The studing of UFOs and other unexplained phenomena from space should be a legitimate university subject, an American professor, Philip Haseley, has claimed.

By Andrew Hough

Last year there were almost 400 reported sightings to the Ministry of Defence of UFOs throughout Britain Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The New York anthropology professor said the subject should be part of the mainstream as a serious “area of study”.

The Niagara County Community College, a state university in New York, lecturer said due to the high amount of sightings every year, it should follow that students should be able to investigate phenomenon.

“(A sighting) happens to millions of people (around the world),” he said.

“It’s about time we looked into this as a worthy area of study.

“It’s important that the whole subject be brought out in the open and investigated.”

Prof Haseley, who is also head of the Western New York Mutual UFO Network, an organisation that is focused on UFO research, said there were up to 50 UFO sightings are reported every month across region.

He said the group investigated the sightings in a “scientific manner” using field investigation, radar, astronomy and meteorology.

“To say we are UFO believers basically implies we are taking this on faith, and that’s not the case. There’s plenty of evidence,” he said.

He dismissed the inevitable suggestions from skeptics that such study would be waste of time.

“We have to deal with skeptics like any other UFO organisation, and we are perfectly willing to be critiqued,” he told the Buffalo News in New York.

“We know people who think this is a nonsense subject. And we’ll refer you to voluminous literature and facts about UFOs.”

Last year there were almost 400 reported sightings to the Ministry of Defence of UFOs throughout Britain – a figure that had tripled from the previous year.

The so-called “X Files” reported to the MoD’s UFO desk was the “busiest” year on record.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/7584331/UFO-studies-should-be-legitimate-university-subject-claims-American-professor.html

By Ian O’Neill

Norway often has strange lights dancing around the night sky, but early this morning it wasn’t the aurora that captivated many eyewitnesses in the north of the country. A giant spiral had appeared, and so far there’s little explanation as to what might have caused the phenomenon.

“It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in color to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end,” said Nick Banbury of Harstad, Norway. “This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to the earth.

“According to the press, this could be seen all over northern Norway and must therefore have been very high up in the atmosphere to be seen hundreds of km apart.”

The near-perfect spiral appeared at 7:50 a.m. and already the conspiracy theories are out in full-force. Is it some kind of energy weapon? Or was it the Large Hadron Collider (which, coincidentally, has just broken the world record for the most powerful particle collision of all time)?

One thing’s for sure, when I spent five months living in the Arctic Circle (on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard), I never saw anything quite like this in the sky — no matter how much øl I’d consumed.

Conspiracies to one side, there’s actually a potentially mundane answer to the whole thing, althought it’s still pretty interesting.

From Dec. 7-10, there was an alert that the Russian Navy was going to carry out missile tests from the White Sea. However, the Northern Fleet denies any knowledge of the incident.

Could it be some kind of missile test? Yes, says Doug Ellison who created the following animation (posted on The Universe Today) of a spent rocket stage spilling fuel into the atmosphere. The rising sun then did the rest, illuminating the spiral.

http://news.discovery.com/space/mystery-spiral-appears-over-norway.html

According to numerous sources on the Internet, in 2012 a planet called Nibiru will collide with Earth, resulting in the extinction of the human race. Or the Earth’s magnetic poles will flip, causing the rotation of the planet to reverse, resulting in the extinction of the human race. Or the Earth will fall into something called a “dark rift” in the Milky Way — resulting in the extinction of the human race.

So, what’s NASA doing about it?

“NASA has nothing to do with the Planet Nibiru, because it doesn’t exist,” NASA astrobiologist David Morrison tells NPR’s Guy Raz. “What I am doing is trying to answer all these people who are really scared, and see if we can’t get some facts out to counteract the mythology on the Internet.”

Morrison writes a column called “Ask an Astrobiologist” on NASA’s Web site. Some years ago, he started receiving questions from people genuinely worried about what may happen in 2012.

The questions aren’t as funny as you might think. “I’ve had three from young people saying they were contemplating committing suicide,” says Morrison. “I’ve had two from women contemplating killing their children and themselves. I had one last week from a person who said, ‘I’m so scared, my only friend is my little dog. When should I put it to sleep so it won’t suffer?’ And I don’t know how to answer those questions.”

Morrison now maintains a 2012 FAQ, where he debunks the doomsday scenarios.

Magnetic poles flipping? “The Earth reverses its magnetic polarity once every 400,000 to 500,000 years. There’s no reason to think it will happen now, [and] no reason to think it will cause a problem if it did,” he says.

Dark rift? “The dark rift is just a place where there are dust clouds in the Milky Way. I can’t imagine where someone decided to be afraid of that.”

The only real proof for many 2012 believers will come on Jan. 1, 2013 — but Morrison says that won’t be the end of doomsday hoaxes.

“The Planet Nibiru was predicted to hit the Earth in May of 2003,” he says. “As far as I know, it didn’t. And someone just pushed reset, and now it’s coming in 2012. So I don’t think we’ll ever be rid of apocalyptic stories about Planet X and the end of the world.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120436493

When you’re traveling this holiday season, you can enjoy free WiFi at 47 participating airports and on every Virgin America flight. Just bring a WiFi-enabled laptop or mobile device and stay connected to family and friends for free while you travel now through January 15, 2010.

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The holidays are about giving and we hope that you can continue to spread holiday cheer by making a donation via Google Checkout to any of the participating non-profits. At the end of the program, Google will match donations made via participating WiFi networks, up to a maximum of $250,000. Just look for the link to donate once you connect.

http://www.freeholidaywifi.com/

By Brian X. Chen

Microsoft’s loyal customers are finally getting the operating system they deserve with Windows 7, and it was well worth the wait.

First, to provide full disclosure (as critics have requested in our previous Windows 7 write-ups) yes, I am indeed a Mac user. But until heading to college, I grew up on a steady diet of Windows. (I made the switch after a system crash that resulted in the loss of an enormous school project.) With that said, Windows 7 thoroughly wowed me, dissolving the grudge I’ve held against Microsoft for many years.

The latest OS from Microsoft delivers a truly next-generation interface that will transform the way we use our computers, while addressing a number of nagging issues that have turned off Windows users in the past. The Windows team deserves a round of applause.

The best decision Microsoft made this time around was listening to its customers. The company crowdsourced feedback and distributed a free Windows 7 beta to Microsoft enthusiasts back in January. The result is an OS designed to beautify PCs both old and new, while retaining many of the features Microsoft fans have adored about Windows and removing many major annoyances.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/review-windows-7/

It has already been discussed on NBC’s “Today Show.”

It has apparently enjoyed more than 1 million views on YouTube. And it has already aroused cries that it is too graphic, too shocking, too much to watch.

But the police department of Gwent, Wales, felt it had to do something to highlight the realities of texting and driving, so together with filmmaker Peter Watkins-Hughes, it made a public service announcement.

The film shows a teenage girl driving some friends in her car. Engrossed in her texting, she is involved first in one crash before her car is then broadsided by another.

You have seen far worse in movies and with far less good intent. It can only go a small way to making teenagers and, frankly, half the alleged adults I’ve seen driving in California, consider the potential consequences of their self-involved habits.

But if it even makes one person think twice, or even once, about the consequences, then any amount of graphic content is to be applauded. There is surely nothing gratuitous about trying to save a life.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10318015-71.html