Happy Birthday Stephen Hawking!

On January 8th 2012 it was Stephen Hawkings 70th birthday.

On 26 April 2007 Stephen Hawking experienced weightlessness aboard the ''Vomit Comet'' plane of Zero Gravity Corporation. He connection with this he said:

Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons. First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space.

Amen to that!

Interviewed in New Scientist about his ''biggest blunder'' - he says that he used to think that information was lost in black holes, now he has changed his mind, and thinks that information is indeed preserved (See Information paradox).

Thats a true scientist speaking - one who can actually learn and improve.
What a guy! What an inspiration!

Read more on Wiki

ps.
And no, Stephen Hawkings voice is not getting an update with a new voice synthesiser. According to Sam Blackburn: ''It has to sound exactly the same. The voice is the unique thing that defines Stephen'' (See Discover Magazine).

Facebook for Robots!

On gadget helpline we read:
If turning the human society into social networking whiners wasn’t enough – now even the robots are at it with a new website called MyRobots.com which pairs automatons to a friend site where they can interact with other droids across the globe!

Beautiful!

The Canadian makers of the simile social site hope that by letting the bots play together online and in the future MyRobot hopes to create apps hosted on an app store for droids to download and share over cloud internet meaning they will be able to learn from one another and then be able to perform more advanced tasks.

Awesome!

Follow events on MyRobot.com

Architecture - Denmark vs. China

I am sure it is going to be great the new
AU arts and business building in Aarhus.
But looking at the time table for the project you realize that we danes are patient people... :-) Apparently, a winner will be picked in 2013.
But it is going to be great!

Apparently it will have Global perspective. I.e. :
Arkitekturen skal på en gang forholde sig til det nære miljø ved
på en gang at respektere, kommentere og udfordre bydelens bygninger
og byrum samtidigt med, at projektet skal have et internationalt
sigte, hvor de nyeste strømninger inden for arkitektur,
materialitet og bæredygtighed ønskes integreret i byggeriet”.
You wonder if global perspective means an iconic building like the Swiss Re in London ? Lets hope so!

And by danish standards it will probably be rather tall, something like 20 - 25 storeyes.

Then we will negotiate in 2013 and 2014.

And we will build the thing in 2015 - 2018. And probably invite the queen for the inauguration in 2018 (perhaps send out invitations in early 2017 ?).

Meanwile in China:

30 storey building in 15 days.

Hopefully ours will last longer! And actually be an architectual marvel, otherwise we should just call in the chinese !

More Android Dreams: Fashion robots, Visions and Reality.

Visions:
The Eve 1138 Android - Sensual Cyborg / Robot 3D Photorealistic Animation - Visions of the future, video projects:


Current 2012 reality:




The Actroids are coming:

Drones are getting more powerful, more accurate and a lot smaller.

From this weeks issue of Times magazine:

The workhorses of the US drone force are the
MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper.



Unlike humans, the weapons don't need sleep,although each drone requires a ground crew of 180 people to pilot the craft. operate its sensors, analyze the data it collects and handle maintenance.
The US has about 7.000 drones flying missions. The latest Reapers cost $8 million each. Indeed, americas arsenal has become so small and lethal, you hardly need
the US army anymore - according to some analysts....
The CIA is now - not so secretly - flying drones. Killing some 2.000 people identified as terrorists sinece 9/11.

Better engines will permit drones to go faster and carry more. Avenger will be able to go 800 km/h. The Predator-C avenger can be armed with 900 kg bombs, four times the size of those carried by the Predator-B Reaper.


First Euro Hawk Lands in Germany.


First flight of X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System.

Ultimate Weapons- X-47B


USA'S new advanced uav x47b .

According to voice-over:
Pilots programs the mission, and then let it go....The only real problem is dataoverload.. Can stay in the skies for days.

US Army unveils new helicopter surveillance drone

Predator Drones

Prometheus - Posters.

Prometheus Poster. Prometheus premiers June 8th, 2012.

Ridley Scott will use the 3D format for his 2012 Sci-Fi movie,
Prometheus 3D.



Queen_Alien


This giant monster appeared in the Alien series of films that have included Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997), Alien Vs. Predator (2004), and Alien Vs. Predator - Requiem (2007). The Xenomorph Queen is the ultimate Alien breed - forever producing more of her type.

The Queen is much different to a regular xenomorph. She is much larger - being almost five meters tall. Her posture is altogether more like that of a theropod dinosaur than that of a humanoid, which the regular xenomorphs resemble. She also has a much larger brain, with a defensive crest protecting her head. The most notable feature of the Xenomorph Queen, however, is the gigantic ovipositor in the lower part of her body, which produces numerous facehugger (another Xenomorph species) eggs. She is very protective of her children and eggs and will go out of her way to help them. This mothering instinct was perfectly demonstrated in Aliens (1986), in which she chased the film's heroine, Ellen Ripley, after Ripley burned all of her eggs.


Mala'kaks - ''Space jockeys'' or ''engineers'' (See Malakaks)
(Latin: Mundus gubernavi, meaning "Universal Pilot")

Nostromo crew members Dallas, Lambert, and Kane encounter its body and realize that it is responsible for broadcasting the signal that led them to the derelict ship. They also noticed that its chest appeared to have been burst open from the inside.




Space jockey.

Prometheus - The most anticipated movie of 2012.

Before Ridley Scott takes audiences on a return trip to the Blade Runner universe, there is a prequel to the alien movies - the 2012 movie ''Prometheus''.



Prometheus

SPOILER ALERT:
-------------------

On io9 one reads:

Earth. Year 2058:

Archaeological digs in Africa reveal alien artifacts that suggest humans were genetically engineered by an advanced alien race (space jockeys). These “Alien Gods” also terraformed Earth in order to make it habitable for their human creations. Amongst finds are coordinates to the Alien Gods’ home-world, to Paradise. Months later, the Weyland Corp launch the spaceship Prometheus and its crew, into deep space to make first contact...

Humans are greeted by their makers, then transported further into space to a scary yet fascinating world. The Alien Gods are proud of their “children”, their first creation to reach such levels of intelligence.

As a reward they share bits of their astonishing bio-based technologies with the humans. But for one crew member of the Prometheus it’s not enough. In a treacherous act he steals the “bio-source code” to Terraforming, a technology at the origin of all Gods’ power, that could make humans equal to the gods. The Alien Gods may be scientists, but are also ruthless conquerors, destroyers of worlds who will not accept humans as equals. They unleash on the escaping human crew their favorite bio-weapon, a creature used to “clean up” worlds before colonization. But something goes wrong in the process and humans manage to turn the bio-weapon against their makers..

On their trail a survivor is an Alien God in a very familiar ship with one ultimate mission: Bring the wrath of the Gods to Earth.

Pretty much the same horrors on tgdaily:

Earth. The beginnings of our world. In an opening montage, we watch as our primordial planet is terraformed and bioformed by seemingly all-powerful, Godlike alien entities…the ENGINEERS. The seeds of life are introduced to Earth for the first time by these fantastic extra-terrestrials, who have the power to create and manipulate both mechanical and biological matter at will. The montage ends as the earliest genetic recipe for life is sent forth from the Engineers’ massive, towering CITADEL in the dark desert.
The depths of space: 2090. A highly-advanced, top-of-the-line ISRV (Interstellar Research Vessel) PROMETHEUS decelerates as it reaches its target solar system.
The crew prepares for arrival at the home planet of the Engineers.
Mudow, Logan, Chance, Aldrich, Yuri, and Janek end up being destroyed by the Protoforms.
At last, the two remaining crew members, Elizabeth Shaw and David, seek to confront the Engineers in the Temple. The Godlike entities prove to be utterly evil, and David sacrifices himself as he’s dissolved in the LIFE SEED BIOFORMER which is the basic genetic recipe for MAN: the former android David, it turns out, is the basis for all Mankind. Shaw is captured by Holloway, but he regains enough of his humanity to remotely activate an Engineer vessel for Shaw’s escape

Shaw emerges above the Earth of her present day; however, she’s deemed insane and responsible for the loss of her expedition and confined to a psychiatric hospital by the Company...

Read more on screenrants (1 and 2)

Well, we''ll just have to wait and see what the plot really is .... But sofar, the fire of anticipation is still burning!

Meanwhile, here is the original Alien trailer:


Prometheus movie homepage