Unidentified object flies Canterbury skies

Teenager Andrew Wilkinson captured an apparently fiery object in the Canterbury sky on his digital camera last night.

Wilkinson, 17, photographed the object, at left, from his Halswell home at 7.27pm.

He said it was too slow to be a meteor or a plane, and wondered if it might be satellite debris in the western sky.

A handful of other observant Cantabrians also spotted the orange ribbon standing out brightly in the dusk.

"I got the camera and took a photo. It was moving extremely slowly, so I thought it might have been a plane for a minute. The front looked like a fireball.

"I didn't hear any noise. It looks like it might have been extremely high up, given the speed it was moving," he said.

Police southern communications shift supervisor Trevor Cross said he received one phone call about the phenomenon. A policeman at Oxford also saw it and thought it might be a vapour trail.

The superintendent of the University of Canterbury's Mount John Observatory at Tekapo, Alan Gilmore , said his "immediate reaction" was it was a plane.

"The slowness would be due to the plane's movement. I assume from the contrail's angle that it is a plane heading for Australia," Gilmore said. "The trail doesn't look at all like a meteor or space-debris trail." - stuff

Computers to merge with humans

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BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Secret 'dino bugs' revealed

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Freaky fish found

Ring. Ring. I know what that fish is.

Everyone seems to have a theory about the identity of the unknown fish featured in a Page One story in Wednesday's Standard-Examiner. It was found with thousands of other dead fish near Pioneer Park pond in Brigham City. The majority of feedback from the public is that it may be a snakehead fish.

Snakehead fish made headlines when they were discovered in a pond in Maryland. The state contained the species in the pond where it was found, but fishermen have caught others in the Potomac River in recent years.

Author Eric Jay Dolin wrote about the incident in a book, "Snakehead, A Fish Out of Water." Dolin said it is possible that the fish found in Brigham City was a northern snakehead which is capable of living in very cold climates. The fish has been found in the U.S. as far north as Maine and they are now an established invasive species in Maryland.

Ben Nadolski, aquatic biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said he spent Wednesday morning fielding phone calls from people who wanted to guess the species of fish and media outlets calling for more information.

The DWR said late Wednesday they have a different idea about the fish.

Aquatics biologist Matt McKell said a snakehead has a dorsal fin that differs from the specimen.

"The specimen is in pretty poor shape," McKell said. "It doesn't appear to me that it's got that kind of configuration for the dorsal fin."

After taking another look, McKell believes the remains are those of a lake trout. McKell said the prominent teeth seen in the carcass are normally covered by flesh and due to the decay appear larger than they would when the fish was alive.

The Standard-Examiner also received e-mails and phone calls with guesses as to the fish's origin.

Clay Bass, of Eden, believes it looks like a dogfish or bowfin, which he once caught when he lived in the South.

"I can tell you the boat wasn't big enough for the two of us. I cut my line rather than risk coming in contact with those teeth," Bass wrote in an e-mail to the Standard-Examiner.

Drew Cushing, warm water sport fish and community fisheries coordinator for the DWR, said he has also received numerous phone calls. Cushing is "absolutely certain" it is not a snakehead.

"It doesn't fit the mold," Cushing said. "It definitely wasn't a snakehead."

Cushing believes it could be some sort of a decomposed trout species.

According to aquaticcommunity.com, the northern snakehead is from China and is "highly adapted to surviving in areas exposed to seasonal dry periods."

The fish has the capability to live in water with very low oxygen content and can use its labyrinth organ to absorb oxygen directly from the air.

The fish also is capable of traveling across land, which matches the original description from Ogden angler Bernie Develin who said he thought the fish appeared to have crawled out of the water on its own. -standard

Crawling fish may be part of new family

A University of Washington professor says a recently discovered fish that crawls instead of swimming and has forward-looking eyes like humans could be part of an entirely unknown family of fishes.
The creature sighted in Indonesian waters off Ambon Island has tan- and peach-colored zebra-stripping. It uses its leglike pectoral fins to burrow into cracks and crevices of coral reefs in search of food.

UW professor Ted Pietsch says this relative of the anglerfish will have to undergo DNA scrutiny to verify that it is unique. But the world's leading authority on anglerfish says he's never seen anything like it.

Pietsch says they have probably escaped notice until now because they are so good at sliding into narrow crevices. - Yahoo

Malaysian Fisherman Reels in Shark with 'Webbed Feet'

Has anyone ever seen a baby shark with webbed feet? A worker of the Malaysian Fisheries Development Board (LKIM) in Batu Maung, Penang, made this unusual find when she was given the 1.7kg fish by a fisherman at the jetty recently. Mary Looi, 48, said she only realised the shark was different when she wanted to cook tomyam fish for lunch for her family. “It was only when I was about to cut the shark the day after I received it that I found two webbed feet sticking out from the lower part of the body. “The shark is one-metre long,” she said. Looi said she dared not cook the fish after consulting her husband Gooi Man Kaw, 57, who told her that according to Chinese belief, eating fish with unusual features could bring disaster or ill luck. “Immediately, I returned the fish to the fisherman that night at about 10pm “He threw it back into the sea,” said Looi. Looi, who has been working at LKIM for 10 years, said this was the first time she had stumbled upon such an unusual find. When contacted, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Muka Head marine research station head Prof Dr Zulfigar Yasin said this is the first time he had heard of fish with legs found in the Malaysian waters. “There is a possibility that the fish could have swum from other waters into Malaysian waters. “As far as I am concerned, fish species with legs or bony fins can only be discovered in the waters of North Sulawesi in Indonesia or South Africa,” he said. - uwt

Uh... these are not feet. They are the myxopterygia of an adult reef shark. Male sharks have two claspers used for mating.

Priest 'made £3m from fake exorcisms'

A senior priest in Florence is under investigation for fraud after allegedly amassing £3 million by performing fake exorcisms. Prosecutors said that Father Francesco Saverio Bazzoffi would "stage shows" at the House of the Sainted Archangels, an organisation he founded.

During the events, which regularly attracted crowds of over 400 people, a number of associates would "pretend to be possessed by demons" and Fr Bazzoffi would allegedly exorcise them using ancient and obscure rites.

He would then offer to "heal" members of the audience who were sick, and solicit donations to his organisation.

One witness told police: "During Mass, the priest spoke in Aramaic, and strange things happened. I do not know if it was group hysteria or our suggestibility, but I remember one old woman screaming in a man's voice while five big guys held her down."

Prosecutors, who have also put 13 of his associates under investigation, started monitoring Fr Bazzoffi in 2005. His house was raided last month, and several documents were seized that showed the priest had £3 million in his bank account.

Fr Bazzoffi, who heads the matrimony office of the diocese of Florence, was publicly cautioned against performing exorcisms last October by the Archbishop of the city, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli.

In a letter, the cardinal wrote: "I would like to make clear the following: any sort of special rite of benediction, such as the laying on of hands, is forbidden. Exorcisms are also prohibited." Only priests authorised by the diocese are permitted to carry out exorcisms.

Fr Bazzoffi denies that he had "ever practised" exorcisms and admitted that he did not have a licence. "I have always only carried out blessings," he said. He added that he "welcomed" the cardinal's admonition, since "it showed that work like mine can trigger suspicion".

He denied that he had ever "encouraged" sick people to believe he could heal them. "These accusations would make me laugh, if it was not such a serious thing."

He added: "The House of the Sainted Archangels is not a registered business and does not have a bank account. So I opened one in my own name.

"All the money for our charitable works goes through it. It may seem like a lot, but it is made up of lots of small donations. Around 30,000 people come to us every year. The police should be able to see that the money always goes out to our projects in India and the Philippines." -telegraph

All exorcisms are both fake and real. Fake because there are no demons, real because people's false belief that demons possess them may really be removed by the theatrics.  Many people know that what they are doing is a hoax, but lacking ethics, they believe that if the end result is beneficial, it is okay to lie.

No benefit in drinking eight glasses of water a day, scientists say

The idea that drinking eight glasses of water a day is good for your health has been dismissed as a myth. Scientists say there is no evidence drinking large amounts of water is beneficial for the average healthy person, and do not even know how this widely held belief came about.

Specialists in kidney conditions in America reviewed research on claims eight 8oz glasses of water help flush toxins from the body, preventing weight gain and improving skin tone.

Dr Dan Negoianu and Dr Stanley Goldfarb, of the Renal, Electrolyte and Hypertension Division at the University of Pennsylvania, said no single study indicated average healthy people needed to drink this amount of water - a total of 3.3 pints - each day.

"Indeed, it is unclear where this recommendation came from," they say in a review in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The researchers did find some evidence that individuals in hot, dry climates, as well as athletes, need to increase the amount of water they drink. Studies have also shown that drinking lots of water helps the body to clear salt and urea.

But no studies have found any benefit to the organs of increased water intake.

Drs Negoianu and Goldfarb also investigated the theory that drinking more water makes you feel full and curbs appetite.

Proponents say this may help maintain a healthy weight and fight obesity, but the evidence for this claim remains inconclusive, states the review.

No carefully designed clinical trials have measured the effects of water intake on weight maintenance.

Headaches also are often attributed to water deprivation, but there is little data to back this up, claim the scientists.

Only one small trial has addressed this question, and while trial participants who increased their water intake experienced fewer headaches than those who did not, the results were not statistically significant.

In addition, water has been touted as an elixir for improved skin tone.

The authors said that while dehydration can decrease skin stiffness, no studies have shown any clinical benefit to skin tone as a result of increased water intake.

The literature review by Drs Negoianu and Goldfarb reveals there is no clear evidence of benefit from increasing water intake. On the other hand, no clear evidence exists of a lack of benefit. "There is simply a lack of evidence in general," they explain.

On average, the body uses between 1.7 and 2.6 pints (one-1.5 litres) of water daily and more in high temperatures or when exercising.

This is replaced through drinks but a large amount is also contained in food, so it is not necessary to drink an equivalent amount to replace water levels.

Too much water can affect the balance of salts in the body causing "water intoxication", which can be fatal. -telegraph

See: Dihydrogen Monoxide

Flying Spaghetti Monster takes up residence at county courthouse

Among the county's historic directional sign post, farm equipment and gazebo stand several monuments and expressions of free speech. The displays include an Iraq and Afghanistan Soldier's Memorial, Statue of Liberty, chainsaw-carved monkeys and bears, Jesus carrying a cross, and the most recent display added — a Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Several onlookers and tourists have stopped to take pictures of the sculptures.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the latest display to a slew of others that have been erected on the lawn over the past year. Several marches and demonstrations have also taken place on the courthouse grounds.

A free speech zone?

Cumberland County Buildings and Grounds Committee Chaiman Harry Sabine explained the committee has deferred all decisions on displays and handling of the courthouse grounds to County Mayor Brock Hill.

"I think at some point this may become ridiculous. I'm not so sure if now is the point or not. My concern is about what could or may go up there ... I mean the committee could ultimately decide to remove all displays, but at this point we haven't. I think a time limit on the displays may need to be enacted, though. I do think that too many of these displays tend to detract from the beauty of our courthouse lawn. I think our courthouse lawn is among the prettiest in the state. I hate to see that sacrificed," 1st District Commissioner Harry Sabine said.

On her Web site, www.itlovesyou.blogspot.com, a blog explaining the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Crossville artist Ariel Safdie states, "We are lucky enough to live in a country that allows us, its citizens, the freedom of speech. I have chosen to put up a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to represent the discourse between people of all different beliefs. The many faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds of Cumberland County’s residents make our community a stronger richer place. I respect and am proud that on the people’s lawn, the county courthouse, all of these diverse beliefs can come together in a positive dialogue. Here, we are all able to share the issues close to our hearts whether it is through a memorial to the soldiers killed fighting for our country, the Statue of Liberty honoring our nations welcoming promise to all, a group’s fight to stop homelessness, or powerful symbols of faith. I greatly treasure this open forum between everyone in the community."

Although it may seem silly to some, Safdie adds, "The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a pile of noodles and meatballs, but it is meant to open up discussion and provoke thought. Being able to put up a statue is a celebration of our freedom as Americans; a freedom to be different, to express those differences, and to do it amongst neighbors — even if it is in a noodley way." -crossville

New Record: Wind Powers 40% Of Spain

Wind power is breaking new records in Spain, accounting for just over 40 percent of all electricity consumed during a brief period last weekend. As heavy winds lashed Spain on Saturday evening wind parks generated 9,862 megawatts of power which translated to 40.8 percent of total consumption. Between Friday and Sunday wind power accounted for an average of 28 percent of all electricity demand in Spain. Spain’s wind power generation equaled that of hydropower for the first time in 2007.

In July the government approved legislation that will allow offshore wind parks to be set up along the nation’s vast coastline in an effort to boost the use of renewable energy sources. While more expensive than land-based wind farms, offshore wind parks can take advantage of stronger, steadier coastal breezes. Spain, which along with Germany and Denmark, is among the three biggest producers of wind power in the 27-nation European Union, is aiming to triple the amount of energy it derives from renewable sources by 2020. -enn

Thanks to Ann for letting me know about this one. Interesting. Is it true? I don't see a reason so far to doubt it. ENN says, "ENN is one of the oldest and most respected environmental news service on the web." and I didn't find anything to contradict that. Reuters also carried the story.

Try this headline: Black Hole Eats Earth

More strife in Iraq. U.S. financial system in crisis. Rice prices soar. None of these headlines will matter a bit, though, if two men pursuing a lawsuit in a court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole that will spell the end of the Earth - and maybe the universe.

Scientists say that is very unlikely - though they have done some checking just to make sure.

The world's physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

But Walter Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a "strangelet" that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called "strange matter." Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act.

Although it sounds bizarre, the case touches on a serious issue that has bothered scholars and scientists in recent years - namely how to estimate the risk of new groundbreaking experiments and who gets to decide whether or not to go ahead.

The lawsuit, filed March 21 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting CERN from proceeding with the accelerator until it has produced a safety report and an environmental assessment. It names the U.S. Department of Energy, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and CERN as defendants.

According to a spokesman for the Justice Department, which is representing the Department of Energy, a scheduling meeting has been set for June 16.

Why should CERN, an organization of European nations based in Switzerland, even show up in a Hawaiian courtroom?

In an interview, Wagner said, "I don't know if they're going to show up." CERN would have to voluntarily submit to the court's jurisdiction, he said, adding that he and Sancho could have sued in France or Switzerland, but to save expenses they had added CERN to the docket here. He claimed that a restraining order on Fermilab and the Energy Department, which helps to supply and maintain the accelerator's massive superconducting magnets, would shut down the project anyway.

James Gillies, head of communications at CERN, said the laboratory as of yet had no comment on the suit. "It's hard to see how a district court in Hawaii has jurisdiction over an intergovernmental organization in Europe," Gillies said.

"There is nothing new to suggest that the LHC is unsafe," he said, adding that its safety had been confirmed by two reports, with a third on the way, and would be the subject of a discussion during an open house at the lab on April 6.

"Scientifically, we're not hiding away," he said.

But Wagner is not mollified. "They've got a lot of propaganda saying it's safe," he said in an interview, "but basically it's propaganda."

In an e-mail message, Wagner called the CERN safety review "fundamentally flawed" and said it had been initiated too late. The review process violates the European Commission's standards for adhering to the "Precautionary Principle," he wrote, "and has not been done by 'arms length' scientists."

Physicists in and out of CERN say a variety of studies, including an official CERN report in 2003, have concluded there is no problem. But just to be sure, last year the anonymous Safety Assessment Group was set up to do the review again.

"The possibility that a black hole eats up the Earth is too serious a threat to leave it as a matter of argument among crackpots," said Michelangelo Mangano, a CERN theorist who said he was part of the group. The others prefer to remain anonymous, Mangano said, for various reasons. Their report was due in January.

This is not the first time around for Wagner. He filed similar suits in 1999 and 2000 to prevent the Brookhaven National Laboratory from operating the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. That suit was dismissed in 2001. The collider, which smashes together gold ions in the hopes of creating what is called a "quark-gluon plasma," has been operating without incident since 2000.

Wagner, who lives on the Big Island of Hawaii, studied physics and did cosmic ray research at the University of California, Berkeley, and received a doctorate in law from what is now known as the University of Northern California in Sacramento. He subsequently worked as a radiation safety officer for the Veterans Administration.

Sancho, who describes himself as an author and researcher on time theory, lives in Spain, probably in Barcelona, Wagner said. ...Lisa Randall, a Harvard physicist whose work helped fuel the speculation about black holes at the collider, pointed out in a paper last year that black holes would not be produced at the collider after all, although other effects of so-called quantum gravity might appear.

As part of the safety assessment report, Mangano and Steve Giddings of the University of California, Santa Barbara, have been working intensely for the last few months on a paper exploring the possibilities of black holes. They think there are no problems but are reluctant to talk about their findings until they have been reviewed, Mangano said. - iht

Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit... if it is big enough. If it is a small black hole which slowly eats the Earth it will eat through the crust and people will die of earthquakes and molten hot magma as the Earth is devoured from the inside. Someone will do this sooner than you think. The Mayan's knew about it too, but not in this much detail.

The fate of all life on the planet hangs on independent thinkers who are willing to challenge propaganda.

Giant preserved squid on display

A specially preserved giant squid has gone on display in Paris.

The squid, 6.5m (21.5ft) long, has undergone plastination, which means its liquids have been replaced by a polymer.

The process, which took two-and-a-half years and cost 65,000 euros ($100,000; £50,000), is designed to make the preserved squid look as natural as possible.

The creature is a gift from New Zealand, where it was fished out of the deep seas in 2000.

Sea monster

The squid hangs from the ceiling of France's National Museum of Natural History, where its long pink tentacles stretch down towards a terrified-looking shark.

The giant creature has been named Wheke, after the sea monster of Maori mythology that led the Polynesians across the ocean to discover Aotearoa, or New Zealand.

It was 9m long when it was caught, but it shrank to 6.5m after it died.

The biologist who helped organise the donation said there should be a giant squid in the country of Jules Verne - the Frenchman who wrote the celebrated novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. That was an epic tale of struggles between sailors and tentacled monsters, featuring a giant squid that tried to engulf a submarine.

Fluids replaced

The plastination process involves replacing the water, fat and other liquids in the body with a polymer that hardens. A pink pigment was added to make it look as close as possible to the living creature. It was first used by the German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who has controversially preserved and exhibited human cadavers. The usual way of preserving life forms - by pickling them in a jar - would, the museum said, have been demeaning, and out of the question. -bbc

I had no idea that real giant squids look so fake.

'George Bush is like crusty potato'

James Wannerton, president of the UK Synaesthesia Association, explains how the condition which "mixes the senses" affects his life.

He is speaking at a conference in Edinburgh where scientists and others with the condition are discussing the phenomenon.



For as long as I can remember, words, word sounds, musical instruments and certain ambient noises have produced involuntary bursts of taste on my tongue.Texture and temperature also feature in this experience which is with me 24 hours a day. My dreams also contain tastes, and I am unable to turn it off.

Although predominant during my formative years, I never considered these invasive sensations to be abnormal. Tasting words seemed as natural as breathing.

As I got older and more involved in the wider world, I found my word/taste associations having an increasing effect in my everyday life, subtly dictating the nature and course of my friendships, personal relationships, my education, my career, where I live, what I wear, what I read, the make and colour of car that I drive. The list is endless.

As a teenager, my developing interest in girls was heavily influenced by the tastes of their names, something which has led me up some disastrous paths over the years.

A girl's name was just as important as her looks and in some extreme cases, even her personality.

How shallow is that? I've constantly asked myself why girls with the sweetest tasting names quite often come with the sourest of temperaments.

'Surreal experience'

Everyday tasks such as meeting people, general conversation, driving, shopping, or reading a newspaper, often pose an extra challenge.

I have concentration issues if a person I am listening to speaks slowly and has clear diction. At university, some lectures were a total waste of time.

I vividly remember once sitting through a two-hour economics lecture, having learnt very little about the Money Supply but having an intense craving for apples.

Negotiating the taste of road sign information at the same time as processing the multifarious flavours of my surroundings often causes confusion and usually ends with me feeling hot and bothered in Burnley when I should have been in a cake shop in Eccles. Eating out can be a surreal experience, especially if the menus are in a language other than English.

Thankfully, there is a plus side to all of this.

Music has a very pleasant added dimension and my taste sensations most certainly aid my memory recall. If I see a face I can't immediately identify my mind goes through a process of using taste recollections to effectively apply a name to the face. Whenever I see a picture of Tony Blair I instantly get the taste of desiccated coconut.

... George Bush gives me a taste similar to the crusty potato bit on top of a cottage pie.What is beyond doubt is that I would never consider the option of being cured, if ever such a thing were offered, although it would interest me to find out how my perceptions would be altered if I "lost" it for a day. It is a fundamental part of who I am and has most certainly helped shape my concepts and personality. - bbc

What do the words "black hole" taste like?

Decoded: 'The clay tablet that tells how an asteroid destroyed Sodom 5,000 years ago'

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A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for more than a century has been identified as a witness's account of an asteroid that destroyed the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah 5,000 years ago.

Researchers believe that the tablet's symbols give a detailed account of how a mile-long asteroid hit the region, causing thousands of deaths and devastating more than one million sq km (386,000 sq miles).

The impact, equivalent to more than 1,000tons of TNT exploding, would have created one of the world's biggest-ever landslides.

The Old Testament story describes how God destroyed the 'wicked sinners' of Sodom with fire and brimstone but allowed Lot, the city's one good man, to flee with his family. The theory is the work of two rocket scientists - Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell - who have spent the past eight years piecing together the archaeological puzzle.

At its heart is a clay tablet called the Planisphere, discovered by the Victorian archaeologist Henry Layard in the remains of the library of the Royal Palace at Nineveh.

Using computers to recreate the night sky thousands of years ago, they have pinpointed the sighting described on the tablet - a 700BC copy of notes of the night sky as seen by a Sumerian astrologer in one of the world's earliest-known civilisations - to shortly before dawn on June 29 in the year 3123BC. Half the tablet records planet positions and clouds, while the other half describes the movement of an object looking like a 'stone bowl' travelling quickly across the sky.

The description matches a type of asteroid known as an Aten type, which orbits the Sun close to the Earth. Its trajectory would have put it on a collision course with the Otz Valley.

'It came in at a very low angle - around six degrees - and then clipped a mountain called Gaskogel around 11km from Köfels,' said Mr Hempsell. 'This caused it to explode - and as it travelled down the valley it became a fireball.

'When it hit Köfels it created enormous pressures which pulverised the rock and caused the landslide. But because it wasn't solid, there was no crater.' The explosion would have created a mushroom cloud, while a plume of smoke would have been seen for hundreds of miles. Mr Hempsell said another part of the tablet, which is 18cm across and shaped like a bowl, describes a plume of smoke around dawn the following morning.

'You need to know the context before you can translate it,' said Mr Hempsell, of Bristol University. Geologists have dated the landslide to around 9,000 years ago, far earlier than the Sumerian record. However, Mr Hempsell, who has published a book on the theory, believes contaminated samples from the asteroid may have confused previous dating attempts.

Academics were also quick to disagree with the findings, which were published in A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels's Impact Event. John Taylor, a retired expert in Near Eastern archaeology at the British Museum, said there was no evidence that the ancient Sumerians were able to make such accurate astronomical records, while our knowledge of Sumerian language was incomplete.

'I remain unconvinced by these results,' he added. -dailymail

The stone is a notebook of a long gone scientist. Scientists have to deal with not being believed sometimes, even when we describe verifiable facts in great detail.

Australian farmer's space junk discovery

A cattle farmer in Australia's remote northern outback believes a piece of space junk has landed on his property. Farmer James Stirton found a giant ball of twisted metal last year but only recently decided to look into its origins.

He now believes it is part of a rocket used to launch communications satellites.

Mr Stirton discovered the odd-shaped ball last year on his 40,000 hectare property, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) west of the northern Queensland state capital of Brisbane.

He said the object was hollow, and covered in a carbon-fibre material.

He has contacted some US-based aerospace companies to try to find out what the object really is.

Sydney's Powerhouse Museum said it was not uncommon for people to find spacejunk in remote areas of Australia.

In 1979, large parts of the Skylab space station fell to earth near a tiny outback town in Australia's west. A local council sent NASA a ticket for littering and the then United States President Jimmy Carter rang a local motel to apologise. -telegraph

It might not be space junk. Could be part of a planet that got eaten by a black hole on the other side of the Universe and was spit out in a small white hole that formed for a few seconds in Australia.

Celestial-light device gets a down-to-earth patent

It may not sound like serious science, but that giant moonbeam collector out in the desert west of Tucson now has a serious-looking official number.

Tanque Verde Swap Meet owner Richard Chapin's $2 million Interstellar Light Collector was granted United States Patent # 7,338,178 B2 on March 4, after two denials.

Chapin says he built the huge night light collector — 84 eight-foot-by-four-foot polycarbonate mirrors — in hopes of helping a friend who had cancer. She died before he could help her, but he says the device has been highly successful on people with depression and has enjoyed moderate success with relieving asthma symptoms.

The patent has certainly cheered Chapin, although it's far from a money machine. Chapin says that's not the issue. On the three nights around full moon that they're open, Chapin says they charge $25 for a treatment. That can range from just three minutes to 20 minutes — the maximum exposure so far. At 120 people treated each month, he and wife Monica and their family won't be getting much return anytime soon. People stand in front of the focused beam of moon and starlight, or, when the moon is low, on a platform about five feet off the ground. Chapin thinks light therapy will catch on, so much so that he's planning to build a 50-casita mini-health resort — "a Disneyland of healing" — on their 80-acre parcel off Arizona 86 about five miles west of Ryan Field. Chapin says they haven't filed any plans yet, but that construction could commence within the next six months. -azs

I once saw a great band called "Full Moon Tan". I liked their song "No money, no chick, no car." I just did some research and found out that the drummer for Full Moon Tan just died a few years ago.

Picnic Table Molester Released

UPDATE: Charges have been dropped against 40-year-old Art Price, Jr., but he's not yet in the clear, police say. Price was facing public indecency charges. The case has been turned over to the Huron County prosecutor. That office will conduct a full investigation and present the case before a grand jury.

Specific charges will depend on whether the school was in session at the time.

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BELLEVUE -- Police say a man in Bellevue was caught on tape having sex with a picnic table. Bellevue Police Captain Matt Johnson says Art Price, Jr., 40, was seen on four occasions between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and noon having sex with his picnic table. What makes this a felony, Johnson says, is that it took place in close proximity to a school, which made it likely that children could have seen Price. The neighbor -- who wishes to remain anonymous -- saw Price walk out onto his deck, stand a round metal table on its side and use the hole for the umbrella to have sex.

The most recent instance took place March 14, we're told. A neighbor videotaped Price. "The first video we had, he was completely nude. He would use the hole from the umbrella and have sex with the table," Johnson says. Police say Price admitted to the crimes -- four charges of public indecency. Usually these sorts of things are misdemeanors, but in this case, they are felonies. "What boosts it up to a felony is that the statute says if it's likely to be viewed by a minor," Johnson explains.

The Price family did not want to talk with us, but neighbors did. Some are not happy Price was released on his own recognizance. "He shouldn't be allowed just for the fact that he could do that again -- and nude that close to a school. That should be zero tolerance," says Brice Jacobs, a neighbor. Price is married with three school-aged children. Neighbors tell us they're now worried about the kids.

"Hopefully it stays between the adults and the kids don't get a lot of the information so they aren't so cruel to the little kids," says Emily Grote, a neighbor. This case has police in this small town shaking their heads. "Once you think you've seen it all, something else comes around," Johnson says. -wtol

Sure, why not. None of this will matter when a black hole eats the Earth.

Salmonella Bacteria Turned Into Cancer Fighting Robots

Salmonella bacteria can be turned into tiny terminator robots that venture deep into cancerous tumors where conventional chemotherapy can't reach. Once in place, the bacteria manufacture drugs that destroy cancer cells. This could translate chemotherapy that is more specific, more effective and easier on patients.

Neil Forbes of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has received a four-year grant of more than $1 million from the National Institutes of Health to research killing cancer tumors with Salmonella bacteria. Forbes turns the bacteria into tiny terminator robots that use their own flagella to venture deep into tumors where conventional chemotherapy can’t reach. Once in place, the bacteria manufacture drugs that trigger cancer cells to kill themselves.

Google Cutting 300 Jobs at DoubleClick

In the first sizable layoffs in its history, Google is cutting about 300 jobs from the American operations of DoubleClick, the advertising technology company that it acquired recently, according to a person with direct knowledge of Google’s plans.

The cuts represent about a quarter of DoubleClick’s American work force of about 1,200. The company has about 1,500 employees worldwide, and the chief executive of Google, Eric E. Schmidt, has suggested that job cuts would also affect DoubleClick’s overseas operations at a later date.

Google declined to confirm the number of layoffs.

In a statement, the company said: “Since our acquisition of DoubleClick closed on March 11, we have been working to match and align DoubleClick employees in the U.S. with our organizational plan for the business. As with many mergers, this review has resulted in a reduction in headcount at the acquired company.”- nyt

Good. I hope Google entirely stops DoubleClick's privacy invasion.

*Doubleclick are the evil people who track you as you travel around the Internet and then gather your home address, e-mail, and phone number. If you surf around a dozen doubleclick affiliates they know it. Then if you log in to one, they capture your log in information and can send you targeted advertising. - fogcreek

Neil Aspinall - a story worth telling

The title “The Fifth Beatle” has been conferred on various individuals for over 40 years. Brian Epstein and George Martin had solid claims to it, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe, one time band members, also had claims. But Neil Aspinall, whose name few music fans know and even fewer would have recognised in the street, had one of the strongest claims of all.

In their heyday in the sixties The Beatles had what their biographer Hunter Davies called “paid mates”. There were two of them, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, and they acted variously as roadies, assistants, drivers, gofers and, yes, paid mates. Aspinall went back the furthest. He was at school at the Liverpool Institute with Paul McCartney and George Harrison. And he survived the longest, Evans dying in strange circumstances in a police shoot out in America in 1976.

Aspinall went pretty much everywhere with The Beatles, always just out of camera shot when pictures were taken, always just away from the platform at the Fab Four press conferences. In 1961 he even became romantically involved with the mother of the then Beatles drummer Pete Best and fathered a child with her, though she was 20 years his senior.

After the band broke up he went back to his first love of accountancy and was chosen by The Beatles to run their company, Apple. There were two reasons for this. First, he proved to be a very good accountant. Perhaps as importantly in the bitter aftermath of The Beatles’ break-up, he was the only person that all four trusted.

As chief executive of Apple, his financial skills must have surprised even The Beatles. He helped to multiply their fortunes many times over, with initiatives such as the successful court case with Apple computers over use of the name. His cautious protectiveness of the group’s interests did not always help the fans – the Beatles were late entrants on to the CD market, for example. But, equally, he never allowed the brand to be compromised through such things as use of the music for adverts.

I met Aspinall in the 1990s at the time of the release of the Anthology albums of Beatles’ alternative takes and unreleased tracks. I asked him why he had never until that point had any visible presence or spoken to the media. He replied that The Beatles had so much to say, what was the point of someone like him stepping into the limelight?

Maybe. But, for all the innumerable biographies of the biggest group in popular music history, this was the one person who knew them since they were all teenagers and also knew the secrets of their business empire. His would have been a story worth hearing. - independent