NASA admits there's 'a chance' that asteroid 2013 TX68 COULD smash into Earth

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NASA has dramatically changed its mind about the risks posed by asteroid 2013 TX68 , a 100ft-wide rock which is currently heading towards Earth.

It said there was "a chance" it could plough into our planet next year when it makes another flyby.

However, we are glad to report that NASA thinks the odds of a collision on September 28, 2017, are "no more than 1-in-250-million".

It it did hit the planet, the asteroid would probably explode in the atmosphere, unleashing as much energy as a powerful nuclear bomb and wiping out anything unlucky enough to be beneath it.

"The possibilities of collision on any of the three future flyby dates are far too small to be of any real concern," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for near earth orbit studies .

"I fully expect any future observations to reduce the probability even more."

Late last night, NASA published a tweet in which it claimed that Earth would be safe from this asteroid for at least the next century.

However, astronomers cannot precisely predict its movements and have given it a "condition code" of eight out of a possible 10, which means they cannot accurately predict its movements.

Experts cannot say for sure whether the space rock will zoom by at the terrifyingly close distance of 11,000 miles - or fly wide of the planet by 1.3 million miles.

"This asteroid’s orbit is quite uncertain, and it will be hard to predict where to look for it," Chodas added.

"There is a chance that the asteroid will be picked up by our asteroid search telescopes when it safely flies past us next month, providing us with data to more precisely define its orbit around the sun."

The asteroid has become something of an internet star, with one joker giving the space rock its very own Twitter feed .

It has also become the subject of a number of bizarre theories suggesting the world is about to end.

Some conspiracy theorists claimed the Messiah could arrive after the asteroid plunges into Earth, followed by a secret planet called Nibiru.

Others claim NASA is covering up the true risk posed by TX 68.

In a rather incoherent and badly-spelt response to NASA's tweet last night, one fearful man wrote: "100 years of notin!? If there was sumit wud ppl b told?

"Nope course the world wudnt be told cos world wud go insane!"

Source : http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/nasa-admits-theres-a-chance-7448889

White House Predicts Robots May Take Over Many Jobs That Pay $20 Per Hour

DAVID RAMOS VIA GETTY IMAGES

The White House is worried that robots are coming to take your job.

In a report to Congress this week, White House economists forecast an 83 percent chance that workers earning less than $20 per hour will lose their jobs to robots.

Wage earners who receive up to $40 in hourly pay face a 31 percent chance they'll be replaced by robots, while workers who are paid more than $40 an hour face much lower odds -- about 4 percent -- of losing their jobs to automation.

The estimates underscore the myriad threats facing low-wage workers in America, who in recent years have been buffeted by stagnant wages, decreasing employment prospects and higher education costs if they wish to obtain additional credentials in pursuit of better-paying jobs.

In an economy increasingly defined by the yawning gap between rich and poor, White House economists worry that increased automation could exacerbate inequality as the well-paid enjoy the fruits of robot-fueled gains in productivity while everyone else is left to fight for scraps.

One study cited by the White House found that automation has particularly hurt middle-skilled Americans, such as bookkeepers, clerks and some assembly-line workers. A lack of additional training and education opportunities led these workers to settle for lower-skilled positions, and likely lower wages.

Already, the White House noted in its report, most economists reckon that changes in technology are "partially responsible for rising inequality in recent decades."

Robots and other advances in technology are forecast to displace a significant number of blue- and white-collar workers, according to 48 percent of experts surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2014. They also said that robots and so-called digital agents will displace more jobs than they create by 2025.

Many experts surveyed by Pew said they are concerned that the rise of robots and other technological advances "will lead to vast increases in income inequality, masses of people who are effectively unemployable, and breakdowns in the social order."

It's not a new worry. The famed economist John Maynard Keynes wrote in 1930 about "technological unemployment," or the theory that workers could be displaced due to society's ability to improve labor efficiency at a faster rate than finding new uses for labor.

But White House economists said they don't have enough information to judge whether increased automation will help or hurt the U.S. economy. For example, new jobs could emerge to develop and maintain robots or other new forms of technology.

"While industrial robots have the potential to drive productivity growth in the United States, it is less clear how this growth will affect workers," the White House said in its report.

There are two important questions, according to White House economists. First, if robots replace existing workers, will workers have enough bargaining power to share in their employers' newfound gains? Second, will the economy create new jobs fast enough to replace the lost ones?

Falling union membership -- some 11 percent of U.S. workers belonged to a union last year, down from about 20 percent in 1983 -- suggests that workers may not have much power to demand higher wages from employers who are automating them out of a job.

The economy could create enough new, good-paying jobs to help those displaced by robots, but the plight of manufacturing workers who have lost their jobs in recent decades as manufacturers moved abroad suggests that this, too, could be a challenge.

Instead, according to the White House, the key is to maintain a "robust training and education agenda to ensure that displaced workers are able to quickly and smoothly move into new jobs." With most Americans now financing higher education through debt -- about 1 in 8 Americans collectively owe $1.3 trillion on their student loans -- amid an era of sluggish wages, it's unclear whether higher debt burdens will lead to a better economic future.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-house-robot-workers_us_56cdd89ce4b0928f5a6de955?section=india