A Finnish space company called “Iceye” has launched radar satellites that produce sub-meter fidelity images of the Earth, at a fraction of the price of any competitor.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49253951
During the Apollo program era, NASA considered building a gigantic space rocket that would be towed out to sea and launched while half-submerged in water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Dragon_(rocket)
One of Russia’s self-touted, nuclear-powered missiles accidentally blew up, killing seven Russians and releasing some radioactivity.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fallout-russias-mysterious-missile-disaster-160700403.html
The U.S. pulled out of the Cold War-era Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, mostly because Russia has been violating it for years.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/u-s-and-russia-pull-out-of-cold-war-era-arms-control-treaty
Russia’s sole aircraft carrier is obsolete, and had problems from the time it was under construction. They’d be much better off decommissioning it and building never ships with the money they save.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/strange-reason-why-russias-aircraft-carrier-leaves-smoke-trails-71031
Russia is experimenting with converting some of its old T-72 tanks into autonomous vehicles. As I’ve said before, robot crews could breathe new life into older weapons and keep them in service longer, but they’d be inferior to newer weapons not designed around the human form at all.
https://www.janes.com/article/90554/russia-develops-unmanned-t-72s
I agree with this list of “Worst American Generals,” but would add William Winder, who served ignominiously in the War of 1812.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/military-history-you-might-want-forget-5-worst-us-generals-ever-76236
This is the 80th anniversary of the cynical Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Nazis and Soviets.
https://reason.com/2019/08/23/the-80th-anniversary-of-the-nazi-soviet-pact/
In the desperate 1948 War for Independence, Israel relied on a handful of modified WWII German Me-109 fighter planes for airpower.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-strange-nazi-germanys-fighter-planes-helped-save-israel-74311
Britain once had the world’s best army. Today, it can’t even muster 75,000 men (out of a population of 66 million).
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49365599
One of Iran’s busted-up F-4 Phantoms crashed.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/irans-air-force-just-lost-fighter-jet-us-made-f-4-phantom-just-went-down-71446
For some reason, the USAF hasn’t scrapped any of its F-117 stealth fighters even though they were retired in 2008. They’re all sitting in an airplane hangar.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29606/51-f-117-nighthawk-stealth-jets-remain-in-inventory-only-one-destroyed-in-last-two-years
Ejecting Turkey from the F-35 program is a lose-lose for everyone but Russia.
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/real-cost-ejecting-turkey-f-35-program-trump-administration-erdogan-russia
The U.S. Navy’s P-8A “Poseidon” planes can find submarines by dropping sonar buoys into the water, and then blow the subs up by dropping torpedoes.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/poseidon-americas-secret-weapon-slaughter-chinas-stealth-submarines-76866
China is building three helicopter carriers. The U.S. has nine.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29526/chinas-new-amphibious-assault-ship-is-a-monster
‘[U.S. Navy] Sailors “overwhelmingly” preferred to control ships with wheels and throttles [instead of touchscreen displays], surveys of crew found.’
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49319450
The “Adaptable Deck Launcher” is a little larger than a 20-foot shipping container, can be installed on the deck of many types of ships, and can fire four missiles that can strike targets in the air, on the sea, on land, or underwater (anti-sub). This is very similar to Russia’s containerized ship missile systems.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29335/this-bolt-on-launcher-can-give-nearly-any-ship-the-same-weaponry-as-u-s-navy-destroyer
This is a simple but informative video about the U.S. Navy’s new “Radar Modular Assemblies.” A simple but very useful design.
https://youtu.be/BPGcW4Lj4fc
Awesome! The U.S. is funding a program to get NATO countries to FINALLY rid themselves of Soviet-era weapons and buy U.S.-made replacements. (I wonder if the surplus junkers will be sold to Ukraine?)
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/05/29/inside-americas-multimillion-dollar-plan-to-get-allies-off-russian-equipment/
There’s now a parachute system for small helicopters.
https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2019/08/05/parachute-from-a-cirrus-stuck-on-top-of-a-helicopter/
A gene mutation that may let people function on only six hours of sleep has been found.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190828111247.htm
Homosexuality is slightly genetic.
https://apnews.com/ef30900e20c04a5e8411ad7ddf5cc2c3
There’s no evidence that microplastics in our food and water hurt human health. They simply pass through the human digestive system.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-49430038
The first new tuberculosis drug in 50 years was approved.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-new-drug-treatment-resistant-forms-tuberculosis-affects-lungs
People who take the newest Ebola medicines have a 90% survival rate.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49326505
AI can now diagnose some types of breast cancer MORE accurately than human doctors.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-08/uoc–aic080619.php
Most of the people who say they are over 110 years old are actually lying or mistaken thanks to poor birth certificate recordkeeping. “As soon as a state starts keeping good records of when people are born, there’s a 69 to 82 percent fall in the number of people who live to the age of 110.”
https://www.vox.com/2019/8/8/20758813/secrets-ultra-elderly-supercentenarians-fraud-error
The meat industry is massively wasteful, and switching to meat substitutes like Impossible Burgers or lab-grown meats would save huge amounts of time and energy. This article is also awesome since it mentions the “carcass balancing problem.”
https://www.wired.com/story/alt-meat-trounces-animal-meats-massive-inefficiencies/
Are ‘algae shakes’ and ‘algae powders’ the future of food?
https://massivesci.com/articles/iwi-algae-protein-nannochloropsis-food-essential-amino-acids/
Empress trees grow very rapidly, and if we planted billions of them, they could sequester a lot of carbon from the atmosphere. I think the best strategy would be to figure out a way to cheaply synthesize graphite from CO2, and to dump it in ocean trenches and disused mines.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-08-02/we-already-have-the-world-s-most-efficient-carbon-capture-technology
The man who created the Gaia hypothesis now thinks that intelligent machines will take over the world.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/cyborgs-will-replace-humans-remake-world-james-lovelock-says-ncna1041616
Engineer and tech tycoon Jeff Hawkins thinks we could make a human-level AI in 20 years if we just do what he says!
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FoJSa8mgLPT83g9e8/jeff-hawkins-on-neuromorphic-agi-within-20-years
Video game pioneer John Carmack thinks “we will potentially have clear signs of AGI maybe as soon as a decade from now. “
https://youtu.be/udlMSe5-zP8
In the future, will there be shapeshifting robots made of small cubes? When you think about it, the ideal body form is one that is fungible.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1999-01-24/the-shape-of-robots-to-come
The era of the ageless, all-CGI actor is here: Will Smith and Robert De Niro have films coming out featuring hyper-realistic CGI versions of their younger selves.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/rise-all-digital-actor-1229783
It won’t be long before people can make immortal digital avatars of themselves that their loved ones can interact with long after they die.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/29/hey-google-let-me-talk-my-departed-father/
It’s now possible to use deepfake technology to synthesize anyone’s voice and have them read an entire audiobook. Listeners can pick which voice they prefer.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49329650
Deepfake technology is also being used to make customized teaching lessons for people. Someday, it will be possible to put on augmented reality eyewear with headphones and a forward-facing camera, and to see a semi-intelligent AI teacher in front of you. Virtual objects would appear in front of you, and real-world objects in your field of view would be highlighted, so your machine teacher could do something like walk you through a complex car repair task. (Is this how the Borg started out?)
https://www.fanaticalfuturist.com/2019/08/edtech-company-udacity-uses-deepfake-tech-to-create-educational-videos-automatically/
The new quantum computer challenge: create Pokemon fighting teams.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/08/applying-quantum-computing-to-optimize-pokemon-fighting-teams.html
The wildfires in the Amazon rainforest don’t actually threaten the world’s oxygen supply, and the Amazon isn’t the “lungs of the planet.” Every plant on Earth could vanish, the oxygen levels would not significantly decrease.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/08/amazon-fire-earth-has-plenty-oxygen/596923/
All the obsolete and disused electronic devices stashed in peoples’ houses collectively contain a large amount of rare earth metals that could be recycled. (Makes me think of my theory that robot butlers will help people out by selling or recycling unused possessions and trash.)
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49409055
Here’s a thought-provoking article about how the Universe is not “fine-tuned” for organic life.
https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/non-fine-tuned-universe/
The English language isn’t “declining,” both for the reasons listed in the article and because it will exist forever in the computer memory banks to AIs. Any variant of English that has ever existed and been recorded will be reproducible in the future. The same will be true for all other languages, of course.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/15/why-its-time-to-stop-worrying-about-the-decline-of-the-english-language
A Mexican mathematician just solved a 2,000-year-old optics problem. If we transition to a post-work society, I hope more people will devote themselves to creating useful knowledge like this instead of indulging in hedonism.
https://petapixel.com/2019/07/05/goodbye-aberration-physicist-solves-2000-year-old-optical-problem/
“Tidal lagoon power” plants are an interesting concept.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-31689511/how-does-a-tidal-lagoon-power-plant-work