BLUE LIGHT OVER HOUSTON AIRPORT

HOUSTON, TX - 10/9/2014: While walking from my apartment to parking lot, on clear night I looked south toward the airport I'm retired but still love aircraft, so I always scan the skies. Off in the distance to the south I observed a bright royal blue light just above the horizon. Me being in aviation for 43 years with a FAA A">RUSSIAN METEOR'S ORIGIN REMAINS MYSTERIOUS 2 YEARS LATER

Two years after an asteroid exploded over Russia and injured more than 1,200 people, the origin of the space rock still puzzles scientists.

The 66-foot-wide (20 meters) asteroid broke up over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2013, shattering windows across the area and sending many people to the hospital with lacerations from the flying glass.

"These two bodies shared similar orbits around the sun, and initial studies suggested even similar compositions," lead study author Vishnu Reddy, a scientist with the nonprofit Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, said in a statement.

However, "the composition of [the] Chelyabinsk meteorite that was recovered after the event is similar to a common type of meteorite called LL chondrites," he added. "The near-Earth asteroid has a composition that is distinctly different from this."

More generally, Reddy and his colleagues' work showed that it is difficult to make predictions about what particular asteroid could have shed pieces that slammed into Earth. Because most asteroids are so small and their orbits are "chaotic," it's hard to make a firm link, the authors said.

A paper based on the research appears in the journal Icarus.

The Russian meteor explosion has generated a great deal of interest in the search for potentially hazardous asteroids, sparking the creation of a new asteroid warning center at the European Space Agency, among other initiatives.

In a statement this week, the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the threat from asteroids, urged agencies worldwide to step up their search for dangerous space rocks. The group plans to add to that effort with the asteroid-hunting Sentinel Space Telescope, which B612 hopes to launch in 2018.

"The fact of the matter is that asteroid impacts can be prevented using technology we can employ right now," B612 co-founder Ed Lu, a former space shuttle astronaut, said in a statement.

"And unlike other potentially global-scale catastrophic events, the solution is nearly purely a technical one, and with a relatively small and known cost," Lu added. "So as my friend, former Apollo 9 astronaut and co-founder of the B612 Foundation Rusty Schweickart says, 'Let's get on with it.'" - Space

CANADIAN MP BLAMED TOO-TIGHT UNDERPANTS FOR EXIT FROM PARLIAMENT

A Canadian MP blamed his too-tight underpants for leaving parliament in a hurry on Thursday morning. His cut-price and, as it turned out, overly tight underpants made it difficult for him to sit through a one-by-one vote, MP Pat Martin explained. The Winnipeg Centre New Democratic Party representative had voted on a procedural motion to adjourn debate, then left his seat for a moment.

When Conservative MP Royal Galipeau asked deputy speaker Joe Comartin if a vote still counts if an MP leaves while it's being counted, Martin stood up to offer his explanation. "I can blame it on a sale that was down at the Hudson's Bay [Company] - they had men's underwear on for half price. I bought a bunch that was clearly too small for me and I find it difficult to sit for any length of time," he said.

"I apologize if it was necessary for me to leave my seat briefly, but I did not mean to forfeit my right to vote." After a mix of cheers, applause and laughter from the benches, Comartin was forced to rule on whether Martin's vote would count. "Let me try to deal with this with at least some seriousness, we all understand that we have to be in our seats at the time the motion is read... the member for Winnipeg Centre was in his seat at that time.

"He did step out of his chair for a very short time and was directed by me to sit down again," Comartin said. "I didn't understand the explanation at the time, that he subsequently gave... can't say I really understand it at this point." Comartin then said that since Martin was in his seat when the vote was read and also when he voted that his vote was able to stand. - CBC

HAWKING: SPACE TRAVEL COULD SAVE MANKIND

We should colonise other planets to protect the human race, Stephen Hawking has said. Human aggression could bring civilisation and humanity to an end and space travel will give us somewhere else to go, he said.

Space represents the long term future of the human race and can act as "life insurance" for the species, Hawking said while escorting an American visitor around London's Science Museum for a prize.

"Sending humans to the moon changed the future of the human race in ways that we don't yet understand," he said.

"It hasn't solved any of our immediate problems on planet Earth, but it has given us new perspectives on them and caused us to look both outward and inward.

"I believe that the long term future of the human race must be space and that it represents an important life insurance for our future survival, as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonising other planets."

Hawking made the comments after telling his guest, Adaeze Uyanwah, that the human failing he would most like to correct is aggression, which could "destroy us all". Uyanwah was in London after winning a competition to get her perfect day out in the capital.

Human aggression could bring a nuclear war that would end civilisation and perhaps the uman race, he said. Instead, humans should have more empathy, to bring "us together in a peaceful, loving state.

Hawking has warned before that artificial intelligence could bring humanity to its end. - Stephen Hawking: space travel will save mankind and we should colonise other planets

Ride out the bitter cold this evening. Light the fireplace, wrap yourself in a heavy comforter and turn on your ebook. Oh...and don't forget to lock the doors and close the blinds. Enjoy the Phantoms ">TODAY'S TOP LINKS

Ancient Life on the Moon - From Earth


Ancient Immortality Technology in Iraq - Allegedly

UFO Crash Reported in Manitoba Denied by Canadian Forces


Strange Creatures Encountered by Ordinary People

Crashed Saucers and Contactees: UFOs and the Secret Origin of the Green Lantern

Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the Government's Biggest Cover-up (Revised and Expanded Edition)

The Anunnaki of Nibiru: Mankind's Forgotten Creators, Enslavers, Saviors, and Hidden Architects of the New World Order

The Presidents and UFOs: A Secret History from FDR to Obama

Alien Mind: The Thought and Behavior of Extraterrestrials"

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