News 3 December, 2020 There is a new test for Covid-19. Maybe test is not the right term, but it is a way of detecting the disease. It is a computer algorithm which can tell by the way you cough, if you have the disease. It was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT tested tens of thousands of coughs and now the algorithm is said to be able to pick out those with the disease and is 98.5 percent accurate. If the people with Covid-19 had no other symptoms, but just the disease the accuracy rate jumps to 100 percent. Maybe it is time to use this method of testing to get immediate results in cases where people are coughing. If there is no cough the software would be useless however. I am always interested in laser technology and a breakthrough has just been achieved. MIT is also involved with this breakthrough. The laser which was developed is called a quantum cascade laser and it can generate terahertz radiation in the real world. What is so incredible about this laser is until now it required a tremendous cooling device which meant it could only be used in a laboratory, but this has been solved. The new laser only needs a portable cooler so it can be taken anywhere. Could this laser be scaled up to weapon status? I don’t know, but I do know the laser itself is so tiny it is thinner than a human hair. A new find in a cave seems to contradict the theory which states the ice age was caused by meteorites hitting the earth and creating debris which went into the atmosphere blocking the sun. It now seems the most likely cause was volcanic eruptions which sent up debris into the atmosphere. What I find amazing is the fact NASA is trying to figure out how not to contaminate Mars. This is like locking the barn door after the horse got out. Mars has already been contaminated and as I have mentioned before NASA had forgotten to sterilize one of the drills on the rovers. Aside from that, 100 percent sterilization is impossible and everyone knows that. The only way to prevent contamination is not to go there. Scientists have developed a new type of computer chip which is solely designed to detect the possibility of alien life. I am not talking about teaming it up with telescopes of any type or any other grand method of using it. It was designed to be put on robot diggers such as the Mars rovers of the future. It was built to examine the soil for signs of biological organic signatures. While this might seem as a lowly use, it might be able to tell us one day life once existed on a planet even if it seems there is none. A drone which was equipped with a thermal camera made an interesting discovery. It discovered archaeological structures under the ground at Wichita, Kansas. This was quite a surprise. Researchers think they have found the lost city of Etzanoa. It is believed the city could have had a population of up to 20,000 people and lasted until the mid-1700s. No indication of anything can be seen on the surface. SpaceX and Elon Musk are working hard to beat NASA to Mars with a human crew. A few prototypes of the giant spaceship have been tested so far. The ship is designated as the SN6. It has been described as looking like a giant silo powered with a rocket engine. Musk is saying he will get to Mars by 2024 and there is a good chance he will succeed at the rate he is going unless a monkey wrench is thrown into his plans. A scientist who is being funded by NASA is claiming he had a huge breakthrough in rocket propulsion. The scientist claims the engine will approach light speed and the best part is it needs no propellant. It would be composed of tiny crystals which would vibrate thousands of times a second when electricity is applied. The drive has been named the Mach-effect gravitational assist drive or MEGA. The rocket would need a nuclear reactor and the speed increase would occur gradually. The scientist is now 80 years old and has been working on his engine for 30 years. Each new engine has been producing more thrust than the last. In World War II Audie Murphy won the most medals and became a famous actor along with a few others who won a large number of medals for their bravery like Lee Marvin and Neville Brand. There was another person who won as many medals as Murphy but most people never heard of him. His nickname was the Ghost. His name was Matt Louis Urban. Some people have a theory and it involves Elon Musk. There have been rumors that Musk is digging a tunnel between Los Angeles and Los Vegas. We know he has a boring company and he is always up for grand projects, but so far there is no evidence this is happening. Ultraviolet light has always been dangerous to humans. It is fine in small strengths but getting too much is dangerous. It is turning out this light might be very helpful in fighting Covid-19. The light can be used to disinfect space including hospital rooms where it is almost impossible to totally disinfect the room completely any other way. There is even talk about using the light to disinfect homes. A cloud scared the heck out of some people in Russia. The cloud, and it was nothing more than a cloud which was very large and had they scary mushroom shape appeared over of all places, Chernobyl. I can understand the fear this would generate, but all is okay or as okay as it can be in that area. There has been a breakthrough. Ancient gladiators were thought for years to have had a diet of super food as compared to the rest of the population. Finally, the food has been discovered and it is high in carbs. The idea was to produce a fatty layer so when you got sliced by a sword you might be protected from organ damage because there would have to be a deeper slice. The rumors of a warp drive never stop. Star Trek has really stirred the imagination when it comes to that. We can’t be sure NASA is working on a warp drive, but the consensus is they might be. If they succeed, we may never know because of the military implications.
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