Science & Technology

Instead Of building another costly Berlin Wall
(which has been pulled down anyway),
"Let’s Build a Border Of Solar Panels"!
(What a brilliant idea, so constructive in every measure!!)
It would attract investment, create jobs and neighborly neighbors
(How wise, and no waste – imagine a gigantic smile on Earth!).

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Dec 19, 2016
Instead of another Berlin Wall, Instead Of Trump’s Wall, Let’s Build A Border Of Solar Panels President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Mexico to build a wall between our countries. There is indeed a way that Mexico could create a barrier between the U.S. and Mexico, one constructed exclusively on the Mexican side, with substantial benefits for both countries and the planet: a solar border.

Sunlight in the northern deserts of Mexico is more intense than in the U.S. Southwest because of the lower latitude and more favorable cloud patterns. And construction and maintenance costs for solar plants in Mexico are substantially lower. Thus, building a long series of such plants all along the Mexican side of the border could power cities on both sides faster and more cheaply than similar arrays built north of the border.  read more »

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Thomas Alva Edison (11 February 1847 – 18 October 1931) was an American inventor and businessman

In 1931, not long before he died, the inventor told his friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone: I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.

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Image courtesy deviantart.com and Wikipedia

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Albert Einstein: 14 March 1879 - 18 April 1955

? is commonly defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference C to its diameter d : pi = C/d
The number ? is a mathematical constant, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, commonly approximated as 3.14159. It has been represented by the Greek letter "?" since the mid-18th century, though it is also sometimes spelled out as "pi" .

The ratio C/d is constant, regardless of the circle's size. For example, if a circle has twice the diameter of another circle it will also have twice the circumference, preserving the ratio C/d. This definition of p implicitly makes use of flat (Euclidean) geometry; although the notion of a circle can be extended to any curved (non-Euclidean) geometry, these new circles will no longer satisfy the formula p = C/d.

What are the digits for Pi? 3.14 or 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028... (ad infinitum). As of October 11, 2011, the record for the computerized listing of the numbers of Pi is some 10 Trillion...

1,241,100,000,000 digits1.2411 trillion digits (1,241,100,000,000) digits of pi have been discovered.

Who discovered Pi?
Greek mathematician Euclid (born 325 BC) Euclidean geometry, attributed by Greek mathematician Euclid (born 325 BC) was the first recorded system used to show Pi as a mathematical constant.
Or:  read more »

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook in 2004. Now, just 17 years later, this 32-year-old billionaire is ready to give it all up (Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook in 2004, barely 20 years old.)? Why? According to those closest to the developer, Zuckerberg is disgusted with the way the public has used and abused the platform.

(ET, Tuesday, March 14, 2017) And when it comes to using the platform he created to bully or disparage others, Zuckerberg is completely disgusted. "He hates the way some users utilize the platform to bring others down or even to circulate false accounts of events or history."

Someone who DID quit Facebook: "Why I'm quitting Facebook, By Douglas Rushkoff, CNN"

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Photo courtesy Entertainment Today

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Survey: People Don’t Really Want Fancy Technology To Help Them Shop
While retailers are falling all over themselves trying to incorporate the latest and greatest retail technology - anything from smart mirrors in fitting rooms to robots that answer questions you’d ask store employees - frankly, shoppers just don’t seem to give a damn.

Basically, shoppers just want to get what they want as quickly and easily as possible. And although stores might be excited about their latest gadgets and gizmos, Maya Mikhailov, a co-founder of GPShopper told Bloomberg, “but consumers aren’t necessarily as eager as they are.”

Chatbots fared particularly poorly, Mikhailov says, mostly because talking to robots is still not as natural as talking with a live human about what you want.

Stores are spending lots of time and money trying out new, fancy technologies like touchscreen mirrors in changing rooms and robo-assistants out in the racks to get consumers to buy more.

Shoppers couldn’t care less.  read more »

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1 February, 2017
Artificial intelligence has made history by beating humans in poker for the first time, the last remaining game in which humans had managed to maintain the upper hand.

Libratus, an AI built by Carnegie Mellon University racked up over $1.7 million worth of chips against four of the top professional poker players in the world in a 20-day marathon poker tournament that ended on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

While machines have beaten humans over the last two decade in chess, checkers, and most recently in the ancient game of Go, Libratus' victory is significant because poker is an imperfect information game - similar to the real world where not all problems are laid out and the difficulty in figuring out human behaviour is one of the main reasons why it was considered immune to machines.

One of the main reasons for Libratus' victory was the machine's ability outbluff humans.
"The computer can't win at poker if it can't bluff," said Frank Pfenning, head of the Computer Science Department at CMU.

"Developing an AI that can do that successfully is a tremendous step forward scientifically and has numerous applications. Imagine that your smartphone will someday be able to negotiate the best price on a new car for you. That's just the beginning."

Dong Kim, one of the four top poker players who participated in the tournament echoed the statement. The 28-year old, originally from Seattle, had also participated in a similar poker tournament with another AI machine built by CMU in 2015 named Claudico.

"It was about half way through the challenge (with Libratus when) I knew we wouldn't come back," said Kim.  read more »

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Jan. 27, 2017
Robot beats 'I am not a robot' Captcha test A mechanical robotic arm managed to circumvent a computer password system meant to deter "robots." YouTube user Matt Unsworth shared video of the robot, outfitted with a pair of googly eyes, as it used a stylus pen to check an "I am not a robot" Captcha security box.

The tounge-in-cheek video pokes fun at the language used by the security verification system intended to prevent spam or computer automated extraction of data from websites.

The robotic arm slides the stylus up the computer mouse pad before just barely managing to click inside the on-screen check box which proceeded to swirl into a green check mark.

Proud of its success, the robotic arm turns toward the camera and drops the stylus as an animated pair of glasses fall upon its "eyes" alongside the phrase "Deal with it."

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Photo courtesy Matt Unsworth / YouTube