February 2006 Archives

Giant galaxies weren’t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released. The galaxy’s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual Hubble exposures, in addition to elements from images from ground-based photos. The final composite image measures a whopping 16,000 by 12,000 pixels.

The Hubble archived observations that went into assembling this image were originally acquired for a range of Hubble projects: determining the expansion rate of the universe, studying the formation of star clusters in the giant star birth regions, finding the stars responsible for intense X-ray emission, and discovering blue supergiant stars.

The giant spiral disk of stars, dust, and gas is 170,000 light-years across or nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. Approximately 100 billion of these stars could be like our Sun in terms of temperature and lifetime.

The galaxy's spiral arms are sprinkled with large regions of star-forming nebulae. These nebulae are areas of intense star formation within giant molecular hydrogen clouds. Brilliant young clusters of hot, blue, newborn stars trace out the spiral arms. The disk of M101 is so thin that Hubble easily sees many more distant galaxies lying behind the galaxy.

M101 (also nicknamed the Pinwheel Galaxy) lies in the northern circumpolar constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear), at a distance of 25 million light-years from Earth. Therefore, we are seeing the galaxy as it looked 25 million years ago -- when the light we’re receiving from it now was emitted by its stars -- at the beginning of Earth’s Miocene Period, when mammals flourished and the Mastodon first appeared on Earth. The galaxy fills a region in the sky equal to one-fifth the area of the full moon.

The newly composed image was assembled from Hubble archived images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 over nearly 10 years: in March 1994, September 1994, June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003. The Hubble exposures have been superimposed onto ground-based images, visible at the edge of the image, taken at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, and at the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona. The final color image was assembled from individual exposures taken through blue, green, and red filters.

Found at NASA

Curators at the Natural History Museum in London have made room for one of the biggest animals on Earth.

The 8.62m (28ft) long giant squid was caught last year and has been put in a special glass tank at the museum.

Not much is known about giant squid as they live in very, very deep water and are rarely seen.

They have eight very thick arms and two extra long tentacles they use to catch their prey with, as well as the largest eyes of any animal.

The squid at the museum has been nicknamed Archie, after its very complicated Latin name, Architeuthis dux.

It's taken staff several months to get the squid ready for display, before putting it in its specially-made glass cabinet, filled with chemicals to preserve it.

To find the right people to make the case the museum had to go to an unusual source, artist Damien Hirst.

He's really well known for putting dead animals in big glass cases to make his works of art, and the people who made those came up with one the right size for Archie too.

Story from CBBC NEWSROUND:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4750000/newsid_4758600/4758654.stm

From The Budapest Times

'Author who believes aliens built pyramids always draws a crowd

Erich von Däniken has been causing controversy with his theses, books and television programmes about “prehistoric astronauts” for almost 40 years. Although mocked by serious scholars, his lectures are well attended and his books are sold around the world. Last Wednesday von Däniken familiarised an audience at the Budapest Congress Center with the “mysteries of the past.”

No, he still has not seen a UFO and not met any extraterrestrials, the 70-year old said, and he is still struggling to have his theories accepted. “I still have the feeling that when I turn up, people always scram,” he said. '

'Von Däniken first began to develop his theories at a Jesuit school, when he realised “the God of the Bible” didn’t tie up with “god of my imagination.” He began to doubt Catholic belief and started to get interested in other religions.

“Many stories were repeated and so I gradually came to the explanation that the gods mentioned were in reality extraterrestrials.” '

'His theory is always questioned in scientific circles but that does not bother him. “My theory is not on a scientific level, but all sciences started that way. After all, before Darwin there was no anthropology,” he said.

Despite the criticism, he is convinced his theories will be taught in schools in “ten years at the latest.”'

His Website

There I found an interesting article.

'If life readily emerged on Earth shortly after conditions became favorable, isn’t it likely that other genesis events also occurred, creating additional “alien” life forms that co-exist with known life, asks a groundbreaking hypothesis paper in the April 2005 (Volume 5, Number 2) issue of Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ast.'

' In “Finding a Second Sample of Life on Earth,” authors P.C.W. Davies and Charles Lineweaver propose multiple scenarios for how a second genesis of life could have occurred. Given that existing life formed under early Earth-like conditions, then logically it would seem possible for alternative life to have formed on Earth in a similar manner and to have survived to the present day.

How then to detect a “second sample,” and is there evidence for “alien life” on Earth? Davies, from the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University (New South Wales), and Lineweaver, from the Planetary Science Institute at the Australian National University, conclude that life is likely to have emerged on Earth more than once and, although there are ways to obtain evidence of alien life, these microorganisms could exist on Earth today and remain undetected.'

I'm not sure if this is synchronicity or what. I was contacted a few days ago by a being claiming to be from the planet Serpo.

"The 2 crashes near Roswell led to an exchange program where 3 Zetas came to Earth and 12 humans went to our home planet, Serpo." That's part of what that being informed me of.

Now see that jogged my memory to reading or hearing something about that perhaps a year ago. So after that contact I did a seach on Serpo, and found out about Project SERPO.

You know, I even talked to my contact after that, and I forgot to ask him anything about it. Totally slipped my mind. Did talk about entities and pets seeing things we don't seem to see.

I'm going to have to sit down with him soon and pick his brain, he is a wealth of information. I would love to get him on as a writer either in the blog or in the forums. If nothing else I'm going to see what I can do to get more of his work on the site. With his permission of course.

Back to SERPO, I just found another new story about it. http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=6312

"Project SERPO is the alleged exchange program between astronaut-trained American military personnel and friendly visitors from a planet in the Zeta Reticuli star system in the 1960s and 70s.

The beginnings of the program reportedly originated after the crash of extraterrestrial crafts in New Mexico in 1947. The follow-up efforts are alleged to have continued into the 1950s and led to a joint-service team of 12 specially-trained U.S. military personnel going with the visitors, aboard one of their advanced spacecraft, to their home planet for a 10-year stay, and returning to Earth in the late 1970s."

"The new information that this anonymous person apparently has released is claimed to be, 'some brief, but powerful testimonials from various USM people involved with "Project SERPO,"' according to 'Anonymous.' These are alleged to be accounts from military personnel, people involved in the U.S. space program and similar kinds of individuals.

Though some of the information discussed in the new accounts has been posted on serpo.org over the last few months, the new data provides more to analyze and assess for truthfulness, understanding and clarification."

Also it talks about another project name I hadn't heard of. From the sounds of it, this very well may be the true project name.

"'Project CRYSTAL KNIGHT' was started in the early 1960s. This was part of the original U.S. Space Program, where U.S. military pilots were selected for astronauts. But the military program was classified 'Top Secret' because their program involved an exchange of Extraterrestrial Biological Entities (EBEs).

The EBEs came from another planet. They called themselves 'Ebens' and came from the planet SERPO in the Zeta Reticular Star System, 42 light years away. The Ebens first came to Earth about 2,000 years ago and were involved in the genetic examination of Earth humans.

The Ebens then left and returned in the early '40s, setting up a base in northern New Mexico. In 1947, two of their spacecrafts crashed in southern New Mexico. We discovered them and began a relationship with the Ebens.

'Project CRYSTAL KNIGHT' was a program that exchanged 12 American astronauts with three Ebens. Our astronauts left on an Eben spacecraft and traveled to the planet SERPO for 12 years, returning in 1978."

And

"'Project BISHOP,' but President Reagan cancelled the project in 1985."

This one was another Exchange program. This is turning out to be pretty interesting.

UPDATE:

http://www.serpo.org/ The "official" serpo site.
http://www.projectserpo.org/ Above Top Secret's take on the information, they feel it may be a hoax

Oil has been coming out of wood and brass. Orbs are being captured on cameras video and still.

Even the news team reporting it, caught an orb on their camera. "We decided to pay a visit to the church and take our own picture. It revealed a very large blue orb hovering over a woman’s head as she was being prayed over."

For the full story and the video report Click Here

This looks to be in the UK

"If you are interested in all things supernatural and see yourself as a bit of a ghost hunter, then a new tour in the area could be just the thing for you.

A new ghost tour is taking place every night in Bowness, where you can hear stories on how historically the South Lakes town has a very spooky past.

The tours begin at 8pm every night from the Hole Int Wall pub."

Found Here

I love movies. So when I saw this blurb about Spiderman 3, I knew what I had to do. So without any further delay....

"Sony Pictures has released another teaser photo from the upcoming film "Spider-Man 3." Yep. Our friendly neighborhood superhero will be sporting a black costume.

Sony's website read: "You may think you're looking at a black and white photo. Look closely, Spider-Man wears a black suit in Spider-Man 3. Tobey Maguire returns in the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3 coming May 2007."

So the big question now becomes, is this black costume THE black costume? In the comic book, Spider-Man accidentally frees a sentient alien symbiote (that looks like a black bloby thing - like the stuff in "X-Files") from imprisonment. When Spider-Man touched the black blob, it flowed over his body, forming a new costume which he soon discovered responded to his thoughts, was able to mimic street clothes and seemed to provide an inexhaustible supply of webbing. Eventually, Spider-Man learns the true nature of the costume and that it wants to fuse permanently with him (it had been enveloping him at night as he slept, using his unconscious body to go out and fight crime). Spider-Man rejects the alien (with some trouble) and it bonds with reporter Eddie Brock, creating the lethal anti-hero Venom - who is ultimately stronger, faster and more agile than Spider-Man. (See an animated take on the story in the DVD Spider-Man: The Venom Saga.)

The chat-room buzz is that the alien suit - along with the Eddie Brock character (currently slated to be played by Topher Grace), will be introduced in this film, leading to a final showdown with Venom in the fourth installment. Of course, it's going be a looooooong wait before it's released (15 months!) so anything can happen between then and now. --Shannon Nolley"

Found Here, Click Me!

Vertical maneuver, suspension in air and unmanned flight, the words used to describe "UFOs" in science fiction films, will become true in reality. News from the School of Earth and Space Sciences of Beijing University says a virtual system of stratospheric solar aerospace flight system has been developed with Chinese independent IPR and is applying for a national patent.

The system looks like a pentacle and can maneuver automatically in the air.

According to Prof. Yan Lei with the School, the system is powered by solar cell. It adopts bearingless motor propeller to realize silent flight, vertical maneuver, long-time suspension in air. It can realize self-control and ground control. Capable of carry arms, it can attack and defend itself.

By People's Daily Online

Found Here

On February 22nd, a small asteroid named 2006 DQ14 flew past Earth at a distance of 1.2 million miles. But was it really an asteroid? 2006 DQ14 follows an orbit around the sun curiously similar to Earth's. This raises the possibility that the "asteroid" is actually space junk from our own planet. 2006 DQ14 was last near Earth in 1977-1979. Space missions launched in that time frame would be candidates to explain this strange object.

Note to observers: 2006 DQ14 is currently shining at 19th magnitude in the constellation Leo. Advanced amateur astronomers should be able to photograph and track it: ephemeris.

Found Here

Thanks for the tip Melanie

I think this is such a great shot of Jupiter. Click the photo to be taken to the 1920 by 2400 version on the nasa site.

This true color mosaic of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera onboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 29, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet at a distance of approximately 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles).

For the full info on this shot Click Here to be taken to the JPL photo journal.

Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter approaching Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL

As it nears Mars on March 10, a NASA spacecraft designed to examine the red planet in unprecedented detail from low orbit will point its main thrusters forward, then fire them to slow itself enough for Mars' gravity to grab it into orbit.

NASA FACT:
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars on March 10, 2006 and goes into orbit. Over the next six months, the spacecraft will gradually adjust the shape of its orbit around the red planet.

Find More Information Here

UFO Phil is weird, yet somehow better than Dr. Phil. Although I have a feeling that Dr. Phil would win a pie eating contest. Which brings back memories of a scene in the movie Stand By Me. Where there is a pie eating contest and the fat kid wins, and shouts of "Lard Ass" are rained down upon him.

Oh yeah, back to the currently scheduled post. UFO Phil's website

Be sure to check out the video, "Aliens Really Stink"

Is this guy really able to channel the devil?

On Friday night's Coast to Coast AM, George Noory played a recorded statement by 'Devil Channeller' Demitri Koskov born in 1939 Moscow, claiming his mother was a witch, and that for more than 50 years Lucifer has been taking over his body. Before Good Friday, the devil is going to show us an event to convince us of his existence.

I found the photo at the Coast to Coast site. Right now they also have the audio clip of Demitri as the devil.

I don't think it's the devil at all. I've met the devil in a dream state, and I just don't think this is the same entity. So what does everyone else think?

Come talk about it, in the forums

* NewScientist.com news service
* Maggie McKee

Our universe may one day be obliterated or assimilated by a larger universe, according to a controversial new analysis. The work suggests the parallel universes proposed by some quantum theorists may not actually be parallel but could interact – and with disastrous consequences.

Random quantum fluctuations mean the behaviour of particles and photons of light cannot be predicted exactly. The quantum equations that describe them contain a variety of different - and opposing - outcomes in their solution, such as a particular particle causing a bell to both ring and not ring in an experimental setup. Physicists then have to use an equation called the Born rule to calculate the probability of the bell ringing, and countless experiments have shown the rule works.

But researchers have long struggled to understand why a bell will ring – or not ring – in any given run of an experiment, since in theory it has the option of doing both. This conundrum, known as the quantum measurement problem, has led a small subset of physicists to argue that in fact the bell does do both - but that each possible outcome takes place in a different, parallel universe that pops into existence during the experiment.

"This is what the math suggests if you take it literally," says Robin Hanson of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, US. But the idea that "every microsecond, the universe splits into a bunch more universes boggles the mind."
Destructive interaction

And this idea, called the "many worlds" interpretation, raises other problems. Some theorists say it suggests that physicists doing a quantum experiment would find themselves in a random world, such that they would have an equal chance of seeing the bell ring or not ring. But this does not match the well-tested Born rule, which may predict that the bell should ring 70% of the time, for example.

Physicists have attacked this problem in a number of ways. Now Hanson, an economist who also studies physics, is taking a new approach. He argues that these multiple universes are not actually independent, as was thought, but interacting and sometimes destructive.

Quantum theory states that all universes are not created equal - each "parent" universe is much larger according to a particular quantum measure than its later descendants.

Quantum interactions between the universes were thought to be too small to really affect them, but Hanson says the interactions can be significant between universes of vastly different size.
Boiled worlds

The interactions can "smash or mangle the small worlds", says Hanson. He has not worked out exactly what happens, but he believes the small universes would be either destroyed or assimilated by the large universes, like specks of dust colliding with a planet.

"It could act like a big random fluctuation, like suddenly making the temperature of the universe become really high and boiling everything," he told New Scientist. "Or it could be more peaceful, where you're simply converted into somebody who remembers stuff from the large world, so the statistics would be those of the large world."

In this scenario, Born rule predictions that a bell should ring 70% of the time in an experiment work out because small worlds – in which bells ring less or more often – are too mangled to be observed. Hanson says there is a cut-off between small worlds that become mangled and large worlds that do not, and that most universes are near or below this line.

That suggests that the universe we live in now could be mangled at any moment by a larger universe, he says. "It could be there's a moment of pain before the end," Hanson says. "But you could be comforted by the fact that versions of you will go on, even if you don't."
Finely tuned

Physicists who have studied Hanson's idea say it is interesting, though preliminary and probably flawed. Michael Weissman of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US, says his biggest concern with the work is the notion of a cut-off.

He points out that the range of universe sizes is constantly growing. So the cut-off for what makes a universe observable must be perfectly balanced with that growth to produce the probabilities seen with the Born rule. "We don't have any real reason to think this fine-tuning will actually work out in practice," Weissman told New Scientist.

"It's interesting work and might feed into part of the Born rule problem," says David Wallace, a philosopher of quantum mechanics at Oxford University, UK. But he criticises Hanson's approach because "it doesn’t seem to handle one-off probabilities, only long-term sequences of probabilities," he told New Scientist. "It doesn’t tell us why right now we’d be better off betting on the bell ringing than not ringing."

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society A (DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2005.1640)

Found Here

If you had suggested three years ago that Apple's iTunes would mark the sale of its billionth download in early 2006, you likely would have been the butt of several jokes. However, that is exactly what happened on February 23 when Alex Ostrovsky purchased a download of Coldplay's "Speed of Sound."

For his 99 cents, Ostrovsky, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, won a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth-generation iPods, and a $10,000 gift card for the iTunes Music Store. To commemorate the occasion, Apple is establishing a scholarship in Ostrovsky's name at the Julliard School of Music.

The 16-year-old student, who has purchased only about 50 iTunes downloads, said that when he received the phone call from an Apple employee, his first thought was that it was a telemarketer. But he quickly realized that the phone call was on the up and up.

The teenager already has plans for some of his winnings. He'll keep the computer and one iPod for himself and give the remaining iPods to family and friends. As for the $10,000 gift card, he's not so sure.

"I'd been asking my parents for a new computer for a while, so this was a dream come true," Ostrovsky told the New York Times. "My sister has already called from New York to talk about divvying it up, and I'll probably buy some music for friends."

Download King

It has been a scant three years since Apple unveiled the iTunes store. The sale of the billionth download indicates that consumers have become comfortable with digital technology, said Frost & Sullivan analyst Zippy Aima.

"Apple has redefined the way digital entertainment is made available to consumers," Aima said. "That iTunes has reached a hallmark of selling a billion songs is an indicator that the buying behavior of consumers is changing and they are ready to pay for good quality music."

Sales of digital music skyrocketed in 2005, increasing 190 percent to $1.1 billion, at which point digital music accounted for roughly 6 percent of all music sales worldwide. Some 20.7 million users visited the iTunes store in December 2005 alone, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

By July 2004, the iTunes service had sold 100 million songs and reached 200 million by the end of that year. Seven months later, the service recorded its 500 millionth sale. That amount has once again doubled in the past seven months.

"I hope that every customer, artist, and music company executive takes a moment today to reflect on what we've achieved together during the past three years," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet."

Digital Genie

The music industry might not be crowing with delight, however, with CD sales hitting record lows in the U.S. The problem, according to Yankee Group analyst Nitin Gupta, is that CD sales are on the decline while digital downloads are on the rise.

Gupta said it is a positive development to see consumers move to legitimate online music services and away from illegitimate file-sharing networks. He also said that, even if it wanted to, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) would have a hard time putting the download genie back in the bottle.

"The RIAA has about as much hope of reintroducing eight-tracks as they do in reversing the [downloading] trend," he said, pointing out that the recording industry continues to evolve and develop more cost-effective and convenient solutions that will reduce the appeal of illegitimate methods for acquiring music.

According to Aima, although Internet piracy and illegal CD copying have hit the recording industry in a "big way," that trend has given way to legal downloads. File-sharing networks and pirated CDs certainly have affected traditional music sales, said Aima, but as consumers become more aware of the high quality of legal downloads, the question becomes more one of quality than of cost or a desire to obtain music for free.

"The existence of file-sharing programs did enable consumers to download music illegally, but when Apple launched iTunes, it gained instant success because of its ease of use and seamless quality of music," Aima said.

Found Here

I managed to catch this on my digital camera. How shocking!!

John Barbour is selling a haunted former speakeasy that is reported to be haunted by the Blue Lady.

"According to the ghostly Coastside legend, some 72 years ago a beautiful, young woman met by chance, a handsome dangerous man and fell in love with him. This sophisticated ladies' man was, say some, a piano player in the bar. The naive young woman, always dressed in blue was already married to another but her unsuspecting husband and young son never knew of the illicit affair. She made many trips to the restaurant to be with her lover.

The beautiful lady in blue died in a violent automobile accident and it is here at the Distillery you will now find her searching for her lover."

Visit the website of the bar here http://www.mossbeachdistillery.com/

What fun, I had a special request for this, so here it is. The Indian Name Generator. Have fun!

My latest Indian Name is:

Sacred Bear
the angry friend of Noisy Feather

What is yours?

This site could greatly use a small donation or two. Anyone who donates will be given a special gift. Any donations will be used to keep the hosting account paid up. All donations are very appreciated, and as always thank you for using this site.

Seeing strange lights and weird objects flying in the sky, nearly a hundred Tennesseans have made such claims over the last few years and the number of UFO sightings in the state is growing.

According to the Appalachian UFO research center, about a hundred people in Tennessee reported seeing UFO's between 2004 and the winter of 2005.

Some of those sighting were right here in the Mid-South.

Tony Pratt describes his first encounter back in 1986.

"It was about 11:30, we stepped outside and saw a big triangle outside a Baptist church," said Tony Pratt.

Pratt uses his video camera to document UFO's. He claims if you point the camera toward the sun, then block out the sun itself, you can see something flying in the sky.

Found Here

After being involved with over 1000 experiencers (alien abductees), a former registered nurse,
who is now a professional counselor and clinical hypnotherapist, has concluded that alien
"abductions" are not only real encounters, but that they are about spiritual awakening and
galactic contact. Mary Rodwell is not alone, as a growing number of academics, scientists
and politicians, such as the former Canadian Minister of Defense Hon. Paul Hellyer, are
starting to support the core of her paradigm shifting views about life in the Universe and that
some UFOs are extraterrestrial spaceships.

She will be making her presentation at the 31st annual conference of the International Institute of Integral
Human Sciences (IIIHS) taking place in Montreal May 5th to 14th, 2006.

Rodwell will be one of more than 60 speakers to address the IIIHS, with other distinguished professionals
such as medical doctors, psychiatrists, physicists, scientists, psychologists, spiritual leaders, and even a former
NASA astronaut.

She is a co-founder of the Australian Close Encounter Resource Network (ACERN), vice-President of Star
Kids Project Ltd., founded by Dr. Richard Boylan, and the author of "Awakening: How Extraterrestrial
Contact can Transform Your Life".

Rodwell says that after being involved with over 1,000 "experiencers" (alien abductees) nothing had prepared
her for what she discovered.

"My clients include both adults and children who exhibit transformative changes such as telepathy,
clairvoyance and healing as they become more spiritually aware and begin to operate on a multi-dimensional
band of reality", says Rodwell. "In the last 10 years, clients have come to me from the U.K, North America,
Europe, Russia, Japan and South America".

Rodwell also explains that part of her client's contact experiences seems to inspire them to draw complex
artwork, scripts, symbols and sometimes speaking strange languages.

Read the rest of the story here.

When I put the site back up, nearly a month ago, I didn't put links to other UFO, paranormal, etc web sites. Not to worry, although you probably haven't really worried, those type of links are coming back starting now.

After a visitor comment, and some digging I've found some MoD files. BRITISH MOD SIGHTING REPORTS are for the years 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. Since someone else did the real work of finding and hosting them please read the request for the files and viewing links on their site here.

I do have some files I need to look through, I'll start posting these from time to time. Plus the Clifford Stone Files contain many pdf documents too.

Found an interesting site on an alien exchange program. Someone reminded me of this program a little bit ago. I've heard about it before then, perhaps from a contact of mine.

From http://www.serpo.org/

Project Serpo
The Zeta Reticuli Exchange Program

The gradual release of confidential documents pertaining to a top secret exchange program of twelve US military personnel to Serpo, a planet of Zeta Reticuli, between the years 1965-78

"I printed all the information... and provided [the retired USAF Colonel] a copy... I watched his eyes and facial expressions. After he was finished, he stated, "Oh my God, who on this Earth would release such classified material?" I then asked him if all this information was real. His simple answer was, 'Yes, all real'."

AN undertaker director faces criminal charges after organising a funeral service for a man who was still alive.
As Bogoljub Topalovic's coffin was being lowered into the ground, his daughter's mobile phone rang.

She was surprised, and then happy, to receive a call from the supposed corpse who was wondering why none of his family had been to visit him that day.

It seems a nurse, keen to claim the commission paid for information about new deaths, had mistakenly noted down the wrong name when ringing the funeral home.

The funeral staff then collected someone else's corpse.

The nurse also faces disciplinary charges for putting Mr Topalovic's family through several days of grief.

Found Here

By Peter Cohen

A second piece of Mac OS X malware has emerged within a week - albeit a worm that poses a very limited threat. Security software maker F-Secure describes Inqtana.A, a Java-based "proof of concept" worm that exploits a vulnerability in Bluetooth on some Macs that haven't been updated with Panther and Tiger security patches.

The chances of Mac users actually being affected by Inqtana.A are remote, however - even F-Secure notes that it hasn't seen the worm "in the wild." What's more, Inqtana.A has an internal counter that prevents its operation after 24 February 2006. And Apple has also patched the vulnerability in free system updates.

Bluetooth is a short-distance, low-speed wireless networking technology used to connect computers, printers, PDAs, smartphones and other devices - it's become commonplace on the Mac in recent years.

Inqtana.A exploits a vulnerability called Bluetooth File and Object Exchange Directory Traversal: An infected machine could send an Object Exchange (OBEX) Push request to another system; if the user accepted the data transfer, Inqtana.A could then use the exploit to copy its files to start automatically on the next reboot. Once restarted, Inqtana.A could use the host machine to find other devices that accept OBEX Push transfers and try again.

The Directory Traversal exploit was documented in May, 2005. Apple Security Update 2005-006 for Mac OS X v10.3.9 and Mac OS X v10.4.1 closed the hole. Apple also integrated that security change into Mac OS X v10.4.1's general release. F-Secure claims that Inqtana.A is specific to Mac OS X v10.4.

The existence of Inqtana.A elicited an "I told you so" from security software maker Symantec senior director Vincent Weafer.

"We have speculated that attackers would turn their attention to other platforms, and two back-to-back examples of malicious code targeting Macintosh OS X this week illustrates this emerging trend," said Weafer in a statement.

Weafer advised diligence to Mac users, warning that Inqtana.A's source code "could be easily modified by a future attacker to do damage."

Found Here

You might get an instant message from someone wanting to chat, maybe even a message on MySpace. I've seen both, and I've been getting messaged by these people more and more often. The clues that it's a scam. They are in Western Africa, usually claim to be an American citizen, are trapped there for one reason or another, and need you to cash a money order for them, and to western union the money back to them.

It's very easy to spot if you know what to look for. You can ask them if they are out of the country, they say one of the western Africa countries, then ask them if they need money orders cashed, they say something that indicates yes, then you know to end the conversation.

So just keep an eye open and let these scammers know we aren't going to let them take advantage of us.

Podcasting lectures an American trend coming to Canada

Robyn Doolittle

Canadian universities will soon be enrolling with Apple Computer's latest venture, iTunes U, so students will be able to download class lectures and listen to them on their iPods.

The project was launched a year ago with seven American universities, including Stanford, which also made its material accessible to people outside of the school community. The program was so successful, Apple decided to open the service to other institutions three weeks ago. Carleton University in Ottawa was one of the first to fill out the online application.

Chemistry professor Bob Burk began filming his classes and posting them online via the iTunes music store at the end of October. More than 1,500 people, not including his 450 students, have been regularly viewing CHEM 1000.

A few weeks after Prof. Burk's video lectures, known as "vodcasts," became available, he received an e-mail from a chemistry student in Norway thanking him for putting the content online. She wrote she wouldn't have been able to pass her own course had she not been able to watch his lesson.

"Of course, the number one question is: Will students still come to class? And they are," he said. "The fact that they can access this material any time anywhere is great. If they miss a lecture - god forbid - or don't understand something, they can review."

But as it is, the segments can only be found under the "podcast" browsing tab on the Apple music site. A podcast is a digitally recorded broadcast -- a vodcast comes in video format. Radio segments, amateur variety shows and television programs such as The Simpsons and CNN news are produced as podcasts.

The iTunes U service, which is its own browsing entity, is specialized to the university content. Universities can even tailor the interface to match a school's colours and logo. Apple's new program supports not only the podcasted lectures, but also audiobooks and music and video files. It also allows administrations to lock certain content to outside parties.

Several other schools across the country have been dabbling with iTunes technology. Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., began podcasting faculty material two months ago. And the University of British Columbia has been posting a series of guest speaker lectures on iTunes since September. Topics such as the Air-India bombing and the new book Mao: The Untold Story have proven popular with listeners.

Rob Wilson, UBC's manager of Web communications, said the school is still debating whether to post on iTunes U. "We're also looking at it," Mr. Wilson said. "There are some individuals who feel making the move to academic content through iTunes is somewhat controversial."

Like many, Carleton has grappled with the idea students may feel the need to buy iPods, even though iTunes content can be viewed on a home computer free of charge. At UBC, there's concern the site is "closed" because the music store is only accessible once a user downloads iTunes. Other critics question the ethics behind iTunes's affiliate policy, which offers a 5% commission on generated revenue for sites that link to the music store.

"The issue with iTunes U is corporate sponsorship," said Mark Federman, a media and internet specialist at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

But while Mr. Federman has some reservations, "it's absolutely worth it," considering knowledge is being spread so widely across the globe.

The Stanford iTunes U can be accessed by visiting http://itunes. stanford.edu/ and following the link to the music store.

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An American astronomer told scientists gathered for the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting on Saturday that she has a short list of stars that are most likely to have planets containing life.

Margaret Turnbull of the Carnegie Institution in Washington singled out eleven "habitable stellar systems" out of the estimated 400 billion stars in our galaxy. Five of them are most likely to garner results for those searching for radio signals from intelligent civilizations and six are most likely to reward astronomers trying to actually see an earth-like planet.

Turnbull said she limited her selection to stars most like our own Sun, using criteria such as how old the star is and how much iron content it has.

She said, "These are places I'd want to live if God were to put our planet around another star."

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The record-holding giant rubber band ball of Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not Fame is facing a broadband-ready challenger backed by the immense social network of MySpace.

The record was set in Delaware on October 22, 2003, by John Bain, for a 3,120 pound rubber band ball. The challenger, allegedly born on November 1, 2005, currently weighs in at close to 400 pounds. The elastic menace is pursuing the record with a vengeance, smashing anything that comes in its way (literally).

Didn’t believe me? Visit the rubber band ball on MySpace and be its friend!* You can send in your favorite expendable items in exchange for a video featuring the senseless demolition of your object by the rubber band ball.

Just be aware that certain items don’t take kindly to a rubber band ball smashing.

*For all the print readers - the URL to the MySpace Profile is http://www.myspace.com/rubberbandballrecord.

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News Corp.'s youth-oriented Web portal extends its influence into the wireless world.

By Matthew Maier

MySpace.com, the website that has become a nationwide craze, is headed to a mobile phone near you.

If you aren't familiar with MySpace, the nation's most popular social networking website, your children, nieces or nephews almost certainly are. It has become a daily meeting place for hundreds of thousands of 15-35-year-olds who are looking to stay in contact with friends, find the latest music, or check videos of their favorite artists.

The site has an estimated 55 million users, and MySpace.com is the second-most-viewed-website in the U.S.—just behind Yahoo (Research), and ahead of Google (Research) -- and accounts for 12 percent of online advertising. News Corp (Research). spent $580 million last summer to get ahold of this audience and let advertisers reach its coveted -- and famously fickle -- youth demographic.

Now News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch hopes to extend MySpace's influence beyond the PC. Today, the popular site is expected to announce a partnership with Helio, a wireless carrier backed by Internet service provider EarthLink (Research) and SK Telecom, a Korean wireless carrier which operates what's viewed in the industry as the world's most advanced cell-phone network. This spring, MySpace and Helio will launch a service that will let users access MySpace from their mobile phones.
MySpace on my phone

For MySpace, the deal is another move to keep its users bound tightly to it, communicating with friends or listening to music from artists featured on the service. Such innovation should help MySpace avoid the fate of social-networking pioneer Friendster, whose users ended up going elsewhere when it failed to introduce new features.

The move also gives News Corp a foothold in the rapidly growing mobile market. More than 60 million teenagers now carry cell phones, and most take them everywhere they go. MySpace Mobile, which is a free service, could turn into another lucrative advertising venue for News Corp.

For Helio, the partnership will vastly increase awareness for the fledgling wireless carrier, which is also set to begin operations this spring. Helio's deal with MySpace is exclusive, so MySpace fans will need to buy one of Helio's two specially designed, advanced phones to access the service.

EarthLink and SK Telecom, Helio's parent companies, are investing $440 million to launch the new carrier, so they'll need to find a way to attract subscribers quickly to break even. EarthLink founder Sky Dayton, who is serving as Helio's chief executive, estimates Helio will need 3 million subscribers to recoup the partner's original investment.

"I think its a smart play on Helio's part," says Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin. "This gives Helio a strong tie to users most likely to try data services."
Ringing up minutes

Wireless users who subscribe to data services typically ring up higher bills than customers who only make voice calls. So Helio's plan is to use MySpace Mobile as a way to introduce users to their phones' data features. The more Helio users go online, the better chance the wireless carrier has of charging for highly profitable data services, like downloading ringtones and sending cameraphone pictures.

While Helio's success depends on MySpace users' reaction to the wireless service, the idea is not without precedent: In Korea, where Helio partner SK Telecom operates the nation's most popular wireless network, consumers are accustomed to watching live television on their cell phones, as well as snapping pictures and downloading music over the airwaves.

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Jeff Bezos, the founder of the online retailer Amazon, was the poster boy of the dot.com era, but he has ceded that status in the new world of digital media to Apple's Steve Jobs. Now he wants it back.

Amazon, most famous for shipping books and CDs in the post, has started to look prehistoric as the iPod generation downloads music in seconds from Apple's all-conquering online music store.

But the company is hatching a plan to topple Apple's iTunes, with the launch of its own downloading service and, most intriguing of all, a possible rival to the iPod. Geeks are already calling it the "aPod".

The company is in advanced talks with the big four record companies to sign up the music content it needs, and has been sounding out the leading digital device manufacturers, including Samsung. A thunderous marketing launch could come as soon as the summer.

The rumours have reached fever pitch in recent days, and there were suggestions yesterday that Mr Bezos plans to sell the cut-price Amazon music player bundled with a subscription to an all-you-can-download service based on the company's website.

It is no secret that the music industry's senior executives have been looking to back a serious rival to iTunes in the hope of clawing back power to set prices. The industry and Mr Jobs have sparred over iTunes' refusal to charge more for certain music or to offer more special offers.

So far, though, subscription services have hardly made a dent and iTunes has an estimated 80 per cent of the downloading market. Napster and Microsoft's MSN are among many high-profile brands which still have not cracked the market. In the UK, HMV has been unable to translate its considerable reputation as a music retailer into success for its own all-you-can-download subscription service, relaunched in the spring.

Google is believed to be examining the possibility of moving into music downloading, too. But it appears to have cooled on the idea and denied recent rumours that it was about to take over Napster.

So why do the four big music companies - Sony BMG, Warner Music, EMI and Universal - think Amazon can succeed where others have failed? In short, because Amazon starts with 55 million customers, many of whom have bought music - albeit in physical form - through the site. It is also likely to offer digital versions of albums and films to customers who buy CDs and DVDs, helping attract people who are only slowly adapting to the new technology.

Martin Pyykkonen, an internet analyst at Hoefer & Arnett, said: "I don't know if I would bet on them taking the No 1 slot from Apple, but Amazon does have a very strong brand and the potential to capture market share in a digital music market that is showing strong enough growth to support new players."

Warner Music, home to Green Day, Madonna and James Blunt, said this week digital revenues over the Christmas quarter had more than tripled on 2004 and were 30 per cent higher than the previous three months. It has not made up for falling CD sales yet, the company said, but digital sales - without packaging and shipping costs - are much more profitable.

Amazon has remained tight-lipped on its plans, which are still not signed with the record labels and have not been finalised, but observers believe the bundling of its service with a new music player could be one of the keys to success.

According to one internal proposal, the device could be pre-loaded with music. That would set it starkly apart from the iPod, which is usually sold empty, forcing users to spend hours uploading CDs. Visits to downloading sites surged 50 per cent above average on Christmas Day as recipients of new gadgets filled them with music.

Apple has established its hegemony because of the unique digital music format used by iTunes and iPods. The ubiquity of iPods, and the failure of other electronics companies to come up with an equally desirable player, has raised compatibility issues for downloading services selling music in other formats.

The design of any "aPod" would be crucial, in that case, and raises other worries. One Wall Street analyst pointed out that one in 10 music players, mostly iPods, are bought on Amazon. "I imagine Apple and Amazon will be having some heart-to-heart negotiations, and there will be some friction between them, particularly if Amazon is undercutting the iPod," he said. "Ultimately, I think Amazon can be confident Apple will decide Amazon remains a strong distribution channel for them."

Apple shares have fallen more than 15 per cent from their peak early this year, as Wall Street has feared growing competition. The decision to cut prices of the iPod nano last week was taken badly.

But Amazon, too, has been under pressure. Investors have been making increasingly shrill demands to get sight of its digital strategy, concerned that the company may its inflated internet stock rating. Bears of the stock think it should be valued more like a traditional retailer, since its sales growth is set to slow below 20 per cent this year.

The shares fell 13 per cent on one day this month, when its latest revenue figure was below expectations and the company cut its profit forecast for the year. Mr Bezos cited a bigger salary bill for computer engineers working on new technology. Amazon has also spent money on internal systems to improve efficiency - vital as increasing competition in e-commerce is driving down selling prices.

Chart-toppers in the music download market

VIRGIN DIGITAL AND HMV DIGITAL

These offer competent - and legal - download sites but there have been suggestions that the big players have stopped competing on price.

NAPSTER

The original file-sharer, it was the target of much corporate ire but is now respectable. Once thought to be a takeover target for Google, it posted a loss of £10m in the last quarter.

MYCOKE

This is Coca-Cola's internet ploy to lure teenage music fans and sell them more fizzy drinks in the process.

BIGNOISEMUSIC

Oxfam's attempt to save the world through music was launched in 2004 with a limited catalogue of 300,000 tracks, costing 75p to download. Of this, 10p goes to the charity.

KARMADOWNLOAD

This site claims to be the largest legal download service for independent music in Europe. Its aim is to offer cutting-edge music which larger outfits don't have. Tracks cost 89p each, with albums going for £7.99.

BLEEP

The selling point here is that it does not require users to download software before using the site. It allows you to listen to the first 30 seconds of any song for free.

BITTORRENT

It is public enemy number one as far as the entertainment industry is concerned. Some research shows it is responsible for a third of all internet traffic, a testament to the excellence of its file-sharing technology that allows users to share huge files.

GROKSTER

Visitors to greeted with this message, 'There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This service is not one of them'. Grokster requires you to download file-sharing software before you can get music for free. In January, a postman became one of two people in the UK to be convicted and fined for illegally downloading music. He said he simply did not know he had acted wrongly.

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Security companies and computer analysts were abuzz over the virus, which is dubbed Leap-A or Oompa Loompa and comes disguised as an image file.

The virus is significant in that it appeared to be the first virus capable of infecting Mac OS X, which until now had been considered impervious to viruses.

"Some owners of Mac computers have held the belief that Mac OS X is incapable of harboring computer viruses, but Leap-A will leave them shell-shocked," Graham Cluley, a technology consultant for security firm Sophos, said in a news release.

There was no immediate comment from Apple on Friday, but Sophos described Leap-A as spreading on the iChat messaging system via files tagged "latestpics.tgz."

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By JOHN O'NEIL
and CARLOS CONDE

A mudslide wiped out a village in the Philippines today, burying hundreds of homes and an elementary school in up to 30 feet of mud, according to local officials.

Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippine Red Cross, said that at least 200 people were killed, but warned that the death toll could go far higher, as between 1,500 and 2,000 people were still missing.

As the rescue effort ended for the night, 53 survivors had been pulled from the wreckage of the farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte Island in the central Philippines, and 23 bodies had been recovered, according to The Associated Press.

About 200 students were in the school when the landslide hit shortly after 9 a.m., and about 100 visitors had come to the village of 2,500 to attend a meeting of a women's group, news services said. Local officials said they believed that most of the dead would be the women and children who stayed in the village while many of its men left to go to work.

The village had been evacuated last week when torrential rains had raised fears of flash flooding, but had returned when the rains receded to nighttime showers, the A.P. reported.

Footage from the scene gave little hint that a village had existed, showing a level plain of mud with bits of debris snagged in the tops of deeply buried palm trees.

Soldiers and other rescuers who rushed to the scene, mostly by helicopter, dug with hands and shovels because the mud was too soft to bring in heavy equipment. The broadcasts showed a handful of survivors being carried away, mud-caked and gasping.

One girl lay on a stretcher, as a rescue worker dabbed at her face.

"It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled," one survivor, Dario Libatan, told a local radio station. "I could not see any house standing anymore."

Two other villages were hit by the slide but suffered far less severe damage.

The United States embassy in Manila announced that a naval vessel already in the Philippines for an annual exercise would be sent to the area to provide help.

A small earthquake may have triggered the landslide, Rene Solidum, the director of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in Manila told the A.P. But he said that it would not have been enough to cause the disaster by itself.

"The area could have really been ready for a landslide because of the rains," Mr. Solidum said.

The governor of the southern Leyte province, Rosette Larias, told reporters that she thought the heavy rains were linked to the return of the La Nina weather cycle. "The ground has really been soaked because of the rain," she said. "The trees were sliding down upright with mud."

The area's congressman, Roger Mercado, put part of the blame on logging that he said had made the region more vulnerable to flooding. "This is the effect of the logging," he told Reuters. "Every time it rains there are flash floods."

More than 5,000 people died in floods and landslides elsewhere on the island of Leyte in 1991, leading to an outcry over logging that environmental activists said had cut the Philippines forest cover in half over the last three decades.

Rescue efforts today were hampered not only by floods that cut off roads in the area, but by fears of more landslides. Capt. Edmund Abella of the Philippines army told the A.P. that rescuers were sent scurrying to safety after more rumbling was felt.

"It's very difficult," he said. "We're digging by hand, the place is so vast and the mud is so thick. When we try to walk, we get stuck in the mud."

Captain Abella said his troops had just rescued a 43-year-old woman.

"She was crying and looking for her three nephews, but they were nowhere to be found," he said.

John O'Neil reported from New York for this article, and Carlos Conde reported from the Philippines.

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By Tim Surette
The Grand Theft Auto franchise is getting attacked from all angles.

Joining the ranks of politicians, policemen and attorneys in their crusade to see the game lifted from shelves are the nation's sex workers.

On its Web site, the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA, or SWOP, is asking parents to assist them in calling for a boycott of Take-Two Interactive's controversial game.

Citing a 2001 document from the National Institute on Media and the Family's David Walsh, SWOP is calling "on all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto."

The organization quotes various points from Walsh's paper including, "Children are more likely to imitate a character with whom they identify. In violent video games, the player is often required to take the point of view of the shooter or perpetrator."

Although the organization admits to being "adamantly opposed to any and all forms of censorship," it wishes "to inform other parents of the potential danger extremely violent video games pose to children." Likewise, in the interest of promoting the rights of sex workers, the organization is opposed to the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes.

In the games, players can solicit "services" from prostitutes by driving their cars slowly near them. No sexual acts are in clear visible view, but during the "transaction," the player regains health and loses money. Although the player cannot actively rape prostitutes in the game, a possible rape is alluded to once during the story line of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The prostitutes, like every other character, are also subject to homicide at the hands of the protagonist.

According to its Web site, SWOP is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of sex industry workers and to the promotion of a safe working environment for the industry.

Take-Two also faces new legal woes this week over "Grand Theft Auto." According to a Reuters report, two law firms have sued the company on behalf of Take-Two shareholders.

The firms, Milberg Weiss and Stull Stull & Brody, are seeking class action status. Milberg Weiss said in a press release on Monday that Take-Two engaged in fraudulent and illegal conduct during the class period so that insiders could sell more than 661,000 shares for proceeds of more than $18 million.

The class period is from Oct. 25, 2004, the date of the "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" launch, to Jan. 27, 2006, the day Los Angeles' city attorney sued Take-Two for selling pornographic video games to children.

A Take-Two spokesman declined to comment.

Take-Two shares, which lost 30 percent of their value in the time frame outlined in the suits, were trading up 12 cents to $15.35 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.

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NAPEAGUE, N.Y. - A sailor who sent a message out to sea in a bottle says he received a reply from England — accusing him of littering. "I kind of felt like no good deed goes unpunished," Harvey Bennett, 55, told the East Hampton Star.

The plastic bottle was one of five that Bennett placed in the ocean off Long Island in August.

Last week, he excitedly opened a letter from England, and was stunned by the reply:

"I recently found your bottle while taking a scenic walk on the beach by Poole Harbour. While you may consider this some profound experiment on the path and speed" of "oceanic currents, I have another name for it, litter."

"You Americans don't seem to be happy unless you are mucking about somewhere," says the letter, signed by Henry Biggelsworth of Bournemouth, in Dorset County.

Bennett, who has a picture of the queen of England in his Amagansett tackle shop, says that Poole Harbor is just a short distance from Weymouth Harbor. That's where the Bennett family embarked for America in 1644.

The New York Post carried the report on Friday, giving attribution to the East Hampton Star.

Bennett did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press on Friday.

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London’s X-Files have been opened to the public. Reports of "lights in a worm shape wriggling around in the sky", a shiny "doughnut-shaped object" and a "massive light in the shape of an iron" are among sightings of UFOs which were meant to have been secret for 25 years.

The files show that Loughton in Essex is the UFO capital of the Home Counties.

The ministry of defence has six sightings listed there - five on the night of September 10 last year, when there was a series of reports of three mysterious orange lights in the sky.

The sightings in Greater London, dating from 2002 and kept on Ministry of Defence files, have been released after a request under the Freedom of Information Act by the Evening Standard.

The ministry receives hundreds of reports of sightings every year, most of which are dismissed