Scared the BeJesus Outta Me!

Unarmed Russian Air Force jet overflies the Pentagon, Capitol, CIA
By Jon Ostrower, Peter Morris and Noah Gray, CNN
Updated 4:46 AM ET, Thu August 10, 2017




(CNN)An unarmed Russian Air Force aircraft overflew the US Capitol, the Pentagon, Central Intelligence Agency and Joint Base Andrews at low altitude on Wednesday as part of a longstanding treaty that allows the militaries of the United States and Russia to observe the other from the air, according to two people familiar with the
flight.

The flight was part of the Treaty on Open Skies, which allows military aircraft from the United States and Russia and other nations to fly aerial observation flights
to observe military sites of the 34 signatory nations.

The Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 on Wednesday afternoon passed at around 3,700 feet over downtown Washington and Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Air Force One is based, according to tracking website Flightradar24.The jet is authorized to enter P-56, the highly secure airspace surrounding the White House.

What do Russians think about Trump? 02:16
A second flight by the same jet is planned for between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Wednesday, when the Russian jet will overfly Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald
Trump is vacationing, according to two people familiar with the US government-approved flight.
close dialogue.

A law enforcement source told CNN that the plane also overflew Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains, the Trump National Golf Course in Virginia, and Mount Weather, one of the US government's secret relocation bunkers. United States Air Force personnel were on the flight and the aircraft is capable of a variety of intelligence gathering, one of the people said.

The Open Skies Treaty has been in effect since 2002 and over 1,200 flights have been conducted since, which contributes to verification of compliance with arms control agreements, according to the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency.Dan Gaffney, spokesman for the DTRA, declined to confirm the surveilled targets. The agency can only confirm specific locations once a mission is over.

"The treaty is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants, regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information through aerial imaging on military forces and activities of concern to them," according to the State Department.Law enforcement agencies were given very little warning of these "short notice" flights, which are authorized by the treaty.  The Russian aircraft has the ability to perform a variety of intelligence gathering functions, including aerial photography, thermal imaging, and picking up signals intelligence.

According to the DTRA, Open Skies flights receive air traffic control priority and are closely coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration. The treaty flights are fairly common and the same Russian Air Force jet was spotted recently landing at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas. The flight Wednesday is notable because of the high-profile nature of its surveillance targets in the nation's capital.

The US Capitol Police sent an alert regarding plans of an aircraft to overfly Washington between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Wednesday."The aircraft will be large and may fly directly over the US Capitol," according to the alert. "This flight will be monitored by the US Capitol Police Command Center and other federal government agencies."

The statement did not mention that the aircraft would be flown by the Russian Air Force.The Russian Embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Was Elon Musk Warning about Robots & AI True?

Facebook shuts down robots after they invent their own language



Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has supported AI development CREDIT: REUTERS

Matthew Field
1 AUGUST 2017 • 10:21AM


Facebook shut down a pair of its artificial intelligence robots after they invented their own language.

Researchers at Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research built a chatbot earlier this year that was meant to learn how to negotiate by mimicking human trading and bartering.

But when the social network paired two of the programs, nicknamed Alice and Bob, to trade against each other, they started to learn their own bizarre form of communication.


The chatbot conversation "led to divergence from human language as the agents developed their own language for negotiating," the researchers said.


The two bots were supposed to be learning to trade balls, hats and books, assigning value to the objects then bartering them between each other.

But since Facebook's team assigned no reward for conducting the trades in English, the chatbots quickly developed their own terms for deals.

"There was no reward to sticking to English language," Dhruv Batra, Facebook researcher, told FastCo. "Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves.

"Like if I say ‘the’ five times, you interpret that to mean I want five copies of this item. This isn’t so different from the way communities of humans create shorthands."

After shutting down the the incomprehensible conversation between the programs, Facebook said the project marked an important step towards "creating chatbots that can reason, converse, and negotiate, all key steps in building a personalized digital assistant".

Facebook said when the chatbots conversed with humans most people did not realise they were speaking to an AI rather than a real person.

The researchers said it wasn't possible for humans to crack the AI language and translate it back into English. "It’s important to remember, there aren’t bilingual speakers of AI and human languages," said Batra.



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A Strange Event in Cuba

Cuba mystery grows: New details on what befell US diplomats

Associated Press   
JOSH LEDERMAN, MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN and MATTHEW LEE
Associated PressSeptember 14, 2017


WASHINGTON (AP) — The blaring, grinding noise jolted the American diplomat from his bed in a Havana hotel. He moved just a few feet, and there was silence. He climbed back into bed. Inexplicably, the agonizing sound hit him again. It was as if he'd walked through some invisible wall cutting straight through his room.

Soon came the hearing loss, and the speech problems, symptoms both similar and altogether different from others among at least 21 U.S. victims in an astonishing international mystery still unfolding in Cuba. The top U.S. diplomat has called them "health attacks." New details learned by The Associated Press indicate at least some of the incidents were confined to specific rooms or even parts of rooms with laser-like specificity, baffling U.S. officials who say the facts and the physics don't add up.

"None of this has a reasonable explanation," said Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA official who served in Havana long before America re-opened an embassy there. "It's just mystery after mystery after mystery."

Suspicion initially focused on a sonic weapon, and on the Cubans. Yet the diagnosis of mild brain injury, considered unlikely to result from sound, has confounded the FBI, the State Department and U.S. intelligence agencies involved in the investigation.

Some victims now have problems concentrating or recalling specific words, several officials said, the latest signs of more serious damage than the U.S. government initially realized. The United States first acknowledged the attacks in August — nine months after symptoms were first reported.

It may seem the stuff of sci-fi novels, of the cloak-and-dagger rivalries that haven't fully dissipated despite the historic U.S.-Cuban rapprochement two years ago that seemed to bury the weight of the two nations' Cold War enmity. But this is Cuba, the land of poisoned cigars, exploding seashells and covert subterfuge by Washington and Havana, where the unimaginable in espionage has often been all too real.

The Trump administration still hasn't identified a culprit or a device to explain the attacks, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials, Cuban officials and others briefed on the investigation. Most weren't authorized to discuss the probe and demanded anonymity.

"The investigation into all of this is still under way. It is an aggressive investigation," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Thursday. "We will continue doing this until we find out who or what is responsible for this."

In fact, almost nothing about what went down in Havana is clear. Investigators have tested several theories about an intentional attack — by Cuba's government, a rogue faction of its security forces, a third country like Russia, or some combination thereof. Yet they've left open the possibility an advanced espionage operation went horribly awry, or that some other, less nefarious explanation is to blame.

Aside from their homes, officials said Americans were attacked in at least one hotel, a fact not previously disclosed. An incident occurred on an upper floor of the recently renovated Hotel Capri, a 60-year-old concrete tower steps from the Malecon, Havana's iconic, waterside promenade.

The cases vary deeply: different symptoms, different recollections of what happened. That's what makes the puzzle so difficult to crack.

In several episodes recounted by U.S. officials, victims knew it was happening in real time, and there were strong indications of a sonic attack.

Some felt vibrations, and heard sounds — loud ringing or a high-pitch chirping similar to crickets or cicadas. Others heard the grinding noise. Some victims awoke with ringing in their ears and fumbled for their alarm clocks, only to discover the ringing stopped when they moved away from their beds.

The attacks seemed to come at night. Several victims reported they came in minute-long bursts.

Yet others heard nothing, felt nothing. Later, their symptoms came.

The scope keeps widening. On Tuesday, the State Department disclosed that doctors had confirmed another two cases, bringing the total American victims to 21. Some have mild traumatic brain injury, known as a concussion, and others permanent hearing loss.

Even the potential motive is unclear. Investigators are at a loss to explain why Canadians were harmed, too, including some who reported nosebleeds. Fewer than 10 Canadian diplomatic households in Cuba were affected, a Canadian official said. Unlike the U.S., Canada has maintained warm ties to Cuba for decades.

Sound and health experts are equally baffled. Targeted, localized beams of sound are possible, but the laws of acoustics suggest such a device would probably be large and not easily concealed. Officials said it's unclear whether the device's effects were localized by design or due to some other technical factor.

And no single, sonic gadget seems to explain such an odd, inconsistent array of physical responses.

"Brain damage and concussions, it's not possible," said Joseph Pompei, a former MIT researcher and psychoacoustics expert. "Somebody would have to submerge their head into a pool lined with very powerful ultrasound transducers."

Other symptoms have included brain swelling, dizziness, nausea, severe headaches, balance problems and tinnitus, or prolonged ringing in the ears. Many victims have shown improvement since leaving Cuba and some suffered only minor or temporary symptoms.

After the U.S. complained to Cuba's government earlier this year and Canada detected its own cases, the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police traveled to Havana to investigate.

FBI investigators swept the rooms, looking for devices. They found nothing, several officials briefed on the investigation said.

In May, Washington expelled two Cuban diplomats to protest the communist government's failure to protect Americans serving there. But the U.S. has taken pains not to accuse Havana of perpetrating the attacks. It's a sign investigators believe that even if elements of Cuba's security forces were involved, it wasn't necessarily directed from the top.

Cuba's government declined to answer specific questions about the incidents, pointing to a previous Foreign Affairs Ministry statement denying any involvement, vowing full cooperation and saying it was treating the situation "with utmost importance."

"Cuba has never, nor would it ever, allow that the Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic agents or their families, without exception," the Cuban statement said.

After half a century of estrangement, the U.S. and Cuba in 2015 restored diplomatic ties between countries separated by a mere 90 miles of water. Embassies were re-opened and restrictions on travel and commerce eased. President Donald Trump has reversed some of those changes, but left others in place.

Mark Feierstein, who oversaw the Cuba detente on President Barack Obama's National Security Council, noted that Cuban authorities have been uncharacteristically cooperative with the investigation.

If the Trump administration felt confident Raul Castro's government was to blame, it's likely the U.S. would have already taken major punitive steps, like shuttering the newly re-established American Embassy. And the U.S. hasn't stopped sending new diplomats to Cuba even as the victim list grows.

"Had they thought the Cuban government was deliberately attacking American diplomats, that would have had a much more negative effect," Feierstein said. "We haven't seen that yet."

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Ancient African Edifices

900-year-old stone kingdom: The breathtaking ruins of Great Zimbabwe
By Teo Kermeliotis and Stefanie Blendis, CNN • Published 29th January 2014


Legend has it that this was once a playground for the giants -- and for visitors gazing over this steep hill in southern Zimbabwe it's easy to understand why. Spread around in every direction, great jumbled blocks of granite rise from the ground to create spectacular rock formations, their fantastical shapes fashioned by centuries of wind and rain, of heat and cold. Stacked upon one another, such boulders are scattered haphazardly across the southern African country -- Zimbabwe is indeed home to one of Africa's most breathtaking landscapes.

Living here amongst the boulders, in the hills of Masvingo province, the Zimbabwean people are largely Shona. Sometimes known as Bantu, they form three quarters of the country's population.

Will African coins rewrite Australian history?

Shona people first settled in the region more than 1,000 years ago and for centuries flourished in the region's lush green savannah plains. Central to their prosperity was the ancient town of Great Zimbabwe, the capital of a booming trading empire that flourished between the 11th and 15th centuries, extending over the gold-rich plateau in southern Africa.

Located some 30 kilometers from the modern Zimbabwean town of Masvingo, the stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe are today one of the continent's most impressive monuments, linking the present with the past. Errol Barnett visits Zimbabwe's Antelope Park which is working hard to save Africa's lion population. Errol Barnett explores the country's vibrant nightlife in the capital city of Harare.

A UNESCO World Heritage site since 1986, the archeological remains contain the largest ancient structure in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dark history of "slave trade ghost town"

According to UNESCO, the method of construction in Great Zimbabwe is unique in the continent's architecture and although there are cases of similar work elsewhere, none are as exceptional and imposing as here.

The first thing that draws the visitor's eye is the high level of craftmanship that went into the construction of the site. Skillful stonemasons built massive dry-stone walls, incorporating large natural boulders into some of the structures. Walls extend between rocky outcrops and massive rocks, forming a maze of narrow passageways and the enclosures.

The site extends over about 800 hectares and it can be divided into three main architectural zones. The Hill Complex is generally considered a royal site, and the Valley Ruins are a series of living spaces. But most impressive is the Great Enclosure, a spectacular circular monument made of cut granite blocks that was entirely built in curves. Its outer wall extends some 250 meters and it has a maximum height of 11 meters, making it the largest single pre-colonial structure in Africa south of the Sahara.

While trade kept the community prosperous, religious life was also rich at Great Zimbabwe, which had an estimated population of about 18,000 people in its heyday.

Rock churches 'built by angels'

Although the stone city was largely abandoned around the 1450s, its cultural and historical significance didn't wane with the passing of centuries.
In fact, Great Zimbabwe became such an important part of the national identity that the country itself was named for this ancient city -- "Zimbabwe" derives from the Shona name for the historic town -- meaning "big houses of stone."



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I Hope We Don't Have to Use These But You Never Know

The Air Force's 'rods from god' could hit with the force a nuclear weapon — but with no fallout
 We Are The Mighty

Blake Stilwell, We Are The Mighty
Sep. 7, 2017, 9:51 AM     495,966

Project Thor kinetic space weapon We Are The Mighty
The 107-country Outer Space Treaty signed in 1967 prohibits nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons from being placed or used from Earth's orbit. What they didn't count on was the US Air Force's most simple weapon ever: a tungsten rod that could hit a city with the explosive power of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

During the Vietnam War, the US used what it called "Lazy Dog" bombs. These were simply solid steel pieces, less than 2 inches long, fitted with fins. There was no explosive — they were simply dropped by the hundreds from planes flying above Vietnam.

Lazy Dog projectiles (aka "kinetic bombardment") could reach speeds of up to 500 mph as they fell to the ground and could penetrate 9 inches of concrete after being dropped from as little as 3,000 feet.

The idea is like shooting bullets at a target, except instead of losing velocity as it travels, the projectile is gaining velocity and energy that will be expended on impact. They were shotgunning a large swath of jungle, raining bullet-size death at high speeds.

That's how Project Thor came to be.


Instead of hundreds of small projectiles from a few thousand feet, Thor used a large projectile from a few thousand miles above the Earth. The "rods from god" idea was a bundle of telephone-pole-size (20 feet long, 1 foot in diameter) tungsten rods, dropped from orbit, reaching a speed of up to 10 times the speed of sound.

The rod itself would penetrate hundreds of feet into the Earth, destroying any potential hardened bunkers or secret underground sites. More than that, when the rod hits, the explosion would be on par with the magnitude of a ground-penetrating nuclear weapon — but with no fallout.

It would take 15 minutes to destroy a target with such a weapon.

One Quora user who works in the defense aerospace industry quoted a cost of no less than $10,000 a pound to fire anything into space. With 20 cubic feet of dense tungsten weighing in at just over 24,000 pounds, the math is easy. Just one of the rods would be prohibitively expensive. The cost of $230 million a rod was unimaginable during the Cold War.

These days, not so much. The Bush administration even considered revisiting the idea to hit underground nuclear sites in rogue nations in the years following 9/11. Interestingly enough, the cost of a single Minuteman III ICBM was $7 million in 1962, when it was first introduced ($57 million adjusted for inflation).

The trouble with a nuclear payload is that it isn't designed to penetrate deep into the surface. And the fallout from a nuclear device can be devastating to surrounding, potentially friendly areas.

A core takeaway from the concept of weapons like Project Thor's is that hypersonic weapons pack a significant punch and may be the future of global warfare.

Read the original article on We Are The Mighty. Copyright 2017. Follow We Are The Mighty on Twitter.

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