Page 440«..10 20..439440441 442..450 460..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

Im the Operator: The Aftermath of a Self-Driving Tragedy – WIRED

Posted: March 11, 2022 at 12:08 pm

Uber employees helped the cops find the right footage, which would go on to play a key role in the investigation: video of Vasquez in the drivers seat as the car navigated the route; then of Vasquez gazing down toward her right knee, toward the lower console. Her glances downward averaged 2.56 seconds, but on one early loop, on the same stretch of road where the crash would take place, she looked down for more than 26 seconds. At times, the investigators thought she seemed to smirk. In the seconds before the car hit Herzberg, Vasquez looked down for about five seconds. Just before impact, she looked up, and gasped.

The media descended on the story the next day. Right away, experts were quoted lambasting Arizonas lax regulatory environment, calling for a national moratorium on testing, and saying that fatalities are inevitable when developing such a technology.

Initially, Vasquez says, she was reassured by the polices public stance. Tempes then police chief, Sylvia Moir, told the San Francisco Chronicle, Its very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway. Uber, she said, would likely not be at fault, though she wouldnt rule out charges for the human pilot.

After that interview, Moir told me, emails that pulsed with excruciating rage deluged her inbox, accusing Moir of complicity in Tempes self-driving experiments and of blaming Herzberg for her own death. People were angry and wanted accountability. As the hours ticked by, reporters started digging up as many details as they could about Vasquezincluding information about an 18-year-old felony for which she had served just under four years in prison.

By the end of the day, a search warrant had been issued for any cell phone Vasquez had with her in the Volvo to determine if Rafaela was distracted. Maybe that would show what she was so interested in down by her knee. The warrant also listed the crime now under investigation: vehicular manslaughter.

Two nights after the crash, a trio of police gathered outside room 227 at a Motel 6 in Tucson. Vasquez had checked in because, she says, reporters were thronging her apartment. The first days had set her reeling. I knew everything happened; I just couldnt believe it was happening. I was in shock. Now as she greeted the cops, she seemed calm but slightly on edge; her attorney didnt want her answering any questions, she told them. They were there to bag her phones into evidence. She initially told the officers that shed only had her work phone with her in the car during the crash, but eventually handed over two LG phonesthe one she used for work, with a black case, she explained to them, and her personal one, in a metallic case.

The next morning, the data that police extracted showed no calls made or texts sent in the minutes before the accident. Then, according to police reports, the cops homed in on the apps. Were videos playing at the time of the crash? Search warrants went to Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube.

Maybe cell phone data would show what Vasquez was gazing at down by her knee.

The Tempe police were also weighing whether to make public the Volvos dashcam footage of the moments leading up to the crash. The Maricopa County attorney, Bill Montgomery, told them that releasing the video, which was in police custody at that point, could jeopardize their suspects right to fair legal proceedings. But Moir says the police were under considerable pressure from the public to do so, and they wanted to show there was nothing to hide; so the police tweeted the footage. Suddenly the world could see both Vasquez and Herzberg in the seconds before impact. Joe Guy, one operator in Tempe, gathered with others whod come into Ghost Town, and they watched the video of Vasquez. Most of us, he says, we went, What the fuck was she looking at?

As the investigation ramped up, half a dozen Advanced Technologies Group personnel from other offices arrived in Tempe. At the police garage, cops stood by while the company downloaded the impounded cars data so it could analyze what the system had done that night.

The rest is here:
Im the Operator: The Aftermath of a Self-Driving Tragedy - WIRED

Posted in Post Human | Comments Off

The strange, sad Bay Area diet cult that fell apart over a chicken pot pie – SF Gate

Posted: at 11:58 am

The 7-Eleven trip should have done Wiley Brooks in.

For most dieters, his shopping list on that fateful day in 1983 (chicken pot pie, chili and biscuits) would be, at worst, an embarrassment. But Brooks was no average weight-watcher. He was the founder of the spiritual and pseudoscientific movement known as Breatharianism, famous for spreading the gospel that humans could live on air alone. He claimed he hadnt eaten in 19 years. To his followers, the binge was an unforgivable sin as if God himself had taken a bite out of the forbidden apple.

The allegation of convenience store consumption came from Lavelle Lefler, co-founder of the Breatharian Institute, then based in Larkspur. The truth is he sneaks into 7-Elevens and fast food places and eats just like the rest of us except worse because he has to rely on places that are open late into the night, she told United Press International in 1983. Brooks shot back that Lefler was a scorned ex-lover, but more allegations emerged, including an assistant who said hed spotted Brooks drinking a can of Coca-Cola. A mass mutiny soon followed.

Yet that very public scandal didnt stop Breatharianism. Instead of dying out, the movement spread around the globe, fracturing over the decades into stranger, more dangerous forms. Its even helped shape health and wellness culture as we know it today.

A 1981 photo of the tent Wiley Brooks slept in outside his then-home in Boulder, Colo.

How Brooks became a Breatharian is as nebulous as the science behind his claims. He certainly wanted to make a name for himself; the hopeful holy man first gained national attention in 1980 by deadlifting 1,100 pounds on an ABC variety show called Thats Incredible! while bragging that he hadnt eaten in nearly two decades. While the Daily Mail reported hed been a New York-based sound engineer for the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, this reporter has been unable to find any evidence that he mixed for these titans of rock. A year after his bodybuilding stunt, with the spotlight dimming, he appeared on Tom Snyders The Tomorrow Show to argue once again that anyone could subsist exclusively on air and sunlight.

The idea of extended fasting is centuries old. An ancient Hindu text, the Ramayana, referred to saints who could sustain themselves on air and sunshine; some modern Jains have claimed to fast for months at a time. Brooks himself said hed learned the secret from an Indian fakir, or religious ascetic.

Breatharianism is a philosophy that believes that the human body, when its in perfect harmony with itself and nature, is a perfect Breatharian you know, all the constituents that we need is taken from the air we breathe, Brooks told Snyder, in front of a studio audience that seemed both amused and entranced by his words.

There is only one thing that keeps the human body alive, and that is breathing. The food that we take is the same as any other thing we take into the body as it becomes a habit. In other words, eating is an acquired habit, just like alcohol or smoking cigarettes.

He went on to make other strange, spurious claims, including that Breatharian mothers dont need to feed their babies, who are born able to survive on air and sun. He also said that hunger strikers who die are killed by their death wish, not from starvation.

Basic scientific knowledge of the human body notwithstanding, Brooks message was beguiling, taking the nascent popularity of New Age culture at the time and translating it into the language of what we now call wellness. With his heavy focus on spirituality, he made the leap from diet peddler to guru.

The Breatharian sales pitch began with Brooks himself. This was a fit and dapper man, who, at the age of 45, lifted nearly 10 times his body weight on national television. While he did admit to an occasional glass of water or juice, he claimed to need nothing else but an hour of sleep a night. He seemed to suggest that if he could muster this miraculous, otherworldly state, then anyone could.

All the things we've heard about, we must get old, we must get weak, ... that is not the case, he told Snyder. When a person gets older and wiser, he should get younger. He should not die in an unhealthy body.

Despite his many public detractors including the Pacific News Service, which called Breatharianism a diet cult Brooks soon had a healthy cohort of followers. He opened the Larkspur-based Breatharian Institute at the end of 1982 and began teaching classes. Dozens of adherents paid $500 for lessons from the master himself.

In the first session, Brooks advised against starting with fasting. Rather, he wanted his followers to first clean their blood by eating foods with a yellow vibrational quality. This encompassed everything from grapefruit, papaya and chicken to Haagen-Dazs rum raisin ice cream.

Over the years, his story and his rules about what Breatharians could and could not eat kept changing. Its even possible the foods with yellow auras were based on whatever he felt like eating that day. In 1983, institute co-founder Lefler told the San Bernardino County Sun that the man loves Colonel Sanders and could eat a dozen donuts in a single sitting. Brooks responded to allegations of inconsistency by saying the true message of Breatharianism did not depend on whether he ate or not anyway, according to a Pacific News Service story about the mass exodus from the Breatharian Institute that followed Leflers public statements.

Michelle Pfeiffer speaks onstage at The Hollywood Reporter 2021 Power 100 Women in Entertainment, presented by Lifetime at Fairmont Century Plaza on Dec. 08, 2021, in Los Angeles.

Most of what happened to Brooks for the rest of the 80s has been lost to history. One hint, though, came in 2013, when the actress Michelle Pfeiffer said shed been introduced to the cult by a very controlling couple as a young up-and-comer in Hollywood.

The Breatharian Institute moved around several times over the next few years, using similar grifts in new locations: first Arlington, Texas, then Bellevue, Washington. His logic shifted again in 1993, when he told the Seattle Times that he no longer believed food was an addiction. Though he still believed food was a poison, he also believed it could serve as medicine, a salve for low-quality city air. He himself occasionally balanced his aura with orange juice, honey and Twinkies, he said.

It got even more odd, and arguably, less healthy at the turn of the century. In 1999, he opened a new Breatharian Institute in Santa Cruz, and began teaching seminars in the Sierra Nevada focused on "the fountain of youth" and "how to obtain everlasting life and live from now on, forever.

I guarantee it! Wiley wrote on the Breatharian website.

In 2009, the official gospel of Breatharianism was updated again, this time with a convoluted explanation of how a McDonalds cheeseburger meal and a Diet Coke can help keep a Breatharian healthy. In a fifth-dimensional universe, apparently, the base frequency of the meal aligns with the needs of man.

Around the time he began to endorse McDonalds meals, Brooks began to peddle an elixir of the gods, a 32-ounce bottle of water that supposedly flows from the legendary fountain of youth and immortality in the Garden of Eden, and costs up to $10,000. By the 2010s, of course, Brooks followed the trends of conspiracy and began decrying the Illuminati and chemtrails for making it harder to become a Breatharian.

When Brooks himself ascended to a higher plane in 2016, at the age of 80, his vision of Breatharianism was a sad fringe phenomenon with a few adherents devoted to its founder. But his philosophy had spread widely even after his 80s downfall, with at least a dozen gurus taking up the mantle of Breatharianism around the globe in the 90s and onward.

The most prominent Breatharian, following Brooks brief reign, was Jasmuheen, an Australian woman born as Ellen Greve. Throughout the 90s, she claimed to subsist merely on air and a few cups of tea until the Aussie news program 60 Minutes debunked her entirely. When they locked her in a hotel room for 48 hours, she quickly developed high blood pressure and severe dehydration. (She claimed that she was not provided fresh air in this experiment, where seventy percent of my nutrients come from.)

Jasmuheen speaking at an event on Nov. 6, 2010, in Long Beach, Calif.

Jasmuheen, like Brooks, was also regularly accused of eating. A journalist once found her with a fridge full of food, and she was once caught ordering a plate of airline food. (She claimed that both were for her partner.)

Tragically, the popularity of starvation-as-religion eventually led to the deaths of at least two people: a 49-year-old Scottish woman named Verity Linn and a 33-year-old Australian named Lani Morris. Both died from dehydration midway through extended fasts in remote areas. Both owned copies of Jasmuheens book, Living On Light.

Jasmuheen denied responsibility for their deaths.

Even though Brooks was widely ridiculed in the media, its easy to see why his ideas found a foothold in the 80s and 90s. Low-fat and low-calorie junk foods like Lean Cuisine and Diet Coke filled Americans fridges and minds, turning food into a deep source of shame. The idea of self-restriction as the essence of health and beauty was shamelessly promoted in books and daytime television.

The rise of wellness culture has given new oxygen to Breatharianism, as it wraps starvation diets in the costume of spirituality and health, trading sugar-free cookies for juice cleanses, intermittent fasting and Keto diets. In 2014, Ukrainian woman Valeria Lukyanova also known as the human Barbie claimed she was a Breatharian who only ate cosmic micro-food. In 2017, the California- and Ecaudor-based couple Akahi Ricardo and Camila Castillo claimed to have skipped food for at least three years including during Castillos first birth.

Ukrainian model Valeria Lukyanova walks the runway during the Dosso Dossi Fashion Show in Antalya, Turkey, on Dec. 17, 2015.

And in 2017, a 22-year-old German man named Finn Bogumil was so strongly inspired by Breatharianism, he died of fasting.

Wellness culture, like Brooks, tells us to fear aging and detest weight gain, as if these things are moral failures rather than an inescapable part of the human condition. Whether through nutritional deprivation or immortality-through-technology, transcending the body and its flaws is all the rage right now. And what comes after humanity but holiness?

People dont know what God looks like and who He is, Brooks told Vice toward the end of his life. Why in the hell couldnt it be me? Why couldnt it be you?

More:
The strange, sad Bay Area diet cult that fell apart over a chicken pot pie - SF Gate

Posted in Immortality Medicine | Comments Off

Five Thoughts on Star Trek: Picard’s The Star Gazer Multiversity Comics – Multiversity Comics

Posted: at 11:45 am

Star Trek: Picard returned for its second season last week, and its thankfully still available globally on Prime Video. Picking up in real time from the season finale nearly two years ago, The Star Gazer sees Jean-Luc Picard once again a Starfleet admiral reunite with some very old friends and enemies.

1. Regrets, He Must Have A Few

The Star Gazer plays like an extended epilogue for the first season: Picard is back at his chateau and now Chancellor of Starfleet Academy, while Rios, Jurati and Raffi have also been welcomed back into the fold. (Rios himself has become captain of the new Stargazer, Picards first command.) Elnor has also enlisted, while Soji is on a goodwill tour, improving the image of synthetics in the galaxy, and Seven of Nine is still a ranger, now in possession of La Sirena and Rioss hologram alter-egos. Jean-Lucs Romulan housekeeper, Laris, has become a widow in the intervening years offscreen.

Understandably, given how season ones gang have gone or are going their separate ways, Picard is feeling a little wistful, experiencing vivid and ever so slightly alarming childhood flashbacks, and giving a speech at the academy about how he believes time, not space, is the real final frontier. While giving Elnor his advice before his departure, Jean-Luc brings up something Spock said in his memoir, which feels a little like him (and OK, the writers) taking the opportunity to indulge in memories of the late Vulcan. Hes also afraid of moving on: he and Laris clearly have feelings for each other, but hes reluctant to acknowledge it, possibly because it would undermine the stoic destiny hes accepted for himself as the last of his family. At the same time, Picard a man whos already died, so were clear must wonder if this is truly all there is after so many years protecting the Federation.

2. Guinan

This episode was shot well before the controversy over Whoopi Goldbergs comments in the wake of Mauss banning in McMinn County Schools, so I can understand why some mightve felt unenthusiastic about seeing her this season, but solely from a character point-of-view, it was lovely to see Picard reunite with Guinan. She seems to be doing well for herself, now tending bar in Los Angeles, and her taste in hats is as extraordinary as ever; she also continues to be a great counselor for Jean-Luc, listening to him talk about his regret over never settling down. Hes unable to fully go into why hes always felt reluctant to commit to a relationship, and quite rightly, she doesnt press the issue. I have a feeling Picards fear may be rooted in the trauma involving his mother (an issue that is very, very important to Patrick Stewart, so were clear), and thats definitely something he will need time to open up about.

3. New and Improved Borg

Speaking of trauma, the Borg the cybernetic fiends who violated the autonomy of Picard, Seven of Nine and so many more return through an anomaly, but theyre not interested in a fight: they only want to negotiate peace with Picard, and Picard alone. From the little we see here, the 25th century Borg are definitely more visually impressive than their predecessors, with a huge, monolithic ship that seems capable of unfolding into a larger staging post, and the Queen who transports to the Stargazers bridge wears a very gothic helmet, which coupled with her tentacles, makes the Borg the closest theyve ever felt to being a H.R. Giger creation. As impressive as they were, previous Borg make-up and costuming could never shake the subconscious feeling of a group of homeless people; here, theres no mistaking them for an alien culture.

4. Guess Q!

Negotiations go unsurprisingly south, between Seven of Nines emotionally compromised nature, and the sheer hubris of the Borg, causing the whole welcoming fleet to be destroyed after Picard activates the Stargazers self-destruct. Was it all really a trap? Thats likely one of the questions Jean-Luc will have to ponder after being transported to a simulation of his chateau, where hes greeted by his old, omnipotent frenemy, Q, who even kindly ages his appearance after noticing Picards become more frail.

Full disclosure: John de Lancies Q is a major reason I got into Star Trek as a kid he was the first character to show me the series could be funny and it always feels momentous having him reunite with Picard, since they were both there at the start of The Next Generation. Its appropriately ironic given the theme of Picards loneliness in this episode, and I cant wait to see how they spar next time, as well as whether it was all an illusion; and hopefully Q will get to bicker with his older nemesis, Guinan, sometime this season too.

5. Picards Transhumanism

One major query I had after season one was how Picards status as the first human to have his mind transferred to a synthetic body would be explored: it wasnt touched on at all here, which is odd (youd think Laris would bring it up at least, seeing as her husband passed away and all.) Guinan sort of references it, but shes really talking about the artificial heart Picard received after being stabbed as a cadet (as shown in the Next Generation episode Tapestry.) There are nine more episodes this season, so we mustnt fret, but if it remains a get out of jail free card, it will be a missed opportunity to not explore the material and philosphical questions it poses.

Other Observations:

Picard being Starfleet Academys chancellor feels like a nod to Patrick Stewarts time as chancellor at the University of Huddersfield (a role he served from 2004 to 2015.)

Assuming the Borg are just rude and not liars, who might they be fleeing from? (Perhaps they accidentally spilled Vgers coffee?)

Well, Picard is back, and still being tested by Q: lets hope he lives up to this trial (and our expectations as viewers) once more unto the breach, dear friends.

Go here to read the rest:
Five Thoughts on Star Trek: Picard's The Star Gazer Multiversity Comics - Multiversity Comics

Posted in Transhumanist | Comments Off

SpaceX Sends More Starlink Terminals to Ukraine, Along With Equipment to Run Them Off Grid – Futurism

Posted: at 11:42 am

"Youre welcome."Starlinked

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is keeping his promise of hooking Ukrainians up with Starlink terminals, giving them a reliable way to connect to the internet as Russian troops continue their invasion and this time, hes throwing in some extra equipment to keep them running, even off the grid.

Received the second shipment of Starlink stations! Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted on Wednesday, accompanied by a picture of what appear to be several pallets of Starlink terminals inside a truck.

The space company is intent on making its internet broadband solution work even as Ukraines power grid suffers under Russias advances.

Youre welcome, Musk replied. We have also sent power adapters for car cigarette lighters, solar/battery packs and generators for places where electricity is not available.

According to an email Tesla sent to Ukrainian employees, as obtained by CNBC, the car company also delivered numerous Tesla Powerwalls large battery packs normally meant to provide a household with energy storage to power the Starlink terminals.

Tesla had to get creative on such short notice, and put together the battery pack systems in just three days with AC cables made out of scrap from the companys Gigafactory in Berlin, according to the email.

Its the second shipment Ukraine has received since the invasion began. Last week, Fedorov said that Starlink keeps our cities connected and emergency services savings lives after receiving the first shipment on February 28.

Its still unclear how many Starlink terminals SpaceX has delivered in total but Tesla claims in its email that the number is in the hundreds.

Tesla is also giving its employees in the embattled country another big leg up.

For any Tesla employees who is a Ukrainian national and has been asked to return to Ukraine for active duty as a reservist, the companys email reads, we will maintain their employment and salary for 3 months, with a view to assessing after this period as needed.

READ MORE: Tesla will pay Ukrainian employees for up to 3 months if they are conscripted to fight [CNBC]

More on SpaceX: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Is So Busy With Ukraine That Itll Delay Starship

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

Continued here:
SpaceX Sends More Starlink Terminals to Ukraine, Along With Equipment to Run Them Off Grid - Futurism

Posted in Futurism | Comments Off

Inside NASA’s Bold Proposal to Probe the Mysteries of Dark Matter – Futurism

Posted: at 11:42 am

Two scientists as different as could be one a bookish astrophysicist who formerly served as NASAs chief scientist, the other a charismaticmathematician who moonlights as a painter have teamed up to unlock the secrets of dark matter.

From his Washington, DC office at NASA headquarters, Dr. Jim Green admitted that although he retired as NASAs top scientist in January, he was already back as a consultant. He told Futurism the story of meeting up with his friend, Yeshiva University mathematician Ed Belbruno, when the latter invited the former to speak at the University of Augsburg in Germany.

Over lunch, they got to talking about the Pioneer Anomaly, the astrophysics-speak term for the bizarre slowing down effect witnessed by Pioneers 10 and 11. One thing led to another, and the pair soon found themselves with a long shot concept for an Interstellar Probe mission that they say could gather unprecedented data about dark matter and its place in the cosmos.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Futurism: What is dark matter?

Ed Belbruno: So the short of it is, no one knows.

There seem to be three components of our universe. One component is this mysterious energy that is pushing the universe apart and making it expand. I dont want to call it anti-gravity, but its a repulsive force called dark energy. I mentioned this one first because its the biggest one: 70 percent of all the energy in our universe is from that, and we dont know what it is, which is a pretty amazing statement.

The other big component is the visible, measurable matter in the universe. Your coffee in the morning, the stars and galaxies, and everything else out there. Thats the matter. Thats the other 30 percent of our universe.

Of this 30 percent thats left, 80 percent of it is invisible. We dont know what it is. And that 80 percent is called dark matter. Its dark because its invisible, the same way we call dark energy by that name. Its invisible also, but its matter, meaning it makes a gravitational field just like our Earth makes a gravitational field.

Jim Green: Yeah, its very hard to visualize or to really understand what dark matter is. From a scientific perspective, what we do is we try to measure its properties. Now, astronomers see what its influence does, but what we want to do is to really understand its properties through an experiment that shows us what the dark matter force is. If we can measure that, and its there it may be greater than we thought, it may be less than we thought it folds into an overall idea of what it could possibly be.

Now, theres a lot of discussion that ranges from dark matter being mini black holes to, potentially, matter that we may be familiar with, with special types of particles, axioms and neutrinos and, and a number of other things. The experiment is not designed to measure any of those, but to just create another set of input as to its properties.

But I have to tell you, its a very fascinating topic, because it may have been there before the Big Bang.

F: Why are you pushing for the Interstellar Probe mission now?

JG: So right now, we have the two Voyagers and New Horizons, which are the only operating spacecrafts that are in the process of leaving the solar system. But in reality, theyre not moving very fast. They only have a certain capability in terms of the power that theyre taking with them. And therefore, theyre only going to last so long. In fact, the Voyagers are at about 140 AU, which is beyond what we call the influence of the solar magnetic field or the heliosphere. In other words, when the power is gone, its gone.

The power and the speed of the spacecraft are so important that a new mission is being devised, and that mission is called the Interstellar Probe. The concept is that they want to go 500 astronomical units out, as fast as they possibly can, with the right set of instruments, and with the amount of power that they need to be able to make it that far.

So heres the spacecraft that is being designed by humans today, that will be a significant spacecraft that will last for a couple generations of scientists, as it explores the outer reaches of our heliosphere. And that ends up pushing the limits of where you could begin the process of starting to measure dark matter.

So the why now is were now developing a mission that could go farther, because we want to know whats out there. And now we have an opportunity to explore this idea of making the dark matter measurement.

F: Is it possible we could harness dark matter as an energy source?

EB: If youve got this substance permeating our galaxy, 90 percent of it, and it gives gravity, then therefore, theres a huge energy source out there. And its so huge, it swamps anything that we could possibly imagine, with our wildest imaginations.

So 50 percent of whats permeating our solar system is precisely this material, whatever it is. So therefore, this means that it has unknown properties. Its anyones guess what you can do with it, once we find out what it is. My guess is because it causes light to deflect when youre looking at other galaxies, that its a pretty potent material, and it can be used as an energy source, probably. And how we would focus that energy source would maybe be hundreds of years or thousands of years away. But if you could focus it, you would have an unlimited supply of energy in outer space to power spacecraft, and this would just be absolutely beyond what we could imagine at the moment, what you could do something like that.

My guess is that the potential material that dark matter is made of would revolutionize our understanding of science, and may very well allow us to make star drives, which could be used in spacecraft that could that could traverse interstellar distances.

F: Is there dark matter in the room with me right now?

EB: Yeah, absolutely. Its here. Where youre sitting, on some level beyond our senses. Its going through you right now. The only reason its not anything to be concerned about is because the gravity of the Earth is so much, it drowns it out. Its noise, but its there.

JG: What we see when we sit here, of course, is reflected light. Light is being affected by baryonic visible matter, not being affected by dark matter. So we have no inkling theres dark matter among us. Now, that doesnt mean that its not here at such a low density that the measurement of things that we do in laboratories havent found it yet.

F: Some people think dark matter might be a misinterpretation of flawed observations. Do they think theres a chance theyre right?

EB: I say this with no hesitation whatsoever: theyre absolutely incorrect. This is equivalent, to me, to people that doubt climate change. Its clearly here and they have their own issues where they dont want to believe.

JG: Theres such a large body of work that its clear something is affecting, in particular, orbits of stars around galaxies in the outer regions of spiral arms that keep the arms together. And they dont follow Newtonian mechanics, because the arms stay together, they flow together. So something is taking the stars and moving them at the velocity of the motion of the interior stars that are closer to the center of the galaxy. That itself is powerful evidence. Theres such a large body of evidence and we see that in other galaxies, because we can measure the velocity of those stars. Its pretty irrefutable. I think that train has left the station.

F: Is it possible that dark matter is something really out there, like ghosts or alternate dimensions?

EB: Once people get over the hump of being a skeptic, and they admit theres something there, then the next question is, what could that possibly be? And we dont know a lot about the universe, we dont know a lot about our own world. It could be wild, something we cant even imagine.

Our science, dont forget, is based on deductive reasoning. And that deductive reasoning can be backtracked to the laws of mathematics. Because after all, all of physics makes use of the laws of mathematics, right? And if you look at that, what are you really saying? Youre saying that our laws of physics are based on the commutative law for addition, the associative law of addition, and multiplication, the basic things you learn in grade school about the number system. Those basic rules theres only about a handful of them those basic rules are so far behind our math, and our math is behind the laws of physics. So therefore, youre requiring that we understand the universe based on our laws, which are very limited, of math and physics that go into deductive reasoning. And that is really limited, obviously.

So what this dark matter problem could be telling us is that we dont have enough laws of the universe available to us right now to understand the problem. So, in other words, our ways of thinking using deductive reasoning may not be sufficient for this problem. And if thats the case, it could be anything that we cant even imagine, really. So if you want to say its ghosts, or whatever, Im not going to get metaphysical and go out on the limb with that one. But it could be things that we dont even imagine now. And were trying to fit it with our limited thinking. It may not be that limited. It may be something really unusual that that were just not ready to understand at the moment.

JG: Well, scientifically, when we talk about it, those things that you mentioned dont really enter into the conversation [laughs]. We have no preconceived idea that it has a connection with human life as it as it evolves, lives and dies. So scientifically, we want to explain it to the point where we can develop mathematics.

You know, the description as to what science really is, is our attempt to describe the nature of things, for which dark matter, we believe, is one of those things. And for us to be able to describe it, we start with equations. Its really the same way 110 or 120 years ago with, with Einstein and his concepts of the theory of relativity, that a new set of physics was determined. It started from conceptual ideas, that then mathematically could be expressed, and then you take the mathematics and you push them to the limits, and we have found black holes. You know, black holes emerged from the mathematics of relativity.

So this is why getting adequate descriptions of dark matter, mathematically, is critically important for us because we want to be able to then understand its nature.

F: How would you describe dark matter to a kindergartener?

JG: I might start with a ball on a string and then have it spin. And then have them see that as you shorten the distance, the ball speeds up, but then tell them imagine that doesnt happen, that the outer part of the string moves as fast as the object on the inner part. And thats due to a different force that we are starting to measure but dont have the ability to do that yet.

EB: If theres a little kid that didnt understand much of anything, because theyre so little, they understand imagination, little kids are always imagining, they have imaginary friends. And I would say to them that most of our world is imaginary, because they dont understand a galaxy or anything like that. But most of whats out there and they can interpret that however they want most of whats out there is imaginary, we dont know what it is.

More on dark matter: NASA Proposes Sending Spacecraft to Measure Mysterious Dark Matter

Originally posted here:
Inside NASA's Bold Proposal to Probe the Mysteries of Dark Matter - Futurism

Posted in Futurism | Comments Off

Scientists Warn That a Giant Spider Is Spreading Across the United States – Futurism

Posted: at 11:42 am

Arachnophobes beware!Air Attack

Arachnophobes beware!

According to the University of Georgia, giant spiders the size of your palm are set to parachute from the sky all over the Eastern United States this summer.

The massive blue, black, and yellow arachnids, called Joro spiders, are set to be all over power lines, in trees around town and even on your front porch come summer, according to the universitys statement.

And humans are likely at fault, because we accidentally imported the spiders as stowaways on shipping containers from Asia, the researchers suggest.Sorry, folks the giant spiders are your own damn fault!

While its an invasive species, theres a silver lining: scientists dont believe the critters impact local ecosystems much.

They also arent prone to bite humans unless provoked. Besides, their tiny fangs arent often long enough to break human skin.

People should try to learn to live with them, advised Andy Davis, corresponding author of a new study published in the journal Physiological Entomology, and research scientist at the University of Georgia, in the statement.

If theyre literally in your way, I can see taking a web down and moving them to the side, but theyre just going to be back next year, he added.

The Joro spider is a relative of the golden silk spider, which landed in the US from the tropics in the 1800s.

Using a sightings tracking app called iNaturalist, the team of researchers kept track of the spread of the species to find out if, like the golden silk spider, it was confined to the Southeast due to its vulnerability to colder temperatures.

According to their new study, however, the Joro spider can withstand even brief freezes and its metabolism keeps working in colder climates.

That means we should expect it to show up in much wider swathes of the country.

Just by looking at that, it looks like the Joros could probably survive throughout most of the Eastern Seaboard here, which is pretty sobering, Davis said in the statement.

READ MORE: Joro spiders likely to spread beyond Georgia [University of Georgia]

More on creepy crawlers: Scientists Create Horrifically Mutated Spider-Like Creatures

Excerpt from:
Scientists Warn That a Giant Spider Is Spreading Across the United States - Futurism

Posted in Futurism | Comments Off

Russian Oligarchs’ Superyachts Are Being Seized, and the Internet Is Loving It – Futurism

Posted: at 11:42 am

People on Twitter are even turning it into a game of Bingo.Yoink

Law enforcement agencies around the world are seizing superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs and people on social media are watching with glee, The Washington Post reports.

Government sanctions are dialing up the pressure on obscenely rich Russian oligarchs. And while money can easily be hidden in offshore bank accounts, gigantic mega vessels are a lot harder to keep secret.

So now netizens are now watching in fascination as superyachts get seized by authorities worldwide, even turning it into a game of Bingo.

Thats because trackers like VesselFinder or MarineTraffic allow practically anybody with an internet connection to monitor the whereabouts of private jets and luxury yachts.

Even 19-year-old Jack Sweeney, that kid who was keeping track of Elon Musks every move, now has a Twitter account dedicated to snooping on Russian zillionaire yachts.

Amid Russias bloody invasion of Ukraine, governments are aiming their sights at the assets Russian elites and their family members hold in our respective jurisdictions their yachts, luxury apartments, money, and other ill-gotten gains, according to a March 3 White House statement.

The thinking goesthat if Russias ultra rich many of whom are members of president Vladimir Putins inner circle lose their precious toys, they might be more inclined to oppose the atrocities happening in Ukraine right now.

And yachts are indeed being picked off one by one. Just last week, French officials seized a massive $120 million superyacht owned by a Russian oil tsar.

Theyre powerful symbols of excessive wealth. For many, thats the reward for staying loyal to Putins regime.

No wonder people are entranced by watching the oligarchs get a much-needed reality check.

READ MORE: Schadenfreude at sea: The Internet is watching with glee as Russian oligarchs yachts are seized

Read the rest here:
Russian Oligarchs' Superyachts Are Being Seized, and the Internet Is Loving It - Futurism

Posted in Futurism | Comments Off

Artistic Freedom versus Censorship in the OTT Age – Lexology

Posted: at 11:23 am

In India, there is constant struggle between freedom of expression and reasonable restrictions especially in the field of entertainment.

The battle between censorship and artistic freedom had started from early 1970s wherein the Apex Court first examined the question relating to pre-censorship of cinematograph films in relation to the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression conferred by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution[1]. The artistic freedom of a filmmaker is not absolute in India and is subject to restrictions. The courts have interpreted application of Article 19(2) of the Constitution vis-a-vis censorship to include restraints on such content which is against the sovereignty, integrity and security of India or is defamatory, in contempt of Court or leads to incitement of any offence. Any expression in a movie, which hits any of the aforementioned grounds, is censored by the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

It is imperative to strike a balance between artistic freedom and censorship. Too much freedom and no censorship would result in display of content which is inappropriate for children or may have harmful impact on the society as a whole. On the other hand, too many restrictions in form of censorship may lead to restriction on freedom of expression and narrow the boundaries of creativity.

With the advent of technology and low footfall in theatres in the pandemic world, filmmakers have adopted the OTT Platforms as their favourite medium for release of motion pictures and web-series. This shift can be said to have a major relief for the filmmakers as it is not mandatory for procuring CBFC certification for making movies available on OTT Platforms. With the rising popularity of OTT Platforms and social media which can be said to have been unregulated by law for a certain timeframe, led to the enactment of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (Guidelines). Thus, it is not the case any longer that the content on OTT Platforms is unregulated as such content has to mandatorily comply with the Guidelines.

Though the Guidelines provide for a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism and a person aggrieved by any content available on the OTT Platform has the option to furnish his/her grievance to the self-regulatory mechanism (i.e. Level I of the three-tier grievance redressal mechanism), it appears that the Courts are still being preferred by individual to seek redressal of his/her grievances including seeking directions to ban content on the grounds for excessive obscenity, filthy language, public morality, hurting religious sentiments, etc.

One of the recent instances in relation to the content available on OTT Platform came up before the Honble Kerala High Court whereby it was contented that the language used in the Malyalam film titled Churuli (Film), is filthy and thus, opposed to public order, decency and morality[2]. It is interesting to note that the CBFC was made a party to these proceedings as the Film available on the OTT Platform was not the version that was approved or certified by the CBFC.

This matter drew light on the predominant issue of:

The Honble Kerela High Court has while dealing with the core issue before it, opined that the Court cannot dictate the film maker to use any particular type of slang by the characters in the Film and that the Court can only verify if the Film violates any existing law to ensure public order, decency or morality, bearing in mind the artistic freedom of a film maker. Interestingly, the Court had directed the State Police Chief to constitute a team to watch the Film, for verifying and submitting a report, if there are any statutory violations or any criminal offences made out in the Film. The report submitted by the police team primarily stated that the Film contains foul language which was essential for the Film to be believable to the audience; and no statutory offence or criminal offence has been committed by use of foul language and depiction of obscenity, as these are offences only if committed in a public place.

The Honble Kerala High Court has whilst dismissing the petition:

In relation to the aspect of CBFC certification for content made available on OTT Platforms the CBFC has admitted, and the Honble Court has concurred that CBFC has no role with regards to the films displayed on OTT Platforms. The content on internet cannot be governed by the Cinematograph Act, 1952 which relates to theatrical content and from which CBFC draws its powers. Hence, it can be inferred that currently CBFC certification is not mandatory for any content displayed on OTT Platforms unless the Cinematograph Act, 1952 is amended to include the same.

Important Aspects in Relation to OTT Content Censorship:

The Guidelines do not contain any provisions for censorship of the content and OTT Platforms are only required to comply with self-classification of the content with appropriate age classification and content descriptor for each content displayed on the OTT Platforms.

The films/content first released on OTT and subsequently broadcasted on television will need to be in compliance with the Cable Television Network Regulation Act, 1995 (CTNA) and the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 (CTNR).

It is however possible, that producers of films by way of abundant caution, may take a narrow interpretation and procure CBFC certificate for the OTT films. However, it is not mandatory to procure CBFC certification for any film/content directly or first released on OTT Platforms

Even though there is no censorship, if any content on the OTT Platforms contravenes Article 19(2) of Constitution, the Government under Section 69A of Information Technology Act and the IT (Blocking Rules), 2009 i.e., Power to issue directions for blocking public access of any information through any computer resource, has the power to remove such content which is objectionable.

Conclusion:

The judgement passed by the Honble Kerala High Court is a landmark judgment as it recognizes and values artistic freedom of the filmmaker in the world where cuss words are heard all around the city, used loosely by people in general and it is not that people learn such abuses only through the film. Nobody can dictate a filmmaker to use only decent language in his film and it is his artistic discretion to choose the language within the reasonable restrictions as provided in Article 19(2). This judgement re-establishes the principle that use of foul language and/or presence of obscenity will not mandatorily lead to restriction on public exhibition of the film as long as the same is used in the context of the film and each film has to be viewed in its entirety to understand this context.

It can be said, this case recognizes that censorship requirements are less for OTT Platforms possibly due to the very nature of this medium itself whereby content can be viewed only by the subscribers. It being understood that the content on OTT Platform is a pull mechanism as against the push mechanism whereby subscribers are well aware of the nature of content they opt to view who make an informed decision basis the classification and description of the content provided on the OTT Platform(s), thereby reducing the need of censorship.

View post:
Artistic Freedom versus Censorship in the OTT Age - Lexology

Posted in Censorship | Comments Off

Why Didnt The New York State Education Department Defend Its State Librarian?: This Weeks Boo… – Book Riot

Posted: at 11:23 am

In celebration of Read Across America Day, schools and libraries championed favorite books in a giant celebration of all things reading. Among the participants on social media was the New York State Education Department. Several employees had their photos taken with a book they love, alongside a short statement of why they encouraged people to pick up those titles.

One of those tweets was quickly picked up by a Twitter account notorious for reposting content to its right-wing following and encouraging them to harass the person in question. This account was the reason behind the removal of a 3rd grade teacher from her classroom in the fall because she shared LGBTQ+ books on her personal TikTok account available to her students (she was later reinstated).

The response was swift and immediate. Followers of the above account began to ask the New York State Education Department. The tweet, as well as the Facebook post, were deleted.

The story here isnt (yet) what has or has not happened to Moore. Its the fact that the State Eduction Department, where Moore is State Librarian, failed to defend her choice in a book thats been making censors angry for the last year. Rather than double down on their choice to run the tweet and defend the right to read rather than even note that accusations about the book being child pornography are wrong the Department removed the tweet and rendered themselves complicit in active censorship. It was and remains a victory for right-wing groups like this one, further emboldening and empowering them to continue pushing for silence.

Today In Books Newsletter

Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

Compare this to stories of quiet censorship and see that where an institution of power like the above quietly pulls and buries its story while individual librarians whose jobs and livelihoods may be on the line by speaking out about the right for people to read whatever theyd like to read, and its impossible not to wonder what the Department was doing and who that Department is working for.

Its certainly not the students.

Its the bullies from which the State Eduction Department should be protecting those students.

Emily DeSantis, spokesperson for the New York State Eduction Department told The National Desk that,[NY]SED was not aware of the graphic nature of the contents of the book, which is not apparent from its title. Once we became aware, we immediately removed the post. SED is investigating the circumstances under which this title was selected and posted.

Its unclear what graphic nature DeSantis and the rest of the team deemed unfit for promotion Gender Queer is an award-winning book appropriate for teen readers but what is clear is that the priority isnt intellectual freedom and the freedom to read for people in New York state.

As of writing, no reputable news site has followed up on this, and the previously public LinkedIn account for Lauren Moore has been deleted.

Frank Strong has put together an incredible resource for Texans: The Book-Loving Texans Guide to May 7th School Board Elections. This voters guide offers a look at school districts where board elections will be on the ballot in May, along with whose running, their beliefs, and where energy is really needed right now to ensure censorship doesnt win at the voting booth. Youll see clear lines of where money and support comes from for many of these candidates, as well as short histories of those communities and their ties to book removal agendas.

If youre not in Texas, this guide is still for you. Can you help out with an election there by donating or spreading the word? How can you adapt this guide to your own state? Its an incredible and collaborative tool.

For more ways to take action against censorship, use this toolkit forhow to fight book bans and challenges, as well as this guide toidentifying fake news. Then learn how and why you may want touse FOIA to uncover book challenges.

Here is the original post:
Why Didnt The New York State Education Department Defend Its State Librarian?: This Weeks Boo... - Book Riot

Posted in Censorship | Comments Off

Masket: The problem with campus debate – The Denver Post

Posted: at 11:23 am

We need to talk about campus debate. I put that term in quotes because it has become so tortured that the terms actual meaning is hard to discern. But many people seem to link it closely to college learning, and this is a real problem.

In a recent New York Times piece, Emma Camp, a student at the University of Virginia, complains that she came to college seeking classrooms full of energetic debate where students could say what we really think, but instead found ideological conformity and self-censorship. There are lots of issues here to discuss (Self-censorship is a very important skill! State legislatures are actually banning universities from discussing racism!), but I want to focus on what energetic debate actually means.

Theres a great misperception in discussions about higher education that somehow college campuses are a site for robust debate between competing ideas and that this is the essence of university education. Some of this misperception has been fostered by interest groups like the Steamboat Institute, which pushes for debates to bring conservative ideals onto campus. But more generally, there are op/eds like the recent Times one that simply suggest that universities are places where people just argue all day over ideas in the public square and the best ideas survive.

Debate is a skill, not knowledge. It is sometimes used in the classroom along with many other techniques designed to teach, but it only works well within some set of parameters, and steeped in class material. Generally, what we want in a classroom is discussion, rather than debate. Debates have winners and losers; discussion, ideally, leaves everyone better off.

For example, I teach about political parties. Ill sometimes give students some readings and lecture materials on how party leaders seek to control nominations. And then well talk about questions of how democratic parties should be. Should it be easier for someone like Bernie Sanders to compete in Democratic primaries? What about Donald Trump competing in Republican primaries? Are party leaders doing their job when they pressure people out of congressional contests or are they making the whole system less democratic?

This is honestly more like a structured discussion than a debate. But these sorts of questions and debates help students dig into the readings more and may challenge some of their prior beliefs. There are no obviously right or wrong answers, but I want students to engage with the material and think through some of the merits and problems with competing views.

This is generally not the form of debate that is being pushed, however. Instead, groups like Steamboat and Turning Point bring a liberal and a conservative to campus to debate hot-button issues like social justice and identity politics, whether college campuses are free-speech zones, socialism versus capitalism, and more. People attend these events and cheer for their side and boo the other side, but very little learning occurs. Basically, its a sporting event. And thats fine, but it doesnt really enhance the intellectual life of a campus, and it doesnt deepen students knowledge.

Similarly, many campuses have debate teams, and students prepare arguments and rebuttals on various topics and travel to other schools to compete against other students. And thats fine, too it can be a useful skillset, and students can do research and develop a great deal of expertise on a topic in their preparation. But its largely a team sport that students who enjoy that activity select into. It doesnt necessarily translate into a broader classroom teaching technique.

Again, a lot of the push for more debate on campus comes from the right, who seem to feel that conservative intellectual ideas are being somehow canceled on university campuses. Its certainly true that college students and professors tend to lean left relative to the rest of the population. But that doesnt mean that conservative ideas get no hearing. I cant speak broadly for the discipline, but quite a few of my colleagues teach the ideas of Buckley, Schlafly, Friedman, Smith, Hayek, Reagan, and others not to indoctrinate students either for or against those ideas but because understanding those ideas is essential to understanding American political discourse and development. Students then get opportunities to interpret modern political events in light of what these writers had to say. This is how learning happens.

What we generally do not do is just turn over our classrooms to students who have a piece to speak. Thats a recipe for chaos. Campuses are not an incubator for all forms of speech, no matter how inane or offensive. And if you say things that demean your fellow students or suggest that they do not belong there, you may encounter criticism for that.

Our primary task as educators is to ensure that students are learning the material we have assembled for our courses. Well pursue a variety of techniques to get them there, including lectures, group discussions, written assignments, presentations, and, yes, sometimes forms of debate. But debate absent structured learning is, at best, a form of entertainment. And you dont need college for that.

Seth Masket is a professor of political science and director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver. He is the author of Learning from Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

See the original post:
Masket: The problem with campus debate - The Denver Post

Posted in Censorship | Comments Off

Page 440«..10 20..439440441 442..450 460..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

Im the Operator: The Aftermath of a Self-Driving Tragedy – WIRED

The strange, sad Bay Area diet cult that fell apart over a chicken pot pie – SF Gate

Five Thoughts on Star Trek: Picard’s The Star Gazer Multiversity Comics – Multiversity Comics

SpaceX Sends More Starlink Terminals to Ukraine, Along With Equipment to Run Them Off Grid – Futurism

Inside NASA’s Bold Proposal to Probe the Mysteries of Dark Matter – Futurism

Scientists Warn That a Giant Spider Is Spreading Across the United States – Futurism

Russian Oligarchs’ Superyachts Are Being Seized, and the Internet Is Loving It – Futurism

Artistic Freedom versus Censorship in the OTT Age – Lexology

Why Didnt The New York State Education Department Defend Its State Librarian?: This Weeks Boo… – Book Riot

Masket: The problem with campus debate – The Denver Post

The Prometheus League

Breaking News and Updates

Prometheism

Forbidden Fruit

The Evolutionary Perspective

Transtopia Menu

Library Updates

Library Books

Future Euvolution

Lucid Dreams from Childhood

Genetic Revolution

Speciation + Self-Directed Evolution