This Robotic Dragonfly Flew 40 Years Ago | BotJunkie

This Robotic Dragonfly Flew 40 Years Ago: "This is a robotic dragonfly. If I told you that some company had just invented it and it was flying around today, you’d probably be impressed. Instead, I’m going to tell you that it was developed by the CIA and was flying in the 1970s. And not just flying like proof-of-concept-it-gets-off-the-ground flying, but reportedly, the flight tests were ‘impressive,’ whatever that means. It was powered by an ultraminiaturized gasoline engine (!) that would vent its exhaust backwards to increase the bot’s thrust...."

Nibiru looking more like fact than fiction these days

Nibiru looking more like fact than fiction these days: "Amidst the crazy weather, Active volcanoes and numerous earthqaukes, there are some out there who would say this is evidence that NIbiru approaches the earth. Just one of many 2012 theories, the story goes something like this: every thousands of years NIbiru, a red dwarf planet, approaches earth causing great catastrophe. There is much scientific evidence to support that the earth goes thru cyclic wordwide devasttaions. Take the great deluge that is in almost all holy books around the world. You can learn more about Planet X or NIbiru here..."

FBI: 100 Percent Chance of WMD Attack

FBI: 100 Percent Chance of WMD Attack: "The probability that the U.S. will be hit with a weapons of mass destruction attack at some point is 100 percent, Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, tells Newsmax.

Such an attack could be launched by foreign terrorists, lone wolves who are terrorists, or even by criminal elements, Majidi says. It would most likely employ chemical, biological, or radiological weapons rather than a nuclear device"

Watson Supercomputer Terminates Humans in First Jeopardy Round | Epicenter | Wired.com

Watson Supercomputer Terminates Humans in First Jeopardy Round | Epicenter | Wired.com: "IBM supercomputer Watson closed the pod-bay doors on its human competition Tuesday night in the first round of a two-game Jeopardy match designed to showcase the latest advances in artificial intelligence. The contest concludes Wednesday.

By the end of the Tuesday’s shellacking, Jeopardy’s greatest champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, were sporting decidedly sour looks.

Watson had a near-miss at the end of the game, when it incorrectly answered the Final Jeopardy clue, but when the dust settled, the supercomputer had earned $35,734, blowing out Rutter and Jennings, who had earned $10,400 and $4800, respectively.

That final missed clue puzzled IBM scientists. The category was US Cities, and the clue was: “Its largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle.”

Rutter and Jennings both correctly wrote “What is Chicago?” for O’Hare and Midway, but Watson’s response was a baffling “What is Toronto???” complete with the additional question marks."

9 Pictures Of The Extreme Income/Wealth Gap | Before It's News

9 Pictures Of The Extreme Income/Wealth Gap | Before It's News: "Many people don’t understand our country’s problem of concentration of income and wealth because they don’t see it. People just don't understand how much wealth there is at the top now. The wealth at the top is so extreme that it is beyond most people’s ability to comprehend.

If people understood just how concentrated wealth has become in our country and the effect is has on our politics, our democracy and our people, they would demand our politicians do something about it.

How Much Is A Billion?

Some Wall Street types (and others) make over a billion dollars a year – each year. How much is a billion dollars? How can you visualize an amount of money so high? Here is one way to think about it: The median income in the US is around $50,000, meaning half of us make less and half of us make more. If you make $50,000 a year, and don’t spend a single penny of it, it will take you 20,000 years to save a billion dollars. . . . (Please come back and read the rest of this after you have recovered.)

What Do People Do With SO Much?

What do people do with all that money? Good question. After you own a stable of politicians who will cut your taxes, there are still a few more things you can buy. Let’s see what $1 billion will buy....."

Nasa image shows giant ring of black holes created by two interacting galaxies | Mail Online

Arp 147: Nasa image shows giant ring of black holes created by two interacting galaxies | Mail Online: "At first glance this amazing image looks like a ring of jewels in space.

But, somewhat surprisingly, the data actually shows a ring of black holes in Arp 147, a pair of interacting galaxies located 430million light years from Earth.

The composite image was taken from data collated from Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory and its Hubble Space Telescope.

Information gathered by Chandra is shown in pink while optical data from Hubble is red, green and blue."

Is historic meeting of 260 U.S. ambassadors related to UFOs and ET life?

Exopolitics Comment 100: "On Monday, Feb 14, in the first meeting of its kind, 260 U.S. ambassadors began meeting in Washington D.C. for a week long conference to discuss foreign policy priorities for 2011. Among the priorities scheduled to be discussed are regional political upheavals, the rising international influence of social networks, and leaks by Wikileaks. Hillary Clinton will address the ambassadors on Wednesday about 'leading through civilian power.' The meeting was first reported by the Associated Press on January 31, less than a week after the conclusion of the Global Competitiveness Forum where world business leaders were given an informal briefing about UFOs and extraterrestrial life by a panel of experts. Perhaps even more importantly, the Ambassadorial meeting was announced only three days after a spectacular UFO was filmed over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The question that arises is whether the historic meeting of 260 U.S. ambassadors is in some way related to UFOs and ET life?"

Woman gives birth to own grandson - Telegraph

Woman gives birth to own grandson - Telegraph: "Kristine Casey acted as a surrogate for daughter Sara Connell after she was unable to have children of her own.

Mrs Connell and her husband Bill are the biological parents of the boy, who is called Finnean.

The 35 year-old lecturer sat holding her mother's hand as she delivered the baby boy at a hospital in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
She said her mother, who gave birth to her last child almost 30 years ago, had offered to act as a surrogate when she suffered years of heartache trying to conceive."

Just Discovered: A strange Mexican monument from over 3,000 years ago

Just Discovered: A strange Mexican monument from over 3,000 years ago: "What is this bizarre statue that anthropology researcher John Hodgson has discovered in the wilds of Mexico? It could change the way we understand early American settlers."

Wikileaks vs UFO Disinformation? | Mirage Men

Wikileaks vs UFO Disinformation? | Mirage Men: "When the first mention of UFOs in the tranche of diplomatic papers unveiled by Wikileaks proved to be less than explosive, the ufological rumour machine went into interstellar overdrive with a wackyleak of its own, released on 17 January via ‘Allnewsweb’:

New secret UFO Wikileaks cable revealed

A source from within the inner circle of the Wikileaks team has confidentially leaked to All News Web the content of a State Dept cable, concerning UFO affairs, that Wikileaks has declined to upload onto their website.

“It is critical all embassy staff understand that they are not to discuss under any circumstance concerns DOD has with UFOs entering orbit, once again the seriousness of this matter cannot be overstated”

The cable was sent on 9 November, 2005 by the State Dept to a diplomat connected to the US embassy in Kiev, Ukraine."

Sun erupts with mightiest solar flare in 4 years - Technology & science - Space - Space.com - msnbc.com

Sun erupts with mightiest solar flare in 4 years - Technology & science - Space - Space.com - msnbc.com: "The sun unleashed its strongest solar flare in four years Monday night, hurling a massive wave of charged particles from electrified gas into space and toward Earth.

The solar storm sent a flash of radiation that hit Earth in a matter of minutes. Now a huge cloud of charged particles is headed our way. These coronal mass ejections, as they are called, typically take about 24 hours or more to arrive. They can spark spectacular displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, at high latitudes and sometimes even into the northern United States."

Cosmic Log - 2012 Watch: Don't fret over Planet X

Cosmic Log - 2012 Watch: Don't fret over Planet X: "There's a fresh upswing of buzz about the potential for the existence of a large planet on the edge of our solar system, more than 10,000 times farther away from the sun than our planet. Do astronomers already have the evidence for a Planet X, and does this mean all those predictions of a planetary cataclysm in 2012 could actually come true? Not really, and here's why.
First, about that buzz: Astronomers have been wondering for years whether a Planet X, or perhaps an as-yet-undetected brown dwarf, could account for what seems to be an unusual pattern in the influx of comets from the outer solar system."

DARPA Kickstarts Space Exploration with 100-Year Starship Project – CleanTechnica: Cleantech innovation news and views

DARPA Kickstarts Space Exploration with 100-Year Starship Project – CleanTechnica: Cleantech innovation news and views: "The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a new program in collaboration with NASA that is sure to intrigue Trekkies everywhere. Called the 100-Year Starship Study, it’s designed to lay out what it would take to create an organization that could boldly go where no man (or woman, or transgender person) has gone before. The last couple of times DARPA got its thing on for a big project, the result was a trip to the moon and the development of the Internet, so it’s interesting to look ahead to the impact the project could have on our favorite topic, alternative energy."

Will Death Become Obsolete? - Edward Tenner - Technology - The Atlantic

Will Death Become Obsolete? - Edward Tenner - Technology - The Atlantic: "Can immortality be contagious? Time magazine's cover story on Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey de Grey, and the prospects for abolishing death by 2045 is only the latest of a series of media features. The New York Times Magazine cover story by Rob Walker a few weeks ago featured the virtual immortality of Facebook and other social media pages. And Nicholas Jackson took up the theme on the site, with a book excerpt. A leading Evangelical Christian magazine, Christianity Today, in its January cover feature, showed how complex the issue can be theologically."

'A weapon of mass destruction was found in the U.S.': Shock confession of Customs officer | Mail Online

'A weapon of mass destruction was found in the U.S.': Shock confession of Customs officer | Mail Online: "A port official has admitted that a 'weapon of mass effect' has been found by 'partner agencies' in the U.S., raising major questions over a possible government cover-up.

The disturbing revelation came in an interview with San Diego's assistant port director screened by a television channel in the city.

The Customs and Border Protection Department tried to dampen speculation over his remarks, but doubts remained over whether he had inadvertently revealed a dirty bomb plot to attack the U.S. mainland."

Only breed smart babies: Ethicist | Herald Sun

Only breed smart babies: Ethicist | Herald Sun: "A LEADING Australian ethicist has advocated genetically screening embryos to create a smarter society of superior 'designer babies' with higher IQs.

Melbourne's Julian Salvulescu, now Oxford's practical ethics professor, has said it is our 'moral obligation' to use IVF to choose the smartest embryos, even if that maintains or increases social inequality.

Experts have criticised the Gattaca-style idea, saying the money involved could be better spent improving quality of life in Africa.

They have also warned IQ screening could result in unintended results.

But Dr Salvulescu has said we have a moral obligation to create a smarter society, thereby dramatically reducing welfare dependency, the number of school dropouts, the crowding of jails and the extent of poverty."

Full duplex radio technology developed that doubles speed of existing wireless networks

Full duplex radio technology developed that doubles speed of existing wireless networks: "Whether it be over walkie talkies or Wi-Fi, wireless communication is a one way street, meaning radio traffic can flow in only one direction at a time on a specific frequency. To get around this limitation mobile phone networks use a workaround that is expensive and requires careful planning, making the technique not feasible for other wireless networks. Now researchers at Stanford University have created a full duplex radio that allows wireless signals to be sent and received simultaneously, thereby instantly doubling the speed of existing networks."

Transhumanists Launch Campaign for Animal Personhood » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog

Transhumanists Launch Campaign for Animal Personhood » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: "Transhumanists have a deep antipathy for human exceptionalism. Indeed, in many ways, that loathing is the core of the movement. Which, when you think about it, isn’t surprising–given its philosophy that humans are not good enough, smart enough, strong enough, beautiful enough, or healthy enough–and we all die so soon! If human life is so lacking, why would they consider us exceptional?

But there’s more to it than that. Human exceptionalism is the prime philosophical impediment to the acceptance of transhumanism. If, we are going to engage in Utopian manipulation and remaking of human biology and existential meaning, humans must be reduced in moral status to merely another animal in the forest. Once we morally demoted ourselves, the would-be redesigners would have a much freer hand since nothing of fundamental value would be at risk."

Transhumanists Coming Out of the Closet

Transhumanists Coming Out of the Closet: "It wasn’t that long ago that listing transhumanism, human enhancement, the Singularity, technology-driven evolution, existential risks, and so on, as academic interests on one’s CV might result in a bit of embarrassment.

Over just the past decade and a half, though, there seems to have been a sea change in how these issues are perceived by philosophers and other scholars: many now see them as legitimate subjects of research; they have, indeed, acquired a kind of academic respectability that they didn’t previously possess.

There are no doubt many factors behind this shift. For one, it seems to be increasingly apparent, in 2011, that technology and biology are coming together to form a new kind of cybernetic unity, and furthermore that such technologies can be used to positively enhance (rather than merely alter) features of our minds and bodies.

In other words, the claim that humans can “transcend” (a word I don’t much like, by the way) our biological limitations through the use of enhancement technologies seems to be increasingly plausible – that is, empirically speaking."

GRAPES OF WRATH – 2011

GRAPES OF WRATH – 2011: "John Steinbeck wrote his masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath at the age of 37 in 1939, at the tail end of the Great Depression. Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize for literature. John Ford then made a classic film adaption in 1941, starring Henry Fonda. It is considered one of the top 25 films in American history. The book was also one of the most banned in US history. Steinbeck was ridiculed as a communist and anti-capitalist by showing support for the working poor. Some things never change, as the moneyed interests that control the media message have attempted to deflect the blame for our current Depression away from their fraudulent deeds. The novel stands as a chronicle of the Great Depression and as a commentary on the economic and social system that gave rise to it. Steinbeck’s opus to the working poor reverberates across the decades. He wrote the novel in the midst of the last Fourth Turning Crisis. His themes of man’s inhumanity to man, the dignity and rage of the working class, and the selfishness and greed of the moneyed class ring true today."