 |
|
|
|||||
Time capsules are designed to be resilient by nature. But no time capsule has survived as long as designers hope Americas Time Capsule will. The time capsule, designed for the semiquincentennial of the U.S. founding, is being created by America250, the nonpartisan, congressionally mandated group organizing commemorations for this year. The plan is to bury the time capsule underground in Philadelphia at Independence National Historical Park on July 4, and for it to be opened in another 250 years, in 2276. [Photo: Courtesy of America250] The problem is time capsules, which are typically buried underground, and exposed to the elements, don’t really last that long. “We’ve unburied some time capsules that are more than 200 years old and the contents haven’t fared well,” says Tony Medema, a special advisor and project manager for the time capsule, during a press conference Wednesday. When a time capsule is buried in a building cornerstone, or stored in a climate-controlled space as is the Bicentennial time capsule (it’s stored on a shelf in the National Archives), it’s easier to preserve whatever is inside. Outside, though, it’s exposed to the elements and could get wet and deteriorate. “The biggest risk to a time capsule is water,” says Jacob Ricker, an engineer for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a Commerce Department agency that standardizes weights and worked on the time capsule. [Photo: Courtesy of America250] The design team is taking several precautions to ensure the time capsule remains protected from water. They made the 36-inch-tall vessel tubular to reduce structural vulnerabilities. The capsule has three inner layers that lock in its contents and protect them from outside elements, followed by an outer stainless-steel finish that covers the entire time capsule. Inside, design decisions were both functional and organizational. A metal bell jar cover creates an air pocket. There are also stacks of interior shelves that will eventually house things like a flag, items from the 2026 Rose Parade, and submissions from all 50 states, five territories, and Washington, D.C. Paper documentsits most delicate contentswill be secured inside an inner chamber. Earlier plans for the time capsule imagined it embedded in a 46-foot-long sculpture of Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 “Join or Die” political cartoon showing a snake made up of pieces representing the then-British colonies. The sculpture is expected to be completed this fall. Organizers, however, determined that for longevity’s sake, it would be better to bury the time capsule underground. [Photo: Courtesy of America250] Independence National Historical Park is about 30 feet above sea level, so rising sea levels shouldn’t be a problem for 250 years, Ricker says, but the time capsule was also designed to withstand flooding. “Because we’re underground, we do get rain and things like that and it is possible that the burial area could get flooded with water. Our design is accounting for that,” he says. “So it shouldn’t see water, even if we get torrential rains or anything like that, which would flood the burial site. It should be 100% sealed just with that outer shell.” NIST scientists helped develop the time capsule alongside preservation experts at the Library of Congress and in coordination with the National Park Service, America250 says. A replica will be displayed at the White House Visitor Center, however, time to see the real thing is limited: the actual time capsule will be briefly displayed in early June in Philadelphia before it’s buried.
Category:
E-Commerce
Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia on Wednesday announced another quarter of astounding quarterly growth as investors try to decipher whether technology’s latest craze is overblown hyperbole or a springboard into a new era of prosperity and productivity.The results for the November-January period blew past the analyst projections that shape investors’ perceptions, as has been the case since Nvidia’s high-end chips emerged as AI’s best building blocks three years ago.Nvidia’s fiscal fourth-quarter revenue surged 73% from the previous year to $68.1 billion while its profit nearly doubled to roughly $43 billion, or $1.76 per share.“No quarter has had more riding on it than this one,” said Jake Behan, head of capital markets for the investment firm Direxion. “The AI trade needed some positive news and Nvidia’s earnings report brought plenty of it.”The Santa Clara, California, company also provided a forecast exceeding analyst projections while its CEO Jensen Huang reinforced the demand for the company’s chips is still “skyrocketing.” That description feeds into Huang’s thesis that the AI boom is still in the early stages of a buildout that will reshape society. If Nvidia hits its revenue target for the February-April period, it will translate into a 77% increase from last year a sign that the company’s already phenomenal growth rate is still accelerating.“AI is here, AI is not going to go back,” Huang said during a conference call with analysts. “AI is only going to only get better from here.”Despite the stellar results and still-rosy outlook, many investors still evidently are worried about a jarring comedown after a three-year boom that has seen Nvidia’s market value soar from $400 billion at the end of 2022 to nearly $4.8 trillion now. After initially rising 4% in extended trading after the latest quarterly numbers came out, Nvidia’s stock price backtracked and was slightly down following Huang’s upbeat conference call.Nvidia has regularly cleared the bar set by analysts in the past three years, often by a wide margin, but that hasn’t always been enough to satisfy investors who have become increasingly skeptical about whether AI will justify the trillions of dollars that are being spent to develop the technology.After Nvidia delivered a stellar performance that far exceeded analyst forecasts in its last quarterly report, its stock price still fell by 3% during the next day’s trading.The AI fervor has escalated again during the past month as the four companies leading the AI charge Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta Platforms collectively made commitments to spend about $650 billion this year ramping up their AI computing power.A significant amount of the money is expected to be earmarked to buy more Nvidia chips required to power their AI factories, just as has been the case for much of the past three years as Nvidia’s annual revenue soared from $27 billion to $216 billion. Analysts expect the chipmaker’s revenue to surpass $330 billion during the company’s next fiscal year, a more than 50% increase from the past year.“We want to take the great opportunity that we have as we’re in the beginning of this new computing era, this new computing platform shift, to put everybody on Nvidia,” Huang said. Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
There are few things that unite the world like animal videos. There are also few things that are so readily commoditized. Both have occurred in the case of Punch, a baby monkey at the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan. Punch captured hearts around the world after a viral post showed him hugging a stuffed orangutan toy after being rejected by other monkeys. E-commerce sellers act quickly with monkey merch Now, the young Japanese macaque and his stuffed friend are available as everything from toys on Etsy to adecide for yourself if its AIchildren’s book on Amazon. Theres also an official Punch Monkey store with products like stickers, shirts, and mugs. Some of the merchandise even contains hopeful sayings, like Small, but brave, alongside imagery of the pair. In fact, the original plush orangutan doll is available for $19.99, as its one of the Djungelskog soft toys from Ikea. The Swedish retailer has gone so far as to make an advertisement based on Punch and shared to its social channels. In it, a stuffed monkey holds the orangutan while real monkeys appear in the background. The copy reads, Sometimes, family is who we find along the way. It then refers to the stuffed toy as Punchs comfort orangutan. View this post on Instagram Fast Company has reached out to Ikea for more information on the retailer’s orangutan soft toy sales. We will update this post if we hear back. Meanwhile, a new video appears to show Punch having made some progress with his fellow monkeys. But the young creature has already reached the same status as its fellow infamous animals like Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||