Category Archives: Futurism

The Earth isn't the only planet experiencing extraordinary heat waves.

A team of scientists led by James ODonoghue, planetary scientist at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was shocked to discover a cataclysmic "heat wave" in Jupiter's atmosphere, reaching scorching temperatures of 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

The heat wave stretched for some 80,000 miles roughly the equivalent of ten Earths lined up next to each other racing from the gas giant's poles to the equator at speeds of over 600 mph.

Until now, why Jupiter experiences extreme temperatures even in the absence of surging heat waves has remained a scientific mystery. It only gets less than four percent of the warming sunlight that Earth does, which should suggest that it'd be a lot colder.

In fact,estimates have found that Jupiter's upper atmosphere should be a frosty -99 degrees Fahrenheit. But according to observations, its upper atmosphere is roughly the same temperature as Earth's, sitting at around 788 degrees Fahrenheit.

This discrepancy, nicknamed the "giant planet energy crisis," has been puzzling astronomers since the 1970s but fortunately, we may be getting much closer to an answer.

At this year's Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC), O'Donoghue and his colleagues presented their latest theory as to what may have caused Jupiter's blistering heat wave: its auroras.

Unlike Earth's auroras, which only occur during intense solar wind activity, auroras are a permanent presence in Jupiter's atmosphere.

O'Donoghue and his colleagues previously found that these auroras can get intense enough to heat the regions around Jupiter's poles. Forceful winds then push this heat around the entire planet's surface.

The massive "high-temperature planetary-scale structure," as described in a paperpublished in the journal Nature last year, only added credence to the theory.

"The heat wave is highly likely the result of a recent, large injection of energy to the auroral/polar region," O'Donoghue told Futurism. "We see this at Earth, but this is the first time weve seen it at another planet."

"These heat waves are an extra source of heat in upper atmospheres in general," he explained, "driven by the solar wind."

In fact, Jupiter may not be the only planet experiencing these scorching waves of heat.

"Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are also measured to be hundreds of Kelvin warmer than expected based on the amount of sunlight they receive," O'Donoghue added. "There is evidence that the distribution of auroral heat occurs at Saturn, while we can only speculate that it may also exist at Uranus and Neptune at present."

In short, the Sun could have far-reaching effects on the evolution of not only Jupiter's atmosphere, but other planets in our solar system as well a tantalizing glimpse into what drives the turbulent nature of our largest planetary neighbors.

More on Jupiter: James Webb Captures Jupiter in Glorious Infrared

Excerpt from:
A Wave of Incredible Heat Ripped Through Jupiter - Futurism

"My current estimate is about the same as losing in Russian roulette: one in six."Very Grim

These, as we know, are not internationally chill times so much so that, unfortunately, nuclear war has been on much the collective mind.

But while verbal and in North Korea's recent case, physical nuclear threats have been made, how likely is it that we'll see an actual nuclear conflict?It's a seemingly impossible question, but one MIT physics professor Max Tegmark believes he has the answer to.

"Many people have asked me what I think the odds are of an imminent major US-Russia nuclear war," the professor wrote on the blog LessWrong. "My current estimate is about the same as losing in Russian roulette: one in six." Great.

Tegmark's argument centers on a David vs. Goliath framework the former being Ukraine, the latter being Russia. And within that dynamic, the professor explores a series of possible outcomes and their likelihoods.

His worst case scenario is labelled "KABOOM," which in his words marks "a major US-Russia nuclear war that might cause nuclear winter and kill most people on Earth." But again, that's worst case, and Tegmark offers a number of other scenarios that might happen either instead of KABOOM or en route to it.

"'Kosovo' & 'Vietnam' refer to scenarios where one side wins outright (breakaway succeeds & Goliath is expunged, respectively)," he writes, "'Libya,' 'Korea' & 'Finland' refer to intermediate outcomes involving simmering war, frozen war and full peace, respectively."

The academic ultimately concluded through his risk model that based mostly on his own psychoanalysis of Putin, NATO, and the general world public there's an 80 percent chance that NATO will take some form of collective military action against Russia; a 70 percent chance that Russia will retaliate against that NATO offensive with nuclear weapons, which could ultimately bring us to KABOOM territory; and a 30 percent chance that both sides decide to de-escalate.

Distill those percentages, and as Tegmark writes, you get a roughly one-in-six figure.

It's important to remember that Tegmark's guess is, in a way, as good as anyone's.

There's no true scientific model for human nature, which is what this ultimately comes down to. Nuclear war doesn't just happen. A button, somewhere, has to be pressed though that seems to be exactly what the prof is trying to remind us.

READ MORE: Why I think there's a one-in-six chance of an imminent global nuclear war [LessWrong]

More on nuclear war: Horrific Simulation: Nuclear War Would Kill Five Billion People

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MIT Professor Says There's a One-in-Six Chance of Nuclear War - Futurism

During the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that the company would be sending thousands of Starlink satellite internet terminals to the embattled country.

Around 20,000 terminals, according to Musk, have already been donated to Ukraine so far.

Now, though, Musk has seemingly had a change of heart, and is asking the Pentagon to foot the bill instead. It's just become too expensive, he says although the real reason may have more to do with Musk's growing sympathy toward Russia.

"SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households," Musk tweeted. "This is unreasonable."

The news comes following reports of Starlink outages plaguing Ukraine's attempts to retake ground previously occupied by Russia. According to officials, these outages led to a "catastrophic" loss of communication, as The Financial Times reports.

The terminals allowed troops and civilians alike to stay connected and ended up "saving lives," as vice prime minister Mykhailo Federov argued back in March.

Despite considerable goodwill, Musk suddenly changed his tune. Earlier this month, the billionaire suggested that Ukraine should give up parts of its territories to reach a peace agreement with Russia or else risk starting a nuclear war a shocking Twitter outburstthat had even his own diehard fans appalled.

Ukrainian officials were also unsurprisingly taken aback by Musk's comments, with Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Melnyk literally telling the richest man in the world to "f*** off."

Meanwhile, the Kremlin lauded Musk for his new tack, with Russian presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov saying that it was "actually quite positive" that Musk was, "unlike professional diplomats," seeking "a path towards peacefully resolving the situation."

In yet another tweet, Musk seemed to confirm that he's indeed ending the free service at least in part because Ukrainian officials were mean to him.

"Were just following his recommendation," Musk replied with a shrug emoji, after political strategist Jason Jay Smart pointed out the fact that Musk announced his change of heart just days after Melnyk told him to "f*** off."

At the same time, CNN points out that SpaceX did send a letter to the Pentagon asking for funding before Melnyk's comments.So money may well be a factor as well.

It's an unfortunate new development as the terminals are clearly proving to be a huge help for the people of Ukraine and this kind of vindictive mudslinging isn't going to help anybody.

More on the situation: Elon Musk Fans Horrified as He Suggests Ukraine Give in to Putin's Demands

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Elon Musk Says He Can't Give Free Starlink to Ukraine Anymore After Officials There Were Mean to Him - Futurism

New scam just dropped!Phony Cosmonaut

Earlier this year, a phony astronaut scammed a woman into sending him a ton of money in a phishing con that left an elderly woman heartbroken and, presumably, broke.

As Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbum reported last week, the scammer, who claimed he was a Russian cosmonaut, ended up taking 4.4 million yen the equivalent of about $30,000 from a 65-year-old Japanese woman after claiming he was on board the International Space Station and needed the money to hitch a ride back to Earth.

The grifter went as far as to claim he was in love with her and wanted to start a life with her in Japan provided, of course, that she pay for his ride home.

It's a heart-breaking tale that has left us wondering how anybody could possibly fall for such a ruse. You'd think it's common knowledge that astronauts usually pay for a return ticket up front.

The fake cosmonaut, whose name remains unknown, convinced the womanby name-dropping space agencies like NASA and JAXA, Japan's space agency.

The scammer also told the woman when he was out of contact for days at a time that the cellular service on board the ISS was spotty though, as Gizmodo notes,there is no cell service in space, and astronauts rely on an internet-connected IP phone.

Needless to say, astronauts also don't need to raise funds to get back to Earth, because that's usually included in the ticket price, which can easily reach tens of millions of dollars.

Eventually, after sending a total of five payments, the woman wised up and reported the scammer to the police, though it's unclear if the con artist was arrested or if the woman's money was recovered.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened: in 2016, a man, who claimed to be Nigeria's first astronaut, said he was stuck on board a Soviet craft and needed $3 million to return home.

The lesson seems rather obvious: if someone tells you they're an astronaut and that they need your money, don't believe them there is no way anyone who's on board the space station is hurting for money that badly.

More on the ISS: Saudi Arabia Just Bought Two SpaceX Tickets to the International Space Station

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Scammer Fools Woman Into Thinking They're an Astronaut Who Needs a Ticket Home - Futurism

When Elon Musk attempted to impulse-buy Twitter back in April, he didn't have the money to do it himself; the only way he could or still would be able to put up the cash for the deal is with the backing promised by a group of equity firms and wealthy individuals.

Unfortunately for the Technoking, Insider reports, it sounds like some of those investors may be getting some serious cold feet now that Musk has resuscitated the deal after desperately fighting to get out of it.

"We're all trying to get out of it, to be honest," Andrea Walne, a general partner at Manhattan Venture Partners (MVP) and apparently regretful Twitter buyer, told Insider.

"We talked to the other investors, everyone's trying to get out of it," she continued, claiming that it's unclear whether investors will be held to their financial agreements or not, adding that "no one thinks the company should be valued at $44 billion."

First thing's first: this is an absolutely wild remark to say out loud to the press. Musk and Twitter are still very much in court, battling out the maybe-failed deal amid a sea of bot claims and stupid texts; to be this candid either seems calculated, or Walne simply moves through the world with a next-level IDGAF attitude.

Walne's firm says it handles over $1 billion in assets, which is a minuscule fraction of the $44 billion deal. And to that point, Walne told Insider that she actually thinks Twitter, in this economy, should be valued at something closer to $10 to $12 billion a much easier bill to foot.

But no matter how much Twitter (maybe) sells for in the end, it's not exactly in Musks's best interest to let his backers out of the deal.

"Given how unfavorable the deal now is for the buy-side, I'm sure Musk's buddies are all begging him to let them out," Robert Miller, an attorney who specializes in mergers and acquisitions, told Insider. "The less they put in, however, the more Musk himself must put in."

Everyone's in a bad spot, it seems. But you know what they say: don't hop on a $44 billion bandwagon that may have been launched by a midlife crisis. And unfortunately for Walne, she says she's having a tough time getting in touch with the banking folks on Wall Street who might have some answers.

"They're being very very hush hush about everything," she told Insider.

Which, well, makes sense, because again: court.

READ MORE: One of the investors that agreed to back Elon Musk's Twitter bid says they want out of the deal[Insider]

Original post:
Investors in Elon Musk's Twitter Deal Horrified It Might Actually Go Through - Futurism

A large percentage of people who use Tesla's Autopilot driving assist system seem to think that the tech makes their car fully self-driving even though the software is far from capable of it.

Per a new survey from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a whopping 42 percent of Tesla Autopilot drivers said that they feel "comfortable treating their vehicles as fully self-driving."That's so bizarre that we can barely believe it Autopilot can keep your car in a lane with simple braking and acceleration, but it's nowhere near a full self-driving system. In fact, even Tesla's somewhat more advanced Full Self-Driving (FSD) package, which drivers weren't polled on in the IIHS study, is still very much in beta testing.

"The big-picture message here," IIHS President David Harkey said in the organization's press release, "is that the early adopters of these systems still have a poor understanding of the technologys limits."

Those limits, to be blunt, include the fact that Autopilot moderequires drivers to be paying attention and driving albeit with assistance from the vehicle's software.

"Its possible that system design and marketing are adding to these misconceptions,"Harkey said, alluding to widespread criticism that Tesla has overstated the capabilities of its Autopilot and FSD tech.

The IIHS survey also found that 53 percent of people who use Cadillac's Super Cruise assisted driving software are chill with treating their vehicles as self-driving, while only 12 percent of those who use Nissan/Infiniti's ProPILOT Assist software feel the same.

As Harkey noted, there appear to be "clear differences among the three owner populations" as to what their cars are capable of and the survey's findings seem to back that up, too.

Notably, 40 percent of the Tesla and Cadillac assisted driving users said that they had been "locked out" of their vehicles, both types of which have lockout features that switch off or otherwise suspend the vehicles if drivers don't meet failsafe criteria.

While the survey notes that "some of those drivers confused a temporary suspension of the feature with the lockout procedure," that high percentage "nevertheless suggest[s] that many drivers failed to respond to warnings intended to ensure they were paying attention to the road or that they repeatedly violated the operating parameters often enough to trigger the lockout."

Nissan/Infiniti assisted driving users, on the other hand, don't have lockout failsafes to contend with but they do, per the survey, have attention reminders, and a high percentage of the users questions "reported that they had never even received an attention reminder."

There's clearly something going on with Tesla and Cadillac owners, in other words and we have a bad feeling that this could be a sign of things to come.

More on FSD:Tesla Fires Employee Who Posted Shocking YouTube Videos About Its Full Self-Driving Beta

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Survey: 42% of Tesla Autopilot Drivers Think Their Cars Can Entirely Drive Themselves - Futurism