Mandatory photovoltaic panels, and 100% energy independent houses. The decision for the future of Europe

The European Commission is pushing to decrease the dependence of Member States on fossil fuels, not only for mobility, but also and and for the energy used above all by buildings. The new plan launched, RePowerEU, which also contains interesting news regarding solar energy, goes in this direction.

As stated in the full text published, with the intention of reducing the use of Russian gas, new regulations will come regarding solar panels (photovoltaic and thermal) on the roofs of buildings of all kinds. In detail, the installation of solar energy systems will be mandatory in the following cases:

all new public or commercial buildings, with a usable area of more than 250 m2, by 2026
all existing public or commercial buildings, with a usable area of more than 250 m2, by 2027
all new residential buildings, enters 2029
RePower EU

It is also mentioned the push and the facilitation, for those who live in multi-apartment complexes, towards self-consumption from collective systems.

All these regulations point straight towards the one probably more ambitious, and more difficult to implement, namely that starting from 2030 all new buildings, including residential ones, produce a quantity of energy, to be returned 100% independent. Production, therefore, from solar plants must be on a par with consumption.

The ” virtual ” real estate market has already exploded in the Metaverse

Meta is the new name of Mark Zuckerberg’s company. That same company born as Facebook but which in fact has seen its shape and services change over the years. The metaverse, that is, that virtual world where everyone (or almost everyone) will most likely move, in a completely ephemeral and virtual way, in the next few years and which today is experiencing its growth boom.

And if we talk about transfers, it is clear that even in the metaverse it is not possible to do without buying a property, even if this can also be virtual. There are already many people and many users who have started to buy, and also at a high price, spaces and digital constructions in the metaverse.

It is a rather strange phenomenon and difficult to frame for those unfamiliar with the metaverse or in any case with the virtual and digital world. In fact, the real estate market in the metaverse also passes through cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Yes, because whatever virtual or digital space you want to buy in the metaverse, you buy it through NFT, that is, through a certificate that allows you to guarantee its authenticity and therefore also its ownership. Payment is made through virtual currencies that have been so fashionable for some years and whoever takes possession of a virtual “ land ” can keep it to resell it later in the future at a higher price or maybe even can already use it to create virtual events or build anything on it.

What might seem strange to the less accustomed to this world is the fact that the purchase of virtual land in the metaverse is already moving thousands of euros or dollars by companies or individuals who spend them to buy small pieces of digital land. Will they make money in the future? Will they lose money? At the moment it is not possible to quantify it because the metaverse has not yet fully started. A phenomenon that Facebook (or Meta to put it better) intends to implement in the coming years making it the new Second Life or even a real-life GTA Online.

According to Dell Technologies, biometric technologies will replace passwords in the future

To ensure our privacy, sites and apps ask us to enter increasingly difficult passwords. Not to mention the hassle of having to invent new ones every 6 months because, for some sites, it’s safer that way. This is why the American multinational technology company Dell Technologies begins to look forward to a future where there are no passwords. Biometrics continues to gain popularity as a convenient and secure form of automatic user recognition.

Passwords, compared to more advanced device security features, can be easily compromised. Passwords are a string of characters validated by a website or service to allow access to a user. But even the most complex passwords can be stolen. What you are cannot be copied or stolen, so the fingerprint registered to access services such as home banking is one and only. A user’s biometric matching is difficult to duplicate but, perhaps not impossible.

There are no right or wrong methods. Even biometric data could prove unsafe in the long run. Our body is the key to accessing the digital world. And, if we think about it, once our fingerprints are stolen, we can’t change them, unlike keys, pins and passwords. It is a hypothesis, but being able to steal our fingerprints could turn out to be a mission to 007. Phantom situations aside, biometrics is destined to become dominant in the space of a few years. Most users declare themselves safe in using biometric authentication. Millennials are in charge of the situation, according to a study, 75% of young people have no problems with biometric solutions, less than half use complex passwords and 41% reuse the same passwords. It is also shown how young people have more practicality in using biometric techniques, while the so-called digital belated ones prefer the dear old passwords. Young people are less confident in passwords and are looking for alternative ways to protect their accounts. What should we expect in the future? Should we really prepare to say goodbye to passwords? Of course, this is not new. Who, for convenience, speed or even security, does not use biometric authentication for at least one site?

Social media (especially facebook) are thinking about new technologies: is the future the metaverse?

Perhaps to try to explain the concept in the simplest of ways, the best way is to somehow take up the explanation of whoever coined this new term, which in fact transforms the future into the present. The concept of the metaverse was introduced by Neal Stephenson, an acclaimed author of science fiction books. Speaking of this metaverse, a virtual universe in fact, the author means a real world of virtual reality. A virtual reality shared with other network users. Let’s talk about a transformation of the internet. If we now navigate in front of the screen, with the metaverse we enter the screen in virtual reality. And here it will be possible to meet our friends, take a trip using the resources of the network without ever leaving the desk, attend a virtual concert. Physically remaining seated in front of the PC but with our avatr able to move in the virtual world and interact with it. The key to the metaverse are glasses for augmented reality and objects of this type.

Last week, a rumor leaked that Facebook will change its name shortly to clean up its political image and to diversify services beyond social networks. Pending the conference in which the new name of the IT giant will be presented, information is emerging on what its interests will be in the future.

Mark Zuckerberg said he has repositioned some of the company’s teams to “make services for the young-adult audience our guiding star”. The comment from the CEO of Menlo Park came during a conference with the company’s shareholders, and should respond to the lack of interest of young people in Facebook and the decline in the time they spend on the social network. According to Zuckerberg, in fact, “Many of our services have been designed to be the best for all users who use them, and not just for teenagers and young people”.

The choice to shift the focus of Facebook from the general public to that of young people is due to very precise calculations: the company predicts that the growth of users among older people and among the elderly will be very slow in the coming years, but also which would become much faster if, instead of focusing on all age groups, social media preferred only younger users.

NASA is testing a flying taxi: the future of mobility is taking shape.

NASA has started flight tests on an electric eVTOL built by Aviation and intended for the rapid transport of people. The air taxi allows NASA to collect data on performance and acoustics to help the sector evolve, but not only: what has been learned will serve to fill any gaps in the regulations written by the FAA. by Manolo De Agostini published on 03 September 2021, at 15:01 in the Science and technology channel NASA NASA “studies” the so-called “flying cars”. The US Space Agency has started flight tests with Joby Aviation’s eVTOL (acronym Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing), a flight powered entirely by electricity and capable of getting up and landing vertically. The initiative, part of the National Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) campaign, will run until Friday 10 September at the Joby Electric Flight Base located near Big Sur, California. It is the first time that NASA has tested an eVTOL, an aircraft that many could act as an air taxi for those in the cities and surrounding areas, adding another way of moving people and goods than traditional ones. NASA’s goal is to collect vehicle performance and acoustics data (via more than 50 microphones to monitor different flight phases) for use in modeling and simulating future concepts. The test will help identify gaps in FAA (Feal Aviation Administration) regulations and policies so that eVTOLs can become an integral part of future mobility. One of their strengths, in addition to reducing pollution, should in fact be the acoustic profile: being ideally less noisy than helicopters, they could be more suitable for flights in densely populated areas. NASA’s experiments will serve as a preamble to a test phase, known as NC-1, scheduled for 2022, with more complex flight scenarios and also carried out with other aircraft. In short, NASA’s job is to act as a consultant to the FAA to arrive at clear and safe regulations. According to some experts it will take five years or more to see an eVTOL fly in the American skies, while Joby is more optimistic and is aiming to launch an air taxi service in 2024. Joby Aviation went public a few weeks ago on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), after ten years of activity and a business that has yet to go live but which, as soon as it starts, could soon become a multi-billionaire again.

Duran Duran – Invisible

the timeless duran duran … This is the last single from duran duran, released in the second half of May 2021 and will be the extract of the new album (Future Past) which will be released in October this year …

LYRIC

(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)

(Shy one) Walking by the wall
(Shy one) The shadows will not fall
(Shy one) Is silently ignored
(Quiet one) Discouraged by the noise
(Quiet one) Living without choice
(Quiet one) Is a life without a voice

When you can’t even say my name
Has the memory gone? Are you feeling numb?
Go and call my name
I can’t play this game, so I ask again
Will you say my name?
Has the memory gone? Are you feeling numb?
Or have I become invisible?

(Sky light) That dreamers wish away
(Hindsight) Is falling on my face
(Highlights) The shape of my disgrace

When you don’t hear a word I say
As the talking goes, it’s a one-way flow
No fault, no blame
Has the memory gone? Are you feeling numb?
And have I become invisible?

(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)
(Invisible)

And no one hears a word they say
Has the memory gone? Are you feeling numb?
Not a word they say
But a voiceless crowd isn’t backing down
When the air turns red
With their loaded hesitation
Can you say my name?
Has the memory gone? Are you feeling numb?
Have we all become invisible?

CORONAVIRUS: the future to come ..

Predicting the future is always a great gift to face the difficulties that could trace the path of life. And even if you did not have this clairvoyance, it would still be wise to hypothesize some scenarios to sketch at least a line of foresight.

The world will no longer be the same or at least it will not be for many generations forced, in memory of the Pandemic, to apply those good rules of hygiene or social distancing. But above all, the movements will no longer be the same as before. And flights by plane will be carried out only by business needs or at the limit by indispensable holidays. Not to mention the Cruises, which at the moment those who travel the world can be counted on the palm of a hand. This does not mean that all this will lead to benefits. Just think that ships are the most polluting means of transport that exists, 100 times higher in emissions than airliners. In fact, what is evident is that the seal will begin to breathe with the drastic drop in CO2 emissions and fine dust. The Himalayas are beginning to be seen from India, dolphins appear in the canals of Venice and many animals pour into the city streets, in the absence of the usual tramway. It is unexceptionable that nature has benefited most from this Pandemic, especially if taken into consideration the fact that in recent times the average temperatures had risen to an impressive level (2019 had the hottest October ever), in addition to the fact that 2019 was the year of Greta Tunmberg, the little girl who traveled the world to speak with the powerful of the earth about safeguarding the environment.

The fact remains of how nations will behave in the future once the pandemic is over. The issues are likely to be lower, however, due to the fact that the economic repercussions that will last for years (hopefully not decades) will in any case lead to a decrease in work (and therefore industrial) and social activities.
But our unconscious gestures of social distancing will remain evident. Although in fact, with the end of the virus, social relations will be able to resume, probably also with a certain thrill due to long isolation and long abstinence, our ways will still be influenced by greater freedom, but above all awareness, which will almost certainly be more evident in Latin countries, in which, unlike the Nordic and Anglo-Saxon ones, they have a social culture characterized by warmer gestures and more direct contact.
All the rest is difficult to predict, especially if you think that the geo-political balance will depend on how states will be able to cope with this emergency.

The Future of streaming:… PODCAST

Although the spread of podcasts is constantly growing, many still do not know what it is. The Podcast is a service that allows you to download multimedia files (audio or video) and therefore allows you to consult the material at any time, even offline. The Podcasts began to spread with the music of mp3s and had an exponential spread with the introduction of streaming services, which instead are usable only when connected online. One of the main advantages is that the podcast material can be downloaded on any platform or any device.

Many IT giants come Spotify, amazon, and others. they are investing heavily in podcasts, which have almost become a common service for the web world.

Spotify focuses on podcasts, is testing a new feature that offers users content chosen from an algorithm that is based on previous listenings. The function is called Your daily podcast and allows you to create a playlist, like the music ones, but with audio content.
Experimentation is not available in all countries. It has begun for now in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Here are some of the most popular podcasts:

Kill Tony

99% Invisibile

30for30

Honey and Co: The Food Talks

How Cum

The Heart

My Dad Wrote a Porno

Bad with Money

Pessimist’s Archive

You’re Wrong About

Up first

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