in weekly

Weekly#120

  • “California has more than 800 data centers, the most of any state, according to an estimate by tech consultancy 451 Research LLC that excludes smaller computer rooms that businesses use. Based on that and estimates for water use, the state’s data centers consume roughly as much water in a year as 158,000 Olympic sized swimming pools
    … A midsize 15-megawatt center uses between 80 million and 130 million gallons of water a year for cooling, according to industry estimates. At the high end of that range, each new facility is akin to planting 100 acres of almond trees, adding three hospitals or opening more than two 18-hole golf courses.”(WSJ)
  • Samsung Safety Truck
  • “In 2014, a robot arm that connects into the electrical activity in muscles was approved for commercial sale by the US Food and Drug Administration. The arm allows amputees to do things like climb walls and eat sushi, albeit a little slowly. It was created by DEKA, the company founded by Dean Kamen (the man behind the Segway), and funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

    Now DARPA wants to develop this technology into something that can be controlled by the brain, as easily as a human arm, by amputees, quadriplegics, or anyone in need of a new limb.” (QZ)

  • Hugo Barra Discusses Xiaomi’s U.S. Plans at Code Conference (Full Video)

  • 32,600 new planes worth nearly US$5 trillion in the next 20 years.
    From the world’s first commercial flight in 1914, to today’s 32 million flights annually, aviation has become part and parcel of our everyday lives. With some three billion air passengers, and 50 million tonnes of freight carried every year by planes, it is estimated that aviation contributes US$2.4 trillion annually to global GDP. (Airbus) [PDF]