Amateur Astrophotographer Captures Huge Explosion on Jupiter

An apparent meteor struck Jupiter yesterday, creating an explosion so massive that amateur astronomers looking through their telescopes her on Earth were able to see it. Amateur astrophotographer George Hall of Dallas, Texas happened to have a camera and telescope pointed at the planet at the time, and managed to snag some video footage of the fireball, which he soon uploaded to his Flickr account.

The impact was first observed by amateur astronomer Dan Peterson of Racine, Wisconsin, who was gazing at Jupiter through his telescope when he saw “a bright flash that lasted only 1.5 – 2 seconds.” After Peterson shared what he had witnessed on an online astronomy forum, Hall came across the post and realized that he might have captured it on video. He went through the footage he captured that morning, and sure enough, there was the impact.

This whole story is a visual illustration of an awesome fact about our solar system: that Jupiter acts as a “cosmic vacuum cleaner”, protecting our planet from impacts that could be devastating. EarthSky writes,

Jupiter’s gravity also protects us. Long-period comets enter the solar system from its outer reaches. Jupiter’s gravity slings most of these fast-moving ice balls out of the solar system before they can get close to Earth. So long-period comets are thought to strike Earth only about every 30 million years. Without Jupiter nearby, long-period comets would collide with our planet up to 1000 times more frequently.

To understand how devastating this kind of impact would be on Earth, consider this: a similar strike in 2009 caused a bruise on the face of Jupiter the size of the Pacific Ocean.

(via Space)

via Amateur Astrophotographer Captures Huge Explosion on Jupiter.

Monday’s Jupiter impact was the fourth report of objects striking Jupiter since July 2009, when amateur astronomers spotted a bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean in the planet’s cloud tops after an apparent asteroid strike on the planet.

Two more Jupiter impact events were reported in 2010 by night sky observers, first in June and then again in August.

One of the most dazzling Jupiter impacts was the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet crash in 1994. The comet broke into more than 20 pieces as it approached Jupiter, with each piece crashing into the giant planet. Astronomers used telescopes on the ground and in space to watch that event as it unfolded.

“The speed of modern communications also helps, and word of the impact spread around the internet with great rapidity,” Lawrence said. “For those with a camera, the lure of imaging Jupiter just became that little bit more exciting!”

via Space

If this event happened on Jupiter on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, say at the exact minute the attack was given the ok, the aliens may be trying to tell our deceptive leaders to straighten up or they will steer a space rock at us and destroy our entire planet.  Remember, the aliens oppose deception. There have been other warnings.  They can do it. They hit one guy’s house six times just to prove it.

On September 10, Dan Petersen of Racine, Wisconsin, reported on Cloudy Nights forum the visual detection of a flash on Jupiter at 11:35 UTC. Petersen observed a bright white two second long explosion just inside Jupiter’s eastern limb, located at about Longitude 1 = 335, and Latitude = + 12 degrees north, inside the southern edge of the NEB. The report was sent to Richard Schmude of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) and forwarded to us by John H. Rogers, Jupiter Section Director at the British Astronomical Association.

If it was 11:35 UTC on 9/10, what time is it in New York City?  7:35 PM on 9/10.  What happened on 9/10/2001? Something pretty big, but you don’t remember it because something bigger ( the 9/11 attacks) happened the next day. 9/10/2001 was the day that Rumsfeld announced that $2.3 trillion dollars was missing from the Pentagon.

One Army office in the Pentagon lost 34 of its 65 employees in the attack. Most of those killed in the office, called Resource Services Washington, were civilian accountants, bookkeepers and budget analysts. They were at their desks when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building.

http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011216pentagonp4.asp

$2.3 Trillion missing from the pentagon the day before 9/11-Rumsfield said “It fact it can be said its a matter of life and DEATH”

Yes, I’d say the aliens are not happy with our progress. Our species may be too deceptive, too violent, to morally bankrupt to be allowed to spread beyond our own planet.

Scientists Invent Method to Create Memories in Brains

…  according to new research published in Nature Neuroscience, scientists have invented a method to induce memories in brains for the first time in history.

The study—published by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine’s Professor of Neurosciences and Physiology/Biophysics Ben Strowbridge, PhD, and MD/PhD student Robert A. Hyde—shows a method to store different types of short-term memories, which they have successfully tested in brain tissue stored in vitro.

Titled “Mnemonic Representations of Transient Stimuli and Temporal Sequences in Rodent Hippocampus In Vitro”, their paper describes how they used a piece of mouse brain tissue to form the necessary circuits to record a short-term declarative memory. This type of memory can be something like names, places and events.

These neural circuits—located in the hippocampus—retained the memory from different stimuli for ten seconds. The researchers were able to observe the recording of these artificial memories by tracing the activity of the brain cells. According to Hyde, “the type of activity we triggered in isolated brain sections was similar to what other researchers have demonstrated in monkeys taught to perform short-term memory tasks. Both types of memory-related activity changes typically lasted for 5-10 seconds.”

Uncanny. The rat brain in vitro was even able to remember different sequences of events.

The objective of the study is to better understand how short-term memories form in our brains. According to Doctor Strowbridge, “this is the first time anyone has found a way to store information over seconds about both temporal sequences and stimulus patterns directly in brain tissue. This paves the way for future research to identify the specific brain circuits that allow us to form short-term memories.”

via Scientists Invent Method to Create Memories in Brains. | Science Daily

Researchers have discovered how to store diverse forms of artificial short-term memories in isolated brain tissue.

Rome’s Ponte Milvio bridge: ‘Padlocks of love’ removed

Thousands of “love padlocks” on a Roman bridge are being removed with bolt-cutters in order to protect the ancient structure.

Couples have been decorating the Ponte Milvio bridge on the river Tiber with locks for several years.

They are meant to symbolise the locking of hearts, inspired by a story described in a novel.

The city council said rust from the locks, which hang off chains, is harming the fabric of the bridge.

The custom is inspired by a book by novelist Federico Moccia in which a couple place a bicycle lock around a lamppost and throw the key into the Tiber.

The gesture was meant to symbolise the couple eternally locking their hearts together.

It took off and clusters of padlocks can be found near other landmarks in other Italian cities.

It is not the first time city authorities have stepped-in to break the locks apart.

Last year the council started a round of padlock cutting after complaints from residents that it equated to vandalism.

In 2007 the then mayor of Rome introduced a 50 euro (£40) a fine on couples found attaching padlocks to the bridge.

The BBC’s Rome correspondent, Alan Johnston, says many people in Rome like the custom, and the writer behind the trend has said the locks ought to be left alone. …

via BBC News – Rome’s Ponte Milvio bridge: ‘Padlocks of love’ removed.

 

All those couples will have to break up now.

Sir Roger Moore: James Bond actor ‘beaten up by first two wives’

In a candid television interview, the 84 year-old claimed his first wife, Doorn Van Steyn, whom he married in 1946 aged 19, repeatedly punched and scratched him and also threw a teapot at him.

The ice skater, real name was Lucy Woodard who died in 2010, also left him with scars and also punched his doctor as he treated him for a slashed hand, he said.

The 007 legend also claimed that his second wife, Dorothy Squires – whom he married shortly after divorcing Van Steyn in 1953 – was also violent and attacked him after learning he had been unfaithful.

He told Piers Morgan’s ITV1 show Life Stories that during his marriage to Squires, whom he divorced in 1968, he also claimed she hit him over the head with a guitar.

In remarks released to newspapers ahead of its screening on Friday, he told the former newspaper editor about his first wife’s altercation with the doctor: “It made a change because normally she punched me.”

When asked if she physically abused him, he said: ”She would scratch me. She threw a pot of tea at me.

“I’d been sunbathing in the garden, I came up and I’d taken off my pants and I gave her some smart Alec answer and this teapot came hurtling at me. I said, ‘right, that’s it, I’m leaving’.

”She storms off out of the room and I hear the bath running. I thought, ‘What a cow, I’m leaving her and she’s having a bath’.”

Sir Roger, the longest running Bond, added: ”So I smashed the bathroom door open and she had all my clothes in the bath and said, ‘now leave me’. I waited for them to dry. The marriage was doomed.”

Speaking about Squires, who died in 1998 aged 83, he described one particular “confrontation”.

He said: “I remember, to avoid confrontation, I used to strum the guitar and one day I was sitting on the edge of the table strumming and she was ranting on about something and I wasn’t taking any notice.

”Next thing I know, it was like slow motion, I could feel the guitar coming out of my hands and I could see it up above my head and… bash, it came down. She ruined the guitar. She had a great temper.”

But the Welsh vocalist also attacked him after learning he was having an affair with Luisa Mattioli, a young Italian actress who he would marry in 1969.

He added: “Dorothy was not happy. She threw a brick through my window. She reached through the glass and grabbed my shirt and she cut her arms doing it.

“The police came and they said, ‘Madam, you’re bleeding’ and she said, ‘It’s my heart that’s bleeding’.

He divorced Mattioli, who he has three children with, in 1996 and is now happily married to Christina Tholstrup, a 71 year-old Danish-Swedish socialite he married in 2002.

He said: ”It’s a tranquil relationship, there are no arguments.” He also praised Daniel Craig, 42, as a “brilliant” Bond.

He once described his three former wives as “lovely ladies with bad taste in men”.

via Sir Roger Moore: James Bond actor ‘beaten up by first two wives’ – Telegraph.

I’m addicted to eating sellotape: The 23-year-old who munches on three whole rolls of tape every day

…meet Andrea from Marrietta in Georgia, America: the woman so addicted to eating sellotape that she nibbles her way through 6,000ft of tape every month.

‘I am addicted to eating tape. If I see tape in front of me I will pick it up and just start chewing. I have to have it,’ she said speaking on Discovery Real Time show ‘My Strange Addiction.’

The 23-year-old’s addiction began nine years ago and has progressively worsened.

‘The first time that ate tape was when I was out of gum, and there was tape.

‘I took a piece, chewed it, and I have been chewing tape ever since,’ she said.

She now eats about three rolls of sellotape every day, whether it’s whilst watching TV or when chatting on the phone to friends, Andrea is hooked.

She is seen on the documentary nibbling on the tape whilst studying, and even has her own wristband containing sellotape so that she can get her fix on the go.

Speaking to the camera she demonstrates how she eats the tape. She said: ‘I usually take about this much of tape (around four centimetres) and I just put it in my mouth and start chewing.

‘It’s just sticky when I first put it in my mouth. It has more of a chemical type taste to it.

‘Sometimes it tastes like glue. I usually chew it for about 30 seconds.

‘That piece will eventually dissolve, break-up. I swallow pieces of it, and I just put in another piece of tape,’ she said.

via I’m addicted to eating sellotape: The 23-year-old who munches on three whole rolls of tape every day | Mail Online.

What is the adhesive?

Scotch Tape, according to the manufacturers at 3M, is formed using an acrylic polymer.

Is it toxic?

The adhesive on tape is toxic as it contains harmful chemicals such as benzene, xylene and toluene. Its toxicity does not decrease over time and can cause reactions such as headaches, kidney damage and even death if inhaled or ingested.

Source: Taylor Design Healthy Homes: Self Adhesive Label and Tape Prospectus

 

More Information: OSHA: Benzene

via answerbag.com

From BTEX in the environment:

“Of the four BTEX compounds, benzene is the most toxic. … Exposure to very high concentrations in air (10,000,000 ppb and above) can cause death (ASTR 2007a). Lower levels (700,00 – 3,000,000 ppb) can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, confusion and unconsciousness.  Eating foods or drinking liquids containing high levels of benzene can cause vomiting, irritation of the stomach, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, rapid heart rate, coma, and death.  The health effects that may result from eating foods or drinking liquids containing lower levels of benzne are not known (ATSDR 2007a)… Both short- and long-term exposure to high concentrations of xylene can also cause a number of effects on the nervous system, such as headaches, lack of muscle coordination, dizziness, confusion, and changes in one’s sense of balance …”

Multicolored UFOs Over England: Mystery Solved

On Aug. 23, a strange sight baffled locals in the English county of Leicestershire: Dozens of peoplereported seeing mysterious lights hovering in the sky around dusk high above open fields. The hovering lights, which were made up of at least three colors, were silent. They were too small to be any kind of aircraft or helicopters.

A local group of investigators from the Leicestershire UFO Research Society were soon dispatched to the scene. They reported that, “Several witnesses in the area reported observing a strange flying object hovering above the Barwell and Burbage Common areas of the region. Object was said to be carrying blue, red and white lights and behaving strangely.”

Local UFO enthusiasts were abuzz with speculation, but after about a week of research the group concluded that the UFO “was in fact an illuminated quadcopter model being flown at dusk in a local park by a model aircraft enthusiast,” according to their website.

Graham Hall, a spokesman for the group, was quoted by the newspaper Thisisleicestershire.com as concluding, “we are reliably informed the object that caused all the fuss on this occasion was a large model quadcopter. They are relatively new but basically they’re model helicopters with four small rotor supports arranged in a cross shape. …They can have bright lights attached to them and can look very strange as they hover and circle in the night sky.”

This is not the first time that small aerial drones have been mistaken for extraterrestrial spacecraft; nearly a year ago in Moscow a silent, unidentified craft was seen high in the sky above a protest rally. The UFO sighting was caught on video, and caused some protesters to wonder if aliens were watching them. Photos of the strange craft circulated around the Web depicting a dark body in two main segments roughly resembling a figure 8, with red and white lights. [Rise of the Drones: Photos of Unmanned Aircraft]

This “Moscow UFO” was eventually identified as a drone camera launched by the Russian Ridus news agency. Proof of the UFO’s identity was provided in newspapers across the country in the form of published photographs taken by their high-flying drone camera at that event. …

via Multicolored UFOs Over England: Mystery Solved | LiveScience.

Chinese city left baffled after Yangtze turns red

It is the last thing the residents of Chongqing would have expected to see.

But the Yangtze river, which runs through the city in south-western China, turned a bright shade of orange-red yesterday.

The waterway where the Yangtze met the Jialin River provided a fascinating contrast as the red started to filter into the other river.

While officials investigate the cause of the colouring, one fisherman went about his daily business as if nothing had happened.

Others were so amazed that they collected samples in water bottles.

Although the cause is yet to be determined, this is not the first time a river has turned red in China.

Last December, the Jian River in the city of Luoyang, in the north Henan province, turned red after becoming polluted by a powerful dye.

The dye was being dumped into the city’s storm drain network by two illegal dye workshops.

Officials raided the factories to shut them down, and then disassembled their machinery.

According to chapter 16, verse 4 of the Bible’s book of Revelations, one of the signs that Armageddon is near will be an angel pouring a bowl into the rivers, turning them into blood.

via The river that DID run red: Residents of Chinese city left baffled after Yangtze turns scarlet | Mail Online.

West Seattle hum could be fish (seriously)

 

The mystery hum which has kept some West Seattle residents up at night may not be man-made after all.

A number of tips led us to the University of Washington’s Marine Biology program. Yes, the Midshipman fish, an ugly creature with an odd mating call, could indeed be the sound.

Nearby buildings or the hulls of ships could be acting as giant sub-woofers carrying the low frequency sound for miles.

The West Seattle Blog first posted a clip of the sound. Play the clip (starts about 20 seconds in)

You can compare the drone to a recording of the midshipman fish made by Cornell University. Listen here

via West Seattle hum could be fish (seriously) | KING5.com Seattle.

Hackers target Guild Wars 2 players to make real money from virtual loot

Chinese hackers are mounting a dedicated campaign to try to steal accounts for the Guild Wars 2 video game.

The ongoing attacks have led developer ArenaNet to start warning players when their account comes under attack.

ArenaNet estimates that the attacks have caused problems with more than 11,000 accounts.

It urged players to make their Guild Wars 2 login name and password unique to avoid falling victim.

Launched less than two weeks ago, Guild Wars 2 lets players go adventuring in the mythical world of Tyria. The massively multiplayer game is set 250 years after the original Guild Wars.

Within days of the game being opened to the public, hackers started their campaign to steal accounts, reveal messages posted to the game’s update pages by ArenaNet.

The game developer said hackers were trying to get access to players’ accounts using login name and passwords stolen from other places such as chat forums and fan websites.

To avoid losing control of their account it urged players to use “a strong, unique password for Guild Wars 2 that you’ve never used anywhere else”.

ArenaNet said it had started contacting players when it saw that their account was being accessed from a new location or computer.

Guild Wars 2 accounts are valuable because the virtual items and loot that players gather have a real world value. In addition, people who buy and sell virtual items covet stolen accounts as the more in-game characters they control the more cash they can generate.

ArenaNet said almost 9,000 players had reported problems with getting access to the game, many of which were related to the ongoing attacks. …

via BBC News – Hackers target Guild Wars 2 players.

It’s raining dead men around Heathrow. 2,000ft horror jet plunge

A MAN found dead on a quiet suburban street was a suspected stowaway who had plunged 2,000ft from a plane.

Cops believe he tumbled from the undercarriage as the jet was coming in to land at Heathrow.

Shocked residents told yesterday of their horror at seeing the man’s body lying on the pavement in leafy Mortlake, South West London.

Supermarket worker Jamie Notley, 19, said: “I was on my way to work when I heard a loud thump on the ground.

“I decided to walk further down to see if anyone had been hurt. It was horrific.”

Billy Watson, 26, who lives opposite where the body fell, said: “It was about four hours before the police covered him. Nobody was allowed out of their house, you could hear them saying, ‘stay inside!’”

The area — ten miles from Heathrow — is under a flight path where planes open their undercarriage and lower wheels ready for landing.

Experts believe the victim — said to be in his 30s and from North Africa — was probably dead before he fell on Sunday morning.

Richard Taylor from the Civil Aviation Authority said: “Temperatures in the undercarriage reach -40°C at high altitudes, so he’s basically frozen to death. There is virtually no chance of someone surviving.

“Very often people get crushed to death by the landing gear when it retracts.

“It is surprising that people still do it. I guess they don’t realise they have very little chance of surviving.”

via The migrant who fell to earth in 2,000ft horror jet plunge | The Sun |News.