Major upgrade to Gmail

Google announced major improvements to Gmail on the web to help people be more productive at work.
You can start using these new updates in Gmail on the web today, with some features appearing within the coming weeks. Go to Settings (the cog wheel in the top right corner of your inbox) and select “Try the new Gmail.” If you want to switch back later down the road, you can go to the same place and select “Go back to classic Gmail.”

Many new Gmail features are designed to get more businesses to switch to G Suite. Google has 4 million businesses paying for G Suite right now while there are 120 million Office 365 commercial users. Microsoft has 29.2 million consumers paying for Office 365, and Microsoft has more revenue from Office 365 commercial subscriptions than regular standalone software copies of Office.
The new Gmail tries to improve integration of Calendar and tasks. Office 365 integration is a key benefit.
Google has online support here.



Gmail’s new look helps you get more done. Click on attachments—like photos—without opening or scrolling through large conversations, use the new snooze button to put off emails that you just can’t get to right now or easily access other apps you use often, like Google Calendar, Tasks (now available on Android and iOS) and Keep.
Gmail will also “nudge” you to follow up and respond to messages with quick reminders that appear next to your email messages to help make sure nothing slips through the cracks.



New features on mobile, like high-priority notifications, can notify you of important messages to help you stay focused without interruption. Plus, Gmail will start suggesting when to unsubscribe from newsletters or offers you no longer care about.

Footage of a black object falling from a rainbow baffles locals

UFO, bird - or just a smudge on the camera?
Footage of a black object falling from a rainbow baffles locals and has War of the Worlds fans excited.

A falling UFO eerily reminiscent of a scene from an iconic movie has been captured on camera.

Strange footage has revealed what appears to be a large black object plunging into the Earth from the middle of a rainbow.

While it's not exactly clear what the object is, a number of explanations have been suggested - including a smudge on a camera or a bird. 

One viewer wrote: 'It's a bird'. Another said: 'That would be a huge bird. There'll be an Earthly, sane, explanation. But it's way, way, too big to be a bird.'

The video is remarkably similar to a scene from the 2005 film War of the Worlds directed by Steven Spielberg.

In it aliens are recorded falling to Earth in dark pods during lightning storms, before activating giant war machines buried beneath the ground. 

Local resident Megan Taylor was filming a storm over Bridgwater, Somerset at the weekend after dramatic storms hit the historic market town.

Ms Taylor caught dramatic footage of lightning in the skies above the area.

But what she didn't bank on was capturing something else too - a black object is seen falling from the sky just after a lightning strike. 

Ms Taylor says she was left puzzled by the what she saw.

'I've never seen a storm quite like it,' she added 'and I've definitely never seen something falling to Earth like that either. I have no idea what it was.'

Megan Taylor was filming a dramatic storm when she captured something else too - a black object is seen falling from the sky just after a lightning strike

Ms Taylor says she was left puzzled by the what she saw. She said: 'I've never seen a storm quite like it and I've definitely never seen something falling to earth like that either. I have no idea what it was.

While it's not exactly clear what the object is, a number of explanations have been suggested - from the otherworldly to a smudge on the camera's lens

Speaking to MailOnline, Nigel Watson, author the Haynes UFO Investigation Manual, said: 'The video does make it look like this is something solid falling from the sky, like one of the Martian cylinders in The War of the Worlds. 

'Yet, it somehow looks artificial in its descent. Such an apparently big object would have made a big impact on landing but nothing of this nature has been reported. 

'I would say it is something mundane rather than the start of a Martian invasion.'

A number of readers of the Bridgwater Mercury, which broke the news, have commented on the unusual apparition in the skies above their town. 

The video is remarkably similar to a scene from the 2005 film War of the Worlds directed by Steven Spielberg. In it aliens are recorded plunging to earth in dark pods during lightning storms to activate war machines (pictured) buried beneath the ground

A number of readers of the Bridgwater Mercury, which broke the news, have commented on the unusual apparition in the skies above their town. Rick1973 said: 'It's a bird'

Kevthefire suggested 'It's a spec of dirt running down the camera!' while Alex@SDA said: 'Blue Ice!', referring to frozen sewage material that can leak mid-flight from commercial aircraft lavatory waste systems

Rick1973 said: 'It's a bird.'

Xuri was unconvinced, adding: 'That would be a huge bird. There'll be an Earthly, sane, explanation. But it's way, way, too big to be a bird.' 

Kevthefire suggested: 'It's a spec of dirt running down the camera!'

This refers to frozen sewage material that can leak mid-flight from commercial aircraft lavatory waste systems, and has reportedly torn holes in buildings below which it has impacted over the years.

Stealth ‘invisibility cloaks’ on regular Fighter Jets

China has for long been trying to develop stealth technology for its fighter aircraft, and the end results have been questioned by experts. However, the Asian giant seems to be taking the problem in a manner that's totally different from how the West, particularly the US. The Chinese are trying to develop materials that when used to cloak aircraft, can even make older non-stealth aircraft nearly invisible.

Reports in Chinese media have referred to it as the 'cloak of invisibility'. This approach is different from the Western methods of relying on stealthy airframes and surfaces for the aircraft. It will rely on 'metamaterials' to either absorb or deflect radio waves, theoretically making the aircraft invisible on command.
The news is likely to gain sustained interest and analysis in defence circles because it would help turn much older aircraft into stealth variants.

Stealth technology is not a single unit of technical know-how. It is more of a collection of design principles and material usage that helps an aircraft or a ship minimise its radar cross-section. That means a massive craft will show up as a much smaller object when it is picked up by a radar. The very idea of stealth is aimed at giving fighter jets more time before they are detected, cutting down on the reaction time available to the adversary.

For instance, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, considered the pinnacle of stealth technology so far, has wings that stretch 13.56 meters from tip to tip. But it will be detected by radar as an object that's the size of a steel marble, according to some estimates. The technologies and radar-absorbent materials developed for the F-22 are presently available only to the US, and that's why the manufacturer is banned from selling the F-22 to anyone other than the US military.

The Chinese have claimed that their bid at building a stealth fighter - the Chengdu J-20 - has been successful. But defence experts have raised doubts on what they point out are design elements that are fundamentally anti-stealth - like the J-20's canards.

The Chinese are now testing the metamaterial 'cloak of invisibility' on non-stealth aircraft at a testing facility near Eastern China's Shenyang, Chinese media have reported. The metamaterials used were developed at the State Key Laboratory of Millimetre Waves at Nanjing's Southeast University.

The 'metamaterial' is a layer that features microscopic structures similar to integrated circuits. The metamaterial can alter the way radio waves bounce off its surface to create a ghost image or minimise echo on a radar.

However, the reports did note that there are significant difficulties to be surmounted before the technology can come to fruition. The team developing the material had said in 2011 that it could absorb the three most commonly used military radar waves. In 2013, they claimed to have developed a 'ghost illusion device' that render the aircraft with almost no radar signature.

But 'metamaterials' alone would not be enough to equip an aircraft with stealth. It would only be a piece of the puzzle. Metamaterials are also difficult to mass-produce, placing crushing curbs on their widespread use.
Either way, the Chinese may be doing the same things the Americans did, but time will tell whether their difference in approach will help them reach an innovative result that the world has not seen yet.

Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion?

MIT has spunout a tokomak fusion project into Commonwealth Fusion systems. They want to apply modular designs to high-temperature superconductors. They want to get to stronger magnets that will shrink the size and cost of the potential nuclear fusion reactor. Improved magnets would improve any nuclear fusion design that involves confinement of plasma.

There is less science risk to this MIT approach but more technological risk. They are trying to accelerate the commercial use of high-temperature superconducting magnets and trying to contain their costs. Cost for superconducting magnets for past fusion projects have been $20 per watt but other applications have seen costs of $1.4 to $1.8 per watt.

‘Secret UFO Video’ from 1996 Space Shuttle Mission

 
 STS-77 crew
 the last Space Shuttle mission ended on July 21, 2011. That’s nothing compared to how long it’s been since the first humans to land on the Moon in July 1969.

That headline comes from a Daily Star article referring to a “lie detector test” conducted by The Institute of BioAcoustic Biology in Albany, Ohio, on astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Al Worden, Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper. All at one time or another claimed to have seen UFOs during their space missions.
However, the so-called lie detector tests may be that in only the loosest sense of the word as this latest technology, as pointed out by Micah Hanks at Mysterious Universe, was actually conducted on voice recordings of the men talking about their alleged encounters since Mitchell and Gordon are both deceased and their stories cannot be tested using more conventional lie detectors.

“NASA releases video of ‘UFO’ from 1969 space mission sparking frenzy online”

That headline comes from a follow-up article the following day by the same Daily Star, which could use a proofreader as well as that “latest technology” lie detector. While the date says “1969,” which was the year of Buzz Aldrin’s alleged UFO sighting, the “video” it refers to is actually from the Space Shuttle mission STS-77 in 1996.

That apparent juxtaposition of the numbers in the year is not the only problem with this article. While it’s true that NASA released this video (seen here), it was not a recent release.

It’s actually been around since 1996 and was the subject of a Popular Mechanics debunking in 2009 in which identified the UFO as the Passive Aerodynamically Stabilized Magnetically Damped/Satellite Test Unit(PAM/STU), whose launch and deployment was tracked by shuttle cameras and narrated by the astronauts, who often referred to it as the “target” – a common military term for just about everything being watched, not just enemies and UFOs.

It’s too bad we’re forced to look at these sensationalized clips when so much of what was studied on these Space Shuttle missions was only lightly covered at the time and not at all today. STS-77, the 77th of 134 missions, tested one of the early inflatable space structures so common today and performed experiments developed jointly by numerous countries.

The astronauts even had some fun working with a Fluids Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus-2 (FGBA-2) to determine if separately stored carbon dioxide, water and thick liquids could be combined in space and consumed without bubble nucleation and resulting foam formation. In other words, they tried (successfully) to make Coca-Cola and Diet Coke in space.

Buzz Aldrin is still looking

Sure, exploration is the ultimate goal of all space programs, but the mundane groundwork and testing is crucial to future success. It’s also a place for many to be a part of the space program – while Neil and Buzz stepped onto the lunar surface, one of the most remembered videos was of the many people in the control room celebrating the success of the project so many had worked so hard to achieve.

It’s time to get back to developing new interest in space exploration, space science and space technologies instead of rehashing old (and misleading) events. As a different Buzz once said (and you don’t need a lie detector test to prove it).

CAIC WZ-10 helicopters equipped with millimeter-wave radar

    WZ-10








Z-19

Avengers Infinity War trailers

Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Black Panther, Dr Strange, Spiderman, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Guardians of the Galaxy and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet — Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality.

The movie will be released April 27, 2018.

Alleged UFO ‘Mothership’ Filmed in North Carolina

Video of an alleged UFO sighting in North Carolina has surfaced online, prompting speculation of possible military testing of experimental aircraft – and aliens, of course. The sighting took place in Columbus, a small town in western North Carolina with a population of around 1,000. 

The video shows a v-shaped formation of bright lights hovering silently in the night sky, similar to the infamous Phoenix Lights which appeared over Arizona in 1997. Is this a genuine sighting, or could nearby Armed Forces bases be up to their usual tricks?

The Phoenix Lights remain among the most widespread mass sightings in UFO history.

The five-minute video was uploaded to YouTube on April 3rd by the “UFO Institute” channel, and MUFON has recorded the incident in its database. In the video, two pairs of lights are visible on either side of a brighter central pair, all of which appear to hover together in a v-formation. 

“Whatever it is, it seems to be dropping,” says an unidentified man filming the clip. “I’d like to know what the heck those six lights are.” Me too, buddy. Me too. Unfortunately, with only one eyewitness and one dark video to go on, it’s doubtful we ever will.

Another UFO YouTube channel, TheHiddenUnderbelly, calls the lights a “huge mothership.” While that’d be great, the chances are higher that this video shows something more banal. A group of drones? Probably. Military testing? Possibly, although the many military bases in North Carolina are much farther to the east along the coastal region of the state. 

Why would experimental craft carry out exercises so far from protected airspace? For that matter, why would an alien mothership hover in the skies above a one-stoplight town far from major metropolitan areas?

Pentagon's space-age $10M stealth boat designed for Navy SEAL ops and capable of hitting 70mph

An unusual Navy vessel docked in Norfolk Virginia on Monday had passerby wondering about the $10million space age marine curiosity.

The M80 Stiletto, which name refers to its sleek design like that of the Italian shoe, is a carbon fiber stealth vessel originally built as an experiment for the Department of Defense. 

While the ship was originally experimental, it has since been used in jobs for NASA to pick up pay loads after a rocket launch, as well as a stint in Colombia aiding in the war on drugs with a capture of 1,800 pounds of cocaine.

 

It’s operated by the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Joint Base Little Creek-Fort Story.   

Its rear cargo area holds a 36ft rigid inflatable boat that commandos use and can carry an unmanned surveillance aircraft that can be launched from the top of the boat. 

The 60 ton Stiletto runs on four diesel engines that produce a combined 6,500 horsepower. It displaces 45 tons of water.

The ships is revolutionary with its intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

It is capable of mine clearing and has the ability to travel in shallow water.

Its wave-piercing M-shaped hull allows it to maintain maximum speed in rough seas while still providing a comfortable ride.

It has been designed and built by the Californian-based boat builders M Ships and has gone into service with the US Department of Defense.  

J-10C may be more stealthy with new thrust vectoring nozzle

The photo, shows a Chengdu J-10C fighter flying with a modified exhaust nozzle for its indigenous Shenyang-Liming WS-10 Taihang turbofan engine.

A recent image showed the J-10 with a number of upgrades that haven't been seen before, including a new engine with "sawtooth" edges that make the engine less noticeable on enemy air radars. Engine specialists say that radar signals reflect well off straight lines, but that sawtooth patterns can smother the radar return.

J-10C TVC-testbed - magazine cover via https://t.co/EjnfL8dZwc pic.twitter.com/wo7pykcV90

— @Rupprecht_A (@RupprechtDeino) April 3, 2018

WS-10Bの推力偏向ノズルの構造 pic.twitter.com/0MRRHliiZX

— OedoSoldier (@OedoSoldier) April 4, 2018

The TVC aspect of the engine increases the plane's angular velocity during flight by slightly repositioning the engine itself so as to manipulate the thrust created by the engine.
J-10Cs feature a number of improvements over earlier versions, which include a Diverterless Supersonic Inlet, improved electronic warfare capabilities and an active electronically scanned array radar.
The new developments will allow the J-10 to make more precise maneuvers in the air while giving pilots more control over altitude changes. The US' F-22 Raptor and the Su-30/35 family of aircraft make use of TVC as well.