Swarms of tiny robots that carry out time consuming tasks could soon become a common sight after scientists figured out how to attach a “brain” to the mini laser-powered machines.
The University of Washington research team that created the insect-inspired droids says they could be used for a range of jobs, including surveying crops and sniffing out gas leaks.
An asteroid the size of the Statue of Liberty will zoom past Earth on Tuesday.
The asteroid, dubbed 2010 WC9, is about the size of a football field and will fly past Earth at about 28,655 miles per hour, according to EarthSky. It will come within 126,419 miles of Earth — the closest it has come to our planet in 300 years — though it is still considered a safe passing distance.
The asteroid is expected to whiz past Earth at 6:05 p.m. E.T. on Tuesday, May 15.
You probably know where your Social Security card, birth certificate and other sensitive information is being stored, but what about your genetic material? If you or your child was born in California after 1983, your DNA is likely being stored by the government, may be available to law enforcement and may even be in the hands of outside researchers, CBS San Francisco’s Julie Watts reports.
China is building a monitoring system that will help it predict earthquakes up to three weeks in advance, according to a story in the Global Times, a mouthpiece for China’s Communist Party. The machinery will monitor for upcoming quakes by measuring “X-ray” or “CT scanners” which create an image of seismic activity.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of the threats from “aggressive nationalism” and “claims to exceptionalism” a day after President Donald Trump said the U.S. will withdraw from the landmark 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
“We remember the tragedy of two world wars, the lessons of history,” Putin said at a military parade on Moscow’s Red Square on Wednesday, marking the anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. “We understand how serious these threats are. All humankind and countries need to recognize that the world is very fragile.”
More from Bloomberg.com: U.S. Navy’s Costliest Warship Suffers New Failure at Sea
Trump’s decision, which will reinstate financial sanctions on Iran, met with dismay from European allies who have been trying to salvage the pact. The U.S. leader’s political opponents said it risks dragging America into a Middle East war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had lobbied against the Iran agreement, is set to meet Putin later in the Kremlin. He attended the World War II parade.
A tsunami warning was accidentally broadcast in Alaska on Friday, causing confusion among local citizens, officials say. There is no tsunami threat.
The incident happened just after 7 a.m. local time when a message from the Emergency Alert System appeared on TV channels in Alaska, advising that a tsunami warning was in effect.
“The National Weather Service has issued a TSUNAMI WARNING for the following counties or areas: Alaska, at 7:02 AM on May 11, 2018,” the message said.
The alert caused confusion among local residents. Jennifer Williams, the news director for KSRM, said the radio station was receiving calls from residents to ask about the warning.
Four well-known southern Wisconsin energy companies will be aiding state officials and the National Guard in a full-scale training simulating a long-term mass power outage throughout the state organized by the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs.
Archaeologists have discovered the sprawling, 3,300-year-old tomb of an army general named Iwrhya at the ancient Egyptian site of Saqqara. Hieroglyphic inscriptions found on the tomb walls say that Iwrhya “is a high army General, and High steward of the domain of Amun [and] High steward of the estates of Ramesses II in the domain of Amun,” the Egyptian antiquities ministry announced in a statement today (May 8). Amun was an important godin Egypt (revered as the king of gods) around 3,300 years ago. Iwrhya’s career started during the reign of pharaoh Seti I, who ruled Egypt from 1294 B.C. to 1279 B.C., and continued into the reign of pharaoh Ramesses II, which lasted from 1279 B.C. to 1213 B.C.,
After a new fissure opened on Wednesday about half a mile from a geothermal power plant, Hawaii Governor David Ige set up an emergency task force to remove the pentane used in the plant’s turbines. He cited estimates that if the fluid ignites, the resulting explosion could create a blast radius of up to one mile. (1.6 km)
The Puna Geothermal Venture plant sits at the edge of the Leilani Estates residential area on Hawaii’s Big Island where lava from 15 volcanic fissures has so far destroyed 36 structures, most of them homes, and forced the evacuation of around 2,000 residents.
Kilauea is the youngest and southeastern-most volcano on the island of Hawaii. It is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and has been in continuous eruption since 1983. Hawaii Governor David Ige has told the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA) that the state will need help dealing with the volcano.
The U.S. is pulling out of the Iranian nuclear accord, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday, dismantling his predecessor’s signature foreign-policy achievement and bucking the wishes of some of America’s closest allies.
It looks like the movie theater option on the LASCO Site is undergoing and overhaul. For now you can choose from available gifs they have loaded.
In the most recent one, we can see that we have a new sun diving comet that enters the frame before the sequence stops. If there is an exit of the comet caught in the coming days, ill update. You can find more info at the links below.
A series of four temblors struck California in about 12 hours, two of them near the small town of Cabazon, according to the US Geological Survey. Cabazon is about 45 miles east of the Los Angeles suburb, Riverside. The first quake was a 4.5 magnitude, while the second was a 3.2, the USGS reported. Residents in San Diego, 95 miles south of the 4.5 magnitude quake, felt the “initial jolt.”
In the near future, Congress will debate a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). I use the word “debate” lightly. So far, no hearings have been scheduled, and no testimony is likely to be heard unless something changes. That’s a shame, because this is a serious matter, and this is a deeply flawed AUMF.
For some time now, Congress has abdicated its responsibility to declare war. The status quo is that we are at war anywhere and anytime the president says so.
So Congress—in a very Congress way of doing things—has a “solution.” Instead of reclaiming its constitutional authority, it instead intends to codify the unacceptable, unconstitutional status quo.
It is clear upon reading the AUMF, put forward by Senators Tim Kaine and Bob Corker, that it gives nearly unlimited power to this or any other president to be at war whenever he or she wants, with minimal justification and no prior specific authority.
The demand for gold is increasing, yet new discoveries of the precious metal have not kept pace with the demand. Funds for exploration are historically high, $54.3 billion, up 60 percent over the past 18 years.
What Is The Government Doing To Protect Us From An EMP?
Not much, is the short answer.
While nuclear weapons are destructive enough to level entire cities, the resultant EMP from one would likely be its most devastating effect. In 2001, in response to concern that crucial infrastructure and even the United States military would not hold up against an EMP strike, the EMP Commission was created by Congress. President Obama disbanded the committee and the potentially society-saving information that would come out of it, not long after taking office.
In 2008, the Commission delivered a report on the possible effects that an EMP strike would have on national infrastructures, recommending ways that the US could prepare, protect, and restore these if this kind of attack were ever to take place. Dr. William Forstchen’s One Second After was heralded on the floor of Congress by those elected officials and commission members who saw the writing on the wall and were urging, if not outright begging, for something to be done to protect the lives of Americans, our economy, and sanctity of this nation, from an EMP attack.
Their pleas largely fell upon deaf ears. Several bills were written to address the power grid’s frailties and to develop a full and actionable plan to prepare for an EMP attack – and to survive afterwards, but they never made it out of committee.
Why do perhaps the most important pieces of legislation introduced during our lifetimes keep getting buried? Disbelief such a SHTF event is really going to happen for one – but over money, mostly.
Hardening the power grid and taking other necessary steps to prepare American for either a man-made or natural EMP attack would cost billions of dollars. Why don’t our public servants just stop sending our hard-earned money to countries they readily and loudly proclaim their hate for us and curtail the tens of billions of dollars sent overseas for charitable reasons and spent on studies about that place shrimp on treadmills? That is a good question for which neither I, nor those politicians who continue to ignore this looming and very real SHTF thread, have no reasonable answer.
Final Word
An EMP attack is a strong possibility in today’s economically-strained, weaponized world. It is a swift, deadly, and silent force that relies on the deterioration of civil society into chaos and darkness. While it may appear to be a perfectly normal scientific phenomenon, its effects on humanity will be crippling. How prepared are you for an EMP strike?
There’s no question that solar power is entering the mainstream, but California is about to give it a giant boost. The state’s Energy Commission is expected to approve new energy standards that would require solar panels on the roofs of nearly all new homes, condos and apartment buildings from 2020 onward. There will be exemptions for homes that either can’t fit solar panels or would be blocked by taller buildings or trees, but you’ll otherwise have to go green if your property is brand new.
The plan doesn’t require that a home reach net-zero status (where the solar power completely offsets the energy consumed in a year). However, it does provide “compliance credits” for homebuilders who install storage batteries like Tesla’s Powerwall, letting them build smaller panel arrays knowing that excess energy will be available to use off-hours.
The new standards are poised to hike construction costs by $25,000 to $30,000 (about half of which is directly due to solar), but the self-produced energy is estimated to save owners $50,000 to $60,000 in operating costs over the solar technology’s expected 25-year lifespan.
USGS is reporting a 4.9M Earthquake striking 171 km Southeast of Buras-Triumph, Louisiana In the gulf of Mexico. The swarming also continues at the base of Hawaii’s Volcanic region.
You can find more info at the links below.
In April we told you about how some of the “unintended consequences” of Trump’s steel tariffs, such as an Illinois farmer who put the brakes on a $71,000 grain mill, but had to hold off on the purchase because the seller raised the price 5% to account for the rising price of steel, or Iowa grain mill producer Sukup Manufacturing, which had to hike their prices for grain storage bins.
Hawaii’s Big Island remains on high alert on Saturday after the Kilauea volcano spewed lava into residential areas, forcing hundreds to evacuate, and a series of earthquakes, including a powerful tremor, shook the island.
