What technologies and innovations will shape our lives after few decades.
How much will your career advance in one or ten years. Where will your kids go to college, be brave and predict here.
How much will the Bitcoin be worth in 2015? How much will the Dogecoin be next month? Post your predictions.
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MMA Prediction: The return of the Last Emperor Fedor Emelianenko
Russian mma heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko revealed during an appearance on the FightSpirit Championship 5 broadcast in Russia that he will announce his promotional signing in 2-3 weeks.
The return of Fedor Emelianenko continues to be a topic that attracts attention from pundits and fans alike, as many eagerly anticipate the end of the sweepstakes for the Russian heavyweight to determine where he will fight in the near future.
According to a recent report from CombatPress.com, Emelianenko has already signed with the UFC and is awaiting an official announcement from the promotion. However, according to the Russian heavyweight, he remains fixed in negotiations for the time being.
Fedor was present at FightSpirit Championship 5 in Russia as the guest of honor and revealed during a quick interview that he would announce his potential signing in the next couple of weeks.
"I can not say exactly, but negotiations with the leading promoters are in place," said Fedor. "In the next two or three weeks everything will become clear."
While rumours and reports have suggested that Fedor's first fight could take place at the UFC's anticipated stadium show in Melbourne, Australia, the Russian wants his first fight to be in either Japan or the United States. He also added that he will also take a fight in Russia shortly thereafter.
"I want to spend my return fight abroad, in Japan or the United States," Fedor confirmed (h/t Sovsport.ru). "But later I will definitely schedule a fight in my homeland, Russia"
With negotiations seemingly ongoing, it will be interesting where the legendary mma fighter settles over the coming weeks.
Source: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/
My MMA Prediction: He’s gonna end up in this new org in Japan thats being created or in M 1, bet on it.
Fighting Kenny Garner or Sergei Kharitonov in Russia and Ishii rematch in Japan.
We all get our hopes up for Fedor in the UFC for rematch with BigFoot and Verdum revenge,but its probably not gonna happen cause thats just the way UFC/Fedor is destined to play out.
GoPro Inc. steps on the Drone market with their own extreme line customer drones
GoPro Inc. is developing its own line of consumer drones to expand from its core business of making wearable video cameras popular with surfers and other sports enthusiasts, according to people familiar with its plans.
The company intends to start selling multirotor helicopters equipped with high-definition cameras late next year, aiming for a price tag between $500 and $1,000, these people said.
The entry of a big consumer-electronics brand to the drone market signals how mainstream—and lucrative—the industry has become in just a few years.
Consumers have flocked to unmanned aircraft in recent years as technological advances have made them smaller, cheaper and easier to fly, leaving regulators scrambling to keep up.
Consumer drones are typically lightweight helicopters with cameras that can be controlled with a tablet computer or smartphone. U.S. regulators allow their use by hobbyists. The devices are expected to be hot sellers this holiday season and have even inspired their own version of the selfie, or self-portrait photo, called a “dronie.” . . . . . . . . . . . . More info: http://online.wsj.com/articles/gopro-developing-line-of-consumer-drones-1417020883 . . . . . . . . . . . . GoPro Official website: http://gopro.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . GoDron - my prediction for name of the drone line
BitTorrent's first tv series "Children of the Machine "(COTM) are available to free download
BitTorrent Inc. is taking on Amazon and Netflix in 2015 with its own original television content platform, dubbed BitTorrent Originals. The first programming to roll out under BitTorrent's banner will be Children of the Machine (COTM), a Sci-Fi television series first announced in July.
COTM will be available in the fall as an ad-supported download or you can purchase a premium version for $9.95. All content for BitTorrent Originals will be produced under an exclusive partnership between BitTorrent and Rapid Eye Studios.
In addition to the series, BitTorrent and Rapid Eye also have a COTM-themed video game planned that will be distributed as a separate BitTorrent Bundle. The company did not announce further details about the game, such as pricing or whether it too will be under the BitTorrent Originals banner.
All BitTorrent Originals content will be distributed for the first 30 to 60 days after its release as a BitTorrent Bundle. After that, it may show up in other distribution platforms around the world, including regular television broadcasts and online streaming. Originals content will be targeted at 14-to-25 year-olds who, the company says, make up the majority of BitTorrent's user base.
Whither the crowd?
BitTorrent had originally planned to introduce COTM using a crowd-funding component. Viewers were supposed to get the first episode for free and then choose to pay $9.95 to support the series. If the supporter list hit 250,000 people then COTM would be considered funded and the first season would be produced. It appears those original plans have been discarded with the introduction of BitTorrent Originals.
The story behind the story: BitTorrent Inc. is on a mission to legitimize file-sharing technology and remove the stigma that the BitTorrent protocol is only for online piracy. In recent years the company has introduced apps that make novel use of the BitTorrent protocol, such as the chat app Bleep and Sync for distributing files across multiple devices. In 2013, BitTorrent rolled out the Bundle program to show how BitTorrent could be used as a distribution platform for original content that isn't pirated. It also introduced paid downloads in 2014 with Radiohead front man Thom Yorke's latest solo effort, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes.
The online trend
BitTorrent Originals is rolling out just as online distribution for high-quality content is becoming the norm. Netflix and Amazon are receiving accolades for original shows like House of Cards and Transparent. Now original content heavyweights like HBO and Showtime intend to introduce standalone online streaming packages this year.
While BitTorrent Originals sounds intriguing, it's still far too early to know whether it will be a success, since the platform's first series is still months away from release.
Nevertheless, BitTorrent has high hopes for the debut of Children of the Machine. The company predicts the series will reach 60-80 million fans for the first season of eight hour-long episodes. "With 170 million monthly active users, we have an audience larger than Amazon and Netflix combined," BitTorrent's content chief Matt Mason told me.
BitTorrent's 170 million users statistic is based on the number of monthly active users for the company's two BitTorrent file-sharing apps—BitTorrent and uTorrent—and is not about how many people regularly download the company's content bundles. Nevertheless, there's no doubt that BitTorrent Bundles are popular too. In June, the company announced its (mostly free) bundles of music and video content had already racked up 100 million downloads.
BitTorrent has yet to announce plans for future Originals titles but says it will have more news in the coming months.
Source: http://www.techhive.com/
This new $2.50 Batteriser, which extends disposable battery life by 800%, is on the energy market
A new device is set to give any disposable battery - from AAA to D - eight times its usual lifespan by keeping its voltage boosted to just above what most appliances consider 'dead'. Developed by US-based start-up, Batteroo, the so-called 'Batteriser' is a stainless steel sleeve that you can clip onto any battery, and because it’s just 0.1 mm thick, it can fit into any kind of device, including TV remotes, torches, bluetooth keyboards, and console controllers.
The idea behind the Batteriser is that a new alkaline battery will be able to generate 1.5 Volts for some time, but as soon as its voltage drops to 1.4 Volts or below, most devices write it off as dead. This means that when we’re throwing out what we think are spent batteries, we’re throwing out something that still has 80 percent of its energy left inside. And that’s where this new voltage booster technology comes into play.
"The Batteriser has boost circuitry that will boost the voltage from 0.6 volts to 1.5 volts and will maintain voltage at 1.5 - which is a brand new battery," one of the team behind the invention, electrical engineer Bob Roohparvar, told Jon Phillips at PCWorld.
While this technology behind the Batteriser voltage booster has been around for many years, the difference here is that Roohparvar and his team have managed to shrink it down enough so it will fit inside any battery compartment you throw at it. "The key is we’ve been able to miniaturise the boost circuit to a point that no one else has been able to achieve," Roohparvar said.
Testing the performance of the Batteriser is easy - Roohparvar just needs to take some 'dead’ batteries with a 1.3-Volt output, and slot them into a Bluetooth keyboard. Naturally, the keyboard doesn’t recognise these batteries as functional, and will not operate. The batteries are then fitted with Batteriser sleeves to boost the voltage back to 1.5 Volts, slotted back inside the Bluetooth keyboard, and "Voila: The Mac reported the battery level at 100 percent," Phillips reports.
"We tested the Batteriser sleeve in our lab and we confirmed that the Batteriser taps into 80 percent of energy that is usually thrown away," said physicist Kiumars Parvin from San Jose State University, who was asked to independently verify the results.
Roohparvar says the Batteriser will also work with rechargeable batteries that have slipped to a 1.2-Volt output, and will be sold in packs of four for $10. They’re planning on having them on the market by September this year, and will launch a crowd-funding Indiegogo campaign later this month.
It’s the kind of technology that just might put a dent in the 15 billion batteries that end up in landfill around the world each year, so hopefully we’ll see these helpful little devices in stores soon.
Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/
Siri introduces the Next Generation Apple TV
In March of this year, BuzzFeed News told you that Apple had a new Apple TV in the pipeline and planned to unveil it in June at its annual Word Wide Developers Conference. Two months later we told you the company scrapped that plan, delaying the device to do a bit more work on it. It opted instead to focus its keynote-address attentions on its next generation operating systems and Apple Music streaming service.
Now, as Apple heads toward its annual fall event, the successor to its superannuated set-top box is once again top of mind and at last headed to market — and for real this time.
Sources familiar with Apple’s plans tell BuzzFeed News that the company intends to announce its next-generation Apple TV in September, at the same event at which it typically unveils its new iPhones. The device itself is pretty much as we described it to you in March, sources say, but “more polished” after some additional tweaks. Expect a refreshed and slimmer chassis and new innards; Apple’s A8 system on chip; a new remote that sources say has been “drastically improved” by a touch-pad input; an increase in on-board storage; and an improved operating system that will support Siri voice control. Crucially, the new Apple TV will debut alongside a long-awaited App Store and the software development kit developers need to populate it.
It’s a significant overhaul of the diminutive set-top box, which hasn’t seen a material refresh since 2012, and one that Apple hopes will inspire a big upgrade cycle through the annual winter holiday consumer binge, setting the stage for the subscription internet-TV service Apple’s been trying to get off the ground for years. While that service is most certainly in the offing, sources tell BuzzFeed News that Apple does not currently plan to announce it alongside the new Apple TV. “Late this year — maybe, but more likely next year,” said one, seconding a June report by Re/code.
While launching new Apple TV hardware apart from a new subscription TV service might seem counterintuitive, it does make strategic sense if Apple doesn’t yet have the deals in place to field such a service. Certainly, Apple doesn’t need to debut the two things together. By rolling out the new Apple TV and SDK ahead of the service, Apple is giving developers some lead time to develop compelling apps for the device — and taking good advantage of a holiday shopping season that will likely drive sales, further growing the Apple TV installed base to which it will someday sell streaming service subscriptions.
Apple declined comment
Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/
UFC 191: Johnson vs. Dodson 2 MMA Revenge Predictions
MAIN CARD
Flyweight: Demetrious Johnson (c) def. John Dodson via Unanimous Decision
Heavyweight: Frank Mir def. Andrei Arlovski via Submission (kneebar)
Light Heavyweight: Anthony Johnson def. Jimi Manuwa via KO (head kick)
Light Heavyweight: Jan Błachowicz def. Corey Anderson via Decision (unanimous)
Women's Strawweight: Paige VanZant def. Alex Chambers via Technical Submission (rear-naked choke)
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)
Lightweight: Paul Felder def. Ross Pearson via TKO (knees)
Women's Bantamweight: Jessica Andrade def. Raquel Pennington via Submission (rear-naked choke)
Submssion of the Night: Frank Mir
Performance of the Night: Demetrious Johnson (c)
Fight of the Night: Demetrious Johnson (c) def. John Dodson
KO of the Night: Anthony Johnson
The US dollar will rise against most currencies, while the euro and yen will fall
Exchange market fundamentals played a big role in movements of currencies during 2014, and will continue to exert a strong influence during 2015. This means that the dollar will strengthen more, because of strong growth prospects and Fed rate hikes (sooner than most other central banks). Having risen by around 8% against major currencies in 2014, IHS expects the greenback to rise another 3–5% in 2015. The anticipated additional stimulus by the ECB and BoJ means that both the euro and the yen will keep depreciating in 2015. IHS predicts that the euro/dollar rate will fall from late-2014 levels of around $1.25 to a range of $1.15–1.20 by autumn 2015. Similarly, the yen is predicted to depreciate from about ¥117 at the end of 2014 to a range of ¥120–125 during 2015. As in the case of the US dollar, early hikes by the Bank of England and Bank of Canada will put upward pressure on sterling and the Canadian dollar, although in the case of the latter, weak oil prices will exert countervailing downward pressures.
Source: https://www.ihs.com/
"The Shepherd’s Crown" - The last Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel is published
Terry Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna has brought down the curtain on her father’s Discworld novels, declaring that she will not write any more herself, nor give anyone else permission to do so. The comic novels set in a world balanced on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle are “sacred to dad”, she said.
The author, videogame and comics writer told a fan last week that her late father’s forthcoming novel, The Shepherd’s Crown, featuring teenage witch Tiffany Aching, would be the final Discworld book. And asked by a fan if she would be continuing the series herself, she ruled out the possibility.
“No. I’ll work on adaptations, spin-offs, maybe tie-ins, but the books are sacred to dad,” she wrote on Twitter. “That’s it. Discworld is his legacy. I shall make my own.”
She added: “To reiterate – no I don’t intend on writing more Discworld novels, or giving anyone else permission to do so.”
Responding to a Twitter user who praised her decision, saying “bravo @rhipratchett Heartily sick of reboots from lesser writers – no one can replace the original & greatest”, Pratchett tweeted that “the comment about ‘lesser writers’ … seemed rather pointed”, adding: “Although in fairness most writers are lesser compared to dad.”
She later said that Pratchett’s assistant, Rob Wilkins, would also not write any Discworld novels, and that the chance of an “unfinished writings compilation” suggested by a fan was “unlikely, sorry”.
The Shepherd’s Crown, which will be published on 27 August, is the 41st Discworld novel. The cover shows that it will feature Tiffany and the six-inch fairies the Nac Mac Feegles, but little else is known about the book.
The Long Utopia, the fourth novel in the science fiction series Pratchett co-authored with Stephen Baxter, will be published on 18 June. The final novel in the five-book series was completed by Pratchett, who died in March.
Larry Finlay, the managing director of Pratchett’s publisher Transworld, told the Bookseller: “We are proud to preserve and curate Terry Pratchett’s legacy according to his family’s wishes, and we are thrilled that there is still one more Discworld novel by Terry, The Shepherd’s Crown, to come.”
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/12/terry-pratchett-daughter-fans-shepherds-crown-last-discworld-novel
Deployed: Airbag vests for bikers and motorcycle riders in Europe and US
Though some motorcyclists wear little more than swimsuits, most try to temper their desire for two-wheeled exhilaration with a dose of self-regard.
Alpinestars, the cycle-sports outerwear company, seems to have scored one for the safety-minded. The company – with offices in northern Italy, Los Angeles and Tokyo – has developed an airbag system that cushions riders’ torsos in case of a crash.
Housed in a vest that fits into select jackets from the brand, the system adds minimal bulk while maximising a rider’s defense mechanisms.
Adjustments in a rider’s position or style are not required. When the Tech-Air Street airbag system’s sensors determine a crash is underway – a conclusion that is reached within 30 and 60 milliseconds – compressed air is released from a pair of cylinders, instantaneously inflating strategically positioned air bladders.
The system is stitched inside a vest that in turn zips within the company’s Valparaiso and Viper jacket models. The Airbag Control Unit and air canisters fit into a rigid section – modelled on a conventional back protector – along the rider’s spine. The entire device is activated when the wearer zips the Tech-Air-equipped jacket closed.
Airbags are positioned front and rear, providing coverage of the back, shoulders, kidney area and chest in the event of a crash. Riders would be hard pressed to detect a vest under a wearer’s jacket, though when the airbags inflate, a rider so-dressed appears to be wearing three sweaters.
Tech-Air systems require no connection to the motorcycle, so wearers can hop from one bike to the next without compromising operation. Users must, however, remember to charge the vest’s battery pack, which is good for about 25 hours of riding when fully topped up. An unobtrusive strip of LEDs runs along the rider’s forearm, indicating level of charge.
The Tech-Air Street system is the result of a decade of research on the road, at temperatures between -10C (14F) and 50C (122F), Alpinestars says. The equipment has also been tested on competitive circuits, where racing versions have protected MotoGP aces Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa from crash injuries. Indeed, a full racing suit for recreational sportbike riders and club racers would not be surprising down the road.
The system even is intended to protect stationary riders, in the event of a rear-end collision when waiting at a traffic light, for example. Other tested contingencies include a rider who wears a backpack over the jacket system, as well as a rider and rear passenger who suffer simultaneous accidental deployments, to ensure stability is maintained.
Alpinestars notes that the Tech-Air Street’s CE certification clears the system for ship, rail and air transport, meaning holidaymakers can take their protective equipment aboard. (The picture is less clear for those travelling in the US, considering authorities’ antipathy towards CO2 tire-inflation cartridges used by bicyclists. The Transportation Security Administration website does, however, note the admission of “small compressed gas cartridges” when used in “life vests,” which the Tech-Air could be considered, even though the rule is aimed at floatation vests.)
The Tech-Air will be available in select European markets in spring 2015, with US sales to come later in the year. Initial pricing for the vest is 1,200 euros ($1,440), which mates to either the Valparaiso (650 euros) or Viper (350 euros) jacket. Pricing for the US market will be announced closer to the system's availability date.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20150105-deployed-alpinestars-tech-air-street-airbag-vest
Tech-Air official website: http://www.alpinestars.com/tech-air
The world’s best whiskey Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 is launched into space for the sake of science
The Japanese distillery company, Suntory, announced that it is partnering with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the International Space Station to launch its world-class whiskey into space.
Alas, according to the press release, the point of the mission is not to provide astronauts with fine whiskey, but to test the way zero-gravity affects the ageing and taste of the liquor. “With the exception of some items like beer, alcoholic beverages are widely known to develop a mellow flavor when aged for a long time,” the company writes. Scientists and Suntory hope that the alcoholic space mission will help determine the source of this mellowing process.
The whiskey’s launch date is August 16, when it will fly aboard JAXA’s transfer vehicle Kounotori. A spokesman for the company told the Wall Street Journal that Suntory will be sending two different whiskies: a single malt aged for 21 years and another whiskey that was just distilled.
Source: http://qz.com
My Malt prediction: the Yamazaki will return like 7 years aged on Earth and get some new unknown trendy alien flavor.
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