Year: 2016
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Analog
As the world around us transforms to the digital, we are increasingly drawn to the analog. Check out Swedish musician Martin Molin from the band Wintergatan make music from his marvelous, human-powered marble machine.
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San Francisco Bay on a clear day
Back in February, while everyone was watching the Super Bowl, DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite took this photo from its vantage point about 800 miles to the West out over the Pacific. Normally haze would cause such and image to blur out from such a distance but this satellite is special. From the Mapbox blog where I…
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Paris Review on Steph Curry
We all saw Steph Curry’s game-winning basket to win against Oklahoma in overtime…in the last second…while running down the court…shooting from a few feet inside half-court…and swishing a three pointer…to tie the NBA record for most three-pointers in a single game. So this morning we launched a Basketball channel on SmartNews. The stories that make…
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Two ways to grow old
Are you the turtle or the hare? Flossie Dickey turned 110 and sounds exhausted, almost falling asleep on the set and would like nothing better than to be left alone. Virginia McLaurin is 106. Her joy at meeting the Obamas at the White House is infectious.
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Teach a Robot to See
Following up on yesterday’s post about teaching artificial intelligence manners and ethics, this morning I listened to the latest episode of The Truth which features a dramatization of a blind man using a new kind of AI that helps him “see” – I won’t spoil the twist for you but it’s well worth the 10-minute…
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How to train a robot to be nice
In response to fears that robots will take over and exterminate the human race, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are studying ways to teach robots human ethical values. In the absence of an aligned reward signal, a reinforcement learning agent can perform actions that appear psychotic. For example, consider a robot that is instructed to…
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Russian Tank Killer Drone
“A group of drones could operate in a fully autonomous mode – establishing a position and keeping to a designated route, and also interacting with other robotic complexes.” – RT News You read that right. Fully Autonomous. Shiver.
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Tesla’s 1984 Moment
We all remember Apple Computer’s 1984 commercial. It represented Apple’s coming out as a viable alternative to the dull, beige box computer that was foisted on us. I proffer to you Tesla’s version of that commercial. Filmed by the Freise Brothers, it features a voice from the past describing a future that has arrived.
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Year of the Monkey, Robot
This is how they celebrated the Chinese New Year in Guangzhou. 540 robots dancing in unison with a squadron of drones hovering overhead in formation.