Navy Pilots Weirded out by ‘UFO’ Sighting

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Cmdr. David Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight were on a routine training mission 100 miles out into the Pacific when the radio in each of their F/A-18F Super Hornets crackled: An operations officer aboard the U.S.S. Princeton, a Navy cruiser, wanted to know if they were carrying weapons . . .

Commander Fravor, in a recent interview with The New York Times, recalled what happened next. Some of it is captured in a video made public by officials with a Pentagon program that investigated U.F.O.s.

“Well, we’ve got a real-world vector for you,” the radio operator said, according to Commander Fravor. For two weeks, the operator said, the Princeton had been tracking mysterious aircraft. The objects appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, and then hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet and hovering. Then they either dropped out of radar range or shot straight back up . . .

Hovering 50 feet above the churn was an aircraft of some kind — whitish — that was around 40 feet long and oval in shape. The craft was jumping around erratically, staying over the wave disturbance but not moving in any specific direction, Commander Fravor said. The disturbance looked like frothy waves and foam, as if the water were boiling . . .

But then the object peeled away. “It accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he said in the interview. He was, he said, “pretty weirded out.” (Read more from “Navy Pilots Weirded out by ‘UFO’ Sighting” HERE)

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What Is Boeing’s Secret Plane? Firm Teases Mysterious Design Believed to Be an Electric ‘Hairdryer’ Craft It Boasts Will ‘Change Future Air Power’

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Boeing’s defence arm is set to unveil a mysterious new plane – and says it will ‘change future air power.’

The aerospace giant’s defence arm teased the new craft, covered in a black cloth.

It is believed to be a radical new craft using electric ‘hairdryer’ to allow it to land and take off vertically.

Speculation has so far said it could anything from a new spaceplane to an electric fighter jet.

Earlier this year Boeing bought Aurora Flight Sciences Corp, which is developing the autonomous, electric-powered and long-flight-duration aircraft for its commercial and military businesses. (Read more from “What Is Boeing’s Secret Plane? Firm Teases Mysterious Design Believed to Be an Electric ‘Hairdryer’ Craft It Boasts Will ‘Change Future Air Power'” HERE)

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People Will Be Talking About the Ending of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ for Years

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“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” didn’t disappoint one bit, and it was an incredible experience . . .

There are a couple main points I want to hit on for you guys. First, the ending of this film is as unpredictable as it can possibly get. I did not see any of it coming, and the final few minutes hit you in the face like a hurricane.

I won’t say exactly what happens, but you have decades of “Star Wars” storylines combining for a few minutes of cinema gold. It might literally make your head explode. You’ll be wanting to jump out of your seat screaming at the screen, and maybe even a few tears will roll down your face . . .

It seems like the path for Episode IX is pretty clear, and you’ll understand once you see the ending. I have no idea how it’ll play out, but it seems like we know the general direction.

My only criticism of the film as I watched it is that it does start out just a shade slow. Ultimately, I think I can chalk that up to my eagerness to see stuff get going right away. In hindsight, I’m glad the plot took some time to develop because it was certainly worth it by the end. (Read more from “People Will Be Talking About the Ending of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ for Years” HERE)

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Feathered Dinosaur Tail Discovered

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The tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur has been found entombed in amber, an unprecedented discovery that has blown away scientists.

Xing Lida, a Chinese paleontologist found the specimen, the size of a dried apricot, at an amber market in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border.

The remarkable piece was destined to end up as a curiosity or piece of jewelry, with Burmese traders believing a plant fragment was trapped inside.

“I realized that the content was a vertebrate, probably theropod, rather than any plant,” Xing told CNN. (Read more from “Feathered Dinosaur Tail Discovered” HERE)

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Scientists ‘Inject’ Information Into Monkeys’ Brains

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. . .Imagine that you had a device implanted in your brain that could shortcut the pathway and “inject” information straight into your premotor cortex.

That may sound like an outtake from “The Matrix.” But now two neuroscientists at the University of Rochester say they have managed to introduce information directly into the premotor cortex of monkeys. The researchers published the results of the experiment on Thursday in the journal Neuron.

Although the research is preliminary, carried out in just two monkeys, the researchers speculated that further research might lead to brain implants for people with strokes . . .

The monkeys sat in front of a panel equipped with a button, a sphere-shaped knob, a cylindrical knob, and a T-shaped handle. Each object was ringed by LED lights. If the lights around an object switched on, the monkeys had to reach out their hand to it to get a reward — in this case, a refreshing squirt of water.
(Read more from “Scientists ‘Inject’ Information Into Monkeys’ Brains” HERE)

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How the Law Responds When Emoji Are the Weapon of Choice

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Nearly everyone is familiar with emoji, those popular icons that appear in text messages, emails and social media platforms. Emoji are often used as lighthearted adjuncts to text, or to soften the blow of a message . . .

Perhaps the most troubling use of emoji has come through their use in interpersonal messages where it is unclear whether they modify or amplify a prima facie criminal threat.

In New Zealand, a judge considered the role of emoji in a Facebook message sent by a man to his ex-partner. The man wrote, “you’re going to get it” followed by an aeroplane emoji.

Concluding that the message and emoji generally conveyed that the defendant was “coming to get” his ex-partner, the judge sentenced the accused to 8 months jail on a charge of stalking . . .

The issue has also arisen in several cases in the US. In Virginia in 2015 a high school student was charged with computer harassment and threatening school staff. She had posted several messages to her Instagram account, combining text with emoji (a gun, a knife and a bomb). (Read more from “How the Law Responds When Emoji Are the Weapon of Choice” HERE)

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The Scriptural Foundation for Declaration of Independence

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When Evangelist George Whitefield began preaching the Great Awakening Revival in Philadelphia in 1739, he inspired the idea that the city should have a school for blacks and poor orphans.

A short-lived Charity School was formed, but it struggled for lack of funds. It was purchased by Ben Franklin in 1749 who expanded it into a secondary school for boys called the Academy of Philadelphia, opening in 1751. In 1754, it expanded again with the College of Philadelphia, later being renamed the University of Pennsylvania.

Twenty-one members of the Continental Congress graduated from there. Nine of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were either trustees or alumni from there. A statue of Evangelist George Whitefield is located in University of Pennsylvania’s Dormitory Quadrangle.

Hugh Williamson, born Dec. 5, 1735, was a student at the College of Philadelphia. He was in the college’s first class to graduate, May 17, 1757. Five days later, his father died. While Williamson had been a student, he instructed younger students at the Academy of Philadelphia in English and Latin.

Another person who taught at the Academy of Philadelphia was Charles Thomson, who became the Secretary of Congress, signed the Declaration, designed the Great Seal of the United States, and signed Congress’ authorization for Robert Aitken to print the Bible. Upon retiring from Congress, Charles Thomson spent 19 years compiling the “Thomson Bible” (printed in 1808), which contained the first American translation of the Greek Septuagint. (Read more from “The Scriptural Foundation for Declaration of Independence” HERE)

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Cop Taunts Would-Be Killer With Lube on Way to Prison: ‘You Are Going to Need a Lot of This’

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A police officer taunted the Jacksonville man who shot him multiple times last year by taking out a tube of K-Y Jelly personal lubricant in court Wednesday and saying, “You are going to need a lot of this,” local reports said.

Kevin Rojas, then 19, shot the undercover police officer three times during a 2016 traffic stop, including once in the face, the Florida Times-Union reported.

The critically-wounded officer, who was taking his son to school during the incident, returned fire but did not hit Rojas. His son was not injured.

Local reports did not identify the undercover officer.

In October, Rojas was found guilty of numerous felonies, including attempted first-degree murder, grand theft auto, attempted manslaughter, two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. (Read more from “Cop Taunts Would-Be Killer With Lube on Way to Prison: ‘You Are Going to Need a Lot of This'” HERE)

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McDonald’s Employee Charged in Florida Serial Killings

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Shell casings and cell phone data link the man police arrested Tuesday to four recent murders in Seminole Heights, an arrest report shows.

The two-page report released Wednesday offers new details in the evidence against Howell Emanuel Donaldson III, the 24-year-old Tampa resident charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

Investigators found SIG Sauer brand.40 caliber shell casings at all four of the locations where Monica Hoffa, Benjamin Mitchell, Anthony Naiboa and Ronald Felton were found shot to death between Oct. 9 and Nov. 14, the report states . . .

It was that gun, according to the report, that Howell gave in a food bag to a coworker at an Ybor City McDonald’s on Tuesday afternoon, saying he planned to leave the state. The coworker turned the gun over to a Tampa police officer who was in the restaurant doing paperwork at the time. The Glock had a loaded magazine containing five unfired rounds of .40 caliber ammunition, the report says.

Donaldson told police that “no one except for himself had control of the Glock firearm since his purchase,” Detective Austin Hill wrote in the report. (Read more from “McDonald’s Employee Charged in Florida Serial Killings” HERE)

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Self-Driving Cars Programmed to Decide Who Dies in Crash

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. . .It’s not just a theoretical question anymore, with predictions that in a few years, tens of thousands of semi-autonomous vehicles may be on the roads. About $80 billion has been invested in the field. Tech companies are working feverishly on them, with Google-affiliated Waymo among those testing cars in Michigan, and mobility companies like Uber and Tesla racing to beat them. Automakers are placing a big bet on them. A testing facility to hurry along research is being built at Willow Run in Ypsilanti.

There’s every reason for excitement: Self-driving vehicles will ease commutes, returning lost time to workers; enhance mobility for seniors and those with physical challenges, and sharply reduce the more than 35,000 deaths on U.S. highways each year.

But there are also a host of nagging questions to be sorted out as well, from what happens to cab drivers to whether such vehicles will create sprawl . . .

Who dies when the car is forced into a no-win situation?

“There will be crashes,” said Van Lindberg, an attorney in the Dykema law firm’s San Antonio office who specializes in autonomous vehicle issues. “Unusual things will happen. Trees will fall. Animals, kids will dart out.” Even as self-driving cars save thousands of lives, he said, “anyone who gets the short end of that stick is going to be pretty unhappy about it.” (Read more from “Self-Driving Cars Programmed to Decide Who Dies in Crash” HERE)

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