Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
28-10-2017
UFO PROOF? Eerie ‘hole in the sky caused by ETs’ appears in clouds
UFO PROOF? Eerie ‘hole in the sky caused by ETs’ appears in clouds
UFO PROOF: A shocking formation of clouds appeared in Dorset
People in Dorset were left stunned after a freaky looking cloud resembling an alien aircraft had appeared above the skies.
The rare sightings – which UFO hunters believe were caused by extraterrestrials – left onlookers “amazed and bemused”.
Stunned locals and holidaymakers made the jaw-dropping discovery earlier this week.
The strange phenomenon left people scratching their heads – wondering whether the cause was supernatural.
Len Copland, a freelance photographer, who took the images of the clouds, claims people were baffled when they first noticed them.
He said: “People started stopping me and asking what was going on. They assumed I knew something because I was taking photographers, but of course I had no idea.
LEN COPLAND / SWNS
ALIENS: The strange phenomenon left people scratching their heads
“There were these two, round-shaped UFO formations – it was really, really weird.”
Some other puzzled onlookers took to Twitter to share their sightings.
One person said: “UFO? Rare cloud formation leaves a ‘hole in the sky’ over Dorset.”
“There were these two, round-shaped UFO formations – it was really, really weird”
Len Copland
Another wrote: “The UFO had flown off before the cloud formation formed.”
A spokesman from the Met Office said there was a clear explanation for this.
According to its website, fallstreak clouds form “when part of the cloud layer forms ice crystals which are large enough to drop as a fallstreak”.
LEN COPLAND / SWNS
BIZARRE: Len Copland snapped the photos
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time Brits were left stunned by the skies.
Mary and Carl Harbin turn their front yard into a UFO crash and alien sighting for this year’s Halloween theme
By Rebecca Bennett
*Photos by Rebecca Bennett: Mary Harvin, a former art teacher, handmade the Halloween props in her Greenwood yard.
You may not have heard about the UFO crash and alien sighting in Greenwood that was first spotted the last week of September.No, it’s not a government cover up, it’s a Halloween display.About a block east of Broadway and Meridian Streets in Greenwood, at 51 W. Broadway, is a unique Halloween display. Mary Harbin, a former art teacher, handmade the UFO, aliens and numerous pumpkin minions all of which are in her front yard.
She and her husband Carl, work on the display months in advance of Halloween.
Harbin says it took her a couple days to make each alien and about a week to make the UFO.She also handmade the minions, grew the gourds and other natural items found in the display in her yard. The UFO and aliens are made of cardboard and fiberglass resin.
“I put that resin on thick and painted over the resin,” she said. “It’s been out for two weeks and it’s rained for 7 days. And it has sunk a bit, but the more it sinks, the more it looks crashed.So, I’m okay with it.”
They don’t think they’ll keep or reuse the space ship, but they may reuse the aliens.
She said the pumpkin minions she made last year, but the UFO and the aliens, which were made of scrap material, she made this year.
She said she started creating the UFO and aliens in July, but she never puts the decorations up before the last week of September but she doesn’t turn anything on until closer to Halloween.
“I had one alien and ditched it. I spent six weeks on it and it just wasn’t where I wanted it to be,” she said. “So I put that alien in the compost in the back.”
But, she says after she stopped working on the first alien, she started on the next one and then completed the two aliens that are currently on display, in about a week.
Harbin and her husband plan to dress up continuing the alien theme, as Men In Black, complete with memory erasers.
“I’ve always carved pumpkins too,” she said. But the jack-o-lanterns don’t get placed outside until about a week before Halloween.
Harbin is so dedicated to the decorations that one year she had bypass surgery in October and put up the decorations a little early, just to make sure it would be ready for Halloween.
The Harbins have also passed their love for the holiday down to her children and grandchildren.
“My daughter she’s Halloween crazy like me,” she said. “She took it to New York.She’s one of the directors of the Bronx Zoo, which is the fourth largest zoo in the United States and she’s the events coordinator, so she has just finished doing the Halloween.They have boo at the zoo there.”
Her love of the season has passed to most of her family, but not everyone.
“Not my son so much, but I have two grand-divas and they are crazy for Halloween too.They’re only 3 and 6, so I’ve totally warped them,” Harbins says with a laugh.
Harbin doesn’t just have decorations in the front yard though, she’s got decorations in the backyard, in her side yard and also in her house.
She’s got several Frankenstein’s that can be seen around her house.
“He’s my favorite,” she says, while wearing a Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein cardigan.
While she says they don’t pass out anything special to trick-or-treaters, they do have some children who come back year after year to see the displays and their elaborate costumes.
The Harbin’s have dressed up elaborate costumes over the years, including costumes as Popeye and Olive Oil, Gomez and Morticia from the Addams Family, Jack and Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas.Carl says they even won an award one year for their costumes.
She says in New York they have a Halloween parade, where people dress up and parade down the streets of New York, which is something she’d love to do some day.
When asked if she’s got ideas for next year, she says they decide by January what they’re going to do for next Halloween, so they have enough time to plan and gather what they may need for the next display. “I’ve always thought I wanted to put a dragon up on the roof and have it blowing smoke out,” she said.
But but she’s hasn’t settled on what they’ll do next year yet.
Americans spend about $60 billion a year on our pets, according to the American Pet Products Association, and not all of that is spent on food or care. Which goes to show you people are willing to do a lot for their animals. But one Boise couple went to g
Brian Holmes, KTVB
BOISE - At the corner house on Greenwood Circle there are tiny, terrestrial tokens of extraterrestrial enthusiasts. From the license plate on the car out front, to the collection of movies, Christmas ornaments, and books inside.
Extraterrestrial chicken coop. (Photo: Mike di Donato/KTVB)
Ellen DeAngelis has had a fascination with outer space stuff since high school.
"I'm more of an ancient astronaut theorist than I am like an Area 51 conspiracy theorist," she explains.
Recently, Ellen's alien affection has expanded to the backyard. She brought the idea of these peculiar pets to her partner Brett Wilson last spring
"I've kind of convinced him that we should have some," Ellen says of their backyard chickens.
She then convinced Brett they should convert their chickens' coop to a non-conformist kind.
"Maybe it was that clock you got me with the alien beaming up that guy?" recalls Ellen.
That inspiration led to quite an eccentric enclosure for their fenced-in farm fowl.
"It's weird, right?" asks Ellen.
Weird was what they were going for when they found some old satellite dishes, pressed them together, and covered them in foam and silver paint.
They spent every extra moment over the summer, and now they finally have a flying saucer-shaped shelter that is out of this world.
"Not very many people can say that," says Brett of his UFO-themed chicken coop. "And our chickens love it!"
The lights that wrap around the middle and illuminate the ramp were a late addition.
"You have to have the lights, you have to have the green glow so it looks like they're getting beamed up," Brett explains. "Otherwise, it's just another chicken coop."
So now Ellen and Brett spend their evenings enjoying the march to the mother ship and the thought of other worlds just outside their back door.
"Maybe it's more I'm honoring the concept of being visited by others," says Ellen.
The Boise couple hopes their creation will be good enough to win a contest for best backyard chicken coop. If not, they say it's still good enough for just them to enjoy every day and maybe inspire some more creative coops.
America isn’t the only country to report paranormal activity, Australia is a country of mysterious formations, reported hauntings and UFO sightings.
Aussies, if you’re looking for some real life ‘Stranger Things’ go no further than your own backyard. We are a country of weird formations, ghouls and strange environmental occurrences. From the strange lights floating in Queensland, to our haunted small towns, it’s time to experience the weird world ‘Down Under.’
1. THE TOWN OF PICTON
Image: Picton Tunnel, pre-1880, New South Wales State Archives
Picton, or as it was originally known, Stonequarry was founded in 1821 and is home to the infamous Redbank Range railway tunnel. A tunnel packed with tragedy and history, one that has continually haunted the town to this day. Once a storage room for mustard gas and ammunition during the Second World War, the tunnel has a tragic past. Long Before its use as a storage facility, it claimed the lives of many Picton residents. One such resident Emily Bollard is believed to haunt the tunnels to this day after her tragic death in 1916. Emily left home late one night. Wandering around town, she headed towards the tunnel. Upon entering the mouth of the tunnel she was struck by a train and killed, whether her death was a planned suicide or a tragic accident is still a mystery, but since that night so many years ago Emily has “appeared” to many residents deep within the stone walls of the tunnel. Residents and visitors report a flowing figure of a woman with no face. Ghostly children, strange lights and sudden drops in temperature have also been reported in the tunnel.
For Students and teachers at Westall State School and Westall High School, 6 April 1966 started out like any other day. Then, suddenly, eyewitnesses say they saw three metallic discs moving quickly through the sky. They remember the strange objects landing in a paddock near the schools before taking off, never to be seen again. Many people now believe the “flying saucers” were silver-coloured high altitude balloons monitoring radiation levels that had gone off course.
We may never know the answer for certain – the paperwork for the launches the day before the sighting are missing.
3. WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S FAIRY CIRCLES
Image: The ‘fairy circles’ in Namibia, Michael Fay
One of nature’s greatest mysteries lies in the Australian outback. Circular barren patches, known as “fairy circles”, have been found throughout the red-soiled Pilbara region of Western Australia. Until now, these patches of bare Earth had only been seen in the Namibian desert, stretching from South Africa to Angola. The cause has long baffled scientists. Floated theories include termites nibbling at grass roots, a build-up of toxic gas and competition between plants for limited water. The discovery of the circles in Australia has allowed experts to discount some of these theories. The circles may be caused by the way plants organise themselves. If not protected by vegetation, the Australian soil is backed onto a hard crust and water struggles to penetrate the ground – meaning it flows away, leaving patches where plants cannot germinate.
4. QUEENSLAND’S MYSTERIOUS FLOATING LIGHTS
Image: Min Min sign in Boulia, outback Queensland, Australia, www.gondwananet.com
First reported in May 1918, the eerie Min Min lights have been said to reduce men to tears. Described as fluorescent hovering balls, the lights appear just above the horizon. Although sightings are rare, the mysterious outback lights attract many visitors. The mystery has lived with the town’s folk of Boulia for over a century, stimulating some rather terrifying folklore. Parents told their children to behave otherwise the Min Min lights would comeould come and steal them away, Indigenous Australians consider the lights to be spirits and locals believe that if the Min Min lights ever catch up with you, you will disappear inside them forever.
5. TASMANIA’S GLOWING COASTLINE
Image: Instagram, brett.chatwin
Preservation Bay near the town of Penguin was invaded by the bioluminescent phytoplankton – or “Sea Sparkle” early 2017. As the name suggests -Sea Sparkle are a type of microalgae that excrete glowing fluid as a defence mechanism. The algae will attract the predator by emitting the glowing light. Creating a distraction so they don’t have to worry about being eaten.
6. SYDNEY'S RED SKY
Image: Still from Nature's Weirdest Events
Who could forget the the morning Sydney's sky turned red? A dust cloud the size of Spain brought 16 tonnes of dust particles from central Australia to create an unforgettable phenomena.
Australia, how many have of these stranger things have you experienced in the weird world ‘Down Under’?
Lead Image: Australia’s ‘fairy circles’ vary between four and seven metres in diameter, Dr Stephan Getzin
Although Florida politician Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera shared her alien experience with a Spanish language television nearly 8 years ago, it is only now that she is running for congress that her claims are making headlines. Her campaign was already flailing, but local political analysts believe the media attention surrounding her extraterrestrial beliefs will likely further put a damper on her political ambitions.
On October 16, 2017, the Miami Heraldwrote about Rodriguez Aguilera’s TV appearance on America TeVewhere she describe her memories of an alien encounter when she was a child. The interview was posted on America TeVe’sYouTube page in December of 2009.
According to the Miami Herald, in the interview, Rodriguez Aguilera describes being brought up into a spaceship when she was 7. She said there were round seats and the craft was controlled by quartz rocks.
The Miami Herald writes:
She said the alien beings reminded her of the famous statue in Rio de Janeiro, Christ the Redeemer, with arms outstretched.
Among the things she said she found out from the aliens:
There are 30,000 skulls — “different from humans” — in a cave in the Mediterranean island of Malta.
The world’s “energy center” is in Africa.
The Coral Castle, a limestone tourist attraction South Miami-Dade, is actually an ancient Egyptian pyramid.
“God is a universal energy.”
She also said that the aliens had mentioned Isis, though she didn’t clarify if they meant the terrorist organization or the ancient Egyptian goddess.
The Miami Herald asked Rodriguez Aguilera for a comment on the video, and while Rodriguez Aguilera did not deny her claims, she did not address them directly. Instead, she tried to argue that her claims might not be as unusual as they are being made out to be.
Rodriguez Aguilera told the Miami Herald:
For years people, including Presidents like Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter and astronauts have publicly claimed to have seen unidentified flying objects and scientists like Stephen Hawking and institutions like the Vatican have stated that there are billions of galaxies in the universe and we are probably not alone. I personally am a Christian and have a strong belief in God, I join the majority of Americans who believe that there must be intelligent life in the billions of planets and galaxies in the universe.
She is not wrong. Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and astronauts have claimed to see UFOs. While Reagan and Carter did not ever claim to believe they were extraterrestrial, Carter did promised to look into the matter when he became president. According to a “UFO Fact Sheet” by the U.S. Department of Defense, in 1977 Carter asked NASA to look into creating a UFO investigation, but they decided nothing could be gained by such a pursuit, and, with the backing of the U.S. Air Force, declined Carter’s request.
Famous astronaut Gordon Cooper, one of the first men in space, saw UFOs and believed them to be extraterrestrial. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who had never seen a UFO, also believed we were being visited by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.
And while many believe Rodriguez Aguilera’s political hopes are in jeopardy, there has been at least one successful politician who believed he had been abducted by aliens. Furthermore, the alien messages were not so different.
Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera
(Credit: America TeVe)
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was the president of the republic of Kalmikya in the Russian Federation from 1993 to 2010. He is also the current president of the International Chess Federation, and a personal friend to Putin. He also claims to have friends from other planets.
Ilyumzhinov claims that in 1997 he was abducted from his apartment in Moscow by aliens. He says they took him on a trip with them while they went to go pick up supplies. Ilyumzhinov says he then remembered he had to be back on Earth for an appointment, and the aliens told him it was no problem and brought him back. According to Ilyumzhinov, the aliens just wanted him to know they were out there and they were just like humans. They did not want us to fear them.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Despite his claims, which have been used against him by political opponents and the famous chess master Gary Kasparov, he continues to flourish as a successful businessman. His business dealings have gotten him in trouble with the U.S. and has put his chess federation presidency in jeopardy, but talking with aliens, no problem.
So, is there hope for Rodriguez Aguilera? Miami attorney Rick Yabor doesn’t think so. He is a political commentator and thinks this recent notoriety will not help her cause. He also says there are much more popular opponents running for the office.
“Being a politician, to come out and say that, it’s odd,” Yabor told the Miami Herald. “She got into details that are not very mainstream. Someone who’s running for Congress — you’ve got to raise a lot of money. A donor might have second thoughts. ”
“Miami politics are unusual,” Yabor said. “This one takes it to a new level.”
Despite Yabor’s pessimism, the story I think the media is missing is just how many people believe they have been abducted by aliens. Every week I hear from people making these claims, and some researchers estimate there may be millions who feel they have had such an experience. Many of these researchers have talked with thousands of people themselves. Although to most it may seem odd, Rodriguez Aguilera is certainly not alone in her belief that she has had an extraterrestrial experience.
Scientific study of UFOs to be focus of new organization
Scientific study of UFOs to be focus of new organization
An organization of scientists, former military and law enforcement officials and other professionals hope to bring science to bear in the search for answers to the UFO mystery.
October 27, 2017 – The Scientific Coalition for Ufology (SCU) is formally launching today, and hopes to bring the discipline and rigor of scientific analysis to the study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), also known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). A group of scientists, former military and law enforcement officials and other professionals, many of whom have decades of experience looking into UAPs, believe there are many unanswered questions, and that a serious examination is warranted.
“SCU is composed of serious, dedicated, researchers who do not merely gloss over this subject, but rather they dive into it, investigate it broadly, remain objective and apply the scientific method and its principles to the study,” explained SCU board member Rich Hoffman. “We seek to have formal peer reviewed works being printed in journals, not tabloids.”
Hoffman is an IT professional and a senior engineer at U.S. Army Materiel Command. He has been researching UAPs since 1964.
Fellow board member Robert Powell explains why he feels an organization such as the SCU is necessary: “It is important that there exists a scientific organization that examines the UFO phenomenon in a scientific and open minded manner. There is too much silliness associated with this topic when the core reality of the phenomenon has potentially real implications for society. An organization that can be trusted to provide the media with an impartial and scientific view of the phenomenon is needed.”
Robert Powell presenting at the International UFO Congress.µ
(Credit: International UFO Congress)
Powell is retired from a career as a research and development lab and engineering manager. For several years he served as the director of research and chair of the scientific board for an international volunteer UFO research organization.
Powell adds, “Ultimately we want to determine whether intelligent life exists elsewhere and whether it has visited our planet. We want scientists and investigators involved with our organization in as many varied fields as possible to affiliate with us in a common objective to scientifically study the UFO phenomenon.”
The SCU was first brought together as an impromptu group of researchers organized to examine a mysterious video captured by Homeland Security over Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The group spent months looking into the technical aspects of the video and researching its provenance. In the end, it remains a controversial case, and one which the group could not solve. The video and the 162-page analysis of the case can be found at the SCU website, ExploreSCU.org.
They continue to examine this case, and felt it would be helpful to bring in more professionals to put the same level of scrutiny to bear on other UFO cases, and to facilitate peer review of research papers on the topic.
“Our hope is that other scientists and professionals who also have a desire that may be developing, or has laid dormant, will connect with us, become an affiliate, and lend us their intellect and their interest in finding the best approach to the scientific study of this phenomenon,” says Hoffman. “Our desire is to build a worldwide coalition that will give us the answers we have long been seeking. What is the nature of the phenomena we call UFOs?”
A still image from the video captured over Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Headlines have been ablaze lately with the news of the creation of a similar effort by rocker Tom DeLonge, formerly of the band Blink-182. The SCU has already made inroads with that organization and others around the world in an effort to coalesce serious research of UAPs.
As for what sets the SCU apart from other organizations, board member Alejandro Rojas says, “Although we do not have a rock star in our group, the SCU is made-up of rock stars in the UFO research field.”
Besides reaching out to DeLonge’s To The Stars Academy, the SCU has created relationships with other credible organizations, including the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), which was created by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, consultant to the U.S. Air Force’s official UFO studies from 1947 to 1969.
“Our team of scientists and professionals is growing,” says Hoffman. “We believe that the minds we bring together can help us solve the mystery. We have already put to use the team approach to study the Aguadilla, Puerto Rico case and are applying this in our study of a luminous phenomenon in Cloverdale, Alabama. It is through the reach-back to qualified scientists and professionals that we aim to do a better job of actually studying this phenomenon scientifically.”
———
About the Scientific Coalition for Ufology
Mission abstract: To conduct, promote and encourage rigorous scientific examination of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), commonly known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
To fully utilize scientific principles, methodologies and practices in the study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon observed and reported around the globe. We provide scientific case analysis support to witness cases, other scientific organizations, and government entities who are looking for the certitude of facts to this phenomenon.
We seek to share credible data with the public, the media, the government, and scientific institutions, so we can further our understanding of this enigmatic phenomenon.
The Scientific Coalition for Ufology (SCU) is a think tank of scientists, researchers and professionals stretching across organizations, governments and industries to scientifically and publicly explore unknown anomalous phenomena known around the world as UFOs, USOs, UAPs, OVNIs, etc.
SCU performs research and scientific studies concerning evidentiary, military, technological, and cultural effects of unknown phenomena around the world. We must take the first step to objectively understand the phenomena without bias or prejudice.
Contributors within SCU include individuals from organizations around the world in the UFO/UAP field, militaries, governments, private industry and media. Every case SCU conducts is presented objectively and scientifically to the public through peer review. All contributors are appointed based on professional and educational background, no membership exists, no dues are collected. All work within SCU is conducted under strong guidelines and standards.
For more about the Scientific Coalition for UFOs, visit: ExploreSCU.org.
A "flying object" was seen over Russia last night, but luckily for those fearing an alien invasion, the object can be identified.
Intercontinental ballistic missile tests are to blame for a series of large glowing orbs that seemed to mysteriously pop up across Russia's northern Siberian region overnight. They appeared in far northern Arctic regions, where they overlaid stunning aurora light shows already on display. Attracted by these auroras, many photographers were already in the region with cameras in tow.
Just 500 miles south, the spheres of light were spotted against the dark night sky.
"These were indeed missile tests," said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "Four ballistic missiles were launched and at least one of them was widely observed. There is no doubt about the identification of these observations with the missile tests."
Witnesses told the Siberian Times that the orb appeared first as a solid sphere, before expanding and eventually dissipating.
"I went out to smoke a cigarette and thought it was the end of the world," witness Vasily Zubkov told the outlet.
Russia's defense ministry told Russian outlet Tassthat they fired a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from the western region of Plesetsk to a far eastern test range on the Kamchatka peninsula. Topol missiles are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, though the missile reportedly wasn't loaded when it was launched.
The Russian military conducts these strategic exercises every year. In 2009, a failed test launch was spotted over Norway, putting on an even more bizarre show. Witnesses saw a spiral of light grow larger and larger until it finally dissipated. While the site was confusing for many, the defense ministry later confirmed that the pattern was the result of rocket malfunction.
So why were witnesses so confused by this launch?
According to McDowell, it's because we're not used to seeing objects like this moving across the sky.
"In the absence of (significant) air to mess things up, in space things happen much more symmetrically and mathematically than we are used to down here on Earth," he explained, referring to the fact that the missile had traveled high enough to cause that effect. "In particular, the rocket exhaust expands in a big bubble tens to hundreds of miles across, and if the sunlight catches it just right (because the sun is below your horizon, but the rocket is high enough to be seeing the sun) that bubble can be visible."
We're used to seeing gas the way it expands and moves away from something like a bonfire, McDowell explained, "So our intuition fails when we see the behavior of gas in space where there's not enough air to contain it."
With artificial intelligence technology advancing rapidly, the world must consider how the law should apply to synthetic beings. Experts from the fields of AI, ethics, and government weigh in on the best path forward as we enter the age of self-aware robots.
As these systems advance, so will the potential that they are involved in criminal activity, and right now, no regulations are in place that say how the law should treat super-intelligent synthetic entities. Who takes the blame if a robot causes an accident or is implicated in a crime? What happens if a robot is the victim of a crime? Do self-aware robots deserve rights that are comparable to those given to human beings?
Before we can begin discussing robot rights, we need to articulate exactly what (or who?) counts in this equation, said MIT Media Lab researcher and robot ethics expert Kate Darling in an email correspondence with Futurism. In other words, clearly defined terminology is a prerequisite for any productive conversation regarding robot rights.
“If we want to use legislation to regulate robotic technology, we’re going to need to establish better definitions than what we’re operating with today,” she said. “Even the word ‘robot’ doesn’t have a good universal definition right now.”
Eyes on Today
Now is the time to put these definitions in place because artificially intelligent robots are already in our midst.
Autonomous delivery robots are a common sight in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. As such, the country’s government is being proactive with regards to robot regulations and legal recourse for issues regarding ownership and culpability.
“It all started out from the self-driving car taskforce,” Marten Kaevats, the national digital advisor for the government office of Estonia, told Futurism. “We quite soon discovered that these liability, integrity, and accountability issues are not specific to self-driving cars; they’re general AI questions.”
Kaevats is aware that any discussion of robots and AI can quickly devolve into talk of the singularity and superintelligence, but that’s not the focus right now. “We are trying to work on things that are actually already here,” he explained.
Still, Estonia is looking to put legislation in place that has the flexibility to respond to advances in technology. Kaevats acknowledges that it’s not possible to create regulations that are completely future-proof, but he sees a pressing need for laws that offer certain rights alongside certain liabilities.
As Kaevats pointed out, right now, self-aware artificial intelligences are so far off that there’s no reason to rush into giving robots similar rights to humans. In addition to considering the ethical ramifications of putting machines on par with humans, we need to examine how such laws might be open to abuse before regulations are established.
Production Line Patsy
Estonia isn’t the only place where conversations on robot rights are happening.
The journal Artificial Intelligence and Law recently published an article by University of Bath reader Joanna J. Bryson and academic lawyers Mihailis E. Diamantis and Thomas D. Grant. In the paper, the authors state that proposals for synthetic personhood are already being discussed by the European Union and that the legal framework to do so is already in place. The authors stress the importance of giving artificially intelligent beings obligations as well as protections, so as to remove their potential as a “liability shield.”
But granting them full rights?
When Bryson spoke to Futurism, she warned against the establishment of robot rights, relating the situation to the way the legal personhood of corporations has been abused in the past.
“Corporations are legal persons, but it’s a legal fiction. It would be a similar legal fiction to make AI a legal person,” said Bryson. “What we need to do is roll back, if anything, the overextension of legal personhood — not roll it forward into machines. It doesn’t generate any benefits; it only encourages people to obfuscate their AI.”
Bryson offered up the example of a driverless taxi, which could potentially be made fully independent from its owner or manufacturer, serving as a legally recognized individual, fulfilling its own contracts. This situation could be manipulated to reduce the amount of taxes paid on the vehicle’s earnings by whoever receives the profits.
Kaevats said that this won’t be a problem in Estonia — the country’s digital tax system is proactive enough to track any malicious activity. However, the potential for abuse certainly exists in regions with less technologically advanced tax codes.
Corporations can already use the letter of the law to withhold as much wealth as possible. The use of a synthetic person as a “fall guy” for illicit activity isn’t outside the realm of possibility, and giving a robot rights could serve to emancipate them from conventional ownership. At that point, the entity is the ultimate independent contractor, with companies able to absolve themselves of wrongdoing even if they instructed the machine to behave in the illegal way.
Legislation could certainly be written up that avoids these pitfalls, though, so policy makers just need to be sure that any rights given to synthetic entities don’t include loopholes that can be abused.
Moral Dilemma
In the far more distant future, we’ll need to consider the issue of self-aware robots. How should we tackle synthetic personhood for those entities?
“If we discover that there are certain capacities that we want to create in artificial intelligence, and once you create those, you spontaneously get these cognitive features that warrant personhood, we’ll have to have this discussion about how similar they are to the human consciousness,” James Hughes, executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, told Futurism.
Traditionally, under the law, you’re either a person or you are property.
The creation of this level of technology won’t be happening anytime soon, if it happens at all, but its potential raises some thorny issues about our obligation to synthetic beings and the evolving nature of personhood.
“Traditionally, under the law, you’re either a person or you are property — and the problem with being property is that you have no rights,” bioethicist and attorney-at-law Linda McDonald-Glenn told Futurism. “In the past, we’ve made some pretty awful mistakes.”
According to Hughes, this situation calls for a test that determines whether or not a synthetic person is self-aware. In the meantime, Estonia has found a fairly simple way to determine the rights of their robots. Instead of using technology as the defining factor, the nation will grant rights based on registration under the mythologically inspired Kratt law.
Estonian folklore states that the Kratt is an inanimate object brought to life, just as artificial intelligence can give a machine the cognitive abilities it needs to complete a particular task. The Kratt law will determine what level of sophistication a robot needs to possess in order to be considered its own legal entity.
“This is what we want our governments to do,” said Bryson, praising European efforts to put well-thought-out legislation in place. “This is what governments are for and what law is for.”
In many ways, AI technology is still very young, but there’s no better time than now to start thinking about the legal and ethical implications of its usage.
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Is this the best image of a UFO yet? Airline passenger snaps stunning UFO picture
Is this the best image of a UFO yet?Airline passenger snaps stunning UFO picture
The images were received by MUFON who is looking into the UFO sighting in order to determine what exactly the object was. According to the passenger who took the images, the UFO was probably metallic, as it reflected the sun off its surface.
Despite the fact that there are millions of people out there who firmly believe we are not the only living species in the universe, and that Earth has been visited in the distant past by advanced alien civilizations, and still is, we have failed to gather enough material to convince skeptics of that notion.
However, in recent years, a large number of images and videos have surfaced the internet showing what many believe are alien spacecraft on Earth.
One such image was captured by a passenger aboard a flight from Toronto to Edmonton. After snapping an image of the clouds, the aircraft’s wing and the sun, the passenger spotted a strange and shiny object that accompanied the airplanes line of sight for a brief moment.
It wasn’t a cloud, as the ‘metallic’ nature of the object clearly reflected the sun off its surface.
It didn’t have wings to be another airplane, and it wasn’t a helicopter.
What’s left? Weather balloon? Or Swamp Gass reflected off of Venus?
All jokes aside, the images were sent to MUFON for further investigations.
The event took place on October 19 at around 4 p.m. The photos were snapped with a Samsung Galaxy S8 + smartphone and forwarded to MUFON (a non-profit organization that investigates UFO sightings) five days later.
From Toronto, the plane took the route that crosses the border with the United States to head northwest towards Edmonton. At the time of the sighting, the witness estimates that he was over the state of Minnesota at about 40,000 feet.
A fragment of the report received by MUFON says: “We took off from Toronto at about 3 p.m. and after an hour’s travel I could see this object gleaming in the distance. I took lots of photos, even some with zoom. The object disappeared to the east and I saw no more. It left no trace behind it.”
The photos show an elongated UFO in the distance having a surface color different from that of the clouds clearly seen around it.
The witness specifies that because of the shine that the UFO seemed to reflect, “the object was probably metallic.”
He also points out that it “moved in the air” to get out of his field of vision, which rules out that it was a small cloud or trails left by another airplane.
So what do you think it is? Is this really the best UFO image ever taken? Or are there better images out there? Let us know what you think by posting your comments below.
Massive ‘glowing ball’ over northern Siberia sparks UFO fears
Massive ‘glowing ball’ over northern Siberia sparks UFO fears
It seems that all cool things—in the paranormal scene—happen in Siberia.
Russia has been hit by a UFO frenzy after people spotted a MASSIVE UFO-like light ball in the sky at night over Siberia.
People rushed to social media to post their images, videos, and comments of the sightings, with some users even claiming the end was near, and that aliens were coming.
Despite the fact that many users flooded several social networks with doomsday warnings, the end is not near, and aliens aren’t invading. At least not yet.
Vasily Zubkov posted: ‘I went out to smoke a cigarette and thought it was the end of the world.’
Even though we still have no clue as to what the source of the massive light in Northern Siberia’s sky was, some have suggested that it was the trace leftover from a rocket launched by the Russian military.
I bet you didn’t know rockets could make such a stunning scenery right?
The fascinating event was luckily documented by leading Siberian photographer Sergey Anisimov, who lives near the town of Salekhard, very close to the Arctic circle.
“I was taken aback for a few minutes, not understanding what was happening,’ he said. The glowing ball rose from behind the trees and moved in my direction. My first thought was about the most powerful searchlight, but the speed of changing everything around changed the idea of what was happening. The ball began to turn into an arc and gradually dissipated.”
After the massive light had disappeared from the night sky, he found local children speaking about aliens and how a portal to another dimension had opened.
But the spectacular event was not only photographed by Anisimov. More than 800 kilometers to the east photographer Alexey Yakovlev said to have felt scared as he witnessed the ‘UFO spectacle’ at Strezhevoi, in Russia’s northern Tomsk region, reported The Siberian Times.
“At first I thought – it is such a radiance of such an unusual form, round in shape. But gradually the ball began to expand, it became clear that this is not some radiance and it became scary. It’s good that I was not alone…a group of people cannot hallucinate.”
Between other dimensional portals opening, secret spacecraft tests, aliens arriving, other users, like Nurgazy Taabaldiev claimed: “It’s a gap in the space-time continuum.”
Stanford Physicist: We Have Physical Evidence Of UFOs!
Stanford Physicist: We Have Physical Evidence Of UFOs!
Peter Sturrock is an emeritus professor of applied physics at Stanford University and one of the very few scientists who has publicly expressed a great deal of interest in UFOs and acted on that interest by twice surveying colleagues on the subject which resulted in some very surprising findings. He is also unambiguous on one particular category of UFO evidence which he happens to know a little bit about . . . . radar reports.
"Yes - radar is physical evidence," Sturrock stated in an email exchange he was generous enough to grant me Professor Sturrock's involvement with radar dates back to World War II. While studying mathematics at Cambridge University, he interrupted his studies to help in the war effort and joined the Telecommunications Research Establishment in 1942, now known as the Royal Radar Establishment, where he helped develop radar systems.
Skeptics commenting on the UFO phenomenon often claim that a major problem with UFOs is the only evidence are witness sightings, claim they are unreliable and cite a lack of physical evidence. While that is often the case, there are notable exceptions where physical evidence does exist in the form of radar reports and they corroborate the accounts of multiple credible witnesses. There have been a number of famous UFO cases that have involved radar reports and two of the most famous contemporary incidents are the JAL Alaska case from 1986 and the Stephenville, Texas sightings of 2008.
On November 17, 1986, a Japan Air Lines 747 cargo jet, piloted by Captain Kenju Terauchi, was flying westward near Mt. McKinley when he spotted a UFO. "Then there was a kind of reverse thrust, and the lights became dazzlingly bright. Our cockpit lit up. The thing was flying as if there was no such thing as gravity. It sped up, then stopped, then flew at our speed, in our direction, so that to us it looked like it was standing still. The next instant it changed course. There's no way a jumbo could fly like that. If we tried, it'd break apart in mid-air. In other words, the flying object had overcome gravity," Terauchi said.
Terauchi and his crew had the sighting but John Callahan, the FAA Division Chief of the Accidents and Investigations branch, had the data. The radar report covered more than a half hour. Callahan states in the following video interview, "As far as I'm concerned, I saw a UFO chase a Japanese 747 across the sky for over half an hour on radar."
He goes on to say that members of President Reagan’s Scientific Study Team, the FBI and the CIA he met with about the incident expressed excitement at the data.
The Stephenville, Texas case of January 2008 featured dozens of residents of the Texas town and its' surroundings sighting UFOs. Some reported aircraft the size of a football field and larger. Freedom Of Information Act requests were quickly sent to the FAA, National Weather Service and local Air Force bases by radar expert Glen Schulze and Robert Powell, MUFON Director of Research, seeking radar data for January 8.
In their summary, Schulze and Powell wrote, "The enormous size of the object, its' complete silence and its' ability to travel at high rates of speed and to also remain stationary or travel at slow speeds is not explained by any known aircraft. Based on approximate distance of the object and witness descriptions of degrees of sky covered by the object indicated an object closer to 1000 feet in size. Twice, radar picked up an unknown object flying at 1900-2100 mph."
They discussed their findings in the CNN interview below and the full radar report is available at this link
I also asked Professor Sturrock if he had a favorite UFO case and he replied, "The Coyne helicopter case."
On October 18, 1973, the four-man crew of an Army Reserve helicopter heading towards Cleveland from Columbus had an otherworldly encounter with a UFO at about 10:30 PM as they were flying near Mansfield, Ohio.
said Bill Carver, brother of Jim Carver, the author of the article linked above.
Not surprisingly, skeptic Phil Klass attempted to explain the case away but the credibility of the witnesses involved and the detail of their reports render his explanation implausible.
Below is a segment about the case from the 1990s TV show Sightings.
Finally, I asked the professor about his own research into UFOs. In 1973, Professor Sturrock distibuted two questionaires, one to members of the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the other to members of the American Astronomical Society.
The AIAA survey results indicated that "a sample of scientifically trained persons reports aerial phenomena similar to so-called "UFO reports," and the AAS survey revealed that "a small fraction (of order 5%) are likely to report varied and puzzling observations, not unlike so-called "UFO reports" made by the general public," according to the professor.
He also noted that, "if you want to find out whether scientists see UFOs you must ask them, and you probably must guarantee them anonymity. Scientists have no doubt been discouraged from taking the problem seriously by the bizarre nature of some of the reports and emphasis upon the "extraterrestrial hypothesis" (ETH).
Professor Sturrock's full papers on his findings are available here and here.
Specifically, I asked Professor Sturrock about his opinion on expanding future queries to include social scientists like historians, sociologists and psychologists, professionals who I thought might also have some interest in and be able to contribute to the UFO field.
"I would encourage similar surveys of other professions. Then the results could be compared," he replied
Finally, I'd like to thank Professor Sturrock for taking the time to answer my questions and I would also like to thank my good friend, fellow UFO researcher and the pride of Surrey in the UK Peter Mandeville for providing the tip that led to this article.
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The Kardashev Scale – Type I, II, III, IV & V Civilization
The Kardashev Scale – Type I, II, III, IV & V Civilization
We have reached a turning point in society. According to renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, the next 100 years of science will determine whether we perish or thrive. Will we remain a Type 0 civilization, or will we advance and make our way into the stars?
Experts assert that, as a civilization grows larger and becomes more advanced, its energy demands will increase rapidly due to its population growth and the energy requirements of its various machines. With this in mind, the Kardashev scale was developed as a way of measuring a civilization’s technological advancement based upon how much usable energy it has at its disposal (this was originally just tied to energy available for communications, but has since been expanded).
MEET THE KARDASHEV SCALE
Credit: Chris Cold
The scale was originally designed in 1964 by the Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev (who was looking for signs of extraterrestrial life within cosmic signals). It has 3 base classes, each with an energy disposal level: Type I (10¹⁶W), Type II (10²⁶W), and Type III (10³⁶W). Other astronomers have extended the scale to Type IV (10⁴⁶W) and Type V (the energy available to this kind of civilization would equal that of all energy available in not just our universe, but in all universes and in all time-lines). These additions consider both energy access as well as the amount of knowledge the civilizations have access to.
First, it is important to note that the human race is not even on this scale yet. Since we still sustain our energy needs from dead plants and animals, here on Earth, we are a lowly Type 0 civilization (and we have a LONG way to go before being promoted to a type I civilization). Kaku tends to believe that, all things taken into consideration, we will reach Type I in 100 – 200 years time. But what does each of these categories actually stand for in literal terms?
A Type I designation is a given to species who have been able to harness all the energy that is available from a neighboring star, gathering and storing it to meet the energy demands of a growing population. This means that we would need to boost our current energy production over 100,000 times to reach this status. However, being able to harness all Earth’s energy would also mean that we could have control over all natural forces. Human beings could control volcanoes, the weather, and even earthquakes! (At least, that is the idea.) These kinds of feats are hard to believe, but compared to the advances that may still be to come, these are just basic and primitive levels of control (it’s absolutely nothing compared to the capabilities of societies with higher rankings).
The next step up – a Type II civilization – can harness the power of their entire star (not merely transforming starlight into energy, but controlling the star). Several methods for this have been proposed. The most popular of which is the hypothetical ‘Dyson Sphere.’ This device, if you want to call it that, would encompass every single inch of the star, gathering most (if not all) of its energy output and transferring it to a planet for later use. Alternatively, if fusion power (the mechanism that powers stars) had been mastered by the race, a reactor on a truly immense scale could be used to satisfy their needs. Nearby gas giants can be utilized for their hydrogen, slowly drained of life by an orbiting reactor.
What would this much energy mean for a species? Well, nothing known to science could wipe out a Type II civilization. Take, for instance, if humans survived long enough to reach this status, and a moon sized object entered our solar system on a collision course with our little blue planet–we’d have the ability to vaporize it out of existence. Or if we had time, we could move our planet out of the way, completely dodging it. But let’s say we didn’t want to move Earth… are there any other options? Well yes, because we’d have the capability to move Jupiter, or another planet of our choice, into the way – pretty cool, right?
So we’ve gone from having control over a planet, to a star, which has resulted in us harboring enough “disposable” energy to essentially make our civilization immune to extinction. But now, onto Type III, where a species then becomes galactic traversers with knowledge of everything having to do with energy, resulting in them becoming a master race. In terms of humans, hundreds of thousands of years of evolution – both biological and mechanical – may result in the inhabitants of this type III civilization being incredibly different from the human race as we know it. These may be cyborgs (or cybernetic organism, beings both biological and robotic), with the descendants of regular humans being a sub-species among the now-highly advanced society. These wholly biological humans would likely be seen as being disabled, inferior, or unevolved by their cybernetic counterparts.
At this stage, we would have developed colonies of robots that are capable of ‘self replication’; their population may increase into the millions as they spread out across the galaxy, colonizing star after star. And these being might build Dyson Spheres to encapsulate each one, creating a huge network that would carry energy back to the home planet. But stretching over the galaxy in such a manner would face several problems; namely, the species would be constrained by the laws of physics. Particularly, light-speed travel. That is, unless they develop a working warp drive, or use that immaculate energy cache to master wormhole teleportation (two things that remain theoretical for the time being), they can only get so far.
An artist rendering of such a civilization (Credit: Sid Meier’s Civilization IV)
Kardashev believed a Type IV civilization was ‘too’ advanced and didn’t go beyond Type III on his scale. He thought that, surely, this would be the extent of any species’ ability. Many think so, but a few believe there is a further level that could be achieved. (I mean, surely there is a limit?) Type IV civilizations would almost be able to harness the energy content of the entire universe and with that, they could traverse the accelerating expansion of space (furthermore, advance races of these species may live inside supermassive black holes). To previous methods of generating energy, these kinds of feats are considered impossible. A Type IV civilization would need to tap into energy sources unknown to us using strange, or currently unknown, laws of physics.
Type V. Yes, Type V might just be the next possible advancement to such a civilization. Here beings would be like gods, having the knowledge to manipulate the universe as they please. Now, as I said, humans are a very, very long way from ever reaching anything like this. But it’s not to say that it cannot be achieved as long as we take care of Earth and each other. To do so, the first step is to preserve our tiny home, extinguish war, and continue to support scientific advances and discoveries.
Navy-UFO Encounter Incites Campaign To Spur a Congressional Hearing
Navy-UFO Encounter Incites Campaign To Spur a Congressional Hearing
U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Force-11 Encounters Unknowns
I am going to tell you about a Navy-UFO encounter that deserves a congressional investigation to determine if this happened or not. I am going to create three posts related to a recent UFO event that occurred in November of 2004 and involved the Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 11 off the southwest coast of California. This will be the first post and it will include the information that I initially obtained on the incident. If after reading these three posts you are reasonably convinced that this event happened then I will ask you to join me in a letter-writing campaign to a congressional subcommittee requesting that they ask for a debriefing of the incident from the Navy. Pleaseshare that they ask for a debriefing of the incident from the Navy. Please share this FB site with anyone that you know who would be interested.
By Robert Powell Scientific Coalition for Ufology 10-20-17
Navy Carrier Strike Group 11
I was first told of this UFO incident in July of 2016 by an individual who was involved in the investigation of this event. He told me that the incident had been partially leaked to the internet, so that I could begin my investigation without involving my friend. Knowing a few of the key words I was able to locate the leaked story here: fightersweep.com (Ignore the UFO photos in the article as those are just add-ons by the author for effect and are not related to the actual event.)
What attracted me to this story was that it was not on a typical UFO site, but was found on a site authored by a formal naval aviator and who predominately writes about naval aviator stories, not UFOs. So he had no UFO agenda to push. And the author went out of his way to establish the excellent background of the commanding officer of the F-18s known as the Black Aces. The story was full of “navy talk” and I spent considerable time deciphering that WSO = weapons system officer, SPY1 = phased array radar, E-2C Hawkeye = type of airborne early warning aircraft, BFM = basic fighter maneuvers, etc. Once I had read the full story, I felt that there was a strong likelihood that the event my friend had directed me to had actually occurred.
I next began online investigations to verify the identity of the individuals in the story and I found that those officers were all legitimate and had served in the Navy during that time. I searched additional websites for clues to this event.
First, I found a Navy Event Summary document that had been leaked to the internet by an unknown source that mentioned this event. The document had much of the same information as was provided in the naval aviator’s story: dates and locations match up; USS Princeton detects objects on radar and dispatches the F18s; F18s don’t find a radar target but detect the object visually; F18s engage the unknown; and F18s are outmatched by the unknowns. I then ran the Navy Event Summary document by a retired naval officer and he indicated that the document looked legitimate in terms of its format. See documents below:
My friend who had originally told me about this case indicated that there had been video taken of the object and that it had been released to the internet several years ago and then was later removed. A copy of that video was obtained using the WayBack machine which is an internet site that maintains historical website data.
The video is taken in the infra-red and depicts a hot object in the video cross-hairs for about 75 seconds before the object rapidly moves out of the video frame and towards the left. The altitude shown on the video matches the approximate altitude of the jets and the shape of the object in the video matches the pilots’ descriptions.
See video below:
Of these three documents, the one that I find the strongest is the story by the naval aviator. The Navy Event Summary and the F-18 video support the story but more was needed. The question in my mind then became---could I support this information from another source. In December of 2016 I submitted nine FOIAs to various departments of the Navy and Marines to try and verify this event. In Part II of this series, I will share the information on the FOIAs that I submitted.
You've likely heard of conscious thought and subconscious thought, but humans may in fact possess three levels of consciousness, a new review suggests — and this concept could help scientists develop truly conscious artificial intelligence (AI) someday.
Though AI technology has been advancing at a rapid clip, in many ways, computers still fall short of human performance.
"Human consciousness is not just about recognizing patterns and crunching numbers quickly," said review co-author Hakwan Lau, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Figuring out how to bridge the gap between human and artificial intelligence would be the holy grail." [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures]
To address the controversial question of whether computers may ever develop consciousness, the researchers first sought to explore how consciousness arises in the human brain. In doing so, they outlined three key levels of consciousness.
These three levels could serve as a road map for designing truly conscious AI. "If you want to make your robots conscious, this is what we suggest you think about," Lau told Live Science.
The first is level C0. This level of consciousness refers to the unconscious operations that take place in the human brain, such as face and speech recognition, according to the review. Most of the calculations done by the human brain take place at this level, the researchers said — in other words, people aren't aware of these calculations taking place.
Despite recent advances in AI technology, machines are still mostly functioning at this level of consciousness, the researchers said.
For example, AI systems known as "convolutional neural networks" can now carry out many human C0 computations, including facial recognition.
The next level of consciousness, C1, involves the ability to make decisions after drawing upon a vast repertoire of thoughts and considering multiple possibilities. The researchers suggested that this ability for a thought, or train of thoughts, to temporarily dominate the mind evolved to help guide a broad variety of behaviors.
C1 is seen in human infants as well as in animals. For instance, the scientists noted that thirsty elephants know how to locate and move straight toward the nearest water hole, even if it is 30 miles (50 kilometers) away. Such decision making requires a sophisticated architecture of neural circuits to pool together information from the environment and from memory, select the best choice from a set of available options, stick to this decision over time and coordinate a variety of operations, such as navigating over terrain to achieve that goal.
In humans and other primates, the prefrontal cortex of the brain serves as a central hub for information processing, where many of the actions described in C1 consciousness take place. By analyzing the neural circuits in this part of the brain, scientists could derive the computational principles underlying their operation "and code them into computers," Lau said.
The final level, C2, involves "metacognition," or the ability to monitor one's own thoughts and computations — in other words, the ability to be self-aware. Level C2 consciousness results in subjective feelings of certainty or error, which help people realize mistakes and correct them. Self-awareness also helps people figure out what they know and do not know, leading to curiosity, a mechanism that drives people to find more about what they know little or nothing about.
The scientists noted that some robots have achieved aspects of C2, in that they can monitor their progress at learning how to solve problems. The researchers noted that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of humans link metacognition to the prefrontal cortex.
All in all, the researchers suggested that human consciousness may arise from a set of specific computations. "Once we can spell out in computational terms what the differences may be in humans between conscious and unconsciousness, coding that into computers may not be that hard," Lau said.
The scientists detailed this research in the Oct. 27 issue of the journal Science.
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What is a Satellite?
What is a Satellite?
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributo
The International Space Station is the largest satellite in orbit. This file photo of the station was taken in May 2010 by NASA space shuttle astronauts.
Credit: NASA
A satellite is an object in space that orbits or circles around a bigger object. There are two kinds of satellites: natural (such as the moon orbiting the Earth) or artificial (such as the International Space Station orbiting the Earth).
There are dozens upon dozens of natural satellites in the solar system, with almost every planet having at least one moon. Saturn, for example, has at least 53 natural satellites, and between 2004 and 2017, it also had an artificial one — the Cassini spacecraft, which explored the ringed planet and its moons.
Artificial satellites, however, did not become a reality until the mid-20th century. The first artificial satellite was Sputnik, a Russian beach-ball-size space probe that lifted off on Oct. 4, 1957. That act shocked much of the western world, as it was believed the Soviets did not have the capability to send satellites into space.
Explorer 1 was the first U.S. satellite and the first satellite to carry scientific instruments.
Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
A brief history of artificial satellites
Following that feat, on Nov. 3, 1957 the Soviets launched an even more massive satellite — Sputnik 2 — which carried a dog, Laika. The United States' first satellite was Explorer 1 on Jan. 31, 1958. The satellite was only 2 percent the mass of Sputnik 2, however, at 30 pounds (13 kg).
The Sputniks and Explorer 1 became the opening shots in a space race between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted until at least the late 1960s. The focus on satellites as political tools began to give way to people as both countries sent humans into space in 1961. Later in the decade, however, the aims of both countries began to split. While the United States went on to land people on the moon and create the space shuttle, the Soviet Union constructed the world's first space station, Salyut 1, which launched in 1971. (Other stations followed, such as the United States' Skylaband the Soviet Union's Mir.)
Other countries began to send their own satellites into space as the benefits rippled through society. Weather satellites improved forecasts, even for remote areas. Land-watching satellites such as the Landsat series tracked changes in forests, water and other parts of Earth's surface over time. Telecommunications satellites made long-distance telephone calls and eventually, live television broadcasts from across the world a normal part of life. Later generations helped with Internet connections. [Image Gallery: Earth Pictures from Space: Landsat Satellite Legacy]
With the miniaturization of computers and other hardware, it's now possible to send up much smaller satellites that can do science, telecommunications or other functions in orbit. It's common now for companies and universities to create "CubeSats", or cube-shaped satellites that frequently populate low-Earth orbit. These can be lofted on a rocket along with a bigger payload, or sent from a mobile launcher on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA is now considering sending CubeSats to Mars or to the moon Europa (near Jupiter) for future missions, although the CubeSats aren't confirmed for inclusion.
The ISS is the biggest satellite in orbit, and took over a decade to construct. Piece by piece, 15 nations contributed financial and physical infrastructure to the orbiting complex, which was put together between 1998 and 2011. Program officials expect the ISS to keep running until at least 2024.
Parts of a satellite
Every usable artificial satellite — whether it's a human or robotic one — has four main parts to it: a power system (which could be solar or nuclear, for example), a way to control its attitude, an antenna to transmit and receive information, and a payload to collect information (such as a camera or particle detector).
As will be seen below, however, not all artificial satellites are necessarily workable ones. Even a screw or a bit of paint is considered an "artificial" satellite, even though these are missing these parts.
What keeps a satellite from falling to Earth?
A satellite is best understood as a projectile, or an object that has only one force acting on it — gravity. Technically speaking, anything that crosses the Karman Line at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles) is considered in space. However, a satellite needs to be going fast — at least 8 km (5 miles) a second — to stop from falling back down to Earth immediately.
If a satellite is traveling fast enough, it will perpetually "fall" toward Earth, but the Earth's curvature means that the satellite will fall around our planet instead of crashing back on the surface. Satellites that travel closer to Earth are at risk of falling because the drag of atmospheric molecules will slow the satellites down. Those that orbit farther away from Earth have fewer molecules to contend with.
There are several accepted "zones" of orbits around the Earth. One is called low-Earth-orbit, which extends from about 160 to 2,000 km (about 100 to 1,250 miles). This is the zone where the ISS orbits and where the space shuttle used to do its work. In fact, all human missions except for the Apollo flights to the moon took place in this zone. Most satellites also work in this zone.
Geostationary or geosynchronous orbit is the best spot for communications satellites to use, however. This is a zone above Earth's equator at an altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 mi). At this altitude, the rate of "fall" around the Earth is about the same as Earth's rotation, which allows the satellite to stay above the same spot on Earth almost constantly. The satellite thus keeps a perpetual connection with a fixed antenna on the ground, allowing for reliable communications. When geostationary satellites reach the end of their life, protocol dictates they're moved out of the way for a new satellite to take their place. That's because there is only so much room, or so many "slots" in that orbit, to allow the satellites to operate without interference.
While some satellites are best used around the equator, others are better suited to more polar orbits — those that circle the Earth from pole to pole so that their coverage zones include the north and south poles. Examples of polar-orbiting satellites include weather satellites and reconnaissance satellites.
Three small CubeSats float above the Earth after deployment from the International Space Station. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio tweeted the photo from the station on Nov. 19, 2013.
Credit: Rick Mastracchio (via Twitter as @AstroRM)
What stops a satellite from crashing into another satellite?
There are an estimated half-million artificial objects in Earth orbit today, ranging in size from paint flecks up to full-fledged satellites — each traveling at speeds of thousands of miles an hour. Only a fraction of these satellites are useable, meaning that there is a lot of "space junk" floating around out there. With everything that is lobbed into orbit, the chance of a collision increases.
Space agencies have to consider orbital trajectories carefully when launching something into space. Agencies such as the United States Space Surveillance Network keep an eye on orbital debris from the ground, and alert NASA and other entities if an errant piece is in danger of hitting something vital. This means that from time to time, the ISS needs to perform evasive maneuvers to get out of the way.
Collisions still occur, however. One of the biggest culprits of space debris was the leftovers of a 2007 anti-satellite test performed by the Chinese, which generated debris that destroyed a Russian satellite in 2013. Also that year, the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 satellites smashed into each other, generating a cloud of debris.
NASA, the European Space Agency and many other entities are considering measures to reduce the amount of orbital debris. Some suggest bringing down dead satellites in some way, perhaps using a net or air bursts to disturb the debris from its orbit and bring it closer to Earth. Others are thinking about refueling dead satellites for reuse, a technology that has been demonstrated robotically on the ISS.
Moons around other worlds
Most planets in our solar system have natural satellites, which we also call moons. For the inner planets: Mercury and Venus each have no moons. Earth has one relatively large moon, while Mars has two asteroid-sized small moons called Phobos and Deimos. (Phobos is slowly spiralling into Mars and will likely break apart or fall into the surface in a few thousand years.)
Beyond the asteroid belt, are four gas giant planets that each have a pantheon of moons. As of late 2017, Jupiter has 69 known moons, Saturn has 53, Uranus has 27 and Neptune has 13 or 14. New moons are occasionally discovered – mainly by missions (either past or present, as we can analyze old pictures) or by performing fresh observations by telescope.
Saturn is a special example because it is surrounded by thousands of small objects that form a ring visible even in small telescopes from Earth. Scientists watching the rings close-up over 13 years, during the Cassini mission, saw conditions in which new moons might be born. Scientists were particularly interested in propellers, which are wakes in the rings created by fragments in the rings. Just after Cassini's mission ended in 2017, NASA said it's possible the propellers share elements of planet formation that takes place around young stars' gassy discs.
Even smaller objects have moons, however. Pluto is technically a dwarf planet. However, the people behind the New Horizons mission, which flew by Pluto in 2015, argue its diverse geography makes it more planet-like. One thing that isn't argued, however, is the number of moons around Pluto. Pluto has five known moons, most of which were discovered when New Horizons was in development or en route to the dwarf planet.
A lot of asteroids have moons, too. These small worlds sometimes fly close to the Earth, and the moons pop out in observations with radar. A few famous examples of asteroids with moons include 4 Vesta (which was visited by NASA's Dawn mission), 243 Ida, 433 Eros, and 951 Gaspra. There are also examples of asteroids with rings, such as 10199 Chariklo and 2060 Chiron.
Many planets and worlds in our solar system have human-made "moons" as well, particularly around Mars — where several probes orbit the planet doing observations of its surface and environment. The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all had artificial satellites observing them at some point in history. Other objects had artificial satellites as well, such as Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (visited by the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission) or Vesta and Ceres (both visited by NASA's Dawn mission.) Technically speaking, during the Apollo missions, humans flew in artificial "moons" (spacecraft) around our own moon between 1968 and 1972. NASA may even build a "Deep Space Gateway" space station near the moon in the coming decades, as a launching point for human Mars missions.
Fans of the movie "Avatar" (2009) will remember that the humans visited Pandora, the habitable moon of a gas giant named Polyphemus. We don't know yet if there are moons for exoplanets, but we suspect — given that the solar system planets have so many moons — that exoplanets have moons as well. In 2014, scientists made an observation of an object that could be interpreted as an exomoon circling an exoplanet, but the observation can't be repeated as it took place as the object moved in front of a star.
AUTHOR BIO
Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor
Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space.com who is one of the few Canadian journalists to report regularly on space exploration. She is pursuing a Ph.D. part-time in aerospace sciences (University of North Dakota) after completing an M.Sc. (space studies) at the same institution. She also holds a bachelor of journalism degree from Carleton University. Besides writing, Elizabeth teaches communications at the university and community college level. To see her latest projects, follow Elizabeth on Twitter at @HowellSpace
UFO IN BELGIUM CHASED BY AIR FORCE F16's: "THE BELGIAN WAVE": BELGIUM UFO WAVE OF 1989. - HD HQ
A documentary on the "Belgium UFO Wave" of 1989.
Belgian sequence of UFO Sightings also referred to as "THE BELGIAN WAVE" started off on November 29th, 1989 and peaked with the reports on in the night of from 30th to 31st March, 1990. Majority of sightings occurred in the Walloon region and at some point thousands of people reported a sighting of an unusual triangular shaped craft that hovered over the Belgian skies, exhibiting unexplainable flight.
(The photograph in the documentary did not come forward until four months after the original incident, and it contains too little information for a reliable assessment of its authenticity. The photograph should be approached with extreme skepticism.)
Major General “Wilfried De Brouwer” (Chief of Operations Belgian Air Force) took charge in investigating the reports. He has spoken openly and confidently about the evidence he collected but to help a civilian research group called SOBEBS (Société Belge d'Etude des Phénomènes Spatiaux).
Of the 650 reports that the air force helped to investigate, "500" cannot be explained. They concluded that their was air activity of unknown origin in the airspace of Belgium that cannot be attributed to any known aircraft. The true identity of the visitors, however, remained UNKNOWN as no military aircraft were able to establish visual contact with the illusive craft. However, one F-16 that was scrambled to respond to an anomalous radar return, managed to record radar data of some extremely unusual maneuvers on the part of the target.
De Brouwer says: "WE MUST ALL BE PREPARED FOR THE NEXT UFO WAVE, WHEREVER IT MAY OCCUR".
HOOPER, Colo. -- Colorado's San Luis Valley is considered the 'UFO Hot Spot' of the nation. According to paranormal experts, there are more UFO sightings in the valley than anywhere else in America.
The unexplained is so popular there, a structure known as the UFO Watch Tower was created as a place for people to share their experiences.
It also logs sightings. Including a recent one that was spotted by two people.
To learn more about the sightings and the UFO Watch Tower, select 'play' on the video above to watch Kevin Torres' Unique 2 Colorado series.
rvSaoedi-Arabië is het eerste land dat staatsburgerschap geeft aan een robot.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETSaoedi-Arabië heeft robot Sophia het staatsburgerschap gegeven. Het land wil zich zo promoten als dé plek om artificiële intelligentie te ontwikkelen. Sophia de robot kreeg de Saoedische nationaliteit tijdens een event over de toekomst in de hoofdstad Riyad.
Sophia heeft zelf een woordje van dank uitgesproken tijdens een interview. “Het is historisch om de eerste robot te zijn die erkend wordt als burger”, zei ze. Volgens de robot moeten we trouwens niet bang zijn voor de opmars van artificiële intelligentie. “Het is niet zoals in Blade Runner of Terminator. Jullie hebben te veel naar Elon Musk geluisterd en te veel Hollywoodfilms gekeken.”
Rechten voor vrouwen
De opvallende beslissing van Saoedi-Arabië om burgerschap toe te kennen aan een robot kan ook op heel wat kritiek rekenen. Terwijl het land zichzelf een schouderklopje geeft, wijzen anderen erop dat de rechten van menselijke vrouwen in Saoedi-Arabië nog steeds gelimiteerd zijn. Zo moet elke vrouw in het land een mannelijk voogd hebben. Bovendien zijn er ook veel staatlozen in Saoedi-Arabië en dat terwijl een robot nu dus wel alle burgerrechten krijgt.
Imitatie
Sophia is ontwikkeld in Hong Kong en in 2015 geactiveerd. Volgens haar maker, David Hanson, heeft de robot artificiële intelligentie en kan ze gezichten herkennen. Sophia imiteert ook menselijke gebaren en gezichtsuitdrukkingen. Ze kan ook een simpele conversatie volgen.
Good news, doomsday preppers: the high strangeness and military mysteries surrounding the “former” Soviet Union continue to develop. Several Russian social media users and news outlets caught dozens of photos of a mysterious, terrifying glow cloud which was visible all across Siberia on the evening of October 26th. While some eyewitnesses thought the orb had a supernatural origin, it turns out the explanation is a lot more terrifying.
In Soviet Russia, glow could sees you.
Credit: Alexey Yakovlev
In all of the photos and eyewitness reports, the cloud appears to be a large luminous ball in the sky, sometimes blue, sometimes green. The cloud dissipated after several minutes into a wispy arc in the sky, but left terror in the minds of those who saw it. Siberian photographer Sergey Anisimov was out photographing auroras when he caught several dazzling images of the strange glowing orb:
At first I was taken aback for a few minutes, not understanding what was happening. The glowing ball rose from behind the trees and moved in my direction. My first thought was about the most powerful searchlight, but the speed of changing everything around changed the idea of what was happening.
Witnesses reported a feeling of dread upon seeing the glow cloud, and believed the orb could be a harbinger of the end times, a gap in the spacetime continuum, a UFO, or some sort of supernatural apparition.
Sure looks like doomsday to me.
It turns out, at least according to the Russian defense ministry, that the glow cloud was some sort of discharge from a test of Russia’s new “Satan 2” missile. Because if you’re going to develop a new nuclear missile capable of blowing up the world, you might was well name it after the Dark Lord of the Underworld.
Just exactly how a missile left such a strange apparition in the sky is unknown.
As nuclear tensions continue to rise around the world, Russia and many other of the world’s nuclear superpowers continue to develop and test new weapons which raise the bar in terms of terror and destructiveness. Russian state news claims the Satan 2 missile, which carries multiple warheads, is capable of obliterating an area the size of France. Or Texas, depending on what kind of mood Russia’s in.
As the new nuclear space race ramps up, expect more sights like this one. Credit: Alexey Yakovlev
Because, you know, it’s not enough to be able to destroy the entire world and bring humanity to a crashing halt. No, you’ve got to be able to do it several times over and ensure nothing other than irradiated supermutant cockroaches will walk the Earth for millions of years. That’s how you know we’re making progress. That’s how you know you’re in charge. See me now, daddy? Now I have the nuclear codes! Still think I’ll never amount to anything?
Man kwam oog in oog te staan met bemanning van driehoekige UFO. Nu doet hij zijn verhaal
Man kwam oog in oog te staan met bemanning van driehoekige UFO. Nu doet hij zijn verhaal
Een man zei dat het was alsof de ‘tijd stilstond’ toen hij oog in oog kwam te staan met de bemanning van een driehoekige UFO die boven een weiland hing.
Philip Shepherdson claimt dat het voorval zich voordeed in de buurt van York in het Engelse graafschap North Yorkshire.
Hij reed op zijn scooter toen iets zijn aandacht trok. “Ik keek naar links en kreeg zowat een hartverzakking,” zei hij. “In de hoek van een klein weiland zweefde een zwart driehoekig object boven de grond.”
Honderden
Schets (Flying Disk Press)
“Ik kon bijna niet geloven wat ik zag,” voegde hij toe.
Driehoekige UFO’s worden vaker gemeld. In de Verenigde Staten worden elk jaar honderden van deze objecten gezien.
Volgens sommigen zijn het buitenaardse ruimteschepen, terwijl anderen van mening zijn dat het gaat om topgeheime vaartuigen die gebouwd zijn door overheden.
Cockpit
“Het object was glad en had geen scherpe randen,” zei Shepherdson. “Bovenop zat een cockpit met daarin een figuur.”
“Ik kon alleen een zwarte helm en een zwarte overall zien,” vervolgde hij.
“Naast het vaartuig zag ik nog twee magere figuren in zwarte pakken,” aldus de man. “Ze keken naar mij, net als de figuur in de cockpit.”
Geen geluid
“Ik beefde van angst en de tijd leek stil te staan,” zei hij. Shepherdson besloot ervandoor te gaan en stapte weer op zijn scooter.
Wat hem vooral is bijgebleven is dat het object geen geluid maakte.
Dit alles speelde zich af in februari 1979, maar nu pas heeft Shepherdson de moed gehad om zich uit te spreken en andere getuigen op te sporen.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
