How To Avoid The Next Atlantis

It is easy to see where we are heading – the future will need far fewer workers. Computers, automation and robots will eliminate jobs in increasingly large numbers, and also apply downward wage pressure. Which is completely backwards from what could be happening if we designed society for the benefit of all. If the wealth were not concentrating, every worker would be benefiting from the increases in productivity created by all of this new technology. Wages would be rising and the work week would be shortening. Instead, all of the benefits are flowing straight to the 1% and everyone else is suffering.

This is where the idea of the Basic Income comes in. It is a standardized way of addressing the large scale unemployment that is coming soon, as well as simplifying welfare, retirement and disability payments, as well as making the productivity increases available to everyone in society instead of the elite few.

The idea is simple: everyone in society receives a regular income simply for being alive. The ultimate goal is for the Basic Income payment, by itself, to provide a comfortable living for every member of society without working.

Fly to Mars without leaving home!

A couple people asked me about this little clip from my “Why Do We Go To Space” video (<- requisite plug for my YouTube show). What you’re seeing on my iPhone screen there is a 360-degree panorama of the Martian surface as captured by the Curiosity rover.

You can view it here. It works great on your computer, but the real magic is when you view it on your phone or tablet.

Congratulations. You’re a space traveler!

Why Leftover Mashed Potatoes Are The Best Kind

YouTube Wants Everyone To Watch This New Movie About Girls Who Code

“Codegirl” will stream for free on YouTube from Nov. 1 - 6.

The Crown Estate has launched a unique interactive map that shows the estimated percentage of UK electricity demand being met by offshore wind on an hourly basis. For the first time, the map draws together a range of publically available data to demonstrate the contribution offshore wind is making to the UK’s low carbon energy mix. The UK now has 27 operational wind farms, with nearly 1500 turbines grown from the first two offshore demonstration turbines deployed in 2000. Although there is variation in output on a daily basis, over the course of 2015 offshore wind is expected to meet an average of around 5% per cent of UK electricity demand.

(via Crown Estate launches interactive offshore wind electricity map - Blue and Green Tomorrow)

Coating Makes Steel Tougher, Keeps Microbes From Sticking

More and more objects are getting superhydrophobic coatings that make liquids bounce right off. Surfaces with complex nanoscopic structures that prevent wetting will soon be deployed on wind turbine blades and aircraft wings to prevent ice from sticking, and even concrete is being doped with superhydrophobic compounds to help it last decades longer.

Much still needs to be done, though, to strengthen these coatings because any damage can remove the ability to repel liquids. Such an advance is hugely important since there are potentially life-saving healthcare applications if this hurdle could be overcome with a stable, nontoxic coating for steel. Just imagine if implants, scalpels and other tools used on patients had a surface impossible for infection-causing microbes to cling to.

Now, Joanna Aizenberg and her colleagues at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have demonstrated a possible solution. They’ve been able to coat stainless steel with nanoporous tungsten oxide, which repels all liquids. What’s more, the surface is extremely tough, maintaining superhydrophobicity even after being scratched with sharp steel objects and diamond.

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Want to know more about how millions of people are forced to pick cotton by the Government of Uzbekistan every year?

This video explains the issue clearly in just two minutes:

Robot Guides Soybean Plant To Light

by Karin Heineman, Inside Science

What happens when you combine a soybean plant with a robot?

You get a soybot!

Developed by researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, they’re on-the-go micro gardens that help indoor plants seek out light.

“They’re equipped with two sensors that measure light conditions, they move continually in the direction of the brighter light,” said Shannon McMullen, a sociologist at Purdue. Learn more and see a video below.

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Watch: A haircut may not solve homelessness — but it can make all the difference for these women.

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