Space News: NASA’s Corporate Conquest and China’s Asteroid Weapon
Chris Barnett-Woods, an electrical engineer who never thought he would work for NASA, just walked into my kill zone.
Ammo Vending in Supermarkets – Convenience Armageddon
American Rounds is installing ammo vending machines in supermarkets across the country, offering customers the convenience of purchasing ammunition at any time of day while also increasing security measures through ID verification and facial recognition technology.
Starliner Space Safety – Galactic Grouches
The article discusses the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of work and the potential for job loss, as well as the importance of retraining workers for new roles in the changing economy.
“The article examines the potential job loss due to the rise of artificial intelligence and emphasizes the need for retraining workers to adapt to new roles in the evolving economy.”
China ‘Artificial Sun’ Solves Fusion?
China’s HL-3 nuclear fusion reactor, which is part of the world’s collaborative efforts in nuclear fusion research, has successfully generated its own magnetic field, a crucial component in containing and maintaining the superheated plasma needed for fusion energy, making it a significant milestone in the field, and a potential contributor to the larger ITER project in France.
Denis Villeneuve – Green Screen Madness
Denis Villeneuve, along with other directors such as Christopher Nolan and Sam Mendes, prefers to use practical effects over CGI in their films, as they believe it creates a more realistic and engaging experience for both the actors and the audience. This sets them apart from the massive CGI-driven films produced by Marvel, which have faced criticism for their heavy reliance on visual effects.
Endless Wait for Fusion: ITER’s Latest Setback
The ITER experimental fusion reactor will experience a four-year delay in achieving full-energy deuterium-tritium fusion, with plasma not expected until 2036 and full-power operations not until 2039, due to a combination of changing priorities, COVID-related delays, and the switch to a new construction material.
Ultimate Punishment: AI Prisons Aren’t Scifi Anymore
The United States has the highest incarceration rate among NATO countries, and Hashem Al-Ghaili, a molecular biologist, proposes a virtual prison system called Cognify where prisoners would be subjected to artificial memories in a virtual environment, although ethical implications and effects would need to be addressed before it could become a reality.
Paul Allen Innovation Legacy Up for Auction
The Living Computers museum in Seattle, opened to the public 12 years ago and featuring interactive displays of vintage computing systems, will permanently close as its entire inventory is being auctioned off at Christie’s, including items from the Paul G. Allen Collection, after the museum and associated educational facilities were forced to close due to the pandemic in 2020, leaving it as the only major vintage computing museum in Washington State.
Japan Olympic Uniforms’ Anti-Perv Technology
Japanese manufacturer Mizuno has developed a new fabric for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics that is nearly wholly opaque to both visible and infrared light, in order to protect athletes from potentially voyeuristic images taken by infrared cameras that can be circulated on pornographic sites, after complaints were made by athletes in 2020 about their images being shared on social media.
FAA’s Space Data Integrator program – space traffic jam fixer?
The FAA announced that three more companies, Firefly, Virgin Galactic, and Sierra Space, have joined SpaceX in using the Federal Aviation Administration’s Space Data Integrator, a tool designed to track and integrate data from space vehicles in near-real time to improve safety and efficiency for air traffic controllers and commercial flights in the National Airspace System.