Dog Jumps

 

Stashed Inside the Pyramids

The pyramids of Giza are grand monuments, but what's inside them and the other ancient 

Egyptian pyramids? (Image credit: Ratnakorn Piyasirisorost via Getty Images)

When British archaeologist Howard Carter cracked open King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, he reported seeing "wonderful things." Tut's tomb was filled with extraordinary treasures, including the golden death mask of Tutankhamun, a golden throne and even gold sandals. But did all royal tombs in ancient Egypt have such plush grave goods?


The answer is no. While the Great Pyramid of Giza and other ancient Egyptian pyramids are incredible monuments, the burial goods inside them were likely relatively modest compared with those buried in the tombs of later pharaohs, such as Tutankhamun.


"The burials in the biggest pyramids might have looked quite simple in comparison to Tutankhamun," Wolfram Grajetzki, an honorary senior research fellow at University College London in the U.K. who has studied and written extensively about ancient Egyptian burial customs and burial goods, told Live Science in an email.

Pyramids were used as Egyptian pharaohs' tombs from the time of Djoser (reign circa 2630 B.C. to 2611 B.C.) to Ahmose I (reign circa 1550 B.C. to 1525 B.C.). Most of these pyramids were plundered centuries ago, but a few royal tombs have remained relatively intact and provide clues about their treasures, Grajetzki said.


For instance, Princess Neferuptah (who lived around 1800 B.C.) was buried in a pyramid at the site of Hawara, around 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Cairo. Her burial chamber was excavated in 1956 and "contained pottery, a set of coffins, some gilded personal adornments and a set of royal insignia that identify her with the Underworld god Osiris," Grajetzki said.


King Hor (who lived around 1750 B.C.) was buried with a similar set of objects, although he wasn't buried in a pyramid, Grajetzki said. "The body of [Hor] was wrapped in linen, the entrails placed into special containers, called canopic jars," Grajetzki said. "His face was covered with a mummy mask."  READ MORE...

Fast Fish

 

Alien Invasion

Image Credit: Rick_Jo/Getty

An alien species is headed for planet Earth and we have no reason to believe it will be friendly. Some experts predict it will get here within 30 years, while others insist it will arrive far sooner. Nobody knows what it will look like, but it will share two key traits with us humans – it will be intelligent and self-aware.

No, this alien will not come from a distant planet – it will be born right here on Earth, hatched in a research lab at a major university or large corporation. I am referring to the first artificial general intelligence (AGI) that reaches (or exceeds) human-level cognition.

As I write these words, billions are being spent to bring this alien to life, as it would be viewed as one of the greatest technological achievements in human history. But unlike our other inventions, this one will have a mind of its own, literally. And if it behaves like every other intelligent species we know, it will put its own self-interests first, working to maximize its prospects for survival.

AI in our own image
Should we fear a superior intelligence driven by its own goals, values and self-interests? Many people reject this question, believing we will build AI systems in our own image, ensuring they think, feel and behave just like we do. This is extremely unlikely to be the case.

Artificial minds will not be created by writing software with carefully crafted rules that make them think like us. Instead engineers feed massive datasets into simple algorithms that automatically adjust their own parameters, making millions upon millions of tiny changes to their structure until an intelligence emerges – an intelligence with inner workings that are far too complex for us to comprehend.

And no – feeding it data about humans will not make it think like humans do. This is a common misconception – the false belief that by training an AI on data that describes human behaviors, we will ensure it ends up thinking, feeling and acting like we do. It will not.  READ MORE...

Horse Kiss

It Is All OUR FAULT

 What are you currently experiencing?

• Increasing gasoline prices
• Increasing food prices
• Increasing inflation
• Increasing illegal immigration
• Increasing crime
• Increasing violence
• Increasing drug overdoses
• Increasing availability of illegal drugs

Why are you currently experiencing this?

Because of our current President...

Who elected our current President?

WE DID...

Therefore, it is all OUR FAULT...

The current administration blames all the problems on:

1. the previous president
2. the covid pandemic
3. the invasion of Ukraine by Russia
4. the businesses who are raising prices
5. the truckers who don't want to work
6. all the Americans who don't want to work
7. conservative values and policies

But, who voted for Biden?

Who are you going to blame for the way that you cast your vote?

THERE IS NO ONE TO BLAME BUT YOU...

Democracy Falls Short

We have forgotten all about Socrates’s salient warnings against democracy. We have preferred to think of democracy as an unambiguous good – rather than a process that is only ever as effective as the education system that surrounds it.

The education system that surrounds USA Democracy is flawed and has been flawed ever since it was created in 1635 in Boston, Massachusetts...  Our educational system lays the foundation for us to follow more and more education rather than teach us to be financially, economically, and politically aware...  assuming that pursuing a college and graduate degrees is the only viable course of action to take in this country...   THIS IS A FALSE PREMISE...

As a result of this false premise, the average American is less intelligent in 2022 than the average American was in 1822...  

What exactly am I trying to say here?

The 1800s America knew how to farm, build, repair, and the value of the dollar, was family-oriented, in touch with their own faith, and was keenly aware of all the people who were governing them.  They understood wisdom, value, quality, integrity, truth, and honesty and expected those who governed them to understand them as well.

Not many people in the 1800s had what we know call BOOK KNOWLEDGE.

Socrates was also concerned that in a democracy people would begin to care more about earning money (wealth) and buying assets rather than caring about one's fellow man...

Think about this for a minute?  Roll it around in your consciousness...  and reflect upon the ramifications that the concerns of Socrates have already generated in 2022 America...

Everything that surrounds us...  pushes us in a direction to want more and more...  earn more and more...  buy more and more...  WHY?  And, more importantly, why do we need all this shit?

What did you know about Trump when you elected him President?

What did you know about Biden when you elected him President?

What did you believe that other people were telling you about these two people?

How much research did you do yourself?

If you did not do much research...  why not?

WHY DO YOU NOT REALLY CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ARE GOVERNING YOU?

America Will Never Be An Equitable Democracy

 ...EQUITABLE

 MEANS BEING 

FAIR 

AND 

IMPARTIAL...

Does this image really explain the difference between equity and equality in all situations?

That is completely impossible in the USA...

Why?

Because that is not how we are born...

• Some of us are beautiful
• Some of us are butt ugly
• Some of us are tall
• Some of us are short
• Some of us are intellectually gifted
• Some of us are intellectually handicapped
• Some of us have photographic memories
• Some of us suffer from CRS

I would think that by now, you have gotten my point...  We are not equal so there can never be equity in ALL THINGS...

I read an article several years ago that scientifically stated that black men had skulls that were more sturdy than the skulls of Caucasians, therefore, blacks made for better football players and boxers...  Bear in mind that there is always an exception.

The sooner that we come to terms with this concept, the better off our future will be and hopefully we will stop trying to put a square object in a round hole...

Target Practice

The Revolutionary World of Quantum Computers

The inside of an IBM System One quantum computer.  Bryan Walsh/Vox

A few weeks ago, I woke up unusually early in the morning in Brooklyn, got in my car, and headed up the Hudson River to the small Westchester County community of Yorktown Heights. There, amid the rolling hills and old farmhouses, sits the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, the Eero Saarinen-designed, 1960s Jet Age-era headquarters for IBM Research.

Deep inside that building, through endless corridors and security gates guarded by iris scanners, is where the company’s scientists are hard at work developing what IBM director of research Dario Gil told me is “the next branch of computing”: quantum computers.

I was at the Watson Center to preview IBM’s updated technical roadmap for achieving large-scale, practical quantum computing. This involved a great deal of talk about “qubit count,” “quantum coherence,” “error mitigation,” “software orchestration” and other topics you’d need to be an electrical engineer with a background in computer science and a familiarity with quantum mechanics to fully follow.

I am not any of those things, but I have watched the quantum computing space long enough to know that the work being done here by IBM researchers — along with their competitors at companies like Google and Microsoft, along with countless startups around the world — stands to drive the next great leap in computing. Which, given that computing is a “horizontal technology that touches everything,” as Gil told me, will have major implications for progress in everything from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence to designing better batteries.

Provided, of course, they can actually make these things work.

Entering the quantum realm
The best way to understand a quantum computer — short of setting aside several years for grad school at MIT or Caltech — is to compare it to the kind of machine I’m typing this piece on: a classical computer.

My MacBook Air runs on an M1 chip, which is packed with 16 billion transistors. Each of those transistors can represent either the “1” or “0” of binary information at a single time — a bit. The sheer number of transistors is what gives the machine its computing power.

Sixteen billion transistors packed onto a 120.5 sq. mm chip is a lot — TRADIC, the first transistorized computer, had fewer than 800. The semiconductor industry’s ability to engineer ever more transistors onto a chip, a trend forecast by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in the law that bears his name, is what has made possible the exponential growth of computing power, which in turn has made possible pretty much everything else.  READ MORE...

Skateboard

 

Tesla's Supercharger Network

After recently expanding its Supercharger pilot program for non-Tesla EV owners, the Supercharger network became the ‘largest 150 kW+ public fast-charging network’ in Europe overnight. It’s quite impressive that Tesla did that basically by just flipping a switch.

Tesla was early in investing in charging infrastructure, which led to the Supercharger becoming the largest global fast-charging network.

The company has been criticized for only providing charging for its own customers when most other networks are for all electric vehicles, but there basically wasn’t any other electric vehicle when Tesla started working on the Supercharger network.

Only lately has the automaker started to work on opening up the network to other EVs.

In November 2021, we saw Tesla take its first step with a pilot program running at 10 Supercharger stations in the Netherlands where non-Tesla EV owners can charge using the Tesla app.

When announcing the new pilot program, Tesla said that it planned to slowly expand it as it tests the user experience for both new non-Tesla EV owners being onboarded on the network and current Tesla owners who are going to see more traffic at those charging stations.

In January, the automaker announced that the program was expanding to more stations in Norway and France, and a month later, the program was expanded to all Supercharger stations in the Netherlands.

Finally, Tesla made its biggest expansion of the pilot program last week by opening many more Supercharger stations in the UK, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, and Austria to all EV owners.

Jeroen van Tilburg, Tesla’s Head of Supercharging in EMEA, had an interesting note about the pilot program. Following the latest expansion, he said that the network of Supercharger stations opened to non-Tesla EV owners in Europe has become the largest network of 150 kW+ public fast-charging stations.  READ MORE...

More Heavy Rain

 

Changing the Laws of Physics

In an extremely cosmic-brain take, University of Rochester astrophysics professor Adam Frank suggests that a civilization could advance so much that it could eventually tinker with the fundamental laws of physics.

It's a mind-bending proposition that ventures far beyond the conventional framework of scientific understanding, a reminder that perhaps we should dare to think outside the box — especially as we continue our search for extraterrestrial civilizations.

If a civilization were to be able to change the laws of physics, "the very nature of energy itself, with established rules like energy conservation, would be subject to revision within the scope of engineering," Frank, who is part of the NASA-sponsored Categorizing Atmospheric Technosignatures program, wrote in an essay for Big Think.

Playing Games
For instance, as astrophysicist Caleb Scharf argued in an eyebrow-raising 2016 article, an alien civilization could conceivably be behind dark matter, the theoretical stuff that — as far as our current understanding of the universe is concerned — makes up the majority of mass in the universe.

Frank takes the concept even further, suggesting advanced alien civilizations could "mix and match physical laws any way they see fit."  It's all pretty far fetched, and the astrophysicist is the first to acknowledge that, pointing out that at this point it's primarily just "fun" to think about these things.

Frank concludes that while controlling these laws may be pretty unlikely, it's far more likely that they put "severe limits on life and what it can do."  So it's possible that "there simply is no way around the limits imposed by the speed of light," Frank concedes.  READ MORE...

Cat Play

 

INFLATION Woes and Concerns...

Ever since the Biden administration took over the reigns of our Federal Government, we have had a steady increase in prices which many refer to as inflation.

We bitch about the present administration but they are doing what their party wants them to do and that is put so much pressure on the gasoline industry that it collapses and everyone is forced to turn to electricity.

And while that transition is going to be a pain in the ass, it is inevitable, so we might as well get on board the electricity train.

YES...  electric vehicles are expensive but you do not have to buy the expensive version...  get the cheap model.

Once you have an EV you might as well kiss your vacations good bye...  for a while at least, because there are currently not enough charging stations to accomodate.

Trip to and from work and to and from doctors appts and to and from the grocery stores will be about the extent  of your travels unless you want to spend some time at a park having a picnic.

Food prices will cause many people living outside of a city, to start having gardens which should remind many of us about the early 1900s when most everyone had a backyard vege garden.

Americans will learn to create their own entertainment around the home or around the community by getting together with friends and relatives instead of doing the things that you used to do when there was plenty of cheap gasoline.

The entire socio-economic culture of our society will change...  less money being spent...  less restaurants...  less stores...  less spending...  less economic growth...  less money for schools, highways, bridges, sanitation...  less wages...

Some small towns will not survive...

What is really interesting here is the fact that the rest of the world like CHINA, RUSSIA, INDIA, AFRICA, SOUTH AMERICA will not be doing the same things that we are doing and will continue to use those natural resources because they are cheaper...

THINK ABOUT THIS SHIT FOR A MINUTE OR TWO...

USA at RISK

The United States of America is at risk in many areas that we see but do not want to acknowledge in the sense of wanting to do anything about it.

• We are at risk politically
• We are politically divided at 50/50
• We are at risk racially - perpetuating the concept
• We are are risk financially and economically
• We are at risk being controlled by our leaders
• We are at risk with our freedoms - censoring opposing views

Our black US population is about 12% of the total population and the caucasian US population is about 60% of the total population...  about 5 times larger...  and yet, the black population is trying to change the way our DEMOCRACY works...  and, it appears that our caucasian leaders are allowing this to happen...

Consequently, I am against:

1. BLM
2. CRT
3. WOKE

However, since these people are being pacified and tolerated, then let's just rewrite the US Constitution, remove the first and second amendments, and give blacks the worth of 1.5 people.  Let's give blacks preferred education, housing, medical, and employment opportunities.  Let's pass laws that say black must represent 2/3 of everything whether qualified or not...

Then, maybe this great country of ours will then turn around and treat all illegal immigrants in the same way that they treated the blacks...

Badge Card

Alternative Theory of Gravity

Radio image of the neutral hydrogen gas in the galaxy AGC 114905. (Mancera Pina et al., MNRAS, 2021)

Out in the dark depths of space, our models of the Universe get messy. A new study looking at the ultra-diffuse dwarf galaxy AGC 114905 has revived a controversial theory (or more accurately a hypothesis) of gravity, and given us more questions than answers about what's making our galaxies tick.

It all starts with dark matter – or in this case, no dark matter. Although most cosmologists agree there's something out there called 'dark matter', causing spiral galaxies to rotate faster than they should, even dark matter doesn't answer all the questions we need it to.

So, it's not a bad idea to look at some alternative options. You know, just in case we are never able to find the stuff.

One alternative hypothesis to dark matter is called Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) or Milgromian dynamics framework. This hypothesis – first published in 1983 by physicist Mordehai Milgrom – suggests that we don't need dark matter to fill in the Universe's gravity gaps, if we calculate the gravitational forces experienced by stars in outer galactic regions in a different manner to how Newtonian laws suggest.

To test this idea, which involves working with proportionality to the star's radius or centripetal acceleration, we need to be looking at the speeds of galaxies – specifically weird ones like ultra-diffuse galaxies.

These very faint, ugly ducklings of the galaxy world have a habit of not acting like a galaxy should. For example, some ultra diffuse galaxies seem to be made almost entirely of dark matter, whilst others are almost completely dark matter-less.  READ MORE...

Horse & Rabbit

 

Quantum Physics Phenomenon of Materials

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Researchers at Northeastern have discovered a new quantum phenomenon in a specific class of materials, called antiferromagnetic insulators, that could yield new ways of powering "spintronic" and other technological devices of the future.


The discovery illuminates "how heat flows in a magnetic insulator, [and] how [researchers] can detect that heat flow," says Gregory Fiete, a physics professor at Northeastern and co-author of the research. The novel effects, published in Nature Physics this week and demonstrated experimentally, were observed by combining lanthanum ferrite (LaFeO3) with a layer of platinum or tungsten.

"That layered coupling is what is responsible for the phenomenon," says Arun Bansil, university distinguished professor in the Department of Physics at Northeastern, who also took part in the study.

The discovery may have numerous potential applications, such as improving heat sensors, waste-heat recycling, and other thermoelectric technologies, Bansil says. This phenomenon could even lead to development of a new power source for these—and other—budding technologies. Northeastern graduate student Matt Matzelle and Bernardo Barbiellini, a computational and theoretical physicist at the Lappeenranta University of Technology, who is currently visiting Northeastern, participated in the research.

Illustrating the teams' findings requires considerable magnification (literally) to observe the world of atomic-scale particles—specifically, at the nano-lives of electrons. It also requires an understanding of several properties of electrons—that they possess something called "spin," have a charge, and can, when moving through a material, generate heat flow.

Electron spin, or angular momentum, describes a fundamental property of electrons defined in one of two potential states: Up or down. There are many different ways these "up or down" spins of the electrons (also thought of as north-south poles) orient themselves in space, which in turn gives rise to different types of magnetisms. It all depends, Bansil says, on the ways atoms are patterned in a given material.  READ MORE...

Heavy Rain

 

China Converts Nuclear Fusion into Energy

China’s new announcements indicate that it has taken one step further in that direction.

Nuclear fusion is based on the idea that energy can be released by forcing atomic nuclei together rather than separating them, as in the fission reactions that powers the existing nuclear power plants.

In what could be a significant breakthrough, a Chinese research team claims to have created the world’s first power plant capable of converting fusion energy into electricity without disrupting the power system, South China Morning Post reported.

This development comes a few months after China’s experimental advanced superconducting Tokamak (EAST), HL-2M fusion energy reactor had run for 1,056 seconds at 70 million degrees Celsius.

According to Xiang Kui, chief engineer of thermal systems at the China Energy Engineering Group Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute in Guangzhou, converting the heat into electricity is challenging because the reactor must take a 20-minute break every two hours.

Xiang and his colleagues stated in a report published in the domestic peer-reviewed journal ‘Southern Energy Construction’ that this frequent interruption can create pulse energy that “will cause huge damage to the power grid.”

The entire world is chasing nuclear fusion technology, with a facility in France called International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), where experiments take place with the assistance of a world consortium with the EU, the US, Russia, and even China being members.

They hope to make a breakthrough by the second half of this century.  READ MORE...

Dog Swing

Males Seek A Female Led Relationship

A female-led relationship or FLR, as the name suggests, is a relationship where a woman is in the dominant position, enjoying authority over her partner, and the man is considered a submissive partner. The woman makes all or most decisions regarding the relationship, exerts more authority over her male partner, and steers the relationship forward. A woman calls all the shots in an FLR, unlike the conventional romance where a man being is the dominant figure or both of them are treated equally.

 

 

While this relationship has many benefits, it gets nowhere without discipline. In this post, we bring you everything you need to know about these relationships.

FLRs can be categorized based on four different levels of intensity.
1. Low-level female control
In this type of FLR, the woman has low authority, and all the decisions are taken mutually by the man and the woman. The man allows his partner to take the lead in specific scenarios and, sometimes, she needs the permission of the man to make a decision.

2. Moderate-level female control
At this FLR level, the female can enjoy being a leader for a while and has a sense of ruling the man. It helps boost her confidence and morale and makes the relationship more positive. The man also often enjoys the dominant attitude of the woman. At this level, the woman usually takes the day-to-day decisions, but she also sets boundaries regarding how far she is willing to go.

3. Defined control
In this type of female-led relationship, the woman makes most decisions and takes on the male roles too. The areas where she can be dominant are defined to ensure there is a demarcation.

4. Extreme control
Here there is extreme control by the woman and servitude by the man. This relationship is for women who like to have the ultimate power in the relationship.

Rules Of A Female-Led Relationship

Several rules help define a female-led relationship. Some of them are mentioned here.

• The female makes most of the household decisions. The man shares his opinion before a decision is made, and the woman may value it.
• The woman can help motivate the man to work on getting rid of any bad habits like excessive smoking or dependence on alcohol by being authoritative.
• Although the man and woman distribute household tasks, the man agrees to do chores like cooking, cleaning, etc.
• The woman takes most financial decisions, and the man trusts his wife to take care of things.
• The woman also takes decisions regarding social events and social gatherings

TO READ MORE ABOUT A FLR, CLICK HERE...

We Need Solutions

 I am a retired veteran who was a Kennedy democrat but now I am a liberal conservative who believes in a balanced budget and being debt free with a strong military and viable education system along with low taxes...

I believe that a woman (and a man for that matter) has a fundamental right to do whatever the hell they want to do with their body...

I believe that assholes should have a right to bear arms...

I believe in free speech and that any form of censorship should be illegal...

I believe in legal immigration...

i believe in not following laws that don't make any sense...

As an American, we need to find a way to stop gun violence while at the same time protect our second amendment rights.  let's make it more difficult to own firearms...  if that's what needed... allowing those that really want them to get them.

Let's give blacks all the bullshit they want to keep them from bitching and screwing up our lifestyles...  there are plenty of opportunities for blacks...  hell...  we had a black president...  but if they still want more...  then let's give it to them...

Oscar Wilde said there were two great tragedies in this county:

• Not getting what you wanted
• getting what you wanted

Let's legalize illegal drugs and tax the hell out of the purchase to help pay for our social programs...  if the drug addicts kill themselves in the process...  it is what it is...

Let's rewrite the frigging constitution and let the majority decide how they want to be governed...  the wealthy will still be wealthy, even if we are controlled by russia or china...

while we are fighting ourselves over some kind of worthless bullshit, china is building up their economy and will be charge of our global future...  whether it be on earth or in space...

YEs...  americans are that stupid...  especially our leaders...

how many of us are currently paying attention to the world economic forum in davos, Switzerland???  it is a group of wealthy people deciding our future...  and, because we have our heads up our asses over other issues...  we pay no attention to this...

yes...  americans are still that stupid...

Bill Maher

 

Cat Hat

 

Loneliness in Older Age

The odds of loneliness age 50 and over were 1.24 times higher for people who rarely or never had comfortable friends in childhood compared to those who more often had friends. 

Image is in the public domain

Summary: A combination of personality traits and childhood circumstances account for why some older people experience loneliness more than others. Lonely adults over 50 were 1.24 times more likely to have rarely, or never, had comfortable friendships during childhood, and 1.34 times more likely to have had poor relationships with their mothers as children.

Source: PLOS

Life circumstances during childhood—including having fewer friends and siblings, low-quality relationships with parents, bad health and growing up in a poorer household—are all correlated with a higher rate of loneliness in older age, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Sophie Guthmuller of Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.

Loneliness has been a growing topic of interest over the last decade, as it has been shown to be linked with ill health and to increase with age. Loneliness is correlated with a higher risk of developing mental conditions, a deterioration in physical health, and is linked to mortality and higher health care utilization.

In the new study, Guthmuller used data from the large cross-national Survey on Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which collects information from individuals across Europe aged 50 and older on health, socioeconomic status, and social and family networks. Loneliness was measured with the R-UCLA Loneliness Scale.

Guthmuller found that while ill health is the main factor correlated with loneliness in older age, explaining 43.32% of the variance in loneliness, social support in older age also accounts for 27.05% of the variance, personality traits account for 10.42% and life circumstances during childhood account for 7.50%.  READ MORE...

Through the Window