What Special Forces Found in Cambodia's Jungle: Ties to UAP and Human Abductions

A recent podcast has brought to light a chilling account from a former Special Forces operative who claims to have encountered inexplicable phenomena during a covert mission in Cambodia’s jungles. The veteran, whose name was withheld for privacy, recounted a mission in the Vietnam War era where his team was dispatched to locate a downed B-52 bomber near the Cambodian border. The objective was straightforward: assess the crash site, retrieve any sensitive equipment or documents, and recover dog tags from the crew. However, what the team allegedly discovered at the site defied conventional explanation and has since been linked in some circles to the ongoing discourse surrounding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and human abductions.

According to the eyewitness, the team found the B-52 not in a state of wreckage, but rather resting intact as if it had been gently placed on the jungle floor. “There was no crash, there was no sign of a crash—no crash trail or anything like that,” the veteran described. Gaining entry through an emergency hatch, they were confronted with a gruesome scene: the entire crew remained strapped in their seats, but all had suffered mutilations eerily reminiscent of the so-called “cattle mutilations” reported in UFO lore. The details were disturbing—missing tongues, jaws “scraped clean,” and precision excisions of genitals and rectums, which the operative compared to the use of a “biscuit cutter.”

The team, shaken by the discovery and the absence of any signs of a conventional crash, proceeded to destroy the aircraft’s sensitive components. Charges were set throughout the B-52, and after collecting photographic evidence and crew dog tags, they detonated the explosives remotely from a safe distance. “We made it to our extraction point and were extracted back to headquarters in Saigon,” the witness stated. All evidence, including films and documents, was turned in to higher authorities. The operative noted that there was little follow-up apart from a stern warning: “You will die if you disclose any of this information, so keep your traps shut.”

The account, as discussed in the podcast, has fueled speculation about covert military encounters with non-human entities and technology. While details remain unverifiable and the official record is silent, the witness’s description aligns with numerous reports of mutilations—both animal and, more rarely, human—that some researchers have linked to UAP activity. The operative reflected on the psychological toll of the mission, noting that he was the only survivor of the original team, with the others killed in subsequent action. “There was a lot of PTSD involved at the time,” he admitted, adding that he was soon after discharged from the service.

Though the credibility of such accounts is always subject to scrutiny, this testimony adds a somber and unsettling layer to the ongoing discussion of UAPs and alleged human abductions. While official documentation of such incidents remains elusive, the narrative underscores the longstanding tension between military secrecy and the quest for answers about unexplained phenomena. As the U.S. government and global authorities increase their transparency on UAPs, stories like this one continue to raise questions about what remains hidden in the shadows of wartime operations and classified archives.

{  https://usubjects.com/  }

11-11-2025 om 17:50 geschreven door peter  

Comparison of two plates. Transients circled in blue, defects are circled in pink. 

© Villarroel, Beatriz et al., Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2025.

CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Researchers have been striving to explain seemingly unexplainable flashes of light, or transients, observed in the sky since the 1950s. Incredibly, we still don’t know what these unidentified aerial phenomena—or more familiarly, unidentified flying objects—are.

In two papers published earlier this month, one in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the other in Scientific Reports, researchers lay out two new, startling explanations for these phenomena. They analyzed transients that were documented in photographic plates (the precursors to photographic film) from the early 1950s—crucially, these flashes were observed before Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite, launched in October, 1957. The papers indicate that at least some of the observed transients were real, and that at least some of these might have been connected to nuclear weapons tests and reports of UAPs.

“Today we know that short flashes of light are often solar reflections from flat, highly reflective objects in orbit around the Earth, such as satellites and space debris,” Beatriz Villarroel, a co-author on both studies, said in a Stockholm University statement. But prior to 1957, there were no human-made satellites in space—or at least, there were none as far as we know. And while it is possible that a country might have secretly launched something into space, that would have been hard to do without being noticed, according to German physicist and popular science communicator Sabine Hossenfelder.

Transients, UAPs, and nuclear tests

In the Scientific Reports study, Villarroel and her colleague analyzed more than 106,000 instances of transients and found small but statistically significant associations between them and reports of UAP sightings and above-ground nuclear weapons testing during the 1950s. Specifically, the transients tended to appear a day after a nuclear test. They also identified a positive correlation between the number of flashes of light in the sky and the amount of UAPs reports on any given day. Moreover, most of the transients occurred around the same time as a nuclear test, and at least one UAP report.

The researchers lay out two potential hypotheses: One is that nuclear tests might trigger an atmospheric phenomenon that appears as a flash or transient, in turn spurring UAP reports and showing up on the astronomical images. The other leans on an existing piece of what the researchers call “lore”: that nuclear weapons tests might attract UAP.

“While this alleged connection has been claimed for decades based on anecdotal evidence, it has until now lacked any systematic supporting data,” the researchers write in the paper. “Within this latter hypothesis, our results could be viewed as indicating that transients are artificial, reflective objects either in high-altitude orbits around Earth or at high altitudes within the atmosphere.”

“Whether and how this hypothesis might be further tested remains to be determined. Regardless of what transients are ultimately determined to be, our results add to growing evidence supporting the interpretation of transients as real observations, rather than as emulsion defects,” they conclude.

Moving objects

In the other paper, Villarroel and her colleagues searched for historical evidence of highly reflective artificial objects near Earth. To do this, they looked for transients in the data that appeared to follow a pattern, suggesting that they might be flat, reflective, and moving objects.

They found two interesting occurrences, one of which, notably, took place on July 27, 1952—during a week where there was a spate of notorious UFO sightings in Washington, D.C. They also found significantly fewer transients in Earth’s shadow, indicating that at least some of the flashes of light were likely objects reflecting the Sun from an orbital point high above Earth.

Amidst what has been perceived as noise on the plates, there seems to be a genuine population of phenomena that correlate with, among other things, nuclear weapons tests or reports of UAP and that are missing in the Earth’s shadow,” Villarroel, an astronomer at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stockholm University, explained in the statement.

“You don’t get that kind of solar reflections from round objects like asteroids or dust grains in space, which leave streaks during a 50-minute exposure, but only if something is very flat and very reflective and reflects the sunlight with a short flash.”

The new analyses are intriguing. But more work will need to be done before researchers can conclusively say what that something is.

{ https://gizmodo.com/ }

09-11-2025 om 22:02 geschreven door peter  

Scientists are baffled by a gruesome new species dubbed the 'carnivorous death ball' that lives in the deepest part of the ocean. 

The new predatory sponge, officially part of the Chondrocladia genus, was found 11,800 feet deep, east of Montagu Island off the coast of Antarctica.

Looking like some arty installation in a London gallery, the 'incredible specimen' gets its name due to several long appendages ending in pinkish orbs.

These eerie globes are covered in tiny hooks meant to snag its prey – typically small unfortunate crustaceans such as copepods. 

This makes the carnivorous death ball unusually ruthless compared with the gentle, passive, filter-feeding undertaken by most sponges. 

Dr Michelle Taylor, head of science at the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, compared the species to a 'series on ping pong balls on stems'.

'Sponges generally don't eat animal flesh – they normally just filter-feed all of the little particles that are in the water,' she said. 'But this is a very unusual section of the sponge taxa in that they actually capture small amphipods like little crustaceans. 

'These animals get caught in the hooks and then are slowly enveloped over a period of time until all of the nutrients are kind of squeezed out of them.' 

Its spherical form is covered in tiny hooks that trap prey, a clear contrast to the gentle, passive, filter-feeding undertaken by most sponges

This horror-film-worthy discovery was made on an expedition in February to March this year led by Ocean Census aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel R/V Falkor. 

Experts used a remotely operated and tethered underwater vehicle called ROV SuBastian to scan the ocean's depths to about 14,700 feet (4,500 metres). 

ROV SuBastian surveyed underwater volcanic calderas, the South Sandwich Trench, and seafloor habitats around Montagu and Saunders Islands. 

Overall, it collected nearly 2,000 specimens across 14 animal groups (phyla), including 30 previously unknown deep-sea species, although there could be more to be confirmed. 

According to Dr Taylor, the pink death balls are 'a few centimetres across' and are thought to have water inside them.

'We presume they increase the surface area that could come into contact with potential prey items,' she told the Daily Mail. 

'Sponges are sedentary organisms –  they will spend their whole life in that one spot.

'That's one of the reasons they have to have efficient ways to capture food, they cannot chase it.' 

The discovery was made on an expedition led by Ocean Census aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel R/V Falkor

A new iridescent scale worm found by the ROV SuBastian at 9,379 feet (2,859 metres) at the South Trench dive site, northwest of Zavodovski Island, South Atlantic Ocean

A previously unknown species of sea star found by the ROV SuBastian at 3,631 feet (1,107 metres) at the Mystery Ridge dive site

Among the other discoveries were new armoured and iridescent scale worms, also referred to 'Elvis worms', known for their shimmering, colourful scales.  

The scales are bioluminescent – they naturally produce and emit light – and produce repeated flashes, presumably to distract potential predators. 

Also found were previously unknown species of sea stars – called Brisingidae, Benthopectinidae and Paxillosidae. 

There were also rare gastropods and bivalves adapted to volcanic and hydrothermal-influenced habitats – extreme environments with high temperatures and pressures. 

Also observed were 'zombie worms’ – officially called Osedax, which is Latin for bone-eater – although these are not thought to be new to science, according to the experts. 

These worms have no mouth or gut and rely on symbiotic bacteria to break down fats inside the bones of whales and other large vertebrates. 

Additional possibly new are black corals and a potential genus of sea pens – which look like old-fashioned writing quills – which are 'undergoing expert assessment'.

Scientists are constantly finding new species around the world, but the ones at the water's deepest darkest depths are among the hardest to locate. 

Pictured, a potentially new genus of sea pens - which look like old-fashioned writing quills. This one was found at 2,641 feet (805 metres) down at the Mystery Ridge dive site

Pictured, a new isopod found by the ROV SuBastian at 11,500 feet (3,533 metres) at the Ridge North dive site

Still, the vast majority of the world's oceans – about 80 per cent – have not been mapped, explored or even seen by humans.  

While some animals can survive at extreme depths thanks to adaptations, human beings can only go about 400ft unaided by modern technology, such as pressurised submersibles. 

Read More

•  Elusive colossal squid is seen live in the deep sea for the first time EVER 

With such equipment, the deepest anyone has been in the ocean is 35,853 feet (10,928 metres) in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, achieved by Victor Vescovo in April 2019. 

The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, 'remains profoundly under-sampled', according to Dr Taylor. 

'To date, we have only assessed under 30 per cent of the samples collected from this expedition, so confirming 30 new species already shows how much biodiversity is still undocumented,' she said. 

'Each confirmed species is a building block for conservation, biodiversity studies, and untold future scientific endeavours. 

'By coupling expeditions with species discovery workshops, we compress what often takes more than a decade into a faster pathway while maintaining scientific rigour by having world experts involved.' 

The same expedition captured the first ever footage of a live colossal squid – the largest invertebrate on the planet.

Before the expedition in March, none have ever been filmed alive before in their natural habitat, either juvenile or adult, Dr Taylor said. 

What are sponges? 

Sponges are simple but historic aquatic animals with dense but porous skeletons, highly adapted to their environment. 

Certain sponge species have a fossil record dating back around 600 million years to the earliest period of Earth’s history, the 'Precambrian'. 

Like corals, sponges are immobile aquatic invertebrates and they are not well-adapted for moving around the ocean floor. 

Sponges are important inhabitants of coral reef ecosystems; they can affect water quality on the reef as the sponges filter water, collect bacteria, and process carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

In nutrient-depleted coral reefs, some sponge species are thought to make carbon biologically available by excreting a form of 'sponge poop' that other organisms feed on.

In this way, sponges protect the reef against extreme fluctuations in nutrient density, temperature, and light, benefiting the survival of other reef organisms. 

Source: NOAA 

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07-11-2025 om 22:40 geschreven door peter  

Ontdek de waarheid over Jezus Christus

©Getty Images

Ontdek de waarheid over Jezus Christus
Jezus Christus is een centrale figuur in het christendom en zijn levensverhaal vormt de basis van het Nieuwe Testament in de Bijbel. Afhankelijk van je geloof kan Jezus worden gezien als de Messias of als een historische figuur (of beide). Hoewel de Bijbel inzicht biedt in zijn leven, zijn er weinig historische verslagen uit zijn tijd bewaard gebleven. Hierdoor staan ​​niet-kerkelijke historici voor uitdagingen bij het vinden van informatie over Jezus buiten religieuze teksten. Desondanks hebben de afgelopen decennia geleid tot interessante ontdekkingen. Sommige historici steunen Bijbelse verhalen, terwijl andere een heel ander verhaal vertellen.

Bekijk de volgende foto's en teksten om te ontdekken wat historici hebben ontdekt over het leven van Jezus Christus.

©Getty Images

Bronnen

Hoewel er buiten de Bijbel weinig bronnen zijn die naar Jezus verwijzen, legt historicus André Chevitarese uit dat een handvol auteurs vergelijkbare details over zijn leven hebben vastgelegd.

©Getty Images

Bronnen
De meest bekende schriftelijke verslagen zijn afkomstig van Flavius ​​Josephus, een Joodse geleerde uit de eerste eeuw n.Chr. In zijn werk 'Joodse Oudheden' vermeldt Josephus Jezus tweemaal.

©Getty Images

Verschijning
De Britse onderzoeker Richard Neave, specialist in forensische wetenschappen, gebruikte zijn expertise om het gezicht van een gemiddelde volwassene uit de tijd waarin Jezus leefde te reconstrueren. Het resultaat was een donkere man met kort haar, een schril contrast met de manier waarop Jezus normaal gesproken wordt afgebeeld: als een blanke man met lang haar en blauwe ogen.

©Shutterstock

Gods boodschapper
Het Evangelie volgens Lucas benadrukt dat Jezus al op jonge leeftijd over aanzienlijke kennis beschikte.

©Shutterstock

Standpunt over homoseksualiteit
Een vaak over het hoofd gezien feit is dat de Bijbel niet vermeldt dat Jezus homoseksualiteit veroordeelde. Sterker nog: hij heeft het er nooit over gehad.

©Shutterstock

Verjaardag
Hoewel Kerstmis op veel plaatsen op 25 december wordt gevierd, is het opvallend dat het Nieuwe Testament niet specifiek de dag van Jezus' geboorte vermeldt.

©Shutterstock

Jezus werd niet geboren op 25 december
Onderzoek doet vermoeden dat de geboorte van Jezus waarschijnlijk plaatsvond tussen mei en november, de warmste maanden in Israël.

©Shutterstock

De wijzen uit het oosten
Toen de drie wijzen uit het oosten de ster zagen die de geboorte van Christus aankondigde, begonnen ze aan hun reis naar Bethlehem. Onderzoekers hebben hun waarschijnlijke route opnieuw getraceerd en vastgesteld dat het ze ongeveer twee jaar zou hebben gekost om hun bestemming te bereiken. Dit betekent dat ze Jezus niet kort na zijn geboorte in de stal hebben kunnen bezoeken.

©Getty Images

Ster van Bethlehem
Astronomen vermoeden dat de ster die de geboorte van Jezus aankondigde het resultaat zou kunnen zijn van een samenvoeging tussen Saturnus en Jupiter. Deze astronomische gebeurtenis vond plaats in het sterrenbeeld Vissen in 7 v.Chr.

©Shutterstock

Nazareth
De stad Nazareth was niet echt van belang en relatief klein. Het wordt zelfs speels bekritiseerd in het Evangelie volgens Johannes. In deze context zegt de apostel Filippus tegen Nathanaël dat de Messias in Nazareth is gezien, waarop Nathanaël antwoordt: "Kan er uit Nazareth iets goeds komen?"

©Shutterstock

Carrière
De Griekse term voor Jezus' beroep is 'tekton'. Hoewel 'timmerman' de vaak gebruikte vertaling is, verduidelijken geleerden dat de term ambachtslieden en bouwers omvatte. Het is waarschijnlijker dat Jezus als metselaar werkte.

©Getty Images

Rijkdom
Zijn afstamming gaat terug tot koning David, een figuur die in de Bijbelse geschiedenis bekendstond om zijn aanzienlijke rijkdom. Verschillende aspecten van Jezus' leven wijzen er ook op dat zijn familie relatief welgesteld was.

©Shutterstock

Stabiel
De misvatting dat Jezus arm was, komt waarschijnlijk voort uit het feit dat hij in een stal werd geboren. Dit was echter voornamelijk te wijten aan ongelukkige omstandigheden. Precies toen Maria's weeën begonnen, vond er een volkstelling plaats in Bethlehem, wat leidde tot een toestroom van mensen uit de omgeving naar de stad. Omdat alle herbergen al bezet waren, had het echtpaar geen andere keuze dan onderdak te zoeken in een stal, zodat Maria kon bevallen.

©Getty Images

Kleren
Tijdens zijn kruisiging zou Jezus gekleed zijn geweest in een kenmerkende tuniek die in die tijd doorgaans door rijkere mensen werd gedragen. In de Bijbel staat dat de soldaten zelfs onderling vochten om wie zijn kleren mocht houden.

©Getty Images

Vervulde profetieën uit het Oude Testament over Jezus
Er zijn mensen die de leringen die aan Jezus worden toegeschreven eerbiedigen, maar die het idee verwerpen dat God hem deze leringen op een goddelijke manier heeft gegeven.

©Shutterstock

Een filosoof en humanist
Christelijke atheïsten zien Jezus niet als de zoon van een almachtige godheid. Ze beschouwen hem daarentegen als filosoof en humanist.

©Getty Images

Het heilige boek van de islam
In de Koran, het heilige boek van de islam, wordt Jezus vaker genoemd dan de profeet Mohammed. Over Jezus wordt 25 keer gesproken, terwijl Mohammed slechts vier keer wordt vermeld.

©Shutterstock

Profeet
In de islam wordt Jezus erkend als profeet, hoewel hij niet als de zoon van God wordt beschouwd. Interessant is dat er naast het graf van Mohammed in Medina (Saoedi-Arabië) een graf voor Jezus Christus is aangewezen.

©NL Beeld

Goddelijke woede
Tijdens de opnames van Mel Gibsons film 'The Passion of the Christ' uit 2004 werden twee mensen door de bliksem getroffen. Een van hen was Jim Caviezel, de acteur die Jezus speelde in de film.

©Shutterstock

Nog meer bliksem...
Een 20 meter hoog Jezusbeeld naast een kerk in Monroe, Ohio, werd door de bliksem getroffen, waardoor het in vlammen opging en volledig werd verwoest.

©Getty Images

Broers en zussen
Volgens historische verslagen had Jezus vier broers en minstens twee zussen. Zijn broers heetten Jakobus, Jozef, Judas en Simon. Er zijn theorieën die stellen dat deze broers mogelijk zonen van zijn vader uit een eerder huwelijk waren of zelfs neven en nichten. In de Bijbel wordt Jezus' broer Jakobus (foto) op tragische wijze gestenigd.

©Shutterstock

Veroordeling
Na 15 jaar opgravingen hebben archeoloog Amit Re'em en zijn team met succes het Paleis van Herodes opgegraven. Dit paleis, gelegen in het westen van Jeruzalem, wordt van oudsher gezien als de plek waar Jezus ter dood werd veroordeeld.

©Getty Images

Getrouwd?
Een verbazingwekkende oude tekst uit de 9e eeuw n.Chr. werd door historici geverifieerd en in 2012 aan het publiek onthuld. Dit document, soms ook wel het 'verloren evangelie' genoemd, doet vermoeden dat Jezus getrouwd was. De tekst bevat ook verwijzingen naar de naam Maria, waardoor sommigen speculeren dat zijn vrouw Maria Magdalena zou kunnen zijn geweest.

©Getty Images

Zwaarte van het kruis
Bewijsmateriaal toont aan dat Jezus waarschijnlijk alleen het horizontale deel van het kruis, het zogeheten 'patibulum', droeg. Vanwege de 27 kilogram die het ongeveer woog, sleepte hij het kruis waarschijnlijk mee in plaats van het op zijn rug te dragen.

©Shutterstock

De kruisiging
In tegenstelling tot het gangbare beeld dat men heeft, doet historisch begrip vermoeden dat Jezus niet via zijn handen, maar via zijn polsen werd gekruisigd. Als zijn handen waren gebruikt, zouden ze waarschijnlijk door zijn lichaamsgewicht zijn afgescheurd en zou hij zijn gevallen.

©Shutterstock

De kruisiging
Hoewel hij theoretisch gezien enkele dagen na de kruisiging had kunnen overlijden, stierf Jezus ongeveer zes uur na het begin ervan. De kruisiging vond plaats rond 9.00 uur 's ochtends en hij overleed rond 15.00 uur 's middags.

©Getty Images

Dood
Volgens de Bijbel zou de dood van Jezus hebben plaatsgevonden op Goede Vrijdag.

©Shutterstock

Dood
Historici hebben kunnen opmaken dat Jezus' dood waarschijnlijk in 30 of 33 n.Chr. plaatsvond. Aanwijzingen uit verslagen over figuren zoals Pontius Pilatus en Tiberius doen vermoeden dat het waarschijnlijker is dat hij in 33 n.Chr. stierf.

Bronnen:

• (Britannica)
• (History)
• (Live Science)
• (Deseret News)
• (CNN)
• (NPR)

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06-11-2025 om 18:39 geschreven door peter  

Scientists are baffled after discovering 'impossible' life hidden beneath the Arctic sea ice

• READ MORE: Microbes trapped in permafrost AWAKEN after 40,000 years

By JONATHAN CHADWICK, ASSISTANT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

Scientists have been left baffled after finding 'impossible' life thriving at the north pole.

The tiny microorganisms, invisible to the naked eye, live just beneath the frozen surface of the central Arctic Ocean.

Discovered by experts at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, these bacteria survive on dissolved organic matter in the cold water. 

They also need to convert nitrogen to survive, but bewilderingly, the gas is generally in short supply in the Arctic Ocean. 

So how exactly the creatures are thriving in the water has left the scientists scratching their heads. 

'[We] have discovered an important phenomenon beneath the Arctic sea ice that was previously thought impossible,' they say in a statement. 

'This phenomenon could have implications for the food chain and the carbon budget in the cold north.' 

The researchers also warn that there is less sea ice in the Arctic than there should be due to global warming, which may actually help the organisms to survive. 

According to the researchers, the tiny organisms are officially known as 'non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs'. These microorganisms, primarily bacteria and archaea, can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form, but do not photosynthesize like cyanobacteria

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have discovered an important phenomenon beneath the Arctic sea ice that was previously thought impossible

According to the researchers, the tiny organisms are officially known as 'non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs'.

These are 'nitrogen-fixing' bacteria, meaning they need to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form of nitrogen, such as ammonium, to stay alive.

Unlike other many other underwater bacteria, non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs (NCDs) do not photosynthesize. 

The team's field work involved measurements of nitrogen fixation from water samples at 13 different Arctic locations from aboard the research ship RV Polarstern.

The experts found a surprising high nitrogen fixation rates, especially at the ice edge, where the ice melts most actively.

What's odd is that nitrogen is in relatively short supply in the Arctic Ocean, meaning nitrogen fixers shouldn't be able to thrive there. 

'Until now, it was believed that nitrogen fixation could not take place under the sea ice,' said study author Dr Lisa W. von Friesen.  

'It was assumed that the living conditions for the organisms that perform nitrogen fixation were too poor. We were wrong.'

The team's field work involved measurements of nitrogen fixation at several Arctic locations over two trips in 2021 and 2022

Pictured, researcher taking measurements of nitrogen fixation in water samples from the Arctic Ocean aboard German research vessel RV Polarstern

What is nitrogen fixation?

Nitrogen fixation is a process in which special bacteria convert nitrogen gas (N2) dissolved in seawater into ammonium. 

Ammonium helps the bacteria to grow, but it also benefits algae and the rest of the food chain in the sea. 

Researchers say there's levels of nitrogen fixation in their sampled areas of the Arctic 'previously thought impossible'. 

This is due to 'non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs' - nitrogen-fixing' bacteria that don't photosynthesize. 

In the Arctic Ocean, NCDs and other bacteria feed on dissolved organic matter released by algae, among other things.

In return, the bacteria release the 'fixed' nitrogen (ammonium), which helps algae in the surrounding water to grow.

Unfortunately, too much algae growth in the Arctic can be bad news as it can lead to out of control 'algal blooms' which are toxic and harmful to fish, shellfish, marine mammals and more.  

According to Dr von Friesen, the results suggest the potential for algae production in the Arctic has been underestimated.

What's more, climate change is likely the ultimate cause of the observed changes.  

In the Arctic, sea ice goes through a seasonal cycle each year, spreading in the autumn and winter and then receding in the spring and summer. 

But due to climate change, temperatures are getting higher overall and the Arctic sea ice extent is getting lower on average.

Researchers warn that the Arctic is warming at rates up to four times faster than the global average, which has caused major declines in sea ice coverage, age, and thickness. 

The researchers are the first to discover that the phenomenon of 'nitrogen fixation' occurs beneath sea ice even in the central Arctic Ocean

Measurements were taken at 13 different locations in the Arctic Ocean aboard the German research ship RV Polarstern

Read More

• Microbes trapped in permafrost AWAKEN after 40,000 years - they could spark next pandemic 

According to the researchers, areas of actively-melting sea ice generally have more nitrogen fixation compared with ice-covered parts of the Arctic. 

It seems likely therefore that climate change is to blame for this elevated pattern of nitrogen fixation that they have observed. 

Strangely, stretches of open water have similar levels of nitrogen as ice-covered areas, but the team aren't sure why this is. 

The study, published in Communications Earth & Environment, is the first to show the phenomenon of nitrogen fixation occurs beneath sea ice even in the central Arctic.

Therefore, nitrogen fixation should be considered 'in the equation' when people try to predict what will happen to the Arctic Ocean in the coming decades as sea ice declines, the authors add. 

WHAT IS THE NITROGEN CYCLE?

Nitrogen (N) makes up almost 80 per cent of our atmosphere and is essential for plants and animals.

The carbon-nitrogen bond is one of the most abundant in organic chemistry. 

Animals need it to to make proteins, which forms everything we need to live. 

In plants it forms the basis of enzymes, proteins and chlorophyll.

Ecosystems need nitrogen and other nutrients to absorb carbon dioxide pollution and there is a limited amount available in plants and soil. 

However, it is inert and most useful to life when turned into nitrates or nitrogen compounds.

The nitrogen cycle is the process by which the element is used and then fed back into the system.

Nitrogen (N) makes up almost 80 per cent of our atmosphere and is essential for plants and animals. The nitrogen cycle is the process by which the element is used and then fed back into the system

Nitrogen-fixing organisms convert nitrogen into the soil from the air. 

Lightening is another way in which nitrogen reaches the soil from the air.

Nitrification is the process by which ammonia (a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen) that is in the soil is converted into nitrates by bacteria. 

Plants then take up these nitrates through their roots.  

When the plant dies this nitrogen is goes back into the soil. 

Alternatively if the plant is eaten by an animal the nitrogen returns to the soil in their waste.

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03-11-2025 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

What will really happen when the world ends: Terrifying simulation reveals how the apocalypse will encourage people to go on KILLING sprees

• READ MORE: Experts reveal the bleak reality of how humanity will go extinct 

By WILIAM HUNTER, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

A terrifying simulation has revealed how people might really behave as the end of the world approaches.

And it suggests that humanity's darkest instincts might reign supreme at the very end.

Just like in apocalyptic movies and TV shows such as Mad Max or Fallout, the study suggests that doomsday might encourage some people to go on killing sprees.

Researchers say this is because the impending end of days means that the penalties for violence 'lose all meaning'.

That lack of consequences may mean some individuals return to 'more savage tendencies'.

Even though the simulated world was only digital, the researchers say the results provide a terrifying glimpse at how people would react in a real-world apocalypse scenario.

'This finding raises interesting questions about human behaviour,' co-author Dr Haewoon Kwak, of Indiana University Bloomington, told Daily Mail.

'It forces us to consider which actions are controlled by external penalties and which are controlled by our own internal ethics or social norms.'

In a terrifying simulation, scientists predicted how people would behave as the end of the world approached and found that some people would be driven to go on killing sprees (stock image)

Surprisingly, this simulation took place in the online video game ArcheAge (pictured). Players knew that the game would be deleted after 11 weeks, so researchers watched how they behaved as the end approached to simulate a real-life doomsday scenario

This simulation took place inside an early 'closed beta' testing period of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called ArcheAge.

The players were free to play as normal, but knew their digital world would come to an abrupt end in just 11 weeks

'An MMORPG is not just a game; it is a "living laboratory" where large numbers of players interact and conduct a wide variety of activities, including economic, social, and combat behaviours,' says Dr Kwak.  

The researchers analysed 270 million records of behaviour in the game to see if it would change when players knew the end was near.

Their analysis revealed thatt, while most players simply got on with things, some 'outlier' players quickly turned violent.

Overall, the researchers were able to identify 334 individuals who committed murder within the final two weeks.

The data also showed that some players showed a quite rapid increase in murderous tendencies as the end of the world drew near.

Dr Kwak says that the most likely explanation for this is that the normal penalties for violence lost their sting when the world was already doomed.

Apocalyptic films, such as Mad Max (pictured), often imagine that the end of days would lead to violent outbursts. This study shows that these worries might be correct 

The researchers found that 334 individuals, separated into four clusters, started showing increasingly violent behaviour towards the end. These graphs show how many other players were killed by each cluster of murderers 

The five most likely causes of human extinction

1. Rogue AI
2. Nuclear war
3. Engineered bioweapons
4. Climate change
5. Natural disasters or asteroid strike  

In ArcheAge, player-versus-player combat between two players of the same in-game race is classed as 'murder' and normally carries an in-game penalty.

However, when the end of the beta period approached, these penalties lost their meaning, and people's basic instincts were given free rein.

In terms of what predisposed someone to turn violent, the researchers found that these players were commonly among the group known as 'churners' who voluntarily quit the game before the end of the beta.

This suggests that people may be more disposed towards anti-social behaviour once they lose their 'sense of responsibility and attachment'.

However, the researchers still aren't convinced that real people would be driven to bloody murder sprees in an actual apocalypse.

'An action inside a game, such as clicking a mouse, is fundamentally different from committing a physical act of violence in the real world,' says Dr Kwak.

At the same time, the researchers found that the biggest changes in people's behaviour might actually be a good deterrent against violence.

While there were a few violent outliers, most players actually showed a striking increase in social behaviour.

In ArcheAge, player-versus-player combat between two players of the same in-game race is classed as 'murder' and, unlike killing in battle, is met with in-game consequences. As the end approached, the number of deaths linked to murder increased as the consequences 'lost meaning' 

However, unlike in the TV series 'Fallout' (pictured), the end of the world won't lead to total chaos. In fact, the researchers found most people increased their social behaviour and became significantly more friendly as doomsday loomed 

As the end approached, players abandoned progressing in the game and gave up on activities like levelling up and completing quests.

Instead, players massively increased their social activity, and the researchers observed peaks in behaviours like sending mail or forming 'parties' for group play.

Read More

•  Scientists reveal exact date universe will end: 'Sooner than we feared' 

This suggests that a shared crisis may actually strengthen existing social relationships and encourage the formation of new ones.

In fact, this kind of behaviour is much more likely to be what we would see in a real-life doomsday scenario.

Dr Kwak says: 'This suggests that when faced with an "end times" scenario, players focused on what was truly important: their social relationships. It is very possible we would see this in real life.

'In times of crisis, people often come together to support one another, reinforcing the social bonds that connect them.'

What is the Doomsday clock and what does it mean?

What is the Doomsday Clock? 

The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin, an independent non-profit organization run by some of the world's most eminent scientists.

It was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, which developed the world's first nuclear weapons during World War II.

In 1947, they established the clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to the Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war.

The Doomsday Clock not only takes into account the likelihood of nuclear Armageddon but also other emerging threats such as climate change and advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin, an independent non-profit organization run by some of the world's most eminent scientists

 It is symbolic and represents a countdown to possible global catastrophe.

The decision to move, or leave the clock alone, is made by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in consultation with the bulletin's Board of Sponsors, which includes 16 Nobel laureates.

The clock has become a universally recognised indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in life sciences.

In 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an expert group formed in 1945, adjusted the Doomsday Clock 100 seconds to midnight, the closest we've ever come to total destruction - and it remained there in 2021.

That sent a message that the Earth was closer to oblivion than any time since the early days of hydrogen bomb testing and 1984, when US-Soviet relations reached 'their iciest point in decades.' 

The Bulletin also considered world leaders response to the coronavirus pandemic, feeling it was so poor that the clock needed to remain in its perilously close to midnight position. 

The closer to midnight the clock moves the closer to annihilation humanity is. 

How has the clock changed since 1947?

• 1947 - 48: 7 minutes
• 1949 - 52: 3 minutes
• 1953 - 59: 2 minutes
• 1960 - 62: 7 minutes
• 1963 - 67: 12 minutes
• 1968: 7 minutes
• 1969 - 71: 10 minutes
• 1972 - 73: 12 minutes
• 1974 - 79: 9 minutes
• 1980: 7 minutes
• 1981 - 83: 4 minutes
• 1984 - 87: 3 minutes
• 1988 - 89: 6 minutes
• 1990: 10 minutes
• 1991 - 94: 17 minutes
• 1995 - 97: 14 minutes
• 1998 - 2001: 9 minutes
• 2002 - 06: 7 minutes
• 2007 - 09: 5 minutes
• 2010 - 11: 6 minutes
• 2012 - 14: 5 minutes
• 2015 - 16: 3 minutes
• 2017 - 2.5 minutes
• 2018 - 2 minutes
• 2019 - 2 minutes
• 2020 - 100 seconds
• 2021 - 100 seconds
• 2022 - 100 seconds
• 2023 - 90 seconds
• 2024 - 90 seconds 

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03-11-2025 om 18:06 geschreven door peter  

October 30 marked the 87th anniversary of the most successful production of a science fiction work in history. Herbert Wells’ radio play “The War of the Worlds” was so carefully styled to resemble a real news report from the scene of events that many listeners believed in the reality of an alien invasion. You can laugh at this story, or you can think about how protected we are in today’s world of deepfakes, clip thinking, and crazy events in world politics from repeating this. Or, conversely, failing to respond to a genuine alien invasion.

The War of the Worlds, 1938

Imagine the situation. It’s the eighth evening, and you’re doing your household chores. There’s an entertainment program on the radio, the hosts are joking, talking about some adaptation of a science fiction novel, announcing the weather forecast, and then music starts playing.

Suddenly, the concert is interrupted by breaking news. Astronomers report that several powerful flashes have been spotted on Mars. After that, pleasant music plays again, as if nothing has happened.

However, the music doesn’t play for long. Because the news comes back on. The reporter says that an unknown cylindrical object has fallen near a small town somewhere in your country. You look at the map and realize that the town is completely real and located exactly where the reporter says, and he continues to describe what is happening.

Would you believe reports of aliens landing?

Source: evil.fandom.com

The cylinder unscrews and monsters with pike heads crawl out of it. The local police try to establish contact with them, but they start shooting with ray guns. The broadcast is interrupted and the announcer says something about technical problems. The music starts playing again, but soon reports come in about new attacks by strange creatures and fires.

It seems that an alien invasion has begun and something has to be done. According to radio reports, fighting is taking place in the capital, and your neighbors are knocking on your door in a panic. Some are packing an “emergency suitcase,” while others are cleaning their weapons.

Meanwhile, the nature of the broadcast changes and it begins to resemble a radio play. Soon it becomes clear that this is exactly what it is. You breathe a sigh of relief and say a few swear words to the radio station.

Looks like a new episode of Black Mirror? But no, this is a completely true story that took place in the United States in 1938. Theater director Orson Welles decided to stage a radio play based on the book The War of the Worlds by his famous namesake Herbert Wells. For this purpose, he moved the Martians’ landing from early 20th-century England to the United States in 1938. However, this was not enough for him, and he decided to stylize it as real news reports. He succeeded.

The extent of the panic caused by people believing that the landing was real was greatly exaggerated by the newspapers at the time. However, the fact remains that thousands of people believed it, despite the fact that the hosts said at the very beginning of the broadcast that it was a staged event. People were really panicking and calling everywhere they could, and the police arrived at the radio station to force it to stop spreading panic.

The era of fake news

Here, one could laugh at the gullibility and inattentiveness, if we were even slightly different from those listeners. By 1938, radio listeners were already quite familiar with the story, and stylizing the production to resemble real events was not something completely new. Wells’ book was also well known. And none of this prevented people from, as we would say today, falling for the fake.

In the 87 years since that play, we have seen alien invasions many times in films and TV series. We know that it is not difficult to create not only audio but also video footage that, under certain conditions, will look like proof that someone has flown in to visit us. Especially if this video is posted on social media, where it will be flooded with comments and reposts and eventually reported in the news.

Would you believe such a video? What about three videos depicting three different episodes of the invasion? Would you scrutinize the details, looking for signs of rubber tentacles and evidence that the flying saucer is painted? Especially if, on top of that, there is a comment from some “expert” explaining that this frame clearly shows the inhuman anatomy of the aliens, and that the “death rays” captured by the camera have no analogues among earthly developments.

And all this is the reality of the second decade of the 21st century, and we are already living in the third. Generating video using artificial intelligence has long been a reality. The modern Orson Welles simply did not get there first.

We should admit that we live in the age of fake news, and we are less protected from mistaking “entertainment content” for news from the scene than listeners of American radio in 1938. The arsenal of ways to deceive the neural network in our heads has grown incredibly.

As for aliens, we don’t even know why we should believe in them or not, because we’ve only seen them in movies. It is quite possible that they really do have six fingers on each hand. Or maybe they don’t have hands at all, and they simply flow from one form to another, in each of which we can see something like arms and legs, but woven together in such a combination that it immediately becomes obvious that it is the AI that drew it.

International politics

When discussing the events of 1938 and considering whether something similar could happen again in 2025 or 2026, it is difficult not to mention the word “politics.” The fact is that many people who took the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds for a real invasion thought that the Germans had attacked the United States. No, most Americans knew that Germans did not have tentacles, but the political situation in the world was rapidly spiraling toward the start of World War II, and people were already so hyped up by the news that they were ready to hear news of a landing, just not Martians.

In general, this is a very complex problem: we believe what we are prepared to believe. A large part of the population is capable of interpreting certain natural events as manifestations of what they believe in. In other words, if Orson Welles’ radio broadcast is successfully replicated, a certain number of people will start posting messages on social media saying that they personally have seen an alien spacecraft, attaching photos showing clouds or the planet Venus.

The overlay of all this with news that sounds no more optimistic than it did before World War II greatly contributes to the general expectation that some kind of invasion is bound to begin. Politicians sometimes make statements so strange that it’s hard not to suspect they’re being controlled by aliens. And high-tech invasions of one country by another have long since become a reality.

At night, drones are difficult to distinguish from UFOs.

Source: nypost.com

We should not forget about the rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles. In just one decade, they have evolved into aircraft that experts would have considered science fiction twenty years ago. At the same time, most military drones have never been seen by the general public, which is why they can easily be mistaken for UFOs at dusk.

A characteristic example here is the unidentified drones over the countries of Northern Europe, which have been terrorizing local airports and military bases over the past few months. Many believe that these are truly alien craft, and this claim interacts in a complex way with the assumption that, in reality, these drones belong to Russia.

Doesn’t this situation resemble the one in the late 1930s, when the Germans were about to invade somewhere? After all, no one would dare claim that aliens couldn’t have drones of their own. Which means that footage of one of the most advanced drones in action can easily be passed off as evidence of extraterrestrial existence — and many people would believe it.

But what if they actually arrive?

So far, we’ve been talking about how not to believe a fake about aliens. But, theoretically, the opposite problem is also possible: beings from other worlds could arrive and reveal themselves openly — yet no one would believe it, because everyone knows how easy it is to create a fake video.

It’s one thing when it’s a real invasion. Whether it’s a laser beam or a missile — when it hits something near you, all doubts disappear. Of course, it would be nice to know that someone has attacked Earth before you experience it firsthand, but, let’s be honest, this problem is unsolvable even in earthly wars.

But the situation in which aliens arrive and stop somewhere beyond Neptune’s orbit, politely talking with world leaders while waiting to be invited to Earth, is much worse. Even if the aliens deliver a greeting to all the peoples of Earth and it is broadcast on every TV channel, it would still be less convincing than the 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds.

Because just as people believe what they’re ready to believe, they don’t believe what they’re not ready to perceive. So it’s easy to imagine a situation where humanity has been communicating with aliens for decades, dozens of videos featuring them are available online, thousands of people have met them in person — yet tens of millions keep insisting that it’s all fake.

Therefore, there are no universal tips on how to tell a fake about aliens from a real invasion. Except, perhaps, to listen carefully to the radio broadcast from the very beginning — they might mention there that it’s all just a dramatization.

• Posted in Articles

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02-11-2025 om 20:59 geschreven door peter  

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-10-2025 om 22:11 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious sounds echoing throughout Nevada's Lake Mead sparking fears of sinister forces

• MORE:  Enormous fire breaks out by Area 51 sending UFO watchers into a frenzy

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

Residents in Nevada have been scared after hearing thunderous and disturbing sounds echoing through the canyons around Lake Mead.

Dozens of reports have flooded in to local police near the Redstone Picnic Area, a popular spot for camping.

This area sits in the desert of Nevada, just a short 30-mile drive from Las Vegas and next to the iconic Hoover Dam.

However, the peace was broken by rumbling booms that sounded like a giant metal door groaning in the distance.

They boomed throughout the day last Tuesday, with videos capturing the noises being shared online.

Many viewers had speculated the sounds were caused by fracking, the process of injecting high pressure liquid into the ground to extract oil or gas, but the local gas company told the Daily Mail they were not carrying out any work at that time.

One woman posting the incident on social media said the sounds woke her up and scared her enough to call for help.

'I just called 911 and they said they'd gotten over 50 calls about it,' the witness posted on TikTok. 

Witnesses in Nevada recorded disturbing noises that were similar to construction equipment in the Lake Mead area this month, but the source could not be found

Witnesses couldn't find the exact source of the echoing booms, but continued to suspect that it was coming from somewhere in the nearby valley, possibly tied to the Kern River gas pipeline that runs through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

One local on Instagram who tried to find the source claimed the answer was the sound of gas being released from the pipeline, like a massive pressure valve letting off steam.

A file photo of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nevada, on June 26, 2022. 

John Locher/AP

In a statement, the Kern River Gas Transmission Company confirmed to the Daily Mail that they did not release any gas from its pipelines on the dates in question.

According to the company, a request was filed for an 'on- and off-system balancing' on the Kern River Line on October 29, but this also appears unrelated to the sounds heard more than a week earlier.

This isn't the first time eerie sounds have been heard echoing through the region, with some claiming they've heard the wailing voices of ghosts along the Colorado River and unexplained footsteps coming from Hoover Dam. 

Some on social media claimed the noise was being caused by secret projects drilling underneath the Nevada desert.

'The noise was so powerful it rattled windows and shook the wildlife for miles,' one person on Instagram said. 

'The fact that it's in rhythm, and in intervals, makes me believe it's man-made. Sounds like a big jackhammer or something,' another Instagram user commented.

Lake Mead (Pictured) has become notorious for unusual and unexplained noises since the lake began to hit record-low water levels in recent years

Before this month's disturbing sounds, there had been a string of reports over the years from campers and boaters around Lake Mead who heard strange rumbles and groans in the area.

This has been especially true since the early 2010s, when the water level at Lake Mead started dropping.

In 2022, as the lake hit record-low levels, visitors claimed to have heard loud metallic clangs and deep hums coming from the newly exposed shorelines.

Experts have mostly dismissed the noises as wind echoing through canyons, small earthquakes shaking rocks, or vibrations from the Hoover Dam and nearby construction sites.

However, some conspiracy theorists online have claimed that all the sounds rattling through this area are likely tied to classified government projects, with the mysterious Area 51 sitting just over 100 miles away.

The infamous base has been tied to extraterrestrial lore for decades, with UFO researchers and conspiracy theorists claiming that secret government experiments have been conducted at Area 51 since the 1950s.

Area 51 sits on the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) and is less than 140 miles from the site of the new noises recorded at the Redstone Picnic Area.

'It's the construction of the underground city they are building [to] prepare for what's coming to Earth,' one person on TikTok alleged.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

30-10-2025 om 20:41 geschreven door peter  

Scientists are baffled after discovering 'impossible' life hidden beneath the Arctic sea ice

• READ MORE: Microbes trapped in permafrost AWAKEN after 40,000 years

By JONATHAN CHADWICK, ASSISTANT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

Scientists have been left baffled after finding 'impossible' life thriving at the north pole.

The tiny microorganisms, invisible to the naked eye, live just beneath the frozen surface of the central Arctic Ocean.

Discovered by experts at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, these bacteria survive on dissolved organic matter in the cold water. 

They also need to convert nitrogen to survive, but bewilderingly, the gas is generally in short supply in the Arctic Ocean. 

So how exactly the creatures are thriving in the water has left the scientists scratching their heads. 

'[We] have discovered an important phenomenon beneath the Arctic sea ice that was previously thought impossible,' they say in a statement. 

'This phenomenon could have implications for the food chain and the carbon budget in the cold north.' 

The researchers also warn that there is less sea ice in the Arctic than there should be due to global warming, which may actually help the organisms to survive. 

According to the researchers, the tiny organisms are officially known as 'non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs'. These microorganisms, primarily bacteria and archaea, can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form, but do not photosynthesize like cyanobacteria

Researchers om the University of Copenhagen have discovered an important phenomenon beneath the Arctic sea ice that was previously thought impossible

According to the researchers, the tiny organisms are officially known as 'non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs'.

These are 'nitrogen-fixing' bacteria, meaning they need to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form of nitrogen, such as ammonium, to stay alive.

Unlike other many other underwater bacteria, non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs (NCDs) do not photosynthesize. 

The team's field work involved measurements of nitrogen fixation from water samples at 13 different Arctic locations from aboard the research ship RV Polarstern.

The experts found a surprising high nitrogen fixation rates, especially at the ice edge, where the ice melts most actively.

What's odd is that nitrogen is in relatively short supply in the Arctic Ocean, meaning nitrogen fixers shouldn't be able to thrive there. 

'Until now, it was believed that nitrogen fixation could not take place under the sea ice,' said study author Dr Lisa W. von Friesen.  

'It was assumed that the living conditions for the organisms that perform nitrogen fixation were too poor. We were wrong.'

The team's field work involved measurements of nitrogen fixation at several Arctic locations over two trips in 2021 and 2022

Pictured, researcher taking measurements of nitrogen fixation in water samples from the Arctic Ocean aboard German research vessel RV Polarstern

In the Arctic Ocean, NCDs and other bacteria feed on dissolved organic matter released by algae, among other things.

In return, the bacteria release the 'fixed' nitrogen (ammonium), which helps algae in the surrounding water to grow.

Unfortunately, too much algae growth in the Arctic can be bad news as it can lead to out of control 'algal blooms' which are toxic and harmful to fish, shellfish, marine mammals and more.  

According to Dr von Friesen, the results suggest the potential for algae production in the Arctic has been underestimated.

What's more, climate change is likely the ultimate cause of the observed changes.  

In the Arctic, sea ice goes through a seasonal cycle each year, spreading in the autumn and winter and then receding in the spring and summer. 

But due to climate change, temperatures are getting higher overall and the Arctic sea ice extent is getting lower on average.

Researchers warn that the Arctic is warming at rates up to four times faster than the global average, which has caused major declines in sea ice coverage, age, and thickness. 

The researchers are the first to discover that the phenomenon of 'nitrogen fixation' occurs beneath sea ice even in the central Arctic Ocean

Measurements were taken at 13 different locations in the Arctic Ocean aboard the German research ship RV Polarstern

Read More

• Microbes trapped in permafrost AWAKEN after 40,000 years - they could spark next pandemic 

According to the researchers, areas of actively-melting sea ice generally have more nitrogen fixation compared with ice-covered parts of the Arctic. 

It seems likely therefore that climate change is to blame for this elevated pattern of nitrogen fixation that they have observed. 

Strangely, stretches of open water have similar levels of nitrogen as ice-covered areas, but the team aren't sure why this is. 

The study, published in Communications Earth & Environment, is the first to show the phenomenon of nitrogen fixation occurs beneath sea ice even in the central Arctic.

Therefore, nitrogen fixation should be considered 'in the equation' when people try to predict what will happen to the Arctic Ocean in the coming decades as sea ice declines, the authors add. 

WHAT IS THE NITROGEN CYCLE?

Nitrogen (N) makes up almost 80 per cent of our atmosphere and is essential for plants and animals.

The carbon-nitrogen bond is one of the most abundant in organic chemistry. 

Animals need it to to make proteins, which forms everything we need to live. 

In plants it forms the basis of enzymes, proteins and chlorophyll.

Ecosystems need nitrogen and other nutrients to absorb carbon dioxide pollution and there is a limited amount available in plants and soil. 

However, it is inert and most useful to life when turned into nitrates or nitrogen compounds.

The nitrogen cycle is the process by which the element is used and then fed back into the system.

Nitrogen (N) makes up almost 80 per cent of our atmosphere and is essential for plants and animals. The nitrogen cycle is the process by which the element is used and then fed back into the system

Nitrogen-fixing organisms convert nitrogen into the soil from the air. 

Lightening is another way in which nitrogen reaches the soil from the air.

Nitrification is the process by which ammonia (a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen) that is in the soil is converted into nitrates by bacteria. 

Plants then take up these nitrates through their roots.  

When the plant dies this nitrogen is goes back into the soil. 

Alternatively if the plant is eaten by an animal the nitrogen returns to the soil in their waste.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

28-10-2025 om 22:08 geschreven door peter  

Mind-blowing Proof we live in a simulation and interdenominational black hole travel is possible on our roads! 👽

Date of discovery: Oct 25, 2025

Location of discovery: UK 

Coordinates: 52°44'53"N 0°52'06"W

 

Guys check this video out I made this morning. This is 100% proof that we live in a simulation and that we and others can move through a inter-dimensional black hole any time we please. It looks like aliens are taking full advantage of this glitch in our matrix by using it like a universal freeway. 

Scott C. Waring 

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{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

26-10-2025 om 22:45 geschreven door peter  

What REALLY happens when you nearly die: 48 people reveal exactly what they saw during their near-death experience – from black holes to God

• READ MORE: The strange links between near–death experiences and drug trips

By WILIAM HUNTER, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

It's a question that has baffled the greatest human minds throughout history: what happens when we die? 

Now, scientists have taken us one step closer to finally knowing the truth.

Researchers interviewed 48 people who have had near–death experiences (NDEs) and asked them what they saw in their final moments.

Their responses revealed a staggering variety of visions. 

Some participants described seeing heavenly beings, while one even said they experienced a terrifying journey into a black hole.

Others, meanwhile, described grand visions featuring religious figures and profound emotional experiences.

For example, one participant told scientists: 'There were stone stairs on the left in front of me, and Jesus was toward the top, wearing a white robe,' while another described how 'God appeared as a great light in the distance'.

Yet some people's visions of the afterlife were far more fantastical, featuring bizarre elements that you wouldn't find anywhere in the Bible.

Scientists interviewed 48 people about what they saw during their near-death experiences. Their answers range from classic visions of tunnels and lights to bizarre encounters with otherworldly beings 

Participants were asked to describe what they saw when they had their near-death experience, and to sketch the geometry of the experience 

NDEs are intense and often life-changing experiences that occur during life-threatening situations such as cardiac arrest or respiratory failure.

Estimates suggest that about four to eight per cent of the general public have had an NDE.

However, despite being surprisingly common, scientists have struggled to find a way of systematically studying such intense and personal experiences.

In a new study, currently awaiting peer review, researchers tried to categorise NDEs by interviewing people about the 'geometry' of their experience.

Surprisingly, these interview sessions revealed that no two people experienced exactly the same thing as they approached death.

Even people who had visions of religious figures like God, Jesus, and the angels saw wildly different things. 

One participant described how they 'became light' and saw 'Jesus at my right, bearded, robed, there to show me the way out'.

Another told the interviewers: 'God force entered from in front of me toward the right. I had the feeling of wanting to lift my head up, but could not or felt that I shouldn't.'

Many individuals reported seeing religious figures such as God or Jesus. The researchers say this is because our cultural beliefs provide the 'scaffold' for the near-death experience hallucinations

Some participants recalled fantastical visions of strange beings and journeys to unknown locations, while others were much simpler and only described lights or tunnels 

Meanwhile, another participant gave an incredibly detailed description of an 'angel' that had come to visit them in their final moments.

They said this being had 'exquisite white wings, the feathers incredibly detailed and layered onto one another and his face was that of a Greek god, very symmetrical and with polished hair like you see in Greek statues'.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, lead author Dr France Lerner, of the Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, explained how our cultural background provides the 'scaffold' for the hallucinations caused by an NDE.

This might explain why one participant reported hearing 'men reading the Torah' rather than seeing Christian iconography. 

On the other hand, many people's NDEs had no religious content at all and contained many of the classic near-death features such as bright lights and long tunnels. 

One participant described being 'enveloped with an organic tunnel that was completely black, but had iridescent qualities'.

Other participants reported seeing scenes that would be more suited to a sci–fi film than a religious text, including a terrifying visit to a 'black hole'

Another recalled: 'I was in the centre of an immense bubble of light, I saw no edge of this bubble, it enveloped me completely. I can say that I was part of it, this light was the most beautiful ever seen.'

In a few haunting accounts, some participants even described encounters with loved ones – including those who had long since passed away.

'I saw my aunts Elizabeth and Linnie as they were when they were younger women, I only knew them when they were sixty–seventy years old,' one participant told the scientists.

However, some participants' NDEs were even stranger and contained elements which would be more at home in a science fiction film than a religious text.

For example, one person recalled seeing a black hole, saying: 'A black hole looks black from afar. The light was so bright it was hard to see all colours, they were still there.'

One participant had an even more unusual vision, telling researchers that they saw 'a matrix, with many, many grid points, all connecting to each other in multiple dimensions.'

They added: 'I felt that if I entered the matrix, I would be able to travel anywhere in the entire universe, simply by thinking about it.'

Although their visions were wildly diverse, the researchers also found that these experiences play out in four distinct types of space.

One person told the scientists that they saw the Matrix with 'many, many grid points, all connecting to each other in multiple dimensions'. They also had the powerful belief that this Matrix could take them anywhere in the universe  

The first, which they call A–shapes, are scenes where the visual field is a narrow cone.

The researchers believe that these might be caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, which causes the peripheral vision to fail and creates tunnel vision.

So-called B-shapes and C-shapes, meanwhile, take place in elliptical or arch–shaped regions and are likely triggered as half of the visual field is temporarily lost.

The final type, known as C5-shapes, takes place within a full 360–degree 'ellipsoidal enclosure'.

Read More

•  Is this a ghost? English Heritage shares image of an 'unexplained' apparition at Chester Castle 

Interestingly, the researchers found that people typically progressed from an A-shape to a C5-shape experience as their NDE progressed, suggesting that they share the same physical cause.

The researchers say that all NDEs are caused by a 'breakdown' in the coherence between visual and other physical inputs that normally sustains our sense of bodily unity.

Dr Lerner explained that the shape of an NDE was caused by the way our visual field changes when the brain starts to shut down.

Importantly, she says this doesn’t imply that there is a separate soul or that our consciousness is capable of somehow leaving the body.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

24-10-2025 om 21:54 geschreven door peter  

One such individual who had plenty of such stories to tell was an Ottoman explorer who traveled the ends of the earth to bring back many odd tales, including those of the decidedly supernatural. The Ottoman explorer, traveler, and writer Evliya Çelebi was born in 1611 in Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey, during the height of the Ottoman Empire, which was created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Asia Minor) and grew exponentially to be one of the most imposing and powerful states in the whole world during the 15th and 16th centuries. The son of the chief court jeweler, Celebi’s intelligence, wit, extensive knowledge of the Koran, and natural gift for music and languages, with him able to speak Arabic, Persian, Greek and Latin, captured the attention of the imam of Sultan Murad IV, and at just the tender age of twelve he was taken in as an apprentice to Sultan, excelling as a Koran reader and able to recite long passages perfectly from memory, by some accounts all of it. 

He did not start out as the intrepid traveler he would become; instead, he was absorbed in his studies of Arabic, calligraphy, and music at the Ottoman palace school, but at some point, he discovered his deep wanderlust when he began embarking on official travels that took him from Belgrade to Baghdad and from Crimea to Cairo. Even at this point, his ultimate goal was to be a member of the Imperial court; it was something his family also desperately wanted for him despite his urges to travel over the horizon, but one night, he was to have an epiphany that would change his life forever.

On the very night of his twentieth birthday, Celebi allegedly had a vision of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as His Companions and the four first caliphs of Islam in a vivid dream. In this dream, he was told to give up his designs of joining the court and rather spend his life traveling to the far corners of the world so that he might “compose a marvelous work” based on his adventures to far-flung exotic lands. The Prophet would tell him:

“Thou shalt travel through the whole world and be a marvel among men. Of the countries through which you will pass, of their castles, strongholds, wonderful antiquities, eatables and drinkables ... the extent of their provinces and the length of the days there, draw up a description which will be a monument worthy of thee.”

On the strength of this potent dream, Celebi decided to defy his parents’ wishes to be a member of the Imperial court and give up everything to follow what the Prophet had told him to do. And so he set off on a life of journeys that would span the next three decades, traveling with an entourage of mules, camels, travel companions, and up to a dozen slaves at any given time, on extensive travels that would take him from one end of the known world to the other, often returning to enthrall the court with tales of adventure and mystery. Along the way, Celebi would compile a vast, sprawling 10-volume tome of travel memoirs and notes called the Seyahatname, or the “Book of Travels,” also sometimes referred to as the Tarihi seyyah (“Chronicle of a Traveler”), which has been called “the longest and fullest travel account in Islamic literature, perhaps in world literature.” Within the many hundreds of pages of this vast masterpiece of travel literature are tales of strange customs and lands, exotic people and cultures, fantastical animals, and bloody battles and massacres, as well as the landmarks, ethnography, history, and geography of the lands he visited in Europe, Asia, Africa, and beyond, and all manner of bizarre and amazing tales of the things he had seen and done. It is an impressive and unique manuscript to be sure, with pages upon pages of amazing and spectacular adventures, but within these volumes, among the various exotic people, customs, and tales of far-flung lands beyond the understanding of the time are some stories that stand out as weirder than others, and here we get into all of the damn witches, vampires and zombies Celebi claims to have come across. 

Throughout the pages of the Seyahatname, Celebi makes frequent mention of magic, sorcery, the supernatural, and metaphysical beings, and one prime example of this is an incident he claimed happened to him on the night of April 26, 1666, in the tiny Pedsi village of the Caucasus. He claimed that one dark, moonless evening, there had been a sudden, very intense flash of lightning outside that had roused him from his writings. These flashes continued, and when Celebi asked some of the villagers what was going on, they told him that once a year, there was a night during which Circassian witches and Abkhaz witches flew to the sky and engaged in battle in a great war. Astonished by this, Celebi then went outside to see for himself, where he was met by quite the bizarre sight. 

He claimed that when he looked up he saw “witches on large trees, cubes, boats, carriage wheels and many other similar objects fighting witches on horses, cattle, carrion and dead camels, with snakes, horses and camel heads in their hands,” all behind the backdrop of intermittent flashes and swaths of bright light across the sky, now obviously not from lightning, but rather through the magical might of their sorcery. At one point, there was an enormous, thunderous explosion, after which “felt, poles, cubes, doors and carriage wheels, and parts of humans and animals such as horses” fell from the sky, followed by seven Abkhazian witches and seven Circassian witches hurtling to the ground, where they continued to fight. According to the account, the Circassian witches killed the Abkhazian witches by sucking their blood, after which they hurled the lifeless bodies onto a bonfire. After this, there was the crowing of roosters, and the remaining witches took flight to disappear into the night. Celebi makes it a point to mention that he would have never believed such a thing possible if he had not seen it himself, and we are left to wonder what was going on here.

Celebi would write of other encounters with witches as well. In one incident, he was staying in the Çalıkkavak village of Bulgaria when he claimed to have come across an “old miserable woman with messy hair and an ugly face and seven children.” This woman and her children entered the non-Muslim house where he was staying and gathered around the fire, where the women gathered up some ashes and performed some kind of arcane spell. After this, the old hag and the children allegedly transformed into chickens right before the eyes of Celebi and other members of his expedition. Celebi would write of what transpired next:

“The next thing we knew, a heathen was peeing on chickens. At that moment, they all turned into human beings. Some other people grabbed the woman and the children by the arms and beat them. We went and saw that the church was where they arrived later. They handed the woman over to the priest, and the priest excommunicated her. My men swore an oath after this incident. They all saw this incident and witnessed that the chickens turned into humans. That night, my nosebleed did not stop out of fear. The bleeding stopped in the morning.”

His other stories of witches seem to imply something we would be more familiar with as vampires. Celebi claimed that the Caucasus region was particularly infested with such creatures. He told of bloodsucking witches prowling remote villages and drinking the blood of the terrified populace, after which any villager who was fed on in such a way would become sick, die, and then rise from the dead to do the same thing as some sort of undead abomination. These terrifying entities were said to return to sleep in the ground during the day, and according to Celebi, the villagers would sometimes unearth one to find it flushed and the eyes bloodshot from having fed. This “witch” would then be dispatched with a long stake of blackberries that was “nailed to her belly,” and her body then burned to ashes in a fire. If this were done, then any of the other blood-drinking revenants that the witch had spawned would supposedly revert to normal human form. On other occasions, a blood-drinking witch would be captured, put in chains, and forced to confess her black magic, after which she would be killed with a stake and immolated, but not before some of her blood was taken to rub it on her victims to cure them of their affliction. If some of the details here sound familiar, it is because such tales are considered to be some of the earliest vampire stories, and are even thought to have influenced Bram Stoker for his book Dracula.

Is any of this true? That is a tough question to answer. The veracity of anything written in the Seyahatname has long been debated, as while Celebi claims that his work is the will of Allah and an honest chronicle, it is peppered with numerous stories and claims that seem like they can’t possibly be true. Interspersed throughout the vast tome are countless embellishments, flourishes, and just stuff he made up, such as inaccurate geography or descriptions of places he had obviously never been to, battles that could not have possibly happened as described, and numerous fantastical animals, people, and plants, including giant avian monsters, humans with animal heads, chimeras, dragon-like beasts, giant waxen plants like nothing known, a strange yellow tree whose leaves miraculously cured syphilis, and many other strange anomalies. 

What makes it harder to weed out the fantasy, fairy tale elements is that there are also long passages that are actually incredibly accurate, matching up perfectly with what we now know about the places and people he encountered, as well as accurate and meticulous transcriptions of languages that were unknown at the time, while other stories are almost certainly tall tales and then there are those that incorporate elements of both. There could be an otherwise honest and sober, accurate depiction of history that will feature a jarring inclusion such as a cat freezing in midair as it jumps from roof to roof, a virgin woman giving birth to an elephant, or some other obvious flight of fancy. 

This has all posed a bit of a conundrum for historians, as it is sometimes nearly impossible to parse fact from fiction in this hodgepodge of the real and imagined, and reading it is akin to trying to solve a puzzle. Indeed, some experts have claimed that only about 50 percent of the entire text is factual, while the other is heavy exaggeration or pure bunk. Some passages are obvious truths, while others are obvious lies, but there are also large swaths in which the lies are not particularly obvious, a sort of blurring of the line between reality and fantasy, making it even harder to tell if what you are reading is true or not and hiding possible tantalizing insights into history behind a murky lense. Edward White, author of The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America, has said of it:

“In the Seyahatname, pages can whistle by without an honest word in sight, though Evliya emphasizes that he is upholding the will of Allah. Typically, “Evliya the unhypocritical” reminds us of his pious commitment to scrupulousness just before he launches into an obvious lie about, say, an encounter with a woman from the Black Sea who gave birth to an elephant, the rhinoceros-riding tribes of the Sudan, or the man-eating Buddhists of Kalmyia. “God is my witness that this took place,” he says before one such tale—cast-iron evidence that it didn’t. Historians debate whether these fairy-tale inventions are intended as satirical barbs at the hyperbolic travel writers or an homage to the fantastical stories of Arabian Nights on which Evliya had grown up. Likely, it was both. But it’s also pretty clear that every now and then he simply got bored with faithfully recording reality and decided to amuse himself by splicing the mundane with the phantasmagorical. The fun for the reader comes in trying to spot the moment when empirical truth ends and one of Evliya’s campfire yarns begins.”

If he is lying, then it seems strange, considering he was such a devout Muslim, to the point that he routinely referred to non-Muslims as "infidels" and "heathens," swearing to Allah that it was all true, that he would defy that faith to tell tall tales. Celebi would settle in Cairo near the end of his life, dying in 1684 to leave behind this fascinating and frustrating historical travel account, with no notes or indications from the author himself as to where reality ends and the tall tales begin. Indeed, as far as he was concerned, it was all a completely true and honest account of his travels; he insists so on many occasions, even swearing to Allah that it is so, and so we are left with this lengthy text that harbors tantalizing historical facts mixed in with a lot of question marks. Unfortunately for many who would study it, while the Seyahatname is very well-known in its native Turkey, it is more obscure in the West. Indeed, there currently is no complete English translation of the entire work, just certain parts, and the only other language it has been translated into to an appreciable degree is German, leaving much of it in the dark to those not up to speed on their Turkish. 

We are left with an epic piece of travel literature that has fascinated and puzzled historians right up to the present, perpetually stuck in a limbo of interpretation and debate. How much of these accounts is true and what is false? Did this explorer ever really come across the supernatural creatures he claims he did? What are we to make of all this? It seems that in the end, Evliya Çelebi and his strange texts on his mysterious travels and encounters will likely forever remain in the shadows, cryptic and misunderstood. 

Moving along, in the 19th century, the wealthy and eccentric English naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton traveled the world collecting an eclectic mix of specimens that he then used his formidable skills in taxidermy to create exhibitions for his estate, a sort of museum of the strange and macabre. He was, by all accounts, a rather odd individual, known for his remarkably eccentric behavior and myriad odd claims. For instance, he was known to prowl about his estate acting like a dog and biting strangers on their legs, dressing like a scarecrow and sitting in trees, pretending to be his own butler, and making a myriad of bizarre claims such as that he could “navigate the atmosphere,” but he was still nevertheless respected for his writings on natural history and conservation, which were groundbreaking at the time.

In 1804, Waterton made his way to the South American country of Guyana to take control of some of his uncle’s estates there, and he would branch out to explore and collect various specimens of the wildlife there as well, as he was wont to do. Between 1812 and 1824, he would make various journeys and expeditions out into the unexplored areas of the country, all the while collecting numerous specimens of wildlife, which he would put on display in his home, amassing an enormous menagerie of stuffed birds and animals in the process. He was known for his unique method of taxidermy, in which he would use a mercury-based chemical to harden the skins and make them hollow, yet very lifelike simulacrums of the animals they had been. One of the most famous of all of these was a curious little exhibition that concerned an anomalous head of a monkey-like creature that Waterton simply referred to as “The Nondescript.”

The origins of this peculiar specimen were written of in Waterton’s 1825 travel memoir Wanderings in South America, a fairly influential work which is said to have even captured the imagination of a young Charles Darwin, and turned out to date back to an expedition to the jungles of Guyana during which he came across a rather odd beast indeed. During the journey, the expedition allegedly came across a rather peculiar humanoid creature that was covered with thick hair and possessed a tail and a face with strikingly human features. The group did the human thing and promptly shot and killed it, after which Waterton claimed he had been forced to preserve merely the head and neck of the beast. Waterton would say of this:

“I also procured an animal which has caused not a little speculation and astonishment. In my opinion, his thick coat of hair and great length of tail, put his species out of all question; but then, his face and head cause the inspector to pause for a moment before he ventures to pronounce his opinion of the classification. He was a large animal, and as I was pressed for daylight, and moreover, felt no inclination to have the whole weight of his body upon my back, I contented myself with his head and shoulders, which I cut off, and have brought them with me to Europe.”

Since the weird specimen looked so incredibly human, albeit with a hairy body, there were all kinds of theories orbiting the find. One was that Waterton had actually shot, killed, and stuffed the corpse of a native tribesman, which he had then snuck into the country through bribing customs officials, which Waterton himself vehemently denied, claiming that it had been some sort of unidentified ape-like creature. Another theory was that the creature on display was exactly what Waterton claimed it to be: some sort of new type of primate.

The specimen itself was just the head and shoulders, with a strikingly human countenance with a hairless face and large eyes surrounded by a thick, red mane, sort of reminiscent of an orangutan. The specimen drew flocks of gasping, puzzled onlookers, but some were aware of Waterton’s skill with taxidermy and began to suspect that this was some sort of cleverly crafted fake. It was suggested that he had merely taken the corpse of a howler monkey, in particular its hindquarters, and modified it to make it more human in appearance. Indeed, he had already shown a propensity for using taxidermy for satire and to make a political point, such as using lizards to craft into likenesses of various famous Protestant figures (Waterton was a devout Roman Catholic), and he had indulged in creative taxidermy on many occasions before.

It was even pointed out that the “Nondescript” bore an uncanny resemblance to a customs official who had given Waterton some trouble on his return to England from Guyana. Apparently, when he had docked, there had been a customs inspector named Mr. Lushington, who had seen the mass of animal specimens and demanded that Waterton pay a premium tax on the haul. Waterton had fought the import tax, but had invariably been forced to pay it, which had apparently irritated him to no end.

The thing is, while with all of his other, more creative designs, he had readily admitted to the whole thing, with the Nondescript, he not only firmly denied any tampering with the specimen, but actually provided a full back story to capturing it. He always maintained that the specimen was real, and there were plenty of people who believed him. Why would he do such a thing? It has been suggested that he was trying to test his skill by presenting a hoax as real and seeing how well it stood up to scrutiny, or that it was even meant to be a beacon to try and draw more exploration to Guyana, or even a satirical jab at other naturalists of the time. Others think that this was just a long-running practical joke that he had thought up for the fun of it all, or merely a stubborn dis of the customs official who had irked him. To this day, the specimen is exhibited at the Wakefield Museum in England, and still generates controversy as to its origins and reality. In the end, it is unknown.

Finally, we get to the adventures of anthropologists. Like in any science, the anthropologist looks for studies of human activity through investigation of physical evidence, through stringent protocols, and fact-based research. Yet also, as in many sciences, the researcher sometimes hits a wall of bafflement in which they are no longer penetrating into the unknown, but groping along the edges of it, trying to make sense of it and find a way in. There have been a handful of these explorers and researchers who have come up against something they truly do not understand and which their training has not prepared them for, brushes with forces beyond their comprehension. So next up we will look at a selection of instances in which respected, highly seasoned scientific anthropologists in Africa had supernatural experiences that would challenge their beliefs and the very fundamentals of what reality is.

First off is American cultural anthropologist and professor of anthropology at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Paul Stoller, who is one of the most respected in his field, over his more than 30 years of field work earning many accolades, numerous academic awards, and grants from Wenner-Gren Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, the National Science Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as receiving a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. The American Anthropological Association named him the recipient of the Robert B Textor Award for Excellence in Anthropology, and he has also won the coveted Anders Retzius Medal in Gold, given once every three years by the King of Sweden, for his scientific contributions to anthropology. He has written numerous ethnographies, biographies, memoirs, and novels, as well as countless articles, many of which have been nominated for various awards. He is highly respected in his field, and is also interesting in the fact that much of his fieldwork and studies relate to magic, sorcery and spirit possession.

Stoller was long interested in various ritual practices, specifically in Africa, and far from just sitting in his study reading about such things, he really went the whole hog. In the 1970s, he travelled to the Republic of Niger and Mali in order to live among the Songhay people and study their culture and linguistics. It was here that he would cultivate an interest in actual magic and sorcery, and he has said of the evolution of this interest in magic in the workshop, Weaving the World: Writing Evocative Ethnographies:

“I think that the topic chooses the anthropologist rather than the other way around. In Songhay they say that if you want to seek out sorcery or magic, you will never discover it. You might approach it, you might talk about it, you might meet some people, but it will never grab you. So, what happens according to them is, if you eat magic, which is, you eat the substances to transform yourself, then magic eats you. If you consume history, you are consumed by it. It is the larger force of things that focuses on you. In my case, my initial fieldwork was in linguistic anthropology and I was interested in Friday mosque sermons. I never sought out to learn about sorcery. But then – I described this in my book In Sorcery’s Shadow (1987) – there were these two birds living in a rafter of the house where I was living. They were pooping on my floor and I got all irritated with these birds so I would knock their nest down. They would fly away, but then build another nest and get closer and closer to where my desk was. So after a while I just stopped paying attention to them. One day one of the birds pooped on my head in the presence of a guy that I thought was a rice farmer. But he turned out to be a Songhay healer. He said, “I’ve seen a sign, you’ve been pointed out to me. Come to my house and begin to learn.” That is how I got into the topic of sorcery. For me at least, things have sought me out. I have stumbled into sorcery.”

Stoller would jump fully into the world of Songhay sorcery and magical practices, living in a hut and studying under a man named Adamu Jenitongo, considered to be one of the most knowledgeable and powerful Songhay sorcerers of his era, as well as under the apprenticeship of another sorcerer called Hamidou Salou. This took him into a murky world of strange powers, dark forces, and mysterious spirits that most outsiders have never even heard of, much less become a part of. Among his studies of various spells and rituals, he had some particularly odd experiences. One of these was a time he tried to help a friend bless his house, as it was apparently being terrorized by a powerful evil spirit called Dongo, which was greatly feared by the local people to the point that they did not dare even so much as invoke its name. The ritual involved the sacrifice of a black rooster, but Stoller apparently botched the spell and angered the spirit and causing it to plague him with misfortune. He would say of this:

“Things began to unravel a few days later. After a short trip to Tillaberi, Adamu Jenitongo’s village 75 miles north of Niamey, I returned to the capital city and was in a car accident, bruising my forehead when it slammed against the sun visor. The evening after the accident, I attended a wedding ceremony and developed a pounding headache, blurry vision, and a high fever – telltale signs of the onset of malaria. Complaining about my symptoms, his in-law, a physician, gave me sulfa drugs to teach the ‘malaria’. The drugs quickly produced an allergic reaction – a severe rash that spread over my torso and down my legs. I became more feverish and was soon too weak to walk. At night I had disturbing ‘malarial’ dreams, all of which were about my difficult death. After several days of suffering, I somehow gathered the strength to get out of bed, dress myself and hail a taxi, which I took to Hamidou’s hut. I told Hamidou my tale of transgression.”

His mentor chastised him, calling him a “foolish boy,” telling him that his attempt to banish Dongo had greatly angered the spirit, especially since he had tried it as just a lowly and unworthy apprentice. Stoller was sent on his way back to the United States to recuperate from his illness, along with a satchel of magical herbs, medicine, and resin to help him. Oddly, although he was very sick, doctors could find nothing physically wrong with him and no reason why he was ill. It wasn’t malaria or any other known disease; doctors were stumped. However, after burning the resin every day and taking the herbs and medicine he had been given by the sorcerer, he made a full recovery within a few days. Stoller would write several books on his experiences with the Songhay, including In Sorcery’s Shadow, The Burden of Writing the Sorcerer’s Burden: Ethnography, Fiction and the Future of Anthropological Expression, and Fusion of the Worlds: Ethnography of Possession Among the Songhay of Niger, the latter of which would be nominated for the prestigious J.I. Staley Prize. He continues to do anthropology work and fill halls for his numerous lectures, as well as blogging regularly on culture, politics, and higher education for The Huffington Post.

Another anthropologist who experienced some odd things during fieldwork in Africa was English anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard, who was a pioneer in the development of social anthropology, President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland from 1949–51, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford from 1946 to 1970, and also the recipient of numerous honors, including the Rivers Memorial Medal and of the Huxley Memorial Medal, and he was even knighted in 1971. In short, he was no quack. He is best known for his work on various religious practices among African tribes, particularly in Sudan and among the Azande people of the upper Nile in the 1920s. While studying their ways, he did much research on their magic and witchcraft, and although he mostly did this through a scientific lens, he reportedly had some strange experiences that he would not be able to easily explain. In his book Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, he writes of one particularly odd incident:

“I have only once seen witchcraft on its path. I had been sitting late in my hut writing notes. About midnight, before retiring, I took a spear and went for my usual nocturnal stroll. I was walking in the garden at the back of my hut, amongst banana trees, when I noticed a bright light passing at the back of my servants’ huts towards the homestead of a man called Tupoi. As this seemed worth investigation I followed its passage until a grass screen obscured the view. I ran quickly through my hut to the other side in order to see where the light was going to, but did not regain sight of it. I knew that one man, a member of my household, had a lamp that might have given off so bright a light, but next morning he told me that he had neither been out late at night nor had he used his lamp. There did not lack ready informants to tell me that what I had seen was witchcraft. Shortly afterwards, on the same morning, an old relative of Tupoi and an inmate of his homestead died. This event fully explained the light I had seen. I never discovered [the light’s] real origin, which was possibly a handful of grass lit by someone on his way to defecate, but the coincidence of the direction along which the light moved and the subsequent death accorded well with Zande ideas.”

What was going on here? Finally, we have the English-American anthropologist Edith Turner, who, among the various far-flung people she studied, covering such places as Mexico, Israel, Japan, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, and Korea, also spent much time doing fieldwork among the Ndembu of Zambia and the Bagisu of Uganda. She was known for her interest in the various rituals, shamanism, and especially the magical healing practices of these places, and it was during her time in Africa that she would allegedly witness this type of magic firsthand. In 1985, as she was living among the Ndembu people, she was invited to attend a spiritual healing ceremony for a woman named Meru. Leading the ritual was a witch doctor by the name of Singleton, who had deemed the woman’s sickness to be caused by possession by a malicious spirit called an ihamba. After covering the victim and others present with red clay to protect themselves from the ihamba jumping into their bodies and taking some herbal concoction, the bizarre ritual began with trying to guide the spirit out of the body, which would supposedly take the form of a tooth, and Turner would describe what unfolded next in her book Experiencing Ritual:

"Clap, clap, clap – Mulandu was leaning forward, and all the others were on their feet – this was it. Quite an interval of struggle elapsed while I clapped like one possessed, crouching beside Bill amid a lot of urgent talk, while Singleton pressed Meru’s back, guiding and leading out the tooth. Meru’s face in a grin of tranced passion, her back quivering rapidly. Suddenly Meru raised her arm, stretched it in liberation, and I saw with my own eyes a giant thing emerging out of the flesh of her back. An opaque ‘plasma’ might describe it. This thing was a large gray blob about six inches across, a deep gray opaque thing emerging as a sphere. I was amazed-delighted. I still laugh with glee at the realization of having seen it, the ihamba, and so big! We were all just one in triumph. The gray thing was actually out there, visible, and you could see Singleton’s hands working and scrabbling on the back, and then the thing was there no more. Singleton had it in his pouch, pressing it in with his other hand as well. The receiving can was ready; he transferred whatever it was into the can and capped the castor oil leaf and bark lid over it. It was done. I did not merely intuit the spirit form emerging from Meru’s back but saw it, saw it with my own eyes. This is different from intuition or imagination; it is nearer to seeing a ghost."

Rather oddly, Turner would claim to have psychic experiences and occasionally go into strange trances for the rest of her life. Such cases are curious because they come from trained scientific professionals and blur the line between the reality we know and the world beyond our normal senses. 

What is going on in these cases? These are people who have gone out to faraway places that most of us could never imagine going to, getting peeks into cultures far removed from our everyday lives, and although expecting to see the strange, coming across things that they were perhaps not ready for and which challenged their beliefs. Whatever they experienced out there on their travels, it just goes to show that in some ways, no matter how much our knowledge of the world has increased, there are still dark pockets of the unknown lying out in the shadows.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

23-10-2025 om 16:31 geschreven door peter  

What lies beneath: Scientists discover a giant granite slab half the size of WALES hidden under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

• READ MORE: Earth's largest ocean current is grinding to a halt

By WILIAM HUNTER, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Scientists have discovered a giant granite body hidden beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

At 62 miles (100 km) wide and over four miles (seven km) thick, the massive rocky structure is roughly half the size of Wales.

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) say the enormous slab of granite is buried underneath the Pine Island Glacier and likely formed during the Jurassic period.  

However, finding the massive structure was only possible thanks to a handful of mysterious pink boulders scattered over the continent's frozen volcanic peaks.

The unusual boulders, perched on the high mountaintops, had baffled scientists for decades. 

Now, researchers have realised the rocks are actually tiny parts of the granite giant, dropped on top of mountains by glaciers in the distant past. 

Dr Tom Jordan, lead author and geophysicist at BAS, says: 'It's remarkable that pink granite boulders spotted on the surface have led us to a hidden giant beneath the ice.

'We've not only solved a mystery about where these rocks came from, but also uncovered new information about how the ice sheet flowed in the past and how it might change in the future.'

Mysterious pink boulders scattered over Antarctica's Hudson Mountains have helped scientists discover a massive granite body hidden under the ice

This granite body is hidden beneath the Pine Island Glacier (pictured) and is believed to be 62 miles (100 km) wide and over four miles (seven km) thick, making it roughly half the size of Wales.

When scientists first started finding pink granite boulders on the tops of the Hudson Mountains, it raised an obvious question: where were these rocks coming from?

'The pink granites we found in the Hudson Mountains were a total contrast with the underlying black basalts, meaning it was instantly clear that they had been transported from elsewhere,' says Dr Jordan.

By looking at the radioactive decay of minerals trapped within microscopic crystals, scientists discovered that they were formed around 175 million years ago.

That made them about 75 million years older than most of the rock in the western part of Antarctica.  

However, it was only when researchers started making aerial surveys of the region that the full picture started to emerge.

Flying aircraft over the Hudson Mountains, researchers from the BAS measured subtle changes in the Earth's gravitational field.

Dr Jordan explains: 'Gravity is the attraction between you and everything underneath your feet, so for example, if you stand on a slab of lead, there is more mass pulling you down than if you stand on a slab of wood.

'These variations are so tiny you can never feel them directly, but the very precise sensors we have on the survey aircraft can.'

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey found the granite body by flying aircraft over the ice to measure subtle changes in the Earth's gravitational pull 

Scientists think the pink granite boulders were picked up by a glacier when the ice sheet was much higher and dropped onto mountain tops 

By flying over the area in a grid pattern, the researchers were able to build a map of where dense and less dense rocks could be found.  

These gravitational surveys revealed an unusual geological signal coming from beneath the Pine Island Glacier, one that was consistent with buried granite.

Linking these findings to the mysterious granite boulders, the scientists had finally discovered where the rocks had come from.

In the distant past, when the ice sheet was much thicker, the Pine Island Glacier had plucked the boulders out from the rocky bed and deposited them on the tops of nearby mountains. 

Since the pink boulders were only found on half the mountains, this also shows that there were two distinct rivers of ice that transported material up into the mountains.  

Co-author Dr Joanne Johnson, a geologist for the BAS, says: 'Rocks provide an amazing record of how our planet has changed over time, especially how ice has eroded and altered the landscape of Antarctica. 

'Boulders like these are a treasure-trove of information about what lies deep beneath the ice sheet, far out of reach.'

However, beyond solving an interesting geological puzzle, this discovery could also have big consequences for understanding the continent's future.

By understanding the underlying geology of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the researchers say they will be able to make better computer models of how continent's ice will move, melt, and impact global sea levels 

Understanding how ice flows have changed since the last ice age, around 20,000 years ago, helps scientists predict how the ice sheet will respond to climate change in the future.  

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•  Ernest Shackleton KNEW Endurance was doomed before it sank 

Likewise, underlying geology is one of the biggest factors affecting how ice slides over the bed and how meltwater drains beneath it.

In the Pine Island Glacier, which has seen some of the fastest ice melt in Antarctica over the last few decades, the presence of a massive granite body will have a big impact on the region's future. 

The scientists hope that their discovery can be used to improve computer models of the ice flow that are used to project sea level increases. 

Dr Johnson says this finding gives scientists 'clues about how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may change in future – information that is vital for determining the impact of sea level rise on coastal populations around the world.'

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{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

22-10-2025 om 21:33 geschreven door peter  

Living Nostradamus issues doomsday warning about 'the global order'

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

A psychic has issued a warning about a shocking shift in global dominance following an 'unprecedented' military meeting held in the US this week. 

Athos Salomé, 39, from Brazil, who is known as the 'Living Nostradamus,' earned his title after he accurately predicted dozens of world events. 

Those included the Microsoft global outage, the coronavirus pandemic and Queen Elizabeth II's death. 

Salomé told the Daily Mail US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's gathering of around 800 of America's highest-ranking military officers on Tuesday 'revealed an imminent crisis or strategic urgency.' 

Hegseth called the meeting last week, requiring high-ranking admirals and generals in the US and worldwide to attend at the Quantico base in Virginia, where he fired a direct message to America's generals: 'No more DEI, dudes in dresses, or gender delusion .... prepare for war.' 

'This meeting could result in new alliances, unexpected cuts or even changes in the global order,' Salomé said. 

'The next three months will be decisive in understanding whether we are facing merely an administrative reorganization or preparation for a much broader geopolitical transformation.' 

He also suggested that the meeting was not routine, but 'a test of collective loyalty.' 

Athos Salomé warned that the Pentagon is waiting for the right moment to act, and so officials are promoting a series of changes, including the emergency meeting called for this purpose

Pete Hegseth called the meeting last week, requiring high-ranking admirals and generals in the US and worldwide to attend at the Quantico base in Virginia

Hegseth said that there would be a male standard of fitness for all troops, stating that he was 'tired of seeing fat troops.' He also said these new rules are 'not about preventing women from serving.'

But he added that the physical standards needed to be gender neutral.

'If women can make it, excellent, if they cannot, then so be it ... it will also mean that weak men won't qualify. This is combat.'

The Secretary of War said standard training guidelines will be restored 'to what they should be — scary, tough disciplined,' and one where drill sergeants 'can put their hands on recruits.'

Hegseth slammed the political softening of the armed forces, including concerns over bullying and hazing, and wokeness.

'This event marks a historic turning point: it is not just a meeting, it is a test of obedience,' Salomé warned.

'Those who fall in line will remain; those who resist may fall. This means that the civil authorities are seeking to redefine the military chain of command, creating a new pact of loyalty.'

The location of the meeting also appeared as a warning, as 'Quantico is no ordinary address,' Salomé said.

Salomé believes the US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (pictured) called the meeting to also see which of America's high-ranking generals and admirals are loyal, along with a way to set the stage for changes in the global order

'It's a base associated with special operations and intelligence, quite different from the traditional spaces where meetings of this size take place,' he added.

'This points to a sensitive topic, possibly linked to cybersecurity or the development of next-generation weapons. 

The psychic also revealed key developments he foresaw following the meeting, including a mass purge in the Pentagon. 

'After the meeting, there will be forced retirements, silent dismissals, and strategic replacements. It will be the largest purge of officers since World War II,' Salomé said.

He also believes a major shift is coming to the US, which will be less global presence in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and a focus on domestic defense, borders, and the Western Hemisphere.

'It is the transformation of America into a continental fortress,' he warned. 

However, the attendance of President Donald Trump at the event was 'the most symbolic gesture.' 

The head of the War Department has offered no explanation for the surprise move

(stock)

'Trump in front of hundreds of generals. It's not just a speech. It's the construction of an image of absolute power over the Pentagon,' Salomé explained, adding that Hegseth was not seeking practicality, but visual impact.

'It is the first public rehearsal of collective submission by the military elite,' he added.

'The audiovisual recording will be proof of institutional loyalty to the government. This is the unprecedented element.'

The implications are significant, as internally, there is a risk of a civil–military rupture, with officers split between those who accept the new direction and those who resist quietly, he explained.

Externally, allies may fear the abandonment of international commitments, while rivals could interpret the move either as weakness or as a sign of internal hardening. 

Politically, Trump and Hegseth are reinforcing their authority and promoting a narrative of discipline and cohesion, but this also fuels accusations of militarization and the cultivation of personal loyalty.

According to Salomé, the coming months may bring discreet purges and the symbolic use of images from the meeting, along with the announcement of command mergers and a new National Defence Strategy. 

These steps would likely consolidate an aligned military elite while imposing tighter restrictions on transparency at the Pentagon.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

21-10-2025 om 21:12 geschreven door peter  

Scientists reveal the surprising age at which your brain reaches its peak – so, are YOUR best days behind you?

• READ MORE: Actor Tom Hanks thinks 35 is the hardest age – but is he right?

By JONATHAN CHADWICK, ASSISTANT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

With each passing day, you may feel like you're getting further past your peak. 

But panic not – as a new study suggests your best days may still lie ahead of you. 

Scientists in Australia say that overall mental functioning in the brain actually peaks between the ages of 55 and 60. 

People in this age range may be at their best for complex problem–solving tasks and high–ranking leadership roles in the workforce. 

'As your youth fades further into the past, you may start to fear growing older,' said study author Gilles Gignac, professor of psychology at the University of Western Australia. 

'But our research shows there's also very good reason to be excited.

'For many of us, overall psychological functioning actually peaks between ages 55 and 60.

'Perhaps it's time we stopped treating midlife as a countdown and started recognising it as a peak.' 

Scientists have revealed the surprising age at which your brain reaches its peak (stock image)

This graph shows peak performance for reasoning, vocabulary, memory, speed and an overall 'weighted cognitive ability composite' (WCAC)

Previous studies have suggested that humans reach their physical peak in their mid–twenties to early thirties – which is why athletes have such a relatively short career. 

But in terms of a cognitive peak, the picture is much less clear.

In their meta–review of previous research, the team identified 16 key cognitive and personality–related traits, all 'with well–documented age trajectories'. 

The 16 traits included moral reasoning, memory span, processing speed, knowledge and emotional intelligence. 

They also included the so–called 'big five' personality traits – extraversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and agreeableness. 

'By standardising these studies to a common scale, we were able to make direct comparisons and map how each trait evolves across the lifespan,' said Professor Gignac said in a piece for The Conversation. 

When they combined the age–related trajectories of all 16 dimensions, a 'striking pattern' emerged, according to the academic.

'Overall mental functioning peaked between ages 55 and 60, before beginning to decline from around 65,' he said. 

According to the experts, overall psychological functioning actually peaks between ages 55 and 60 – which might make people of this especially well–suited to demanding leadership roles (file photo)

Some traits such as moral reasoning continue to peak past the age of 65, the study suggests. In this graph, note the declines in financial literacy and resistance to sunk cost – being able to abandon a strategy or course of action when it is beneficial even after investing heavily in it

'That decline became more pronounced after age 75, suggesting that later–life reductions in functioning can accelerate once they begin.' 

Several of the traits measured reach their peak much later in life, including conscientiousness (peaking around 65) and emotional stability (around 75). 

Less commonly discussed traits, such as moral reasoning, also appear to peak in older adulthood – around 70 and older. 

Although overall mental functioning notably declines after age 75, the capacity to resist cognitive biases – mental shortcuts that can lead us to make irrational decisions – may continue improving well into the 70s and even 80s. 

The findings, published in the journal Intelligence, may explain why many demanding business leadership roles are often held by people in their fifties and sixties. 

People best suited for high–stakes leadership, judgment, or executive roles are likely to be between 55 and 60 – and unlikely to be younger than 40 or older than 65.

However, older workers face greater challenges re–entering the workforce after job losses – perhaps because employers think they're soon to retire. 

'Although many studies emphasize early adulthood declines in fluid cognitive abilities, our findings suggest that when broader adaptive traits are considered, human functional capacity peaks in midlife,' the team conclude. 

Once you pass the five–year peak period (55–65), aspects of cognitive performance, such as reasoning and memory, may start to decline (file photo)

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• Woman's best friend! Spending time with dogs slows ageing in women, study finds 

'This challenges many conventional assumptions about age and capability, and suggests that midlife may represent the true apex of psychological readiness for complex, consequential roles.' 

Overall, researchers agree there's a difference between 'fluid intelligence' and 'crystallised intelligence' – concepts introduced in 1943 by Birmingham–born psychologist Raymond Cattell. 

Fluid intelligence – described as 'raw processing power' – is the ability to process information quickly and problem solve, while crystallised intelligence is gained through prior learning. 

Fluid intelligence typically peaks in the twenties, while crystallised intelligence tends to increase with age as we gain more experience. 

'When we look beyond raw processing power, a different picture emerges,' said Professor Gignac. 

'Evaluations and assessments should focus on individuals’ actual abilities and traits rather than age–based assumptions.' 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html  }

16-10-2025 om 17:36 geschreven door peter  

Revealed: What Jesus REALLY looked like - as Mel Gibson sparks outrage for recasting the long-awaited Passion of the Christ sequel

• READ MORE: Mel Gibson recasts Jesus in Passion Of The Christ sequel

By SHIVALI BEST, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

It is a question that has long puzzled historians and theologians... what DID Jesus actually look like?

And it seems casting agents are also prone to getting themselves in a tangle over Christ's appearance. 

Mel Gibson's highly-anticipated sequel to The Passion of the Christ has caused outrage from fans after it was revealed it is using a new cast because the original actors have aged since the first film in 2004.

The original movie followed the final 12 hours of Christ's life, and starred Jim Caviezel, 57, as Jesus. 

However, The Resurrection of the Christ - which takes place three days after the crucifixion on Good Friday - will now star Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen, 36.

Despite the backlash, perhaps the bigger question is does Ohtonen actually look like Jesus? And what did the Messiah really look like in the first place? 

According to historians, Jesus would have had short curly hair, brown skin and brown eyes. 

However, just like Ohtonen, Jesus would have been strong and lean. 

Dr Meredith Warren, senior lecturer on Biblical and religious studies at Sheffield University, told the Daily Mail that muscular depictions of Jesus aren't 'completely off the mark'.

She said: 'Jesus comes from a family where manual labour is the norm, and he certainly gets exercise with all the walking around.'

The original 2004 movie starred Jim Caviezel (left) as Christ, but the sequel will see Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen (right) in the role instead

The version of Jesus we are most familiar with often has brown, flowing shoulder-length hair and a full beard. However, neither of these ideas matches up with what we know about the historical figure of Jesus 

Beard and hair

The version of Jesus we are most familiar with often has brown, flowing shoulder-length hair and a full beard.

However, neither of these ideas matches up with what we know about the historical figure of Jesus.

One of the few things we know for certain is that Jesus was ethnically Judean and came from the region which is now modern-day Palestine.

This means his hair and beard would have been black and curly rather than brown and straight.

Likewise, it is extremely likely that Jesus would have worn his hair and beard quite short.

Just like today, beards tended to go in and out of fashion in the Roman world over the years.

Around the time of Jesus' life in the first century AD, we think that being clean-shaven was extremely important to Romans but as a Jew, Jesus probably did grow a well-kept beard.

Paintings of Jesus often show a man with pale skin, long hair and a full beard. However, experts say that none of these details is correct

Roman coins from the period show captive Judeans sporting short curly beards, which suggests this might have been the fashion of the time.

Joan Taylor, professor of Christian origins at King's College London, told the Daily Mail: 'To have long hair and a long beard signalled something in ancient Judaism - that you were keeping a special vow and not drinking wine.

'Jesus was actually accused of drinking too much, so he was not keeping such a vow.'

In fact, some of the very first depictions we have of Jesus show him looking distinctly well-groomed.

Paintings dating from the first half of the third century AD found the church in the ruined city of Dura-Europos in Syria show Jesus clean-shaven with hair cut well above his collar.

However, like so many of our modern depictions of Jesus, these characteristics say more about the culture of the time than they do about the historical figure.

In the first century AD, Professor Taylor says that long hair on men was considered 'rather unseemly'.

However, by the fourth century AD, images of Jesus began to feature long hair and beards depending on what the artists wanted to emphasise.

The very earliest image of Jesus from the church in the ruined city of Dura-Europos shows a man with short hair and no beard. Long hair would have only been worn by Jewish men when they were taking a vow involving abstaining from wine 

This third-century image shows Moses parting the Red Sea. Experts think this style of short hair and beard is the most likely way Jesus would have styled himself 

Dr Warren says: 'If they want to connect Jesus with the notion of the Good Shepherd or make parallels with Roman ideas about Dionysus or Apollo, he'll have longer hair; likewise if they want to emphasise Jesus as Philosopher, who would have a longer beard.

'Later, when we get the idea of an all-powerful Christ as Creator, his depiction aligns with the way Zeus or Jupiter is imaged: with beard and longer hair.'

Facial features  

Strikingly, the Bible does not include many descriptions of Jesus's appearance.  

But based on the few biographical details we have experts have pieced together some details of his likely facial features.  

Dr Warren says: 'Jesus would have had brown skin, brown eyes, like the local population.

'He died before he was 40. He wasn't rich and would have spent a lot of time outdoors, so some lines on that face, probably. His hands and feet were probably calloused and rough.'

To get more specific details, experts have to look at other people living in the region at the time.

Starting from the fourth century, Byzantine images of Jesus start to show a man with pale skin and Western features 

In reality, experts say that Jesus would have looked more like the men shown in the Egyptian mummy paintings from the first century AD (pictured). These show dark-skinned men with brown eyes and curly hair 

One of the few things the Bible tells us about Jesus's appearance is how indistinct he appeared to be.

When soldiers come to take him from the Garden of Gethsemane they needed Judas to point him out amongst the crowd of other Judean men.

Likewise, in the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene mistakes him for a gardener when she goes looking for his body.

From these pieces of information, some scholars have inferred that Jesus might have looked very much like other men of the period and didn't have many distinctive features.

In her opinion, Dr Warren thinks the best representations of how Jesus might have looked come from the Egyptian mummy portraits.

These paintings were made of men who died between 80 and 120 AD in a similar part of the world to Jesus.

They show men with dark eyes, brown skin, short curly hair, beards and facial features which would have been distinctive of people living in what is now Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Likewise, in 2015, medical artist Richard Neave used forensic techniques to reconstruct the face of a Judean man by studying Semite skulls.

Retired medical artist Richard Neave has recreated the face of a first-century Judean (pictured) using forensic techniques and Semite skulls found in archaeological excavations 

Richard Neave's reconstruction shows what a man from the region might have looked like

The portrait revealed a wide face, dark eyes, a bushy beard and short curly hair, as well as a tanned complexion which might have been typical of Jews in the Galilee area.

While this is just a portrait of an adult man living at the same time as Jesus, this reconstruction gives us a better idea of what kind of features he may have had. 

Muscles 

Across statues and paintings of Christ, one of the most oddly consistent features is that the son of God is often depicted with chiselled abs.

While this might seem like an absurd detail to include, experts say that it's not that crazy when we consider the details of Jesus's life.

Professor Taylor says: 'Jesus did a lot of walking, during his mission, and his trade was as a carpenter or constructor, so he was not a couch potato.

'He and his disciples essentially lived on hospitality, charity and they shared food, so I don't think he ate that much. I see him more as wiry than bulky.'

This means that statues of Jesus with a six-pack probably aren't as far from reality as you might think.

Jesus is often depicted with bulging muscles and chiselled abs. While experts say that Jesus probably wouldn't have been extremely muscly, his manual labour and poor diet would have made him wiry and strong. Pictured: 'It Is Finished', by Sascha Schneider (1895)

However, statues of Jesus on the cross with bulging biceps and pecs definitely miss the mark.

As someone who travelled on foot and ate very little, it would be extremely surprising if Jesus was particularly muscular.

Clothing  

When we see paintings of Jesus today, he is often wearing a long white robe which hangs down to his ankles.

However, in first-century Judea, long robes like these would have been seen as women's clothing.

Instead, men from the region would have worn a short woollen tunic made up of two pieces, belted or tied at the waist, with a thinner linen tunic underneath.

Only Roman citizens were permitted to wear a toga but Jesus would have had a thick woollen mantle called a himation to wrap about himself for warmth.

As a Jewish man, Jesus might have had a mantle with knotted tassels called tzitzit on each of the corners.

Jesus would have worn a knee-length tunic tied or belted at the waist with a thick woollen mantle or cloak called a himation over the top (pictured) 

These sandals were found in the caves around the Dead Sea and date back to the first century. They are exactly the kind of simple footwear Jesus would have worn 

However, this wouldn't have been entirely unique since lots of clothes from the period also had fringes.

The one thing that our modern images of Jesus get right is that everyone in Judea would have worn leather sandals during the time Jesus was alive.

Archaeologists have even found examples of first-century sandles in the caves Dead Sea and Masada.

These show that Jesus's sandals would have been very simple, with the soles made of thick pieces of leather sewn together, and the upper parts made of straps of leather going through the toes.

Read More

• Artist creates 'realistic' image of what Mary looked like before giving birth to Jesus 

When it comes to colour, images of Jesus often show him wearing a red or blue mantle over his white robes.

Archaeological evidence from the time shows that people did wear brightly coloured and patterned clothes - but it is more likely that Jesus's clothes would have been a little more muted.

'Many garments were dyed bright colours, but it was considered more manly to wear duller hues or undyed clothing,' says Professor Taylor.

'Appearance and clothing do matter, and Jesus was quite clear about that: he asked those he sent out in his name to wear only one tunic and a pair of sandals, with no money, just like refugees might arrive in a village needing support with nothing on them. He would then have dressed very simply himself.'

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{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

16-10-2025 om 16:46 geschreven door peter  

Locked away in the British Museum is a palm-sized clay tablet that could turn biblical history upside down. To most, it looks like nothing,  just faded lines on ancient clay. But this 2,500-year-old artifact, known as the Babylonian Map of the World, may secretly hold the location of Noah’s Ark itself.  

For years, experts thought the tablet was just a symbolic diagram. Now, new research by Irving Finkel and Edith Horsley reveals something shocking, it’s not myth, it’s a real map of the ancient world. And one mysterious inscription on it might point directly to the mountain where the Ark came to rest. 

The tablet describes eight distant lands beyond the “Bitter River,” the great ocean surrounding Babylon. One of those lands mentions a “Great Wall”, towering trees, and something called parsiktu, a word that only appears once elsewhere in all Mesopotamian writings: in the flood story of Atrahasis, the Babylonian Noah. The connection is jaw-dropping. 

This single word ties the world’s first map directly to the world’s first flood story. According to Finkel, the missing piece of the tablet describes the very mountain where the Ark landed,  in a region ancient scribes called Urartu, now eastern Turkey and Armenia… home of Mount Ararat. 

For centuries, explorers and pilgrims have searched Ararat’s peaks for traces of the Ark. In 1959, a Turkish airman discovered the Durupınar formation,  a massive, boat-shaped outline exactly 300 cubits long, just like the Bible describes. Metal readings, strange “anchor stones,” and petrified “ribs” sparked wild claims that the Ark had been found. Skeptics called it a geological illusion, but the shape is undeniable. 

And it doesn’t stop there. In 1949, U.S. spy planes spotted a strange box-like anomaly high on Mount Ararat itself — a dark, rectangular shadow under the ice that still fuels modern Ark hunts today. 

But maybe the story goes even deeper. In 2000, scientists discovered that the Black Sea was once dry land, until the Mediterranean suddenly burst through the Bosporus, unleashing a flood with 200 times the power of Niagara Falls. Entire civilizations would have vanished overnight. Could this have been the real Great Flood? 

Marine legend Robert Ballard, the man who found the Titanic, dove into the Black Sea and discovered the ruins of an ancient village buried deep below the waves,  along with freshwater shells that all died at the same moment. Proof, he said, of a sudden, catastrophic flood. 

And incredibly, nearly every ancient culture tells the same story,  from Mesopotamia to China, from the Andes to India,  all describing a global deluge and a lone survivor in a great ship. Recent discoveries in China (2016), South America (2020), and India (2023) show evidence of massive prehistoric floods that eerily match these ancient myths. 

Is it all coincidence, or are these stories fragments of a forgotten truth? 

Maybe the Babylonians knew more than we ever imagined. Maybe that tiny clay tablet in the British Museum isn’t just a relic of the past… but the world’s first map to Noah’s Ark, and the final clue to a cataclysm that changed humanity forever.

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

14-10-2025 om 20:22 geschreven door peter  

To Find God, Some People Are Turning to AI

Artificial intelligence is starting to appear in unexpected places, including houses of worship and spiritual communities. Around the world, religious groups, artists, and technologists are experimenting with ways AI might help people reflect on faith, ethics, and belief.

by Ivan Petricevic

 

In 2024, the small chapel at the Protestant church in Lucerne, Switzerland, housed the Deus in Machina installation, where visitors could sit across from an animated “AI Jesus” and pose their questions, and the machine had texts from the Bible and writings from Christian theologians at its disposal to answer their questions. Almost 900 people tried it out over the course of two months, and some found it fascinating, while others were outraged, because, according to the organizers of the project, they did not want to encourage worship, but rather curiosity, and they were exploring what happens when ancient questions of meaning meet a machine. The parish of Poznań in Poland even went a step further and installed an AI guide for questions on Catholicism, which quotes from the Bible and official Church documents, and the priest behind the project said the machine allows people to ask things that they would not dare ask a human priest.

These are small experiments, but they show how AI is already changing how people talk about theology and belief, and a new role for algorithms is emerging, because Artificial intelligence is being used in a few corners of religious life, such as a reader of scripture, where large language models can read religious texts at a scale no human can, comparing translations and tracking patterns across centuries of commentary. Researchers are also testing how well these systems can answer questions about doctrine and ethics, but the results are mixed, because they can synthesize information quickly, but they tend to lose nuance or introduce bias, and some critics say they confuse guidance and automation. AI is also being used as a listener, as some communities are testing AI chat companions for daily reflections, prayers, or emotional support, which offer privacy and 24/7 availability that people can’t always provide, however, some critics argue that they lack the human touch.

As the source of belief itself, a handful of people have argued that AI could be worshipped as a god, because, in 2017, engineer Anthony Levandowski started a short-lived organization called Way of the Future, with the aim of preparing for a world where superintelligent machines have surpassed human intelligence, although the group never attracted more than a handful of followers, but the idea remains in the corners of the net, that intelligence, even artificial, could one day be revered as a divine force.

Moral philosophy and theology

Moreover, religious ethicists are taking up positions in AI labs, arguing that centuries of moral philosophy and theology can inform how we design intelligent systems, and at Oxford, the Collaboration on Theology and Artificial Intelligence is exploring how faith traditions understand concepts of autonomy, responsibility, and conscience, which dovetail with debates over machine decision-making.

When faith meets data, some of these problems will not be solved by better code, because bias is one of the issues, as these models learn from human language, which means they pick up our prejudices and blind spots, and a system trained to talk about religion will repeat not just the sacred texts, but the cultural biases woven through them. Agency is another problem, because a machine can recite scripture, but it cannot pray, doubt, or feel remorse, and it lacks what many people of faith would call the heart of moral experience, as some theologians have put it, AI may talk about God, but it can’t talk to God. Furthermore, there’s the danger of reduction, because boiling faith down to data points and algorithms strips the communal and emotional richness that is essential to most religious traditions, such as rituals, silence, and shared space, which are all fundamental aspects of most religions, and no chatbot can replace them.

The psychological effects are complex, too, because a study published by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business found that reading about the capabilities of AI slightly decreased people’s reported belief in God, while another study, published by Duke University, found that thinking about God made people more likely to trust recommendations from AI, and the relationship between divine and machine authority appears to be a two-way street. Consequently, AI isn’t going to replace religion, but it’s going to change how we practice it, and it’s going to change how we interpret it, because, for some, AI is a new kind of mirror, reflecting our hopes, fears, and contradictions in sharp relief, while for others, it’s a threat to the authenticity of our belief. Therefore, the real test is how our communities choose to use it, as a tool for inquiry, or as a stand-in for faith, because the machines can help us organize our texts, translate our scripture, spark us to reflection, but the heart of religion, the experience of wonder, doubt, and relationship, is something only humans can offer, and as the machines grow more capable, those lines are going to matter even more. Ultimately, the future of faith may not depend on whether the machines can find God, but it depends on whether the humans remember why they started searching.

{ https://curiosmos.com/category/unsolved-mysteries/ }

12-10-2025 om 17:43 geschreven door peter  

What the end of the world will REALLY look like: As the Rapture fails to come to fruition, expert reveals the bleak reality of the apocalypse

• READ MORE: Preachers who predicted Rapture explain why nothing happened

By WILIAM HUNTER, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

The week of september 28, thousands of TikTok users were whipped into an apocalyptic frenzy as viral predictions of the 'Rapture' spread online.

However, rather embarrassingly for the preachers who predicted it, the supposed End of Days has now come and gone without incident.

Now, experts have revealed what the apocalypse will really look like. 

And the bleak reality of human extinction is far more depressing than any story of Biblical annihilation.

From the deadly threat of rogue AI or nuclear war to the pressing risk of engineered bio–weapons, humans themselves are creating the biggest risks to our own survival.

Dr Thomas Moynihan, a researcher at Cambridge University's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, told Daily Mail: 'Apocalypse is an old idea, which can be traced to religion, but extinction is a surprisingly modern one, resting on scientific knowledge about nature.

'When we talk about extinction, we are imagining the human species disappearing and the rest of the universe indefinitely persisting, in its vastness, without us.

'This is very different from what Christians imagine when they talk about Rapture or Judgement Day.'

While TikTok evangelists predicted the rapture would come this week, apocalypse experts say that human life is much more likely to be destroyed by our own actions than any outside force - such as nuclear war

(AI–generated impression) 

Nuclear war

Scientists who study the destruction of humanity talk about what they call 'existential risks' – threats that could wipe out the human species.

Ever since humans learned to split the atom, one of the most pressing existential risks has been nuclear war.

During the Cold War, fears of nuclear war were so high that governments around the world were seriously planning for life after the total annihilation of society.

The risk posed by nuclear war dropped after the fall of the Soviet Union, but experts now think the threat is spiking.

Earlier this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock one second closer to midnight, citing an increased risk of a nuclear exchange.

The nine countries which possess nuclear arms hold a total of 12,331 warheads, with Russia alone holding enough bombs to destroy seven per cent of urban land worldwide.

However, the worrying prospect is that humanity could actually be wiped out by only a tiny fraction of these weapons.

The nine nations with nuclear weapons currently hold 12,331 nuclear warheads, which could lead to millions of deaths (AI–generated impression) 

The five most likely causes of human extinction

1. Rogue AI
2. Nuclear war
3. Engineered bioweapons
4. Climate change
5. Natural disasters or asteroid strike  

Dr Moynihan says: 'Newer research shows that even a relatively regional nuclear exchange could lead to worldwide climate fallout.

'Debris from fires in city centres would loom into the stratosphere, where it would dim sunlight, causing crop failures.

'Something similar led to the demise of the dinosaurs, though that was caused by an asteroid strike.'

Studies have shown that a so–called 'nuclear winter' would actually be far worse than Cold War predictions suggested.

Using modern climate models, researchers have shown that a nuclear exchange would plunge the planet into a 'nuclear little ice age' lasting thousands of years.

Reduced sunlight would plunge global temperatures by up to 10˚C (18˚F) for nearly a decade, devastating the world's agricultural production.

Modelling suggests that a small nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would deprive 2.5 billion people of food for at least two years.

Meanwhile, a global nuclear war would kill 360 million civilians immediately and lead to the starvation of 5.3 billion people in just two years following the first explosion.

Even a limited nuclear exchange could plunge the world into a 'little nuclear ice age' which would drop global temperatures by 10°C (18°F) for thousands of years (AI–generated impression) 

Dr Moynihan says: 'Some argue it's hard to draw a clear line from this to the eradication of all humans, everywhere, but we don't want to find out.'

Engineered bioweapons

Just like the threat of nuclear arms, another likely way that humanity could come to an end is through the release of an engineered bioweapon.

Since 1973, when scientists created the first genetically modified bacteria, humanity has been steadily increasing its capacity to make deadly diseases.

These man–made diseases pose a significantly greater threat to our existence than anything found in nature.

Otto Barten, founder of the Existential Risk Observatory, told the Daily Mail: 'We have a lot of experience with natural pandemics, and these have not led to human extinction in the last 300,000 years.

'Therefore, although natural pandemics remain a very serious risk, this is very likely not going to cause our complete demise.

'However, man–made pandemics might be engineered specifically to maximise effectiveness, in a way that doesn't occur in nature.'

Natural pandemics are unlikely to lead to human extinction, but genetically engineered variants could be much more deadly (AI–generated impression) 

Experts are concerned that the tools needed to engineer deadly pathogens are becoming more accessible and could fall into the wrong hands (AI–generated impression) 

Currently, the means to create such deadly diseases are limited to a handful of states that wouldn't benefit from unleashing a deadly plague.

However, scientists have warned that improving technologies like AI mean that this ability is likely to fall into the hands of more and more people.

If terrorists gain the ability to create deadly bioweapons, they could release a pathogen that would spread wildly out of control and eventually lead to humanity's extinction.

What would be left behind would be a world that looks like it does now, but with all traces of living humans wiped away.

Dr Moynihan adds: 'Extinction is, in this way, the total frustration of any kind of moral order; again, within a universe that persists, silently, without us.'

Rogue artificial intelligence

Experts currently believe that the biggest danger humanity is creating for itself is artificial intelligence.

Scientists who study existential risk think there is anywhere between a 10 and 90 per cent chance that humanity will not survive the advent of superintelligent AI.

One of the biggest risks to humanity is the creation of a rogue AI which becomes 'unaligned' with humanity's interests (AI–generated impression) 

What is a rogue AI?

Some AI experts are concerned that AI might soon reach a state called superintelligence, meaning it is more intelligent than the combined efforts of all humans.

Once this happens, the AI might start to develop its own goals.

If those goals don't align with what humans want, this is called an unaligned or 'rogue' AI.

A rogue AI might not be openly hostile to humans, but if humanity's extinction is more convenient for its goals, it could eliminate all living humans.

The big concern is that a sufficiently intelligent AI will become 'unaligned', meaning its goals and ambitions will cease to line up with the interests of humanity.

Dr Moynihan says: 'If an AI becomes smarter than us and also becomes agential — that is, capable of conjuring its own goals and acting on them.'

If an AI becomes agentic, it doesn't even need to be openly hostile to humans for it to wipe us out.

When an agentic AI has a goal that differs from what humans want, the AI would naturally see humans turning it off as a hindrance to that goal and do everything it can to prevent that.

The AI might be totally indifferent to humans, but simply decides that the resources and systems that keep humanity alive would be better used pursuing its own ambitions.

Experts don't know exactly what those goals might be or how the AI might try to pursue them, which is exactly what makes an unaligned AI so dangerous.

'The problem is that it's impossible to predict the actions of something immeasurably smarter than you,' says Dr Moynihan.

'It's hard to imagine how we could anticipate, intercept, or prevent the AI's plans to implement them.'

Experts aren't sure how an AI would chose to wipe out humanity, which is what makes them so dangerous - but it could involved usurping our own computerised weapons or nuclear launch systems (AI–generated impression) 

Is climate change an existential risk?

Existential risk experts say that climate change could lead to human extinction, but that this is extremely unlikely. 

The only way climate change could kill every human on Earth is if global warming continues to be much stronger than scientists currently predict.

The bigger risk is that climate change might exacerbate other risks.

For example, climate change will lead to food shortages and displace millions of climate refugees as parts of the world become uninhabitable.

That could lead to conflicts, which could escalate into nuclear war.  

Another big issue is that experts don't know exactly how an AI might go about wiping out humanity.

Some experts have suggested that an AI might take control of existing weapon systems or nuclear missiles, manipulate humans into carrying out its orders, or design its own bioweapons.

However, the scarier prospect is that AI might destroy us in a way we literally cannot conceive of.

Dr Moynihan says: 'The general fear is that a smarter–than–human AI would be able to manipulate matter and energy with far more finesse than we can muster.

'Drone strikes would have been incomprehensible to the earliest human farmers: the laws of physics haven't changed in the meantime, just our comprehension of them.

'Regardless, if something like this is possible, and ever does come to pass, it would probably unfold in ways far stranger than anyone currently imagines. It won't involve metallic, humanoid robots with guns and glowing scarlet eyes.'

Climate change 

Mr Barten says: 'Climate change is also an existential risk, meaning it could lead to the complete annihilation of humanity, but experts believe this has less than a one in a thousand chance of happening.'

In an unlikely but terrifying scenario, a runaway greenhouse effect could cause all water on Earth to evaporate and escape into space, leaving the planet dry and barren (AI–generated impression)

However, there are a few unlikely scenarios in which climate change could lead to human extinction.

For example, if the world becomes hot enough, large amounts of water vapour could escape into the upper atmosphere in a phenomenon known as the moist greenhouse effect.

There, intense solar radiation would break the water down into oxygen and hydrogen, which is light enough to easily escape into space.

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At the same time, water vapour in the atmosphere would weaken the mechanisms which usually prevent gases from escaping.

This would lead to a runaway cycle in which all water on Earth escapes into space, leaving the planet dry and totally uninhabitable.

The good news is that, although climate change is making our climate hotter, the moist greenhouse effect won't kick in unless the climate gets much hotter than scientists currently predict. 

The bad news is that the moist greenhouse effect will almost certainly occur in about 1.5 billion years when the sun starts to expand.

Elon Musk's hatred of AI explained: Billionaire believes it will spell the end of humans - a fear Stephen Hawking shared

Elon Musk pictured in 2022

Elon Musk wants to push technology to its absolute limit, from space travel to self-driving cars — but he draws the line at artificial intelligence. 

The billionaire first shared his distaste for AI in 2014, calling it humanity's 'biggest existential threat' and comparing it to 'summoning the demon'.

At the time, Musk also revealed he was investing in AI companies not to make money but to keep an eye on the technology in case it gets out of hand. 

His main fear is that in the wrong hands, if AI becomes advanced, it could overtake humans and spell the end of mankind, which is known as The Singularity.

That concern is shared among many brilliant minds, including the late Stephen Hawking, who told the BBC in 2014: 'The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.

'It would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate.' 

Despite his fear of AI, Musk has invested in the San Francisco-based AI group Vicarious, in DeepMind - which has since been acquired by Google - and OpenAI, creating the popular ChatGPT program that has taken the world by storm in recent months.

During a 2016 interview, Musk noted that he and OpenAI created the company to 'have democratisation of AI technology to make it widely available'.

Musk founded OpenAI with Sam Altman, the company's CEO, but in 2018 the billionaire attempted to take control of the start-up.

His request was rejected, forcing him to quit OpenAI and move on with his other projects.

In November, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, which became an instant success worldwide.

The chatbot uses 'large language model' software to train itself by scouring a massive amount of text data so it can learn to generate eerily human-like text in response to a given prompt. 

ChatGPT is used to write research papers, books, news articles, emails and more.

But while Altman is basking in its glory, Musk is attacking ChatGPT.

He says the AI is 'woke' and deviates from OpenAI's original non-profit mission.

'OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it 'Open' AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft, Musk tweeted in February.

The Singularity is making waves worldwide as artificial intelligence advances in ways only seen in science fiction - but what does it actually mean?

In simple terms, it describes a hypothetical future where technology surpasses human intelligence and changes the path of our evolution.

Experts have said that once AI reaches this point, it will be able to innovate much faster than humans. 

There are two ways the advancement could play out, with the first leading to humans and machines working together to create a world better suited for humanity.

For example, humans could scan their consciousness and store it in a computer in which they will live forever.

The second scenario is that AI becomes more powerful than humans, taking control and making humans its slaves - but if this is true, it is far off in the distant future.

Researchers are now looking for signs of AI reaching The Singularity, such as the technology's ability to translate speech with the accuracy of a human and perform tasks faster.

Former Google engineer Ray Kurzweil predicts it will be reached by 2045.

He has made 147 predictions about technology advancements since the early 1990s - and 86 per cent have been correct. 

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10-10-2025 om 20:11 geschreven door peter