Category Archives: Transhuman News

An increasing number of skyscrapers that line our horizons these days resemble the future we were promised: twisting pillars of glass and steel that stretch up into the clouds. When you glaze those buildings with some 1980s-inspired French futurism, however, they look simply surreal

Arcueil-based illustrator Romain Trystram is highlighting some of the world's most striking skyscrapers in a series of wallpapers for I Like Architecture. They're crazy awesome. The glows and gradients are rendered in colors that can only be described as the palette of the most memorable sunset you've ever seen. They look like some sort of neon dream. They're best enjoyed while listening to the Drive soundtrack and wearing a Member's Only jacket.

As the name implies, this tiered, typhoon-proof tower designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners is 101 stories-tall. In real life, it almost looks like a magical accident. In Trystram's world, it looks like Oz. [Download High-Res]

These twisting towers are the centerpiece of the Absolute City Center complex in Mississauga, Ontario. Designed by Burka Architects and MAD Studio, the skyscrapers are colloquially known as the Marilyn Monroe towers for their voluptuous shape. I've always thought Marilyn looks great in neon. [Download High-Res]

You know this one. The world's tallest manmade structure towers 2,722 feet over Dubai like a beacon of human progress reaching towards the gods. Trystram's wallpaper might actually be a photograph. The real thing is already so absurd, I can't be sure. [Download High-Res]

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8 of the World's Coolest Skyscrapers Rendered Like 1980s Futurist Art

In a globalized and economically dynamic world, HR technology is proving to be the game-changer for many corporations across the world. It is to capture the rising HR technology trends that People Matters organized the TechHR Conference 2014, India's first coalescence of Human Resources (HR) and Technology leaders on August 22, 2014 in Gurgaon.

People Matters isa 360 degree knowledge and media platform in the Human Resources space, brought together leading lights from the worlds of HR and technology for a one-of-its-kind conclave in India. Over 65 speakers and moderators kept the over 550-delegate and audience mostly CHROs, CEOs, CIOs and CXOs constantly engaged during the 22 fast-paced and interactive sessions.

The TechHR Conference 2014 title, Futurism for the Workplace, incorporated the avant-garde concept of Futurism which means breaking away from tradition and embracing ideas that seem ahead of their time.

"TechHR Conference is all about looking ahead and staying abreast with the evolving and deepening relationship between HR and Technology. CHROs today face the challenge of keeping pace with the rapid changes in technology. A deeper understanding of how technology can deliver significant efficiencies to the HR domain. How HR can contribution to business agility. On the other hand HR Technology service providers want to better understand the needs of the HR business which also change as new generations enter the workforce. TechHR Conference provides the perfect platform where all this, and more, comes together!" says Esther Martinez, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, People Matters.

A specially developed App created a social community where delegates could communicate with the speakers, and with each other, share their views, participate in crowd-sourced polls and connect with popular social media. Delegates experienced the power and excitement of gamification when they earned points every time they engaged with the TechHR community. The prizes were exciting enough to keep everyone's fingers continuously working. The true power of technology in action!

Rudy Karsan, GM, Kenexa and Smarter Workforce, IBM, says, "Technology is a way of life in the business world and the personal world. At this point in time, the three technologies influencing HR are social, SaaS and Big Data. The ability to interact with one another in the real time is something going to become a massive wave that will affect the way individuals and enterprises will communicate with one another and therefore it will affect HR."

Madan Nagaldinne, Head of HR, APAC, Facebook, who spoke at the conference says,

The Business Agenda consisted of incisive presentations, interactive discussions, highly participative group sessions and a CHRO Round Table. Bistro Sessions allowed delegates to mix around and join several groups during the same session.

Sameer Patel, GM/SVP, Products and GTM, Enterprise Social & Collaborative Software, SAP Cloud/Successfactors, says, "Coming from the US, it was a big learning experience for me. HR needs technology. There is a huge disconnect in the organizations today between strategy and execution, goals and getting the work done. While we put a lot of emphasis on technology to collect and monitor those, we do not have a very good hand over how the work gets done or influence how the work is done. I think HR needs the second layer of technology, which moves from identifying those measurables, to be able to really influence and execute technologies down into the lines of business."

From the high level of participation it was evident that the topics discussed were close to everyone's heart. While the merits of technology in the HR domain were amply clear, several moral, financial and human aspects of this partnership also emerged.

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People Matters Hosts TechHR Conference 2014

Scientists at the PETRA III particle accelerator. (Credit: IBM/DESY)

Last week, the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron one of the largest research centers in Germany announced that it has entered into a collaboration with IBM to enhance its computers abilities to crunch the massive amounts of data being generated every day by its particle accelerators.

DESY has a variety of instruments being used every day by teams of scientists all over the world. These researchers are exploring subatomic physics, astrophysics, chemistry, biology and a host of other different types of sciences. The amount of data that the research institute generates is staggering. To give you an example, just one instrument currently being built, the X-ray laser European XFEL, will be producing about 100 Petabytes of data per year when its complete. And thats just one instrument.

To handle the data volume, IBM IBM will be supplying DESY with its Elastic Storage system. This is the hardware behind Watson and IBMs major supercomputing systems that IBM began releasing as a general product in May of this year. When the system is installed at DESY, it will be able to handle 20GB per second of data and be quickly accessible to who needs it.

This system makes data available at any time around the world, Dr. Volker Glzow, head of DESY IT told me. Its basically at your fingertips.

The Elastic Storage system, which is part of what Watson used to plow through hundreds of millions of Wikipedia articles to prep for Jeopardy, is a hardware-agnostic software layer that uses proprietary algorithms to to scale out and process data along thousands of nodes. But its speed comes from a unique ability it doesnt need multiple copies of data to work.

Most storage systems require multiple copies of data to ensure accessibility, Jamie Thomas, IBMs General Manager Storage and Software Defined Systems told me. Elastic Storage includes a unique invention that allows it to recreate data should something happen to the single copy.

This is appealing to a lot of scientific institutions, Thomas told me, because until recently most storage solutions like this were built in house. But with so much data being produced by modern instruments, labs are overwhelmed.

Its also a benefit, Glzow pointed out to me, because it allows teams to do work at DESY from anywhere in the world. They can submit a proposal, have the experiment performed, then have the data delivered in a manner thats quick and easy to access.

The system is currently scheduled to go live in March of 2015 after some upgrades to a particle accelerator are completed.

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The Software Behind IBM's Watson Will Be Probing The Mysteries Of Physics