Up At The Ranch And Beyond

[Bluegreen]

APOD

Flying Saucer Crash Lands in Utah Desert (Credit: USAF 388th Range Sqd., Genesis Mission)



https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260719.html

A flying saucer from outer space crash-landed in the Utah desert after being tracked by radar and chased by helicopters. The year was 2004.



(3:33)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=g15eurDoDQU

[Bluegreen]

Mission: Asteroid Psyche



NASA’s Psyche Mission Just Flew By Mars: Here’s What We Learned

On May 15, 2026, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft passed about 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) from the Martian surface, successfully using the planet’s gravity to give it a critical boost on its journey to the asteroid Psyche.

Published 17th July 2026 (3:09)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7Gni54puoIg

Psyche Captures Stunning Timelapse Video of Its Mars Encounter

This timelapse uses images captured by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft between May 2 and May 31, 2026, during the spacecraft’s approach, close approach, and departure while the mission performed a Mars gravity assist. Created from thousands of images, the sequence begins with Mars as a small crescent in the distance. During close approach on May 15, the Red Planet’s cratered surface fills the imager instrument’s field of view. As the spacecraft departs Mars, the changing perspective reveals the planet’s icy south pole.

Published 17th July 2026 (1:15)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6_cH5-daLjg

[Bluegreen]

Newly Developed "Invisible" Drone

Meet Phantom Twist, a drone that hides in plain sight by tricking your eyes

High-speed rotation exploits the concept of motion blur to conceal a new drone while it's in flight.





Engineers have created a drone that camouflages itself as a faint, hovering haze when it takes flight.

The "Phantom Twist" prototype drone is a carefully engineered robot that utilizes motion blur to hide in plain sight — opening up a new frontier in low-visibility flight. Scientists say it could reshape how drones monitor wildlife, survey ecosystems and inspect infrastructure.

Most stealth drones try to disappear by changing their appearance, using camouflage paint, transparent plastics or complex optical tricks to bend or scatter light. The Phantom Twist takes a fundamentally different approach by exploiting how humans and animals perceive motion.

"Most efforts to hide drones focus on making them look like their surroundings," said first author of the study Michael Rubenstein, associate professor of computing and mechanical engineering at Northwestern University, in a statement. "Instead, we asked whether we could design the drone itself around the way humans perceive motion.”

The result is a machine that behaves more like a spinning fan than a conventional quadcopter. Typical drones have four rotors spinning around a largely stationary body, so your eye can lock onto the frame even as the propellers blur.

Phantom Twist strips this idea down to a single motor and single propeller. The propeller spins one way while the entire body counter‑rotates in the opposite direction with no stationary parts to visually latch on to — spinning 25 times per second, which is too fast for the human eye to resolve clearly.







It's about 10 times less visually perceptible than a conventional quadcopter, the scientists said. In practice, that means observers don’t see a crisp flying machine but a translucent smudge, with its few opaque components blending into a haze.

Published 22nd July by Alan Bradley – Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/technolo...king-your-eyes

(1:11)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=1mUgyV3A1O0

[Bluegreen]

New tool identifies the sources of fake videos





Artificial intelligence can generate videos so realistic that distinguishing them from authentic footage is becoming increasingly difficult. But a computer science team led by researchers at UC Riverside has developed a tool that moves beyond simply identifying whether a video is fake. It also determines which AI system created it.

The new framework identifies visual patterns within fake video frames that were unintentionally introduced by AI video generators, providing a forensic path to identifying the systems that created the videos.

"The patterns are like fingerprints that the generative model leaves behind, and our goal here was to find out if the signatures are distinct among different generators. It turns out that, yes, there are distinct fingerprints there," said UCR doctoral student Rohit Kundu, who led the research under the guidance of professor Amit Roy-Chowdhury in collaboration with researchers at YouTube and Google DeepMind. (Roy-Chowdhury is also the co-director of the UC Riverside Artificial Intelligence Research and Education (RAISE) Institute.)

The new framework is called SAGA—short for Source Attribution of Generative AI Videos. It represents one of the first large-scale efforts to trace AI-generated videos back to their origins.

The innovation comes as generative AI systems are rapidly improving and synthetic videos are increasingly being used in entertainment, advertising, education, social media and politics. At the same time, concerns are growing about their misuse in misinformation campaigns, fraud and other deceptive activities.

"Knowing that a video is fake is often not enough," the researchers wrote. "The critical need has shifted from whether it's fake to what is its source?"

The ability to identify the source of AI-generated content could help digital forensic investigators track misinformation campaigns, assist regulators in enforcing transparency requirements and aid technology companies in understanding how synthetic media spreads online.

Unlike still images, videos contain motion and temporal information—how visual elements change from one frame to the next over time. Different AI video generators produce subtle patterns in those changes, creating distinctive artifacts.





To detect those artifacts, the team analyzed both spatial details within individual frames and temporal relationships across entire video sequences. Rather than examining a single frame, the system studies how visual information evolves from moment to moment.

The system can determine whether a video is real or synthetic, identify whether it was created from text or images, distinguish among different versions of underlying AI models and even identify the development team behind a model.

The research is described in the paper, "SAGA: Source Attribution of Generative AI Videos" (https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12834). In addition to Kundu and Roy-Chowdhury, the co-authors are Vishal Mohanty, Shan Jian and Athula Balachandran of YouTube, and Hao Xiong of Google DeepMind.

Last year, Kundu and Roy-Chowdhury led a team that developed an artificial intelligence model that detects video tampering. Their current work is part of an ongoing effort to make generative AI safer as increasingly sophisticated AI video tools become widely available, as per Kundu.

"It's a cat-and-mouse game for sure," he said.

Published 27th July 2026 by David Danelski, University of California – Riverside – TechXplore
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-07-...ke-videos.html

[Bluegreen]

This Iguana Made A Break For It Inside Fedex



Ellen Degeneres would like this one.

(0:52)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LKgQSoC0YUw

[Bluegreen]

The Sky Tonight

Constellation Virgo





Virgo is the second-largest constellation in the sky and the largest constellation of the Zodiac. 

The constellation Virgo is famous primarily for its affiliation with astrology as one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac, but it also contains a treasure trove of interesting deep-sky objects. 

Virgo means "the virgin" in Latin, and contains one of the brightest stars, Spica.

Virgo lies between the constellations Leo and Libra, at 13 hours right ascension and 2 degrees South declination. It's visible in the Northern Hemisphere during spring and summer, and to Southern observers during autumn and winter. 





The easiest way to find Virgo is with the handy phrase, "arc to Arcturus and spy to Spica."

Starting with the curved handle of the Big Dipper, follow that arc to the bright star Arcturus, which lies in the constellation Boötes. Continuing along that curve, you'll then find Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, and you can trace the remainder of the constellation from there. Spica is a bright blue variable star, whose name means "ear of grain.”

There truly is a lot to explore within Virgo, as the large constellation measures over 1,200 square degrees in the night sky. Virgo contains many excellent sights, including 11 Messier objects — the most of any constellation except Sagittarius. This is because the constellation hosts the Virgo cluster, a large amalgamation of over 1,300 galaxies next to the Local Group, which our Milky Way belongs to.



In some stories, Virgo is Persephone, the daughter of the Greek goddess Demeter who ruled over the harvests. Persephone was kidnapped by the god of the underworld, Hades, and Demeter's grief caused crops to wither. Zeus, king of the gods, commanded that Hades return Persephone so that the harvests could once again be fruitful, with one catch — Persephone could not eat anything on Earth. Hades gave her a pomegranate to break the deal, and now Persephone must stay with Hades in the underworld for four months each year.

Her return coincides with the start of springtime when the constellation Virgo is yet again visible in the Northern Hemisphere's evening sky.

In others, Virgo relates to Dike, the Greek goddess of justice. She is said to hold wheat in one hand, which in the constellation is the star Spica. Nearby Libra fits the theme as well, keeping the scales of justice nearby their relevant goddess. As with all constellation mythologies, various cultures created different stories of the sky; Virgo, for example, takes after Atargatis, the corn goddess, from Ancient Syria.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNskKFIsBAF/
https://www.space.com/17021-virgo-constellation.html

[Johnnycomelately]

A little break from the serious stuff, some proper solo guitar songs. Uses a smallish standing-kick drum on some too.

I went looking for this fellow’s recent state and work, again, since I’d seen him play at our Blues On Whyte a few times. First time, he was iirc 14 y.o (his dad toured with him, as his Responsible). Next time he was imo lit (plus ~3-4yrs?), and that’s what I think I’m seeing and hearing here. Search gave 14 and 7 ago year stamps, and this 5 month one, but this turned out to be 14 and I’m pretty sure I saw it back then or near. Good anyways.


Reignwolf – Full Performance (Live on KEXP) | Raw Blues Rock Energy

Pandem-On
1.03K subscribers

149 views Oct 3, 2025 #BluesRock #GarageRock #LivePerformance

Known for his raw energy, electrifying guitar work, and a voice that channels the spirit of classic rock, Reignwolf (Jordan Cook) delivers one of the most intense live sessions ever recorded at KEXP. Often compared to Jimi Hendrix for his wild, improvisational style, Reignwolf blends blues, garage rock, and heavy riffs into a sound that is both primal and modern.

This session captures the essence of his artistry: gritty, emotional, and full of fire. Before breaking out as a solo act, Reignwolf also gained recognition as the opening act for major bands like Black Sabbath, Pixies, and The Who, cementing his reputation as one of the most exciting live performers of the last decade.

🎶 Setlist
0:10 – Electric Love
4:20 – Old Man
8:30 – The Chain
14:15 – In The Dark

If you’re a fan of Hendrix, The Black Keys, Jack White, or Led Zeppelin, this performance is a must-watch.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fop752IExAQ

[Bluegreen]

"Waterfall"



By Chris Coco (5:11)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uTTmD2sAzQY

"The River"



By the river (4:15:18)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9Ft5ZlofYV0

[Bluegreen]

4,000-Year-Old Tablets Reveal Magic, Medicine, and a Beer Receipt

For more than a century, the National Museum in Denmark has preserved a remarkable collection of clay tablets from some of the earliest civilizations in the Middle East. Many of these artifacts are over 4,000 years old and written in long-lost languages. For decades, they remained largely untouched, but researchers from the University of Copenhagen have now deciphered them, uncovering texts that range from magical rituals to royal records and everyday administrative notes.





About 5,200 years ago, people in what is now Iraq and Syria began pressing symbols into clay to record information. This early writing system, known as cuneiform, helped support the rise of complex cities and organized governments by allowing people to track goods, people, and decisions.

As the team examined the tablets in detail, they found a wide range of content, including letters, accounting records, medical instructions, and magical texts.

A particularly important group comes from the Syrian city of Hama, first explored by a Danish expedition in the 1930s. In 720 BC, Assyrian forces destroyed the city and carried off many of its valuables to their capital, Assur, located in modern-day Iraq. Some tablets were left behind in the ruins and eventually became part of the National Museum's collection.

"The texts in the collection that originate from Hama are almost 3,000 years old and deal with medical treatments and magical incantations. They had been left behind in the remains of what we believe must have been a large temple library. All other texts were gone," explains Assyriologist Troels Pank Arbøll, who has been part of the Hidden Treasures project.




Oldest known bar tab

According to Arbøll, these Hama texts are especially rare because very few similar examples have been found from that region and time period. One tablet stood out in particular.

"One of the clay tablets turned out to contain a so-called anti-witchcraft ritual, which was of enormous importance to the royal authority in Assyria because it had the remarkable ability to ward off misfortunes -- such as political instability -- that might befall a king," says Troels Pank Arbøll

This ritual lasted an entire night and involved burning small figures made of wax and clay while an exorcist recited specific incantations. Because such rituals were closely tied to the Assyrian center of power, researchers were surprised to find this text so far from the empire's core regions. Hama lay on the outskirts of these cultural hubs.

Among the discoveries is a copy of a well-known regnal list that records both mythical and historical rulers. This document is significant because it traces kings back to a time before the Noah and the Flood.

The version found in the National Museum appears to have been used for teaching and includes rulers from the late 3rd millennium BC. Other versions of this list also mention the legendary King Gilgamesh, known from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

"That makes this regnal list one of the few relics we have that suggests Gilgamesh may have actually existed. We had no idea we had a copy of that list here in Denmark. It is quite spectacular," says Troels Pank Arbøll.





"A great many of the cuneiform tablets we have today bear witness to a highly developed bureaucracy. There was a need to keep track of the advanced societies that were being built, and we have found a large number of cuneiform tablets containing practical information, such as accounts and lists of goods and personnel. It is therefore not surprising that one of the tablets in the National Museum's collection contains something as commonplace as a very old receipt for beer," concludes Troels Pank Arbøll.

Published 5th May 2026 by University of Copenhagen – Science Daily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0504023848.htm
https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2026/04/...and-beer-tabs/

[ThePythonicCow]

Above Post #38144 was subsequently also posted at A.I. is Progressing Faster Than You Think! -- Post #1705 (I'm just noticing ... no complaints.)

[Bluegreen]

August Calendar



August 2026: Total Solar Eclipse, Perseids & More!



Here's Tsula to tell us all about the night skah this month.

(8:27)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=NqiftoocRt0

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbbNriYhwz7/



If you’re lucky enough to be in parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain on August 12, 2026, you will be treated to a total solar eclipse. Areas outside the path will see a partial solar eclipse, including viewers in the upper Midwest and northeastern United States. Remember that for a partial solar eclipse, you must wear approved, safe solar eclipse glasses. If you’re watching the total solar eclipse, you might even see a Perseid meteor zip by.

Sky Dome Map for Visible Planets and Stars


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

All Saints Days



The Passion of St. John the Baptist



Like Christendom's first martyr, St Stephen, John the Baptist was an opinionated and fiery man, and like Stephen before him, paid for it with his life.

(5:44)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LwDnTfJQf2U

[Bluegreen]

An Abandoned SpaceX Rocket Is About To Crash Into The Moon




Expected collision

In the early hours of Aug. 5 (UTC), an abandoned SpaceX rocket stage is expected to slam into the Moon at around 5,406 miles per hour (8,700 km/h).

Launched in January 2025, the rocket sent two commercial lunar landers toward Earth’s nearest neighbor.

With its work done, the rocket lacked the fuel to return to Earth or move into deep space. It remained in an unstable orbit until gravity finally set it on a collision course with the lunar surface.

The crash itself poses no danger. However, it signals a looming regulatory problem. As governments and companies race to build a permanent presence on the Moon, there is almost no practical framework for coordinating activities that permanently reshape the lunar environment.

A rare scientific opportunity

For astronomers, the accident is a scientific opportunity. As scientists know the rocket’s size, speed and roughly where it will hit, the impact presents a rare chance to to study exactly what happens when something impacts the Moon.

What happens on the Moon stays on the Moon

Along with the dust cloud, the impact will also raise a tricky question: who gets to decide when humanity permanently changes the Moon?

Unlike Earth, the Moon has almost no atmosphere and no weather. As a result, any marks we leave behind will remain for a very long time.

More than 50 years after the Apollo Moon landings, footprints remain visible. If left untouched, they may persist for thousands of years. The results of crashes or accidents will last just as long.

Researchers expect the collision to excavate a crater roughly 65.6-98.4 feet (20–30 meters) across and eject a cloud of lunar dust, known as regolith, several kilometers above the surface.

Published 30th July 2026 by Gregory Radisic – The Conversation / Astronomy.com
https://www.astronomy.com/space-expl...em-comes-next/

[Bluegreen]

Jesus in the Himalayas: The Greatest Story Never Told



This video investigates the mysterious period of Jesus' life between his early youth and the start of his public ministry. While the Gospels focus on his childhood and later life, they omit this 18-year span, leading to significant speculation and investigation. The video proposes that during these lost years, Jesus undertook extensive spiritual travels, studying with masters in India, Tibet, Egypt, and Persia. It suggests that he was influenced by various spiritual traditions, including Vedic, Buddhist, Tantric, Hermetic, and Zoroastrian teachings, which shaped his future ministry.

Published 27th August 2025 (25:39)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2U63TVKMgow

More:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U63TVKMgow

[Bluegreen]

Magick or Madness: The 28-Day Ritual That Pushed an Infamous Occultist to the Edge



In 1909, the occultist Aleister Crowley and his disciple Victor Neuburg traveled deep into the remote Algerian desert to perform a magickal operation so dangerous it promised godhood, death, or spiritual obliteration. This is the true story of their attempt to ascend the 30 Enochian Aethyrs, a month-long journey that ended in a violent confrontation with Choronzon, the Demon of the Abyss.

Published 30th September 2025 (1:25:38)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TBoKOMfQPZ0

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
Jesus in the Himalayas: The Greatest Story Never Told



This video investigates the mysterious period of Jesus' life between his early youth and the start of his public ministry. While the Gospels focus on his childhood and later life, they omit this 18-year span, leading to significant speculation and investigation. The video proposes that during these lost years, Jesus undertook extensive spiritual travels, studying with masters in India, Tibet, Egypt, and Persia. It suggests that he was influenced by various spiritual traditions, including Vedic, Buddhist, Tantric, Hermetic, and Zoroastrian teachings, which shaped his future ministry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U63TVKMgow

There is another theory about Jesus’ missing years.

John Prine - Jesus: The Missing Years | Live From Austin City Limits TV

Austin City Limits
344K subscribers

2.8m+ views, uploaded Oct1, 2020

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=suoJ6mLVBlU

[Bluegreen]

Vaporizing Meteor Photobombs the Lacerta Nebula by Tom Burnett





What's happening to this meteor? This bright meteor streak appeared and disappeared quickly during a long exposure of the Great Lacerta Nebula, seen faintly in red toward the center of the image. The meteoroid, likely a small pebble, creates its glow partly by heating and exciting surrounding air in Earth's atmosphere, but itself vaporizes and leaves wind-blown gas and dust with colors that give clues to its composition. The featured image was captured last month from Death Valley Observatories in Nevada, USA.

This month is particularly good for seeing meteors. Presently there are three meteor showers ongoing, although they are currently competing for visibility with the glow of a bright gibbous Moon. The most active of these showers, the Perseids, will be busiest about mid-August 2026 -- after the Moon has dimmed considerably. This year, the Perseids peak nearly coincides with not only a new Moon, but, from some locations, one that totally eclipses the Sun.

[Bluegreen]

The UFO Footage They Don't Want You To See - 4K



Published 2nd August (12:16)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rRZV2HsKnEM

• Los Angeles boomerang UFO
• Canada triangle
• Memphis mothership
• Mexico black mirror
• Luminous cube in Afghanistan
• Brazilian fireball in the street
• Mexican plasma craft
• Ring cam whatzit
• Brazilian orb
• Michigan anomaly
• Minnesota craft
• Creepy black sphere in Texas
• Guatemala flying saucer
• Pennsylvania father and son sighting

[Bluegreen]

The Moon & Friends – This Week






A – The thick waning crescent moon will approach and pass the Pleiades star cluster in the early morning hours of August 6 and 7.

B – In the early morning hours on August 8 and 9, the waning crescent moon will move among the bright stars Capella, Aldebaran and Betelgeuse. The red planet Mars is there too. On the morning of August 9, the moon will lie close to Mars.

C – In the morning hours on August 10 and 11, the thin waning crescent moon will float near the red planet Mars. They’ll also be near the twin stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux (the brighter of the pair).

D – This GOES-19 CORR1 coronagraph from November 18-19, 2025 (designed to show coronal mass ejections from the sun), captured a fun view of the new moon, which would normally not be visible from Earth during this phase. This year’s August new moon brings us a total solar eclipse. The moment of new moon will fall at 17:37 UTC on August 12, 2026. That’s 12:37 p.m. Central Daylight Time in the Americas. And it’s 5:37 a.m. New Zealand Standard Time on August 13. It’s the last of 5 new supermoons in a row. New moons rise and set with the sun. Nights around the new moon offer the darkest skies, the stargazer's delight.

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

[Bluegreen]

Every Picture Tells a Story




Too cold




No more shoe-chewing




Mixer at full power




Impact documentation




Worst possible space




Selfie w/ magpie




Hard-earned advice




Reception conclusion; the bride sleeps

https://cracked.com

[Bluegreen]

Trinity of Cosmic Events Send Ominous Warning to the World | GRAVITAS




Published 4th August 2026 (3:40)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z4nOv8TBY0I