Category Archives: Futurism

Fedors Future

In August, Russia sent its gun-toting humanoid robot Fedor to the International Space Station, where it spent a couple weeks learning how to be a cosmonaut.

Now that Fedor is back on Earth, the nations space agency has revealed that the bots next destination is the Moon but first, theyre going to chop off its legs and attach it to a lunar rover, according to a new story by state-run news service RIA Novosti.

A source in Roscosmos reportedly told RIA Novosti that the agency plans to send a lunar rover with a wheeled body pretty standard amongst rovers and the torso, head, and arms of a Fedor robot to the Moon in three to four years.

Fedor has already proven it can use tools, drive a car, and even shoot a gun, so by adding the humanoids top half to a rover, Russia will be creating a bot with incredible dexterity.

The United Kingdom is also rethinking lunar rover design, but its strategy is the opposite of Russias it plans to send a cube-shaped rover withspider-like legs instead of wheels to the Moon in 2021, the idea being that the bots legs might allow it to explore terrain a wheeled bot couldnt reach.

It seems both agencies are working to create rovers that are a little more inspired by human biology making them the perfect fill-in until we can put real people back on the Moon.

READ MORE: Russia wants to remove space robots legs, give it wheels, send it to the Moon [Ars Technica]

More on Fedor: Watch Russias Gun-Toting Robot Use a Power Drill on the ISS

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Russias Working on a Lunar Rover With a Humanoid Torso - Futurism

Beginning with the end of things, the premiere episode of The Life Cycle asks: is there going to be a future to speak of at all? Why is it that the apocalypse is no longer just the reserve of religion, but now dominates everything from our Netflix viewing to our conversations with friends and family? And what can we learn from global climate strikes? Featuring Joshua Tan, Ph.D. in Computer Science, Oxford.

Subscribe to The Life Cycle on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.Follow The Life Cycle on Twitter and Instagram.

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Researchers at Telecom Paris have developed an artificial skin that responds to stroking, pinching, tapping, and tickling. To demonstrate it, they covered a mobile phone with the skin and showed how it could work as a back-of-the-device interface. The video also shows how the material can be used to give robots a skin that feels []

Scotlands Shooglenifty was one of the first acts that I had the opportunity to interview for the music magazine I still occasionally write for, over two decades ago. That it was one of my first paying assignments, well before Id finished J-school, and that Id been a fan of the band for years has made []

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As cool as your smartphone is, it cant do everything. When a job requires a little elbow grease, a multitool is a great thing to have around and might just save your life in the right situation. Heres a roundup of some of the latest multitool designs, which have come a long way since []

Whether you own or rent your place, insurance on that home is a necessary hassle but a new tech-driven company called Lemonade is starting to show that while it might indeed be a necessity, it doesnt have to be a hassle. Heres the way insurance typically works: You pay premiums and hope an accident []

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Quirky futurist podcast The Life Cycle starts off with the apocalypse - Boing Boing

Most pizzas will be made using crushed-up insects in just 20 years, an expert claims.

Your favorite Friday night treat may soon contain bug-based dough, lab-grown meats and cheese and could even be charred by lasers.

And to top it all off, the pizza wont be cooked itll be printed out by a robot chef.

Thats the bold claim by Tom Cheesewright, an applied futurist who helps paying clients predict the future.

He reckons restaurants will begin choosing more sustainable ingredients for their pizza pies.

The food we eat in 20 years may well look very similar to how it does today but its journey to your plate will have been totally transformed, he said.

Even replacing 20%-25% of the grain used for bread with a protein-packed alternative such as crickets could transform our reliance on the planets resources such as water, energy and land.

Scientists around the world are worried about the effect our high levels of consumption is having on the environment.

Thats why Cheesewright thinks that in the future, it wont just be your pizza dough that will change.

We are just around the corner from commercially available lab-grown meats and cheeses and giant vertical farms supplying city supermarkets with salad leaves, the futurist explained, speaking at the The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair.

Your future pizza might be made from ingredients that have never seen the sun or grazed in a field. And it might be 3-D-printed by a robot chef and then carefully charred around the edges by a laser grill.

But its good news for flavor fiends who want to try new types of food.

Cheesewright says that abandoning traditional pizza techniques will lead to more exotic menu options.

And as we become more and more connected to other cultures around the world, we can expect to see lots of new flavors. In 20 years, we might see pizzas inspired by some of the fastest-growing countries around the world. Maybe Yaji spice mix from Nigeria, or sweet and hot Indonesian Rujak, he said.

He added: The people who object to pineapple on pizza will really hate that. Every step we take has huge potential for change.

And Cheesewright thinks that farmers are also in for a major change.

As the world is forced to rely less on real meat, farmers will need to find new ways of producing food.

This will involve some serious science, he says.

The farmers and producers of the future are more likely to need qualifications that cover mechatronics, solar energy, energy-efficient heating, genetic modification and nutrition to find alternative proteins, than animal husbandry, Cheesewright explained.

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Pizzas of the future will be made with with insect dough and lab-grown meat, futurist says - New York Post

President Trump said "a whistleblower should be protected if the whistleblower's legitimate." USA TODAY

WASHINGTON PresidentDonald Trump dismissed concernsWednesday including from some GOP lawmakers about the need to shielda whistleblower at the center of allegations that he pressured officials in Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.

Asked about those concerns, Trump responded:"I don't care."

"He either got it totally wrong, made it up, or the person giving the information to the whistleblower was dishonest," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "And this country has to find out who that person was, because that person is a spy, in my opinion."

Speaking alongside the president of Finland, Trump added that "a whistleblower should be protected if the whistleblower's legitimate."

Trumphas repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the unnamed whistleblower in the intelligence community who filed an Aug. 12 complaintabout the president'sphone call with Ukraine's president.

'Did you hear me?': Furious Trump blasts reporters amid Ukraine impeachment inquiry

Mike Pence: Pence aide monitored Donald Trump's call with Ukraine president, Washington Post reports

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who launched an impeachment inquiry of Trump last week, has said she was alarmed at the whistleblowers report and a summary of a July 25 phone call between Trump andUkrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky that has been made public.

On the call,Trump repeatedlypressed Zelensky to investigate Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner, and his son, Hunter, who once had business interests in Ukraine. During the time of the conversation, the White House was holding up a military aid package Congress had approved for Ukraine.

President Donald Trump rails against journalists asking questions about an impeachment inquiry during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in the East Room of the White House October 02, 2019.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

Trump returned to the whistleblower during a combative press conference in the East Room of the White House later Wednesday, saying he had respect for people calling attention to government abuses but only when those claims are "real."

"You look at the whistleblower statement, and it's vicious.Vicious," Trump repeated. "And that whistleblower, there's no question in my mind that some bad things have gone on, and I think we'll get to the bottom of it."

The whistleblowerhas accused Trump of abusing the power of his office to try to discredit a political rival. Trump has said there was nothing improper about the phone call and has insisted there was no "quid pro quo" over the military aid.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a co-founder of the Senate Whistleblower Caucus, said on Tuesday that the whistleblower deservesto be heard and protected.We should always work to respect whistleblowers requests for confidentiality, Grassley said.

Trump said that the whistleblower's characterization of his call with the Ukrainianpresident was "erroneous."

"In other words, he either got it totally wrong, made it up, or the person giving the information to the whistleblower was dishonest," the president said.

Whistleblowers have been at time essential and detrimental to a country's democracy, but what makes them different than a leaker? We explain. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

Trump also renewedhis attacks on House Democrats, including Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. whochairsthe House Intelligence Committee. Trump said Schiff couldn't carry Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's "blank strap," an apparentreference to a "jockstrap."

Earlier, Trump used a series of tweets to condemn the impeachment inquiry as damaging to the country. He challenged Pelosi's stated desire to work on trade and drug prices, saying Democrats are instead obsessed with impeachment.

Pelosiis "incapable" of working on other issues, the president wrote."It is just camouflage for trying to win an election through impeachment. The Do Nothing Democrats are stuck in mud!"

Unleashing an unusual show of anger, President Donald Trump railed against former Vice President Joe Biden, his son, the media and the World Trade Organization at a joint press conference in the White House East Room with Finland's president. (Oct. 2) AP, AP

In a tweet that preceded his meeting with the president of Finland, Trump used a barnyard epithet in condemning the impeachment drive. The president described Democrats as wasting their time on "bullshit" despite his election in 2016.

He added:"Get a better candidate this time, youll need it!"

House Democrats have questioned the presidents past attacks on the whistleblower.

President Donald Trump speaks to the press after arriving on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, September 26, 2019.(Photo: SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images)

I hope that you understand, and I suspect that you do, the seriousness of the president of the United States saying he wants to interview that person, Pelosi said.

The president probably doesnt realize how dangerous his statements are when he says he wants to expose who the whistleblower is and those who may have given the whistleblower that information, she added.

Contributing: Bart Jansen, Maureen Groppe

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/02/donald-trump-dont-care-gop-concerns-whistleblower/2442994001/

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'I don't care.' Trump dismisses GOP concern over protecting whistleblower - USA TODAY

The president once privately suggested to White House advisors that we shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down, among other venomous ideas.

His comments, reported this week by the New York Times, fit a pattern of inhumanity at the border, now spelled out in black and white. Its an insight into the mind of Trump and his policy man with a perma-smirk, Stephen Miller.

Its a clarifying moment: The underlying principle is that they hate these people.

Of course, you can be for tighter controls on immigration without being for cruelty. But this is no longer about how many immigrants we want, or how many deserve asylum here because their lives are in danger.

What weve seen under Trump is consistent, needless cruelty: Deliberately separating babies from their parents; congratulating the use of tear gas at the border on women and children in flip-flops.

Now White House advisors say Trump told them we should just shoot these people, many of whom are crossing our border to legally apply for asylum.

He also threw out other caricaturish villainries: a moat filled with snakes and alligators to keep them out; an electrified wall with spikes on top to inflict wounds.

Trump actually asked his advisors to seek a cost estimate for this stuff, they said which they apparently did, instead of telling him that he was nuts.

On Wednesday, the president dismissed the moat and the wall with spikes in his usual manner, with a tweet calling it fake news although Trump himself once tweeted out a drawing of a border fence with sharp spikes on top.

Noticeably, he didnt deny suggesting that we shoot migrants. Indeed, hes said much the same in public. We should fire bullets across the border if a migrant throws a rock, Trump once declared.

He joked about shooting immigrants at Florida appearance, too. Then a deranged admirer actually did so in El Paso, with a manifesto that quoted the presidents rhetoric about a border invasion.

Our immigration system is broken, and both Republican and Democratic presidents have tried to address this. But Trump and his misanthropic wonk are different. Both are steeped in the fear-mongering world of right wing talk radio, and are against immigration, period unless its from places like Norway.

Trump has complained about immigrants trying to infest America, and made it clear hes talking about the shithole countries populated by people who are not white. When it comes to stopping their immigration, he is willing to leave any moral, humanitarian or legal implications aside.

Even Kirstjen Nielsen, who carried out and defended Trumps singularly harsh family separation policy, was forced out as Homeland Security chief because she did so only reluctantly. She didnt delight in it, the way Miller did.

Nor does every Trump voter, based on reports from Trump country. When a pillar of the Grander, Indiana community a business owner who lived here nearly 20 years was snatched from his U.S. citizen wife and children and deported to Mexico, his neighbors who backed Trump spoke out against it.

I voted for him because he said he was going to get rid of the bad hombres, local resident Dave Keck told 60 Minutes. Roberto is a good hombre.

Cruel policies and chants like go back where you came from are easier to adopt in the abstract. The closer you get, the better you see the neighbor torn from his family; the mother whose wailing toddler was taken from her.

This is the real Donald Trump, and he is the bad hombre.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.

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Shoot them is the real Donald Trump | Editorial - NJ.com

President Trump says he wants to confront his accuser.

That was one of the many demands the president issued in a series of enraged tweets over the last few days. Like every American, Trump tweeted on Sunday, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called whistleblower, represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way.

Trumps demand to face the person accusing him struck many observers as ironic, given that at least one person accusing Trump of crimes is quite eager to face him in court.

Summer Zervos, a restaurant owner and former contestant on The Apprentice, alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in 2007. Shes one of at least 22 women including, most recently, author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll who has alleged sexual misconduct by Trump (the president has denied all allegations). Zervos sued Trump in 2017 for calling her a liar when she came forward with her allegation, and ever since, shes been fighting to take him to court.

Although its the whistleblower report that finally triggered an impeachment inquiry against Trump, his recent tweets are a reminder that the list of allegations against him is long and includes the testimony of at least one woman who would be only too happy to meet him in a court of law, should he give her the chance.

When Trump tweeted about his desire to meet my accuser, the response from critics was swift. Karine Jean-Pierre, chief public affairs officer for the liberal group MoveOn, simply tweeted a list of some of the women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, including Zervos.

Many of these women came forward after the October 2016 release of the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump was heard bragging about his ability to grab women by the pussy. He at first dismissed the comments as locker-room talk but multiple women soon stated publicly that he had, in fact, grabbed, touched, or kissed them without their consent.

There was Jessica Leeds, who said Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt when they were seated on a flight together in the 1980s. He was like an octopus, she told the New York Times. His hands were everywhere.

There was Natasha Stoynoff, who said that when she visited Mar-a-Lago to write a People magazine story about Trump in 2005, he pushed her up against a wall and forced his tongue down her throat. Melania Trump was pregnant at the time.

And there was Summer Zervos, who said Trump invited her to dinner with him at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007. She went, hoping for career help. Instead, she said, Trump brought her to his private bungalow, where he touched her breast and pressed his genitals against her.

After she went public with her story in 2016, Trump said that every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. His campaign also released a statement from Zervoss cousin, arguing she was making up the allegations as a way to get famous.

Zervos sued Trump for defamation in January 2017. But his lawyers argued that, because she filed her suit in state court in New York, it should be thrown out. They claimed that although a sitting president can be sued in federal court (Paula Joness lawsuit against Bill Clinton established that), it is illegal to sue a president in state court. Theyve lost at every step most recently, in March, a New York appeals court ruled that Zervoss suit could go forward.

Meanwhile, the list of allegations against Trump continues to grow. Most recently, E. Jean Carroll wrote in her new book What Do We Need Men For?, excerpted in New York magazine, that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1995 or 1996. Trump denied the allegation and insulted Carroll, saying shes not my type.

Trumps claim that he deserves to meet the whistleblower who raised the alarm about his communications with Ukraine reads as an attempt to intimidate that person, especially given Trumps previous comments on this issue. At a private event last week, Trump described the whistleblower, whose identity is not publicly known, as almost a spy, and said, we used to handle [spies and treason] a little differently than we do now. Similarly, Trump has tried to intimidate the women who came forward with misconduct allegations, saying in 2016 that all of these liars will be sued after the election is over.

The tweet is also a reminder that while the matter with Ukraine is the basis for the current impeachment inquiry, its far from the first serious allegation lodged against the president. And of the nearly two dozen women who have accused him of assaulting or harassing them, Trump has so far faced no consequences for their allegations.

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Trump demanded to meet his accuser. There are at least 22 of them. - Vox.com

Over one weekend, the president of the United States sent out more than 100 tweets or as they will soon be known, Exhibits A through Z. JAMES CORDEN

Its so bad, at one point last night, Trumps iPhone threw itself in the toilet. JIMMY FALLON

And hes playing all the hits. He called this the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country. Even his witch hunts are the greatest in history. JIMMY KIMMEL

But Trump tweeted he wants to meet the whistle-blower in person, however their identity and whereabouts are unknown. They are probably hidden in a place no one ever goes so most likely, theyre at a Forever 21. JIMMY FALLON

I would say the president is starting to unravel, but that would imply he was raveled in the first place. I think he might be smoking black-market vapes. JIMMY KIMMEL

Hes losing what little was left of his mind. He even retweeted a comedy Twitter account called Trump but About Sharks. This is an account that takes his tweets and makes them about sharks. So he retweeted it. Hes so rattled, for lunch today aides say he ate a bucket of Adderall and snorted his fried chicken. JIMMY KIMMEL

I know it seems careless, but in Trumps defense he does just automatically retweet anything as soon as he sees the words great white. JAMES CORDEN

Hillary Clinton weighed in on Mike Pompeos participation in Trumps call to Ukraine while appearing on The Late Show with her daughter Chelsea.

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The Shark-Infested Waters of Trumps Tweet-Filled Weekend - The New York Times

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said the American people stand with the freedom-seekers in Hong Kong, and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the Chinese Communist Party has waged economic warfare against Missourians through currency manipulation and tariffs targeting our farmers.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a close Trump ally, said "it has been a ghoulish 70 years of Chinese Communist Party control.

In the House, Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) lambasted the Chinese government's appalling record of repression."

Security personnel pose in front of Mao Zedongs portrait on Tiananmen Gate for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. | Ng Han Guan/AP Photo

Those statements stood in stark contrast to the presidents remarks on Twitter.

Congratulations to President Xi and the Chinese people on the 70th Anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China! Trump tweeted.

The disparate responses underscore the ever-growing gap between Trumps foreign policy perspective and the views of most members of his party. Senate Republicans have voiced alarm at the violent protests in China. Over the summer, McConnell wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal warning Beijing would face consequences if Hong Kongs autonomy is eroded.

But while White House aides have encouraged the president to back the pro-democracy protesters, Trump has appeared reluctant to directly condemn Xi for the demonstrations particularly as he tries to negotiate an end to a trade war that continues to spiral.

Last week, during his speech before the United Nations, Trump went the furthest hes gone in criticizing China for its response to the protests, saying his administration was carefully monitoring the situation in Hong Kong."

The world fully expects that the Chinese government will honor its binding treaty made with the British and registered with the United Nations in which China commits to protect Hong Kong's freedom, legal system and democratic ways of life, Trump said. We are all counting on President Xi as a great leader.

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Republicans split with Trump on celebrating China - POLITICO

In Brief Built by Lockheed Martin in the 1960s and decommissioned in 1998 due to high operational costs, the SR-71 Blackbird remains the fastest aircraft to have ever been flown. Now, Lockheed Martin wants to build an even faster plane: the SR-72.

Now that Lockheed Martin has confirmed that they are building the SR-72, which could be the first hypersonic plane, NASA has released video footage of its predecessor: the SR-71 Blackbird.

Built in the 1960s by Lockheed using designs that were kept secret in the 1950s, the SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest manned aircraft to have ever flown the skies. To get an idea of how fast, watch the below video of the plane taking off.

Capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 3 (2,200 mph) with a maximum altitude of almost 26,000 meters (85,000 feet), the two-seater SR-71 Blackbird was used as a reconnaissance plane from 1964 to 1998. Lockheed built only 32 of these super-fast planes, and now, they want to build an even faster one that will act asa strike and recon aircraft.

The SR-72, the leading project under Lockheeds Advanced Development Programs (ADP) or Skunk Works, promises to be even faster than the Blackbird. The company wants to develop a plane capable of hypersonic flight speeds of Mach 5 (3,836 mph) and higher and the SR-72 is expected to reach a Mach 6 (4,600 mph) top speed.

The inspiration for this hypersonic plane may come from the past, but it is poised to take military aircraft well into the future.

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See Newly Released NASA Footage of the Fastest Plane Ever Flown - Futurism

In BriefNASA has detailed a plan to prevent the Yellowstonesupervolcano from ever erupting. By drilling into the volcano andpumping water into and out of it at high speeds, they believe theycould cool the volcano and use the emerging hot water to generateelectricity. FromThreat to Ally

When people think of Yellowstone, its usually in relation to the national park, a massive 8,983 square kilometer (3,468.4 square mile) area comprising mountains, rivers, and forests. Less commonly considered is the Yellowstone Caldera, a supervolcano whose eruption could be devastating for our planet.

Thankfully, such an explosion is highly unlikely, and now,NASA has come up with a way to not only ensure that the volcano remains inactive, but also use it to provide the surrounding area with electricity.

Following their release of a story on supervolcanoes, the BBC was contacted by a few NASA members who wanted to share details on a previously unreleased plan to deal with Yellowstone. Even NASA admits their incredibly ambitious plan is risky, but the potential benefits resulting from its success cant be completely ignored.

First, they would drill into the volcano from the lower sides, outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. Coming from this direction would prevent the intense heat from making its way to the top of the chamber, where it would cause further problems.

Once drilling is complete, water would be pumped into and back out of the supervolcano at high pressures, with the exiting water heated to a temperature of around 350 degrees Celsius (662 degrees Fahrenheit). The water going in would slowly cool the volcano, while the hot water coming out of it could be used to generate electricity.

Yellowstone currently leaks around 6GW in heat, Brian Wilcox, a researcher at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), explained to the BBC. Through drilling in this way, it could be used to create a geothermal plant, which generates electric power at extremely competitive prices of around $0.10/kWh.

Aside from the dangers inherent in any plan to drill into a volcano, the NASA proposal is also largely theoretical no one knows for sure that it would work, and the cost of finding out would bean estimated$3.46 billion. Wilcox doesnt think this cost is insurmountable, however.

You would have to give the geothermal companies incentives to drill somewhat deeper and use hotter water than they usually would, but you would pay back your initial investment and get electricity which can power the surrounding area for a period of potentially tens of thousands of years, he noted. And the long-term benefit is that you prevent a future supervolcano eruption which would devastate humanity.

Even if the system can effectively cool Yellowstone at NASAs estimated rate of 1 meter (3.2 feet) per year,it would take thousands of years before only cool rock was left and longer than that to actually confirm that the process had permanently eliminated the threat of an eruption.

Despite all of these variables, the plan is worth consideration, especially given that Yellowstone is just one of about 20 supervolcanoes on the planet. NASA hopes that their proposal will encourage more practical discussions and debates on what to do about these massive structures prior to an eruption, at which point the Earth could be thrust into a volcanic winter.

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NASA Has a $3.46 Billion Plan to Ensure the Yellowstone ... - Futurism - Futurism