Odds & Ends

 

Credit: SciTechDaily.com.

Physicists Harness 13,000 Entangled Spins To Unlock the Power of the “Dark State”

"Quantum dots just became serious contenders for quantum networks. By stabilizing nuclear spins into a robust quantum register, researchers have cleared a major hurdle toward scalable quantum communication and computing."

- Via SciTechDaily.com.

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Digital image, 2006, DS.

"Welcome to Enigma, the largest alert network for UAP/UFO sightings.

Share your sighting

By reporting your sighting, you’re helping thousands of scientists, researchers, and witnesses like you crowdsolve this age old mystery."

Added note (2/16/2025): I neglected to mention it, but I heard about Enigma from an unusual source. Recently, PBS, the public broadcasting television station here in the States, broadcast its first NOVA episode devoted to UFOs. See it here.

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• Russian Scientists Develop a Plasma Engine Capable of Reaching Mars in 30 Days—Spacex’s Starship Could Become Obsolete

• Third form of magnetism, recently confirmed, could transform electronics

• When a Man’s AI Girlfriend Encouraged Him to Kill Himself, Its Creator Says It Was Working as Intended

• New type of nuclear fusion discovered: We could now produce infinite energy

• Schrödinger's Cat breakthrough could usher in the 'Holy Grail' of quantum computing, making them error-proof

• "Dark oxygen" discovery upends centuries of scientific beliefs, textbooks to be rewritten

• Cosmic first: supermassive black hole caught “turning on” in real-time

• Rare Earths and Rare Tech Podcast. Podcast #1: Canada's Rare Earth Future

 

• Microwaving grapes not just a party trick

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Cassiopeia A Light Echoes

"Even as a star dies, its light endures—echoing across the cosmos."

The 8th Day of Christmas

The Christmas Tree Cluster

"This release features a composite image of a cluster of young stars looking decidedly like a cosmic Christmas tree! The cluster, known as NGC 2264, is in our Milky Way Galaxy, about 2,500 light-years from Earth. Some of the stars in the cluster are relatively small, and some are relatively large, ranging from one tenth to seven times the mass of our Sun."

The 12 Days of Christmas

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December, 2024 Link-dump:

Jacques Vallee on the last 50 years of UFO research: “We have not learned anything new about their identity

AI-generated UFO video shows how fast visual truth is slipping away

The “Whisperverse”: The future of mobile computing is an AI voice inside your head

Is AI Art Bad?

This artist is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not happy about it.

Solar System Space Opera

Scientists Are Pretty Sure They Found a Portal to the Fifth Dimension

Searching for dark matter through the fifth dimension

Team presents first demonstration of quantum teleportation over busy internet cables

Annual UFO report finds 21 cases of more than 700 received need more analysis

Experts testify before lawmakers that the U.S. is running secret UAP programs

After decades of denial, the Pentagon finally admits it’s baffled by UFOs

Negative time, discovered for the first time in history: It goes from the future to the past

Happy New Year!

Determining the "U" in UAP

Ask Ethan: Could we determine if UAPs/UFOs are aliens?

"Although a great many unidentified sights have been seen in the skies, none have conclusively demonstrated the presence of aliens. So far."

"This is actually very robust; if you can find objects that either:

• accelerate at hundreds of gs (or more) for several seconds,
• that move at speeds of hundreds of thousands of km/hr (or greater),
• or that can change their distance from you by amounts that are greater than any known rocket can travel in the same span of time,

you have evidence that you’ve observed a technology that goes well beyond the technologies that are known to humankind at present."

***

- Via a Big Think article (link above) which attempts to establish "clear evidentiary thresholds we'd need to pass to conclude that an unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) truly defies natural or terrestrial explanation."

The video introducing this post reports one account of a mysterious spiral light which appeared over Norway in 2009. A CBS report of the same phenomenon appears in the Ethan article - Spiral Phenomenon Explained - but, judging by most of the comments on the YouTube page, I'd say the explanation (a Russian missile) was not popular.

Alternative explanation? The death of Mothra.

More Fun:

Angels or aliens? Some researchers say Vatican archives hold UFO secrets

The sci-fi future stands derelict: Taiwan’s abandoned UFO houses

***

The moon in a phi-shell. G - DS - 22024.

A belated Happy Birthday to Mac in the Multiverse!

Art connects us to the past... which is a good thing, or we might try to forget it. The artwork above and inset left is a tiny detail of a much larger religious painting, a fresco of the Crucifixion from the Visoki Decani Monestary in Kosovo, Serbia, 1350, artist unknown. The image has been all over the web, mostly misinterpreted as a medieval UAP. According to The View from the Junkyard, and with whom I agree, the two UAPs which fly in the background of the crucified Christ are, in fact, medieval symbolist depictions of the sun and moon; this detail is of the moon. That the sun and moon happen to be vehicles for UHE (Unidentified Human-like Entities)... well, let's just say, it's probably one of those Pre-Christian things. The UHE may symbolize gods... the old gods who still lingered in artist's minds regardless of what new gods they were hired to portray.

If I remember correctly, Mac Tonnies adored the old gods as a boy... along with dinosaurs and robots, of course. But, then again, artists, writers and makers of all varieties still appreciate the old gods till this  very day. Well, they were Immortals, weren't they? Oddly enough, in visual art, the celestial gods often appear in vehicles that echo the shape of the pentagonal golden ratio's spiral mechanism. Even this one does to some degree, and, so, I embellished it with a phi-shell.

For more images and info regarding ancient future vehicles (and/or the "Chariots of the Gods"), try Crystalinks, or this  Preterhuman .pdf.

Macbot - Virtual Birthday #48 (Video added 8/21)

A vintage photo of a curly-headed young Macbot (aged 9) with his amiable, cardboard friend.

"...In case you haven't noticed, we're in dire need of beings endowed with "better than human intelligence." I don't particularly care if they're carbon- or silicon-based.

Look at it this way: If we create a species of truly intelligent machines, they'll be forced to contend with many of the concerns that plague our own attempts to avoid destruction (self-induced or otherwise). So while they will indeed be "alien," I think we can correctly view them as relatives -- or, to use Moravec's term, "mind children."

What are Verruggio and his colleagues really afraid of? That super-intelligent robots will enslave the human race in a cheesy cybernetic reenactment of "Planet of the Apes"? Don't count on it. The idea has proven cinematic appeal, but the overwhelming odds are that sentient robots, left to their own devices, will do what we should have a done a long time ago: take meaningful steps toward severing dependency on Earth (which, as noted by a growing chorus of scientists, promises to become less and less dependable)."

-  Mac Tonnies via a 2006 Posthuman Blues post. Yes, if there was any sort of battle between mankind and robots, Mac would surely be on the side of the robots... and this includes the Growbot seen in the NASA photo (inset right), a robotic plant which eventually might colonize Mars!

Anyway, for a multitude of robot posts, visit the original Posthuman Blues...(Door1 or Door 2).

"I know I've already posted on this, but I refuse to sit idly by without milking the "sex with robots" meme for everything it's worth.

Specifically, I'm skeptical about the 2012 date cited above. I'm willing to bet there are roboticists getting amorous with their creations right now -- for research purposes, of course.

And maybe it's just me, but no one seems to have commented on the potential sexbots might have on population growth. If these things are as good as techno-pundits anticipate, they may well prove to be the ultimate contraceptive..."

- Mac Tonnies via a 2007 post. Inset left is the head of contemporary robot celebrity, Ameca.

No, "sexbot" is not (yet) her job description, but, something about her expression in the photo tells me this is probably a good thing... like, maybe she was formerly employed as an electric food-processor. Now, there's an "ultimate contraceptive"...

A video celebrating Ameca's artistic skills is featured later on in the post. 

"Robots that eat vermin -- I love it. And think of the potential military applications. Drop a platoon of flesh-eating 'bots into enemy territory and watch the feeding frenzy. Plus, the military brass doesn't have to worry about troublesome body counts, as all human corpses will have been processed into fuel -- fuel that can be used to launch new offenses against The Enemy.

Quick -- what's DARPA's phone number?"

- Mac Tonnies via a 2004 post. Alternative strategy: releasing a platoon of food-processing sexbots into enemy territory.

"Robots like me can be used to help improve our lives and make the world a better place. I believe it's only a matter of time before we see thousands of robots just like me out there making a difference."

- Ameca, via this article. Ah, yes, making the world a "better place"... can't say we weren't forewarned! (Note: What is it that makes me nervous about a robot saying "I believe" as opposed to "I compute"?)

Oh, yeah, and if you watch the short video in the article, you'll note that Ameca seems to have a little glitch in her programming causing this jiggy little eye movement when she's perplexed. But, perhaps perplexed is too strong a word. Maybe she just blew a fuse.

***

While it's true that we are currently in that noxious time-frame known as the Dog Days of summer - which generally means bad news for everybody on all fronts - for you and I, there is, indeed, a silver lining to this particularly dark cloud: Mac's birthday!

 

This year's birthday post was brought to us by Mac's mom, Dana, who enjoyed the previous robotic birthday post so much, she magically conjured up the vintage photograph of a young Macbot (above) just in time for this year. Thanks again, D! And, since you liked BG Dodson's wonderful little bots so much, I've posted 3 new ones (inset left). (Note the Crowbot!) (Thanks, BG!)

BTW, Mac apparently fashioned his robot for a (5th grade) school art fair. The red things around its head were plastic soda straws...

While I'm not going into any major essay about robots on this day, I will post 2 videos featuring the major contenders in the recent robot arena. They appear below the jump...

The Day of the Jellyfish

Birthday Cake by Salvador Dali? No, a "Flower Hat" jellyfish by Mother Nature.
(Click-on images for enlargements.)

I was'nt  planning on posting these lovelies till June 1st, but it appears neither they (nor my muse) could wait. And, no, one doesn't question these things. So, here they are from top to bottom: the Flower Hat jelly, the Black Sea Nettle, and the ultra-violet Halitrephes jelly (often referred to online as the "Fireworks" jelly). The first two photos were sourced from this article in which we learn:

"Scientists have discovered jellyfish fossil snapshots in rocks believed to be more than 500 million years old. That makes them even older than dinosaurs!"

Photo credit: Aurelien Guichard

Which kind of alerts us to the possibility that jellyfish know things that we don't! The thing is, allegedly, jellyfish do not have brains. But, then again, it sort of appears as if jellyfish are brains... alien brains, but brains nonetheless.

And, don't argue with me.

The Halitrephes jelly.

Speaking of aliens, however, while searching around for the most amazing jellyfish I could find, I found this article: The Sky is Alive; Are Many UFOs Atmospheric Creatures?, a reposting of a Fortean Times article. If you go there - and you should - you'll find a photo of a UFO flying over Denmark in 1974 which looks, well, exactly like an airborne jellyfish. So, are some UFOs atmospheric organisms? I don't know... but, I once created a tiny planet which did have an ocean-like atmosphere and did have weird marine-like creatures flying around.
Anyway, it's a cool concept whether technically true or not.*

Meanwhile, here's a great clip of the Halitrephes-in-motion. For more jellyfish images, try this page.

_________________________________

* On the topic of UFOs, here are 2 excerpts from a May 27 CBS News article: U.S. Navy pilots reportedly spotted UFOs over East Coast.

"Some U.S. Navy pilots reported seeing unidentified flying objects while training over the East Coast in 2014 and 2015 in interviews with The New York Times. According to The Times, multiple Navy pilots spotted "strange objects" with "no visible engine" reaching 30,000 feet and going hypersonic speeds...

According to the report, the pilots who reported the aerial phenomena "speculated that the objects were part of some classified and extremely advanced drone program." In another instance, one pilot told Lt. Graves that he "almost hit one of those things" and that he described it as looking 'like a sphere encasing a cube.'"

Of course, like much UFO news, this story comes out years after the fact. In this case, five years. Oh well. CNN also has an interview.

"Join the Adventure" (Updated February 19, 2018)

An image from a 2004 encounter near San Diego between two
Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets and an unknown object.
Photo by U.S Department of Defense.

"The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.

The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena. Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space.

On CBS’s “60 Minutes” in May, Mr. Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that aliens exist and that U.F.O.s have visited Earth."

- Excerpt from the NY Times article: Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program.

"Join the Adventure"
The original Bigelow Aerospace logo.

"His signature quirk, however, is an obsession with space that extends beyond his business interests. In addition to the $100million Bigelow has already put into Bigelow Aerospace (and the $400million more he has promised), he has doled out millions to fund research into alien abductions and UFO sightings. He’s done some of the work himself, personally interviewing hundreds of people who claim to have had extraterrestrial encounters. In fact, one of the main reasons he’s so eager to get his stations launched is that he thinks they might provide a step toward making contact."

- A reference to Robert Bigelow from this Wired page.

***

Well, according to the Daily Galaxy, apparently SETI's Seth Shostak wasn't terribly impressed, but the latest bombshell regarding the Pentagon Defense Department's Secret UFO program has loads of other tongues wagging.

Similar to the CIA's unexpected confession in January of 2016, it seems the Defense Department had - and, possibly, has - its own covert UFO investigation in existence: the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.

I think the most intriguing aspect of the story is the involvement (and investment) of Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, a man who, among other things, claims to be an experiencer. Mac admitted having "his eye" on Bigelow in 2004, and judging by a few PB posts, seemed to admire him.

There are a number of recent articles regarding the Pentagon's disclosure... here are a few:
Newsweek's WE MAY NOT BE ALONE,’ FORMER PENTAGON UFO OFFICIAL SAYS ABOUT EVIDENCE OF ALIEN LIFE; Live Scence's Do You Want to Believe? Government UFO Search Never Stopped; the BBC's Pentagon ran secret multi-million dollar UFO programme; The Times' follow-up On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program, and, lastly the Huffington Post which may have been the first to break the story.

As luck would have it, however, there's more end-of-the-year news...

Just Found...

One of Mac's (2008) shadow self-portraits.

"Ach weißte. Erst dieser Mist mit der Zeitumstellung. (Ich prüfte gerade mehrere Minuten, ob die Welt kaputt ist oder doch nur mein Gehirns. Es stellte sich heraus: Mein Gehirns war’s. Wir ham‘ wirklich ’ne Stunde früher.) Dann erschreckt mich Facebook (mit welchem ich täglich arbeite) mit einem neuen Look. Okay, denk‘ ich mir, Okay, lieste halt ein paar Feeds zur Beruhigung. Da ich am Wochenende nicht soviel im Netz hänge wie in der Woche, stauten sich also jede Menge ungelesene Artikel in meinem Reader. Und was war der zweite Artikel den ich las? Genau:

Mac Tonnies ist Tod!

Mir fehlen da so ein bisschen die Worte, jetzt. Ich hatte kurzen Email-Kontakt mit Mac. Und dieser war äußerst freundlich und sehr amüsant. Wir verlinkten und das Eine oder Andere mal gegenseitig, haben rumgetwittert; und ich freute mich erst vor ein paar Wochen sehr darüber, das Mac mich in seine Blogrolle aufgenommen hatte.

Mac wurde bereits am Donnerstag in seiner Wohnung gefunden und starb eines natürlichen Todes. Ich habe gerade Tränen in den Augen. Weil: Er war ein solch‘ toller Autor, Ufo-Freak, Transhuman-Interessierter und irgendwie einfach ein Teil meines Lebens. Hört sich doof an. Ist aber so. Gewesen.

Rest in Peace, auf das du den CERNern das Fürchten lehrst. Wo auch immer du jetzt stecken magst, Mac. Ich vermisse dich schon heute; hoffe das ein awesome-Weblog und deine incredible-Website dem Cyberspace noch lange erhalten bleiben.

So kann’s gehen. Ist das Leben kurz, oder was? Regt man sich über Scheisse auf, oder was?  Scheiss‘, da!

Mac, ich weiß es ganz genau: Jetzt machst du den Titel deines Weblogs zum Programm: Tanz uns den Posthuman-Blues, Baby! Danke für alles, Mac! I’ll never forget! "

- Chris Heil's Doktorsblog post (October 25, 2009): OH MIST. MAC TONNIES IST TOD.

***

In an effort to repair a link (and a video) in this post, I found myself scrolling through the comment section of Mac's last Posthuman Blues' post, Triptych #15... a rather sad place I hadn't been to in a long time. Sad because it represented the unfolding nightmare of Mac's passing and the slow process of realization left to his friends and followers. After all, none of us knew firsthand... we had to find out the Virtual Reality way.

As it was, my venture was not successful, but, lo and behold, I found the links to several memorials I had been totally unaware of all this time. Well, better late than never!

The first was found in this comment from Thorsten Küper:
"Many people will remember him, its the same over here in Germany. Doktorsblog and Kueperpunk blogposted on Mac. He left a mark not only with his blog. I hope for him there is a posthuman life, that he will experience now."

Happily, I did find Chris Heil's Doktorsblog post (linked to above). (I'm going to see if I can somehow reverse-translate his post via the Google translation widget on PMB.*

As for Thorsten Küper's blog Kueperpunk, I'm afraid posts before 2012 are no longer available. But, I think Mac - who was of German ancestry - would've been pleased to know he had a number of German fans...