PhD in economics is probably the best Professional degree

People often ask me: “Noah, what career path can I take where I’m virtually guaranteed to get a well-paying job in my field of interest, which doesn’t force me to work 80 hours a week, and which gives me both autonomy and intellectual excitement?” Well, actually, I lied, no one asks me that. But they should ask me that, because I do know of such a career path, and it’s called the economics PhD.
“What?!!” you sputter. ! Don’t you know that PhDs are proliferating like mushrooms even as tenure-track jobs disappear? Do you want us to be stuck in eternal postdoc hell, or turn into adjunct-faculty wage-slaves?!”
To which I respond: There are PhDs, and there are PhDs, and then there are econ PhDs.
Basically, I think of PhDs as mostly falling into one of three categories:
1. Lifestyle PhDs. These include math, literature and the humanities, theoretical physics, history, many social sciences, and the arts. These are PhDs you do because you really, really, really love just sitting and thinking about stuff. You work on your own interests, at your own pace. If you want to be a poor bohemian scholar who lives a pure “life of the mind,” these PhDs are for you. I totally respect people who intentionally choose this lifestyle; I’d be pretty happy doing it myself, I think. Don’t expect to get a job in your field when you graduate, though.
2. Lab science PhDs. These include biology, chemistry, neuroscience, electrical engineering, etc. These are PhDs you do because you’re either a suicidal fool or an incomprehensible sociopath. They mainly involve utterly brutal hours slaving away in a laboratory on someone else’s project for your entire late 20s, followed by years of postdoc hell for your early 30s, with a low percentage chance of a tenure-track faculty position. To find out what these PhD programs are like, read this blog post. If you are considering getting a lab science PhD, please immediately hit yourself in the face with a brick. Now you know what it’s like.
(Note: People have been pointing out that electrical engineering isn’t as bad as the other lab sciences, with somewhat more autonomy and better job prospects. That’s consistent with my observations. But econ still beats it by a mile…)
3. PhDs that work. I’m not exactly sure which PhDs fall into this category, but my guess is that it includes marketing, applied math and statistics, finance, computer science, accounting, and management. It definitely, however, includes economics. Economics is the best PhD you can possibly get.
Why get a PhD in economics? Here’s why:

Reason 1: You get a job

Can I say it any more clearly? An econ PhD at even a middle-ranked school leads, with near-absolute certainty, to a well-paying job in an economics-related field. I believe the University of Michigan, for example, has gone many, many years without having a PhD student graduate without a job in hand.
You will not always get a tenure-track job, though there are a lot more of those available right now than in other fields (thanks, I am guessing, to the nationwide explosion in business schools, which hire a lot of econ PhDs, including yours truly). But if you don’t get a tenure-track job, you will get a well-paid job as a consultant, or a well-paid job in finance, or a decently-well-paid job in one of the many, many government agencies that hire armies of economists. All of these are what are commonly referred to as “good jobs,” with good pay, decent job security, non-brutal working conditions, and close relation to the economics field.
Now, this may be less true at lower-ranked schools; I don’t have the data. I imagine it’s not as certain, but still far, far better than for lab science PhDs at similarly ranked schools.
Why do so very few newly minted econ PhDs face the prospect of unemployment? Part of it is due to the econ field’s extremely well-managed (and centrally planned!) job market. Part of it is due to the large demand from the lucrative consulting and finance industries. And part is due to the aforementioned proliferation of b-schools. There may be other reasons I don’t know. But in an America where nearly every career path is looking more and more like a gamble, the econ PhD remains a rock of stability—the closest thing you’ll find to a direct escalator to the upper middle class.

Reason 2: You get autonomy

Unlike the hellish lab science PhD programs, an econ grad student is not tied to an adviser. Since profs don’t usually fund econ students out of grants (few even have big grants), economics students mostly pay their way by teaching. This means you usually have to teach, but that is not nearly as grueling as working in a lab. Even when a professor does support you with a grant, he or she generally employs you as a research assistant, and gives you ample time to work on your own research.
Compare this to a lab science PhD, in which you basically do the project your adviser tells you to do, and you succeed or fail in part based on whether your adviser chooses a project that works out. Your destiny is out of your hands, your creativity is squelched, and your life is utterly at the mercy of a single taskmaster. In economics, on the other hand, you can start doing your own original, independent research the minute you show up (or even before). Professors generally encourage you to start your own projects. Unlike in lab science PhD programs (but as in “lifestyle” PhD programs), your time is mostly your own to manage.
This means that as an econ grad student, you’ll have a life. Or a chance at having a life, anyway.

Reason 3: You get intellectual fulfillment

Econ is not as intellectually deep as some fields, like physics, math, or literature. But it’s deep enough to keep you intellectually engaged. Econ allows you to think about human interactions, and social phenomena, in a number of different intellectually rigorous ways (e.g. game theory, incentives, decision theory, quantification of norms and values, bounded rationality, etc.). That’s cool stuff.
And economists, even if their research is highly specialized, are encouraged to think about all different kinds of topics in the field, and encouraged to think freely and originally. That’s something few people appreciate. In a lab science, in contrast, you are encouraged to burrow down in your area of hyper-specialization.
In econ, furthermore, you get exposed to a bunch of different disciplines; you get to learn some statistics, a little math, some sociology, a bit of psychology, and maybe even some history.
Also, as an economist, your status as an intellectual will not disappear when you get a job. Even if you go to work as a consultant or a financier, your thoughts will be welcomed and considered by economists in the blogosphere. And you can even publish econ papers as a non-academic.
In fact, it’s also worth pointing out that econ is a field in which outsiders and mavericks are able to challenge the status quo. This is in spite of the economics profession’s well-known deference to intellectual authority figures. The simple fact is that in econ, you don’t need money to advance new ideas, as you do in biology or chemistry. And you don’t need math wizardry either, as you would if you wanted to introduce new ideas in physics.

Reason 4: The risk of failure is low

In economics PhD programs, the main risk of failure is not passing your preliminary exams. This happens to a substantial fraction of people who get admitted to econ programs (maybe 25% or fewer at Michigan). But if you flunk out, you get a complimentary Master’s degree, which is probably worth the 2 years that you’ll have spent in the program. And after you pass the prelims, there is little risk of not finishing a dissertation; unlike in most fields, you do not have to publish to graduate.

Caveats about the econ PhD

Of course, I don’t want to make it seem like the econ PhD is an utterly dominant strategy for life fulfillment. There are some caveats that you should definitely take into account.
First, there is the fact that an econ PhD program is still a PhD program. That means, first of all, that you will be in poverty in your late 20s. That is not fun for most people (some “lifestyle PhD” students and bohemian artists excepted). Also, econ PhD programs force you to manage your own time, while giving you very little feedback about how well or badly you’re actually doing. That can be stressful and depressing.
Second, be aware that the culture of economics is still fairly conservative, and not in the good way. Econ is one of the few places in our society where overtly racist and sexist ideas are not totally taboo (Steve Landsburg is an extreme example, but that gives you the general flavor). Discrimination against women, in particular, probably still exists, though I’d say (or I’d hope, anyway) that it’s on the wane.
Finally, there is the fact that if enough people read and believe this blog post, it will cease to be true. There’s a piece of economics for you: as soon as people become aware that a thing is overvalued, they will start bidding up its price. But information diffuses slowly. Expect the econ PhD to lose its luster in five to 10 years, but that still gives you a window of time.
Anyway, despite these caveats, the econ PhD still seems like quite a sweet deal to me. And compared to a hellish, soul-crushing, and economically dubious lab science PhD, econ seems like a slam dunk. There are very few such bargains left in the American labor market. Grab this one while it’s still on the shelves.

Skunkworks can travel the stars since 1990s

It’s quite remarkable how many verified statements we have regarding UFOs (unidentified flying objects) and extraterrestrials from people who have held the highest positions possible within the government, military, academia, politics and more. To be honest, it’s overwhelming, and when you put all of those statements together with all of the previously classified documentation that has been released over the past few years, it paints a startling picture. Anybody who has done even a fair amount of research, and adheres to the philosophy of “condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance,” would not be able to deny this, and I have yet to come across someone who has done the research that still subjects this topic to the “conspiracy theory” realm.

To view a fraction of these verified quotes, and documents, more you can click HERE.

Below is an example, and a video I’ve used many times before, as it is an extremely powerful statement. I apologize if you’ve seen it before, but it really hits home. There really is an “abundant amount of evidence.”

Again, to view a fraction of these verified quotes, and documents, more you can click HERE. Apart from all the verified statements that come directly from the source, we also have statement made that cannot be completely verified, but are given a great deal of validity from some very credible people. These are also interesting and worth examining. Some of these quotes comes from Ben Rich.

Rich was the second director of Lockheed Skunkwork’s from 1975-1991. He’s been called the Father of Stealth, having overseen the development of the stealth fighter, the F-117A nighthawk. Before his death, Rich made several shocking open statements about the reality of UFOs and extraterrestrials.

“We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects, and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity. Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do it.” (1)

“We now have technology to take ET home. No it won’t take someone’s lifetime to do it. There is an error in the equations. We know what it is. We now have the capability to travel to the stars.” (1)

“There are two types of UFOs — the ones we build and the ones ‘they’ build.” (1)

When Rich was asked how UFO propulsion worked, he said, “Let me ask you. How does ESP work?” The questioner responded with, “All points in time and space are connected?” Rich then said, “That’s how it works!”  (This seems to be related to Quantum entanglement, you can read more about that here.)

What Are The Sources For These Quotes?

One of the sources is aerospace journalist, James Goodall, who wrote for publications such as Jane’s Defense Weekly, Aviation Week and Space Technology, and Interavia.  He is an accomplished speaker specializing in the history, development, and operations of the world’s only Mach 3 capable, manned air breathing aircraft, the SR-71 family of aircraft. (1) (source)(source)(source)
He is also an author, as well as the Associate Curator at the Pacific Aviation Meseum, HI. He was also the restoration manager at the Museum of Flight in Paine Field, Everett, WA.
Goodall interviewed many from the classified black budget world (read more about that world here.) He claimed that some of his contacts told him that “we have things out there that are literally out of this world, better than Star Trek or what you see in the movies.” (1)
From his work alone, James Goodall knew Ben Rich well. In a video interview, Goodall stated that he spoke to Rich approximately 10 days before he died:
“About ten days before he died, I was speaking to Ben on the telephone at the USC Medical Center in LA. And he said, ‘Jim, we have things out in the desert that are fifty years beyond what you can comprehend. They have about forty five hundred people at the Lockheed Skunk works. What have they been doing for the last eighteen or twenty years? They’re building something.'” (1)
Another source comes from John Andrews, who was a legendary Lockheed engineer. He had written to Rich, stating his own belief in UFOs, both manmade and extraterrestrial. Andrews has asked Rich if his own beliefs covered extraterrestrial as well as manmade UFOs. Rich’s reply was as follows:
“Yes, I’m a believer in both categories. I feel everything is possible. Many of our man-made UFOs are Un-Funded Opportunities. There are two types of UFOs, the ones we build, and the ones they build.” (1)
In Rich’s reply, he underlined the U, F, and O in “unfunded opportunities.”
Thirdly, Jan Harzan, a senior executive with IBM, along with Tom Keller, an aerospace engineer who has worked as a computer systems analyst for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discusses a talk Ben gave some time ago. On March 23rd, 1993 at a UCLA School of Engineering talk where he was presenting a general history of Sunk Works, he said this:
“We now know how to travel to the stars. There is an error in the equations, and we have figured it out, and now know how to travel to the stars and it won’t take a lifetime to do it. It is time to end all the secrecy on this, as it no longer poses a national security threat, and make the technology available for use in the private sector. There are many in the intelligence community who would like to see this stay in the black and not see the light of day. We now have the technology to take ET home.” (1)
Here is a video of Jan telling the story:
] Another source was Bill McDonalds, a forensic illustrator for the aerospace industry, and a good friend of John Andrews (mentioned above).  He stated that:

“It was Ben Rich’s opinion that the public should not be told. He believed they could not handle the truth, ever. Only in the last months of his decline did he begin to feel that the international corporate Board of Directors’ dealing with the ‘Subject’ could represent a bigger problem to citizens’ personal freedoms under the United States Constitution than the presence of off world visitors themselves.” (1)

Last but not least, Mr. Don Phillips, a CIA contractor who worked with Lockheed Skunkworks and the USAF. He was one of hundreds of other people with verified credentials who made headlines several years ago at a conference which took place at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

He confirms Ben Rich’s statements and beliefs in an interview that you can watch here.

The latest version of this type of major press conference was the Citizens Hearing on disclosure. It took place from April 29 to May 3, 2013 where researchers, activists, and military/agency/political witnesses representing ten countries gave testimony in Washington, DC to six former members of the United States Congress. Their testimony was about events and evidence which point to an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race and the planet. You can read more about that here.

When it comes to the aerospace industry, UFOs are of high interest. For example, Mike Gold – Director of Operations for Bigelow Aerospace – was recently asked about Bigelow’s involvement with UFO reports. He stated that it’s an issue that “deserves serious attention,” and that he is glad someone is taking these UFO reports. He did mention that he cannot comment on what they do with the reports. (source)

Nintendo NX is 32 GB

Eurogamer reported that the NX would be a portable console with its own display and a set of detachable controllers. Unlike the PS4, Xbox One and even the Wii U, the report also claims that the NX will use cartridges, possibly similar to what we see on the 3DS.
This report came just hours after noted insider Emily Rogers tweeted that significant reports regarding the NX would begin to appear in major publications soon.
Now, a month after that report, Rogers has followed up with her own report, which took the form of the following four tweets:

• 1) This article about NX’s detachable controllers supporting force feedback and motion controls has truth: http://letsplayvideogames.com/2016/08/report-detatchable-nx-controllers-support-motion-control-and-force-feedback/
• 2) NX prototype had a 6.2 inch 720p multi-touch touchscreen. Unknown if final product’s screen size will be larger / smaller than prototype.
• 3) Prototype for dock station has USB ports. I heard 2 usb ports, but I don’t know if this number will change in the final product.
• 4) MCV’s report about GameFreak being involved with NX has some truth to it.

A day later, Let’s Play Video Games followed up on its previous report with two new bits of information from anonymous sources: the current NX prototype features a split D-pad (like the one on the DualShock 4) and a ‘Share’ button.
Rogers also continued with an interesting follow-up tweet of her own:

• NX dev kit / prototype = 32 GB of internal storage/memory. Similar to Wii U. Final product may see increase, but prototype was at 32 GB.

All of these declarations come with a great deal of uncertainty, but a clearer picture of the NX is slowly beginning to form. Nintendo might be unwilling to share many details about the console, but in a recent interview, NoA CEO Reggie Fils-Amie was very candid about the fact that things need to change at Nintendo:

“One of the things that we have to do better when we launch the NX—we have to do a better job communicating the positioning for the product. We have to do a better job helping people to understand its uniqueness and what that means for the game playing experience. And we have to do a better job from a software planning standpoint to have that continuous beat of great new games that are motivating more and more people to pick up the hardware and more and more people to pick up the software. Those are the critical lessons.”

Rendlesham forest

The Rendlesham forest incident of Christmas 1980 is probably one of the most remarkable UFO incidents on record. It has been dubbed the "British Roswell" but in reality is probably a far more intriguing case.  Like the Roswell incident this one occurred close to several top secret military establishments including two air bases. As such the case profile couldn't be higher yet getting at the truth has never been easy.  The full answers may never be known, but varying accounts from different people make for a story that is never anything less than sensational.  A story that seems to leap straight from the archives of the most exciting X - files episode. 

 On December, 26th 1980 military personal at the Woodbridge and Bentwater air-bases in Suffolk, England reported witnessing over the next couple of days strange lights in the sky and a triangular craft landing in Rendlesham Forest near the bases. 

The two bases were being leased to the USAF at the time and were situated right outside of the 5.8 square miles (15 km2) Rendlesham Forest which is owned by the Forestry Commission.

At around 3am on December, 26th two military security patrol personnel saw lights descending into the forest which was about one mile from the east gate of the Woodbridge base. They first thought it may have been a downed aircraft and of course, went to investigate with one other patrolman. They proceeded to scout it out on foot.

When they got close they reported, according to the USAF Halt Memo below, that they saw a "strange glowing object" in the woods. The object was triangular in shape, metallic, and approximately three meters across and two meters in height. The whole forest was a glow with a white light. The UFO itself had a reddish light on top and blue lights on the bottom. It appeared as though it was hovering or possibly standing on landing equipment. As the men moved closer to the object though, it maneuvered away from them. They also reported that nearby farm animals were "in a frenzy".

On the following morning when investigating the sighting in the Rendlesham Forest, landing marks were found in the ground near where the patrol men first spotted the object as well as burn marks on nearby broken trees.

There were three depressions from the landing gear that were one and a half inches deep and seven inches in diameter. Plaster casts were then made of the landing gear depressions, but no one was sure of what they truly were. Some say they could have been made from common animals in the area.

Later beta/gama tests were done to detremine if there was radiation contamination and if there was how much. It was determined that moderate radiation was found away from where the ship had landed at .05-.07 and the highest readings were at the location of the landing.

That night a glowing object was spotted through the tree line pulsing red. It then broke off into five different pieces and seemingly disappeared. Soon after three more objects were spotted two in the north and one in the south all moving at rapid speeds and displaying red, blue and green lights. The lights would randomly shoot white lights towards the ground and remained visible from one to three hours. All witnessed by multiple military men.

Lt. Col. Charles Halt, while investigating the UFO, brought a hand-held Lanier micro-cassette recorder that he would often use for note taking. He recorded the investigation on the 28th of December when they were looking for the impressions from the ship and taking radiation readings

Summary: This is the official report filed by USAF Deputy Base Commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt concerning the UFO incidents in Rendlesham Forest, near the Bentwaters/Woodbridge RAF bases.

Department of the Air Force
Headquarter 81st Combat Support Group (USAFE)
APO NEW YORK DY735

13 Jan 81
Reply to Attn of: CD
Subject: Unexplained Lights

To: RAF/CC

1. Early in the morning of 27 Dec 80 (approximately 0300L), two USAF security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. Thinking an aircraft might have crashed or been forced down, they called for permission to go outside the gate to investigate. The on-duty flight chief responded and allowed three patrolmen to proceed on foot. The individuals reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest. The Object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two and three meters across the base and approximately two meters high. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on legs. As the patrolmen approached the object, it manoeuvred though the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went into frenzy. The object was briefly sighted approximately an hour later near the back gate.

2. The next day, three depressions 1 1/2" deep and 7" in diameter were found where the object had been sighted on the ground. The following night (29 Dec 80) the area was checked for radiation. Beta/gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were recorded with peak readings in the three depressions and near the center of the triangle formed by the depressions. A nearby tree had moderate (.05 - .07) readings on the side of the tree toward the depressions.

3. Later in the night a red sun-like light was seen though the trees. It moved about and pulsed. At one point it appeared to throw off glowing particles and then broke into five separate white objects and then disappeared. Immediately thereafter, three star-like objects were noticed in the sky, two objects to the north and one to the south, all of which were about 10 degrees off the horizon. The objects moved rapidly in sharp angular movements and displayed red, green and blue lights. The objects to the north appeared to be elliptical through an 8-12 power lens. They then turned to full circles. The objects to the north remained in the sky for an hour or more. The object to the south was visible for two or three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to time. Numerous individuals, including the undersigned, witnessed the activities in paragraphs 2 and 3.

Charles I. Halt, Lt. Col. USAF
Deputy Base Commander

Top 20 UFO sightings

Roswell, 1947

Ranking as one of the most famous UFO incidents in history - and now a pop culture phenomenon - the Roswell incident saw UFO hunters claim that the US military had captured an alien aircraft. While the military maintain that the 'flying saucer' was actually a surveillance device from a classified operation, non-believers still cite extra-terrestrial activity to this day.

Kenneth Arnold case, 1947

Newspapers had a field day with Kenneth Arnold's story, even coining the term 'flying saucer', after the American businessman and pilot claimed he'd seen nine saucer-like objects flying in a chain near Mount Rainier in Washington.

Washington, D.C. sighting, 1952

The CIA Robertson Panel was formed after reports of UFOs appearing in the skies above Washington were convincingly backed up by mysterious radar contacts at three separate airports. However, the US Air Force allayed fears of an alien invasion, suggesting that changes in the temperature had caused radar signals to bend and give false returns.

The Hill Abduction, 1961

In 1961, Barney and Betty Hill from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, reported that they had been kidnapped by aliens. According to the couple, they had been followed by a flying saucer while driving in their car, abducted and then subjected to an intimate physical examination. They also recall observing a 3D 'star map' inside the ship. Even under hypnosis, the Hill's maintained their story and aroused massive interest and publicity.

Rendlesham Forest Lights, 1980

One of the UK's most famous UFO events involved the sighting of several unexplained lights near RAF bases at Rendlesham Forest, inland of the Suffolk coast. The authorities insist there was nothing mysterious going on and no risk to national security, however, as the witnesses were on-duty servicemen, the reports were given a measure of credibility, and a belief persists that the lights were from an alien spacecraft. Even now, requests for more details are still being made under the Freedom of Information Act.

Clyde W Tombaugh sighting, 1949

Respected American astronomer Clyde W Tombaugh poured cold water on the consensus that most UFO sightings were recorded by publicity-seekers, when, two years after Roswell, Tombaugh recorded seeing up to eight rectangular lights in the sky above Las Cruces in New Mexico, and on another occasion several green fireballs. As a serious-minded astronomer used to studying the skies (one of his greatest achievements was the discovery of the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930), his inability to explain the lights made his claims particularly hard to dismiss.

Levelland case, 1957

Drivers in Levelland, Texas reported that their car engines stalled when encountering a glowing, egg-shaped object, and then mysteriously restarted again after the object had left. A police investigation followed and it was concluded that an electrical storm had caused the sightings and vehicle failures.

Shag Harbour, 1967

The navy was drafted in after a large, unidentified object crashed into Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia. A search and investigation was conducted, but later classified as unsolved by the Canadian Department of National Defence when a clear conclusion could not be reached.

Maury Island incident, 1947

Sailor Harold Dahl experienced a run-in with the real 'men in black', after claiming to have seen six UFOs while scavenging for driftwood in Washington's Puget Sound. The next day he was approached by an unknown, black-suited individual who warned him off repeating his story with threats against his family. However, it's unclear whether the UFO incident was actually real or a secret military exercise which had gone wrong.

Westall encounter, 1966

A UFO was allegedly witnessed by more than 200 students and teachers at two schools in Westall, Melbourne. The object was spotted first descending into a grassy field before taking off over houses in a local suburb. While Australian Skeptics, a non-profit organisation which investigates paranormal and pseudo-scientific claims by using scientific methodologies, put the UFO down to being an experimental military aircraft, witnesses contunue to gather to relive the extraordinary event.

Lonnie Zamora UFO sighting, 1964

When New Mexico traffic policeman Lonnie Zamora saw a huge, bluish-orange flame in the sky south of Socorro, he went to investigate. The flame was accompanied by a deafening roaring sound, and as Zamora drew nearer he saw a weird, doughnut-shaped silver machine and two white-clad individuals. Although the pair quickly flew off, Zamora's detailed testimony has provided one of the most comprehensive accounts of an alien encounter, and is often cited as a significant spur in persuading the US Air Force to take the growing numbers of UFO sightings more seriously.

Carson Sink incident, 1952

Two senior military pilots claimed to have spotted three aircraft of a type unknown to them while flying in a North American B-25 Mitchell bomber over the Carson Desert. They said the three unidentified objects were moving about three times faster than their B-25. While the B-25 wasn't known to be a particularly fast machine, both men insisted that the three crafts were not a new type of super-fast jet. 60 years later the sighting is still officially classified as unexplained.

São Paulo sighting, 1986

Military aircraft were sent to intercept around 20 UFOs detected by radar in various parts of São Paulo, Brazil. However, once the military began to give chase, the mysterious objects reportedly disappeared. Providing one solution to the incident is Geoffrey Perry, a British space researcher. He put the sighting down to debris that were ejected by Soviet space station Salyut-7 re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere around central-western Brazil.

Jimmy Carter sighting, 1969

Before becoming president of the USA, Jimmy Carter filed an official report in 1973 to say that four years earlier he had seen a strange white light in the evening sky. He claimed he watched it change from white to blue, and then to red, before changing back to white and appearing to gradually fade off into the distance. Although he believed it was a UFO he saw in 1969, by the time he became president he put the incident down to military, rather than extra-terrestrial, activity.

Tehran UFO incident, 1976

A UFO was believed to have disabled the electronic equipment of two F-4 interceptor jets as well as ground control equipment in Tehran. Public records state that the Iranian generals involved said that they had thought the object was an extra-terrestrial, although sceptics have put the encounter down to equipment malfunction.

Lubbock Lights, 1951

Three professors from Texas Technical College spotted an unusual light formation flying over Lubbock, Texas in 1951. The 20 to 30 lights flew in a 'V' shape over the town, and the occurance was eventually photographed by a student from the college with the photographs later appearing in Life Magazine, although an explanation of the sightings is yet to be found.

Belguim Wave, 1989 - 1990

Between 1989 and 1990, around 13,500 people claim to have observed large, silent, low-flying black triangles in the skies above Belgium, with 2,600 written statements on file about what they had seen. The frequently-photographed wave was also tracked by NATO radar and jet interceptors and investigated by Belgium’s military, although some put the sightings down to ordinary helicopters.

Yeni Kent Compound, 2008

One plucky night guard at the Yeni Kent Compound in Turkey claimed to have videotaped a number of UFO sightings witnessed over a period of four months. His allegations were also backed up by other witnesses, spurring the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Center to say that the videos were the “most important images of a UFO ever filmed”.

Berwyn Mountains, 1974

Like the Roswell incident 27 years earlier, rumours of a UFO crash in the Berwyn mountains followed after reports of shaking ground and strange lights in the sky. Investigations began and Gwynedd police recorded a statement from a witness who claimed to have seen a "bright red light, like coal fire red. Large perfect circle. Like a big bonfire. Could see lights above and to the right and white lights moving to bottom. Light changed colour to yellowish white and back again." No remains were found and the unsteady ground was likely to have been caused by the Bala Earthquake which hit the area that night, but several locals still insist they saw a glowing, egg-shaped craft.

Captain William Schaffner incident, 1970

When radar picked up an unidentified flying object over the North Sea, pilots quickly attempted to make contact. Captain William Schaffner intercepted a 'conical object' then all contact with him was lost. Three months later his plane was discovered undamaged on the seabed, but his body was never recovered. However, official reports eschewed the idea of an extra-terrestrial mystery, deeming the pilot's likely death being caused by flying too low over the sea.

Top 10 UFO sightings since 2001

BENGALURU: Unidentified Flying Object or UFO is a widely discussed topic by people who are curious of unnatural sightings in the sky, which presumably could be an alien-driven vehicle from outer space – and if so, would be the biggest discovery by mankind.
Over the years, UFOs have been reported from different parts of the world, but mostly from the US and UK. UFOs garnered public interest through movies and serials during the latter half of the twentieth century and has become part of the popular culture. Basically, UFOs are part of the theory that claims the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms.  The first reported UFO was sighted in Roma during 214 BCE, popularly known as “ships in the sky”.

The frequency of UFO sightings increased during the final leg of the 20^th and into the 21^stcentury which is attributed to the advancements in technology that can record evidences of such sightings.
Here is the list of top 10 UFO sightings of the 21^st century:

O’Hare International Airport UFO sighting (2006)
United Airlines employees and pilots reportedly saw a flying saucer hovering over Chicago O’Hare Airport and shooting up vertically making a hole in the cloud. Though the airport authorities claimed that it was just a weather phenomenon, mystery surrounding hole in the cloud remains unexplained.

Kolkata UFO sighting (2007)
A fast movie bright UFO was spotted and filmed on handy-cam. The shape of the UFO kept changing time to time from a triangle and then to a rectangle and finally disappeared into a straight line. The UFO was observed by hundreds and was shown in TV News Channels.
The Dudley Dorito UFO (2007)
The Dudley Dorito sighting is one of the most famous UFO sightings. People saw a black triangle over the West Midlands conurbation of the United Kingdom in November 2007. The phenomenon repeated three times in 2007, 2008 and 2009 but still there is no scientific evidence of what exactly is hovering above West Midlands. The name was coined by the media after the eyewitness description which resembled a popular salty snack.
Stephenville, Texas UFO sightings (2008)
Stephenville has long been a place for UFO sightings and on this day people saw an object as big as of over 1 mile hovering over Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas. Interestingly, the US Air Force identified the anomaly as fighter planes that went unreported due to a “communication problem”.
Wales UFO sightings (2008)
For the first time ever a police helicopter chased a UFO after it appeared suddenly, close enough for a mid-air collision. On the preceding days, hundreds of residents in Wales saw the UFO hovering in the sky.
Warren Air Force Base (2010)
In first of its kind incident, 50 nuclear missiles went off-line in Warren Air Force Base for almost an hour and according to three missile technicians, the anomaly happened during the same time when they spotted a UFO in the shape of a large cigar hovering above the missile field. Of course, the military downplayed the incident as a “hardware issue”.
Harbour Mille incident (2010)

In the night of January 25, 2010 people in Harbour Mille, Newfoundland and Labrador reportedly saw multiple UFOs in the sky. Earlier reports stated that it was due to a missile launch but the Prime Minister’s office denied any military activity on the particular day.
Vancouver UFO sighting (2011)
Purple and red flash light started to appear in the sky on the evening of February 20, 2011 and a flying saucer with green and red light flew above the residential area of Vancouver at around 7:00 pm on the next day. According to eyewitness account, the saucer hovered above Vancouver for a few minutes making slight movements. None of the witnesses heard any sound from the UFO.
UFO near ISS (2015)

UFO near ISS

Many thousands saw a UFO hovering around International Space Station when two astronauts went out for doing maintenance work which was streamed live on NASA’s website. NASA was accused of cutting live ISS feed as the UFO hovered around so as to hide existence of alien life.
UFO sighting in Colorado (2015)
Two light sources reportedly hovered over Berthoud in Colorado which people first thought were helicopters but as the phenomenon continued, the lights started changing color. Some believe the lights could be public drones but it’s difficult to tell if this was a UFO or a drone.

10 Strange And Plausible UFO Sightings

10 McMinnville Incident

In Oregon, in May of 1950, a farmer named Mr. Trent saw a UFO at his farm outside McMinnville. According to Mr. Trent, his wife Evelyn first spotted the object, a silvery, metallic disk. She was outside feeding her rabbits when it appeared in the early evening sky. She called out to her husband, who came outside and watched for a couple of minutes. He then went and got a camera, and took two pictures before the object sped off to the west.
The most striking thing lending credence to the story is the Trents’ behavior. They never made any money off the photographs, and actually had to be convinced to let them be published by a local reporter—apparently, they were afraid of getting into trouble with the government.
There are disagreements as to the veracity of the photos. The Condon Report, a 1967 study into UFO phenomena conducted by the University of Colorado, concluded that relative photographic densities of objects in the photos suggested that the subject was distant, meaning they were somewhat likely to be genuine. A much more recent examination concluded that the object’s geometry was consistent with a small model hanging from a wire. But that wire has never been spotted in either photo, and Evelyn and Paul Trent earnestly insisted, until their deaths in 1997 and 1998, respectively, that the photos were of an actual UFO.

9 Mariana Incident

In 1950, on the night of August 15, minor league baseball manager Nick Mariana became the first person to capture film footage of a UFO. It happened as he was inspecting the diamond before a game in Great Falls, Montana, which has since become a hotbed of UFO sightings, and is close to a US Air Force Base.
Mariana was able to capture two bright dots streaking across the sky on his 16mm movie camera, which he says he routinely kept in his car. After sending the film to be developed, he began to contact local newspapers—significant, as he had not yet seen the developed film and so would not have known if any fakery looked convincing. In October, he wrote a letter to the Air Force and was interviewed at Malstrom Air Force Base.
After examining the film, the Air Force concluded “possible aircraft” and dropped it. While two fighters were on record as having landed at Malstrom at around the time of the sighting, Mariana insisted that he saw those, too—in a different part of the sky. He also claimed that upon his film’s return, several frames that showed the spinning discs more clearly were missing—presumably cut by the Air Force. While the debate has never been resolved, the incident kicked off decades of over 100 sightings in Great Falls, and prompted the renaming of the minor league baseball team to the Voyagers.

8 Chicago O’Hare Incident

When several people state flatly that they observed a saucer-shaped aircraft hovering around before bolting into the sky at incredible speeds, it is tempting to assume that they don’t know much about aircraft. But when just such an incident occurred in Chicago in 2006, it was pretty difficult to make that case—it took place at O’Hare International Airport, and most of the people who saw it were United Airlines employees.
No airline officials, air traffic controllers, or radar records indicated anything out of the ordinary, though a United supervisor did call the tower to ask if any saucers were hovering nearby. The FAA has declined to investigate, which has proved irritating to those who insist that they witnessed the incident. Officials have tossed out the usual balloons, optical illusions, and weather phenomena as possible explanations.
As for the witnesses, they counter that none of those could explain the hole that the craft punched in the clouds while making its quick ascent, which lingered for several minutes. All witnesses agreed that the craft was dark gray, didn’t have any lights or markings, and maintained its position steadily before blasting off.

7 Edwards Air Force Base Sighting

One can’t blame the US Air Force for being sensitive about matters involving UFOs—in 1957, one supposedly landed at Edwards Air Force Base. If that sounds like an insane myth, keep in mind that it was allegedly caught on film and was reported by Gordon Cooper, a test pilot and astronaut in the United States’ first manned space program. He was at Edwards supervising the installation of a new precision-landing system at the time, and his account of the incident was pretty unambiguous.
“I had a camera crew filming the installation when they spotted a saucer. They filmed it as it flew overhead, then hovered, extended three legs as landing gear, and slowly came down to land on a dry lake bed. These guys were all pro cameramen, so the picture quality was very good. The camera crew managed to get within 20 or 30 yards of it, filming all the time. It was a classic saucer, shiny silver and smooth, about 30 feet across. It was pretty clear it was an alien craft. As they approached closer, it took off.”
The camera crew reported this incident to Cooper and turned over the film. Cooper says that he reported the incident to his superiors, and was told to develop the film and send it to Washington, which he did after watching it and finding it to be exactly as described. He says that, after that, the film vanished and didn’t come to light even when the Air Force began Project Blue Book. He suggested using it as evidence and was told it had been lost—not that it would have mattered much. According to Cooper, “Blue Book was strictly a cover-up anyway.”

6 Socorro Encounter

On April 24, 1964, several witnesses in different parts of Socorro, New Mexico, reported different sightings of the same event. Some saw a low-flying object in the sky, some heard loud sounds reminiscent of the takeoff and landing of a powerful craft. But one man swears he actually saw it land and that it could only have been an alien spacecraft. His name was Lonnie Zamora, and it was such an astonishing encounter that it distracted him from the high-speed chase he had been engaged in when he first caught sight of the craft—at the the time of the sighting, Mr. Zamora was an on-duty Socorro police officer.
What grabbed Officer Zamora’s attention was a gigantic cone of blue light rising thousands of feet into the air, which he took to be flames. Abandoning his pursuit, he went in the direction of what was presumably a crash or a miners’ shack explosion—and that was when his day got really intense. He spotted a vehicle in a gully, then two small humanoids glimpsed from the corner of his eye seemed to “jump” at his approach before disappearing. He parked the vehicle and got out, then heard a series of metallic clangs coming from the gully. The source was a huge, metallic oval object standing on girder-like legs. Immediately, a bluish flame shot out of the bottom of the vehicle, and it rose before taking off quickly and silently, vanishing into the distance as the officer got on his radio to report what he had just seen.
A fellow officer responding to his call also saw evidence of the incident—angular indentations where the “landing gear” had made contact and burned foliage from its takeoff—and several witnesses in the area reported either an egg-shaped craft or a blue flame in the sky, some immediately afterward and independently of Zamora’s report. Several who have interviewed the officer about the incident, including journalists and Air Force officials, have similar conclusions to draw, such as former Project Blue Book head Hector Quintanilla Jr. “There is no doubt that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora’s reliability. He is a serious police officer and a man well-versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled by what he saw, and frankly, so are we.”

5 The Westall UFO

On April 6, 1966, in Melbourne, Australia, witnesses say a silver, disc-shaped craft was spotted whizzing around, and that it then landed in a paddock near a high school and took off again. It would be a somewhat typical report of the type that is normally just a prank or misidentification of something else—except that this incident was observed by over 200 people in broad daylight, and no explanation has ever been offered.
Though eyewitness accounts vary, that is not unusual even in non-paranormal events when so many people are involved. What witnesses agreed on was that a large group of students were finishing their physical education class when several of them pointed out a silver or silvery-green craft about twice the size of a car, buzzing and hovering around a group of pine trees behind the school. After some time it landed among the pines. By that time, more students had come outside to see what was going on and some witnesses claim that private aircraft were approaching to investigate. In full view of this crowd, the craft rose from the trees, tilted at a 45-degree angle, flew into the sky at a rate of speed the private planes were unable to match, and vanished.
The nearest airport reported no private planes taking off in the area at that time, and neither did the military confirm any activity. Those who propose conventional explanations for this event are confounded by the fact that the object was in full view of hundreds of people for over 20 minutes, and was clearly not a plane or weather balloon—yet, no photographic or film evidence exists, and no pilot has ever claimed to have participated in the “chase.” The Westall incident remains one of Australia’s most debated unsolved UFO cases.

4 The Portage County Chase

According to Project Blue Book and the aforementioned Quintanilla, half a dozen or so police officers chased a communications satellite—and then, after losing sight of that, the planet Venus—into the Ohio wilderness and across the state line into Pennsylvania in the pre-dawn hours of April 17, 1966. When this official report was released, the police officers involved had a less-than-receptive response—in fact, they were infuriated by the insinuation that they could be that stupid. Especially considering this statement, signed by Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur, one of the first to observe the object.
“We found an abandoned car on the berm on Rt. 224 between Atwater and Randolph. We left our car to routinely investigate this vehicle. Spaur noticed a light over the trees on the hill next to the berm, and called Neff’s attention to it. As we watched, the light came closer and a large, self-illuminated object was seen as its source. The object came directly overhead and hovered above us. Its light lit up the ground where we were standing, and our cruiser, P-13. It was too bright to look at without hurting the eyes.”
After they understandably retreated to their patrol car and called it in, at least five more officers assisted them in pursuing the object for over half an hour before finally losing sight of it. But it gets stranger still—shortly before Spaur and his partner’s encounter, Police Chief Gerald Buchert saw a saucer-like, illuminated object hovering near his yard at home and snapped a picture of it. While he kept the original photo, he was persuaded to send the negative to Quintanilla, who dismissed the image as a processing defect. The negative, of course, was never seen again.

3 Trans-En-Provence Incident

The French version of NASA documents UFO sightings a little more diligently than its American counterpart. The incident that took place at Trans-en-Provence in January 1981 has been called the most carefully documented sighting of all time. While the incident doesn’t seem spectacular at first glance, its simplicity leaves little room for interpretation.
Retired farmer Renato Nicolai was working in his garden when he heard a sudden whistling sound, accompanied by the appearance of something that he immediately took to be an experimental aircraft. In broad daylight, he watched as a saucer-shaped craft between five and six feet in diameter dropped out of the sky, stopping to hover for half a minute about two meters (six feet) off the ground. Then it rose into the sky, a plume of dust in its wake. Nicolai was about 30 meters (100 ft) away.
The French government’s study found evidence of compacting and heating of the soil near the landing site, depleted chlorophyll in plants around the site, and “black material” that was not oil or residue from combustion, but metallic in nature. A technical report stated, “It was not the aim of the author to identify the exact nature of the phenomenon observed on January 8, 1981 at Trans-en-Provence. But it can reasonably be concluded that something unusual did occur that might be consistent, for instance, with an electromagnetic source of stress.”

2 Warren Air Force Base

Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, has been the site of a number of alleged UFO visitations since 1965, when red and green flashing lights reported by civilians in the area had local missile sites like Warren on high alert. That’s right—Warren’s UFO problem is part of a troubling larger trend of instances where nuclear missile armories are visited by unexplained objects, and it’s happened several times there.
In a famous 1976 incident reported by retired Minuteman missile launch officer Bruce Fenstermacher, a bright white object with flashing red and blue lights was seen to the North. Guards stationed at the base observed the object, a cigar-shaped craft a little under 20 meters (65 ft) long, moving near the missile silos. Military and police personnel frantically converged on the site, by which time the craft had disappeared. The craft kept switching positions, with the police experiencing car trouble every time they started to get close. Finally, more than two hours after the incident began, the craft departed at blinding speed, becoming a bright white speck on the horizon.
Though several witnesses agreed on this account, it was not included in any official report. None of the other other alleged sightings at the base have been either. As recently as 2010, a power failure to 50 intercontinental nuclear warheads at the base meant that over 10 percent of the US nuclear arsenal was offline for nearly an hour, prompting renewed speculation from UFO enthusiasts.

1 Piney Woods Incident

One December night in 1980, friends Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum, along with Vickie’s grandson, Colby, were driving along a lonely highway through the Piney Woods of Texas when they saw something none of them would ever forget. It was an encounter that left its mark on them all—mentally, emotionally, and physically.
The three came up on a water tower–sized, glowing, diamond-shaped object in the middle of the highway, blocking their way. Flames periodically shot from its underside, making it rise slightly before settling back down. It radiated intense light and heat. The two women, who exited the vehicle to examine the object—the seven-year-old boy wanted nothing to do with it—would later say that they had to use their coats to avoid being burned on the door handles when they re-entered their vehicle, and the plastic dashboard was soft enough to leave a handprint in. As they watched the UFO ascend, one to two dozen military-style helicopters buzzed overhead, surrounding it—a Dayton police officer also confirmed seeing helicopters of this type near the same area at the time. The women drove on, watching the craft and helicopters recede into the distance.
All three suffered bizarre symptoms reminiscent of radiation poisoning or chemical contamination for some time afterward—weakness, nausea, and the feeling of having been sunburned. Betty Cash’s symptoms were bad enough for her to be hospitalized, and as such the Cash-Landrum encounter is one of very few UFO incidents to result in litigation. Citing the presence of the helicopters, the family sued the US government for $20 million—and lost. The military denied deploying any helicopters to that area, or possessing a gigantic, diamond-shaped UFO, and the judge ruled in their favor.

Nintendo NX now features Tegra X2 chip (almost as powerful as PS4)

the upcoming releases of both the Nintendo NX and the PlayStation Neo, there has been an interest in how the two will stack up against each other. And while each generation of the Sony PlayStation has been known as one of the most powerful consoles, the Nintendo NX is set to arrive with the dominant Tegra X2 Chip.

According to Segment Next, individuals working on the NX project have confirmed that the console will come powered by a Tegra chip. However, the publication claims that it will not be the X1 Chip, as previously thought. Instead, it will come with the more powerful Tegra X2 Chip, which will definitely set the Nintendo NX up on a powerful platform.

The X1 chip was first released in 2015 and was packed with four ARM Cortex A53 cores. In addition, it also had a Maxwell-based graphics processing unit. On the other hand, the Tegra X2 Chip will arrive with four ARM Cortex A57 cores and two Denver 2 cores. Further, it will make use of Pascal architecture for its GPU. With the chip in place, the Nintendo NX will have faster communication between its central components. That is, its CPU and its GPU.

The Tegra X2 Chip is also being called the Tegra Parker, or Tegra-next.

The Tegra X2 reportedly features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 cores, plus two additional, smaller cores as well.
But it’s on the graphics side where it’s really impressive: the Tegra X2 features a graphics chip built using Nvidia’s new Pascal architecture, which powers the recently released GTX 1080 and 1070 series of graphics cards.
The increased power will also bring along better battery life, since it’s optimized for mobile and is built on a 16nm process.
All in all, the new Tegra X2 is said to be almost as powerful as the Xbox One and PS4.

Release Dates

The Nintendo NX is expected to arrive in the market on March 2017, $250 - $350 price range. Meanwhile, the PlayStation Neo is expected to be launched on September 7 at an estimated price of $350.

New Nintendo NX Patient needs second stick

As you can see in the initial images below, in its simplest form (mimicking the similar patent that emerged in the past week) it allows a bespoke control option to be added in a modular way on the top right of the device.

Some further images are interesting; the following indicate variations of more control options that can in theory be swapped in, included sets of three and four buttons.

Why the Office Dress Code Is Slowly Dying

The passionate internet debate over '90s-era baggy shorts is just the latest example of why summertime has long been the bane of the office fashion police. Clothes get skimpier. Hot weather makes ties and jackets less appealing. The dreaded flip-flops threaten to emerge from the closet.
Some traditionally stuffy government offices, law firms, banks, and management consultancies are changing their dress codes, often to help recruit or retain workers in a highly competitive job market--though flip-flops remain a step or three too far. J. P. Morgan Chase is allowing most workers outside its investment bank to trade their suits for business-casual clothing. Last year, Walmart loosened its dress code to allow its associates to wear denim. Accenture and PwC both recently adopted "Dress for Your Day" policies that let employees use their best judgment when it comes to clothing.

"It depends on where you're going and what you're doing. If you're in front of a CEO, you wear a suit," says Anne Donovan, PwC's people innovation leader, adding that the change answers the work force's desire to wear more comfortable clothes. "We're competing in a market that's a war for talent. We're listening to people who say: 'This would make it better.'"
Accenture doesn't explicitly ban any specific clothes, but asks people to be mindful of factors like T-shirt slogans when dressing for work.
The formality of work clothes has been sliding downhill for years, with experts pointing to the rise of tech startup culture--awash in hoodies and fancy sneakers--as leading the way. Now, startup Betabrand designs yoga pants specifically for the office. A survey of more than 300 senior managers released in June by staffing firm OfficeTeam found that half said employees now wear less formal clothing than they did five years ago.

You can see the casualization of the workplace beginning a century ago but accelerating in recent years, with the emergency of fast fashion and new clothing choices. "It's been happening for the past 100 years with the emergence of a middle class and many social rules and social classes disappearing," says Francois Kress, chief executive officer of fashion label Carolina Herrera. "We have taken into account that people want more comfortable clothes."
Carolina Herrera now sees perhaps 30 percent of its ready-to-wear sales in daywear separates, versus 70 percent in occasion or eveningwear. A few years ago the balance would've been 10-90 percent, and in the near future it's likely to be 50-50, Kress says.
Increasing sales of activewear, which has been booming for the last three years, feed into the growing informality of work attire. Not only do people buy activewear for exercise, these same stretch fabrics are increasingly finding their way into everyday and work clothes. Customers want more versatile clothes that they can wear to work but keep on into the evening, whether for picking up kids after school or dinner out with friends.
As a result, even luxury brands are launching activewear lines, such as the collaboration between Stella McCartney and Adidas or the recently announced partnership between Givenchy and Nike. Or take Burberry's line of lightweight stretch suiting that's easily packable for work travel.
At Takeda Pharmaceuticals, many U.S. employees can be found in jeans on a daily basis. The company relaxed its dress code last August based on feedback in a regular survey.
"The new dress code was intended to provide an even more comfortable workplace where employees can do their best work, a high priority for Takeda," says spokesman Jim Schwartz, adding that the company respects individual expression in appearance and dress, as well as the variety of work. On days that employees are working with vendors or external partners, they're expected to dress more formally than if they're primarily working alone.

At law firm Hunton & Williams, partner Rori Malech sees an increasing variety of options for men, who often wear just dress pants and shirt, whereas women tend to be a bit dressier, in sleeveless dresses or elegant blouses.
"The most dressed down I will see is capri pants, but they're work capris with a dressy fabric--not Banana Republic," says Malech. "There's definitely a movement going more casual."
The New York City office tends to be more formal than the Richmond, Virginia office--where the firm was founded--with Washington, D.C. and Texas offices being even more casual and California the most laid back.

Malech appreciates the more versatile work options available from fashion lines like MM.LaFleur, with comfortable dresses, fitted pants, and separates, and even has donned Betabrand "dress yoga pants" when she knew she'd be working an 18-hour day in her office.
"Only if I'm going to be under a rock," she explains. "It's not the norm."
In winter, women might wear dressy boots with a cute skirt, and you could see the occasional loafer. If Malech puts on jeans for casual Friday, she's sure to dress up the outfit with a jacket, nice heels, and pearls.
"I would never not have a suit jacket, sweater, or wrap in my office," she says. "At a white shoe, Southern-founded firm, I don't think things have changed that much."
Indeed, the challenge of a more casual and open environment is to strike the balance between comfort and a professional look. "The benefits of a more regulated way of dressing at work is that it was easy to look a certain way. There were only a few options," Kress says. "It's much more challenging for people to dress more casually but also look good."
Even with all this change, companies of all stripes still draw the line at flip-flops. "Absolutely not," Malech says.
PwC specifically asked employees not to wear flip-flops--or shorts. "We said: 'Use your judgment, and always represent the brand,'" Donovan says.

Fully Self-driving Cars by 2021

On Tuesday, during a hectic day of media interviews about the coming revolution being caused by autonomous vehicles (AVs), Ford’s CEO Mark Fields told Wall Street analysts that such vehicles “could have just as significant an impact on society as [Henry] Ford’s moving assembly line did 100 years ago.” He told workers at a Ford plant in Palo Alto, “This is a transformational moment in our industry … it is a transformational moment in our company. We are making people’s lives better by changing the way the world moves.”
He said that his company’s foray begins with e-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft and will expand to the consumer market by 2021 if not sooner.
He’s not alone. Johann Jungwirth, VW’s head of Digitalization Strategy, said in April that he expects the first completely self-driving cars to be on the market no later than 2019, just three years from now. GM’s Richard Holman, head of the company’s “foresight and trends” division, agrees, telling the Wall Street Journal in April that they “will be on the road by 2020, or sooner.”
Uber just might beat them all to the punch. By the end of this month, customers in downtown Pittsburgh will be able to e-hail self-driving vehicles through their Uber phone app. And those rides will be free in order to acquaint them with the new technology. In a partnership with Volvo (and an investment of $300 million), Uber will have 100 Volvo XC90s responding to those e-hails. Uber’s goal, according to John Bares who joined the company from Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics department last year, is to replace every one of Uber’s more than one million human drivers with self-driving cars “as quickly as possible.”
Uber has the advantage over Ford and the other majors in that it already has self-driving delivery vehicles in its Uber Eats service. That technology is being expanded to make the service available to everyone needing a ride.

The reason for the free rides in Pittsburgh, at least for the moment, is not only to acclimate customers to the new technology, but to raise the likelihood that, over time, riding in Uber driverless cars, according to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, “will be cheaper ... than in a private car.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Cheaper is good but it is only the beginning, according to McKinsey & Company. Dead time driving to and from work can be turned into productive time: reading, writing, researching on the Internet, Skyping, and so on. Drivers in Los Angeles spend on average three hours every weekday driving to and from work. McKinsey says the average drive time across the country is 50 minutes per day per driver, every day of the week. Added up, if turned to productive use, that amounts to more than a billion hours of time becoming productive each year.
The AV revolution is already having an impact in unlikely places, such as employment in the robotics industry. As AVs replace drivers, this will increase the need for engineers to develop the software. For instance, Ford first opened its Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto last year, occupying 30,000 square feet. It is planning to add two new 75,000-square-foot buildings to house the influx of engineers and designers needed to develop the new software. That’s a five-fold increase in square footage in less than two years. Ford is planning on doubling its current workforce of researchers, scientists, and engineers over that time period.
While AVs are shown to reduce emissions by as much as 60 percent, thanks to better optimized travel routes, the AV revolution is likely to change the independent vehicle-service industry, whose small shops are unlikely to be able to afford the technology required to maintain the new four-wheeled computers. In addition, according to McKinsey, AV makers “will have a strong incentive to service these vehicles since regulators could ultimately force them to take on the greatest portion of the responsibility and risk associated with crashes caused by AV technical failures.”
This could turn the insurance industry upside-down as well. Instead of issuing millions of individual policies to drivers to insure them against driver error, the industry would likely insure just the manufacturers instead, much like they do for cruise lines and shipping companies.
The impact could be felt in unseen ways as well, such as the amount of real estate dedicated to parking. Since AVs don’t require space to open the doors for entering and exiting passengers (they would just enter and depart at their destination), parking spaces will be at least 15 percent tighter.
The savings in car crashes alone could be monumental. McKinsey says that “for every person killed in a motor-vehicle accident, eight are hospitalized and 100 are treated and released.… Advanced technology operating AVs would reduce accidents by up to 90 percent … potentially saving about $190 billion [annually].”
The impact on the home-care industry for the elderly could be enormous as well. Self-driving cars that can be summoned with a phone call are likely to allow those currently forced to stay at home the freedom to shop, visit, and travel. The demand for in-home care specialists could decline, along with the demand for off-site assisted-living facilities.
The AV revolution could also impact residential land values. Living far away in the suburbs could become more attractive as drive time is turned productive, pressuring the value of properties closer to downtown.
Fields could be more correct than he knows. The moving assembly line turned the world upside down 100 years ago. The AV revolution is likely to do the same.

U.S. Begins Selling Commercial Land On The Moon

The Federal Aviation Administration, in a previously undisclosed late-December letter to Bigelow Aerospace, said the agency intends to “leverage the FAA’s existing launch licensing authority to encourage private sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial activities can be conducted on a non-interference basis.”
In other words, experts said, Bigelow could set up one of its proposed inflatable habitats on the moon, and expect to have exclusive rights to that territory – as well as related areas that might be tapped for mining, exploration and other activities.
However, the FAA letter noted a concern flagged by the U.S. State Department that “the national regulatory framework, in its present form, is ill-equipped to enable the U.S. government to fulfill its obligations” under a 1967 United Nations treaty, which, in part, governs activities on the moon.

The United Nations Outer Space treaty, in part, requires countries to authorize and supervise activities of non-government entities that are operating in space, including the moon. It also bans nuclear weapons in space, prohibits national claims to celestial bodies and stipulates that space exploration and development should benefit all countries.
“We didn’t give (Bigelow Aerospace) a license to land on the moon. We’re talking about a payload review that would potentially be part of a future launch license request. But it served a purpose of documenting a serious proposal for a U.S. company to engage in this activity that has high-level policy implications,” said the FAA letter’s author, George Nield, associate administrator for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Transportation.
“We recognize the private sector’s need to protect its assets and personnel on the moon or on other celestial bodies,” the FAA wrote in the December letter to Bigelow Aerospace. The company, based in Nevada, is developing the inflatable space habitats. Bigelow requested the policy statement from the FAA, which oversees commercial space transportation in the U.S.
The letter was coordinated with U.S. departments of State, Defense, Commerce, as well as NASA and other agencies involved in space operations. It expands the FAA’s scope from launch licensing to U.S. companies’ planned activities on the moon, a region currently governed only by the nearly 50-year old UN space treaty.
But the letter also points to more legal and diplomatic work that will have to be done to govern potential commercial development of the moon or other extraterrestrial bodies.

Huge Alien Spacecraft Hiding Behind Moon, Insider Reveals

On January 22, 2012, Dr. Norton was called to the MacDonald Observatory in Texas and saw “massive, three dimensional black structures in space, in straight line formation advancing in the direction of planet Earth.
The object seemed to be emitting some sort of force field that deflected space particles from touching their surface, almost like the magnetic field around the earth.
The objects were getting so close that, with our telescopes, we could see the structural features of these things in high detail. They were shaped as a three dimensional “L” shaped craft.

By January 2013, the objects had been tracked to about 200,000 miles past the planet Mars. Once they reached this point, almost instantaneously, the object vanished from our telescope lenses as if they had activated some sort of invisibility shield at the flick of the switch. I knew that the upper echelons of government were worried about these things because I was under a constant 24/7 guard by Secret Service agents.
For nearly the entire year of 2013, we watched the skies in disbelief. We didn’t know what was going on or where these things were. According to my calculations, these things would have been so close to us by now that we would have no problem seeing them in the night sky had they stayed visible to us. We didn’t know if they were still coming or had left the solar system.”
Dr. Norton was sent home and was awaiting additional order, if needed, but had not heard anything else about this situation for approximately 6 months.
Upon all of the commotion around the government shutdown as well as the shutdown of numerous space monitoring programs, Dr. Norton finally made a call to a close friend who he worked with confidentially who told Norton that “the objects reappeared and had repositioned themselves behind the moon” in a circular type of alignment, which allowed them to dock to the backside of the moon in order to remain invisible to skywatchers.
Norton added that the blackout of all space monitoring programs was essential in “keeping the lid on what had happened.”
“We don’t know what they are, what they are doing or what they’re going to do. We do know that there have already been fluctuations in Earth’s gravity field and the gravity field which links the moon to the Earth.”
According to Dr. Norton, if this information were to be revealed to the masses, it would cause a breakdown of all religions as well as the “breakdown of society, itself”.

Moon an alien artifact.

Called “the Rosetta Stone of the planets” by Dr. Robert Jastrow, the first chairman of NASA’s Lunar Exploration Committee, scientists had hoped by studying the composition of the Moon, to resolve some of the mysteries of how our planet and solar system came into existence.
However, six Moon landings later, science writer Earl Ubell declared, “… the lunar Rosetta Stone remains a mystery. The Moon is more complicated than anyone expected; it is not simply a kind of billiard ball frozen in space and time, as many scientists had believed. Few of the fundamental questions have been answered, but the Apollo rocks and recordings have spawned a score of mysteries, a few truly breath-stopping.”
Among these “breath-stopping” mysteries or anomalies as scientists prefer to call them is the fact that the Moon is far older than previously imagined, perhaps even much older than the Earth and Sun. By examining tracks burned into Moon rocks by cosmic rays, scientists have dated them as billions of years old. Some have been dated back 4.5 billion years, far older than the Earth and nearly as old as the solar system.
The Moon has at least three distinct layers of rocks. Contrary to the idea that heavier objects sink, the heavier rocks are found on the surface. And there is a definite disparity in the distribution of minerals. Ubell asked, “If the Earth and Moon were created at the same time, near each other, why has one body got all the iron [the Earth] and the other [the Moon] not much?” asked Ubell. “The differences suggest that Earth and Moon came into being far from each other, an idea that stumbles over the inability of astrophysicists to explain how exactly the Moon became a satellite of the Earth.”
The Moon is extremely dry and does not appear to have ever had water in any substantial amounts. None of the Moon rocks, regardless of where they were found, contained free water or even water molecules bound into the minerals. Yet Apollo 16 astronauts found Moon rocks that contained bits of rusted iron. Since oxidation requires oxygen and free hydrogen, this rust indicates there must be water somewhere on the Moon.
Furthermore, instruments left behind by Apollo missions sent a signal to Earth on March 7, 1971, indicating a “wind” of water had crossed the Moon’s surface. Since any water on the airless Moon surface vaporizes and behaves like the wind on Earth, the question became where did this water originate? The vapor cloud eruptions lasted 14 hours and covered an area of some 100 square miles, prompting Rice University physicists Dr. John Freeman, Jr. and Dr. H. Ken Hills to pronounce the event one of “the most exciting discoveries yet” indicating water within the Moon. The two physicists claimed the water vapor came from deep inside the Moon, apparently released during a moonquake.
NASA officials offered a more mundane, and questionable, explanation. They speculated that two tanks on Apollo descent stages containing between 60 and 100 pounds of water became stressed and ruptured, releasing their contents. Freeman and Hills declined to accept this explanation, pointing out that the two tanks — from Apollo 12 and 14 — were some 180 kilometers apart yet the water vapor was detected with the same flux at both sites although the instruments faced in opposite directions. Skeptics also have understandably questioned the odds of two separate tanks breaking simultaneously and how such a small quantity of water could produce 100 square miles of vapor.
Moon rocks were found to be magnetized—not strong enough to pick up a paper clip, but magnetic nevertheless. However, there is no magnetic field on the Moon itself. So where did the magnetism come from?
The presence of maria, or large seas of smooth solidified molten rock, also presented a mystery. These maria indicate nothing less than a vast outpouring of lava at some distant time. It has now been confirmed that some of the Moon’s craters are of internal origin. Yet there is no indication that the Moon has ever been hot enough to produce volcanic eruptions. Another puzzle is that almost all — four-fifths — of the maria are located on the Moon’s Earthside hemisphere. Few maria mark the far side of the Moon, often erroneously referred to as the “dark side.” Yet the far side contains many more craters and mountainous areas.
In comparison to the rest of the Moon, the maria are relatively free of craters suggesting that craters were covered by lava flow. Adding to this mystery are the mascons — large dense circular masses lying 20 to 40 miles below the center of the Moon’s maria. The mascons were discovered because their denseness distorted the orbits of our spacecraft flying over or near them. One scientist proposed that the mascons are heavy iron meteorites that plunged deep into the Moon while it was in a soft, formable stage. This theory has been discounted since meteorites strike with such high velocities, they would vaporize on contact.
Another mundane explanation is that the mascons are nothing more than lava-filled caverns, but skeptics say there isn’t enough lava present to accomplish this. It would seem these mascons are huge disk-shaped objects possibly of artificial construction. It is unlikely that large circular disks located directly under the center of the maria like a giant bulls-eye happened by accident or coincidence.
Between 1969 and 1977, Apollo mission seismographic equipment registered up to 3,000 “moonquakes” each year of operation. Most of the vibrations were quite small and were caused by meteorite strikes or falling booster rockets. But many other quakes were detected deep inside the Moon. This internal creaking is believed to be caused by the gravitational pull of our planet as most moonquakes occur when the Moon is closest to the Earth.
An event occurred in 1958 in the Moon’s Alphonsus crater, which shook the idea that all internal moonquake activity was simply settling rocks. In November of that year, Soviet astronomer Nikolay A. Kozyrev of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory startled the scientific world by photographing the first recorded gaseous eruption on the Moon near the crater’s peak. Kozyrev attributed this to escaping fluorescent gases. He also detected a reddish glow characteristic of carbon compounds, which “seemed to move and disappeared after an hour.”
Some scientists refused to accept Kozyrev’s findings until astronomers at the Lowell Observatory also saw reddish glows on the crests of ridges in the Aristarchus region in 1963. Days later, colored lights on the Moon lasting more than an hour were reported at two separate observatories.
Something was going on inside the volcanically dead Moon. And whatever it is, it occurs the same way at the same time. As the Moon moves closer to the Earth, seismic signals from different stations on the lunar surface detect identical vibrations. It is difficult to accept this movement as a natural phenomenon. For example, a broken artificial hull plate could shift exactly the same way each time the Moon passed near the Earth.
There is evidence to indicate the Moon may be hollow. Studies of Moon rocks indicate that the Moon’s interior differs from the Earth’s mantle in ways suggesting a very small, or even nonexistent, core. As far back as 1962, NASA scientist Dr. Gordon MacDonald stated, “If the astronomical data are reduced, it is found that the data require that the interior of the Moon be less dense than the outer parts. Indeed, it would seem that the Moon is more like a hollow than a homogeneous sphere.”
Apollo 14 astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, while scoffing at the possibility of a hollow moon, nevertheless admitted that since heavier materials were on the surface, it is quite possible that giant caverns exist within the Moon. MIT’s Dr. Sean C. Solomon wrote, “The Lunar Orbiter experiments vastly improved our knowledge of the Moon’s gravitational field … indicating the frightening possibility that the Moon might be hollow.”
Why frightening? The significance was stated by astronomer Carl Sagan way back in his 1966 work Intelligent Life in the Universe, “A natural satellite cannot be a hollow object.”
The most startling evidence that the Moon could be hollow came on November 20, 1969, when the Apollo 12 crew, after returning to their command ship, sent the lunar module (LM) ascent stage crashing back onto the Moon creating an artificial moonquake. The LM struck the surface about 40 miles from the Apollo 12 landing site where ultra-sensitive seismic equipment recorded something both unexpected and astounding—the Moon reverberated like a bell for more than an hour. The vibration wave took almost eight minutes to reach a peak, and then decreased in intensity. At a news conference that day, one of the co-directors of the seismic experiment, Maurice Ewing, told reporters that scientists were at a loss to explain the ringing. “As for the meaning of it, I’d rather not make an interpretation right now. But it is as though someone had struck a bell, say, in the belfry of a church a single blow and found that the reverberation from it continued for 30 minutes.”
It was later established that small vibrations had continued on the Moon for more than an hour. The phenomenon was repeated when the Apollo 13’s third stage was sent crashing onto the Moon by radio command, striking with the equivalent of 11 tons of TNT. According to NASA, this time the Moon “reacted like a gong.” Although seismic equipment was more than 108 miles from the crash site, recordings showed reverberations lasted for three hours and 20 minutes and traveled to a depth of 22 to 25 miles.
Subsequent studies of man-made crashes on the Moon yielded similar results. After one impact the Moon reverberated for four hours. This ringing coupled with the density problem on the Moon reinforces the idea of a hollow moon. Scientists hoped to record the impact of a meteor large enough to send shock waves to the Moon’s core and back and settle the issue. That opportunity came on May 13, 1972, when a large meteor stuck the Moon with the equivalent force of 200 tons of TNT. After sending shock waves deep into the interior of the Moon, scientists were baffled to find that none returned, confirming that there is something unusual about the Moon’s core, or lack thereof.
Dr. Farouk El Baz was quoted as saying, “There are many undiscovered caverns suspected to exist beneath the surface of the Moon. Several experiments have been flown to the Moon to see if there actually were such caverns.” The results of these experiments have not been made public.
It seems apparent that the Moon has a tough, hard outer shell and a light or nonexistent interior. The Moon’s shell contains dense minerals such as titanium, used on Earth in the construction of aircraft and space vehicles.
Many people still recall watching our astronauts on TV as they vainly tried to drill through the crust of a Moon maria. Their specially designed drills could only penetrate a few inches. The puzzle of the Moon’s hard surface was compounded by the discovery of what appeared to be processed metals.
Experts were surprised to find lunar rocks bearing brass, mica and amphibole in addition to the near-pure titanium. Uranium 236 and Neptunium 237 — elements not previously found in nature — were discovered in Moon rocks, according to the Argone National Laboratory. While still trying to explain the presence of these materials, scientists were further startled to learn of rust-proof iron particles in a soil sample from the Sea of Crisis. In 1976, the Associated Press reported that the Soviets had announced the discovery of iron particles that “do not rust” in samples brought back by an unmanned Moon mission in 1970. Iron that does not rust is unknown in nature and well beyond present Earth technology.
Undoubtedly the greatest mystery concerning our Moon is how it came to be there in the first place. Prior to the Apollo missions, one serious theory as to the Moon’s origin was that it broke off of the Earth eons ago. Although no one could positively locate where on Earth it originated, many speculated the loss of material explained the huge gouge in the Earth, which forms the Pacific Ocean. However, this idea was discarded when it was found that there is little similarity between the composition of our world and the Moon.
A more recent theory had the Moon created out of space debris left over from the creation of the Earth. This concept proved untenable in light of current gravitational theory, which indicates that one large object will accumulate all loose material, leaving none for the formation of another large body. It is now generally accepted that the Moon originated elsewhere and entered the Earth’s gravitational field at some point in the distant past.
Here theories diverge — one stating that the Moon was originally a planet which collided with the Earth creating debris which combined forming the Moon while another states the Moon, while wandering through our solar system, was captured and pulled into orbit by Earth’s gravity. Neither of these theories are especially compelling because of the lack of evidence that neither the Earth nor the Moon seem to have been physically disrupted by a past close encounter. There is no debris in space indicating a past collision and it does not appear that the Earth and the Moon developed during the same time period.
As for the “capture” theory, even scientist Isaac Asimov, well known for his works of fiction, has written, “It’s too big to have been captured by the Earth. The chances of such a capture having been effected and the Moon then having taken up nearly circular orbit around our Earth are too small to make such an eventuality credible.”
Asimov was right to consider the Moon’s orbit — it is not only nearly a perfect circle, but stationary, one side always facing the Earth with only the slightest variation. As far as we know, it’s the only natural satellite with such an orbit.
This circular orbit is especially odd considering that the Moon’s center of mass lies more than a mile closer to the Earth than its geometric center. This fact alone should produce an unstable, wobbly orbit, much as a ball with its mass off center will not roll in a straight line. Additionally, almost all of the other satellites in our solar system orbit in the plane of their planet’s equator. Not so the Moon, whose orbit lies strangely nearer the Earth’s orbit around the Sun or inclined to the Earth’s ecliptic by more than five degrees. Add to this the fact that the Moon’s bulge — located on the side facing away from Earth — thus negating the idea that it was caused by the Earth’s gravitational pull — makes for an off-balanced world.
It seems impossible that such an oddity could naturally fall into such a precise and circular orbit. It is a fascinating conundrum as articulated by science writer William Roy Shelton, who wrote, “It is important to remember that something had to put the Moon at or near its present circular pattern around the Earth. Just as an Apollo spacecraft circling the Earth every 90 minutes while 100 miles high has to have a velocity of roughly 18,000 miles per hour to stay in orbit, so something had to give the Moon the precisely required velocity for its weight and altitude … The point—and it is one seldom noted in considering the origin of the Moon — is that it is extremely unlikely that any object would just stumble into the right combination of factors required to stay in orbit. ‘Something’ had to put the Moon at its altitude, on its course and at its speed. The question is: what was that ‘something’?”
If the precise and stationary orbit of the Moon is seen as sheer coincidence, is it also coincidence that the Moon is at just the right distance from the Earth to completely cover the Sun during an eclipse? While the diameter of the Moon is a mere 2,160 miles against the Sun’s gigantic 864,000 miles, it is nevertheless in just the proper position to block out all but the Sun’s flaming corona when it moves between the Sun and the Earth. Asimov explained: “There is no astronomical reason why the Moon and the Sun should fit so well. It is the sheerest of coincidences, and only the Earth among all the planets is blessed in this fashion.”
Is it merely coincidence? How does one explain this and many other Moon mysteries?
In July 1970, two Russian scientists, Mikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov, published an article in the Soviet journal Sputnik entitled “Is the Moon the Creation of Alien Intelligence?” They advanced the theory that the Moon is not a completely natural world, but a planetoid that was hollowed out eons ago in the far reaches of space by intelligent beings possessing a technology far superior to ours. Huge machines were used to melt rock and form large cavities within the Moon, spewing the molten refuse onto the surface. Protected by a hull-like inner shell plus a reconstructed outer shell of metallic rocky junk, this gigantic craft was steered through the cosmos and finally parked in orbit around the Earth.
In their article Vasin and Shcherbakov wrote, “Abandoning the traditional paths of ‘common sense,’ we have plunged into what may at first sight seem to be unbridled and irresponsible fantasy. But the more minutely we go into all the information gathered by man about the Moon, the more we are convinced that there is not a single fact to rule out our supposition. Not only that, but many things so far considered to be lunar enigmas are explainable in the light of this new hypothesis.”
Outrageous as the spaceship moon theory might first appear, consider how this model reconciles all of the mysteries of the Moon. It would explain why the Moon gives evidence of being much older than the Earth and perhaps even our solar system and why there are three distinct layers within the Moon, with the densest materials in the outside layer, exactly as one would expect of the “hull” of a spacecraft. It could also explain why no sign of water has been found on the Moon’s surface, yet there is evidence it exists deep inside. This theory also would explain the strange maria and mascons, perhaps the remnants of the machinery used to hollow out the Moon. The idea of an artificial satellite could explain the odd, rhythmic “moonquakes” as artificial constructs reacting the same way during periods of stress from the Earth’s pull. And artificial equipment beneath the Moon’s surface might be the source of the gas clouds that have been observed.
Intelligent “terraforming” of the Moon could prove the solution to the argument between “hot moon” and “cold moon” scientists — they are both right! The Moon originally was a cold world, which was transformed into a spacecraft by artificially heating and expelling vast quantities of its interior. This theory also could explain the seeming contradictions over the question of a hollow moon. If the Moon originally was a solid world which was artificially hollowed out, there would be evidence of both phases—exactly what we have with current Moon knowledge.
An artificially hollowed-out Moon would explain why the satellite rings like a bell for hours after struck and why specimens of tough, refractory metals such as titanium, chromium and circonium; “rust-proof” iron; Uranium 236 and Neptunium 237 have been found there.
In fact, the spaceship moon theory may come closer than any other in reconciling the questions over the origin and amazing orbit of the Moon.