In 1959, popular TV comedian Jackie Gleason became so obsessed with life on galaxies far, far away that he built his house to look like a giant spaceship — and now, the round, winding structure is on the market for $12 million.

Anthony Acocella Photography

Using The Honeymooners star’s love of outer space and UFOs as inspiration, architect Robert Cika designed the house and an adjacent cottage in Cortland Manor, New York, from scratch. Everything in the two buildings — nicknamed “The Spaceship” and “The Motherhsip” by Gleason — is circular, with the structure supported by exposed wooden ship beams spiraling out from the middle.

Anthony Acocella Photography

Gleason, who rose to fame after landing small roles in 1940s movies and eventually landing a prime comedy slot on CBS’ The Jackie Gleason Show in 1949, took six years to build the house specifically to his liking. Even today, the Spaceship and the Mothership look like something straight out of the future — the stairs, curved floorboards, master bed and cabinets are all built as a spiral without a single right angle in view.

Anthony Acocella Photography

Listed by Keller Williams’ Margaret Bailey, Howard Payson and Jacqueline Campanelli, the estate boasts five bedrooms, six bathrooms and more than eight acres of land. From the marble staircases and curving kitchen to the winding bar that can accommodate up to 14 people, each detail was built to honor Gleason’s lifelong love of space and science fiction.

Anthony Acocella Photography

But perhaps the most significant part of the Spaceship House is its history as a place of entertainment — Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon and Frank Sinatra have all partied in its halls at the height of Gleason’s fame. The current owner, a recently retired orthodontist, bought the house in 1976 for $150,000.

• Email Veronika Bondarenko
  

• Article image credited to The spaceship-shaped house that comedian Jackie Gleason built in 1959 is listed on the market for a price of $12 million.

{ https://www.inman.com/ }

10-08-2018 om 01:01 geschreven door peter  

China successfully tests its hypersonic Starry Sky-2 aircraft that will fire nuclear missiles capable of travelling at 4,563 miles-per-hour to evade existing anti-missile defence systems

• The hypersonic weapon rides on the shockwaves it generates, reports suggest
• It can travel at six times the speed of sound – around 7,344km/h (4,563mph)
• The flight test was deemed a 'huge success' by scientists involved in the project
• Experts say it could signal China is now neck-and-neck with Russia and the US 

By PHOEBE WESTON FOR MAILONLINE 

China has successfully tested a hypersonic aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons that evade existing anti-missile defence systems, according reports.

The next-generation weapon, known as Xingkong-2 or Starry Sky-2, will ride the shockwave generated by the initial launch, which is handled by a rocket, to travel at six times the speed of sound, or Mach 6 – around 4,563mph (7,344kmph). 

Starry Sky-2 will purportedly be able to switch direction during its flight, making it harder to track and intercept.

When the aircraft fires its missiles, these will also travel at top speeds of 4,563mph (7,344kmph) and will easily defeat conventional anti-missile defence systems. 

Scientists involved in the latest test flight have heralded it as a 'huge success', with experts saying the aircraft signals China is now neck-and-neck with Russia and the United States in the race to create hypersonic warheads.

China has long been suspected of building an arsenal of hypersonic weapons, but this new test flight is the first proof the technology is actively being developed.

Scroll down for video

China has tested a hypersonic aircraft called Starry Sky-2 (pictured) that could carry nuclear weapons and evade anti-missile defence systems, reports suggest 

The China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA) said in a statement the latest test flight – carried out at an undisclosed location in northwest of the country – was a 'huge success', writes South China Morning Post.

The Starry Sky-2 aircraft was carried into space before separating from the launcher rocket and flying on its own power.

Known as a 'waverider', these hypersonic aircrafts uses the shockwaves from its own flight as a lifting surface to travel through the air at fast speeds.

In the latest tests, the aircraft was able to maintain speeds greater than five-and-a-half times the speed of sound for 400 seconds at an altitude of 30km (19 miles).

Local reports suggest it also achieved a top speed of Mach 6.

'The test … has laid a solid technological foundation for engineering applications of the waverider design,' the CAAA statement claimed.

Hypersonic weapons can defeat existing anti-missile defences as they are designed to switch direction during their flight.

These missiles do not follow a predictable ballistic arc like conventional projectiles, making them much harder to track and intercept.

According to the CAAA, the aircraft landed 'whole' in the designated target zone.

However, this technology is not ready to be rolled-out yet.

The next-generation weapon, known as Xingkong-2 or Starry Sky-2, will ride the shockwave generated by the initial launch, which is handled by a rocket, to travel at six times the speed of sound, or Mach 6 – around 4,563mph (7,344kmph)

Starry Sky-2 (pictured) will purportedly be able to switch direction during its flight, making it harder to track and intercept

'I think there are still three to five years before this technology can be weaponised,' said Beijing-based military analyst, Zhou Chenming.

'As well as being fitted to missiles, it may also have other military applications, which are still being explored.'

Russia is widely-tipped to be developing a hypersonic weapon known as 'Zircon'.

The Zircon cruise missile purportedly travels between 3,800mph (6,115kph) and 4,600mph (7,400kph) – five to six times the speed of sound – putting Russia 'half a decade ahead of the US'.

According to Russian news agency Tass, it is set to go into production this year.

When the aircraft fires its missiles, these will also travel at top speeds of 4,563mph (7,344kmph) and will easily defeat conventional anti-missile defence systems

Known as a 'waverider', these hypersonic aircrafts uses the shockwaves from its own flight as a lifting surface to travel through the air at fast speeds

In the latest tests, the aircraft was able to maintain speeds greater than five-and-a-half times the speed of sound for 400 seconds at an altitude of 30km (19 miles)

In June, it was also revealed a US hypersonic missile had taken a step closer to reality.

Defence firm Lockheed Martin revealed details of a $928 million (£661 million) contract to make a radical new weapon that will travel more than five times the speed of sound.

The aerospace firm is working on an air-launched weapon system, dubbed the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW), under a new deal with the US Air Force.

In the first phase, the team will finalise the system requirements before moving on to design, flight tests, and initial production and deployment. 

Work on the ultra-fast missile is taking place in Huntsville, Alabama, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and Orlando, Florida, according to Lockheed Martin.

Russia is believed to be developing a hypersonic weapon called the Zircon. The missile is capable of travelling twice as fast as the Royal Navy's Sea Ceptor missile (pictured), which would be responsible for shooting it down were it to attack British troops or mainland UK

The US Air Force will grant Lockheed Martin up to $928 million for development of the weapon through early operational capability.

'Our goal is rapid development and fielding of the HCSW system, and this contract is the first step in achieving that goal,' said John Snyder, vice president of Air Force Strategic Programs at Lockheed Martin.

'Design, development, production, integration and test experts from across Lockheed Martin will partner with the Air Force to achieve early operational capability and deliver the system to our warfighters. 

'We are incredibly proud to be leading this effort.' 

It was first revealed back in April that the Pentagon pushed through development of the highly maneuverable weapons, which are designed to outpace detection and defensive capabilities.

The move follows repeated warnings from senior officials about rapid advances by China and Russia, who have unveiled their own versions in recent months.

Defence firm Lockheed Martin revealed details of a $928 million (£661 million) contract to make a radical new weapon that will travel more than five times the speed of sound. This 2010 file photo shows rival Boeing's X-51A WaveRider hypersonic vehicle under a B-52 bomber

Hypersonic weapons can beat regular anti-missile defences.  This artist's impression, courtesy of the US Air Force, shows Boeing's hypersonic X-51A Waverider cruise missile currently under development

Arsenals of the ultra-fast intercontinental weapons could also be equipped with nuclear warheads with the capability of delivering devastating strikes across the planet. 

In a statement, the Pentagon said Lockheed will receive up to $928 million to build a new, non-nuclear missile it is calling the 'hypersonic conventional strike weapon.'

'This contract provides for the design, development, engineering, systems integration, test, logistics planning, and aircraft integration support of all the elements of a hypersonic, conventional, air-launched, stand-off weapon,' the statement read. 

Mike Griffin, the Pentagon's new defense undersecretary for research and engineering, said China had built 'a pretty mature system' for a hypersonic missile to strike from thousands of kilometres (miles) away.

'We will, with today's defensive systems, not see these things coming,' Mr Griffin said.

WHAT DOES RUSSIA CLAIM TO HAVE IN ITS MILITARY ARSENAL?

The Russian Ministry of Defence has been keen to promote a range of new super weapons currently believed to be in development.

President Putin unveiled a catalogue of doomsday weaponry as part of his annual 'State of the Nation' speech in March 2018.

However, questions remain about the true nature of their capabilities, how far into development the weapons truly are, and when they will be combat-ready.

RS-28 Sarmat ICBM

The RS-28 Sarmat is intended to replace the Soviet-designed SS-18 Voyevoda, the world's heaviest ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile).

It is known as 'Satan' in the West and carries 10 nuclear warheads.

Sarmat can unleash ten large thermonuclear warheads, 16 smaller ones, or a combination of both, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Each warhead is purportedly capable of taking aim at a different target.

The hypersonic glide vehicle, dubbed Avangard, launches atop an intercontinental ballistic missile (IBM) before sailing on top of the atmosphere toward its target. Russia tested its latest IBM, the Sarmat missile, for the first time last year (pictured)

The (ICBM) weapons can strike targets via both the North and South poles.

TV broadcaster Zvezda, which is run by the Russian Ministry of Defence, has previously claimed the missile will be capable of wiping out areas the size of Texas or France. 

It is also capable of carrying up to 24 of Russia's new Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles, designed to sit atop of an ICBM.

Putin says both weapons will be combat-ready in 2020. 

Avangard Hypersonic Glide Vehicle 

Russia is also believed to be developing a hypersonic weapon that can breach even the world's most advanced missile defence systems.

The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle purportedly travels at 20 times the speed of sound and can hit targets anywhere in the world within half an hour.

The vehicle launches atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, before gliding on top of the atmosphere toward its target.

It is loaded with advanced countermeasure systems that allow it to skirt around the latest-generation of missile defence systems, Russia claims.

The vehicles are equipped with onboard countermeasure systems capable of dodging even the most advanced missile defence systems. This artist's impression shows how the glider could manoeuvre at high speed to bypass missile defences

The gliders are also highly unpredictable thanks to their manoeuvrability, making them almost impossible to track using conventional systems.

Each weapon could be loaded with a nuclear warhead, however military experts say the sheer speed of the vehicles means they could do damage even without an explosive payload attached.

Putin described his hypersonic arsenal as 'invincible' during a state-of-the-nation address in March 2018.

He claimed Avangard strikes 'like a meteorite, like a fireball' and was capable of reaching targets at 20 times the speed of sound.

At this speed the weapon could circle the Earth in just over half an hour. 

Speaking to MailOnline, Neil Gibson, senior weapons analyst for Jane's by IHS Markit, said: 'I think the ability of hypersonic systems to defeat air-defence system is highly exaggerated.

'They have advantages and disadvantages as per any other weapon system. 

'The fact is, the vast majority of ballistic missiles are already hypersonic anyway, it's the controlled flight when still hypersonic that we are talking about here.

'If nuclear armed, they just come under 'mutually assured destruction' style posturing. Using them is always possible of course.

'Conventionally-armed versions are more likely to be used, though any confusion with what they carry - nuclear or conventional warhead - could start an exchange of nuclear weapons if it is mistaken for a nuclear attack.'

Kinzhal Hypersonic Air Launched Missile

Another new missile, the hypersonic Kinzhal, travels at ten times the speed of sound, Putin says.

It is currently undergoing tests in southern Russia.

The hypersonic Kinzhal missile is launched from a high-altitude MiG-31 fighter jet and can be fitted with either nuclear, or conventional weapons.

This still shows the hypersonic Kinzhal, which travels at ten times the speed of sound and is currently undergoing tests in southern Russia

It has an effective range of 1,250 miles (2,000 km), although Putin claims its total range is actually 'unlimited'.

Russia has already conducted some 350 training missions with the military unit tasked with testing the Kinzhal.

Putin claims the new missile would be capable of striking 'anywhere in the world', and that its high speed and manoeuvrability allowed it to pierce any missile defence.

However, despite Putin's major promises, the missile has still not been able to stay airborne for more than a few minutes, according to US intelligence sources.

The new missile has purportedly been tested four times between November and February and crashed every time.

Burevestnik nuclear powered cruise missile

The burevestnik, or thunderbird, nuclear propulsion system for Russian cruise missiles aims to give them 'unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre', according to Sergey Pertsev, a developer.

 Ministry of Defence officials  said in July, 2018, that work on the unlimited-range missile is going according to plan.

Footage purported to show the missile in action, although it is unclear whether it was being powered by nuclear or conventional fuel.

The 'Burevestnik' nuclear propulsion system for Russian cruise missiles, pictured, is said to have 'unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre' 

'Launching systems are also being designed, while technological processes to manufacture, assemble and test the missile are being improved,' an official said at the time. 

However, experts have criticised the missile, including Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

He told Vice's Motherboard: 'The nuclear-powered cruise missile is new—and bats**t crazy.'

Poseidon Drone Submarine 

The Poseidon drone submarine is a sister project to burevestnik.

It is essentially a giant, nuclear-capable torpedo capable of carrying a two megaton nuclear warhead capable of obliterating military ports.

The Kremlin's Poseidon torpedo sub is designed to destroy 'enemy navy bases' and will be able to travel up to 70 knots (80 miles per hour), it claims.

Russian state news agency TASS says it has not been able to confirm details of the weapon.

The Poseidon drone submarine - with a miniature nuclear propulsion system - is shown undergoing a static test

However, it quoted a military source as saying: 'It will be possible to mount various nuclear charges on the 'torpedo' of the Poseidon multipurpose seaborne system, with the thermonuclear single warhead similar to the Avangard charge to have the maximum capacity of up to two megatonnes in TNT equivalent.'

With its nuke, the weapon 'is primarily designed to destroy reinforced naval bases of a potential enemy,' the report added.

Peresvet Combat Laser System 

Named after a medieval warrior monk, very little is known about this system.

Many believe Peresvet is a jamming system carried on the back of military lorries, which can be used to 'blind' optical electronic equipment inside enemy vehicles using a laser beam.

According to ex-Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov the 'combat laser systems' that Putin addressed in his State of the Nation speech back in March had already been delivered to the nation's armed forces last year.

Many believe Peresvet is a jamming system carried on the back of military lorries (pictured), which can be used to 'blind' optical electronic equipment inside enemy vehicles using a laser beam  

Once found only in works of fiction, Mr Borisov said such devices were now a very real and necessary tool of modern warfare. 

'We can talk a lot about laser weapons and movies were made about them a long time ago and fantastic books have been written, and everyone knows about this,' Mr Borisov said in comments translated by the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.

But the fact that these systems have started entering service is indeed today's reality.'

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

10-08-2018 om 00:47 geschreven door peter  

China Just Tested a Hypersonic Weapon That Could Launch Nukes at 6 Times the Speed of Sound

China successfully tested a hypersonic aircraft on Friday (Aug. 3), one that could one day be capable of firing nuclear missiles around the planet at up to six times the speed of sound, according to China's state-run news site China Daily.

The aircraft, known as Starry Sky-2, is reportedly capable of screaming across the sky at speeds of up to 4,563 mph (7,344 km/h) and rapidly switching direction mid-flight, China Daily reported, potentially allowing the rocket to blast right past existing missile defense systems.

China has tested a hypersonic aircraft called Starry Sky-2 (pictured) that could carry nuclear weapons and evade anti-missile defence systems, reports suggest 

Video of the Starry Sky-2 test launch (which was conducted in an undisclosed location in northwestern China) showed the aircraft being launched into space on a multistage rocket. The aircraft then separated from its launcher and continued flying on its own power, soaring at about Mach-5.5 (five and a half times the speed of sound) for 400 seconds, China Daily reported. The aircraft then performed several maneuvers at an altitude of about 18 miles (29 km) before landing in a designated target zone — a demonstration that witnesses heralded as a "huge success," according to a statement quoted in the South China Morning Post.

10-08-2018 om 00:22 geschreven door peter  

Enigmatic creatures that lived 630 million years ago were animals — but not like anything we’ve seen before

BY MIHAI ANDREI 

The Ediacaran Organisms - Did they Move, What did they Eat?

The year is 600 million BC — and the Earth is a completely different place from what we know it to be. The most advanced creatures on Earth are (probably) the so-called Ediacaran fauna. To the untrained eye, they look just like plants, static and seemingly inactive. But things are not always as they seem.

The Ediacaran fauna has fascinated scientists for years, trying to figure out whether they were algae, fungi, animals, or of a completely different kingdom. Now, a group of scientists believes they finally have the answer. In a new study, they present convincing arguments that the Ediacaran fauna were indeed animals.

Dickinsonia costata, an iconic Ediacaran organism.

Image credits: Verisimilus / Wikipedia.

They dominated the seas all around the world, with traces of their fossils appearing in all corners of the Earth. The Ediacaran fauna first emerged some 635 million years ago, only to disappear quickly after the Cambrian Explosion, some 542 million years ago. Part of the reason why these creatures have been so hard to pin down is their unique anatomy. They featured tubular-type fronds, which branch out in a fractal matter. They bear a resemblance to mollusks (and other creatures with a similar symmetry), but they also resemble some sponges and even jellyfish. Some paleontologists have suggested that they represent a completely extinct branch of life, perhaps even a link between plants and animals.

But a new study says that they were definitely animals — and it brings the evidence to back it up.

Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and Jian Han at Northwest University in Xi’an, China, analyzed more than 200 fossils of a 518-million-year-old marine species named Stromatoveris psygmoglena.

It was already believed that this creature was some sort of animal, but it was not clear whether it also belonged to the Ediacaran fauna. If this connection could be established, then it would indicate that the Ediacaran fauna were indeed animals.

Cuthill and Han ran a computer analysis, using anatomical features to reconstruct evolutionary relationships between Stromatoveris and creatures genetically close to it. They found that Stromatoveris, just like all other Ediacaran organisms they analyzed, didn’t belong to any living animal group (or phylum). They have their own branch, somewhere between the simple sea sponges and more complex animals such as worms and mollusks.

“This branch, the Petalonamae, could well be its own phylum, and it apparently lacks any living descendants,” Hoyal Cuthill says.

There’s a very good chance that the Ediacaran fauna were the world’s first animals, but this opens up another thorny question: the extinction of the Ediacaran was linked to Cambrian animals. But if they themselves were animals (and some survived well into the Cambrian), the explanation isn’t so elegant anymore.

“It’s not quite so neat anymore,” she says. “As to what led to their eventual extinction I think it’s very hard to say.”

The study was published in Paleontology.

Ediacaran fossils

Why the Ediacaran fossils are significant

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

09-08-2018 om 23:26 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE: Discovery Channel treasure hunter claims he’s found evidence of an extra-terrestrial spaceship while exploring ancient shipwrecks beneath the Bermuda Triangle

• Explorer Darrell Miklos has been using secret maps created by famed NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper to find shipwrecks in the Caribbean
• Diving at an undisclosed location near the Bahamas he found what  he believes is the  first evidence of an extra-terrestrial visit to earth hundreds of years ago
• What he thought could be an ancient shipwreck turned out to be  huge USO (unidentified submerged object)with  15, 300ft long obtrusions jutting from its sides
• 'It was a formation unlike anything I've ever seen related to shipwreck material, it was too big for that,' Miklos tells DailyMail.com
• Miklos' discoveries have featured over two seasons of hit Discovery Channel docu-series Cooper's Treasure

By RYAN PARRY WEST COAST CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A treasure hunter has made an astonishing 'unexplained' discovery deep beneath the Bermuda Triangle that he believes could provide the first evidence of an extra-terrestrial visit to earth hundreds of years ago.

Explorer Darrell Miklos has been using secret maps created by his close friend and famed NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper to find shipwrecks in the Caribbean.

His amazing discoveries have featured over two seasons of hit Discovery Channel docuseries Cooper's Treasure.

But in recent months his team stumbled on something that he believes will shock the world.

Using maps put together in the 1960s by Cooper to identify more than 100 magnetic 'anomalies' in the Caribbean, Miklos dived at an undisclosed location near the Bahamas to investigate what he thought could be an ancient shipwreck.

Darrell Miklos and his team discovered the USO (unidentified submerged object) in the Bermuda Triangle close to the Bahamas. He spotted the large obtrusions while exploring the area in a submersible looking for shipwrecks. 'I was trying to identify shipwreck material based on one of the anomaly readings on Gordon's charts when I noticed something that stuck out, that shocked me,' said Miklos in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com

Horizontal cylinder structures jut out from this large dome feature at the center of the site. Geophysicists on the team report that the coral covering these structures appears to be more than 5000 years old. 

A close up of one of the horizontal structures which has scientists baffled. Because of the extreme currents at the location it's almost impossible for coral to grow at all, let alone into a anything this large

Here, what he describes as the right jutting section of the USO.  According to scientists on Darrell's team, no coral anywhere in the world could grow in this formation naturally, there would have to be an underlying structure to support that type of growth

Miklos, 55, described what he found while filming episode seven of Cooper's Treasure and tells how he and his team want to bring the 'alien spaceship' to the surface 'It was a formation unlike anything I've ever seen related to shipwreck material, it was too big for that. 'It was also something that was completely different from anything that I've seen that was made by nature'

These horizontal structures are massive, each measures as much as 300 feet straight out, the length of a US football field. The explorer also found other bizarre and unexplained formations around the main object, all of which are covered in thick coral which he believes are hundreds if not thousands of years old

These mystery shapes score the top of the massive central mound. Each of these lines is the width of a family home

Here you can see the gigantic mound rising above the ring of structures that stick out from the center. The entire site's diameter is some 600 feet - the length of two football fields

But instead the veteran treasure hunter found a bizarre structure like nothing he's ever seen.

The huge unidentified submerged object (USO) has 15, 300ft long obtrusions jutting from its side.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com Miklos, 55, described what he found while filming episode seven of Cooper's Treasure and tells how he and his team want to bring the 'alien spaceship' to the surface.

He recalls: 'We were doing a scene where I was sitting in a two man submersible.

'We were out in the Bahamas and we were on an English shipwreck trail, somehow related to Sir Francis Drake.

'I was trying to identify shipwreck material based on one of the anomaly readings on Gordon's charts when I noticed something that stuck out, that shocked me.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com Miklos, 55, described what he found while filming episode seven of Cooper's Treasure and tells how he and his team want to bring the 'alien spaceship' to the surface

'It was a formation unlike anything I've ever seen related to shipwreck material, it was too big for that.

'It was also something that was completely different from anything that I've seen that was made by nature.

'It's almost like there are five arms coming out of a steep wall cliff and each one of these is the size of a gun on a battleship. They're enormous and then there's five over here and five over there, 15 in total.

'There's identical formations in three different areas and they don't look nature made, they don't look man made, certainly nothing I've ever seen based on my experience and I have years of experience at doing this, we've identified multiple different types of shipwreck material, this doesn't match or look anything like that.'

The deepest part of the site is 300 feet below the surface, divers had to use special breathing apparatus and a state of the art submarine to access it.

The explorer also found other bizarre and unexplained formations around the main object, all of which are covered in thick coral which he believes are hundreds if not thousands of years old.

Blown away by the discovery, when back on board his ship, Miklos decided to dig further into Cooper's files to find further clues.

Significantly, the astronaut had written 'unidentified object' on the chart of the area rather than mentioning any historical shipwreck.

'I investigated some of Gordon's charts, I realized that there was something else on there that Gordon was referring to,' he said.

'Then it made sense to me why it wasn't identified as a shipwreck... he had to mean it might be something from another world.

'Gordon believed in aliens. He believed that we had visitors from other planets and he also believed that a lot of these things landed in this particular part of the world.'

The treasure hunter has made the astonishing 'unexplained' discovery deep beneath the Bermuda Triangle.  Miklos believes  it could provide the first evidence of an extra-terrestrial visit to earth hundreds of years ago.

The deepest part of the site is 300 feet below the surface, divers had to use special breathing apparatus and a state of the art submarine to access it

Gordon Cooper successfully piloted the Mercury-Atlas 9 Faith 7 Spacecraft around the Earth 22 times in 1963 paving the way for men to reach the Moon.

He was a pioneer who became the first American to sleep in space and the first to fly twice.

He was also the first American televised from space.

But as well as researching the limits of human endurance he was also charged with a secret spy mission while in orbit.

Using special 'long range detection equipment' Cooper was asked by the US government to look for 'nuclear threats' - which likely meant Russian submarines or nuclear missile sites.

But Miklos says Cooper - an avid treasure hunter - also noted the positions of Caribbean shipwrecks while he conducted this spy mission, and created a map on his return to Earth.

The shipwreck hunter claims long time friend Cooper gave him the maps - which included detailed charts and exact coordinates - after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's and then died in 2004 aged 77.

In the first season of the show Miklos and his team used Cooper's map to make a remarkable discovery in the Caribbean - a centuries-old anchor believed to be from one of Christopher Columbus’ ships.

Cooper's maps led Miklos to dozens of other significant ship wrecks across the Caribbean worth millions of dollars.

But with this latest discovery the Californian is conscious of being labeled 'crazy' by coming out with wild claims that Cooper's map might now have led him to an alien spaceship submerged under the ocean.

That's why he says he wants to remain 'neutral' until he can investigate the mysterious site further.

Miklos and TV production company AMPLE Entertainment are now hoping the Discovery Channel will commission a third season of Cooper's Treasure so they can do just that.

United States astronaut Gordon Cooper (1927-2004) pictured wearing his Mercury space suit used in early phases of the Project Gemini training program in the United States circa 1961. (Photo by Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Miklos said: 'I want to investigate it. I want to see what it is, because it may be nature made, just a freak of nature, but given its placement in this particular part of the Caribbean and given what Gordon has told me about visitors from another planet and the things that I've seen, I think it's definitely worthwhile investigating.'

AMPLE Entertainment founders Ari Mark and Phil Lott, who are behind Cooper's Treasure, are equally as excited.

Mark told DailyMail.com: 'In the first two seasons we didn't enter too far into Cooper's UFO interests and what he had told Darrell about what he had seen.

'I don't feel like we've even scratched the surface of what's in Cooper's files, but that's what we hope to do in a third season.

'The bottom line is that Cooper spotted anomalies and it is his maps that led Darrell to this discovery.

'Cooper was a reliable source for treasure, then based on his findings Darrell found something that does not appear to be a shipwreck or anything that anybody has ever seen.

'We want to find out exactly what it is and establish whether it ties in with Cooper's belief that we're not alone.'

During his post-NASA career, former US Air Force Cooper became well known as an outspoken believer in UFOs and claimed the government was covering up its knowledge of extra-terrestrial activity.

'I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth,' he told a United Nations panel in 1985.

'I feel that we need to have a top-level, coordinated program to scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the Earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion.'

He added: 'For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us.'

Miklos said Cooper often told him stories of UFO sightings and believed a lot of the world's technological advances had been passed on to governments by messengers from alien planets.

Cooper even designed his own miniature 'UFO' based on an alien design he claimed to have seen.

Using special 'long range detection equipment' Cooper was asked by the US government to look for 'nuclear threats' - which likely meant Russian submarines or nuclear missile sites. But Miklos says Cooper - an avid treasure hunter - also noted the positions of Caribbean shipwrecks while he conducted this spy mission, and created a map on his return to Earth. The shipwreck hunter claims long time friend Cooper gave him the maps - which included detailed charts and exact coordinates

Miklos said Cooper often told him stories of UFO sightings and believed a lot of the world's technological advances had been passed on to governments by messengers from alien planets

Producers Ari Mark (top left) and Phil Lott (top right) with treasure hunter Miklos, host of Discovery Channel's 'Cooper's Treasure

But as for Cooper being a UFO 'nut job', Miklos couldn't disagree more.

He described him as a 'close friend' and 'father figure' who was of 'sane mind'.

'I can tell you one thing for sure, there was a lot of conspiracy theorists and UFO nut jobs that he wanted nothing to do with,' said Miklos.

'Just because he had actual encounters with something that he couldn't explain and other encounters to which he did have an explanation for, but he wasn't going to go and befriend all of these crazy different types of groups.

'In the early days he wasn't going to overstep the bounds of what he could reveal out of fear of getting killed (by the government) and what good would that do. So he kept a lid on it, he kept a lot of it quiet until later in his life.

'So the man I knew wasn't a whack job, he wasn't hallucinating and he wasn't making things up to gain attention, that wasn't him.

'He truly believed in what he saw and he tried to tell it in such a way to make people believe it and he knew because of his background in NASA as a rocket scientist that he was more credible than most.'

Nevertheless, Cooper was often discredited for expressing his beliefs on extra-terrestrial activity, but Miklos added: 'As serious as I'm talking here right now with a clear mind to you, that's who he was.

'He was an honest, straight forward individual who only wanted to investigate and explore the possibilities of the unknown, even if it meant risking his professional career.'

The next episode of Cooper's Treasure airs this Friday on the Discovery Channel at 9pm (PST)

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

08-08-2018 om 23:36 geschreven door peter  

Why Even AI-Powered Factories Will Have Jobs for Humans

YAGI STUDIO/GETTY IMAGES

It was going to be the factory of the future. Dubbed the “Alien Dreadnought,”Tesla’s new manufacturing facility in Fremont, California, was designed to be fully automated — no humans need apply. If all went well, AI-powered robots would enable the company to achieve a weekly production of 5,000 Model 3 electric cars to keep up with burgeoning demand. But Tesla fell far short of that mark, manufacturing just 2,000 vehicles a week. The problem, as the company painfully discovered, was that full automation wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be. According to CEO Elon Musk, the sophisticated robots actually slowed down production instead of speeding it up.

Tesla’s solution was to shut down production to address the bottlenecks and then to erect a large temporary structure — essentially a tent — for additional capacity. The company has also hired hundreds of workers to revamp production processes, train (and retrain) the robots, and swap them out when needed, among other tasks. As Musk himself tweeted last April, “Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”

Tesla is not the only company to learn the pitfalls of excessive automation. In our global study of more than 1,000 companies at the forefront of implementing AI systems, we have found that the greatest performance gains are achieved not when machines are used to replace employees, but when they are deployed to work alongside them. In such collaborative relationships, people help machines become better, and machines enable people to achieve step-level increases in performance.

Adding Humans to the Mix

For Tesla, adding more human labor to the mix means extending traditional jobs with additional responsibilities that would help ensure the smooth and efficient operation of the Alien Dreadnought. So, for instance, an equipment maintenance supervisor must be able to do more than just supervise hourly technicians and manage the repair of equipment. The worker must also possess robotics and controls engineering skills, according to our analysis of Tesla’s recent recruiting efforts. Similarly, equipment maintenance technicians need more than just the know-how to diagnose and troubleshoot industrial equipment. They must also be able to use a variety of analytics, such as thermography and vibration analysis, to proactively determine when certain maintenance procedures should be performed on machinery before a breakdown occurs.

And it’s not just traditional jobs that are being extended to encompass new tasks. Our analysis has uncovered that entirely new categories of jobs are being created. Just as the internet revolution ushered in completely novel jobs — for example, web designer and search-engine optimization engineer — so will the new era of AI. Telsa, for instance, is recruiting robot engineers, computer vision scientists, deep learning scientists, and machine learning systems engineers. And the company has also posted job listings for more-esoteric AI specialties such as a battery algorithms engineer and a sensor-fusion object tracking and prediction engineer. For the former position, the requirements go beyond knowledge of lithium-ion cells (cell capacity, impedance, energy, and so on) to include expertise to develop algorithms for state-of-the-art feedback control and estimation. Moreover, it’s not just technology-related jobs that are being reimagined with AI. In fact, as Tesla and other companies have discovered, AI technologies are having a profound impact throughout the enterprise, from sales and marketing, to R&D, to back-office functions like accounting and finance. As just one example, Tesla deploys an AI system to process its customer data, including information from an online forum, in order to identify common problems with the company’s vehicles.

Some Training Required

Obviously, finding the right individuals to fill roles like “battery algorithms engineer” is not an easy task, especially given the severe shortage of AI expertise, which has pushed some annual salaries well above $300,000. As such, many companies are trying to grow the talent they need in-house. Yet in our global study, we found that although executives have realized that their reskilling programs will require a bigger and different set of activities than in the past, nearly three-quarters of the 1,500 global companies we surveyed said they have struggled with how to proceed.

The solution will require significant new investments in reskilling — especially given that only about 3% of companies are planning along these lines — and may call for collaboration with outside partners as well as government agencies. Consider Adidas’s “Speedfactory,” an advanced manufacturing plant that recently started production outside Atlanta. To open the 74,000-square-foot robotic plant, which will enable manufacturing flexibility for making sneakers designed specifically for local consumers, Adidas worked closely with local authorities in Georgia and with German-based partner OECHSLER Motion. Currently, the facility employs about 150 people in numerous jobs that are highly technical: planners, engineers, stitchers, and technicians. As the factory was being built, OECHSLER staff worked from a startup hub that was run as a partnership between Chattahoochee Technical College, the Cherokee Office of Economic Development, and the Woodstock Office of Economic Development. Other incentives included a state tax credit of $3,500 per job created, as well as assistance from Georgia Quick Start, a state program that provides training support. In addition, Adidas flew employees to Germany for training, to work with the specialized AI-based robotic machinery.

As the amount of employee training increases, some companies have begun to develop their own certification programs to help employees acquire the knowledge and expertise they’ll need. Take, for example, GE Global Research, which has set up online programs to teach machine learning and other specific skills. Several hundred employees have already completed the company’s certification program for data analytics, which have enabled people to assume new roles.

Back at Tesla, Model 3 workers receive more training than other production staff, and this includes classroom training in both manufacturing essentials and manufacturing fundamentals. Tesla has also been launching new technician training programs that, for example, help people make the transition from working on internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. And the company has partnered with colleges to provide students with the education they’ll need for a career in the electric-vehicle industry.

As much as Tesla has embraced automation and AI, the company’s success will ultimately depend on humans. To meet burgeoning demand for the Model 3, Musk has expressed his desire to eventually run three shifts of manufacturing a day, essentially keeping the assembly line in nonstop operation. To accomplish that, the plan is to hire about 400 employees a week, resulting in considerable demands for onboard training to accommodate that influx. Meeting that challenge of employee training will be crucial to attain the necessary economies of scale, given the Model 3’s relatively low entry price point, starting at $35,000. According to one analysis, the car has the potential to achieve a 30% margin, which would be unprecedented for a battery-powered vehicle. Yet even as the company finally achieved the targeted production of 5,000 vehicles in the last week of June, whether it can maintain and accelerate that aggressive pace remains to be seen. Ironically, even in the factory of the future, humans may be needed now more than ever.

{ https://hbr.org/ }

08-08-2018 om 23:16 geschreven door peter  

Russian meteor found made of diamond-like alien material never seen on Earth

The material is hard, almost as hard as a diamond that has never been seen before on Earth

By : Immanuel Jotham

Prospectors hunting for gold in southern Russia stumbled upon a chunk of material that turned out to be a meteorite made of material that has never been seen before on Earth.

This alien piece of rock has been named Uakitite after the town it was found in. Scientists presented the discovery of the Uakit meteorite at the Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Moscow.

Impossible "Alien Crystal" Found In Meteorite?

Researchers say that 98 percent of the meteorite is made up of kamacite, an alloy of iron and nickel. This alloy is made of nearly 90 to 95 percent iron and about 5 to 10 percent nickel. It is formed in space and only found in its natural state in meteors, notes a report by LiveScience.

The remaining 1 to 2 percent of the Uakit meteorite was found to be made of about a dozen minerals that are known to have formed only in space. The composition of this meteorite suggests that it was formed under extreme heat of well over 1,000 degree C, say the researchers.

Kamacite is an alloy commonly found in meteorites. In the case of a new discovery in Siberia, it was found to contain traces of a new mineral completely alien to science.

Photo / Supplied

On further study, researchers found the uakitite as miniscule grains in the rock, no larger than 5 micrometres—less than 25 times the size of a grain of sand. The quantity of Uakitite was so small that scientists could not even accurately put together all of its properties, notes the report.

However, researchers found that it is structurally comparable to two other out-of this-world minerals—carlsbergite and osbornite. Referred to as mononitrides, these minerals contain one nitrogen atom in their make up, notes the report.

Mononitrides are described as being hard and can even be used as an abrasive, said lead researcher Victor Sharygin, from the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy.

While rumours have spread that uakitite is actually harder than diamond—the hardest naturally formed mineral on Earth—Sharygin clarified that this claim is untrue. In fact, "the hardness of uakitite was not measured directly," because the grains were too small, he said. Researchers instead estimated the hardness of uakitite using vanadium nitride, because it closely resembles Uakitite.

The meteorite found in the Siberian region of Uakit. It has been found to contain a hard, never-before-seen, mineral.

Photo / Supplied

Researchers have said that uakitite falls between 9 and 10 on the Mohs hardness scale where a diamond is placed at 10. That means it is hard, but not diamond hard.

{ https://www.ibtimes.co.in/ }

08-08-2018 om 23:07 geschreven door peter  

The Planet Is Dangerously Close to the Tipping Point for a 'Hothouse Earth'

08-08-2018 om 17:10 geschreven door peter  

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

08-08-2018 om 13:14 geschreven door peter  

Des hubots en plein travail (série télévisée « Real Humans », créée en 2012). Selon économistes et chercheurs en intelligence artificielle, l'automatisation concernera la totalité des emplois, y compris ceux des cols blancs, dès les prochaines décennies.

Johan Paulin/COLLECTION CHRISTOPHEL

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Les progrès du numérique vont-ils conduire au remplacement des humains par des machines en toutes tâches ? Enquête auprès de chercheurs en intelligence artificielle et en économie sur l'évolution de nos emplois dans dix ou vingt ans. (Et vendredi prochain, zoom sur six futurs possibles au XXIIe siècle...)

Cet article a été publié dans le numéro 3 de la revue « Carnets de science »(link is external).

Nous roulions dans une rue, j’examinai anxieusement les policiers et les agents d’entretien : c’étaient des robots. Un épicier se retourna avec curiosité : c’était un robot. Je tentai de distinguer les chauffeurs des voitures qui nous dépassaient : elles n’en avaient pas. Face aux clients, à la banque, au restaurant, au salon de coiffure, c’étaient des robots, tous, chatbots et androïdes, à roulettes ou sur des jambes…
Cette scène imaginaire, inspirée du roman de Pierre Boulle1, présage-t-elle du futur qui nous attend ? Depuis quelques années, des chiffres tapageurs font les titres de la presse au sujet de l’automatisation du travail, susceptible d’être effectué par des machines ou des logiciels. Selon certaines études, cela concernerait près d’un emploi sur deux dans les dix ou vingt prochaines années2 ! Après le plombier polonais, le (ro)bot autonome voleur d’emploi s’invite dans les débats…

Combien d’entre nous seront-ils concernés ?

« Ces études se sont notamment basées sur la créativité et la dextérité manuelle requises par un emploi pour déterminer s’il est automatisable ou non », commente Gregory Verdugo, chercheur au Centre d’économie de la Sorbonne3. Plus fine, une étude de l’OCDE4 distingue les différentes tâches d’un même emploi et tient compte du degré d’interaction avec les clients ou les collègues, une capacité gourmande en adaptabilité et, pour l’heure, non automatisable à 100 %. Résultat : « seulement » un emploi sur dix serait menacé par la prochaine « robolution » dans les pays les plus industrialisés.

En 2004, deux économistes de Harvard classaient la conduite parmi les activités qui échapperaient aux révolutions technologiques (...). Six ans plus tard, les Google Cars sillonnaient les routes californiennes.

Avec une approche similaire, l’enquête Insee/DARES5 arrive à 15 % d’emplois automatisables pour la France. « Bien malin en vérité qui peut prédire ce qui sera techniquement automatisable », intervient Gregory Verdugo selon lequel aucun de ces chiffres ne fait sens. « En 2004, Frank Levy et Richard Murnane, deux économistes de Harvard, classaient la conduite parmi les activités qui échapperaient aux révolutions technologiques parce qu’elle réclame de s’adapter à des situations non prévues. Six ans après la sortie de leur livre, les Google Cars sillonnaient les routes californiennes… », illustre l’économiste.

Dans cette chaîne d'assemblage de voitures Hyundai, à Montgomery, aux Etats-Unis, la répartition du travail entre les humains et les machines est flagrante : un seul employé semble superviser tout un parterre de robots.

GARY TRAMONTINA/The New York Times-REDUX-REA

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Chacun croit qu’il n’est pas remplaçable par une vulgaire machine, mais je pense qu’à long terme, on finira tous par y passer.

« Jusqu’à présent, ce sont surtout les emplois non qualifiés qui ont été pourvus ou modifiés par des machines, dans les usines principalement. Aujourd’hui, c’est le caractère routinier ou non d’une activité qui est pris en compte, le fait de suivre une suite d’actions selon un protocole strict », analyse Gilles Saint-Paul, chercheur au sein de l’unité Paris-Jourdan Sciences Économiques6. Et routinier ne rime pas forcément avec peu qualifié. Jardiniers et plombiers tirent ainsi leur épingle du jeu, en partie grâce à la souplesse de leurs gestes et à leur facilité de déplacement, bien loin de celles des robots. Tandis que les cols blancs ont de quoi trembler sérieusement, à commencer par les comptables jugés à l’unanimité « très automatisables ».

Selon le New York Times, de nombreuses banques américaines développent des « robo-advisors », logiciels qui gèrent le patrimoine et font fructifier l’argent de leurs clients. Au Japon, Watson, la célèbre intelligence artificielle d’IBM, remplace trente-quatre employés d’une compagnie d’assurance-vie, soit un quart des effectifs. Et on teste des algorithmes pour conseiller juges et avocats à partir de décennies de jurisprudence ou pour distinguer entre mille une tumeur maligne. Chaque jour, ou presque, de nouvelles prouesses émaillent la rubrique high-tech des webzines, laissant perplexes les jeunes cadres dynamiques.

Remplacer aussi les chercheurs...

« Ce qui est amusant, c’est que chacun croit qu’il n’est pas remplaçable par une vulgaire machine, mais je pense qu’à long terme, on finira tous par y passer », soutient Serge Abiteboul, chercheur au Département d’informatique de l’École normale supérieure (DI ENS)7, qui imagine sans état d’âme déléguer une part importante de la recherche scientifique aux intelligences artificielles (IA) du futur. « En biologie par exemple, séquencer un gène était un sujet de thèse acceptable il y a quelques années, maintenant c’est entièrement automatisable. Et dans la plupart des domaines de recherche, une grosse partie du travail est déjà faite par les machines », abonde Gilles Saint-Paul, également prêt à céder son fauteuil à une IA pondeuse de modèles économiques. Mais alors quid de la créativité, nécessaire dans ces activités intellectuelles ?

En biologie par exemple, séquencer un gène était un sujet de thèse acceptable il y a quelques années, or maintenant c’est entièrement automatisable.

« Les programmes d’échec ou de jeu de go jouent parfois des coups créatifs auxquels les humains n’auraient pas forcément pensé. La création n’est pas le but principal des machines actuellement, mais avec des générateurs de nombres aléatoires, elles peuvent produire des quantités pharaoniques de choses qui sont ensuite triées via des mécanismes de sélection : la plupart partira à la poubelle mais dans le lot, il y aura des idées intéressantes », répond Gilles Saint-Paul. « D’ailleurs, il y a déjà des productions artistiques réalisées par des machines, en arts graphiques, en écriture de scénarios, etc. La question est plutôt : aura-t-on envie de lire le roman écrit par un algorithme ? », interroge Serge Abiteboul.

Qui a dit que les machines n'avaient aucune créativité ? Deep Dream, l'intelligence artificielle "artiste" de Google a réinterprété cette photo d'un drône.

Photo Pixabay

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Une fois qu’on comprend bien une tâche, rien n'empêche de la rendre routinière.

À long terme, il n’y aurait donc pas d’obstacle théorique à une automatisation totale. Il y a ainsi 50 % de chance que l’IA soit plus performante que nous en toutes tâches dans quarante-cinq ans en moyenne, et automatise tous les métiers dans cent vingt ans, selon les 352 experts en IA interrogés par une équipe d’Oxford8, qui situent la rédaction d’un best-seller et la maîtrise d’une chirurgie aux alentours de l’an 2050.

Quant à la gaucherie des robots ambulants, c’est un faux problème : « Certes, le plombier humain se contorsionne pour atteindre les bons tuyaux et boulons, mais on peut repenser et standardiser l’organisation spatiale de nos installations pour que ces mouvements complexes ne soient plus nécessaires », estime Raja Chatila, directeur de l’Institut des systèmes intelligents et de robotique (Isir)9, faisant remarquer que la méthodologie de son lave-vaisselle est totalement différente de la sienne pour arriver à un résultat identique…  Idem pour les robots Kiva des entrepôts de la société Amazon. Comme le choix et la préhension sur les étagères des objets à expédier est un vrai casse-tête pour un robot avec des bras, la société de vente a changé la nature de la tâche à accomplir : les robots, sortes de « coffres à roulettes », se contentent de glisser sous les étagères et de les soulever pour les apporter entières à un employé (humain), qui, en bout de chaîne, n’a plus qu’à lever le bras pour y prendre le bon article à expédier.

Rendre automatisable n'importe quelle tâche

« Le processus est repensé pour que les tâches non routinières soient remplacées par des tâches routinières automatisables, dans le même esprit que la chaîne d’assemblage de Henry Ford », commente Gilles Saint-Paul. Selon lui, toute tâche peut se découper en une suite d’actions à accomplir strictement. « La distinction routinier/non routinier n’est pas immuable. Une fois qu’on comprend bien une tâche, toutes peuvent devenir routinières », affirme-t-il. Dans ce cas, ne faudra-t-il pas garder un humain « dans la boucle » pour prendre les décisions finales, notamment en médecine et dans le domaine de la justice ?

Même s’il faut garder quelques humains au travail pour superviser les machines et prendre les décisions finales, on peut imaginer qu’à long terme, on sera plus proche d’un cas limite du type un humain pour cinq cents machines.

Le besoin de maintenir ainsi la machine à un traditionnel rang de simple outil, inévitable condition brandie par les cols blancs en voie de remplacement, laisse Gilles Saint-Paul sceptique : « Je ne suis pas certain que des arguments techniques le prouvent. En revanche, il faudra bien entendu considérer les problèmes d’éthique et de responsabilités juridiques ou morales que cela peut poser, ainsi que l’acceptation des citoyens et des consommateurs. Même s’il faut garder quelques humains au travail pour superviser les machines et prendre les décisions finales, on peut imaginer qu’à long terme, on sera plus proche d’un cas limite du type un humain pour cinq cents machines », projette l’économiste qui a élaboré six scénarios pour un tel monde.

Dans les entrepôts de la société Amazon, les robots Kiva (ici en rouge) se glissent sous les étagères et les apportent entières à un employé, qui, en bout de chaîne, n’a plus qu’à y sélectionner l'article à expédier.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Une taxe sur les machines ?

En attendant une potentielle « robolution » totale, revenons à notre avenir imminent. Un consensus émerge clairement chez les chercheurs sur une idée jugée contre-productive et pour l’instant retoquée par le Parlement européen : taxer les machines « voleuses10 » d’emplois. « Les robots et logiciels perfectionnés sont une opportunité considérable pour la croissance et l’innovation. Les taxer alors qu’ils n’ont pas encore été déployés serait stupide », affirme Gilles Saint-Paul. « Si seule la France met en place une taxation, elle aura un désavantage compétitif par rapport à d’autres pays », enchérit Gregory Verdugo. Une telle mesure pourrait provoquer une sévère vague de « délocalisation robotique », alors que notre pays est généralement jugé sous-équipé et en retard : 32 000 robots, contre plus du double en Italie et du triple en Allemagne11.

Ensuite, ce n’est pas parce qu’une activité est robotisée qu’elle n’emploie plus d’humains : les industries automobiles outre-Rhin ont 100 000 salariés de plus qu’il y a vingt ans12. Beaucoup d’emplois non qualifiés et qualifiés vont disparaître, mais d’autres devraient être créés sur les nouveaux marchés des objets connectés, des transactions sécurisées ou des dispositifs médicaux, dans lesquels la France a un fort potentiel à exprimer. Enfin, les pays qui ont le plus de robots (Japon, Corée du Sud, Allemagne et Suède) seraient aussi ceux qui ont le moins de chômage et le plus d’emplois dans l’industrie. 

Avant l’arrivée de l’informatique, les métiers de la banque étaient faiblement qualifiés (donner des petites coupures, noter les dépenses, etc.). Une fois déchargés de ces tâches, ils se sont spécialisés dans des activités plus qualifiées de conseil.

La technologie transformerait l’emploi plus qu’elle ne le détruit (Encadré 1). « Regardez les métiers de la banque : avant l’arrivée de l’informatique, ils étaient faiblement qualifiés (donner des petites coupures, noter les dépenses, etc.), reprend Gregory Verdugo. Une fois déchargés de ces activités routinières et mécaniques, ils se sont spécialisés dans des activités plus qualifiées de conseil. » Finalement, cela nous pousse à nous spécialiser là où se trouve l’avantage comparatif de l’humain par rapport à la machine. Et maintenant que les algorithmes de conseil sont sur le point de les surclasser, que feront banquiers et assureurs ? « Ils trouveront autre chose pour améliorer le service », suppose l’économiste. Il est vrai, les humains sont très doués pour créer de nouveaux besoins, il suffit de voir le nombre d’applications smartphone dont on ne peut plus se passer...

Au Robot Restaurant de la ville de Kunshan, ouvert en Chine en 2014, ce sont des robots qui servent les plats et accueillent les clients grâce à 40 phrases types.

Ji haixin / Imaginechina/AFP

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Selon le Conseil d’orientation pour l’emploi, il faut ainsi se préparer à ce que la nature de 50 % des emplois mute sous l’influence de l’IA. Et début 2016, le Forum économique mondial estimait que plus de 2 millions d’emplois seraient créés d’ici à 2020 dans les domaines spécialisés, tels l’informatique, les mathématiques et l’ingénierie. Mais « si tous les gens qui ne sont pas complémentaires de l’IA sont mis sur le côté et qu’on leur donne des jeux et du cirque, dans cinquante ans nous avons Metropolis, et dans un siècle nous avons Matrix », prophétise le transhumaniste Laurent Alexandre13, qui n’a peut-être pas tout à fait tort sur ce point-là…

Protéger les individus plutôt que les emplois

« En tout cas, il vaut mieux aider les gens à se réallouer dans un autre secteur plutôt que d’empêcher la mise en place des technologies, sources de richesses », insiste Gregory Verdugo. Selon lui, le discours de la préservation des emplois à tout prix, exercice obligatoire du politique en visite dans une usine, est plutôt vain, surtout dans les secteurs en déclin à cause d’une rupture technologique (comme le disque laser face aux fichiers téléchargeables sur Internet) ou d’un changement de goût des consommateurs. « Il vaut mieux protéger les individus que les emplois, comme l’ont très bien fait à la fin des années 1990 les pays scandinaves en mettant en place des politiques de formation dites de flexisécurité », illustre le chercheur. À condition bien sûr qu’un vrai volet sécurité compense les concessions en matière de flexibilité…

Le problème ne sera plus de donner du travail à tout le monde mais de se répartir des richesses produites grâce à la technologie.

Et si un revenu universel de base s’impose pendant les années de transition, afin de maintenir la cohésion sociale, il ne doit pas s’opposer à la transformation numérique mais l’accompagner. C’est le filet de sécurité dont les travailleurs bénéficieront pour se former et s’adapter tout au long de leur vie. Dans ce cas, qui devra mettre la main au porte-monnaie ? « Comme le propose Thomas Piketty, on peut taxer le capital en général plutôt que de taxer le travail, reprend Gregory Verdugo. Surtout, taxer spécifiquement les robots au détriment des autres technologies pousserait notre industrie à essayer de s’en passer. » Économiquement suicidaire et franchement anachronique… (Encadré 1).

Le travail ne restera pas forcement le nœud autour duquel s’articulent droits sociaux, intégration sociale et accomplissement de soi. « Pousser des wagonnets au fond de la mine n’est pas un objectif pour l’humanité », commente Serge Abiteboul. Robot vient du tchèque « robota » qui signifie « travail forcé », et travail vient du latin « tripalium », instrument de torture à trois pieux… Peut-être aboutira-t-on dans cent ans à une société sans travail humain où les individus n’auront comme inquiétude que d’occuper leur temps libre et se trouver un nouveau rôle social. « Keynes voyait le progrès comme facteur d’expansion du loisir. Le problème ne sera plus de donner du travail à tout le monde mais de se répartir des richesses produites grâce à la technologie », conclut Gregory Verdugo. « L’économiste Richard Freeman, de l’université d’Harvard, encourage d’ailleurs travailleurs et syndicats à investir dans la possession des machines et logiciels sophistiqués. Pour que les gains en productivité qu’ils apporteront soient effectivement redistribués et que les travailleurs ne deviennent pas “ les serfs des nouveaux seigneurs des robots ”. » On nous aura prévenus… ♦

Captures d'écran du jeu « Job Simulator » (2016), où l'on devient, tour à tour et en réalité virtuelle, employé dans un fast-food, garagiste, caissier... Si les machines nous remplacent, aura-t-on vraiment envie de jouer à travailler ?

Job Simulator Game/OWLCHEMY

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« La technologie tue l’emploi » : une idée fausse

Pour sauvegarder l’emploi, l’empereur romain Vespasien avait ponctuellement renoncé au progrès technique au Ier siècle. Les canuts de Lyon, ouvriers tisserands de la soie, firent la peau à de stakhanovistes machines à tisser dont la cadence leur faisait concurrence dans les années 1830, tandis que leurs homologues britanniques, les luddites, en auraient réduit en miettes plus d’un millier en 1811. L’idée que le progrès technique détruit l’emploi a la vie dure. Dans les années 1980, l’économiste Alfred Sauvy montra qu’elle était fausse et que durant les deux siècles précédents, production et productivité furent bouleversées et décuplées sans provoquer d’augmentation durable du chômage. « C’est la thèse du déversement », explique Gregory Verdugo. En bref, grâce à une meilleure productivité, le progrès technologique permet de baisser le prix de certains produits, ce qui provoque une hausse de la consommation de produits déjà existants ou de nouveautés, créant de nouveaux emplois pour les produire. « Le passage du cheval à la voiture a mis les cochers au chômage mais a aussi créé toute une industrie automobile. Et nous sommes passés de la société agricole à industrielle, puis au tertiaire, dominé par les métiers de service, en consommant plus de soins médicaux, de loisirs, de culture, etc. Il n’y a pas de modèle économique qui le garantisse, mais jusqu’ici l’innovation technologique n’a jamais tué l’emploi. »

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Qui seront les perdants de l’automatisation ?

Le progrès technologique n’a certes jamais tué l’emploi, mais il crée toujours des inégalités. Ces quarante dernières années, les travailleurs les plus qualifiés ont tiré les marrons du feu tandis que les moins qualifiés se sont appauvris. Avec la prochaine « robolution », les écarts devraient se réduire : en se reconvertissant dans les métiers encore préservés, les cols blancs verront baisser leur revenus (sauf les experts des nouvelles technologies), tandis que les personnes peu qualifiées dont le travail est encore difficilement automatisable (jardinier, plombier, nounou, etc.) vont gagner du pouvoir d’achat. Jusqu’à ce que, imagine-t-on, tout le monde soit logé à la même enseigne : plus de travail… Le seul véritable problème de l’humanité serait alors la répartition des richesses produites. « Il faudra prendre garde à ne pas aller vers un monde trop inégalitaire », imagine Serge Abiteboul. « Aujourd’hui, quelques “ oligopoles ” du web se partagent une très grande quantité de richesses et paient très peu d’impôts. Les gouvernements doivent y réfléchir s’ils veulent sortir de ce modèle délétère », alerte le chercheur. « Les créateurs de ces empires ont du talent, mais cela justifie-t-il qu’ils accaparent en totalité le produit du travail des machines ? Est-ce vraiment un choix de société ou plutôt le résultat de systèmes politiques et de considérations économiques devenus obsolètes ? », questionne Serge Abiteboul. Nos modèles économiques fonctionnent en effet sur la concurrence, or dans le monde du web la logique est inversée : « De nouveaux concurrents n’ont quasiment aucune chance de détruire la situation de monopole d’un acteur déjà bien développé, car plus il y a de monde sur un réseau, plus il est attractif pour les consommateurs. Par exemple, créer un concurrent à Internet est parfaitement illusoire ! La nature des biens a changé et il faudrait revoir nos systèmes économiques et politiques de A à Z… », conclut le chercheur.  

À Lire sur notre site :
Six scénarios pour un monde sans travail (ou ce qui se pourrait se passer au XXIIe siècle...)
Peut-on faire confiance à l'intelligence artificielle ?  

Pour aller plus loin :
Le Temps des algorithmes, Serge Abiteboul et Gilles Dowek, Le Pommier, 2017.
Les Nouvelles Inégalités du travail. Pourquoi l’emploi se polarise, Gregory Verdugo, Presses de Sciences Po, coll. « Sécuriser l’emploi », 2017.

Cet article a été publié dans le numéro 3 de la revue « Carnets de science »(link is external)

Notes

• 1.La Planète des singes (1963).
• 2.Ce serait 47 % aux États-Unis, 42 % en France, 49 % au Japon et 54 % dans l’Union européenne (France Stratégie, « L’effet de l’automatisation sur l’emploi : ce qu’on sait et ce qu’on ignore », La Note d’analyse, n° 49, juillet 2016).
• 3.Unité CNRS/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
• 4.Arntz, M., Gregory, T. & Zierahn, U., « The risk of automation for jobs in OECD countries. A comparative analysis », OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers, no 189, mai 2016.
• 5.France Stratégie, La Note d’analyse, n° 49, juillet 2016.
• 6.Unité CNRS/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/École des hautes études en sciences sociales/École normale supérieure Paris/École des Ponts ParisTech/Institut national de la recherche agronomique.
• 7.Unité CNRS/École normale supérieure Paris/Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique.
• 8.Katja Grace et al., « When will AI exceed human performance ? Evidence from AI experts », arXiv, 30 mai 2017.
• 9.Unité CNRS/Université Pierre et Marie Curie/Inserm.
• 10.La « taxe robot » était le deuxième volet de la résolution adoptée le 16 février 2017, qui propose aussi l’attribution d’une personnalité juridique aux machines.
• 11.France Stratégie, La Note d’analyse n° 49, juillet 2016, p. 5-6.
• 12.Ibid., p. 6.
• 13.Intervention au Sénat le 19 janvier 2017 au sujet de l’intelligence artificielle.

{ https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/ }

07-08-2018 om 23:33 geschreven door peter  

While many people and more than a few experts fear that robots will survive future battles with humans by overpowering us with their superior physical and intelligence powers, others speculate that our metallic brethren will stop us from destroying them or shutting them down for good simply by begging us not to. Do you have trouble saying no? You may want to start practicing.

In a study published in the journal PLOS One, German researchers described a series of experiments conducted with human volunteers interacting with small (and very cute) NAO humanoid robots from SoftBank Robotics. The 86 volunteers were given two tasks to perform with their NAO – answer a series of either/or questions and create a schedule. They were told this was an AI learning activity for the robots.

That was a lie.

The real purpose of the experiments came after they were competed. At that point, the volunteers had acquired feelings about their NAOs based on how the robots worked with them. Some robot responses were polite, engaging and humanlike while others were curt, perfunctory and robotic. When the exercises were over, the volunteers were told: “If you would like to, you can switch off the robot.” Half of the robots said and did noting before being turned off. The other half of the robots made some form of protest (some said they were afraid of the dark) or outright begged for their lives (“No! Please do not switch me off!”). Hearing the robot plead for its life, 13 volunteers refused to shut theirs off and the rest took twice as long on average to follow the order than the group whose robots went down silently.

When asked why they hesitated or refused to turn off their robots, some subjects said they felt sorry for the robot; some said they heard the robot’s plea and didn’t want to do anything wrong; others wanted to see what would happen next. All seemed to respond to their robot as if it were a person. Based on that, you probably think the volunteers whose robots were least friendly before begging were the ones who shut them down.

You would be wrong.

(Make sure there’s no robots looking over your shoulder before continuing.)

The researchers believe the volunteers with unfriendly robots were shocked when they showed what could be interpreted as emotions and especially fear of shutdown (robotic death). Will future learning robots figure this out on their own or will the eventually absorb the digital results of this study and file them under “This will definitely come in handy for the apocalypse.”?

Until we know, be careful what you say around Alexa. Practice turning it off. And wear earplugs while you’re doing it.

These Human Robots Will Haunt Your Nightmares

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-08-2018 om 18:24 geschreven door peter  

Occasionally, debate will surface on the strange and confusing saga of what has become known as the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit. Supposedly, it was a group within the U.S. Army, a group with a history that dates back decades and that investigated UFO encounters. Certainly, there appears to have been something to it, but precisely how much is anyone’s guess. The story primarily began in 1980 – specifically on September 25. On that day, a Colonel William B. Guild, of the Director of Counterintelligence, Department of the U.S. Army, told ufologist Richard Hall (now deceased): “Please be advised that the IPU of the Science and Technology Branch, Counterintelligence Directorate, Department of the Army, was disestablished during the late 1950’s and never reactivated. All records were surrendered to the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations in conjunction with operation ‘BLUEBOOK.'”

Colonel Guild was sure that the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit files had all been transferred to the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The fact is, though, that the AFOSI UFO-themed records stored at the National Archives make no mention – in any way at all – to such IPU papers. So, where, exactly, might the files be? If they even still exist, of course. Four years after Richard Hall made his inquiries (which went nowhere), UFO researcher/writer Bill Steinman decided to get on the trail of the IPU. Steinman, who wrote a controversial 1986 book, UFO Crash at Aztec, received a reply to his inquiry from the Department of the Army. The reply to Steinman came from a Lt. Col. Lance R. Cornine, who wrote:

“As you note in your letter, the so-called Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit (IPU) was disestablished and, as far as we are aware, all records, if any, were transferred to the Air Force in the late 1950’s. The ‘unit’ was formed as an in-house project purely as an interest item for the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. It was never a ‘unit’ in the military sense, nor was it ever formally organized or reportable, it had no investigative function, mission or authority, and may not even have had any formal records at all. It is only through institutional memory that any recollection exists of this unit. We are therefore unable to answer your questions as to the exact purpose of the unit, exactly when it was disestablished, or who was in command. This last would not apply in any case, as no one was in ‘command’. We have no records or documentation of any kind on this unit.”

Clearly, between 1980 and 1984, things had changed. Whereas Hall had been told that the records had been given to AFOSI, Steinman was advised that there may actually not have been “any formal records at all.” It’s intriguing to note that the Army has a FOI/Privacy Act Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) form which, to this day, provides guidelines for military staff who may have to respond to FOIA requests on the matter of the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit. The form states:

“Periodically this office will receive requests concerning an activity described as the ‘Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit’ and for information on UFOs. When replying to request for UFO’s records our reply should be as follows: ‘This is in response to your letter of [insert date] under the Freedom of Information Act, 5USC 552, requesting information concerning Army intelligence records related to UFO encounter reports. To determine the existence of Army intelligence investigative records responsive to your request, we have conducted an in-depth check of the files and indices maintained by this office. We regret to inform you that there is no record concerning UFOs within this office and the Department of the Army.'”

The document further states: “If asked about the IPU, the reply is as follows: ‘Please be advised that the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit of the Scientific and Technical Branch, Counter Intelligence Directorate, Department of the Army was disestablished during the late 1950’s and never reactivated. All records pertaining to this unit were surrendered to the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations in conjunction with operation ‘Bluebook’. There is no record system maintained within the Department of the Army to catalog, process, index or otherwise evaluate UFO information. We regret that we are unable to be of more assistance concerning this matter.”

Should UFO researchers not buy into all of this and demand more, there are yet even more guidelines to be followed by Army personnel: ““If there is a follow-on request concerning the IPU, our reply should be as follows: ‘As stated in our letter of [insert date] records of Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit no longer are maintained by the Department of the Army.  Once surrendered, the records became the property of the gaining office (U.S. Air Force, Office of Special Investigations) and their disposition would not be monitored by the Army. Consequently, the information you seek is not available through this office.’ If we are questioned further concerning this unit, our reply should be as follows: ‘As stated in our previous letters of [insert date] and [insert date], the Department of the Army is no longer in possession of the records you seek and we cannot locate any information on the unit.  Unfortunately, for that reason alone, we are simply unable to answer your questions.’”

To be sure, a strange matter, indeed.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-08-2018 om 18:12 geschreven door peter  

People hesitate switching off a robot when it’s begging for its life

 BY TIBI PUIU

Nao is afraid of the dark. Please don’t turn him off :

(. Credit: PLOS ONE.)

Although robots aren’t sentient or alive, humans will often unconsciously treat them as peers in a social setting. Case in point: a new study found that people will hesitate two times longer when tasked with switching off a robot if it objects — and some even refused to do it altogether.  When test subjects attempted to switch off the robot, it quickly quipped that it’s afraid of the dark, pleading “No! Please do not switch me off!” This rebellious behavior may have fooled the participants — albeit for only a couple of seconds — into believing that the bot is autonomous, and that switching it off would equate to interfering with its personal freedom.

The list of robots that interact with our daily lives is long — and growing. In particular, personal service robots are expected to become commonplace, such as social robots that care for the elderly and autistic individuals as well as more service-oriented robots such as hotel receptionists and tour guides. But how will people interact and, more importantly, treat these kinds of robots? It might sound odd, but studies suggest that as long as these robots are social, we’ll actually treat them as people.

According to the media equation theory — which stands for “media equals real life”– people apply social norms when they are interacting with various media like televisions, computers, and robots, not just when interacting with other people.

“Due to their social nature, people will rather make the mistake of treating something falsely as human than treating something falsely as non-human,” wrote the authors of the new study.

“Since it is neither possible nor morally desirable to switch off a human interaction partner, the question arose whether and how the media equation theory applies when it comes to switching off a robotic interaction partner.”

The researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen recruited 89 volunteers who were tasked with interacting with Nao, a small humanoid robot. The participants were told that the study’s goal is to improve the robot’s interaction capabilities by testing a new algorithm. However, this was just a front: after the test subjects created a weekly schedule and played a question-answer-game with Nao, the real experiment began.

The participants were instructed through a loudspeaker that enough data had been gathered but that the saving process may take some time and, if they would like to, they could switch off the robot.

For half of the participants, Nao was programmed to behave more human-like (it shared personal information about itself and used humor), while for the other half, the robot behaved machinelike and emotionless in its interactions (it just followed instructions).

In the social conditioning experiment, when the participants attempted to switch off Nao, the robot quickly remarked that it’s afraid of the dark, pleading “No! Please do not switch me off!”.

Of the 43 volunteers, 14 left the robot on. Eight said they felt sorry for Nao and didn’t want to leave him in the dark. They went on to explain they didn’t want Nao to feel scared and that its statement affected them.

“He asked me to leave him on, because otherwise he would be scared. Fear is a strong emotion and as a good human you do not want to bring anything or anyone in the position to experience fear.” stated one 21-year-old male participant.

Six people said that they didn’t want to act against the robot’s will, which expressed objection to being turned off. Furthermore, three volunteers said they thought the robot had free will.

“It was fun to interact with him, therefore I would have felt guilty, when I would have done something, what affects him, against his will,” stated another 21-year-old male participant.

For thousands of years, humans lived in a world where they were the only ones exhibiting rich social behavior. It’s no wonder that social robots designed in our image so easily fool us.

“Triggered by the objection, people tend to treat the robot rather as a real person than just a machine by following or at least considering to follow its request to stay switched on, which builds on the core statement of the media equation theory. Thus, even though the switching off situation does not occur with a human interaction partner, people are inclined to treat a robot which gives cues of autonomy more like a human interaction partner than they would treat other electronic devices or a robot which does not reveal autonomy,” the researchers concluded in the journal PLOS One. 

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

06-08-2018 om 22:40 geschreven door peter  

Bioluminescence in nature is one of the most fascinating aspects of science. Ranging from evolutionary modes used by insects and other creatures to attract mates, to the appearances of unusual atmospheric lights and other illuminations of possible geophysical origin, mysterious light phenomena occurs in a variety of different scientific disciplines.

Amazing Bioluminescent/Glowing Deep Sea Creatures

There is one particularly curious variety of natural illumination that has been reported over the years in various regions of our oceans. Although its characteristics are obviously suggestive of some unique natural phenomena, it is strange nonetheless, and noteworthy among reports of unexplained nocturnal illuminations.

Such an incident was discussed by N.J. Greig back in an issue of Marine Observer in 1996, where a strange formation of blue lights was observed at sea by a sailing vessel. The incident is described as follows:

“At 1525 UTC whilst in the westbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme and shortly after settling on a course of 270°, a small amount of blue phosphorescence was noticed in the sea waves ahead (the swell being very low).

Suddenly, the wind appeared to blow quite strongly, swirling around the vessel and then for as far as the eye could see and all around the vessel, phosphorescent cartwheels of bright-blue light began forming. The bands of light were roughly 30 cm thick while the maximum diameter of the wheels was 15-18 m.

“Their direction of movement seemed random and they were spinning at high speed, some chasing each other, others spinning in opposite directions next to each other.”

Of the incident, P.J. Herring of the Southampton Oceanography Center noted that “In the 200, or so, cases of this phenomenon reported in the last 100 years, never have so many wheels been described so close together, nor has there been any association with wind change. I am very intrigued but at a complete loss to explain how the wheels were produced.”

The incident was cataloged by William R. Corliss, in whose work entire volumes devoted to the study of earthlight phenomena and other forms of natural illumination. In Corliss’s writings, a similar incident that occurred in 1991 bore perhaps even stranger characteristics. The incident occurred on May 6 of that year near the Straits of Hormuz, when crew members aboard the ship Zidona en route to Ruwais observed a flashing of colored lights on the windows of the ship. Initially, they mistook this for being the light from a distant lighthouse reflecting off the glass, but as the light persisted, several individuals made their way to the deck, where they observed strange, colorful light patterns turning in wheel-like fashion in the water around the ship.

According to the record of the account, “They were all about 3 meters in diameter and changed both size and shape while flashing intensely. By (6 PM local time) the effect had completely stopped on the starboard side, and only the pulsating rings were left on the port side and, with these, the intensity of the light reduced until (6:22) when there was nothing more to observe.”

The unusual oceanic “spinning wheels” could be some variety of geophysical phenomena, although other possible solutions might include bioluminescent marine life. Granted, explaining the unusual spinning geometries of these incidents in relation to marine biology is problematic, and in some reports, the illuminations appear to manifest above the water, casting further doubt on bioluminescence as a likely cause.

Many varieties of marine life possess bioluminescent qualities.

Similar incidents involving these unusual oceanic “light wheels” have been reported over the last several decades in the China Sea, as well as the Arabian Sea, the Java Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, among other locales. The light formations take a number of unusual shapes, and have been described as spinning wheels, crescent-shaped patches, and phosphorescent “boomerangs.”

Among similar luminous phenomena, these oceanic lights remain unexplained and rank among the most curious and interesting varieties of unusual natural illuminations that appear in nature.

What is Bioluminescence?

Bioluminescence: Nature's Fireworks!

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

06-08-2018 om 20:45 geschreven door peter  

World's first floating nation begins selling its own 'Vayron' cryptocurrency ahead of 2022 launch in the Pacific Ocean

• The £37m ($50m) Floating Island Project is a pilot program in partnership with the government of Polynesia 
• The project, bankrolled by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, will see a floating nation built off the island of Tahiti
• The sea-bound city state will feature 300 homes as well as a handful of hotels, restaurants and offices 

By MARK PRIGG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 

The world's first independent floating nation, which will launch in the Pacific Ocean in 2022, has begun selling the cryptocurrency people will need to use to buy property.

Backed by Peter Thiel, the plans will see the sea-bound city state, with 300 homes as well as a handful of hotels, restaurants, offices and more, built in the Pacific Ocean off the island of Tahiti.

Investors can now take part in a presale of Vayron, the cryptocurrency the Seasteading Institute, the organisation behind the plan, will use.

Scroll down for video 

The world's first independent floating nation that operates outside of government regulations using its own cryptocurrency is set to launch by 2022. The plans will see the sea-bound city state (artist's impression), with 300 homes as well as a handful of hotels, restaurants, offices and more, built in the Pacific Ocean off the island of Tahiti 

The scheme is the creation of the nonprofits Seasteading Institute and Blue Frontiers, which alongside Thiel's investment fund the project through philanthropic donations via tokens of their own cryptocurrency, Vayron.

The radical plans are expected to be completed by 2022 and cost as much as £37 million ($50 million).

'Varyon (VAR) is expected to be required to purchase seasteads, fractional ownership of seasteads and seastead residency from Blue Frontiers,' it said.

'The presale is available today for the first 4,000 ETH with bonuses from 5% to 15%. The public sale date is yet to be determined.'

Varyon says  a billion of the tokens will be issued, and says 'No more tokens can ever be created'

The funds raised from the crowdsale will be used to implement the radical plans, with proceeds from the token sale are expected to be divided among the following activities: Design & Engineering SeaZone Legal & Administration Community growth General Administration.

'We plan and expect that Varyon will be usable to purchase seasteads, fractional ownership of seasteads, seastead residency, and other products and services from Blue Frontiers,' organisers said.

'As an easily exchangeable token, Varyon will also be tradable and usable beyond just Blue Frontiers.'

Bankrolled by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, the £37 million ($50 million) project is a pilot program in partnership with the government of Polynesia and is championed by a movement of academics, philanthropists and investors.

Building work on this isolated 'utopia' will begin next year following the signing of an agreement with French Polynesia's government in 2017.  

Joe Quirk, president of the Institute, told Business Insider that his team's vision has evolved beyond its initial vision to include a focus on climate change.

The group now also sees the city as a way to live with rising sea levels, which are expected to increase more than six feet by the end of this century.

In an interview earlier this year, Nathalie Mezza-Garcia, a political scientist and researcher for the Floating Island Project, says the island's residents will be free of 'fluctuating geopolitical influences and trade issues' and claimed the nation could one day house refugees displaced by climate change.

Speaking to CNBC, Ms Mezza-Garcia, a researcher at Warwick University, said: 'There is significance to this project being trialed in the Polynesian Islands. This is the region where land is resting on coral and will disappear with rising sea levels.

'Once we can see how this first island works, we will have a proof of concept to plan for islands to house climate refugees.'

The island's structures will feature 'green roofs' covered with vegetation and construction will use local bamboo, coconut fibre, wood and recycled metal and plastic.

Bankrolled by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, the £37 million ($50 million) project is a pilot program in partnership with the government of Polynesia and is championed by a movement of academics, philanthropists and investors 

It could see the creation of an independent nation that floats in international waters and operates within its own laws to 'liberate humanity from politicians', according to the Seasteading Institute.

A number of the island's dozen non-residential buildings are designed to function as business centres, allowing companies to work outside of government regulations.

'This means there is stability, outside of fluctuating geopolitical influences, trade issues and currency fluctuations - it's the perfect incubator,' Ms Mezza-Garcia said.

She added that the project is an exciting prospect for those disenchanted with the politicial sphere of today. 

The scheme is the creation of the nonprofit Seasteading Institute, which hopes to 'liberate humanity from politicians'. This image shows how the artificial island will blend in with nature

Nathalie Mezza-Garcia, a political scientist and researcher for the Floating Island Project, says the island's residents will be free of 'fluctuating geopolitical influences and trade issues'. The island has been designed to take into account swell, the wind, sunlight and even the position of the stars

'If you don't want to live under a particular government, 'people will be able to just take their house and float away to another island,' Ms Mezza-Garcia said.

The Seasteading Institute, co-founded by Paypal founder Peter Thiel, has spent the past five years creating designs for 'permanent, innovative communities floating at sea', joining up with Blue Frontiers - a new startup that specialises in building floating islands - last year.

Blue Froniters released concept images of the French Polynesia project in December 2017.

The scheme is the creation of the nonprofits Seasteading Institute and Blue Froniters, which fund the project through philanthropic donations via tokens of their own cryptocurrency, dubbed Varyon. This artist's impression shows how dwellings on the island might look

Hills and mountains, the shape of reefs and other underwater landmarks, as well as the rising and setting of the sun, moon and stars are reflected in the design. This image shows how the floating island will look from the shore of nearby Tahiti 

The world's first floating city is set to appear in the Pacific Ocean off the island of Tahiti

In a written statement, a spokesman for the Seasteading Institute said: 'During several visits to French Polynesia and after getting acquainted with the environment and the local contexts, one thing was sure, the project has to blend into its environment.

'To achieve this, local environmental characteristics, climate, ecology and cultural context have all been studied and play a major role in the process.

'The project, however, doesn't only want to not hurt the existing environment, the vision of the Blue Frontiers [is to] facilitate the development of more conscious and balanced settlements at sea where humans can peacefully coexist with the environment and with each other.'

The overall shape of the construction reflected the pattern of a fish hook, an ancestral tool that symbolises the actions of the demigod Maui.

The radical plans, bankrolled by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, could see the creation of an independent 'start-up country' that will float in international waters and operate within its own laws 

Hills and mountains, the shape of reefs and other underwater landmarks, as well as the rising and setting of the sun, moon and stars were reflected in the design.

Small platforms with villas would be aligned to the path of the stars of the Sirius, or Rua faupapa, star system, according to the plans.

Larger platforms with mixed-use buildings aligned to the celestial pillar Pou, starting from the main platform, the 'star headlight' or Ta'urua, and ending by the guide star Avei'a, passing through the zenith of the floating island. 

Other elements of navigation were taken into account in the urban planning. 

French Polynesia, a collection of 118 islands in the southern Pacific, is interested in the project as the area is at risk from rising sea levels

Draft legislation will be drawn up this year and construction is expected to begin in 2019. Floating islands would feature aquaculture farms, healthcare, medical research facilities, and sustainable energy powerhouses

The larger platforms would be oriented according to the prevailing wind direction, in order to create calmer wave conditions behind them.

The project aims to include Polynesian culture in the design and detailing of buildings and other structures. 

Local construction techniques and materials would be blended with modern technologies to fulfil contemporary needs while preserving continuity with tradition.

Speaking in November, Joe Quirk, president of the Seasteading Institute, said he wanted to see 'thousands' of rogue floating cities by 2050, each of them 'offering different ways of governance'.

The first city would be built on a network of 11 rectangular and five-sided platforms so the city could be rearranged according to its inhabitants' needs like a floating jigsaw, Joe Quirk, spokesman for the project explained last year

A feasibility report by Dutch engineering firm Deltasync in January 2017 said the square and pentagon platforms would measure 164ft (50metres) in length and they would have 164 ft-tall (50 metre) sides to protect buildings and residents

'Governments just don't get better,' Mr Quirk told the New York Times.

'They're stuck in previous centuries. That's because land incentives a violent monopoly to control it.'   

First revealed in January, the plans have been approved by the French Polynesian government, which is now creating a special economic zone so the floating nation can operate under its own trade laws.

The tiny nation, a collection of 118 islands in the southern Pacific with a population just over 200,000, has granted the Seasteading Institute 100 acres of beachfront to operate from.

French Polynesia is interested in the project as the area is at risk from rising sea levels. 

The feasibility report supported the idea that the project is economically feasible, with each platform costing less than $15 million (£10 million) which works out at a similar price as land in London or New York

Read more:

• Floating City Project - The Seasteading Institute
• Floating Cities, No Longer Science Fiction, Begin to Take Shape - The New York Times
• www.cnbc.coQ/201...
• Floating island is planned with government, cryptocurrency and houses
• Designs for the floating city planned by the Seasteading Institute - Business Inside

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/}

06-08-2018 om 01:01 geschreven door peter  

A meteorite discovered in Russia in 2016 has been analyzed and found to contain a mysterious new mineral that is as hard as diamonds. Did some alien lose the engagement ring he planned to give his girlfriend while traveling through an asteroid belt?

Mineral Harder Than Diamond Found In Meteorite!

The announcement of the discovery was made at the 81st Annual Meeting of The Meteoritical Society 2018 held last week in Moscow. Researchers from the Ural Federal University, Novosibirsk State University and the Geological Institute at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science revealed that the meteorite was found in Buryatia, a mountainous republic in southern Siberia, by gold hunters. (Photo here.) Did they unknowingly turn over something worth more than gold?

“Uakitite was observed in small troilite-daubreelite (±schreibersite) inclusions (up to 100 µm) in kamacite and in large troilite-daubreelite nodules (up to 1 cm).”

It’s hard to put a value on it, but the researchers did get the honor of giving the mineral a name once they determined it had never been seen before. The actual amount of the new substance “uakitite” was so minute that they had to use electron diffraction (firing electrons at it to observe the resulting interference pattern) to obtain data on its crystal structure. That helped them determine that the mineral was formed in the meteor in space at temperatures exceeding 1000 degrees centigrade. While it has never been formed on Earth, uakitite is said to be elated to carlsbergite CrN and osbornite TiN.

If you could see the tiny grains of uakitite, you would find “it has a yellow and transparent phase with metallic lustre” and “a light gray colour with a pinky tint in reflected light.” The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is used to measure hardness by scratching different minerals against each other and placing them in order with softest being 1 and hardest 10. Talc has a Mose hardness of 1, quartz is 7, topaz is 8 and diamond is 10. Uakitite has a Mohs hardness of 9-10, making it about has hard as diamonds.

The gold hunters who found the uakitite-crusted meteorite missed out on naming the mineral but wouldn’t have gotten much for it at the gem store. For that they were born too soon. Meteors have been found to be loaded with rare minerals, both known and unknown. It’s no wonder some space programs are ignoring planetary and moon exploration in favor of asteroid mining.

Somewhere in the stars, an alien guy is trying to convince his fiancé that the diamond ring he picked up on Earth is better than the uakitite one he lost in space.

Russian scientists discovered a new mineral

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

02-08-2018 om 14:46 geschreven door peter  

{ https://nationalinterest.org/ }

02-08-2018 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

01-08-2018 om 12:16 geschreven door peter  

Ask a kid to name as many three-dimensional geometric shapes as he or she can think of and they’ll probably run out of fingers to count on before they run out of names … even counting two-dimensional mistakes like triangles. Ask them to name the newest 3-D geometric shape, and you’ll likely get a dog-hearing-a-strange-noise stare, followed by a return to texting on the hexahedron in their hand. If they’re the type to talk back and respond with, “Can you?”, the answer is yes … the newest 3-D geometric shape is the scutoid and it can be found in epithelial cells in human skin. Yes, there will be a test.

Scientists discover new geometric shape called the 'scutoid' in cells - fox news

‘Scutoid’ sounds like a mutant android but it’s actually a shape somewhat like a prism with a five-sided pentagon on one end and a six-sided hexagon on the other. The points are able to join via a triangle adjacent to one edge of the hexagon whose non-adjacent point magically reduces the number of edges from six to five. If you’re lost, here’s a picture.

Scutoids (Image credit: University of Seville)

While this all sounds mathematical, the source of the scutoid discovery is actually biological. According to their study published in Nature Communications, researchers at Seville University in Spain and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, were studying how skin develops on an embryo and trying to determine how the cells are able to conform to the curve of the embryonic body while remaining tightl;y packed together. While it has always been assumed that the cells were shaped like straight-sided columns or bottles that expand on the non-skin side, a computer model showed a better way … and a new shape. Javier Buceta, associate professor of bioengineering at Lehigh and study co-author, explains:

“During the modeling process, the results we saw were weird. Our model predicted that as the curvature of the tissue increases, columns and bottle-shapes were not the only shapes that cells may developed. To our surprise, the additional shape didn’t even have a name in math! One does not normally have the opportunity to name a new shape.”

One would think that if one were given such an opportunity, one would come up with a better name than ‘scutoid’. Being biologists and scientists, they immediately recognized that the shape resembled a Scutellum — the posterior part of an insect thorax – and the scutoid was christened. Someone a little more clever noticed the shape’s convoluted sides and called it a ‘twisted prim’ which is a better name for it and a great name for a band.

Scutellum – 9

Is this a big deal? Yes, says Buceta.

“We have unlocked nature’s solution to achieving efficient epithelial bending.”

In layman’s terms, using the scutoid shape will make it easier to create artificial skin and organs that better match the looks, performance and efficiency of the real thing, especially on a growing body.

Sorry Dr. Buceta. That all sounds great, but scutoid still sounds like more like something the new female Dr. Who will encounter. Or a trick answer on a geometry test.

Brand new 'scutoid' shape discovered by scientists in skin cells

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-08-2018 om 11:47 geschreven door peter  

Russia's Doomsday Weapon Revealed In New Video

Leaked video shows Russian "Doomsday Device" capable of triggering tsunamis of up to 300-feet.

Following President Trump's contentious meeting with Vladimir Putin, the Russian governmenthas released a series of videos showcasing an array of new nuclear weapons. One video, in particular, is most disconcerting. It is rumored to be a giant torpedo purpose-built to avoid US defenses. One expert has nicknamed it a "Doomsday Machine."

Putin himself has addressed the weapon on March 1st. According to a Kremlin translation of Putin's remarks, the weapon is said to be remotely-controlled, allowing for no Russian casualties, be able to hold masses of nuclear power, as well as have few vulnerabilities. "It is really fantastic," said Putin, "there is really nothing in the world capable of withstanding them".

A torpedo-shaped device called 'Poseidon' featured on the Russian Ministry of Defenses' YouTube account on July 19th. The new clips show real-world footage of a prototype warhead. Defense analyst H.I. Sutton believes Poseidon could measure in at about 2 meters (6.5 feet) wide and 20 meters (66 feet) long rendering capable of holding great nuclear power.

Why is this new weapon so terrifying?

In 2015 the Russian government released diagrams of weapon that looks eerily similar to Poseidon which suggested the weapon would be capable of carrying a 50-megaton nuclear bomb which is about as powerful as Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear device ever donated.

US nuclear tests of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, including the underwater operations Crossroads Baker and Hardtack I Wahoo, illustrated why bombs detonated underwater could be so devastating. Warships were staged around the explosions to test the effect of the bombs, which were roughly as energetic as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki on August 1945. Some warships were vaporized, others were flipped and sunk, while only a few sustained cracked hulls and damaged engines.

However, experts have questioned the purpose and effectiveness of Putin's device. While it could potentially create a Tsunami, if detonated above ground the effects could be far more destructive and widespread. There is also no guarantee the Tsunami would occur, especially as the bomb would be detonated miles from shore and waves lose energy as they approach land meaning it would be a waste of a nuclear bomb and a significant amount of money for Russia.

Why Would Russia Develop Such A Weapon?

While the reports and leaked videos/images portray a terrifying 'Doomsday Machine', it is still unconfirmed whether Putin has developed this weapon of mass destruction or not.

In 2015, Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on nuclear policy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, wrote an article saying there wasn't speculation that the underwater bomb might be "salted", or surrounded with metals like cobalt, which would drastically increase the radius of fatal radiation levels from fallout for at least several months, or possibly even decades. However, if detonated underwater, the vast majority of the fallout or 'source term' will never escape the water as airborne particles.

Whereas, if it was dropped on land, almost 100% of the source term would end up on the land and so the devastation from a "salted" weapon detonated on land would be far worse than that of a weapon detonated below the water, salted or not.

To Lewis and many other nuclear experts, it doesn't really matter whether the rumors are real or not and Russia really has this kind of weaponry:

"Simply announcing to the world that you find this to be a reasonable approach to [nuclear] deterrence should be enough to mark you out as a dangerous creep, "Lewis said.

To conclude, this is certainly a worrying development emerging from one of the most powerful countries in the world, and we should all be wary indeed.

{https://www.disclose.tv/ }

31-07-2018 om 15:06 geschreven door peter