Well, if you live in Australia, then don't worry, you might be about 1.5 metres "off". A team from GEOSCIENCE Australia are about to recalculate the nation's latitude and longitude coordinates, which are currently out by more than 1.5 metres. Australia sits on the fastest moving continental tectonic plate in the world, thus coordinates measured in the past continue changing over…
Consilience. The word of the day, Year, Decade or Epoch? I recently [briefly] participated in a planning session and debate [through my WhaleSongServices consultancy business ] with an ex-colleague and some of his senior/executive staff regarding particular public policy challenges for a Government Department in the near to medium term [5-10 years] and the broader strategic needs of their planning. We…
Stephen Hawking: There's a story that scientists built an intelligent computer. The first question they asked it was: "Is there a God?" The computer replies: "There is now." And a bolt of lightning struck the plug so it couldn't be turned off. Nick Bostrom: Most of the world is completely oblivious to the most major things that are going to happen…
The team at BD is at it again. SpotMini is a new smaller version of the Spot robot. SpotMini is all-electric (no hydraulics) and runs for about 90 minutes on a charge, depending on what it is doing. SpotMini is one of the quietest robots Boston Dynamics have ever built.
Ludovico Einaudi has turned eight million voices into music, Elegy for the Arctic, specially composed to help protect the arctic. Greenpeace says: He performed this piece for the first time — in front of a magnificent surging glacier — the music echoed across the ice, a moment that will remain in our minds forever.The timing of Einaudi’s performance is not…
Terrapattern finds places that look the same using machine learning. Terrapattern is a prototype for helping people quickly scan extremely large geographical areas for specific visual features. We are particularly keen to help people identify, characterize and track indicators which have not been detected or measured previously, and which have sociological, humanitarian, scientific, or cultural significance. Terrapattern provides an open-ended…
Amnesty International published the results of a survey of 27,000 people in 27 countries, finding almost everybody in Spain, Germany, Jordan and China would personally accept people fleeing war or persecution into their countries. Russia was at the opposite end of the scale with only 33 percent of respondents saying they would personally accept refugees into their country. Poland also…
...both metaphorically and now, perhaps literally. The Age reports on the CSIRO findings: Within the next couple of weeks, a remote part of north-western Tasmania is likely to grab headlines around the world as a major climate change marker is passed. The aptly named Cape Grim monitoring site jointly run by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology will witness the first…
Apparently, nope... Vision of Humanity is a strong proponent of the need to further study, advocate and act on peace. It groups together a number of interrelated initiatives focused on global peace which enjoy the support of a wide range of philanthropists, business people, politicians, religious leaders and intellectuals. It brings a strategic approach to raising the world’s attention and…