UFOs: Were aliens spotted on the Moon in NASA’s Apollo 9 mission images? – Express.co.uk

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Apollo 9 saw three NASA astronauts blasted into the Earths orbit for 10 days as a test flight before the Apollo 11 mission, which saw the first people land on the Moon. Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart lifted off from Earth on March 3, 1969, before spending 10 days in orbit, completing 151 trips around Earth.

The three men landed back on Earth on March 13, just four months before the Apollo 11 mission set off for the Moon.

While the trio was in the Earths orbit they snapped images of the Moon, and conspiracy theorists believe they have spotted something odd in some of the photographs.

Prominent conspiracy theorist Scott C Waring has been analysing the images from the NASA astronauts and spotted what he believed to be a fleet of UFOs travelling in front of the Moon.

The supposed UFOs, according to Mr Waring, were up to three kilometres long and appear to be extremely thin.

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The alien hunter posted on his blog ET Database: "UFOs that were over 2-3 km long have been seen and reported by pilots and other eyewitnesses, I myself have reported UFOs in NASA photos on the moons surface that were about 10km across in comparison with the nearby crater who's diameter is known.

"Here again are three UFOs, long and giant in size flying past the moon and recorded by none other than NASA!

"It's a glitch, a scratch, a cheap lens on your scope, sorry boys, NASA buys only the best quality and highest performance parts for its observations, but thank you for playing."

Some conspiracy theorists claim the Moon could be occupied by aliens and this is the reason NASA has not returned since the Apollo missions ended in the 1970s.

READ MORE:Alien city discovered on dark side of the Moon - shock claim

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UFOs: Were aliens spotted on the Moon in NASA's Apollo 9 mission images? - Express.co.uk

NASA’s Jane Datta On the People Part of the Space Mission – GovExec.com

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Jane Datta leads the human resources operation of the federal agency whose mission is to explore space, but does so with her feet planted firmly on the ground.

NASA accomplishes its mission because of its talented people, she says. But a key part of her job is to balance the aspirational with grounded reality.

Datta draws on nearly 30 years of experience in industry and government to maintain that balance. Her private sector experience includes a stint as an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton and various personnel positions at United Technologies Corp. She has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from Yale University.

Datta has served at NASA since 2007. She was director of the agencys Workforce Policy, Planning and Analysis Division before becoming deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Human Capital Management. Datta was appointed chief human capital officer in February, just before the novel coronavirus outbreak became a pandemic.

Datta recently spoke to Government Executives CourtneyBubl about her time at the agency and what she has learned, especially about leading in an age of stay at home orders. Excerpts from that interview follow.

How would you characterize your management style?

NASA is an innovative organization with an evolving and complex set of missions, and my staff in the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer is dedicated to helping the NASA workforce and supporting the agencys missions. For us to perform at our best, I believe I need to establish an environment that allows my people to be creative, explore ideas and try out new things.

Thus, my management style is to set a general direction for our work and give my team freedom to figure out how to move in that direction and integrate efforts across our many activities. I want to be connected to the work enough to appreciate some of the details involved so I can advocate for things we need, communicate what we are doing at the agency level, or make connections with stakeholders outside our organization.

I place a premium on authentic engagement and take time to recognize teams and individuals as they make progress, move our work forward, or achieve great things. I also make a point of getting to know my staff through small group and individual interactions. I believe I have an amazing team that feels valued, energized and safe to explore ideas, so we can do anything.

What approach do you take to the job?

The approach I take to the job is to never stand still. I need to be constantly reaching for more and better that can be turned into value for my team and for NASA. To do this, I have prioritized coalition building as a key approach for bringing knowledge and insight to OCHCO programs and for benefiting the workforce. For instance, I participate in forums with other CHCOs and chief human resources officers where we share best practices and learn from each other.

I was new in my role when COVID-19 emerged as a critical issue requiring massive intra- and interagency coordination. The accelerated requirement to assimilate information, create action plans and execute in alignment with the highest levels of government has enduring impact for me and for my team.

Another characteristic of my approach to the job is to balance the aspirational with grounded reality. I am fortunate to have an ambitious team that is rich in ideas about what we can achieve as a function. But we also need to understand where we are, and what we can practicably achieve, so that we continue to move forward.

Whats the best part of the job?

The people. I know this sounds simple, but it is true. I wake up every day wanting to work with the people in my function, in NASA leadership and in organizations we collaborate with across the agency.

A former colleague once mentioned he came to NASA thinking it was primarily a data-driven agency and departed realizing it was really a people-driven agency. I couldnt agree more. I am also honored to be part of an agency leadership team that really puts people first.

What are some challenges in the federal hiring process?

NASA accomplishes its mission because of its talented people. This has never been truer as NASA works with U.S. companies and international partners to push the boundaries of human exploration to return to the moon, lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy and ultimately send humans to Mars. NASA has a 21st century program and yet, in many respects NASA still has the same 20th century personnel system that was operational during the Apollo era.

NASA OCHCO has conducted extensive research into the foundational challenges of the federal hiring process and its impact on the NASA mission. Some of the underlying issues include a slow and not applicant-friendly process, a position-based system based on static and repeatable work that does not resonate in todays fluid marketplace for skills, and a non-competitive compensation structure.

Based on our findings, we are making changes and working toward a new, modern workforce system that emphasizes agility, acquires and deploys top talent rapidly, and aligns compensation and performance.

How do you work with labor unions?

NASAs bargaining unit workforce is represented by either the American Federation of Government Employees or the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. The rights provided to these unions come in two different forms. At the agency level, they have been granted national consultation rights. Consequently, NASA informs AFGE and IFPTE of any substantive change in conditions of employment proposed by the agency, and permits a reasonable time for them to present their views and recommendations regarding the changes. NASA considers these views and recommendations before taking final action. For the purposes of NCR, the unions have identified two representatives from both the AFGE and IFPTE to participate on a national council to administer their rights.

I place a premium on authentic engagementand take time to recognize teams and individuals as they make progress.

At the center level, NASA local unions, which reside at eight of our 10 centers, have been certified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority as the exclusive representative of bargaining unit employees. This allows the local unions to negotiate employment matters, including the terms of collective bargaining agreements, at each represented center. As a result, NASA is a party to ten CBAs, five with AFGE locals and five with IFPTE locals.

What is NASA's policy on telework?

We consider telework a strategic priority. We believe that with telework or remote work options, our workforce can more easily balance their work and personal responsibilities and access a greater variety of work assignment opportunities.

Telework has long been encouraged at NASA, and because we were early adopters of virtual collaboration, we were able to make the agency transition and maintain operational continuity through the COVID-19 pandemic.

How has your job changed to follow public health guidance during the coronavirus outbreak?

I was in my role for just six weeks when COVID-19 became a pandemic. I joined an agency team planning how we would respond to the emergency, and in a short time, we were dedicating most or all of our days to addressing the rapidly changing situation. Along with the team, we focused on how to keep employees safe, prioritize agency work and communicate, communicate, communicate.

Over the last several months, I have established clear priorities for OCHCO work, much of which continues despite the new normal of mandatory telework for my staff. For instance, we have continued to hire and onboard new employees. While in-person training activities have been delayed, we have created and implemented virtual supervisor training sessions on adapting to virtual work, ensuring employees are engaged and supported, and looking after ourselves in this challenging time.

Dealing with an emergency as unprecedented as this one has revealed what is possible that might have seemed improbable and required us to reset some of our expectations and patterns. My job is to ensure we leverage what we have learned to help us be more efficient and effective even after we return to normal operations.

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NASA Tracker: 3 Asteroids To Fly Past Earth On Monday – International Business Times

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KEY POINTS

NASAs automated asteroid tracking system has detected three near-Earth objects that will safely fly past the planet on Monday (May 4). Based on the data collected by the agency, the largest asteroid in the group is about as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

NASAs Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) identified the first asteroid that will approach Earth on May 4as 2020 HQ3. As indicated in the agencys database, this space rock has an estimated diameter of about 161 feet.

It is currently moving across space towards Earths vicinity at an average speed of over 21,000 miles per hour. According to CNEOS, 2020 HQ3 will approach Earth on May 4 at 2:13 a.m. EDT. During this time, the asteroid will be about 0.02768 astronomical units or around 2.6 million miles from the planets center.

The next asteroid that will zip past Earth on Monday is called 2020 HU9. CNEOS estimated that this asteroid measures about 220 feet wide. It is currently moving across the Solar System at an average velocity of over 38,000 miles per hour.

2020 HU9 is expected to enter Earths neighborhood on May 4 at 7:51 a.m. EDT. It will be about 0.04304 astronomical units or about 4 million miles from the planet during its approach.

The last asteroid that will fly past Earth tomorrow has been identified as 2020 HV4. According to the data collected by CNEOS, 2020 HV4 is the biggest asteroid in the group. It has an estimated diameter of about 427 feet and is currently flying towards Earth at a speed of about 22,000 miles per hour.

2020 HQ3 is classified as an Aten asteroid while both 2020 HU9 and 2020 HV4 belong to the Apollo family of space rocks. Although they belong in different asteroid groups, the three approaching space rocks follow natural orbits that intersect Earths path as it goes around the Sun.

As Apollo asteroids, the orbital axis of 2020 HU9 and 2020 HV4 is bigger than that of Earth. 2020 HQ3, on the other hand, follows a smaller orbital axis than Earth.

This artist's animation illustrates a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star the same age and size as our Sun. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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NASA Tracker: 3 Asteroids To Fly Past Earth On Monday - International Business Times

NASA releases the winning photos of Tournament Earth – Mashable

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NASA asked. 56,000 votes decided.

In honor of Earth Day's 50th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of NASA's Earth Observatory, the space agency invited the public to vote on the best pictures that capture our beautiful planet in the Earth Observatorys collection. (The Earth Observatory is a publishing outlet where NASA shares images and other discoveries that come from its research.)

After five rounds of voting, the winner of Tournament Earth was announced on April 28.

The winning photo, taken in 2001 by Serge Andrefouet, a remote sensing specialist at the University of South Florida, captures sand and seaweed in the Bahamas using the Landsat 7 satellite. Tides and ocean currents created the patterns you can see in the image.

Check out the winner (and some of the other finalists) below.

WINNER! This year's winning image was also a runner-up in the 10th anniversary contest.

RUNNER-UP: Astronauts captured a volcanic plume in the Raikoke Volcano, a volcano on the Kuril Islands that doesn't often erupt.

FINAL ROUND: Captured on Landsat 8, this image shows the transition from sand dunes to land in southern Africas Namib Desert.

FINAL ROUND: This image, a combination of art and scientific imaging, was made using data from satellite missions, with graphic artists creating layers of global data for things like land surface and sea ice layers.

THIRD ROUND: At the International Space Station, astronauts captured "aurora australis" (the southern lights) with a digital camera while above the Indian Ocean.

THIRD ROUND: This, of course, isn't a picture of Earth at all. It's an image of Saturn taken from the Cassini spacecraft, but Earth Observatory liked it enough to include it. (Technically, you can see Earth in the upper left quadrant of Saturn's rings.)

THIRD ROUND: One of a series of images documenting Alaska's Columbia glacier, this image tracks the glacier's fast-moving retreat.

THIRD ROUND: Astronauts took a picture with a digital camera ofAtafu Atoll, the smallest of three atolls and one island making up theTokelau Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. (Atafu Atoll is about eight kilometers wide!)

Landsat 8 caught an ongoing eruption flowing in Iceland betweenthe Bardarbunga and Askja volcanoes.

The image here captures the melting ice cap on Eagle Island in Antarctica as it hit its hottest temperature on record this February.

A NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory caught the moon as it passed between the spacecraft and Earth.

With a new instrument available on the International Space Station since 2014, scientists now hope to observe some of the 4.3 millionlightning flashes that occur daily. Here are just some of them.

Taken from Voyager 1, this image from 1977 shows the Earth and Moon together back when Voyager 1 was a mere 7.25 million miles from Earth. (As of 2012, it was 11.31 billion miles from Earth.)

This image is a visualization of the solid particles and liquid droplets (called aerosols) found in ecosystems around the world on just one day: August 23, 2018.

This picture of the Andaman Sea was captured by Landsat 8, which, thanks to the reflection of the Sun, makes internal waves readily visible.

A tried and true favorite, this iconic 1968 photo was taken by the Apollo 8 crew while orbiting the Moon.

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NASA releases the winning photos of Tournament Earth - Mashable

NASA uncovers alluring chaos terrain in its quest to find ocean on Jupiters moon Europa – Republic World – Republic World

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The idea of life on Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa has fascinated scientists for decades but it was in the 1990s, with sharp images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, that researchers came a step closer to believein its possibility. NASA has now remastered some of Galileo's stunning images of Europa, using improved new calibrations to introduce colours, in a bid to have a closer look at the Jovian satellite.

In the splendid images shared on Instagram, Europa's long erratic winding lines throw new light on its varied landscape. As explained by NASA, the image shows a region where ice blocks have moved sideways, rotated or tilted before refreezing in their new locations and to understand how it might have happened, scientists study these ice blocks like they were jumbled pieces of a puzzle. While geologists have dubbed these as 'chaos terrain', the remastered images are simply fascinating.

Read:Perseverance Rover To Get The Most Advanced Pair Of 'eyes' Ahead Of NASA's Mars Mission

Read:NASA Artemis Mission: SpaceX, Blue Origin And Dynetics Chosen To Design HLS

The long curving lines in the remastered images hint at subsurface liquid water. While releasing these images on the NASAwebsite, scientists elucidated that tidal motion experienced by Europa in its elliptical orbit around Jupiter supplies the energy to keep the ocean in a liquid state under an ice shell of 15 to 25 kilometres. The cosmic ocean is estimated to be 60 to 150 kilometres deep. Therefore, while the Jovian satellite is only one-fourth the diameter of Earth, Europa's ocean is estimated to contain twice as much water as our planet.

Most recent observations from the Hubble telescope, and reanalysis of old Galileo data, have suggested that Europa's ocean may be leaking into space. In fact, in November 2019, an international team of scientist announced detecting water vapours for the first time above Europe's surface. The observation was made using a spectrograph at NASA's Hawaii observatory as it measured the chemical composition of Europa's atmosphere comparing infrared light emission and absorption.

Read:NASA To Laser Check Moon's Darkest Craters For Signs Of Water Before Artemis Mission

Read:NASA Celebrates 30 Years And 1.4 Million Observations Of Hubble With 'Cosmic Coral Reef'

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NASA uncovers alluring chaos terrain in its quest to find ocean on Jupiters moon Europa - Republic World - Republic World

NASA’s Perseverance Rover is Going to Jezero Crater, Which is Looking Better and Better as a Place to Search for Evidence of Past Life on Mars -…

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In 2018, NASA decided that the landing site for its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover would be the Jezero Crater. At the time, NASA said the Jezero Crater was one of the oldest and most scientifically interesting landscapes Mars has to offer. That assessment hasnt changed; in fact its gotten stronger.

A new research paper says that the Jezero Crater was formed over time periods long enough to promote both habitability, and the preservation of evidence.

The Jezero Crater is a dried up paleo-lakebed, with a preserved river delta and sediments. It contains at least five different rock types that can be sampled. The crater also holds geological features that are approximately 3.6 billion years old. Its an excellent feature to study, and hopefully to collect samples from for eventual return to Earth. Scientists are hopeful that the Perseverance Rover may find fossilized evidence of early, single-celled life.

Being able to use another planet as a lab experiment for how life could have started somewhere else or where theres a better record of how life started in the first place that could actually teach us a lot about what life is.

A new study based on the analysis of satellite imagery reinforces Jezeros scientific desirability.

The study is titled The Pace of Fluvial Meanders on Mars and Implications for the Western Delta Deposits of Jezero Crater. Its published in the journal AGU Advances. The lead author is Mathieu Laptre, an assistant professor of geological sciences at StanfordsSchool of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. The other author is Alessandro Ielpi from Laurentian University.

One of sciences main roadblocks to understanding Mars history is timing. With telescopes, orbiters, landers, and rovers, weve learned a lot about Mars. Over the past couple decades especially, scientists have uncovered compelling evidence showing that Mars was once warm, wet, and habitable. But questions of timing remain.

Theres ample evidence of ancient river-beds on Mars, and some of the timing questions revolve around those rivers. How long did rivers flow on Mars, and how often? How long ago? How long did it take form deltas like the one in Jezero Crater? Mars was likely habitable at the same time that life was evolving on Earth, and understanding the age of Mars ancient rivers, and how long they lasted, is one key to understanding habitability.

In their paper the authors write, Here we develop a new model to calculate the pace of shifting Martian rivers, which, when applied to orbital observations of the Jezero delta, allows us to determine a minimum duration for delta formation. Combined with other modelling and the work of other scientists, the pair of authors say that our results suggest that the delta took a few decades to form over a total timespan of, most likely, hundreds of thousands of years.

During that hundreds of thousands of years, there were many dry, arid periods. They say that the river that flowed into the Jezero Crater likely flowed for only one day every 15 to 30 years; maybe a little more often. On Earth, sediments preserve organic molecules, and the same is likely true on Mars. So if the sediments at Jezero were buried quickly, theres a strong possibility that organic molecules are preserved there, as well.

There probably was water for a significant duration on Mars and that environment was most certainly habitable, even if it may have been arid, said lead authorMathieu Laptre in a press release. We showed that sediments were deposited rapidly and that if there were organics, they would have been buried rapidly, which means that they would likely have been preserved and protected.

This study is related to another recent study from 2019 by the same authors into rivers here on our planet, specifically a type of river called single-threaded sinuous rivers.

That paper showed that single-threaded sinuous rivers without plants stabilizing their banks drift sideways ten times faster than the same type of rivers with banks stabilized by plants. That sideways movement of river channels is called meander migration.

The tendency of rivers to meander migrate has been studied for a long time. The authors say in their 2019 paper that river meander is among the most unequivocal indicators of hydrologically mature planets.

Based on the likely fact that Martian rivers did not have plants to stabilize their banks, and accounting for the gravity on Mars, the pair of researchers say that the Jezero delta took at least 20 to 40 years to form, but that length of time was intermittent, and spread out over about 400,000 years.

And that brings us back to the time problem again.

This is useful because one of the big unknowns on Mars is time, Laptre said. By finding a way to calculate rate for the process, we can start gaining that dimension of time.

On Earth, single-threaded meandering rivers are most often found with vegetation on their banks. Only recently were these types of rivers detected without plants, and prior to that, scientists thought that before plants appeared on Earth, only braided, multi-threaded rivers existed. But now scientists have found many single-threaded rivers without vegetated banks.

This specifically hadnt been done before because single-threaded rivers without plants were not really on anyones radar, Laptre said. It also has cool implications for how rivers might have worked on Earth before there were plants.

All rivers can go through drier spells, and its the wet spells that created sediment build up in deltas. The researchers think that on Mars, the dry spells were 20 times more frequent than on Earth today. People have been thinking more and more about the fact that flows on Mars probably were not continuous and that there have been times when you had flows and other times when you had dry spells, Laptre said. This is a novel way of putting quantitative constraints on how frequently flows probably happened on Mars.

If there was life at Jezero Crater, most scientists seem to think that it never evolved much, and was restricted to single-celled organisms. With this new understanding of how the sediment deposits in Jezero Crater were formed, and how it likely preserved evidence of life, it makes the Perseverance Rover mission even more exciting to look forward to.

Life on Earth began about 3.5 billion years ago, at about the same time that Jezero Crater was formed. Any life on Earth would have been single-celled when the crater was formed. If single-celled life was present at Jezero long before multi-cellular life evolved on Earth, then something stalled Martian life, depleting the atmosphere and sterilizing the planet.

Since Earth is such a geologically active planet compared to Mars, a lot of ancient evidence for life has been erased. But that never happened on Mars. In that sense the Jezero Crater may be a kind of time capsule, waiting to be opened by NASAs Perseverance Rover.

Its possible, that we might finally, unequivocally, have evidence for past life on Mars.

Being able to use another planet as a lab experiment for how life could have started somewhere else or where theres a better record of how life started in the first place that could actually teach us a lot about what life is, Laptre said. These will be the first samples that weve seen as a rock on Mars and then brought back to Earth, so its pretty exciting.

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East Kern aerospace company joins with NASA to fight COVID-19 – The Bakersfield Californian

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Much has been written about the new space race, driven not by government agencies as much as private companies in eastern Kern County and beyond.

Now one of those companies with huge research and testing facilities at Mojave Air and Space Port is joining forces with NASA to focus their talent and resources on something more earthbound: battling COVID-19.

George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, announced on the company blog last week that the company is uniquely positioned to develop new medical products specifically designed for patients with COVID-19.

The space industry has a responsibility to share expertise, knowledge, resources, and ingenuity to aid in the fight against COVID-19, Whitesides said.

Through a Space Act Agreement with NASA, Virgin Galactic has made a commitment to developing innovative solutions to the problems facing healthcare workers on the frontlines. This is our way of ensuring that the best and brightest at Virgin Galactic can support their local communities during this challenging time and provide life-saving solutions for those suffering from COVID-19."

According to Whitesides, employees at Virgin Galactic and its sister firm, The Spaceship Company, worked on the development and testing of the PPB Hood a device designed to support those admitted with COVID-19 with portable oxygen-rich pressure chambers, reducing the need for ventilator intubation.

The effort appears to be consistent with the company's mission, Using Space for Good.

But while Virgin Galactic reached the edge of space last year in test flights of its SpaceShipTwo tourism vehicle, the company founded by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson remains well behind its early projections to have flown hundreds of well-heeled aspiring astronauts to suborbital space by now.

Mike Moses, president of Virgin Galactic, also blogged about the new focus. and included employees at Spaceport America, near Truth or Consequences, N.M.

"As we continue to feel the impact of COVID-19, I would like to thank our team for the perseverance, compassion and determination they have shown in our home of New Mexico with their ongoing effort to support local communities in response to the challenge of COVID-19," Moses said.

"As part of our relief efforts, we have made several donations of medical supplies to communities and hospitals in California and New Mexico."

The public-private team is also working on a separate project to develop and build negative pressure enclosures specialist equipment that covers a patient on a gurney or hospital bed, Whitesides said.

As Americans continue to deal with unprecedented changes brought about by the pandemic and resulting quarantines and lockdowns, it may simply be the case that private space flight has temporarily lost some of its romance.

It a time of war in this case war against a contagious viral disease Virgin Galactic is focusing, at least in part, on those on the front lines.

The work NASA employees are doing in California is one of several examples of how the agency is contributing to the whole-of-government response to coronavirus, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. By channeling the unique skillset of our workforce and engaging private and public partners, we can make a difference."

Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.

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East Kern aerospace company joins with NASA to fight COVID-19 - The Bakersfield Californian

Coronavirus has Elon Musk acting like just another used car salesman – The Guardian

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What has happened to Elon Musk?

A highlight reel of the billionaire Tesla CEOs activities since early March includes his pooh-poohing the coronavirus panic as dumb; keeping his northern California factory open in defiance of local public health orders; falsely asserting that children are essentially immune from the virus; providing a giant platform to promoters of an unproven and potentially dangerous treatment; predicting (inaccurately) that the US would have no new cases of Covid-19 by the end of April; attempting to re-open the factory before the end of the local shelter-in-place order; and calling shelter-in-place orders fascist. (Lets not even get into the drama over whether the BiPap machines he donated to some hospitals count as ventilators.)

Musks dissemination of misinformation about the virus is not without consequences

Musks dissemination of misinformation about the virus is not without consequences. He has more than 33m followers on Twitter and a fan base that tends to exalt him as a cross between Tony Stark and God. A recent study published as a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine linked his tweet about chloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that was subsequently touted as a potential Covid-19 treatment by Donald Trump, to a dramatic surge in online demand for the prescription medication. They werent aware of it, they werent interested in it they were trying to buy it, John Ayers, a UC San Diego professor of medicine and one of the studys authors, told the Guardian in an interview.

The chloroquine document that Musk shared was an example of what the infectious disease expert Carl Bergstrom has described as quantitative bullshit the use of statistics and data to persuade someone by overwhelming and intimidating them, without any allegiance to truth or accuracy. Last week, Musk was apparently taken in by another pair of coronavirus bullshit artists, this time a pair of doctors from Bakersfield, California.

Drs Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi held a press conference to promote the idea that Covid-19 is much more widespread and much less deadly than what ivory tower figures such as Dr Anthony Fauci have said. Docs make good points, Musk tweeted, with a link to a YouTube video of the 50-minute press conference. (YouTube removed the video for spreading misinformation, but not before it received millions of views; one of the doctors has gone on to make appearances on Fox News.)

The docs did not make good points. After opening his remarks by defining science like a high schooler writing a term paper (What is science? Essentially, its the study of the natural world through experiment, through observation, so thats what were doing) Erickson presented testing data from the chain of urgent care clinics they own. The clinics have performed 5,213 Covid-19 tests and had 340 positive results, which they claimed means that there is a 6.5% rate of infection in the local population. The pair performed the same math (positive tests divided by total tests) on the statewide numbers of 33,865 positive tests out of 280,900 total, to arrive at a 12% infection rate for the state. From there, they calculated that California has had a total of 4.7m infections and calculated that the death rate for people who contract Covid-19 in California is just 0.03% much lower than that of the seasonal flu.

None of this stands up to scrutiny. In order to assume that the rate of infection amongst a small number of people can apply to the entire population, you have to use a random and representative sample. But the people who are getting tested at urgent care clinics in California are neither random nor representative; they are people with severe symptoms or who are performing certain essential jobs. Figuring out the actual infection rate across the broader population will require careful sampling that avoids this selection bias.

The Bakersfield duo used their meaningless numbers to argue that shelter-in-place orders must be lifted a position that Musk clearly also holds. (In an extraordinary joint statement, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine jointly and emphatically condemn[ed] the pair, and suggested they were releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the publics health.)

The issue is not that Musk has staked out a contrarian stance on the coronavirus. There are difficult debates that need to be had over how and when to restart the economy in order to minimize long term economic harms and maximize public health. We can and should have that discussion, and we should do it without impugning the moral character of everyone who argues for a faster loosening of restrictions.

But its increasingly difficult to take Musk seriously when he makes his argument by cherry-picking numbers or relying on blatant misuse of data. Please, make your case, but make it using real facts, and not by playing fast and loose with numbers in an effort to mislead the public about what is actually happening. Otherwise you look and sound a lot less like the brilliant engineer and entrepreneur, and a lot more like just another used car salesman.

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Elon Musk: A timeline of his comments during the coronavirus outbreak – Business Insider – Business Insider

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Throughout the coronavirus pandemic in the US, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been outspoken about his thoughts on everything from ventilator shortages to possible treatments to the severity of the virus overall.

Now, Musk has gone a step further, calling US shelter-in-place orders "fascist" during a brief, expletive-laden rant during a conference call following Tesla's first-quarter earnings report on Wednesday.

Musk has a history of speaking out during times of crisis. In 2018, for example, Musk offered to build a "kid-size" submarine to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach stuck in a flooded cave in Thailand. When a British diver called Musk's actions a "PR stunt," Muskcalled the diver a "pedo guy" in a since-deleted tweet. (The comment sparked a defamation lawsuit, but Musk has since been cleared).

He's also frequently shared his thoughts on everything from Tesla short-sellers to the media, and has landed in hot water over erratic tweets like his "funding secured" fiasco in 2018.

But as the coronavirus crisis continues to affect the US and the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country has surpassed 1 million, Musk's recent behavior has been scrutinized. Government officials have reportedly questioned whether Musk delivered the number of ventilators he promised, and everyone including Ariana Grande's mother and Musk's own fans have called his statements on reopening the economy "irresponsible."

Here's a timeline of Musk's behavior throughout the coronavirus crisis.

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How Elon Musk Became Elon Musk: Elon Musk’s Early Years

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Visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk is the co-founder of PayPal (PYPL), Tesla Motors (TSLA), and SolarCity (SCTY),and is the founder of SpaceX. His astounding success has given rise to comparisons of Musk andSteve Jobs, Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates. Amid an often difficult childhood, Musk developed a relentless work ethic (he is known to work as many as 80 to 100 hours per week) and a tenacious single-minded vision.

On September 7, 2018 Musk appeared to be smoking marijuana while interviewing for a podcast. Coupled with the exit of Tesla's head of human resources and chief accounting officer, that news saw the stock drop in trade. This was just another addition to the string of bad news for the company, including a shareholder lawsuit against Musk and the company for his infamous tweet on August 7.Musk had tweetedthat he is considering taking Tesla private. The company later decided against the move.

We look at the early life and education of the man behind a string of companies that have disrupted multiple industries.

Elon Reeve Musk was born in 1971in Pretoria, one of South Africa's three capital cities. His father was an engineer and his mother was a model and nutritionist. He is the oldest of three children in an ambitious family. His brother Kimbal Musk is currently a venture capitalist and environmentalist. His sister Tosca Musk is an award-winning producer and director.

After his parents divorced when he was a child, Musk lived mostly with his father. Musk started school a year early, attending the private Waterkloof House Preparatory School and later graduating from Pretoria Boys High School. He read voraciously and was also an avid fan of comics. Self-described as a bookworm and something of a smart aleck, he was bullied in school and withdrew to his books at the expense of his social life.

At the age of 10, Musk was introduced to computers with the Commodore VIC-20. He quickly learned how to program and at the age of 12 sold a game called Blastar to Spectravideo for $500.

In one telling incident at that time, Musk, along with his brother, planned to open a video game arcade near their school. Ultimately, their parents nixed the plan. But apparently the only thing stopping them was the need for a city permit which had to be applied for by an adult.

Musks intellectual aptitude did him few favors as a child. He found few friends in the tough-minded Afrikaner culture he encountered in school.

"I had a terrible upbringing. I had a lot of adversity growing up. One thing I worry about with my kids is they don't face enough adversity," he would later say in an interview.

Musk attended the English-speaking Waterkloof House Preparatory School, and later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. The years were lonely and brutal, from his descriptions.

They got my best friend to lure me out of hiding so they could beat me up. And that hurt, Musk said. For some reason they decided that I was it, and they were going to go after me nonstop. Thats what made growing up difficult. For a number of years there was no respite. You get chased around by gangs at school who tried to beat the (expletive) out of me, and then Id come home, and it would just be awful there as well.

If there was a point of bright escape for Musk; it was technology. When he was only 10, he became acquainted with programming via the Commodore VIC-20, an inexpensive home computer. Before long, he had become proficient enough to create Blastar a video game in the style of Space-Invaders. He sold the BASIC code for the game to a magazine called PC and Office Technology for $500.

At 17, Musk moved to Canada to avoid serving in the South African military, whose main duty in the late 1980s was enforcing apartheid. He would later obtain Canadian citizenship through his mother.

After emigrating to Canada, Muskenrolled inQueen's University in Kingston, Ontario. It was there that he met Justine Wilson, an aspiring writer. They would marry and have five sons together, twins and triplets, before divorcing in 2008.

After two years at Queen's University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. He took on two majors, but his time there wasnt all work and no play. With a fellow student, he bought a 10-bedroom fraternity house, which they used as an ad hoc nightclub.

Musk graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from theWharton School. The two majors speak to the direction Musks career would take later, but it was physics that made the deepest impression on his thinking.

(Physics is) a good framework for thinking, hed later say. Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.

Musk was 24 years old when he moved to California to pursue a PhD in applied physics at Stanford University. With the internet exploding and Silicon Valley booming, Musk had entrepreneurial visions dancing in his head. He left the PhD program after just two days.

In 1995, with $28,000 and his younger brother Kimbal at his side, Musk started Zip2, a web software company that would help newspapers develop online city guides. The company got bought out, and Musk used his Zip2buyout money to create X.com, which he intended to shape into the future of banking. X was merged with a company called Confinity and the resulting company came to be known as PayPal. Musk was then ousted from the company before it wasbought by eBay.

After PayPal slipped away, Musk helped generate funding for an electric car startupcalled Tesla. You probably know the rest.

His early interest in reading philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy novels is reflected in his sense of idealism and concern with human progress. He aims to work in the areas he has identified as crucial to our future, specifically the Internet, the transition to renewable energy sources, and space colonization. With his work with PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX, he has defied critics and made advances in all three of these frontiers. (See also4 Real-Life Tony Starks.)

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How Elon Musk Became Elon Musk: Elon Musk's Early Years

A lot of exciting news: Elon Musk reveals just how far ahead of the game Tesla is now – The Driven

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A number of significant tidbits of information came forth from Teslas first quarter earnings report for 2020, which added together have confirmed just how far Tesla is ahead of the electric vehicle game.

Not least is the fact that the Californian auto maker has posted a modest but still positive $US16 million ($A24.5 million) profit, even amid the economic challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen Teslas Model 3 factory in Fremont, Alameda County, shut down by government order to help contain the spread of the highly contagious virus.

Musk is railing against the extension of closures, going so far as to call the stay-at-home measures fascist during the companys earnings call, but Tesla has fared better than fellow car makers Ford and GM and other auto makers have also faced factory closures, as noted by Giles Parkinson on Thursday.

Exactly

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020

While Musks opinions on how to get back to a flourishing economy as the pandemic seemingly comes under control in some US states have divided many, one thing is clear: following Musks vision, Tesla has already put itself in a position to ride the waves of the crisis.

And car makers are reportedly worried. CleanTechnica author Alex Voigt last Sunday shared on Twitter comments made by VW boss Herbert Diess in an internal meeting that Teslas autonomous driving systems was giving him a headache.

500,000 Teslas function as a neural network that continuously collects data and offers the customer a new driving experience every 14 days, with improved features,Diess was quoted as saying by Voigt.

No other automaker can do that today.

Diess showed his Top Managers a graph illustrating Tesla 2 times as high stock market valuation & explained Tesla did do that despite all the valuable brands like Porsche, Audi, Bentley..

Diess concluded his confidence Tesla to increase volumes

"We still have a long way to go."

Alex (@alex_avoigt) April 26, 2020

Tesla, which has just released its latest Full Self Driving feature the ability to detect and stop at traffic lights and stop signs will soon be collecting data from 1 billion intersections a month as the feature is rolled out across markets, giving the company access to far more valuable and voluminous information about autonomous driving as drivers effectively label objects for Tesla as they drive.

No wonder car makers are worried.

Autonomous driving aside, other developments shared by Musk during the Q1 2020 earnings call also reveal Teslas strong hand.

Learnings from the ramping of production of Teslas first mass-volume electric car, the Model 3, have afforded the car maker the opportunity to leapfrog ahead of its own production schedule for its next mass-volume vehicle, the Model Y.

First deliveries of the Model Y began a full three months ahead, and Musk reported that it is now Teslas first vehicle to become profitable in its first quarter of production, with more Model Ys produced in its first quarter than were Model 3s in its first two quarters.

Thus the Model Y ramp has been even faster than the Giga Shanghai ramp, said Musk. In other words, we are ahead of the schedule that we were ahead of already.

Both profits and Teslas ability to ramp production quickly can be attributed to the incremental efficiencies Musk has spoken about in past earnings calls, and which for the Model Y have been partially revealed by auto engineering expert Sandy Munro as he bit by bit tears down a Model Y to reveal cost cuts and improvements.

One significant improvement noted by Munro is the Model Ys octovalve (see video at the bottom of this article), a key component of the Model Ys heat pump which replaces the Model 3s resistive heating system.

We also introduced a revolutionary new heat pump which allows the [Model] Y to have better range, said Musk, adding that it makes the Model Ys driving range slightly better than Model 3 despite being a bigger car that weighs more.

Other efficiencies are in the works for the Model Y, says Musk, including a single piece casting for the rear third of the Model Y body that will also reduce the weight, cost and noise/vibration of the Model Y.

The Model 3 has not been left out of the picture, as Tesla continues to work towards localisation of parts in Shanghai, allowing it to drop the price of the made-in-China Model 3 to RMB291,800 ($A63,859 converted) so that Chinese drivers can access the countrys new energy vehicle subsidies.

Last but by no means least in the vehicle department came another announcement from Musk that the Model S is now capable of 400 miles (643km) driving range, although according to Musk the EPA scored its official rating at 391 miles due to user error.

The real Model S range is 400 miles, but when we took the last EPA test unfortunately the EPA left the car door open and the keys in car overnight so the car lost 2% range, he said.

To be clear, for the Model S for the past two months, the true range has been 400 miles.

Which leads to a final but possibly the most significant announcement from the Tesla Q1 2020 call: that with Battery Day is now slated for the third week of May, either in California or Texas depending on Covid-19 restrictions, and the latter location is a nod to an announcement expected in weeks around what may now be known as a Tera-factory.

There will be a lot of exciting news to tell, Musk said. It will be one of the most exciting days in Teslas history.

Bridie Schmidt is lead reporter for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She specialises in writing about new technology, and has a keen interest in the role that zero emissions transport has to play in sustainability.

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A lot of exciting news: Elon Musk reveals just how far ahead of the game Tesla is now - The Driven

A day after Elon Musk denounced coronavirus lockdowns as infringements of freedom, research shows Britons are too scared to leave their homes anyway -…

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A campaign to keep Britons locked down and protected from the coronavirus may have proved too successful, according to new research, with many now scared to leave their homes.

A leading Cambridge University statistician warned that the governments stay-at-home message had caused many people to grow particularly anxious about going out.

Many people are definitely overanxious about their chance of both getting the virus and the harm they might come to if they do get it, Cambridges David Spiegelhalter told the BBC.

Fully one-third (33%) of Britons said they would feel uncomfortable meeting friends and family outside their household, according to polling released by research firm Ipsos Mori on Friday. Just under two-thirds (61%) said they would feel uncomfortable using public transport or going to bars and restaurants. The data also showed 67% saying they would feel uncomfortable attending large public gatherings, such as sports or music events, compared with how they felt before the pandemic.

Keiran Pedley, research director at Ipsos Mori, said: Clear majorities of Britons are nervous about using public transport again or going to bars, restaurants or live music and sporting events.

These numbers suggest that it will take some time for parts of the British economy to return to any semblance of normality, even after lockdown has ended.

Its a very different story in parts of America as protesters in Michigan stormed the state capitol demanding an end to lockdown, and Teslas TSLA, -10.30% Elon Musk told investors on Thursday that stay-at-home orders were forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all constitutional rights.

Read:Elon Musk says coronavirus shelter-in-place order is fascist and breaking peoples freedoms

Britons, meanwhile, are not only scared for themselves but are so fearful neighbors might spread the virus more widely that 200,000 of them have called the police to tell tales about fellow citizens breaking the rules.

According to a report in the Times, police investigating illegal house parties and public loitering have issued 9,000 lockdown fines in England and Wales.

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A day after Elon Musk denounced coronavirus lockdowns as infringements of freedom, research shows Britons are too scared to leave their homes anyway -...

SpaceX’s Starlink satellites will soon get glare-reducing ‘sunshades,’ Elon Musk says – Space.com

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SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites will soon sport an accessory to tamp down their surprising brightness.

That brightness worries many astronomers, who say that the huge Starlink constellation could seriously disrupt a variety of scientific observations. And Starlink will indeed be huge, if all goes according to SpaceX's plan: The company has approval to launch 12,000 craft to low Earth orbit (LEO) and has applied for permission to loft 30,000 more. (For perspective, humanity has launched just 9,400 objects to orbit since the dawn of the space age in 1957).

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that the company will find a way to make Starlink craft fade from scientists' sight, predicting that the constellation will end up having no impact whatsoever on astronomical discoveries. SpaceX has been working with the astronomical community to help make this happen, researchers say, and the company has already tried out some mitigation measures.

Related: Starlink: SpaceX's satellite internet project

For example, one of the 60 Starlink satellites that launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket this past January sported an experimental coating to make it less reflective. Observations show that this "DarkSat" is considerably dimmer than its brighter Starlink cohorts, but probably not dim enough to quell most astronomers' concerns about the megaconstellation.

But SpaceX is taking additional measures as well, which brings us to the new accessory. Musk tweeted the following on Wednesday (April 22), in response to a Twitter follower who wished SpaceX luck on a 60-satellite Starlink launch that day: "Thanks! We are taking some key steps to reduce satellite brightness btw. Should be much less noticeable during orbit raise by changing solar panel angle & all sats get sunshades starting with launch 9."

He gave some details about the sunshades, which will presumably reduce solar reflection off the satellites' bodies, in a subsequent tweet that day: "Its made of a special dark foam thats extremely radio transparent, so as not to affect the phased array antennas. Looks a lot like a car sun visor."

The sunshade-equipped satellites will begin flying soon, because Starlink Launch 9 should be just around the corner. Wednesday's liftoff was Launch 7, and Launch 8 is targeted for May.

Each Starlink mission lofts 60 spacecraft. To date, SpaceX has launched 422 of the satellites to LEO, counting two prototypes that went up in February 2018. Musk has said that Starlink can provide "minor" internet coverage with at least 400 satellites and "moderate" service with about 800, so the constellation will likely be operational relatively soon.

The sunshades' effectiveness should also be apparent in short order. Astronomers will doubtless be tracking the modified satellites, hoping they don't stand out too much against the dark sky.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX's Starlink satellites will soon get glare-reducing 'sunshades,' Elon Musk says - Space.com

Bernie Ecclestone on the future of F1, dictators and Elon Musk – Autocar

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BE: Me? No. Theres no reason to. I was sacked, which was all right, and theres no reason to go back.

Bernard Charles Ecclestone. Slippery as hell. But as good an interviewee as Ive ever encountered.

Bernie on...

F1 dropping grid girls: Grid girls were colourful. Thats what F1 is supposed to be: colourful. The sponsors were happy. The teams were happy. The girls had good careers that have been taken away.

Describing women as domestic appliances: I did, yes. I didnt regret it when I said it and I dont regret it now. It was said as a big joke. Nothing I can do about it now, just because people didnt take it as one.

Admiring Hitler: Correct. Actually, I didnt say I admired him. But from when he took over in the 1930s, its clear he got things done, which was impressive. Hospitals, trains and so on. What he went on to do was obviously mad and wrong.

Donald Trump: I think what hes doing is a great job a super job. Hes got ideas and he gets on with them.

Vladimir Putin: Yeah [I know him]. Absolutely. Hes got a reputation he doesnt deserve as being difficult. Hes an easy, straightforward person.

Boris Johnson: Straightforward too. Like all the people in that position, he makes mistakes, but you only remember them if theyre written down.

Brexit: The EU will have to clean up its whole act if it wants to survive. The original idea was fantastic, but it got too democratic. I dont think Britain needs to be in Europe. I think we need to do business with Europe and vice versa, but Im quite sure that will continue.

His rumoured role in The Great Train Robbery: Didnt have one. Wasnt enough money in it for me.

His car collection: I dont drive them. I dont sit in them. I trade them. I dont see the point of supercars, either. People buy them as investments. Why bother?

What he drives: Car dealers hate me, as I dont buy new ones very often. Im in an old [Mercedes] S-Class at the moment while my Range Rover is being repaired. They tried to sell me a new one, but I dont see the point.

Paying a $100m fine to void bribery charges: I hadnt bribed him, but I couldnt prove it, as he was in jail. Sending the money over wasnt that bad. Its like going into a casino and playing with chips: you never think youve lost the money. The prosecutor was a nice guy, actually. I could have been locked up for 10 years. It seemed a reasonable price.

Lawyers: Theyre expensive. Id rather have a mistress and spend it on her. But anyway, sometimes you need them.

Frank Williams: I supported Frank for years. He used to come and borrow money when times were hard. Hed turn up and ask for 500, and Id give it to him on the condition that he paid it back on Tuesday. Hed turn up on the Tuesday, give me my 500, have a cup of tea, chat a bit and then ask if he could borrow 700

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Bernie Ecclestone on the future of F1, dictators and Elon Musk - Autocar

A New Free-To-Play Game Titled Roller Riot Has Just Been Released Full Of Cyberpunk Themed Action – Happy Gamer

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Roller Riotis an interesting cyborg filled cyberpunk-themed action game that was released on Steam for free. The game is available on both PC and mobile devices and allows players to punch and kick incoming opponents. Take part in a cyborg roller derby and battle against an enemy roller derby gang.

This game is very reminiscent of early browser games, but it includes design elements popular in modern games. Skate and battle your enemy by kicking and punching them as they approach you. This game is filled with cyberpunk action with a very retro design.

Get ready for the roller derby fight of a lifetime as you battle for a high score in this fast-paced beat-em-up. Punch, kick, skate, and battle the enemy cyborg roller derby gang as you establish dominance in the street with your non-stop skill.

Take on hoards of enemy robots as you seek revenge against a group that hurt you. The enemy will continue to spawn getting progressively harder, stronger, and faster. Adapt your skills and tactics as you battle an ever-evolving threat.

The controls are simple and intuitive allowing you to punch your way through every level. Use Frenzy Mode to knock out even more robot enemies as you go on a nasty destructive rampage and really send those bots back to the factory. With limited help, dodging enemy attacks becomes just as important as dealing out devastating blows.

Roller Riothas been released for free on several platforms. It provides a fun distraction and a new challenge for fans to experience while staying at home. The competitive high-score system will allow players to take on friends and compete to see who is the best Roller Fighter. Although the game currently has no multiplayer function, simply competing for the highest score might be enough to give payers a run for their points.

Enjoy a free cyberpunk adventure that is full of action and robots. Rather you are a roller derby fan or simply want to kick some butt, CB is ready to roll onto the battlefield.

Roller Riotis available on PC, Android, and iOS devices. Players can download it on their preferred platform and enjoy a casual action experience. MassDiGI has created this simple game with a deep story buried below a very colorful neon environment. Get ready for a Roller Riotas the bots line up for the revenge battle of a cybernetic lifetime.

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A New Free-To-Play Game Titled Roller Riot Has Just Been Released Full Of Cyberpunk Themed Action - Happy Gamer

Cris Cyborg reflects on KO loss to Amanda Nunes: It kept flashing through my head – Bloody Elbow

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One of the most difficult moments of Cris Cyborgs career was when the Brazilian took a post-fight shower after her 51-second knockout loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 232.

Cyborg, real name Cristiane Justino, says vivid images of the knockout kept flashing through her head every time she closed her eyes in the shower, and that she found herself in an internal battle for an entire week following the fight. One side says something, the other side says something else, Cyborg said.

The worst thing there is after you lose a fight is to take a shower, she told MMA Fighting in a recent interview. You take a shower by yourself and that flash comes in your head all the time, and then you start to question (yourself). Theres a fight inside your head every time you take a shower. The week after that fight was a difficult moment.

Cyborg was unable to negotiate a rematch with Nunes and the 34-year-old decided to part ways with the UFC to sign with Bellator MMA in 2019. Cyborg captured the Bellator womens featherweight title in her promotional debut, scoring a fourth-round TKO victory over Julia Budd at Bellator 238 earlier this year. The multi-promotion MMA champ would like to make her boxing debut sometime later this year.

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Cris Cyborg reflects on KO loss to Amanda Nunes: It kept flashing through my head - Bloody Elbow

Aldo, Cyborg reflect on what happened after losses to McGregor, Nunes – MMA Fighting

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Jose Aldo and Cris Cyborg share a few things in common. They both reigned at the top of the featherweight mountain in mixed martial arts for years and years, arguably the greatest of all times in their weight classes, and both lost their crowns in less than a minute.

The Nova Uniao star was unbeaten for a decade when Conor McGregor dropped him with a left hand to become the UFC titleholder in just 13 seconds. Cyborg, who also hadnt been beaten since 2005, lost her gold in a 51-second knockout defeat to Amanda Nunes.

The former UFC champions sat down to chat on Cyborgs YouTube channel Friday and discussed how their lives changed after losing titles so quickly.

We never expect to lose and lose like that, Aldo said. Its a sport and its 50-50, of course, it could happen one day. As long as were fighting, losing is a possibility, but I was so confident in my head going into this fight. No, Im super well-prepared, I cant see how this guy wins. For everything that was said and everything that was going on, my team and I were positive that we would get there and defeat him. And thats not what happened.

Aldo admits he started having doubts in my head after going down in just 13 seconds following a long training camp. He also recalled reaching out to Cyborg for advice on how to get my chin strong because he thought I have to train this aspect because the guy landed one punch and I went down, I have a bad chin.

The UFC booked a rematch between Aldo and Frankie Edgar for an interim belt at UFC 200, and Aldo admits he fought playing safe, not taking risks, not putting myself in danger because that was a fight I had to win no matter how. The Brazilian star won a decision that night, and was later promoted to undisputed champion after the company stripped McGregor of his belt.

Right after that I said, no, Im the champion, that was only one fact that will never happen again in my life. Thats why I have to train twice as hard, see the mistakes I made and never make them again, Aldo said.

Cyborgs reign was also shattered in seconds. However, at the end of the day, she felt a weight getting off my back after losing at UFC 232.

The former Strikeforce, Invicta FC and UFC queen says her nine-month camp for Nunes was chaotic, switching managers and teams, but still felt in my heart that I was prepared.

I think thats something wrong when there are no problems in my camp because I always have a problem in my camp and that motivates me, Cyborg said. I trained nine months for that fight and had so much stress around me. Its not an excuse, but I acted emotionally in the fight. Its not what I trained, I acted emotionally. We never think were going to lose in the first round. You say Ill give my all, Ill go until the end, and if they defeat me, Im going until the end. Thats what we think.

The worst thing there is after you lose a fight is to take a shower, she continued. You take a shower by yourself and that flash comes in your head all the time, and then you start to question (yourself). One side says something, the other side says something else. Theres a fight inside your head every time you take a shower. The week after that fight was a difficult moment.

Cyborg eventually returned to the eight-sided cage to give Felicia Spencer a decision loss and left the promotion to join Bellator and become the 145-pound queen by knocking out Julia Budd.

I see everything that happened as something for the better because I definitely became a better athlete and a better person, and Im grateful, Cyborg said. Im grateful for everything that happened.

The Lioness Nunes continues to reign as a two-division champion in the UFC, and Cyborg awaits her next contender in the Bellator cage. That said, the Grand Slam Champion hasnt given up on the idea of promotion a cross-promotion clash with Nunes.

Its not a dream, its a goal in MMA, to do something different, Cyborg said. A super fight between the Bellator champion and the UFC champion, Amanda Nunes and I. I think it would help MMA a lot.

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Aldo, Cyborg reflect on what happened after losses to McGregor, Nunes - MMA Fighting

Code 404, review: As with the bungling DI John Major himself, this comedy only just about works – The Independent

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Viewers have been left reeling from one problematic remake of a 1970s classic, ITVs new Van der Valk. Now we are hit with another, Code 404 (Sky One). This has more than a few nods to The Six Million Dollar Man, a highly successful American sci-fi series that first aired in 1978 about a crashed, technically dead US astronaut named Steve Austin (played with a certain wooden charm by Lee Majors). The white-coated scientists on the old show famously declared we can rebuild him and created the first bionic man. This cyborg with superhuman abilities cost $6m, of course, though the real-world expense of the primitive TV special effects must have enjoyed a smaller budget. Like RoboCop, Darth Vader and Inspector Gadget, the Six Million Dollar Man was an intriguing cybernetic being, one who made you forgive the silliness of his origins.

This time around its the corpse of a mockney London detective inspector, slyly named John Major, played by Daniel Mays. Hes been shot dead by gangsters and is the subject of high-tech experimentation. Code 404, presumably a reference to the online status code you get when the page isnt found, is set in a dystopian Britain a few years from now. This, jarringly, is one where no one is wearing a face mask or exercising strict social distancing, so it is actually a bit less dystopian than our present set-up, but thats a modern plague for you.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

As Skys programme notes point out, the augmented DI Major is a few quid short of six million dollars because when he comes back from the dead, all the wiring hasgone wrong. He has, for example, forgotten that a large object cannot be placed intact into a small space with brute force; mislaid the bit of acquired knowledge that cautions against taking vast quantities of cocaine; and thinks his assassin was a hood who went by the name Heston! Heston Blumenthal.

More worryingly, we also see via blurry flashbacks that he has no recollection of his rocky relationship with his wife Kelly (an even-wearier-than-usual Anna Maxwell Martin) and is unaware that his cop partner, DI Roy Carver (Stephen Graham), has since moved in with her. This makes his reconciliation with her impossible. Thus he is left with no past, no home, and no wife, which is funnier than it sounds.

The show is a bit of a cyborg itself. Theres some sci-fi in there, though Majors special powers are currently well concealed. As DI Carver says, hes still a bit of a knob, so there are plenty of wisecracks too, like when Major tracks down the crims who, startled to see him reincarnated, tell him that youve come back as a really bad copper. Theres an incidental crime drama plot and plenty of blood and gore. So we can see what the boffins and TV format surgeons at Sky were trying to create when they took on re-inventing the long-gone series The Six Million Dollar Man, but I cant help but feel that Armando Iannucci, say, would have been a more skilled, wittier surgeon. As with the bungling DI John Major himself, Code 404 only just about works.

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Code 404, review: As with the bungling DI John Major himself, this comedy only just about works - The Independent

Titans Tomorrow: What Happened to the Teen Titans’ Darkest Timeline? – CBR – Comic Book Resources

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There are lots of dark potential futures for many of the heroes of the DC Universe. One of the most chilling is also one of the most plausible: After the demise of their mentors in battle, a number of sidekicks embrace a brutal edge while becoming dark protectors of their world. In fact, this possible timeline has proven resilient enough to endanger the current timeline, one where the Teen Titans become the de facto rulers of the world.

Here's a breakdown ofthe Titans of Tomorrow and how they almost brought down the current DC timeline.

RELATED:Teen Titans: How a Legend of Tomorrow Rebuilt the DC Team

The Titans of Tomorrow first appeared in the final pages of Teen Titans/The Legion Special#1 by Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Mike McKone, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado. After helping the Legion deal with the Fatal Five, the Teen Titans (Superboy, Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy) end up in their near-future. In this potential future, an undisclosed crisis wiped out many of the core heroes of the DC Universe, leaving their protgs to become darker to reflect the times.

Tim Drake became a murderous Batman, Conner Kent forged a close connection with Lex Luthor after becoming Superman,Cassie Sandsmark trained with Ares and took over the mantle of Wonder Womanand Bart Allen grew up to become a very powerful new version of the Flash.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy fully embraced his animalistic side and became Animal Man, Raven became an emotional vampire on a coastal scale as Dark Raven andLorena Marquezadopted the mantle of Aquawoman. The Titans were horrified by their future counterparts and the lengths they had gone to maintain peace in a fascist world. Their actions had actually led to a split between the Titans, with a second group -- led by Cyborg -- remaining on the East Coast as actual superheroes. When the Titans returned to their proper place in the timeline, the young heroes vowed to avoid that future at all costs.

RELATED:Titans Should Retire Its Batman In Season 3

Not long after they encountered this dark future, the Titans ended up losing two core members of the team: Superboy died during the events ofInfinite Crisisand Kid Flash was killed by the Rogues while depowered. In this new, modified future, Tim eventually perfected a cloning techniqueand brought back versions of Superboy and Kid Flash. To keep their timeline from falling apart, the Titans of Tomorrow assembled more members -- such as the dark future versions of Kid Devil and Ms. Martian, Red Devil and Martian Manhunter -- and made their way to the past.

Quickly capturing the Justice League, the Titans of Tomorrow force the Titans to try and fight Starro on their own, so they can jumpstart the Titans becoming more powerful figures in the world and ensure their survival. They even try to kill Ravager, Supergirl and Blue Beetle -- each of whom became a genuine nuisance to their rule in their time. The Titans try to do everything they can to prevent the future, up to Tim Drake even putting a gun to his head to prevent himself from ever growing up into Batman. This eventually prompts the Lex Luthor of the future to assemble a Titan Army to ensure their future continues to exist.

Starro -- defeated by the Titans -- instead redirects and targets the Titans of the future. Eventually, Cassie is able to move past her grief over Superboy's death and kisses Tim. This enrages the Superman of the future and he attacks the teenage Tim. Batman is forced to shoot him dead with a kryptonite bullet to save himself. This was the final piece to ensure a new timeline, leading all of the Titans of Tomorrow to disappear.

RELATED:Teen Titans: Ranking Each Member's Modern Outfits

This didn't eliminate the potential dark Tim Drake from the timeline, however, as Hypertime means the possibility always continues to exist in some form. The future Tim was plucked from his time-stream by Mr. Oz and held prisoner for over a year. Mr. Oz started plucking other people from across the DC Universe, including the core universe Tim Drake. The older Drake eventually broke the pair out of the prison and tried to convince his younger self that it would be good to grow into him. When the older Tim finds out that the new, younger version of Tim (now living in a post-Flashpoint universe) never became best friends with Superboy, he realizes the timeline can be altered.

Realizing this means he can change the future, Tim goes on to attack two very specific people: Batwoman (whom he blames for the death of the original Batman) and Jon Kent (who could eventually lose control of his powers and cause the deaths of millions of innocents in an accident), hoping to transform his timeline. He even takes up a new identity, the Savior. During his attempts, he's fought by the present incarnations of the heroes, as well as being hounded by Hypertime outbursts that seek to return him to his own timeline. In the end, Tim absorbs the power of Jon's newest outburst into himself as he fades into Hypertime -- diluting the energy and keeping it from killing anyone. The future Tim ends up falling through Hypertime, seemingly at peace with himself.

KEEP READING: Titans: How Barbara Gordon Could Factor Into Season 3

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Titans Tomorrow: What Happened to the Teen Titans' Darkest Timeline? - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Bops Only: 10 Songs You Need to Start Your Weekend Right – Papermag

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New Release Friday always promises to be a treasure trove of the now and next in music, so leave it to PAPER to comb through obscure and mainstream corners of the internet and bring you the best. I curate this list each week and have specific, yet impossible-to-define taste in music, so who knows what'll pop up here? Kindly adopt the 10 songs, below, as your new favorite children and watch them grow up as you indulge my spiraling over whatever the hell I want every week! Is that too much to ask? Maybe, but thank you in advance.

Dubbed Sweden's "Eurobeat angel," Namasenda's latest single, "Dare" thrusts her into the A. G. Cook/PC Music universe. The vocalist and songwriter gets both "AM" and "PM" mixes from Cook; the AM mix finds her crooning gently to a bubbly beat. The result is certainly more daring than most pop music out right now.

Megan Thee Stallion's viral Suga track gets an even more energetic re-up with fellow Houston phenom, Beyonc Thee Rapper, who spits memorable lines about jumping into her skinny jeans to make them fit, OnlyFans and more. Elevation to the highest levels of classy, bougie, ratchet.

JoJo's new album good to know puts her famous songbird trills on full display, with no shortage of raw emotion. A distant electric guitar backs the singer's supple, winding melodies on "Gold," a song luxuriating in the best and rarest kind of love there is.

Innovative pop musicians Bree Runway and Yung Baby Tate team up for this sexy, dynamic cut about curving dudes with slick hidden agendas. Genre-wise, it coasts through left-of-center '90s hip-hop, specifically detouring through the legendary catalog of Missy Elliott. It not only sounds great, I now want to order door knocker earrings to match my full-body catsuit, stat.

Uffie has no time for energy vampires on "FroYo For Your Tears," the latest in a string of excellently written, gleefully weird pop tunes from the OG MySpace queen.

The Blam Blams' "Throwaway Lines" is a smooth slice of bombastic glam rock, complete with dramatic, harmonic vocals, wailing guitars and piano chords fit for the sleaziest cabaret in town.

Los Angeles songstress Madison Rose's uber catchy "Rainbow Phone" is likely to create powerful synaesthesia in its listeners. It's the sonic equivalent of kaleidoscopic color. Speaking of kaleidoscope, I'm getting some candy-coated early Kelis vibes heavily on this track that make it even harder to resist.

On "Standing In Line," singer/songwriter David Blank's heartfelt vocal performance is front and center. He sings poignantly about the pain of stagnation and being pulled into emotional quicksand, but as the song soars into its chorus, his cathartic release is near.

Michigan artist Furillostar's music often recalls the glorious early-aughts heyday when mainstream pop radio was saturated with insanely catchy R&B melodies by everyone from Destiny's Child to Jagged Edge. On "Txt'n Me," he playfully slips into the role of phone sex operator, accepting calls and nudes, singing gleefully about his wildest fantasies.

According to Rose McGowan, her debut album Planet 9 is meant to evoke a healing energy for a chaotic world. But perhaps she'll forgive us for thinking the alien cyborg pop of "Now You're Here" is equally effective as club-friendly ear candy.

What's your favorite track this week? Enjoy chaos and taste in equal measure, and stream our Bops Only playlist every week, below.

Photo courtesy of Namasenda

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Bops Only: 10 Songs You Need to Start Your Weekend Right - Papermag