Facebook: Real-time visualization of global social interactions

Project Palantir is a real-time visualization of global interactions between Facebook users. Created in Java using the Open Source Ajax framework, the visualization offers a beautiful perspective of how and where, and at what scale, Facebook serves as a platform for global connectivity.

Project Palantir was created by Jack Lindamood at the last Hackathon Project.

USB 3.0 and Uncompressed 1080p Transfer at 450MBps

According to Engadget, we’ve all been adequately teased with what USB 3.0 will be able to do. Recently, a number of companies took the chance in San Jose, California to demonstrate just how quick the protocol is. Most notable, Engadget writes, was the demo by Synopsys, which prototyped an HDTV video transmission system based on USB 3.0. Onlookers were ‘widemouthed’ when viewing an uncompressed 1080p feed at 30 frames-per-second being transferred at around 450MBps. The supposed performance of wireless HD would be a real competitor to USB 3.0 for this and other applications, but given that wireless HD technology is “on track for an August 2298 release,” there is plenty of time for USB 3.0 to make a real impact.

Source: Darren Murph, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 5:47PM on Engadget.com

WORLD PREMIERE: PAINTING from the ART ON THE MOON project

UltraFuture, Velka Edge, branding visionary Matthew Asinari present “The Humanization of Space: Art on the Moon”, December 13th, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park

HONG KONG – November 18, 2008

Back in the 80’s and 90’s, there were rumours that Coca Cola or Pepsi were looking at projecting their logo onto the surface of the moon. While this would have undoubtedly been the most talked about advertisement in history, the general consensus at the time was that the moon was a ’shared’ space, and that it was not right to pollute it with something so crass and commercial as an advertisement.

There has been much talk lately about the commercialization of space. Many private enterprises are now competing to create and participate in an emerging ‘privatized’ space industry. Virgin Galactic, Space We have already had a number of space tourists and more will certainly come. Imagining a time when the moon or even Mars has a permanent human settlement is not far fetched.

Outside of popular science fiction, space as we know it is widely described and understood as rather, well, scientific. It is a place and a subject to be studied with objectivity and logic. Artist Velka Edge and luxury branding visionary Matthew Asinari are working on a project to partner with Google Lunar X-Prize contender Odyssey Moon and UltraFuture to engage the global imagination and create a genuine human connection with space.

Artist Velka Edge’s unique painting, entitled “Uni Essence and the Music of Spheres”, symbolizes humanities role and timeless essence in the universe. By rendering the painting on a light weight and pliable synthetic silk, the image can be transported as a minimal addition to the payload of a future lunar lander, projected to carry the artwork to the surface of the moon sometime around 2020.

The painting will be exhibited at the UltraFuture Conference held this December 13th at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. Art on the Moon is a concept that utilizes art as a language to bridge the gap in the understanding of space science and to create relevant emotional bonds between humankind, the Earth, and the moon.  Art on the Moon will donate the original painting to be displayed permanently on Earth.

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UltraFuture Events are communications platforms where innovators, entrepreneurs, visionaries and thought-leaders come together to share new ideas and develop collaborations for the betterment of mankind.  This year’s conferences will focus on the Future of the Built Environment and the Future of Lifestyle and Communications.

The UltraFuture Conference 2008 will be held on December 13 in the “Golden Egg” Auditorium at the Hong Kong Science & Technology Park.  Exhibits will include the stylish audio speakers of Bowers & Wilkins, inspiring Cybertectural models from James Law Cybertecture International, and a replica of the Painting from the Art on the Moon project.

To learn more about Art on the Moon or the UltraFuture ThinkTank, please contact info@ultrafutureworld.com or visit http://ultrafutureworld.com

# # #

UltraFuture is a global thinktank and brain trust. Collaborating with visionary thinkers and doers to create and facilitate world-changing events, media and projects on the leading-edge of technology and culture. UltraFuture is headquartered in Hong Kong. With advisors and associates based in Tokyo, San Francisco, Shanghai, London, New York, Buenos Aires and the Middle East, UltraFuture offers a unique global platform for communication and collaboration.

Calatrava’s WTC transportation hub

The image of a bird in flight is not one normally associated with an underground transportation center, but architect Santiago Calatrava has perfectly managed to marry the two. As designed, the World Trade Center (WTC) transportation hub — built with two 150-feet-tall canopies extending from a glass- and steel-ribbed “body” — sits at street level like a bird poised for flight, delivering natural light to the PATH train platform 60 feet below ground.

Calatrava originally unveiled his design to the public in 2004 and, to address security, engineering, and feasibility elements for the future landmark, revised it in July 2005 and summer 2008.

The $3.2 billion hub will sit at the northeast corner of the WTC site at Church and Vesey Streets and is expected to form an underground connection between the World Financial Center and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Fulton Street Transit Center. Through it, pedestrians will have access to Hudson River ferry terminals, PATH trains, 13 subway lines, and possibly a direct rail link to JFK International Airport.

Calatrava’s design features steel “ribs” with glass panels between them to maximize natural light inside the station. The underground concourse, mezzanine, and platform levels will be largely free of vertical columns for a greater sense of openness and movement. The hub will also be a central pedestrian thoroughfare for the half-million-square-foot retail program planned for the WTC’s lower levels.

“The building is built with steel, glass, and light. They will all be equal building materials,” Calatrava said. “The light will arrive at the platform, and visitors will feel like they are arriving in a great place, a welcoming place.”

Calatrava said that Daniel Libeskind’s original master plan both guided his design and served as inspiration, stating that the transportation hub “articulates with Libeskind’s beautiful plan. The station fits like a centerpiece in the middle of the plaza.”

*Images courtesy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

*Originally posted on lowermanahattan.info

Integrated, Sustainable Platform for Coastal Communities

Energy Island Presents Integrated, Sustainable Platform for Coastal Communities:
US China GreenTech Summit: November 13, Shanghai.

SHANGHAI, Nov. 10 - Energy Island, a sustainable and self-sufficient platform design for island and coastal communities, will be presented at the US China GreenTech Summit in Shanghai, November 13th. Energy Island is supported by a consortium of leading engineering, consulting and planning organizations including: Parsons Brinckerhoff, Noble Denton, Halcrow, the University of Southhampton and UltraFuture. Energy island is led by engineer and architect Dominic Michaelis, CEO, and architect Alex Michaelis, Managing Director.

The presentation will be part of the Utilities Panel on November 13th, which includes executives from IBM, PG&E. David Harris, managing director of thinktank and consultancy UltraFuture, will present Energy Island and participate in the panel on behalf of the consortium.

Renewable Energy
Energy Island utilizes proven technologies to harness all forms of renewable energy available at sea. At the heart of system is an open-cycle Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plant, which is aided by solar, wind, sea current and wave energy converters. Energy Island has developed innovative designs and technologies that allow the integration of these energy sources into custom-designed systems that produce between 1MW and 250MW net power output.

Large-scale Fresh Water Production
In addition to being a non-polluting source of reliable energy, Energy Islands address a number of other immediate environmental and social challenges. One of the most beneficial by-products of the open-cycle OTEC process is mass desalinization of seawater; for every megawatt of energy produced by the OTEC process, 1.2 million liters of freshwater are produced. This freshwater can be utilized in the local communities and also can be shipped by tanker to areas in need.

The modular design of Energy Island allows them to be joined together to create larger community/utilities platforms. Energy Islands can be designed to accommodate aquaculture, greenhouses and mariculture pens for food production. Residential, research or tourism facilities can also be built on the islands.

Energy Island will also be presented this December 13th at the UltraFuture Conference in Hong Kong (www.ultrafutureworld.com).

For more information, please contact:
Nick Fabrizio, Production Manager of UltraFuture World Limited
Tel: +86 1581 5588774 or nick.fabrizio@ultrafutureworld.com

Robots may eliminate 50 million jobs

October 25 2008 / by John Heylin

ScenarioLand.com Year: Beyond   Rating: 5 Hot

Marshall Brain, founder of How Stuff Works, gave a presentation on how robots can easily eliminate half the workforce of the United States fairly soon.

He said that by 2042 there will be $500 desktop computers with computing power equal to the human brain. We can then put this into a robot which will have the power to do jobs that millions of people hold today. Robots can easily take over education, transportation, construction and retail jobs.

For example: Walmart alone has over 1.2 million employees, performing easy jobs. If robots take the jobs, “a million jobs at Walmart will evaporate.”

But what about the job market?

6.5 million in construction will be gone. 16.4 million in manufacturing will be gone. Retail/wholesale will lose 20 million jobs. Drivers will lose 3 million jobs. Education to lose 2 million.

“Half the jobs in the economy right now we can see robots taking over.”

He ended with the question displayed “What if 50-million people became unemployed?” He then said “there is no doubt these jobs will be gone fairly soon.” We have to start modifying our economy to deal with the mass unemployed.

Arthur C. Clarke’s four laws of prediction

Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following three “laws” of prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The first of the three laws, previously termed Clarke’s Law, was proposed by Arthur C. Clarke in the essay “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination”, in Profiles of the Future (1962).

The second law is offered as a simple observation in the same essay; its status as Clarke’s Second Law was conferred on it by others.

In a 1973 revision of his compendium of essays, Profiles of the Future, Clarke acknowledged the Second Law and proposed the Third in order to round out the number, adding “As three laws were good enough for Newton, I have modestly decided to stop there.” Of the three, the Third Law is the best known and most widely cited.

Clarke’s Third Law codifies perhaps the most significant of Clarke’s unique contributions to speculative fiction. A model to other writers of hard science fiction, Clarke postulates advanced technologies without resorting to flawed engineering concepts (as Jules Verne sometimes did) or explanations grounded in incorrect science or engineering (a hallmark of “bad” science fiction), or taking clues from trends in research and engineering (which dates some of Larry Niven’s novels). Accordingly, the powers of any future superintelligence or hyperintelligence which Clarke often described would seem astonishing.

But in novels such as The City and the Stars and the story “The Sentinel” (upon which 2001: A Space Odyssey was based) Clarke goes further; he presents us with ultra-advanced technologies developed by hyperintelligences limited only by fundamental science. In Against the Fall of Night the human race has mysteriously regressed after a full billion years of civilization. Humanity is faced with the remnants of its past glories: for example, a network of roads and sidewalks that flow like rivers. Although physically possible, it is inexplicable from their perspective. Clarke’s Third Law explains the source of our amazement as our limitation, rather than the impossibility of the technology.

In his 1999 revision of Profiles of the Future, published in London by Indigo, Clarke added his Fourth Law: “For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.”

From Wikipedia.org

A Witch by Starlight

By starlight this eerie visage shines in the dark, a crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula. Happy Halloween!

read more | digg story

New NASA Capsule Orion Resembles Apollo

NASA rolled out its next-generation space capsule here Wednesday, revealing a bulbous module that is scheduled to carry humans back to the moon in 2020 and eventually onward to Mars. Unlike the space-plane shape of the shuttles, the new Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle looks strikingly similar to the old Apollo space capsule from 1969.

read more | digg story

Ten things you don’t know about black holes

Ah, black holes. The ultimate shiver-inducer of the cosmos, out-jawing sharks, out-ooking spiders, out-
scaring
… um, something scary. But we’re fascinated by ‘em, have no doubt — even if we don’t understand a whole lot about them.

read more | digg story

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