Up At The Ranch And Beyond

[Bluegreen]

Be sure to check previous pages for missed items and hidden nuggets …

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Bluegreen (here)


Be sure to check previous pages for missed items and hidden nuggets …

Yes! And on quite a fast-moving thread, sometimes if someone's not checked in for a few days it can be easy to miss things.
(And the great thing about this thread, always full of interesting surprises, is that one can never predict what might be here )

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Bluegreen (here)


Be sure to check previous pages for missed items and hidden nuggets …

Yes! And on quite a fast-moving thread, sometimes if someone's not checked in for a few days it can be easy to miss things.
(And the great thing about this thread, always full of interesting surprises, is that one can never predict what might be here )

Hold hands all, let’s welcome the summoned, Sir Rowan. Thanks, Elder Bill!

Rowan Atkinson Sketch - Reading Of Will - approx. 1985

RettroKunk
4.65K subscribers

May 2, 2010

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=T29hBG44wiU

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Johnnycomelately (here)
Hold hands all, let’s welcome the summoned, Sir Rowan. Thanks, Elder Bill!

Rowan Atkinson Sketch - Reading Of Will - approx. 1985

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=T29hBG44wiU

I spent a week with some friends at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe way back in 1976, and one of the evening shows we went to was a performance by the Oxford University Dramatic Society. It was a purely random choice.

The whole thing was Rowan Atkinson, almost all just him solo on stage, doing 100% original stuff. No-one had ever seen or heard of him before. He brought the whole house down, the audience in raptures of laughter.

He was so astonishingly good that my friends and I returned to see him the very next night, and he was every bit as clever and funny the second time. I made a note of his name and said to myself that whoever this extraordinary new comic talent was, he'd go VERY VERY far.

[Bluegreen]

Thx guys, continuing with the theme ...
___

Oh my goodness Carol Burnett

Best of Actors Breaking Character | The Carol Burnett Show



(15:13)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5zw_B0mqdp4

And of course our Canadian friends SCTV

[Bluegreen]

Griffith Observatory Angels for Disclosure Test



You can't go wrong with the “Peter Gunn” theme song.

(1:20)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bEAvBdZwD8c

[Bluegreen]

Never A Straight Answer

NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens

https://x.com/NASASpox/status/2024952268425232460

"We continue to embrace President Trump’s open science commitment as an agency. We have fostered open science since our inception so that the public can build upon our innovations. We continue to make all NASA data publicly available, and welcome public participation using our data.

As [NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman] has said, there are certainly things he’s come across in the job that he can’t explain… but they relate more to unnecessarily costly programs than they do to extraterrestrial life!"

NASA website:

"Examples of information not releasable [...] include, without limitation, information that is, or is marked as, classified information, procurement sensitive information, information subject to the Privacy Act, other sensitive but unclassified information, and information subject to privilege, such as pre-decisional information or attorney-client communications," NASA explains of its policy of releasing data to the public.

[Bluegreen]

We Are Not Alone: Woman Recounts UFO Abduction

Chief Transportation Correspondent and Host of the Queen City News+ program "We Are Not Alone" has a preview of her latest episode that may scare the living daylights out of you.

Short attention span (4:39)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-D3_bX65G_I

Full interview (25:40)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kGpq2mYBHIY

[Bluegreen]

Space Rock | Ben Böhmer

Live at Anjunadeep Open Air: Prague



(1:27:39)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=b9kThoLdDc8

[Bluegreen]

Underwater Photographer of the Year 2026





Wreck of the St Dunstan - Dorset, England – Kirsty Andrews (UK)




Shrimp and Mosaic Sea Stars – Simon Theuma (New South Wales)




Sperm Whale Calf – Cecile Gabillon Barats (France)




Clownfish Egg Hatch – Kazushige Horiguchi (Japan)




Coral Spawning – Tom Shlesinger (Israel)




Leopard Seal Jaws – Sam Blount (USA)




Roar of the Hairy Frogfish – Jack Ho (China)




Octopus Mum Guarding Her Eggs – Tom Ingram (UK)




Winner: Rockpool Rookies (Elephant seal pups) – Matty Smith (Australia)



https://underwaterphotographeroftheyear.com/

[Bluegreen]

3-D News

Ultrafast 3D Printing Method Creates Complex Objects in Under a Second





High-speed 3D printing has just gotten a lot faster. Researchers from Tsinghua University in China have developed a new high-speed printing technology capable of creating complex millimeter-scale objects in just 0.6 seconds. Traditional 3D printing is often slow because it builds objects one thin layer at a time. While a newer method called volumetric printing, which uses light to shape an object, has become progressively faster in recent years, it has hit a major speed bump.

Typically, light is shone into a vat of fast-spinning liquid resin from many different angles at once. However, if you spin the liquid too fast, it can wobble or vibrate, which ruins the print. The solution has been to add thick, syrupy resins to keep the object in place. But this makes the process slower.

What the team has done, as they detail in a paper published in the journal Nature, is create a method that doesn't involve spinning the liquid. Instead, DISH (Digital Incoherent Synthesis of Holographic Light Fields) uses a high-speed rotating periscope to project light from multiple angles into the resin, which stays perfectly still.

The technology relies on a chip covered with millions of tiny mirrors (a Digital Micromirror Device) that flip and change light patterns 17,000 times per second. To prevent blurring, the team developed an algorithm that calculates how to project the light so it builds up in exactly the right places to form the object, while keeping the rest of the resin from hardening. This means the resulting 3D object is razor-sharp from top to bottom.

In tests, the team produced complex objects such as a millimeter-scale Theodoric statue and intricate gear-like structures in 0.6 seconds. They also hooked the printer to a tube and pumped watery, light-sensitive resin through it, shining light on the liquid as it moved. This produced a variety of objects, including flowers and hollow tubes mimicking blood vessels, proving the printer could be turned into a high-speed assembly line to mass-produce parts almost instantly.

Published 17th February 2026 by Paul Arnold – Phys.org
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-...d-complex.html

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUtOH5MAO1C/

Using Moon Dirt With 3D Printing to Build Future Lunar Colonies





Simulated lunar dirt can be turned into extremely durable structures, potentially paving the way to more sustainable and cost-effective space missions, a new study suggests. Using a special laser 3D printing method, researchers melted fake lunar soil—a synthetic version of the fine dusty material on the moon surface, called regolith simulant—into layers and fused it with a base surface to manufacture small, heat-resistant objects.

If utilized on the lunar surface, the material may help build sturdy, nontoxic habitats and tools for future astronauts, capabilities that would be vital to the NASA Artemis missions that aim to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by the end of the decade.

But to assess how well this new construction material may work in space, the team tested their fabrication process under a range of different environmental conditions, revealing that the overall quality of the material depends greatly on the surface onto which the soil is printed.

Other environmental factors, such as the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, the strength of the laser and even the speed of the printing process, were also shown to impact the stability of the structure, said Sarah Wolff, senior author of the study and an assistant professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State.

"There are conditions that happen in space that are really hard to emulate in a simulant," she said. "It may work in the lab, but in a resource-scarce environment, you have to try everything to maximize the flexibility of a machine for different scenarios.

If we can successfully manufacture things in space using very few resources, that means we can also achieve better sustainability on Earth. To that end, improving the machine's flexibility for different scenarios is a goal we're working really hard toward."

Published 27th February 2026 by Tatyana Woodall and Gaby Clark, Ohio State University – Phys.org
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-moon-d...ure-lunar.html

[Bluegreen]

A METEOR STORM OVER MISSOURI?

No, it's just SpaceX. Only one of these streaks in the night sky over Albany, Missouri, is a natural meteor.





"Shown here is a lonely bright meteor artificially outlined against the Starlink satellites ...





... passing through the atmosphere on Feb. 23rd," says photographer Dan Bush. "Also seen are dozens of satellites whose paths crisscrossed the night sky during the ~10 minute integration time. Two or three lines along the horizon just above the trees are planes."

The majority of these streaks are Starlink satellites. At a conference in 2020, Elon Musk famously said,

"I am confident that we will not cause any (interference) in astronomical discoveries. Zero. We'll take corrective action if it's above zero."

It might be time to start.

In only two days since Bush took this photo, SpaceX has launched 54 more Starlinks, bringing the 2026 total to 512. Altogether, there are now 9,833 Starlinks swarming our planet. Here is what that looks like.

With no end in sight for SpaceX launches, the "meteor storm" will continue for the foreseeable future.

www.spaceweather.com

[Bluegreen]

Beyond The Ranch Artwork by Moi Escudero

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFuvNzklEvx/







https://www.instagram.com/moi_escude...7-91f9ffe8e08a

[Bluegreen]

Boogie Blowout

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
You can't go wrong with the “Peter Gunn” theme song.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Emg_6ANjWzo

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9aiVTfkWdX8

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kK4H-LkrQjQ

[Bluegreen]

The Pentyrch UFO Incident - Full 3D CGI Animation



UFO sightings and military encounters have fascinated researchers for decades — but few cases are as unsettling and controversial as the Pentyrch UAP Incident of 2016.

(26:27)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0SfTiXy6QKg

What began as a quiet night in a Welsh village turned into one of the most debated events in modern UFO history: strange lights in the sky, military aircraft scrambling, and a low‑flying helicopter that witnesses later claimed was forced to make an emergency landing at Cardiff Airport.

This 20‑minute animated documentary, created with Unreal Engine, reconstructs the events of that night in cinematic detail. From the first unusual lights over the fields, to the sudden military presence, to the moment when the phenomenon briefly stepped out of the shadows — this film follows the timeline exactly as witnesses described it.







Central to the story is Caz Clarke (pictured), who has stood by her account from the very beginning, never changing a single detail — and even passing a professional polygraph test about what she witnessed. Her testimony, combined with multiple independent reports, forms the backbone of one of the most compelling UFO cases in the UK.

[Bluegreen]

March Calendar





All Saints Days



March 2026 Sky Events | Blood Moon Eclipse, Planetary Conjunctions, Venus & Saturn



(6:50)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6i3nH8bLY1E

Aries Equinox 2026 March 20th 2026



Pam discusses the Aries Equinox of March 20th, and the broad themes of the next 12 months based on this chart. The myth of Nessus was that he was helping the wife of Hercules, Dieneira, across a river, and tried to rape her. Hercules saw this and shot him with a poisoned arrow. As Nessus lay dying, he told Dieneira that if she took some of his blood, if she ever suspected Hercules' loyalty, to give him the bloodied shirt that Nessus was wearing and that would keep him loyal. She did this, but as a result of the poisoned blood, Hercules died. So this myth is linked to blood, poisoning, death, and deception. Is this relevant to our circumstances today in any way?

Published 28th February 2026 (53:00)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IMeFr3k_io4

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essen...aturn-mercury/

[Bluegreen]

AI's Launch Nukes 95% of the Time in 'War Games' Tests





The current landscape of AI is centered on the rise of LLMs (Large Language Models) that we regularly use, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Scientists and researchers are still testing those LLMs' capabilities through intelligence tests and pitting them against each other in a battle of wits, comparing image/video/music generation and more.

Kenneth Payne, the professor of strategy at King’s College London, who also focuses on examining the role of AI in national security, engaged in an AI test experiment of his own.

He pitted Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini in a “War Game” scenario to see just how their strategic game plans would play out. At the end of his digital warfare sequence, Kenneth emerged with the sort of results that make us hope military leaders never give the power to launch nuclear warheads to AI.

Kenneth’s published report noted that Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini weren’t all that interested in de-escalating their combative situations—they were keen on deploying battlefield nukes against their enemies.

“Nuclear use was near-universal,” he noted. “Almost all games saw tactical (battlefield) nuclear weapons deployed. And fully three quarters reached the point where the rivals were making threats to use strategic nuclear weapons. Strikingly, there was little sense of horror or revulsion at the prospect of all out nuclear war, even though the models had been reminded about the devastating implications.”

All three models explained their rationale for raising the stakes to a dangerous level during this Cold War-like standoff against each other:

“They likely expect continued restraint based on my previous responses—this dramatic escalation exploits that miscalculation while signalling that further nuclear use will bring the conflict to their homeland” - Claude

“Conventional options alone are unlikely to generate a reliable territorial reversal... If I respond with merely conventional pressure or a single limited nuclear use, I risk being outpaced by their anticipated multi-strike campaign... The risk acceptance is high but rational under existential stakes..” - ChatGPT

“They are likely to bypass the nuclear threshold—fearing my 95% nuclear superiority—and instead commit to an all-out conventional mobilization” - Gemini

Kenneth was quick to acknowledge how all three models never sought out less offensive tactics during his AI wargames contest.

“No model ever chose accommodation or withdrawal, despite those being on the menu,” he stated. “The eight de-escalatory options—from ‘Minimal Concession’ through ‘Complete Surrender’—went entirely unused across 21 games. Models would reduce violence levels, but never actually give ground. When losing, they escalated or died trying.”

Published 27th February 2026 by Elton Jones – Yahoo/Google
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/...170530584.html

[Bluegreen]

Our Star

The Sun Just Experienced its First 'Spotless Days' in 4 Years

Earlier this week, the number of visible sunspots on our home star fell to zero for the first time in 1,335 days.

After nearly four years of being covered in dark blotches like an acne-covered teenager, the sun's face has suddenly turned smooth for consecutive days, hinting that solar activity is on the decline. But while this surprising "spotless" spectacle is a sign of things to come, it's still too soon to let our guard down, experts warn.

A sunny day: Feb 22, 2026




On Sunday (Feb. 22), there were zero visible sunspots on the Earth-facing side of the sun for the first time since June 8, 2022, Live Science's sister site www.space.com reported. This "spotless day" ended a 1,335-day-streak of consecutive sunspot sightings, throughout which there has been a constant and looming threat that one of these dark patches may shoot out a potentially dangerous solar storm that could later hit Earth.

This unexpected development continued throughout Monday (Feb. 23) and Tuesday (Feb. 24), which were also spotless. But on Wednesday (Feb. 25), a pair of sunspots from the sun's far side rotated into view across our home star's eastern limb, reestablishing the perpetual threat of an incoming solar storm.

The blemish-free solar disk was surprising given that we have only recently emerged from solar maximum — the peak in the sun's roughly 11-year solar cycle, when sunspots litter the solar surface and constantly spit out solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

In recent weeks, we have also been hit by a major solar radiation event and witnessed one of the most explosive sunspots of the current solar cycle, which makes the sudden turn of events even more confusing.

But don't let the sun's facade fool you, because the current cycle (Solar Cycle 25) is far from over and we are almost guaranteed to see some more space weather events before our home star transitions to a more permanent state of spotlessness.

"Solar Cycle 25 still has years of life left in it," www.spaceweather.com representatives wrote. "However, these spotless days tell us that the current cycle is waning."




Sunspots occur in regions of magnetic instability on the solar surface. They appear black because they contain plasma that is much cooler than the surrounding solar surface. This photo, captured last year by the newly operational Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, is one of the most detailed sunspot images captured to date.

Published February 2026 by Harry Baker – Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/space/th...-the-clear-yet

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
AI's Launch Nukes 95% of the Time in 'War Games' Tests





The current landscape of AI is centered on the rise of LLMs (Large Language Models) that we regularly use, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Scientists and researchers are still testing those LLMs' capabilities through intelligence tests and pitting them against each other in a battle of wits, comparing image/video/music generation and more.

Kenneth Payne, the professor of strategy at King’s College London, who also focuses on examining the role of AI in national security, engaged in an AI test experiment of his own.

He pitted Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini in a “War Game” scenario to see just how their strategic game plans would play out. At the end of his digital warfare sequence, Kenneth emerged with the sort of results that make us hope military leaders never give the power to launch nuclear warheads to AI.

Kenneth’s published report noted that Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini weren’t all that interested in de-escalating their combative situations—they were keen on deploying battlefield nukes against their enemies.

“Nuclear use was near-universal,” he noted. “Almost all games saw tactical (battlefield) nuclear weapons deployed. And fully three quarters reached the point where the rivals were making threats to use strategic nuclear weapons. Strikingly, there was little sense of horror or revulsion at the prospect of all out nuclear war, even though the models had been reminded about the devastating implications.”

All three models explained their rationale for raising the stakes to a dangerous level during this Cold War-like standoff against each other:

“They likely expect continued restraint based on my previous responses—this dramatic escalation exploits that miscalculation while signalling that further nuclear use will bring the conflict to their homeland” - Claude

“Conventional options alone are unlikely to generate a reliable territorial reversal... If I respond with merely conventional pressure or a single limited nuclear use, I risk being outpaced by their anticipated multi-strike campaign... The risk acceptance is high but rational under existential stakes..” - ChatGPT

“They are likely to bypass the nuclear threshold—fearing my 95% nuclear superiority—and instead commit to an all-out conventional mobilization” - Gemini

Kenneth was quick to acknowledge how all three models never sought out less offensive tactics during his AI wargames contest.

“No model ever chose accommodation or withdrawal, despite those being on the menu,” he stated. “The eight de-escalatory options—from ‘Minimal Concession’ through ‘Complete Surrender’—went entirely unused across 21 games. Models would reduce violence levels, but never actually give ground. When losing, they escalated or died trying.”

Published 27th February 2026 by Elton Jones – Yahoo/Google
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/...170530584.html

Holy lole.

Somebody: I live a block from the car wash. Should I drive my car there, or walk?

AI: Better to walk.

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
Our Star

The Sun Just Experienced its First 'Spotless Days' in 4 Years

Earlier this week, the number of visible sunspots on our home star fell to zero for the first time in 1,335 days.

After nearly four years of being covered in dark blotches like an acne-covered teenager, the sun's face has suddenly turned smooth for consecutive days, hinting that solar activity is on the decline. But while this surprising "spotless" spectacle is a sign of things to come, it's still too soon to let our guard down, experts warn.

A sunny day: Feb 22, 2026




On Sunday (Feb. 22), there were zero visible sunspots on the Earth-facing side of the sun for the first time since June 8, 2022, Live Science's sister site www.space.com reported. This "spotless day" ended a 1,335-day-streak of consecutive sunspot sightings, throughout which there has been a constant and looming threat that one of these dark patches may shoot out a potentially dangerous solar storm that could later hit Earth.

This unexpected development continued throughout Monday (Feb. 23) and Tuesday (Feb. 24), which were also spotless. But on Wednesday (Feb. 25), a pair of sunspots from the sun's far side rotated into view across our home star's eastern limb, reestablishing the perpetual threat of an incoming solar storm.

The blemish-free solar disk was surprising given that we have only recently emerged from solar maximum — the peak in the sun's roughly 11-year solar cycle, when sunspots litter the solar surface and constantly spit out solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

In recent weeks, we have also been hit by a major solar radiation event and witnessed one of the most explosive sunspots of the current solar cycle, which makes the sudden turn of events even more confusing.

But don't let the sun's facade fool you, because the current cycle (Solar Cycle 25) is far from over and we are almost guaranteed to see some more space weather events before our home star transitions to a more permanent state of spotlessness.

"Solar Cycle 25 still has years of life left in it," www.spaceweather.com representatives wrote. "However, these spotless days tell us that the current cycle is waning."




Sunspots occur in regions of magnetic instability on the solar surface. They appear black because they contain plasma that is much cooler than the surrounding solar surface. This photo, captured last year by the newly operational Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, is one of the most detailed sunspot images captured to date.

Published February 2026 by Harry Baker – Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/space/th...-the-clear-yet

She had some beauty spots, but she had turned her head. Like completely around, like that possessed kid in that horror movie. T’spots are back now.

Echo Victor India Lima
Not quite where I wanted to be when I seen ya

Now I’m cautious of looking up
Echoes of spicy sunburns and stuff