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NASA's InSight On Mars & Elon Musk's Goals

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Earth to Mars Distance:  100 Million Mile Space Journey Source NASA: InSight Enters Mars Innovator Elon Musk 70% Sure He'll Move to Mars NASA's InSight spacecraft just landed successfully on Mars.  It took a six month journey across 300 million miles.  The lander carries breakthrough equipment that will burrow deep into the Red Planet's surface.  This has never been done before.  Space X's Elon Musk believes in upcoming years he will have a 70% chance of moving to Mars. Mars a Difficult Landing InSight's landing was perfect.  But Mars isn't the best place to land.  The 3-legged spacecraft had to decelerate from 12,300 mph to zero in 6 minutes as it pierced the Martian atmosphere.  The 600 pound stationary lander has a 6 foot robotic arm that will place a mechanical mole and seismometer on the ground.  The mole hammers down to 16 feet to measure the planet's heat and the seismometer listens for any quakes.  Nothing like this has been done before on

Dogs Know What They Don't Know

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Dogs Appear to Have Metacognitive Abilities Source:  Max Planck Institute Research from the Max Planck Institute Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have performed some innovative research on dogs.  The scientists findings:  dogs know what they know and know what they don't know.  Dogs problem solve by actively seeking information. Canine Cunning Brains This new research strongly suggests that dogs have metacognitive abilities.  They're aware when they don't have enough information to solve a problem and actively search for what they need to know to get the desired results.  This is similar to how primates behave but it's the first time it has been documented in dogs. DogStudies Lab At the Institute's DogStudies Lab the scientists created a test in which the dogs had to find a reward - a toy or treat - behind one of two fences.  The scientists found that the dogs looked for significantly more information when they d

Your Brain Predicts the Future

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Brain Uses Two Clocks to Anticipate Source:  University of California Innovative Research - University of California - Berkeley It's called anticipatory timing by the brain. And it's a 2 barreled system.  One type of timing relies on memories from past experience.  A second type is based on rhythm.  They work together.  An example is putting your foot on the car's gas pedal as the light starts turning from red to green.  Berkeley neuroscientists have discovered that in music, sports, speech and other activities we calculate movements in two parts of the brain. Brain Timekeepers The neural networks supporting these timekeepers are split between 2 different parts of the brain.  The scientists discovered that timing isn't a unified process.  Their research has documented that there are 2 different ways we make temporal decisions and they are dependent on different parts of the brain. Your  Brain Actively Anticipating the Future Berkeley scientists have provi

Autonomous Mobile Hotel Rooms

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Driverless Rooms to Your Destinations Source:  Aprilli Design Studios Important Innovations in Transportation Here's an entrepreneurial gamble on future travel innovation.  Hotel rooms on autonomous wheels.  Driverless, self-driving vehicles that pick you up at your house or travel takeoff point and take you in your  fully equipped hotel room suite, to your destination.  It's called Autonomous Travel Suites (ATS).  It's the innovation of Aprilli Design Studio's Steve Lee of Toronto.  Lee calls it a hybrid concept combining his expertise in hotel architecture/design and futuristic technology.  The concept won this year's Radical Innovation Concept of the year, a design competition for the hospitality industry. Mobile Hotel Suites The mobile hotel suites are designed for journeys of 6 to 10 hours.  They contain essentially what you find in a hotel room.  They come in a range of sizes for solo travelers to families.  Lee envisions them being operated by &qu

Robot Co-Pilots

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On Military Duty Source:  Sikorsky S-76B Ready When Needed When US pilots go to war, the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA wants robots as their co-pilots.  These are not auto-pilots.  DARPA wants fully functional robot pilots capable of performing routine piloting tasks. Demonstration DARPA just demonstrated what the plan consists of in Virginia.  They used a S-76B helicopter, which is the civilian version of the Army's Blackhawk, to perform maneuvers.  The aircraft landed, maneuvered to avoid a vehicle, lifted-off and then hovered motionlessly for several minutes.  No human was on board.  The pilot was a robot controlled by a human pilot from a computer in another aircraft. Kit to Quickly Deploy The demonstration lasted an hour.  The Army calls it Mission Adaptive Autonomy, meaning the robot is there when the pilot needs to focus on the mission rather than the flight.  DARPA wants a kit that can quickly add a robot co-pilot to any m

Heart Benefits from Strength Training Exercise

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Benefits Vary Among Dynamic & Static Exercises Stock Photo:  Strength Training New Research The American College of Cardiology reports that static exercise activity like strength training is good and better for your heart.  It has stronger results for reducing heart disease risk than dynamic exercise activity like cycling, running and walking. Results The results were presented at the LCC Latin America Conference 2018 in Lima, Peru. More than 4,000 American adults were tracked and analyzed on their exercise routines.  The research concludes that all types of physical activity and exercise are good for the heart.  But static activities, like aerobics and strength training, even in small amounts, proved to be the most beneficial. Your Takeaways The bottom-line from this research is that all exercise works.  Static and dynamic work separately, they work together but static exercise stands out as the most beneficial in preventing heart disease.

Innovation from 4000 Years Ago

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Bronze Age Board Game Discovered Source:  Archeologist Walter Crist  Game On Chiseled in Stone A fascinating archeological discovery.  A dot pattern chiseled into stone in a rock shelter in Azerbaijan.  Archeologist Walter Crist, who discovered it, says it shows that an ancient Near Eastern game called 58 holes or Hounds and Jackals, spread to a population of herders in Azerbaijan.  That region is 1000 to 2000 kilometers away. Roll of the Dice Hounds and Jackals was thought to exist only in Egypt, Mesopotamia and other Near Eastern regions during the Bronze Age.  Dr. Crist, of the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, says the Azerbaijan herders must have had contact with the Near Eastern world more than 1200 miles away.  The archeologist says ancient games often passed across cultures.  In this case, players are thought to have rolled the dice to move pebbles and get to the top first.  4000 years ago, someone created a new piece of innovation -  a game and a roll of t