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 ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
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...
03-12-2017
Ancient copy of Jesus’ secret revelations to his brother discovered by biblical scholars
Ancient copy of Jesus’ secret revelations to his brother discovered by biblical scholars
Researchers have recently found what is believed to be the ‘first-known original Greek copy’ of an ancient heretic Christian manuscript which describes Jesus’ ‘secret’ teachings to his brother James.
The ancient manuscript was discovered at Oxford University by biblical scholars at The University of Texas at Austin.
It is believed that to date, only a small number of texts from the Nag Hammadi library—a collection of 13 Coptic Gnostic books discovered in 1945 in Upper Egypt—have been discovered in Greek, their original language of composition say, researchers.
A piece of the Coptic translation of the First Apocalypse of James from the Nag Hammadi Codex V. Image Credit: Oxford University
However, earlier this year, researchers of religious studies at the University of Texas, Geoffrey Smith and Brent Landau uncovered several Greek fragments of fifth- or sixth-century Greek parts of the First Apocalypse of James, which was believed to have been maintained only in its Coptic translations until now, explains Science daily.
“To say that we were thrilled once we realized what we’d found is an oversimplification,” stated Smith, an assistant professor of religious studies.
“We never speculated that Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James remained from antiquity. But there they were, right in front of us.”
The ancient text details the ‘secret teachings’ of Jesus Christ to his brother James. In the text, Jesus reveals details about the heavenly realm, and future events set to occur, as well as James’ inevitable death.
“The text extends the biblical account of Jesus’ life and ministry by allowing us access to discussions that purportedly took place between Jesus and his brother, James — secret teachings that allowed James to be a good teacher after Jesus’ death,” Smith said.
As explained by Smith, such texts would have fallen outside of canonical boundaries set forth by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in his “Easter letter of 367” that characterized the 27-book New Testament: “No one may add to them, and nothing may be taken away from them.”
Researchers concluded that the text was most likely a ‘teachers model’ used to help students learn reading and writing, as it is neatly written, with uniform handwriting and words separated into syllables.
“The scribe has distributed most of the text into syllables by using mid-dots. Such divisions are very uncommon in ancient manuscripts, though they do show up regularly in manuscripts that were used in educative contexts,” explained Landau, a lecturer in the UT Austin Department of Religious Studies.
Smith and Landau published the discovery at the Biblical Literature Society’s Annual Meeting in Boston in November of 2017, and are working to publish their introductory conclusions in the Greco Roman Memoirs series of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
Featured image: The front page of the Gospel of Judas, one of the banned books of the Bible / Public Domain Wikimedia Commons.
Douglas Vakoch, the president of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI), is sending out signals into space in an effort to discover extraterrestrial life.
“If there are other civilisations in the universe, the next generation of radio telescopes will be powerful enough to detect them”
UFO investigator Nick Pope
METI is reaching out to any potential beings on the planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star other than the sun.
However, Mr Pope believes the point of contact will be much sooner.
NICK POPE
IMMINENT: UFO investigator Nick Pope believes the hunt for other life will soon end
He added: “I wouldn't be surprised if it was less than that - 10 years, five, maybe less than that. It really could happen any day now.”
A Suffolk mystery that has provided the inspiration for books, documentaries and a feature film is set to be told on television screens.
Documents relating to the Rendlesham UFO incident from 1980; Press cuttings from the incident in 1980.
According to Hollywood media, Sony Pictures Television has joined forces with the production company behind Foyle’s War to develop a drama series based on the Rendlesham UFO Incident.
Eleventh Hour Films enlisted writer and director of TV mini-series The Replacement, Joe Ahearne, to retell the story ‘Britain’s Roswell’, which unfolded outside RAF Woodbridge over two nights in December 1980.
According to American entertainment trade magazine Variety, a complex family drama will form the backdrop to the series, which will also fast-forward from the height of the Cold War to 2020 – the 40th anniversary of the incidents.
Sony Pictures Television is said to be handling distribution of the series, which is yet to find a broadcaster or platform.
The director was quoted as saying: “When Eleventh Hour Films drew my attention to this extraordinary piece of British and American history, it pressed all my buttons, and I think it will do the same for a wide audience.”
Earlier this year, retired US airforce commander Colonel Charles I. Halt revisited the twin bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, where he prepared a memo to the Ministry of Defence describing “unexplained lights”, and recorded what became known as the Halt Tape – a documented investigation in the forest, during which he saw mysterious lights like those witnessed by airmen Jim Penniston and John Burroughs two nights earlier.
In 2010, the ex-colonel signed an affidavit claiming the encounter was extraterrestrial and had been covered up by the government.
Other theories for what happened have included the glow of Orfordness Lighthouse, an elaborate hoax and a secret classified aircraft.
Among those joining Col Halt on his return to Rendlesham was Gary Baker, radar operator at RAF Neatishead from 1978-1980, who claimed to have been told “it never happened” by RAF officers, and that radar tapes and bridge logs from that evening vanished.
Nick Pope, who was formerly in charge of the Ministry of Defence’s UFO project, has previously described the Rendlesham Forest incident “one of the world’s most compelling UFO sightings.
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360-video shows what the United Arab Emirates’ colony on Mars will look like in 100 years
360-video shows what the United Arab Emirates’ colony on Mars will look like in 100 years
As part of a plan to put mankind on Mars within the next 100 years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has presented its vision of what a colony on the surface of Mars would look like, and how things would work out for people living on the Red Planet.
Oh, and it is not anywhere near to what we saw in the Movie the Martian, starred by Matt Damon.
The 360 video begins with a ‘holographic’ representative of the “United Government of Mars” welcoming you to your “second home”.
The digital host explains that what you are seeing is “70 years after humanity has established a colony on Mars”, suggesting that the UAE projects a manned mission for the year 2047.
This is what the so-called City of Wisdom will look like.
Then a pod takes you on a 2.5-kilometer route showing you the ins and outs of the “City of Wisdom”, the name of the first human-robot settlement on another planet. This ‘Martian’ settlement has it all and is equipped with state of the art laboratories, a university, skyscrapers and beautiful architectured homes for around 600,000 inhabitants, or Martians.
As it was announced earlier this year at the World Government Summit in Dubai, the UAE aims to be the first Muslim country to contribute to an interplanetary mission.
For this, they have already taken the first steps in their incipient space program, with a robotic probe to be launched in 2020 with the aim of orbiting the red planet the following year, when the 50th anniversary of the founding of the country will be celebrated.
The VR Footage of the City of Wisdom on Mars revelers the city built on Mars by the UAE is equipped with a Hyperloop Transport system and is a place where robots—just like Sophia—walk among Martians. Countless vehicles are seen moving around in the city of Wisdom as well as people gathering in the city just as on Earth.
The UAE made sure to design the city to look as similar to Earth as possible, which is why they included plenty of vegetation in the City of Wisdom.
For the full experience, viewers should see the video using a VR headset.
For those who don’t have a VR headset, the video which has already been uploaded to YouTube is still an impressive experience.
In September, Dubai announced it will be building what is considered the LARGEST space simulation ever when it erects a city that will cover 1.9 million square feet. The city which will be built as an effort to simulate life on the Red Planet will cost more than $120 million dollars.
‘Mars Science City’ as it will be called, the massive simulation will be home to researchers who will live in the city for a year, carrying out experiments and growing foot, producing water and energy, just as people on Mars would need to do.
It is believed that the ‘Mars Science City’ will be home to extremely advanced laboratories that will simulate the harsh terrain, weather, and environment on Mars.
500 years before the Egyptians, an ancient civilization in Peru built incredible Pyramids
500 years before the Egyptians, an ancient civilization in Peru built incredible Pyramids
The Egyptians weren’t the first to build Pyramids. An ancient civilization in America, more precisely Peru, built stunning pyramids 500 years before the Ancient Egyptians. This ancient culture is considered as the oldest ‘developed’ civilization in America, and it predates by up to 1,500 years other advanced cultures in America like the Olmec civilization in Mexico.
Over 5,000 years ago, an ancient civilization in Peru created incredible Pyramids equally stunning when compared to the Pyramids erected by the ancient Egyptians. The Pyramids of Peru are believed to predate the Pyramids of the Giza plateau by at least 500 years.
Caral is an archaeological site where we find the remains of the main city of the ancient civilization of Caral.
Incredible planning and construction methods present at Caral.
Located in the valley of Supe, 182 kilometers north of Lima (Peru), 23 km from the coast and 350 meters above sea level, this ancient civilization existed in the region more than 5,000 years ago and is considered the oldest city in America.
So far, nowhere in America have archaeologists discovered the remains of a city with temples, monuments, and Pyramids with such a vast diversity.
The ancient city of Caral has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO
The ancient civilization of Caral was contemporary with other ancient civilizations such as those of Egypt, India, Sumeria, China, but unlike them (which participated at least partially with the external world), Caral was developed in complete isolation.
One of the Pyramids of Caral.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.
In America, it is the oldest of the pre-Hispanic civilizations, surpassing in 1500 years the Olmec civilization, another important civilization located in Mesoamerica.
The age of the civilization of Caral was confirmed through 146 radiocarbon dating tests performed by laboratories from the United States. According to these, Caral is approximately 5,000 years old, meaning that it developed more than 1,500 thousand years before any other major culture in America.
The Pyramids of Caral are another reason why this culture is more than extraordinary.
We find Pyramids of various sizes at Caral.
There are 7 large pyramids in Caral surrounded by several smaller ones, adding up to 32 structures in total.
A Panoramic view of Ancient Caral.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Its builders organized the city in 2 sectors: one to the north and another one to the south.
An old dry cause divides both sides.
In the upper sector, there are 6 main pyramids surrounding an empty space.
In the lower sector stands out the Pyramid of the Amphitheater and several minor buildings aligned with it.
Each of the Pyramids of Carl served different functions, each fulfilling a different role in the social and religious order of its inhabitants.
The Main Pyramid or ‘Piramide Mayor’ is 153.52 meters in length, 109.42 meters wide, and has a height of 28 meters. It consists of a stepped pyramid and a circular square attached to its façade. A long staircase 9 meters wide ascends 28 meters in height.
The so-called ‘Piramide de la Cantera’ has 78 meters in length, a width of 56 meters and a height of 13.40 meters.
The Lower Pyramid or ‘Piramide Menor’ has a length of 45.80 meters, a width of 37 meters and a height of 7.50 meters.
Caral also features the so-called ‘Piramide de la Galeria’ which is 110 meters in length, it has a width of 80 meters and a height of 17 meters.
The Pyramid of Huanaca has a length and width of 55 meters, and a height of 12 meters.
The Amphitheater Pyramid of Caral is the largest one with a length of 155 meters. IT is 81 meters wide and has a height of 11 meters.
The smallest of the Pyramids at Caral is the Pyramid of the circular altar which is 42.60 metes in length, it has a width of 28 meters, and a height of only 4 meters.
In addition to the fact that Caral is one of the oldest ancient civilizations in America, and features some of the oldest Pyramids on Earth, their culture is equally stunning because of their technological development.
Caral was one of the most advanced ancient cultures on Earth, 5,000 years ago.
“As for energy exploitation and fluid mechanics, Caral took advantage of the wind, now known as the Venturi Effect, by channeling it through underground ducts in order to achieve high temperatures through bonfires.”
“As for pharmacology, we found that Caral inhabitants used willow —containing the *active chemical ingredient in aspirin*— to relieve pain such as headaches.”
“Another highlight was the civil engineering, which continues to amaze since scientists applied the seismic resistance technology to the over-5000-year-old constructions.”
One of the most important things worth mentioning about Caral is that no weapons, mutilated bodies or any signs of warfare are present on the site. This according to scholars, points to the fact that Caral was a diplomatic and highly developed culture.
WASHINGTON — The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was one for the books — deadly, destructive and the costliest on record. And for the nation’s meteorologists, it could not have ended soon enough.
“Be gone with you,” Taylor Trogdon, a senior scientist at the National Hurricane Center, posted on Twitter early Thursday.
Thursday marks the final day of the Atlantic season, which officially runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. The final tally: 17 named tropical cyclones, including 10 hurricanes and six major hurricanes that reached Category 3 or stronger.
In a report published Thursday, Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University, described the season as “extraordinarily active.”
“It’s going down as a top ten year for most tropical cyclone parameters that we measure in real-time,” Klotzback wrote in an email to HuffPost.
Two weeks later, Irma tore through the Caribbean, shattering several records before taking aim at Florida. The Category 5 storm went down as the strongest hurricane ever in the Atlantic Ocean (not including the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico) and the first anywhere on Earth to maintain top winds of 185 miles per hour for 37 straight hours. It also ranked among the strongest tropical cyclones measured at landfall anywhere around the globe, as meteorologist Eric Holthaus noted on Twitter.
And before the Caribbean had time to recover from Irma, Maria devastated Puerto Ricoand other Caribbean islands, leaving behind “apocalyptic” conditions, local officials said. The death toll in Puerto Rico, now at 58, continues to rise. And more than two months after the disaster, roughly half of the island remains without electricity.
The 2017 season served as an important reminder of just how devastating hurricanes can be, Marshall Shepherd, director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Georgia and a former president of the American Meteorological Society, told HuffPost on Thursday. Prior to Harvey, the country went nearly 12 years without a major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) making landfall — the longest period on U.S. record.
“I think we had been in a drought for so long that people really just forgot how destructive, life-altering and society-altering they can be,” Shepherd said. “And to have essentially three major hurricanes just devastate very populated areas, that to me in itself is memorable.”
Shepherd added that the 2017 season carried the mark of climate change, with storms packing an extra punch, and gave America perhaps its first glimpse of what a future of extreme weather events and climate refugees could look like.
“We have to start thinking about, planning our cities and our infrastructure, with extreme weather in mind,” he said.
With damages exceeding more than $200 billion, this season has been pegged as the most destructive hurricane season in U.S. history, according to Weather Underground, which cited estimates from disaster research scientists. That figure includes loses of $114 billion from Hurricane Harvey, $60 billion from Hurricane Irma and $32 billion from Hurricane Maria.
Although 2017 was active, 2005 still holds the record for most named storms (28), named storm days (126.25), number of hurricanes (15) and number of major hurricanes (7), according to Klotzbach’s report.
Below, a look at how other meteorologists marked the end of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season on Thursday:
The horrible 2017 #hurricane season comes to a close today. A lot of things will stick with me, but this GOES16 loop of #Irmajust blew me away at the time
Good riddance to one of the most destructive hurricane seasons on record. A debt of gratitude to all the hard-working first responders, emergency managers, disaster relief groups, @NWS@NWSNHC meteorologists, and survivors working to rebuild their communities.
On October 17, 2017, NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of an unusual cloud pattern off the coast of southern Australia.
According to Paul Lainio, a meteorologist at Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, the pattern was caused by a phenomenon in the atmosphere called gravity waves. Similar to a boat’s wake, which forms as water is pushed upward by the boat and pulled downward again by gravity, these clouds are formed by the rise and fall of air columns. As the wave moves along the cloud band, the wave peaks appear cloudy and the troughs appear cloud-free. In this case, the gravity waves developed as a result of instability on the flank of a strong jet stream moving ahead of the cold front. Lainio said:
This type of effect is relatively unusual since it requires a strong anticyclonic-curved jet that develops gravity waves of sufficient magnitude. The gravity waves are the atmosphere’s way of restoring balance, and they usually don’t last for lengthy periods.
Bottom line: Satellite image of cloud pattern off southern Australia.
The Small Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy orbiting our Milky Way and a beautiful night-sky gem for those in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. Here it is in the light of atomic hydrogen. Whoa!
Atomic hydrogen gas in the Small Magellanic Cloud, via the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder
Astronomers at Australian National University (ANU) said on November 28, 2017 that they’ve created the most detailed radio image yet of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a famous sky-sight from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere and a dwarf galaxy orbiting our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The image shows the galaxy not in terms of its stars and dust, as optical images do, but in terms of its hydrogen gas. ANU astronomer Naomi McClure-Griffiths, who co-led the study, said:
Hydrogen is the fundamental building block of all galaxies and shows off the more extended structure of a galaxy than its stars and dust.
She said the image reveals distortions to the Small Magellanic Cloud, which likely occurred because of its interactions with the larger galaxies and because of its own star explosions that push gas out of the galaxy:
The outlook for this dwarf galaxy is not good, as it’s likely to eventually be gobbled up by our Milky Way.
Together, the [Large and Small] Magellanic Clouds are characterised by their distorted structures, a bridge of material that connects them, and an enormous stream of hydrogen gas that trails behind their orbit – a bit like a comet.
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds by Justin Ng of Singapore.
The astronomers said their new radio image helps them understand how the Small Magellanic Cloud – and presumably the several dozen dwarf galaxies orbiting our Milky Way – formed and evolved.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) – the federal government agency for scientific research in Australia – acquired the image via its new radio telescope, called the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). Naomi McClure-Griffiths said:
The new image … reveals more gas around the edges of the galaxy, indicating a very dynamic past for the Small Magellanic Cloud. These features are more than three times smaller than we were able to see before and allow us to probe the detailed interaction of the small galaxy and its environment.
The new image (top of post) was created as part of a survey that aims to study the evolution of galaxies.
Philip Mantle Interview, discussing his involvement in ufology over many...
Philip Mantle Interview, discussing his involvement in ufology over many...
Alejandro Rojas live with UFO Updates and guest, Philip Mantle discusses several very interesting UFO cases in the UK, some fascinating unknowns, abduction accounts, recent book releases that he has published and what in the world the British tabloids are doing with the UFO topic.
Philip Mantle has been involved in four decades of UFO research and been at the forefront of British ufology since the first meeting of the Yorkshire UFO Society organised by Graham and Mark Birdsall. Their humble YUFOS newsletter eventually became the respected and much missed UFO Magazine in the UK.
His UFO research saw his investigate many strange cases in and around the Yorkshire region in northern England and he held the position of Director of Investigations with BUFORA (British UFO Research Association) for a number of years.
He is now very much active in the field of ufology and is an established author and publisher with Flying Disk Press.
In this interview conducted by Pierre Sabak and Anthony Beckett he talks candidly about his years of UFO research and his view on the phenomenon and the state of ufology now and in decades past.
Philip Mantle is an international UFO researcher, lecturer and broadcaster. His books have been published in six different languages around the world. He is the former Director of Investigations for the British UFO Research Association and former MUFON representative for England. Philip has written articles and features for numerous publications around the world and has been both editor and assistant editor of high street UFO publications. He lives in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England
It’s finally here. The trailer for Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War has arrived, and to call it a big one is an understatement. First things first, yes, this is an entirely different trailer than the one that was screened at San Diego Comic-Con this past July. Some shots are reused, notably Spider-Man swinging around in his snazzy new spider-suit, but this trailer is all-new. Alan Silvestri’s signature Avengers theme has been redone, with bleaker notes, to emphasize just how apocalyptic Thanos will be when he comes looking for the Infinity Stones.
As the 19th film in the interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe, Infinity Warunites all the major movie superheroes (sorry, Defenders) to fight Thanos, who ravages New York, Wakanda, and who knows where else on planet Earth to wield ultimate power in his Infinity Gauntlet.
With so much going on in the trailer, here’s a breakdown of all the most important things to remember about the MCU and how they’re changing in Infinity War.
18. “There was an idea…”
If the opening narration sounds familiar, it’s Nick Fury’s “There was an idea…” speech redone by a few Avengers, each of them taking a line. Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Vision (Paul Bettany), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) all provide an ominous voice-over of Nick Fury’s inspiring pre-battle speech, which has a darker hue now as Thanos is here on Earth.
17. Bruce Banner Is Back
The big tension for the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in Thor: Ragnarok was whether or not Bruce Banner could turn back after being Hulked out for so long. Ragnarok ended with Bruce as the Hulk, leaving it in doubt whether or not the big green guy could transform back into mild-mannered Bruce. Well, the first five seconds of the trailer answers that question, with a stunned Bruce looking up at two familiar faces: Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wong (Benedict Wong).
16. Human Vision
Vision’s got some upgrades. The synthesized android appears in a more “human” form with Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). And just like in the comics, his relationship with her has blossomed into something romantic.
Years after the Battle of New York in The Avengers, New York is the target for an invasion once more. As Thanos arrives on Earth, Manhattan erupts into chaos. People panic outside Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum while Peter Parker (Tom Holland) experiences a severe form of his spider-sense.
13. Loki and the Space Stone
As seen in the Comic-Con preview, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) hands the Space Stone to a mysterious figure, who in all likelihood is Thanos. At the end of Ragnarok, Loki was in Odin’s vault when he took a second to gaze at the Space Stone, hinting that he took a great power with him.
12. Evil Has Never Looked So Good
Say hello to Thanos, played by Josh Brolin.
11. New Spidey Suit
As seen in the Comic-Con preview and promotional posters, Peter suits up with the new costume Tony Stark offered him at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming. The footage seen in the trailer is roughly the same shots seen in the Comic-Con footage.
10. “Get this man a shield.”
The most kick-ass line in movie history has now been set. T’Challa, the king of Wakanda, is telling someone to get ol’ bearded Captain America — presumably under the name Nomad — a shield. Note that Cap doesn’t have his stars and stripes anymore.
9.Thanos’s Henchman
Speaking of, the person throwing a spear at Captain America seems to be one of Thanos’s cronies. We haven’t gotten a great look at any of them yet, but this appears to be Proxima Midnight.
8. HULKBUSTER RETURNS!
The Hulkbuster is back! Of course Tony Stark would bring out his biggest guns.
7. Look at These Big Spiky Things
In true Marvel fashion, big alien structures appear in Infinity War. While it’s unclear what Thanos’s exact game plan is, it’s safe to say that the big purple guy won’t invade Earth without some help. These spiky structures could be troop transports, satellites, or some terraforming tech to make Earth easier to conquer. Either way, they’re going to be everywhere.
6. Vision Gets Wrecked
Because Vision is powered by the Mind Stone, it was curious how Thanos would take it from him. Seems that answer is simple: He’s going to rip it out of his head. Man, Infinity War is going to hurt.
5. Bucky Marches With Wakanda
Also seen in the Comic-Con footage, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) leads an entire sect of Wakandan soldiers against Thanos. If you recall, Bucky is a prisoner of Wakanda at the end of Captain America: Civil War, but it’s all hands on deck when it comes to something as big as this.
Just before Infinity War will be Marvel’s Black Panther, hitting theaters in February, starring Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa as he deals with an insurrection in his kingdom. It’s going to be awesome, but the extra reason one shouldn’t skip Black Panther is because of how integral T’Challa will be in Infinity War. It seems Wakanda makes up the bulk of the army for the good guys. A lot of good people are going to die.
3. Your New Avengers Shot
Each of the Avengers movies has that one shot that defines the status quo. In Infinity War, it’s this: Cap (wearing new gauntlets?) reunited with War Machine, Hulk, Falcon, and Black Widow, who have all teamed up with Black Panther, Okoye (Danai Gurira), Bucky, and the Wakandan forces. We told you this would be a big one.
2. Yup, Thor’s Still Got an Eye Wound
The Comic-Con trailer featured heaping doses of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but this trailer keeps them until the very end. And it’s here where Thanos is introduced, showing he’s still missing an eye from fighting Hela.
1. The Guardians of the Frickin’ Galaxy
What a bunch of A-holes.
See the trailer for Avengers: Infinity War below.
Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War will be released on May 4, 2018.
There were 1,800 UFOs tracked by NORAD radar over five years.
That equates to around 360 UFOs officially tracked by radar each year.
And as many as 75 - 15 EACH YEAR - have been intercepted as a result, according to information released by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
UFO investigators have hailed the statistics proof that the UFO phenomena is real and taken seriously by military leaders.
But there remains a veil of secrecy over what happened when they were intercepted or if any have been confined as not coming from Earth, with national security reasons being cited.
The figures were revealed to UFO investigators following a Canadian Access to Information Act request.
But officials refused to reveal any further data or specific details about individual UFO interceptions.
Candian UFO expert Victor Viggiani requested information on the tracking and intercepting of UFOs by NORAD after obtaining secret documents which detailed a case of jets being scramble to "three UFOs".
A response from NORAD said that requests for "unknown track reports" are classified and cannot be released on grounds of national security and espionage.
It said the information was not to be released to the public or media because they do not have a "valid need to know".
But the response did confirm the extent of UFO activity caught on radar.
It said: "The NORAD commander has approved the release of the following information regarding tracks of interest (TOI) and unknown tracks.
"The yearly average in the past five years has been 1,800 TOIs and 75 intercepts."
Intercepts are when NORAD scrambles a pair of fighters, which are on alert at sites around the US, to locate and attempt to identify the unknown object.
The fighters are armed and ready to take off within minutes of receiving a scramble order.
NORAD has refused to detail any of the 75 intercepts in the five year period, so it is unclear if any went off to be identified.
Although Mr Viggiani received some of the information using access to information laws, he claimed he was not permitted to share it or release it publicly and he had threatened with indictment if he did so.
The Canadian documents…indicate the Canadian government has been and remains vitally concerned about the unauthorised incursion of unidentified flying objects within Canadian airspace.
ZlandCommunicationsNewsNetwork website
And, in a public snub at the national security implications, he said: "I have here in front of me 11 documents…they are directly from NORAD and indicate that over the last five years an average of 1,800 tracks of interest, with 75 intercepts have been made, this is directly from the commander in NORAD.
"In reference to the NORAD documents, I have been threatened with indictment if I release that file.
"I am hereby releasing it to you and I dare the US government to charge me."
On the ZlandCommunicationsNewsNetwork website, which Mr Viggiani is involved with, it says the documents are proof the UFO phenomena is real.
It said: "The Canadian documents…indicate the Canadian government has been and remains vitally concerned about the unauthorised incursion of unidentified flying objects within Canadian airspace.
"All of the above raises serious and unacknowledged questions.
"What kind of craft are able to elude NORAD’s most sophisticated aircraft?
These and other questions bring into sharp focus substantial historical, on-going and covert discussions and documentation about the UFO phenomenon among Canadian government agencies - none of which has ever been openly addressed by bureaucrats, military officials or elected representatives."
It went on to state that the documenters "may represent" sufficient evidence - if not proof - that:
*Unidentified flying objects are real;
*Both Canada and the US have put in place mechanisms for tracking, reporting on, and pursuing unidentified flying objects;
*The Canadian and American governments consider these objects as authentic;
*No attempt has been made by government, NORAD or Canadian Air Force officials to inform the general public about these concerns.
It added: "Factual evidence exists that the UFO phenomenon is of sufficient authenticity as to be of a real and on-going concern to the Canadian government and its joint NORAD operations with the USA."
The website now wants an open inquiry into why this information is not shared with the public.
It added: "This lack of transparency surrounding a national security issue suggests that either Canadian government officials are totally ignorant of the facts surrounding the UFO matter or - they and the infrastructure of government and its military have something to hide with respect to the existence of UFOs."
Jurassic Park in China: een waar prehistorisch paradijs - HNL.be
Jurassic Park in China: een waar prehistorisch paradijs - HNL.be
Bob van Huet
REUTERSEen impressie van hoe de visetende Hamipterus tianshanensis leefde.
WETENSCHAPHet doet denken aan Jurassic Park of een andere ‘prehistorische’ kaskraker uit Hollywood. Wetenschappers hebben in de Noord-Chinese regio Xinjiang Uygur 215 gefossiliseerde pterosaurus-eieren gevonden. Het zijn de eieren van het fameuze reptiel dat ooit heerste in het luchtruim. Het visetende reptiel behoort tot de grootste vliegende dieren die deze planeet ooit heeft gezien.
De vondst zorgt voor opwinding onder paleontologen. Een Chinese onderzoeker sprak zelfs van een pterosaurusparadijs. Mogelijk liggen er nog meer eieren verborgen. Er werden wel eerder pterosaurus-eieren gevonden, onder andere in Zuid-Amerika en China, maar nooit zoveel tegelijk. Waarschijnlijk zijn ze tijdens heftige stormen op drift geraakt in een meer en naar eenzelfde punt langs de oever gestuwd voordat ze zonken. Elk ei meet ongeveer zeven centimeter in doorsnede.
De ontdekking werd gedaan in een blok zandsteen van ruim tien meter. Bijzonder is niet alleen het aantal maar ook de zestien complete embryo’s die in de eieren werden gevonden. Daaruit zou blijken dat de baby’s zeker niet meteen konden vliegen en waarschijnlijk jaren zorg nodig hadden van de ouders alvorens ze konden opstijgen, melden de wetenschappers in het vakblad Science.
REUTERSPterosaurussen hadden een spanwijdte van wel tien meter, een succesverhaal.
Vers uit het ei
“Dat ze eerst een tijd gevoed moesten worden, vind ik niet zo opmerkelijk. Als vogels vers uit het ei komen, hebben pa en ma ook nog wat werk voor de boeg”, zegt de Nederlandse onderzoeker Anne Schulp van het natuurhistorisch museum Naturalis in Leiden.
Zoveel eieren op een plek vindt hij intrigerend. Volgens Chinese en Braziliaanse onderzoekers die aan de vindplaats onderzoek deden, kan het wijzen op broedplaatsen van kolonies pterosaurussen. Hoe dan ook, net als de grote dino’s spreken de vliegende reptielen tot de verbeelding. Schulp: “Ze zijn het grote succesverhaal uit de tijd van de dinosauriërs. Ze waren heer en meester van het luchtruim, voordat de eerste vogels kwamen.”
Voordat de eerste vogels kwamen, waren ze heer en meester van het luchtruim
Anne Schulp, natuurhistorisch museum Naturalis
Vliegen niet bijzonder
Overigens plaatst Schulp daarbij wel een aantekening. Vliegen lijkt bijzonder, maar is een kunstje dat inmiddels best veel dieren voor elkaar hebben gekregen. “Na de vliegende reptielen had je de vogels, daarna de vleermuis, maar ook vliegende eekhoorns, er zijn hagedissen met flapjes en natuurlijk bij de insecten allerlei vliegers. Vliegen is meerdere malen ontstaan in de geschiedenis van het leven. Pterosaurussen hebben wel een heel bijzonder hoofdstuk geschreven. Vooral omdat sommige exemplaren uitzinnig groot konden worden met een spanwijdte van meer dan tien meter.”
In Jurassic Park worden de ontdekte dino-eieren tenslotte uitgebroed dankzij nieuwe technieken. Gaan we ze ooit terugzien, die machtige pterosaurussen? Schulp: “Nee hoor, prachtige fossiele eieren zijn het. Die doen het echt niet meer.”
EPA
Zoveel eieren van de Pterosaurus op een plek vinden is een unicum.
EPA
In het noordoosten van China troffen onderzoekers ruim 300 eieren aan. De grootste vondst ooit.
AFP
De gefossiliseerde resten van een Pterosaurus in een museum in Hami.
EPA
Uitbroeden van de versteende eieren kan alleen in films.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:HLN.be - Het Laatste Nieuws ( NL)
Alles is met elkaar verbonden en er is iets groters dan dit lichaam. Deze film is een bedreiging voor overheden en religies
Alles is met elkaar verbonden en er is iets groters dan dit lichaam. Deze film is een bedreiging voor overheden en religies
The Reality of Truth is een zeer provocerende film waarin wordt gekeken naar de mysterieuze relatie tussen spiritualiteit en kruidengeneeskunde.
Het doel van de controversiële documentaire is het doorbreken van de ‘illusie van realiteit’ en kijkers te helpen een betekenisvoller bestaan te leiden.
“We zijn allemaal zenders en antennes,” zegt de Amerikaanse actrice Michelle Rodriguez in de film. “Je kunt je frequentie aanpassen. Niet alleen met je ademhaling, maar ook met je bewustzijn.”
Ontwaking
Te zien is hoe ze in Peru ayahuasca tot zich neemt. “Het vernietigde alles wat ik ooit heb geweten,” vertelt ze. “Ik heb een ontwaking gehad.”
Rodriguez kon dankzij haar ervaringen met het drankje naar eigen zeggen beter omgaan met het verlies van haar vriend en collega Paul Walker, die in 2013 om het leven kwam bij een auto-ongeluk.
Psychedelische drugs kunnen vaak leiden tot mystieke ervaringen, inzichten en positiviteit. Spiritualiteit en psychedelische drugs worden al heel lang met elkaar geassocieerd.
Verbonden
Sjamanen gebruiken in Zuid-Amerika al duizenden jaren psilocybine, paddo’s, peyote en ayahuasca.
We zijn allemaal met elkaar verbonden en er is een frequentie die ervoor zorgt dat je kunt leven op een manier dat je ontwikkeld bent, aldus Rodriguez.
“Uiteindelijk kun je mogelijk in dit leven een niveau van verlichting bereiken dat ertoe leidt dat je wellicht niet terug hoeft te komen,” licht ze toe.
Bedreiging
“Alles is met elkaar verbonden en er is iets groters dan dit lichaam,” stelt de actrice.
De makers van de documentaire zeggen zelf dat hun productie een ‘bedreiging is voor overheden, religieuze instellingen en grote corporaties’.
Barack Obama will share secret files on Aliens if you support him in the fight against AIDS
Barack Obama will share secret files on Aliens if you support him in the fight against AIDS
In the November 2017 Jimmy Kimmel show President Barack Obama talks about the fight against AIDS and the great progress that has been made towards getting rid of the disease once and for all.
During his speech he comes to the point that he is asking the people to join his fight against AIDS and says “If you do, I’ll share our files of Aliens.”
On which Jimmy Kimmel says “you can’t do that”
Obama:
“No?” “We can’t do that either?” “But I have them” “They’re in my desk right now” “Classified”
Kimmel again: “All right, Fine”
While in the 2015 Jimmy Kimmel show, President Barack Obama denies knowledge of Aliens now he suddenly states that he has secret classified UFO and Alien files right in his desk!
It is well known that White House officials and even US Presidents are kept in the Dark about any information on classified government programs involving UFOs and Aliens.
Nobody outside DoD, including the Secretary of State, is deemed to have a need to know about the country’s alleged secret UFO and alien database, including Area 51 in Nevada, so we may assume that even Obama, besides information on a "need to know basis", did not have access to any information on classified government programs involving UFOs and Aliens during his presidency.
So at least Obama’s statement is very unusual and we may wonder whether he really has such UFO and Alien files in his desk.
Besides, the fight against AIDS is reasonable even without the publication of the UFO and Alien files or it must be that he has a valid reason to connect classified UFO and Alien files with AIDS, from which it is said that it isn't caused by a virus at all, according to conspiracy theorists.
Weird Colored Cloud and Black Sphere Suddenly Appear Over Fields in Ontario, Canada
Weird Colored Cloud and Black Sphere Suddenly Appear Over Fields in Ontario, Canada
Early evening of August 29, 2017 between 6:30 and 7 pm approximately, I was driving home from Williamstown, Ontario, Canada. I had to take country roads to get home. Less than 5 minutes in my drive I noticed a strange colored bit of cloud that had some rainbow colors but the other clouds were not affected.
It was still daylight and the sun was showing up, a blue skies and sections with many clouds. There was no rain at all on that day. No signs of rain in my area, no thunder or lightning. Then, within a few minutes that weird cloud completely detached itself from the surrounding clouds and dropped below them.
Once fully detached the colors became very sharp. The colored piece of cloud was so weird and beautiful that I ended up stopping by the side of the road to take several pictures with my iPhone.
At some point that "cloud" was completely detached and was not moving as like the other clouds. It stood still, hanging low in the sky.
After, I had errands to run and forgot about this event until my memory card was almost full... That is 3 months later. So, on November 27th I went into my pictures to clear some in order to create more space on my phone's memory card. Seeing how cool that cloud was on the pictures I decided to send them to a friend of mine to have a look at that cool event.
Looking at the photos on my phone I only thought the round thing was a bird flying by. I am into UFOs and did not want my enthusiasm to make me see only what I wanted to see. So I rationalized it at the time.
But my opinion changed when my friend was looking at them on her computer and she mentioned that there were some things in the sky that were unusual.
So, looking at my pictures on a computer screen we both think there is at least one UFO on a few of the pictures with that weird colored cloud. I never noticed anything but the bizarre cloud while I was taking the pictures. I wish I had, but I was very focused on it.
We are pretty sure that there is at least one UFO on the pictures. As it is round, a perfect circle within another circle. This one we are pretty certain is NOT a bird flying by. Also, it appears that there were two others that were in formation farther away and maybe 2 more.
This weird cloud was a real oddity in itself as it was not moving like the other clouds and I may never know what all these objects were but I can say that I found this very unusual and very cool. I have submitted the pictures to the Mutual UFO Network under file 88479 for further investigation.
Clinical Trials of a New “Cancer Vaccine” Show That It May Actually Work
IN BRIEF
A new personalized cancer vaccine has been designed to target 20 mutated proteins unique to each patient's tumors. The vaccine seems to have prevented early relapse in 12 patients with skin cancer, keeping them cancer free for more than 2 years.
A THERAPY FOR EACH PATIENT
Cancer comes in many different forms, and it is not unusual for diagnosed patients to endure multiple kinds of treatments before one that is effective against their particular form of cancer is found. If it takes too long for doctors to find the right treatment, the consequences can be fatal.
Physicians and scientists led by Catherine Wu at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston just presented their results of their new cancer therapy to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Washington, D.C. Their personalized vaccines have prevented early relapse in 12 patients with skin cancer, while also boosting patient immunity when combined with a cancer drug.
While earlier cancer vaccines targeted a singular cancer protein found ubiquitously among patients, these personalized vaccines contain neoantigens, which are mutated proteins specific to an individual patient’s tumor. These neoantigens are identified once a patient’s tumor is genomically sequenced, providing physicians with the information they need to pinpoint unique mutations. Once a patient’s immune system is provided a dose of the tumor neoantigens, it can activate the patient’s T cells to attack cancer cells.
NEOANTIGENS TO THE RESCUE
Unlike previous attempts towards cancer vaccines, which did not produce conclusive evidence in halting cancer growth, Wu’s team made their personal vaccine much more specific to each patient’s cancer, targeting about 20 neoantigens per patient. The vaccines were injected under the patients’ skin for a period of five months and indicated no side effects and a strong T cell response.
All of Wu’s patients who were administered the personal vaccine are still cancer-free more than 2.5 years after the trial. However, some patients with an advanced forms of cancer also needed an some extra punching power to fend off their diseases. Two of Wu’s patients who did relapse were administered an immunotherapy drug, PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, in addition to the personalized vaccine. Working in conjunction with the enhanced T cell response from the vaccine, the drug makes it difficult for the tumor to evade the immune cells. The fusion of the two therapies eliminated the new tumors from both patients.
But we can’t get too excited yet. While these results are promising, the therapies are relatively new and require much more clinical testing. Many physicians around the world are working together to test the potency of neoantigens in order to verify if the vaccine works better than current immunotherapy drugs over a sustainable period of time. Personalized vaccines are costly and take months to create, a limiting factor in providing care to patients with progressing cancers.
Still, this study is an encouraging sign for many oncologists who are interested in using the immune system to fight cancer. More than a million new patients are diagnosed with cancer each year in the U.S. alone, and even in situations where the cancer is treatable, the available chemotherapy agents themselves can be very toxic. If proven safe and effective, this personalized cancer vaccine could give patients around the world hope for powerful treatment with fewer side effects.
In its early life, the Earth would have been peppered nearly continuously by asteroids smashing into our young planet. These fiery collisions made our world what it is today. It may seem like things have changed since then, given the vast assortment of life and wide blue oceans—and things have indeed changed. At least in some respects. However, Earth still receives thousands of tons of matter from space, but this is in the form of microscopic dust particles (as opposed to recurrent, energetic collisions).
Fortunately, in modern times, a large asteroid colliding with the surface of the Earth happens only very rarely. Nevertheless, it does happen from time to time.
As most are probably already aware, it is widely believed that an asteroid initiated the dinosaurs’ extinction some 65 million years ago. And more recently, the Russian Chelyabinsk meteor hit our planet in February of 2013. It entered at a shallow angle at 60 times the speed of sound. Upon contact with our atmosphere, it exploded in an air burst. The size of this body of rock (before it burned up and shattered) is estimated to be around 20 meters (across) and it weighed some 13,000 metric tons.
This isn’t large by any means, but it was enough to injure over a thousand people and damage nearly 20,000 buildings.
But what would happen if we were faced with a truly major threat today? Could we survive?
Well, it depends on the size of the object and where it hits, but in short…no. Unless an asteroid was very small, we wouldn’t be able to destroy it or vaporize it—this is simply beyond our technological capabilities (at the moment). We also don’t have the technology necessary to deflect the asteroid or veer it off course.
WHY WE NEED TO LEAVE EARTH
This is a bit of a problem because, assuming that humanity plans on sticking around for awhile, it is almost inevitable that we will have to face a large asteroid at some point. Of course, asteroids aren’t the only threat. There are a host of deadly diseases, volcanic eruptions, or other catastrophes that could bring about the end of civilization as we know it (and maybe even all life).
This is why it makes sense to transition into a multi-planet species as soon as possible. Blogger Tim Urban recently had a rather apt metaphor to illustrate why we need to leave our planet and venture out into the cosmos: Picture the Earth as a kind of hard drive. And on this hard drive we have saved everything. Every song. Every book. Every thought that has been thought and every word that has been uttered. Every memory.
And that’s not all: It also houses every single species. All of it is stored in a word document saved on that hard drive.
Oh, and the hard drive has broken before, and when it happened, we lost nearly everything. It got a virus and…that’s it, two-thirds of the population gone. It smashed into something and, alas, there goes another batch of data.
Blank pages. File corrupted.
So it makes sense to make a backup. As Urban puts it, “Now—if you owned a hard drive with an extraordinarily important Excel doc on it, and you knew that the hard drive pretty reliably tended to crash every month or two, with the last crash happening five weeks ago—what’s the very obvious thing you’d do? You’d copy the document onto a second hard drive.”
That is why we need to leave Earth. We need to have another plan. A safeguard.
Of course, we should also do it for exploration and discovery, but we need to do it for life itself. And that is one of the primary reasons that Elon Musk wants to head to the Red Planet. It is a way of ensuring humanity’s continued existence (assuming that we think the document is worth saving). And ultimately, it’s why he doesn’t want to go with just a select set of scientists and experts.
He wants to take a significant portion of the data on our hard drive—Musk would like to send 1 million people to Mars.
At the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital Conference in 2013, Musk explained his feelings, stating, “Either we spread Earth to other planets, or we risk going extinct. An extinction event is inevitable and we’re increasingly doing ourselves in. The goal is to improve rocket technology and space technology until we can send people to Mars and establish life on Mars.”
Of course, this will be no simple task. Mars is, currently, a wasteland of dirt and sand.
“Mars is a fixer-upper of a planet,” Musk said. “But we could make it work.” And honestly, even if we can’t make it work, it seems that we have no real choice but to try. Musk concludes, “I agree this is an unlikely outcome, but if we don’t keep improving technology every year, we won’t get there.”
Later this year, via his rocket firm SpaceX, Musk plans to disclose a spacecraft designed to transport as many as 100 people at a time to Mars.
Google's AutoML project, designed to make AI build other AIs, has now developed a computer vision system that vastly outperforms state-of-the-art-models. The project could improve how autonomous vehicles and next-generation AI robots "see."
An AI That Can Build AI
In May 2017, researchers at Google Brain announced the creation of AutoML, an artificial intelligence (AI) that’s capable of generating its own AIs. More recently, they decided to present AutoML with its biggest challenge to date, and the AI that can build AI created a “child” that outperformed all of its human-made counterparts.
The Google researchers automated the design of machine learning models using an approach called reinforcement learning. AutoML acts as a controller neural network that develops a child AI network for a specific task. For this particular child AI, which the researchers called NASNet, the task was recognizing objects — people, cars, traffic lights, handbags, backpacks, etc. — in a video in real-time.
Image Credit: Google Research
AutoML would evaluate NASNet’s performance and use that information to improve its child AI, repeating the process thousands of times. When tested on the ImageNet image classification and COCO object detection data sets, which the Google researchers call “two of the most respected large-scale academic data sets in computer vision,” NASNet outperformed all other computer vision systems.
According to the researchers, NASNet was 82.7 percent accurate at predicting images on ImageNet’s validation set. This is 1.2 percent better than any previously published results, and the system is also 4 percent more efficient, with a 43.1 percent mean Average Precision (mAP). Additionally, a less computationally demanding version of NASNet outperformed the best similarly sized models for mobile platforms by 3.1 percent.
A View of the Future
Machine learning is what gives many AI systems their ability to perform specific tasks. Although the concept behind it is fairly simple — an algorithm learns by being fed a ton of data — the process requires a huge amount of time and effort. By automating the process of creating accurate, efficient AI systems, an AI that can build AI takes on the brunt of that work. Ultimately, that means AutoML could open up the field of machine learning and AI to non-experts.
As for NASNet specifically, accurate, efficient computer vision algorithms are highly sought after due to the number of potential applications. They could be used to create sophisticated, AI-powered robots or to help visually impaired people regain sight, as one researcher suggested. They could also help designers improve self-driving vehicle technologies. The faster an autonomous vehicle can recognize objects in its path, the faster it can react to them, thereby increasing the safety of such vehicles.
The Google researchers acknowledge that NASNet could prove useful for a wide range of applications and have open-sourced the AI for inference on image classification and object detection. “We hope that the larger machine learning community will be able to build on these models to address multitudes of computer vision problems we have not yet imagined,” they wrote in their blog post.
Though the applications for NASNet and AutoML are plentiful, the creation of an AI that can build AI does raise some concerns. For instance, what’s to prevent the parent from passing down unwanted biases to its child? What if AutoML creates systems so fast that society can’t keep up? It’s not very difficult to see how NASNet could be employed in automated surveillance systems in the near future, perhaps sooner than regulations could be put in place to control such systems.
Thankfully, world leaders are working fast to ensure such systems don’t lead to any sort of dystopian future.
Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and several others are all members of the Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society, an organization focused on the responsible development of AI. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEE) has proposed ethical standards for AI, and DeepMind, a research company owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, recently announced the creation of group focused on the moral and ethical implications of AI.
Various governments are also working on regulations to prevent the use of AI for dangerous purposes, such as autonomous weapons, and so long as humans maintain control of the overall direction of AI development, the benefits of having an AI that can build AI should far outweigh any potential pitfalls.
There was a time when women were not allowed to fly any kind of airplanes, let alone be test pilots for military fighter jets. Marina Popovich, who passed away on November 30 at the age of 86, changed all of that. After enlisting in the then Soviet Air Force, she broke the sound barrier in a MiG-21 supersonic jet fighter and went on to log over 6,000 flight hours in 40 different planes and helicopters, setting 102 aviation world records. She came close to becoming a cosmonaut but married one instead — Pavel Popovich, the 4th cosmonaut in space and the 6th person to orbit the Earth. With that kind of experience, it’s not surprising that people listened when “Madam MiG” talked about her UFO encounters and research and her Bigfoot sighting.
“We had been researching UFOs for 25 years and talking about it in small groups, but underground. People who tried to talk in public about UFOs were either fired or put in psychiatric hospitals.”
Marina Popovich
In reports of Marina Popovich’s passing, both RT and TASSmention her strong commitment to UFO research and the search for evidence of extraterrestrials, even when it was dangerous to do so. She claimed to have three encounters herself, beginning in 1962, but had to keep her findings quiet until Mikhail Gorbachov introduced transparency or glasnost, and the Soviet Union eventually broke up. That transparency inspired the title of her book, “UFO Glasnost,” in which she claimed that Soviet military and civilian pilots reported over 3,000 UFO sightings and that the KGB had the debris from five crashed spaceships hidden somewhere.
In a 1991 interview reported in the Los Angeles Times, Marina Popovich also revealed that she believes in intelligent extraterrestrials and gives this explanation why they haven’t contacted us (in their words):
“’We are not going to give you our technological information until you raise your spiritual and moral levels on Earth. And the only way to raise them is with unity, as one Earth together to reducing negative feelings, pollution and other detrimental-based energies.”
Other interesting thoughts from this interview with Marina Popovich:
Leonardo da Vinci, Jules Verne and Ray Bradbury received messages and directions from aliens.
Soviet President Gorbachev could also have been an extraterrestrial medium because “he’s an epoch-making phenomenon.”
90% of UFO sightings are due to hallucinations, space debris, marsh gas, weather balloons, first ascendancy stars and Friday-night vodka parties.
She may have been right about that last one. However, she gave no indications that vodka was involved in her encounter with a Bigfoot in the Pamir Mountains in 1982.
Test pilot, ufologist, environmentalist. Marina Popovich was truly an interesting and influential woman.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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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 73 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.