Lifeboat Foundation

Why on Earth would you ever want to be less than completely healthy?

Recently, Reason of Fight Aging! pointed out psychological research revealing a certain conservatism in terms of what people consider to be the “ideal” levels of happiness, intelligence, longevity, and even health.

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that significant numbers of people in the studies weren’t too keen on the idea of living much longer than the average (around 90 years), and even under the assumption of eternal youth, their preference didn’t go past 120 on average; after all, LEAF wouldn’t be in business if the idea of healthy life extension wasn’t so inexplicably frowned upon. What’s really flabbergasting, though, is that even health—health!—is apparently something you can have too much of; on a scale from 0 (“completely unhealthy”) to 100 (“completely healthy”), the average preference gravitated somewhere between 80 and 90. These results provide us with an occasion for reflection.

Continue reading “Too healthy for your own good?” »

A new interview I did is out at the 2b AHEAD Future Congress event I spoke at in Germany (audio and written): https://www.future.consulting/…/full-interview-with-zoltan…/ #transhumanist

2b AHEAD: So we would like to start an interview with Zoltan Istvan, the presidential candidate for the transhumanist party and leading a figure in the transhumanist movement. Also the best-selling author of “The Transhumanist Wager.” Welcome, glad that you could make it. I hope you’ve been enjoying…

Tim Berners-Lee has seen his creation debased by everything from fake news to mass surveillance. But he’s got a plan to fix it.

The flash was about ten times brighter than a normal supernova.

Two telescopes that are part of the ATLAS project in Hawaii have discovered an unnaturally bright explosion in the sky.

The discovery, made in mid-June, was published in Astronomer’s Telegram, where the object was assigned the name AT2018cow or “The Cow” for short.

Continue reading “This mysterious space object is baffling astronomers all over the world” »

Fascinating findings: “1. Neurofeedback yields significant reductions in parent ratings of inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. 2. These reductions persist for up to 2–12 months after neurofeedback ends. 3. Although medication has a larger initial effect, symptom reductions resulting from neurofeedback and medication may be comparable over a more extended time period.”

In neurofeedback treatment for ADHD, individuals learn to alter their typical pattern of brainwave activity, i.e., EEG activity, to one that is consistent with a focused and attentive state.

This is done by collecting EEG data from individuals as they focus on stimuli presented on a computer screen. Their ability to control the stimuli, e.g., keeping the smile on a smiley face keeping a video playing, depends on their maintaining an EEG state that reflects focused attention.

Continue reading “Meta-analysis finds sustained benefits of neurofeedback for kids with ADHD” »

Monsanto’s agricultural biotechnology research and development operations that are going to Bayer are the largest in the world and include making genetically modified seeds for such crops as corn, soybeans and cotton. Corn represented almost 60 percent of Monsanto’s total seed and genomics business last year.

German conglomerate Bayer on Thursday closed its $63 billion merger with St. Louis-based agribusiness giant Monsanto and plans to drop the U.S. company’s name.

WASHINGTON — Hey, did my congressman really say that? Is that really President Trump on that video, or am I being duped?

New technology on the internet lets anyone make videos of real people appearing to say things they’ve never said. Republicans and Democrats predict this high-tech way of putting words in someone’s mouth will become the latest weapon in disinformation wars against the United States and other Western democracies.

We’re not talking about lip-syncing videos. This technology uses facial mapping and artificial intelligence to produce videos that appear so genuine it’s hard to spot the phonies. Lawmakers and intelligence officials worry that the bogus videos — called deepfakes — could be used to threaten national security or interfere in elections.

Continue reading “I never said that! High-tech deception of ‘deepfake’ videos” »

(HealthDay)—Get up off of the couch: Sitting too much may kill you even if you exercise regularly.

If you sit for six hours a day or more, your risk of dying early jumps 19 percent, compared with people who sit fewer than three hours, an American Cancer Society study suggests.

And, the study authors added, sitting may kill you in 14 ways, including: cancer; heart disease; stroke; diabetes; kidney disease; suicide; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); lung disease; liver disease; peptic ulcer and other digestive disease; Parkinson’s disease; Alzheimer’s disease; nervous disorders; and musculoskeletal disorders.

E ven by astronomical standards it is a discovery that is out of this world.

Scientists have for the first time witnessed the birth of a planet, a huge gas giant many times the size of Jupiter, swirling into existence 370 light years from Earth.

The theory of how gas planets form from a vortex of hydrogen and helium molecules captivated by their own gravity, is now widely accepted by scientists. But it has never been seen before, until now.

Continue reading “Birth of a planet captured for first time as gas giant bigger than Jupiter swirls into existence” »