We await the untethered outdoor version in 2013 as the Rise of the Machines and Artificial Intelligence continues unabated...
Cheetah Robot Runs 28.3 mph; a Bit Faster than Usain Bolt
Cheetah Robot is a fast-running quadruped developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA. It just blazed past its previous speed record, getting up to 28.3 mph, about 0.5 mph faster than Usain Bolt's fastest 20 meter split. This version of the Cheetah Robot runs on a treadmill with offboard power. Testing on an untethered outdoor version starts early next year. For more information about Cheetah or the other robots we develop, visit www.BostonDynamics.com
Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus): fondly remembered archaic and defunct biological platform Usain Bolt: not fast enough! ▲ ▲ ▲
The future proxy for ground war - robots - beginning with doing the grunt work. Follow the human leader, at least for now. AI autonomy will be next as the creepiness factor escalates. Drones are already rapidly becoming the air war proxy.
LS3 - Legged Squad Support System
The Legged Squad Support System (LS3) is a rough-terrain robot developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA and the US Marine Corps. It is designed to carry 400 lbs of payload and travel 20 miles without refueling. LS3 has sensors that let it follow a human leader while avoiding obstacles in the terrain. For more information visit www.BostonDynamics.com.
LS3 - Legged Squad Support System: Columns & Herds Coming to a Theater of War or Civil Disturbance Near You! ▲ ▲ ▲
This artist's illustration shows an enormous halo of hot gas (in blue) around the Milky Way galaxy. Also shown, to the lower left of the Milky Way, are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, two small neighboring galaxies. The halo of gas is shown with a radius of about 300,000 light years, although it may extend significantly further. NASA'S Chandra Shows Milky Way is Surrounded by Halo of Hot Gas ● Chandra has provided evidence that our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. ● The mass of the halo is estimated to be comparable to the mass of all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. ● If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it could be the solution to the "missing-baryon" problem for the Galaxy.
WASHINGTON (Sept. 24, 2012) -- Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. The estimated mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the galaxy.
If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it also could be an explanation for what is known as the "missing baryon" problem for the galaxy.
Baryons are particles, such as protons and neutrons, that make up more than 99.9 percent of the mass of atoms found in the cosmos. Measurements of extremely distant gas halos and galaxies indicate the baryonic matter present when the universe was only a few billion years old represented about one-sixth the mass and density of the existing unobservable, or dark, matter. In the current epoch, about 10 billion years later, a census of the baryons present in stars and gas in our galaxy and nearby galaxies shows at least half the baryons are unaccounted for.
In a recent study, a team of five astronomers used data from Chandra, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space observatory and Japan's Suzaku satellite to set limits on the temperature, extent and mass of the hot gas halo. Chandra observed eight bright X-ray sources located far beyond the galaxy at distances of hundreds of millions of light-years. The data revealed X-rays from these distant sources are absorbed selectively by oxygen ions in the vicinity of the galaxy. The scientists determined the temperature of the absorbing halo is between 1 million and 2.5 million kelvins, or a few hundred times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Other studies have shown that the Milky Way and other galaxies are embedded in warm gas with temperatures between 100,000 and 1 million kelvins. Studies have indicated the presence of a hotter gas with a temperature greater than 1 million kelvins. This new research provides evidence the hot gas halo enveloping the Milky Way is much more massive than the warm gas halo.
"We know the gas is around the galaxy, and we know how hot it is," said Anjali Gupta, lead author of The Astrophysical Journal paper describing the research. "The big question is, how large is the halo, and how massive is it?"
To begin to answer this question, the authors supplemented Chandra data on the amount of absorption produced by the oxygen ions with XMM-Newton and Suzaku data on the X-rays emitted by the gas halo. They concluded that the mass of the gas is equivalent to the mass in more than 10 billion suns, perhaps as large as 60 billion suns.
"Our work shows that, for reasonable values of parameters and with reasonable assumptions, the Chandra observations imply a huge reservoir of hot gas around the Milky Way," said co-author Smita Mathur of Ohio State University in Columbus. "It may extend for a few hundred thousand light-years around the Milky Way or it may extend farther into the surrounding local group of galaxies. Either way, its mass appears to be very large."
The estimated mass depends on factors such as the amount of oxygen relative to hydrogen, which is the dominant element in the gas. Nevertheless, the estimation represents an important step in solving the case of the missing baryons, a mystery that has puzzled astronomers for more than a decade.
Although there are uncertainties, the work by Gupta and colleagues provides the best evidence yet that the galaxy's missing baryons have been hiding in a halo of million-kelvin gas that envelopes the galaxy. The estimated density of this halo is so low that similar halos around other galaxies would have escaped detection.
The paper describing these results was published in the Sept. 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Other co-authors were Yair Krongold of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City; Fabrizio Nicastro of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.; and Massimiliano Galeazzi of University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge.
Take a mind-bending journey with Graham Hancock as he describes his experiences with psychedelics and shamanism, the effects on consciousness, and "spirit molecules" in general. Regarding these journeys into consciousness, Hancock asserts these decisions "should not be devolved onto the state". We have "psychic sovereignty", sovereignty of individual consciousness, and government control is a "fundamental abuse of human rights in our society".
"Our society is a society under the guise of all kinds of propagandistic bs which is denying us the right of sovereignty over our own consciousness. If we are not sovereign over our own consciousness, then actually we are not sovereign over anything. Then all the so-called freedoms of our society are complete illusions when that society does not allow us to make fundamental decisions about what we wish to explore or not to explore with our own consciousness. That's what we are - we are consciousness. We are not these bodies, we are not matter. We are consciousness - pure consciousness manifested in physical form. If we can't make decisions about that, then everything else is just a bad joke."
Graham Hancock and the Sacred Vine
London Real meets Graham Hancock, author of "Fingerprints of the Gods".
"Fingerprints of the Gods" author Graham Hancock explains why all politicians should drink Ayahuasca 10 times, the gruesome Aztec history behind his new book "Wargod", why he took Ibogaine to gain closure with his late father, and how Joe Rogan is just an all-around cool dude.
"You said that all politicians should be required to drink Ayahuasca 10 times before taking office." - Brian (00:46)
"All across the world we have a venal class of dishonest, self-serving bureaucrats who are using the power we give them to oppose themselves upon us." - Graham (01:52)
"You have to understand that we've had more than 40 years now of massively financed propaganda called the 'War on Drugs'." - Graham (03:10)
"In a way it's a very Orwellian world where language is being used against us. It's almost impossible to approach the issue of 'drugs' without immediately linking it to the notion of 'abuse.'" - Graham (04:47)
"Do we as adults have the right to make decisions about what we put in our own bodies and what we experience with our own consciousness without reference to the powers of the state or must we seek permission from the state in order to explore our own consciousness?" - Graham (05:17)
"I find again and again you get these instant knee-jerk reactions. 'Oh they're talking about a drug, this isn't be for me. They must be dirty people.'" - Graham (08:37)
"I don't believe I would have written that book if I hadn't had this nudge from this curious plant ally called cannabis." - Graham (13:37)
"I don't do things by half-measures. I was smoking a very great deal of cannabis for 24 years." - Graham (14:10)
"During those Ayahuasca sessions whatever intelligence spoke to me directly and made it very clear to me that my journey with Cannabis had come to an end." - Graham (15:33)
"It's astonishing that one plant intervened to stop me working with another plant." - Graham (19:20)
"There are all kinds of ways to challenge ourselves. Some people do it by climbing a mountain or scuba diving. The most profound and challenging ordeals is to drink Ayahuasca. It is in a way the ultimate adventure." - Graham (24:06)
"I want to find out about your new book. Can you talk about it?" - Brian (45:30)
"There is very clear documentation of the sacrifice of 80,000 human beings over the course of 4 days so the entire city was filled with human blood." - Graham (49:58)
"The demonic realm got involved in the human world and said. 'We've made things really bad in Mexico already, how can we make things worse?" - Graham (51:20)
"The 22yr old Graham Hancock had an awful lot to learn." - Graham (59:42)
"Iboga is the root bark of a bush that grows in Central Africa." - Graham (1:00:53)
"It's a sacred duty to see a loved one through the transition and it's also a tremendous gift that the loved one gives to us, the opportunity to learn from it." - Graham (1:05:23)
"The one thing I'm glad about is that I did have the opportunity to tell my Dad that I loved him." - Graham (1:06:58)
"If you were really a tough guy you'd take Iboga and Ayahuasca at the same time." - Nic (01:08:28)
"The active ingredient in Ayahuasca is Dimethyltryptamine. I've done some work with pure D.M.T. as well, I've done 11 journeys." - Graham (01:08:48)
"Did you get stoned with Joe?" - Nic (01:17:10)
"Joe is such a lovely, wonderful human being with an incredibly open and inquiring mind and just very very gentle and very very intelligent and I definitely got high on the conversation." - Graham (01:17:55)
"I've really enjoyed this conversation, time has really flown, it reminded me of my conversation with Joe Rogan. Nice, relaxing, positive, enjoyable feeling." - Graham (01:20:40)
