It's an incredible development scientists have been looking into for some time, but the use of microwaves to transmit electricity from solar collectors in space to anywhere on the planet may soon be a reality if one proposal by India's former president is given the necessary momentum to take flight. The proposal by India's APJ Kalam and the National Space Society suggests that we may soon have the technology required to solve the energy crisis forever. But there is a deadly side to this proposal even if it could essentially save the planet and give free energy to all. The proposal sounds simple, but is incredibly complex at its core. A rocket would be used to launch a massive solar array into space. Once it reaches orbit the array would be either constructed or unfold itself into a fully capable solar collection system. And this system would then have the ability to collect virtually an unlimited supply of solar energy to be transmitted back to the planet's surface. How would it get the electricity to Earth below? The solar collectors would be attached to a massive microwave transmitter which would then fire beams of incredibly powerful energy through the Earth's atmosphere to the planet below and microwave collection centers located throughout the planet.
But why haven't we created a system such as this before? Aside from the obvious costs associated with launching a massive satellite array into space, there are some very real concerns over the means such a satellite would use to transmit energy back to the planet's surface. A massive cable dragged into space would prove too heavy to effectively launch into space, and without the use of an orbital tower, this would be virtually impossible to create. But the wireless transmission of energy into microwaves could allow the electricity to bypass the atmosphere, which traditionally blocks a substantial portion of light that reaches Earth and then be collected on the ground in a form usable by those working with power companies.
But is it safe to launch microwaves to the planet? This is one of the concerns that has been raised in the past. If such a system's navigational controls were compromised somehow, it would make this potential power generating system and savior of mankind into a disturbing and nightmarish enemy for all those on the surface of the planet. Needless to say, there would have to be an incredibly advanced security system designed around the satellite that could shut it down remotely from Earth. But then with people depending on the power, this system too would be dangerous.
On the other hand, if the system truly were effective and the current technological limitations were overcome in seeking clean energy, we may one day live in a world where power is limitless, and the only thing we would have to worry about from the power companies would be stray microwaves bombarding Earth from above. Needless to say there are still a couple of things to work out.
Passenger planes of the future may be quite a different experience from what we experience today. The claustrophobic sensation of being in a tiny fuselage among a hundred other passengers may soon give way to a sensation of awe as the fuselage suddenly becomes transparent and passengers look in any direction able to see themselves passing through the clouds without the plane anywhere in sight. Imagine standing in a plane as the floor suddenly vanishes from sight and seeing the ground passing beneath your feet a thousand feet below. Imagine sitting down in your seat and watching as the plane's fuselage disappears all around you. As you watch yourself suspended in what seems to be thin air the plane would begin take off and you would be able to see the runway quickly speeding past you on the ground. As the craft made its ascent you would be able to observe your ascent as you quickly took off the ground. Many people would have various reactions to this technology. Many have already declared they would never get on an invisible plane even if they were paid to. But imagine, if you will, the breathtaking sight of flying into a storm cloud and witnessing the cloud parting in front of you as you soar into the distance. This incredible technology may just what the aviation industry needs to keep flying. But other than a tourist draw, how many applications will there be for invisible aircraft? And what problems might these planes face if they ever got off the ground so to speak?
Aside from the obvious military applications of invisibility technology, there is a very real possibility that people travelling with invisibility technology may find the experience more convenient as windows are customized to each passengers' wishes. If an electrified field around a specially treated plate are all that is necessary to render an area invisible, windows could simply be made of layers like onions that could be made wider or smaller leaving the flying experience still more convenient for those terrified of flying.
Will invisible planes be the future of air travel? And what problems will they face? First of all, bathrooms will obviously have to be made opaque for the convenience and privacy of passengers. The seats would obviously still be visible. And there may even be a carpeted area or platform for passengers to make sure they were able to see their way around the craft. The cockpit would likely have to remain opaque, or a wall would have to be placed between the passengers and the pilots of the craft. And if the vehicle were entirely invisible to the outside as well, it may pose a threat to birds and other planes in the area. Landing and guidance may be more difficult without visual confirmation unless the plane once again turned opaque. But these problems seem small enough given the opportunity to soar amid the clouds in what seems like an unaided and magical trip.
The idea of a Game Show playing computer might seem like it was coming straight out of a Hollywood film, but a new system developed by IBM's Watson does just that. And while it might not sound like the cutting edge of computer processing, it's certainly the first machine to perform one incredibly difficult task programmers have been trying to do for some time. And it could mean the age of Artificial Intelligence has arrived. It's no secret that computers run exclusively on numbers. Though we see text and operating systems translate the numbers into symbols we can understand, the premise never changes. We're dealing with numbers that cannot be translated easily into words and concepts. That is the duty of the programmer. But as we get into the future and computers become increasingly powerful, we'll have more need for computers to be able to not only take a user's commands through simple numeric instructions, but also by conversing with them. In other words, the growing use of computers in our world means we'll have to find a way to talk to them and be spoken to by them.
When a computer understands a concept such as a date and can cross reference that information with other bits of data streaming about its processor, it will quickly be able to arrange these concepts and then speak to us.
Essentially if we were to want to know what day it was, we would just ask a person, "What day is it?" That person would look at a calendar or simply know off the top of his or her heads. But if we were to ask a computer the same thing, we would have to go to a program that had a calendar in it. The conversation would essentially be "Access calendar, display date: today" or something like it. But humans didn't develop language to meet the needs of computers. And as such, computers can not have a simple conversation with us. But if we were able to, for example, tell the computer we weren't feeling well, and it had the capabilities of human speech patterns it would be able to ask the symptoms we were feeling. We could tell the computer we were feeling lethargic, tired, and had a headache. The computer could then ask for a few other symptoms to which we could answer yes or no and then come to a diagnosis. The result? Computerized doctors who could save time and worry for both customers and after sufficient tweaking might be able to even prescribe medicine or recommend treatments with the confidence of both the users and the medical community.
And imagine being able to have a desktop companion that you could simply switch on and converse about the topics of the day. Each new bit of information could be stored and cross referenced on a massive computer database and provide much needed perspective on current events issues. But not only that. It could prove just as useful to us tomorrow as computers originally became in the mid 1990's. Such a machine would essentially be able to pass the Turing Test and artificial intelligence would be finally born.
How far off is this technological miracle? And what challenges will a world of intelligent computers bring to us? Only time will tell, but if current technology is any indicator, it seems that time is coming quite soon.
In 1912 when the RMS Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton England to New York City, many speculated that the massive ship would prove unsinkable. But then en route it encountered an iceberg that collided with the massive vessel ending the lives of 1,517 people including its captain. But as this mysterious disaster has captured the imaginations of millions it still yields new mysteries almost every time it is investigated. And now the latest mystery is the presence of some previously undiscovered passengers. But unlike the other passengers, these did not have a ticket and most did not arrive on the vessel until years after it sank. The new residents are a type of microbe previously undiscovered known as Halomonas titanicae were named after the ill fated ship. And just as the vessel of its namesake, Halomonas titanicae will be a matter of scientific interest for quite some time. The microbes live in the porous structures that are developed on top of rust as it turns the once proud ship into a tomb no doubt to be left to the annals of history for the coming centuries.
But even as the ship remains in its resting place never to rise again from the waters, a new breed of passenger somehow throughout the next 100 years stowed away on the ship and started multiplying in masse. Halomonas titanicae, though previously unknown to scientists is proving quite the interesting specimen. Though they were gathered up twelve years ago by the Mir 2 Robotic submersible pod, they have remained in laboratories without being discovered.
But just recently, researchers at Dalhousie University uncovered what appeared to be a new life form in laboratories. And as they explored the organisms closer, they realized that it may have dramatic implications for the development of future seafaring technology and could change our views entirely on one of the constant threats to operations taking place in water - rust.
But the microbes and the rust on which they were discovered may soon be under scientific scrutiny as their discovery allows scientists to look more deeply into how the mysterious formations known as "rusticles." Rusticles are icicle-like formations that often appear on sunken ships after they sink beneath the waves. But up until recently the true meaning of their presence was largely unknown. And far from the once long thought abandoned warehouses devoid of life, it turns out now that many bacteria may consider them home including the titanicae which allow for the formations to develop their strange stalagmite and stalagtite-like structures. The formations are suspected to be the homes to many other bacteria as well. What else will we discover as we explore this ancient watery tomb? If there's anything this most recent discovery tells us, it's that we may not actually have to go out for another expedition in order to discover anything at all. The rusting of vessels is also a very important point of research for many who suggest the discovery of these formations could even lead to cheaper ways of preventing rust in long
Cybernetically enhanced humans are still pioneering new ways of augmenting themselves through the use of technology and with the integration of computerized chips into their own bodies. And now one of these cybernetic frontiersmen is volunteering a section in the back of his own head to be implanted with a camera system to automatically survey his environment. The purpose of the implant? Self expression. He wishes to catch everything going on behind his back and have it transmitted to an art exhibit in Qatar. The chip has already caused a stir amongst privacy advocates who suggest the endeavor will make public everything that goes on literally behind Wafa Bilal's back. The tiny camera, estimated to be the approximate size of a contact lens will snap pictures periodically once every two minutes. Assuming Mr. Bilal's project gets the green light with health officials, the move could be mimicked in due time by others. While the technology exists to create more advanced camera implants, even including tiny video cameras as seen with homemade real life superhero "Eyeborg," the cost and size of the system were likely both factors in selecting what Mr. Bilal ultimately decided on.
The art exhibit in itself will likely be very interesting. As one would expect, it is perceivable that filming the opposite side of everything going on in a college professor's life could yield some surprising results. But even with this in mind, perhaps the most compelling aspect of this story is the way it paves for the future. Futurists have suggested for years that the only thing keeping us from a world where technological questions of ethics are commonplace is waiting period before they become contemporary. In other words, as cameras get smaller it's only a matter of time before they become a part of more peoples' bodies. And once that happens, it's easy enough to surmise that our planet will have a very real question about when and where camera surveillance is and is not occurring - particularly if the implants cannot be reliably turned off and on. Think about everywhere you go being observed, and everything you see being transmitted to a remote area elsewhere. Would this have an effect on what you do?
While privacy is obviously a concern for Mr. Bilal's students, what of other parties involved? How would you act around a man the world was constantly tuning in to? And if Mr. Bilal was able to transmit audio as well as pictures of his life, what conclusions would people draw about him? In 1998 the film The Truman Show received mixed reviews for its take of a clandestine television corporation taking on every aspect of one man's life and transmitting it as a television show. Are we soon to face a reverse scenario where Truman is running the show? And if this is the case, what will we learn both about him and ourselves? And what will the face of our planet look like when there is not one, but thousands of others like Bilal?
Stefan Ulrich, German designer, and inventor of the newest bizarre robot has alleged that his robot can simulate a strange creature "falling in love" with its owner. The robots are specially designed to hug and cling to their owners, though they don't actually have arms. And these amorphous automatons are creating quite a bit of stir amongst some AI advocates who suggest once a robot has been invented that can fall in love, it has taken a significant step toward becoming more human. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately depending on who you ask, an understanding of the systems behind these robots suggests that perhaps the words "falling in love" may be a bit too ambitious to describe Ulrich's invention. Still, the cuddle bots are designed to provide a PG rated level of affection with their owners by sensing their presence, their movements, and even the sensation of touch as they are petted. Though they may not be the latest strain of super robots designed to take over the world, many of those interested in the subject of artificial intelligence are vociferously declaring it dangerous to start using words such as "love" with so simple a robot as the advanced machine Ulrich has put forward.
Can a robot feel love? AI futurists say the answer is most certainly yes, but with a few asterisks. First, we would have to establish what love is within certain parameters and take into account various differences in the concept of love. By the end of the exercise, however, many have come to the conclusion that AI robots can feel love assuming love is something that can be defined. The simple fact of the matter is, within a reasonable equation such as the one proposed, many of us, although knowing when something is or is not love, still have yet to agree upon a strict set of parameters that can define love to the satisfaction of the scientific community.
Sensors buried just beneath the creature's "skin" react to touch, color, and warmth indicating when someone around them is pleasant to be around. This alone creates a simulation of love that Ulrich is confident will go a long way toward synthesizing affection. In a recent interview with "The Sun," Ulrich outlined his motivation for undertaking the project, "People already bury themselves in possessions and shield themselves from real life with technology. So if robots and objects can fulfill all their emotional needs as well, why do they need other humans?" The words, while seemingly innocent actually paint a strange picture on the state of human nature in the 21st century. In our effort to control all aspects of our lives while affording others infinite freedom, are we really willing to lose the affection of human contact in favor of a synthetic alternative? While this device alone is likely no danger to worldwide interpersonal relationships, it will be interesting to see how this device - and others like it - will catch on. Will the strange amorphous robots become a new type of "meta-pet?" Or will they simply be considered creepy in their attempt to subvert human contact? It seems likely technology from this object could be used in teddy bears and children's dolls, but will likely not actually replace true human interaction. Still, given sufficient time, will we reach a point where we cannot tell the difference?
Scientists at Harvard Medical Institution have discovered a way to not only stop aging in mice, but actually turn their old and worn out organs into new and rejuvenated ones with a simple drug administered by a syringe. Will the new miracle drug also be able to add years or even centuries to human existence? Or will this youth in a needle drug turn out to be nothing but a pain? The incredible experiment centered around the basic fundamentals of aging. As cells divide, the ends of each strand of DNA has a barrier on it known as a telomere. As cells divide throughout the natural course of life, eventually these telomeres become shorter. As the telomeres eventually deteriorate - so does the human body's ability to divide healthy cells with no reduced structural quality. When the telomeres get too short, the body starts to break down. We know this process as aging.
So Ronald DePinho dared to ask the question, "What if this process could be stopped entirely?" After genetically engineering a new type of mouse to be born without the ability to produce Telomares, they aged rapidly and the deterioration of their cells killed them. But then afterward, the doctor began injections of the enzyme through a syringe and this brought back the cellular deterioration that had previously happened just as though the aging was a wound that needed to be healed. If this technology were somehow applied to human cells in a way that worked effectively, it could mean future generations could be genetically modified to never age or die from age related diseases.
Of course such drastic genetic modification would not only be extremely difficult, but would raise several ethical questions as well. Is it right to genetically modify your own children if you know they will never age or die? What if the decision meant they would depend forever on injections in order to sustain their youth or risk dying? And what effect would such a process have on the rest of the population down the genetic line?
Imagine attempting to explain age and dying to someone who will likely live for centuries and quite possibly never have to deal with concepts such as aging themselves. How different would our society look?
Of course in addition to the negative aspects of such a possibility, there are numerous potential benefits as well. Unfortunately, long before these potential drawbacks are fully understood there is a real possibility that the urgency of such genetic development could require it to be implemented long before the potential long term dangers could be understood.
Take into consideration the use of an irreversible medical system in the case of a great thinker whose expertise is needed to progress humanity, for example.
Of course the dependency on regular injections could eventually be removed from the equation entirely. And by extending life, scientists could ensure those seeking the answers would be around for when the technology reached this level of development.
Longtime critics of eastern medicine may have to eat their words as a new study from the Department of Complementary and Integrative Medicine at University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany has found. If the study is reproduced and found to have the same results, it means that all the years people have been performing acupuncture, they have definitely been making chemical and biological changes to the body on top of any inherent psychological ones. The study took several participants and divided them into two groups. Those in the acupuncture group received a normal acupuncture therapy session administered by a trained practitioner. The control group took no acupuncture, and was simply laying on a table. As each participant was put under an MRI scan, mild electric shocks were applied to both groups. The findings astounded scientists.
Those who had undergone the acupuncture treatment were showing signs of vastly reduced pain while those who had received no acupuncture treatment showed no change. The control group was still feeling the mild electric shocks, and the brain's chemistry was reflecting the temporary discomfort. Those with the acupuncture, however, were barely registering any pain at all. Since acupuncture is a multimillion dollar industry with thousands of practitioners in the United States and vastly more working throughout the world, the results came as much sought vindication for advocates of the ancient practice.
And so yet another aspect of homeopathic medicine has been vindicated. The project, which was funded in Germany where homeopathic medicine is widely practiced to an extent even more so than in the United States gives us a clear picture into just what exactly the ancient art does to the brain. Now, the only question remaining is why it does anything at all. Of course acupuncture has been practiced in Asia for centuries and is still considered a mainstream treatment of pain there, suggesting that by channeling energy between different points of the body it can not only reduce pain, but also promote healing. If the method is discovered to work on both levels, could we soon see it practiced more widely in hospitals in the United States?
Interestingly, one of the appeals of Acupuncture is that it allows patients to reduce the amount of pain they feel without the use of addictive drugs. Additionally it allows patients the ability to seek treatment as needed, even with women who may be pregnant. As the process does not seem to be chemical in nature, it doesn't actually adversely affect pregnant women in any way or harm their children. It has, in fact, been used in this capacity for over two and a half thousand years. Additionally, some advocated of acupuncture have suggested that the technique not only works in conjunction with traditional medications well, it actually compounds the positive effects of pain reducing medication significantly.
And so if acupuncture is given vindication, it may be possible to discover other homeopathic methods for healing that work perfectly without the need for often dangerous and detrimental chemical consumption.
It's long been a fantasy and a theory of people worldwide for decades. What if humans or some other race of beings somehow were using the moon as a base of operations? And now a recent photo has raised several questions among those who believe the US or some other world (or off-world) power may be using the moon as a base of operations. The pictures were taken from Google and suggest a series of rowed structures that look almost like a garden in a grid pattern. But the sizes of the structures we're looking at are most likely far larger than any ordinary garden. Could a moon-base really exist on the Lunar surface?
The images depict nine structures that stretch out into the distance being approximately 30 feet in length and having a number of what appear to be ridges on them or formations. But while it appears to be a fairly blurry representation of some sort of operation on the moon, if you look over to the side of the image it becomes apparent that the structures are more likely a simple pixelation error on the images. Google images such as these can be seen in several areas even on its wildly popular Google Earth. But others, such as Steven Dean have suggested it may be something more.
The moon has always been an incredibly compelling point of interest for those tending to believe that the world around us is not as it seems to the average person in the world. Of all the bodies surrounding our Sun, few have been written about in both science fiction and poetry more than the moon aside from possibly Mars. So when the idea of a moon base suddenly arises, and evidence of that base comes in the form of unintentionally taken photographs, it seems like the perfect excuse to expound on the possibilities for the future or even the present.
And though this moon base photo may have a mundane explanation are there places such structures could exist where they couldn't be seen from Earth or by orbiting satellites? In fact, there are.
In the Northern pole of the moon there are several rocky formations where the light of day never reaches. There are several craters, some of adequate size to fit permanent installations in which the sun's rays have never penetrated. And though the far side of the moon is typically referred incorrectly to the "dark side" (since the sun's rays do regularly shine on this far side as well) there is a side of the moon that is always facing away from the Earth as it rotates in a synchronized fashion to how it orbits the Earth. This far side of the moon, which never sees the Earth is likely a primary candidate for an interesting moon base.
But who would build such a base? With our current known level of technology, such an endeavor would be impossible to keep secret. But it has been suggested that with secret superior technology, or with the assistance of some outside force, it is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.
Scientists from Germany have reported that they may have made a breakthrough after curing one man's infection of HIV. The man was infected with HIV and suffering from leukemia of the immune system. As the virus feeds on the immune system, the scientists decided to eliminate it and thus cure the man. But the potential cure has many drawbacks as well and many are suggesting this is not the cure the scientific community has been searching for all these years. Through high doses of chemotherapy, scientists were able to eliminate the man's immune system and then transplant it back to him with stem cells. As a result, the man's destroyed immune system was recreated by additional stem cell transplants and the cancer was eliminated through the same process. As a result, in one fell swoop the German scientists were able to cure not only the man's HIV but his cancer as well. But there is a down side to this therapy as well.
The patient's DNA contained a rare specific gene designed to be extremely resistant to the HIV virus. This means the stem cells introduced into his body had help. And now after three years since the initial treatments began the patient is free of any trace of HIV. While it is far from a cure, the use of stem cells to reconstitute the immune system certainly opens doors for potential future innovations in medicine. But the idea of completely removing a person's immune system is certainly enough to leave many people hesitant about using the treatment as it could be in some cases even worse than the disease itself.
And it's not simply the removal of the immune system that could be a problem. The very system designed to eliminate a person's immune system is extremely harsh on a patient's body. In the end this "cure" will likely take research a step further, but not necessarily cure most patients of the illness. Additionally, the patients would have to meet a specific genetic criteria that is present in less than 1% of the total population.
The immune system is one of the most important parts of the human body. When it's in proper working condition, patients are able to fully reap its benefits. When it does not, work, however, even something as simple as the common cold can wreak havoc on the body. While this experiment does not mean a cure for HIV has been discovered, the disease could in theory result in future experiments that could result in such a cure at some future date.
Of course one of the major controversies about the treatment is that it uses stem cells. Stem cells have been controversial because they were once thought only to come from fetuses. However, in time, scientists were able to discover ways to extract stem cells without the need for controversy by extracting them from adults, umbilical cords, and even amniotic fluid.
Will we soon be living in a world where HIV is nothing more than a thing of the past? And what other diseases will scientists be able to cure with similar treatments?
For the longest time, physicists had to contend with strictly guided Newtonian physics that suggested all time was linear and gave the troubling idea of predestination. But then as Einstein tested his theories of the universe in the brilliant display of atomic power, we discovered that time was not linear as had been once proposed, but was in fact very relative given the movement of an object. Hence, time travel was not only suggested, it was promised.
Unfortunately, it is also not easy. As we pick up speed, we are actually slowing time down. A year for us as we travel at close to the speed of light could be ten or twenty years on Earth. But by the same respect, if we were to travel faster than the speed of light, we would eventually be able to travel back in time. Of course this promise also came with a very important disclaimer. We simply cannot travel faster than the speed of light with our current understanding of physics. It's this exact same disclaimer that results in us being unable to suddenly jump to another dimension.
But there are other places in the universe where physics gets very strange. Black Holes, for one, seem to have an effect on light and could in theory even have an effect on time. But traveling to a black hole without protection beyond what we currently understand could result in being completely atomized and ripped into strands a hundred trillion miles long. And of course this isn't very promising at all if you want to see dinosaurs or watch Shakespeare's debut.
So will we ever be able to hop in a ship and travel faster than the speed of light without subjecting ourselves to the dangers of black holes? Or will we develop a ship capable of traveling into the heart of a black hole without being crushed and ripped to shreds? There have been dozens of other solutions, including the now famous Tipler Cylinder, but each has its own problems. Problems on the scale of the Tipler Cylinder require that a time machine would have to be infinitely long in either direction and spin incredibly fast in order to travel back in time. Such an endeavor would take an infinitely long period of time and require an infinite amount of energy to spin. It would be easier to just reverse the process of everything in the universe to achieve backwards time travel, in other words.
Of course in the meantime, we may develop devices that find a workaround system. If not traveling backwards through the whole universe, perhaps it would be possible to travel backwards in time on Earth. You may be surprised, but there actually have been several time travelers that have come from our past into the future. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Adveyev holds the current world record for time travel, having traveled almost a quarter of a second into the future. Of course this time wasn't exactly noticed by Adveyev, and he was able to do it merely by orbiting Earth for long enough.
So if you want to travel into the future, it might be possible if you move fast enough in space. But if you want to come back to this moment? Use it well, as you will never get it back. That is, unless science discovers a new way of looking at the universe.
New Years Eve saw the appearance of a very strange sight in the streets and fields around a small town in Arkansas. Amid the litter of revelry from the night before, city officials found that thousands of dead blackbirds had been found to have fallen from the sky around town, but no one knows why. What do you do when thousands of blackbirds mysteriously fall dead from the sky? Investigators are scrambling to discover if this is a new dangerous disease or if it will remain an unsolved mystery like another one in 2010. In 2010 we first brought you coverage of a story of hundreds of starlings that fell out of the sky and into one woman's garden over the course of only a few seconds. The woman came home that night to investigate and was horrified to find hundreds of the birds simply laying on the ground outside her house. The birds were so numerous she found it difficult to move into her house without nudging any of them. Fearing a potential disease outbreak, she phoned the authorities and an animal control official was dispatched to her house where several samples were collected and more than a few tests were made. The tests were the same in every case. The birds had not been poisoned, showed o signs of distress, and had simply died unexpectedly of blunt trauma while flying in midair. Of course no one saw anything that ran into the birds and apparently neither did the birds themselves. Some speculated that an invisible wall had sprung up and soon talk of a UFO was brought up. I remember contacting several people trying to get firsthand information about whether it could be a sudden hailstorm, thoroughly convinced I had solved the puzzle over the official explanation of just where these birds were coming from and why they were dying so suddenly out of nowhere.
Karen Rowe, a commission ornithologist for the city said that this sort of thing has happened elsewhere, but the statement is perhaps accidentally misleading as while it does happen occasionally elsewhere it is actually extremely rare. The whole reason this is news is because an ultra rare and very troubling thing has happened again. Of course there's also the fact that Rowe has the all important job of ensuring panic doesn't set in on the town it took place in.
Fortunately for us all this sort of thing did happen before without any noticeable consequence for the town it took place in. But what could be the explanation? And could this mass dying of birds have anything to do with the incident that happened in Julie Knight's garden? With any luck this latest incident will prove to be just as harmless and isolated as the other.
The official explanation is still being explored, but several of those proposed to make the event seem more normal are also fairly unlikely. Included in these theories is one suggesting that the birds died as a result of sudden fireworks explosions resulting in trauma. If this were the case, then fireworks all over the world would be regularly causing mass heart attacks in birds resulting in thousands of deaths every year. Shortly thereafter the event would be occurring regularly at the fourth of July and New Years. Another suggestion was a sudden hailstorm. While I had proposed this in the Knight case, as this happened all over the city in the middle of winter it seems less likely that it could happen without evidence of the storm being left behind.
The evidence seems to suggest that all of these birds interacted with something that resulted in their deaths, but it didn't affect anything else. As other birds didn't seem affected by it, this suggests possibly a disease that deals exclusively with blackbirds or even more likely a fast acting toxin that the birds flew into while in a flock. As some started dying off they dispersed and eventually were also claimed by the toxin. If no toxins are discovered in the bodies, however, the mystery will only deepen. Perhaps they flew into a pocket where there was increased carbon dioxide. The trauma could have been caused by the fall as they returned to Earth.
Hopefully in due time this mystery will be solved.
It's being called the Aflockalypse in some circles, a sign of the apocalypse in others, and a massive coincidence by a diminishing number as the deaths of thousands of blackbirds is now being joined by other species who all seem to be dying in mass numbers. The idea of animals of a specific species dying off en masse seems too much to just be coincidence to a growing number who are proclaiming it to be evidence of everything from a pre-show to 2012 to government experiments. And with crabs, other birds, and other fish joining the mix, some experts say they expect this to just be the beginning. On new year's day residents of Beebee, AK were horrified when they stepped outside and spotted lying dead in their yards up to hundreds of birds over a short distance. After a while the tally was counted up and they discovered that several thousand birds had been killed somehow in the night, the result of some unknown physical trauma to their bodies. Mere days prior hundreds of thousands of kettle fish had washed up on the shores just north of there having died of equally mysterious causes. And now another mass die off of birds has been reported just south of Beebee.
Skeptics have pointed to the numbers of experts, suggesting that birds die in massive numbers about 14 to 16 times every 20 years from unknown causes. Of course this is a far cry from the several mass die offs being reported in only a few days. And it isn't just birds this time, but other species as well. Are we just specially tuned in to the subject of bird deaths? Or is it possible there could be something more? If the former is the case, experts are saying to prepare for more reports of mass die offs in the coming days.
Thousands of fish are likewise dying off in massive numbers the world over all over the world including several in places such as New Zealand, the UK, and Japan. In Louisiana hundreds of birds reportedly died just days after the first die off was reported in Beebee. And this is just the first few days after the first incident. At this rate it's expected we will be abandoning the "coincidence" theory fairly soon if these deaths continue to make headlines and continue to occur worldwide.
Last year we brought you coverage of a strange incident involving hundreds of Starlings suddenly dropping dead in one woman's yard under mysterious circumstances. At the time we were perplexed by the theories proposed to explain it away almost as much as the incidents themselves. Fortunately in that case there were no follow up mass animal deaths to suggest something larger was going on. This was not, however, the case in the Beebee incident. Possible culprits proposed are generally a mix between a coincidence and the explosion of fireworks startling the birds and causing them to plummet to the ground, a fast acting disease, a cloaked alien ship that resulted in the birds slamming into a solid object they could not see, the birds fighting one another and even military testing of the HAARP system to affect bird flight patterns. Each explanation has its faults and its qualities. But none of them thus far have truly closed what is becoming an ever more perplexing case.
Whatever you may think of the mystery of strange aerial phenomena, there has been quite a bit of coverage of so called mystery missiles in the past few months. In November the devices seemed to be popping up all over the world, each one as enigmatic as the last. And as the numbers piled up many people proposed everything from military test vehicles to secret satellite launches. But after a brief lull at the end of December, a new contrail sighting has cropped up that seemingly has no explanation. The video taken by witnesses shows a single white stripe flying up into the sky and disappearing at a point. Unlike traditional aircraft, the contrail doesn't appear to move at all horizontally across the sky, instead favoring a perfectly vertical trajectory into the atmosphere. But even as this UFO video is being given the silent treatment by a media now more concerned with massive animal die-offs, some are speculating that this is further evidence that seems to vindicate the strange series of missile sightings at the end of last year. But what is it?
The object appears to be distant, and in the middle of the desert it's possible it could have gone up without being seen at all. But witnesses with a cell phone video taped the object as it shot up into the sky and this footage made it to the hands of a news team dedicated to getting the truth on the matter. As they showed the footage to the world for the first time, the theories behind what it could be quickly started pouring in.
Could it be a military spy plane? A military test vehicle with the ability to move straight up into the air is nothing new, but the speed, height, and incline seem to suggest a rocket propulsion system. The fact that it leaves behind a fluffy white contrail could suggest fuel accelerants used in jets and rockets. If it's a test vehicle, it is possible its driver could be a computer guidance system, and the passenger intended for it could be a weapons payload. Missile tests are not generally broadcast and depending on the type of missile may actually violate international treaties. And therefore, when nations test these weapons it is usually kept under strict secrecy. But then would such a system be tested during broad daylight?
What about a private rocket system? It's no secret that corporations are showing quite a bit of interest in the space program. And with an increased dependence on GPS systems and satellites, there's no need to get materials into space than ever. But why the secrecy? Would it really be more difficult to simply lie about the cargo onboard the rocket than to build your own and secretly launch it? And what could warrant such a clandestine operation? And as with any question when dealing with corporate entities, if there is no profit in it, it's less likely they would engage in it.
Could a flying saucer be the cause? Rather than call the object a UFO (it is, after all unidentified and clearly flying) let's just come right out and ask if the device could be a flying saucer or similar craft of unconventional Earthly origin. But if this was the case, why would it need to leave a massive contrail behind it? Witnesses worldwide have seen these objects and reported that they do not leave behind contrails. In fact, the objects don't seem to leave behind any evidence of any kind often, and certainly don't have to use conventional rocket fuel to fly through the air. At least not as far as we know. If it was alien in origin, which is admittedly a sort of catch-all theory, why aren't more of these objects seen leaving behind a plume of smoke when they leave Earth?
So could it be a conventional aircraft viewed at a specific angle making the illusion that it's a missile? Look at the video and try to imagine what angle the object would have to be at in order to create an illusion like this. Then take into consideration that the object was spotted by multiple witnesses from different angles and all could agree on one central fact -that it was entirely unexplainable.
In an incredible piece of information from the amazing world of animals, Chaser the Border Collie has been studied at the University of Woffard (not Woofard) where they discovered that he understands the names of several hundred objects and can even understand the words for acquiring them. The Collie is one of the masters of language, but is said to have the vocabulary prowess of a typical human being during early development. Now if only we could teach him to "speak." Chaser has been taught the names of several objects including typical nouns of several objects and then the words for what to do with them. John Pilley and Alliston Reid gave Chaser extensive training on words and their meanings and now the border Collie can not only pick these objects out in a lineup, but can understand more complex commands that make "sit" "stay" and "roll over" look like child's play. The researchers were looking to understand what the limits of dog training could be when it came to words and commands. What they discovered was astounding. Try as they might, they couldn't find any limit to how many words a dog could learn given sufficient training. By the end, they had taught Chaser over 1,022 words and he showed no signs of slowing down. Eventually, the test was concluded only because they ran out of time.
It's no question that dogs are incredibly intelligent animals. In addition to being able to understand basic shapes and objects, they apparently can understand. They would even combine the preset names and commands together to see if they could figure out what he would do. After extensive training they found that Chaser not only understood the objects, but also more complex and abstract concepts behind them. The true weight of Chaser's intelligence was astounding both to Pilley and Alliston, but left many questions still unanswered. How far could an animal's intelligence be taken? If given the proper stimuli, how complex could the commands get? Could seeing eye dogs and other service animals one day be able to be communicated with and even communicate back in their own way? And if so, what would they say?
While it's difficult to train a dog to do something such as express their feelings, a service animal might be able to use their training to communicate ideas about concrete objects and ideas. "I see three people and one chair in this room," certainly doesn't seem to be beyond the understanding of a sufficiently (and extensively) trained dog given the circumstances surrounding this experiment. Of course I wouldn't then also expect the same dog to be able to say something along the lines of, "I don't know about that carpet. It doesn't seem to go well with the color scheme you have in here." If for no other reason than dogs are colorblind.
In the beginning, dogs were thought to be dumb but trainable animals. And as we continued to study them we discovered that their capacity for language was practically without horizon. So how long before we truly understand just how far the canine consciousness can parallel our own?
Astounding as it sounds, DARPA has announced plans to develop a flying car to be used by the military to quickly move through the air without having to deal with roadside bombs or ambushes. And this incredible vehicle isn't just any flying car. It is in fact, a Humvee. Remember Terrafugia the ones who first brought us the flying car? Well now they're back, and they say it's time to get started working on a new model to help fight in the battlefield of the future. Terrafugia's incredible development is funded by $41 million from the defense department. The vehicle will be able to withstand machine gun fire, take to the air vertically or horizontally, and then land taking only a moment to retract the wings and propellers before driving down the road. The vehicle will be the first truly all terrain vehicle as it can not only fly, but drive at speeds comparable to an ordinary humvee. The vehicle, developers suggest, would be able to immediately avoid one of the most dangerous threats facing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan today: roadside bombs. Just last October a roadside bomb detonated and killed eleven soldiers and two NATO troops as it was moving to rescue a captive. The loss of life in cases like this is always tragic.
Elsewhere, some interested individuals are suggesting if such a device were to ever end up becoming popular there would likely be civilian models as well or at least comparable models for ambulances, police, and private citizens. And the medical evacuation of troops is among the chief examples of how a vehicle that can not only drive on the ground but also fly through the air would be useful. Such a device would be capable of lifting up wounded casualties and taking them to a nearby medical installation or even allow for supplies to be delivered via air drop to troops entrenched in an area and out of reach of helicopters.
Currently one of the limitations of aerial vehicles is the difficulty with refueling. Just as was the case with the Terrafugia, this vehicle is expected to be able to function primarily on ordinary gasoline, and while it likely will be a gas guzzler, will be able to drive more discretely than landed helicopters. The idea of an aerial vehicle driving into a town and then flying to the next one over unexpectedly will no doubt give a significant tactical advantage to its operators. But as with so many other projects, this one will need extensive testing and development before it will be seen on roads or in the air.
It's always been said that flying cars would be one of the signs that the future had indeed arrived. But as we check in on the year 2010 to see how technology has progressed, we realize that not only will the introduction of flying cars become possible on our own streets, but they will soon be used by the military as well.
In the Cold War, fears of nuclear devastation all over the globe prompted the building of hundreds of backyard fallout shelters. But then as the government realized it would have to be keeping vast areas of its infrastructure both safe and organized, it drafted plans to design and build massive vaults to evade the ensuing destruction of everything we know of in our civilization. But now as the cold war seems like a distant memory it only stands to reason that these bunkers would stop being built. So why has the building of these facilities not slowed down? What is this disaster these various agencies are planning for?
As the official story is largely secret, the answer to this question has been a breeding ground for conjecture and speculation. Why anyone would invest billions on bunkers when world war III seems so unlikely in this globally entangled world of economies, trade embargoes, and currency trading is simply at this point a mystery. In fact, several of these bunkers have even been supplemented by the 4.5 million seed sample storage vault in the event of a global catastrophe that compromises the world's food supply. The massive seed bank will store these seeds for possibly hundreds of thousands of years. And that's only one of the more public steps the Norwegian government is taking to ensure life has a chance to survive on our planet.
Many people have speculated that the real cause of all this preparation is likely the oncoming cataclysm that will be brought about on December 21st, 2012. As this exact date is often used as a cornerstone to all apocalyptic preparation it seems to be the single most often cited cause of global preparation. And the movie 2012 is only one of several media outlets over anxiety of the date. But is the highly speculative future apocalypse date the only reason world governments are finding it necessary to prepare for an uncertain future? Or could there possibly be another reason on top of all of this?
Global politics seems fairly static with very little happening over the course of several years when compared to the vast changes that took place in World Wars I and II. But if the cables leaked by Internet site Wikileaks gives us any indication, it's that as the US learns more about global politics and decides to learn as much as possible about the world around it, things are nowhere near as stable as they seem. In fact, the image many politicians and diplomats have outlined might be compared to a sort of Sword of Damoclese hanging over the heads of every man woman and child on this planet. Of course in this case the sword itself isn't as much a sword as the looming and ever present threat of war and possibly even nuclear war. Given this image of the world it's slightly more understandable why world governments would find it necessary to prepare for the future when that future is at times less than certain.
Those who had to suffer through the swine flu last year and earlier this year will be delighted to hear that while the experience was likely incredibly intense and draining, experts worldwide are now saying research suggests those who overcame the intense virus that started the 2010 pandemic scare may actually have super immune systems thanks to the way the human body fights off the swine flu.
Researchers are suggesting that research conducted on the Swine Flu may soon lead to the development of a super-vaccine that could eventually wholesale prevent all forms of flu in humans. With seemingly yearly scares over various flu vaccines and the diseases themselves, a universal flu vaccine and immune response from the body could result in an extraordinary immunity to future diseases including the once feared H5N1 bird flu. Of course further research is being conducted at Oxford University in an attempt to glean the benefits of the disease without having to go through the debilitating and sometimes even deadly Swine Flu.
Tests began in 2008 for a universal flu vaccine, and with the various strains of the disease claiming half a million lives worldwide every year and causing others to lose days or even weeks of work time and keep them isolated from friends and loved ones. And yet it seems that those who had the swine flu will (at least for a period) not have to worry about several strains of swine flu.
It doesn't mean you'll never get sick, but it means you're far less likely to get infected with several different strains of the flu including the 1918 Spanish flu which killed millions and the 1976 outbreak strain of flu. Whether or not the swine flu vaccine provides any similar benefits is yet to be studied, though experts have suggested this new immunity boost works is by recovering from the illness itself.
Of course this isn't unheard of in medical circles. Many diseases have run their course and as a result allowed for a stronger immune system. In addition to the swine flu, Chicken Pox is often said to be a coming of age disease because once someone gets it they are more immune to it later in life.
In the past, the CDC had to use predictions to decide which vaccines were stockpiled and this inevitably led to shortages and fears of shortages occasionally over the years. Ultimately, if the vaccines were universal they would not have to worry about running the risk of appropriating resources toward the wrong vaccine. And ultimately fewer people would have to take shots for the vaccine or risk wasting their time with the wrong one.
But in the mean time, it would seem those who suffered from the swine flu will be able to fight off diseases in the future more effectively than ever. And with the flu season in full swing, that's good news to a lot of those with swine flu memories.
In May of last year one of the greatest drops ever seen by those involved in the US stock exchange took place and the average person had a very different perception of just what went on when it did. Thinking a massive panic had ensued due to some little known tidbit of knowledge resulting in the stock plunge, after the recovery in the following days we all sighed a breath of relief. But then it turns out the market is not actually run by people. According to economists and the New York Times, 75% of all trade volume is done rapidly by computers with no humans involved. And the next stock market collapse might just be one computer glitch away.
In 2006, the London Stock Exchange had 40% of its market under the influence of so called "Algo" or Algorithmic trading (also known as High Frequency trading). By 2007 the majority of all trading going on in the stock exchange had become by automatic machines. And today only a fraction of all trading on the stock exchange is done by something other than an automated machine. The fact that the foundation of a large part of the economy happens automatically with no oversight due to supercomputers based both in and around the stock exchange as well as the rest of the US has some people concerned about transparency and a great deal more worried about the actions of a single entity wishing the world harm or to swindle others out of millions.
A single hacker, according to some experts, could take advantage of the problems inherent in the system and then destroy the lives of many people financially. But there's another side to this that seems just as disturbing. Right now the exclusive purpose of these computers is to interface with one another in order to make those who own the computers money. With little human intervention in place, these various machines are essentially communicating and becoming one large machine. And that's what runs no less than 75% of the stock market on any given day. With computers deciding the fates of billions of dollars, a sufficiently powerful computer could in theory even honestly just find a way to beat the system and take up the greater part of the economy with only a few dollars at the beginning. Of course that's an extreme scenario and seems fairly unlikely with the checks and balances in place. Right?
Given enough time, a machine could generate millions of dollars by a combination of luck, a little bit of insight, and a lot of processing power. And if that same computer were owned by someone who then manipulated the market, they could theoretically then have a bounty of resources to make their next move.
Of course at the moment this is mostly just the stuff of science fiction. But it's unnerving to think that in a world where the world's governments are now taking active steps to fight against economic instability, computers are actually the ones in charge of the economy. And rather than a simple problem of transparency, the investors themselves don't actually know what's going on in the market for the most part. And now it's all becoming part of a vast and incredible machine who knows all that happens to its financial market.
Imagine standing on a platform raised on a building over a hundred stories tall and looking down to see traffic running beneath you. Standing on glass might make you nervous, but thanks to the efforts of scientists working at Cal Tech, we could all be looking at a whole new world where glass is one of the strongest materials known to man. And if this incredibly tough material can be made transparent, there's no end to what it could do for our world.
Incredibly strong windows able to take more of a beating than steel would mean floors and support structures could be strong enough to ensure the most overwhelming attacks while still letting people see through them. The material would most likely be used in vehicles designed to protect high profile public officials and certain aircraft at least, and possibly even find its way into maximum security defense installations as well. The only problem is, unlike more traditional glass and plastics used to make windows, this material uses very expensive bonding materials like palladium to hold the materials together.
By bonding palladium, silver, and other materials in with the process, these windows can be made to withstand things like bullets, bombs, sledgehammers, and even vehicular collisions. And that's not all. Scientists are now more confident than ever that this is only the beginning when it comes to incredibly strong glass. The rest could come with a far less expensive material to develop it. As it stands today, both silver and palladium are already increasing in price with increased industrial demand. And as that demand increases and the world stock supplies dwindle, some experts are suggesting these precious metals will run into a brick wall when it becomes too expensive to make their use feasible due to scarcity.
But in the mean time, these materials could still be able to be used to develop windows on everything from spacecraft to glass panes for office buildings. Only don't expect it to come cheap if you want this ultra bullet proof glass standing between you and your greatest fears. And whether that's a terrorist bomber or a free fall from a hundred stories or even an oncoming mac truck, that will be up to what seems most useful to engineers and developers.
But how common will these windows become? At the moment it's hard to tell. With how expensive the materials involved will be, there's a real possibility that it won't be seen everywhere. We won't simply evolve past a world of broken glass. But the powerful protection afforded by this scientific material might be yet another material used in the space program when exploring the surface of the red planet.
And in a time where fear runs rampant in the world, there's nothing more secure than being able to look out your window and knowing nothing can make its way in.
Scientists have pointed out that as the limitations of the integrated circuit limit the ability of an artificially intelligent machine, the projected progress outlined by Moores Law will ultimately finally reach the edge of its limitations. But as new developments in quantum computers come forth each passing year, the AI of tomorrow may use quantum computers already in development to function. And as such, what can we make of Moore's Law which suggests a human digital brain could reach our desktops by the year 2029?
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of artificial intelligence is that Moore's Law has not, as so many have predicted, slowed down. Rather, in 2008 the progress of transistors in computers has -in fact- sped up. In 1990 the release of the 486 computer carried with it approximately one million transistors and was capable of playing tic tac toe extremely well, but only capable of playing chess at a beginner level. It has been estimated that the human brain's cerebral cortex carries within it twenty billion neurons, and the entire brain houses somewhere around fifty billion. If this analysis is to be believed, then the human brain is essentially equivalent in processing power to twenty-five Quad-Core Itanium Tukwila computer processors (developed in 2008). Earlier this year a new type of transistor was developed that operated similarly to a human brain's. If we were to take the processing power of the most advanced processors and put them together with these new neuron-like transistors would we ultimately create a facsimile of the human brain? Unfortunately, not yet. Such a device would only have an equivalent processing power to a human brain and would not necessarily be able to process information in a comparable way.
But then we take into account the potential learning capabilities of social machines such as Kismet, which has a certain degree of interactive intelligence and even expressive features, and the powers of perception and reaction such as the TOPIO robot, which can play ping-pong, and somehow find a way for these machines to become creative using mathematical algorithms and suddenly the possibility of true Artificial Intelligence no longer becomes an issue left to the imagination of science fiction. Instead, such a system would be able to interact with its environment in a way that would be difficult to distinguish from human interaction. Additionally, such a system would almost certainly be able to then begin designing a new system of thinking that made programming as well as some forms of human problem solving a thing of the past. It would then also at this point begin designing a more efficient means of improving itself. At this point such a machine is at the threshold of reaching a singularity. The future AI systems such a machine would design would be capable of designing better systems, and so on.
Current projections suggest we may have a realistic human brain in computer format by the year 2029, and this brain could be manufactured to help humanity at this level by not only conveying information, but developing and processing it. And by that point will it be ethical to reprogram them or turn them off?
It's easy when dealing with this issue to let fear be the primary guiding judge of whether or not to explore this new horizon of technology. But if humans have developed the capability of creating life, are we not by this point capable of transcending such basic emotions as fear of the unknown? And what could we learn about ourselves if we created an entirely artificial yet wholly conscious entity?
