Anyone for some Arctic roll? Mystery as spiral blue light display hovers above Norway- Latest News..

What's blue and white, squiggly and suddenly appears in the sky?

If you know the answer, pop it on a postcard and send it to the people of Norway, where this mysterious light display baffled residents yesterday.

Speculation was increasing today that the display was the result of an embarrassing failed test launch of a jinxed new Russian missile.
The Bulava missile was test-fired from the Dmitry Donskoi submarine in the White Sea early on Wednesday but failed at the third stage, say newspapers in Moscow today.

Strange spiral: Residents in northern Norway were left stunned after the lightshow, which almost looked computer-generated, appeared in the skies above them

Curious: A blue-green beam of light was reported to have come shooting out the centre of the spiral

This emerged despite earlier reports denying a missile launch yesterday. Even early today there was no formal confirmation from the Russian Defence Ministry.
The light appears to be unconnected with the aurora borealis, or northern lights, the natural magnetic phenomena that can often be viewed in that part of the world.
The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky.

 

More...

• Mystery solved? Norway's spiral light display 'was down to a failed Russian Bulava missile test'

Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to 12 minutes before disappearing completely.

Onlookers describing it as 'like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it' and 'a shooting star that spun around and around'.

Yesterday a Norwegian defence spokesman said the display was most likely from a failed Russian test launch.

Enlarge  

The bizarre spiral looks almost computer-generated in the dark skies over Norway yesterday

Confusion: The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with calls after the light storm

Tromsō Geophysical Observatory researcher Truls Lynne Hansen agreed, saying the missile had likely veered out of control and exploded, and the spiral was light reflecting on the leaking fuel.

But last night Russia denied it had been conducting missile tests in the area.
A Moscow news outlet quoted the Russian Navy as denying any rocket launches from the White Sea area.

Norway should be informed of such launches under international agreements, it was stressed.

However this morning media reports claimed a missile had indeed been launched from the White Sea. Test firings are usually made from the White Sea, close to the Norwegian Arctic region.

Kommersant newspaper reported today that a test-firing before dawn on Wednesday coincided with the light show in the northern sky.

It also emerged today that Russia last week formally notified Norway of a window when a missile test might be carried out. 

What could it be? Astronomers say the spectacle did not appear to be connected to the Northern Lights

This included a seven hour period early on Wednesday at the time when the lights were seen.
The submarine Dmitry Donskoy went to sea on Monday, ahead of the test, and some reports suggest the vessel is now back in port.

A Russian military source said today that 'the third stage of the rocket did not work'.
The Russian Defence Ministry, with characteristic secrecy, has so far been unavailable for comment.

A Bulava missile is fired from a submarine in this undated file photo. Russia has yet to confirm if a similar test launch was behind the mystery lights seen over Norway yesterday

The Bulava, despite being crucial to Russia's plans to revamp its weaponry, is becoming an embarrassment after nine failed launches in 13 tests, prompting calls for it to be scrapped.

In theory, it has a range of 5,000 miles and could carry up to ten nuclear weapons bound for separate targets.

A previous failure in July  forced the resignation of Yury Solomonov, the director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology which is responsible for developing the missile.

However, he is now working as chief designer on the jinxed project.
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with telephone calls after the light storm yesterday morning.
Totto Eriksen, from Tromsø, told VG Nett: 'It spun and exploded in the sky,'

He spotted the lights as he walked his daughter Amalie to school.

He said: 'We saw it from the Inner Harbor in Tromsø. It was absolutely fantastic.

'It almost looked like a rocket that spun around and around and then went diagonally down the heavens.

'It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain, but then came something completely different.'

Celebrity astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard said he had never seen anything like the lights.

He said: 'My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor, but it has lasted far too long.
'It may have been a missile in Russia, but I can not guarantee that it is the answer.'
Air traffic control in Tromsō claimed the light show lasted 'far too long to be an astronomical phenomenon'.

The Amazing Paintings : Beautiful Paintings by Vladimir Kush

The Amazing Paintings : Beautiful Paintings by Vladimir Kush
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Amazing paintings, Beautiful paintings
Posted by Pawan at 3:34 PM 8 comments Links to this post
The Amazing Paintings
Beautiful Paintings in the world
Beautiful Paintings in the world

Beautiful Paintings in the world


Beautiful Paintings in the world



Beautiful Paintings in the world




Beautiful Paintings in the world





Beautiful Paintings in the world






Beautiful Paintings in the world







Beautiful Paintings in the world








Beautiful Paintings in the world









Beautiful Paintings in the world










Beautiful Paintings in the world











Beautiful Paintings in the world












Beautiful Paintings in the world













Beautiful Paintings in the world














Beautiful Paintings in the world















Beautiful Paintings in the world
















Beautiful Paintings in the world

















Beautiful Paintings in the world


















Beautiful Paintings in the world
Posted by Pawan at 11:22 AM 2 comments Links to this post
Labels: beautiful, beautiful paintings, paintings
Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Amazing pictures of Blue Whale : Whale Facts

The Auckland Islands Marine Reserve protects an area 300 miles south of New Zealand’s South Island, where these two robust southern rights are part of a recovering population thought to include more than 1,000 whales.




Scars on this adult in the Bay of Fundy likely resulted from entanglement in fishing gear that cut through the skin.




Trawling with open mouth along the surface of Cape Cod Bay, a North Atlantic right whale feeds on the move. Water flowing into its mouth carries tens of thousands of copepods—crustaceans each about the size of a grain of rice—toward the sieve-like plates of baleen, which strain them out as the water flows back into the bay.




Signature V-shaped plumes of spray shoot from a North Atlantic right whale in the Bay of Fundy. The whale exhales, clearing water from the opening of its dual blowholes, then draws in air.




A calf's open jaws reveal a pink soft palate that releases excess body heat, and a hanging sieve of baleen that strains tiny prey from the sea. Unique to right whales, rough skin callosities develop in patterns that identify individuals as clearly as fingerprints.




A female gets a playful bump from her new calf in warm shallows near Florida's Amelia Island. North Atlantic right whale mothers give birth and spend winters off the south Georgia–north Florida coast.



Far from busy ship lanes, a 40-foot southern right whale swims in safety near the remote Auckland Islands.


source: national geographic channel

Posted by Pawan at 7:28 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: whale photos
The Amazing Pictures of year 2008


Man and right whale size each other up in the winner of the 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition's underwater category, announced on October 30.

"The whales were highly curious of us. Many of these animals had never seen a human before," Skerry told National Geographic.

Photographed off New Zealand for National Geographic magazine , the whales shared top honors with a comical, quizzical monkey, eagles in an air battle, and a battling lizard and snake, among others. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News and National Geographicmagazine.)



Under intense magnification, a long-fin squid's suckers--each no wider than a human hair--resemble the leafy star of Little Shop of Horrors.

This electron-micrograph image may have only won an honorable mention in the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, but thanks to enthusiastic bloggers, these suckers were the breakout stars of National Geographic News's gallery of the contest's highlights, posted on September 25. Among the other marquee attractions: a bugged-out take on the Mad Hatter's tea party and a "glass forest."



Filled with forests, waterfalls, and fantastically shaped granite peaks and pillars, China's 56,710-acre (22,950 hectare) Mount Sanqingshan National Park was among the 174 wild sites--eight of them featured in this gallery--added to the UN World Heritage list in July 2008.

Chosen by a committee of the UN's Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Heritage sites are natural and cultural areas recognized for their universal value to humanity.



After 9,000 years of silence, Chile's Chaiten volcano erupted, generating on May 3 what may have been a "dirty thunderstorm." These little-understood storms may be caused when rock fragments, ash, and ice particles collide to produce static charges--just as ice particles collide to create charges in regular thunderstorms.

The eruption, which continued off and on for months, forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and cattle from this corner of Patagonia.



A mile and a half (two and a half kilometers) underwater, this alien-like, long-armed, and--strangest of all--"elbowed" Magnapinna squid is seen in a still from a video clip obtained by National Geographic News



The carcass of a colossal squid floats in a tank at the Museum of New Zealand on April 30, giving scientists their first close look at the elusive deep-sea creature.
The squid was frozen for months after being caught by fishers off Antarctica in 2007. A dissection of the thawed beast yielded astonishing discoveries, including the animal kingdom's largest eyes and light-emitting organs that may serve as cloaking devices, scientists said.



Glowing-hot carbon nanotubes form an expanding orange ball in this winning image from the 2008 Small World photomicrography competition, sponsored by Nikon and featured in an October 15 National Geographic News gallery. In nine other masterworks of magnification, a beetle danced on a pin, and drugs yielded crystal rainbows.



In a picture from National Geographic News's tenth most viewed photo gallery of 2008, Sylvia Renteria recoils as a wave churned by Hurricane Ike meets a seawall in Galveston, Texas, on September 12.
Before landfall, the National Weather Service's chilling warnings of "certain death" spurred officials and residents of the coastal town to gird for the worst--and stoked fears of a replay of the devastating 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed 6,000.


source: national geographic channel.

Posted by Pawan at 7:00 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: amazing pictures, wildlife photos
Monday, December 22, 2008
Microsoft's Internet Explorer may be the new hacker's tool

Microsoft has issued a warning on its browser, Internet Explorer.

The company says that a flaw in the browser allows criminals to hack into computers, take control and use it however they wish.

The problem, first revealed last week, allows criminals to hijack computers and steal passwords if the user visits an infected website. As many as 10,000 sites have already been compromised to take advantage of the flaw, according to anti-virus software producer Trend Micro.

Microsoft says it will issue a security patch from Wednesday night onwards. Analysts suggest users switch browsers till the fault is rectified.

"It's a very serious threat, it affects all versions of Internet Explorer on all versions of Microsoft Windows and as I say, because there is no patch available, there is no mitigation available from Microsoft for that. What people should do to protect themselves, if they can, they should avoid using Internet Explorer and switch to an alternative browser," says Trend Micro's Senior Security Adviser, Rik Ferguson.
Posted by Pawan at 12:36 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: hacking tools, IE, Internet explorer
Google Rolls Chrome Out of Beta Garage

Google released the 15th update for its Chrome Web browser and officially ended the beta testing phase for the application Thursday.

With some 10 million active users and 14 prior updates under its belt, the browser has improved its stability and performance in just 100 days, according to Google.

"Google Chrome is a better browser today thanks to the many users who sent their feedback and the many more who enabled automatic crash reports, helping us rapidly diagnose and fix issues," wrote Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson in a Google blog post.

Chrome spent a relatively short period of time in beta status, especially considering that Google is known for taking its time with beta projects, even in


its most popular offerings. Launched in September, Chrome was in beta for just three months. By comparison, Google's Gmail began beta testing in April 2004, and more than four years later, the e-mail app is still there. "Google said that it applies a different time frame and standard to its client software than other offerings. Google also indicated that Chrome was fairly far along when it was released in beta, which compressed the interim period as well," Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, told TechNewsWorld.

Google has not simply taken the beta label off of Chrome and called it finished, he noted. There have been 14 separate updates during the beta period and a number of changes improving speed, security and stability, as well as bug fixes to address glitches with the audio and video in Chrome.

"While there could be other potential justifications or reasons for making Chrome available for general release, Google indicated to me it was because they felt the browser had progressed to a point where that was possible. Chrome also sees itself as a platform for Web applications. Firefox has a similar vision of in its future," he said.

Each product development team determines its own criteria for coming out of beta, according to Google. With Chrome, the company set standards for stability and performance and removed the beta when those standards were met.

Chrome, according to Google, now offers users better stability and plug-in performance. Video and audio glitches -- among the most common bugs addressed during the beta period -- have been fixed.

Speed has also been a focus. Since the first beta version rolled out, the V8 JavaScript engine runs 1.4 times faster on the SunSpider benchmark and 1.5 times faster on the V8 benchmark, said Google. The company plans to increase speed even more in future updates.

The bookmark manager and privacy controls have also received a boost. It's now easier to switch between another browser and Chrome with bookmark import and export features. Google also worked to give users greater control of their data. To that end, all features in Chrome that affect user privacy are grouped in one place with an explanation regarding what each one actually does.

"The browser is very fast, which is one of its core features. In addition, the tabs operate like separate browsers to prevent the entire browser from crashing if there's a problem with an individual site. The 'new tab' page offers a nice display of frequently used sites and recent bookmarks. Tabs can also be manipulated and moved around, unlike other browsers," Sterling said.

source: technewsworld.com

Posted by Pawan at 12:29 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Beta release, Chrome browser, Google Chrome
US to educate India in the art of dealing with terror

US Ambassador David C Mulford on Monday met Home Minister P Chidambaram in the capital in the backdrop of Washington's offer to share information and collaborate with New Delhi following the Mumbai terror attacks.

The meeting at North Block lasted about half-an-hour, official sources said.

The officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have already questioned Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant involved in the November 26 strikes, to ascertain his role and those of his handlers in Pakistan.

The US, which witnessed the deadly 9/11 attacks seven years ago, is working through a package for India on dealing with the situation arising out of the "horrific" Mumbai strikes by way of information sharing, collaboration and cooperation, according to a top Pentagon official.

"We are working through the initial parts of a package. We would offer to India to help them understand some of the lessons that we very painfully learnt in the wake of our September 11 attacks, in information sharing, collaboration and cooperation," , Commander of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Timothy Keating, told reporters in Washington last week.

Praising India for its "measured response" in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Keating said that various agencies of the US government were working closely to keep a tab of developments in the region
Posted by Pawan at 12:22 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: 26/11 attack, mumbai attack, Qasab
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+ The Amazing Pictures of year 2008
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+ Google Rolls Chrome Out of Beta Garage
+ US to educate India in the art of dealing with ter...
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Obama sends you a Christmas card. Really. Cccard

Obama sends you a Christmas card. Really.
Cccard


If you're the type to play keeping-up-with-the-Jones' with your Christmas cards, Comment Central is about to make your day.

That's right - the picture above is of a card sent from President Obama to you, the Comment Central readers.

It's part of a Christmas wishes video that the Obama team has put together specially for you. You can watch the whole thing on this link, and here are a few stills to whet your appetite:

Pic1
Pic2
Pic3

Oh, and while, of course, CC readers were number one priority on the presidential Christmas card list this year, the website also allows you to customise the video and send it, as Iain Dale suggests, to all your right wing friends.

Posted by Hattie Garlick on December 23, 2009 at 12:04 PM in American Politics | Permalink | Post to Twitter

Politics Brown promises to beef up UK airport security , UK thought Reagan would be a lazy president,

PM orders review after 'wake-up call' of failed Christmas Day airline attack, and plans meeting on Yemen radicalisation

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* War, terrorism, football and an Oscar for aliens

* Yemen the front line in conflict for US

* Air passenger with chemicals held last month

Straw: police like to be indoors with paperwork

The Justice Secretary provokes fury after claiming some officers use bureaucracy as excuse for not walking beat
Tories defy Cameron with plot to ditch Bercow

Tory leader has been warned his backbenchers will try to oust Bercow immediately after the general election
Edward Heath in 1974
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Red tape 'driving teachers out of schools'

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Politicians go without New Year's honours

After year of scandal none of the 121 MPs stepping down next year are mentioned in list while Status Quo honoured
Gummer quits Commons to lead climate body

Former Conservative minister says industrial countries have grown rich on pollution and owe a debt to the rest of the world
Half of new armoured vehicles out of service

The Army’s Mastiff and Ridgeback armoured patrol vehicles appear to be unreliable, according to figures obtained by Lib Dems
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Bitterness of old year spills over into new

Britain’s assertion that it has ‘no evidence’ that the hostage Peter Moore was held for a time in Iran cut no ice in Tehran
Cameron can learn from Thatcher in 1979

The new Conservative Government agonised over cutting public spending. How it did so provides some clear lessons for today
‘A cheeky, bumptious, clever boy.’ Not much change then

Alex Salmond’s biographer David Torrance considers the making of the man who became Scotland’s Nationalist First Minister
Bruised and battered, but Salmond will bounce back

Celebrating his 55th birthday today, Alex Salmond may reflect on one auld acquaintance gladly forgot — the year 2009
UK thought Reagan would be a lazy president

Archive papers reveal British diplomats’ verdict on Republican candidate in the early days of US election campaign
Benn wanted BBC to take over The Times

Energy Minister feared that the newspaper would not survive year-long strike that had stopped its publication
Thatcher preferred 'whites' over Vietnamese

Former Prime Minister tried to block 'boat people', preferring white immigrants from Rhodesia or Poland, secret papers reveal
Britain rethinks strategy on China

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office appears to have considerably overestimated its leverage with the emerging superpower
Brown insists recession has ended

Gordon Brown to launch fresh attack on the 'privileged few' while insisting he will protect those on middle incomes
How Britain tactfully told the Shah to keep out

National Archive papers show the extraordinary efforts made to avoid upsetting the new regime in Iran
MP stands down due to mental illness

Iris Robinson, wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, suggested homosexuals could be 'turned around' with help
Mandelson: how to deal with your 'boomerang kids'

Lord Mandelson, who has bounced back to the Cabinet three times, gives his advice about children moving back to the family home
From rattling tins to a fundraising behemoth

The explosion in NHS giving can be traced to Great Ormond Street’s Wishing Well Appeal in 1988, which raised £56 million
Ministers ‘to control’ NHS charity cash

Millions of pounds of charity donations to hospitals will be 'nationalised' — making it easier to cut budgets, critics say
Donations could become part of NHS budget

A change in accounting rules would effectively 'nationalise' public donations and fundraising, says the Charity Commission
British Army ‘is becoming top heavy’

Figures show the number of generals and brigadiers in a shrinking Army has risen since Labour came to power in 1997
Plan to shut MPs' public-funded websites axed

A Commons commission agrees to continue a controversial £10,000-a-year grant criticised as 'a gigantic waste of money'
PM expected to avoid by-election after MP's death

David Taylor, the North West Leicestershire MP, died after having a heart attack while on a Boxing Day walk with family
Brown’s untimely sale cost UK billions

Prime Minister sold the UK's gold when its price had reached rock-bottom - that sale today would have raised an extra $10bn
We won’t fight a class war, says Balls

The Schools Secretary said Labour must fight the general election as the party defending low and middle-income families

The New Year Celeberated with the strike in pakistan after the Bomb blast attack in karachi on the Religious Rally of Ashura. it was the reaction

Angry mob set ablaze vehicles to protest bomb blast that ripped through Karachi’s main religious procession, killing at least 20 people.


Geo TV reports this morning that angry mob has burnt down Light House building situated at the MA Jinnah Road, Karachi's main corridor to business center. Another TV reports showed several burnt down vehicles parked around the city court.


People are stranded in the building, which was set on fire. There are also reports of unrest at different parts of the city.

Meanwhile, provincial Home Minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza early morningTuesday said yesterday's bomb blasts was aimed at triggering ethnic strife in the city but people foiled this conspiracy.

Addressing a press conference Tuesday morning (it is early Tuesday morning in Karachi), the minister said that the blasts were carried out by helmet wearing terrorists riding on three motorcycles.

The Sindh Home Minister said a team is investigating the cause of the blasts under the supervision of DIG Saud Mirza and four suspects have been apprehended and are being interrogated.

Home Minister said that so far no police official has been suspended, but in case any evidence of negligence on the part of concerned police officials comes to the fore, action will be taken against them.


Southern port city of Pakistan, Karachi has a long history of sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis. There have been numerous attacks on such processions across the country over the last few days.

On Sunday, eight people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a Shia march in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.


Interior Minister Rehman Malik blamed Monday's blast on extremists who wanted to destabilise Pakistan. "Whoever has done this, he cannot be a Muslim. He is worse than an infidel," he told reporters.

Riots erupted in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi yesterday after a suicide bomber attacked a Shia religious procession, killing at least 30 people in the latest sectarian atrocity.

More than 50,000 Shias, 15 per cent of Pakistan’s population, marched through the city whipping themselves to mark the holy day of Ashura.

The bomber managed to get into the procession despite the presence of more than 10,000 paramilitary troops. The attacker blew himself up at the front of the procession in the city centre.

Witnesses and police said that the streets were strewn with body parts. Women and children were among the dead and about 60 people were injured in the attack.

Related Links

* US drones kill 15 militants in Pakistan

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“The blast was so huge that I felt my hearing had gone but then I started hearing cries of injured people and saw pieces of human flesh and blood on the road,” said Abbas Ali, 35, one of the Shias thrown to the ground. “Some were crying and some were running here and there with panicked faces. My younger brother was with me. I looked for him and was told he was injured and was sent to hospital.”

The procession, commemorating the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson in the 7th century, is held every year on Ashura, the tenth day of the Islamic holy month of Muharram. Shias traditionally wear black, beat their torsos with chains and slice their skin with knives.

A spokesman for the paramilitary Rangers said that one of their members was killed when he tried to stop the bomber. “Our soldier Abdul Razzaq spotted the suicide bomber and jumped on him. Both fell to the road after which the bomber exploded,” Major Muhammad Aurangzeb said.

“If Razzaq had not captured the bomber, he could have caused more casualties,” Major Aurangzeb said, adding that the soldier was killed in the blast.

Police later found the body of the suicide bomber on the third floor of a nearby office building, where it had crashed through a window. About 35lb (16kg) of high explosives were used, a bomb disposal officer said. The Karachi police chief, Waseem Ahmad, said that the force was investigating the possibility that a second suicide bomber was involved in the attack. Mourners set fire to dozens of vehicles and buildings and clashed with police. Gunfire was heard as riots spread into the outskirts of Karachi.

Mustafa Kamal, the Mayor of Karachi, said that the attack was an attempt to disturb the peace in the country’s commercial and financial hub. No one claimed responsibility but police suspected Islamic militants.

Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani Prime Minister, condemned the bombing and appealed for calm. It was the third attack on Ashura commemorations in the country this week. Seven people were killed in a suicide bombing in Kashmir on Sunday and 17 wounded in Karachi on the same day.

Yesterday’s attack was the deadliest in Karachi since a suicide bomber targeted the homecoming of the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated two months later. At least 139 people were killed in the assassination attempt in October 2007.