Worlds first cyborg artist to speak at Web Summit

The worlds first cyborg artist, Belfast-born Neil Harbisson, is to speak at the Web Summit in Dublin this November. Mr Harbisson has an antenna implanted in his skull so he can hear images and paint sounds. Photograph: David M. Benett/Getty Images

The artist and cyborg activist has been added to the line-up of speakers at this years Web Summit, along with Y-Combinator partner Justin Kan and Funny or Die CEO Dick Glover.

Mr Kan founded Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon for $970 million earlier this year. He also founded Socialcam, which was acquired by Autodesk for $60 million in 2012.

Comedy-video website Funny or Die has had more than 143 million video views and features and more than 24 thousand videos. Its award-winning video The Landlord, featuring Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, is among the top three most- watched videos on the web, having been viewed more than 55 million times since its debut.

Also addressing the November 4th-6th Dublin event are Tinder founder Sean Red, actress Eva Longoria, supermodel Lily Cole, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, Paypal co-founder Max Levchin, and Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior.

Some 20,000 people from more than 100 countries are expected to attend this years Web Summit, which takes place in the RDS. The event has been expanded to include a food summit, a film summit, a music summit and a sport summit.

A Food Tech Stage, which will host discussions and demonstrations of the latest innovations in food technology, will form part of the food summit. Speakers will include Drop founder Ben Harris, Dairymaster CEO Ed Harty, Pernod Ricard head of digital Antonia McCahon and Hampton Creek CEO Josh Tetrick.

Tetricks food start-up, which is backed by Bill Gates, created the first artificial egg. Attendees at the food summit will be able to see what a 3D printed lunch looks like.

The World Economic Forum will run daily sessions on the library stage, focusing on an overarching theme of Technology for humanity: navigating the complexities.

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Worlds first cyborg artist to speak at Web Summit

DC Comics unleashing Flash, Wonder Woman, ton of other films

A bevy of DC superheros will get their own films as Warner Bros. lays out plans to release movies starring The Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam and Cyborg.

The Flash will be stepping out onto big screens in 2018. DC Comics

And you thought Marvel was busy. DC Comics is about to go nuts in the cinematic realm with an announced slate of superhero films that will keep fans busy for years. It doesn't matter what your taste in superheroes is, DC will have you covered. A road map for the herd of comics-based films was unveiled at a Warner Bros. investor meeting earlier Wednesday, where news of more "Harry Potter" movies also came out.

One of the biggest announcements is the upcoming film "The Flash," which will be unrelated to the television version. Ezra Miller has been tapped to play Flash. Miller is known for his work in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin." His dramatic jawline should fit in well with the classic comics representation of The Flash. The film is scheduled to bow in 2018.

Everybody was already aware of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" for 2016, but DC also plans to roll out "Suicide Squad," based on the comics series about a team of supervillains. Details are vague, but we could meet live-action versions of villains like Bronze Tiger (a skilled martial artist), Captain Boomerang (yes, he wields a boomerang) and Deadshot (an accomplished assassin).

Moving forward into 2017, we'll get a "Justice League" movie designed to take on Marvel's super-group Avengers. Fans who have been pining for a standalone Wonder Woman film will have their wishes fulfilled in 2017 as Gal Gadot gets her own starring vehicle and doesn't have to share the glory with a bunch of guys.

The schedule keeps up its breakneck pace into 2018 with "Aquaman" to go along with "The Flash." As previously announced, Jason Momoa, best known as Khal Drogo from "Game of Thrones," will step in as the aquatic superhero. Looking into 2019, we can expect a "Justice League" sequel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson taking on the villain role of Black Adam for "Shazam."

Warner Bros. and DC aren't done yet. Remember the 2011 "Green Lantern" starring Ryan Reynolds? It wasn't very good. DC is calling a do-over and will come out with a fresh take on the ring-wearing superhero in 2020. This will also be the year we'll get some major half-man, half-machine action as Cyborg gets his own starring vehicle. Ray Fisher is already working as Cyborg for the "Batman v Superman" movie and is set to take on the standalone movie for his character. Fisher is primarily known for his theater work.

To sum up the biggest news here: The Flash is coming. Wonder Woman finally gets a date for headlining her own movie. Cyborg, an African-American character, will also break ground with his own film. It's enough to make your head spin and should give comics geeks and film fans alike plenty to watch through 2020.

(Via Wall Street Journal)

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DC Comics unleashing Flash, Wonder Woman, ton of other films

Green Lantern Reboot, Cyborg Solo Movie Coming in 2020

Take cover! Warner Bros. and DC Comics have left no superhero property untouched today, announcing their entire slate of upcoming films at todays investor meeting. The good news for fans of the existing DC films is that Green Lantern is among the films set to grace theaters in the coming years. The bad news for fans of Ryan Reynolds portrayal is it will apparently be a clean reboot, and a new start for the hero in the shared movie universe.

It had seemed for some time that the safest bet was for Warner Bros. and DC Comics to do their best to sweep the critical flop that Green Lantern proved to be (even if we argued the films origin could still be salvaged), and today WB chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara confirmed that would be the proposed plan. And as of June 19, 2020, comic book fans will have a new Green Lantern to see in theaters.

The remaining questions now sure to be discussed among comic and movie fans alike is not just who will be cast to play the space cop, but which version of the hero it may be (although weve got plenty of suggestions for both). Its not technically impossible to see Ryan Reynolds reprise his role, with however much or little of his previous outing maintained as the studio sees fit. But with Reynolds less than enthusiastic about returning, and all parties looking for a fresh start, it seems a long shot.

So, will Warner Bros. choose to stick with their golden boy, and take a second swing at Hal Jordan, or hand the reins off to one of his successors, be it Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, or perhaps most likely given the characters role in DCs animated universe, John Stewart?

Only time will tell, but the emerald ring-slinger wont be the only Justice League member to appear in their very own film that year whichever incarnation he may be as it was also announced that a solo Cyborg movie would be released months earlier on April 3, 2020. It will, as reports claimed, star Ray Fisher in the lead role, although more details are scarce. Its also been difficult to decipher just how much the studio is willing to reveal in regards to these heroes place in the upcoming two-part Justice League event.

There has been next to nothing said about Fishers portrayal of Vic Stone a.k.a. Cyborg in Batman V Superman, with most assuming that the character (like Aquaman, now officially played by Jason Momoa) would play only a cameo role in the film, saving his full transformation into his superhero identity in a future Justice League film. Without confirmation, we would still assume thats the basic plan, but how much exposure the hero will get between Dawn of Justice and his solo outing in 2020 is a mystery.

Speculation over how Zack Snyder may introduce the hero into his Justice League universe is sure to begin immediately, especially if he will be elevated to the level of importance a solo movie tends to bring. And given that the hero would go on to become a pivotal member of the Teen Titans, imagination can run wild on just how ambitious the studios long term plans may be.

What do you think of these announcements? Are you happy to see that Warner Bros. and DC are giving themselves plenty of time to get their plan for Green Lantern in order, or would you have liked to see Ryan Reynolds return to the role (conflict with his upcoming Deadpool be damned)?

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Green Lantern Reboot, Cyborg Solo Movie Coming in 2020

Experience the Spectacular Sunsets & Sugar White Sandy Beaches – Video


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12 Brevard schools named in 'closure clusters'

VIERA, Fla. -

Brevard Public Schools narrowed its focus to Merritt Island and the North and South Beaches when looking at possible schools that may close.

School district leaders presented 12 schools -- in two "closure clusters" -- at Tuesday's Brevard School Board meeting. One school in each cluster, or two schools total, may close if the half-cent sales tax fails in the November election, they said.

Officials emphasized that closures would be made for "financial necessity," not for reasons of efficiency, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.

"It's sad that we're back to this again," School Board member Amy Kneessy said, before pointing to what she sees as the solution: the sales tax vote, which is three weeks away.

Clusters include both a school that may close and nearby schools that may be impacted by the closure, such as a change in enrollment boundary lines. Potentially, students enrolled in a cluster school may attend a different school the following year. They are:

Merritt Island and North Beaches Cluster:

South Beaches Cluster:

Specific schools that could close have not yet been named, although one of the schools, Sea Park Elementary, has been targeted for closure twice before, and parents have speculated it could be targeted once again.

"I think it should always be the last resort," said Liz Mikitarian, a teacher who previously campaigned for schools to stay. The district has closed four schools and repurposed them for other uses.

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12 Brevard schools named in 'closure clusters'

Discovery Of Benesov Meteorites 20 Years After The Bolide Event

October 15, 2014

Image Caption: Image of the Beneov bolide, taken by the fish-eye guided camera at Ondejov Observatory. Its apparent magnitude was -22 (6000 times brighter than the -12.6 apparent magnitude of the full Moon)

Provided by Dr. Jennifer Martin, Astronomy & Astrophysics

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the spectacular discovery of meteorite fragments 20 years after the corresponding bolide was seen in the skies of the Czech Republic. This discovery was made possible by reanalyzing the trajectory, which moved the impact line by 330 meters. Interestingly, the meteorites found on the ground are of different types, pointing to a parent asteroid of heterogeneous composition.

Collisions of meter-sized meteoroids with the Earths atmosphere are relatively rare, occurring about 40 times a year. They cause very spectacular events, known as superbolides. One of the best known such events, the Beneov bolide, occurred on 7 May 1991 at 23h 03m 46s UT over the Czech Republic. It was recorded during systematic photographic observations by the European Fireball Network and certainly ended in a multiple meteorite fall, but no meteorite was found in the weeks and years after the fall, despite many attempts.

In February 2011, nearly 20 years after the event, P. Spurn and his colleagues [1] measured the records again and analyzed the data with improved methods. This led to a new picture of the whole event with a revised atmospheric trajectory and a new impact location. This allowed the team to recover the Beneov meteorites, 20 years after the fall, exactly in the newly predicted area. It is the first time a meteorite is found so long after the bolide observation. The team found four small, highly-weathered meteorites with a total mass of 12 g. The probability that these four fragments come from different meteoroids and were found by chance at the same place is estimated to be 1 in 100,000 or less. Even more interestingly, these four meteorites are of three different mineralogical types. This means that the Beneov meteoroid was heterogeneous and contained at least three different types of material. After the Almahata Sitta fall, this is the second time that such a heterogeneous composition has been found. It raises the possibility that a significant fraction of all asteroids are heterogeneous and that they were strongly reprocessed by collisions with other asteroids in the main belt.

Reanalysis of the Beneov bolide and recovery of polymict breccia meteorites old mystery solved after 20 years, by P. Spurn, J. Haloda, J. Borovika, L. Shrben, and P. Halodov

Published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2014, 570, A39

> Continue reading

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Discovery Of Benesov Meteorites 20 Years After The Bolide Event

Our Solar System's Post-Apocalyptic Future

Billions of years after humanitys last call and the Suns final gasp as a hydrogen-burning star Or so say astronomers searching for super Earths around thousands of relatively nearby dying White Dwarfs burned-out stellar remnants of stars that used to be very similar to our own.

Like a hot charcoal briquette, a White Dwarf has no internal heat source, but unlike the hot cubes on your backyard grill, these remnants take billions of years to cool. Thus, there would still be plenty of time for life to evolve on newly-formed, very close-in planets around a White Dwarf, says John Tonry, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. That is, even after a solar systems original planets had been torn asunder by the stars expansion during its phase as a Red Giant; when it has exhausted its supply of hydrogen and is reduced to burning helium in its core.

Habitable zones around such White Dwarfs would last between three to eight billion years, says B.J. Fulton, an NSF graduate research fellow at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

A very cold white dwarf star. Although scientists believe them to be mostly the remnants of dead stars, it is possible that some may have habitable zones, or even planets remaining in orbit around them. (Credit: Wikipedia)

In a paper to appear in The Astrophysical Journal, lead author Fulton and colleagues detail Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) observations of some 1700 bona fide White Dwarfs that all lie within 325 light years of our Sun. Their five years of observations were sensitive to planetary transits (or eclipses) of super Earths five Earth masses and larger across the face of the White Dwarfs.

We found no planetary transits at all, said Tonry, the papers second author. If we had, then we could have immediately taken spectra to measure whether the planet had water or oxygen in its atmosphere.

In contrast to NASAs Kepler Mission, which could spot the tiny transits of terrestrial-mass planets around normal stars, Tonry says their groups survey was a much lower-sensitivity Hail Mary attempt at planet detection.

Even so, as Tonry explains, Hawaiis Pan-STARRS can survey a tenth of the sky in the visible spectrum during a given night and build up deep images by digitally stacking observations. As a result, the papers authors were able to conclude that super Earths in a White Dwarfs circumstellar habitable zone the orbital region warm enough to support liquid planetary surface water are extremely rare.

Most planets would have been destroyed as the star expanded into a Red Giant in the final few million years of its life, said Fulton. In our solar system, Mercury, Venus, and perhaps even Earth will be swallowed and destroyed during this phase of the Suns life.

Our own solar future is mirrored in the thousands of White Dwarfs that lie within a few hundred light years of Earth. But once our Sun expands into a Red Giant some five to six billion years from now, will new planets form out of the detritus of our old inner planetary system?

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Our Solar System's Post-Apocalyptic Future

Rediscovering Venus to Find Faraway Earths

Astronomers Chih-Hao Li and David Phillips of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics want to rediscover Venus-that familiar, nearby planet stargazers can see with the naked eye much of the year.

Granted, humans first discovered Venus in ancient times. But Li and Phillips have something distinctly modern in mind. They plan to find the second planet again using a powerful new optical device installed on the Italian National Telescope that will measure Venus' precise gravitational pull on the sun. If they succeed, their first-of-its-kind demonstration of this new technology will be used for finding Earth-like exoplanets orbiting distant stars.

"We are building a telescope that will let us see the sun the way we would see other stars," said Phillips, who is a staff scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He and Li, a research associate at the Center for Astrophysics, will describe the device in a paper to be presented at The Optical Society's (OSA) 98th Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics, being held Oct. 19-23 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. Li is the lead author of the paper, which has 12 collaborators.

Astronomers have identified more than 1,700 exoplanets, some as far as hundreds of light years away. Most were discovered by the traditional transit method, which measures the decrease in brightness when a planet orbiting a distant star transits that luminous body, moving directly between the Earth and the star. This provides information about the planet's size, but not its mass.

Li and Phillips are developing a new laser-based technology known as the green astro-comb for use with the "radial velocity method," which offers complementary information about the mass of the distant planet.

From this information, astronomers will be able to determine whether distant exoplanets they discover are rocky worlds like Earth or less dense gas giants like Jupiter. The method is precise enough to help astronomers identify Earth-like planets in the "habitable zone," the orbital distance "sweet-spot" where water exists as a liquid.

Better Precision with a Laser The radial velocity method works by measuring how exoplanet gravity changes the light emitted from its star. As exoplanets circle a star, their gravitation tugs at the star changing the speed with which it moves toward or away from Earth by a small amount.

The star speeds up slightly as it approaches Earth, with each light wave taking a fraction of a second less time to arrive than the wave before it. To an observer on Earth, the crests of these waves look closer together than they should, so they appear to have a higher frequency and look bluer. As the star recedes, the crests move further apart and the frequencies seem lower and redder.

This motion-based frequency change is known as the Doppler shift. Astronomers measure it by capturing the spectrum of a star on the pixels of a digital camera and watching how it changes over time.

Today's best spectrographs are only capable of measuring Doppler shifts caused by velocity changes of 1 meter per second or more. Only large gas giants or "super-earths" close to their host stars have enough gravity to cause those changes.

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Rediscovering Venus to Find Faraway Earths

Rediscovering Venus to find faraway Earths: Measuring gravitational pull of a planet should speed search

Astronomers Chih-Hao Li and David Phillips of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics want to rediscover Venus -- that familiar, nearby planet stargazers can see with the naked eye much of the year.

Granted, humans first discovered Venus in ancient times. But Li and Phillips have something distinctly modern in mind. They plan to find the second planet again using a powerful new optical device installed on the Italian National Telescope that will measure Venus' precise gravitational pull on the sun. If they succeed, their first-of-its-kind demonstration of this new technology will be used for finding Earth-like exoplanets orbiting distant stars.

"We are building a telescope that will let us see the sun the way we would see other stars," said Phillips, who is a staff scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He and Li, a research associate at the Center for Astrophysics, will describe the device in a paper to be presented at The Optical Society's (OSA) 98th Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics, being held Oct. 19-23 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. Li is the lead author of the paper, which has 12 collaborators.

Astronomers have identified more than 1,700 exoplanets, some as far as hundreds of light years away. Most were discovered by the traditional transit method, which measures the decrease in brightness when a planet orbiting a distant star transits that luminous body, moving directly between the Earth and the star. This provides information about the planet's size, but not its mass.

Li and Phillips are developing a new laser-based technology known as the green astro-comb for use with the "radial velocity method," which offers complementary information about the mass of the distant planet. From this information, astronomers will be able to determine whether distant exoplanets they discover are rocky worlds like Earth or less dense gas giants like Jupiter. The method is precise enough to help astronomers identify Earth-like planets in the "habitable zone," the orbital distance "sweet-spot" where water exists as a liquid.

Better Precision with a Laser

The radial velocity method works by measuring how exoplanet gravity changes the light emitted from its star. As exoplanets circle a star, their gravitation tugs at the star changing the speed with which it moves toward or away from Earth by a small amount. The star speeds up slightly as it approaches Earth, with each light wave taking a fraction of a second less time to arrive than the wave before it. To an observer on Earth, the crests of these waves look closer together than they should, so they appear to have a higher frequency and look bluer. As the star recedes, the crests move further apart and the frequencies seem lower and redder.

This motion-based frequency change is known as the Doppler shift. Astronomers measure it by capturing the spectrum of a star on the pixels of a digital camera and watching how it changes over time.

Today's best spectrographs are only capable of measuring Doppler shifts caused by velocity changes of 1 meter per second or more. Only large gas giants or "super-earths" close to their host stars have enough gravity to cause those changes.

The new astro-comb Li, Phillips and their colleagues are developing, however, will be able to detect Doppler shifts as small as 10 centimeters per second -- small enough to find habitable zone Earth-like planets, even from hundreds of light years away.

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Rediscovering Venus to find faraway Earths: Measuring gravitational pull of a planet should speed search

Artificial Intelligence – Association for the Advancement …

Founded in 1979, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) (formerly the American Association for Artificial Intelligence) is a nonprofit scientific society devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines. AAAI aims to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artificial intelligence, improve the teaching and training of AI practitioners, and provide guidance for research planners and funders concerning the importance and potential of current AI developments and future directions. More

Major AAAI activities include organizing and sponsoring conferences, symposia, and workshops, publishing a quarterly magazine for all members, publishing books, proceedings, and reports, and awarding grants, scholarships, and other honors.

AAAI is pleased to announce the new member site for current and prospective members of the Association. From this location, you can join AAAI, change your address, and learn more about the advantages available only to members of AAAI!

AAAI is pleased to announce that AAAI-15 will be held in its NEW winter timeframe in Austin, Texas, USA. Details about paper submissions will be available soon./p>

AI Magazine is delighted to announce the expansion of the Member News section of AAAI News to the web! Here we will publish short, significant, and noteworthy news events pertaining to our current members.

AI is becoming pervasive in our lives. Its impact on society is increasing every day. Its potential is enormous and there have recently been several outstanding achievements. In recognition of these facts, AAAI and IJCAI recently held a summit meeting in New York City. Details about the meeting can be found on the AI Summit page.

It is the generosity and loyalty of our members that enables us to continue to promote and further the science of artificial intelligence. Membership dues and program fees and endowment income cover only a portion of the costs of our programs. Donations and grants must supply the rest. Your gift will help sustain the many and varied programs that AAAI provides. In todays economic climate, we depend even more on the generosity of members like you to help us fulfill our mission.

Contributions make possible projects such as the AI poster, the open access initiative, components of the AAAI annual conference, a lowered membership rate for students as well as student scholarships, and more. To enable us to continue these and other efforts, please consider a generous gift. For information on how you can contribute, please click on Gifts.

The major sections of this site (and some popular pages) can be accessed from the links on this page. If you want to learn more about artificial intelligence, you should visit the AI Topics page. To join or learn more about AAAI membership, choose Membership. Choose Publications to learn more about AAAI Press, AI Magazine, and AAAIs journals. To access AAAIs digital library of more than 10,000 AI technical papers, choose Library. Choose Awards to learn more about AAAIs awards and honors and fellows program. To learn more about AAAIs conferences and meetings choose Meetings. For links to policy papers, presidential addresses, and outside AI resources, choose Resources. For information about the AAAI organization, including its officers and staff, choose About Us (also Organization). The search box, powered by Google, will return results restricted to the AAAI site.

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Swiss Watch Expo – Breitling Professional Aerospace Avantage Titanium Quartz Watch E79362 – Video


Swiss Watch Expo - Breitling Professional Aerospace Avantage Titanium Quartz Watch E79362
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Commercial aerospace set to grow, says expo speaker

Aerospace remains the bedrock of the states manufacturing industry, but growth opportunities abound in other industries and across the border.

That was the message given Wednesday by the head of a state manufacturers group at the Southern Arizona Tech + Business Expo.

Aerospace and defense manufacturers face challenges because of efforts to cut the federal budget, Steve Macias, chairman of the Arizona Manufacturers Council, said in his keynote address at the expo, hosted by the Arizona Technology Council at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa.

A lot of it has to do with politics, and politics doesnt always make sense, said Macias, who is president of Phoenix-based Pivot Manufacturing.

Fortunately, commercial aerospace is set to grow, with historic backlogs at aircraft makers like Bombardier Aerospace, he noted.

Arizona is a leader in aerospace particularly for the military, Macias said, noting that the state is among the top eight in Defense Department contracts.

But the state faces challenges from other states looking to boost their aerospace sectors, he said.

We have a target on our backs when it comes to other states in aerospace, Macias said.

To continue to grow, Arizona manufacturers should look to growing sectors including the biosciences, solar energy and the oil and gas industry, he said.

Growth opportunities also await across the border, Macias said, noting that Arizona already enjoys $14 billion in annual trade with Mexico.

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Commercial aerospace set to grow, says expo speaker

Nanomedicine Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share,Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 20 – Video


Nanomedicine Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share,Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 20
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