US Tests Highly-Accurate Nuclear Gravity Bomb

Scientists say they have successfully carried out an initial test flight for an improved version of a nuclear bomb that has been in the U.S. arsenal for decades, The Associated Press reported Saturday.

Sandia National Laboratories conducted a test last month to assess the non-nuclear capabilities of the B61-12, the report said. As part of the test, an F-16 dropped an inert version of the weapon over a Nevada desert.

"It's great to see things all come together: the weapon design, the test preparation, the aircraft, the range and the people who made it happen," said Anna Schauer, the director of the lab’s Stockpile Resource Center.


ZeroHedge:

"In a well-timed statement, just as tensions over North Korea's nuclear program and potential US airstrikes run wild, the NNSA said that in conjunction with the US Air Force, it had completed the first qualification flight test of B61-12 gravity nuclear bomb on March 14 at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada."

In the press release, the NNSA said that the "non-nuclear assembly test" was dropped from an F-16 based at Nellis Air Force Base and was intended to evaluate "both the weapon’s non-nuclear functions as well as the aircraft’s capability to deliver the weapon."

Xiaomi laptop will with Windows 10 to compete with Apple MacBook Pro and MacBook Air 2016

There was a rumor last year that Xiaomi is working on a Notebook which will compete with Apple’s Macbook Air series. Recently a tipster revealed that Mi Notebook will launch this summer. Now a recent leak in Weibo shows the hardware of Mi Notebook before going to the mass production. This is now confirmed that Xiaomi is up for this Notebook and will be launched somewhere between July or August. The laptop that is dubbed as Mi Notebook by the rumor mill is slated to get announced in with an affordable price tag.

Universe Likely Has Many Extinct Civilizations: Study

A new paper in Astrobiology suggests there could be a way to simplify the equation, based on the observations of exoplanets that we have made since the first one was discovered in the 1990s. While the result is depressing — life was plentiful, but is likely extinct — it does have applications to help us extend our own civilization, the researchers said. The research was led by Adam Frank, a physics and astronomer professor at the University of Rochester.

“Our results imply that our evolution has not been unique and has probably happened many times before,” Frank said. “The other cases are likely to include many energy-intensive civilizations dealing with their feedback onto their planets as their civilizations grow. That means we can begin exploring the problem using simulations to get a sense of what leads to long lived civilizations and what doesn’t.” (discovery)

Related:

How Aliens Can Find Us (and Vice Versa)
How Many Intelligent Aliens are Out There?

Rise of the Machines and AI: experts warn

A Google computer's stunning 3-0 victory in a Man-vs-Machine face-off over the ultimate board game highlights the need to keep Artificial Intelligence under human control, experts said Saturday.

And while AI plays a key role in building a better, safer world, some fear the fast pace of development could finally leave humans outwitted by our own inventions.



AlphaGo's triumph "shows that the methods we do have are even more powerful than we first thought," said AI expert Stuart Russell of the University of California's Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences department.

"The fact that AI methods are progressing much faster than expected makes the question of the long-term outcome more urgent," he told AFP by email.

Until just five months ago, computer mastery of the 3,000-year-old game of Go, said to be the most complex ever invented, was thought to be at least a decade off.

Related:

In Seoul, Go Games Spark Interest (and Concern) About Artificial Intelligence
Rise of the Machines: Keep an eye on AI

Apple lost another high-profile employee

Apple lost another high-profile employee after the Cupertino, California-based company announced that Zane Rowe, head of North American sales, would be leaving the iPhone maker for unknown reasons, reports Reuters. Rowe’s departure follows the recent news that Apple’s longtime vice president of worldwide communications, Katie Cotton, would be resigning from the company in order to spend more time with her family.

“Katie has given her all to this company for over 18 years,” said Apple in a statement to the San Jose Mercury News. “She has wanted to spend time with her children for some time now. We are really going to miss her.”

Unlike Cotton, Rowe had only been with Apple for approximately two years. The former United Continental chief financial officer was hired by Apple in 2012. Although no reasons were given for Rowe’s departure, it should be noted that his exit follows the recent hiring of Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s vaunted new senior vice president of retail and online stores.