DARPA/Air Force prototyping AI algo's for next gen UFO chaser.

Quote:

• Published April 17, 2024
  
• By Chase Kohler
  
• 412th Test Wing
  

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency were finalists for the 2023 Robert J. Collier Trophy, a formal acknowledgement of recent breakthroughs that have launched the machine-learning era within the aerospace industry.
The teams worked together to test breakthrough executions in artificial intelligence algorithms using the X-62A VISTA aircraft as part of DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program.




“The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades, but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now. In 2023, the X-62A broke one of the most significant barriers in combat aviation. This is a transformational moment, all made possible by breakthrough accomplishments of the X-62A ACE team,” said Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. Secretary Kendall will soon take flight in the X-62A VISTA to personally witness AI in a simulated combat environment during a forthcoming test flight at Edwards.



In less than a calendar year the teams went from the initial installation of live AI agents into the X-62A’s systems, to demonstrating the first AI versus human within-visual-range engagements, otherwise known as a dogfight. In total, the team made over 100,000 lines of flight-critical software changes across 21 test flights.

Dogfighting is a highly complex scenario that the X-62A utilized to successfully prove using non-deterministic artificial intelligence safely is possible within aerospace. The AI dogfights paired the X-62A VISTA against manned F-16 aircraft in the skies above Edwards. Initial flight safety was built up first using defensive maneuvers, before switching to offensive high-aspect nose-to-nose engagements where the dogfighting aircraft got as close as 2,000 feet at 1,200 miles per hour.

The first-ever use of machine-learning-based autonomy in flight-critical systems will serve as a foundation for future aerospace AI advances that are both safer and more reliable in both commercial and defense applications.

“The X-62A is an incredible platform, not just for research and advancing the state of tests, but also for preparing the next generation of test leaders. When ensuring the capability in front of them is safe, efficient, effective and responsible, industry can look to the results of what the X-62A ACE team has done as a paradigm shift. We've fundamentally changed the conversation by showing this can be executed safely and responsibly,” said Col. James Valpiani, commandant of the Test Pilot School.

While traditional autonomy has been executed for decades, machine learning has been historically prohibited due to high risk and lack of independent control. The X-62A is flown with safety pilots onboard with the independent ability to disengage the AI. However, test pilots did not have to activate the safety switch at any point during the dogfights over Edwards. “We have to be able to trust these algorithms to use them in a real-world setting,” said Lt. Col. Ryan Hefron, ACE program manager for DARPA.

While dogfighting was the primary testing scenario, it was not the end goal.

“It's very easy to look at the X-62A ACE program and see it as under autonomous control, it can dogfight, but that misses the point. Dogfighting was the problem to solve so we could start testing autonomous artificial intelligence systems in the air. Every lesson we're learning applies to every task you could give to an autonomous system,” said Bill Gray, the school’s chief test pilot.

The breakthrough in machine learning will continue as teams from both the Test Pilot School and DARPA look to advance lessons learned onto future programs of record. The X-62A VISTA will continue to serve a variety of customers for research, while providing key academic lessons for the next generation of test leaders.

The ACE program is a result of robust collaborations between academia, government, and private industry. Government partners include the Air Force Test Center, Air Force Research Laboratory, DARPA and the Air Force Test Pilot School. Academic partners include Johns Hopkins University and MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Industry partners on ACE include Calspan Corporation, Cubic Corporation, EpiSci, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and Shield AI.

Kinda curious how often Cybertruck owners are pulled over and ticketed. It seems like the perfect status symbol for small-town cops to target for speeding tickets.



I got pulled over twelve times, they took selfies and then let me drive their cop cars. I got to run the sirens and lights and arrest someone. Life is great.









I'm not sure Elon envisioned that advertising the Cybertruck as "bulletproof" would lead to some content creators buying one just to shoot it.


Tesla Cybertruck Versus .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle

The vid from the website:




Truth in headlines? LOL

Quote:Tesla, a future case study for securities law classes across America, had to stop delivering Cybertrucks this past weekend. No, not because the hundred-thousand–dollar medium-duty pickup, which is only any of those things in the loosest interpretive sense, tends to brick when it gets rained on; nor because its stainless steel panels get all rusty and nasty-looking after weeks exposed to the rare, harsh condition of "being outside." Perhaps you think it has something to do with the shorter-than-advertised driving range and longer-than-advertised charging time, but no: Rather, the cause of this snag is that the trucks struggle with the basics of stopping and going, by which I mean that the accelerator pedal cover slides off and gets stuck under a panel and locks the accelerator pressed down and keeps the Cybertruck stuck at maximum velocity.

Other Tesla models have had issues with speeding up and slowing down at the wrong times. The company was sued in 2017 by drivers whose cars drove themselves unexpectedly through garages and into walls; a German paper reported last year on over 2,400 complaints about sudden braking problems; and a safety researcher published a white paper showing how voltage spikes could lead Teslas to speed up without warning. You are supposed to like this because it means you are on the cutting edge, helping Elon Musk in his quest to save humanity.

Suckers who ordered Cybertrucks a few months or years ago and expected deliveries this weekend did not get their cars, nor a precise explanation for why they did not get their cars, but instead were simply told, "Hi, we have just been informed of an unexpected delay regarding the preparation of your vehicle. We need to cancel your delivery appointment for tomorrow and we will reach out again when we’re able to get you back on the schedule." Maybe someone with a hot glue gun will get on this one.

Tesla's bad, stupid week got worse and stupider on Monday, when the company announced it would be laying off more than 10 percent of its workforce, cutting some 14,000 jobs. In typical Tesla fashion, the layoffs were ruthless and sudden, following hot on Tesla's announcement of its first quarterly sales decline (a drop of 8.5 percent) since the pandemic. Drew Baglino, an executive who'd been around since 2006, and Rohan Patel, a former Obama administration guy hired to help Tesla do corruption and skirt regulation, also announced they would be leaving the company of their own accord. I am tempted here to wonder whether this means Tesla is beginning a meaningful decline—indeed, the stock is down—but the company, which is a stock racket that happens to sell cars, has operated at a level beyond rational analysis for years.

It's unclear how many Cybertrucks are on the road, and Tesla won't say (masterful gambit, sir), though the number likely falls between 1,000 and 5,000. People who have them now had to sign up years ago, and those who sign up now won't get their cars for another five years or so. Anyone who bought one reportedly had to sign an agreement barring them from selling their Cybertruck within 12 months, or else they would have to pay a $50,000 fine and give Tesla the option to buy it back.

As the Bay Area is both a nexus for world-class goobers and the region where Tesla used to be and kinda-sorta still is headquartered, I have seen a lot of Cybertrucks out in the wild over the past few months. They are remarkably fake- and shitty-looking in any context (Is that a big toaster with wi-fi next to me at the exit? Who's driving the scrap metal assemblage with Bryan Colangelo-esque proportions? Why does every Cybertruck driver I glance at appear to be simultaneously peacocking for attention but also totally embarrassed, haunted by the unexamined knowledge that as a maneuver in a culture war they paid $100,000 for a car that doesn't work?), though I saw one in the Santa Cruz mountains this past weekend. It looked even more jarringly synthetic and stupid in a truck-style environment, as if 10 seconds on a semi-paved road would undo the whole rickety car. I felt, amid standard-issue disgust and mockery, personal embarrassment to be paying through the nose to live in a place where the coolest thing you can do is cosplay as a 6-year-old's idea of the coolest guy in the world.

Asia characters speaking French with English sub-titles.. The movie is about an epic ancient battle where many many died by arrow and sword.

Not everyone's cup of tea but I found the movie well done and the action sequences believable.  Enjoy

Just shut up and buy a battery powered car you will not be allowed to charge.

Biden Punishes Drillers With 15-Fold Increase In Permitting Costs, Plans To Block Arctic Oil Extraction

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environmen...deral-land

Quote:Oil industry groups are already threatening to litigate because they argue the costs will drive oil companies away from federal land.



The rule is part of the Biden administration’s climate agenda to cut greenhouse gas emissions and conserve land and wildlife habitat while requiring oil and gas producers to pay fees that more accurately reflect the environmental impact of producing oil and gas on federal land.


“These are the most significant reforms to the federal oil and gas leasing program in decades, and they will cut wasteful speculation, increase returns for the public, and protect taxpayers from being saddled with the costs of environmental cleanups,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.


“This rule will help protect critical wildlife habitat, cultural resources, and recreational values, and it will ensure a fair return for American taxpayers,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a statement.

The bonding amounts are “excessive” considering there are only a handful of orphaned wells on federal land, said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance.


“The BLM rules will drive small producers off public lands and we will have to litigate,” she said.
Pollution from oil and gas is a primary cause of climate change, but the American Petroleum Institute said oil and gas are essential for energy security, and the rule threatens that.


“Overly burdensome land management regulations will put this critical energy supply at risk,” Holly Hopkins, API vice president for upstream policy, said in a statement.


Environmental groups hailed the rules as a win for wildlife.

Quote:One week after the Biden administration slapped new regulations on key power grid components, the Washington Post reports that US oil and gas companies will face a 15-fold increase in costs to drill on federal land, under a new rule released on Friday.


Under it, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management will require drillers to pay $150,000 per lease on federal lands, up from $10,000 - the first comprehensive update to the federal oil and gas leasing program in over three decades.


Fossil fuel companies will also be required to pay higher royalties to the government on oil and gas extracted from federal lands - jumping from 12.5% of revenue to 16.67%.
That's not all...


The rule comes as the Biden administration readies a sweeping plan to limit future oil drilling across roughly 13 million acres of Alaska's North Slope, which the US set aside a century ago as an emergency supply.
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That initiative, set to be finalized in the coming days per [url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-11/biden-plans-sweeping-effort-to-block-arctic-oil-drilling?sref=6uww027M]Bloomberg, comes as both oil executives and Alaska lawmakers have sounded the alarm over the plan - saying that it could thwart oil and gas development throughout the reserve, even on existing leases.


The Interior Department said in a preamble the regulation wouldn’t affect existing leases. But the proposed rule text doesn’t offer similar, explicit assurance. Instead, it proposes to give the government broad authority to limit or bar access to existing leases, “regardless of any existing authorization.” Oil leasing and infrastructure development would be presumed not to be permitted unless specific information clearly demonstrates the work can be done with “no or minimal adverse effects” on the habitat.


"This would be bad for America’s energy security," Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said on X, adding "It would openly defy federal law while ignoring rising energy prices and growing global volatility. "
"It would yet again sanction Alaska instead of nations like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela," she added.
This would be bad for America’s energy security. It would disrespect Alaska Natives on the North Slope, who were ignored in a sham public process. It would openly defy federal law while ignoring rising energy prices and growing global volatility. It would yet again sanction…


— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) April 12, 2024
The Biden administration has argued that the changes are necessary to protect 'sensitive landscapes' that provide habitat for polar bears, migratory birds and caribou.


"We must do everything within our control to meet the highest standards of care to protect this fragile ecosystem," said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in announcing the measure last year, Bloomberg continues.
How very inflationary...

Why now? Hmmmmm

https://discernreport.com/another-insura...iii-looms/

Quote:Policyholders with The Cincinnati Insurance Companies are receiving notices about coverage changes pertaining to the threat of full-scale war.

Dr. Ben Tapper (@DrBenTapper1) shared an image on X – [i]see below[/i] – showing policy changes that “include a war exclusion.”

Is the insurance industry expecting World War III?

Though war exclusions are technically nothing new for insurance carriers, they do have ominous implications for what is soon expected. [i]Click For Cover[/i], now known as CFC.com, published a piece last year that explains why.
In the spring of 1937 when German bombs fell on Guernica, Spain, flattening 70 percent of the town’s buildings in less than three hours, property insurers were completely unprepared because they were not expecting such a thing to happen.



“They soon realized it wouldn’t take many Guernicas to wipe out the balance sheets,” CFC says. “They responded by adding exclusions to policies for acts of war – a move reflected in contracts to this day.”

CFC says that insurers “are moving to address war again” now that it is clear there are major developments taking place on the march towards World War III. CFC says cyber war specifically is at the forefront of the insurance industry’s worries, but anything could happen.
“This time the concern is cyber war – specifically, attacks so catastrophic that they cripple a nation’s ability to function,” CFC says. “Lloyd’s of London have mandated the exclusion of such scenarios from March 31st of this year. Some in the market are resisting the move.”
“Insurance brokers are suspicious when new exclusions appear. And rightly so; they usually signal a reduction in cover for policyholders. They present problems for brokers when clients discover they don’t have the cover they thought they did.”


Back in the day, cyber war would have had no meaning since there were no computers. Today, the definition of war has greatly expanded to include a lot of things that policyholders need to know about because it could mean that they will not be covered once the “bombs,” including cyber bombs, drop.

“Mainstream global security organizations now accept that modern war includes cyber-attacks,” CFC explains. “Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits the threat or use of force by one state against another. This applies to nation state conduct in cyberspace.”
“While armed attack is still considered the most serious use of force, cyber-attacks fall under this definition too. In 2019, NATO, the world’s largest military alliance, confirmed this. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that a ‘serious cyber-attack could trigger article 5,’ a reference to the collective self-defence clause at the heart of NATO’s founding treaty.”
Simply put, there are a whole lot of events that are now considered to be “war” in the eyes of both the government and the insurance industry. By adding war exclusions to policies, many policyholders will likely find themselves in a serious bind when they realize their assets are no longer covered.




“Imagine a company trying to pay out damages to infrastructure in Gaza right now,” one commenter wrote about current events.

“Imagine offering coverage on nuclear damages,” wrote another about how the insurance industry could never cover a nuclear attack and survive.
The latest news about the slow descent into another world war can be found at WWIII.news.

Originally posted on ATS October 2023

As an old student of history, I’ve got  a copy, of course, of Henry Kissinger’s White House memoirs. All three volumes. I’ve learned a lot of things from the great master of modern diplomacy. One of them is the value of being a mediator between two powers in a region. If you can broker an agreement between them, they are both accepting your authority, up to a point, and you have become in effect the diplomatic boss of the area.

That’s what he was achieving for the United States in the Middle East in the years following the Yom Kippur war. In theory, disengagement was being negotiated “under the joint auspices of the United States and the Soviet Union” at a conference in Geneva. In practice, Kissinger was doing his best to keep the Soviets out of it, as Sadat shrewdly noticed (I was hoping to quote that conversation, but I can’t track it down quickly enough). The strategy of his “shuttle diplomacy” was to make the Arab nations aware that he alone could “deliver” concessions from the Israelis. If the Arabs wanted any kind of settlement, they worked through him or not at all. That is how Kissinger succeeded in making America the diplomatic “boss” of the Middle East for several decades. That policy has now broken down, certainly in the present century.

A few months back I noticed a news story to the effect that China had brokered an agreement between the long-term rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia. This should have set off alarm bells in the conspiracy theory community, but apparently it didn’t. The story has been buried in other news. I bet Henry Kissinger noticed.

I don’t often make predictions, but let me do a little predicting now. Let us suppose that, out of the blue, China comes forward with a peace initiative in the Middle East, promising that they will be able to hold back Iran and Hamas “and sitchlike” from their attacks on Israel and the West providing that Israel consents to certain restrictions. If Israel is obliged, in the end, to consent to a Peace Settlement on Chinese terms, that would be the first Chinese diplomatic coup.

If China went on to do the same thing, arranging a compromise agreement in the war between Russia and the Ukraine, that would be their second diplomatic coup. Such an agreement might call off the Russian attack dogs, while denying the Ukrainians access to the Crimea (to which, to be fair, they have no historic claim. Crimea was always the land of the Tatars).

Future historians might recognise the Peking Peace Settlements of 2024 as the moment when China became the diplomatic boss of the world.

Anyone well-read in history will recognise the significance of the year 1936. Besides being the year when Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland (which was supposed to be free of them), it also saw the opening of the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil war turned into a proxy battle between Fascism and Communism, in which Hitler and Stalin could try out their battle methods. It wasn't World War Two, but an important step in that direction.

Now we have two proxy wars going on, in the Ukraine and in Iran-Israel. (Future historians may see both Russia and Iran as proxies of China). Hitler had been able to practice the new techniques of air-warfare. Now everybody is learning about the effectiveness of drones. Both sides of the question, in fact. The Ukraine has taught us how damaging they can be. Israel has just taught us how they may be stopped.

Students of war will also recognise the name Dreadnaught. The original Dreadnaught was a state-of-the-art British battleship built at the end of the nineteenth century, which almost instantly made all the other battleships of the world obsolete. Including the rest of the British navy, which meant that a new and more expensive arms-race was starting from scratch. It seems to me that the deployment of drones has set off a new Dreadnaught era.

Was this the original Mothman? This is the story of The Hythe Mothman.

This episode looks at England's own encounter with the mothman, before the winged beast began to terrorise Point Pleasant 3 years later.



00:00 Point Pleasant
04:13 Intro
06:16 The Hythe Mothman
11:51 The Other Witnesses
16:50 The Saltwood Ghosts

Ah this guy always make me wonder how you can recognize the stupid but still support the stupid.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1778992192314376425

Damn shame when you have to go to church armed to the teeth due to nutcases.


18-year-old in Idaho planned to attack more than 21 churches on behalf of ISIS, feds say



https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati...260313007/

Quote:An 18-year-old student from Idaho was arrested for planning to attack churchgoers in his hometown on behalf of ISIS, according to federal authorities.

Alexander Scott Mercurio, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, is accused of "attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS" and pledging his allegiance to the terrorist organization, a Justice Department news release said.
In addition to supporting ISIS, Mercurio allegedly conspired to attack individuals at over 21 churches in Coeur d'Alene on Sunday with various weapons — including knives, guns and fire, according to the release.
Mercurio has been charged with "attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization," the Justice Department said. He could receive a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison if convicted. 
Court filings on Tuesday show Mercurio is without legal counsel for his case.



Alexander Mercurio intentionally planned to attack churches before the end of Ramadan, feds say

The FBI began looking into Mercurio when the 18-year-old reached out to "confidential human sources" online and revealed his support for ISIS and terrorist organizations, according to court documents filed in the District of Idaho. The confidential human source met Mercurio in person, and he again expressed his support for ISIS, the documents continued.
"Mercurio spread ISIS propaganda online and solicited ISIS's involvement in and approval of his propaganda efforts, discussed traveling from the U.S. to join ISIS, considered and planned ways to support ISIS financially, and most recently, set forth a plan to assault his father with a metal pipe, acquire his father's firearms and attack a local church," according to court records.
Mercurio's behavior "escalated" at the beginning of 2024 when he began planning a suicide attack on churches in Coeur d'Alene, the court records show. His plan involved using flame-covered weapons, explosives, knives, a machete, a pipe and firearms, according to the court records.
He chose a specific church and intentionally planned the attack to occur on April 7 because that meant it would happen before the end of Ramadan, court documents show.