Lifeboat Foundation

When Gabrielle Diamond and her boyfriend, Brian Cox, showed up for eviction court on October 15, they were more than a little nervous.

The two had been renting a bedroom in transitional housing for veterans in Kansas City, Missouri, since January, paying $600 per month for their month-to-month lease. Almost as soon as they moved in, Diamond says, the issues started. The building was unclean and attracted mice, and the landlord would make unannounced weekly visits; at one point, the couple were asked to move out temporarily for house repairs without any assistance, financial or otherwise.

These wooden lego-like blocks by Gablok let you easily construct a house in just days. (Follow Tech That Matters for more.)

The masks are slipping. Police move in on Adamson’s BBQ. blocking access and changing locks to the building, according to CP24, which seems to have been given an exclusive on the story…

Mayor John Tory says the locks have been changed at Adamson Barbecue in Etobicoke on Thursday after the restaurant, for two days straight, defied the province’s lockdown orders that forbid indoor dining.

“I’ve spoken to the police chief this morning … and they have a plan. He’s informed me the locks have been changed on the building … and there’s going to be a police presence there also … it is going to be closed today, you can be sure of that,” Tory tells Breakfast Television.

Continue reading “‘Locks have been changed,’ Mayor Tory says as police move in on Adamson BBQ” »

In the dusty desert town of Woomera, in the South Australian desert, scientists are getting ready. On 6 December 2020, after six years in space, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft will finally return to Earth.

It carries with it a cargo unbelievably rare, precious, and hard-won — at least 100 milligrams of material collected from the surface of asteroid Ryugu. It will drop the capsule containing the sample to Earth, the spacecraft itself continuing on to visit more asteroid targets.

Hayabusa2’s return will mark a milestone in a remarkable feat of space science, a total journey of around 5.24 billion kilometres (almost 3.3 billion miles). Asteroid Ryugu — formerly known as 1999 JU3 — is on an elliptical orbit that carries it just inside Earth’s orbital path around the Sun, and out almost as far as Mars’ orbit.

As an open-source developer, the question I hear the most is “why would you want to give that away for free.?”

In the field of AI, there are many reasons why opensource is key. First, the code for building models does not give away any competitive advantage because the value comes from models+your own data. Second, it lets the whole world help you find and correct mistakes. Imagine building a house where every architect in the world can contribute one tiny idea. But more importantly, AI is a really hard problem to solve.

The problems in the field cannot be solved by any one individual or group.

This week, a German company deployed 3D printing technology to construct a new residential block, which is set to become the largest printed apartment building in Europe.

Is this a case where money falls from the heavens!

This may start a craze where people chase after meteors! 😃

Continue reading “Man Becomes Instant Millionaire When A Meteorite Hits His Home” »

Amazon is entering the pharmacy business with a new offering called Amazon Pharmacy, allowing customers in the United States to order prescription medications for home delivery, including free delivery for Amazon Prime members.

Amazon has been quietly building out its pharmacy offering for several years after ramping up internal discussions in 2017 and acquiring PillPack in 2018. The pharmacy space is notoriously complex and competitive in the U.S., and Amazon Pharmacy is built in part on PillPack’s infrastructure, including its pharmacy software, fulfillment centers and relationships with health plans.

Amazon Pharmacy, announced Tuesday, is the company’s biggest push yet into $300 billion market, and threatens the dominance of traditional pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, as well as other large retailers that offer pharmacy services, including Walmart.

The idea of terraforming Mars is a fascinating idea. … But just how long would such an endeavor take, what would it cost us, and is it really an effective use of our time and energy?

Ultimately, Yakovlev thinks that space biospheres could also be accomplished within a reasonable timeframe – i.e. between 2030 and 2050 – which is simply not possible with terraforming. Citing the growing presence and power of the commercial space sector, Yakovlev also believed a lot of the infrastructure that is necessary is already in place (or under development).

Continue reading “The future of space colonization – terraforming or space habitats?” »