If your conscience is true to you, it won’t let you attend
For me, I will not attend not because I envy him, never!
He is simply not a friend
Do you know how long it takes to build? That’s how long he kept it away
There may be more secrets he is yet to post

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66491106

Moses Caicedo is blue

115 m pounds .. English records

Liverpool agreed a £111m fee for the 21-year-old on Friday.

But the player's preference has been Chelsea and they have finally succeeded after having a succession of bids rejected earlier this summer.

That pregnancy is not yours bro

Listen to ur husband oo

*Long Read*💡🤔

Yuval Noah Harari argues that AI has hacked the operating system of human civilization

Storytelling computers will change the course of human history, says the historian and philosopher

Apr 28th 2023
[b][/b]
Fears of artificial intelligence (ai) have haunted humanity since the very beginning of the computer age. Hitherto these fears focused on machines using physical means to kill, enslave or replace people. But over the past couple of years new ai tools have emerged that threaten the survival of human civilisation from an unexpected direction. ai has gained some remarkable abilities to manipulate and generate language, whether with words, sounds or images. ai has thereby hacked the operating system of our civilisation.

Language is the stuff almost all human culture is made of. Human rights, for example, aren’t inscribed in our dna. Rather, they are cultural artefacts we created by telling stories and writing laws. Gods aren’t physical realities. Rather, they are cultural artefacts we created by inventing myths and writing scriptures.

Money, too, is a cultural artefact. Banknotes are just colourful pieces of paper, and at present more than 90% of money is not even banknotes—it is just digital information in computers. What gives money value is the stories that bankers, finance ministers and cryptocurrency gurus tell us about it. Sam Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes and Bernie Madoff were not particularly good at creating real value, but they were all extremely capable storytellers.

What would happen once a non-human intelligence becomes better than the average human at telling stories, composing melodies, drawing images, and writing laws and scriptures? When people think about Chatgpt and other new ai tools, they are often drawn to examples like school children using ai to write their essays. What will happen to the school system when kids do that? But this kind of question misses the big picture. Forget about school essays. Think of the next American presidential race in 2024, and try to imagine the impact of ai tools that can be made to mass-produce political content, fake-news stories and scriptures for new cults.

In recent years the qAnon cult has coalesced around anonymous online messages, known as “q drops”. Followers collected, revered and interpreted these q drops as a sacred text. While to the best of our knowledge all previous q drops were composed by humans, and bots merely helped disseminate them, in future we might see the first cults in history whose revered texts were written by a non-human intelligence. Religions throughout history have claimed a non-human source for their holy books. Soon that might be a reality.

On a more prosaic level, we might soon find ourselves conducting lengthy online discussions about abortion, climate change or the Russian invasion of Ukraine with entities that we think are humans—but are actually ai. The catch is that it is utterly pointless for us to spend time trying to change the declared opinions of an ai bot, while the ai could hone its messages so precisely that it stands a good chance of influencing us.

Through its mastery of language, ai could even form intimate relationships with people, and use the power of intimacy to change our opinions and worldviews. Although there is no indication that ai has any consciousness or feelings of its own, to foster fake intimacy with humans it is enough if the ai can make them feel emotionally attached to it. In June 2022 Blake Lemoine, a Google engineer, publicly claimed that the ai chatbot Lamda, on which he was working, had become sentient. The controversial claim cost him his job. The most interesting thing about this episode was not Mr Lemoine’s claim, which was probably false. Rather, it was his willingness to risk his lucrative job for the sake of the ai chatbot. If ai can influence people to risk their jobs for it, what else could it induce them to do?

In a political battle for minds and hearts, intimacy is the most efficient weapon, and ai has just gained the ability to mass-produce intimate relationships with millions of people. We all know that over the past decade social media has become a battleground for controlling human attention. With the new generation of ai, the battlefront is shifting from attention to intimacy. What will happen to human society and human psychology as ai fights ai in a battle to fake intimate relationships with us, which can then be used to convince us to vote for particular politicians or buy particular products?

Even without creating “fake intimacy”, the new ai tools would have an immense influence on our opinions and worldviews. People may come to use a single ai adviser as a one-stop, all-knowing oracle. No wonder Google is terrified. Why bother searching, when I can just ask the oracle? The news and advertising industries should also be terrified. Why read a newspaper when I can just ask the oracle to tell me the latest news? And what’s the purpose of advertisements, when I can just ask the oracle to tell me what to buy?

And even these scenarios don’t really capture the big picture. What we are talking about is potentially the end of human history. Not the end of history, just the end of its human-dominated part. History is the interaction between biology and culture; between our biological needs and desires for things like food and sex, and our cultural creations like religions and laws. History is the process through which laws and religions shape food and sex.

What will happen to the course of history when ai takes over culture, and begins producing stories, melodies, laws and religions? Previous tools like the printing press and radio helped spread the cultural ideas of humans, but they never created new cultural ideas of their own. ai is fundamentally different. ai can create completely new ideas, completely new culture.

At first, ai will probably imitate the human prototypes that it was trained on in its infancy. But with each passing year, ai culture will boldly go where no human has gone before. For millennia human beings have lived inside the dreams of other humans. In the coming decades we might find ourselves living inside the dreams of an alien intelligence.

Fear of ai has haunted humankind for only the past few decades. But for thousands of years humans have been haunted by a much deeper fear. We have always appreciated the power of stories and images to manipulate our minds and to create illusions.

In the 17th century René Descartes feared that perhaps a malicious demon was trapping him inside a world of illusions, creating everything he saw and heard. In ancient Greece Plato told the famous Allegory of the Cave, in which a group of people are chained inside a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. A screen. On that screen they see projected various shadows. The prisoners mistake the illusions they see there for reality.

In ancient India Buddhist and Hindu sages pointed out that all humans lived trapped inside Maya—the world of illusions. What we normally take to be reality is often just fictions in our own minds. People may wage entire wars, killing others and willing to be killed themselves, because of their belief in this or that illusion.

The AI revolution is bringing us face to face with Descartes’ demon, with Plato’s cave, with the Maya. If we are not careful, we might be trapped behind a curtain of illusions, which we could not tear away—or even realise is there.

Of course, the new power of ai could be used for good purposes as well. I won’t dwell on this, because the people who develop ai talk about it enough. The job of historians and philosophers like myself is to point out the dangers. But certainly, ai can help us in countless ways, from finding new cures for cancer to discovering solutions to the ecological crisis. The question we face is how to make sure the new ai tools are used for good rather than for ill. To do that, we first need to appreciate the true capabilities of these tools.

Since 1945 we have known that nuclear technology could generate cheap energy for the benefit of humans—but could also physically destroy human civilisation. We therefore reshaped the entire international order to protect humanity, and to make sure nuclear technology was used primarily for good. We now have to grapple with a new weapon of mass destruction that can annihilate our mental and social world.

We can still regulate the new ai tools, but we must act quickly. Whereas nukes cannot invent more powerful nukes, ai can make exponentially more powerful ai. The first crucial step is to demand rigorous safety checks before powerful ai tools are released into the public domain. Just as a pharmaceutical company cannot release new drugs before testing both their short-term and long-term side-effects, so tech companies shouldn’t release new ai tools before they are made safe. We need an equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration for new technology, and we need it yesterday.

Won’t slowing down public deployments of ai cause democracies to lag behind more ruthless authoritarian regimes? Just the opposite. Unregulated ai deployments would create social chaos, which would benefit autocrats and ruin democracies. Democracy is a conversation, and conversations rely on language. When ai hacks language, it could destroy our ability to have meaningful conversations, thereby destroying democracy.

We have just encountered an alien intelligence, here on Earth. We don’t know much about it, except that it might destroy our civilisation. We should put a halt to the irresponsible deployment of ai tools in the public sphere, and regulate ai before it regulates us. And the first regulation I would suggest is to make it mandatory for ai to disclose that it is an ai. If I am having a conversation with someone, and I cannot tell whether it is a human or an ai—that’s the end of democracy.

This text has been generated by a human.

Or has it?
_______________

Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher and author of “Sapiens”, “Homo Deus” and the children’s series “Unstoppable Us”. He is a lecturer in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s history department and co-founder of Sapienship, a social-impact company.

Red flag everywhere.
1. Why would you be with a lady challenging what you do to your own mum?
2. Telling you to be her house boy
3. High OPEX

Bro let ur mother prayers work for you. RUN

Awful news that the great Pelé has been moved to end-of-life palliative care after he stopped responding to chemotherapy. The only footballer in history to win 3 World Cups, and an icon of the game at the level of Muhammad Ali in boxing. So sad. � #Pele

Queen Elizabeth II advised 15 British prime ministers, met 13 American presidents, and during her 70-year reign, she lent her name to over 600 charitable organisations and owned more than 40 Pembrokeshire Welsh Corgi dogs

https:///tA5U1EdAMh

Brothers and sisters, please let’s leave religion and ethnicity and rescue our country
Remember end SARS, remember how old Tinubu is, his role in Lagos or his international reputation, remember Atiku and his role in privatisation
The exchange rate affects us all, ASUU strike is frustrating all of us - both religion and ethnicity are not spared
NEPA bill is the same for us the commoners, our roads are bad, airfares are no longer affordable
I went through ONNE road on Friday and cried
I saw what bad road means
I saw what is left of NAFCON ����
Brothers let’s leave religion and ethnicity
We are one
Please let’s change the narrative
Obasanjo is an elder, he had ruled several times and have huge experience and information
He wants Obi
Please let’s follow his direction

Brothers and sisters, please let’s leave religion and ethnicity and rescue our country
Remember end SARS, remember how old Tinubu is, his role in Lagos or his international reputation, remember Atiku and his role in privatisation
Brothers let’s leave religion and ethnicity
We are one
Please let’s change the narrative
Obasanjo is an elder, he had ruled several times and have huge experience and information
He wants Obi
Please let’s follow his direction

How much to clear 2020 highlander

Report her to the police for attempted murder

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and veteran of South Africa's struggle against white minority rule, has died aged 90, the presidency said on Sunday.

"The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa," President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

Jeff Bezos launches to space aboard New Shepard rocket ship https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57849364

How much does it cost to build a refinery
Something Dangote is doing alone

Bill and Melinda Gates are ending their marriage after 27 years, the pair announced in a statement on their verified Twitter accounts.
"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," the statement reads.
The couple founded their philanthropic organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in 2000.
"We have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives," the statement says. "We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can growth together as a couple in this next phase of our lives."
The foundation did not immediately return a request for comment from CNN Business.

McLaren don sign contract with 13-year-old American-Nigerian karter Ugo Ugochukwu to support am through racing junior categories.
Di Formula 1 team say di agreement give dem an option to sign Ugochukwu to a race deal in di future.
McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown say: "We bin don dey watch Ugo progress with interest.
"So wen the opportunity to sign agreement with am become available, we no hesitate to move on it."
Di move give McLaren describe as a multi-year contract with Ugochuku, within which option dey wey dem fit choose to take up wey go tie am to a further multi-year racing deal. Dis wan fit be for F1 or in oda categories.
McLaren, like many F1 teams, don get young driver programme for many years. Dia most high-profile graduate na Lewis Hamilton, wey di team also sign wen e be 13, and wey remain so far F1 only black driver.
F1 bin never get American driver since Alexander Rossi take part in five races for di Marussia team in 2015.
Di last American to win Grand Prix na 1978 world champion Mario Andretti - for day year Dutch Grand Prix.
McLaren F1 team principal Andreas Seidl say: "Ugo na promising young talent with strong development prospects.
"While e still dey early stage for im career, e clear say e get di ingredients to be successful in di sport.
"Dis signing reflect our refocused approach to identifying and supporting new talent, away from a formal young driver programme to a more tailored basis."
Wetin to know about Ugochukwu
Dem born Ugochukwu for New York but im mama na Nigerian, wey be ogbonge super model, Oluchi Onweagba-Orlandi wey don walk di runway for many ogbonge designers like Gucci, Fendi, Chanel, Christian Dior and odas.
Oluchi wey bin grow up for Lagos begin her super model career on an international level wen she win di 'Face of Africa' contest for 1998.

Former world heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, best known for defeating Muhammad Ali in 1978, has died at the age 67, according to a statement from his publicist.
Spinks lost his five-year battle with prostate and other cancers on Friday evening.
"At the time of his passing his wife Brenda Glur Spinks was by his side. Due to Covid restrictions, only a few close friends and other family were present," the statement read.
Spinks represented the United States during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, and won a gold medal.
He faced Muhammad Ali in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 15, 1978, winning in an upset to become the undisputed World Heavyweight Boxing champion.
Spinks fought 72 professional fights, winning 46 of them.
The statement continued with, "Leon fought his battle with numerous illnesses resiliently, never losing his trademark smile. Showing true Spinks determination, he never threw in the towel."
This is a developing story and will be updated.

Argentina Football legend Diego Maradona is dead.

The former Argentina player reportedly died after suffering a cardiac arrest, according to reports in Argentina.

According to the Argentina newspaper Clarín, the football legend suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest at his home.

His death is coming just two weeks after leaving the hospital.

Osho will move to court

John Lewis, who went from being the youngest leader of the 1963 March on Washington to a long-serving congressman from Georgia and icon of the civil rights movement, died Friday. He was 80.
In December 2019, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
As a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis was a committed participant in some of the key moments of the movement — an original Freedom Rider in 1961, a principal speaker at the March on Washington in 1963, one of those brutally clubbed during a 1965 march in Selma, Ala. Through it all, he faced taunts, beatings and dozens of arrests.
“In the face of what John considered the evils of segregation, he was fearless,” said longtime SNCC activist Courtland Cox.
By his middle years, he was in Congress and sometimes referred to it as its “conscience.”
Tributes poured in late Friday night from across the political spectrum, with Democrats and Republicans offering condolences on Lewis’ passing........

What’s your thoughts on this subject...., they should give back to the society not help tomisguide the youths

Top Celebrities in Nigeria are promoting gambling

This is dangerous as many of their fans mostly youths believe gambling can make them be like their idols

Okocha, Kanu and Davido...... Instead of building academy and music schools are encouraging gambling.....

Outbreak: 10 of the Worst Pandemics in History



Scientists and medical researchers have for years have differed over the exact definition of a pandemic (is it a pandemic, or an epidemic), but one thing everyone agrees on is that the word describes the widespread occurrence of disease, in excess of what might normally be expected in a geographical region.

Cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and influenza are some of the most brutal killers in human history. And outbreaks of these diseases across international borders, are properly defined as pandemic, especially smallpox, which throughout history, has killed between 300-500 million people in its 12,000 year existence.

What About Covid-19 (the Novel Coronavirus)?

Beginning in December 2019, in the region of Wuhan, China, a new (“novel”) coronavirus began appearing in human beings. It has been named Covid-19, a shortened form of “coronavirus disease of 2019.” This new virus spreads incredibly quickly between people, due to its newness – no one on earth has an immunity to Covid-19, because no one had Covid-19 until 2019. While it was initially seen to be an epidemic in China, the virus spread worldwide within months. The WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic in March, and by the end of that month, the world saw more than a half-million people infected and nearly 30,000 deaths. The infection rate in the US and other nations was still spiking.

With the coronavirus pandemic, people all over the world have become more aware of the best practices during a pandemic, from careful hand-washing to social distancing. Countries across the world declared mandatory staty-at-home measures, closing schools, businesses, and public places. Dozens of companies and many more independent researchers began working on tests, treatments, and vaccines. The push for the human race to survive the pandemic became the primary concern in the world.

The outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic is impossible to predict, at the time of this writing. But we can learn from pandemics in history to determine our best courses. These are our teachers – the Spanish flu, the AIDS pandemic, and more.

HIV/AIDS Pandemic (at its peak, 2005-2012)

Death Toll: 36 million
Cause: HIV/AIDS
First identified in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, HIV/AIDS has truly proven itself as a global pandemic, killing more than 36 million people since 1981. Currently there are between 31 and 35 million people living with HIV, the vast majority of those are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 5% of the population is infected, roughly 21 million people. As awareness has grown, new treatments have been developed that make HIV far more manageable, and many of those infected go on to lead productive lives. Between 2005 and 2012 the annual global deaths from HIV/AIDS dropped from 2.2 million to 1.6 million.

Flu Pandemic (1968)

Death Toll: 1 million
Cause: Influenza
A category 2 Flu pandemic sometimes referred to as “the Hong Kong Flu,” the 1968 flu pandemic was caused by the H3N2 strain of the Influenza A virus, a genetic offshoot of the H2N2 subtype. From the first reported case on July 13, 1968 in Hong Kong, it took only 17 days before outbreaks of the virus were reported in Singapore and Vietnam, and within three months had spread to The Philippines, India, Australia, Europe, and the United States. While the 1968 pandemic had a comparatively low mortality rate (.5%) it still resulted in the deaths of more than a million people, including 500,000 residents of Hong Kong, approximately 15% of its population at the time.

Check out our guide on the Flu – When Does Flu Season End?

Asian Flu (1956-1958)

Death Toll: 2 million
Cause: Influenza
Asian Flu was a pandemic outbreak of Influenza A of the H2N2 subtype, that originated in China in 1956 and lasted until 1958. In its two-year spree, Asian Flu traveled from the Chinese province of Guizhou to Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States. Estimates for the death toll of the Asian Flu vary depending on the source, but the World Health Organization places the final tally at approximately 2 million deaths, 69,800 of those in the US alone.

Flu Pandemic (1918)

Death Toll: 20 -50 million
Cause: Influenza
Between 1918 and 1920 a disturbingly deadly outbreak of influenza tore across the globe, infecting over a third of the world’s population and ending the lives of 20 – 50 million people. Of the 500 million people infected in the 1918 pandemic, the mortality rate was estimated at 10% to 20%, with up to 25 million deaths in the first 25 weeks alone. What separated the 1918 flu pandemic from other influenza outbreaks was the victims; where influenza had always previously only killed juveniles and the elderly or already weakened patients, it had begun striking down hardy and completely healthy young adults, while leaving children and those with weaker immune systems still alive.

Sixth Cholera Pandemic (1910-1911)

Death Toll: 800,000+
Cause: Cholera
Like its five previous incarnations, the Sixth Cholera Pandemic originated in India where it killed over 800,000, before spreading to the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. The Sixth Cholera Pandemic was also the source of the last American outbreak of Cholera (1910–1911). American health authorities, having learned from the past, quickly sought to isolate the infected, and in the end only 11 deaths occurred in the U.S. By 1923 Cholera cases had been cut down dramatically, although it was still a constant in India.

Flu Pandemic (1889-1890)

Death Toll: 1 million
Cause: Influenza
Originally the “Asiatic Flu” or “Russian Flu” as it was called, this strain was thought to be an outbreak of the Influenza A virus subtype H2N2, though recent discoveries have instead found the cause to be the Influenza A virus subtype H3N8. The first cases were observed in May 1889 in three separate and distant locations, Bukhara in Central Asia (Turkestan), Athabasca in northwestern Canada, and Greenland. Rapid population growth of the 19th century, specifically in urban areas, only helped the flu spread, and before long the outbreak had spread across the globe. Though it was the first true epidemic in the era of bacteriology and much was learned from it. In the end, the 1889-1890 Flu Pandemic claimed the lives of over a million individuals.

Third Cholera Pandemic (1852–1860)

Death Toll: 1 million
Cause: Cholera
Generally considered the most deadly of the seven cholera pandemics, the third major outbreak of Cholera in the 19th century lasted from 1852 to 1860. Like the first and second pandemics, the Third Cholera Pandemic originated in India, spreading from the Ganges River Delta before tearing through Asia, Europe, North America and Africa and ending the lives of over a million people. British physician John Snow, while working in a poor area of London, tracked cases of cholera and eventually succeeded in identifying contaminated water as the means of transmission for the disease. Unfortunately the same year as his discovery (1854) went down as the worst year of the pandemic, in which 23,000 people died in Great Britain.

The Black Death (1346-1353)

Death Toll: 75 – 200 million
Cause: Bubonic Plague
From 1346 to 1353 an outbreak of the Plague ravaged Europe, Africa, and Asia, with an estimated death toll between 75 and 200 million people. Thought to have originated in Asia, the Plague most likely jumped continents via the fleas living on the rats that so frequently lived aboard merchant ships. Ports being major urban centers at the time, were the perfect breeding ground for the rats and fleas, and thus the insidious bacterium flourished, devastating three continents in its wake.

Plague of Justinian (541-542)

Death Toll: 25 million
Cause: Bubonic Plague
Thought to have killed perhaps half the population of Europe, the Plague of Justinian was an outbreak of the bubonic plague that afflicted the Byzantine Empire and Mediterranean port cities, killing up to 25 million people in its year long reign of terror. Generally regarded as the first recorded incident of the Bubonic Plague, the Plague of Justinian left its mark on the world, killing up to a quarter of the population of the Eastern Mediterranean and devastating the city of Constantinople, where at its height it was killing an estimated 5,000 people per day and eventually resulting in the deaths of 40% of the city’s population.

Antonine Plague (165 AD)

Death Toll: 5 million
Cause: Unknown
Also known as the Plague of Galen, the Antonine Plague was an ancient pandemic that affected Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, and Italy and is thought to have been either Smallpox or Measles, though the true cause is still unknown. This unknown disease was brought back to Rome by soldiers returning from Mesopotamia around 165AD; unknowingly, they had spread a disease which would end up killing over 5 million people and decimating the Roman army.

Remarkable if you ask me
If he likes to show off, he can come with gold and diamond plated phone.....
Keeping it simple is bae

Chelsea legend Didier Drogba hosted the Ballon d’Or 2019 awards and was tasked with the responsibility of handing the 2019 Ballon d’Or trophy to Lionel Messi.

The Ivorian took a selfie with Paris Saint-Germain sensation Kylian Mbappe during the Ballon d’Or 2019 awards ceremony on Monday, and what caught the eyes of many is the modest iPhone 6 that’s still being used by the football legend.

https://www.therealchelseafans.com/2019/12/drogbas-iphone-surprises-fans-in-ballon-dor/

'If you can't afford the latest gadget in the market, you are not a failure!'

On Friday 19 October, 1934, the passenger plane Miss Hobart fell from the sky to the sea.
Eight men, three women and a baby boy fell with her, swallowed - it's believed - by the waters of the Bass Strait that lies between Tasmania and mainland Australia.
The plane's wreckage was never found.
One of those on board was a 33-year-old Anglican missionary, Rev Hubert Warren, who had been travelling to his new parish in Enfield, Sydney. His wife Ellie and four children had stayed behind, intending to follow by boat.
The reverend's last present to his eight-year-old son, David, had been a crystal radio set that the boy treasured deeply.
ADVERTISEMENT

As a boarder at Launceston Boys' Grammar School in Tasmania, David Warren tinkered with the machine after lessons, learning what made it work. He charged friends a penny to listen to cricket matches, and within a few years was selling home-made copies at five shillings each.
David pictured as a boy, wearing headphones and using his radio equipmentImage copyrightWARREN FAMILY COLLECTION
Image caption
As a schoolboy, David was fascinated by electronics and learned to build his own radio sets
Presentational white space
Young David was charismatic and a wonderful orator - a boy with star quality. His family, who were deeply religious, dreamed he would become an evangelical preacher.
But that was not to be. The gift from Rev Hubert, Man of God, had launched a love affair with Science.
It would prove to be of life-saving significance.
Short presentational grey line
By his mid-twenties, David Warren had studied his way to a science degree from the University of Sydney, a diploma in education from Melbourne University and a PhD in chemistry from Imperial College, London.
His specialty was rocket science, and he went to work as a researcher for the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL), a part of Australia's Defence Department that focused on planes.
In 1953, the department loaned him to an expert panel trying to solve a costly and distressing mystery: why did the British de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner and the great hope of the new Jet Age, keep crashing?
He thought it might be the fuel tanks; but there were dozens of possible causes and nothing but death and debris as evidence. The panel sat down to discuss what they knew.
"People were rattling on about staff training and pilots' errors, and did a fin break off the tail, and all sorts of things that I knew nothing about," Dr Warren recalled more than 50 years later.
"I found myself dreaming of something I'd seen the week before at Sydney's first post-war trade fair. And that is - what claimed to be the first pocket recorder, the Miniphon. A German device. There'd been nothing before like it…"
The Miniphon was marketed as a dictation machine for businessmen, who could sit at their desks (or on trains and planes) recording letters that would later be typed up by their secretaries. David, who loved swing music and played the clarinet, only wanted one so he could make bootleg recordings of the jazz musician Woody Herman.
However, when one of his fellow scientists suggested the latest doomed Comet might have been hijacked, something clicked for him.
The chances that a recorder had been on board - and survived the fiery wreck - were basically nil. But what if every plane in the sky had a mini recorder in the cockpit? If it was tough enough, accident investigators would never be this confused again, because they'd have audio right up to the moment of the crash. At the very least, they'd know what the pilots had said and heard.
The idea fascinated him. Back at ARL, he rushed to tell his boss about it.
Alas, his superior didn't share his enthusiasm. Dr Warren said he was told: "It's nothing to do with chemistry or fuels. You're a chemist. Give that to the instruments group and get on with blowing up fuel tanks."
'Talk about it and I'll have to sack you'
David knew his idea for a cockpit recorder was a good one. Without official support, there was little he could do about it - but he couldn't get it out of his mind.
When his boss was promoted, David pitched his invention again. His new superior was intrigued, and so was Dr Laurie Coombes, ARL's chief superintendent. They urged him to keep working on it - but discreetly. Since it wasn't a government-approved venture or a war-winning weapon, it couldn't be seen to take up lab time or money.
Dr Warren said the chief superintendent had cautioned him: "If I find you talking to anyone, including me, about this matter, I will have to sack you."
It was a sobering thought for a young man with a wife and two children.
But his boss's backing extended to sneakily buying one of the precious new dictation recorders, and chalking it up as "an instrument required for the laboratory…"
David pictured with staff from the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in 1958Image copyrightDEFENCE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, AUSTRALIA
Image caption
David holding forth at ARL in 1958
Encouraged, Dr Warren wrote up his idea in a report, titled "A Device for Assisting Investigation into Aircraft Accidents", and sent it out across the industry.
The pilots' union responded with fury, branding the recorder a snooping device, and insisted "no plane would take off in Australia with Big Brother listening".
That was one of his better reviews.
Australia's civilian aviation authorities declared it had "no immediate significance", and the air force feared it would "yield more expletives than explanations".
Dr Warren was tempted to pack it all in.
But his eldest son, Peter, says his father was stubborn, with a non-conformist streak that coloured his whole worldview.
"He took us skiing," he recalls, "but he did the skiing in washing-up gloves, because he wasn't going to pay $30 for a pair of ski gloves. He wasn't the least bit afraid. He wasn't going to wait and follow the herd at all."
It was in that spirit that Dr Warren took to his garage and assembled his 20-year-old radio parts. He'd decided the only way to overcome his critics' mockery and suspicion was to build a solid prototype.
It would be the first ever "black box" flight recorder.
'Put that lad on the next courier!'
One day in 1958, when the little flight recorder had been finished and finessed, the lab received an unusual visitor. Dr Coombes, the chief superintendent, was showing round a friend from England.
"Dave!" he said, "Tell him what you're doing!"
Dr Warren explained: his world-first prototype used steel wire to store four hours of pilot voices plus instrument readings and automatically erased older records so it was reusable.
There was a pause, then the visitor said: "I say Coombes old chap, that's a damn good idea. Put that lad on the next courier, and we'll show it in London."
The courier was a Hastings bomber aircraft, making a run to England. You had to know somebody pretty powerful to get a seat on it. Dr Warren wondered who this man was who was giving away tickets round the world to somebody he'd never met.
The answer was Robert Hardingham (later Sir Robert), the secretary of the British Air Registration Board and a former Air Vice-Marshall in the RAF.
In David's words: "He was a hero. And he was a friend of Coombes, and if he gave away a seat, you took it."
A few weeks later, Dr Warren was on a plane bound for England - with strict instructions not to tell Australia's Department of Defence what he was really doing there, because "somebody would frown on it".
In a near-unbelievable irony, the plane lost an engine over the Mediterranean.
Dr Warren recalled: "I said, 'Chaps, we seem to have lost a donk - does anyone want to go back?' But we'd come from Tunisia and it was about 45 degrees overnight. We didn't want to go back to that hellhole."
They decided they could make it if they ploughed on.
He recorded the rest of the flight, thinking that even if he died in that limping bomber, "at least I'd have proved the bastards wrong!"
"But unfortunately we didn't prang - we just landed safely…"
The Warren family pictured in 1958Image copyrightWARREN FAMILY COLLECTION
Image caption
By 1958, David and his wife Ruth had four children. The eldest, Peter, remembers him flying off to England
Presentational white space
In England, Dr Warren presented "the ARL Flight Memory Unit" to the Royal Aeronautical Establishment and some commercial instrument-makers.
The Brits loved it. The BBC ran TV and radio programmes examining it, and the British civil aviation authority started work to make the device mandatory in civil aircraft. A Middlesex firm, S Davall and Sons, approached ARL about the production rights, and kicked off manufacturing.
Though the device started to be called "the black box", the first ones off the line were orange so they'd be easier to find after a crash - and they remain so today.
Peter Warren believes the name dates from a 1958 interview his father gave the BBC.
"Right at the end there was a journalist who referred to this as a 'black box'. It's a generic word from electronics engineering, and the name stuck."


Media captionIn footage from 1958, David Warren explains his invention to the BBC
Indonesian officials give a press conference next to the flight data recorder of a crashed passenger jet on May 31, 2012.Image copyrightAFP/GETTYIMAGES
Image caption
The so-called "black box" is in fact a strident orange colour
In 1960, Australia became the first country to make cockpit voice recorders mandatory, after an unexplained plane crash in Queensland killed 29 people. The ruling came from a judicial inquiry, and took a further three years to become law.
Today, black boxes are fire-proof, ocean-proof and encased in steel. And they are compulsory on every commercial flight.
WATCH: What's in a plane's black box?
It's impossible to say how many people owe their lives to data captured in the death throes of a failing plane - to the flaws exposed, and the safety innovations that followed.
'I'm a lucky bastard'
David Warren worked at ARL until his retirement in 1983, becoming its principal research scientist. He died on 19 July, 2010, at the age of 85.
David Warren, pictured in 2002, holds the first combined voice/data recorderImage copyrightFAIRFAX MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES
Image caption
David Warren pictured in 2002 with the first combined voice and data recorder
For more than 50 years, his pioneering work on the black box went almost unacknowledged. Finally in 1999, he was awarded the Australian Institute of Energy Medal, and then in 2002 was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his service to the aviation industry.
Asked why it took so long for him to be recognised, his daughter Jenny observes: "His battle was inertia. He had this huge enquiring mind, scientifically visionary, and could see how it would work - how it would play out.
"He was sitting there in 1958, saying 'this device can make this happen.'"
Peter Warren blames "a 1950s colonial mindset which said nothing good could come out of this country, and everything good would get invented in either the UK, or Germany or America".
The historic secrecy surrounding ARL's work, which is now more widely understood, is another likely factor.
Dr Warren lived to see Qantas name an Airbus A380 after him in 2008. Jenny Warren says she's been trying to get a seat on it ever since.
But he never saw a penny in royalties from the black box.
Family members carry the coffin of scientist David Warren at his funeral in Melbourne July 23, 2010.Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
David Warren's funeral featured a tongue-in-cheek nod to his legacy
He was often asked if he felt hard done by. Peter says his standard response was: "Yes, the government got the results of what I did. But then, they also didn't charge me for the other hundred ideas that didn't work."
David's children inherited his sense of humour.
At Peter's urging, Dr Warren's death notice included his personal catchphrase: "I'm a lucky bastard."
At Jenny's request, he was buried in a casket labelled: "Flight Recorder Inventor: Do Not Open."
Do they think of their dad when flying?
His daughter replies simply: "Every time."
Dr David Warren pictured smiling in the cockpit of a Boeing 747, on 26 August 1998.Image copyrightFAIRFAX MEDIA

Mobile technology has transformed the way we live — how we read, work, communicate, shop and date.
But we already know this.
What we have not yet grasped is the way the tiny machines in front of us are remolding our skeletons, possibly altering not just the behaviors we exhibit but the bodies we inhabit.
New research in biomechanics suggests that young people are developing hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls — bone spurs caused by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing bone growth in the connecting tendons and ligaments. The weight transfer that causes the buildup can be compared to the way the skin thickens into a callus as a response to pressure or abrasion.
The result is a hook or hornlike feature jutting out from the skull, just above the neck.
In academic papers, a pair of researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, argues that the prevalence of the bone growth in younger adults points to shifting body posture brought about by the use of modern technology. They say smartphones and other handheld devices are contorting the human form, requiring users to bend their heads forward to make sense of what’s happening on the miniature screens.
The researchers said their discovery marks the first documentation of a physiological or skeletal adaptation to the penetration of advanced technology into everyday life.
Health experts warn of “text neck,” and doctors have begun treating “texting thumb,” which is not a clearly defined condition but bears resemblance to carpal tunnel syndrome. But prior research has not linked phone use to bone-deep changes in the body.
“An important question is what the future holds for the young adult populations in our study, when development of a degenerative process is evident in such an early stage of their lives?” ask the authors in one paper, published in Nature Research’s peer-reviewed, open-access Scientific Reports. The study came out last year but has received fresh attention following the publication last week of a BBC story that considers, “How modern life is transforming the human skeleton.”
Since then, the unusual formations have captured the attention of Australian media, and have variously been dubbed “head horns” or “phone bones” or “spikes” or “weird bumps.”
Each is a fitting description, said David Shahar, the paper’s first author, a chiropractor who recently completed a PhD in biomechanics at Sunshine Coast.
“That is up to anyone’s imagination,” he told The Washington Post. “You may say it looks like a bird’s beak, a horn, a hook.”
However it is designated, Shahar said, the formation is a sign of a serious deformity in posture that can cause chronic headaches and pain in the upper back and neck.
Part of what was striking about the findings, he said, was the size of the bone spurs, which are thought to be large if they measure 3 or 5 millimeters in length. An outgrowth was only factored into their research if it measured 10 millimeters, or about two-fifths of an inch.
The danger is not the head horn itself, said Mark Sayers, an associate professor of biomechanics at Sunshine Coast who served as Shahar’s supervisor and co-author. Rather, the formation is a “portent of something nasty going on elsewhere, a sign that the head and neck are not in the proper configuration,” he told The Post.
Their work began about three years ago with a pile of neck X-rays taken in Queensland. The images captured part of the skull, including the area where the bony projections, called enthesophytes, form at the back of the head.
Contrary to conventional understanding of the hornlike structures, which have been thought to crop up rarely and mainly among older people suffering from prolonged strain, Shahar noticed that they appeared prominently on X-rays of younger subjects, including those who were showing no obvious symptoms.
The pair’s first paper, published in the Journal of Anatomy in 2016, enlisted a sample of 218 X-rays, of subjects ages 18 to 30, to suggest that the bone growth could be observed in 41 percent of young adults, much more than previously thought. The feature was more prevalent among men than among women.
The effect — known as enlarged external occipital protuberance — used to be so uncommon, Sayers said, that one of its early observers, toward the end of the 19th century, objected to its title, arguing that there was no real protrusion.
That’s no longer the case.
Another paper, published in Clinical Biomechanics30093-7/fulltext) in the spring of 2018, used a case study involving four teenagers to argue that the head horns were not caused by genetic factors or inflammation, pointing instead to the mechanical load on muscles in the skull and neck.
And the Scientific Reports paper, published the month before, zoomed out to consider a sample of 1,200 X-rays of subjects in Queensland, ages 18 to 86. The researchers found that the size of the bone growth, present in 33 percent of the population, actually decreased with age. That discovery was in stark contrast to existing scientific understanding, which had long held that the slow, degenerative process occurred with aging.
They found instead that the bone spurs were larger and more common among young people. To understand what was driving the effect, they looked to recent developments — circumstances over the past 10 or 20 years altering how young people hold their bodies.
“These formations take a long time to develop, so that means that those individuals who suffer from them probably have been stressing that area since early childhood,” Shahar explained.
The sort of strain required for bone to infiltrate the tendon pointed him to handheld devices that bring the head forward and down, requiring the use of muscles at the back of the skull to prevent the head from falling to the chest. “What happens with technology?” he said. “People are more sedentary; they put their head forward, to look at their devices. That requires an adaptive process to spread the load.”
Michael Nitabach, a professor of physiology, genetics and neuroscience at Yale University, was unconvinced by the findings.
“Without knowing about the cell phone use of any of the people whose head X-rays were analyzed, it is impossible to draw conclusions about correlation between cell phone use and skull morphology,” he said.
That the bone growth develops over a long period of time suggests that sustained improvement in posture can stop it short and even ward off its associated effects, the authors said.
Sayers said the answer is not necessarily swearing off technology. At least, there are less drastic interventions.
“What we need are coping mechanisms that reflect how important technology has become in our lives,” he said.
Shahar is pressing people to become as regimented about posture as they became about dental hygiene in the 1970s, when personal care came to involve brushing and flossing every day. Schools should teach simple posture strategies, he said. Everyone who uses technology during the day should get used to recalibrating their posture at night.
As motivation, he suggested reaching a hand around to the lower rear of the skull. Those who have the hornlike feature can probably feel it.
Isaac Stanley-Becker is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
© 1996-2019 The Washington Post

BREAKING: Former Arsenal player Jose Antonio Reyes dies in a car crash, aged 35
just now / StanLee
BREAKING: Former Arsenal player Jose Antonio Reyes dies in a car crash, aged 35


More to follow...

David Beckham banned from driving for using mobile phone


David Beckham arrives at Bromley Magistrates' Court
David Beckham has been given a six-month driving ban for using his mobile phone while behind the wheel.

The former England captain previously pleaded guilty to using the device while driving his Bentley in central London on 21 November last year.

A court heard he was photographed by a member of the public holding a phone as he drove in "slowly moving" traffic.

Beckham, 44, received six points on his licence to add to the six he already had for previous speeding matters.

He was also fined £750, ordered to pay £100 in prosecution costs and a £75 surcharge fee within seven days.

District Judge Catherine Moore said she acknowledged the slow pace of the traffic but told him there was "no excuse" under the law.

Bromley Magistrates' Court heard Beckham was seen "operating a handheld device at knee level" while driving along Great Portland Street in the West End.

Prosecutor Matthew Spratt said: "Instead of looking straight forward, paying attention to the road he appeared to be looking at his lap."

BeckhamAFP/Getty Images
The court heard Beckham was photographed driving in "slowly moving" traffic while holding a phone
Beckham's defence barrister Gerrard Tyrrell said the former Manchester United midfielder had "no recollection of the day in question or this particular incident".

He added: "There is no excuse for what took place but his view is that he cannot remember."

Mr Tyrrell told the court that Beckham found driving a relaxing pastime.

"He takes his children to school each day when he can and he picks them up when he can, and actually to deprive them of that is something that he will acknowledge," he said.

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Analysis by BBC Reality Check

It's against the law in the UK to hold a phone while driving, although hands-free devices are allowed. It's punishable by six penalty points on your licence and a £200 fine - but, depending on the seriousness of the offence, you can also be taken court to face more severe penalties.

In England and Wales in 2017, there were 8,300 convictions for using a handheld mobile phone whilst driving. Almost all were dealt with through a fine, which averaged out at £180.

Convictions have fallen a lot since their peak of 32,548 in 2010.

Looking at who was convicted, 86% were men and 21% were under 25 years old.

In Scotland in 2017-18 there were 2,881 convictions for the category of "other motor vehicle offences", which covers using a mobile phone and not wearing a seatbelt. Again, almost all were dealt with through fines.

Presentational grey line
In September, Beckham was accused of "shirking his responsibility" as a role model when he avoided prosecution on a speeding charge because of a technicality.

The father-of-four accepted he drove a loaned Bentley at 59mph in a 40mph zone in west London in January last year.

Speeding Beckham 'shirks responsibility'
No charges over Mo Salah driving video
Policing cuts 'hit phone-driving cases'
But his lawyer Nick Freeman - known as Mr Loophole - successfully fought to prevent action being taken because a speeding notice arrived one day late.

In March 2017, the punishment for driving while on the phone was doubled to six penalty points - enough to ban those with less than two years' experience.

Cancer strikes indiscriminately, and can even affect some of the most famous people in the world. This is a list of famous people who died of cancer, including photos, birth dates, professions, and other information. You might also be interested in celebrities who were diagnosed with cancer before 40 and famous cancer survivors. These celebrities who died by cancer are listed alphabetically and include the famous cancer victims’ hometown and biographical info about them when available. Famous people with cancer who later passed away from the disease include actress Farrah Fawcett, Lyn Nofziger, George Low, and more. These notable cancer deaths include modern and long-gone famous men and women, from politicians to religious leaders to writers.

Cancer is a disease that ravages millions of people every year, and unfortunately for these athletes, actors, musicians, and other celebrities, it doesn't matter how much money or fame you possess. There are plenty of well-known names who have succumbed to the disease, like Steve Jobs, Bob Marley, Ronald Reagan, singer David Bowie, and Frank Zappa. It's always tragic when an actor dies of cancer, so we hope for those who are currently dying of any major illnesses.

Featuring recently dead movie stars and many more,

Everyone on this list has cancer as a cause of death somewhere in their public records, even if it was just one contributing factor for their death.

The negative health effects of skimping on sleep during the week can’t be reversed by marathon weekend sleep sessions, according to a sobering new study.
Researchers have long known that routine sleep deprivation can cause weight gain and increase other health risks, including diabetes. But for those who force themselves out of bed bleary-eyed every weekday after too few hours of shut-eye, hope springs eternal that shutting off the alarm on Saturday and Sunday will repay the weekly sleep debt and reverse any ill effects.
The research, published in Current Biology30098-3), crushes those hopes. Despite complete freedom to sleep in and nap during a weekend recovery period, participants in a sleep laboratory who were limited to five hours of sleep on weekdays gained nearly three pounds over two weeks and experienced metabolic disruption that would increase their risk for diabetes over the long term. While weekend recovery sleep had some benefits after a single week of insufficient sleep, those gains were wiped out when people plunged right back into their same sleep-deprived schedule the next Monday.
“If there are benefits of catch-up sleep, they’re gone when you go back to your routine. It’s very short-lived,” said Kenneth Wright, director of the sleep and chronobiology laboratory at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who oversaw the work. “These health effects are long-term. It’s kind of like smoking once was — people would smoke and wouldn’t see an immediate effect on their health, but people will say now that smoking is not a healthy lifestyle choice. I think sleep is in the early phase of where smoking used to be.”
Clifford Saper, head of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, called the study “convincing and fascinating.”
Michael Grandner, director of the sleep and health research program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, said the study reinforces that people need to stop thinking of sleep as a balance sheet. Imagine a person who ate nothing but cheeseburgers and french fries, Monday through Friday, but dined only on celery and kale on the weekends and tried to call that a healthy diet, he said. Drastically cutting calories all week and then bingeing on a giant pizza on Saturday wouldn’t restore equilibrium, either. That, he argued, is essentially what people are doing when they skip sleep on weekdays with the idea they can make up for it on the weekend.
“When you’re talking about something as complex as metabolism, it’s very much about balance and equilibrium, and when you’re chasing numbers of hours and you’re trying to make them all add up, that’s not about balance,” Grandner said.
Wright said that the study suggests people should prioritize sleep — cutting out the optional “sleep stealers” such as watching television shows or spending time on electronic devices. Even when people don’t have a choice about losing sleep due to child-care responsibilities or job schedules, they should think about prioritizing sleep in the same way they would a healthy diet or exercise.
As for understanding the long-term effects of short weekday sleep and long weekend bouts, it will be important to extend the research beyond the artificial conditions and short time frame of a laboratory experiment. The researchers also found an intriguing gender difference, in which women got less recovery sleep on the weekends, and also were able to restrain their eating behavior better than men on the weekends — but experienced the same metabolic dysfunction, as measured by impairments in how their body responded to blood sugar.
"These were incredibly healthy people, with no medical problems, no psychiatric disorders, no drug use, no medications, no sleep problems, nothing at all — so when we put them on these types of schedules, they have the best possible outcomes, they have the lowest risk of any adverse health outcome as far as we can tell,” Wright said.
Carolyn Johnson is a science reporter. She previously covered the business of health and the affordability of health care to consumers.
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