I, Robot (2004)

The real story of #bitcoin.

9 Ocean Facts You Likely Don’t Know, but Should

Earth is a place dominated by water, mainly oceans. It’s also a place our researchers study to understand life. Trillions of gallons of water flow freely across the surface of our blue-green planet. Ocean’s vibrant ecosystems impact our lives in many ways. 

In celebration of World Oceans Day, here are a few things you might not know about these complex waterways.

1. Why is the ocean blue? 

The way light is absorbed and scattered throughout the ocean determines which colors it takes on. Red, orange, yellow,and green light are absorbed quickly beneath the surface, leaving blue light to be scattered and reflected back. This causes us to see various blue and violet hues.

2. Want a good fishing spot? 

Follow the phytoplankton! These small plant-like organisms are the beginning of the food web for most of the ocean. As phytoplankton grow and multiply, they are eaten by zooplankton, small fish and other animals. Larger animals then eat the smaller ones. The fishing industry identifies good spots by using ocean color images to locate areas rich in phytoplankton. Phytoplankton, as revealed by ocean color, frequently show scientists where ocean currents provide nutrients for plant growth.

3. The ocean is many colors. 

When we look at the ocean from space, we see many different shades of blue. Using instruments that are more sensitive than the human eye, we can measure carefully the fantastic array of colors of the ocean. Different colors may reveal the presence and amount of phytoplankton, sediments and dissolved organic matter.

4. The ocean can be a dark place. 

About 70 percent of the planet is ocean, with an average depth of more than 12,400 feet. Given that light doesn’t penetrate much deeper than 330 feet below the water’s surface (in the clearest water), most of our planet is in a perpetual state of darkness. Although dark, this part of the ocean still supports many forms of life, some of which are fed by sinking phytoplankton. 

5. We study all aspects of ocean life. 

Instruments on satellites in space, hundreds of kilometers above us, can measure many things about the sea: surface winds, sea surface temperature, water color, wave height, and height of the ocean surface.

6. In a gallon of average sea water, there is about ½ cup of salt. 

The amount of salt varies depending on location. The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, for instance. Most of the salt in the ocean is the same kind of salt we put on our food: sodium chloride.

7. A single drop of sea water is teeming with life.  

It will most likely have millions (yes, millions!) of bacteria and viruses, thousands of phytoplankton cells, and even some fish eggs, baby crabs, and small worms. 

8. Where does Earth store freshwater? 

Just 3.5 percent of Earth’s water is fresh—that is, with few salts in it. You can find Earth’s freshwater in our lakes, rivers, and streams, but don’t forget groundwater and glaciers. Over 68 percent of Earth’s freshwater is locked up in ice and glaciers. And another 30 percent is in groundwater. 

9. Phytoplankton are the “lungs of the ocean”.

Just like forests are considered the “lungs of the earth”, phytoplankton is known for providing the same service in the ocean! They consume carbon dioxide, dissolved in the sunlit portion of the ocean, and produce about half of the world’s oxygen. 

Want to learn more about how we study the ocean? Follow @NASAEarth on twitter.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

Artificial Intelligence learns to beat Mario like crazy.

Purple stimboard for anon

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Oh, Snap! Scientists Are Turning People's Food Photos Into Recipes

Researchers have created an artificial neural network that analyzes an image of a dish and tells you how to make it. Still in the early stages, the technology might help improve our dietary health.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are creating a computer system modeled after the human brain to examine photos of food on social media and break them down into recipes.

🌿by javi.eats.and.runs on insta

4DAR ARKit Unity

Developer  应高选 has been experimenting with 4DViews’ free 4D captures and shares the results - particularly striking is this one using the new Apple ARKit and Unity software:

4DAR with ARKit and Unity3D, real man and real scale. iPhone6s test.

Here is an example using the same assets at a smaller scale:

应高选’s YouTube channel can be found here

4DViews on PK (from last week) Here

[Update 10/07/17]

Here is a video from 4DAR demonstrating how to put together your ownin 5 minutes:

Almost realtime visual tutorial on using 4DViews volumetric capture sequence with Unity and Apple ARKit, for fast hologram display

This dartboard from former NASA engineer Mark Rober guarantees a bull’s-eye through the power of software, motors, and motion tracking.

Supervised Machine Learning Trainer 3607A

Speculative Design video short from Benedict Hubener, Keyur Jain, and James Zhou of CIID imagines how the future of Smart City maintenence works, with on-site engineers handling Machine Learning equipment with surveillance infrastructure:

In the near future, cities are filled with smart infrastructure such as decentralized security cameras, self-sorting trashcans and intelligent street lights. But who do you call when smart things breaks? The future smart city is not a sci-fi dystopia made out of glass, concrete, and job stealing robots. It’s place much like our own and filled with the banality of everyday life and mundane jobs. Regardless of how you imagine the future smart city, someone needs to get in their white van, take out their ladder, and fix broken things.

The SMLT 3607A or Supervised Machine Learning Trainer is a tool for the future city maintenance worker. He/she can use the SMLT to interface with abnormally behaving smart infrastructure such as a surveillance camera identifying people as eggplants. He/she can retrain the smart camera by recording new examples in real time. The future maintenance worker will teach the camera what it’s seeing and curator the training dataset. He/she will help the camera learn the difference between people and objects and decide who should be classified as an upstanding citizen or a petty criminal.

Link

Harold Halibut

Video game created by @slow-bros is an adventure whose assets were originally handmade to produce a stop-motion feel to the experience:

Harold Halibut is a modern adventure game, with a strong focus on storytelling and exploration. Set in a spaceship, stuck under sea on a distant water planet, you slip into the tiny shoes of Harold. As a young janitor and lab assistant to Professor Jeanne Mareaux, one of the lead scientists on board, he tries to help out in her attempt to find a way to relaunch the ship.

All that can be seen in the game is carefully built in a real-world workshop using classic sculpting, set building and clay and puppet fabrication techniques. We’re not even buying supplemental model train trees or anything.

Our love of stop-motion films, childhood nostalgia and respect for traditional craftsmanship are some reasons for this. Patience and taking a break from an ultra-fast paced digital reality are big factors as well. 

The project has just released a kickstarter campaign which has more information, which you can find here