Category Archives: Transhuman News

CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md., Oct. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With her debut collection, Quirky Black Sci-fi Tales: Volume 1, newcomer M'Shai Dash blends unfeigned humor, warmth, and peculiarity while celebrating Black women as survivors, adventurers, and champions. In five spellbinding tales, we are introduced to Black heroines on the verge of upending the world they know, while using courage they never knew they had. As the women confront monsters of both the human and inhuman kind, each woman is catapulted into quests of self-discovery that illuminates their force within the universe.

"A wild ride... the wit of 'Insecure' meets the dark whimsical futurism of 'Black Mirror' in these sci-fi shorts." Blacksci-fi.com

When asked about her inspiration, Dash said, "I write stories that reflect Black women like myself and those around me. We are quirky, smart, rebellious, brave, survivors, and champions. We persevere in a world that doesn't always appreciate us. We do our best to embrace our failures and use them to catapult us into our success. Most importantly, we manifest the realities we want for ourselves, drawing from the magic that flows within us...even if it takes a little while for us to find it."

Quirky Black Sci-fi Tales: Volume 1 is currently available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

About M'Shai DashM'Shai S. Dash is an author, blogger, and speaker from Washington, D.C. Interweaving her passion for storytelling with her love of speculative fiction, Dash's writing explores and celebrates intersectionality, blackness, futurism, and rebellion in tales that center brave, memorable heroines.

Learn more at: http://www.mshaidash.com

MEDIA CONTACTTiara Wigfall404-631-6699321902@email4pr.com

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SOURCE M'Shai Dash

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New Book, 'Quirky Black Sci-Fi Tales: Volume 1,' Weaves Black Feminist Futurism with the Fantasticism of the Universe - Yahoo Finance

Dubai Expos Italian Pavilion is a futuristic, sustainable creation. The 38,000-square-feet (3,500-square-meter) masterpiece opened on Oct. 1 at Dubai Expo 2020.

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Designed by Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) and Italo Rota Building Office, the Italian Pavilion stands out for its creativity in utilizing sustainable materials. Thanks to its innovative design and materials, the building has already won Best Entrepreneurial Project of the Year at the Construction Innovation Awards.

Related: WOHAs final design for Singapore Pavilion nears completion

These innovative materials include 2 million recycled plastic bottles that form a multimedia facade. The designers also used recycled algae, coffee grounds and orange peels as building materials. Recycling, reusing and renewing are at the core of the design.

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The roof is probably the most outstanding part of the entire design. It uses three boat hulls that could set sail immediately after Dubai Expo. According to Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, the Pavilion addresses issues that architectural designs have failed to address for many years.

Our design for the Italian Pavilion deals with what I believe is architectures most important challenge today: advancing the double convergence between the natural and the artificial. It anticipates issues and suggests strategies that will be increasingly crucial for the future of our cities as we address the consequences of the current climate crisis, Ratti said.

The facade is fitted with LEDs that can be lit to transform the entire building into a multimedia surface. According to the designers, the bottles that make up the surface can be used again after the expo ends.

But what about the coffee grounds and orange peels used in the design? The coffee and orange peels were left to dry and turned into powder used to coat suspended pathways. The setting of the Italian Pavilion on a five-meter-high dune made out of locally sourced sand also speaks to the designs sustainable focus.

+ CRA

Images Michele Nastasi

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This futuristic design uses recycled bottles, coffee and oranges - Inhabitat

"The US needs to move at a fast pace to stay competitive."Nuclear Spacecraft

NASA officials say that the US needs to invest in nuclear-powered spacecraft if it wants to beat its geopolitical rivalsto Mars.

The officials were testifying at a House Science, Space, and Tech subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, according to United Press International. They urged lawmakers to invest resources into researching and developing nuclear-powered rockets,which could allow humans to reach the Red Planet in just three to four months half the time it would take for traditional, chemical propelled rockets.

Our strategic competitors, including China, are indeed aggressively investing in a wide range of space technologies, including nuclear power and propulsion to fulfill their ambitions for sustained human lunar presence, as well as Martian and deep space science missions, NASA senior adviser for Budget and Finance Bhavya Lal said at the subcommittee meeting, adding that the United States needs to move at a fast pace to stay competitive and to remain a leader in the global space community.

This all comes on the heels of China allegedly testing a hypersonic nuclear-capable missile that took US officials by surprise. Though Beijing was quick to deny the claims, some still look at it as a Sputnik moment because US intelligence had seemingly underestimated the countrys progress.

Congress and NASA have stated that they want to get humans to Mars by 2033. However, Dr. Roger Myer, co-chair of the Committee on Space Nuclear Propulsion Technologies at the Academies of Sciences, threw cold water on that goal, saying that human Mars travel is likely unobtainable by 2033.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials have set 2033 as their target date to send taikonauts to Mars, Reuters reports. If Lal is to be believed, China is well on track to get there in that timeline if they continue to invest in nuclear propulsion.

Follow Tony Tran on Twitter.

READ MORE: U.S. needs nuclear spacecraft to compete with China, NASA official says [UPI]

More on US vs China: China Says It Was Testing a New Spaceship, Not a Hypersonic Missile

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NASA Says It Needs Nuclear Rockets to Put People on Mars Before China - Futurism

After months of rumors, leaks, and speculation, Apple has finally revealed the first truly Pro Apple Silicon devices: 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros powered by the new M1 Pro and M1 Max systems on a chip (SOCs). In one fell swoop, Apple has essentially undone all of its most controversial design decisions of the last six years and created a pair of laptops that professional users can really get behind.

Theres a lot to unpack: from the new processors, to the new display, to the new and improved port configuration, the return of MagSafe, and the end of the touchbar. For the sake of clarity, lets take the upgrades one at a time.

At the heart of this new update are the latest Apple Silicon SOCs, the M1 Pro and M1 Max. Where the original M1 focused on providing a balance of performance and efficiency, with four high-performance cores, four high-efficiency cores, and up to eight GPU cores, the M1 Pro and M1 Max shift that balance towards high performance and really increase the GPU capabilities of these laptops.

The entry-level 8-core M1 Pro packs in six high-performance and two high-efficiency cores, while the top shelf M1 Pro and M1 Max both offer eight high-performance and two high-efficiency cores, for a total of 10. Each configuration also boasts between 2x and 4x the number of GPU cores available in the original M1. The entry-level 8-core M1 Pro comes with 14 GPU cores, the 10-core variant of the M1 Pro comes with 16 GPU cores, and the M1 Max can be configured with a staggering 32 GPU cores.

Each upgrade offers a significant improvement over the previous Intel- and M1-based MacBook Pros, with the 32-core variant peaking at an advertised 13.4x improvement in graphics performance over the former Intel-based 13-inch MacBook Pro and a 2.9x improvement over the Intel-based 16-inch MacBook Pro with discrete AMD graphics, all while sipping far less power from the built-in battery. In fact, both laptops can run at full speed while on battery power, something that no high-powered PC laptop with discrete graphics can claim.

Finally, both of the new processors can now be configured with far more unified memorythe on-chip RAM that Apple uses in all of the Apple Silicon SOCs.

The entry-level M1 Pro features the same 16GB of unified memory as the original M1, but it can be configured with up to 32GB, while the M1 Max starts at 32GB and can be configured with up to 64GB. As Apple pointed out during their keynote presentation on Monday, this is the most memory that has ever been packed onto a consumer SOC, and should translate into lightning-fast performance on RAM-intensive tasks like merging huge panoramas or loading and exploring large 3D scenes.

These three changesthe increase in high-performance cores, GPU cores, and memory bandwidthshould make the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros some of the most powerful and capable laptops on the market.

Moving beyond performance to convenience, Apple has finally done away with the dongle life, bringing back several ports that professionals and enthusiasts alike have been missing. Since 2015, every MacBook and MacBook Pro has featured only two kinds of ports: a headphone jack and one or more Thunderbolt ports. No more.

All of the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros come with an HDMI 2.0b port, an SDXC card slot, a MagSafe 3 charging port, a headphone jack, and three Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports. The only useful port thats missing is USB Type-A, but given the wholesale move to USB Type-C in recent years, this doesnt feel like a massive omission.

As with previous MacBooks, each Thunderbolt port can be used for transferring data, connecting an external display, or charging the laptop. However, you probably wont be using the Thunderbolt ports for charging thanks to the return of the Magsafe port. Both laptops feature a new and improved Magsafe 3 charging port with the same magnetic quick-release capability as pre-2016 MacBook Pros and even faster charging that can get the laptop to 50 percent charge in just 30 minutes.

Youll need to opt for the 96-watt power adapter to get that fast-charging capability, but its only a $20 upgrade if you opt for the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro that ships with a 67-watt charger instead. Once you upgrade from the cheapest variant, every configuration ships with the 96-watt charger by default.

Finally, the last and one of the most sought-after changes to the new MacBook Pros is the end of the touch bar. Instead, Apple has configured these two MacBooks with a row of full-sized function keys that ends in a dedicated Touch ID fingerprint reader.

In addition to the new ports, the most obvious change coming to the new MacBook Pros is the Liquid Retina XDR display. Using the same mini-LED technology Apple debuted in the 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pro, these new displays should offer the best brightness, contrast, and HDR performance of any laptop display on the market today, bar none.

Both the 14- and 16-inch variants pack in 254 pixels-per-inch for a total resolution of 3024 x 1964 and 3456 x 2234, respectively, with thinner bezels and a camera notch at the top that houses a full HD 1080p camera for FaceTime calls. This alone would make for a significant improvement over the previous generation, but Apple went way beyond increasing the screen resolution, shrinking the bezels, and improving the cameras.

Thanks to the 10,000 miniLED backlight, the new displays can hit sustained full-screen brightness of up to 1000 nits, peak brightness of 1600 nits, and a true 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio thanks to the 10,000 miniLEDs that make up the backlight.

Both displays are also technically capable of reaching 120Hz, although you cant lock the refresh rate at 120. Fixed refresh rates max out at 60Hz, with 120Hz available only through the Pro Motion setting that adaptively changes the screens refresh rate depending on the content that is being displayed. This should make for better battery life, but also means that developers will need to ensure any fast-paced apps are taking full advantage of 120Hz if they arent configured to do so already.

Given all of the improvements and the huge increase in performance that these specs promise, neither of the two laptops come cheap.

Both entry-level 14-inch MacBook Prowith an 8-core M1 Pro, 16GB of RAM, and only 512GB of storagestart at $1,999, and upgrades will cost you dearly. Upgrading to an M1 Pro with a 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage ups the price to $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro or $3,100 for the 16-inch. The fully upgraded variants that boast an M1 Max with a 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 64GB of RAM, and 8TB of storage will cost you an eye-watering $5,899 for the 14-inch and $6,100 for the 16-inch.

All variants are available to order right now from Apples websiteand will begin shipping to buyers early next week.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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MacBook Pro 2021: Apple Unveils 14- and 16-Inch Models Powered by the New M1 Pro and M1 Max SOCs - Futurism

This is grim. The Last Ice

An enormous hole has been discovered in an area of the Arctic known as the Last Ice heating up concerns about the impacts of anthropogenic climate change in the region.

The hole, known as a polynya, was discovered near Ellesmere Island, Canadas northernmost island, according to a press release from the American Geophysical Union. Its presence is particularly disconcerting to researchers due to the fact that its in an area thought to have the Arctics thickest and oldest ice.

No one had seen a polynya in this area before, Kent Moore, an arctic researcher at the University of Toronto-Mississauga, said in the press release. North of Ellesmere Island its hardto move ice around or melt it just because its thick, and theres quite a bit of it. So, we generally havent seen polynyas form in that region before.

Moore was the lead author of a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters detailing the researchers grim findings. The polynya was actually discovered in May of last year, and a day after finding it, the researchers discovered that it had grown to a staggering 62 miles long and 18 miles wide, according to USA Today.

The researchers say that the hole was formed due to extreme wind conditions that pushed the ice apart. However, researchers say its unusual that the Last Ice could be blown around so easily due to how thick it is suggesting that warming conditions might have made the damage possible in the first place.

In fact, some experts believe that the warmer temperatures will eventually create a feedback loop of ice melt.

The thing about thinning ice is that its easier to move it around, said Moore in the release. As the ice gets thinner, its easier to create these polynyas with less extreme forcing, so there is some evidence that these polynyas may become more common, or become larger, than they were in the past.

READ MORE: Scientists Discover Large Rift in the Arctics Last Bastion of Thick Sea Ice

More on ice melt: The Icy Glue Holding Antarctica Together Is Starting to Fail

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Researchers Discover Massive Hole in the Arctic's "Last Ice" - Futurism

"We have no idea how they did this."Surprise Launch

China launched a hypersonic missile test in late August that took the United States government by surprise.

The missile allegedly circled the globe in low-Earth orbit before heading towards its intended target, anonymous sources told Financial Times. The nuclear-capable rocket carried a hypersonic glide vehicle that allowed it to travel at incredible speeds.

Perhaps more incredibly, though, is the fact that US intelligence was caught flat-footed by the missile test. Though the missile reportedly missed its target by roughly two dozen miles, US officials were surprised by how much progress the Middle Kingdom has made on hypersonic weapons.

We have no idea how they did this, one source said to Financial Times.

Chinas advancement on hypersonic weapons poses a very unique threat to US defense, said Taylor Fravel to Financial Times. Fravel is an expert on Chinese nuclear weapon policy and believes that the hypersonic glide vehicle could potentially negate the US missile defense system.

Hypersonic glide vehicles...fly at lower trajectories and can maneuver in flight, which makes them hard to track and destroy, Fravel told Financial Times. That means the USs system to destroy incoming missiles might prove ineffective in the event of an attack.

So yeah, China might soon have hypersonic missiles which is utterly horrifying no matter who has them to be completely honest.

READ MORE: China tests new space capability with hypersonic missile [Financial Times]

More on missiles: DARPA Successfully Launched an Air-Breathing Hypersonic Missile

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US Officials Shocked by Chinese Missile Test That Went All the Way Around the Earth - Futurism

David L. Dozier announces the release of 'Stories from the Mind of David'

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla., Oct. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The late David L. Dozier developed a passion for writing fictional short stories and novels reflecting viewpoints of American historical, current, and futuristic cultural issues. These short stories are now presented in his book titled "Stories from the Mind of David" (published by AuthorHouse).

This book of short stories covers numerous topics such as human relationships, detective mysteries, racial/cultural issues, politics and life in general. Diverse issues that are universal and timeless. The short stories are a reflection of David's experiences from being raised and living in the southern region of the country as well as from the experiences and knowledge he gained as a young military enlisted officer living and working in Europe and later as a college and civilian student living and working in New York City.

These stories are relatable to men and women in general regardless of their economic or social status in life. In one or more of the short stories, the reader will be able to identify or recognize various traits and characteristics unique either to themselves and/or others that are familiar in the various characters in the book. Hence, this book of short stories has relevance to readers worldwide on issues/topics that are common in any society or culture.

"This is a unique perspective from a person with a diverse background telling stories based on his unique background. A person that was a mathematician, philosopher, computer technology graduate, painter/artist, and athlete. Hence, his approach in writing the short stories is different," David's brother James says.

When asked what David wants readers to take away from the book, James answers, "I think David would want the reader to recognize that as a country, we have accomplished great things. However, we also are falling short in many areas and need to realize collectively that we need to overcome various fallacies to ultimately continue to progress as a nation." For more details about the book, please visit https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/833016-stories-from-the-mind-of-david

Story continues

"Stories from the Mind of David" By David L. Dozier Softcover | 6 x 9in | 80 pages | ISBN 9781665533003 E-Book | 80 pages | ISBN 9781665532990 Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author David L. Dozier was a mathematician, computer technology graduate, athlete, painter/artist, philosopher, carpenter/handy man and writer. He was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. He spent his early adult years in Europe via military service and numerous years in his adopted city/state of New York. He attended numerous colleges/universities (Bishop State Junior College, Mobile, Alabama, University of South Alabama, Mobile Alabama, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama and New York Institute of Technology, New York, New York). He graduated from New York Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in computer technology in 1974. He was an introverted eccentric individual with a unique sense of humor. He was a rock and foundation for his family and especially beloved by his grandmother, mother, father, uncles, aunts, siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews.

AuthorHouse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is a leading provider of book publishing, marketing, and bookselling services for authors around the globe and offers the industry's only suite of Hollywood book-to-film services. Committed to providing the highest level of customer service, AuthorHouse assigns each author personal publishing and marketing consultants who provide guidance throughout the process. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse celebrates over 23 years of service to authors. For more information or to publish a book visit authorhouse.com or call 833-262-8899.

Media Contact

Marketing Services, AuthorHouse, 833-262-8899, pressreleases@authorhouse.com

SOURCE AuthorHouse

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New book of fictional short stories reflects one man's viewpoints of American historical, current and futuristic cultural issues - Yahoo Finance