A new Pentagon study that examined reported sightings of UFOs over nearly the last century has found no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence. That conclusion is consistent with past U.S. government efforts to assess the accuracy of claims that have captivated public attention for decades. The study from the Defense Department's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office analyzed U.S. government investigations since 1945 of reported sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena, more popularly known as UFOs. It found no evidence that any of those claims were actually signs of alien life, or that the U.S. government and private companies had reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology and were hiding it.
Building a robot that's both humanlike and useful is a decades-old engineering dream inspired by popular science fiction. The latest artificial intelligence craze has sparked another wave of investments in the quest to build a humanoid, but most of the current prototypes are clumsy and impractical. They tend to look better in staged performances than in real life. That hasn't stopped a handful of startups from keeping at it. One of them, Agility Robotics, has caught the attention of Amazon, which is testing out its Digit robot for warehouse work.
Carrie Fisher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, a May the Fourth tribute to a beloved "Star Wars" actor that had a touch of stardust. The star's daughter, Billie Lourd, wearing her mother's portrait printed on her metallic dress, accepted the star on behalf of Fisher. She threw glitter, her mother's favorite, on the newly unveiled star. Several in the crowd were dressed as characters from the franchise and C-3P0 and R2-D2 were present for the unveiling. Lourd shouted "Never forget the droids!" on a wet day that gave way to sun.
Officials have offered few details about four aerial objects recently shot down over North America, helping to fuel conspiracy theories and conjecture on the internet. One popular claim circulating suggested, with no evidence, that the U.S. deployed the airborne devices as a way to frighten and distract Americans. Online searches for the term "UFO" also shot up as some people suggested the devices may be from another planet. Officials have said they suspect the first object was a Chinese surveillance balloon. But they've shed little light on the origins or purpose of the other three objects shot down in recent days, leading to rampant speculation online.
