NBC Fort Worth’s Skycam, UFO A strange light falls and makes a turn

If aliens are real then it appears they are becoming savvier at getting our attention.

Early risers in Texas got a surprise when a UFO shot through the sky live on breakfast TV.

Sharp eyed viewers spotted the white light flash across the screen as local station KXAS showed a traffic camera looking across Fort Worth at 5:40am.

Station managers have called in UFO investigators to review the footage.

Viewers speculated that it could be a shooting star or possibly an insect reflecting light from the television tower where the camera is mounted.

But others said they had seen the bright light with their own eyes.

‘I was sitting outside my neighbors house and saw the flash of light in the sky go over the trees. Bill my neighbor saw it too,’ a viewer wrote on the station’s website.

‘This looks more like a meteor that has reached the Earth’s atmosphere but due to the severe stress of gravity at hyper speeds has been redirected,’ wrote another. …

via UFO shoots across Texas sky live on breakfast TV | Mail Online.

A shooting start that turned was observed and reported in the 1800s as well. I read that in a newspaper clipping in the library at the Roswell, NM UFO museum a few years ago.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe this is an image of the tower with the camera that took this footage. Is that little black dot on the top left the camera? We can’t tell what lights it has around it (which might have illuminated a nearby  insect)  from this photo.

On ATS, byeluvolk, has some good points:

… The camera is not “focused” on the horizon; if so the entire city would also be blurry. The camera is set to a DOF of infinity. This means in theory that all objects will be in focus. However due to the physical nature of a camera lens, as opposed to the human eye, there is still a problem with very near objects in an infinite DOF setup; They appear to be blurry. So yes a bug in this camera at a few feet would appear to be blurry, and it will show up at night being lit from a light nearby and show up rather well. It is not a matter of in focus, or out of focus, it is just a matter of if this camera is on top of a building, and the building has lights atop it (as it must). Then the light is reflected off the bug, and it is not so much the bug we see but the light being reflected, exactly as a bug would appear in this setup. The light mentioned above would also make the supposed bug appear to dim and then get bright again, as it flies below the beam, or further from the source. Then it will get bright again as it either comes near, or flies up into the beam path again.

However not having any idea where this camera is mounted we can only speculate on its physical location, and thus the nearby lights. However going by the video it looks to be on top of a very tall building, and therefore it would have the nearby lights, not for the camera itself, but as all buildings like this are required to have them for safety reasons. …

Tiny policing helicopter used to hunt pirates fires stun gun baton rounds

It’s the latest weapon in the war on crime – a tiny tasering remote-controlled helicopter that can also fire shotgun shells and grenades.

The Shadowhawk UAV may only be seven-foot long and weigh a measly 49lbs, but it is already being used to track pirates off the Horn of Africa and enforce law on the streets of the U.S.

The discreetness of the chopper, and its top speeds of 70mph, means it can follow suspects and conduct aerial patrols where traditional police helicopters would never dare to go.

Its flight time of up to two-and-a-half hours and ability to launch in 25 knot winds – plus the ability to record footage, and broadcast it in real time, in any condition – is also making it an attractive alternative to more conventional crime-fighting methods.

Vanguard Defense Industries took three years to create the Shadowhawk UAV, which is available in five different models.

Buyers have the options of turbine or piston engines, thermal cameras, laser pointers and range finders. …

via It’s robo-drone! Tiny policing helicopter used to hunt pirates fires stun gun baton rounds | Mail Online.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows makes $1bn

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has passed the $1bn (£609m) mark at the worldwide box office, distributor Warner Bros has said.

The final instalment in the eight-part boy wizard series is the first to reach the milestone.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone had the previous best global takings with $974.8m (£593m) in 2001.

The 2009 epic Avatar holds the current record for the biggest worldwide box office haul with $2.8bn (£1.7m).

Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is expected to pass Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides soon, which is this year’s top grossing movie so far at $1.03bn (£626m).

The Harry Potter film took $21.9m (£13.3m) at the North American box office over the weekend, climbing to a domestic total of $318.5m (£194m).

It has now topped the franchise’s previous best in the US and Canada of $317.6m (£193.6m) for Philosopher’s Stone.

But taking into account today’s higher admission prices, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has not yet caught up to Philosopher’s Stone in terms of actual tickets sold.

via BBC News – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows makes $1bn.

Grafters create ‘human’ trees

 

From incredible lifelike human creations complete with leaves as hair to beautifully crafted tables and mirrors fit for use, they have trained more than 150 trees.

But Peter insists nothing more than meticulous planning is at the root of all their extraordinary creations.

…

The idea came to Peter in 1987 when he was inspired to grow a chair after visiting three fig trees in the corner of his garden.

‘I started the next day with seven willow cuttings. In 1988, I planted a wattle intended for harvest as a potted plant stand.

‘Then Becky moved in later in 1995 and we formed Pooktre. We’ve been shaping trees ever since.’

The Aussie artists, who live in a remote area of south-east Queensland, most often use Myrobalan Plum trees for shaping within their Pooktre forest.

Peter added: ‘Generally we look for mature trees that grow well in that area, and are less prone to insect damage and less susceptible to disease.

‘Our functional artwork includes an amazing growing garden table, a harvested coffee table, hat stands, mirrors, and a gemstone neck piece.’ …

via Root-and-branch transformation: Pair of green-fingered grafters create ‘human’ trees | Mail Online.

Bizarre botany: Plant evolved a bat beckoning beacon

A rainforest vine has evolved dish-shaped leaves to attract the bats that pollinate it, scientists have found.

Tests revealed that the leaves were supremely efficient at bouncing back the sound pulses the flying mammals used to navigate.

When the leaves were present the bats located the plant twice as quickly as when these echoing leaves were removed.

A team of scientists in the UK and Germany reported its findings in the journal Science.

The study is the first to find a plant with “specialised acoustic features” to help bat pollinators find them using sound.

Most bats send out pulses of sound to find their way around; the way they sense objects in their environment by sensing how these pulses bounce off them is known as echolocation.

“We already knew that plants used their brightly coloured petals to attract pollinators,” explained Marc Holderied from the University of Bristol, one of the researchers involved in the study.

“What we’ve found is the echolocating equivalent to colourful flowers.

“We have a shape that produces an echo – an ‘echoacoustic beacon’.”

The scientists first notice the Caribbean plant, Marcgravia evenia, in a photograph in a Natural History magazine.

“We immediately recognised that this dish-shaped leaf could be a perfect bat attractor,” he recalled.

He and his colleagues brought the plant into their laboratory and bounced to measure its acoustics – essentially firing sound pulses at it to see how they echoed. …

via BBC Nature – Plant evolved a bat beckoning beacon.

Brain waves can cut braking distances, researchers say

Tapping into drivers’ brain signals can cut braking distances and avoid car crashes, according to scientists.

Researchers at the Berlin Institute for Technology attached electrodes to the scalps of volunteers inside a driving simulator.

The system detected the intention to brake, and cut more than 3m (10ft) off stopping distances, the team report in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

The team’s next aim is to check the system in a series of road tests.

The 18 volunteers were asked to keep 20m (66ft) behind the simulated car in front, which braked sharply at random intervals.

Scientists used a technique called electroencephalograhy (EEG) to analyse the drivers’ brain signals.

The system was able to pinpoint the intention to brake 13 hundredths of a second before the driver applied pressure to the brakes.

The team reported that at a speed of 100km/h (65m/h) the braking distance was reduced by 3.66 meters (12 feet).

via BBC News – Brain waves can cut braking distances, researchers say.

Woman aims to make longest bra chain

An Australia woman said she wants to create the world’s longest chain of bras to raise awareness of breast cancer and the need for research funding.

Leanne Martel, of Wyandra and the mother-of-two leading the effort, said she wants to beat the world record of 166,625 bras, set in Bundaberg, Australia and raise at least $1,600 each for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Chicks in Pink and Think Pink, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday.

“It would be a good record to beat in such a small community,” Martel said. “Everyone is just getting behind me now which is really good.”

She said donated bras have been arriving from all over the country.

“I’ve got bras coming from the Gold Coast, Brisbane … everyone is supporting this cause,” she said. “Travelers that are going through at the moment are just stopping and they’ll put a bra on the fence.”

via Woman aims to make longest bra chain – UPI.com.

Over 700 weird twisting passages discovered underground in Bavaria

Churchyards and private farmlands throughout the German state of Bavaria are perforated from below by “more than 700 curious tunnel networks” whose “purpose remains a mystery.”

As Der Spiegel reports, “The tunnel entrances are sometimes located in the kitchens of old farmhouses, near churches and cemeteries or in the middle of a forest. The atmosphere inside is dark and oppressive, much as it would be inside an animal den.”

Although the subterranean networks are considered an “extremely unusual ancient phenomenon,” other “small underground labyrinths have been found across Europe, from Hungary to Spain, but no one knows why they were built.”

Small might actually understate the case: indeed, “the tunnels are often only 20 to 50 meters long. The larger passageways are big enough so that people can walk through them in a hunched position, but some tunnels are so small that explorers have to get down on all fours. The tiniest passageways, known as “Schlupfe” (“slips”), are barely 40 centimeters (16 inches) in diameter.”

… examples of these tunnels [are] being found on what is now private property. For instance, a family named the Greithanners, “from the town of Glonn near Munich, are the owners of a strange subterranean landmark. A labyrinth of vaults known as an Erdstall runs underneath their property. It is at least 25 meters (82 feet) long and likely stems from the Middle Ages.”

… If, for instance, you discover someday that your house sits atop hundreds of feet of artificially excavated underground space from the Middle Ages, do your property taxes go up-or down, due to the structural inconvenience of owning land hollowed out from below? …

The vaults could not have served a practical purpose, as dwellings or to store food, for example, if only because the tunnels are so inconveniently narrow in places. Besides, some fill up with water in the winter. Also, the lack of evidence of feces indicates that they were not used to house livestock.

There is not a single written record of the construction of an Erdstall dating from the medieval period. “The tunnels were completely hushed up,” says [Dieter Ahlborn, leader of the Working Group for Erdstall Research].

Archeologists have also been surprised to find that the tunnels are almost completely empty and appear to be swept clean …

via Over 700 weird twisting passages discovered underground in Bavaria.