Moonwalker Alan Bean Says Aliens Haven't Visited Earth

Only 12 individuals from Earth have been fortunate enough to actually walk on the surface of another world ― specifically, our moon.

The historic manned lunar landing in July 1969 gave us Apollo 11’s first moonwalkers, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, followed four months later by Apollo 12’s Pete Conrad and Alan Bean leaving their footsteps on Earth’s natural satellite.

Lunar module pilot Bean, now 85, became the fourth man to set foot on the moon, and he continued with the space program as a spacecraft commander on the 59-day Skylab Mission II, in 1973. He was later named backup commander for the 1975 joint American-Russian Apollo-Soyuz test flight.

When Bean retired from NASA in 1981, he became an excellent artist who paints the experiences of fellow astronaut-moonwalkers.

Bean’s spacefaring experiences have given him plenty of time to think about the question of whether earthlings are alone in the universe, and specifically, whether aliens have discovered us.

“I do not believe that anyone from outer space has ever visited the Earth,” Bean told the Australian news site news.com.au. “One of the reasons I don’t believe they have been here is that civilizations that are more advanced are more altruistic and friendly ― like Earth, which is better than it used to be ― so they would have landed and said, ‘We come in peace and we know from our studies you have cancer that kills people, we solved that problem 50 years ago, here’s the gadget we put on a person’s chest that will cure it, we will show you how to make it.’

“Just like someday, say, 1,000 years from now, when we can go to another star and see a planet, that’s what we would do, because we will know how to cure cancer, cure birth defects, so we would teach them.”

Bean doesn’t think that we’re alone in the vast expanse of planets.

“There’s so many billions of stars, and these stars have planets around them, so there must be statistically many planets around many stars that have formed life,” he said.

But this raises the question of how Bean could assume that, if aliens have landed here, they would automatically offer to help with our problems. We can’t simply expect an extraterrestrial species to think the way we do, or to understand our thoughts and motivations. And why would he presume that when we are eventually able to travel to other planets, we would go out of our way to help aliens we may find with their problems?

Bean has obviously never heard of the United Federation of Planets prime directive, which forbids Starfleet explorers from interfering with any ET cultures.

Seriously, let’s be fair. Bean was a very accomplished astronaut and is certainly entitled to his opinion. And so is another, well-known astronaut.

In 2009, Apollo 14 moonwalker Edgar Mitchell spoke at a National Press Club news conference about UFOs and the possibility that Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials.

”I don’t have firsthand experience with the ET effort, except the fact that I know there is no doubt we are being visited and I’m suggesting it is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence, and I call upon our government to open up,” Mitchell told the media.

A year earlier, Mitchell, who died in 2016, appeared on a British radio show, where he proclaimed he was “privileged enough to be in on the fact that we have been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomenon is real, although it’s been covered up by our governments for the last 60 years or so. There’s more nonsense out there about this than there is real knowledge. I have been deeply involved in certain committees and research programs with very credible scientists and intelligence people that do know the real inside story, and I am not hesitant to talk about it.”

Mitchell was an Apollo astronaut whose opinion on whether aliens have been to Earth was the complete opposite of Bean’s. He showed the importance of keeping an open mind about what’s real and what isn’t. 

Just because an accomplished astronaut makes a claim about a controversial issue like UFOs or aliens doesn’t make it the truth.

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Paul Ryan Says He Doesn't Want To Work With Democrats On Health Care

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House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said he doesn’t want to work with Democrats on health care legislation.

“I don’t want that to happen,” Ryan said in an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell that will air Thursday morning. “You know why? I want a patient-centered system. I don’t want government running health care. The government shouldn’t tell you what you must do with your life, with your health care. We should give people choices.”

Ryan’s comments are not simply a departure from standard bipartisan bromides. They also fly in the face of comments from President Donald Trump in recent days indicating that he would be open to working with Democrats in the wake of the humiliating withdrawal of GOP health care legislation last week before a vote in the House of Representatives. 

“I know that we’re all going to make a deal on health care, that’s such an easy one,” Trump told a group of senators on Tuesday night. The Trump administration also has floated the idea of working with Democrats on an infrastructure bill.

Democrats aren’t leaping at the opportunity to help a president with historically low approval ratings, FBI and congressional investigations into his associates’ connections to Russia, and a seemingly thin understanding of policies he’s looking to negotiate.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Politico on Tuesday that Trump “moved so far over to the right that it’s virtually impossible to work with him.”

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus said they’d be open to negotiating with Trump, but not unless House Democratic leaders go along. Responding to a report that lobbyists were targeting Congressional Black Caucus members to win votes on tax reform and infrastructure, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said, “Who in the world is going to announce, ‘Oh we’re going to try to siphon off 14-15 Democrats. I mean that is preschool politics.”

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Lyft tests a new fixed-route 'Shuttle' service for commuters

Now that shared rides represent a sizable portion of Uber and Lyft’s business, both companies have been looking for new ways to expand their offerings while making the whole system more efficient and affordable at the same time. According to TechCrun…

Big Trouble in Little China: The Game Looks Fan-Freaking-Tastic

We first heard about Big Trouble in Little China: The Game last summer, and today we’re getting a first glimpse of what the box art, game art, and—most excitingly—the miniatures will look like in the final product. Three words: Mini Egg Shen.

Read more…

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Has Been Officially Announced

In 2015, EA launched Star Wars Battlefront, a game which went on to receive some pretty rave reviews. For gamers who were hankering for more such games, EA did tease the fact that there are multiple sequels planned for the franchise, and sure enough there are as EA has since announced Star Wars Battlefront 2.

Unfortunately details about the game are pretty scarce at the moment, but the publisher is expected to take the wraps off the game’s first trailer at the Star Wars Celebration 2017 which will be taking place mid-April. There will also be a panel called “The Galaxywide Premiere of Star Wars Battlefront II,” and it will feature members from the game’s development team, and will be kicking off at 2:30 PM ET on the 15th of April (Saturday). Gamers who are interested can check out the live stream via the Star Wars website.

As for a release date, it is still pretty much a mystery for now, although there is speculation that it could be released later this year. The game is currently being developed across three studios: DICE, Criterion, and Motive Studios. We did hear that as far as the story is concerned, it won’t be focused on the original trilogy, but rather it is expected to span across multiple eras of the Star Wars universe. In any case we should have the details in the coming weeks, so check back with us in the near future for more updates regarding Star Wars Battlefront 2!

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Spotify Launches ‘Traffic Jams’ To Take On Apple’s ‘Carpool Karaoke’

It has been something of an open secret that Apple is interested in getting into the video game, and that’s what they kind of did when they acquired the rights to the Carpool Karaoke series and made it part of Apple Music. Turns out that Spotify isn’t going to take that lying down because in a report from Variety, they have launched their answer in the form of “Traffic Jams”.

The concept of Traffic Jams appears to be similar to Carpool Karaoke where it will be filmed inside of a car. However unlike Carpool Karaoke which features a variety of artists and celebrities in general, Traffic Jams appears to be focused more towards hip-hop fans as it will feature well-known hip-hop producers as well as rappers, with the goal being to challenge these producers and rappers to put together a track in the backseat of a car while being driven around.

The first episode of Traffic Jams is expected to debut on the 4th of April on Spotify, with the debut episode featuring the likes of T-Pain and Southside. Both these celebrities will be tasked to produce a track in the car while being driven around by comedian DoBoy, and ultimately they will have to perform it in front of a live audience at the end of the show.

It sounds like a very interesting concept, especially if you’re a fan of hip-hop and would love to see how your favorite rappers and producers come up with songs. In the meantime you can check out the show’s trailer in the video above.

Spotify Launches ‘Traffic Jams’ To Take On Apple’s ‘Carpool Karaoke’ , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Blizzard Announces Heroes Of The Storm 2.0

Blizzard’s answer to MOBAs like League of Legends and DotA 2 was officially launched in 2015 in the form of Heroes of the Storm. Now over the past couple of years, Blizzard has made various changes and balances to the game, but it looks like the time has come where Blizzard has felt that an overhaul is necessary, resulting in Heroes of the Storm 2.0.

This move by Blizzard shouldn’t be too surprising, especially when you consider that in 2015, Valve did something similar with DotA 2 in the form of the “Reborn” update. Now there will be a host of major changes that Blizzard will be making to Heroes of the Storm 2.0, such as introducing new heroes and a new progression system, but the details are expected to be unveiled over the course of the next few weeks, according to its website.

The first change Blizzard has announced is to the progression system, where they write, “The first major update coming with Heroes of the Storm 2.0 is a massive overhaul of our leveling and progression systems! In our next patch, we’ve decided to make progression more straightforward by removing the Player Level cap and transforming it into the sum of all the Hero levels you’ve gained. We’ve also removed the Hero level cap so that your ability to continue progressing is near limitless.”

Blizzard has also announced that players will be getting Loot Chests every time they level up, with chests ranging from normal, to rare, and epic quality, with each chest containing random in-game items, including Heroes. Heroes of the Storm 2.0 is currently in beta so don’t expect to see all of the new features just yet, but if you’re interested you can sign up to take part in the month-long beta.

Blizzard Announces Heroes Of The Storm 2.0 , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 Officially Launched

While digital cameras and smartphone cameras are pretty much all the rage at the moment, there appears to still be a market for film cameras, which is why we have seen cameras from the likes of Lomography and Fujifilm continue to flourish, and if you’re after a new film camera, Fujifilm has recently announced the Instax mini 9.

This is the latest in Fujifilm’s instant print series of film cameras and unlike some of the company’s other film cameras, this actually comes with a tiny selfie mirror on the front, thus allowing you to ensure that you and/or your subject are in the frame when taking selfies. Given that it uses film, safe to say the redos and retakes will be a very expensive process, so getting it right on the first shot is important.

Other than that, the Instax mini 9 is similar in functionality compared to the other Instax cameras, where it will be able to snap and photo a print it out on the spot. You will of course need to buy the Instax films to use together with the camera, but if you love scrapbooking or if you just prefer physical photos over digital ones, this could be one way to go about getting it.

The Instax mini 9 will be available in April in the US and Canada for $70 where it will also be available in a bunch of different colors.

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New Rumor Claims ‘iPhone Edition’ Will Have Rear-Facing Touch ID

One of the popular and persistent rumors for 2017’s iPhone is that it will be doing away with the iconic home button, which also begs the question of where will the fingerprint sensor go? Some have suggested that Apple could ditch Touch ID in favor of facial recognition, while others suggest an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.

Now according to the latest rumor from iDropNews (via Cult of Mac), they are claiming that the 2017 iPhone could instead move the fingerprint sensor to the back of the phone, which is what a lot of Android OEMs have been doing, and one that Samsung has recently adopted for the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

The rumor goes on to claim that 2017’s iPhone could be called the iPhone Edition, which we guess is following the naming scheme of the top-of-the-line Apple Watch Edition. In addition, the report is claiming that the iPhone Edition will not feature a glass back as previously rumored, but instead it will stick to metal as there is worry that the glass will shatter when dropped.

Now obviously you should take this with a grain of salt for now since it pretty much contradicts quite a lot of the previous reports we’ve heard, and some of which have come from pretty reputable sources. However given that we’re still many months away from an announcement, we guess it’s hard to say who’s right and wrong at this point in time.

New Rumor Claims ‘iPhone Edition’ Will Have Rear-Facing Touch ID , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Apple Will Now Reject Apps That Put Prices In Its Name

How often have you come across an app that had the word “FREE” or “ON SALE” in its name? We guess it helps to attract users since those terms will no doubt make users want to check it out, right? However it seems that Apple is no longer having any of that, according to the overview of the App Store product pages as discovered by VentureBeat.

According to the overview, it reads, “Please remove any references to your app’s price from your app’s name, including any references to your app being free or discounted. If you would like to advertise changes to your app’s price, it would be appropriate to include this information in the app description. Changes to your app’s price can be made in the Pricing and Availability section of iTunes Connect.”

Apple has been making some changes to the way app prices are listed on its app store. For example back in 2014 Apple changed it so that freemium apps are no longer listed as free, and instead have a warning message to let users know that there are in-app purchases. With these changes, we can only imagine that Apple is trying to prevent some developers from potentially “tricking” users into thinking that their apps are free when in reality there are in-app purchases.

As we have seen in the past, children have accidentally racked up thousands of dollars in in-app purchases after mistakenly thinking that a game they downloaded was “free”. Apple has since confirmed these changes but declined to comment any further.

Apple Will Now Reject Apps That Put Prices In Its Name , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.