Lifeboat Foundation

A self-driving car may someday have to decide between your life and the lives of others. But how should the car choose? If you don’t know how to make that decision, that’s okay — Washington doesn’t either.

That’s one big takeaway in a new, lengthy document from the Department of Transportation that lays out options to make autonomous vehicles safer–and represents the most public sign of the attention self-driving cars are getting from politicians despite their inability to vote.

LONDON, Sept. 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — This report provides quantitative analysis and unprecedented level of insight into China’s RFID industry, analyzing the market by application, region, frequency band and value chain. The report develops a ten-year segmented market forecast. It also provides detailed profiles of 28 listed companies in addition to a further summary of 110 other Chinese RFID players. By 2025 the total RFID market in China will reach US$4.3 billion. This report provides a complete view of the RFID suppliers, value chain, applications and trends in China. It looks not only at the RFID manufacturing base in China, but also the applications of RFID in China, providing ten year forecasts by 13 application categories. IDTechEx has studied the RFID market globally for 15 years and this research builds on that knowledge in addition to new research carried out in Chain by IDTechEx analyst Dr Xiaoxi He. Over 150 RFID companies have been identified.

China already has 85% of the world’s RFID manufacturing capacity, being a major exporter of tags. In addition, the second generation National Identification Card project in China is the largest RFID order by value and China is delivering it by using Chinese-only resources almost exclusively. Thanks to strong support by the government, China has used RFID widely on applications ranging from library assets to train tickets, and as China becomes a leader in manufacturing in most segments — from cars to planes — it will fuel increasing demand for RFID in manufacturing and many other industries.

As RFID is increasingly being deployed around the world (IDTechEx expect that over 8.5 billion tags will be sold globally in 2015 versus 7 billion in 2014), suppliers are in the process of shaving off fractions of a cent from each inlay, particularly for passive UHF. That means picking up and moving manufacturing base to China in some cases. There have also been other, relatively new entrants that by strong investment (including acquisition) have gained a relatively high market share from nothing in a few years, examples being Arizon RFID and Shangyang, to name a few.

Continue reading “RFID in China 2015-2025: Forecasts, Players, Opportunities : Data and analysis of the technologies, markets and value chain” »

What better way for Tesla to outdo itself than by dominating the motorcycle market as well!? — B.J. Murphy for Serious Wonder.

This superyacht has its own private beach onboard.

This superyacht with its own private beach onboard is the dream of the rich and famous.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jCIbbhL2td8

Nice method for refrig.; now imagine it in autos/ various forms of transportation, buildings, appliances, etc.

NEW YORK, NY – 9/20/2016 (PRESS RELEASE JET) — Haier, a global leader in consumer electronics and appliances has launched a new compressor-free solid-state refrigeration technology. Haier created this new technology through integrating Silicon Valley resources, Haier Group R&D, Haier America R&D, Liquid King, Xi’an Jiaotong University, South China University of Technology and other resources. The new technology breaks the technological bottlenecks of compressor-based refrigeration appliance that have been used in the industry for a century.

Continue reading “Haier Introduces New Disruptive Refrigeration Technology” »

By Meg Alrich

Keck Medical Center of USC today announced that a team of doctors became the first in California to inject an experimental treatment made from stem cells, AST-OPC1, into the damaged cervical spine of a recently paralyzed 21-year-old man as part of a multi-center clinical trial.

On March 6, just shy of his 21st birthday, Kristopher (Kris) Boesen of Bakersfield suffered a traumatic injury to his cervical spine when his car fishtailed on a wet road, hit a tree and slammed into a telephone pole.

Continue reading “Paralyzed man regains use of arms and hands after experimental stem cell therapy at Keck Hospital of USC” »

QueSST is designed to fly at Mach 1.4, 55,000 feet above the ground. The aircraft is shaped to separate the shocks and expansions associated with supersonic flight to reduce the loud sonic booms associated with supersonic aircraft.

Concorde’s sound at cruising altitude was about 105 decibels, but the X-plane might generate 70 to 80 decibels of noise. Quick and quiet are the buzz words.

QueSST’s “heartbeat” will be dramatically quieter than the traditional “N-wave” sonic boom associated with the current supersonic aircraft in flight today. The Skunk Works team has been advancing this technology for the last 20 years as part of multiple efforts.

Continue reading “DARPA and NASA Resurrecting Concorde with Quieter Supersonic Planes” »

On Sept. 27, during a session at the International Astronautical Congress, Elon Musk will provide details about his Mars mission and colonization plans for the first time in a public forum.

However, he tweeted the name of his new megaspaceship will not be the Mars Colonial Transport it will be the interplanetary transport system. Elon plans to go beyond Mars to the entire solar system.

Mars isn’t the solar system’s only marginally habitable world for would-be new world colonists. The Moon, Venus, the asteroid Ceres, Titan and Callisto all have some advantages that could allow for colonies to subsist. Musk now seems to be suggesting that some of these more distant destinations, especially moons around Jupiter and Saturn, might be reachable with the Interplanetary Transport System.

Continue reading “Elon Musk next big rocket will be called the Interplanetary Transport System as he eyes solar system colonization” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=S5qpamZ_MqM

As our worldwide transportation network becomes less and less able to support the demands of a global economy, more and more individuals and communities will either spend too much time on the road or become isolated.