OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

NASA Says Comet Elenin Gone and Should Be Forgotten - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Latest indications are this relatively small comet has broken into even smaller, even less significant, chunks of dust and ice. This trail of piffling particles will remain on the same path as the original comet, completing its unexceptional swing through the inner solar system this fall.

"Elenin did as new comets passing close by the sun do about two percent of the time: It broke apart," said Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Elenin's remnants will also act as other broken-up comets act. They will trail along in a debris cloud that will follow a well-understood path out of the inner solar system. After that, we won't see the scraps of comet Elenin around these parts for almost 12 millennia."

EARTH CHANGES

Sherpas warn ice melt is making Everest 'dangerous'

 

Sherpa mountaineers in Nepal say a rise in the rate of snow and ice melt on Mount Everest has exposed bare rock faces and made it dangerous to climb.

FLASHBACK: 2002 Everest Melting? High Signs of Climate Change

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

Homeland Security moves forward with 'pre-crime' detection

A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document indicates that a controversial program designed to predict whether a person will commit a crime is already being tested on members of the public (DHS employees who "volunteered" to be test subjects).

DHS is building a "prototype screening facility" that it hopes will use factors such as ethnicity, gender, breathing, and heart rate to "detect cues indicative of mal-intent". DHS calls its "pre-crime" system Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST.

LIGHT FIELD

Lytro’s Light Field Camera Creates ‘Living’ Pictures

The Lytro camera is a light-field, or plenoptic, camera. An array of micro-lenses sits over the camera’s sensor, capturing all the light in the scene being photographed (11 million rays of light, to be precise). The Lytro then saves your image in a proprietary file format to deliver a “living picture” that you can manipulate on your computer, much like a raw file. By manipulating key attributes, you can effectively change the focus of the image. That’s right: After the image has been taken.

ECONOMIC WITH THE TRUTH

Seven big economic lies
Here's a 2:30 video rebutting the seven biggest whoppers now being told by those who want to take the US economy backwards.

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

 

Iran actress sentenced to 90 lashes and one year in jail

Actress Marzieh Vafamehr has been sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes for her role in a film about the limits imposed on artists in the Islamic republic, an Iranian opposition website reported Sunday.

"A verdict has been issued for Marzieh Vafamehr, sentencing her to a year in jail and 90 lashes," Kalameh.com reported.

WATCH THE SKIES

UFO sightings reported in Missouri


UFO experts in Missouri said strange lights were reported above Kansas City on three consecutive nights.

Margie Kay, assistant state director for the Mutual UFO Network, said Kansas City residents reported bright lights and hovering craft in the sky above the city Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night, WDAF-TV, Kansas City, reported.



Nothing to see here. Move along.

The mystery of Kansas City's UFO lights has been explained.
KC Flight, a civilian air formation team out of Lee's Summit, Missouri, has come forward and said they're the "aliens" in the sky. Pilot Phillip Lamb said his eight-man team is to blame.

[Except, of course, formation teams don't hover.]

SKY NET

Virus strikes US drone fleet

A computer virus has hit the US Predator and Reaper drone fleet that Washington deploys to hunt down militants, logging the keystrokes of pilots remotely flying missions.

The virus was first detected about two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, but it had not halted missions flown remotely over Afghanistan and other warzones from Nevada's Creech Air Force Base.

DISCARNATE ENTITY

Living doll

Frightened at what she might find, Irene rushed to Holly's bedroom, and flung open the door - but all that met her eyes was Holly, fast asleep in her bed, and her doll sitting on the bed beside her.

Softly closing the door again, she went back to her friends, who were as puzzled as she was. There had certainly been a strange voice - but even as they spoke, they heard it again!

And this time it was much louder - and it was calling to Holly. "Will you get up, Holly Anne - get up and talk to me!"

BURN NOTICE

Spontaneous combustion killed Irish pensioner, inquest rules

Keiran McLoughlin, a West Galeway, Ireland coroner, gave his first spontaneous combustion verdict in 25-year career after man found dead in unexplained circumstances

Irish pensioner, Micheal O' Fatharta, was found burnt to death at his home due to spontaneous human combustion, an inquest has concluded.

The West Galway coroner, Kieran McLoughlin, said there was no other adequate explanation for the death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, also known as Micheal O'Fatharta. He said it was the first time in his 25 years as a coroner that he had returned such a verdict.

FUN AT THE FAIR

Plane crashes into NSW ferris wheel

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Plane crashes into NSW ferris wheel

The pilot of a light plane that crashed into a ferris wheel at a fair on the New South Wales mid-north coast says he simply did not see it.

Two children had to be rescued from a basket at the top of the ferris wheel and Mr Cox and his son-in-law were rescued after dangling from the top of the wheel inside their plane for more than an hour.

Taree Mayor Paul Hogan says it is amazing no one was killed. "I had to open the ceremony and I said we've witnessed a miracle here today," he said.