National Geographic October 17, 2012 They're calling it the planet next door, but even our fastest craft would take 40,000 years to reach this Earth-size neighbor. October 16, 2012 Step aside Tatooine. A newfound planet known as PH1 has not two but four suns, scientists announced this week. October 15, 2012 Singularity The term “Singularity” had a much narrower meaning back when the Machine Intelligence Research Institute was founded. Since then the term has acquired all sorts of unsavory connotations. The kind of Singularity I work on has little to do with Moore’s Law. So forget the word; here’s the issue:
Proof of Ancient Water Systems The 621 mile-by-1,240 mile (1,000 by 2,000-kilometer) region of Tyrrhena Terra (outlined by the white box in the inset) sits between two regions of low altitude in Mars' southern hemisphere, as shown in this global topography map. Hydrated minerals were found in 175 locations associated with impact craters in Tyrrhena Terra. In a new study, ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter zoomed in on craters in on these ancient southern highlands to learn more about the history of water in this region. Mars rover Curiosity makes "earthshaking" find: No one is talking but everyone is speculating Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems (rover) & Shutterstock (alien) OK, everyone, can we all take a sec and just breathe? I’m getting emails, and seeing Facebook updates, blog posts, and tweets—and I bet if I look hard enough, even smoke signals—about scientists saying they’ve found something “for the history books” on Mars. This was first reported by NPR in an interesting but nearly meatless article. All we know is that the scientists who are running an instrument on the Curiosity rover called SAM—for Sample Analysis on Mars, an apparatus that can analyze material scooped up from the surface—are very excited about some preliminary results. Very excited.
Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars PASADENA, CA—NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists overseeing the ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission said Monday that the Spirit's latest transmissions could indicate a growing resentment of the Red Planet. Spirit completes a diagram of an erect human penis on the planet's dusty surface. "Spirit has been displaying some anomalous behavior," said Project Manager John Callas, who noted the rover's unsuccessful attempts to flip itself over and otherwise damage its scientific instruments. "And the thousand or so daily messages of 'STILL NO WATER' really point to a crisis of purpose." The "robot geologist," as NASA describes Spirit, has been operating independently for over 990 Martian sols—nearly the equivalent of three Earth years. However, scientists estimate that, in recent weeks, Spirit has been functioning on the level of a rover who has been on Mars for approximately 6,160 sols.
Rationality Over the last several decades, science has developed a new picture of how we succeed or fail to seek true beliefs and achieve our goals. The heuristics and biases program in cognitive psychology has exposed dozens of major flaws in human reasoning, and along with them, insight into the mental processes that produce these flaws. Bayesian probability theory and decision theory have been used in increasingly powerful statistical methods and machine learning algorithms; I believe that they also provide a lens through which to view everyday life. Evolutionary psychology and social psychology are also telling us new and disturbing things about human nature – can we, now knowing, do any better? The vast bulk of my writings on rationality are contained on the Less Wrong community blog – follow the link to see some of my recommended posts. {*style:<ul>*} {*style:<li>*}{*style:<h3>*}{*style:<a href=' Virtues of Rationality{*style:</a>*}{*style:</h3>*} {*style:<br>*}The first virtue is curiosity.
NASA Space Telescope Takes Its First X-Ray Photos of a Black Hole NASA's newest space telescope has opened its X-ray eyes to take its first pictures of the high-energy universe, including a glimpse at a well-known black hole. The space observatory, called the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, launched June 13 on a mission to observe high-energy, short-wavelength X-ray light from some of the most dynamic objects in space, such as black holes and supernova remnants. The observatory extended a 33-foot (10 meters) mast on June 21 to separate its light-gathering optics from their focal point. The $165 million telescope took its first photos June 28, directing its gaze toward a nearby black hole that is eating up a neighboring giant star. The black hole, called Cygnus X-1 is extremely bright in X-rays.
Mars Rover Curiosity Discovery Hype a Big Misunderstanding SAN FRANCISCO — The chief scientist for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was just excited about the mission, and thrilled that one of the six-wheeled robot's key instruments was acing its first Red Planet tests. That's all he meant to convey. But when an NPR story last month quoted John Grotzinger as saying that data recently gathered by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, or SAM, were destined "for the history books," the world imposed its own interpretation. 02002-02029 (27 years): By 2029 no computer - or &machine intelligence& - will have passed the Turing Test. - Long Bets - StumbleUpon The Significance of the Turing Test. The implicit, and in my view brilliant, insight in Turing's eponymous test is the ability of written human language to represent human-level thinking. The basis of the Turing test is that if the human Turing test judge is competent, then an entity requires human-level intelligence in order to pass the test.
New Mars Meteorite Contains 10 Times More Water Than Previous Finds Scientists have identified a never-before-seen type of meteorite from Mars that has 10 times more water and far more oxygen in it than any previous Martian sample. The meteorite was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011 and has the official name of Northwest Africa 7034. It is a small basaltic rock — nicknamed “Black Beauty” – which means it formed from rapidly cooling lava. Ellie Crystal's Biography Ellie Crystal's Biography Reflections in Time View from Ellie's apartment in New York City Search Engine & Alphabetical Directory Ellie's World Blogs 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 Archived Stories and Articles, Healing and Awareness, More Ellie's Biography Ellie's World Daily Blog Ezine: Crystalinks Daily Blog Crystalinks' Mission Statement 11:11 - Encoded Digital Messages 12 Around 1 Geometry of Creation12 Days of Magic12 Fibonacci Goddesses12 Pyramids of Thoth12 Strand DNA 12 Tablets - Lunar Journey The Lost Tablets 2000 - Ellie's Trip to Egypt2001 A Space Odyssey - This Spake Zarathustra2012 - Mayan Calendar Prophecy3, 2, 1, Countdown, Sequential Digital Triggers36 Around 1414440444 555666 Mark of the Beast90 Degrees of Separation9/11 Aboriginal PeopleAcupressureAcupunctureADD & ADHDAffirmations - Thinking PositivelyAgartha - Hollow EarthAgeismAgingAgricultureAjanta Caves Akashic RecordsAkhenatenAkkadia Alchemy Index Ancient and Lost CivilizationsAncient Alien Theory - Ancient AstronautsAncient Flying Vehicles, VimanasAncient MedicineAncients Animals
Curiosity Spots Mystery Mars 'Flower' Like the ‘mystery’ shiny thing Curiosity spotted in October 2012 — that turned out to be a piece of robot litter — the Mars rover has discovered another oddity lodged in a rock that mission scientists haven’t yet explained. PHOTOS: Curiosity Flips Powerful Camera’s Dust Cap While using its robotic arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera to take some close up photos of the surface of a rocky outcrop at a location dubbed “Yellowknife Bay” on Dec. 19 (sol 132 of the mission), a bright object could be seen in one of the raw images uploaded to the mission’s website. Its discovery has caused quite a stir on AboveTopSecret.com where it was first reported.
Creation Science Big Bang Theory Cosmology Evolution Large Hadron Collider Out of Africa Paleontology Panspermia and Exogenesis Physical Sciences Precession of the Equinoxes Primordial Soup Theory Mathematics 12 Around 1 Geometry Sacred Geometry Fibonacci Numbers Tube Torus Flower of Life Golden Ratio, Golden Mean, Divine Proportion, Phi Metatron's Cube Vesica Piscis Fractals Chaos Theories Reality as a Consciousness Hologram Consciousness Ellie's Theories Holographic Universe Reality Mythology Adam and Eve Creation Myths by Country and Civilization Native American Creation Myths Origin Beliefs, Creation Myths