr 19, 2016

Student Innovation Project Fair (SIP Fair)

Posted by in categories: education, innovation

The Student Innovation Project, or SIP, gives students a chance to develop an innovative idea and put their creativity to work.

As soon as their sophomore year, students are asked to begin brainstorming for their SIP, and also have two classes that help students prepare for their project. Students take PRO211, taught by Professor Vita-Moore, and PRO 483, taught by Professor Belanger.

During senior year, students use most of the time to work on the SIP, constructing a working model that will later be judged at the SIP Fair by UAT Faculty and local industry leaders for feedback.

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Apr 19, 2016

Magic Leap’s Latest Demo is Like Tripping Balls

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, futurism

VERY nifty!


Wired just published a giant feature on Magic Leap, the lavishly-funded, and very secretive mixed reality startup that we know almost nothing about. Professional thoughtfluencer Kevin Kelly got impressive access to the startup and reveals some new details about what the hell they’re doing. There’s a headset! And it is capable of what you see in the video above, which is like tripping, if LSD made you hallucinate your calendar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmdXJy_IdNw

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Apr 19, 2016

Robots That Act Differently When You’re Around

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, robotics/AI

More broadly, there’s a paradox in all this, that reflects the overarching direction of contemporary robotics. As machines become more and more general-purpose, they’re also going to become much better at tailoring their behavior to different kinds of people—and even eventually to different individuals. Already, SoftBank’s Pepper robot, a humanoid designed to interactive with people, is billed as the first machine able to read human emotions. For people to accept robots as they increasingly work their way into various areas of our lives, robots will have to develop fairly sophisticated understanding of individual human needs.

“If an assistive robot tries to help you, how much help you want really depends on your personality and the situation,” Dragan says. That’s also why robots are in some cases changing form—some of the machines designed to care for humans, for example, will have soft, cuddly bodies rather than just hard metal exoskeletons.

“We’re going to have more and more capable robots,” Dragan told me. Which means when machines interact with people, we’ll be able to customize them depending on who’s around; or if humans are around at all.

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