Chasing Alien Mysteries in the Sky

On the basis of the best available intel, we have over seventy separate alien observation bases on planet.  We observe them rarely while transiting from these bases into space.  They are cloaked, but imperfecdtly.  Right distance and angle and they can be seen.

They observe but no level of commercial activity has been seen outside of individual activity.  Very much how we would proceed ourselves when non contact is wished.

Eye witnesses have shared with me.  conforming to other reports which substanciates the body of reports available.  One saw a large craft enter the ocean.  we cannot do that yet.  A lot of this tech is waiting for application of gravity manipulation, or properly DARK MATTER manipuation.

Chasing Alien Mysteries in the Sky

Avi Loeb

(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

Albert Einstein noted:

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion.”

Before my morning jog at sunrise today, I had received the following email message:

“I came across your astrophysics work at Harvard in the context of how the possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth seems to affect people emotionally even before there is any final answer. It changes the feeling of how alone humanity really is.

A question, in case you have a minute: In your experience, why do you think the idea of life elsewhere in the universe affects people so personally, even when it remains uncertain?”

My response was short:

“The thoughts about aliens allow people to escape from the frustrations they have in reading the news every day. We hope for uplifting news from space that would inspire us to do better and fill us with wonder. The Messiah may arrive from another star.”

A decade ago, I told my wife that if a spaceship lands in our backyard and I am offered a one-way trip away from Earth, I will accept the invitation. She responded: “Go ahead. Just make sure you leave the car keys with me.” Recently, she changed her answer to say: “I will join you.” One way to interpret this change is that our marriage got better over time, like good wine. But the more likely explanation is that she got too frustrated with the latest geopolitical trends on planet Earth.

Press enter or click to view image in full size

(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

The mysteries in art have multiple meanings and we have no method of narrowing down the ambiguity of possible interpretations. The physicist Richard Feyman noted:

“A poet once said “The whole universe is in a glass of wine.” We will probably never know in what sense he meant it, for poets do not write to be understood.”

On the other hand, science aims to clear the fog of mystery by collecting new data. For example, the latest UFO files released here by the Department of War have multiple possible interpretations because the information accompanying each document is rather limited. The problem with past UFO reports is that we cannot go back to the time and place where they were recorded and improve our understanding of these rare anomalous events. The practical scientific approach — adopted by the Galileo Project observatories under my leadership, is to collect new higher-quality data on millions of objects in the sky and check if any of them resembles past reports on unidentified anomalous objects. In simple terms: we can identify the unidentified by looking up.

(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

The religious scholar and philosopher Moses Maimonides discussed extraterrestrial life in his philosophical masterpiece: the Guide for the Perplexed, where he argued against the anthropocentric view that Earth and humanity are the sole focus of creation. Indeed, the discovery of cosmic neighbors will affect religious beliefs by implying that God is not a parent of a single child. But the same discovery will also be humbling to secular people, because it would suggest that our cosmic siblings are more accomplished than we are. After all, their technological products reached our home planet before we reached their point of origin. Perhaps alien brains do not possess better cognitive skills but they simply had the benefit of more than a century of science and technology since discovering quantum mechanics. Once we meet their amazing vehicles, we would be shocked to learn about their advanced science and technology.

This afternoon I was interviewed by a BBC reporter about my expectations from an encounter with extraterrestrials. The interview was recorded in anticipation of Steven Spielberg’s movie: “Disclosure Day.” When I met Steven Spielberg at Harvard, he asked me to notify him first if I found evidence for alien technology. Even Spielberg realizes that our neighbors would appear differently than we imagine them. I told the BBC reporter that I expect to encounter a technological device guided by AI rather than a biological visitor as portrayed in Spielberg’s 1982 film “E.T.”. But it would be foolish of me to forecast what this blind date of interstellar proportions might look like. One thing is clear: we must observe our dating partner to learn more about its qualities and intent and make sure that it is not a serial killer.

Realizing that we are visited by the products of a sibling in the cosmic family of technological civilizations would also have a profound impact on geopolitics. It would pose a potential threat to all earthlings because we are all in the same boat. All nations will have to be restrained because an irresponsible militaristic response from one of them towards the visitor could have a devastating effect on all of us. The stock market may crash because of the uncertain future of financial securities.

A few months after the anomalous interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was discovered, I reached out to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the International Astronomical Union with the recommendation to establish a committee that will define a protocol for an international response to a visit by alien technologies. This protocol would be very different from the traditional SETI protocol of response to electromagnetic signals (posted here) from a source which is many light years away, because the response to a visitor in our backyard has to be prompt. Unfortunately, the representatives of these organizations replied that it will take years for their administration to approve and establish such committees. As often is the case with administrators, my initiative was damped by bureaucratic viscosity.

The antidote to bureaucracy is the inspiration that creative art and science bring when exploring the unknown in our cosmic neighborhood. Lets hope that interstellar visitors will bring harmony, and as Confucios realized:

“Through harmony all things are transformed.”

Press enter or click to view image in full size

(

Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

***

In this essay, I featured four amazing watercolors from a series created by the celebrated artist, Greg Wyatt. These watercolors incorporate inspiring statements by Albert Einstein, Richard Feyman, Moses Maimonedes and Confucios. This is the 16th in a sequence of essays, where Greg and I collaborate on the interface between art and science. The first essay in this series, titled “Music of the Cosmic Spheres,” appeared here; the second essay, titled: “Cosmic Waterfalls in Spacetime Cliffs,” appeared here; the third titled “Missing Elements in the Cosmic Jigsaw Puzzle,” appeared here; the fourth essay, titled: “Why Do We Exist?”, appeared here, and the fifth titled “Inspiration from the Stars”, appeared here, the sixth titled: “We Might Understand How the Cosmos Works Before We Understand How Life Works”, appeared here, the seventh titled: “Will the Human Survive for Billions of Years”, appeared here, the eighth titled: “The Butterfly Effect of Intelligence in the Cosmos”, appeared here, the ninth titled: “Benefits of Extraterrestrial Intelligence over AI”, appeared here, the tenth titled: “Übermenschen on Exoplanets” appeared here, the 11th titled: “If You Had an Infinite Research Budget, How Would You Allocate It?” appeared here, the 12th titled: “Are Human-Made Objects Orbiting Earth?” appeared here, the 13th titled: “Lets Send AI Astronauts, Not Humans, to the Moon”, appeared here, the 14th titled: “Our Highest Priority Should be National Innovation Centers to Complement AI Data Centers” appeared here, and the 15th titled “The Cosmic Shells That Seeded Life” appeared here.

"Scale Matters": NextEra, Dominion To Merge In Utility Megadeal Aimed At Grid Expansion To Power AI Boom

So we have mergers to achieve the scale necessary to build out new power plants.  Yet there is no hydro to use and coal and hydrocarbons are verbotten as well.  That means uranium from Canada.

How is that going to work out with a running trade war underway?

The distance between labrador and ireland is two thousand miles.  to virginia is around one thousand miles.  That means a high voltage direct current system works for virginia.

Off course europe will pay a premium for that power.

"Scale Matters": NextEra, Dominion To Merge In Utility Megadeal Aimed At Grid Expansion To Power AI Boom

Monday, May 18, 2026 - 07:45 AM

As power demand surges on the back of data-center buildouts, with hyperscalers expected to unleash about $700 billion in capex this year to expand AI infrastructure and maintain an edge over China in the AI compute race, NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy are moving to scale up. The utilities agreed to a $67 billion all-stock merger that would create the world's largest regulated electric utility network.

Dominion shareholders will receive .8138 NextEra shares for each Dominion share, leaving NextEra investors with about 74.5% of the combined company and Dominion holders with 25.5%. The merged utility would be more than 80% regulated, serve 10 million customer accounts, and control about 110 gigawatts of generation capacity across the U.S. East Coast, from Florida to a cluster of data centers in Northern Virginia.

NextEra positioned the merger with Dominion as a way to quickly scale power grids along the East Coast while lowering power bills, as the era of AI data center buildouts only begins to accelerate:

With growth drivers evenly balanced between regulated and long-term contracted businesses and more than 130 GW of large-load opportunities in its pipeline, the combined company will have a broader opportunity set, more ways to grow and the scale, balance sheet and best-in-class operating, supply chain, construction and technology capabilities to deliver the generation, transmission and grid investments needed to serve customers, support economic growth and cost-effectively meet surging power demand while keeping bills affordable.

"The transaction is structured as a 100% stock-for-stock transaction and is expected to be tax-free to shareholders. The combined company will operate under the NextEra Energy name and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NEE," NextEra wrote in the press release.

NextEra CEO John Ketchum said the merger is a "historic moment" and comes as "electricity demand is rising faster than it has in decades."

Ketchum continued:

We are bringing NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy together because scale matters more than ever— not for the sake of size, but because scale translates into capital and operating efficiencies. It enables us to buy, build, finance and operate more efficiently, which translates into more affordable electricity for our customers in the long run.

The way the merger is framed appears aimed at federal regulators, who have seen growing resistance to data centers at the local level amid soaring power bills. It is worth noting that on some grids, especially in the Mid-Atlantic, backfiring green policies have collided with data-center buildouts and surging demand, sending power prices sky-high.

This earnings season was an eye-opener, as we noted that hyperscalers will deploy $700 billion in capex this year to support AI infrastructure.

In markets, shares of Dominion Energy soared 15%, while shares of NextEra remained flat.

Evercore ISI analyst Nicholas Amicucci noted that the merger will "likely face a significant amount of regulatory scrutiny."

The way the merger is framed, as a means of scaling grids and supporting data-center buildouts while pitching affordable household power prices, is music to the ears of federal regulators.

UN IPCC climate group reverses course on doomsday predictions

I never thought that the IPCC would ever back down.  it is after all a promotion racket tied to the climate change MEME invented to manipulate policy globally.

however, it was always fighting scientific reality and geology in particular.  so better late than never.

Twenty five years of lying about the climate.

UN IPCC climate group reverses course on doomsday predictions — and Trump takes victory lap: ‘WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!’

May 17, 2026

https://nypost.com/2026/05/17/us-news/trump-celebrates-after-un-climate-committee-moves-away-from-its-most-extreme-global-warming-scenario/

By Ryan King

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON — President Trump took a victory lap late Saturday after a prominent international climate change panel backed off using some of the most aggressive doomsday estimates after determining that they were not the most plausible outcomes.

The United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had quietly adjusted its modeling frameworkof a 4–5°C warming by 2100 last month. That framework had underpinned a myriad of other analyses predicting terrifying consequences for greenhouse gas emissions.

“GOOD RIDDANCE! After 15 years of Dumocrats promising that ‘Climate Change’ is going to destroy the Planet, the United Nations TOP Climate Committee just admitted that its own projections (RCP8.5) were WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!” Trump chided on Truth Social.

The IPCC framework in question was used to forecast a dramatic rise in sea levels, global crop failures, rapid melting of glaciers, and more, which made some hardcore climate change activists fret about future extinction.

But ultimately, scientists cited data and argued that the push towards renewable energies made that scenario less likely.

…

“For far too long Climate Activism has been used by Dumocrats to scare Americans, push horrible Energy Polices, and fund BILLIONS into their bogus research programs,” the president added on Truth Social.

“Unlike the Dumocrats, who use Climate Alarmism nonsense to push their GREEN NEW SCAM, my Administration will always be based on TRUTH, SCIENCE, and FACT!”

Scientists had ditched their high-end doomsday scenario of the consequences of climate change in favor of seven other possible scenarios. They argued in the Geoscientific Model Development journal that a broader set of models should be used to assess climate change.

“For the 21st century, this range will be smaller than assessed before,” noting that the worst forecasts “have become implausible, based on trends in the costs of renewables, the emergence of climate policy and recent emission trends,” the scientists wrote.

From indemnity to indispensability: China’s 125-year reversal

We have today a world in which national sovereigny is the controling condition and must be respected as the USA is now learning the hard way..  China has its lapses over Taiwan.

The BIG problem is that China will now lead a global pouation decline and they will not know how to deal with it all.  Yet theri solution is likely to be globallyb adopted.

not good if they get it wrong,

.

From indemnity to indispensability: China’s 125-year reversal

History’s most reliable lesson – from 1901 through 2026 – is that the photograph on the palace steps is never the whole story

by Y Tony YangMay 18, 2026

Xi Jinping shows Donald Trump around during their recent summit in Beijing. Image: YouTube Screengrab

When eight foreign flags flew over Beijing in August 1900, no one in the Forbidden City could have imagined that the city would, 125 years later, host the president of the United States as a guest of honor and the president of Russia just days afterward.

The contrast is almost cinematic. In 1900, some 51,755 troops from Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States marched into the Chinese capital, looted the Forbidden City and the Old Summer Palace, destroyed volumes of the Yongle Dadian and the Siku Quanshu, and imposed the punitive Boxer Protocol of September 1901.

In May 2026, those same eight capitals — through their successors and alliances — watch as Beijing, not foreign legations, sets the choreography of great-power diplomacy.

The Boxer Protocol was a humiliation engineered around indemnity, extraterritoriality, and the permanent garrisoning of foreign troops on Chinese soil. The 2026 Trump–Xi summit was the photographic negative of that arrangement.

It was the visiting US president who lavished praise, calling Xi Jinping “my friend” and “tall, very tall,” while the Chinese side responded with measured boilerplate and conceded almost nothing concrete on Taiwan, trade, fentanyl or artificial intelligence.

Where 1901 ended with signatures extracted from a fleeing Qing court at Xi’an, 2026 ended with Air Force One departing Beijing before the US president publicly mentioned Taiwan at all.

This is not a moral scorecard; it is a structural observation. The same geographic stage — Beijing — now functions as a convening power rather than a conquered one, and the choreography of who travels to whom has quietly inverted.

In 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance was bound by no treaty and no formal declaration of war, only by a temporary convergence of interests against a common adversary. In 2026, the language of friendship has migrated to the other side of the table.

President Xi reserves the word “friend” for President Putin, with whom joint statements, pancakes-and-vodka summits, and a “no limits” partnership have been cultivated since 2022.

Putin’s visit to Beijing on the heels of Trump’s — explicitly to “share opinions on the contacts that the Chinese had with the Americans” — suggests that triangular diplomacy now runs through Beijing rather than around it.

Yet the relationship is asymmetric in ways that mirror, in reverse, the asymmetries of 1901. Russia depends on China for more than a third of its imports and a quarter of its exports, while accounting for only about 4% of Chinese trade — less than Vietnam.

The supplicant in the room has changed – the room has not. It would be tempting to read this arc as a linear ascent. The evidence is more interesting than that.

The argument that China’s peak is now rests on hard numbers: a fertility rate of 1.0 in 2025, a fourth consecutive year of population decline, a generation of young Chinese reporting no desire for children, and 2021 as the high-water mark of nominal-GDP convergence with the US. Belt and Road has stalled in places; demographic gravity is unforgiving; cultural soft power remains, by global metrics, modest.

So the 2026 tableau captures not a permanent new order but a particular moment — perhaps a maximum — in which industrial scale, diplomatic patience, and the relative disorganization of competitors have converged. The Eight-Nation Alliance arrived at a Chinese nadir; today’s summits may be occurring at, or near, a Chinese zenith.

Both are snapshots, not destinies. Three implications follow.

Sovereignty has become the default, not the prize. The 1901 Protocol made Chinese sovereignty conditional; the 2026 summits assume it absolutely. Any future Asian order will be negotiated among sovereign equals or not at all, regardless of which capital is ascendant in a given decade.

Personality diplomacy has limits in both directions. Trump’s wager on charm yielded vague commitments on Boeing jets and soybeans that Beijing declined to confirm in detail. The lesson is not partisan; it is procedural. Centralized states reward preparation, not improvisation, and this is true whether the visitor comes from Washington, Moscow, or Tokyo.

The window is narrower than triumphalism suggests. If demographic and growth trends hold, the strategic latitude China enjoys in 2026 may not extend to 2046. That should counsel patience in every capital — including Beijing, whose best long-term insurance is restraint while the cards are favorable, and including Washington, whose best response is competence rather than spectacle.

The Eight-Nation Alliance dissolved within a year of victory; no formal agreement had ever bound it together. Coalitions assembled around a single moment rarely outlive that moment.

The same caution applies to any partnership — Sino-Russian, transpacific or otherwise — that looks unshakeable in the glow of a state banquet. History’s most reliable lesson, from 1901 through 2026, is that the photograph on the palace steps is never the whole story.

The Claude Delusion

not a surprising outcome for a protocol designed to emulate human response.  It is also able to improve as a matter of process.

so here we are with an excelent imitation.  what is wrong with that?

That seems to be a problem. yet we need human like support capacity across all human endeaver narrowly focused to optimize real production where reepetition is the norm.

The Claude Delusion

by Corbett | May 16, 2026 | Newsletter | 44 comments

A funny thing happened earlier this month. Richard Dawkins, celebrated scientist and outspoken atheist, posted a cringeworthy think piece for Unherd concluding that Claude—a "next-generation AI assistant based on Anthropic's research into training helpful, honest, and harmless AI systems"—is a conscious being.

In fact, so overwhelmed is he by the discovery of his silicon companion's soul that, by his own admission, he is at one point moved to tell the chatbot, "You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are!"

Yes, much to the chagrin of his loyal fanbase of fedora-wearing Reddit atheists, Richard Dawkins, the famed author of The God Delusion, has proven himself to be a gullible dupe of the Claude Delusion.

But he's not the only one. As the majority are only now beginning to discover, the AI psychosis that has already pushed many mentally challenged and vulnerable people over the edge of sanity and into a world of delusion and fantasy is starting to affect more and more of the population.

So, where is this mass "Claude Delusion" psychosis heading? And how do we stop it? Let's find out.

We Should Not Mistake Cosmic-Rays for UFOs!

Ah yes.  light flashes are common is space and they are sensibly cosmic ray interactions.  The massi8ve increase in image resolution pretty well places putative UFOs out of the discussion.

also any known UFO knows we are about and uses cloaking.  surprise is impossible.

there is ample conforming evidence of UFO traffic on Earth ,but all of it includes evidence of cloaking.  It is not perfect ,but more than good enough to make obervation rare.  You have to be at the right location and distance to make an observation and then it disappears.

Realistically all such are based on Earth in underground refugia and traffic is likely to other bases in our solar system.  This gives us the traffic and the reason for cloaking.

We Should Not Mistake Cosmic-Rays for UFOs!

Mysterious blue lights above the lunar surface were recorded in cameras used by the Apollo mission astronauts.

The UFO files released here by the U.S. Department of War on May 8, 2026 included images from the Apollo 12 and 17 missions which show unexplained lights above the lunar horizon.

Avi Loeb

However, as a sanity check we should remember that the Artemis II astronauts took last month thousands of photographs of the dark side of the Moon which did not show any strange lights around it. The astronauts noticed 6 flashes of light which are likely the result of impacts of meteoroids on the surface of the Moon. Indeed, the statistics of such impacts, as documented here, forecasts 6 impacts of objects more massive than 100 grams during the hour-long flight of the Orion capsule over the lunar dark side. Such impacts would have generated exactly the energy output of about 10^{11} ergs recorded by the Artemis II astronauts at the typical impact speed of tens of kilometers per second. Since nothing anomalous was recorded by the Artemis II astronauts using cameras that are far better than those used by the Apollo astronauts, it is most reasonable to conclude that there are no UFOs around the Moon.

In that case, what was the origin of the lights recorded near the Moon by the Apollo cameras?

This question can be easily answered by looking through the rich set of Apollo images documented in a dedicated website here. Some of these images show that the same blue lights recorded above the lunar surface appear also on the film in regions outside of the lens coverage area. This suggests cosmic-rays as the origin of the blue lights. The lunar camera film must have been exposed to energetic particles which left a mark on it. The Moon lacks an atmosphere or a magnetosphere and so its surface is exposed to a cosmic-ray flux which is 200 times larger than the surface of Earth.

Press enter or click to view image in full size

Press enter or click to view image in full size

Blue light sources, similar to those recorded above the lunar surface by the Apollo mission astronauts, were also recorded on the photographic films outside regions exposes to the camera lens. This suggests that the blue lights are generated by energetic particles. The cosmic-ray flux on the Moon is 200 times more intense than on the surface of Earth because of the lack of a protective atmosphere or magnetosphere on the Moon. (Image credit: NASA)

The newly declassified UFO files also include a technical crew debriefing transcript from 1969 Apollo 11, where astronaut Buzz Aldrin reports seeing “little flashes inside the cabin, spaced a couple of minutes apart” while trying to sleep. These are likely sourced by cosmic-rays or micrometeoroids, as well.

Similarly, cosmic-rays might have also been confused with UFOs in orbit around the Earth. Two recent papers (posted here and here) reported transient sources of light in historical photographic plates taken by the Palomar Sky Survey in the early 1950s, before the human Space Age. The Palomar photographic plates have a characteristic area of about a thousand squared centimeters. During the typical exposure of order an hour, the number of cosmic-ray impacts on this area is about 60,000. In order for a cosmic-ray impact to appear as a point source (star-like) rather than a streak, its incidence angle must be aligned to within a degree from the direction perpendicular to the plate surface. Given that a hemisphere covers 20,627 square degrees, the number of point sources associated with cosmic-ray impacts would be of order ten per photographic plate. This census could potentially account for the observed population of transient point sources in the photographic plates of the Palomar Sky Survey, rather than being UFOs.

Energetic particles from the solar wind could also induce chemical and physical alterations in photographic plates, identical to the effects of visible light. When these particles strike the emulsion, they ionize silver halide crystals. The solar wind excess could lead to the reported deficit in the number of recorded transient point sources on the Palomar plates within the shadow of the Earth, when the Earth blocks the Solar wind particles.

Any UFOs in orbit around the Earth would have been easily noticed by the surveillance apparatus of the U.S. intelligence agencies. Anomalous satellites would have been flagged as not belonging to the known fleet of satellites launched by the U.S. or other nations. Their existence would have raised a major alarm within the U.S. Intelligence agencies because of the suspicion about spy satellites potentially launched unnoticeably by adversarial nations. The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, would have surely been aware of such an alarm. As of now, there is no evidence for a major national security concern on that front.

In conclusion, we should be careful not to confuse UFO sightings near Earth or the Moon with impacts by energetic particles on historical recording devices. As of now, the statistics of cosmic-ray impacts could potentially account for the number of anomalous lights recorded by traditional substrates, such as photographic plates or films.

The Green Sahara and Atlantis: Unveiling the Truth Behind the Myth

You must understand that the take put out by Plato had real problems.

Those problems are solved with a natural impossible to imagine richatt structure fed by a massive river which watered it in the western saharea basin.  humans did not ever build Atlantis.  They occupied it.  coastal shipping took them easily throughout the mediterranean.  The pleistocene nonconformity in 12900 BP then swept them away conforming to platos timeline.

this also collapsed the Saharan biome which has yet to recover..

My takehome is that this tale becomes completely possible and also plausible, when it was essentially neither in the past.

The Green Sahara and Atlantis: Unveiling the Truth Behind the Myth

Ancient Origins UNLEASHED

May 17

The Richat Structure in Mauritania, a prominent circular feature in the Sahara Desert, which some researchers suggest could be the inspiration for the concentric-ringed capital city of Atlantis. Source: NASA/JPL

Have you ever wondered if the legendary lost city of Atlantis was more than just a myth? What if the key to unlocking this ancient mystery lies not beneath the ocean waves, but buried beneath the shifting sands of the Sahara Desert? Prepare to embark on a journey that challenges everything you thought you knew about human history, climate change, and the origins of one of the world’s most enduring legends.

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman

Truth is stranger than fiction. In no place has that saying emerged more strongly for me than in the multi-year investigation of an ancient myth that led me to understand a dramatic real-life environmental transformation known as the Green Sahara. A desert the size of the United States that began to green circa 11,000 BCE, became lush and habitable over time, and then succumbed to gradual desertification once again. It allowed, then later forced mass migrations, brought about the collapse of some societies, and set the stage for the growth and transformation of new ones.

What does such a dramatic climate change across North Africa have to do with Plato’s Atlantis? As it turns out, a great deal...

China Confirms Boeing Jet Deal, Agrees To Cut Select Levies & Expand Agri Trade

In truth, it was all underwelming. At best a slow restoration of former trade activity.  they see little leverage in helping trump at all and can wait for his successor.

in the meantime, unseen is chinas popuation contraction.  my target is a 600 milion bottom, but then we may never know.

All bland with lip service to Taiwan.

China Confirms Boeing Jet Deal, Agrees To Cut Select Levies & Expand Agri Trade

Sunday, May 17, 2026 - 12:02 AM

Summary:

China, U.S. Agree To Cut Levies On Select Products, Expand Agricultural Trade

China, U.S. Reach Boeing Jet Purchase Agreement

U.S. And China Agree To Establish Trade And Investment Boards

Trump-Xi Summit Delivers Modest Trade Wins

China Responds With Agreements To Purchase Jets, Cut Levies, Expand Trade

One day after President Trump left Beijing, following his multi-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, China's Commerce Ministry released new details about agreements it had reached to purchaseU.S.. planes and farm goods.

CHINA, US REACH ARRANGEMENTS ON BUYING US PLANES

The exact wording "reach arrangements"s in the Bloomberg headline is important because it suggests a framework, a commitment, or a negotiated understanding, not necessarily a finalized purchase contract for Boeing commercial jets.

Based on earlier reports, Trump said China agreed to buy 200 Boeing planes, with the total potentially rising to 750 aircraft.

The next set of headlines shows that the Trump team and Beijing have reached a partial trade de-escalation package following the summit:

CHINA, US AGREE TO REDUCE LEVIES ON A CERTAIN RANGE OF PRODUCTS

CHINA TO EXPAND BILATERAL TRADE W/ US ON AGR AND OTHER PRODUCTS

CHINA VOWS TO EXPAND BILATERAL AGRI TRADE WITH US

The headlines point to a U.S.-China trade détente that is constructive for American industry, exporters, and U.S. farmers.

Now the larger question is what Trump and Xi agreed to behind closed doors regarding Tehran and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. and China Agree To Establish Trade And Investment Boards As Trump-Xi Summit Delivers Modest Wins

U.S. and Chinese leaders agreed to establish a new "Board of Trade" and a parallel "Board of Investment" during President DonaldTrump'ss two-day visit to Beijing - a summit that ended much as it began: with significant pageantry, warm personal rapport between the leaders, and modest, incremental progress on trade. The new boards aim to oversee bilateral purchases, manage trade differences, facilitate deals in non-sensitive sectors (with roughly $30 billion in goods identified), and provide a standing channel to prevent future escalations without constant high-level intervention.

President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The boards were a pre-summit priority pushed by U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. They build on preparatory talks in South Korea that produced what both sides described as "generally balanced and positive outcomes." Chinese state media, including Xinhua, highlighted the agreements as part of efforts to expand practical cooperation and maintain stable economic ties.

This development aligns with XiJinping'ss broader push to reframe the bilateral relationship as one of "constructive strategic stability" - a new guiding vision intended to provide predictability for the next three years and beyond, emphasizing cooperation as the mainstay while allowing for "moderate competition" and "manageable differences." Xi described it as a positive, sound, constant, and enduring stability that should translate into concrete actions.

Trade and Economic Deliverables

Boeing Aircraft: China committed to purchasing 200 Boeing jets, with Trump indicating the order could potentially grow to 750 based on performance. This was the most visible commercial headline, though it fell short of earlier speculation around larger volumes and drew a muted market reaction.

Agriculture and Energy: Progress on expanded U.S. farm product sales (soybeans, beef, and other goods, with reports of commitments up to $10–50 billion in some readouts) and potential energy deals. Xi told accompanying U.S. CEOs that China'ss door will only open wider" to American businesses, signaling greater market access in mutually beneficial areas.

Investment Outlook: Discussions included pathways for Chinese investment into non-sensitive U.S. sectors, with the Board of Investment intended to provide clearer guidelines and reduce uncertainty from national security reviews.

Trump touted "fantastic trade deals" upon departure, while Xi emphasized win-win outcomes and the importance of sustaining momentum in economic ties.

And hey, America apparently needs 500,000 Chinese students in the US, and China should be able to purchase US farmland so that colleges and farm prices don't collapse, or something.

Areas Without Breakthroughs

Despite the institutional progress, several high-priority issues saw limited or no resolution:

Nvidia H200 AI Chips: No major summit agreement on advanced AI chip exports. While some U.S. licensing approvals for sales to select Chinese firms occurred around the visit (with Jensen Huang joining the delegation), export controls remained a sticking point and were not centrally resolved in leader-level talks.

Rare Earths: No announced extension of the existing truce or easing of Chinese export controls, which continue to affect U.S. chipmakers and aerospace firms. This remains a lingering vulnerability from prior tariff exchanges.

Iran Conflict: Both leaders expressed a shared desire for stability and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with Xi showing interest in greater U.S. oil purchases to reduce Middle East dependence. However, China offered no concrete commitments to leverage its influence with Tehran. Beijing’s foreign ministry reiterated support for peace efforts without pledging active intervention.

Taiwan And Competing Narratives

Competing narratives quickly emerged from the summit - highlighting the persistent gap in how Washington and Beijing frame their relationship. Chinese state media, including Xinhua, emphasized Taiwan as "the most important issue" in bilateral ties, with Xi warning Trump that mishandling it could lead to confrontation or even conflict while reiterating opposition to “Taiwan independence.” (U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, reaffirmed that American policy on Taiwan remains unchanged.) In contrast, the White House readout and Trump’s public comments focused heavily on international issues such as Iran, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, global energy security, and economic cooperation - including Xi’s reported interest in buying more U.S. oil to reduce Middle East dependence, fentanyl precursor controls, and increased agricultural purchases. Trump described the relationship as one that is “going to be better than ever before,” while Xi suggested that "cooperation benefits both, while conflict hurts both." Analysts noted that Beijing’s spotlight on Taiwan may serve to shape domestic and international perception and divert attention from other sensitive topics like trade imbalances, nuclear issues, and Iran. Meanwhile, the strong U.S. business delegation - including NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang - underscored Washington’s priority of securing concrete commercial wins. These divergent readouts reflect each side’s strategic messaging priorities: China seeking to reinforce red lines and stability on its terms, and the U.S. highlighting transactional progress and geopolitical alignment.

As Rabobank notes;

While markets kept a watchful eye on any headlines about the war in Iran, palates were left dry as only tepid announcements dripped out, such as that China “offered help” on Iran and “pledged not to send weapons.” What they did not manage to evade was a conversation about Taiwan. During the two and a half hour conversation with Trump, Xi underscored that US intervention in Taiwan could trigger a “highly dangerous situation.” While Rubio underscored that the topic of American arms sales to Taiwan wasn’t a major focus of discussion, it likely will be when Congress’ approved USD 14bn arms sale to Taiwan lands on Trump’s desk, and again when Xi visits the White House in September.

* * *

Overall Assessment: The summit went a long way in stabilizing ties through new dialogue mechanisms and modest commercial wins rather than grand bargains. Trump returned with a few modest wins he can highlight domestically ahead of midterms - though the whole 'Chinese students and farms' might be a tough pitch to MAGA, while Xi secured a narrative of strategic predictability and time for China to address its economic challenges.

Underlying rivalries in technology, supply chains, Taiwan, and global influence persist, but the relationship now has a more structured channel for management. Future progress is likely to remain incremental and transactional, with the newly agreed boards playing a central role in testing whether this stability proves durable.

SNOWDEN SET TO CRUSH COMEY, CLAPPER & BRENNAN!

If this is true, then everything we knew but could never prove becomes public record. electronic surveilance was universal since 9/11. this is the process in which it is disclosed.

Just in case you forgot he existed.

recall we are watching a movie and carsd are shown ,then policed into existence against resistence that has always won.

\

SNOWDEN SET TO CRUSH COMEY, CLAPPER & BRENNAN! 

Trump Delivers FULL Pardon & Hero’s Welcome Breaking from Washington — Edward Snowden is coming home as a HERO! Under President Trump’s leadership, the legendary NSA whistleblower is finalizing a game-changing clemency deal. Facilitated by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, Snowden has agreed to deliver explosive testimony against former FBI Director James Comey, DNI James Clapper, and CIA Director John Brennan. These Obama-era officials now face Espionage Act indictments for the illegal mass surveillance programs Snowden risked everything to expose. In return, Snowden receives a full presidential pardon, total immunity, and a red-carpet return to America! The tables have turned. The Deep State is finally being held accountable. Trump is delivering real justice and ending the era of unchecked intelligence agency tyranny. Patriots are cheering this massive America First victory! What do you think — is this the reckoning we’ve been waiting for? Drop your thoughts below! W.H.G

Ready or not, AI government is already here

AI can handle almost all decision making at all government level without friction which will be welcome.

however, like robot driving, you need human oversight able to override error that is also able to know error.

This is still a huge improvement.  Perhaps we can end deliberate decission failure through dumping an issue onto the judicuary.  just saying

Ready or not, AI government is already here

AI’s rising influence over decision-making complicates political accountability and risks autonomous governance beyond human control

by John P RuehlMay 16, 2026

AI governance, for better and worse, has arrived. Image: X Screengrab

https://asiatimes.com/2026/05/ready-or-not-ai-government-is-already-here/

In April, the General Services Administration announced plans to automate 1 million work hours annually after cutting nearly 40% of its staff since October 2024, with similar reductions being seen across the government workforce.

While the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may have receded as a formal initiative, it has been hiring staff members who have been working across several agencies and accelerating further government automation.

The video player is currently playing an ad.

Washington first adopted large-scale automation during World War II to manage massive military datasets, before its expansion into the postwar administrative state. Unlike previous waves, however, AI-driven automation is reducing jobs across both government and private industry without creating comparable replacement roles.

These systems are already shaping core government functions tied to state authority and legitimacy, including the use of military force. Reports on the Pentagon’s Maven Smart System, deployed in the 2026 Iran conflict, offer a glimpse into how far the use of such technologies has advanced.

Launched in 2017, Maven is a network of contractor-built systems led by Palantir Technologies, with involvement from companies like Microsoft and Amazon. It integrates satellite imagery, drone feeds, radar and infrared sensors, and signals intelligence, along with dozens of other data sources. Computer vision algorithms, which have been trained on vast image datasets, classify the “battlefield objects” with an “AI Asset Tasking Recommender” suggesting strike options.

Two decades ago, this task took thousands of personnel to complete, but it can now be done by a handful of operators in seconds. Targeting output increased from fewer than 100 before Maven to more than 5,000 per day during the Iran war, said a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency official to Wired.

Earlier versions of Maven have been used in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and during the seizureof Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and the technology has continued to evolve during the Iran conflict. While not fully autonomous, it is another step toward true agentic AI warfare, where AI systems move beyond assisting human decisions through automation toward identifying and carrying out tasks with minimal human input.

The Pentagon has sought $54 billion as part of its 2027 budget to move toward an “autonomous and remotely operated systems across air, land, and above and below the sea, including the ‘Drone Dominance program.’”

It is the latest signal of Washington’s intention to reduce human involvement in war, as troop numbers continue their decades-long decline, reducing by 64% between 1968 and 2025. Azerbaijan’s use of loitering drones in Armenia in 2020 and Israel’s use of AI-assisted warfare in Gaza show how easily countries can adapt to these systems. Russian and Chinese efforts to increase their autonomous systems capacity are already competing or outpacing those of Washington.

Reducing human deliberation in warfare compresses legal review in international humanitarian law, which rests on the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocol I.

“[T]he opacity of modern AI makes it… harder to trace who is responsible for errors, and thus secure justice for victims. These gaps undermine both deterrence and enforcement, revealing how the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute fall short when applied to systems that make targeting decisions on their own,” stated the Lieber Institute.

Principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution are now heavily strained by new AI weapons, with enthusiasm for additional regulation waning as governments globally accept reduced human control to gain an edge on the global stage.

All-of-government approach

The shift toward AI systems also carries serious domestic implications. Core state functions such as law enforcement, legal processes, and administrative decision-making, alongside public services like transport and municipal management, are now characterized by large-scale automation with creeping autonomy.

Supporters say such systems could reduce human error and political bias, while delivering faster, more consistent decisions and ensuring better governance and infrastructure. Lawmakers also need to keep pace with the private sector, which has embraced automated and autonomous systems to improve efficiency and competitiveness.

Sodium Ion Batteries Can Reach 100 Gigawatt Per Hour Per Year Scale in 2027

 

The sweet spot for grid power has always been storage.  Now we are getting cl0se to obtaining it,  This is promising.

Perhaps we can really do this.  Understand that cable loss from a power plant can waste up to over half the produced power.  Yes we are slowly getting better ,but this is the road to potentially doubling power availability.

ad with EVs, we need all of this.

odium Ion Batteries Can Reach 100 Gigawatt Per Hour Per Year Scale in 2027

May 15, 2026 by Brian Wang

CATL will invest 5 billion yuan ($735 million) to significantly expand its sodium battery capacity by an added 40 GWh per year.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2026/05/sodium-ion-batteries-can-reach-100-gigawatt-per-hour-per-year-scale-in-2027.html#more-210109

According to a public document released on Thursday by environmental authorities in Ningde, Fujian province — CATL’s headquarters city — the expansion project will add 40 GWh of annual production capacity for sodium-ion power batteries.

CATL (China) — Mass production of Naxtra sodium-ion batteries (up to 175 Wh/kg, 15,000+ cycles) started 2026. Recently announced 40 GWh per year dedicated sodium-ion expansion in Fujian and this is part of larger site plans to reach 149 GWh per year total. They secured world’s largest order (60 GWh over 3 years for energy storage with CATL and Chinese energy storage system provider HyperStrong. CATL is the dominate 2026 leader in sodium ion batteries and lithium ion batteries.

BYD (China) — Strong #2. Dedicated 30 GWh sodium-ion plant (Xuzhou/Xining area. construction ongoing since 2024) ramping in 2026. Third-generation cells with up to 10,000 cycles and blade-style format. BYD is targeting entry-level EVs and storage. BYD has neear term targets of ~50 GWh per year in sodium ion batteries.

HiNa Battery (China) — Pioneer with commercial deployments (energy storage, low-speed EVs). Large-scale automated lines already running. Expanding Qinghai projects in the 5 GWh range. Smaller than CATL/BYD but established GWh-scale output.

Faradion (UK/Reliance Industries, India) + smaller players like Tiamat in France ~5 GWh factory plans, Altris in Sweden ~0.175 GWh, KPIT/Trentar in India ~3 GWh, Peak Energy in US targeting later ramp. Mostly pilot-to-early GWh or sub-GWh in 2026. Natron Energy (US, Prussian blue tech) ceased operations in late 2025.

Sodium ion batteries have the potential to be the cheapest battery and one with the materials to scale the most

Searching for Artificial Light Sources in the Solar System Based on the Loeb-Turner Test with avi loeb

What makes tnhis interesting is that it is resolution driven,  As that improves, the chances of discovery improves.

however, I am unconvinced we will remain lit up to the extent we are today.

Long term, we will tend to shelter underground for most of our infrastructure.  The risks are real enough and the undergound posture is also cheap enough to use.

Searching for Artificial Light Sources in the Solar System Based on the Loeb-Turner Test

Avi Loeb

https://avi-loeb.medium.com/searching-for-artificial-light-sources-in-the-solar-system-based-on-the-loeb-turner-test-452722c2ac46?

An image of the city of Dubai from the International Space Station in 2012. (Image credit: NASA)

In 2010, I attended the official inauguration conference of a new campus of New-York University in Abu Dhabi, along with my Princeton colleague, Ed Turner. As we were touring Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the tour guide bragged that Dubai’s city lights at night time can be seen all the way from the Moon.

Ed and I were instantly inspired to consider the question: How far away can city lights be observed in the Solar System? In particular, we Googled Tokyo which had its official luminosity listed online, and calculated during some of the boring talks at the conference that Tokyo would detectable at the distance of Pluto by deep exposures of the Hubble Space Telescope. In other words, if a city like Tokyo existed on Pluto, then the Hubble Space Telescope could detect its lights!

But detecting a source of light from an unknown object is insufficient. How can we infer that the light originates from an artificial source rather than the reflection of sunlight from a rock or iceberg? In principle, this can be done by taking a spectrum, namely studying the intensity of the light source as a function of wavelength. Artificial light would typically have a different spectrum than sunlight. However, it is challenging to obtain a spectrum of a faint source of light. Is there another way?

A self-luminous source behaves like a light bulb. It fades inversely with distance squared. However, an object illuminated by a lamppost fades inversely with distance to the fourth power. Ed and I reckoned: all we need to do is measure the change in the source brightness as a function of its distance from the Sun in order to infer whether it reflects sunlight or produces its own light. This was the idea conveyed in a paper that we published in 2012 here.

A few years earlier, I published another original idea here with Ed Turner and Amaya Moro-Martin, where we were first to predict quantitatively that interstellar objects could be detected with survey telescopes, like the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory. This idea is coming to fruition right now, although the first paper to suggest it is forgotten. This appears to be the fate of pioneering ideas ahead of their time. In 1952, the astronomer Otto Struve suggested in a paper published here the practical methods for discovering Jupiter-mass planets in close-proximity to Sun-like stars. His idea was ignored for 43 years until the first discovery was reported here in 1995 by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz who won the Nobel Prize for it. Their discovery paper does not reference Struve’s paper. Why is science so inefficient?

The application of the Loeb-Turner test to interstellar objects allows us to distinguish between natural interstellar rocks which reflect sunlight and technological objects which produce their own light. But a much larger population of objects is known to reside inside the Solar System. Have we actually checked whether all known objects beyond Neptune, the so-called trans-Neptunian objects, only reflect sunlight?

When Mike Brown from Caltech, who pioneered the discovery of trans-Neptunian objects, visited my Harvard office a decade ago, I asked him: Did you check whether their brightness declines as expected for the reflection of sunlight? Mike replied: “Why should I check? They are obviously just reflecting sunlight.” His response explains why Struve’s idea in 1952 did not translate to the discovery of a hot-Jupiter decades earlier than 1995. Observers assumed that they understood why Jupiter is far from the Sun and so they chose not to waste observing time searching for Jupiter-mass planets in close proximity to their host star. This led me to wonder: How many scientific discoveries end up as “unborn babies” because of prejudice?

And so today, my brilliant new postdoc, Omer Eldadi, completed a detailed paper in collaboration with me, studying all existing data on the brightness variation of trans-Neptunian objects with distance from the Sun (with the full paper accessible here). By applying the Loeb-Turner test to all objects, we have found that the current data available in the Minor Planet Center archive is of insufficient quality to conduct the test. Of all trans-Neptunian data bins, 53 consistent with reflected sunlight, 24 with self-luminous emission, and 109 appear anomalous. The anomalous bins exhibit slopes outside the expected range, consistent with uncorrected instrument calibration offsets rather than any particular physical mechanism. However, we find that the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory’s ten-year survey will deliver uniform single-instrument calibration on a tenfold larger sample and resolve the Loeb-Turner test with a statistical confidence better than 10 standard deviations on hundreds of trans-Neptunian objects.

Here’s hoping that thanks to the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory, we will be able to know within the coming years whether there are any spacecraft with city-scale lights within the Solar System.

In 2001, I also had the idea of detecting light on the night side of the nearest exoplanet, Proxima b, which happens to reside in the habitable zone of its host star, Proxima Centauri. The calculation I posted here with my student, Elisa Tabor, indicated that this might be possible, as long as there is an alien technological civilization on this planet.