‘Astronauts aboard the ISS can add one more mission to their list: locate a spider that has disappeared.
When Space Shuttle Endeavour took off from Kennedy Space Center this month, the crew carried two spiders with them.
The spiders were sent in an enclosed box for a school science program. Students want to know if spiders can survive and make webs in space, but now only one spider can be seen in the container.
NASA isn’t sure where the spider could have gone.’
‘The father of a family allegedly given a cup of gelato laced with human faeces at the Coogee Bay Hotel has reiterated his willingness to undertake a DNA test to prove he did not put it there himself, following the release of footage of the incident yesterday.
The footage, released by the hotel, appears to show Stephen Whyte leaving the table and heading towards the bathroom after the arrival of the gelato.
But Mr Whyte strenuously denied he had put his faeces into the dessert bowl yesterday. [..]
“It probably took me four minutes from putting it in my mouth and spitting it out from actually realising, ‘Oh my God, I just had shit in my mouth’,” Ms Whyte said. “I’m not going to stand down until I have public acknowledgement from the hotel that the incident happened.”‘
‘As if the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy weren’t vexing enough, another baffling cosmic puzzle has been discovered.
Patches of matter in the universe seem to be moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can’t be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon “dark flow.”
The stuff that’s pulling this matter must be outside the observable universe, researchers conclude.’
‘Police in Somerset County are trying to figure out how a radio tower went missing in Windber. Police say a group of people had a very thorough plan to get all 120 feet of steel and copper down from the old Windber radio tower.
Police believe the thieves threw cables over the guidelines of the tower and yanked it down with a truck. Police also found cut bolts and torch marks on nearby grass. Police say the tower had to be cut into small pieces in order to get it out of the wooded area, but they can’t figure out how they did it without anybody noticing.
“There’s probably a half a dozen routes that come in and out of that area. At least 20 four-wheelers and ATV riders go through there a day,” said Paint Township Police Chief Rick Skiles.
The thieves also got away with a 300-pound Penelec transformer full of copper.’
‘Aliens have contacted humans several times but governments have hidden the truth for 60 years, the sixth man to walk on the moon has claimed.
Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell, said he was aware of many UFO visits to Earth during his career with NASA but each one was covered up.
Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as ‘little people who look strange to us.’ [..]
Chillingly, he claimed our technology is ‘not nearly as sophisticated’ as theirs and “had they been hostile”, he warned ‘we would be been gone by now’. [..]
‘I’ve been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes – we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it’s been happening quite a bit.”
‘Investigators and a grandmother are trying to make sense of a sign found posted in a New Braunfels neighborhood. Is it a joke or something more sinister?
There are plenty of signs at the pool you would expect to see – “No Lifeguard on Duty” and “No Diving.” But a woman who lives in the neighborhood didn’t expect to see a sign with the words “Pool’s Closed” – with the image of a black man – posted on the gate.
Isabelle and Nicholas Martinez are visiting their grandmother and love spending time at the pool. Mary Alice Altorfer says she’ll keep taking them there, despite the sign.
“This kind of stuff is old, and it’s ugly and tired,” says Altorfer. “It’s time for it to be buried.”
Altorfer says the pool wasn’t closed at all. She sensed the real message was racist and directed at her grandchildren.’
‘When asked by the Pope to demonstrate his artistic skill, 14th century Italian painter Giotto di Bondone supposedly drew a perfect circle freehand and said: “That’s more than enough.” Now, an international group of engineers and craftsmen has gone him one better and built a pair of nearly perfect spheres that are thought to be the roundest objects in the world.
The unusual balls, discussed last week at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation conference in France, were created as an answer to the “kilogram problem”.
The kilogram is the only remaining standard of measurement tied to a single physical object: a 120-year-old lump of platinum and iridium that sits in a vault outside of Paris, France. But the mass of this chunk of metal is slowly changing relative to the 40-odd copies kept by other countries, and no one knows why or by how much.’
‘The Dyatlov Pass Accident refers to an incident that resulted in the death of nine ski hikers in the northern Ural mountains. The incident happened on the night of February 2, 1959 on the east shoulder of the mountain Kholat Syakhl (Холат Сяхл) (a Mansi name, meaning Mountain of the Dead). The mountain pass (N61°45’17”, E59°27’46”) where the accident occurred has been named Dyatlov Pass (Перевал Дятлова) after the group’s leader, Igor Dyatlov (Игорь Дятлов).
The mysterious circumstances of the hikers’ deaths have inspired much speculation. Investigations of the deaths suggest that the hikers tore open their tent from within, departing barefoot in heavy snow; while the corpses show no signs of struggle, one victim had a fractured skull, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue. The victims’ clothing contained high levels of radiation. Soviet investigators determined only that “a compelling unknown force” had caused the deaths, barring entry to the area for years thereafter. The causes of the accident remain unclear.’
‘The most complex, “mind-boggling” crop circle ever to be seen in Britain has been discovered in a barley field in Wiltshire.
The formation, measuring 150ft in diameter, is apparently a coded image representing the first 10 digits, 3.141592654, of pi.
It is has appeared in a field near Barbury Castle, an iron-age hill fort above Wroughton, Wilts, and has been described by astrophysicists as “mind-boggling”.
Michael Reed, an astrophysicist, said: “The tenth digit has even been correctly rounded up. The little dot near the centre is the decimal point. [..]’
‘Bone-white stretches of salt, leached up from the lifeless soil, lay like a shroud over the high desert where a paranoid Charles Manson holed up after an orgy of murder nearly four decades ago.
Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness — gold-diggers, outlaws, loners content to live and let live.
But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were leading forensic investigators searching for new evidence of death — clues pointing to possible decades-old clandestine graves.
And the results of just-completed followup tests suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground. The test findings — described in detail to The Associated Press, which had accompanied the site search — conclude there are two likely clandestine grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.
Next step, the ad hoc investigators urge: Dig.’
‘A raw turnip was at the root of a bomb scare that last for hours at a law office. An employee at Haller & Colvin Attorneys at Law called 911 Thursday after opening a U.S. Postal Service box and finding a suspicious gift bag inside, police said.
Officers then called the city’s bomb unit, which brought in a robot to carry the package outside to a parking lot. X-rays showed no signs of an explosive, but bomb technicians decided to detonate the package with a water cannon just to be safe, police spokesman Michael Joyner said.
After that, they opened the box and found the turnip, wrapped in lettuce-green tissue paper inside a sandwich bag.
It was unclear who was supposed to receive the vegetable.’
‘A town in South America is living in fear after several sightings of a ‘creepy gnome’ that locals claim stalks the streets at night.
The midget – which wears a pointy hat and has a distinctive sideways walk – was caught on video last week by a terrified group of youngsters.
Teenager Jose Alvarez – who filmed the gnome – yesterday told national newspaper El Tribuno that they caught the creature while larking about in their hometown of General Guemes, in the province of Salta, Argentina. [..]
“Suddenly we heard something – a weird noise as if someone was throwing stones.
“We looked to one side and saw that the grass was moving. To begin with we thought it was a dog but when we saw this gnome-like figure begin to emerge we were really afraid.”
Jose added that other locals had come forward to say they had spotted the gnome.’
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see it here »
‘Authorities are still trying to figure out what prompted 28-year-old Kevin Lininger to run naked up and down South Shawnee Street near Aurora today.
“He didn’t demonstrate any signs of alcohol or drug use,” said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.
After getting reports from neighbors of a man running completely naked at about 7:30 a.m., deputies went to Lininger’s apartment at 5241 S. Shawnee St.
He was dressed and refused to talk, the sheriff said.
But at the police station, he let his urine do the talking. [..]’
‘Three times in less than a year, three right feet inside running shoes have been found on separate islands in the Strait of Georgia.
Police don’t know if there are any links between them. Speculation in the region is rife, including that the feet were from slaying victims or they were the remains from drownings. Police haven’t reached any conclusions.
”It is very unusual,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Annie Linteau said Tuesday.
”We’re looking into all our missing person files,” Linteau said.’
‘For most of us, making a cup of tea is one of life’s simpler tasks.
For Mavis Price, however, it is fraught with danger – because she can blow up kettles just by touching them.
The 60- year- old grandmother seems to have a freakishly high level of static electricity coursing through her body.
She estimates she has destroyed 15 kettles in the last few years. Housework has also become a problem, with 20 irons and ten vacuum cleaners biting the dust after falling foul of her apparently supercharged touch.
And her friends and family are often left with their hair standing on end after touching her.’
‘Has the Amber Room, the 18th-century chamber decoration the Nazis stole from the Soviet Union in World War II, finally been found? German treasure hunters say they may have solved the decades-old mystery.
Treasure hunters in Germany claim they have found hidden gold in an underground cavern that they are almost certain contains the Amber Room treasure, believed by some to have been stashed away by the Nazis in a secret mission in the dying days of World War II.
The discovery of an estimated two tonnes of gold was made at the weekend when electromagnetic pulse measurements located the man-made cavern 20 meters underground near the village of Deutschneudorf on Germany’s border with the Czech Republic.’
‘The mysterious G spot – supposedly a route to female sexual satisfaction – can be located with ultrasound, claim Italian scientists.
Some women say stimulating a certain part of the vagina triggers powerful orgasms, but medicine has not been able to pin down the exact location.
Researchers told New Scientist magazine they found an area of thicker tissue among the women reporting orgasms.
But specialists warned there could be other reasons for this difference.’
‘Sometime after midnight on September 6, 2007, at least four low-flying Israeli Air Force fighters crossed into Syrian airspace and carried out a secret bombing mission on the banks of the Euphrates River, about ninety miles north of the Iraq border. The seemingly unprovoked bombing, which came after months of heightened tension between Israel and Syria over military exercises and troop buildups by both sides along the Golan Heights, was, by almost any definition, an act of war. But in the immediate aftermath nothing was heard from the government of Israel. In contrast, in 1981, when the Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, near Baghdad, the Israeli government was triumphant, releasing reconnaissance photographs of the strike and permitting the pilots to be widely interviewed.’
‘A batch of old documents linked to the slaying of US President John F Kennedy has reportedly been unearthed, the Dallas Morning News said.
The documents are said to include a highly suspect transcript of a conversation between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald’s killer Jack Ruby.
The newspaper said the Dallas County district attorney’s office, which uncovered the documents, would display its discovery at a news conference tomorrow.
The Morning News said the items found in an old safe in a Dallas courthouse included personal letters from former district attorney Henry Wade, the prosecutor in the Ruby trial. Ruby shot Oswald two days after the president’s death.
Also found were official records from Ruby’s trial, a gun holster and clothing that probably belonged to Ruby and Oswald, district attorney Craig Watkins told the newspaper.
But one potentially controversial item is a transcript of an exchange between Oswald and Ruby in which they discuss killing Kennedy to halt the mafia-busting agenda of his brother, attorney-general Robert Kennedy.’
‘A man told police that somebody has been dropping off animals for months at his home in western Port St. Lucie.
Stephen Reheiser said that since November, someone has been leaving animals at his house, according to a police report.
Some of the more recent orphans include five caged rabbits and a 5-year-old white dog.
Police classified the case as a suspicious incident.’
‘A decapitated body has been found wrapped in a blood-stained duvet in a back street in north-west London.
A member of the public made the gruesome find behind a row of shops at Kingsgate Place in Kilburn.
The semi-naked body had been left in a gold coloured cage similar to the type used by supermarkets to move stock.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the dead person is an adult male, but no head has been found and the victim has not been identified.’
‘Police are investigating how a 5-year-old ended up hitchhiking Tuesday near Salt Lake City.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday that Orem, Utah, police dispatch had received calls around 8 a.m. that a girl was hitchhiking on the side of the street.
At about the same time, the paper reported that a frantic mother was calling police because she couldn’t find her daughter. She was going to take her daughter to the bus stop a half block from home but couldn’t find her.
Then about 9 a.m., a call came from officials at an elementary school in Provo — 8 miles away — saying someone had dropped the girl off there.’
‘A large, mysterious blob has taken over a major sewer line in the city of Lewiston, leaving public works crews stumped as to how to budge it.
According to city officials, the stretch of 12-inch pipe on Main Street backed up on Jan. 13, and the city has been trying unsuccessfully to clear the line ever since.
Deputy Public Services Director Kevin Gagne told News 8 the doughy, 90-foot mass is comprised of grease, flour and rags.’
‘Perched on a rock, she could be waiting for a bus.
But if so, she could be in for an awfully long wait.
This photo of what looks remarkably like a female figure with her arm outstretched, was taken on Mars.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has set the Internet abuzz with claims that there really is life on the red planet.
Others may well feel that it is simply an optical illusion caused by a landscape.’
‘Honolulu police said they are investigating the death of a baby on the H-1 Freeway.
Witnesses said that they saw a man throw the infant from the Miller Street pedestrian overpass, but police said they are not sure if the child was alive or dead when the man threw the child. It appears the child was hit by at least two cars, officials said. [..]
The man was wearing hospital scrubs. Officials from Queen’s Medical Center, which is located near the scene, said he is not a patient.
As the man was taken away by police, he yelled, “Thank you for everything” to KITV camera crews. [..]
Police said they are not sure where the infant came from, and they are checking local day care facilities in the area to see if anyone is missing a child.’
‘It sounds like a freakish ailment from a horror movie: Sores erupt on your skin, mysterious threads pop out of them, and you feel like tiny bugs are crawling all over you. Some experts believe it’s a psychiatric phenomenon, yet hundreds of people say it’s a true physical condition. It’s called Morgellons, and now the government is about to begin its first medical study of it. [..]
Morgellons sufferers describe symptoms that include erupting sores, fatigue, the sensation of bugs crawling over them and – perhaps worst of all – mysterious red, blue or black fibers that sprout from their skin. They’ve documented their suffering on Web sites.
Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.’
‘Without warning or reports of turbulence, an Air Canada flight en route to Toronto dipped and rotated violently, on early Thursday morning, causing injuries and confusion among passengers and the crew. Strangely enough, flight experts are still unsure about what caused the accident.
“What happened aboard Air Canada flight 190,” said a reporter on CBC’s The National, “can best be described as chaos.”
According to passenger accounts, the Airbus aircraft bucked and rolled side to side abruptly, hurling dishes and people through the air. “It was weird,” one passenger told the CBC. “The plane actually turned upside down without actually feeling it. There were people on the roof. Coffe and shit [was] flying all over the plane.”‘
‘One of the most perplexing crimes in US history – in which an unassuming airline passenger hijacked a plane in 1971 and skydived out of the aircraft with $US200,000 in ransom money – has been revived by the FBI.
The bureau has, for the first time, released pictures and information from the case on its website in the hope of resolving the identity and the fate of the passenger known as Dan Cooper.
On November 24, 1971, a man in his mid-40s bought a ticket in the name of D. B. Cooper for a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle. After take-off, he handed a flight attendant a note saying he had a bomb in his suitcase.
In Seattle, he exchanged all 36 passengers for the ransom money and four parachutes, but kept several crew members on board as he ordered the plane to take off for Mexico City. Over a rural part of Washington state, “Cooper” jumped from the plane with a parachute. Dead or alive, he has never been seen since.’
‘I met you at the bar last night, and we hit it off. Ya we were both a little buzzed, but you seemed as into me as I was into you. Things got to things, we made out a bit, and you ended up going home with me on the back of my motorcycle, which was awesome because that doesn’t usually happen to me. I luckily had the extra helmet with me and let you wear my bike jacket while suffering the cold on the way home. I was feeling pretty happy and lucky to say the least.
This is where things got crazy.’
‘Astronomers have discovered white dwarf stars with pure carbon atmospheres. These stars possibly evolved in a sequence astronomers didn’t know before.
They may have evolved from stars that are not quite massive enough to explode as supernovae but are just on the borderline. All but the most massive two or three percent of stars eventually die as white dwarfs rather than explode as supernovae.
When a star burns helium, it leaves “ashes” of carbon and oxygen. When its nuclear fuel is exhausted, the star then dies as a white dwarf, which is an extremely dense object that packs the mass of our sun into an object about the size of Earth. Astronomers believe that most white dwarf stars have a core made of carbon and oxygen which is hidden from view by a surrounding atmosphere of hydrogen or helium.
They didn’t expect stars with carbon atmospheres.’
