Category Archives: Science

Esoteric, Observation, Science, UFOs

What if “Non-human Biologics” are Watching?

Earthlings Through Alien Eyes: The Quirks, Quandaries, and Quibbles of Homo Sapiens

The ethereal morning light crests over an unassuming planet in the Milky Way galaxy, illuminating a peculiar and paradoxical scene. A non-human biologic — a visitor from the cosmos, lands on Earth. It doesn’t take long for this non-terrestrial observer to sunrise, an alien term for summarizing an assessment of a foreign entity, that the inhabitants of this planet are an enigmatic lot.

The first oddity? Large, boxy contraptions on wheels, emitting noxious fumes, threading across the landscape like metallic beetles. These ‘automobiles’, it transpires, are the Earthlings’ favorite mode of transit. The aliens’ bewildering discovery – these contraptions are powered by the long-deceased remains of prehistoric creatures. An odd choice for a species with access to an ongoing nuclear fusion reactor in the sky.

While deciphering the local customs, the aliens’ attention is drawn to the humans’ diet. With an array of potential sustenance on their planet, it’s curious that they show particular predilection towards devouring specific creatures: the bovine and the poultry. Meanwhile, a closer look reveals a division in the populace, with a fraction advocating for a diet devoid of fellow sentient beings, creating what can only be termed ‘food wars’.

Their planetary habits raise alien eyebrows too. Amid a growing chorus of concern over the degradation of their blue sphere, many Earthlings paradoxically resist the call for protective measures. Despite the stark warnings from their own scientific community, this existential tug-of-war continues. It seems these beings are not just survivalists, but passionate debaters, even when the debate might cost them their only home.

Even more puzzling is the human concept of ‘money’, an abstraction they’ve erected to facilitate exchange and hoard power. Our alien visitor marvels at the complexity of this system, and how it breeds both innovation and stark inequality, often polarizing their societies.

The complexities don’t stop at economics. The ‘government’, a ruling apparatus, retains information about sightings of ‘UAPs’ or unidentified aerial phenomena, potentially their own cosmic neighbors. Why would a civilization, just finding its feet in the cosmic arena, hide potential proofs of life beyond their sphere?

As the alien biologic prepares to leave, it ponders. Humans, despite their peculiarities and paradoxes, have an undeniable drive to survive and a capacity for great creativity and empathy. Perhaps, it muses, they’re not so different from other life forms in the vast cosmos.

Perhaps, amid the strange and nonsensical, these aliens might sunrise a beacon of hope – that Earthlings, with all their quirks and quibbles, have the potential for a future that’s as bright and promising as the dawn they’re named for. Perhaps the story of Earth is not yet written in the stars, and maybe, just maybe, the quirky inhabitants of this blue planet could yet surprise the cosmos.

Blue Sphere Balancing Act: The Paradox of Preservation

As the alien visitor observes, the Earthlings’ management of their planet raises quite a few extraterrestrial eyebrows. Amidst the concrete and metal of sprawling cities, patches of verdant wilderness still persist – a testament to the planet’s resilience. But closer scrutiny reveals a worrisome trend. Vast forests are disappearing, oceans are brimming with plastic waste, and invisible clouds of gases envelope the globe, heating it at an unprecedented rate.

The alien’s advanced sensors detect voices of concern, a burgeoning movement of Earthlings alarmed at these changes. These ‘environmentalists’ promote conservation, recycling, and a shift towards renewable energy sources, often sacrificing personal comfort for the greater good. Yet, intriguingly, there is resistance. There are Earthlings who, in the face of mounting evidence, dismiss these calls to action, clinging to ways that contribute to the degradation.

The existential debate on Earth seems reminiscent of the Cosmic Conundrum of Zog, where beings had to choose between harnessing the energy of their dying star or seeking a new cosmic home. Unlike the Zogians, however, the Earthlings are still arguing.

Monetary Mysteries: An Abstraction of Power and Division

As the observer further investigates Earthling civilization, it stumbles upon an even more puzzling phenomenon: the concept of ‘money’. While barter systems and resource exchanges are common throughout the cosmos, the abstraction and complexity of human currency are unique.

On Earth, pieces of paper, bits of metal, and even invisible digital codes are valued more than the resources they’re meant to represent. This ‘money’ is hoarded, fought over, and often decides an individual’s access to life necessities and luxuries. It seems an unnecessarily complicated system to the visitor, who comes from a civilization that long ago transitioned to a post-scarcity economy.

Yet, it’s not just the concept of money that’s puzzling, it’s the inequality it creates. Some Earthlings amass wealth far beyond their needs, constructing gigantic abodes and acquiring multiple terrestrial vehicles, while others struggle for basic sustenance. Even more intriguing, this system somehow also fuels innovation, driving the creation of everything from life-saving medical technologies to the very machines contributing to the planet’s degradation.

As the visitor gazes upon Earth, it cannot help but wonder if the humans, too, will transcend their self-imposed chains of inequality and environmental disregard, much like the Zogians did.

UFOs

The Congressional Hearing On UFOs Confirmed the Existence of Aliens? Maybe

“Congressional hearing on UFOs just ended. Serious, diligent. Absolutely stunning testimony. Hard to walk away from this thinking anything other than there’s something profound happening on our planet that we do not understand.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN): “How do you know that these [UAPs] were not our aircraft?”

Former Navy fighter pilot Ryan Graves: “These objects were staying completely stationary in Category 4 hurricane winds. These same objects would then accelerate to supersonic speeds.”

The Recount, July 26, 2023
RECOUNT (@THERECOUNT)

The Inexorable Truth: The Case for Unearthing Extraterrestrial Secrets

In the age-old cosmic debate on the existence of non-human life, one truth remains increasingly apparent: if proof of extraterrestrial existence is hidden within the vaults of global governments, the clock is ticking toward an inevitable disclosure. The question now is not so much ‘if’ but ‘when’.

Tales of strange lights, puzzling aircraft, and close encounters have circulated for decades. These narratives, once consigned to the fringe, have gradually weaved themselves into the fabric of the mainstream, fanning the flames of public curiosity.

If there exists irrefutable evidence of such cosmic neighbors — proof tucked away in the dark, classified corners of government operations — the truth may prove too large to remain under wraps indefinitely. As the saying goes, “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.” The axiom likely also applies in the interstellar arena.

The Evolution of Transparency: A Step Towards Revelation

Scrutinizing the historical arc of governmental disclosure, there appears an intriguing trend: an evolution from near-complete secrecy to a progressively open dialogue on UFO phenomena. The trend is indicative of a slow yet purposeful march towards transparency.

The U.S. government, once notorious for its silence, has recently declassified an array of UFO-related documents, thrusting the discussion of extraterrestrial life into the public forum. This release marked a radical shift from the days of Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force’s attempt to debunk UFO sightings in the 1950s and 60s.

From the international lens, countries such as France and Chile have taken active strides towards greater transparency in this arena. The French unit, GEIPAN, housed within the national space agency, CNES, and Chile’s CEFAA are some of the entities leading the charge on officially sanctioned UFO inquiries. The actions of these organizations exemplify a broader trend toward increased governmental openness.

Subtle Clues: The Inference of Other-Worldly Existence

Amid the ongoing debate, certain peculiar instances have emerged that could potentially imply the existence of extraterrestrial life. These instances, be they the puzzling flight patterns exhibited by UAPs or the inexplicably advanced technology they seem to display, provoke more questions than answers.

The 2004 USS Nimitz encounter, with its baffling infrared footage, is a standout episode that both skeptics and believers continue to pore over. Similarly, the 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident in the UK, which involved multiple, highly credible witnesses, remains a tantalizing hint of non-human life. Each of these instances, among countless others, signal toward a reality we are only just beginning to comprehend.

The Dawn of Disclosure: An Inevitable Future

As we stand on the precipice of, what may turn out to be a brave new world, where advanced tracking technologies and an increasingly demanding public make the concealing of UFO-related evidence increasingly challenging, governments might be hard-pressed to maintain their customary tight-lipped stance indefinitely.

The trajectory of UFO discourse suggests an inevitable full disclosure could, indeed, lie in the not-too-distant future. This conclusion raises fascinating prospects: What would such a revelation mean for our society? How would it reshape our understanding of our place in the universe? And how ready are we to grapple with the magnitude of such an earth-shattering truth? Do we cry?, laugh?, succumb to our darkest fears?

While the timing and nature of this prospective disclosure remain speculative, one thing seems certain. Whether it emerges as a sudden revelation or a gradual unmasking, the unveiling of the extraterrestrial secret — if it indeed exists — may be closer than we dare to imagine. The cosmic curtain, it seems, is set to rise.

Climate Solutions, Science, Sustainable Energy

Meet the power plant of the future: Solar + battery hybrids are poised for explosive growth

By pairing solar power and battery storage, hybrids can keep providing electricity after dark.

Joachim Seel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Bentham Paulos, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Will Gorman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

America’s electric power system is undergoing radical change as it transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy. While the first decade of the 2000s saw huge growth in natural gas generation, and the 2010s were the decade of wind and solar, early signs suggest the innovation of the 2020s may be a boom in “hybrid” power plants.

A typical hybrid power plant combines electricity generation with battery storage at the same location. That often means a solar or wind farm paired with large-scale batteries. Working together, solar panels and battery storage can generate renewable power when solar energy is at its peak during the day and then release it as needed after the sun goes down.

A look at the power and storage projects in the development pipeline offers a glimpse of hybrid power’s future.

Our team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that a staggering 1,400 gigawatts of proposed generation and storage projects have applied to connect to the grid – more than all existing U.S. power plants combined. The largest group is now solar projects, and over a third of those projects involve hybrid solar plus battery storage.

While these power plants of the future offer many benefits, they also raise questions about how the electric grid should best be operated.

Why hybrids are hot

As wind and solar grow, they are starting to have big impacts on the grid.

Solar power already exceeds 25% of annual power generation in California and is spreading rapidly in other states such as Texas, Florida and Georgia. The “wind belt” states, from the Dakotas to Texas, have seen massive deployment of wind turbines, with Iowa now getting a majority of its power from the wind.

This high percentage of renewable power raises a question: How do we integrate renewable sources that produce large but varying amounts of power throughout the day?

Joshua Rhodes/University of Texas at Austin.

That’s where storage comes in. Lithium-ion battery prices have rapidly fallen as production has scaled up for the electric vehicle market in recent years. While there are concerns about future supply chain challenges, battery design is also likely to evolve.

The combination of solar and batteries allows hybrid plant operators to provide power through the most valuable hours when demand is strongest, such as summer afternoons and evenings when air conditioners are running on high. Batteries also help smooth out production from wind and solar power, store excess power that would otherwise be curtailed, and reduce congestion on the grid.

Hybrids dominate the project pipeline

At the end of 2020, there were 73 solar and 16 wind hybrid projects operating in the U.S., amounting to 2.5 gigawatts of generation and 0.45 gigawatts of storage.

Today, solar and hybrids dominate the development pipeline. By the end of 2021, more than 675 gigawatts of proposed solar plants had applied for grid connection approval, with over a third of them paired with storage. Another 247 gigawatts of wind farms were in line, with 19 gigawatts, or about 8% of those, as hybrids.

The amount of proposed solar, storage and wind power waiting to hook up to the grid has grown dramatically in recent years, while coal, gas and nuclear have faded. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Of course, applying for a connection is only one step in developing a power plant. A developer also needs land and community agreements, a sales contract, financing and permits. Only about one in four new plants proposed between 2010 and 2016 made it to commercial operation. But the depth of interest in hybrid plants portends strong growth.

In markets like California, batteries are essentially obligatory for new solar developers. Since solar often accounts for the majority of power in the daytime market, building more adds little value. Currently 95% of all proposed large-scale solar capacity in the California queue comes with batteries.

5 lessons on hybrids and questions for the future

The opportunity for growth in renewable hybrids is clearly large, but it raises some questions that our group at Berkeley Lab has been investigating.

Here are some of our top findings:

  • The investment pays off in many regions. We found that while adding batteries to a solar power plant increases the price, it also increases the value of the power. Putting generation and storage in the same location can capture benefits from tax credits, construction cost savings and operational flexibility. Looking at the revenue potential over recent years, and with the help of federal tax credits, the added value appears to justify the higher price.
  • Co-location also means tradeoffs. Wind and solar perform best where the wind and solar resources are strongest, but batteries provide the most value where they can deliver the greatest grid benefits, like relieving congestion. That means there are trade-offs when determining the best location with the highest value. Federal tax credits that can be earned only when batteries are co-located with solar may be encouraging suboptimal decisions in some cases.
  • There is no one best combination. The value of a hybrid plant is determined in part by the configuration of the equipment. For example, the size of the battery relative to a solar generator can determine how late into the evening the plant can deliver power. But the value of nighttime power depends on local market conditions, which change throughout the year.
  • Power market rules need to evolve. Hybrids can participate in the power market as a single unit or as separate entities, with the solar and storage bidding independently. Hybrids can also be either sellers or buyers of power, or both. That can get complicated. Market participation rules for hybrids are still evolving, leaving plant operators to experiment with how they sell their services.
  • Small hybrids create new opportunities: Hybrid power plants can also be small, such as solar and batteries in a home or business. Such hybrids have become standard in Hawaii as solar power saturates the grid. In California, customers who are subject to power shutoffs to prevent wildfires are increasingly adding storage to their solar systems. These “behind-the-meter” hybrids raise questions about how they should be valued, and how they can contribute to grid operations.

Hybrids are just beginning, but a lot more are on the way. More research is needed on the technologies, market designs and regulations to ensure the grid and grid pricing evolve with them.

While questions remain, it’s clear that hybrids are redefining power plants. And they may remake the U.S. power system in the process.

Joachim Seel, Senior Scientific Engineering Associate, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Bentham Paulos, Affiliate, Electricity Markets & Policy Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Will Gorman, Graduate Student Researcher in Electricity Markets and Policy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Climate Solutions, News, Observation, Politics, Science

‘Our House Is Truly on Fire’: Earth Now Has 50% Chance of Hitting 1.5°C of Warming by 2026

“The 1.5°C figure is not some random statistic,” said the head of the World Meteorological Organization. “It is rather an indicator of the point at which climate impacts will become increasingly harmful for people and indeed the entire planet.”

The World Meteorological Organization warned Monday that the planet now faces a 50% chance of temporarily hitting 1.5°C of warming above pre-industrial levels over the next five years, another signal that political leaders—particularly those of the rich nations most responsible for carbon emissions—are failing to rein in fossil fuel use.

“For as long as we continue to emit greenhouse gases, temperatures will continue to rise.”

In 2015, by comparison, the likelihood of briefly reaching or exceeding 1.5°C of global warming over the ensuing five-year period was estimated to be “close to zero,” the WMO noted in a new climate update. The report was published amid a deadly heatwave on the Indian subcontinent that scientists say is a glimpse of what’s to come if runaway carbon emissions aren’t halted. Thus far, the heatwave has killed dozens in India and Pakistan.

Signatories to the Paris climate accord have agreed to act to limit the global average temperature increase to well below 2°C—preferably to 1.5°C—by the end of the century. Climate advocates have deemed the 1.5°C target “on life support” following world leaders’ refusal to commit to more ambitious action at the COP26 summit in Glasgow late last year.

“We are getting measurably closer to temporarily reaching the lower target of the Paris Agreement,” Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the WMO, said in a statement Monday. “The 1.5°C figure is not some random statistic. It is rather an indicator of the point at which climate impacts will become increasingly harmful for people and indeed the entire planet.”

“For as long as we continue to emit greenhouse gases, temperatures will continue to rise,” Taalas added. “And alongside that, our oceans will continue to become warmer and more acidic, sea ice and glaciers will continue to melt, sea level will continue to rise and, our weather will become more extreme. Arctic warming is disproportionately high and what happens in the Arctic affects all of us.”

Dr. Leon Hermanson, a climate expert at the U.K. Met Office who led the WMO report, stressed that a short-lived breach of the 1.5°C threshold would not mean that the world is guaranteed to fall short of the Paris accord’s most ambitious warming target, which climate experts and campaigners have long decried as inadequate.

Such a breach, however, would “reveal that we are edging ever closer to a situation where 1.5°C could be exceeded for an extended period,” said Hermanson.

The WMO’s latest research also estimates that there is a 93% chance that at least one year between 2022 and 2026 will be the warmest on record. Currently, 2016 and 2020 are tied for the top spot.

Even if global warming is limited to 1.5°C by 2100, countless people across the globe will still face devastating heatwaves, droughts, and other extreme weather, with the poor facing the worst consequences.

Meanwhile, key ecosystems could be damaged beyond repair in a 1.5°C hotter world. One recent study found that 99% of the world’s coral reefs would experience heatwaves that are “too frequent for them to recover” if the planet gets 1.5°C warmer compared to pre-industrial levels.

Scientists behind the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report cautioned last month that if there’s to be any hope of keeping warming to 1.5°C or below by 2100, “it’s now or never.”

“Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible,” said Jim Skea, co-chair of IPCC Working Group III.

Originally published on Common Dreams by JAKE JOHNSON and republished under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Climate Solutions, Politics, Science, Tesla

Revolutionary changes in transportation, from electric vehicles to ride sharing, could slow global warming – if they’re done right, IPCC says

Electric vehicle sales are growing quickly. Michael Fousert/Unsplash

Alan Jenn, University of California, Davis

Around the world, revolutionary changes are under way in transportation. More electric vehicles are on the road, people are taking advantage of sharing mobility services such as Uber and Lyft, and the rise in telework during the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way people think about commuting.

Transportation is a growing source of the global greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change, accounting for 23% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions worldwide in 2019 and 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

The systemic changes under way in the transportation sector could begin lowering that emissions footprint. But will they reduce emissions enough?

In a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released April 4, 2022, scientists examined the latest research on efforts to mitigate climate change. The report concludes that falling costs for renewable energy and electric vehicle batteries, in addition to policy changes, have slowed the growth of climate change in the past decade, but that deep, immediate cuts are necessary. Emissions will have to peak by 2025 to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F), a Paris Agreement goal, the report says.

Costs are falling for key forms of renewable energy and EV batteries, and adoption of these technologies is rising. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

The transportation chapter, which I contributed to, homed in on transportation transformations – some just starting and others expanding – that in the most aggressive scenarios could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by 80% to 90% of current levels by 2050. That sort of drastic reduction would require a major, rapid rethinking of how people get around globally.

The future of EVs

All-electric vehicles have grown dramatically since the Tesla Roadster and Nissan Leaf arrived on the market a little over a decade ago, following the popularity of hybrids.

In 2021 alone, the sales of electric passenger vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, doubled worldwide to 6.6 million, about 9% of all car sales that year.

Strong regulatory policies have encouraged the production of electric vehicles, including California’s Zero Emission Vehicle regulation, which requires automakers to produce a certain number of zero-emission vehicles based on their total vehicles sold in California; the European Union’s CO2 emissions standards for new vehicles; and China’s New Energy Vehicle policy, all of which have helped push EV adoption to where we are today.

Pickups, Vans and SUVs, which typically have much lower gas mileage than cars, make up the majority of new car sales in the U.S. Electric versions could be game-changers for emissions.

Beyond passenger vehicles, many micro-mobility options – such as autorickshaws, scooters and bikes – as well as buses, have been electrified. As the cost of lithium-ion batteries decreases, these transportation options will become increasingly affordable and further boost sales of battery-powered vehicles that traditionally have run on fossil fuels.

An important aspect to remember about electrifying the transportation system is that its ability to cut greenhouse gas emissions ultimately depends on how clean the electricity grid is. China, for example, is aiming for 20% of its vehicles to be electric by 2025, but its electric grid is still heavily reliant on coal.

With the global trends toward more renewable generation, these vehicles will be connected with fewer carbon emissions over time. There are also many developing and potentially promising co-benefits of electromobility when coupled with the power system. The batteries within electric vehicles have the potential to act as storage devices for the grid, which can assist in stabilizing the intermittency of renewable resources in the power sector, among many other benefits.

Other areas of transportation are more challenging to electrify. Larger and heavier vehicles generally aren’t as conducive to electrification because the size and weight of the batteries needed rapidly becomes untenable.

For some heavy-duty trucks, ships and airplanes, alternative fuels such as hydrogen, advanced biofuels and synthetic fuels are being explored as replacements for fossil fuels. Most aren’t economically feasible yet, and substantial advances in the technology are still needed to ensure they are either low- or zero-carbon.

Other ways to cut emissions from transportation

While new fuel and vehicle technologies are often highlighted as decarbonization solutions, behavioral and other systemic changes will also be needed to meet to cut greenhouse gas emissions dramatically from this sector. We are already in the midst of these changes.

Telecommuting: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the explosion of teleworking and video conferencing reduced travel, and, with it, emissions associated with commuting. While some of that will rebound, telework is likely to continue for many sectors of the economy.

Shared mobility: Some shared mobility options, like bike and scooter sharing programs, can get more people out of vehicles entirely.

Car-sharing and on-demand services such as Uber and Lyft also have the potential to reduce emissions if they use high-efficiency or zero-emission vehicles, or if their services lean more toward car pooling, with each driver picking up multiple passengers. Unfortunately, there is substantial uncertainty about the impact of these services. They might also increase vehicle use and, with it, greenhouse gas emissions.

New policies such as the California Clean Miles Standard are helping to push companies like Uber and Lyft to use cleaner vehicles and increase their passenger loads, though it remains to be seen whether other regions will adopt similar policies.

Public transit-friendly cities: Another systemic change involves urban planning and design. Transportation in urban areas is responsible for approximately 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Efficient city planning and land use can reduce travel demand and shift transportation modes, from cars to public transit, through strategies that avoid urban sprawl and disincentivize personal cars. These improvements not only decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but can decrease congestion, air pollution and noise, while improving the safety of transportation systems.

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How do these advances translate to lower emissions?

Much of the uncertainty in how much technological change and other systemic shifts in transportation affects global warming is related to the speed of transition.

The new IPCC report includes several potential scenarios for how much improvements in transportation will be able to cut emissions. On average, the scenarios indicate that the carbon intensity of the transportation sector would need to decrease by about 50% by 2050 and as much as 91% by 2100 when combined with a cleaner electricity grid to stay within the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) target for global warming.

These decreases would require a complete reversal of current trends of increasing emissions in the transportation sector, but the recent advances in transportation provide many opportunities to meet this challenge.

Related Reading:

Alan Jenn, Assistant Professional Researcher in Transportation, University of California, Davis

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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News, Observation, Politics, Science

Nuclear fusion hit a milestone thanks to better reactor walls – this engineering advance is building toward reactors of the future

Scientists at a laboratory in England have shattered the record for the amount of energy produced during a controlled, sustained fusion reaction. The production of 59 megajoules of energy over five seconds at the Joint European Torus – or JET – experiment in England has been called “a breakthrough” by some news outlets and caused quite a lot of excitement among physicists. But a common line regarding fusion electricity production is that it is “always 20 years away.”

photo collage / Lynxotic / adobe stock

We are a nuclear physicist and a nuclear engineer who study how to develop controlled nuclear fusion for the purpose of generating electricity.

The JET result demonstrates remarkable advancements in the understanding of the physics of fusion. But just as importantly, it shows that the new materials used to construct the inner walls of the fusion reactor worked as intended. The fact that the new wall construction performed as well as it did is what separates these results from previous milestones and elevates magnetic fusion from a dream toward a reality.

Fusing particles together

Nuclear fusion is the merging of two atomic nuclei into one compound nucleus. This nucleus then breaks apart and releases energy in the form of new atoms and particles that speed away from the reaction. A fusion power plant would capture the escaping particles and use their energy to generate electricity.

There are a few different ways to safely control fusion on Earth. Our research focuses on the approach taken by JET – using powerful magnetic fields to confine atoms until they are heated to a high enough temperature for them to fuse.

The fuel for current and future reactors are two different isotopes of hydrogen – meaning they have the one proton, but different numbers of neutrons – called deuterium and tritium. Normal hydrogen has one proton and no neutrons in its nucleus. Deuterium has one proton and one neutron while tritium has one proton and two neutrons.

For a fusion reaction to be successful, the fuel atoms must first become so hot that the electrons break free from the nuclei. This creates plasma – a collection of positive ions and electrons. You then need to keep heating that plasma until it reaches a temperature over 200 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million Celsius). This plasma must then be kept in a confined space at high densities for a long enough period of time for the fuel atoms to collide into each other and fuse together.

To control fusion on Earth, researchers developed donut-shaped devices – called tokamaks – which use magnetic fields to contain the plasma. Magnetic field lines wrapping around the inside of the donut act like train tracks that the ions and electrons follow. By injecting energy into the plasma and heating it up, it is possible to accelerate the fuel particles to such high speeds that when they collide, instead of bouncing off each other, the fuel nuclei fuse together. When this happens, they release energy, primarily in the form of fast-moving neutrons.

During the fusion process, fuel particles gradually drift away from the hot, dense core and eventually collide with the inner wall of the fusion vessel. To prevent the walls from degrading due to these collisions – which in turn also contaminates the fusion fuel – reactors are built so that they channel the wayward particles toward a heavily armored chamber called the divertor. This pumps out the diverted particles and removes any excess heat to protect the tokamak.

The walls are important

A major limitation of past reactors has been the fact that divertors can’t survive the constant particle bombardment for more than a few seconds. To make fusion power work commercially, engineers need to build a tokamak vessel that will survive for years of use under the conditions necessary for fusion.

The divertor wall is the first consideration. Though the fuel particles are much cooler when they reach the divertor, they still have enough energy to knock atoms loose from the wall material of the divertor when they collide with it. Previously, JET’s divertor had a wall made of graphite, but graphite absorbs and traps too much of the fuel for practical use.

Around 2011, engineers at JET upgraded the divertor and inner vessel walls to tungsten. Tungsten was chosen in part because it has the highest melting point of any metal – an extremely important trait when the divertor is likely to experience heat loads nearly 10 times higher than the nose cone of a space shuttle reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. The inner vessel wall of the tokamak was upgraded from graphite to beryllium. Beryllium has excellent thermal and mechanical properties for a fusion reactor – it absorbs less fuel than graphite but can still withstand the high temperatures.

The energy JET produced was what made the headlines, but we’d argue it is in fact the use of the new wall materials which make the experiment truly impressive because future devices will need these more robust walls to operate at high power for even longer periods of time. JET is a successful proof of concept for how to build the next generation of fusion reactors.

The next fusion reactors

The JET tokamak is the largest and most advanced magnetic fusion reactor currently operating. But the next generation of reactors is already in the works, most notably the ITER experiment, set to begin operations in 2027. ITER – which is Latin for “the way” – is under construction in France and funded and directed by an international organization that includes the U.S.

ITER is going to put to use many of the material advances JET showed to be viable. But there are also some key differences. First, ITER is massive. The fusion chamber is 37 feet (11.4 meters) tall and 63 feet (19.4 meters) around – more than eight times larger than JET. In addition, ITER will utilize superconducting magnets capable of producing stronger magnetic fields for longer periods of time compared to JET’s magnets. With these upgrades, ITER is expected to smash JET’s fusion records – both for energy output and how long the reaction will run.

ITER is also expected to do something central to the idea of a fusion powerplant: produce more energy than it takes to heat the fuel. Models predict that ITER will produce around 500 megawatts of power continuously for 400 seconds while only consuming 50 MW of energy to heat the fuel. This mean the reactor produced 10 times more energy than it consumed – a huge improvement over JET, which required roughly three times more energy to heat the fuel than it produced for its recent 59 megajoule record.

JET’s recent record has shown that years of research in plasma physics and materials science have paid off and brought scientists to the doorstep of harnessing fusion for power generation. ITER will provide an enormous leap forward toward the goal of industrial scale fusion power plants.

[You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.]

David Donovan, Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering, University of Tennessee and Livia Casali, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, University of Tennessee

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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News, Observation, Science

Astronaut Says View From Above Reveals ‘Absolutely Fragile’ Planet Earth

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photo / adobe / NASA
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“It makes you want to cherish the Earth and protect it, the more you see it from space,” says a French astronaut calling for global cooperation to fight the climate crisis.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet says the impacts of the climate emergency are clear from space—and worsening on his watch—and has expressed optimism that the kind of global cooperation that built the International Space Station can also be channeled to protect the planet he calls “an oasis in the cosmos.”

 “Through the portholes of the space station, we distinctly see Earth’s fragility.”

Pesquet, a European Space Agency astronaut, made to the remarks in an interview published Monday at CNN.

In November, Pesquet, completed a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. It was his second tour at the ISS, following an earlier mission in 2016 and 2017.

From space, an astronaut has a unique view of “the fragility of planet Earth,” he told the outlet.

There’s simply “emptiness,” he said, “apart from this blue ball with everything we need to sustain human life, and life in general, which is absolutely fragile.”

“It makes you want to cherish the Earth and protect it,” he said, “the more you see it from space.”

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According to Pesquet, the view from space also reveals the impacts of humanity’s destruction of nature such as river pollution. But the “most visual visible effect” of the climate crisis, he said, is the retreat of glaciers.

Compared to his earlier mission, Pesquet told CNN that on his 2021 tour he “could see a net increase in the frequency and the strength of extreme weather phenomena like hurricanes, like wildfires.”

He also likened the “peaceful cooperation between countries that were not always friends” in maintaining the space station, and suggested that transferring “that model to the way we deal with the environment on Earth” could lead to planetary protection. 

“If we can make a space station fly,” said Pesquet, “then we can save the planet.”

On Instagram, Pesquet has captured many remarkable images from the station, documenting both Earth’s beauty and the impacts of the climate crisis.

In October, Pesquet described viewing the climate crisis from space and the increasing prevalence of destructive events viewable from above. “Definitely, the hurricanes, seen from space, and the forest fires, I had never seen that before, especially on my previous mission.”

He conveyed his space view of the planetary crisis to French President Emmanuel Macron last year. “Through the portholes of the space station, we distinctly see Earth’s fragility,” he said. “We see the damaging effects of human activity, pollution of rivers and air pollution.”

He and the other astronauts on the 2021 mission also witnessed wildfires ravaging various regions including California, which was “covered in a cloud of smoke, we saw the flames with our naked eyes.”

Worsening impacts of the climate crisis from his tour five years earlier were clear, he said: “The weather phenomena are accelerating at an alarming rate.”

Originally published on Common Dreams by ANDREA GERMANOS and republished under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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Climate Solutions, News, Observation, Politics, Science

Video: Greta Thunberg’s passions erupt at failed cop26’s global greenwashing festival

Video

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Greta Thunberg / Instagram

Political failures and frustration rising

It all started in September 2021 when Greta went to the Youth for Climate Summit in Rome. Her now legendary “blah blah blah” speech spawned 1000’s Memes and remixes and began a new barrage of media savvy Guerrilla marketing for the planet…

Fortunately for the rest of us, Greta is back, Big Time. I seems as if she’s decided to vent in a Creative and, at times, incredibly hilarious way.

Next, footage of the 18 year old activist went viral, as she was shouting in a crowd, “shove your climate crisis up your arse” The climate activist joked that she would adopt a “net zero” approach to her cursing.

She posted a response to her five million followers on Twitter: “I am pleased to announce that I’ve decided to go net-zero on swear words and bad language.

In the event that I should say something inappropriate I pledge to compensate that by saying something nice” A follower asked Thunberg:

“would you commit to reaching net-zero bad language by 2050?”

She replied: “No, by 2052 with a 39.78% reduction by 2034”

A seasoned spokes-person with a challenge ahead

Greta was brilliantly skewering companies, individuals and those who claim they are being environmentally friendly, simply because they pay for carbon credits to offset the carbon they are emitting.

More recent quotes include: “It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure,” she told the thousands of people at the protest. “This is no longer a climate conference. This is now a global greenwashing festival.” It’s as if her frustration has reached a boiling point, along with many of us, and in her words; “Hope always comes from the people”

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Climate Solutions, News, Observation, Science

What is COP26? Here’s how global climate negotiations work and what’s expected from the Glasgow summit

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Original images Courtesy of COP26

Over two weeks in November, world leaders and national negotiators will meet in Scotland to discuss what to do about climate change. It’s a complex process that can be hard to make sense of from the outside, but it’s how international law and institutions help solve problems that no single country can fix on its own.

I worked for the United Nations for several years as a law and policy adviser and have been involved in international negotiations. Here’s what’s happening behind closed doors and why people are concerned that COP26 might not meet its goals.

What is COP26?

In 1992, countries agreed to an international treaty called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which set ground rules and expectations for global cooperation on combating climate change. It was the first time the majority of nations formally recognized the need to control greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming that drives climate change.

That treaty has since been updated, including in 2015 when nations signed the Paris climate agreement. That agreement set the goal of limiting global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F), and preferably to 1.5 C (2.7 F), to avoid catastrophic climate change.

COP26 stands for the 26th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC. The “parties” are the 196 countries that ratified the treaty plus the European Union. The United Kingdom, partnering with Italy, is hosting COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31 through Nov. 12, 2021, after a one-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why are world leaders so focused on climate change?

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, released in August 2021, warns in its strongest terms yet that human activities have unequivocally warmed the planet, and that climate change is now widespread, rapid and intensifying.

The IPCC’s scientists explain how climate change has been fueling extreme weather events and flooding, severe heat waves and droughts, loss and extinction of species, and the melting of ice sheets and rising of sea levels. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called the report a “code red for humanity.”

Enough greenhouse gas emissions are already in the atmosphere, and they stay there long enough, that even under the most ambitious scenario of countries quickly reducing their emissions, the world will experience rising temperatures through at least mid-century.

However, there remains a narrow window of opportunity. If countries can cut global emissions to “net zero” by 2050, that could bring warming back to under 1.5 C in the second half of the 21st century. How to get closer to that course is what leaders and negotiators are discussing.

What happens at COP26?

During the first days of the conference, around 120 heads of state, like U.S. President Joe Biden, and their representatives will gather to demonstrate their political commitment to slowing climate change.

Once the heads of state depart, country delegations, often led by ministers of environment, engage in days of negotiations, events and exchanges to adopt their positions, make new pledges and join new initiatives. These interactions are based on months of prior discussions, policy papers and proposals prepared by groups of states, U.N. staff and other experts.

Nongovernmental organizations and business leaders also attend the conference, and COP26 has a public side with sessions focused on topics such as the impact of climate change on small island states, forests or agriculture, as well as exhibitions and other events.

The meeting ends with an outcome text that all countries agree to. Guterres publicly expressed disappointment with the COP25 outcome, and there are signs of troubleheading into COP26.

What is COP26 expected to accomplish?

Countries are required under the Paris Agreement to update their national climate action plans every five years, including at COP26. This year, they’re expected to have ambitious targets through 2030. These are known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs.

The Paris Agreement requires countries to report their NDCs, but it allows them leeway in determining how they reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The initial set of emission reduction targets in 2015 was far too weak to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

One key goal of COP26 is to ratchet up these targets to reach net zero carbon emissionsby the middle of the century.

Another aim of COP26 is to increase climate finance to help poorer countries transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change. This is an important issue of justice for many developing countries whose people bear the largest burden from climate change but have contributed least to it. Wealthy countries promised in 2009 to contribute $100 billion a yearby 2020 to help developing nations, a goal that has not been reached. The U.S., U.K. and EU, among the largest historic greenhouse emitters, are increasing their financial commitments, and banks, businesses, insurers and private investors are being asked to do more.

Other objectives include phasing out coal use and generating solutions that preserve, restore or regenerate natural carbon sinks, such as forests.

Another challenge that has derailed past COPs is agreeing on implementing a carbon trading system outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Are countries on track to meet the international climate goals?

The U.N. warned in September 2021 that countries’ revised targets were too weak and would leave the world on pace to warm 2.7 C (4.9 F) by the end of the century. However, governments are also facing another challenge this fall that could affect how they respond: Energy supply shortages have left Europe and China with price spikes for natural gas, coal and oil.

China – the world’s largest emitter – has not yet submitted its NDC. Major fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Australia seem unwilling to strengthen their commitments. India – a critical player as the second-largest consumer, producer and importer of coal globally – has also not yet committed.

Other developing nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and Mexico are important. So is Brazil, which, under Javier Bolsonaro’s watch, has increased deforestation of the Amazon – the world’s largest rainforest and crucial for biodiversity and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

What happens if COP26 doesn’t meet its goals?

Many insiders believe that COP26 won’t reach its goal of having strong enough commitments from countries to cut global greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030. That means the world won’t be on a smooth course for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and the goal of keeping warming under 1.5 C.

But organizers maintain that keeping warming under 1.5 C is still possible. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been leading the U.S. negotiations, remains hopeful that enough countries will create momentum for others to strengthen their reduction targets by 2025.

The cost of failure is astronomical. Studies have shown that the difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius can mean the submersion of small island states, the death of coral reefs, extreme heat waves, flooding and wildfires, and pervasive crop failure.

That translates into many premature deaths, more mass migration, major economic losses, large swaths of unlivable land and violent conflict over resources and food – what the U.N. secretary-general has called “a hellish future.”

Originally published on The Conversation by Shelley Inglis and republished under a Creative Common License (CC BY-ND 4.0)

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Climate Solutions, News, Observation, Science

Scientists, here’s how to use less plastic

Above: Photo / Unsplash

Meet the researchers making science more sustainable.

The lab is quietly bustling with scientists intent on their work. One gestures to an item on her bench – a yellow container, about the size of a novel. It’s almost full to the brim with used plastic pipette tips – the disposable attachments that stop pipettes being cross-contaminated. She stares down at it, despondently. “And this is just from today.”

We’re at the Francis Crick Institute, a towering biomedical research facility in the heart of London. The scientist in question is Marta Rodriguez Martinez, a Postdoctoral Training Fellow. Every day in her lab, pipette tips, petri dishes, bottles and more are used and discarded. The scale of the waste is immense – research by the University of Exeter estimates that labs worldwide generate 5.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year.

Newsletter: 

Alongside her research, Rodriguez Martinez doubles as a sustainability rep, tirelessly working to reduce the plastic waste her lab produces. The Crick’s sustainability team consult her about the unique behaviours of scientists. In return, she encourages colleagues to stop using unnecessary plastic and teaches them about sustainable alternatives.

It’s a difficult task, but one she feels passionate about. “We have in our heads that plastic is a one-use material, but it is not. Plastic can be autoclaved, it can be washed. Most plastics we use in the lab could be re-used as efficiently as glass.”

The Crick is taking behaviour change seriously. Alongside reps like Rodriguez Martinez, it offers sustainability workshops and waste training to employees. A pipette-tip audit is underway, which will show which products come with the lowest excess plastic. It’s also developing an interactive dashboard for teams to see how their waste compares to other labs’.

But behaviour change is only the beginning. Rodrigo Ponce-Ortuño oversees the Crick’s contract with an eco-friendly waste-management company. He points out that the journey of plastic lab equipment stretches far beyond its short service on the workbench.

Take media bottles – the plastic containers that hold nutrients to grow cells and bacteria. “It’s just glucose that goes into the bottles,” Ponce-Ortuño explains. The liquid is non-hazardous, but in his experience, recycling companies are wary of the scientific jargon on the labelling.

“If it just said sugar, it would be fine,” he says. Instead, many companies reject the waste because they don’t understand the chemistry. But, by using contractors with the right expertise, the Crick now sends all its media bottles for recycling.

For Rodriguez Martinez, this is a milestone. “I use maybe four media bottles a week, and there are 1,200 scientists here. That we can rinse them and have a contractor recycle them is a big success.”

This tactic – of building companies’ confidence in handling lab equipment – has led to other successes, too. Cooling gel packs, polystyrene boxes and the bulky pallets used to transport products are all collected for re-use. Boxes for pipette tips are also collected – after they’ve been stacked and re-used in the labs themselves.

In fact, the Crick’s labs send no waste at all to landfill. Hazardous waste is safely incinerated, but anything else that can’t be recycled goes through a process called energy-from-waste, where electricity, heat or fuel is harvested from the material as it’s disposed of.

And they’re just as keen to reduce the amount of plastic coming in. The institute recently held a green procurement fair, where suppliers had to meet a set of sustainability criteria to attend. “Normally when you buy a product, you look at the quality and the price,” says Rodriguez Martinez. “We want to add sustainability to that equation.”

The team know that change won’t happen overnight. They need to win people over with practical measures to reduce plastics – without reducing the quality of science. So the institute is discussing best practice with other laboratories, to grow the movement for low-plastic research.

“We’re trying to educate people into a more sustainable science,” says Rodriguez Martinez.

Wellcome, which publishes Mosaic, is one of the six founding partners of the Francis Crick Institute.

The lab is quietly bustling with scientists intent on their work. One gestures to an item on her bench – a yellow container, about the size of a novel. It’s almost full to the brim with used plastic pipette tips – the disposable attachments that stop pipettes being cross-contaminated. She stares down at it, despondently. “And this is just from today.”

We’re at the Francis Crick Institute, a towering biomedical research facility in the heart of London. The scientist in question is Marta Rodriguez Martinez, a Postdoctoral Training Fellow. Every day in her lab, pipette tips, petri dishes, bottles and more are used and discarded. The scale of the waste is immense – research by the University of Exeter estimates that labs worldwide generate 5.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year. Newsletter: 

Alongside her research, Rodriguez Martinez doubles as a sustainability rep, tirelessly working to reduce the plastic waste her lab produces. The Crick’s sustainability team consult her about the unique behaviours of scientists. In return, she encourages colleagues to stop using unnecessary plastic and teaches them about sustainable alternatives.

It’s a difficult task, but one she feels passionate about. “We have in our heads that plastic is a one-use material, but it is not. Plastic can be autoclaved, it can be washed. Most plastics we use in the lab could be re-used as efficiently as glass.”

The Crick is taking behaviour change seriously. Alongside reps like Rodriguez Martinez, it offers sustainability workshops and waste training to employees. A pipette-tip audit is underway, which will show which products come with the lowest excess plastic. It’s also developing an interactive dashboard for teams to see how their waste compares to other labs’.

But behaviour change is only the beginning. Rodrigo Ponce-Ortuño oversees the Crick’s contract with an eco-friendly waste-management company. He points out that the journey of plastic lab equipment stretches far beyond its short service on the workbench.

Take media bottles – the plastic containers that hold nutrients to grow cells and bacteria. “It’s just glucose that goes into the bottles,” Ponce-Ortuño explains. The liquid is non-hazardous, but in his experience, recycling companies are wary of the scientific jargon on the labelling.

“If it just said sugar, it would be fine,” he says. Instead, many companies reject the waste because they don’t understand the chemistry. But, by using contractors with the right expertise, the Crick now sends all its media bottles for recycling.

For Rodriguez Martinez, this is a milestone. “I use maybe four media bottles a week, and there are 1,200 scientists here. That we can rinse them and have a contractor recycle them is a big success.”

This tactic – of building companies’ confidence in handling lab equipment – has led to other successes, too. Cooling gel packs, polystyrene boxes and the bulky pallets used to transport products are all collected for re-use. Boxes for pipette tips are also collected – after they’ve been stacked and re-used in the labs themselves.

In fact, the Crick’s labs send no waste at all to landfill. Hazardous waste is safely incinerated, but anything else that can’t be recycled goes through a process called energy-from-waste, where electricity, heat or fuel is harvested from the material as it’s disposed of.

And they’re just as keen to reduce the amount of plastic coming in. The institute recently held a green procurement fair, where suppliers had to meet a set of sustainability criteria to attend. “Normally when you buy a product, you look at the quality and the price,” says Rodriguez Martinez. “We want to add sustainability to that equation.”

The team know that change won’t happen overnight. They need to win people over with practical measures to reduce plastics – without reducing the quality of science. So the institute is discussing best practice with other laboratories, to grow the movement for low-plastic research.

“We’re trying to educate people into a more sustainable science,” says Rodriguez Martinez.

Wellcome, which publishes Mosaic, is one of the six founding partners of the Francis Crick Institute.

This article first appeared on Mosaic and is republished here under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY 4.0).

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Documentaries, Education, Elon Musk, Entertainment, Movies, Netflix, Science, SpaceX, Videos

SpaceX Docu-series on Manned Mission about to Launch on Netflix

Video

Above: Inspiration4 Crew Members / Photo / Netflix

What do a billionaire, cancer survivor, geoscientists and a data engineer have in common? 

 For the first time on the streaming platform, Netflix will offer a 5 part docuseries covering the SpaceX’s Inspiration4 Mission in near real-time.

The series will cover SpaceX’s first all civilian mission (no astronauts!) as they prepare and train for the mission, the live launch coverage from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as well as footage from inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft as the 4 passenger crew orbit the Earth on the 3 day mission. 

Unlike recent flights from Virgin (Richard Branson) and Blue Orbit (Jeff Bezos) that led suborbital flights, Inspiration4 will reach higher altitudes than that of the International Space Station and make history as first all-civilian mission to orbit.

Multiple firsts and groundbreaking accomplishments that go beyond, way beyond…

Breakdown for Netflix’s “ Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space”

  • Monday, September 6: Meet the four civilians heading to space
  • Monday, September 13: Watch them prepare
  • Wednesday, September 15: Watch the live launch
  • Thursday, September 30: Spend time with the crew in space

The Inspiration4 Mission which was brokered as a private deal by 38 year old Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments with SpaceX.

Isaacman will lead the mission along with his 3 other crew members:  29 year old Hayley Arceneaux who will act as chief medical officer , 51 year old Dr. Sian Proctor (mission pilot), who will become the fourth Black female American in space and 41 year old Christopher Sembroski, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who will be the mission’s specialist. 

The mission also serves as a $200 million fundraising campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  

A day before the launch day, Netflix will also launch “A StoryBots Space Adventure” on Sept.14 which is a live-action/animation special where Inspration4 crew members will participate by answering some of kids’ most pressing space related questions. 

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Astronomy, Earth and Ecology, Lifestyle, Science

Tonight: How to catch the “Strawberry” Supermoon of 2021

Above: Photo / UnSplash

The full moon that happens in June is often referred to as the strawberry moon. Although, if you look to the sky, the moon will look full starting Wednesday night and into Friday night, the moon will be 100% full starting 2:40 P.M. EDT Thursday, June 24, 2021. This will mark the first full moon after summer solstice and the last supermoon of the year.

Despite the sweet name, the moon will not really resemble any coloring of a strawberry, rather it will have more of a golden color. The reference to the fruit was often used by Native American tribes, like that of the Algonquins to signal the ripening of strawberries that were ready to be harvested.

What makes a full moon a “Supermoon”, according to NASA, occurs when the Moon’s orbit is closest to the Earth at the same time as when the moon is full, making the moon appear much brighter and larger than the usual full moon.

In addition, any full moon that comes within 224.791 miles/ 361,766 km of Earth is categorized as a supermoon. For the Strawberry Supermoon on the 24th, the moon will be 224,662 miles / 361,558 km away from Earth.

More sky news: mercury has gone direct

In an alternate celestial observation, the dreaded retrograde mercury ended when mercury went direct on June 23rd. Astrology buffs always welcome the end of the mercury retrograde periods, known for confusion and, in particular, technological snafus and breakdowns.

Fortunately the full moon due on the 24th / 25th is seen, astrologically speaking, as a highly positive force and should help us all to celebrate the escape from mercury in retrograde and it’s chaos, as we glide smoothly into a more productive phase into July and beyond.

To get additional information on when the moon will rise and set in your area, click on the moonrise and moonset calculator.

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AI, Apple, Apple Services, Climate Solutions, Earth and Ecology, FaceTime, iOS 15, iPad, iPhone, Mac, macOS 12 Monterey, Observation, OS Software, Politics, Science, Tech, WWDC2021

Apple’s free upgrades are Inviting you into the Metaverse: iOS15 – macOS Monterey & iPadOS15

Video

Above:Photo Credit – Apple / Lynxotic

Sci-fi sounding, inevitable upgrade for today’s online communications

You might have heard lately about the “metaverse” and yet that can mean a variety of different things to different people. Often, it’s a term that relates back to gaming and 3D augmented reality enhancements of networked communications.

There are even crypto and blockchain related projects using this term and concept. While all of these various factors are welcome, and potentially part of this next phase of convergence of communication via networked technology, there’s something else happening under the surface.

”The pandemic, with its requirements of physical distancing, has brought people into online digital environments for a growing range of shared human experiences.” — Wired UK from “The Metaverse is coming” by David Baszucki

The acceleration in AI application, machine learning, and converging use cases for all communications tech has created a situation where the entry-portal to the emerging metaverse is already here.

One often overlooked aspect of a transition to a more complete digital life is the need for humans to have adapted to the need and potential benefits of the idea. This is what is happening via many routes, including Apple and the constant synergistic upgrade cycles that have just gone into a new, bigger phase with the migration to a unified OS structure built around Apple Silicon.

The gradual increases in iOS functionality and user sophistication are changing how we interact

iOS15, previewed this week at the WWDC2021 is rolling out literally dozens of new features, many based on machine learning, neural networks and AI that propose a new level of highly sophisticated options to communicate with video, photos and text.

While this mixture of “basic” media has been the staple of our current modes of online communication, particularly via social media, the incredibly increased depth of new options and functionality of iOS15 and iPadOS15 and MacOS Monterey will make all modes of communication feel completely new.

In the evolution of online media and enriched communication (OMEC to coin an 80s sounding acronym) the slow and uneven progress is based on many factors. #1 is always user adoption and sophistication.

Second is the quality of the hardware devices and software upgrades each user around the world has access to. In the case of iOS (iPad, iPhone & macOS) the immediate adoption of upgrades is a large factor on the plus side, helping new innovation to arrive in general use more quickly.

The last factor, a huge one, is access to fast ubiquitous internet data connections, and, in the US at least, this is less consistent than ever (or our expectations are rising faster than the build out).

Related Story links:

However, particularly in Asia, 5g is beginning to make a dent. Satellite broadband, like Starlink, should also start to be a factor as early as 2022. Government infrastructure build-out funding and subsidies in the US is on the way in 2021.

Augmented 3D features are still growing but will merge with 2D

The upshot of this topic is that “2D” factors and increasingly sophisticated manipulation and interactive features that are already coming in iOS15 will bring us all closer the entry-portal stone-age version of the metaverse.

We all depend more and more on communications and using our devices – work from home, personal, business and hybrid activities (such as the emerging content creator class). Often, as a result, we have fewer options to go offline for “organic” RL (real life) interactions.

The increasingly sophisticated capabilities available are beginning to make even face to face communications, particularly in work situations, feel “un-enhanced” as we become accustomed to and dependent on the digital enhancements and potential of a full media rich interaction.

This is an example, one could say, of the subtle encroachment of the emerging metaverse onto the “real world” and how the boundaries are blurring and even beginning to disappear.

Rather than a sudden “jump” into a metaverse, similar to the cliché sci-fi plots from films like “Ready Player 1”, what is happening is a nearly imperceptible transition to metaverse-like experiences that will become commonplace, initially in a primitive form, and then eventually become the norm. Similar to the proverbial Frog in pot, with warm water temperatures that increase so slowly that the Frog doesn’t even notice, until it finds that it is swimming in pot that is already boiling.

The misconception that a “killer app” or sudden shift into an online, virtual reality world, is the future, and that a big leap will happen nearly all at once, is harmlessly superimposed on the real transition that has already begun.

When Apple’s 2007 launch of the iPhone changed communication forever: the journey began

The new “Digital Legacy Program”, also announced at WWDC2021, is another hint that we are already living in an extremely primitive version of the metaverse. Our online identity, data, and even behaviors and experiences are so essential and all pervasive that it has become necessary to keep a digital key to access the huge trove of personal data we will leave behind to pass on to our living loved ones, after we are gone.

The metaverse, that means, is not only creating a parallel digital universe for us to live in, in an ever more complete and sophisticated way, but we are also already setting up the eternal storage of our virtual life experiences to be passed down to future generations.

Though nearly invisible while in such a relatively primitive iteration, the concept, an example of overlapping advancements in innovation, is a tiny step towards digital immortality.

The metaverse could help to save us all

It’s not just professional and work related communication that relates to the gradual increase in the depth of networked communication options, but, even more so, casual and leisure communication and interaction is key.

TikTok and other video communication trends are at the forefront of of user evolution and metaverse activity expansion. When people feel motivated to find new and better ways to communicate using richer media and augmented techniques for fun, and to gain more recognition in online societies, that advances digital sophistication.

This process of the evolution of user comfort and sophistication, while existing and interacting in the metaverse, is the fastest way for the augmentation to become more effective.

There’s a mostly unseen benefit and need for this, otherwise seemingly pointless, global development

The challenges that the world faces, encroaching, devastating fallout from global warming and excess carbon in the atmosphere, political corruption and inequality, disinformation and cybercrime, and so on.

Ultimately, unlike at any time in human history, we are facing a challenge. The survival of our species and even the planet are at stake.

In the years and decades to come it will become more and more obvious that there are only two paths possible. One path toward a kind of Utopia, or another one that will lead, inexorably to Oblivion.

Though the metaverse is scary in many ways, and does not always appear as a way to a better life, augmented and enhanced communication is one of the most desperately needed ways that solutions could eventually be discovered and implemented.

And that would put this progression and evolution of tech more in service of Utopia, and could be at the heart of a rescue plan to prevent Oblivion, before it’s too late.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/videos/universal-control/Apple-Universal-Control-cc-us-_1280x720h.mp4
Above: Craig Federighi Demo Video at WWDC 2021

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Earth and Ecology, News, Science

A ‘Ring of Fire’ Solar Eclipse Starts Thursday Dawn on east Coast

Above: Photo Credit / Bryan Goff / UnSplash

Look to the sky for a solar show that will create a stunning glow…

Stargazers and skywatchers are in for another treat, which come about two weeks after the lunar eclipse, also referred to as the “Super Flower Blood Moon”. Tonight and into Thursday, June 10th, an annular solar eclipse called “ring of fire” will be visible. Any discussion of all things lunar, blood moons and eclipses would certainly be congruent with a taste of the astrological perspective.

Unfortunately this time around, no parts of the United States will get to see the full eclipse, however some metropolitan areas like Toronto, Philadelphia and New York will be able to view a partial eclipse a little after the sunrise on Thursday morning.

Getting to see a partial eclipse looks kind of like the sun has a portion taken out of it. In total, this eclipse will last around 1 2/3 hrs (approximately 100 minutes) as it starts at sunrise in Ontario, Canada.

If you aren’t exactly clear on what a solar eclipse is, an annular eclipse occurs when the Moon is farthest from Earth. And because the Moon is far away it appears smaller. The Moon does not block the entire view of the Sun and thus creates the appearance of a ring around the Moon.

Check out additional detailed information and maps about the eclipse operated by retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenakly.

The word annular comes from the Latin word for ring. Since the Moon covers the sun’s center and what is left forms a ring, hence the name “ring of fire”.

If you are one of the lucky folks situated along the East Coast and Upper Midwest and want to catch a glimpse at the partial eclipse, it is strongly recommended to use solar eclipse glasses and to not look directly into the sun as it may cause permanent damage to your eyes.

Don’t fret if you aren’t able to experience the upcoming solar eclipse. This summer we have a couple more opportunities to gaze above. There is set to be a Supermoon June 24, a Meteor Shower on July 28, and the Blue Moon come August 22.

We have a couple years until the next total solar eclipse in the United States, in April 8, 2024, weather permitting.

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Books, Observation, Science

New Malcolm Gladwell Book Selection for Summer 2021

Although a hit ‘The Bomber Mafia’ is less known than previous Gladwell bestsellers

With “Blink” (2007) and “The Tipping Point” as well as “Outliers” Malcolm Gladwell burst onto the scene with a new kind of popular non-fiction. Rather than being another single minded academic focused on a particular specific niche, it was in choosing what phenomena to study, and then taking his now patented unique approach, that he was able to excite and inspire the minds of millions of readers.

Drilling down into the exact aspects of his chosen topics to focus on just what made him choose them in the first place, and doing so with an excited air of adventure and discovery, Gladwell continues to delight, and for some, his entire body of work consists of one page-turner after another. Even his titles, like outliers and the tipping point, though in usage before, after he nailed them into more expansively defined concepts, were brought into more popular use and the widespread level of understanding to a whole new level.

Below we feature a broad selection, including his latest, for fan and the curious alike.

To make it easier they are featured front and center, below, along with descriptions, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the various publishers), and with some links for a variety of options of where to purchase.

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War

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 In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? 

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In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?” Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge.

Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know

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How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn’t true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news.

He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland–throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know.

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And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times.

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

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Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David’s victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn’t have won.

 Or should he have? In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks. 

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Gladwell begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there, David and Goliath examines Northern Ireland’s Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms—all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity. 

Outliers: The Story of Success

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In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?


His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.

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Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

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The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate.

This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.

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Science, UFOs

UFO Report Teased by Major News Outlets Ahead of Actual Release

Video

Clickbait is not exclusive to smaller news organizations, apparently

With titles like “Long Awaited UFO Report is Here” major news outlets are blowing up a leak, sighting “senior administration officials briefed on the findings” of the as yet unreleased report.

Taking a subject, already shrouded in mystery and intentionally misleading readers is not particularly professional but , unfortunately, par for the course when it comes to this subject.

The report is referred to universally as “highly anticipated”, which, yes, it is. That would also appear to be the incentive to relabel a round-up of mainly already reported facts and quotes as definitive.

What is, somewhat, new is the confirmation, again by those senior administration officials briefed on the findings, that there are no secret U.S. government technologies responsible for the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (U.A.P.) or UFO incidents. However, that is only said to be true of the “vast majority” of the more than 120 incidents.

As published in prior articles, including by Lynxotic, there are three “likely” potential sources for the unexplained phenomena:

  1. secret U.S. technology,
  2. an adversary’s spy vehicle
  3. something otherworldly

To break down what these initial leaks quoting the as yet to be released report have on these three would basically be as follows. As quoted above “the vast majority” (thought apparently not all) did not originate from secret U.S. technology.

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1394072364250550273/vid/1280x720/x_kfMpT-EjEEegfj.mp4?tag=14

Although there is known research being done in “hypersonic”, mainly by Russia and China, and there is a “worry” that this could be one explanation, if true it would mean that those countries technology is not only a well kept secret, but also far beyond any current U.S. capability.

As for the third option, the leaks emphasized that though “difficult to explain” there is no proof that aliens are responsible.

Not all outlets are making light or obfuscating, but struggling with what can be stated as fact

The New York Times story on what is as of yet known of the contents of the report, likely the source for others quoted above, and that article has a clearer title and “spin” on the situation:

“U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alien Technology in Flying Objects, but Can’t Rule It Out, Either” Though vague, this title is at least not intentionally misleading.

radio transmission “Whoa, got it — woo-hoo!” “Roger —” “What the expletive is that?” “Did you box a moving target?” “No, I took an auto track.” “Oh, OK.” “Oh my gosh, dude. Wow” “What is that man?” “There’s a whole screen of them. My gosh.” “They’re all going against the wind. The wind’s 120 knots from west.” “Dude.” “That’s not — is it?” “inaudible” “Look at that thing.”

If all of this is broken down, there is very little that is new or noteworthy in the revelations other than a kind of preview of the stance the report is likely to take.

Talking about this à la Rumsfeld with the patter boiling down to terms like “known unknowns” and “Unknown unknowns” is not the reason, obviously, that the report is “highly anticipated”. This is where the reality of this tricky category of information enters the discussion.

For example: If the kind of ultra advance technology had any of the above three sources would these realities actually be released and admitted to in an unclassified report?

Gov speak will always echo Rumsfeld

Imagine the report confirming the existence of aliens, even the strong likelihood of the same? Panic and a host and variety of potential public responses would be enough to justify keeping that classified. And if it was U.S. technology? That would be an obvious example of something that could not be leaked or admitted, unless there was a desire to use it for saber rattling or other political strategy.

And if it was true that this ultra advanced capability was to be in the hands of a potential foreign adversary? Cue the panic and consternation once more.

So what could be divulged? Apparently there is a desire to confirm publicly and in this unclassified report just what can not be said – that these numerous instances are with 100% certainty an illusion or malfunction of our people or measurement technology.

That, once again, is certainly something. For example, if it were to be admitted that there were flaws or limitations to our various high tech mechanisms to observe and measure flying objects, that would, in and of itself, be an admission of failure and lack of functionality of the devices and systems.

As the NYT subheading states: “A new report concedes that much about the observed phenomena remains difficult to explain, including their acceleration, as well as ability to change direction and submerge.”

If the “difficulty” to explain these parameters, observed by pilots and aircraft recording systems on multiple occasions (and apparently with increased frequency) is due to the lack of sophistication of our abilities to observe and measure, that is already an admission that, while this phenomena is “real” to the best of our knowledge, we do not, as of yet, possess the ability to see or record it in a way that can explain what it is.

The end and beginning of the future

And voilà! We are back to the definition of UAP and UFO: Unidentified.

And, as frustrating as all of this can be, somehow there is, under layers of caution and reticence, an admission of something here. The admission that, whatever these sitings are of, it would be in our interest to try and find out, and to take the effort to study these incidents seriously from now on, not just make jokes and relegate these questions to some kind of “anti-science” fantasy from a fictional story.

If nothing else, it is that revelation, that there is a strong, solid reason for this report to even be ordered and carried out, that moves us forward into a new era that might well, eventually, reveal some astounding information on these craft. Very fast, very nimble and very mysterious UAP craft.

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Books, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Science, UFOs

Best books on Aliens, Close Encounters and the Beyond

Curious about aliens encounters, extraterrestrial life and UFO sightings?  Us humans have and continue to search for answers on that big question.  And it seems like the more we uncover about our vast universe, the more questions and less we actually know.  

Read More: Aliens and “Galactic Federation” reported on by Major News Outlets as if ‘Real’

 Life beyond Earth has held a long been an interest and have made a resurgence in news. Including mysterious monoliths appears in different parts of the world.  Even reports from a former Israeli space program claiming an existing government alliance between aliens (via the Galactic Federation) with humans. 

Chariots of the Gods: 50th Anniversary Edition

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and help bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

AS SEEN ON ANCIENT ALIENS’ “THE ALIEN PHENOMENON” Now in a beautiful 50th anniversary edition with a new foreword and afterword by the author, this is the groundbreaking classic that introduced the theory that ancient Earth established contact with aliens.

Immediately recognized as a work of monumental importance, Chariots of the Godsendures as proof that Earth has been visited repeatedly by advanced aliens from other worlds. Here, Erich von Däniken examines ancient ruins, lost cities, spaceports, and a myriad of hard scientific facts that point to extraterrestrial intervention in human history. Most incredible of all, however, is von Däniken’s theory that we are the descendants of these galactic pioneers–and he reveals the archaeological discoveries that prove it… An alien astronaut preserved in a pyramid
* Thousand-year-old spaceflight navigation charts
* Computer astronomy from Incan and Egyptian ruins
* A map of the land beneath the ice cap of Antarctica
* A giant spaceport discovered in the Andes
Includes remarkable photos that document mankind’s first contact with aliens at the dawn of civilization

Gateway

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WINNER OF THE HUGO AND NEBULA AWARDS – Frederik Pohl stands shoulder to shoulder with Philip K. Dick, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury as one of the brilliant vision-aries in the science fiction stratosphere. Gateway is a modern masterpiece that defines–and transcends–its genre.

Seeded among the stars are troves of valuable artifactsleft behind by the enigmatic, long-vanished alien racecalled the Heechee. For the right price, anyone can climb aboard one of the abandoned Heechee spaceships, castoff on an autopilot voyage to parts unknown, and takea chance on finding wealth . . . or facing death.

Robinette Broadhead took that chance and walked awaya winner. But at what cost? Despite living a millionaire’s life of material luxury, he’s haunted by crippling despair–and the dark secrets buried deep in his psyche. With the help of his computerized psychiatrist, the truth about whathappened “out there” could set Broadhead free. But only after a personal journey more terrifying and, ultimately, more devastating than his last fateful trip into space. Click to see “Gateway” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

The Left Hand of Darkness: 50th Anniversary Edition

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50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION–WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MITCHELL AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS Ursula K. Le Guin’s groundbreaking work of science fiction–winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid.

His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters… Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction. Click to see “The Left Hand of Darkness” and help bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record

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Also available on Amazon.

Leslie Kean, a veteran investigative reporter who has spent the past ten years studying the still-unexplained UFO phenomenon, reviewed hundreds of government documents, aviation reports, radar data, and case studies with corroborating physical evidence. She interviewed dozens of high-level officials and aviation witnesses from around the world.

Among them, five Air Force generals and a host of high-level sources–including Fife Symington III, former governor of Arizona, and Nick Pope, former head of the British Defence Ministry’s UFO Investigative Unit–have written their own breathtaking, firsthand accounts about UFO encounters and investigations exclusively for this book. With the support of former White House chief of staff John Podesta, Kean lifts the veil on decades of U.S. government misinformation about this mysterious phenomenon and presents irrefutable evidence that unknown flying objects–metallic, luminous, and seemingly able to maneuver in ways that defy the laws of physics–actually exist. Click to see “UFOs” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

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News, Science, UFOs, Videos

’60 minutes’ UFO segment was a recap of what’s known: What’s Next is Big

Video

Above: Photo Collage by Lynxotic

Revelations already leaked into de-classified public domain are enough to shock and amaze

Now that UFO sightings, also known as UAP (“unidentified aerial phenomena”) encounters have become too numerous and too tangible to dismiss as “swamp gas” or “reflected light” or anything of the kind, the next step is for the Pentagon to reveal much more about what it already knows. And from all accounts; it’s a lot.

Recently, for example in the CBS “60 Minutes” segment that aired on Sunday, May 16th, 2021 the growing body of de-classified data and credible accounts from government, ex-government and military personnel has been thoroughly cataloged and competently explained, the the degree that it is possible to explain at all.

In an interview exchange between CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker and Lue Elizondo, who was in US military intelligence for 20 years and was part of “what The Pentagon called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, the discussion turn to the amazing current state of publicly available information on UFO sightings by the military.

Lue Elizondo:

“The mission of AATIP was quite simple. It was to collect and analyze information involving anomalous aerial vehicles, what I guess in the vernacular you call them UFOs. We call them UAPs

Imagine a technology that can do 6-to-700 g-forces, that can fly at 13,000 miles an hour, that can evade radar and that can fly through air and water and possibly space. And oh, by the way, has no obvious signs of propulsion, no wings, no control surfaces and yet still can defy the natural effects of Earth’s gravity. That’s precisely what we’re seeing.

In some cases there are simple explanations for what people are witnessing. But there are some that, that are not. We’re not just simply jumping to a conclusion that’s saying, “Oh, that’s a UAP out there.” We’re going through our due diligence. Is it some sort of new type of cruise missile technology that China has developed? Is it some sort of high-altitude balloon that’s conducting reconnaissance? Ultimately when you have exhausted all those what ifs and you’re still left with the fact that this is in our airspace and it’s real, that’s when it becomes compelling, and that’s when it becomes problematic.”

A series of revelations that are building and increasing, not a scattered random sequence

The segment went on to interview two of the four pilots that were witnesses to an very close encounter with a UAP during a training mission with the USS Nimitz carrier strike group 100 miles southwest of San Diego, CA in 2004.

CBS News interviewed them, David Fravor, a graduate of the Top Gun naval flight school and commander of the F/A-18F squadron on the USS Nimitz; and flying at his wing, Lieutenant Alex Dietrich, who has never spoken publicly about the encounter:

“For a week, the advanced new radar on a nearby ship, the USS Princeton, had detected what operators called “multiple anomalous aerial vehicles” over the horizon, descending 80,000 feet in less than a second. On November 14, Fravor and Dietrich, each with a weapons systems officer in the backseat, were diverted to investigate. They found an area of roiling whitewater the size of a 737 in an otherwise calm, blue sea. “

The interview went on to describe in great detail the shockingly real and yet impossible to grasp behavior of the UAP and how hard it is to fathom the origin of something so advanced and so far beyond anything we can imagine as being possible to build by humans with current technological means.

‘Either or’ is a short list of what could explain the mysteries

According to various unnamed pilots, of the many that have had sometimes multiple highly corroborated and documented UAP encounters, there are three likely possible sources for these “anomalous aerial vehicles” origin:

  1. secret U.S. technology,
  2. an adversary’s spy vehicle
  3. something otherworldly.

What no-one, outside the “UFO fringe element” has speculated to is the exact meaning and source of “something otherworldly” being involved, or a 4th possibility that this is the most advanced and elaborate hoax ever devised to create the illusion of an ultra sophisticated entity “watching” us.

This last completely speculative statement underscores just how unlikely it is, with this much evidence already uncovered, that this is any kind of “hoax” at all, and how that would be even more far fetched than #3 above, an “otherworldly” explanation.

Now that, since last August, AATIP has been reactivated by the Pentagon, and it’s now called the UAP task force, more information has likely been cataloged since service members now are encouraged to report any strange encounters.

In December 2020, while still head of the intelligence committee, Senator Marco Rubio, of all people, asked the director of national intelligence and the Pentagon to present Congress an unclassified report.

That report will be next major step in this building story. It is scheduled to be released to the Senate on June 1st, 2021.

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Books, Cutting Edge, Observation, Photography, Science, UFOs

Viral ‘pyramid’ UFO footage confirmed as Legitimate by Pentagon

Above: Photo Credit: Albert Antony / Unsplash

Official acknowledgement of ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ is becoming more commonplace

After a viral video was shared massively across the internet, now the Pentagon has confirmed that the footage showing what appears to be UFOs is authentic. Even more significant is the fact that the pyramid-shaped unidentified flying objects were “stalking” the guided-missile destroyer USS Russell in coastal waters near California in July 2019.

In an interview with Fox News Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Gough said “I can confirm that the referenced photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel. The UAPTF [Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force] has included these incidents in their ongoing examinations.” 

“I can confirm that the referenced photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel. The UAPTF [Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force] has included these incidents in their ongoing examinations.

Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Gough

“Whoever is operating these technologies are far more advanced than anything we have in the U.S. arsenal and that should be a warning sign. We need to find out the intent of the operators of these vehicles.” 

Jeremy Corbell, UFO researcher and filmmaker interviewed on Fox News

The public acknowledgment of the incident, that happened near San Clemente Island, where five different U.S. warships were operating at the time, was a required act. This is due to the new provision in the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2021 which requires the U.S. to disclose what it knows about UFOs.

According to the provision the director of national intelligence (DNI) must work with the secretary of defense to create a comprehensive report of what information the U.S. government has regarding unidentified flying objects. The full report is due on June 1, 2021.

A highly sophisticated aerial display leaves doubt and open questions as to the origin of the objects

The incident that is seen in the footage involved unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or “drones”. In addition to the otherworldly appearance, the UFOs were observed flying around the U.S. warships for multiple hours, longer than would be possible based on the maximum flight time of most commercial drones currently known and available.

Highly coordinated and precise movements were also noted, raising the question of what methods of control were being utilized. Further questioned were raised by the calculated range of more than 100 nautical miles that would have been required, under conditions of very low visibility, that would have been required during the time elapsed during the encounters. 

Though investigations have been conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard, Nave and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the mysterious UFOs and their behavior continues to perplex.

The new openness required by the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2021  is a welcome change and more details are bound to surface regarding these phenomena. Since August 2020, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) is known to be operating and putting further official resources behind the study and analysis of UFOs and other “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena”. 

Stay tuned…

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Science, Tech

Does Elon Musk have two Plans to Save Humanity?

Video
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1364905536194572289/pu/vid/640x640/rd4iQkl-Xvef86HI.mp4?tag=10

Having two plans to save the world, and being Elon Musk, the questions are fascinating and a bit bizarre

It was bound to happen, sooner or later. So many fantastic triumphs over evil – starting a company with a goal of accelerating sustainable energy and transportation. And then , not only succeeding at that but challenging the fossil fuel industrial complex, beating them, then basically forcing the major automakers across the globe to finally make the shift into all electric vehicles.

And SpaceX, though launching rockets is a messy thing, at least the Starlink Satellite Broadband internet project is something that will help humans all over the earth to decentralize, potentially a much needed option, if or when the coastlines begin to shrink and overpopulated coastal megalopolises are at the bottom of the ocean.

Forever win streak has an end in sight?

But Mars? There are some questions about that. For example, if the Earth rescue is so important, and if it succeeds (please!) then why would anyone want to live in a place like Mars?

Elon Musk replies cryptically to this lovely Mars Clip

As Shannon Stirone wrote in the Atlantic this week: Mars Is a Hellhole. And further: Colonizing the red planet is a ridiculous way to help humanity. Ok. There are issues. It’s a bit cold, an average surface temperature is a deadly 80 degrees below zero according to the article. Wow, and it has no magnetic field to help protect its surface from radiation from the sun or galactic cosmic rays; it has no breathable air.

Those are all enough for anyone to want to double down on the whole “let’s fix the earth” thing.

Unless…. Musk being the genius that he is, could it be that he is hedging his bets? Has he basically already decided that this whole Climate Change thing has already gone too far? And Earth is beyond saving?

Others have pointed out that by putting even a tiny fraction less effort into saving this planet in order to try and colonize another one, one that is 3.7 billion miles away, btw, could jeopardize the slim chance still there that climate change can be slowed, stopped, even reversed before it’s too late.

A list of goals and accomplishments that dovetail nicely into a world saved, or?

So what is the Mars thing really about then? I have to be honest it might be just fine. Give “Emperor Elan” the benefit of the doubt. Tesla’s are damn S3XY and they are also a perfect first step into transforming the world transportation and even energy generation and storage into something sustainable, and that’s downright perfect: utopia and having the time of your life all at once.

So, why not just throw in Mars and a nice little colony there, just for kicks? The whole mental-telepathy, Neurallink, thing, that’s gotta be useful too and, along with AI and Hyper-loop, let’s do it all, shall we?

Perhaps it does all fit together in some way that is invisible to the rest of us. Why, when Earth seems to need all our attention, particularly with political inaction and even obfuscation and attempted sabotage of the paths to a green future, why put so much into Mars right now?

Hopefully the answer is right around the corner, or at least less than 3.7 billion miles away.

source: twitter @RationalEtienne

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Cutting Edge, Science, Tech

Elon Musk promises Starlink’s internet Max Speed will Double by end of 2021: in UK some say it already did

What began as a “Better Than Nothing Beta” is morphing into to a better than expected sign-up drive

According to SpaceX, there are now more than 1,000 subscribers actively using the service. With its current beta version, the Starlink satellite kit for both domestic and international, users can expect data speeds ranging from 50Mb/s to 150 Mb/s and latency from 20 to 40 ms. 

In a response on Twitter, Musk promised that speeds would double to up to 300 Mb/s later this year. He also mentioned that the latency should improve to 20 ms. 

“When satellites are far from Earth, latency is high, resulting in poor performance for activities like video calls and online gaming. Starlink satellites are over 60 times closer to Earth than traditional satellites, resulting in lower latency and the ability to support services typically not possible with traditional satellite internet,” based on the Starlink’s website. 

The speed is the key and faster (with lower latency) is what everyone needs

300 Mb/s will be a very welcome speed upgrade, particularly for those in low to medium population density areas that are the primary target. Musk noted that those in city and urban areas, cellular will often have more advantages than satellites since those systems will be improving also, with 5g roll outs, for example.

Musk’s goal is to have most of the Earth covered and at least partially subscribed by 2022.

Those living in rural areas of the UK and using the beta version of the Starlink satellite are already seeing higher-than-originally-promised internet speeds. 

Many who had previously only had traditional (traditionally slow and bad that is) satellite internet were astounded by the extent of the improvement, and pleasantly surprised on measurements how fast the service already is, considering there are many continuous improvements yet to come.

According to an interview from one user who lives in Bredgar, Kent, his household’s service often lagged between .05 and 1 Mb/s making simple tasks like streaming Netflix or downloading video games impossible or nearly so. Using Starlink he now averages 175 Mbps to 215 Mbps which a stark difference than his prior service.

For the rest of this year and into the foreseeable future more Starlink satellites are expected to be launched into orbit nearly every week, and the eventual total could reach over 30,000, the number already approved by the FCC (max total 42,000!). It is unclear if that number will be necessary, or ever achieved, but the service will see steady improvements as the total density increases.

Also, Musk has indicated that, beginning in 2022, there will be a new satellite design upgrade featuring laser systems to allow for satellite to satellite interaction. Speeds after those improvements come online might eventually reach 2Gbps which is faster than the terrestrial fiber systems currently available to consumers.

If you want to order, or pre-order with a timeline based on the availability in your area, you can register on the Starlink website. Bear in mind that the program is currently limited to users in select regions in the Northern US, Canada and the UK. The price for the Beta service is $99 a month plus a $499 one-time fee for the equipment. 

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Cutting Edge, Science

Impressive Robots: one can sing Celine Dion while another grooves to ‘Dirty Dancing’

Video

Above: Photo / Engineered Arts UK

The future is a robot, yes they can climb, run and are singing and dancing up a storm

Meet Cleo, she’s a next-gen robot, that besides looking very human-like, with her realistic hair, skin, eyes, teeth and body movements, this robot can even do impersonations.  Watch the Youtube video, below, from the company that created her, as she belts out a version of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”. 

Although she can in no way compare to the superstar artist, yet, the expressions and feelings are uncanny, while also a little creepy. It’s getting to be a shock to the system, watching how humans can engineer robots to do more and more life-like actions!

According to the company, Engineered Arts, Cleo is built off the Mesmer platform, its robot system for building lifelike humanoid machines that include sophisticated design components:

  • Hardware – Motors, Electronics and Connectors
  • Sensors – Cameras, Depth Sensors, LIDAR, Microphones
  • Firmware – Motor control for speed, position and torque
  • Software – For control of Animation, interaction, audio and lighting 

Cleo was created, according to the company, with advanced technology for entertainment purposes. The future and scope of roles for robots appears to be limitless. AI and advances to robot technology can bring aids and have many useful purposes, particularly to help with challenges that have arisen and continue to arise as humanity tries to come to terms with its own uncertain future.

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Take Sophia the robot. Built by Hanson Robotics, the company has plans to mass produce these types of robots to collaborate with healthcare professionals and help during the covid-19 pandemic.

Up next:

Dancing Robots from Boston Dynamics in sync with ‘Do You Love Me’

Cleo and Sophia aren’t the only Robots that can perform.  The crew at Boston Dynamics, the company responsible for creating highly sophisticated robots that can tackle highly complex tasks, have a line of robotic “creatures” that have to be seen to be believed. Just a few challenges its robots are able to perform include: climbing rugged terrain, lifting heavy materials, and even helping doctors. 

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1344304680814391296/pu/vid/720x720/JfzaZWL4KwWnaL2-.mp4?tag=10

Above: Video, Photo /Boston Dynamics / Twitter

There is one more task that can be added to the list, they can learn dance choreography.  The company shared a video of its three robots named Atlas (known for navigating), Handle (known for carrying heavy loads) and Spot (the dog robot) showing off impressive dance moves to the hit song from movie “Dirty Dancing”.   Back in 2018, the company shared another dancing video of Spot grooving to ‘Uptown Funk’.

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