A new book explores how AI may change people’s lives

BY 

MARIA TEMMING 

 

FORWARD THINKING  Toby Walsh cuts through the hype to give a critical assessment of how much we should welcome or worry about a future full of “thinking” machines.

PHONLAMAIPHOTO/ISTOCKPHOTO

Machines That Think
Toby Walsh
Prometheus Books, $16

Movies and other media are full of mixed messages about the risks and rewards of building machines with minds of their own. For every manipulative automaton like Ex Machina’s Ava (SN: 5/16/15, p. 26), there’s a helpful Star Wars droid. And while some tech titans such as Elon Musk warn of the threats artificial intelligence presents, others, including Mark Zuckerberg, dismiss the doomsayers.

AI researcher Toby Walsh’s Machines That Think is for anyone who has heard the hype and is seeking a critical assessment of what the technology can do — and what it might do in the future. Walsh’s conversational style is welcoming to nonexperts while his endnotes point readers to opportunities for deeper dives into specific aspects of AI.

Walsh begins with a history of AI, from Aristotle’s foundation of formal logic to modern facial-recognition systems. Excerpts from computer-composed poetry and tales of computers trouncing humans at strategy games (SN: 11/11/17, p. 13) are a testament to how far AI has come. But Walsh also highlights weaknesses, such as machine-learning algorithms’ reliance on so much data to master a single task.

This 30,000-foot view of AI research packs a lot of history, as well as philosophical and technical explanation. Walsh personalizes the account with stories of his own programming experiences, anecdotes about AI in daily life — like his daughter’s use of Siri — and his absolute, unapologetic love of puns.

Later in the book, Walsh speculates about technical hurdles that may curb further AI development and legal limits that society may want to impose. He also explores the societal impact that increasingly intelligent computers may have.

For instance, Walsh evaluates how likely various jobs are to be outsourced to AI. Some occupations, like journalist, will almost certainly be automated, he argues. Others, like oral surgeon, are probably safe. For future job security, Walsh recommends pursuing careers that require programming acumen, emotional intelligence or creativity.

AI also has the potential to revolutionize warfare. “Like Moore’s law, we are likely to see exponential growth in the capabilities of autonomous weapons,” Walsh writes. “I have named this ‘Schwarzenegger’s law’ to remind us of where it will end.” Walsh isn’t resigned to a Terminator-like future, though. If governments ban killer robots and arms developers use automation to enhance defensive equipment, he believes military AI could actually save many lives.

In fact, Walsh argues, all aspects of AI’s future impacts are in our hands. “Artificial intelligence can lead us down many different paths, some good and some bad,” he writes. “Society must choose which path to take.” 

Buy Machines That Think from Amazon.com. Science News is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Please see our FAQ for more details.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

06-02-2018 om 12:18 geschreven door peter  

Mankind Survived A ‘Civilization Changing’ Extraterrestrial Impact 12,800 Years Ago

In a massive study that included 24 researchers and published in two scientific papers, experts found that our planet suffered the impact of a space object as early as 12,800 years ago when humans were already sedentary and were beginning to form the very first complex societies around the planet.

The study titled Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ~12,800 Years Ago” analyzed geochemical and isotopic markers and found that massive fires would have been responsible, in part, for the disappearance of large mammals.

Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ~12,800 Years Ago” is divided into “Part I: Ice Cores and Glaciers” and “Part 2: Lake, Marine, and Terrestrial Sediments.”

“The study includes measurements made at more than 170 different sites around the world,” said Adrian Melott, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kansas and one of the authors of the research.

According to Melott and his colleagues, the new data indicates that the disaster was unleashed when the Earth collided with fragments of a disintegrating comet that was approximately 100 kilometers in diameter, whose remains persist in our solar system to this day.

A chaotic time for early society

This impact would have caused fires so large that the resulting dust clogged the sky and prevented sunlight from entering.

The climate cooled rapidly, the plants died, the food sources were exhausted, and the glaciers moved forward again.

The oceanic currents moved, forming an almost glacial era that lasted a thousand years more.

Gobekli Tepe is considered one of the most mysterious places on the surface of the planet. Curiously, some authors believe that a similar catastrophic event was recorded at Gobekli Tepe by its builders.

“The hypothesis is that a massive comet fragmented and the pieces hit Earth, generating this disaster,” said Melott.

“A number of different chemical signatures – carbon dioxide, nitrate, ammonia, and others – seem to indicate that an astounding 10% of the earth’s surface, or about 10 million square kilometers, was consumed by fires.”

Furthermore, according to Melott, pollen analysis suggests that pine forests were probably burned to be replaced by poplars, which is a species that colonizes cleared areas.

In fact, the authors postulate that the cosmic impact could have triggered the episode of the Recent Dryas, the burning of biomass, the extinction of the late Pleistocene of larger species (of which we were blamed) and the cultural changes in humans and the decrease in population.

“The estimates imply that the impact would have depleted the ozone layer, causing increases in skin cancer and other negative health effects,” said Melott.

“The impact hypothesis remains a hypothesis, but this study provides a large amount of evidence, which we argue can only be explained by a very large cosmic impact.”

If confirmed the hypothesis of this study which seems to have been recorded by ancient cultures, would indicate that humans not only survived a cataclysmic event, but we took advantage of it and we could start to repopulate the planet.

What Graham Hancock said

Curiously, that’s exactly what world-renowned author Graham Hancock said a few times already.

According to Mr. Hancock, 

an extremely advanced ancient civilization—that flourished during the Ice Age—was wiped out from the surface of the planet some 13,000 years ago due to a massive comet strike, and the ancients left us a warning of future events.

As explained in the book Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilization, Mr. Hancock argues; “Near the end of the last Ice Age 12,800 years ago, a giant comet that had entered the solar system from deep space thousands of years earlier, broke into multiple fragments. Some of these struck the Earth causing a global cataclysm on a scale unseen since the extinction of the dinosaurs. At least eight of the fragments hit the North American ice cap, while further fragments hit the northern European ice cap.”

Source: New research suggests toward end of Ice Age, human beings witnessed fires larger than dinosaur killer, thanks to a cosmic impact

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/}

06-02-2018 om 12:06 geschreven door peter  

SHOCK CLAIM: Nuclear WW3 between US and Russia 'prevented by aliens'

ALIENS have repeatedly switched off nuclear warheads in Russia and the United States, in a bid to stop world war three breaking out, an expert has claimed.

06-02-2018 om 11:20 geschreven door peter  

06-02-2018 om 10:57 geschreven door peter  

OBJECTEN NAAST DE ZON EN VREEMDE LICHTEN STRAND EGMOND AAN ZEE, NEDERELAND ( VIDEO )

{ http://www.niburu.co/ }

06-02-2018 om 10:51 geschreven door peter  

Het is zover: vanavond stuurt krachtigste draagraket ter wereld Tesla van Elon Musk de ruimte in - HLN.be

Bron: Tweakers

Je weet maar nooit wie binnen miljoenen jaren ons zonnestelsel met een bezoekje vereert. Al staat één ding vast: ze zullen in de baan om de zon plots een rood voertuig zien cirkelen. Een Tesla Roadster, met uitneembaar glazen dak. “De snelste wagen ter wereld in 2017, toch volgens de oprichter van Tesla, Elon Musk”, zullen ze op het internet (?) zien verschijnen wanneer ze op zoek gaan naar wat meer informatie. “In de ruimte gestuurd op 6 februari 2018.”

Lees ook

Kippenvel! NASA’s verkenner Curiosity maakt prachtige nieuwe beelden van Mars

Vandaag dus. En wat al maanden als grap wordt bestempeld, blijkt nu toch waar. Elon Musk - ook oprichter van ruimtevaartbedrijf SpaceX - postte gisteren nog een foto op sociale media: z’n auto zit vastgegespt boven in de Falcon Heavy-raket. Die staat intussen kaarsrecht in haar lanceerplatform Apollo 39A op Cape Canaveral in Florida. Klaar om rond 13.30 uur plaatselijke tijd de ruimte in te gaan, bij ons vanaf 19.30 uur. De plek ademt trouwens geschiedenis uit, want ook Neil Armstrong werd vanaf deze basis naar de maan gestuurd. 

In april 2011 al maakte SpaceX bekend dat “the world’s most powerful rocket” een lanceerdatum had. Al kwam het bedrijf niet verder dan ‘eind 2013 of 2014’. Die datum bleek veel te optimistisch. De raket is pas in het tweede deel van december vorig jaar geassembleerd, waarna het gevaarte goed een maand geleden rechtop werd gezet. Tot de kortstondige shutdown van de Amerikaanse overheid roet in het eten gooide. Op 24 januari volgde eindelijk de eerste test waarbij alle 27 motoren tegelijkertijd ontbrand werden - een huzarenwerk.

En dus wordt vandaag ook een absoluut nagelbijtmoment. Na jaren uitstel en het feit dat het productieproces “veel moeilijker” bleek dan gedacht, volgt de maiden trip. Die voor Musk al geslaagd zou zijn “indien de Falcon Heavy ver genoeg van haar lanceerplatform afkomt, zodat het niet beschadigd raakt”. “Dat zou ik eerlijk gezegd zelf al als winst beschouwen”, liet hij eerder optekenen. 

Wat de Heavy nu zo speciaal maakt? In feite is hij het sterkere broertje van de Falcon 9 met nog eens twee extra stuwmotoren, die aan weerszijden zijn gemonteerd. De Falcon Heavy heeft dus in totaal 27 raketmotoren, drie keer zoveel als waar de Falcon 9 over beschikt. De Heavy wordt zo de krachtigste raket sinds de maanraket Saturn V, die sinds 1973 niet meer heeft gevlogen. En heeft meer dan tweemaal de vrachtcapaciteit van de krachtigste raket op de huidige markt (voor de specialisten: de Delta IV Heavy, goed voor 28,8 ton). Ook andere huidige operationele raketten komen lang niet in de buurt van de stuwkracht van de Falcon Heavy. De in 2011 door de NASA uit dienst genomen Space Shuttle bijvoorbeeld kon een vracht van 24.000 kilo in een lage baan om de Aarde brengen. Volgens SpaceX kan hun tuig 63.800 kilo aan. Op een reis naar Mars zou dat 16.800 kilo zijn.

SpaceX zet trouwens de commerciële lanceermarkt op zijn kop, want doel van de Heavy: de komende twee jaar ruimtetoeristen naar de maan en Mars laten vliegen. De raket die de lucht in moet gaan, zal echter vooral gebruikt worden voor vrachtmissies waarbij satellieten in een baan om de Aarde worden gebracht, bijvoorbeeld de zwaardere exemplaren van de Amerikaanse overheid. 

En oh ja, ook David Bowie pikt een graantje mee vanavond: bij de lancering zal zijn nummer ‘Space Oddity’ weerklinken. “Een fantastische publiciteitsstunt”, zeggen experts erover.  Afwachten dus dat de raket niet ontploft.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

06-02-2018 om 10:45 geschreven door peter  

Belgische wetenschappers: “Er is leven mogelijk op planeten TRAPPIST-1” - HLN.be

Bron: Belga

“Alle op dit ogenblik bestudeerde signalen staan op groen”, zei astronome Amaury Triaud van de Universiteit van Birmingham die mee de maandag verschenen studies schreef. “Op dit moment wijst niets erop dat zij niet ‘levensvatbaar’ zijn”. Op 22 februari 2017 maakten astronomen bekend dat bij de weinig heldere en koude dwergster TRAPPIST-1 zeven planeten ontdekt werden. Qua grootte gelijken ze op de onze. Drie ervan, Trappist-1 e, f en g, omcirkelen in de levensvatbare zone hun ster, wat betekent dat er vloeibaar water op hun oppervlak zou zijn.

Lees ook

Magnetische polen kunnen switchen en tot chaos leiden: “Zelfs doorspoelen wc wordt dan onmogelijk”

Sindsdien beschikken de astronomen over meer informatie met betrekking tot de ster, haar planeten en hun atmosfeer. De wetenschappers konden hun metingen van omvang en massa van de planeten verfijnen om vast te stellen dat zij vooral uit gesteente bestaan en dat bij sommigen tot vijf procent van hun massa uit water kan bestaan.

Vijf procent water

Ter vergelijking: slechts 0,1 procent van de massa van de Aarde bestaat uit water. Aangaande de kans dat de planeten leven zouden herbergen, zei Triaud tegenover het Franse persbureau AFP “in dit stadium niets te kunnen zeggen omdat ze erg van elkaar verschillen van de enige planeet waar leven is (de onze). “Maar ze hebben ook de geëigende kenmerken en vormen tot op vandaag de beste plaats buiten ons systeem om te zoeken naar signalen van levensvatbaarheid en van leven”.

“In termen van grootte, dichtheid en hoeveelheid straling van haar ster lijkt de vierde planeet het meest op de Aarde. Het lijkt erop dat het de meest gesteente-achtige planeet is, zelfs als de aanwezigheid van water niet is uitgesloten”, aldus een communiqué van het Franse CNRS dat deelnam aan het onderzoek. Het is gepubliceerd in de wetenschappelijke vakbladen Nature Astronomy en Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Er namen ook Belgische vorsers aan het pas gepubliceerde onderzoek deel zoals Julien De Wit van het prestigieuze Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alsmede een reeks wetenschappers van de Luikse universiteit Valérie Van Grootel, Michaël Gillon, Artem Burdanov, Laetitia Delrez en Emmanuël Jehin van de Luikse universiteit.

AFP 

De wetenschappers konden hun metingen van omvang en massa van de planeten verfijnen om vast te stellen dat zij vooral uit gesteente bestaan, en dat bij sommigen tot vijf procent van hun massa uit water kan bestaan.

 AFP

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

06-02-2018 om 10:32 geschreven door peter  

Those who were excited about the Super Blue Blood Moon last week probably don’t live in Venice, where the pull of the Moon at its closest approach to Earth further dried up the canals already mysteriously on the edge of being bone dry. And, while the lunar eclipse that turned the Moon blood-red didn’t cause it, frustrated Siberians angry after a local river mysteriously turned the same color may swear at it anyways … at least until they get an explanation. What’s going on?

Better days in Venice

Let’s start with the canals. No matter what color they are, they’re the lifeblood of Venice, so any problems with them – and disappearance is definitely a big one – affect virtually everyone living in or visiting the beautiful city. Photographs taken last week (shown here and here) show gondolas resting in dry canal beds. Unfortunately, ‘dry’ doesn’t mean ‘empty’ as the pictures also reveal the garbage and debris that the waters normally hide.

A water-covered city knows its tidal calendar, so Venice was prepared for the low waters due to the Super Blue Blood Moon. This is also the third year in a row that droughts have contributed to extremely low – although not bone dry – water levels. However, experts are still mystified because the city continues to sink, which should make it prone to flooding – in Venice, that’s a good thing … or at least a better-than-no-water thing. Is the City of Canals destined to become the City of Great Places to Skateboard?

Will we ever see this again?

Meanwhile, a different problem is causing the residents of the Siberian city of Tyumen to avoid the Molchanka River because of what the media is calling … well, you can read it yourself:

“Experts say they so far cannot pinpoint the cause of what state news agency Itar-Tass called a ‘Biblical bombshell’.”

The “biblical bombshell” is a river that mysteriously and quickly turned red (more pictures here) and has not changed its hue in over a week. Tyumen is the home of many oil and gas companies, so the first inclination is to point fingers at them, not the bible. However, local officials doubted that explanation.

“Team of experts examining the area found no trace of sewage discharges. Extra water samples were taken. Laboratory results will be ready by the end of this week.”

That was on January 31st and no results have been released as of this writing, days after the “end of the week.” Meanwhile, the water isn’t moving, some residents say it’s getting redder and the Russian environmental watchdog group Rosprirodnadzor (The Federal Service for Supervision of Use of Natural Resources) isn’t making anyone feel better with comments like this:

“We have never dealt with this before so we are waiting for the results of tests.”

Hey, at least they have an environmental watchdog group.

While many people today (including news agencies) are quick to use the terms “biblical,” apocalyptic” and “end times” (like the story today about birds falling from the sky), the real problem is that our waterways and oceans are being affected constantly by humans (yes, the moon influenced the tide in Venice but humans built the city in spite of it) and watchdog groups are becoming an endangered species.

Are songs like “Watching the River Flow” and “Blue Bayou” destined for extinction too?

{  http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

06-02-2018 om 00:31 geschreven door peter  

It’s never good news when birds – or any other animals for that matter – fall from the sky … dead or alive. Get ready for some bad news from Draper, Utah, and Rome, Italy, where hundreds of dead starlings covered the ground recently. Pollution? End times? Something worse?

The Times reports that the dead starlings began appearing the weekend of January 27th at the Porta Pia gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome. Residents reported the ground being covered with corpses, blanketing walkways and roads with dead, and eventually flattened, birds (photos here). This is migration season, so Romans are used to seeing the sky and tree branches covered with starlings summering in the city and eating the local olives. Unfortunately, something has made life the pits for these birds this year. But what?

“We found they were in good health but suffering from the trauma and broken bones you would associate with collisions, either with each other or with cables.”

Francesca Manzia, head of a hospital run by the Italian League for the Protection of Birds (there’s an idea other cities should adopt), had no answer. Fatal bird collisions when there’s millions of them aloft can be caused by a predator, a loud noise or some other disturbance, leading to lemming-like processions of crashes into buildings, trees or each other. Is Rome no longer big enough for the starling migration? Could the birds have been stunned by an electromagnetic or other unseen forces?

If they’re looking for a different warm migration stopover, they need to scratch Draper, Utah off of the list. Located 20 miles south of Salt Lake City in the north central portion of the state, Draper is home to many Native Americans, a state prison and, on January 30th, thousands of dead starlings.

“As I was driving, these birds were just falling out of the sky. They were all on the ground right around here and on the roadway. They were just falling out of the sky like leaves.”

Resident Lacey Brown told a local news station that there were so many starlings on the ground, she stopped to help a man shovel them out of the road to avoid making a feather, bloody mess. Unfortunately, Sergeant Chad Carpenter with the Draper police, saw more carnage.

“It was just one of those freak things where the birds were just flying along, crashed into the side of a large vehicle and boom.”

Draper Animal Services helped with the cleanup and found some starlings still alive, lending credence to the theory that these birds were also startled into a mass collision.

Again, what could have startled the starlings to their deaths? The beautiful twisting formations they fly in are called murmurations and bird experts are unable to explain how millions of birds can make tight turns so close together without colliding … which makes the rare times they do collide even more mystifying. Sadly, they may have more opportunities to study the phenomena since it seems to be happening more frequently.

Starlings are highly social birds and their survival depends on the ability to fly together. If their mysterious deaths are not a sign of the end times, can we at least see them as a sign that not living and working together is a bad thing?

{  http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

06-02-2018 om 00:21 geschreven door peter  

Life imitates art? — The reciprocal relationship between UFO reports and Hollywood

CURT COLLINS

Recent news revealing the Pentagon’s secret UFO program has reignited the general public’s curiosity about the possibility of extraterrestrials in our skies. There has always been a blurry line between the topic of UFOs and the realms of fantasy and science fiction. Skeptical UFO historian Martin Kottmeyer has documented how virtually every detail witnesses report about alien encounters can be found in earlier science fiction stories, or in legends and mythology.

It’s also a fact that our books, TV shows, and movies have used UFO reports for inspiration, which in turn has helped spread fantastic concepts of extraterrestrial visitors. A cultural feedback loop exists between the real and unreal. Let’s take a look at a few of the most powerful examples.

The Early Days

In the 1870s, Earth’s telescopes detected dark, linear features on Mars, which were interpreted by some as canals produced by a civilization older and more advanced than our own. This inspired one of the most influential of all science fiction novels, The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

When Orson Welles (no relation) adapted The War of the Worlds in 1938 for CBS radio using a faux documentary style, the tale of an attack by Martian invaders was heard by thousands. Some of those listeners (but not as many as you might think) were persuaded the story was true and panicked. The reaction to the broadcast made headlines, and to capitalize on the sensation, Universal studios quickly recut their movie serial Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars into the feature-length Mars Attacks the World. It’s kinda-sorta the first UFO movie, produced to exploit the public’s interest in extraterrestrial visitors. Like the radio play, it also preyed on the flip side of hope — fear. If our rockets were beginning to reach into space, what if someone out there had a big head start?

In June of 1947, newspapers broke the story of how aviator Kenneth Arnold had spotted a formation of unknown disc-like aircraft moving at speeds beyond those of our fastest jets. The U.S. Air Force began an investigation into the sighting, and the explosion of flying saucer reports that followed it. By late 1949, the Air Force’s investigation, later known as Project Blue Book, determined that saucers were not a secret project by the U.S. itself, the Soviets, or anyone else. They tried to shut down the saucer fever, but science fiction had greased the skids. If these UFOs were real craft, they came from somewhere else, and that somewhere must be Mars or another planet.

Saucer reports dwindled, but radio and newspapers found that covering them made for hot filler material. In 1950, two best-selling books emerged that would shape the belief in UFOs and influence the films made about them.

Retired Marine Corps Major Donald Keyhoe’s The Flying Saucers Are Real debuted, and his key ideas would become canon: UFOs are ships from outer space, the U.S. government knows it, and there’s a big cover-up. Keyhoe reached some far-out conclusions, but he relied on the word of credible sources working in the government saucer investigation. However, there was another guy with a saucer story, a far more fantastic tale, and it became the biggest one of all time when rebranded as the Roswell UFO crash.

Frank Scully was a columnist for the show biz magazine Variety, where he first introduced his story which was later expanded into a book, Behind the Flying Saucers. Scully told how scientists revealed that a saucer had crashed in the New Mexico desert, the U.S. military recovered the disc, the alien technology, and the small deceased humanoid bodies found inside, then hid and denied everything. (Scully’s tale was exposed as a hoax in 1952, when his source, the “scientists” Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer, were convicted as swindlers, but that’s another story.)

With the phenomenal success of the 1950 Keyhoe and Scully books, many people went from asking if flying saucers were real to accepting that they were. Hollywood was ready to capitalize on the saucer craze, but they needed more stories. They turned to science fiction for material.

John W. Campbell, Jr’s story “Who Goes There” from Astounding Science Fiction, August 1938, was adapted into the 1951 movie The Thing from Another World. The first change was to make the spaceship in the story into a flying saucer,although it’s only as an indistinct shape through ice except for its tail fin. The Thing bears a resemblance to the premise of Frank Scully’s saucer book, the military mission to recover a crashed flying saucer, and it also gets in a few jabs at government denials. The extraterrestrial in the movie is truly alien, a throwback to Wells’ monstrous Martians, out to survive at the cost of human life.

The Day the Earth Stood Still,also released in 1951, was loosely based on Harry Bates’ story from the October 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, “Farewell to the Master.” Again the spaceship was swapped for a flying saucer, and it’s a major set piece, almost a co-star. As for the aliens, the giant Gort is as enigmatic as the ship. Klaatu seems human, benevolent, almost angelic, bringing a message of peace, love, and understanding – but carrying a stern warning that mankind will not be allowed to spread its warlike ways to the people of other planets.

The Day the Earth Stood Still was not influenced by genuine saucer stories, but it became a tremendous influence on those that followed. George Adamski and his cult concocted the hoax of an angelic Klaatu-like visitor from Venus here to warn of the dangers of nuclear war, as chronicled in the 1953 book Flying Saucers Have Landed. Following Adamski’s fame, a legion of imitators dubbed “Contactees” surfaced with tales of meetings and flights with the Space Brothers. This kind of friendly visitor from the stars wasn’t good movie material until Stephen Spielberg revived the idea in the 1970s.

Invaders from Mars (April 1953) delivered the goods, an original story with a flying saucer full of aliens here for the business of abducting, controlling minds, and conquering. Due to its hasty production, it has the distinction of being the first UFO film in color, so we get to see the saucer, the green-skinned Martians, and their strange little tentacled, big-headed leader in all their glory. Invaders also depicted a number of elements that would come to be staples of later UFO tales — alien abductions and medical implants.

When The War of the Worlds finally made it to the movies, it was influenced by flying saucers as well, with the Martian war machines’ tripods eliminated, updated into sinister saucer-like aircraft.

Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956) was the first try at a docudrama. It’s historically important for being the first film to be factually based on UFO cases, including real witnesses and saucer footage. Unfortunately, in striving so hard to be realistic, it did the unbelievable – it almost made saucers seem dull. Still, the ads and posters for UFO promised something far more sensational.

In 1961, after New Hampshire couple Betty and Barney Hill observed a star-like object in the sky, they started having nightmares. Under hypnosis, an abduction story surfaced, one reminiscent of Invaders from Mars. The Hills story was portrayed in the 1975 TV movie The UFO Incident, which may have in turn inspired other abduction dreams and stories that followed.

Travis Walton’s alleged abduction near Snowflake Arizona came shortly after the broadcast of the Betty and Barney Hill TV movie. What makes Walton’s case noteworthy is that he appears to have been the first guy kicked off a flying saucer for fighting.

Incredible Heroes of Alien Disclosure

Modern Remakes

All the truly influential things happened in the first 20 years or so of flying saucers – both the sightings and in the movies. With rare exceptions, after 1980, films were either toying with the established memes or were just remakes, remixes, and rip-offs of what had come before.

The year 1977 for saucer buffs, at least in the cinema. George Lucas’ film Star Wars was more about reviving Flash Gordon-style fun than anything else, but it’s worth a passing mention, since it featured a Bigfoot co-piloting a flying saucer.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was inspired by real UFO cases, but copied and pasted bits of them together, adding a mothership-sized dose of Disneyesque melodrama, with a side order of Adamski’s message of the aliens’ love from above. Real-life UFO expert Dr. J. Alien Hynek served as a consultant on the film and made a cameo appearance during the finale.

Stephen Spielberg scuttled the idea of a direct sequel to CE3K and went for another story of cuddly aliens in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, in 1982. Spielberg inspired many other friendly aliens, like those featured in Mork & Mindy, Starman, Cocoon, ALF, The Abyss, and others.

Hangar 18 (1980) can be seen as a marker in the UFO topic’s turn toward the dark side. It was (very loosely) based on Scully’s crashed aliens story and it also featured a sinister government conspiracy to cover it up. The huge advertising push for Hangar 18 helped prepare the public to swallow the retconned Roswell story that surfaced around the same time, bit it didn’t catch fire in the mainstream until September of 1989, when it featured on the NBC TV show, Unsolved Mysteries, as “Legend: Roswell Crash.”

For the Roswell conspiracy story to be true, there must be a massive cover-up, and a mythology sprang up to serve as the story’s super-villain, a secret government cabal known as MJ-12. The idea of benevolent ETs was again pushed aside, replaced with spooky tales of government treaties with aliens to allow abductions, cattle mutilations, and human-hybrid breeding programs at Area 51 and secret underground bases.

When Travis Walton’s abduction story was turned into a movie, 1993’s Fire in the Sky, Hollywood considered his 1950s-style aliens outdated. The producers insisted on a jazzed-up more horrific version of the aliens and abductions like those that became fashionable in the 1980s.

The X-Files (1993) television show came to define UFOs in the ’90s, but most viewers were unaware of the source of the stories. The alien content on the show was “ripped from the headlines,” but from tabloids and crackpot UFO magazines about those dark, dubious ’80s encounters. An early and enduring UFO conspiracy belief was that the truth about aliens would shock and panic the populace, but the public could adjust gradually to the idea as introduced through entertainment.

Independence Day (1996) incorporated a stew of lore, the Roswell incident, the government UFO cover-up, abductions, and more, with the fight against the aliens based at Area 51. Some imagined that Hollywood’s UFO movies and The X-Files were part of the acclimation program. To them, seeing an old story resurface on screen was “confirmation” that it was genuine.

Men In Black (1997) was also based on an old UFO legend via a little-known comic book. The MIB were first made famous in Gray Barker’s 1956 book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, and further embellished by John Keel. Thing is, the MIB were made up by Barker and his friends to exploit the paranoia of many UFO buffs who thought that the government was operating a “Silence Group” to cover up UFO reports.

In 2008, The History Channel brought us UFO Hunters, but had far better success with Ancient Aliens. It was based on the second- and third-hand notions popularized by Erich von Däniken, that extraterrestrials were the gods of myth, and that there is abundant alien evidence in archeological remains. The success of the show served to demonstrate that the public’s interest in UFOs and aliens remains strong. However, recent incidents that make for good evidence – or good entertainment – are quite rare. They literally had to dig up the past for story material.

The UFO concepts have become so familiar, they blend in, nestled almost unnoticed into the premises of hit movies such as The Transformers or Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers series. Recently, UFOs themselves as a central topic have made a comeback, both in the news and on the entertainment screen, with several movies, documentaries and TV shows in production. You can expect AMC’s 10-episode docudrama, Blue Book, starring Aidan Gillen as J. Allen Hynek, to continue the circle on TV screens soon.

05-02-2018 om 23:49 geschreven door peter  

WHAT WAS IT? Two 'experienced skywatchers' saw UFO on BOTH sides of Atlantic last night

ALIEN investigators have been independently contacted by two "experienced skywatchers" who claim to have seen an unusually slow-moving UFO last night on both sides of The Pond.

05-02-2018 om 21:58 geschreven door peter  

UFO ATTACK? Hundreds of birds drop dead in sky over Utah

HUNDREDS of birds flying through the sky suddenly dropped dead sparking fears they were subjected to a UFO attack in midair.

05-02-2018 om 21:30 geschreven door peter  

PENTAGON UFO: US has MORE radar footage of UFOs says former boss of secret X-Files

THE man who headed-up a top-secret Pentagon real-life X-Files probe into UFOs says there is more compelling video footage to come.

05-02-2018 om 20:40 geschreven door peter  

DNA Results Show The Elongated Paracas Skulls Are Not Native American

“The Paracas were an incredibly complex ethnic mix of people… There are a number of different haplogroups that were found in the DNA tests of the Paracas elongated skulls and these haplogroups, which is your genetic ancestry, they don’t fit in with the history of Peru in any shape or form…”

According to a group of experts dealing with the Paracas skull phenomenon, recent DNA results have revealed that the elongated skulls of Paracas, Peru, are not native to the region.

During the 1920’s, a Peruvian archaeologist by the name Julio Tello discovered a series of tombs in Paracas Peru. The contents of the tomb left experts stumped as countless elongated skulls were recovered from the tombs. Since then, more elongated skulls have been found in the region, raising numerous questions about these mysterious people.

For more than five years have experts like Brien Foerster tried solving the mystery behind the elongated skulls. While much progress has been made in understanding them, the journey has been very difficult.

The analysis of this elongated skull, which has reddish hair, shows that it has a mitochondrial haplogroup U2e, which may signify it originated somewhere in the Caucasus… far from Paracas.

After countless studies and research, we have begun finding out more about these mystery skulls. Some DNA analysis has shown that the elongation present on the Paracas skulls was not the result of artificial cranial deformation but by genetics. Some of the Paracas Skulls have a cranial volume which is up to 25% larger and 60% percent heavier than conventional human skulls. While ‘head binding’ can alter the shape of the skull, it cannot alter its volume.

At the end of last week, a Symposium was held in Los Angeles where experts announced new results of testing performed on the elongated Skulls.

The main speakers of the event were L.A. Marzulli and Brien Foerster.

As reported by Megalith Marvels, Foerster, author of several books on the subject and a recognized expert of the Paracas Skulls, published the following information on the aforementioned DNA results.

“The DNA results actually were incredibly complicated… It’s going to take me some time to actually figure out what the results mean. What it does show for sure is that the Paracas elongated skull people were not 100% Native American. They were a mix or even you could say, in some ways, a hybrid of different people.”

More question than answers…

Foerster explains that “Their blood types are very complicated as well, they should be blood type “O” if they’re 100% Native American and that’s not the case. We are likely looking at a sub-species of humanity as regards to the Paracas… Seems to be a lot of DNA evidence from extreme eastern Europe and extreme western Asia. More specifically I’m talking about the area in between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea where ancient elongated skull people lived I think about 3000 years ago.”

Source and reference:

Hidden Inca Tours

Megalithic Marvels

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

05-02-2018 om 20:22 geschreven door peter  

What Makes Jupiter's Great Spot Red? It's Still a Mystery

05-02-2018 om 18:39 geschreven door peter  

Lasers Reveal a Maya Civilization So Dense It Blew Experts’ Minds

05-02-2018 om 18:26 geschreven door peter  

Is this proof aliens are watching us? UFO crosses paths with Epsilon 3 rocket launch travelling at 25,000mph

Conspiracy theorists believe a UFO overshadowed the launch of the Japanese rocket

A £255million satellite that will monitor the Earth's atmosphere has successfully launched into space.

But conspiracy theorists believe something overshadowed the 'perfect' launch on Kyushu Island in Japan.

They claim an unknown 'mysterious craft' passed closely by the rocket as it travelled at 25,000mph - and some think it could be aliens monitoring our technological advances.

Thousands of people gathered to watch Japanese Space agency Jaxa launch its Epsilon 3 rocket at 6.06am on January 18.

Video shows that shortly after the craft engaged its secondary boosters a UFO , allegedly flying at the same altitude as the rocket, appeared.

The object was made up of three white lights and a red blinking beacon that appear to swoop close to the rocket.

Many viewers have pointed out that the lights look like they belong to a plane.

But conspiracy theorists insist a no-fly zone was in place during the launch.

UFO Today posted footage of the launch on its YouTube page.7

The caption read: "Many will say this is an airplane, but the area had a no fly zone at the time of the rocket launch.

"The launch went perfectly, but during the launch a strange mysterious craft was filmed. This UFO was flying at the same altitude as the rocket.

"It was moving along with the rocket as it started it's orbit around earth. What was this object?"

But not everyone was convinced the lights were extra-terrestrial in origin.

One viewer wrote: "It's got an FAA light blinking...so....it's human made."

{ https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ }

05-02-2018 om 18:15 geschreven door peter  

05-02-2018 om 17:25 geschreven door peter  

Mystery Of Remarkable Ancient Maps

Map are among the oldest firms of human communication, far from purely scientific instruments, they are almost always bound with history, mythology, and religion. The earliest maps were created long before first alphabets were invented. People have always been fascinated by maps and their power to represent –  and misrepresent – our world. From prehistoric rock carvings to the latest computer-generated imagery, mapmakers have used cartography to chart every aspect of the world – and to alter our perception of it.

The earliest known world maps date to classical antiquity (6th to 5th centuries BCE) but is there anything that could pulverise that age limit? What if the world’s oldest map is at least ten times older than that putative onset of abstract thought. How about a map that is anywhere from half a million to one million years old? 

Amateur archeologist David King has been researching one site at the head of the Colne Valley in England, within two decades, he has collected over 10,000 paleolithic artefacts in the area.  

The map in question seems to be engraved on a 4.5-inch tall pebble. It takes only a small leap of the imagination to recognise the coastlines of Europe in the shapes incised into the stone. But matching the mapwork with the object’s supposed age – up to a million years, Mr. King contends – is several bridges too far for current science. And for most scientists.

image source (Image Source)

image source (Image Source)

Mr. King has had the map stone for over a decade, but in all those years was unable to have ‘official’ palaeontologists concede that it might be a man-made artefact.In fact, Mr. King contends, the stone surface presents “an accurate,detailed and concise map of the coastlines,lakes and river systems from north Europe all the way down to South Africa.”

1  – World’s oldest urban landscape

An engraved object recently found at the site of Moli del Salt in Spain and dated to the end of the Upper Paleolithic, about 13,800 years ago, may show a hunter-gatherer campsite. 

The world’s first piece of landscape art may have been discovered in Spain, depicting what appears to be a Stone Age hunter-gatherer campsite 13,800 years ago. Landscapes and images of everyday life were “scarcely represented” in Paleolithic art, with those featuring huts and campsites particularly rare.The slab has seven engraved semi-circular motifs on with internal lines arranged in two rows. Analysis of motifs and composition together with archaeological records led authors to come to the conclusion it depicts a campsite. Scientists suggest it may be be the earliest image of human habitation ever discovered.

The Moli del Salt slab is now housed in the Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in Tarragona, Spain.

2 – Forma Urbis Romae

Forma Urbis Romae, or Severan Marble Plan of Rome is enormous map, measuring ca. 18.10 x 13 meters (ca. 60 x 43 feet). It was carved between 203-211 CE and covered an entire wall inside the Templum Pacis in Rome. It depicted the groundplan of every architectural feature in the ancient city, from large public monuments to small shops, rooms, and even staircases. For more information about the map itself. It is composed of 150 marble tiles built to a scale of 1 to 240. The Forma Urbis Romae was ripped down—most likely to be used to make lime cement. Today, only 10 percent of the original map remains. The first pieces were rediscovered in 1562. A section recently discovered in Palazzo Maffei Marescotti allowed researchers to connect three chunks of the ancient puzzle. The newfound piece has shed new light on the present-day ghetto, an area which once dominated by the Circus Flaminius.

3 – Danish map stones

A set of broken stones covered with etchings of lines and squares, discovered at a 5,000-year-old sacred site in Denmark, may be some of humankind’s earliest maps, according to archaeologists.

The researchers think the inscribed stones are symbolic maps of local landscapes, and were perhaps used in rituals by Stone Age farmers who hoped to magically influence the sun and the fertility of their farmlands.

4 – Turin Papyrus

The Turin Papyrus Map is an ancient Egyptian map that is generally considered to be the oldest surviving topographical and geological map of the ancient world – there are some older maps from outside Egypt, thought these have been described as rather crude, and more abstract in comparison with the Turin Papyrus Map. The Turin Papyrus Map is believed to have been made during the reign of Ramesses IV, around the middle of the 12th century BC. Investigations have shown that the map was made by Amennakhte, son of Ipuy, who bore the title ‘Scribe of the Tomb’.The map is believed to have been prepared for one of the quarrying expeditions sent by the pharaoh to Wadi Hammamat for the quarrying of bekhen­-stone, a greyish-green type of stone highly prized by the ancient Egyptians. The purpose of its creation, however, is less clear.

5 – Piri Reis map

The Piri Reis map shows the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica. The northern coastline of Antarctica is perfectly detailed. The most puzzling however is not so much how Piri Reis managed to draw such an accurate map of the Antarctic region 300 years before it was discovered, but that the map shows the coastline under the ice. Geological evidence confirms that the latest date Queen Maud Land could have been charted in an ice-free state is 4000 BC. 

6 – A star map carved into Japan’s Kitora Tomb

A star map carved into Japan’s Kitora Tomb may be the world’s oldest astronomic chart. 68 constellations with gold leaf stars cloaks the ceiling. Three circles track the movement of celestial bodies—including the Sun. The pole star dominates the center. The detailed map depicts the horizon, equator, and star courses. This is not the first depiction of the night sky. Lascaux Cave contains a 17,300-year-old image of the subject. However, it lacks astronomical observations.

Researchers determined that the sky as depicted in the Kitora Tomb chart was seen from China, from locations such as modern-day Xi’an and Luoyang.

7 – Oldest Map of New York

The map, which was created by a Genoese cartographer named Vesconte Maggiolo in 1531, is one of the first depictions of America’s eastern seaboard and is now worth $10 million. It’s also the first (extant) map, ever, to show New York harbor.

The ancient chart even follows Magellan’s circumnavigation, making it a true world map. 6.7 feet wide and 3 feet tall, the map is made of nearly indestructible goatskin.

8 – Buache Map

The Buache Map is an 18th century map commonly claimed to accurately depict the continent of Antarctica before it was buried by ice. By extension, it has been claimed that this map is evidence that an ancient civilization had mapped Antarctica when it was free from ice, and that it was based on this source that the Buache Map was drawn. However, t ere are arguments against this interpretation of the Buache Map, and the claim that the continent of Antarctica was known to a highly advanced ancient civilization long before it was ‘re-discovered’ by modern man in the early part of the 19th century. 

Christopher Columbus may have consulted a mysterious map from 1491 before setting sail across the Atlantic Ocean one year later. Made by Florence-based cartographer Henricus Martellus, the map synthesizes Claudius Ptolemy’s observations about the circumference of the world with Marco Polo’s observations and Portuguese Africa explorations. The map does not show the Americas. When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas he believed he had reached Japan, which is where Martellus’s map had him located.

Analysis revealed hidden messages on the map. The secret notes contain place names and 60 written passages. The 6-by-4-foot map was photographed under 12 light frequencies—including several beyond human visibility. Latin descriptions reveal facts about far-flung peoples like the “Balor” of Northern Asia who live without wine or wheat and subsist on deer meat. The detail of southern Africa is extremely accurate, suggesting it was derived from native sources rather than Europeans.

9 – Ancient Babylonian Conservative Map

The Babylonian Map of the World is a dramatic labeled depiction of the known world from the perspective of Babylonia. The map is incised on a clay tablet, showing Babylon somewhat to the north of its center; the clay tablet is damaged, and also contains a section of cuneiform text. 

It is usually dated to the 5th century BC. It was discovered at Sippar, southern Iraq, 60 miles (97 km) north of Babylon on the east bank of the Euphrates River, and published in 1899. The clay tablet resides at the British Museum. It is conjectured that the island locations, though possibly referring to real areas, may also represent a mythological interpretation of the world.

The map depicts the world as a disc surrounded by water. Seven mythical islands lie beyond and connect the earth to the heavens. Cuneiform text explains the mysterious beasts and heroes that inhabit these islands. Seven dots represent seven cities of the ancient world. A “Great Wall” symbolizes winter. The back of the tablet describes mythic beasts that inhabit the heavenly ocean. Experts believe these are constellations.

10 – Hereford Mappa Mundi

The Hereford Mappa Mundi is unique in Britain’s heritage; an outstanding treasure of the medieval world, it records how 13th-century scholars interpreted the world in spiritual as well as geographical terms.

The map bears the name of its author, ‘Richard of Haldingham or Lafford’ (Holdingham and Sleaford in Lincolnshire). Recent research suggests a date of about 1300 for the creation of the map.

Superimposed on to the continents are drawings of the history of humankind and the marvels of the natural world. These 500 or so drawings include of around 420 cities and towns, 15 Biblical events, 33 plants, animals, birds and strange creatures, 32 images of the peoples of the world and 8 pictures from classical mythology.

{ http://www.look4ward.co.uk/ }

05-02-2018 om 17:14 geschreven door peter  

In April of 1819, British officer John Smith was pursuing a tiger through the jungle outside of Mumbai when he stumbled upon a strange cave entrance hidden in the brush.

Something seemed oddly deliberate about the cave entrance and so he decided to abandon his hunt to investigate further. He soon discovered what appeared to be ornate carvings in the rock. Little did he know that was just the beginning.

In 1819, British officer John Smith was hunting a tiger in the forest outside of Mumbai when he stumbled across a strange cave.

Inside were what appeared to be man-made carvings. But that was just the beginning.

Further investigation revealed an entire system of shrines and monuments carved directly into the rock.

And 30 different caves.

Experts believe that they were constructed around 200 BCE as a retreat for Buddhist monks during the terrible monsoon season.

Each of the caves is unique, with its own intricately designed entrances and interiors.

The caves were largely abandoned by the 7th century, but remained a sacred place for locals.

Many of the carvings depict the life of Buddha and his many incarnations.

There are also a large number of paintings, many of which are remarkably well-preserved.

It’s amazing how much color and detail still remains after all those years.

One of the more popular theories surrounding the caves is that they were built to align with the solstices and other cosmological events.

Caves 19 and 26 do actually align perfectly with the winter and summer solstices, respectively.

On their designated days, the sun shines straight through holes in their roofs, illuminating the religious displays within.

Even after centuries, the interiors are still absolutely stunning.

The effort and precision required to build these elaborate structures is truly mind-boggling.

Especially considering they had to do it with comparatively limited tools.

We may never know exactly how they managed to build these incredible caves.

Simply amazing. It really makes you wonder what other secrets may still be hiding out there, waiting to be discovered by adventurous souls!

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

05-02-2018 om 16:44 geschreven door peter